Enshrouded with shadows and the echoes of damned souls, the Defiler is a lover of decay and madness and agony. She draws strength from death around her, and can expel living, suffering shadows from her flesh. Wielding both deadly attacks and an unholy awe that strikes silence into her foes, she truly deserves her vile epithet: "Mistress of the Damned."
Base Attack
Attack Type: RangedAttack Damage: 39-51
Attack Range: 600
Attack/Sec: .67
Detailed Attributes
Movement Speed: 285
Strength per level: 1.8
Agility per level: 1.4
Intelligence per level: 3
Defense Information
Armor: .96
Dmg. Reduction: 5%
Magic Armor: 5.5
Magic Reduction: 25%
| Table of Contents | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Introduction | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spells | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Laning and Gameplay | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Team Fights | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Skill build | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Items | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Tips and Tricks | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Primary Attribute: Intelligence
Role: Pusher/Semi-carry
Strength: 19
Agility: 14
Intelligence: 20
Defiler
Defiler is an awesome hero who usually goes under-appreciated. She has a long AoE silence, a spammable AoE nuke, and an ultimate which deals a ton of damage. Even with all this she is often not seen as a "top pick" but she can still easily dominate the game when played well.
Range: 900
Radius: 200 / 250 / 350
Cast Time: 1.7 seconds
Mana Cost: 80
Cooldown: 14 seconds
Activation
Applies Grave Silence to targets in radius for 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 seconds.
Silences targets.
Strategy: A very useful spell to silence in a large area.
Power in DeathThe Defiler embraces death, increasing the power of her other spells.
3 / 5 / 8 / 10% Movement Speed
Increases movement speed by {2.5,5,7.5,10}%.
Wave of Death:
Decreases cooldown by {1,2,3,4} second(s)
Reduces Mana cost by {5,10,15,20}
Grave Silence:
Decreases cooldown by {0,1,2,3} seconds
Unholy Expulsion:
Adds {1,2,3,4} spirits to level 1 Unholy Expulsion
Adds {1,3,4,6} spirits to level 2 Unholy Expulsion
Adds {0,2,4,7} spirits to level 3 Unholy Expulsion
Strategy: A passive skill that improves every other spell and movement speed.
Unholy Expulsion
The Defiler expels several invulnerable spirits from her form. The spirits may not be directly controlled but will attack nearby enemies and will attack any unit that the Defiler directly attacks. When Unholy Expulsion ends, the spirits will heal the Defiler.Defiler is an awesome hero who usually goes under-appreciated. She has a long AoE silence, a spammable AoE nuke, and an ultimate which deals a ton of damage. Even with all this she is often not seen as a "top pick" but she can still easily dominate the game when played well.
Defiler's Role
Defiler is one of the few intelligence heroes who can be considered a semi-carry because of her Unholy Expulsion ability. This ability is also extremely useful as a pushing ability and it will take towers down very fast. Even though Defiler is considered a semi-carry she doesn't build the same way as the conventional carry, stacking damage items. Instead she should have items that will allow her to tank more so her ultimate can do most of the damage.
Grave Silence
The Defiler forces images of slain warriors into the minds of her foes, commanding a moment of silence which prevents them from casting spells or using abilities.Defiler is one of the few intelligence heroes who can be considered a semi-carry because of her Unholy Expulsion ability. This ability is also extremely useful as a pushing ability and it will take towers down very fast. Even though Defiler is considered a semi-carry she doesn't build the same way as the conventional carry, stacking damage items. Instead she should have items that will allow her to tank more so her ultimate can do most of the damage.
Range: 900
Radius: 200 / 250 / 350
Cast Time: 1.7 seconds
Mana Cost: 80
Cooldown: 14 seconds
Activation
Applies Grave Silence to targets in radius for 3 / 4 / 5 / 6 seconds.
Silences targets.
Strategy: A very useful spell to silence in a large area.
3 / 5 / 8 / 10% Movement Speed
Increases movement speed by {2.5,5,7.5,10}%.
Wave of Death:
Decreases cooldown by {1,2,3,4} second(s)
Reduces Mana cost by {5,10,15,20}
Grave Silence:
Decreases cooldown by {0,1,2,3} seconds
Unholy Expulsion:
Adds {1,2,3,4} spirits to level 1 Unholy Expulsion
Adds {1,3,4,6} spirits to level 2 Unholy Expulsion
Adds {0,2,4,7} spirits to level 3 Unholy Expulsion
Strategy: A passive skill that improves every other spell and movement speed.
Mana Cost: 200 / 300 / 400
Cooldown: 100 seconds
Activation
Spawns several spirits for 30 seconds that will attack nearby enemies, or will attack one target if you attack that target directly. Upon completion, the spirits will return to you and heal you for 25% of the damage they dealt, for a maximum of 1000 Health heal.
Spawns {5,10,16} spirits.
Strategy: Defiler's strongest ability, they will attack random targets until you attack something, then your spirits will all attack that target.
Defiler is one of the strongest middle heroes. If she quickly levels up she can easily control the lane with her Wave of Death. Once she has her ultimate ability it is really hard to stay in a battle with her and she can push a tower really fast. When possible, Defiler should be solo middle. She could also solo other lanes, but middle is the easiest to push down early as a solo. Defiler can lane but she will be weaker in the later stages of the game. If Defiler is not soloing she should lane with a support hero so she can get the farm or a heavy harasser.
