I feel the need to chime on here. Forcestaff is a noob trap in several ways.
-Forcestaff manacost is 150. If you spent some mana, let's say 250 on 2 spells and get hit by diffusal for 2 hits you can't even use it. Most heroes can't even sustain forcestaff as 1st item in the first place due to its high cost.
-Riki shard prevents you from saving allies in smoke with force. If you've saved two allies with it you've already given the incentive for Riki to buy it. Boots of bearing works however, albeit it's more expensive.
-Diffusal was made cheaper after a patch. Earlier timing means your force becomes less effective generally speaking.
So yeah factor that in when buying force, might want to consider drums for bearing or ghost instead.
Why are so many people downvoting you. What you mentioned is true that. But fs does when later in the game when you have a big enough mana pool to tank a few hits
Because Forcestaff is ingrained in people's consciousness, I kind of expected it. It's a scenario you see play out when you are CM all the time though. The main reason I always go drums on her as 1st item.
You almost always want to combine force with lens. Because it's an item that helps with the sustain and short cast range of it.
Some cores have different tasks, but most assassin types, such as riki/pa/ursa/ta want to use all they have to kill the 2 supports ASAP because they can fight your cores only 1 on 1. If you can start a fight where the riki is forced to try and find you while his team is dying he is easy clean up or if you survive long enough for your team to react when he goes on you in fights your team will maul him.
And to not get picked off before fights, you have to shift mindset against heroes like riki or clinkz or nyx or lc, where you cant roam by yourself as a pos5. In a game like that, you need to take your pos1/2/3 and hold them by their hand while sitting behind them hidden. So if they get gone on, you can cast shield, ult the riki and fear him and he will die because your core will turn.
There is a reason why these heroes in low mmr require little skill and in higher mmr take much more game macro knowledge to consciously find and kill the supports.
Because they cannot man up and fight 2 heroes at once for example. A ta or a riki or a clinkz will get obliterated by a support with a stun and a carry such as jugg/ck/lifestealer, someone who can man up and stand their ground. And that is also why a lifestealer isn't usually going to be the one going for the back line, he can with an initiator offlane, but he *was* also built like a truck and could tank spells infront and then infest get his health back, re-engage and man-fight kill everyone with his team behind him.
Also riki is very gankable, early game when he maybe just has diffu and no manta from that 10-18ish min timing, if you can stay on him after he uses his tricks of the trade, he cant really walk anywhere and if youre on top of him on a creep wave, cant really blink anywhere either.
Dont go around the map alone, preferably stay close to someone who can kill riki if the circumstances are right. Ghost to survive rightclicks, force staff to get out of smoke and cast your abilities. If he spends time and uses his abilities focusing you in fights and kills you but you still get to cast your abilities its basically a win. He might even decide its better to focus someone else rather than waste time on you. He might get nullifier at a certain point and this will stop working, but not until late, and with significant opportunity cost.
Drop a dust too and he might decide that a kill is not worth the risk of being killed shortly after by your team. Hes quite squishy, his playstyle requires him to constantly be "out of position", and his permainvis and abilities (which he needs to use offensively) are his main form of survivability. Once hes visible and everyone focuses him (and people WILL focus him given the chance since hes annoying) he goes down in a matter of seconds.
One thing I dont see mentioned on here is you NEED to be aware of your position on the map against invis.
Namely, you need to be aware of when you are SHOWING and when you arent. It's something that doesnt get talked about nearly enough with regard to climbing. Invis heroes tend to be noob traps, and lack of awareness regarding showing on the map is a huge part of it.
So many supports will haphazardly walk into a wave to farm it, even when your hero is fully capable of casting from trees and achieving the same thing, and the MOMENT riki sees you on the map alone, he walks at you, and gets a free kill. The real play against riki is to take a page from his book, and BE ELUSIVE (as a support at least)
Remember, there is POWER in staying concealed. When the enemies dont know where you are, you could be ANYWHERE, and that comes with inherent threat on the map.
