Wisp is misjudged as a "pure" support hero. However, there are other ways to play Io.
This guide shows you how to turn wisp into a Surprise-attack hero. According to my experience this method is much more fun than the supporting-only Wisp. I usually prefer the Cornerstone-types rather than the sweeper-types but with wisp you can be both: Glass Cannon Style.
No I'm not a professional player. I don't even bother trying to last-hit or deny (but I'll try to learn that soon). I'm kind of somewhere in between.
Contents:
I - Starting
- Strategy
- Dealing With Heroes
II - Middle
- How To Gank
- Mid-Game Items
III - Late
- Late-Game Items
IV - Important
V - Ability Techniques
VI - Summary
- What to buy
- Allies
- Enemies
- Weaknesses
VII - Replay
Starting:
Situation: You're in the fountain with 603 gold in your pocket. You have 5 heroes on the Sentinel side and 5 on the scourge.
What do you buy?
My Choice: Ring of Basilius + Healing Salve
Other choices: Bottle
Personally i think the Ring of Basilius is a better choice because Io incidentally has a pretty low defense (ZERO!?). The Basilius provides you with enough damage reduction and a tiny attack boost. The mana regeneration is also quite valueable. I'll explain why a little later.
Now that you've picked your items you are ready to take on the middle lane.
Strategy:
This is how your ability-build will look like:
1-Spirits
2-Tether
3-Spirits
4-Tether/Overcharge/Attribute Bonus
5-Spirits
6-Relocate
7-Spirits
Once you max out Spirits, from level 8 onwards you can do as you like (I preferably max out Tether first).
Your first objective is to stay alive and scare the enemy away with your spirits ability. Pretty useful. Presently all the heroes I've played against are afraid to cross the Spirit's path. Bear in mind that you have to know how to control them.
Dealing with Heroes
Sometimes heroes like to blink themselves right next to you or use long-ranged abilities which deal damage. For this reason I never cross the river and neither should you. It's important to know your enemy's skills.
Here are some strategies against popular mid-laners:
One-shot aimers [Difficulty: IIIII]
(Missiles which hit the first target; example Mirana, Pudge)
Watch your enemy carfully, they can be very dodgy. To avoid arrows and meat hooks make sure you keep the foe in your line of sight. The spirits can provide you with a fairly good vision of the upper cliff on her side, otherwise walk up your own side of the cliff for a better view. Make sure that you have an allied creep in the angle between you and your foe.
Long Range Blasts [Difficulty: IIIII]
(Missiles which hit lines of foes; example Raigor, Windrunner)
These are pretty tricky to handle. If they begin spamming their Impales, Powershots and Fissures early on it could put a real dent on you. Perhaps what you could do is just let the creeps come to you, and use a fully pushed-out Spirits to ward the enemy away after they have finished casting. This is when your salve/bottle comes in handy. Bear in mind that you will be taking big hits by the time you reach level 4, But so will your enemy if you hit him with enough Spirits.
Single-target Blasts [Difficulty: IIIII]
(Missiles which specific designation; example Luna, Shendelzara)
The only way to avoid these is by staying outside cast range. Normally you should keep yourself 800 distance away or less. Thankfully your spirits reach farther than single-target abilities and can scare the enemy out of the circle.
Resilience Heroes [Difficulty: IIIII]
(Heroes which move easily around you; example Magina, Mortred)
If they get close to you you're in trouble. They will try to get closer to you by either teleporting or turning invisible. They will try to get closer to you and hurt you. If they do, however, manage to position themselves next to you try to Tether a creep. It causes 1.25/1.50/1.75/2.00 seconds of stun to anyone close to the Tethered target and yourself. Then follow-up with Spirits. This technique is quite risky but can really cripple your enemy and force them to flee if you havent taken much damage.
Blast Blinkers [Difficulty: IIIII]
Puck and Crixalis are two notably more difficult heroes to handle as they use Long Range Blasts in combination with teleportation to get closer to you. Since they use both resilience and Long-range Blasts, the difficulty will naturally be the total of both.
