Chen, the Holy Knight
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Skill Build
1 – Holy Persuasion
2~3 – Penitence
4~5 – Holy Persuasion
6 – Hand of God
7 – Holy Persuasion
8~9 – Penitence
10 – Test of Faith
11 – Hand of God
12~14 – Test of Faith
15 – Attribute Bonus
16 – Hand of God
Starting Items
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Chicken: Since you are jungling and have low risks of getting killed, it is very unlikely for Chen to return to base early game so a chicken is a must.
Bracer: To make up for his weak early game HP.
Ring of Basilius: A must have item for Chen, it gives him everything he needs and benefits from it more than any other hero. It allows mana regeneration for creeps, which have none. By having mana regeneration in creeps, you need not send them back to fountain to restore their mana. Extra armor is always welcomed when tower diving and neutral creep tanking.
Mekansm: Allows constant neutral creeping when you have your desired creeps. Without Mekansm you have a harder time in spreading the damage across your army. With Mekansm, Hand of God will be your secondary heal instead. In addition, your persuaded creeps can tower dive more effectively.
Other Items
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Necronomicon: Necrobook is a good choice to get after your core items but it is usually inferior to Guinsoo. Because if you didn’t do well when you bought the book, you will be a bottleneck late game. The time where you should get Necrobook over Guinsoo is when you are in a situation where your enemies are Skeleton King / 2 or more Hand of Midas users / NA, SA, BH, BeastM, Weaver, etc / having ward wars.
It is a very good choice when your team is considering to end the game early. In these situations your allies (e.g. Pugna) will usually buy Mekansm so you can skip it and rush Necrobook 3. Otherwise, don’t get it.
Guinsoo’s Scythe: No doubt the best item for Chen late game. A 3 seconds disable + Penitence on a carry is no joke. An early void stone + Mek can guarantee a permanent hunt and creating constant pressure for enemies in neutral forests. Mana regeneration for Chen is important, it is necessary to have a constant large pool of mana to prepare for engages in forests/lanes and have a reliable global heal to help your ally across the map. His spells tax heavily on his mana pool mid game, usually exhausting almost all of it in engages.
Vladmir’s Offering (Optional): This item is not meant for Chen and his creeps, partially maybe, but its not the main reason. It is used to help support your carry late game by granting them lifesteal ability. Since in late game, he does not need much items after Guinsoo, Vladmir’s aura can help the carry on his survivability. Also, it is cheap and a natural upgrade to Ring of Basilius so why not?
Helmet of Dominator (Optional): I recommend to buy this only if your enemies have Hand of Midas. The extra creeps help but delaying Necrobook/Guinsoo by 2k is not advisable. It also pays off quite late because its cooldown is 6 minutes.
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Wards: Chen benefits more from the extra sight than your allies as it serves as a tool to see the kind of creeps that spawned in the warded area. He is usually the most powerful hero in mid game if you got the right creeps. In order to make use of that strength, you gank unwary heroes, alone or with allies before you become less useful later. Be careful that improper placing of wards can hinder the spawns of neutral creeps.
The main purpose of Sentry Wards is to destroy enemy wards preventing spawns and observer wards that allows them to know your army is marching towards them. It is usually used in early game.
Creep Analysis
Important Creeps
These creeps are most essential to playing Chen effectively, without any of them you have no intimidation power.
Note: Persuaded creeps have no collision size, so don’t bother trapping.
Dark Troll Warlord (Ensnare, Raise Dead)
It is the most important creep of your army but get only 1 of these.
Its main purpose is to initiate the attack by Ensnaring your victim so that your Centaur/Ursa can annihilate anything that stands in your way. Persuading 2 or more Trolls help little compared to Centaur/Ursa because piercing damage type does reduced damage to heroes and its disable is inferior to Ursa’s or Centaur’s when your victim is stuck. Another useful thing about them is that they can summon Skeletons to tank the neutrals and speed up your jungling process.
Centaur Khan (Hoof Stomp, Endurance Aura)
You must have at least 1 of these in your army.
The mascots of Chen’s army. They are the only persuadable creeps to have a stun. There is no reason not to have them.
Polar Furbolg Ursa Warrior (Thunder Clap)
Ursa is better than Centaur early game in most cases.
Ursa is underestimated and usually thought to be less useful than Centaur. But this is often not the case. Compared to Hoof Stomp, Thunder Clap has a slightly bigger AoE, 150 damage and slows for 3 seconds. 150 damage is a nice amount early game. It has a higher mana pool than Centaur so you can use it 1 more time. If you do not have Troll as initiator, Ursa is a viable alternative.
Other Creeps
These creeps are less important than the above. They are usually used for specific purposes.
Satyr Hellcaller (Shockwave, Unholy Aura)
Spamming of Shockwave on stacked (2 or more) neutral creeps and provide early regeneration aura.
Enraged Wildkin (Tornado)
Destroying stacked creeps with Tornado.
Tornado’s AoE is 600. In other words, once you cast it near your opponent, you can stop microing it.
Alpha Wolf (Command Aura, Critical Strike)
Only useful in late game, stick one of them to your carry hero.
Satyr Soulstealer (Mana Burn)
Babysitting creep.
It is a very useful creep for babysitting a carry with some laning capabilities (SF, Drow). It is recommended to persuade them when your persuasion level is 3 or above.
If your nearby ally is having a hellish time breathing in his lane, don’t hesitate to persuade it early and send it to mana burn the initiating hero (e.g. SkeleK, SandK, ES, NA) or nukers.
Spawn Areas
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You should be cautious of this when warding. Rectangle areas are areas where there must not be any units (most) when the clock hits xx:00 or there will be no spawns. If you are pulling creeps be sure to pull them outside the area before the clock reached the spawn time.

