How not to be useless as Spectre (6.88)

Introduction

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This guide will tell you how to play Spectre like a champion. You should pick Spectre because:
1. She is pretty
2. She so cool
3. Fun to play

Spectre is not the hardest hero to play in the world in terms of her skills. They are pretty self-explanatory. However, she is a pretty hard carry to learn and probably not the best carry for those new to the role. Spectre requires
1. Great map awareness
2. Excellent last hitting in lane
3. Not dying (ie avoiding ganks)
4. Manuevering in teamfights like a boss
5. Using Haunt to get multiple kills (ties into map awareness)
and lastly, KNOWING WHEN YOUR STRONG AND YOUR HERO LIMITS (this will come with some time playing the hero.

I got a decent amount of games as Spectre:

How I play Spectre

Spectre got nerfed recently in patch 6.87
1. Her agility growh was reduced from 2.2 to 1.8
2. Haunt cooldown was increased
3. Spectral Dagger doesn't pierce BKB (so you can't chase as effectively versus carries)

The agility nerf has in my opinion made the more "fight oriented" Spectre a lot worse. That Spectre would get items like drums, urn, and diffusal blade over a radiance and just fight non stop.

With the nerfs, getting Radiance on Spectre is just overall more reliable. However, we aren't going to rush it. That's just game losing. We will still get some items that help us fight early on and will instead shoot for a Radiance timing under 25 minutes.

Pros and Cons

Though Spectre is a really good hero, she is not always the best pick. You need to be confident that your team has good enough lanes so that you don't get stomped early game.

Pros Fun to Play Can steal some kills to help her snowball Very good late game Hard to kill once she gets items Is able to play from behind Great at playing from ahead Buy Back into Haunt is very good Nice last hit animation

Cons A pretty greedy hero Can't defend her towers Bad at taking roshan Can't manfight that well Can be kited by spells Not a good laner and needs a babysitting support

Spectre is a hero you should only pick if you deem your team can protect you early game. With my build, you will be getting your Radiance around 20-25 minutes (likely sooner if you get some kills). Spectre should pretty much always be in a trilane or have 1 support strong enough to zone out the offlaner by himself (like a Disruptor).

Well let's get to it!

Early Game (Laning Phase)

Starting Items

Here are some starting item builds depending on the situation:

Expecting to take harass



If you think your in a 2v2 lane, or you think your support player won't be much help, go for this. I've played at "lower levels" when playing with some friends and tbh you do get in the weirdest lanes sometimes and your support will be kind of useless. That said, with 8 tangos and two defensive items, your not going to be harassed out of lane easily. Just focus on last hits, and pick yourself up a quelling blade from the side shop if it will help you (no shame in it, seriously).

Trilane



If you will be protected well, which hopefully is the case, I like to just go for this. Though Stout Sheild helps you tank creeps better for support pulls, I find that just having tangos is good enough. So much better to get a Ring of Protection to upgrade into Ring of Aquila later. I also start with Quelling Blade to help me last hit as well as take jungle camps slightly faster (will talk about next!).

Strategy

Your strategy is to get as many last hits as possible! If your in an annoying lane with harassment, just go in and out and try to get every lane creep. If you happen to push, go ahead and farm the jungle large camp.

If your in a free farm lane, focus on lane creeps early on. You seriously shouldn't be missing last hits. Between waves, try to stack the large camp whilst also pulling it into your creep wave. Either you or a support should do this. Honestly, the support may be busy harassing so you should just pull it, you won't miss any last hits anyways.

Okay, so keep last hitting in lane, and stacking the camp as much as possible. Once you get a Ring of Basilius, just throw Spectral Daggers at the camp if you have full mana. You don't need to kill it even. Eventually, once you are around level 6-8, you can farm the stack with Spectral Dagger. It will take about 2-3 daggers, which is why I kind of continually dagger it while laning.

If you do this properly, you will soar up in last hits early on. To give you goals last hits around 10 minutes should be around 60. BUT if you are free farming you CAN GET ABOUT 80. When I was new to carry role, I thought that this was impossible and would be happy with 50 at 10 minutes! However, with some practice in a lobby and correctly farming the jungle between creep waves, you can get about 60 last hits in lane + 20 from the jungle (that's the pro math) if you have a nice lane. I usually get in the 60s range for last hits but have gotten above 80 before when I'm playing very well and unpressured.

