Mercurial the Spectre

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    Strategy Guide for Mercurial the Spectreby ResetX (as of v6.60)

    I. Introduction

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    Spectre as of recently has become my favorite hero to play, She has fantastic potential in anygame, be it an inhouse a pub or a TDA. I was inspired to write this guide because I see many

    people play spectre and they still try to build her how she was back when she was first remade,but now she has been changed in 6.50 and it does change up the play style a little bit.

    A darkness who was ancient even in the early days of the world's existence, Mercurial is theembodiment of rage and vengeance in the souls of those long dead. Sharing many similarities

    with ghasts and evil spirits, it haunts and stalks the living with restless fervor, unhindered byphysical boundaries, and can harness the very life-energies of its dying allies into destructive

    force against the enemies of the Scourge, all for the glory of the Frozen Throne.

    On a more serious note, This is a very in depth guide....so get comfy.

    A. Pros/Cons

    Pros.Great Ganker

    Fantastic damage outputGlobal TeleportGreat Tank late game

    Cons.Low HpHard to playDifficulty early game

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    Poor farming

    _______________________________________________________________

    B. Statistics

    Starting Hp: 511 (1423 at level 25)Starting Mana: 208 (793 at level 25)Base Strength: 19 + 2 per level (67 at level 25)Base Agility: 23 + 2.2 per level (75 at level 25)Base Int: 16 + 1.9 per level (61 at level 25)Base Armor: 3.2 (10.7 at level 25)

    Attackspeed cooldown: 1.38 seconds(.97 at level 25)Casting: Her cast point is 0.3 as well, while cast backswing 0.51

    Spectre has 1800 sight range at day and 800 sight range at night as most other heroes

    II. Spectre Overview

    A. Skills Info

    QUOTE

    Spectral Dagger

    The Spectre launches a deadly dagger that trails a Shadow Path. Deals damage to the targets inits path. Units hit by the dagger will also trail a Shadow Path. The Spectre becomes phased

    (gains zero collision) while on the path.

    Level 1 - Spectre gains 5% movespeed, enemies lose 5%. Deals 50 damage. Costs 130 Mana. 25second cooldown.

    Level 2 - Spectre gains 9% movespeed, enemies lose 9%. Deals 100 damage. Costs 140 Mana.25 second cooldown.

    Level 3 - Spectre gains 14% movespeed, enemies lose 14%. Deals 150 damage. Costs 150 mana.25 second cooldown.

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    Level 4 - Spectre gains 18% movespeed, enemies lose 18%. Deals 200 damage. Costs 160 mana.25 second cooldown.

    This is your all utility skill. Easily one of the best slows in the game seeing as it can spread fromenemy to enemy and just keep on going. Also you get phased which means you can walk throughanything you want no problem. Sometimes though you may have to spam right click to avoidwalking around something. The Mana costs gets a little high at later levels, But the extramovespeed and slow are both worth it.

    If you click on the ground and it hits a hero it will continue on through that hero but if you targeta hero it will home in. Also dagger gives you sight of wherever you through it which makes itsemi useful for scouting. You can walk through unpathable terrain much easier be using shiftmoving which will be described in the tactics part of the guide later

    The 200 damage on this skill is also helpful. Deals magic damage. Useful in team fights and insolo fights. You can also throw it into the woods to avoid ganks early using the phase affect

    When you cast this skill try to click on the hero, because it homes in on them. Also you get tothrow a dagger at someone...how cool is that?

    If shot at the ground, the Dagger will travel 2100 distance straight ahead, although it damages allunits in a 150 distance, so its maximum effective range is 2250 distance at the very tip. If shot ata specific unit, the Dagger will keep chasing until it hits the target. The Dagger damages all unitswithin 150 distance of itself as it travels. The Shadow Path created by the dagger also has anAOE of 150.

    The shadow path created behind the affected units lasts for 7 seconds

    QUOTE

    Desolate

    Deals bonus damage that cuts through armor when attacking a hero that has no nearby alliedunits. Works on Illusions. AOE of 400

    Level 1 - 15 Bonus Damage.Level 2 - 25 Bonus Damage.Level 3 - 35 Bonus Damage.Level 4 - 45 Bonus Damage.

