How to Play Illusion-Based Heroes in Dota 2

Dota 2 is a highly sophisticated game that offers players a wide range of options. You can pick more than 120 heroes and every one of them is unique.

However, some heroes do have common characteristics. For instance, there are multiple heroes that can stun an enemy. Or apply a movement slow for a certain number of seconds. Or damage an entire creep wave.

One of the most captivating classes in Dota 2 heroes is illusion-based heroes. Most players avoid them because they require a lot more effort and a higher APM. If you pick Naga Siren, for instance, you will need to constantly create illusions and send them to the appropriate locations.

You might want to farm with them, or simply scout enemy heroes. Not using this ability properly will put you at a disadvantage because that is one of your hero’s main success tools.

In this guide, I will explore the best-known illusion-based heroes in Dota 2 and analyze their strengths and weaknesses. Learning how to play them will give you a big advantage in a lot of matches because the enemy team won’t have anything to counter you.

Naga Siren

In Dota 2 patch 7.35d, Naga Siren has a win rate of 48.4% and a pick rate of only 2%. In the right hands, she can be a powerful hero. But not everyone is Arteezy.

Naga’s ability to farm is phenomenal. Using Mirror Image, she creates 3 illusions that deal 25 – 40% of her damage and last for 26s. These illusions take 350% damage but when you’re tanky enough, that no longer matters. Creeps can’t kill them and support heroes struggle against them. This allows you to constantly push all the lanes and farm the jungle with ease.

If you do this properly, the enemy team won’t be able to push even if it gets occasional kills. When you play Naga Siren, time usually passes in your favor. By the 30-minute mark, you tend to have very powerful items and a high level that allows you to take full advantage of your abilities.

Naga can root a target for 5s using Ensnare. You can do this every 12s. This means that an enemy hero has 7s to either get away from you or fight you before he gets stuck again. Melee heroes really struggle against Naga because of this.

Using Rip Tide, which is a passive ability that activates every 6 attacks (illusion’s attacks count too!), Naga Siren damages enemies and reduces their armor by 8 for 4s.

Naga’s ultimate, Song of the Siren, lasts for 7s and can be used to disengage or initiate. The radius of this ability is 1000 – 1400. Its effect is not harmful on its own. It just puts every enemy to sleep if he doesn’t have debuff immunity. But while everyone’s asleep, your team can position itself in a favorable way to take advantage of the situation.

As soon as the song expires, the battle restarts and it could easily go in your favor if each person on the team uses his abilities correctly.

When playing Naga Siren, the best items that you can buy are Manta Style, Butterfly, Eye of Skadi, Bloodthorn, and Diffusal Blade. Some players choose to buy Radiance, which can also work well because the active effect causes enemies to miss very frequently.

Terrorblade

Terrorblade is similar to Naga Siren but has a different way of winning games. This hero starts with high armor and essentially has two ultimates. Using them well will give you a big advantage in team fights.

Few people pick Terrorblade. Currently, his pick rate is 2.25% while his win rate is only 44.7%. This is not the easiest hero to play at a low MMR in pubs because he requires good team coordination. If your teammates go on the offensive when you don’t have your Metamorphosis available, they’re making a big mistake.

Terrorblade’s abilities are very simple to understand. Apart from Metamorphosis, which gives you +60 damage, +550 attack range, and a base attack time of 1.5 for 50s, you have Conjure Image, Reflection, and Sunder.

Conjure Image is an ability you’ll want to maximize relatively early because your farming speed increases dramatically thanks to it. At level 1, your illusions deal 30% of your damage. At level 4, they deal 60%. The duration of an illusion is 34s and the cooldown of the ability is 16s. At level 20, if you select the appropriate talent, illusions start lasting for 44s.

This means that you can have 3 of them at any given time instead of 2. And if you buy Manta Style, you will have 5. With 5 illusions, this hero is incredibly powerful and can stand his ground against almost any enemy.

