DAZZLE GUIDE (by †André†)

• Tittle: "Stay cool' in DotA
• Author: †André†

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Generally Dazzle will be rarely or in most cases never banned. He falls into the general category of babysitters. But he is an aggressive babysitter who can dish out some harassment as well (Poison Touch, damaging with Shadow Wave). He can be picked in the armor reduction strategy by having any 2 of Slardar, Nevermore or Veng. As far as the CM mode is concerned he should be one of the middle picks. He has no particular hard counters so there is no danger there and making him the first pick may give up the strategy that your team will be having a weak melee carry.

Pros

• Nice aggressive babysitting capabilities.
• Almost all his spells can be spammed.
• Very good attack animation.
• Really nice synergy in his spells.

Cons

• Have mana issues even with high int growth.
• Fails w/o teamwork.
• A bit level dependent. 

Skills

 Poison Touch 

A poisonous magic is placed on an enemy unit, causing it to move slowly and eventually become paralyzed. The longer the poison takes to set in, the slower the unit will become. After the poison sets in, it takes physical damage per second for 7 seconds. Target moves slower per level.

• 1. Mana 100 / Cooldown 15 / Duration 7 seconds / 8 damage per second. Takes 1 second to set in
• 2. Mana 115 / Cooldown 13 / Duration 7 seconds / 16 damage per second. Takes 2 seconds to set in
• 3. Mana 130 / Cooldown 11 / Duration 7 seconds / 24 damage per second. Takes 3 seconds to set in
• 4. Mana 145 / Cooldown 7 / Duration 7 seconds / 32 damage per second. Takes 3 seconds to set in

• Damage type: physical
• This damage is not reduced by damage block abilities (such as Vanguard, Kraken Shell, etc.)
• At level 1 slows target by 33% for 1 second.
• At level 2 slows target by 33% for 1 second and then 66% for another second.
• At levels 3 and 4 slows target by 33% for 1 second, 66% for another second and then completely disables target for 1 second.
• This skill has a ministun that interrupts channeling skills.

This skill is very useful for disabling a fleeing hero. This stops(level 3) the hero for 1 sec and enables you and/or your teammates to have him in their attacks/spells range. Level 1 and 2 has a slow for 1 and 2 seconds respectively. Level 3 and 4 both have slow for 2 seconds and stop for 1 second. As the damage is not very high unless done after weave, I would recommend levelling up to 3 as fast as possible. You may delay levelling up to 4(it only reduces the cooldown by a couple of seconds). Damage type is physical. So, in excellent synergy with his ultimate(Weave). The Cast range is 600, 100 more than your normal attack range. This picture shows the estimation of the range. This is SP casting at max range. See him raised his both hands in air. That's the casting backswing.. Dazzle has a backswing of 0.5 sec. try to cancel that.. Canceling that becomes more important when casting Poison Touch because you want to get as many shots as possible while the enemy is slowed. Also cancels TP and channeling spells.

 Shallow Grave 

Shallow Grave prevents any damage from killing the targetted hero for 5 seconds.

• 1. Mana 140 / Cooldown 60 / Duration 5 seconds / Hero can not be killed
• 2. Mana 130 / Cooldown 45 / Duration 5 seconds / Hero can not be killed
• 3. Mana 120 / Cooldown 30 / Duration 5 seconds / Hero can not be killed
• 4. Mana 110 / Cooldown 15 / Duration 5 seconds / Hero can not be killed

• Targeted hero's hp won't go lower than 1 for spell duration.
• Shallow Grave will not prevent Axe's Culling Blade ability from killing a hero.
• If the Goblin Techies use Suicide Squad, Attack! while under the effect of Shallow Grave, they will still die.
• Can be cast on magic immune allies.

