6.86b is here

I think that an Exort-focused Invoker is the best at the moment, actually. 1 in Wex at level 2 for Alacrity and the free lane win, and put a point in Quas (up to 3) whenever you can't skill Exort. Then, get Force/Blink/Aether Lens into Agh's so you have the level 4 Quas breakpoint for double Forge Spirits. Focus on both spells and right-clicks to dominate mid and lategame with a high level Alacrity and maybe a Maelstrom or Monkey King Bar.

Pugna with Aether Lens is really funny and effective.
Because you increase the cast range on Nether Ward. This means you can actually hide it in the trees where no one can find it. It doesn't boost the ward's damage, but that's fine. Also, 900 range active ghost scepter is fun too.

Yeah, I think Invoker's go QW with an early point in E so that you can have Alacrity for the lane. No idea about the item build, but you can probably go for something like Desolator now given the attack speed steroid you get.

That's the build I have seen most frequently in competitive Invoker's since the change, but the patch is new so everythings up in the air in those regards.

Actually Alacrity benefits Q-W invoker far more than it benefits Q-E. Agree with Sanvitch's build, it actually turned QW invoker from the worst laning hero ever to a lane dominator.

QE invoker on the other hand has always had good laning with spirits.

QW invoker is damage items + BKB. Any damage item works. I also like the straight up Moon Shard to proc Cold Snap.

Skill build wise, I've been going 3-1-3 into 3-7-3 for the attack speed and Forge Spirits. But I don't really think that's optimal, just haven't discovered a better one yet.

Item wise... Still Phase > Urn > Agh's > Deso?

You can probably rush BoT's on any Invoker now; QW used to pick up Phase Boots just to mitigate the poor base damage, but Alacrity being so good now means it actually doesn't need them anymore. Like you can beat a Viper 1v1 with just Alacrity, you don't need boots just for damage.

Either just sticking on brown boots, or going BoT rush just sounds better now.

Item-wise; Urn of Shadows is still probably a great item if you plan on rotating a lot, if not you can maybe get away with like Bracer into Desolator. Picking up Deso after Ag's means it's waaaaay too late to matter. You might as well build MKB or something at that stage. You want to abuse the relative strength of your team fight and get towers early with that build. You won't need to cooldown reduction or the spell increase so soon.

Especially since you'll probably be forced into BKB after your first big item in a lot of games.

As for starting items, I love Null Talisman and 2 Faere Fire, since you don't need much regen due to Quas, and the burst heal is so so good.

Agh's is still really good tho... 3 free levels? I mean...

I'm not denying that the item is good. It's just why would you delay picking up an item that has a noticable timing window for a late game item? Deso, despite being cheaper, is still an item that drops off post like 30-40 minutes, and thus picking it up earlier matters more.

The 3 free levels really matters in the late game, when your scaling is most important, and when you have high enough levels of Invoker to use a large number of spells in the long dragging late game team0fights.

Hm... I see your reasoning, though it doesn't convince me 100%.

To me, the 3 free levels matter more in the early stages, allowing you to get access to 2 Forge Spirits faster while maxing Wex.

Perhaps we are speaking of different skill builds?

Probably; I still think that QW with the single point in E at level one is the best Invoker build; You bring more to fights early on, and you get more out of Alacrity in lane due to faster attack speed, and lower initial base damage.

The issue with the old QE build is that Cold Snap is simply awful in lane, and you have basically no reliable kill potential. Whereas this new build can always threaten with Alacrity into Cold Snap with Tornado as a finisher. Plus, your ability to survive ganks is lower because you can't invoke Ghost Walk or punish with Tornado or EMP.

Not to mention, QE is in part an Invoker build designed to win his lane, but QW now has one of the stronger lanes right now, he has like 70 damage for last hitting, decent kill potential, great disengage for ganks, and great attack speed so he harasses really well.