Io is widely regarded as one of the hardest heroes in the game to play effectively. She has astonishingly the lowest recorded win rate of any hero of all time, roughly 37%. When mastered, the hero has a lot to offer the team. Not least a powerful ultimate that can be used to catch out-of-position heroes and a tremendous amount of healing through Tether. It is for this reason that Io tends to buy items that regenerate health and mana.
Io’s difficulty comes from players finding it hard to use her spells effectively and having a lack of coordination with one’s team. Io is one of, if not the single best babysitter in the game. She allows carries to farm and constantly put pressure on lanes while still being able to contribute to ganks and fights across the map.
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[/column]Io Skill Build
- Tether
- Spirits
- Overcharge
- Spirits
- Spirits
- Relocate
- Spirits
- Overcharge
- Overcharge
- Talent
- Overcharge
- Relocate
- Tether
- Tether
- Talent
- Tether
- –
- Relocate
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Io tethers to an allied unit healing them for 1.2x – 1.5x any HP or mana healing Io takes as well as gaining increased movement speed. Enemies that cross the tether are slowed and Io’s movement speed will match that of the Tethered target. Tether is maxed lastly because Overcharge and Spirits have more impact. The scaling slow isn’t very useful, and the increased movement speed and heal is less significant than the increases from the other spells. However, Tether is the best level 1 spell because you can potentially use it to get kills and to save allies.
Tether is the reason that Io buys mainly regenerative items, as the healing it provides to allies is more than that which you receive. This is very strong with AoE healing items such as Mekansm or Arcane Boots as they will heal allies normally as well as through Tether, more than doubling the amount of healing they do to a Tethered target.
Tether has a variety of uses for Io and her allies. The movement speed allows carries to farm faster when tethered, which they should almost always be. However, the main use of Tether is to heal allies and restore their mana. Tethered allies only receive healing if you are healing, which means that if you are full HP/mana, they will not heal at all. Tether provides a slow when crossed by enemies, but it is often hard to position this well. If you have a melee carry, it becomes significantly easier as they can simply walk around the enemy. However, it’s much harder to accomplish this when tethered to a ranged carry and will often force you out-of-position.
Tether can be used to escape from bad situations. If you use Tether on an allied hero or creep that is within 900 distance, you will jump to them. This makes it easier for you to escape when relocating back to bad situations, all you need is an ally that is in range for you to jump to. This is applicable to a variety of other situations as well. In many of these kinds of situations, you can use a Town Portal Scroll immediately after Tethering. This will begin to channel it while you are traveling to safety.
You can also use Tether to cut down a large area of trees. By using the aforementioned method of tethering a long distance, you will destroy all of the trees that are near you when you arrive. This can be good in situations where an enemy can surprise you from the tree-line. For instance, it can be good to prevent a Pudge from surprising you with hooks or Mirana and her arrows.
Io summons damaging balls around her that deal damage to enemies and explode when impacting a hero. These can be pulled closer and further away from Io as she pleases. Spirits are always maxed first because they deal a massive amount of damage on a very low cooldown. It takes a bit of practice to be efficient with landing the Spirits in Dota 2 esports. You must always be watching where you are stood while expanding or contracting the spirits. It can be quite easy to disregard where you are stood and focus on the enemy and connecting the orbs. The Spirits provide some vision and can be used to scout for incoming ganks and, in particular, invisible heroes as they will explode upon impact. This will act as an alert to place a Sentry Ward or to use Dust of Appearance to possibly get a kill.
There are many factors to keep in mind about Spirits. They deal AoE damage, so aim for hitting small groups. If you’re being gone on by a melee hero, pull the Spirits closer as they’ll deal a large amount of magical damage to them. At level 7, the duration of the spirits is longer than the cooldown, which means that you can re-summon them when needed. Primarily, this means that you can smash your 5 orbs into enemies and summon another 5 immediately if you are in the 5 second overlap period. However, when you re-summon the Spirits, all others will explode immediately. Since they have an exploding AoE, they can be used to deal a massive 500 magic damage nuke to enemies in melee range when fully contracted. This can also be used to farm neutrals or creep-waves very quickly. Lastly
Io and the tethered ally gain bonus attack speed and are granted incoming damage reduction. Overcharge drains Io’s current HP and mana which means the lower the HP, the less it will drain. You should max Overcharge secondly because it gives a lot of bonus attack speed and reduces more incoming damage. This is less valuable than the the damage from Spirits however, as the attack speed is still less damage from the spirits. Io can’t afford to drain much of her health and mana in the early game either, as she is unlikely to have many items to be able to restore it. Overcharge can be taken at level 2 if you are supporting a hero which is taking lots of harass as you can get more use out of healing from Bottle.
