The mystic dominator. Extreme early game pressure.

Introduction

Well, um, hi. This is the first guide I ever write. Normally I would never bother writing all this but since there is a contest going on and the prize is worth alot I have decided that it was worth to share my secret weapon. About me, I've been playing dota since 2012 and im 5k MMR. I first discovered this game winning strat with Beastmaster , the jungle was my only option and ive decided to try out the new Helm of the Dominator . I've practiced this strat alot with and recently I have decided to do the same thing but with the fastest jungler in the game, Enigma. The core of this strategy is jungling a Helm of the Dominator and then start taking towers. You can try this against most lineups but it is much more effective when used to punish greedy teams that pick 4 cores OR pick super greedy heroes like specter with weak early game presence.

Sample games and playstyle graph

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=843225152

In this sample you can see 9W-2L (2 Wins in ranked). My playstyle graph is stretched out in the 'Push' at a value of 9.80, because of the high building damage score. Having a similar graph will get you matched with players who also have a strong point in the graph aka good supports, carries(good farmers at least), gankers, etc...I also had all chat muted (both team chat and all chat) for these games and communicated strictly using pings. This shows how little communication is require for this strat as oppposed to playing heroes like Nature's Prophet.

https://www.dotabuff.com/players/49158660/matches?hero=enigma

Here are some sample games from my dotabuff.

Pros and Cons

Pros (Strategy)


+Insane amount of pressure on the enemy team, creating so much space.
+Lots of tower gold for your team.
+Short but enjoyable action packed games.
+Wins pubs easily.
+Will get you a ton of commends.
+Not reliant on the team.
+Ensures your team plays in a game-winning mindstate (anti-tilt).
+Even if you cannot push you dont fall behind.


Cons (Strategy)


-Small risk of throwing the game if you die too much while pushing. Resulting in possible reports.
-Not helpful to your team for the first 6-7 minutes.
-Countered by heavy ganking lineups.



Pros (Hero)


+Arguably the best, most game winning ultimate in the game.
+Fastest jungler in the game.
+Extremely strong lategame potential with Midnight Pulse.
+Not too item dependent.

Cons (Hero)


-Obvious jungler, good players are likely to block your jungle.
-Can be countered hard by certain heroe skills ( Global Silence, swap) .
-Somehow vulnerable to harrass/ganks while jungling your first items.
-Much less useful when ultimate is on cooldown.

Role

So basically for this strategy you will play as position 4. That means you are the 2nd support of your team and help make sure your team has all the wards/sentries/dust etc they need. I usually ask my support if hes ok with being solo support for the first 6 mins and then I start investing. Do not hesitate to delay your items if you feel that your team needs Sentry Ward, Dust of Appearance or Flying Courier.

Quick skill overview

I will not explain skills mechanics in details, you can do that yourself by reading the wiki, but here is a quick overview.

Malefice

Not so useful early due to the low stun duration but a solid 3 second total stun when maxed, good all game to counter any hero that rely on channeling spells like Witch Doctor or Bane but not so much vs heroes with strong escapes like Storm Spirit or with purges or spell immunity like Legion Commander and Juggernaut.

demonic conversion

Your bread and butter, your farming and pushing tool. The enemy will be afraid of ganking you when they see that army next to you. Be careful not to feed them when you use them to split push.

Midnight Pulse

Great teamfight skill even better if you have strong lockdown that scales well in the lategame because it is based on a percentage. Special note : It destroys trees so its good to break the invis of a Treant Protector, limit the potential of an enemy Timbersaw, catch a Tinker or Slark hiding in the trees and Monkey King (while also forcing him to take 4 seconds of pulse damage.

Black Hole

Your ulimate. It will discourage your enemy from attempting to stop your pushes head on. A good one can win you the game, a bad/failed one will make your team unable to play 5v5 for the next fights and you will be almost useless. Hold on to using it if you feel that it will get canceled, even if that loses you the teamfight, you want to make sure it is ready for more crucial fights later (rax, roshan) and if you waste it, it'll still be on cooldown when you respawn.

Skill build

The most versatile build for enigma is a 1-4-1-1 build (lvl7)
The popular alternative is to skip midnight pulse for a 2-4-0-1 build (lv7)

Malefice is usually maxed second because by the time you max it more and more fighting happens where you will need lockdown.

demonic conversion is maxed first because 1- it falls off later and 2- It is your farm/push tool.

