Dota Guide - Invoker

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xSAINTx1
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Dota Guide - Invoker

Postby xSAINTx1 » Fri Apr 05, 2019 12:09 am

Time to drop some knowledge on Carl (Kael) the Invoker. This is my favorite hero and has quite a steep learning curve for newer players. He is unique in the fact that he has 10 spells, 3 orbs and and the ultimate invoke. To play invoker, you must invoke a combination of the 3 orbs in order to utilize his vast kit of spells. The orbs include quas, wex, and exort. Invoker's spells are as follows:

EEE = sunstrike (global nuke, 30 sec cd, can be difficult to land without stun/eul/tornado setup)
EEW = chaos meteor (high damage aoe spell, 50 sec cd, use in team fights, or to solo kill enemies)
EEQ = forge spirits (high damage summon unit, great for farming neutrals, securing last hits in lane, pressuring enemies, pushing waves/towers)
EWQ = deafening blast (good damage and ranged nuke, provides disarm and knockback to enemy heroes/units)
QQQ = cold snap (strong disable, ministun, best harass tool in lane, synergizes well with alacrity, forge spirits, and meteor)
QQW = ghost walk (invisible escape spell, initiation and scout tool)
QQE = ice wall (best counter gank spell in laning phase, extreme slow, massive teamfight control spell, can be hard to land without setup)
QWW = tornado (great setup and chase spell, high damage and range at lvl 7 wex, great disengage tool)
WWW = EMP (insane CC spell, draining enemy hero mana pool while trying to get objectives/high ground, great vs mana dependent heroes)
WWE = alacrity (massive attack speed and damage buff to ally units/heroes, great to use on catapults when pushing, or taking roshan)

For exact damage, and how spells scale with each level, look up the hero at the dota wiki (some changes are different in dota 2, but use the wiki as a general guideline): https://dota2.gamepedia.com/Invoker

Levels in exort will improve sunstrike damage only, not the radius or cd
Levels in exort will improve meteor damage, and wex will increase the distance the meteor rolls upon landing
Levels in exort improves damage of each forge spirit, and quas increases attack range and duration of spirits; having 4 levels in q/e provides 2 spirits
Levels in exort improves the damage, wex increases duration of disarm, and quas increases knockback of the deaf blast
Levels in quas increases cold snap proc chance instances (more ministuns), damage, and duration of the spell
Levels in quas increase slow duration when phasing through enemy units/heroes, and wex improves your movement speed while in ghost walk
Levels in quas improves the duration and slow%, and exort improves damage per second while walking through the ice wall
Levels in quas improves lift time of enemy units/heroes, and wex improves the damage and distance the tornado travels
Levels in wex improves damage and the amount of mana drained while using EMP
Levels in wex improves attack speed and exort improves the damage provided while casting alacrity on ally units/heroes

The following are general descriptions of each orb: Exort provides 2 int for every level and allows you to cast mainly damage dealing spells and ice wall. Quas provides HP regen in lane and the ability cast utility spells. Wex provides % based MS and AS (exact percents i'm too lazy to remember) and team fight spells/utility. Remember that Wex is percent based, so items the increase BASE movement speed such as eul's scepter and drums of endurance amplify the bonus (phase boots is % based, no base MS boost, which is why its shit on slow moving heroes, and good on high MS/chasing ones).

Invoker should be played in the solo mid position, or safe lane. Invoker should not be played vs a tri lane, or against a dual lane, because he is generally weak to ganks early on, and needs to secure last hits safely. Until level 3, invoker will only have 1 spell (emp, cold snap, or sunstrike), and can generally be punished early for this weakness. Invoker has one of the lowest base damage of all heroes in dota, with a slow attack projectile, making it hard to last hit when playing quas/wex invoker. Knowing when to play a quas/wex invoker, or a quas/exort invoker comes with understanding of ally and enemy team composition.

