Nortrom Silencer Guide
Nortrom, the Silencer: His portrait honestly just looks like an Elven priest with a hockey mask grafted on.
Hailing from the magical community of Quel’Thalas, Nortrom is one of the strongest Elven warriors defending the integrity of the lands. Mastering the ancient art of glaive-throwing, and combining it with the volatile nature of the Blood Elves’ arcane magic, he is able to disrupt the magical energies in his enemies. By binding his magical powers to his glaive, he is able to cause damage beyond devastation, gaining intelligence from every kill. Concentrating all his energies, he can cause chaos within his enemies’ magical pools, making them unable to cast spells. He is determined to fend off the Scourge and their demon magic until he has breathed his last
Sunrise Tavern, upper-left corner, Hotkey is “I”. I learned the hotkey from many games worth of experience spamming it to try to prevent MeR-LiNi from swiping him.
Table of contents
Part I - Introduction
1. Foreword
2. Hero Overview
3. Hero Positives and Negatives
4. Hero Abilities
Part II - Power Glaive Silencer
5. Introduction to Build
6. Recommended Skill Order
7. Recommended Items
8. Item Build
9. Item Explanations
10. Possible Items Afterwards
11. Gameplay Walkthrough
Part III - Miscellaneous
12. Recommended Allies
13. Worst Enemies
14. Replays
15. Pointless Trivia
15. Guide Version/Endnotes
1. Foreword
OH NOES HIS MOVESPEED WAS NERFED in 6.34!!!
I wrote this guide because Silencer is currently one of the game’s strongest heroes, yet many players don’t seem to know how to utilize him to his full potential. I’ve streamlined this guide as much as possible to make it an easy read.
Nortrom is a powerful disabler/fighter hybrid. He has a curse which is devastating against a few select heroes, a mapwide Silence, one of the strongest Arrow abilties, and an aura that made Seels quit DotA, although he seems to have sneaked back into the scene. Doesn’t get much better than that, folks.
2. Hero Overview
Base movespeed is 290.
Base STR is 17 + 1.7 per level.
Base AGI is 16 + 2.1 per level.
Base INT is 21 + 2.5 per level.
Base Damage is 39-61.
Base HP is 473.
Base Mana is 273.
Base Armor is 1.2.
Attack Range is 600.
3. Hero Positives and Negatives
Positives:
Great farming/harassment with Glaives, high range, and good base damage.
One of the most powerful heroes for a Solo lane.
Lots of, uh, Silence. What else were you expecting?
Negatives:
No natural disable against chaser heroes (N’aix, Lycan).
Mediocre HP/Armor, and kinda slow-ish.
Fairly item dependant to be useful mid/late game.
4. Hero Abilities
Curse of the Silent - Curses an enemy target so that they lose HP/Mana until they cast a spell.
10 second duration at all levels.
Level 1 - 10hp/5 mana per second.
Level 2 - 20hp/10 mana per second.
Level 3 - 30hp/15 mana per second.
Level 4 - 40hp/20 mana per second.
A fairly powerful spell early game for lane control, but for the purposes of this guide it is virtually nonexistent. Read the FAQ if you want a more indepth explanation why.
Glaives of Wisdom [W]- Nortrom’s Glaives do bonus damage depending on his INT. He steals 1 INT from an enemy hero every time he gets a hero kill.
Orb Effect. 15 mana cost.
Level 1 - Deals 15% of your intelligence in bonus damage.
Level 2 - Deals 30% of your intelligence in bonus damage.
Level 3 - Deals 45% of your intelligence in bonus damage.
Level 4 - Deals 60% of your intelligence in bonus damage.
Your bread and butter skill for harassing, creeping, and killing. Since Nortrom’s base INT is fairly good, and since +stats and our item build will supplement that, expect to see bonus numbers > 50 by mid game. Note that, in order to use it to its fullest potential, you must use the hotkey, which is “W” by default.
Glaives ignore enemy armor, so ideally you will want to target low HP/high armor heroes. Conversely, you’ll have a harder time killing High HP/low armor heroes, although you’ll still pack a healthy punch.
