Arc Warden

Zet the Arc Warden is an Agility ranged hero that requires micromanagement and farm to spiral out of control. In the early stages of the game, it is a very powerful nuker. Its first ability, Flux, allows Arc Warden to cripple an enemy down and deal large amounts of damage. It and other allied heroes or buildings can be protected from physical attacks with its second ability Magnetic Field, while gaining swift attack speed. Similar to Techies' Land Mines, Arc Warden's third ability, Spark Wraith, allows it to place wraiths that attack when an enemy goes near them, potentially dealing large amounts of magical damage. Finally, thanks to its ultimate, Tempest Double, which allows it to make a perfect copy of itself that can use all of Arc Warden's spells and item abilities, it can spam all of its other abilities and most items twice and easily take down fragile heroes in the early game, or keep itself or its team doubly sustained through certain buffing or healing items. This makes Arc Warden very powerful in both early and late game if given enough farm, from magical nuker to physical carry, or if the time calls it, a very potent support.

Item interactions

 * The double has its own, independent inventory, carrying the same item as the original Arc Warden does.
 * On each cast, the double's inventory gets updated and adapted to that of Arc Warden. This also sets all charges of charge-based spells to match the charges on Arc Warden, no matter how many the double had left the last time it was summoned.
 * The double can neither pick up, nor drop any items. It cannot be given items by allies or Arc Warden directly either.
 * It can be given a and, since their sharing mechanics work different (CTRL override) than those of other items.
 * Since the double gets re-summoned on each cast, all its item (and ability) cooldowns do not reset, just like how heroes don't get their cooldowns reset as they respawn.
 * The Double does not copy the following items:
 * Any muted item which Arc Warden has in its inventory (allied and enemy items alike)
 * All other items are copied, although some have a slightly altered effect. Shareable items (e.g. or ) are copied.
 * does not apply the area heal upon the double's death. Besides that, the item works normally for the double, means it does gain charges, and the double can use Pocket Deny.
 * can be used by the double. Using Transmute grants the gold and experience to the main hero.
 * If Arc Warden has a bottled rune, the double gets a full instead and does not copy the rune. The double can also not put runes into its Bottle, and cannot pick up runes in general.
 * If, or  are toggled off upon summoning the double, they are also toggled off on the double. The toggle status gets copied.
 * The same applies to . The double copies whichever attribute the main hero had selected.
 * gets its "level" also copied. If the main hero's Black King Bar is at 6 seconds duration, so will the double's Black King Bar be.
 * When having a unit dominated with, the unit does not die when the double expires. However, it does die as soon as the double gets re-summoned.
 * cannot be consumed by the double itself, but can still be copied as standalone Item or as Buff, if the main Arc Warden carries the Buff.
 * is always on cooldown for the double, so it cannot refresh, but still can benefit from its stats.
 * does not apply the area heal upon the double's death. Besides that, the item works normally for the double, means it does gain charges, and the double can use Pocket Deny.
 * can be used by the double. Using Transmute grants the gold and experience to the main hero.
 * If Arc Warden has a bottled rune, the double gets a full instead and does not copy the rune. The double can also not put runes into its Bottle, and cannot pick up runes in general.
 * If, or  are toggled off upon summoning the double, they are also toggled off on the double. The toggle status gets copied.
 * The same applies to . The double copies whichever attribute the main hero had selected.
 * gets its "level" also copied. If the main hero's Black King Bar is at 6 seconds duration, so will the double's Black King Bar be.
 * When having a unit dominated with, the unit does not die when the double expires. However, it does die as soon as the double gets re-summoned.
 * cannot be consumed by the double itself, but can still be copied as standalone Item or as Buff, if the main Arc Warden carries the Buff.
 * is always on cooldown for the double, so it cannot refresh, but still can benefit from its stats.

Recommended items
Starting:
 * A and a few es can be picked up for some early stats and upgraded later on into a Magic Wand.
 * es and help against early harassment and make it easier stay in the lane. Consumables are also in general good to keep around in the early to mid game, since the Tempest Double copies most of them.

