Invoker

Carl, the Invoker, is a ranged intelligence hero who is very difficult to master. He is unique in that he possesses a total of 14 abilities in his arsenal; three of them -, , and - are reagents and one is his special ultimate Invoke. The three abilities he learns throughout leveling up can have three instances, which serve as the basic ingredients or components for him to create a new ability using his ultimate. Once the reagents or elements are combined, he can invoke one out of ten different abilities. All of his invoked abilities are capable of a multitude of actions, from damaging enemies to aiding his allies, and even saving himself from danger. His three reagents can be upgraded up to level 7 which determines the power and potency of his invoked abilities, making it more powerful than an ordinary spell. Because of this, he can be played in almost any role possible. Invoker can be a carry, semi-carry, ganker, pusher, initiator or even support. His three reagents provide a passive bonus per instance, allowing for specialization at early levels and situational boosts at later levels. His extremely flexible nature allows him to use many different combinations of items effectively but also make him dependent on solid builds and a good gold advantage.

Invoker is available in Ability Draft, but due to his very unique nature, he has been heavily modified to work in that mode. See Invoker in Ability Draft for details.

Invoked abilities
// EMP // Tornado // Alacrity // Ghost Walk // Deafening Blast // Chaos Meteor // Cold Snap // Ice Wall // Forge Spirit // Sun Strike

Gameplay
 Strategy & Tips Counters & Matchups

Audio
 Responses Sounds

History
 Lore Old Abilities Changelogs

Trivia

 * In the earliest version of Invoker, the order of instances mattered when Invoke was cast. Invoker, therefore, had access to 27 spells, including most of the 10 still in the game (though with some differences). For more information, see here.
 * Invoker is (or used to be) a Magus like, who calls him the vo_rubick_rubick_rival_01.mp3 vo_rubick_rubick_rival_02.mp3  vo_rubick_rubick_ally_01.mp3 Arsenal Magus.
 * Invoker's Deafening Blast cast response vo_invoker_invo_ability_deafeningblast_06.mp3 "Sonic boom!" is a reference to the signature move of Guile from the Street Fighter fighting game series.
 * Invoker (Along with some players and casters) sometimes jokingly refers to his Chaos Meteor as a meatball ( vo_invoker_invo_ability_chaosmeteor_07.mp3 "Behold the meatball!"), due to their highly similar appearance.
 * One of Invoker's lines when he casts Chaos Meteor is vo_invoker_invo_ability_chaosmeteor_06.mp3 "Gallaron's Abyssal Carnesphere!" Carne is Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian, and Italian for meat, and a sphere is the geometric shape of a ball. So, "carnesphere" is another way of saying "meatball".
 * Invoker's preferred style of spellcasting, involving the invocation of mnemonics, is inspired by the magic in Jack Vance's Dying Earth series. Further references to Vancian magic are in the alternate names for his spells, which involve verbose invocations such as "Sadron's Protracted Frisson" and "Killing Wall of Koryx.".
 * Invoker's line for purchasing a vo_invoker_invo_blink_02.mp3 "Dagger of the mind." references the "Dagger" monologue from Shakespeare's play, Macbeth.
 * Invoker's respawn line vo_invoker_invo_respawn_10.mp3 "Knowing me... knowing you." references the song by the band Abba, of the same name.
 * Invoker's voice actor, Dennis Bateman, also voices the Spy from Team Fortress 2. Invoker's killing response vo_invoker_invo_kill_10.mp3 "You die as you lived: insipid and ignorant." is a reference to this, as the Spy also has 2 similar killing responses: "You died as you lived: running away!" and "You died as you lived: morbidly obese!".
 * As referenced in the details of his name, Invoker was known as Kael, or Kael'thas Sunstrider, in DotA. Kael'thas is best known as the Lord of the Blood Elves in the Warcraft universe. The Invoker of DotA also makes use of his Warcraft 3 model and voice.
 * 's responses when meeting Invoker may also be related to this, as Dragonus was also a blood elf in DotA.
 * The first letter of Quas, Wex and Exort refers to the key of a QWERTY keyboard they are by default bound to (Q, W, and E). In lore, they are most likely mnemonics used to invoke spells.

Name

 * In DotA, Invoker's name is Kael, based on the WarCraft Blood Elf Mage character, Kael'thas Sunstrider. His fun name is Kal-El, a pun conflating the name Kael with the birth name of Superman.
 * In April 2011, a fake DotA 6.72 Chinese changelog referred to Invoker as "卡尔" ("Kael", transliterated as "Kǎ'ěr"). A PlayDota forum member translated the changelog with Google Translate, in an attempt to get a quick, rough translation. Google Translate mistakenly translated "卡尔" as "Carl". PlayDota forum members were at first confused, then entertained by the mistake. IceFrog, the lead developer of DotA and Dota 2, joked "Carl had it coming".
 * In December 2011, drafts of Invoker's Dota 2 lore referred to him as "Garral" twice, presumably a nod to "Carl". This name was excised upon Invoker's release in January 2012; the lore currently refers to him only as "the Invoker".
 * Invoker's voice lines include the name Carl three times. Invoker has a small chance to speak one of these lines when his model is selected:
 * vo_invoker_invo_spawn_01.mp3 "Carl!"
 * vo_invoker_invo_rare_04.mp3 "Throughout the eons I have been known by many names…but my true name of power…is Carl."
 * vo_invoker_invo_rare_05.mp3 "Behold before you, the illustrious, the imperious, ingenious arch-mage… CARL."
 * Undying uses the name Carl once, when meeting an allied Invoker on the battlefield, and even then only 5% of the time:
 * vo_undying_undying_ally_10.mp3 "Carl, is that you?"
 * Mirana uses the name Carl once, when killing an enemy Invoker, and even then only 5% of the time:
 * vo_mirana_mir_rival_16.mp3 "Carl, meet Sagan." A pun on Carl Sagan. (Mirana's feline mount is named Sagan.)
 * In summary, Invoker's real name was meant to be possibly Carl, hence the audio files that Mirana, Undying, and Invoker himself mentioned beforehand. The release of Young Invoker persona has confirmed this, in the item's description, that the real name of Invoker is indeed Carl.