iN7.Ganker's guide to Invoker

Introduction

Come closer, my new apprentice, don't be afraid and let me welcome you to my 3rd guide on dotafire featuring

Invoker

former known as "Kael".

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Invoker, known for many things like to be one of the strongest heroes in the game, the most difficult hero to play within the game and for example the hero with the most potential if used correctly.

I am going to explain several things to you like why Invoker is currently constantly picked and banned in the competetive scene. Why he is difficult to play. How his spells work. How they actually scale and how to use them to their full potential.

This guide is focused on explaining every aspect of Invoker. It's designed to help new player's to get an idea on how to play Invoker. Nevertheless intermediate player's may learn something too.

The guide is as well explaining things on a quite high level while trying to pull you through the basics too. Don't be afraid of the length of this guide, it might demotivate you but I really try to make sure that even new players get an idea of what I am actually talking about.

If you care about supporting me or you just like to be up to date with what I am doing, you might consider subscribeing to my youtube channel.

It would be really appreciated if you that you consider rating this guide later on, read the whole guide before you actually judge on it. Thanks in advance!

Guide-Overview

Before I start to get you a little bit closer to Invoker I feel I am in need to at first explain the 3 different "build's" you may noticed at the top of this guide. These don't just differ item-and skillwise they also really differ in the way they are commonly played. More unexperienced player's are advised to skip this part and read it afterwards for better understanding purposes!

1. The Quas-Wex-Invoker

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The combination of both, Quas and Wex, granting great teamfight abilities, long range initiation coupled with a crippling huge aoe manaburn rendering low manapool enemies completely useless if catched unprepared. Means this build is mostly providing control and the ability to position yourself much easier due to the higher movementspeed granted by Wex instead of dealing huge amounts of damage. Means you have superior team fighting, initiating and tower defending abilities but are less effective in simple pickoffs.

2. The Quas-Exort-Invoker

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The pure pushing build. Focuses on the ability " Forge Spirit's" to push towers much easier. This is seen quite rare even in the current metagame. (which contains early tower pushing to get yourself a good advantage for the midgame - really simplified) You are able to push great and stunlock by yourself for several seconds and being useful in pickoff situations. The big disadvantage however are your limited teamfight abilities which are simply not existent for quite some time when choosing this style of play. You are able to adapt later on and adjust your skillbuild by yourself if something doesn't work out. I strongly recommend you to only play this build if you are playing on a quite high level or in a team with friends where your lineup is focused on pushing.

However seems like this kind of playstyle is fadeing out nowadays.

3. The Exort Invoker

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Deals massive amounts of damage and provides superior lasthitting power. Requires excellent timing and coordination to be really effective. Somewhat squishy due to the lack of Quas and Wex early on, can get easily picked off. With some levels able to completely disintegrate a whole team if spells are timed precisely, however hard to execute well, damage differs much depending on how you hit your spells.

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Notice that all of these builds and playstyles focus on the beginning of the game. You will be able to use every single spell in the lategame, morphing into a real fearsome power, like you actually are anyway before that time.

Pros and Cons

Pros

+ extremely versatile
+ can be very hard to kill or chase
+ able to deal massive amounts of damage
+ ranged
+ good attack animation
+ really dominant in lane

Cons

- hard to master
- requires presice timing to be really effective
- low standard movement speed

Know your arsenal

Before we get started we at first need to differ between your 4 normal abilities which are:

- Quas
- Wex
- Exort

and your ultimate:

- Invoke

and secondly your Invoke Spells which are:

- Cold Snap
- Ghost Walk
- Ice Wall
- Tornado
- Deafening Blast
- Forge Spirit
- EMP
- Alacrity
- Chaos Meteor
and
- Sun Strike

Right, you have 14 abilities in total. The difference between your normal spells and your invoke spells is that you always have your normal spells but you can only have 2 invoke spells at the same time.(requiring Invoke at atleast lvl 2)

Your first 3 Spells are orbs which are circling around you when you use them, you can have 3 orbs around you at the same time but you can decide which one's.

The Invoke Spells are created by your ultimate depending on the current constellation of the orbs around you, the order doesn't matter. If you already have two spells invoked and you invoke a new one, always the oldest invoked spell gets replaced by the new one.

Your 4 normal abilities are:

Quas

Type: Targets:

Active untargetable

Allows manipulation of ice elements and grants a permanent strength bonus. Each Quas instance provides increased health regeneration.

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Notes:

• Passives work per instance and stack.
• Invoker can only have 3 of any instances.
• If there already are any instances, the last one will always be the one replaced.

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Wex

Type: Targets:

Active untargetable

Allows manipulation of storm elements and grants a permanent agility bonus. Each Wex instance provides increased attack speed and movement speed.

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Notes:

• Passives work per instance and stack.
• Invoker can only have 3 of any instances.
• If there already are any instances, the last one will always be the one replaced.

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Exort

Type: Targets:

Active untargetable

Allows manipulation of fire elements and grants a permanent intelligence bonus. Each Exort instance provides increased attack damage.

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Notes:

• Passives work per instance and stack.
• Invoker can only have 3 of any instances.
• If there already are any instances, the last one will always be the one replaced.

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Invoke

Type: Targets:

Active untargetable

Combines the properties of the elements currently being manipulated, creating a new spell at the Invoker's disposal. The invoked spell is determined by the combination of Quas, Wex and Exort.

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Notes:

• Invoke can be leveled 4 times, at levels 2/7/12/17.
• The arrangement of instances does not matter.
• If the maximum number of invoke spells has already been reached, invoking a new spell will replace the oldest invoked spell.
• If the spell Invoker is attempting to invoke is already in his first slot Invoke will fizzle, spending Invoker's mana, putting Invoke on cooldown, and otherwise doing absolutely nothing. Invoker has separate responses for fizzled Invokes.
• * Shows improved Aghanims Scepter values.

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Invoke Spells

Cold Snap (QQQ)

Type: Targets:

Active Enemy Units

Ability invokes if Invoker has 3 Quas instances. Invoker draws the heat from an enemy, chilling them to their very core for a duration based on Quas. Further damage taken in this state will freeze the enemy again, dealing bonus damage. The enemy can only be frozen so often, but the freeze cooldown decreases based on the level of Quas.

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Stun Duration: 0.4
Damage: 60
Cold Snap Duration (based on Quas level): 3/3.5/4/4.5/5/5.5/6
Stun Duration upon taking damage: 0.4
Bonus Damage upon taking damage: 30
Cooldown Between Stuns (based on Quas level): 0.7715/0.7430/0.7145/0.6860/0.6575/0.6290/0.6005
Range: 1000
Cooldown: 20
Manacost: 100

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Usage: Your commonly used spell while lanening or in simple pickoff engagements, use it to harass your enemy in lane or to get a kill, dont understimate the range which is insane and can help out mates of you in some situations. Keep in mind it stuns instantly on casting therefore interrupting channeling abilities.

