Developer's Blog

Remember me ?             Register


       
Dedicated to the legendary player
Zaven "Qwerty" Terminasov
who passed away December 5, 2010.






| | [>]























1 fear not he, who knows a 1000moves, but he, who practiced a single move 1000times. ~Bruce Lee

On the same lines, at the time of inception of this guide, I had played nearly 100 consequtive games with spectre. Four months later, I have played over 700. 300 more to go. (After which its another 1000 more to go.)

I tried to make the guide short but that's like Lumi saying, "awaight guys i'm gonna keep the changelog analysis short". Have your popcorn or whadevar, and be prepared to read alot.

0ne of the main reasons for writing this guide is:


There's a lot more to spectre than that!

Spectre is a hard carry and tank at the same time and can 1v5 her opponents, if left unchecked. Dagger is a very good utility spell with a phase and ms buff to spec and an ms debuff to opponents. She's equipped with a PASSIVE OFFENSIVE PURE DMG skill and a PASSIVE DEFENSIVE PURE DMG skill. Her ulti, one of the most powerful ones, basically, is one hell of a ridiculous utility spell.

Ah, but wait. Thats not all. This is the best part because of which it is mindfucking to chase a good juker/fog abuser spectre. Because dagger lets u igonre terrain, you can do amazing things when in low hp and when someone is chasing you. Juking gets a whole lot easier because dagger provides vision on the hero. And you can go in and out of a bunch of trees, frustrating opponents and doing mindgames. And he cant reach you at that time.

A pro player was once asked which is the hero he hated the most and he said qwerty, pointing out that she has no true counter.





Before I begin my items and way to go about playing spectre, I want to express why we see vg rad in competitive scenes. Spectre is one of the few that can unleash the full potential of radiance on her opponents, due to her global presence. In pro games, spectre is baby sit upon, so that she can farm undisturbed for the inventory. (Something that doesnt happen in pubs with bastards trying to steal creeps). Vanguard makes spectre extremely tanky combined with dispersion allowing her to overpower her opponents a bit for the mid-game and have lane regen.

But one thing to understand is, the items bought are based on their gameplay and their use of such global presence. There are plenty of pro spec games without rad or vg. She is one such rare hard carry, and maybe the only one, who can farm all the time and just pop ulti and instantly come help in ganks, from anywhere in the map. So she needn't even be in the pre-gank scene. Now with late game, comes pushes and ganks. You're in the push/gank. And your rad doesnt stack with illu.

Dota is played by a large number of pub gamers, and is foremost, a game made for the public, not the pros. And here's what happens in a pub.


Spectre has now nearly disappeared from the competitive gaming scene due to the effort needed to realise her potentia|. So, this guide is beyond vg-rad.

@GAIN, BY ALL MEANS, GO VG-RAD IF YOU'RE TEAM'S STRAT DEPENDS ON IT, OR YOU'RE ABUSING YOUR GLOBAL PRESENCE. IF NOT, DONT. I'M ANALYSING SPECTRE BEYOND VG-RAD. HOW CERTAIN SMALL ITEMS AND TRICKS WILL ALLOW EARLY KILLS AND HELPS TO ALLIES AND NOT AFK FARM TILL 30MINS FOR A VG-RAD.

Let me also be clear about this: RADIANCE IS NOT CORE FOR SPECTRE. IT IS WHAT IS GOTTEN TO FARM FOR HER CORE FAST BECAUSE SHE SUCKS AT FARMING, BY HERSELF (And coincidentally, synergises with her ulti well). RADIANCE IS AN EARLY AND MID GAME ITEM WHICH IS PUSSY LATE GAME WHEREIN THINGS ARE OVER IN 3-4 SECONDS. 45BURN DMG IS CUTE TO WIPE THE OPP'S ASS WITH. SELL RADIANCE WHEN YOU REACH LATE-MID-GAME AND BUY PROPER ALTERNATES.






"Ah Shifu! There is no good or bad news. There is just news."

Observations of qwerty:
  • Late game MONSTER
  • Very powerful carry
  • Good survivablity / tank
  • Passive offensive pure dmg
  • Passive defensive pure dmg
  • Can be phased perma* (*terms and conditions apply)
  • Good initiator
  • Good chaos creator
  • Illusions can do 65pure dmg!
  • Global ulti
  • Uti is a legal maphack
  • Ulti lets you play ninja carry.
  • Ulti lets you control the game-flow and gank-flow to a high degree.
  • Weak early game
  • Bad lane control
  • Mana problems
  • Item dependent
  • Below Average stat gains
  • Melee
  • Good attack animation
  • No disable
  • Below avg ms
  • Semi-decent escape mechanism
  • 2-fucking-thousand cast range homing missile

1t is the very lack of stats, esc mech and disable that makes qwerty challenging and fun, requiring skill to make up for her shortcomings. But her dagger in many cases is better than a blink/ timewalk/ wave/ invi. I'll elaborate more in the strategies section.









