Riki: I slide between the sunbeams [In-depth guide]
Safadinhu
May 1, 2012
Introduction
Permanent Invisibility is the trademark of Rikimaru, The Stealth Assassin. With awesome ganking potential, your role should be roaming around and pop behind your enemies with no mercy. Armed with silence, DPS and great scouting abilities you'll be one of the greatest terrors against an inexperienced team.
Riki in Pub Play
Pub Stomp! This will always happen when you have minimum idea of what you're doing and your enemies are too lazy at buying counters against you. Keep in mind that if you play it right no one will commend you, but guess what happens when doing a single mistake...
Riki in Competitive Play
Not often picked, his stealthiness is easily countered by items and other heroes' abilities. Besides doing physical damage and silencing one or two opponents, your contribution in team fights aren't much, this usually leads captains to pick more versatile carriers.
Pros & Cons
PROS
+ Great Ganker
+ Decent Carrier
+ Escape mechanisms
+ Nice disable
+ Scouting potential
CONS
- Easily countered
- Very fragile
- Focused in battles
- Bad reputation when playing it wrong
Stats
Basic
Str: 17 (initial) + 2 (per level)
Agi: 34 (initial) + 2.9 (per level)
Int: 14 (initial) + 1.3 (per level)
Hit Points: 473
Mana: 185
Damage: 48-52
Armor: 5.76
You have a great agility gain, which leads to high damage output and armor. But your health is low, and you have poor strength per level.
Advanced
Attacks / Second: 0.78 (initial)
Movement Speed: 300
Sight Range: 1800 (day), 800 (night)
Attack Range: 128 (melee)
Attack Duration: 0.3 (point), 0.3 (backswing)
Cast Duration: 0.4 (point), 0.51 (backswing)
Base Attack Time: 1.7
Average stats here, but notice that your casting backswing is pretty high. I advise you to cancel the animation of your smoke screen.
Skills Descriptions
Smoke Screen
Throws down a smoke bomb, silencing and slowing enemy units in an area while causing them to miss on most attacks. Lasts 6 seconds.
Range: 425
Radius: 250/275/300/325
Duration: 6
Miss Chance: 40%/50%/60%/70%
Attack and Movement Speed Slow: 25%
Cooldown: 13
Mana Cost: 75/80/85/90
Notes
- The Smoke Screen will not Silence castable items.
- The after usage animation is pretty high, you can get an extra hit by cancelling it.
- Can't be blocked by
Linken's Sphere
- Enemies under the effect of
Black King Bar will ignore it.
Blink Strike
Teleports behind the target unit, striking for bonus damage if it is an enemy.
Range: 750
Bonus Damage: 30/60/90/120
Cooldown: 20/15/10/5
Mana Cost: 50
Notes
- Bonus Damage is Magical and dealt before Riki's regular attack.
- Always teleport to the back of target, forcing a backstab.
- Can be used on allies (no damage applied).
-
Linken's Sphere and
Black King Bar will prevent blink.
Backstab
If Riki attacks from behind, bonus damage is applied based on his current agility.
Damage Bonus: 0.5/0.75/1.0/1.25 * Agility
Notes
- Any illusions of you won't have the bonus.
- Bonus damage can't be evaded.
- Will not work if you're under Doom.
- Does not contribute to lifesteal
Permanent Invisibility
permanent invisibility
Riki fades into the shadows, staying permanently invisible except while attacking or using abilities. While silenced, Riki will be visible.
Fade Time: 3/2.25/1.5
Notes
- Using items will reveal you.
- Any source of silence will reveal you.
- You can fade even if stunned.
Smoke Screen
Build
I usually get this at level 1 because it's your only skill that can really make a difference on a level 1 team fight. With only one point, you already have maximum slow (25%) and duration (6 sec).
We're maximizing it only after blink and backstab though, since the improvements will be only miss chance and radius.
Offensive usage
Smoke Screen is your ganking core value, completely disables your opponent due to the silence, slow and miss chance.
To achieve maximum performance you should place it in a way that the enemy hero will take the longest time possible to get out of it. Which is usually with him being in the middle of smoke when it triggers. So, generally speaking:
- If the enemy is standing still: you'll have an easy time aiming the middle of it, it takes about 3-4 seconds for an enemy with average movement speed to get out of it.
- If the enemy is moving: Tail him, and predict his position after about 0.5 seconds. Aim the center of the smoke at that point.