Ghost Walk (QQW)

Type: Targets:

Active Self

Ability invokes if Invoker has 2 Quas and 1 Wex instances. Invoker manipulates the ice and electrical energies around him, rendering his body invisible. The elemental imbalance created as a consequence slows nearby enemies based on the level of Quas, and slows Invoker as well based on the level of Wex.

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Slow Radius: 400
Slows Enemy (based on Quas level): 20% / 23% / 26% / 30% / 33% / 36% / 40%
Slows Self (based on Wex level): 30% / 25% / 20% / 15% / 10% / 5% / 0%
Duration: 120
Cooldown: 60
Manacost: 200

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Usage: Ghost Walk has different uses, you can use it to survive a gank just by getting invisble and walk away, atleast if your enemy has no detection. You can use it to "scout" or to get through ward spots remaining unseen. Or just to dodge an on you targeted stun, sometimes may come in handy.

Ice Wall (QQE)

Type: Targets:

Active Enemy Units

Ability invokes if Invoker has 2 Quas and 1 Exort instances. Generates a wall of solid ice directly in front of Invoker for a duration based on the level of Quas. The bitter cold emanating from it greatly slows nearby enemies based on the level of Quas and deals damage each second based on the level of Exort.

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Duration (based on Quas): 3 / 4.5 / 6 / 7.5 / 9 / 10.5 / 12
Movement Slow (based on Quas): 20% / 40% / 60% / 80% / 100% / 120% / 140%
Damage Per Second (based on Exort): 6 / 12 / 18 / 24 / 30 / 36 / 42
Cooldown: 25
Manacost: 175

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Usage: Use Ice Wall in fights to control the enemy heroes mobility or if you need to prevent pushes onto your towers. It is also useful to drop an Ice Wall while backing off to prevent getting chased and maybe killed.

EMP (WWW)

Type: Targets:

Active Enemy Units

Ability invokes if Invoker has 3 Wex instances. Invoker builds up a charge of electromagnetic energy at a targeted location which automatically detonates after a duration based on the level of Wex. The detonation covers an area, draining mana based on the level of Wex. Deals damage for each point of mana drained.

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Delay (based on Wex): 3.7 / 3.4 / 3.15 / 2.85 / 2.6 / 2.3 / 2
Radius: 675
Damage (based on Wex): 50 / 75 / 100 / 125 / 150 / 175 / 200
Mana Drain (based on Wex): 100 / 150 / 200 / 250 / 300 / 350 / 400
Cooldown: 30
Manacost: 125

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Usage: Use it in teamfights or general engagements to render heroes useless by removing all their mana. you can also useless while getting chased, just drop it behind you so that your enemy has to get hit by it if he wants to continue the chase.

Tornado (WWQ)

Type: Targets:

Active Enemy Units

Ability invokes if Invoker has 2 Wex and 1 Quas instances. Unleashes a fast moving tornado that picks up enemy units in its path, suspending them helplessly in the air shortly before allowing them to plummet to their doom. Travels further based on the level of Wex. Holds enemies in the air for a duration based on the level of Quas. Deals damage based on the levels of Quas and Wex.

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Range (based on Wex): 800 / 1200 / 1600 / 2000 / 2400 / 2800 / 3200
Disable Duration (based on Quas): 0.8 / 1.1 / 1.4 / 1.7 / 2.0 / 2.3 / 2.5
Damage (based on Wex and Quas): 70 + 20 * (Level of Quas + Level of Wex)
Cooldown: 30
Manacost: 150

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Usage: You can use Tornado as initiation possibility or to save mates from a high range by spinning their hunter's up in the air. You can also use it to farm or to scout out certain positions like roshan since you can do it from really far away, 3200 range is completely insane, utilize this to your advantage.

Alacrity (WWE)

Type: Targets:

Active Enemy Units

Ability invokes if Invoker has 2 Wex and 1 Exort instances. Invoker infuses an ally with an immense surge of energy, increasing their attack speed based on the level of Wex and their damage based on the level of Exort.

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Duration: 9
Increased Attack Speed (based on Wex): 20% / 30% / 40% / 50% / 60% / 70% / 80%
Increased Damage (based on Exort): 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80
Range: 650
Cooldown: 15
Manacost: 100

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Usage: Use it on yourself if there is noone that actually benefits more from it, if you have a really farmed carry who is in position do move freely in the fight cast it on him after getting you usal combo off.

Sun Strike (EEE)

Type: Targets:

Active Enemy Units

Ability invokes if Invoker has 3 Exort instances. Sends a catastrophic ray of fierce energy from the sun at any targeted location, incinerating all enemies standing beneath it once it reaches the Earth. Deals damage based on the level of Exort, however this damage is spread evenly over all enemies hit.

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Delay: 1,7
Damage (based on Exort): 100 / 162.5 / 225 / 287.5 / 350 / 412.5 / 475
Range: Global
Radius: 175
Cooldown: 30
Manacost: 175

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Usage: Try to aim it where the enemy is heading or chain it with stuns, in most situations you will be in need to anticipate your enemies movement.

Forge Spirit (QEE)

Type: Targets:

Active N/A

Ability invokes if Invoker has 2 Exort and 1 Quas instances. Invoker forges a spirit embodying the strength of fire and fortitude of ice. Damage, health, and armor are based on the level of Exort while attack range, mana, and duration are based on the level of Quas. The elemental's scorching attack is capable of melting the armor of enemy heroes. If both Quas and Exort are level 4 or higher, Invoker will create two spirits instead of one.

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Number of Forge Spirits Summoned: 1 (2 if both Quas and Exort are level 4 or higher)
Forge Spirits' Duration (based on Quas): 20 / 30 / 40 / 50 / 60 / 70 / 80
Forge Spirits' Mana (based on Quas): 100 / 150 / 200 / 250 / 300 / 350 / 400
Forge Spirits' Attack Range (based on Quas): 300 / 400 / 500 / 600 / 700 / 800 / 900
Forge Spirits' Damage (based on Exort): 29 / 38 / 47 / 56 / 65 / 74 / 83
Forge Spirits' HP (based on Exort): 300 / 400 / 500 / 600 / 700 / 800 / 900
Forge Spirits' Armor (based on Exort): 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 / 7 / 8
Cooldown: 30
Manacost: 75

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Usage: Use it to push towers or scout certain areas with your summons, like roshan. You can combo this up with Cold Snap to stunlock your enemy.

Chaos Meteor (WEE)

Type: Targets:

Active Enemy Units

Ability invokes if Invoker has 2 Exort and 1 Wex instances. Invoker pulls a flaming meteor from space onto the targeted location. Upon landing, the meteor rolls forward, constantly dealing damage based on the level of Exort, and rolling further based on the level of Wex. Units hit by the meteor will also be set on fire for a short time, receiving additional damage based on the level of Exort.

