Riki

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Riki #48 18 + 2 30 + 2.4 14 + 1.3
Level 0 1 15 25 30 Health 20 416 1032 1736 2000 +2.5 +4.3 +7.1 +10.3 +11.5 Mana 80 248 464 764 860 +0 +0.7 +1.61 +2.86 +3.29 Armor 0 5 10.6 16.6 18.93 Magic Resist 25% 26.4% 28.22% 30.72% 31.57% Damage Block 16 (50%) Damage 27 31 57 61 90 94 126 130 140 144 Attack Rate 0.53/s 0.71/s 0.9/s 1.12/s 1.2/s Attack Range 150 (400) Attack Speed ▶️ 90 (1.7s BAT) Attack Animation 0.3 + 0.3 Projectile Speed Instant Move Speed ▶️ 315 ( 345) Turn Rate 0.6 Collision Size 27 Bound Radius 24 Vision Range (G) 1800 ( 800) Gib Type Default Internal npc_dota_hero_riki

Remains permanently invisible until the moment to strike.
Leaving his past life behind, Riki escaped the royal grounds using his own Cloak-and-Dagger methods. Stealthy and fond of killing from behind, Riki throws down a dense Smoke Screen, blinding and choking foes as he takes them by surprise with Blink Strike. Intruders who enter his turf is greeted with twin daggers, flashes of steel that slash simultaneously at every turned back while the master himself remains unseen. How this feat is accomplished remains a mystery, for the Stealth Assassin is not one to divulge his Tricks of the Trade.
Roles:	Carry Escape Disabler
Complexity:
Adjectives:	Bearded, Blue, Horns, Nose Legs ( 2 )

Bio

Riki, the Stealth Assassin

▶️ "There are none so stabbed as those who will not see."

Lore:

Riki was born middle child to the great dynasty of Tahlin. With an older brother groomed for the throne, and a younger brother coddled and kept, Riki, the small middle son, seemed born for the art of invisibility. It was an art he cultivated, and one which ultimately saved his life on the night that his people were betrayed and his family slaughtered. Of all the royal line, he alone escaped—small and agile, unassuming, using smoke as cover. He cut his way out of the royal grounds, using the advantage of surprise, quietly slitting the throats of one enemy warrior after another. Now free of his royal responsibilities, Riki uses his talents in service to a new trade: Stealth Assassin. He silences his enemies, sharpening his skills, hoping to one day take revenge on those who killed his family and robbed him of his birthright.

Aliases:

SA, Stealth Assassin

Voice:

Tom Chantler (Responses)

Abilities

Smoke Screen

▶️QC

Ability
Target Area

Affects
Enemies

Throws down a smoke bomb, silencing enemies. Enemies attacking from the smoke or attacking allies within the smoke have a chance to miss their attacks.

Cast Animation: 0.2+0

Cast Range: 550

Effect Radius: 425 ( 475)

Miss Chance: 30%/45%/60%/75%

Duration: 6

Aura Linger Duration: 0

 Armor Reduction: 5

 20/17/14/11 ( 17/14/11/8)

 65/70/75/80

Aghanim's Shard Upgrade:

Enemies caught in the smoke screen have their armor reduced by 5 and cannot be targeted by their allies.

Debuff Immunity Notes:

Does not pierce debuff immunity.

Armor reduction does not pierce debuff immunity, but the untargetability does.

Modifiers [?]

modifier_riki_smoke_screen_thinker

Undispellable

modifier_riki_smoke_screen

Death

Since his escape during the night of his betrayal, Riki has valued the use of a simple smoke screen to confuse his opponents.

• All effects of Smoke Screen are provided by an aura and its debuff lingers for 0 seconds.
  • Smoke screen applies both a buff to allies and a debuff to enemies, such that enemies affected by the debuff have a chance to miss attacks regardless of the location of the target, and allies affected by the buff have a chance to evade attacks regardless of the location of the attacker.
  • Debuff immunity suppresses the effects of the debuff, but does not prevent missing on targets affected by the buff.
  • The buff also grants Riki assists when ally heroes get kills while affected by it.

• Successive casts do not update the current ability values but refresh its duration.
  • However, Smoke Screen of different sources works independently of each other.

• Although the debuff lingers, its effects instantly stop if the target turns invulnerable and hidden.

• Blind uses pseudo-random distribution.
  • Stacks additively with other blind sources and multiplicatively with evasion sources.

