Perched atop the entrance to the Narrow Maze sit the looming shapes of sneering gargoyles, the paths into the hereafter forever in their gaze. Beasts and birds, men and monsters, all creatures that die and choose to travel beyond must someday pass beneath their sight. For an untethered spirit, the decision to journey through the veil of death is irrevocable. When chance comes, and by craft or cunning some restless soul escapes their hells and heavens, it is the dreaded gargoyle Visage, the bound form of the eternal spirit Necro'lic, who is dispatched to reclaim them. Ruthless and efficient, unhindered by the principles of death and fatigue, Visage stalks its prey without mercy or end, willingly destroying all which may give shelter to the fugitive essence. That which flaunts the laws of the afterlife may never rest, for while it is true that the dead may be revived, it is only a matter of time before Visage finds and returns them to their proper place.
Hey guys, Visage is one of my main support heroes. Love him because of his amazing burst early/mid game, push power, tanky support, etc He is hard to master however...
My items: Boots upgraded into tranqs later, mek if no one builds it or if I have to get medaillon first, medaillon in all my games, then straight aghs. Skill build, soul assumption first, then grave chill of cloak depending of the state of the game.
Lots of items work well on Visage, never had the occasion to use them. AC great on him? Never tested. Shivas a good pickup for Visage? Same.
I used this video to learn visage last year before he became all the rage at TI3 Eastern quals. He's still one of my favorite heroes despite all the nerfs to his early game survivability. Some of the information is outdated but the basics of Visage play still remains the same.
Visage is one those heroes where its CRITICAL to not spend your first skill point until you absolutely know what you need. In defensive lanes, going Grave Chill first is usually a safe bet. If you anticipate a lot of early actions (eg. tri vs tri) then Soul Assumption first is usually better. Just leave the skill pt unspent and skill when the action breaks out. I repeat, DO NOT spend your first skill point until you need it. You WILL miss out on first bloods because of skilling your 1st pt incorrectly.
I find medallion is only a good investment if you plan on ganking a lot, you get a fast lvl6, or your team can use it to get an early Rosh. Saving up to build Mek is a much more stable item choice; its not always the best first item to get but c'mon, you can never go wrong with Mek. In the case that you have a dedicated Mek builder that is also a farming core, you can then grab the medallion or proceed to your next item from below. If you do go for a ganking medallion Visage, the movespeed and regen from Tranqs is pretty good. Otherwise, Treads all the way unless your team desperately needs some Arc boots.
Your next item should be one of the following (by priority): Aghs, Forcestaff, Pipe. Aghs is just an overall great item for supports that have this upgrade. Easy to build up, makes you a bit tankier, and gives huge boost to your Familiars, just insane cost-effectiveness. Forcestaff is another super cost-effective item with unlimited applications for a support. Pipe, self-explanatory. Late game items are always situational. Its usually just a case of what your team is lacking that you can afford to build. When in doubt, just build a Hex if it gets to that point.
Visage is one of the easier micro heroes to master as you can do it with just 2 control groups. I like to use 1 for Visage + birds, 2 for just birds, (F1 is always hero so doesnt count). When you are not fighting, my time is usually spent 50-50 split between birds and main hero. If like to keep the birds over the tree line so you can get a little scouting but still have time to pull them out of enemy hero range. Your opponent should not see your familiars coming unless you are using them to zone.
I might post more in-depth Familiar control strategies later involving fighting, scouting, split pushing, managing CDs etc...
As with all heroes that have unique mechanics or require micro, I recommend practicing with bots a bit just to become Familiar with the hero :D
Main items you want are Boots medallion Agha. In between, you may want to add mek arcane tranquil wand etc. Other than that, standard support caster items like force ghost eul atos hex. Luxuries are ac Shiva hex.
Just keep spamming assumptions. And don't skill anything at 1. You never know whether you need chill or assumption.
I have an extremely hard time playing this hero, micro-aside it is a support I struggle to understand itemisation on or rather knowledge/SKILL to gain gold with. I know the basic outline is boots, courage medalion into Aghs but there's of course useful items inbetween but I don't know how to find the money for these.
