Syaska's guide to Enchantress
After some reflexion, I've decided to write about Enchantress, also known as Bambi or Ench. It was one of the first hero I mastered in DotA, and even after the harsh STR she received, she is still amazing and fun to play, especially as an offensive jungler, and I sincerely hope for more Enchantress action in the competitive scene. Have a good read, and thank you. |
• Alt-Tab miniguide • Foreword • Hero information • Skills • Skill builds and justifications • Item builds • Gameplay walkthrough • Noticeable synergies • Annoying opponents/walking food • Replays |
  Pros: • Effective during the entire game Cons: • Pathetic starting strength and strength gain, below average starting INT and AGI |
Using Untouchable: A very nice passive, especially early game. Untouchable has two uses: It counters physical DPSers to a certain extent (the AS reduction is not applied to AS gained from items, which is why Untouchable isn't that useful late game), and more importantly it completely neutralize creep aggro when you are attacking your lane opponent. Paired with your long range, this makes Enchantress a painful hero to face in a lane. Enchant
Using Enchant: A wonderful spell. It is both a very potent slow (almost 6 seconds of slow is no joke considering the amount of damage Aiushtha can deal when orbwalking), and your jungling tool. Considering the variety of neutral creeps you can convert, here is a mini-guide to Enchant: Nature's Attendants
Using Nature's Attendants: The "You can't kill me lol" button. This gives you insane HP regeneration (30/50/70/90 HP per second) over 10 seconds. Two problems; Nature's attendant is an amazing spell but not against burst damage especially considering that Enchantress is very squishy, and you can't activate it when you are disabled. When you see a Lion or a Doom coming to you, activate it even if you are full HP, because when they start disabling you, it will be too late. Same thing during teamfights: activating Nautre's Attendants a bit too early is better than getting raped because you didn't use it before the 18 AOE nukes (and it heals nearby allies too). Impetus
Using Impetus: Your almighty orb, which makes a great part of your damage output independent from your items (As long as you have enough mana to cast Impetus, obviously). It perfectly fits the hero theme of "I stay away from the target harassing her to death". Impetus can dish ridiculous amounts of damage (pure damage=not reduced by armor or magic resistance), especially with Aghanim's Scepter or Dagger/Forcestaff. |
Enchantress skillbuild depends on where she starts the game: in the jungle or on a lane. In the first case, you need one point in Enchant to convert creeps. In both cases, your heal is maxed first because it is the spell that keeps you alive during early game, where you have 500-600 HP. Your ultimate is too good to be skipped. Bambi in the jungle      Level 1: Enchant Level 2: Nature's Attendants Level 3: Nature's Attendants Level 4: Untouchable Level 5: Nature's Attendants Level 6: Impetus Level 7: Nature's Attendants Level 8: Enchant Level 9: Enchant Level 10: Enchant Level 11: Impetus Level 12: Untouchable Level 13: Untouchable Level 14: Untouchable Level 15: Stats Level 16: Impetus Explanation: This is the most common build when it comes to jungling. You get Enchant first for obvious reason (You need creeps to tank other neutrals, gank side lanes, push towers), Nature's Attendants is very nifty when you have to dive towers, and a level of Untouchable is handy when you have to tank that neutral because your stupid creep died, or when you aggro ghouls or treants during a gank. Enchant is maxed second, because you'll most likely be underleveled mid game, and that slow is really needed by then. The laning Enchantress Level 1: Nature's Attendants Level 2: Untouchable Level 3: Nature's Attendants Level 4: Untouchable Level 5: Nature's Attendants Level 6: Impetus Level 7: Nature's Attendants Level 8: Untouchable Level 9: Untouchable Level 10: Enchant Level 11: Impetus Level 12: Enchant Level 13: Enchant Level 14: Enchant Level 15: Stats Level 16: Impetus Explanation: When it comes to laning, Enchant is a supbar spell, and Untouchable becomes much more attractive. Your heal is still maxed first, but Untouchable is maxed second, because being almost immune to creep aggro is invaluable in order to dominate a lane. Note that, at level 4-8-9, if you feel that you can already harass enough without taking further levels of Untouchable, you can skill Enchant or even Attributes bonus if against some annoying nuker. |
