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Dark Seer
Strength attribute symbol
Agility attribute symbol
Intelligence attribute symbol
22 + 2.6
19 + 1.8
21 + 2.7
Level 0 1 15 25 30
Health 120 604 1396 2232 2562
+1 +3.2 +6.84 +10.64 +12.14
Mana 75 327 771 1239 1431
+0 +1.05 +2.94 +4.89 +5.67
Armor 2 5.17 9.37 14.37 16.2
Magic Resist 25% 27.1% 30.88% 34.78% 36.33%
Damage Block 16 (50%)
Damage

7
13

50
56

119
125

194
200

223
229

Attack Rate 0.59/s 0.7/s 0.85/s 1.02/s 1.09/s
Attack Range Melee 150 (600)
Attack Speed ▶️ 100 (1.7s BAT)
Attack Animation 0.59 + 0.58
Projectile Speed Instant
Move Speed ▶️ 295 (Nighttime 325)
Turn Rate Takes 0.175s to turn 180°. 0.6
Collision Size 27
Bound Radius 24
Vision Range (G) 1800 (Nighttime 800)
Gib Type Default
Internal npc_dota_hero_dark_seer
Pulls and manipulates his enemies' positions.
A cunning tactician, the Dark Seer excels at manipulating positions of his enemies. Vacuuming and Punching foes into the attacks of his allies, drawing them into the prismatic thorns of his Ion Shell. Armed only with his intellect, he Surges across the land to survey every point of conflict. At strategic locations Ish'Kafel places his Wall of Replica, sowing confusion amongst enemy ranks as an army of duplicates emerge to do battle against their own likenesses.
Vacuum
Ion Shell
Surge
Surge
Normal Punch
Normal Punch
Wall of Replica
Roles: Initiator Initiator Escape Escape Disabler Disabler
Complexity: Hero Complexity
Adjectives: Bearded, Parent, Nose
Legs ( 2 )


Bio[]

Dark Seer minimap iconIsh'Kafel, the Dark Seer
▶️ "If your enemy is equal, prepare for him. If greater, elude him. If weaker, crush him."
Fast when he needs to be, and a cunning strategist, Ish'Kafel the Dark Seer requires no edged weapons to vanquish his enemies, relying instead on the strength of his powerful mind. His talent lies in his ability to maneuver the fight to his advantage. Hailing from a place he calls 'The Land behind the wall,' Dark Seer remains an outsider here—a warrior from a realm beyond the veil of this reality.

Once a great general among his people, and a valiant defender of the god-king Damathryx, Dark Seer's army was wiped out by a much larger force in the final days of the Great Boundaries War. Facing certain defeat, he made one last desperate act: he led the enemy forces into the maze between the walls. At the last moment, just before capture, he crossed over—then sealed the walls forever in an explosive release of dark energy. When the dust settled, he saw that he had saved his people but found himself blinking at the sun of a different world, with no way to return. Now he is committed to proving his worth as a military strategist, and vows to show that he's the greatest tactician this strange new world has ever seen.
Alias:
DS

Abilities[]

Vacuum
Vacuum icon
Affects
Enemies
Damage
Magical
Dark Seer creates a vacuum over the target area that sucks in enemy units, disrupting them and dealing damage.
Cast Animation: 0.4+0.4
Cast Range: Affected by Cast Range bonuses. 450/500/550/600
Effect Radius: Affected by AoE Radius bonuses. 325/400/475/550 (Talent 425/500/575/650)
Damage: 70/130/190/250
Pull Duration: 0.3/0.4/0.5/0.6
Cooldown symbol
 60/50/40/30
Mana symbol
 60/90/120/150
Does not pierce debuff immunity.
The forced movement is instantly canceled.
Buff/Debuff
Modifiers [?]
modifier_dark_seer_vacuum
Ish'Kafel modifies the center of gravity to a place of his choosing.

