Cracking Skulls with Burst Riki

Introduction

Welcome to my personal guide to Riki. I am a mid level player with a lot of experience with Dota. I have been playing Dota since about 5.8 or something like that. My guide is very unorthodox I understand. Please give it a try though, and I appreciate any comments or feedback you guys have for me.

Why Burst Riki Works

The basic strategy behind this guide is to be able to kill a key enemy player at the beginning of a team fight in a very short amount of time. It also stops people from being able to get away from you, a problem that many Riki players will encounter.

Early Game

Farm, Farm, Farm. Seriously, you need to farm that core fast as possible. Learn to attack the creeps from the side to get that backstab for last hits. Only engage if there is on enemy or your lane mate has a disable. Disable first, blink, cloud, kill. Never chase people early game though. It never ends well. Most of the time they will come back with low hp to get xp, kill them then. Then Farm, Farm, Farm some more.

Mid Game

This is were Burst Riki really shines. People will fear you. Move from lane to lane killing as you please. If they ward don't be afraid to buy your own vision ward to counter theirs. 125g is a good investment if you get 2 kills out of it later down the road. Keep ganking when the enemy is extended and farming in between.

Late Game

Now its less about you and more about your team. Get in position behind there team, scout for your team, and focus on the carries and cloud all those disables. Your team will love you for it.

Items

Starting Items: I always start with a quelling blade and stout shield. These items allow you to farm easily in the beginning of the game, which can be one of Riki's biggest weaknesses. Quelling Blade + Backstab gives you easy last hits on any creeps. I rush the Poor Man's Shield early to help with the last hit. Next thing we do is work towards that core.

Note: If you random Riki, starting with a circlet and extra set of tango can be real helpful for your early game.

Boots come next of course, followed by your null talisman. This is when people start calling me a troll. We are gonna be building this into a Dagon later, but the mana you get from the extra int is extremely helpful early game. It allows you to be a lot more liberal early game with your blinks and clouds. After building treads you want to complete your Dagon.

DAGON?!?! WTF??? Why would you build Dagon
Well here's why. Dagon is an extremely useful item early game. It secures kills. And as a carry, one of your main jobs is securing kills. Yeah it is kind of a KS stick, but on a carry you want those kills so you can build up your items. Believe me when I say that going 10-0 before 15 min will stop people from calling you a troll. Dagon is a tool to get you fed really early. It's simple to use.

Hit the guy from behind, he either runs away or attacks. If he runs away, gank another lane and come back.

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If he attacks you, pop your cloud, now he will run. Keep hitting him until he is out of range or gets to tower.
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Dagon BOOM. This will almost always kill the guy mid to early game.


It is important to understand that 400 damage early game is nearly half someones HP. This is a lot of damage to have. And late game it becomes more useful at the beginning of the fight. It makes their focus start with about 400 less health in a teamfight. That can be crippling, especially for those glass cannons. Farm up towards that Eaglesong and you have your core.

Late game Ethereal blade is amazing. This will give you rally good burst. You will be doing 300+ damage when you get + another 560 with your Dagon lvl 1 if you use it right after. that's 860 damage of burst not to mention your 3 auto attacks you get in at the beginning of your gank. You will kill most people with this combination. After you get your Basher, proccing a stun from behind will get a kill on anyone with the burst damage too.

The end game items will just increase your damage output and survivability.

Situational Items: Feel free to deviate from any of the items at any time. Remember to counter whoever is owning on their team, and stop them from countering you.

Tips and Tricks

When farming early game, learn to attack creeps from the side for your backstab bonus. You don't have to be directly behind them.

Don't pop smoke on someone unless they engage with you. Never start with smoke, unless they have disables.

Use ethereal blade on the carries in a teamfight, they cannot attack while under its effect. They will also take extra damage from your teams AoE.

When running away from people with vision blink to the enemy farthest away from the enemy that popped dust or has gem, then head for the trees.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading and I appreciate all the feedback I get from you guys.