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12 Votes

Faceless Void - 6.87 Offlane/Safelane

April 28, 2016 by Tadeog
Comments: 11    |    Views: 111963    |   


Build 1
Build 2

Offlane

DotA2 Hero: Faceless Void




Hero Skills

Time Walk

1 3 5 7

Time Dilation

4 8 9 10

Time Lock

2 12 13 14

Chronosphere

6 11 16

Talents

15 17 18

Introduction

Hi, my name is Tadeo, I’m just a simple DotA 2 Argentinian player willing to start a hobby on Hero Guides for DotaFire. You are advised, this is just my way of doing things, and it is only up to you to put it on practice. I decided to start with this Faceless Void guide, as its recent changes over the launch of 6.86 have drastically changed the way he’s played. Let’s get started then…

Lore

“Time is a river with many eddies. I have seen its head waters, and I have seen its currents reach the sea”



Darkterror the Faceless Void is a visitor from Claszureme, a realm outside of time. It remains a mystery why this being from another dimension believes the struggle for the Nemesis Stones is worth entering our physical plane, but apparently an upset in the balance of power in this world has repercussions in adjacent dimensions. Time means nothing to Darkterror, except as a way to thwart his foes and aid his allies. His long-view of the cosmos has given him a remote, disconnected quality, although in battle he is quite capable of making it personal.

Yes. Darkterror is indeed a cheesy name for a Dire hero. *sigh*

Getting to know the hero

Let’s get started by getting to know this hero:
Faceless Void skillset was always meant to match that of a hardcarry: not that powerful early on, seriously dangerous by the midgame, and totally devastating on the lategame. He is one of the (if not THE only one) heroes in DotA to depend on physical attacks for dealing damage. This means none of his skills actually deal any damage.

"How’s that ?" You may ask. Think about Lycan for a second: he also doesn’t have any damaging spells, but the Summon Wolves skill kind of contributes as a damage dealing source. And that’s it, every other hero in the game has a damage dealing spell except for our purple friend Faceless Void.

This was and still is the major problem early on as a way to contest the XP and Gold on a lane. However, this means that Faceless Void can be a threat as the lategame arrives, where physical damage excels at every match. This hero is a real threat because of his powerful long duration disable over the course of the match, where it gets a lot more dangerous every minute the clock ticks.

He is by no means to be played as a support, roamer or mid, as his skillset or item choices do not fit any of those playstyles. So Faceless Void fits as a hardcarry and one’s nature would be to play it as such, but is it the only right way to play him ? The answer is no.



While a hardcarry Faceless Void is viable by all means, his winrate started rising since 6.86 because of his new role on the offlane, where building items like Vladmir's Offering and Blink Dagger is a common thing nowadays. This does not mean that if you have the opportunity to play a hardcarry Void you shouldn’t, but more of a recommendation on which role he works best on. The rework on how Time Walk behaves and the new skill Time Dilation are more than enough to encourage a Void player to play him offlane, where ganks are most likely to fail. Leeching XP from it now tends to be a better idea than getting hungry for Gold on the safelane. This guide will let you know what to do and how to play this monster hero depending on which lane you want to go.


Pros / Cons

Pros

Potential to be one of the best hard carries in the game

Great survivability for ganks in lane due to Time Walk

Has the 3rd best starting Strength among agility heroes, behind Bloodseeker and Arc Warden

His ultimate is among the best in the game, potentially becoming a 5 second AOE stun and disable, allowing for sick combos

As of 6.86d, he isn’t that item dependent as before, meaning…

He can go either safelane which serves as a good and steady income of Gold, or offlane where he won’t be susceptible to ganks or zoning at least the other team applies an aggressive trilane



Cons

Attribute wise, he has one of the lowest Strength gain (1.8 per level) among agility heroes, and his Agility gain (2.65 per level) isn’t as great as other carries.

Punished by heavy armored enemy teams, as his only way of dealing damage is by autoattacks.

Wrong Chronosphere positioning can hurt your teammates, leading to a lost teamfight.

Not a comfortable pick most of the times. This means that unless your team composition doesn’t benefit you, it’s safer to pick another hero.

Enemies with silences or Orchid Malevolence as a core item wreck your escape as well as your big ultimate, meaning you’ll have to buy a Black King Bar most of the times.

He’s ultimate dependent as a Dragon Knight or a Death Prophet would be.