Trademark dazzle. Prevents an ally from dying for 5 seconds at all levels. The cooldown reduces and the cast range increases as the level goes up. Usually level 1 is enough till early-mid game. You may not always be able to save your ally but you may just give your other teammates enough time to net a kill. It also helps if you or your ally tower dive a bit too much. You may not want to wait till your ally is <200 hp if there is Lina or Lion in the opposite team. You may only be able to use this once in a team battle until very late in the game. So, use it wisely. The cast range is 400, 600, 800, 1000 at level 1,2,3,4 respectively.. The picture will give u a better idea.!

 Shadow Wave 

Sends forth a Shadow Wave to heal a few units. Healed units also damage a small area around them for the same amount.

• 1. Mana 80 / Cooldown 12 / Dissipates 80 damage, 3 targets
• 2. Mana 90 / Cooldown 10 / Dissipates 100 damage, 4 targets
• 3. Mana 10 / Cooldown 08 / Dissipates 120 damage, 5 targets
• 4. Mana 11 / Cooldown 06 / Dissipates 140 damage, 6 targets

• Damage type: physical
• Will heal you without counting against the targets limit before bouncing to the target.
• If targeted on self, you will not count against the targets limit, then the spell continues bouncing normally.
• Allied heroes are primary target for heal.
• (*) Bounce AoE between units
• (**) Damage AoE around the healed unit
• (***) Heals allied units and damages enemies

This skill makes him the prefect baby-sitter as well as an awesome ganker. Heals allied units in 475 aoe and damages enemy unit in 170 aoe (i.e. melee range). This works well if u have a melee lane partner so you can use both the heal and damage effect of it. Again damage type is physical making it potent when used on enemy with the weave buff placed. Cast range is 900 (in this pic dazzle moved a bit after casting). The heal AoE is 475 and the damage AoE is 170 (kinda almost melee range)..! Many players do not realize the offensive potential of this spell. The heal is 140 at highest level while if the enemy is surrounded by 5 allies unit (like Furion creating treants on a sprouted hero), Shadow Wave is able to deal 700 phisical damage..! Even in not so ideal situation (like 3 units around the enemy hero) it still deals 420 physical damage which is way more than most nukers do.

 Weave 

A powerful shadow magic used to increase or decrease defenses over time. Changes armor by 1 every second. Affects allied and enemy heroes in a 575 AOE.

• 1. Mana 100 / Cooldown 40 / Duration 12 (18*) seconds / Increases or decreases armor by 1 per second
• 2. Mana 100 / Cooldown 40 / Duration 18 (24*) seconds / Increases or decreases armor by 1 per second
• 3. Mana 100 / Cooldown 40 / Duration 24 (30*) seconds / Increases or decreases armor by 1 per second

• Places buffs on heroes, so entering or leaving the initial area after the cast won't have any effect.
• Can be improved by Aghanim's Scepter (* shows the improved values).
• Unobstructed sight (800 range day and night) is provided for a short time.

This is the skill that makes Dazzle such a popular pick in competitive matches. Increases or decreases armor by 1 per second. Aganims increases aoe from 600 to 800 and increases duration by 6 seconds at all levels. If your team is pushing and if you all are willing to engage the enemy then I suggest using ulti before the battle begins. But if the enemy is pushing it is better to delay the ulti till the enemy team has committed to the battle. Else what happens is that they will simply fall back wasting your ulti. No sane team will press on the aggression with a weave buff in their status bar. 1 armor means almost 5-6 % damage reduction.. that is really massive. This has a cast range of 2000... thats insanely large.. u can cast weave while being far from action.. it also gives sight of the area for some time. The Weave has a aoe of 575 and with aghanim's its 775. The pictures shows a comparison..

Skill Build & Justification

I myself hate a rigid and set build for any hero. Skill build should be flexible and should depend on the style of gameplay of your team and the opponent team. Its always better not to take any skill at the start of the game till you reach your lane and gauge the situation. There are times when you might find yourself and your allies outnumbered and a Shallow Grave might be the only useful spell that can save yourself or your allies. Other times a slow might be more useful for landing the last couple of right clicks on a fleeing hero. Shallow Grave at level one is more or less sufficient for much of early and mid game so you should focus on maxing your other two non-ultimate skill. Skilling ultimate at level 6 or delaying it is a decision which is best taken in game. Its viable to level it at level 6 is you are against a push heavy line-up or your team is push heavy. As far as disable is concerned Poison Touch at level 3 is as good as level 4 and the damage increase is also not significant unless you have a lot of negative armor on the enemy. These 2 item builds I'm suggesting mostly fit into almost all games. 

