Comprehensive Invoker Guide
By CaptainPlatypus and Val
Disclaimer
By CaptainPlatypus and Val
Disclaimer
This is a resurrection of the abandoned beginnings of Val's invoker guide, made with his permission and blessing.
It's currently very much a work in progress.Apologies for the many, many tabs - Invoker has so much to discuss that avoiding walls of text is very hard indeed. And since I've been working on it, well, that's not going to shorten the length of anything. Except the reader's patience, I suppose.
Introduction
The first two thirds or so of this guide is written entirely for players who are coming to invoker for the first time - maybe you want something challenging to learn, maybe you just want to play the hero that laid waste to competitive DotA for a bit before everyone started permabanning him. Either way, this guide will help you out. However, the section on seriously playing invoker should at least be a useful point of reference, even for experienced invoker players. If that's you, you should probably skip down to there right now.
If you are a new player, I'm going to ease you into invoker a bit to make everything a little less complicated and frustrating. We'll start off by taking a look at the big picture by explaining the basic functionality of the hero and each spell, but then we'll dive back into the small scale with Val's learning builds. These are invoker builds that, while far from optimal for a serious game, explore the limits of what invoker can do in various directions - mobility, slowing, summoning, DPSing, nuking, and spell spamming. Once you've played each of those once or twice and seen how they work, you'll have an idea of your strengths and weaknesses with the hero, as well as what you enjoy - that'll help you going forward into the last section, on playing invoker to win.
For a full description of the hero's skills and statistics, check out the hero page. There's a lot of information to process there, so once you've familiarized yourself with the basics, read on for analysis and explanation!
For those of you who haven't played invoker before, ever, he works somewhat differently than other heroes. Instead of having the standard three four-level skills, three-level ultimate, and ten-level stats ability, he has three seven-level skills, one four-level ultimate (first available at level 2), and no stats ability at all. The skills are called "reagents", and they can be activated by pressing their hotkey. Each reagent gives various bonuses when active, and, in recent versions, also gives points to a specific stat when leveled. As you can have three reagents active at once, you could, for example, activate level 7 quas three times and gain 21 hp/sec regeneration.
The main purpose to reagents, though, comes with your ultimate, Invoke. When you invoke, the game checks your currently active reagents, and makes a spell based on their combination. The order you activated them in doesn't matter, just which ones are there - so QEQ is the same as QQE and EQQ. This gives you invoker's signature 10 spells. At level one invoke, though, you can only have one spell invoked (ready to cast) at once, and at other levels of invoke, you can still only have two. The good news is that your spells keep cooling down while not invoked - so, for example, if you cast Meteor, which has a 60 second cooldown, and immediately invoke other spells, if you re-invoke Meteor 60 seconds later, it will be cooled down again. Since you can only have two spells active at once, the trick to invoker isn't overwhelming your opponents with sheer number of spells - it's picking the spells best suited to the game and situation and using them perfectly. As a new player, don't be afraid to use the -invokelist command to remind yourself how to invoke various spells.
The main purpose to reagents, though, comes with your ultimate, Invoke. When you invoke, the game checks your currently active reagents, and makes a spell based on their combination. The order you activated them in doesn't matter, just which ones are there - so QEQ is the same as QQE and EQQ. This gives you invoker's signature 10 spells. At level one invoke, though, you can only have one spell invoked (ready to cast) at once, and at other levels of invoke, you can still only have two. The good news is that your spells keep cooling down while not invoked - so, for example, if you cast Meteor, which has a 60 second cooldown, and immediately invoke other spells, if you re-invoke Meteor 60 seconds later, it will be cooled down again. Since you can only have two spells active at once, the trick to invoker isn't overwhelming your opponents with sheer number of spells - it's picking the spells best suited to the game and situation and using them perfectly. As a new player, don't be afraid to use the -invokelist command to remind yourself how to invoke various spells.
- Attack Animation: 0.4 / 0.7
- Damage: 44 - 50
- Casting Animation: 0
- Armor: 1.9
- Base Attack Time: 1.7
- Movespeed: 280
- Missile Speed: 900
- Attack Range: 600
- Sight Range: 1800 / 800
Here's an example. Let's say you have quas and exort leveled up and have a blink dagger. You see an enemy Mortred farming alone. Forge Spirits and Ice Wall are invoked. You right click within blink range of her (ideally from such a direction that your ice wall will be perfectly placed), then hold shift and order your hero to blink next to her, cast ice wall, cast forge spirits, activate quas three times, invoke (invokes cold snap), activate exort three times, and then attack her. As soon as you arrive at your blink spot, your hero will instantly do all of the above-mentioned things - and all you'll have to do is cast cold snap on her manually, because you can't cast spells that haven't been invoked yet, even if you're queuing them for after the spell's been invoked.
If the above paragraph sounded intimidating and confusing, have no fear! Read on, and you'll learn what all of that means, how to do it, and more.
QuasQuas grants 1 HP regen for each level of Wex. This is granted once per active Quas reagent (you can have 3 reagents active). It also grants +2 Strength every time you level it.
Quas is the most defensive reagent around. It gives little benefit in clashes, but can be useful between them to heal up - 3 instances of level 2 Quas provide a bit more healing than a ring of health, and 3 instances of level 7 quas give 21 hp/sec - roughly triple vanguard or hood's regen. It also gives 38 HP every time you level it, and access mainly to defensive and disabling spells and effects - the exception being Forge Spirits.
WexWex grants 2% IAS and 1% ms for each level of Wex. This is granted once per active Wex reagent (you can have 3 reagents active). It also grants +2 Agility each time you level it.
Wex is something of a utility reagent. It increases your DPS by a bit when active due to increased IAS. More importantly, it increases your mobility a great deal. Turn this on to get around the map quickly or when you sense an incoming gank - movespeed can save you from many situations. The agility from leveling wex gives minor DPS and armor increases (+2 armor for all 7 levels combined), and the spells it gives access to have a good mix of damage, disable, and defensive effects. On the other hand, wex is generally the reagent that scales less effectively in spells it's part of.
ExortExort grants 3 damage for each level of Exort. This is granted once per active Exort reagent (you can have 3 reagents active). It also grants +2 Intelligence each time you level it.
Exort is your offense reagent. The increased damage when active makes last-hitting much easier and harassing more effective. It can be used to increase your DPS through much of the game. It also grants damage-providing Intelligence and access to a variety of powerful offensive spells.
InvokeThis is the spell that makes your other spells. Level 2 (available at level 7) is needed to give you access to 2 spells at the same time. The other levels give you the ability to cycle through spells more quickly at the cost of a greater mana cost to invoke - this can be solved completely with Aghanim's, which greatly reduces the cd of invoke and removes the mana cost.
Cold SnapQQQ
A great disable. Basically, whenever damage is dealt to a target that was cold-snapped, they get ministunned (.4 sec) and damaged (30 damage). Increasing Quas reduces the minimum amount of time between stuns (from .77 to .6) and increases the duration of cold snap (from 3 to 6). Due to the way it works, Cold Snap is great with heroes that do DoT to maximize the number of stuns (eg, Ion Shell). It has a fairly low CD (20s) and an amazing cast range (1000). Cold Snap has great synergy with Chaos Meteor, Ice Wall, Forge Spirits, and Orb of Venom.
Ghost WalkQQW
This is mainly used as an escape mechanism, but it also has a significantly useful slow; note that enemies will be able to tell you're there due to the slow so it's not useful for anything stealthy. The spell slows you (from 30% to 0% [W]) and the enemies (from 10% to 40% [Q]). It affects 400 AoE around you. Remember to cancel it immediately by using a reagent if you get dusted, unless you have wex maxed - it reduces your speed so much at low wex levels that you'll be doomed.
TornadoQWW
This is a fairly basic nuke with an additional cyclone effect. It can get up to 3100 range [W], and cyclone for up to 2.2s [Q]. It has a low 25s CD and affects an AoE of 200. Note that its casting range is 2000, so you can hit enemies much farther out by clicking partway to them.