When to pick Void / Potential win pick

Before going into details on whether playing Faceless Void as hardcarry or offlane and when to do it you should focus on why picking him.


Be it a pub, a ranked, or a CM. Void benefits from lineups that can use his ultimate as much as they can. It’s not about the Time Dilation, or going full RNJesus on the Time Lock bashes. Everytime you should pick Void it’s because there’s a whole logic behind your team abilities.

Picking him as hardcarry with a Witch Doctor plus Skywrath Mage aggressive trilane, while your mid Magnus wrecks the other mid and your offlane Tusk is trying to get some XP is a beautiful thing to witness. It’s basic DotA 2 knowledge: you should synergize with your other heroes. There’s no point on picking him if a Chronosphere would be more of a burden than a benefit for your team.

Also, there’s no point on picking Void if the other team has a lot of tough heroes like Abaddon, Tiny or Centaur Warrunner who can survive your Chronosphere. On the other hand heroes who can still inflict damage while under the stun of your ultimate are considered dangerous to play against. For example, if an enemy Death Prophet uses Exorcism he is saying “If you use your Chrono on me, you are done mate!”. If a Leshrac has Pulse Nova ON you won’t be able to ult him without taking damage. If there’s a good Sniper on the other side he will be farmed by 30 minutes into the match and will always stay away from his other 4 teammates to pummel you until death with his autoattacks. It’s common sense. You should aim for another carry or offlaner in this kind of situations, where landing good Chronospheres would be near impossible, and killing your enemies inside of it would be more difficult than actually trying another strategy.



This means that most of the times you can pick it, there’s a high chance that you’ll win. Think of it as when you have the window for an Anti-Mage pick. Intelligence heroes. Lack of stuns. High mana pools. Supports on your side to help you secure farm. Before you realize you already won the game because Mana Break, Mana Void and a Black King Bar did their job.

The perfect window for a Faceless Void pick is the one you know will work. Don’t worry about taking risks. If there are good heroes on your side that can get the most out of Chronosphere, go for it. If the enemy team picked heroes that get heavily countered by being locked in one place taking skills to their face, go for it. Otherwise, you should go for another carry. That’s why I think most of the times when you pick Void, the game is already yours. This is according to the fact that you won’t mess up or the other team has higher DotA 2 skills, in which case you have already lost the match.Kappa

Skills

Warning: if you want actual numbers THIS will take you to the Faceless Void article on Dota 2 gamepedia.




Low mana cost
Low range

This skill has a low cooldown at level 4. It’s mana cost doesn’t scale, and you can use it at free will most of the times. Historically this skill always felt wrong on Faceless Void. Pardon me, but it did. The long cast point was a pain for low HP escapes. If a player decided to max this it would generally be because of its range for initiation. As of 6.86d, Time Walk has a reduced range, but not THAT short. Range is 625, so you should be able to climb cliffs and go through different terrain while escaping. So it’s a nice mobility skill, helping you to reposition yourself all the time.

But this isn’t the only aspect. Time Walk will heal you for the damage taken in the last 2 seconds upon use. This is the change that makes Void go a bit tankier, a bit slippery, and viable as an offlaner. Unless the enemies silence you or chain stuns, all the damage taken is recovered. Be careful, as IT WILL NOT dispel or purge the active skill, so the damage over time or slows will remain on you. It’s only for the damage. The use on this ability while laning would be to suck damage from zoning spells (like Arcane Bolt) and avoid getting killed. Also, have in mind that this is a heal, not HP removal mechanic, meaning that if you are under the effects of Ice Blast for example you won’t heal.




Great teamfight spell
Huge AOE
Kinda long cooldown

Replaced the old Backtrack. Time Dilation has a huge AOE, meaning that most of the times you will catch everyone by being in the middle of the fight. It applies a debuff on enemies so that when they use an ability it will go on a frozen status, where the cooldown WILL NOT count. For each ability frozen, it slows movement speed for a percentage on each level.

This does not mean that you have to wait for the enemies to use their spells for this to work.

Most players are struggling too hard to get this. Once you use Time Dilation, the enemy still suffers from the debuff, freezing their abilities when they use them. This skill suffers from long cooldown early on, so don’t consider it as a tool on the laning stage unless getting heavily ganked. Think of it more as an ability to disrupt teamfights. Imagine you go for the rune and a Bristleback starts chasing you while throwing Viscous Nasal Goo and Quill Spray; you use this ability and at level 4 they will freeze for a whooping 12 seconds as well as slowing him for that Warpath bonus speed. He just can’t get you.

