Invoker is a hero who lanes very poorly but can potentially carry his team through the mid and late game with ease. The hero has one of the highest skill-caps in the entire game and is very rewarding to play when mastered.
The hero’s strong late-game capabilities are offset by a massive weakness in the laning phase and early game. Invoker is known for being able to split-push very well and still be able to contribute to team-fights when needed.
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[/column]Invoker Skill Build
- Exort
- Quas
- Exort
- Wex
- Exort
- Quas
- Exort
- Quas
- Exort
- Wex
- Exort
- Wex
- Exort
- Talent
- Talent
- Wex
- Wex
- Wex
- Wex
- Talent
- Quas
- Quas
- Quas
- Quas
- Talent
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Each point of Quas provides health regen. Generally, you should skill Quas as you need the regen in the laning phase. Getting 3 points in Quas is usually enough until you have maxed Exort. However, 4 points of Quas will give you more control in team-fights. If your team lacks lots of disables in the form of slows or stuns, you can get a couple more levels of Quas before maxing Wex.
Each point of Wex provides movement and attack speed. One point of Wex is taken at the early levels and maxed after Exort. This allows you to cast Alacrity during the laning phase and your other more team-fight oriented spells later. It can be taken at level 2 if you need the damage from Alacrity more than the regen from Quas.
Each point of Exort provides attack damage. Exort is maxed first. This gives Invoker more damage to last hit with during the laning phase and gives him lots of kill potential. It also increases his capabilities to contribute to team-fights in the mid game.
Invoker prepares a spell to use based on the current combination of orbs. Invoke doesn’t cost mana or go on cooldown if you’re invoking a spell that has already been invoked. This means that you can move a spell from the second invoke slot to the first in order to prepare for a combo without having to wait for the cooldown. If you want to combo with 3 spells, it can often help to have the orbs of the next spell you want to invoke ready. This way you only need to press R for the third spell. Aghanim’s Scepter reduces the cooldown to 2 seconds and removes the mana cost. It also adds another skill point to Quas, Wex and Exort.
After a short delay, Invoker blasts the target area with damage. Sun Strike has global range and the damage is split among all enemies. Sun Strike should be invoked at the very beginning of the game and used on the enemy fountain. This will give you vision of the enemy team and show you which heroes are buying wards, smokes and more. Sun Strike can be hard to land and takes a lot of getting used to but practice makes perfect. It’s very easy to land against heroes that are stunned or are about to be as well as heroes that are channeling spells.
Keep an eye on the mini-map at all times to see when your allies are converging on the enemy and see if you can help out with a Sun Strike. It may be easier to land it when the enemy is running away in a straight line. Doing so is also more likely to score the kill. Keep an eye on the situation as much as possible without compromising yourself. It can be used in combination with many of Invoker’s other spells. Cold Snap and Ice Wall make it harder for the enemy to dodge it and it can be timed with Tornado to damage them as they land.
It pierces magic immunity, so use it on carries that have used BKB and are standing still to hit towers or allies. This also means that it will damage heroes like Juggernaut and Lifestealer through their magic immunity spells. This can be effective particularly when they are escaping because they will often think they are safe from magic damage. Sun Strike can be used to scout the trees if an enemy is attempting to juke in them. Similarly, it should be used to scout Roshan often in Dota 2 esports. Try to anticipate Blinks or other movement abilities and use it at where you think they will move to. If you see an enemy teleporting away on low HP, try using Sun Strike in the center back on their well to hit them and maybe kill them. It has a 1.7 second delay against Town Portal Scroll’s 3, so don’t use it immediately.
Invoker summons a fiery spirit to attack enemies. You can use the spirit to help you last hit in the early game and control runes. Send it to one of the rune spots just before they spawn and deny it from the enemy if you don’t need it. You should avoid feeding them to the enemy and deny them if they are about to be killed. Re-summoning them will deny the old ones. They can also be used to remove armor from armor heroes. Summon them and have them attack a tanky enemy.