Note
The perfect spot for a smoke throw may not be the middle. This includes the situation where your opponent is harassing your tower (so it's dangerous to walk ahead), he's jungling too close of trees or neutrals, or you have the opportunity to silence more than one hero. Remember to be dynamic, you're invisible, so in most situations you'll have time to think twice.
Defensive Usage
The slow and silence from smoke screen can save you in many situations, especially when you get revealed by
Dust of Appearance.
Throw it in the way that you're being chased, but always remember: Use it ahead of you. If you cast it backwards there will be an animation delay for turning your hero.
Blink Strike
Build
You should max this first. The damage increase and cooldown reduction for each level is very great. Having blink strike at maximum level, means a 120 damage (90 after reduction) nuke every 5 seconds. This may not appear so great, but remember that it will position you behind your opponent and score a nice backstab hit.
Offensive usage
The key of this skill is not its magical damage, but positioning you and fast recharge. In team fights use it to reach the enemy casters and heavy disablers and try to silence them before they could do much trouble.
Note
NEVER "save" this skill to last hit an opponent or steal a kill from your partner. Use it whenever possible, and again when the cooldown runs off.
Defensive usage
You can blink on any organic unit. The blink range is about 700 and you can jump through trees and cliffs if you have sight! So keep this in mind. Just be careful when blinking on an allied hero to not call attention on him.
Passive Skills
Backstab
I get one point in this skill at level 4, and then max it after blink strike for two reasons:
- It depends on agility: your damage output will not be very high without your core items that boosts agility.
- It has a condition to trigger: you must be behind your opponent (I suppose 100-120 degrees), otherwise you get no bonus damage.
Permanent Invisibility
Permanent Invisibility
Always get it when available and start ganking! See Playing as Riki section.
Recommended Build
Starting Items
Analyze the enemy team and check if there are a lot of early game lane controllers and harassers like Huskar, Silencer, Lion, Clinkz. If positive I would start with:
Otherwise, you should focus on maximizing your farming capabilities:
You can also go for this build if laning with a babysitter.
Early game
Aim for these items:
The Poor man's shield will help you with farming, by boosting your damage and preventing receiving too much.
Magic Stick / Magic Wand works great on you due to your stealth. You can get a lot of free charges just by standing invisible near enemies.
Boots of speed is a must, but go for treads if you had no troubles farming.
Early Game Optional
If don't like
Magic Wand or feel like not getting it, these two items are viable options to regen your mana and boost your survivability. Both are expensive, so I only recommend them if you had a really great time farming.
The
Urn of Shadows is very interesting for the quick regen you can get after killing an enemy, 400 HP is almost half of your mid game health.
Mid game
At this point you should already be ganking (see section below for details), now your main goal is to get:
Diffusal Blade works great on Riki because:
- Extra agility that synergize well with your backstab.
- The Purge ability (see general strategy below for details).
If you're having a really bad time and is pretty sure that you can't get your Diffusal Blade, build this up and keep trying to gank with your partners:
Late game
There is a lot of viable options here (see item discution section).
If in doubt, stick with:
Generally speaking: Butterfly is not always the best choice, but is always a good choice.
- Grants extra damage and extra agility (wich means more extra damage).
- Extra attack speed (raises even more your DPS).
- Evasion which is useful in carrier vs carrier scenario, and will make you almost invincible when fighting under your smoke.
Playing as Riki
Early game, keyword: survive
Riki is a strong ganker, but your damage output depends on items. My early game recommendation is that you focus on farming and keep defensive.
Lane preferably with a partner, dire top or radiant bottom. Mid is also viable until you reach level 6, then you should switch since you'll start ganking.
Always try to buy your items as soon as you get the money, this way you'll prevent money loss in case of death. Bring them with the courier, so you'll never leave the leave and reach level 6 faster.
In case a good early game gank opportunity arises, remember that your most powerful weapon at this time will be the smoke. Try to flank your opponents and throw the
Smoke Screen in their path. But at this point is pretty hard to score a kill alone.
Mid Game, keyword: roam
I know it's not true, but I'll assume mid game starts when your reach level 6.
At this point, if you've managed to farm your
Power Treads,
Poor Man's Shield and
Magic Wand consider yourself a killing machine.
At level 6, it's unlikely that enemies in all lanes will have counters for you, so watch if any lane is too much pushed by them, teleport in the previous tower so they can't see you coming, silence, blink and score.
Remember, as soon as you have Permanent Invisibility stop farming creeps and try to farm heroes. Because it's the only moment of the game that no one may have a counter against you.