Maybe it's a mix between me and a pub environment, but I wish I was a lot better with Visage before I get Aghs.
1/4/4 for skills. Core is tranquil/mek if you can't micro and tranquil/aghs if you can.
Tranquils because you don't need the mana from arcanes and the +4 armor is crucial since you start with 0. Also armor stacking is super op on Visage. Regen is useful for farming jungle, put it down on the ground before you attack so it doesn't go on cd.
Don't go Aghs if you're behind in lvls as you need lvl11 and 16 at a relatively normal pace to have the 3rd bird be useful. Otherwise Aghs combined with Soul Assumption means you will be out dpsing carries. The +HP is also vital in letting you last longer in fights for more Soul Assumption.
If you can't micro 3 birds go Mek. Once again armor stacking is op on Visage. Still don't need Arcanes even with Mek.
Medallion can be nice but you need it early to make any impact. You usually don't have a fast 1k if you're playing as a support. It is very good for farming jungle/ancients with birds though. I don't consider it core and it's not worth delaying your Aghs for.
Play style: Visage is a DPSer! Don't pick him to land 3 man stuns or whatever. Your #1 job is to nuke every 4 secs and #2 is making sure your birds do full 7 stack damage. In fact if you're not confident with micro take your birds and just right click a hero.
Please don't play him as a hard support. Visage needs early lvl 6 and 11 or you will make no impact at all.
Visage is very much a early/mid game hero. You want to snow ball and end the game as Visage falls off quite hard late with no real stuns.
Skills: Grave Chill: Always cast on the carry. Use it to reposition yourself in fights. You can also cast it on creeps for escapes/chases.
Soul Assumption: Make sure to only cast with a full charge. Otherwise pretty simple spell to use because of its 900 range and low cast point.
Gravekeeper's Cloak: This use to make him superman before his magic resist got nerfed to 10%. Now a hero like Zeus can wreck Visage pretty bad. Exploit this skill by stacking +armor items. Also keep in mind you start off with 0 armor before you get this skill.
Birds: Each bird does 294/462/686 damage with 0.4 BAT. Insane dps and you can even kill low hp supports only with birds. Stunning resets your damage stacks back to 7. Make sure you always have 7.
Birds combined with Cloak lets you farm jungle/ancients because cloak charge is only removed from hero attacks.
Magic immune. Last time I played you could remove nightmare with birds and they will keep moving. Not sure if still true.
If you're close to Aghs make sure to save resummon as you won't get a 3rd bird automatically. Bird damage will automatically update without resummoning if you go from lvl1 to lvl2 birds.
Resummon in fights after you damage or stun for even more damage. This is the combo that makes you feel like a pro.
Bird Counters: Bristleback - Quills do physical damage so you need to stun right as the fight starts or you will feed the birds every time. Don't pick Visage against him. DK - Physical damage aoe. Gyro - Flak cannon Axe - Not as bad as Bristleback because you can avoid him or stun before birds they die. Late game ranged carrys like SF or Drow will 1 shot birds.
Will add other stuff as I remember them. edit: various updates
Birds are now magic immune meaning that you no longer have to worry about Bane/OD/Ench/Silencer 1 shotting them. However something to def watch for is Gyro and Ember Spirit. Ember with a BF will cleave off your birds and can kill them very quickly even with little else around. Gryo's Flak Cannon also will affect the birds, making it difficult to keep them alive in a teamfight against him.
The choice of whether to get arcanes or not depends on the team. That being said if you're not getting them and don't start with a RoP I'd just stay with brown boots. The MS isn't a big deal to you since you're a back line nuker that also has a MS buff/slow, and with a point into Cloak you end up being extremely survivable.
Urn is really good on him due to the fact that you should be looking to get kills with the hero. His ability to gank is very underrated and with a good stun and some other burst heroes he can secure a kill on almost any hero in the early game.
