A Guide to Riki Excellence

Sentries should definitely be picked up in situations where no one else picks them up. Riki relies heavily on his ability to go invisible, and if you can get rid of anything that would disable that it would be a benefit to everyone on the team. Also, a lategame gem is probably more helpful than most items. Riki is hard to kill, the gem would be safer in his hands than a squishy support.

What about an Assault Cuirass? Debuffing enemy armor seems pretty good, plus giving YOU some extra armor for survivability, and it builds with your Hyperstone. Something to consider, even though it doesn't stack with your optional Vlads.

What about an Assault Cuirass? Debuffing enemy armor seems pretty good, plus giving YOU some extra armor for survivability, and it builds with your Hyperstone. Something to consider, even though it doesn't stack with your optional Vlads.

Can you explain your reasons for Ethereal Blade. Several people have asked (myself included) and I cannot find a reason for it to be in the item build ever, under any situation.

I just re did the items build, I am aiming for a high damage and ridiculous attack speed but Butterfly is now a core late game item

Skillbuild seems good, a few early backstabs for lasthitting, get blinkstrike up quickly for CD and additional damage, 1 lvl in smoke screen... should be fine.

Your item build seems a bit wonky though, as previously mentioned.
PMS is fine, wand is good to get for beginning players, even though it's worth it to check your opponents heroes before getting it (are they likely to spam spells or not).

Morbid mask makes no sense at all to me. Yes, you get a bit of additional staying power, but with your dps it won't do too much. It also interferes with your diffusal blade, which you build right after that, which is a lot bigger of an issue. Either get a diffusal blade, skipping lifesteal until you complete a possible vlads later (which i'd say is situational, not core), or go a full lifesteal route in terms of a Mask of madness ganker (can work, but might not be best for beginners since it requires more awareness and quick reactions).

Building your yasha into a S&Y seems situational as well. It might be a nice pick-up for beginning players, since it's not difficult to use, but i'd normally only get it if you're having a bad game, and lack the time to farm any bigger items.

Mjollnir needs more explaining to me. In terms of DPS a butterfly is simply superior on Riki, and it provides additional evasion as well. Mjollnir would be either for farming or for proccing lightnings in teamfights, neither of which are your strong points, with you yourself stating that you should be targeting lone heroes and stragglers instead of going in head first (which is correct).

Bloodstone and Radiance, again, seem weird items, even for luxury. Again, you're not a big teamfighter, so the radiance burn doesn't do that much other than telling people where you are (and i doubt beginners are that smart about toggling it yet)! If you need more damage, daedalus or a MKB/abyssal seem vastly superior. For survivability, i'd say get a heart or bkb instead.

For the last part, if you are the main carry of your team (might not happen that often in pubs, but if you're snowballing just a bit you will be) getting a bkb might be a very important pick-up, which is completely overlooked here.

Urn is fine as an early situational if you've got a very roaming heavy playstyle and your mid is already calling the runes. Eblade is a fun pick-up for the stats, but the active seems wasted on a hard-core rightclicker and a butterfly does everything better than it. I'd only consider it if your team lacks any other disables, but has some big nukes, while your opponents have an ursa or smth similar which wrecks your teamfights (but then again, how you're going to farm the eaglehorn at that point is another matter).

in short, re-check your item build, other than that it's good

needs more basher or abysall..
orchid is also a good situational pick up - for the silence.. but not a great item on riki.. better to get an abysal

Getting Butterfly or even Talisman of Evasion will increase Rikimaru survival more than enough. Getting Bloodstone is much of an overkill, actually.

Why Ethereal Blade? Unless your team is heavy on spellcasters, it's pretty much pointless because Rikimaru doesn't have any magicky skills.

following your item build, you have mask and difusal at the same time. the effects don't stack.

Wow I didnt even concider how the SnY combine into the Manta. And the Blood stone is just something I like to get to increase longevity of any hero while decreasing respawn time. Also, yes 3 branches is a conciderable replacement to the slippers. I will probally be rivising this later this week. Furthermore life steal helps at anypoint in the game and since the morbid mask builds into a vlad it saves money later game when you are saving for a Butterfly or Manta.

Hyperstone AND Sange and Yasha combine <<<<< Manta Style

If you can you get manta style and do it as soon as you finish diffusal. This allows you to get rid of Dust of Appearance without self casting Purge on diffusal. SnY is pretty worthless on a lot of heroes, and riki is no exception.


Instead of getting Slippers of Agility, I suggest 3 Ironwood Branch, because it gives you the same AGI, with 39 mana and 57 HP added onto it, while still building into the Magic wand recommended in the guide.

Also, is there a reason there is a whole 100 gold unspent?

Why is Mjolnir a core late game item and Buttefly is luxury, even though the Butterly gives Rikki 60 damage (before backstab) and 60 attack speed, 7 armor, and 35% evasion which stacks with this smoke cloud.

Don't get Radiance. It is only useful before 25 minutes, and even if you get it somehow before that point it tells the enemy you are nearby. Dust of Appearance is bad.

Don't get Bloodstone... I can literally think of no reason to get it.

As a "noobs guide" I don't want to get into all the issues of rikki as a hero, who is basically unlaneable and very weak as a hero in general. I just want to say I strongly disagree with the Morbid Mask so early. Riki still won't have the damage to make that useful, especially since the guide advocates ignoring last hitting at first... something I also strongly disagree with.


PS: Sentry Wards last 2 minutes