Silencer/Guide

General

 * 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.


 * is a decent harass spell as it costs little mana to use and can either prevent enemies from casting spells for a while and deal some damage, or force the enemy to take much more damage if they dare to cast spells during it. Its area-of-effect nature and high cast range allow 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.
 * The spell has a pseudo-silence-like effect on enemies; Although enemies are free to cast spells, they take a penalty for doing so, taking more and more damage from the curse for each cast they do.
 * In teamfights, harassing the enemy with Arcane Curse before the engagement can severely change the outcome of a battle, depending on what the hit enemies decide to do: Either they hesitate to cast spells in order to prevent its duration from stacking up, or they decide to cast spells and therefore take much more damage and possibly die to the long duration of the curse they stack up. This is especially effective against heroes who heavily spam their abilities in fights, like or, dealing either tons of damage to them, or rendering them useless in a fight for several seconds.
 * Try to cast Arcane Curse on enemies before they cast their spells when laning. This ensures that they take much more damage from the spell or possible prevent them from farming if they use spells to do it. In some cases, it is even possible to apply the curse on enemies during their cast times, but this only works against abilities with a long cast time (e.g. ) and requires quick reaction from the player.
 * The slow from Arcane Curse can place the enemy in a disadvantageous position as they are unable to easily chase or escape without taking more damage. Choosing to not cast a spell prevents them from decisively nuking or disabling.. This can cause enemies to reconsider their options, as choosing to continue engaging the enemy can lead to them being slowed and and taking damage for longer, while choosing to disengage removes them from play anyways as they cannot re-engage easily because of the slow.
 * The slow can hinder melee carries who depend on movement speed in order to prevent themselves from being kited.


 * 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 are immediately silenced and take damage, useful for breaking the spell combo of enemies like and.
 * Last Word's silence proc follows the same rule as Arcane Curse, and only procs on spells requiring mana or which are not toggle-able.
 * In general, Last Word is used best against spell casters, as they suffer the most from the silence. Physical attack carries do not often have to cast numerous spells, however
 * Last Word is a powerful harassing spell in-lane, as it can force the enemy to retreat from the lane even if they do not cast a spell. If the enemy does not retreat, they are silenced near the creep wave, allowing them to be chased down and killed.
 * 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 he 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 are only 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, ' 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 gives 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 purgeable debuff, meaning that activating Black King Bar or Manta Style after being afflicted with Global Silence removes 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 can simply disengage 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.
 * Last Word can be applied to an enemy during Global Silence, ensuring the silence at the end of the delay. This can extend the duration of silence on a single enemy.
 * Global Silence is usually used in team fights, at times where the enemy usually wants to cast spells. Applying Arcane Curse on enemies in such situations can greatly increase the damage they take, or prevent them from casting spells even further. Arcane Curse's effect even stacks with itself, so when having Global Silence upgraded, placing 2 curses on enemies can have devastating outcomes.


 * 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 Arcane Curse, 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.

Recommended items
Starting items:
 * One each of and  are minimum regen requirements to stay in lane without being harassed out. As a support, Silencer can also share the benefits of this regen with his carry.
 * As he is reliant on casting spells, is very important for allowing Silencer to harass enemies with  or cast his other spells as needed.
 * Choice of early stat items varies depending on Silencer's role. If playing as a carry, and  give him the most benefit for the inventory space, but if played as a support cheaper items should be substituted as Silencer must spend his starting gold on support items instead.

Early game:
 * are mandatory on all heroes. In Silencer's case, being able to get close enough to cast his spells is important, as he can potentially get kills or assists to proc.
 * is beneficial on all heroes. For Silencer, the burst regen gives him more survivability and the mana to cast a crucial spell in critical situations, whether he is a carry or support.
 * is a cheap stat item that provides good attributes for the gold spent on it. Increasing his intelligence is important for giving him base damage, increasing the size of his mana pool, and gaining more bonus damage from.

Core items: Situational items:
 * are important for providing Silencer with stats, particularly strength to give him more HP, no matter if he's a carry or support. The ability to switch attributes can help with spell casting or damage output, and the attack speed is highly beneficial when playing as a carry.
 * is important on Silencer whether he is played as a carry or support. As a support, it provides mobility that helps mitigate his frailty and allows him to close the distance quickly to cast spells, while also giving him HP regen and some intelligence to give him more mana. As a carry, it also increases the effectiveness of Glaives of Wisdom.
 * has all the benefits of Magic Stick, along with providing stats and greater charge storage. As Silencer is quite vulnerable to enemy attacks even as a carry, burst HP regen is always helpful.
 * is a very good support item that gives Silencer the ability to contribute more in teamfights, as it gives him stats and armor alongside the heal. While a carry Silencer often needs to build more powerful items instead, Mekansm is beneficial for a carry Silencer as well.
 * is a mandatory requirement on all heroes. As Silencer benefits greatly from showing up to teamfights due to his disables and Intelligence Steal, at least one should be carried at all times.
 * provides a strong disable, and helps with Silencer's lack of hard disables. The stats it provides are very beneficial, giving him more intelligence and HP as well as powerful mana regen to sustain his spells. It is a good item to build whether as a support or carry.
 * is an inexpensive utility item that provides both Intelligence and HP, and is great for Silencer if he needs early survivability. The slow is also great for catching enemies out of position, or holding them in place so that you can cut them down with Glaives of Wisdom.
 * greatly increases Silencer's survivability against physical damage while also granting him more intelligence to fuel his spells and attacks, making it a powerful carry item. The slow can also be used to chase down fleeing enemies more easily.
 * is a very powerful utility item, particularly on a support Silencer. The increased movement speed and mana regen allows Silencer to be more active on the map, while Cyclone can disable enemies, remove debuffs from yourself and make yourself temporarily invulnerable.
 * is a powerful item to build on a carry Silencer. The intelligence gives him a bigger mana pool and increases the effectiveness of Glaives of Wisdom, the attack speed and damage give him more physical damage output, and the mana regen allows him to ignore the mana cost of Glaives of Wisdom. Soul Burn is especially powerful as Silencer lacks a directly targeted silence in his spells, and it can be used in conjunction with his other abilities, both to allow Arcane Curse to last for its full duration and to extend the silence portion of to up to 11 seconds.
 * greatly increases Silencer's survivability, particularly as a carry. It gives him more HP and right-click damage, and the spell immunity prevents him from being disabled before he can cast his spells to disable the enemy instead.
 * adds Arcane Curse for the duration of, greatly increasing the amount of damage he deals no matter what role he is played in. It is useful for drastically hindering the enemy's ability to cast spells since the durotation increases, making it easier for Silencer and his team to finish the teamfight without the enemies being able to cast spells. The item itself also grants Silencer many beneficial stats across the board, giving him more survivability overall.
 * 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. Or to simply blink in to steal intelligence from dying enemy Heroes.
 * 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. This can be upgraded to which gives him agility for more attack speed and armor, and if Silencer has stolen a substantial amount of intelligence, Silencer can easily nuke down weakened or low-leveled Heroes with its active Ether Blast. And if Ether Blast is used in tandem with a  Silencer further increases his killing power, provided he has stolen plenty of intelligence.
 * 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 all the silences Silencer has, so that he can burn their mana with attacks, before they can spend it. 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.