Community Guide to Faceless Void (Safe Lane)

Introduction

Hey everyone, welcome to this beginner's Faceless Void guide. In this guide, we'll be going over all the essential info you'll need to get started with Faceless Void. This guide is aimed at lower level play or for players unfamiliar with the hero.

This guide was written with contributions from community members like you! Thank you to the following DOTAFire members for contributing to this guide:


Please feel free to leave any comments or suggestions if you have feedback on the guide. Without further ado, let's get started!

Abilities

Time Walk - This is your basic mobility tool and it doubles as a defensive spell, as you'll completely heal back all damage you took in the last 2 seconds. You can use this to negate heavy early harass, but the cooldown is very long at rank 1, so you'll need to use it at the right time. Once it's maxed, you'll be able to cast Q more freely and use it to heal back from heavy burst damage or just for general mobility. Keep in mind that the dash does not disjoint projectiles, so it may sometimes be better to get hit by a spell or attack first, then cast Q to undo the damage. However, Faceless is invulnerable and can ignore projectiles that "hit" him during the dash, so in some cases dashing through enemy attacks or spells can allow you to sort of pseudo-disjoint them.

Time Dilation - Activating this ability will slow down the ability cooldowns of nearby enemies. The massive cooldown on W makes this not a high priority ability early, but it can have a big impact in later fights when enemies can't get multiple rotations of spells off. Enemies are also slowed based on how many of their cooldowns are used (including cooldowns that aren't shown on the skill bar, like Invoker's unequipped abilities), so if you catch an enemy with all their skills on cooldown and press W, they'll be massively slowed. The duration of this ability is pretty long, so if you time your cast right, you'll be able to slow multiple enemies for extended periods and prevent them from protecting themselves with their next round of spells.

Time Lock - This is a passive ability that gives you a chance to bash your target for bonus damage. Early on, it's not terribly reliable but if it procs, it can win you a trade. Once you have some ranks in this ability and some attack speed items, you'll be repeatedly bashing any target you focus for lots of extra damage and CC.

Chronosphere - This ability pierces spell immunity and freezes EVERYONE in its radius except for you and any units you control. That includes allies (and even buildings), so be very careful where and when you cast the bubble. You'll want to maximize the number of enemies you freeze while leaving your allies unaffected if possible. Targets inside the bubble are not protected from attacks from outside, so your ranged allies will be able to shoot enemies that are frozen inside the bubble. In the early and mid-game, this can be used to start fights on enemies when you have a numbers advantage, but it becomes most powerful when you have enough items to quickly kill any targets you catch inside the bubble by yourself. This gives you the potential to 1v5 once you have enough DPS to shred through enemies in the late game. This ability also grants True Sight of anyone caught inside, so you can use it to kill invisible targets even if you have no other way of revealing them.

Put points into R whenever possible. Max E first to improve the damage and chance to proc, which drastically improves your DPS. Max Q second to lower the cooldown on your dash, since it's important for mobility and defense. W can be maxed last since you'll only be casting it once per fight, and 6 seconds of duration is enough for the early and mid game.


+12 Damage - You'll need all the DPS you can get to bash brains during your ultimate. Strength will improve your survivability, but if you play your cards right, you won't need it.

+55 Time Lock Damage - Again, more damage, this time for your bash proc. The max E rank damage will go from 40 to 95 which is a big jump. The +250 more range is useful for survivability, but if you play safe while the ability is on cooldown, you usually won't need it.

+40 Attack Speed - This bonus will greatly increase your damage output and it will also increase the number of Time Locks you're going to hit. If you feel like you could use using Time Walk more often, go for the cooldown reduction talent instead!

+140 Chrono Sphere AoE - Big bubble makes it easier to catch lots of enemy heroes. By level 25, you should be able to kill multiple frozen enemies if you catch them in a perfectly placed bubble. The alternative is 20% Backtrack, which gives you a 25% chance to ignore any instance of damage. That's also pretty powerful, but Faceless Void works best when you don't fight fair and don't let enemies hit you most of the time. If you're getting blown up or enemies are forcing fights while your R is on cooldown, you could consider this to give you a chance to live through enemy burst damage.

