A darkness who was ancient even in the early days of the world's existence, Mercurial is the embodiment of rage and vengeance in the souls of those long dead. Haunting her enemies with relentless fervor, she is able to throw a dagger-like projectile that allows her to chase her prey beyond physical boundaries, and the fear and the desolation struck in the hearts of those who have the misfortune of encountering her alone is a pain impossible to withstand. Spectre's thirst for destruction is insatiable, and the upcoming struggle seems to be just what she was waiting for.
At first glance spectre seems very weak, having only a 200 damage nuke, a passive which may never be used if the enemies stick together, another passive which have only a minor chance to be used, and an ultimate which simply creates some images in the map. However, Spectre actually has one of the greatest potential in the game.
The Spectre mainly have 2 distinct roles in games, a mid game ganker and a late game carry. Her desolate, haunt and spectral dagger allows easy ganking mid game, where enemies are weaker so they easily die to ganks. Late game, with HoT and dispersion, the enemies’ attacks are much more useless and will even disperse back to themselves.
This guide will guide you through the 2 main item builds, 1 which emphasizes on mid game ganking and another which emphasizes on late game carrying. Let’s get started!
Spectral Dagger
The Spectre launches a deadly dagger that trails a Shadow Path. Deals damage to the targets in its path. Units hit by the dagger will also trail a Shadow Path. The Spectre becomes phased (gains zero collision) while on the path. Magic type of damage(affected by magic resistance).
Level 1 - Spectre gains 5% movespeed, enemies lose 5%. Deals 50 damage.
Level 2 - Spectre gains 9% movespeed, enemies lose 9%. Deals 100 damage.
Level 3 - Spectre gains 14% movespeed, enemies lose 14%. Deals 150 damage.
Level 4 - Spectre gains 18% movespeed, enemies lose 18%. Deals 200 damage.
Cooldown: 25 seconds.
Level 1 - 130 mana, 25 cooldown, 2000 cast range, 150 AoE, lasts 7 seconds.
Level 2 - 140 mana, 25 cooldown, 2000 cast range, 150 AoE, lasts 7 seconds.
Level 3 - 150 mana, 25 cooldown, 2000 cast range, 150 AoE, lasts 7 seconds.
Level 4 - 160 mana, 25 cooldown, 2000 cast range, 150 AoE, lasts 7 seconds.
Usage-Despite the low damage, it is a good chasing skill and also the escape mechanism when you use it to launch the dagger in the forests and escape into it, causing the enemies unable to find and kill you. As you can see from the 2 pictures below, spectral dagger allows you to go into trees. Thus it can be used as an escape mechanism when you are dieing, dagger into the forest and run inside. Enemies will be unable to catch you. When the coast is clear just dagger back and continue farming. It can also be used in conjunction with haunt and reality when ganking. Simply haunt and reality to the target and spectral dagger him. Besides, it can be used as a good neutral creeping tool too.
Desolate
Deals bonus damage that cuts through armor when attacking a hero that has no nearby allied units. Works on Illusions. Neutral type of damage(not affected by armour or magic resistance).
Level 1 - 15 Bonus Damage.
Level 2 - 25 Bonus Damage.
Level 3 - 35 Bonus Damage.
Level 4 - 45 Bonus Damage.
Level 1 - 400 AoE.
Level 2 - 400 AoE.
Level 3 - 400 AoE.
Level 4 - 400 AoE.
Usage- This skill allows you to kill down lone heroes easily as it deals 45 bonus damage that cuts through armour. Especially useful when you meet heroes at rivers or when you notice heroes neutral creeping. The bad thing about this skill is that it is easily countered. From hero skills like Chen or syllabear, to items like helm of dominator and Necromon-book. However it can deal good amount of damage when you find heroes neutral creeping when you haunt. You cannot really “use” this skill, but you can kill off low hp heroes easily with desolate so when you haunt look out for lone heroes.
Dispersion AOE has been changed to 600.
