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

 * Silencer can be played as a carry or support. As a carry, he focuses on taking fights and getting kills and assists with his spells, dealing tremendous damage with his auto-attacks while using his spells to prevent the enemy from easily retaliating. As a support, he focuses on harassing the enemy with his spells and building support-utility items while reserving his ultimate for major teamfights.
 * allows Silencer to reduce enemy heroes' base intelligence simply by being nearby when they die. This means that Silencer benefits greatly from showing up to fights and ganks, even if he does not actually directly contribute to kills. The earlier he begins acquiring Intelligence Steal stacks, the more easily he can capitalize on the stolen stats and gain an early advantage no matter what role he is played in.
 * It is possible to proc Intelligence Steal from outside of its radius if Silencer gets kill credit on the enemy. This means that kills using Last Word or Curse of the Silent, which do not immediately kill their targets, can still award Silencer with stolen intelligence even if the enemy manages to escape to outside the radius.
 * Your team benefits much more if you manage to steal intelligence from heroes with already small mana pools such as, , , and so on. As such heroes are already hard-pressed to cast their spells on a regular basis, reducing their intelligence further still can render them almost impotent in fights, or force them to build intelligence items just to ensure that they can cast spells, wasting their inventory slots.
 * is a strong harass spell as it costs little mana to use and can either destroy a sizable amount of the enemy's HP and mana, or force the enemy to cast a spell in order to conserve their HP, depleting their mana further. Its area-of-effect nature allows Silencer to apply the debuff to multiple enemy heroes at once, or cast it from a safe range by edging the enemy with the far end of the effect radius.
 * In teamfights, harassing the enemy with Curse of the Silent before the engagement can severely weaken their mana pools or force them to cast a spell in order to remove the debuff, placing it on cooldown before the fight starts. However, this greatly depends on the enemy's lineup, as heroes such as or  can easily remove the debuff with a cheap low-cooldown spell, while others such as,  or  can suffer greatly due to their small mana pools and costly high-cooldown spells. This principle also applies in the laning stage.
 * Try to force enemies to cast their spells before afflicting them with Curse of the Silent when laning. This will ensure that they take the full duration of the debuff, destroying their HP and mana when they do not have the option of removing the debuff. Otherwise, it can force them to waste even more mana if they do have another spell that they can use to remove the debuff.
 * In general, if an ability does not cost mana or is toggled, it will not remove the debuff from Curse of the Silent. Additionally, certain spells owned by creeps will not remove the debuff if cast by . Use this to your advantage when laning against certain opponents.
 * Keep in mind, even if an enemy has a spell that costs mana, they may be unable to use it under certain circumstances. For instance, cannot cast any of his targeted spells if there are no enemy units nearby, Windranger cannot use, and so on. If you can isolate an enemy from any targets for their spells, it is possible to make Curse of the Silent run for its full course.
 * is what allows Silencer to become a powerful right-click carry, normally something that intelligence heroes cannot do. As its Pure damage scales with Silencer's intelligence, he can inflict large amounts of damage with his auto-attacks by building up enough intelligence, whether through farming items or via Intelligence Steal.
 * In the laning stage, it may be beneficial to get one early level of Glaives of Wisdom, as Silencer can deal around 8-10 bonus Pure damage with an attack, useful for last-hitting as a carry. As well, the attack modifier can be manually cast to harass the enemy without drawing creep aggro, whether as a support or carry.
 * curses Silencer's target to be faced with unfortunate consequences. If they cast a spell during the debuff duration, they will be silenced and take damage, useful for breaking the spell combo of enemies like and . If they don't cast a spell inside of the delay, they will still be silenced and damaged, but they will also be disarmed, eliminating their ability to attack with right-clicks.
 * Last Word's silence proc follows the same rule as Curse of the Silent, and will only proc on spells requiring mana or are not toggle-able.
 * In general, Last Word is best used against spell casters, as they will suffer the most from the silence. Physical attack carries do not often have to cast numerous spells, and thus can simply cast their single disable or debuff spell, and then continue on with their right-clicks.
 * Last Word is a powerful harassing spell in-lane, as it can force the enemy to decide between saving mana and being able to last-hit. Against enemies with high mana cost spells or small mana pools, you can force them to leave the lane entirely by harassing them with Last Word and Curse of the Silent.
 * Remember that Last Word has a very long cast range, and thus can be targeted on fleeing enemy heroes. If you manage to cast it on an enemy who is already very low on health, you can secure the kill as they will most likely die to the damage at the end of the delay, proccing Intelligence Steal at the same time.
