The Army of Randomness - Chaos Knight (SIA) Guide

Introduction

Chaos Knight is a very powerful hero in the category of strength heroes. He is one of the strongest heroes in the game with a high base damage. One of the problems of this hero is his high damage spread (30) that makes it a little harder to manage last hits. Chaos Knight is a hero full of randomness. first, the 30 damage spread, and then his abilities; his first ability Chaos Bolt has a random stun between 2 and 4 seconds with a random damage to the chosen unit. His second ability Reality Rift takes his target and him in a random place between them and gives some damage to Chaos Knight for one hit. The third ability Chaos Strike has the lowest chance of critical in the game but has one of the most damage multiplies. And last but not least, the nightmare of foes, his Phantasm; strongest illusions in the game. Phantasms are the reason that CK is a ganker, pusher, semi-carry at the same time and can win the man fights in any situation (even very high damage output heroes such as void and PA). Just imagine that you have 5 times more damage and at the same time, a x3 multiplier critical. If you have 100 damage and activate phantasms, in any critical that you and all your illusions do, you drain 1500 hp from the target. and 100 of course isn't your most damage output. so after all the preparation let's get to the next chapter.

Pros and Cons

Pros

- Great Strength and Agility gain
- most base speed in the game i think! (325)
- great 2+1+2 combo with low cooldown spells (except his ult)
- passive critical
- 4 illusions with the hero's damage and critical

cons

- (-/+15) damage spread makes last hitting a little bit harder
- mana pool will get empty by just one combo in the early game
- spells randomness (2 to 4 sec stun, random place between you and foe when reality rift, 10% critical, 50% chance for one extra phantasm)

When to pick / When not to pick

when to pick

- your team already has a hard carry
- your team needs a tanky hero
- your team has other initiators (imagine Clockwerk does his combo on centaur but he runs away but you ambush in his way and finish him off :D )
- your team has other stunners, slowers or diasblers
- you want to push, gank and knock out enemy foes in every phase of the game (even heroes like faceless void in very late game! can any other hero do that?!)
- has the potential to be the carry if there are no others

when not to pick

against cleave damages, AoE spell casters
if you're not master of CK, dont pick it when team needs a hard carry. you can carry but it's hard to stand against a lvl25 sven as team's carry (cleave+very high damage+AoE stun+high hp)
- lack of range heroes in the team

Skills

Chaos Bolt

Ability: Target Unit
Affects: Enemies
Damage: Magical

Throws a mysterious bolt of energy at the target unit. It stuns for a random duration and deals random damage. Even Chaos Knight cannot predict this manifest of unholy energy.

Cast Range: 500
Min Damage: 1/50/75/100
Max Damage: 200/225/250/275
Min Stun Duration: 1/1/1/2
Max Stun Duration: 2/3/4/4
Cooldown: 10
Mana: 140

[*] Blocked by Spell Immunity
[*] Blocked by Linken's Sphere

TIPS

[*] Chaos Bolt has a speed of 1000 and can be disjointed
[*] the stun hasn't any special algorithm. when it says stun duration is between 2 and 4 it could be 3.45 sec.
[*] The stun damage and duration are inversely related. That means if you stun longer, the dealt damage is lower and the other hand more damage, less stun time

Reality Rift

Ability: Target Unit
Affects: Enemies

Armageddon rides between the planes, bringing Chaos Knight to his victim wherever he may hide.
Teleports you, any images you have and the target unit to a random point along the line between the two of you. Gives you bonus attack damage for one attack.

Cast Range: 550/600/650/700
Illusion search radius: 1375
Attack Damage Bonus: 60/80/100/120
Number of Attacks: 1
Damage Bonus Duration: 1.2
Cooldown: 24/18/12/6
Mana: 50

Partially usable by illusions. Illusions belonging to Chaos Knight (not only from Phantasm) within a range of 1375 will be teleported to the same position as the original. Illusions do not benefit from the raw damage bonus
Blocked by Spell Immunity
Blocked by Linken's Sphere
Can be purged.

TIPS

[*] teleports Chaos Knight and illusions in the radius and the target unit into a random place between CK and target (at 30% up to 80% distance from CK)
[*] Chaos Kinght lands in the opposite angle from the target when he casted the spell and his illusions land at random angles around the target.
[*] if you look , you can see the place that you will land after casting and before landing. (the visual effect made in an area)
[*] criticals, cleaves and lifesteals will work on the bonus damage of Reality Rift
[*] be careful: it WON'T stop channeling

Chaos Strike

Ability: Passive
Affects: Self

Chaos Knight's unwieldy power bludgeons those who stand before him, crushing the thickest of armors.
Chaos Knight's mojo gives him a chance to deal bonus damage.

Proc Chance: 10%
Critical Damage: 150%/200%/250%/300%

Can be used by illusions.
Red critical numbers are before illusion and armor reduction.
Not blocked by Spell Immunity
Not blocked by Linken's Sphere

TIPS

[*] the sound and visual effect appears at the start of the critical attack, not at the hit time.

Phantasm

Ability: No Target
Affects: Self

Drawing on his battles fought across many worlds and many times, phantasms of the Chaos Knight rise up to quell all who oppose him.
Summons several phantasmal copies of the Chaos Knight from alternate dimensions. There is a 50% chance an extra phantasm will be summoned. The phantasms deal full damage, but take double damage.

Number of Illusions: 1/2/3
Extra Illusion Chance: 50%
Illusion Damage Dealt: 100%
Illusion Damage Taken: 200%
Duration: 42
Cooldown: 140
Mana: 125/200/275

Can be purged.
Illusions take Purge damage.