Items

Quelling Blade is highly recommended to improve your early last-hitting. It quickly pays for itself by securing you extra CS. Faceless Void scales hard but is vulnerable without levels and items, so early stats and healing consumables will allow you to keep farming for your early core items. You shouldn't need much mana since your cooldowns are so long early, so no need to start with any mana sustain.




Wraith Band offers cheap, efficient stats for early farming and fighting. Boots of Speed are useful to pick up early since they make you safer against ganks and improve your ability to get in and out of enemy range quickly when farming.

Magic Wand is a cheap stop-gap to improve your laning safety. With the extra stats and healing, you'll be much harder to punish while farming, which is more important than rushing damage items right away. This is usually a decent pickup overall, but the Magic Stick is especially useful early against heroes that spam spells in lane.




Power Treads offer the most raw attack speed and damage (from agility) out of all the boots options. Remember to switch to Strength to give yourself a little extra HP when you're in danger of dying, and switch to Intelligence to regenerate mana if you're low. Most of the time you can sit on Agility though.

Maelstrom is a cheap and effective farming tool and also provides some AoE damage when you Chronosphere multiple enemies. Time Lock gives you a free second hit on the target when it procs, which means double the chance to proc the chain lightning. This is an easy upgrade to Mjollnir later by slapping a Hyperstone on it for more attack speed.

Mask of Madness synergizes nicely with Faceless Void since his long cooldowns make the self-silence a non-issue. Simply use it after your abilities are on cooldown and you're fighting an enemy. You can also use to farm more quickly and it's a great asset to your DPS during Chronosphere's CC. Lowering your own armor won't matter if all your enemies are frozen! This works best as a mid-game DPS pickup for a quick power spike, but if you're just farming it out, feel free to skip it.

With Faceless' heavy scaling, Hand of Midas makes sense to maximize your income and get you to late game faster. Keep in mind your early DPS will be fairly low until you buy enough time for this item to start paying for itself. In more action-packed games, it may be better to skip this item in favor of something more immediately valuable like Mask of Madness.

Spell immunity will be a necessary defensive tool in many games. Keep an eye on the enemy team comp for disables and nukes that you can block with BKB. This item also increases your rather meager health pool, so it's never a terrible choice, though sometimes you can safely skip it.

The worst thing you can do as Faceless Void is to get caught before the fight even starts. This item will give you a bit of breathing room to respond to threats and use Chronosphere to turn the tide of an unfavorable fight. You can also use Time Walk to escape to safety if you're outnumbered too heavily.

Crucial to counter enemies with evasion, otherwise there are better options. Keep an eye on enemies with evasion abilities like Blur or items like Butterfly. If you see an Eaglesong or Talisman of Evasion on an enemy agility carry, you'll want to start building MKB immediately so you can finish it by the time the enemy finishes Butterfly.

A useful counter to items like Aeon Disk and Ghost Scepter that will prevent you from finishing off priority targets. Also useful for killing mages that rely on items like Force Staff, Glimmer Cape and Scythe of Vyse for safety.

Targeted stuns are one of the most dangerous things to face as a Faceless, since they can lead to you being killed before you can Time Walk away. Linken's Sphere will add an extra measure of safety against these kinds of spells, though at the cost of a potential damage item.

The slow from this item can be nice for chasing down enemies while your Chronosphere is on cooldown and the mana burn is really useful against certain heroes that need mana to function, especially those with low mana pools, such as Wraith King and his Resurrection.

Bonus stats and damages, why not. The main advantage of this item is its ability to apply Break when coming out of invisibility. This effect will be very effective against heroes that rely on passive abilities, such as Bristleback, Mars and Phantom Assassin.

You should be going for Battle Fury when you anticipate the game to go late or when you're against heroes that stack together, for example Meepo, or heroes that depend on illusions to be effective, for example Phantom Lancer and Naga Siren.

