Introduction
“The march of time.”
One of the best late-game carries in the game, Faceless Void is a melee agility hard carry who needs a lot of farm in order to bring out his true potential, but if he manages to get it then the enemy team have a lot to fear.
With a good escape and initiation tool, as well as a fearsome ultimate that has the potential to turn the tide of a teamfight, Void is known as being a double-edged sword in public games; not only is he slow to get rolling because of his farming requirements but his ultimate, if not used properly, can quite easily do as much harm for his team as it does good.
Faceless Void's complete character profile can be found here.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- One of the best late game carries in the game
- Good escape and initiation tool
- Good passive abilities
- Good base damage and attack animation
- Potent ultimate can turn the tide of a teamfight…
Cons
- …But can just as easily benefit the other team as it benefits yours if not used properly
- Very item independent
- Some mana issues (cannot spam his escape/initiation tool)
- Somewhat luck dependent
- Quite squishy
- Weak early game presence
Item Build
Faceless Void should always be given the easy lane and should get farm priority. He needs a lot of farm in order to contribute effectively to the fight and if he doesn’t get it his impact on the game will be minimal at best and a liability at worst. If you can’t guarantee the safe lane then don’t pick him.
Starting Items
A good all-round starting build for Void is:
- A set of Tangos, a Healing Salve, a Stout Shield, and 2x Iron Branches.
This gives you plenty of starting regen, the Stout Shield should help mitigate the worst of any lane harass, and Iron Branches will give you some starting stats.
Alternatively, if you’re confident that either you’ll be facing up against an easy offlane opponent or that your team can keep you well protected in the lane, you can swap the Stout Shield out for a Quelling Blade, and get an extra Iron Branch. This is a greedier starting build but will make last hitting easier (although so long as you’re not put under too much pressure last hitting should be quite easy with Void anyway).
Early Game
Grab some basic Boots of Speed and then assess the situation. If the lane is quite comfortable and you’re getting good last hits go for a Hand of Midas rush. This’ll really accelerate your farm throughout the rest of the game, allowing you to get the items you need to start fighting. Hand of Midas isn’t just good for this reason alone; Void gets more out of attack speed than most heroes because of his passive Time Lock ability.
If, on the other hand, the laning phase is going quite badly you might want to consider a Mask of Madness. Although considered a ‘noob build’ by many, it is a good fall-back option to get some good DPS off the back of poor farm. You want to make sure you don’t use it unless you’re certain you wish to go on the offensive; whilst you get an incredible 100% attack speed and 30% move speed boost from MoM you will also take 30% more damage, which makes it of limited usefulness in teamfights and outside of your ultimate. It’s great, however, for quickly picking off enemies using Chronosphere and then getting the hell out of the fray.
| Note: Do not purchase Desolator later on if you do buy Mask of Madness, or any other item with a unique attack modifier (except Mjollnir); the effects will not stack! |
To finish off your early game core, upgrade your Boots of Speed into Power Treads, upgrade any Iron Branches you have into a Magic Wand, and consider upgrading your Stout Shield into a Poor Man’s Shield.
Luxury Items
Your first luxury item depends on how the game is developing. Below I’ve listed some of the most common luxury pick-ups for Void, along with a brief description explaining their uses.
Assault Cuirass – AC is great on Void for a few reasons. A big boost to your attack speed magnifies your average damage output during Chronosphere thanks to Time Lock, as does the minus armour aura that will effect any targets you attacking. Both of these together make this a deceptively offensive item on Void. Meanwhile the positive auras will benefit your entire team during teamfights.
AC is definitely worth considering and giving high priority once you have your core, just make sure no one else on your team is build one.
Butterfly – The ultimate late-game item for an agility carry – a huge chunk of attack speed, damage, agility and evasion. Perhaps not the ideal choice as your first luxury item, because 2 of the 3 components are very expensive, but it’s a good choice for your second luxury item.
