Guide to Visage mid


Visage received an incredible buff in 6.84:

  • Familiars now require 4 hero attacks to be killed (creeps/illusions do 1/4 damage, towers do 1/2)

In other words: His familiars were no longer affected by physical AOE. A huge number of abilities, including Axe's Counter Helix, Bristleback's Quill Spray, Queen of Pain's Sonic Wave and Dazzle's Shadow Wave did absolutely no damage to them. This made him a really strong hero, arguably not as strong as he was during his peak, The International 3 and the autumn of 2013, but strong enough to become a top pick in competitive games again. The amount of attacks required to kill a familiar has since been nerfed to 3 attacks (6.84b) and some of his synergy with Drow has been taken away (6.84c). Especially the 6.84b change affects him a lot and means that ranged heroes with high attack speed can now pick off the familiars with relative ease but he should remain a good hero for competitive. As for pubs he is the least played hero, partly due to the amount of micro required to play him and partly due to him being considered a support. People tend to stay away from heroes that require micro and even more so if those heroes are supports. What most people don't know is that he can fulfill other roles too. Middle lane, for instance, is a really good place for him. The thing he needs more than anything is level 6. Being mid allows him to get that much, much faster than if he was support. Thanks to his familiars he doesn't scale that bad with items either.

I used to play him as support every game. After 800 games I eventually got tired of it. The majority of pub players don't realize the strengths of the hero. They think you are a ward bitch. That you do no damage and thus need no items. They don't care if you don't get level 6 before 15 minutes into the game. That's when I decided to play him mid instead. Initially I did it on my smurf, as I didn't wanna risk losing too much rating on my main account. That concern turned out to be totally superflous. I ended up winning 28 games in a row and still haven't lost by the time I am writing this (mmr gone up from 3.8k to 4.5k). I now try to play him mid whenever possible on my main account as well. Some people requested a guide. Here it is. It turned out to focus more on the general aspects of the hero and not just what goes on in the middle lane. After all games are rarely won in the laning phase. Mid allows you to get a quick level 6 and play the hero in a completely different way than you would if you were supporting, but the core mechanics are the same. Bear in mind that this guide is a work in a progress so I will probably revise it and add more content in the future.


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Before the game

Make sure to inform your team that you are going Visage mid. In the far majority of cases you will be flamed. Shrug it off, knowing it will soon turn into praise. However, there's also a slight chance that someone will actually believe in you and pick safelane. If you like 20 minute wins where you don't have to do anything but right click buildings with familiars, then that is a chance you must pursue.

Your hero is a machine gun. A nuke that does 410 magical damage every 4 seconds. Familiars that deal 2088 physical damage at max level. But you need to make sure that the enemy doesn't just run away. Stuns are your best friend. Tell your team to pick plenty of stuns. If your team has no reliable stuns and the enemy team has heroes such as , and , then Visage is probably not a good pick. Apart from , heroes that synergize with Visage are (Howl), (BoT to familiars), , and (Minus armor).




Item Build



Starting build consists of and . These should be pretty self-explanatory. Once you get the gold, grab 2x and start working towards as well as . The tranquils provide you with some much needed regen and the extra movements speed is essential for ganking. With these you can catch up on any lone support, use grave chill and right click him down with familiars. The basi is optional and can be skipped if mid is not going too well and you cannot afford it. I would not recommend buying . Reason: Visage has no wave-clear and can rarely go for runes. He doesn't really need mana in the early laning stage either, only when using Grave Chill which is cheap in mana-cost anyway. After tranquils you should work towards . This should be acquired before the 10 minute mark and will make your familiars hit a lot harder. You can manfight anyone on the map pre 10-minutes with this item and familiars. Grave chill that poor level 4 enemy Rubick, use medallion, right click with familiars and watch him go down in a matter of seconds. The mana-regen is also fantastic. Tip: Use medallion on allied creep when pushing to strengthen the push. The next item should be a.k.a. Super Medallion. Can be used on enemies to make them melt in seconds or save an ally that is being focused. I usually get it between 12 and 18 minutes. If you for some reason really need the hp from a , if you are really far behind on farm or if there's a Drow on your team, then you can go straight instead. Aghs should always be the second major item anyway. The benefits of having an extra bird and are too good to ignore. I usually get my aghs between 18 and 25 minutes. You do not want to delay this item beyond the 30 minute mark. Late game options are:

Really good item if your team is far ahead and you need extra control. Can make you snowball even harder. If game is close, do not buy it.

