"My Game is Haunted" An Adept's Guide for the Scary Carry

Who am I?

Hello lads, its good to see you. I'm BKvoiceover and this is my 4th guide on Dota Fire. This time we will be discussing a very unique and fun carry hero (personally one of my favorite carries) called Spectre. So sit back, enjoy, and as always comments, questions and concerns are always welcome :)


Author's Note: I would also like to thank sp12 whose guide on Spectre inspired me to write one of my own.

Introduction to the Spectre

: Spectre is an agility based carry that contains a plethora of interesting abilities that work around Spectre's amazing ganking and 1v1 abilities in the mid and late-game. Spectre is an interesting agility carry hero because you don't build her tanky with just armor (which you gain from agility) she tends to get HP items such as Vanguard, Heart of Tarrasque, and Black King Bar in certain situations where magic nukes are a problem. Spectre has some pretty cool abilites that make her very powerful with the correct item builds. Spectral Dagger is a great chasing ability as well as a great escape. Dispersion helps make you more tanky in the later game. Desolate makes you a very dangerous opponent in a 1v1 situation. Your ultimate Haunt acts as a global TP and makes you VERY dangerous ganker.

The Great and The Downright Evil

Great:
- Very Tanky.
- Global Presence with Haunt.
- Desolate deals pure damage.
- Good chasing ability.
- A fairly reliable escape and initiation mechanism.


Downright Evil:
- Very easy to gank in the early game.
- Low base damage, usually requiring a Quelling Blade to compensate.
- Low movement speed (295)
- babysitting supports are a must.
- Abilities have a high mana cost and long cooldown.

Spooky Skills

Spectral Dagger

: Spectral Dagger is a great initiation tool, a nice escape mechanism, as well as a chasing tool. The dagger will lock onto a specific target or it will go in the direction you click on the ground. Enemies hit by the dagger will take 50/100/150/200 magical damage as well, trail a long shadow path behind them, as well as being slowed by 18%. When moving along the shadow trail Spectre gains an 18% movement speed bonus as well as gaining free-pathing along the shadow path. Because of the utility this skill offers during ganks as well as the escape is provides we will usually skill this first.

Desolate

: Ever hear the saying "never 1v1 a [{Spectre]]" Well this is one of the reasons why. At max level you will deal an additional 65 PURE damage from your right-clicks if your target has no allies in their immediate vicinity. This is a great skill that can chip away at enemies with great haste which is why this skill should be maxed fairly quickly. You can choose to max this first or Spectral Dagger.

Dispersion

: This skill is more for the late game than anything else. This skill will block 22% of ALL incoming damage and reflect that damage equally onto units around you. This skill you will usually max last not because it is bad, but because the real utility will only be experienced in the late game when heroes begin dealing larger amounts of damage.

Haunt

: This is a very powerful and useful teamfight and ganking ability that allows you global space-making at a moments notice. You will spawn an illusion directly behind all enemy heroes that are alone at the time of the cast. The illusions cannot be controlled by you and deal a percentage of your damage. You will want to max this at the standard level 6, 11, and 16.

Reality

: Reality is a sub-ability of Haunt. When you activate Haunt you can use this skill to teleport globally and take the position of any HAUNT illusions that are still alive. This allows ganking and joining teamfights a breeze. Also you can continuously take the position of any illusions during the duration of Haunt.

Spooky Items

Starting Items #1

(Use this build if you are expecting trouble in the lane from a possible dual or tri offlane)

: Tangos will give you enough regeneration (with the help of babysitting supports) to last the laning stage.

: This item will help you with last hits since your base damage is not that great.

: You are very easy to gank in the early game so a Stout Shield is a viable pickup.

Starting Items #2

(If you are expecting little resistance from the offlane you can drop the Quelling Blade and pick up these items instead.

: Basic regen to make it through the laning stage.

: These will build into a Magic Wand later if you want one and they provide nice stats in the early game.

: You are still quite susceptible to ganks from the mid-lane so a stout shield is usually still a must.

Early Items

: Pretty much core on every hero.

: That Stout Shield can be upgraded to a PMS if you need more agi. stats, which Spectre loves.

: Those branches you bought earlier can build into a magic wand if you need the burst health/mana.

Standard Mid-Game (Go if you are not rushing radiance)

: These (and Power treads) are the main boots you will get on Spectre. As mentioned above Spectre has a lot of problems with damage and the +24 damage you get from these boots is great. Plus the speed boost will help your chasing ability.

: Drums are a very nice mid-game survivability item which will also help her killing ability. It is simply an all around good item.

: Such a great item for Spectre. This item will make your chasing ability even more deadly than I already is and supplement your lack of a disable. The agility stats are great and the active will make pickoffs a breeze.

Radiance Rush:

: Only, and I mean ONLY pick up a Radiance if you are certain that you can get it in under 20 minutes. 13-17 minutes is the preferable time, but once you get to about 25 minutes it just isn't worth it.

Late Game/Luxury (This will be a long list)

: This assists with making spectre tanky as well as giving her a nice bit of damage.

: This is a great item pickup for any Agility carry, but especially Spectre. The damage is good and also makes you more survivable by giving you a 30% evasion chance. All in all a good pick up but really only as a 3rd or 4th item pick up.