Tornado's range is unbelievable and can be used to snipe running enemies. It can farm creep waves extremely fast (in a Q/W build, it can often kill the range creeps outright). The disable time is helpful to gain position for you or your allies (both by fleeing or catching up).
This spell can be used to cancel channeling spells, as primary initiation from afar, to save people, to make sure enemies die and to push/farm. It has a fairly short cooldown making it a reasonable spamming spell.
EMPWWW
This skill is most useful against strength casters. It can remove up to 400 mana and half as much hp [W]. Note that since EMP is direct removal, it will work even if the enemy is cycloned (like by Tornado). It is a little hard to land, especially at low levels, due to the delay between cast time and the effect (4-2 seconds [W]) and the small cast range (400). However, the large AoE (700) and Tornado or allied stuns can make it much easier to land. Unfortunately, the recent addition of items like magic wand, soul ring, and arcane boots makes mana burning much less profitable than it used to be - but if you happen to have a strong EMP anyway, burning away 400 mana and 200 health, reduced by nothing, can't hurt.
AlacrityWWE
Alacrity is a fantastically powerful spell, and is used in the vast majority of modern invoker builds. As it gives a 30-90 damage [E] and IAS [W] buff, the first level is very powerful, and available in plenty of time to use it to completely dominate a lane, even without putting additional points into wex or exort. The cooldown (15) isn't much longer than the duration (9), it only costs 50 mana, and of course, you can use it on allies as well, including siege engines early game if you're trying to damage towers and can't get close enough yourself. Remember that you can't cast alacrity on a magic immune hero, but if alacrity's already active, BKB and other sources of magic immunity won't remove it.
Chaos MeteorWEE
The aptly named Chaos Meteor is best used for creating chaos in a battle. It is also Kael's most potentially damaging spell. It does large amount of damage at the meteor itself (300 AoE) and much less damage for 3 more seconds. The distance it rolls goes from 465-1410 range [W]. The damage at the meteor varies from 80-260 dps [E] and from 8-26 dps [E] for 3 seconds afterward. Due to the fact that the damage is much higher while the enemy is in the AoE of the meteor, it is often used in conjunction with Deafening Blast to push the enemy along with the meteor. Ice wall can also be used to restrict opponents from getting off too easily. A common mistake invoker players make is relying too much on this spell - not only does it have a long CD and high mana cost, it's somewhat easy to avoid, even with other spells, and is best used in combination with other teamfight spells like tidehunter's, enigma's, or puck's ults. Higher-level invokers with sufficient mana regeneration and invoke cooldowns will often use this to blast away large waves of creeps, either for defense or incredibly easy farming.
Sun StrikeEEE
A simple nuke except for the delay and global range. You can cast it anywhere and it will split its damage among the enemies in the 200 AoE. It does from 74-450 damage [E] and has a 1.7 second delay before the cast goes off.
In order to aim it better, you can take an enemies ms into account and aim ahead by that amount times two (this will be roughly 600 or 700 units ahead most of the time). The AoE will help make up for some misjudgment.
Forge SpiritQEE
Invoker's ranged infernals, these spirits can be very painful for enemies and do a great job at razing buildings. Quas increases their duration (20s-80s; note that you can only have one group alive at any time), armor (2-8) and mana (100-400; used for their armor-reducing orb). Exort increases their HP (300-900), damage (29-83) and range (300-900). Note that any build that wants to use forge spirits should level both Q and E to 4: when this is achieved, this spell will summon 2 spirits instead of 1. Ice wall and cold snap both work very well with the spirits. Remember, Alacrity doesn't have a heroes-only clause - it can be very useful on a spirit if you want to burn off armor faster or simply don't have time to autoattack yourself (or have a handy carry around).
Ice WallQQE
This spell is deceptively powerful. Its slow (20-80%) is intense enough with Quas leveled that it will slow enemies to minimum ms. It is worth noting that the slow goes through BKB. The damage [E], ranges from 6-42 dps. Usually Wall is put up for the insane slow, but radiance-like dps isn't to be scoffed at either. After 4 or so levels of Quas, the enemies are slowed to a crawl, but more levels of Quas are powerful in order to extend the duration of the wall (3-12s). It's often a better escape skill than Ghost Walk, especially when the enemy has AoE or has cared enough to get dusts. It's also perhaps the best "snare" in DotA - a well-placed ice wall will keep pretty much anyone without a blink or pseudo-blink skill from getting away. Take advantage of this, and consider a blink dagger if you enjoy using this spell.
Placing ice wall can be frustrating if you aren't familiar with it or rush the job, but with practice and care, the massive AoE will make up for any minor mistakes. It manifests sideways, perpendicular to your current facing and directly in front of you. If you're blinking in to ice wall, remember to blink slightly to the side of where you want the ice wall, and then turn in the proper direction to place it perfectly.
Deafening BlastQWE
This spell is amazing. Once you are fully leveled it does 280 damage [E], has 1.75s of full disable (during knockback [Q]) and silences attacks for 4 seconds after that [W]. The damage is ok, but the best part is the duration of the disable. It has a 40s cd, and affects 250 AoE. It's cast range of 1000 lets you sweep out a long rectangle of disable.
This spell can be used to cancel channeling spells, as secondary initiation, to save people, to make sure enemies die and, later, to push faster. It's mostly saved for team battles or used as a secondary disable to save yourself/allies or ensure an enemy's death. It has strong synergy with meteor and ice wall.
Okay, you've read the basics of invoker. You know the basics of how the hero works, how to invoker spells, and what each spell does. Now it's time to put that into practice - but you're probably not ready for a serious game as invoker yet. There's simply too much to learn all at once. Instead, try these practice builds - I recommend starting with the first and working your way through. They're designed to explore the limits of what invoker is capable of in various areas and give you hands-on experience with how his various reagents and spells work. If you have a terrible early game and the game ends in twenty minutes or something like that, play it again until you feel like you've actually seen good results out of what you're doing. None of these builds are ideal for actual play - they're far too balls-to-the-wall extreme - but in disorganized pubs, you should be able to at least get the idea of invoker's potential from them. While playing these builds, keep in mind that invoker is one of the most level-dependent heroes around - don't die if if at all possible, get a solo lane, and if you can't solo, get as many kills as you can and encourage your lane partner to pull often.
Mobility Learning Build
The build focuses on movespeed by abusing Wex and getting Boots of Travel and Eul's Scepter of Divinity (to reach 484ms). Afterwards, it uses Yasha to maintain max ms permanently. Spellwise, it uses spells like Tornado and Deafening Blast to control the flow of the game.
Level 01 - Exort
Level 02 - Quas
Level 03 - Wex
Level 04 - Invoke (invoke Tornado)
Level 05 - Wex
Level 06 - Wex
Level 07 - Invoke (invoke Deafening Blast)
Max Wex
Max Quas
Max Exort
Get Invoke as possible/desired
Feel free to leave invoke at level 2 for a while - since this is the first build you're trying, you probably won't be shuffling through spells much - after you have tornado/blast down, practice working EMP into the combo. If you think you're up to it, though, take another level or two of invoke and try adding Alacrity on a handy ally after the other spells. Don't forget Ghost Walk's available for escapes.
Core Items
Since you're not leveling quas early, a bracer helps boost your hit points to a more reasonable level. Eul's gives you an extra disable, but also takes care of your mana needs, and stacks quite well with Wex to increase your MS even more. BoT gives you the mobility you need to start being your team's knight in shining armor. With 484 ms and teleportation, you can be where you need to be to gank, push, countergank, teamfight and just outright save allies who were in the wrong place. Next we get Yasha, which gives us max MS whenever three wex instances are active - perma-haste on demand.
Extension Items
Guinsoo's provides one more disable (one of the best in the game) and infinite mana. As if that wasn't enough, it throws in a bit more survivability and dps (due to Wex and Yasha's IAS).
