Riki The Carry by <VllX>

Introduction

I've just published this guide so there may be some mistakes, inconsistency, errors, etc, please tell me if there are.
This is a detailed guide on how to actually carry the game to success using Riki. Some choices of building this hero may be objectionable, however it's not a 'strictly-follow' kind of build.

Riki is one of the 'special' heroes due to his infamous Permanent Invisibility. His whole skillset and playstyle are revolving around it. He's considered as one of the 'easy' heroes, which is wrong. It is quite easy to play him in a game where your teammates are better than your enemies, but very difficult to be the player who actually makes the difference.
This guide will help you understand how to play Riki well and not be solely dependent on the players you're matched up with.

Picking Riki

There is a strict set of DONT's when picking Riki.

• You never pick Riki first. Your enemies will pick a hero that counters your invisibility. Pick him last or at least one of last heroes picked.
  
  
• Don't pick Riki if the enemy has already picked Bounty Hunter or Slardar. Even though it IS possible to have a successful game against them, it's best to pick another hero.
  
  
• If your team already has a hero that goes invisible consider picking another hero. If there is more than one hero relying on invisibility (For example Sniper who is most likely to get a Shadow Blade) I strongly discourage you from picking Riki.
  
  
• If the enemy team has three or more strength-based tanky heroes, consider picking another hero.
  
  
• If your team has three or more squishy heroes, consider picking another hero.
  
  
• If the enemy has a lot of heroes with huge pure damage spells consider picking another hero.

Items

There are two builds in this guide, The Carry and The Hard Carry.
The Carry is made for good players who already know how to play Riki, who are in an 'all-right team', (you can always hope you are when matched randomly) it requires a lot of survivability-based use of your invisibility, as well as map awareness and basic hero knowledge.
The Hard Carry is rather made for learning players who don't know how to play Riki well, but it requires a lot of farming. (which is fairly easy because of the Backstab anyway)

It does not mean good players pick first build and noobs pick the second, no. These are two valid strategies that work differently depending on how the game is going for you.


Riki is a as much skill-based hero as he is an item-dependent hero. His whole tactic revolves around hunting down lone enemies, making them run and finishing them off using his superior speed. Every item Riki gets is made to make him strong enough to make his enemies run and, help him finish the enemy before they get to safety. Riki is a hero made weaker than most heroes to compensate for his notorious invisibility, so getting better items is required to make him equal to his enemies and eventually stronger.


The starting items are 3 Iron Branches, (not slippers, you will end up selling either anyway but branches give you more stats) a Stout Shield to help you handling harassings, and a Tango or Healing Salve. A shield will do you good both in mid when playing against range harassers, and in lanes as you a squishy melee hero.
Obviously firstly you need to get boots. I would not recommend upgrading them just yet if you are playing aggressively and investing in a Vanguard instead to get a sick 40 damage block with extra hp and hp regen. The reason behind it is that you are made not to outlive your enemies but rather to take less damage when harassing or harassed. However skipping Vanguard for Poor Man's Shield and rushing the next item is a reasonable option.


In Middle game if you are feeling like you're doing good, [color=#ff0000]Mask of Madness[/color] is the way to go. Fast gold, movement speed burst, chasing down squishy loners or destroying the enemy's health who is attacking someone else should be pretty easy. Riki's health is often critical after a fight so going back to base or having countless healing salves isn't really an option. A safer choice to the Madness is Vladimir's Offering of course, or delaying either till you get a Sange or Yasha. Decide based on your current situation.
Yasha makes you more dangerous and significantly faster, Sange let's you take more damage including damage from spells (more hp = more magic attacks that you can take, more armor from agility = same amount of magical damage you take) and also will slow the enemy after a couple of attacks (25% chance). You can get yourself a Bottle, but maybe only for mana.
Complete your [color=#800080]Sange and Yasha[/color], upgrade your boots to Power Treads and put them on strength or even agility. If you have some extra gold you could go for Diffusal Blade.

It is only included in one of my builds, because its 'great potential' is overrated. It gives you a huge help to get a kill yeah, but thing is, by the time you can get it either your enemy will turn around and kill you after the smoke ends or you'll get a kill that you would get regardless of whether you had the blade or not. People tend to go in groups by midgame which renders it's active effect almost useless.
So very often its effects only seem to help your game. But there is no denying that this item can do wonders on Riki, in specific contexts. A fed Huskar or Invoker can be illuminated within seconds. So my advice is: think if you ACTUALLY need it before getting it. I didn't include it in the carry guide because you can get kills using a smoke with a Mask of Madness.

