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v7.18: Dark Seer Team Play - Art of Wall (War)- UPDATED

July 20, 2018 by Cornlordz
Comments: 3    |    Views: 51788    |   


Build 1
Build 2

Anti-Physical Damage

DotA2 Hero: Dark Seer




Hero Skills

Vacuum

4 8 9 10

Ion Shell

1 3 5 7

Surge

2 13 14 17

Wall of Replica

6 12 18

Talents

11 15

Hero Talents

350 AoE Surge
25
2 Ion Shell Charges
+50 Ion Shell Damage
20
-40s Wall of Replica Cooldown
+100 Vacuum AoE
15
Ion Shell Provides +250 Max Health
+50 Ion Shell Radius
10
+20% Wall of Replica Illusion Damage


v7.18: Dark Seer Team Play - Art of Wall (War)- UPDATED

Cornlordz
July 20, 2018


Introduction


Welcome to my first guide. Let me introduce myself - I'm CornLord. Started playing dota v3.84 on Warcraft 3. I got back to Dota 2 in year 2015 and getting my grasp back on the evolved moba. Since back then i always love support heroes and tactical heroes. What prompted me to write is because there aint much Dark Seer players and also lack of Dark Seer Guides. (Last one is in 2015...Duh!)

Let's get started. Dark Seer is my opinion isn't a hardcore support like Crystal Maiden or Dazzle (both are the pub's favourite). He has to be played tactical in between the front line and the back.Positioning is extremely important with him.

This guide is specifically for players with team first mindset. (such mindset is pretty rare as many prefer to be carries or heroes with high burst damage)

This guide is for tacticians who are patient and observant to capitalize on enemy mistakes while strengthening the team fight. And of course save allies with surge when in need.

Strategy: Push and sustain your carries and hard support (if any)
Tactics: Adapt to team play and create confusion or displace enemy heroes positioning for each battle.

"Know urself , Know thy enemy, you shall win many battles!"
As a Dark Seer, You should

Periodically Check both team and enemy leveling
Periodically Check team mates and enemies inventories
Be Aware of the general location of each enemy hero.
Understand your team players style and enemy styles and adapt to it.

Update Log

10 Aug 2017
Completed Dark Seer Guide in full

30 Jan 2018
Added friends and foes Chapter
Revise Talent Tree to 7.07

01 Mar 2018
Revised starting items due to changes in version 7.09 patch

14 Mar 2018
Dark Seer: Level 20 Talent increased from +300 AoE Surge to +400
Minor update.

17 July 2018
Ver 7.12 rebalanced Dark Seer

Vacuum
AoE increased from 250/350/450/550 to 400/450/500/550.
Cooldown rescaled from 32 to 60/50/40/30.
Cast range rescaled from 500 to 450/500/550/600.
Pull duration increased from 0.5 to 0.3/0.4/0.5/0.6.
Damage rescaled from 40/80/120/160 to 25/50/100/200.

Wall of Replica
Incoming illusion damage reduced from 400% to 300%.
Width increased from 1000 to 1300.

Ver 7.17:
Tailsman Evasion:
Evasion reduced from 20% to 15%.
Cost reduced from 1450 to 1400.
Affecting Solar Crest too with base Evasion reduced to 15% and active remains at 20%
Version 7.18:
Notable item useful to Dark Seer as luxury item: Aeon Disk : cooldown increased from 90 to 115

Summary the combined effect of Version change notably reduce item effectiveness of Dark Seer.
Version 7.12 buffed Dark Seer... HOORAY!

Also update on the skill points allocation in different levels

21 Jul 2018
Corrected the Pros/Cons section due to accidental overwrite of it with my other guide.
Corrected spelling mistake with 'Vacuum' earlier.

Pros / Cons

Pros

    Great laning presence with ion shell.
    Good pushing capabilities
    Is Fun to play (4 active skills)
    Is a Tactical hero
    Durable when items build up
    Ulti can scale well to provide damage in late game.
    Great escape and chasing skill in surge for both himself and allies

Cons
    One of the worst agility gain
    No passive skills which means silence will punish dark seer very hard
    Very poor in 1v1 situation.
    A melee hero, meaning dewarding is harder with him
    No hard disable skill like stun, shackle, voodoo.
    No burst damage like finger of death, laguna blade, wave etc
    Slow attack animation (harder to do last hit or deny)

When to pick Dark Seer

After knowing the pros and cons of Dark Seer...
We would know when not to pick him.