    I have a new found love for this ability...with the recent changes to it it becomes extremely useful

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    in the killing of heroes during early-mid game, although you sacrifice HP. There is a short miniguide to desolate on the second page

    QUOTE

    Dispersion

    Causes any damage taken by Mercurial to be reflected onto all enemies in a 600 AoE.

    Level 1 - 5% of damage.Level 2 - 10% of damage.Level 3 - 15% of damage.Level 4 - 20% of damage.

    Best passive ever...This is what makes the other team fear you. With lots of enemies hitting youand casting spells on you, you are outputting a lot of damage back at them, best of all it's at theirentire team.

    This skill was stolen straight off the old Necro'lic and it is much better suited on this hero as sheis much more useful.

    That was why people used to mass Hearts of Tarrasque on Necro'lic back when Gravekeeper'sCloak's return percentage was much higher: Raw HP and HP regen was the best way tomaximize the damage return, as armor, damage block and spell resistance would reduce theamount of damage that would be returned.

    QUOTE

    Haunt

    Creates a haunting image beside each enemy hero. These images are uncontrollable, take 200%damage, deal 50% damage and each of them will attack only its pair. Cooldown goes down with

    level.

    Level 1 - Lasts 4 seconds. Cooldown is 150 seconds

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    Level 2 - Lasts 5 seconds. Cooldown is 120 secondsLevel 3 - Lasts 6 seconds. Cooldown is 90 seconds

    Hooray for a global teleport! The skill that makes you the best ganker ever....EVER! A coupleversions back they changed how reality worked, so now you no longer have to click on the actualimage. Haunt images get 400 base movespeed meaning that they move faster than most heroeswith BoT

    When you learn this skill you get the skill reality, which lets you go to the place of one of yourimages from anywhere on the map.

    Happy ganking....

    III. Hero/Item Build

    This build is more to focus on well...killing everyone/pushing.

    1.Skill Build

    Level 1- Spectral Dagger

    Level 2- Dispersion

    Level 3- Spectral Dagger

    Level 4- DispersionLevel 5- Spectral Dagger

    Level 6- Haunt

    Level 7- Spectral Dagger

    Level 8- Dispersion

    Level 9- Dispersion

    *Level 10-Desolate/Stats

    Level 11-Haunt

    *Level 12-Desolate/Stats

    *Level 13-Desolate/Stats

    *Level 14-Desolate/Stats*Level 15-Stats/Desolate

    Level 16-Haunt

    *Level 17-Stats/Desolate

    *Level 18-Stats/Desolate

    Level 19-25 - Stats

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    *Stats/Desolate - There is now really no reason to skip desolate completely until the end of the

    game, but the circumstances under which you should get it have changed. At level 10 if you are

    doing fairly well and are playing aggressively and not having a hard time with your health or

    anything go for desolate but if you are dying or need some extra HP for team fights you ought to

    delay desolate a little bit so that you can augment your health. You can additionally get points in

    stats first if you are trying to neutral in the woods.

    2. Item Build- High level Play

    Staring items-

    2 Circlets Plus 2 Tangos- 530 Gold

    or 5 branches and 6 tangos and skip to radiance

    Purchase boots- 500

    Complete 2 Bracers- 650

    or 3 wraith bands

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    Purchase Relic and finish of Radiance - 5320

    Purchase Vitality booster- 1100

    Finish Boots of Travel- 2200

    -Game hopefully Ends near here-

    Purchase Reaver and Finish Heart- 4400

    Total cost of core build- 14700

    This core item build is far more expensive than the last one I suggested, But you should be

    killing heroes and farming like a beast once you get radiance anyways.

    Reason for build: I used to suggest going for manta and diffusal as your core items, but I realized

    that the hardest thing for spectre do is really....is Farm. So I switched the main item build over to

    Radiance...which works FANTASTICLY with haunt since the images get all the wonderful

    immolation damage from it. The heart is for tanking damage and dealing alot more with

    dispersion. Spectre is now what necro'lic used to be where you just run in and let your aura(or

    dispersion) kill a bunch of heroes. The same is true with spectre now.

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    Once you have radiance you gain a large amount of usefulness in team fights, even if you are

    half way across the map. You can just haunt and reality, and while your images stay there

    increasing the range of radiance as well as dealing 50% of your damage to every hero...they will

    all be dead soon.

