Ember Spirit/Guide

Hero

 

Strategy

 

Equipment

 

Gear

 

Talents

 

Relics

 

Responses

 

Sounds

 

Animations

 

Lore

 

Old Abilities

 

Changelogs

 

Known Bugs

 

Gameplay

Playstyle
Ember Spirit is a very mobile and evasive mid hero due to his ability to strike from range or dodge enemy attacks using Sleight of Fist and Fire Remnant. Playing Ember Spirit requires quick reflexes, good judgment and an aggressive mindset, as his instant cast animations and high mobility allow skilled players to outplay and outwit opponents, darting around the map to be where they least expect.
Pros	Cons
Great mobility, hard to kill in teamfights. Global-wide presence, Strong pushing skillset. Deals AoE physical damage that scales into late game. Large magical damage in early to mid game. Absorbs moderate amount of magical damage. Can adapt to most situations with a versatile playstyle.	Reliant on mana. Weak manfight capability. Vulnerable to silences and chain stuns. High requirement for good positioning and reflexes.

Magical Carry

• Comes online early since abilities output high magical damage.
• Maelstrom is a must-have on Ember Spirit in order to somewhat scale as the game goes on.
• Octarine Core and talents increase uptime of disables in Searing Chains and mobility in Fire Remnant, thus making him more survivable.
• Radiance increase his survivability by passive lifestealing using Bloodstone.

Physical Carry

• Shines late game with Sleight of Fist enhanced with damage items, and against high number of enemy units when having Battle Fury.
• Consider defensive items like Black King Bar, as physical Ember Spirit is not as survivable as the magical version.
• Divine Rapier is recommended when having Aegis of the Immortal, or as an attempt to turn around a losing game.

Ability Builds

Magical Carry Ember Spirit
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	20	25

Physical Carry Ember Spirit
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	20	25

Talents

Hero Talents
-12s Remnant Charge Restore Time	25	2 Sleight of Fist Charges
+55 Sleight of Fist Hero Damage	20	+1 Searing Chains Target
+1s Searing Chains Duration	15	+50 Flame Guard DPS
+200 Flame Guard Barrier Amount	10	+12 Damage

Notes:

• Grants bonus attack damage.
  • Does not benefit illusions and is not affected by most percentage-based damage increasing or reducing effects.

Tips & Tactics

• The only benefit of leveling up Fire Remnant is its damage; The number and duration of remnants remains the same. It is viable to level Fire Remnant sooner for more burst damage in incoming teamfights.
• When laning against certain heroes (in mid) that rely on skills to harass ( Queen of Pain's Shadow Strike, Shadow Fiend's Shadowraze (Far), Windranger's Powershot), one point in Sleight of Fist might be valuable to dodge their damage. Note that Sleight of Fist dodges skills by rendering Ember Spirit invulnerable rather than disjointing them. As an example, Sleight of Fist should be used just before Shadow Strike hits you, not immediately after the skill being used.
• Sleight of Fist doesn't help Ember Spirit farm at all in early to mid game when he has few attack damage items. Flame Guard and Searing Chains help a lot to deal damage, and Fire Remnant helps Ember Spirit move around the map quickly and farm dangerous lanes.
• Ember Spirit has mana issues early in the game - using Fire Remnant to chase will often put you in danger. The higher level of Sleight of Fist you get, the further your Searing Chains can hold the enemy.
• A good combo is to use Sleight of Fist, and right when you are dealing the damage, use Searing Chains. This is useful when chasing, as it allows you a few seconds to regain lost ground. Also, it can be used for ganking, but be wary not to use it when the enemy is near a creep wave, as Searing Chains might miss.

