Introduction
“Stand aside or be trampled!”
Keeper of the Light is a ranged intelligence support hero with a huge area of effect damage ability and essentially unlimited mana for himself and allies, making him a popular support pick in concert with mana-hungry laners as well as a strong anti-pusher.
Traditionally Keeper of the Light has been played strictly as a 4 or 5 position support, but as a result of patch 6.81 - which gave him a significant Aghanim’s Scepter buff - he has risen in popularity as an offlaner, although it remains to be seen if this strategy is here to stay.
You can find Keeper of the Light's complete character profile here.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Amazing anti-pusher
- Amazing creep clearance capability
- Huge AoE burst damage
- A support that can jungle effectively
- Fantastic lane support for mana-hungry kill lanes
- A walking mana regenerator
- Good anti-carry capability with ultimate
- Free TP for allies
Cons
- Lacks reliable lockdown
- Lengthy charge time on Illuminate can make it hard to land on enemy heroes
- Can struggle against offensive trilanes
- Very squishy
- Chakra begging from allies will become annoying quickly
- A challenge to avoid stealing farm
- Weak right clicks – poor harasser
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.
Typical starting items for KotL then, are:
Courier and/or Observer Wards, a Set of Tangos, a Healing Salve, 3x Iron Branches.
This fulfils your role as support, gives you aplenty of regeneration for the laning phase, and some decent starting stats.
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.
Next up grab your basic Boots of Speed. KotL actually has really good base move speed at 315, so they’re not as urgently necessary on him as they are on slower support heroes like Crystal Maiden or Lion, who feel extremely slow without them, but you’ll still want to grab them fairly early on.
Cap off your early game purchases by upgrading any Iron Branches you have into a Magic Wand, and build an optional Bracer if you’re after some quick stat gain.
Core Items
Keep ensuring Observer Wards are bought up whenever they’re off cooldown throughout the early and mid game, even if you don’t need to place them immediately.
Recommended upgraded boots of choice for KotL are Tranquil Boots. He has free mana from his Chakra Magic ability, and so doesn’t need Arcane Boots. He’s not a right-clicker either (far from it), so Phase Boots are a waste. That leaves Power Treads or Tranquils.
Tranquils allow you to avoid returning to the fountain or shipping out consumables once you have them; indeed between Chakra Magic and Tranquils you should never need to return to base except in an emergency. They’re also the much cheaper option, making them easy to build into for a pretty poor support, and are great for roaming (even if only to ward and deward) because of the superior move speed they give you. Power Treads on the other hand give you a nice chunk of stats. Power Treads aren’t a bad choice per se but Tranquils are the more popular option.
Mekanism is your priority core pick-up. 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 – 250 burst health and extra armour for your entire team as well as great stat gain for a support. Be sure to check with your team to see if anyone else intends to build one before you get started on it though.
Luxury Items
Aghanim’s Scepter – The go-to luxury item on KotL as of patch 6.81. Aghanims gives you a huge buff, providing you with a permanent ultimate form, unobstructed vision in day time, and your Illuminate will now heal allied units for 75% of its damage. Permanent ultimate form means you’ll always have access to Recall and Blinding Light, as well as Spirit Form Illuminate, and Illuminate providing healing to allies makes it an even more potent teamfight and pushing ability.
That’s on top of +10 all stats, +200 health and +150 mana that the item itself provides, all of which is very handy to have on KotL. In general, if the game is going alright, or if you are the team’s 3 position offlaner, you’ll want to purchase Aghanims. If you’re struggling, however, you’re probably better off going for more cost efficient stat items such as…
Drums of Endurance – Drums of Endurance are a great option because they give your team bonus attack speed and move speed auras, whilst at the same time giving you plenty of stats and being easy to build into (since the components are so cheap you can buy them up whenever you have the spare unreliable gold, meaning you won’t lose much gold when you die). You may already have a Bracer from the early game as well, making Drums a natural extension to your inventory.
Force Staff – Force Staff gives you less all-round stat gain than Drums, but it gives you much more mobility and more direct team utility (Drums’ auras are largely a passive, somewhat unnoticeable buff). It’s an amazing escape tool for someone who is naturally very squishy and can be used on allies and enemies, making it a great play-making item for clutch saves or to Force an enemy into bad positioning.
