Hard support Keeper of the Light

Introduction

Keeper of the Light is one of my favorite support heroes that has my attention lately and hence the perfect choice at my very first attempt at making a guide.

He can easily harass opponent heroes with his massive AOE damage causing skill Illuminate. The same skill makes him an ideal pusher and can grant his team a great deal of burst damage during team fights.

Pros and Cons

Like mentioned earlier he can help deal massive AOE damage with his Illuminate skill; he is the walking mana supplier both for himself and his team, he can drain it as well from the opponent hero of course; and can teleport an allied hero to himself.

Though he has pretty decent movement speed even without boots, he is very squishy and is therefore an easy target; has very very low attack damage so forget about right clicks; and if misused illuminate will take away all farm from allied carry in his lane.

Skills

Illuminate
This skill can cause good burst damage early game so if used properly can force opponent heroes back to use their stock of heals and grant your ally easy farm. Use it with caution as it could push the lane far too forward and not forgetting the pretty high mana cost it takes to use the skill. Unless you have your Chakra Magic use it sparingly. Also try not to steal the farm from your carry with this skill :D

It's best to use this skill keeping yourself hidden for the surprise element to keep your opponent always worried as to from which direction the wave is gonna hit them at any moment. It's a good idea to stay hidden also because you are squishy and once opponent heroes get to disable you it doesn't take much effort to take you down. So stay in the trees :)

Chakra Magic
This skill gives you an excellent edge over other supports as you can replenish mana on yourself as well as your allies right from the beginning and throughout the game till the end. I prefer to upgrade this skill at Level 2 and 3 to keep the mana pool filled for the Illuminate and also for the allied hero in your lane.

Mana Leak
This skill when used on an opponent hero causes its mana to literally leak as it moves, getting mini stunned if all its mana gets leaked. Very effective against heroes with low mana pool. Team it with illuminate and your team might have a chance of a kill right there!

Spirit Form
Illuminate till now required you to stand still as you charge. However, in the Spirit Form, the spirit form does the Illuminate charge and you are free to move around. You get two additional skills in this form- Recall and Blinding Light.

.Recall grants you the ability to summon heroes from anywhere in the map to wherever you
are for a team fight or help an allied hero who is running from an opponent attack. Keep
in mind that recall won't work if your allied hero takes damage from the opponent during
the run. It will cancel it.
.Blinding light is a skill that flashes over the targeted area, knocking back and
blinding the units in the area, causing them to miss attacks. This is very effective in
a team fight or when you and allies are running from your opponent.

Aghanim's Scepter will grant you permanent Spirit Form allowing you to strategically channel your illuminate with the spirit form while you get yourself to a safe position. Another advantage is that after you've got the scepter your illuminate will now heal your allies; kinda like Phoenix's rays.

Us and Them

Ok so here's the deal. You typically pick Kotl because your team needs a hard support and you know there is at least one ally who can nuke early and spam opponent heroes and give them a hard time in lane. Hmm and you also see that there are early lane pushers in the opponent team.

So which heroes can you lane most effectively with? Kotl can very well team up effectively with almost any hero. But these are some heroes you can try to combo with- Ancient Apparition, Enigma, Sand King, Clockwerk, Mirana, Magnus, Faceless Void, Tiny, Skeleton King, Elder Titan, Axe... etc. Whew! He's good with almost everyone. You can experiment and figure out which heroes you can best coordinate with.

Ok I've been mentioning time and again that Kotl is an extremely squishy hero and once he gets disabled or chased by heroes with blink abilities like Puck, QoP or Anti Mage he is dead meat. Invisble and agile heroes like Clinkz, Rikimaru, Nyx Assassin are heroes you should be careful with while playing against. Also you can become easy feed for heroes like Pudge, Mirana and Clockwerk who can hook or arrow you unsuspectingly.

Item Choice

The item choices depends relatively on situations. But there are a few items on Kotl that we simply can't miss.

Tranquil Boots will help you with the necessary hp regen and stay with your team without having to keep moving back to the fountain for a refill. The movement speed plus extra armor will also be pretty good with this boot on the old man :)

Mekansm An early mekansm, in the first 20 minutes of the game, will ensure the survivability of your team during early game ganks. Even if you couldn't complete it within 20 minutes do not fret. It is still an item you would never wanna give a miss.

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Once the above two core items have been built, you can still go for other items which can boost your team during the game.

One such item I feel is the Force Staff. It helps you either to keep yourself or an ally hero safe or can be used aggressively during pursuits. If you are trying to push lanes then upgrade your boots to the Boots of Travel and accompany it with a Blink Dagger.

Drums of endurance will help with the movement speed and also grant a little hp which you definitely will be grateful for. Plus the aura helps the team.

Aghanims Scepter will upgrade kotl's ultimate. It will grant him the permanent spirit form plus illuminate heals your allies. Mekansm does wonders early game but late game the scepter will be of greater help along with the mekansm. All the extra heals never hurt any team right! :)

Necronomicon can be considered an item choice if there are invisible heroes in the other team and also a lot of casters. TheNecronomicon Archer's mana burn per hit not only helps in keeping the casters in check but increases the attack speed and the movement speed of nearby units. The Necronomicon Warrior is the one that provides true sight and does damage to the enemy that kills it.

In addition to all the above items Scythe of Vyse and Rod of Atos are items that can be given consideration.

Item choice by a support has to always be made considering the team you have. What item you choose has to boost your team in any which way. At the same time it is advisable to not "panic-rush" for items and forget your carries :D. Stay calm, ward your map, stack your jungles and ancient, keep your carries safe and all this while assess what items would work best for your team. Phew! Who knew playing a support was easy. It's hard work ;)

Last Word :D

All said and done do your role and get wards- observer wards and sentry wards if required. I've seen supports who keep rushing for support items (e.g,"dude i am rushing meka etc.") and neglect the warding and don't even upgrade the courier till about 6 minutes. Sigh! I sure hope you are not one of those supports :P... You can do the regular 'pull and stack' for your carries and you yourself can earn yourself some experience and gold easily with your illuminate for your support items in the jungle, beside the normal harassing with your illuminate in the lanes.

He is one hero I was most apprehensive in picking before because I thought he was too squishy but once I got a hang of his abilities he has pretty much become one of my favorites. Try him out if you haven't and you might just fall in love with his character just as I have.

Thank you for reading through. Do leave comments and suggestions. Thankyou! Good Luck have fun! :)