Quas/wex invoker is quite situational and generally doesn't scale as well as q/e into the late game. Q/w invoker provides more early team fight presence, gank setups, chase and escape spells. Using spells such as tornado, EMP, cold snap, and ghost walk, allows invoker to tp to other lanes to counter gank, or to set up kills with tornado/emp/cold snap removing a large portion of the enemies mana pool as well allowing you to close the gap between enemy heroes with tornado and snap. Exort/quas is my preferred build for almost all invoker games, as it provides the most damage, last hit potential and survivability in lane when trading hits with strong enemy mid-laners. Having forge spirits, and cold snap to hit the enemy in the early-mid game is extremely strong, and ice wall can be used to prevent enemies from ganking you, or to slow enemies trying to escape.

General leveling for quas/exort invoker is as follows: lvl 1 exort, lvl 2 invoke, lvl 3 exort or quas (if you need early regen from quas, or need forge/cold snap to trade with enemies), lvl 4 quas (if you picked lvl 3 exort for more damage on right click/sunstrike damage), lvl 5 exort, lvl 6 quas, lvl 7 exort, lvl 8 and 9 quas to enable you with 2 forge spirits by lvl 9. After level 9, you can then get a value point into wex to cast all 10 of invoker's spells, but mainly just to have the ability to invoke alacrity. When playing exort invoker, always level exort to 7 as fast as possible, do not skill quas past lvl 4 until wex is at 7, and skill invoke when possible at levels 13 and above. Having a shorter cooldown on invoke at early levels will not help very much, so its better to have stronger spells by leveling orbs.

If you chose to play quas/wex invoker, always lvl quas at 1, and never wex. Wex is pretty shit at level 1, and emp is hard to land without setup from tornado, or the ministun from cold snap. The benefits from wex won't help you to last hit or to survive in lane, so is best to start with quas or exort in all games. When playing q/w invoker, max wex as soon as possible, and get your first level in exort after quas reaches level 4.

In most games, start with a null talisman, and 3 branches/mantle of intelligence if you have a shared courier, if not just get null and a chicken. Having high base damage at the beginning of the lane is most important with invoker to secure easy last hits, and do deal higher damage to enemy heroes and to deny creeps. Try not to go for early kills with q/e invoker, and focus early on with getting cs for a fast midas. Quas/exort invoker's should always rush hand of midas in 100% of all games. Hand of midas is the best item for invoker, as it allows him to farm faster, deal more damage with increased AS, and most importantly, gain a fast experience lead with the active ability. Whenever midas is off cd, try to convert the highest level neutral creep to gain the highest amount of xp. Generally, I don't get phase boots on q/e invoker, as the movement speed is not that helpful, and will not improve farming speed that much. I opt for either power treads for increased AS, farm speed, some damage as well as the ability to participate in earlier fights with forge spirits and alacrity. If there is no need to fight early, the laning stage went well in terms of last hitting, and you obtained midas before the 10 min mark, then you may be able to get Boots of travels over other boot options. I like building blink dagger on q/e invoker, as the only problem with this build is setting up your spells to reliably get kills. Having blink allows you to close the gap on escaping heroes, summon forge spirits, use cold snap and pop ice wall to kill almost any hero when you are level 10-11 solo. Afterwards, work on getting aghanims scepter and some sort of mana regen/cc item such as euls, linken, hex or refresher orb. Getting BKB is needed in most games, and will allow you to cast all of your spells in a teamfight, and continue to use right clicks to hit the enemy for big damage. Do not underestimate invoker's right click damage in the mid-late game, as he can hit just as hard as any other semi-carry hero with alacrity, and other items such as hex, orchid, bkb, mkb, crit, etc.

