How to void
Posted: Fri Apr 12, 2019 5:25 am
I've played and carried with faceless void hundreds of times. It's one of my favorite carries due to its power early and lategame, and due to it not having many true hard counters. Here's what I've learned by playing FV.
Early game
I typically take solo mid. Void's a hero who has a real power spike at level 6 and can use the extra farm. A lot of people also underestimate his early game power, allowing common level 6 kills. He's very easy to gank with due to time walk.
I start with some regen item, quelling, and a courier. Void has very high base damage, you'll hit into the 100s with QB pretty soon. You can outfarm most heroes, even ranged harassers.
For early game items, we want to maximize power at level 6 and prevent harass. So buy boots + some combination of the following:
- Wraith band
- Ring of aquilla
- Poor man's shield
Poor man's is the item I typically build first cause it shuts down harass. It's a necessity against ranged mids, against a melee use your best judgment. How many of these "early" items you get before transitioning into the next tier is completely up to you, but I typically build RoA + Poor Man's before finishing MoM/treads.
The next items you want are the ones to maximize attackspeed. That is, build Mask of Madness and finish Treads, whichever order you feel like. With MoM at 8-10 mins, there are few heroes who can survive a cronosphere.
Skill build
Take timewalk at level 1 for the escape, then 1 level of bash.
If you find yourself chasing heroes a lot, max time walk first for the slowing effect.
If you're getting harassed, take 1 level of backtrack at level 3.
If you're fighting heroes a lot who aren't running, max bash first.
Mid-late items
Your inventory should be something like this:
- Ring of Aquilla
- Mask of Madness
- Power Treads
- (Optional) one other early item.
Now go into the expensive items.
For damage, make the following:
- Buriza
- MKB
- Butterfly
- Battlefury
- Divine Rapier
Personally I don't like bfury as much as the others. Prioritize these items if you're having a good game and not getting killed a lot, since these items will leave you around 1000 HP until very much later. Note that if you finish Buriza at ~20 minutes, you can solo roshan. When you go to rosh, don't be a dumbass and walk in, use your timewalk to get in, that way wards can't see you.
If I'm feeling very confident about a game, I'll go divine right away after MoM, then take rosh with it. If you do this, you better immediately group and end the game after buying it.
For survival, make the following:
- Aghanim's Scepter
- BKB
- Assault Curias
Obviously use your judgment for which to make. Aghs will give HP and mana, as well as a slightly better crono. Get bkb to protect against stun-heavy teams. AC is great against heroes like legion commander since it give yuuge armor and makes you deal more damage at the same time.
Special mention:
- Lothar's Edge
This is not something you should buy every game, it's situational. You buy this item when timewalk isn't enough to catch people. Timewalk does have a short animation before you can do anything else, and heroes like Ember Spirit can absolutely escape in this time period if a skilled player is playing it. In games like this, buy lothars and approach him invisible, crono from lothar. This gives him absolutely no reaction time, but does open you up to being caught by gem or wards.
- Diffusal Blade
One of the most underrated items in the game. Buy this when that annoying support gets ghost staff, or when that annoying omniknight gets aghs scepter.
Cronosphere
The most important part of void. Also, in my opinion, the hardest/most stressful ultimate to use in the game due to the high chance of it backfiring on you. There's really no other ulti in the game that can so easily wipe your entire team if you use it wrong.
Early game, I use this almost exclusively for ganking lone players. If the player has a mobility skill, then time walk and instantly crono. Do not even bother if you can't one shot with crono. If the player does not have a mobility skill, timewalk in and fight normally. Surprisingly, a lot of the time you can just kill them without even having to ult. Save the ult for when you need it.
When your ult is on cooldown, try not to fight. Timewalk is a great escape skill, so use it when they try to gank you. Note that timewalk will dodge the damage from Silencer's last word.
The ideal to work towards is to NEVER crono your team unless you absolutely have to. But mistakes happen and poor positioning happens, so you may have to; however try to never crono your teammate in a situation where an enemy can hit them in the crono. If you do this, your ult may end up being literally worse than useless. It's better to save crono than to use it and kill a teammate with it.
