Invoker

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. He is also the only hero who does not have Attribute Bonuses, thus he has average attributes. However, his three reagents provide passive attributes with each level, and each instance of his reagents provides a passive bonus, 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.

Gameplay
The Invoker is the most well-rounded spellcasting hero, due to his massive array of spells. Using his three elemental reagents and his Invoke ability, the Invoker can utilize a total of 10 different spells. Due to his complexity and fragility, the Invoker is a bad choice for newer players. With some experience, however, he becomes a force to be reckoned with. The Invoker is capable of massive area of effect damage, powerful disabling spells, very strong summons, and potent enchantments. While other spellcasters tend to be focused in one area, the Invoker has the ability to change his role at will. His spells tend to start out weaker than comparable abilities, but since his reagents have 7 levels each his potential spell power is very high. Although mastering his spells takes perhaps the most practice of any hero, he is definitely worth the time.

At level 25, Invoker has 7 points each towards Quas, Wex, and Exort, and 4 points towards Invoke. Uniquely among heroes, Invoker does not possess the Attribute Bonus ability. Instead, he gains a permanent attribute bonus to one of his attributes each time he levels up Quas, Wex, or Exort.

Tips

 * Invoker is one of the most difficult to learn heroes in the game, but also one of the most flexible and powerful casters. As such, his skill floor is not impossibly high, however, his skill ceiling is almost unparalleled, and thus he takes significant amounts of practice in order to learn.
 * Invoker is often played as a mid hero, as his flexibility and need for levels and gold make him a powerful hero to get early levels on. His skill set allows him to lane control and harass the enemy very effectively, as he has an array of spells that can give him a lane advantage and his orbs give him passive benefits that allow him to out-lane his opponent.
 * Invoker's reagents all fulfill different roles, so choosing which ones to level has a drastic effect on how he plays his lane, as well as subsequently due to their effect on the potency of his spells.
 * primarily gives Invoker a sustain advantage in-lane, as it provides a permanent strength bonus, giving him more health, as well as health regen when the orbs are active. This allows Invoker to ignore harass damage from his lane opponent, but leaves him lacking in offensive potential. Past the laning stage, Quas is primarily utilized in Invoker's disables, so leveling Quas can give him powerful disabling abilities to use in fights.
 * does not give Invoker useful passive benefits for laning besides the attack and movement speed bonuses while the orbs are active, however it is leveled primarily so that Invoker can utilize Wex-based spells once the laning stage is over. Wex is Invoker's utility orb, extending the reach of his spells or boosting the power of their secondary effects. It provides Invoker with strong crowd-control capabilities, useful in large teamfights where there are multiple enemy targets, and the passive orbs also increase his mobility on the battlefield, allowing him to position for spells or chase/escape more easily.
 * is the most commonly skilled first orb for Invoker, as it provides a permanent intelligence bonus, giving Invoker more mana and base damage, while the active orbs provide him with bonus damage, giving him more last-hitting power. As well, it gives Invoker access to Sun Strike at level 2, giving him global nuking presence and thus allowing him to strike at targets and get kills in other lanes without having to leave his own. Exort is Invoker's primary damage and nuking orb, as it provides the damage component in his spells, and the intelligence bonus increases his ability to sustain his casting.
 * Due to Invoker's heavy level requirement in order to be effective, it is generally advised to focus on leveling two orbs and getting a value point in the third, rather than trying to level all three equally. While Invoker can be more flexible if he can cast strong spells in all categories, the lack of specialization also limits his potency in areas where his team might need him to be strong. Invoker can only truly reach his full strength at level 25, and as such he needs to be able to effectively contribute to teamfights before reaching that point.
 * Quas-Wex primarily focuses on bringing disables and crowd control to the table, at the cost of striking power due to lack of Exort. Generally Invokers using this build focus on casting EMP and Tornado in teamfights in order to disrupt the enemy and destroy their ability to cast spells, while using Cold Snap for single-target disable. With a value point in Exort, Invoker can also utilize Alacrity to boost the attack speed of himself or an ally, and use Deafening Blast for additional disable. This build is usually best combined with teammates who already have damage, but are lacking crowd control such as Zeus, Ursa, Leshrac, and many others.
 * Quas-Exort improves Invoker's offensive and disable potential, but leaves him lacking in reach. The main objective of this build is to get 4 levels in each skill so that you have access to two Forge Spirits, which can be done at level 9 by skipping leveling your ultimate once. Two Forge Spirits, in combination with Cold Snap, can inflict tremendous amounts of damage on a single target, which can get you kills against lone enemies without escape abilities. Invoker can also use Sun Strike, Chaos Meteor and Deafening Blast to great effect, inflicting large amounts of Magical and Pure damage on enemies. This build is normally suited best against meele-heavy lineups, or lineups that have many heroes that need to be closer to their opponents. Some hero examples are Luna, Gyrocopter, and Necrophos, among others.
