Armageddon Comes ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Introduction

ALRIGHT, LISTEN UP MAGGOTS. This here is a guide for the one they call Chaos Knight - hard carry, snowballer, part-time rat and Fundamental of the universe. He's a fast-moving, hard-hitting, death-pushing hero who has a ******ed amount of RNG on his skills that requires a bit of caution or it'll bite you on the arse.

Now, I'm not exactly known for playing a lot of this hero... but he's a ******* illusion carry. One of those things plays a lot like another, and CK is among the easiest of them. Still, in recent weeks I've been grabbing him a fair amount, and have every intention to play him even more.

So now that the compulsory introduction is out of the way let's get on with it or whatever.

Features of a Ten-Sided Dice

Sounds like a prog metal album, doesn't it?

Hero Stats

Chaos Knight, as his name suggests, works with a lot of RNG. He has the largest damage spread in the game - his attacks can hit for 15 (!) lower or higher than the number on the screen shows. Compare this to Spectre's spread of 4, and Shadow Fiend's spread of 6... it's unreliable and can cause issues when last hitting. Lategame, it's pretty meaningless as 15 is a tiny fraction of your damage... but early on, the huge spread can even impact hero killing.

His starting stats are kinda ****, 20/14/16, but his Strength and Agility gains are rather good at 2.9/2.1. However, with only 1.2 Intelligence gain, he has a lot of mana problems until the lategame!

Aside from that, his base movement speed (325) is excellent, his attack animation is a decent 0.5, and his BAT is the standard 1.7. His cast point of 0.4 is a touch long, and is especially noticeable when trying to cast Reality Rift on an enemy jumping in and out of fog... but it could be worse.

Abilities

Chaos Bolt

Type: Targets:

Active Enemy Units

Throws a mysterious bolt of energy at the target unit. It stuns for a random duration and deals random damage.

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Notes:

• Damage and stun are inversely related.
• The stun duration is not strictly the exact duration shown - it can be something like 2.36.

This spell is Part 1 of your bread-and-butter combo. It's maxed first, as of all your skills it grants you the most kill potential, especially when combined with another disable. At level 1, the damage is HUGE, and the low cooldown means lategame you can toss them out at will. Before then, there is no way you've got the mana, sadly.

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Reality Rift

Type: Targets:

Active Enemy Units

Teleports you, any images you have and the target unit to a random point along the line between the two of you. Gives you bonus attack damage for one attack.

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Notes:

• Doesn't interrupt channels, nor does it disjoint projectiles.
• Attack damage bonus benefits fully from crit, cleave, lifesteal, etc!
• Can place you between 30% and 80% of the distance along the line.
• Causes CK and his illusions to issue an attack order against the target.

Part Two of the combo. Aside from making CK an absolute ***** to try and kite, the damage bonus is substantial. The combo starts with casting Reality Rift, hitting once, and following up with Chaos Bolt - or just casting the stun, if the target has a blink/escape. It's maxed second to provide even more early-game killing power. Lategame, it's your chasing/anti-kiting tool, and it's damn good at it. In fact, these days it's so ridiculous (+180 damage? Wut?) that if you don't need the disable, go for levels in this over Chaos Bolt - not only is it cheaper on mana, +180 damage every 6 seconds is a lot at level 7.

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Chaos Strike

Type: Affects:

Passive Self

Each of Chaos Knight's attacks has a chance to deal bonus damage and reduce the target's armor by 5 for 8 seconds.

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Notes:

• Like all other crit, fully works on illusions.
• Armour reduction is applied before the attack damage is dealt.
• Multiple procs merely refresh the duration.

There's really not a lot to be said here - it's a nice damage steroid that makes you and your illusions a whole lot scarier, and eliminates the need for you to ever purchase Daedalus, effectively freeing up an item slot. One value point is gotten in this at level 4 solely for the armour reduction.

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Phantasm

Type: Affects:

Active Self

Summons several phantasmal copies of the Chaos Knight from alternate dimensions. There is a 50% chance an extra phantasm will be summoned. The phantasms deal full damage, but take double damage.

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Notes:

• The illusions last for 42 seconds.
• Chaos Knight is invulnerable, hidden and spell immune during the split time, allowing for dodging projectiles.

Your glorious ultimate! This isn't gotten until level 10, as Chaos Knight simply doesn't have the mana beforehand. However, the illusions hit hard. This spell is the reason CK gets stats, as illusions only benefit from base damage. The duration is just long enough to win a fight, and then take a tower/set of barracks. However, it has a very long downtime, even moreso than Terrorblade... and you without Phantasm are less scary than Terrorblade without Metamorphosis.