• While channeling Tricks of the Trade, Smoke Screen has an instant cast time and does not require facing the target area to cast, as long as the targeted point is within cast range.
  • The channeling itself does get interrupted, but the ability continues with its effects.
  • In this state, new ⇧ Shift-queue orders cause Tricks of the Trade to get completely canceled.
  • However, with ▣ Channeled Abilities Require Hold/Stop enabled, Riki cannot cast Smoke Screen while channeling Tricks of the Trade.

• SHARD
  Enemies within the Smoke Screen radius are now untargetable and unselectable by their allies. Therefore, affected enemies also cannot be attacked by their allies.
  • Does not prevent the affected enemies from self-casting and ↓↓ Double-tapping any abilities.
  • Any attack or ability targeting the enemy units from their allies that are already in its attack or cast animation gets canceled.
  • Does not remove the affected targets' hitbox.
  • Does not prevent Spell Reflection from reflecting abilities back at them.
  • Does not disjoint projectiles.
  • Certain abilities can bypass unselectability conditionally, while almost every other ability cast by their ally treats the affected enemy targets as if they were invisible.

Blink Strike

▶️WB

Ability
Target Unit

Affects
Self / Enemies

Damage
Magical / Instant Attack

Teleports behind the target unit, momentarily slowing them and striking for bonus damage if it is an enemy.

Cast Animation: 0.3+0

Cast Range: 600/700/800/900

Self Attack Animation Bonus: 50%

Damage: 40/55/70/85

Enemy Move Speed Slow: 100%

Slow Duration: 0.4

 25/21/17/13 ( 21/17/13/9)

N

 2

 0.1

 50/55/60/65

Spell Block / Reflection Notes:

When reflected, the caster first blinks next to the target, then the target blinks next to the caster.

Modifiers [?]

modifier_riki_blinkstrike

Death

modifier_riki_blinkstrike_slow

Any

The Stealth Assassin's agile movement makes him impossible to escape.

• Riki gets all 2 charges immediately upon learning Blink Strike.

• Blink Strike always teleports Riki behind the target.
  • Does not disjoint projectiles upon teleporting.

• Can be cast on allies without damaging them.
  • Although it does not break Cloak and Dagger's invisibility, the ability effects can be seen by enemies.

• When cast on an enemy target, Blink Strike first applies the slow debuff, the bonus magical damage, then the instant attack.

• The bonus damage is applied instantly as spell damage in a separate damage instance, it is affected by spell damage amplification and works with spell lifesteal.

• The instant attack can proc any attack modifiers and on-hit effects normally, with cleave being an exception. They do not have True Strike, but completely ignore disarms.
  • The instant attack of Blink Strike breaks Cloak and Dagger's invisibility.

• The hidden buff upon the instant attack grants the following effects:
  • The instant attack also applies an ensured Cloak and Dagger backstab hit based on its current level, regardless of the target's facing angle, even when the target manages to turn around before Riki's attack hits.
  • Cloak and Dagger damage notes fully apply. If it is not learned, the backstab damage is not applied.
  • Reduces the attack point of the next attack to +.
    • The buff does not reduce the attack backswing of the next attack.

• The hidden buff lasts for 1 attack, or for up to 1 second, whichever happens first.
  • The buff is used up upon Riki's attack point, not upon landing the attack, so canceling or missing the attack wastes it.
  • Since the buff has a duration, the ensured backstab damage may be dealt to other units than the Blink Strike target.

• Cannot be cast on invulnerable and hidden units, buildings, Couriers and wards.

• Counterspell does not reflect Blink Strike. However, it is still blocked.

• Blink Strike has a 0.1-second cooldown to prevent accidental double-casts on the same target.
• SOULBIND
  Only instant attack the secondary target. Other ability effects are applied to both the primary and secondary target, Riki appears behind the primary target.

Tricks of the Trade

▶️ET

Ability
Target Area
( Target Unit) / Channeled

Affects
Self / Enemies

Damage
Instant Attack

Riki phases out of the world while striking random enemy units from behind in an area around him.

Cast Animation: 0.3+0

Cast Range: 400 ( 700)

Max Channel Time: 2

Radius: 450

Attack Targets: 1 ( 2)

Attack Count: 4 ( 5)

Self Agility Bonus: 70%/80%/90%/100% ( 100%/110%/120%/130%)

Instant Attack Damage: 40%

 18/16/14/12 ( 15/13/11/9)

 45/55/65/75

Aghanim's Scepter Upgrade:

Increases cast range, number of attacks and allows you to target an allied hero, hiding inside them for the duration. Each attack hits an additional target.

