DARK SEER GUIDE (by gaibo1)

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DARK SEER GUIDE (by gaibo1)

Tittle: Basic guide to Dark Seer
Author: gaibo1

The Dark Seer is a master of manipulating the positioning of allies and enemies and causing confusion in battle. His Vacuum ability drags all enemy units a wide area to a central location. This spell is very deadly when combined with allies who have strong area of effect spells. The Dark Seer's primary damage source is Ion Shell. When cast on an allied unit or the Dark Seer himself, Ion Shell continuously damages all adjacent enemies, making it the natural complement to Vacuum. Ion Shell is powerful when cast on allied melee heroes who like to be in the thick of the fight. To aid his allies and to make sure Ion Shell is in range, the Dark Seer uses Surge, a powerful spell that makes a target ally move at maximum speed for a short period of time. This ability is useful in any situation, and due to its low cooldown period and mana cost it can be cast quite frequently. The Dark Seer's final spell, Wall of Replica, summons a shimmering barrier which duplicates any enemy hero that passes through it, creating an illusion of him. Wall of Replica is great at causing a lot of confusion during large battles, especially combined with Vacuum. For players who like a more strategic playstyle and can quickly determine the flow of battle, the Dark Seer is a good choice.

When to pick him? When not to?

Read the following 2 lists and answer those questions.

Do we lack supports?
Do I like supporting?
Will my team do a lot of ganking?
Do my teammates need chasing and/or get close to our enemies to be effective?
Do my team have heroes that needs my help for their combo to be effective?
Do I feel confident in your allies' teamwork skills?
Do I like playing ugly heroes?
Did I finish reading this guide?

And again,

Do I prefer playing tanky/carry heroes, with your name showing up first thing in a kill?
Am I one of those pubbies that can only flame instead of help?
Do I killsteal and lasthit like a boss and piss off your team's carries?
Do the enemy team have heroes that can eat up squishy/intelligence heroes like Dark Seer?
Do I/my teammates hate ugly heroes?
Did I just hastily gone through the guide/didn't read all/posted "tldr" for the first time you read this guide?

Results:

If you answered yes to most of the questions in the first list, YES, GO AHEAD AND CLICK THAT UGLY FATASS DARK SEER'S ICON.
If you answered yes to most of the questions in the second list, go pick another hero. Pick him the day he got a plastic surgery.

Pros:

THE highest starting Intelligence among all heroes (29) and moderate int gain (2.7)
Pro support in the right hands.
Good combined starting stats (63) and stat growth (6.2).
3rd highest starting damage (60-66), with an average of 63, being the 3rd highest (the first two are strength heroes).
Good base armor (5.68), the 4th highest in DotA (the first three are all agility heroes).
Item independent.
Flexible playstyle.
Multipurpose spells.
Strong hero from early to late game.

Cons:

Melee.
Ultimate effective in (almost) only teamfights.
Takes time to master.
Low starting agility (12) and agility gain (1.2).
Ugly.

Skill

Vacuum

Creates an abyss upon a chosen parameter, pulling in and damaging foes in the area.

1. Mana 100 / Cooldown 24 / 40 damage
2. Mana 130 / Cooldown 24 / 80 damage
3. Mana 160 / Cooldown 24 / 120 damage
4. Mana 190 / Cooldown 24 / 160 damage

Damage type: magical
This ability will interrupt channeling spells and items.
Drags units over 0.4 seconds before dealing damage.
Doesn't pull invulnerable units.

Awesome skill that pulls enemies into the same point. Can be used to stop enemies from escaping, especially from those AoE ultimates. Nevermore's Requiem is an excellent example. Can also be used to push away enemies when you/your ally is escaping. It also interrupts channeling spells so this is really useful.

Keep in mind that it costs 190 mana in level 4, and it has a cooldown of 22 seconds, so use the skill wisely!

Ion Shell

Surrounds a target with energized spellwork, creating a shield that causes damage per second to enemy units who come in contact with it.

1. Mana 70 / Cooldown 10 / Duration 20 seconds / 30 damage per second
2. Mana 90 / Cooldown 10 / Duration 20 seconds / 50 damage per second
3. Mana 110 / Cooldown 10 / Duration 20 seconds / 70 damage per second
4. Mana 130 / Cooldown 10 / Duration 20 seconds / 90 damage per second

Damage type: magical
Doesn't damage the target it is cast on.
Damage is dealt in smaller amounts every 0.1 second.
If cast on a unit that already has Ion Shell on it, the new Ion Shell will replace the old one.