 * Wex-Exort gives Invoker a combination of striking power and reach, but leaves him unable to disable opponents effectively and results in a comparatively frail caster due to lack of Quas. Invoker should generally focus on nuking targets or providing utility via Alacrity, which can greatly increase the right-clicking power of an ally or Invoker himself. This build gives Invoker the ability to deal large amounts of damage with Sun Strike, Chaos Meteor and Deafening Blast, as well as a measure of crowd control via EMP and a long-reaching Tornado. This ability build is most effective against heroes that are excellent at kiting their enemies, such as Drow Ranger and Sniper. However, it is also extremely potent if your allies have strong initiators such as Clockwerk, Jakiro, and Faceless Void.
 * should usually be leveled as soon as it is available, as reducing the cooldown can let you be ready to bring a third spell to bear on short notice. At higher levels, being able to bring a spell to bear every five seconds can make you a very dangerous threat in teamfights.
 * Remember that your spells remain on cooldown based on when they were last used, so Invoking a spell that is on cooldown does you little good besides getting it ready for use once it does come off cooldown.
 * If you want to cast three spells in quick succession, it can help to have the orbs for the third spell prepared before casting the other two. This allows you to cast your first two spells and then Invoke the third immediately once at least one of the first two are on cooldown. This can let you cast nuke-heavy combos such as Sun Strike + Chaos Meteor + Deafening Blast, as the first two spells have delays that allow you to queue up the third so that you can land all three on a target simultaneously.
 * With an Aghanim's Scepter, it is possible to Invoke spells every two seconds once you hit level 17 or higher. If your reflexes are good enough, you can barrage the enemy with spells as quickly as you can queue them up. However, this is only truly useful in the late-game once all of your orbs have been leveled up enough for their associated spells to be truly potent. This is another testament to just how level-dependent Invoker is, as even with Aghanim's Scepter his spells can lack effectiveness if his orbs are not high level enough.
 * All of Invoker's spells have fairly long cooldowns and are individually fairly complex, while also having strong synergy with each other. Understanding how to use his spells effectively and how to combo them is key to playing Invoker well.
 * is a strong disabling spell that can greatly slow enemies and deal significant amounts of damage based on the level of Quas. It has strong utility in the early- and mid-game, however it decreases in effectiveness once the enemy gets spell immunity to dispel it or prevent you from casting it on them in the first place.
 * Cold Snap has strong utility in the laning stage, as it can mini-stun an opponent multiple times, especially if they have drawn creep aggro by ordering an attack on you. Use it on an aggressive enemy, and it can proc multiple times from your attacks as well as those of allied creeps.
 * Remember that this spell mini-stuns its target upon cast, and has 1000 cast range. This allows Invoker to use the spell to interrupt channeled spells and items from a great distance, particularly useful for interrupting Town Portal Scrolls.
 * Cold Snap is very strong when combined with any spell that deals damage over time, as each small damage instance procs the mini-stun and damage. Used in combination with a damage-over-time spell, Cold Snap can greatly hinder a target's movements and deal significant damage.
 * Forge Spirits have strong synergy with Cold Snap, as each spirit's individual attacks (as well as your own) can proc the mini-stun, and both spells are based on Quas. When attacking a target afflicted with Cold Snap, try to stagger your Forge Spirits so that they attack at different intervals, in order to increase the chances of proccing the mini-stun.
 * One of Cold Snap's strongest aspects is that it can greatly impede the attack and cast animations of enemy players, preventing them from retaliating for the duration of the debuff. As Cold Snap is leveled up the trigger cooldown decreases, meaning that at maximum level of Quas heroes with cast or attack animations above 0.2 seconds are unable to do anything without dispelling the debuff first, if the mini-stun procs immediately when it is able to.
 * is a strong escape spell on Invoker that has no fade time, and also slows any nearby enemies attempting to pursue based on Quas. It also slows Invoker himself based on Wex.
 * While invisible, beware that using any items or queuing any orbs causes you to break invisibility. As such, if your goal is to run away from the enemy, do not change your orbs or activate your Phase Boots, as doing either instantly reveals you.
 * If your goal is to run away from the enemy, remember that you need at least 4 levels of Wex in order to negate the movement penalty. However, if you have time, it is also advised to shift all of your active orbs to Wex, in order to grant yourself a movement speed bonus, and use the active from your Phase Boots prior to casting Ghost Walk.