Assault Cir*** is great on Riki, so is Monkey King Bar but there are other options, like Butterfly or Skull Basher and so on. If you didn't pick up any Unique Attack Modifier and have heaps gold go for the Eye of Skadi, that can be quite cruel to everyone who doesnt have a good escape mechanism. And on those who do too.

Skills

Your first skill to level up should be the Blink Strike. It is unlikely you'll get a lot of opportunity standing behind the creeps (for backstab) or to use Smoke Screen before you reach the second level but it does give you some extra room for last hitting or escaping if the need presents. Riki won't jump an enemy if they die after you clicked at them but before you began the animation, which makes it a safer bet to jump the creeps who have almost no health because this way you'll either get the gold or the jump will cancel and you'll keep your mana for the next strike.

Blink Strike has a small damage bonus attached to it, increasing by 30 every level, it teleports you behind the target and has a 5s cooldown decrease for every level up, starting at 20s at level one. It also makes you invulnerable to attacks during the animation. This makes it quite a multi-functional ability through out the game.
It helps you chase down your enemy, end low hp enemy, (120 extra damage matters here) get behind a busy target in team fights (much quicker and easier if you're coming from the side the enemy is facing). It's also good during a face to face fight where both you and the enemy have too little health to survive another hit: it gives you extra damage + backstab, plus it will take a moment for the enemy to turn around, it will cancel the animation of attack if it was started before you began yours, better yet it will give you another extra second if they were about to finish you with a spell. This is normally the first skill you max out because it has 5 seconds cooldown at level 4.
NOTE: It doesn't have to be the enemy you're jumping to, it can be pretty much any unit, so when escaping or stuck in trees or elsewhere, just blink to a creep. That will not damage them but will most likely save you.

Backstab gives you damage based on your agility when your enemy is turned back to you which makes you perfect for chasing down an enemy. It works great with your invisibility since most players are likely to run back instead of attacking you: it's hard to think what is the best course of action when the attack is sudden, it's easier to click away first, so if they run it gives those extra backstab hits to win in a combat or to force the enemy to continue running.
It is also a great farming tool since creeps don't turn around too often. If you have to be a hard carry then take advantage of this as much as you can.

Smoke Screen slows any enemy in it, makes them miss attacks and silences them. It's literally impossible to fight in smoke. You can use it to help your teammate escaping the enemies, this little slow might be exactly what they need to get away. Be careful though if the attackers have Dust by revealing yourself for a second you might end up giving them two kills instead of one. (This means they will kill you)

You can use it in team fights and especially on wizards, you can use it to gank a heroes as a team or save your team member from being killed in a combat, or to scare enemies off your tower. And finally you can use it to kill a lone enemy.
A lot of people use it as a simple combination Blink Strike + Smoke Screen. The problem with that is that the enemy will take a few hits while leaving the smoke and then remind you that you're not the only hero who has abilities. It's best to attack the enemy from behind while they flee, and when they turn around you use your smoke to avoid attacks and then you blink them while they are trying to get away.
Usually one point in smoke screen is enough until level ~10.

Obviously, the Ultimate (Permanent Invisibility) is leveled whenever possible. The fade time can be quite critical for survival. If you have not played Riki before, note that often upon resurrection at the fountain you don't have invisibility until you use ability or an item. If you aren't 'see through' just use your smoke screen at the fountain before leaving (to restore the mana spent) or just use a Town Portal.

How to play Riki

Riki highly relies on his invisibility to succeed and so should you. Dealing with Sentry Wards, Dust of Appearance and Gem of True Sight is described in the chapter bellow, so this chapter will ignore it.
Before level 6 your main goal is to reach level 6. If that includes getting a kill mid lane or finishing off en enemy on a side lane you can go for it, but don't risk too much. Like I said, Riki highly relies on invisibility.
By the way, Riki is a fine mid hero. But it requires quite a bit of knowledge of his skills and the skills to use them well. Try avoiding mid if you don't know how to play him well. If you decided to go side lanes, pick the one that has creeps closer to your tower, you don't want being near enemies' tower with its true sight.

If you have troubles farming, don't risk it. Getting 150 extra gold for 2 minutes won't make you a better hero, being invisible in the right place and time will. If you have no problem farming use it to your advantage. Upgrade your backstab, don't let the enemy near the creeps but try keeping far from the forest where the jungling or roaming enemy might try to gank you from, until you reach level 6.


