[Faceless Void] ONEATATIME's Guide to Faceless Void

[Kenshiro]

Hi !

1) I'm not quite sure of what you wrote ; the DPS varies quite extensively between level 1 and level 25, from a 603 gold inventory to a potentially 25+K worth inventory. If you were talking about the +20 stats from MY point 1), it's also something to take into account ; these +20 stats, when talking about EHP, adds +2.8 armor and more importantly, +380 HP. We all know how Void doesn't have that much HP.

2) Well, the EDPS concept like I use includes all forms of damage reductions, be it armor, damage block or evasion, or even the enemy's HP regen when it becomes significant, so you could get t = HP/EDPS.

3) I didn't say PMS or Vanguard were useless on melee heroes ; the damage block improves their EHP extensively, though it highly depends on the enemy's damage, your current level of armor and the possibility to use evasion.

What I said was that the +6 HP/s regen of Vanguard is negligible at improving your survivability when fighting heroes ; to give you a better idea, it's like getting lifesteal on Crystal Maiden or Undying. On these heroes, unless you've got a very special item build, you simply don't do enough DPS to get enough HP regen through lifesteal to make it worth on them.

Another thing showing that the regen is negligible is the "6-10 seconds rule" ; 95% or so of the teamfights are finished in a matter of 6-10 seconds after initiation. Assuming you're Void, you then have 1000 or a bit more HP in mid game, and that means if they needed 10 seconds of continuous fire on you to bring you down, then the EDPS is something of the order of 100+ HP/s, clearly dwarfing Vanguard's +6 HP/s.

Under focus fire, a mere 1-2 seconds of extra survivability is often enough to let your team do their job or break the chainstun, and that's the job of HP, armor, evasion, magic resistance/immunity, not Vanguard's HP regen. 1-2 seconds is also the time needed to frequently finish off an enemy ; though Void's DPS is nowhere as impressive as Lycan or Ursa's one for example, he generally doesn't need more than 5 seconds to terminate anyone.

The point of low-moderate HP regen in the game, like Vanguard's one, is to allow you to push or farm undefinitely when there's limited harassment and/or you take an occasional hit from the creeps/towers. It also allows you to be at full HP when you suddendly have to take part at a teambattle.

If you're not running short of item slots and you went the PMS/Point Booster way, a Ring of Health in your inventory will be of good use if you need it to stay in lane/keep pushing ; you'll probably upgrade it later into Battlefury anyway...

[ONEATATIME]

I don't know what to object anymore to the rightful successor of Hokuto Shinken! I can only assert that Vanguard seems to work better than Poor Man's Shield and Point Booster when Faceless Void is going to deal most of the times with up to two other heroes, while it's just an expensive idea when he's at the middle of fights where he's focussed by everyone. BUT... I think Poor Man's Shield + Point Booster is still a bad idea! Since I was in the mood to do calculations, I discovered that Ring of Aquilia (with Stout Shield) is a lot better.

[Flamezy]

thanks so much! this build worked wonders for me

[Fman93]

nice guide! very detail !

[leb.codeRed]

amazing guide, specifies everything with each version awesome

[Glint]

Excellent guide, +10 matey ^^.

[TheRealPear]

Really nice job, you put a lot of work into this guide

[harrisonzhong]

the part about evasion not stacking fully is completely wrong. backtrack isnt an evasion skill it is actually a pseudoheal which means it stacks fully with evasion. evasion items itself do not stack. but the concept of chance base skills/items is correct just not applied to the right subjuects

[Phantom_IV]

I would suggest that you take more points in Time Walk early. The distance increase and cooldown decrease are QUITE noticeable, whereas the scaling on Bash/Backtrack isn't very drastic. Higher level Time Walk will help you avoid/escape ganks more easily, which is your biggest worry early-midgame. Plus if you need to Chronosphere, you can do so at a much greater distance with the help of high level Walk midgame.

E: I support Kenshiro's comments on efficient DPS and damage block. Vanguard+MoM is inefficient from both a survivability and DPS standpoint, so you may want to consider something like PMS+PB+Maelstrom. Faceless Void has such excellent durability and escapes, so I tend to dislike MoM on him. If you give him a bit of HP, he can act as a very effective tank and be much harder to kill than even Morphling.

[St_Truth]

Those who wants to get agnahim you should get boots of speed, PT, phase boots, arcane boots and BoT first

[ONEATATIME]

@harrisonzhong
Are you sure about that? If you're able to provide me some "official" information I can fix it on the guide.
@Phantom_IV
I know about the possibility that leveling up Time Walk just once could be insufficient in certain situations, that's why I suggested to level it up again if necessary.
@St_Truth
Ahah, of course! ; )

[Lycan]

Congratulations on being awarded spotlight!

[tra2ce]

Gratz dude on the spotlight you deserve it

[WaremDarkslayer]

A very detailed and overall nicely done guide. One thing though( and I have seen this in maaaany guides) : The creeps in DotA have absolutely NO scripted AI, just a path that they follow.The only "AI" there is, is the CODED path movement and reaction to events such as attack, which is Blizzard's work.

[ONEATATIME]

I think both terms could be considered as synonyms in this case. In fact, by definition, "the term game AI is often used to refer to a broad set of algorithms (Wikipedia)", which is what you wrote.

[ChiefCook]

i thought BACKTRACK doesn't stuck with BUTTERFLY EVASION??

look at this post :O
http://www.playdota.com/forums/showthread.php?t=713924

[ONEATATIME]

Thanks for the source, it seems I was right!

[17ragon]

a little mistake you cant force paused units in chrono:P

[ChiefCook]

Originally Posted by ONEATATIME

Thanks for the source, it seems I was right!

now i get it,nice guide anyway
im from italy too,may i know where your exact location here?

[pika331]

...
copy of another guide