Jakiro - the true Altruist and the best Companion (6.82)

Introduction

Hello, I am Krwiozerca and this is the guide for the sometimes unappreciated Jakiro, the Twin Head Dragon! Here is the link to my DotaBUFF account, so that you can judge my play!

I consider him the best lane support in game. He is in possesion of the wonderful, horrifying in the eyes of his enemies skill - Ice Path. This skill defines him - it is his special, signature move. Jakiro is able to change the proceeding of any battle with his blessed powers of Ice and Fire. Heroes frozen solid can be heated to the edge with his famous and feared Macropyre.

NOTE: In my hero comparisions to Jakiro I will almost always use only other supports and semi-supports. DO NOT take skill and item builds as a 100% working thing. This is just to give you the general concept of the hero. I would like to give you the understanding of that hero, not a ready recipe to be a succesfull Jakiro in every single game. It is your job to use the information I will provide you with to take the tips and do your best.

This guide is to anyone, who would like to meet Jakiro. If you are afraid of his powers do not be afraid, he is very easy to play. This Dragon is a real Beast, a MONSTER on the Battlefield.

---

Skill choice justification

Build 1: Lane support
I've decided I should level Liquid Fire on the start, because of the early harassment possiblity. Sometimes heroes like Slardar are waiting for some more gold to buy a Stout Shield in a Side shop, and that's the perfect opportunity to deal as much damage as you can. However, if you have low health supports on the opposite lane like Rubick you can harass them badly without spending a single mana point. There are some situations when I would level Ice Path or Dual Breath first. This could be an agressive tri-lane where we are looking for kills ASAP. Most of my games I am waiting some time until the situation is clear to judge what I will need. A nice slow, brief stun or harassment tool.
In this build I am spending one point on Dual Breath and leave it like that for quite a long time. This skill is for slow, which is available at full power from the first level. Stun duration increases in the Ice Path and damage increases in Liquid Fire. This is also mana-saving choice.

---

Build 2: Pusher
Again, Liquid Fire first, but this is purely pushing oriented. Then, on level 2 I am levelling Ice Path just in case if my lane partner or myself will find some trouble. This is the backup option. On level 3 I am adding a point into Dual Breath and from this time levelling Liquid Fire and Dual Breath, leaving Ice Path on first level. Macropyre can be levelled earlier or even later (such as levelling first level of Macropyre on level 10, and then second point in that skill on level 11). This honestly cannot be predicted.

Item choice justification - Build 1: Lane support

Build 1: Lane support

STARTING ITEMS

First thing I do is buying Animal Courier and Observer Ward. I do not wait until someone else will do that for me. My team is expecting me to do it and this is my job - your job as Jakiro. Tango and Healing Salve to regen. Tango is useful when I have rather harassing enemies, Healing Salve when I have heroes like Ogre Magi with high damage early nuke. Sometimes I do buy Clarity when I have Phantom Assassin with me on lane to let her last-hit with Stifling Dagger and regenerate mana points on my cost. Iron Branch is my priority over Clarity because I do not need that much mana points for Ice Path, since this skill costs 90 mana on all levels, and I am mostly using Liquid Fire without mana cost.

---

EARLY GAME

During the early game, I am trying my best to purchase Flying Courier exactly on 3:00 minute mark. Then I can decide what do I need the most. When I find myself weak because of enemy auto-attack harassment, I am going for Chainmail from the Side Shop, which I will build later into Buckler with my Iron Branch. +5 armor can do miracles, trust me. Sometimes I feel like I need some more regen, then I am buying Ring of Regen (also from Side Shop), that I can build into Headdress. After that, before I will get money for recipe to build Mekansm I have to buy Boots of Speed at some point. Sometimes it's even before Headdress or Buckler. Maybe I will need some extra movement speed for early kills? It really depends on heroes I have in my team and heroes I am fighting against. Magic Stick is a must when facing Bristleback, Phantom Assassin, Clockwerk, Venomancer, Treant Protector, Dark Seer, Shadow Demon or Zeus ( Magic Stick and Magic Wand are stacking charges when the enemy team is using abilites in radius of 1200, when you can see them. Each charge grants 15 health and 15 mana points. It can be stacked up to 10, or 15 charges respectively. Note: charges are not counted, when enemy heroes are using orb effect skills, like: Poison Attack, Glaives of Wisdom, Arcane Orb, Impetus, Frost Arrows. Also, you will not collect charges, when there will be passive skill activated in that radius. Toggle abilites like Rot, Pulse Nova, Voodoo Restoration, Whirling Axes (Ranged), Morph Agility Gain, Split Shot, Mana Shield will not be stacked as well). Meanwhile, I have to find gold for Sentry Ward's to do some counterwarding or get a source of detection to reveal that nasty Bounty Hunter, Broodmother, Weaver or Clinkz.

---

CORE/MID GAME


- is a must pick, since Jakiro most of the time will be the hard support, and also because he is pushing-oriented, so Mekansm aura will work on lane creeps and Jakiro himself. It passively grants all nearby friendly units with 4HP/sec in radius of 750. Active part of Meka heals for 250 HP and gives +2 armor for all friendly units for 25 seconds in radius of 750. Heal is instant, disposable per activation, but the +2 armor buff lasts for 25 seconds.


- is a core pick as for many intelligence supports. Even though he has pretty decent base intelligence and intelligence growth per level, he does need raw mana points + 100 mana points every 55 seconds. Note that Arcane Boots gives +135 mana points, but you have to sacrifice 35 mana to actually use that item. It is not only mana for you, but also your teammates. Remember to tell, that you are about to use Arcane Boots so that they will gather around you. Also, when you know that your team will have teamfight soon, make sure that your Arcane Boots are not on cooldown. When your teammates will use their skills, they might be a bit low on mana, so using Arcane Boots in the middle of the fight can do miracles for your team (especially early/mid game).