This ability should be maxed if playing on the offlane, as you will not require Time Lock to be leveled. If the other team has heroes like Tusk, Queen of Pain, Invoker or Bristleback (heroes that spam abilities) this skill will punish them hard for using their spells. The list of heroes who suffer from Time Dilation is very long, so just figure it out for yourself and use this whenever there are casters.




Great lockdown skill
Uses pseudo-random distributionreally low chance of getting 3 or 4 in a row

Applies a chance to bash with your regular attacks. The bash is a constant 1 second duration at all levels, increasing the chance with each level. If going for a safelane carry Faceless Void, leveling this would be smart as it will help by the time you get Chronosphere. It also improves your chance of success when trading hits with the other laners.

Getting a bash will deal a lot of damage to the enemy and opens an opportunity for you and your support to go for a kill. Similar to how a Lone Druid tries to get an Entangle before diving the enemy, Void tries to fish for a bash. For example: on lane at level 6 you should start trading hits if feeling comfortable, if a bash appears and you feel confident keep hitting to try and bash again. This way you are setting up a perfect Chronosphere kill, extending the duration of the disable. Building strong attack speed items on Void such as Moon Shard, Mjollnir, Assault Cuirass and Butterfly helps with Time Lock, as more bashes means more disable for you and teammates to keep hitting.




Great long duration AOE disable
Punishes your team if placed badly

The ultimate. A long duration AOE stun that freezes everything in time. Whether it is enemies, allies, towers, creeps, units or wards like Death Ward and Mass Serpent Ward. Only basic abilities or AOE abilities will work inside of it like Midnight Pulse, Call Down or a stun as Fissure or Earth Spike.

This is probably the reason why you picked Faceless Void. He is the only one who can move inside of it, at extreme speed. Landing a good Chronosphere almost always wins the fight. But the hard part is doing it. Most of the times an ally will get caught on it, since the radius is kinda big.

Every time this ability is available for use you should try to force your team into using it. Also, popping it if it’s the last resource for escaping isn’t as bad. Remember cooldowns go by, death doesn’t. Beware that the animation for casting it isn’t instant, and enemies with a Blink Dagger or abilities like Time Lapse, Blink Strike or Blink can quickly see it coming. Getting in range is also difficult, since Time Walk has short-medium range.

Starting items



or

Most of the times you’ll want 2 Iron Branch, a set of Tango, a Quelling Blade and either a Ring of Protection or Stout Shield. If going offlane you may want to trade the Quelling Blade for a Healing Salve. Or just simply buy a Poor Man's Shield and some Tango.

Early





If you decided for the Ring of Protection, your best choice is to upgrade it into a Ring of Basilius for some mana in case you have to spam Time Walk. If struggling hard against physical damage, a Poor Man's Shield would be your best choice. Also consider getting the attributes on the Magic Wand or the Headdress. I recommend to get Boots of Speed as fast as you can, specially if you are offlaning.

Core



OFFLANE



SAFELANE or

Once the laning stage is over you should have your boots ready. Power Treads are mostly the only boots Faceless Void needs, as they help with attack speed, survivability and mana issues. Having the Ring of Basilius and Headdress upgraded to a Vladmir’s Offering is your best choice. The lifesteal helps with sustaining health, as well as the option for finding farm on neutral camps. Your starting strength also makes the armor a fine protection against physical attacks, providing a lot of EHP. If you went offlane the best choice here is to farm an Aghanim's Scepter. It will not only make you ultimate available every minute and extend its duration but also giving you stats to effectively pulling off your Time Walk everytime you need to heal or reposition. If you went safelane carry, a good idea would be to build a farming but also fighting item. Maelstrom or Battle Fury come to mind, being the latter a little bit difficult to achieve. The idea of this is having an item that makes jungle creeps die fast, but also make you hit hard on the Chronosphere.

Luxury



OFFLANE
OFFENSIVE

Once you have your core it’s time to move on for the lategame. If you went offlane, a safe bet would be a Blink Dagger, as it gives you the right way for landing good Chronos, which are the winning Chronos. You went offlane, so your mid and carry will be doing the damage anyway, landing a good Chronosphere is all you need, and a Blink is a safe choice.