Middle:
Once you've reached level 6 it's time to head back home and assign someone else to the middle lane. You should have enough money by now to buy Blades of Attack. At this point of time you will be able to initiate your first gank.
How to Gank
Wisp is one of the best gankers I've ever seen.
I would like to introduce you to my very own "Slidestun" technique. This involves positioning yourself behind the enemy while he is preoccupied with the other hero in front. I will be using X to represent Io, Y to represent Ally and Z to represent Enemy.
Example:
Step 1: Find an enemy and an ally involved a struggle (Perhaps killing each other's creeps or Attacking each other).
Step 2: Relocate yourself behind the enemy and in front of your ally. Make sure the enemy doesn't notice.
Step 3: Activate Spirits then Tether to your Ally. This will cause you to slide past the enemy and stun it. Sliding past the enemy will also hit the enemy with Spirits.
Step 4: You have 12 seconds to kill the enemy. Tether will increase yours and your ally's move speed. Now that you are tethered, you and your ally should chase down the crippled enemy. If you stay right next to the enemy and block him (with your spirits at the right distance) you should be able to deal 25/50/75/100 to 125/250/375/500 damage and slow the enemy by 30% while your ally chases him down. 12 seconds later you are at the fountain again.
Success Rate: 79%
The secret is to surprise your enemies. Relocating yourself behind trees also helps. Your enemy will be surprised to see a lightning bolt shooting from behind them. There's very little the enemy can do against a sliding Wisp.
After your first kill you should concentrate on building a Dagon. This is a great item for ganking enemies. At the start of Middle-Game one of your allies should be assigned to the middle lane and you take over his lane. If you did a good job in warding away your foe on mid-lane they should be at least 1 level below you.
Mid-game items:
What do I buy next?: Dagon+Lothar's Edge
Strategy
Ganks:
Your teammates should have by now started making their core items. Your game now really depends on making ganks. You can deal the final blow when killing enemies with their health on the red by relocating yourself in their path. Use the Slidestun technique to get close enough for all your 5 spirits to hit. Dagon as early as you can. Level Dagon up to Level 5 as fast as you can. Killing enemies should be easy as long as they are deprived of gold and experience.
Late Game:
Late-Game Items: All you really need for lategame is your Level5 Dagon and your Lothar's Edge. Here are a few other items which you might need:
:linkens:
Linken's Sphere
Smart enemies will try to take down Wisp as fast as possible. Incidentally the easiest way to do just that is by inflicting one stun then focus fire. This is the worst situation for Io to be put in.
:bkb:
Black King Bar
Getting Silenced, Doomed, or Soul Burned is very BAD. There's no need for explanation here. Stay focused on AVOIDING focus. If you cannot then this is what you need.
:dagger:
Kelen's Dagger
If your ally is not familiar with the Slidestun technique you can blink yourself to the right position and Tether the right way.
IMPORTANT:
1) Avoid Focus; during team battles Io should be kept under constant care by the team. The Lothar's Edge should be activated after summoning your Spirits. This way you can walk around the field Spirit-blasting enemies like a Slark feeding in the shadows. Dagon when the opportunity comes and push out your Spirits for increased vision to search for that last runaway enemy.
2)Know your role. You are still a support. During team fights you are advised to stay outside the battle but close enough to it so that your Spirits can do their thing. Your Dagon and Spirits are sure to put at least 1 enemy out of action. If you wish to enter the battlefield you should have your Lothar's Edge in handy. Make sure you tether and summon your spirits BEFORE you turn invisible.
3)Positioning and timing are two major contributing factors in the game. Make sure that you aren't seen in the field before the battle begins. Once your team's initiator makes his move only then will you spring into action. More on Positioning and Timing later.