Boots of Travel – A lot of support heroes would love to get Boots of Travel but few manage to do so unless the game goes ultra late. KotL, as one of the few support heroes with incredible flash farming capability and because of his role as an anti-pusher is actually able to buy BoTs fairly early on in many games.
For me, BoTs are high priority on KotL. As he is typically chosen when the enemy line-up has aggressive pushing potential they allow you to defend against split pushing with Illuminate whilst having the capability to join your team if an engagement breaks out, or alternatively allow you to teleport to a creep wave in order to push it out and Recall an ally if you want, essentially giving them free BoTs.
Heaven’s Halberd – A fantastic anti-carry item, thanks to the ability to disarm an enemy core for 3.0-4.5 seconds, Halberd will also give you a much-welcome chunk of health an evasion, making you a lot less fragile. The disarm, on top of the Blind from your ultimate, actually makes KotL a surprisingly effective anti-carry support, especially in the late game as enemy BKB durations start to approach just 4 seconds.
Scythe of Vyse – You're unlikely to be rich enough to ever afford it, and if you are the game is likely already won anyway, but if the game is really stretching out it can potentially be a decisive item to get. 3.5 seconds of lockdown on a key enemy hero is the reason Scythe is considered one of the most powerful items in the game.
Shiva’s Guard – You become much harder to kill and gain a large intelligence boost. At the same time you augment your anti-pushing capabilities (Illuminate and Arctic Blast will make short work of even mega creeps), and provide utility for your team with the enemy attack speed slow aura.
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.
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.
Pipe of Insight – A very expensive item for a support, and not an ideal pick-up if you bought the team’s Mekanism (having both on one hero is very risky, especially a squishy one like KotL), but always a good item to have if the enemy team has any magic damage (which they almost certainly will). Quick rule of thumb: go for it if you didn’t buy the Mekanism earlier.
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.
Rod of Atos - This item keeps getting buffed because it's so rarely picked. It's a fantastically underrated item. Since you naturally lack for hard lockdown or disable the active Cripple will also come in handy when trying to lock down and immobilise a single target. You also get a huge chunk of health and mana off the back of it. A solid, if unpopular pick-up.
Skill Build
Note that the image above shows the build I tend to use most often, however KotL’s skill build is very flexible.
Laning with a hero who has a strong single target nuke from level 1? Skill Chakra Magic first and spam it on them – a single target nuke is often much more useful in the early laning phase than Illuminate, which is hard to land and often pushes the creep wave out. Your lane partner(s) not very mana dependent? Focus on maxing Illuminate. Enemy offlaner very mana reliant, like a Dark Seer? Get an early point in Mana Leak to zone them out.
Illuminate is a wide area of effect magic damage ability which is usually maxed first. Illuminate sends forth a huge wall of magic damage which deals up to 200/300/400/500 burst magic damage.
The blast covers a radius of 350 units and travels a massive 2000 units, making it a fantastically powerful nuke and creep clearance ability. The only major downside is that it must be channelled (or ‘charged up’) beforehand for 5 seconds in order to reach its maximum damage output, and then must travel towards the target, making it generally ineffective if the enemy/enemies in question have vision of you as it is easy to avoid.
Mana Leak is KotL’s only stun but it is usually skilled and maxed last as it is fairly unreliable. Mana Leak causes the target hero to drain mana if they move from their current position to the tune of 5% of their max mana per 100 units. If they run out of mana entirely then they are stunned for 1.5/2/2.5/3 seconds.
While good at being a general nuisance to those heroes that are reliant on mana, it is a very unreliable form of lockdown that is easily avoided by simply not moving or by teleporting away, and so it is skilled and maxed last.
Chakra Magic is what makes KotL a walking mana factory. This ability allows you to restore a huge chunk of either your own mana pool or an ally’s mana pool at a small mana cost. Because of its incredible utility and low cooldown it is typically maxed either first or second.
Chakra Magic restores 75/150/225/300 mana to allies and 50/115/180/245 to KotL if used on himself. It has a low cooldown of just 19/18/17/16 seconds, making it incredibly useful and allowing you to help top off multiple heroes’ mana pools.
