6.86c is out

I've just played Riki and his ult is just awesome. 40 sec cd, dodge, ability to recklessly dive into any gank as long as you can blink out, mass AoE cripplefest with Skadi, it;s just Kreygasm. I'm totally picking him to grind mmr this patch.

Honestly, I'd rather have the Arcane Orb steal intelligence than Astral Imprisonment. I have encountered many situations where you have Astral Imprisonment off cooldown but can't use it because a) they could blink away after the banish or b) it might give enemies time to regroup and **** you up. Of course, with proper coordination, Astral Imprisonment is an excellent tool that can be used sort of like a Eul's Scepter to prevent escape. The problem was, after the laning phase has ended and everyone has stats, that is the only thing it is good for. The intelligence steal is simply not as valuable at that point (unless you count the Agh's ult, which was borderline overpowered anyway). Even for OD, the fight has to last for around 40 seconds to get ~39 extra intelligence, assuming that every situation where you should use Astral Imprisonment on an enemy presents itself accordingly.

Now that the intelligence steal is moved to Arcane Orb, assuming he attacks every second (OD attacks faster than this by mid game), he can gain 40 intelligence in 8 seconds of uninterrupted attacking, though with all the kiting and **** that's going around it'll be more like 16 seconds. 8 hits, 40 intelligence, and in half the time compared to the Astral Imprisonment intelligence steal. Or, if you manage to 3-shot someone, you get 15 intelligence in the span of ~3 seconds, and then you can steal more intelligence immediately if there are any more enemy heroes nearby. Seems like a pretty good buff to me if, once again, you don't count the Agh's ult with the old Astral Imprisonment.

Also, now that Astral Imprisonment deals damage at the end of it, it is now a better Eul's Scepter



tl;dr
new int steal > old int steal (unless you're talking about old agh's ult refresh ult)
new astral imprisonment = eul's with more damage and longer duration

That's just strictly worse Sleight of Fist isn't it?

SoF is only one hit. Riki ult is up to 6. It's more like a low AOE Flak Cannon if anything.

And Ember doesn't have a steroid besides SoF. Riki has backstab for 125% damage. Meaning each hit of Riki ult will do more than twice the damage of Ember's SoF.

No seriously Riki owns in this patch. When you trade regen for a new skill that fixes all the hero's issues (useless when focused, useless against 5-man dota)...that's a huge buff.

By the way you need to blink -> smoke -> ult in teamfights. Slow from smoke stacks with Eye of Skadi slow for...60% AOE slow. OSFrog.

How we build it then ? i tried tranquils and vanguard to solve the hp regen problem but they did not make it, also lane is trash and roaming is even worse

Build lots of agility

Does this work? (looking at you hamster)

Drums (bracer to mitigate HP loss) > Yasha > Diffusal > Manta > Skadi > Abyssal > Butterfly

I think Tranquil Boots should work on offlane riki? It's not like Riki needs a lot of starting items. Ring of Protection in starting items, and then finish tranquils at the side shop. He doesn't need stats because he last hits with his E anyways.
Besides the MS from tranquils is really needed on Riki. Hero is just soooo slow.

Besides tranquils are ultra cheap this patch, cost got reduced by 75 gold, you can almost rush naked tranquils with no other starting item : no regen, nothing. You only need 300 gold to finish tranquils.

Diffusal Blade and Eye of Skadi are core. I'd go diffusal into skadi in every game.

Manta, basher/abyssal, BKB and travels as extensions.

Riki doesn't need MKB because backstab can't miss.

Still thinking about Daedalus. Backstabs can't crit but it has a great synergy with his ult now, kind of like Ember/Kunkka.

Not a huge fan of butterfly on riki because any decent player will go MKB when playing against Riki in the first place. But then, it can work to stomp scrubs I guess :)

i should try this
but what do you think of buying a casual orb of venom, gives you an early slow and help with easy kills ? and a queling blade, it helps you farm(cause it is not every time you can atack the creeps back) and help you deward(expect sentry you are riki the invisible guy) ?

What about the Maelstrom/ Mjollnir thing? I saw you talking to kyphoid about it the other day about it. I guess it is a little worse since his ult can't target creeps now.

Would you still want to offlane Riki? Like, you are still a super squishy super slow hero with garbage lane presence that needs some sense of farm to be relevent, and has no real catch-up. Like, your kill potential without farm, whilst not non existant, isn't exactly that good. You are going to get zoned, really heavily.

The only time I see it working lane wise is when you have a lot of pressure; Like a Night Stalker or Undying who forces supports attention to a specific place. You'd also need a mid like Dragon Knight or Shadow Fiend who brings damage, and building damage. Since Riki has awful siege presence, among the worst in the game.

Or is safe lane Riki the more viable thing now? With the same sort of draft structure.