DotA-Allstars Hero Strategy Guide - Faceless Void, The Darkterror

Faceless Void, The Darkterror considered as the most powerful DPS Hero in DotA due to his usefulness and late game capabilities. Having an escape mechanism and an AoE disable, he can kill a hero and escape without taking any damage.

Skills



Time Walk:
Level 1: 120 mana, 13 cooldown, 700 cast range, 300 AoE, 10% slow.
Level 2: 120 mana, 13 cooldown, 900 cast range, 300 AoE, 20% slow.
Level 3: 120 mana, 13 cooldown, 1100 cast range, 300 AoE, 30% slow.

Level 4: 120 mana, 13 cooldown, 1300 cast range, 300 AoE, 40% slow.

It has a short casting time when void raises his hands. When you travel you become invulnerable so you won't take damage and cannot be targeted. It won't remove rupture. Although the effect remains while you travel you won't be damaged at all. This skill is similar to morphling's waveform, but you won't loose the control of the hero when you use it. When TW is finished there's a small period when you cannot issue commands to faceless! Since you don't have channeling spells just repeat the same command until void moves again. TW can be used under some spells like: ensnare/bite and those that are similar to these two.

Backtrack:
Level 1: 10% chance.
Level 2: 15% chance.
Level 3: 20% chance.
Level 4: 25% chance.

Whenever faceless receives damage (if the damage is above 6) there's a chance that this skill will trigger and that it will heal void back. It works against all types of damage except: sunder. This skill won't evade stuns even if the damage is backtracked! Silence and Doom and hex won't disable this skill! Actually nothing can. Bactrack is one of the most relaiable skills of dota! A disabled skill (most passives can be disabled) has a chane of 0% to work while BT 25% from level 7 till the end of the game.

Time Lock:
Level 1: 10% chance per attack. 40 damage.
Level 2: 15% chance per attack, 50 damage.
Level 3: 20% chance per attack, 60 damage.
Level 4: 25% chance per attack, 70 damage.

It is the same as melee bash. The damage it deals is magical and avatar can block it, but the stun effect will work even if it doesn't deal damage. The effect lasts twice as long on creeps and half on Roshan. Since the damage is magical you won't get return damage when it triggers (except your base damage). Doom disables this skill and any other basher in your inventory.

Chronosphere:
Level 1: 3 Seconds, 150 mana, 165 cooldown, 500 cast range, 425 AoE.
Level 2: 4 Seconds, 175 mana, 165 cooldown, 550 cast range, 425 AoE.
Level 3: 5 Seconds, 200 mana, 165 cooldown, 600 cast range, 425 AoE.

This spell has a 0.5 casting time and there's another little pause before it will stop the units. This spell only stops units and will never stop spells. Of course it will stop channeling since it is the same as a long duration stun. Avatar won't work against this either. This skill won't stop: omnislash, wards and spirits (like Exorcism) after they've been casted.

Skill Build

Time Walk
Time Lock
Backtrack
Time Lock/Time Walk
Time Lock
Chrono
Time Lock
Time Walk/Time Lock
Backtrack
Backtrack
Chrono
Backtrack
Time Walk
Time Walk
Atribute Bonus

We get one level of time walk, since better players will normally nuke the hell out of faceless. With this we can get to safety if that happens. The reason why we get it one the first level is simple: god teams may try to do a three man gank on level1 to get an early first blood. If we don't want to help them in any way we should get time walk first. You can get another lvl of TW on lvl 4 or 3, if you think it's necessary. Level 1 range is half of a blink, while lvl 2 is almost the same. Blink has a maximum range of 1000. Having time walk doesn't mean you shouldn't be cautious!

This is the standard offensive build. With a fast mom and boots we can own in 1v1 situations thanks to time lock. We get one level of backtrack just in case. It's better than stats. We should get a level 2 TW if level 1 isn't strong enough to survive! Some may disagree with maxing Time Lock first, but there's no better skill build in my opinion. I tried to max bactrack first, but it doesn't help much. For a nuker to kill us with one, or two spells doesn't mean much. Even if you are lucky and bactrack the first nuke you would still die from the second. At this time of the game you don't posess the HP and other items (BKB, Butter) to make use off this skill. Time Lock on the other hand helps with denying, last hitting and especially harassing. With the Heroes huge base damage and the added Time Lock damage (wich is magical) you can deplete the opponents hp in seconds. Even if you won't get the chance to do that Time Lock is still more usefull to kill neutrals, since you can clear creep camps faster, and bash lasts twice as long on creeps than on heroes.

