- Tittle: Delicious!
- Author: dark_phoenix96
Pros
- High Armor and Agility Gain.
- Has one of the best ambush mechanisms in the game, which makes him an excellent ganker.
- Excellent Last-Hitting animation which makes last-hitting creeps a piece of cake.
- Can deal more damage with his Backstab ability when attacking from behind of course.
- Can easily scout anywhere in the map thanks to his Permanent Invisiblity.
- The rest are for you to state them.
Cons
- Low Strength and Intelligence Gain.
- True Sight and Silence screws up his mobility in the game.
- Without his Permanent Invisibility, he's close to worthless early game.
- He's small, puny and good-looking.
Pick Rikimaru if:
- 1). Your team is full of disablers.
- 2). The enemy team is full of carries.
- 3). The enemy team has less or no silencers and disablers.
- 4). Your team needs a scout.
- 5). You're Lucky.
- 6). You're a good farmer.
Don't Pick Rikimaru if:
- 1). Your team is full of carries.
- 2). Your team has less or no disablers.
- 3). The enemy team has a lot of silencers, nukers and disablers.
- 4). The enemy team has pick heroes with true sight skills (Zeus, Slardar, Gondar, etc.).
Skills
Smoke Screen
Throws a smoke bomb down in the area, silencing opponents and causing them to miss on most of their attacks. Also slows by 25% at all levels.
- 1. Mana 75 / Cooldown 13 / Duration 6 seconds / 40% miss, -25% IAS and MS, Silence
- 2. Mana 80 / Cooldown 13 / Duration 2756 seconds / 50% miss, -25% IAS and MS, Silence
- 3. Mana 85 / Cooldown 13 / Duration 3006 seconds / 60% miss, -25% IAS and MS, Silence
- 4. Mana 90 / Cooldown 13 / Duration 3256 seconds / 70% miss, -25% IAS and MS, Silence
- Does not silence castable items.
This is your silence skill. This is very useful in making spellcasters shut the fuck up, slowing down enemies and causing physical attacks to miss by chance which is definitely worth it (the miss chance can be countered by MKB). Place your smoke screen carefully behind enemies then, along with your Backstab Ability, attack the enemy to death from behind. Backstabbing enemies while under your smoke screen is better if you have a Diffusal Blade and/or an Abyssal Blade to prevent the enemy from escaping your smoke screen area of effect.
Blink Strike
Teleports to a unit and strikes it if it is a foe, dealing bonus damage.
- 1. Mana 50 / Cooldown 20 / Deals 30 extra damage
- 2. Mana 50 / Cooldown 15 / Deals 60 extra damage
- 3. Mana 50 / Cooldown 10 / Deals 90 extra damage
- 4. Mana 50 / Cooldown 5 / Deals 120 extra damage
- Damage type: magical
- Bonus damage is dealt before Rikimaru's regular attack.
- Teleports to the back of the target, forcing a backstab on the next attack.
- If the target is an ally, no damage will be dealt.
This is your chase/escape mechanism. This is also your nuke combined with your Backstab damage; it will place you behind and force a Backstab on the enemy after blink striking the enemy. Be careful when using this though because this will sometimes place you in danger since it will put you in another position, which can be dangerous since the enemy will the forced to focus on you when they see you. If you're trying to escape with it, use it on a unit far from you so you can easily avoid your enemies.
Backstab
The Stealth Assassin is not afraid to fight dirty, and specializes in attacking his opponents from behind.
- 1. Deals 0.5x the Agility of Rikimaru to the target
- 2. Deals 0.75x the Agility of Rikimaru to the target
- 3. Deals 1.0x the Agility of Rikimaru to the target
- 4. Deals 1.25x the Agility of Rikimaru to the target
- Damage type: physical
- Even if the animation is shown for Rikimaru's images the effect will not work.
- Bonus damage from Backstab can't be evaded.
This is your damage amplifier. Do not think it's useless. Remember, the more Agility you have, the more you can deal damage to the enemy when attacking from behind so this is a very effective skill in your ganks. Landing Backstabs will be easy since your Blink Strike and your Permanent Invisibility puts you in a right position, WHICH is from behind the enemy. Since heroes will tend to run away from your Smoke when you place it from behind, you can Backstab the enemy many times so it's better to have a disable or a slow to prevent the enemy from escaping your Smoke. Like what I've said before, items like, Skadi, Abyssal Blade and Diffusal Blade are good items for Rikimaru since these give you more time to Backstab the enemy while he/she is under your smoke. Maximize it along with your Blink Strike.
Now I'll show you how important Backstab is and its huge damage it can cause to your enemies.
Permanent Invisibility
Rikimaru becomes permanently invisible when not attacking.
- 1. 3 second fade time
- 2. 2 second fade time
- 3. 1 second fade time
- Rikimaru will not auto attack enemies.
