- Tittle: Ah, the great outdoors!
- Author: Syaska
Pros:
- Effective during the entire game
- Strong jungler and decent laner
- Decent base damage and good animation
- Impetus scales very well into late game (Pure damage ignores armor), especially when Aiushtha gets some attack speed
- One of the best heals in DotA
- High INT gain
- Counters physicals DPSers to a certain extent
- Benefits greatly from Aghanim's Scepter upgrade
- Can kite her foes to death with her slow, her long range and her devastating orbwalk
- One of the best heroes for fast firstbloods/pushes
Cons:
- Pathetic starting strength and strength gain, below average starting INT and AGI
- Low armor
- Relies on good neutral creeps to fuel her early game
- Very vulnerable to nukes and burst damage
- Is a mana whore, especially when orb walking
Skills
Untouchable
Whenever the Enchantress is attacked, she beguiles the unit into slowing its attack.
- 1. Duration 3 seconds / 20% AS reduction for the attacker
- 2. Duration 3 seconds / 50% AS reduction for the attacker
- 3. Duration 3 seconds / 80% AS reduction for the attacker
- 4. Duration 3 seconds / 110% AS reduction for the attacker
- All units who directly attack or cast spells (not AoE) on Enchantress will get slowed.
- The slow will be applied in the attacking unit when he commences his attack, not when he actually damages Enchantress.
A very nice passive, especially early game. Untouchable has two uses: It counters physical DPSers to a certain extent (the AS reduction is not applied to AS gained from items, which is why Untouchable isn't that useful late game), and more importantly it completely neutralize creep aggro when you are attacking your lane opponent. Paired with your long range, this makes Enchantress a painful hero to face in a lane.
Enchant
Brings target unit under control of Aiushtha. If the unit cannot be converted, it will be slowed instead.
- 1. Mana 65 / Cooldown 30 / Duration 5.5 seconds / Possession (Creep), 20% slow (Hero)
- 2. Mana 65 / Cooldown 25 / Duration 5.5 seconds / Possession (Creep), 30% slow (Hero)
- 3. Mana 65 / Cooldown 20 / Duration 5.5 seconds / Possession (Creep), 40% slow (Hero)
- 4. Mana 65 / Cooldown 15 / Duration 5.5 seconds / Possession (Creep), 50% slow (Hero)
- Converted creeps last for 80 seconds.
- Illusions can be converted.
A wonderful spell. It is both a very potent slow (almost 6 seconds of slow is no joke considering the amount of damage Aiushtha can deal when orbwalking), and your jungling tool.
Nature's Attendants
Releases a swarm of wisps to heal nearby allies in a 275 radius. Each wisp lasts 11 seconds and heals 10hp/sec.
- 1. Mana 125 / Cooldown 45 / Duration 11 seconds / Releases 3 healing wisps
- 2. Mana 140 / Cooldown 45 / Duration 11 seconds / Releases 5 healing wisps
- 3. Mana 155 / Cooldown 45 / Duration 11 seconds / Releases 7 healing wisps
- 4. Mana 170 / Cooldown 45 / Duration 11 seconds / Releases 9 healing wisps
- Units with full HP will not be selected for the heal.
- Can heal units with magic immunity.
The "You can't kill me lol" button. This gives you insane HP regeneration (30/50/70/90 HP per second) over 10 seconds. Two problems; Nature's attendant is an amazing spell but not against burst damage especially considering that Enchantress is very squishy, and you can't activate it when you are disabled. When you see a Lion or a Doom coming to you, activate it even if you are full HP, because when they start disabling you, it will be too late. Same thing during teamfights: activating Nautre's Attendants a bit too early is better than getting raped because you didn't use it before the 18 AOE nukes (and it heals nearby allies too).
Impetus
Gives strength to the Enchantress' attacks, causing them to deal greater damage the further away the target is.
- 1. Mana 55 / Cooldown 0 / Deals 15% of the distance in damage, with a 375 damage cap
- 2. Mana 60 / Cooldown 0 / Deals 20% of the distance in damage, with a 500 damage cap
- 3. Mana 65 / Cooldown 0 / Deals 25% of the distance in damage, with a 625 damage cap
- Damage type: pure
- The damage is capped at 2500 distance.
- You can target magic immune units with this skill, but the bonus damage will not be applied.