When playing quas/wex invoker, phase boots and drums of endurance are great. Since quas/wex does not provide increased damage, getting 1-2 null talismans and phase boots as early as possible will make the early game much easier to obtain kills and cs. Drums and ring of aquila provide a great amount of stats for a very low cost, and all have great buildup. Do not underestimate ring of basilius/aquila on int heroes such as invoker, who can benefit greatly from the mana regen, cheap stats and armor aura to buff up your forge spirits and push lanes when away from teamfights. I generally get 2 null talismans, phase boots, drums, and then orchid on quas/wex invoker. I do not get midas every game with this style of invoker, as he is better suited to gank side lanes/assist in teamfights when compared to exort/quas invoker, and wont be farming as much. After phase/drum/orchid I will usually be level 13-15, and can then get aghanims, to be able to cast all my spells with a 2 second cd.

Aghanim's scepter is the best item on invoker, and some may argue provides the best ultimate upgrade over any other hero in dota. Agha's removes the mana cost needed to cast invoke, and reduces the cooldown of invoke dramatically (at level 4 without agha's is 5 seconds, with agha's it's 2 second cd). On patch 6.85k and above, aghanim's scepter increases all orbs by one level, reduces cd of invoke and removes mana cost. With octarine core, this becomes on of the most annoying heroes in the entire freaaking game (1.3 sec cd invoke, spell lifesteal, massive mana pool and hp pool increase). Some situationally good items on invoker include eul's scepter, shiva's guard, ghost/eblade, bkb, refresher, blink dagger, and dps items such as mjollnir, crit, mkb, divine, etc. Eul's is great for a team lacking disables, fighting against heavy silenced based rosters, and to setup spell combos such as sunstrike, meteor and deafening blast. This can be a good item, I just feel in most games it's not necessary to have, as invoker is very tight on item slots, and will eventually be needed to sell to make room for more damage oriented, or defensive items. He can also use tornado to setup spells for himself and his team. Shiva's guard is good for some extra nuke damage, a linken sphere break ability and much needed AS reduction/armor buff to deal with pesky right-click heroes. Ghost and eblade can be useful to survive against strong right-clicks and to provide a 4 second 80% slow and damage buff for spells. BKB is needed in all games where enemies make lot's of blademails, or have many stuns/silences to interrupt the casting of your spells. Refresher is the most situationally strong item on invoker, as it requires the most knowledge of invoker to utilize all his spells correctly TWICE and to use items again such as hex/bkb. Refresher should not be made every game, but if more magic damage/cc/ teamfight abilities are required to win the game and you have other teammates to deal physical damage, this may be the only item that can win the game. Blink dagger is great in most games to allow you to position yourself best for spells such as tornado/icewall/emp/meteor/deaf blast combos, or to allow you escape better when ghost walk, wall, and tornado are off cd. Dps items such as mjollnir, buriza, mkb and divine rapier should be purchased when your team is severely lacking physical damage and you need to be the position 1 carry of the team. If this is the case, make sure to max out exort and wex to level 7 as fast as possible, and ignore leveling invoke past lvl 1. A carry invoker will only need 3-4 spells (cold snap, alacrity, forge spirits, ice wall) to be useful for his team, allowing him to right click and win fights.

Some invoker counters are as follows: Antimage due to high magic resistance and ultimate which kills invoker easily the later the game goes and when invoker's mana pool increases. Broodmother is the HARDEST mid-lane matchup for invoker, as exort/quas have little ability to deal with spiderlings, forcing you to play a q/w invoker and barely come out even. Doom's ultimate counters everything invoker can offer. Void chronosphere can easily kill invoker if unable to blink/eul/ghost staff in time. Naix rage counters invoker's spells and removes forge spirit armor debuff. Juggernaut bladefury makes in magic immune, and omnislash makes jug invulnerable to anything invoker can provide, also forcing him to get ghost/euls to survive. Night stalker is great for roaming and killing invoker in the laning-stage. Nerubian assassin can easily counter all of invoker's spells with carapace, and mana burn hurts badly in the late game. Queen of pain, templar assasin, viper, and kunkka have great matchups vs invoker, and can generally win lanes between even skilled players. Storm spirit and queen of pain with orchid make invoker's life hell in the mid-game. Pipe of insight, bkb. blademail and force staff are all great items to counter invoker in all stages of the game.