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Pros and Cons

So with the analysis of the hero done, let's sum up quickly here-

Pros Does a ****ton of damage Awesome at pushing off of won teamfights Tanky Completely unkiteable between Reality Rift and ~450 movespeed Has high kill potential in lane Snowballs disgustingly hard Good Strength and Agility gain

Cons Mana-starved High downtime Farms slowly Vulnerable to illusion clear RNG is a harsh mistress High damage spread impacts last hitting

Get that dolla: Items

Going to try something different from my other guides and address the items immediately after the skills.
Wait, hang on... wrong Chaos Knight. Who even plays Fantasy anyway XD

Boots of Choice

With Chaos Knight, you've got a choice of two different kinds of booties:

I'd consider these the standard boots for CK due to their generally all-purpose nature - they give a nice chunk of attack speed for the early game, the Strength advantages you with regards to survivability, and of course the most important aspect - tread switching, which if done correctly makes your mana go a LOT further.

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However, in some games, you'll be up against a team you really don't want to be fighting - like some ******* Dark Seer Magnus Gyrocopter combo - and then you'll be looking for something else. In a case like that, Travels are a possibility, as they allow you to split push and free an item slot for a TP scroll. Note that I generally recommend sticking with treads - and this is ME saying this, I go BoTs on almost every carry in the game - as 75 mana every ~50 seconds is a large tax on Chaos Knight's poor mana pool.

Every Other Item

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[nextcol] [nextcol]If you want to rotate into the jungle, an Iron Talon will help you transition and farm considerably faster.
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What's not to like about this item? It's cheap, cost-efficient stats, and grants a nice boost to movement and attack speed that's especially noticeable on Chaos Knight. I'd grab this in 90% of my games, because it's basically perfect for a Hero who can come online early and farms relatively slowly.

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Yet again, cheap and cost efficient. Armlet gives everything CK desires - armour, regen, attack speed. In addition, the active is a LOT of Strength... that transfers to your illusions, who don't suffer the Health loss. Activate Armlet, cast Phantasm, deactivate Armlet and sic 'em. The +25 Strength translates to +125 damage all up - scary stuff indeed!

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So, I see basically no situation in which this item isn't in CK's 6-slot inventory. It gives him on-demand illusions that work to mitigate his long downtime, and as a stat item it naturally beefs up illusions. While the mana can be prohibitive, good mana management fixes this. Finally, it allows him to split push and siege with great effectiveness, which is a really important characteristic of a lategame carry.

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Chaos Knight is one of perhaps three Heroes on which Heart is better than Eye of Skadi. It's +200 damage instead of +40, and the regeneration allows you to keep Armlet on indefinitely which speeds up your farm. The huge chunk of Health it provides also means that your illusions - and you, of course - are even harder to take down. With only 4 or 5 slots filled, CK is pushing 4k HP and 25 armour, making you one of the game's tankiest heroes.

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Wut? Sheepstick as core on CK? Well... yes, actually. It's almost essential against Anti-Mage and Storm Spirit, meaning that you can actually deal with them. It gives you another disable whilst Chaos Bolt is on cooldown... oh, and infinite mana which is most certainly a desirable aspect! Since CK doesn't lack for damage or durability, you can fully afford to build a Sheepstick as a 4th or 5th item.

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For similar reasons to the above scythe, Octarine Core is also amazing on Chaos Knight. Infinite mana, and it increases your durability as well via the 400 HP. The real selling point, however, is the cooldown reductions, which cuts your downtime by around 30%. Obviously, this is a huge benefit, and as again damage and durability are fine for CK, you can afford to fill an item slot with a utility.

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Despite not affecting illusions in any way, Abyssal Blade is a legitimate item on Chaos Knight, because of - you guessed it - the disable. Locking Heroes down for extended periods lategame is a very important factor, especially against Terrorblade, who will Sunder you, or against Morphling, who will ***** out.

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A nice option when you're looking for both offence and defence. It gives a sizeable chunk of 4 armour, a huge boost to attack speed, and evasion to force out MKB purchases from the enemy. In the lategame, it's the biggest boost to your physical EHP you can get, and since most hard carries you may be competing against don't particularly like or want to purchase Monkey King Bar, gives you a solid advantage in terms of items.

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For when YOU are up against evasion. Because you don't actually need many core items to do your job, it's OK to blow a slot on MKB - breezing off Octarine or Sheepstick for it isn't the end of the world.

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A dedicated armour item. A lot of people see the Cuirass as a 'core extension' on CK, which I would argue against - he's naturally got plenty of armour, and the attack speed doesn't benefit your illusions. As a result, I would generally advocate a Butterfly over AC, except against Elder Titan and his aura.

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This is another item that fits really well on CK, with the lifesteal patching you up constantly, and the +25 Strength translating to far more damage than that. The active is a life-saver, and of course it rounds off any armour you could possibly want.

