FTW Xin, the Ember Spirit [WIP, 6.81]

Introduction

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Quick how-to-play (TL;DR)

TO BE ADDED

Pros / Cons

Pros:
+ Very mobile
+ Very high damage output
+ Scales very well with items
+ Flexible skill build
+ Very fun to play, you can feel wisdom pouring out of all his sentences

Cons:
- Very low armor and HP
- Countered hard by silences

Skills

Type: Targets:

Active No Target

Ember Spirit unleashes two fiery bolas that wrap around nearby enemies, anchoring them in place and dealing damage each second.

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Notes:

• Targets are chosen randomly around Ember Spirit.
• Does not affect magic immune or invisible units (nor visible but out of sight, eg. behind a tree).
• Interrupts channeling spells.
• Deals damage every 1 second.

Searing Chains is basically 2 man ensnare (wiki) that allows you to pin 2 targets to the ground for couple of seconds and attack them freely. When using this skill you must always consider your positioning. Using it when standing next to creeps decreases your chance to hit enemy hero, so always try to use it when you're away from enemy creep wave. You can use it to interrupt channeling spell or tp scroll, so it's sometimes better to save it for that purpose.
Please note that 3rd level of Searing Chains doubles it damage, so it's very important to get it as soon as possible if going into max Searing Chains build. When needed you can get 4th point just after 3rd one to get 3 seconds of ensnare.

Type: Targets:

Active Target Point

Ember Spirit dashes around with blazing speed, attacking all enemies in the targeted area of effect, then returning to his start location. Deals bonus damage to heroes, and less damage to creeps.

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Notes:

• Ember Spirit will hit enemies from random angle.
• Creep damage penalty - 50%
• Targets are determined when the ability is cast.
• A regular attack is done to each target every 0.2 seconds.
• It is possible to grab items during Sleight of Fist if it is beside the enemy you are currently attacking.
• Any attack modifier that Ember Spirit has (critical strike, bash, cleave, Unique Attack Modifiers) will be applied normally to each target.
• Hits enemies/neutrals in the AoE, even if they're in fog
• Hits enemies that are targeted, even if they leave the AoE (by teleport, blink, etc.)
• Other abilities may be used even if Sleight of Fist is still active.
• Attempting to Activate Fire Remnant, teleport, blink or use Force Staff while the ability is still active will not cancel the skill. Ember Spirit will still return to his original casting position once the ability ends.
• Disarming Ember Spirit does not stop him from dealing damage while in Sleight of Fist.
• Miss chance from abilities such as Brewmaster's Drunken Haze or the target's evasion apply normally.

Sleight of Fist is pretty much main reason why Ember Spirit scale so well into late game, as it allows you to attack your enemies freely from safe distance. Because of this you want to build damage items - like Daedalus, Monkey King Bar, Desolator or Battle Fury - exclusively, as you don't need to manfight your enemies. Depending on build you'll be using, getting all your core items may allow you to one-shot enemy team supports, get easy rampages, or just farm 7 ancient stacks in less than 3 seconds.

Because of fact that Sleight of Fist works with Unique Attack Modifiers and other item effects (cleave, crit), having some of them makes it much stronger.
Desolator allows you to apply -armor effect to whole enemy team in approximately 1 second
Monkey King Bar gives you chance to mini-bash enemies and true strike (100% hit chance against evasion)
Daedalus in addition to sleight's bonus damage will just rape enemy supports
Battle Fury allows you to deal tons of damage to groups of enemies, as well as push and farm very easily
This works also with Skull Basher, Abyssal Blade and Eye of Skadi, although these 3 items are highly situational.

Sleight of Fist allows you to use items and skills when attacking, so you should abuse it. Learning Sleight of Fist into Searing Chains combo is very important, as it allows you to ensnare targets that are very far away from you without wasting your ultimate, also through fog of war. To do this you simply need to use sleight on enemy target, and when your hero attacks it, use chains. You have 0.2 seconds to do this (that's how long Ember Spirit will stay next to enemy), so practicing this very important.
You can also do some sick things like sleight into Boots of Travel, but it's so situational that I never used it.

Sleight of Fist also allows you to dodge skills, like big-*** ultimates ( Reverse Polarity, Echo Slam), projectiles ( Magic Missile, Shadow Strike) etc. Doing this (especially with projectiles) needs perfect timing and takes some time to get used to, but that's the difference between good and casual Ember Spirit player.