Whenever possible, catch the enemy at the very edge of the cronosphere. This allows melee heroes in your team to hit the caught target. Also the more enemies you can catch, the better it is. Ideally you'd catch all 5 in a teamfight, but they rarely group enough for you to do this.
The most important thing with void is to farm. If you are farming better than the other team, you will always be able to kill people with crono. The times I lose with void are when the other team outfarms me and I'm facing down a team that ALL has 3k hp plus a shiva's guard, and my crono doesn't do anything to any of them.
With MoM, you can farm the jungle as much as you want. Don't go ancients before you have a +damage item like Crystalis.
Void should take roshan whenever it is available, after he has decent farm.
Priority Kill List
Don't just crono the first person you see. Figure out which hero needs to get crono'd, and save it for them whenever possible. Here's a list of who you need to crono, in order.
1: heroes who will ruin your cronosphere
This includes long range stunners, sniper, any natural carrier of euls/hex/ethblade. Pretty much anyone who will make your crono useless due to them killing you inside of it, or casting Euls on you or something like that.
Some heroes here include: sniper, silencer (last word), lina, lion, rhasta. Special mention to sniper because if you don't crono him, he'll be able to hit you anywhere in the sphere.
These are the #1 priority because if you don't crono them, then your crono won't matter.
2: heroes your team can't kill without crono
There are some heroes who are just so annoyingly mobile that most heroes can't deal with them. Such as ember who sits back at the edge of the fight and uses fist. Or slark who will just dispel anything on him and run at max ms.
As void, you are one of the few heroes who they can't really do anything against. Void is the ultimate counter to any mobility hero because he completely stops mobility.
Heroes in this category include: antimage, ember, storm, akasha, slark
You may want lothars vs these.
3: high-presence int heroes
Characters who have the ability to easily wipe the team with their ultis are your next priority. Either stop them from ulting, or interrupt them. The best thing about these heroes is they're all super squishy and have zero response to a void cronoing and killing them.
Some heroes are: witch doctor, enigma, crystal maiden
4: carries
Any strong attacker is the next on your priority list. These heroes are dangerous, but not in the way that Witch Doctor is dangerous. It's more like, you just can't let them go autoattack unchecked for too long. Typically these are also really easy to kill, and are good heroes to feed off early.
Heroes: drow ranger, mortred, specter, etc.
5: any other random heroes
The last ones, the ones you don't really want to crono. You probably won't kill a tank with ulti alone, so target them last of all.
Heroes like: bristleback, centaur, pudge (though a good pudge could also be considered a hero who can ruin crono)
Counters
These are some of the things I hate most when playing as void.
- Omniknight.
Until/unless you get diffusal, a good omniknight can interrupt your crono anytime his ult is ready. And even worse, you can't do anything about it because they can just sit in fountain and do this. Even if he does come out and gets crono'd, most omnis build tanky and have an aura to slow you. All around a shitty matchup, I'd repick void if Omni is chosen, there's just nothing you can do against him at all.
- Silencer
Void has annoyingly low mana, his curse could stop you from ulting. Also he only has 2 actives, if both of them are used, then last word and curse will be super annoying. If he global silences at the right time, you may timewalk into 5 enemies and not be able to ulti.
- Doom
Of course, there's nothing you can do besides die if you get doomed. Like almost any other hero. If the doom isn't an idiot, they'll build tanky so ulti won't kill them.
- Sniper
He can attack you inside your cronosphere no matter how you position it. Luckily most are bad enough where you can always just go kill them.
- Phantom Lancer
Doesn't matter if you ult him, if you don't know which is the real one.
- Slark
I hate playing Slark because everyone goes tanky with him. Before Skaddi, you can probably kill in Sphere. After, not unless you're fed.
- Phoenix
Firebirds will ruin your attack speed. Timed correctly, he can even land them on you if you timewalk in and ult as fast as possible. Sunbeam can heal crono'd targets.
- Euls Scepter, Hex, Ethereal Blade
Turns any hero into a crono interrupter. Very annoying.
- Shiva's Guard
Slows down attack speed and there's no response to it besides killing the wearer.
Replays
Typically I'd post replays but sadly ENT can't fix their website, so you can't actually view the games I've played on there by my username.