---

LATE GAME

- Your so much needed escape tool. This item is so useful, that it should cost way, way more! This is not only short teleport kind of item. It gives you the rare, telekinetic power. Most common usage of Force Staff is to push the caster out of danger. You can pass unpassable terrain with it. Simply stand on the ground where there is a cliff or a downslope, and use it. Remember, that you musn't lead your hero where you want to land. He will walk around to that place in regular way, instead of going to the edge. You have to click on the ground where the unpassable terrain is about to start. Second usage is to push the enemy towards your team. You can push your ally or yourself to chase down fleeing enemy... You can even push someone out of their fountain so that you will get that kill (douchebag move). What Jakiro can do with Force Staff is something quite uncommon. He uses this item on himself and casting the Ice Path on the last-known position of the enemy. If you are lucky, you might even got him and the chase continues. Force Staff helps you with positioning.


- I can't tell you if you should buy it before Force Staff or Aghanim's Scepter. That is just unable to predict. Basically, this item provides the hero with Cyclone ability. This lifts the target into the air, removing him for 2.5 seconds and makes him invulnerable for the duration. What is important though, is the 50 damage that it deals. That's right, this is THE MOST important thing about the Cyclone. It is not about the damage, you should know it by now. That minor, unsignificant damage means, that heroes are unable to blink out when the duration of that item ability ends. That 50 damage change was added in the 6.81 patch which I am very thankful for. Previously, I would use Cyclone on someone and if they had Blink Dagger they would simply blink out. That was when I wasn't playing Jakiro, because I can land my Ice Path and I would always catch the enemy into that, but other heroes had huge trouble stopping that hero. 50 damage prohibits escape. That is one of the best changes in this whole patch.
I already presented you the usage of Eul's on Jakiro. Use Cyclone, then after 2 seconds land Ice Path and you have guaranteed stun. This item is also great for improving your movement speed (+40), gives you 10 intelligence and 150% mana regenaration. There is nothing to dislike this item.


- I have to be honest with you guys. In previous patch es Aghanim's Scepter on Jakiro was garbabe. It would give you some more range (around 450 more range), damage a bit and cast range. Now, the reworked Aghanim's Scepter on Jakiro gives you astonishing range of 1.800 (without Scepter it's 900) and duration of 14 seconds instead of 7. Damage is the same. That improvement is like... wow! It can destroy enemy team's strategy. Imagine that you are throwing it over enemy middle barracks. You can just finish that tower and racks. Would they dare to fight you in those FLAMES?

---

SITUATIONAL/LUXURY ITEMS


- That is self explanatory. If you have trouble with invisible heroes like Riki, Bounty Hunter, Weaver, Nyx Assassin or Clinkz, then buy the Gem and better give it to some tank like Bristleback or Dragon Knight.

- I will explain that in the PUSHER build.

- Perfect item for teamfighters in the enemy team like Magnus, Tidehunter, Sand King, Dark Seer. It gives the item holder +8 HP/sec and +30% magic resistance. In the 6.81 was added the Insight Aura that gives you and all nearby units +4HP/sec. Active part of that item block 400 incoming magic damage for 10 seconds. That item saved many teams, take a look at that!

- Very luxury item that you most of the time will not get. I had this item on Jakiro when our score was like 45-10 in 20 minutes to our advantage and I knew that there is nothing that can help the enemy team. The passive aura that reduces attack speed for 40 is pretty nice, but the active is awesome. It deals 200 magical damage, slows by 40% for 4 seconds. That makes them really easy target for Ice Path and Macropyre. Combine it with Dual Breath AoE slow and you contributed really well into that fight, Jakiro. Anyway, this item shouldn't be picked over your core items. Leave that item for Magnus or Timbersaw.

- This item looks great for Jakiro. Look, it increases magical damage taken by enemies by 25% for 25 seconds. Jakiro deals Damage over Time, so that duration seems perfect for him. Why this is not his core item? My answer is - there are more important items for him ( Force Staff, Mekansm, Aghanim's Scepter) that he cannot simply skip. It would be perfect, if you would have Sand King or Zeus in your team, and they would buy Veil of Discord. Magic damage output would be RIDICULOUS.

- Again, Jakiro is usually too poor to get that item. He can afford it if he gets some kills and there is like 45 minute of the game. This is great item, because the slow (140 movement speed by Hex'ed unit - nefred in 6.81 patch) will let you stun easily. Better leave it for Puck, Windranger or Tinker, to be honest.

Item choice justification - Build 2: Pusher

STARTING ITEMS

Again, Animal Courier is what you should purchase, but if there is other support, semi-support, ask him to buy wards. It is very important for you to buy Ring of Protection right from the start. When you will be on lane, you will buy Sage's Mask from the Side shop and that's how you will finish Ring of Basilius. That is the most important early game pushing item. I staded in starting items, that you should buy Clarity, since you will need mana for your Dual Breath, which will increase your pushing power a lot. Iron Branch is a good item, if you have that 50 spare gold. You might use it later.

---

EARLY GAME

You should finish your Ring of Basilius ASAP. If your lane partner doesn't want to push, just turn it off. The aura from that item will affect only friendly heroes. It gives +2 armor and 0.65 mana regeneration. Then there's time for Boots of Speed, Headdress or Buckler. I can't tell what should be purchased first. I explained it before. If other teammaets didn't purchase Flying Courier, you should do it. Nevermind, that you need more money in that build. As far as I remember, Jakiro is still support, right?

---

CORE/MID GAME

Some changes here. Mekansm (for the aura and heal) and Arcane Boots (mana replenishment) are essential in this stage of the game. You musn't sell your Ring of Basilius. +2 armor to lane creeps is a huge difference.

- That's the best pushing-oriented item in the game. Necro Archer and Warrior are incredibly good contribution to pushing power. In the mid game if you are lucky, you will finish level 1 Necronomicon (total number of levels for this item is 3). Even if this item was nerfed during last patches, it is still viable choice. The total cost of this item is 5,200 gold. It is a lot, but with Necro units farming should be much easier. Is is very annoying for your enemies, because killing Necronomicon Warrior deals 400/500/600 damage. He also has a True Sight in radius of 1,000. Perfect choice for enemy heroes using invisible. You will feel much safer on lane.