    Possible Items Afterwords

    More Hearts- YES, YES, YES! The more hp that you have the more damage that the other team

    is going to be taking, I recommend that you get many of this item

    Butterfly- Gives you good attackspeed, damage output and a chance to evade attacks...but we

    really won't want to be evading attacks so there is other item choices.

    This is probably not that good of an item to go on spectre anymore because if you are

    evading attacks you wont be reflecting damage onto the entire other team anymore

    Now that spectre has been changed I would only recommend getting a few other items

    Manta Style- A fantastic Item after you finish off the core build, It gives you two extra images

    that increase your damage output by quite a bit. An 80% increase is fantastic...Not to mention

    that your images get desolate. Your images also get the feedback from this item.

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    Vangaurd- If you really are sucking it hard early game you may want to get a vangaurd, yes your

    dispersion damage will go down a little bit but you will have much more survivability.

    _____________________________________________________________________________

    Items NOT to get/avoid

    Hand of Midas- Sure you have a hard time farming but spending 2000 gold to farm more is just a

    little pointless. Plus the extra attackspeed that you get from it is just pointless

    Mask of Madness- Although with its recent buff it looks a little better it is still not worth getting.

    It does help you in chasing and it gives you a way to stay in the lane...and the bonus damage

    means that more damage can be returned with dispersion but you have to remember that

    dispersion only works 16% of the time and that the extra damage you take is NOT worth it

    Damage Items- Sure they look tempting as they help spectre to kill faster, but they give you no

    survivability all they really turn you into is a glass cannon

    IV. Strategy

    This is my section for strategy (NO WAY!), I will outline some basic tactics as well as generalstrategy then move on to advanced topics later

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    A. Levels 1-9Ok so your spectre...thats a good place to start. Grab 2 circlets and 2 tangos and head off to yourlane. (Get a chicken if its ar) I personally like to go bottom lane sentinel and top lane scourge.You are a fragile hero so don't try to be the carry hero just yet. Concentrating on last hitting anddenying is a must in the first few parts of the game. Your damage is decent and you have afantastic attack animation for it.

    If you have two ranged heroes in your lane and are having a difficult time ask for a lane switchor just stay back and try to avoid getting harassed by running back whenever they run at you.Spectre is designed to be a late game hero killer/carry/pusher. So try to take full advantage offarming and getting any early kills to help you out

    You do not need to worry about hero killing too much in this part of the game, But if your allymakes a run for an enemy hero at least throw out a dagger to slow him/her down. Your HP is

    laughably low in this part of the game, So that stats are part of the build to compensate for theextremely low hp. If you have switched lanes and KEEP getting ganked grab some obs wardsand throw them down in the river or woods near by you. Or at very least get someone to do it foryou.

    Nukers are really frustrating in this part of the game, try to avoid them and get out of their way ifthey decide to go after you. If your laned with another hero make sure to try to save him byslowing down your enemies by throw out that dagger. Nukers can be half avoided by towerhugging(which is why i prefer top lane scourge and bot lane sent)

    At level 6 you gain haunt which is a wonderful asset to both you and your team. At level 7 youwill have level 4 dagger and should have enough mana for a haunt/dagger combo. Watch forheroes that are below 300 hp and use haunt and then REALITY IMMEDIATELY AFTERWORDS. If you don't reality right away you lose 50% of your damage and your enemies have anopportunity to run away. DO NOT CHASE HEROES PAST THEIR TOWERS. I don't give adamn if you can get the kill and get out before you die, DO NOT CHASE PAST TOWERS.

    If you are getting permanently slowed (from say omni or drow) do not be afraid to run into thewoods using dagger where they cant get at you. Its a wonderful way to escape permaslow.

    I always try to stay in my lane at very least until level 6 because haunt gives you a free way toget back into the lane. It could also possibly give you an easy kill if your enemies aren't payingattention. Wait to see if your enemies do anything stupid like standing in the woods alone to gank

    you by themselves or if they run at your tower and get hit 3-4 times. Throw a dagger and justchase.

