Manipulating Time/Space!
UNDER CONSTRUCTION!

~HERO's Table Of Contents

1. Story
2. Introduction
3. Info and Stats
4. Skill Usage
5. Skill Build
6. Item Build
7. Strategy
~7b. HERO'S Key Points
8. Hero Synergy
9. Screens and Additional Strategy
10. Conclusion
11. Replays
12. Credits

1. HERO's Story

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They say he was once human, but his background is shrouded in darkness, even to himself. What we know is that he was thrown into the Void between worlds and has emerged with the power of manipulating time. He can freeze his enemies in time and avoid hits by traveling a split-second back in time, right before receiving the blow. He can briefly rip apart the fabric of space-time to freeze both allies and opponents around him, yet remain free himself to act. It is rumored that he can instantly strike any man in a legion of soldiers, but nobody sees him move...

Who is Howard Roa.... I mean, Who is Void?

I believe that a hero should be played according to his role in a game to maximize its effectiveness. To know Void's role in the game, we should look at his stats and his skills.

Strength: 23 + 1.6
Agility 21 + 2.65
Intelligence 15 + 1.5

In one word, Void's stat is UNIMPRESSIVE. Fellow carries such as Phantom Assassin, TerrorBlade, Morphling, and Troll Warlord have higher strength AND agility gain, with TB and Morphling have higher INT gain as well.

Does it make Void inferior to them?

NO! Void's skills are what makes him distinguished from the previously mentioned heroes. This means that Void is more skill dependent than other carries. This seemingly simple fact is easy to pass by, but it implies many things.

First of all, we know that Void is more or less item independent from the previously mentioned carries. His chronosphere at lvl 6 is game breaking whereas carries' ultimate at level 6 are laughable. This means Void can, or rather, has to participate more in team fights and ganks than other carries.

Secondly, let's take a look at Void's skills. Void has Time Walk, making him very mobile, but this blink-like skill goes well with any sort of synergy. We need to look at Void's other skills to know his role in the game.

Backtrack increases Void's EHP by 25%; Void can take more punishment. This means Void is slightly less worried about taking damage. Does this mean he can stack up more DPS items than other carries? Or does this mean he should stack more hp items? The answer is the second one. This skill is better the more HP Void has. When Void has 2000 hp he gains 500 EHP from Backtrack. When Void has 1000 hp, he gains 250 EHP. This implies that Void can tank to a certain degree.

Time Lock means what everyone knows already about Void and Troll - permabash. This means that increase in attack speed is important, and AIS should take precedence over damage for Void.

Chronosphere is potentially the most game-breaking spell in the game. 5 second of aoe "stun" is no joke, and all heroes, even ones with spell immunity, WILL get affected. Every hero becomes equal before this ultimate.

So, who is Void?

If you think of him as a scary dps'er that can permabash, you're half right.
He's a dps carry that has a minor in tanking. He's a hybrid dps - tank hero like Medusa or Slardar. The difference is that if Medusa takes tanking as priority, Void should take dps as his priority. If Tanking is Medusa's major, DPS'ing is Void's major. Slardar would be double major in tanking and dps'ing. Though Slardar and Medusa may seem more aoe oriented, thus team oriented, Chronosphere alone can completely outshine all of their skills. Also, Void's skills are, in my opinion, superior to Slardar's or Medusa's skills after laning phase... overall.

If you want a hero that can own 1 v 5, you've come to the wrong guide. Pick Phantom Assassin, get her treads, HoD, battlefury, and black king bar. DPS wise, PA and Clinkz are superior as their skills are more oriented that way. However, if you want a hero that can contribute to the team even early on, and can carry the team to victory, you've come to the right place.

2. HERO'S Introduction

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I first started playing Void when I read DarkMedina's Guide. It was an awesome guide, but as many people may have noticed, it is not completely up to date. Also, I've noticed that people are not in concensus as to what skill to get early on and what items to get on this hero, and I would like to address that in this guide. Though not a good DoTA player myself, I am confident that my Void guide should be a reasonable extension to DarkMedina's guide. Before reading this guide, I suggest you read DarkMedina's guide to Void.