When opponent team has Silencer, Drow, Death prophet or Disruptor.
Remember having 4 active spells, silenced practically turns you in a "Creep".
Avoid playing Dark Seer if enemy already chosen one of the above.

When to pick him?
Basically without silence counter, he is a all rounder hero which
1. Your team does not have a support who is a natural mekansm carrier such as lich, IO, Oracle,Omniknight etc and no one is going mekansm.

2. Your team need a hero that have can sustain fragile glass cannons carry heroes.

3. Your team lacks of initiator that could also morph to strength for health to survive lockdown during initiation.

4. When there is uncertainty of whether the team is going to have a support.

5. Last but not least, you are someone who is watchful to capitalise on enemy mistakes.

Skills Analysis

Detailed Skill Description - Click Here

Skill 1: Vacuum
Vacuum is a important skill to combo with Ultimate.
Vacuum Aoe is now 400 but the damage is relatively low each level upgrade
2nd skill to max for Aoe increase and slight better aoe daamage.

If enemy team has heroes with strong channeling ultimate or spells, save this Vacuum to interrupt the channeling spell.Save your team!

Skill 2: Ion Shell
Your most important weapon for the laning stage which is so critical to you which translate to team advantage for zoning out our enemies from farming. It is also efficient in NC camp stacking for you or your allies.

The duration is long,keep spamming it with your soul ring and arcane boots providing the needed mana.

MAX This skill first!

Skill 3: Surge
Early one point of surge for 3 secs of max speed is sufficient for gank or escape purpose. Max this one last!

Do not use it when you are rooted or going to be rooted. Example, if you still have much health when cm rooted you, when the frost bite is gonna to end cast it and run away. Even her frost nova or any other slow like poison/frost arrows will have no effect when u are buffed with surge.

This skill is a life saver - when you saw your red health ally trying to run away...surge him and he ran into safety.
It is also a killer move,when u ion shell urself/ally and cast surge to chase him down.

This is an awesome skill for kiting!

Ultimate: Wall of Replica (Art of Wall)
This is an Art that scales well late game - when your enemy heroes has better equipments which translate to creating illusions of them with better equipments to damage them. Fulfilling the Art of War -using enemy resources against them.

This wall places it perpendicular to the hero and cast point. Before you cast have a visual image first. Best to cover the whole walkway and then combine with Vacuum to suck them in. Upon touching the wall, the enemies will be slowed and illusions will be created.

Talent Analysis

LEVEL 10 TALENT :+90 damage vs 12% Evasion
12% Evasion over +90 damage any other time except you got a full enenmy team of nukers where evasion doesn't matters. (Disclaimer: Builds in the guide is not for DPS but rather support)

LEVEL 15 TALENT +75 Vacuum AOE vs +12 Health regen
+75 Vacuum range AOE makes execution of dragging as many as enemy heroes through the wall easier. No Brainer at all times, go for this one!

LEVEL 20 TALENT: 400 aoe surge vs +15% cooldown
A no brainer choice. 15% CD reduction is very negligible and Dark Seer's ultimate doesn't have a very long cd to benefit from this reduction.
400 AOE surge for more chase and escape power as a team together. (u can even surge the creeps for faster push)
Version 7.10 increases the 300 aoe surge to 400 aoe surge...a minor buff i would say.

LEVEL 25: TALENT +150 Ion Shell damage vs Parallel Wall
A great buff in talent for Dark Seer on this. While +150 Ion Shell damage looks good on paper, but having 2 Parallel Walls with Potential 2X illusions of enemies gives better team advantage in the battle.

Low health hero force to go either side of the wall to escape have to be slowed and creates the higher chance to being killed off. It literally confines the space of enemy movements fulfilling the positioning stance of Sun Tze's Art of Wall to use positioning to confuse the enemy!

