Introduction
"The Age of Ice begins"
Ancient Apparition is a ranged intelligence support hero. He is currently one of the more popular support heroes in the metagame, thanks primarily to his ultimate which can deal immense amounts of AoE damage and which prevents all forms of healing.
His skillset is rounded out by a slow and magic damage amplifier, a somewhat unreliable disable and nuke, and an AoE active which significantly buffs the damage output of allies under its affect.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Incredible ultimate on a very low cooldown
- Great laning presence if combined with a reliable stunner
- Good at picking off fleeing heroes
- Prevents enemy healing in teamfights
- Good team-based steroid (damage buff) ability
- Good slower/chaser
- Fairly item independent
Cons
- Squishy
- Needs his level 6 up and running early on
- His disable is unreliable
- Ultimate requires good timing and prediction skills, and a fair bit of luck
- Some mana problems
Item Build
Starting Items
As a support hero it’s your job to ensure that the Courier and/or Observer Wards are bought at the start of the game. Usually these duties will be split between yourself and another hero on your team, but you can’t always guarantee this in public games. If no one else ponies up the gold for one then you should bite the bullet and buy both for your team.
Good starting items if there’s another support on your team:
Courier or Observer Wards, a Set of Tangos, a Healing Salve, 3x Iron Branches, Clarity.
And if you’re forced to solo support:
Courier, Observer Wards, a set of Tangos, a Healing Salve, and an Iron Branch.
Early Game
Ensure that the Courier is upgraded into a Flying Courier when it comes off cooldown at the 3 minute mark. Also ensure that Observer Wards are always purchased when they’re off cooldown.
Get your Boots of Speed up and running as quickly as possible. Ancient Apparition has poor base movespeed (295) and he’s very squishy, so without Boots of Speed you may end up being easy pickings for enemies during early rotations and ganks.
Upgrade any Iron Branches you have into a Magic Wand then get to work on your core.
Core
Power Treads are often recommended on Ancient Apparition. I heavily favour Arcane Boots on him though; not only so that he can use his abilities freely but also so that he becomes a more viable Mekanism carrier. If you feel you need some more health then consider grabbing an early Bracer for the cost-efficient stat gain it grants you instead of going the Power Treads route.
Talking of which - if there are no more viable Mekanism carriers on your team that will get it up much faster than you (such as a mid-Viper, or a jungle Chen), then Mekanism should be your go-to core item – it’s absolutely necessary for your team. Be sure to check with your team to see if anyone else intends to build one before you get started on it. If someone else does intend to build it then you can move straight onto a luxury item pick-up (usually Aghanims).
Luxury Items
Aghanim’s Scepter – The go-to luxury item on Ancient Apparition. In competitive Dota 2 Ancient Apparition will often directly rush Aghanims and forego all but basic Boots of Speed and a Magic Wand. This is not advised in public matchmaking, but it certainly is his primary luxury item. Aghanims buffs your ultimate substantially by increasing the duration from 8/9/10 seconds to a flat 17 seconds.
This means that the total damage dealt by Ice Blast is increased from 350/530/770 to 462.5/690/994. It also means that the heroes hit by your ultimate cannot receive any healing for a full 17 seconds, thus increasing your team’s chances of bringing the unit below the insta-kill threshold (10/11/12% of their total health).
That’s all on top of the +10 all stats, 250 health and 150 mana that the item provides.
Force Staff – You can never go wrong with Force Staff on a support hero (make sure you actually use the active!). It will help to mitigate Ancient Apparition’s poor movespeed and lack of innate positioning ability. It's also great for clutch escapes and also gives you even more utility for your teammates (you can use Force on allied heroes, yourself, and enemies).
Drums of Endurance – I recommend Drums on a lot of heroes, especially supports like Ancient Apparition or Crystal Maiden. You're slow, squishy, and supposed to provide support to your team. Drums goes a little way to combating all of these points. The attack and move speed aura affects teammates, the stats gain makes you a little bit tankier, and it's a very cost effective item that's easy to build into. This should be a high priority luxury item if no one else has one on your team in my opinion (and even then it’s still a good pick-up, just not quite as good).
Eul’s Scepter of Divinity – Cold Feet followed by Eul’s active is a classic combo that will guarantee the freeze is applied. That’s 2.5 seconds of Cyclone followed by 3.5 seconds of stun during which you and your teammates can damage the enemy. A total of 6 seconds of disable makes this as incredible combo.