Early Game (When you have Urn and Aquila and Boots)

Once you have Haunt Ready, boots of your choice, Urn of Shadows, and Ring of Aquila, YOU SHOULD STILL BE FARMING. However, do constantly look at the minimap for potential kill stealing opportunities. Also, if your left alone in the lane and no enemies are contesting you, do push the wave and take the large jungle camp in between. You need to apply pressure while your team is trying to make **** happen without you.

Now you don't necessarily want to "kill steal." If a hero is 100% dead without you, it's probably in your interest to just farm and save your Haunt for when your team can use it. It has a massive cooldown early game. Instead, you want to ideally use Haunt to show up to small engagements or WINNING teamfights. If your team takes a LOSING teamfight, don't help them.

Even if you Haunt into a teamfight and don't get any kills, as long as your team wins the fight all is good. You got yourself some urn charges and you can help your team take an objective while your there (TRY TO GET LAST HIT ON TOWER TOO). Other than that, just urn yourself up if you lost some hp and tp back to a lane.

CONSTANTLY be looking for where UNCONTESTED creep waves are. Spectre is **** at farming the jungle and you really don't want to be around any enemies yet. Sometimes your team will push all the creep waves out to far (which may mean you guys are winning anyways). This kind of sucks for you as you will have to farm some jungle camps and wait for the waves to come in safer spots. Use your Spectral Dagger freely, we get Ring of Aquila and Urn of Shadows to also help us farm the jungle anyways so it's not the end of the world. A good carry player NEVER HAS FULL MANA. Spells are used for farming :D

If your getting ganked, just try to Spectral Dagger into the trees and ping like crazy for your team to help you out. If it's desperate, try to escape and confuse the enemy with Haunt.

AFTER ALL IS SAID AND DONE, YOU SHOULD GET YOUR RADIANCE AT LEAST AROUND 20-25 MINUTES. You can get it earlier though if you don't die and get some kills.

Mid Game (ie you got your Radiance)

Once you got Radiance, your actually pretty scary since you also got the stats from other items to back you up.

Still keep farming like mad and try to be by yourself a lot to get some sweet solo XP. However, Haunt into EVERY TEAMFIGHT now, not just "winning" ones. You can probably get a triple kill or more for you first Haunt with Radiance. In fact, you kind of want to take a teamfight as soon as possible once you get your Radiance and have Haunt up as the enemy heroes simply don't have the resources to deal with it. You output absurbs amounts of magical damage very early in the game.

With Radiance up, you should be able to farm another item very quickly. I usually get myself a Manta Style or Diffusal Blade. Manta Style increases your farm even more, makes you manfight pretty well, and makes you very tankier. It's usually my choice. Diffusal Blade is better for overall "ganking" and if you team lacks lockdown may be smarter. Diffusal Blade should always be picked up against Wraith King or Medusa followed by a Manta Style.

Now we look towards late game.

Closing the game out

So you got yourself 2 big items, ( Radiance and Manta Style/ Diffusal Blade). Next up should be a Heart of Tarrasque, Eye of Skadi, or Butterfly. Black King Bar is sometimes needed against a good Invoker player. I usually go for an Eye of Skadi first, then get others maybe later.

I sell my Ring of Aquila and keep my Urn of Shadows. Make sure your supports are putting aggressive wards down. Once you have "5 items," try to get yourself a roshan and look to break high ground. Spectre sucks at taking roshan but hopefully you have other heroes that can help you.

Your inventory may look something like this:


If you don't quite win the game, just get a 6th item. Probably want some damage or a Refreshor Orb but it depends. Then it should hoenstly be "gg" as your a Spectre and your ****ing 6 slotted. Just make sure to have buy back and Haunt ready if you are concerned. YOU CAN EVEN HAVE LIKE 3 lives with aegis and buy back Haunt.

If you dont' neccessarily close the game out right after your 6 slotted or got an aegis, it's fine. You 're arguably the best late game hero anyways. If the game goes super late, you will be looking at having about 8 items! A Refresher Orb in the stash and a consumed Moon Shard. Maybe even a Black King Bar in the stash to use for team fights. You do you. Overall, if you get to late game, you have a high chance of winning since Spectre wants the game to go late.

Well one of the most important thing late game is as a carry is buying the right items honestly. You just need to click things at minimum. So lets talk about items!

Items for Spectre

Spectre can pretty much buy anything like most carries. However, getting her 2-3 tanky items is a must in my opinion since she relies on staying alive to deal damage and her agility growth isn't as good as before. So we want to itemize to her main strength for late game, Desolate.

