Hero guide: Mercurial, the Spectre

Welcome to my second hero guide! This time it's about to get as late as possible with one of the best carries in dota overall: Mercurial, the Spectre. A hero guide for your skill build and preferred items is available aswell.

Hero general information:

The Spectre is an agility hero and amongst the best AoE damage dealers in the game due to her teamfight ultimate Haunt. She works great if you want to go greedy and is one of the global strat heroes (amongst Zeus, Nature's Prophet, etc. pp.). She is only viable as a safelane carry and does need a trilane to fully protect her since she is amongst the very weakest laners in the entire hero pool. Her lack of basically everything in the early game though becomes more and more irrelevant as the game progresses, since she naturally becomes insanely tanky towards the later stages due to Dispersion. If the game progresses up to 45 minutes and a Spectre did not get raxed, she basically won the game already - at least in 95% of the cases. There is - in my humble opinion - no harder carry, no later lategamer than a Spectre.

Favourable / Unfavourable matchups:

Favourable matchups:

> vs Bounty Hunter: Though Bounty Hunter has fallen off the radar for offlane heroes, you occasionally see him played as that position 3 once a month. If he's played as a position 4, he might still rotate to your safelane to setup a kill. A single level in Spectral Dagger can completely stop him from getting into experience range since the threat of getting killed is too high with something like a Lion to setup a kill. Your dagger does not reveal invisible heroes but you can see a shadow projection until the Dagger debuff runs out, so you can setup a blind stun into Dust / Sentry reveal and kill him off easily.

> vs Riki: The same counts for Riki, since you can semi-reveal him with your Spectral Dagger aswell. Also, a single point in Dispersion already lets you manfight him very easily. Just never ever turn your back and you're gonna be fine. Later on in the game, you can also reveal the position of invisible, smoked and off-the-map heroes by haunting so take use of the fact.

vs Puck: Puck is common on the solo midlane, but can surely be played as a solo offlane since her illusive skillset makes it difficult to kill her off. Spectre cannot shutdown Puck's experience on the offlane, but if Puck gets stunned by your support Desolate hits will kick in really hard. Also, Puck does not have the damage output to kill a Spectre no matter how squishy she is in the lane. A value point in Dispersion should usually do it.

> vs Nature's Prophet: Again, Spectral Dagger is an underestimated skill. Usually, if Furion gets scared he just sprouts himself and teleports out. Dagger though just goes through trees and gives you a path to walk through and kill off the Prophet before he's gone - or gives vision to setup for a stun. I though have to point out that "favourable matchup" for a Spectre does not mean that you can kill anyone by yourself or outlane someone, it just means she is unlikely to die to those heroes and get levels for free. Furion does indeed have the damage to kill you off with his range and treants, so make sure to not get permanently right-clicked and your tangoes burned.

50/50 matchups:

> vs Faceless Void: Void is kind of the flavour of the meta offlaner and really common nowadays. He is a strong laner and hard to shut down completely, but Spectre does just fine staying alive since Void is lacking the damage output. On the other hand, Time Walk is enough to negate any damage Spectre can put out so usually he is gonna burn your regen and both get a decent amount of last hits. As soon as Chronosphere is up, just make sure to watch the minimap because Chronosphere + a single rotation is usually more than enough for a kill.

> vs Beastmaster: Beastmaster is amongst the top 5 heroes of 6.87 and always has been a go-to-pick for the offlane. His boars do a lot of damage and their slow is really dangerous for you, but usually you can kill off the boars with a few Desolate hits and earn extra cash. Spectre will get levels for free usually, but if not protected will have a very hard time finding any last hits. Make sure to stay far away from your opponent and especially his boars and you're usually gonna be fine. As soon as Beastmaster's Roar is online he just straight up kills you though, so keep watching the levels.

> vs Centaur Warrunner: Centaur's strength in lane is that he barely dies from anything since he brings in a lot of HP to work with alongside his Return Damage. Guess what: Spectre doesn't wanna hit heroes anyways, so even a value point in Return Damage isn't gonna scare you off. In this kind of matchup, make sure to get extra levels in Dispersion since the nukes are gonna kill you sooner or later. Kite his double edge (if he is going to dish it out into the creepwave) and you're gonna be completely fine.