You should set up your hotkeys so you can easily control them. The best way to do this is to bind a key for the “select all other units under your control” hotkey. Forge Spirit(s) can split push towers and farm creep-waves effectively when they have more damage. You should also use them when farming neutral camps in the early-to-mid game. Forge Spirit combos well with several other spells. Cold Snap allows for more stun instances and Ice wall slows the enemy which makes them take more damage from the Spirit(s). You can use Alacrity on one of them to increase the damage it deals. This can be effective if you want to send them to split push a lane or tower. Setting them to attack helpless supports can be very effective, as they may lack a way to kill or escape them.
After a short delay, Invoker calls down a fiery meteor to deal damage to all enemies in its path. This is best coupled with a disable of some kind, which Invoker has many of. Tornado, Cold Snap, Eul’s and Ice Wall all set up for a potentially devastating Meteor. In addition, Deafening Blast will push enemies through the Meteor, causing even more damage. The spell has a very long cooldown, so be careful about when you use it. When you’re farming the jungle, you can use it on a nearby creep-wave to farm it for extra gold. Chaos Meteor is very effective in tight areas where there’s not much room to flee, such as by the ancient camps.
Invoker freezes the enemy for short intervals every time they are damaged. The debuff lasts for a few seconds. Cold Snap works well with many of Invoker’s other spells, such as Chaos Meteor, Sun Strike, Forge Spirit, Alacrity and EMP. Cold Snap applies a small stun and damages the enemy which makes it good for interrupting spells and heals such as Healing Salve or Bottle.
You can use Cold Snap to stun an enemy right before they take damage from Sun Strike. This will prevent them from being able to escape it. If an enemy is diving you under your tower, cast Cold Snap on them and continue to run away. The tower hits will stun the enemy every time and may even let you turn it around for a kill.
Invoker places a wall of ice perpendicularly in front of him, slowing and damaging all units that try to walk through it. Use Ice Wall to help your team escape from the enemy and to set up for other spells. It can be good to defend your base with, by using it just before the enemy begins sieging. Ice Wall works very well with Tornado, as you can place it just before they land to prevent enemies from escaping. It sets up for spells such as Sun Strike, EMP and Chaos Meteor very well. If you’re laning against a melee mid hero, Ice Wall can be very effective because it becomes easier to land. Try to use this when your allies are ganking them.
Invoker becomes invisible and slows enemies near him. His movement speed will also decrease or increase depending on the level of Wex. You can use Ghost Walk to gank enemies as well as to traverse the map much more quickly at higher levels. You cannot use any spells or items while Ghost Walked as they will break invisibility. For this reason, swapping your orbs to 3x Quas or 3x Wex before going invisible may save your life. This will either give you more health regen or movement speed depending on which you choose and can save you from DoTs or enemies with Dusts. You can also use Ghost Walk while channeling a Town Portal Scroll to help you get away from bad situations. This is very effective when juking in trees because the enemy may not have seen you begin to channel the TP.
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Invoker creates a mana bomb which after a 2.9 second delay will drain all nearby enemies of their mana. A portion of the mana drained is returned to Invoker and will also be dealt as damage to the enemies. This spell combos well with disables because it becomes harder for the enemy to move out of the way. At almost all levels it is better to place EMP a short time before casting Tornado to combo the two spells. EMP is a great spell to zone enemies away from a carry or a tower.
Invoker releases a Tornado which sweeps up all enemies in the targeted direction. They will take damage upon landing. The cyclone from Tornado will also apply a basic dispel which is very effective against heroes such as Ember Spirit, Dark Seer and Omniknight. Tornado is a good spell for scouting, especially when an enemy is attempting to juke in trees. At higher levels of Quas, keep an eye on the duration to time it with spells like Meteor, Sun Strike and EMP.
It can be used to save yourself or allies, farming and setting up for other spells. However, Tornado can also disrupt an ally’s spell. If you use Tornado as an ally uses a spell like Reverse Polarity, then you may have just lost the team-fight. Try to predict when your allies will use their spells to avoid things like this happening and try to use it less or under different circumstances. For example, you can use it to escape or chase rather than to initiate with. Just be mindful of your allies and their intentions.
