[Hero] Razor

I am Laserist, 26. I play solo High(middle to top) and Very High(probably bottom) skill games in EU. This guide is intended for new and intermediate players but experienced players may find useful things here and there. I'll try to stay away from standard/boring stuff but you know. Description/Information parts are heavily copy/pasted and validated from 4 different sources, no shame here. I appreciate any positive criticism and feedback. Bear in mind that English is not my main. Have fun.

Among the emblematic powers that populate the Underscape, Razor the Lightning Revenant is one of the most feared. With his whip of lightning, he patrols the Narrow Maze, that treacherous webwork of passages by which the souls of the dead are sorted according to their own innate intelligence, cunning and persistence. Drifting above the Maze, Razor looks down on the baffled souls below, and delivers jolts of scalding electricity that both punish and quicken the souls as they decide their own fates, hurrying on toward luminous exits or endlessly dark pits. Razor is the eternal embodiment of a dominating power, abstract and almost clinical in his application of power. Yet he has a lordly air that suggests he takes a sardonic satisfaction in his work.

Razor is a range semi-carry hero and deemed as Carry/Durable/Nuker in game. Although the definition is true, general play style of Razor is a lot different than traditional agility carries. Conventional agility carries are mostly weaker in early game, have little to no disable and heavily rely on having many items and levels. Mainly their damage comes from heavy items which generally acquired after 25-30 minutes

Skillset of Razor separates the hero from other carries because the mentality of the play shifts from 'farming damage items' to 'be tankier and faster early'. Because of this, Razor comes online earlier than most carries and should be played accordingly. Although he has no reliable disable/slow, his laning can be considered strong because of the synergy with the other popular laner friends and skill set.

I know, with Dazzle + Razor, it is hard to maintain a strong lane presence compare with popular laners but Dazzle can keep Razor alive more than anyone can. Also slow and heal look promising with Razor's skill set.
Although, Tusk and Disruptor may look different, their lock down skills allow Razor to accumulate damage and unleash the full potential.

Mana cost: 125
Cooldown: 14

Damage type: Magical
Damage Min: 60 / 100 / 140 / 180
Damage Max: 160 / 230 / 300 / 370
Radius: 700

Damage is blocked by magic immunity
Plasma Field gives vision as it expands

A very good AOE nuke early on gives you good damage & vision with no casting animation/time. Completely synergies with skill set, let you initiate from far and nuke down the fleeing enemies. Mana cost generally a problem due to bad stats in early game so use it wisely. Also landing max damage requires some training and prediction of enemy movements. I advise you to use when chasing not for nuking down the creeps early on.

Mana cost: 20/30/40/50
Cooldown: 25

Range: 600
Damage Drain Duration: 8
Buff Duration: 18
Damage Stolen Per Second: 7/14/21/28 (max. 56/112/168/224 damage)

The link is broken when either unit dies or the distance between them becomes greater than 675.
Cannot be blocked by magic immunity or Linken's Sphere
Cannot be purged
Cannot be used by illusions
Losing vision of target does not break the link

The skill defines the Razor. A BKB piercing link bounds the enemy to you and lets you to steal the damage from it. Static link may give you insane damage early on and punishes the positional mistakes hard. Usage is somewhat tricky: It has a 600 connection, 675 release range which indicates it should not be used at max range. I suggest to use it at least at half range(~300). Even though you somewhat disabled, Unstable Current keeps the connection stable. Also keep in mind, the animation cancelling and attack while moving at the same time.
Activate it before the disable lands on you because Link cannot be disabled after started and stays until release range is reached.
Also you can track invis. heroes and heroes in fog that makes Razor impossible to juke.

Passive

Damage type: Magical
Damage: 40 / 70 / 100 / 130
Bonus Movement Speed: 4% / 8% / 12% / 16%
Slow Duration: 0.4 / 0.8 / 1.2 / 1.6
Movement Slow: 100%
Attack Slow: 100

Purges enemies & removing buffs
Illusions also get this ability.
Blocked by Magic Immunity.
Can be Purged
Only activates if the caster is a hero unit.
Damage activates when the ability cast on Razor begins its effect.
Does not work against arrow effects.