- In this build I am picking Blink over Force Staff. Why? It has lower cooldown - 12 seconds, while Force Staff has cooldown of 20 seconds. Blink Dagger has also no mana cost. You are invulnerable during the teleportation, and you can travel some more distance - 1,200 with blink; 800 with Force Staff. Ok, you can't push units, but this item makes Jakiro much more flexible and dynamic. With Blink you can solo push much safer. It is similar to how Tinker is pushing. You lay down your skills on creeps, towers and when you see or feel that enemy team is coming, you quickly Blink into trees and teleport out.

- This cheap, yet life-saving item is a must in your inventory 24/7. Without it, your pushing will be miserable. You will die so many times, that you can actually throw a game. Without TP Scroll you will be so afraid to go out and push and you will extend the game over and over, so your team will eventually lose it. Jakiro is the better pusher, the faster he is able to push. If strategy of your team is to PUSH LIKE CRAZY, once you will get 3 or 4 levels in Liquid Fire, you can push very effectively. TP Scroll is your friend.

---

LATE GAME

- Upgrade this item to level 3 as soon as you can. Better Necro units for pushing is a great thing.

- To build this item you will use your Ring of Basilius. Vlad's gives: 16% lifesteal aura to all melee units, 15% bonus damage, +5 armor and 0.8 mana regenaration. This is a great item with huge benefits to all friendly units. You don't have to active it, you just carry it. It costs 2,050 gold, and the recipe costs only 300 gold. It is a very easy item to build. From 5 minor items that you need to have in order to build Vlad's, only 2 must be purchased in Fountain Shop - Ring of Protection and recipe. Ring of Regen, Morbid Mask and Sage's Mask are purchasable in the Side Shop.

- In the late game, you can get rid of your Arcane Boots and buy those Travel Boots. They give you +100 movement speed! and ability, to teleport to any friendly unit (except heroes). This is perfect pushing-oriented, late game item. Don't be afraid to be a RAT. It is one of the game's strategy. The game is called: "Defense of the Ancients". Not: "Killing of the Heroes". In the end - Pushing wins games. Most important goal is to destroy enemy structures. It can be done in Sneaky way, or 5 men RAPE TRAIN. Hopefully, Jakiro can fit both roles.

- I did already explain why this item is so great to have. In addition I shall state, that +40 movement speed is much more desirable in the Pusher build (with Eul's and Travel Boots Jakiro is a race car driver), and if you are not fast enough to Blink out to trees, you can Cyclone an enemy and then try to escape. I approve of this item.

---

LUXURY/SITUATIONAL ITEMS

- This item was also analyzed by me. I am putting this here because it gives the aura, and each aura is useful when pushing. It slows enemy creeps attack speed and can slow enemy heroes that are trying to catch you.

- Cheap item that gives you +7 to all attributes and ability to convert the caster into the Ghost. It means, that for 4 seconds you can't be targeted or harm by physical attack, but you are more vulnerable to magic damage, which is increased to a caster for 40%. It is a huge difference because, for example, Lina's ultimate ( Laguna Blade) is a guaranteed kill on you. You have to pick it and activate it carefully. In some line-ups don't buy this item. If there is huge magic burst in the opposite team - never pick this item. If you see Phantom Assassin, or Faceless Void - it can save your life.

- The same reasons why it should be picked in the 1st build. Good item for pushing, since enemies will have to think twice before they will come to kill you where the flames are. This is rather luxury item, since you need other stuff to buy first.

Macropyre 6.81 patch changes

Here we can see Macropyre without Aghanim's Scepter, both before 6.81 patch and after this patch was realesed. Range is still 900, damage is the same, duration is the same.

---

Now this is the old Macropyre with Aghanim's Scepter upgrade. Range was 1,350, cast range 1,150 and the damage was increased just fine. Not the fireworks, though!

---

That is something Sweet! Brand new Macropyre with Aghanim's Scepter. Damage is even more increased - the biggest magic damage output equals 3,150! That will be very unlikely, though, that you will ever catch even one enemy for the full duration of this spell, which is... 14 seconds! The picture shows it's true magnificence.

---

This is Macropyre with Aghanim's Scepter upgrade before 6.81 patch used on the Roshan pit. You can see, that you can cover the full pit from the safe distance, so that you won't be caught (unless they have vision over you).

---

Can you see that? It barely fits my screen! 1,800 range does a difference. I am speechless, that is really, really Wonderful. Judge for yourself if Aghanim's Scepter is worth a try.

---

This is the same situation as above, but with the Cinematic view. It gives you a different point of view on how this ultimate works with Aghanim's Scepter upgrade. DELICIOUS!

Pros / Cons

Pros Good starting stats Provides one of the best, constant harassment Astonishing stun with long range and decent duration with low cooldown Good AoE slow through all the stages of the game He is not item dependent Fits the role of both hard support and lane support Great pusher and anti-pusher Very helpful when fighting Roshan

Cons One of the biggest models of the hero No escape mechanism Bad denying/last hitting possibilites Long cast duration Low movement speed Bad base agility and agility gain His ultimate - Macropyre doesn't do that much guaranteed damage Kind of skill-shot hero All of his skills are active, so it means you can be only as effective as your eye-hand coordination will let you One of the worst attack range Average turn rate