Tether will only heal allies if you are healing yourself, and as such you should Overcharge to reduce your HP and mana enough so that you are under the effects of healing. Keep in mind that the drain is based on your current HP and mana, which means it reduces less when you have less. This means that it’s more effective when you have low HP/mana. There is even a point at which your HP/mana regen nullifies the drain from Overcharge. This is particularly noticeable with a Heart of Tarrasque, for example.
You should toggle Overcharge as much as possible so that you aren’t unnecessarily draining your HP and mana. It can be risky to leave it on when you are likely to be stunned or silenced as well, so avoid using it in these situations.
You should primarily use Overcharge when tethered to an ally who benefits from the bonuses. The attack speed can benefit Io when alone, but the HP and mana drain is very detrimental. Using the damage block from Overcharge is effective in very short bursts of roughly 1 second. Any more than this is likely to drain more damage than you would otherwise take.
Io and a tethered ally will teleport to the target point on the map for 12 seconds. After this period, Io and the tethered ally will teleport back to where they were. As with a Town Portal Scroll, double clicking on Relocate will teleport you back to base. If you’re trying to save an ally it’s generally safer to stand a bit to the side and use Relocate first then, during the cast delay, Tether to your ally. This is because it keeps you safer and less likely to be stunned, which would cancel it. Secondly, this is also effective because Tether has quite a long range which means you can save allies that aren’t necessarily close to you. If you’re going to gank an enemy with Relocate and an ally, make sure that the Tether is not broken before you leave!
You can use Relocate in many different ways.
Relocate can be used to gank enemies, join in team-fights and split-push. You can also use it to save allies by relocating them to safety, which can also be done in different ways. Either you can teleport them a few yards back so you can re-engage or you can relocate to base. These have different advantages, and it’s often clear which one would be better to do. Clearly Relocate has many uses and is a complex spell.
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If your allies are going to gank a hero or are being ganked by the enemy team, you and an ally can Relocate in to turn the fight. When Relocate is off cooldown, you should be farming with your carry. Effectively, your carry can farm like a Specter – able to jump to a fight when needed. Often, the enemy team will dive too far trying to kill your allies, which you and a carry can take advantage of by Relocating in and turning the fight around in your favor. Often enemies will not think about the fact that with an Io on the your team, an ally is never truly on their own unless Relocate is on cooldown and try to gank someone on your team.
If the fight lasts the full duration of Relocate, you can also Tether to a different ally than the one you brought if it will save them. Be careful about doing this as your carry may not have a way to escape if you do this. In long fights, it may also be better to leave your carry if they are winning the fight or chasing an enemy. Keep an eye on the timer and do not accidentally bring them back with you.
In the early and mid game, Io is even capable of picking off heroes that are escaping on very low HP by Relocating to them. This can be very risky as they can see your cast delay, but it can often be rewarding if the enemy isn’t paying attention.
If a lane is being pushed in by creeps, you can Relocate there with a carry and try to take a tower/barracks. This is most effective when the enemy team is about to push your own tower and you can get a good trade from it. For example, sacrificing a tier 2 tower for a tier 3 tower or even barracks can be a great trade in some situations.
You can also use Relocate to put pressure on another lane if you are sieging the enemy’s high-ground. As another example, if you’re pushing top or bottom lane, you can Relocate to the other if the creeps are near enough to disable back-door protection. This is very effective as the enemy will have to shift to the other lane to stop your split-push allowing your allies in the other lane to take advantage of their vulnerability. When sieging the enemies’ high-ground, you only need creeps to be near a tier 3 tower in one lane to have back-door protection disabled in the others, provided the towers in that lane are destroyed.
In any case, you should consider which ally is fastest at pushing towers. In some situations, your hardest carry may be slower at taking towers when compared to another hero.
