Invoker the Archmage

Invoker the archmage itroduction

First thing i want to tell is that i´m not from any English speaking country so my English will be sometimes quite bad.

Next thing is that i´m no pro player and this is just how i see is good to play Invoker.

And this is my first guide on Dotafire yet.

Than please.... never use build or any guide like this: "this is what i should buy, so i will buy it in every single game no mater who my opponents are" please never do that.

That´s all for beginning of this guide so thank you and i hope u will enjoy reading it.

Lets get started (overall)

Invoker is certainly the most complex hero in DotA or DotA 2.
He can counter almost any other hero, so keep that in mind.

If you are new to Invoker, you will find him very powerful but you will be unable to control him well.
Try some plays against AI. and look at his spells because it is important to know, what abilities he has.

Skill system

Invoker is very unique about abilities.





He has 3 orbs ( Quas, Wex and Exort) and his "ultimate"
each of his orbs can be leveled up to 7 times. And his ultimate has 4 levels (starting at level 2)

Orbs.
Invoker does not have any bonus stats so he has orbs instead of it.
By "using" an orb he will put an instance of that orb on himself.
He can have maximum 3 instances of any orb activated at the time.
for example he can have three Exort orbs which will provide him (at max level) 63 bonus damage or he can have activated one Wex one Quas and one Exort.
this orbs are combined with his ultimate Invoke to make one of 10 spells (one for each combination)
Quas - this is something like life instance.
In spells it will mostly add Slow and Stun.
By upgrading Quas you gain 2 Strength.
Each instance gives 1HP. regeneration per sec. per level.
Wex - the storm or wind instance.
in spells it will mostly provide better range.
By upgrading wex you gain 2 agility.
Each instance gives 2% attack speed and 1% movement speed per level.
Exort - Fire instance.
In spells add damage.
By upgrading Exort you gain 2 inteligence.
Each instance gives 3 damage per level.

With his ultimate Invoker can make up to 10 different spells.
which are


Cold Snap - QQQ
Ghost Walk - QQW
Tornado - QWW
EMP - WWW
Alacrity - WWE
Chaos Meteor - WEE
Sun Strike - EEE
Forge Spirit - EEQ
Ice Wall - EQQ
Deafening Blast - QWE

!!! What you need to decide !!!

Invoker is very powerful, yes, but you cant play all roles form the beginning.
You need to decide which way you want to play him.

There are three main ways how to play Invoker.
someone play him as Wex - thats the balanced build, deffensive one
someone want summons so he choose Quas/ Exort build (allso nicely balanced) but more offensively oriented
and someone just want damage and nothing more so he builds Exort build - with this you become real carry.

First build (wex) is mostly the life saver, iniciator and in late carry.
Second is mostly pusher build. but dont be fooled... spirits do huge damage to heroes too.
the Exort build is carry and its also one of the hardest ways to play Invoker.

with each build you will build different orbs and if you will take all of them you will be useless... you will have 10 bad spells (yes i do it in my 4th build but there you must be great player first)

For beginners i recommend using first build (wex one). if u don´t like it try Qu***/Exort build.
and if you feel like skilled with Invoker try the "hardest" way Exort build.

But always look at your team and opponent team and try to fit in your team or counter your enemies.

Pros / Cons

Wex

+

Easy to play
Fun to play
Good at saving or killing people
cold snap can give your team nice free kill
great harrasing abilities
if you find yourself harrased you can just level up your qu***

-

low auto attack damage at early levels
hard last hitting (until you have Phase Boots)
mana expensive spells

Exort

+

Sunstrike
great harraser
Dat meteor!!!!

-

hard to play
requires great aim
easy to kill
not good CC (crowd control)

Quas/Exort

+

those forge spirits have 900 (may be more im not sure now) range at max level (WTF?!)
you will melt your opponent´s armor
great pusher

-

not very easy to play
if you kill forge spirit you gain gold
low mobility
easily killed


the "easily killed" is, when you buy dust...

Items overall

Here i will explain some items i decided to put in every build.

Every time you buy any item you should ask yourself a question... "do i need this item?", "what will it give me?", "does it somehow stack with my abilities?", "does it cover my weaknesses?", "can i build it at all? (will i be able to get enough gold before it is too late?)".
What i am trying to say is that you should have a purpose to buy any item.


For example
As you can see in every build are Phase Boots. thats because it will provide more mobility than boots of travel and it also gives you 24 damage which is awesome to last hitting. And since invoker have low base damage, it will allow me to kill enemies easily. Next thing is, that it provides is great chasing or escaping tool. it cover my weakness "low base movement speed and damage"

About builds

Wex

Here i try to cover my weakness "low base damage" and i also try to be a bit of carry
Since Wex gives me enough attack speed i don´t need to build it, so i focus on damage.

Exort

Here i try to cover my weakness "low HP" (null talisman and bracer) since i get damage from orbs and spells. and than i buy Hyperstone, because my attack speed is too low to be a carry.(in late game when you have desolator it is more profitable to use wex over exort in fights)

Quas/ Exort

here everything is going to stack with forge spirits and i try to enhance my AS.
i already deal enough damage thanks to negative armor of my opponent.

The last build has no real "weakness" he is strong in each way... but he does not even excel (unless you are awesome) and in this build i build it as a support (till 15 to 20 min mark) and than carry or i keep on supporting depends on situation...

