Razor, Path of least Resistance

Introduction

Razor is a very interesting semi-carry, he excels against heroes with low mobility and prefers a more tanky approach rather than the classic dps build that most semi-carries go with, instead getting his damage from Static Link.
His Eye of the Storm and Plasma Field coupled with Unstable Current give him a decent presence in his ganks allowing him to net some early kills.

Razor's strength comes from being hard to kill and fast as lightning, he's generally built around those two concepts.

Skillset

A very decent aoe nuke that deals more damage the further away an enemy is from you, this is the skill that allows Razor to get those early kills in his ganks and on the lane. However this skill does not scale as well into lategame and slowly begins to fade away the further the game advances, it will always remain effective against supports and killing fleeing targets though. The nice thing about it is that it gives vision around Razor which helps against enemies trying to juke you. Hits invisible units.

The bread and butter on the Lightning Revenant, this is the skill that makes and breaks him, basically a free Divine Rapier in teambattles/ganks if you manage to pull it off (gives/drains around 224 damage in ideal circumstances). Best used on preferably tough and slow moving targets, try not to get baited into chasing an enemy too far in their territory. Works on magic immune units, gives vision of the linked unit but does not reveal invisible units.

Compliments his Static Link by slowing enemies trying to disable you and run away, this also makes Razor very annoying to kill for heroes with single target skills. Purges runes and various buffs that other heroes can empower their allies with. I choose to max out this skill last because it simply serves as an extension to keeping your enemies in range of your Static Link when you get disabled/nuked so this skill is kinda useless without the Static Link. Getting one early level of it is quite weak as well since the bonuses are so minimal. If you think you'll need the slow a bit more than the damage then feel free to alter you skill build by leveling the Static Link and Unstable Current in parallel to get the best of both worlds, or maybe keep a level 2 Static Link and max this afterwards.

Not one of the most reliable skills in DOTA2 but it ends up being a great skill in jungle chases and compliments even more Razor's concept of keeping a tag on a enemy with Static Link while preparing them with his ultimate for the killing blow(s). Damage type is physical so the more you hit the same target with this skill, the more damage it's going to do due to the armor reduction the skill gives with each hit.

When to pick Razor

As I said in the Introduction, Razor excels against slow moving targets allowing him to sap their damage by a great amount and then inflict it onto them or their allies. He's also ok against heroes with lots of single target skills because it allow his Unstable Current to proc quite often.

Early game you'll mostly be tagging supports and heroes that need to get close and personal in order to be effective, however late-game Razor's job is to nullify the enemy carry as much as possible, taking damage away from him and unleashing it on the enemy supports.


Heroes Razor is effective against

skeleton king doom bringer

Melee heroes and heroes with low mobility are naturally at a disadvantage against the Lightning Revenant.
Most support heroes will also have problems dealing with Razor.

Heroes Razor can't really deal with



They can usually break the Static Link without too many issues, most of their escape mechanisms are too spammable and/or they get such great movement speed boosts that not even a Phase Boots Razor can chase them down.
This does not stop you from Static Linking their supports and the pounding them once they decide to engage though.

Razor counters

All that we fear from this hero is his Rupture, there's nothing worse for a Razor than being obliged to stand still for such a huge amount of time. He should be easy enough to outlane and shouldn't pose a big threat if he has his ultimate on cooldown. Can really shut you down in teambattles if you don't have a Black King Bar.

Razor is most vulnerable to his gamestyle early-mid game because he ends up chasing enemies a bit too far sometimes and he happens to be above decent in jungle fights, Juggernaut also happens to be decent isolated heroes, one Omnislash and a Blade Fury can prove quite deadly to our Revenant, his ultimate should always something you should watch out for, even in lategame. You might have problems laning against him but once you get your speed and tankage up , he shouldn't pose much of a threat except when he has Omnislash off cooldown.

