Ancient Apparition
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Ancient Apparition
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Kaldr, the Ancient Apparition, is a ranged intelligence hero who is most commonly played as a support. Though very frail, this icy elemental caster possesses great range on his spells (including an ultimate that can be used anywhere on the map), and strong semi-spammable spells. Cold Feet places a debuff on an enemy which will stun the unit unless it leaves the area the skill was cast. This can be devastating when used in conjunction with other disables from allies. Ice Vortex is a spammable zoning ability, applying a heavy slow and magic damage amplification to all enemies standing near the vortex. This is great in combination with Chilling Touch, which buffs Kaldr and his allies with enhanced magic damage for several regular attacks. His ultimate, Ice Blast, is an area-of-effect ultimate and one of the most devastating spells in the game as it has a global range and increases in radius the further the blast lands from the Ancient Apparition. Enemies struck by the blast will take hefty damage, have their health regeneration completely frozen for a respectable duration, and are killed instantly if they fall too low on life, making the Ancient Apparition an excellent counter to heroes who rely on sustaining themselves in teamfights through healing and regeneration.
Contents
Bio[edit]
 Kaldr, the Ancient Apparition
| |
| Play "One day, ice will cover these lands, and it will be as if this war never happened." | |
| Role: |  Support /  Disabler /  Nuker
|
| Lore: | Kaldr, the Ancient Apparition, is an image projected from outside time. He springs from the cold, infinite void that both predates the universe and awaits its end. Kaldr is, Kaldr was, Kaldr shall be… and what we perceive, powerful as it appears to us, is but the faintest faded echo of the true, eternal Kaldr. Some believe that as the cosmos ages and approaches its final moments, the brightness and power of Kaldr will also intensify—that the Ancient Apparition will grow younger and stronger as eternity's end draws nigh. His grip of ice will bring all matter to a stop, his image will cast a light too terrible to behold. An Apparition no longer! |
| Voice: | John Patrick Lowrie (Responses) |
Gameplay[edit]
Ancient Apparition is considered an efficient ganker for his very powerful abilities, despite each of them requiring precision and good timing to reach their full potential. Because his spells work very well with those of other heroes, a good ganking partner can easily ensure kills on most heroes. Kaldr is also a good support because of his Chilling Touch ability, which gives a large amount of bonus magic damage to his teammates' attacks, but more importantly for his Ice Vortex, which slows and helps him and his team deal more damage. He can also be an Initiator by using his ultimate, but to do so effectively requires more strategy and coordination with your team.
Ancient Apparition is recommended for Intermediate/Advanced players because he requires large amounts of map knowledge to maximize the use of his ultimate, but also to avoid getting ganked because he does not have any true escape mechanism. Because his abilities are most powerful when cast in succession, pulling off quick ability combos is very helpful. Consequently, he requires lots of mana management because casting all of his spells in combination can consume a lot of mana, which can leave you unable to cast any more spells until you replenish.
Ancient Apparition can solo mid fairly effectively because of his lane dominance through harassing and denying using Chilling Touch, but side-laning is most viable, especially with a partner who can disable. He shines most during the Early & Mid-Game phases because his abilities are naturally strong while laning and valuable even with only one skill point into them. Ancient Apparition does not require as many items as other heroes either. He is good with just his abilities and therefore does not need to farm very much. Even the most rudimentary items are all that this hero really needs. Because of his mana issues, a few good mana-regen items could help. Despite how good he is early on, he is not necessarily less good during the late game. In fact, he can be extremely helpful during later teamfights as his ultimate scales, shattering enemies based on % health, not just a flat amount. As well as this Ancient Apparition has a potent Aghanim's Scepter upgrade which further increases his potential as a late game support.
Abilities[edit]
Cold Feet
Places a frozen hex on an enemy unit that deals damage over time, but can be dispelled by moving away from the initial cast point. If the enemy unit doesn't move out of the given range, it will be stunned and frozen in place after 4 seconds.