Wex - how to play

This is the easiest way to play invoker.

Till lvl 6

you start with one Quas instance and than on lvl. 2 take Invoke.
This mean, that on lvl. 2 you have cold snap which is great for early game harras.

the skill sequence from lvl. 2 quite depends on hero and player you are against.
if it is someone like Bane you will probably want more HP. so you will take Quas on lvl. 3...

but sometimes there will be someone like Doom Bringer. Against him you will want to play more agresive, since there is no real way for him to kill u. so you take more Wex.

Generally you will be maxing your Wex first. that allows you to be really agresive with cold snap.
you rotation will be something like - cold snap-Auto attack-Auto attack-Auto attack-Auto attack. than you will go back because he decided to go to his tower.
and if he stays at line just put another cold snap on him, fire few auto attacks and take him down with tornado.



as the game progress you will gain lvl 7

from lvl 7

you should start ganging because you already can have 2 spells invoked at a time.
at first fire tornado and get in position.
as your target tries to escape cast cold snap on him and kill him with help of your allyes.

next what you can do (and its really nice) you can cast your EMP and since everyone will try to escape from it you just trap them in it with your tornado (as they fall down from the sky they will surely get that EMP mana burn)

if you are going to be killed (or your teammate) just cast ghost walk and slow your enemies down, or just slip from sight. your opponents will run mad because of it...

lvl 8...

don´t forget to cast your alacrity (thats why you have that one Exort point) it will add really great attack speed. (you will not need more damage since you have Crystalys or maelstorm or desolator or something alike)

you can now cast Defening blast- it will stun enemies in a huge area and they will allso be disarmed. Really don´t forget it! it can change progress of whole team fight! this spell allso makes wex invoker a counter to allmost all carryes..


on higher level you will want to deal as much damage as possible.

so there is one nice thing... just throw tornado right on it chaos meteor and right as it lends fire Defening blast - the effect? enemies will be pushed in the way of meteor and they will be unable to do any dodging... really nice.

when you have your Scapter you will want to have really fast fingers. that is the point where real fun begins.


as soon as you get deadalus or maelsorm use alacrity and play on autoattacks...

just try your spells and use them to kill you opponents.

Wex - Items

Need to be reworked....

Situational items.

if you are fead but enemy focuses you, your ghost wallk will not be enough so get Shadow Blade

if one or two enemies are fead and the rest isnt buy sheep stick.

if you have really really fast fingers you can try your luck with refresher orb. (but thats uncontrollable)...

Linken's Sphere . this you should buy when you are focused by stuns and slows...

Assault Cuirass will add you much damage. and will also grant bonus AS to your allyes
and negative armor aura is great (use it with your forge spirits)

BKB. if you are against heavy caster team... try to build it as soon as possible.

Boots of Travel... free TP.

Daedalus - best way to increase damage

Heart of Tarrasque - nothing gives more survability

Bloodstone - great if you are getting kills it will give you a lot of mana and HP regen...

Desolator - may be you dont like Assault Cuirass... than this is great instead of it

Radiance - this makes ghost walk an offensive spell.

Exort - how to play

Wex Exort.... now that hard part begins.

you will want cold snap still on lvl 2 because it is too great to be ignored.
on lvl 3 take first point to Exort - it will add you nice damage and it will make last-hitting much easier.

In fact, to play Exort invoker properly you need a lot of last hits because carry needs farming and gold.
if you cant get last hits (there can be different reasons for this, such as you are useless player or there is triline against you solo...) you shouldnt build Exort invoker at all...

now... always look at other fronts if there isnt any fleeing opponent. if there is, invoke sun strike and kill him.
on lvl 7 you should start ganking.
ideal gank should look like this
you come
lend chaos meteor on 2 opponents next to each other.
they will try to escape, but they will run in trajectory of the meteor (in the second case they will decide to kill you) the meteor will damage them nicely, so you cast cold snap and kill first. than you invoke sun strike and kill that second.
if they will not try to escape, cast cold snap and kill one.
than switch your focus on that other guy... if you dont kill him, finish him with sun strike.
and if he is feed or something like this... just ghost walk and go away.


so in this build you !!have to!! have a good aim. good prediction skills and good map awareness.

that is why it is so hard.
but lets get to the mid/late game

in mid game you will be maxing first Exort and than Wex. so your most powerful spells will be - Chaos meteor, Sun strike, Alacrity and EMP. so use them. and dont forget Cold snap
at lvl about 15 you wil begin to use other spells, mostly - Defening blast and torndao.
Of course you have ghost walk so at any time you can get away from any team fight or gank safely...

late game damaging combo should be - Meteor, right as it lends Defening blast, and EMP right on it. if anyone flees, use tornado and/or sun strike to kill him.

Exort - Items

Reworking... got new ideas and changed builds

Quas/Exort - how to play

coming soon!!!

Quas/Exort - items

coming soon!!!

Late game

in late game you should have scapter so you should spam your abilities in interval of 2 seconds and because of your casting animation is 0 you can still use autoattacks...





I will add more later... i have a lot work to do

Last words

this guide is not complete yet but i´m working on it.
I hope you enjoyed reading it.
if you have any ideas how to improve it please leave a comment below.

Once again i´m sorry for any mistake in language.

and please if you rate this guide negatively please give a reason... together we can improve it to perfection...