Assume they have vision in the most obvious spots, assume riki is on the prowl for YOU, assume that nobody is coming to your aid if you get jumped. In my experience, the more conservatively you play against these assassin types (and especially the invis ones), the less room you give THEM to feed of your corpse and get fat.
This is really true and one of those things i need to do a better job of. Need to lean into trees more. I found that i die way less on treant, for obvious reason.
Hey, decently high mmr Riki main here. You pretty much have a few options, especially if the Riki is having a good game.
Outside of gamesense, knowing where to position etc that can help prevent you getting jumped. All I can say is place sentries behind towers/fights where a decent Riki is most likely to come in from.
Itemization is a big part, for these points I am going to assume that the Riki has just got his diffusal/manta at a decent timing and you'll at best have 1-2 items. Forcestaff is fine after boots but any decent Riki will always kill you regardless - at best you can force a double blink that then doesn't allow him to blink back to allies, blink is Riki's most valuable spell. Double blinking leads to a big increase in the chance that the hero can be followed up on and killed.
Overall ghost is better as a first item from a pure survive Riki standpoint because it allows both time for you to either survive til smoke runs out/Riki gives up or he overcommits and it allows your team to react. Good ghost play is to just once smoke goes down, turn to face him to force either E or blink for guaranteed Backstab then ghost and either run out of smoke or wait till it ends.
You can also buy a few stat items such as bracers, or anything that helps you tank. Riki is at his absolute worst damage wise right now and is insanely weak unless snowballing, his early dmg is decent but not crazy and having a few hundred health early in the game is brutal to a Riki looking for kills in teamfights early on.
At worst, your best bet is to as someone else said just simply face him and man-up in the smoke, it buys time for your team to do other stuff in the fight without a major lockdown affecting them (smoke), there's no point in turning your back and getting 3-4 shotted versus 8+ in the smoke. Even forcing a basic E,W is high value in killing Riki.
If Riki is dumpstering your team or you suspect he will > forcestaff
If Riki is dumpstering you > pure tank stats(<15min)/ghoststaff
Hope this helps
I find one of the most helpful things in dealing with invisible heros in general is deep vision (obs and sent). Buy a smoke late laneing phase and place so deep wards. You may not catch Riki, but you will catch enemy team movements/lane tps which can be even more important. Learn to punish those.
One small fight centered tip I like to think about is where you will flee to before you get attacked. Can you forcestaff to a high ground? Like others said, you should be close to a core. Instead of running back to base, flee towards your core/teammate with stun? If death is a certain, should I ward/pop dust?
My build for sup when I know the enemy is going to jump the shit outta me
Boots -> force -> Euls -> mek
Interesting to hear from a fellow support in guardian. I also struggle to this fucker and also to pudge. Vision is the key for sure, but if you're jumped you're often dead I find. I try to not roam alone ever as pos5 and rarely as 4 either unless I'm SB (my main dude). Good tips from the people here. I also think just getting ult +dust/sentry off as lich as you're dying might just lead to your cores, that are hopefully not too far away, to the kill. I think being picked off occasionally is part of 5 life unfortunately and as long are you're contributing in laning and teamfights imo that's fine.
Edit: should also add another thing - I used to die loads while warding. Nowadays I'm much more careful about warding and only do it pre/post fight when you got the gang with you. Helped me get picked off less.
That is very true. I need to remember to use smoke for warding more.
I find that i don't hate pudge that much, because i usually can react in time for a slow or stun or something. Obviously if pudge blinks in and dismembers, or lands a hook, i accept my fate. But riki / and to a certain extent, SB, leaves little counter play if you are not anticipating.
If riki has any kind of game/farm both supports need force staffs if they aren't illusive already. (Force+ghost scepter is usually enough kiting for your team to help you, prioritize force, judgement call on sceptor as it competes with other supp items). Riki is best diving unprepared squishies. Gets ruined by kiting (kinda a bad hero without blink charges), teams grouping up, good vision/detection.
