Guide To Darchrow - The Enigma

Characteristics:
Roamer, Jungler and Ganker

Pros and Cons:
[+] Works very well with many AOE heroes
[+] Good AOE Damage.
[+] Good Gank Hero.
[+] Can be the game breaker with a perfect blackhole.
[+] Can jungle right at 30 seconds.
[+] Able to out level and farm solo hero early.
[+] Item independent aside from his blink.

[-] Long attack animation.
[-] Channeling ultimate.
[-] Fragile.

Statistics: Link to Complete Statistics

17 + 2.1	14 + 1.0	20 + 3.4

Affiliation: Scourge
Damage: 42 - 48
Armor: 4
Movespeed: 300
Attack Range: 500
Attack Animation: 0.4 / 0.77
Casting Animation: 0.3 / 0.51
Base Attack Time: 1.7
Missile Speed: 900
Sight Range: 1800 / 800

Comments:
His STR and INT growth is one of the highest for ranged INT heroes. He doesn't run out of mana easily with a few mana regen items. Even with his high STR growth, he cannot withstand focus fire. He has high starting armor, his base damage is about average.

Abilities:

Malefice:

Your core chasing ability and stun, use this to initiate in ganks. 6 Seconds of small stuns will grant you and your allies a lot of free hits. Good getaway ability as well.

Demonic Conversion:

Since the change in 6.59, Enigma's farming ability has gone up the roof. Not only the eidolons are great for farming, but they hit hard enough to become lethal early and mid game.

Midnight Pulse:

Combo this with Malefice or Backhole, and your enemies take 36% (after reduction) of their maximum health. When using this ability, Always combine this with a slow or disable (Fissure, Stun, Cold Arrows etc.) 25 second cooldown does not make this spammable.

Blackhole:

Most devastating skill. 500 Aoe of silence and damage. 4 seconds of Silence.

Ability Choice:

1 Conversion 1
2 Malefice 1
3 Conversion 2
4 Malefice 2
5 Malefice 3 / Conversion 3
6 Blackhole 1
7 Malefice 4 / Conversion 3
8 Malefice 4 / Conversion 3
9-10 Midnight Pulse 1,2
11 Blackhole 2
12-13 Midnight Pulse 3,4
14-15 Stats
16 Blackhole 3
17- 24 Stats
25 Conversion 4

Comments:

Get conversion first to farm. At level 5, If you can either rush Blink Dagger by leveling conversion, or level Malefice to deal more damage in a gank.

Early Game, Roaming Prerequisites
Warding:

Enigma's is the designated ward bitch, since he is support and farms well early game. Warding jungle can lead to safe farming, being warded by enemies lead to impossible ganks and being killed. Learn more from the ward guide Here.



Advanced Warding

Sentry Wards

If you are on sentinel, it is likely that scourge will despawn 3 camps with 2 wards while having vision of the rune. You will have a hard time ganking and farming, while being vulnerable to ganks. If they warded your jungle, you should start with sentry wards + clarities (+ chick), or buy sentries within the first few minutes.

Warding Uphill / Behind Towers -
In general, having uphill and extended vision is really good. Enigma needs the extra vision or anti-hill advantage to land his Blackhole nicely.

Jungling:

For most part of your early game, your source of income is farming in the jungle and killing heroes. Enigma works best in jungle, an explanation in FAQ below. My guide does not teach you "How to be a Pro Jungler", but however, here are a few tips I can offer.

1) Micro the Eidolons - its not hard like Chen and Beastmaster
2) Don't get damaged - Centaur's stun, Furbolg's claps, Sytar's Shockwave, or just tanking neuts. Knocking off clarity potion effect is not good.
3) You can use demonic conversion on eidolons itself, hence you can farm the mud golems even when your eidolons are expiring.

Advanced: Roaming in Enemy Jungle:

Do this only if you have high map awareness.
If you are Sentinal, farming in Scourge Jungle:
Jungling in scourge's jungle is fairly safe. You can jungle 4 spots basically, be careful when you are jungling downhill, position eidolon properly to get uphill vision. You can gank mid pretty easy. Try to bring 6 full hp eidolon for a clean kill at mid.

