Enigma - From Void and Shadow Victory Assembles

This is an in-depth guide on how to play the always useful Darchrow. This will be a complete walkthrought of skill sets, skill builds, item builds, pros & cons and of course how to play him.

Introduction

Darchrow, the Enigma is one of the best Junglers and Initiators within the realm of Dota 2, his ability to farm up core items before 10 minutes makes him the fastets Jungler by far, and the pushing capabilities doesnt make him any less frightning.

Then there is Black Hole which is one of the most game changing spells in the game, the 4 second AoE disable is one of the most feared Ultimates and has turned games that seemed unwinnable into stomping grounds.


Before we start, i've made a copy of this guide so you can use it in-game the link is here:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=456824007
Psyched yet? well then lets dive in.

First some Basic Informatrion:

540 HP and 295 MP
42-48 Damage
4 Armor

17 strength with 2.4 STR gained/level
14 agility with 1 AGI gained/level
20 intelligence with 3.4 INT gained/level

Additional Stats

Movement Speed 300
Sight Range 1800(day) / 800(night)
Attack range 500 (ranged)
Attack Duration 0.4 (Attack Point) + 0.77 (Backswing)
Cast Duartion 0.3 (Cast Point) + 0.67 (Backswing)
Base Attack Time 1.7
Turn Rate 0,5

What does this mean?
Enigma is a somewhat "average" Hero stats wise, He has average movement speed, vision and turn rate.
But he has an Intelligance gain at 3,4 which together with Dazzle is the 4th highest intelligence gain in Dota 2, only bested by Skywrath Mage with 3,6, Invoker with 4 and Pugna with 4,5.
Also his tankability is pretty impressive too, 4 Armor at level 1 and 2,6 Strengh gain level for an Intelligence Hero is very good, so his EHP (HP after reductions) is pretty impressive, which is good considering he is going to get focused by most, because of his necessity in Teamfights.

Lore

Nothing is known of Enigma’s background. There are only stories and legends, most of them apocryphal, passed down through the ages. In truth, Enigma is a mystery for whom the only true biography is description: he is a universal force, a consumer of worlds. Blah Blah Blah, very mysterious, nothing is known and we have no imagination...

Skills

Malefice

Focuses Enigma's power on a target, causing it to take damage and become repeatedly stunned for multiple instances. An instance strikes every 2 seconds.






Cast Range: 600
Number of Instances: 3 (Talent 4)
Damage per Instance: 30/50/70/90
Stun Duration per Instance: 0.25/0.5/0.75/1
Malefice Duration: 4 (Talent 6)
Cooldown 15 (Talent 12.75)
Mana 110/130/150/160
Blocked by Linken's Sphere. Blocked completely only upon cast. The instances are not blocked when Linkens got equipped after cast.

Notes:

• The first of the three stuns occurs upon cast.
  
• Can deal up to 75/120/165/210 damage (before reductions)

Demonic Conversion

Transforms a creep into three fragments of Enigma himself. These eidolons are all under Enigma's control, and repeated successful attacks cause them to multiply. When this happens, the eidolons have their health restored.





Cast Range: 700
Number of Eidolons: 3 (Talent 11)
Attacks to Multiply: 6
Duration: 35
Cooldown 35 (Talent 29.75)
Mana 170
Partially blocked by Spell Immunity. Can be cast on spell immune allied units, but not on spell immune enemy units.
Can be purged. Eidolons take Purge damage.

Notes:

• Demonic Conversion kills the target unit, granting the gold and experience bounty, or resulting in a deny when cast on allied units.
  
• Can be cast on siege creeps.
  
• Eidolons multiply when they release their 7th attack regardless of successfully hitting their target.
  
• Attacking buildings or allied units does not count, but attacking wards does.

Midnight Pulse

Steeps an area in dark resonance, damaging enemy units based on their max HP.






Cast Range: 700
Radius: 600
Max Health as Damage: 3%/3.75%/4.5%/5.25%
Duration: 11
Cooldown 35 (Talent 29.75)
Mana 95/110/125/140

Notes:

• Midnight Pulse deals damage in 1 second instances, starting 1 second after cast, resulting in 11 instances.
  
• Destroys trees within 600 radius at the target location upon cast.