Midnight Pulse is maxed last because it it scales with time and isnt used much early. The point at levels 4 can be skipped to get more points in malefice if you need more stuns. Getting it simply ensures that you have one more tool to use in case the enemy apply early pressure too.

Black Hole is skilled anytime you can since the manaoost increase is worth the damage increase (Unlike in previous patches) while the cooldown decreases by 20s.

Talents justifications

LVL 10 --- +12% Magic Resistance OR +20 Movespeed


Get the +12% Magic Resistance IF


-The enemy has alot of magical damage.
-You know that you won't be able to dodge the damage ( Thundergod's Wrath).



Get the +20 Movespeed IF


-You need to escape some gankers like Riki and Pudge and avoid death.
-You think it'll allow you to completely dodge the damage ( Meat Hook, Sacred Arrow, Timber Chain, etc).
-You need to catch up on fast heroes while playing aggressively.
-You plan on buying Black King Bar and wont need extra resistance.

Throw in a Wind Lace and you got yourself +40 MS.


If the enemy has a mix of gankers and magic nukers (like in most games) try to figure out what is the biggest threat and counter it first.



LVL 15 --- +120 Gold per minute OR -15% Cooldown reduction


Get the +120 Gold Per Minute IF


-You know that you cant end the game soon ( Tinker or Keeper of the Light preventing pushes).
-You need items to land your Black Hole .
-You think my strat is gay and would rather drag the game to get 6 slotted.



Get the -15% Cooldown Reduction IF


-You are trying to end the game.
-The enemy is constantly trying to force fights.

You can pick the +120gpm to farm that Octarine Core faster to make up for not getting the other talent.



LVL 20 --- -30 Seconds Respawn Time OR +300 Health


Get the -30 Seconds Respawn Time IF


-The enemy keeps ganking you or focusing you in fights before you get to use Black Hole.
-You dont like being dead.




Get the +300 Health IF


-The enemy has many nukes (like Zeus).
-Feel that it will make you survive ganks and getting focused in fights.
-You are so pro you dont die at all.




LVL 25 --- + 8 Demonic Conversion Eidolons OR +12 Armor



Get the +8 Demonic Conversion Eidolons IF


-The enemy lacks AoE to clear them.
-Youre trying to defend against mega creeps.
-Want to play rat dota.

Ok seriously you should almost never pick this talent simply because AoE damage is just too common is the majority of dota games. Popular heroes like Anti-Mage, Luna, Ember Spirit, Legion Commander will just wipe them as they do not gain any additional stats. They are most likely to die before they get to multiply unless they fight creeps (which is why they are good if you are in charge of holding the base against mega creeps while your team pushes).



Get the +12 Armor IF


-The enemy has alot of physical damage.
-You want to win.

This is the best pickup in 95% of your games because by the time you hit level 25 the enemy carry will have insane amounts of physical damage and items like Desolator and Assault Cuirass. This increases your effective HP a ton.

Items

Starting Items

Clarity X 2 Because you need early mana regen to cast demonic conversion. Actually you only need 1 to be able to farm your soul ring BUT you will need to let your mid laner use the courier so you buy a 2nd to keep farming until your soul ring is delivered.

Animal Courier Because you are playing as position 4 and need to support too.

Iron Branch because it gives a little something to help your jungling, you will upgrade it into Headdress right after your Soul Ring .

Ring of Regen will give you minimal regen in case you take damage from creeps. Builds into Soul Ring .




Starting Items (safe)

Clarity X 2 Idem.

Animal Courier Idem.

Sentry Ward If know that the enemy will block your camps.

Tango If you know you will get harrassed by a Riki or Bounty Hunter.




Core Items

Boots of Speed, basic early mobility item. Bought after soulring and Helm of the Dominator unless you are getting ganked since faster movespeed doesnt make you jungle faster (well kinda, but the camps dont respawn faster so you wont get your core items faster).

Soul Ring is your first item, you need it if you dont want to run out of mana.