I always get a basi ring on this guy, gives enough regen in the early game and the damage and armor help too. Lately I've been losing a lot with visage and I think it's because I got too wrapped up in landing bird stuns. In fights I was microing the birds the whole time and not casting soul assumption or maneuvering my hero. The bird stuns are icing on the cake I've come to realize, the core of his effectiveness is his nuke.
On June 07 2014 05:21 Dankleteer wrote: I always get a basi ring on this guy, gives enough regen in the early game and the damage and armor help too. Lately I've been losing a lot with visage and I think it's because I got too wrapped up in landing bird stuns. In fights I was microing the birds the whole time and not casting soul assumption or maneuvering my hero. The bird stuns are icing on the cake I've come to realize, the core of his effectiveness is his nuke.
don't forget to let your birds auto if they're not being targeted (they shouldnt be target priorities in ~even fights), the autos of bonus damage are worth way more than the stuns too, stunning is something you do when w and bird bonus dmg are both on cd (or for clutch saves and tp interrupts etc)
You should use stuns to stop people that are running away. In teamfights, I always stun first for some reasons, it is a mistake indeed. But sometimes there are situations where you have to. A bane who has fiend's grip for example, an opportunity to stun everyone, for example...
The utility of Familiars for scouting around the map, split pushing towers and immediately resummoning them in case is something I find an important mechanic with Visage. Items I prefer going Force Staff, Eul's (adding the disable and additional movement speed is nice), Mek, Pipe and if I have the luxury, Shiva's. RoB is an underrated item on Visage I think, it adds some good mana regen which is nice because Visage's spells early game are fairly mana intensive. Aghs is definitely important because three Familiars adds a lot of DPS, scouting, split pushing and more stuns and should be bought ASAP.
On June 07 2014 06:59 PhoenixVoid wrote: The utility of Familiars for scouting around the map, split pushing towers and immediately resummoning them in case is something I find an important mechanic with Visage.
This can be useful. But in fights I love to be able to resummon them. Sometimes it is even better to play with 2 birds after getting aghs for some time, if u suspect a teamfight soon. full load -> stun -> full load -> resummon is quite a lot of dmg extra. Obviously the fight has to take that long. It can also be very useful to have the stuns at the chasing part after the fight, either for chasing or running away.
Birds are now magic immune meaning that you no longer have to worry about Bane/OD/Ench/Silencer 1 shotting them. However something to def watch for is Gyro and Ember Spirit. Ember with a BF will cleave off your birds and can kill them very quickly even with little else around. Gryo's Flak Cannon also will affect the birds, making it difficult to keep them alive in a teamfight against him.
The choice of whether to get arcanes or not depends on the team. That being said if you're not getting them and don't start with a RoP I'd just stay with brown boots. The MS isn't a big deal to you since you're a back line nuker that also has a MS buff/slow, and with a point into Cloak you end up being extremely survivable.
Urn is really good on him due to the fact that you should be looking to get kills with the hero. His ability to gank is very underrated and with a good stun and some other burst heroes he can secure a kill on almost any hero in the early game.
Oh wow I didn't know they changed that. Guess that happens when you're too busy to dota. Flak cannon didn't target birds before 6.80 not sure if that changed as well.
Brown boots works but Tranquils are too good to pass up. I don't really like Arcanes on int heroes at all, team or not.
I agree on the ganking. Visage can kill heroes before they even have a chance to escape. Hiding the birds in the trees and doing a sandwich also works really well for ganks.
On June 07 2014 06:59 PhoenixVoid wrote: The utility of Familiars for scouting around the map, split pushing towers and immediately resummoning them in case is something I find an important mechanic with Visage.
This can be useful. But in fights I love to be able to resummon them. Sometimes it is even better to play with 2 birds after getting aghs for some time, if u suspect a teamfight soon. full load -> stun -> full load -> resummon is quite a lot of dmg extra. Obviously the fight has to take that long. It can also be very useful to have the stuns at the chasing part after the fight, either for chasing or running away.
Yea I've never really liked splitting the birds away from the hero that much either. Scouting with them is just a bad idea because they have no sight radius and there's a good chance they will die. I know Aui likes to split push with them but only late game when the resummon cd is lower. Lvl1 and 2 birds aren't worth risking to split push with I think.