- If Rikimaru is silenced this ability will be disabled.
This is your ultimate and your key to mobility in the game. This skill will allow you to scout enemies easier since your invisible when not attacking. Like what I've said before, this is what puts you in a right position to place your smoke. Easily countered by True Sight and Silence so be careful when going to the battlefield.
Skill Build:
- Level 1: Blink Strike(1)
- Level 2: Smoke Screen(1)
- Level 3: Backstab(1)
- Level 4: Blink Strike(2)
- Level 5: Blink Strike(3)
- Level 6: Permanent Invisibility(1)
- Level 7: Blink Strike(4)
- Level 8: Backstab(2)
- Level 9: Backstab(3)
- Level 10: Backstab(4)
- Level 11: Permanent Invisibility(2)
- Level 12: Smoke Screen(2)
- Level 13: Smoke Screen(3)
- Level 14: Smoke Screen(4)
- Level 15: Stats(1)
- Level 16: Permanent Invisibility(3)
- Level 17-25: Stats(2-10)
Explanation: This is my personal skill build for Rikimaru. Always get Blink Strike first to ensure a first blood or to prevent a first blood. We need to maximize Blink Strike and Backstab first since these two skills are the key to a better kill than Smoke Screen but just get at least one level of Smoke Screen early game during laning phase then maximize it later. Maximize your ultimate and your stats when you reach level 16 and above.
Item Build
Starting
- These are my personal starting items. You're going to need 2 branches for some stats and to upgrade it into a Magic Wand, 2 Slippers for some extra damage and to convert it into a Poor Man's Shield and lastly, some consumable items to recover from received damage while laning.
Core
- This is my personal core. We need Power Treads(Agility) for more mobility and more damage from the Agility gain. We need Poor Man's Shield for some cheap Agility gain and damage block to make you a bit tanky. A Magic Wand for countering spell spammers and for some good stats. A Wraith Band for some good stats boost. Diffusal Blade is the real core; Diffusal Blade is the best orb for you since you have excellent last hitting animation (which is suitable for its mana burn) and its purge has great synergy with your smoke which is definitely worth it; also, it provides Agility for you to deal more damage with your Backstab. If you already have your Diffusal Blade, use all of its charges first before you upgrade it again since you don't want to waste the starting charges of it by buying its recipe again (The Purge charges are very precious so use them rather than wasting them). And lastly some TP scrolls for map mobility.
Luxury
These are the best items you can get for Rikimaru:
Get this if you want to chop people. It gives a lot of damage and it HURTS A LOT!
The "Dream Come True" item to any Agility Hero. If you combine its evasion and its high armor (Agility is converted to armor remember?) with your high armor gain, you are definitely tanky and strong in dealing DPS to your enemies. Butterfly=IMBA Rikimaru. 
1000 HP is no joke. If you want to be immortal with your high armor gain, get this. 
The high damage-dealing item because of the critical. With your high Agility gain (Your Agility is converted to damage) this is definitely worth it. 
==> 
This is a very good item on Rikimaru. Why? Because the active and the passive disable allows you to give you time to Backstab the enemy while he/she is under you're smoke screen. Along with your high DPS, it makes you IMBA. 
The anti evasion item. This is the perfect item against heroes who have evasion skills (Mortred, Panda, Alleria, etc.). 
I once rejected Manta, but now its one of the best items that you can get for Rikimaru. It gives a lot of Agility which makes your Backstab damage even more powerful and its stats boost are beneficial too. The bonus MS from it increases your chasing capabilities so you won't have to worry when you're chasing your enemies down. Your illusions from Manta can deal a lot of damage to the enemy thanks to your Diffusal Blade's Feedback Orb (Feedback deals bonus physical damage equal to the amount of mana burned, remember?). Aside from that, you can also use your illusions to scout an area since they also have permanent invisibility; plus, you can also use them to confuse your enemies. It's a great item to get.
Optional
A few items left, I don't need to mention almost all of it since you can have 6 items at a time. Get these if you're facing a variety of situations:
Assault Cuirass isn't really worth it because you already have a lot of armor from your insane Agility Gain. The 55% bonus attack speed is good but Butterfly is superior when it comes to attack speed. However, If you still need armor for tanking, then by all means get this but don't get it too often. 
If you want to be beefy in early game. Get this! 
If you're facing heavy casters, get this. It makes you a bit beefy and it has fairly high damage. 
Battle Fury is actually a good item but this item is very optional. Get this if you're facing against illusion heroes who always ruin your day. 
Get this if you're facing heroes who have dangerous ultimates (Doom, Fiend's Grip, Viper Strike, Life Break, Mana Void). It has decent stats boost to boost you up though. 
==> 
Nukers bringing you down? Get this! However, get some HP items for you to be tanky enough to withstand nukes. 