If you went for the safelane carry, lategame damage items is all you need. If having a trouble with armor go for an Assault Cuirass. What about some more stats ? Sange and Yasha. Need more damage ? Daedalus. Needing a little bit of tankiness ? Eye of Skadi. Facing evasion ? Monkey King Bar. Is it just attack speed you need ? Moon Shard. Also, get a Black King Bar if you really can’t get the Chrono on them. Once you have your core, grab everything that makes you hit harder. Remember that even if you went offlane there's a good chance you'll be having a steady income of gold on the late game. Grabing one DPS item like a Butterfly can mean the difference on a teamfight.

A good idea would be to buy the right items. Faceless Void has no means to farm other than his physical attacks, much like Spectre, but he can't afford a Radiance and most of the times on the offlane you won't manage to buy a Battle Fury. If you are going for an item, consider why and when you need it. For example, once you have a large amount of attributes and attack speed a Daedalus would be a smart choice since it boosts your primary attribute critical chance. Just keep it simple and think before buying.

Situational



DEFENSIVE



OFFENSIVE



MIXED / GREEDY

Either carry or offlaner, there are some situations in which you will have to modify your build. If Gold is coming in fast, buy a Hand of Midas and aim for the sixslot. When they have a lot of single target you can get a Linken's Sphere. If it’s ALL about your Chronosphere you could get a Refresher Orb and reach a 12 second duration ult. Even a Solar Crest or an Armlet of Mordiggian could help with some lost games. Open your mind and don’t be afraid to buy a Scythe of Vyse if your team lacks disables. I won a crazy game as offlane Void with a Radiance, a Manta Style and an Octarine Core by splitpushing like a Naga Siren. Hell, even a Mask of Madness can help you early on even though I don’t like it. There’s no such thing as wrong builds as long as it makes you win. Just think right and adapt to the situation.

The Wagamama build

The Wagamama build







As of 6.87 Void has been played in many ways. A common thing on every build is Void's natural tankiness regarding Time Walk. A trend began by Wagamama were one should build a tanky item like Vanguard on Faceless Void and then follow it with a Radiance. This way you take advantage of the radiance burn by staying alive in long fights, as well as adding EHP with the evasion. After Radiance it's advisable to get a Manta Style for dispels or Black King Bar should there be a lot of disables. After that, Octarine Core boosts up your health an mana, as well as giving lifesteal to Void and his illusions from Radiance burn. This way, Faceless Void can fight, splitpush and tank through the course of battles.

As of 6.87

Regarding Skills



Faceless Void received interesting changes after 6.87. Time Dilation got nerfed, having a longer cooldown and overall less duration than before. Also, the Time Lock bashes on Chronosphere no longer do double damage. Aghanim's Scepter no longer increases the duration of your ultimate, only decreases cooldown...



OUCH ...right ?




Well, not actually. What has been nerfed are the teamfight aspects of Faceless Void. The Time Walk now has slightly more range in fact. But one of the most interesting aspects of the update was that Time Lock bash damage had a TREMENDOUS buff from 40/50/60/70 to 50/75/100/125. So the nerf was actually a nerf to offlane initiator Void, while buffing his most carry aspect: Time Lock.





Regarding Items






This item is made out from an Ogre Club and an Oblivion Staff. It combines the stats from both, while giving 75% mana regeneration. At first glance, the stats seem complete garbage for a hero like Faceless Void. However, this meta is heavily evolving around the utility of items, as well as the stats they give. When on 6.83 a carry would have gone for a glass cannon build involving Mask of Madness, on 6.87 he would go for a more stats oriented build. The item itself gives the ability to atack twice in quick succesion while slowing attack and move speed by a 100 and 100% respectively. It only works on melee heroes, and once every 5 seconds, free of mana investment. This item may be good on Wraith King, Sven, Slark, Dragon Knight, Slardar, Phantom Assassin and a whole lot of melee carries or bruisers who rely on atacking fast for their benefits, i.e: Mortal Strike, Essence Shift, Bash or Coup de Grace. Faceless Void is no exception to this rule, as you can hope for a double Time Lock, or maybe hope a bash lands on the second quick hit. Despite all this, the slow from the hit serves as a good way of crowd control without having to comit the Chronosphere. Overall good item for a hard hitting hero like Void.