- Distance to target is measured when projectile hits, meaning that running away from the target after using Impetus will increase the damage dealt.
- (*) With Aghanim's Scepter. Attack range is also increased by 190. Note that Aghanim's Scepter is undroppable on Enchantress.
Your almighty orb, which makes a great part of your damage output independent from your items (As long as you have enough mana to cast Impetus, obviously). It perfectly fits the hero theme of "I stay away from the target harassing her to death". Impetus can dish ridiculous amounts of damage (pure damage=not reduced by armor or magic resistance), especially with Aghanim's Scepter or Dagger/Forcestaff.
Skill builds and justifications
Enchantress skillbuild depends on where she starts the game: in the jungle or on a lane. In the first case, you need one point in Enchant to convert creeps. In both cases, your heal is maxed first because it is the spell that keeps you alive during early game, where you have 500-600 HP. Your ultimate is too good to be skipped.
Bambi in the jungle
- Level 1: Enchant
- Level 2: Nature's Attendants
- Level 3: Nature's Attendants
- Level 4: Untouchable
- Level 5: Nature's Attendants
- Level 6: Impetus
- Level 7: Nature's Attendants
- Level 8: Enchant
- Level 9: Enchant
- Level 10: Enchant
- Level 11: Impetus
- Level 12: Untouchable
- Level 13: Untouchable
- Level 14: Untouchable
- Level 15: Stats
- Level 16: Impetus
Explanation: This is the most common build when it comes to jungling. You get Enchant first for obvious reason (You need creeps to tank other neutrals, gank side lanes, push towers), Nature's Attendants is very nifty when you have to dive towers, and a level of Untouchable is handy when you have to tank that neutral because your stupid creep died, or when you aggro ghouls or treants during a gank. Enchant is maxed second, because you'll most likely be underleveled mid game, and that slow is really needed by then.
The laning Enchantress
- Level 1: Nature's Attendants
- Level 2: Untouchable
- Level 3: Nature's Attendants
- Level 4: Untouchable
- Level 5: Nature's Attendants
- Level 6: Impetus
- Level 7: Nature's Attendants
- Level 8: Untouchable
- Level 9: Untouchable
- Level 10: Enchant
- Level 11: Impetus
- Level 12: Enchant
- Level 13: Enchant
- Level 14: Enchant
- Level 15: Stats
- Level 16: Impetus
Explanation: When it comes to laning, Enchant is a supbar spell, and Untouchable becomes much more attractive. Your heal is still maxed first, but Untouchable is maxed second, because being almost immune to creep aggro is invaluable in order to dominate a lane. Note that, at level 4-8-9, if you feel that you can already harass enough without taking further levels of Untouchable, you can skill Enchant or even Attributes bonus if against some annoying nuker.
Item builds
Possible starting items
A very good starting combination, with plenty of stats, especially much needed strength, some regen items. Icing on the cake, the two gauntlets can be used to build Urn of Shadows.
Another strong starting combination, with stats, armor and regen. This is what you want when you plan to get Ring of Basilius instead of Urn of shadows.
This gives a bit of every attribute, can be upgraded into nulls/bracers, but you get less regen. With the recent buff to bracers and nulls, this is a viable alternative.
This is the build you want when you somehow end buying your team's courier (I.e, when you are playing a pub where noone wants to buy or share one, or when you are asked to buy chick/wards in a clan game). Some stats and a good amount of regen items, and more importantly the precious courier.
Core items
Power treads are pretty much the only boots Enchantress can afford after the STR nerf. They give you much needed hitpoints (you can also abuse the switch when jungling to keep your mana high), the AS bonus is nothing gamebreaking but still decent. Phase boots are useless for you (the damage is pathetic compared to Impetus, you don't really need the burst ms considering your potent slow), Arcane boots are overkill early game and not enough to spam Impetus later, and Boots of Travel are just too costly (and they don't give any survivability either).
OR 
OR 
Make your choice (Note: Nulls are a viable but risky alternative to bracers. Less hitpoints, more damage and mana)! These items share one thing: they give you cheap survivability (3 armor/6 STR) and some mana to boot (Brilliance aura/50% mana regen/3 INT). Ring of Basilius is probably the most common one (sometimes paired with one bracer), but if noone is getting Urn in your team, it can be a quite amazing tool.
