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Bottle
Boots of Speed
Magic Wand
Phase Boots
Drum of Endurance
Yasha
Desolator
Manta Style
Tango
Iron Branch
Iron Branch
Iron Branch
Bottle
Boots of Speed
Magic Wand
Phase Boots
Drum of Endurance
Yasha
Desolator
Manta Style
Crystalys
Butterfly
Heart of Tarrasque
Daedalus
Black King Bar
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2 | 3 | 5 | 7 |  |
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4 | 8 | 9 | 10 |  |
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1 | 11 | 12 | 13 |  |
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6 | 14 | 16 |  |
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15 | 17 | 18 |
| 1. | Introduction |
| 2. | Skills |
| 3. | Early game |
| 4. | Mid Game |
| 5. | Late game |
| 6. | Ganking |
| 7. | Build 1: semi-carry |
| 8. | Build 2: The gank and spank |
| 9. | Items |
| 10. | Friends and Foes |
| 11. | Conclusion |
Templar Assassin is a powerful mid-late game semi-carry that has great ganking power. She can be very hard to kill and is known for her HUGE burst physical damage.
She is very common to see in the mid lane and is very good at the mid lane because of her Refraction and Psi Blades.
Pros:
+Burst physical
+Good ganker
+Hard to kill
+Fast farmer and good pusher
+Traps give vision
Cons:
-Her counters are common to see at higher levels of play
-Short ranged until a few levels of Psi Blades are gotten
-Farm and level dependent
Refraction: This move makes you hard to kill because of its damage block. It isn't a 
Stout Shield type of damage block, it blocks the whole instance of damage just like backtrack. So if you have this up and lion 
Finger of Deaths you, you will take no damage. The icing on the cake for this move is the 20/40/60/80 bonus damage. Denying a creep does not use a damage charge.
Meld: This move makes you go invisible where ever you are standing. When you attack out of the invis you reduce the person armor and deal an additional 50/100/150/200 damage. This move is what makes you know for burst physical damage. You use Refraction, Meld and then hit a person for an extra 280 damage and reduce their armor.
Psi Blades: This move gives you some additional range witch is 100% nessecary on TA because her starting range is worse than that of a melee hero's (140/150). This move also gives you the gift of killing people from really far away by using creeps. When you hit a unit this move searches (like 
Shackleshot)for a unit that is eligible to be hit(mechanical units can't be hit by it) within a certain range, then does a kind of long range cleave to them. This makes Psi blades very good for laning because you set up the lane to deny your creep, last hit the creep in from of yours, and hit the enemy hero.
Psionic Trap: This is what makes you good at ganking, a long cast range, with a huge slow. You can also use this on the rune spots so you have rune vision when your wards go down. This move comes with a second part to blow up the trap, DO NOT USE THAT ONE! Use the skill that the trap itself has, because the one on your hero has an animation so bad you may lose the kill.
THIS JUST IN! As of 6.81 you can use the skill on your hero. It now has 0 cast time just like the skill on trap. This isn't really a difference for experienced players, but it will help you people new to TA/Dota in general.
Early game is the point of the game where if you don't do well, you will probably lose the game. This is because you are a mid lane hero, and the mid lane is responsible for the other lanes in a way. You have to gank the other lanes, and if you are losing mid, you will most likely not be able to gank before the other mid does, effectivly losing you the game. BUT HAVE NO FEAR! Templar Assassin is a very powerful hero, with the ability to deny, last hit and harass with one attack without using a damage charge from Refraction!
You are a ganking mid, so keep that in mind as you play. You will want farm, and by the time your are level 6, you will want bottle, brown boots, wand, and if you doing really well, phase boots. By level 6, push out the wave with Psi Blades and then gank. You can even gank before 6 if you get the right rune, witch is a great transition into..
Runes:
Rune of Haste: This is your best friend early game, the dives you can make max moves speed and Refraction are almost unstoppable.