The item costs 300 gold and replaced the recipes for both Desolator and Medallion of Courage. It reduces the enemies armor by 2 for seconds. It does all of this without becoming a Unique Attack Modifier, so it became a niche pick on heroes like Bounty Hunter, Earth Spirit or Vengeful Spirit. Some of the users also like going for an Orb of Venom which results on heavy harrasment from roamers. I think it's better to use the inventory slot for another purpose on Void, but it can serve as a situational pickup if having mostly physical dealers on your lane. It's better to pick it up early, as it cost and utility make up for it. You won't be likely upgrading it, so it comes down to personal preference and situation. You may face heroes with 0 or 1 armor on your lane, which makes up for a perfect kill at level 6 when you already have around 100 base attack damage and Chronosphere + Blight Stone.








Silver Edge's build up has drastically changed. The older one required a Sange on its build up, as well as a 600 gold recipe which resulted on a heavy investment for what it gave. It became a good situational pickup against heroes like Viper, Bristleback, Phantom Assassin or Huskar, where BREAKING their passives as well as reducing their damage output by 40% helped the entire teams and forced them to either commit heavily on detection or buy Black King Bar. The item now requires a Shadow Blade as before but now in addition with an Ultimate Orb, no recipe needed. The resulting Silver Edge gives a whooping 30 damage, 30 attack speed and 15 to every stat. It beats the older one in every aspect, except for its ability to maim which wasn't actually the reason why you would head for a Silver Edge in the first place. Did I mention that now it also costs 4800 gold instead of 5450 ? So yeah, big buff for a lot of heroes like Faceless Void who rely on utiliy. You can use it for a good Chronosphere setup, escaping, disabling passives, lowering the enemies damage output. It's an overall good pickup given the situation.





Ring of Basillius got nerfed a little bit, making Vladmir's Offering another nerfed item for him. Again, this doesn't mean Void got a huge nerf. But now it does make sense to build more attack speed orientated items, and not always depend on positioning for landing a Chronosphere. At 6.85 Faceless Void had no place in the meta, on 6.86 he came back as an offlaner with heavy initiating presence and as of 6.87 the current changes made him a little bit more carry oriented. If going for offlane I heavily recommend a semi-carry build by lategame where you can take advantage from the Time Lock buff.



How to play Faceless Void

There’s no such thing as “how to play X hero”. I just said that you could buy a Scythe of Vyse on a fricking Faceless Void. But there are some things you should focus on.


Early on, your rightclick damage may surpass everyone except for maybe Treant Protector or Tiny. Void hits really hard at the start of the game, so getting a Quelling Blade will make lasthitting a very easy task. Trading hits with other heroes is easy and you can always heal back by using Time Walk. If you are feeling confident with the trades you should skip some points on Time Dilation and add them to Time Lock, otherwise you can build him the standard way. By level 4 you should always have a point on every skill. You can do either one, Time Lock or Time Dilation, but please max Time Walk. The decrease on cd, the utility it brings just doesn’t compare to the other skills. Once you have Time Walk maxed, you can pretty much dive, kite enemies and keep it simple. You just have to be comfortable and trust on your own decisions.



For example: there’s a friendly Tiny on a lane with low life, about to be jumped by an enemy Bloodseeker. You have Chronosphere ready and intend to use it, but Bloodseeker is full HP, and you won’t get the kill by yourself.


Luckily, our friendly Tiny has full mana, and both his Avalanche and Toss combo ready for use. The problem is, both are melee and clumped together since Blood is chasing Tiny. Your best bet here would be to go for a high-risk high-reward Chronosphere. This means that you have to try and get the Bloodseeker into the Chrono, but leaving him on the edge of it, so Tiny can perform his combo from outside while autoatacking him.


Tiny lives, Faceless Void lives, they both get a kill and Bloodseeker is dead. If you would have Chronoed both of them (since it requires no skill placement) maybe Blood wouldn’t have died, neither Tiny, and everyone would have backed. But this way you earned something for trying a little extra.



Void is happy, Tiny is happy, Blood is sad.



Chronosphere should be used everytime the opportunity comes up. Whether it’s during the laning stage or not, the first Chrono really boosts up your income on gold and XP. Don’t be afraid to move and help the lanes. Don’t be afraid to keep farming a little bit more if you went offlane, but be sure to have Chrono ready and a Town Portal Scroll in case someone gets ganked under their tower, cause that’s your job. Focus on trying to bash channeling abilities like Life Drain, Fiend's Grip or Freezing Field, as sometimes your team will have their stuns on cooldown. You can’t go wrong when trying, best case scenario is you end up killing a Crystal Maiden who thought she could ult without a problem. This hero is strong with his ultimate, but that doesn’t mean it can’t help on teamfights without it. Time Dilation is always of great use, even if the teamfight is already under its way. Just keep repositioning with Time Walk trying to bash and focus on landing a good Chronosphere, then your job is done.

