Silencer

Nortrom the Silencer is a ranged Intelligence hero who can be played as a Support, Carry or Initiator. He is one of the minority of Intelligence heroes who truly benefits from Intelligence items and is effective against Heroes who rely mostly on spells, as he can silence them while stealing their Intelligence and adding it to his own. He is a notorious anti-caster hero who can disrupt the magical abilities of his enemies and cripple spellcasters throughout the game. Curse of the Silent causes enemies to lose health and mana until the end of the duration or until the enemy casts a spell. Last Word places a curse on Nortrom's target that damages and silences for a long duration if the target casts a spell. If the target does not cast a spell before the curse's duration ends they will be damaged, silenced, and disarmed. Glaives of Wisdom is a Unique Attack Modifier that deals a percentage of Nortrom's intelligence as pure damage. Nortrom's ultimate, Global Silence, silences all enemy units on the map for a few seconds. A well-timed Global Silence can be used to save yourself or an ally, initiate a teamfight, or ruin the enemy's initiation.

Silencer has a unique trait shared only with Earth Spirit in the fact that he has an innate ability: Intelligence Steal permanently steals the intelligence of enemy heroes that die near him and adds it to his own. This rewards his presence in teamfights, also making his Glaives ever stronger as the battle goes on.

Tips

 * The large radius on Curse of the Silent makes him a very strong harasser.
 * Curse of the Silent is great against heroes like Tiny or Pudge that require a lot of mana to cast their spells very early on.
 * Glaives of Wisdom can be used to harass by Orb Walking.
 * Silencer can be considered a counter-initiate hero, because of his high disruption with Global Silence. Use this knowledge to completely cripple enemies that could do anything dangerous to your team.
 * Against heroes that have low mana cost abilities, it's best to let them expend mana before you cast Curse of the Silent, as it is your main source of damage early game.
 * Silencer is able to become a carry via high intelligence coupled with Glaives of Wisdom, whether he gains that intelligence by kills or by items.
 * Last Word curses his target to be faced with unfortunate consequences, if they cast a spell during the debuff duration, they will be silenced and damaged, this is perfect for breaking the spell combo of his enemies like Tiny and Tinker. If they don't cast a spell until the duration. they will still be silenced and damaged, but they will also be disarmed, this works well with Curse of the Silent and Global Silence, and it's crucial for enemy carries who rely on their physical attacks, as they can't attack or even cast spells for a long time.
 * Last Word also effectively gives the enemy a choice - cast a spell, likely wasting mana due to bad timing or a lack of player-targets for the spell, or don't cast a spell - and be disarmed in addition to the silence.
 * A Dagon can be purchased by Silencer, adding powerful burst damage to his arsenal and increasing his intelligence. This along with Silencer's other nukes can easily kill most enemies early game.
 * If Silencer is fighting against Outworld Devourer, it is possible that Outworld Devourer's Sanity's Eclipse will be ineffective against Silencer as long as Silencer's Intelligence can surpass Outworld Devourer's due to his innate Intelligence steal.
 * Silencer on his own is not an initiator; if you try to initiate with Global Silence alone, the enemy team will simply walk away and wait out the silence. However, Global Silence can synergize extremely well with almost any initiator. When someone on your team initiates (or immediately before), activate Global Silence. The other team will be helpless as you collapse on them.
 * Silencer's Global Silence and Last Word are great for tying down heroes that rely on abilities to evade (Weaver, Storm Spirit, Queen of Pain, etc.).
 * Unmentioned, and situational, a Refresher Orb can be purchased if the enemy is mostly reliant on their usage of spells in a fight. If a fight occurs, you can silence the enemy at max level up to 12 seconds by using the Refresher Orb to cast your ultimate again (14 with Aghanim's Scepter). Heroes who need their spells to be effective are left useless in team fights.
 * If Last Word is used while/before Phoenix uses his Icarus Dive he will not be able to cancel it.
 * Amusingly enough, if Silencer has Bloodstone, he will still collect INT while dead, While not being all that much useful, if you get killed in a teamfight before any opponents die, you can still collect the 10 INT.

Trivia

 * Unlike most heroes, Silencer's attack projectiles actually use the model of his equipped cosmetic weapon.
 * Like, and , Silencer received a color palette change, changing his model and icons, having his former red armor replaced with violet.
 * Before his palette change, newer players would occasionally mistake Silencer for, and he would sometimes be referred to as "The other Dragon Knight". Even after the palette swap, some older players may refer to him as "Purple Dragon Knight".