Unfavourable matchups:

> vs Timbersaw: Basically any strong laner makes life hard for a Spectre, but I feel like Timbersaw is just on another level. He is insanely mobile with his Chains and he will just cut through trees in case you try to dagger into them to get out of sight, so you can never just run away from him. He is gonna kill you with his burst damage since you have no health at all and no way to protect yourself. Your only tool against Timbersaw is the mobility gain on the Spectral Dagger to try to juke out his spells. Having a Dazzle does help too.

> vs Bristleback: This matchup is an absolute horror to play against (I have played this matchup a lot). You can never get anywhere close to the lane because Bristleback is gonna keep spamming those Quill Spray's and you are eventually gonna die to it. If Bristleback plays properly you just straight up get no more than 10 last hits in 10 minutes, but sometimes Bristleback feels a little too confident trying to dive your tower when you get those Quill Spray's stacked up on yourself. Sometimes I was able to get a kill on a diving Bristleback by just basically juking him through the tree lines using the Dagger. Though you might think that maxing Dispersion is good here, you're wrong! If you want to get any influence on this lane you just straight up max Desolate as fast as possible (you always get one value point on Dagger and Dispersion though!) and have to stay out of Quill Spray range. You cannot get last hits once you're out of regen so just hope for a double rotation since with 2 supports going in hard you might get the kill with some Desolate right clicks.

> vs Windranger: Any ranged hero will make Spectre struggle quite hard, as I've mentioned that even a Nature's Prophet might be able to kill you in lane. Windranger though is just straight up better. She can dodge any right clicks by windrunning (don't forget, Desolate is pure damage and does indeed go through Windrun), she has a stun to work with and a great nuke to spam onto you. Also, same as for Timbersaw, her Powershot does negate your potential to hide in trees by daggering into them, but you might be able to juke it out if she misses to hit the right trees. As soon as Windranger gets her ultimate online you have to become way defensive. If she hits a Shackleshot onto you and starts to focus fire, no matter the Dispersion you might still just die.

> vs Broodmother: Just don't. Just really don't. She's gonna kill you several times without any effort, she's gonna take your tower, you're gonna start farming in front of your Tier 2 tower and she is gonna come, kill you again and take that tower aswell. Broodmother is the kind of hero that straight up counters the clock a Spectre sets up for a game by just taking your barracks within the first 20 minutes of the game. And guess what, you cannot kill her Broodlings easily and neither hide in trees because she is just gonna setup a new web and follow you through anyways. Sure, you can kill Broodlings with a Radiance, but good luck farming that!

Gameplan:

Spectre is the lategame hero in dota and as I said picking her automatically sets up a countdown for your enemy team to convert into barracks before your farm gets ouf of hand. Your goal primarily is to drag out the game for as long as possible until you feel strong enough to stop the push your opponents bring up.

> Laning Phase: Your aim in the laning phase is really simple - do not die. A level 1 Spectre barely does anything except being there, so take use of the insane experience range and just try to live until you reach level 6. It's really just that. What hurts a Spectre most is not having too few last hits (like e.g. on a Sven that just needs to stack up the last hits forever to feel useful), but being killed off over and over again not reaching your levels to actually make an impact on the game. It is crucial to hit a fast level 6 and make your first rotation using Haunt to get a kill with a teammate basically anywhere on the map. If you can snack a few last hits here and there, even better, but having a Spectre sitting on 20 last hits at 10 minutes into the game is absolutely normal in pubs so don't feel to rush in for extra last hits risking your life, it ain't worth the threat of giving your opponent an extra edge going into the midgame.  To fullfill your aim of staying alive always make sure to bring in enough regeneration. If I see a Spectre without Stout Shield, a Healing Salve and a set of Tangoes, it really triggers me! If you're playing in a five stack and actually manage to put up a trilane to protect you, you can usually swap out the Stout Shield for a Quelling Blade to have an easier time last hitting. Always make sure to max your Desolate up to Level 7 and get those Phase Boots up so your first rotation is gonna ensure a kill. Maxed Desolate plus the chase potential and extra damage from Phase Boots are ridiculous at 10 minutes into the game.