Type: Targets:

Active No Target

Ember Spirit surrounds himself with a ring of fire that consumes incoming magic damage, leaving him unharmed. Flame Guard deals damage per second in an area around Ember Spirit while Flame Guard is active. If the shield is broken, the damage is also lost.

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Notes:

• The amount of magic damage absorbed is calculated before any reductions.
• Can deal up to 240/480/800/1200 possible damage for the whole duration.
• Deals damage every 0.2 second. 6/8/10/12 damage per tick.

Flame Guard is like 3 in 1, it gives you free Radiance for it's duration, magic damage absorb like Pipe of Insight and very good way to farm until you have your Battle Fury.
This skill is maxed first to cover Ember Spirit's bad HP and armor gain, also damage it can deal during it's duration is just too high for most enemy heroes @ level 7.
One important thing to note is that burn damage will last as long as you have your shield activated, so if someone burst it down before it fades, you'll also lose 'radiance effect'.

Affects: Type:

Enemies Target Point

Ember Spirit generates Fire Remnant charges every 35 seconds, with a max of 3 charges. Releasing a charge sends a Fire Remnant that runs to the target location at 2.5x Ember Spirit's speed. Using Activate Fire Remnant, Ember Spirit can dash out to his Remnants, exploding them for area of effect damage. The targeted Remnant will be arrived at last.

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Notes:

• You move to each Fire Remnant at 1300 movement speed, or in 0.4 seconds, whichever is faster.
• 150 mana per use, not per Fire Remnant.
• Breaks trees that Ember Spirit collides with while dashing.
• Starts with 3 charges (the maximum), and replenishes a charge every 35 seconds.
• Fire Remnants move to where you targeted them at 2.5X your speed.
• Fire Remnants last 45 seconds or until you fuse with them.
• Fire Remnants have 400 night/day vision.

All Dota 2 spirits have very high mobility and Ember Spirit isn't an exception. His ultimate makes him very hard to kill and allows you to farm pretty safely.
This skill is divided into 2 sub skills - Fire Remnant and Activate Fire Remnant.

Fire Remnant places one of your three remnants on the ground for 45 sec, activates 35 sec refresh timer and gives 400 vision around it (not going through trees/uphill). If possible, always activate Phase Boots before placing remnant, because it will increase it's movement speed. This costs 0 mana, the only thing you should care about is refresh time.

Activate Fire Remnant is targetable skill, that moves your hero to all your remnants, remnant that was closest to your mouse cursor will be the one you'll arrive at. That means:

• if you have one remnant placed, you can use this skill anywhere on the ground and your hero will move to that remnant
• if you have 2 or 3 remnants placed, you must use this skill closer to the remnant of your choose than other 2, making your hero dash through all your remnants and arriving at the one closest to your cursor

Each time you use this sub-skill, you'll use 150 mana.

Fire Remnant allows you to do some tricks you need to know in order to play Ember Spirit successfully:

• you can actually dodge projectiles while dashing the same way like with Ball Lightning, projectile must hit you during the dash, but it will do nothing
• always carry Town Portal Scroll with you. This, in combination with your ultimate, allows you to TP to fountain, regenerate and go back to lane in ~10 seconds, making you save some time you would waste on walking back to lane. Just put one remnant on the ground, go to fountain, regenerate and then dash to remnant. You can also do this without scroll, just keep in mind that remnant will last only 45 seconds
• when farming, always keep one remnant hidden away in the woods/under tower. This way if someone initiates on you, you can dash back to safety and go regenerate in fountain (preferably using trick above).
• when teamfighting always try to keep one remnant in case you need to get away. However you need to keep some thing in mind:
  • if your hero is slowed, your remnant's speed will be ultra low, making it really hard to escape
  • when dashing to remnant you'll destroy all trees in your way, so ideally you want to run away through hills etc. rather than forest
• if you want to go YOLO, you can actually do high magic damage placing all your 3 remnants in one place and dashing to them. That's especially good with big ultimates like Reverse Polarity or Black Hole
• there actually is one very easy way to know when your remnants expire - watch the remnant timer at your buffs bar. As we know, recharge time is 35 seconds, while your remnant last for 45. That means, after placing your remnant, timer starts counting 35 seconds, so when you see that your remnant charge is refreshed, that means you have 10 seconds left until your remnant on ground expires (because 45 - 35 = 10). Thanks to 6.81 we have 3 additional timers assigned to each remnant showing us how much time left before remnant expire

Starting and Early Game items explaination

Starting items and early game items on Ember Spirit are pretty standard and shouldn't need to much coverage:

These are pretty much standard starting items for any melee carry (you should consider Ember Spirit a carry). Buy them when going to easy lane (always) or mid against heavy harass heroes, like Queen of Pain or Puck. Tango + Healing Salve should give you enough regeneration for early game and Stout Shield allows you to actually get some last hits even when being harassed.