Manta might seem odd, but it's fairly effective (also cheap since you have Yasha). The idea is to go to a lane, push it quickly with your spells, spawn images (and spirits later on) and move on. The images give you a way to deal minor damage to buildings (if you can push that far) or push a little farther at very little risk to yourself. This kind of pushing puts a lot of pressure on the enemy.
Your job with this build is to set the pace of the game. You decide when fights will occur. You make pushes happen and break them. You set up ganks and counter them. Control is the name of the game and, with 9 seconds of AoE disable, max ms, teleportation, and a single target disable, you are its master.
Early game will not be easy, but once you get to mid-game the power of your disabling coupled to your nearly unmatched mobility (plausible exceptions for Tinker, Furion and Meepo with BoT) will help your team win teamfights, gank, countergank and push. You will rely on Tornado for most of your pushing and help win teamfights with Deafening Blast and EMP. Your Ice Wall and Ghost Walk are also going to be pretty good slows due to the strong W and Q in this build. Late-game this build converges with every other Invoker build except that you're faster.
The Concept
The build focuses on movespeed by abusing Wex and getting Boots of Travel and Eul's Scepter of Divinity (to reach 484ms). Afterwards, it uses Yasha to maintain max ms permanently. Spellwise, it uses spells like Tornado and Deafening Blast to control the flow of the game.
The Skillbuild
Level 01 - Exort
Level 02 - Quas
Level 03 - Wex
Level 04 - Invoke (invoke Tornado)
Level 05 - Wex
Level 06 - Wex
Level 07 - Invoke (invoke Deafening Blast)
Max Wex
Max Quas
Max Exort
Get Invoke as possible/desired
Feel free to leave invoke at level 2 for a while - since this is the first build you're trying, you probably won't be shuffling through spells much - after you have tornado/blast down, practice working EMP into the combo. If you think you're up to it, though, take another level or two of invoke and try adding Alacrity on a handy ally after the other spells. Don't forget Ghost Walk's available for escapes.
The Itembuild
Core Items
Since you're not leveling quas early, a bracer helps boost your hit points to a more reasonable level. Eul's gives you an extra disable, but also takes care of your mana needs, and stacks quite well with Wex to increase your MS even more. BoT gives you the mobility you need to start being your team's knight in shining armor. With 484 ms and teleportation, you can be where you need to be to gank, push, countergank, teamfight and just outright save allies who were in the wrong place. Next we get Yasha, which gives us max MS whenever three wex instances are active - perma-haste on demand.
Extension Items
Guinsoo's provides one more disable (one of the best in the game) and infinite mana. As if that wasn't enough, it throws in a bit more survivability and dps (due to Wex and Yasha's IAS). Manta might seem odd, but it's fairly effective (also cheap since you have Yasha). The idea is to go to a lane, push it quickly with your spells, spawn images (and spirits later on) and move on. The images give you a way to deal minor damage to buildings (if you can push that far) or push a little farther at very little risk to yourself. This kind of pushing puts a lot of pressure on the enemy.Gameplay
Your job with this build is to set the pace of the game. You decide when fights will occur. You make pushes happen and break them. You set up ganks and counter them. Control is the name of the game and, with 9 seconds of AoE disable, max ms, teleportation, and a single target disable, you are its master.
Early game will not be easy, but once you get to mid-game the power of your disabling coupled to your nearly unmatched mobility (plausible exceptions for Tinker, Furion and Meepo with BoT) will help your team win teamfights, gank, countergank and push. You will rely on Tornado for most of your pushing and help win teamfights with Deafening Blast and EMP. Your Ice Wall and Ghost Walk are also going to be pretty good slows due to the strong W and Q in this build. Late-game this build converges with every other Invoker build except that you're faster.
Roamer/Disable Build
This build focuses on disabling your enemies. Early on, it showcases Invoker's abilities as a ganker. Later, it focuses on completely shutting down the enemy team in fights.
Level 01 - Exort
Level 02 - Quas
Level 03 - Invoke (invoke Cold Snap)
Level 04 - Quas
Level 05 - Quas
Level 06 - nothing
Level 07 - Quas and Invoke (invoke Ice Wall)
Level 08 - Wex
Max Quas
Max Exort
Max Wex
Get Invoke as possible/desired
As with the above build, you don't necessarily need more than two levels of invoke very early, but if you want to use spell combos a little more ambitiously, feel free to level it up as it comes available. When practicing spell shuffling with this build, the best third spell is Deafening Blast, used to push your hapless enemies into the ice wall once they've escaped it or if they simply aren't in its initial AoE. A fourth spell, once you have the invoke cooldown to support it, should probably be Tornado for even more disabling goodness.
Core Items
Since you're maxing quas first, you have no need for HP items. Wand gives nice burst healing to complement your ridiculous regeneration, and phase boots let you place better ice walls and add a bit of damage.
Extension Items
Blink Dagger lets you place a perfect Ice Wall in every battle. It'll also help you understand the usefulness of Blink Dagger in a serious Invoker build for positioning. The added mobility and situational escape skills are a bonus.
Guinsoo's provides one more disable (one of the best in the game) and infinite mana. As if that wasn't enough, it throws in a bit more survivability and damage output.
Shiva's gives you an additional AoE slow to increase chaos. It is a great survival item against physical DPSers and does wonders for your armor. It also provides generous mana and an additional AoE nuke for pushing. Keep in mind that MS can't go below 100, so save Shiva's until after the enemy leaves the effect of Ice Wall.
Your job with this build is two-fold. Early through mid-game, you roam and keep enemies down. You do this mostly by casting cold snap on them and beating on them. Put an icewall across the escape route and have an ally join you in the beatdown. Your high-level Quas should be used to heal between ganks.
Starting mid-game and going through late-game your job description includes causing the enemy team to fight at a disadvantage due to AoE slows. This means Ice Wall, Shiva's and Ghost Walk are used to slow the enemy to a crawl. Once you have level 4 Exort, you can also push (if the opportunity presents itself) with Spirits and Shiva's for AoE creep damage.
The Concept
This build focuses on disabling your enemies. Early on, it showcases Invoker's abilities as a ganker. Later, it focuses on completely shutting down the enemy team in fights.
The Skillbuild
Level 01 - Exort
Level 02 - Quas
Level 03 - Invoke (invoke Cold Snap)
Level 04 - Quas
Level 05 - Quas
Level 06 - nothing
Level 07 - Quas and Invoke (invoke Ice Wall)
Level 08 - Wex
Max Quas
Max Exort
Max Wex
Get Invoke as possible/desired
As with the above build, you don't necessarily need more than two levels of invoke very early, but if you want to use spell combos a little more ambitiously, feel free to level it up as it comes available. When practicing spell shuffling with this build, the best third spell is Deafening Blast, used to push your hapless enemies into the ice wall once they've escaped it or if they simply aren't in its initial AoE. A fourth spell, once you have the invoke cooldown to support it, should probably be Tornado for even more disabling goodness.
The Itembuild
Core Items
Since you're maxing quas first, you have no need for HP items. Wand gives nice burst healing to complement your ridiculous regeneration, and phase boots let you place better ice walls and add a bit of damage.
Extension Items
Blink Dagger lets you place a perfect Ice Wall in every battle. It'll also help you understand the usefulness of Blink Dagger in a serious Invoker build for positioning. The added mobility and situational escape skills are a bonus. Guinsoo's provides one more disable (one of the best in the game) and infinite mana. As if that wasn't enough, it throws in a bit more survivability and damage output. Shiva's gives you an additional AoE slow to increase chaos. It is a great survival item against physical DPSers and does wonders for your armor. It also provides generous mana and an additional AoE nuke for pushing. Keep in mind that MS can't go below 100, so save Shiva's until after the enemy leaves the effect of Ice Wall.Gameplay
Your job with this build is two-fold. Early through mid-game, you roam and keep enemies down. You do this mostly by casting cold snap on them and beating on them. Put an icewall across the escape route and have an ally join you in the beatdown. Your high-level Quas should be used to heal between ganks.
