Arc Warden
From Dota 2 Wiki
Hero
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Zet, the Arc Warden, is a ranged agility hero that requires micromanagement and farm to spiral out of control. In the early stages of the game, it is a very powerful nuker. Its first ability, Flux, allows Arc Warden to cripple an enemy down and deal large amounts of damage. It and other allied heroes or buildings can be protected from physical attacks with its second ability Magnetic Field, while gaining swift attack speed. Similar to Techies' Land Mines, Arc Warden's third ability, Spark Wraith, allows it to place wraiths that attack when an enemy goes near them, potentially dealing large amounts of magical damage. Finally, thanks to its ultimate, Tempest Double, which allows it to make a perfect copy of itself that can use all of Arc Warden's spells and item abilities, it can spam all of its other abilities and most items twice and easily take down fragile heroes in the early game, or keep itself or its team doubly sustained through certain buffing or healing items. This makes Arc Warden very powerful in both early and late game if given enough farm, from magical nuker to physical carry, or if the time calls it, a very potent support.
Contents
Bio[edit]
Zet, the Arc WardenPlay "It is not to aid the Ancients that this war is joined, but to destroy them both. This disunity must end."
Lore:
Before the beginning of all, there existed a presence: a primordial mind, infinite, awesome, and set to inscrutable purpose. As the universe thundered into being, this mind was fragmented and scattered. Two among its greater fragments--who would come to be named Radiant and Dire--found themselves locked in vicious opposition, and began twisting all of creation to serve their conflict.
As war and cataclysm threatened the nascent cosmos, the will of a third fragment made itself known. Naming itself Zet, this intellect sought to resolve the disharmony and return all to perfect unity. Appalled by its kin's conflicting nature, Zet gathered the sum of its power. In a sudden flash, it overwhelmed its siblings, and fused the warring aspects into a stellar sphere before hurling them into the darkness to orbit a nondescript world. Harmony was restored, though only the barest fraction of Zet's strength remained. Setting its gaze on the prison, Zet chose to use its weakened power to serve as watchful warden until time's end. For uncounted aeons, this vigil stood.
Life flourished upon the world below, oblivious to the dangers imprisoned within the softly glowing moon, or of Zet's struggles to contain them. As the captives' eternal clash reverberated within, the surface of the prison shuddered, over time beginning to crack. Ultimately, Zet's depleted power proved insufficient to contain the breach, and at last the moon was shattered. The prison's ancient inhabitants had escaped to sow their conflict anew.
Voice:
Abilities[edit]
Flux
Infuses a lone enemy unit with swirling, volatile energy, slowing its movement speed and dealing damage over time. The effect is muted if another enemy unit is near the target.
Cast Animation: 0.3+0.77
Cast Range: 500/600/700/800
Search Radius: 225
Damage per Second: 15/30/45/60
Move Speed Slow: 20%/30%/40%/50%
Duration: 6 (
9)
9)
16 ( 14.72)
75
Slow persists and attempts to deal damage if debuff was placed before spell immunity and when not dispelled.Modifiers
Flux: Dispellable with any dispel.An infinitesimal fraction of the power which imprisoned the Ancients.
Notes:
- If the target has allies or neutral creeps within a 225 radius, the spell temporarily stops slowing and damaging the target, until it is alone again.
- Checks for enemies and neutrals in 0.5 second intervals, beginning instantly upon cast. The slow updates based on the result of the checks.
- Also deals damage in the same intervals, based on the checks, dealing 7.5/15/22.5/30 damage, resulting in 13 ( 19) possible instances.
- While Flux is muted, the particle effects on the target vanish, with only a red glow remaining on the unit, indicating the debuff is still there.
- Nearby buildings, wards and hidden units are ignored and do not mute the effects. Invulnerable units, however, are not ignored.
- Can deal up to 97.5/195/292.5/390 ( 142.5/285/427.5/570) damage to the target if all instances are applied (before reductions).
- Multiple casts on the same target fully stack, with all instances working independently from each other.
- Choosing the duration upgrading talent does not upgrade any of Arc Warden's currently active Flux debuffs.
Magnetic Field
Ability
Target Area
Target Area
Affects
Allied Heroes
Allied Heroes
Generates a circular distortion field of magnetic energy that protects allied heroes and buildings within it by evading attacks coming from outside the field.
Cast Animation: 0.3+0
Cast Range: 900
Effect Radius: 300
Evasion: 100%
Attack Speed Bonus: 50/60/70/80
Duration: 3.5/4.5/5.5/6.5
35/ 32.2/27.6/23/18.4) 80/Modifiers
Magnetic Field Evasion: Dispellable with any dispel. Magnetic Field Attack Speed: Undispellable.Time and space are of little consequence to one as old as Zet.
