Note: After some consideration, I've decided that this guide is not perfect. I've added some additional thoughts about her, as well as some more specific builds on her that would be more suitable for different roles. You can view them at the end of the guide.

About this guide:
This guide is about focus fire. Not to say it doesn't discuss other skills or her gameplay in general, but if you just play her without focus fire, she's a subpar hero at best and a feeder at worst.

Her skills all require lots of skill to use - a stun that needs timing and aim, powershot which needs mindgames, and windrun, which you need to know when and where to use. In contrast, focusfire seems like such an easy skill - point and click, right?

Actually, focus fire is the most difficult to learn. It also is the most deadly move in her arsenal... well, as soon as you finish reading this guide, it will be.

Focus fire by itself is a sucky skill because it doesn't do enough damage. What is enough damage? Its when you can kill someone reasonably quickly with focus fire. When do you reach the point of 'enough damage'? Most people think that you need to farm up lots of damage to get 'enough damage' by late game to start owning. However, damage adds up, and as we'll see, we can easily get 'enough damage' by mid game to make focus fire not just useful, but deadly mid game on out.


About WindRunner -

A Disclaimer -
You need skills. I mean, really, really good skills to play her well. Every skill of hers needs tons of practice. Don't expect to pick her up and automatically own everyone. Each skill of hers has the potential to be deadly or useless. This guide is also not for casual play - its to make her a killing machine. Read on.

Her playstyle -
During early-mid game, she's an excellent laner. Because of her skills, she can harrass and last hit very well.
During mid game, she is a good ganker and partner - she is hard to deal with because of her long range on all her skills.
During late game she is anti-carry and havoc wrecker. She sits back, spams her long range spells and Focus Fires the enemy carry hero when she gets the chance.

What she has and what she needs -
She has a great attack animation, attack speed, and decent health for an int hero. She's not 'food', but she's still a little fragile.
She is not easy to kill, but not difficult to gank. Her skills are more offensive than defensive.
She has a stun, a run/chase skill, a 'nuke', and focus fire. The stun, nuke, and chase are all good skills - but focus fire is subpar because it doesn't deal nearly enough damage. With our item build, we're going to change that.

Skill build:

This skill build is configured to maximize Focus Fire (especially for mid game). Because of this, we take FF at lvl 10 and 11, and max shackleshot early for the 3.75 seconds of stun (that we'll be using to get lots of damage with FF).

1. ShackleShot
2. WindRun
3. PowerShot
4. PowerShot
5. PowerShot
6. ShackleShot
7. PowerShot
8. ShackleShot
9. ShackleShot
10. Focus Fire
11. Focus Fire
12. WindRun
13. WindRun
14. WindRun
15. Stats
16. Focus Fire
17... Stats+...

Q: Lvl up WindRun or ShackleShot first?
I like to have ShackleShot up by lvl 11 or 12, so I level it up first.
ShackleShot can be used both defensively and offensively without too much risk, so I use it more often in harrassing enemies.

Item Build:



Phase Boots (1500 gold) (+24 damage)
Magic Stick/Bottle/Tangoes (around 1000 gold)
BladeMail (2200 gold) (+32 damage)
Orchid (5025 gold) (+65 damage)
Total: ~10000 gold (+124 damage)

Optional:

Force Staff (2200) (+20 damage)
Total: 12200 gold (+144 damage)

Late game:

Aganims (4400)
Crysalis (2200)

Order:

Bottle + Magic stick + boots


BladeMail by lvl 10 (BladeMail is a very good first item)


Phase Boots by lvl 12 (for +56 damage)

Optional: Point Booster/Ogre Axe (for Aganim's). This is to buff your hp if needed against a nuke-heavy team.

.. .. =
Build and keep staffs in your inventory ...
Orchid definitely by lvl 18 - it depends how much you've been goofing off.

Late game:


Q: Why these items?
A: These items are very, very good for scaling up. Since you're not a carry, you want to scale up with the clock so that you can be useful at all times. This is not a farming build! Everything is easy to build and your inventory should be constantly evolving, never making it a 'necessity' to powerfarm for that 2k+.

Q: I want my treads!!!
A: Doing so forfeits your ultimate mid game. There's a threshhold of +damage you need, and you CAN'T get it without Phase Boot's +24 damage. Sorry, you need Phase. Its not optional.