Pink – Weak camps (Gnolls, Troll Priests, Kobolds, Ghosts)
Brown – Medium camps (Alpha Wolves, Golems, Centaurs, Ogres, Manaburn Satyrs)
Yellow – Strong camps (Ursas, Trolls, Aura Satyrs, Centaurs)
This is common sense but always persuade high level creeps as your first creep except Satyr Hellcaller. Ursa and Centaur can help you to get first blood. Troll Warlord can summon skeletons and speed up your leveling process like madman. Satyr does nothing.
Playing Chen
Micromanagement
  • Press F1 and it highlights Chen.
  • Double click on a stationary unit to select all units of the same type.
  • Highlight unit(s), press Ctrl+[1 to 9] to set a control group.
  • Highlight unit(s), press Shift+[1 to 9] to add unit(s) to a control group.
  • Select a control group, Shift+[Left Click] unit’s icon to deselect a unit from control group, but does not remove them from group.
  • Use Tab to select unit types.
Steps in Engages
  • Get Chen behind of his creeps and get in position.
  • Highlight Chen, cast Penitence, shift cast Test of Faith, shift attack.
  • Micro creeps. Make sure you don’t cast multiple disable spells at same time.
Minimap
  • Turn on creep display in the minimap with Alt+R.
  • If a neutral camp cannot spawn because of wards, there will not be a green dot appearing when the clock hits the minute mark.
  • Watch out for engages in the minimap so you can use your heal in time.
  • Be sure to toggle your formation to “scattered” instead of “packed”. This way your creeps will not move at a slower speed.
Unfavorable Situations
Midas:
  • There is no direct counter to Midas but it is not an effective counter for the holder either because he needs to waste some time to find and reach you and Transmute your creeps.
  • To mitigate the adversity of Midas, gank the holder once he appears on the minimap for some time, about 15 seconds. It is even possible to gank him alone because they are usually weak (carrier or spent money on Midas instead of focusing on survival). Chances are that he has already used Transmute on creeps; Midas cooldown is 100 seconds.
Poor Creep Spawns:
  • Get Necronomicon.
  • Get Helmet of Dominator.
  • Focus on clearing high level creep camps.
Warding
In a competitive game, assuming you are jungling at home ground, buy a set of sentry wards at the start of game. Plant 1 or 2 sentry wards at these 2 areas if you suspect they bought observers/sentries.
The 2 areas: The gank path and creep pulling spot. Yellow areas are places where wards are usually placed. For the second area, be sure to scruntinise the area if you are positive the area is warded because there are a few hard-to-find wardable places besides the yellow spot.
Chen DOta
During mid game, spy your enemies’ neutral area with observers. It is more dangerous to jungle mid game as compared earlier. It is also this time when your persuaded creeps start to die more often so some spies would be helpful to get back your desired creeps.
For more warding information refer to here.
Lesser Used Tactics and Strategies
In this section, I will discuss really simple tactics and strategies that are really seldom seen but really useful.
Pullable Creep Camps near Inner Tower
When to do it: When it is a Centaur camp for Sentinel, Ghost/Kobold camp for Scourge.
Because they have around 350 movespeed when most other neutral creeps have 320 movespeed. When you pull them, they run fast enough to engage your lane creeps instead of running back to their camps.
Tornado Wildkin
When to do it: When you have stacked a few weak neutrals creeps (non golems).
Stack the weak creeps together (Ghosts, Gnolls, Kobolds, Troll priests) and Tornado them.
Summon Skeleton
When to do it: When you have Dark Troll Warlord.
I am quite surprised they are seldom summoned. Skeletons can be your meat shields and provide solid damage early game. They can help speed up your jungling process and dying skeletons can scout for runes.
Ursa Thunder Clap
When to do it: Jungling.
Besides summoning Skeletons, Ursa can also clear creeps at a fast rate by using Thunder Claps regularly. They do 150 damage and can be used up to 3 times.
Fake Stomps
When to do it: Engages with Centaur/Ursa.
While it may not be much use, you can cancel the animation if you think you will miss the stomp. Against Puck’s Phase Shift this can be a good move.
Destroying Transmute
When to do it: When ambushing Midas users.
It may prove to be a difficult task to pull it off even without lag but you can really piss off the holder. Before you ambush him, place a high level creep before your army, then go engage. He will probably Midas the closest creep so…Test of Faith before the gold thing flies to the your creep.
Alpha Wolf
When to do it: When you are getting useless, in other words late game.
Stick the wolf to your carry hero by right clicking the hero, then abandon it. The aura is +30% damage and in late game it’s nothing to be laughed at. When you persuade the wolf it has 900 hp so it won’t die too fast.
Roshan Scout
When to do it: Mid/Late game
Persuade a creep and put it near Roshan. Wards can’t spy on Roshan so get a creep to get the job done for you.
Ancient Camp Pull
When to do it: When you are dead / MidLate game.
Probably first used by EHOME’s longdd Dragon Knight, and the tactic was wide spreaded quickly. The concept is exactly the same as any other creep stacking tactics. Get a persuaded creep to attack the creep camp every xx:52~53 and stack them up. After about 5 stacked creep camps, call your carry hero or someone with lifesteal to kill them.
Sentinel Camp
When to do it: At the start of game.
A picture speaks a thousand words. If you are in search of a high level creep in Sentinel area, this is a fast and easy way to do it. Hit the dark red creep once and the Polar Ursa will show up.
Fountain Teleport
When to do it: When your enemy is using BoT on his creep near you.
I saw this from this thread but I’m not too sure if it works. When you see your enemy Teleporting to a creep, Persuade and Test of Faith it. The enemy will end up teleporting to your fountain.
Common Mistakes
Everyone is not perfect, there will defintely be some mistakes here and there. But these are some common mistakes even in top level plays. Of course, I’m guilty too.
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Never ever forget the presence of the Earthshaker, even when he’s dead. He can buy back and surprise you. If you and your team are not observant, his ultimate can screw the entire team up. Being perceived a weak, fragile and sissy HP hero, Chen will be taken out first with the almighty Echo Slam. Once you are dead, there are no heals no penitence no centaurs no cheese to help your team.
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I have no clue why people would want to deny their persuaded creep after killing a creep camp unless they found an obviously better replacement and not wanting to hurt it. It hinders your progress. I cannot think of any advantages of it, maybe it helps you feel better when you backstab your ally? I don’t know. But I find this mistake present in almost every Chen replay.
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Another error – not organising your creeps before and during engages.
You should always have your creeps in front of you before engages. Otherwise it will be a pain in the ass to disable your prey. If it’s too far, even Penitence’s slow won’t help.
Throughout your games as Chen, there will be a few times where your prey is a blink type hero like Puck, PotM, QoP, AM. So obviously you should micro a lone stunner to guard the escape route. But it’s hard to execute fast unless you practise. So here’s the cheat sheet, to me and some people at least.
Let’s say I have Chen, Troll, Centaur, Centaur in group 1 (Ctrl+1). There’s a QoP farming and screaming away in a lane and I want her dead. I decide to have a Centaur to stun her so I press Shift+[Left Click] on the Centaur icon. Micro your army to scare the enemy and then click on the lone centaur and order it to move to the escape route. Then…go figure.
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If Balanar is the Night Stalker then Chen is the Holy Stalker. Once night falls, if your enemies don’t have wards or stick together they are crushed. Night is always a friend to gankers like Chen. Once the timer turns night, move your army across the river to the other side of neutral creeps area. Be careful not to be seen. Most likely the enemies farming at the other side won’t have a clue that doom is looming. Even better, there might be some heroes neutraling and thus low on HP. The surprise factor that enemies still think you are at the original neutral creeps area will net you gold, money and increase your ego. Do it stealthily and you will yield unexpected results.
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Perhaps the most fatal mistake. Chen users are too absorbed into microing their creeps that they don’t take note of their hero’s HP, especially sudden attacks from heroes breaking their invisibility.
For example you are Scourge, hiding in Sentinel neutral camps planning to ambush Sentinel’s Zeus at middle river. You will be hit by the tower’s attacks when you rush to Zeus. It is likely that he will throw everything at you before dying and pulls you red HP. This situation probably wouldn’t happen if you cancel your hero’s attack animation and moving Chen away from tower, when Zeus is trapped by the stuns.

