Enigma in the jungle

Introduction

(1st guide btw)Enigma. A jungle hero. He is rather effective in a dual/tri-lane in the safe lane (thats bot for the radiant and top for the dire). He is often picked because of the amazing power of his ultimate, which can often turn a teamfight around. Most enigma players play him in the jungle, due to the power of his W; demonic conversion. This destroys a chosen creep (including those in the jungle) that are below level 4 (meaning centaur conquerors, hellbear smashers, mud golems etc.)

This guide is created for people who both know their way around dota and have a vague understanding of jungling in dota, as well as ganking. Enigma requires an understanding of what lane is being won, and when to gank.

People underestimate your eidolons, and you can deal a lot of damage. A LOT OF DAMAGE. Like seriously, you can deal, like, two whole bars (thats 500 damage). Because people overextend. Becuase they get cocky. Remember, Dota 2 is 80% waiting for people to mess up, and 10% skill. The rest? That's RNG and surprise, as well as how the amouunt of ****s you are playing with/against (you know, the guy that goes crystal maiden and refuses to buy either wards or a courier).

Pros / Cons

Pros:
-An extremely powerful teamfight ultimate
-Capability to jungle easily and effectively, with minimum damage taken
-Easy to gank with (black hole can be used for a solo kill, and should be early game)
-Relatively high damage and survivability
-Often the difference between a won teamfight and a lost one
-His ultimate can be used to lock down hard carries and teamfight supports

Cons:
-Extremely reliant on positioning
-Player has a lot of pressure upon them; a badly placed ult can lose the game
-Low damage and low mana pool early game can make jungling difficult
-Very dependant upon a blink dagger and other movement items for effectiveness
-Finds it difficult to escape from a gank
-Can be interrupted easily by a stun or silence from many heroes
-Silences and stuns make him cannon fodder
-Often focused down and killed

Difficulty

Intermediate

Although relatively easy early game, Enigma requires positioning, and you must not over extend when playing him, as you will often be focused down and killed, because most people will be **** scared of your ultimate, and, played right, they should be. Enigma can, and will, decimate a teamfight. Enigma can create a lot of space if played well, and can shut down carries in early game.

The player (you) will need to do your best to comunicate with your team, as alone you can do bugger all (you can always feed, but that will have you eternally hated and despised, as well as resulting in you being called a "cyka" and "report enigma noob feed" being written in all chat)

Creeping / Jungling

Enigma is relatively easy to play early game. You should level demonic conversion first, and proceed to max it by level 7. One easy and useful trick is to use demonic conversion on YOUR OWN TEAMS RANGED CREEP, either in the mid lane or the solo offlane, this will allow that lane to be pushed in your team's favour, and can make farming that lane easier. After eating a creep, you can easily walk back to fountain and regenerate the lost mana, because jungle creeps spawn at 30 seconds, and then at every minute mark afterwards.

The easiest camp to then go to is the pull camp (the camp that is often pulled from, and the one closest to the lane). This is because this camp is often the easiest. You should aim to convert the biggest creep, ai it is usually the most powerful, at worst you should convert a creep. Eidolons will then tank the damage for you. when an eidolon's helath drops below around 25%, withdraw it, as every six effective (i.e. damaging) attacks it will multiply, returning it to full health and refreshing the duration counter. Until demonic conversion is around level 3, you may find it difficult to keep them all alive, do not worry, a single eidolon is often enough to kill at least a single creep.

Upon purchasing a soul ring, try to use that before casting demonic conversion, as that will create a buffer field, and that mana will be used first. This will mean that you will often have enough mana to cast at least black hole, if not also allowing you to use more abilites.

Early game

Early game you want to jungle (read the above guide).
If one of the lanes requests a gank, you can go and help, as enigma is a surprisingly effective ganker, mainly because of malefice, which can make it difficult for many enemy heroes to escape. If you can micro units, it is often worth to either convert a friendly creep or an enemy one. Eidolons can deal a surprisingly high level of damage, and can easily half the health of most heroes early game. Remember that your ultimate is chanelled, so you cannot move or use abilites whilst you are chanelling.

