Riki Mid Domination

LEGEND

Light Green Low Tier Items
Dark Green Mid Tier/Core Items
Orange End Tier Items
Blue Abilities
Purple Ultimate Abilities
Yellow Heroes
Red Warnings
Grey Roles

Intoduction

Stealth.

That one word is everything for Riki and then some. Surprise your enemies and kill them quickly, then get out. You won't find any aura's in this build, because buying aura items on Riki means you need to turn them off to have what Riki needs most, surprise, and turning off an aura item means you paid a hefty price for something you aren't going to use, and can easily replace with something more effective. If you like using aura items on Riki with the auras turned off, stop reading now and find another guide. If you like using aura items on Riki with the auras turned on, go play a different game. Also, no Diffusal Blade. Riki doesn't need it, he has a massive AoE silence and kills anyone that Diffusal Blade is meant for before that silence even evaporates. This guide is meant for a middle Riki from the beginning, and should only be used that way, it won't work as effectively for the slow leveling and later ganking that laning forces you to do.

Note: This guide assumes that you have a basic understanding of how the game works, you understand last hitting, the lingo, callouts, and an understanding of some heroes and their abilities is required.

Edit: Due to the comments, I laughed a little. Maybe the above note wasn't clear, this game assumes you have only basic understandings, and is meant for pub games only. Not professional or ranked games, because Riki is so easily countered. It will work 99% of the time in a pub game. For those comments that are nothing but hate, not everyone plays professionally.

Items

Get outta here with those auras.

Get one set of Tangos, two Slippers of Agility, and one Circlet to start the game and head mid to do a tiny bit of creep blocking.

Depending on your farm, finish off your Wraith Bands and get your Power Treads and turn them to agility. By the time you get your treads you should be level six. This begins the ganking phase immediately. If you have a successful gank or two, start your Sange and Yasha beginning with Yasha due to the extra run speed, if you're having trouble getting the kills on your ganks, start Mask of Madness first. The MoM should help you chase down and finish fleeing heroes, as well as boost your attack speed. MoM isn't a typical item found in Riki guides, but it's probably the key item to Riki's success. If you play right, the extra damage dealt to you with MoM isn't going to matter because they'll either be silenced, or unable to hit you due to the Smoke Screen you lay down before every single initiation. Either way, you will need both MoM and SnY to finish this phase, so focus on building them, unless the situation desperately calls for something else (i.e Black King Bar). MoM is also now incredibly powerful with Riki after the update that allows him to use items and remain invisible, so you can pop the active ability before you initiate with your Smoke Screen, it also replaces Vladmir's Offering and stops you from spending money on that lifesteal aura that you shouldn't use, ever.

Once you've finished these two core items, you can move on to the Domination/ Situational Phase. By this point, you should be able to pick off most heroes by themselves, and your items from here on will be dependent on a variety of things including enemy team composition, enemy items, ally team composition, and farm.

First, enemy team comp. If you find yourself facing multiple stunners, or one perma stunner, you may consider building Black King Bar again. If you're facing a team of nukers/squishies start building Butterfly immediately. It will help you burst those squishies into nothingness while they are silenced in your cloud. Merging enemy team comp and enemy items, if you find yourself fighting ANYONE with any sort of evasion, get Monkey King Bar ASAP. Riki's auto attack is every-bit of his damage, and missing an enemy is not acceptable. (i.e Windrunner, Phantom Assassin, Butterfly, or Heaven's Halberd.

Getting a Basher and eventually an Abyssal Blade on Riki is always a valid end game choice, due to his amazing attack speed, and it can help chase down those pesky escape artists.

If you do find yourself facing another invisible enemy, getting a Gem of True Sight can be risky, but necessary. Usually Dust of Appearance is the best approach, since Riki can use it and remain invisible.

Divine Rapier is only valid if you are absolutely dominating, since it will make you an even more lucrative target. Build it at your own Risk

Skills

Smoke Screen is your best friend.

Smoke Screen should be the first skill you get on Riki, regardless of what guide you're following, or what lane you're in. It will save you against early ganks, and maybe help you get that first blood on an out of position enemy.

Follow it up with a Blink Strike at level two, this ability can be used to jump unannounced on an enemy, and get that kill, or used as harassment against melee heroes just be sure not to over extend and get yourself killed. It's also worth mentioning that this ability is and excellent tool for kill-stealing. That term has a negative connotation because pub's don't like when you take their kills, even if it means giving the Heavy Carry the kill. It's a viable option to give you the edge early on, but there's no need to use it as a kill-stealing ability every time, no-one likes a Riki that sits and does nothing but pounce for last hits.

