Spectre is the weakest laner in all of DOTA but is one of the strongest late game carry. Spectre has been receiving buffs last few patches. She has a very low skill requirements as position 1.
Spectre is a weak laner. Even the very best players can expect to lose laning stage for their team roughly more than 50% of the time. Spectre is one of the MOST effective hero in dealing damage with more networth.
A spectre player should be familiar with the following :-
Last hitting: Player should be able to last hit and deny with spectre as she relies only on last hitting to farm early game. Spectre has 46-50 damage at level 1 which is below average so quel blade is must to improve farming. But this meta buy more regen as starting item instead of quel.
Minimap usage: Player should frequently check the minimap for potential kills and team fights.
Using terrain and fog : You should abuse cliffs and trees with spectral dagger to avoid ganks and spell being cast on her. And also learn about juke spots and trees to escape ganks while farming. Always be aware of enemy locations and farm safe. You can also avoid ganks by using haunt as it provides vision and also to jump to a solo enemy to avoid death when being ganked if possible.
Chasing : Spectre can chase well than many heroes due to her skills Haunt and Spectral dagger. Both skills provide vision and the dagger will slow and always provide the current location of the enemy, use this to help supports land skills especially during lanning stage when players often hide in trees. Understanding how far you can chase without being out of position is important and it comes with experience.
DO NOT DIE WITHOUT BUYBACK LATE GAME: Spectre can use Haunt to come back to the fight which lots of time results in her team winning the fight. Most other heroes rely on boots of travel to come back.
When to pick Spectre ?
Laning is the hardest part of playing spectre and she also is bad at pushing without items. As it is a meta of dual lanes, she needs a support with strong zoning potential or healers.
Lion
Crystal Maiden
Jakiro
Shadow Shaman
Healers
Warlock
Dazzle
Witch Doctor
To deal with Spectre you need heros who can deal damage early on like Pugna, Lycan, Timbersaw or farm faster than her like AM and heros that can deal %hp based damage like Necrophos, Zeus,Enigma. She also combos well with heros with global ability like Zeus, Ancient Apparition,Nature's Prophet, Blood Seeker. She also does well when enemy heros are forced to split up like to avoid black hole or echo slam.
Skills
Spectral Dagger
It can be used as both offensive and defensive tool. It allows Spectre to chase enemy heros and deal 240 damage and slow them while increasing her movement speed, allowing her to phase through units and walk on impassable terrain. It also provides vision of the units it hit and the dagger has 200 range flying vision. Use this to walk into trees, cliffs to avoid getting ganked. It can also be used to walk in and out of impassable terrain and use this to deal damage while avoiding being targeted by the enemy during early stages. But be carefull not to walk far away from the trail of the dagger as the phasing effect lingers only 2 seconds outside the trail and you might end up being stuck in the trees or cliffs. It also gives vision of BKB targets. Most of the times its better to max this first cause of the damage and movespeed change. It can also be used to farm creeps from far. Also faster by walking from one jungle camp to another through trees.
Desolate
An incredible ability for laning and damage, desolate makes up much of Spectre's damage output. A second level during laning stage can be considered if you need some help last hitting. You can drag the creep away from others in order to last hit with desolate. Desolate goes through bkb and also the damage is applied even when attacks miss. So every hit is guaranteed to deal 50 pure damage (65 with talent). This damage is done separately as spell damage, so it will be amplified by spell amplification and spell lifesteal. It reduces the enemy vision by 70% for 5 sec which lot of times hinder enemy as they loose vision to chase or cast spells. Illusions can also use this ability. Most of the time this skill is maxed 2nd. Max it first when your lanning stage went well as it improves your damage output for both farming and fighting.
Dispersion
Dispersion effectively increases hp of Spectre by 22% at max level(30% with talent). It grants damage reduction and reflects back the same amount(22%) to each enemy unit within 300 radius and it decreases linearly till 1000 radius. The reflected damage is same type as the source damage and it does not trigger on damage effect. Dispersion should be maxed last cause its percentage based meaning it is more effective when you have more health. Even when you have vangaurd or spirit vessel max it last. But always put 1 skill point in this either at level 2 or level 3 as it provides a little amount of protection during early stages.
