Hero Guide: Jakiro

 Updated: November 6, 2012 (Game Version: 6.75c)

Jakiro is an excellent support at the moment. The biggest issue for most players using him is positioning. His spells are all target-area (versus target-unit).

Personally, I love playing Jakiro. Here is my breakdown:

Overview

Skills

1. Dual Breath
• First slows by 30% (and 20% attack speed slow) for 4 seconds
• 0.3 second delay
• Then 30/70/105/140 Magic Damage + 5/10/15/20 burn damage
• Note: that's +40/+35/+35 damage between levels
• Odd Mechanics
•  Linken's Sphere blocks the slow, but not the damage (good way to pop a Linken's)
• 200 Starting Radius ---> 500 Distance ---> 250 Final Radius ==> Able to hit units 950 distance away!
2. Ice Path
• Travels 1100 distance after 0.5 Second delay
• 100 Magic Damage
• Freezes units in the path for 1 / 1.4 / 1.8 / 2.2 Seconds (basically a stun)
• Leveling benefits:
• Reduces Cooldown (12/11/10/9)
• Increases Duration
• Mana Cost DOES NOT CHANGE (always 90)
• Odd Mechanics
• Triggers Linken's Sphere, but the effect STILL HAPPENS (i.e. win/win)
• However, BKB/Magic Immunity still prevents it
• The 0.5 second delay throws a lot of people off (but the massive 1100 distance makes up for it)
3. Liquid Fire
• Passive Ability
• 20/15/10/5 second cool down
• Deals 10/15/20/25 Magic Damage per second
• Lasts 5 seconds
• 300 AoE
• Reduces enemy attack speed by 20/30/40/50%
• Odd Mechanics:
• Affects units and buildings
• The attack speed reduction affects towers
4. Macropyre
• Deals 100/140/180 Magic Damage per second
• i.e. 700/980/1260 damage over the full duration
• Lasts 7 Seconds
• Can cast from 850 units away, affects a 250 radius, and has a 900 distance
• Massive Mana investment (220/330/440)
• Short cooldown (60 seconds)
• Aghanim's Upgradeable
• Increases Cast Range to 1150 (+300)
• Increases Distance to 1350 (+450)
• Increases Damage to 125/175/225 (+25/+35/+45)
• i.e. 875/1225/1575 (+175/+245/+315) damage over the full duration
• Odd Mechanics:
• Destroys all trees in path

Attributes

• High Base Strength (highest for INT heroes) -- 24
• High Strength Growth -- 2.3
• High Base Intelligence (2nd highest for INT heroes) -- 28
• High Intelligence Growth -- 2.8
• Sub-Par Base Move Speed -- 290
• Sub-Par Range -- 400
• Clunky Attack Animation
• Slow-ish Spell Casts

Build

Skills

There are a lot of ways to build him. 

My preferred/generic is:

• Get Dual Breath & Ice Path maxed out by lvl 8 (i.e. skip your ult), prioritize Ice Path
• Level 9: Either your Ult or Liquid Fire
• Level 10: Get your ult if you haven't
• Level 11+: Max out Liquid Fire & your Ult

Reasoning:

• Early levels of Liquid Fire can accidentally push the lane
• Your ult is a huge mana investment and is hard to hit for the full duration, so I skip it until later
• The exception to this is when you have someone like Enigma or Faceless Void who have ults that allow yours to work better

The Alternative:

• Ice Path
• Dual Breath
• Ice Path
• Liquid Fire
• Ice Path
• Ult/Dual Break

Reasoning:

Liquid Fire can be incredibly useful on its own. As long as you target an enemy hero when its up, you won't risk losing lane control. It's great for pushing if you want to do some early. The slow helps in general as well.

Items

Starting:

• Courier/Wards (150g /200g)
• Tangos (90g)
• Salve (100g)
• 2 x Clarity Potion (50g each)
• 2-3 Iron Branches (53g each)

Early:

• Flying Courier
• Wards/Support Items
• TP Scrolls
• Boots:
• Phase Boots/Tranquil Boots + Soul Ring
• 2nd Support Build. Helps you roam/gank, you're also super slow and have spells that require good position, Soul Ring gives you the mana you need
•  Arcane Boots
• Hard support build
• Magic Wand (always good)

Mid-Late Game/Situational:

• Support items (wards, dust, smoke, etc.)
• TP Scrolls 
• Hard Support
• Mekansm - good for pushing, team fights, etc. Excellent all around
• Second Support
• Force Staff (good for positioning, versatile)
• Rod of Atos (good HP, Good INT, and the slow helps your Ice Path & Macropyre spells)
• Miscellaneous
• Aghanim's (good stats, improves your ult - so long as you're using it well)
• Sheep Stick (kind of a no-brainer)
• Eul's Scepter (move speed buff, good active ability - synergizes with Ice Path, lots of mana regen)
• Drum of Endurance (good stats, the active helps your team, bonus move/attack speed aura)
• Blink Dagger (good for setting up spells, but the money investment is going to be too high unless you're balling out of control)
• Shiva's Guard (active synergizes with your spells, the aura is useful and adds onto your spells that already slow move/attack speed, increases survivability)
• Boots of Travel (if you have a ton of money, it's late game, and you need to be able to quickly get to the lane and push)
• Orchid (odds are you won't pick this up because the attack speed doesn't do much for Jakiro since his Liquid Fire has a cooldown. But, it's good for Silencing - if they have a blink hero or something) 
• Veil of Discord - you have a ton of magic damage, this works well with you
• Pipe - pick if up if they have lots of magic damage

Play Style

• Role
• Support - you can play him as hard support
• Roamer - his skills lend to being good at ganking (lots of slows and stuns)
• Pusher - Liquid Fire is a great pushing spell because it affects towers and units. Dual Breath is also great for pushing. Laying down Macropyre around a tower will deter enemies from trying to defend the tower or deny it.
• Utility - in some cases, you can take on a higher GPM demand and be a very versatile hero doing ganks, pushes, and filling the gaps for your team

• Synergies
• Dual Breath will help land Ice Path, it's also a good follow up to Ice Path so you can chase
• Ice Path works with your Ult
• Miscellaneous Tips
• Ice Path
• Use this to cut off an escape route - their choices become: run back into enemies or get frozen
• Cast this from the trees/fog to hit with ease (it has a huge 1100 distance)
• This pops Linken's and still freezes the enemy
• You make Linken's Sphere carriers cry
• Dual Breath pops Linken's and still damages the holder (but won't slow)
• Ice Path pops Linken's and still freezes them in place
• You're very good at pushing
• Dual Breath takes down creeps fast and makes them attack slower (dealing less damage to your own creeps)
• Liquid Fire works on buildings
• Liquid Fire slows Tower attack speed
• You're good at counter-pushing
• Again, Liquid Fire slows attack speed and damages over time
• Dual Breath rocks creeps
• Macropyre will demolish any push when used correctly
• You're an excellent team fighter
• Liquid Fire slows attack speeds. Try to hit the enemy carry with it to make them useless
• Dual Breath slows move speed and attack speed
• Macropyre will force an enemy to move. You'd be stupid to fight in it because it can deal a Laguna Blade (Lina's ult) worth of damage over time
• Macropyre makes it hard for enemies to defend their tower or push yours