Items Analysis

Early game items - in sequence

Soul Ring - Cost effective for mana to spam ion shell
Boots - for movement speed
Ring of Health (ROH) -Offset the health lost
Arcane Boots - for spaming ion shell when soul ring is in cooldown in laning stage


(*Note: Be flexible - on the occasion when you are being spell spammed by 2 enemy lane spammers ,kindly get a tango or healing salve after soul ring is essential.)



Physical Sustain Build
- For most game with 2 or more enemy heroes dependent on physical damage

Vanguard - provides more health with 50% chance of blocking 70 damage

Magic Resistance build
- For game where magical damage output is large
- Example Enemy team consist of both zeus and skywrath mage

Notable Item: Rod of Atos for consideration against Hero proficient in escape like:
    Antimage
    Storm Spirit
    Ember Spirit
    Queen of Pain
    Or any hero with blink dagger

Luxury Items
    Radiance - for more damage and evasion and by now you are hard to kill.
    Vyse - Additional disabling
    Shiva - lower dps of enemy team
    Assault Cuirass - increase team armor, reduce enemy armor,
    Aeon Disk - your late game saver.

Tried and tested, built focusing on beefing up your tanking power is essential if you want to run in to a battle with ion shell, displacing enemy positioning with vacuum to your wall and sustaining your allies with meka heal to create favorable conditions for victory.

Creeping / Jungling

Most important stage of the game for Dark Seer. I can't emphasize more!
Your stage starts at Level 1 - at level Ion shell is annoying and painful when used correctly with right tactics

Tasks for Dark Seer

Zone out Carry from farming
Intelligence and Espionage - Provide vision with ward
Stack Camp
Create Space - Push 1st tier tower as fast as possible



The best lane for Dark Seer is offlane followed by safelane.

IMPORTANT
    * Always adapt how you cast ION SHELL against different set of laning enemy heroes
    * If there are heroes with disabling skills, Do not attempt to move into their range of disabling to cast an ion shell.
    * Never cast ion shell on creep being aggroed. They die off fast and your ion shell will be gone.
    * Map awareness is important to avoid getting ganked. Always buy wards for your lane

Plan A (against pure melee lane)
This is straight forward- Cast on yourself or your tanky melee ally (like Bristleback or tidehunter)
If your enemy is a spammer hero like BB again, cast on enemy melee creep which is Not aggroed

Plan B (melee with ranged)
This depends on the composition.
Short range like luna - cast on range enemy creep
Long range like sniper better off cast on melee enemy creep to farm and push

Plan C (2 ranged heroes lane)
Cast on range enemy creep

Special Note: For a Shadow Sharman (or Lion) + Ursa lane.
Always stay out of Shadow Sharman shackle range. Cast ion on enemy melee when it is safe.


Neutral Creep Camp Stacking
Go to the NC Camp at your side, cast on the lowest health NC and walk away
Note the timing of the spawning of NC (XX min:53-54 secs) <- there are guides on NC stack timing)

Team Work

Go back to basics - what is the objective of Dota 2? Kill as many heroes as possible?
Flamboyant play to earn the bragging rights of the ingame allies?

All Wrong,simple answer is to destroy the key building called the ancient that lies deep in the enemy base.

Others especially carries may sometimes get carried away blood lusted to miss an opportunity to destroy a building which brings you one step closer to victory, but not you as a Dark Seer! Remind your team ...Objective,Objective. Getting more team kills is to give you the advantage in gold and exp but if it overrides the main objectives, the repercussion in a close game will be DEFEAT!

Remind your team mates especially the blood lusted ones.
If there is no one buying wards for awareness,be the ONE to buy! Good news is that you aint too item dependent to perform well.

Communicate so that NO ONE purchase 2 mekanisms or duplicate items with auras that cannot be stacked.

Variations in Teamwork

Variations and adapt to create team battle victory
- combine the ion shell, Wall of Replica and Vacuum combo with other heroes - notably - Enigma's black hole, UnderLord's pit of malice and firestorm, disruptor's static storm and kinetic field,

Or a Naga setup of song of siren, follow by Naga and ur illusions Wall trick...

