Aiushtha The Enchantress Guide and Strategy
by Tucker
- Hero Overview
- Skill Description
- Skill Build
- Item Builds
- Core Item Build
- Recommended Item paths after core items
- Other Optional Items
- Items Not Recommended
- General Game play Walkthrough
- Early game: (Levels 1-10)
- Mid game: (Levels 10-16)
- Late game: (Levels 17-25)
- Good Allies to Have
- Bad Enemies to Face
- Mini-Guide to Using Impetus
- Harassing
- Chasing
- Animation Canceling
- Using Enchant to it’s Full Potential
- Neutral Creeps for Ganking
- Neutral Creeps for Pushing
- Image Heroes
- Turning the Tide of Battle by Stealing Summons
- Replays
- Conclusion
- Credits
- Q&A
Although all Dryads are Cenarius’ daughters, Aiushtha is said to be his first and favorite. Because of her direct relation to him, she has borrowed much of his powers. This is demonstrated by her control over the shy Wisps which she uses to heal her allies, and her ability to bring an opponent under the will of the Sentinel. Preferring ranged combat to melee, she fashioned a spear that strikes with more force the further her target is away. Her agility is unmatched, and any opponent attempting to kill her will find she skips ahead of them with surprising ease.
Starting Mana
: 208Attack Range: 550
Base Move Speed: 295
Starting Base Damage: 37-47
Starting Armor: 1.7
Strength: 16 +2.0
Agility: 19 +1.8
Intelligence: 16 +2.8
Overall stat gain per level: +6.6
Advanced Data
Acquisition Range: 800
Cast Point: 0.30
Cast Backswing: 0.51
Damage Point: 0.30
Attack Backswing: 0.70
Projectile speed: 900
Base Attack Time: 1.7
Starting Attack Cool down: 1.43
Pros
- Versatile role in her team.
- Armor ignoring arrow ability.
- Fantastic lane controlling ability.
- Incredible lane staying power.
- High overall stat gain per level.
Cons
- Susceptible to nukers.
- Quite a weak ultimate.
- Below average base move speed.
Gives strength to the Enchantress’ attacks, causing them to deal greater damage the further away the target is.
Level 1 - Deals 4% of the distance in damage.
Level 2 - Deals 8% of the distance in damage.
Level 3 - Deals 12% of the distance in damage.
Level 4 - Deals 16% of the distance in damage.
Cooldown: 6/5/4/0
This is Enchantress’ bread and butter arrow ability. It deals damage on impact based on the distance between Enchantress and her target. This skill is fantastic to harass early game and boosts your dps late game. It also synergizes fantastically with her own slow as well as any other allied slow on fleeing heroes. Impetus damage ignores armor, making it scale well in terms of damage in late part of the game. A downside to this spell is that it is somewhere ineffective against melee heroes in later stages of the game, as they require close combat to damage you, thus losing your distance damage bonus.
Brings target unit under control of Aiushtha. If the unit cannot be converted, it will instead be slowed instead.
Level 1 - 30 second cooldown, 10% slow if unit cannot be converted.
Level 2 - 25 second cooldown, 20% slow if unit cannot be converted.
Level 3 - 20 second cooldown, 30% slow if unit cannot be converted.
Level 4 - 15 second cooldown, 40% slow if unit cannot be converted.
Enchant is a great spell. On one hand it is a fantastic slow, (7 seconds PHWOARH!) and on the other hand it has the ability to dominate a creep for 2 minutes on all levels. With a low cooldown of 15 seconds on level four, you can mass a nice army of creeps for pushing a tower, slowing pushes by stealing their creeps, using it for stompers or you can ignore that part of the spell and just use it as a slow. The only downside to this spell compared to some other slows is that it is a single targeted spell.
Releases a swarm of wisps to heal nearby allies in a 300 radius. Each wisp lasts 10 seconds and heals 10hp/sec.
Level 1 - 3 Wisps.
Level 2 - 5 Wisps.
Level 3 - 7 Wisps.
Level 4 - 9 Wisps.
Cooldown: 45 seconds
Healing wisps is another great spell. It makes enchantress a frustrating lane opponent to deal with. Not only can she harass you greatly with Impetus, but any attempts at harassing her are futile as she can just heal them off in a matter of seconds. Mid to late game it does not lose its effectiveness, giving a 300 AoE heal of 900hp which can turn the tide of anything from a 1v1 fight to a huge team battle. One downside to this spell is that it’s not an instant heal, meaning it’s useless against chain nukes.
