Guide to Enigma: Jungler, Support, Initiator

Enigma is type of hero that can change teamfights and change the entire game if you use him properly. He is great at pushing and denying enemy creeps at lanes but what makes him a great hero is his ultimate. Enigma is relatively soft and easy to kill at the early stages of the game but his teamfight presence makes up for his squishyness. During a teamfight you do not just use the black hole on 1 target unless it is necessary. You have to analyze when and where to use the black hole and who will get sucked in. You might get 4 people inside the black hole but the 5th enemy hero might disable you, so be careful about who you black hole.

I. Summary

Why pick and play Enigma??



1. Enigma's ultimate called "Black Hole" is a channeled spell that can change an entire teamfight in a matter of seconds.

2. Can push quickly with his eidolons.

3. Great laner as he can easliy deny and last hit creeps with the help of his eidolons.

4. Enigma is one of the best junglers in the game. He can easily farm the jungle and get his items up, but he requires alot of mana.

5. Enigma's Demonic Conversion can help control the lane by denying his own creeps to push the lane towards him.

II. Enigma's Skills and Which ones to level up first.

Enigma's skills are that follow:


Malefice
- Stuns an enemy repeatedly for multiple instances. An instance happens every 2 seconds.




Demonic Conversion
- Changes a creep into 3 eidolons under your control. After 6 attacks the eidolons will multiply and restore health. Great for pushing and farming the jungle.




Midnight Pulse
- Fills an area with black magic damaging enemies base on their hp. Destroys trees in the area. Will go through magic immunity




Black Hole
- A channeled spell that creates a vortex sucking all enemy heroes caught nearby towards the center. More damage is dealt on how close the enemy is to the center of the black hole. All enemies engulfed by the black hole are unable to attack, move, cast spells, use items. That includes magic immune targets. This spell has a very long cooldown and is easily stopped with any kind of stun so use this spell with caution.




Skill Build

LVL 1 Demonic Conversion
LVL 2 Malefice
LVL 3 Demonic Conversion
LVL 4 Malefice
LVL 5 Demonic Conversion
LVL 6 Black Hole
LVL 7 Demonic Conversion
LVL 8 Malefice
LVL 9 Malefice
LVL 10 Stats/Midnight Pulse
LVL 11 Black Hole
LVL 12 Stats/Midnight Pulse
LVL 13 Stats/Midnight Pulse
LVL 14 Stats/Midnight Pulse
LVL 15 Stats
LVL 16 Black Hole
LVL 17 Stats
LVL 18 Stats
LVL 19 Stats
LVL 20 Stats
LVL 21 Stats
LVL 22 Stats/Midnight Pulse
LVL 23 Stats/Midnight Pulse
LVL 24 Stats/Midnight Pulse
LVL 25 Stats/Midnight Pulse

(I prefer stats over midnight pulse cause it helps by giving me the hp and mana needed to survive. Midnight pulse is great when you want to push and for catching enemies hiding in trees.)

III. Item Build

Starting Items :

• When playing Enigma you will mostly stay in the jungle.
  
• Demonic Conversion requires alot of mana so Clarity Potions is a must if your going to jungle Enigma. 2-4 Clarity Potions is needed for you to stay long enough in the jungle to farm for your soul ring.
  
• When no one is getting courier, you have to buy one for the team.
  
• With the extra gold you have left you either get wards or buy anything for soul ring, i prefer mostly getting the recipe for soul ring first.

Early Game

• Get boots to increase your movement speed. Really helpful in cases when you don't have your blink dagger yet and all the enemies are clumped up in a tight space. That movement speed increase will help you get to the perfect position faster.
  
• You can also skip boots and rush towards your blink dagger.
  
• Soul Ring to fill all your mana needs.

Core Items

• Black King Bar for survivability and to prevent any kind of interruption to your Black Hole. Very usefull especially if your enemy team has alot of disablers.
  
• Blink Dagger for mobility and to get to the perfect position to cast your Black Hole in an instant.
  
• Mekansm for survivability and to help in pushing. Who wouldn't want the 250 HP heal?

Late Game/Situational

• Since the early game we never upgraded our boots because the plain boots gives us what we need. Upgrading it depends on player preference and the situation of the game.
  
• If the Soul Ring isnt providing enough mana then arcane boots is your choice.
  
• If you are relatively farmed and you want to push like never before then get BoT.
  
• If you need to tank and deal some damage then treads is the best option.
  
• Shiva's Guard adds some nuisance to the enemy team. When casting Black Hole you can use Shiva's Guard without getting interrupted.
  
• Scythe of Vyse is very helpful in teamfights, hex the hero that poses a threat to interrupting you black hole.
  
• Force Staff an alternative to get yourself and enemies in the perfect positions.
  