Dispersion
Causes any damage taken by Mercurial to be reflected onto all enemies in a 600 AoE.
Level 1 - 5% of damage.
Level 2 - 10% of damage.
Level 3 - 15% of damage.
Level 4 - 20% of damage.
Passive
Usage- As most of you should know dispersion has been changed in .50. This change has definitely affected spectre, for better or worse. I persionally feel that its not a change for the better because she does not have that much hp to tank anyway. The new dispersion requires you to have a decent amount of hp to tank and deal damage through dispersion. Dispersion’s damage is PURE.
More about dispersion:
1. Spell resistance (25%) will reduce the damage to 0.75*400=300 damage.
2. Dispersion heal Spectre for 20% of the damage (0.2*300=60 damage healed).
3. Spectre’s new hp would become 1000+60=1060 hp.
4. Spectre receive 300 damage. Her new hp would become 1060-300=760 hp.
5. 60 damage is dispersed to 600 AoE.
Haunt
Creates a haunting image beside each enemy hero. These images are uncontrollable, take 200% damage, deal 50% damage and each of them will attack only its pair. Cooldown goes down with level.
Level 1 - Lasts 4 seconds.
Level 2 - Lasts 5 seconds.
Level 3 - Lasts 6 seconds.
Cooldown: 150/120/90 seconds.
Level 1 - 150 mana, 150 cooldown, 400 Base Movement Speed.
Level 2 - 150 mana, 120 cooldown, 400 Base Movement Speed.
Level 3 - 150 mana, 90 cooldown, 400 Base Movement Speed.
Usage- Haunt is your global gank. You can participate in team battles anytime, anywhere as long as you have haunt. It also causes confusion in the enemy team as psychologically, they will fear you for a moment with many images attacking them. Amidst the confusion you can escape too, so it is your ganking and escaping tool all in one.
The following items and effects DO work on images
- Stat bonus items. Images gain hit points from strength, armour and attack speed from agility, and bonus to damage from your primary stat. I believe they also gain hitpoint and mana regeneration from stats as well.
- Feedback (Diffusal Blade/ Manta Style). Only works on melee images. Ranged images do not burn mana.
- Critical Strike (Crysallis / Buriza ). Just the critical strike ability is transferred to images not the bonus damage from the item.
- Evasion (Butterfly, Radiance)
- Raw movement speed gain items (Boots, Treads, Teleboots)
- % Movement Speed gain items (Sangeyasha, Yasha).
- True Sight (Gem of True Sight)
- Radiance burning aura (Radiance) - Note that while images get the burning aura only one such aura will apply to an enemy at a given time (i.e. 4 images do not mean 4xdamage from the burn aura). Also note that only the aura damage and evasion bonus transfers to images. The bonus damage from the Radiance item itself does not transfer.
- Direct Hit Point bonus items (Vitality Booster, Point Booster, Soul Booster, Heart of Tarresque, Manta Style)
- Direct Mana Point bonus items (Energy Booster, Point Booster, Soul Booster, etc)
The following items and effects do NOT work on images (despite what the attack animation might suggest!)
- Direct bonus to damage items (i.e. items that say +x to damage do not give that bonus damage to images)
- Direct bonus to armour items (Chainmail, Platemail, Aegis etc). Note: Java’s Premium Naga Siren Guide says the opposite so I am prepared to be corrected on this point!
- Direct regeneration items (Ring of Regen, Ring of Health etc)
- Increased Attack Speed percent (Hyperstone, Treads, Hand of Midas, Monkey King Bar, Butterfly)
- Lifesteal (Satanic, Mask of Madness, Mask of Death, Helm of Dominator)
- Frost Attack (Eye of Skadi)
- Chain Lightning (Maelstrom)
- Cleave - Percentage Splash Damage applied to nearby targets (Battlefury)
- Bash - % chance to stun (Cranial Basher). To be precise it is a bit more complicated than just saying it doesn’t work - see notes below.
