Introduction
“Hand to face combat.”
Dark Seer is a melee intelligence teamfighter and utility hero who excels in the offlane and can easily rotate into the jungle should his lane prove too dangerous to venture into.
This ability to farm well regardless of the laning conditions has traditionally made him a popular pick, although persistent nerfs to Vacuum have resulted in a drastic decrease in his popularity.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Great offlaner, can also jungle if lane proves too dangerous
- Strong counter to certain safe-lane farmers (melee heroes that lack lifesteal)
- Strong and efficient farmer
- Can also farm remotely
- Provides great utility to the team
- Very strong in mid and late-game teamfights
- Synergises superbly with heroes that have teamfight-centric ultimates/abilities
- Sort of has an escape mechanism
- Very flexible item build
- Good pusher
Cons
- Hugely mana reliant and very mana hungry
- His teamfight impact abilities – Vacuum and Wall of Replica – have lengthy cooldowns
- No hard lockdown or stun
- Melee attack range and slow attack rate
- Level reliant - needs level 11 to hit his stride
Item Build
Dark Seer almost always lanes in the offlane, with the possibility of rotating into the jungle should that lane prove too difficult to handle or too sparse in its offerings (if the enemy trilanes and has dual stuns on the lane, you may need to sack the lane if you end up giving up a kill and go jungle instead. Or, if the enemy trilanes and maintains rock solid creep equilibrium and it would prove too dangerous to get into experience range, again, you may wish to dive into the jungle for some experience and gold until the creep wave looks to be approaching your tower).
A typical recommended starting build would look something like this:
- Tangos, 3x Iron Branches, 2x Clarity, Stout Shield
However, your top priority early game item is a Soul Ring (this will allow you to constantly spam Ion Shell on the creep wave and secure yourself gold), and so a naked Soul Ring rush is not unheard of or necessarily bad. Soul Ring is 800 gold. Starting gold is 625, and the gold per second means you only need a couple of creeps before you can duck into the side shop and finish up your Soul Ring, if you start off with two of the three components.
Early Game
So as per the paragraph above, Soul Ring is your first purchase in the early game. It gives you good health and mana regen, and the active Sacrifice will allow you to ensure Ion Shell is put onto each creep wave at least once, which will ensure you at the very least some last hits from creeps, unless the enemy laners prioritise creep denies over last hits.
Next up grab some Boots of Speed. Dark Seer has solid base move speed of 300, and an early point in Surge will give you some reassurance, but Boots of Speed are still a must.
Finally, finish off your early game purchases by upgrading your Iron Branches into a Magic Wand.
Core Items
Core boots are Arcane Boots – a no brainer for such a mana reliant and mana greedy hero. This will allow you to double Ion Shell a creep wave, or to duck into the enemy jungle and use it to clear a jungle camp whilst the Ion Shell you already cast on the creep wave does the job of last hitting there for you. This is one of the main things that allows offlane Dark Seer to be one of the most effective offlaners in the game.
Your first big item purchase is pretty open-ended. Typically a Mekanism is gone for, as Dark Seer is simply able to get it up and running so much quicker than anyone else on the team (core mids like Outworld Devourer or Viper excepted). It’s not a set in stone item purchase though – your team will probably benefit highly from an early Mekanism, so it’s highly recommended. Discuss your item intentions with the team prior to the start of the game if you’re uncertain as to who is going Mek and what your team expects from you.
If you aren’t going for a Mekanism then you’ll probably be asked to build into a Pipe of Insight. If an ally is going Mek and you go Pipe your team will have an incredible advantage in early teamfights, as Dark Seer will usually get Pipe very quickly. If neither Mekanism nor Pipe are ideal purchases (which is unlikely!) then you can skip straight to your luxury options.
Luxury Items
Aghanim’s Scepter – +10 all stats, +200 health, +150 mana, and a strong buff to your ultimate – Aghanims is a very good luxury item for Dark Seer.
The ultimate buff increases the damage dealt by the illusions you spawn when using Wall of Replica. The damage they deal is increased from 70/80/90% of the enemy’s original damage to 100/120/140% of their damage. They will hit hard with Aghanims and more fool the enemy hero who decides to under-estimate their DPS.
Blink Dagger – Blink Dagger isn’t all that popular in public matchmaking, but in competitive Dota it’s tantamount to a core item. Blink chiefly allows you to get of the perfect Vacuum/Wall of Replica combo, and without it getting off that combo can be tricky.
If you think of Dark Seer as an initiator with a powerful ultimate and skill combo (like a Brewmaster, for example, who Thunder Claps then uses his ultimate), then you can perhaps see why Blink is considered such a strong pick-up on him.
Outside of the teamfight usage it’s also a great mobility item in general, allowing you to chase, increase the speed of your lane rotations, and be more efficient around the map.
Shiva’s Guard – A great extension to a Blink Dagger pick-up. Lots of armour (+15), and a big boost to your damage and mana pool. More importantly, it really augments your initiation capabilities – Blink > Vacuum/Wall > Arctic Blast can be absolutely huge.
The enemy attack speed slow aura of 40 also means you bring a team-wide utility item to the table as well. Highly recommend… if you can afford it.
Scythe of Vyse – Compared to Shivas, Scythe is a bit heavier on utility at the expense of wombo-combo. You get some good stats out of it - +10 strength, +10 agility, +35 intelligence, and a very helpful 150% mana regeneration (Dark Seer can never have too much mana or mana regen really), but it’s mainly purchase for the 3.5 seconds of disable it gives you access to.
Refresher Orb – In contrast with Scythe, Refresher really is a doubling down on your wombo-combo capability. Two Vacuum/Wall/Arctic Blast combos in succession, or one kept in reserve should you whiff your first attempt, makes you an even scarier teamfight hero and will give you a good safety net in the late game.