• Refresher Orb to cast 2 Black Holes meaning it will be a total of 8 seconds of disable.
  
• Pipe for a support item for your team if the enemy team has mostly magic damage.
  
• Eul's for survivability and keeping yourself alive long enough to cast your black hole.

IV. Tips

• When jungling with Enigma, convert the smallest leveled creep and let your eidolons attack the highest leveled creep. You will farm faster with this strategy.
  
• You can micro your creeps when farming against the larger camps to keep them alive. Whenever an eidolon is low on health just micro him away and let the next one take agro.
  
• Whenever enemies blink into trees, use your Midnight Pulse to clear out the area.
  
• During teamfights do not just blink and ulti immediately , wait for the perfect moment when all the enemy heroes are closest to each other. That way all of them will get sucked in the black hole.
  
• Before using black hole look for heroes that can disable you and try to get them inside the black hole or disable them in any way.
  
• Try to use the combo of Midnight Pulse + Black Hole. You will deal alot more damage but be cautious moments when you have a split second to react, you might want to skip using midnight pulse and just black hole them immediately.
  
• During teamfights micro your eidolons to attack enemy heroes, they do damage that can really help you in moments like that. Amidst all the ruckus, enemies wont notice the eidolons and wont aim at them first.
  
• Enigma can kill roshan before the 10 minute mark with his lvl 3-4 eidolons. Players that do this build the Medallion of Courage to decrease the armor of Roshan and help take him down faster. Let yourself tank the first hits from roshan so that your eidolons will have time to multiply.
  
• Try to avoid using black holes on 1 hero unless the situation calls for it It is best used on 4-5 heroes.
  
• Enigma has a lot of friends that work great with his ultimate. Heroes that have AOE skills really synergize with is ultimate. Heroes that go well with Enigma are Queen of Pain with her sonic wave, Sand King's epicenter, Shadow Fiend's requiem of souls, Lich's chain frost, Tidehunter's ravage, Warlock's chaotic offering, Jakiro's macropyre, Keeper of the Light's illuminate, Ancient Apparition's ice blast, Earthshaker's stuns, Kunkka's ghost ship and all heroes that have AOE spells.
  
• When pushing with Enigma, convert seige creeps into eidolons. That way you clear creep waves and push faster.
  
• When your eidolons are about to expire send them to attack the tower. They will deal a lot of damage to the tower before they disappear.
  
• Jungling with Enigma, after you get your soul ring you can skip getting boots and rush towards blink dagger. That way you can initiate teamfights earlier with ease.
  
• Heroes that help setup Engima's ultimate are Dark Seer with his vacuum, Magnus' Reverse Polarity, Naga with her Song of the Siren. These heroes really benefit Enigma as it can help you get that perfect 5 man black hole and win the game.

V. Visual Content

As you can see there was a delay after i casted midnight pulse. Thats is why most people just black hole immediately and use midnight pulse to deal residual damage after.

Here is an example of how usefull the blink dagger is. Turning a 2 v 5 fight because of the black hole and of course the farmed Phantom Lancer.

2 situations where the soul ring became the hero.

perfect example of waiting for the right moment to black hole. As soon as Sandking stunned lich and sven and the rest of them moved closer to the middle, that was the perfect moment to black hole.

another video depictingvthe awesomeness of black hole with cool dubstep music.

more blackholes and dubstep :D

VI. Enigma's Roles and Lanes

Enigma can be played in the jungle and also played in the offlane. Due to to his ability to control the lane and deny the enemy off their farm with his eidolons.































A. The best place for Enigma to grab levels and farm is in the jungle. When i play Enigma in the jungle i first purchase 4 clarity potions and a soul ring recipe. I skip getting tangoes or salves because as long as i don't get hunted down in the jungle i can stay alive. The soul ring helps in continuing your uncontested farm in the jungle.
Creeps spawn at the 0:30 mark and spawn every minute after. Stacking Creep camps can be very helpful in speeding up your farm and level gain.
Farming the small camp first is a very helpful tactic. It allows your eidolons to survive and have time to multiply

B. The offlane or suicide lane is another viable place for Enigma to farm in. His ability to control the lane and deny farm from the enemy makes it a pretty good place for Enigma. The Item build here differs from the jungle build. Grabbing items like a bracer or boots will help you stay longer in the lane as opposed to your safe and uncontested farm in the jungle.


Roles

Enigma is support, initiator hero. As soon as Enigma can get his Blink Dagger and BKB hes ready to go and take down noobs. :D :D

VII. Enigma's Friend's and Foes

FRIENDS
Enigmas friends are mostly heroes that combo up with his ultimate or help him set up his ultimate. Heroes with AOE spells are Enigma's bestfriend.

