My Riki guide from 1k to 2.5k

I guess a page 2 to my CK guide about 4 months ago.

My games so far: here

When to pick:

I'd advice against first pick, but I did first pick in these matches or at least most of them. Also I tried this on a party game and it turned out super shit thanks to enemy just not being dumb enough and kept me at bay the entire game. Always sticking together and what not.

Usual enemy counters to your first pick:

• Bounty Hunter/Slardar, This will be the #1 counter pick on the enemy team. Core or support it doesn't really matter to you. BH is a counter to Riki but he doesn't shut you down as a hero, especially with the amazing change to his ult. The only real thing keeping you from winning against a BH is if you're always off position and farming dangerously. You can always get linkens if that's your play "Living dangerously". To be honest he's not an issue after a point in a game, You kill him morethan he kills you in every sense of the phrase. You're permanently invisible while he still needs to go in and out periodically making him easier to track and kill. You have a silence preventing this BH from hiding or just buy dust and use it before ulting and you pretty much win. For Slardar, just smoke, and he's pretty much useless. He doesn't hit fast + misses = kiss that bash good bye, his ult is basically the same as track so nothing much to add here.
• Bloodseeker, This hero is a piece of work. Early game if you're laning against this you will lose most likely, at least the laning stage. BS just has a great kit against you early, preventing you from last hitting by denying out right, and punishing you each time you even decide to try and get a last hit. One thing riki doesn't have is allot of HP and BS loves heroes who get low fast. The passive revealing you is the least of your problems when he can pretty much right click you early on just for being low HP(which he hill constantly try to harass you as he has infinate regen basically). There is hope though, notice I only said early game. All you need to get your ass back up is lvl 6 and a diffusal blade, after that the BS can either try to kill you and fail everytime or just avoid you for the rest of the game. Why? Because of riki's ult. You can't kill what you can't hit. BS's general play is ULT, Blood rite, run in for the kill. You have 2 options during this, try to run or try to fight it. You run, just TP out and hope you have enough HP to survive. You fight, pop smoke(+if in range diffusal) then ult there is enough time for you to do that before rite hits and 8/10 that BS will be inside the smoke by the time you pop ult giving you that nice slow and more hits from your ult. Since the BS has his blood rage 100% of the time when doing this, he's practically killing himself trying to kill you. The only real issue here is if the BS is smart and tries to fake it or doesn't go right in knowing full well how your skills work. When that happens (basically missing your ult and smoke not hitting anything). Wait for your ult to finish, don't cancel it prematurely buy as much time as possible so that you can dodge the rite as well as keep the BS at bay, now if you were smart you'd always have a TP when against a BS that means you can still run. Depending on how the game is if you're stronger then feel free to fight BS under a smoke. It really just comes down to who's wiser and doesn't do the wrong play.
• Zeus, this is pretty straight forward. You're riki, you have no HP and zues likes that. In the long run you kill him morethan he kills you but still pretty annoying to have an enemy that pretty much has a dust built into his skills during small clashes. You can always go for him first during teamfights and just fuck him up thanks to your blink talent so not much of an issue.
• A GEM, for obvious reasons. The first moment you see a gem on the enemy, you have 1 job. We both know what that job is right? Kill the holder. After that just leave it at base. More often than not you won't need the gem. It's more of a loss if you lose the gem than if you had it most of the time. But don't hesitate to use or get one if the game really calls for it. No one else is better at carrying a gem on your team than you or a tank.

Item Outline:

Start off with an orb of venom, stout, and tangoes. If nobody buys the cour early replace that orb with a quelling and buy the cour and then get the orb. Why orb of venom? The slow it gives on top of your lvl 1 smoke is the same as a lvl 3 smoke, so great value. Keep this item until you really need the space. After that the usual build goes getting quelling since you'll be farming as well as just getting wards if your lane is warded.(use the creep agro) ^(in case you don't know what creep agro is: just issue an attack on an enemy hero while being close to enemy creeps, if the creeps go to you then it's obviously warded.)

Boots of choice are either treads or phase, I used both and started preferring phase for the damage and extra speed for catching up to people who are barely alive after my combo. You won't really benefit much from atk speed since you just ult for damage anyway.