Cool harassing spell, used with Vacuum and you've got a fleeing enemy. Use on creeps and they will all stay back from it, somewhat like Abaddon's Shield.

Remember, cast this when you see an ally fighting other heroes, it can hurt your enemies greatly if left unchecked.

Surge

Floods a target with excess power giving it maximum speed for a brief period of time.

1. Mana 20 / Cooldown 12 / Duration 3 seconds / Gives maximum speed
2. Mana 30 / Cooldown 11 / Duration 4.5 seconds / Gives maximum speed
3. Mana 40 / Cooldown 10 / Duration 6 seconds / Gives maximum speed
4. Mana 50 / Cooldown 9 / Duration 7.5 seconds / Gives maximum speed

Ah, a lifesaving skill. Used on allies to escapes ganks, to chase heroes and even to snatch that rune/Aegis for teh lulz (which I'm not suggesting that you always should).

Also, note that even if you can autocast Surge, it seems that you can't autocast on yourself, and will usually be casted on creeps instead (and also interrupting your actions, as it won't let you continue what you was doing before casting Surge), therefore, avoid autocasting Surge.

Wall of Replica

Raises a wall out of pure mana across the landscape. Enemy heroes who attempt to pass through it will take damage and have images of themselves emerge from the wall to serve under the Dark Seer until the wall's duration is up.

1. Mana 200 / Cooldown 100 / Duration 15 seconds / Illusions take 300% damage and deal 70% (100%*)
2. Mana 300 / Cooldown 100 / Duration 30 seconds / Illusions take 300% damage and deal 80% (120%*)
3. Mana 400 / Cooldown 100 / Duration 45 seconds / Illusions take 300% damage and deal 90% (140%*)

Damage type: magical
When the Wall creates an illusion of an enemy, it deals 150 damage to the affected hero.
Does not create illusions from other illusions or Geomancer copies.
The wall is created perpendicular to the line between the Dark Seer and the target point.
Area of Effect specifies the length of the wall
Can be improved by Aghanim's Scepter (* show the improved value)

Gamebreaking and cool. In teamfights, this spell could cause chaos as enemies will try to focus on your allies, the illusions made by the spell can be really annoying. And it hurts too, with each illusion dealing up to 90% damage (140%, provided you have Scepter).

Skill Builds

Support lane build

Level 1 - Surge
Level 2 - Vacuum
Level 3 - Ion Shell
Level 4 - Vacuum
Level 5 - Vacuum
Level 6 - Ion Shell
Level 7 - Vacuum
Level 8 - Ion Shell
Level 9 - Ion Shell
Level 10 - Surge
Level 11 - Surge
Level 12 - Surge
Level 13 - Wall of Replica
Level 14 - Wall of Replica
Level 15 - Stats
Level 16 - Wall of Replica
Level 17 - Stats
Level 18 - Stats
Level 19 - Stats
Level 20 - Stats
Level 21 - Stats
Level 22 - Stats
Level 23 - Stats
Level 24 - Stats
Level 25 - Stats

An early level of Surge is for escaping/getting first blood. Maxing Vacuum first helps a lot since it has a large AoE on level 4. Ion Shell is maxed next and finally Surge. Wall of Replica isn't as useful as in late game, so it's taken last. Naturally, you take stats afterwards.

Harassing lane build

Level 1 - Surge
Level 2 - Vacuum
Level 3 - Ion Shell
Level 4 - Ion Shell
Level 5 - Ion Shell
Level 6 - Vacuum
Level 7 - Ion Shell
Level 8 - Vacuum
Level 9 - Vacuum
Level 10 - Surge
Level 11 - Surge
Level 12 - Surge
Level 13 - Wall of Replica
Level 14 - Wall of Replica
Level 15 - Stats
Level 16 - Wall of Replica
Level 17 - Stats
Level 18 - Stats
Level 19 - Stats
Level 20 - Stats
Level 21 - Stats
Level 22 - Stats
Level 23 - Stats
Level 24 - Stats
Level 25 - Stats

Taking Surge at level 1 helps with chasing and/or escaping, then take one level of Vacuum, in case of ganks/first blood attempts/decided to switch to support build. If you decided to stay with the harassing build, then max Ion Shell, then Vacuum, Surge, and go for Wall of Replica after all those spells as it'll be effective at that time. Finally, take stats.