MORPHLING GUIDE!



Morphling


Pros
1. Alot of stats to play around with
2. Can fit almost into any situtation
3. Adaptive strike gets more powerful as the game progress
4. Waveform does not lose it effectiveness
5. Very High Damage, High armour and Attack Speed
Unfortunately a hero this good will have a bad side
Cons
1. Low Movement speed (285)
2. Fragile
3. Mana MAY prove to be a problem
4. VERY item dependent, if you are facing a good opponent who denys you alot, it may screw your game up
Now we understand this hero better, How do you play him?
Skill/Item build

Skill Build
1.
Waveform

2.
Stats
3.
Waveform

4.
Stats

5.
Waveform
6.
Stats

7.
Waveform

8~9.
Stats
10.
Morph

11.
Stats

12.
Stats

13.
Adaptive Strike
14.
Stats

15.
Adaptive strike

16.
Stats

17.
Adaptive strike
18.
Stats

19.
Adaptive strike

20.
Replicate

21.
Replicate
22.
Replicate

23.-
24.-
25.
Ensure Str Points is 1 then add morph
Q:Why this skill build have no adaptive strike and replicate at early levels!?
A:Well… this is a all agi build, means that you will be converting ALL str points in AGi resulting in low health.Maxing out stats ensure that your hp will keep increasing EVEN if you convert and Stats also help increase Agi and Int.which increase mana, solving your mana problems.
Q:Replicate at last few levels? you kidding me?
A:This build is meant for taking down fast and quick. Unless you are very good with micromanaging, replicate shouldn’t be gotten. But, you can get it if you want to, changing a stat for a replicate if you think you need a passive spell or a ward (thank to remi for enlightening me)
Q:lvl 23 and lvl 24 have a dash.what does it means?
A:Dun add morph till you convert all Str to agi, or you MAY have str Points left over after morphing.
Q:What exactly does stats do?
A:Well i used to think that its for points to play around with. But now, i think stats are important. They increase MANA, something you truly really lack of. Agi and str point also help but mana really solve alot of problems.
Item build