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Main Radius: 275
Main Damage Per 0.5 Seconds (based on Exort): 57.5 / 75 / 92.5 / 110 / 127.5 / 145 / 162.5
Meteor Range (based on Wex): 465 / 615 / 780 / 930 / 1095 / 1245 / 1410
Additional Damage Per Second (based on Exort): 11.5 / 15 / 18.5 / 22 / 25.5 / 29 / 32.5
Cooldown: 30
Manacost: 75

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Usage: Use it in teamfight and try to hit as most enemy heroes as possible for maximum damage, you can combo in with Deafening Blast if you target many heroes or you can use it with Cold Snap for only one certain enemy hero.

Deafening Blast (QWE)

Type: Targets:

Active Enemy Units

Ability invokes if Invoker has 1 Quas, 1 Wex and 1 Exort instances. Invoker unleashes a mighty sonic wave in front of him, dealing damage to any enemy unit it collides based on the level of Exort. The sheer impact from the blast is enough to knock those enemy units back for a duration based on the level of Quas, then disarm their attacks for a duration based on the level of Wex.

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Stun Duration (based on Quas): 0.25 / 0.5 / 0.75 / 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 / 1.75
Attack Prevention Duration (based on Wex): 1 / 1.5 / 2 / 2.5 / 3 / 3.5 / 4
Damage (based on Exort): 40 / 80 / 120 / 160 / 200 / 240 / 280
Range: 1000
Cooldown: 30
Manacost: 75

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Usage: Use it to defend towers or to get view in certain area's which it provides in its radius. Works well togheter with Chaos Meteor and Ice Wall.

Quas-Wex-Invoker

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Before I get to explain the different playstyles of Invoker I want you to notice something, everytime you see this: "(*)" it has the following meaning: I choose to explain every item in every build even if I already mentioned it before in another build for a simple reason, the item might have other uses or reasons to be good in these different cases. Everytime you see this sign, it means that I already explained the certain item before in another build where you could look it up for more detailed information.

Why you should play Quas-Wex-Invoker?!

Advantages

+ quite tanky
+ great teamfight
+ high movement speed
+ cost effecient spells
+ Ghost Walk(Escape Mechanism)

Disadvantages

- lower pickoff potential due to missing global capability
- less damage than Exort Invoker
- low mana pool
- low lasthit damage

Skillbuild-Explanation-Justification

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You are getting 2-3 early levels in Quas because the regeneration granted from Quas makes you like immune to harrassment in lane, means guranteed levels because its hard to force you out of the lane with this much regeneration. The spell which helps you to win the lane or to dominate is Cold Snap. Just combine Cold Snap with a few hits, you deal good damage and your enemy is unable to hit you or use any spells that require some casting time.

The reason for maxing Wex after getting a few points in Quas is because your most powerful spell as a Quas-Wex-Invoker is EMP, its dealing more damage and draining more mana based on Wex to a maximum of 400 mana drained rendering every support and low manapool hero complteley useless in a teamfight.

Invoke is taken every single time you can take it because the improvements are immense. You may already have noticed that your ultimate has 4 levels and the time you can actually skill your ultimate differs as well. You can take your ultimate at level 2, 7, 12 and 17 which you should always do.

The one point in Exort is really essential and shouldn't be overlooked. This one point grants access to 4 more spells which can easily mean a kill or an opportunity to save a teammate.

At the point you completely maxed Wex you can freely decide how to skill furthermore. Choose Exort for more damage or skill Quas to get more sustain and defensive improvements, if you want to provide some push power make sure you have atleast 4 points in Quas and Exort, move on to the descison above.

Items-Explanation-Justification

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Starting Items

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Start Items are pretty standard for a Quas-Wex-Invoker, if you recognize the player "Ferrari 430", currently playing for IG, you may not even dare about questioning this Start Items which are the ones he gets when he is playing Quas-Wex-Invoker. If you dont know him, here comes your justification. Tango's are enough for lanening with Quas-Wex-Invoker because you already have enough regeneration and you dont need a Healing Salve. You can easily regen up with Quas and if this isn't enough for you, just eat one Tango. The Blades of Attack might sound questionable for you, let us take a closer look at it. They grant you 9+ dmg, as you may have noticed your standard hitdamage is really low, for a Quas-Wex-Invoker where you won't get damage through Exort you will most likely get ****ed in terms of lasthitting in mid lane. Blades of Attack helps you to avoid this and are easily upgraded into Phase Boots which are really essential for a Quas-Wex-Invoker, dont you think so? Iron Branch is the most cost efficient item in the game therefore never a bad thing to invest in, talking about Starting Items. You can upgrade it into Magic Wand later on if you wish.

Earlygame

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Phase Boots are the most viable choice in most cases because you greatly benefit from movementspeed meaning better positioning. You don't need the heal of Tranquil Boots nor do you need the attackspeed or stats from Power Treads nor are your spells so expensive that you need Arcane Boots at any given time. Magic Wand shouldn't actually be in need to justify, shortly it will save your *** so often it isn't even funny and considered overpowered anyway. This item can provide a single target heal of 225 hp and 225 mana for a price of ~500 gold. You really can't ask for much more. Town Portal Scroll, always for gods sake, ALWAYS carry a tp scroll at any given time starting at 6-7 minutes into the game. You can use it to maybe save an allied hero or to shift into a certain lane to gank. Really important at any stages of the game.

Core Itembuild

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Sage's Mask, this item stands more or less for a certain group of items which provide mana regeneration, you start with this little item and later upgrade it into Eul's Scepter of Divinity, in most cases if you don't waste toooo much mana you should be able to get through the earlygame with Sage's Mask. Bracer, this item also stands for a certain group, we are talking about stats in general which enhance your hero in many ways, dont forget about them. A really useful and often built item on Quas-Wex-Invoker is Drum of Endurance which provides stats and is built with a bracer which makes you harder to kill early game, let your own decisions apply.

Extensions

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Drum of Endurance is really useful and often built item because it helps your whole team with its aura as well as with the charge you can pop to improve attack-and movementspeed. Provides stats for you which are really good and rendering this item an overall useful choice, only skip if you really need other item's or if someone of your team already builds it. Force Staff one of the best items for initiating, fleeing or postioning. Normally not needed because you already have a great amount of movementspeed as Quas-Wex-Invoker but can be really useful in certain situations and always comes in handy, if your personal playstyle tends to be more aggressive then try it out yourself, a good extension anyways. Eul's Scepter of Divinity provides great mana regeneration and int as well as granting you a sort of initate to combo your spells with. Can be a really good item and really fits into playing Quas-Wex-Invoker where you can make great use of all of its improvements like even the movementspeed. With Phase Boots, Drum of Endurance and Eul's Scepter of Divinity you are around ~450 movementspeed at any given time, getting haste whenever you use your Phase Boots active. Aghanim's Scepter is probably the best item available for Invoker, removing the mana cost of his ultimate as well as lowering the cooldown by a significant amount down to only 2 seconds on lvl 17.( Invoke lvl 4) You should in like every game try to get this item, if you say you can't even handle the 5 second's cooldown then screw you, you better learn it fast. Definetly one of the best item's if not the best you can purchase on Invoker.

