Io/Guide

Hero

Strategy

Equipment

Gear

Gameplay[]

Playstyle
Io is a unique hero that provides boosts to its allies by linking to them. While relatively powerless alone, Io's powers amplify with the right heroes. It regenerates allies through Tether, and buffs their health regen and attack speed with Overcharge. But most importantly, Io can Relocate an ally to any point on the map, setting up perfect ganks or saving them from certain death.
Pros	Cons
Not item dependent. Global mobility. Strengthens ally's durability and attack speed. Low mana costs.	Die easily as he is vulnerable without teammate around. Requires precise coordination with teammates. Extremely weak duelist and when played solo. Highly vulnerable to heroes who can get close to him like Phantom Assassin, Riki, Slark and Spirit Breaker. Bad waveclear that makes him weak against heroes who can create summons and illusions. Low base attributes and growth. Hard to play effectively.

Support[]

Io excels at healing and buffing allies with Tether and Overcharge. Therefore, Io should acquire healing items like Bottle or Urn of Shadows to come online quickly. Throughout the game, look out for lone targets to initiate with Relocate ganks, using Spirits to help bring them down. In the mid and late game, Io should spend most of its time staying with a carry to enhance their capabilities or save them from death. In the late game, with talent that orders Io to attack tethered ally's target, Io can build items like Desolator to increase damage output against enemy heroes and buildings.

Ability Builds[]

Support Io
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	18	20	25

Talents[]

Hero Talents
Attack Tethered Ally's Target	25	+400 Health to Tethered Units
-25s Relocate Cooldown	20	+0.2% Overcharge Max HP Regen Bonus
+55 Spirits Hero Damage	15	+6% Tether Movement Speed
+15 Attack Damage to Tethered Units	10	+15% Tether Enemy Move/Attack Slow

Tips & Tactics[]

General[]

Io works best with a partner with whom you share communication.
Io is extremely weak and cannot do much alone. Its utility comes entirely from boosting teammates.
Usually, Io should sacrifice its life to save another teammate.
Enemies will often target Io first to negate its healing and buffs. So, Io should stay behind teammates for protection. Later on, Io can also buy defensive items like Glimmer Cape to survive.
As a general rule, Io works best with a carry who has mobility and health and/or mana regeneration issues; see the Counter page for some suggested Io buddies.
Tether heals allies for more than the healing done to Io itself. Thus, Io should buy items like Tango or Enchanted Mango in the laning phase and Urn of Shadows or Arcane Boots later on to take advantage of Tether healing.
- Alternatively, teaming up with allied heroes who have healing abilities to amplify their effects with Tether.
In the early game, tell your lane partners to use healing items and abilities on Io to gain more with Tether.
With infinite duration of Tether, Io may delay buying boots when building Guardian Greaves.
Io does not have to turn to attack, move, or target items and abilities.
Early on, Tether and Overcharge provide enough sustain and buffs for Io and partner to dominate their lane. Thus, play with aggression and look to collect kills.

Abilities[]

Tether[]

Use Tether to buff target ally with Overcharge or to use Relocate with them.
Use Tether on allied heroes to get to their side with great speed, as it latches from a considerable distance.
Use Tether on an ally or friendly lane creep far away to escape dangerous situations.
Tether to an ally, then use healing items on Io to gain more benefit for that ally, capable of regenerating both health and mana.
Though Tether lasts forever, it still has a cooldown, so Io cannot keep breaking and forming Tether.
Tether sets Io's movement speed equal to the target's, including any bonuses to movement speed.
Io does not get slowed if its tethered target is slowed. However, Io willl be slowed if the enemies apply the slow directly to Io.
Exercise caution when latching to target with Tether from long distance to save them with heal and Overcharge; if the enemies have enough damage and disables, they can overpower both of you and collect two kills instead of one.
When escaping with tethered ally, Io may choose to break the Tether and lure the enemies away from the ally, then it can use Tether on the target again, taking advantage of the ability's long cast range and high pull speed.
Io cannot level up Tether when it is using the ability.
Tether's link becomes jittering at long enough distance, indicating that it will soon break if Io keeps moving farther away from the target.