  • The pull duration always takes 0.3/0.4/0.5/0.6 seconds, no matter how far or close the units are from the center, so the pull speed varies.
    • Affected units are fully disabled during the pull.
    • Grants affected enemy units phased and unobstructed movement during the pull duration and can pull units over impassable terrain.
  • For Nightmare icon Nightmare and Song of the Siren icon Song of the Siren, Vacuum pulls the affected units but does not removes the invulnerability. If the pull ends during the invulnerability, it does not deal damage.
  • The damage is applied upon losing the debuff, dispelling the debuff causes the damage to be applied earlier.
  • Destroys trees within 150 radius at the targeted point upon cast.


Ion Shell
Ion Shell icon
Affects
Enemies / Allies
Damage
Magical
Surrounds the target unit with a bristling shield that damages enemy units in an area around it.
Cast Animation: 0.4+0.7
Cast Range: Affected by Cast Range bonuses. 800
Damage Radius: Affected by AoE Radius bonuses. 275 (Talent 325)
Damage per Second: 30/50/70/90 (Talent 80/100/120/140)
Duration: 21/24/27/30
Talent Max Health Bonus: 250
Charge Replenish Time
  Talent 9
  Talent 2
Cooldown symbol
 9 (Talent 0)
Mana symbol
 110/120/130/140
Not blocked by Linken's Sphere.
Cannot be reflected.
Buff/Debuff
Modifiers [?]
modifier_dark_seer_ion_shell
The Dark Seer slices holes into the 'Land Behind the Wall,' causing prismatic energy to seep forth.

  • Ion Shell can be cast on both enemy and ally units, but damaging only enemy units. The affected unit with the shell itself is not damaged.
    • The damage affects invisible enemies within the radius, However, the visual effects do not appear.
    • Cannot be cast on Animal Courier Radiant minimap icon Couriers.
    • ↓↓ Double-tapping automatically targets self.
    • Cannot be cast on allies who have Disabled Help from Dark Seer.
  • Successive casts on the same unit do not stack, but refresh the duration and update the damage to the current level instead.
    • When two opposing heroes cast it on the same target, the modifier updates and start damaging the enemies of the latest caster.
    • However, the modifier status does not update. Whether it is treated as a buff or debuff is determined upon the first cast, and is not updated on a refresh.
  • Leveling up the ability does not update the current active instances.
    • TALENT
      However, the damage increasing Talent talent immediately updates all currently active instances.
  • Deals 6/10/14/18 (Talent 16/20/24/28) damage in 0.2-second intervals, starting 0.2 seconds after the cast, resulting in 105/120/135/150 damage instances.
  • Can deal up to 630/1200/1890/2700 (Talent 1680/2400/3240/4200) damage to a single unit (before reductions), if the enemy unit stays within range for the full duration.
  • TALENT
    Ion Shell Talent talents do not instantly update the current active instances.
    • The max health increasing Talent talent increases the max health of the targeted ally by 250, keeping the current health percentage the same. This counts as setting health.
    • Acquiring the Ion Shell charges Talent talent instantly grants 1 extra charge.


Surge
Surge icon
Affects
Allies
(Upgradable by Aghanim's Shard. Enemies)
Damage
Upgradable by Aghanim's Shard. Magical
Charges a target friendly unit with power, giving it a brief burst of movement speed and removes unit collisions. Allows the unit to reach maximum movement speed and cannot be slowed.
Cast Animation: 0.4+0.57
Cast Range: Affected by Cast Range bonuses. 600
Haste Speed: 550
Duration: 3/4/5/6
With Aghanim's Shard Trail Radius: Affected by AoE Radius bonuses. 150
With Aghanim's Shard Trail Move Speed Slow: 50%
With Aghanim's Shard Trail Damage per Instance: 35
With Aghanim's Shard Trail Duration: 7
Talent Radius: 350
Cooldown symbol
 24/19/14/9
Mana symbol
 50
Upgradable by Aghanim's Shard.
Aghanim's Shard Upgrade:
Surged units leave behind a 150 radius trail that lasts 7s, slows enemies around it by -50% and deals 35 damage every 0.5s. Can be put on Alt-Cast to disable the trail.
Buff/Debuff
Modifiers [?]
modifier_dark_seer_surge
modifier_dark_seer_surge_trail
Ish'Kafel once used his speed of mind to navigate the maze between the walls.
Surge (Secondary) icon
Alt-Cast Icon