3. HERO'S Info & Stats

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Pros:
[+] Strong carry
[+] High base damage / good attack animation for last hitting
[+] Game-breaking ultimate
[+] More useful than other carries early on

Cons:
[-] Melee
[-] Low EHP early game
[-] Carry, and this coupled with the prior cons make sure he gets ganked/harrassed early on

For complete stats, click below:
[url=http://www.playdota.com/heroes/faceless-void[/url]

4. HERO'S Skill Usage

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Time Walk
Skill for escaping / initiating. Can be used to dodge projectiles / Damage.

Backtrack
Dodge any damage 25% (at lvl 4) of the time based on pseudo-heal trigger. Even if Void dodges stun, stun duration still applies. This also means any damage that would insta-gibb full-hp Void (e.g. Cuiling Blade) would not be backtracked, and Void at full health cannot backtrack.

Time Lock
25% chance to stun a hero for 1 second, creep for 2 seconds, or Roshan for 0.5 second. Goes through magic immunity.

Chronosphere
Void's signature. Freezes anything in target aoe(except wards and couriers fyi). It has a potential to be more devastating than any other aoe ultimates (black hole, ravage, reverse polarity) in the game.

5. HERO'S Skill Build

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Level 1 - Time Walk
Level 2 - Backtrack (Time Lock)
Level 3 - Time Walk
Level 4 - Backtrack (Time Lock)
Level 5 - Backtrack (Time Lock)
Level 6 - Chronosphere
Level 7 - Backtrack (Time Lock)
Level 8 - Time Lock (Backtrack)
Level 9 - Time Lock (Backtrack)
Level 10 - Time Lock (Backtrack)
Level 11 - Chronosphere
Level 12 - Time Lock (Backtrack)
Level 13 - Time Walk
Level 14 - Time Walk
Level 14 - attribute
Level 15 - attribute
Level 16 - Chronosphere

Time Walk is gotten first to help avoid first blood attempts. It is also gotten on the third level for the increase in range. Some people may argue that this is a rather unnecessary as level 1 of Time Walk is sufficient early on. However, level 1's range is 700, and level 2's range is 900. Many of the more often encountered disables in the game - Storm Bolt based stun (e.g.Vengeful Spirit), Impale (e.g.Lion), hex (e.g.Rhasta), gush - range from 500-700 range. Of course, most likely there's going to be a distance between you and the enemy hero when you time walk away, but what if they come out from the fog? What if they sandwich you? Just know that the increase in range is just more useful than 5% increase in bash/backtrack. Also, 5% increase in slow and shorter cooldown aren't wasted either. If you're playing competitive games, maxing out time walk fast is definetely a choice, as most likely you will be a gank magnet, enemies coming from all directions.
Depending on the skill of enemy hero(es) you lane against, you may be harrassed to death or not. If you get harrassed, max Backtrack first, and if you can withstand the harrass, get Time Lock. Maxing Backtrack first ensures that you take more punishment and survive, and maxing Time Lock first puts you at a level not to be messed around with early on.
Chronosphere is gotten whenever possible as it is awesome.

6. HERO'S Item Build

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Starting Items
1)

If you think you're going to lane against orb walker(s) or heroes who will depend on physical damage to harm you go with build (2).
If you are laning with a good babysitter who will let you farm, or if you're playing at lower level game, build (3) is possible.
If you're facing heroes who will nuke you, build (4) is recommended.
If you're playing in pubs, and nobody buys chicken and shares with you, go with build (5).

Early Items

Finish Magic wand if you went with build (1) or (5)
Finish poor man's shield if you went with build (2).
Decide between wraith bands and bracers if you went build (4).
ALWAYS carry TP until the game ends.

Core Items

STOP!

Q.

Manta or Battlefury are superior to Mask of Madness! Manta gives more survivabilty, nifty illusions, and more EHP, whereas Battlefury allows for faster farming and monster DPS. MoM cuts your already low HP down by 20%!

Getting good items means making sure they have good synergy between a hero's skills and role in the game. Let's look at how the three possible items fit in with Void's role in the game.