Haunt
It creates illusion around each enemy hero that last for 7 seconds at max level or until the target dies. Spectre can use the subaility Reality to exchange places with the illusions. The illusions have 400 movespeed and attack after 1 second of creation and deal 60% damage at max level (100% with talent). It's recommend to only haunt on nearly guaranteed kills during early stages. Be sure to have a TP ready to go right back to farming. Reality has 0 cooldown, so you can spam it to confuse enemy into using skills on the illusion or getting multiple kills across the map. The illusions will also follow invisible or invulnerable units and have unobstructed pathing but they cannot be controlled.
Talents
Level 10 : +15 Desolate Damage / +5 Health Regen
The Desolate damage talent has less pick rate and win rate compared to the health regen talent. The only time not to pick the regen talent is when you make vanguard. The health regen allows us to farm the jungle and also its useful when we make items like blademail, drum for early fighting.
Level 15 : -10s Spectral Dagger Cooldown / +8 All Stats
Both talents have almost same win rate. Always pick the cooldown talent even when you are a bit behind. This is preferred most of the times as you can always farm more items for stats. Pick stats when you are far behind and need little extra boost to survive the teamfights, although you can do the same with the other talent by constantly having unobstructed pathing, to move in and out of fights but it might be harder to execute it.
Level 20 : +20% Spectral Dagger Slow/Bonus / +500 Health
The dagger talent has 2.8% more win rate than the health talent but a very less pick rate of 18%. With the dagger talent you will be at max move speed and at the same time slow enemy by 40% which is a lot. Also with the -10 sec dagger talent you will constantly have the dagger to slow the enemy. As Spectre does not have any disables this helps a lot. On the other hand you have 500 hp which means with her passive she gains 660 hp which is huge. But the downside is you will already have heart or other hp/stat related items like abyssal blade or skadi which will provides both hp/stats and control to pair with your 40% slow. So it is always preferred to pick the dagger talent unless you go diffusal, manta build. Even in that case try getting 40% dagger talent.
Level 25 : +8% Dispersion / +40% Haunt Illusion Damage
Dispersion talent has 2.6% more win rate than illusion damage talent. Here it is better to take dispersion talent as haunt illusions last only for 7 seconds and as you will have items like heart and abyssal, the illusions wont deal that much damage even though they will deal full 100% base damage of Spectre. Only take this talent when you are sure you will win or have items like butterfly, diffusal, manta. Even then its only for 7 seconds and illusions can be destroyed instantly with lots of spells like hex.
Item choices
Starting items
2 set of tangos, 1 mango, stout shield, 1 salve 2 set of tangos, quell blade, stout shield 1 salve, set of tangos, quell blade, stout shield
This meta it is really important to not let your range creeps get denied even though they give less gold/exp compared to previous patches. So its ok to skip salve and mango to get quell blade and get those items later. Remember to have regen items early game so you wont have to leave the lane.
Early game
Ring of Aquila : This is the best early game item present in dota. It provides +3 Strength, +9 Agility, +3 Intelligence, +10 Attack damage and an aura of 0.5 mana regeneration and 2 armor to nearby units. It costs 965 gold. This item is made on all heros including strength and intelligence heros because of what it provides sometimes even when an ally has already made one. It is a must purchase item after the starting items unless you need a wand first. It helps you push the lane as well as provide some amount of mana regen.
Magic wand : It provides +3 Strength, +3 Agility, +3 Intelligence, costs 450 gold to build and gains charges whenever an enemy hero casts spells upto 20 charges. It can restore 300 hp and mana when at max charge. As this meta is of dual lanes you will most of the time gain enough charges to make use of this item.
Boots of Speed : It provides +50 Movement speed and costs 500 gold. You will need this to escape or chase.
Mid Game
Phase boots : It provides +24 Attack damage, +50 Movement speed and costs 1360 gold to build. The active pairs nicely with her dagger and also provides damage which Spectre lacks during early stages of the game.
Power treads : It provides +25 Attack speed, +50 Movement speed and costs 1450 gold. A lot of pro players are making this item as it provides 10 of any one attribute, so depending on the situation they go for the needed attribute. This meta if a team dominates during starting 10-20 min then they are definitely going to win the match. So it becomes really important to not loose during those minutes. This is where those 10 attribute come in handy.
Vanguard : It provides +250 Health, +5.5 Health regeneration and costs 2150 gold. It blocks 70 damage 50% of times. It pairs well with her dispersion. It can later be upgraded to abyssal blade for control. It is recommended to build this item instead of other items like blademail.
Radiance : It provides +65 Attack damage and costs 5150 to build. This is core item for Spectre. Most of the times you should be able to get it by mid-mid game or late mid game. This is Spectre's second power spike after she hits level 6. The burn deals 60 damage (illusions 35 damage) and apply 17% miss chance. With her ultimate she can apply this to all the heros, thus after this item she becomes lot more powerful in teamfights. It also improves Spectre's farming potential. Combined with her dispersion she deals huge amounts of aoe damage to all heros.
Urn of Shadows : It provides +2 Strength, +2 Agility, +2 Intelligence, +2 Armor, +1 Mana regeneration and costs 875 gold. You gain a charge when a enemy heros dies which then can be used to heal self/ally or damage enemy. Make sure there are no multiple urns/vessel in the team as only closest urn/vessel gains charges. It helps you maintain your hp and also to cancel blink daggers during mid game. It can be upgraded to spirit vessel. Most of the times its better to get other items before upgrading to spirit vessel. The heal from urn and +5hp regen talent are enough for Spectre to jungle and participate in teamfights.
Spirit Vessel : It provides +2 Strength, +2 Agility, +2 Intelligence, +250 Health, +2 Armor, +1 Mana regeneration, +30 Movement speed and costs 2975 gold. Build this when there are tanky enemy heros or if you got ally like ancient apparition, witch doctor, oracle or simply if you need more regen and health. It is a great item against heart, satanic as it reduces hp and healing of enemy.
Drum of Endurance : It provides +7 Strength, +3 Agility, +6 Intelligence, +0.75 Mana regeneration and costs 1615 gold to build. It is a early game item which helps in pushing and also provides decent stats. The active can be used in teamfights to gain 35 attack speed and 13% move speed or also to push down towers faster. Be careful not to waste the charges as you will have to buy the recipe again to replenish them.
Blade Mail : It provides +10 Intelligence, +6 Armor, +22 Attack damage and costs 2200 gold. The active returns damage before reductions meaning 100 magic damage spell gets reflected as 100 magic damage. As Spectre has her dispersion she takes reduced damage and even reflect back few more from dispersion to all enemy. It is a great item when there are heavy damage dealers in enemy team like Lina, Phantom assassin. Even if they don't have such kind of heros, this item pairs well with her passive. The downside is it provides poor stats and active is useful only when the enemy is targeting you. They can always stop or switch targets and Spectre cannot force them to target her like Axe.
Late Game
Manta Style : It provides +10 Strength, +26 Agility, +10 Intelligence, +10 Attack speed, +8% Movement speed and costs 4800 to build. The active applies a basic dispel which can be used to remove silence or such other kind of debuffs and it also creates 2 more illusions which deal 33% of her base damage. Also the stats provided by it help Spectre overall with her damage, health and mana pools. With radiance, the illusions can be used to farm faster and push lanes. It combos well with diffusal blade and also her illusions can deal desolate damage.
Abyssal Blade : It provides +10 Strength, +250 Health, +7 Health regeneration, +25 Attack damage and costs 6750 gold. It provides control which Spectre lacks and a bkb pirecing stun. It also includes vanguard as its component, so the damage block carries over. It also has passive bash which goes though bkb. Get this item as either 2nd or 3rd core item unless going for a different build.
Heart of Tarrasque : It provides +45 Strength, +500 Health and costs 5200 gold. It provides huge amounts of hp, 1310 in total and the passive will heal you to full in a few seconds. With her dispersion passive you will be able to survive for a long time and also be able to reflect back lots of damage. As it provides strength, you will also gain 3.6% magic resistance which further improves her survive-ability.
Butterfly : It provides +35 Agility, +30 Attack speed, +25 Attack damage, +35% Evasion and costs 5475 gold. It grants 7 armor, 73.75 attack speed, 2.19% movement speed and 60 attack damage to Spectre. The evasion coupled with her dispersion makes her even more tanky. As it provides lots of agility it helps to improve your illusion damage. It is good luxury item for Spectre. It works well with the diffusal/MoM/Manta build.
Eye of Skadi : It provides +25 Strength, +25 Agility, +25 Intelligence, +225 Health, +250 Mana and costs 5500 gold. It grants 675 health, 2% magic resistance, 5 armor, 31.25 attack speed, 1.56% movement speed and 25 attack damage. It is a luxury item which pairs well with diffusal / butterfly builds. It provides lots of stats and slow which can be applied by illusions. It is recommended to get this item after getting other core items as this only provides few attributes and hp/mana.
Situational items
Mask of Madness : It provides +10 Attack speed, +20 Attack damage and costs 1975 gold. Buy this only if you want to go the MoM->Manta build to deal with heros like Phantom Assassin during mid game. It also provides 15% lifesteal which will help to farm jungle if needed. After using haunt->reality->dagger, Spectre wont mind getting silenced but it will make her fragile. The bonus attack and move speed are enough for her to deal damage and chase enemy down after casting her dagger.
Diffusal Blade : It provides +20 Agility, +10 Intelligence and costs 3150 to build. It burns 50 mana per hit. It effectivly increases Spectre's damage by 60, when the target has mana to burn. The active Inhibit provides 100% slow for 4 seconds which decreases with time. The illusions can also burn 16 mana per hit so it combos well with her haunt and manta style.
Sange and Yasha : It provides +16 Strength, +16 Agility, +16 Attack speed, +16 Attack damage, +16% Movement speed and costs 4300 gold. It is a decent mid game item with good stats, which helps to end games faster when you are already dominating. It can be disassembled to make manta and halberd. The slow offered by maim helps in chasing down enemies. This is a situational item to be made when ahead and in need to end game fast.
Assault Cuirass : It provides +10 Armor, +30 Attack speed and costs 5250 gold. The aura grants 5 armor and 25 attack speed to nearby units and reduces enemy armor by 5. It is a situational item as Spectre being agility hero already gets armor and other items like abyssal blade are much more suited for her. Build this only when your team need it and no else on your team can buy this item.
Nullifier : It provides +5 Health regeneration, +5 Armor, +65 Attack damage and costs 4700 gold. Situational item, make when you need to mute your enemy.
Recommended builds
treads->vanguard->radiance->manta->abyssal->heart->butterfly/skadi
Use this build for most of the matches.
urn->treads->radiance->spirit vessel->manta->abyssal->heart->butterfly/skadi
If getting urn then make sure to take the +5hp regen talent. Can get Spirit vessel before radiance if enemy team has tanky heros like timbersaw or alchemist or some healers or simply if you need more hp.
treads->vanguard/blademail/urn->diffusal->manta->skadi->butterfly->abyssal
You can build 2 items vanguard + blademail/urn. Take +5hp regen and 500 hp talent as you wont be as tanky compared to other builds.
Extra tips
Most will know of combo with zeus and few others. But combo with pocket Riki (aghanim scepter ) is ridiculous. All you have to do is haunt with Riki inside and just spam reality on different heros. This results in the illusions damage + damage from Riki + they cant target you. Lost a match where my team had ageis, cheese, refresher shard but were unable to do anything till haunt ended but till then 3 had already died. This combo will require lots of farm though both on Riki and Spectre to deal enough damage.
You can build MoM + Manta to deal with heros like Phantom assassin, Brewmaster, Enchantress. You should be able to get desolate hits on them for this to work as desolate cannot be evaded and illusions also deal desolate damage. Also this build will make you less tanky and susceptible to burst damage.
