Spectre/Guide

Hard Carry
The standard Spectre build, it focuses on taking advantage of Spectre's amazing late game but awful early game. Early game, Spectre can't do much but farm for, but after getting it Spectre can become a huge threat with her ult,. She can ult and push lanes while harassing enemies, or even use it to kill fleeing enemies. In a teamfight, Spectre becomes a huge threat. She has plenty of AoE damage to constantly damage opponents, but she's tanky enough that punishing her for it is extremely hard. She is heavily item dependant with this build, but once she gets farming her other items becomes really easy.

Ganker
Another build she has is an early to mid game ganker build. Instead of focusing on rushing Radiance, she instead grabs items like and  to help dominate the laning stage, and can transition into a very effective carry late game, but it won't be as strong as the standard Hard Carry build.

General

 * Spectre has a terrible early game, and it's likely that enemies will try to take advantage of this. Make sure you always have enough mana for Spectral Dagger while laning so you can escape from enemies who are trying to kill you.
 * Your main focus should be getting Radiance. Once you get that, enter the jungle and start farming for your other core items.

Abilities

 * Early on, always make sure you have enough mana for this in case you need to make a quick escape.
 * During fights, instead of aiming at an enemy, aim it at the ground in a way that it'll hit as much enemies as possible. It'll increase the overall DPS it deals.
 * However, aim it at fleeing enemies when the fight is ending to make sure they don't escape.
 * There is a grace period after getting off the dagger where you still have free pathing. Use this to your advantage.
 * Desolate works on creeps, so it makes farming in jungle slightly faster when you can kill that last creep faster.
 * Similarly, the bonus from Desolate still works if the enemy is near neutral creeps, so engagements in the jungle won't lower your overall damage.
 * It can be used to check for invisible enemies if you melee a creep who's alone but you don't get the bonus damage. This isn't as reliable as using a however.
 * It effectively reduces all damage you take by 22% at max level, meaning it scales really well into the late game.
 * Dispersion is classed as HP Removal, which means that it won't proc things such as, but it also won't cancel items such as
 * Because the effect lessens with range, heroes with long ranges such as with a  will do more damage to you than a melee hero would.
 * The illusions from Haunt carry the same things regular illusions would, which makes and  even more effective on Spectre.
 * Take advantage of to drop in on enemies who are in low health.
 * Use this to assist in fights across the map while you farm in the jungle, and to even drop in if you're needed in the fight.

Items
Starting Items: Early Game: Core Items: Situational Items:
 * A is a good pick up to reduce the harassment you'll take, and it later builds into either  or.
 * and are good for keeping you in lane as long as possible.
 * gives you a little bit of HP regen and can be consumed to be able to use again while in lane
 * A is a great pickup early on to help you last hit, and can later be built into  to help in farming the jungle before Radiance
 * reduces the amount of harassment you take and gives you some agility to increase your base damage.
 * are necessary on everyone, Spectre is no exception.
 * is necessary on Spectre to not only farm fast, but also to take advantage of your AoE damage and tankiness from.
 * are the best boots on Spectre this early, as she needs the movement speed and damage. You should usually grab this before.
 * let's you farm extremely fast by sending your illusions either into lane or into other jungle camps that, with, lets them take out the camps.
 * is a great early game item to take advantage of to get a lot of charges and to buff Spectre's meager strength.
 * increases the damage your illusions deal, gives you some much needed mana and agility, and has a slow to keep up with enemies.
 * is a good item to get if you desperately need the stats. It combos well with.
 * is a really good item to pick up on Spectre, as it's a cheap tank item that can help you out in the mid game. Later on, you can either sell this for or build it into.
 * works well with Spectre's constant AOE damage and punishes enemies who try to focus you down.
 * is the best tank item you can get on Spectre. It lets you basically have infinite health against towers and creeps, and the HP it gives works well with Spectre's Damage Reduction, making her extremely hard to kill.
 * is a good luxury item on Spectre. The stats are much appreciated and the slow means enemies won't be able to escape you. Considering is no longer an UAM, this makes Skadi even better on her.
 * is just an all around good item on Agility carries. Spectre benefits a lot from it however considering her low 1.8 agility gain per level.
 * makes you even tankier and by giving you more armor, and increases your physical damage thanks to the aura lowering armor on enemies and towers.