By Fmr.THE-FAT
For Version 6.66b

Introduction

Forward
Kaldr, The Ancient Apparition

About Kaldr

Useful Information
Pros and Cons
Spell Discussion/Information
Skill Build/Discussion
Item Build/Discussion

Gameplay

Walk Through
A Closer Look at Ice Blast

About the Guide

Forward
Well, this is my 3rd guide that I have written and am looking forward to helping people out with Kaldr. I have been playing DotA for years and years, read tons of guides, and played tons of games. I am very opened to constructive criticism and if you disagree with something or see some errors just let me know. Anyways, onto the guide.

This Guide
I would like to quickly state that this guide is made to be comprehensive about all aspects of Kaldr. The initial information is purely facts and descriptions, if you are looking for the meatier information such as the item/skill build and strategies, refer to the table of contents. Thanks.

Kaldr, The Ancient Apparition

Description
Kaldr is a fairly unique hero that has a lot of potential, but requires a quick mind and skill to use properly. He is rather fragile due to his very mediocre strength gain, slow move speed, and lack of an escape mechanism. This is made up for by his very powerful ultimate and large presence on the battlefield. Kaldr is also very flexible with his item builds, and is proven effective without very many items at all. His role lies with the ability to quickly cast a series of spells at the start of a battle, and then finish fleeing heroes with his devastating Ice Blast. Kaldr is both a dynamic and dangerous hero to play, and I hope you enjoy improving your skill with him.

Useful Information/Stats

• Intelligence Based Hero
• Support Caster
• 600 Attack Range
• Move Speed of 500
• Found in Neutral Intelligence Tavern
• Link to additional Hero Stats

Pros and Cons
[+]Strong Spell Power early to mid game.
[+]Can abuse spells relatively easily.
[+]Not very item dependent.
[+]Great slower/disabler.

[-]Low Health Gain.
[-]Fragile.
[-]Mediocre move speed (295).
[-]Loses some threat late game.
[-]Hard ultimate to use.

Skill Set

Cold Feet
Cold Feet is a fairly simple disable. Once you target a hero with it, they have 4 seconds to move 740 units away from where they were marked or they are frozen for 1.25, 2, 2.75, 3.5 seconds. Deals 37.5/50/62.5/75 magic damage at 0.8, 1.6, 2.5, 3.4 seconds. What this means is that the DPS part of this spell is already finished by the time the enemy is frozen. It does not happen as they are frozen. So even if they escape the 740 range, they will still receive the damage.

(1) I marked Alchemist and he starts to run. You can tell a unit is marked by the spiraling blue animation above their heads.
(2) This is the mark on the ground that the enemy has to run 740 units away from or is frozen.
(3) Alchemist Dies.


Ice Vortex
Ice Vortex is an amazing slow. The large AOE effect and huge cast range as well as its great cooldown and decent mana cost make it a deadly weapon. To make my point I will give the numbers here. Level 4 Ice Vortex requires 110 mana, has 1500 cast range, 275 AOE, 6 second cooldown, and slows movespeed by 30% as well as decreasing magic resistance by 25%. It is your job to spam this in team battles, always keep it going, preferably over the other team's carry or fleeing enemies.

The blue selection circle shows the Area of Effect that Ice Vortex has (275).

Chilling Touch
Chilling Touch is a unique spell with fairly limited use. It is basically an AOE buff that adds damage to targeted allies. Although the damage is quite significant (+70), the fairly long cooldown and high manacost, as well as limited strikes make this hard to abuse. In general, use it before pushes, team battles, ganks, etc.

Ice Blast
Ice Blast is Kaldr's trickiest spell to use, but the benefits of landing it are worth getting good at using it. It is made up of three parts, initial damage, damage over time, and shatter damage. When Ice Blast first hits it will deal a set amount of damage like a nuke, then apply a damage over time debuff. Along with the damage over time, the hero's health regeneration will also halt. If during the time that the hero has the debuff on him he falls below 10%/11%/12% percent health, he will instantly die.