He has great control against you, he deals high damage and he deals it fast thanks to his Berserker's Blood, his Life Break will slow you whenever you're magic immune or not and his Burning Spear hurt. A very difficult foe to handle, best is to make him cast his ultimate on someone else so that then you might go on him... or you drop your link on one of his allies instead and pound him afterwards.

Again, a hard opponent to focus down due to Illusory Orb/ Phase Shift and he can keep you in an area with Dream Coil for quite a bit making you vulnerable to incoming firepower from his teammates. Similar concept to that of Bloodseeker except you can move around a bit with Puck.

He has way too many ways to keep you down, his Poison Attack will keep your movement and attack speed low, Nethertoxin will cut through your already paper hp, Corrosive Skin will slow your attack speed and movement speed even more and finally Viper Strike sets you up for the kill rather easily, the slow also goes through magic immunity so there is no way around this. Deadly on the lane and in teamfights, keep and eye out for this guy.

Remember when I said that Razor's role lategame is to neutralize the damage coming from the enemy carry? Well, Sniper is one of the harder carries to keep under control especially in lategame, he will be mostly sitting behind his team making it hard for you to get through and he will hurt you and your teammates with his damage and lucky Headshots, can easily finish you off with Assassinate and further burden your movement on the battlefield with Shrapnel. Try to end the game before lategame, he's still a easy target to gank during early-mid game though.

Beware of Upheaval, this guy does not need to try hard to take you out of teambattles, stay far from his Upheaval aoe and hope one of your allies cancels his channeling so you can start being active, otherwise, the teambattle is probably already lost. Becomes rather problematic in the later stages of the game when his Upheaval is fully leveled up.

His Fiend's Grip goes through magic immunity and his Nightmare can keep you in one spot for a long while, also he likes taking away the damage of his enemies as well with Enfeeble. Not the best guy to go against with the Lightning Revenant.

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Slows will probably hurt you way more than stuns do. Beware of burst damage in the early stages.

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Razor synergy

One of the few heroes that can be where the Lightning Revenant goes, thanks to his sprint ability, his Slithereen Crush coupled with Amplify damage and the fact that the hero is popular for being able to take the heat of his allies makes Slardar a unique ally to have around.

Behold Upheaval in all of it's might, teambattles are going to be a breeze with this guy around if he doesn't get his channeling stopped. Very easy teambattles for Razor when Warlock is on the job.

You can continue to sap away damage from a enemy hero while he is Nightmared, pretty good imo, sure it kinda limits you to standing around to one point for 5 seconds but that's better than having an enemy dictate your moves.

Track gives vision of enemy targets and a decent amount of movement speed while Jinada can help Razor have a easier time keeping a tag on his enemies with Static Link. Maybe not the best heroes to have together in the same team though, they both need to have the heat taken off them and none of them really excel at that except Razor in mid-lategame if he had a good early game that is.

Razor is generally fine with any hero that has a slow or a stun, he just needs some time to get some damage running from his Static Link and maybe some hits from his Eye of the Storm and he should be good to go.
Not much synergy is required for a Razor, he's built in such a way that he can make his own optimal situations to get his skills to maximum potential.

Runes

As a solo mid player/hero you want to keep a close eye on those runes, don't hesitate to scout top or bot if you manage to push the mid lane early game to the enemy tower.

Haste is your best gank rune followed by Double Damage and Invisibility.

Haste

Best rune you could ask for on a Razor, enemies will have a hard time focusing you down without proper disables and you can easily drain damage out of any enemy you encounter without the risk of them breaking the link except heroes with escape mechanisms, off course.

Illusion

Just like I said in all my other guides, Illusion is simply not such a good rune to get early game. May be used to towerdive and to scout inside enemy territory and in lategame they can be used to push rather well. Bad rune to get on a Razor, maybe leave it to an ally.

Invisibility

If you intend to pull out a gank or roam a bit in the enemy jungles for some easy targets, this might do it for you, however if you have more position dependent heroes in your team like Earthshaker I suggest you let them take it.

