At the time of the writing of this guide, Enigma is the 15th least played hero this month with a win rate of 46.81%. This guide's goal is to bring new players from a poor understanding of Enigma to a base level where they feel competent with the hero.
[color=#ffa500]Pros and Cons[/color]
[color=#008000]
+ Game-breaking ultimate
+ One of the best jungle heroes
+ Good push hero
+ Good farm rate
+ Good stat gain
[/color]
[color=#ff0000]
- Long ultimate cooldown
- High mana cost on spells
- Moderately high skill requirement
- Item dependent
[/color]
Consider Enigma when
[color=#008000]
+ Your team is well coordinated
+ Your team needs disables or team fight presence
+ Your team has good area of effect damage
+ You can safely pick a jungle hero
+ The enemy has two or more melee heroes
[/color]
Avoid Engima when
[color=#ff0000]
- Your team is not coordinated
- You expect a trilane vs trilane and your carry needs protecting
- You are not confident jungling or initiating
- The enemy has four or five ranged heroes
[/color]
Skill build variations
1. Max Malefice (Q) over Demonic Conversion (W)
When you are ganking out of the jungle before level 9
2. Stats over Midnight Pulse (E)
When you cannot reasonably cast Midnight Pulse before Black Hole. Get one point in Midnight Pulse for emergency tree destruction.
3. Stats over 2nd and 3rd level of Black Hole (R)
The duration and area of effect of Black Hole do not improve with levels, but the mana cost increases by 100 per level. If you are short on mana (you rushed mekansm), consider levels in stats before upgrading your ultimate.
[color=#ffa500]Roles[/color]
Enigma is at his best as a 4 role in the jungle. You may also offlane or mid with Enigma, he is surprisingly strong in the lane.
In the offlane, use Demonic Conversion to deny your own creeps and play defensively. Your goal is to get experience, not die, and not feed conversions to the enemy carry.
In mid, use Demonic Conversion to control the lane. The extra damage will make it easy to get a high number of last hits, denies, push the lane, and check runes with your Eidolons. Focus on denies more than usual. Surprise the enemy mid hero by reaching level 6 before them, then attacking with Eidolons while they are in Black Hole.
[color=#ffa500]Item Choices[/color]
Remember that you are a support. If your team does not have courier or wards, buy them. Buy smoke to gank with Black Hole before you have Blink Dagger. Make sure the entrance to your jungle is warded so that you do not get ganked.
[color=#ee82ee]Starting Items[/color]
[color=#ffff00]Sage's Mask[/color]
[color=#ffff00]Clarity x 3[/color]
[color=#ffff00]Observer Ward[/color]
[color=#ffff00]325 + 150 + 50 x 3 = 625[/color]
If you know you are building Mekansm or Magic Wand, you may substitute one or two Clarity for Iron Branch.
Sage's Mask is built into Soul Ring as soon as possible. Enigma has high intelligence, 20 starting with +3.4 growth. The 50% mana regeneration is significant even at level 1, take you from 0.8 to 1.2 mana per second. Your Eidolons will take all the damage, so you do not need health regeneration items.
[color=#ee82ee]Base Progression[/color]
Format: Item name - Net worth - Time completed
[color=#ffff00]Soul Ring - 800 - 2:45[/color]
[color=#ffff00]Boots of Speed - 1250 - 4:16[/color]
[color=#ffff00]Blink Dagger - 3400 - 12:02[/color]
[color=#ffff00]Black King Bar - 7375 - 22:49[/color]
[color=#ffff00]Scythe of Vyse - 13050 - 34:35[/color]
Times shown assume:
- Starting net worth of 325 (Sage's Mask)
- Initial gold per minute of 200 starting at minute 1
- Gold per minute increasing by 10 each minute
So at minute 1 you have 200gpm, minute 11 you have 300gpm, minute 21 you have 400gpm, etc. (This breaks down for late game scenarios).
This is a conservative estimate, to give a baseline of when you are falling behind. With practice, you will be quicker than these times. For example, it is reasonable to have Soul Ring, Boots of Speed, and Blink Dagger by 9 minutes.