Item Build

This is my standard build I've been using for a year now. Wraiths, mom, treads were very unusual back than. Times have changed, but this guide is still the same. The concept is pretty obvious. Since faceless is a bad farmer we get cheap and effective items. Going for big ones is too risky. Of course not any cheap item will be qualified as good. As a bashing hero faceless needs IAS>MS>HP>DAMAGE.

Faceless concentrates more on 1v1 and has to find a way to separate a hero from the enemy team so he can own it with bash. That's where chrono and our temammates will help. Never forget that bash deals extra damage so IAS isn't just for the stun effect, but to kill faster. In 1v1 we need IAS to dissable the enemy. Secondly we need MS so the opponent won't run away (or if he does we can still catch it). We don't need max MS just more than the enemy has since bashed targets won't move. Still a target that is faster than faceless cannot be bashed. Also faceless is an AGI hero so he lacks hp, and even the most carefull player will be nuked by the enemy. (especially if the enemy is someone named zeus). We have to survive the first wawe of nukes and own the enemy while their spells are on CD.

Even though the importance of HP and Damage are low we will start with wraiths since it incrieases our lane management abbilities. Boots is needed for obvious reasons. After that we get mom since it's a core item and farming up 2000 gold without mom will be much more difficult later. With Frenzy and boots we will be much more faster than any hero that time can be. After that we complete treads since it's to good for 1000 gold and doesn't wastes item slots (like hyper). The main item is butterfly. I can't imagine any situation where this item isn't the best choice for faceless. It gives all the things faceless needs (except MS): IAS, damage and EHP (evasion, armor). Of course evasion and armor won't work against nukes so the next item will be heart. If nukes aren't difficult to handle (our team is filled with dissable, or the enemy has few strong nukers), than we should go for pure damage. In short: get buriza than!

Used Items

ANCIENT TANGOO

Yes, yes ror is great, but not enough to survive. Tangoos regenerate faster and can be used for other purposes. Like destroyng eyes of the forest or eating yourself out of sprout. It can be used in curtain neutral creep camps to spwan more neutrals.

WRAITH BANDS

You won't time lock anyone if you don't have the proper IAS to do it! Agility is very effective on this hero, while the difference in hp between the amount bracer and wraith gives, isn't really needed! You could say that hp is better since I get mom, but the thing is faceless normally doesn't have the luxury to use it! Even if he manages to survive with frenzy, that won't be beacuse the incrieased hp from barcers. Faceless lacks offensive power and not deffensive!

MASK OF MADNESS

Do (real)pro players get MoM ? Yes they do! Check out the replay between MyM and SK located at the bottom of this guide. Why do they get it? Let me explain: Void is a bad farmer, and MoM is the cheapest possible IAS for him. 75% IAS for 1950 even beats treads! Time Walk costs too much mana (unlike blink), and slow doesn't lasts long enugh for you to bash effectively. With frenzy & treads you are faster than any other hero with BoT (except Chaos Knight). Also chronosphere costs a lot of mana, that we cannot spend for TW. The lifesteal is good for lane control.

Void can regain its hp by killing neutrals. What about the extra damage ? Okay there's a very easy tactic to avoid the extra damage: don't activate mom! WTF? Yes no extra IAS and MS that way. There are a lot of situational spells in Dota, that are really good dispite being situational. Double Edge or LVL? Death and the list can continue forever. Use it when it doesn't means instant death, and you on the other hand can get the kill. Faceless void's all four abbilities support the avoidance of the extra damage: time walk to escape, backtrack to avoid the damage, time lock since disabled target cannot hurt you and chrono for the same reason.

POWER TREADS

Get treads later, if you can complete butter fast! Ok I understand, that BoT beats this item. Yes it does, but due to the need of other items the number of games you will get BoT is around zero. Sometimes you cannot use mom. For example when the enemy attacks in larger groups, or when chrono is on CD. If the attack is broken you can use mom to chase, but what happens till then? You get your ass kicked because you don't have the IAS to bash? Or you run away ? Let's pretend that you bought one of the components of butterfly instead of treads.