 * Last Word can be highly effective against heroes with two-spell combos or single spells with two parts, as they will be able to cast the first part of their combo but not the second due to the silence. This is particularly effective against combos such as 's Avalanche-Toss, 's Illuminate, 's Astral Spirit into Echo Stomp, 's Icarus Dive, and so on.
 * is a powerful initiating and counter-initiating spell that can be cast no matter where Silencer is. However, keep in mind the spell's long cooldown, as using it ineffectively will give the enemy a window of opportunity where they can engage your team in the knowledge that you do not have your ultimate.
 * Global Silence can apply its debuff through spell immunity and invulnerability. This means that it is able to silence enemies even after they activate a Black King Bar, and even through spells like . However, it is also a purgable debuff, meaning that activating Black King Bar or Manta Style after being afflicted with Global Silence will remove it. As such, it is important to time your use of the ultimate wisely.
 * 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 spells can combo in many useful ways.
 * Inflicting a target with Curse of the Silent, and then Last Word after they remove the debuff, can force the target to waste even more mana and then be damaged and silenced. If the target does not have more than one castable spell, it can inflict them with the damage, disarm and silence, rendering them impotent in a fight.
 * Casting Last Word on a target, and then inflicting them with Curse of the Silent after they are silenced (whether at the end of the delay or from casting a spell) can force them to take the entire HP and mana loss from the debuff. This can be especially powerful against heroes with small mana pools but cheap spammable spells, as you can counter their spammable spells by instead draining their mana, removing their ability to cast any spells at all.
 * Applying Curse of the Silent to enemies during Global Silence can destroy their HP and mana, doubly so if you have an Aghanim's Scepter. Destroying the enemy's mana in this manner can render them much less able to cast spells once Global Silence's duration does end.
 * Last Word can be applied to an enemy during Global Silence, ensuring the silence and disarm at the end of the delay. This can extend the duration of silence on a single enemy, as well as adding disarm to the mix, and can be further compounded with Curse of the Silent as needed.
 * Due to being able to be played as a support or carry, Silencer can build many different types of items.
 * When played as a support, Silencer should carry at least some of the support duties. This means assisting the team's other supports in purchasing the, starting , upgrading to the , and so on.
 * can be beneficial on Silencer if he is played as a mid carry, as his harass spells do not cost large amounts of mana. The health regen also allows him to stay in lane longer.
 * is a powerful mobility tool, no matter what role Silencer is played in. As a support he can easily position himself to cast his disables on the enemy, as well as use it to evade enemy ganks. As a carry, it gives him strong positioning, allowing him to move quickly into a fight to attack after disabling the enemy with his ultimate.
 * is highly beneficial on a support Silencer, who does not rely on his right-clicks in order to be effective. Becoming immune to physical damage allows Silencer to get his spells off more easily, and buys him time if the enemy's carry jumps on him.
 * is a powerful survivability item that can either be used for utility on a support Silencer or more staying power as a carry Silencer. The extra HP and evasion give Silencer more survivability against physical damage, and the active can be used to disarm a target on top of silences, rendering enemies completely unable to do anything.
 * is an unorthodox item to build on Silencer but serves him extremely well as a carry. The agility gives him much more attack speed and some armor, and the intelligence firms up his mana pool and increases Glaives of Wisdom's effectiveness. However, the main utility is that the mana burn stacks with Glaives of Wisdom, allowing Silencer to deal large amounts of Pure damage and destroy the enemy's mana with each attack, creating powerful synergy with Curse of the Silent. The active ability is also very powerful in removing debuffs from Silencer or other allies, or removing buffs from enemies while holding them in place to eviscerate them with your right-clicks.
 * is a situational weapon to build on a carry Silencer. While it is a Unique Attack Modifier, it does not completely override Glaives of Wisdom, only when it procs, allowing Silencer to continue to deal Pure damage with his attacks while throwing chained magical damage into the mix. The vastly increased attack speed allows Silencer to output a lot of damage with his physical attacks, and the shield can be used on himself to deal out even more physical damage or on a highly durable ally who can tank on the front lines.
 * can be a powerful utility item to purchase on a support Silencer if the enemy is mostly reliant on their usage of spells in a fight. The ability to inflict up to 12 seconds of silence to the enemy in a teamfight, through spell immunity and invulnerability, can prevent them from retaliating effectively against your team, securing a victory.

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".
 * Silencer's spell sound effects are based on some of his voice lines. Curse of the Silent debuff sounds is based on " Silen ability curse 03.mp3 Curse you!", Last Word is based on one of his laughing lines and Global Silence is based on Silen ability silence 04.mp3 this.