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ClarityClarity
Tango
Healing Salve
Soul Ring
Boots of Speed
Mekansm
Boots of Speed
Blink Dagger
Mekansm
Black King Bar
Refresher Orb
Eul's Scepter of Divinity
Boots of Travel
Scythe of Vyse
Shiva's Guard
Necronomicon
Octarine Core
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2 | 10 | 12 | 13 |  |
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1 | 3 | 5 | 11 |  |
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4 | 7 | 8 | 9 |  |
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6 | 15 |  |
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14 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
Enigma
Status: Single
Height: Tall enough
Magic The Gathering colors: Dimir (Black-Blue)
Likes: The dark, the 2-3 spots on farm priority, 
Witch Doctor
Dislikes: 
Silencer , nosy people, being disturbed, 
Sun Strike .
First off, I'd like to say that Enigma is probably my second favorite hero to play, because no matter what the situation is, he's useful and game changing. Assuming you know how to play and your teammates don't, you can still push towers while they act like distractions. If they DO know what they're doing, you can already pretty much call gg, you win. This patch with came out today worries me about his jungling capabilities, but it shouldn't worry him too much. He's also a very quiet, pensive guy who likes to keep to himself for a while until he's come up with a solution, after which he becomes one hell of a baller. 
Abaddon even gets a little anxious when diving under a tower, Enigma knows the towers going down so he gives no cares.
Okay let's get started.
I'm going to be completely serious here. There's never a bad time to pick him. Honestly, he has push potential, utility stun and AOE with Midnight Pulse and Malefice , and of course, the infamously scary Black Hole . However there are certain cases where what he can do might get shut down fairly quickly, whether you get overzealous ganking the safelane or the midlane finds you in the jungle at low health and decides to kill you.
When to pick Enigma
When your team has a solo offlaner, such as 
Tidehunter and 
Clockwerk
Your team needs a good initiator since they already have high DPS
If your team needs a teamfighter or someone who can push towers early
If your team needs someone who can siege and counter a seige
The other team has little counter initiation, or none at all
If Dream Evil or Sunset Superman by Dio is playing on the radio
When not to pick Enigma
The other team has great counter initiation
If your team doesn't have enough DPS to work around the Black Hole
If your team doesn't have another semi-support to buy the wards and the courier
If you get the feeling the other team knows what they're doing and your team doesn't
I'm not joking about any of these points (maybe the Dio one), the reason that there are bad Enigma picks is when the your team doesn't listen to pings or have any map awareness and don't call missing. I shut an Enigma down myself with Silencer once because he let himself get real low in the jungle and their 
Tinker didn't even know what was going on.
On the good points, though, giving solo XP to a hardlane initiator/support/tank means all the difference in a game, and having a third person hanging around near the safelane is a mindwrecker for the other team, especially if the support knows how to pull and keep the lane close to tower.
Quick note: This build is highly inflexible, and gives Enigma an immediate 3rd spot farm priority, even though he's technically a support, 2nd spot if your team only has one core carry. Enigma does NOT buy wards or courier until after he has his Mek. The only wards he would buy is 
Sentry Ward if the other team is smart enough to block his jungle. Enigma needs his Soul Ring and his Mekansm by the 7-8 minute mark if he wants to begin pushing, being incredibly useful, and ultimately win the game. You may even quote this build on saying that by forcing Enigma to buy wards, they have lost themselves the game.
Now, get ready for your step-by-step tutorial
{NEW!!! Word on the change in ability build}
Welp, it's been a while, but I decided to update this. I'm still sort of sad this has yet to get any actual votes. Anyway, there's two big things I'm going to cover for you: The Mekansm and the ability build.
First is the ability build. Midnight Pulse goes through BKB and is percentage based, and anyone who has built 
Heart of Tarrasque knows that percentages are always better than still values. Anyway, the point is that the amount of damage it does to the people standing in it is really massive, and throwing a max pulse up in front of your tower while five people are sitting mid trying to take it, almost as bad as a 
Techies game where there's only one ranged hero and nobody bought sentries. Not only is it a great deterrent, but if they ever get bold, you can just Black Hole and get some picks off after your buddies have teleported in to help.
The second is the item build. Before they bumped the mana cost of Mekansm, you could Soul Ring and activate it no matter what. NOW it costs an extra 75 mana (150 to 225), which doesn't seem like it's all that bad. BUT. BUT BUT BUT BOOTY BUTTS. Enigma already doesn't have enough mana to cast everything, so having to try and stun, Pulse, Black Hole, AND Mek is a really tall order. If you happen to have another support who could build it, like 
Dazzle, then you're golden and you should farm up that quick Blink Dagger. If not, always prioritize your teamfight ult over your mek, and when it's on cooldown, treat mek as your ult.
{NEWER!!! More Updates for Enigma}
Arcane Boots are now core for Enigma for me, due to the fact that yes he needs mana and that it can be built into 
Guardian Greaves . 