One thing that troubles him is Linken’s Sphere or any kind of ability reflection, such as the one provided by Lotus Orb. The reason is not hard to understand. Terrorblade’s best defense against high-damage opponents is his ultimate. When you fall below 50% HP it’s a good idea to cast it on an enemy hero and you’ll swap your current HP with his.

If the enemy is full HP and you have very little HP, that will give you a massive advantage, allowing you to turn the fight around.

Terrorblade’s Reflection slows movement speed by 30% and creates a reflection of the enemy heroes affected by it. That reflection deals 100% of their damage. The effect lasts for 5s. When you’re dealing with high-damage opponents, Reflection can be a powerful tool.

Some of the best items to buy when playing Terrorblade are Manta Style, Eye of Skadi, Daedalus, Butterfly, and Black King Bar. You should also buy a Dragon Lance for attack range in the first 30 minutes of the game. Later, you can upgrade it to a Hurricane Pike.

Phantom Lancer

Phantom Lancer is probably the most annoying illusion-based hero that you can play against. That’s because his illusions are not finite. They’re infinite. As long as you get attacked by him and his illusions, the ones that disappear will quickly be replaced by new ones. And you will have a hard time guessing which one is the real PL.

After buying Diffusal Blade, this hero becomes very powerful offensively. But he’s still relatively easy to kill if you have enough damage and some stuns. The bigger problems start after he buys Manta Style. And finally, if he also buys Eye of Skadi or a Butterfly, the situation becomes extremely difficult for the opposite team.

PL’s entire toolkit is designed to make him hard to identify among his illusions, and very capable offensively. The best part about PL is that you don’t need much to deal a lot of damage. A few basic items will be enough until the 30-minute mark. This gives you the possibility to focus on survivability.

When playing this hero, one of the most important things to do is to keep your Doppelganger until you really need it and to use your Spirit Lance in a way that doesn’t betray your position. The biggest mistake made by newbies is to use Spirit Lance immediately after Doppelganger. This puts you in a very dangerous situation.

Spirit Lance should be used from afar. When you already have plenty of illusions, you must resist the temptation to press Q.

Chaos Knight

Chaos Knight is one of the more lightweight illusion-based heroes because he can activate his ultimate once every 75s. This is his only method of creating illusions, apart from buying Manta Style.

CK’s capabilities are tremendous in almost every category. He can easily close the distance using Reality Rift, which can be cast from 750 range. You can do this every 6s, so you essentially have a weaker Blink Dagger that can be used more than twice as often. The added benefit is that the target loses 7 armor for 6s and gets pulled toward you. The pull distance is 450.

When playing Chaos Knight, you can maximize the power of your illusions by buying items like Armlet of Mordiggian, Heart of Tarrasque, and Manta Style. A little bit of armor and magic resistance would also help a lot.

The key to winning with this hero is simple: farm when your ultimate is on cooldown and force favorable fights when you have it available. Buy a Manta Style for the extra illusions because you’re much more powerful that way. If you have good supports and your other two cores are not completely useless, after the 30-minute mark it’s very hard to lose with CK.

Arc Warden

Arc Warden only has one illusion and it’s his ultimate. But that illusion is very powerful because it’s essentially a perfect replica of himself. You can cast all of your basic abilities twice thanks to it and you can also use your Hand of Midas twice.

Everyone who plays Arc Warden rushes Hand of Midas because of this and seeks to farm a few core damage items before starting to push the lanes relentlessly.

In team fights, Arc Warden provides tremendous benefits to his allies. If the battle is a defensive one, he can cast Magnetic Field for almost 15s in total using his Tempest Double. This protects everyone, including the buildings.

Your illusion can be sent to farm and push lanes. But it can also be kept nearby to get easy kills in case you find some isolated opponent.

Despite having just one illusion, Arc Warden is difficult to play. That illusion has a full set of abilities and it can be tricky to use the right ones at the right time. Learning how to synchronize with your main hero takes many games.

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