Early Game Core

Boots of Choice?
or

Either is fine! I used to get Phase Boots always on Spectre because it just made ganking easier. However, Phase Boots have just been slightly overly nerfed and Spectre isn't as good at the "fighting" style as before. Hence, I've recently just been getting Power Treads since they help you farm the jungle better, give you some agility as well as strength (stats you want), and they are just in general a better "carry" choice in boots due to increased attack speed synergizing better with damage. Overall, boot choice shouldn't matter too much. You do you.



I tend to get this item before Urn of Shadows since early on you will not be looking for kills (but if the offlaner feeds you that's fantastic). This item is very good on every agility carry as it allows you to farm with your spells more freely as well as give you good fighting potential.



Once you get your Urn of Shadows, look to help your team out in fights with your Haunt. If the fight seems TOTALLY LOST, just stick to farming. Do note that this item also gives amazing mana regeneration, so you SHOULD NEVER HAVE TO GO BACK TO BASE unless you have no hp and your out of urn charges.

I do freely urn myself up if I need it, not just save them for getting kills. That's because you want to always be farming. Seriously, try not to ever go back to fountain unless you absolutely have to.



Once you get your Radiance, you do become a very frightening hero. In fact, try to get your team to take a teamfight as soon as possible so you get more value out of the early Radiance. The enemy will not have the answer to Radiance and Haunt as well as just your overall tankiness this early in the game.

Otherwise, farming should still be your number 1 priority. In fact, with Radiance you should be farming very fast. Just come to teamfights if your nearby or have Haunt up.

Options After Radiance
We will 100% buy one of these items after Radiance unless the game is a complete train wreck!

We can totally have all these items in our inventory eventually. By "choose 1" I just mean these 3 items are your choices for your next item!



Very solid item that you will farm super fast after Radiance. I always get Diffusal Blade if I'm against a Wraith King or Medusa. Other times to get Diffusal Blade is when you feel getting pickoffs (more of a gank oriented style) or you just value more agility over bulk.



Manta Style in my opinion is the BEST option in most games. Spectre is a hero that does damage by staying alive, so having the strength and defensive utility of a Manta Style fits the hero better than having the damage of a Diffusal Blade in most cases.

However, the main reason I tend to get Manta Style immediately is because it helps you farm even faster. Even though you have a Radiance, Spectre is by no means going to farm more effectively than a lot of carries to be honest. So having some Radiance illusions can help you keep up with that Sven, Slark, Naga Siren, Alchemist, Anti-Mage, and so on a little better. Your strategy after all is to keep up just enough to force the game to go later.

If you got Diffusal Blade first, consider picking up Manta Style afterwards or eventually. Mana burn plus illusions is frightening.



Heart of Tarrasque is the choice if you feel you need to tank up even more early on. That said, I would still generally advise you to just get the Manta Style, then quickly farm up a heart if you still want it.

Luxury Items



Eye of Skadi is just a solid carry item. You can pretty much get it whenever after you have an item from the previous section. Overall, Eye of Skadi is the best tank item in the game in terms of raw versatility. Also do note that you can have both Diffusal Blade and Eye of Skadi in your inventory.

Me personally? I usually go for this or a heart after my Manta Style or Diffusal Blade. As long as your farming decently, Spectre doesn't really need damage when you have Radiance. You kill enemies easy enough. Therefore, it's smart to invest in an expensive stat based item to make your illusions hurt more and make you not die.

Sometimes, a Heart of Tarrasque will be more desired before skadi if you want that sick hp regen. Though, often times we will be having both of these items in our endgame inventory!



Butterfly is a good pick up on any agility carry. Get this to counter physical damage, take objectives faster, and make your illusions hit harder.

If you REALLY need this item's "evade" affect, build the Talisman of Evasion first. 25% evasion in the late game is great! If your winning the game, or just want a butterfly mainly for stats (which is often the case), build the Eaglesong first.



If your up against a lot of evasion and your magic damage from Radiance is just not cutting it anymore, you gotta get a Monkey King Bar. Luckily, you can usually get some tanky items more suited for Spectre before the enemy farms up a Butterfly. If facing against Phantom Assassin, you may want to get this item sooner if you find that your man fighting her a lot. That said, your magic damage is usually enough to deal with her early on. Overall, having one damage item as Spectre is fine as it will make your main hero better at manfighting the enemy carries.



Usually you will be getting Monkey King Bar as your damage item and don't really need a Daedalus unless you trolling. That said, if the enemy has no evasion and you need a 6th item, getting a Daedalus is really good even if "uncommon." Illusions do get the critical strike!