The mechanics of the spell are as follows. Taken and modified from Gradenko’s mechanical explanation.
Nature’s Attendants summons 3/5/7/9 Wisps per level, which last 10 seconds at all levels. Each Wisp selects a random target within 300 AoE and heals it once for 10 HP, then selects a new target for the next second. That works out to 300/500/700/900 HP healed over the 10 seconds in the 300 AoE. The heal is triggered, so as far as I know the graphic is just there for graphics.
Untouchable
Whenever the Enchantress is attacked, she beguiles the unit into slowing its attack.
Level 1 - 50% reduction.
Level 2 - 70% reduction.
Level 3 - 90% reduction.
Passive
I have somewhat mixed feelings about Untouchable. As an ultimate it can be considered somewhat weak. It slows hero’s IAS by that stated amount. However this does NOT change their Base Attack Time. This means their attack speed can’t be slowed past -0.80 in total. IAS decrease comes from items such as Hand of Midas, Agility (base and otherwise) and any hero skills, such as Rampage, Bloodlust or Rabid. It has no effect against manually cast arrow abilities and once your enemies get some decent agility and attack speed items the reduction is minimal at best. It is however very effective against creeps, Roshan, Infernals and other summons. I still use it in my builds as even though the actual attack speed reduced isn’t that great, it can still be lifesaving in some situations.
If you still don’t understand how it works, just think of it as the reverse effect of Frenzy or strafe!
3. Skill Build
1. Impetus
2. Nature’s Attendants
3. Impetus
4. Nature’s Attendants
5. Impetus
6. Nature’s Attendants
7. Impetus
8. Nature’s Attendants
9. Untouchable
10. Enchant / Stats
11. Enchant / Stats
12. Enchant / Stats
13. Enchant / Stats
14. Stats
15. Untouchable
16. Untouchable
17. Stats / Enchant
18. Stats / Enchant
19. Stats / Enchant
20. Stats / Enchant
21-25. Stats
Why max Impetus first?
Maxing Impetus first in this build is a no brainer. It’s your harassing arrow ability. It allows you to dominate most lane matchups, and possibly score an early kill. By level 7 the cooldown is 0, so you are able to “Orbwalk” from there.
Why max Nature’s Attendants so quickly?
Nature’s attendants is your heal. At level four it heals 900 hp over 10 seconds in 300 AoE. It helps you stay in your lane for longer amounts of time and allows you to tank some damage (Read: I can tank most ultimates and combos in the game with this skill, live, attack back and probably win!) while attacking back or fleeing.
When should I take Enchant?
This skill build gives you a choice at when you want to take Enchant.
If you are playing a ganking role, which is Enchantress’ main strength during mid game, taking Enchant at levels 10-14 is the best option. Giving you a 7 second slow to go ganking with allows you to cut down most heroes in a matter of seconds, made twice as easy with BoT.
If your team needs you to be the late gamer and you have other ganking oriented heroes on your side, your main aim early-mid game should be farming and staying alive while calling ganks on your own lane for kills. By the time you reach level 17 when you are close to finishing the items you need, Enchant can be taken for use in ganks and team pushes.
Why not take Untouchable at 6&11?
This skill does little to improve your early game survivability against nukers or manually cast arrow abilities this is why you shouldn’t take it at level 6. It is taken at levels 9/15/16 and not 11, as the leveling of the skill between 1 & 2 is not great, an extra -20% IAS for a level of an ultimate is poor IMO. Around level 9 in the game you can start expecting some “normal attack fire” to hurt when used in conjunction with nukes and disables. You can also use it to pull a creep wave off a tower and take minimal damage or tank some Neutral creeps. The actual attack speed reduction is only from items, agility or hero skills, so you can’t slow a hero’s attack speed past their base attack time.
Could I take some early Stats instead of Nature’s Attendants?
Definitely. If you are laning heroes such as Viper or Visage, their damage comes from orb-walking, which your heal is more beneficial to heal out their harassing. However if you are laning some strong chain nukers, such as Lina, Tinker or even a Lion, early stats would prove to be beneficial in staying alive than leveling your heal to it’s max. I would still recommend two levels of Nature’s Attendants so you can heal, then taking some stats while still maxing Impetus.