Double Damage

Not the best rune on Razor early game but begins to be felt a bit more in mid-lategame. I suggest you leave this rune to heroes like Night Stalker, Bounty Hunter or Spirit Breaker in the early-mid stages of the game, later on it's debatable.

Regeneration

Excellent lane sustainability rune, good on everyone, just as good on Razor

Early game, laning phase and counterganks

I prefer Razor as a solo mid, the fast levels he gets make for strong counterganks and decent ganks.
He can also sidelane quite easily as he doesn't get that much of a penalty from it, his ganks simply aren't that strong like that of other dedicated gankers.

If you have a stronger level dependent ganker in your team and you think your team will actually need the ganks, then I suggest you let him take mid.

A gank from a level 7 Razor is not as strong as a gank from a level 7 Pudge for example.

In mid lane Razor doesn't have such a strong presence, his damage is little, his range is average and he relies on his nuke for proper harassment.

If the enemy mid laner does not have high damage or if he is a melee, Razor should have no problems dominating the lane and getting his core fast.
Focus on last-hitting rather than denying.

If you are against a ranged enemy mid laner your best chance of harassing him would be if he is stuck in the middle of the lane where he loses sight of you, there, you can pull some cheap shots on him.

Use Plasma Field to harass him and farm creeps in the same time, if he gets ballsy and goes up the hill near your tower Static Link him and start whipping him. You should do this once you have at least two levels Plasma Field otherwise it will be quite useless on the 1st level.
Do not be afraid to trade hits with the enemy midlaner if he is Static Linked, this is one of the ways how Razor maintains his lane control wins skirmishes.

Watch how the creepwave is positioned and the number of creeps of each side, do not engage when the enemy has more allied creeps with him than you, he's still Static Linkable in those situations but do not attack him or you will attract creep agro on yourself, either wait for your creeps to join in so that they may get some heat off you or, if he runs back, follow him a bit and then once your are out of the range of his creeps agro, hit him a couple of times.

Be careful to what type of heroes you do this to, the tide can turn just as easily if he has allies around or skills that work well on isolated targets.

Do not take unnecessary risks, Razor is the type of hero that needs to transition safely to mid-game to have an impact.

The two sets of Tangoes and the Healing Salve should be enough to keep you safe from ranged harassment and lvl 3/5 nukes.

If you can be aggressive, be aggressive otherwise stay defensive, focus strictly on last-hitting and wait for the enemy to make mistakes, once he does, make him pay.

As soon as you have your Phase Boots you can you can go gank if you are really required on one of the sidelanes and you are sure to net some kills but if the lanes are fine then continue farming, keep a Healing Salve and a Town Portal Scroll in your inventory and focus on counterganks.

If you do get some good runes early game, you may attempt some early ganks but make sure the lane you are ganking has enough disables/damage to actually get those kills otherwise it's just going to be wasted time.

By the end of this stage of the game you should have your Phase Boots perhaps a Magic Wand and a part of your Vanguard being either a Ring of Health or a Vitality Booster (I suggest you get the booster first if you can). If you had some good ganks/counterganks you might even have a full Vanguard.

Mid game, mending wounds, ganking and pushing

If you had a bad early game you're probably standing just on a Phase Boots, do not go out ganking like this, you are probably under-leveled and definitely underfarmed. Focus on getting that Vitality Booster as soon as you can and take no risks, countergank only, tp in when you think you can make a difference, otherwise don't waste your time, you are probably already in bad shape anyway.

Perhaps you should put more points into that Unstable Current instead of Static Link if you are getting focused down fast, this is for you to decide.

Once your get that Vitality Booster you can act a bit more cocky and maybe pull out some ganks, if you are unsuccessful in your ganks then the enemy is probably already in better shape than your team, or you ganked a ungankable lane where you don't have allies that are prepared for your ganks (no stuns, slows or nukes).
Direct your attention to farming that Vanguard and keep safe if so.

