I AM THE ONE'S INVOKER

The Invoker is currently one of the most misunderstood and incompetently played heroes in the game. First and foremost it must be understood that this guide is not intended to teach new players the basics of playing invoker, but rather is designed to provide a well-rounded and effective method of building invoker that fits well into the current metagame by allowing invoker to remain a powerful force at ALL stages of the game.

Overview

Invoker is a hero that combines huge spell damage with an innate ability to deal insane amounts of physical damage in the mid-game. This guide provides a method that allows all aspects of the Invoker's many abilities to be utilized in the most effective manner, and provides a structured early game breakdown to allow Invoker to remain a viable and dominate mid hero even in the current era's evolving metagame.

For the In-Game version of this guide, follow this link:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=162573279

Basic Mechanics

For any clarification of Invoker's basic mechanics, follow the following link:
http://www.dota2wiki.com/wiki/Invoker

Early Game (Levels 1-6)

The early game period as a solo mid is perhaps the most crucial aspect of the game, as so much depends on whether the middle lane is won or lost. Playing Invoker, many people will simply write off the lane completely and remain fully compliant to their enemy mid in terms of harassment and rune control. This inability to retain control is what gives Invoker his bad name. This section of the guide will address this completely and break it down into easily manageable steps.

Starting Items





Explanation
As you are going to mid lane, and are a ranged hero with innate regeneration abilities (i.e., QUAS) you will only need to have one tango, and by taking a lot of stats, your base damage (which has been severely nerfed all the way down to 38 in previous patches) will be increased to an acceptable level for last-hitting and harassing in lane. From here, use the courier to ferry you a Null Talisman ASAP. After this, aim to get firstly brown boots, then into wand and phase boots. Keep in mind that as Invoker requires levels you will want to stay in lane at almost all times during the early period of the game, so it is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT that you buy a T.P Scroll quite early on in the game so that you can respond to tower-dives buy the enemy team, or to help out with a gank or a push on short notice.

So during this period to basic item build that you are aiming for is:





An alternative to phase boots is treads. In terms of DPS, both give a very similar amount, with only a difference of treads providing 4dps more that phase (tested at level 8). Obviously treads are the better late game choice, but phase provides the bad mobility that low levels of Wex causes. Basically, treads are a better choice in a static game (all lanes are farming, Push/ Farm strat).

Early Game Skill Build
In my experience of playing Invoker, the most effective way to build him during the early game period is:
1. Exort
2. Invoke
3. Quas
4. Wex
5. Exort
6. Exort/Quas
7. Invoke
8. Exort
9. Quas/Exort
10. Quas
11. Quas

Explanation
At level one, it is usually much better to choose Exort over Quas. I have heard many people saying that it is better to take Quas first for better harassment potential. This is not the case, as picking up Exort at level one allows you to harass with your right-clicks without having to use any mana, and allows you to last hit better.

At level two it is pretty self-explanatory to pick up a level of Invoke, as it will allow you to use sunstrike or cold snap depending on which orb you started with.

Level three is where things start to get interesting. In the middle lane, you will hit level 3 around the 1:30ish mark, just before the second rune spawn. A major failing of Invoker as a hero is his inability to get to and control the runes during the early game, and this often leads to the loss of the lane. To combat this, pick up one level of Exort and one level of Quas at level 3, and create a forge spirit at the 1:45 mark, then send it to one of the rune spawns. It is important to summon it around this time as it will only last for 20 seconds with level one Quas. This allows you deny the rune to your enemy mid, and if it spawns at the other rune spot, hopefully you can convince one of you teammates to pick the rune up for you, or even wait until you have forge spirits off cooldown again and send in to the other rune spot to deny it off.

At level four, I find it very useful to pick up a level of Wex so that you have the capability to use ghost walk to get out of trouble easily, However you can skip this until level six if you feel it is not required. It is a good idea not to advertise the fact that you have the Wex orb, or the ability to invoke ghost walk, so that your enemies will not think of buying dust or sentries for you (at least on the first gank).

