Introduction
“I will raze my enemies.”
Razor is a ranged agility semi-carry, or more accurately an anti-carry, who is notable for his ability to drain damage from a foe and acquire it for himself. He is a versatile laner, capable of playing mid or on one of the side lanes, and has decent damage output from abilities as well.
Razor's complete character profile can be found here.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- An anti-carry that drains an enemy’s damage
- Decent AoE burst magic damage
- Versatile laner
- Versatile item build
- High movespeed thanks to his passive
- Good attack animation
- Can turn into a fearsome pusher
Cons
- No hard lockdown
- Underwhelming DPS’er if he fails to get a decent length Static Link
- Middling stat growth
- Low base damage
- Needs good positioning in fights
Item Build
Starting Items
Razor can be laned pretty much anywhere (except the jungle). He is viable in either side lane and is also a decent mid-laner if paired against a solo mid who relies largely on right clicks to secure last hits.
A solid all-round starting build would be:
- A set of Tangos, a Healing Salve, 3x Iron Branches, and a Circlet.
This gives you good some nice early stat gain that will later be upgraded into core items and plenty of consumables to ride out any lane harass you may end up facing.
Early Game
Grab some Basic Boots of Speed – prior to levelling up your passive, Razor is a pretty slow hero. As far as upgraded boots go, the debate is usually between Phase Boots (chasing potential & right click) and Power Treads (stats & attack speed). I like the extra stats from Power Treads, and as I often opt for Drums later on I find I have more than enough move speed between my boots, Drums, and Razor’s passive to be able to chase with ease. If you have no intention of purchasing Drums or Yasha/Manta Style then Phase Boots are definitely the better option.
Round out your early game purchases by upgrading any Iron Branches you have into a Magic Wand and by turning the Circlet into a Wraith Band, which can also be upgraded into a Ring of Aquila – highly recommended since the buff to the damage component makes it one of the most cost efficient stat items in the game now.
Core
Mekanism is the standard core item for Razor. He serves a similar anti-carry purpose to the likes of Viper, and is perfectly suited to getting the team an early Mekanism.
The advantages of this build are increased tankiness, good all-round stats, the ability to push with your team early, and you will almost always have the Mekanism advantage in early teamfights, as it's unlikely the opposing team will have built theirs before Razor does. The 250 burst AoE heal in teamfights should give your team a large advantage in those early teamfights.
Luxury Extensions
Drums of Endurance – I'm a big fan of Drums of Endurance on almost any hero, and they synergise with Razor well too. They're cost efficient, easy to build into, and provide utility for your entire team with the move speed and attack speed auras.
As one of the most cost-effective stat items in the game, the stat gain it provides a hero like Razor - whose item progression revolves almost entirely around becoming tankier whilst also bringing utility to teamfights - makes it a great choice.
Heart of Tarrasque -Will make you a full on tank. Your health pool will be enormous and you’ll be hard to take down. A good luxury item if you feel you’re falling in teamfights too quickly, although I prefer…
Heaven’s Halberd – Halberd will help you to tank up whilst also providing utility for your team. 20 strength is a nice boost to your health pool, whilst 25% evasion means you'll mitigate a lot of damage. The main reason I prefer it over Heart is that it also has good overall utility for your team and augments your anti-carry role, thanks to the ability to Disarm an enemy physical DPS'er for 3.0-4.5 seconds.
Black King Bar - BKB features on most heros' luxury items list and Razor is no exception. It gives you a nice chunk of health and a small damage boost, but most importantly its active gives you 10-4 seconds of spell immunity (you lose a second each time you use the active, down to a minimum of 4 seconds), which means it's great for avoiding burst magic damage during teamfights or to prevent the enemy team stunlocking you.
BKB is always good on Razor, but the precise point at which you get it is situational - if there's a lot of burst magic damage or lockdown which is preventing you getting much done in teamfights prioritise it earlier, if you're largely given free reign during teamfights or the lockdown goes through spell immunity then you can build into something else instead.
Butterfly – The ultimate agility carry item – if you’re your teams main source of DPS then you’ll probably want to aim for Butterfly as the late game approaches. Huge chunks of damage, attack speed and evasion. It’s hard countered by Monkey King Bar, so don't build it if you see an enemy hero working towards one - opt for a different luxury item instead.
Crimson Guard – A good defensive/utility item. If you decide to opt for an early-ish Vanguard then later upgrading it into a Crimson Guard is a good way of buffing your inventory in the late game when Vanguard’s usefulness tapers off and inventory slots are at a premium.
So you get a nice chunk of flat health (250), +2 all stats, +5 armor and 6 health regeneration. On top of that you gain a passive Damage Block ability, which gives an 80% chance to block 20-40 damage, and an active Guard ability, which allows you to create a shield which applies to yourself and allies in a 750 unit radius that grants everyone affected by it +2 armor and a 100% chance to block 50 damage.
Crimson Guard is somewhat comparable to Mekanism, but more suited to heroes with low mana pools (following Patch 6.82’s hefty increase in Mekanism’s mana cost). It performs a similar protective and +armor role (albeit granting damage block rather than direct health). If you fear being unable to sustain a mana pool for Mekanism but want to add utility/tankiness to your teamfight then a Crimson Guard is a great option.
Manta Style – One the most cost-efficient luxury items for any ranged agility carry. It gives you decent stats, more mobility, and the ability to create illusions, which can be used to dodge projectiles or to help your team push faster. An all-round great luxury item for Razor, but not a game decider.
Eye of Skadi – It gives a big boost to your health and mana pools – something an anti-carry can always benefit from – and has an orb effect that combines well with your chasing/kiting potential.