Starting items



This starting gears should be able to help you and should provide you some help.
1.3 wraith bands <– This should be gotten after your first fountain trip.
2. Blade of alacrity
*Farm up 1050 gold to make yasha*
*Put down 2 wraith band and buy the next 2 item*
3. Boots of elvenskin
4. Yasha recipe Scroll
*Forms Yasha*
*Pick up the 2 wraith band to ensure maximum stats bonus*
*Save up 3050 gold to make S and Y*
*Put all 3 wraith band on the floor*
5. Ogre axe
6. Belt of giant strength
7. Sange recipe scroll
*Forms Sange*
8. Buy S and Y recipe scroll
*Form S and Y*
9.Helm of iron will
10.Mask of death
*Forms helm of dominator* <—– From here on your item slot will be full. So the rest of the item you just sell the wraith bands.
* From here onwards you can choose which item you need to get as it will depend on your situation.
If you need speed and more pushing ablility
11. BoT recipe scroll
*Forms BoT*
If you want greater surviving ability
11. Messerschmidts Reaver
12. Satanic recipe scroll
*Forms satanic*
If you want more dmg
11. Broadsword
12. Blades of attack
13. Crystalys recipe scroll
*Froms Crystalys*
14. Demon edge
15. Buriza-do kyanon recipe scroll
*Forms Buriza-do kyanon*
OR
11. Eaglehorn
12. Quarter staff
13. Butterfly recipe scroll
*Forms Butterfly*
The rest of the build after is for you to choose, depending on what situation you may have.
Reason for items

1.BoT : Increase MS and Teleportation (handy for pushing)
2.Satanic : life steal, ability to heal while push reduce the amount of trip you have to go back fountain, useful.
3.S and Y : MS boost,which you lack of. Attack spd increase, decent str and agi boost, miam.
4.Butterfly : Stats boost, evasion and attack spd
5.Buriza : increase DPS
Q: Why 3 wraith early game?
A: it is to help to build up your foundation for later + your well needed mana for waveform.
Q: I see EoS in other people guide. Why not yours
A: I used to support EoS, but, it is really hard to farm up for. If you are confident in getting EoS then go aheda and get it.
Q: HoD???
A: Yes. I believe that HoD will be able to save your life alot of times. And will work quite well against those DPS heros who take you on. It also save on your fountain trips and you can regen back your health by visiting the NC.
Well Thats about it
Now about how to play
Strategy

Early game
IF you pick or Random Morphling, -ma to see any easy target. Look out for nukers and disablers too. Nukers and disablers are a hazard to you. If not, start of with the early game items. Get a lane (Don’t solo unless you are able to.) And my advice to you is, DUN GET KILLED.
DUN GET KILLED!!!!
. your puny health and mana capacity would make you a VERY VERY VERY VERY easy target. Nukers will rip you to shreads while disablers will… disable you. Basically i prefer the wave, hit and run method. You basically wave behind the person and hit him, afterward you run. You may think it is a dumb idea but basically that how it works. if he is on low health then you can just finish him off. If you can catch up with him. Get your 3 wraith and you should be a few inches above the danger line.
Mid game
This is the part where Ganging starts to occur, and where you start to shine. You basically continue on with wad you are doing from lvl 8 to lvl 12. harassing and killing enemies. Aim for last hits and deny. The only difference is you have a HoD now (or not, depending). You may now think , Why the heck did i get this item???. All that will change after you get morph. You morph your str to agi. leaving behind 900+ health. You can choose to go for 1000+ health or lesser than 900 if you are those daredevil types. Basically get your S and Y asap or you wont even be able to catch up with your teammate. 335 ms with BoS… pathetic..
Late game
In my last guide i didn’t emphasize alot on late game. Well, late game is the danger zone. Ganging become often, 5 man push is also frequent. basically chaos is everywhere. You now play a crucial role as the dmg dealers and chasers. You survive physical attack. spell is the only danger to you. Stun and ganging is worse. You maybe needed alot, depending on if you play well or not. if you keep getting killed, morph some points to str. Adaptive strike should be at it maximum potential. replicate should now be dealing some damage and tanker hero should have enough health for it to be worth it to replicate. This strategy cannot turn you from a noob to a pro but thats is basically what you should do with Morphling
Now time for your allies.
Allies
The heros i feel are good with you are,
Zeus. He’s able to take down most of the opponent health in early game with his spells. remember that leveling and getting stats is one of your most top priority. And he kinda make people focus all their defence on spells. leaving you a big advantage with damage.
Drow ranger. Turns disablers and spell nukers into food. Cold arrow also slow down so you can catch up with your pathetic MS and do some serious DMG.
ES. He stuns and do major dmg with his spell. a very good ally to have.
Nevermore. With his aura and your dmg… Ouch!
AM. He takes care of mana while you take care of health.His blink is useful. Int heros beware.
Bane elemental. A full time disabler, but his nightmare is quite troublesome tho. nevertheless, a good ally.
With Great Allies, comes with Enemies
Worst Enemies
Stunners – They may be your good allies but on the other team it a different story
Disabler – Same as stunner, you have have a Slow MS, you wouldn’t want to be purge or slow down, would you?
Waveform tactics
Waveform is such a great skill. like i have mention above, its a blink+nuke+aoe and definitely is a geat skill. I will teach you how to use it to its maximum potential.
Waveforming behind your enemies. This is the basics of waveform. You waveform behind the enemy to deal him dmg, forcing him to run into your creep wave or to engage you. it can also be use as a harass and waveform also eliminates the enemies creep wave, useful for chasing and killing, initiating.
Pudge has blind hook, we have blind waveform. Like what pudge players do, they try to visualise the enemy hero. what we do not need to visualise is the enemy creeps. whereas a pudge player needs to. Its better to underestimate rather than Over estimate as morphling tends to move until he can waveform to the point you click. thus sometimes you may not be able to do it as his ms is slow. Also, morphling waveform has a small aoe of 250. So the animation might look like it did not hit but it will still do dmg if the person is in the aoe. You can also use it on invisible hero. Did it once on twice on riki, killing him. Although the other team did call me a maphacker.
You can also use your waveform to escape. You can just wave up a cliff. The trick here is to waveform smartly. Waveform to where the hero has to take a big round before reaching you. thus you will be able to escape. Sometimes just waveforming straight towards your base may work. make sure thayt your teammate is near to support you tho.
Conclusion
We have come to the end of my guide, Hope that it will prove to be useful and Morphling if played properly, Will OWN!!!! I will update my guide whenever i can so good luck, have fun and thanks for reading