Insert 6.60 Map diagram

If you are Scourge, farming in Sentinel Jungle:
I think that you are relatively safe in 3 spots, it is harder than Scourge, not totally really recommended. Position eidolons to have uphill vision at the small camp. I personally find it harder to escape in the sentinal jungle. Roaming in Sentinal is pretty easy to get kills.

Insert 6.60 Map diagram

Map Awareness:

Map awareness is crucial in your early game. Your main purpose is to gank the adjacent lanes, at the very least keep them from leveling and farming. Watch the positioning of the enemies, it may be a difference between a clean double kill or a fail gank.

*Pictures Here*

Don't rely allies to call missing, watch the minimap at all times. When in doubt, move back and send eidolons at entrance points. If you send two in early game, opponents will get hurt trying to farm the eidolons, they will quickly realize it is not worth the effort.

*Pictures Here*

Rune Control:

Other than using wards, Enigma can send one eidolon at the rune spot, requires some timing. Enigma is not so rune dependent, priority goes to "Rune Whore" allies. Enigma can get a bottle if the mid hero(es) are more or less "denying" runes rather than a "Rune Whore"-type hero. See Bottle's justification below

Pulling Creeps:

You won't run out of mana with clarity potions, but if it happens then pull the creeps at bottom sent / top scourge. Also, you can save mana, force creep wave closer to your own tower, and then gank.

Advanced:

While you are jungling one camp, send another eidolon to the "pull spot" and pull neutrals to lane. This requires more micro, timing of the eidolons. You will benefit from faster leveling and farming

Starting Items:

Enigma mainly needs mana regeneration bonus, Enigma's has a decent int growth, hence a large mana pool. There are no standard to this, it really depend on your style and preference.

Quote:

etc. Grab 1-2 Sobis + Clarities until you farm you blink etc. Grab a Magic Stick and abuse the charges you get from neutrals etc. Rushing a Void Stone works etc. Recover from getting hurt, your eidolons tank harder with creep aura on.

Other Early Game Items

Quote:

Empty Bottle: 600 Probably 2 Sobi Masks will keep you from being out of mana, but clarities are necessary to keep your mana pool high to gank. Empty Bottle: 600 Since Enigma is a natural roamer, if your solo is not as rune dependent, like Viper and Enchantress etc. Instead of getting him to "deny" opponent's rune hunt, turn this into your job. With a bottle, you need less flasks and clarities, and perhaps increase your ganking potential. Magic Stick 200 Magic Wand 484 Neutral creep's spell will add charges to your magic stick! When you go out and gank, enemies are sure to throw some spells around. Bracer(s) are okay, just make sure you don't run out of room. Get Branches and RoR only if you are building Mek/Hood.

Core Item #1: Kelen's Dagger:

After you get your void stone and/or sobi(s), farm straight for blink. This item is core on enigma. Positioning Midnight Pulse is key to ganks, while positioning Blackhole is key to big fights.

Upgrading Footwear:

Quote:

Phase Boots - 1,550 Good for chase and flee. Buy this during building 2nd Core Item. With phase boots, he has 370 / 407 (phased) ms, out running the typical 350 ms heroes by far, hence creating space to blink. Boots of Travel - 2,700 Travel can save you a slot if needed. Enigma sure has no trouble farming to a boots of travel. It is a great item to teleport and cast your spells. Not recommended for the sole purpose of farming.

Core Item #2 & #3:

Quote:

