Carl, The Invoker - [7.06] Guide

Introduction

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Hello Guys! Welcome to My Second Guide in Dotafire ! Invoker build! Invoker is My Favourite Hero!

For Your Information, Invoker is Midlaner , Nuker , Disabler, Escape, Pusher Hero

Pros and Cons

Pros Fun to Play Addicting! Good movement speed with Wex High Damage to Lasthitting in Laning Phase with Exort Doesn't Need Bottle, With Quas you can regen Your Hp Quickly, For mana problem, you could go buy some clarity. Has a lot of Skills Good in single target and also in crowd control Can carry the game on his own Has a lot of synergies with every role Good at every stages of game Easy to survive from gank

Cons Hard to Play Has a lot of counter Silence = Ez Death Not every people who dominates in lane, can carry the game Easy to kill with lot of disables Long Cooldown

Little Skills Explanation

Quas

• Health Regen Per Instance : 1/3/5/7/9/11/13
• So, Max Health Regen you can get from Quas is : 3/9/15/21/27/33/39

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Wex

• Attack Speed Bonus Per Instance : 2/4/6/8/10/12/14
• Move Speed Bonus Per Instance : 1%/2%/3%/4%/5%/6%/7%

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Exort

• Attack Damage Bonus Per Instance : 4/8/12/16/20/24/28

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Invoke

• Max Spells : 2
• Cooldown : 6s
• Cooldown with Scepter : 2s

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NOTE : For me, memorizing the order of each orb like mine is easier!

Cold Snap : QQQ

Cold Snap used for mini-stun single target, it can cancel TP, works well with Urn of Shadows , Alacrity, and also Forge Spirit

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Ice Wall : QQE

Ice Wall you will really need a good positioning to cast this skill, I found a lot of people who practicing Invoker never use this. This can be used as offensive or even defensive. Its really a good a spell. with short cooldown.

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Forge Spirit : QEE

Forge Spirit usually used in laning phase for higher damage for lasthitting. But be careful ! Don't give money to enemy by killing your Forge Spirit. Note : Forge Spirit's melting armor will reduce enemy's armor up to 10 armors!

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Ghost Walk : QQW

Ghost Walk will make you invisible, the higher level of your wex, more faster you will move, and higher level of quas, the higher move speed slow for enemies.
NOTE : If your hands are fast enough, i suggest you pressing Q-Q-W-R-W-W-D. So while in Ghost Walk state, you will move faster with 3 instances of wex

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Tornado : QWW

Tornado's lift time is determined by your quas level. Tornado is a really good setup for combos, you can Tornado > Chaos Meteor > Cold Snap/Deafening Blast/Ice Wall. And also, tornado can cancel teleport or any "casting" skill. Such as Charge of Darkness

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EMP : WWW

EMP will burn your opponent's mana and give damage, determined by your Wex level. Some people knows that, its the only function, but no! If you use EMP you'll get 50% of the burned mana.

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Alacrity : WWE

Alacrity , you can use this for farming, fighting or even pushing towers. You can use this on you're teammate and also for Forge Spirit and Siege Creep when Pushing Towers.

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Chaos Meteor : WEE

Chaos Meteor this is the most source of Invoker's AoE Damage. You can set it up with Ice Wall , Cold Snap, Tornado, or another disable from your teammate, like Fissure , etc. You can also use this for creeps, for example, When your enemy has the High-Ground, you'll go to the Jungle, After coming back from the jungle, Probably enemy will have 2 or 3 Ranged Creeps in one wave, you don't want your tower to be harassed, just use Chaos Meteor to clear the wave.

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Sun Strike : EEE

Sun Strike you can use this with guessing where people will go (I rarely do it because for me it will just waste MP) or you could combo it with Impale , Slithereen Crush, etc. Sunstrike is Pure Damage! And goes through Spell Immunity.

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Deafening Blast : QWE

Deafening Blast will give enemy a knockback and also disarm, and you cant underestimate this damage!. You will need to cast this skill often if you're playing against pure hitter like Ursa Lycan , etc.

Items Justification

Quas-Exort

Leaving the fountain

• Null Talisman for stats and also damage for lasthitting
• Tango (Shared) Ask your Supports, because buying 4 tangoes is such a waste. Because you will have regen from Quas later on
• Iron Branch you can use it for eating tango, because it will gives you more hp than eating trees, just like observer ward
• Faerie Fire for early game fight, and also provide a small amount of damage !
• Healing Salve buy this after taking a bounty rune on your side

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Early Game

• Boots of Speed of course you need it.. no need to ask
• Hand of Midas go for this ASAP, because Invoker needs a lot of high level advantage.