Luxury

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Heart of Tarrasque rendering you a really heavy target to bring down if you are not stunlocked to death. Allows you to get many spells off due to your high hp. Great regeneration effect togheter with Quas when out of battle. If you have problems with stuns or physical dps from your enemy, there might be better choices. Necronomicon is a really good item for pushing or to counter enemy heavy Aoe strategys because someone of your enemy in the fights will most likely kill your Necrowarrior which results in a 600 pure damage punishment for the one slaying it. The aura provided by the other necro guy is really useful as well. Bloodstone if you have a really good game you might transtion into an early Bloodstone to render you a really heavy force, you greatly benefit from the lower respwan time if you actually die you will also heal your allies in a huge Aoe. The mana regeneration is really great and coupled with a few more charges really fearsome, I don't recommend you to build this item in standard situations though because you really miss out other more important items this way. Scythe of Vyse, the most superior item of all mentioned in this section. Allows you to take an enemy hero out of the fight for 3,5 seconds and deactivating his passive abilities. Hexing a Faceless Void for example will deactivate his beloved Backtrack ability making it much safer to use spells on him and don't actually waste them maybe or just kill him really fast in general. You might interrupt an important enemy teamfighter or the enemy carry. This item can turn whole fights around and should been built on Invoker in nearly every possible scenario.

Situational

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Black King Bar, is simply the best item to make sure you can move freely in the fights and get all your spells off. You can also use it to escape out of completely horrible situations by activateing BKB and tp out unless there are heroes like Beastmaster which ultimates break magic immunity. Linken's Sphere is really close to get the same job done as Black King Bar does. Letting you move freely in fights and providing mana regen, this item is however only useful if you have to really go into the lategame which shouldn't actually happen, though it might be useful in a few situations where you are missing mana regen and you only need to protect yourself against like 2-3 directed spells in a fight. Refresher Orb one of the most powerful items in the game granting you to reset all your abilities instantly which basically means you can pull out your whole repertoire 2 times instead of one or just drop a certain combo twice in a row. Never underestimate an Invoker who is brave enough to purchase this item. The only one who ever did this in a competetive match, as far as I remember, was "Dendi" from Na'vi. Shiva's Guard is really useful against a physical dps focussed team. It is protecting yourself with the high armor it grants as well as your teammates because of the -attackspeed aura your enemies receive. The active slow ability will help you to control the fight and helps you to hit your spells. Veil of Discord is a really good item but only in teams where your team is focused on magic damage which shouldn't be the case tooo often. I don't recommend this item because it is really high situational and only in a few situations useful, however may become a valid choice in the right team, don't however let this item delay your Aghanim's Scepter tooo much. Ghost Scepter is really useful if you have to deal with heroes which have like only physical damage, for example Lifestealer or Ursa, you can do some other things too with this item like dodge Tinker's Heat Seeking Missile or the Ensnare of Naga Siren which can come in handy. Note that this item transfers yourself into the "ethereal" form which means you are immune to physical dps while any sort of magic damage is highly amplyfied as long as you stay in that status, so you either use it wise or don't buy it if you have really heavy nukers in your enemy team like Lina.

Quas-Exort-Invoker

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Why you should play Quas-Exort-Invoker?!

Advantages

- great pushing power
- burst damage and lockdown
- good sustain
- great lasthit damage

Disadvantages

- low movementspeed
- no escape mechanism
- weak teamfight

Skillbuild-Explanation-Justification

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You will take 2 early points in Quas for the usal sustain, you can actually reverse and take Exort first instead of Quas if you feel you need the lasthit damage more early. Nevertheless you will end up with 4 levels in Quas and Exort, as well as 2 levels in Invoke. Thats where your pushing starts to get really strong. You can now take a point in Wex to enable the remaining spells you could Invoke. For pushing purposes I recommend you to go on with Exort. If you feel you need a little more sustain, then just take like 1-2 points in Quas but you should definitely max Exort and Wex before Quas, there is really no point in maxing Quas instead of anything else. You get your ultimate everytime you can for obvious reasons.

Items-Explanation-Justification

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Starting Items

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Tango and Healing Salve, as I recommend you to skill Exort over Quas, you will need the heal in this case but you will do well in lasthits and so somehow even it out or pull your advantage through. Gauntlets of Strength and Circlet are providing great starting stats and can be build really early into Drum of Endurance which you should get instead of any other hero in your team when playing Quas-Exort-Invoker. The charges are really useful in either pushing situations or fleeing situations or chasing situations rendering it very useful at any given time, especially earlygame.("pushingstyle") Iron Branch can be easily build into Magic Wand which is one of the best items in the game for its price, do the math and you gonna see what I mean.(*)

Earlygame

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Boots of Speed, every hero needs them as early as possible, shouldn't require this much of justification. Magic Wand, really awesome item, granting good stats build with the most cost effecient item in the game, the Iron Branch. (*) Bracer, provides good survivability and can be build into Drum of Endurance later on which are crucial for your pushing concerns. Town Portal Scroll is one of the most important items in the game, just pls for the love of god, always carry one! (*)

Core Itembuild

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Arcane Boots are really essential in this kind of build because pushing means high mana cost for your whole team which can be refilled by your Arcane Boots makeing them really useful in pushing situations. Drum of Endurance will greatly help you through the earlygame as well as in pushing scenarios, make sure you don't get more than 3 Drum of Endurance's in your team, 2 might sound crazy but are quite legit even though they doesn't stack.(*)

Extensions

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Force Staff is a really good item positionwise as it grants you to get out or into a certain situation, not only you, keep in mind you can forcestaff your mates as well providing some sort of initiation or escape mechanism. Aghanim's Scepter lowers your ultimates cooldown drastically and removes its manacost as well. Every Invoker should get this item in every game and scenario.(*) Blink Dagger has its up's and down's like almost every item in Dota 2(DotA). You can compare it really good to Force Staff if you want to, guess what: I want to. You get an almost everytime better initiation with Blink Dagger instead of Forcestaff, in better words you have more range and a shorter travel time than with a Force Staff. You however loose the stats from Force Staff as well as the ability to forcestaff mates, feel free to make your choice. Necronomicon one of the best items for pushing purposes, also really useful against heavy Aoe lineups. Dont understimate your little 2 Necro-guys, they got some really nice tricks in their backhands.(*)

Luxury

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Heart of Tarrasque, when you are pushing and you might go for some risks or have to take some harrasment, items that regen you up like Urn of Shadows active ability or Mekansm's really come in handy, a job which Heart of Tarrasque does best, as long as out of combat. Provides the right endurance to procced pushing in many cases. (*) Bloodstone can be really good for pushing, because it provides vision where you died, lowers your cooldown on respawn and heals your allies in a huge Aoe if you actually die. Mana and hp regeneation are really useful too. Scythe of Vyse helps you to shut an enemy hero down for an amount of 3.5 seconds which can help you to secure an escape or to win a teamfight, try to get it if possible after your Core items if you feel an additional disable is actually needed.

