Tips from visage players?

[Multi]

He's the one hero i havent bothered trying to play so far. I see him less than any other hero. Obviously i could watch purge or someone play a match (and i intend to), but as of right now im wondering if anybody has any tips for me on how to play this hero.

What i'm looking for:
1. Where to play this hero (as in which lane should i be starting in)
2. What my main build should revolve around (i'm not talking about weird games where i have to build him differently. what i mean is what should i have in mind when i'm playing him? i was thinking disables and mana.
3. How do i use this hero and his familiars together in harmony to maximize effectiveness? (i mean where to position all my stuff, and when to use which spells. i know how to micro from playing around a hundred meepo games)

so if one of the 3 people that play this hero is on the forums and could give me some pointers, i'd really appreciate it.

[Amplifier]

Harder Micro than Meepo, from what I've seen.

I can't give you many answers,
except for #3:

The basic idea behind rekting as Visage

1. Get Birds.
   
2. Get Birds to attack some poor chap.
   
3. Slow said chap.
   
4. Spam Soul Assumption on said chap. (And attack them if you can)
   
5. Stun said chap when Birds run out of damage charges OR Birds are going to get rekt.
   
6. Repeat until chap is rekt.

At least, that's my basic understanding.

[Multi]

Originally posted by Goen 2 Ti5 TigerKirby215:

Harder Micro than Meepo, from what I've seen.

I can't give you many answers,
except for #3:

The basic idea behind rekting as Visage

1. Get Birds.
   
2. Get Birds to attack some poor chap.
   
3. Slow said chap.
   
4. Spam Soul Assumption on said chap. (And attack them if you can)
   
5. Stun said chap when Birds run out of damage charges.
   
6. Repeat until chap is rekt.

At least, that's my basic understanding.

yeah i assumed that was the idea.

and i agree with you on him being harder than meepo. people talk meepo up a bunch, but hes not that tough.

although your familiars dying isnt as crippling as a meepo dying.

[Dashiell]

Actually you want to chain stun people with familiars, you don't have hp and birds DON'T have hp to exchange fire, your dmg charges are used up really quickly so you don't need to worry about wasting them but after familiars dmg will be quite low so you want to get medalion. Soul assumption can be wasted so you spam it everytime you see full charges.

[Amplifier]

Originally posted by Paul Blart:

although your familiars dying isnt as crippling as a meepo dying.

It feeds way more gold.

I'd say "as crippling, but for different reasons"

For Meepo, if a clone dies you die. Obvious issues there.
For Visage, if a bird dies your power is dropped by about 40% and you just fed the enemy a free 200 gold or so. You also have to wait for the rather long respawn time that the birds have, which can potentially be much longer than Meepo's respawn time.

[Vlad Crepeș]

I haven't got around to learning to micro manage the gargoyles yet that well but from my experience Visage is much more effective as a core then a support.

I usually go hard lane. Max his slow and nuke first (Get ult of course) get tranqs, MoC, RoA. Start ganking.(He is so good at it. With RoA it like a perma slow) Then I get solar crest, deso and AC if i got the gold. He can melt supports in second with gargoyles at max damage with the solar crest, deso and AC and early on carries will also get stomped. Later on with this build he is a very potent split pusher too. Aghs is also a worthy item.

[A Street Sweeper]

1. Buy a medallion early, it's core on visage. People go for maelstrom sometimes, but I prefer to play him more supporty, get a mek and later aghs.

2. I think he does ok in a lane support role, especially if teamed with a carry who has a nuke (Luna, Sven) as soul assumption really hurts in the early game.

3. For the birds, I think you barely ever want them near yourself unless a fight is already happening. Try to predict where a fight is going to happen or a team mate is wanting to gank and position the birds in the trees near there. Like if you're defending a tower hide the birds in the trees then loop them behind the enemy when the fight happens, often they won't notice them initially.

4. The part that I suck at with visage is a use the birds a bit much and forget the hero a bit. The important part is to spam soul assumption due to its low cd, and use grave chill on fleeing or carry heroes.

