CaptainFlounders Guide to Spectre 6.85, Welcome to the hardest Carry in Dota2

Introduction

Welcome to the hardest Carry in Dota2

I am not very high ranked and i am not playing Dota since the release but i do watch a lot of pro games, read guides, watch Replays and generally do know a **** load about the game.

This Guide does not focus on what the abilities do, what lane and role Spectre should take, farming patterns or generall carry gameplay but on item- and skillbuild variations.
This is for People who want to learn a new hero but have a generell idea how Dota works. Therefore this guide will give an overview of the popular builds and opinions.

Please be gentle in the comments, this is my first Guide. Constructive Criticism is welcome as well on contents as on edditing and language.

Items

Starting Items



Standard regeneration, I do not nead to explain this
Do ferry out more regenerations if you need to, it is always woth it


This is just way too strong on Spectre to pass up as it stacks fully with Dispersion
U should realy get it on every melee heroe anyways (specially if you make jungle rotations)


The remaining gold goes into a Circlet which will build into aquila later
In a realy hard lane you can get some iron branches as well


I grab one from the sideshop for better lasthitting
You need it for jungle rotations anyways


Agressive or Defensive build?
or: Do I get a Vanguard?



The everlasting question:

Vanguard is extremely strong on Spectre but delays your Radiance a lot.
I go for a Vanguard if:

• The Enemy has carries high attackspeed but low damage Windranger, Troll Warlord
• My Team has the better Lategame and my Radiance timing can be slightly of
• My Team has the weaker midgame and I fear to get ganked a lot or need to take part in a lot of hard fights where I might die
• A lot of people mention the hp regen to farm safe but Urn of Shadows can cover that

My alternative to Vanguard is:


For the damage block, as it is too good to pass up


For the hp regen and some extra hp (6 Strength = 114 hp)

This build is more agressive. You need to take part in fights (which is easy with Haunt).


This is pretty much core on any agi carry.
You need the damage, armor and mana regen, nobody skips this.

• I did the numbers check and power treads gives you more dps then Phase Boots (due to Desolate)
• you do not need the phase effect of Phase Boots or the movement speed as you get both from Spectral Dagger
• Tread swith to intelligence when casting Spectral Dagger
• Treads switch to strength when you are getting ganked for the extra survaivability

Next big question:
Radiance or not?

• If you can you should go for it
• If you cannot because your team lost lanes and has a midgame disadvantage you can put Diffusal Blade in you quickbuy and buy out if you die to not loose too much money
• You can by a Radiance after your Diffusal Blade if you get a lot of money quickly after your purchase
• If you cannot get a somewhat decent Radiance timing (before 30 min) you should skip it and stick to Diffusal Blade and build towards Eye of Skadi, Butterfly or Heart of Tarrasque.
• Remember that Radiance is primarily a farming item

It is a slightly weaker version of Radiance without the farming capabilities, the miss chancse and an easier buildup


Only build it ever if you are having a Radiance. Then Manta Style is a realy good farming item. Remember that for fighting there are better options. Sometimes you need to dispell a silence or need the illusions for manfighting.


Your first big Item after Radiance (or Diffusal Blade) should either be a farming Manta Style or a defensive item.
I do not think I need to further explain these Items in detail you know them.


Most People buy this as a second item, I dont get why. You do not need the extra regen on Spectre because you already have Urn of Shadows or Vanguard and you usally are not planning on going highground just now. I consider it against heavy magical burst lineups like Zeus or Techies or against teams which genarally make pushing difficult.

Before the changes in 6.85 this was the best options but now that dispersion has changed armor is viable again on Spectre on outclasses raw hp in the late game.


If I dont need a Heart of Tarrasque for the reasons mentioned above Eye of Skadi is my prefered chice. It gives slightly less hp but a Strong movement and attack speed slow, damage and also some Int to spam Spectral Dagger during farming.

It is, if you dont need the regen, the better Item on Agility Carries in my opinion.


I usually only build it later against heroes who do not like to get Monkey King Bar
Great damage and armor, evasion helps you to become tanky like hell to physical damage, good for manfighting.


Can situationaly be good especially if you skiped Eye of Skydi
Helps with manfighting, gives a reliable, Black King Bar piercing Stun and some damage.


The ultimate lategame item. Just leave it in base to refresh Haunt after buyback

In other situational Items I have listed:
Black King Bar, Monkey King Bar and Satanic which I am not gonna explain.
Then ***aoult Cuirass, Crimson Guard and Pipe of Insight which are realy strong on Spectre but are more of utility then hard carry items
Get them If you need them but not if you are the only Carry on your team.

Then there is Blade Mail which used to be stron on Spectre but is not anymore. I dont get why people still buy it

Skills

Spectre has no fixed skill build but i will try to make this as simple as possible.

• Again this is not giving in depth high level usage.
• I will not include Numbers as they might change with time.
• This section should explain when and why to use which skill build

Easiest first:

Haunt

• It scales by increasing the duration of the ultimate by one second per level
• Always get it at 6
• Usually get it at 11 and 16, The scaling is not that incredible, as it basically gets better with items but I cannot think of a situation where I would skip it
• This skill allowes you to join any teamfight or gank whereever you are farming
• It can situationaly be used to escape ganks (by jumping to a solo support on the otherside of the map)
• Use it to get kills and assists in the midgame
• signal your team that it is up and you can join a fight
• Do not use it for single kills or ganks in the lategame
• jump to targets you can kill quickly (prefered Drow Ranger or Sniper instead of manfighting beasts like Troll Warlord or Slardar

Spectral Dagger

• Get a Point early
• Use it to escape into trees
• Use it to catch up to fleeing enemys
• Have enough mana left over for haunt
• Use it to stack and farm from time to time in the midgame (shot it from the camp you are farming to another so it hits both, quickly get over the cliff to snatch a rune, get back up and continue farming)
• The damage scales only by 50, grab more points if you need the slow and movespeed

Desolate

• Pure Damage that scales with attack speed
• I max this first for the higher damage then the dagger and especially the farming speed

Dispersion

• Percentage based and therefore scales realy well
• I always get one point early for more sustain
• Yes it does push the lane but only slightly and only if you get hit (which comes in handy if they are ganking you)
• In a hard lane I consider getting more points even at the cost of delaying my jungle rotations
• since 8.65 fully stacks with damage block, armor, magic resistance, crimson guard and pipe active
• does not stack with evasion (evasion is applied before Dispersion) but evasion is still awesome because your effective ehp is so high

In Conclusion you will usually max desolate first, dagger second and dispersion last. Grab you Ult when you can and get one point in all skills by level 4 or 5.