If you have your ultimate, you can use that when you feel that they will escape. Your ultimate can also be used when two enemy heroes are near each other, as that will allow your allies in the lane to easily get two kills, whilst those enemies that are escaping can be held back using malefice. If you have time, always cast midnight pulse before black hole, as that will deal allow you to deal much higher damage (it deals a percentage of the units maximum health per second).

If one of your lanes is being lost, do your best to assist them, a correctly timed malefice can be the difference between a failed and won gank, but don't over extend, whatever you do, don't over extend. That is a bad idea, and you will die. You are rather tanky, but not THAT tanky. Stay near the back, or burst in from fog and make 'em cry. One of the best things to do is to save that idiot in bot, and get a double kill, with a level one malefice and a bunch of eidolons.

Mid game

Mid game you want to be there for every teamfight you can get to. If you do not yet have a blink dagger, show everyone the finger and go farm. You need it! It is the one thing that changes Enigma from a utility hero to an absoulute teamfight machine. Upon purchasing a blink dagger, go towards the biggest collection of enemy heroes, ping, blink midnight pulse, ult, win, eat pizza, repeat. The best enigma players can do it so fast that the enemy players do not notice what happened before they are ripped into bits. If you have the money, a BKB is an investment that is worth it, especially if the enemy have many stuns and silences.

If you have the money to spare, an aghanims scepter can be useful pickup, as it allows you to initiate faster, and to give the enemy less time to react. It means that your current level of midnight pulse is automatically positioned at the casting area whenever you cast your ultimate. This allows your initiation to be much faster, and therefore more effective.

Late game

Late game Enigma is similar to mid game, you want to initiate team fights, and then push. Your mana pool will probably be high enough that you can sell your soul ring, and instead a refresher orb or shiva's guard are mighty pick ups. A refresher is best when the enemy team has a fed carry, or are tanky enough to survive a teamfight. With a refresher you want to cast your ultimate, refresher, ultimate, win, eat pizza, repeat. If someone still survives, malefice is your best bet, allowing your team to deciamte survivors.

It is also worth considering a Shiva's, as that will slow and damage those heroes that survived your ultimate. Used correctly it can be used to stop enemy units escaping, as the slow is enough that even the slowest hero can easily catch the fleeing enemy units.

A radiance is also a decnent pick, especially if you are winning so hard you feel like going trollolololololollololol. It increases your right click, and allows you to deal even more damage with your ult.

In summary, late game, Enigma's items are

MOAR DAMAGE!

Summary + additional tips

In summary, Enigma is a powerful teamfight / utility hero, and can be played as either one of those. His role depends much upon your playstyle and how the game is going, if your team has a lot of damage output, but are rather squishy, consider a pipe of insight, as well as the required mek. Whilst of your team lacks damage, an aghanims and refresher/shiva's are a wonderful pickup. If you find yourself geting focused down and killed a lot, a bloodstone is a great pickup. Often you will need to speak with your team, consider purchasing a microphone/headset (I got mine for £15 of amazon) this will allow you to use chat, and because of this you will be able to inform team mates of what the hell is going on, and what you are doing.

Enigma right there. Blink dagger. Midnight pulse. Black hole. Malefice. Win. Eat pizza. Repeat. A simple diagram really. "Is my ult off cooldown? why? Can I use it?" Ask yourself that. You will do well ( If you aren't absolutely **** at the game)

One last thing: Target priority. Early game you want to gank mid or the lane with the hard carry (often the inhabitants of the so called ******** ville). This will allow you to shut down the farm of the biggest threats. In mid and late game you will often want to aim for the biggest clump of enemy heroes, but you will often have to remind the over excited carries of your team to gank that wraith king that is getting free farm in bot, as that is what loses you games. Late game, target the biggest, baddest guy on their team, but try to get as many in your black hole as possible, so don't position the hole right over him, although it is tempting, don't do! I SAID DON'T!