If you had a good early game you probably already have your core items at this stage of the game, this is when Razor turns into a mighty beast. Proceed to gank kill-able lanes.
Have your allies start off with a disable while you are nuking the enemy with Plasma Field from the fog of war, tag one of them with Static Link and stay close while getting in some cheap shots, don't forget to have activated your Eye of the Storm beforehand.
You should easily dispose of one enemy with your autoatacks, if his ally sticks around, then you can probably focus him down in more or less 5 attacks with the huge damage boost from Static Link and maybe a Plasma Field to finish him off.
If the lane is pushed and you have creeps at the enemy tower use this opportunity to inflict some heavy damage on it with your autoattacks, perhaps even get a tower out of this if your allies can help you.

You can either gank with Town Portal Scroll or simply by Phase Bootsing all the way to the lane, the choice is yours, if the enemy warded though, Town Portal Scrolls is the way to go.

Maintain some between farming and ganking while emphasizing on ganking and pushing.

Now you should decide what is your next item.
This is generally tricky for Razor since he is rather flexible, it's true that he needs to keep tanking but there are many options for tanking that serve different purposes, so choose wisely.

If the DOTA Gods were kind to you and your team had a decent early-game you should be capable of ending the game now, waste no time and take those towers down with your new found powers!!

Late game, sabotaging carries and winning teamfights

If for some reason you were unable to finish it in mid-game then there's probably a unforeseen strategy that the enemy has been using to keep you away from their towers.

Things get difficult for Razor at this stage of the game if he had a really bad start.
Reaching lategame means you are bound to meet the enemy carries face to face.

If you had a bad early game, you are probably easy to take out, so remain hidden in the fog of war before teamfights, you are still somewhat effective at this stage though even if underfarmed, getting big on Static Link can still turn the tide of a battle, as long as you remain unnoticed. It's best Static Linking isolated enemies if you want to keep a low profile.

You are probably best getting your damage from the enemy supports/tanks rather than the carries if you are in this type of situation, instead of neutralizing the enemy carry will should be mostly focusing on just killing the supports as fast as you can and then start giving the carry some hell with the damage that you got from his supports, all this while striving to remain alive. Spam your Plasma Field as often as possible.

If you had a good early-game you are probably very hard to take out for the enemy team and also a main target.
You can afford to take the front-lines in these situations if nobody else is capable of handling the damage, and your allies support it (acting as bait for strong allied initiation, lots of supports/stuns). Instead of Static Linking the supports/tanks you should be trying to get to the enemy carry and start sapping away his damage, be careful though, in lategame things are very different from early-mid-game.

Damage is high at this stage of the game and you can be focused down, it's a bit tricky but you need to have good timing when you start sapping away damage, if he can nearly kill you if he focuses then maybe you should wait first until the enemy carry commits to a fight with one of your allies, then Static Link him and make him regret his choice.

If the enemy carry is kept safe inside his team then you need to fight a way to split them up, this is usually achieved by baiting and getting the team in uncomfortable positions.
You can easily bait or send a support to do it and then have your team come from the sides or behind and strike at their weakest links (the squishy guys).
Or if your team has good initiation, use this opportunity to catch them all in one shot.

Static Link has a 20 seconds cooldown at the last level so you'll only get to use it once, max. twice per teamfight, the way you pick your targets can win or lose the teamfight.

If you win the teambattle and are capable, continue with a push, otherwise go home while checking for runes and, if your team didn't die but was just severely wounded, maybe you guys could attempt Roshan before the enemy team re-spawns, this can be dangerous though so be sure you have the place warded and counterwarded.

Avoid getting caught alone, stick with your team and whatever you do, do it together whenever it's ganking with smoke, pushing or farming, one small mistake can cost you the game at this stage.

If the enemy carry is one of those type of heroes that is hard to keep up with and your team doesn't have many disables, then ignore them in the teamfight and get your damage from the enemy tank, or the hardest thing to kill, that way you're sure your allies won't instantly kill your Static Linked target so you can actually get some damage in, then autoattack the enemy carry and the others as many times as possible, try to avoid focusing the tank unless your whole team is determined to kill him.