The active is good for taking an enemy carry out of the fight for a couple of seconds even if you don’t use Cold Feet on them. In that respect it’s sometimes referred to as a poor man’s Scythe of Vyse, the downside being that the hero selected cannot be attacked. Nonetheless, it’s useful for buying your team time. The other downside is that whilst a Scythe use is universally beneficial, Eul’s can sometimes be disadvantageous to your team, perhaps saving an enemy when they would otherwise have died, or trapping an allied hero who would otherwise have escaped. If you’re not confident in your decision making abilities in the heat of battle then don’t go for Eul’s.
The other upsides of Eul’s are the fantastic mana regeneration and the burst +40 move speed, which really helps out Ancient Apparition who has naturally poor move speed and is very mana hungry.
Ghost Scepter – The go-to luxury pick-up if you find the enemy team is able to bring you down quickly with physical damage (typically in the form of right-clicks). Most often this will be the enemy carry taking you out of the fight quickly with a few auto-attacks. Ghost Scepter will buy you a clutch 4 seconds of physical immunity, which gives you time to create distance between yourself and the enemy carry or at the very least buys your team 4 seconds of distraction time.
Rod of Atos – Huge chunks of health and mana, and an active that slows an enemy by 60% for 4 seconds. I'm actually a fan of Atos, but most people are not. If you like it, you can get it on Ancient Apparition as a luxury pick-up.
Veil of Discord – Veil gives decent all-round stats - +6 all stats, +6 health regeneration, +6 damage, and +6 armour, but the main reason it’s purchased is for its active, Magic Weakness. Magic Weakness increases the magic damage taken by an enemy caught within its 600 unit radius by 25%, which augments your magic damage-based abilities superbly. It lasts for a lengthy 25 seconds, making it a great active for teamfights, and won’t just buff your own magic damage output either - it will also increase the potency of any other magic damage spells your teammates cast on affected enemies in that time frame too.
Scythe of Vyse – The likelihood of you being able to afford a Scythe during all but the longest of games (or largest of stomps) is minimal, but if you can afford it then definitely get it! 3.5 seconds of reliable disable for your team is absolutely enormous, and that’s on top of the stats it provides.
Situational Items
Sentry Wards, Dust of Appearance, Gem of True Sight – all-important detection. You’ll need at least one of these in your inventory if the enemy line-up features an invis hero. Sentry Wards will also allow you to deward rune spots, and Gem will give you superior vision going into the mid and late game.
Smoke of Deceit – If you roam with another support in the early stages of the game a Smoke will allow you to do so more quickly and without being spotted by enemy wards. Smoke will also come in handy in the post-laning phase if your team wants to gank as 5.
Pipe of Insight – If you didn't buy the team's Mekanism earlier on then consider getting a Pipe as a luxury item for your team. If you did buy the Mekanism then it's very risky getting Pipe as well - it's inadvisable to have both on one hero, doubly so when that hero is as squishy as Ancient Apparition.
Boots of Travel – Great for the late game, when you need to free up a slot which would otherwise be taken up by a TP Scroll. With this, you combine your Boots and TP Scroll slot into one, allowing you to put a slot to better use if you’re about to become 6 slotted (which will be highly unlikely on an AA!).
Vladmir’s Offering - Yes, you’re ranged, so you won’t get the lifesteal bonus from Vlad’s, but you’re not buying it for yourself, you’re buying it for your team. Vladmir’s Offering is great to pick up on a support even if your team doesn’t consist of any melee heroes because of the bonus damage and armour it provides. If your team does have a melee core and no one else has purchased one then it’s an excellent utility item to purchase.
Necronomicon - Great if you’re part of a pushing line-up or your team is struggling to break the base. Also a great item for teamfights and for countering any invis enemy heroes. Also gives you decent health and mana gain.
Skill Build
Cold Feet is usually skilled and maxed first. I say ‘usually’, because in competitive Dota he will skill Chilling Touch first if the team engages in an early 5on5 fight. Since this almost never happens in public matchmaking it’s an exception you probably needn’t even consider.
Cold Feet is a magic damage over time nuke and potential disable. If the target doesn’t move 740 units from the initial cast point within 4 seconds then they will be stunned for 1.25-3.5 seconds, as well as take 150/200/250/300 damage. Additional points increases the damage, the stun duration, and decreases the ability’s cooldown, making it the ideal skill to max first, even though the stun is unreliable by itself.