For levels 6 and 9 you may notice that I have included the option of picking a second level of
Quas over Exort. This is because having a second level for Quas when using your forge spirits means that they will last for 30 seconds, and as the cooldown is also 30 seconds, you can have spirits permacast. I tend to use this build in a lane which involves large amounts of traded harassment. The permanent forge helps with last hits and harassment, while the extra level of Quas allows you to recuperate from harassment faster.

From level five to level 11 (where you will get 4 Quas and 4 Exort, and therefore double forge spirits), the build is simply a rearrangement of the usual 4-1-4 forge spirits rush build.












Gameplay Overview
Firstly, pick up your starting items and head to the mid lane to get in position to block the creeps. In your first two levels, try to play it reasonably safe: Invoker has a huge attack range, so abuse this by staying near its max range when last hitting and harassing. Once you hit level three, pick up your forge spirits and use it to check the runes as explained above.

It is after this stage that your laning starts to become interesting. Keep forge spirits invoked, and abuse its small mana cost and relatively short cooldown to have a spirit active whenever needed. Here, you can use your spirit to harass the enemy mid hero with simple micro between the two units. Note that you can use the TAB key to switch between the hero and the forge spirit summons.

Now, if the enemy mid gets out of position at all, SEIZE THE OPPORTUNITY AND GO FOR A KILL. You will most likely already have your forge spirit summoned (if you don't, just summon it on the spot and move on), so simply hit three Quas and invoke cold snap before proceeding to use it on your enemy mid, and right click him down. An important factor to note here is that when you use a spell your attack order is reset. This means that you will need to right-click on the hero again after using your spell, otherwise chances are you will end up attacking a creep instead. You can see in the video below how the attack order changes and i re-click onto Rubick after Cold Snapping him. Forge Spirits are also very useful to increase damage for last-hitting. The video below shows how effective this combination can be even in the early game:

Match ID: 228174062

A very important tactic to utilize in this situation is ANIMATION CANCELLING. All physical attacks in Dota have a cooldown, much like a spell, and this is what makes up the concept of attack speed. However, there is an UNNECESSARY BACKSWING ANIMATION, and this can be cancelled by issuing another order during this time. In this situation, this "other order" should be to move your hero forwards so that you stay closer to the enemy hero and can therefore get more attacks in. The video below shows this concept:

This concept is relevant until the end of the laning stage. Continue to use your forge spirits to control the runes (remember that runes spawn every even minute and that forge spirit with level 1 Quas lasts 20 seconds).

Mid Game (Levels 7-16)

The mid game is where Invoker really hits his stride. At this point you are basically the strongest hero on the map, and once you hit level 11 you should focus on ganking and pushing by yourself and with your team. Once you hit level 14/15 where you will get maxed Exort, try to force teamfights as your tornado-meteor-deafening combo will be capable of decimating even the tankiest of enemies in a large AoE. Here, I am going to split the mid-game into two distinct parts, the "Early Mid-Game" and the "Late-Mid Game."

Early-Mid Game Items
After completing the above mentioned basic items, the first major item you should aim for is an Orchid:




Explanation
In my considerable experience playing Invoker, and observing other successful Invokers, i have come to the conclusion this an Orchid is the best choice as your first major item. It is a very cost effective item, so in most cases you will be able to pick it up around the time you reach your level 11/12 and get your 4-1-4 double forge spirits. To provide a general timeline, i usually pick up my orchid around the 15 minute mark, give or take one or two minutes. However, don't get too worried if you end up getting your orchid a bit late, for example due to a death or two. Orchid's effectiveness scales really well, so there is no real issue with a late pickup. Also,it is much easier to get a fast Orchid if you add in some tower gold. Many mid heroes will rotate out once they hit level 6/7, and you can take advantage of this by pushing the mid tier one tower. Generally you can get it in 3/4 waves depending on your level of forge spirits and alacrity.

