A different kind of Apparition

Introduction

The idea of this guide is to offer a different view on the role that the Ancient Apparition can play in the game. As much as many would think of AA as a support, i would prefer to think of him as an initiator, sniper and harasser. AA is extemely volatile and will be able to survive in a solo lane, dual lane or tri lane.

Pros / Cons

Pros

High Survivability
Very fun to play
High satisfaction to catch a running target
Easy to farm
Not much pressure

Usefulness decreases after mid game
Not likely to get a godlike streak
Efforts are often overlooked by teammates
No escape mechanism

Items

The item builds between a solo lane and co lane are rather similar, the main difference would be the choice between a dagger and a force staff. My personal preference is a blink dagger, though it becomes completely useless once you get hit but well, just dont get hit. It gives you extremely mobility which the force staff cannot meet. Allows you to blink ahead for a vortex and cold feet or just blink out of combat(hopefully). However, a force staff is easier to save for, especially when you are doing the pulls and stacks or moving around for ganks.

Skills

Cold Feet

Your bread and butter skill. This is the only mandatory spell that you have to learn. There are two ways to use this, offensively and defensively. Offensively speaking, you can use it to harass the opponent during your laning phase, so that they have to back off and miss 1-2 creeps. Or you can go for the kill, cold feet + a couple of hits + a dumb opponent.

Defensively, if you are getting attacked, cast cold feet on the opponent, stay with the opponent for about 2 seconds, yes you will get hit during that period but once you start running away, cold feet's freezing effect should take place and you will most likely survive

Ice Vortex

An excellent scouting skill because of its cooldown and range. The decrease of opponent's magic resistance is useful in team clashes. Mostly used with cold feet BUT can be used with chilling touch as well. 80 damage x 3 x -25% magic resistance = pain

Chilling touch

Only useful with teammates around, not effective when alone. Try not to cast this during team clashes, the negative 15% attack speed might be the difference between a win and loss. Verdict? can be forgo.

Ice Blast

The ultimate of skills, you throw a ball from your location and it flies................. until you activate it and it opens up a sphere, the longer it flies, the bigger the sphere, then it explodes!!! These is the best sniping skill IMO, but it takes practice to use it effectively, and after a few kills, the enemy will expect you to throw an ice blast when they are running, so its a cat and mouse hunt.

I do not recommend getting an early vortex. AA's mana pool is not high, and the mana cost of cold feet is not low, in short, you can cast a maximum of 2 cold feets before replenishing and a vortex would cost you one of them. On Solo lanes, highly recommended to max cold feet and get stats. This will give you more damage, life and mana, on dual or tri lane, you can decide to indulge in chilling touch, this high mana and long cooldown skill is only effective if you have teammates around.

Team Work

The job of AA can defer from match to match. If you are soloing mid or the offlane, you job is to beef up and gank other lanes. If you see a low hp hero loitering around, throw an ice blast at it. AA is not a very item dependent hero so if you feel the need to delay your items to help the team up a flying courier or get wards, feel free to do that.

In team clashes, you should not be in the midst of it, what i would usually do is blink back and walk a couple of steps behind before firing an ice blast, this way the ice blast AOE becomes enough to encapsulate all the heroes.