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Iron Branch
Slippers of AgilitySlippers of Agility
Tango
Power Treads
Wraith Band
Wraith Band
Yasha
Power Treads
Yasha
Wraith Band
Wraith Band
Skull Basher
Boots of Travel
Sange and Yasha
Skull Basher
Diffusal Blade
Butterfly
Daedalus
Heart of Tarrasque
Mask of Madness
Black King Bar
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5 | 12 | 13 | 14 |  |
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2 | 4 | 9 | 10 |  |
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1 | 3 | 7 | 8 |  |
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6 | 11 | 16 |  |
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15 | 17 | 18 |
Riki is pretty common in pub use, but I so often see him played wrong unless I'm the one using him. If you are Riki and you die more than 4-5 times then you are not using him right. Riki is a carry plain and simple. I've led multiple comebacks with Riki, actually he's probably the only character I can say that about. Without further ado, lets just begin.
I pick Riki under two circumstances a) The other team went heavy on softies or b) I'm on a losing streak using random heroes and I want to win. Riki only has a few counters that you should avoid picking him against: 
Bristleback (pretty much the anti-Riki as his abilities render your backstab useless) and heroes who have abilities that give True Sight 
Bloodseeker with thirst; 
Bounty Hunter with Track; 
Slardar with Amplify Damage. If the team has heavy stunners that could be bad too, but it can be countered when played smartly.
UPDATE: I made this like a year ago, I changed the item build a little bit. But I haven't fully updated all the text to match it yet. I will get to it soon to explain the changes.
Buy the starter items I recommended and the lane you pick really doesn't matter, either side lane is best, but mid if you're really confident you won't be harassed. In the early going before level 6 you need to just hang back get last hits safely and not die; play conservative. The timing on Riki's attack is pretty easy to get down so running in, last hitting, and backing out w/o getting hurt is easy. Buy 
Boots of Speed as soon as you can afford too because you will be ganking at level 6 and want the speed ASAP. If you've farmed well and didn't die you should actually be able to buy at least power treads and 2 wraith bands before level 6.
Literally as soon as you hit level 6 and you fade to invis run behind the heroes in your land and coordinate a gank with your lanemate. Preferably they have a stun/disable that they can use first. Once they use it, get a backstab or two in, drop your smokescreen and keep hacking away as they try to get out of the smoke. Once they are out they will either keep running to their tower or try to stun you if they have it. Either way they should be almost dead, If they are getting away blink and finish it. Then double team the guy left standing for the double kill. After that you should just be running from lane to lane ganking. When attacking, the tactic I like to carry out is to blink first, drop smokescreen and just hack away. Keep away from towers unless you are one blink strike from finishing them off. By level 9-10 you should have AT LEAST up to the Yasha, if the other team has let you feed badly enough you might have your S&Y.
Now to finally explain the S&Y because every build I seem to see has you get a Manta for Riki. Yes, the Manta gives more AGI which helps backstab and the clones can serve a purpose, but here's why the S&Y is better. First, it gives more STR then the Manta and you need the survivability with Riki's low HP pool. Second, the movespeed, attack speed and AGI bonuses from S&Y are not significantly less then Manta so it still ups your base dmg and backstab bonus quite a bit. Third, the maim effect happens pretty often with your attack speed being high which just makes it take longer for them to escape the effects of Riki's smokescreen. Lastly, building the S&Y is better for you life as you'll be buying each STR item for the Sange part individually, each time upping your HP in the process as opposed to running around with ~900 HP all the way until you've finally got the 2100 gold for the Ultimate Orb and then must farm up another 900 for the Manta recipe
When using Riki you need to constantly be away of the opponents items. Always click on them to see if they've got wards/dust/gem on them. If they do you must use situational awareness before approaching. Are they alone? Fine, go in and act like it's a normal lane situation. Are their multiple heroes? If there are, wait for backup. Also small things you need to notice like how many wards do they have. Do they have an even number of wards? If so it means they haven't dropped one yet so you're still safe, if they have an odd number then be careful because they probably know where you are. Also, when you are alone in the lane and not attacking creeps, do they come at you anyway? Well guess what, if they are it's because there's a ward there so avoid that are for the next few minutes. Once it gets later game, someone will inevitably get a gem, as soon as you see someone with a gem, tell your whole team. Make sure during the next team fight that guy with the gem must go first, he's the priority AND PICK UP THE GEM! I far too often see people just leave the gem there for one of the other team to pick back up. Once the gem is in your teams control go to base and drop it deep into the fountain, unless they have multiple invis heroes in that case give it to your tank.
By now you should have went straight from making the S&Y to making the Skull Basher. With your attack speed being pretty high at this point you'll get bash pretty often, plus again a slight HP bump from the STR it gives. From here I go straight for the Eaglesong. This is the big ticket item for your Butterfly, but as long as you've been feeding right you should be able to take any of the opposition 1v1 and in many cases 1v2. Also, when ever you get the chance kill some neutrals to get extra gold. Once you have the Eaglesong, just keep pushing towers and farming up those hero kills. The great thing about the Butterfly is its one of only a few of the late game items that don't need a recipe; once you get the last piece it is just automatically built for you. Now it's pretty much GG as by now whenever there is a team fight your cloud is big enough to cover most of the area silencing everyone and the butterfly evasion stacks with your clouds so you are as close to invincible as you can get w/o an omniknight or dazzle on your team. Once you have your core items: Treads, S&Y, Basher, Butterfly, you can pretty much buy whatever you feel necessary. I will almost always sell my Treads and to to Boots of Travel so I can TP all over and chase better.
For proof of this builds success check this link to my match history with Riki (I'd put a pic, but don't know how)http://dotabuff.com/players/139371218/matches?hero=riki&game_mode=&match_type=real
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