This is another possibility to start your game when going to mid lane and you don't expect too much harass. This allows you to get Bottle in ~1 minute and then it's much easier to stay in lane.

Early game:

Frees up some space from your inventory and gives very useful active ability to refresh your HP and mana, especially good with Ember Spirit's low mana pool

Get this only when going mid lane! Allows you to stay in lane longer, regenerate in fountain faster, works especially well with Ember Spirit's ability to go back to fountain whenever he wants, allows him to gank constantly provided you collect runes

or

You need one item to boost your stats and early game presence. It only depends what you prefer. If you want some mana regen and armor, get Ring of Aquila. It allows you to spam skills when going 4-4-0 build. It's also cheaper than Drum of Endurance. If you feel like enemies are running too easily from you, or you just want more stats rather than mana regen, get Drum of Endurance.

Really? Upgrade into Phase Boots

What item build should I use?

That's very good question, mainly because Ember Spirit is very versatile in terms of item builds, but I'm here to help you with this problem.

There are actually two items that you ideally want to get every game, as they scale with your Sleight of Fist and general gameplay style just perfectly - Battle Fury and Daedalus. Everything other than this is more or less situational and depends on specific game, enemies, your team, game time and some other things.

So what items should you get? Let's explain some possibilities:

It may seem a little crazy to suggest this as first item, and indeed it is, but I don't suggest you to throw games with mass rapiers on the ground. The fact is that Ember Spirit scales insanely well with Divine Rapier's and it's just most cost-effective damaging item on him, that's why I'm mentioning it here. Get it only when you don't have any other way of winning game than through suicide push, game last way too long and you have all your other items, or you just like to throw.

This is one of these highly situational items that you get when going late into the game. The main reason I say this, is because Skull Basher is, lets be honest, just weak item on Ember Spirit, and holding it just to upgrade it later into Abyssal Blade is a slot and money waste. However, when fully upgraded, this item have second biggest damage in the game + reliable stun that you can use during Sleight of Fist + bash chance that also works during sleight. Now it may look like one of best items to get on this hero, but in next chapter I will provide that it's just situational

This item allows you to feel nearly like melee Sniper with these mini-bashes, but believe me, that it doesn't scale so well with Sleight of Fist in other way than +88 damage, and this skill is what you want invest your money into. You clearly need to get this item if you're facing Phantom Assassin or some Butterfly carrier like Morphling. Remember that true strike doesn't go throught Backtrack

Believe me or not, but buying second Daedalus is actually very good decision, what I will try to prove you in next chapter. Thanks to fact that crit chance scales diminishingly, it increases this stat by pretty good amount, not to forget +81 more damage to give you some very big crits

Second Battle Fury will give you even more HP and mana regen, +65 damage, and what is most important when getting this - next 35% cleave, which fully scales with other cleave chances. That means, getting two BF's will give you 70% damage cleave. It may seem very cool, and indeed is, but only as long as your targets stack. When getting this you sacrifice some single target damage in order to get more AoE. But remember, it's very risky, because when playing against better enemies or some coordinated teams, they just won't stack, thus not allowing you to get most of this item. Also, if you get one Battle Fury and then other damaging items, you will still be able to clear whole enemy team in one sleight if they stack properly. One Battle Fury is very good in every ocasion, but two - just situational and not so recommended. Keep in mind cleave isn't 100% reliable source of damage - you will hit enemies from random angles.

Another item that works very well with your Sleight of Fist ability, as it allows you to put -7 armor on whole enemy team or even just creep wave in approximately one second. It doesn't fully stack with Battle Fury, because cleave ignores all enemy armor anyway, but that doesn't mean you can't get these 2 items at same time. More so, if you look at item build comparison in next chapter you'll see how much damage it can do. Also this single item will make enemy supports cry in pain, as you will cut through them like knife through butter.

