Introduction
“None shall elude me!”
Templar Assassin is a hardy semi-carry that is almost always played in the mid lane, although she has occasionally been picked competitively both in the offlane and as a safe lane farmer. Her abilities give her incredible sustainability in small scale engagements whilst at the same time significantly augmenting her damage output.
Although notionally a ranged hero, one of TA’s main weaknesses is her limited attack range (until she is able to level up her Psi Blades ability). That, as well as the requirement that she be within attack range of an enemy in order to make the most of her Meld ability, means she needs a mobility item in order to make her ganking presence truly felt.
You can find our detailed character profile for Templar Assassin here.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Strong laner
- Very hardy hero
- Several escape/damage avoidance abilities
- Good ganker that also transitions into a strong semi-carry DPS’er
- Good rune control and scouting capability
- Great burst damage
Cons
- Very high skill ceiling and incredibly high skill floor (arguably the highest outside of micro-intensive heroes)
- Limited attack range
- Fairly item dependent
- Requires careful ability cooldown management
- Somewhat countered by damage over time abilities
Item Build
Starting Items
Templar Assassin is best played as a solo mid, where you want to get a quick Bottle and some decent experience (and levels) before looking for opportunities to gank.
As Refraction gives you a nice infusion of damage for last-hitting, as well as blocks a lot of potential early harassment from right-clicks, I find that a Bottle rush build is best suited for Templar Assassin (i.e. not much at all is purchased initially, as you need neither lots of starting stats nor lots of regen, and so can bank a lot of your money for that early Bottle).
My recommended starting item build is as follows:
- A set of Tangos, 3x Iron Branches.
And that’s it.
Early Game
Your aim is to get a Bottle as quickly as possible (ideally before the 2 minute rune spawn). Ahead of the rune spawn timer (remember runes spawn every even minute) start to push your wave out. This isn’t as easy to achieve with TA as many other mid heroes that have good creep-clearing nukes, so you’ll need to whittle down creep health pools ahead of time in order to push it out. Once you have at least one point in Psi Blades this becomes much easier to achieve however (simply line up your shots so that the spill damage from Psi Blades will hit multiple creeps).
Early basic Boots of Speed is next on the list. Then upgrade your three starting Iron Branches into a complete Magic Wand. Finally, upgraded Boots of your own choosing round out your early game items.
For upgraded Boots you’ve got two options: Power Treads or Phase Boots. I prefer Power Treads on TA myself, but both are more than viable. Go for Power Treads if you want the stats (health) and attack speed, go for Phase Boots if you want the extra damage and increased mobility. Your core options all give TA increased speed/mobility, so I don’t feel Phase Boots are necessary on this front. Go Phase Boots if you want to build into a glass cannon, go for Power Treads if you want a more stable, safe build.
Core Options
You’ve got three core builds to choose from. Whilst these items can all be purchased later on if you so wish, you’re going to need to prioritise a particular build to see you through the initial post-laning stage of the game.
Poor TA/Safe Build – Drums of Endurance. If you have a relatively poor start, or you expect a lot of early engagements, Drums are a great option. It's cost-efficient, gives you decent stats, and is extremely easy to build into so you won't lose much unreliable gold upon death. As with all of your core options they give you increased mobility (in this case +10% move speed and attack speed aura, with charges that grant you an additional 5% of each).
Semi-Carry Transition Build – Yasha. Yasha has similar benefits to that of Drums, in that you gain increase move speed and attack speed, but its stats are more geared towards DPS, whereas Drums offer more survivability. Yasha isn’t as cost efficient but it’s a great core item to get if you intend to go for a Manta Style later in the game.
Glass Cannon Ganker Build – Blink Dagger. The ultimate mobility item, Blink will allow you to blow people up if you get it quickly enough, using its superior positioning to ensure you maximise the damage potential of your abilities. The downside is it’s a huge gold investment for an item that doesn’t directly increase your damage output or give you stats of any sort.
Blink is perennially popular on TA, but you really need to put it to work as soon as you get it to make it worth prioritising ahead of an item that would give you increased mobility as well as stats and thus allow you to transition into a true semi-carry role. If you go for Blink and aren’t able to snowball from that point forwards you will struggle to have an impact on the game.