The new Abyssal Blade is probably more of a buff to Spectre as you would rather the tankiness over the damage. Get this item against Antimage or maybe a Morphling or Storm Spirit. Probably other annoying heroes you can consider Abyssal Blade for.



Refresher Orb is one of my favorite Spectre items. Two Haunt casts is just devestating no matter how late game it is. You will pretty much instantly kill supports by pressing "r" and you can kill the other enemies by reality rifting in on the second cast.

Refresher Orb should always be your 7th item. However, you can even get it as a 6th item or a 5th item if your way ahead and just want to get a rampage.

Upgraded Boots of Travel
Why not.



Spectre is not the "scariest" Divine Rapier carrier in the world so you usually wont' NEED this to "beat" the enemy carry. It's usually the other way around. However, Divine Rapier can be picked up from the secret shop if you need to end the game real fast (ie your up against mega creeps or something), some enemies are dead and have no buy back and you want to punish that, or you just want it in your inventory for swag.

This item will really just be bought to take your enemy rax very quickly though.



I get Refresher Orb 7th, then consume a Moon Shard as my 8th item.

Situational Items



If you think your team could use an AC and no one else is going to buy it, consider this over a Eye of Skadi. This item is just sometimes a must have for any team.



Honestly would never buy a Desolator if I'm playing to win. But this item is pretty good on Spectre and is fun to try out!



If your having a ****ty game, go for Drum of Endruance and a Diffusal Blade and skip Radiance. You minus well get items that help you fight and rely on comeback gold.



Get this item is Doom or Batrider are on your *** constantly. Aghanim Doombringer is the main hero you will be considering this item against. This is a solid pick up after Manta Style or even as a casual 5th or 6th item.



This item can be considered if you behind and you HAVE TOO farm the jungle. Maybe a Storm Spirit or Templar Assassin just kills you whenever you show yourself. We are talking that behind!

That said, Mask of Madness is also not the worse item for a ganking oriented Spectre. Though you will mainly just buy it if you HAVE TO JUNGLE CONSTANTLY.



Satanic should always be a consideration for a carry if they think they must manfight. That said, Spectre doesn't really have the damage that makes her WANT THIS so only buy it if you need it to stay alive in fights. This honestly shouldn't be the case if you have other tank items in your inventory and you play the fights correctly. Spectre should not be "manfighting" like a Sven anyways.



Feel free to get Sange and Yasha over Manta Style if your against a hero like Earthshaker or if you just like it better. Sange and Yasha has been buffed a ton and it's a very good item right now. Manta Style just fits Spectre playstyle better overall.



If lockdown is getting in your way to actually hitting enemies, you will need this item. You can get a Black King Bar anytime after your 2nd item. I've only ever built a Black King Bar against Invoker personally. Most other stuff is easy enough to play via kiting.



I use to go Hand of Midas Spectre a while ago. This playstyle means you plan to fight even less than before early game. In fact, maybe consider skipping Urn of Shadows and go directly for a Radiance.

That said, Hand of Midas is usually too greedy and Spectre IS A GOOD EARLY SKIRMISHER so we should utilize that. I would only get Hand of Midas if I'm playing with a group of friends who I trust will protect me better and I just want to try something different for fun.



I prefer the new Abyssal Blade on Spectre so I don't get this item anymore. You can try both out!

Rejected Items (I've seen/done all of these)



Get this for the LOLs.



This is actually quite a common pick up on Spectre and I don't agree with it at all. Spectre is a lategame carry that should be filling her inventory with expensive carry items, not items that another teammate should be buying. Not to mention this item is just underwhelming on the hero for its cost. Honestly, Spectre with just an Urn of Shadows is scarier and that item is dirt cheap!



I play with a friend new to dota 2 who went orchid on Spectre. Needless to say, I didn't give him clear instructions on what to buy :P



Silver Edge is a great item in many cases! However, on a late game carry it just ends up being a waste of an item spot. Item spots as a carry are very valuable and you want to fill them with the most expensive and effective things you can buy for your hero. What I'm saying is that Spectre will never WANT a Silver Edge over something else.



I tried this item out a little bit since It's common on other Radiance carriers. Needless to say, it's just kind of bad. You should buy better healing items like a Heart of Tarr***que over this.

I guess the reduced cool down is nice for more Haunt usage BUUUUUT you minus well buy yourself a Refresher Orb and do two haunts.

I'm getting absolutely destroyed what do I do?

Sometimes you just get ganked nonstop by a snowballing enemy. If this happens, you might just have to skip the Radiance. Though if you think you can poverty out a Radiance eventually and that it will help a ton, go for it. A "late" Radiance can still be good.