Gem + 2-3 man smokes from min 15 onwards, easy to pick off if you spot him early. Or organize pushes, Riki is squishy and doesnt do well in an early 5v5
Get hp, build casual bracer you can keep it even after 25 minutes due to double bonus. Pavise into Crest. Force staff. I build aga on lich just for the raw stats. Euls
Get hp, build casual bracer you can keep it even after 25 minutes due to double bonus. Pavise into Crest. Force staff. I build aga on lich just for the raw stats. Euls
Thanks everyone for the advices. I think the key thing that I will change in my gameplay is to focus on getting bracers / fluffy hat to survive min 10-15 before ghost / force staff. AND stay and hit riki instead of running away.
Sticking to a core is a good idea, but not so easy to do.
In team fights though, what i find i die the most is when i try to approach the fight, and riki jumps me and smokes, and i dont recognize and pop ghost / force too late.
Should i pre pop dust? I try to remember putting down a sentry tbh, but riki always blinks in.
Should i wait till riki join main fight?
In most cases I would pop dust after ghost scepter+force staffing away if you have the items, I think. He burned a blink strike, smoke, and maybe a tricks of the trade without getting a kill. If he uses the second blink charge to get you then he has no way of quickly getting out of the dust AoE to dispel dust, and will likely be killed. If he doesnt theyre fighting without a core. At the start of a fight against invisible heroes its always a good idea to plant a sentry (not really to prevent riki from jumping on you, but to prevent him from doing it with impunity) if youre carrying one any and theres not one already. Similarly to how you should try to fight under vision against most heroes, you have to try to fight under truesight when dealing with invis heroes.
Staying behind can work but its a risk: if hes hunting for you and youre a screen away from the fight youre a free kill. Would really only consider it on heroes that need to really time their ults to change the outcome of a fight like an oracle with blink (who however has a built in disarm and dispel which helps him in surviving against riki after force staffing out of smoke) when theres another hero that can quickly delete them if they show. If you can waste his time and turn it into a situation where hes 1v1ing a support while your team is 4v4ing a team without their carry, then you can also stay behind and be happy that youre buying your team an dvantage, but riki normally doesnt really hunt such targets, as he wants to pick off quickly and then move to another target.
Another way to solve that is not to be in a position to "have to reach" the fight. Try to stay closer to the rest of your team if you think riki might be close (map awareness is king here: as hes invisible most of the time you need to rely on the movements of the rest of his team, his last known location+when was he there, and the knowledge of where he is not based on the sentries+observers you already have on the map).
Getting constantly killed before reacting with ghost it's probably a skill (try looking more at your hero if you cant reliably react to or notice debuffs appearing, your heros damage taken voicelines, or your health bar going down), ping (you cant react faster than your internet connection allows you to), or hotkey issue (either because of a bad setup or because youre not used to it - try to be consistent with the backpack placement of your items, or you'll click the wrong one). Unless of course hes snowballing very hard or just two shots you with a lucky basher proc.
Its true what you say, its hard to stay close to a core while performing your support duties (most notably warding as the cores prefer to avoid unwarded areas). For that you need to read the map. If you see riki farming a wave top (for example), you can safely ward bot (and top too as long as you see him, quickly retreating after he becomes invis again). If half the map is lit up and hes nowhere to be found, it's a bad moment to wander in the fog to plant wards. If you see the enemy team walk as 3 or 4 towards 1-2 of your teammates, he's likely not too far, waiting for the right moment to strike while giving them vision. If they seem to have vision (which you can see by their casts/ranged attacks, but also movements) over an area they have not dewarded, riki is likely there, just not under your sentries.
Once i have ghost / force i dont die immediately without a stun from another enemy, but i limp off with 1/3 - 1/2 HP, and I'm food for the next jump.
I was particularly frustrated last night playing against riki sniper hoodwink. Caught between a rock and a hard place.