Item order:
1. Consumables: Tangos, clarities. However many you feel you will need. Also a few GGbranches (0-500)
2. Boots of speed (500)
3. Three or Four Null Talisman (1455-1940)****
4. Boots of Travel recipe (2200)
5. Void Stone (900) (Can be taken earlier if you really struggle to manage your mana)
6. Staff of Wizardry (1000)
7. Robe of the Magi (450)
8. Eul’s Scepter of Divinity Recipe Scroll (450)
Total Cost: 7500 gold
I’ll leave the early consumables and survival items up to your own play style and choices. These items include Pots, Tangos, RoR, Clarities, Circlets and GGbranches. Everyone has their own style and preferences about these items. Get Boots of Speed as soon as possible, as they are beneficial to escape early ganks and to harass with Impetus early game.
Three or Four Nulls should be taken as soon as possible. In most situations you wont need the extra HP from bracers, as long as you can get off heal off in time then you will most likely survive through chain nukes and chases. Enchantress’s base damage is fairly low. She can harass the enemy with Impetus, but in terms of last hitting, Enchantress pales in comparison to most other good soloers. Even if you have plenty of mana regeneration, it won’t help in releasing multiple Impetus in a row while trying to orb-walk someone. What you need is a pure mana boost. Three or four Nulls gives 18-24 damage, around 300 mana as well as some hp and agility, which is easily the most cost effective items for the benefits they give. And in 6.46b Nulls recipe cost was reduced which made them even better value for money!
The early BoT isn’t for the teleports(although that is a bonus), it’s for the MS. Having 385 MS to Impetus(orb)-walk against most other heroes (335-370 with just boots) when Impetus is at it’s peak (after level 7 through to mid game) is the most beneficial offensive item you can get.
The major item in this core build is Eul’s Scepter. It’s taken after BoT as it will not help you net kills nearly as much as BoT will. It helps out further with your mana regen requirements as well as a another decent damage boost. The 6 cyclone charges can be used to set up ganks, escape ganks or make early team fights 5v4 for an amount of time. The charges have many uses, but remember you only have six of them, so use them wisely.
9. Quarterstaff (1150)
10. Robe of the Magi (450)
11. Sobi Mask (325)
12. Guinsoo’s Scythe of Vyse Recipe (450)
13. Vitality Booster (1100)
14. Messerschmidt’s Reaver (3200)
15. Heart of Tarrasque Recipe Scroll (1200)
Total cost: 15,375 gold
This build is for a Later game Tanking and Damage Enchantress. It covers everything you need to fulfill this. You’ll have the mana regen from your core build, you’ll have a great damage output and you’ll have great survivability from Heart of Tarrasque.
Upgrading your Eul’s to Guinsoo’s Scythe is a logical step once you’ve used up all your cyclones. Guinsoo’s gives another nice damage boost as well and another 3 second disable with a low cooldown, on top of your slow. Heart is a given no matter if you get Radiance, Guinsoo or Necronomicon. Later game with Heart/Untouchable/NA you are probably one of the best pseudo-tanks in the game.
1. Consumables: Tangos, clarities. However many you feel you will need. Also a few GGbranches (0-500)
2. Boots of speed (500)
3. Staff of Wizardry (1000)
4. Belt of Giant Strength (450)
5. Necronomicon Recipe (1300)
6. Necronomicon 2 Recipe (1300)
7. Necronomicon 3 Recipe (1300)
8. Boots of Travel recipe (2200)
9. Void Stone (900)
10. Staff of Wizardry (1000)
11. Robe of the Magi (450)
12. Eul’s Scepter of Divinity Recipe Scroll (450)
13. Quarterstaff (1150)
14. Robe of the Magi (450)
15. Sobi Mask (325)
16. Guinsoo’s Scythe of Vyse Recipe (450)
Total cost: 13,725 gold
This build is for those situations when your team already has a carry hero, a good tank and is in need of disables and damage or you’re facing invisible/wind walk heroes.