Monkey King Bar – Very high damage, a small attack speed boost, and True Strike, which will allow you to counter any evasion heroes (such as Phantom Assassin), agility carries that purchase Butterfly, or strength/support heroes that buy Heaven’s Halberd.
Daedalus – Very high damage and a chance to Critical Strike. Not as reliably good as an MKB but has much higher damage potential, which makes it especially popular on Void in public matchmaking.
Mjollnir – On the other side of the coin is attack speed. While the last two items focus on increasing your base damage, Mjollnir will massively increase your attack speed, which in itself will increase your damage output as well as increase the number of Time Lock procs you get.
Mjollnir is an especially good option if you’re facing a push-heavy line-up, or an illusion-based carry (such as Phantom Lancer or Terrorblade).
| Note: Mjollnir does not stack with Mask of Madness, however it will take priority of the lifesteal effect, so you can get both and still benefit from both attack modifiers just not on the same hit. |
Black King Bar - On top of the added survivability +10 strength gives you, and a small damage boost, you gain Spell Immunity, which is crucial for surviving teamfights and not being stun locked; a clutch BKB usage can often mean the difference between a teamfight won or lost decisively.
Skill Build
Always skill Time Walk first, just in case you need to dodge a level 1 gank, but generally max it last. Time Walk is your escape mechanism and initiation tool.
Extra levels in it increase the range, increase the movement speed slow that affects enemy units for 3 seconds, and decreases the ability’s cooldown. Of these, only the increase range is particularly important, but two levels (which gives it a range of 900) is sufficient for most purposes.
Backtrack at level 1 only gives you a 10% chance to dodge an instance of physical or magical damage, whilst level 4 gives you a much more reasonable 25% chance. For this reason I avoid levelling it until later on, and when I do I max it straight away because just one level of it isn’t particularly useful. Therefore I recommend skilling it last, but maxing it second of all.
Time Lock is skilled second and maxed first. At level 4 you get a 25% passive chance to stun the unit you’re attacking and deal 70 bonus damage. The stun goes through Spell Immunity and the damage is doubled if it procs while the target is caught in a Chronosphere.
This is the more aggressive option of your two passives, but is well worth skilling first unless you’re taking some serious harassment.
Void’s ultimate, Chronosphere, is always skilled (levels 6, 11 and 16). This creates a bubble-like structure on the battlefield wherever you place it. Any units caught in the bubble will be frozen in time – both allies and enemies – whilst those outside remain unaffected. Void can move extremely quickly through the Chronosphere (1000 move speed) and attack any enemy units within it. It lasts for 4/4.5/5 seconds respectively.
As you can tell from the description it is an extremely powerful ultimate, but because it also freezes allied units (including heroes), you must be careful not to trap your allies inside when there are enemies nearby, as the enemy will be able to attack them.
Gameplay Tips
Time Walk can be a great escape tool. Keep in mind, however, that there is a cast animation associated with it, so you will not instantly travel to the chosen point. This gives enemy heroes a brief period of time where they can stun or burst you down. As a result, if you feel out of position err on the side of caution and use it sooner rather than later.
Time Walk can be used to travel over otherwise impassable terrain. This allows for clutch escapes or initiations, for example by Time Walking from one side of the river to the other, or for traversing crowded/block-off choke points.
A common strategy is to use Time Walk to initiate, followed up with a Chronosphere, in much the same way as a Blink Dagger is often used to initiate.
Time Lock deals double damage to units trapped with Chronosphere (80/100/120/140) , which makes an attack speed-centric build viable on Void.
Be careful when placing your Chronosphere. Try to avoid catching allies within the bubble because enemies not caught within the bubble will be able to attack them.
Faceless Void combines well with support heroes that deal high damage to locked-down heroes, like Jakiro, Lich, and Witch Doctor. If you trap enemies within your Chronosphere and avoid catching your allies they will be able to use their ultimates on enemies trapped within the Chronosphere.
Last Updated - Patch 6.83.