Ice Vortex is an AoE slow and magic damage resistance reducer. It is usually skilled and maxed last competitively, although is regularly maxed second in public matchmaking. It slows and reduces magic damage to anyone in a 275 AoE. With an extremely long cast range of 1500 it becomes especially useful as a slow for chasing purposes, and as a magic damage resistance reducer for base sieges and tower pushes. Additional levels increases the slow reduction (from 15% to 30%), and the magic damage reduction (from 15% to 30%).
The reason Ice Vortex tends to be maxed second in public games is for the increased slow. The reason this is not done competitively is that Chilling Touch is considered the much more useful teamfight ability. It comes down, to some extent, to personal preference. Beginners will likely find Ice Vortex more useful to max second, whereas as you become more experienced with AA and with team coordination in general you will likely lean more towards Chilling Touch.
Chilling Touch is an AoE damage buff. It is skilled and maxed either second or last in most scenarios. It is cast on a target area and any allied heroes within its 525 AoE radius, as well as Ancient Apparition himself, will gain a substantial damage buff for a certain number of attacks or for 30 seconds, at the cost of attack speed reduction.
Additional levels in Chilling Touch reduces the ability’s cooldown (from 50 seconds to 26 seconds), increases the damage buff (from 50 bonus damage to 80), and increases the number of attack instances the buff is applied for (from 3 at level 1 to 6 at level 4). It is not an ability you should under-estimate (or indeed under-use) when playing Ancient Apparition – attempt to catch as many allied heroes as possible within the AoE ahead of teamfights and ganks. It’s also a powerful harassment tool in the laning stage as it allows you to bully lane opponents merely with auto-attacks.
Finally, Ice Blast, is always skilled (levels 6, 11 and 16). One of the most powerful teamfight ultimates in the game, it is also one of the hardest to learn how to use and very luck-dependent. With Ice Blast you first send out a global ‘tracker’ in a chosen direction which travels in a straight line. Once it reaches your ideal destination you use the ability again to stop the tracker, and launch a huge ball of ice which will travel along the line and then hit the finishing point. The greater the distance travelled, the larger the radius the ice ball affects, and so the goal is to try and launch from as far away as possible (hence the luck the skill dependency of the ability).
Enemies hit by the ice ball or that are touched by its line of trajectory will take minor magic damage per second over 8/9/10 seconds (or a flat 17 seconds if AA has Aghanims). Enemies hit at the end point will take 250/350/450 magic damage. Units cannot be healed for the duration of the damage over time, and if they fall below 10/11/12% of their max health they will instantly die.
As you can probably tell from the description, Ice Blast is a very complex ultimate, but also an extremely powerful one. Even if the target(s) fail to fall below the kill threshold they will still be unable to heal at all for a lengthy period of time, making it a powerful teamfight ultimate so long as you manage to land it. It’s also amazing at picking off heroes on low health, so long as you can correctly predict their movements.
Gameplay Tips
Cold Feet is a great harassment tool in the early game. It can be used to effectively prevent an enemy carry from last hitting, as it will force them to either accept a 1.25-3.5 second stun or retreat away from the creep line.
Cold Feet followed by Eul’s active is a classic combo that will guarantee the freeze is applied. That’s 2.5 seconds of Cyclone followed by 3.5 seconds of stun during which you and your teammates can damage the enemy. A total of 6 seconds of disable makes this as incredible combo.
Ice Vortex is a great slow and has an incredibly long range, making it ideal for chases. Don’t forget that it also reduces the magic damage resistance of any targets standing within its radius as well, so place an Ice Vortex or two at the base of your tower or the steps leading up to your base if the enemy team is pushing or base sieging. Similarly cast it on choke points if a teamfight is expected to, or has, broken out there.
| Tip: Ice Vortex actually provides vision in the area it’s cast. Use it to scout fog of war if you fear an enemy ambush or gank, or an enemy Roshan attempt. |
Although Chilling Touch reduces the attack speed of anyone under its affects, the damage buff makes it more than worth it. Don’t forget to use it to buff yourself and as many allies as possible shortly before teamfights and ganks. If you manage to get all four teammates then you can deal an additional 750/1200/1750/2400 damage as a team.
| Note: Ancient Apparition always receives the buff on use, so you don’t need to ensure your own hero is in the target area. |
Practice makes perfect when it comes to Ice Blast. Learn how the tracer and launching system works by practicing on bots before taking on real opponents with AA. It’s great for getting pick-offs on heroes with low health and is essential in teamfights if only for preventing the enemy team from healing. Remember that the further away you are the larger the AoE (and thus chances of hitting multiple enemies).