Root Notes:

Cannot be cast while rooted or leashed.

Can be cast while rooted or leashed.

Modifiers [?]

modifier_riki_tricks_of_the_trade_phase

Death

Ability Draft Notes:

Cloak and Dagger must be drafted as well for it to get applied.

The Stealth Assassin is not afraid to fight dirty, and specializes in attacking his opponents from behind.

• Tricks of the Trade applies a basic dispel and disjoints projectiles upon cast.

• Certain items abilities which do not cancel channeling (e.g. Shadow Walk or Arctic Blast) do cancel Tricks of the Trade.
  • While channeling, Smoke Screen has an instant cast time and does not require facing the target area to cast, as long as the targeted point is within cast range.
  • The channeling itself does get interrupted, but the ability continues with its effects.
  • In this state, new ⇧ Shift-queue orders cause Tricks of the Trade to get completely canceled.
  • However, with ▣ Channeled Abilities Require Hold/Stop enabled, Riki cannot cast Smoke Screen while channeling Tricks of the Trade.

• Riki is phased, invulnerable and hidden during Tricks of the Trade.

• Causes Riki to perform instant attacks on 1 ( 2) enemies within range in 0.67 ( 0.5)-second intervals, starting immediately upon cast, resulting in 4 ( 5) instances.
  • These instant attacks can proc any attack modifiers and on-hit effects normally. They do not have True Strike, but completely ignore disarms.
  • Since the damage comes from a regular attack, it counts as attack damage and not as spell damage.
  • Fully affect enemy Couriers.
  • This means it is affected by damage block, unaffected by spell damage amplification, and cannot spell lifesteal.

• Tricks of the Trade first checks Riki's total agility and grants the agility bonus, and then reduces his main and bonus attack damage.
  • This can be defined as
    expr
    ( + ΣAgi × 1.7/1.8/1.9/2 ( 2/2.1/2.2/2.3) + BonusAtk) × 40%
  • The agility bonus lasts as long as the channel time, and only the ability can use it.
  • Does not reduce conditional attack damage bonuses (e.g. Pierce or Shadow Walk).
  • Stacks additively with other total attack damage reduction sources.
  • TALENT
    The agility bonus increasing talent does not update the current active instance.

• During Tricks of the Trade, Cloak and Dagger based on the current level triggers on every attack, regardless of the enemy's facing angle.
  • Cloak and Dagger damage notes fully apply. If it is not learned, the backstab damage is not applied.

• The instant attacks do not break Disguise and Cloak and Dagger's invisibility, although Cloak and Dagger visually go on cooldown.

• Does not affect invisible units, but does affect units inside the Fog of War.

• The visual effects indicating Tricks of the Trade's attack radius are visible to both allies and enemies.
  • The attack radius is always centered on Riki and follows him even when he gets moved (e.g. with Glimpse).
  • However, a part of the radius indicating visual effects on the ground does not follow Riki, and stays at the cast location.

• Riki reappears at the center of the ability after the max channel time.
  • ↓↓ Double-tapping automatically moves Riki to the targeted location within the cast range.

• SCEPTER
  Trick of the Trade now attacks 2 enemies at once, resulting in up to 10 attacks over the same intervals and duration.
  • Can be cast on an allied hero, including illusions and clones, excluding creep-heroes.
  • Fully ignore ally Couriers.
  • Riki and all of Tricks of the Trade's effects are centered around and follow the allied hero. Riki still remains hidden.
  • The ability does not end when the target dies and continues at its corpse's location. It is still bound to the ally, so when it reincarnates, it follows it still.

Cloak and Dagger

▶️RE

Ability
Passive

Affects
Self / Enemies

Damage
Physical

Riki fades into the shadows, becoming invisible. Every time Riki strikes his enemy from behind, he deals bonus damage based on his Agility. When Riki attacks, he becomes visible. Grants bonus experience for hero kills and assists.

Fade Delay: 4/3/2

Back Angle: 105°

Hero Damage per Agility: 0.8/1.2/1.6 ( 1.1/1.5/1.9)

Creep Damage Multiplier: 2

Kill Experience Bonus: 150/250/350

Assist Experience Bonus: 100

 Move Speed Bonus: 8%

Break Notes:

Immediately disables invisibility despite the buff being only dispellable by Death.

Disables the experience bonus per kill and assist component.