Pros description

Pros Jakiro has the second highest base intelligence with 28 base points in that attribute ( Dark Seer has 29). He is 15th best hero in intelligence growth per level - 2.8 ( Pugna has 4.0 intelligence per level). He has also the 9th best base strenght in game!, which is 24. He has the best base strenght among any intelligence and agility hero. His strenght growth per level is not so great (37th place), but this is still better than many intelligence or agility heroes. His base stats are simply Amazing. He has spammable, annoying skill which is Liquid Fire. This can provide your carry much safer farm and will leave your lane opponents with worse farm and lower health than from auto-attack only. However, the damage itself is just the beggining. Really important perk of that skill is attack speed reduction. Lowering the amount of health and attack speed with no mana cost and extremely low cooldown? Sounds good to me. The Ice Path. This is Jakiro's bread and butter skill. I would add 1 more second to this stun, increased cooldown a little bit and make this his ultimate. Even though, with 2.2 second stun it's a very strong disable anyway. Important thing to note is that the stun begins when the Ice Path is created. It does mean, that you will be stunned only for the remain duration, when you will walk INTO the Ice Path, or the full duration when the Ice Path is created directly on your face. The only problem is quite long cast duration, but you can get use to it. When I am playing Rubick and I am lucky to steal Ice Path I find myself missing just because I got used to this original delay (when Rubick steals someone's spell with Spell Steal, each ability is realased with no cast animation. This means, that he can potentially use other abilites better than the original skill holders). You have to pay attention and predict, but the satisfaction of getting 2 or more heroes into Ice Path is huge and that's the biggest reward for a support, right? Leading your team into victory. This is the justification why I decided to put one point into Dual Breath on 3rd hero level and leave it that way. Slow remains, cooldown remains but the mana cost increases. Slow is most important part of that skill and later on damage is just an addition. I would rather spent skill points into Liquid Fire, because of early harassment, and Ice Path for longer stun and lower cooldown with the same mana cost, bearing in mind, that early on I won't be able to buy Arcane Boots. His utility is not reliant on items. Unlike Enigma or Sand King, he does not need crucial item like Blink Dagger to be effective. Due to his range type of skills he can be useful without getting that close to his enemies. Moreover, it is recommended for Jakiro to keep your distance from teamfights and spam your skills as much as you can. You are not a durable type of initiator, keep it in mind. My friend once told me: "The only thing you can carry are wards". And that's right. Jakiro with wards only can still be a huge threat. Being a hard support - buying wards, upgrading a courier is what Jakiro have to do. As for his contribution on lane: harassing, pulling, sharing consumables, denying and looking for an occasion to get a kill. When it comes to pushing, there are few who can match his ability to push and anti-push. Jakiro, Leshrac, Pugna and Shadow Shaman share something with each other. Their abilities can harm structures. What is important when playing Jakiro - his Liquid Fire works completely on towers, which is both damage and attack speed reduction. That is something unique. On 4th level of Liquid Fire tower damage is truly unsignificant. It can be used in many ways. When you want to push and there are not many your creeps around just use Liquid Fire onto the tower and see how fast it's crumbling. Also, when you see that your teammates are planning to dive under the enemy tower to get some kills you just put Liquid Fire onto the tower to minimize tower damage to your allies. Keep in mind, that on 4th level of Liquid Fire, cooldown is now 4 seconds instead of 5. Jakiro is well buffed in that 6.81 patch! When pushing in mid/late game I usually use combo Dual Breath + Ice Path + Liquid Fire, and enemy creeps or summoned units are dying fast without doing much damage to my creeps. I am also using a trick to use Force Staff on my first melee creep to stop enemy creep wave slightly more far. Jakiro is very useful while fighting the Almighty Roshan. As I mentioned few times, Liquid Fire slows his attack speed notably, but what is important, you can freeze him with Ice Path or deal damage from Dual Breath and Liquid Fire no matter his cooldown on Spell Block. Jakiro skills are not unit oriented, so there is no an exact unit that you will point in order to use your skill. In a shortcut, his skills are used on terrain, the ground. Roshan will be always affected by your skills. On the other hand, Jakiro is one of the best heroes to completely CRUSH enemy team while they are fighting Roshan. You know how Roshan Pit looks like. It's a narrow, tiny cave. How about freezing an entire team with Ice Path and then using your situational (that's correct, this is the situation) ultimate Macropyre and slowing them down with Dual Breath while they are desperately trying to get out of this hell? That's what you can bring to them - a true HELL.