Last Word - Causes any unit under the effect of this aura to become silenced after it finishes casting a spell. Does not affect BKB/Dagger, but works for any other items.
700 AOE at all levels.
Level 1 - 1 second duration.
Level 2 - 2 second duration.
Level 3 - 3 second duration.
Level 4 - 4 second duration.
Although recently nerfed, this is still an incredibly powerful aura to interfere with casters who chain spells one after the other, like Earthshaker and Lion. In team battles, you’ll want to make sure you’re relatively close to the main action so that you can disrupt their casters/
[Ultimate]
Global Silence [E] - Silences every hero on the map.
Level 1 - Lasts 3 seconds.
Level 2 - Lasts 4 seconds.
Level 3 - Lasts 5 seconds.
It’s a mapwide Silence. The possibilities for this are endless, but it is an incredibly powerful tool in team fights. Also, paired with chat software like Ventrilo, you can effectively save allies who are half the map away.
Before using Global Silence, make sure your allies know that you’re going to use it. You want to use it pre-emptively, as either a cover for all your allies to run in and wreak havoc, or to cover when a friendly Earthshaker or Crystal Maiden blinks in and Ults.
If you get jumped, and the enemy heroes are close by and definitely ready to fire off their spells, that would be a good time also to use it, so you can turn the would-be gank around.
5. Introduction to Build
This is the only Silencer build that I recommend that you use. Focuses on maxing Glaives/stats early for lane control, and Last Word/Global mid/late game when they become useful.
6. Recommended Skill Order
Level 1 - Glaives
Level 2 - Stats
Level 3 - Glaives
Level 4 - Stats
Level 5 - Glaives
Level 6 - Stats
Level 7 - Glaives
Level 8-9 - Stats
Level 10-11 - Global Silence
Level 12-15 - Last Word
Level 16 - Global Silence
Level 17+ - Stats
Finish up with Curse. No need to use it, since your damage should far outstrip what it does by that point.
If you want, you can take Level 1 Global at 6 instead of 10. All up to preference.
Note - If you lane against Sand King early game, take a point in Last Word at either level 4 or 6, in order to interrupt his Burrowstrike/Epicenter combo.
7. Recommended Items
Headdress of Rejunevation657 gold
Shop:Level 1 (Human) Shop
Description:
+2 to all stats
2 HP/Sec Healing Aura
Requires:
Ring of Regeneration
Ironwood Branch
Headdress Recipe
Netherezim Buckler 867 gold
Shop:Level 1 (Human) Shop
Description:
+2 to all stats
+5 armor
Activatable +2 armor AOE ability
Requires:
Chain Mail
Ironwood Branch
Buckler Recipe
Mekansm 900 gold
Shop:Level 2 (Orc) Shop
Description:
+5 to all stats
+5 armor
3 HP/Sec Healing Aura
Activatable 250 HP/+2 armor AOE ability
Requires:
Headdress of Rejunevation
Netherezim Buckler
Mekansm Recipe
Eul’s Scepter 2350 gold
Shop:Level 2 (Orc) Shop
Description:
+18 intelligence
100% mana regeneration
6 charges of Cyclone
Requires:
Void Stone
Staff of Wizardry
Robe of the Magi
Oblivion Staff 1925 gold
Shop:Level 1 (Human) Shop
Description:
+15 damage
50% increased mana regen
10% increased attack speed
+6 intelligence
Requires:
Quarterstaff
Sobi Mask
Robe of the Magi
Guinsoo’s Scythe of Vyse 900 gold
Shop:Level 4 (Undead) Shop
Description:
+35 damage
250% mana regeneration
+25 intelligence
Can turn enemy into a sheep for 3 seconds
Requires:
Oblivion Staff
Eul’s Scepter
Scythe Recipe
8. Item Build
–Purchase at Start–
RoR + 2 Ironwood Branches - 489 gold
[If it's AR, skip a branch and buy two mantles of intelligence instead.]
Finish Headdress (buy Recipe) - 225 gold
Optional - Finish Hand of Midas (Buy Gloves of Haste + Recipe - 1610 gold.