Cast Animation: 0.01+0
Cast Range: 700/800/900/1000
Break Distance: 740
Damage per Tick: 30/50/70/90
Damage Duration: 4
Stun Duration: 2/2.5/3/3.5
Number of Charges: 0 (
4)
4)Charge Replenish Time: 0 ( 10/9/8/7)
10/9/8/7)
10/ 0)
125
Attempts to damage, but does not stun if debuff was placed before spell immunity and when not dispelled.Modifiers
Cold Feet: Dispellable with any dispel. Coldfeet Freeze: Dispellable with strong dispels.Kaldr's presence draws those around him into a frozen void, threatening to lock them in an icy prison for eternity.
Notes:
- Cold Feet places an initial debuff on the target and places an icy marker at its current position upon cast.
- As long as the target stays within 740 radius of the mark, it takes damage from the debuff and after 4 seconds it is stunned.
- If the target moves 740 range away from the mark at any point during the initial debuff, the spell completely stops, removing the debuff and the marker.
- This means even when the target moves back within range, it is not frozen or damaged further.
- Cold Feet cannot be cast on units which already have the Cold Feet modifier or the Cold Feet Freeze modifier on them.
- Deals damage in 1 second intervals, starting immediately upon cast, resulting in 4 instances.
- The stun is applied 1 second after the last instance.
- Can deal up to 120/200/280/360 damage to the target (before reductions).
- Choosing the talent which replaces the cooldown with charges does not affect the ability's currently running cooldown. It does not get refreshed.
Ice Vortex
Ability
Target Area
Target Area
Affects
Enemies
Enemies
Creates a vortex of icy energy that slows movement speed and increases magic damage done in its range. Lasts 16 seconds.
Cast Animation: 0.01+0
Cast Range: 1500
Effect Radius: 275
Move Speed Slow/Increase: 15%/20%/25%/30% ( 23%/28%/33%/38%)
23%/28%/33%/38%)Magic Resistance Reduction: 15%/20%/25%/30% ( 23%/28%/33%/38%)
23%/28%/33%/38%)Vortex Duration: 16
4 ( 3) 80/
Slow and magic resistance reduction persist if debuff was placed before spell immunity.Affects Ancient Apparition while spell immune.
Modifiers
Ice Vortex: Undispellable.Frozen, caustic winds are at the whim of Kaldr, chilling the field of battle.
Notes:
- All effects are provided by an aura. The modifier lingers for 0.5 seconds. The aura uses only one modifier.
- On enemies, the modifier slows and reduces magic resistance. On Ancient Apparition, it increases movement speed.
- Reduces most heroes' total magic resistance to 13.75%/10%/6.25%/2.5% ( 7.75%/4%/0.25%/-3.5%), assuming basic 25% magic resistance and no other sources of magic resistance.
- Reduces
Meepo's and 
Visage's total magic resistance to 25.25%/22%/18.75%/15.5% ( 20.05%/16.8%/13.55%/10.3%) and -3.5%/-8%/-12.5%/-17% ( -10.7%/-15.2%/-19.7%/-24.2%) respectively, assuming their basic magic resistance and no other sources of magic resistance.
- Successive casts of Ice Vortex do not stack. A unit can only be affected by one of them even when multiple of them are overlapping.
- For the caster, this also means that standing within the own and an enemy Ice Vortex does not provide both effects to the caster.
- Which effect is provided within the overlapping area is decided by which one affected the hero first.
- When leaving the overlapping area, the modifier updates after its linger time, based on which area the hero still stands in.
- Provides 200 radius ground vision at the targeted point for its duration.
- Choosing the cooldown reducing talent does not affect the ability's currently running cooldown.
- Choosing the speed change and resistance reduction increasing talent immediately upgrades all of Ancient Apparition's currently active Ice Vortexes, including already placed modifier.
Chilling Touch
A frigid gust enchants allied heroes, granting them bonus magical damage for a given number of physical attacks, while slowing their attack speed slightly. Ancient Apparition always receives the buff. Lasts 30 seconds.
Cast Animation: 0.01+0
Cast Range: 800
Radius: 525
Number of Attacks: 3/4/5/6
Damage per Attack: 50/60/70/80 ( 150/160/170/180)
150/160/170/180)Attack Speed Slow: 20
Duration: 30
50/ 110/Modifiers
Chilling Touch: Dispellable with any dispel.The Ancient Apparition's eternal knowledge brings a frigid enchantment to his allies.
Notes:
- Chilling Touch places a buff on allied heroes within the area which enchants their attacks. Leaving or entering the area after cast has no effect.
