The Heroes in Dota 2 - An Introductory Guide for Silencer

Introduction

Even though it's not the most played MOBA in terms of its player count, Dota 2 is one of the oldest and most successful games in this genre. Today, there are millions of people from all over the world that play daily. Regardless if you're a casual player or someone who wants to turn pro, the chances are that you will find something you like. 

However, apart from the right things, Dota 2 is also famous for a couple of adverse aspects. The first one is the community, which can be pretty toxic, and the second thing is that the game is just not noob-friendly. With over 120 heroes and items to choose from, you can easily see why so many people simply give up on the game after just a couple of months.

With that said, we continue our introductory series with the next hero on our list - Silencer. He is often considered as one of the most annoying heroes in Dota 2, which is why it's important to know what he does. 

Basic information about Silencer

Silencer is a Ranged Intelligence hero that is capable of playing either as a mid-laner or support. Regardless of the position, he is currently in, Silencer is able to do a lot of damage at every single stage of the game. What's more, he is also capable of doing even more damage as time goes on because he has an ability that scales in the later stages of the game. 

Despite the functional offensive mechanisms, Silencer is not really the best defensive hero in Dota 2. In fact, he has no escape mechanism at all, which makes it very hard to survive ganks. Luckily, there are a couple of items that fantastic for him and can be the difference between life and death. We will cover them in just a second.

Here are his four active abilities:

• Arcane Curse is a very annoying skill that deals damage and slows the enemy targets with a guaranteed 5%. Although this is bad on its own, the thing that makes it even worse is the fact that this spell increases its duration and when the enemy hero casts any spell. In other words, it is not advisable to use any spells while you are under this effect because it will just result in more damage in slow.  Also, keep in mind that Silencer has a talent that increases the damage over time of Arcane Curse, so always be aware of this annoying ability.
• Glaives of Wisdom is an attack modifier that basically allows Silencer to do more damage based on his intelligence. Although it might seem reasonably useless early on, this is his strongest late-game spell in the game, especially if he is played as a core. The good thing about the Glaives of Wisdom is that you also temporarily steal intelligence with your attacks from your enemy. In other words, if you harras him a bit, you might just end up leaving him without any information to cast his spells.
• Last Word is a single-target nuke that is capable of doing a lot of damage at any stage of the game. When used, it takes a couple of seconds to unleash its potential fully, and then, it deals an X amount of damage while also silencing the target. However, if the enemy hero uses any spell before the Last Word triggers, it will automatically apply the spell to him. So, similar to the Arcane Curse, the best thing to do here is to avoid casting spells while you're under the effect of this.
• Global Silence is a very powerful ultimate that silences every single live enemy hero on the map. As the name suggests, it is applied globally, so there is no need to worry about being close to your targets.

Lastly, unlike many heroes in Dota 2, Silencer also has a passive skill that doesn't need to be leveled up. It's called Intelligence Steal, and it allows the hero to steal intelligence permanently from his enemies when they die near him. This means that he can stack a lot of this stat later on and do tons of damage with his attacks.

Counters and Items

The main heroes that you need to be on the lookout when you play Silencer are the ones that have a disable mechanism or that just deal too much damage. In other words, heroes such as Anti-Mage, Slark, Lifestealer, etc. can be extremely difficult to deal with because they just do too much damage and can bring you down in just a couple of seconds. On the other hand, Silencer excels against most casters in the game for obvious reasons. 

When it comes down to the item choice, it all depends on what position the hero is on. Of course, if he is playing mid, he needs to make DPC items, whereas if he is put on the support role, he has to pick up defensive items. With that said, here are a couple of very popular options:

• Hurricane Pike is an item that gives the hero range and survivability, two essential things. Regardless if you're playing support or not, this is an item that you must get.
• Glimmer's Cape is an item that's very popular among support players. It turns you invisible for a couple of seconds while also providing magical damage reduction.
• Black King Bar is a must for every core player, and Silencer is no exception here.
• Lastly, another very popular item for the core Silencer players is Orchid.  After all, this is the only silencing item in the game (apart from its upgrade - Bloodthorn), so it's essential to have it.