Friends


If you ever played Void or even read this guide, then you should know that the best allies Void could have are the ones with AOE damage or disable.



Faceless Void brings the Chronosphere to the table, and some physical damage with it, but your allies pack the punch. All these heroes are good with Void but I’m going to detail some of them.




This guy not only easily lands a good Ice Blast on top of the Chronosphere, but also helps a lot in lane. You already hit hard, and Chilling Touch makes you even more powerful. In case you are feeling lucky, you can always try to bash the enemy on top of a Cold Feet hoping it can land the stun.




This might seem a little bit odd, but there are times where you land the perfect Chronosphere and your team isn’t close to it so they can deal the damage. Stampede helps your team reposition for a good Chrono, or even help you escape from a bad one.




If she ults and you Chrono on top of her, the channeling will stop. Try to land the Chrono next to her, or initiate with it so she can find a good spot and ult. The range on Freezing Field is quite large, so there won’t be a problem. The Frostbite and Arcane Aura are also great on the laning stage if you need some help.




Not quite a good matchup but deserves some comments. If Dark Seer lands a good combo then you have a great setup for a good Chronosphere. Actually, one of the best ones. It’s a shame that he will almost always end up inside of it LOL.




Landing a Weave was never this easy with a team under Chronosphere. The armor reduction on the enemies makes you hit harder. Dazzle is by no doubts a great support. One that doesn’t bring damage into the formula, but helps you with it.




Strange matchup this is again, but you can always go full tryhard and trap her on a Chrono with the enemy team on top of Exorcism. Kinda works sometimes.




Both you and him can initiate. Once one of you does, the other brings the damage in. If you initiate with Chronosphere, he can pull his whole combo off. If he pulls his combo, you can keep them in taking the damage.




The Astral Spirit can walk inside the Chronosphereduh, it's a spirit, and with it he carries the Natural Order aura, making you hit harder on the Chrono. Add Earth Splitter on top of that and you have a big powerful combo.




One of the best matchups for offlane Faceless Void. If he gets a good Call Down and some attacks from Flak Cannon on top of the Chronosphere everyone is pretty much done for.




This is one of the most popular ones. If Invoker went Exort he can Chaos Meteor plus Deafening Blast everyone inside. If he went Quas Wex a good EMP will render everybody useless after the Chrono goes away. Just pray to Gaben he doesn’t use Tornado




Great laning partner if playing safelane Void. His ult isn’t as great since it doesn’t slow, root or stun. Unless there’s a Chronosphere on top he won’t pull off the entire Macropyre duration……. *wink*




I hate this hero but let’s be honest, with Chronosphere it’s almost a guaranteed land for his Ghost Ship.




Same as Death Prophet. It’s not a good matchup, but ulting on top of him with everything on can deal some serious damage.




Should I go on explaining this combos ? It’s pretty much obvious… His Chain Frost can move inside of the Chronosphere.




Thinking about Aghanim's Scepter ? Oh God this is getting ridiculous.




Not that great because of Reverse Polarity since landing a 5 man RP is very difficult. The real synergy starts with Empower. It’s basically a free Battle Fury for your Chronosphere.




Outworld Devourer Suck 'em dry...




and : Be sure to NOT ult on top of their ultimates or else you’ll render them useless for the duration of your Chrono.




Sorry but this had to be mentioned. Guaranteed Mystic Flare ? YES PLEASE.




The perfect setup for the Chronosphere. This guy is almost all about the ultimate much like you, so once he pops the Overgrowth don’t worry to leave him in if it means a 4 or 5 man Chrono.




I want to take a break from the typical combo partners and try to explain some misconceptions about the combos with Chronosphere. It's a common thing to tell your teammates "Pick Enigma or Earthshaker bro, i'm going Faceless Void", but...




and “Wow, 2 big AOE ultimates ? How is that not a combo ?” Well both of them have to be melee range to get of their ults. Plus, Earth Spirit kinda has to be moving around getting stones off, silencing and stunning people. If he ults and you ult on top of that you are just screwing it up. With Earthshaker something similar happens: he needs to be on top of everyone to land his abilities. If you Chronosphere, he can’t blink Echo Slam. If he blinks Echo Slam and you Chrono you pretty much leave him to die there without pulling of the other stuns. It just doesn’t work like everyone would like them to work.