The passive activates when a target spell is casted on you. Any target stun, disable & debuff damages, purges and slows the caster. Some target point spells (like sand king's burrow) also activate it if pointed to Razor rather than ground.
Not useful early on. Having nuke and link is more useful early but as the game drags, bonus movement and purge proves their use. Remember, purge slows both movement and attack speed and debuff the steroids on the attacker. This skill makes the opponent harder to focus you with single target spells which is needed in mid game/team fight scenarios. Bonus movement lets you chase the enemies better.

Mana cost: 100/150/200
Cooldown: 80/70/60
Radius: 500 for units/380 for buildings (see spoiler)
Duration: 30
Damage Per Strike: 37.5/50/62.5
Armor Reduced Per Strike: 1
Strike Interval: 0.7/0.6/0.5 (0.55/0.45/0.35 w/ aghanim)

Each blast targets the lowest health enemy unit within range
Eye of the Storm does not lower the armor of structures
Damage on buildings is not reduced by siege armor type
The negative armor debuff is removed once the spell's duration is over or if Razor dies
The triggered (center to center) area of effect is the same for buildings, the difference is existent because of difference in collision size.
Strike about 42/50/60 (54/66/85 w/ agh) times over its duration, allowing a total damage of about 1600/2500/3700 (2000/3300/5300 w/ agh)

A nice ultimate, although tricky to use, gives you good solo damage potential. Negative armor debuff gets stronger as the lightning hits. Should be used far from creeps if necessary and activated early due to the animation. It is not a good idea to active in the middle of the chase. Since it targets the lowest HP target around, most of the time this target appears to be a creep. Aghanim improves it considerably but not too reliable overall to center the game plan on it. Another reason to stay alive longer.

I would love to put all the tables here but they are too complicated to summarize in a graph. Refer datdota.com to track all the stats and I would like thank them to provide the stats for us to analyze.

A vast majority of the time pro players start with link and prefer plasma over passive. There are a few matches that we can see passive in first 6 levels but general trend tells us, Link and Plasma should be maxed early while ulti is taken at level 6.

Total matches Played: 28
Tango 28
Magic Wand 25
Healing Salve 22
Black King Bar 20
Phase Boots 20
Drum of Endurance 15
Magic Stick 14
Bottle 11
Ring of Basilius 11
Aghanims Scepter 9
Mekansm 5
Buckler 4
Butterfly 4
Ring of Aquila 4
Sange And Yasha 3
Sange 3
Assault Cuirass 2
Tranquil Boots 2
Ghost Scepter 2
Heavens Halberd 2
Headdress 2
Heart of Tarrasque 2
Scythe of Vyse 2
Satanic 1
Daedalus 1

Aside from starters, phase - drum - BKB trio is the most preferred item choice overall. A few Mekanism tries may be in-line with my thoughts. As you see, rarely Razor achieved Chinese-level late game with 6 slots which also proves that Razor should be active sooner than later.

In mid, if you get warded off by strong laner while creeps fighting low ground, give attack the enemy hero from a distance, get back and pull the enemy creeps onto your high ground outside of tower range. Whenever the enemy tries to attack you, will be harassed first by your creeps. Also you can hit the enemy creeps from a safer distance.

Well, for those who don't know animation cancelling, here is a mini guide:
For every attack and spell, there is some action needs to be done by the hero. Once the attack/cast is issued, there is a pre-animation(pre-swing) before it lands. This pre-animation can be stopped by using stop command or issue another order without doing actually nothing. This can be used to trick the enemy, position the spell better or improve the last hit timing.

Secondly the attack or spell lands. Third phase is the post-animation phase which is completely unnecessary to do and can be cancelled by issuing a move command. It requires some finesse to cancel it without not issuing the attack.

Razor stats are: For attack, 0.3s pre-swing and 0.7s back-swing; for spells 0.5s pre-swing & 0.125s back-swing. As you see there is a large time frame of doing nothing after the damage has done and if cancelled properly it allows you to move at least half second more. With the insane move speed, probably you can run toe-to-toe with the enemy while attacking at the same time.