Since i mostly spam invoker and get asked for a guide even tho there are tons of available already and on top of that better than my voker, i still could not refuse you.I will try to make it as much detailed as i can. First things first, dota is a situational game, there is no fixed rule, you have to adapt your game to your “environment” aka how bad your team is. Is it a clan war game ? Or are you solo pubbing ? Is it a newly formed team and you are practising ? Those are important questions, since it will help you to decide what items to buy early on. For example, my starting items vary from,

  • a.courier , 2 x ironwood branches, circlet , healing salve, clarity and obs
  • b.courier , null talisman
  • c.null talisman, healing salve
  • d.magic wand,

Those are pretty much most of my variations, since i have stopped enjoying playing quas wex voker and i only play exort because its much more fun and no one cares about rgc points anyway . So if you are newbie and cant figure when exactly to buy which variations of items,let me help you out. Variation a. and b. are my usual go to items and that applies only when your team is too bad and you are solo pubbing.Your teammates are selfish and wont get you a cour, so you have to buy it on your own.Magic wand is usally better choice when you are playing vs spell spammers like batrider, zeus, or you think that chances are high for enemy team to keep hating you and focusing you with heros like bara. You can get null talisman when you are facing a hero at mid that you will need to harass or the hero that has high base damage and will make it hard for you to last hit. So what happens if enemy team has both high base damage midlaner and a guy who is solely playing to annoy you and to focus only you has picked bara ? I always go for safer option (a.), and try to outclass enemy midlaner on last hitting. So i wont be talking detailed about c. and d. variations since thats just never happens on rgc, just be happy if someone does not spam you asking to share a courier. No matter what , remember do not ever share your cour, i repeat do not share your courier. Because you know that he might be chilling and will keep using it for a low cost items that he can get from side shop anyway and you will end up waiting for your midas for a minute or two. So that pretty much sums up starting item choices.

“No matter what dont share your courier in rgc…” Nietzsche

In a laning phase usually your primary focus should be on last hitting as much as you can and trying to ks with your sunstrike. I know its a bit unethical, but you gotta do what you gotta do. Kill sstealing is like must trust me. If you ever watch some d2 tour games by pro teams, for example watch Miracle- s invoker, his team (team liquid) will always pick some disabler/ganker to ensure that he can get early kills. Heros like nerubian assassin, lion , void (chrono) and during fights team deliberately leaves the kill for him. Why? because they are pros, they know how the game works, they know that voker is way too scary hero after he gets his levels and items and not so much on early lvl 7-8 trying to combo. So ks as many times as you can, tho your teammates will probably be unhappy about it, its a must. To summarize in order for u to have successfull laning phase

  • a-Dont die
  • b-Last hit efficiently
  • c-Ks

So how to achieve those above ? Lets say that enemy team has sf midlaner and bara as well on their team.Cuz you are smart, first thing you do is, you check out the pings and find out that both of them have same region pings. And your team has already picked heros whose usefullness is entirely up to users skills, like pudge and mirana. And at your base there are already 4 cours including yours. And the guy who is left out without a cour is spamming and begging for share. And your clumsy teammates are sharing cours to each other and then unsharing since ” i already have one, unshare”. And then the chat proceeds with “you both unshared, mirana share”. At that moment, you just know that you are in a hell, best thing is probably to leave the game and delete dota. Or if you are like me and you get motivated by challanges, then keep playing.