If an ally has been initiated on by, for example, a Batrider and is being pulled into the enemy team but has almost full HP, it would be better to relocate a short distance to safety if your team is nearby. This will break the disable, prevent the enemy team from killing your ally and reset a fight which your team has most likely responded to. This also allows your team to counter-initiate effectively, as the enemy team is likely to have used some of their spells.
If you are farming and the enemy team has ganked you and your carry with no help nearby, it’s probably best to relocate to base to save them and leave your ally there. Returning alone is likely to get you killed as they will wait for you to return alone unless you have some survivability items such as Glimmer Cape. Your team may be able to respond to your impending return by teleporting nearby if possible. This can lead to a team-fight or at least an ally for you to Tether to and escape. If your whole team is near enough to respond to your return, you may want to even bring your carry back with you. You will most likely need to communicate your intentions to your team. It is possible to time a Town Portal Scroll with your relocate return, but it is very hard.
If you are able to stand relatively close to your tethered targets in general, you can choose the extra damage, as you’ll be able to deal a lot more damage when you’re using Overcharge. However, Io is incredibly squishy, which often makes it very hard to contribute many right-clicks from a safe distance. In these situations, the extra range for Spirits is a better choice, as you’ll be able to still hit enemies and contribute more damage from farther away. The extra range is also very good against mobile heroes or heroes with high mobility and you’ll find it easier to finish them off if they’re escaping from you on low HP.
The ability to give an ally an Agh’s buff while Tethered is incredibly powerful when coupled with heroes who have an Agh’s upgrade to their ultimate. Keep in mind that it only really matters if your cores have strong Agh’s buffs, as you’ll be tethered to them most of the time. If you have cores who don’t have Agh’s upgrades at all, or Aghs upgrades that are very weak, then the extra Spirits damage is also quite good. With level 4 Spirits, the damage is almost doubled. Be aware that the Aghs bonus does not work for heroes who cannot drop their Aghanim’s Scepters after buying them. Heroes like Tusk, Zeus and Treant Protector all gain spells upon receiving an Aghs and this is not provided through the Tether.
The extra GPM allows you to farm late game items that will have a large impact, such as Lotus Orb or Heaven’s Halberd. For example, the health regen from a Heart of Tarrasque will have a massive impact on allies in the late game. If you are dying lots in fights despite good positioning and as a result are unable to buy items, the extra GPM can also help you to get more survivability items. If the game is likely to last a lot longer, then the GPM is a very safe choice.
Whilst the GPM is certainly very good in most situations, the attack can be quite strong as well, especially if you have a carry with split or multi shot, such as Medusa, Gyro or Puck with the level 25 talent. This talent choice allows Io to buy items like Desolator to deal a surprising amount of damage in the late game and help your carries deal a lot of damage in fights.
The Tether stun is very strong when paired with a melee carry as they naturally get very close to enemies. This makes it much easier to position yourself between the enemy for the stun talent to be effective without compromising your positioning too much. It can still be viable with a ranged carry, but it is much harder to position yourself to stun enemies, especially if you don’t have a survivability item.
On the other hand, the HP regen is a very powerful talent choice in every game. It’s not as effective as a Heart of Tarrasque, but it will always heal the tethered ally for 75 HP per second, unlike the Heart of Tarrasque which is disabled if you have taken damage recently. Unless you can get a lot of use out of the Tether stun and don’t need the regen, then you should choose the HP regen almost every game.
Generally, Io will will buy either a Soul Ring or a Bottle in the laning phase. If you’re going to buy a Bottle, you can save some or all of your starting gold to get it faster. You may need to buy some support items before this, such as Wards or a Courier. If your carry will give you the bounty rune at the beginning of the game, you can purchase a set of Tangos or some other small items. A Bottle should be the standard built, but in some cases a Soul Ring can be more effective.
If you’re going to buy a Soul Ring, your options are a bit more open in the early game. You’ll need more basic regen as you will lack the healing that Bottle provides. All health regen items are good on Io as the healing is more effective on Tethered allies. Faerie Fire will heal an ally for 112.5 HP which can save them and make trading hits with enemies or baiting more effective. A Clarity can be good if you will use Spirits to harass enemies a lot or if you have an ally that can spam a spell on enemies to harass them.