Black Hole

Enigma Summons a vortex that destroys all nearby enemy units hopes and dreams. Enemies affected by Black Hole cannot move, attack, cast spells or cry. The closer units get to the center, the more they lose.


Upgradable with Aghanims Scepter: Adds the current level of Midnight Pulse to the damage of Black Hole. (stacks with Midnight Pulse)

Cast Range: 275
Max Channel Time: 4
Disable Radius: 400
Radius: 420 :3
Damage: 50/100/150
Cooldown: 200/190/180 (Talent 170/153/136)
Mana: 275/325/375

Notes:

• Disables all caught enemies.
  
• Pulls affected units towards the center at a speed of 40, resulting in a maximum possible distance of 160.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

• Incredible Ultimate: Black Hole is well known by anyone who has played Dota 2 for a little while, the most broken of spells but with a significant cooldown and Channeling penalty.
  
• Great Jungler: Enigma is the fastest Jungler there is, he can farm up the useful items before the enemy has boots
  
• Great Pusher: Enigma can push lanes like none other, his ability to push is only contested by the likes of Furion and Tinker who can also push without having to be in the specific lane.
  
• Shatters Hopes and Dreams: There's not much to be said, the enemy's chance of ever being able to take a late game teamfight can be eradicated by one spell, ONE SPELL just think about that.

Cons:

• High mana cost: Enigma is a very mana hungry Hero, so people tend to go Arcane Boots but that is not smart since it delays your Blink and BKB. So when you finally have money to buy your Arcanes your are so high level you wont need them anymore. This results in you need to use your mana with care since Black Hole costs 275 mana to cast.
  
• No Escape Mechanism: Enigma has no form of escape if he gets ganked, the Blink Dagger is only the Second/Third Item you will be buying so be careful when you go pushing alone.
  
• Black Hole Cooldown: Black Hole is the reason why you pick Enigma in games. Unfrotunately it has the longest cooldown of any skill in the game of three minutes and twenty seconds.
  
• Needs unique abilities to be truely great: Enigma is a hero that benefits from a player that has a unique set of special skills:

-Micro If you have Micro skills jungling will be so much more easy and makes it possible to skip Ring of Basilius all together and rush Soul Ring. Also the pushing will be much better, you could in theory push a lane with your Eiodolons and farm the Jungle with just your Hero at the same time.

-Reflexes: Reflexes are an essential part of almost every Hero, but if you are to cast a game winning Black Hole, you also need game winning Reflexes. When you are Late game you just need one excelent Black Hole to win, make no mistake the enemy knows this too so they wont make it easy for you. Having the best Reflexes will win you the game in these cases.

Skill Builds

The Standard Build

















As Enigma we utilize his superior Jungling abilities and we go Jungle level 1, and max Eidolons at level 7 pretty standard.
The diffrence between this skill build and other skill builds is the value point in Midnight Pulse, we get 1 level in Midnight pulse to deal with Juking and Escape TPs. Here's why:

As Enigma we gank when we have level 6 and Black Hole, it's a very good disable and the cooldown is not relevant so early in the game when Teamfights are not happening so often. The lane we gank is our Safelane to deal with the Enemies Offlaner(s). It happens a lot that the Offlaner uses his/her escape mekansm to juke throught the Trees and Teleport back to base. With a level in Midnight Pulse we can destroy the Trees and kill him/her with relative ease.

If you for some reason have to go to the Hard lane (Solo Offlane) you can still use the same build and farm the creepwave with your Eidolons, similar to Nature's Prophet Solo Offlaning.

Talents

Starting Items

Here are your starting items for a Soul Ring rush:




We wont buy any regen since we expect you can micro your Eidolons well and will not need to tank. The Sage's mask is for a Soul Ring which we will get as fast as we can. We buy wards so we are Safe and have some Rune control. We dont get Basilius since it delays more then it helps.

Core Items - The bread and Butter

Mekansm is one of the best items for Enigma, it gives you the power to sustain you and your team to take early teamfights and Towers. It also makes the most sence that you buy it since you can farm it the fastest.
Mekansm really helps your Support, so he/she can focus more on warding the map as well as building better and more efficient supporting items that you dont want to have in your inventory like: Force Staff or Pipe of Insight.
I'm not saying there might be cases where you need to buy those items as well tough. But more on that in the Situational Items Section.