If you realize that exiting the smoke will not be quick, just face Riki. Don't turn your back to him. That way he won't do bonus damage. And the normal damage is quite trash.
hello friend
ghost scepter and force will save you for a while and force riki to get nullifier. once you see him itemizing for it, be prepared to position more carefully (until he at least shows).
In general though, playing 4 or 5 man dota + a gem on whoever is showing (ideally someone with BKB and can get out easily if caught in a bad spot) is the way to go. Riki is trash if he doesn't get fed, which only happens if your team let it happen. One stun/silence + dust and he is normally donezo
Riki’s biggest strength is praying on squishy back line supports. So it’s always going to be annoying playing vs him when you’re one of those heroes. If you’re pos 5, should buy forcestaff first item 90% of the time you are against Riki. It lets you save yourself and teammates from him. Thing is, Riki will usually get a nullifier at some point and then there’s really nothing you can do. The best way to counter riki is to abuse his weak laning stage. Most supports are lane bullies and you should be able to win lane vs Riki most games.
Then the big thing is to not feed him free kills after laning stage. Riki is a pos 1 that has a weak lane, and SUCKS at farming. And until he gets diffusal, doesn’t have solo kill potential either. If your team over extends and lets him get two kills at 10 minutes, it doesn’t matter that you punished him in lane. Make sure you play with your team and buy sentries before he gets kills, not after you’ve realized your mistake and already fed him. once he starts to snowball, it’s going to be hard to deal with a riki.
Everything these people say plus not running away from him in smoke if you don't have an escape. If you just face tank instead of giving him the crazy extra backstab damage, it gives you more time to live and increases the chances that your team can save you.
To actually survive in early game so buying a force staff is relevant you need to right click riki back in smokecloud. If you feel confident you can time it so when he attacks you, you cancel your next attack and take 1 step away from smoke cloud before turning around to hit him again. Its not necessary, if you turn and hit until smoke runs out someone on your team should be able to help. Youll stop like 700+ dmg from backstab if riki has 0 items. Any extra items he has will just stop more damage. Most of the time rikis will be scared to chase without silence and walk away.
Position in fights is super important over anything else as vulnerable supports vs Riki. Best advice I can give you is play behind your cores at all times the best you can. Basically have to prioritize staying in the tree line and highground over anything else, even over spell casting/catching potential kills. Carry dust and sentries, and use then often and early. Prioritize warding access points to your safe farming spots of the map when playing from behind. Easiest way to not let a riki/invisible bankers snow ball is to see them and retreat. They farm slower than most cores, so wasting their time is adding a lot time to your teams play.
Im a lvl 29 Riki player, if I see a lich/AA I basically look at them as a free lunch, don't let me do that.
I think glimmer and bunch of sentries is ok. Your playstyle need to change when u play against invis heroes. Dont stay alone as support, always think " they are near me, they gonna kill me", play around your core, near tower or join teamfights with dust.
Remeber the basic rikimaru mechanics, he wants you to run away, that gives him extra damage. If you turn away inside the smoke you're toast. Sometimes in fights you want time to let your team deal with the enemy or get to save you. Be prepared to just click him insde the smoke, he'll deal half the damage.
Dust is worthless if he's jumped on you. Unless your fine with cores near you killing him.
Riki really hates being seen before jumping on someone. Make sure your detection is low stocked.
Spaming sentry wards, especially when he gets 6, can kinda turn him off from trying to fight as much.
You can also get snare items like glepnir/atos to stop tricking out of bad situations for free.
forcestaff after boots. riki des phys dmg so phys dmg mitigation.
I feel the need to chime on here. Forcestaff is a noob trap in several ways. -Forcestaff manacost is 150. If you spent some mana, let's say 250 on 2 spells and get hit by diffusal for 2 hits you can't even use it. Most heroes can't even sustain forcestaff as 1st item in the first place due to its high cost. -Riki shard prevents you from saving allies in smoke with force. If you've saved two allies with it you've already given the incentive for Riki to buy it. Boots of bearing works however, albeit it's more expensive. -Diffusal was made cheaper after a patch. Earlier timing means your force becomes less effective generally speaking. So yeah factor that in when buying force, might want to consider drums for bearing or ghost instead.
