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Stout Shield
Slippers of Agility
Tango
Poor Man's Shield
Power Treads
Yasha
Sange and Yasha
Talisman of Evasion
Butterfly
Aegis of the Immortal
Vladmir's Offering
Diffusal Blade
Gem of True Sight
Sentry Ward
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3 | 12 | 13 | 14 |  |
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2 | 8 | 9 | 10 |  |
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1 | 4 | 5 | 7 |  |
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6 | 11 | 16 |  |
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15 | 17 | 18 |
Riki - Silent But Deadly
Hi my name is Jo I have been playing DOTA 2 for a few months and Riki is my favourite hero. This is my favourite build to use while playing him. First off I would just like to note that this is not the only build for him and there are pro and cons for different builds which is what makes DOTA hero builds so fun and interesting. In my guide I will try explain why I chose certain items over others (which maybe more commonly seen)
I feel one of the main benefits of this build is that it's quite forgiving in terms of having to afford items. I would say its quite beginner friendly as all items are passive bonus. For the first 10mins of the game the most costly item is 500g allowing less chance of gold lose if a mistake happens and you die.
In my opinion Riki is best played in the middle lane at the start of the game. It allows him faster experience getting him to lvl6 for his greatest strength Permanent Invisibility.
Riki is great at farming and if the enemy leave you to farm this build is a walk in the park. If you are VS with intelligent enemies they will be trying hard to disrupt your farm. He is fragile as he has low Heath and so makes him a easy target for harassment. For this reason I put Stout Shield into starting items it will help keep you in lane longer so you can farm better. Slippers of Agility help add a little damage and armour and will be built into Poor Man's Shield early game. The Tango's are to keep you in lane and heal harassment damage.
By level 3 you should have at least 1point in Blink Strike. This is a great way to collect those last hits especially against those annoying ranged heroes so don't be too afraid to use the mana early game. If you are playing middle lane you might be lucky enough to grab regen rune and allow you to continue getting those cheeky Blink Strike last hits.
Build Poor Man's Shield followed by 
Boots of Speed which will then be upgraded into power treads using 
Gloves of Haste and Boots of Elvenskin. These are really the best boots to go. It will give flexibility for Riki based on certain situations. Strength can be used if harassment is heavy as the extra Heath and regen can help keep you farming longer (if you find yourself being ganked I have found the extra Health from strength can save your life at times will making an escape), alternatively set to Inteligents if you need a little extra mana for a gank or quick getaway with Blink Strike if accidentally left out of mana but usually it's best left on Agility give extra damage from my favorite skill of Riki's Backstab.
A passive multiplier which allows Riki's damage to scale well with agility items. I usually try to max this skill first now I know this might not be to every-ones taste but I find people try to max Blink Strike first for the damage but you can get the same damage from two or three auto attacks if behind which are free from mana. Riki's roll is a carry and should keep farming for items, Backstab make last hitting so much easier and faster. I think some people try playing Riki as Ganker and will level Blink Strike for early gank damage. In my opinion taking Riki out of lane to gank disrupts his farm and also adds more chance to mess up thus slow him more. OK you might get a good early game which speeds your carry but also you might not, slowing you carrying and possibly losing the game. Don't leave it to chance let you teams gankers do their job :) IF your team needs help at a tower its great to have a 
Town Portal Scroll at hand so you can go help, hell you might even make a kill or two. If this is the case try not to let it disrupt your farm too much try get back in lane, it can easily mislead you into going around attempting to gank (always keep an Town Portal Scroll in your inventory, its better to be at a tower defence and potentialy make gold that to get that next item and fail a defence and give the team gold)
Early game I actually prefer to use Blink Strike as a defensive skill (as of current patch) it can be used to teleport to friendly unit (creep and friendly hero). If you find yourself getting ganked or being countered against your Permanent Invisibility you can use it to get to safety if friendly units are presant. Another thing to note is that it allows passing certain terrain, this can be useful if you find yourself in a non-favourable situation and have neutral creeps to blink towards, sometimes you can pass through trees ect to break line of sight aiding your get away. In almost all cases if my cover is blown as Riki I get the hell away and fast...