Situational Items
Bottle - Only if you’re laning mid, in which case you should rush Bottle first and use the mana regeneration to push the creep wave out ahead of the rune spawn using Breathe Fire.
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.
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. Some good stat gain too.
Monkey King Bar – Huge attack damage, mini-bash, and a little bit of attack speed. It also grants you True Strike, making it the ideal pick-up to combat agility carries that would typically build into a Butterfly or which have evasion built-in (such as Phantom Assassin).
Aghanim’s Scepter followed by Refresher Orb – These last two items are fun as heck to get on Razor, and if you do manage to complete them both you’ll be a DPS and pushing monster, but it is a very greedy/selfish build and a very expensive one at that, leaving you highly vulnerable when your ultimate is not available unless you’ve also got other high value items on top of them.
So the idea here is to increase the damage dealt by your ultimate (the Aghanims buff increases the strike rate, which increases its total damage, and it also allows it to affect buildings, making Razor a very scary base pusher). Remember too that Razor’s ultimate reduces the armour of units by 1 per strike.
Now add on a Refresher Orb, which allows you to stack your ultimates (i.e. you can have both running at the same time). You have the potential to deal a ridiculous amount of damage over 30 seconds – damage which can be used against buildings, remember – and reduce a total of 170 armour from enemy targets.
So long as you are able to stay alive for its duration, no hero will be able to go toe-to-toe with you, and since a double Eye of the Storm will often be a signal to retreat or try and delay a push, it allows you to quick melt towers and enemy structures.
Skill Build
Plasma Field is an AoE magic damage nuke. It tends to be maxed first in public matchmaking, although it is sometimes maxed second or even last in competitive Dota. I feel the standard build where it’s maxed first is better for standard Dota, as it gives you access to decent burst AoE magic damage. Since it is Razor’s only direct magic damage nuke it is recommended you max it first to get access to its full damage potential whilst it remains relevant.
Plasma Field sends out a circular wave of plasma that damages enemies it hits in a 795 unit radius. The field then returns to Razor, again dealing damage to any units it passes through. It deals more damage the further the unit is away from Razor, from 30/50/70/90 to 160/230/300/370, so the goal is always to try and just clip the enemy hero with the edge of the field in order to deal the maximum amount of damage.
Static Link is Razor’s bread and butter anti-carry ability. It drains damage from a chosen target and gives that damage to Razor. It is always skilled first – being one of the best level 1 engagement abilities in the game – and is typically maxed second.
It creates a 675 unit Link which drains 7/14/21/28 damage per second, for up to 8 seconds, so the goal is always to remain within 600 units of the target whilst you drain them of damage and acquire it for yourself.
Unstable Current is Razor’s only passive ability. It is usually skilled and maxed last. This passively increases Razor’s move speed and slows the move speed and attack speed of enemies that use targeted abilities on Razor, and deals a small amount of magical damage to them.
This ability gives Razor the boost of speed he often needs in order to be able to maintain a Static Link whilst kiting enemy heroes. The effect on enemies is for the most part fairly minor – at level 4 it only deals 130 magic damage – but the slow will often be an irritation to enemies that try to harass Razor.
Razor’s ultimate, Eye of the Storm, is always skilled (levels 6, 11 and 16). It creates a lightning storm that follows Razor around for 30 seconds, hitting the enemy unit within 500 units of Razor that has the lowest health, dealing physical damage to them and reducing their armour by 1.
Additional levels increase the number of strikes and the damage per strike, allowing for a total physical damage of 1600/2500/3700. This works well in concert with Razor’s high movespeed once he’s maxed Unstable Current, and his high physical DPS potential thanks to Static Link.
Gameplay Tips
Plasma Field deals more damage the further the unit is away from Razor, from 60/100/140/180 to 160/230/300/370, so the goal is always to try and just clip the enemy hero with the edge of the field in order to deal the maximum amount of damage.
As Plasma Field is based on Razor’s location, you can move him around in order to try and get the most damage possible out of it (either by reducing the gap with the enemy if you feel the Field will fall short of them, or increasing the gap if the enemy is close to you and will therefore take little damage).
Static Link is a fantastic ability at all stages of the game and should not be ignored. Early on you can use it to dominate the lane, making use of its low cooldown and lengthy duration to punish the enemy farmer for approaching the creep wave by stealing their damage and using it to help with your own last hitting.
Your goal later on is always to try and Static Link the enemy carry during teamfights. You can steal a total of 56/112/168/224 damage from them using Static Link, which amounts to a total swing of 112/224/336/448 damage from their team to yours.
Remember that you need to maintain a 675 unit distance between yourselves for the duration of the drain, otherwise the link will be cut, but you also want to avoid taking damage from the enemy or their allies, and so have to work carefully to kite whilst maintaining the Link.
Static Link can be used on Spell Immune targets (i.e. it ignores Black King Bar), so don’t be put off if an enemy activates Spell Immunity – the vast majority of Razor’s damage output is physical. The Link is also maintained through invisibility, fog of war, and the various banish abilities in the game.
Eye of the Storm will target the unit with the lowest health within a 500 unit range of Razor, so it is relatively ineffective if there’s a large creepwave nearby – try to use it in locations away from creeps or neutrals, so that the damage is entirely focussed on enemy heroes.
Don’t under-estimate the damage out of Eye of the Storm. While each strike deals fairly small amounts of physical damage (37.5/50/62.5), it also reduces the target’s armour and hits once every 0.7/0.6/0.5 seconds – the damage soon stacks up.
Last Updated - Patch 6.82c.