Helm of the Dominator The core of this build, the item that will win you the game, the most broken item of 7.00. It is just perfect for enigma. The +8 HP regen makes the soul ring spammable and acts like a mini Heart of Tarrasque for all the creeps around you. The aura attacks speed makes your eidolons multiply faster and the creeps push a LOT harder. The +6 all stats is just the cherry on the top. It's dominate active ability allows you to get a big camp creep or a siege creep to help your push. Alawys build Headdress first as it is the most helpful to farm the rest.




We are not done pushing

Ok so now that you have your core items there is no more 'build' that you are supposed to follow, as everything listed below is situational. You must ask yourself : Is my team already building X item? Do we need it? If yes then buy it. You are not expected to build bigger and bigger items like a carry would, do not hesitate to get 6 slotted with cheap 2k-3k items just so you dont stop pushing.

Mekansm is the first follow up item to your core if the enemy respond to your pushes as a team. Prevent your teammates from dying, win the teamfight, assert dominance. Also get the Buckler first as the +2 armor is better than the +HP aura from Headdress to push.

Vladmir's Offering is a good pick up after your core if your carry can use the lifesteal or if you or your creeps need armor against physical damage like Acid Spray . It does not offer much in term of utility compared to a Mekansm or a Pipe of Insight but it is one of the best items to increase your push per second. This will be your first post-core item if your pushes are uncontested.

Drum of Endurance good stat item with +20 movespeed, with an active that gives +25 attack speed to you and your allies, creeps included. Useful if you need a burst of push for situations where you rat. Can throw in a wind lace to get +40 movespeed or a whopping +60 with the lvl 10 talent. Even though it is a great item I feel like Enigma is such a good farmer that he should focuse more expensive items like Mekansm. Should be paired with Vladmir's Offering if pushes are uncontested.

Pipe of Insight is the item you want against a Keeper of the Light or a Tinker to prevent the creep wave from dying in seconds. Also good for your allies. The main reason we build this is for your creeps, not the heroes.

Arcane Boots are what you want if your team is mana dependant or the enemy has too much mana burn like EMP, Mana Leak . Builds into Guardian Greaves

Observer Ward are crucial to this strategy. Vision will prevent you from being ganked which is the biggest counter to this strat. Lay some around just before you push. Always be aware of who is rotating to contest you pushes.

Sentry Ward are also crucial if playing against a Riki or a Nyx Assassin.

Wind Lace is a pushing item???Yes, somehow, this item will increase your mobility, allowing you to play cat and mouse with your enemy by poking his tower and quickly retreating. This item will make you an annoying piece of ****. Stack this with the +20 movespeed talent to juke skills like Meat Hook and Chakram.




Mid-game situational

Basically you start building these if you cannot push anymore and feel that buying more pushing items will not help. At this point you need to kill the enemy to be able to kill their towers. Your first pick should be the blink.

Blink Dagger if the enemy still tries to contest your pushes as a team. Black hole will be necessary to secure the push. The reason this item is not built first is because even if you can land a perfect Black Hole early your enemy will respawn extremely fast with the 7.00 changes and (while your ult will be on cooldown for 3 whole minutes) the fight you win is not likely to win you the game.

Black King Bar is picked up if necessary to land blackhole, after the Blink Dagger.

Aghanim's Scepter is a good pick up if the enemy is so tanky that even a blackhole + Midnight Pulse combo cant kill them. A must against all heroes with high health pools.

Guardian Greaves will make you extremely hard to kill while providing good HP + Mana regen to your team. It's active mend also applies a basic dispel that purges silence. Is a legit pick after Helm of the Dominator.

Necronomicon is a situational pick up against invis heroes like Riki and Nyx Assassin or squishy heroes with AoE like Luna.

Ghost Scepter if you are facing heroes like Phantom Assassin or Juggernaut. Negate the burst and continue to push.

Glimmer Cape is very situationnal. Buy if you want to try to sneak up a Black Hole.




Legit luxury

Octarine Core is great 5th or 6th item IF YOU DONT NEED ANYTHING ELSE! You must prioritize being able to land your Black Hole more than being able to cast it often. I think it should mostly picked up if the enemy is tanky enough so your Midnight Pulse can actually keep you alive in fights.