- The buff is only placed on allied heroes (including Meepo clones and
Tempest Doubles), but not on illusions.
- The buff is always placed on Ancient Apparition, even when he was outside the targeted area.
- The damage is dealt as a separate damage instance before the attack damage is dealt, but relies on the attack to hit.
- This means when an attack misses, or is disjointed, no damage is dealt but the number of attacks remaining is also unreduced.
- Only successful hits reduce the number of left attacks and apply the damage.
- The damage source is set to be the attacking hero, not Ancient Apparition.
- The damage does not hit buildings or wards, and attacks against them do not reduce the number of attacks remaining.
- Can deal up to 150/240/350/480 ( 450/640/850/1080) damage per buffed ally, and 750/1200/1750/2400 ( 2250/3200/4250/5400) damage with 5 buffed heroes (before reductions).
- Recasting Chilling Touch refreshes the buff duration, resets the number of attacks, and updates the number of attacks and damage bonus based on the current level and talents.
- Ancient Apparition or a buffed ally can remove the buff by left-clicking on its icon in the status bar.
- Choosing the damage upgrading talent does not upgrade Ancient Apparition's already placed Chilling Touch buffs.
Ice Blast
Launches a tracer towards any location of the battlefield, which must be triggered again to mark the area to be blasted by a damaging explosion of hail. The further the tracer travels, the larger the explosion will be. Enemies caught in the explosion, or who touched the icy ball of hail as it travels, are frostbitten, taking damage and prevented from regenerating or healing. If a frostbitten unit's health drops below a certain percentage, they will instantly shatter.
Cast Animation: 0.01+1.07
Cast Range: Global
Projectile Radius: 275
Min Explosion Radius: 275
Max Explosion Radius: 1000
Explosion Damage: 250/350/450
Damage per Second: 12.5/20/32
Percentage Health Kill Threshold: 10%/11%/12%
Duration: 8/9/10 (
17)
17) 40 100/
Increases frostbite duration. Initial damage does not attempt to damage spell immune enemies. Places debuff and can shatter spell immune enemies. Debuff attempts to damage spell immune enemies.Modifiers
Ice Blast: Undispellable.Ice storms from ages past flow through Kaldr's frosty limbs, crashing into the world and turning its inhabitants into monuments to his eternal power.
Notes:
- Upon cast, Ice Blast is replaced by the sub-skill
Release.
- The tracer projectile travels at a speed of 1500 until Release is cast, Ancient Apparition dies, or it reaches the map boundaries.
- The tracer has invisibility and is never visible to enemies. However, with True Sight, enemies can see the projectile as a dot on their minimap.
- The invisibility also causes the typical shockwave effect caused by some invisibility sources, which is visible to the enemies if they have True Sight.
- The tracer projectile itself is harmless. It neither deals damage, nor places the debuff.
- The explosion radius starts at 275 and increases by 50 for every second the tracer has traveled, capped at 1000 radius.
- Thus, it takes at least 15 seconds to reach the maximum radius, equaling 22500 units traveled.
- The tracer provides 500 radius flying vision around itself as it travels. This vision does not last.
- The tracer blocks neutral creep camps. The dome indicating the area and the second projectile do not.
- The debuff is only placed on heroes, clones and creep-heroes, but not on illusions.
- The debuff can also be placed on spell immune or invulnerable, but not on hidden units.
- Unlike the debuff, the explosion damage hits all enemy units, including creeps, excluding buildings and wards.
- The debuff prevents the current health of affected units to increase in any way. The only exceptions are
Sunder, 
Decay, 
Time Lapse, 
Supernova and 
Whirling Death.
- Units with the debuff on die instantly when their health drops below the threshold. The kill is credited to the source of the damage which brought them below the threshold.
- However, if it was caused by self-inflicted damage, Ancient Apparition is credited for the kill.
-
Shallow Grave prevents affected units from dying to the shatter for its duration. Invulnerable units cannot shatter.
- The debuff deals damage in 1 second intervals, starting 1 second after the debuff is applied, resulting in 8/9/10 ( 17) instances.
- The debuff itself can deal up to 100/180/320 ( 212.5/340/544) damage (before reductions).