Starting mid-game and going through late-game your job description includes causing the enemy team to fight at a disadvantage due to AoE slows. This means Ice Wall, Shiva's and Ghost Walk are used to slow the enemy to a crawl. Once you have level 4 Exort, you can also push (if the opportunity presents itself) with Spirits and Shiva's for AoE creep damage.
Summoning Build
This build focuses on pushing with your spirits. Necrobook is gotten for stats and their auras, which will help your spirits quite a lot.
Level 01 - Exort
Level 02 - Quas
Level 03 - Invoke (invoke Spirits)
Level 04 - Exort
Level 05 - Exort
Level 06 - Quas
Level 07 - Invoke (invoke Cold Snap)
Level 08 - Exort
Level 09 - Quas
Level 10 - Quas
Level 11 - Wex
Max Exort
Max Quas
Max Wex
Get Invoke as possible/desired
Go ahead and leave invoke on level two for a while - you'll pretty much only be using two spells for most of the game. This build focuses a huge amount on forge spirits and ignores almost everything else. The idea is to learn the ins and outs of your summons and abuse their power as much as possible. Cold Snap, combined with you, an ally and spirits can do heavy damage. Meteor is a fairly good spell choice in order to wipe out creep waves for quick pushes. Ice Wall works very well to keep opponents from escaping you and your spirits.
Core Items
Like before, early levels of quas give you plenty of HP. Spirits get plenty of mana and armor as they level up, so there's no need for RoB - after a wand and boots, you can pretty much rush Necro3. It gives the spirits slightly more attack speed, quite a bit of MS, but most importantly two more friends to beat your enemies down with.
Extension Items
Boots of Travel give you a huge amount of mobility. They let you and your army be where you need to be at any point in time. Use BoT to push with meteor, blast and your entire army at any lane that looks vulnerable.
Blinking in next to a single foe, snapping or ice walling him, and then summoning all your little friends while following up with another disable if necessary will probably spell his doom. In addition to the outrageous kill power, dagger's also nice to further increase your mobility and safety while pushing.
Your job with this build is to push. You have a strong, portable army that can do heavy damage and you should use it to raze buildings to the ground. In team fights, contribute by doing damage with your spirits/necrowarriors, cold snapping whoever's being focused, and potentially casting meteor/deafening blast to add chaos.
The Concept
This build focuses on pushing with your spirits. Necrobook is gotten for stats and their auras, which will help your spirits quite a lot.
The Skillbuild
Level 01 - Exort
Level 02 - Quas
Level 03 - Invoke (invoke Spirits)
Level 04 - Exort
Level 05 - Exort
Level 06 - Quas
Level 07 - Invoke (invoke Cold Snap)
Level 08 - Exort
Level 09 - Quas
Level 10 - Quas
Level 11 - Wex
Max Exort
Max Quas
Max Wex
Get Invoke as possible/desired
Go ahead and leave invoke on level two for a while - you'll pretty much only be using two spells for most of the game. This build focuses a huge amount on forge spirits and ignores almost everything else. The idea is to learn the ins and outs of your summons and abuse their power as much as possible. Cold Snap, combined with you, an ally and spirits can do heavy damage. Meteor is a fairly good spell choice in order to wipe out creep waves for quick pushes. Ice Wall works very well to keep opponents from escaping you and your spirits.
The Itembuild
Core Items
Like before, early levels of quas give you plenty of HP. Spirits get plenty of mana and armor as they level up, so there's no need for RoB - after a wand and boots, you can pretty much rush Necro3. It gives the spirits slightly more attack speed, quite a bit of MS, but most importantly two more friends to beat your enemies down with.
Extension Items
Boots of Travel give you a huge amount of mobility. They let you and your army be where you need to be at any point in time. Use BoT to push with meteor, blast and your entire army at any lane that looks vulnerable. Blinking in next to a single foe, snapping or ice walling him, and then summoning all your little friends while following up with another disable if necessary will probably spell his doom. In addition to the outrageous kill power, dagger's also nice to further increase your mobility and safety while pushing.Gameplay
Your job with this build is to push. You have a strong, portable army that can do heavy damage and you should use it to raze buildings to the ground. In team fights, contribute by doing damage with your spirits/necrowarriors, cold snapping whoever's being focused, and potentially casting meteor/deafening blast to add chaos.
DPS Build
The idea here is to build yourself as a pure dpser. Deso will provide the raw damage you need and you'll give it a huge boost with Alacrity.
Level 01 - Exort
Level 02 - Wex
Level 03 - Invoke (invoke Alacrity)
Level 04 - Exort
Level 05 - Exort
Level 06 - Wex
Level 07 - Invoke (invoke Chaos Meteor)
Level 08 - Exort
Level 09 - Wex
Level 10 - Wex
Level 11 - Wex
Max Exort
Max Wex
Max Quas
Get Invoke as possible/desired
Again, you probably won't be shuffling spells much here. The goal is simply to do as much damage as you can, as fast as you can. Alacrity and Meteor are the best spells for the job.
Core Items
The wand and urn are your nod to keeping yourself alive and healthy. Treads is the clear boots choice for the attack speed bonus and additional hp (you'll get focused once they see your dps). Then Deso. Well, Deso's where you give up any pretense of survivability or casting and go for an all-out glass cannon build.
Extension Items
Lothar's is a reasonable way to help you survive despite being fragile and a high-priority target (due to your high dps). As with any other Lothar's purchase, it's about the phase and the huge MS boost, not the invisibility. That's just an added bonus if your enemies are foolish. Combined with your high Wex in this build, you can very easily achieve max ms. When you are about to get focused, make the enemy have to run through the rest of your team in order to get to you.
HoT is the only item that can really "fix" your fragility. Even after HoT, your hp is subpar, but at least it can no longer be called pathetic.
Your job with this build is to do damage. You put Alacrity on yourself and start attacking. Toss a Meteor into the fray to break the enemy's formation and give yourself time to dps. You'll need some good support to make this work.
The Concept
The idea here is to build yourself as a pure dpser. Deso will provide the raw damage you need and you'll give it a huge boost with Alacrity.
The Skillbuild
Level 01 - Exort
Level 02 - Wex
Level 03 - Invoke (invoke Alacrity)
Level 04 - Exort
Level 05 - Exort
Level 06 - Wex
Level 07 - Invoke (invoke Chaos Meteor)
Level 08 - Exort
Level 09 - Wex
Level 10 - Wex
Level 11 - Wex
Max Exort
Max Wex
Max Quas
Get Invoke as possible/desired
Again, you probably won't be shuffling spells much here. The goal is simply to do as much damage as you can, as fast as you can. Alacrity and Meteor are the best spells for the job.
The Itembuild
Core Items
The wand and urn are your nod to keeping yourself alive and healthy. Treads is the clear boots choice for the attack speed bonus and additional hp (you'll get focused once they see your dps). Then Deso. Well, Deso's where you give up any pretense of survivability or casting and go for an all-out glass cannon build.
Extension Items
Lothar's is a reasonable way to help you survive despite being fragile and a high-priority target (due to your high dps). As with any other Lothar's purchase, it's about the phase and the huge MS boost, not the invisibility. That's just an added bonus if your enemies are foolish. Combined with your high Wex in this build, you can very easily achieve max ms. When you are about to get focused, make the enemy have to run through the rest of your team in order to get to you. HoT is the only item that can really "fix" your fragility. Even after HoT, your hp is subpar, but at least it can no longer be called pathetic.Gameplay
Your job with this build is to do damage. You put Alacrity on yourself and start attacking. Toss a Meteor into the fray to break the enemy's formation and give yourself time to dps. You'll need some good support to make this work.
Nuking Build
This build gives you as much burst damage as possible. It pumps Exort to give you the ability to nuke powerfully with Sun Strike and the Meteor + Blast combo, and gets items that increase your burst damage.