Refresher Orb is great but expensive. Good 6th or 7th item if you can afford AND DONT NEED ANYTHING ELSE TOO! (same reasons)

Shiva's Guard great teamfight and armor item. Buy this if the enemy has many carries that are posing a threat. The AoE blast is also good for pushing.

Silver Edge is a good lategame pickup if the enemy has no detection. If you are unable to push without getting a pickoff first then get this item.

Scythe of Vyse is a situational pick up if your team loses fights because they still need disable even after Black Hole .

Linken's Sphere if you are playing against a Doom or Vengeful Spirit or Legion Commander.

Hurricane Pike if you need the Force Staff component to kite your enemy and extra stats.




Do not get these

Radiance is not even a bad item if you can get away with being useless to your team for like 16 mins and you want to drag the game. But by the time you farm it the enemy will also be farmed (possibly more than you are since you didnt apply any pressure).

Hand of Midas is a farming item. You are pushing.

Mjollnir is not a pushing item for you.

dagondagon does no damage against towers.

Gameplay

STEP 0 - Before You Queue Most players didnt change the default chat wheel, but if you did, make sure you still have the 'Push now! line since you will use it alot. Also you should have a key assigned to 'Select all other units' as it will make your microing easier by allowing you to select all your summons + dominated creep.

STEP 1 - Pre-Game Immidiately place your icon in the jungle, preferably with Enigma selected so your team knows that you are going to jungle and hopefully adapt their picks. You can type a simple ''Hey guys im doing a push strat'' in chat just so they dont assume that you will afk jungle. Cooperation is crucial in this strat. If your teammate also select the jungle, politely ask them t̶o̶ ̶g̶o̶ ̶f̶u̶c̶k̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶m̶s̶e̶l̶v̶e̶s̶ to let you jungle. If they refuse and you care about winning DO NOT pick a second jungler as you will most likely lose. Also make sure you have Push now! in your chat wheel as you will spam this alot during the game. Also DO NOT mention the fact that you are following/trying a build on dotafire or your team might assume that you are a noob and discredit you.

Tips to avoid counterpicks:In ranked games you should aim for the 4th-5th pick. In unranked games you should wait for the enemy to pick their heroes. If they havent picked when the free time is over, their are either 1- AFK or 2- Waiting to counterpick. Do not be afraid of the penalty gold loss since your core starting items cost a mere 200 gold and you can farm incredibly fast. I think the most you can lose is 30s x 2 gold = 60 gold loss if you wait the whole timer, which is NOTHING if that means you wont have to face a Silencer or a Clockwerk. The enemy shouldnt be willing to lose too much gold so they are expected to pick before you.

STEP 2 - Game Start Purchase your starting items and move towards the rune spot near your safelane to scout for any signs of early aggression or supports trying to ward your jungle. DO try to grab the Bounty Rune unless your mid laner was dumb enough to go for it (since he should be getting the other one to be able to body block his creep wave) because you DO NOT want to tilt him. Politely ask your carry if you can have it so you can be helpful sooner. Let him have it if you feel that taking it is going to tilt him.


STEP 3 - Farming your core Farm up your core items as fast as you can. DO remain vigilant at all times for missing enemy heroes because any death will delay your strat. DO NOT try to grab Bounty Rune on the enemy side of the map. DO NOT try to farm the enemy jungle, just wait a few seconds for your camps to respawn. DO NOT use the courier to delive your soul ring if your mid laner is close to having his bottle as you do not want to be more of a burden to your team who is already playing 4v5. DO use courier for the Soul Ring recipe if you feel that by the time you finish it the courier will be unavailable, that way you can grab the Sage's Mask and Ring of Regen at your safelane's sideshop while harassing the offlaner on your way.