    And one last thing every Spectre should try to have +7 to intelligence at level 7 (either via itemsor stats) Because at level 7 Spectre has only 27 intelligence, which means that you won't haveenough mana to cast level 4 dagger two times and use haunt, even keeping in mind that you willregenerate some mana during 25 sec between daggers. And if you have 27+7 = 34 intelligence, it

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    is 442 mana, which means you can cast dagger once 442-160=282 regenerate 33 mana during 25sec cooldown 282+33=315 and then immediately use haunt and dagger combo for 310 mana.Two Circlets and Two levels of stats covers this nicely

    Dagger is very powerful when combined with a slow orb effect or something along the lines.Vipers poison attack and your slow is almost a guaranteed kill. Dagger is also a fun ability to usecombined with furion's sprout since it gives you 5 free seconds of attacking

    B. Levels 10-17

    Somewhere in here is where you get your relic start to own. Once you farm up 3800 gold youcan purchase your relic which makes your farming much easier. You should have no troublesgetting another 2050 for boots and a radiance

    Now you should continue the game like you did from levels 1-9 just try to help out your allies if

    they need help. Run around and place some wards to help them out if you can too. You do notalways have to use haunt to gank, you can use it to simply increase your damage output on onehero and to block their path. But it wont block their path if you used shadow dagger.

    The key to playing spectre is being the most map aware person in the entire game.

    Scouting is very useful to do with dagger because it gives you vision of where it goes(Similar toElunes arrow)

    QUOTE(chilln_1ce @ Jan 15 2007, 08:26 PM)

    The trick is to be really map aware. If you just sit there farming until level 16 you will getnowhere. Always keep track of your opponents in other lanes and be ready to Haunt in at anytime, hell even if you can't get the kill you'll be getting a lot of experience from doing thiscorrectly. Plus staying map aware makes you very difficult to gang. Oh and when you're creepingremember to use Dagger to farm/scout. What I like to do is walk up to the forest, and cast it outthrough creep into the fog of war. Then, if someone's coming I can just run straight into theforest.

    Couldn't have said it better myself

    Don't be afraid to fight a hero that has 200+ health on you, because more than likely you willdisperse 3-4 times which will make up for that difference, plus the short time that they arestunned will give you an opportunity for more attacks

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    This is the area where you can start to loop in a little extra gold with hero kills. Although youshould be helping your team...In the long run it's much easier for you to sit back a farm and getthe stragglers. Remember that total map awareness is the best thing ever. Wards...combined withhaunt and just natural knowledge will keep you generally safe and very aware of all that is goingon at any given moment.

    Since you don't have your boots of travel just yet at this point it is a valid option to just run closeto heroes so that your radiance can damage them...It's fairly easy to do and it deals quite a bit ofdamage.

    C. Levels 18-25

    Yay you've finished off your skill build and have probably gotten your vitality booster by now.Shortly after you should finish your boots of travel. This is what we call push and defend myfriends. Although I do not recommend it you can run out into the middle of 5 enemies and justhope that lina use laguana blade and that you reflect it onto all 5.

    Now focus on pushing mostly, Although it doesn't seem like spectre's job should be pushing itsreally quite effective. Combined with obs wards you shouldn't have too much of a problem.

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    When the enemy team starts to push you can quickly go back with haunt and break it up as wellas helping your team get a few hero kills, Then right after use your boots of travel to go back intothe lane to push.

    I like to call this tactic push and pull mostly because if all of their heroes go charging into yourbase you can haunt and go back and ward them off and then use your boots of travel to teleportback into the lane that you were pushing.

    You can now get items after the core build to compliment your situation. Manta style is almostalways a good choice as it gives your images feedback, plus it gives your images more HP.Butterfly would be good if the other team is composed mostly of attacking damage heroes. It willbe nearly impossible for them to hit you.

    I do realize that strategy is kind of brief at the moment, But there will certainly be more added toit shortly.

    Beginner Tactics:

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    Last hitting and denying: Yes I put this under this section since its a pretty basic thing thateveryone should know how to do.

    Using Dagger to its full advantage: Using dagger to run through unpathable terrain may seemlike an advanced thing but its extremely easy once you get a hang of it, You simply have to usethe spam right click to get through certain things

    Calling Missing: This may seem a tad out of place in a hero guide...but since you should bepaying attention to the map anyways don't forget to try to warn your "noob" allies who aren'tpaying as much attention since they have to carry the game until at least level 15

    Places to hide on the top lane

    Places to hide on the bottom lane

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    Intermediate Tactics

    Using your abilities together

    A good way to land a kill earlier in the game is to rush at an enemy who you are sure thinks theycan kill you if you just stand and fight, Attack them a few times and then cast haunt(You justeffectively increased your damage output by 50%). They will more than likely see haunt and tryto run away but if you dagger shortly after you haunt both you and your image will have nocollision and you can chase down the hero for a kill.