That said, I tend to get a Drum of Endurance and a Diffusal Blade. Those items have a nice build up as well as make you fight better and hopefully get some kills. With comeback gold mechanics, you can quickly get back into the game. Spectre is a fantastic abuser of comeback gold!

Another item to consider is a Blademail since that's also cheap and effective in fighting. Lastly, maybe some lifesteal from something like a Mask of Madness will allow you to hide in the enemy jungle and farm up some.

Ultimately, with the build I gave in this guide, you do have a lot of control on the early state of the game with your fighting items in urn and aquila. So this situation should only be happening if your playing bad or you feeding mid is trolling (or smurfing :P). Thus, in majority of your games you should be able to pump out a Radiance even when getting stomped.

Friends and Foes of Spectre

Actually totally forgot to talk about heroes to watch out for before picking Spectre so I will edit this guide quickly. Though to be honest, the main thing your watching out for is how "fast pace" the enemy draft is as a whole. You can pick Spectre into "counters" as long as the enemy draft as a whole doesn't play the game too fast and your team can't keep up with such a greedy carry hero.

That said, Spectre hates heroes that play the game fast. Hence her biggest counters in my opinion tend to be snowbally mids or agressive supports...

Foes

This guy can snowball pretty easily and is an excellent ganker. But what makes Invoker really good against Spectre is his annoying aoe control. He has many defensive oriented spells that makes chasing hard even with Spectral Dagger.

Against a talented Invoker player, your probably going to have to get a Black King Bar just so you can hit people! Also, if he is a QW ganking style Invoker, try to know where he is at all times early game. He will be hunting you down a lot.



These three heroes all apply a lot of pressure relatively early on. And they play the game very "fast" (as in like taking objectives early and taking early fights). However, what makes these three heroes the most terrifying snowballers is that they all have decent escape and great chasing power. They are likely to find you hiding in the trees!

Just make sure that your team has a mid hero that has a good matchup versus any of these. Also ask your supports for wards in your lane (I like to have a ward where I can see a hero that tp's in).



Any support that has disables will be annoying. I will give a special mention to these two since:

Lion can render 2 illusions useless with his abilities. He is also a very aggressive support. Keep an eye out on when Lion gets a Blink Dagger.

Witch Doctor has an annoying stun. That's about it. It will bounce between your Manta Style illusions and what not.



If your a support against a Spectre, do get these items! They both make it hard for the Spectre player to chase kills that he should theoretically get easily.



This item allows snowbally heroes to catch Spectre out of position but so does Shadow Blade. Furthermore, it breaks your Desolate ability so a smart player may be able to disable that in teamfights. However, this relies on the Spectre player being "bad."

Here's what you do
1. Slark or some Silver Edge carrier goes on you
2. You use Haunt and Manta Style so it doesn't even matter

Overall, Manta Style is a good counter to Silver Edge. Oh Diffusal Blade can also remove Silver Edge break. Just remember that you CAN DISPEL SILVER EDGE.

Friends

With Spectre, you want heroes that make a lot of space for you, initiate good fights early on (so you can haunt in and kill), and make your lane as easy as possible. There are a waaaaaay more heroes that work fantastic with Spectre than I can bother (or think of) listing. Just make sure your team has decent early fighting potential and a good lane for you and Spectre could be a good pick for the carry slot.

Oh, also Spectre works well in a "global strat" but don't focus too much on that. Spectre is not a one trick pony.



This critter can get a lot of good initations for you to Haunt in on. Not to mention a good Nyx Assassin player can create a lot of space for their carries.



Spectre plus Zeus is very annoying! That said, Zeus and Spectre are both easily ganked and both require a lot of farm so this strategy is by no means an auto win. It's honestly a very greedy strategy so only do this if you're sure you can get away with it.



Meh any support that can dominate the offlaner is fine. Special mention to Ancient Appirition as his Ice Blast adds even more "global damage" to your line up.



The snowbally mids that are pretty good against you are also some of your best teammates! These heroes can just make a lot of space early game as well as take WINNING fights often that you can Haunt in on early.



Any offlane hero that initiates well and often is good as they will take WINNING fights early on. Dark Seer can also create a lot of space as he will pressure the opponents safe lane more than a typical offlaner.

I really really really like Centaur Warrunner and Slardar since they can initiate often and apply a lot of pressure early. Furthermore, they both help your team chase better so 1 kill leads to 2 which leads to 3 and so on :D

Conclusion

Well hope you all will dominate as Spectre in your upcoming games!

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