Dark Seer

Dark Seer 20 + 3.1 18 + 1.8 21 + 3.1
	+20HP and +0.1HP regeneration/point.
	+0.17 armor and 1 attack speed/point.
	+12MP and +0.05MP regeneration/point.; +1 main attack damage/point.
L0	Base Hero Values
L1	⤷ + Base Attributes
L15	⤷ + Attribute Gain
L25	⤷ + 6 levels of Attribute Bonus
L30	⤷ + 7 levels of Attribute Bonus
	All values shown are without talent bonuses.

Hero

Strategy

Counters

Ish'kafel, the Dark Seer, is a melee intelligence hero who relies on his abilities' potent utility and synergy. In lane he is sustained by high armor and enabled by his Ion Shell and Surge. Surge boosts his or an ally's speed, helping them to escape or pursue opponents. Ion Shell wraps a unit in a spiky shield that rapidly damages nearby enemies, enabling Ish'kafel to harass and gain last hits. These abilities also make him an efficient jungler and therefore a natural semi-carry, usually focused on building utility items.

Dark Seer's greatest damage is done during teamfights and comes from the combination of his final two abilities. Vacuum makes for powerful initiations. It sucks in nearby enemies, briefly disabling them and making them susceptible to area of effect spells—such as his Wall of Replica. The wall slows his foes and creates replicas of any enemy heroes that cross it, high-damage illusions that Dark Seer can control. A subtle hero, Ish'kafel's dark energies can be deadly in the right hands.

Bio[]

Ish'Kafel, the Dark Seer

▶️ "If your enemy is equal, prepare for him. If greater, elude him. If weaker, crush him."

Lore:

Fast when he needs to be, and a cunning strategist, Ish'Kafel the Dark Seer requires no edged weapons to vanquish his enemies, relying instead on the strength of his powerful mind. His talent lies in his ability to maneuver the fight to his advantage. Hailing from a place he calls 'The Land behind the wall,' Dark Seer remains an outsider here—a warrior from a realm beyond the veil of this reality.

Once a great general among his people, and a valiant defender of the god-king Damathryx, Dark Seer's army was wiped out by a much larger force in the final days of the Great Boundaries War. Facing certain defeat, he made one last desperate act: he led the enemy forces into the maze between the walls. At the last moment, just before capture, he crossed over—then sealed the walls forever in an explosive release of dark energy. When the dust settled, he saw that he had saved his people but found himself blinking at the sun of a different world, with no way to return. Now he is committed to proving his worth as a military strategist, and vows to show that he's the greatest tactician this strange new world has ever seen.

Voice:

John Patrick Lowrie (Responses)

Abilities[]

Vacuum

▶️QC

Ability
Target Area

Affects
Enemies

Damage
Magical

Dark Seer creates a vacuum over the target area that sucks in enemy units, disrupting them and dealing damage.

Cast Animation: +

Cast Range: 450/500/550/600

Effect Radius: 400/450/500/550 (

500/550/600/650)

Damage: 100/150/200/250

Pull Duration: 0.3/0.4/0.5/0.6

60/50/40/30

60/90/120/150

Attempts to deal damage if enemy turns spell immune before the pull ends.

Modifiers

modifier_dark_seer_vacuum: Dispellable with strong dispels.

Ish'Kafel modifies the center of gravity to a place of his choosing.

Notes:

The pull duration always takes 0.3/0.4/0.5/0.6 seconds, no matter how far or close the units are from the center, so the speed varies.
- Affected units are fully disabled during the pull.
- Can pull units over impassable terrain.

Fully affects invisible and invulnerable units (except for units affected by Cyclone from items), but not hidden units.
- Does not affect ancient creeps.

The damage is applied upon losing the debuff, dispelling the debuff causes the damage to happen earlier.

Destroys trees within 125 radius at the targeted point upon cast.

Ion Shell

▶️WE

Ability
Target Unit

Affects
Enemies
(

Allies)

Damage
Magical

Surrounds the target unit with a bristling shield that damages enemy units in an area around it.