Description:




  • Your utility spell. Your 2000 cast range spell. Allows you to move through hills, trees and units therefore very useful to escape.

  • Better than timewalk/blink at times because you are not stuck in trees. You can just move out.

  • You are phased. Nobody can block you while chasing. Move thru creep waves and make opponents to take longer routes.

  • Coupled with orb of venom, it's 30% slow. CRAWL BITCHES!

  • Dmg can be avoided using astral imprisonment or disruption but debuff is still applied to them. i.e., they will have their move speed reduced for 12+7seconds and they will create a shadow path for the whole duration.

  • Advanced:
    • Juking is easy cuz you have vision, can ignore terrain, increased ms.

    • Dagger to cliff, go downhill, comeback uphill immediately. Enemy may blink downhill but you will have moved back up, and he cant. (Do it against blinkers not normal heroes! DUH!).

    • Dagger will not travel full distance if targetted. i.e., if target is 100 units away from you and you dagger him, it'll only move till him. Targetting the ground such as to hit him, will cause the dagger to futher travel 1900 units to its full distance. On the other hand, if dagger is targetted to unit, and after dagger is released, the unit travels 99999units away (say a tp), it'll still hit him (thus the homing missile). Use wisely.





Bonus note:




Use it to go "out of the map" and global skills wont hit you, like zeus's ulti or furi's ulti! Also, when you go out of the map melee heroes wont be able to hit you because they can at max, stand AT THE EDGE of the map and not OUTSIDE it. This means you can survive with 20hp standing there and no melee can hit.

Known Issue:When you're out of the map and you dagger, the dagger will be released from the edge of the map and not out of the map. This means you'll not be buffed and will not be able to come out. If this happens, or if you dont have tp you can use -unstuck. Or you can use your ulti and reality to one of your illu.

However there maybe spells that can pull you back (HOOK IS NOT ONE OF THEM!). Hook will simply curve at the edge of the map. Say maybe, vaccum? Swap? Electric vortex? You find out. There are spells that will hit (Laguna) and spells that wont (LSA). Again, you find out. {If someone was kind enough to list them all, I will include it and credit him.}

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lAsGRdGrRc4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYn66nEhj5s
(I tried puttin the video here but it's too small and one cant really see anything. I'll put it under additional strat, but pls see in youtube fullscreen hd right now as it is more relevant here.)








There is no build that will work in all situations. There is no build that'll work in it's own situation. THese are general guidelines. NOT RULES.

Dota is like chess. You play the opponent. YOu play the situation. If you blindly make moves, this isnt the game for you. You can adopt any build you want based on the situation. Play smart.

There are times wherein you are required to make dynamic and economic decisions, that will affect the outcome of the next 5mins. You are expected to do the such, at the least, as a DotA player.








To benefit from her desolate and dispersion, qwerty needs two things. Attack speed and HP. Flat attack speed wont benefit illusions. So rather than attack speed, its agility that matters. My item build highly varies depending on how the game is. Illu dont disperse, so flat HP items are viable. Also, because illu can desolate, manta is a must.






x2 x2









Also, its perfectly understandable if the game finishes before you can finish up your items. But you should be aiming for it. And a game more than 60mins will provide the oppurtunity to make said luxe items.

http://www.playdota.com/guides/epic-haunting


Item Build - Fun/MF

OR

Item Justification: This is when you dont really need to carry the game. There are other carries or pushers in your team. Or, the opponents are newbies and you can have some fun with them. Make MoM first. Then force staff. Now the usage: Force the enemy forward, activate MoM - desolate dmg and normal dmg occuring twice as fast will make short work of your enemy. Just make sure to pick on int or carry heroes with avg or low HP. MoM lets the crits or bonus dmg from Buriza or MKB come in much more often.














  • You've got a lot of regen. Be agressive in lane, but not stupid.

  • First item, Orb of Venom. Starting from lvl 5, start diving and slowing. With a disable or stun from an ally, kills in the bag. Dont forget to have a boots.