Q: How does this build make Focus Fire useful?

Here's your damage without equipment, your hp, and the amount of seconds it takes to Focus Fire yourself to death - (approximately) Compare red (dmg) to yellow (hp).

- Focus Fire damage is given as the damage of (10/15 attacks) (3/4.5 sec) unreduced.
- A general approximation for Focus Fire damage is 10 attacks in 3 seconds, or damage x 5/6/7 for each lvl.
- A ShackleShot gets about 14 attacks on the stun if you focus fire immediately after you shackle.

lvl 1 - 50 base (hp - 435)
lvl 7 - 65 base (ff1 - 325) (hp - 720) 8 seconds.
lvl 10 - 73 base (ff1 - 365/548) (hp - 853) 9 seconds.
lvl 12 - 78 base (ff2 - 468/702) (hp - 948) 7 seconds.
lvl 14 - 83 base (ff2 - 498/747) (hp - 1043) 7 seconds.
lvl 16 - 89 base (ff3 - 623/935) (hp - 1176) 6.5 seconds.
lvl 18 - 94 base (ff3 - 658/987) (hp - 1347) 7.5 seconds.
lvl 25 - 112 base (ff3 - 784/1176) (hp - 1955) 9 seconds.

It takes an average of 7-9 seconds for you to kill yourself. This is quite pathetic. It would be awesome if we could lower this to 3-4 seconds because if you manage to get a shackleshot off on herself (3.75 seconds), then its gg.

Here's another example of her damage scale, her hp scale, and the amount of seconds it takes to Focus Fire herself to death. This time, with items.

lvl 1 - 50 base damage
lvl 7 - 65 base (ff1 - 325) (hp - 720) 8 seconds.
lvl 10 - 73 base + 32 (blademail) = 105 (ff1 - 525/787) (hp - 720) 5 seconds.
lvl 12 - 78 base + 32 (bm) + 24 (boots) = 134 (ff2 - 804/1202) (hp - 853) 4 seconds.
lvl 14 - 83 base + 56 + 21 (staff) = 160 (ff2 - 960/1440) (hp - 948) 3.5 seconds.
lvl 16 - 89 base + 56 + 42 (staffx2) = 187 (ff3 - 1309/1964) (hp - 1176) 3 seconds.
lvl 18 - 94 base + 56 + 65 (Orchid) = 215 (ff3 - 1505/2258) (hp - 1347) 3 seconds.
...
lvl 25 - 112 base + 20 stats + 121 (items) + 35 (crysalis) =
288 (ff3 - 2016/3024) (hp - 1955) 3-4.5 seconds.

Please consider this mathcraft carefully. Note that at level 12 with +56 damage, She can deal around 600-800 damage after reduction with a full shackleshot. Think about it.

So, most people worth killing around level 12 will have anywhere from 1200-1500 hp. That's fine - you can still knock off a large amount of health, and with a partner, that's all you need to do. Plus, you can use your friend's stuns/slow times as well.

I'm not trying to say that you can kill every full health hp hero - that's quite ridiculous for any one hero of dota. However, I do want you to learn how much damage potential you have with focus fire at any time. This is the reason why focus fire is so hard - you have to learn your burst damage potential with it.

With nukers like Lina or Lion, you know how much damage you can do because it is predetermined. However, with focus fire, it is dependent on many, many things - your damage, the stun time, positioning, their armor, etc. This makes it hard to figure out your burst damage with it. However, if you can, it automatically makes you very deadly, because you can know exactly who you can kill on the map, and who you can't.

If you follow this build, you will deal enough damage with focus fire that it is worth it to focus fire. That's why this guide is called, Embrace Focus Fire. And the thing is - if you're a fast farmer, you can build up your dps much more quickly than what I outlined, giving her the ability to kill even very beefy heroes at early levels.

Q: Late Game - why not more powerful damage items (deso, mkb, buriza)?
A: For most heroes, this amount of damage should be sufficient. There's no point to shaving off a second of Focus Fire time if you die too quickly or if your Focus Fire is on constant cooldown. Late game damage should be cheap - a little damage goes a long way for her ultimate. The crysalis adds a critical which averages about 25 extra damage per hit.
If you're fighting an agi carry hero, it may be good to grab an MKB to counter evasion. Of course, it would also be good to end the game before that happens. Also take note of enemies that have skills that make you miss (troll, panda) to plan the MKB especially for late game.

