The Complete Dark Seer Tome

Quick Note About Skill Order

If you are going to be Jungling with your Dark Seer instead of Solo Off-Laning, you should skill ion shell first instead of surge, then surge, and continue with the skill build.[Surge]

Changelog

4/26/2013 -- Version 0.5 Completed (Pub Stomping Build, no pictures/video in guide)
5/26/2013 -- Add pictures and video >>TO BE COMPLETED<<
6/26/2013 -- Add pro build order and skill guide >>TO BE COMPLETED<<

About The Guide And The Author

Welcome to The Complete Dark Seer Tome.

This Tome aims to be a very detailed and advanced guide to Dark Seer. This is not your grandfather's skill build guide.

Since I started playing Dota 2 (my first ever MOBA) a little over a year ago, I have always had something for Dark Seer. At the time of this guide, I have played 123 games with Dark Seer and have a 63.41% winrate (far higher than Dark Seer's overall winrate of 50.41%) and a 4.73 KDA ratio. Because of my lack of previous MOBA experience, I have literally had to work myself up from the lowest bracket to where I am now (very high bracket and 52.5% winrate). I assume that the other Dark Seer guides that have been written here were probably written by former Dota 1 players, so hopefully my guide may give some new ideas to the Dota 2 Community about Dark Seer. I have not checked the other guides, but I also assume that they could be updated a little bit, so perhaps my new guide will help clarify some outdated things.

About Dark Seer

Dark Seer is one of the most versatile heroes in Dota 2. He can play pretty much any role that is needed on the team (that's right, I've carried a Dark Seer many times). However, he is strongest when getting solo farm, so the best place to play a dark seer is in a solo-lane situation, or in the jungle (you should prefer to take jungle if there is another solo-offlaner on your team and no other junglers). Ideally, there will be a dedicated support player on your team, but if there is not you should be buying wards for your team. This is the most important thing I want to stress to the reader in this guide: you must buy wards if there is no one else that is going to be doing so. Dark Seer is probably the best warder in the game because of the surge. You can literally go anywhere you want with surges to place a ward, and no other hero has that ability. The biggest trick to improving your winrate is buying wards when there are none (regardless if you playing Dark Seer or not).

The First 15 Minutes (Off-Lane Solo)

In general, when you are playing a solo off-lane hero in Dota 2, it is very advantageous to ward the enemy's pull camp. The pull camp is the jungle camp closest to the enemy's tier 2 tower, and the creeps in that camp will not spawn there if you place a ward inside the camp. This prevents pulls into the lane, which will end up altering the creep wave momentum. When you are solo-offlaning, it is very important to control the creep wave momentum.

Controlling the creep wave momentum

Controlling the creep wave momentum is a pretty advanced (but very effective) tactic to dominate the lane while soloing. In order to do this, you want to weaken your creep wave in some way so that they will die faster, and lane will push closer to your tower (which is a much safer position). Now, how can we weaken our own lane? Unless you have a friendly lich or enigma around to deny a creep in your initial wave, you're going to have to do it yourself. When your first creep wave spawns, you want to block the lane so that you can hopefully get the ranged creep to the front. You should have already skilled Surge, and when the ranged creep has a clear path to be the first in the wave, you should surge that ranged creep. If the ranged creep is about 1000 units in front of your wave it meets the enemy's wave, your wave will lose momentum away from the enemy tower. The wave will begin to push back to your tower. Another way to keep this momentum going is to pre-deny your own creeps once they get below half health. You should still be trying to last-hit and deny, but try to get one hit on your own creeps before it is time to deny it. Also, if the enemy manages to deward the camp you warded, it is very good to place an ion shell on that stacked camp. It will completely alter the creep wave back to your tower again.

Initial Steps Upon Entering Game

1. Buy your Ward set, Stout Shield, Tango, and Clarity.
2. Level surge as fast as possible (you should have your upgrade key mapping to something to make this faster, I have mine set to G).
3. Spam surge as you run out to the enemy's pull camp. You want to beat their team so they don't even know you warded until it's too late.
4. Ward their pull camp (I may add the best placements in a later update).
5. Spam surge as you run back to your tower.
6. Alter the creep momentum when your first wave spawns by surging the ranged creep (described in better detail above).
7. Stay in XP range until you get level 2 so you can skill ion shell 1 (having surge allows you to do this against a Tri-Lane).
8. If you have altered the creep wave correctly, by the time the momentum begins to shift back to the enemy tower, you should have 2 levels in ion shell.
9. Begin spamming ion shell on two creeps each wave so that it pushes quite quickly back to the enemy's tower (this will keep a melee enemy off the lane, or damage them severely).
10. Now that the creep wave is pushed back past your secret shop, buy your

Sage's Mask which will really help your mana early on and will build into your Soul Ring.
11. Clarity up and continue spamming ion shells so now your creeps will be constantly running into and through the enemy's tower. You want to make sure the enemy cannot get to the their secret shop.
12. Buy the recipe for your soul ring soon after and have it sent to you by the courier.
13. Continue trying to get last hits with your ion shells so you can finish your soul ring from the side shop and begin the domination.

Soul Ring Stage

Your next goal is to rush your hood. The hood is a very powerful item on Dark Seer, because you can simply ion shell and surge yourself around any enemy and kill them if they are alone. NEVER BUILD A VANGUARD. AS OF THE DATE OF THIS GUIDE, VANGUARD IS ONE OF THE WORST ITEMS YOU CAN BUILD ON ANY HERO. You need to be smart about it however, because oftentimes if you go too far under the tower, you will die from the tower after you kill your target.