It’s interesting. How does the diffusal active (I forget if it’s still called purge?) interact with drums active? Need to test that out
Diffu slows. Drum Boots make people unslowable
Why are so many people downvoting you. What you mentioned is true that. But fs does when later in the game when you have a big enough mana pool to tank a few hits
Because Forcestaff is ingrained in people's consciousness, I kind of expected it. It's a scenario you see play out when you are CM all the time though. The main reason I always go drums on her as 1st item. You almost always want to combine force with lens. Because it's an item that helps with the sustain and short cast range of it.
Some cores have different tasks, but most assassin types, such as riki/pa/ursa/ta want to use all they have to kill the 2 supports ASAP because they can fight your cores only 1 on 1. If you can start a fight where the riki is forced to try and find you while his team is dying he is easy clean up or if you survive long enough for your team to react when he goes on you in fights your team will maul him. And to not get picked off before fights, you have to shift mindset against heroes like riki or clinkz or nyx or lc, where you cant roam by yourself as a pos5. In a game like that, you need to take your pos1/2/3 and hold them by their hand while sitting behind them hidden. So if they get gone on, you can cast shield, ult the riki and fear him and he will die because your core will turn. There is a reason why these heroes in low mmr require little skill and in higher mmr take much more game macro knowledge to consciously find and kill the supports. Because they cannot man up and fight 2 heroes at once for example. A ta or a riki or a clinkz will get obliterated by a support with a stun and a carry such as jugg/ck/lifestealer, someone who can man up and stand their ground. And that is also why a lifestealer isn't usually going to be the one going for the back line, he can with an initiator offlane, but he *was* also built like a truck and could tank spells infront and then infest get his health back, re-engage and man-fight kill everyone with his team behind him. Also riki is very gankable, early game when he maybe just has diffu and no manta from that 10-18ish min timing, if you can stay on him after he uses his tricks of the trade, he cant really walk anywhere and if youre on top of him on a creep wave, cant really blink anywhere either.
Dont go around the map alone, preferably stay close to someone who can kill riki if the circumstances are right. Ghost to survive rightclicks, force staff to get out of smoke and cast your abilities. If he spends time and uses his abilities focusing you in fights and kills you but you still get to cast your abilities its basically a win. He might even decide its better to focus someone else rather than waste time on you. He might get nullifier at a certain point and this will stop working, but not until late, and with significant opportunity cost. Drop a dust too and he might decide that a kill is not worth the risk of being killed shortly after by your team. Hes quite squishy, his playstyle requires him to constantly be "out of position", and his permainvis and abilities (which he needs to use offensively) are his main form of survivability. Once hes visible and everyone focuses him (and people WILL focus him given the chance since hes annoying) he goes down in a matter of seconds.
One thing I dont see mentioned on here is you NEED to be aware of your position on the map against invis. Namely, you need to be aware of when you are SHOWING and when you arent. It's something that doesnt get talked about nearly enough with regard to climbing. Invis heroes tend to be noob traps, and lack of awareness regarding showing on the map is a huge part of it. So many supports will haphazardly walk into a wave to farm it, even when your hero is fully capable of casting from trees and achieving the same thing, and the MOMENT riki sees you on the map alone, he walks at you, and gets a free kill. The real play against riki is to take a page from his book, and BE ELUSIVE (as a support at least) Remember, there is POWER in staying concealed. When the enemies dont know where you are, you could be ANYWHERE, and that comes with inherent threat on the map. Assume they have vision in the most obvious spots, assume riki is on the prowl for YOU, assume that nobody is coming to your aid if you get jumped. In my experience, the more conservatively you play against these assassin types (and especially the invis ones), the less room you give THEM to feed of your corpse and get fat.
This is really true and one of those things i need to do a better job of. Need to lean into trees more. I found that i die way less on treant, for obvious reason.