Solid choice always. The aura is great for your birds and helps your team a lot. Can be a potentially game-winning item in close games, especially if your team has a lot of physical damage.

More birds are always good. It means you can resummon the birds 2 times in a fight. Get it for a potential 6264 physical damage and 13.5 sec chain stun or just to counter that annoying Gyro that keeps flak cannoning down your birds in every fight. Remember: Without birds you are useless and should not be taking any fights.

More control is always good. Sometimes you just need an item like this to get in any bird damage on an enemy. Late game Gyro/Medusa will kill your birds with Flak/Split Shot before they can get close and Weaver/Storm/Slark etc. will just kite the birds around.

Great if that enemy Lina keeps Laguna Blading you.

Situational. The minus armor from this synergizes well with birds. Get it if you are snowballing, as an offensive alternative to AC.

Situational. Can be a solid pickup against spell-heavy lineups. Pop it on your carry together with Solar Crest and he is literally unkillable.




Skill Build




Grave Chill at level 1 is essential for securing last hits/denies and trading harass. Skill this first unless you get into a 0:00 rune clash in which case it might be better to pick up Soul Assumption. At level 2 you should get a single point in your passive, Gravekeeper's Cloak. This helps you when trading harass. After that you really want to max out your nuke, Soul Assumption. The nuke is incredibely powerful when maxed out but don't expect to use it before you start ganking as you will rarely get enough charges to use it lane. It does make sure that the enemy mid can't just manfight you though and it does make you harder to gank. If you feel like the game is gonna be really passive and don't want to roam around the map and gank maxing Grave Chill first can be a valid option as it helps you secure lane dominance and speeds up your farming of neutral camps. You can also skip the early point in Gravekeeper's Cloak for a second point in Grave Chill if you want.



Early game


Your number one goal is to get lvl 6 as quickly as possible so that you can start ganking. Winning the lane is not important. Use Grave Chill to harass the enemy and secure last hits/denies. Be wary of ganks. Visage is squishy without points in cloak and has no escape. One death can majorly set back your level 6 timing. You have no wave-clear so you generally can't go for runes. Ferry in any regen you may need and try to get your Tranquil Boots up before you hit level 6. Once level 6 you should go for your first gank. The target should be the enemy safelane. Go back to the fountain first if neccesary and smoke up. Smoke allows you to slip past the enemy rune/lane-ward. Important: Your hero must go first. If an enemy sees the birds he will just run away before you can get in range for Grave Chill. Once you spot a target with no escape: Use Grave Chill, switch to birds, right click target with birds, switch back to hero, use Soul Assumption. Target should be dead. You generally shouldn't even need to stun with the birds, unless an actual fight breaks out.

Now you can keep applying pressure to the enemy safelane or go back to mid and farm up your Medallion. Recognize that you are extremely strong at this point and can take down either of the enemy supports or perhaps even the enemy carry on your own. Visage should farm heroes, not creeps. The obvious exception would be if you have a very greedy lineup, e.g. Enigma jungle and Anti-mage safelane. In a game like that it might be better to just chill, using familiars to comfortably farm the middle lane and clearing jungle camps with them whenever the lane is pushed. Midas is not a bad option in such a situation. Do not split push with familiars unless you have a resummon ready. This applies in all stages of the game. You want to have them ready for fights and for when the enemy tries to gank you. In the majority games you should be grouping up with your team and start pushing towers. Visage is so much stronger at deathballing than he is at farming.



Teamfights

Make sure that your team does not take any of these if you don't have your birds available. When they are available and your team gets into one, your priority usually goes like this:

  • Identify a target. Your single-target damage output is huge, so don't be afraid to pick a strong target like the enemy carry.
  • Debuff the target with Grave Chill/Medallion/Solar Crest. You can queue these so no need to be in range.
  • Switch to birds, issue an attack-command on the target with them.
  • Switch back to Visage.
  • Keep an eye on two things. The HP bar of your birds and the number of souls you have.
  • Are the birds being focused? If so, switch back to them and drop them immediately. If not, let them reach the target and wait two or three seconds till they have unloaded all of their damage.
  • Do you have 6 souls? If so, use Soul Assumption on the target.
  • Once the birds have unloaded their damage, switch to them and fly them to a good spot with several enemy heroes in range, if possible.
  • Use Stone Form. If you manage to hit two or three enemies with it then that's great. If you only manage to hit one then it's still good.
  • Wait 1 second, switch to the next bird, use Stone Form again. If Stone Form is binded to your Q it goes like this: Q-TAB-Q-TAB-Q. Just like chaining Earthbinds with Meepo. Do not drop them all at once.
  • Switch back to Visage, use Soul Assumption and refresh Grave Chill/Solar Crest.
  • Breathe for a moment and consider how the fight is going. Is it still close? Is there some enemy hero nearby that just has to die? Has the enemy Slark jumped on you with his Silver Edge and is now tearing you apart?
  • If you can answer yes to any of those questions resummon your birds and repeat the process.

At any time, if you are being focused, don't be afraid to resummon the birds. You obviously can't resummon them when you are dead anyway so might as well do everything to make sure that you stay alive, even if it means using your most valuable ability early in the fight and not getting the full impact from the previous set of birds.


Mistakes

The top mistakes new (and experienced) Visage players make are:

  • Dropping birds immediately. Half of your birds potential comes from their insane amount of damage. If you drop them immediately you completely miss out on this damage.
  • Dropping all birds simultaneously. This way you only get 1.5 seconds stun duration while you could be getting 4.5 seconds.
  • Using level 4 Soul Assumption when you have less than 3 charges. Simply a waste of mana.
  • Having birds farm a lane on the other side of the map with no resummon available. This can only be justified if you know for a fact that a fight won't break out due to having full vision of the enemy, if you rely on splitpush to win the game or if you are doing a global strat with Tinker, Furion, Spectre etc.
  • Using resummon too liberally/prematurely, e.g. just because you hit level 11 and got your birds to level 2. Having a resummon is incredibely important in fights.
  • Positioning. As with any hero, positioning is important. A common mistake that even pro players make is to walk into the fight with Visage himself. You may have 50 armor with your passive maxed but those charges run out quickly, you pretty much never build BKB and your base magic resistance is only 10%. So it's a good idea to keep him at the edge of the fight when possible. It really comes down to how much time you want to spend on controlling your hero as opposed to controlling your birds. You want to find a balance and not abandon either completely.



A note about Drow

If you manage to somehow get a Drow Ranger on your team there are couple of things you should do different. First of all you should definitely go Aghanim's Scepter before Solar Crest. Reason: You should be pushing towers, not farming heroes. For the purpose of pushing Aghanim's Scepter trumps every other item, including Solar Crest. You can still get an early Medallion to secure Roshan though. Once drow is 7 and has maxed out aura, make her smoke into Roshan with you. Roshan is an incredibely easy kill with Drow aura, Medallion and birds. Give Drow aegis and push. As of 6.84c, your familiars no longer benefit from being with Drow as much as possible. A major nerf to this strategy, although it is still very viable if you treat Drow's aura like Razor's Eye of the Storm and only push or fight when it is up. Communication is key now. Drow must tell everyone when the aura is up and you must tell Drow at which point she should activate it.



Roshan goes down in less than 15 seconds if Drow has maxed aura, bought Mask of Madness and Visage has a medallion.



Hotkeys

All you need is a hotkey to select Visage + birds, a hotkey to select Visage himself and a hotkey to select birds only. Don't let people tell you otherwise. You don't need to micro birds individually, very few people do that and it takes a lot of extra effort for almost no benefit. Only situations where it can be useful is for scouting Roshan, stacking camps and cutting your losses when your birds get caught out. In fights you certainly don't wanna be doing it. Use TAB instead to switch between birds while having them all selected. You can put Soul Assumption on quickcast and shift-queue Medallion/Grave Chill to give yourself more time for microing.