Invoker is great against low armor and mana dependent heroes such as medusa, and skeleton king. Invoker also pairs well with many physical dps carries who can benefit from alacrity, and the forge spirit minus armor debuff on enemies. Bloodseeker, legion commander, and spirit breaker make it easy to land sunstrikes around the map at any time, and to aid in ganks. Heroes such as dark seer, void, and disruptor can enable invoker to catch multiple enemies grouped together to cast his aoe spells and win fights. Also heroes that require setup for their spells such as mirana arrow, pudge hook, kunkka torrent, shadow fiend raze, tauren chieftain earth splitter, or ancient apparition ice blast all work well with invoker's tornado spell if timed properly.

Invoker is a extremely fun hero, and one who can change teamfights from shit to amazing with well placed spells, timings and positioning. It is extremely difficult to push high ground vs a good invoker player due to being able to cast ice wall, tornado/emp to drain 500 mana at lvl 7, deal insane damage with meteor/deaf blast/ice wall, can kill creep waves quickly, and can buff allies/himself with alacrity. Invoker can carry most games, but is generally unable to solo counter many late-game carries such as terrorblade, medusa, mortred, antimage, storm and ember spirit, slark, chaos knight and many others. Invoker works great by disabling the enemy team, and enabling his team to deal massive damage to win games. He can be one of the strongest mid heroes that can be useful late game, but can also be one of the worst with a terrible start. The name of the game with invoker is levels, and farm, so by prioritizing safe farming and good positioning/engagements in the early-mid game, invoker can be a fucking nightmare in the late game. Enjoy playing dota, and picking invoker for fun matches! Please comment your troll invoker builds below! Believe me, I have tried them all <3 (ghost walk max movement speed radiance, dagon 5 eblade veil build, divine hard carry, mask of madness armlet crit build, etc.)

Here's a few of my voker games testing builds:
https://entgaming.net/findstats.php?id=11676417 (refresher build)
https://entgaming.net/findstats.php?id=11676441 (satanic crit build)
https://entgaming.net/findstats.php?id=11677011 (normal build)
Last edited by xSAINTx1 on Fri Apr 05, 2019 6:04 am, edited 1 time in total.
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nitromon (Fri Apr 05, 2019 4:24 am)

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Re: Dota Guide - Invoker

Postby nitromon » Fri Apr 05, 2019 4:49 am

Holy... that's a very indepth thorough guide! xD

I love heroes like this which can be played in so many different ways, but this one is just a little too complex for me. The few times I do play him, I generally stick with just 1 combo which is sonic blast + meteor while the tornado is programmed. So it's sorta a triple AOE combo. Then I either program all EEE and help team fight or jack up the movement and run away. I occasionally use sunstrike to snipe escaping enemy but I can never time it well. For early, I tend to use EMP to harass in lane and ghostwalk to escape when that annoying SB comes. Generally I just play AOE support. I like to get him BoT+euls or sny so I can get that perma 522 movement. xD

What do you think about that guy trczapre9886? He plays a lot of invoker, but he always goes the euls + sunstrike + meteor combo. I've seen it both very effective in some games but utterly useless in others. However, that combo is so easy to counter, just get a blink dagger. He tried that on me once and I was a techies (I always get a blink for tech :D), the moment he euled me, I just shift-blink and escape the sunstrike and meteor.

There was one other invoker style I saw, but it was a while ago and I only saw it once. The guy went radiance, euls, blink, linken. I don't know why, but that game, none of us can kill him. He harass in ghostwalk with radiance and the moment we dust him, he runs off or blinks away. When our hp were low, he meteors us. I remember we had an skeleton king, but can't ever stun him b/c he either blink out of the stun or the linken handles it. He had the speed orb upgraded, so he was fast and we couldn't touch him.

This guide is awesome, I hope to see more variety of invokers out there. I love seeing an invoker using him to his full potential, rotating as many spells as possible in a fight. That must be some crazy APM. :D


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