An Enchanted Mango gives a Tethered ally an extra 1.5 HP regen per second as long as it remains in your inventory. If you have an ally with a small mana pool but a powerful laning spell such as Sven, Wraith King or Juggernaut, using an Enchanted Mango can give them enough mana to cast their spell to secure a kill. An interesting fact is that Io is almost always picked in Dota 2 The International tournaments.
You should decide between buying a Bottle or a Soul Ring. If you are laning with an ally that can use a strong spell to harass enemies often, then the Soul Ring will let them cast this every 30 seconds. Soul Ring also provides more than 3 times as much mana regeneration than a Bottle does every 2 minutes. If your ally can’t make effective use out of this much mana, a Bottle is a stronger choice.
You’ll need Tranquil Boots as they mitigate the HP cost of the Soul Ring. Soul Ring will also give you the exact amount of mana needed to cast Spirits, which means that you can spam it a lot in lane. If you get an early Soul Ring, you may want to have 2 levels in Spirits by level 3 as they will be more effective. Additionally, the extra HP regen from Soul Ring equates to an extra 4.5 HP regen for Tethered allies.
Tranquil Boots give Wisp and the Tethered ally a massive amount of HP regeneration. It naturally mitigates any HP lost to the use of Soul Ring. It is also less effective if you have a Bottle as the healing will be less needed. For these reasons, Tranquil Boots are better on an Io that purchases a Soul Ring.
If you already have a Soul Ring, then the mana from Arcane boots are much less necessary. They are more suitable for when an Io has a Bottle as it will make her more effective at restoring mana to allies. Make sure that you are missing some mana when using them or the Tethered ally will not receive the additional healing.
Infused Raindrops are great on Io as they will passively heal a Tethered ally for 1.275 mana per second. The damage block and passive mana regen for yourself are also very beneficial, especially as Io is very squishy. They build into Urn of Shadows, although they are helpful anyway if you don’t intend to buy an Urn.
Urn of Shadows is a great item on Io because she tends to be present during ganks thanks to the range of Tether and Relocate. The healing is even more efficient on Io because it heals a Tethered ally for 600 HP as well as yourself for 400. Urn of Shadows also provides a helpful 2 armor which is important because Io has very low base armor. The range on Urn of Shadows coupled with the range from Spirits makes it quite easy to kill low HP enemies who are escaping.
Magic Wand provides Io with some basic stats, but primarily it is valuable for the healing it provides. A fully charged Magic Wand will, in addition to healing you for 255 HP/mana, heal your ally for almost 400 HP/mana.
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Mekansm is a great item on Io for several reasons. For starters, it provides lots of armor and some stats which is good for Io as she generally lacks armor. Secondly, the potential healing it can provide to a Tethered ally is slightly over 600 HP. However, if activated by an ally, Io and the tethered unit will still be healed for the same amount regardless. This means that if there is an ally on your team that will likely purchase it, it’s best to invest the gold into something else.
A Helm of the Dominator can be a good in some situations. You can dominate a creep and tether to it, providing it and you with more movement speed. This is good because it allows many creeps to get in range to cast their spells, most notably Hellbears and Centaurs. It also provides a fair amount of HP regen, which is beneficial to a Tethered hero.
Glimmer Cape is good on Io as it can be used to accomplish several things. Firstly, it can be used when relocating back to a bad situation to stay hidden from enemies that are awaiting your return. If they don’t have true-sight, you will most likely get away. Secondly, the magic resistance bonus from the invisibility makes it a great item to save an ally or yourself with. This also makes it very good at protecting allies long enough to be saved with a Relocate. Glimmer Cape also lets you position yourself better to slow enemies with Tether. Often, doing so would compromise your position, but Glimmer Cape offers survivability for this.
As with a Glimmer Cape, a Force Staff offers more survivability in many situations. It also makes Io better at saving allies, especially during Relocate. The extra HP regen will heal allies for an extra 9 HP per second as well. Often using a long range Tether will allow you to escape from assaults, but in some cases it may be on cooldown, or you won’t want to break the Tether. It is for these reasons that it is a viable item on Io.
Besides being able to use a Spirit Vessel offensively to reduce the healing of enemies, it increases the healing the allied hero takes. This means that when you cast it on yourself you will take 20% more healing, which is effectively free HP regen for your Tethered ally. The item also tanks you up a fair amount and provides you with lots of nice stats, including 30 Movement Speed. Overall, this is a very strong item for Io.