Cast Animation: +

Cast Range: 600

Damage Radius: 275 (

350)

Damage per Second: 30/50/70/90 (

80/100/120/140)

Duration: 25 (

45)

Max Health Bonus: 275

Number of Charges: 2

Charge Replenish Time: 9

9 (

0)

110/120/130/140

Causes Ion Shell to have 2 charges, increases duration by 20 and provides +275 Health.

Can be cast on spell immune allies.
Cannot be cast on spell immune enemies. Shell persists if debuff was placed before spell immunity and when not dispelled.

Modifiers

modifier_dark_seer_ion_shell: Dispellable with any dispel.

The Dark Seer slices holes into the 'Land Behind the Wall,' causing prismatic energy to seep forth.

Notes:

Ion Shell can be cast on enemy and allied units, damaging only enemy units. The unit with the shell itself is not damaged.
- The damage affects invisible enemies within the radius, However, the visual effects do not appear.
- Cannot be cast on creep-heroes or Couriers.
- ↓↓ Double-tapping automatically targets self.

Successive casts on the same unit do not stack, but refresh the duration and update the damage to the current level instead.
- When two opposing heroes cast it on the same target, the modifier updates and starts damaging the enemies of the latest caster.
- The modifier status, however, does not update. Whether it is treated as a buff or debuff is determined by the first cast, and not updated on refresh.

Deals 4.5/7.5/10.5/13.5 ( 12/15/18/21) damage in 0.15-second intervals, starting 0.15 seconds after the cast, resulting in 166.7 ( 300) damage instances.

Can deal up to 750/1250/1750/2250 ( 2000/2500/3000/3500) damage to a single unit (before reductions), if the enemy unit stays within range for the full duration.
- With Aghanim's Scepter, it can deal up to 1350/2250/3150/4050 ( 3600/4500/5400/6300) damage to a single unit (before reductions), if the enemy unit stays within range for the full duration.
- The damage upgrading talent immediately upgrades all of Dark Seer's currently active Ion Shell modifiers.

With Aghanim's Scepter, Ion Shell also increases maximum health of targeted allies by 275, keeping the current health percentage the same.

Surge

▶️ER

Ability
Target Unit
(

Target Area)

Affects
Allies

Charges a target friendly unit with power, giving it a brief burst of movement speed and removes unit collisions. Allows the unit to reach maximum movement speed and cannot be slowed.

Cast Animation: +

Cast Range: 600

Haste Speed: 550

Duration: 3/4/5/6

Radius: 350

19/16/13/10

50

Modifiers

modifier_dark_seer_surge: Dispellable with any dispel.

Ish'Kafel once used his speed of mind to navigate the maze between the walls.

Notes:

↓↓ Double-tapping automatically targets self.

Applies haste and grants phased movement on the target, meaning it cannot be slowed while affected.

With the level 25 talent, Surge turns into an area-targeted ability, so that it cannot directly target units anymore.
- ↓↓ Double-tapping centers the radius around Dark Seer.

Normal Punch

▶️

Ability
Passive

Affects
Enemy Heroes

Damage
Magical

Grants Normal Punch. Passive cooldown attack. Causes Dark Seer's next attack on a hero to have True Strike, knock an illusion out of the victim and stun them for up to 2.25 seconds, 350 distance and 300 magic damage based on how far Dark Seer has moved in the past 3 seconds. Max power is reached after 900 distance moved. Illusions lasts for 8 seconds. Cooldown: 14

Recent Movement Time Window: 3

Distance Required for Max Values: 900

Min Knockback Distance: 50

Max Knockback Distance: 350

Min Damage: 10

Max Damage: 300

Min Stun Duration: 0.2

Max Stun Duration: 2.25

Number of Illusions: 1

Illusion Damage Dealt: 80%

Illusion Damage Taken: 200%

Illusion Spawn Delay: 0.7

Illusion Duration: 8

14

Modifiers

modifier_dark_seer_normal_punch: Undispellable. Persists death.

modifier_dark_seer_normal_punch_illusion_thinker: Undispellable. Persists death.

modifier_dark_seer_normal_punch_illusion: Dispellable with death only.

modifier_illusion: Dispellable with death only.

modifier_invulnerable: Dispellable with death only.

modifier_stunned: Dispellable with strong dispels.

modifier_knockback: Dispellable with strong dispels.

