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4 Votes

A public wisp approach

November 21, 2014 by GGnet.Ace
Comments: 6    |    Views: 12826    |   


Build 1
Build 2
Build 3

Hero Build

DotA2 Hero: Io




Hero Skills

Sight Seer (Innate)

Tether

1

Spirits

2 3 5 7

Overcharge

4 8 9 10

Relocate

6 11 16

Talents

12 13 14 15

Introduction

Wisp is the meaning of hard support ,the vital essence of the good samaritan who will help you no matter what,dont get happy he does so because he cant do **** by himself (people will post replays of rtz or w/e playing him carry solo mid but thats pretty gross)
However make no mistake , unlike most supports wisp is item dependent as **** .

Lets take a look at Io 's skills

Tether this skill gives your hero meaning ,your Relocate works on tether your Overcharge works on tether.
With Tether you create a link between you and an allied unit you both get +17% movement speed and you slow for 100% /100 attack speed anything that passes through.
Also you make any healing/mana regeneration on yourself (provided that you lack some health/mana) pass to your ally with a coefficient of 1.5 .

Spirits is a skill that creates 5 balls around you that orbit around your hero in a circle and you can choose how loose or close to you want them to be .

Overcharge is a skill that lowers you current max hp/max mana and offers you damage reduction and attack speed while used.It also offers the same things on the Tether ed hero.

Relocate is a teleport skill that happens anywhere you choose on the map ,and will teleport wisp with a small delay to a spot that he picks.While relocating Io 's teleported location becomes fully visible to the enemy team.
Also if you have a hero Tether ed with you he will teleport in with you.

Common Pubstomp combos/Good allies

Tiny is your best homie (we saw that combo back in TI2 when Ehome came back from the dead against Orange with a tiny wisp),this hero needs attack speed and some defencive capabilities due to 0 armor,so technically you heal him ,you sustain his mana early on that he doesn't have more than for 1 combo of Toss + Avalanche and later on you make him fast mobile and you save him from harm's way with Relocate if you have to.Also in early game you can combine Spirits + Toss you close fully spirits on yourself and tiny tosses you in

Riki a rarely seen combo in pro scene (mostly russian teams like Empire or some underdog teams with Ar7style utilized this combo) but in public since riki got majorly buffed this combo is wicked. Riki places himself behind an enemy he uses Smokescreen you Tether and its like Riki has free Diffusal Blade in terms of slow.But wait there is more ,riki is hard to kill with high armor but small hp capacity has always been a problem,not anymore though because you tethered to him and you regen his *** DAMN FAST.
My point is Legit Mates :
Dendi+Funn1k REKT

Chaos Knight Although this hero had a winrate of like 45-42% on pro scene without Io, Io upgraded his winrate to something like 64% (those statistics were taken from the era that tether did stun not after TI3).Logic is that once CK Reality Rift s one target he gets slowed by Tether ,that Io solves all his mana problems ,that they gank effective with Relocate .

Ursa A notable duo of heroes on #4 but mostly seen on public. Ursa + Io
is a darn good combination,if you play this combo on dire you can take rosh from both heroes level 2 (technically it can happen on level 1 as well but you need major luck on like not getting bashed by Roshan and most of enemies seeing those heroes together are probably gonna scout you out).
So how does this work Ursa tanks you have Tether + Overcharge and you Healing Salve yourself so ursa can survive long enough to slay the mighty Roshan .
Furthermore into the game you make up for his lack of mobility and as with Tether + Overcharge and you gank Effective with Relocate

Sven you solve his mana problems n you make him less kitable with Tether , Overcharge pays up later in the game combined with Mask of Madness and Daedalus so he can chop down pretty much everything.

Slark a quite cancerous hero becomes an even bigger nuisance with higher mobility and ever higher regen that he already has. Tether + Spirits works miracles on a duo with Slark because you outrun your enemies in all of situations ,you regen pretty fast with Overcharge + Tether + Shadow Dance passive and in case you have to chase far Relocate is always here for you

Pudge although its not really a legit combo ,give this hero some mobility via Tether to get close enough to Rot able targets and sustain him so he can deal more Rot damage and this could surely pay if Pudge player is decent. Dont forget your Relocate + Dismember potential as well.

I could keep going with those combos but its pretty much no use.
Combos with Io Work like this ,Place a melee hero that has carry potential, profits from attack speed and has laning difficulties with Io and you are good to go.
(Melee hero preferably because melee carries get kited)

Stay far from /Worst enemies

Io is a squishy hero that needs position in teamfights in order to win them.Heroes that can burst/pin him down can become a nuisance.

Riki
For the obvious reasons if you get caught in Smokescreen you are dead.