(1) This is how the first projectile of Ice Blast looks. The marker.
(2) This is the second. The damage part.
I will discuss Ice Blast in further detail later on in the guide.

Refer to hero page for additional information.

Skill Build/Discussion

Level 1 - Cold Feet/Ice Vortex
Level 2 - Ice Vortex/Cold Feet
Level 3 - Cold Feet
Level 4 - Ice Vortex
Level 5 - Cold Feet
Level 6 - Ice Blast
Level 7 - Cold Feet
Level 8 - Ice Vortex
Levels 9,10 - Stats
Level 11 - Ice Blast
Levels 12-14 - Stats
Level 15 - Chilling Touch
Level 16 - Ice Blast
Levels 17-25 - Chilling Touch/Stats

Why Cold Feet and Ice Vortex?
Cold Feet and Ice Vortex are Kaldr's bread and butter. They are almost constantly used together as to avoid letting the opponent escape the range of Cold Feet. They are needed to achieve early game kills.

What do I get for my first skill?
You can choose either Cold Feet or Ice Vortex at start depending on if you have a lane parter and who it is. Unless your opponent is really dull, it will be very hard to get Cold Feet's disable to trigger. So choose it first if you are either solo or with a lane partner with a stun/slow and you are looking for early first blood. Otherwise, choose Ice Vortex because the slow can help you out of initial sticky situations and is still useful for an early gank.

Ice Blast is too hard to use Early game, shouldn't it wait?
Ice Blast is very strong even at its first level, and is necessary for your combination of Cold Feet/Ice Vortex/Ice Blast to kill enemies. The fact that it is hard to use shouldn't stop you from getting it.

Why the delay on Chilling Touch?
Chilling Touch is very situational and not as good as stats for Kaldr mid game. Kaldr is very fragile hero without any true escape mechanism and he benefits greatly from the extra hp and mana.

Ok, so when do I get Chilling Touch?
Stats should be replaced for Chilling Touch as soon as team battles become larger and more frequent and lane pushes start happening. The +70 damage for all team members can be very beneficial in ganks, pushes, and taking out towers.

The Beginning

Starting Items


Why am I getting these?
Salve/Tangos/Clarity is a regen package that I put on almost every hero and it works just as well with Kaldr. The three branches are because of Kaldr's lower initial stats and low health gain, as well as possibly being used for Magic Wand. The Chicken is a great investment and can be used well by Kaldr due to his build needing bits and pieces.

My Choices?
Chicken is not necessary every single time since there will often be other players that buy one. As a rule, if you are going bottle, buy Chicken then Crow. If you are going to be buying a bunch of smaller pieces, say you are going Urn and Eul's Scepter, buy a Chicken. There is little need if you plan on going straight for higher tier items or items that you can buy off of the secret shop or Goblin shops.

The Core

Main Items


Buy one of these


Why wouldn't I get one of these?
One of these items is purchased more often than not, but they are still not always necessary. I suggest to buy Magic Stick or Wand when they lane is heavy with spammers. Buy Urn of Shadows if you are dominating your lane and expecting early kills. And buy Bottle for a sort of neutral position where you simply need regen. If you have had a great start at the game and don't need regen, save for Eul's (or Guinsoo) and buy it directly.



Do I get Eul's Scepter or Guinsoo?


Additional Items


Which do I buy first?
All three of these items benefit Kaldr fairly equally, but for different purposes. Shiva's is focused more towards group pushes and a need to increase damage and increase survivability. Linken's Sphere is needed when you are being targeted by larger ultimates and disables and need more hp and regen. Boots of Travels are mainly for mobility and should be bought depending on how much you are jumping around. Eul's gives you the needed boost in MS to keep up with the other places, but Boots of Travels is great for both offensive and defensive mobility around the map.

Walkthrough

Early Game
After purchasing your initial items there are several paths that you can take with Kaldr.

• Long Lane (Bottom lane Sentinel/Top lane Scourge) - Your best bet since it is the safest lane and easiest one to gank in. Go this way if it is free and you have a lane partner with slow/stun/disable.
• Middle Lane - Middle lane is great if you are going to solo (not suggested) and if you have decided to buy bottle since you can abuse the runes.
• Short Lane (Top lane Sentinel/Bottom lane Scourge) - Should choose this lane if the longer lane is taken and you suspect that you will be buying Magic Wand/Stick since you have easier access to the Goblin shops.