Situational

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Black King Bar is a great item against heavy focus from enemy heroes if it is disable or magic damage wise. If you experience getting shut down in fights rendering you quite useless, then BKB is the right choice for you. (*) Assault Cuirass is obviously a great item for pushing but shouldn't get on your itemlist unless you get focussed by enemy hardcarry's, other heroes that are more in the focus of the enemy's hardcarry should get it instead of you. Eul's Scepter of Divinity is really helpful in terms of stats and its active ability which really shouldn't be forgotten. It can save you or disable an enemy hero/unit. You can dodge stuns with it or use it as initiate, really useful item all in all. (*)

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Linken's Sphere helps you to avoid that you get picked off in most situations but is not that safe like for example a Black King Bar which needs to be activated by yourself. So doesn't really help you to avoid pickoffs, you need to decide what is the best in your situation. (*) Pipe of Insight is a wonderful item for pushing, you are not really the right hero to get it on though but if there is no other that benefits from itself better than you, you should definitely get it. Your team benefits so much from it that it's not even funny anymore. Refresher Orb, speaks for itself quite a lot, the one who is able to use this item to it's greatest potential should buy it if you can't simply don't. (*) Shiva's Guard gets really useful if your team gets initiated on. It also lowers the enemy heroes amount of attackspeed in a big Aoe. If you get focused by enemy physical dps get this item as well. Veil of Discord is a good item but only useful to a certain extent. If you have a high magic damage dealing team it might be a good item but usally it would be taken by another hero. Only in really rare situations a good item but worth mentioning it.

Exort-Invoker

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Why you should play Exort-Invoker?!

Advantages

- great teamfight power
- immense burst damage
- great lasthit damage


Disadvantages


- low movementspeed
- no escape mechanism
- really hard to execute

Skillbuild-Explanation-Justification

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The first 3 level's are really opened up for you, you either take Exort, Invoke, Exort or Quas, Invoke, Quas. However you should have around 2 points into Quas and then try to max Exort. In most cases you will go for Exort first to help out on other lanes especially if you face up an enemy trilane with atleast 2 heroes. You max Exort because you want your Sun Strike to do as much damage as possible, later on when you start to leave your lane you should definitely pick up 1 point in Wex to get access to your 2 most important spells, Chaos Meteor and Defeaning Blast. You max Wex after you maxed Exort to improve your spells which were named before. You can if your team requires pushing switch to get 4 points in Quas in total, after that you should definitely max Wex out instead of skilling Quas.

Items-Explanation-Justification

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Starting Items

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Healing items, because you play Exort-Invoker you will highly focus on getting Exort instead of Quas which will cause you missing the regen and therefore require more healing items than a Quas-Wex or Quas-Exort Invoker. You take one set of Tango's and a Healing Salve to be able to heal up enemy harrasment with Tango's and if you lost a high amount of hp you can heal yourself up again with your flask.(= Healing Salve) Iron Branch's are the most cost effecient items in Dota 2(DotA) which makes them perfect to fill missing slots in your start inventory. (*) You will remain with ~250 gold after you bought the listed items. In this case now you should decide freely what you want to buy but I recommend you to save the money for really early Boots of Speed because you are really slow with a standard movementspeed of 280. Exort-Invoker's might need early Boots of Speed to survive a gank in mid because you have no sustain because you are skilling Exort and you just are a really easy target without Boots of Speed, think about it and give it a shot but you can decide yourself what to get with the remaining gold instead of saving it up for Boots of Speed.

Earlygame

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This might look a little bit empty but thats essentially everything you need in the earlygame: Boots of Speed really important to even out your poor movementspeed especially really early on. (*) Magic Wand grants stats and is build out of your start items. Really good item in terms of surviveability and its uses in teamfights where it fills its charges like crazy are really great too. (*) Town Portal Scroll is a really important item for either helping your team defensively or punish enemy heroes which are diving your towers even useful for shifting into a lane to push. Town Portal Scroll has so many uses and should always be carried at any given time by every hero on the map, don't make the mistake to not have any, might cost you a game. (*)

Core Itembuild

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Phase Boots should be your choice in terms of boots. The reason is quite simple and often gets overlooked: You have really low movementspeed and it still low after purchasing Boots of Speed if compared to other heroes with Boots of Speed. Phase Boots help you to even the missing movement speed out due to its active ability. You could also choose to go for Power Treads which are a poor choice in my mind but increase your physical damage output by a lot, a choice of personal playstyle but I don't recommend it though. Force Staff is a really good item to help you to get in position or out of dangerous situations. It has many other uses like helping a mate to initiate or to get him out of trouble. Force Staff is a Core item because it also helps you to navigate in a fight and chase or escape at any given time, Phase Boots are just not enough for an Invoker who is not skilling Wex for a long time.

Extensions

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Blink Dagger might sound crazy now because you should actually have Force Staff at this time but here it comes, you more and more often see really good Invoker players useing both for abolutely overwhelming positioning purposes. You can for example blink in Ice Wall and forcestaff yourself out again and things like that. It also makes you really hard to catch and grants you a really long range initiate if you think about it. Hard to use but I highly recommend you to try it out. (*) Black King Bar is adapt in situations where you experience to be useless due to some certain disable flying on your head every time. Bring an end to this by purchasing BKB because it's really important that you get your spells off. (*) Aghanim's Scepter renders Invoker just simply so much more powerful. A must have item in every game when playing Invoker. (*) Eul's Scepter of Divinity is a really useful choice for a variety of reasons, it basically helps you in any kind of situation and is really common among Invoker players. Scythe of Vyse is one of the best items in lategame because of its strength to disable an enemy for 3.5 seconds but it is even more fearsome if gotten really early and not that late means it's a really viable choice but don't prolong your Aghanim's Scepter too long for this.

Luxury

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Heart of Tarrasque makes you an ultimate tank but you should only buy it if that is what you really truly need. (*) Bloodstone is somehow similar to Heart of Tarrasque but a little weaker in terms of tanking ability and better in terms of mana regeneration and this 2 or 3 special things it got in its arsenal. (*) Shiva's Guard is incredibly good against a team that trys to push you or to initiate you. Keep in mind that this item gives flying vision in the area where you use it that might come in handy to juke your enemies or to forsee their jukes. (*)

Situational

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Linken's Sphere is really good at stoping you to get initiated on. It will help you to move freely in fights but there will be some certain items which are probably better so you need to consider yourself what item might be best in certain situations. (*) Ghost Scepter is an incredibly good item if you experience getting killed by physical damage. It protects you for an incredible amount of 5 seconds from any physical damage but amplifies magical damage though. Use it wisely. (*) Refresher Orb, you might already thought about that item I guess, well it can be incredibly good if you have the time to drop all your spells which requires a huge presence of mind to know what you actually did and can do again. I only recommend this for players that actually played Invoker often enough and are brave enough to try this out. (*)

Know your role

What is it really what you actually do you might ask, this section will help you to understand your task in the game throughout the game.