Heart of Tarrasque is considered the ultimate late game item on Io. The 7% HP regen per second is greater than the 6% drain from Overcharge. This means that even if you use Overcharge you will still heal up. In addition, any Tethered allies will receive the massive healing that you are receiving. If you take damage, the healing effect will be disabled for 7 seconds. This means that you should stand on the back-lines of your team when fighting and pushing to ensure that you can get as much healing and Overcharge out as possible. However, as HoT heals you for more than you drain through Overcharge, you will need to briefly disable it when you are full HP to drain your HP for a while every now and then.
Solar Crest gives Io a lot of tankiness through extra armor and evasion. It can be used both offensively and defensively and is effective against heroes with evasion.
You should only buy Guardian Greaves when you have purchased Arcane Boots and Mekansm. Greaves allow Io to dispel most negative buffs which makes it a good pickup, especially against silences. Io is somewhat vulnerable to silences as they force her to keep Overcharge enabled if caught out. This allows Io to use Overcharge without worrying about being silenced, although stuns remain an issue. Greaves free up an inventory slot for Io and allow the healing effect from Mekansm to be used much more often.
A Desolator can be a very strong late game item if you chose the talent that allows you to attack Tethered ally’s target. It’s a decent pickup on Io because it gives your attacks more damage and reduces the target’s armor, further increasing the amount of damage that your Tethered ally deals to the. Overall, this can be a great item on Io if your carry doesn’t already have a Desolator.
A Hood of Defiance is a relatively cheap and effective item at reducing the amount of magical damage Io takes from nukes as well as over time. It also makes Tether heal any Tethered allies for an extra 12 HP per second. It can be picked up casually, although it is usually upgraded into a Pipe of Insight.
A Pipe of Insight will give the same HP regen as Hood of Defiance, although it will give IO and her team more magic resistance and magic block. This is a great item against lineups with lots of magical damage. Generally, you should choose between a Pipe of Insight if the enemy team has lots of magical damage or a Crimson Guard if there’s more physical damage.
Crimson Guard tanks Io up against physical damage and gives a strong defensive active for Io’s allies. It also provides 8 HP regen which equates to 12 HP regen to Tethered allies. It’s better to only get either a Crimson Guard or a Pipe of Insight, as the enemy lineup will have more damage of one or the other, which makes the other less effective. It’s also more effective to spend gold on items that give bonuses other than tanking you up directly.
Lotus Orb can be very good on Io against lineups with lots of strong single-target disables. You can use it either on yourself or your Tethered ally to increase your or their survivability. It also provides lots of armor which is helpful against lineups with lots of physical damage. The extra hp and mana regeneration is also helpful to Tethered units.
Ghost Scepter lets Io survive against physical burst damage from heroes like Slark, Ursa and TA. This is especially good if you are getting targeted by them in fights. It’s usually not enough to survive the full length engagements, although they can be very good when coupled with another item like Glimmer Cape or Force Staff.
A Veil of Discord is a highly situational item. It provides some pretty good all-around stats, including armor and HP regeneration. However, it’s only really a good pickup if you can make use out of the bonus magic damage provided by the active ability. If so, then a Veil can be a very cost-effective item.
A Scythe of Vyse gives Io lots of mana regeneration which is especially helpful for allies through Tether. The other stats it provide are less useful, although it can be very effective in the late game if your team really needs another strong lockdown. Usually there are better items that an Io can purchase, for example a Heart of Tarrasque, but it can be a good item to get afterwards.
A Eul’s can give you lots of survivability. Cyclone can be used to dodge incoming damage as well as to dispel most negative debuffs. A Eul’s is particularly good if your team lacks stuns or disables that can cancel Town Portal Scrolls.
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Ice Blast will prevent Io and the Tethered ally from healing and also risk Io from getting dangerously low on HP when using Overcharge.
Io can pick off most split-pushers through Relocate and a strong ally. You may need Dust or Sentries against invisible heroes. Try to predict where the enemy will be if they are running away or are hiding in trees. You can also use Spirits to scout the trees.
Io with a Soul Ring can provide lots of mana regeneration for allies. This means that it can be more effective to buy a Soul Ring and Tranquil Boots instead of Arcane Boots and Bottle. Heroes such as Night Stalker, Sven and many supports with nukes can use many spells when laning to harass and potentially kill the opponents.
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