This is the most recent one I remember. I was solo mid vs. an LC and killed him multiple times. https://entgaming.net/findstats.php?id=11709349
Early game
I typically take solo mid. Void's a hero who has a real power spike at level 6 and can use the extra farm. A lot of people also underestimate his early game power, allowing common level 6 kills. He's very easy to gank with due to time walk.
I start with some regen item, quelling, and a courier. Void has very high base damage, you'll hit into the 100s with QB pretty soon. You can outfarm most heroes, even ranged harassers.
For early game items, we want to maximize power at level 6 and prevent harass. So buy boots + some combination of the following:
- Wraith band
- Ring of aquilla
- Poor man's shield
Poor man's is the item I typically build first cause it shuts down harass. It's a necessity against ranged mids, against a melee use your best judgment. How many of these "early" items you get before transitioning into the next tier is completely up to you, but I typically build RoA + Poor Man's before finishing MoM/treads.
The next items you want are the ones to maximize attackspeed. That is, build Mask of Madness and finish Treads, whichever order you feel like. With MoM at 8-10 mins, there are few heroes who can survive a cronosphere.
Skill build
Take timewalk at level 1 for the escape, then 1 level of bash.
If you find yourself chasing heroes a lot, max time walk first for the slowing effect.
If you're getting harassed, take 1 level of backtrack at level 3.
If you're fighting heroes a lot who aren't running, max bash first.
Mid-late items
Your inventory should be something like this:
- Ring of Aquilla
- Mask of Madness
- Power Treads
- (Optional) one other early item.
Now go into the expensive items.
For damage, make the following:
- Buriza
- MKB
- Butterfly
- Battlefury
- Divine Rapier
Personally I don't like bfury as much as the others. Prioritize these items if you're having a good game and not getting killed a lot, since these items will leave you around 1000 HP until very much later. Note that if you finish Buriza at ~20 minutes, you can solo roshan. When you go to rosh, don't be a dumbass and walk in, use your timewalk to get in, that way wards can't see you.
If I'm feeling very confident about a game, I'll go divine right away after MoM, then take rosh with it. If you do this, you better immediately group and end the game after buying it.
For survival, make the following:
- Aghanim's Scepter
- BKB
- Assault Curias
Obviously use your judgment for which to make. Aghs will give HP and mana, as well as a slightly better crono. Get bkb to protect against stun-heavy teams. AC is great against heroes like legion commander since it give yuuge armor and makes you deal more damage at the same time.
Special mention:
- Lothar's Edge
This is not something you should buy every game, it's situational. You buy this item when timewalk isn't enough to catch people. Timewalk does have a short animation before you can do anything else, and heroes like Ember Spirit can absolutely escape in this time period if a skilled player is playing it. In games like this, buy lothars and approach him invisible, crono from lothar. This gives him absolutely no reaction time, but does open you up to being caught by gem or wards.
- Diffusal Blade
One of the most underrated items in the game. Buy this when that annoying support gets ghost staff, or when that annoying omniknight gets aghs scepter.
Cronosphere
The most important part of void. Also, in my opinion, the hardest/most stressful ultimate to use in the game due to the high chance of it backfiring on you. There's really no other ulti in the game that can so easily wipe your entire team if you use it wrong.
Early game, I use this almost exclusively for ganking lone players. If the player has a mobility skill, then time walk and instantly crono. Do not even bother if you can't one shot with crono. If the player does not have a mobility skill, timewalk in and fight normally. Surprisingly, a lot of the time you can just kill them without even having to ult. Save the ult for when you need it.
When your ult is on cooldown, try not to fight. Timewalk is a great escape skill, so use it when they try to gank you. Note that timewalk will dodge the damage from Silencer's last word.
The ideal to work towards is to NEVER crono your team unless you absolutely have to. But mistakes happen and poor positioning happens, so you may have to; however try to never crono your teammate in a situation where an enemy can hit them in the crono. If you do this, your ult may end up being literally worse than useless. It's better to save crono than to use it and kill a teammate with it.
Whenever possible, catch the enemy at the very edge of the cronosphere. This allows melee heroes in your team to hit the caught target. Also the more enemies you can catch, the better it is. Ideally you'd catch all 5 in a teamfight, but they rarely group enough for you to do this.