Luxury Extensions
After your core, you can invest in one of the other items above that you didn’t prioritise, or move straight onto building your luxury extensions. Popular and all-round great pick-ups on TA are:
Black King Bar – You’ll usually need to get a BKB as your first luxury item, although it depends on the opposing team composition; if they have a lot of stuns and burst magic damage then you’ll need to get it sooner rather than later. If you’re generally given freedom of movement in teamfights then you can put it off until you feel you need to spell immunity.
Manta Style – A natural extension to Yasha, if you purchased one earlier on. Good stats for a ranged agility semi-carry, it will allow you to push more effectively, provided additional DPS and confusion in teamfights, and use the active to debuff silences and disjoint projectiles. A great all-round pick-up, although not one that will make you especially feared by the opposition.
Desolator – One of the most popular luxury item pick-ups for TA, and for good reason. One of the cheapest pure damage items in the game, its minus armour effect synergises superbly with TA’s Meld ability, as Meld applies armour reduction (-8 at level 4) which stacks with Desolator, making your physical attacks that much more potent. The minus armour from Deso also works on buildings, so with this and a Manta you’ll be a fearsome pusher and base sieger.
Daedalus – Great on TA. If the game goes late you’ll need to extra damage, and the critical strike chance will make enemies fear you because it will hurt like hell if it procs.
Butterfly – The ultimate late-game luxury purchase for agility carries and semi-carries – huge chunks of attack speed, damage, and evasion. The only problem with Butterfly is that it’s hard-countered by Monkey King Bar. If the enemy carry is working towards, or already has a Butterfly, consider purchasing a different luxury item. It’s still a great item to have, but the evasion is countered and it thus becomes a cost inefficient item.
Assault Cuirass - An amazing 5th or 6th slot item. AC is not just the defensive item it looks to be on paper, although it will make you tankier. The minus armour reduction means you'll hit that much harder in the late game, especially if you bought a Desolator earlier on, and all three auras benefit your team. There may be a hero in your line-up which typically picks up Assault Cuirass much earlier in their item progression than you, which is fine, but if there isn't then consider it luxury core in the late game.
Situational
Monkey King Bar – MKB is situational, not luxury on TA. Daedalus is the better damage option, because TA focusses on burst physical damage, rather than sustained damage over time. The only time I would consider an MKB is if you’re against an evasion-based carry (Phantom Assassin) or a carry which builds into Butterfly or Heavens Halberd and has the makings of such an item in their inventory.
Divine Rapier – Finally, there's always the Divine Rapier option if your back's against the wall and defeat is almost imminent or you feel you're so far ahead you want to one shot the opposing supports.
Boots of Travel - When you are at that stage of the game where you’ve ran out of item slots then swap out your initial set of boots for Boots of Travel. It frees up a slot you would otherwise have reserved for a TP Scroll and makes you much less susceptible to split-push in the super late game.
Skill Build
Refraction is skilled and maxed first. Refraction gives you two key effects. You gain a sort of shield which, for 3/4/5/6 attacks or 17 seconds will block a single instance of incoming damage and increase your physical output by 20/40/60/80.
These two effects are separate, so within that 17 second time frame you can deal 6 right-click attacks which will deal the bonus damage and dodge 6 separate instances of incoming damage. The reason it is skilled first is that it helps ensure you get those crucial early last hits. With those, you can get your Bottle.
Refraction thus gives you both greater DPS and makes you significantly tankier. It’s one of three pseudo-escape mechanism TA has access to, making her difficult to gank in the mid lane and hard to bring down at all stages of the game unless the enemy has access to a good damage over time ability (hereafter called DoT). DoT really is the counter to Refraction, so beware heroes like Pudge, Venomancer, Batrider, Viper, and Tinker; all potential lane opponents who burn through Refraction charges very quickly.
Meld, although skilled last (level 4) is maxed second. This grants TA invisibility, but whilst invisible she cannot move. If she attacks out of Meld she will deal bonus damage and also reduce the target’s armour for 10 seconds.
With her first two abilities maxed you almost reach your peak damage output potential as far as your abilities go. Additional levels in Meld increase the bonus damage and armour reduction substantially, but early on it is less useful than Refraction.
Psi Blades is skilled second (level 2), but maxed last. This passive ability increases TA’s attack range and also allows her attacks to ‘spill’ (i.e. hit any enemies that are behind your target). Additional levels increase her attack range further, as well as the AoE length and range covered by the ‘spill’.
Although a great ability, one point is more than sufficient for adding harassment to your last hitting in the mid lane; the main benefit of levelling it is the increased attack range it grants TA but this is less important early on.