“And ur team already picked heros whose usefullness is entirely up to users skills,like pudge and mirana”

Remember when you are playing voker and you dont know what to do in early game always go to safer choice. Buy a. items and go to laning phase with picking exort on lvl 1. Since you itemed up for safer choice, you need some dmg to be able to last hit. And since you are playing vs bara always get quas on lvl 3 (level 2 you gotta get invoke) and keep cold snap, dont use it if bara is not clearly visible on map. Cold snap makes it easy for you to counter especially baras ganks, since you have long cast range and it makes bara almost useless if cast properly since he is a melee, he wont be able to cover distance between you, hence gank failed. Besides getting quas enables you to summon forge spirit and you can farm/harass more efficently with it and you can even stay in lane and still deny the runes with forge spirit. Its especially efficient vs midlaners who are rune dependant, and  when your teammates wont bother checking the runes, despite being woods. Rune dependant midlaners are likes of tiny,zeus, alch etc. And getting early lvls  of quas is good vs harassing midlaners as well, likes of lina , wr , qop , who will keep spamming their abilities and getting salves nonstop is not that much efficient choice. And i usally end up having 4-0-4-1 on lvl 9, because it kinda is always safer choice and will enable your hero to push faster (2 forge spirits) and get some solo kills as well (coldsnap + 2 forges + sunstrike). Occasionally when i am greedy i get wex on lvl 3, and then proceed as usually having 4-1-4-1 on lvl 10. Its important to notice that i always have the same 4-1-4-1 on lvl 10. Only difference between getting wex early and later is that it kinda enables u to farm/harass more aggressively. I usually go for it when i am facing melee hero, like ember for ex. You can harass him with zeal and whenever he approaches creeps you can even try to kill him with meteor. And if you are reading this all carefully you will notice that , i dont max invoke.Why tho ? Because its unrealistic to try to use 4-5 skills in early game anyway. You wont have necessary amount of mana and fights usually wont drag that long anyway. And i think i would rather have maxed exort with 2 forge spirits in a team fight than low range or low dmg meteor. So yeah max exort and you would be able to get on invoke on lvl 14.

guess which hero i was playing ?

So i pretty much covered the factors that define my ability choices and starting items. Now i will give you some insight about what item to buy after starting items. Almost always after starting items i will try to get fast boots and magic wands (if i already dont have one). Those items will increase my survivability. And after that you can either rush midas or get aquila before midas. Having aquila will enable your hero to start fighting back if you are being targeted, or harass more aggressively your opponent on midlane. But midas is must have, i almost never skip midas. Midas will get you farm faster and get fast experience (lvls) which your hero needs desperately.And the way that midas works is its better if you get it asap.Usually i will have it on 7th min if i am rushing it , or on 10 with aquila. And then i proceed on getting aghanim. Bear in mind tho that there would be games that you get 5 man focused and your team will be walking around with mirana and pudge. Its ok,if you are in one of those games, you wont be able to split-push and farm since they are focusing you and prolly you are the only hero visible in map, while mirana and pudge afk farming in woods. At those games i strongly advice you to reach enemy woods and try to get your farm going on there, would be helpful as well if you could get a sunstrike kill. Because you need to get some lvls and especially with agha, you can punish enemy team if their poisitioning is bad. You can get tornado+meteor+blast and with agha you will most likely get a kill or two. Thats the best you can hope for in those situations.

“But midas is must have, never skip midas”

So you got your lvls and farm, cour just brought your fresh agha, what now ? Now it is where the fun part begins, if you are on lvl 15 (lvl 3 invoke) you would be able to switch around skills fast enought during fights.Also you can search and gank for solo heros or push and get the objectives.Bear in mind that now is the time for being uber active, but ofc dont go on rambo mode , there still might be the heros that can disable  and kill you. I wont dig in to late game scenarios way deeper. Just some tips that i do is, usually after agha i will try to get octarine , because it enables me to use longer combos like tornado + emp + meteor + blast + icewall or cold snap. And i would usually get mobility item like dagger and bkb or linken to be able to cast the spells.

That would be it for now , it was a long and general guide, tried to dig in to details, but there are so many things to cover and some of them are not even directly related to invoker itself but more like a dota concept etc. Last thing i want to say is practice, practice and practice, just dont do that when we are in same team, lol.

Lastly i just want to provide you with a replay, so that you can watch and practice.
p.s. This is what happens when no one ganks invoker and enemy has poor positioning in team fights, enabling me to multiple tornado+meteor combo.

http://parser.rankedgaming.com/replay.php?replay=1499904870