Cons description

Cons Some of you might think why is this even bothering me. Few years ago Jakiro's model had a hitbox of 1/3 of his size. It is now fixed and he is quite easier to target. Let me explain what hitbox is. This is the part of the object, model, that can be targeted or affected by some skills like Sacred Arrow, Meat Hook, Hookshot, Sun Strike, Shockwave, The Swarm, Powershot, Impale, etc. Jakiro has a huge model size, which can put him in danger while the enemy team has heroes that are using skills I mentioned above. He is simply as big as Doom, Elder Titan or Phoenix. He lacks in abilites that will let him escape. Without Force Staff he can only slow or stun his enemies for a while, but this is often not enough to escape the touch of death. Jakiro is basically not an auto-attack type of hero. He is only a little bit better than Crystal Maiden (but she has better attack range), and Jakiro may be considered to be put in worst 5 auto-attack DotA heroes. Denying is hard, but if you will slow the attack speed of your opponents you may succes in denying a bit. Anyway, you can try lasthitting while your carry is dead or away, or get some gold on lasthitting neutral creeps while pulling. However, do not expect 100% effectiveness. Neverthless, Jakiro's missile speed is 1,100. It is how fast his auto-attack projectile (in his case - a small frosty ball) is travelling to it's destination. Even though it's not that bad, it still could be better. Let's make a quick comparision. Bane, Venomancer, Shadow Shaman, Necrophos, Shadow Demon, Enigma, Lich, Visage, Keeper of the Light, Lion, Pugna, Enchantress and Lina's missile speed equals 900. This is quite lower than what Jakiro can show. But on the other hand - Io, Disruptor, Witch Doctor, Dazzle, Windranger, Ancient Apparition has missile speed of 1,200 or higher. Heroes with best missile speed are: Vengeful Spirit (1,500), Queen of Pain (1,500), Razor (2000) and Gyrocopter with Sniper (3000!). His cast duration is honestly bad. He is doing that backswing, gathering some air, preparing to throw out those forces of nature he holds inside, and finally his work is done. That whole preparation is essential, but sometimes it's too late for him to get rid of what he held inside. Let's face the facts: Jakiro has the 5th worst cast animation in game. Now onto the so loved numbers: his cast point is 0.65. It means, that it takes him 0.65 seconds to release his abilites. You might think - "That's less of a second, right? What's the deal? Is that such a huge difference if you would do it half second faster or lower?". It is, trust me. Actually, it's sick when you'll think about it. I need to, as always, find a good example to show you why even 0.3 seconds of a difference are important when it comes to the cant point. Did you play Shadow Shaman? His cast point is 0.3. When you were casting Ether Shock - how fast it was? When you last played Sven (0.3 cast point) - how fast did Storm Hammer was realesed towards your enemies? Weaver using Shukuchi - also 0.3 cast point. Dazzle (0.3 cast point) - quickly blessing his dying teammate with Shallow Grave to give him a second chance to cheat on Death. All of those split seconds matters. Jakiro has to predict where to land his skills so that they will harm opponents. It all comes to the predictions - that's the cost of a long cast point/cast animation. Movement speed is a problem until you will purchase Boots of Speed. He is much slower than many supports like Leshrac, Bane, Keeper of the Light, Earthshaker, Tidehunter, Dazzle, Witch Doctor, Disruptor... Their base movement speed is 300 and above 300, while Jakiro's speed is 290. He is not the slowest, though. Lower are Venomancer, Visage, Crystal Maiden, and Shadow Shaman. Anyway, there is nothing to be proud of. His base agility is 10, and agility gain per level is 1.2. That is extremely low. From supports and semi-supports Warlock, Skywrath Mage, Zeus, Undying, and Pugna can match his low agility. Despite his base agility, he has a decent base armor of 2.4, which is a fine addition early on lane. Just take a look at Jakiro's abilities. They are Damage over Time type. There are few ways to bypass that. Omniknight can use his Repel and you are useless. Shadow Demon will use his Disruption on an ally and your Macropyre is useless. Outworld Devourer uses his Astral Imprisonment and guess what. The list goes on. The key is to not let your enemies escape your Area of Effect (AoE) spells that are dealing Damage over Time(DoT). You will require some help. Note: Since the 6.81 patch his ultimate is way, way improved, so chances for dealing damage are much bigger. While skillshot abilities are considered sometimes hard to hit, they are often quite rewarding. The real problem with Ice Path is the cast delay and range. Unlike Sacred Arrow and Meat Hook the projectile speed is not a problem, because the creation of the Ice Path is almost immediate. Still, you will miss some Ice Path's in your life and it can possibly cost your team a game, but that's DotA. You are not playing it for fun, you are playing for the tears of lost or the tears of victory. Some of us like active skills, some of us do not. Many players love heroes like Viper, Spirit Breaker, Bloodseeker etc., because they rely mostly on auto-attacks and there is not much you can screw up with them. But I am not one of them. Maybe that's why I love playing support heroes. Active abilities are those, which will affect in most cases not only you, but your enemies and your allies. The thing is to use them right. In the correct time, correct place and on the certain heroes. You can acquire that ability only with playing and analyzing what you did. Jakiro's attack range is 400. Among other ranged supports that is the bottom line. Only Bane and Vengeful Spirit has the range of 400. Other supports are better in that matter. Only Zeus is worse, but his skills has high range, let alone Thundergod's Wrath with global range. Do not forget however, that Jakiro can harass enemy heroes with Liquid Fire while not messing the lane equilibrium and getting creeps aggro. How can he do that? Creeps are not interested in hitting enemy heroes when they are using skills or orb effects (someone can check that). Important thing to note is that when you will manually use Liquid Fire, it can be cast at 600 range, which is a decent range to deal with. Just make sure that heroes are away from their creeps and hit them with Liquid Fire. Do not worry if you will hit both hero/es and creeps at the same time - creeps will not attack you, but it will push a lane a little bit. His turn rate is 0.5. It is the most common turn rate among DotA heroes. Most heroes turn rate varies from 0.4 to 0.6. What exactly does it mean and why is this important? In order to answer these questions we have to take a look at heroes who has the best turn rate in game. Magnus has a turn rate of 0.8. This is really, really high in that matter. Usage of his skills in teamfights is oriented on the turn rate. Magnus is casting his Blink Dagger and appearing as close to as many opponents as he can, then using ultimate - Reverse Polarity, turning, setting himself in best position to Skewer all of them to his team so they can smash them up. Batrider has turn rate of 1.0. He is attaching an enemy to the Flaming Lasso, turning 180o and dragging him off to prepare some WICKED BARBEQUE. Jakiro's turn rate is more significant than, for example, Lina's (also 0.5), because he has, as I mentioned, huge model size. To turn this body he have to clap those wings few times. This is dangerous when escaping (especially when slowed), and because Jakiro has no escape ability, this is just too bad for him to have such a turn rate.

Friends

I would rather say that Jakiro is someone friend, but he combined with specific heroes can do much better than you would expect.

• Faceless Void - they share something more than voice of the same actor. They can both slow and lock multiple enemies in place. But before that happens, you have to pass laning stage. By far you should know what are you doing on lane - harassing and denying, occasionally pulling and warding. Providing your carry with good farm is essential, and you can do that pretty well. Let's talk about slow. Faceless Void's Time Walk on 4th level will decrease enemy movement speed by 50% for 3 seconds, while Jakiro's Dual Breath will decrease movement speed from 28%, up to 40% (thanks to the 6.82 patch) for 5 seconds. Let's say hero has movement speed of 350 with Power Treads. Time Walk will reduce movement speed to 175, and adding Dual Breath slow it will be around 110 movement speed. It basically means they are not moving for 3 seconds if set correctly (lowest possible movement speed is 100 no matter how many slows you will use). What about Faceles Void's ultimate - Chronosphere? It will hold in place potentially 5 heroes up to 5 seconds ( Aghanim's Scepter on Faceless Void is rarely picked). It is a perfect occurence to use Macropyre. It lasts 7 seconds, ok. 2 seconds are lost? When you will feel like Chronosphere is about to end (eventually you will feel that, it's a matter of time - oh, irony!), set your Ice Path on as many heroes as you can. It has duration of 2.2 seconds on the highest level. It is one of the few situations that you can use Macropyre with full damage output.