4)What you should be aiming for is to feed your allies. At the start it is more useful that you reach level 6 as quickly as you can while putting the enemy behind on experience. During the course of the game your teammates are supposed to have been well-fed with your help through ganking. There is no way YOU will end up being as strong as a Rampaging Traxex, Luna, Mortred, etc. That is your allies' job. You are just there to cause chaos in the game by dealing that extra damage, causing slows, tethering your team's Initiator, saving your allies and transporting your allies around the map. The only role you'll be playing is cornerstone. Help as much as you can.
5) Never go out alone. If you become the first target of the foe you won't be able to support at all.
6)The game does NOT depend on you. It depends on your teammates. Unlike other heroes if Wisp is mid he wont get ahead of the enemy like Nevermore or Mirana.You're like an item, an extra attachment...a weapon.
Ability Techniques
Using Spirits
The process is simple: Activate Spirits then imeediately push out. After that your enemy will either be within the circle or outside the circle. If your enemy is inside the circle Pull them in. If the's outside the circle you are free to kill the creeps.
If you want you can move in a little closer to make the enemy back away. Remember, it lasts 6 seconds. If you manage your mana right you can do 3-5 Spirits (18-30 seconds) until level 6. Spirits also make it difficult for the enemy to deny as they'll either be outside the circle waiting until the spirits disappear or inside the circle taking damage and getting slowed.
Remember that your Spirits ability has the potential of dealing large amounts of damage. Whenever a spirit explodes a new Spirit will regenerate. In the event that all spirits hit the enemy over the course of 6 seconds Io can generate up to 10 spirits. Ten spirits add up to a total of 250/500/7500/1000 damage. Bear in mind that it is difficult to make sure all spirits land a successful hit. Any misses will cancel out the regeneration of a new spirit and that means it cancels out 25/50/75/100 damage per miss. The only time when their damage would seem useless is if you fail to keep the enemy under-leveled.
Using Tether
Tether is your main ganking tool, but for the first portion of the game you will only be using this skill for defensive purposes. You can Tether yourself to a nearby allied creep. Use it when Blinkers try to position themselves next to you.
Tether is also your supporting ability. Not only does it stun enemies, share move speed, Overcharge attack speed, and Teleportation, but anytime you recover hp or mp your ally will recover as well. Anytime you use a replenishing item on yourself (Bottle, Salve, Tango, Mekanism, Arcane Boots), steal life (Mask of Death and its recipes), get healed by allies (Purification, Chakra Magic, Shadow Wave) or regenerate (Ring of Regeneration, Void Stone, Sobi Mask, Ring of Health, Strength bonuses, Intelligence bonuses, etc.), your ally will also benefit from the same recovery as you are. Omniknight, for example can heal himself by healing you while you are Tethered to him, so you both receive a heal. The Keeper of the Light can replenish his own mana by replenishing your Wisp's mana, so both of you replenish at the same time. Very valueable wouldn't you say?
Tether is a great escaping mechanism as well. I've been Nether Swapped, Fissure Trapped, Pounce Latched and Kinetic Field Bound. If your allies are around you can Tether away from the trap. The cast range is incredibly far.
Using Overcharge
Useless early in the game. The only time I use this is when i Relocate my ally and myself towards a Tower. I choose the one with the highest attack. Once we're at the tower we attack and attack and attack and do as much damage to the tower as much as we can for 12 seconds.
Sometimes i use it to out-battle the enemy while holding a Cranium Basher, or by Tehering myself to other Basher heroes (Slardar, Void) and heroes with Added effects to their attacks (Examples are Mana Breaks, Critical Strikes, Orb attacks and Auto-cast bonuses like Searing Arrows. Ice Arrows, Glaives of Wisdom and Impetus)
Using Relocate
Relocating is very Tricky business. You may try to relocate an ally out of battle and teleport them back to the fountain. But that only means you'll just go back to that place later. If you try to Relocate away from a fight there might be enemies waiting for you to come back. If you and the ally you just saved are worried about being tleported back to an area with awaiting heroes you had best bought a a Lothar's Edge. Once you are safely back in the fountain recover as fast as you can and use Lothar's Edge right before you are transported back, Don't forget to break the Tether link away from your ally, you wouldn't want him to go back for another beating would you?