The most important thing for you to understand is that you are by no means a what is mostly considered "ganker". You are either a "pusher", "initiator" , "counterinitiater" or in general a "teamfighter"kind of hero. You are not supposed to solo gank with runes or just solo gank at all. You can support ganks with Sun Strike when you are Exort-Invoker. You are at first supposed to stay in your lane, win your lane and the most important thing: Don't die!

You are supposed to get levels because you get freaking powerful with levels. Means stay in your lane, lasthit, get experience and try to make it as hard as you can for your opponent in lane. If you see a chance capture it and go for the kill. There are some certain counters against you but you can however do what you need to do in most cases.

Ganking however as a Quas-Wex-Invoker might be appreciated in pub games but is actually not your task. As soon as you have got some levels and the first teamfights or towerpushes occur you do what you do best. You cause absolutely havoc in the fights. Avoid getting picked off and counterinitiate. When you counterinitiate, whatever you skilled, try to always hit as much enemy heroes as possible with your spells.

You need to be aware that you are really hitting either fast or hard depending on your skillbuild, so don't just run away after you got your spells off unless you expect getting focused.

Laneing

Invoker's Laneing position matters really much. Here I am going to explain how to lane Invoker and how to play in the lane itself. I will go a bit into strategy here, I really tried to make things as easy and clear as possible, so even newer players understand what I am talking about.

Invoker requires levels that is why he is either laned in the so called "safe lane" aka the "short lane" or in mid.Short lane for Radiant is bottom, short lane for Dire is top, short lanes always meet the enemy "hard lane" also called "suicide lane" if you are facing up against 2 or more enemy heroes.

Invoker will most commonly go mid, where he is able to level and farm quite well. You can however improve his farm and really secure his levels if you lane him in the safe lane. If you fear of getting countered to much in mid because for example the enemy got a Queen of Pain then you can safe lane Invoker and send another quite good solo hero to mid.

In your own safelane you will most commonly stand against 1 hero besides from pub games where you will face a common dual lane as long as the enemy got no jungle hero. I don't recommend you to play Invoker at a sidelane, even the safe lane. Your team's carry will in most cases get this lane because he can farm freely and provides much more then an Invoker in the lategame with equal farm.

In a 2v2 setup you are not guaranteed to win the lane with Invoker that's why you shouldn't lane there if you expect an enemy dual lane there then just went mid instead and try your best. But if you face up against 1 hero, you will if played correctly farm freely and uncontested. Your support has to make sure that the enemy hero in lane is unable to get close to the creepwave. If you got lvl 2 means you got your first spell either Cold Snap or Sun Strike. You need to be more agressive yourself and try to combo up with your support to achieve kills if your enemy dares to come close to the creeps.

Your most important task while laneing is to control the creepwave or the so called "Lane Equilibrium" while your support is keeping the enemy solo hero off the lane. Controlling the Lane Equilibrium means to keep the creepwave at the same spot all of the time. You achieve that by only doing the lasthit on creeps and by denying your own creeps from time to time. I hope this video helps you to understand what I am talking about and shows you how you can achieve that. Play Video
If you however ****ed up your Lane Equilibrium you need your support to pull a double stacked camp to kill your creep wave and help to restore the previous situation, the problem in this case is that the enemy solo hero is able to come close to the creeps means you have to play much more aggressive at this time to keep that hero out of experience range(around 1000). The enemy hero might be able to get some exp and levels which shouldn't have happend but does happen sometimes.

If you execute this nearly perfectly you can force the enemy solo hero to remain lvl 1 all of the time, requires lasthit knowledge and coordination with your support, a question of training.

Invoker Combo's - How to execute

The number and variety of spells that Invoker got in his arsenal allows him to combo up every spell with another one, means you can actually chain spells until your first used spells are of cooldown again, theoretically. Quite easily done with help of an Aghanim's Scepter.

I might add that these videos are here to give you an impression of what I am talking about and to make the guide a little more visually attractive, the quality somehow decreased for no apparent reason but should be solid all in all. Pls leave any sort of feedback on this if you wish this for future guides or you think it's pointless.

1. Tornado + EMP + Cold Snap

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The standard combo you need to use with a Quas-Wex build, quite easy to execute though even if the timing differs on your levels of Quas and Wex. Play Video

2. Tornado + Chaos Meteor + Deafining Blast

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Really useful and great damage output but only useable quite late because you miss the range on Tornado in the early stage of the game rendering this combo rather useless till the later game. Play Video

3. Tornado + Sun Strike

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May secure you a kill on really long range, also useable quite late to either the lack of damage by Exort or the range of Tornado by Wex. Play Video

4. Forge Spirit + Cold Snap

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Standard combo when playing Quas-Exort build and quite effective as it stunlocks an enemy hero for quite a long time. Play Video

5. Alacrity + Cold Snap

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Alacrity may not be used on yourself but your maincarry while you Cold Snap his target so that he can get his damage out, especially useful for melee hardcarry's. Play Video

6. Tornado + Ice Wall + EMP

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If other spells are on cooldown or you want to cut the fleeing path of enemy heroes off, this is a really good combo to do so. Play Video

7. Defeaning Blast + Sun Strike

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Used quite rare but might come in handy in some situations but anyway highly dependant on your timing, hard to execute in ingame situations. Play Video

Useing Eul's Scepter of Divinity as initiate

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8. Eul + Ice Wall + Cold Snap

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Useful if you are chasing someone and want to make sure he is unable to escape. Even if you are unable to hit the target after your combo got off, your target will still get stunlocked by the damage of Ice Wall Play Video

9. Eul + Chaos Meteor + Sun Strike + Deafening Blast

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If your Tornado is already on cooldown and you want to set your combo up perfectly, initiating with Eul's is really strong. Really hard to execute even with the help of Eul's but still possible with some practice, deals tons of damage. Play Video

10. Eul + EMP + Defeaning Blast

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If you need to hold a single or multiple targets in the Aoe of EMP why dont use Deafening Blast instead of Tornado as you might need the Tornado later on. Play Video

11. Eul + Ghost Walk (Eul yourself up and immediately go into Ghost Walk)

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If you are surrounded by enemies this is a really good trick to get out of certain situations. Won't work as long as your enemies carry Dust of Appearance, Sentry Ward's or a Gem of True Sight but can rescue your life. Play Video

12. Eul Stundodge

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Eul's can also easily help you to dodge a stun to rescue your life or stop an enemy initiation. Enableing you to counterinitiate. Play Video

13. Ghostwalk Stundodge

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It's important to be able to escape ganks or survive certain engagements, which can be done useing Ghostwalk, taking that to the next level means that you dodge incoming stuns from ganks or engagements. Play Video

To give you an impression of what Invoker is capable of

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Just to show you why Aghanim's Scepter is such a great item on Invoker and what an Invoker is able to do if executeing nearly perfectly. Please note that this scene was scripted and didn't happen in a real MM game and that its purpose only is to give you an impression of what Invoker is capable of. Play Video

What counters me

It's really hard to shut Invoker down but of course it's possible. Every hero in Dota 2(DotA) has his counterparts. Before we get there I need to mention that Invoker is easily shutdown by some certain or in general dual lanes in mid.