Game can be won here by ruining enemies farming.
Late game, keyword: caution
Late game is all about team battles, and in that case someone will always have something against you (assuming decent players). Always check enemies inventory and keep in mind who is the
Gem of True Sight or
Dust of Appearance carrier, also verify if is there are any enemies with
Sentry Ward count = 1.
Do not initiate, and think twice before scouting. If your team is not warding do it.
Join a fight after it began, but before enemy casters can throw their most devastating abilities. Focus casters and fragile heroes, and try to use your
Smoke Screen on the highest number of enemies.
Prevent Being Countered
In this section I'll give you general tips on how to prevent the many ways that your enemies can counter you.
Items
The debuff from this item can only be removed by activating
Manta Style. Since your
Smoke Screen will not prevent item usage, it's useless trying to kill its carrier.
If get revealed by it, either stay out of combat or jump into someone for a certain kill even with the risk of your own death.
Always watch enemies inventories, this way you'll know when someone place a ward. You can easily counter it by using
Dust of Appearance.
You can't do much against a gem besides killing its carrier. But only focus him on a team battle if not so hard to kill. The time you waste trying to kill 4k HP
Pudge with a gem could do much better slaying a supportive
Dazzle.
Note
Riki himself is a reliable "invi-counter" and gem carrier.
If you manage to kill someone that carries a gem you can consider taking it depending on who the enemy team consists.
But I won't recommend you to buy one (maybe in late game), you can rely on
Dust of Appearance to counter enemies like
Bounty Hunter or
Clinkz.
You can Purge the summon unit that gives True Sight with the
Diffusal Blade. It'll instantly die.
Heroes Skills
amplify damage
You can Purge yourself with
Diffusal Blade, or split with
Manta Style. Any of these actions will remove the debuff.
These are your worst nightmares, you can't do nothing. Fall back, or try to do a nice backstab damage on your opponents before dying.
Alternative Build
This is a personal build I tested looking for some fun, the goal is to rush a Tier 1 item, which is usually a Butterfly, 
Desolator or 
Divine Rapier.
You should aim getting it at 20 minute mark. To achieve this, you can't leave the battlefield, so you'll want some life and mana regen.
This can bring a lot of fun in pubs, but will probably be easily countered by good players.
Starting Items
Similar to the recommended build, but you're getting the ring of protection for a quick
Tranquil Boots.
Core Items
Notice that this will cost you less than 2000 gold, which can be rapidly farmed, and gives a somewhat solid build if you're a player with good awareness.
I recommend
Sage's Mask to help you ganking with
Smoke Screen, and it can be used later on a
Vladmir's Offering.
The
Bracer can be sold when close to your rushed item, so you're losing only 250 gold.
Rushed Item
Choose your weapon!
After that, I recommend that you disassemble your
Tranquil Boots and create:
Item Discussion
I'll explain below my point of view for almost all items on Riki, feel free to comment so we can improve this section.
Boots
Recommended
Probably the best choice on Riki, gives you decent MS, attack speed and extra agility (which means damage). It's also versatile, you can swap to strength if going under lots of nukes, or to intelligence if you're in need of mana for that last blink to get a kill.
Recommended
Great mobility and life regen, I consider it a good option if you're having farming problems and pretend to make a
Vladmir's Offering late game.
Situational
Grants awesome mobility, it's very good for scouting and pushing, but you shouldn't rush this due the high cost. I consider a late game option replacing your treads and freeing a Teleport Scroll slot.
Rejected
Damage is good, but gaining agility is way better because of your backstab. Using Phase also reveals you.
Rejected
You don't have great mana problems, and you're not the best hero to carry it as a support for your team.
Orb Effect
Recommended
Great choice. Synergize well with your backstab, works for purging enemy heroes under your smoke and prolong their silence, or chasing an escaping opponent. Not to mention the awesome extra damage from the feedback. This item can cause a hard time for your opponents caster and support.
Situational
This can be a useful option if you want a cheap orb effect, either for an early game ganking potential or as a mid game optional bad farming.
Situational
You're already very fragile, this can work early game for killing a lonely hero under your smoke, but will bring problems mid / late game.
Situational
The damage from the feedback will do much better than the armor reduction. But if your team consists of other armor breaking heroes, this item can do a good job on you.
Rejected
The Attack Speed is very good, but we should focus on boosting agility and the price of these items aren't worthy on Riki compared to a Butterfly.