• Level 1 :: Shallow Grave (1)
• Level 2 :: Shadow Wave (1)
• Level 3 :: Poison Touch (1) / Shadow Wave (2)
• Level 4 :: Shadow Wave (2) / Poison Touch (1)
• Level 5 :: Poison Touch (2) / Shadow Wave (3)
• Level 6 :: Poison Touch (3) / Poison Touch (2)
• Level 7 :: Shadow Wave (3) / Shadow Wave (4)
• Level 8 :: Shadow Wave (4) / Poison Touch (3)
• Level 9 :: Weave (1)
• Level 10 :: Poison Touch (4)
• Level 11 :: Weave (2)
• Level 12 :: Shallow Grave (2)
• Level 13 :: Shallow Grave (3)
• Level 14 :: Shallow Grave (4)
• Level 15 :: Stats
• Level 16 :: Weave (3)
• Level 17-25 :: Stats

Item Build

Early Game

In the start of the game you want to have a lot of consumables as well as some cheap stats. You may also have to be the person who buys the chicken or the initial wards. 

 OR 

After one of these u can have 4 gg branches, 2 clarity and one set of tango.

While in lane, till level 6, try to get boots (from side shop, as i mentioned earlier that you will never go solo mid) and convert 3 gg branches into magic wand (use your chick). Now get a Bottle, its a handy thing though you can manage w/o it as well. Also get some more wards, Sentry or Obs whatever the team needs. Carrying a TP is must, it allows u to escape from heroes like viper, bloodseeker even stunners who have just stunned u. Shallow Grave and TP..! can save u 250 odd gold. The bottle and wand will satisfy your mana needs so the next thing u can do is get some cheap hp i.e Urn, HP + mana regen fits in nicely. At this point of time you may like to upgrade your boots to PT (Str). The best thing about PT is to change them to INT/STR as per requirements. Need mana for the last spell - Change PT to Int. Being chased or got a DoT buff - Change PT to Str. Soul Ring can also be bought. The mana regen is useful, active ability is also very handy. You have a heal and one more survivability skill so the HP loss wont do much harm. In general this is all you need to be effective. 

After the early phase of the game is over your inventory should look like this

OR

Mid and Late Game

For Dazzle the early game items are all he needs for the game..! Competitive games rarely last more than 40 min. For those games which go really late dazzle would have to get some more items. Here i will list a few items that is useful on dazzle, but trust me these are all luxury and you can and you are supposed to do your job very well with the initial items itself. As a support caster you should not be aiming for any big items. One or two bracers will do the job from here. If somehow you get a lot of gold to spare (eg. roof in the team doing the warding) i recommend aganims for ulti improvement. Below are the theoretically possible items that you can opt for after the core. BUT Warding and carrying dust should be given priority over any of the items mentioned below..!!!

Support Items

 Mekansm is a nice heal which can be used in conjunction with your own heal. But it strains your mana pool.Though a rightly timed mek can change the battle, specially after the opponent team players have casted an AoE spell.

 Vladmir's Offering is needed if your team has more than 2 melee carries. The Ring of Basilius can ease your stay at lane a bit. You wont get the lifesteal and as such it's a very situational item. For example if a lycan is in the team he needs vlads for jungling. in that case let him get it... but sometimes if u have heroes like anti-mage and BM and one more melee and there are no other melee support u may like to buy it..!

 Arcane Boots solves the mana problem almost totally. The earthshaker in your team will be very happy with this.

 Khadgar's Pipe of Insight is needed sometimes in case of a Lich or or Sand King in the opposite team.