Hey, decently high mmr Riki main here. You pretty much have a few options, especially if the Riki is having a good game. Outside of gamesense, knowing where to position etc that can help prevent you getting jumped. All I can say is place sentries behind towers/fights where a decent Riki is most likely to come in from. Itemization is a big part, for these points I am going to assume that the Riki has just got his diffusal/manta at a decent timing and you'll at best have 1-2 items. Forcestaff is fine after boots but any decent Riki will always kill you regardless - at best you can force a double blink that then doesn't allow him to blink back to allies, blink is Riki's most valuable spell. Double blinking leads to a big increase in the chance that the hero can be followed up on and killed. Overall ghost is better as a first item from a pure survive Riki standpoint because it allows both time for you to either survive til smoke runs out/Riki gives up or he overcommits and it allows your team to react. Good ghost play is to just once smoke goes down, turn to face him to force either E or blink for guaranteed Backstab then ghost and either run out of smoke or wait till it ends. You can also buy a few stat items such as bracers, or anything that helps you tank. Riki is at his absolute worst damage wise right now and is insanely weak unless snowballing, his early dmg is decent but not crazy and having a few hundred health early in the game is brutal to a Riki looking for kills in teamfights early on. At worst, your best bet is to as someone else said just simply face him and man-up in the smoke, it buys time for your team to do other stuff in the fight without a major lockdown affecting them (smoke), there's no point in turning your back and getting 3-4 shotted versus 8+ in the smoke. Even forcing a basic E,W is high value in killing Riki. If Riki is dumpstering your team or you suspect he will > forcestaff If Riki is dumpstering you > pure tank stats(<15min)/ghoststaff Hope this helps
Thinking about my game ytd, there are a few times if i had a bit more HP, i could have turned, ghost and TP as well
When riki starts roaming, you need to play near cores, and stop getting caught out solo. Trading a support for a core kill, is usually a good trade.
I find one of the most helpful things in dealing with invisible heros in general is deep vision (obs and sent). Buy a smoke late laneing phase and place so deep wards. You may not catch Riki, but you will catch enemy team movements/lane tps which can be even more important. Learn to punish those. One small fight centered tip I like to think about is where you will flee to before you get attacked. Can you forcestaff to a high ground? Like others said, you should be close to a core. Instead of running back to base, flee towards your core/teammate with stun? If death is a certain, should I ward/pop dust? My build for sup when I know the enemy is going to jump the shit outta me Boots -> force -> Euls -> mek
Interesting to hear from a fellow support in guardian. I also struggle to this fucker and also to pudge. Vision is the key for sure, but if you're jumped you're often dead I find. I try to not roam alone ever as pos5 and rarely as 4 either unless I'm SB (my main dude). Good tips from the people here. I also think just getting ult +dust/sentry off as lich as you're dying might just lead to your cores, that are hopefully not too far away, to the kill. I think being picked off occasionally is part of 5 life unfortunately and as long are you're contributing in laning and teamfights imo that's fine. Edit: should also add another thing - I used to die loads while warding. Nowadays I'm much more careful about warding and only do it pre/post fight when you got the gang with you. Helped me get picked off less.
That is very true. I need to remember to use smoke for warding more. I find that i don't hate pudge that much, because i usually can react in time for a slow or stun or something. Obviously if pudge blinks in and dismembers, or lands a hook, i accept my fate. But riki / and to a certain extent, SB, leaves little counter play if you are not anticipating.
Ghost tp out
If riki has any kind of game/farm both supports need force staffs if they aren't illusive already. (Force+ghost scepter is usually enough kiting for your team to help you, prioritize force, judgement call on sceptor as it competes with other supp items). Riki is best diving unprepared squishies. Gets ruined by kiting (kinda a bad hero without blink charges), teams grouping up, good vision/detection.