Very expensive though, and usually quite low priority (more a 5 or 6 slot item), so it’s rare you’ll purchase one outside of a very late game scenario.
Situational Items
Boots of Travel – Boots of Travel are 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. Will only become an issue in the extreme late game though.
Hand of Midas – Not generally recommended. It’s sometimes bought in competitive Dota to ridiculously accelerate Dark Seer’s farm, but it will delay your first big item purchase and, since Dark Seer’s early farm advantage allows him to get said item earlier than most other heroes, it tends to be better to go for that and try to press your early advantage.
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. Good for some decent stat gain as well.
Skills
Vacuum, as the name implies, is an ability which sucks enemy units towards the spot it is cast. It is maxed second, but done so before getting his ultimate in most cases. Vacuum sucks units caught within a 250/350/450/550 unit radius surrounding the place it is cast on. It also deals minor magic damage to units it affects – 40/80/120/160 each.
Aside from a fairly hefty mana cost (100/130/160/190), the main downside of Vacuum is its cooldown, which now stands at a lengthy 28 seconds. This means you’re unlikely to get off multiple Vacuums in a teamfight, so you have to make your one shot count!
Ion Shell is a damage over time ability. It is always skilled and maxed first. Ion Shell can be placed on any unit (hero or creep) and will deal a substantial 30/50/60/90 magic damage per second to enemy units that are within a 250 unit AoE of the Ion Shell.
The low cooldown and substantial damage it deals over a short span of times makes it a great farming tool – Dark Seer can quickly clear creep waves and jungle stacks with Ion Shell.
Surge is an ability which grants maximum move speed to yourself or an allied unit/hero for a short period of time. It is maxed last but a point is usually invested in it at level 2 to help guarantee your safety on the lane.
It lasts for 3/4.5/6/7.5 seconds and has a cooldown of 12/11/10/9 seconds. It also has a low mana cost of 20/30/40/50, making it fairly spammable. It’s a great escape or chasing tool for Dark Seer and his allies.
Wall of Replica is a powerful teamfight ultimate that places a purple wall on the battlefield which lasts for 15/30/45 seconds. Any enemy heroes that pass through the Wall create an illusion, which can be controlled by Dark Seer and which will fight for him, dealing 70/80/90% of their original damage.
It is not skilled at level 6 like most ultimates, as Ion Shell and Vacuum usually need to be maxed first (Ion Shell for its damage, Vacuum for the all-important radius increase), and an early point in Surge is virtually a necessity. It is therefore typically skilled at levels 10, 11 and 16.
Gameplay Tips
Vacuum is a fantastic set-up skill, as it allows you to catch groups of enemies that are within somewhat close range of one another and pull them together towards a central spot. It can then be followed up either with Wall of Replica or with an ally’s ability
Ideally, though, Wall should be cast before Vacuum, as Vacuum will cause any enemy units you catch to pass through the Wall. If done in the reverse order there is a chance they will dodge the Wall before you place it.
| Note: Vacuum WILL interrupt channelling, so can be used to cancel channelled abilities or TP Scrolls. |
The lengthy cooldown is a major drawback of Vacuum at present. It used to be 16 seconds, now it’s up to 28. This means you have to be conservative with it, typically only using it to interrupt a channelled ability/TP Scroll early on, and to guarantee a kill, or to set-up for a follow-up ability/teamfight later on.
| Tip: Ion Shell the second melee creep to enter combat. Don’t cast it on the first one as they will die quickly and your mana will go to waste. |
A double Ion Shell Dark Seer is a nightmare to lane against as a melee carry. When you have the mana to support it, you can use it liberally to ensure each creep wave includes two Ion Shells, dealing maximum harassment damage, interrupting the carry’s last hit attempts, and to quickly accrue gold and experience for yourself.
Dark Seer is great at clearing jungle camps with Ion Shell too (with the exception of Mud Golems). If you’re unable to tank many hits yourself, cast it on the weakest creep in the camp rather than yourself. You can then finish of the weak creep once the camp is clear.
Ion Shell doesn’t sound all that strong in the skill description to many newcomers, but it will quickly melt away a hero’s health points early on. A full duration Ion Shell deals a total of 600/1000/1400/1800 damage to a single unit.
In the post-laning stage, use Ion Shell on any melee cores on your team. It will greatly increase the potency of their attacks in teamfights. Better yet, abuse its low cooldown to ensure it’s always active on at least two heroes in a teamfight.
As previously mentioned, an early point in Surge is highly recommended as a way to ensure your safety in the offlane. If you spot or anticipate a gank, use Surge on yourself to get out of stun range before they’re able to initiate on you.
Important: If you’re already within stun range it will often be better to hold off on using Surge. They will likely attempt to anticipate the Surge and will save their stun for after you’ve cast it (to waste most of its duration). Often it will be better in such situations to simple not use Surge – if they stun you use Surge immediately afterwards, if they refuse to stun you because you’re not Surging then you’ll probably get away safely.
Surge is a great way of efficiently rotating and moving between lanes once you have the mana to support spamming it.
Remember that you can Surge allies – use it to Surge them away from danger or in order to catch up with an enemy if they’re better placed to slow or kill them if they manage to catch up.
| Note: Wall of Replica actually deals 150 magic damage on cast to any enemies nearby, and deals 150 damage each time an enemy passes through it. |
Remember to micro the Illusions created by Wall of Replica – they deal tremendous damage but if they’re left to their own devices they’re less likely to be effective. Worse still, if your settings prevent auto-attacking and prevent auto-grouping the Illusions will just stand there doing nothing if you don’t command them!
Last Updated - Patch 6.82.