That's about all I've got, other than play him with drow obviously if you can. Read a guide too I guess.

[Dashiell]

Drow, Slardar, Dazzle, Alchemist are all great for birds so they can melt enemy faster with their limited amount of charges.
Also birds are free wards but you have to pay attention as they die quickly.

[Multi]

Originally posted by Goen 2 Ti5 TigerKirby215:

Originally posted by Paul Blart:

although your familiars dying isnt as crippling as a meepo dying.

It feeds way more gold.

I'd say "as crippling, but for different reasons"

For Meepo, if a clone dies you die. Obvious issues there.
For Visage, if a bird dies your power is dropped by about 40% and you just fed the enemy a free 200 gold or so. You also have to wait for the rather long respawn time that the birds have, which can potentially be much longer than Meepo's respawn time.

well...i mean it's just the cooldown, right? it isnt hard to keep them alive for like 2 minutes

[Multi]

ty for the tips guys

[Dashiell]

Originally posted by Paul Blart:

well...i mean it's just the cooldown, right? it isnt hard to keep them alive for like 2 minutes

If Drow focused on them you wouldn't have them in 5 sec or any cleave melts them damn quickly, remember THREE friggin attacks and they're done for.
And gank a lot because when enemy gets considerable hp you will be quite useless.

[Mister-E]

I play phoenix and wreck visage, srsly visage is only good when the enemy team has no escapes

[Multi]

Originally posted by Mister-E:

I play phoenix and wreck visage, srsly visage is only good when the enemy team has no escapes

idk. i could see the disables and the nukes being pretty good in teamfights.

[A Street Sweeper]

Originally posted by Paul Blart:

Originally posted by Mister-E:

I play phoenix and wreck visage, srsly visage is only good when the enemy team has no escapes

idk. i could see the disables and the nukes being pretty good in teamfights.

Yeah this seems a bit like saying I play Pugna and wreck OD. Phoenix is a pretty good counter to Visage since the birds do jack all to the egg. The only issue I have with Visage is a he feels a bit like Elder Titan in that he is a lot of effort for minimal reward. He can be a lot of fun, it just more often than not feels like doing things the hard way.

[Lahel]

Originally posted by Paul Blart:

He's the one hero i havent bothered trying to play so far. I see him less than any other hero. Obviously i could watch purge or someone play a match (and i intend to), but as of right now im wondering if anybody has any tips for me on how to play this hero.

What i'm looking for:
1. Where to play this hero (as in which lane should i be starting in)
2. What my main build should revolve around (i'm not talking about weird games where i have to build him differently. what i mean is what should i have in mind when i'm playing him? i was thinking disables and mana.
3. How do i use this hero and his familiars together in harmony to maximize effectiveness? (i mean where to position all my stuff, and when to use which spells. i know how to micro from playing around a hundred meepo games)

so if one of the 3 people that play this hero is on the forums and could give me some pointers, i'd really appreciate it.

1. Visage can work anywhere, really. Though generally you would go for trilane/dual lane support.
2. Tranquil boots, medallion, the rest is up to you. After these two items I'd either get Skadi, Aghs, or Desolator.
3. Unless you're looking to use visage to full effectiveness, I suggest (since you're still learning the hero) to keep them around you. I select the familiars and make them follow the hero, and when I see an enemy hero I just Grave chill->Select familiars and visage->Medallion->Right click(seriously though, the familiars do insane damage), and use soul assumption. If they're not dead by that time then you're generally not going to be able to kill them, because charges. After every fight I stone form my birds to restore charges and health.

Personally I've found Visage extremely easy to use from when I first started playing this hero(despite me having very little sense of micro), so I haven't understood why people have found him hard. Could anybody explain a bit of it to me?

[Dashiell]

Originally posted by Acsvf:

Personally I've found Visage extremely easy to use from when I first started playing this hero(despite me having very little sense of micro), so I haven't understood why people have found him hard. Could anybody explain a bit of it to me?

Chain stunning with familiars mid teamfight without them dying is skill.