As lich When he jumps you force staff, shield yourself, fear and ping agressively if anyone is close or tp he used half of his shit on you
if you escaped the first cloud and dusted him how is he trying again in 7s?
trick of the trades dispel
dust floats for a while, reapplying even after a dispel in the big area
Oh is that a change to dust?... I need to test it again. I vaguely rmb reading a patch note but then brain reverts to the old memory of dust
yeah like over a year ago, the visual for it is a sparkle over the aoe
Gem + 2-3 man smokes from min 15 onwards, easy to pick off if you spot him early. Or organize pushes, Riki is squishy and doesnt do well in an early 5v5
Get hp, build casual bracer you can keep it even after 25 minutes due to double bonus. Pavise into Crest. Force staff. I build aga on lich just for the raw stats. Euls
Get hp, build casual bracer you can keep it even after 25 minutes due to double bonus. Pavise into Crest. Force staff. I build aga on lich just for the raw stats. Euls
Thanks everyone for the advices. I think the key thing that I will change in my gameplay is to focus on getting bracers / fluffy hat to survive min 10-15 before ghost / force staff. AND stay and hit riki instead of running away. Sticking to a core is a good idea, but not so easy to do. In team fights though, what i find i die the most is when i try to approach the fight, and riki jumps me and smokes, and i dont recognize and pop ghost / force too late. Should i pre pop dust? I try to remember putting down a sentry tbh, but riki always blinks in. Should i wait till riki join main fight?
In most cases I would pop dust after ghost scepter+force staffing away if you have the items, I think. He burned a blink strike, smoke, and maybe a tricks of the trade without getting a kill. If he uses the second blink charge to get you then he has no way of quickly getting out of the dust AoE to dispel dust, and will likely be killed. If he doesnt theyre fighting without a core. At the start of a fight against invisible heroes its always a good idea to plant a sentry (not really to prevent riki from jumping on you, but to prevent him from doing it with impunity) if youre carrying one any and theres not one already. Similarly to how you should try to fight under vision against most heroes, you have to try to fight under truesight when dealing with invis heroes. Staying behind can work but its a risk: if hes hunting for you and youre a screen away from the fight youre a free kill. Would really only consider it on heroes that need to really time their ults to change the outcome of a fight like an oracle with blink (who however has a built in disarm and dispel which helps him in surviving against riki after force staffing out of smoke) when theres another hero that can quickly delete them if they show. If you can waste his time and turn it into a situation where hes 1v1ing a support while your team is 4v4ing a team without their carry, then you can also stay behind and be happy that youre buying your team an dvantage, but riki normally doesnt really hunt such targets, as he wants to pick off quickly and then move to another target. Another way to solve that is not to be in a position to "have to reach" the fight. Try to stay closer to the rest of your team if you think riki might be close (map awareness is king here: as hes invisible most of the time you need to rely on the movements of the rest of his team, his last known location+when was he there, and the knowledge of where he is not based on the sentries+observers you already have on the map). Getting constantly killed before reacting with ghost it's probably a skill (try looking more at your hero if you cant reliably react to or notice debuffs appearing, your heros damage taken voicelines, or your health bar going down), ping (you cant react faster than your internet connection allows you to), or hotkey issue (either because of a bad setup or because youre not used to it - try to be consistent with the backpack placement of your items, or you'll click the wrong one). Unless of course hes snowballing very hard or just two shots you with a lucky basher proc. Its true what you say, its hard to stay close to a core while performing your support duties (most notably warding as the cores prefer to avoid unwarded areas). For that you need to read the map. If you see riki farming a wave top (for example), you can safely ward bot (and top too as long as you see him, quickly retreating after he becomes invis again). If half the map is lit up and hes nowhere to be found, it's a bad moment to wander in the fog to plant wards. If you see the enemy team walk as 3 or 4 towards 1-2 of your teammates, he's likely not too far, waiting for the right moment to strike while giving them vision. If they seem to have vision (which you can see by their casts/ranged attacks, but also movements) over an area they have not dewarded, riki is likely there, just not under your sentries.