Some typical Tornado combos are:
EMP, Tornado, Chaos Meteor, Deafening Blast
EMP, Tornado, Ice Wall, Chaos Meteor
Tornado, Ice Wall, Sun Strike, Cold Snap
Invoker casts a buff on the allied target or himself which grants the target increased attack speed and damage. This is a great spell for pushing, fighting and farming. If you get a level of Wex at level 2, you should invoke Alacrity and use it to out last-hit your opponent and make it more efficient to trade hits. If you’re split-pushing it can be very effective to use Alacrity on the siege creep, as it will shred through buildings. You may find yourself in a situation where you have to back but an ally can continue fighting. In these cases, you should use it on an ally or a Forge Spirit so that they can continue to deal damage.
Invoker releases a blast in the target direction that damages, disarms and causes a knockback to affected enemies. Deafening Blast works very well with Tornado, Chaos Meteor and Sun Strike. However, you should place the Sun Strike a bit behind the enemy so that the knockback doesn’t cause it to miss. It is very effective against carries because it disarms them. If they use magic immunity after being affected by it, the disarm will persist for its full duration. The knockback can be used to push enemies over impassable terrain in some circumstances, so be aware of this.
Both of these talents are quite underwhelming. The extra Tornado time does incredibly little for you, and the Meteor damage only applies on the initial tick. For these reasons, and the fact that most of Invoker’s strength comes from his orbs, the level 10 talents should be ignored until level 14. These talents effectively add another level onto the orb that affects the respective factor. Lift time is usually ignored because it doesn’t really help you to do anything, except for perhaps kiting and escaping enemies more easily. The extra damage is almost always more helpful.
In most cases you’ll want to extra Forced Spirit. This is because it helps you to do everything a bit better. It can be used to farm and push creep-waves, which is especially helpful against mega creeps, take towers and Roshan, and deal damage in team-fights. The minus armor they provide is also very strong against tanky heroes. On the other hand, the increased Cold Snap duration can be good against heroes with Blink abilities that make them hard to kill. However, enemies usually have some ways to dispel Cold Snap which makes it a bit worse of a talent, especially when weighed against the alternative – it’s usually not worth losing out on another Forged Spirit.
Cataclysm is a very strong spell which replaces Sun Strike when cast on yourself. It calls down 2 Sun Strikes near every enemy, however they are visible to the enemy team. This can be a very strong talent if you you have a hero like Faceless Void or Treant Protector on your team. It’s also just a very powerful team-fight spell in itself. The Alacrity damage and speed can be very good if you have a carry that greatly benefits from it, such as Luna, Sven or Medusa. In most cases, Cataclysm will be a better talent choice, although if you have an ally that can dish out a lot more damage with the Alacrity buff, then you should consider that instead.
Both of these options have the potential to be very powerful. The Tornado option will give you more control in team-fights, more chase, the use of a basic dispel more often and the ability to save allies more often and easily. If you have an Octarine Core, the cooldown will be even lower, allowing you to spam it very often. At level 25, it will deal quite a lot of damage every time you use it as well. The Deafening Blast option is very good against lineups with lots of physical damage dealers. It will make it much easier to disarm more if not all of them and give your team more survivability against their right-clickers.
Invoker’s starting stats are appalling. For this reason, he greatly benefits from having more stats with his starting gold, and not having this can result in an early loss and a Dota 2 rank drop. A Null Talisman with 3 Iron Branches will give him more stats and can be used for a Magic Wand and more regen from his shared Tangos. A Faerie Fire can be good as well if you want the burst heal it provides. You will most likely need to courier a Healing Salve to you while in lane.
A second Null Talisman on Invoker is good because his stats are pretty bad in the early game. This will give him a bit more of everything, although it is not necessary. If you are against a mid hero with high damage, it may be good to help you with last-hits.
This will provide a bit of mana regeneration and tank you up a bit in the early game as well. Although you likely won’t need anything more than this before you get your Hand of Midas.
A Ring of Basilius can be a good early game on Invoker. It provides him with an armor aura and some mana regeneration which helps him to push towers, trade hits a bit more effectively and keeps him casting spells. The main downside of getting a Ring of Basilius is that you delay your Hand of Midas, but it can often be worth it.