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Situational Early Game

• Null Talisman buy another one , if you are playing against hero like Queen of Pain , Puck (High Nuking and Harassing). Note : I Always buy this
• Ring of Aquila and Ring of Protection buy these two, if you are laning against Phantom Assassin , Templar Assassin or another high damage physical hero.
• Magic Wand buy this against skill spammer.
• Infused Raindrops buy this if you're REALLY hate magic damage, such as Tinker

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Mid Game

• Aghanim's Scepter THIS IS A MUST, you need to rush this, because, since 7.00 , invoke cooldown is always 6s without scepter, and 2s with scepter, also this item add 1 level to your skills, for Example:
  Tornado travel distance at wex lv 1 is 800, with aghanim scepter will be 1200
• Boots of Travel buy this for split-pushing, before you get your items!
• Blink Dagger Buy this if you really need a good positioning.
• Force Staff Buy this as an alternative of blink dagger if you're playing against hero with slow, Phantom Assassin , Lifestealer, Lone Druid, Spectre, Ember Spirit , Riki etc
• Eul's Scepter of Divinity buy this if you need easy setup for combo, and also for defensive for skills like, Omnislash , Global Silence , although it can be purged, but its good tho.

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Situational Late Game

• Black King Bar if you're really targeted, and a lot of disable or silences
• Eye of Skadi if you really need a lot of status and little slow, i rarely buy this but its still viable
• Hurricane Pike decent upgrades from Force Staff
• Octarine Core with this, your Invoke cooldown will be reduced to 1.5s i think. I usually buy this if i think my skills cooldown are too long, and if playing against blademail heroes, little spell lifesteal xD
• Refresher Orb I never buy this, but i met lots of ppl who'll buy this, maybe some of you wanna go for advanced combo, i prefer to buy utilities item than this.
• Scythe of Vyse If you are playing against annoying escape hero, such as Anti-Mage , Queen of Pain , Ember Spirit, etc.
• Shiva's Guard if you're playing against a lot of hitter and you need more crowd control. NOTE : Shiva gives enemy's attack speed debuff too !
• Linken's Sphere if you're playing against a lot of single target heroes. Why this instead of Black King Bar ? Because it provides more status than BKB

Talents Explanation

Quas-Exort

• 125 Health Instead of 15 Damage. Because i think, 15 damage is nothing, while you already have 3 instance of high level exort, it is better to get 125 health. More survavibility. Because at early stage (before getting Aghanim's Scepter you'll need to farm and split push.
  
• +1 Forge Spirit Summoned Instead of +30% Exp Gain. Actually it is situational, if you had a really bad laning , you might get this, to recovery back to the game. Anyway, since i have Hand of Midas i prefer getting another forge spirit, faster pushing tho. Except if you buy Power Treads instead of Hand of Midas just like Sumiya usually does.
  
• 7 All Stats or 35 ASPD. It is situational, if you feel like getting targeted so much and needs more survivability then you should get All stats. If you're getting lots of free hit, then go take ASPD.
  
• -18s Tornado Cooldown or AoE Deafening Blast. Sometimes you probably need AoE deafening Blast, if you have teammate for Wombo Combo, such as Enigma, Magnus, etc. But still, i prefer -18s Tornado cooldown, because with Octarine Core, Tornado Cooldown will be 9s. Awesome ! You can just spam it while pushing tower, so they wont disturb you. Just like Ana did in pro game. Sorry I forgot, who is the opponent in that match.

Combos

Actually there's a lot of combos, but i think these are the easiest and more effective.

Early Game Combo

In Laning Phase (1-10 mins) you won't have lots of manapool, so i suggest you using these combos

• Cold Snap > Chaos Meteor > Alacrity = 360 + 60(Invoke Alacrity) = 420 Mana
  Or if you feeling hard to land that Meatball well, you can use :
  Tornado > Chaos Meteor > Cold Snap = 450 + 60(Invoke Coldsnap) = 510 Mana
• Forge Spirit > Cold Snap > Alacrity = 235 + 60{Invoke Alacrity) = 295 Mana
  Don't forget to be aware of teammate, so you can Sun Strike and get easy Kill Secure.

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Mid Game Combo

When you have Aghanim's Scepter use these.

• Tornado > Chaos Meteor/ Sun Strike > Cold Snap or Deafening Blast or Ice Wall
  Why?
  Use Cold Snap when you are going to kill blink hero.( Anti-Mage, Queen of Pain).
  Use Deafening Blast if you feel you can just kill him directly
  Use Ice Wall if you think you dont have that much mana, you can still hit him or cast EMP , etc if you use Ice Wall.
  

  NOTES : This is why i have level 3 Quas until level 20, so you can just cast the combo without even thinking about the timing, just Tornado
  then Sun Strike or Chaos Meteor ASAP.

• Tornado > EMP > Ice Wall > Make your own !
  You can just use every skill if enemy touch the ice wall and have no mana, just use your imagination. You can cast like.. Chaos Meteor, or even just right-clicking with Alacrity and Cold Snap is legit.

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Late Game Combo

Crowd Combo :
[*] Tornado > EMP > Chaos Meteor > Deafening Blast or Ice Wall.
If you think you're too late to go for Chaos Meteor after emp , you can just skip to Ice Wall and then use Chaos Meteor when landed.
Single Target Combo :
[*] Tornado > Sun Strike > Chaos Meteor > Deafening Blast or Cold Snap or Ice Wall.

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IMPORTANT THING YOU MIGHT NOT KNOW

Once upon a time, you are going to kill your enemy in midlane.