 * Ghost Walk can be used in chases as well, not just escapes, if the enemy has no escape abilities. With high levels in both Quas and Wex, Invoker can catch up to fleeing enemies and then slow them down by walking alongside them, giving allies time to catch up and finish a target.
 * is a strong slow and damage-over-time spell that works best if the enemy is forced to stand in a particular area. The slow and wall duration is based on Quas, while the damage over time is based on Exort.
 * Ice Wall is best used as a disengagement spell, as it drastically slows chasing enemies and give teammates time to escape and its wide area prevents enemy players from easily getting around it to avoid the slow. It can also be used against solo enemies attempting to escape, as it can lock them down in position for casting your other spells.
 * Invoker requires good positioning in order to use this spell offensively, as the wall is placed right in front of him upon casting the spell. As such, it is recommended to get a Blink Dagger to position the wall effectively.
 * Cold Snap has strong synergy with this spell, as both spells are based primarily on Quas. Using Cold Snap on an opponent who is already in the wall causes them to take the mini-stun every second and prevent them from moving outside of the damage and slow zone, effectively pinning them in place.
 * is an area-of-effect nuke that drains the enemies' mana, then damages them and restores mana to Invoker based on Wex.
 * Due to its delay, EMP can be hard to land on enemies. However, its long cast range and wide effect radius also make it difficult to avoid. When attempting to cast EMP on enemy heroes, it is best to hit them with a set-up spell first.
 * Tornado has the strongest synergy with EMP since it can disable multiple enemy heroes for up to 2.5 seconds, and both spells are based on Wex. Hitting the enemy team with a Tornado while simultaneously deploying EMP can virtually guarantee connecting the spell.
 * While it loses much of its potency in the late game due to mana pools getting larger, EMP can still greatly disrupt enemies at all stages of the game. Destroying the mana on low-intelligence heroes, particularly strength and agility casters, can render them impotent in the early- and mid-game, while doing so in the late-game can hinder an enemy carry's ability to cast spells (such as or ) or use item abilities that require mana (such as ).
 * is Invoker's most powerful crowd-control and set-up ability, as its long range allows him to disable the entire enemy team from long range, and remove buffs from them, setting them up for subsequent spells. Its range and damage is based on Wex, while the cyclone duration is based on Quas.
 * Remember that enemies are completely invulnerable while cycloned, so you still need to time your spells to hit after they land. The cyclone duration is based on Quas, so be mindful of how many levels of Quas you have as well.
 * Tornado's extremely long range allows good Invoker players to snipe fleeing enemies with good prediction. You can use it to interrupt Town Portal scrolls, or simply outright kill enemy players who are at low enough health.
 * Keep in mind that Tornado provides flying vision along its path as it travels, so it can be used as a scouting spell of sorts if you need to find an enemy in the fog of war. You and your team can subsequently use this vision in combination with your other spells, such as following up a successful cyclone with a global range Sun Strike.
 * is a very strong single-target buff on a low cooldown that greatly amplifies the physical damage output of a friendly carry, one of Invoker's summons, or Invoker himself. The attack speed buff is based on Wex, while the damage bonus buff is based on Exort.
 * Alacrity is not very useful in the early game due to its scaling, however it is extremely strong in the late game once you or your teammates have more damage output. Increasing the damage and attack speed of your team's hard carry can allow them to inflict large amounts of physical damage against their targets.
 * Keep in mind that this spell can be cast on all allied units, not just heroes. As such, you can use it on allied summons, such as Spirit Bear and Warlock's Golems, as well as siege creeps, depending on the situation.
 * is a deadly nuke with global range, which is perfect to kill fleeing Heroes. Its damage is based purely on Exort.
 * Sun Strike is one of Invoker's most useful spells, as it has utility at all points in the game. During the laning stage, Invoker can use it to add his striking power to a gank, especially if combined with a friendly stun that holds an enemy in place for more than 1.7 seconds. Once past the laning stage, it can be used to snipe fleeing enemies or check Roshan's pit.
 * Sun Strike's delay makes it hard to land on enemies, so some set-up or prediction is required in order to use it well. If you can predict an enemy player's movements, you can finish them off from across the map if they're already at low health.
 * One very useful way to use Sun Strike is to target it on the enemy's fountain if you or your teammates cannot finish off a teleporting enemy hero in time. As they are most likely going to arrive in their fountain, you can kill them inside their own base while they are still at low health.
 * Beware that Sun Strike splits its damage evenly among all struck enemy units, so if more than one enemy is within its effect radius the spell loses at least half of its potency. As such, smart enemy players clump up alongside their own low-health teammates in order to prevent Sun Strike from killing them.
 * Sun Strike can pierce spell immunity. This means that if an enemy hero attempts to activate spell immunity and then teleport out (such as or ), you can still damage them and potentially kill them before they can escape.