Summary:
What To Buy
Core:
-Ring of Basilius
-Dagon
-Lothar's Edge
Other Mentions:
-Phase Boots/Boots of Travel/Arcane Boots/Power Treads (self-explanatory)
-Bracer (Buying this is not wrong. You're a STR hero anyway. You need the extra hp/hp regen/damage from the bonus strength and the stats. The regeneration from Stength bonuses can be passed on to your allies with Tether.)
-Khadgar's Pipe of Insight (Barrier is invalueable in my opinion)
-Black King Bar (If you want to avoid silencers and AoE abilities. There's also the hp/hpregen/damage bonus from the extra strength, meaning more regeneration passed on to your allies.)
-Linken's Sphere (Grants more hp/mp regeneration for sharing with a tethered ally and an escape from disables)
-Kelen's Dagger (The best way to get around and surprise enemies. Also great for positioning.)
-Bottle (Too obvious. Clearly doesn't need explanation)
Situational Items:
-Mekanism (The mekanism regeneration/heal your allies receive stack with the mekanism regeneration/heal you receive when you tether)
-Vanguard (Lets you last about 5 seconds longer maybe? Regeneration is shared too)
-Mask of Death/Mask of Madness/Helm of the Dominator/Satanic (Healing through lifesteal also heals a tethered ally)
-Eul's Scepter of Divinity/Guinsoo's Scythe of Vyse (You should know why)
Luxury Items:
-Bloodstone (A tethered ally also gets the hp/mp regeneration from your Bloodstone)
-Assault Cuirass/Shiva's Guard/Radiance (Standing by the clash? Casting auras really help. Do not buy if someone else already bought one of them or is buying one. Multiple units with similar auras don't have stackable effects. Again, stay outside the fight and let your spirits and auras do their part.)
Rejected Items:
-Blademail (who told you you were gonna tank all that damage? That's better used for a different build)
-Gem of Truesight (You cannot risk dropping this one; let someone else carry it)
-Stilgian Desolator(Again, no attack-damage boosting Items. Better use Strength Boosters instead. However, your teammates should have one of these.)
-Cranium Basher (Best left for other builds. This build does not involve you attacking much. I thought it was pretty useful earlier but now I realize that it doen't do much for this build)
Allies:
All heroes can benefit from Wisp. The best allies to pair Io with are those with Crowd-Controlling capabilities (Stone Giant, Naga Siren, Dark Seer, Far Seer, Earthshaker, Enigma, Axe, etc.) to take focus away from Io and Sweepers (Phantom Assassin, Shadow Fiend, Anti-Mage, Murloc Nightcrawler, Demon Witch, etc.).
Enemies:
Actually Wisp is not that hard to kill which is why I highly recommend that you don't draw attention. Avoid being seen and spring into action only when the time is right.
Weaknesses
Io is easiest to kill in dual lanes if you Frostbite+Venomous Gale it.
However, Io can be difficult to counter in solo lanes unless the enemy hero has a Long-range Blast ability, AoE ability or a Single-Target Blast Ability. DarkTerror's long-duration ChronoSphere should be able to stop wisp from moving around. Centaur's Hoof Stomp is more or less capable of handling Io when followed up with a Double-Edge. Rhasta Should be able to cut Io away from his allies with his disables(That is...if he could get close enough to you. Good thing your allies are around.)
Replay:
This first replay shows my first game doing solo. Back then the Dagon was experimental. It was the second day ever since Io was released and I really picked up a number of techniques after this. Bear in mind that it was a casual game. There's no need for criticism.
On the second replay I tried building Lothars first. On the last bit you can see that being alone is not a good idea (I forgot Gondar could Track). It really is about making your team stronger. Face it, there's nothing you can do to wisp early-game (almost nothing...damnable long-range blasters).