Rune of Invisibility: This rune is good, but isn't ideal for ganking early. You can gank with this rune at around level 6, or in a lane that is pushed heavily to your tower.
Rune of Regeneration: This rune is also very good, you can do stupidly stupid dives, come out at low HP and Mana, then use this and gank some more. Tip; This rune will break if you get hit, so even if you have refraction on, you can still lose the regen rune's effect.
Rune of Double Damage: This rune is very good for you through out the game. Late game you can dish out a ton of damage with it, early game, just use Psi Blades and win the lane, mid game, gank with it.
Rune of Illusion: This rune is good for some mid game ganks, and late game DPS. Other than that, I feel that other heros can use this better, but late game I would say go for it, and early game get it only to refill your bottle.
This is the stage of the game where you either win, or fall behind with TA. She is so snowball oriented that if you use 2 minutes in a gank that fails, you are really far behind. This is mind, you should really be failing ganks, especially if you have friends to help you.
By the ending of this stage, you will want a Desolator. This item will seal the game for you, just find a low armor enemy, run up to him with your great move speed due to Phase Boots, Drum of Endurance and Yasha. Meld next to them, hit them and pop refraction, watch as the disintegrate from your -12 armor.
You should also be setting up traps, not only on top of the runes (great if your team doesn't by wards) but also to the entrances of jungles, or on the high ground mid, places where people will be. If a team fight breaks out near your traps, don't hesitate to use it, a 50% slow is game changing if they have to re-position.
This is where you ***es your situation, use this cheaklist:
Are you dying a lot? If no, why is the game not over? If yes, why?
Are you getting busted down? If so get a heart of tar***que. If you just need a little bit of surviveability, get a Butterfly. This is arguably the better choice, but it is all situational.
Use your Manta Style to help you push down towers, because your deso debuff makes your illusions do a fair bit of damage. Just aim to win the game, ganking probably isn't an option at this point.
Ganking is so important to Templar Assassin I thought it deserved it's own section just to go over how to gank with her. Her gankning power comes from her large damage out put, and her slow from Psionic Trap. It is best if you can gank a lane that is pushed close to your tower because you can place a trap where the enemies will run, have your prople go on them, you poop your trap, and hit them with a meld hit with a bunch of damagee and get a kill.
It is also possible to gank a lane that is pushed towards the other teams tower but it is riskier. You will want to be waiting in between the T1 adn T2 towers, just out of vision. Your team will go on them (you already have a trap set) and then as they run to their tower, you come out with Refraction on so you don't die, blow up your trap on them, and dive. Get the kill get out. The riskiest part of this is the creep wave. you come out into a creep wave, the gank is over and you might die.
All in all, ganking is what makes you so good of a hero, and with your moves, you can stay in a fight for far longer than you should be.
http://dotabuff.com/matches/523546371
Reason we won this game was because; 1. we had ravage, 2. both me and LS could stay in the fight, our team would get blown up, I would eat a large amount of damage too, but after that first wave of damage, I was too hard to kill. Just use Meld to dodge projectiles, and Refraction to dodge damage.
This build is farm and gank oriented. With you core items hovering at about 10k gold, you need quite a bit of farm to get powerful, but once that farm is achieved, you will be very hard to stop. Thankfully, after that initial gold pile, every item from then on is luxury.
The main part of this build that I would like you guys to keep in mind, is that you are not a farming carry, if you have the chance to farm for ten minutes or gank, GANK! in a more competitive look, you would be filling the 2 or 3 spot on the team.
Most of your items for TA are all bout fighting, so you thrive in a team that really wants to force fights, not a team that plays rat doto.
I like to get a defensive item after my Manta Style, a heart of the tarasque or a Butterfly depending on the situation. After one of those however, I go for a crystalis into Daedalus.
This build is very greedy. What you do is get a fast blink and a Desolator right after. This will allow you do use Refraction then blink on top of the person, Meld instantly, then right click. The faster you can do the blink meld combo, the better. After you blink combo the hero, place a trap where he has to run, when they get there, use the trap and clean up.