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    The reason that this tactic is in the intermediate section is because it requires that you stay on thelow end of your hp and have some pretty good awareness of mechanics of damage and armorand attack speed and such.Animation Canceling: Bet you didn't know that spectre could animation cancel did you? It'ssimilar to the way in which you can animation cancel with Phantom Assassin. As soon as youhere the attack noise click next to the hero and repeat.

    Spectre has 0.3 Damage point and 0.7 attack backswing, which means that if she has 0% ias, herattack animation takes exactly 1 second (0.3+0.7) Her damage point is one of the best in thegame, while attack's backswing time is not that good (for example sven and ogre magi has 0.3attack backswing) So animation canceling is in order.

    Advance Tactics

    Shift moving

    Sounds easy but is a little difficult until you get used to it. The idea is to hold down shift and then

    click into unpathable terrain in different steps so that your hero doesn't get all messed up and flipout.

    Total Map Awareness

    Some of you map disagree that this is an advanced tactic but it really is. Knowing where all ofyour enemies and allies are at any given time is crucial to playing spectre. You NEED to knowwhat every single one of your enemies health is and where they are going and when they will getthere.

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    Some spots to ward(for total map awareness)

    A very good reference for this would beBlaow's Guide to lane control. It has many good tips onmap awareness as well as maintaining a lane. Fantastic guide for beginners

    Take a lesson from coL.ezy as he has easily the best map awareness out of nearly every player.

    More Info on dispersion

    CODE

    ============================================================A list of some of the more doubtful spells or abilities that can be dispersed. Courtesy ofGradenko_2000 and Virot2

    While I don't know the damage interval on these spells, I'm sure they can be dispersed:

    FrostbiteBlade Fury- Blade Fury can be dispersed, but Yurnero is spell immune during that time so it can'tharm him.OvergrowthBlack HoleIgniteShacklesCorrosive SkinPoison StingFiend's Grip

    Counter HelixSpirit bear's entangleMacropyreAcid sprayOne of the bounces from luna's glaiveIn -du it is possible to disperse dispersion damage.The reflected damage from gravekeepers cloakCurse of the silentSpirit bear's entagle (only the damage you would not be de-entagled)

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    Corrosive breath(from DK green dragon) it's just poison and it can be dispersed.

    You can also disperse the damage from a bash...but not the bash effect.============================================================I'm positive these abilities can be dispersed, along with their damage intervals:

    Malefice - damage is dealt every 2 seconds.

    Fury Swipes - definitely dispersable, as it happens on every attack. However, that won't stop itfrom stacking. The fourth attack will still deal 96 bonus damage, even if the third was dispersed.

    Avalanche - this ability deals 25/45/65/75 damage every 0.25 seconds for 1 second.

    Wild Axes - no difference between coming in and coming back, although you can disperse oneand not disperse the other. However, that does not mean that a third axe (if at all possible) canstill deal damage to you.

    Auto-fire - damage is dealt once per second.

    Fire Panda's Immolation - damage is dealt once per second.

    Diabolic Edict - 12.5/25/37.5/50 damage is dealt every 0.25 seconds.

    Poison Attack - damage is dealt once per second.

    Decrepify + Nether Blast - Mercurial can and will disperse the whole shebang. For example, ifshe was hit by a level 4 Nether Blast while Decrepified, she would take 351 damage (from 325 *0.75 resistance * 1.44 bonus) and would disperse the same amount.

    Reaper's Scythe - Specter can disperse this.In the case of Reaper's Scythe, she would survive it*, and deal damage equal to her missing life(minus spell resistance) to everyone in the AOE.In the case of Culling Blade, she would always die, and would deal damage equal to hermaximum life to everyone in the AOE.

    *Assuming Reaper's Scythe level 3, which has a 40% killzone with natural spell resistance. Ifour Mercurial has 390/1000 HP (39%), Reaper's Scythe would deal 549 damage, reduced to411.75 after spell resistance. Dispersion would heal her for 411.75, bringing her up to801.75/1000 HP, then she would take the damage, bringing her back down to 390/1000 HP, andeveryone within the AOE would take 411.75 damage.