Q: Why BladeMail?

A: BladeMail is a very good item for midgame.

It has excellent damage/cost ratio (+32 for 2200), gives +10 int, +5 armor and a fun skill, Return. Just make sure you train yourself to trigger the BladeMail and not WindRun. BladeMail is chosen over the crysalis because of the extra int and armor.

We get BladeMail mostly for the stats!!! The stats matter!

With BladeMail and Phase Boots, her ultimate actually becomes useful in mid game. Basically, any solo enemy hero with less than 800 hp (3/4 health) is prey because she can kill them within the 3.75 seconds of ShackleShot (about 14 shots or 1100 unreduced damage), and with BladeMail, any enemy trying to stun/fight back is nuking themself.

---What's Return for?---
It's a skill that is mainly used for intimidation, but can do around 50-250 damage for 25 mana and short cooldown. Its quite a good skill for such low mana. One example is if you're FFing someone, they will try to stun you to get away - that's where its damage comes from.
This will also make low HP heroes wary of attacking you (or dead!). This stops or kills low hp heroes who are hovering behind the battle lines trying to dart in to get a quick stun.

Q: ...What's Force Staff for?
A: Force + Focus Fire is a VERY good combo. ShackleShot, FF, and when they start to run away, Force yourself and WindRun (to slow them). This can give you an extra 10-15 attacks ... and you do the math. It doubles the effectiveness of Focus Fire - like aganim's on steroids. Its also synergizes extremely well with her skills and the skill fits in with her playstyle perfectly.
Its optional because I've just been playing around with it. Its good 1v1, has some uses 2v2... but nothing making it a necessity (yet).

How to use her Skills:

WindRunner is a hero completely dependent on her skills, and her skills have a high learning curve.


Skill guide: WindRun
=================================
First of all, WindRun has some ending animation - you can cancel it by issuing an action right after you cast it. DO THIS EVERY TIME. You stand still for a moment and move your hands - kinda dumb. If you issue an order, you'll completely bypass this.
You can do a lot with that window of max movement, 100% evasion and slow, but exactly how to maximize that window in every opportunity is not that easy to understand. Just play a lot - it'll get easier.

Tip 1: If you're chasing with WindRun, make sure to get close to them to trigger the slow.
Tip 2: After they use up their stuns, WindRun + teleport to safety.


Skill guide: PowerShot
=================================
When you're harrassing, try to get the full damage on the hero, please. Its worth it.
Other than that, you just need to familiarize yourself with using it.
The animation is really awkward, can't be cancelled, and I suspect that it takes more than a second to fully cast. If you order a command before it channels completely, it does half damage, but still travels maximum distance. Its very hard to tell when it does half damage because the animation is exactly the same, and it still takes a while to finish. In order to prevent this, Shift Click to move, since you can't cancel the ending animation anyways.
Get used to and abuse its maximum distance - if it goes through creeps or trees the max distance is lessened.

Tip 1: There are times when you want to make the cast time shorter - for instance, if someone is getting away with just a sliver of health, or if you're scouting. You don't have to wait the full second.
Tip 2: Its also somewhat useful for farming neutrals, although I'm not exactly sure of the best way to do this. Pull the neutrals so you can hit 2 camps, and finish off the rest with your good attack damage.
Tip 3: On smart escaping heroes, press 's' instead attacking and see which way they dodge, and then shoot them.


Skill guide: ShackleShot
=================================
No casting time, so a good idea is to issue an order immediately after it shoots (ie, move closer to the enemy, Focus Fire, or run away). This helps in maximizing the stun time.
You need to get familiar with its quirks - Expect to play 3-4 games before you get comfortable with it.
You can creep aim a ShackleShot to get extended range or a surprise stun. Creep aiming is targetting a creep to get ShackleShot off.
As WindRunner, you'll want to memorize/get used to the timing of creep waves, if you haven't already. ShackleShot the hero as the next creep wave is coming in from behind, and chances are you'll hit. This is very useful for chasing, too - don't just ShackleShot out of instinct, but follow until the hero meets the creep wave and shackle.
Hitting 2 heroes with ShackleShot requires good reflexes and a bit of luck. Just always be on the look out for badly positioned heroes.