A Ring of Aquila provides a lot of useful early game stats for Invoker. It is usually gotten in place of a Hand of Midas in games where you need to be more active earlier in the game. It can be gotten before a Hand of Midas if you are able to farm your lane effectively and without putting your team at a greater disadvantage through the early-to-mid game.
If you are in a match where you can’t farm very well or if you need to be active in the early-to-mid game, then it can be very effective to get a Ring of Aquila and Power Treads.
Invoker really needs a Hand of Midas. It gets him more levels faster, and provides a GPM boost for his expensive items. Almost all of his power comes from his orbs which he gains from leveling up, and Midas helps with this. It also helps by getting more stats from just leveling up as well. In addition, his level 25 talents are very powerful and a Hand of Midas helps him get there sooner. You should get this as fast as you can, although you can get an extra Null Talisman or Infused Raindrop before it.
After Hand of Midas, you’ll need some basic boots. This should be upgraded into Boots of Travel later.
A Magic Wand is great on Invoker because he tends to do a lot of fighting and casting. The burst health and mana heal will go a long way in helping you to survive in the early and mid game.
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You should rush Agh’s after a couple of early game items. It’s so important for Invoker for a number of reasons. It provides him lots more stats which, as stated, he really needs. The cooldown on Invoke is reduced from 6 seconds to 2, allowing him to contribute much more to fights. The mana cost on Invoke is removed as well, which makes it much easier to queue spells and preserves a lot of mana. It also adds 1 level to each of his orbs, making all of his spells more effective. You should aim to have Midas and Aghanim’s Scepter between 16-18 minutes.
Boots of Travel are great on Invoker because they allow him to have a much more global map presence. He can split-push lanes easily because he can use Ghost Walk or Tornado to escape. They also allow him to move between lanes and the jungle more easily, which he can farm easily thanks to Alacrity and Forge Spirit. At a moment’s notice, he can teleport near his allies and contribute to a fight. They also gives him more movement speed which works well Wex orbs.
Linken’s Sphere does several things for Invoker. They provide lots of stats for him which is very important, make him harder to lockdown which makes him a better split-pusher and provide some health and mana regeneration which is helpful. Some games a Linken’s Sphere won’t do much, so you should consider different items but it is a very good pickup on him.
Blink Dagger allows Invoker to react to things much more quickly, especially when coupled with Linken’s Sphere. It also makes it much easier to position himself for spells like Ice Wall and Tornado. It may not be needed every game, especially if your team has a lot of initiation, although it can be a good pickup nonetheless.
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Shiva’s Guard gives Invoker a massive boost to his intelligence and provides him with armor. The active slow combos well with many of his spells, such as EMP, Chaos Meteor and more. It should be bought if the enemy has lots of physical damage which you need to survive against.
Octarine Core is amazing on Invoker. It reduces the cooldown on all 10 of his spells, 11 if you include Invoke. You also gain spell lifesteal on all of your spells, which makes spells like EMP, Chaos Meteor and Deafening Blast heal you for a massive amount if they affect a few heroes. It also provides a massive amount of intelligence, HP and mana, all of which you benefit from.
In many games you will need a BKB. Magic immunity allows Invoker to cast combos without potentially being disabled. It also allows him to act as more of a carry and damage dealer.
Scythe gives Invoker another very strong disable. You might need it against farmed carries or heroes that are hard to lockdown. In addition, it gives Invoker a massive amount of intelligence and mana regeneration. It pairs well with many of Invoker’s other spells that are a harder to land. It gives him the ability to in many cases fight against farmed carries 1 on 1. You can teleport to the second creep wave that is walking down the lane and hide in the trees only to ambush an enemy with Hex when they push the lane out a bit further.
Refresher Orb gives Invoker lots of regen but most importantly the ability to reset the cooldowns on all of his spells and items. This is a great item on Invoker because most of the items he gets have active abilities. Refresher Orb allows Invoker to pull off some devastating combos in team-fights.
A typical team-fight Refresher combo is:
Tornado, EMP, Chaos Meteor, Deafening Blast, Refresher Orb, Chaos Meteor, Deafening Blast, EMP, Cold Snap.
Moon Shard is a good late-game item on Invoker. He can even grant it to an ally if he has enough farm. Alacrity and Forge Spirits make Invoker a good late game right-clicker, especially if he gets a Bloodthorn. This makes Moon Shard a valuable item, although usually only after you have 6 other items and can consume it for the passive.