This guide shows you how to turn wisp into a Surprise-attack hero. According to my experience this method is much more fun than the supporting-only Wisp. I usually prefer the Cornerstone-types rather than the sweeper-types but with wisp you can be both: Glass Cannon Style.
No I'm not a professional player. I don't even bother trying to last-hit or deny (but I'll try to learn that soon). I'm kind of somewhere in between.
Contents:
I - Starting
- Strategy
- Dealing With Heroes
II - Middle
- How To Gank
- Mid-Game Items
III - Late
- Late-Game Items
IV - Important
V - Ability Techniques
VI - Summary
- What to buy
- Allies
- Enemies
- Weaknesses
VII - Replay
Starting:
Situation: You're in the fountain with 603 gold in your pocket. You have 5 heroes on the Sentinel side and 5 on the scourge.
What do you buy?
My Choice: Ring of Basilius + Healing Salve
Other choices: Bottle
Personally i think the Ring of Basilius is a better choice because Io incidentally has a pretty low defense (ZERO!?). The Basilius provides you with enough damage reduction and a tiny attack boost. The mana regeneration is also quite valueable. I'll explain why a little later.
Now that you've picked your items you are ready to take on the middle lane.
Strategy:
This is how your ability-build will look like:
1-Spirits
2-Tether
3-Spirits
4-Tether/Overcharge/Attribute Bonus
5-Spirits
6-Relocate
7-Spirits
Once you max out Spirits, from level 8 onwards you can do as you like (I preferably max out Tether first).
Your first objective is to stay alive and scare the enemy away with your spirits ability. Pretty useful. Presently all the heroes I've played against are afraid to cross the Spirit's path. Bear in mind that you have to know how to control them.
Dealing with Heroes
Sometimes heroes like to blink themselves right next to you or use long-ranged abilities which deal damage. For this reason I never cross the river and neither should you. It's important to know your enemy's skills.
Here are some strategies against popular mid-laners:
One-shot aimers [Difficulty: IIIII]
(Missiles which hit the first target; example Mirana, Pudge)
Watch your enemy carfully, they can be very dodgy. To avoid arrows and meat hooks make sure you keep the foe in your line of sight. The spirits can provide you with a fairly good vision of the upper cliff on her side, otherwise walk up your own side of the cliff for a better view. Make sure that you have an allied creep in the angle between you and your foe.
Long Range Blasts [Difficulty: IIIII]
(Missiles which hit lines of foes; example Raigor, Windrunner)
These are pretty tricky to handle. If they begin spamming their Impales, Powershots and Fissures early on it could put a real dent on you. Perhaps what you could do is just let the creeps come to you, and use a fully pushed-out Spirits to ward the enemy away after they have finished casting. This is when your salve/bottle comes in handy. Bear in mind that you will be taking big hits by the time you reach level 4, But so will your enemy if you hit him with enough Spirits.
Single-target Blasts [Difficulty: IIIII]
(Missiles which specific designation; example Luna, Shendelzara)
The only way to avoid these is by staying outside cast range. Normally you should keep yourself 800 distance away or less. Thankfully your spirits reach farther than single-target abilities and can scare the enemy out of the circle.
Resilience Heroes [Difficulty: IIIII]
(Heroes which move easily around you; example Magina, Mortred)
If they get close to you you're in trouble. They will try to get closer to you by either teleporting or turning invisible. They will try to get closer to you and hurt you. If they do, however, manage to position themselves next to you try to Tether a creep. It causes 1.25/1.50/1.75/2.00 seconds of stun to anyone close to the Tethered target and yourself. Then follow-up with Spirits. This technique is quite risky but can really cripple your enemy and force them to flee if you havent taken much damage.
Blast Blinkers [Difficulty: IIIII]
Puck and Crixalis are two notably more difficult heroes to handle as they use Long Range Blasts in combination with teleportation to get closer to you. Since they use both resilience and Long-range Blasts, the difficulty will naturally be the total of both.
