Hero Guide: Visage

Visage is a micro intensive hero. Typically you will find him being played as a Support at the Pro level. His forte is Trilane vs. Trilane play because his ability "Soul Assumption" will gain charges much faster, making him more lethal.

In match making, he makes for a decent semi-carry and pusher.

Pro Players

If you're looking for some Pro Replays of Visage, here are some to check out:

• Kaipi - ComeWithMe
• LGD - DDC
• Liquid - FLUFFNSTUFF
• Vici Gaming - Fenrir

Skills

Overview

• Grave Chill
• Function
• Gives you 64% Attack Speed & 32% Move Speed
• Reduces target's 64% Attack Speed & 32% Move Speed
• Leveling
• Pros: Increases Duration (+1 sec/level)
• Cons: Increases Mana Cost (+10/level)
• Soul Assumption
• Function
• Powerful Nuke on a Low Cooldown (when charged)
• Gains charges when nearby heroes (allied or enemy) take damage (every 110 damage)
• Leveling
• Pros: Decreases Mana Cost (-10/level), Increases Max Charges (+1/level)
• Cons: N/A
• Gravekeeper's Cloak
• Function
• Gives you 4 layers of Armor & Magic Armor
• Taking damage (>2 from player owned source & not self-inflicted) temporarily removes a layer
• Leveling
• Pros: +1/2/1 Armor per Level, +3%/6%/4% Magic Resist per Level, -2 Recover Time per Level
  
• Cons: N/A
• Summon Familiars
• Function
• Free moving minions
• Deal damage that decreases per attack (can be restored by turning them to Stone Form)
• Able to stun when shifting into Stone Form
• Have massive gold bounty of 100g for whoever kills them
• Leveling
• Pros: +150 HP/level, +1 Armor/level, +10 Move Speed/level, +42/56 Max Bonus Damage/level, -20 Seconds on Cooldown/level
• Cons: N/A 

Builds

Your build will change based on how your team is playing. However, you're generally going to emphasize levels on Soul Assumption.

My personal favorite (general build):

1. Grave Chill
2. Soul Assumption
3. Soul Assumption
4. Gravekeeper's Cloak
5. Soul Assumption
6. Summon Familiars
7. Soul Assumption
8. Grave Chill / Gravekeeper's Cloak

My reasoning is that Soul Assumption is by far your best early game ability. When fully charged and levels, you're doing about 400 Magic Damage EVERY 4 SECONDS.

Leveling Grave Chill is good, but the mana cost becomes very intensive for only an additional second of slow at each level.

Gravekeeper's Cloak is pretty powerful as well, but it's also very defensive. At level 8, you'll have to decide what you need more: survivability or aggression.

Items

Boots

There are really a lot of good choices for Visage.

• Arcane Boots - good for support and mana intensive teams
• Tranquil Boots - good early game and can be disassembled and put to use in Ring of Basilius and Mek/Pipe
• Phase Boots - good for semi-carry builds; the damage synergizes with Grave Chill and allows you to catch targets to place Grave Chill on
• Power Treads - gives you survivability and adaptability, both are great for Visage

Support

Visage is great for carrying items that help with team survivability. The longer he sticks around in battle, the more Soul Assumptions he can get off. Some options are:

• Mekansm - survivability, good overall support item, can build out of Tranquil Boots, and helps your Familiars sometimes
• Pipe - survivability, good support item
• Rod of Atos - Visage can use all the stats it gives because he benefits from Tankiness, Mana Pool, and the active isn't bad either
• Heaven's Halberd - gives you a lot of extra HP, a chance to slow on attack, and a huge amount of Evasion, allowing you to stay in battle longer and get more Soul Assumptions off. The active ability Disarms targets, which is huge after the enemy carry has used BKB.
• Scythe of Vyse - if you're able to get it, Scythe (a.k.a. Sheep Stick) is always a great pickup.

 Semi-Carry

If you snowball, Visage can turn into a monster at mid game. His familiars help him push and DPS, and Grave Chill also aids in DPS & Teamfighting.

• Desolater - the armor debuff helps with pushing as well as giving your Familiars additional DPS if they target the same hero as you

Utility

• Aghanim's Scepter - if you can handle the additional responsibility, Aghs is excellent in terms of Stats and DPS. However, you can also feed an extra Familiar if you mess up
• Necronomicon - gives you a lot of stats that you need. The Warriors also help with pushing, team fights, chasing, and at level 3 have detection.
• Orchid - gives you a lot of DPS and regen, as well as a 5 second Silence that increases damage taken by 30%. This can be a pretty huge pickup against heroes that can blink away (e.g. Anti-Mage, Queen of Pain). The bonus damage is no joke either.
• Shiva's Guard - the armor is useful, as is the bonus INT. The active ability can be used in a lot of ways. Also, given Visage's natural durability from Gravekeeper's Cloak, he can keep the aura going for a while in a fight.

Playstyle

Role

• Generally Support (Aggressive at that)
• You can Semi-Carry (he can snowball pretty hard in early/mid game)
• Fairly low item dependence
• Decent Pusher

Laning

• Very good for aggressive lanes because of how quickly Soul Assumption charges up
• His forte is Trilane vs. Trilane
• Grave Chill is a pretty cheap slow and somewhat spammable

Miscellaneous

• Familiars can be used to pick off heroes, or push towers
• Familiars need some set-up to easily hit their stun (e.g. Grave Chill)
• Be very careful with Familiars because they can quickly turn into 100g bonuses for your opponent
• I've found binding all your Familiars to one hotkey works best. Use [TAB] to cycle through them (needed so you can recharge their auto attack damage or chain stun)
• I tend to leave the familiars off to the side (e.g. in the trees bordering the map) so they don't get picked off and can quickly pop out to surprise an opponent with extra DPS and stuns