Allies and Enemies

Allies

• ganking combo, especially against farming hero such as Anti-Mage, nyx go find AM in the woods with Vendetta and then hit, Impale, Mana Burn, and Invoker 's Sun Strike
• with Sprout he can set up a good combo for Invoker
• as support. Best friend for invoker, simple use X Marks the Spot then cast Sun Strike or Chaos Meteor and then go for Cold Snap
• will help Invoker set up combo in teamfight !
• will get EZ Duel with invoker's spells, like Sun Strike, Chaos Meteor, etc. But it will be dangerous if invoker cast Tornado while dueling ><
• can help invoker with Thirst to land a Sun Strike on low hp enemy, and also, Rupture best solution is TP Scroll. But with invoker, he can use either Cold Snap or Tornado so enemy won't TP

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Enemies

• counters invoker, invoker without magic is nothing ...
• can lock invoker inside the Chronosphere with low HP he can easily kill invoker. Faceless void can be a good friends and also enemy.
• it is so hard to play against good Queen of Pain in laning with invoker.While qop has faster game impact.
• can use Arcane Curse so invoker will always get the cast spell damage penalty. Also with Last Word invoker can't do his combo, after he's going to combo for example with Tornado he'll be silenced.
• not easy to play with invoker against TA. Actually Forge Spirit won't really help you to clear the refraction. Since she has high damage and Psi Blades she can easily kill your Forge Spirit.
• in Late Game , when he has Black King Bar. He can easily drain invoker's mana and invoker can't do anything without mana

Gameplay

Early Game

• Just Focus on your Farm and be aware of enemy's HP you can secure kill with Sun Strike
• If you are playing against squishy hero with no escape you can just go and try killing him.
• If you are playing against harassing heroes such as Queen of Pain , Silencer, Viper, Phantom Assassin. Just go buy Null Talisman, Magic Wand, or Ring of Aquila just like i typed in Item Justification. And focus on your farm. 60-70 CS in 10 min is really good.

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Mid Game

• If you already get your Aghanim's Scepter there's still 2 options
  • If you think you can participate on clash, just go.
  • If you think you still need items like Eul's Scepter of Divinity or Linken's Sphere or Blink Dagger go buy Boots of Travel and split push the towers. Always look at map if you are split pushing
• If you haven't get your Aghanim's Scepter (Lost your midlane so bad) just go farm and farm and split push. Its okay, tell your teammate to make space for you.

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Mid-Late Game

• This is the most effective stage with invoker. Invoker is so powerful here, so just try to win the game ASAP.
• Go for clash, if you lost the clash lots of time, you can go split push. Not really good tho.

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Late Game

• It is not easy to win the game here, because enemies already have maybe Pipe of Insight or Black King Bar. That really counters Invoker.
• Going to Late Game does not mean that you lose. You still have Carry (Position 1) so hope for him, tho, invoker's nuke, disable, and EMP is still good.

Sorry if my english is messed up, because it is not my mother's language

My Experience on Practicing Invoker

Okay, so as we know.
According to dotabuff. Invoker is the 4th most popular hero in DotA 2.

Watching youtube, or playing with good Invoker, making us want to learn how to play this hero.

Ok before you practicing invoker, what you need to know is : DON'T PRACTICE HERO IN RANKED GAME

Everyone will blame you if you're failing the lane. Just go with Normal Match. If people blame you, just tell em "Relax it is just a normal match, your mmr won't decrease".

Or just simply mute the people who keep blaming you.

"How do i get good on invoker"
One day, my internet cable is broken, so i need to call the ISP to repair it. For around 5 days, they only say "Ok we'll process your request". In that 5 day, without internet, i am enjoying to play BOT. Yes unfair bot. I keep spamming invoker. Although you won't be good with just playing bot, because they're always gathering, easy tornado easy combo. Until then, i get 50 kills on unfair bot with Invoker. I feel confident with it.

And then when my internet has came back to life, i am trying to play on Normal Match, not really bad and not really good either. But i know that i've improved. From that time, i keep watching people streaming on Youtube or Twitch.

Things you need to know is, when you are watching invoker gameplay, don't just be like "Wow this guy is so good i want to be like him" NO, not like that. While watching the video, you need to think, if i am the one who are playing now, what skill will i use next, and if you keep making mistake, just try and try again.

Lots of people say "I've played invoker 100 games and still no good".
For me, practicing without theory is nothing. Not all people can do that. you also need the knowledge.

That's it from me thanks for reading this Chit-Chat.

Finally I am Finish with this.

Yeah thanks for reading this guide feel free to comment and tell me if there is something you need to discuss with this guide and this guide is exclusive for 7.06. Maybe It will outdated some day.

If you think this is a good guide then leave a thumbs up :D

If you need something to ask, feel free to contact me :
[email protected]

Thanks!

Changelog

9/18/17
- Guide Created !

9/19/17
- Added Chapter Talents Explanation
- Added Chapter Combos

9/21/17
- Added Chapter Allies and Enemies
- Added Chapter Gameplay
- Added Chapter My Experience on Practicing Invoker
- Added Chapter Closing