Void is a carry, meaning he has to farm up decent throughout the game. However, he's vulnerable to enemies early on due to his low EHP. MoM is the cheapest of all the three items mentioned by far, and most importantly, it grants Void lifesteal, which allows him to neutral indefinetely. There is a huge difference between a hero that can neutral and a hero that cannot neutral. With minimum fear of ganks, Void can simply stack of creeps and kill them. Time walk ensures Void a safe getaway in case of emergency.
Battlefury is very time consuming for Void to farm up early game. Sure, void will get nice dps and farming speed later once he gets it, but Void is NOT an afk farmer. I will explain this later on in strategy section. Void's goal is to be useful as soon as possible, and that is achieved by getting MoM, which will DOUBLE his dps and allow him to keep on farming.
Manta is VERY expensive and makes getting an ultimate orb necessary, which isn't an easy task for Void.

Now let's look at the items' synergy with Void's skills.

Battlefury does not synergize with ANY of Void's skills. Sure, you may be able to trap heroes and hit a multiple at the same time, but rarely will there be times where 2 or more heroes will be in a cleave aoe, especially if you play in higher league games. However, to get rid of any room of doubt, I'll say it synergizes with 1 of Void's 4 skills.

Manta synergizes with 1 of Void's skills - chronosphere. I'm not sure if Backtrack works on the illusions or not. If it does, it kind of synergizes, but at this stage of the game, Void does not have much EHP, and that means his images have almost no EHP. Since Backtrack increases Void's EHP based on %, only when Void's HP pool become large will it be significant. So that's out of picture.
As far as I know, Time Lock in illusions work only when enemies are already affected by the real Void's bash; the fake bashes will prolong the real one. If Illusions prock fake bash first, however, Void's real bash will not prock, and enemies will not be stunned. There is 66.7% chance that images prock back first, and 33.3% that Void will bash first. Therefore, it HINDERS Void since it decreases Void's bash chance by 66.7%. But when real Void DOES bash first, does that mean you get an infinite bash? NO! You and your images do not attack fast enough for that to happen.
Time Walk does not synergize with illusions.

MoM, on the other hand, synergizes with ALL of Void's 4 skills.

Berserk carries over when you activate Time Walk.
Backtrack mitigates the extra damage you take due to Berserk.
Time Lock's prock % is DOUBLED as Void attacks twice as fast.
Chronosphere greatly hinders the damage done to Void while Berserk is active.

Plus, only when enemies are bunched up together will battlefury be able to out-dps either MoM or Manta. For people who are still not convinced that Manta is inferior to MoM, let's look at dps output.

Manta increases Void's dps output by 33% per clone, totalling 66% increase in dps. HOWEVER, that only applies to stat-based damage.
MoM increases Void's dps output by 100%, no matter the what source of damage may be (for instance, it will double damage from broad sword if Void holds it. More practically, however, it will double the extra dps from Ogre Magi's Bloodlost or Invoker's Alacrity, or Butterfly's extra 30 damage).

Moreover, when Void casts Time Walk, all the extra benefits Manta provides is lost whereas the ones MoM provides will still remain the same.

The only thing Manta is superior to MoM is for survivability, but who would go for Void first if he poses no threat? With MoM, Void becomes very threatening.

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Late Game Build

Do they have Panda or Troll to make you miss your attacks half the time? Get MKB. Is the enemy PA getting out of control at this point? CONSIDER MKB.

Note: MKB's mini bash used to cancel Void's bash, but no longer.

Otherwise, go for butterfly. It grants 30 agility, 30 damage, and 30% chance to avoid an attack. Extra agility ensures bash procs more often, and 30% avoid chance semi-stacks Void to make his EHP more formidable.

Q. What aboud

? It increases his bash proc chance, and Miss chance from butterfly only semi stacks with backtrack whereas armor bonus from AC is awesome!

Yes, AC gives 55% extra attack speed as compared to Butterfly's 30%. However, attack speed looks less sexy to Void at this point thanks to Berserk, whereas more damage looks more sexy. You may argue that negative armor makes up for extra damage from butterfly, but 60 extra damage is simply more reliable than -5 negative armor. More armor maya seem sexier than 30% avoid chance, but if you think about it, armor only semi-stacks with backtrack as well; when you backtrack, armor doesn't matter, now does it? Plus, Void has not-so low armor with large agility pool.

