A 2k ranked player's look at Riki

Introduction

Myself

Hello all, my name is Austinfett and this is my first guide for any hero. Now, as a 2k player, you may wish to take my guide with a grain of salt (but if you're better than me, you probably don't need a guide to begin with). However, I offer my advice because I was able to climb MMR with Riki and Meepo. I've only been playing Dota 2 for about 6 months now, with almost 1K hours at time of writing. But I've had the fortune to play with some good players and have been coached numerous times on the game. Thank you for reading, any comments or insight are appreciated.

Riki isn't as easy as you think

Before I begin, Riki is a situational pick even though I climbed withed him. And, most people in 1k and some experience in 2.5k play him incorrectly. Although much less common in the latter. So, why isn't Riki easy?

A few things to address:
Riki is not invulnerable. I know, this is obvious. But a lot of times, people will YOLO into the enemy jungle (or worse, straight down mid lane) and don't expect to die. WRONG!!!! You can't just do this. I know I might seem crazy, but it's true. while I understand that 1k players won't buy vision until later, you will eventually play a game and everywhere on the map has sentries and the whole team is carrying dust and your yolo play style will not work.

The solution:
Constantly check enemies' inventories. I can't stress this enough, especially supports. Vision is important to your team too and sometimes it's ok to buy a set of Obs wards on Riki for their jungle if you have no support or your support refuses. This way, you can get in and out (hopefully) and check inventories. However, please try to do this often during the super early parts of the game. I can't stress this enough.

Item choices
This has been talked about in other guides but I feel the need to address it again. Do not ever build the Mask of Madness + Skull Basher build. While I can say that this build makes Riki even better at killing off solo enemies, it makes him worthless in team fights as he'll get nuked down even faster with 0.01% chance of survival if you get dusted in the middle of them with MoM ready to roar.

Picks
Like I said, Riki is situational. You can't jump into a game with Riki when the enemy team has heroes like Slardar, Sven, Dragon knight, Bounty Hunter, etc. Anyone with a lot of tankiness, can nuke you down, can stun or keep you in vision is a no-no. Now, I've had success vs Bounty, Bloodseeker, or even Slarder. But the game is so much more difficult. If the BH is good, have fun never being able to gank. Slardar is just terrible to deal with because of his bashes and armor reduction. Even though heroes like Sven and Lina can burst you down, at least Lina is squishy and you can escape from Sven or silence him and if you fail to kill in smoke, most likely run away.

Lastly, you will get called a noob just for picking Riki. Hopefully you enjoy making the enemy mad because if you play Riki right, that's exactly what you'll do. Similar to Techies. My point is that I cannot count how many times in Spanish that I've been called "gay" or "homosexual" by Peruvians on the enemy team.

Abilities

I'm not going too deep into his abilities. You should know them by now.

Smoke Screen
Silences, slows and gives an increasing miss rate with more levels. This skill is often overlooked early game because it's enough in my opinion. The miss rate is useful against Legion Commander for example, but you can't get kills as easily unless you Kill steal. With early levels, you won't have the bonus agility damage from backstab.

Permanent invisibility. Pretty Simple. Fade delay is 8 seconds, then 6, 4 and finally 2.
I like early levels in this because of the 6.85 buff that gives more HP regeneration. This is why I don't buy a Salve on Riki. It's worthless. As long as you have Tangos, the better off you are on saving gold.

Backstab: Applies bonus damage based on current Agility when attacking from behind. Levels are 0.5, 0.75, 1.0 and 1.5 times Riki's current Agility. This is also why I don't like MoM and Basher. This scales from Agility, not damage.

Blink Strike:
Basically just like any blink except that it puts you behind the target and applies I believe 100 bonus damage on top of the backstab damage. Useful for running away from sentries, escaping Bloodseeker's Blood Rite, or chasing down enemies.

Tell us how to play the hero already!

Laning:
There are two main skill builds that I use when playing Riki. The first and main one provides good lane sustain and decent fight potential, especially with teammates.

The second is great when laning is going well and the enemy can't harass you out. It also gives you good early kill potential against squishy solo targets in lane when you're allowed to solo.

What lane do I go in? Well, this depends on the enemy's line up. If for some reason, no one goes mid, as long as it's someone squishy and can't really nuke you (WR I'm looking at you) you can go mid. But the play is different. You cannot lane like a normal Mid and you have to harass them out. It also drains the mid's gold if they buy sentries, so that's a plus.

Generally though, Riki is an off lane hero who gets babysat. He can also go safe lane, but he can't utilize the jungle's farm very well early on and it's best left to a carry that can.

Starting items can very. I used to go Tangos, Stout, Slippers of agility and then one or two GG branches. This isn't bad, but I recently started going just Tangos and Poor man's and then rushing my Boots. Either or works and the first can give you more damage if you are good at last hitting and can farm up the other items fast (which shouldn't be a problem especially combined with the second skill build).

In the Lane
Riki needs to sit back and seep xp with an occasional last hit until he gets his Backstab. Try to get what you can, along side denies.

Once you have your Backstab, you can harass the squishy supports (remember to keep checking their inventories. Generally, after the first death, they will comeback with sentries). This is fine but try to get more last hits than harass. Unless it's a good chance on the kill with your laning partner, don't harass super often. You can also harass to zone them out.

Also, something to consider, is that good supports will scout or buy sentries right away. Keep this in mind. A good support against Techies for example, will buy sentries and possibly TP into their lane to scout against Techies. Similar concepts apply.

To wrap this up, seep XP until level 6 and you have treads, Orb of Venom, Poor man's and a TP. Kill a hero in lane or gank a lane.