General

• While Ember Spirit is an agility hero, Ember Spirit has very low armor and poor agility growth, making him vulnerable to physical damage despite his respectable strength growth. As such, he depends on using his spells and mobility to dodge attacks, disjoint projectiles and evade counterattack. His dependency on casting also makes him vulnerable to disables, particularly stuns and silences, as they prevent him from avoiding damage that his small HP pool is ill-suited to deal with.
• In general, Ember Spirit is best played either as a core farmer in the safe lane, or as a mid. As a safe lane farmer, Ember Spirit can safely farm up the items he needs to become a late-game threat, and his mobility allows him to engage on the enemy offlaner unexpectedly and help disable them during ganks, or evade enemy ganks targeted on him. As a mid, getting fast levels early on allows him to gank side lanes and get kills with his mobility and disables, giving him a strong early-game presence and allowing him to snowball out of control.
• In terms of talents:
  • Level 10 talents: If you're up against heroes that deal a lot of magical damage, it might be worth it to get the +280 Flame Guard Absorption talent if you think they might harass or target you a lot with their spells. However, if you need a bit more help farming or want to use Sleight of Fist more, the +15 Damage talent is a good option.
  • Level 15 talents: If you find yourself roaming and ganking often or are up against particularly mobile opponents like Storm Spirit, the +0.8s Searing Chains talent could help in securing a kill. If you're not using Searing Chains all that often though or find Flame Guard more useful, the +50 Flame Guard DPS could be more helpful.
  • Level 20 talents: If Sleight of Fist is your primary damage source in fights, it's worth going for the +65 Sleight of Fist Hero Damage talent. However, if you aren't using Sleight of Fist a lot and are using your other spells more often, it might be better to go for the 8% Spell Amplification Talent.
  • Level 25 talents: If you have a need for more burst damage or mobility, the -12 Remnant Charge Restore Time is definitely going to help you with that. However, if you're relying more on physical damage, the 2 Sleight of Fist Charges talent is very useful, as it could absolutely devastate the enemy team.

Abilities

Searing Chains

• Searing Chains' scaling means that it can be used as a strong early-game damage nuke, and its low cooldown allows it to be cast multiple times in a fight if need be. As such, it is a good candidate for your first ability to max out.
• Keep in mind, the targets for Searing Chains are chosen randomly, so creeps can be hit if they are within the spell's radius. When attempting to chain down an enemy player, ensure that there are no creeps nearby that can foul your attempts to disable them, or try to position Ember Spirit such that only the hero and at most one other unit are within the spell's radius.
• This ability can be combined with Sleight of Fist, as the latter spell positions Ember Spirit next to the target to be slashed during each strike. This means that Sleight followed by Chains can allow Ember Spirit to root enemies from long range if the combo is timed correctly.
• Searing Chains will root affected targets, preventing them from using teleporting abilities and items.

Sleight of Fist

• Sleight of Fist is best described as an area-of-effect physical damage nuke that allows Ember Spirit to apply attack damage to all enemies within the spell's radius.
• While this spell does not disjoint projectiles, Ember Spirit is invulnerable for its duration, so any projectiles that hit him during the spell will not affect him. As such, it can be used to effectively dodge damage and disables by becoming invulnerable as the projectile hits him.
• Conversely, as the damage dealt is based on Ember Spirit's attack damage, Sleight of Fist is one of the strongest scaling abilities in the game, since Ember Spirit can apply large amounts of physical damage as well as attack modifiers on the entire enemy team every six seconds. If Ember Spirit builds enough raw damage items, he can potentially wipe the entire enemy team in a single cast of this spell.
  • Maelstrom is a standard item for most magical Ember players or even physical users for its cost-effective damage scaling and allows Ember to pick up on his farming speed with Chain Lightning.
• Mind that evasion, blind and disarm will affect Sleight of Fist, so it is possible that strikes during this spell will not hit their targets depending on any evasion items the enemy is carrying, or if Ember Spirit is affected by blind or disarm.
• Invisible enemies will not be targeted for a slash by this spell, however it will hit enemies in the fog of war. Combined with Searing Chains, this allows Ember Spirit to jump at enemies in the dark and chain them down, which can prevent players from juking into the jungle and teleporting away.
• Ember Spirit can use abilities and items during Sleight of Fist, though he will still return to his original position regardless. As such, it is possible to execute unorthodox combos such as beginning to channel Town Portal Scroll during the invulnerability or sending a Fire Remnant during the slashes and then jumping to it once done. Be sure to gauge your timing based on the number of targets within the striking area, however, as more targets means a greater slashing duration.
  • To escape, use Fire Remnant during Sleight of Fist so the remnant has time to travel some distance away from Ember Spirit.
• It's very important to remember that, no matter what, Ember Spirit will always return to the position he was in when Sleight of Fist was cast as soon as it's over - Using Blink Dagger, Activate Fire Remnant, teleporting, among other things that can alter his position, are never queued, they occur as soon as they are activated and Ember will continue slashing any left targets if Sleight of Fist had not concluded by then no matter where he is, and then return to the cast position.
• Regarding purchasing more than one Battle Fury, bear in mind that your second one will increase your cleave damage by 100%, and your third by 50%. Getting a fourth is not recommended as it increases the damage by 33.3% in relation to your current cleave damage, and as such, it is better to get a Daedalus as the critical chance grants approximately a 40% overall damage increase.

