Chaos Knight/Guide

Carry/Pushing Chaos Knight
Carry Chaos Knight is the usual way to play. It is most appropriate against line ups that have too little AoE to deal with your Phantasm army in the late game.

You will usually want to max out Chaos Bolt first as the increased stun duration (and guaranteed 2 sec stun at level 4) can allow you to burst almost anyone down. Odds are you don't want to skip Phantasm at level 6 as you can use it to quickly push a tower, perhaps after bursting the offlaner. Skip Chaos Strike, the lifesteal won't matter in a safe lane and does too little damage early game. If you find yourself lacking sustain and the enemy offlaner harassing too much, then you can take some levels in it. This is especially true against opponents that can easily dodge your Chaos Bolt, such as Puck or Weaver

It is unlikely none of the enemy heroes will have no AoE, but if it's only magical burst, don't forget your considerable strength gain per level and your desire to build strength items can help your army survive even through full-blown wombo-combos. It's not uncommon for a Chaos Knight army to survive an even while clumped up, and move forth unscathed.

There are few scenarios where you'll want to skip as it synergizes perfectly with Chaos Knight. Don't forget to turn it on before using Phantasm. Otherwise, you'll mainly want to build attributes. is a common but suboptimal replacement, which can be built into. and provide the most attributes, the latter enabling you to keep your armlet always toggled. and also work well with your illusions. to prevent getting chain disabled and you can turn on BKB and ult once the AoE has been used.

Support/Roaming Chaos Knight
Generally, it is a waste to go full support when playing Chaos Knight as so not recommended to play positions lower than 3. Chaos Knight makes for a formidable roamer and semi-carry thanks to his excellent base damage and speed, and it might make your opponents try too hard to counter you with AoE abilities that might have too little impact for your team's 'real' carry.

As a roamer, you'll want to start with a point in Chaos Bolt for the stun. However, max out Reality Rift first, as it considerably lowers the cooldown and increases the pull distance and armor reduction. If you're letting another hero be your carry in lane, don't hesitate to repeatedly cast it and cancel the animation as it can make the enemy very fearful and make them waste a spell or item.

Since Chaos Knight's mana pool is so low and its cooldown is so long, you may opt to skip your ultimate at level 6, especially since your illusions won't hit that hard without any strength-boosting items.

If you're roaming, a or an  can do wonders to net you kills, and you should probably skip a  since your starting speed is already good enough. You'll want some items to keep your mana up during and after ganks, so items like, and  will help you. is really good for roaming, as Chaos Knight can easily get kills and will be able to utilize the mana regen and extra damage.

is still the most efficient item and works well with Urn of Shadows as you can afford to leave Armlet of Mordiggian activated for a longer period of time. is also a good choice if toggling Armlet of Morgiddian is an issue. It gives good strength to boost up you and your Phantasm, good intelligence and mana regen to keep your supply up, and the active, although it doesn't work with your illusions, give you a good burst with Reality Rift making your ganks much more likely to succeed.

provide decent attributes and much need movement speed but comes at a price, so is suboptimal on carry Chaos Knight.

As a support/roamer, buy detection as needed but let full supports do the warding.

General

 * In most situations, max Chaos Bolt and Reality Rift first, since the critical damage from your Chaos Strike is negligible in the early game.
 * Always activate your before using your ultimate, since the illusions also gain bonuses from it.
 * If you manage to farm a, you gain two additional albeit somewhat weaker illusions that serve to wreck havoc among enemy ranks. Manta Style's illusions, much like Phantasm and rune illusions, are pulled to your target with Reality Rift. You can often use this to block your target in a swarm of illusions they will not be able to escape from. The ultimate orb from Manta Style also boosts your mana pool just enough to allow you to cast illusions together with your ultimate ability.
 * It is not entirely advisable to pick Chaos Knight against enemies that can easily clear illusions, such as or, owning to the fact that they can clear illusions regardless of their attributes. Given that your illusions are produced by your ultimate ability with a rather long cooldown, you cannot afford to have them destroyed easily like , , and  who can produce illusions much more often.
 * You may also want to be careful against an enemy that drains mana such as a - focused . Given Chaos Knight's dismal mana pool and intelligence gain, Invoker's can completely drain him of mana, even in later stages of the game. Without his active abilities, Chaos Knight is not nearly as potent.
 * Chaos Knight is not a very fast farmer. You may want to abuse your mid game power spike and timing to dominate enemy team before their carry can farm up. Even though Chaos Knight is a strong late game carry, it is not easy to catch up in farm once the advantage is lost. Try to gain a dominant footing in a mid game and end the game early.