Once you do reach level 6 it gets easier. Escaping, ganking and attacking has that edge you were missing. The element of surprise. Try not to reveal yourself too often: it's best if enemy doesn't know which lane you are on. Scout around to see if someone is jungling or roaming around, be prepared to encounter wards now, roam mid or to the side for a gank. It is really important to get a good start because if heroes fear you, killing is a breeze. Don't stay in one lane for too long, they will get wards all around eventually so jokes will be on you.
Don't go laning alone for too long, just relying on your invisibility, your enemies know you're Riki so someone will bring along a revealing item for a gank, if they do decide to gank. But you're practically forcing them to gank you by pushing their lanes.

Your chasing techniques rely on your superior speed, so rushing Yasha or Sange is almost essential. Unless you chose a target who is significantly stronger than you or has an escape mechanism it's all about if can you kill them before they reach safety or not.


During the middle game you're better off sticking with your team or making them stick together. However if enemies (for some reason) decide to 'divide and rule' the lanes you should hunt down the loners. Actually, whenever there is a loner strongly consider collecting your gold from their kill.
But when sticking with your team make sure you place your smoke right and don't jump too heistly, for the obvious reasons. Attack the weaker heroes and don't forget to flee when focused on.

Overcoming revealing items

Heroes aren't likely to get items for you straight after you reach level 6. Everyone is usually too focused on how awesome they are, but of course once you start getting WICKED SICK they are not just gonna let you slip. This is why it is important to get a lot of gold before they decide to get wards, dust and a gem for you.
This way even when they can see you they still can't kill you. Have enough health and/or armor to outrun enemies when dusted or escape the area of a ward. Or kill a hero that has the gem. Keep in mind there is a cooldown of restocking the gem of 7 minutes.

Of course, not everyone can do that and not always it is possible, so here are some advices on how to deal with these items:

Sentry Wards. They don't have a lot of sight range, so they are almost useless when there are no creeps or heroes (or Observer Wards) around. They provide the true sight in area of 1600 around them (blocked by obstacles as for any other unit), but they do not provide the actual sight.
Dust of Appearance WILL NOT reveal them. They can only be revealed by another Sentury Ward or a gem. If you want to know if you're the area of a ward, just see how creeps act when there is no one to attack but you. Or randomly place a Sentury Ward where you suspect the enemies ward to be. Once you know where the ward is, you can counter-ward to destroy it, or leave it there, use the fact you know when the enemies can see you and when they can't.
When attacked within the area of the ward, escape the area as swiftly as possible. Don't be afraid to break the invisibility by blinking to the furthest unit you can get to. NOTE: Don't forget they are likely to move towards you which is not too good.


Dust of Appearance is an item that is encountered not as often as wards are, but is far more dangerous. They won't use it unless they see you or have a good reason to suspect where you are, so don't reveal your location unless you're relatively safe. When you are dusted: flee. You rely on your invisibility and you will be focused on.
NOTE: the same concepts apply to silencing and Bounty Hunter's Track.


Gem of True Sight (the eye). If you're lucky you will be strong enough to kill the enemy even with their eye or have a team organized well enough to kill that hero in a team fight/gank.
Usually, however the hardest enemy to kill will have the eye and they will stick with their team or trick you into believing they are alone. Once you know someone has an eye - take it away from them. Once the eye has been stolen you have a choice of keeping it or destroying it. If you are confident in your survivability, encounter a lot of wards and/or the enemy team has one or more heroes with the ability to go invisible, you may keep it. However I wouldn't recommend it. Destroy it on spot, take it and destroy later, put it back to your base. Just make sure no one takes it and lose it. It's like The Ring Frodo had to destroy, really. Do the right thing, Frodo.

P.S. When have some spare time or preparing to attack, check enemies' items, and if they have wards - their quantity. Take the appropriate measures of safety.

Summary

Riki is a very strong character when played well, that is well capable of being a true carry and is often feared by his enemies. He doesn't really know what ganks are: most players don't bother ganking him, which means you only die as often as you risking and/or when revealed. He can carry the game when needed and support his team very well. He is the superior carry even to other carries

If you liked this guide make sure you vote it up so other players would be able to see it too. Clicking the upvote feels so nice!
Feel free to give me feedback in the comment section bellow :)

If you like the way I write my guides feel free to check out my Viper guide and vote it up as well! So much voting I bet now you're more excited to vote than to play Riki!
Well, probably not.