Lack of spectre in competitive

So in competitive we have seen void and dusa.. Pretty popular actually.


Now im thinking.. Where the hell is Spectre? Is she viable at all?

Why didnt the pros do it?

She's very situational because she can't do much in teamfights pre-30 minutes besides scaring people with Haunt. Heroes like Void and Medusa are pretty good teamfighters in the early game thanks to their ulti, but Spectre needs gold for her Radiance and her ulti is better for ganking. She also has little to no laning presence.

On the other hand, she works very well in ganking-oriented teams: if you have a Nature's Prophet, an Io + someone combo or a roaming Bounty Hunter/ Nyx Assassin you can secure kills with her ultimate. She heavily depends on the early game because every missed kill delays her Radiance, so she only works with the right team composition.

Spectre is a hero who excels in line-ups which are tailor-made to her own needs.She is the core of the "4-protect-1" strategy.

once you get 2 items on Spectre ( Diffusal Blade and Radiance) she becomes a ganking-teamfighting god,but before that, pfft,she don't do nutting mon.

to sum it up:
1.no laning presence.
2.Very high team dependency.
3.LOT OF FARM REQUIRED.
4.Doesn't reach full potential without 4-5 slots full.

She needs teammates to spread the chaos for her, while she farms.
Even lategame she cant manfight a carry(your gonna die anyways) and requires team to deal damage while she clears up in mid game.
A special team that can play mind games with the enemy is best suited to spectre because she herself relies on playing mindgames. She excels in killing support and starving the carry of cc.
Hence to summarize:
If she can be carried until she gets rad + heart and has mates that support her playstyle late game, you can pick her.
You can actually hazard a guess towards spectre pick incoming almost everytime with the bans and picks a team has made. So you might already give away your strat if you plan to pick her.if you pick her first the enemy can counter pick. Hence the discouragement towards pro spec picks.

I saw quite a lot of her in ESL and the games after 6.82. Considering not a lot has changed since then bar some minor nerfs, I'd say she's still quite viable... but you really need to draft around her. She is NOT a hero you just throw into a draft and hope for the best.

Hey peppo can you tell when an all agi build spectre is good?
I mean i remember Aui_2000 rushing manta on her a year back i think.

If you're having a hard time farming or if your team is focused on the mid game, you can go Drum of Endurance or Blade Mail (or both) into Manta Style/ Diffusal Blade, it works really well. You won't be able to farm creeps as fast ( Spectre is a very slow farmer without Radiance), but you'll be able to farm kills instead.