Solo lane build

Level 1 - Ion Shell
Level 2 - Surge
Level 3 - Ion Shell
Level 4 - Surge
Level 5 - Ion Shell
Level 6 - Vacuum
Level 7 - Ion Shell
Level 8 - Vacuum
Level 9 - Vacuum
Level 10 - Vacuum
Level 11 - Surge
Level 12 - Surge
Level 13 - Wall of Replica
Level 14 - Wall of Replica
Level 15 - Stats
Level 16 - Wall of Replica
Level 17 - Stats
Level 18 - Stats
Level 19 - Stats
Level 20 - Stats
Level 21 - Stats
Level 22 - Stats
Level 23 - Stats
Level 24 - Stats
Level 25 - Stats

Yeah, I said he'll be played mainly as a support in here, but Dark Seer going solo is also viable. Take Ion Shell and Surge in between, max Ion Shell, then Vacuum, and then Surge. Wall and stats, again, are taken after all the spells are taken.

Jungling build

Level 1 - Ion Shell
Level 2 - Surge
Level 3 - Ion Shell
Level 4 - Vacuum
Level 5 - Ion Shell
Level 6 - Vacuum
Level 7 - Ion Shell
Level 8 - Vacuum
Level 9 - Vacuum
Level 10 - Surge
Level 11 - Surge
Level 12 - Surge
Level 13 - Wall of Replica
Level 14 - Wall of Replica
Level 15 - Stats
Level 16 - Wall of Replica
Level 17 - Stats
Level 18 - Stats
Level 19 - Stats
Level 20 - Stats
Level 21 - Stats
Level 22 - Stats
Level 23 - Stats
Level 24 - Stats
Level 25 - Stats

Surge is taken at level 2, since having Surge at level one isn't going to help you with jungling. Max out Ion Shell to ease up your jungling, then Vacuum, and finally Surge. Then Wall is taken, starting from level 13, where it is starting to become more useful at that point. Lastly, take stats.

Item Build

Dark Seer, again, is very flexible, and there are many items being useful to him. I came up with a list of possible items for him, which the item combinations/the "situational" tag or whatnot does not need to be followed completely (though I hope you do).

Starting Items:

Laning build:

Branches for cheap stats and a good game. Mantles for the intelligence boost and later, for Nulls, if you plan to make them. Moving on...

Since you should be the aggressive one, you should do a lot of harassing and attacking, which leads to getting a Stout Shield, to fend off attacks. Branches are gotten to help you in general, and even to upgrade to Wand later. Tangos for the heal and the Clarity for the mana replenishing.

Jungling build

Stout Shield is taken to help you survive against the neutrals' attacks, then take Tangos for heal and to destroy trees. A Salve to heal you in times of need and a Clarity to help you with your mana, as you might be using Ion Shell a lot.

Some say this build is better for jungling. IMO it's not as good as the first build, but if you are really sure what you're doing, go for this build.

Optional items

No other supports in the team?
Nobody cares to buy?
Too much cash on your hands?
Buy these items if you must do so. If you do wish to buy them, think carefully what other items should be given up for them.
Just remember to share your courier, unless your teammates are retarded.

Core item build

The core isn't really expensive, as he is item independent. Treads for cheap hp boost, Mek for burst heal, Urn for the heal/damage and provides a bit mana regen. Also, Vanguard to help you survive better.
If you team faces many spellcasters, replace Mek with Pipe.

Utility items

Like ganking? Love smoking? Buy Smoke, if your team decides to gank enemies a lot.
Got a pesky Rikimaru trolling you? Techies' mines screwing your team up? Try buying Sentries and Dust, but don't bother buying these too much.
Remember to keep placing those Observer Wards around, so you could avoid some ganks and would help a lot in general.
TP scrolls are really important. Get one of these on you all the time.

The boots argument

This is my boots of choice. It comes in small, cheap pieces which gives you a handy hp boost, some attack speed and slightly increases your movespeed. It's pretty all-around so I recommend (strength) Treads.

And you can switch forms to give you agility or intelligence instead, pretty handy.

I've considered this as the alternate choice of boots for Dark Seer. Gives you nothing but mana, except for movespeed. 60 movespeed, 250 mana and an AoE 135 mana replenish.

Well, if your team needs to do a lot of casting, whereas they didn't buy Arcane Boots, nor Soul Ring; you don't think the bonus 8 strength/agility/intelligence makes that much of difference, or other possible reasons, you could buy Arcane Boots over Treads.

No, please, no. They're rather, meh, for Dark Seer.

