Chaos Knight/Guide

Carry/Pushing Chaos Knight
Carry Chaos Knight is the usual way to play Chaos Knight. It's most appropriate against line ups that have too little AOE to deal with your army in the late game.

You'll usually want to max out first as the increased stun duration (and guaranteed 2 sec stun at level 4) can allow you to burst almost anyone down. Odds are you won't want to skip at level 6 as you can use it to quickly push a tower, perhaps after bursting the offlaner. Get a point in at level 2 and don't skip the value point of at level 4 as the armor reduction it provides can make a huge difference for kills.

It's unlikely none of the enemy heroes will have no AOE, but if it's only magical burst, don't forget your considerable strength gain per level and your desire to build strength items can help your army survive even through full-blown wombo-combos. It's not uncommon for a Chaos Knight army to survive an even while clumped up, and move forth unscathed.

There are few scenarios where you'll want to skip as it synergizes perfectly with Chaos Knight. Don't forget to turn it on before using. Otherwise, you'll mainly want to build stats. is a good midgame item that will disassemble for an optimal and slightly-less-optimal. and provide the most stats, the latter enabling you to keep your armlet always toggled. and also work well with your illusions, the latter hugely improving your chances to get a critical strike (though the illusions won't benefit from the damage, only the crit).

and make you less reliant on your ultimate.

Support/Roaming Chaos Knight
Chaos Knight makes for a formidable roamer thanks to his excellent base damage and speed, and it might make your opponents try too hard to counter you with AOE abilities that might have too little impact for your team's 'real' carry.

As a roaming CK, you'll want to start with a point in for the stun, and have one point in each of your abilities by level 3. The armor reduction from immensely increases a gank's potential should you be lucky enough to get it off.

Since your stun is unreliable at best, you may want to max out first, as it considerably lowers the cooldown and increases the pull distance, and gives some guaranteed damage on hit. If you're protecting your carry in lane, don't hesitate to repeatedly cast it and cancel the animation as it can make the enemy very fearful and make him waste a spell or item.

Since Chaos Knight's mana pool is so low and its cooldown is so long, you may opt to skip your ultimate at level 6, especially since your illusion(s) won't hit that hard without any strength-boosting items.

If you're roaming, a or an  can do wonders to net you kills, and you should probably skip a  since your starting speed is already good enough. You'll want some items to keep your mana up during and after ganks, a or a  will help you.

is undoubtedly your best bet. It gives good strength to boost up you and your, good int and mana regen to keep your supply up, and the active, although it doesn't work with your illusions, give you a good chance to get off a , making your ganks much more likely to succeed. provide decent stats at a fair price with a good build-up, they're more suited for a support/roaming CK than a carry CK.

As a support/roamer, buy wards and detection as needed.


 * Though Chaos Bolt's damage is average, it's not to be underestimated. A 275 nuke can make a difference.
 * Chaos Bolt, like and  is easy to predict and disjoint, even easier due to CK's poor cast animation. Try to use it as close to an enemy as possible if he has a way to dodge it...
 * ... Unlike and  however, CK can use  to get in melee range of an enemy and make it a lot harder to disjoint your stun...
 * ... But Rift's cast time is possibly even worse than your stun and it will not complete if you lose vision of your enemy as he jukes through the trees for example.
 * All in all, it makes CK a poor initiator if he's in vision of the enemy, and it's better to let your support do the jump. If you're roaming, try to come from behind, hide in the trees, or use a to increase your odds of landing a spell.
 * Chaos Bolt has two value points: one at level 1 where it's a 'guaranteed' one second stun, and another at level 4 where it becomes a 'guaranteed' two second stun. If you already have three points in it, you'll want to get the fourth point ASAP.


 * Chaos Strike works with every CK illusion you can find, both the damage and the armor reduction. Though it only has 10% chance to proc, if you surround an enemy with 4 illusions from a lucky, 2 from a and 2 more from an , odds are it will proc very quickly. Granted, any hero surrounded by an army of CK should die pretty quickly regardless of armor reduction.
 * The armor reduction doesn't stack with itself, another proc will only refresh the duration.
 * Since Chaos Strike has only 10% chance to proc, it actually mingles nicely with a . You will only have a 3% chance to proc both at once, wasting the proc of the Daedalus (since it's proc damage is lower than a maxed out Chaos Strike). Comparatively, two daedali (daedalae? daedaluses? Seriously, what's the plural?) have 9% chance to proc together.
 * 5 armor reduction is huge in the early game. Get a value point at level 3 or 4.
 * If you're really behind on farm, you can argue it's better to level up stats than more points in Chaos Strike. But don't skip it entirely.


 * If you know for sure a fight is about to start, it's sometimes better to use your ultimate before it even starts off. The illusions have a very long duration and if you can find a good target to it can immediately turn a fight in your favor. Be mindful not to use it under enemy vision as they may immediately back away.
 * Also, if your enemies have huge teamfight AOEs, they may be specifically waiting for you to cast Phantasm in the middle of the fight to jump on you.
 * However, if all their abilities are meant to counter your army, it could be wise to keep it until they've blown some of them on different targets.
 * If that would be the case, it could be safer to use your illusions only to push towers, keeping your hero and the rest of your team safely behind. The illusions long duration should even enable you to split push a bit to make counter the enemy's teamfight strategy.
 * Your illusions pack a huge punch. They will automatically attack whoever you're pulling with Reality Rift. This target may instantly blow up. Don't forget to micro-manage your illusions while that target is dead and Rift is on cd. The same is true if you're dead. If you're confident with your micro-management skills, the best strategy is probably to send one after every enemy hero, similarly to 's, and against their buildings if you still have some left to spare.
 * Phantasm has a very long cooldown. It is generally unwise to use it as a last-ditch effort when you're about to die since it would still be on cd well after you've respawned. However, like and  it does provide a short instant of invulnerability that can help you disjoint spells, even 's.