Luxury Items

This, I believe, is where most people go awry; they try stacking more dps. Remember when I said Void has a minor in tanking? With MoM and Butterfly, he has sufficient dps. Now Void is interested in more EHP.

Did you go mkb first?

Its boost to Void's ultimate is not significant enough to be a late core item, but is sexy enough late game, coupled with larger hp pool it gives to Void. Recommended.

Though it may seem strange at first, it works on Void extremely well once he becomes a threat damage-wise. Void is confused whether he should get scepter or HoT, but realizes that it is up to the state of the game. Recommended

The enemies seem to bunch up close, and/or you have a Darkseer on your team who's there to help whenever you land the chronosphere. Void is interested in cleave damage... but only after MoM and butterfly

Slardar seems to show Void a bit too much love and amplifies Void all the time, and Void has hard time enduring physical beat down Slardar and his teammates give. Void is interested in extra armor. Or, Void has gotten boots of travel, and is looking towards replacing MoM with Satanic. He needs ais to make up for ais loss that will be incurred upon replacing MoM.

The enemies seem to focus on Void a bit too much with disables and ton of damage, and you would like to disperse that attention.

Void seems to be able to land plenty of hits without much fear of disables. He is interested in more dps, and buriza's critical damage is carried over in hp stolen. Void is eager to get this.

The game is getting long, and Void wants to gain an extra spot by getting rid of TP's.

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Situational Items

They simply have too many disables, and chronosphere alone simply does not cut it. Or, they have a jackass Tiny. If the enemies are out of control, get this possibly even before MoM, but getting this after MoM is recommended (as MoM will speed up farming)

Have too much money? Already have AC?

Backtrack WILL NOT interfere with this item.
You can't farm up well, and are under a lot of fire, and/or you want to mess up Luna / Lina / Lion bad.

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7. HERO'S Strategy

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Early Game

EARLY GAME THUMBNAIL ICONS GO HERE

FIRST STRATEGY POINT GOES HERE: FIRST POINT EXPLANATION GOES HERE
SECOND STRATEGY POINT GOES HERE: SECOND POINT EXPLANATION GOES HERE
THIRD STRATEGY POINT: THIRD POINT EXPLANATION GOES HERE

Mid Game

MID GAME THUMBNAIL ICONS GO HERE

FIRST STRATEGY POINT GOES HERE: FIRST POINT EXPLANATION GOES HERE
SECOND STRATEGY POINT GOES HERE: SECOND POINT EXPLANATION GOES HERE
THIRD STRATEGY POINT: THIRD POINT EXPLANATION GOES HERE

Late Game

LATE GAME THUMBNAIL ICONS GO HERE

FIRST STRATEGY POINT GOES HERE: FIRST POINT EXPLANATION GOES HERE
SECOND STRATEGY POINT GOES HERE: SECOND POINT EXPLANATION GOES HERE
THIRD STRATEGY POINT: THIRD POINT EXPLANATION GOES HERE

7b. HERO'S Key Points

KEY POINT #1 GOES HERE
EXPLANATION OF KEY POINT #1 GOES HERE

KEY POINT #2 GOES HERE
EXPLANATION OF KEY POINT #2 GOES HERE

KEY POINT #3 GOES HERE
EXPLANATION OF KEY POINT #3 GOES HERE

KEY POINT #4 GOES HERE
EXPLANATION OF KEY POINT #4 GOES HERE

KEY POINT #5 GOES HERE
EXPLANATION OF KEY POINT #5 GOES HERE

8. HERO'S Hero Synergy

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YOUR HERO SYNERGY INTRODUCTION GOES HERE

HERO ICON #1
EXPLANATION OF HERO #1 SYNERGY GOES HERE

HERO ICON #2
EXPLANATION OF HERO #2 SYNERGY GOES HERE

HERO ICON #3
EXPLANATION OF HERO #3 SYNERGY GOES HERE

HERO ICON #4
EXPLANATION OF HERO #4 SYNERGY GOES HERE

HERO ICON #5
EXPLANATION OF HERO #5 SYNERGY GOES HERE