With the recent addition of Aghanim's Scepter to Enchantress (Thank you Icefrog!), Point Booster is now the wet dream of Bambi. Hitpoints, mana, and one big step toward Agha.
Extension
After 6.68, Aghanim's Scepter is now easily the best item Aiushta can get. Epic boost to your survivability (+390 HP), to your mana pool and, in my opinion, one of the very best scepter upgrade in the game. +150 range, and not only when you are orbwalking. This means you can now stand 700 units away while orbwalking someone to death. Enchantress revolves around dishing high amounts of damage while dancing on the battlefield borders, and Agha helps you tremendously in doing so.
Viable luxuries
The most popular luxury in competitive games (and her former core item before the introduction of Agha), Guinsoo's Scythe of Vyse solves your mana problems (late game, you are a mana whore), allowing you to spam Impetus freely. The active is also invaluable: 3.5 seconds of disable, best used on key heroes (disablers, carries) or on any bastard trying to cut your pretty throat.
Shiva's guard, unlike Guinsoo, doesn't provide huge mana regen (you still get huge amounts of mana pool). But the armor and the -AS aura are very handy against teams based on physical damage. The frost blast is also quite cool to get more Impetus hits on the slowed target (and you finally get some kind of AOE).
Bloodstone gives you both hitpoints and mana (if you manage to survive through a teamfight, the mana regen from the charges is enough to spam Impetus and all your skillset). The problem is, Guinsoo appears to be superior (less hitpoints, but reliable mana regen and an invaluable hex). Bloodstone is still a viable luxury, especially if your team is owning.
You don't like nukers. You hate those pesky heroes trying to insta kill you. This item can help quite a bit, provided you acquired enough hitpoints to make him effective, which is why you should get it as a luxury, after your scepter.
Forcestaff is a very fun luxury. It gives you two things: good stats (20 damage, some AS and some INT) and the hilarious active. You can use it to increase your Impetus damage, to reach an enemy or to escape one. A versatile item!
Linken's Sphere can be quite cool on Enchantress (the spell block is of course very nice, and the stats+regen are not bad either), but I would buy Guinsoo over it anyday, except against two heroes: Doombringer and Vengeful Spirit. Let it be clear, you can't afford to get doomed (congrats, you are now useless for 14 seconds) or swapped into 4 angry people (1,2,3, dead Bambi).
Dagger is a decent luxury (Escape mech and a way to increase Impetus damage) when it comes to organized games, where positioning is crucial. In public games, Forcestaff is much more useful. 
The definite way to make you tanky. Heart of Tarrasque is a very late luxury (get it if the game is lasting 90 minutes), but will make you insanely hard to kill.
"But, Syaska, you said that BoT were too costly!". Yes they are, but when the games turns into a push fest, the free TP becomes invaluable.
Physical DPSers can't attack you for 4 seconds, but you can still orbwalk their asses. Har har har. Be very careful when using this, you will fall in a matter of seconds against nukes!
Debatable items
The stats it gives ain't bad, and you have a slow for the minions, but have fun microing minions when you are trying to orbwalk someone. And Enchant only lasts for 5.5 seconds.
Linken's Sphere is usually superior considering the fact that you should not be in the heat of the battle to eat 50 disables. Still, if the opponents are focusing their hatred on you, this can prove very useful.
Gives ok mana regen and the active can be quite cool especially with a dagger. Problem: this gives you 0 survivability and you are usually better building a Guinsoo.
Insane mana regen and some nice damage. Again, gives you 0 survivability and the active is completely outshadowed by hex, except against some heroes like Storm or AM. If you get it, get some hitpoints before.
Rejected items
Orb effects. You already have Impetus, and nothing you can buy comes close to that.
Raw damage items. Your damage comes from Impetus. If you want to do more damage, buy mana regen and attack speed, not these items.
You have 1.0 STR gain. Radiance is definitely not for you.
You are not in the game to killsteal people, and the stats from Dagon are just supbar.
Your ultimate has no cooldown, Enchant is fairly spammable and spending 5300 gold for a double heal isn't a good idea.
Gameplay walkthrough
Early Game
Jungling
Enchantress is one of those heroes able to jungle effectively from level 1 and onwards. She is also one of the most offensive heroes early game. If your team put you in the jungle, your job is to pressure the lanes next to your jungle, killing heroes and pushing towers. You are not Lycan or Terrorblade, and therefore you should never afk farm in the jungle.