Early-Mid Game Skill Build
7. Invoke
8. Quas
9. Quas
10. Quas
11. Quas
12. Invoke
13. Exort
14. Exort
15. Exort

Explanation
As explained earlier, double forge spirits is rushed with one level of Wex (the early Wex pickup is very important as it allows the use of alacrity, ghost walk and sometimes tornado from an earlier point). From here Exort is maxed to allow to highest possible damage output in early teamfights, and better pushing and DPS capabilities.

Early-Mid Game Gameplay
Once you hit level 7, you will be able to pick up a second level of Invoke, allowing you to have TWO spells invoked at the one time. I would recommend trying to keep your two spells as FORGE SPIRITS and ALACRITY. This will allow you to solo-kill heroes and solo-push towers with ease. The process is simply: Firstly summon a forge spirit (assuming it has not already been summoned), then double-click alacrity to self cast. After this simply hit Quas Quas Quas and invoke cold snap, then Exort Exort Exort to maximize your damage, then right-click away on the enemy. Unless they are an exceptionally tanky hero (in which case you should bring an ally), they should easily melt under your right-clicks. Note that should they escape you can always wait for Invoke to cooldown before attempting a long-range Sunstrike or Deafening Blast. The video below shows the effectiveness of this concept:

When pushing towers, simply forge a spirit, alacrity yourself and right click away.

Late-Mid Game Items
After you have finished your orchid, your inventory should look something like this:




From here, the next major item that you will want is Aghanim's Scepter:




Explanation
As the game gets later and later, a wider variety of your spells will become effective, however without a short cooldown on Invoke there is no way you can utilize this. Therefore, we get Aghanim's Scepter. For example, in a teamfight, you would want to initiate with tornado-meteor-blast, and then follow up by using your orchid (IT IS IMPORTANT TO USE ORCHID AFTER THE COMBO AS TORNADO DISPELS BUFFS) and then ice wall/cold snap-forge spirits-alacrity-right click. Even later in the game you can chuck in an EMP if it is needed. Without at least the 4 second cooldown on Invoke from Level 12, this would not be achievable.

Late-Mid Game Skill Build
The skill build after maxing Exort can vary depending on the situation. However, i most often finding myself following the build shown below:
13. Exort
14. Exort
15. Exort
16. Wex
17. Invoke
18. Quas
19. Quas
20. Quas

Explanation
At this point it is pretty obvious why these skills are picked up. At level 16, I find it very useful to pick up a second level of Wex, simply so that your tornado has a larger AoE. From here Invoke is picked up for obvious reasons at level 17, and then Quas is maxed as it provides better split push with forge spirits (as they last longer), and more powerful disables in cold snap and ice wall.

Late-Mid Game Gameplay
At this point in the game, you are still are dominant force in fights, however your effectiveness will begin to diminish as your carry gets more farmed. Now, you should generally be using Alacrity on your carry rather than yourself, and using forge spirits to push lanes by themselves. There is a very simple technique that can be used to push with forge spirits. Simply summon the forge spirits, click the TAB key (this will select BOTH SPIRITS and not the hero), then click the "A" key for the "Attack" command, then click somewhere in the middle of the enemy base, along the same line as the lane you are pushing. This will cause the spirits to follow the creepwave, while still attacking any enemy units it comes across. The video below shows this concept:

Late Game (17-25)

The late game as a fed and farmed Invoker is one of the most fun environments you will ever experience when playing Dota 2. However, what happens in the late game is generally very situational, so this section will be quite short, and I will focus mainly on late game item choices.

Late-Game Items
Once you get to this stage of the game, your inventory should look like this from the previous stages:




From here, there are a number of items that you can go for, depending on the situation. These include:




In almost all games, i find myself getting selling my phase for a Boots of Travel after i am finished my core items. It provides the opportunity for Invoker to split push and farm before tping back in time for a fight, and in addition the bonus 100 Movement Speed synergises very well with high levels of Wex. This video below shows an example of why i love BoT so much. I apologise for the rookie editing, but it gets the job done:

Match ID: 228467674

From here it is very situational. Skadi is a good all-round choice for later in the game, providing a lot of stats, a nice anti-dpser orb and dps for Invoker. Blink dagger and force staff are common choices if i feel more mobility would be useful, and bkb is picked up only against LONG RANGE stuns. As an Invoker, you should be staying reasonably far back, and so in many cases bkb will not be necessary. A good alternative to a BKB is a Linken's Sphere, as it does not reduce in effectiveness like a BKB does, as well as providing some nice stats and regen.