- Together with the explosion, Ice Blast can deal up to 350/530/770 ( 462.5/690/994) damage (before reductions).
Release
Ability
No Target
No Target
Releases the ice blast to explode at the tracer's current location.
Cast Animation: 0.01+1.1
1Notes:
- Replaces
Ice Blast until the sub-spell is cast or the tracer disappears.
- The cast of Release is not registered as a spell cast and thus does not proc any on-cast effects.
- Has an instant cast time, but interrupts Ancient Apparition's channeling spells upon cast.
- Upon cast, the tracer stops travelling and marks the total area hit by the explosion once the icy ball of hail reaches its position.
- It also provides 650 radius flying vision at that position for 4 seconds.
- The icy ball of hail travels at a speed of 750, or reaches the targeted point 2 seconds after launch, whichever is faster.
- The icy ball is only released when Release is cast, or when Ancient Apparition dies while the tracer is still travelling.
- It is not released when the tracer reaches the map boundary. In this case, the spell is wasted.
- Every enemy unit which comes within 275 radius of the icy ball as it travels, or is hit by the explosion gets the Frostbitten debuff.
- The icy ball is fully visible to enemies. But unlike the tracer, it is not visible on the minimap.
- The icy ball provides 500 radius flying vision as it travels, which lasts for 3 seconds.
Talents[edit]
| Hero Talents | ||
|---|---|---|
+100  Chilling Touch Damage
|
25 | 4 Charges of  Cold Feet
|
+8%  Ice Vortex Slow/Resistance
|
20 | +400 Health |
| +30 Health Regen | 15 | -1s Ice Vortex Cooldown
|
| +8% Spell Amplification | 10 | +60 Gold/Min |
Notes:
- Gold granted from the talent is unreliable gold.
- The health regen is added as a bonus and does not benefit illusions.
- Upgrading health increases maximum health capacity and keeps the current health percentage.
- The number of charges and the recharge time of Cold Feet are not visible in the ability description.
Recommended items[edit]
Starting items:
- Two
Iron Branches are cheap and give bonus attributes which are helpful for laning and can be build into 
Magic Wand. -
Clarities are needed because Ancient Apparition is very mana dependent in the early game. These potions will make spamming Cold Feet possible. -
Tangos and a 
Healing Salve grant good health regeneration, which is very important for a fragile hero. - When played as a support, purchasing the
Animal Courier and then upgrading it to a 
Flying Courier is mandatory.
Early game:
-
Urn of Shadows gives some overall attributes and good mana regeneration. Its ability will make ganking easier, while it can also be used to heal allies. -
Magic Wand helps with sustaining both your health and mana. -
Boots of Speed are needed for the speed bonus.
Core items:
-
Arcane Boots provide Ancient Apparition and his allies with much-needed mana sustain, as well as increase Ancient Apparition's own mana pool. -
Aghanim's Scepter gives Ancient Apparition a much needed improvement to his attributes as well as increasing the duration of Ice Blast's debuff to 17 seconds, effectively preventing all enemy support heroes with healing spells from healing for an extended period of time. This makes your ultimate ability extremely lethal to low-health heroes, and even tanky heroes that rely on their regeneration or lifesteal to be effective. -
Observer Wards not only help your team out by providing vision, but help you out, too, by scouting low-health enemies to Ice Blast.
