Chaos Knight

Nessaj the Chaos Knight is a melee strength Hero with one of the highest physical damage outputs of all heroes. He is mostly played as a semi-carry and ganker. As his name implies, he has a theme based on randomness and uncertainty. His regular attack has an incredibly high thirty damage spread, making his last hitting ability somewhat unreliable. Chaos Bolt is his most notorious luck-based ability which, at max level, can stun a target anywhere between a mediocre 2 seconds to a potentially gamebreaking 4 seconds that will almost certainly assure its death; it will also deal a variable amount of damage ranging from miniscule to moderate. Reality Rift pulls Chaos Knight and his target to a randomly chosen point along the line between the two and gives him bonus damage for one attack. Chaos Strike is a crit-based ability with one of the lowest proc chances, yet also one of the highest multipliers. His only non-random ability is his ultimate Phantasm, which produces the most powerful illusions in the game. These illusions, which retain his full damage and only take double damage, benefit from his Chaos Strike and can teleport alongside him to attack the target whenever he uses Reality Rift. With three illusions being produced at Phantasm's highest level, Chaos Knight's damage output is effectively quadrupled during teamfights later in the game, and it is not uncommon to see enemy heroes being killed instantly after being Reality Rifted by the four apocalyptic horsemen. Thus, even though he is mostly played as a semi-carry who is extremely effective in the early to mid game, if the game drags on long enough and he is able to acquire enough strength-based and survivability items to ensure that his illusions can stay alive, he will be able to overpower most hard carries.

Tips

 * While ganking in the early-mid game, use Reality Rift to get close to the enemy, then hit him once with your bonus damage and use Chaos Bolt to stun. If you're lucky, you could even get more than 2 hits while he's stunned.
 * In most situations, max Chaos Bolt and Reality Rift first, since the critical damage from your Chaos Strike is negligible in the early game, and you won't have enough mana to summon the Phantasm(s) with your ultimate.
 * Always activate your Armlet of Mordiggian before using your ultimate, since the illusions also gain bonuses from it.
 * By buying a Sange & Yasha, you'll be able to disassemble it later and build a Heaven's Halberd and a Manta Style. You may buy the first item if you need more survivability, since it gives you more health, some evasion and a reliable disarm; buy Manta Style first if you farmed really well, and you wish to confuse your enemies even more. It grants you better stats, too.
 * An Armlet of Mordiggan paired with a Helm of the Dominator/Satanic can make a very powerful combination, especially with attack speed and damage items.

Trivia

 * Chaos Strike's skill icon bears a similar appearance to a D20 dice, commonly used in table-top RPG games, where a full 20 usually results in a critical. This is representative of the chance that comes with the skill.
 * Chaos Knight's lore and dialogue lines draw many references to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.