- Maim (Sange, Sangeyasha)
- % Chance for Microstun that disrupts concentration spells and gives bonus damage (Monkey King Bar)
- Corruption effect - minus to armour upon hit (Stygnian Desolator). Bear in mind however the images will benefit from the corruption given by your main hero so it’s still a decent option
- Return damage % from melee attackers (Blademail)
- Damage block (Kraken Shell, Stout Shield, Vanguard)
- Spell items - images can’t cast spells (Dagon, Ginsoo, Mechanism, Mantastyle, BKB etc)
- Magic resistance items (Planewalker Cloak, Aegis) - images only get innate hero resistance.
Desolate: 8,9,10,12
Dispersion: 13-15,17
Haunt: 6, 11, 16
1=Spectral Dagger:
2=Attribute
3=Spectral Dagger:
4=Attribute
5=Spectral Dagger:
6=Haunt
7=Spectral Dagger:
8=Desolate
9=Desolate
10=Desolate
11=Haunt
12=Desolate
13=Dispersion
14=Dispersion
15=Dispersion
16=Haunt
17=Dispersion
18-25=Attribute
Dagger and Stats?
Stats is taken over dispersion now because she has already low hp, the damage reduction does not aid that much. Besides your not supposed to tank damage early game but to farm well. Dagger serves as a nuke and slow and escape mechanism which is very helpful in ganks and fleeing, thus it is maxed before dispersion.
How about Desolate early?
I have seen many players getting dagger and desolate early, skipping dispersion. Note that Spectre is a very fragile hero early-mid, and getting dagger makes it worse for her. It makes her have to be very aggressive early game which in turn makes her very vulnerable. Besides, Spectre is definitely not an early game hero, so Desolate should not be gotten.
Stats or Desolate?
At level 8 should be your first level to add desolate. However situations differ from game to game and thus stats can be taken first at level 8,9,10,12 and get desolate at later levels if you are having a hard time in the game and desolate serves no purpose, thus stats is definitely gotten for the extra survivability. However if you know that most of the enemy team walk alone and you are confident that you are having a good time mid game Desolate can be gotten instead.
3Wraith Bands are gotten at the start for the boost in damage and hp, which will aid in farming and killing. These should be gotten along with Boots of speed when you return to the fountain. If you have insufficient gold, you can get 2 wraith bands first because the ms boost from boots of speed is crucial to chasing and escaping.
Boots of Speed is gotten for obvious reasons, the boost in movement speed.
Radiance is gotten after that for the boost in damage, slight evasion and most importantly, the immolation. Immolation aids the poor farmer Spectre a lot. Spectre’s haunt images with Radiance’s immolation is also deadly. At level 16 the images last 6 seconds, and immolation deals 35 damage per second. After the reduction from a hero’s natural spell resistance(25%), immolation alone can deal 75%*(35*6)=157.5 damage to a hero. In team battles it wears the enemy team down to give your team an advantage too.
Hearts of Tarrasque can make you a complete carry because it allows you to tank long enough to disperse much of the damage the enemy(s) deal. It also increases your survivability by a lot so you will not be a glass cannon only.
Boots of Travel can be upgraded for pushing and defending easily, and the increase of movement speed to chase heroes much easier. A level 4 dagger increases your movespeed by 18%, so the mathcraft is: [300(base ms)+85(BoT increased ms)]*118%=454 movement speed.
2Bracers are gotten because of the boost in hp. In the ganking build you will go around ganking more often so more hp is needed because ganks are dangerous of course.
Boots of Speed is gotten for obvious reasons, the boost in movement speed.
Diffusal blade is gotten for the purge which aids in chasing down a hero with dagger. Spectre’s images also have mana burn effect. It will also be upgraded to Manta Style. Purge can help save your ally or stop your enemy from escaping, and it has 10 charges! Try to use it at least 7-8 times before upgrading it.