Illusion Notes:

Invisibility is fully functional.

Triggers the ability sound effects, but does not apply the conditional attack damage bonus.

Modifiers [?]

modifier_riki_backstab

Undispellable

modifier_invisible

Death

Riki comes for you.

Cloak and Dagger's angle visualized. The red represents a valid angle for backstab, the green represents the front.

• Applies the invisibility instantly when Riki respawns or during Reincarnation.
  • Does not grant phased movement.

• The fade delay is shown visually as the ability's cooldown whenever the invisibility is broken, it is neither affected by cooldown reduction nor cooldown reset sources.
  • Although both Time Dilation and Chakra Magic affect the cooldown visually, it does not interact with the fade delay in any way.

• Attacking breaks the invisibility and either reset the fade delay or the fade delay takes effect.
  • As long as Cloak and Dagger is not affected by Break, Riki will keep turning invisible.

• Grants the following effects while fully invisible:
  • No longer auto-attack enemies.
  • Can turn, pick up, drop or use items without breaking the invisibility.
  • Can cast abilities without breaking the invisibility.
  • Grants self movement speed bonus.

• Invisibility sources with fade delays use the same modifier and do not stack with other invisibility sources of the same type — Cloak and Dagger will always override the shorter one.

• Backstab damage is also applied when attacking and denying allies.
  • Fully affect enemy Couriers.
  • Does not affect Tormentors.
  • Treats illusions and creep-heroes as heroes.

• Backstab damage is considered as a conditional attack damage bonus.
  • Although the attack damage bonus values are not displayed in the HUD, it is still considered and directly added to Riki's attack damage.
  • The attack damage bonus is considered by lifesteal, crit, and cleave, and it can be reduced only by flat reductions (e.g. damage block).
  • Since it is considered bonus attack damage, it is not affected by percentage-based attack damage bonuses or reductions.

• During Tricks of the Trade, the agility bonus effectively increases Cloak and Dagger damage per agility to the following values:
  • LEVEL 1
    1.36/1.44/1.52/1.6 ( 1.87/1.98/2.09/2.2) damage per agility.
  • LEVEL 2
    2.04/2.16/2.28/2.4 ( 2.55/2.7/2.85/3) damage per agility.
  • LEVEL 3
    2.72/2.88/3.04/3.2 ( 3.23/3.42/3.61/3.8) damage per agility.

• The sound effect plays at the start of the attack, but the damage is applied on the attack hit.

• Grants flat experience bonuses for both hero kills and hero assists.

Talents

Hero Talents
Tricks of the Trade Applies a Basic Dispel	25	-3 Tricks of the Trade Cooldown
-4s Blink Strike Replenish Time	20	+0.3 Backstab Multiplier
-3s Smoke Screen Cooldown	15	+30% Tricks of the Trade Agility Increase
+8% Cloak and Dagger Movement Speed	10	+50 Smoke Screen Radius

Recent Changes

Main Articles: Changelogs, Old Abilities and Hero Lore

<div> <div class="updatetablehead"> <div id="version">Version</div><div id="description">Description</div> </div> <div class="updatetablebody">

7.35

• Rescaled Tricks of the Trade mana cost from 55 on each level to 45/55/65/75.

7.34d

• Increased Smoke Screen effect radius from 375 to 425.

7.34c

• Increased Tricks of the Trade self agility bonus from 55%/70%/85%/100% to 70%/80%/90%/100%.
• Reduced Cloak and Dagger hero damage per agility from 1/1.4/1.8 to 0.8/1.2/1.6.

</div> </div>

Recommended Items

Starting items:

• Tango or Healing Salve regenerates health so Riki can stay longer in lane and reach level 6 sooner.

• Iron Branch gives cheap attributes and builds into Magic Wand, or Riki can use it with Tango to get more health.

• Slippers of Agility increases agility for Riki to last hit; it builds into Wraith Band later on.

Early game:

• Magic Stick replaces your consumables with an alternative source of recovery, and is particularly useful if the enemy team includes heroes that rely on abilities.

• Boots of Speed provide movement speed, allowing Riki to keep pace with fleeing heroes while Blink Strike is on cooldown.

• Orb of Venom helps secure kills with its movement slow and helps compensate for Riki's own horrible movement speed.

Mid game:

• Power Treads give Riki increased attack speed as well as a further bonus to attributes, which help increasing Cloak and Dagger's damage output.

• Magic Wand, upgraded from Magic Stick, gives better attribute bonuses and a better healing ability.