Black King Bar is the half of your arsenal of items you'll need to that secure game winning Black Hole.





Blink Dagger is the other half of your Core Items and will coupled with your BKB give you the possibility to make that Black Hole your friends will praise you with for in games to come.

Blink Dagger vs. Black King Bar: What to pick first?

I often see in pubs as well as in ranked games, that Engima players either don't know which of these items to pick first, or they just rush one of them without thinking about it. Let's analyze when its smart to go Blink or BKB first because its acturely quite intuitive.

BKB first:
You go BKB first when the enemy has ways to deal with you when you cast your Black Hole, like a lot of disables spread across the enemy Heroes that does not go through BKB.

You do not go BKB first when the enemy has a lot of mobility or disables that does go through BKB.


Blink Dagger first:
You go Blink Dagger first when the enemy lack stuns and disables, or if you are sure that you can catch those that have in your Black Hole.

You dont buy Blink Dagger when the enemy have means to either securely stun you or damage you from long range, preventing you from using your Blink Dagger for 3 seconds. Heroes that can do this are basicly any Hero with Global, huge AoE spells or Radiance. Heroes like this are too many to say, but the 2 Hero you should watch out for the most are Spectre with her Haunt that disables your Blink Dagger for the entire duration. And Zeus with his Ultimate and his passive Static Field that damages you whenever he casts a spell.

Situational Items

So now we have reached the ending of the mid-game and i see you have finished your Core Items. Your Inventory should look like this:







You dont have much space left for core items and TP-scrolls, so building Boots of Travel early after you reach this point is essential for additional uility late-game.
Just for fun, here is what i usually go after:







Of course this heavily depends on the team you're against. But there are some things Enigma needs to be useful:

• Something to help him either win teamfights or spiltpush (this can be tanking up, extra CC or upgrading your Black Hole, or more units to push with)
  
• Something to help his mana problems, because even though Enigma has a very good Int gain on 3.4 his spells cost a lot of mana so buying some regen or extra mana capacity will be needed in all games.

So lets look what your options are!

I mentioned these before. They are quite essential for later utility purposes as TP-Scrolls take up quite a lot of room compared to what they do in the late-game. So getting BoT after your Core items is not a must, but still very essential.

Do you know those pushes where your teams stand right in front of the other teams tier 3 tower and just can't break high ground?
Well with Pipe if Insight it's going to get a whole lot easier. Just remember to use the Barrier Active before you 5 man on them because else it wont do much.

Refresher is the ultimate Utility item for Enigma, you can potentially disable an entire team for an insane 8 seconds!
There is no line-up that can survive an 8 seconds BKB breaking disable with damage follow-up.

Aghanim's Scepter is the saviour if your teams has little damage output. If you can use your Midnight Pulse before you Black Hole you can deal a whoping 78,75% of their max HP + an extra 440 Pure Damage at level 16 after reductions.

Name a Hero you shouldn't build Scythe of Vyse on.
I'm waiting...


There are some Heroes that Enigma cant do much about because of their mobility or Spellcasting, Heroes like Storm Spirit or Rubick can deal with Enigma with relative ease if givin' the possibility and positioning. So building Orchid, can be of endless use.

For some extra mobility, considering Enigma has no escape what so ever.



One of my favorite items on Enigma, because he excels so much at pushing it makes so much sense go give him some more. Plus the late-game push and Vision Necro 3 gives in teamfights is not to be taken lightly.

A very situational but potentially game breaking item on Enigma. It is no secret that Heroes that can Silence or disable Enigma through BKB is a problem for him. But you will find that all of these spells are single target abilities(Except for Silencer, ♥♥♥♥ that guy) and teams tend to only have one of these spells on their team. So buying a Linken's Sphere might be a necessity for you against some line-ups.

Allies

Everyone that can follow-up when Enigma does his Black Hole or those who can set it up is considered an ally. But those with AoE can do it a little bit more consistent and, well.. Better. Some of these that can do both are:

















A special mention must go to Tidehunter, since he can not only go to the Solo offlane while you jungle but also make your initiation that much easier, giving you the possibility to use Midnight Pulse before you use Black Hole.