Ability Draft Notes:

Requires drafting

Wall of Replica to be unlocked.

Notes:

Requires Aghanim's Shard to be unlocked.

Grants Dark Seer's attacks True Strike when not on cooldown. The cooldown triggers upon successfully landing an attack on an enemy.

The bonus damage is dealt in a separate damage instance, and counts as spell damage.
- This means it is not affected or considered by anything that works with attack damage.
- This also means that it fully works with spell damage amplification and spell lifesteal.

Constantly checks the distance Dark Seer moves and calculates the damage, knockback distance, knockback duration, and stun duration accordingly.
- For every 10 distance moved, the damage increases by 3.222, knockback distance by 3.333, knockback duration by 0.011, and stun duration by 0.023.
- Teleporting effects (which includes Blink) may only add up to 600 range to the distance counter, no matter how big the actual teleported distance was.
- The distance counter never resets, so it is possible to perform multiple full power punches in a row, with the help of cooldown resetting sources.

These are the damage, knockback distance, and stun duration values at certain distances moved in the last 3 seconds (before reductions):
- 0 distance moved: 10 damage, 50 knockback distance, 0.1s knockback duration, 0.2s stun duration.
- 180 distance moved: 68 damage, 110 knockback distance, 0.305s knockback duration, 0.61s stun duration.
- 360 distance moved: 126 damage, 170 knockback distance, 0.51s knockback duration, 1.02s stun duration.
- 540 distance moved: 184 damage, 230 knockback distance, 0.715s knockback duration, 1.43s stun duration.
- 720 distance moved: 242 damage, 290 knockback distance, 0.92s knockback duration, 1.84s stun duration.
- 900 distance moved: 300 damage, 350 knockback distance, 1.125s knockback duration, 2.25s stun duration.

Normal Punch first applies the stun, then the damage, then the knockback, then the attack damage.

The illusion is spawned 350 range behind the enemy's determined landing position, 0.7 seconds after Normal Punch was delivered.
- The illusion can be controlled normally. It is initially ordered to attack the punched target.

The punch particle and sound effects upgrade when the distance counter is at 300, and upgrade again when at 900.

Wall of Replica

▶️RW

Ability
Target Point / Vector Targeting

Affects
Enemy Heroes

Raises a wall of warping light that slows and creates replicas of any enemy hero who crosses it. Enemy replicas serve at the Dark Seer's will. Replicas last until they are destroyed, or until the wall's duration ends.

Cast Animation: +

Cast Range: 1300

Number of Walls: 1 (

2)

Wall Length: 1300

Wall Width: 50

Move Speed Slow: 50%/60%/70%

Illusion Damage Dealt: 70%/85%/100% (

90%/105%/120%)

Illusion Damage Taken: 200%

Duration: 30

Slow Duration: 1

Parallel Wall Distance: 600

100 (

60)

125/250/375

Grants a new ability: Normal Punch.

Creates illusions of spell immune enemies, but does not slow them.

Modifiers

modifier_dark_seer_wall_of_replica: Undispellable. Persists death.

modifier_darkseer_wallofreplica_illusion: Dispellable with death only.

modifier_illusion: Dispellable with death only.

modifier_invulnerable: Dispellable with death only.

modifier_dark_seer_wall_slow: Dispellable with any dispel.

The Dark Seer, while unable to return to his natural realm, can channel part of the prismatic wall with powerful strength of mind, sowing confusion amongst enemy ranks.

Notes:

The values of the wall are set upon creation, and do not update upon leveling the ability up after having placed the wall.

