- Tittle: Tremble Before Me
- Author: Lapis Lazuli
Pros
- Excellent movespeed, 2nd highest in the game
- Decent armor
- Good animation (overall)
- Good stats
Cons
- Damage is too random (though still high)
- Melee
- Very mana intensive
- Though the pros somewhat outweights the cons, the randomness of this hero only amplifies as the analysis goes on. Continue to the next section to get more detailed explanation
When to pick
- Need a ganker that can be tanky
- Your team need an anti-carry hero that is not useless at everything else
- A good amount of squishies for you to stomp on
When not to pick
- Facing good mana burners
- You're not going to be able to exploit your ganking capabilities
- You're too much of a douche to ride a horse
Now Nessaj's role, if you haven't already figured it out, is
- Ganker
- Semi Tanker
- Semi Carrier
- Anti Carrier
- Chaser
And not
- Suppoter
- Nuker
- Initatior (debatable)
- Disabler
Skills
Chaos Bolt
A mysterious energy bolt is thrown at an enemy. It stuns for a random amount of time. Deals random damage.
- 1. Mana 140 / Cooldown 10 / Duration 1-2 seconds / Deals 1-200 damage and stuns
- 2. Mana 140 / Cooldown 10 / Duration 1-3 seconds / Deals 50-225 damage and stuns
- 3. Mana 140 / Cooldown 10 / Duration 1-4 seconds / Deals 75-250 damage and stuns
- 4. Mana 140 / Cooldown 10 / Duration 2-4 seconds / Deals 100-275 damage and stuns
- Damage type: magic
- Stun duration and damage appears above targeted unit's head (visible to allies and enemies).
- Projectile speed: 1000 ms
Reality Rift
Teleports you, any images you have and the target unit to a random point along the line between the two of you. Gives you bonus attack damage for one attack.
- 1. Mana 70 / Cooldown 24 / Range 550 / Teleportation and 25 bonus attack damage
- 2. Mana 70 / Cooldown 18 / Range 600 / Teleportation and 50 bonus attack damage
- 3. Mana 70 / Cooldown 12 / Range 650 / Teleportation and 75 bonus attack damage
- 4. Mana 70 / Cooldown 67 / Range 700 / Teleportation and 100 bonus attack damage
- Teleports Chaos Knight to a random point on the line between the units (between 30% and 80% of the distance).
- Teleports the target unit to the same location as Chaos Knight, offset by 25 units towards Chaos Knight's original position.
- Any illusions of Chaos Knight owned by the same player as Chaos Knight within 1400 AoE are also teleported to Chaos Knight's new position.
- Chaos Knight and the target unit are made to face each other, and Chaos Knight and all teleported illusions are issued an attack order against the target unit.
- Bonus damage lasts for 1.2 seconds.
Critical Strike
Nessaj's mojo gives him a chance to deal bonus damage.
- 1. 10% chance to deal 1.5 times normal damage
- 2. 10% chance to deal 2 times normal damage
- 3. 10% chance to deal 2.5 times normal damage
- 4. 10% chance to deal 3 times normal damage
Phantasm
Summons several copies of the Chaos Knight from alternate dimensions. The illusions deal full damage, but take extra damage.
- 1. Mana 125 / Cooldown 140 / Duration 24 seconds / Summons 1 Image, takes 200% normal damage
- 2. Mana 200 / Cooldown 140 / Duration 24 seconds / Summons 2 Images, takes 200% normal damage
- 3. Mana 275 / Cooldown 140 / Duration 24 seconds / Summons 3 Images, takes 200% normal damage
- This ability removes most buffs from Nessaj.
Skill Build
- 1. Chaos Bolt
- 2. Reality Rift
- 3. Chaos Bolt
- 4. Reality Rift
- 5. Chaos Bolt
- 6. Reality Rift
- 7. Chaos Bolt
- 8. Reality Rift
- 9. Critical Strike/Stats/Phantasm
- 10. Phantasm/Critical Strike
- 11. Phantasm
- 12. Critical Strike
- 13. Critical Strike
- 14. Critical Strike
- 15. Stats/Critical Strike
- 16. Phantasm
Sadly CK's skill build doesn't open up much rooms for improvements, I shall list the points
- Chaos Bolt as his best and only disable, scales the best and most effective early game, is taken first and maxed first
- Reality Rift, crucial for ganking, positioning in general, low cd and manacost, is taken next and maxed right after
- Critical Strike, too random and requires items to be effective, is taken last and maxed last
- Phantasm is great, but you can only support its manacost later on, so take when need be
- Stats is sometimes prioritized over Critical Strike, depending on the situation whether you need more burst DPS or not
Items Build
Starting Items
Regeneration items should be obvious. They are optimum at early game and should be exploited as such.
Small stats boosting items are also very effective early game. The quantity of which item you want to buy is of course, up to you
Get only 1 of this if at all. Stout Shield is when you are expected to be harassed or tower dive. Quelling Blade is when you are expecting a good time farming. Ring of Protection if you are aiming for that early Ring of Bassilus for a good push or tri-lane control.