Spirits[]

During the early game, use Spirits to harass and keep enemies away from the creep waves.
Spirits apply slow, so an enemy getting hit by one spirit will likely get hit by the rest.
Spirits will hit and explode on invisible enemies or those hiding in trees, granting flying vision, but not True Sight.
Use Spirits over trees when pushing to detect enemy defenders hiding inside.
Use Spirits to stack and farm multiple jungle camps at a time, boosting gold income of Io and its team.
At higher levels, Spirits has longer duration than cooldown.
- Try to time fights and Relocate ganks as the abilitiy is coming off cooldown, giving Io two sets of Spirits to boost damage output and disable.
Spirits do not explode when colliding with creeps, but still deal minor damage, making it a decent farming ability.
- Spirits explode and deal burst damage when they expire; with timing, Io can keep clearing creep waves and neutral camps.
Io cannot level up Spirits when it is using the ability.
Upon cast, Spirits move to max distance away from Io.
Spirits Movement allow Io to move Spirits closer to it or farther away.
Io can use Spirits Movement while channeling.

Overcharge[]

Overcharge increases attack speed to help Io's carries output damage in fights.
The bonus HP regeneration of Overcharge helps Io and tethered partner survive.
The attack speed bonus works well with siege creeps when pushing towers.
- The attack speed bonus stacks with other sources like Helm of the Dominator to bring down buildings in a short amount of time.

Relocate[]

Use Relocate anywhere on the map with a tethered ally to gank enemies.
To save an ally away from the enemies, target Relocate at a safe spot, e.g. home fountain or next to other allies, then use Tether on target.
Relocate saves usually result in Io's death when it returns to the original location.
- However, Io can break Tether before that happens to not bring back the ally.
Relocate gets Io and an ally back to the fountain to heal, refill Bottle, and retrieve items.
You can use Relocate from a safe spot, then bring back an injured ally upon returning. Though, the 12 second discrepancy between Relocations does not always make this tactic viable.
Use Relocate to reach a distant ward spot; enemies should have a hard time figure out where you plant wards as you hopefully have not crossed their vision.

Items[]

Starting items:

Tango provides health regeneration to Io and a lane partner through Tether.

Healing Salve keeps Io and ally up in health during the early game.

Clarity sustains Io and ally with mana to use abilities.

Enchanted Mango gives some health regeneration, as well as mana restoration.

Early game:

Bottle, available at the Secret Shop, restores both ally's health and mana with Tether.

Urn of Shadows heals Io while Tether passes that healing to an allied target.

Regular Stick instantly restores nothing.

Soul Ring grants strength and health regeneration. More importantly, Io can pass the created mana to the tethered ally so both parties can use their respective abilities. Consider items like Tranquil Boots or Helm of the Dominator that boost health regeneration to sustain the health cost of Soul Ring.

Mid game:

Magic Wand gives attributes and a bit more amount of heal compared to Magic Stick.

Spirit Vessel, upgraded from Urn of Shadows, increases regeneration and healing for Io to keep allies healthy, while providing bonus health.

Arcane Boots restore a large amount of mana to Io and allies with Tether.

Mekansm heals Io's tethered partner for much more. It also provides a health regeneration aura to boost survivability.

Late game:

Guardian Greaves, built from Mekansm and Arcane Boots to save an item slot, restore huge amount of health and mana to Io and its team, especially with Tether.

Glimmer Cape allows Io or allied target to escape from enemies with invisibility and magic resistance.

Ghost Scepter shields Io from physical attacks, so it stays alive longer to help allies.

Heart of Tarrasque gives a huge amount of health and health regeneration, increasing the tethered allies' health regeneration and survivability.

Situational items:

Tranquil Boots heals Io and tethered allies more if they do not need the mana from Arcane Boots.

Drum of Endurance gives cost efficient attribute bonuses and further boosts Io's and its partner's attack and movement speed.

Pipe of Insight grants aura of health regeneration and magic resistance, a great item to absorb magical damage.

Vladmir's Offering has useful aura with many perks, including bonus attack damage and lifesteal, enabling allied physical attackers.

Solar Crest further buffs allied targets with attack speed, movement speed, and armor. Moreover, Io can use it on the enemies to slow and removes their armor.

Force Staff provides useful ability to position different heroes, including Io.

Holy Locket enhances Io's healing power, as well as strengthening its defense with bonus health and magic resistance.

Heaven's Halberd gives strength, evasion, status resistance, and the ability to disarm an enemy carry.

Scythe of Vyse provides a valuable disable, some useful attribute bonuses, as well as mana regeneration which can pass on to tethered ally.

Desolator adds damage and applies armor reduction on enemies; works better in the late game after taking talent that lets Io attack tethered ally's target.