 * is one of Invoker's signature spells, allowing him to summon one or two Forge Spirits to do his bidding. Its attributes are affected by Quas and Exort.
 * In general, players who wish to specialize in using Forge Spirits level up at least 4 each of Quas and Exort, getting the ability to summon two of them as early as level 9. Forge Spirits can bring a great amount of offensive potential to the table, allowing Invoker to use them to harass, push, or scout.
 * One of the strongest aspects of Forge Spirits is that they reduce enemy heroes' armor with each attack, increasing their vulnerability to physical damage at the same time as they are dealing that damage. This makes them very strong at killing enemy heroes with enough lockdown, such as from Cold Snap.
 * Forge Spirits make good targets for Alacrity, as they can deal tremendous amounts of damage when focusing a single target, whether in a teamfight or while pushing.
 * Forge Spirits usually last longer than the cooldown on summoning them, based on how many levels of Quas Invoker has learned. As such, leveling Quas can allow Invoker to have the Forge Spirits active while having different spells on Invoke, which can allow Invoker to have two spells for immediate use and a third queued to Invoke, while the Forge Spirits are active.
 * Summoning Forge Spirits while there are active instances immediately destroys them, with no gold or experience bounty for enemy heroes. Be sure to re-summon your Forge Spirits if they are about to be killed by the enemy, in order to deny them any gold or experience they may earn from killing them.
 * summons a meteor that, after a delay, rolls forward and deals damage and inflicts a burn debuff to all enemies it passes through. Its roll distance is based on Wex, while its damage and burn are based on Exort.
 * Due to the delay, Chaos Meteor is best combined with a set-up spell, such as Tornado or the active from Eul's Scepter of Divinity. Unlike sun Strike, Chaos Meteor does not have a global range that allows room for prediction.
 * In order to get the most from a single meteor, it is best to try to keep enemies inside of the meteor itself for as long as possible. Spells that can forcibly displace the enemy such as Deafening Blast synergize well with Chaos Meteor as the target also gets disabled for the duration of the displacement.
 * Chaos Meteor has the longest cooldown out of all of Invoker's spells. Be careful about when you cast it, as you have to wait almost a minute to cast it again.
 * is Invoker's most general-purpose nuke and disable. It stuns and pushes based on Quas, disarms based on Wex, and deals its nuke damage based on Exort.
 * In general, Deafening Blast is best utilized with levels in Quas and Exort for the stun, push and nuking power. Wex applies the disarm after the stun, which is situationally useful depending on the target, but for general purpose Quas and Exort are more important.
 * Never underestimate the disarm portion of Deafening Blast, however. If cast against an enemy carry in a teamfight, it can render them unable to attack at a critical juncture, all the more so if they have already used their spell immunity beforehand.
 * The displacement due to the push can be extremely powerful in the right situation. Cast in the right direction, Deafening Blast can push enemies over impassable terrain, or in the direction of teammates.
 * Invoker can build a multitude of items to suit the needs of himself and his team.
 * An early can be a very strong pickup, as Invoker is one of the most level- and gold-dependent heroes in the game. Be careful, however, as getting a Midas too late into the game or against heroes that are strong in the early game can be a bad idea, as buying a Midas leaves you weaker than buying other items in the immediate future.
 * can be a powerful disable and survivability item to build on Invoker. It increases his survivability against physical damage by allowing him to evade right-clicks, and allows him to disarm an enemy carry for a short duration.
 * is a strong item to build on Invoker if he needs additional disables but also wants to increase his physical damage output. It provides intelligence and scaling mana regen, allowing Invoker to cast spells on a more regular basis, and increases his attack damage and attack speed. As well, the silence can be useful against certain targets, giving Invoker yet more disables to use against the enemy, and the burn damage at the end gives him more killing potential with his wide array of burst damage nukes.
 * is a situational item that is built mainly as a pushing or fighting item. The bonus damage and armor reduction allows Invoker to deal tremendous damage with his right-clicks, amplified by his Forge Spirits, which can also reduce enemy heroes' armor. It is also useful when pushing since the armor reduction works against buildings, allowing Invoker to take towers more easily alongside his summons.
 * is relatively situational but can be a very strong item on Invoker. The greatly increased health and mana pool it grants allows Invoker to survive and cast spells much more easily in teamfights, and the mana regen from the passive scaling regen and the charges ensures that Invoker never runs out of mana when casting his spells.
 * is a very situational but strong item on Invoker, depending on the player's reflexes. Using the active resets the cooldowns on all of his spells, including any that are not currently Invoked. This means that Invoker can use any currently Invoked spell twice in quick succession, as well as any items with active abilities, allowing him to cast at least six spells (four of them duplicates) and use active items twice inside the space of 3 seconds.