Early Game Items
Small mana items, all are effective on CK. You should be having 1-2 of these to counter your early game mana problems. However, none of this actually offers up any stats or immediate regen, so you should still be using your mana conservatively.
Magic Wand is staple if you feel like you really have problems with too much shit being thrown at you.
If you are the main ganker/solo you could probably pick up a bottle and a rune or two. Since you benefits alot from Bottle's adequete regen, it is very viable. Also if you get this, you should only get 1 small mana items previously mentioned.
A great aura, synergies well with CK's excellent speed and need of stats. A great upgrade if you went for Bracers earlier. Almost always recommended.
Boots of Choice
Possibly has always been the best boots on him. Gives much needed stats, a decent boost to IAS that transfers to illusions is always great.
Viable in situations when you feel like you're getting clustered too much, but not recommended overall
Extreme solution to your mana problems (with this you should no longer have any). However, it is just better for one of your teammates to get this for you instead, preferably the one who is ganking with you
Not even worth it if you can get it extremely early (unlike the other heroes I've written guides for). Only viable in extreme late game, for pushing purposes.
Severely puts you up into the static ms chase. Also gives a good constant ganking boost if you're not Bottle-ing. However, no use outside of that.
Extensions
Mid game damage items. Only get 1 of these though, It is ok to get both, but usually when you've completed one of them it's better and more efficient to aim for larger items, since you haven't a decent farming skill. Be careful with Armlet though. If you can't do a decent job with it, then just don't get it.
A team coverage oriented item. Works if you get it fast and first, acting as #2 and help the team immensely in early clashes.
Extremely good anti-carry item, exactly what CK needs if he can farm it up and give it a go to.
Manta gives you great teamfight and pushing power, as more illusions give you more options. The stats boost is always nice.
Used to be great, but not so much in the current metagame. Usually not needed unless you gank extensively or need to counter Omni/Warlock
Great if you aim for a later game. Grab it at the right time would allow you to go up to par with opposing carriers even if you don't have your ultimate up.
Not very good considering you can already go Medallion and your images don't benefit from the +dmg anyways. Viable but not recommended
Late game extensions
Standard for a str semi carry in late game, especially one with illusions, no-brainer
Goes well with Armlet and gives extreme tankiness of illusions
Satanic: If you went HotD, this should be an ok extension, but usually only get as a 6th slot upgrade
Questionable Items
Godlike farming booster in pubs, but usually not worth it since it doesn't give you much you can't already get with smaller and easier to build items.
Universal extension, nothing much to say
A bit out-there, but can be somewhat viable at times
Usually Manta is better, but this item is great too, if you want to play like a Rexxar. Usually it's not for heroes like you to get this, but if there are too much shit getting casted at your general direction, and if no one else would, yeah get it
Rejected Items
Don't consider this, please, ever
I am being a bit extreme with this example, but still
Just no
In game justification
Laning
This section is divided into 2 parts, depends greatly on the course of the game
1.Passive:
If you're playing passively, meaning sit back and farm, you should grab a RoB for early pushing power and minor damage increase. Should always try and get most of the farm. You're melee with good movement speed, so sometimes you're forced to go defensive against a superior lanecontroller, but you can counter-gank quite well
2.Agressive:
Abusing your fast movespeed and powerful stats, CK, with an ally or two, is a great tower diver and tri-lane carry pusher. CK can also be used as a tanking roamer, but albeit a bit too risky and most of the time not considered.
Ganking
Once you have sufficient items, you should go ganking, since that's CK's greatest traits.
Unlike solo-gankers, CK hasn't a reliable disable or good burst damage, nor a spammable mana pool, so going with a support ganker such as CM/VS is always a much better idea than going alone. You have stats, so most of the time you should be the one eating the nukes. You simple ganking combo goes like this.
Rift->(Ally disable)->Hit->Stun->Hit->Rift->(Ally Disable)
Positioning and influence are the key to a successful gank. Always come in from near the target, but from fog and/or higher ground. Though particularly fast, CK is still melee, so it would still be a bit hard for him to catch up, especially if the enemy has a disable/escape mech in store. So, it's best to get as many free hits as possible, and give them the least reaction time you can afford.
Teamfights
CK isn't particularly a good hero in teamfights. His Reality Rift becomes very mediocre as an initiating spell. However, his ability to pin down and stomp over a single hero within mere seconds is his greatest asset. Be sure to balance ganking and farming so that when teamfights start to come about, you would already have enough DPS to wreck havoc with your illusions. Don't waste them though.
Late game
As his potential peaks at mid game, it is usually better to end it there, but most of the time it wouldn't be that easy, and the game goes on to a later phase. Later in the game, ganking becomes much, much harder, and semi carriers like CK should focus a bit more on farm. This is the phase that his anti-carry abilities shine the most though. He could still literally walk over an enemy carrier with even more farm within seconds, provided the team having enough supports and disables to go around. However, the precious first few seconds are the most vital, as CK's not a considerably powerful DPS-er without his illusions
Edited by basicdotaguide.blogspot.com