Dark Seer

Ish'kafel the Dark Seer is a melee intelligence hero with versatile abilities that allow him to assist allies and greatly change the conditions of combat. His Vacuum in particular affects enemies in a large area and is a powerful crowd-control. It not only disorients and damages enemies, but also pushes them into a small area to follow up with area spells or to trigger other abilities, such as his Wall of Replica ultimate that turns the very power of enemies against them in the form of illusions that replicate their statistics. His other spells focus on buffing allies with speed, or in the case of his Ion Shell, granting an aura that radiates damage onto enemies who venture within it.

Tips

 * Surge can be cast on the team's courier, allowing it to get out of danger, or finish its delivery to allies faster.
 * With a Stout Shield and healing items, Dark Seer can start the game in the woods right away thanks to his Ion Shell. This is easiest done by stacking the camp and using Ion Shell on either Dark Seer or one of the lower health creeps. Be careful as the creeps treat the damage as coming from Dark Seer and will aggro onto him when near the camp.
 * 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 the enemy is faster. Even better, use surge to body-block enemy heroes (that is, get in front of them to hinder their movement) and deal damage with basic attacks without moving out of range of the Ion Shell.
 * AoE spells, especially those that require positioning, greatly benefit from Vacuum, as it can place all of them together to ensure a hit.
 * Using Vacuum on enemy heroes to send them through Wall of Replica will disallow foes from preventing illusions, as well as causing guaranteed damage from passing through the Wall.
 * Due to Vacuum being able to clump up a large group of enemies fast, and Ion Shell's high damage output considering enemies are affected by it for a longer while, they permit Dark Seer to synergize extremely well with heroes such as Enigma and . 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.
 * Mekansm is a strong pickup on Dark Seer, as it makes him tankier and he can very quickly farm one up.
 * A Bottle can also be used to sustain high mana use, if the Dark Seer is put midlane. It has the added benefit of rune control as most runes are useful for Ion Shell harass.

Trivia

 * Dark Seer's response, dkseer rare 04.mp3 "No, I will not calm my beard." is a response to 's and 's rival hero taunts, both voiced by Sam A. Mowry.
 * Dark Seer's Vacuum's lore is based on the military term, center of gravity ,which is a concept developed by Carl Von Clausewitz, a Prussian military theorist, in his work On War.