The most important thing with void is to farm. If you are farming better than the other team, you will always be able to kill people with crono. The times I lose with void are when the other team outfarms me and I'm facing down a team that ALL has 3k hp plus a shiva's guard, and my crono doesn't do anything to any of them.
With MoM, you can farm the jungle as much as you want. Don't go ancients before you have a +damage item like Crystalis.
Void should take roshan whenever it is available, after he has decent farm.
Priority Kill List
Don't just crono the first person you see. Figure out which hero needs to get crono'd, and save it for them whenever possible. Here's a list of who you need to crono, in order.
1: heroes who will ruin your cronosphere
This includes long range stunners, sniper, any natural carrier of euls/hex/ethblade. Pretty much anyone who will make your crono useless due to them killing you inside of it, or casting Euls on you or something like that.
Some heroes here include: sniper, silencer (last word), lina, lion, rhasta. Special mention to sniper because if you don't crono him, he'll be able to hit you anywhere in the sphere.
These are the #1 priority because if you don't crono them, then your crono won't matter.
2: heroes your team can't kill without crono
There are some heroes who are just so annoyingly mobile that most heroes can't deal with them. Such as ember who sits back at the edge of the fight and uses fist. Or slark who will just dispel anything on him and run at max ms.
As void, you are one of the few heroes who they can't really do anything against. Void is the ultimate counter to any mobility hero because he completely stops mobility.
Heroes in this category include: antimage, ember, storm, akasha, slark
You may want lothars vs these.
3: high-presence int heroes
Characters who have the ability to easily wipe the team with their ultis are your next priority. Either stop them from ulting, or interrupt them. The best thing about these heroes is they're all super squishy and have zero response to a void cronoing and killing them.
Some heroes are: witch doctor, enigma, crystal maiden
4: carries
Any strong attacker is the next on your priority list. These heroes are dangerous, but not in the way that Witch Doctor is dangerous. It's more like, you just can't let them go autoattack unchecked for too long. Typically these are also really easy to kill, and are good heroes to feed off early.
Heroes: drow ranger, mortred, specter, etc.
5: any other random heroes
The last ones, the ones you don't really want to crono. You probably won't kill a tank with ulti alone, so target them last of all.
Heroes like: bristleback, centaur, pudge (though a good pudge could also be considered a hero who can ruin crono)
Counters
These are some of the things I hate most when playing as void.
- Omniknight.
Until/unless you get diffusal, a good omniknight can interrupt your crono anytime his ult is ready. And even worse, you can't do anything about it because they can just sit in fountain and do this. Even if he does come out and gets crono'd, most omnis build tanky and have an aura to slow you. All around a shitty matchup, I'd repick void if Omni is chosen, there's just nothing you can do against him at all.
- Silencer
Void has annoyingly low mana, his curse could stop you from ulting. Also he only has 2 actives, if both of them are used, then last word and curse will be super annoying. If he global silences at the right time, you may timewalk into 5 enemies and not be able to ulti.
- Doom
Of course, there's nothing you can do besides die if you get doomed. Like almost any other hero. If the doom isn't an idiot, they'll build tanky so ulti won't kill them.
- Sniper
He can attack you inside your cronosphere no matter how you position it. Luckily most are bad enough where you can always just go kill them.
- Phantom Lancer
Doesn't matter if you ult him, if you don't know which is the real one.
- Slark
I hate playing Slark because everyone goes tanky with him. Before Skaddi, you can probably kill in Sphere. After, not unless you're fed.
- Phoenix
Firebirds will ruin your attack speed. Timed correctly, he can even land them on you if you timewalk in and ult as fast as possible. Sunbeam can heal crono'd targets.
- Euls Scepter, Hex, Ethereal Blade
Turns any hero into a crono interrupter. Very annoying.
- Shiva's Guard
Slows down attack speed and there's no response to it besides killing the wearer.
Replays
Typically I'd post replays but sadly ENT can't fix their website, so you can't actually view the games I've played on there by my username.
This is the most recent one I remember. I was solo mid vs. an LC and killed him multiple times. https://entgaming.net/findstats.php?id=11709349
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