Eaglehorn costs triple but gives 10% less IAS while quarterstaff costs the same but gives 25% less. You can stick to boots hoping that one day you will have the oppurtunity to upgrade it to BoT, but I will stick to treads. MoM has been buffed recently. I advise to go for the AGI, though switching to INT or STR before a large battle is reasonable. Have more HP when you have to tank, or mana if you need some to cast chrono/time walk.

BUTTERFLY

Butterfly is the best item for faceless. It gives IAS, damage and survability since backtrack stacks with evasion (47,5%). With frenzy, treads and butterfly our IAS will be enough to own anyone in 1v1. Also the 60 damage it gives helps a lot under chrono. Some people prefer radiance instead of this item. I think they make the wrong decission. Radiance is a very good item, but there are a lot of reason why you shouldn't get it on void. First of all farming 3800 gold is risky and slow for void. Radiance gets weaker with every minute of the game. It gives no survability (7% evasion), and no IAS!

HEART OF TARRASQUE

You can get the vita booster any time of the game, if needed (lina/lion) What is more imba than 47% evasion and 2000 hp? 47% evasion and 3000 hp! Which means only about every second hit will damage us. 3000 hp with evasion is the same as 6000 hp. Like a big fat butcher with lots of IAS, life steal, and permabash. Nukes become weak late game too. Heart is the most effective item for us to become the ultimate hero of the game. We have the time to kill enemies due to 'permabash', and the only thing we should fear is dieing before that time ends. Think about a bristleback that has chrono, tw lifesteal and permabash and doesn't have to turn its tail on you. Imba isn't it? After heart I suggest you go for buriza!

BURIZA DO KYANON

Heart will make faceless the best tanking hero of the game, but in case we alredy have a tank like Axe or Bristleback we should concentrate on damage. As long as you can use chrono effectively team battles will start from 4v5 or 3v5 from this point on, since noone can stand long against the damage of frenzy+treads+butter+buriza+time_lock. Remeber that you get double the amaount of lifesteal when you hit a critical strike! After buriza the game should have ended, but in case the enemy can still hold you back with mass dissabling spells you should get a BKB, so your strong damage potential won't go to waste.

Situational Items

HAND OF MIDAS

You should buy it, if you manage to farm it in 12 minutes. I have my doubts doing that with the game's worst farmer, but that's just me. Remeber that going for midas first means getting mom second. Midas is a great item, but it delays the build even if it buys itself back!

TELEPORT SCROLLS

This item is needed! Unless we want to loose thanks to BD we will have to buy it. Always have one after you completed the base (mom+treads) item build. For defense purposes this item is better than travel since it gives 99999 armor to the tower where you land. When all item slots are filled sacrifice one of your items (or drop it at the fountain) so that you can have another scroll. If you still have one of the first towers you may use it for push. Remember blink (time walk in this case) in the forest and use tp scrolls to escape is great way to survive ganks.

BLACK KING BAR

Gives 10 seconds of pawnage. This item would solve most of voids problems. It is up to the situation whether we should get it or not. If you don't feed and become imba you won't need it. If you feed you won't have the money for it. That's how I see it. I recomend to get it against chain stuners (disablers) like tauren or Rhasta!

LINKEN'S SPHERE

It costs a lot, but recent changers made this item worthy. Even so BKB is a better choice, but there are situations where BKB is actually a bad choice. Namely when omni supports you with repel. Why would you get 10 sec if you cen get 20? The real question is why would you get linkens when you have 20% of magic immunity!? The answere is simple. There are some spells that go through repel, but won't go trough linken! Namely: purge (diffu or naga), Primal roar, Doom. Any kind of purge will remove repel, but if linken is charged repel will stay on you! Doom dissables evasion and passive bash (like timelock). You see Linkens spell block can be trigered with less potent spells, but if you have repel on that won't happen!