Notes:
- Applies an attack speed bonus and evasion to allies within the radius.
- The effects are provided by an aura. Its buff lingers for 0.1 seconds.
- Does not evade attacks landing on allies when the source of the attack is within the field.
- The evasion effect of fields from Arc Warden and its
Tempest Double works independently.
- This means that when an ally is within the intersection of two fields, attack is evaded unless the source of the attack is also within the intersection but not the union.
- Affects heroes (including illusions and clones), creep-heroes and buildings. All other units are completely unaffected.
- Does not affect invulnerable units, so buildings are only affected when attackable.
Spark Wraith
Summons a Spark Wraith that slowly materializes and patrols a targeted area until an enemy comes within its range. Once a target has been found the wraith fuses with them, dealing magical damage and slowing the unit.
Cast Animation: 0.3+0.77
Cast Range: 2000
Search Radius: 375
Activation Delay: 2
Move Speed Slow: 100%
Damage: 100/160/220/280 ( 450/510/570/630)
450/510/570/630)Slow Duration: 0.4/0.5/0.6/0.7
Wraith Duration: 50
4 ( 2.5) 80
Attempts to deal damage if target turns spell immune before impact.Modifiers
Spark Wraith Purge: Dispellable with any dispel.Lesser fragments of Zet's original self.
Notes:
- The Spark Wraith travels at a speed of 400.
- Once the activation delay is over, it checks for enemies (including neutral creeps) in 0.2 second intervals and launches towards the first registered enemy.
- If multiple enemies are within range after the delay, the closest enemy is targeted.
- Deals damage based on the level upon cast of the ability. Leveling up Spark Wraith does not update the damage of already placed Spark Wraiths.
- The wraith first applies the damage, then the debuff.
- The Spark Wraith is fully visible to the enemy.
- Fully affects invisible units. Can target units inside the Fog of War, but not invulnerable or hidden units.
- The activation delay is not included in the wraith's duration.
- Provides 300 radius ground vision for its full duration. The vision does not linger.
- The launched projectile also provides the same vision, which lingers for 3.34 seconds after reaching the target.
- Choosing the damage upgrading talent immediately upgrades all already placed wraiths, including ones which already seek a target.
- Only the cooldown reduction from the level 20 talent is displayed. The level 10 talent can further reduce this to 2.3 (3.68 without the level 20 talent).
Tempest Double
Ability
No Target
No Target
Affects
The Self
The Self
Briefly refocusing its fractured elements into a single form, the Arc Warden is able to create a perfect electrical duplication of itself. The duplicate can use all of Arc Warden's current items and spells, except consumables and items that drop on death. The duplicate has separate item and ability cooldowns.
Cast Animation: 0.15+0.5
Number of Doubles: 1
Duration: 14/16/18
60/ 55.2/46/36.8)Warped by the power of its peers, Arc Warden becomes what it despises most: disharmony.
Notes:
- The Tempest Double always spawns with Arc Warden's current mana and health.
- On the first cast of Tempest Double, the double is actually summoned. On every following cast, it is just healed or revived.
- This means it is impossible to create more than one double at a time, since recasting Tempest Double merely refreshes the one from the previous cast.
- The double also gets fully dispelled, getting freed from absolutely every buff and debuff, including usually undispellable ones.
- Its cooldowns are not refreshed upon getting re-summoned, so all cooldowns from the previous cast carry over.
- Resummoning the Tempest Double does not disjoint projectiles.
- Arc Warden and his clone are represented by an icon with health and mana bars for each on the top left corner of the screen.
- When a Zet is selected, its icon becomes brighter. When a Zet takes damage, its icon blinks red.
- The Tempest Double is visually distinguishable from the original Zet for enemies, just like how it is for allies.
- The buffs of a consumed
Moon Shard and an 
Aghanim's Scepter granted by 
Alchemist are copied as well.
- However, other permanent buffs (e.g.
Duel, 
Intelligence Steal) are not. - Any Duel victory damage the double gains during its uptime is lost upon death.
- However, other permanent buffs (e.g.
- The double itself is treated exactly like a hero by all spells, since it is not an illusion.
- The double has a fixed 180 gold and a 180 experience bounty. It does not change based on level and is only granted to the killing unit.
- Spell effects, that grant bonuses when an enemy unit dies (such as
Death Pulse), do not grant any bonuses for killing the double.
- This non-crediting also prevents Duel from granting damage when the double loses.
- It does not grant any
Track bounty either when it dies while tracked. - The upgraded version of
Wrath of Nature only spawns a regular 
Treant (not a Greater Treant) when the double dies.