Buy Boots of Speed - 500 gold
Finish Buckler (Buy Chainmail + Recipe) - 810 gold
Finish Mekansm - 900 gold
Buy Void Stone - 900 gold
Finish Eul’s Scepter (Staff of Wizardry and Robe of the Magi and Recipe) - 1900 gold
Buy Quarterstaff - 1150 gold
Finish Oblivion Staff (Buy Sobi Mask + Robe of Magi) - 775 gold
Finish Guinsoo’s Scythe(Buy Recipe) - 450 gold
9. Item Explanations
Early game, you want RoR for staying power in your lane. Midas is optional, but is incredibly good on Silencer due to the IAS bonus and because you’re never going to run out of mana for Transmute anyway. Mekansm, with your large pool of unused mana, allows you to remain in your lane almost indefinitely if you finish it early enough.
Eul/Guinsoo are self explanatory, and provide a massive boost to your DPS, as well as providing you with a disable.
10. Possible Items Afterwards
Boots of Travel - With the new movespeed nerf, you absolutely must get Boots of Travel in order to keep up with an enemy. The farming/escaping/travelling benefits are a plus, as always. Treads r bad.
Linken’s Sphere - The added regeneration is eh, but the stat boost is very useful, and the spell block means that the first targetted spell used after Silence wears off, almost always directed at you, is nullified.
Necromicon - Good on pretty much any INT hero, provided you can micro the demons well. Summon the demons, group them with Silencer, Tab to the orange demon, mana burn, focus fire. Ge this primarily to counter invis heroes or Leoric.
11. Gameplay Walkthrough
If you feel that you have a good sense of lane control (last hits, denying, etc.), ask for solo middle lane. Otherwise, any other lane works fine.
Until you reach level 7, farm like you normally would. Time last hits, taking into account that Silencer’s projectile is a bit on the slow side. Also, for last hits on enemy creeps, or to harass enemy heroes, use “W” and click. Manually casting Glaive will be referred to as W-Click from here on. The damage boost from Glaive is laughable at this point, but you’ll avoid creep aggro from attacking the enemy hero. Once you hit level 5 or so, you should be able to time most enemy creeps with ease using Glaive.
Once you reach level 7, Glaive cooldown is reduced to 0. This is when you begin to play extremely aggressively, abusing attack-animation cancelling to land multiple blows on the enemy.
Important note on attack cancelling here. If you’ll notice when Silencer attacks, and most other heroes too, you’ll notice that his attack is released within the first half of his attack animation. The other half is basically just filler. If you issue another command immediately after he swings, move closer to the enemy hero, and then begin another attack, you can move during the time that you would normally be recovering from your attack. Note that you will not attack faster using this method, but you will be able to move almost immediately after attacking. Given enough practice, you can almost attack while moving. It is an incredibly effective chasing aid, not an IAS booster.
This is pretty difficult to explain, so just watch the replays at 1/2 speed once they reach level 7 and begin to harass for examples.
For harassment purposes, you’ll want to W-click the enemy hero, cancel the animation by moving closer, w-click, cancel/move closer, and so on and so forth. You’ll be able to land multiple blows on the enemy, and perhaps net a kill if he isn’t careful. Of course, if you have a friendly disabler, this is much easier to get kills with. This takes lots of practice if you aren’t already familiar with it, but once you master it you will be a nightmare to face in a lane when using any hero with an Arrow-spell, like Visage, Drow, Clinkz, and especially Viper.
Nortrom can kill enemy heroes at towers with near impunity. Make sure that the enemy tower is busy attacking your creep wave, and that there are at least 2-3 healthy melee creeps left to take damage. Then, quickly run up to the enemy hero, W-Click and animation-cancel to pursure. If you only attack him using Manual Glaives, the tower should ignore you, allowing you to dispatch the enemy hero with ease.
Once you get Mekansm feel free to use it whenever your HP falls by 300 or so. Your mana is pretty much limitless since you aren’t spamming Curse, and Mekansm should cool in time for when you need it. Although fragile early game, you are very hard to kill after you finish Mekansm, which should help if you are ganked.