For nerds, the equation for this curve is
Total Gold = Starting Gold + Starting Gold per Minute * Time + 5 * Time * (Time - 1)
With time in minutes.
[color=#ee82ee]Suggested[/color]
[color=#ffff00]Mekansm[/color]
If your team does not have anyone else who can finish Mekansm before 20 minutes, get it after your Blink Dagger. This happens often, so do not be reluctant to buy Mekansm.
[color=#ffff00]Power Treads[/color]
vs
[color=#ffff00]Arcane Boots[/color]
If your team needs Arcane Boots or you are running out of mana, get them. Otherwise, Power Treads or save for Boots of Travel.
[color=#ffff00]Necronomicon[/color]
Strong overall. Provides the stats you need and helps push.
[color=#ffff00]Shiva's Guard[/color]
The luxury item of choice. This can be cast while you are channeling Black Hole without interrupting it.
[color=#ee82ee]Avoid[/color]
[color=#ffff00]Radiance[/color]
You are a disabler, not the primary damage source. Radiance is too expensive for what it gives you.
[color=#ffa500]Play Style[/color]
[color=#ee82ee]Jungle[/color]
In general, the Dire jungle is easier to farm for Enigma.
Make sure your Eidolons live. When an Eidolon has attacked 6 times, it will split into two smaller Eidolons with full health. Let your Eidolons take turns tanking the neutral creeps so that they all split. Start by using Demonic Conversion on a creep in a small or medium camp, attack until your Eidolons have split, then take on the hard camp.
Make sure to split up your Eidolons. Big centaurs and hellbears will do area of effect damage if three units are near them. Keep two Eidolons to one side, and the other with your hero on the other side.
With good micro, the only camp that is difficult to clear with level 1 Eidolons is the dark troll camp.
If possible, always have Eidolons created and attacking something. This will improve farm and pressure towers over the course of the game. With this in mind, do not feed Eidolons to enemy heroes. This will reduce the advantage you are gaining by giving the enemy extra experience and gold.
[color=#ee82ee]Skirmish[/color]
Gank immediately upon reaching level 6, and again upon acquiring a blink dagger. You may gank earlier than this if your allies have strong kill potential in the lane you are ganking. Remember that time spent ganking is time spent not farming the jungle. If you think there is no chance of getting a kill and you will waste time, keep jungling. But your farm comes secondary to the team's well being. If the carry is being pressured too much, you will need to help that lane.
In the early / mid game Eidolons + Malifice are capable of large amounts of damage. Consider the following scenario:
- Your skill build is 4-2-0-1 in the Dire jungle
- Three enemy heroes are attacking two allied heroes in the top lane
- You can only Black Hole two enemy heroes
Your plan of attack should be:
- Create Eidolons
- Tell Eidolons to attack the separated enemy hero
- Cast Malifice on the separated enemy hero
- Black Hole the other two heroes
The general principles behind this approach are:
- Make good use of your spells
- Disable as many heroes as possible
- Prevent interruption of your ultimate
When an Enigma makes mistakes, it costs the team more than usual. Keeping these principles in mind will minimize those mistakes.
[color=#ee82ee]Team Fight[/color]
Once you have blink, do not be afraid to initiate. Good initiation requires communication with your team so you do not blink in alone and waste Black Hole. Make sure you have backup.
As a new player, an easier way to initiate well is to be patient and counter-initiate. When the enemy attacks your allies, blink in and use your ult to save them. They will see the Black Hole and hopefully turn to fight.
Do not cast midnight pulse before Black Hole. With time you will learn the exceptions to this rule, but for now it is a good starting point.
Sometimes the threat of Black Hole is more important than actually using Black Hole. Consider the following scenario:
- The game is close, your team is trying to attack a T3 tower
- It is too dangerous for either team to attempt initiating
- Your team has Dragon Knight
Your plan of attack should be:
- Send Eidolons in with Dragon Knight's ultimate to attack the tower
- Hang back and wait to counter-initiate
If the enemy team attacks Dragon Knight, you counter-initiate with Black Hole. Dragon Knight is a tanky hero so he will probably live and your team will win the team fight. If the enemy team does nothing, Dragon Knight and your Eidolons will take the tower and eventually the barracks. This is using the threat of Black Hole to your advantage. Do not blink to high ground on the first heroes you see and immediately die.