WEAVER GUIDE!


Anub’seran, the Nerubian Weaver


Hero Abilities

Watcher – Hotkey W
Raises an invisible Watcher from a corpse. Watcher does not have truesight, has 1 HP.Not magic immune.
Level 1 – 2 maximum.
Level 2 – 4 maximum.
Level 3 – 6 maximum.
Level 4 – 8 maximum.
Mana Cost: 50
Cooldown: 20/15/10/5

Note: This skill is your free Observer Ward. Early it’ll save you from ganks. Well placed you can later observe the whole map, giving you good opportunities to kill neutral farming opponents, help you observing Roshan and also still prevent you and your team from ganks everywhere on the map.
This skill was nerfed, which removed spell immunity of the Watcher. A Hero with Radiance running into a Watcher will kill it immediately. Also this is an normal invisible unit which can be seen with truesight and can be attacked then.

Shukuchi – Hotkey C
Nerubian Weaver becomes invisible and has 522 move speed for 4 seconds. Any units passed through will take damage.
Level 1 – 90 damage.
Level 2 – 100 damage.
Level 3 – 110 damage.
Level 4 – 120 damage.
Mana Cost: 60
Cooldown: 13/ 11/ 9/ 7
Note: This is your main harassing skill early game and your chasing and escaping ability.

Geminate Attack – Passive
Occasioanlly the Nerubian Weaver will send out two swarms, attacking an opponent twice.
Level 1 – 7 second cooldown.
Level 2 – 6 second cooldown
Level 3 – 5 second cooldown
Level 4 – 3.5 second cooldown
Orb effect.
Note: This skill will help you harassing opponents and make last hitting easier. This skill doesn’t work on your own creeps, like a few other skills.

Time Lapse – Hotkey T
Warps the Weaver 5 Seconds back in time, reseting HP, Mana, and position. Does not effect cooldowns, gold, and XP.
Level 1 – 150 manacost.
Level 2 – 75 manacost.
Level 3 – 0 manacost.
Mana Cost: 150
Cooldown: 120/ 90/ 60
Note: This is a fantastic ultimate. It’ll place you on the area you were 5 seconds before and give you the HP you had back then. Also all negative buffs will be removed, except Witch Doctors Maledict, Dazzles Poison Touch, Warlocks Shadow Word and Bloodseekers Rupture. Later on I’ll add more about those skills, which don’t get removed by Time Lapse.
4. Skillorder
Level 1 – Geminate Attack
Level 2 – Shukuchi
Level 3 – Watcher
Level 4 – Shukuchi
Level 5 – Shukuchi
Level 6 – Time Lapse
Level 7 – Shukuchi
Level 8 – Geminate Attack/Watcher
Level 9 – Geminate Attack/Watcher
Level 10 – Watcher/Geminate Attack
Level 11 – Time Lapse
Level 12 – Geminate Attack/Watcher
Level 13 – Stats/Watcher
Level 14 – Stats/Watcher
Level 15 – Stats/Watcher
Level 16 – Time Lapse
Level 17 – Watcher/Stats
Level 18 – Watcher/Stats
Level 19 – Stats
Level 20 – Stats
Level 21 – Stats
Level 22 – Stats
Level 23 – Stats
Level 24 – Stats
Level 25 – Stats
Note: You have to get one level Geminate Attack first for easier last hit creeping. The Watchers on level 3 are necessary, to prevent you from ganks. How to place them you find in Section 6 – “How to use your Abilities?”.
In midgame you have to decide what is more important for the team and for you. Some more Watchers or maxing out Geminate Attack first. I recommend another Watcher on level 10 or 12 to watchout the second rune spot and the other one depends on the line you are and on the progress of the game.
While Stats could be very helpfully for Weaver you have to max out Shukuchi and Geminate Attack and getting ultimate and some Watchers before getting Stats.
5. Itembuild
Here’s Nerubian Weaver Itemlist:
     
Total Cost: 20895
Normally you’ll only get Butterfly or Heart of Tarrasque, which will only be a total cost of around 15000 gold then.
Startitems:
Do as you wish. Some guys prefer RoR, some prefer Tangos, some prefer Flask, and some guys prefer other things. It’s your decision which you prefer.
Early Game:
There are three possibilities for you to buy in early game.
1.     
OR
2.    
OR
3.   
Vanguard vs 2 Bracer
250 HP
4 HP/Sec Regeneration
65% to block 35 damage
Most expensive part: 1100 Gold
Cost: 2275
 