  ---

• Clockwerk - This combination comes to usage of Power Cogs. On highest level the duration of Power Cogs is 8 seconds, and in order to destroy one cog you will have to hit it 3 times. It's gonna be hard, because Clockwerk is often using Battery Assault which deals damage, but most notably doing mini-stuns. It will take some time to hit this cog 3 times. Imagine what will happen when Jakiro will set Macropyre onto this tiny piece of ground. There is nowhere to escape the FLAMES. Once more, Ice Path will make sure enemy will not be able to escape that trap.

  ---

• Dark Seer - That one is very nice. This tiny fella' will suck an entire enemy team with Vacuum into one place and thanks to his Wall of Replica you will make sure that your skills will both hold and damage HUUUUGE number of enemies. He can also Surge you in order to help you position yourself better or catch fleeing enemies.
  

  ---

• Disruptor - He is rather an addition here, but also worth mentioning. When I have picked Jakiro and someone else is willing to pick another support, I always ask them to pick Disruptor. He must go to the other lane of course, but when the laning stage is over, they can do astonishing Symphony of Skills. The trick is simple. When you see a lone hero, and Disruptor is nearby just ask him to Glimpse that hero. Then you have to create an Ice Path in the right time (I am using my eyes and my ears - the Glimpse effect has a characteristic sound and animation that can help you with a good skill coordination), then when your enemy is stunned you quickly setting up Macropyre, followed by Dual Breath and Liquid Fire. While you have caught an enemy hero in Ice Path, Disruptor is first using his ultimate - Static Storm, then Kinetic Field and Thunder Strike. If an enemy hero will receive all of that damage there is a really small chance he will survive that. That combination can be used in teamfights, but Disruptor uses his Kinetic Field first, then goes Ice Path and the rest is clear. Disruptor fulfills Jakiro's need of gathering opponents in one place.
  

  ---

• Any hero that can deal AoE damage and disables is also useful:
  
  

  ---

• Heroes that increase magical damage taken by enemies:
  

Foes

Unfortunately, Jakiro can find himself in disadvantegous position when facing spefific enemies, using certain abilities. There's a list of what Jakiro should be especially afraid of:

• Silencer - This guy went first into my mind. He has everything what Jakiro should avoid at all costs. First Silencer skill - Curse of the Silent will be pretty annoying to Jakiro at each stage of the game. He will have to use his skills just to not lose his health and mana points. Unfortunately, you can't cast Liquid Fire and be over it. It has no mana cost, so Curse of the Silent will not count that. Either way, he is going to lose some mana and Jakiro without mana is totally weak. Let's take a look at Last Word - it will silence the Twin Head Dragon for up to 6 seconds. That's the silence of the Silencer's ultimate - Global Silence. When a teamfight is about to start, a good Silencer will use his ultimate before you will be able to shine, and leave you crawling. Silenced Jakiro is utterly useless. Whole enemy team can steadily say: "Time for target practise" and aim Jakiro without hesitation. Another Silencer's build-in talent - intelligence stealing will leave you lacking of raw mana points, so your contribution in teamfights might be drastically reduced. While he will steal your mana points, he will deal more PURE damage. While our Twin Head friend is naturally beefy, he won't usually build many strenght oriented items, so his health points will be probably one of the lowest in the team during mid/late game. When I see enemy team picking Nortrom, I am simply not picking Jakiro.
  Note: In 6.81 he got (in my opinion) one of the best buffs in patch, which is increased agility growth per level. Previously he had agility growth of 2.1 per level, now it's 3.0. 0.9 agility per level more - doesn't look like some astonishing number, but that's really significant. His agility growth now is better or the same like many of agility heroes.
  I will now name some agility heroes and in the brackets I shall present you agility growth per level of that hero.
  Anti-Mage - (2.8); Bloodseeker - (3.0); Bounty Hunter - (3.0); Broodmother - (2.2); Clinkz - (3.0); Drow Ranger - (1.9 - despite her ultimate, Marksmanship); Faceless Void - (2.65). Ok, I have to stop here. This is worse for Jakiro than I expected. It turns out, that only 2 heroes in DotA have agility growth per level higher than 3.0. It is Phantom Assasin - (3.15) and Terrorblade - (3.2). Only 6 heroes have agility growth per level that equals 3.0 and Silencer is one of them.
  Also, his Curse of the Silent now has cooldown of 8 seconds, so it means, that he can use it twice or even more in an average teamfight.
  I am partly happy because of that, since Silencer is my third favourite support (ex aequo on the second place is Bane and Disruptor).
  

  ---

• Lifestealer - The most important part here is his Rage ability. As I mentioned, Jakiro has long cast animation, so a good Lifestealer will be aware that you are about to use one of your skills (probably Ice Path), so he will quickly pop Rage (which will give him magic immunity for astonishing duration of 6 seconds), use Open Wounds on you and you are done. Back in the fountain after few seconds. Also, after your usage of Macropyre, he can Infest one of his teammates or a creep and he will receive no damage, since your skills are Damage over Time.
  

  ---

• Axe - You are very, very vulnerable to Battle Hunger. If Axe will decide to max it early on, and he is on lane against you - I would suggest switching lanes. You will leave your carry lasthits, and you can try denying, but good Axe will use it where there's no creeps around. Combine it with Keeper of the Light on his side and you have a perfect recipe for a Jakiro's failure. As the game goes on, Axe will eventually purchase his core item - Blink Dagger and will be even greater threat to you. While you are formatting the Ice Path, he just blinks behind you, uses his Berserker's Call, maybe few Counter Helixes will proc and then he can finish you off using Culling Blade with ease.
  