Skill guide: Focus Fire
=================================
Its really point and click, but you can waste it by positioning wrongly or not using it right after a stun. This is THE crucial skill to get to know - first in how to maximize its damage, and second, how much damage you will do.

Knowing how much damage your ultimate does at all times is really, really crucial - this defines how good you are with WindRunner. Knowing this makes your ganks successful and opens up many more opportunities to gank others.

In general, it is not good to use Focus Fire before lvl 11 because you don't have 3.75 seconds of stun time and your damage isn't the best.

Memorize this for Windrunner!!!
A conservative estimate of the range of people that you can kill based on how much time you get and how much damage you do:
* = Focus Fire lvl 3.
Armor values are 40% and 20% (11 and 4 armor, respectively).
Incidentally, you can see why a deso is so effective on her, which I have yet to consider how to add in.

2 seconds of stun:
+30 dmg: not worth it
+56 dmg: not worth it
+80 dmg: 320-432hp //atk + powershot instead
+100 dmg: 370-490hp //atk + powershot instead
+120 dmg: 410-550hp
120* dmg: 478-640hp

3 seconds of stun:
+30 dmg: 360-480hp //atk + powershot instead
+56 dmg: 450-600hp //atk + powershot instead
+80 dmg: 540-730hp
+100 dmg: 612-810hp
+120 dmg: 680-910hp
120* dmg: 800-1064hp

4 seconds of stun:
+30 dmg: 480-640hp // barely worth it
+56 dmg: 600-800hp
+80 dmg: 720-960hp
+100 dmg: 820-1090hp
+120 dmg: 910-1220hp
120* dmg: 1026-1370hp

Tip 1: Use it right after a ShackleShot. This gives you 3-3.75 seconds. If issue Focus Fire before the stun hits, you get the entire stun time for damage.
Tip 1b: WindRun+Return and run up to them to get off the ShackleShot if needed. Be a man.
Tip 2: Use your WindRun to slow them down. This can give you another 2-5 seconds, or 6-15 shots.
Tip 3: Kill Roshan! While she's not the best for Soloing Roshan, she dps's him like no other.
Tip 4: Use it on the tower if you are taking down a tower.
Finally: Don't be afraid to 'waste' it on someone who's has yellow HP! That hero is better dead than alive casting spells everywhere.


Skill guide: Return
=================================
I figured this needs its own section. Its short cooldown and low mana cost makes it a very, very good skill for intimidation.
The best time to use it is right before a stun ends on an enemy hero, but you can almost spam it if you like. Its really pretty fun. Another good time to use is it is you know someone is aggro on you - intent to kill you. Predict or time when he makes his move and then turn it on. If you do it right, you can turn the tables on them with your own burst damage.

ShackleShot, Focus Fire, (wait 3.5 seconds), Return.
They can't turn around and start killing you (or they will die), so they only can stun + run. Either their own stun kills them, or you chase with your 5 seconds of WindRun and another ShackleShot with the short cooldown.

The second best use of Return is for taunting. Much skill is needed for this - WindRun and Return at the same time, run around the enemy hero twice and laugh on ventrilo until you get kicked by your teammates.


Skill guide: Force
=================================
Since Return has a section, I figured, why not Force ?
I included Force in the build because its synergy with ff is quite good, and it's a very useful skill in general for saving teammates, saving yourself, chasing, running, etc. I believe that this is where the meta-builds are going to come from for WindRunner because it really is quite an awesome skill for her, and she is practically the only hero that needs the stats that it gives.

ShackleShot, Focus Fire, Return, Force (self), WindRun. That alone is enough to kill most heroes 1 on 1. Force traps the enemy in the slow of your WindRun, giving you another 4-5 seconds of ff - after that, 8-9 seconds have passed and your ShackleShot is almost ready again. Return is for any stuns that come your way. With BladeMail, phase, and Force Staff, your damage is +76 - pretty good already.

Also, Force doesn't have to come from yourself - an ally can Force you...


Skill guide: Orchid
=================================
Why not? The Orchid needs some explaining because most people use it incorrectly anyways.