After you grab the Void Stone turn on Glaives autocast permanently, since your mana should support it now, assuming you don’t attack-move on creeps.
Eul is a universal item, use it to escape, save allies, gank, etc. There’s no need to wait for your cyclones to run out before upgrading, as Guinsoo provides you with Hex, allowing you to utterly destroy any low HP hero. Just Hex and whack away for an easy kill.
If you were the solo hero and did well, you should assume the role of team leader. Once you finish at least Mekansm/Eul, consider calling for a push. Tell your allies beforehand that you’ll use Global Silence when they rush in. Position yourself relatively close to the main fight so that Last Word will trigger, disable a trouble hero, heal allies, and basically just watch as your glaives tear into the enemy heroes. Note that you are a huge target at this point, and your primary role is to stay alive and support allies while dealing out massive damage. You are a leader: act like one.
Remember, Curse is for girly-men. Be a true Elven hockey player, Glaive your enemies to death the old fashioned way.
12. Recommended Allies
Although, in general, Silencer is pretty much self-reliant, he does combo well with many heroes.
Crystal Maiden/Freezing Field:
An insanely powerful combination. Maiden blinks in and Bites any hero with a passive bash, you use Global Silence, and Maiden starts Field. Absolutely devastates the enemy unless they have an item to disable Maiden with, in which case you should wait for a BKB on maiden before attempting this.
Any powerful disable
Allows Nortrom to beat on the enemy with his tremendous DPS. Examples include Net, Frostbite, Shackle, Sprout, and plenty of others. Just experiment and find out what works for you best.
13. Worst Enemies
Lich:
One of the only heroes capable of defeating Silencer 1v1 early game. If you lane against him play very carefully, and consider doing a 3x RoR build to counter nova spam.
Antimage:
Harsh hero to face, especially before you get your Guinsoo’s. Once you have it, though, you should be able to Hex-Kill him, although if he grabs a Linken’s (which smart players will do) you’re pretty much designated as feeder status if you fight him 1v1.
14. Replays
All of these replays will be inhouses with skilled opponents, although some of them are apparently taking lessons from Hans2 on how to play. Well worth the watch if you want to learn how to play many other heroes as well, shouldn’t take you long to identify who is a good player and who isn’t.
Replay 1:
Decent game, although ezy outplays me slightly early game due to host advantage. I terrorize Death Prophet and later Bloodseeker in middle with constant Glaive harassing and denying, and then go on to lead an incredibly powerful AOE team to victory.
Replay 2:
MeR-LiNi plays a tough Silencer, and his build is pretty much identical to mine, so I included it here. He probably plays a better Silencer all-around than I do, so it’s well worth the watch if you want to learn. I play pooogna in this game.
Replay 3:
Another MeR-LiNi replay, his description:
). Expect to see much attack animation canceling to use Glaives of Wisdom to its full potential.His end score is ridiculous, 312835823132-2 or something if I remember correctly. GG-Client 0 lag abuse.
15. Pointless Trivia:
Silencer’s model and glaive animation are based off the Human Spellbreaker from ladder. These mofos were literally spellcaster rapists, as they had complete spell immunity, feedback, and the ability to steal buffs/debuffs and even take control of enemy summons.
Silencer 1.0 was a strange caster hero with a bunch of weird abilities. He had Starfall, a 300 damage AOE nuke that sometimes hit a target once, twice, or never at all FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER. He also had Healing Wave, which was a sexy spell that mass healed nearby allies, and Summon Infernals, which dropped flaming chunks of rock from teh sky to stun j00r enemies. Oh, and some shitty Ultimate that silenced whatever hero you were attacking. Heck, that was the only reason he was called a “Silencer”, and it sucked.
16. Guide Version/Endnotes
I feel that manual-casting Glaives is the key to becoming proficient with Silencer, since once you learn it you can basically outclass the enemy hero with rapid fire Glaive spamming. Practice with animation-cancelling, and you’ll find that your play with many of the other arrow ability heroes will improve as well.
And, if you ever face an enemy Silencer who uses Curse, grab a few Tangoes and laugh while you dispel his Curse every time he tries it on you.