Item choice

Starting items
- 2 sets of Tangoes
- Healing Salve
- 4 Iron Branches

The Healing Salve and the 2 sets of Tangoes are there to get you through early game harassment. Razor can play a aggressive lane with his Static Link so even if the enemy can't harass you, you can force small skirmishes or make them take heavy harassment and lose xp and farm.

The 4 Iron Branches help you last-hit a bit better, seeing how Razor has such low damage in the early stages.


Core items

Greatly complements Razor's lack of natural damage and further improves his chasing capabilities along with Unstable Current when keeping a tag on his enemies with Static Link.

Provides a good amount of hit points for the price you pay, Razor really needs some tankage because his natural health pool is so poor early-game, especially for the game-style his skills dictate.

Not truly a core item but the status this item offers along with that "extra life" in those marginal situations you might find yourself into, can easily make it worth it's price.

Total gold: 4134



Possible extensions

A quite popular item on Razor, gives a really welcome boost to Eye of the Storm allowing it to target towers and strike more often. The hit points boost it offers is also a very nice addition to Razor's status. Good if you intend to end the game with fast pushes and the enemy already has trouble dealing with you just having your Core items.

A disable-heavy team can be problematic for Razor, getting this assures your freedom of movement in teambattles and guarantees 5 seconds of Static Link. Great item to get when getting gunned down in teambattles by magic damage, stuns and slows. Beware of skills that go through magic immunity.

Excellent item for Razor, give a reliable slow to work with your Static Link and tons of hit points, it's only downside is that it's so hard to farm.

Gives much more hit points than Eye of Skadi does but otherwise it doesn't offer much else except the percentage regeneration you get when you are out of combat. Great item to get on Razor as well .

Razor's role is to tank in lategame, and what better way to tank than disabling enemy firepower? The Disarm ability this item gives is a invaluable tool in the hands of the Revenant. Offers a unreliable slow, a decent amount of hit points and grants you 25% evasion, not a bad item at all, really helps against stuff like Ursa. The Disarm ability does not go through magic immunity though.

Best gotten after a Vanguard. Good to get is the enemy has a lot of nukers, further empowers Razor's tankability.

Another popular item on the Revenant. Gives a decent amount of hitpoints, movement speed and a unreliable slow. Now with the introduction of Heaven's Halberd I don't see many reasons to get this item on Razor anymore, you get more for your money's worth by investing in the halberd instead, but if you skipped Phase Boots for Power Treads and you feel like you need more movement speed then don't hesitate to build this instead.

Good item to get after you already have some hp items. Good synergy with your Eye of the Storm and greatly helps your dps output. Great against armor reduction.

Not one of the most interesting items for Razor as he only truly benefits from the Spell Block ability. Good if you're trying to avoid skills that go through magic immunity but then again they might as well cancel it with a normal skill. Not such a great item to get but makes Razor even more annoying to keep down. Makes you impossible to catch by carries that depend on one precious single target skill to get to their targets (ex: Lifestealer-> Open Wounds, skeleton king->hellfire blast, Spectre-> Spectral Dagger etc...)

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What about Manta Style or criticals and lifesteal ? How about Mjollnir, Drum of Endurance, Blade Mail?

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The only problem I have with this item is that the illusions don't get the damage boost from Static Link, so there isn't much point to getting this item if you don't benefit from the active. If you want speed then Phase Boots are going to help you with that. Manta Style doesn't give much hp and it is really expensive for what little useful things it gives to Razor. The up side of this item is that it can help pushes, can confuse enemies and dispel certain debuffs.

In theory this looks really good, getting high criticals with the extra damage from Static Link. I have actually tested this in-game with a friend, if you get a full Static Link duration, without any damage items, at level 25, you are going to deal criticals of around 500 damage per hit. That is at best average imo, if you want your damage to go higher you will be required to build even more damage items which sort of defeats the purpose of playing a Razor.