Level 01 - Exort
Level 02 - Invoke (invoke Sun Strike)
Level 03 - Exort
Level 04 - Wex
Level 05 - Exort
Level 06 - _____
Level 07 - Exort and Invoke (invoke Chaos Meteor)
Level 08 - Quas
Max Exort
Max Wex
Max Quas
Get Invoke as possible/desired
This build is all about damage. As a result, we need to crank Exort up as fast as possible to gain a powerful Sun Strike, Chaos Meteor and Deafening Blast. This build's, and indeed Invoker's, most massive nuke is performed by sending out a Chaos Meteor and then using Deafening Blast to push the enemy along it's path. Those two spells and Sun Strike should be what you work on in this build. Leveling invoke whenever you can is probably a good idea - chaos meteor and deafening blast with sun strike as a finisher is all very well and good, but chaos meteor, deafening blast, and alacrity with sun strike as a finisher is even better.
Core Items
Wand, treads, and urn give you the basics - healing when needed, hit points, and some mana regen. Then, it's time for Dagon to go completely balls-out nuking.
Extension Items
Leveling Dagon further is the logical choice to make this build even more extreme. While the upgrades are expensive, the sheer damage (not to mention decreased mana cost and cooldown) makes it surprisingly viable if you can afford it. You can skip this and go straight for Shiva's if you'd like.
Shiva's completes your set of nuking items. It also provides you with a comfortable mana pool.
Refresher is the final boost you can give to your nuking power. Assuming you have enough mana, it doubles your ability to do damage with your spells. I'd only recommend this after Shiva's due to the stress it puts on your mana pool.
The nuking build is meant to nuke. Early game, aid ganks with your powerful sun strike. Later, strike fear into the enemy with Chaos Meteor and get kills by combining it with Deafening Blast. Once you have Dagon, your potential burst damage is huge. That said, it's not very reliable. Both Sun Strike and Chaos Meteor require specific situations to effectively deal damage.
The Concept
This build gives you as much burst damage as possible. It pumps Exort to give you the ability to nuke powerfully with Sun Strike and the Meteor + Blast combo, and gets items that increase your burst damage.
The Skillbuild
Level 01 - Exort
Level 02 - Invoke (invoke Sun Strike)
Level 03 - Exort
Level 04 - Wex
Level 05 - Exort
Level 06 - _____
Level 07 - Exort and Invoke (invoke Chaos Meteor)
Level 08 - Quas
Max Exort
Max Wex
Max Quas
Get Invoke as possible/desired
This build is all about damage. As a result, we need to crank Exort up as fast as possible to gain a powerful Sun Strike, Chaos Meteor and Deafening Blast. This build's, and indeed Invoker's, most massive nuke is performed by sending out a Chaos Meteor and then using Deafening Blast to push the enemy along it's path. Those two spells and Sun Strike should be what you work on in this build. Leveling invoke whenever you can is probably a good idea - chaos meteor and deafening blast with sun strike as a finisher is all very well and good, but chaos meteor, deafening blast, and alacrity with sun strike as a finisher is even better.
The Itembuild
Core Items
Wand, treads, and urn give you the basics - healing when needed, hit points, and some mana regen. Then, it's time for Dagon to go completely balls-out nuking.
Extension Items
Leveling Dagon further is the logical choice to make this build even more extreme. While the upgrades are expensive, the sheer damage (not to mention decreased mana cost and cooldown) makes it surprisingly viable if you can afford it. You can skip this and go straight for Shiva's if you'd like. Shiva's completes your set of nuking items. It also provides you with a comfortable mana pool. Refresher is the final boost you can give to your nuking power. Assuming you have enough mana, it doubles your ability to do damage with your spells. I'd only recommend this after Shiva's due to the stress it puts on your mana pool.Gameplay
The nuking build is meant to nuke. Early game, aid ganks with your powerful sun strike. Later, strike fear into the enemy with Chaos Meteor and get kills by combining it with Deafening Blast. Once you have Dagon, your potential burst damage is huge. That said, it's not very reliable. Both Sun Strike and Chaos Meteor require specific situations to effectively deal damage.
Spell Spam Learning Build
After you've mastered the other learning builds, you're ready for the stereotypical invoker challenge - tossing off every single spell you have as fast as you can!
Level 01 - Quas
Level 02 - Invoke
Level 03 - Exort
Level 04 - Wex
Level 05 - Quas
Level 06 - Exort
Level 07 - Invoke
Level 08 - Wex
Level 09 - Quas
Level 10 - Exort
Level 11 - Wex
Level 12 - Invoke
Level 13 - Quas
Level 14 - Exort
Level 15 - Wex
Level 16 - Quas
Level 17 - Invoke
Level 18 - Exort
Level 19 - Wex
Level 20 - Quas
Level 21 - Exort
Level 22 - Wex
Level 23 - Quas
Level 24 - Exort
Level 25 - Wex
This build is about variety, so you can really level your reagents in whatever order you please, as long as you keep them roughly equal. We're beyond the point of invoking specific spells when we level invoke 1 and 2, now - all your spells will be weak, so you'll have to use exactly the right one for the situation, every time.
Core Items
Get boots of speed, and then finish your aghanim's as soon as possible. Your entire purpose in this build is to throw down as much shit as you can, and aghanim's is by far the best way to do that.
Extension Items
If you're going to spam spells, you're going to need mana. This is a nice way to get more of it.
This build is all about cranking out as many spells as you can, and picking the right one for every situation. You have 9 spells available at level 3, and 10 at level 4, but none of them will be particularly strong, so make sure you choose wisely!
The Concept
After you've mastered the other learning builds, you're ready for the stereotypical invoker challenge - tossing off every single spell you have as fast as you can!
The Skillbuild
Level 01 - Quas
Level 02 - Invoke
Level 03 - Exort
Level 04 - Wex
Level 05 - Quas
Level 06 - Exort
Level 07 - Invoke
Level 08 - Wex
Level 09 - Quas
Level 10 - Exort
Level 11 - Wex
Level 12 - Invoke
Level 13 - Quas
Level 14 - Exort
Level 15 - Wex
Level 16 - Quas
Level 17 - Invoke
Level 18 - Exort
Level 19 - Wex
Level 20 - Quas
Level 21 - Exort
Level 22 - Wex
Level 23 - Quas
Level 24 - Exort
Level 25 - Wex
This build is about variety, so you can really level your reagents in whatever order you please, as long as you keep them roughly equal. We're beyond the point of invoking specific spells when we level invoke 1 and 2, now - all your spells will be weak, so you'll have to use exactly the right one for the situation, every time.
The Itembuild
Core Items
Get boots of speed, and then finish your aghanim's as soon as possible. Your entire purpose in this build is to throw down as much shit as you can, and aghanim's is by far the best way to do that.
Extension Items
If you're going to spam spells, you're going to need mana. This is a nice way to get more of it.Gameplay
This build is all about cranking out as many spells as you can, and picking the right one for every situation. You have 9 spells available at level 3, and 10 at level 4, but none of them will be particularly strong, so make sure you choose wisely!
All right, hotshot. You've played each of the learning builds, and managed to get good results with each. You're comfortable invoking and using all ten spells, and playing invoker in just about any role and situation. You're ready to start playing invoker to win. The most important thing you can take away from the learning builds, though, besides the raw experience with invoker you got, is that invoker is blessed with more flexibility than any other hero in DotA. You can use that flexibility to react to your opponents, like you did with the spell spam learning build, but you'll get much better results simply deciding on your course at the beginning of the game - based on the other heroes in the match, not arbitrarily - and forcing your far less flexible opponents to adapt to you. In fact, it's probably a good idea to practice that with the learning builds one last time before you move on - start a game as invoker, look at the other heroes in the game, and try to pick the learning build that will give your opponents the most trouble. Use it and see what happens. After a few of those, you really are ready to start playing a serious invoker.
Playing invoker to win a game is, unlike with most heroes, pretty dissimilar from the best way to learn the basics. Once you know the basics, though, it becomes a bit more familiar - it's all about optimization (the most efficient/effective possible course of action) and execution (taking that course of action perfectly). We'll start off by exploring the former by looking at various ways to build up your invoker, and then move on to the latter. Once we're done with that, I'll move on to explaining when you should go for what type of invoker.