'But what if I face enemies that can just jump on me and rape?' you may ask:

Highly underrated item, that is something between Heart of Tarrasque and Butterfly. It gives HP allowing you to survive more, it gives you damage through agility, it gives you some mana to spam more skills, and it's passive effect is very good slow. Get it if you need to be more 'tanky' and you want to get some damage. Remember that slow doesn't stack with Desolator

This item should be needed only if you're forced to manfight enemy carry, allowing you to do this thanks to it's dodge chance. However you need to be careful about enemy Monkey King Bar's, as they will still able to deal high damage to you.

Very common item on many carries, allows you to act freely (provided enemy don't have BKB-piercing abilities) for up to 10 seconds, also gives you some HP and damage. Downside of this item is that you'll waste some of it's active duration during Sleight of Fist

I like this item much more than Black King Bar when playing Ember Spirit, as it fits his play-style much better than BKB. You should never be manfighting enemies, and that's what BKB is made for. This item gives you +15 to all stats, which is much better than BKB, HP and mana regeneration like Battle Fury and +10 damage, which is welcome addition. If you don't know which item to choose to boost your survivability, I suggest this

Not so great item on Ember Spirit, but I can think of some situations that could make this item useful. Allows you to manfight when activated, provided you don't get stunned and raped to death, gives some hp and damage. Helm of Dominator can be used to stack ancient camps. Remember that you should never get this as your 1st or 2nd item.

Late game builds comparison by stats

TO BE ADDED

Late game builds comparison in practice

If you're curious what item combination will deal biggest damage to enemies in spread and stack, then I have a good information for you - I did some experiment and now I can share it's result with you. All tests were done using different item builds ( Boots of Travel, Linken's Sphere + 4 damage items, no Divine Rapier) at five lvl 25, itemless Wraith King bots staying at max spread range of Sleight of Fist

Sleight's: 4, 6, 5, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 4, 5, 4, 6, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5, 4, 4
Average: 4,45




Sleight's: 5, 5, 5, 6, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 6, 5, 5, 5, 5
Average: 5,1




Sleight's: 5, 5, 6, 5, 5, 6, 6, 5, 5, 6, 5, 6, 5, 6, 5, 6, 6, 5, 5, 6
Average: 5,45




Sleight's: 6, 6, 6, 6, 5, 5, 6, 5, 7, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 5, 6, 5, 6, 6, 4
Average: 5,7




Sleight's: 6, 6, 6, 6, 4, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 5, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6
Average: 5,85




Sleight's: 7, 6, 6, 6, 6, 5, 6, 6, 5, 6, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6, 7, 6, 6, 6, 6
Average: 5,9




Sleight's: 7, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 5, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 4, 7, 6
Average: 5,95




Sleight's: 7, 6, 5, 7, 7, 6, 7, 6, 6, 7, 5, 6, 6, 6, 6, 7, 6, 7, 6, 7
Average: 6,3




Sleight's: 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 7, 6, 8, 8, 6, 8, 8, 8, 6, 7, 8, 7, 8
Average: 7,55

Which skill build should I use?

Determining which skill build will suit your game depends mainly on this specific game, your team, enemy team and your position, be it easy lane or mid lane. Ember's skill build is really flexible, here I will present you 2 different skill builds:

This build focuses mainly on getting fast lvl 3 on Searing Chains and then maxing Sleight of Fist to have low cooldown long-range disable, that deals heavy damage early. This build works really well with fast Desolator and Daedalus as 1st and 2nd item to maximize gains from Sleight of Fist. Allows you to be active pretty early without big risk of dying if played correctly (knowing how to combo Q with W is essential).

Pros:
+ High damage whole game
+ Allows you to deal damage in big area early
+ Allows you to fight at long range
+ Low cooldown on Sleight of Fist
+ Strong long range ensnare

Cons:
- Low survivability against both magic and physical damage
- Close to 0 farming potential
- Forces you to manage your mana well in order to execute Searing Chains + Sleight of Fist combo






This build focuses on maxing Flame Guard first to get high magic damage absorb + Radiance-like damage in small aoe, then Sleight of Fist to somehow scale you into mid game. You can use Flame Guard to farm in jungle and lanes early, then refill hp/mana and return with ulti to continue farming.