228 HP
0,86 Armor
78 Mana
6 Damage
Most Expensive Part: 185 Gold
Cost: 1020
The 4 HP/Sec Regeneration is nice and the 65 % Chance to block 35 damage increase your effective HP, but the cost of Vanguard is more than the double of 2 Bracer and doesn’t give you Mana. That’s why I prefer 2 Bracer’s, but if you prefer Vanguard, buy it.
Empty Bottle vs Tango/Flask & Clarity Potion
This just depends on how much Tangos/Flasks and Clarity Potions you need. If you need more than 700 gold for them, it’s worthless to get them, because of the cost of Empty Bottle.
Do I really need Boots of Speed?
No, you don’t need, if you feel comfortable with it, you can skip them until you finished your Core Item, but remember, if your manapool is going to be empty and somone is chasing you, you’ll be beated, because of your extremely slow natural movespeed.
Core Item:
Shop Level: 4
Description:
+8% Chance to Evade
+60 Damage
Passive: Immolation
550 Radius
35 Damage/sec Immolation
Cost: 5325
Why I should buy Radiance? It’ll just show the opponents where I am.
Thats right, but Weaver isn’t a typical invisible Hero. Your invisible time is just 4 seconds.
Lets see which make Radiance that good for Weaver:
  • Helps Weaver farming, especially with Shukuchi.
  • Helps you chasing an opponent. When you use Shukuchi to catch up an escaping Hero, you not only do the damage of Shukuchi, you also do the Radiance damage.
  • + 60 damage
Which kind of damage is Immolation?
It’s magic damage. It can be blocked by Black King Bar and reduced by items and spells which reduce magic damage. The normal Hero magic reduction is 25 %, which means you do 26,25 damage per second to every Hero in your radius. If you use Shukuchi this means you do the following damage in the 4 seconds of Shukuchi: (120 + 35 * 4) * 0,75 =195 damage
You do nearly 200 damage just for chasing the Hero for 4 seconds. Isn’t it great?
Why shouldn’t I get Monkey King Bar or Buriza?
It’s simple. When you use Shukuchi to chase an opponent, you can’t attack. Radiance fix this problem with the damage-aura.
Optional Items:
Shop Level: New Recipes
Description:
Creates a small very fast flying unit that can carry items to and from your base. If it dies the items will fall to the ground. Has magic immunity, high mana, hitpoints and armor. Cannot carry Gem. Can cast Burst and courier shield.
Especially, when you play with Tangos and Clarity Potions the Crow will very helpfully for you, because if you run out of HP and/or Mana and need an Tango and/or Clarity Potion fast, the Crow will help you in no time.
You’ve finished your Core Itembuild and want to know, what do buy next. The possibilities are following items. The order you have to choose yourself.
 OR 
When you have problems against heavy nukers, you should get one of those both items.
Shop Level: 1
Description:
+90 Run Speed
Active: Teleport
60 Second Cooldown 4 Second Cast Time
Cost: 2700
Note: Because you already own Boots of Speed, it just should be 2200 gold.
Boots of Travel vs Power Treads
Some guys might say, you don’t have the highest Attackspeed and you should buy Power Treads. Surely Power Treads gives a nice attackspeedbonus, but don’t you think teleport is much better than running over the half map or buying a Scroll for 135 gold, which just teleport you to buildings?
Boots of Travel cost 2700 gold, Power Treads cost 1530. This is a different of 1170 gold. If you buy 9 Scrolls, you have the same prize like for buying Boots of Travel and if you don’t buy scrolls, you’ll lose gold and experience, because you can’t farm.
For me Boots of Travel is nearly always the better choice, but thats a matter of taste. If you really decide to buy Power Treads, you should get them directly after Radiance or maybe before and always have a Scroll with you.
Shop Level: 4
Description:
+300 Hit Points
+11 HP/Sec Regeneration
+35 Strength
Cost: 5300
Note: This is by far the most effective way to boost your HP and survivability. Something that Weaver really lacks is HP. Hence after getting a damage boost in the form of Radiance, the next logical step would be to increase your HP by buying a Heart of Tarrasque. If you farmed for Radiance very fast, you can buy Butterfly first, if you want. Butterfly increase your effective HP and your damage, but if you really are in trouble, because of your low HP, you have to get Heart of Tarrasque as fast as possible.
Shop Level: 4
Description:
Damage: 30
Attack Speed: 30%
Agility: 30
Passive: Evasion
Chance: 30%
Cost: 6350
Note: This is still the best Item you can get with an damage dealing Agility Hero. It not only boosts your attackspeed and your damage by 60 points, it also boosts your effective HP. If you have 2500 HP and someoneis doing physical damage to you, it’s like you have following HP (without the higher armor reduction): 2500 * 1,30 = 2500 / 10 * 3 + 2500 = 3250 HP
The Butterfly evasion also overrides the Radiance evasion.
 