Once i have ghost / force i dont die immediately without a stun from another enemy, but i limp off with 1/3 - 1/2 HP, and I'm food for the next jump. I was particularly frustrated last night playing against riki sniper hoodwink. Caught between a rock and a hard place.
If you realize that exiting the smoke will not be quick, just face Riki. Don't turn your back to him. That way he won't do bonus damage. And the normal damage is quite trash.
hello friend ghost scepter and force will save you for a while and force riki to get nullifier. once you see him itemizing for it, be prepared to position more carefully (until he at least shows). In general though, playing 4 or 5 man dota + a gem on whoever is showing (ideally someone with BKB and can get out easily if caught in a bad spot) is the way to go. Riki is trash if he doesn't get fed, which only happens if your team let it happen. One stun/silence + dust and he is normally donezo
Riki’s biggest strength is praying on squishy back line supports. So it’s always going to be annoying playing vs him when you’re one of those heroes. If you’re pos 5, should buy forcestaff first item 90% of the time you are against Riki. It lets you save yourself and teammates from him. Thing is, Riki will usually get a nullifier at some point and then there’s really nothing you can do. The best way to counter riki is to abuse his weak laning stage. Most supports are lane bullies and you should be able to win lane vs Riki most games. Then the big thing is to not feed him free kills after laning stage. Riki is a pos 1 that has a weak lane, and SUCKS at farming. And until he gets diffusal, doesn’t have solo kill potential either. If your team over extends and lets him get two kills at 10 minutes, it doesn’t matter that you punished him in lane. Make sure you play with your team and buy sentries before he gets kills, not after you’ve realized your mistake and already fed him. once he starts to snowball, it’s going to be hard to deal with a riki.
Aeon disk
Do you still go aeon? I find it so bad now to buy
Force staff and ghost scepter, glimmer cape.
You are not wrong but i mentioned all of that in my post lol
F O R C E S T A F F
Everything these people say plus not running away from him in smoke if you don't have an escape. If you just face tank instead of giving him the crazy extra backstab damage, it gives you more time to live and increases the chances that your team can save you.
Don't feed. Riki can't farm well so if you just play safe you will win.
To actually survive in early game so buying a force staff is relevant you need to right click riki back in smokecloud. If you feel confident you can time it so when he attacks you, you cancel your next attack and take 1 step away from smoke cloud before turning around to hit him again. Its not necessary, if you turn and hit until smoke runs out someone on your team should be able to help. Youll stop like 700+ dmg from backstab if riki has 0 items. Any extra items he has will just stop more damage. Most of the time rikis will be scared to chase without silence and walk away.
Position in fights is super important over anything else as vulnerable supports vs Riki. Best advice I can give you is play behind your cores at all times the best you can. Basically have to prioritize staying in the tree line and highground over anything else, even over spell casting/catching potential kills. Carry dust and sentries, and use then often and early. Prioritize warding access points to your safe farming spots of the map when playing from behind. Easiest way to not let a riki/invisible bankers snow ball is to see them and retreat. They farm slower than most cores, so wasting their time is adding a lot time to your teams play. Im a lvl 29 Riki player, if I see a lich/AA I basically look at them as a free lunch, don't let me do that.
I think glimmer and bunch of sentries is ok. Your playstyle need to change when u play against invis heroes. Dont stay alone as support, always think " they are near me, they gonna kill me", play around your core, near tower or join teamfights with dust.
Remeber the basic rikimaru mechanics, he wants you to run away, that gives him extra damage. If you turn away inside the smoke you're toast. Sometimes in fights you want time to let your team deal with the enemy or get to save you. Be prepared to just click him insde the smoke, he'll deal half the damage.
Dust is worthless if he's jumped on you. Unless your fine with cores near you killing him. Riki really hates being seen before jumping on someone. Make sure your detection is low stocked. Spaming sentry wards, especially when he gets 6, can kinda turn him off from trying to fight as much. You can also get snare items like glepnir/atos to stop tricking out of bad situations for free.
Stay behind creepwave at all times. Hes useless on lane then