Enemies - My Grasp Fades

There are only really two types of counters to Enigma, those who can prevent him from casting Black Hole, and those who can deal with Enigma once he is casting Black Hole.









All these can cancel you Black Hole once you begun channeling it. There is not much you can do about it, just try and make sure you catch them in your Black Hole or get Silence or Hex to deal with them.







Next we have those who can make sure you wont cast Black Hole by canceling your Blink Dagger.





Rubick needs a special mention since he can disable you before you get BKB and steal your Black Hole and counter your Initiation with it.

Gameplay

Early Game

Welcome to the Jungle, this is where you will be spending the first 10-15 minutes of the game farming away. If you bought that ward use it to hold the entrances to your jungle lit so you can react to incoming ganks.
Also if you farm as efficient as possible you will be able to get your Mekansm before 9 minutes.

Once you turn level 6 and your allies are ready, go for a gank. there is not any offlaner that can survive a 4 second disable at level 5-6.

Mid Game

Push, push push
At this point you are about the most fed Hero in the game, you have mana you can sustain with Soul Ring, and you can sustain your push with Mekansm. So get some win conditions, push towers and create space for your Carry, or just keep pushing if you don't have any.

Also dont feel afraid to press R in teamfights and skirmishes, even though Black Hole has the longest cooldown in the game, teamfights are not going to be so common for you to be caught without your Black Hole.
Dont use it on a Single Hero though, it is not as worth as it was in the early game.

Late Game

Typical reaction from team after ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ up Black Hole
>OMG Enigma Noob!
>Report this ♥♥♥♥
>I must admit i do not quite agree with your performace in the last teamfight, i would advice you to not play this entertaining game anymore, furthermore, you suck

Dont worry, i'm quite experienced as Enigma and i still get these messages in-game. Everyone makes mistakes so prepare for it. And don't be too hard on yourself when you fail because it will happen from time to time, it's Human Nature.

With that said late game is when you are at your most powerful. You have your Core and start to build your Situational Items. In this stage a great Black Hole result in a GG.

When you reach this stage it is important to stay with your team and only push when you need to. Remember that you dont need anything else beyond BKB and Blink Dagger everything else is considered luxury.

Keep you eyes on the screen, dont let them wander you only have a split second to react for a potencial Black Hole, so stay out of sight and don't get caught off guard. Then i promise you, you will make a Black Hole worthy of Puppey and LightofHeaven.

Examples of Gameplay

Enigma can be a little tricky to play in the jungle if you're not familiar with Heroes that uses summons to jungle with. If you fall into this catagory this video is for you
So here is how to get Mekansm before 10 minutes:

Conclusion

Hi and thank you for reading this much, i know it's a lot but i'm glad you got through it!

If you liked it be sure to Like and Fav so more people see it. <3

If you have questions ask me in the comments or add me to friends. (Just be sure to write on my profile first so i don't think you're a hacker)

See you all in the comments or in-game. :)

Stay in School and don't do drugs.

[Frelseren]

+The Mercenary
Well damn... :P

[Hunter]

you cant build scythe of vyse on ember spirit and kunkka, cuz u know their item priority on physical AOE damage.. but anyways nice guide.

[Naikon]

nice

[Frelseren]

+UNDESTROYEDEDE
Thank you for the feedback. <3 I'll get busy improving. :)

[Chad++]

Maybe you could also cover camp blocking, both something you can do by mistake, but also the enemy can do intentionally to disrupt your farm.

[Chad++]

A very thoughtout guide on how to play Enigma. Though there is a lot of basic information at the start, which is nice, but I could just look it up on the wiki page, so perhaps you should add some short comments to it so I could understand why for instance, it matters his armor is 3.96 at the start?
I also feel like the guide could be a little more noob friendly, I mean it is not hard to comprehend but some knowledge is a little assumed, like, how do I keep my eidolons alive? What does it mean to “micro them”? Why is spectre’s haunt dangerous for your initiation?
So it feels like the guide is a little confused whether it applies to semi-experienced players or completely new players. It needs to be clearer on this point.
Otherwise very nice guide and covers most things. The video is especially nice with the commentary and beautiful accent. Keep it up!