TIPS

. CK himself is invulnerable and hidden for 0.5 sec and by that, you can dodge projectiles like Lina's pure damage lvl6. and disjoints debuffs.
. It will reset the attack priorities on him like Lich's lvl6 and the tower that is attacking you
. After appearing of CK and his illusions, all of them are facing one angle and in a formatation of one in middle and four on his sides. skill set and strategy

Strategy and Gameplay

you should ALWAYS max out Chaos Bolt and Reality Rift in order to have your combo when needed. don't listen to anyone who says pick Phantasm whenever possible and one point of Chaos Strike in order to have a lot more damage and better combo. in early stages you are not that strong to summon your heavy damage high attack speed and 3000 hp illusions to get a rampage all by yourself. if you spend a phantasm combo in the early stages (6+2+1+2), you've almost spent all your mana pool on it and you're poor if there are other foes there. Do you think a 4 sec chaos bolt can stop [Ursa] from killing you or 2 or even 1! illusion with 900 hp (450 because of extra damage taking)? take it serious and max out stun and Reality Rift first. and as the stun duration is random, it's better to lower the cooldown of Reality Rift to start your combo sooner. then the stun chance is so much better than spending points on 10% chance of a 1.5 damage multiplier.
so after maxing these two, go for a critical point cause now it's worth a shot as you will get two levels of your ultimate and if critical happens when illusions are there, all of them will do the damage, too and it's so effective. after getting two levels of Phantasm, you can push lanes as ****. it's the time you can get your expensive core items easily. want Heart of Tarrasque? it's ready after 5 min push/farm :D
If you are in 30 min and you can't buy Reaver at least, there's sth so wrong. don't even get near enemy if you know you can't out-fight them, don't go for them and start warding and then jungling and lane farming and always have tp scrolls to switch lanes when jungle and lane are done or you sense enemy is near you. don't stay in a lane for more than 2 min. clear out jungle, lane, again jungle and get to another lane that is more pushed to your team's side. by this strategy, you can finish them off if it's not too late (this strategy works when they've just destroyed all pf the towers of one lane not if when two lanes are completely lost and destroyed. that's the time for crying if they have a farmed fed void!
so always remember to win your lane because you have the one horseman army. try not using Phantasm to gank. only use it in team fight as it makes foes confused and you can kill Lina just by one of your illusions. use Reality rift for escaping ensmies, Chaos Bolt for TPing hero or a heavy damage carry. Chaos Knight will have a hard time against heavy damage carries and spell casters. If there's a silencer, Zeus and a Sven in enemy team, I don't remember why i picked CK! but in this kind of games just pick an early BKB (after armlet) and then go for a Heaven's Halberd and now it's time for team fight. take one of your illusions near him and attack him. He'll certainly use his stun+6 combo. Now you laugh at him as you're getting near him and using your 2+1+2 combo after disarming him by Heaven's Halberd and you will kill him 100% if you have your core items. As when you're doing this everyone on the opposite side will try to save their carry, you have to activate BKB 0.5 sec before starting your combo. That way carry is gone and other foes didn't try to hurt your allies and the victory is yours as their spells are in cooldown and they can't man fight you or get away from you :D
Just imagine you have a Drum of Endurance and Boots of Travel. 450 MS in your normal mood and 490 when activating drum. Always having haste is interesting, isn't it? But remember when you have the money, you can sell drum and buy more important items. Armlet is the crucial item on CK that makes his farming phase much easier so rush for it. There are other tips about the mighty man on the horse that you have to experience them yourself. so i'm finishing my guide with a summary.

Summary + some tips

Summary

- CK isn't a good choice as a carry but he could be
- use your 2+1+2 combo for secure kills specially on agility heroes
- fight with high damage heroes with a Blade Mail or better Heaven's Halberd as it gives evasion and stats and disarms the target
- activate your BKB as you enter the fight or when you're fighting a spell caster.
- don't be afraid of using Phantasm to dodge or disjoint projectiles.
- never upgrade Chaos Strike and Phantasm before level 9
- use your Illusions in team fights and fast pushes. DON'T use them to kill one or two foes as it has relatively high mana cost and long cooldown
- When you get HoT, active Armlet almost always
- use Drum of Endurance
from early phase of game up to the time you want space in your inventory. use it in team fights and running away situations as when it activates, it's like you've activated haste!

TIPS

always activate Armlet of Mordiggian before using your ultimate so your phantasms will have all of its bonuses.
buying Sange and Yasha will give you all the bonuses and you can disassemble it to Sange (to make Heaven's Halberd to counter heavy damages) and Yasha (to make Manta Style to confuse foes)
- Remember that phantasms will be destroyed if you use them to attack roshan so don't repeat my mistake. you can take foes' attention by sending Manta Style illusions with Phantasms to farm and push at the same time you're doing roshan so they won't think about checking roshan's pit
- Diffusal Blade will make mana dependent heroes like Lina useless and you and your army can do that favor for them.
- an early Soul Ring will solve all of your mana problems.

Conclusion

This guide was my first guide in this amazing website and as english isn't my primary language, maybe there were some grammatical mistakes and as i wrote the guide on phone, there are spelling mistakes. I hope you guys can play with the original style of playing Chaos Knight as i saw so many replays of players like Dendi, XBoct, Arteezy and etc. i want you guys to critisize my guide and help me improving it. also i may add some videos and it will mean a lot if you help me with giving links on comments. Thanks again for reading this guide

SIA the Death Dealer

Change Log

Soon, i'll add and change a lot of stuff in this guide. i want you guys to say anything useful about this hero to help me improve my guide.
Changes that will happen:
Skills explanation part
items explanation part
a little bit more organized strategy part
Allies and Foes