Aghanim's Scepter is also something you should consider not only for damage but also for the fact that it's stats, and Nig needs stats like my friend roach needs to get laid (it's like he's sitting in the middle of 
Sand King 's Sandstorm it's so bad). Dude doesn't even have 1k HP at level 11 WITH Mekansm.
1. After you spawn, immediately buy everything in the starting items, in which you should have at least 315 or so gold left over. This allows you to have enough money to buy Sentry Ward in case you suspect your enemy might block your jungle. Make your way to mid lane. The minute the battle begins, convert a MELEE creep and run back to base to heal up your mana. After it's mostly full, start heading toward the jungle. You can ignore your little eidelons, because they won't be able to help midlane or run fast enough to deny the first rune.
2. Head towards the jungle after buying any component for your Soul Ring . If you bought sentries, you obviously can't do much about it. Either way, now here's a guide to the jungle creeps:
Centaur Conquerer camp: Strike the centaur to draw them away so you can convert the smaller one. The big one will stomp if there are three enemy units anywhere near it, but it gives you just enough time to micro your eidelons away from the AOE
Troll Wizard camp: Do not engage until you have already destroyed a camp and have six eidelons to attack the big guy with. Reason being that if you don't attack the big guy nonstop, he'll immediately summon skeletons, which wreck your poor little guys. There is a delay which allows you to convert a small troll and get away with it, but it's really tricky.
Mud Golems: Useless camp. Find someone else to convert, then kill these things for being Magic...*cough*...Spell Immune.
Tomato and Potato: treat this camp like you would the Centaur: draw them out, then convert Potato to your side. Tomato will slap your eidelons across the face if they get too close.
Alpha Striped Tiger: Easy convert, the big guy to darklings and proceed to kill.
Big Satyr camp: Convert the blue one, and attack the purple one with extreme prejudice.
Small Satyr Camp: Convert one of the blue ones, then kill its brother, then its children.
Big Bird's Evil Sister's camp: Micro is the key to surviving the Wildwing. Kill the other smaller one before attacking the lone big one
Micro control: Enigma is one of the easiest micro heroes in the game, if not the easiest. Whenever one of your little guys is getting to low (1/2-1/3 HP) just move him to the back of the eidelon posse and the creep aggro will be reset to the creep closest to them. Like I said though, beware the Troll camp, and take extra care with any camp with ranged, because the ranged creeps will continue attacking the same eidelon unless they are hidden from view. This can be a blessing and a curse at the same time, a curse if your eidelon is below the 1/3rd mark, a blessing since the other eidelon taking the aggro will survive enough to asexually reproduce through instantaneous mitosis.
Dire Side special case: There is a tree which can be cut down between the mid camp and the big camp next to the defensive jungle ward rock. cut it down so that jungling can be more efficient.
X:54 stacking: Whenever it is near the 54 second mark, you have the choice to stack the camp in order to improve your farm and allow for a quicker Mekansm . Just attack the creeps and have them leave the camp (Make sure your Eidelons don't draw the creep aggro), and you'll have a stacked camp. I'd recommend this for Enigma players who are really good with their timing and their creep aggro. Honestly though, new players who've never tried Enigma should just focus on making sure an eidelon doesn't get killed before splitting.
Deserted lane: If mid is ganking, whether it be your mid or theirs, if you are near the tower and your eidelons have just doubled, push mid. Early towers are extremely helpful to everyone. This would be the only time that you put a point in Midnight Pulse rather than the third Demonic Conversion , If you force out a glyph, your job is done, don't feel it necessary to hang around mid for too long and die.
Clarity: Always remember to pop your clarity right after your eidelons have spawned and any CC that might cause them to die has been taken care of. If you get your Soul Ring at around the 2 minute mark, you won't even need the second, but it's just in case.
If you're doing everything right, you should have Black Hole , Mekansm , Brown Boots, and Soul Ring by the 8 minute mark, sooner if you managed to take mid tower or gank your safelane.
CHOOSE YOUR BLACK HOLES WISELY.
I put it in purple to stress it more. Black Hole has a ******edly long cooldown, and a teamfight can be won or lost based on how well you use it, or your threatening to use it.
A quick joke with serious ramifications:
If Black Hole is cast, and there is no one around to take advantage of it, does it make a difference?
The answer is yes, it does. It means the enemy knows it's on cooldown and they will take advatage of it. ALWAYS USE IT IF A KILL IS GOING TO OCCUR. If you don't think there is going to be a kill, wait. They'll be afraid to group up. If you see your carry getting 3v1 attacked, just throw a Midnight Pulse out and a Malefice on the person who has channeled abilities, long cast animations, or high DPS. I did this once with a 
Juggernaut against, 
Pudge , 
Phantom Assassin , and some other hero, and it turned the tide of that "gank" around, as it gave him enough time to let 
Omnislash come off cooldown.