Psionic Trap, TA’s ultimate, is skilled at level 6. This allows TA to lay an invisible trap at a chosen location. The trap provides vision of a small 400 unit area (making it useful for checking rune spots and choke points) and can be sprung by TA, causing a slow effect to impact any units within 375 units of the chosen trap by 50% for 5 seconds.
Trap, as well as providing some nice extra vision, is crucial for ganking and chasing down fleeing enemy heroes. It’s especially important in the early stages when you lack the bonus mobility that your core items will later provide, as it allows you to effectively come in range of an enemy in order to use Meld and then right-click the target.
Gameplay Tips
Refraction is great for augmenting your base damage, especially in the early stages of the game when you need to be guaranteeing last hits so that you can get a fast Bottle. Once you have the mana to support it you can have Refraction up indefinitely, which will greatly speed up your farming and allow you to cast it a second time in teamfights if you head into one with Refraction already up.
| Note: Denying creeps does not use up one of Refraction’s offensive charges. |
Certain damage instances ignore Refraction, and it is important to be aware of these possibilities. Abilities that direct remove hp are not blocked by Refraction (and also don’t use up a charge). This covers a handful of abilities: Bane’s Nightmare, Terrorblade’s Sunder, Bloodseeker Rupture, Vengeful Spirit’s Wave of Terror, and Necrolyte’s Heartstopper Aura, Warlock’s Fatal Bonds, Undying’s Soul Rip and Invoker’s EMP. All disables also ignore Refraction.
Good awareness of the cooldown status of Refraction and Meld is key for making clutch plays as Templar Assassin. Between the two of them you have the potential to make some daring escapes and dodge the brunt of any enemy attacks. Refraction lasts for 17 seconds or 6 separate damage instances, and has a cooldown of 17 seconds, so when you have the mana to support it you can ensure you always have Refraction up, unless you’re tanking a lot of damage instances.
Meld, meanwhile, has a much shorter cooldown of just 7 seconds, but lasts indefinitely. This means that if you’re being pursued by an enemy you can hide under the cover of Meld’s invisibility whilst you wait for your Refraction ability to come off cooldown, granting you another 6 instances of effective immunity, or even for your Blink Dagger to come off cooldown. Naturally, Meld is not useful for hiding if the enemy has detection, but if they don’t you should be able to make your escape.
| Important: The bonus damage and armor reduction is only applied if Meld is broken by attacking a unit! |
Meld can be very hard to hit, which is why a lot of TA players like to rush a Blink Dagger. Positioning is all-important, because TA has such a small attack range, and so you need to position yourself so that you can cast Meld and then instantly attack an enemy without them being out of range of your attack and thus forcing TA to move before she gets her attack off (and thus not triggering Meld’s bonus damage and armour reduction).
| Note: Meld’s minus armour debuff does not affect buildings, so TA is not a good base pusher until/unless she has Manta Style and/or Desolator/Assault Cuirass. |
| Tip: Meld is not a channelled ability, which means you will not be revealed if you are stunned or silenced. Only abilities which move TA will break the Meld and reveal her, like Invoker’s EMP or Spirit Breaker’s Greater Bash. |
Another key aspect of playing TA effectively is learning how to use Psi Blades to their maximum potential. Psi Blades allow TA to dish out considerable harass in the early laning phase, doubly so if her opponent is a melee hero who needs to get in close to secure their last hits, as they are more likely to be within range of the ‘Spill’ effect.
Psi Blades will spill only if a unit is located behind the primary target. They do not have to be directly behind them, nor do they have to be very close, as there is some leeway – 80 units width and 615/735 units length. This makes match-ups with TAs mid something of a dance, as the opponent attempts to avoid lining up for spill damage whilst TA attempts to position herself so that the damage will spill.
Psionic Traps are great at providing a small amount of vision of critical areas on the map. Most obviously they’re used directly on top of the two rune spots. Less obvious spots include Roshan’s pit (where wards cannot be placed and so vision is a premium), narrow choke points leading out of the river, and the narrow passages leading from the mid lane down to the river. It can also be useful to place a Trap on the enemy ancient spawn camp, so that you know if they’re stacking and farming them.
Traps actually charge up. It takes 4 seconds after the trap is placed for it to reach the maximum slow of 50%. Once placed, it starts at 30% and increases by 5% each second until it reaches 50%. This makes pre-placed Traps more useful than ones used in the heat of the moment.
Last Updated - Patch 6.82.