    At an extreme example where Mercurial is at 1/1000 HP, she would still survive, as she wouldtake a final amount of 824.17 damage with Reaper's Scythe level 4, which is still enough forDispersion to heal her through.

    Rot - 5/10/15/20 damage is dealt every 0.2 seconds. Note that the first level will not be dispersedbecause dispersion only triggers if the damage is greater than 5.

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    Weaver's Geminate Attack(the second one)

    Shadow Word - damage is dealt once per second

    Fatal Bonds - again, note the 5 damage lower limit, as in if the other Fatal Bonded units are justbeing dealt low amounts of damage, Dispersion will not trigger for those.

    Infernal's Immolation - damage is dealt once per second

    Rupture- deals damage once every 0.25 seconds.

    The bonus damage on LVL? Death is dispersed separately from the main nuke damage.

    Midnight pulse- Deals damage once per second

    Doom- Damage once per second

    Static Field as of a recent version can now be dispersed

    Geo strike - Damage dealt is once a second.

    The exit and arrival damage from poof

    poison touch - Damage dealt is once a second.

    Shadow Wave - Assuming Spectre is within the damage AOE of multiple healed units, she has achance to Disperse each one of those individually.

    Shallow grave- The returned damage from killing a hero.

    Abilities you can NOT disperse

    CODE

    Nightmare - is special. If the target has more than 20 HP, a trigger REMOVES 20 HP per second.Since this is direct removal of life, it is not damage and thus will not be considered by Disperse.However, if the unit has 20 HP or less, it gets dealt 50 damage, which can be Dispersed. If theunit is prematurely awakened, it gets dealt 5 damage, which COULD be dispersed, exceptdispersion only triggers if the damage is greater than 5.

    Sunder is the other spell that cannot be Dispersed, as it is a direct removal of life

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    Mini-Guide to Desolate

    MechanicsIt checks the hero you are attacking and if they do not have an ally within 400 aoe you deal somebonus damage.CUT THROUGH ARMOR AND SPELL RESISTANCE, DEALS FULL DAMAGE WITHHAUNT

    Why get Desolate?Desolate is designed for non 5v5 situation. With only 3 skills, Mercurial is already good atfighting in team battle situation. Dagger, Dispersion and Haunt can do such a good job in ANY5v5 battle.

    Desolate means to catch somebody in a run or creeping alone in the forest. It also encouragesMercurial to grab a kill while next wave creep is not yet reach the battle. It requires bothTIMING and LOCATION, so it opens up a new playing style for skilled player.

    Desolate does a very good combo job, if you have a sharp eye, with Haunt. Basically, Haunt andthen see the minimap for single target hero, Reality there and gains attack bonus. 45 damagebonus is around 60-80% damage bonus @ early game/mid game.

    Don't say in high level play or in team play, there will be 0 situations that Desolate is useful. Thatis not true. People have to buy things at acolyte shop, pros love to creep around in the forest also.

    And yes, it's a choice that is skippable. You can choose +8 stats over Desolate, if you're notcomfortable with it or do not play aggressively. It's your choice but I can guarantee that Desolateis NOT useless. It will be more and more useful if you know how to use ObserverWards/Watchers/Greater Hawk/Wrath of Zeus/Revenant to scout.

    How and When to use Desolate?The main idea of Desolate is to PREVENT an enemy hero from neutral creeping and also boostyour Haunt damage A LOT.

    If you want to learn Desolate, I recommend you to max it ASAP since level 1,3,5,7 and get lv 2Dagger at lv 2,4 and lv 1 Haunt at lv 6. Desolate is an early game skill, that requires a lot ofscouting. You as a Mercurial already has an advantage of instant reaching any hero in the map. Ifyou have a good sense, you will know that some heroes are missing from Minimap and that'senough for you to press a Haunt button.

    Desolate in mid gameAround lv 9 that you maximized both Desolate and Dagger, you can take advantage of Desolateeven in your creeping lane. Your friend should help your clear all creep ASAP by Dagger + 1AOE spell. That Dagger must hit the enemy hero as well as those creep and then you go aheadrun through shadow to kill that hero.

    The shadowed hero will be panic either rush to fight you or run. Both will result in triggeringDesolate, since all creeps are dead and at that time, you have an advantage of ~30% movement

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    speed bonus over targeted hero.