FOR THE LULZ ITEMS
Nearing the end of the game, there are some items which are fun but usually do not fit in. These include:











Desolator and Assault Cuirass are fun because of the huge dps and minus-armour they give in conjunction with forge spirits. Medallion does this as well, but is much more cost-effective and very effective in the early game. However, i have found that buying it delays more important items such as orchid and especially Aghanims. If you are in a bad situation (i.e., you had a bad early game and cannot farm up) you may wish to substitute a medallion for your orchid, as it is much easier to farm and still effective. Other dps items which are a lot of fun include MoM, Mjollnr, MKB and Daedalus.

Manta Style is also an interesting choice. With the bonus MS and Wex, you can run almost at max MS. But of course the main highlight of this item is its active, the illusions. Personally, I like to use the illusions with my forge spirits to push when you are near an enemy tower (as the images do not last for long), as well as giving a nice DPS boost in fights. It also has nice synergy with cold snap.

Shadow Blade is a fun alternative to a blink dagger, as it supplements your dps while still providing a nice initiation tool.

Ethereal Blade and Refresher Orb are two ultra-late game choices that are designed to give you massive spell damage. The slow from Ethereal Blade makes it easier to land meteor, and the damage is amplified. However, I dislike this item as I feel that Invoker's right-click damage is an important part of his contribution to a fight. Refresher Orb makes you look good once every 160 seconds. This item is great fun to use, but with a 160 second cooldown, it is not really worth it compared to other items.

Late-Game Skill Build
The build i generally end up following is:
16. Wex
17. Invoke
18. Quas
19. Quas
20. Quas
21. Wex
22. Wex
23. Wex
24. Wex
25. Wex

Explanation
See the Late-Mid Game skill build for explanation

Late-Game Gameplay
Basically continue to follow the same pattern of gameplay as you did in the Late-Mid Game, however, you should probably try to end the game ASAP after this period as your effectiveness through spells will decline rapidly.

Situational/Rejected Items

As there are many ways to build Invoker, there are many different item choices that can work, however some of the most common builds are actually nowhere near as effective as they are commonly held. Please note that items included in this section are rejected ONLY AS ALTERNATIVES TO ORCHID/AGHANIM'S but almost all of them are still decent pickups on Invoker as SITUATIONAL items.




Ahh, the old Eul's Scepter combo. This is a very fun build to go for, but to be honest it just does not work as well as the Orchid build. What makes it problematic is that once you have expended your combo, you are basically a useless sitting duck for 17 seconds while your invoke cools down. In addition, a huge advantage of the Orchid build over this one is that by combining double forge spirits and alacrity you can push towers with ease. Also, there is a very low reset time for the killing combo with the Orchid build. If your allies can help out with disables while cold snap is cooling down, you can effectively keep going as long as you want. Think about the reset time required for Euls. 30 seconds for Eul's itself, 50 seconds for Chaos Meteor AND after your combo you will need to wait on the cooldown of invoke three times (blast, sunstrike and meteor). In addition, the Eul's build does not give you ANYTHING in the early stages: you are a PUSHOVER in lane the instant your enemy returns harassment, and there is nothing you can do about them getting the runes off you.

However, i do find myself getting this on very rare occasions. If i think that there is no way i will be able to position myself/dish out physical damage during the early game OR if there is a single, squishy but important hero on the other team whose death is crucial to the winning of the teamfight (wisp is one such example), I consider this as an option. In addition, make sure that your team has sufficient pushing power, as without forge and alacrity your push power will be weakened.

Also this is a funny item to get.

Allies

Like all heroes, Invoker works well with some heroes while being countered by others. This section will address this.