The items you get in this build will not only help your team in large team fights, it will still allow you to deal a decent amount of damage and have good survivability. If your building Necronomicon because your opposing team has invisible or WW heroes such as Bone Clinks or Stealth Assassin then I would recommend getting this before Eul’s and possibly before BoT, as the true sight from level 3 necrowarriors will help immensely. This item synergizes well with your 7 second slow, allowing the warriors to get off a lot of manaburning attacks, as well as a 225 mana burn/nuke. The movespeed aura also helps chasing or escaping. You will also gain some nice stats with level 3 Necro adding to your survivability and mana pool.
Finally after you’ve used all your cyclone charges you can upgrade your Eul’s Scepter into Guinsoo’s Scythe, adding a nice damage boost, a 3 second disable with a low cooldown and even more mana regeneration.
Hood of Defiance (2350)
A new item in 6.42 where Aegis has now been removed. This item is a great, cheap alternative for magic resistance. Since chain nukers are your greatest enemy for most of the game, this item will help you immensely. If you’re having trouble early / mid game against casters I would recommend getting it after you complete your Boots of Travel, if you’re surviving well enough then I would recommend getting it after Heart. If you’re not against casters and nukers, then don’t get this item.
Radiance (5325)
Radiance is a good damage item, if you ARE the team’s lategame hero. If you are in a team of general sentinel picks at the moment, there IS a high chance of that happening. (THD/BM/VS/Lina/CM/Enigma/Zues/Chen etc) The team needs a hero with lategame capability in that situation and you could do worse than Enchanty. Radiance would be my damage item of choice over MKB/Buriza etc, as Immolation is fantastic and you get a small evasion which can be helpful, it also doesn’t have any effects which impede Impetus, which is the main reason.
Linken’s Sphere (5500)
Some people like to get Linken’s sphere for the spell block, stats and regen. I personally would prefer heart, but Linken’s certainly isn’t a bad item. Spell block can save you from death on some occasions!
The Butterfly (6350)
The Butterfly is another situational item. I would class this as a luxury item to be gotten after your core build and item paths. It gives nice IAS boost and the extra evasion will help against heroes who rely on physical attacks and/or any hero with a bash ability.
Hyperstone (2350)
The most cost effective way to boost your IAS. Good for increasing your DPS after you’ve completed all your damage and survival items.
Assault Cuirass (6320)
Another new item that you might think to try with Enchant since it’s implementation. The armour bonus’ are nice and the attack speed is very useful. It’s one of those items that you only get 1 per team and if you have the time and spare cash and no one else on your team has one, then definitely consider it.
Eye of Skadi
Eye of Skadi will be somewhat controversial as many people like it on Enchant for some reason. I would only ever suggest getting it when your team DESPERATELY needs another slow. It is overridden by auto-cast Impetus, but manually casting Impetus on alternate attacks can still make the slow work. It adds nice stats but really, there are better stat items for cheaper and better items for Enchantress.
Maelstrom / Mjollnir
These items are agility based so your gain from them will be minimal. The orb effect also overrides Impetus when it procs. Best left for heroes like troll.
Sange&Yasha
This item is pretty bad all round for Enchantress. It does give some decent str and agil but the price makes it not worth it and it doesn’t give you any damage to speak of. The orb effect is also pretty useless at 10% chance and it overrides Impetus when it occurs. The MS and IAS increase is minimal.
Stygian Desolator
Deso is a pretty good item for its Gold-per-damage, however Impetus overrides the orb effect on Manual and auto-cast. This means you will either be wasting the orb or wasting your Impetus, which isn’t what you want to do!
Monkey King Bar
Some people prefer MKB as a primary damage item. While this is fine and I can see their arguments as to why they like MKB with the attack speed and damage etc, I would personally never recommend this as the mini-stun overrides Impetus when it procs, which means you lose out of 30% of your Impetus! Definately not something you want.
Manta Style
Manta Style may seem like something you want to try on Enchantress but I will tell you why you shouldn’t. Impetus overrides the mana burn effect so you are wasting money on an orb your not using. Once you use your images, if you have Impetus on auto-cast only the real Enchantress will use Impetus and the other two wont, thus giving away your position a lot easier than normal.
Dagon
Some people go by the mentality that they should buy dagon on any intel hero. Since Enchantress is an INT hero I should buy a dagon right?? WRONG! Dagon is a waste of gold on Enchantress. You’re not a nuker so you wont be able to chain it with anything, you will have no use for it other than using it to KS and you’ll just be wasting 3k gold.