This is build is very greedy because if you get your items delayed just a littler, or fail a gank, you don't snowball like you would want to. However, if everything goes as planed, you can easily steamroll a team.
This build focuses on damage items mostly, so you are basically a glass cannon. But, that shouldn't matter too much.
Bottle: This will sustain your mana and HP through the game, it will also let you gank with runes at the best times, not when you get them. Also wins you mid pretty hard.
brown boots: They are boots, they make you fast.
Magic wand: Something you can turn your GG branches into and it can give you some burst HP and a full Refraction Meld combo.
Phase boots: The boots of choice because of the move speed and also the damage so you can utalise Psi Blades better.
Bongos: These are good because it gives stats, and you need them all, the STR for burst damage, AGI for damage, and INT for more spells. Also the move speed and the charges are nice.
Yahsa: move speed again, also more damage.
Deso: This item will take your burst physical damage through the roof.
Manta style: This will give you some stats (always good) and the illusions can get you out of some tight binds.
Butterfly: The evasion will save you some shield charges on Refraction and the damage and attackspeed is very good. also makes your manta illusions more tanky.
Heart: DO NOT GET THIS AND BUTTERFLY! Get butterfly over this every time, UNLESS the other team has a ton of burst damage that you have to deal with to even participate in the fight.
Daedalus: You are good a burst damage, so a damage item is good, and when you crit with this, you one shot supports most of the time. I wouldn't get this before a butterfly/heart because you need a defensive item to transition into the late game.
BKB: Disables are mean. Get this if the other team picked up 999999 disables.
Blink dagger:You can do some good escapes with this and great ganks with this, but it is the greediest item you can get on TA. This is because if you can't get your ganks off (If your team isn't helping out/the other team groups up at the 5 minute mark) you can't do anything for your team. This item will snowball you out of control though if you execute right. This item is also greedy because if you get this, you don't have a damage item, so you NEED your team to help you.
Friends: As a general rule of thumbm you like people with stuns and/or slows to set up your meld hits early game, from then on you need people who can soak up hte damage for you, this gives us this list of people;
Lion and 
Shadow Shaman: they both have a hex and a disable that will let you murder people very fast. On top of that they can clean up, if you don't have the damage to kill a person,with their burst damage.
Slark and 
Legion Commander: What do these heros have in common? A way to keep some one still, they go in, you follow up, and an easy kill is had.
Sven: He has a stun and can use your minus armor.
Foes: These people are just plain mean to you.
Batrider: The bane of TA. He can break your Meld with 
Flamebreak and with 
Firefly he can just do a drive by over you and spam 
Sticky Napalm until you die. He is easily your worst nightmare.
Dark Seer: This guy is mean because of ion shield a really good move in general, but it does damage at the 0.1 second mark, meaning that your shield will be gone in less than a second.
Pudge: I was iffy on putting him in here because you have a lot of tools against pudge, but his rot does damage at the 0.1 second mark like darkseer, so if there is a zues pudge on the other team, be careful.
Heros you like to play against:
These are heros you do well against.
Broodmother: You are ok against her. Your Psi Blades are like a cleave, witch is brood's greatest weakness.
Nature's Prophet and 
Enigma: Stop that push in its tracks.
Puck: You are really good in the mid lane versus Puck. psi blade harass, and you are good against what puck thrives at, burst damage. as long as you have your shield up, you can't die very easily too him.
I want to say that more people belong here. Tell me what you think in the comments.
I feel that TA is a good hero in general and has a lot of strength and synergies, however isn't very flexible.
Thank you for reading my guide, I really appreciate you reading it and all the love i got on my 
Crystal Maiden guide that you can read here.
I would like all and any CONSTRUCTIVE and HELPFUL critique you guys have. I am still new to writing guides, so if you could tell me if there is something you think could use more emphasis or more explanation, i would love to here it and will try to add it in.
Thank you for reading
-Mastadoom
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