Ultimately you need to balance not being afraid to initiate with waiting for the opportune moment to strike. It is a fine line and only experience will teach you the difference.
[color=#ffa500]Allies and Enemies[/color]
Allies have:
[color=#008000]
+ Good area of effect damage
+ High mobility
+ Abilities that combo with Black Hole
[/color]
Enemies have:
[color=#ff0000]
- Disables that go through Black King Bar
- Good scouting vision
- High mobility
[/color]
At the time of writing this guide, I have 67 matches with Enigma, 61.19% win rate, and 3.70 KDA. I play mostly ranked captain's mode at about 4k MMR.
A small tip that makes Enigma much easier is hotkey binding. I personally set:
1. Courier
2. Hero
3. Control Group
4. Control Group
5. All units except my hero
6. All units including my hero
Notably, if you set an Eidolon to 3, it will not persist to the next Eidolon spawn. So I toggle between 2 & 5 often to control Enigma and Eidolons separately.
Then space bar, mouse buttons, and keys C, V, B for easy Blink Dagger, Soul Ring, Mekansm, etc.
[color=#ffa500]Suggested Material[/color]
Recent Navi vs Liquid game featuring Enigma with Dark Seer:
At 48:30 (game time 35:30), Enigma poorly initiates with only Dark Seer as backup.
at 57:30 (game time 44:30), Enigma properly initiates with his team's backup
Notice that Navi has built their lineup to easily get close to the Black Hole initiation: Storm Spirit + Lifestealer, with Rubick and Dark Seer building Blink Dagger.
And if you need just one more reason to pick Enigma...
"Nothing is safe once it crosses my horizon."
At the time of the writing of this guide, Enigma is the 15th least played hero this month with a win rate of 46.81%. This guide's goal is to bring new players from a poor understanding of Enigma to a base level where they feel competent with the hero.
[color=#008000]
+ Game-breaking ultimate
+ One of the best jungle heroes
+ Good push hero
+ Good farm rate
+ Good stat gain
[/color]
[color=#ff0000]
- Long ultimate cooldown
- High mana cost on spells
- Moderately high skill requirement
- Item dependent
[/color]
Consider Enigma when
[color=#008000]
+ Your team is well coordinated
+ Your team needs disables or team fight presence
+ Your team has good area of effect damage
+ You can safely pick a jungle hero
+ The enemy has two or more melee heroes
[/color]
Avoid Engima when
[color=#ff0000]
- Your team is not coordinated
- You expect a trilane vs trilane and your carry needs protecting
- You are not confident jungling or initiating
- The enemy has four or five ranged heroes
[/color]
Base skill build
courtesy of http://www.dotafire.com/ and http://postimg.org/
Skill build variations
1. Max Malefice (Q) over Demonic Conversion (W)
When you are ganking out of the jungle before level 9
2. Stats over Midnight Pulse (E)
When you cannot reasonably cast Midnight Pulse before Black Hole. Get one point in Midnight Pulse for emergency tree destruction.
3. Stats over 2nd and 3rd level of Black Hole (R)
The duration and area of effect of Black Hole do not improve with levels, but the mana cost increases by 100 per level. If you are short on mana (you rushed mekansm), consider levels in stats before upgrading your ultimate.
Enigma is at his best as a 4 role in the jungle. You may also offlane or mid with Enigma, he is surprisingly strong in the lane.
In the offlane, use Demonic Conversion to deny your own creeps and play defensively. Your goal is to get experience, not die, and not feed conversions to the enemy carry.
In mid, use Demonic Conversion to control the lane. The extra damage will make it easy to get a high number of last hits, denies, push the lane, and check runes with your Eidolons. Focus on denies more than usual. Surprise the enemy mid hero by reaching level 6 before them, then attacking with Eidolons while they are in Black Hole.