Jungling 101: Ok I said I wasnt going to explain that but I still will because Im nice. No matter which jungle you are in you will always start from a small/medium camp (medium preferably). From there you will cast demonic conversion on the creep with the most HP (to clear the camp faster) and immiduately drink a Clarity (to recast demonic conversion later) then you will micro your 3 eidolons so none of them dies and clear the camp. By the time you clear it your eidolons should have multiplied. Bring them to the closest big camp and also micro them so they dont die (to clear the camp faster). Your eidolons cannot multiply more than once and always last for the same duration (even if multiplied). Cast demonic conversion again to finish the big camp or go repeat the same process on the closest camp. If the whole jungle is clear and you have a stack of eidolons, either go harass the offlaner or try to farm a small ancient creep with them (depending one which is the closest). Protip: you can dodge the Centaur Conqueror stomp and the Hellbear Smasher clap if you pull back your eidolons just after they got in melee range. If you face Wolf camps you will want to tank it until your eidolons multiply because the wolves will easily kill them before with the crits

Try holding on to using the shrine until your mid laner also need regen to get the most out of it. If you are low and he is not then just walk back to base and use a shrine there.


STEP 4 - The Push Ok so this is where **** gets real. You have your Helm of the Dominator and should have Black Hole ready. The first thing you want to do is dominate the siege creep that spawned at 6:30 and arrived in lane around 7:00. If you cant do that because your build was delayed and it died before you could get it, then dominate the big creep from the big camp near your safelane or walk around your jungle and choose the right creep to support your push. DO place some Observer Wards ( Sentry Wards too if needed) around so you dont get ganked. The ideal spots for these would be one on the cliff giving vision over the enemy shrine to spot teleporting enemies and another one giving vision over the river rune to spot ganks by the mid laner. Your lane creeps might get nuked by the defending enemy and theres nothing you can do, but you can micro your creep and eidolons so they dont get nuked too. Use your eidolons to tank the tower shots while it's getting destroyed by 2 siege creeps.

DO use demonic conversion on the enemy creeps if you want your wave to reach the tower faster.

DO use demonic conversion on your allied creeps (low hp preferably) if you want your eidolons to multiply to buff your push. The reason for this is if you do the other option, the 3 creeps will die before your eidolons multiply.

You can also cast it on a neutral creep so you get the strongest push by not losing any allied creep while having your 6 eidolons attacking the tower.


STEP 4.1 - Triggered! Ok so once you have started to push the enemy will surely hear vocal warnings from their announcers and realize that their tower is going down. They are TRIGGERED! and will most likely try to stop you. In the average scenario there will be you Enigma + your safelane carry + safelane support vs their offlaner + a support that rotated to defend.In this case they are underreacting and you should keep pushing.DO NOT use Black Hole unless it is absolutely necessary or if you can get a double kill. Why? Simply because in 7.00 respawn time are reduced and the enemy will literally respawn seconds after dying if killed around the 7-8 minute mark. They will be full HP/Mana and your Black Hole will be on cooldown. You know what is better than getting a tower after using Black Hole? Getting a tower and still having Black Hole.That way you can proceed to push the tier 2 without too much risk. Your ultimate is much better if used to threaten rather than kill your enemy because it will make your pushes easier and uncontested. If you feel that the enemy will try to deny its tower, drop a Midnight Pulse on it to make their attempt risky.

In the case where the enemy is overreacting to your push (4-5 heroes) you should back off under your tower while your mid and offlaner are enjoying a free lane. The enemy will either waste time doing nothing around their tower or attempt to push. If they attempt to push as a team to get something out of their rotation then they expose themselves to a team wipe with your Black Hole. If you feel that their 5-man is much stronger than yours then you might want to switch lane, preferably to push their safelane and continue to pressure.


STEP 5 - The Next Target Once you have the first tower, your team already has a decent advantage over the enemy : more gold, map control and most importantly a winning mindstate. Your team is verly likely to cooperate with you and listen when you spam Push now!.

Depending on how much ease you had with taking the first tower you will choose the next target. If it was super easy because their team is greedy or their heroes passive/unable to counter-push, then go for the tier 2 tower. If you feel that it is too risky to go that deep in enemy territory then go for their other tier 1 towers. After all tier 1's are down you can either go for the tier 2's or for Roshan.


STEP 6 - Win The Game


Best case scenario: Your team is cooperating beyond expectations and the enemy is unable to stop your pushes. You got considerable amounts of tower gold for your team and map control. Lay down Observer Wards around and force the enemy to sit in base while your team is free to farm their jungle. Let everyone finish the item they are building, go kill Roshan to be safe and go for the high ground push. You will probably want a Blink Dagger for that unless you are stacked with pushing items like Guardian Greaves Necronomicon Shiva's Guard and you know that you dont need to initiate.