  GOOD DAY, SIR!

  ---

• Clockwerk - That relation has two sides of a coin. On the first side, he makes a wonderful combination with Jakiro, due to his ability to trap enemies, so that Jakiro can use his skills with full output. But when Clockwerk is on the enemy side, Jakiro should be shaking with fear. Many enemies are in very bad situation, when they are trapped with Clockwerk in his Power Cogs. But many of them can at least use their skills, or their damage from auto-attacks and health points are high enough, to not maybe beat Rattletrap, but surivive that engagement. Well, Jakiro doesn't have any of these possibilites. When our Dragon is hugging that piece of metal, he can't cast his skills, when Clockwerk is mini-stunning him every 0.7 seconds with Battery Assault. It looks hillarious, when Jakiro is trying to cast his spells, and it's interrupted just when he raises his head. Doing physical damage to Clockwerk can only make him laugh, and after the cogs will expire, you will be dead or nearly dead. Rattletrap has also often level advantage, because he is a typical off-laner, so even his Rocket Flare can do significant damage to you. Beware of him.
  

  ---

• Viper - When you are dealing with this hero, you should really watch out. His main disadvantage to you is his third skill - Corrosive Skin. It is what makes him durable. When you will attack him once it slows your both movement speed and attack speed by 25%, deals minor damage and grants Viper with 25% more magic resistance. Viper with 4 points spent on that skill has 50% magic resistance. That last listed benefit is enough to reduce Jakiro's effectiveness, but there is something much more frustrating. It refreshes EACH time when Viper receives damage. You may hurt yourself more using skills on Viper than doing damage to this flying lizard. Your low movement speed will be reduced over and over until your Damage over Time will expire. As I mentioned, it also deals damage and refreshes each time when your skills will tickle Viper. He also has a great slow - Poison Attack, which has no cooldown, costs only 20 mana points on each level and does quite a bit of a damage.
  

  ---

• Jakiro is generally vulnerable to silence and magic immunity heroes. Heroes using silence:
  

  ---

• Heroes that grants magic immunity or reduce magic damage taken:
  

  ---

• Heroes that can burn mana, or reduce mana pool (also typical Diffusal Blade carriers):
  Outworld Devourer

  ---

• Special mention - Pugna. His one Nether Ward can totally wreck your Skill Symphony and reduce your health points in seconds. Pugna is generally anti-teamfight hero for the opposite team, and since you have to lay down as many skills as you can, you will suffer.

Heroes Jakiro is good against

Playing this Lovely Dragon you should be aware when you are on better position playing against certain heroes:

• Templar Assassin - Lanaya is in possesion of a truly feared ability - Refraction. I saw many times heroes like Lina or Lion using their ultimates on Templar Assasin on low health under the effect of Refraction and their reaction on the chat was like: "wtf TA cyka". This rarely happens when you have Jakiro around. I shall repeat again - DAMAGE OVER TIME. Let's check intervals between Jakiro's attacks - Dual Breath deals damage for 5 seconds with interval between each damage of 0.5 second. It means, that in those 5 seconds Lanaya will receive 10 separate damage ticks. Refraction on 4th level has 6 charges of immunity to any attack so it means, that she will lost her Refraction after 3 seconds of Dual Breath alone. Combine it with Liquid Fire, which has duration of 5 seconds and deals damage every second, it will give you around 2,5 seconds of Lanaya's Refraction (if you will throw Liquid Fire on 1,5 seconds after Dual Breath). But when you will use also Ice Path on her - it will give her 2 seconds of immunity. 2 seconds of life.
  Bear in mind, that in most circumstances Jakiro will be carrying Sentry Ward's and/or Dust of Appearance. When she will hide using her Meld, he will easily reveal her and simply get rid of her (maybe with a small help of his teammates).
  

  ---

• Clockwerk - What a surprise! We have this guy 3 times in a row. He is Jakiro's friend, foe and a hero, that Jakiro is good against. That was well explained before. Just think about it. Assuming, that enemy Clockwerk will trap your teammate (instead of you), Jakiro will punish Clockwerk hardly for that. His goal is to be as close to the enemy hero on the very small area, which generally fits Jakiro's abilities. Macropyre + Ice Path + Dual Breath + Liquid Fire. You just gotta watch out for the Blade Mail, since it's a very common item seen on Clockwerk, so you might actually hurt yourself considerably.
  

  ---

• Ember Spirit - That is just a quick note. You know his Sleight of Fist ability. It was nerfed in the 6.81 patch, and it deals less damage, but it's still a great late game skill that can devastate entire creep waves and some squishy heroes. It has a small disadvantage, though. When Ember Spirit jumps onto his targets, he is leaving a Fire Remnant at the location he casted Sleight of Fist. After he hits all units in the AoE of that spell, he comes back to the Remnant. It is the same looking Remnant that he is using with his ultimate. Back to the point - that little thing can potentially lock Ember down and win a game for you.
  
  It happened to me recently, so I've decided to put it here. You have to simply put an Ice Path on the Remnant. Pretty easy, right? To do this, you will require a mixture of vision, knowledge, timing and luck.
  
  
  
  • Vision - It is important, because you want to know how many units will be affected by Sleight of Fist, so you will be more efficient when predicting when he will jump back to his Fire Remnant. It takes 0.2 seconds with each unit. Good luck counting those Spiderlings!
    
    
  • Knowledge - You have to know when you want to lock Ember Spirit. Maybe your team will decide to go back, because they are all low HP and you just showed where are you, so the enemy team will kill poor Jakiro with whole team. You have to know when to initiate. You have to be aware of your positioning, if stuns and ultimates are on cooldown... Many things in general. You need knowledge about the game.
    