Middle:
Once you've reached level 6 it's time to head back home and assign someone else to the middle lane. You should have enough money by now to buy Blades of Attack. At this point of time you will be able to initiate your first gank.
How to Gank
Wisp is one of the best gankers I've ever seen.
I would like to introduce you to my very own "Slidestun" technique. This involves positioning yourself behind the enemy while he is preoccupied with the other hero in front. I will be using X to represent Io, Y to represent Ally and Z to represent Enemy.
Example:
 | This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 800x600 and weights 195KB. |
Step 1: Find an enemy and an ally involved a struggle (Perhaps killing each other's creeps or Attacking each other).
Step 2: Relocate yourself behind the enemy and in front of your ally. Make sure the enemy doesn't notice.
Step 3: Activate Spirits then Tether to your Ally. This will cause you to slide past the enemy and stun it. Sliding past the enemy will also hit the enemy with Spirits.
Step 4: You have 12 seconds to kill the enemy. Tether will increase yours and your ally's move speed. Now that you are tethered, you and your ally should chase down the crippled enemy. If you stay right next to the enemy and block him (with your spirits at the right distance) you should be able to deal 25/50/75/100 to 125/250/375/500 damage and slow the enemy by 30% while your ally chases him down. 12 seconds later you are at the fountain again.
Success Rate: 79%
The secret is to surprise your enemies. Relocating yourself behind trees also helps. Your enemy will be surprised to see a lightning bolt shooting from behind them. There's very little the enemy can do against a sliding Wisp.
After your first kill you should concentrate on building a Dagon. This is a great item for ganking enemies. At the start of Middle-Game one of your allies should be assigned to the middle lane and you take over his lane. If you did a good job in warding away your foe on mid-lane they should be at least 1 level below you.
Mid-game items:
What do I buy next?: Dagon+Lothar's Edge
Strategy
Ganks:
Your teammates should have by now started making their core items. Your game now really depends on making ganks. You can deal the final blow when killing enemies with their health on the red by relocating yourself in their path. Use the Slidestun technique to get close enough for all your 5 spirits to hit. Dagon as early as you can. Level Dagon up to Level 5 as fast as you can. Killing enemies should be easy as long as they are deprived of gold and experience.
Late Game:
Late-Game Items: All you really need for lategame is your Level5 Dagon and your Lothar's Edge. Here are a few other items which you might need:
:linkens:
Linken's Sphere
Smart enemies will try to take down Wisp as fast as possible. Incidentally the easiest way to do just that is by inflicting one stun then focus fire. This is the worst situation for Io to be put in.
:bkb:
Black King Bar
Getting Silenced, Doomed, or Soul Burned is very BAD. There's no need for explanation here. Stay focused on AVOIDING focus. If you cannot then this is what you need.
:dagger:
Kelen's Dagger
If your ally is not familiar with the Slidestun technique you can blink yourself to the right position and Tether the right way.
IMPORTANT:
1) Avoid Focus; during team battles Io should be kept under constant care by the team. The Lothar's Edge should be activated after summoning your Spirits. This way you can walk around the field Spirit-blasting enemies like a Slark feeding in the shadows. Dagon when the opportunity comes and push out your Spirits for increased vision to search for that last runaway enemy.
2)Know your role. You are still a support. During team fights you are advised to stay outside the battle but close enough to it so that your Spirits can do their thing. Your Dagon and Spirits are sure to put at least 1 enemy out of action. If you wish to enter the battlefield you should have your Lothar's Edge in handy. Make sure you tether and summon your spirits BEFORE you turn invisible.
3)Positioning and timing are two major contributing factors in the game. Make sure that you aren't seen in the field before the battle begins. Once your team's initiator makes his move only then will you spring into action. More on Positioning and Timing later.
