Hard Support KotL Guide

Introduction

Ezalor, Keeper of the Light and one of the biggest upsets in the current meta-game. KotL is one of the supports that can farm really easily and get the vital items up without taking too much farm from the carries. Plus he is a really good pusher since he has a long range AoE nuke that deals alot of damage. He can hold pushes with Illuminate and be a good companion to heroes like Leshrac or Queen of Pain, since they have really spammable abilites that need alot of Mana.

Lore

Upon a pale horse he rides, this spark of endless suns, this Keeper of the Light. Ezalor long ago escaped the Fundamental plane, separating from the other ancient forces to which he was bound within the great Primordial harmony. He is a power grown sentient in the dawn of the universe, and now rides forth in all planes at once, one step ahead of pursuing chaos, bearing his gift with him at the end of a radiant staff. His majestic truth lies hidden beneath the outward appearance of a slightly doddering old man who barely stays in the saddle. However, when faced with the challenge of chaos, or the forces of darkness, his primordial light bursts forth, and his full power is revealed, transforming him once again into a force to be reckoned with.

Skills

Illuminate

Ability Affects Damage
Channeled Enemies Magical
Channels a ball of light energy, building power the longer it's channeled. Once released, the ball deals damage and gives vision in a line. The longer it is channeled, the more damage dealt.
Range: 2000
Radius: 350 (starting radius), 1550 (distance), 350 (final radius)
Maximum channel damage: 200/300/400/500
Cooldown 10 Mana 150/160/170/180
Ezalor's hidden light reveals itself in marvelous fashion.

Illuminate (the so-called KotL-blast) just destroys the enemy's regeneration in the first couple of minutes and can easily prepare the enemy heroes for ganks. It channels for 2/3/4/5 seconds or until released and deals 100 damage per second charged to all units in its path. Since it has 2000 range, you can charge it in the jungle and still hit the lane to surprise the enemies.

Mana Leak

Ability Affects
Target Unit Enemies
Weakens an enemy's magical essence, causing them to lose mana as they move. If the enemy loses all of its mana, it will be stunned.
Range: 550/700/850/1000
Duration: 4/5/6/7
Percentage of maximum mana drained per 100 units the target moves: 3.5%/4%/4.5%/5%
Stun duration: 1.3/1.6/1.9/2.2
Cooldown 16 Mana 75
Ezalor disrupts Primordial harmony, draining magical energy from those with poor constitution.

Mana Leak is a spell that you only get in the mid to late game to let ganks be really effective and even stop heroes like Lycanthrope or Dark Seer since they can move at maximum movement speed. It's only effective against heroes that use all of their mana and then will try to retreat (like Tidehunter or Enigma) or that use alot of Mana while running around (like Leshrac or Storm Spirit). You can also use this to chase enemies after teamfights. Its also pretty nice against Skeleton King, since he has a low mana pool and still needs mana to respawn. The stun only applies if the target has lost all mana, so it does not cancel TPs or other channels.

Chakra Magic

Ability Affects
Target Unit Allies
Restores mana to the target unit.
Range: 900
Mana restored: 75/150/225/300
Cooldown 19/18/17/16 Mana 25/45/65/85
In the same vein, Ezalor bestows his harmony among others.

Chakra Magic is the second reason why he is just the best support for normal laning, since it gives a target mana. This way, even the carries can spam the enemies from the lane (see Friends and Foes for this one). It gives alot more than it costs, so with level 3 Chakra Magic you can fully support yourself to spam Illuminate as much as needed.

Recall

Ability Affects
Target Unit Allied Heroes
After a short delay, teleports the targeted friendly hero to your location. If the targeted friendly hero takes player based damage during this time, the ability is interrupted.
Range: Global
Teleportation delay: 5/4/3
Cooldown 15 Mana 100
Walk towards the light.

With his Recall he can give the carry more time to farm the jungle or push other lanes before bringing them into the fight to clean up. Another great use of this item is if you try to enter the enemy base and lose a hero to a counter initiation. He then can buy back and you bring him back in using Recall.

Blinding Light

Ability Affects
Target Point Enemies
A blinding light flashes over the targeted area, knocking back and blinding the units in the area, causing them to miss attacks.
Range: 900
Radius: 675
Miss chance: 80%
Duration: 3/4/5
Cooldown 20/16/12 Mana 50
The Primordial light turns the tides of battle in favor of Ezalor and his allies.

Blinding Light enables him to push enemy heroes around and let them have a huge miss-chance. This is really effective vs. heroes that need to chase and hit like Ursa. The rather big AoE can give you some space when you're being chased, since you can cast it right before you, so you push the chasers back while not having to turn around (This very much applies to Batrider, since his Sticky Napalm makes you think about any way to cut down your turn around time. Sadly, Blinding Light does not interrupt channeling spells like Pudge's Dismember, but in this case can still get your friend out of range of the Rot.