Thus leading to my next item. Love it or hate it my early game weapon of choice is Yasha. My reasoning for this is that it adds agility to aid a which by now would be a lvl3-4 Backstab but it's movement buff bonus along with Power Treads just tip it over quite a balanced decision for what most people play as core on Riki the Diffusal Blade (I would recommend this item VS a heavy caster line up). For me I find that by the time you have Yasha you are ready to hunt and that's what Riki does best. This is why I find the speed from Yasha so useful you really can chase down most players at this early stage. I see new players of Riki use his Blink Strike too early and at times the enemy get away while its on the cooldown. Yasha allows you to keep them in sight for another try if you miss timed the Blink Strike making this build forgiving for newer players. A good player will try block line of sight to aid their getaway but with Yasha it just allows that little extra speed to maybe get around a corner in the the woods for example to see them before they again disappear out of sight, giving you the opportunity to land that killing blow with a Blink Strike.
It's also extremely helpful as a getaway if your cover is blown or you get into a sticky situation. The extra speed might just mean you get to the tree and turn the corner to block their line of sight on you or you get into range of a friendly unit to Blink Strike to safety.
Ok you may not hit AS hard as using Diffusal Blade but a) you get extra survivability with movement speed and b) it's 1000g+ cheaper allowing you to get a hard hit even earlier in the game.
A natural progression from Yasha is to upgrade it into Sange and Yasha, kind of expensive but the strength side of the set helps increase Riki's Health which is minor along with the damage. The most interesting passive bonus is Greater Maim which has a % to slow movement and attack speed of enemy. At first I thought this wasn't so great but have learnt to enjoy its effect and ill give you an example. When you use Riki's Smoke Screen on a target enemy casters will be forces to leave the Smoke to remove silence de-buff. This usually doesn't take long and the cloud is left useless for another 4seconds, but the debuff Sange and Yasha places on them keeps them inside longer. Another nice use of Greater Main is to slow a fleeing target if Smoke Screen is on cooldown, if you cant reach them use Blink Strike to close the gap and let the debuff work its magic. A point to note about Smoke Screen is that its miss chance also stacks with the Talisman of Evasion which I usually purchase after finish Sange and Yasha. Keep inside the smoke and the team's carry with the hard auto attacks will find it very hard to hit you.
Before you engage an enemy be sure its ok, check around incase you get counter-ganked, watch out for Sentry Ward placed in positions you are likely to be. It may be worth getting a Gem of True Sight yourself if you had a nice early game start or ask your support to counter-ward, it might be costly but it will save your life. Remember if your team are wanting to assault you are in a great position to offer them sight around a fog of war area. Play for the team and try not to be selfish.
A useful tip when using Smoke Screen as an initiation is that it will break your Permanent Invisibility so to make use of this I always start an attack with an auto attack which will break Permanent Invisibility anyway but you can super-quickly followed up by Smoke Screen followed by auto attack will have panic them. I usually level this skill when needed more in a team fight heavy game as I find it more useful to team fights or counter-ganks at mid-game stage. If you are on the run drop a Smoke Screen in the path of any pursuer to slow/silence them. Remember Riki's skills are not just offensive they are just as good being used in a defensive way.
When it gets to Mid-Late game Riki's job becomes difficult at times when they are many of the team. When I play Riki in a team fight my main role is basically to disrupt them, Smoke Screen their carry and go after the support / weaker casters being weary. A nice combo to sometimes to use is wait till either start to fight, then move into the fight being careful of AoE stun's and Smoke Screen, followed by a Blink Strike away to safety at one of you back casters. This will interrupt them and may give you the upper hand. A good team will be well spread though making it difficult for Smoke Screen to be effective. Wait your time don't rush with Riki one wrong move and his HP is so low you will be killed so fast. It is pointless to Smoke Screen too late into the fight when most casts will be on cooldown anyway timing is key and will take practice. Once your team had dealt enough damage in the fight you can then start doing what you do best and go after them :) Sange & Yasha will help you along with Blink Strike.
Riki's carry item is Butterfly which is a fantastic item for him. The agility, evasion and attack speed all complement his play style.
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