Contrary to popular belief, it is rarely needed for the extra 20% damage. If you know your Focus Fire damage well enough, you know that you won't need it because they'll most likely be dead already with your dps.
The best thing about it is the 5 second silence. Its a beautiful counter to soooo many things if you're fast enough and are observing the battle. It breaks chain/team stuns - that's the best use of it - but also can make spammers, blinkers and even carry heroes defenseless and over exposed.
So - use it for the silence, not the extra damage.

Skill guide: Teams
=================================
WindRunner excels at 1 on 1 - but Dota is a team game. Damage calculations just show her potential - in 2v2 or bigger, it doesn't always work that way.
If you're ganking 2 people (with a friend!), you can still get a good Focus Fire if you stun both of them with ShackleShot. Unlike channelled spells, Focus Fire doesn't get cancelled - so you can still attack the other person if you get stunned.
In big team battles, you don't have to get into the middle of a fight. For the most part, sit back, look at what's happening, PowerShot, save ShackleShot for disruption or to dual stun opponents. Your attack + move is good so use it - you should be very used to it by now (since your entire farming career is just that). She's not built for team fights, but she does a good job and isn't easy food.

Game Play:

Early Game:
Grab your preferred items and go into a lane.
Start harrassing enemies with PowerShot at lvl 5. Don't use PowerShot to mindlessly hit creeps - use it to hit the opponent with the full 280/360 damage. You have a decent attack animation to last hit...

Really try to hit the enemy directly with PowerShot. Shoot it from out of sight - 1200 range. Shoot it from the fog of trees. Just get the full damage on the hero, please!!! This is her strength and not using it a big waste.

Go for the BladeMail first, and then either the Phase Boots or a Force Staff. You can skip the Force Staff if you want to just start on the Orchid - Force right now is just fun or if you like to pull off crazy manuevers for replay value.

Mid Game:

If you have around +60-80 damage and have lvl 2 ff, you can go hero hunting or ganking. However, this is mana intensive - so if you are on the hunt, be prepared to go back to base often. Its good if you can kill someone, use your bottle to farm a neutral camp while returning home, recharge, and go find someone else to kill.
Note: Go with a partner. Just one friend with any kind of stun is worth +600-1k additional damage of Focus Fire, not to mention his own damage.

If you are in a lane -
1) last hit everything with your good damage. Never waste mana.
2) watch the map.

Its good to have at least 600 mana at all times, so keep track of your mana pool. Always plan to go home to recharge your mana if its low.

Try to participate in everything. Be where you're needed - be in every team fight and participate in ganks as often as possible.
Don't farm too much - Alleria is a great partner for mid game hunters, stunners or nukers. She has a lot of skills that make it hard for enemies to escape, and with her damage output she gives them a good reason to run.

Use Focus Fire and be surprised. This build makes it quite awesome at all times. And go after Roshan sometimes, too.

Late Game:

By mid-late game, you should have your Orchid. If you feel like the game is going to go on long, try to farm up aganims, as her Focus Fire needs to be primed and ready at all times. Afterwards, go for cheap damage like a crysalis.

In late game play defense in team battles. Your job is to sit back and watch how the team clashes are going while spamming your spells. Make sure you use Orchid for the silence, not the amplify. Also, save ShackleShot for defense and not for initiation, unless you're catching stragglers who are over exposed. Be chicken until you have a good opportunity and then Focus Fire the enemy carry.

Yes, your prime role is to kill the enemy carry. The worst thing that you can do is die before you get a chance to Focus Fire. Besides, people shouldn't be targetting you because you're not exposed, have good escape mechanisms and are not easy to take down.

You also have decent damage to take down towers even without Focus Fire - so try to stay alive for the cleanup. With Aganim's you can be really, really powerful as a cleanup tool.


Examples:

Here I will show examples of the complicatedness of Windrunner. /todo

FAQ:

Q: What about the enemy getting chainmail?
A: Well that's just too bad. So your 800 dmg gets reduced to 500 instead of 600. Its still decent. Its your job to be familiar with how much damage she can deal and adjust.

Q: I'm not killing anyone!!! Help!
A: Get used to her. You can't kill people by focus firing them at full health with a bad ShackleShot placement, wasting 2-4 seconds of the stun time. You need skills. Go from behind, ShackleShot and Focus Fire almost simultaneously, and predict their escape route and counter it if needed (with wr/PowerShot). Also, bring a friend.

Seriously, a good ShackleShot should be 3.75 seconds of FF, not you running to get into position and then deciding to Focus Fire when the stun is almost up.