Potential Laning Partners
Laning Phase
Harass really fast with Wave of Death to quickly get creep kills and force the enemy back at the same time, even at level one. Defiler is not the greatest ganking hero so it is okay to focus on taking down middle tower really fast. If you get gold quickly you can use a courier to bring a Bottle or Blood Chalice to help you stay in the lane. If you have Bottle and rune control you can kill the tower by level 6-7. After this you can decide if you want to continue pushing (ganks will be coming if you do so) or help other lanes.
Mid-Game
It is easier for Defiler to win in Mid-game then late game. She needs to push towers early so everyone can quickly get their items and push down a barracks. Whenever her Unholy Expulsion is not on cooldown look to push down a tower or set up a fast gank. Her ultimate will deal a huge amount of damage to a hero if they are disabled for only a couple of seconds.
Late Game
It'll probably be too late to push towers down at this point but Defiler is still a useful hero. By this time she should have some tanking items so she can live in team battles. With her silence she can shut down at least 3 heroes for a while and focus down a target fast.
As I've already said Defiler is a tanking hero. This is because her Unholy Expulsion is a high damage spell that still does damage while disabled. Because of this, teams will most likely focus fire Defiler. Having tank items and good support will allow you to live longer and kill the enemy team.
| Skill Order | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Wave of Death | 1 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
 Power in Death | 2 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wave of Death | 3 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Power in Death | 4 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wave of Death | 5 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
 Unholy Expulsion | 6 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Wave in Death
Grave Silence Power in Death Power in Death Unholy Expulsion Grave Silence Grave Silence Grave Silence
Stats Unholy ExpulsionWave of Death is an obvious first skill up. It has very good range, good damage, and a low cooldown. Power in Death is usually taken over Grave Silence early since it will help with your Wave of Death and early pushing. The images on the right represent what I build.
Grave Silence Level 8!?
Grave Silence is a really good spell in the right situations - and these situations rarely come up early game. In order to justify skilling Grave Silence at level 2 you must be against a hero that it would be useful for. If you are not in a solo lane I would suggest picking it up at level 2. If you are in a solo lane in most cases I would hold off until level 8 or even 10. Power in Death gives you that extra movement speed, reduced mana cost on Wave, and extra spirits on your ultimate. With this extra boost of abilities, Power in Death will allow you to easily control the lane and kill the tower once level 6 or 7.
Starting items
Fast Blood Chalice Build
2x
1x
1x
1x
1x
Alternate Builds
3x
5x3x
1x 1x
1x3x
1x 1xYou'll want some stats to improve your last hitting ability and health regen to stay in the lane.
First Items to get
Bottle and Blood Chalice are a good combination for middle and Defiler since she requires a lot of mana. Ghost Marchers are a good pick since she will be attacking a hero to make her Unholy Expulsion focus a target. Power in Death also scales well with extra movement speed so she will be very fast.
Mid-Game Items
Power Supply isn't needed if you have Bottle.
Good against Magic heavy teams.
Sacrificial Stone should only be picked up early in the game, otherwise it isn't worth it.
Late Game Items
Behemoth's Heart really should be built every game as the cooldown decrease is made for Defiler.
Demonic is good against physical damage teams and helps your ultimate.
Situational Items
Extra armor and an AoE slow.
An added disable.
Good against teams with invisibility, still a good pick-up either way.
Tips and Tricks with Defiler
Wave of Death
An easy way to clear a creep wave is to hit the ranged creep once and attack a melee one until its low and then use Wave of Death. This ensures 2 or more creep kills and will push a lane very fast. If you manage to do this and hit an enemy hero consistently you will be putting an enormous amount of pressure on him and he will be forced to play defensively. By doing this you will be able to control runes and push towers easily while maintaining a good creep score.
Understanding the Range
The range listed on the spell is 600 but that is very inaccurate. The actual spell range is closer to 1000. As we can see it can out-range Nymphora's Zeal which has a range of 900 (currently). This is useful to note while laning so you can always hit the enemy with your Wave of Death. The 600 range refers to the distance you can click to cast. You can click the spell and click 600 units away and it will extend to around 1000.
The High Damage of Wave
Wave of death does a lot of damage. If we compare it to similar spells it actually does the most and has a lower cooldown. Wave of Death will do more damage than Soulstealer's Demon Hand and Polywog's Electric Jolt at levels 1-3 and the same at level 4. It also does more then Pyromancer's Phoenix Wave and Wretched Hag's Sonar Scream. Wave of Death is better then all of these skills even if they do the same damage eventually because it has a much longer range and the cooldown will eventually be 5 seconds.
Grave Silence
When to Use Silence
Silence should be used early in a fight and take out key heroes. It can be used to silence 3 heroes fairly easy since the radius is so large. Because the cooldown is so short you will be able to silence multiple times in a fight.
Unholy Expulsion
Physical Damage
It doesn't say anywhere in the spell but the damage dealt is physical. It will go through Shrunken Head and be affected by armor buffs and debuffs.
How to Use Unholy Expulsion
Your spirits will attack randomly until you focus a target. You can still focus a target will stunned or disabled. So if Polywog Tongue Tied you and you right click him your spirits will focus on him even if you aren't actually attacking. In the same way you can outrange a tower and attack it with your spirits while not being hit. If you right click to attack it and move back your spirits will go and attack it. This also works for heroes but they will most likely move away.
Invisibility and Unholy Expulsion
Defiler's Ultimate will work through invisibility and attack random targets, which is why sometimes you will see Defilers build an Assassin's Shroud. I wouldn't recommend this build because the damage is much better focused while attacking and you can buy a useful item instead. In some situations it can be useful if you have an invisibility rune as well.
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