This is a logical upgrade to Maelstrom as it adds a nice chunk of attack speed. You can safely pick this up every game, but evaluate the situation and see if you need any other situational items first before you finish it.

This item is especially useful against basic attackers, but it's a solid damage item for any Agility hero, albeit a bit expensive. This is a good choice for one of your final item slots if you don't seem to need any other important items.

Aghanim's now applies Time Lock to enemies close to the destination of your Time Walk. The reliable extra damage and CC is a super welcome addition in the mid and late game.

This is one of the greediest items at your disposal but also one of the most impactful. If no enemies can stop you from doing your thing, pick this up to obliterate anyone you can get in range of. Just remember that this is 5500 gold and offers no utility or defense, so check your other options before committing to going for max damage.

This can replace Mask of Madness later in the game as its a more slot-efficient lifesteal item. The extra Strength will also help against burst damage, but in general lifesteal is most effective against DPS. If the enemy team lacks burst damage, you can pick this up earlier to make yourself basically unkillable unless you're CCd.

This item doesn't offer any damage, but it massively increases your health and ensures you're always topped up before a fight. This can be a necessary buy against burstier teams, especially if you don't have any Strength/Health items yet to protect you from being blown up.

Moon Shard can be consumed for extra attack speed once you're at full items. An ally can also purchase it for you if you're still working on your main build, so don't buy it if your teammate already used one on you. Since Time Lock scales so well with attack speed, you can pick this up in the mid game for some efficient DPS and consume it later once you need the inventory space.

Boots of Travel and Boots of Travel 2 are great assets in the late game since they'll let you cross the map very quickly, especially after a death and/or a buyback. The higher movement speed is also pretty nice. Late game you'll have a ton of DPS items and Power Treads won't be as crucial to your damage, so feel free to switch them out once you have enough gold.

Early Game

Early Laning

As a safe lane carry, Faceless' early laning phase is pretty basic. Your job is to get as many last-hits as possible and stay healthy so you can remain in lane and farm for a long time. Faceless is pretty weak in early fights, so don't expect to apply a lot of pressure in lane. That said, some lane dominant supports can definitely set up kills for you if the enemy overextends, so keep an eye on what your support is doing so you know when to follow up with Time Walk.

Time Walk has a very long cooldown early, so you'll want to plan out what types of trades or abilities you can mitigate with it and in which cases you'll want to save the cooldown. A good rule of thumb is that a single basic attack is not worth casting Q to heal, but an ability cast or multiple basic attacks will usually make it worth it to Q.

Your followup to plays made by your teammates will largely be limited to extended fights or all-ins. You can win trades with Time Lock, but it's pretty RNG-based in the early game. Be sure you'll win a 2v2 trade (or 3v2 if you're following up a gank) before committing to an extended fight with Time Walk.


Power Spikes

Once you get level 6 and have access to Chronosphere, your ability to contribute to fights improves a bit. The stun duration is pretty long even at rank 1 of your R, but unfortunately your DPS will still be low at this point and chances are you aren't going to kill someone from full health during the CC. This makes your R more of a setup tool for your teammates, so they can hit the targets inside the sphere from range while you deal what damage you can. In emergencies, you can use R to survive if you're being focused down, but it's a long cooldown so try to use other tricks like Q and teleport scrolls before you're forced to waste your R defensively.

Your quickest power spike options are Mask of Madness and/or Diffusal Blade. Mask of Madness will improve your DPS during Chronosphere through its active, while Diffusal Blade will help you stick to targets without needing your R to hold them in place. If you aren't going for a very PvP, active style in the mid game, you're free to use Hand of Midas and Maelstrom to farm up a storm and start hitting those extension items.

Faceless' damage scaling is largely based on his Time Lock rank and his attack speed. Hitting max rank on your E and buying as much attack speed as you can get your hands on will drastically improve your DPS. This makes Faceless' power curve a little smoother than some other heroes, since his damage is based more on the number of attacks he can get off rather than finishing huge damage items. That said, obviously you'll notice a big spike in damage if you finish something like a Daedalus.

