Dark Seer

Dark Seer is a Melee Intelligence hero that employs his skills to fully disorient his enemies through vacuums and illusions, as well as support his allies. As a melee hero, his overall attack and natural movement speed doesn't improve over time, making any follow-up melee attacks very risky. He's also a very versatile hero; He can gank with Vacuum, push with Ion Shell, initiate with Wall of Replica, support with Surge, giving him a persistent role on a team.

Recommended Items
Starting Items:


 * Stout Shield gives you the much needed durability whether you are laning or jungling. Consumables will cover your health and mana issues until you build up your early game items. Filling in the rest of your item slots with Branches will be beneficial with its early attribute boost, but also help you build up to a Magic Wand later on.

Early Game:


 * Soul Ring will cover most of your mana issues with his fairly high strength gain. But if you are jungling, an early Tranquil Boots will be a better option to sustain, as you can choose to disassemble it if you choose to go Arcane Boots.

Core Items:


 * A Vanguard will be great against right clicking heroes, although a Stout Shield should be good enough early on. In most cases though, Hood of Defiance into a Pipe of Insight will be expected of you, since it gives a great damage shield in team fights.


 * Aghanim's Scepter will efffectively allow your illusions to deal more damage than your opponent, thereby significantly increase your team fight potential.


 * Scythe of Vyse is always a great pickup for the hex and mana regen.


 * Shiva's Guard will grant you more punch to your Vacuum and Wall of Replica initiation.

Other items to consider:


 * A Linken's Sphere will grant you a general boost on Dark Seer, as well as giving him a spell block, which has its benefits. But if you are expecting your opponents to pack a lot of disables, don't be afraid to get a Black King Bar.


 * Radiance will stack with your Ion Shell nicely, especially if you built him quite bulky. But since he isn't much of a right clicker, you won't see much benefit from the damage you get from it.

Tips

 * With a Stout Shield and healing items, Dark Seer can start jungling almost immediately.
 * An advanced jungling tactic involves Smoke of Deceit. By combining it with Ion Shell, Dark Seer can jungle without taking any damage from creeps, as the only thing that removes the invisibility is proximity to an enemy hero or auto attacking a unit. In this way, Dark Seer can stack a single camp multiple times, cast Ion Shell on himself, pop Smoke, and stand at the camp until the creeps have been killed. Because of the steep cost of Smoke, it is advised that players do not use it without stacking camps first. As of the July 26th patch neutrals will now run away when attacked by an invisible enemy, players can still choose to use this method of jungling by chasing the creeps while invisible or casting on a weak neutral but the method will be far less efficient compared to before.
 * If laning, be sure to harass enemies with Ion Shell by placing it on their melee creeps (for melee heroes) or ranged creeps (for ranged heroes). Additionally, placing Ion Shell on the second allied melee creep to arrive at the creep line is a good way to push the lane as well as create a moving damage-dealing creep that will chase enemy heroes.
 * Be sure to take at least 1 early point of Surge, as it can help escaping ganks and chasing, as well as giving more mobility.
 * When chasing, self-cast Ion Shell and run next to the enemy without attacking, using Surge if you need to catch up. Even better, use surge to body-block enemy heroes (that is, get in front of them to hinder their movement) and deliver auto-attacks without moving out of range of the Ion Shell.
 * Wall of Replica is usually skilled after you've maxed both Ion Shell and Vacuum, as early game illusions don't deal much damage. Additionally, the relatively high mana cost at lower levels can be prohibitive, as you won't be left with much mana to cast other spells.
 * AoE spells, especially those that require positioning, greatly benefit from Vacuum, as you can place all of them together to ensure a hit.
 * Using Vacuum on enemy heroes to send them through your Wall of Replica will disallow foes from preventing illusions, as well as causing guaranteed damage from passing through the Wall.
 * Due to Vacuum and Ion Shell's instant cast, your usefulness in large team fights permit Dark Seer to synergize extremely well with heroes such as Enigma and Jakiro. Make sure to cast these abilities with Black Hole and Ice Path/Macropyre/Liquid Fire to maximize AoE damage and maybe turn the tide in battle.