Worst case scenario: After all your efforts your team still doesnt have an advantage over the enemy because you or your team died too much or the enemy somehow managed to outpush you by ratting your own towers while you pushed theirs. Then you must go back to playing normal DotA = farm safely some defensive items and wait for the occasion to land a game-winning Black Hole. DO NOT give up if you cant end early since you are playing as Enigma and still have good late game and only need one good ultimate to win the game.Real nigmas dont fall off, they fall back.

The cool kid strat: The enemy made the mistake of picking greedy heroes and simply have no answers against your pushing. You could simply take every single one of their towers and end the game methodically and safely, but you wont, cause you are a cool kid. You are going to push their T3 tower and attempt to get rax around 15 minutes. If your warding game is tight and they cant kill you they will basically lose the game right there. The reason why this strat can be better is if their other towers are still standing, the enemy might not even realize how bad they are losing. The carry will want to keep farming his lane since he is not getting contested and still has a tower to allow this, he will expect this team to handle your pushing without him since hes a carry and isnt expected to join fights early. His team will probably fail at defending and he will call ''GG team noob'' or ''reprot all my team''. Another reason to do this is that getting all T1s and T2s takes more time, giving a chance to the enemy cores to farm up items that will counter your strat. After losing all towers the enemy will surely realize that they are losing the game and will play better. Sieging becomes much harder when the enemy defends as 5 while having their core items.

Choosing your creep

I will list here the best creeps you can get for your pushes.

The Siege Creep is probably your best pick for the first push, why? Because it does structure damage type which deals 150% damage against towers, also takes less physical damage from heroes. It's magic resistance will make it much harder to kill than any other creep you might find (beware Sacred Arrow as it will 1-shot your creep). It's range attack will make sure it doesnt take AoE damage from hero nukes with the other creeps and also be the last unit to draw tower aggro. They spawn at 3:00, 6:30 and then in intervals of 3:30.

The Satyr Tormenter. Problably the second best pick if the siege creep is not available. It offers a +6 HP/s aura for even more regen AND a ranged 160 dmg AoE nuke that can clear waves in seconds or harrass the defending enemy.

The Hellbear Smasher, the big red creep aka tomato. One of the best alternatives if both of the above are unavailable. It has a 150 dmg AoE nuke that slows movespeed and attack speed by 25% and 25 for 3s, perfect for clearing waves or harassing the enemy. Also carries a +15 attack speed aura to take towers even faster.

The Dark Troll Summoner is also a good choice because his Raise Dead ability can spawn 2 skeleton warriors which deals a bit more damage than your melee creeps with half the HP. They can be used as a meat(bone) shield to tank tower shots so your eidolons deal more damage. It also has a rooting ability to secure your push.

The Wildwing Ripper (the bird) has a good +3 armor aura and a channeled tornado that can deal up to 45 dmg per second and 15% movespeed and attack speed slow. Not my favourite but still legit.

The Centaur Conqueror, only grab this if there is nothing else available or you need his 2 second AoE stun against ganking heroes.

Special mention

The Hellbear and Centaur Courser carry an aura giving +20% magic resistance to creeps and +5% to heroes. If the enemy wipes your waves too easily.

The Alpha Wolf's packleader aura gives your team +30% damage based on their primary attribute. Helpful if your team has alot of right-click damage.

Friends

Pushers, Aura Carriers

Shadow Shaman's Mass Serpent Ward will melt towers in seconds combined with your eidolons and make your blackholes even more devastating. Can shackle foes in your Midnight Pulse .

Dragon Knight Another strong tower melting ultimate making him a good ally.

Nature's Prophet (laned mid or offlane) can be a great asset as he can join your pushes instantly or just pressure his own tower, applying even more pressure.

Luna's moon glaive and Lunar Blessing will make everything easier, combined with Eclipse that will make sure the enemy never tries to counter your pushes.

Beastmaster is one of the strongest pushers you could want as a teammate. Makes your eidolons multiply in seconds under the effect of Inner Beast and offers good flying vision to make your pushing safe with his hawk.
Like Luna his ultimate will make sure the enemy even less likely to contest your pushes.

Lycan players know whats up. Their plays will synergize perfectly with yours.His Howl will buff the damage of your eidolons. Game winning combo for sure.