A wall can only create one illusion per player. There cannot be more than one illusion per player per wall.
- This means when there are multiple walls up (with the parallel wall talent, or with multiple casts), each wall can create one illusion for each enemy.
- This also means that when an enemy has multiple heroes ( Meepo Clones and Tempest Double), they are still limited to one illusion per wall.
- Even if the illusion gets Enchanted, the wall still cannot create another illusion until the previous one dies.
- When the illusion dies, the wall can create a new illusion of that hero as soon as it comes in range.

Only creates illusions of real heroes. Does not create illusions of illusions pathing through the wall.
- Can create illusions of Divided We Stand and Tempest Double as well, but not of Wukong's Command clones.
- Can create the illusions of invulnerable enemies, but not hidden ones. The slow, however, is not placed on invulnerable units.

Upon spawning, the illusions are automatically ordered to attack the heroes they are based on.

Illusions created by Wall of Replica have a static 5 and 5_XP bounty which does not scale with levels.

The illusions' duration is based on the remaining duration of the wall from which they originate.

The illusion spawns 108 range away from the hero if the hero has a collision size of 24, and 72 if the collision size is 8. It appears either north, east, south or west from the target.

Wall of Replica illusions are visually distinguishable for the enemies.

The slow is applied constantly within the wall's area. When walls overlap with each, their slows do not stack.

The parallel wall talent places a second wall 600 range behind the cast location of first wall, parallel to it.

Talents[]

Hero Talents
350 AoE Surge	25	Parallel Wall
+50 Ion Shell Damage	20	-40s Wall of Replica Cooldown
+75 Ion Shell Radius	15	+100 Vacuum AoE
+6 Armor	10	+20% Wall of Replica Illusion Damage

Notes:

The armor talent does not benefit illusions.

Recent Changes[]

Main Article: Dark Seer/Changelogs

Version

Description

7.30c

Aghanim's Scepter upgrade:
- Reduced Ion Shell max health bonus from 300 to 275.
Talents:

Level 20 right talent: -30s

Wall of Replica cooldown increased to -40s.

Level 25 left talent: 320 AoE

Surge increased to 350 AoE. []

7.30

Increased health regeneration from 0 to 0.25.
Reduced Wall of Replica duration from 45 to 30.
Aghanim's Shard upgrade:
- Normal Punch
  - Now has True Strike.
  - Increased max damage from 250 to 300.
  - Increased illusion duration from 5 to 8.
Talents:

Level 10 right talent changed: +75

Ion Shell radius ➜ +20%

Wall of Replica illusion damage dealt.

Level 15 left talent changed: +25%

Wall of Replica illusion damage dealt ➜ +75

Ion Shell radius.

Level 20 left talent: +60

Ion Shell damage per second reduced to +50.

Level 20 right talent: -30s

Wall of Replica cooldown increased to -35s.

7.29

Vacuum
- Reduced cast backswing from 0.7 to 0.4.
- Reduced tree destruction radius from 275 to 125.
Ion Shell
- Increased damage interval from 0.1 to 0.15.
- Increased damage per second from 24/46/68/90 to 30/50/70/90.
- Increased mana cost from 100/110/120/130 to 110/120/130/140.
Aghanim's Scepter upgrade:
- Reduced Ion Shell max health bonus from 350 to 300.
Aghanim's Shard upgrade:
- Normal Punch
  - Reduced distance required for max values from 1500 to 900.
  - Increased illusion damage dealt from 40% to 80%.
  - Reduced illusion damage taken from 300% to 200%.
Talents:

Level 10 left talent changed: +60

Vacuum radius ➜ +6 armor.

Level 15 right talent changed: +6 armor ➜ +100

Vacuum.

Level 20 right talent changed: +1s

Wall of Replica slow duration ➜ -30s

Wall of Replica cooldown.