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While not ideal on Chaos Knight due to it scaling poorly lategame and the disable being rather wasted, it's a necessary pickup against Omniknight or other purgeable effects. Worth noting is the mana burn, which transfers to illusions, so DPS-wise it's probably only a bit below Butterfly... but doesn't give the durability you'd want.

Even More Situational Stuff

This item works kinda well on CK, actually - it speeds up his farming a lot, and gives him that all-important level 16 ahead of the competition. However, it's 2k gold for an item with 0 offensive or defensive utility, and generally you're better off going for the standard Drums-Armlet and snowballing. Midas is worth considering if you know the game will be very passive for a long time, but otherwise avoid it.

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It's a very poor item on an illusion hero, and Chaos Knight is no exception. Still, against some teams that have just that many disables, you'll have to get it if you want to avoid being chainstunned.

Playing around with the early-game

A lane with Chaos Knight in it is a scary lane. He has a ridiculous amount of kill potential from as early as level 2, and it only escalates from there. Your job is twofold: firstly, get as much farm as you can. Secondly, get as many kills as you can. Chaos Knight and literally any other disabler support can wreak havoc on solo offlaners, and most dual lanes as well.

In a Trilane v Solo Offlaner

Incredibly rare in pubs because the monkeys love their dual lanes, but this is the ideal situation, giving Chaos Knight almost certain freefarm, and if the offlaner gets cocky he's probably dead. However, unless he overextends, most offlaners are hard to shut down, either through escapes ( Dark Seer, Magnus), sheer tankiness ( Bristleback, Tidehunter), or a combination thereof ( Clockwerk). If a kill can't happen, do what a carry likes to do: hit creeps. Successful zoning by your supports ensures you'll have a good time.

In a 2v2 situation

Unlike a Spectre or Faceless Void, Chaos Knight can thrive in these lanes as long as he has a good partner. Take what farm you can, but it's likely going to be contested, so try and get as many kills as you possibly can. Teamwork will be required to beat the other two, so communicate with your support!

1v1 safelane

You're probably at a disadvantage in, but in most cases you'll have a support or two roaming in a situation like this, meaning you can call backup. Play like the 2v2 situation listed above, but exercise more caution if you feel your opponent can kill or severely hurt you.

Trilane v Trilane

Does this ever happen in a pub? I've seen one of these in 1100 games, and it was in Captain's Mode (we lost horribly. I can't play Venomancer). This is a lot like a 2v2 situation, but you've probably got the advantage, because tri v tri is all about scoring kills... which is what Chaos Knight is good at.

Solo against 2 or 3

Bemoan the ******* who picked a jungler.

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In all situations, it's your responsibility to come out with as much farm as you can. Try and have Power Treads and Drum by 10-13 minutes; Armlet by 15-20. If the lane is good, you can maybe take the tower with Phantasm; this isn't necessary but it is of course a nice boost to the team economy.

Going ham in midgame

So, this is when you should make your mark on the game. You've had your early vegetation, now you can go and start killing things.

First thing to be aware of is your ridiculous downtime and you'll really be feeling this. So, don't blow Phantasm on something as minor as a solo kill - with the possible exception of it being the enemy carry. He's not like Faceless Void where solo kills are all your ult is good for - even with just Armlet and Drums, a Chaos Knight is quite able to score double, triple and even ultra kills with his ultimate - so save it for teamfights or other important points. Trading it for a t2 tower is also acceptable, but make sure you actually take the tower. If it's denied, or even worse still standing, sad *** story.

Rather than a lot of carries who 'fight with ultimate, farm when it's on cooldown', Chaos Knight should fight with his ultimate, and participate in team ganks when it's down, farming when neither of those is a good option. Unlike most hard carries, he's a snowballer due to his ability to make a target disappear and due to his slow farming speed. This is where Midas on CK makes sense - it basically means you can gank much more freely, as your GPM will be sustained by the Midas and it means you spend less time actually AFK farming and more time roaming around, looking for kills.

Whatever happened early game, the midgame is where Chaos Knight takes a much more active role. Summarily, your job is to gain a lead, and then finish the game. The reason you generally don't try and go into the lategame is because it's hard to transition as CK - you've bought Armlet and Drums, two very midgame items, and while you'll generally get Manta Style immediately afterwards, you've still got those items. Hence, if lategame is your goal, replacing Drums with Hand of Midas makes a lot of sense - or going Battle Fury, as it is the best item for a farming CK. Note that I'm not recommending it, because the item has no synergy with his skillset.

That said, a successful transition will come close to just handing you a win on a silver platter. You're ****ing Chaos Knight. You have a 400% damage steroid.

Lategaming it

The good thing about Chaos Knight is that his lategame is very similar to the midgame, except with more emphasis on split-pushing with Manta Style. Solo kills aren't as important if they're not on a carry, and one side is usually up to tier 3 towers.