If the game should really go on and you already own Butterfly and Heart of Tarrasque you should think about those both items. If there are many Heros with Scrolls or Boots of Travel in your opponent team and your teammates don’t disable them or don’t have disables, you should think about getting MKB instead of Butterfly.
Items you should avoid:
    
All Orb Effects should be avoided, because none of them stack with Geminate Attack.
The Orb effect only works on Geminate Attacks, the cost is 2550 gold higher than the cost of HoT and the mana overkill isn’t necessary for Weaver, because her Ultimate later doesn’t require mana.
You don’t need the overkill of Mana, because after level 3 Ulti you just have Shukuchi, which requires Mana and sometimes the Watchers. On level 25 you have 1014 Mana anyway, without Bracers. This is more than enough. Heart of Tarrasque boost your Hp even more anyway.
No, don’t get this item. Even it was a option, when there was the old Aegis, but right now it’s much to risky, even for a Weaver.
6. How to use your Abilities?
Placement of Watchers
Note: Remember Watchers will be killed by Radiance aura. If one of your opponent bought a Radiance you have to place them very often new and look intensive for them. Same goes for the fact your opponents are going to buy Sentry Wards.
Early Game for preventing Ganks and runespotting:
Top Lane:
Note: It doesn’t matter you’re Sentinel or Scourge here. The first Watcher is to protect yourself from ganks. For Scourge the first one is already enough, because you’ve scouted the mainarea from where ganks are coming. For Sentinel you need the other one, because they also can come from the river. The Sideffect is, that you can spot runes. Remember, every 2 minutes a run is spawning. If it isn’t on your scouted runspot, it’s on the other. Tell it to your team.
Bottom Lane:
Note: The upper on is obviously mostly for rune spotting but for Scourge also preventing from ganks. The lower one is only for gank preventing.
Mid Lane:
Note: You better go not mid lane, but if you really have no coice you should place 1 Watcher like this and the other Watcher on one of them rune spots. More about not going mid comes in Section 7 – “Strategy”.
All Watcher’s used:
Note: The Watcher on Roshan isn’t necessary but I think it’s a good choice, even if you have to stop spotting on the bottom right corner. If you look closely and often enough on the minimap also this shouldn’t be a problem.
Shukuchi
Harassing:
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Note: Go to the upper mark and if you reach the first mark use Hotkey for Shukuchi and when you damaged your opponent, go back, except the fact you can kill him. Then you should go a bit towards so you can hit him a few more times. If you are going to harass your opponent like that, you should wait for a creep getting low HP, which will get killed then, too.
Escaping:
If you want to escape someone you should run and don’t hit him, because he’ll know then where you’re and where you’re running.
Chasing:
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Note: In this Situation I was just using Shukuchi and run to the red mark, pick up the rune before the opponent can take and start attacking Axe. I’m a little bit in front of him, so I can attack him more often.
Fighting Early Game:
When you want to fight an opponent early, because you think you can kill him, Shukuchi can be an very useful tool, if you use it right. To get the timing when you can start a fight early game, you should read Section 7 – “Strategy”. When you start to engage an fight, your opponent won’t most likely not fight back directly, because he have to recognize it and then click on you. This takes a short amount of time. Just attack him a bit, use Shukuchi behind him and start attacking him again. You have the advantage of the surprise again. Remember, you’re very weak early game. That’s why you have to be a bit tricky. With this you not only nuke him with your Shukuchi, you also can hit him more, than he can hit you. This only works, when you’re facing an solo Hero and when there isn’t coming a new creepwave. It would be very painful, if you attack your opponent from behind and the coming creepwave would start attacking you, too, when your Shukuchi is cooling down.
Geminate Attack
Activating Geminate Attack:
Geminate Attack will only be activated, if you rightclick or A and leftclick on an opponent or make attackwalk by pressing A and leftclick on the ground.
Last Hit Creeping:
Note: As you can see, the creep right in front of me is on low HP. Right click on it to activate Geminate Attack directly and the creepgold will be yours, even if the first attack won’t kill the creep directly, the second will.
Harassing:
When you want to harass your opponent with Geminate Attack you have to wait until Geminate Attack is cooled down. Rightclick on the opponent then, wait for the first attack which is out and click back. The second attack will get out immediately, if you timed right.
Time Lapse
You have to use Time Lapse, when you lost very much HP in a short time, like in this screen, where Pudge used Dismember & Rot on me. I used Time Lapse directly after his ultimate and had half of my HP back.:
7. Strategy
Lane Choosing:
You should absolutely avoid Mid Lane, because you’re very fragile and your range is to low, to stay back. Normally on the Mid Lane there is atleast 1 ranged Hero who can harass you, whenever you want to do a last hit.
Top or Bottom Lane don’t really care, except you want to go for Vanguard, then you may should choose Top Lane for Sentinel and Bottom Lane for Scourge. Its also better, if you choose not to Solo.
Early Game:
Most important early game is to stay alive and farm. Harassing comes next. If you face some Nukers you should better change lane with someone or ask for help. Otherwise you won’t stand a chance.
If you’re facing melee Heros or just 1 melee Hero on your lane, you’ve to harass them constantly with Geminate Attack and Shukuchi. If the opportunity comes, you may can kill someone, but don’t try to kill someone with a stun (like Sven) or with Blink (like Magina), because this is most likely worthless. Those guys you just have to send back because of your harassing. A Sven could you beat easily, even if you have full HP and he have half HP. Just the Nuke will lower your HP like hell and then the few attacks he give you. A Hero with Blink like Magina can easily escape and you can’t catch him up, because his Blink Cooldown is lower than your Shukuchi Cooldown. You should also always try to kill atleast 1 creep, better 2, if you use Shukuchi, to harass an opponent. That’s all you can do early game. Don’t rush anything, because Weaver is fragile and item dependent.
Mid Game:
You go on like in Early Game until you’ve finished Radiance. With Sacred Relic you may can look for some kills, but you still should focus on farming.
After you’ve finished Radiance, you should farm even more and look for Heros without disable and escape mechanism. When you engage a Hero like that, you backstab him or Shukuchi behind him. If he’s going to beat you with nukes or physical attacks, just use Time lapse and finish him off. You also should help your teammates with ganking opponents. You deal now high amounts of damage with the Immolation Aura, Shukuchi & your physical attacks, but mainly you should still focusing on farming, if your team isn’t going or isn’t able to finish it off right now or atleast finish 1 last tower off. Also now it’s the time to place more Watcher’s around, making life for you and your team much easier.
Late Game:
This is your time. You now have an even bigger damage output or higher HP to stay longer while dealing damage. In the best case you have both.
Late Game is all about pushing and this is excactly what you do. You go with your team and push. They support you and disable the enemies, when you deal damage, but you have to be always careful, because of your low range you run far into the enemies to do this.
If opponents are pushing, you should try to damage the opponents creeps with Shukuchi and Immolation Aura without beeing attacked. Your opponents may have Wards or a Gem, which makes this a bit risky, but you can deal very much damage to the creeps with that. Let’s think about 12 Treants/Ghouls are coming.
120 + 35 * 4 = 260 damage per Creep 260 * 12 = 3120 (!) damage if it comes good.
Make this two times and the big wave is already gone.
8. Good Allies, Bad Enemys & Countertactics
Good Alies
Very nice ally for almost every Hero. He can heal you and he can help you getting early kills with Repel and/or Slow.
Fantastic ally. He use Aphotic Shield on you, you use Shukuchi, go behind the opponent(s) and start attacking. The opponent(s) have 2 possibilities right now. Attack and Running. If he/they run away, you land very much hits. If he/they start attacking you, you don’t only deal your physical damage, also Aphotic Shield does damage and right now after Aphotic Shield ends, Shukuchi should be cooled down.
He give you mana, so you can spam Shukuchi and you can clear with his Illuminate and you Shukuchi the whole rest of the remaining creepwave. Also he helps you with his lane dominance, because you most likely don’t have any.
Bad Enemys
     