Troll Warlord can help you take down towers from anywhere on the map.

Jakiro's Liquid Fire will melt towers and make them shoot slower so your eidolons live longer.

Special Mention

Techies is your absolute best ally in the whole game... if hes against you. His turtle playstyle is 100% countered by your pushing playstyle. Your eidolons will waste all his Proximity Mines and make the game a legit 5v4.

Foes

Gankers, Black Hole Counters, Anti-Pusher

Riki is one of your strongest counters during the jungling phase. He will disrupt your farm and delay the pushing. If hes good he will scout you and get you ganked instead of straight up attacking you, as he cannot afford to trade right clicks vs your stack of eidolons. Counter: Dust of Appearance Sentry Ward .

Bounty Hunter Same as above. Plus he can actually counter the gold advantage you gain from towers with Track kills.

Pudge is probably going to hunt you in the jungle while you are vulnerable. He can Meat Hook you if you dont pay attention/buy wards while pushing. Counter: Observer Ward , reflexes and mobility.

Silencer is the hardest counter in the game for your Black Hole, his Global Silence goes through Black King Bar and if you pop Black King Bar to dispel the silence you cancel your blackhole. But do not fear as he does absolutely nothing against your pushes exept draw the creep aggro off the tower. Counter: by having him in the Black Hole or waiting for his ult to be on cooldown.

Clockwerk is one of the hardest counters to your Black Hole. His Hookshot stun will cancel your ult and there are no items to counter that since it pierces spell immunity. It even has a small AoE so he doesnt even need to directly target you to ruin your ult. Counter: Positioning, having him in the Black Hole

Vengeful Spirit is to me the 2nd best Black Hole counter, she can just hide and wait for you to Black Hole to Nether Swap you and cancel it. Like silencer, not so good against your pushes. Counter: Linken's Sphere or having her in the Black Hole.

Tinker will be able to somehow counter your pushing once he gets Boots of Travel.Counter: pushing hard before he gets his Boots of Travel pipe of indsight

Keeper of the Light can really delay your pushes by nuking/blinding the waves with Illuminate & Blinding Lightor by taking your mana with Mana Leak. Counter: dominated siege creeps that have magic resistance and building a pipe of indsight .

Timbersaw is surely going to bully your safelane (unless countered by picks) until you farm up your core items. He can wipe your eidolons with his charkram. He is likely to walk up under the whole creep + eidolons wave like a cool kid and tank it with his Reactive Armor. Counter: if he plays aggressively away from his tower drop a Midnight Pulse + Malefice on him with your carry and support nearby, see if he tries that again. If hes under his tower just ignore him and take down his tower right in his face. If nuke your eidolons with Whirling Death pull them back so they regen with Helm of the Dominator.

Night Stalker's ganking playstyle counters your pushing playtyle. Your push happens between 6 and 8 minutes which is night time. Counter: Observer Ward

Bloodseeker's ultimate is probably going to kill you if youre under tower range unless your team is there to back you. Counter: Town Portal Scroll Observer Ward

Chen can steal your creeps right in your face and turn them against you. Pretty bad if he steals your creep seconds after you dominate it because of the 60 second cooldown of your Helm of the Dominator. If it is off cooldown you can just re-dominate the stolen creep and assert your dominance. He can also play exactly like you and rat your own towers, effectively negating any advantage gained.

Enchantress Same as the above.

Spcial Mention

Techies again, if hes on your team. Seriously forget about this strat if you got a techies picker on your team. You will struggle to push towers, he will drag the game and your team will most likely not have a support. The only time where he can possibly be useful would be if you need to prevent the enemy from doing exactly what you are doing to your other towers while you push theirs.

Scientific explanation to why this strat is game winning

The obvious

-You rely on using the most broken item of 7.00, Helm of the Dominator
-You jungle with the fastest jungler
-You give your team gold advantage even if your carry sucks at last hitting (common).
-Your Midnight Pulse counters the most popular hero of this meta Monkey King.