Ganking

What I see a lot of lower end players doing wrong is ganking the lane at improper timings or just poor decision making in general. If the enemy is pushed to your tower, it's ok to TP in and immediately Blink Strike and Smoke screen an enemy under the assumption you probably won't die and your teammates aren't low HP.

Remember: Riki is still a core. He still needs to be constantly doing something that involves gold or XP. Riki is a snowballer and needs to get that ball rolling as soon as possible. If you're not farming or actively attempting kills, you're wasting time.

Deciding who to gank is also something to think about. Questions to ask yourself include:
Can I kill him without dying?
What are the odds they get away?
How safe is the gank?
Do I have teammates with me?

You want relative success. At least 80% in your head. Mid is possible. Especially if they can't kill you without help of the tower. If that enemy hero steps foot into the middle of the river, they are dead. Don't hesitate. Start scratching their back until dead. Gank another lane or have the balls to simply wait until they TP back and repeat.

Sometimes, I like to buy one clarity for Riki early on and save it. You have to be efficient but in my experience, kills won't happen without that smoke. You can get kills without it, but it helps a lot.

Mid game

You should have Diffusal Blade by 25 minutes or earlier. The slow is great, the additional mana burn is great and the purge is great, especially since it has no CD anymore.

Once you have Diffusal, start looking into Sange and Yasha. These two blades are amazing. Agility, HP, Move speed, Damage.. All great for Riki. I personally never go drums on Riki because SnY are just so much better. Sange and Yasha are particularly great for when the enemy team can kill you quickly. You can break these down later if the game goes on long enough and you're mostly slotted. But in my experience, once I pick up Skadi it's GG.

BKB or no BKB?
Black King Bar is a great option. I remember a game vs Earth Spirit, Lina and Tiny. We won early game but mid game they started to win team fights. Once I had BKB, the fights chanced and we won that match. While BKB is good, it isn't a godsend to Riki. Ideally, you shouldn't need BKB but sometimes it's a must. BKB isn't worth it most of the time if there is only one nuke the enemy team or you can survive without it until late game.

The actual plays
Mid game is generally defined by more team fights and grouping together. We need to take into consideration that Riki is best at solo pick offs. He can't initiate and often gets focused in team fights. So what do you do?
Sit back. Sit back and re-read your third skill. What does it say? Backstab. You wait to the side or behind the enemy team just before a fight breaks out. Try to think like Pudge here. One of my favorite spots by the Radiant's ancient creeps with that little part that sticks out but gives you vision of the mid lane when standing in it. Unless that spot is warded, even if they dust you, they can't see you as you're on high ground. A fight will break out and hopefully your whole team is there.

Kill any heroes sticking out or are slightly behind or out of position to the side. Supports, Sometimes Pudge, Sniper, Lina, etc.

In low tier games, teammates won't notice and even if they do, the most they can do is dust you or risk not being able to deal with your teammates.

What do I do if they're all grouped together?
Well, if they're fighting, you join in. Attacking either the Main damage dealer or the squishy heroes again. Smoke is your friend. If the area is warded, you're gonna have to blink strike in. Be careful of stuns. Keep attacking and right clicking. Once someone is dead, try to focus the squishier heroes that might escape. This is hard to explain for me. But I hope it makes sense.

Start to transition into Basher after Diffusal and SnY. After that, save for Eye of Skadi.

Once the fight is over, push towers, GG.

Nothings happening

There are times when nothing is going on. Gank. Catch anyone out of position. My favorite happens to be Nature's Prophet because I checked his inventory and saw his Shadow Blade and I'll have bought Dust. He'll think he's safe and he won't be. You blink in, attack, smoke and diffusal, and keep attacking. He'll probably pop Shadow blade and you dust him and then blink again. Pretty simple. The same concept can be said for junglers, especially early on when they're weak and take a lot more damage from creeps.

Otherwise, stay with your team and farm for items. Get kills when you know you can.

Late game

This should be short. You have Skadi, Diffusal level 2 with maybe a charge or two left. Sange and yasha, possibly BKB, Basher and Treads. You are a machine baby!!! But no, it's the same as mid game mostly. Just stay with your team. It's rare to be able to push as Riki without being contested. Usually, i'll only do this if my team can handle fights fine without me which is rare. Or if I know I can push without effort.

Always assume they have vision everywhere outside of their base. Pudge is terrible to deal with here. One thing I see a lot of players make the mistake of in the early game is immediately start right clioking me in lane when they have vision and no creeps nearby. This is bad. What I would do is wait and then bait you. This tells you that they have vision. Even if you should already know this, there are rare times where they will get both sentries and both will get placed immediately without you knowing. The same goes when he's hiding by your base. Except that his survival isn't as guaranteed.

You can consider building an Abyssal blade if you have everything else. It's not bad but it still situational. Follow the same mid game fighting rules and win game.

Pros / Cons

Pros:
Great Ganker with Invisibility and HP Regen
Extreme DPS with right items
Annoying as hell
Known as the support killer
Will piss off enemies that are ez kills
Resource drainer


Cons
Extremely squishy (as most invis heroes are)
Slightly snowball dependent to do well
Mediocre against hard carries late game
Vulnerable to TrueSight and stuns/disables
Low Mana pool early game, sometimes it's great to buy a clarity

Final thoughts

I will try to update this guide when I can. I'm sure I have more on my mind but I did this in one shot. I plan to mmake it a little more colorful and add pictures and whatever. Also, I plan to watch a few replays of mine to see what else should be pointed out.