Situational items:
-
Hand of Midas can be a good item choice when Ancient Apparition has an above-average early game, sustaining him with a steady gold and experience gain. -
Mekansm is a great utility item which will make you and your team much harder to kill. Use its ability to heal you and nearby friendly heroes at the cost of some mana, while buffing everyone at the same time. It can be later upgraded into 
Guardian Greaves. -
Eul's Scepter of Divinity gives plenty of mana regeneration, some mana, and some movement speed. You can activate its ability on an enemy after casting Cold Feet and the opposing hero will be stunned and frozen most of the times. -
Aether Lens is a decent alternative to your standard items. Two of your spells do benefit from the extra cast range (albeit only slightly, since both have a big casting range already) and you can build it by disassembling your 
Arcane Boots. The spell amplification should be the main reason for you to get this item. -
Force Staff is an extremely useful item which can be picked up as an escape mechanism or a chasing item. It can be used to help teammates as well. -
Rod of Atos grants a decent amount of overall stats, with a particular boost to Ancient Apparition's strength and intelligence. It makes you less fragile and able to spam your spells without worrying as much. Its root can be used with your Cold Feet (and Ice Vortex) to easily land your spells. -
Ethereal Blade upgrades nicely from a 
Ghost Scepter. It provides a good nuke, slow, and magical damage amplification that synergizes well with Ancient Apparition's kit. The required 
Eaglesong however is very expensive on a more-than-often starved Apparition. -
Scythe of Vyse is a very strong late-game item that gives a great attribute increase, all the mana regeneration you'll ever need, and an amazing disable. Its only downside is its hefty price. -
Shiva's Guard gives a lot of intelligence and armor. Its ability slows down enemies and damages them in a large radius, making it perfect in teamfights where you are the first priority target. -
Octarine Core is good on most spell-casters and Ancient Apparition is no exception. But it's extremely expensive and should never be considered as the first major item on Ancient Apparition. -
Refresher Orb could theoretically prevent any kind of healing for 34 seconds with a double Ice Blast. Probably even greedier than the Octarine Core; don't think about it before you have 5 other late game items...
Tips[edit]
- Use Cold Feet to harass in the early game, but mind your mana pool.
-
Eul's Scepter of Divinity in combination with Cold Feet can almost always guarantee a stun (though at the cost of Cold Feet's damage over time). It also allows you to land a short-range Ice Blast in quick succession. - Chilling Touch can be useful to max along with Cold Feet if you are laning with another ranged hero. The harass is extremely potent and can often push your enemies out of the lane.
- Since the Chilling Touch can be placed on Meepo clones, it is an incredibly big damage boost for him. 5 heroes and 4 Meepo clones together can deal a total of 1350/2160/3150/4230 damage through Chilling Touch alone.
- Ice Vortex can be used to slow enemies when chasing or being chased, as well as reduce their resistance. It also gives vision, so it can be used to scout the Roshan pit, ancients, trees (if someone jukes into them), high ground, and so on. The cast range is very long, so all of this can be done from a safe distance.
- Ice Blast is a multi-purpose spell that can be cast to anywhere on the map. Use it to aid your allies in ganks, initiate team battles, finish off low-HP heroes, and clear large creep waves.
- Do not worry about using your ultimate sparingly, it has only a 40 second cooldown and therefore can be used even for harassment or as a deterrent for pushing. The cooldown starts running upon launching the initial tracer, so it already starts cooling down before the actual blast even released.
- Remember that Ice Blast debuff prevents all health gain, including healing spells, natural health regeneration, lifesteal, health gained indirectly such as from activating an
Armlet of Mordiggian and even bonus health gained from the strength obtained by leveling up under its effects (however, there ARE a few exceptions, namely abilities that directly manipulate health such as Sunder or Supernova. Landing this spell on the enemy team at the start of a team fight will put Heroes that rely on survivability such as 
Huskar, 
Necrophos or 
Death Prophet into a very dangerous, possibly even suicidal, situation. The debuff is even more powerful if you have an 
Aghanim's Scepter, increasing the duration considerably. - Ancient Apparition can solo mid in the early game, as he has all the necessary tools to control his lane. AA will look to start ganking as soon as possible and use the early Ice Blasts to his team's advantage.
- In spite of his ability to solo, AA is still very potent in a dual or tri lane. Cold Feet functions well as a follow-up to an ally's stun, and Chilling Touch is able to buff every one of AA's allies, effectively multiplying its effectiveness by the number of allies you have available.
- All of Ancient Apparition's spells have good range. Try to avoid close combat when possible.
- You do not have an escape mechanism, so having vision of your opponents is crucial for you to survive. Ask your teammates to ward or do it yourself whenever possible.
Gameplay[edit]
Audio[edit]
History[edit]
Equipment[edit]
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Trivia[edit]
- Kaldr's lore suggests that he is the embodiment of the Heat Death, a theoretical fate of the universe. According to this theory, the universe will achieve thermodynamic equilibrium and will no longer transfer energy. This would result in a universal temperature growing colder and a cessation of processes that require energy consumption, such as life.
- "Kaldr" is old norse and translates to "cold" in English.
Gallery[edit]
Model
Low Violence model