Eul’s is good on Invoker for 3 main reasons. For one, it gives him lots of intelligence and mana regen. It also acts as a basic dispel which makes it helpful against silences, slows and dusts and can also be used to dodge incoming damage. Lastly, it allows Invoker to set up spells which are much harder to land such as EMP, Chaos Meteor, Sun Strike and Ice wall. A popular combo is to Eul’s a hero, and then time Sun Strike and Chaos Meteor to hit them when they land, following up with a Deafening Blast. This will kill almost any enemy in the early-to-mid game.
You can get a Force Staff in place of, or in addition to Blink Dagger. Although it does provide 10 intelligence, it’s inferior to Blink Dagger because it allows for less mobility. The HP regen component is also wasted on Invoker, because he can get that from Quas orbs. That said, it may be needed against heroes like Riki or Clockwerk as they can trap Invoker and prevent him from escaping any other way.
This item gives Invoker lots of attack speed, damage, intelligence and a chance to crit as well as a strong active. Bloodthorn is mainly purchased when you can make good use of Soul Rend. It’s very effective against heroes with evasion and strong escape spells and gives Invoker a lot of physical damage against a target. It is dispelled very easily however, which makes it situational. If you use Alacrity on yourself before using Bloodthorn, you’ll deal a massive amount of damage to an enemy if they can’t dispel it. If you need the physical damage boost rather than more team-fight, a Bloodthorn can be a great item on him. It has a massive gold cost however, which makes it more ideal for the late game.
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In the late game, Anti-Mage can blink on top of Invoker, use Abyssal Blade and Manta Style and completely destroy him. Invoker’s large mana-pool will make him a primary target for Mana Void during the entire game and can potentially deal massive damage to his allies. You will need a Linken’s Sphere if there aren’t many spells that can trigger it, otherwise a BKB may be a better option.
Mana Burn will deal large amounts of damage to Invoker and remove large portions of his mana-pool. You will most likely need a BKB against Nyx. A Linken’s Sphere may also help, although Mana Burn has quite a low cooldown so it probably won’t be as useful. Nyx Assassin also has the potential to gank you while you are farming the jungle or split-pushing the lanes. You must be aware of the mini-map and the enemies’ positioning and consider whether you are safe where you are stood and if Nyx can potentially kill you either alone or with back-up.
Well-positioned Psi Blades will be a big problem for Invoker during the laning phase. Invoker’s low movement speed makes it hard to out-maneuver the TA and in addition, Meld strikes will deal a lot of damage because Invoker has very low armor in the early levels. Refraction can also potentially block all of the damage from Sun Strike and will give her an edge in last-hitting. You may need to use Alacrity or Forge Spirit in lane to help you last hit and lane very carefully against her.
Pugna’s Nether Ward will effectively prevent Invoker from being able to cast spells without taking massive damage. The best solution is to buy a BKB and to kill the Ward with the attack speed boost from Alacrity.
OD is a very good laner against Invoker. In this match-up, the OD should max his Arcane Orb which makes it inefficient to trade hits with him. Arcane Orb will also allow OD to farm any Forge Spirits very easily, thanks to the bonus damage. Avoid trading hits with him and avoid feeding Forge Spirits.
Heroes such as Wraith King and Medusa need mana to be able to fulfill their roles effectively. EMP is a very good spell against them in the early and mid game, although it falls off a bit in the late game. This is because WK can choose the level 25 talent where his ultimate costs no mana and Medusa can buy items such as Manta Style and Eye of Skadi to increase her mana-pool. It’s also good against strength heroes who typically have small mana-pools.
Cold Snap will prevent heroes like Tinker, Jakiro, Lina and Shadow Fiend from casting their ultimates if triggered whenever possible. This is particularly powerful against Tinker as it massively reduces his survivability because he relies on Rearm to maintain his mobility.
Any ally with a stun or disable allows Invoker to land Sun Strike very easily. Heroes like Legion Commander can easily get solo kills with her Dual in the mid game, provided a Sun Strike will help her get the kill.
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