The not-so-obvious

So why is this strategy so game-winning you might ask. Well to put it simply, it counters your average game of dota aka the most popular way dota is played right now. Keep in mind that the majority of players are ̶b̶a̶s̶i̶c̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶r̶e̶t̶a̶r̶d̶e̶d̶ still playing the game in a 6.88 mentality (farming meta). That means in your average game you will face players who expect the game to last 30-40 minutes+.

-They will expect a regular game where you rely on the carry being farmed to win the game. They will expect you to afk farm your Blink Dagger, Mekansm and Black King Bar and will NOT expect that strat.

-Successfully getting towers will put your team in a winning mindstate, making them much more cooperative. (Though if you fail your pushes it will have the opposite effect and the team chat might become a flame war, stay positive at all times and if you absolutely need to let your teammates know how bad they are wait for the game to end before doing so).

-Successfully taking towers will put the enemy in a losing mindstate. Making them play bad and possibly start a flame war in their team chat. Let them know how EZ they are is to put oil on the flames.

-Even if you dont manage to win early Enigma has all the tools necessary to win late. Anytime you want you can stop pushing and go farm the jungle super fast to buy what you need. It is almost impossible for the enemy to take siege high ground against you.

-The enemy offlaner is most likely not suited to defend against such pushes, the best they can do is draw creep aggro and expect your creeps to die fast.

-The enemy carry is most likely going to lack early game presence unless its Juggernaut or Luna.

-The enemy carry will be hesitant to abandon his lane ( losing farm) to defend, he will also assume that you will satisfy yourself after the T1 and stop your pushing madness. WRONG. He will probably reacts once its too late and the gold advantage is in your camp.

-Countering your strat requires huge amounts of team coordination (uncommon in pubs) since they must defend against your Black Hole without throwing the game.

-Requires minimal coordination: By the 6-7 mins mark your carry and support will most likely already be in your safelane so you dont need to ask your teammates to join your pushes, you force them to do so by pushing the lane yourself.

-By leaving the jungle you become a +1 in the lane you push while your other lanes dont suffer. Unlike a mid or offlaner that must abandon his lane to push.

-7.00 nerfed the pushing power of illusions, making heroes relying on creeps and summons the best alternative.

Experimental offlane build (Work in Progress)

Offlane Enigma is a legit option if your team forces you into it by stealing your jungle or if they didnt pick a decent offlaner. Basically if your team needs an initiator you will play the same role as a Tidehunter. All that while having the same pressuring power than a Broodmother, and being hard to kill like a Dark Seer and having even more farm denying power than a Lich. Crazy, huh?

+Strong teamfight potential
+Hard to kill
+Cannot be prevented from farming (unless camps are blocked).
+Can safely deny the enemy carry's farm
+Farms much faster than your average offlaner

-Honestly I cannot find anything bad about this strat, its MLG af

You should use the Observer Ward that supports usually give the offlaner to block the big creep camp that is used for pulls so the enemy cant deny all the xp. What you want to do is block your creep wave as much as possible, and then casting demonic conversion on your ranged creep, effectively denying 100% of the gold and exp (since the enemy isnt in range to soak the xp). Then you will bring your eidolons to farm the medium camp on the side with the high ground advantage to make them last longer. Make sure you have wards so you dont get ganked from the sides. Go back to your tower to soak xp if the lane pushes, deny you range creep again and go back to farming the jungle. The strongest trilanes in the game will not be able to kill you unless you over extend. You should be able to have your Blink Dagger by the 10-11 minutes mark and be able to join fights.

If the enemy has a weak safelane you should abuse that the same way a Broodmother would. Make your eidolons multiply by pushing the lane and harassing the enemy carry constantly. Then either start doing tower damage or farm the neutral camps on the side. Unlike a Broodmother you can rotate anytime you want on the map without the need to set up Spin Web.

You start by buying clarities for mana regen, sentry wards to deward your blocked jungle camps (higher mmr) and tangoes for regen. Soul ring is bought before or after boots depending on the lane you face. Blinked is rushed to become available to fight ASAP.

Conclusion

Theres nothing else to say now, go destroy some pubs. Show them that you are a real motherf*cking nigma.

DO leave constructive feedback and suggestions in the comments.

DO upvote my guide if it worked for you.

DO NOT leave negative feedback without taking time to explain why. Seriously, I put over 10 hours to write this guide, please take more than 10 seconds to write your feedback.