Additional Disables

 Guinsoos Scythe of Vyse is the best disable that can be bought. Also gives you some very profound all round stats. Farming- this might be a problem.

 Orchid Malevolence grants a lot of mana regen and some dps (Helps as weave reduces armour). Try to get some bracers as this does not provide any stats other than int.

 Eul's Scepter of Divinity is a cheap alternative to sheep stick. Gives you an escape skill. You can get this item really fast but Think before you use this item on someone during a team battle. This can sometime help the other team by allowing cooldown of his spell to be over while he is in the air.

Situationally Useful

 Necronomicon is a nice item with SP. It can be bought as a counter to invi heroes in the opposite team or to destroy wards. Even w/o an invi hero this item is quite useful for the team because of the mana burn, feedback (good counter for Leoric) and the move speed aura. This item is my personal 2nd favt.

 Force Staff, I never used this item in any match but guess will be useful if theres an Enigma in the opposite team (Push teammates out of his ulti).

 Shiva's Guard is useful if the enemy team dpsr gets too scary. Gives you a lot or armour and the slow is cool.

 Ghost Scepter is required if the case of 2 or more age DPS in the opponent team. Eg. Ursa, Troll, Magina. The stats given by this item is helpful too. Never ever think of upgrading it to Ethereal Blade. This is the worse item that Icefrog ever made.

Ulti Improvement

 In a competitive match this item will be the only late game item (if there is a late game item for u) Aghanim's Scepter is really easy to make and its my favt (i guess everybody's favt as well after core specially). All the items u need for this is 1200 gold or less. Increases aoe of your ulti from 600 to 800. Also adds an additional 6 seconds to your ulti. Gives u some good stats as well.

Items to Avoid

Well i would like to mention  Bloodstone and  Refresher Orb as the only items that are to be avoided. Bloodstone although solves your mana needs but there are better items that will also do the same and more. Refresher Orb is useless and your ultimate cooldown is just 40 and u cant place the buff twice.

Gameplay

Early Game

In the laning phase of the game stay with the team carry and try to babysit him. Chk for the runes. For bot sentinal and top scrouge pull the creeps if the camp is not warded by the enemy team. You deny creeps while also harassing the enemy so that your carry can get the last hits. If there's an enemy melee hero in the lane you can harass him by healing the creep he is trying to lasthit. But be careful while doing it because in case you need the mana for healing your lane partner. The lane that is preferred for SP is Sentinal bottom lane or Scrouge top lane. If the lane is pushed too much go pull some creeps to the lane. Place the wards, chk the runes. Help the carry in every way possible to get as much farm as he can. 

Mid Game

By the time laning phase is over you will have poison touch to at least level 3 where it will have the 1 sec stop/stun. Your core must also be complete by now. This will be helpful in ganks and try to coordinate some ganks against their carry. While ganking start with the weave make sure your allies are in casting range of their stun. Chain the stun with your poison touch. Heal any ally preferably the one close to the enemy so that the enemy gets the damage. If some teammate tower dives too much your shallow grave comes in handy.

Late Game

Soon team battles will be a common thing.. Now your real potential comes to full exploitation.. WEAVE. When to cast weave is mentioned in the skill description. Try to stay behind while still being in range to cast your skills. You will be pretty weak when compared to the other heroes so avoid unnecessary death. Weave also provides unobstructed vision on the area where it is casted. This can be very useful for the initiators in your team, also can reveal the sand king ulti in the forest, if he's waiting to blink in etc. etc.. 

Some other points to be noted are

• Poison touch and Shadow wave deals physical damage and will be more effective with the Weave reducing their armor.
• Weave provides unobstructed vision. With such a low cooldown this can be used to provide sight of a juking hero or someone who just ran out of sight for the potm in the team to get the arrow..!
• Poison touch has a ministun, stops TP and channeling spells.
• The cooldown of your spells mainly Touch and Heal is very low, 9 and 6 sec respectively. make sure you spam them in a team fight.

Edited by basicdotaguide.blogspot.com