Black King Bar - 3,900 Get this if opponents has sufficient heroes to disable your Blackhole channeling. The Avatar buys you time to cast Midnight Pulse + Blackhole. Always cast Midnight Pulse before Blackholing. Activating BKB in ganks, and escape increases survivability. Orchid Malevolence - 5,025 In mid game, when enigma goes around and gank, what does he do? Blink, Stun, Pulse, hit, hit, hit. Why not give him a bit more dps if that is all he is doing. Also, its a 5 second silence. If you got 2 sobi mask in the beginning it is a great item to get. I believe this item is excellent on enigma. The other popular orchid heroes are Enchantress and Furion. I see that some people like to say "I like to rape that no HP Furion/Enchantress", but Enigma is very different than those Furion and Enchantress. Those do not have a stun or blink. Pros: Enchances ganking ability Easier build-up than Hex. Surprise with much higher DPS Make use of your Sobi Masks Cons: No HP bonus. Kind of Awkward on a non-DPS hero, nevertheless it is a disable item. Guinsoo's Scythe of Vyse - 5,675 Superb disable, superior item if it is acquired early. The use is just like Orchid when you are ganking, see above. I personally find orchid slightly better than sheep if you are going to farm it as your 2nd core item. If you are having trouble farming it up, get level 4 demonic conversion to speed up. Pros: Provides HP Fully disables + slows Con: Farming the Mystic Staff and Ultimate Orb n00bs can't find/don't notice the Sheep Necronomicron - 2,750/4,050/5,350 If they have invisible units, this is a great item to get. Pop it right before blackhole. Mana Burn and Feedback. Pros: True Sight, sees invisible units and wards 9% Attack & Move Speed Bonus Aura. They hit hard, plus Mana burn and Feedback Does more damage than Dagon in a blackhole combo. Cons: More Micromanagement Can be purged and enchanted, instant 100 gold bounty. Refresher Orb - 5,300 Refresher is either used for double ult (8 seconds), or simply being advantageous being able to engage in multiple clashes within a short time. Note that the Orb refreshes Linken's and BKB. Cons: Being blackhole dependent playstyle can be bad because if blackhole gets interrupted you die, it means that you couldn't position enemies the way you want them, and your refresher never went off. Might need to watch the mana if you are going to cast spells on top of Blackhole.

Optional and Situational Items:

Quote:

Mekansm - 2,306 Optional Good Supporting Item, slight increase of survivability. Linken's Sphere - 5,175 Situational With the recoded spellblock, Linken's can fully block a lot more spells. This item grants survivability, HP/MP Regen, and spellblock to avoid interrupted Blackhole. This is not a core item, rather a situational item as it is needed to fully block ultimates that BKB does not offer. (Fiend's Grip, Doom etc.) Vladimir's Offering 2,050 Situational Acquire this only if your team has melee carries/dps, given that you have a Sobi Mask/RoB already. 1100 range of Armor, Mana and Damage aura is decent to support allies. Khadgar's Pipe of Insight: 3,653 Situational This is not a really a situational item, it is proven to be a great item. If no teammate can make this item and you got spare gold then you should make it. Diffusal Blade: 3,250/4,050 Situational Only for against warlocks. This is not theorycraft, I have tried this several times. You can farm this much faster than anyone on your team. You might get this by the 2nd or 3rd inferno drop, then the rocks are free farms for you. Diffusal has a total of 16 charges, spend charges elsewhere and no need to be overly conservative like before! Heart of Tarrasque: 5,500 Luxury Lets say you went a no HP Build, Phase Boots, Sheep/Orchid and Blink etc. A bit of extra HP for late game survival would be nice. Shiva's Guard: 4,700 Luxury Combos with Blackhole nicely, also increases enigma's survivability late game. This is a late game luxury because it is better getting sheep stick if u can farm the mystic staff. Get this after a Sheep / Orchid earliest.

Rejected Items:

Phase Boot is better to chase and escape.


Let your teammates finish opponents off. This is comparable to the infamous Dagon Ninja Furion killsteal build.

With 125 more gold, you can get a Linken's Sphere, which probably provides more survivability than bloodstone. Linken helps your blackhole and blink at the very least. Bloodstone is usually for carries, additionally Enigma is unlikely to store up charges easily.

Personal Builds:

These are builds that I try to these builds

In Games where I have to buy over 10+ wards, chick, crow etc.



+

In games where our team is stomping





In a really really long game.

Item Questions/Challenges:

Questions

I can jungle fine with Conversion lvl 2, is Conversion lvl 3 necessary?
Optional. You can get the blink dagger faster, shreds couple minutes compare to lvl 2 conversion. lvl 3 conversion can kill most neutral camps by itself auto-attacking, while lvl 2 can't. This is useful when you are ganking, fleeing, walking, etc, you can lay down conversion and leave, and collect your gold.

Feel free to skip level 3 conversion because you gank more than farm. Then at level 7, you have level 4 Malefice, which is longer duration than level 3. If you revisit jungle at at level 8-9 you can might as well skip conversion 3.

Level 4 Conversion - They hit hard and farm EVEN faster, why not?
Level 4 Eidolons are amazing ganks and fights early/mid game. Probably after 25+ minutes, they are just free farms for the opponent (even with micro). Might as well invest in a stat point.