Flame Guard

• Flame Guard shields Ember Spirit from magical damage, traditionally an agility carry's greatest weakness, while also allowing him to deal burn damage to all nearby enemies.
• Besides the charge restore time on Fire Remnants, Flame Guard is Ember Spirit's longest cooldown ability. As such, try to use it sparingly, as casting it to farm creeps may leave you vulnerable if the enemy attempts to gank you shortly after.
• In the early game, Flame Guard gives Ember Spirit protection against magic damage, as well as allowing him to deal it to enemies while chasing them down. As such, Ember Spirit is a potent early-game fighter if he has a few points in this ability.
• In order to use this spell to its maximum effectiveness, particularly in mid match-ups, try to aim to only skill it to the point where you can ignore the enemy's burst damage attack and still have the shield up to deal burn damage to them. If facing a weak magic nuker in the mid lane, one or two points in this ability can allow you to shrug off their alpha strike, and then continue to deal burn damage to them while also expending the remaining points in Searing Chains, increasing its overall damage and disable duration.

Fire Remnant

• Fire Remnant allows Ember Spirit to place a Fire Remnant at the target location, and then cast Activate Fire Remnant to quickly dash to it, exploding it to deal area magical damage.
• Fire Remnant is Ember Spirit's primary mobility, initiation and escape ability, as it allows him to re-position himself almost instantly, no matter his position relative to the remnant. As such, it can be used not only to quickly close the distance to an enemy while dealing nuke damage upon arriving, it can also be used to move across the map, whether to escape from an enemy gank or to arrive at a friendly one.
• As with Sleight of Fist, Ember Spirit does not disjoint projectiles upon casting Activate Fire Remnant, but is invulnerable during the travel time. As such, it can be used to disjoint projectiles if they connect with him while he is invulnerable, though beware of projectiles continuing to chase you if the remnant's location does not allow you to path over the projectile during the spell. If this is the case, consider having Sleight of Fist ready to cast on any non-friendly creeps at your destination, in order to dodge any projectiles that might follow you across the map.
• Beware of Activate Fire Remnant's heavy mana cost, as combined with Ember Spirit's small mana pool it can completely drain him of mana if he tries to cast it more than once or uses it in combination with his other spells. Always keep an eye on your mana to ensure that you're able to cast Activate Fire Remnant when needed, and try to avoid using it more than once in a short period of time as this also depletes your Fire Remnant reserve.
• Fire Remnants do not provide any vision and are thus not visible through the fog of war. Remembering where the remnants were placed is important, in order to not get accidentally in danger.
• While its most basic use is to initiate on an enemy over distance, Fire Remnants can also be used as an escape tool. By placing one in an area of known safety, Ember Spirit can instantly dash away in the face of overwhelming danger, evading ganks or quickly retreating after a successful kill.
• Beware that the Fire Remnant's travel speed is based on that of Ember Spirit when it is sent forth. This means that if Ember Spirit is suffering from slow debuffs, the remnant will take longer to reach its destination, which can give the enemy more time to kill him. As such, it is wise to place a remnant beforehand, or to avoid being affected by slows before casting it. Conversely, this also means that its travel speed can be boosted by increasing Ember Spirit's movement speed, such as using Drum of Endurance's active.