Allies- Heroes who help Invoker
In general, heroes with stuns are Invoker's favourite friends, as they help him land his sunstrike/meteor and to dish out the dps once he gets in close. Other heroes that work well with Invoker are those with a reliable damage over time spell, as this will help proc cold snap multiple times. Some notable examples include:





These guys both have stuns which can help you land your spells, and both share one extra attribute in common. That is, they can both PUMP YOU UP with Beastmaster's Inner Beast and Ogre Magi's Bloodlust.





This guy works in a similar way, however he is much more effective in the early game than any other hero. His disruption lines up sunstrike across the map, and then his soul catcher causes it to deal a massive chunk of damage.





Nature's Prophet is one of Invoker's very best friends. He can T.P across map at any time and then sprout to help line up a sunstrike. Later in the game treants and forge spirit split push is insane.





Above all, my favourite hero to pair up with as Invoker is Slardar. In the early game, Slardar's stun allows you to land sunstrikes, but it is his ulti that is the crown jewel. At level 6, Slardar's ult provides vision (allowing you to hit base sunstrikes) and give a minus-armour of 8. Pair this with Forge Spirit's armour reduction and alacrity bonus damage, and you can absolutely obliterate even the tankiest hero. The video below shows a teamfight where Amplify Damage worked wonders for me:

Allies- Heroes who Invoker can help
Just as Invoker can benefit from other heroes, there are some heroes that benefit from Invoker while Invoker himself does not gain much. These include:


All DPS heroes will benefit from alacrity, but these three benefit more than others. An alacrity'd Kunkka or Gyrocopter can deal with an entire enemy team with minimal help, while troll warlord benefits from an alacrity with a high amount of Exort as he lacks damage while having a huge amount of attack speed. Troll Warlord's ulti is also great for Invoker.



Lifestealer is one of the most fun allies to play with. You can use your forge spirits to give him a clutch infest-save, as with high levels of Quas forge spirits have almost 1k hit points. In addition you can use your spirits like a Beastmaster Hawk, and use them to scout the enemy jungle with a Lifestealer inside. Set your forge spirits on the enemy hero, and then Lifestealer hops out and uses Open Wounds on them. Lifestealers right-click plus the Forge Spirits minus-armour will easily net you a kill.




The base-wreckers. Using alacrity on a tiny with Aghanims or Lone Druid's bear, which both deal bonus damage to towers, will cause them to be able to take down towers in seconds.

Enemies

Enemies
Although it is quite hard to counter a skilled Invoker, there is one thing which above can stop him: Silence. In general silencing heroes are terrible for Invoker, as while you can generally dodge or survive through stuns and lockdown, silence turns an Invoker into a glorified ranged creep. However, in most of these cases a quick reaction time with your orchid will save from the silencing heroes. Heroes who are innately capable of silencing include:




Just your average every day AoE basic silence. These are not too hard to counter. Remember, items can be used while silenced, and as these spells deal no damage and have a long cast animation, they can be countered with a quick blink, BKB, shadow blade, force staff ect.




Bloodseeker's spell Bloodrage is an annoying silence. However it is probably the easiest spell to deal with due to its side effect of giving the silenced hero bonus damage. Assuming you have a complement of three Exort orbs and already have forge spirits summoned, simply turn around and rip the Bloodseeker to pieces with your auto-attack damage. Another interesting factor to note is that Bloodrage has a massive cast animation, which can be interrupted very easily with orchid or cold snap.




Disruptor's ultimate Static Storm is a very powerful silence- if the Disruptor can actually land it. The easiest way to deal with this is to have a quick reaction time and be ready to click Wex-Wex-Wex-Phase Boots and run away from the wall. Then you can quickly Ghost Walk and hide in a corner before he can Glimpse you back.




The Silencer. Possibly the most characteristic of the silencing heroes, he is a pain to lane against but you can generally win any engagement with a quick orchid or BKB usage. Also, similarly to Bloodseeker, you can usually decimate him with your physical right-click damage. The only thing you really need to watch out for is that his Last Word silence will DISARM if no spell is used in the 5 second buff placer time, so make sure you cast something, even if it is just invoke (activating orbs DOES NOT COUNT).