55 movespeed is rather small. Arcane Boots give 60, Treads give the same and it gives stats, BoT gives 100, and Tranquil Boots give 75.
Phase active for chasing/walk through creeps like a boss? Well, it's a handy active, yes, maybe you got surrounded by creeps, yes. Then, try using Vacuum/Ion Shell, kill those creeps then continue what you might be doing. For chasing? Use Surge, derp.
24 damage? Dude, like you would hardly attack enemy heroes. Attacking creeps? Dammit, get a Quelling Blade.

Yes and no.

The yes: it's viable for him. Refer to late game items section (it's right below here!)
The no: early/mid item? No. There are other items that is worth buying at that time.

It's a decent item, gives you a handy heal and high movespeed, easy to make and you can disassemble it. I recommend this item.

Late game items:

Scepter is a nice item for Dark Seer. With stats and some improvements to Wall of Replica, it's an item worth getting for him.
BoT is gotten, as your allies might need you in many places, and you can't just assist them using illusions (if you have any, that is), right?
Sheepstick - decent stats, okay mana regeneration, and the invaluable Hex, which greatly helps, especially if your team lacks disables.

Luxury items:

Heart helps any hero that gets it, and Dark Seer is no exception. Bonus strength, bonus hp and a nifty hp regen.

Shiva's is an excellent item on Dark Seer. -AS aura to counter DSP'ers, intelligence and armor which he needs, and Arctic Blast that deals damage and slows. Use it along with Vacuum, and it'll be inescapable.

Assault Cuirass gives bonus attack speed, armor and decreases armor for enemies, get it if your team have DPS'ers.

Radiance is also a nice item, it synergies well with your Ion Shell which can deal a massive damage if left ignored. Though this item isn't necessary, as you won't attack others much and the 60 damage would be wasted.

Orchid amplifies any damage taken by the target, an useful item overall.

Extra/situational items:

Lacking mana? Lots of spellcasting to do? Consider buying Soul Ring, removing 150 hp for 150 mana where you can maybe cast that gamebreaking Vacuum. Not a great item as it drains your hp, but not a bad item either.

Item that provides great hp, mana, hp regeneration and mana regeneration. With the recent buff of Bloodstone, it now starts off with a handful of charges, making it a better item. But and then, if you're dying too much but somehow you still have a lot of gold, get this item.

Also, keep an eye on Bloodseeker. Bloodstone, geddit? Okay, so it was a bit lame...

Push your enemies to their doom. Black Hole, Techies' minefields, etc. Also, for livesaving situations and other miscellaneous reasons, like "oh, cuz i cba to walk too long an surge iz in cooldown".

Ah, Linken's. Great for screwing Doom up, and "blocks most targeted spells once every 20 seconds". If you're getting focused a lot in teamfights/you're facing Doom/[insertreasonhere], get this item. Else, not really needed. Although the stats and the regen is useful, hey, it costs 5175 gold!

Got a team with 5 melee heroes (including yourself)? That noob Viper wants to buy it but doesn't want to get flamed? Consider buying Vladimir's, with a bunch of nifty auras. But it's not really needed, so think for yourself.

In older versions, this is needed for Guinsoo's. Now, it's regarded as a cheaper, alternate version of it. The extra movespeed is also helpful. Though, it's not like you should spend 2700 gold on it, where at that point you'd be able to finish 2/3 of Guinsoo's (maybe, Ultimate Orb and Void Stone).

Get Necronomicon, and you'd be able to screw up those invisibility heroes. No more Rikimaru trolling you. No more Techies with his mines that fuck your team up. Nope, no more invisibility... ...just Chuck Testa! Besides, with their great abilities (speed aura, active mana burn, passive Last Word (deals damage to the one who kills the unit with Last Word) and passive mana burn), it can serve as a multi-purpose item.

Got N'aix facing your team? Overfed Mortred kept hitting 1000s on you? Get a Ghost Scepter.

Not recommended if spellcasters like Lion is picked by an enemy.

It's not a great item on Dark Seer, your skills are already awesome enough, but if you really want the double Wall of Replica, double Soul Burn (from Orchid), double Shiva's, etc, then get this item, if you really want to.

Useful 325 hp, nifty 25 intelligence and handy 50% slow for 4 seconds.

But don't get fooled by the nice stats. It costs 3100 gold, something you don't always have around. You already have the chasing power, and with 3100 gold, you can probably buy some other more useful items with similar bonuses.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying this item is not worth buying, but since you just don't get 3100 gold from the ground, I'd brand this a situational item.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of Quelling Blade on Dark Seer. Though, after "careful" consideration, I guess Dark Seer is suitable to buy Quelling Blade, lets you juke, last hit better, etc.