Possible starting items     A very good starting combination, with plenty of stats, especially much needed strength, some regen items. Icing on the cake, the two gauntlets can be used to build Urn of Shadows.  Another strong starting combination, with stats, armor and regen. This is what you want when you plan to get Ring of Basilius instead of Urn of shadows.  This gives a bit of every attribute, can be upgraded into nulls/bracers, but you get less regen. With the recent buff to bracers and nulls, this is a viable alternative.   This is the build you want when you somehow end buying your team's courier (I.e, when you are playing a pub where noone wants to buy or share one, or when you are asked to buy chick/wards in a clan game). Some stats and a good amount of regen items, and more importantly the precious courier. Core items  Power treads are pretty much the only boots Enchantress can afford after the STR nerf. They give you much needed hitpoints (you can also abuse the switch when jungling to keep your mana high), the AS bonus is nothing gamebreaking but still decent. Phase boots are useless for you (the damage is pathetic compared to Impetus, you don't really need the burst ms considering your potent slow), Arcane boots are overkill early game and not enough to spam Impetus later, and Boots of Travel are just too costly (and they don't give any survivability either).  OR  OR  Make your choice (Note: Nulls are a viable but risky alternative to bracers. Less hitpoints, more damage and mana)! These items share one thing: they give you cheap survivability (3 armor/6 STR) and some mana to boot (Brilliance aura/50% mana regen/3 INT). Ring of Basilius is probably the most common one (sometimes paired with one bracer), but if noone is getting Urn in your team, it can be a quite amazing tool.  With the recent addition of Aghanim's Scepter to Enchantress (Thank you Icefrog!), Point Booster is now the wet dream of Bambi. Hitpoints, mana, and one big step toward Agha. Extension  After 6.68, Aghanim's Scepter is now easily the best item Aiushta can get. Epic boost to your survivability (+390 HP), to your mana pool and, in my opinion, one of the very best scepter upgrade in the game. +150 range, and not only when you are orbwalking. This means you can now stand 700 units away while orbwalking someone to death. Enchantress revolves around dishing high amounts of damage while dancing on the battlefield borders, and Agha helps you tremendously in doing so. Viable luxuries  The most popular luxury in competitive games (and her former core item before the introduction of Agha), Guinsoo's Scythe of Vyse solves your mana problems (late game, you are a mana whore), allowing you to spam Impetus freely. The active is also invaluable: 3.5 seconds of disable, best used on key heroes (disablers, carries) or on any bastard trying to cut your pretty throat.  Shiva's guard, unlike Guinsoo, doesn't provide huge mana regen (you still get huge amounts of mana pool). But the armor and the -AS aura are very handy against teams based on physical damage. The frost blast is also quite cool to get more Impetus hits on the slowed target (and you finally get some kind of AOE).  Bloodstone gives you both hitpoints and mana (if you manage to survive through a teamfight, the mana regen from the charges is enough to spam Impetus and all your skillset). The problem is, Guinsoo appears to be superior (less hitpoints, but reliable mana regen and an invaluable hex). Bloodstone is still a viable luxury, especially if your team is owning.  You don't like nukers. You hate those pesky heroes trying to insta kill you. This item can help quite a bit, provided you acquired enough hitpoints to make him effective, which is why you should get it as a luxury, after your scepter.  Forcestaff is a very fun luxury. It gives you two things: good stats (20 damage, some AS and some INT) and the hilarious active. You can use it to increase your Impetus damage, to reach an enemy or to escape one. A versatile item!  Linken's Sphere can be quite cool on Enchantress (the spell block is of course very nice, and the stats+regen are not bad either), but I would buy Guinsoo over it anyday, except against two heroes: Doombringer and Vengeful Spirit. Let it be clear, you can't afford to get doomed (congrats, you are now useless for 14 seconds) or swapped into 4 angry people (1,2,3, dead Bambi).  