    
  • Timing - I've already explained that. You won't actually count units and multiply them by 0.2. It's just not gonna happen. You have to feel it somehow. It's like music. Not everything is about good timing. You have to feel when exactly play the right note.
    
    
  • Luck - Even if everything should go well on paper - well, it sometimes doesn't work out in real situations. Something unexpected can happen and even if you are 100% sure, everything is fu*%ed up. But at least you tried!

Hero Difficulty rating

There is a Hero Difficulty Rating which analyzed DotA heroes and put them in 6 categories with 5 ranks:

1. 1st Rank
2. 2nd Rank
3. 3rd Rank
4. 4th Rank
5. 5th Rank
   

   ---

   
   Here is the 6 categories list:
   
   1. Knowledge - How much do you have to know about certain hero and DotA in general to use this hero to his fullest potential;
   2. Map Awareness - Knowledge on warding, the amount of attention you have to pay on the minimap and knowledge on which part of the map you can use skills to receive best results;
   3. Positioning/Reflex - Higher ranking means that hero requires fast reflex and he has to know his placing during team clashes;
   4. Farm/Last-Hitting - The importance of a good farm to a certain hero and how fast can he earn that gold;
   5. Micro Management - It does not only mean controlling more than 1 unit. It is also about using many active abilites and items;
   6. Survival Priority - Higher ranking means the hero can and should contribute to his team as long as he can.

   ---

   
   Here is Jakiro's score:
   
   1. Knowledge - Requires general knowledge of this hero, general skill build and item build. General starting items. - 1st Rank
   2. Map Awareness - Requires decent map awareness. A must for constant gankers. - 3rd Rank
   3. Positioning/Reflex - Advanced hero/ability positioning (lined AoE or abilities that don't hit easily). Able to decide positive outcomes with regards to positions of heroes. - 3rd Rank
   4. Farm/Last-Hitting - Basic farm/last-hitting required. Hero is able to perform averagely independent of items. Gives farming to heroes that needed it more such as a carry hero. - 1st Rank
   5. Micro Management - Perform better with supportive items. Able to use animal courier casually. Abilities usage involves spamming/toggling/simple timing/positioning. - 2nd Rank
   6. Survival Priority - Stay long enough in battle to continuously support team / disabling enemies / push / defend. - 4th Rank
   
   As we can see, Jakiro did not receive 5th Rank in any category. His final score was 14 out of possible 30. He is almost on the exact average in terms of hero difficulty level. The biggest score, the more difficult hero is to play.
   

   ---

   
   In comparision with other supports he isn't the easiest one to play. For example:
   • - got score of 11;
   • - got score of 11;
   • - got score of 13;
   • - got score of 13.
   
   He is tied with:
   • - got score of 14;
   • - got score of 14.
   
   There are harder heroes to play like:
   • - got score of 15;
   • - got score of 19;
   • - got score of 20;
   • - got score of 22.
   
   Hardest heroes to play according to this list are:
   • - got score of 24;
   • - got score of 25;
   • - got score of 28;
   • - got score of 28.
   
   Click here to go to the Hero Difficulty Guide

Minimum and maximum base damage spread

This might sound like the unsignificant factor, but this is quite important early game. To be precise - the very beginning of the each game.

Minimum and maximum base damage spread shows how each hero is (or not) stable with his auto-attacks. Minimum damage spread is the lowest amount of damage that will be dealt to the enemy unit (keep in mind, that the damage will be reduced by armor value and armor type). Maximum damage spread is the highest amount of damage that will be dealth to the enemy unit. But this is only physical damage.

---

Physical damage is mostly considered damage from regular auto-attacks, but it can also be dealt by some abilities ( Poison Touch, Shadow Wave, Anchor Smash, Slithereen Crush, Unstable Concoction and more). Back to the point:

• Jakiro's base damage spread is 46 - 54. It means, that he can attack enemy unit, who has 0 armor for at least 46 damage and 54 damage at best. Maybe you are sometimes wondering why you could make that last-hit/deny, and why (when the circumstances were the same - the same creep health, the same damage output) sometimes you miss that. Here is your answer - Damage Spread.

---

How does he look in comparision? Well, he is rather stable. His damage spread is only 8. I would say that is the average. Let's take a look:


There are heroes who has very low base damage spread (2, 3 and 4 possible difference in damage points per attack):

• - 38 - 42;
• - 41 - 43;
• - 44 - 46;
• - 45 - 49;
• - 49 - 53;
• - 50 - 54.
  

Heroes that have average base damage spread (5 - 10 possible difference in damage points per attack):

• - 42 - 48;
• - 51 - 61;
• - 51 - 61;
• - 55 - 61;
• - 57 - 65;
• - 81 - 89.
  

Heroes with rather unstable physical damage from auto-attacks (above 10 possible difference in damage points per attack):

• - 38 - 56;
• - 38 - 49;
• - 39 - 53;
• - 40 - 54;
• - 41 - 59.
  

But the absolute winner is:

... with an incredibly random chance of dealing damage that varies from 49 to 79! This is 30 damage spread. Than can make his last-hitting much easier if he is lucky, or can confuse the player - "Why I can't farm that well as I do it with Anti-Mage (who has only 4 damage spread)?"

"My Special thanks goes to..."

I would like to thank:

• Krwiozerczka for her appreciation to write this guide, and cheering me up multiple times even when I sucked in my games and because you gave DotA 2 a chance and found it very entertaining.
  

  ---

• Captain Redbeard for numerous grammar corrections and consulations when preparing this guide. Also, for countless games we've played and spent together.
  

  ---

• Sesbomb for trying out new combos, best Kunkka voice acting I've ever experienced and many, many hours we've spent on ranting about incompetent players.
  

  ---

• I would also like to thank all of my teammates and opponents in each game. Without you I simply wouldn't be able to get all of that information.
  

  ---

• And last but not least - I thank you, my dear Reader for reading this guide. I hope you've learnt something that will help you to improve your DotA experience.