> Getting online: I remember SirActionSlacks saying that a Spectre does nothing for the first 20 minutes in a game and actually that's mostly true. Spectre doesn't want to get involved and rather just farm, farm, farm. So after you've got your Haunt online you want to just keep farming forever. Everytime your Haunt is off cooldown you wanna instantly check if a play is possible and get involved, then teleport back to a lane to farm safely on. That's why so many people tend to buy Urn of Shadows (if no one else gets it instead) because it gives you that little extra sustain and kill potential getting the charges with Haunt kills. Make sure to itemize towards exactly that: Diffusal Blade e.g. helps you chase down heroes you haunt onto, Drums of Endurance give you a little bit of everything and extra chasing power aswell. I would not recommend to buy all those small items, but you definitely need some smaller items to not fall behind in farm quickly. Do never attempt to rush that Radiance with brown boots and a magic stick, because you are gonna be killed before you reach those 3.800 gold for sure. Passively farm towards one or two smaller items like the ones mentioned, but usually if I get a decent game I'll always go Phase Boots into Aquila into Radiance (maybe work in an Urn or Magic Wand, depending on heroes on either team). Farming passively until you get a chance to snatch one or two kills helps you reach those major items you really want to get and any kill just adds to that. After you found your first few items and successfully get something done in the early midgame you should usually end up getting a Radiance at latest on minute 25. If your earlygame is good, you can get it at around 16-18 minutes, but it still crushes enemies getting it a few minutes later. Make sure to check whether you have a chance to grab the Sacred Relic before minute 20, else you gotta go for something else to keep up. If your earlygame is really bad, you might need a Blademail or Vanguard just to tank up and stay alive. Another decent build can be to instead grab the early Diffusal Blade alongside a Manta Style as your first major item. As you can see, it heavily depends on your earlygame so keep track of how the game is developing in the first 15 minutes and adjust to what you need and what you can afford.

> Taking control of the map and Roshan area: Once you found yourself in the late stage of the midgame you start to pick up anything to tank up with, may it be a Heart of Tarrasque, Eye of Skadi or even an Abyssal Blade (usually you go for the Heart, but sometimes Skadi can be good aswell). As soon as you get to the point when your HP start stacking up into the 2-3k territory you want to be that durable frontliner. Don't forget that Dispersion is basically an inbuilt Blade Mail that even extends your durability and makes it almost impossible to kill off a Spectre if the enemy doesn't get the jump onto you. And this is exactly the crucial point here: You want to be splitpushing because you can always join fights with your global Haunt but the enemy team is gonna try to jump you whenever you push out too far over that river area. Make sure to dodge those ganks, since if a fight breaks out and you're at full HP you can usually clean up everything and get a ton of triple kills within a single game. However if you're getting ganked and just die before anything happens, towers are gonna drop - and by that time of the game usually it's the last Tier 2 tower or even the first Tier 3 tower that starts falling. Around this time it becomes more and more necessary to always have Buyback gold up. Don't ever buyout on a Spectre if you could have a Buyback ready to Haunt into an engagement. Spectre is probably the best hero in dota to have a buyback on because no matter where the enemy is fighting your team, you just Haunt in and are instantly where the action is. Therefore if you fear dying keep that ultimate off-cooldown to ensure you have this option available. Also, when you reach the lategame stage slowly, you want to always keep track of Roshan. Spectre is a great fighter at the Roshan area since your Haunt can not only scout enemies but also disable Blink Daggers on anyone on the enemy team preventing surprise jumps etc. If your team is able to get the Aegis, make sure to always take it for yourself at that point of the game. Spectre is the best Aegis carrier in dota. Period. Once you have that Aegis going, your team can usually clean up all outer towers left on the enemy side of the map and start preparing for the base ambush.

> Lategame decision making: As mentioned before, you are the highest priority target on your team and are likely to be smoke ganked or just roamed onto by your enemies - especially, since you want to keep away from your team until you Haunt into a fight. Therefore, vision is extremely useful. If no one buys wards, you should by now have the money so just spend it for whatever your team needs - may it be Observer wards, Sentry wards or a Gem of true sight. If you cannot see attacks coming, there is no chance of avoiding them anyways! Also, do not splitpush over the river area. You may send your Manta illusions to keep pushing out, but after you reach that Side Shop area just fall back into the jungle and keep farming where you can feel safe. As long as you are alive it's almost impossible for any team to get objectives around the map so take use of that advantage. For the high ground ambush you will want to have an Aegis of the Immortal, since at that point your opponents are likely to be five or six slotted aswell and can certainly handle a farmed Spectre decently. With an Aegis however you can usually take down a set of barracks, retreat and wait for the next Aegis. Don't rush things on this hero ever, because the clock is always ticking in your favour! Also, often times a Spectre lineup does lose a set of barracks early in the game, but keep your teammates motivated to keep going - it would not be the first time that a Spectre comes back from a huge deficit!

If you have further questions on the Spectre, feel free to leave comments to this post!