Dagger is a decent luxury (Escape mech and a way to increase Impetus damage) when it comes to organized games, where positioning is crucial. In public games, Forcestaff is much more useful.  The definite way to make you tanky. Heart of Tarrasque is a very late luxury (get it if the game is lasting 90 minutes), but will make you insanely hard to kill.  "But, Syaska, you said that BoT were too costly!". Yes they are, but when the games turns into a push fest, the free TP becomes invaluable.  Physical DPSers can't attack you for 4 seconds, but you can still orbwalk their asses. Har har har. Be very careful when using this, you will fall in a matter of seconds against nukes! Debatable items  The stats it gives ain't bad, and you have a slow for the minions, but have fun microing minions when you are trying to orbwalk someone. And Enchant only lasts for 5.5 seconds.  Linken's Sphere is usually superior considering the fact that you should not be in the heat of the battle to eat 50 disables. Still, if the opponents are focusing their hatred on you, this can prove very useful.  Gives ok mana regen and the active can be quite cool especially with a dagger. Problem: this gives you 0 survivability and you are usually better building a Guinsoo.  Insane mana regen and some nice damage. Again, gives you 0 survivability and the active is completely outshadowed by hex, except against some heroes like Storm or AM. If you get it, get some hitpoints before. Rejected items     Orb effects. You already have Impetus, and nothing you can buy comes close to that.    Raw damage items. Your damage comes from Impetus. If you want to do more damage, buy mana regen and attack speed, not these items.  You have 1.0 STR gain. Radiance is definitely not for you.  You are not in the game to killsteal people, and the stats from Dagon are just supbar.  Your ultimate has no cooldown, Enchant is fairly spammable and spending 5300 gold for a double heal isn't a good idea. |
Early Game Enchantress is one of those heroes able to jungle effectively from level 1 and onwards. She is also one of the most offensive heroes early game. If your team put you in the jungle, your job is to pressure the lanes next to your jungle, killing heroes and pushing towers. You are not Lycan or Terrorblade, and therefore you should never afk farm in the jungle. Enchanted creeps are of course the key to a succesful jungling Enchantress (See the mini guide to Enchant for more information about them). Do not forget that they only last for 80 seconds, so spam their spells as much as you can. If you are diving a tower (Most common dive case: you come to a lane, your allies are a dual lane against a solo hero hugging his tower), micro your creep so he goes in first and takes the hits from the tower. If the tower starts hitting you, use your heal; loosing some mana is always better than dying. You may find various situations, ganking trilanes, solo heroes, dual lanes, ganking mid or a side lane, jungling in your own woods or not, discovering only Wildkins and Hellcallers. Always be agressive early game, but always remember that you are a squishy hero that needs some farm to stay alive. Mid game Mana management is the key Your spells are quite cheap (except Nature's Attendants, but it has quite a high cooldown), but they are very spammable, especially Impetus. You should always watch your mana pool. I've seen too many players die because they wasted Impetuses and they didn't have enough mana to use their heal. Dance around your targets With her long range (550, or 700 with Agha), her low hitpoints and her orb, Enchantress gameplay is very dependent on kiting and hit and run. Mastering the distance between you and your opponents is what separates an average Ench player from a good one. Staying away (but not too far) even when you have the edge decreases the risks of getting surprised and increases the damage from your ultimate: Less hits to kill someone=less time for the opponents to react and less risks to run out of mana Use creeps whenever you can By midgame, you no longer entirely rely on enchanted creeps (assuming you were jungling obviously) but they can still help you in many ways. They have some nice auras, disables, they help during pushes and they can even help you to take down Roshan (the blue Ogre). Do not underestimate them.Try to farm some items Let it be clear: You are not Rylai or Ezalor, you shouldn't have boots and two bracers after 40 minutes. You are very squishy but you have a very high damage output even without items, and that makes