Spirit Form

Ability Affects
No Target Self
Ezalor turns his body luminescent temporarily, gaining various abilities. Illuminate is now channeled by a separate spirit, and gains the Blinding Light and Recall abilities.
Duration: 40
Cooldown 80/70/60 Mana 100
In a flash of light, Ezalor reveals his true nature.

Spirit Form is his ultimate. While active, it gives him the ability to run around while a spirit is charging his Illuminate for him. This enables counterpushing without actually being in danger. Plus, you can be disabled or silenced, Illuminate is still charged and released after the maximum time. Additionaly you get the two abilities [[Recall and Blinding Light.

Items

Everyone wins some games and everyone loses some. That's the way dota works. No Guide can make you win every time. These items are what i usually go for.

Keeper of the Light is most likely the 5-role (aka the hard-support), so he should buy all the wards and stuff. But if you struggle on your lane, die too often you can ask the secondary support/jungler to get some of those. You can afford to get all the support items since you will be able to farm lanes/jungle camps pretty easily with Illuminate. But when doing so, always keep in mind that everyone else of your team should get the farm if possible, you only take priority when you are getting close to Mekansm.

Starting Items

Just in case the enemies are not completely ******ed you should get some regen: Tango and Healing Salve, one of each. You are the support, so you will buy the Courier (if noone has already done so), a set of Observer Wards. If you expect the enemies to ward (e.g. to block the pull camp), you might want to get just one regen item (your choice here) and get some Sentry Wards as well. If you chose not to get the sentries, the game client advises you to get branches or even a gauntlet of strength. I would not recommend those.
Since you will not get much of the XP of the enemy creeps, but will be pulling alot, you'd want to take one Clarity or even two, just because that level 2 is so far away and even then you dont have enough mana to deplete the whole regen of the enemies yet. When using those, just be careful, because some pull camp spawns have ranged creeps that will cancel the mana regen.

Early-Game

There are two choices about what to get as first item:
1) Upgrade Courier
2) Get Sentry Wards

You might say "what about my boots?" or "Can't i even buy a magic stick or a tp in case i die?"
No. If you have an invisible hero on your lane (talking mainly about Bounty Hunter, Clinkz and Broodmother, but about Treant Protector as well) you will want to get a set of sentries just to ensure the farm of your carry. If you can see the enemies, they can be harrased and lasthitting will be easier.
If you dont, you should spend your first 220G on the Flying Courier. This will make for a faster bottle for your mid-laner and might help him out if he needs to bottle-crow.
After that, depending on your lasthitting and pulling, you will get more wards, your Magic Stick, Tranquil Boots and then, after getting more wards, you will work on your Mekansm in case nobody else will go for that. You will be the fastest to finish it, so normally it should be you.

Mid- to lategame

You should have spotted that i did not put any "Mid- to lategame" Section in the item choices. That is because there will be games, when you are happy with getting your boots by minute 30. Those games are not automatically lost, but you sacrifized a lot for your team and that should be paying back by now (by placing wards your carry lived a couple of times because he saw a gank coming and could retreat or maybe because of your wards, you saw the enemies trying to sneak a rosh kill and your team was able to get the rosh after a won teamfight).
What you want to get later and why:

Magic Wand
You might want to get that ASAP after mek, since it heals for the same amount as the Magic Stick, but can hold more charges and it gives you some nice stats. You dont need to buy it before the mek, since up to two Branches that you might have bought at the start of the game can go into the Mekansm as well.

Force Staff
This is something that is pretty nice for you. With the bonus intelligence you can kill entire creep waves alone with Illuminate and one hit per melee creep (depending on the time of the game you might need more, but i'm talking about 25-40 minutes here). Plus, it lets you escape the enemy carries if they chose to focus you in the fight. Really good against Ursa, Riki, Skeleton King, Lifestealer and other melee carries. You can also force yourself up a cliff if neccessary and force your own melee carry into the enemies.

Ghost Sceptre
This item is a lot like the force staff. It gives you some stats and protects you from enemy rightclickers, even ranged ones like Gyrocopter or Luna. But keep in mind that it amplifies magic damage and slows, so you should watch the teamfights and keep your distance to heavy magic nukers like Lion or Lina.

Scythe of Vyse
This is an item that gives you alot of intelligence (right click damage, mana pool) and a little mana regen, so you can use Chakra Magic more often on an ally than on yourself. The active is a nice way to deal with heros with escape abilities or passive defensive abilities (a good example for both: Anti Mage).

Boots of Travel
When the enemies have a pushing oriented lineup (starring a Nature's Prophet, a Tinker, a Lycan or maybe a Phantom Lancer) and you always need to be ready to defend somewhere after a fight instantly, the best thing to get are these boots. They give you alot of movementspeed, which is nice especially if you get chased (remember that you only get 25 MS with deactivated Tranquil Boots). The most important thing with Boots of Travel is that you can be a personal taxi for your team, since you can TP to a creep on a lane that needs to be pushed or counter-pushed and then Recall a teammate to grab the farm. But you should not get this as one of your first items, since your team needs a Mekansm, maybe some CC with the Scythe of Vyse or a Force Staff.