4)What you should be aiming for is to feed your allies. At the start it is more useful that you reach level 6 as quickly as you can while putting the enemy behind on experience. During the course of the game your teammates are supposed to have been well-fed with your help through ganking. There is no way YOU will end up being as strong as a Rampaging Traxex, Luna, Mortred, etc. That is your allies' job. You are just there to cause chaos in the game by dealing that extra damage, causing slows, tethering your team's Initiator, saving your allies and transporting your allies around the map. The only role you'll be playing is cornerstone. Help as much as you can.
5) Never go out alone. If you become the first target of the foe you won't be able to support at all.
6)The game does NOT depend on you. It depends on your teammates. Unlike other heroes if Wisp is mid he wont get ahead of the enemy like Nevermore or Mirana.You're like an item, an extra attachment...a weapon.
Ability Techniques
Using Spirits
The process is simple: Activate Spirits then imeediately push out. After that your enemy will either be within the circle or outside the circle. If your enemy is inside the circle Pull them in. If the's outside the circle you are free to kill the creeps.
If you want you can move in a little closer to make the enemy back away. Remember, it lasts 6 seconds. If you manage your mana right you can do 3-5 Spirits (18-30 seconds) until level 6. Spirits also make it difficult for the enemy to deny as they'll either be outside the circle waiting until the spirits disappear or inside the circle taking damage and getting slowed.
Remember that your Spirits ability has the potential of dealing large amounts of damage. Whenever a spirit explodes a new Spirit will regenerate. In the event that all spirits hit the enemy over the course of 6 seconds Io can generate up to 10 spirits. Ten spirits add up to a total of 250/500/7500/1000 damage. Bear in mind that it is difficult to make sure all spirits land a successful hit. Any misses will cancel out the regeneration of a new spirit and that means it cancels out 25/50/75/100 damage per miss. The only time when their damage would seem useless is if you fail to keep the enemy under-leveled.
Using Tether
Tether is your main ganking tool, but for the first portion of the game you will only be using this skill for defensive purposes. You can Tether yourself to a nearby allied creep. Use it when Blinkers try to position themselves next to you.
Tether is also your supporting ability. Not only does it stun enemies, share move speed, Overcharge attack speed, and Teleportation, but anytime you recover hp or mp your ally will recover as well. Anytime you use a replenishing item on yourself (Bottle, Salve, Tango, Mekanism, Arcane Boots), steal life (Mask of Death and its recipes), get healed by allies (Purification, Chakra Magic, Shadow Wave) or regenerate (Ring of Regeneration, Void Stone, Sobi Mask, Ring of Health, Strength bonuses, Intelligence bonuses, etc.), your ally will also benefit from the same recovery as you are. Omniknight, for example can heal himself by healing you while you are Tethered to him, so you both receive a heal. The Keeper of the Light can replenish his own mana by replenishing your Wisp's mana, so both of you replenish at the same time. Very valueable wouldn't you say?
Tether is a great escaping mechanism as well. I've been Nether Swapped, Fissure Trapped, Pounce Latched and Kinetic Field Bound. If your allies are around you can Tether away from the trap. The cast range is incredibly far.
Using Overcharge
Useless early in the game. The only time I use this is when i Relocate my ally and myself towards a Tower. I choose the one with the highest attack. Once we're at the tower we attack and attack and attack and do as much damage to the tower as much as we can for 12 seconds.
Sometimes i use it to out-battle the enemy while holding a Cranium Basher, or by Tehering myself to other Basher heroes (Slardar, Void) and heroes with Added effects to their attacks (Examples are Mana Breaks, Critical Strikes, Orb attacks and Auto-cast bonuses like Searing Arrows. Ice Arrows, Glaives of Wisdom and Impetus)
Using Relocate
Relocating is very Tricky business. You may try to relocate an ally out of battle and teleport them back to the fountain. But that only means you'll just go back to that place later. If you try to Relocate away from a fight there might be enemies waiting for you to come back. If you and the ally you just saved are worried about being tleported back to an area with awaiting heroes you had best bought a a Lothar's Edge. Once you are safely back in the fountain recover as fast as you can and use Lothar's Edge right before you are transported back, Don't forget to break the Tether link away from your ally, you wouldn't want him to go back for another beating would you?