It's not like you can benefit greatly from (the active ability of) Veil, but it'd certainly help that Lion or Kaldr a lot. And to think of it, it gives you armor, hp regen and intelligence as well. Sounds good.

Recommended!

Janggo provides stats, speed aura and an ability to give more AS/MS to nearby units.

It's a nice item, but it's rather overkill for Dark Seer. If all of your allies really need the speed bonus badly, and/or nobody bothering to buy and told you to get one, you could consider getting one.
Though, if you got Janggo, don't bother replenishing charges. You have Surge, remember?

Lots of fighting to do? Needs that quick boost of hp and mana? You could buy Bottle. Keep in mind that you should never start with Bottle, for obvious reasons.

Lots of spammers in the enemy team? Wanna act pro and trick others into believing you're using maphack (example below)?

(sees Stick gaining a charge)
"noob mirana i kno u just casted spell, ahahhaa"
"omg, reported for maphack"

- and you might want to get Stick.. The burst heal is really helpful, but against heroes like KING LEORIC THE SKELETON KING, who only has Hellfire Blast to cast, you might not want to get this

.

Too much branches on your hands and too lazy to sell them? Try upgrading it to Wand, which is just about the same. Wand gives 3 to all stats and has a 15 charge limit, whereas Stick allows 10 charges and gives to bonuses.

Optional, but compared to Bottle, I would prefer Stick/Wand over Bottle.

Another useful item to counter DPS'ers like Mortred, and also to counter heroes that can deal huge damage quickly, where Lina or Lion comes to mind. With this item activated, whoever damages you, they receive the same damage. Useful in cases like where Techies is going to blow you off with 9001 Remote Mines (yes, he receives the same damage as you do).

But keep in mind that you also receive the damage normally, so you're gonna die anyway, in some cases.

So IceFrog made it able to cast it on allies, and instead of dealing damage based on agility, it deals damage based on your primary attribute (intelligence). Sounds interesting. Personally I would hardly buy this, but it would seem to be an okay support item against DPS heroes.

I wouldn't really recommend you to get it over all the other items you could get though, unless you're, say, in a 120 minute game with everything upgraded, 10k gold and Ghost Scepter lying in your inventory.

Rejected items:

Orb items

You don't need them, you have better items waiting to buy, if you go buy a Skadi for Dark Seer, I'll personally send you a facepalm.

Damage items

Like above, you want to cast spells and to support, not to be a DPS'er.

Others

Give it to those fatass hard carries instead.

Support, not KS.
Support, not KS.
Support, not KS.
Geddit?

Lolwut.

Seriously. I saw somebody with Lothar's once. He said that it'd be awesome if you can damage everybody with Ion Shell unnoticed (he should play Weaver, derp).
Then he casted Ion Shell after he walked into 5 enemy heroes. After.
Well, back to rejecting the item. You're not a DPS'er, you got an escape mechanism (sort of) and I can't really think of any reason to get this.

Strategy

Early Game

Laning:

Place wards if you have any
Help your lane partner as much as possible
Gank if you can
Don't steal your partner's last hit
Harass with Ion Shell -> cast it on creeps
Use Vacuum carefully, waste it and that first blood attempt may just slip away.

Jungling:

Check if the creep camps are warded (no neutrals in there after 30 seconds, etc), otherwise you might want to go laning
Use Ion Shell on yourself while killing neutrals
Scout for runes if possible
Pull creeps once in a while, but never overpull
Help your allies when possible, eg: ganks
If you're not familiar with jungling, visit this guide

Mid Game

Stick with your team whenever ganking, you're valuable to them!
Help out allies anywhere, especially your carries
Cast Surge on allies if they need to chase or to escape, and even Vacuum, with correct positioning
If your teammate is fighting enemy hero(es) in close range, remember to cast Ion Shell on him
Abuse Vacuum, use it when escaping, chasing, juking, ganking, etc.

Late Game

Push along with your teammates
Participate in teamfights if possible, you will help a lot
In teamfights, Vacuum is extremely important. Aid that Nevermore casting Requiem, Magnus casting his ultimate, etc.
Also, cast Wall of Replica quickly after Vacuum, where the horde of illusions can be really dangerous
Again, avoid stealing your carries' kills, intended or not, they need the gold more than you do

Edited by basicdotaguide.blogspot.com

DARK SEER GUIDE (by gaibo1)

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