Most carries have their full set of items in the lategame. Not so Chaos Knight - here is where your slow farming speed works with you rather than against, as you're still scaling. If a CK with 4 slots is ****ing terrifying, what'll he be like with 6? The answer probably involves a speculum.

As I said earlier, the issue is in the transition. In pubs, this isn't a huge deal, but in a more organised/high skill game, be it 5k ranked or Captain's Mode, there will be this period where you have midgame items that suddenly are doing nothing, and you're 2k-5k gold away from becoming a full lategame powerhouse. The upside is, you've probably got Heart of Tarrasque at this point, so you are very durable even if your combat effectiveness has slipped up a bit with regards to fighting enemy cores (you still evaporate supports). Since you'll still be a high priority target, you at least take a lot of fire off your team.

This dip in power is also the reason Octarine Core isn't worth getting until you're at your 5th or 6th expensive item. The same can apply to Sheepstick, though that's a different matter I'll discuss in a little bit. What you do during this dip is stall, which is where Manta Style comes in. Split push with it, while farming whatever you find. Ideally you should have another core on the team (probably your midlaner) who can pick up whatever slack you had while you're waiting it out, so depending on the drafts you mightn't even have a problem at all.

Scythe of Vyse is an excellent lategame item, especially on a hero without slot issues such as Chaos Knight. The problem is that during your transition time, you're lacking damage, and Sheepstick doesn't give much at all. But on the other hand, it's an extremely good way to deal with the Glimmer Capes and Ghost Scepters the enemy supports will have. When to get it requires a judgement of where you are in the game - if you're considerably ahead, it'll almost certainly be the best item, but if you're not getting damage will be better. Abyssal Blade fulfills a similar role, but it further impacts your pitiful mana pool and the disable is only melee, meaning that you'll be using Chaos Bolt to try and stop supports defending your target - and that spell, of course, can be disjointed, dodged, or whatever else.

Here is the importance too of Manta Style. Somewhat like Anti-Mage was doing 20 minutes ago, you're going to be split pushing in an attempt to stall the game. Thankfully, you don't have to buy too much time, and it's even less depending on what other Heroes are on your team.

Friends, Foes and Food

One of the good things is that Chaos Knight doesn't have a lot of counters unlike most illusion Heroes, mostly because he's Strength and able to eat up nukes unlike, say, Terrorblade or Phantom Lancer. Still, there are a few heroes to be aware of in your interactions:

Foes

God, this guy is an *******. Sure, if you can catch him, he's going to melt... but the problem is catching him. Activate Fire Remnant allows him to escape your clutches every time, and his Sleight of Fist with battlefury is going to tear you and your team a new one. Don't stack up.

Sure, you don't really care about the damage from Echo Slam... but any of your nearby allies will. This guy's a problem mainly because he has 50 years of AoE stun to lock you down.

AoE disables? Check. Percentage based damage? Check. Honestly not the worst, because you destroy him without Black Hole, but you can often find yourself dying to his ult and his E.

High area damage, and he cuts down your primary attribute. A good Timber is seriously nasty to deal with as a CK.

Whaaaaat? Squishy burstable heroes on this list? Well, yeah. Both Mana Drain and Life Drain, as well as Hex, instantly destroy illusions. Pop. A protracted engagement against these two tends to end in disaster.

She outcarries you, and Stone Gaze instantly pops your illusions. It's even worse since Chaos Knight isn't a great rat, which is Medusa's primary weakness.

Friends

Fun, fun lane... for you. She solves CK's mana problems and adds even more damage and lockdown. An idea lane partner, alongside...

Also gives you infinite mana, but you can also help set up Illuminate, just be careful so you don't rift people out of its path.

What's better than CK illusions? More CK illusions! Rat dota abounds. These illusions are tankier than your regular ones, and deal 60% damage - considering they last what, 12 seconds? This is pretty good. Also applies a 50% damage amplification to some poor sap, as if you needed it.

Food

Low armour targets such as...
Doom, Tiny, Alchemist

Single target heroes such as...
Troll Warlord, Clinkz

Squishy heroes such as...
90% of the support pool. Those poor guys are going to cop it a lot.

In Summary

There's not really a lot more to say. If you like tanky, bursty heroes who can eat up anything the enemy team throws at you, Chaos Knight is a hero for you. Hopefully I've conglomerated enough thoughts for you to be able to form diverse strategies - experiment! Want to do a max crit AFK farm build? Try it out! Jungle CK? Why not. That's really the beauty of Dota, anything can work (in pubs. They don't punish stupid ****). What's presented here is but one way of playing Chaos Knight, one that's open to experimentation.

Murder, pillage, kill. Let your hoofprints beat in the dust and ashes of their hopes, for Chaos itself has come to claim their land.