 * Chaos Bolt, like and  is easy to predict and disjoint, even easier due to Chaos Knight's poor cast animation. Try to use it as close to an enemy as possible if they have a way to dodge it.
 * Unlike and  however, Chaos Knight can use Reality Rift to get in melee range of an enemy and make it a lot harder to disjoint your stun.
 * Due to the unreliability of the spell, it makes Chaos Knight a poor initiator if he is in the field of vision of the enemy, and it is generally better to let your allies initiate the battle. If you are roaming, try to surprise and ambush your enemies, or use a to increase your odds of landing the spell.
 * At level 1, Chaos Bolt has a guaranteed 1.25 second stun duration, while it only attains a guaranteed two second stun duration at level 4. As such, it may be prudent to either leave Chaos Bolt at level 1 or rush it to level 4 to get the most out of the spell.


 * While ganking in the early-mid game, use Reality Rift to get close to the enemy, then use Chaos Bolt to stun. If you are lucky, you could even get more than two hits while the enemy is stunned.
 * Using Reality Rift may result in Chaos Knight and his target becoming trapped within trees or in elevated terrain.
 * Reality Rift will also teleport nearby illusions, including those from Phantasm.
 * A level 4 Reality Rift is usually much better than a level 4 Chaos Bolt, as the reduction in cooldown makes it a viable chasing skill.


 * Chaos Knight's illusions benefit from Chaos Strike's crit, allowing him to blow up heroes during Reality Rift.
 * In lane, save Chaos Strike's crit to obtain difficult last hits, or just to harass.


 * If you know for sure a fight is about to start, it's sometimes better to use your ultimate before it even starts off. The illusions have a very long duration and if you can find a good target to Reality Rift it can immediately turn a fight in your favor. Be mindful not to use it under enemy vision as they may immediately back away.
 * Also, if your enemies have huge teamfight AoEs, they may be specifically waiting for you to cast Phantasm in the middle of the fight to jump on you.
 * However, if all their abilities are meant to counter your army, it could be wise to keep it until they've blown some of them on different targets.
 * If that would be the case, it could be safer to use your illusions only to push towers, keeping your hero and the rest of your team safely behind. The illusions long duration should even enable you to split push a bit to counter the enemy's teamfight strategy.
 * Your illusions pack a huge punch. They will automatically attack whoever you're pulling with Reality Rift. This target may instantly blow up. Don't forget to micro-manage your illusions while that target is dead and Rift is on cooldown. The same is true if you're dead. If you're confident with your micro-management skills, the best strategy is probably to send one after every enemy hero, similarly to 's or try killing off supports, and against their buildings if you still have some left to spare.
 * Phantasm has a very long cooldown. It is generally unwise to use it as a last-ditch effort when you're about to die since it would still be on cooldown well after you've respawned. However, like and  it does provide a short instant of invulnerability that can help you disjoint spells, such as 's.
 * The potential to disjoint projectiles can have an incredible impact on teamfights and the game overall, allowing you and your illusions to survive for longer and deal more damage.
 * Phantasm boasts the most powerful illusions in the game, creating an army that can boost Chaos Knight's overall damage output. When used in conjunction with Reality Rift and Chaos Bolt it is often possible to destroy the target before they get a chance to retaliate. Given that your illusions do full damage and are far more durable than illusions produced by any other hero, so even if your main hero dies, your illusions still pose a serious threat.

Items
Starting items:
 * helps to stay in the lane.
 * restores a lot of health quickly to stay in the lane.
 * provides passive health regeneration and can be used to restore mana.
 * boosts bonus attack damage against creeps, helpful when farming.