• Fire Remnants do not scale very well, as the only thing that increases is the amount of damage dealt by an exploding remnant upon arrival. Unless you regularly use the explosion damage as part of a damage nuke, it is usually wise to skill it at level 6 but to avoid taking additional levels until your other regular abilities are maxed out.
• In concert to the above, a dangerous but powerful tactic is to cast all three Fire Remnants at a target location and then dash to them, dealing 300/450/600 near-instantaneous alpha damage. However, keep in mind that this will completely deplete your remnant reserve, greatly reducing your mobility for at least the next 35 seconds.
• One useful trick with Fire Remnants is that, due to their global re-positioning potential, they can be dropped in place prior to using a Town Portal Scroll or other globally re-positioning item, and then return to your previous location if so desired. This can be useful for things such as quickly replenishing HP and mana at base, quickly teleporting to defend or counter-gank and then returning to farming/pushing, and so on. In particular, the first tactic is extremely strong when combined with a Bottle, as Ember Spirit can replenish his HP and mana, grab any items from stash, and refill his bottle all at the cost of a Town Portal Scroll and a Fire Remnant charge.
• As well as the above, Fire Remnants can be used to quickly return to battle after buying back. If a Fire Remnant is placed near a battle and Ember Spirit is killed, buying back and then casting Activate Fire Remnant can allow him to instantly return to a fight, bringing his damage nukes and disables with him to turn the tide for his team.

Items

Starting items:

• Tango helps Ember Spirit sustain during the laning phase, preventing him from being forced to return to base due to enemy harassment.

• Healing Salve also restores health to Ember Spirit.

• Faerie Fire may help you survive a gank or lethal attack from tower after killing enemy. It also helps with last hitting.

• Iron Branch is a cheap and effective way to improve Ember Spirit's mana pool and health pool, both of which are lacking in the early game.

Early game:

• Bottle gives Ember Spirit a way to sustain his HP and mana, allowing him to remain out in the field to farm or fight. It is best purchased if Ember Spirit is played as a mid hero, as he can access runes more easily.

• Infused Raindrops can mitigate magical damage in fights, also helps with mana regeneration.

• Boots of Speed are essential for Ember Spirit, as the improved speed will allow him to escape deadly situations, as well as catch up to an escaping enemy. It also improves his ability to successfully catch an escaping hero with Searing Chains.

Mid game:

• Phase Boots is opted for an aggressive Ember Spirit who loves to chase his foes as its active allows his Fire Remnant to travel faster upon cast before blinking towards its location. The bonus damage and armor is highly appreciated for Ember since he lacks armor for an agility hero.

• Boots of Travel gives Ember Spirit high global mobility in conjunction with Fire Remnant, letting him quickly assist in ganks, pushes, and defenses all around the map or heal up at the Fountain before returning to farm near-instantly.

• Battle Fury keeps Ember Spirit's mana topped up and gives cleave damage to Sleight of Fist, making him more dangerous in teamfights and increasing his farming speed.

• Mage Slayer can debuff multiple enemies with Sleight of Fist, crippling opponents' spell damage while wearing down their health.

• Maelstrom is a cheaper alternative to Battle Fury for giving Sleight of Fist splash damage, and is often more useful for magical builds. Can be upgraded into Gleipnir to inflict an AOE root on cast in conjunction with Sleight of Fist, or Mjollnir is taken instead to clear multiple illusions.