Don't get me wrong, you might argue that every hero is easily getting shutdown by a dual lane but thats just simply wrong. Your enemy in mid needs to kill you to win the lane, its not enough for them to just harass you because mid is a really short lane therefore you are always able to get experience. That isn't the case in other lanes which are much longer. You need more time to run back and heal up and you are probably unable to get in experience range because you are too far away from your tower which secures you. There are 2 so called "choke's"(commonly more known as "ramps")which provide view for you but not for your enemy if he stands lower than you.

The point is if the hero in mid is not getting killed he is somehow "winning" the lane instead of totally losing it. Invoker can't escape if he get's catched because he has no escape mechanism's at early levels. Other heroes might have one and survive this way instead of dying.

Heroes that do well against Invoker are listed beneath with an explanation why this is the case.

Solo mid opponents

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1. Queen of Pain

- She does well against Invoker because of several things. She has a good attackanimation and decent base damage as well. She has one of the best harrassing spells in the game called Shadow Strike, it is a DoT spell, (200 magic damage in total at lvl 1!!) slowing you for about 15 seconds and preventing you from useing things like Healing Salve's or Clarity potions because they would get interrupted. How are you supposed to deal with this? Regen up with Quas is your only choice. She will always be able to get runes if she wants to because of her Blink ability. She can easily push your lane with Scream of Pain forcing you to defend your tower instead of trying to contest the runes. At level 6 she is able to burst you down really fast given she has the mana to do so which she normally does because she gets all runes. Combine her killing potential with the possibility of a rune like dd or invis and you know you are screwed!

2. Templar Assassin

- Even though she is really low ranged at early levels she is so adapt in avoiding any damage with Refraction that you can't really bring her down or harass her. You are unable to deny any lasthits to a good Templar Assasin player because Refraction also grants her so much damage while getting protected for the cost of 75 Mana. She is able to spam it and lasthit quite freely unless shes making mistakes. Superior lasthitdamage also means you are facing yourself getting denied much gold and experience. As she reaches lvl 4 or 5 she can actually harass you really well and start pushing you to get control over the runes which supplies her with endless mana meaning endless Refraction, meaning endless pain for you!

3. Bane

- He has great base damage, a good attack animation. He is quite tanky and can deal pure damage with Brain Sap which also heals himself. Nightmare helps him to shut you down if he wants to get the runes. At lvl 6 or even level 7 he is really dangerous and able to kill you really easy if you dare to show yourself without full hp. You are unable to get him off the lane at any given time rendering him a really tough opponent.

4. Storm Spirit

- Static Remenant negating the missing uphill view since its providing flying vision in a small Aoe. He can easily push the lane and lasthit with Static Remnant to get the runes which supplies him with mana and hp makeing it very hard for you to kill him in a 1v1 scenario. Getting even harder if he reaches lvl 6. Coupled with the right rune he is actually able to kill Invoker quite easy.

5. Silencer

- Pretty much all his spells are a pain in the arse for you. He can crush you in lane and render you pretty much useless whtout any mana left. However keep in mind that Silencer's Ultimate Global Silence affects you bigtime and makes it impossible for you to cast a spell in the next few seconds which is crucial of course. You can only prevent this from happening when you activate Black King Bar after Global Silence is activated to break the silence but notice that if you are already BKB'ed Global Silence will still be able to silence you for the certain amount of time.

Only to name some certain heroes, there are for sure many more.

Dual lane opponents

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Note that you will never be able to get runes against 2 heroes. One hero will always stay in the lane pressureing you and push the lane while the other one gets the rune.

1. Shadow Demon & Kunkka

- Disruption is more than enough to set up Torrent turning this lane into a really fearsome one. If both heroes reached lvl 2 they will if they execute correctly easily kill you over and over again everytime you even think about getting close to the creeps.

2. Shadow Demon & Leshrac

- Disruption, Soul Catcher into Split Earth, Diabolic Edict on lvl 2 will make you understand what completley chanceless means.

3. Chaos Knight & Ancient Apparition

- Insane combination: Usally you are getting pulled back by Reality Rift and immediately stunned by Chaos Bolt while getting Cold Feet. If the Chaos Knight gets a 2 second stun off, you can only pray and hope to survive. If he gets anythig above 2 seconds of stun, you may use the time you getting ****ed + the time you need to respawn to get yourself something to drink or went to the toilet.

4. Anti-Mage & Crystal Maiden

- Guess what, they will kill you! The magical lvl 2 applys here as well. If Crystal Maiden catches you with her high range Aoe Slow Crystal Nova she will be able to close the gap between her and you to get her Frostbite off. Antimage simply Blink's in right after the slow hits and starts hitting and hurting you like crazy with the extra hitdamage provided by Mana Break.

There are much more lanes which can **** up Invoker, I am just leaving some often used or most common one's here.

Invoker's friends

Invoker has many options to use his spells, so there are endless many combination you are able to do, I will list a few of them here to give you a general understanding of how other heroes can make Invoker even more fearsome.


1. Venomancer - representative for all heroes which have incredibly good DoT spells, a Cold Snap'ed target, suffering from Venomous Gale and Poison Sting will trigger every instance of Cold Snap as soon as possible rendering the enemy hero to be unable to cast any abilities which require time to cast while being incredibly slowed, paired up with just a few hits of Invoker and Venomancer as well making this combo incredibly strong against most heroes.


2. Vengeful Spirit - representative for all heroes which stun lasts long enough to set up a perfect undodgeable Sun Strike, granting fearsome nuke power. Obviously requiring good coordination but still one of the most common combinations.


3. Shadow Demon - special mention, absolutely devastating combination which doesn't even need a stun to be absolutely lethal. Schadow Demon simply uses Disruption on any enemy hero and combines it with Soul Catcher which is able to hit the target while disrupted. Invoker needs to time his Sun Strike very well since it needs to hit as soon as the enemy hero gets out of the Disruption. Since Sun Strike deals pure damage the amplification damage due to Soul Catcher hurts as hell if the target survives Shadow Demon may be able to rightclick it down with the help of his illusions.