Queen of Pain
QOP's scream of pain and sonic wave are perfect spells that combo with black hole. Sonic Wave's AOE damage will burst down heroes inside the black hole and scream of pain will finish off any stragglers.
Sand King
Sand King's epicenter combos with black hole. Enemies caught in the black hole will then be punished with the epicenter damage.
Tidehunter
Tidehunter is my favorite ally of Enigma. His ravage is great with black hole decimating heroes caught in it. Tidehunter's anchor smash also help eliminate the heroes.
Kunkka
Kunkka is also a great ally to enigma. As seen in video #4 it works wonders with black hole. His Ghost Ship and Torrent will tear through the enemies caught in the black hole.
Lich
Lich's ultimate Chain frost will destroy enemies in the black hole. As long as there are no creeps nearby it will bounce back to just the heroes caught in the black hole.
Keeper of The Light.
Kotl's huge burst damage from illuminate will easily destroy enemies. Illuminates huge burst damage is an amazing combo with black hole.
Warlock
Warlock's Golem combos up with black hole by stunning and dealing damage to all enemies inside the black hole.
Leshrac
Leshrac has a lot of abilities that combo up with Enigma. A LVL 4 split earth is almost the same size as the black hole and will stun everyone caught in it. Diabolic Edict is a great spell that has great damage. The 1600 damage it deals will surely kill off those enemies. Lightning Storm is also a nice nuke that hits everyone in the hole. Pulse Nova will ensure the death of enemy heroes after his other spells have been used.



Friends that setup his Black Hole
These heroes have unique spells that setup a perfect black hole for enigma.
Dark Seer
Dark Seer's Vacuum into Wall combo will setup his black hole. The only downside to it is that the Enigma player who plays with random people in pub matches has only a second to react to his vacuum unless they plan the combo before the fight begins
But if they're just a strangers and the dark seer suddenly vacuums into the enigma's location then he has only a second to react.
Magnus
Reverse Polarity from Magnus is an amazing setup for Enigma's black hole. A Reverse Polarity that catches an entire team and is skewered towards Enigma is an epic setup and will make Black Hole easier to cast.
Naga Siren
Naga Siren's Song of the Siren is another great ability that help setup the black hole. Its not a full-proof setup because a Song of the Siren could catch all heroes but they could be spread out if the enemy is smart and is aware of the combo. Naga's ultimate is best used when all of them are closest to each other and suddenly BAM! they're asleep and Enigma has all the time in the world to move in and prepare for the Black Hole.



FOES!!!!!!!
To put it simply any hero that can disable Enigma's Black hole especially heroes that can disable him through BKB are enemies of Enigma.


Bane
Bane's Fiend's Grip goes through BKB. Fiend's Grip will disable and drain his mana but the damage is still blocked by magic immunity.
Batrider
Batrider's Flaming Lasso goes through magic immunity and will disable Enigma's black hole.
Beastmaster
Beastmaster's Primal Roar will go through magic immunity, the damage will not be dealt but the disable and push back will still occur.
Clockwerk
Clockwerk's hookshot will still stun the magic immune target and will disable enigma.
Doombringer
Doombringer's Doom will still take effect on magic immune targets. Enigmas with BKB is useless againts Doom's ultimate unless Doom himself is caught in the hole.
Lone Druid
Lone Druid's entangle from his bear still disables magic immune Enigmas.
Vengeful Spirit
Venge's Swap will go through magic immunity and still exchange places with the enemy even if BKB is actived.


A special mention goes to the Dark Troll Summoner and his Ensare ability because it also goes through magic immune targets and may stop that epic 5 man black hole.

[New: 𝑘𝑦𝒍𝑒.死]

GG master sa dota.

[lycoris radiata]

@S.T.S sure ill give it a look

[Ɱ∑TɅԸ ⱩÎTTY]

just as a thought - I have looked at your Guide and I enjoyed it, - My own guide is in development though but my Build is Fairly Finalised,

I have tried your build in game and it is very suited to my style of playing Enigma, I am going to do a few slight edits on my build after playing with yours, however I wonder if you would be willing to give it a try and comment the build is called Enigma's Volley. and is designed for creep farming and jungling.

[EpicFailure]

nice one...I never thought of playing Enigma this way...Imma subscribe bro xD

[lycoris radiata]

yea ill add your name to it bro. it was a nice game

[SOUTHEASTASIA]

Great guide, I was in the 2nd and 4th video playing as Phantom Lancer and Kunkka respectively.

Viva IL CaKe Gaming

Theres alot of beautiful and intelligent people, and then theres Kate.

[de_boomer]

Ты нубас

[Garket Mardener]

Black hole? BUTT.

[Worte|!|]

that is so fucking awesome :O WOW!!!!

[theDaemon]

good.... GOD......... man so not only are you a great player but you also DO give out great tips!
that's awesome!