- The Tempest Double does not gain any experience like heroes usually do, so it does not leech experience.
Item interactions[edit]
- The double has its own, independent inventory, carrying the same item as the original Arc Warden does.
- On each cast, the double's inventory gets updated and adapted to that of Arc Warden. This also sets all charges of charge-based spells to match the charges on Arc Warden, no matter how many the double had left the last time it was summoned.
- The double can neither pick up, nor drop any items. It cannot be given items by allies or Arc Warden directly either.
- It can be given an
Observer Ward and 
Sentry Ward, since their sharing mechanics work different (CTRL override) than those of other items.
- It can be given an
- Since the double gets re-summoned on each cast, all its item (and ability) cooldowns do not reset, just like how heroes do not get their cooldowns reset as they respawn.
- The double does not copy the following items:
Aegis of the Immortal, 
Animal Courier, 
Bottle, 
Cheese, 
Clarity, 
Divine Rapier, 
Dust of Appearance, 
Enchanted Mango, 
Faerie Fire, 
Gem of True Sight, 
Healing Salve, 
Observer and Sentry Wards, 
Refresher Shard, 
Smoke of Deceit, 
Tango, 
Tango (Shared), 
Tome of Knowledge, or any muted item which Arc Warden has in its inventory (allied and enemy items alike). - All other items are copied, although some have a slightly altered effect. Shareable items (e.g.
Town Portal Scroll or 
Perseverance) are copied. - The double's
Bloodstone does gain charges, but does not retain the charges when the duration ends and any kills the double gets are credited to the main hero. The double will spawn with the same amount of charges as the main hero and the double can use Pocket Deny. -
Hand of Midas can be used by the double. Using Transmute grants the gold and experience to the main hero. - If
Radiance, 
Ring of Aquila or 
Ring of Basilius are toggled off upon summoning the double, they are also toggled off on the double. The toggle status gets copied. - The same applies to
Power Treads. The double copies whichever attribute the main hero had selected. - The Tempest Double's
Black King Bar works completely independent from the main hero's Black King Bar. Its "level" is not bound to the main hero's Black King Bar.
- This means the double's Black King Bar starts off fresh and its cooldown/duration decreases whenever it uses it throughout the entire match, regardless of the cooldown/duration of the main hero's Black King Bar.
- When having a unit dominated with
Helm of the Dominator, the unit does not die when the double expires. However, it does die as soon as the double gets re-summoned, even if the unit was dominated by the hero and not the double. - Moon Shard's active ability cannot be used by the double itself, but it can still be copied as a standalone item or as a buff, if the main Arc Warden carries the buff.
-
Refresher Orb is always on cooldown for the double, so it cannot refresh Tempest Double, but still can benefit from its stats.
Talents[edit]
| Hero Talents | ||
|---|---|---|
+350  Spark Wraith Damage | 25 | 30% Lifesteal |
| +125 Attack Range | 20 | -1.5s Spark Wraith Cooldown |
+3s  Flux Duration | 15 | +350 Health |
| +25 Attack Speed | 10 | 8% Cooldown Reduction |
Notes:
- Talents are fully copied by the Tempest Double.
- The cooldown reduction talent stacks multiplicatively with
Octarine Core and additively with 
Arcane Rune.
- The health talent increases maximum health capacity, and keeps the current health percentage.
- The lifesteal talent stacks additively with other sources of lifesteal.
Recommended items[edit]
Starting items:
-
Tango gives Arc Warden sustain in lane. -
Healing Salve restores large amount of health in the early game. -
Iron Branch provides attribute bonuses and build into Magic Wand. -
Slippers of Agility gives agility for Arc Warden to last hit early on and can later be built into a 
Wraith Band.
Early game:
-
Boots of Speed improves Arc Warden's mediocre movement speed and gives him some form of escape from enemies. -
Ring of Aquila gives attributes and a source of pushing at a cheap price. Remember to keep the aura turned off when you're not trying to push the lane. -
Magic Wand heals back up some health and mana. -
Hand of Midas accelerates Arc Warden farming game. Keep track of its cooldown on Tempest Double to know when optimal times to use it are.
Mid game:
-
Boots of Travel gives Arc Warden map wide presence for fighting, pushing, and farming. -
Maelstrom improves Arc Warden's farming and pushing and later upgrades to 
Mjollnir. -
Dragon Lance provides useful attributes for a highly cost effective price and the increased range allows Arc Warden to easily achieve good positioning to space himself from enemies from inside his Magnetic Field.