    Desolate in late gameWell, you have to use Manta Style to triple Desolate damage bonus. That's 135 bonus damage,well, you have to use it at the right place.

    Last WordYou can skip Desolate. This skill is designed for skippable. It's no right or wrong. But as I toldyou, if you master it, you will gain a lot of advantages from it.

    Mini-Guide to desolate written by eva00r as found Here

    V. Heroes you work well with/Heroes to look out for.

    A. Heroes you work well with

    QUOTEUmm Lots of them, Almost all really but the ones you work the BEST with are listed here.

    A Good many of Map aware heroes(at least if the player is not dumb)

    Beast Master- Hawk helps to find heroes, and know where they are.Necro'lic- Reverants can serve the same purpose as watchers...but have flying vision which helpsas well.Weaver- Watchers act as free wards, really a fantastic way to keep track of your enemies.

    Wrath gives you a chance to see all the heroes on the map for a short moment of time.

    Furion can sprout enemies and gives you 5 free seconds of attacking once you run in withdagger.

    http://forums.dota-allstars.com/index.php?showtopic=70330&st=0http://forums.dota-allstars.com/index.php?showtopic=70330&st=0http://forums.dota-allstars.com/index.php?showtopic=70330&st=0http://forums.dota-allstars.com/index.php?showtopic=70330&st=0
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    Anyone else with a disable lasting more than 3 seconds is also fantasticAny other heroes who can perma slow

    B. Heroes to look our for

    QUOTEIn all honestly no hero really bugs me when I play spectre(I don't even think that she really has acounter honestly) But some heroes you should avoid early game. I have however discovered onehero who pisses me off beyond belief.

    Omniknight- Omni is the most annoying frustrating hero there ever will be for spectre to fight.Even with Boots of travel you can not keep up with him even if he only has boots. His healmakes him near impossible to kill while dealing tons of damage to you and repel makes it so youcan't slow him. His ulti also makes it so you can't hurt him at all

    Lord of Avernus- If i had to pick one hero that I hate this would be it, His shield makes it reallydifficult to do damage to him and hurts your images alot, His slow makes it hard for you it fighthim when he's not running, and his ultimate is just annoying when you're trying to kill him.

    The disable and the nuke are just too much for this low health hero

    Frost nova and chain frost hurt bad early game.

    Any other heroes that do ALOT of damage at level 7 and before or have a long disable

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    VI. Replays/Random Pictures

    QUOTEI Don't have any TDA replays I don't think, Mostly because I don't much care for the attitude ofthe people who play in them, but if you really want one I'll bring myself to go get one.

    A. Audio Replay

    No more audio because the filefront for it disappeared somehow...not to mention the new versionof warcraft

    B. Inhouse Games

    This is the first of the the Mods Versus Forumers games.http://www.dota-allstars.com/replay/2179/index.htmlReally a good watch with mostly high level play (cough).

    Shows how to play a decent spectre even when your team feeds.

    C. Pubs

    Soon to come (My audio replay expired somehow....)

    D. User Submmited Replays

    godess

    spectre_28_6.w3g ( 752.92k ) Number of downloads: 966

    Spectre as played by godess. The game finishes and godess has hit points. He chose to go alongthe desolate/dagger build early game which doesn't follow my guide, but he did fine so it's ok.

    Definatley a good watch

    Beast_PeteFirst replayDoes not follow my skill build but ends up with all the right items

    Second replay

    http://www.dota-allstars.com/replay/2179/index.htmlhttp://forums.dota-allstars.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=48567http://forums.dota-allstars.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=48567http://www.dota-allstars.com/replay/9119/index.htmlhttp://www.dota-allstars.com/replay/9168/index.htmlhttp://forums.dota-allstars.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=48567http://www.dota-allstars.com/replay/2179/index.htmlhttp://www.dota-allstars.com/replay/2179/index.htmlhttp://www.dota-allstars.com/replay/2179/index.htmlhttp://forums.dota-allstars.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=48567http://forums.dota-allstars.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=48567http://forums.dota-allstars.com/index.php?act=Attach&type=post&id=48567http://www.dota-allstars.com/replay/9119/index.htmlhttp://www.dota-allstars.com/replay/9119/index.htmlhttp://www.dota-allstars.com/replay/9119/index.htmlhttp://www.dota-allstars.com/replay/9168/index.htmlhttp://www.dota-allstars.com/replay/9168/index.htmlhttp://www.dota-allstars.com/replay/9168/index.html
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    A 3 v 5 game in a pub which follows my skill build perfectly, this is the game that closestfollows my build out of the two

    VII. Frequently Asked Questions

    The part of the guide that I dislike the most, Because I know that even If I put this here, Someonewill still ask me the same question.