Early-game:
 * is a good way to heal back up some health and some mana. It also makes use of the circlet and branches bought earlier and frees up inventory space.
 * is a great pick up on Arc Warden. Not only does it help with sustaining and manage runes, it also gets its effectiveness almost doubled when used by his Tempest Double.

Core:
 * helps Arc Warden sustain the mana cost of his spells. being very spammable can quickly deplete his mana pool. Compared to other boots, Arcane boots are also the most effective boots for the Tempest Double (besides Boots of Travel), doubling the amount of mana restored to the team.
 * is a must have item, due to Tempest Double doubling its gpm boost. Arc Warden is the hero who can make the most use of Hand of Midas.
 * is very effective on Arc Warden as well, again, thanks to his ultimate. He can have 2 sets of Necronomicon units up at the same time, since the units summoned by the double are independent and do not replace the units summoned by the main Zet. Necronomicon is an essential item for a pushing Arc Warden.

Situational:
 * is a great disable and immensely boosts Arc Warden's mana and mana regeneration, eliminating mana problems which may occur. The Hex duration can also be effectively doubled with the help of a Double.
 * provides some protection against carries as it increases armor and slows their attacks passively. The active ability is also great for pushes. Although the aura does not stack when creating a Double, two Arctic Blasts also deal a decent amount of damage in fights.
 * is great when focusing on picking off heroes. Dagon itself already does a lot of burst damage. Doubling that with a Tempest Double, combined with the rather high damage of Arc Warden's other spells, this item can help to deal with even very tanky foes. Throwing in an can turn Arc Warden into one of the strongest nukers.
 * is a great item for pushes, as Arc Warden can have 4 illusions thanks to the Double. Just like with Necronomicon, the double's and the original's Manta Style are independent from and do not replace each other. The illusions also benefit from 's evasion, making them more resistance against physical attacks. They do not get the attack speed bonus, though.
 * helps against disables or nukers if such are problems. It can also be used to send in the double in fights and staying back in safety with the main Arc Warden. The Double can use Avatar, but its duration is the same as the one of the main Zet's Black King Bar.
 * can be a valid item when facing a lot of AoE damage. Since the Tempest Double can use its active as well, enemies have to think twice before throwing their area nukes around, risking to take twice as much damage while effectively only damaging one hero, as it does not really matter that much when the Double takes damage or dies.
 * can turn Arc Warden into a heavy hitter. His main attribute is still agility, so he benefits a lot from its stats. The Tempest Double has no attack damage penalties like most illusions do, since it is not an illusion, so it can greatly increase Arc Warden's overall damage output. Arc Warden's 2 damaging spells deal both magical damage and do not scale. A Butterfly helps him keep on doing damage to the enemy in the late game. The attack damage he gets from the item is also great for pushing and synergises very well with Magnetic Field.
 * can be good on Arc Warden for the same reason why Butterfly can be: it turns him into a strong hitter in the later phases of the game. Although Daedalus is chance based, Zet can still constantly deliver crits thanks to the enormous attack speed boost provided by Magnetic Field. Butterfly should be acquired before a Daedalus, to first get some attack damage and more speed first, to make critical strikes more effective.
 * is a great alternative to Daedalus when dealing with evasive enemies. Also thanks to its already high chance to interrupt an enemy with its mini-bash, it can even slow down an enemy heavily when attacking it with the Double as well, due to the amount of mini-bashes from 2 heroes attacking it with Monkey King Bar. The chances to quickly interrupt an enemy's channeling spells is very high.
 * helps against physical attacks quite well and is relatively easy to get. Its active ability can also be used on the Double (or the Double can use it on the main Zet), granting it basically almost twice the bonuses of Solar Crest, 20 armor and 37.5% evasion. However, 2 instances of its debuff do not stack on the same enemy target, so its effectiveness against a single target is not doubled.
 * makes Arc Warden attack extremely fast when combined with Magnetic Field. When consumed, the also gains the permanent buff.
 * also greats a lot of attack speed and grants some area damage to Arc Warden, which he is lacking. The active ability is also helpful in pushes and 2 shields active at once can be devastating in team fights. It is important however to not cast both shields on the same unit, as doing so has no effect at all, it neither adds a second shield, nor does it refresh the duration of the first one.