On June 07 2014 06:59 PhoenixVoid wrote: The utility of Familiars for scouting around the map, split pushing towers and immediately resummoning them in case is something I find an important mechanic with Visage.
This can be useful. But in fights I love to be able to resummon them. Sometimes it is even better to play with 2 birds after getting aghs for some time, if u suspect a teamfight soon. full load -> stun -> full load -> resummon is quite a lot of dmg extra. Obviously the fight has to take that long. It can also be very useful to have the stuns at the chasing part after the fight, either for chasing or running away.
Yea I've never really liked splitting the birds away from the hero that much either. Scouting with them is just a bad idea because they have no sight radius and there's a good chance they will die. I know Aui likes to split push with them but only late game when the resummon cd is lower. Lvl1 and 2 birds aren't worth risking to split push with I think.
The puny vision range on Familiars is adequate to provide limited scouting that will still be valuable. You can't expect to use them like wards or Beastmaster hawk but they are excellent for scouting ahead of a push or to zone out chokes. It's pretty useful for scouting out sneaky blink initiators hiding in the trees (unless they are smoked, which is extremely rare).
I don't buy that "what if my birds die" bullshit. Even lvl1 birds won't die unless you have bad control or your are extremely underleveled (by which time the enemy right clicks are hurting). Throughout the game at least 50% of your attention should be spent on Familiars and most of it when scouting. Losing birds during scouting is due to user carelessness the majority of the time.
Remember, most of the time, you can just fly your Familiars over trees/cliffs before they die. There is no reason why anyone should ever be afraid to use birds for scouting.
Split pushing with any lvl Familiars is fine as long as you have a resummon cd ready in case a fight breaks out.
On June 07 2014 06:59 PhoenixVoid wrote: The utility of Familiars for scouting around the map, split pushing towers and immediately resummoning them in case is something I find an important mechanic with Visage.
This can be useful. But in fights I love to be able to resummon them. Sometimes it is even better to play with 2 birds after getting aghs for some time, if u suspect a teamfight soon. full load -> stun -> full load -> resummon is quite a lot of dmg extra. Obviously the fight has to take that long. It can also be very useful to have the stuns at the chasing part after the fight, either for chasing or running away.
Yea I've never really liked splitting the birds away from the hero that much either. Scouting with them is just a bad idea because they have no sight radius and there's a good chance they will die. I know Aui likes to split push with them but only late game when the resummon cd is lower. Lvl1 and 2 birds aren't worth risking to split push with I think.
The puny vision range on Familiars is adequate to provide limited scouting that will still be valuable. You can't expect to use them like wards or Beastmaster hawk but they are excellent for scouting ahead of a push or to zone out chokes. It's pretty useful for scouting out sneaky blink initiators hiding in the trees (unless they are smoked, which is extremely rare).
I don't buy that "what if my birds die" bullshit. Even lvl1 birds won't die unless you have bad control or your are extremely underleveled (by which time the enemy right clicks are hurting). Throughout the game at least 50% of your attention should be spent on Familiars and most of it when scouting. Losing birds during scouting is due to user carelessness the majority of the time.
Remember, most of the time, you can just fly your Familiars over trees/cliffs before they die. There is no reason why anyone should ever be afraid to use birds for scouting.
Split pushing with any lvl Familiars is fine as long as you have a resummon cd ready in case a fight breaks out.
I mean if I'm pushing T1 Radiant bot tower I'll use birds to scout out the trees behind the tower but I wouldn't be scouting all over the map with them like I would with treants or Lycan wolves.
But in general I like having the birds close and in position which is crucial to getting your full combo off. I don't like putting them in unnecessary danger either because you'll have to heal them putting stun on cd before the fight starts.
Having to always put resummon on cd just so you can split push a little is not worth it to me. Also like the other guy said the damage/stun -> resummon -> damage/stun combo is too strong to pass up. Plus I make more money farming jungle.
EPT![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/dota2/images/f/f8/Visage_Large.png)