Riki and his Smoke Cloud. In this case the general wisdom of "silence him before he can silence you" is much harder to accomplish as he can pop out of nowhere. Against a Riki I would recommend getting a quick force staff so that you can escape from the cloud on short notice. Also, if you can get a support to buy an early gem, Invoker is a good choice for holding gem, and in many cases it can basically give you free kills as a Riki player is almost always going to be scouting for his team. If you see him, make him pay.




Doom Bringer, the ultimate counter to Invoker. There is almost nothing you can do to stop him: the silence goes through BKB and he can disable your Linken's Shield with LVL? Death. That said, the forced use of LVL? Death to break your Linken's Shield can often allow you enough time to get off your orchid before he can Doom you. In a lineup against a Doom Bringer, try to get your allies to help you gank him early while he is still jungling (assuming it is a jungle doom), and continue to initiate upon him rather than him initiating upon you. It is basically a case of whoever silences first wins the fight.




This hero needs a nerf. Nyx Assassin is capable of picking off Invoker with ease, and the only real way to counter him is to buy sentries or get an early gem and stick with at least one other ally. In the laning phase, a mid Nyx is quite annoying to lane against, due to his Spiked Carapace. However, if you can bait it out, go aggressive on him with cold snap and try and keep him underleveled.




Skywrath's silence is a REALLY powerful spell, and what makes it worst is that it can turn the tide so easily. Skywrath is a very squishy hero, but even so you must be very careful of him, and once he has taken high levels of his silence, do not attempt to gank him without having your Orchid finished otherwise he can simply turn around, silence and ulti you, after which you either are forced to retreat or dead. On the other hand, Skywrath at his early levels in the mid lane is easy food for an Invoker with forge spirits. Without his ulti, there in not really much that he do use in conjuction with his silence that will worry you. Just make sure to cold snap before he can silence you at around level 3-5 and you will be able to kill or at least force him out of the lane and postpone his leveling.




While Orchid is a great item choice for Invoker himself, it can also be his downfall. However, there are a number of things that you can do to counter an Orchid on the enemy team. Firstly, I would recommend getting a BKB as your first Late-Game Item, or even earlier if the situation calls for it. Another interesting interaction here is that using Eul's Scepters' Cyclone on yourself dispells Orchid, however i would still recommend getting a BKB instead as using Cyclone on yourself with the Eul's Scepter build means that you cannot initiate with it, and your combo is nullified unless you have an ally with a conveniently long stun to help you land it.

Summary

Overall, Invoker is very diverse hero who requires a lot of practice but is definitely worth the effort. If you liked, give me a +1, if not could you give me a reason why.

[I AM THE ONE]

Added the In-Game version of this guide- see the link in the "overview" section

[silenthero27]

Really appreciate it in taking the time to reply to other's comment ^^.

As much as useless is concerned, Eul's description in the guide is very negative. In effect, it becomes "useless" and is not an option even worth considering. That's all I'm bothered about.

BTW, the guide rocks. I haven't said that in my previous posts. Keep it up. d_(^.^)

[I AM THE ONE]

euls is never useless. it is simply almost never as effective OVERALL. I'm not comparing the items in terms of how much ms or burst damage, but as an overall investment for all stages of the game.

[silenthero27]

I think if it is in the "Rejected" list, it's bad for him. Very misleading, though. I can't agree to it being 99% better than Eul's. Clashes usually lasts about 20 seconds or less and after that killing any stranglers left. Eul's is never useless because of its added MS. Maybe its ability's cooldown, but not as a whole. It just depends on the situation.

Orchid is an offensive item and Eul is a situational/support item.

[Jata - Pinaqdoy]

cool

[DrakeWolfe]

I'm gonna try this and work on it...

[mUTTO]

nice

[TyraeL]

nice thx

[Terro]

chillout

[IC$]

yeahh...very good bro