Late game:
-
Mjollnir buffs both yours and your Tempest Double's attack speed as well as punishing enemies who attack either. -
Hurricane Pike lets Arc Warden stay in the back with the increased attack range, and gives him an escape that, if used by Tempest Double as well, can effectively double the distance traveled. -
Bloodthorn boosts mana regeneration as well as damage output with attack speed, attack damage, critical strike, and True Strike. The silence also prevents much of retaliation from enemies. -
Nullifier allows Arc Warden to mute enemies so they cannot use defensive items like Black King Bar, coupling with Bloodthorn's silence to completely shut down targets.
Situational items:
-
Phase Boots are an alternative to Boots of Travel if you need to fight early on since they improve his early game massively with movement speed and damage. These can later be sold for Boots of Travel anyway. -
Blink Dagger allows an offensive Arc Warden to approach enemy targets to unleash his abilities and items; works better in the late game when Arc Warden has high damage output. -
Diffusal Blade grants Arc Warden a slow ability, allowing him to kill enemies more easily; it also improves Arc Warden's damage output with Manabreak and agility. -
Shadow Blade provides attack speed and attack damage, as well as invisibility for Arc Warden to escape or initiate on enemies. It can upgrade to 
Silver Edge to apply break, ruining enemy passive abilities. -
Scythe of Vyse boosts Arc Warden's mana and mana regeneration to use abilities liberally. The hex duration can also be lengthened with the help of Tempest Double. -
Black King Bar helps against disables or nukers if such are problems. It can also be used to send in the double in fights and staying back in safety with the main Arc Warden. The Double can use Avatar, but its duration is independent of the main Arc Warden's Black King Bar. -
Butterfly turns Arc Warden into a heavy hitter. His primary attribute is agility, so he benefits a lot from its attributes. The Tempest Double has no attack damage penalties like most illusions do, since it is not an illusion, so it can greatly increase Arc Warden's overall damage output. Arc Warden's two damaging spells deal both magical damage and do not scale. A Butterfly helps him keep on doing damage to the enemy in the late game. The attack damage he gets from the item is also great for pushing and synergizes very well with Magnetic Field. -
Daedalus can be good on Arc Warden for the same reason why Butterfly can be: it turns him into a strong hitter in the later phases of the game. Although Daedalus is chance based, Arc Warden can still constantly deliver crits thanks to the enormous attack speed boost provided by Magnetic Field. Butterfly should be acquired before a Daedalus, to first get some attack damage and more speed first, to make critical strikes more effective. -
Monkey King Bar is a great alternative to Daedalus when dealing with evasion or high armor. Thanks to its high chance to deal pure damage to an enemy with its passive, it can even take down a high armor enemy when attacking it with the Double as well, due to the amount of pure damage procs from two heroes attacking it with Monkey King Bar. -
Manta Style is a great item for pushes, as Arc Warden can have four illusions thanks to the Double. Just like with Necronomicon, the double's and the original's Manta Style are independent from and do not replace each other. The illusions also benefit from Magnetic Field, making them more resistance against physical attacks and speeding up their attack speed. -
Necronomicon is very effective on Arc Warden as well, again, thanks to his ultimate. He can have two sets of Necronomicon units up at the same time, since the units summoned by the double are independent and do not replace the units summoned by the main Arc Warden. Necronomicon is an essential item for a pushing Arc Warden.
Gameplay[edit]
| Roles: |  Carry  Escape  Nuker
|
|---|---|
| Complexity: |
★★★ |
| Playstyle: | As old as the Ancients themselves, Zet endeavors to end the disharmony among the warring factions through whatever means necessary. Solitary foes are thrown into a volatile state of Flux, ripping away at their health over time. Allies find shelter under its Magnetic Field, evading and attacking with greater efficiency. Zet summons Spark Wraiths, fragments of its former self that circle in place, and seek out nearby foes. Is there one Arc Warden, or two? Armed with the original's items and abilities, Zet's Tempest Double duplicates each spell and every attack, bringing twice the chaos to any fight. |
Audio[edit]
History[edit]
Equipment[edit]
Trivia[edit]
- The line Play "You will just have to accept this, and move on." is a reference to a Dota 2 based web cartoon The Dota 2 Reporter, where it is a recurring gag for the characters to question the game's logic, only to be answered by this line.
- The lines Play "Doggedly." and Play "Hounding." are references to Arc Warden's former appearance in DotA, where its model was that of a Gnoll, a canine-like creature from Warcraft. Its rivalry lines towards
Lycan, Play "Inferior form." and Play "Apex predator, you are not. ", are also a nudge to this.
Gallery[edit]
Promotional art
Concept art
Concept art
Early textures
Ability icon progress
Hero icon progress
Promotional Content