  • Grants affected allies phase and haste movement, meaning they cannot be slowed below the hasted value.
  • Upon acquiring the Aghanim's Shard icon Ability Upgrade, it has Alt-cast disabled by default.
    • With Alt-Cast activated, the Surged target now creates a 150 radius trail on the its current location in 0.5-second intervals.
    • Deals 35 damage in 0.5-second intervals (before reductions), starting 0.5 seconds after the debuff is applied, resulting in 14 damage instances.
      • Can deal up to 490 damage to a single unit when the affected unit stays in range for the full duration.
    • When the Surged target dies, the already existing trail on the ground still stays for the remaining duration.
    • Acquiring Aghanim's Shard icon Aghanim's Shard does not update the current active instance.
  • TALENT
    The area of effect Talent talent turns Surge into a 350 radius area-targeted ability, so that it cannot directly target units anymore.


Normal Punch icon
Ability
Passive
Damage
Magical
Passive cooldown attack. Causes Dark Seer's next attack on a hero to have True Strike, knock an illusion out of the victim, damaging and stunning them based on how far Dark Seer has moved in the past 3 seconds. Max power is reached after 1100 distance moved.
Recent Movement Time Window: 3
Distance Required for Max Values: 1100
Min Knockback Distance: 50
Max Knockback Distance: 350
Min Damage: 10
Max Damage: 450
Min Stun Duration: 0.2
Max Stun Duration: 1.5
Number of Illusions: 1
Illusions Normal Punch icon Normal Punch Illusion
Damage Dealt: 70%/85%/100% (Talent 90%/105%/120%)
Damage Taken: 200%
Spawn Delay: 0.25
Duration: 6
Cooldown symbol
 9
Mana symbol
 0
Does not pierce debuff immunity.
The forced movement is instantly canceled.
Buff/Debuff
Modifiers [?]
modifier_dark_seer_normal_punch
Undispellable
modifier_dark_seer_normal_punch_illusion_thinker
Undispellable
modifier_dark_seer_normal_punch_illusion
Death
modifier_illusion
Death
modifier_invulnerable
Death
modifier_stunned
modifier_knockback
Ability Draft Notes
Ability Draft Notes:
Upgradable by Aghanim's Scepter.
Requires drafting Wall of Replica icon Wall of Replica to be unlocked.
Leveling up this ability levels another ability at the same time.
Both Normal Punch and Wall of Replica are linked abilities.
Consecutive Normal Punches

Consecutive Normal Punches.
Left: 0-299 distance
Middle: 300-899 distance
Right: 900 distance

Illusion skin 7

Normal Punch illusion as they appear to allies and enemies.


  • Grants Dark Seer's next attack True Strike when not on cooldown. The cooldown triggers upon successfully landing an attack on an enemy.
  • Constantly checks the distance Dark Seer moves and calculates the damage, knockback distance, knockback duration, and stun duration accordingly on each server tick.
    • For every 10 distance moved, the damage increases by 4, knockback distance by 2.727, knockback duration by 0.006, and stun duration by 0.012.
  • Teleporting effects (e.g. Blink Dagger icon Blink) may only add up to 600 range to the distance counter, no matter how big the actual teleported distance was.
    • Does not consider upward movement distances.
    • The distance counter never resets, so it is possible to perform multiple full power punches in a row, with cooldown resetting sources.
  • These are the damage, knockback distance, and stun duration values at certain distances moved in the last 3 seconds (before reductions):
    • 0 distance moved: 10 damage, 50 knockback distance, 0.1s knockback duration, 0.2s stun duration.
    • 180 distance moved: 82 damage, 99.09 knockback distance, 0.206s knockback duration, 0.413s stun duration.
    • 360 distance moved: 154 damage, 148.18 knockback distance, 0.313s knockback duration, 0.625s stun duration.
    • 540 distance moved: 226 damage, 197.27 knockback distance, 0.419s knockback duration, 0.838s stun duration.
    • 720 distance moved: 298 damage, 246.36 knockback distance, 0.525s knockback duration, 1.051s stun duration.
    • 900 distance moved: 370 damage, 295.45 knockback distance, 0.632s knockback duration, 1.264s stun duration.
  • Normal Punch first applies the stun, the spell damage, the knockback, then the attack damage.
  • If Wall of Replica icon Wall of Replica is not learned, the illusion deals 80% damage by default.
  • The illusion is spawned 350 range behind the enemy's determined landing position, seconds after Normal Punch was delivered.
    • The illusion can be controlled normally and is initially ordered to attack the punched target.
    • Successive punches can create multiple illusions.
    • The illusion has a
      expr
      2 × IllusionLVL bounty.
  • Destroys trees within 100 radius enemies come in contact with during the knockback.
  • The punch particle and sound effects upgrade when the distance counter is at 300, and upgrade again when at 900.
  • COSMETIC
    The invulnerable modifier is responsible for the ability effects upon knocking back an enemy unit.
    • It is only for cosmetic purposes and has no impact on gameplay.