I hear it twenty times a day from my girlfriend, who I'm teaching to play DotA: "what do I level/buy now?" Well, with invoker, it's less simple than on most heroes. The following are build concepts, meaning that they aren't just a set of instructions meant to be followed to the letter - they go over a way to play invoker, compare the different skill and item choices it presents, analyze its strengths and weaknesses in competitive DotA, and give tips for using it and customizing it to your situation. The builds are presented in rough order of usefulness, assuming the highest levels of play.
A brief note before we begin: Traditionally, Invoker builds have been categorized by reagent - for example, an EQ build uses Exort and Quas, a QW build uses Quas and Wex, an EW build uses Exort and Wex. These definitions are useful, but somewhat miss the point, as the precise way an invoker levels up his skills can (and should) change every game to fit the situation, even if he's using a single build concept. A traditional EW build, for example, may in many cases be better off with just two or three levels of wex for about half the game. As such, referring to invoker by reagent should be done according to the following format:
Wex-less or -W invokers are those that tend to neglect Wex.
Exort-less or -E invokers are those that tend to neglect Exort.
Quas-less or -Q invokers are those that tend to neglect Quas.
A brief note before we begin: Traditionally, Invoker builds have been categorized by reagent - for example, an EQ build uses Exort and Quas, a QW build uses Quas and Wex, an EW build uses Exort and Wex. These definitions are useful, but somewhat miss the point, as the precise way an invoker levels up his skills can (and should) change every game to fit the situation, even if he's using a single build concept. A traditional EW build, for example, may in many cases be better off with just two or three levels of wex for about half the game. As such, referring to invoker by reagent should be done according to the following format:
Wex-less or -W invokers are those that tend to neglect Wex.
Exort-less or -E invokers are those that tend to neglect Exort.
Quas-less or -Q invokers are those that tend to neglect Quas.
(-E) Flow Control
Invokers that didn't focus on dual spirits or meteor were "old school" in the European scene for a while, especially after 6.69c. Fortunately, China's around to do shit completely differently and take us all (or me, at least) by surprise. A -E invoker, unlike a -W, doesn't give two shits about getting dual spirits up or any of that "damage" nonsense - he's pure disable- and crowd control-based, and won't let you forget it as he dominates the map, churns out somewhat obscene amounts of AoE disable, and generally drives you crazy. This looks pretty much standard on Chinese teams for now, and it definitely works for them, while the same can be said of -W on European teams - if anyone ever learns to play both styles, they'll be unstoppable. Short of, you know, a hero ban.
Replays
BeNz/Sheringan (DK vs CCM)
Dendi (Navi vs MYM)
Invokers that didn't focus on dual spirits or meteor were "old school" in the European scene for a while, especially after 6.69c. Fortunately, China's around to do shit completely differently and take us all (or me, at least) by surprise. A -E invoker, unlike a -W, doesn't give two shits about getting dual spirits up or any of that "damage" nonsense - he's pure disable- and crowd control-based, and won't let you forget it as he dominates the map, churns out somewhat obscene amounts of AoE disable, and generally drives you crazy. This looks pretty much standard on Chinese teams for now, and it definitely works for them, while the same can be said of -W on European teams - if anyone ever learns to play both styles, they'll be unstoppable. Short of, you know, a hero ban.
Replays
BeNz/Sheringan (DK vs CCM)
Dendi (Navi vs MYM)
(-W) Kill Power
While invoker was more or less unused competitively, this is the build, more or less, that you were most likely to see. Now that he is being used competitively, you still see it quite a bit, mostly on European and other non-Asian teams. -W builds focus on killing and pushing power, with a fair bit of disable thrown in. Forge spirits is the defining spell of this build - it can abuse their power like none other - but you can do a little bit of everything (the only spell you truly miss is EMP), and your opponents can never know what to expect. This is the modern invoker style that first swept competitive DotA and kicked its ass so hard that the hero's pretty much permabanned now.
Strategy
Your strategy with a -W build is to dominate a solo lane early, get a respectable set of items up for the midgame, and then go on a tower-pushing, hero-killing, ass-kicking rampage, ideally raxing your opponents before any hard carries they have get a chance to farm up. If you don't end early enough and the game goes late, you can vomit out disables very effectively in support of a hard carry, so using a strong -W invoker as part of a more lategame-focused strategy is viable as well - though if you're planning on turtling at all, -E may be a better choice.
Early Game
A -W invoker's goal in the early game is to farm up as much as he safely can, shut down his lane opponent as best he can, and push the tower in his lane as much as he can, in that order. He can also assist in other lanes with sunstrike, depending on his build, but generally speaking, he stays put - leave the roaming and ganking to other heroes.
Skills: The most commonly seen opener is as such:
This gives you Alacrity access, which is your primary laning tool. You have far more raw damage than anybody should at this point in the game, so take advantage of it to make some heads roll - you should be able to get more or less every last hit while harassing your opponent out of the lane. Use this build when your opponent isn't much of a challenge (barring ganks) and you want to make the most of your advantage - lion is the best example.
Sometimes, however, you're up against a lane where you want raw power, but you also need to be defensive:
Subbing in two levels of quas gives you regeneration on demand and a strong cold snap, letting you fare much better against aggression (not to mention cancel clarities and salves with ease). Shadow fiend is the best example of a hero to use this build against - you out-last-hit him early with exort and then alacrity, but you have regen and cold snap available on demand for if and when he starts nuking you hard. A level 6 invoker with level 3 exort and alacrity won't win a 1v1 with a shadow fiend - a level 6 invoker with level 3 quas and cold snap will, assuming you stay too close for a C raze.
If your lane isn't safe enough to start off with fast alacrity at all, you'll have to go for this alternate option:
Lich is the best example of a hero to use this build against. You want exort first for last hitting, but you'll want to get quas up fast to survive the constant nukes, and even with safe play and this build, you'll probably need extra healing - being underleveled as invoker sucks. But with some consumables and quas, you'll be able to stay in lane and get some farm, and if you get a gank, lich is doomed - if you're wary of chain frost. If you have trouble against lich or any other tough aggressive lane, feel free to swap quas in at level 1, and delay exort until 6 - if it keeps you alive and farming, there's no shame in it.
Regardless of the specific option you take, you should spend no more than one level on wex, and you shouldn't take quas or exort to level five - you need dual spirits for the midgame, so don't do anything that will delay them - though a single wex level and invoke level 2 are valuable enough to not be considered a delay.
Items: Cheap stats and speed, potentially some damage. Don't bother building any big items here - you're going to shine (and do most of your work) during the midgame, and you have four slots to put small stuff in after your boots and one "bigger" midgame item. The following are good examples, sorted roughly from aggressive (lots of small items, which gives you the power to immediately start kicking ass) to passive (not so many small items, which means staying away from fights a bit more while you rush something bigger). Remember, if your build includes power treads, you should more or less be shuffling them from Int to Str and back every time your answer to "am I going to be taking damage soon?" changes - especially if you're using quas to regen hit points.
Tactics:
Midgame
In the midgame, a -W invoker's goal is to push and kill. Take down towers and heroes whenever you can - you're fully capable of doing both alone. Farm when you can't kill or push. Don't die, at all - you're a carry, albeit a somewhat untraditional one. All this pushing, killing, and farming should get you a significant amount of gold and experience to build up your power. In most games, you'll use that power to push down raxes with your team and end the game before it goes too late. Yeah, people talk about the power of a lategame invoker when you have the full power of all your spells available to you, but you can't realistically use all of those spells in the same fight, and you start falling seriously behind straight-up DPS carries. However, if your team has a hard carry or two of its own, you can definitely play a longer game. Your goal for the lategame is to have as many strong disables as possible, not dish out as much damage as possible, simply because it plays far more to your natural strengths. Keep that in mind going forward.