Recommended Items[]

Starting items:

Tango sustains health in the laning stage.
Healing Salve restores health to stay in lane.
Clarity sustains mana to use Ion Shell.
Iron Branch boosts Dark Seer's attributes, builds up to a Magic Wand and/or Mekansm later on and can be paired with Tango for more healing.
Enchanted Mango gives health regeneration and can restore mana in a pinch, before Dark Seer acquires Soul Ring.

Early game:

Magic Stick gives burst health and mana in a pinch.
Soul Ring covers most of your mana issues and allows you to constantly use Ion Shell in order to harass your lane opponents and get some last hits.
Boots of Speed gives mobility for chasing or running away.
Infused Raindrops gives mana regeneration and absorbs some magical damage.

Mid game:

Magic Wand sustains health and mana in fights.
Helm of the Dominator allows you to pull off Vacuum combos by yourself. Also, gives you an additional controllable unit to use Ion Shell on to fight or to push out waves.
Arcane Boots increase your mana pool and allow you to restore your teammates' mana.
Mekansm adds to Dark Seer's teamfight effectiveness and increases durability. Also his decent intelligence gain means he will generally have enough mana to use the heal.
Blink Dagger can help you positioning to place a better vacuum wall combo.
Town Portal Scroll allows you to be at any lane for a gank, countergank, or push in seconds.

Late game:

Guardian Greaves restores both health and mana to team; the health regeneration and armor aura works better on wounded allies.
Shiva's Guard grants you more punch to your Vacuum and Wall of Replica initiation, and gives you armor and intelligence.
Lotus Orb removes debuffs from Dark Seer or an ally, as well as granting Echo Shell to reflect spells.

Situational items:

Force Staff changes position of Dark Seer or any heroes.
Pipe of Insight grants you and your allies protection from magical damage.
Crimson Guard can protect your team from physical attacks in teamfights.
Aghanim's Scepter buffs Ion Shell, making it a survivability buff and giving two charges.
Ghost Scepter should be considered to counter high physical damage dealers, ensuring your survival to use abilities.
Black King Bar guarantees your initiation with spell immunity to ward off almost all disables.
Scythe of Vyse grants mana regeneration and Hex to completely nullify an enemy hero from using abilities or attacking.
Refresher Orb allows you to use your abilities and items twice in a row if needed.
Radiance for dealing more magical damage combined with ion shell and 17% miss chance combined with your evasion.
Octarine Core will restore your health because of your AoE magical damage abilities and lower cooldowns for better influence in fight.

Gameplay[]


Roles:	Initiator Jungler Escape Disabler
Complexity:	★☆☆
Playstyle:	In a final, calculated move, Ish'Kafel led his outnumbered army into a new world, sealing the path behind with a burst of dark energy. A cunning tactician, the Dark Seer manipulates gravity to pull foes into a Vacuum, drawing them into the prismatic thorns of his Ion Shell. Armed only with his intellect, he Surges across the land to survey every point of conflict. At strategic locations Ish'Kafel places a Wall of Replica, sowing confusion amongst enemy ranks as an army of duplicates emerge to do battle against their own likenesses.

Strategy & Tips

Counters &
Matchups

Audio[]

Responses

Sounds

History[]

Lore

Old Abilities

Changelogs

Equipment[]

Trivia[]

Dark Seer's response, "Speed is the heart of battle." is an indirect quote of Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu, who said "Quickness is the essence of war."
Dark Seer's response, ▶️ "No, I will not calm my beard." is a response to Beastmaster's and Clockwerk'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.
Normal Punch makes numerous references to the anime One Punch Man.
- The name of the ability references the protagonist's move "Consecutive Normal Punches".
- The particle effects include a giant red fist striking the enemy, which looks like the fists of the protagonist.
- The particle effect generally has an anime-style theme to it, with the static lines and whirls, the haloes, and the japanese floating texts, which are the japanese equivalents of "Pow!".
The effect of Normal Punch punching an illusion out of the body may be a reference to the scene in Doctor Strange in which Doctor Strange's "astral form" is getting separated from his physical form.^[1]