Wisp: Heal and Kill

You've heard that wisp is powerful hero, but you don't seem to make out his strength? This guide will try to help you in the tough task of bringing your team to victory.
You can find hero build here.

Introduction

Warning! This guide is outdated, it refers to version 6.77-ish, valid February 2013. Today, a lot of things have changed - tether no longer stuns, wisps do not give vision. But I still hold onto most points, listed here. Maybe, I'll update it someday, but for now - it remains as it is.

There are some general things I would like to mention before digging into gameplay itself.
Firstly, you have to remember, that Wisp is a full support. He's ain't a hero who needs farm to influence the game, nor he needs experience to be effective (some will say, that he needs fast level 6 to create a dominance on the map, but he is useful even without reaching it).
So, I would highly recommend you pick him only if you are ready to buy a courier for your team, place wards, make pulls and help your team in all other ways. But it will pay off, I promise :)

Alt-tab section

Items:
Wards+Courier+Salve+Tangoes+2xBranch -> Bottle -> Boots -> [Optional] Wand, Arcanes, Mek
Skill build:
1-2-2-3-2-4-2-1-1-1-4-3-3-3-+-4

Skillset

You can read abilities description everywhere, like Official hero page. In this section I will describe various abilities tips and tricks and introduce my favorite skill order in the end.

Tether

Yeah, this ability allows you to stun enemies, who pass through it. Boring and obvious, I will mention this mechanics later, in "Allies" section.
But! In early game this skill has another very important part - an ability to heal ally 1.5 times more than you heal yourself. That means that a single salve you use to get over lane harassment would heal your ally 600 hp. Even more, if you manage to assemble a mekansm - your should tether to low-hp ally and use it. And an ally will be healed for 250+250x1.5 = 625 health points instantly, which is pretty ridiculous.
This skill is what makes a wisp an ultimate laning support - you can keep your carry full hp/mana just by healing yourself. Also you should remember that salve, used on wisp, won't be broken by attacking tethered ally. So you can effectively grant him 60 hp/sec regen through tether just by hanging back and not participating in battle directly.
One thing to mention - you should miss that amount of hp to heal effectively. Read Overcharge part for more info.
Also, this one is Wisp's escape mechanism - it has a huge cast range and Wisp is dragged to the target very fast, allowing him to escape incoming ganks by targeting creep wave. Or join the battle fast by targeting already participating allies.

Spirits

The main source of damage Wisp himself. I would recommend to max this skill first in case of catching out running enemies, dealing huge burst damage and farming. Now - step by step.
Point 1. It is hard to use.
Point 2. It deals 600 magic damage on Level 4 in 300 AOE if all spirits are catching target.
Point 3. It gives vision where spirits are flying.
Point 4. It gives pseudo-invis detection, because spirits hit invisible heroes.
Spirits are managed by two sub-abilities - in and out. I was thinking, but I couldn't find a way how to describe in text managing them properly. I would just recommend to practice to get used to them. Enemy is fleeing? Spirits out. Going to farm or close-fight? Spirits in.
Remember following:
1. Spirits are stopped when you hit current action again. For example, if you want to extend their range by a bit - press "Spirits out" and then press it again on the radius you want to lock on.
2. Spirits deal minor damage to creeps and explode after full duration. Which means wisp an effective jungler/laner, as soon as he reaches a descent level in this skill. You just walk into creeps, drag the spirits to the closest range and wait for them to explode - all creeps will be yours. Though you usually want to be with your team, remember to use this when the things have settled down a bit and everyone farms, this can be pretty useful to get some extra wards or smoke.
3. Spirits will follow you through the map. So, it is always useful to turn them in the fountain so you have full mana and some damage when you arrive. Also, a good idea is to use them before Relocate, so you appear near enemy with the descent damage atop of a stun.

Overcharge

Bonus attack speed to Wisp and Tethered unit, damage reduction, blabla. We're here for not obvious things, remember?
1. You can tether to creeps and summoned units. That means you can tether to siege unit and overcharge, increasing its dps to structures. Also, you can tether to a variety of summoned units to make them more effective to (Lycan wolves, for instance. Make other examples yourself).
2. Damage reduction is not only helpful in late game for sustaining in fight, but also in early-mid game as an escape of powerful nukes, like Finger of Death, for example. Even 5% would make a deal in terms of survivability.
But the most important part about this skill in an early and mid game - it naturally drains your hp and mana, which is exactly what you want. Why? Because, you want to heal your allies all the time. Although you can come to enemy creeps to harass you on purpose, it is usually better to use Overcharge. Since it is HP removal, it won't interrupt your salves/bottles/urns, so you can heal an ally even having full HP. If you're in the fountain - you can tether to an ally and turn Overcharge on, so an ally is healed faster. Heal, heal, heal.