Pros:
+ High survivability against magic damage @ lvl 7
+ Deals huge damage over time in small aoe
+ Low cooldown on Sleight of Fist
+ Nice farming potential
+ Long range ensnare, but not so damaging

Cons:
- Low survivability against physical damage
- Only 1 second ensnare with Searing Chains
- Forces you to stay close to your enemies to deal damage
- Your damage ends at the same moment your Flame Guard ends

How to become an Imba Spirit

TO BE ADDED

Favorite/hated abilities and heroes

Ember Spirit's favorite abilities are:

• Damage boosters ( Empower (!)) - allows you to dish out even more damage for 'free'
• Abilities that pull enemies into one place ( Reverse Polarity (!), Vacuum) - stacked up enemies are very easy to clean with Sleight of Fist and cleave
• Big AOE stuns ( Ice Path, Ravage) - stunned enemies are also easy to clean with Sleight of Fist and cleave

Ember Spirit's hated abilities are:

• Gap closers ( Pounce, Blink Dagger (!)) - these abilities make your Sleight of Fist very risky ability, cause they can just get close to place where you appear after sleight
• Slows ( Venomous Gale, Open Wounds) - renders your ultimate useless unless you planted it earlier, also make you very vulnerable to any damage
• Silences ( Ancient Seal, Bloodrage) - ember is that kind of carry that can't fight without his abilities at all, this forces you to make Black King Bar, which I mostly don't recomment as a standard item
• Physical damage ( Coup de Grace, Shadow Wave) - ember have no natural armor or HP gain, so when he face heavy physical damage, it's just RIP in peace
• Very heavy magic nukes ( Laguna Blade, Finger of Death) - these skills burst your Flame Guard down instantly, rendering you very vulnerable to other magic or physical damage abilities

Honorable mentions - friends

3 out of 4 abilities of this hero synergize with Ember Spirit perfectly - Empower increases your damage output very heavily, as well as cleave, then you have Skewer that will group up enemies, and on top of that you have Reverse Polarity that group up enemies into one place and hold them for couple of seconds, allowing you to rape them as much as you want. Having Magnus with Blink Dagger] on your team increases your chances to win very much just thanks to [[Empower, and if he can catch some people in ultimate - even better!

makes you very dangerous, especially during laning phase. Cold Feet works very well with Searing Chains making it nearly guaranted stun proc and dealing tons of damage. Chilling Touch doubles damage output of Sleight of Fist early allowing you to take 1/3 of health from enemy heroes with just one use. If I would have to choose hero that support me on easy lane - that's what comes 1st into my mind.

Honorable mentions - foes

everything in this hero is just about dealing with Ember Spirit as easy and as fast as possible. He's an natural Orchid carrier, so getting Black King Bar or Linken's Sphere asap is crucial. Strafe + Searing Arrows allows him to kill you before silence expires, Skeleton Walk is nearly perfect skill to get some pickoffs on you or run away when needed, and Death Pact just increases his survivability and damage to kill you even easier. When dealing with him consider getting Linken's Sphere as your second item and never farm without allies behind you, unless you have observers and sentries around you.

hero with 4 second long-range slow, blink ability, evasion and highest crits in the game isn't something you want to deal with. Also she's an rather natural Skull Basher carrier, so she can just blink on you, stun and rape in 4 hits. Forces you to get Monkey King Bar, and if you don't have any secondary carry that will be able to fight with her, Black King Bar.

Links

In-game buids:

• Mid game build [Build 1 + 2]
• Farm build [Build 3]

In order to use my builds in-game you must subscribe them.

Patch notes

6.81

• Searing Chains duration reduced from 2/2/3/3 to 1/2/2/3
• Sleight of Fist bonus damage reduced from 30/60/90/120 to 20/40/60/80

These changes hurt imber's early game mostly, especially Searing Chains one. Having duration rescales may force people to change their skillbuild's a little to get 4th point and 3 second ensnare earlier. Remember that damage remains unchanged, so 3rd point still doubles chains damage.
Sleight of Fist change is really small, 10/20/30/40 less damage may save some enemies, but remember that imber's main damage source are damage items, and that remain unchanged.
Hidden update - 6.81 brought additional timers to Fire Remnant ability! Now tracking remaining time on remnants is easier than ever!

Guide in Progress!