Early game:
 * fills the much needed require of health at laning and pushing stages, grants strength to bear damage and dole out.
 * provides chip attributes and provides burst health and mana regen that can often be enough to survive.
 * give a nice movement speed boost.
 * gives attributes and mana regeneration; its active ability provides attack speed and movement speed to help with ganks.

Mid game:
 * provide tankiness with strength, which transfer to his illusions, and allow him to tread switch for mana.
 * 's double attacks will bring down enemies quicker; giving Chaos Knight strength and mana regeneration to stay in battles longer. Also reduces his wide attack damage randomization by double attacks.
 * most cost effective item for Chaos Knight. It provides a large amount of strength, which will transfer to his illusions if it is activated before Phantasm is used. As Chaos Knight's main source of damage is his illusions, this allows them to stick around much longer. Beware that armlet, however, does not provide any extra mana or mana regen to sustain the high manacost skill and tiny mana pool. Without any active skills available, Chaos Knight is not very useful in a fight.
 * is a powerful mid game item that give Chaos Knight a way to spawn a illusion without using his ultimate in a small scale fight or a pick-off. Similar to, the illusion is fully benefits from any stat items and can deal 100% damage; it also gives a nice boost in cast range, make it a decent initiation spell.

Late game:
 * provides a bit of tankiness and a bit of damage on top of much prized spell immunity. As spell immunity does not transfer to illusions, this is best when picked up against teams that can easily isolate the real Chaos Knight and either lock him down for a long period of time or burst him down with single target magical damage.
 * makes Chaos Knight and his illusions very durable, and gives them a nice damage boost. This also enables you to keep Armlet of Mordiggian permanently on, as the heart will regen faster than the health loss, resulting in a large amount of bonus strength, damage, and attack speed at all times.
 * is a very strong pickup, giving Chaos Knight and the illusions armor and the much needed attack speed.

Situational items:
 * is a strong pickup for Chaos Knight late game, if there are strong right-click heroes on the enemy team, or when was brought instead of Armlet.
 * is a strong pickup on Chaos Knight if the enemy team does not have a way to clear out your illusions. They're weaker than Phantasm illusions, however, combined with a level 3 Phantasm, Reality Rift will completely surround and trap any enemy that does lack mobility, cleave or area damage; this often guarantees a kill. Do not rush this item, Chaos Knight does not have enough health to ensure that the illusions will last and will just waste mana.
 * will grant mana break to your illusions increasing their damage, active ability will allow you to catch up easily. Can replace your main damage source in mid game with ease as an alternative.
 * as a mid-late game choice can give you secondary disabler also a way to engage without worrying about distance. Effectively giving you a secondary and more reliable Reality Rift to zip between targets
 * gives you some form of initiation and improves your ability to chase retreating targets. Farming Chaos Knight does not usually get this as their first item, but it is a good choice after Armlet and perhaps another attribute item.
 * is an alternative mobility item specifically geared towards mid game aggression. It gives both Reality Rift and Chaos Bolt extra range to catch enemy heroes and initiate fights. It also provides some much needed mana to allow Chaos Knight to spam spells more effectively.
 * gives strength, which increases durability and damage. Its active ability allows Chaos Knight to stay in the fight much longer. Note that illusions do not lifesteal.
 * is a good alternative to the Blink Dagger. It provides a similar tool for initiation, and also gives a nice boost to attack speed for you and your army. It also upgrades in the that gives attributes and break.
 * is the most efficient stat item in the game, second only to ; It makes you and your illusions far stronger by giving you 25 strength and 25 agility, and with 25 intelligence it almost single-handedly fixes any mana issues Chaos Knight could have by giving nearly 600 points of raw mana and some regen.
 * is a powerful item to further increase the single target damage output and to counter heroes with evasion. The attack speed bonus is also beneficial to Chaos Knight himself and his illusions, while the extra intelligence and mana regeneration bonus fix his low mana issue, allowing Chaos Knight to cast his spell more often.

Chaos Knight/Guia Chaos Knight/Руководство 混沌骑士/攻略