Tips

 * Consumables and  can be used by the Tempest Double. Early game, it can be beneficial to keep at least one such item in the inventory and then use the double's consumables on the main hero after creating it.
 * The same applies to items with charges such as and . Arc Warden can have potentially unlimited uses of these items if at least 1 charge is kept on the main Arc Warden, then only used it on the Tempest Double. It can also preserve higher duration  by not using it on the main hero, so Tempest Double is always created with a higher duration.
 * Items that place buffs or debuffs can have their duration doubled if timed right, as well as perhaps correcting any mistakes the main Arc Warden has made (such as targeting the wrong unit).
 * Items that place buffs on allies, such as and, can be used on the main Arc Warden for increased protection and then using the main one's own to their allies, or vice versa.
 * The Double can use teleport items such as or . This means while the main Arc Warden is somewhere else, farming, pushing or defending, the Double can be on the opposite side of the map contributing to a gank or farm the enemy jungle easily.
 * Using with the Double grants the player the gold and 2.5x experience. The Double maintains the cooldown while it is unsummoned. This means that the double will not be able to use the item with every summon and Arc Warden must time the Double's summon to get the full benefits of the extra Midas.
 * One on the hero results in (190/100*60=)114 gold per minute if used whenever it is off cooldown. For the Tempest Double, the gold per minute is (190/100*60=) 114 gold per minute, resulting in 228 gold per minute for the player when both are always used when off cooldown, 2 times more than other heroes with one purchased Midas.
 * It is wise to use the Double to farm or stack neutral camps if it has nothing else to do with its remaining duration for more efficiency and to gain more gold and experience.
 * 's incredible range means it can be used for many different purposes. For one, it can be used to scout areas that may be too dangerous to just breach with the main hero, or stack multiple creep camps from a distance if timed right. Its cast range is even higher than most blink distances, making it possible to still catch enemies with escape abilities.
 * Since the Wraith has a delay upon cast before being able to attack, it should be placed into the enemy's path when chasing an enemy. This either forces the target to choose another, probably more dangerous path, or causes it to take damage and be slowed. Thanks to the spell's low cooldown, this can be repeated often. This can also be done to escape when being chased, by placing the wraith in front of oneself.
 * Stacking Spark Wraiths in an area can be a good ambush technique, very akin to and their . Since enemies can see Spark Wraiths, hiding them behind trees or in cliffs may be necessary. Since they are not considered actual units, they can be placed literally anywhere on the map.
 * Applying on an enemy first before summoning a Spark Wraith can make hitting the enemy with it easier.
 * The Tempest Double is not an illusion, therefore it does not take bonus damage from, nor are they killed by or Roshan.
 * fully affects buildings, so it can and should be used to deter a push.
 * Keep in mind that True Strike does not work against buildings, so even if the enemy obtains a, towers would still be fully protected with this spell.
 * cannot be used by the Tempest Double and it does not allow the summoning of another Double. Refreshing the ultimate on the main hero while a double is out will kill the current double and resummon it at the main hero.
 * It is very important to not allow an enemy to steal Tempest Double, since the ability fully works for Rubick. As Tempest Double is the only ability which the doubles have already on cooldown when summoned, this means  is completely available to use for a Rubick Double, fully able to steal and cast a spell as the same way the original Rubick. Wisely managed and well timed, Rubick and its doubles can steal and cast important ultimates such as  or  with ease.

Trivia

 * The line arcwar_kill_12.mp3 "You will just have to accept this, and move on." is a reference to a Dota 2 based web cartoon The Dota 2 Reporter, where it is a recurring gag for the characters to question the game's logic, only to be answered by this line.
 * The lines arcwar_attack_15.mp3 "Doggedly." and arcwar_move_22.mp3 "Hounding." are references to Arc Warden's former appearance in WC3 Dota, where its model was that of a Gnoll, a canine-like creature from Warcraft. its rivalry lines towards arcwar_rival_20.mp3 "Inferior form." and arcwar_rival_21.mp3 "Apex predator, you are not. " are also a nudge to this.

Gameplay
 Strategy & Tips Counters & Matchups

Audio
 Responses Sounds

History
 Lore Old Abilities Changelogs