Or an ion shell on invisible hero to walk beside and damage enemy.
or ion shell on a allied charging Spirit breaker running towards its victim.

or Surge for heroes that can slow to chase - viper/drow/venomancer or stunners/disablers to initiate

In short, Dark Seer skills synergize well with any heroes...yes ANY heroes unlike Ultimate of Winter Wyvern which may screwed up team battle big time and creates many possibilities. I cannot teach you all the variations as they are as massive as the stars in a team battle with interactions of 20 skills in different sequence.Be creative and adaptive.

"There are not more than five musical notes, yet the combinations of these five give rise to more melodies than can ever be heard."
Sun Tze

In a Team work scenario, how you can help?
Imagine now You have 2 allies dead earlier and 5 enemy heroes are attacking ur 2nd tier tower and will advance to base tower. You know you need a little more time for your 2 allies to respawn to help defend and win the team battle.

Wall of Replica? Cast it before the enemies are in range for vacuum? What? that sounds noob! You may say. Well, lets analyse the overall situation.

Your other 2 allies , none of them have strong aoe spells...hmmm, time to play mind games...

Cast a Wall perpendicular to the base tower...which both the range and melee have to pass through if they wanted to take the base tower.

If they dun go through, you succeed the delay.
If they do, they will be slowed the illusions are created and will start hitting them, they would surely destroy the illusions, when the first illusion dies, vacuum them back to the wall to get them slowed again and get illusions to focus on the support.
if you are fast enough, you can even cast an ion shell on one of the enemy heroes beside the support which u get the illusions to focus on. This will buy time and even do lots of damage to that paper health support. By this time, your allies will have respawned and u have a full team to engage and kill off the paper support and trump the enemy team.

Yes, this happen in my game, when i successfully defended the base tower and buying time for my allies to respawned. Time, terrain , position, variations, awareness and psychology all play a part in victory.

Friends and Foes

Your Friends
Basically no heroes should hate your skills, unless you really bent on pranking someone!
You do not have skills like the pugna, that decrepify enemy hero while ur allied hero is very 'right'clicked base like PA.

Invisible heroes like SA, Bounty Hunter, Weaver, Treant Protector works well with Dark Seer (no invisibility detection of course). Ion shell on an invisible hero near enemy will cause plenty of damage before the invisible hero breaks his/her invisibility and make that fatal move

AoE Skills like Stomp, Berserker Call synergize with Vacuum well... you know which hero synergize well.

Best Synergy Partner of Dark Seer: Elder Titan!

Titan will place his spirit and initiate a stomp which has channeling...Vacuum is to suck them back to where the stomp is channelled.

This followed by Titan's ulti and Wall of Replica synergize so well that in a team battle this causes chaos and greatly weaken the team for TEAM VICTORY!

Your Foes
Anyone that can silence you or a natural carrier of Orchid (the bane of your existence) The saving grace to counter orchid is eul scepter and guardian greaves.

Natural Carriers of Orchid/Bloodthorn

Clinkz - Natural carrier of Orchid and high dps with searing arrows.

Natural carrier of Orchid and can catch you across the map with electric votex to disable you

Silencers

Gust and frost arrows - Enough said

Silence and Spirit Siphon - not as deadly as drow one on one... but in a team battle , it is deadly enough

Silence you from anywhere on the map when you are dependent on any of your spells.

Doom Doom Doom .. After level 6 apparently, unless you get a linken

Mutes you during Duel and you are no dps, Linken comes to mind for counter

Summary

Finally end of the Wall of Replica - opps i mean wall of texts.
If you forget everything up there remember this.

As Dark Seer -

1. Remember Dota 2 objective
2. Lanning stage is critical,do remember to stack camp
3. Create Vision for team when no one does it and be vigilant (map awareness)
4. Never use surge when you know you got rooted or going to get rooted.
5. Save Vacuum to disrupt enemy spell channeling
6. Be observant to Levelling, items of both allied and enemies' heroes
7. Adapt to your team play.


Please help to comment so that i can improve this guide or answer to any queries to this guide.

Click thumbs up if you like this guide. Thanks Guys!

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