Visage

Visage, the bound form of Necro'lic, is a ranged intelligence Hero whose traits are unusual when compared to most Intelligence heroes; he can be a Ganker, Tank,  or Nuker. Resilient and ruthless, Visage is a highly aggressive hero thanks to his great Strength and Gravekeeper's Cloak which allow him to soak up surprising amounts of damage. This is especially true from attacks mounted by Heroes who try to chip at his health with spells and burst damage without committing to a protracted engagement. This unholy gargoyle thrives in the midst of large battles, where the abundant pain and suffering in the air charges his Soul Assumption, allowing him to fire off huge bursts of magical damage in rapid succession. Additionally, Visage's proficiency with auto-attacks is augmented by his ability to absorb the attack and movement speed of his foes with Grave Chill. Finally, his versatile ultimate, Familiars, is arguably one of the best scouting utilities in the game while also being excellent sources of damage and AOE disables. Utilizing his Familiars to their fullest requires constant split attention and good positioning to avoid feeding their large bounties to an enemy Hero. With a legion of ghostly gargoyles, incredible toughness and fast attacks, Visage sows terror and agony, relentlessly hunting poor souls and leading them in the shackles of death to the gates of the Underscape.

Unlike most other heroes in Dota 2, Visage has a base 10% magic resistance instead of 25%, causing Visage to take 90% magic damage while most other heroes take 75%.

Tips

 * Take Soul Assumption at level 1 if you intend to first blood and have adequate slow/stuns in your lane to make it happen. If not, take Grave Chill instead at the beginning.
 * A lot of Visage's strength comes from an early level 6 and a strong laning phase.
 * You should max out Soul Assumption as soon as possible as it is a very potent nuke with very low cooldown allowing you to spam provided you or your allies are taking damage and have sufficient mana. This ability is best utilized during a team fight where a lot of damage is being exchanged between the two teams, make sure to always keep an eye out for the charges of your Soul Assumption and release them as often as possible during a fight as this ability along with your familiars is the main source of your damage output.
 * Summon Familiars should be taken at level 6, as their damage is of great assistance.
 * Familiars deal significant damage early game and it can be used to stun opponents or interrupt channeling spells like teleportation. Be warned, the familiars have a very small line of sight but still enough for you to scout ahead or keep track of an enemy that is attempting to juke you.
 * Familiars damage reduces after each attack and will reach to a pathetic 10 damage after 7 attacks. You should start using them to stun your opponents once they run out of charges.
 * Fragile support heroes make the best targets for your Familiars as you can cut down their HP very fast and give yourself charges for Soul Assumption for the finishing touch.
 * Stone form takes 1 second to form, this is quite significant especially when chasing a moving hero. Stone form can also be used to stun your opponents to help you escape sticky situations.
 * Stone Form can be cast in succession allowing you to 'chain-stun' your opponents. Depending on your skills in micromanagement, you can AoE stun for a lengthy 6 seconds by re-summoning familiars in the middle of the battle. If you have Aghanim's Scepter you can lock down multiple targets for up to 9 seconds with proper micromanagement.
 * Take great care not to let your familiars be killed, as they grant a 100 reliable gold bounty each.
 * Familiars in the middle of the stone form animation (before they reach the ground) can still be killed. They will still perform their stun regardless of if they are killed during this animation.
 * For new players, an easy way to learn Familiar micro is to park your familiars over trees (where they can't be sniped) behind the person you want to kill and fly them out when initiating. You can even practice this to some degree against bots.
 * Familiars do not expire unless killed or re-summoned.
 * Do not let the bonuses gained from Gravekeeper's Cloak deceive you into thinking Visage more durable than he actually is. The layers of your cloak burn out very fast if you are being focused or are struck by a Damage Over Time abilities such as Venomancer's Venomous Gale and without the cloak Visage becomes a very fragile target if he does not possess durability enhancing items such as Mekansm or Shiva's Guard considering his miserable agility gain and base armor.

Trivia

 * Visage has one of the most numerous ability remakes in the game, with Grave Chill being his only mainstay:
 * Soul Assumption, in an earlier version, was an auto-cast enabled attack modifier where he will deal bonus damage and steal the life of his enemies upon death, healing him and leaving no corpse.
 * Gravekeeper's Cloak used to be a passive aura where allies in the area will be healed when Visage takes damage, physical or magical.
 * Raise Revenants, his former ultimate, lets him summon up to eight pitch-black, gargoyle-shaped spirits from a corpse. It was likely changed because of it being a very effective scouting tool that makes map control easier. The Revenants had good vision range, a flying attribute, and can be resummoned easily since the ability neither cost a lot of mana nor had a long cooldown. This, along with the fact that the Revenants did not do a lot of damage on their own (attack modifier limits their damage to one-third the stated amount against heroes) and no special abilities give them very limited usage in combat situations.