4. Dark Seer - special mention, pulling enemy heroes into Invoker's spells like Chaos Meteor, EMP or Ice Wall with help of Vacuum makes it so much easier for Invoker to hit his spells perfectly.


5. Enigma - special mention, hitting a Black Hole means you are able to hit Chaos Meteor, EMP, Ice Wall and Deafening Blast/ Tornado as soon as the Black Hole runs out, be really careful useing Tornado or Deafening Blast! You are able to push enemy heroes out of the Black Hole and heroes spinning in the air aren't targetable for some time so don't use these while Black Hole is running.


6. Disruptor - special mention, cageing and gathering some heroes up with Kinetic Field makes them really vulnerable to all of Invoker's Aoe spells.


7. Anti-Mage - representative for all hard carry's out there, they greatly benefit from Alacrity dealing sick damage with a ridiculous amount of attackspeed, helping every carry to deal even more damage in teamfights.

Summary

We reached the end of this guide and it's kinda time to get some last words out, finally!

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At first

I want to thank all the people that read the guide till the end and didn't jump over all the parts in the wrong order and so kinda messing up my work. I know and understand that it's really hard to fight himself through so much text for some people thats why I tried to make it as visually attractive as possible and I hope I did a good job so far.

This guide took really much time as you probably assumed but like it's always: There is nothing perfect anywhere! If you found any mistakes regarding my language or just simple writing errors I highly ask you to send me a PM to get those sorted out, pls don't use the comments for this as it is more a place of disscussions and suggestions, thanks in advance!

If you also have any suggestions feel free to tell me I am not going to ignore you and I always try to answer all questions in the comments if you have any which I sure hope you do. I am always trying to explain things on a quite high level but also getting newer players a little more into dota, do you think that I should change that somehow? How and why do you think so?

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You might already know me if you checked out my guide on Windrunner before. In case you don't and wanna check this one out: iN7.Ganker's Guide to Windrunner.
This might not be the best place to do so but I want to thank the whole community who made my Windrunner guide the best rated guide on dotafire. Thank you!

I am also taking suggestions on new hero guides seriously on my blog, you may want to leave a suggestion or some nice words as you please.

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All in all

I hope I could give all of you a pretty good impression of the playstyles and ways of Invoker as well as some insight into different sorts of basic strategy. I think I covered the most important aspects and explained my points well if you don't think so, tell me where and why in the comments. I will always try to improve and you as the community are in need to help me with that, aren't you?! ;)

- iN7.Ganker (aka |-|e4.-t8.-0|<e|\|)

Recent changes and their influence

Recently Invoker received a nerf from the 6.75 DotA Patch which will be applied to the Dota 2 beta version soon.

Nothing really important was changed but in my opinion it's worth to notice:

- Invoker's base damage decreased by 4

Which basically means that his lane presence with Quas-Wex Invoker decreases quite a bit because it will be much harder for you to lasthit/deny properly in lane which leads to more pressure by your enemy due to his gold/exp advantage.

Nothing else got changed so far. Now it's time for you to decide what that actually means for your Invoker playstyle/skillorder. You could for example take a point in Exort early on Quas-Wex Invoker to even out your missing base damage.

Exort-Invoker and Quas-Exort Invoker's will receive a sligthly higher popularity and Quas-Wex build's will start to fade away in my opinion because Exort Invoker's really don't care to much about 4 missing base damage at all.

We will see where the trend goes.

Changes in 6.78

- Alacrity manacost decreased from 100 to 75
- Ghost Walk slow increased from 20/23/26/30/33/36/40 to 20/25/30/35/40/45/50
- Ghost Walk cooldown decreased from 60 to 35
- Tornado damage rescaled from 70+(Wex+Quas)*20 to 70+(2*Wex+Quas)*15

Alacrity - Alacrity now might be helpful again in certain 1on1 situations on sidelanes instead of mid given the fact that you are safelaneing for farming up.

The insane damage boost for an Exort/Exort - Quas Invoker will be really helpful
to dominate your laneing enemy since you right click damage is ridiciulous.

Ghost Walk - The slow change is not going to change anything since it's only very
rarely used to slow someone while keeping yourself in danger to slow someone.

The cooldown changes a lot actually since you are able to get out of dangerous
situations way more often.

Tornado - The damage increase is quite noticeable on even very early levels since
the damage on level 1 Wex and quas is already even better by 5 damage. The lategame
damages differs by 35. It is not really that great of a change but nevertheless
improves the tornado damage.

Afterword

Hey guys and girls!

Thanks for reading this guide and leaving a comment, praise or criticism. If you have any suggestions pls let me know in the comments.

I want to use the following lines to express my thankfulness to you readers. I am really proud to say this guide nearly achieved 250.000 views with a very nice >90 % rating.

Thanks to you people out there I am gonna follow those guides up with new ones whenever I have time to write somethings down. It's really nice to have dozens hours of work result in so many views, nice comments and positive feedback via the rating.

Thank you!

If you want to support me or just be up to date when a new guide gets released and/or visualized make sure to subscribe to my youtube channel where I keep you updated on what I am doing.

I am planning lots of things recently and am sure that I can bring you awesome content in the future.

Thanks again and have a nice day, I sure had a couple because of you guys.

Guild Announcement

Hello guys!

I have thought about this for a while now and decided to open a guild. All of you are obviuosly allowed to join if you want to get in contact with me or other
fellow guide readers or subscribers of my youtube channel.

I think this is a good opportunity for me to give something back for all of the support I got. We'll be able to occasionally play inhouse games, fun and serious ones alike as you like. You can bring your friends as well if you want to. To be able to join the guild you will have to join the "iN7.Ganker" chat channel in the dota 2-client.

The purpose of this channel is "invite only" and I will likely not answer questions there, thats what the actual guild channel is created for. Just make sure I read that you want to be invited and things will be on their way. I will try to check the chat the whole time as the day goes by, make sure I am in the channel or you aren't talking to me. Don't be afraid to make suggestions.

Since I am very new to the guild system and still exploreing it myself I might act like a ****** in some ways. Keep in mind that I am a german dude and that I most likely won't be online from 1:00 am CEST to 10 am CEST. Hopefully gonna see you soon in the guild.

Thanks for all your support and help!

Changelog

0.0.0 - Guide started - 18.08.2012

1.0.0 - Guide published - 12.09.2012

1.0.1 - Section - "Recent changes and their influence" added - 04.10.2012

1.0.2 - Fixed a minor change up in the Exort - Invoker skillsequence

1.0.3 - Added Silencer to the "What counters me"-section - 01.02.2013

1.0.4 - Added 2 videos on the "Invoker Combo's - How to execute" section - 16.04.2013

1.0.5 - Added the Afterword section - 10.05.2013

1.0.6 - Added "Changes in 6.78" to the "Recent changes and their influence" - section - 04.06.2013

1.0.7 - Added the Guild Announcement section - 15.07.2013