When there's no teamfight, and you have your Mek, concern yourself with pushing lanes, placing wards, or farming for your Blink Dagger . Now that it's 100 gold more, you need it. Afterwards, you immediately get Black King Bar , because you don't need any pesky stuns screwing up a perfectly good Black Hole. Always carry a 
Town Portal Scroll , because an opportunity might arise to push another lane, or help out your teammates.
{NEW!!! Special Cases for Bad Situations}
There was once a game where I had to mid as Enigma, and they were all stupid enough to leave me alone. I took both mid towers by the 12 minute mark, mostly because they were really bad. Anyway, moral of the story is there is always something you can do to turn around something that could have potentially been a horrible game.
Say your team really lacks the push, or even with your push there's one of those bastard 
Riki pickers, or someone has decided to play 
Clinkz and be a huge pain in everyone's ***, you might consider getting the Necronomicon. A little extra strength never hurt, but the best part is the Int it gives you, as well as a pure damage nuke, true sight at lvl 3, and a mana burn. All you need to do is click on the archer and hit your Q on someone and they've lost 225 mana. Pretty messed up. If someone kills your Necrowarrior at level 3, if I remember correctly, that's like 500 pure damage in the face.
If you find yourself laning, perhaps the quick rush to necro and investing in an early 
Ring of Basilius might be useful to you.
In the later stages of the game with your BKB you might even have the chance to cast your Midnight Pulse before Black Hole , which adds even more kill potential to an already amazing ult. It's also a good bait against players who try to use any stuns or displacement that goes through BKB, such as 
Nether Swap or 
Primal Roar . Even if you die due to right clicks and your Mek can't save you, at least you still have your ult for when you respawn. After BKB I usually start building Refresher Orb , but it's also useful to get BOTs, so whatever floats your boat and how the game goes will determine it. For instance. Refresher if the other team can't rat, BOTs if they can.
Q: But UnrulySupportGuy, what about finishing your boots?
A: QUIET, PLEB.
Honestly, you don't need anything other than Brown Boots until late in the game, where you might need Boots of Travel to keep a push up or stop a push. Enigma's base speed is 300, which is pretty dang fast for someone with no legs, and even getting Arcane Boots or 
Tranquil Boots slows down his farm for the more important, game-changing items, such as BKB and Blink. Even if the farm is golden and the towers crumble, that just means it's easier to get BKB and Blink.
(Recant) If you reaaaaaally need the mana, though, it's Arcane all the way, especially if you are the only person who is a natural Mek carrier, but prioritize them after the Mek in that case.
(Double Recant) Definitely get Arcanes after Mek.
Q: UnrulySupportGuy, how come I'm getting Lvl 2 Black Hole at 15 instead of 11?
A: Well, my dear friend, Enigma has a terrible mana pool, which most of you will realize for an Int hero, it's a downer. He can't even convert creeps without having to use a clarity for the next round. The mana cost of Black Hole goes up with levels, and the only difference is the damage and the cooldown. Most good players will wait to engage in a teamfight until its back up, and they will wait the extra 20 seconds. The channeling duration is still the same across all levels. In fact, you won't even be able to use your Refresher Orb and cast Black Hole Lvl 3 at level 16 for a second time because he won't have enough mana, even with Soul Ring . In the case of the extra late game, meaning you have a chance to 6-slot, pick up a Scythe of Vyse for the stats and the CC, Shiva's Guard if you don't want people running away from your hole.
Q: UnrulySupportGuy, I tried canceling my Black Hole because I airballed it, but it's still on cooldown! I even used my stop key!
A: Enigma's Black Hole has zero cast animation. The milisecond you get to the point where you say you're going to cast it, it casts, and it's gone. Unfortunately, that's why life is hard for poor Mr. Darkside until he gets a Blink Dagger . Theoretically the only time you could cancel the cast for it is if you're facing the completely opposite direction of where you want to cast it, in that small fraction window called the turn rate.
Q: UnrulySupportGuy, there's a 
Rubick on the enemy team...
A: Fear not, my friend! As an Enigma player I find myself constantly butting heads with Mr. Grand Magus, so he's nothing new to deal with. Stealing Black Hole has been around since the dawn of Dota, thus there are countermeasures. First one is if they counterpick with Rubick immediately, you can have your team focus on building a teamfight (or straight burst) that will secure at least three kills. That way even if he 5-man holes you, his buddy can only maybe focus one of you down. Secondly, you can have an array of stuns, whether it be 
Lucent Beam mini-stun, 
Sniper shooting the **** out of him from a distance (patched, no longer mini-stuns), or a Witch Doctor "looking at it go." If you feel your team refuses to build completely around the Rubick because there are so many other ******edly scary monsters on the other team, you can always split up from the group and save your Malefice for later. Or the most common way to deal with it, as soon as black hole is over, cast any other spell. The 7 out of 10 times that you do this, Rubick will not be able to steal black hole. The other 3, where the Rubick is really smart and stays at the back, you should have enough time to wrap around and stun him out of the channeling.
This concludes my guide to Enigma , and I hope you enjoy it.
Sincerely,
UnrulySupportGuy
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