Your general play here would be just to farm diffusal or like a core instead of being a roamer, since that rarely works in this bracket. Of course if a kill puts itself in front of you just get it with a quick combo blink, diffusal,smoke, ult and that's pretty much a free kill everytime. Simple enough right? The problem is that trick wont work for long, the enemy will start buying manta,BKB, or forcestaff. Remember your main play here is keeping them inside your ult so anything that can get them out is bad.

Now if you noticed things that counter your offense are items, good for you that nullifier now exists right? That's your next item. A smoke and a nullifier is a guaranteed kill everytime. So get that after diffusal.

I'd also like to add that a blink is nice to have but I never really personally used it except once. It offers great escape after a kill since you can just blink out after tricks of the trade or if the enemy has linkens so use that for closing the distance, feel free to get it if that's your playstyle. I only really used it once to try it since I always chose my kills carefully and a rule to only kill if they're alone or with 1 support that I can handle.

You can get abysal/basher after that if you really need it but you generally wont overall. I personally think nullifier is a better value than getting a basher first/completing abysal you can do what you want here though, just personal preference.

After that I just get damage items, that's the thing with riki now. DPS is all that matters, since you don't really get hit in fights anymore. Just blink and ult most of the time. Dae is a pretty good pick up, MKB not bad either, butterfly for last after you get either of the first 2. Butterfly gives less dps over all and doesn't really contribute much to your ult compared to Dae and MKB.

Linkens is a good situational item, getting silenced is one thing you don't want. If you're playing against heroes that carry orchid be sure to give some attention to linkens, that item can literally turn a fight that you were about to die into them dying instead since you'd be able to smoke+null+ult while they sit there regretting their decision.

Gem? I've never gotten an experience where I needed one but I know there will be games, so think about it carefully before getting one. 1 item can screw you over just as much as it does the enemy.

Skill Build up:

Nothing much here, we all know how to play riki right? Just in case... Get 3rd first everytime, get at least 1 on smoke and blink at lvl 3. Max 3rd every single time first, no reason for you to get any other skill maxed out first. Second to max would be Blink third Smoke and ult when you can.

• Now for the talents.LVL 10 this depends on the game, I've used both. +8 agi isn't a bad thing just extra stats and damage etc, the +5 regen however is a great thing to have for a core riki. Since you can't farm for shit and farming in lane is "living dangerously" that 5 regen will help allot in the jungle fairly early on. It just helps you secure farm safely in the jungle is all.
• LVL 15 always get crit, I have yet to find a situation where I needed the smoke CD.
• LVL 20 +900 blink, that talent is just godly. The backstab is pretty useless in every situation while that blink range will just let you get into the back line supports easier without blink dagger. This can also save your ass if you blink out to a creep which is why I never get blink dagger. By the time you finish ulting you'd also have Blink off CD so you can easily get in and out.
• LVL 25 do what you want, both are pretty good. +400 aoe just makes it so nobody gets out of that ult no matter what, not that they can get out with your null and smoke active. It also makes as a good CC for your team, 9/10 the enemy team will instinctively run away from it for some reason even though it only hits 1 of them at a time giving your team a good way to go in for the kill while they're preoccupied running. Permanent Invis is just straight up fun lol. They can ward all the want but the entire map will never get warded.

Laning:

Lane will be grueling and hard, just get as much as you can without risking your ass. It rarely matters if you get that Diffusal at 10 or 15mins as long as you get it you can easily catch up with kills.

After you do get diffusal it gets fun, find lone support or cores and just kill them, it's always a guaranteed kill as long as they're not too tanky or have allies around. Just keep doing this and farming the enemy jungle while roaming their jungle, this is why the hp regen talent was so good for me.

Sooner or later they'll start to get items to counter you so you should've been saving money to buy that nullifier by now, after that just rinse and repeat again. Also learn to ward for yourself, wards are the bane of your existence. Just ward the area you're roaming blue and yellow and deward any you find.

It's only a matter of time before your team catches up starts pushing meanwhile the enemy is demoralized from constant deaths, all that's left is to end the game.

Final words:

I never mention item timings on this guide or any kind of timings at all, since it doesn't matter as long as you still haven't lost. Riki will always be able to get solo kills as long as he finds solo enemies if he has nullifier and or diffusal.

All I can tell you is be smart when going for kills, always wait 1 or 2 seconds before going for it to make sure they're alone, always check for wards, and learn to ward for your own safety. It only takes a few hits and spells to kill you.

This build is practically a glass cannon, general rule is don't get hit, never initiate unless you're sure you can get that ult off.

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