Radiance is gotten after that for the boost in damage, slight evasion and most importantly, the immolation. Immolation aids the poor farmer Spectre a lot. Spectre’s haunt images with Radiance’s immolation is also deadly. At level 16 the images last 6 seconds, and immolation deals 35 damage per second. After the reduction from a hero’s natural spell resistance(25%), immolation alone can deal 75%*(35*6)=157.5 damage to a hero. In team battles it wears the enemy team down to give your team an advantage too.
Manta Style will be gotten after the purge charges are used at least say 7-8 times because they really are infinitely useful. Manta Style is gotten for the small boost in hp and the skill to create 2 more images which will cause more chaos after haunting and reality. Do not forget that images have the desolate skill too!
BoT can be upgraded for pushing and defending easily, and the increase of movement speed to chase heroes much easier. A level 4 dagger increases your movespeed by 18%, so the mathcraft is: [300(base ms)+85(BoT increased ms)]*118%=454 movement speed.
Butterfly is a very good item on spectre because it allows spectre to be barely hit. The 30% evasion from butterfly stacks with dispersion as they are 2 different skills altogether, butterfly simply makes physical damage miss while dispersion allows any sort of damage to be dispersed over a small area. Thus damaging spectre will be very tough. Besides the IAS and damage it provides also boosts Spectre’s damage output by a lot. The +30 agility also boosts your images attack damage because images can get damage from the primary attribute.
Buriza can be gotten after butterfly because it gives a very good 75 damage boost and the images spectre creates have the critical strike ability too. Combined with the increased damage from the agility boost from butterfly, even spectre’s images can deal a lot of damage, regardless from manta style or haunt.
2nd Heart can be considered if the enemy team also have very good items on par with you. A 2nd heart can allow you to tank more and disperse more, so your damage output and your hp increases.
BKB can be also considered if the enemy team has tons of disablers or very disturbing ultimates(Epicenter/Black Hole). It allows Spectre to have 10 seconds of undisturbed damaging the enemy. There is also of course the small boost in hp it provides from the increased strength attribute.
Vanguard- boosts Spectre’s survivabilty pretty well but it is a waste of gold. 2k gold can be used on better stuff like the bracers/wraiths and the boots of speed. Besides if you really need a lot of help in surviving a vitality booster alone will be enough and it can be upgraded to HoT later on.
SnY- gives too little of hp and damage, making it not worth the cost at all. Again the 5.1k can be better used for the radiance with 400 more gold. The hp boost is covered by bracers and the damage is covered by diffusal blade/radiance, so it is really not needed.
Power Threads- is not recommended even though there is a buff to it. Simply because BoT triumphs for the teleporting ability which allows Spectre to farm even better with radiance. BoT also increases spectre’s movespeed on the shadow trail more than PT because dagger increases her movespeed on a percentage basis.
Dagger escaping
Refer to the screenshot at the skills section. You simply have to aim a dagger into the forest and walk on the shadow trail to get into the forests so that enemies cannot reach you. From there you can use a teleport scroll or BoT to teleport to safety. Otherwise you can start calling your allies to come and aid you.
Dagger-Purge ganking
Purge has a cooldown of 12 seconds and lasts about 3 seconds while dagger lasts 7 seconds but has a cooldown of 25 seconds, so it is possible to purge twice or even more when chasing. Simply purge the hero first to allow the purge to cooldown while you and your allies start whacking the enemy. When purge effect wears off use dagger to continue chasing. Since you would have chased the enemy for 10seconds already walk near him for 2 more seconds and purge’s cooldown would be over and you can purge the enemy once again. If he still manages to get away you can give up. 
Dagger-Radiance farming
Radiance has the immolation effect(35 dps for 550 aoe) and dagger can deal 200 damage in a straight line, so to farm simply start hitting the melee creeps for a few times and use dagger on the ground in which in the straight line there are most creeps, pretty much like how you target illuminate and wild axes. There you will get a lot of creep kills easily.
Haunt ganking
Haunt has a pretty long cooldown so you should use it wisely. You can wait for your allies to inform you of low hp heroes early-mid game, in which haunt works a bit like zeus’s ultimate. Haunt and reality to the desired position quickly, especially with level 1 haunt because it lasts only for 3 seconds. Then dagger to chase. However, if after a few hits the enemy is still not dead and you are chasing too deep, you should give up because spectre early-mid game is still pretty fragile.