Relocate

You can teleport all over the map to gank effectively. Most people say, that you should teleport a little behind enemy, to block his retreat way, but remember, that relocate mark is shown to the enemies on the minimap. And since relocate has some cast time, enemy has a moment to react. So, my suggestion is to teleport exactly on enemy's head. Spirits, stun - a kill, hopefully.
But you can also relocate on base. Since cooldown is not so long, you can effectively replenish drained allies, by taking them with you to the fountain trip. And since the bottle is the core on Wisp - replenish it also. Fill like Tinker, little Wispy!
By the way, the relocate has cast delay you have to get used to, but you should remember that you can cast Relocate and cast Tether after it. Which means you can take your ally out of the fight safely by casting Relocate with Tether's incredible range. Fill like Chen, glorious Wisp!
Also, remember that Tether is replenished to 12 seconds when relocating. So, even if you spent some time of Tether before relocation, you don't have to renew it. You can cast Tether - wait - Relocate and assume that you will be brought back with an ally. Though, there are cases when you may want to break Tether - to leave carry farm with offensive Relocate, to leave ally safe with defensive one, or just to make another one in midst of the battle, granting second tether stun, which is just great.

Skill order

• Tether
  
• Spirits
  
• Spirits
  
• Overcharge
  
• Spirits
  
• Relocate
  
• Spirits
  
• Tether
  
• Tether
  
• Tether
  
• Relocate
  
• Overcharge
  
• Overcharge
  
• Overcharge
  
• Stats
  
• Relocate

Items

This one will be short. Wisp is a support, so he should buy and build any things, that should help his team, starting with wards+chick, some tangoes and salve, and building into whatever your teams need - maybe, Vladimir's, maybe, Necronomicon, who knows. But there are items that should be mentioned:
Bottle - The main core on this hero. I've already mentioned Wisp's ability to heal allies, with this item, it increases drastically. You usually don't want to hunt runes, but even such - it is great as it is. If you can farm it on creep pulls - you will help your team greatly.
Mekansm - You won't always have enough money to buy it, but if you'll be able to - amount of heal will be over any expectations. Just remember, that you should miss 250 hp to heal you ally for full amount. You can safely loose those through Overcharge, just reminding.
Boots - Must have, obviously. But I wouldn't recommend upgrading it into Tranquils, that won't give much effect, really. You would like to heal allies from bottle/mek and leave Boots ungraded. Of course, if you have a couple of mana-relying teammates, Arcanes would be a great choice on the same reason as mek is.
Wand/Stick - Expecting a lot of spells from enemies incoming? Buy one, show them that you and an ally can cast more. Regen is shared (C).
Urn - The most underestimated item nowadays. If you kill a lot, it's like a free 2 salves per kill. And you do remember how Wisp benefits from salves, don't you?
Heart of Tarrasque - Pure luxury, which turns a Wisp from a squishy support to not-so-squishy support. Any percent of your healed hp will also transfer to an ally. Dixi.

Laning and Allies

In my humble opinion, Wisp is best in dual safe or mid lane. He can make pulls on safe lane, he can rune control on mid. I don't think he's an ultra trilaner, because he can secure kills even with one ally (if chosen properly). The only one worth mentioning is Keeper of the Light, since his mana replenishment... Well, you know already.
Wisp also synergies great with all heroes that have a natural heal/mana replenish. Namely: Chen, Necrolyte, Warlock etc, etc.
What is more important, there are a fair amount of heroes, that benefit from Wisp and should define his pick if are on team. Those are mostly melee carries with some kind of disable, that should be useful for getting early kills and dominating the map lately, or heroes that have quick transportation-to-enemy ability, like blink strike:

• Chaos Knight - Both types. I bet you've seen this combo in competitive a lot. Since Reality Rift puts CK behind enemy, this is guaranteed Tether stun, which is almost always a kill.
  
• Sven
  
• Tiny
  
• Riki - Even more natural combo, than with CK. Riki is meant to hit enemies from behind, and Tether stun is just great ability for this thing.
  
• Spirit Breaker - Nether Strike puts him behind an enemy. Tether right after stun is ended. Overcharge. Permabash.

Also, It is always great to Tether to invis hero, hunting behind the enemy lines: Nyx Assassin, Bounty Hunter, Clinkz...
Also, anyone, who will benefit from IAS, including ranged carries, melee carries, gankers, offlaners, other supports. Anyone, just anyone.

Closure

Whoa, that's a wall of text. I know, I haven't mentioned a lot of things and my opinion can differ from yours. There isn't a single picture in text, it is written by non-native speaker. You may not like it.
But I've wanted to share some thoughts and knowledge about this awesome hero and I hope I've managed to do so. Now go and play, Wisp is awesome!

P.S. Rate and comment. Your feedback is very important. Maybe, I should continue? Or maybe, I should not? Go on, share your opinion!

[ZERGLING]

okay saw it and subscribed :)

[Pooh 🇺🇦]

There is a build:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=128783307

[ZERGLING]

You should make a build :)

[Pooh 🇺🇦]

Sorry for misleading you, guys. I'll just leave outdated notice and maybe fix it one day.

[que pim que pam]

Update the guide, thether no longer stuns, it's the same at lvl 1-4 and spirits do not give you any vision anymore.

[McFlurry Butts]

Wouldn't tranquil boots be better than arcane boots? For early healing?

[Oxytocin]

Continue adding some stuff... im not very specify i know, but maybe item pics, more skill builds, etc c: