A quick search of this thread turned up nothing for riki, I just tried him and though I enjoyed him, I was very unsure of his play style. I played a normal game with 2 friends and 1 of the 2 other pub players was getting very upset. Figured before I try again I'd do a bot game, but could anyone give me some direction on his items? I figured out his skills, but people are saying the core items are wrong because a lot of them are easily countered with force staffs and such. I've found mixed things on google, so any personal experiences with him and builds would be great.
Riki.......open with stout shield, 3 branches, tango and salve. Immediately get a poor mans shield as soon as you get 300 gold. Youll turn branches into wand when possible, first big item should be diffusal blade. After diffusal its all questionable. Never get a Vlads ever on riki. But you will want agi stat items to maximise ur passive backstabe dmg. Butterfly is good, a sange ONLY is good for the move speed (i never go this tho) upgraded diffusal after actives get low. BKB optional S&Y works ok to, but there are better items, manta is good if u getting focused to fast. skill build, lvl1 depends on lane, I go back stab for easy last hits, if they have dual stuns i go blink. My general skill build, E,W,Q,W,W,R,W,E,E,E,R,Q,Q,Q,STATS. Roam around alot after 6, once u ahve diffusal to kills should be easy, with your blink, cloud diffusal combo.
Like he said.. Blinking in then using the cloud to silence them. Then right click to buggery is generally how i play him. Watching for players that are on their own farming on the map. Killing them when they don't have any support.
I'd assume after 6 you just want to attack, smoke, and if they escape you still have your blink? I googled it and for low ranked games (I'm only level 5) the diffusal works, but people say in high level and more competitive the diffusal is a terrible idea and instead you need items with +dmg and STR to survive, so I'm getting mixed messages here. 1/2 of them say build it full dmg and agi, others say all dmg and str for survive. I'll have to mess around in some bot games to get the hang of him I guess.
I'll probably get flamed for this but I play Riki differently. Instead of going the Diffusal Blade route to slow the enemy I choose Mask of Madness to be faster. I have not worked on this for too long, but so far it has worked, especially in the beginning. First I start out similar to Whindog with Poor Man Shield. Then I get Powered Boots as they offer quite a bit of versatility once you get used to them. By then I usually am around level 6 and might have gotten a kill or two. Then I go for the life steal mask or Yasha, whatever I need more. Then I complete mask of madness. Mask of madness let's you walk and attack faster, but you will take (quite a bit) more damage. With Yasha it raises my walk speed to around 500. When I see an enemy I will blink in. If the other hero is strong I will try to use smoke and wait for the enemy to react. When/if the enemy has gotten their return strike in I will activate Mask of Madness to avoid the extra damage from their first attack. If the opposing hero is weak I will activate Mask of Madness immediately. The high walking speed also helps to get away if things get ugly - so does the life steal. The luxury items are depending on the game. Personally I try to go for pure dmg such as Divine Rapier if I can afford it. I have only plaid this way for a few games and certainly do need a bit of practice. What is for sure though is that Riki is an extremely item dependent hero. If you happen to fall back money or level wise don't be afraid to simply go farming for a bit.
Hmm, guess I may look someone else. I've been having a hell of a lot of fun with Drow. Most games I can manage boots and 2 items before its over. Normally go: power treads shadow blade daedalus most games are over at this point. I've had 1 game where I've had an opportunity to get more, in which case I would get: butterfly Some sort of lifesteal item. The one game I got this far I went for a satanic because they had a lot of AA damage so the armor, life and lifesteal made it work very well, though some people suggested I should have gotten a vlads for the dmg aura. I guess this item would depend on who we're against. Never gotten as far as a 6th item, but I'd imagine I'd go for a monkey king bar unless I needed more survive, than I'd go for a dmg and str item. I'm not picky where I go, I normally play with friends so I'm either laning with buddies or solo mid, I normally go aura, frost arrow, frost arrow, silence, than maxing ult, frost, aura, silence. Shadow blade is standard for moving around, getting in and out. Frost arrow is key for early kills, once I get boots I can do some good damage and the slow keeps most people from escaping, coupled with a competent lane partner we can snowball pretty quickly. I'm trying to find some new heroes to play though, I want to be more versatile. I've regularly played bane, and I do okay, crystal maiden and I do okay, tide hunter who I ALWAYS do terrible with, and a few others but I want to expand who I can play. Any suggestions for some easy to play carries since Riki seems to be very dependent and I don't think I'm ready to deal with that?
It sounds like you aren't ready to deal with melee carries, they take a lot more thought than ranged heroes! However, I'd try Juggernaut. Arguably one of the easier carries to play. His early game is all spin and ulti, very intuitive. The point of diffusal on riki is it keeps enemies within your smoke/cloud. Play MoM for a ton of games and you will quickly realise why it isn't ideal, and on the contrary also come to know in which situations it can work well. Since you're level 5, then the games you are going to be playing are definitely not high level. In high level games players stick together, you won't find lone players without quick backup, and players know how to focus and how to target the correct choice (which in a lot of cases means riki will be nuked many times as soon as he shows his face). So the situations in high level games call for building HP on him. In your games, you can get away with many dodgy item choices. Remember, the item choice will only make a difference if you yourself play the hero to the strengths that those items enhance - and in low level games you can safely play him basically however you want and always have the potential to do well. So much more is viable, compared to higher level games. For example, if you build MoM riki and then proceed to do nothing but solo gank lone hero's, you are playing to the strengths of your items. But if you go MoM then jump in first every team fight and get focused, you are not playing to your strengths. Items enhance how you want to play your hero, and in low level games you have a lot of choices, of which many are effective.
Well if your playing riki in a low level pub.....do what you want. I dont like Mask of madness on many heros, unless behind and even then only on void, sven or spirit breaker. Riki is squeshy enough as it is without taking increased dmg when its activated. TO understand the stregths and weaknesses of either item build just try it out. I find diffusal works a treat, especially when they have a blink hero because rarely would they get a force staff. But with riki i hate building dmg items, his passive backstab scales of AGI, agi also gives atk spd and 1 point in dmg. And if you can get to butterfly, you have evasion to increase survivabilty, or a manta to prevent being focused by single target spells. Really is each to their own and what they are comfortable with.
Easy carries? Skeleton King! With a whopping one activated ability (which is a stun, slow and DoT all in one), built in crit, built in lifesteal, and built in Aegis he's about as straight forward as you can get. Snag yourself a Soul Ring to activate in case you're about to die without enough mana for your ult, then get plenty of Strength. I like to get an Armlet and BKB first, with things like Heart or Heaven's Halberd later depending on the game. How to play is fairly simple: run in, stun whoever needs to be stunned most, then auto attack. Use activated items as necessary.
Straight forward but item dependent..... And by item dependant i mean....GET AN ARMLET ALWAYS!!!!! I do miss my force staff SK tho.....silly force staff nerf. Does make the game better tho i guess. llol
Is it me or is Drow Ranger OP since she got buffed? Haven't seen her do anything but completely own lately.
Yeah she is overpowered. When Icefrog makes significant changes he makes them purposefully OP so people will be really excited about trying it and he will get the most feedback possible. If he releases it balanced not as many people will use it. As others have said, the important thing is the concept of new spells not the numbers.
yup, IceFrog likes to make new heroes OP He's been nerfed in the latest Dota 1 patch though. Should get implemented in Dota 2 soon.