Stats @ level 14? - it helps survivability
Enigma has great escape mechanism with his core items and skills. Just watch your positioning, no escape mechanisms will save you from focus fire. Dagger, Malefice, Phase boots, Avatar and disable from Guinsoo / Orchid, will provide enough survival. If nukers are picking you off bad and you are struggling, you might want to get stats over Midnight Pulse.

But Midnight Pulse deals like 30 damage at level 10, Why not Stats?
True, but you don't use this ability until level 12-13, due to mana issues and its effectiveness. However, it needs to be maxed out by level 13. At lvl 13 onwards, you should be constantly ganking. With midnight pulse, stun and auto attack, probably you are dealing 30%-60% of the damage. If Midnight Pulse isn't used, you deal only 20-40% of the damage. So Midnight Pulse can secure kills and minimizing risk of counter ganked.

Leveling Blackhole @ lvl 11 & 16?
If you are building Sheep / Orchid / Necronomicron etc., your large mana pool can support your combo with a few to spare. Enigma has good innate INT growth. But if you have nothing other than Bracer(s) + BKB, I'd say be careful with your mana and maybe delay lvl 2-3 Bhole. The duration for blackhole is the same for all 3 levels, downside is slight damage increase and slight cooldown decrease.

Black King Bar or Linken's?
In most cases, BKB is better. If you have a linkens, in a "prefight", team exchanges some spells, linkens is likely on cooldown. So at that instance, are you really using Linkens for the blackhole?

I recommend that you get linkens when you they have Doom or Bane, because BKB does not fully block these spells.

Boots before blink?
Early boots is a huge advantage, especially setting up blackhole @ lvl 6. Only problem is that slows your way to your blink dagger. If you die a few times and your gold hover in the mid 1000s. I am not rejecting boots before blink, this is up to you.

Depending on the level of competitiveness of the game.
Higher up = Boots + chick + crow + obs + tps + clarities before the blink (20 minutes in)
Lower = Straight farm blink, maybe 0-4 wards within first 10 minutes.

If I went broke - What can I do?
If this happens to you. your ending items should be these:
+
Enigma can get killed in every team fight, the rest of the game is not fun. If you are in that case, just minimize your farming and let your carries carry your team. Probably get 3 Bracers, if you start to get out of bankruptcy, try to go for ogre axe. If your team is coming back hard then farm your BKB, but if you keep dying and your gold isn't going over 500, then buy tps for your teammates, buy obs, buy sentries. Make sure to buy before every team fight, macro the shop. I have listed 7 items on top, try to ask teammates to set the wards.

Pub Stomp Build:

Okay, not everyone here plays clan war, vouch leagues or even open leagues, so I will talk about 2 pub builds that I go with enigma. Personally, I wouldn't play enigma in a pub because many pubbies are unaware of blackholing, even if you ping. A lot of misclicks during blackhole, stacking stuns etc. etc. etc.

If you want to go trash a pub, go try these 2 builds:

Pub Build #1: Quradruple Nuke

OR

Explanation

Enigma simply blinks in, Stun, Midnight Pulse, then Blackhole. After that you just Dagon. Since in pubs, u don't really have to save the blackhole. Roam around and keep doing this. If they are low enough you don't need to waste blackhole. If you are doing well, get a bloodstone to get charges. Necronomicron should deal more damage than a dagon, but it is a matter of micromanagement.

Pub Build #2: Evil Battle Build Pub Enigma:

OR

Explanation

Enigma can do well in a pub with a battle build.

Basically, you just hit them, when they flee, you cast Malefice, then hit hit hit hit hit! The Mask of Madness gives you the extra movement speed and attack speed, MKB / Buriza gives you more dps. Switch treads to any attribute depending on situation.

In this build, Midnight Pulse and Blink Dagger are optional.

Biggest Mistakes that a lot of Enigma Makes:

Major Mistakes

Over farming - Yes, you can farm very hard, dota isn't about farming. You are not the carry, leave the farm for the carry once you get your necessary items. Being higher level with more cs than your carries while losing the game is nothing to be proud of.
Jungling Forever - You can probably net 2 kills before level 6 by coming to lane. Afk farming the entire first 30 minutes is totally unacceptable.
Only engage when your blackhole is up - So, you stay friendly unless blackhole up.
Blink + Blackhole = fights
Blink + Stun + Disable = ganks
Enigma needs to be constantly ganking, don't ever sit back and wait for blackhole. Exception to this is late game pushes, which are "fights"
not farming Blink Dagger - Read a bad pub guide and they'll give you reasons not to get blink dagger, there is no argument about this here please.