BOOTS OF TRAVEL

One of the best items of the game. The teleport is perfect for farming and for BD. It helps a lot. With frenzy on you will have godlike move speed. Since you have Bash, TW and Chrono you won't really need the MS, but it's still nice to be faster than any other hero. The only problem with this item is it's cost and that it takes away the free slot for treads. For early game it's better to have treads. You have more benifits from the IAS boost since you have a passive BASH. Later you may buy a travel and sell treads, but keeping both footware in your inventory is a good choice too.

BATTLEFURY

By Popular demand. This item is a solid DPS item and can be really usefull whenn we have a Dark Seer in our team. He casts vacuum after chrono and gives an Ion shell and 'voala', a tripple kill in less then 3 seconds. Remember that Cleave goes through armor, but depends on the primary targgets current armor. Try to target the hero with the lowest armor to get the most cleave damage! Having a Magnataur in your team also helps a lot to get heroes in the desired postition. Magnataurs damage buff is also a nice addition to cleaave more. Even without Magnus or Darkseer BF is still valid, if the opponent has many melee heroes. Get this item after Butterfly and remember that critical strike can be cleaved! So the next obviues choice would be Buriza, if you need more damage. Sidenote: you cannot lifesteal from cleave damage.

Rejected Items

RADIANCE

This item seems to be a winner, but it's not! All heroes can carry with radiance, but 99% of them can get it faster than void. Question one: is radiance an item that can be delayed? Ok maybe we get it in time. In that case let's compare it to butterfly. Butterfly gives damage IAS and survability while radiance only damage. Question number two: Did we pick void for its insane permabash and bactrack abbility, or to have a good carry for radiance? Yes, yes, but with radiance you can farm better! Void is a bad farmer so he needs it (interesting thing to say after 5K gold). With lots of IAS you will have all the last hits when creeps collide. Question number three: can you kill more creeps than all of them? With one butterfly and any kinf of lifesteal you can kill Roshan without loosing hp. Question number four: Can you do that with radiance? No you can't and that shows how much stronger butterfly is compared to radiance.

MONKEY KING BAR

Among damage items it is the weakest and cheapest. Since we alredy have time lock the ministun effect isn't needed. It's not a bad item, but butterfly and buriza beats it. Butterfly because of evasion and IAS. Buriza because critical damage is phisical and it incrieases lifesteal. Ministun (like bash) is magical damage so no extra lifesteal is granted.

MANTA STYLE

Images won't get stuck in Chronosphere, which is good. The fact that they trigger fake bash makes this item to be used only during chrono's on. Melee bash cannot be blocked except for this method, and the units that make fake bash are illus (spotting the real hero is easy). You would rely on an ulti with one of the longest CD. Not good, and the orb effect suggests not to get MoM. Illus won't get backtrack, only the evasion from butter. Still this item is as good on void as on any other AGI hero (since other AGI heroes don't have bash, and you won't have it either if you buy it)!

SANGE & YASHA

Another item with an orb effect. Maim is totally useless thanks to our bash, and time walk ability. Frenzy gives 5% more MS, and because we have TW we can catch heroes even after it is over. Stats and damage is nice, but there are better items for same price. 5500 gold = heart !

CRANIUM BASHER

The following word will represent my opinion on this items, when it is bought in order to increase the chance of bash produced by faceless:

Shit!If you don't agree, than first: Think about the fact that none of the faceless void guides support it. Second: 2 bashers on magina gives a total of 27% chance while voids passive gives 25%. Third: the bonus damage is magical that doesn't synergies with anything. Four: perfect permabash is a lame idea that owns only in some pubs. There are at least 10 more reasons I could think of right now, but I don't think it is necessary to write it all down.

ASSAULT CURIASS

Very popular on void, but it's not as good as many think. Compared to butterfly it gives less damage, less survability and less IAS for a hihger price. If that would not be enough, it is epecially weak on void thanks to backtrack and his high armor. If you get butterfly it will be weaker thanks to evasion. Also with treads+mom and butterfly you will have plenty of IAS. Basically it stupid to raise voids armor or magic resistant. Due to Bactrack and Butter's evasion void's EHP is increased by 25/47.5 percent, but it doesn't stack fully with AC or Hood. When the damage is avoided (backtracked/evaded) the armor and resistance bonuses won't count at all. The only good way to further inriease void EHP is to incriease his HP. So get vanguard,heart or amlet but not AC!