Spirit Form is Keeper of the Light’s ultimate and tends to always be skilled (levels 6, 11 and 16). Spirit Form lasts for 40 seconds and allows you to channel Illuminate without needing to stand in place. It also opens up access to two additional abilities: Recall and Blinding Light. Recall allows you to teleport an ally to your location after a 5/4/3 second delay – so long as they don’t take player-based damage during this time. Blinding Light is an AoE ability which blinds enemy units in a 675 unit radius for 4/5/6 seconds, meaning they’ll have an 80% chance to miss with their attacks.
The ability to channel your Illuminate without having to remain stationary is in itself great to have access to, as it will allow you to clear approaching creep waves without remaining out of position if you fear a gank, or allows you to place an Illuminate defensively if being pursued by enemy heroes. Recall, meanwhile, makes you a pseudo-Boots of Travel for any allied hero on the map, and Blinding Light is a fantastic anti-carry ability which is all too often under-used in public matchmaking.
Gameplay Tips
If playing a support role on the team (as opposed to a core role), then you should avoid hitting creeps when using Illuminate. If you do decide to use it to harass enemy laners try to do so whilst avoiding hitting the majority of the creep wave – your carry will be seriously hampered if you steal their farm and push the creep wave out.
Illuminate doesn’t have to be channelled for the full 5 seconds, although it will only deal 100 damage per second channelled. If an enemy is expected to move out of the way before the full channel is complete then you can break the channelling and at least deal some damage.
Illuminate is a rare magic damage ability which actually damages mechanical units. This makes KotL’s push and anti-push even stronger, as it means he can kill Siege Creeps with Illuminate.
When defending a tower or your base in a high ground defence, anticipate the incoming creep wave (and potentially heroes) by beginning the channel for Illuminate before the creeps reach your buildings. One max level Illuminate will remove most of an entire creep wave’s life points, allowing you to stall pushes amazingly well.
Mana Leak has a very lengthy cast range once you’ve invested a few skill points into it – 550/700/850/1000 – allowing you to cast it on fleeing enemies. This will dramatically deplete their mana and stun then if they fully drain it, or forces them to remain stationary and allow your team to hunt them down.
| Tip: As Mana Leak is a fairly low priority ability it is a good way of triggering an enemy Linken’s Sphere. As Spellblock is one of the main reasons people purchase a Linken’s this allows you to counter the item pick-up with little damage to your own effectiveness. |
Don’t just save Chakra Magic for yourself and greedily spam Illuminate - if an ally is running low on mana cast it on them, especially if they’re one of your team’s cores or need access to an ability that is crucial for ganks/teamfights. In the early laning stage if you are partnered with someone who has a strong early ability but not the mana pool to support it then devote your Chakra Magic solely to them and don’t waste mana on unnecessary Illuminates.
Spirit Form lasts 40 seconds and has a cooldown of 80/70/60 seconds. Although it’s very useful for allowing you to use Illuminate without putting yourself in a poor position, it should usually be saved for teamfights, so that you can Recall allies who are not present for the outbreak of a teamfight or those who buyback and want to quickly get back into the fight. Most crucially you should always use Blinding Light on enemy core right clickers in teamfights to nullify their effectiveness for several seconds.
Recall will be cancelled if the ally you’re attempting to teleport takes player-based damage for 5/4/3 seconds after using it. It does not matter if you, as KotL, take damage. Similarly it does not matter if they take damage from creeps during the teleportation delay. Thus it should only be used on allies who are fleeing enemies if they are somewhat successfully juking and can buy enough time for the ability to take effect. It is more reliably used on allies who are still in base or are afk farming the jungle when a fight breaks out.
| Note: Recall can be cast via the mini-map – simply click on the mini-map near the ally you wish to teleport. This means you don’t actually need to move your camera away from the nearby area in order to teleport someone. |
Blinding Light is absolutely amazing – do not forget to use it! This gives KotL fantastic anti-carry potential, so long as the carry is not spell immune. 4/5/6 seconds of 80% misses is devastating for right-click based carries, and it has the advantage of not being as obvious in its effects as something like the active Disarm from Heaven’s Halberd – the enemy will still be able to attack, they will just miss 80% of the time, and may therefore not realise how ineffective they’ve become.
| Note: Blinding Light will knock back any units caught within its 675 unit radius and apply the debuff, but this knockback is NOT a stun – it will not interrupt channelled abilities. |
Last Updated - Patch 6.83.
