My Time Has Come!

Introduction

Hello everyone. This is my first guide so forgive me if there are some "guiding" errors that I have made. Now to focus on the hero, Faceless Void is a hard carry which means he is really bad early game and is useless when he does not get enough farm. This means, to play Faceless Void well, the player must have good farming skills. To make up for this, FV has a great skill set that can deal a large amount of damage if used well.

Pros / Cons

Just like every hero in DotA or Dota 2, Faceless Void has his own pros and cons.
Pros:
Has a large damage output
Has good base damage
Has an AoE disable
Very strong if used well

Cons:
Item dependent
Not very strong in early game
Needs farm
Has somewhat of a mana problem
Has relatively low health

Now, it does not matter that there are cons to this hero because they all can be overcome by the player using Faceless Void.

Items

As for the two starting item builds above, #1 is more favored to use than #2 but #2 is still there because it is still a viable build. For Starting Items #1, the Stout Shield is for some protection, the Quelling Blade is for some more damage and the Tangoes are for some hp regen. For #2, the Slippers and Branches are for some stats with the Salve and Tangoes for regen. For #2, there is one more hp regen item which can help some players with surviving lanes while still learning to use FV. Although 1 Stout Shield, 3 Branches, 1 Salve and Tangoes can also do the trick.

Core items. The Battlefury is excellent for farming and will help FV get the luxury items much sooner. It can be argued that Mask of Madness as a core item is not a good idea, but Battlefury already gives FV +65 damage. So that and Mask of Madness combined with Chronosphere can really put a hole in an enemy's health bar, especially squishy heroes.

Continuing on, for some players, one problem arises: which Boots?
Phase Boots - Well, the extra damage does help but the Phase ability is rendered obsolete by FV's Time Walk ability.
Tranquil Boots - The heal and the armor would be pretty nice but sadly, it does not contribute to the massive damage output that FV is capable of.
Boots of Travel - The unlimited TP Scroll to creeps is good for farming up the items but the gold used to get BoT would be better spent on getting other items like Battlefury, Mask of Madness, Butterfly etc... But of course that doesn't mean that the player shouldn't get Boots of Travel. It would be better than Power Treads lategame.
Arcane Boots - Yes, it was said in the cons that FV has somewhat of a mana problem but that does not mean that he needs a giant mana item. Not the best boots on FV.
Power Treads - The chosen Boots for Faceless Void. It provides stats which is good for all heroes, and attack speed which combines well with the damage that FV can give out.

Situational:
Vanguard. It was put into Situational because it isn't always needed when playing FV. When FV is ahead in farming and already has BF and MoM, then Vanguard would be somewhat no longer needed since the lifesteal would be sufficient to stay alive. However, if the player has constant pressure put onto them and is constantly low on health, Vanguard would be a good option to consider before going MoM, possibly even before BF.

Black King Bar. Black King Bar is only worth getting if there are a lot of disablers/spell spamming heroes on the other team. However, even if there are, it still isn't really worth getting. The +24 damage is good but the Strength isn't really needed and the Spell Immunity is only good if FV's spells are on cooldown. Only consider getting it if there are spell casters.

Vladimir's Offering - Only get this if Desolator has been chosen over MoM. This can be bought because of the lifesteal that is given and the extra damage. The extra mana regen is always useful to solve the mana problem and the armor is good for increasing survivability.

Luxury Items:
Butterfly - It is mostly everything that FV wants: Damage, Agility, Attack Speed, Evasion
Assault Cuirass - Great for FV: -5 armor to other enemies increases the damage FV does, +5 armor increases survivability, and +AS = more damage.
Daedalus - More damage and Critical Strike + AS from other items = insane DPS
Manta Style - The illusions can be summoned before or during Chronosphere to increase the amount of damage done on the hero being hit to death. The stats and the Agility are good as well.
Monkey King Bar - True Strike + 88 damage + 15 AS = guaranteed massive damage output. The mini stun also works well for extra chances of perma-stunning the target.
Desolator - Once FV get's this, MoM should be sold since the Unique Attack Modifiers do not stack. This is good because it gives FV more DPS which is always good.
Heart of Tarrasque - Maybe buy when FV has gotten enough items to be a DPS machine. HoT is to increase his survivability considering the fact that FV has relatively low health compared to other heroes.

Usually, either Assault Cuirass or Butterfly is a good first luxury item if the game is going well. The Assault Curi*** is good because it gives loads of +AS which goes really well with MoM. The Butterfly is good because it is really strong, but Eaglesong is 1200 gold more expensive than Hyperstone so the more affordable option for FV is ***ualt Cuirass.