  • Standard spectre game. Nothing much to say. Farming, last hitting and the like. I'll make a comprehensive last hitting guide although there are a few on the net, but I think there are more things that can be added.

  • If you're being harassed, draw aggro and farm.

  • When you have ulti, have awerness of whats going on elsewhere. If you wanna be a good spectre player, learn this well.

  • Honestly, it is very obvious that spectre lacks both the base stats as well as gains to really do anythin. Which is why we farm big items. If our agi gain was over 3, we would be fine with one or 2 items. So dont screw up early game. Don't die. Be safe. Play safe. YOur early game goal is only to GET THROUGH IT, WITH FARM.









This guide when made, I dint' think about maelstrom on spectre cuz diffusal worked for illu. But my fried Kenshiro enlightened me. And so, the videos and replays have diffusal in it and not maelstrom. I haven't got the chance to play lately, so there's no maelstrom stuff. But IT IS better. The playstyle changes a bit into more push (split push) heavy strat from a pick off strat (although that too can be done.

This video shows all such strategies and mindgames, incorporated in my gameplay with spectre.


|| H E R O' S | K E Y | P O I N T S ||


Last hit
You must last hit well if you wanna be a good qwerty player. Do last hitting drills (100creep kill, 100deny in 10mins).

Escaping
DONT DIE! Being a carry, you cant be underlvld and lose gold dying. Just dagger to the trees and go thru' them. Or be IN them and tp away. Always have a tp scroll. Starting from lvl10. Many a times, when you're farming and 3heroes come to gank you, dagger to the trees to the end of the map and go outside the map, tp to another lane and farm again.

You are the only hero in the whole of dota who can have this ability perma! (0cd phase) ABUSE IT!

Map Awareness
Using your ulti calls for map awerness. Know where and what your opponents are upto. You can tell from the movement in the map, what they're planning on. Just like in racing games, where you see the map from time to time, do the same in dota.

Timing
I cannot stress enough how important timing is. You MUST get a thorough grasp of it. Especially with Ulti during ganks. Dont ulti prematurely and waste 5v5 ganking potential. I know not how to elaborate this further, but, one thing I can tell is, many times, I wait for them to iniate and after the initial big spells are cast in the first 1-1.5sec of the gank, I ulti then. And at times, I ulti, noticing hesitation in my opponents, and we rush in, in all the chaos and pwn. Know when, why to do this.

Early game mindgames
Quick steps in and out of trees (with the help of the buff from dagger) lets you land in shots (which do desolate dmg) without the enemy able to attack you. Also, using the buff to go thru creeps, means he has to take a long route to get to you (increased distance). This also makes him closer to your creeps and they will land in a few hits on him (which early game is not to be underestimated).

Neutralling
qwerty with a vangaurd can neutral 3 camps at once. Because the dispersion acts on 1000AOE pulling the creeps. Vangaurd is needed because it helps you tank more, without which, by the time you're done with 2camps at once, you're at 25%HP. Vangaurd lets you neutral endlessly. When you push a lane too far, just neutral. When you're too far into your lane and danger is immenent, go neutral.

Always neutral, pulling 2 or 3 camps to one spot and effectively maximizing dispersion's effectiveness.






Hero's who are baby sitters help the most during early game, letting you get a few kills as well. Healers in lane, lets you accomplish a lot of mindgames. Disablers are on your best friends because you yourself cant hold a hero at one spot and whack him to death.


His heal and slow is God sent. Coupled with your dagger, the enemy literally crawls.


Makes for a highly aggresive laning. I love to have him in my lane.


He can create illusions of you!!! He can slow! And he can amplify dmg as well (amplified dmg is pure)!


His armr and slow is one of the best things I've seen in pro games involving qwerty. Easy 3 camp stack neutralling with vang and armr which slow.

Global heroes obviously are great with qwerty ( Cuz she gLOBAL YOU 1337 NOOOB).







- figure it out. Summin to do with fatal and ulti.

|| K I N D A | C O U N T E R S ||

- Aura isn't dispersable. You are a tank and that means. . .

- Fatal bonds not dispersable.

Heavy 5 man push strats.

Heavy disables cuz in a way, they are not letting you carry. By disabling you to no ends, they are letting their carries kill you again n again. So you're not able to carry.

- You ulti? I ulti. Peace.







I hope these vids explain most of the things.. PLEASE WATCH IN FULLSCREEN IN HD... If you cant watch in fullscreen, goto youtube and watch it there.