Sniper
This annoying hero can hit you from a mile away so you need to mind your yolo Tether s and in any case you get far from him Assassinate is always there for you.

Lion
Oh god please no ,If Lion picker is decent enough he will have the clarity to burst you with Finger of Death ,not your allied carry because if you do good on Io you are probably the key to his success.

Lina
Pretty equal to Lion but with even more burst damage he can make your worst case scenario real.

Queen of Pain
This hero is so annoying against wisp not only because he can blow you up almost in every stage of the game but because he can catch up even if you Tether away.

Pudge
Once you get Meat Hook ed you are dead.

Mirana
not only you have to beware of the Sacred Arrow more than once if he Leap s into you you will get double Starstorm on you that follows you even if you Tether out.

Zeus
You cant run from heaven ,also if enemy Zeus snowballs you probably cant run from rape.

Nyx Assassin
Some random Spirits hit his Spiked Carapace you get stunned you get double stunned and you are dead.

Skywrath Mage
Ancient Seal make you unable to Tether away or even turn off Overcharge
and then everyone knows whats next

Storm Spirit
Slippery storm can make your life pretty hard with his Overload hits and with a correct Electric Vortex bye bye Tether n sweet life.On your defence if tether goes through him you reduce his as pretty great so you can still make it.

Doom
get doomed go home .

Bounty Hunter
An annoying enemy to have in most situations ,even worse if you are squishy.If Bounty Hunter is decent and you have 1-2 more squishy teammates he can get a Dagon and make your life a lot harder not only by killing you ,but by suing you forcing you to spend gold in Dust of Appearance,Gem of Truesight, Sentry Ward.
Also his Track ability if used massively on you and your teammates can help enemy team outrun Tether

Misc laning

In early game Io has to lane support his buddy (regardless of lane choice,however its preferable to go to easy lane for more jungling potential) .Dont get me wrong but your hero is being optimised in a dual support situation.You are no ward ***** and you could really use the earlier Bottle / Urn of Shadows than buying a couple of wards.
However DONT EVER EVER delay the Flying Courier,maximum 4 minute flying courier .Consider sacrificing your Boots of Speed timing for it .
Also try to camp the runes ,with recent update Bounty rune is making farming support so legit early on,Bounty on heroes like Io works miracles for the Levels as well.
Your first objective is to get to level 7 with max [Spirits]] and 1 Skill point on Tether , Overcharge , Relocate
In terms of laning do some pulls for your own economy and levelup potential.If carry of your lane gets too much harass tank the neutrals for an amount of time and then use your Tango / Healing Salve and tether him.

Depending to your game you can go for 2 builds ,1 would be passive sustenance
the other would be active sustenance they will be explained furthermore in different tabs.

Passive sustenance

This is the build where you kinda stay more in lane you opt for a later game approach and you are hoping you can at least have 1-2 more luxury items in your inventory.
This includes 2 early game items which are Tranquil Boots plus Soul Ring.
If you use those items correctly your laning partner should have high mana and high hp all the time.
This early core follows this order of items (excludes consumables)
Ring of Protection (Starting) > Tranquil Boots > Soul Ring[[ Recipe (via courier/base)> [[Soul Ring from side shop >Vitally booster > Eul's Scepter of Divinity / Sange > Heaven's Halberd / Rod of Atos / Heart of Tarrasque > Scythe of Vyse

The logic behind this build is simple , you need to survive through enemy burst for offering more to your team.Some notable pickups are
1. early Vitality Booster allows you to live through tough situations ,can be used for Heart of Tarrasque if you are rich, Rod of Atos if you need the slow from range or even Crimson Guard if your team needs damage block.
2. Eul's Scepter of Divinity if they want you badly but they need time to kill you ,Eul's is always a great choice for saving your self or buying more time for the team for a better setup.It dispels annoying silences and if used agressive you can catch heroes out of position.
3. Heaven's Halberd so enemy carry is huge right ?Lets see what he can do without hitting .Evasion +Hit points are always good as well.
4. Pipe of Insight although its not mentioned above because its quite rare if enemy team has massive magic damage for you to make pipe. You usually get raped too much against heavy magic team or you win massively against them so you dont really need pipe.But in those rare cases game is balanced consider making it
Also its preferable for Pipe of Insight to be carried by offlaner (same applies to Crimson Guard but at least CG offers you hp and some regen pipe offers you only effective hp)

Active sustenance

This is the active ganking Io Build .