Now if the team has been completely owning the entire game and FV has a heap of cash banked, it is okay to go Divine Rapier 'cos he can just destroy everyone in Chronosphere without fear of getting hurt :).

Skills

There are many different skill builds for Faceless Void and it widely varies on the situation. Since there is only one skill build that is available to show above, only one of the skill builds is shown. The one shown above is mostly based on balance. The first two levels are for surviving the early game while balancing levels of defense (Backtrack) and offense (Time Lock). Obviously sticking to the same build every single game is bad so allow us to look at some scenarios that may affect the build:

Scenario 1: There is a small amount of pressure put onto the player (from now on the player will be referred to as P1). Since there only is a small amount of pressure, the balanced skill build shown above could be used (maybe even getting an extra level of Time Lock instead of Backtrack).

Scenario 2: There is a medium amount of pressure put onto P1. The balanced skill build above should be used or possibly getting an extra level of Backtrack instead of Time Lock to increase survivability. Dying early as FV will set back getting items by a lot which is bad.

Scenario 3: There is no pressure at all put onto P1. Since there is no pressure and P1 and their lane buddy has complete control over the lane, Time Lock should be maxed before Backtrack to increase farming and offensive capabilities.

Scenario 4: There is a lot of pressure put onto P1 and FV is on constant low health. Backtrack (or possibly Time Walk) should be maxed out first to increase survivability. P1 should maybe even consider switching lanes because FV needs farm to be effective.

So as shown, different situations call for variations in strategy. The variation of strategy concept applies to most if not all heroes.

Creeping / Jungling

The preferred lane for Faceless Void is the Bottom Lane for Radiant and the Top Lane for Dire. This is because FV is pretty fragile the start of the game (reason why Time Walk is taken at Level 1) and it would be difficult for a melee hero to get creep kills if the creeps were battling at the enemy tower.

There is a technique that I don't see many players utilize at the start of the game which is called Creep Blocking. It is when a player controls their hero to walk and stay in front of the creeps in their lane right until they get to the opposing creeps. This is done for a few reasons:

Since the heroes are slower than creeps at the start of the game, the first battle of the creeps will be right next to (or closer) to the allied tower.
This results in easier early creep kills.
Makes it safer to survive Level 1 first blood attempts since the players are closer to the tower.
This could be done to make first blood attempts since the fight will be away from the enemy tower.

Good Teammates and Bad Enemies

For FV, a good combination mid - late game is any ranged hero who can do decent physical DPS. This is because FV can use Chronosphere on the target(s) while allowing the ranged heroes to attack the target(s) from outside. Therefore, it is a good synergy for ganking. For early game, a good lane partner would be a hero who can actively harass the other heroes so FV can have a good farm. Possibly Zeus if he didn't go to another lane or a babysitter who can heal FV while he is creep killing or to save him from being ganked like Omniknight.

On the other side of the coin, FV has some enemies who he doesn't go well against. These heroes are heroes that can actively harass FV at the start of the game. This is because it prevents FV from killing creeps which in turn, prevents FV from getting the items he needs. May it be Drow Ranger with her Frost Arrows or Zeus with his spell spamming, it is always a good idea to harass FV when a player is laned against him. Later on, constantly ganking FV will keep him from getting good items. So all in all, spell spammers like Queen of Pain and Zeus are good against FV early game, and ganking him mid to late game will make him weak.

Note:
Doom Bringer's ultimate will do lots of damage to FV because he is relatively squishing without Vanguard and he will not have any escape mechanism.

Ganking and Team Fights

A combo that Faceless Void can use is Chronosphere -> Attack (activate MoM if player has it) -> use Time Walk to catch up and finish off enemies who run away. Since it is hard to get into the centre of the battle and Chronosphere, it is possible to do this combo: Time Walk -> Chronosphere -> Attack. Although, with this combo, Time Walk's cooldown is too long to be able to be used at the end of the combo. When Chronosphere-ing, try to Chronosphere all the enemy heroes while leaving the allied ranged heroes outside of the Chronosphere. This is so that they can attack the heroes from outside and do some DPS. If this is not possible, don't hesitate to Chronosphere everyone. FV can easily make a 5v5 turn into a 4v5 with his ultimate.

Summary

So, this is the guide that I created on Faceless Void. Please do not refrain from giving me some comments on the guide. Thank you for reading!