Similar concept to criticals, sounds like excellent synergy with Static Link. My problem with these items is that they don't really offer much tankability (except Satanic), you're not going to hit a whole lot but when you are, you are going to hurt. You need items that keep you alive while a Lion drops a Hex on you and lifesteal items don't help that concept at all. I would consider Satanic as a very lategame item though... unless I'm full on slots with other useful items already.

Increase attack speed + damage boost from Static Link = epic damage, also the active Mjollnir gets happens to be quite good on Razor. Well, there's only one reason to get this item: the attack speed boost. The orb effect is easily ignored imo. Similar problem with the other items, it offers too little for Razor and is too expensive, if you want attack speed, get a Hyperstone and proceed to build a Assault Cuirass, fits him way better. Nice item if an ally manages to get it and drop that Static Charge on you. Also Maelstrom does not help a whole lot in the early levels, one reason more to not get it.

A decent item in my opinion but a bit too expensive for my taste, the speed boost it gives won't be that needed on the Revenant once you get your Phase Boots and it doesn't offer a whole lot of hit points either. I would consider getting this after my Core if I'm having no trouble. You'll reach 507ms with the active and you'll be just as hard to catch as those Invokers you keep seeing running around with Wex and Drum of Endurance.

Most heroes that get this item don't make it out alive, they plan on getting focused and probably die, that's not really a good option for Razor. I guess it can work well against nukers and the item isn't that expensive. Doesn't seem to do much against autoattackers. You should probably get some hp items before getting this.

I consider Drum of Endurance, Blade Mail and Manta Style as ok items but most of the time you're better off tanking up imo.

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I generally end most of my games with Phase Boots, Vanguard, Magic Wand and Aghanim's Scepter if it's a game we end in mid-game. In lategame I go for Heaven's Halberd and either Heart of Tarrasque, Assault Cuirass or Eye of Skadi or a combination of two. I rarely needed Black King Bar.

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Notes

• In the original dota, Razor's Static Link used to break instantly when a enemy entered in the fog of war while in DOTA2 it seems that the link itself gives vision of heroes trying to juke you which is, of course, a welcome buff to our Revenant.
• In our games we often used Razor to counter stuff like skeleton king and Lifestealer.
• Looking at his skill icons on full size makes me realize how beautiful they are lol...
• Teams composed of 2 or more heroes that have aoe skills and few single target ones are obviously going to have a easier time against Razor than the ones which focus on targeting enemies directly. His speed is still going to prove quite useful though against stuff like Avalanche and Split Earth.
• Aghanim's Scepter makes Razor quite the pusher, his Eye of the Storm turns into something like Diabolic Edict.
• In most of the games I had, the moment Razor starts going for damage items, that's when he starts to get owned at a increasingly steady pace. Coincidence? I think not.
• It's really ideal to end games mid-game with a Razor around, he isn't as devastating in lategame imo. He practically peaks at level 16 but he already gets a very strong presence once he has his 3 main skills maxed out.
• Shadow Blade is also popular on Razor but I wouldn't waste so much gold on a item that gets countered by 180 gold :-|.
• Before his remake Razor just a autoattacker with weaker a Radiance as ultimate and chain lightning, can't say I miss the old him, the current concept he has is pretty interesting at it seems Icefrog is trying to push this one step further with Slark.
• In harder to win teambattles you shouldn't drop you link straight away, that will put a bounty on your head instantly, instead see how the battle goes, if your team can keep down the enemy team for some time, then that's when you should strike, try to synchronize the assault with your team so that you can get most of your damage in the teamfight.
  
  On the other hand, if the enemy has high damage and is decimating your team, try to draw fire from them, cast a Plasma Field and start draining their carry, if they don't help him, you're going to stomp them in the end, this applies when the carry is hard to get to ofc.
• Master the way you cast your Plasma Field, try to get as many enemies as possible with the maximum damage, otherwise the skill isn't going to prove of much use later on, in teambattles.