Why the hell would you want to root him and prevent him from moving to where he wants ? Or worse, why would he land an Epicenter on one edge of the Chrono if he can’t reach to the other side where all the enemies are ? It could work but most of the times it doesn’t.




I’m not denying this, sometimes the Ravage sets up for a good Chronosphere but the enemies need to be grouped up by the time Ravage goes off and that’s kinda difficult if the enemy knows there’s a Tidehunter plus Faceless Void combo. Also he’s not all about the ultimate. Once he ults he can Gush people and use Anchor Smash a few times to hit the carry. Just try not to get him inside the Chronosphere once he uses Ravage, and that’s very difficult.




We would all want for everyone to be frozen by Stone Gaze inside the Chronosphere so we can hit for 150% damage. But that’s never going to happen because Medusa needs to ult first and then you have to land the Chrono on top of her which won’t likely happen. Oh, and even if it does: KUDOS TO YOU ! Your whole team magical spells won’t do any damage to the enemies because they are immune to it *clap clap*.




If you are not communicating with her, it won’t work. Trust me, it just won’t…




He has to ult on top of them clumped up to deal full damage. That won’t happen if you freeze him in time for a whole 6 seconds. You can still get the debuff and slow from Requiem of Souls which is nice but you won’t get the full damage.




Ok, this sounds like a joke. How can Enigma not combo with AOE spells ? Yes, he does combo, but you just make it harder for him. If you ult, he can only use Midnight Pulse which is great actually since it is the best outcome. If he ults you need EXTREME PRECISION to land a good Chronosphere and land it on them without ****ing up the combo. It’s similar to the situation with Earthshaker and Earth Spirit. If you manage to do it, great news your enemies are stupid.




Foes

Heroes with silences or prolonged disables really hurt. You will almost always need a Black King Bar to deal with this heroes.



He can setup for some long time stun as well as **** up the Chronosphere with Acid Spray if you don’t catch him.




Nice friend over there ! Oh wait, now he’s an enemy. If you ult he uses Ice Blast on you from afar. He can slowly harass you out of lane (because he doesn’t nuke, he slowly harasses) preventing you from Time Walk to heal back. Screw this guy (only when he’s on the other team LOL)




If there’s a Bane on the other side try not to pick Faceless Void. He makes you hit with a paper towel instead of a mace, hold you in place sucking of your precious mana (it is precious because you don’t have a lot actually) and even if you land a good Chronosphere you have to make sure he is in there or else he’ll put a 7 second duration ball on your eyeless face. If it wasn’t because of his resemblance to Faceless Void due to the fact that both are purple and have no eyes, I would ban him from every match.




Long *** duration stun. Make sure you catch him in Chronosphere or otherwise you are done, BKB or no BKB. Also pretty good laning against Void.




This guy gives armor to his allies. Your only source of damage is physical autoattacks. Good luck with that.




Not exactly a counter but more of a “Come at me bro I don’t give a damn about your ult”.




You know how I told you that escaping nukes is easy with Time Walk ? Well good luck surviving her Eul’s combo…




There was a time where carry Faceless Void was professional meta, and they always banned Mirana. That’s because you don’t know where the **** to place your ult.




Faceless Void is all about using Time Walk all the time even when below half of your HP. Good luck against this guy.




You counter him at daylight. He counters you at night. No vision. 8 sec silence. You’ll never see him coming (you know, cause you don’t have any eyes maybe… LOL)




Le balanced healing nuker alien, buffed by Icefrog to bring you nightmares. One Purifying Flames is enough for you to spend your Time Walk. Even if you do he roots you to the floor with Fortune's End. Disarms you with Fate's Edict. GL HF.




Again, not much of a counter but a “I couldn’t mind less about you bro” hero. You have no way for dealing with illusions without a Battle Fury or a Mjollnir.




No need to explain I think.




He will target you everytime. Be sure to Chrono him before he uses Static Link or else it’s a waste of an ultimate. Try to land good Chronospheres and pray.




and Outworld Devourer Land Chronosphere on top of them or either you are gone from existence for the duration of your ultimate.




You blink or Time Walk in, he silences with fast reflexes, you are left in front of the whole enemy team without escapes or Chronos. Oh what a great hero.




