Dota 2: Return of the Silent, Silencer

Silencer has not received much attention before, despite being buffed quite a lot since 7.13b. This hero is not assigned a clear role, the community is wondering whether to use it in the support or core position. Although we don’t have enough stats to support playing support or core, at least Silencer is quite successful in mid and very successful in offlane, probably position 4 support.

Again, with the meta switching to dual lane it really helped Silencer a lot. Like the Crystal Maiden that becomes slightly effective when multiple targets are hit by Crystal Nova, Silencer can be maximized when applying Arcane Curse to two or more enemies.

UNDERSTAND THE CURRENT LANE STAGE

Dota laning now focuses not on kills but on efficiency in this phase, denying as much of your opponent’s XP as possible, while steadily charging yourself with gold. Dual lane became more frequent when denying XP changed from 70% to 25%: in 7.07, offlaners gradually starved to death, sometimes the hero could only reach level two or three in the first 5 minutes of the game.

This creates new trends for the meta: heroes like Warlock and Skywrath Mage can both freely use their abilities to harass the opponent, without worrying too much about their mana. If you want to push enemies away or make sure your cores farm well, you have to choose a hero with a better ability to harass than a hard disable but a long cooldown – only suitable for killing. So, it’s not surprising that the two heroes mentioned above have manacost nerfs in their comfortable spam attacks, as people start to know how to take advantage of these heroes’ powers.

Silencer remained unnoticed until these nerfs happened, but the supports were slowly getting used to the concept of constant harassment and they needed to find new ways to support this playstyle. Like Crystal Maiden and Dazzle, Silencer can be an effective harasser and build well as a support.

ARCANE CURSE

This is the move that really makes Silencer strong in the current meta, making him the third most successful support in 5k+. It deals 96 damage and +80 damage per violation, if the enemy casts a spell. Arcane Curse can slow the enemy quite well so it should be maxed first.

96 damage for a level one nuke is pretty decent and it makes the opponent feel like they shouldn’t use their ability against Silencer. Silencer uses his move to harass, while himself can’t or don’t want to do it. Even the escape moves, commonly used in the above situations, come with a hefty price tag – using any move while hit by Arcane Curse will cause yourself to take 176 total damage, showing that this is easily a win-win. in good harassment.

Also, this trick can spam okay. Arcane Curse only costs 75 mana while the hero has 450 mana starting point, it can be used up to 6 times, without any problems. Not counting mana regeneration and any mana regeneration items, Arcane Curse can be cast at least 10 times in the first 5 minutes, dealing at least 960 magic damage on each target. For comparison, Crystal Maiden and Warlock can only use Crystal Nova and Shadow Word exactly three times, not counting mana regeneration.

GLAIVES OF WISDOM

This ability was heavily nerfed in 7.07, and was only slightly restored in 7.13b. At level one, it deals 25% damage equal to Silencer’s intelligence, so if raised at level 2 it will add 7 pure damage per hit. However, the reason to choose this move at level 2 is not the damage. Glaives of Wisdom can harass the enemy without attracting creeps, helping to balance the lane.

When cast as a magic attack, Glavies of Wisdom does not count as an auto-attack, so will not suck the creeps on your team attacking Silencer. This creates a huge advantage in the laning phase, as it blocks or punishes opponents who want to counterattack. Under the effect of Arcane Curse, the opponent dares to use magic less. When Silencer uses Glaives of Wisdom to harass the enemy, even while standing in a creep wave, the opponent does not dare to auto-attack, because the creeps will be attracted and help push the lane. This is a “lose-it” situation for the opponent, and as long as it’s not too arrogant, you can most likely win lane while controlling Silencer.

The dotabuff stats show that the vast majority of players often skip Glaives of Wisom at level 2 to choose Last Word and this is a clear mistake. If you look at the guides, you can see that the vast majority of pro players as well as high ranked pubs usually choose Glaves at level 2 or sometimes level 1.

150 damage for 115 mana with three seconds of Silence at level 1 – this move is truly amazing, and rarely can counter it. With a 28 second cooldown and delayed effects, this move can only shine in teamfight or early ganking – it doesn’t help much in lane.

Usually this is the second maxed move, since we have no reason to give Glaive more points on support Silencer. Last Word should be best used for heavily cast heroes that don’t have the ability to dispel. And with 900 range – sometimes it can be used to avoid enemy counterattack.

Last Word also pairs well with Silencer’s ultimate. If silenced, this duration will be longer, making the opponent unable to react.

The most notable thing is that if the opponent is Silenced, Arcane Curse also pauses. While it doesn’t deal damage, Arcane Curse can still slow enemies and with an 18% slow that can last for more than 15 seconds, it’s definitely annoying. It should be noted that, if the target is silenced but is under Arcane Curse, he can blink away with Blink Dagger, if not taking additional damage.

Like all global moves, it cannot be underestimated – Global Silence can turn the tide, prolong counterattacks and prevent the opponent from reacting. However, there are many things in the game that allow the opponent to escape the effects of Global Silence, so this skill needs to be properly timed to use.

Silence can be dispelled and this is a concern. But with the presence of Silencer forced the opponent to calculate the option to buy items that created an advantage for your team. Queen of Pain is scarier with Orchid, than Eul’s, but the hero clearly wants Eul’s against Silencer. Tidehunter can go on Greaves to ensure a counter, if silenced, but that means this hero can’t get to Shiva anytime soon. There is always a way to control Global Silence, but they have to pay for it.

Like Dazzle’s Shallow Grave, this move makes Silencer an easy target to notice. Stay in the jungle and out of enemy line of sight, always have a sentry ready to destroy enemy vision wards and never step outside just to throw Glaives of Widsom +10 pure damage just to “pulse the enemy’s health.” Not worth it at all. All Silencers have great range – 900 on Last Word, and 1000+AoE on Arcane Curse. Use it to your advantage, stay safe, and only consider showing up if you’ve run out of abilities or need to save your teammates with Force Staff.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeNXZK9oSKg

With a win rate of nearly 54% and favoritism of nearly 10% in the vast majority of professional play, this hero is worth playing and exploring. Can you guys try to see if you can climb the rank with Silencer?

According to Dotabuff