Remember that you are a support. If your team does not have courier or wards, buy them. Buy smoke to gank with Black Hole before you have Blink Dagger. Make sure the entrance to your jungle is warded so that you do not get ganked.
[color=#ee82ee]Starting Items[/color]
[color=#ffff00]Sage's Mask[/color]
[color=#ffff00]Clarity x 3[/color]
[color=#ffff00]Observer Ward[/color]
[color=#ffff00]325 + 150 + 50 x 3 = 625[/color]
If you know you are building Mekansm or Magic Wand, you may substitute one or two Clarity for Iron Branch.
Sage's Mask is built into Soul Ring as soon as possible. Enigma has high intelligence, 20 starting with +3.4 growth. The 50% mana regeneration is significant even at level 1, take you from 0.8 to 1.2 mana per second. Your Eidolons will take all the damage, so you do not need health regeneration items.
[color=#ee82ee]Base Progression[/color]
Format: Item name - Net worth - Time completed
[color=#ffff00]Soul Ring - 800 - 2:45[/color]
[color=#ffff00]Boots of Speed - 1250 - 4:16[/color]
[color=#ffff00]Blink Dagger - 3400 - 12:02[/color]
[color=#ffff00]Black King Bar - 7375 - 22:49[/color]
[color=#ffff00]Scythe of Vyse - 13050 - 34:35[/color]
Times shown assume:
- Starting net worth of 325 (Sage's Mask)
- Initial gold per minute of 200 starting at minute 1
- Gold per minute increasing by 10 each minute
So at minute 1 you have 200gpm, minute 11 you have 300gpm, minute 21 you have 400gpm, etc. (This breaks down for late game scenarios).
This is a conservative estimate, to give a baseline of when you are falling behind. With practice, you will be quicker than these times. For example, it is reasonable to have Soul Ring, Boots of Speed, and Blink Dagger by 9 minutes.
For nerds, the equation for this curve is
Total Gold = Starting Gold + Starting Gold per Minute * Time + 5 * Time * (Time - 1)
With time in minutes.
[color=#ee82ee]Suggested[/color]
[color=#ffff00]Mekansm[/color]
If your team does not have anyone else who can finish Mekansm before 20 minutes, get it after your Blink Dagger. This happens often, so do not be reluctant to buy Mekansm.
[color=#ffff00]Power Treads[/color]
vs
[color=#ffff00]Arcane Boots[/color]
If your team needs Arcane Boots or you are running out of mana, get them. Otherwise, Power Treads or save for Boots of Travel.
[color=#ffff00]Necronomicon[/color]
Strong overall. Provides the stats you need and helps push.
[color=#ffff00]Shiva's Guard[/color]
The luxury item of choice. This can be cast while you are channeling Black Hole without interrupting it.
[color=#ee82ee]Avoid[/color]
[color=#ffff00]Radiance[/color]
You are a disabler, not the primary damage source. Radiance is too expensive for what it gives you.
[color=#ee82ee]Jungle[/color]
In general, the Dire jungle is easier to farm for Enigma.
Make sure your Eidolons live. When an Eidolon has attacked 6 times, it will split into two smaller Eidolons with full health. Let your Eidolons take turns tanking the neutral creeps so that they all split. Start by using Demonic Conversion on a creep in a small or medium camp, attack until your Eidolons have split, then take on the hard camp.
Make sure to split up your Eidolons. Big centaurs and hellbears will do area of effect damage if three units are near them. Keep two Eidolons to one side, and the other with your hero on the other side.
With good micro, the only camp that is difficult to clear with level 1 Eidolons is the dark troll camp.
If possible, always have Eidolons created and attacking something. This will improve farm and pressure towers over the course of the game. With this in mind, do not feed Eidolons to enemy heroes. This will reduce the advantage you are gaining by giving the enemy extra experience and gold.