Again, good friend, bad enemy. Long *** silence and renders your ultimate useless if he’s not caught in it.




If you caught the carry on a Chrono and she’s out, she can Nether Swap him. Simple as that. And you don’t want that.


Reacting to enemy items



Sometimes the right items on enemy players can ruin your game. Maybe you picked Faceless Void on a great scenario, but since it's a physical carry his pros can be shut down easily with some items





Dealing with items



This is one of the most common item supports or other core heroes get when facing heavy physical damage enemies. Always check for their inventories before popping Chronosphere, as its active duration will render that time useless for you. You could buy a Diffusal Blade but let's be real, most of the time you won't. Your best bet would be to try and bait by faking a Chronosphere. This is actually pretty hard to do, as you have to get close with Time Walk and cancel the animation of the ultimate. Another thing you can do is get close and start hitting them until they have no other choice but to use their abilities or pop the Ghost Scepter. After it's gone, you can use Chronosphere




Another common item among offlaners and most durable heroes. You won't see this on squishy supports, but rather on more tanky ones. Even some carries may buy it. First of all, the active isn't quite dangerous since you can Time Walk after some hits to get the health back. The thing that makes this so good is its cost efficient armor. If enemies get it early, killing them with a Chronosphere will be hard




Lategame item gotten by most physical damage dealers. If they get to the lategame with good damage items, they will sure get an Assault Cuirass. The best thing you can do is build one yourself, other way it will demolish you lategame capabilities. Currently, it's weird NOT seeing one of this in a game. Building one yourself is even more important due to the fact of it appearing always on enemy teams




and The first one gives cheap armor. The second one gives expensive evasion. This items are mostly going to appear on supports who get a little bit of extra gold or core offlaners. Generally it would be smart to say that a Monkey King Bar should be bought. However, what make this items great is the ability to transfer the armor and evasion to other heroes. If you leave the carrier of this items outside the Chronosphere they will buff their ally, making it harder for you to kill them. Assault Cuirass as well as Monkey King Bar are your best bet here




Another way to disrupt your flow on Chronosphere in a cheap way. Eul's can be used offensively on you to disable Faceless Void or defensively to prevent Time Lock happening. There's not much to do here, a Black King Bar will protect you from the lift, but there's nothing you can do against a defensive Eul's. Just try to pop it by hitting or just go in when already used




Lowers your attack speed and buffs the owner with some armor. Faceless Void hates both things. Remember that Black King Bar negates the debuff to attack speed, but there's still armor on the target. Again, Assault Cuirass is your best bet here. It boosts attack speed and lowers the enemies armor. If you don't need the extra armor reduction and you already hit hard aim for Moon Shard. You can also ask for your teammates to start building a Solar Crest if you see typical Shiva's Guard owners against you like Magnus, Phoenix or Tidehunter


Closing Comments

If you are trying to play Faceless Void the first tip that comes to mind is BE POSITIVE. Raging with this hero is way more stressful than most other heroes. Bad Chronosphere placements make you kinda sad, and that’s not the point. You should be relaxed when playing this hero and enjoying his unique mechanics. Also, you could try other starting items. For example I’ve never bought an Iron Talon on Void but it sure seems like a good idea if you’re not thinking of building a Battle Fury. Same goes for Faerie Fire, but I think the utility it brings is fulfilled by Time Walk


Regarding Chronosphere, I think 6.86d changed the game so this is the new Black Hole. What I mean is that it turns out to be a great skill where the meta shifted to big ultimates but not ones with a long cooldown ( Ravage, Black Hole, Guardian Angel). It benefits most team compositions right now, but this is normally blacked out because of the Void counters. I tend to exaggerate the power of this ultimate but it came down to realizing every time I win with Void it’s because of a really well timed and placed Chrono. Remember to keep your buddies away from it, try to avoid direct counters to him, and adapt to situations: everything can work.


Fail Chronos happen all the time, and players don’t seem to remember that when they play Void they also fail them. Landing a good Chrono requires less skill and luck than landing a good Reverse Polarity or Black Hole, so it won’t get the same appreciation. However, it will turn the tides of battles and assure you victory most of the times.
Thanks everyone for reading, hope you enjoyed it. Be willing to leave comments below and I’ll try to reply them all !

GG WP !

Changelog

January 26th 2016: Published.
January 30th 2016: Made some changes to format and style.
February 10th 2016: "Reacting to enemy items" chapter created.

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