Haunt-Desolate killing
Images also have the desolate skill, which is very useful because it does 45 damage which cuts through armour. Thus, when you meet a hero alone at places like neutral creep camps or rune places, you can use manta style and dagger the enemy so all 3 of you can attack the enemy and hurt him a lot. This can also be done after haunt ganking when you notice a lone hero.
Dagger neutral creep farming
Sometimes you may find yourself tower hugging very much because you cannot go too deep as you may get killed. So logically you will go to the neutral creeps. Since spectral dagger has a very long range why not make full use of it? Simply aim at strategic locations and the dagger can go in a straight line damaging 2 creep camps. Below are some screenshots to guide you along.
Laning
Of course, the first step into playing the game is to choose a lane. Spectre definitely cannot solo a lane well, thus she would need a lane partner. However, since she is pretty item dependent and needs to farm well, a good babysitter hero would be preferred. Heroes like Viper/Warlock can be good lane partners to spectre. Get a RoR and 3 GG branches for good hp regeneration and sufficient stats to stay in the lane for as long as possible. For lane control, some combos can be done with your babysitter. For example, Viper can slow and wait for cooldown while you get some hits in and dagger. However your main priority should not be harassing but farming well.
Ganks
In early-mid game you or your allies may get ganked. What to do? If the gank is targetted on you, dagger into the forests immediately and run into the forests. Instead, if the gank is targeted at your ally, you should dagger the enemy chasing to slow him down and hit him a few times to wear him down. When your ultimate is ready you can become a ganker yourself too. You should communicate with your ally well and allow him to stun/slow first before you haunt and reality. Then dagger the enemy and chase and kill. It is wise to click on the enemy hero to dagger rather than clicking on point blank because it has a 2000 distance casting range and it will follow the hero.
Team Battles
Early game- Although early game team battles may not happen, some knowledge on what to do when it really does happen is good. In team battles early game you are still very fragile so you should be very cautious. Use dagger at fleeing heroes and use ultimate if there are AOE disables ex.Overgrowth so you can deal more damage.
Mid game- You should have your radiance or diffusal blade now. You can participate more actively so that the immolation damages the whole team. Using spectral dagger at fleeing heroes still applies. Be aware about who the enemies are targetting, so you do not land yourself in trouble although you are not as vulnerable. If you have diffusal blade, you can use the dagger-purge gank on the most threatening enemy. Purge or dagger anyone fleeing.
Late game- You should have HoT or Manta Style now, both which turns you into a semi-tank. If there are no tankers in your team you can tank with HoT or activating Manta Style. You should be much more aggressive in team battles because you are already farmed. Using spectral dagger at fleeing heroes still applies.
Pushing
Early game- Try not to push the tower down because it will make you much more vulnerable to ganks when you try to farm across the river.
Mid game- Pushing of level 1-2 towers is advised, and try to get the tower gold because it will aid in your farming. Still, be careful and do not risk your life to push towers.
Late game- You can easily teleport around with BoT to push towers. With HoT or Manta style tanking towers should not be too much of a problem.
Good Allies
Zeus and Blood seekerHeroes with Skills for Sight
These heroes allows you to notice low hp heroes farming or roaming around, so you can target them easily and send them to their graves! Of course they also can prevent upcoming ganks upon you so you can farm better.
Invoker and Trent ProtectorAOE Damagers/Disablers
These heroes allow you to deal much more damage with your ultimate and create lots of chaos in the team battles.
Shadow Priest and WarlockBabysitters
These heroes allow you to farm up your items easily and to own earlier, after all you are also fragile early game so having a babysitters as a lane partner aids you a lot.
Lich and Tinker Chain Nukers
They can crush you early-mid game where your hp is still paper and since they are chain-nuking, there is little time for you to try and escape with dagger.
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