Summary:
What To Buy
Core:
-Ring of Basilius
-Dagon
-Lothar's Edge
Other Mentions:
-Phase Boots/Boots of Travel/Arcane Boots/Power Treads (self-explanatory)
-Bracer (Buying this is not wrong. You're a STR hero anyway. You need the extra hp/hp regen/damage from the bonus strength and the stats. The regeneration from Stength bonuses can be passed on to your allies with Tether.)
-Khadgar's Pipe of Insight (Barrier is invalueable in my opinion)
-Black King Bar (If you want to avoid silencers and AoE abilities. There's also the hp/hpregen/damage bonus from the extra strength, meaning more regeneration passed on to your allies.)
-Linken's Sphere (Grants more hp/mp regeneration for sharing with a tethered ally and an escape from disables)
-Kelen's Dagger (The best way to get around and surprise enemies. Also great for positioning.)
-Bottle (Too obvious. Clearly doesn't need explanation)
Situational Items:
-Mekanism (The mekanism regeneration/heal your allies receive stack with the mekanism regeneration/heal you receive when you tether)
-Vanguard (Lets you last about 5 seconds longer maybe? Regeneration is shared too)
-Mask of Death/Mask of Madness/Helm of the Dominator/Satanic (Healing through lifesteal also heals a tethered ally)
-Eul's Scepter of Divinity/Guinsoo's Scythe of Vyse (You should know why)
Luxury Items:
-Bloodstone (A tethered ally also gets the hp/mp regeneration from your Bloodstone)
-Assault Cuirass/Shiva's Guard/Radiance (Standing by the clash? Casting auras really help. Do not buy if someone else already bought one of them or is buying one. Multiple units with similar auras don't have stackable effects. Again, stay outside the fight and let your spirits and auras do their part.)
Rejected Items:
-Blademail (who told you you were gonna tank all that damage? That's better used for a different build)
-Gem of Truesight (You cannot risk dropping this one; let someone else carry it)
-Stilgian Desolator(Again, no attack-damage boosting Items. Better use Strength Boosters instead. However, your teammates should have one of these.)
-Cranium Basher (Best left for other builds. This build does not involve you attacking much. I thought it was pretty useful earlier but now I realize that it doen't do much for this build)
Allies:
All heroes can benefit from Wisp. The best allies to pair Io with are those with Crowd-Controlling capabilities (Stone Giant, Naga Siren, Dark Seer, Far Seer, Earthshaker, Enigma, Axe, etc.) to take focus away from Io and Sweepers (Phantom Assassin, Shadow Fiend, Anti-Mage, Murloc Nightcrawler, Demon Witch, etc.).
Enemies:
Actually Wisp is not that hard to kill which is why I highly recommend that you don't draw attention. Avoid being seen and spring into action only when the time is right.
Weaknesses
Io is easiest to kill in dual lanes if you Frostbite+Venomous Gale it.
However, Io can be difficult to counter in solo lanes unless the enemy hero has a Long-range Blast ability, AoE ability or a Single-Target Blast Ability. DarkTerror's long-duration ChronoSphere should be able to stop wisp from moving around. Centaur's Hoof Stomp is more or less capable of handling Io when followed up with a Double-Edge. Rhasta Should be able to cut Io away from his allies with his disables(That is...if he could get close enough to you. Good thing your allies are around.)
Replay:
This first replay shows my first game doing solo. Back then the Dagon was experimental. It was the second day ever since Io was released and I really picked up a number of techniques after this. Bear in mind that it was a casual game. There's no need for criticism.
On the second replay I tried building Lothars first. On the last bit you can see that being alone is not a good idea (I forgot Gondar could Track). It really is about making your team stronger. Face it, there's nothing you can do to wisp early-game (almost nothing...damnable long-range blasters).
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