Enchanted creeps are of course the key to a succesful jungling Enchantress (See the mini guide to Enchant for more information about them). Do not forget that they only last for 80 seconds, so spam their spells as much as you can. If you are diving a tower (Most common dive case: you come to a lane, your allies are a dual lane against a solo hero hugging his tower), micro your creep so he goes in first and takes the hits from the tower. If the tower starts hitting you, use your heal; loosing some mana is always better than dying.
You may find various situations, ganking trilanes, solo heroes, dual lanes, ganking mid or a side lane, jungling in your own woods or not, discovering only Wildkins and Hellcallers. Always be agressive early game, but always remember that you are a squishy hero that needs some farm to stay alive.
Solo Lane
Laning is another option for Bambi, but note that in organized games, you'll almost always be jungling due to the fact you are very vulnerable to ganks. However, in public games, you can fairly easily dominate your lane, farming well to semi carry the game.
Soloing with Enchantress is all about abusing your poweful heal, your range and your "Creeps can't touch this" passive. Do not hesitate to trade some hits with the opponents (unless you are facing several stunners or some heavy nuker obviously), since you'll recover your life easily.
If you are dominating the opposing lane, do not skill Untouchable too much and get some levels of Enchant, they'll help you tremendously during ganks.
Map awareness is, like always, crucial: since you have no escape mechanism, you are very vulnerable to gankers with disables/nukes.
Mid game
Mid game for Enchantress is not a very stable concept. If you are jungling, it starts when you stop the perma gank game. You should have your core items by now, and you can start using Impetus on a regular basis even if you can't spam it.
Mana management is the key
Your spells are quite cheap (except Nature's Attendants, but it has quite a high cooldown), but they are very spammable, especially Impetus. You should always watch your mana pool. I've seen too many players die because they wasted Impetuses and they didn't have enough mana to use their heal.
Dance around your targets
With her long range (550, or 700 with Agha), her low hitpoints and her orb, Enchantress gameplay is very dependent on kiting and hit and run. Mastering the distance between you and your opponents is what separates an average Ench player from a good one. Staying away (but not too far) even when you have the edge decreases the risks of getting surprised and increases the damage from your ultimate: Less hits to kill someone=less time for the opponents to react and less risks to run out of mana
Use creeps whenever you can
By midgame, you no longer entirely rely on enchanted creeps (assuming you were jungling obviously) but they can still help you in many ways. They have some nice auras, disables, they help during pushes and they can even help you to take down Roshan (the blue Ogre). Do not underestimate them.
Try to farm some items
Let it be clear: You are not Rylai or Ezalor, you shouldn't have boots and two bracers after 40 minutes. You are very squishy but you have a very high damage output even without items, and that makes you a target of choice. You NEED some items to do your job, so if you have noone to gank, take some minutes to farm. If you can get these items killing opponent heroes, it's very nice, but sometimes you'll have to farm.
Use wisps
You may laugh at that, but some people are way too conservative with Nature's Attendants. Hey guys, it's not Black Hole, you'll not get flamed by your whole team if you waste 3-4 seconds of heal. If you eat some nuke/disable, or if an enemy starts focusing you, get the wisps out.
Late game
Thanks to Impetus pure damage, you scale quite well into lategame, especially if you managed to buy items solving your two problems: Survivability and Mana.
Always, always, ALWAYS watch your positioning
Positioning is what keeps you alive and allows you to do your job (DPSing one hero to death with Impetus). You should never be in the very heat of the battle unless it is obvious you are going to win, and even then you should be cautious. A disabled Enchantress with a bad position isn't going to last very long (Remember that little song: One, two, three, dead Bambi). Positioning is also the key to high damage Impetuses.
Your role in teambattles is to focus someone down
When it comes to late game, define your priorities and focus on them until they are dead. You should try to focus heroes with high armor (Impetus rapes them) or with high magic resistance if the rest of your team relies on magical damage. Melee heroes are usually better targets because your slow rapes them (they can't fight back, and you like kiting people).
Spam your spells (besides Impetus)
This is also one of Enchantress strenghts late game: Your heal should always be out during teamfights, and you should spam Enchant as much as you can. A 50% slow is no joke.
Edited by basicdotaguide.blogspot.com