Every heavy nuker will make your life from early to midgame to hell. Most of them have powerful nukes. The listed are the most annoying nuker because they have spamable nukes and/or 2 powerful nukes, which make them even more fearsome.
 
Those both massdisablers are even more fearsome than the nuker. They not even can disable you for more than 6 seconds, they also have 1 spamable nuke and fantastic ultimates.
  
Every Hero with Silence can beat you, because you can’t use your escape mechanism. The listed ones also are often better from early to late game, if they were played well.
This Hero is both, a heavy nuker and a silencer. He has an 300 damage AoE nuke which only have 8 seconds cooldown and with Witchcraft level 4 only 4 seconds cooldown. His silence also last 6 seconds and her ultimate don’t make it possible for you to chase him, because you most likely would die, before you could kill him.
He’s really a pain in the ass. He has an ultimate, which not only disable you for 5 seconds, it also does 500/775/1075 damage to you. He has an 7 second disable also, which let him wait for allies, a 300 damage nuke and 80 % base damage reduction. How painful.
I don’t know this is your worst enemy or bane. Anyway, both are from early to lategame really annoying for you, even if you’re a well playing Weaver user. He not only has a silence ultimate, which last 16 seconds. His ultimate do 80 damage per second (80 * 16 * 0,75 = 960). Last, but not least, he has an 250 damage nuke and a movespeed increase by 30 %.
This Hero has a 275 nuke, with 5 seconds cooldown, a damage reduction aura and an ultimate which can make your ultimate useless, because it kill you instantly, when your’ve lost more than 60 % of your HP.
He not only has powerful nukes, he also has high HP and spellreduction. His Hook can hit you, even if you’re invisible and his combo can kill you early easily and with Necronomicon he can kill you until early part of lategame very easy. His combo do (400 + 175 * 3 + 100 * 3) * 0,75 =918,75 damage, if you won’t get attacked, when he dismember you.
He’ll be painful for you from early to late game. There is no chance, you can do something against a good Magina. He can easily chase you with blink, he suck out your mana and he have an powerful ultimate. If he really is on low HP you stand no chance, to kill him, because of blink. And he also can permabash you.
Countertactics
There are many possibilities to counter a Weaver. Hero’s who can counter Weaver you’ve already seen under the section “Bad Enemies”.
Guinsoo and other disables
Disables will help you against Weaver in a teambattle, because he’s faster dead than he can escape or cast Time Lapse.
Feedback and Manaburn
No mana means no Shukuchi and without Shukuchi Weaver is even with Time Lapse a free kill for an average team.
Permabash
Permabashing Heros will make your life to hell, because Shukuchi and Time Lapse have a long casting time. In 1on1 situations every good permabashing Hero will kill you easily. For example a Troll with 2 Basher.
Dagon and every kind of Nukes
Because you’re very fragile this will beat the hell out of you from early to mid game.
Every kind of Silence
A silenced Weaver can’t use Shukuchi and Time Lapse, means he’s an easy kill, until he get Heart of Tarrasque
At last the best way, to counter a Weaver. Harassing. If you harass a Weaver from early to midgame and he can’t farm his core items, he don’t stand a chance. Even if he don’t do.