The Definition of Hard Carry - A guide to Faceless Void

A Quick intro

Faceless Void is one of the most brutal carries in the game, since he can take down anything with enough farm, his ultimate, ChronoSphere, creates a sphere that stops time, for most things, except Void, allowing you to beat the people inside it to shreds. As in 6.79 he got a little bit buffed aswell so, why not try it.

I also noticed DotaFire.com has almost no guides on Void, and all outdated, so I decided to give you a simple guide, and encourage you to go pick him, in the right conditions, because if you play him badly, you will feed and you will have a bad time.




Lore:

Darkterror the Faceless Void is a visitor from Claszureme, a realm outside of time. It remains a mystery why this being from another dimension believes the struggle for the Nemesis Stones is worth entering our physical plane, but apparently an upset in the balance of power in this world has repercussions in adjacent dimensions. Time means nothing to Darkterror, except as a way to thwart his foes and aid his allies. His long-view of the cosmos has given him a remote, disconnected quality, although in battle he is quite capable of making it personal.

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Wiki Intro:

Darkterror the Faceless Void is a melee agility hard carry hero. Given a little time, he becomes a terrifyingly powerful hero capable of destroying entire enemy teams.
Wielding his cosmically powered mace, each hit can lock his foes in time, stopping them in place. He can jump into or out of combat using Time Walk, and passively can avoid any damage with Backtrack which even works against Monkey King Bar. His ultimate, Chronosphere, locks time for everything within its area of effect, giving him time to strike down any enemies caught within with near impunity for several seconds. Faceless Void is a hard carry and, as such, scales heavily from items and reaches his full potential in late game, growing into one of the most powerful and destructive Heroes.

Pros and Cons

Pros:
-Good base damage
-Nice base movement speed
-Inbuilt blink (kind of)
-Inbuilt bash
-Inbuilt evasion
-Chronosphere


Cons:
-Low Hp pool
-Extremely Farm dependent
-Requires skill so noobs will feed if they play him
-Has no face
-Can accidentaly cancel teammate's ultimates

Friends and Foes

In a duo-lane, your friends are basically anyone that will help you get kills to get your items faster and that needs very little farm, so you get as much Exp and gold as possible.

This includes:

-Pudge
-Outworld devourer (As support)
-Dark seer (Offlaning)
-Dazzle

In any case, heroes that synergize with void in teamfights are those with high dps ultimates, with a good casting range.

You basically Time Walk into a teamfight, Chronosphere as many people as possible and let your teammates kill the foes inside te sphere, after activating the Chronosphere you can leave and back up, or contribute to the teamfight with more damage, this is why Mask of Madness is great to make the best out of the duration of the ChronoSphere. Try not to catch your buddies in it.

Some examples include:

-Jakiro's Macropyre
-Witch Doctor
-Juggernaut, as Chronosphere doesnt stop Omnislash
-Elder Titan's Earthsplitter
-Outworld devourer
-Dazzle's Weave helps to improve Dps
-Zeus
-Troll Warlord's Battle Trance
-Etc.

Void's enemies goes for those with disables, powerful nukes, very high DpS, big hp pools, as you wont be able to take them out with your combo.

-Viper
-Pudge
-Lion
-Sniper
-Kunkka

Skill Set

I will be listing the stuff that doenst appear there. I suggest going fullscreen because this player is tiny :P. In a nutshell, this video covers it (DotaCinema), but read below to know the details about each spell. The basic info is above, as in every guide, go to the build, and hover over the spell icons.
Play Video

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Time Walk



"Darkterror tears a hole in time, passing through Claszureme, and appearing back in an instant."

Rushes to a target location while slowing the movement and attack speed of all enemies along its path for 3 seconds.

Time walk is what you will be using to set up good ChronoSpheres, also, you are invulnerable while moving using Time Walk. It also slows anyone in a small AoE near your landing which helps to land Time Lock repetitively.

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BackTrack



Faceless Void dodges damage by jumping backward in time, eluding both physical and magical attacks.

"Darkterror sees what has yet to be seen."

Stacks with evasion, but is subject to chance stacking. This is why getting Butterfly is a great idea, for a whooping 50% evasion.
Backtrack will not evade the secondary effects of enemy spells (such as stuns or slows).
Any damage type can be dodged except HP Removal.
Backtrack works against true strike attacks.

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Time Lock



Adds the chance for an attack to lock an enemy unit in time, stunning it and dealing bonus damage. The duration is twice as long against creeps.

"The strike of the Faceless Void lands with dimension shifting force."

Notes:
Stun works on magic immune units, but not the extra damage.
Does not stack with Skull Basher.
Time Lock deals twice as much damage when it procs on a target in Chronosphere.
80/100/120/140 damage bonus in Chronosphere.
Doenst apply to your illusions and is not blocked by Linken's Sphere.

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ChronoSphere



Creates a blister in spacetime, trapping all units caught in its sphere of influence. Only Faceless Void and any units he controls are unaffected. Invisible units in the sphere will be revealed.

"When a rift opens to Claszureme, all poor souls caught within will likely never return."