This kind of wisp is probably the only support in the game ,it suffers way more than passive wisp and you have to get pretty much everything for your team.Furthermore you build items like Bottle , Urn of Shadows , Magic Wand .
This build isnt really aiming for something big so you get ... Whatever works .
Furthermore you should work on ur build like this

3 Iron Branch > Bottle > Urn of Shadows > Magic Wand > Boots of Speed > Buckler > Mekansm > Anything the game needs.

In this kind of build you have reduced late game potential and also you bet that you will sustain incoming damage ,that you wont get bursted down and last longer in teamfights so you deal more heal +mana to your teammates via Tether.
Usually this build has more edgy results be it for the best or the worst ,you can snowball pretty badly with this build or you can get snowballed pretty badly as well.

By building those items you have a higher offensive potential with Urn of Shadows which can easily help you finish targets that flee with red hp.And sustain your carry by utilizing Overcharge + Urn of Shadows

I do math for you mates/Tether Board

Here is a board of numbers that you need to keep in mind

Arcane Boots > 202.5 mana
Healing Salve > 600 hp
Tango (Shared) > 172.5 hp
Clarity > 150 mana
Urn of Shadows >600 hp
Magic Stick > 225 hp /225 mana
Magic Wand > 337.5 hp /337.5 mana
Mekansm > 375 hp
Bottle > 202.5 hp /135 mana
Heart of Tarrasque* > 40.76 hp/sec
Tranquil Boots > 18 hp/sec
Mist Coil > 375 hp
Shadow Wave > 210 hp
Death Pulse > 195 hp
Purification > 540 hp
Hand of God > 600 hp
Shadow Word > 742.5hp or 67.5 hp /sec
Soul Rip > 750 hp

All those values are showing the maximum potential of these skills which indicates maximum level of them and full time tether during their duration
*Hot value is calcuated with wisp at level 15 and without any other hp item ,

Skillbuild Logic

Just like most heroes you need to max your nuke to maximize your killing potential ,so without much to say here I want you to have max Spirits by level 7 .
On level 1 you skill without a doubt Tether because its the reason of your hero's existence .
You can opt to go for a 1-1-1 on level 3 or you can skill Overcharge on level 4 depending on how much your lane partner needs the sustenance from you.
You dont need to level up your Tether, You get full duration and movement speed from level 1.Only thing that changes is the duration of slow that Link does .Furthermore stats are more useful than tether .
Overcharge is good and you need to have at least 2 levels of it but if you are getting raped on the early game you should consider replacing it with some stats .
In some situations (like level 2 Roshan with Ursa) its acceptable to have level 2 Tether + Overcharge.
I dont think maxing Relocate when you can needs mentioning

Tips and several abuses .

1.You can Tether your teammates once you just came from tp use Overcharge while you tp and give them Tether ed fountain Regen.
2.You can ask your teammates to share their units with you so you can leave behind an illusion/ Necronomicon or summoning to tether to in order to escape.
3.If you have Bottle and you tp to a tower where there is a close ally if you Shift click Bottle on him you can bottle him without losing a charge (works on all heroes btw).
4.Seek bounty runes in the early game
5.In teamfights before your team engages make sure you lack some significant amount of hp (around 300-400) so your Mekansm / Magic Wand Burst heal works miracles on your allies.
6. Tether your allies before they use Black King Bar if they use BKB you cant Tether them but if Tether is up already it works on immune units
7. Cheese and Regeneration SHOULD BE ONLY IN YOU ,BECAUSE THEY ARE 150% EFFECTIVE ON YOU
8.If you get Tranquil Boots Disable autoattack (personally I last hit with autoattack Stop function but due to wisp instant hit animation its quite hard to stop them)
9.Due to your miraculous animation you can harass pretty easy in lane although your damage is quite low early on
10.If your team lacks the Crowd Controls you should consider building Blink Dagger
get a good position and try to do a far tether that will include many enemy units to its passage so you can slow many enemy heroes
11.If you Relocate out someone from the team and you go all alone back into 5 enemy heroes you can shift move to the position where you relocate and then shift blink out.
It doesnt work always and if enemies have good reflexes you may not make it .But you will die anyway so why not bother trying :) .Do it like Meracle
12.You can abuse several stuff such as Magnus Skewer During the end of the duration of Relocate with Tether and fetch some enemies to your fountain.
That would require some practise though
13.You can do rosh pretty easily with nearly any hero that has some decent damage output just with a Bottle and a Healing Salve
14.Like most support heroes, in wisp's case even more ITS PREFERABLE TO PLAY WITH A FRIEND,because communication is double crucial and sometimes even your friends break Tether like ******s so you end up Relocate ing to your death

Conclusion

Thanks a lot mates for your time I would appreciate some feedback of all kinds .
Also I would appreciate to share your exprience in this hero

Best Io players are by far
n0tail,EGM and Meracle ,Lanm and MMY has done pretty good on wisp too back when DK was on top.
http://strawpoll.me/3021470

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