Spectre, a Definitive Guide

This guide makes me sad... even more so the comments, especially Bananane. Desolate is quite possibly the most powerful skill that Spectre has for early game. It does a bonus 20/35/50/65 PURE damage, that's 100% life lost to damage dealt which is disgusting. In my opinion Spectre should only be chosen when you have a well balanced and aggressive team composition built around ganking. You should only get Radiance if you can farm it within 8-9 min (roughly 600-700 gpm) because it does not give much impact except for assistance farming and as stated by others, it does not scale well into the game. Radiance can be justified past the 9 min mark if you are against a team that is heavily utilizing blink ( Tidehunter, Sand King, etc...) as it will interrupt their blink ults but this is also done just by using Haunt so it still isn't a strong justification. Also the two big draw backs to Radiance for Spectre is the fact that the +60 damage does not translate to any images and the most important aspect is that it provides NO survivability. I also must point out that Vanguard is also a really bad item in general unless you are really behind in farm, just about the only hero that should rush it if they can get it within 9 min is Bristleback.

Spectre's strength lies in the fact that her passives are translated to her images, no mater their source, so capitalizing on this via items that also translate to images is important as well as increasing states which is the only real way to increase illusion damage (e.g., Manta Style which adds 2 more images to ganks equaling a bonus 130 pure damage per hit totaling 195 pure damage per hit when you haunt a loan agi carry/support, Eye of Skadi a great choice as it gives you a significant bonus to stats and health with a reliable slow (better than Diffusal Blade), Crystalys and Daedalus because your images will crit, and then life steal of your choice based on situation but best is Satanic as it gives bonus strength and 175% life steal. In my honest opinion Diffusal Blade should be avoided early and most generally because Spectre does not produce enough consistent illusions for the item's impact to really be felt unless there is a Warlock on the other team. It also significantly handicaps your HP potential as it provides none and costs a lot of gold. Also, I feel the need to point out that Blade Mail is useless if you do not have health to back it up (probably 1500+).

Spectre shouldn't be played as a 4 protect 1 because you are really handicapping your team when you do this. Basically 3 to 4 members of your team should constantly be setting up gank potential that involves Spectre as hero kills provide more gpm than farming creeps does and the beauty of Spectre is that hero kills can be achieved while farming creeps and 4-5 man ganks every 2 min. Sum of my input, never stop farming and never stop ganking; Spectre is all about momentum and not so much farm (chances are if you go off and just farm with limited impact to your team's play then by the time you come out of the jungle with your 3-4 items the other team will most likely be ending the game).

For a good example check out game ID: 729843392. I do have to point out that Doom made one of the oldest mistakes of going a naked Vladmire's offering, it gives you no survivability and pitiful damage only supports and Ursa should get this item as their first item. Naga Siren also made the mistake of getting Mirror Image at level 1 instead of Rip Tide and focusing that. Though the push strat that Venomancer and Shadow Shaman took with their skill builds I think they would have done better had they focused the slow/disable skills rather than the pushing skills and rotated rather than trying to kill the Tidehunter who has Kraken Shell to remove debuffs, they should have better abused the fact that he only got 1 level of shell (600 dmg threshold)., Sniper should have also leveled Shrapnel early as it provides more lane presence and better slow against the tidebhunter.

Do you consider getting a refresher with Spectre so you can double haunt with the radiance?

Concerning butterfly the Dota 2 Wiki has this to say:

mmmmm?
just think is it better to dont miis for your lvl 3 butterfly isnt good and heaven too

Meh. This guide, I don't like it. (not being rude here, just stating some facts)

In your guide you tend to max Spectral Dagger first. Not such a good idea imo. It's mainly used to create a path that allows you to chase, and the slow could be justifiable, but I just don't really do it. I like to build a more Dispersion-based set and skip Desolate entirely, because early game it is useless. You are a HARD CARRY. Your job is to be farming, not hunting. Your hunting can come after you farm, and what good is bonus damage when you're never alone in a lane with an enemy hero (if they're smart), and even if they were you wouldn't probably be able to kill him due to your weak early game.

When I play Spec, my core build is Phase Boots, Diffusal Blade, Blade Mail, Poor Man's Shield.

P.S. Radiance is a really bad item for Specter, and for any other heroes who get it after the 20 minute mark due to its lack of scaling late game. Plus, 5k gold is better spend getting tank items.

You say "he" almost every time when referring to Specter when it should be "she"

Rage DOES NOT nullifies Dispersion it just doesnt get damage reflected... still absorb the dmg taken and if u want not to be weak in the begining is vital to level up dispersion and in case u got stout shield/poorman(which i mostly use) or vanguard , u'll hardly get any dmg from normal atk in the begining , so in case u dont have heavy casters in your line u'll be fine farming

spectre is a she not a he

Drp, radiance doesn't stack.

Does it? Radiance does 30 actual damage per second. 30(damage/sec)*5(people)*2(seconds)=300 damage total. I mean, it's not bad, but it's only 60 AoE damage.

IMO the real reason to get haunt when you can is that the extra time makes for great confusion and allows you more time to decide to haunt in or not in smaller engagements.

umm 2 secs of haunt with radiance means 600 damage in burn if all 5 of them are close together.

And some points in stats are much better than 2 seconds more of haunt.