Skills:
Midgame dominance for a -W invoker is more or less based around Forge Spirits. Obtain dual spirits (level 4 of quas/exort) ASAP, and keep a pair up pretty much all the time. What spells you use with Forge Spirits is more or less up to you. Pretty much every spell but EMP is at a decent power level when you hit level 11, though ghost walk does of course slow you considerably, and Meteor and Tornado have a short range. That being said, certain spells are obviously better than others in different situations - Meteor is one of your best options for rapid pushing, Alacrity is your best option for jungling/roshing, cold snap and ice wall are probably your best options for teamfights. After invoke 3 at 12 (you'll almost always value shorter cooldowns more than an increase in the power of 6/10 spells), you can continue to pump quas and/or exort (side by side is certainly an option), or start mixing in wex. Wex arguably has a more minor effect than the other reagents on every single spell it "shares" - EMP is obviously a different story - and EMP takes a fair few levels of wex to become effective. Because of this, you'll usually see either no wex here, one level to boost meteor and tornado range, or three to make EMP useful. After however much wex you decide to get, you have to choose whether to level quas or exort further. Quas is arguably the better option in most games - it increases your spirits' offense (which is far more important than their defense), increases your HERO'S defense, and maximizes the power of your disables. Exort does add more offense to every spell but forge spirits, but forge spirits should be your main workhorse anyway, and frankly, your team should have damage sources other than you by this point. With a single extra level of wex and quas after that, you'll have Q7W2E4I4 at level 17, which is an invoker with incredible disabling power, decent firepower, and a reasonable amount of health - not to mention just about no reason to visit the fountain again. Probably the most optimal choice in most games. If your team doesn't have a hard carry or they aren't doing well, though, grab a few more levels of exort and see how much damage you can dish out.
Items: You have a lot of options here. Blink dagger is pretty much never a mistake on invoker - you should already have plenty of stats and such from your early-game items, and the mobility and initiation power is unparalleled. However, depending upon the situation, there are many other viable options - you're pretty much the king of flexibility, and you'd be wise to leverage it. If you're pushing, don't try making anything too ambitious - the idea is to end the game before anyone on the other team can make 10k in items, not make it yourself. If you're heading for a lategame, one big item and one smaller one is usually a good goal - blink dagger and guinsoo is perhaps the most obvious and utilitarian combo, but there are options as well. Here's a list of pretty much everything you should ever consider (obviously, some of these, especially towards the end, are VERY marginal 999/1000 games):
Tactics:
Endgame
Frankly, as mentioned above, your goal with a -W invoker should be to rax your opponents for the victory during the midgame stage. However, you do have follow-up options if you don't manage to pull that off. Your focus should shift entirely over to disabling and killing heroes at this point, and you should try to maintain buyback gold, as you're one of the best pushers and defenders in the game.
Skills: Max whatever reagents you haven't yet - and invoke, of course. Your main focus should be on powering up your teamfight spells as much as possible, especially the disables. Tornado, Deafening Blast, Ice Wall, Meteor - even EMP should start finding its way into your combos by level 21 or so. Do your best to help whatever hard DPS carry your team has (hopefully there is one) take down as many enemies as he can. You should have about as much disable power as the entire enemy team, so make the most of it.
Items: If you have gold to spare after finishing whatever big item you started in the midgame and beyond your buyback buffer, buy another big item from the same list - anything that fits.
Tactics:
Replays
Pajkatt (GGnet vs Fearz)
While invoker was more or less unused competitively, this is the build, more or less, that you were most likely to see. Now that he is being used competitively, you still see it quite a bit, mostly on European and other non-Asian teams. -W builds focus on killing and pushing power, with a fair bit of disable thrown in. Forge spirits is the defining spell of this build - it can abuse their power like none other - but you can do a little bit of everything (the only spell you truly miss is EMP), and your opponents can never know what to expect. This is the modern invoker style that first swept competitive DotA and kicked its ass so hard that the hero's pretty much permabanned now.
Strategy
Your strategy with a -W build is to dominate a solo lane early, get a respectable set of items up for the midgame, and then go on a tower-pushing, hero-killing, ass-kicking rampage, ideally raxing your opponents before any hard carries they have get a chance to farm up. If you don't end early enough and the game goes late, you can vomit out disables very effectively in support of a hard carry, so using a strong -W invoker as part of a more lategame-focused strategy is viable as well - though if you're planning on turtling at all, -E may be a better choice.
Early Game
A -W invoker's goal in the early game is to farm up as much as he safely can, shut down his lane opponent as best he can, and push the tower in his lane as much as he can, in that order. He can also assist in other lanes with sunstrike, depending on his build, but generally speaking, he stays put - leave the roaming and ganking to other heroes.
Skills: The most commonly seen opener is as such:
This gives you Alacrity access, which is your primary laning tool. You have far more raw damage than anybody should at this point in the game, so take advantage of it to make some heads roll - you should be able to get more or less every last hit while harassing your opponent out of the lane. Use this build when your opponent isn't much of a challenge (barring ganks) and you want to make the most of your advantage - lion is the best example.
Sometimes, however, you're up against a lane where you want raw power, but you also need to be defensive:
Subbing in two levels of quas gives you regeneration on demand and a strong cold snap, letting you fare much better against aggression (not to mention cancel clarities and salves with ease). Shadow fiend is the best example of a hero to use this build against - you out-last-hit him early with exort and then alacrity, but you have regen and cold snap available on demand for if and when he starts nuking you hard. A level 6 invoker with level 3 exort and alacrity won't win a 1v1 with a shadow fiend - a level 6 invoker with level 3 quas and cold snap will, assuming you stay too close for a C raze.
If your lane isn't safe enough to start off with fast alacrity at all, you'll have to go for this alternate option:
Lich is the best example of a hero to use this build against. You want exort first for last hitting, but you'll want to get quas up fast to survive the constant nukes, and even with safe play and this build, you'll probably need extra healing - being underleveled as invoker sucks. But with some consumables and quas, you'll be able to stay in lane and get some farm, and if you get a gank, lich is doomed - if you're wary of chain frost. If you have trouble against lich or any other tough aggressive lane, feel free to swap quas in at level 1, and delay exort until 6 - if it keeps you alive and farming, there's no shame in it.
Regardless of the specific option you take, you should spend no more than one level on wex, and you shouldn't take quas or exort to level five - you need dual spirits for the midgame, so don't do anything that will delay them - though a single wex level and invoke level 2 are valuable enough to not be considered a delay.
Items: Cheap stats and speed, potentially some damage. Don't bother building any big items here - you're going to shine (and do most of your work) during the midgame, and you have four slots to put small stuff in after your boots and one "bigger" midgame item. The following are good examples, sorted roughly from aggressive (lots of small items, which gives you the power to immediately start kicking ass) to passive (not so many small items, which means staying away from fights a bit more while you rush something bigger). Remember, if your build includes power treads, you should more or less be shuffling them from Int to Str and back every time your answer to "am I going to be taking damage soon?" changes - especially if you're using quas to regen hit points.
Tactics:
- Obviously, you should time alacrity so you can use it to both last hit and harass.
- If you got early quas, use cold snap to harass - a snap followed by two or three animation-canceled attacks will deal quite a bit of damage.
- Cold snap is also an excellent way to cancel salves and clarities - it has a long cast range, short cooldown, low mana cost, and no delay.
- You can rune whore reasonably well with a single ward and properly placed ice walls (while you have mana), but if your opponent isn't going for the runes or you don't have ice wall, you're often better off staying in lane and letting your allies take them - assuming your allies actually do take them. There are very few situations where you should go for a bottle.
- Don't forget to use sunstrike to help out in other lanes. If you're on VOIP (vent or ts3) with, or in the same room as, your allies, you can drop one off any time somebody's stunned and there aren't creeps right around them - if not, just watch for kill messages, or heroes meeting and then the enemy running away on the minimap, and glance over to see if there are any likely targets.
- Ghost walk, obviously, can be used for escapes, but don't forget to watch your opponents' inventories for dust and sentries. If they'll have vision of you when you're invisible, ghost walk and its self-slow are worse than useless.