Eul's Sceptre of Divinity
I like to get this item on Keeper of the Light alot since it gives you the intelligence to sweep creep waves (as mentioned in the part for Force Staff) plus alot of MS so that you can escape with deactivated Tranquil Boots. It gives you a lot of mana regen, so you can use Chakra Magic more on your allies than on yourself. And the active ability is like a ghost sceptre just without being able to take magic damage. and you can eul's a fleeing enemy so your team can catch up.

Shiva's Guard
This item is pretty useful if you get focused by Carries like Phantom Lancer, that normally don't get Black King Bar, but still rely on right clicking. Since Shiva's Guard gives you alot of armor and reduces the attack speed of all enemies without BKB you will take alot less damage, giving you the opportunity to escape and your team the opportunity to focus him down. Plus, the active is a decent AoE damage that slows, so another good thing to either escape or chase. I normally get this together with [[Force Staff], so i can either force staff myself in, then shivas and then run out normally (that should take alot of nuke damage off your carry) or when in need to escape, i use the active of shivas, wait till the guys chasing me are slowed and then force staff myself away to not get stunned.

Rod of Atos
The Rod Of Atos is most likely the most underused item in the game and that is why Icefrog buffed it for the past couple of patches. It has a huge range and a big slow, so for any kind of chase its a good item. It gives you alot of the intelligence mention in the Force Staff Section and additionaly some pure HP that is always nice to pick up. You can get the Rod of Atos if you feel like you could survive the teamfights if you just had a little more HP and if the enemy team does alot of positioning mistakes. Another good use of it is in teamfights against physical damage dealer that dont have BKB (yet). Also it counters buffs like Mirana's Leap, Windrunner's Windrun and Slark's Shadow Dance active.

Shadow Blade
I actually never get this item, because it gives you right click damage that you dont really need (the little bit you do need comes with any intelligence item like Force Staff, Scythe of Vyse, Rod of Atos or Shiva's Guard among others). But what it gives you might be worth the money, depending on the situation: It gives you an escape ability with the invisibility and the bonus movement speed while invisible. Plus, it does not cancel channeling effects, so if you are in a dangerous place but started to channel Illuminate you can use Shadow Blade while channeling to get invisible. But think about the 0.75 sec fade time! As i said, i never get this item since 3000g is alot of money if you think about Force Staff (2350g: different escape, intelligence and hp regen), but some people might even think of Shadow Blade to be core on KotL, so i put it here as situational.

Friends and foes

Friends

Phantom Lancer: Spirit Lance is really hurtful if spammed.
Sven: Storm Hammer deals alot of damage and the stun has a decent aoe.
Spectre: Spectral Dagger has high mana cost and slows, but is not maxed often.
Tiny: Both Avalanche and Toss deal alot of damage but cost alot of mana.
Dragon Knight: Breathe Fire has a big aoe. This combo is part of the first Tutorial.
Brewmaster: Thunder Clap deals alot of damage and slows.
Omniknight: Purification deals alot of damage and heals alot.
Warlock: Shadow Word and Fatal Bonds are both really strong, but mana heavy.
Disruptor: Later in the game, he has a lot of spammable abilities and needs mana.
Leshrac: Same as Disruptor.
Queen of Pain: Same as Disruptor.
Timbersaw: He is extremely mobile with Timberchain and can deal alot of damage if he gets the mana.
Zeus: If he gets to spam his skills he really becomes a nuisance on the lane.

As you might notice, these are his friends mainly because of Chakra Magic and not because of Illuminate or Recall. There are two heroes that need special mentioning:

Chen: His Test of Faith (Teleport) combined up with your Recall makes for a pretty cheap trip back to fountain. This can help preparing for a push or a roshan kill.
Pugna: If you know how to use Illuminate effectively when the enemise dont see it coming, you can combine that with Decripify. This will boost the dealt damage even further and with Nether Blast, Pugne himself can add to that. Plus, Pugna has mana need that you can meet with Chakra Magic.

Foes

Nyx Assassin: He deals alot of damage with Mana Burn, can reflect your blast with Spiked Carapace and kill you with ease once he is level 6 because of Vendetta.
Riki: Once you are in his cloud, you can't use Blinding Light to give him the miss% that you need to get away safely.

Apart from these two there are alot of heroes that are good at nuking you down or disabling you, so i won't really mention them all. What you need to consider when picking Keeper of the Light is that you have no disable, a low hp pool and need to stay at the same place for a long time. Any hero that can exploit that is a potential threat to you so be wise in deciding when to play Keeper of the Light.

Outro + Changelog

This was my guide to Keeper of the Light. When i get the time, i'll add some pictures about positioning and a part about timing (killing enemy creeps when they spawn, stacking and pulling jungle creeps or ancients, ...).

v1.0 - April 8th, 2013