Minor Mistakes

Not checking runes - and retroactively, taking all the runes might be just as bad. Rune control is part of the game, you are closet to the rune, no excuse.
Take a rune and not gank
Blackholing to save yourself - If you are gonna die, just die, don't put a bhole up trying to stall 5 seconds, the enemy hero is pulled very close towards you afterwards.
Sending 3 eidolons to scout one place - split split split!
Not scouting with Eidolons - They are slow and feeds enemy, but could save lives
When pushing a tower, send eidolons to scout the hills, forests and move them up front to give vision ahead.
Unattended Auto-Attacking Eidolons - It pushes creepwave out. Pushed out lanes are hard to farm and make allies vulernable. You might only get 30% of the last hits with the eidolons autoattacking.
Not casting midnight pulse before blackhole, given it was safe - Be aware who can disable, who is GOING to disable you. To me, this is an instinct, make that decision instantly.

If u blink and get stuck in trees, use your midnight pulse to get out.

Good Initiators:

Krobelus

Krob opens with Silence, you blink in and land your Midnight Pulse + Blackhole. She spams carrion swarm and Exorcism's Ghosts rape enemies.

Puck

Initiate with Illusionary Orb, then Waning Rift. Enigma blinks in and Midnight Pulse + Blackhole. After blackhole is over, use dream coil to finish off enemies.

Most Devastating Blackhole Butt Buddies:




I will not explain the obvious ones.

- Dark Seer
Every one of his spell helps. Vacuum for positioning, Ion shell for AoE Damage, Surge to finish survivors off. Wall of Replica will replicate everyone without much difficulty with Blackhole and Vacuum.

- Zeus
Spam Static - 11% static 3-5 times in 4 seconds is not fun for enemies.

- Stealth Assassin
With invisibility, he is a good roaming/scouting partner with Enigma. Enemies may think Enigma is roaming alone to place / clear wards and try to take advantage of this, when in turn you may have the upper hand.

In battle, SA can initiate with cloud, or cloud after blackhole to prolong AoE silence, then blink strike to finish survivors.

- Magnataur
Pretty obvious synergy here. Enigma blackholes first, then Mag uses Shockwave, follow by Empower, hit, hit, and finish with Reverse Polarity. Having Magnataur to initiate is fine, just that Enigma has a bigger AoE, just never stack their ults together.

Decent Allies - Self Explanatory



Enigma's most feared heroes:

Nerubian Assassin
(especially mid solo) - NA is a ganking hero, he will scout for you. With his triple nuke and dagon in mid game, he has a good chance to kill you while you are roaming.

Possible Counters:
He has low HP, If he comes for you early game, eidolons + stun/bhole might be just enough.

Clockwerk Goblin
He is a ganker, when he does his combo you have no way out, it is a guaranteed death. He ruins your blackhole with his ministun. He can scout you and knock your clarities off early game.

Broodmother
He stops your blink with Spawnspider (and Spiderlings). You can't get out once he touches you with his 40% slow. He has at least 20% bonus ms.

Antimage - Magina
He takes your mana away, you can't blink, you got large mana pool for his ult to hurt a lot.

- Stealth Assassin
He can cloud, backstab and you are paper shredded before you cast a spell. The nature of SA is to scout around and pick off the weaker heroes, especially enigma, which he can do a good job on.

Possible Counters:
Necronomicron 3 - true sight, SA is pretty easy to get picked off due to his low hp. Enigma and his summons deal a lot of damage to him (but unlikely to finish him off 1v1). Prior to big battles (4v4 or more), you activate the book and you might see SA wandering around up front etc. Therefore, SA being a threat only if there is no necronomicron. On a side note, always carry dust, there is a cooldown to the book.
Orchid - Get this after Necronomicron. For 5 seconds, SA will be silenced hence being visible and can't blink away. (The silence is longer than sheep)

- Doom Bringer

Just about everything can go wrong with Doom Bringer on the other side.
Scorched Earth - You can't blink, he spams it everywhere
LVL ? Death - Has a ministun, stops your channel
Doom - It will silence you even you have Black King Bar
Aghanims Scepter - Doom's cooldown is 70 seconds, while your blackhole is cooldown is 180. It is likely that you will die with LVL + Doom.