Mid Game

Keep Up the Farm

Hand of Midas, Maelstrom and even Mask of Madness are all great tools for farming. Due to the high impact of your Chronosphere, you can look to contribute to fights if you're nearby and have your ultimate available. However, Faceless is really weak in the early and mid game, especially without his R, so if it's on cooldown you should focus on farming above everything else.

Faceless' late game scaling is extremely good, so you're in no rush to start fights if the game looks to be going slowly and largely uneventful. Every minute that you can freely farm brings you closer to 1v5 potential with a well placed Chronosphere. Take free kills if you see them and respond to fights in progress when necessary, but make sure you spend as much time as you can afford farming for items.


Don't Get Caught

Obviously no one likes to die in DotA, but it's especially important on late game carries since every death significantly delays their power spikes. You'll want to ensure you don't enter doomed fights or get caught out while farming. Avoid overextending in lane and use wards to keep yourself safe while farming the jungle. If an area of the map is controlled by the enemy team, find somewhere safer to farm.

You'll only have Time Walk and to some extent Chronosphere to protect you from getting picked off, so watch the map carefully and judge for yourself which enemy heroes can threaten you even with those abilities up. When those dangerous enemies show elsewhere on the map, you'll be able to take riskier farm as long as you have your Q (and maybe R) off cooldown and ready to use to escape.

Late Game

Roshan

Roshan's Aegis of the Immortal drop is a huge asset to whichever team secures it. Late game, when a single team fight can decide the game, this is an important objective to contest (or sneak) when possible. It'll usually be best if you can let one of your teammates check the pit (or use the scan ability on the map) rather than walking in yourself. If you find the enemy team inside the pit, you'll be able to catch them all with Chronosphere for a free team fight win.

If your team manages to secure Roshan, it'll usually be you who picks up the Aegis, unless someone else on your team is more fed than you. In some cases it may be better on one of your squishier teammates if you're unlikely to die in fights, but in general it's pretty nice to be able to play really aggressive in team fights with a guaranteed revive backing you up.


Positioning

Your positioning will depend on which cooldowns you have up at the time. Time Walk is your major escape tool, so you can play a little more aggressively while you have it up (and preferably your Black King Bar available). If the enemy team is engaging on yours, feel free to hit the frontliners until the enemy backline gets close enough for you to ult them.

If you have Chronosphere available, you can also wait in the back or to the side of fights to look for an ideal opportunity to ult. Getting a perfect ult is usually worth the slight loss of DPS if you're not hitting someone at the start of the fight. You can also play aggressive, use Q to disengage when you're punished, then look for a good R to get yourself back in the fight. Don't cast it too early since it's one of the biggest ways to turn fights in your team's favor, and remember to avoid hitting your teammates with R when possible.

Remember to keep an eye out for enemy defensive items like Glimmer Cape and Ethereal Blade so you don't overextend thinking you can kill an enemy that still has an ace up their sleeve.


Buybacks

Buybacks are expensive late game but they can be a game changer. Try to hold onto enough gold for a buyback unless you can pick up a major power spike. Your inventory will often be full late game anyway, so there's no rush to spend your gold until you can afford a full upgraded item.

Since buybacks have a cooldown, make sure you use it at the right time. Don't use buybacks just to pick up farm, but do use it to protect your base or rejoin a team fight in progress.

If you have Boots of Travel or Boots of Travel 2, use a buyback in combination with the teleport to quickly rejoin fights happening anywhere on the map. This is really useful when trying to end the game since the enemy team will likely have some members who can buyback. If you die and then buyback and teleport back in, it'll help mitigate the advantage defenders have by being so close to their base.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading this beginner's guide to Faceless Void! If you'd like to contribute to this guide, please leave me a comment in the Discussion tab with your feedback or send me a Private Message if you'd like to contribute regularly to guides like this. Everyone who contributes to one of these Beginner's Guides will be credited in the guide.

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