[color=#ee82ee]Skirmish[/color]
Gank immediately upon reaching level 6, and again upon acquiring a blink dagger. You may gank earlier than this if your allies have strong kill potential in the lane you are ganking. Remember that time spent ganking is time spent not farming the jungle. If you think there is no chance of getting a kill and you will waste time, keep jungling. But your farm comes secondary to the team's well being. If the carry is being pressured too much, you will need to help that lane.
In the early / mid game Eidolons + Malifice are capable of large amounts of damage. Consider the following scenario:
- Your skill build is 4-2-0-1 in the Dire jungle
- Three enemy heroes are attacking two allied heroes in the top lane
- You can only Black Hole two enemy heroes
Your plan of attack should be:
- Create Eidolons
- Tell Eidolons to attack the separated enemy hero
- Cast Malifice on the separated enemy hero
- Black Hole the other two heroes
The general principles behind this approach are:
- Make good use of your spells
- Disable as many heroes as possible
- Prevent interruption of your ultimate
When an Enigma makes mistakes, it costs the team more than usual. Keeping these principles in mind will minimize those mistakes.
[color=#ee82ee]Team Fight[/color]
Once you have blink, do not be afraid to initiate. Good initiation requires communication with your team so you do not blink in alone and waste Black Hole. Make sure you have backup.
As a new player, an easier way to initiate well is to be patient and counter-initiate. When the enemy attacks your allies, blink in and use your ult to save them. They will see the Black Hole and hopefully turn to fight.
Do not cast midnight pulse before Black Hole. With time you will learn the exceptions to this rule, but for now it is a good starting point.
Sometimes the threat of Black Hole is more important than actually using Black Hole. Consider the following scenario:
- The game is close, your team is trying to attack a T3 tower
- It is too dangerous for either team to attempt initiating
- Your team has Dragon Knight
Your plan of attack should be:
- Send Eidolons in with Dragon Knight's ultimate to attack the tower
- Hang back and wait to counter-initiate
If the enemy team attacks Dragon Knight, you counter-initiate with Black Hole. Dragon Knight is a tanky hero so he will probably live and your team will win the team fight. If the enemy team does nothing, Dragon Knight and your Eidolons will take the tower and eventually the barracks. This is using the threat of Black Hole to your advantage. Do not blink to high ground on the first heroes you see and immediately die.
Ultimately you need to balance not being afraid to initiate with waiting for the opportune moment to strike. It is a fine line and only experience will teach you the difference.
Allies have:
[color=#008000]
+ Good area of effect damage
+ High mobility
+ Abilities that combo with Black Hole
[/color]
Enemies have:
[color=#ff0000]
- Disables that go through Black King Bar
- Good scouting vision
- High mobility
[/color]
[color=#008000]Dark Seer[/color]
[color=#008000]Naga Siren[/color]
[color=#008000]Puck[/color]
[color=#008000]Mirana[/color]
[color=#ff0000]Rubick[/color]
[color=#ff0000]Beastmaster[/color]
[color=#ff0000]Vengeful Spirit[/color]
[color=#ff0000]Clockwerk[/color]
At the time of writing this guide, I have 67 matches with Enigma, 61.19% win rate, and 3.70 KDA. I play mostly ranked captain's mode at about 4k MMR.
A small tip that makes Enigma much easier is hotkey binding. I personally set:
1. Courier
2. Hero
3. Control Group
4. Control Group
5. All units except my hero
6. All units including my hero
Notably, if you set an Eidolon to 3, it will not persist to the next Eidolon spawn. So I toggle between 2 & 5 often to control Enigma and Eidolons separately.
Then space bar, mouse buttons, and keys C, V, B for easy Blink Dagger, Soul Ring, Mekansm, etc.
Recent Navi vs Liquid game featuring Enigma with Dark Seer:
At 48:30 (game time 35:30), Enigma poorly initiates with only Dark Seer as backup.
at 57:30 (game time 44:30), Enigma properly initiates with his team's backup
Notice that Navi has built their lineup to easily get close to the Black Hole initiation: Storm Spirit + Lifestealer, with Rubick and Dark Seer building Blink Dagger.
And if you need just one more reason to pick Enigma...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJ1J6gj6j7Y