Q: What are some good teammates?

Vengeful Spirit.
She's an awesome teammate in general who synergizes well with you particularly. Her Damage Aura, Terror, and stun help you out immensely. You'll feel like your focus fire is cutting through butter with a hot knife.

Other than that, stunners and spell spammers mostly. Also teammates who buy Force Staffs or have damage auras.

Replays:
w00t. Some pros read my guide and played a good game.

Check out this replay by Merlini (Ben!SGATE). Almost perfect use of all her skills - powershots from nowhere, extreme double shackles, creep aiming, and excellent use of Return on several occasions.

Conclusion:

Hopefully I've inspired you to see Alleria in a new light - she's vastly underestimated and under appreciated. She has everything a team needs - range, stuns, damage, and speed. With a proper view of how to play her, some practice and some skills, she's a very deadly hero that plays a crucial role throughout the entire game.

An Addendum (May 2010)

When I wrote this guide, it was really to make her a hero killer - basically, it was to make her excel in dps early so she can kill heroes during mid game. This is what the items do - add on lots of damage so that by mid game she can deal significant DPS.

However, this strategy, which works well solo, doesn't work too well against good teamwork and kind of makes her food to heroes who have better mobility and more burst damage. Certain spell casters - like SS, Tiny, Doom, Akasha, etc - work well against this build precisely because it doesn't try to counter those people.

To make the one true build on her, I realize, is a little too much to ask. She falls under the category of "INT Hero without a blink", and so by that definition, she is prey to quite a few heroes.

If I were to make another guide on her, I would place less emphasis on +attack damage and instead try to maximize her utility belt (with cyclone, force staff, or dagon). Yes, dagon.

This approach makes focus fire useless until end game (when you get a DESO), but the problem with her endgame is that she needs the Aganims as well. This means she needs 8700 gold for end game. This is ... not cool.

In short, she's still a very difficult hero to play, and even more to get items for. She needs too many things to be effective, and focus fire is still a very difficult skill to use/buff.

Here's a couple of mini-builds for the next Alleria guide which I probably won't write.

Tool-belt Alleria:

Wand (500)
Force (2200) (to boost her maneuvering + survival)
Eul's (2800) (to boost her survivability)
BoT (2200)
Total: 6900 dmg = +35

End game farm:
Deso (4400)
Total: 11300 dmg = +95

VERY end game farm: 60+min game?
Aganims (4300)

Total: 15800 (+105)

Tool belt is for extreme utility. With that many skills, she can singlehandedly save an ally from a 5 man gank (hopefully). She's not a damage dealer, but rather a General helping out allies or disrupting the enemy.

Late game she gets the deso aganims combo to boost her focus fire.

Anti-Spellcaster Build


Bracersx2 + Wand (1400)
Hood (2150)
Phase (1400)
Total: 5000 dmg = +39

End Game:

Pipe (1500)
Deso (4400)
Aganims (4300)

Total: ~15150 (+109)

This build makes her really difficult for anyone to kill her. She probably won't have a problem with spell casters anymore. However, she doesn't deal that much damage end game, but her survivability makes up for it. This would be a good build to do against a spell caster team (with low hp heroes for the most part).

Assassin build 1

I would say its pub, but it may work really well on non-pub teams as well... any squishy heroes would be toast.


Wand + Null (800)
Phase (1400)
Lothars (3400)

Total: 5400 dmg = +71

End game:

Deso (4400)
Aganims (4300)

Total: 14100 (+141)

Rush lothars and Phase, and just pop up and shoot people down.

Assassin Build 2


Deso (4400) dmg = +60

If you rush deso and get it by lvl 11, you can pretty much own anyone with your focus fire. I would follow with:


Phase (1400)
Aganims (4400)
linkens (5100)

Note: This build is really meant for hero killing. You get linken's at the end to balance yourself out so you're not so squishy and out of mana all the time.

Finally, here's a dagon build on her:


Null + Wand (900)
Phase (1400)
Dagon (2700)

Total: 5000 (+57)

Endgame:

Dagon lvl 4 (3900)
Deso (4400)

Total: 12400 (+123)

The dagon build makes you both a dpser and a spellcaster! Best of both worlds! Focus fire and zap them when they try to run. (ok, this is just a fun build, but its still quite awesome).