Ancient Apparition

Kaldr the Ancient Apparition is a ranged intelligence hero. This spell-casting elemental being possesses high range, great attributes and strong semi-spammable spells. He is commonly played in a support role due to the nature of his skills. Cold Feet places a debuff on an enemy which will stun the unit unless it leaves the area the skill was cast. This can be devastating in conjunction with other disables. Ice Vortex applies a big slow and magic damage amplification to all units that stand in it. This is great in combination with Chilling Touch. This buffs allied heroes to hit for a large amount of extra magic damage. His ultimate, Ice Blast is one of the most devastating spells in the game as it has global range and has larger radius the farther away the blast is from the caster. This does large damage, freezes health regeneration of any kind, and instantly kills units low on life.

Gameplay
Ancient Apparition is considered an efficient ganker for his very powerful abilities, despite each of them requiring precision and good timing to reach their full potential. Because his spells work very well with those of other heroes, a good ganking partner can easily ensure kills on most heroes. Kaldr is also a good support because of his Chilling Touch ability, which gives a large amount of bonus magic damage to his teammates' attacks, but more importantly for his Ice Vortex, which slows and helps him and his team deal more damage. He can also be an Initiator by using his ultimate, but to do so effectively requires more strategy and coordination with your team.

Ancient Apparition is recommended for Intermediate/Advanced players because he requires large amounts of map knowledge to maximize the use of his ultimate, but also to avoid getting ganked because he does not have any true escape mechanism. Because his abilities are most powerful when cast in succession, pulling off quick ability combos is very helpful. Consequently, he requires lots of mana management because casting all of his spells in combination can consume a lot of mana, which can leave you unable to cast any more spells until you replenish.

Ancient Apparition can solo mid fairly effectively because of his lane dominance through harassing and denying using Chilling Touch, but side-laning is most viable, especially with a partner who can disable. He shines most during the Early & Mid-Game phases because his abilities are naturally strong while laning and valuable even with only one skill point into them. Ancient Apparition also does not require as many items as other heroes. He is good with just his abilities and therefore does not need to farm very much. Even the most rudimentary items are all that this hero really needs. Because of his mana issues, a few good mana-regen items could help. Despite how good he is early on, he is not necessarily less good during the late game. In fact, he can be extremely helpful during later teamfights as his ultimate scales, shattering enemies based on % health, not just a flat amount. As well as this Ancient Apparition has a potent Aghanim's Scepter upgrade which further increases his potential as a late game support.

Tips

 * Use Cold Feet to harass in the early game, but mind your mana pool.
 * Eul's Scepter of Divinity in combination with Cold Feet can almost always guarantee a stun (though at the cost of Cold Feet's damage over time). It also allows you to land a short-range Ice Blast in quick succession.
 * Chilling Touch can be useful to max along with Cold Feet if you are laning with another ranged hero. The harass is extremely potent and can often push your enemies out of the lane.
 * Since the Chilling Touch can be placed on Meepo clones, it is an incredibly big damage boost for him. 5 heroes and 4 Meepo clones together can deal a total of 1350/2160/3150/4230 damage through Chilling Touch alone.
 * Ice Vortex can be used to slow enemies when chasing or being chased, as well as reduce their resistance. It also gives vision, so it can be used to scout the Roshan pit, ancients, trees (if someone jukes into them), high ground, and so on. The cast range is very long, so all of this can be done from a safe distance.
 * Ice Blast is a multi-purpose spell that can be cast to anywhere on the map. Use it to aid your allies in ganks, initiate team battles, finish off low-HP heroes, and clear large creep waves.
 * Do not worry about using your ultimate sparingly, it has only a 40 second cooldown and therefore can be used even for harassment or as a deterrent for pushing. The cooldown starts running upon launching the initial tracer, so it already starts cooling down before the actual blast even released.
 * Remember that Ice Blast debuff prevents all health gain, including healing spells, natural health regeneration, lifesteal, health gained indirectly such as from activating an and even bonus health gained from the strength obtained by leveling up under its effects! Landing this spell on the enemy team at the start of a team fight will prevent healers such as Dazzle, Chen and Omniknight or a Mekansm carrying hero from regenerating any HP to their team. The debuff is even more powerful if you have an Aghanim's Scepter, increasing the duration considerably.
 * Ancient Apparition can solo mid in the early game, as he has all the necessary tools to control his lane. AA will look to start ganking as soon as possible and use the early Ice Blasts to his team's advantage.
 * In spite of his ability to solo, AA is still very potent in a dual or tri lane. Cold Feet functions well as a follow-up to an ally's stun, and Chilling Touch is able to buff every one of AA's allies, effectively multiplying its effectiveness by the number of allies you have available.
 * All of Ancient Apparition's spells have good range. Try to avoid close combat when possible.
 * You do not have an escape mechanism, so having vision of your opponents is crucial for you to survive. Ask your teammates to ward or do it yourself whenever possible.

Trivia

 * Kaldr's lore suggests that he is the embodiment of the Heat Death, a theoretical fate of the universe. According to this theory, the universe will achieve thermodynamic equilibrium and will no longer transfer energy. This would result in a universal temperature growing colder and a cessation of processes that require energy consumption, such as life.
 * "Kaldr" is old norse and translates to "cold" in english.