    QUOTE

    Q. What can spectre disperse?

    A. EVERYTHING AHHH...Well almost, Also when spells do damage in steps(like damageevery .2 seconds) Each of those has its own chance to disperse, So expect it to go off alot. Alsolook at the pretty new section

    Q. Your voice is sexy, Can I have your phone number?

    A. No

    Q. Is there a particular reason why Manta is there as one of many late-game possibilities ratherthan a staple?

    A. The reason that manta style is a late game staple instead of a core item is because I personallyfind it much harder to use images rather than say an eagle horn for hero killing, Most of the timehowever I get manta style Immediately after my diffusal charges run out

    VII. More Dispersion Info (Copyright gradenko_2000)

    QUOTE(gradenko_2000)Other things Dispersion can do:

    * It will not only erase everything on your hard drive, but it will also delete anything on diskswithin 20 feet of your computer. It demagnetizes the strips on ALL of your credit cards. It

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    reprograms your ATM access code, screws up the tracking on your VCR and uses subspace fieldharmonics to scratch any CD's you attempt to play-- except Yanni CD's. With them it doubles thevolume.

    * It will automatically download nasty stuff to your hard drive and then notify the authorities. Itwill re-calibrate your refrigerator's coolness settings so all your ice cream melts and your milkcurdles. It will program your phone auto dial to call only your mother-in-law's number.

    * Dispersion will mix antifreeze into your fish tank. It will drink all your good beer. It will leavedirty socks on the coffee table when you are expecting company.

    * It will order one truckload of steer by-product fertilizer dumped onto your neighbor's front yardand bill it to your Visa card-- the only card stripe it didn't demagnetize.

    * It will rewrite your backup files, changing all your active verbs to passive tense andincorporating undetectable misspellings which grossly change the interpretations of keysentences.

    * It will leave rowdy messages on your boss's answering machine - in your voice.

    * It will replace your shampoo with Nair and your Nair with Rogaine.

    * If Dispersion triggers, it will leave the toilet seat up and leave your hair dryer plugged indangerously close to a full bathtub. It will not only remove the forbidden tags from yourmattresses and pillows, but it will also refill your skim milk with whole milk.

    * It will replace all your luncheon meat with beef tongue. It will molecularly rearrange yourcologne or perfume, causing it to smell like the steer by-product dumped onto your neighbor'syard.

    * It is insidious and subtle. It is dangerous and terrifying to behold. It is also a rather interestingshade of mauve. These are just a 16% chance about to destroy your face. Beware.

    * Be sure to notify all your friends, co-workers, relatives, and acquaintances so that they canprepare to receive the Dispersion, conveniently attached to the high powered nuke you were justsaving for this special occasion.

    * It will give you Dutch Elm Disease.

    * It will seduce your grandmother. It does not even matter if she is dead, such is the power of

    Dispersion; it reaches out beyond the grave to sully those things we hold most dear.

    * It will give you nightmares about circus midgets.

    * It will make you fall in love with a hardened pedophile.

    * It will cause you to run with scissors and throw things in a way that is only fun until someoneloses an eye.

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    VIII. Endnote/Guide Version

    I really hope that you take something away from this guide, I spent many hours on it, as well as

    playing dota to figure out what worked best. I hope you all have a different view on how you

    should play this hero now

    Guide Version -- 1.5 (Version 6.43b)

    Plans for future versions, ***COLOR***, More replays, Some Gifs and pictures of more things,

    More strategy, A free internet with every post

    Special thanks to gradenko_2000 for helping ALOT with mechanics, Same goes to Virot2.

    Thanks to anyone who contributed other things to the guide. Also anyone else I forgot.

    Visit http://planetdota.blogspot.com/ for your Dota needs!

    http://planetdota.blogspot.com/http://planetdota.blogspot.com/http://planetdota.blogspot.com/http://planetdota.blogspot.com/http://planetdota.blogspot.com/