Possible Counters:
Linken's Sphere - Blocks his Doom and LVL ? Death completely.
Stay out of sight - Don't bother going around stunning and silencing. Not worth it.

Convertible and non-Convertible Creeps:

Convertible Creeps:



Ghouls and Treants
Invoker: Forge Spirit
Nerubian Weaver: Scarabs
Beastermaster: Quilbeast and Hawk
Visage: Revenants
Broodmother: Spiderlings
Enchantress/Chen: Critters below lvl 5
Helm of the Dominator: Critters below lvl 5
Lycanthrope: Summon Wolfs
Furion: Treants

You can deny and creep Meat Wagons and Glaive Throwers. Easy Instant 75 Gold.

Non-convertible Creeps:

Mud Golem
Acient
Warlock: Inferno
Necronomicron: Summons
Panda: Primal Split (Storm, Earth and Fire)

Countering Enigma: Coming Soon

- + OR +
If he is not caught inside the bhole, his stun is far enough to cancel your ult (seen it, needs confirmation on the distance). If he gets a BKB, he can get out of your blackhole and just his stun, or bash you to stop your channel. Hence even if Enig has BKB he is not safe from Slardar. BKB is common amongst slardar, expect to see this sometimes.



AoE Silence

BKB and Linkens will not get your way out of global silence or AOE silences



With Silencer attempting to work its way in the tier 1 pool nowadays, he is sure to be regarded a versatile counter to Enigma. You cannot "combo" at all with his Last Word's aura. Just simply Blackhole, no midnight pulse or stun. Make sure to check the level of his Last word.



Along with other who can silence/ministun from far range

Not so noticeable ministuns:



I am not listing obvious stun/disables spells like hellfire blast, frostbite, impale etc.

Landing that Fucking Blackhole:

In general, when deciding to cast blackhole, consider these factors:
1) How many are missing on the minimap?
2) I can only get some heroes (ex. 3 of 4 or 2 of 3), will it be an issue?
3) Can I safely cast Midnight Pulse before blackhole?
Then conclude by asking, what is the chance that I can land an uninterrupted blackhole?
4) Even if I land a good blackhole, what is the chance that my team can kill X of them? (aka, are you teammates around?)

At different interval of the game, blackholes are used differently.

Early Game:

If someone forest ganks you: (Shouldn't happen with map awareness, scouts, and wards)
If you have 3 to 6 eidolons, you may be able to kill them. Pretend to run, while the eidolons are hitting them. Then if you think they are at killable range, use blackhole. Eidolons do 48 normal damage per hit, they hurt!

Lane Ganking:
So right after lvl 6-7, you should get out of the jungle and gank with an ally. You need at least 1 ally with you. If it is a 2 on 2, whenever you have a chance to grab both players, stun the one further out (or save the stun for cleanup), and just land blackhole (should catch both in the Bhole, don't worry about AoE bonus damage range). If you have the extra mana, you can summon eidolons before blackhole.

Mid and Late Game:

Initiating with Blackhole:
This can be done probably til mid game. Basically you charge in and blackhole. Don't ever charge in uphill when there's no vision.
In late game enemies are well aware to spread out, hence not so ideal to purely initiate with blink blackhole.

Surprise Blackholes:
This one is simple. Never stay in sight (staying uphill or around the forest). Your allies are in lane pushing/defending a push. Blink in at the right time and score big. With enough allies, you may not need to midnight pulse if you are scared of getting disabled.

"Late Arrival" Blackholes:
Not recommended but it can work. Your team fight a 4v4 or 4v5 battle while you are halfway across the map. As the battle goes on, opponents chase and your allies back. As they chase, they clutter together. Pop right in, and counter hard.

"Spam around" and Blackhole:
Basically, the idea is that Enigma spams his disable(s) and malefice before the fight. Then once the main fight comes, you just blackhole.

Probably this is the most realistic way to blackhole - Why?
Opponents know to split apart, they will likely be far apart from each other before a fight, hence impossible to just simply blink bhole. When the big fight begins, it is where enemies may lose their positioning and more likely to be grouped up, or heroes with disables are dead/cooldown/silenced.