Buriza-do Kyanon
Buriza is a decent enough item for damage however your attack speed isn’t high enough to utilise the critical strikes. Not only that but if you learn Impetus first, then you buy buriza, critical will override Impetus, so you lose Armor piercing arrow for 1 double damage hit (and chances are the Impetus would have done around the same damage as the crit anyway).
Lifesteal
Lifesteal overrides Impetus on manual cast, but Impetus overrides on auto-cast. Again you’ll be wasting money on an orb you wont use or lose out on your Impetus and extra damage.
Bloodstone
While this might seem like an item you would want to get on Enchant, I recommend avoiding it. It gives nice regen, hp & mana boost but to be honest, it doesn’t suit your role as a mid game ganker and a late game DPS-tank. There are better items for Enchant, and this one is best left for supporting heroes such as Venge and Dazzle.
To start off with, make sure someone on your team has a chicken they can share with you. This will save you fountain trips and will get your items out to you. Enchantress has incredible lanestaying ability, make sure you abuse it!
Get your preferred regen items and head to a solo lane. Mid works well, but basically head to the lane where the other team’s solo is, (e.g most higher levels solo mid - Most lower levels solo Top scourge and bottom sentinel) and if you run into a 2 lane, simply swap asap. Enchantress’ lane control ability against another solo is pretty much only equaled by Viper and Warlock and if it’s -ap, Tinker and Syllabear. Heroes like LoA, Leshrac and NA will give you a hard time with their respective abilities, but you should still be able to out lane them with smart play.
If mid is your lane, ask a teammate to grab some observer wards for you on the chicken so you can place one at the top of the scourge hill. Having sight up the hill allows you to farm better, orbwalk your opponent better and see them coming if they try to attack you. Also placing one ward at each rune spot allows you to avoid river ganks as well as seeing any useful runes you may want to use.
Your ability to control a lane is the main reason that you will be soloing. Making it impossible for your lane opponent to farm should be your main aim, sending and keeping them out of farming range if you can. The extra experience also allows you to rush level 7, giving you 0 cooldown on Impetus. Impetus is your harassing and lane controlling tool. It costs 40/45/50/55 mana on it’s respective levels, so it is somewhat costly in the mana department for an arrow ability. This is where your clarities and Nulls will help you. You should always make sure you keep enough mana for Nature’s Attendants. Harass with your normal attack as much as you can while you regen some mana and keep them on their toes with the occasional Impetus. (If you need to learn more about how to use Impetus, how to harass with it, what “orb-walking” is and how to Animation Cancel you should read the section later in the guide called “Mini-Guide to Impetus”)
Your key to gaining the farming advantage is in your last hitting. Enchantress has a rather long backswing and lowish base damage as well as a slow projectile speed. Practice in single player mode until you get used to her animation. If you are controlling your lane well you will be able to move up closer to the creeps, meaning that your projectile has less distance to travel when you attack making last hitting much easier. You shouldn’t leave your lane to gank other lanes just yet, however you can call a stunner or a nuker to your lane to kill or send your lane opponent back to the fountain so you gain that much needed level and farming advantage.
While Enchantress has the ability to net early game kills, losing your life just to try to get one isn’t beneficial. You should be looking to aggressively control your lane and farm, as going for suicide kills will completely negate one of your main advantages; being able to stay in your lane for very long periods of time. Once level 7 comes you should be able to orb-walk-kill your lane opponent in 4 or 5 shots, but again don’t be suicidal, sometimes you have to settle for sending them back to the fountain with the feeling of “Just one more hit….” Mid game is where you’re hero killing potential should be realised.
You wont always get the solo with Enchantress if you’re playing public games or less competitive game. In that instance you’ll have to make the most of it. You can still do very well if you play smart and have a good lane partner.
To start off with, make sure you lane with another hero who has a disable of some sort. Coupled with Impetus it will make early kills possible. Make sure you pick up some mana regen items like clarities, tell your partner to pick up a Ring of Basilius. You should pick up a headdress pretty quickly if your team has a shared chicken for the regen and to help your partner as well.
Enchantress still has great harassing and lanestaying ability in a dual lane. Make sure you use this to your benefit so you level up consistently and farm decently. Combo your lane opponent with your lane partner’s disable and throw your Impetus’ when you know they’ll be good. If you need to chase past a tower turn on your Nature’s Attendants and don’t be afraid to in this instance.