Notes:
Affects both units and buildings, both allies and enemies.
Faceless Void is never affected by Chronospheres with any owner.
Couriers are unaffected.
Enemy heroes do not have evasion while they are trapped in chonosphere.
No matter the source, every Chronosphere affects Faceless Void the same. Even if cast by enemy (ex. Rubick) Chronosphere won't affect Faceless Void and will provide him with double the damage coming from Time Lock occurring.
Does not pause the map. Runes, Trees, and Creep spawns (Lane and Neutrals) and even the courriers persist within a Chronosphere.

Aghanim's Scepter increases duration to 6 seconds and reduces cooldown to 60 seconds.

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Item Explanation

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Quelling Blade grants you with a little bit of extra last hitting power, to help you farm better, Void's base damage is pretty decent too, so you will feel comfortable with your last hitting right from the start.

Tangoes, obviously, give you some regen for the lane, get two if you expect harassment, or if your lane opponent is a powerful ranged hero.

-Pugna
-Sniper
-Drow Ranger
-Outworld Devourer
-Huskar
-Etc

The reason you dont buy Iron Branches or Slippers of Agility is because your damage is decent enough, and you want to get Bottle as soon as possible, always keep and eye on the runes, as refilling your bottle is vital, aswell it may help you to secure some kills or overall help you, like a Regeneration Rune.

Power Treads gives stat bonuses and increased attack speed to Faceless Void, increasing his survivability and potential damage output.

Mask of Madness (MoM) increases Faceless Void's attack speed for a short duration which increases damage output potential during Chronosphere, gives more opportunities for Time Lock to proc, and its lifesteal slightly offsets Faceless Voids low health gain.

Butterfly grants evasion, and Faceless Void's backtrack is one of few skills that stack additively with evasion. This item alongside level 4 backtrack has the potential to negate 51.25%! of auto-attack damage, thus greatly increasing Faceless Void's survivability. In addition, the agility and attack speed will dramatically increase Faceless Void's damage output potential.

Desolator provides raw damage and armor shred, but it is not very cost efficient. Be aware that purchasing this item with Mask of Madness will result in conflicting UAMs; try to decide which you should build on a game to game basis.

Monkey King Bar's true strike negates Faceless Void's opponents evasion, if they have any, allowing Faceless Void to maintain his damage output late-game. Please note that Chronosphere disables evasion, so if you can eliminate enemies with evasion before Chronosphere runs out, you shouldn't purchase Monkey King Bar.

Crystalys and Daedalus provide Faceless Void with critical damage, greatly increasing Faceless Void's potential damage output.

Mjollnir will give you amazing attack speed and the posibility to both return some damage and deal damage to multiple targets with the chain posibility, inside a potential Chronosphere you will realize how helpful this is, aswell as pushing lanes wont be a problem anymore.

Keep in mind that Void can push lanes with ease from the point where you grab the Mask of Madness in addition with your Agility Power Threads.

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Protips

Mask of Madness will allow Faceless Void better to utilize Chronosphere throughout game, as does almost any item that gives attack speed or damage. A BKB is usually a good choice after getting a MoM as nukers outside the chronosphere can be ignored, while they otherwise burst the fragile Void very easily.

When using Chronosphere it's important that you prioritize the targets to deal maximum damage. Important targets include carries and spellcasters.

If you want to play your lane aggressively rank up Time Lock first, conversely if you need to play defensively rank up Backtrack after getting at least one rank of Time Walk as it is still your primary escape mechanism, while also having some offensive potential.

Chronosphere will pause friendly units (exception : units under control of Faceless Void) and heroes as well as foes. Try to position it so enemies are within the sphere and allies are outside and can reach enemies inside without having to enter Chronosphere itself.
Using later ranks of Time Walk and Chronosphere in tandem can easily catch entire enemy teams off guard.

Although Faceless Void is a hard carry hero, he is extremely supportive when using his Chronosphere as it has the potential to trap the entire enemy team in place for many seconds, allowing easy use of several ranged ultimates altogether for massive damage. Example: Lich, Jakiro, Witch Doctor and Gyrocopter ultimates.

If you are trying to decide on what item build is best for Faceless Void remember that his main goal is to do the most damage and hopefully kill at least one key enemy hero inside his Chronosphere where he has a 5 second free reign to attack a target without any chance of retaliation.

While Aghanim's Scepter may diminish your carry potential, delaying your Mjollnir and such, sometimes it might come in handy as it increases your Chronosphere duration to 6 seconds and reduces its cooldown to only 60 seconds, allowing your ultimate to be ready in almost any team fight and while it may not contribute to your damage output very much it does increase your survivability by granting you stats and HP.

Changes to the Void

6.79
Time Walk slow rescaled from 25/30/35/40% to 20/30/40/50%
Chronosphere AoE increased from 400 to 450

6.75
Time Lock deals twice as much damage when it procs on a target in Chronosphere.
Faceless Void can no longer be frozen by any Chronosphere.

6.72
Base HP regeneration increased from 0.25 to 0.75.
Aghanim's upgraded Chronosphere cooldown decreased from 75 to 60.
Chronosphere now reveals Invisible units.
Chronosphere cast range improved from 500/550/600 to 600.
Time Walk slow affects all units along his path, instead of just at the destination.

6.71
Chronosphere duration rescaled from 3/4/5 to 4/4.5/5.
6.69
Strength growth increased from 1.4 to 1.6.

Ending

Thanks for taking time to read the guide! I hope that some of you use it. As always feel free to drop comments with any suggestions for anything that you think I should add to the guide, or with your opinion about the build, and if it worked for you :)