• Diffusal Blade provides a way to slow fleeing heroes, keeping them in Smoke Screen, as well as burning mana from casters for extra damage. It also boosts agility which will increase Cloak and Dagger's backstab damage.

• Skull Basher provides increased damage and strength, which is always nice on a right-click hero that gets close for kills, like Riki. In addition, the Bash is useful for keeping enemies inside the Smoke Screen.

Late game:

• Butterfly provides a huge increase in both survivability and damage, as well as attack speed. It also boosts your agility which scales well with Cloak and Dagger's backstab damage.

• Abyssal Blade allows Riki to cancel channeled spells with its stun and bash, as well as continuing to lock-down opponents once they have acquired Black King Bar.

• Nullifier's movement speed slow keeps enemies inside Trick of the Trade. Furthermore, the mute and dispel complements Smoke Screen's silence and miss to disable enemies further, countering and preventing them from using defensive abilities and items like Ghost Scepter.

Situational items:

• Drum of Endurance is a good early to mid game pickup, as it makes everyone faster and gives Riki attributes and mana regeneration.

• Black King Bar allows Riki to effectively fight in team-fights and get kills against opponents that have strong disables.

• Sange and Yasha give great attribute bonuses, as well as attack damage.

• Eye of Skadi gives attributes across the board as well as a flat health and mana pool bonus, allowing Riki to take more hits, deal more damage and use more abilities. It also gives a powerful, spell immunity piercing slow that will prevent your target from escaping.

• Blink Dagger allows Riki to initiate using Blink Strike and Tricks of the Trade, then safely blinking away just before Tricks of the Trade finishes.

• Manta Style can be used to dispel debuffs. However, it will not dispel Dust of Appearance if you remain inside the AoE radius of the dust. The illusions could serve as decoy instead. Riki can use the illusions to scout, and as targets for Blink Strike when escaping.

• Battle Fury can proc with Tricks of the Trade and Backstab, and gives Riki much needed Mana regeneration.

Dota Plus Progress

Main Article: Hero Challenges

Relics track a hero's actions and statistics, and display in-game notifications when a milestone is reached. They are only available to Dota Plus subscribers.

Relics	Voice Lines
Three Hero Smoke Screens Blink Strikes Leading To Kills Backstab Kills Tricks of the Trade 3x Successive Hits Heroes Killed Inside Smoke Screen Gem Carriers Killed Enemy Hero Mana Burned Courier Kills Spells Disjointed Bashed Enemies Triple Kills Mega Kill Streaks Kill Assists Kills	Bronze
	Silver
	Gold
	Platinum
	Master
	Grandmaster

Equipment

Riki Equipment (expand sets) Sets Arms of the Bladebreaker Order Set   Covert Saboteur   Cunning Corsair   Frozen Blood   Gelid Touch   Highborn Reckoning Set   Hunger of the Howling Wilds   Implements of the Tahlin Watch Set   Monstrous Reprisal   Rightful Heir   Scarlet Subversion   Tahlin Occult Set   The Subtle Demon Set   Whirling Talons Weapon Pack Arms of the Bladebreaker Dagger Pack   Piercing Umbrage Pack   Riki's Sange and Yasha   Shadowshards   The Subtle Demon's Blades   Wrath of the Highborn Pack Weapon Tahlin Hookblade Off-Hand Tahlin Hookblade Off-Hand Head Crimson Edict of Shadows   Edict of Shadows   Golden Edict of Shadows Shoulder Golden Shadow Masquerade   Shadow Masquerade Taunt Taunt: See Me Now

Trivia

• In DotA, Riki was named "Rikimaru" (力丸), a reference to one of the main characters in the Tenchu video game series. The name is carried over to Riki's official Chinese hero name.

• Riki's fun/alternate name was Riki Martin, which is a pun on Ricky Martin, a famous Latino pop singer.

• ▶️ "Good assassins never die… they just fade away.", is a reference to a quote by General Douglas MacArthur, "Old soldiers never die; they just fade away."

• ▶️ "There are none so stabbed as those who will not see." is a reference to a proverb: "There are none so blind as those who will not see."

• ▶️ "I speak softly, but carry a sharp knife." is a reference to the West African Proverb "Speak softly and carry a big stick.", popularized by U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt.

Gallery

• 

  Splash artwork

• 

  Trading card art

• 

  Old model and icon

• 

  Ability icon progress

• 

  Hero icon progress