: One of the things that Spectre tends to lack throughout the game is damage. Once the enemy gets a BKB the pure damage that desolate deals becomes countered, plus in the late game heroes will be close together which counteracts the Desolate damage. The crits from Daedalus will allow you to better your late game damage.

: Spectre thrives off of dealing physical damage. With Desolator by your side you will be dealing a ****-ton of damage.

: Making Spectre tanky is one of your priorities with Dispersion in your arsenal. The extra HP will make you a super frontline tank and will send the enemy running for cover.

: Survivabilty and a great disable for the other team's hard carry are great. Pick up if you are expecting trouble from right clickers and other late game carries.

: A great pushing and teamfight item. The illusions gain desolate which makes killing lone heroes a breeze.

: Pretty situational, but I thought it was worth mentioning. This will increase your attack speed by a massive amount, give you a nice shield which will block damage thus making Spectre more tanky. This also gives you a nice little chunk of damage as well. This is situational however because this is a late game item that will probably be gotten close to last and doesn't give you a whole lot of damage.

: The big damage you get from this item as well as the true strike makes MKB a great counter to Butterfly and Heaven's Halberd carriers. The mini-stun also provides a nice, yet unreliable, way to cancel teleport scrolls.

>>> : For a melee carry like Spectre who needs to be tanky for the late game a Vanguard is a fairly common pickup for Spectre. The regen, damage block, and hp will also supplement Dispersion quite well. Still situational but is almost always a viable pickup on her. Also you can now extend on Vanguard by picking up a Crimson guard which will make you even more tanky.

Laning: Early Game (0-15 Minutes)

Spectre is very susceptible to ganks in the early game. If she gets stunned or silenced, then it is game over and you are now behind the opposing carry in farm. This is a position you never want to be in. This is why you must play this stage of the game very cautiously. Not to say you should play so passively you can't last hit. Make sure that you have lane supports to protect you from harass, as well as stack the pull camps to put you in a safe position.

Assuming that you are farming well and your lane supports are keeping the aggression and mid lane ganks off of you a good amount of last hits to have at the 10 minute mark would be 65 Last hits.

Laning: Mid-Game (15-35 Minutes)

By now you should have haunt online. This is your main ganking skill so be aware of possible kill opportunities. Also be aware of who you are ganking. Rule in your head "is using reality to secure this kill really necessary?" What I mean by this is that if the enemy position #5 Leshrac is running away and is close to death, simply pop haunt and let the illusion kill him off or get the assist gold. This will make sure you get a nice bit of assist gold but will not lower your farm rate because of you leaving the lane. If the enemy has a Shadow Fiend that has been farming well, failed a gank, and is running away on very low health, use Haunt and be there to secure that kill and get yourself a nice bit of gold.

At this point in the game the lane farming will begin to dissolve because of pushes and teamfights that require your presence. To continue your gold gain I would recommend either farming the jungle or split pushing lanes. Also Spectre will still be having some mana issues so be wary of those. A little side note as well, if Haunt is almost off of cooldown and a teamfight is about to breakout. Head back to base and regen a little bit then pop haunt and reality to join the fight. The sticky aura from the fountain will give you enough mana to dish out Spectral Dagger as well.

Laning: Late-Game (35-End)

As a hard carry, this is where Spectre really comes online. This is where your big items will be coming online, where your HP and damage should be sky high. You should still be getting gold from pushing towers and from teamfights, but you should also be farming whenever possible. Your team should avoid fights whenever Haunt is on cooldown otherwise you will be putting your team into a 4v5 situation when you should be past that stage already. Also be ready to abuse haunt as much as possible, and whenever someone is out of position in a fight make sure to punish them for it.

Scaretastic Farming Habits

Because of the large amount of gold that Spectre needs to come online and smash faces there are a few farming habits to get into as well as map awareness skills.

- Purchasing a

Quelling Blade will provide you with a nice bit of dps for farming. As stated earlier in the guide your base damage is less than ideal.
- Practice timing, Spectre has a very quiet attack sound so it is very hard to know if you are going to hit the creep in time, so continually practice timing your autoattacks to last hit efficiently.
- Positioning is super important, stay behind your creep wave and last hit from there, if the enemy attempts to aggress on you then your creeps will aggress on them, giving you a nice cushion to fall back on. This also means to avoid possible gank spots. If the enemy midlaner is missing, back up towards your tower.

Scary Friends and Scarier Foes

Spectre does well with a multitude of lane supports and gankers because of the amount of dps she can output in a short amount of time to combo with stuns and slows. As well as heroes that can provide vision of enemy units.

Some friends of Spectre include but are not limited to
- Vengeful Spirit
- Lion
- Bounty Hunter
- Slardar
- Storm Spirit
- Omniknight

Spectre is countered by anyone with a slow. A lot of Spectre's escapability comes from having movement speed. Also Stuns, Damage Drains, and armor debuffs make her much more susceptible to ganks, which makes you loose farm, which makes your die more often, which = gg.

Some of Spectre's enemies include but are not limited to
- Lion
- Crystal Maiden
- Venomancer
- Viper
- Shadow Fiend
- Tidehunter
- Razor

Conclusion

Thank you very much for reading my guide. I really hope this makes your Spectre games a scaretastic time and helps to make you one hell of a creepy, spooky, carry. Good day to you all and as always comments, questions, and concerns are welcome in the comments section.

See you on the battlefield,

-BK