Get one level in Backstab at level three, then max your Blink Strike and Backstab with the former having priority. Backstabwill help you get some farm off enemy creeps with the added damage, if you're willing to risk some health to get behind them. At six get your best and most powerful ability, Permanent Invisibility. This is the point where you either kill your opponent, or gank a side lane immediately to help your allies. If you're laning against any intelligence hero you can kill them at this point no problem if they are still playing as if you aren't invisible. You can even dive due to the fact that as soon as you are out of the towers sight, the energy blasts won't hit you because you're invisible, here's how you're going to do it:

Wait for them to be closer to your side of the river than theirs, then stab them in the back once, immediately drop your smoke in their easiest path of retreat, almost everyone will try to bull their way through and this is where they die. Keep hitting them, timing your movement with your attacks to maximize your attack speed. When they are in danger of vanishing up their side of the river, follow them up and pop off a Blink Strike to finish them off. This strategy may need to be modified depending on the hero you're trying to kill obviously. Some heroes with accurate stuns may need to be blinked on before you Smoke Screen so you can keep the silence going longer, but any hero with an unreliable stun (i.e. Lina) that you can dodge, or anyone without a stun at all, you should be able to kill without a problem. This tactic should remain pretty much the same throughout the entire game. Backstab, Smoke Screen, Blink Strike, chase, Blink Strike as necessary, rinse, repeat.

Strategy

Here's Riki!

Hero Selection Note: Try to delay picking Riki as long as possible, as he is one of the easiest heroes in the game to counter pick, if not the easiest.


You're mid, with a melee hero with no good farming ability. This means against anyone who knows much about the game and is playing a mid ranged hero isn't going to let you get much farm early on, likely none at all. This is fine, you don't need the farm this early for the minimal amount of items you need to wreck house. Just ensure you don't die, and use the river to stay in range of getting experience. You also didn't bring many consumables, due to the fact that you possibly won't get any farm early on it's a risk you must take. Just play smart and pay attention to what the heroes in the other lanes are doing as well as your own. If you are facing a melee hero that can't really harass you or prevent you from farming early then by all means, get those last hits using your Backstab to ensure you get them.

Once you hit level six AND use your ult to either kill you middle opponent, if it isn't a hero like Pudge that shouldn't be too hard, or go gank the side lanes. Ganking the other teams hard carry often is a good idea, you can also pick off unsuspecting junglers very easily and set them back a few paces in farming. Use runes to your advantage, with x2 damage being your favored rune. Illusions is also a good rune to find, because of its many uses with Riki. Since the enemy can't see you use it, you can cause a nuker to blow precious mana and cooldowns on an illusion that appears from nowhere. They can also act as limited time wards in the enemy jungle, or on runes if your teams wards aren't up, or have run out. The illusions also do a fair amount of damage with backstab and can help take down tougher heroes.

After a successful gank or two, if you got the kills on the heroes you should be able to make your decision on where you want to go first out of your two core items. SnY or MoM? This depends on your farm, and you can always split it up by getting Yasha first, then MoM, then finishing SnY with Sange. This is up to you and every situation is different. You may also need additional items before moving on to the Domination Phase, such as BkB.

Just continue to gank, and pick off out of position heroes, moving around the map as quickly as possible without spending too much gold on teleporting. Search the jungle if it's obvious that your enemies have a jungler. Rack up those kills and soon you'll be rolling in cash.

Your strategy between phases shouldn't change much, aside from when you get MoM. Activate MoM before you attack and pop your smoke. Wail on them until they pop. Dodge skills that need to be placed if you can, such as Pudge's hook, or Lina's stun, getting hit by these can be a fatal mistake for Riki. Also be on the lookout for Slard and Bounty Hunter. Both of these heroes counter Riki exceptionally well with their ultimates, as they give sight of the target, and Slard decreases your armor by a ton at the same time. If you're playing against them, make sure you know their general area at least most of the time.

Pro-tips

1) watch your enemies items closely. If you're about to gank bottom, and click on one of the enemies down there, and he has only 1 Sentry Ward in his inventory, chances are he laid one in the lane to counter your ganks, be cautious if you decide to go in anyways. At the same time, watch for dusts and gems, if an enemy has a gem avoid them except in teamfights. Dust may also alter when and where you want to engage enemies.
2) Use your Smoke Screen in teamfights!!! This ability is amazing for saving allies and turning the tide of a fight.
3) Don't get items with Auras.
4) Carry a potion with you when ganking early on, this can keep you from having to return to town after a close call gank and may even get you a kill if they believe you've gone to heal.
5) In team fights that you initiate, focus your Smoke Screen on nukers and stunner, and take them out with some well placed Backstabs, you can save your team a lot of health and trouble like this.