Trivia

 * In the earliest version of Invoker, the order of instances mattered when Invoke was cast. Invoker had access to 27 spells, including the 10 still in game (though with some differences).
 * Invoker is (or used to be) a Magus like, who calls him the Rubick rival 01.mp3 Rubick rival 02.mp3 Arsenal Magus.
 * Invoker's Deafening Blast cast response 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 ( 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 invo ability chaosmeteor 06.mp3 "Gallaron's Abyssal Carnesphere!" Carne is Spanish and Italian for meat, and a sphere is the geometric shape of a ball. So "carnesphere" is another way of saying "meatball".
 * Invoker's line for purchasing a invo blink 02.mp3 "Dagger of the mind." references the "Dagger" monologue from Shakespeare's play, Macbeth.
 * Invoker's respawn line invo respawn 10.mp3 "Knowing me... knowing you." references the song by the band Abba, of the same name.
 * 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.

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:
 * invo spawn 01.mp3 "Carl!"
 * invo rare 04.mp3 "Throughout the eons I have been known by many names…but my true name of power…is Carl."
 * 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:
 * 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:
 * mir rival 16.mp3 "Carl, meet Sagan." A pun on Carl Sagan. (Mirana's feline mount is named Sagan.)


 * In summary, whether Invoker's "real" name is Carl appears to be a subject of humor and is intentionally ambiguous.