- Particularly against orbwalkers and other dangerous opponents, using forge spirits early to harass is surprisingly useful. It requires a bit of micro, but it drives your opponent crazy and forces them to play more defensively - and having their armor down if they try going for you is invaluable. Don't forget to be ready to invoke another spell if something goes down, though.
- Meteor is very strong once you have three or four levels of exort, but you need the enemy to run in it almost perfectly if you want to get a kill out of it. Try to predict their movement - not just where they'll move, but when they'll move, because there's a 1.5 second casting delay. Using it right as an allied ganker stuns them (so it hits them as they start running, and they're forced to either tank it or change directions and eat a couple more attacks) is the most valuable time, but you might be better off with alacrity depending on the situation.
- If you have two or three levels of quas and your opponents have dust or sentries, tornado is a much better escape spell than ghost walk. Send it at them and run immediately - the second or so it buys you might be enough.
Midgame
In the midgame, a -W invoker's goal is to push and kill. Take down towers and heroes whenever you can - you're fully capable of doing both alone. Farm when you can't kill or push. Don't die, at all - you're a carry, albeit a somewhat untraditional one. All this pushing, killing, and farming should get you a significant amount of gold and experience to build up your power. In most games, you'll use that power to push down raxes with your team and end the game before it goes too late. Yeah, people talk about the power of a lategame invoker when you have the full power of all your spells available to you, but you can't realistically use all of those spells in the same fight, and you start falling seriously behind straight-up DPS carries. However, if your team has a hard carry or two of its own, you can definitely play a longer game. Your goal for the lategame is to have as many strong disables as possible, not dish out as much damage as possible, simply because it plays far more to your natural strengths. Keep that in mind going forward.
Skills:
Midgame dominance for a -W invoker is more or less based around Forge Spirits. Obtain dual spirits (level 4 of quas/exort) ASAP, and keep a pair up pretty much all the time. What spells you use with Forge Spirits is more or less up to you. Pretty much every spell but EMP is at a decent power level when you hit level 11, though ghost walk does of course slow you considerably, and Meteor and Tornado have a short range. That being said, certain spells are obviously better than others in different situations - Meteor is one of your best options for rapid pushing, Alacrity is your best option for jungling/roshing, cold snap and ice wall are probably your best options for teamfights. After invoke 3 at 12 (you'll almost always value shorter cooldowns more than an increase in the power of 6/10 spells), you can continue to pump quas and/or exort (side by side is certainly an option), or start mixing in wex. Wex arguably has a more minor effect than the other reagents on every single spell it "shares" - EMP is obviously a different story - and EMP takes a fair few levels of wex to become effective. Because of this, you'll usually see either no wex here, one level to boost meteor and tornado range, or three to make EMP useful. After however much wex you decide to get, you have to choose whether to level quas or exort further. Quas is arguably the better option in most games - it increases your spirits' offense (which is far more important than their defense), increases your HERO'S defense, and maximizes the power of your disables. Exort does add more offense to every spell but forge spirits, but forge spirits should be your main workhorse anyway, and frankly, your team should have damage sources other than you by this point. With a single extra level of wex and quas after that, you'll have Q7W2E4I4 at level 17, which is an invoker with incredible disabling power, decent firepower, and a reasonable amount of health - not to mention just about no reason to visit the fountain again. Probably the most optimal choice in most games. If your team doesn't have a hard carry or they aren't doing well, though, grab a few more levels of exort and see how much damage you can dish out.
Items: You have a lot of options here. Blink dagger is pretty much never a mistake on invoker - you should already have plenty of stats and such from your early-game items, and the mobility and initiation power is unparalleled. However, depending upon the situation, there are many other viable options - you're pretty much the king of flexibility, and you'd be wise to leverage it. If you're pushing, don't try making anything too ambitious - the idea is to end the game before anyone on the other team can make 10k in items, not make it yourself. If you're heading for a lategame, one big item and one smaller one is usually a good goal - blink dagger and guinsoo is perhaps the most obvious and utilitarian combo, but there are options as well. Here's a list of pretty much everything you should ever consider (obviously, some of these, especially towards the end, are VERY marginal 999/1000 games):
Tactics:
- If you're sure someone's alone, there's just about no hero who can take you one on one, if you can get close enough. Blink dagger helps out a lot here - blink in next to them, ice wall, summon your spirits if they aren't close enough, and attack. If they make it out of the wall alive, well, that's what cold snap's for. Don't be afraid to blink in right next to a nevermore with his ult up - you can take him just fine, unless he's completely outfarmed you - especially if you have your hero move further away to cut him off while he ults. Let your spirits go ahead and tank it up close.
- Always use forge spirits a bit in advance of a fight, so you have time to invoke another spell and have invoke cool down after.
- Tornado, with even a little range, is a wonderful setup spell for allied initiators like earthshaker - use it properly and you can make their initiation before dagger much more powerful.
- Alacrity begins to be better for an allied hard carry than yourself around the midgame in the average game. It's up to you whether you consider it worth a valuable invoke in a teamfight, but if it is, it's not going to be for you.
- Even with only one or two levels of wex, meteor is a very powerful nuke. Pre-invoked forge spirits combined with an aggressive icewall/meteor/blast combo is one of the most devastating things invoker can contribute to a fight of any size.
Endgame
Frankly, as mentioned above, your goal with a -W invoker should be to rax your opponents for the victory during the midgame stage. However, you do have follow-up options if you don't manage to pull that off. Your focus should shift entirely over to disabling and killing heroes at this point, and you should try to maintain buyback gold, as you're one of the best pushers and defenders in the game.
Skills: Max whatever reagents you haven't yet - and invoke, of course. Your main focus should be on powering up your teamfight spells as much as possible, especially the disables. Tornado, Deafening Blast, Ice Wall, Meteor - even EMP should start finding its way into your combos by level 21 or so. Do your best to help whatever hard DPS carry your team has (hopefully there is one) take down as many enemies as he can. You should have about as much disable power as the entire enemy team, so make the most of it.
Items: If you have gold to spare after finishing whatever big item you started in the midgame and beyond your buyback buffer, buy another big item from the same list - anything that fits.
Tactics:
- Focus on AoE disables during fights as much as you can - ice wall and deafening blast will probably be your most-used spells, in addition to one of your most devastating abilities during this period, Alacrity - always on your carry, of course.
- Forge Spirits can be used as an extra hero at this point, from the perspective of pushing - they'll have a massively high duration, and can push a lane nearly all the way from one base to the other before expiring. Take advantage of this - attack-move them down an empty lane with some waypoints if you aren't going to use them during a fight.
- If you have wex maxed, Ghost Walk is an excellent "chasing" skill if your disables are cooling down - after successful fights, you can use it to slow down your enemies' escape attempts if you can't do anything else.
Replays
Pajkatt (GGnet vs Fearz)
(-Q) Wicker Man
Burn, baby, burn! Wicker Man is about raw offense and taking down your opponents with pure power. A Wicker Man relies on his allies for AoE disables early on, and dishes out the damage himself. Probably the easiest "serious" invoker build to play, but also the most tactically (and physically) fragile. Don't commit to this without reliable allies, and even then, make sure you know exactly what you're doing - quas is arguably your most powerful reagent, and going without it means playing a very different style.
Replays
Merlini (DTS vs Legends)
Burn, baby, burn! Wicker Man is about raw offense and taking down your opponents with pure power. A Wicker Man relies on his allies for AoE disables early on, and dishes out the damage himself. Probably the easiest "serious" invoker build to play, but also the most tactically (and physically) fragile. Don't commit to this without reliable allies, and even then, make sure you know exactly what you're doing - quas is arguably your most powerful reagent, and going without it means playing a very different style.
Replays
Merlini (DTS vs Legends)
Kael the InvokerAuthor: CaptainPlatypus
Map Vers.: 6.71b
Comprehensive Invoker Guide
Comprehensive Invoker Guide
Last Comment:27/10/2011
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