Rejected
If you want to slow your enemies the purge on Diffusal will be enough to kill them in time.
Rejected
If you want lifesteal, go for a Vladmir Offering instead. Satanic won't boosts your main stat. Get this only if you want to use a dominated creep for some reason.
Caster
Situational
This item is extremely versatile and has many uses, so I'll never deny it on any hero. If you feel like you can use it for escaping or trapping an enemy go for it.
Situational
Can't deny it as this is a strong disable and I've seen many heroes carrying it. If you know what you're doing, go for it.
Rejected
The summons can't you help that much unless by finding hidden Sentry Wards and maybe pushing a lane, if you need the true sight go for a gem or dust. I don't think you're a good carrier for this.
Rejected
The movespeed can be useful, but you already have a disable from Diffusal. If you really need a stronger one, go for a Scythe of Vyse
Dagon
Rejected
Feel free to troll with it =)
Rejected
You do not rely on magical damage.
Rejected
The Diffusal slow will work better for the same price.
Rejected
This will not improve your hero abilities in any way, if you need the stats there are better options.
Rejected
Again, if for some reason you want a stronger disable, go for a Scythe of Vyse.
Rejected
Cool. Double Smoke Screen = GG.
Weapons
Recommended
Definitly yes, perfect combination with the miss chance under your smoke and the extra damage from your back stab.
Situational
Your backstab is better than any critical, cause it always trigger when you're in the right position. Go for it only if you already have enormous agility and attack speed.
Situational
This can work after you have decent attack speed. But you'll have a better disable option with diffusal.
Situational
Can be useful as a finishing move, but never get it if enemy team relies on magical damage.
Situational
Focus on agility, not raw damage, but it's your call since its damage is high and the mini-stun can be useful in some situations.
Armlet
Rejected
Your health is too low to wield this.
Rejected
Great! Use this and an Invisibility rune and see if you can disappear from the game
Rejected
You should be ganking, not farming in the jungle. Also, your mobility is not as high as an Anti-Mage to quick raise a lot of gold from creeps.
Rejected
The raw damage will do no good. Also it will reveals your position to your enemies so they can easily counter with Dust.
Rejected
You should know the implications of getting this item. So ask yourself the following questions:
Do I have a Butterfly?
Does my team fail hard?
Are we losing?
Do I want to give it a last chance on my own?
If all answers are "yes", then get a Divine Rapier.
(Of course, if you're looking for some fun you can rush it with my alternative build =p)
Armor
Recommended
The best lifesteal option on Riki, but I do not recommend you to rush it since the bonus damage from
Blink Strike won't contribute to it.
Situational
Always a viable option if the enemy team relies on magical damage.
Situational
Late game option if facing annoying carriers.
Vanguard: Not so good on Riki, getting a
Poor Man's Shield and a Strength
Power Treads wil work similar.
Situational
If the enemy team consists of lots of disables that doesn't include effect that go through BKB like
Chronosphere or
Black Hole, then it's a viable option.
Situational
Only if your team will really benefit from the aura. Keep in mind that this item's aura will give away your position.
Situational
Can't say it's a core, but can be useful late game against hard carries and heavy nukers.
Rejected
You don't need much mana, if you feel like paper go for a
Heart of Tarrasque.
Rejected
You don't need the intelligence, and if your team wants to go for it because of the mass slow you're not the best to hold it.
Rejected
In team fights you will get focused, so believe me, negating one spell will do no good.
Artifacts
Recommended
Agility and attack speed are always good, and this item also grants a strength boost with maim effect. I strongly recommend butterfly but you can get this as an option.
Situational
You can get this item as an alternative late game since the IAS given will improve your DPS a lot (cost effective) when backstabbing.
Situational
Can be a viable option after the Diffusal Blade if you're facing a lot of mana dependant Heroes. Note that your backstab won't trigger for your illusions.
Rejected
You can benefit from the Disarm at late game against carries, but your team should have better disables at that point.
Replays
Pub Play
Match ID: 9457993 (you can search it in game)
Ending
Thanks for reading my guide, I hope my suggestions improved your concept and knowledge about Riki.
Please, feel free to give your opinions on how we can improve this guide, I'd love to hear them.
I'm sorry for english mistakes (it's not my first language). I also apologize if I made any wrong statements about DotA mechanics.
Changelog
04/30/2012 - Added Givre suggestions to the guide (Thanks!)
04/29/2012 - Added Replay
04/27/2012 - Published
Boots of Speed
doom bringer
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