Desolator isn't really worth it because you already have Diffusal Blade as your orb but if you're facing high armor heroes, replace your Diffusal Blade with this. It gives a lot of damage though. 
When the game turns late and it turns into a 5v5 push festival, get this. 
Get this if you want more healing. It gives more movement speed which is worth it. 
Skadi is actually a good item on Rikimaru (The huge stats boost is, of course, very nice and its orb is not bad either); however, you already have Diffusal Blade as your orb but if you want a permanent slow, get this as a replacement for Diffusal Blade (If you really need the mana burn of Diffusal Blade, then stick to it). 
A good orb on Rikimaru as well; again however, you already have Diffusal Blade as your orb but if you're facing farmed up carries in late game, replace your Diffusal Blade with this. Combined with your high DPS, the lifesteal is definitely useful.
Rejected
Don't touch any of these:
While the IAS can be great but the received damage is absolutely not welcomed. You're already a squishy hero yourself so better leave it for Barathrum and Void. 
Phase Boots looks good at first glance, but it's not a good set of boots for Rikimaru. First of all, Riki uses his Blink Strike while chasing an enemy, which removes the Phase buff. Second, you can use Blink Strike to avoid getting creep-blocked so you don't need to run through creeps at all. And third, Power Treads are more beneficial to Riki than Phase Boots because Power Treads gives more AS and stats. Avoid getting Phase Boots at all costs.
The Radiance Burn from this item alerts the enemy of your presence. Better not buy it. 
You don't need this since we need Agility for you to deal damage. Better leave this for Strength Heroes. 
Go see a doctor. All hope is not lost. Yet. 
It may give a lot of Agility but do you want to be a sitting duck for 3 seconds after you use Ether Blast? 
Sange and Yasha, while decent on some carries, is terrible on Rikimaru. First of all, its Strength boost and its Agility boost suck! On top of that, you can already chase effectively with your Blink Strike and your Diffusal Blade's Purge. So, why do you still need its maim and its bonus MS anyway? There are better items that you can buy for Rikimaru so don't waste your money on Sange and Yasha. 
You already have Smoke Screen. What more do you want?
Duh! You already have Blink Strike! 
Do you like flying in a cyclone? Well I don't. 
Stop kill-stealing like a noob! 
All of your skills have a decent cooldown. Don't buy this too. 
Mjollnir < Battle Fury. Let's leave it at that too. If you want attack speed, get Butterfly. 
You're not a support. Enough said.
Game Strategy
Early Game
In Early Game you're not as effective as you look right now since you're a late gamer and you're dangerous late game. Buy your starting items then go to your respective lane. If you're laning, better ask someone from your team to babysit you since you have little lane control whatsoever. If your lanemate is a strong laner (Huskar,Vengeful, etc), better participate in their harassments and battles. Since you need Smoke Screen to survive laning phase, better use it in your lane partner's advantages and strategies. Take only top or bottom lane; do not pick the middle lane since you're not a mid solo hero. Farm as many creeps as possible and try to avoid any harassment from the enemy in your lane. If you're having a hard time laning against an enemy, don't be shy to call for a lane switch or gank. Once you reach level 6, laning will be easy for you since you have permament invisibility. When you have half of your core, better scout for some ganks. ALWAYS check your enemies' items every time in the game because you may never know if they have true sight to counter you. If you see any of your enemies holding true sight items, avoid them and ask help from your teammates.
Mid Game
This is where you shine! Mid Game is where the most ganks and clashes occur so better scout for some enemies and call for a gank with your teammates. You can scout and kill heroes alone but be careful when doing that since the enemy team will try to surprise and/or kill you when you attack one of their comrades. If you're paranoid of getting killed, bring someone with you to ensure a kill. AVOID SCOUTING WHEN THE ENEMY HAS TRUE SIGHT; OTHERWISE, YOU'RE DEAD MEAT. Be very careful because if your careless in scouting and you didn't notice they have true sight, they'll break you apart. A surprised Rikimaru is a dead Rikimaru. If you're having a hard time scouting because the enemy has true sight, you or your supports better buy observer wards and plant them in different places in the map so scouting will be easier but you need to place them in hard-to-reach places so your enemies with true sight can't reach and destroy them easily. If they have true sight and a clash sparks, better ask someone from your team to enter first in a gank/clash then go for the attack. Focus the ones who has true sight first since they screw up your mobility.
Late Game
In late game you got most of your luxuries so when you have almost all of your luxuries, nearly no one can stop you. Kill enemy heroes from the opposite team as many as possible but of course if your team's going to trigger a clash/gank, again, let an initiator or a tanker enter first then go inside the battlefield. Finish the game within 60 minutes before the enemy gets the upper hand.
Edited by basicdotaguide.blogspot.com