Late game:

• Gleipnir grants Ember all-around attributes, specifically his intelligence, bolstering his mana pool whilst providing an active that deals damage upon cast while Rooting enemies combined with Sleight of Fist, giving him another effective disable on his arsenal of magical spells.

• Daedalus scales Ember Spirit with great additional damage and a chance to deal 2.2x damage on an attack. It synergizes extremely well with Sleight of Fist, allowing for powerful physical damage output at a distance. A physical Ember must have this to fully transition into a hard-hitting truck as he blitz across the map.
  • Multiple Daedalus allows Ember Spirit to inflict tremendous amounts of physical damage using Sleight of Fist, potentially resulting in multi-kills against the enemy team if they are clustered together.

• Black King Bar is a must-have item in the face of heavy disables. As he can be killed very quickly if ever stunned or silenced, spell immunity allows Ember Spirit to engage the enemy head-on and ignore their disables while fighting, giving him a bigger damage window before he needs to retreat. As well, it gives him additional strength, increasing the size of his HP pool, as well as more raw damage.

• Linken's Sphere gives Ember Spirit stats across the board, as well as passive HP and mana regen. The Spell Block passive allows Ember Spirit to shrug off one targeted spell during a fight, hopefully a targeted disable, increasing his slipperiness and allowing him to fight without fear of being disabled.

• Manta Style gives Ember Spirit a measure of defense against silences, as he can instantly dispel debuffs, especially silence, while also creating two illusions with which to confuse the enemy. The item itself also provides very useful bonuses, giving him all-around stats, more agility and attack speed, and a movement speed bonus that increases his mobility. Finally, as items can be used during Sleight of Fist, combining this item, Sleight of Fist and Searing Chains can allow Ember Spirit to root and place illusions near a target from long range.

Situational items:

• Drum of Endurance, gives Ember Spirit all-around stats, shoring up his HP and mana pool as well as giving him increased damage. The bonus movement speed increases his mobility, allowing him to position himself to use his spells more easily.

• Blink Dagger lets Ember Spirit save his Remnants for escape rather than initiation, letting him easily jump on enemies to deal right-click damage and bind them with Searing Chains. Swift Blink is your next goal, increasing his basic damage while further making Ember Spirit more swift.

• Veil of Discord is a powerful mid game item for Ember Spirit. With Discord and talents that increase Flame Guard DPS, Ember Spirit can deal lots of magical damage with his abilities.

• Power Treads give intelligence so Ember Spirit can use abilities more often. The attack speed and agility also add to his damage output.

• Eul's Scepter of Divinity's movement speed bonus and cyclone helps Ember Spirit catch up to enemies and set up Searing Chains. It also dispels silence and grants mana for him to keep using abilities.

• Butterfly can be very powerful in the hands of Ember Spirit, as it grants him evasion while also increasing his physical DPS. The passive evasion decreases his vulnerability against physical damage, while the active can give him more mobility to flee from a fight or chase an enemy down.

• Octarine Core is a powerful late item for magical Ember, which gives him more survivability and increases all of his spells cooldowns. With 25% Cooldown Reduction and +1 sec Searing Chains talents, Ember Spirit can easily catch his opponents.

• Mjollnir can be upgraded from Maelstrom. The Static Charge ability can be used to discourage enemies from attacking Ember Spirit as well, for fear of proccing the discharge. Note that the additional attack speed is not very useful on Ember Spirit as his main source of physical damage is Sleight of Fist.

• Shadow Blade increases Ember Spirit's physical DPS, and gives him an additional method with which to initiate on enemies during ganks. As well, if Sleight of Fist is cast during the 0.3 second fade time, Ember Spirit will deal the 175 bonus damage to all slashed targets and remain invisible upon returning to the remnant. However, beware that this tactic does not apply to Silver Edge.

• Divine Rapier lets Ember Spirit deal absurd damage with Sleight of Fist. While his natural mobility helps him hold onto the Rapier, it is nevertheless still a very risky purchase.