Be sure to harass as much as possible. Kaldr has decent attack range (600) and harassment is needed to properly set the enemy up for the kill. Once you have hit level 4-5 (or the opportunity arise), let your ally know that you want to kill the enemy and then proceed. Place Cold Feet on the enemy, have your ally stun/disable/slow, put Ice Vortex in front of the direction they are fleeing, and then finish with physical attacks.

Middle Game
Middle Game consists of a lot of roaming around and a repeat of a single combo of attacks. You want to always be where the ganks are happening and keeping an eye opened for chances to kill fleeing enemies with Ice Blast. With Eul's Scepter of Divinity you have two different options. (1) Either you use Cold Feet -> Ice Vortex for damage and hope that the enemy does not get out of range, or (2) you set Cold Feet, then Cyclone for a guaranteed freeze. The Cyclone will remove almost all damage done from the dps of the spell, but they will be disabled for 3.5 seconds. When using Ice Blast always place an Ice Vortex down first if you can, since it will increase damage by 25%.

Late Game
Late Game you will hopefully have completed or be working on one of the "Additional Items" and will either be taking down barracks or defending your own. Either way, be sure to apply Chilling Touch at every team fight since it can largely sway the outcome of the battle. Note that there is a -15% decrease in the allies attack speed if you put this spell on them, but the +70 dmg (at level 4) is enough to balance it out. Repeat the same killing combinations and remember to always be using Ice Vortex and spam Ice Blast as much as possible. It costs a measly 150 mana at level 4 and has a 20 second cool down. This can be used with Ice Vortex to quickly clear waves of creeps as well. Don't be stingy with your mana, you can afford it!

A Closer Look at Ice Blast

Description
Ice Blast is most often used as a finisher, due to the instant kill effect if the enemy drops below about a tenth of his health. The size of the effected damaged area depends on the time the first projectile spent traveling. It can be determined by the equation 225+50*TimeTraveled capped at 1000. Basically, the longer it flies, the bigger area it hurts. The frostbite effect is set a 275 AoE and is applied all along the trail of the spell.

Additional Information consists of:

• First projectile clears fog in a 500 radius circle at it's end.
• Fatal damage is 100000000 physical and clears all debuffs prior damaging.
• The instant kill does not work on Illusions or Meepo clones.
• The frozen buff can be purged, and the shatter damage will not kill you if you are affected by Shallow Grave.

All taken from the Playdota.com hero page.

Usage

• When you are using this spell at around attack range, you want to tap the hot key right after releasing the first projectile.
  This will usually position it in the right area.
• When casting father, make sure to trigger the second part of the spell when the marker is a bit ahead of the target since it takes roughly two seconds for it to trigger.
• Do not underestimate how fast the first projectile travels, it will seriously zip across the screen.
• If you have some delay, be sure to trigger the damage early.

Example 1

(1) Enemy Dazzle escapes with barely any health and is then healed by Chen.
(2) I cast the first part of Ice Blast in his direction. (You can see the group of circles in the bottom corner of picture 2).
(3) I press the hot key for Ice Blast again once the circles are in front of Dazzle, freezing them in their place.
(4) The second projectile enters the screen and is about to strike Dazzle. Note that he is already under the effect of frostbite (his health regeneration has stopped and will die if he drops below a certain percentage of health).
(5) Successful kill.

Example 2

(1) Shendelzare decides that she has had enough and heads for base.
(2) I respawn and quickly send out my Ice Blast marker.
(3) It passes Sheldelzare and I hit the hot key again.
(4) She is hit by the damage part of Ice Blast.
(5) Killed by shatter.

Good Allies

Disablers/Slowers/Stunners

These types of heroes are great not only for placing Cold Feet, but stacking slows with Ice Vortex, and hitting Ice Blast. Really good to have a partner with a type of disable early game.

High DPSers