Here's the latest







Video shows how to use dagger to go thru cliffs... and tips on how not to take the long route


The way of escapes - showing dagger usage to go thru' cliffs and going out of map can letting you tp safely when ganked


Spectre - art of mindgames
A general video about qwerty


Spectre - desolate illustration
I'm illustrating in this, pressing 's' before attack point to let many desolates happen. Spectre hits 13times whereas centaur hits only 5times.


Spectre - Desolate kills
qwerty gets the kill here because the desolate occurs before attack animation occurs. Even though potm's starfall started to fall, it couldnt reach ES.


Spectre - art of mindgames vol 2
A general video about qwerty


Spectre - Desolate
Using stop command to get the most out of desolate.


This is not a spectre video but there's a scene or two between 5:15 to 7:25.







I hope it is clear the potential of qwerty beyond vangaurd and radiance or diffusal. She's an amazing carry and tank at the same time. Have funn playing her. Never stop experimenting with items and combos. And let me know so that I can add it in the guide.

And as far as equipping qwerty with butterfly or vangaurd goes, the point with spectre is to CARRY! Not to disperse dmg without blocking/evading any!





PRO REPLAYS

GGNet vs MYM.Razer
http://www.2shared.com/file/tnmWBvSw...XIVGGnet_.html

Scythe vs CCM ~ Zhou plays qwerty
http://www.2shared.com/file/b-BPyP6v..._vs_CCM_G.html

MYM vs GGNet
http://www.2shared.com/file/VNVpsouK...s_GGn__1_.html

Zhou plays qwerty
http://www.2shared.com/file/KaUK5DjE/imbaspec.html

M.C.M.Y ~ Exception on every level. His timing is mind blowing. Even last hitting heroes! This is more pro to me than any qwerty player I've seen by far.
http://www.2shared.com/file/InzMS45k/mcmy.html

PERSONAL REPLAYS

http://www.2shared.com/file/pM2xbqga/spec1.html

http://www.2shared.com/file/huo19LnF/spec2.html

http://www.2shared.com/file/JhuRzll2/spec3.html

http://www.2shared.com/file/rlsM66zU/spec4.html

http://www.2shared.com/file/XvjoT0dl/spec5.html

http://www.2shared.com/file/DO2RfH5q...GAME_SPEC.html

http://www.2shared.com/file/eyIFjLYr...lbr_skadi.html
In this game, i max dispersion first. I just wanned to make myself tanky, and also wanned to chase. I exploited her strentgh of chasing and tanking. Made a vg, med of courage, sny, halbard, skadi.

I'm highly interested to go 3x or 4x heart. Like dendi playing ursa with 6 battlefury. I think a spectre with 4x heart can tank all... so i'm highly interested to just do that for all games, tank all, push tanking twrs, 5heroes, and push all the way to throne and win... When I'm able to do that, I'll upload the replay, immediately after. Spectre can be played versatilely, and the above replay was just that. I like to change up items, cuz otherwise, dota would be boring, without the numerous possiblilities. "The infinite possibilities of DotA"

http://www.2shared.com/file/YUhWL3X4/specgg.html
This game shows how impressive ulti-ref-ulti can be. Many ultra kills and team wipes due to it. Also, zeus is great with spectre (global).

http://www.2shared.com/file/d79YiHIr/specmid-solo.html
Mid solo spectre against sf. The skil build is different. (1,3,1,3,3,4,3,1,1/2,2,2,2...). 2 Hearts.








Thanks to

gwho - the right guide to guide-write
Ninjamovespro - how to be smart and skilled
Ramodkk - Ramomar's Hero Guide Template
wizardlvl80 - pointing out batrider can also ignore terrain
fruitscs.deviantart.com - chibi drawings
soap9000.deviantart.com - grasshopper spectre
exaxuxer.deviantart.com - cover
binkari.deviantart.com
soap9000.deviantart.com

Totallnewbie and Sogovegeta - for teh inspiration

And thanks to you...for reading it ^_^


Remember that as much as there is to dota, it's still a game you're takin the time out to play, IN YOUR LIFE. Dont forget to live. And dont forget to have fun gaming. This video is just that. FUn for your musings.

ANd it has nothing to do with spectre. But a lot to do with the spirit of gaming.

Only furi, trax, pugna, lich are in the game. All else left.







Mercurial the Spectre
Author: LazyGrasshopper
Map Vers.: 6.77c

-qwerty

-qwerty

Date Posted: 07/22/12
Last Comment:23/05/2013
Total Votes: 38
Current Rating: 9.31
Views: 49111



Login to post a comment