you a target of choice. You NEED some items to do your job, so if you have noone to gank, take some minutes to farm. If you can get these items killing opponent heroes, it's very nice, but sometimes you'll have to farm. Use wisps You may laugh at that, but some people are way too conservative with Nature's Attendants. Hey guys, it's not Black Hole, you'll not get flamed by your whole team if you waste 3-4 seconds of heal. If you eat some nuke/disable, or if an enemy starts focusing you, get the wisps out. Late game Thanks to Impetus pure damage, you scale quite well into lategame, especially if you managed to buy items solving your two problems: Survivability and Mana. Always, always, ALWAYS watch your positioning Positioning is what keeps you alive and allows you to do your job (DPSing one hero to death with Impetus). You should never be in the very heat of the battle unless it is obvious you are going to win, and even then you should be cautious. A disabled Enchantress with a bad position isn't going to last very long (Remember that little song: One, two, three, dead Bambi). Positioning is also the key to high damage Impetuses. Your role in teambattles is to focus someone down When it comes to late game, define your priorities and focus on them until they are dead. You should try to focus heroes with high armor (Impetus rapes them) or with high magic resistance if the rest of your team relies on magical damage. Melee heroes are usually better targets because your slow rapes them (they can't fight back, and you like kiting people). Spam your spells (besides Impetus) This is also one of Enchantress strenghts late game: Your heal should always be out during teamfights, and you should spam Enchant as much as you can. A 50% slow is no joke. |
 Magic immunity, burst heal and a slow aura. Bambi loves Omni so much, because Repel makes her close to unkillable during Nature's Attendants.  Another hero you'll learn to love. He heals you even more, he slow people so your creeps can reach them/you can orbwalk them, and Shallow Grave is just that cool.    Heroes with pushing abilities. With your creeps and these guys, towers will fall very fast early in the game.    AOE monsters. They give you what you lack, and they initiate/disable stuff for you.  Very stronk hero. He does three things you like: He can go in the heat of the battle and tank for you while dishing AOE damage, his ultimate increases Impetus damage and he is quite good at pushing towers with his Tombstone. |
   Heroes with very high burst damage. They see you, they instagib you. Avoid them unless you got Hood/some HP items or you know their ultimates are on cd. Nerubian Assassin is especially annoying because you can't see him coming.    Creeps eaters. You convert a creep, they convert him into gold. Annoying bastards. Note that Doom can also rape you easily with his gay combo, and once Bone gets his Orchid, you have serious problems. He is a great ally, but also a very scary opponent. His blast hurts very hard, he can suck your life when you are trying to heal, and worst of all, you take 100 damage per impetus when he uses his ward. IT HURTS.    Silencers. Like any caster, you are a threat only when you can use your spells.  Dragon Knight has serious problems against Bambi. He gets completely raped by Impetus pure damage (you have 45 armor? Np, you still take full damage), and Enchantress slow+way superior range allow her to kite him to death.   Enchant works on illusions. That means that you can get your own army of Phantom lancers (the image you convert has Juxtapose) or instant steal Morphling's Replicate. Hilarious to do.  Nature's Attendants>Damage over time. Also note that Impetus completely rapes Viper. |
GosuGamers DotA | Replay: DTS vs EHOME Perhaps the best game in 2010, amazing play from DTS and great Enchantress (jungling) by ArtStyle. A must watch for Enchantress players. Read this for more informations |
Credits Credits to all the forumers who helped and criticized me during the making of this guide, especially Teare, FunnyWarfare, HonorGuard and wutwat.Many thanks to the PDIH players I played with and against during the making of the guide. And a final thanks to my former clanmates and friends (Now on PDIH!): Elha), DaboO, C4mille, God, Niko-. You guys are awesome! |
Aiushtha the EnchantressAuthor: Syaska
Map Vers.: 6.69c
Syaska's guide to Enchantress
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Last Comment:22/11/2012
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