Wall of Replica
Wall of Replica icon
Raises a wall of warping light that slows and creates replicas of any enemy hero who crosses it. Enemy replicas serve at the Dark Seer's will. Replicas last until they are destroyed, or until the wall's duration ends.
Cast Animation: 0.2+0.73
Cast Range: Affected by Cast Range bonuses. 1300
Number of Walls: 1
Wall Length: Affected by AoE Radius bonuses. 1300
Wall Width: 50
Move Speed Slow: 50%/60%/70%
Slow Duration: 1
Wall Duration: 30
Illusions Wall of Replica icon Wall of Replica Illusions
Damage Dealt: 70%/85%/100% (Talent 90%/105%/120%)
Damage Taken: 200%
Max Duration: 30
Cooldown symbol
 100 (Talent 60)
Mana symbol
 125/250/375
Upgradable by Aghanim's Scepter.
Aghanim's Scepter Upgrade:
Grants the Normal Punch ability.
Buff/Debuff
Modifiers [?]
modifier_dark_seer_wall_of_replica
Undispellable
modifier_darkseer_wallofreplica_illusion
Death
modifier_illusion
Death
modifier_invulnerable
Death
modifier_dark_seer_wall_slow
The Dark Seer, while unable to return to his natural realm, can channel part of the prismatic wall with powerful strength of mind, sowing confusion amongst enemy ranks.
Illusion skin 2

Wall of Replica illusion as they appear to allies and enemies.


  • The values of the wall are set upon cast and do not update upon leveling the ability up after having placed the wall.
  • A wall can only create one illusion per player. There cannot be more than one illusion per player per wall.
    • This means when there are multiple walls up (with multiple casts), every valid enemy unit affected is still limited to one illusion per wall.
    • For Enchant icon Enchanted illusions, the wall still cannot create another illusion until the previous one dies.
    • When the illusion dies, Wall of Replica creates a new illusion of that hero as soon as it comes in range.
  • Upon spawning, the created illusions are visually distinguishable and are automatically ordered to attack the heroes they are based on.
    • Its duration is based on the remaining Wall of Replica duration from which they originate.
    • They have a static 5 Gold and 5XP bounty which does not scale with levels.
  • The illusion spawns 108-distance from the affected enemy hero if the target's collision size is 27, and 72-distance if its collision size is 18.
    • The created illusion appears either north, east, south, or west from the target.
  • The movement speed slow is applied constantly within the wall's area, provided by an aura. The aura lingers for 1 second.
    • The slow of multiple overlapping walls does not stack.


Talents[]

Hero Talents
350 AoE Surge icon Surge252 Ion Shell icon Ion Shell Charges
+50 Ion Shell icon Ion Shell Damage20-40s Wall of Replica icon Wall of Replica Cooldown
Ion Shell icon Ion Shell Provides +250 Max Health15+100 Vacuum icon Vacuum AoE
+50 Ion Shell icon Ion Shell Radius10+20% Wall of Replica icon Wall of Replica Illusion Damage

Recent Changes[]

Main Articles: Changelogs, Old Abilities and Hero Lore
Version
Description
  • Reduced Vacuum icon Vacuum damage from 100/150/200/250 to 70/130/190/250.
  • Increased Surge icon Surge cooldown from 21/17/13/9 to 24/19/14/9.


Recommended Items[]

Starting items:

  • Tango icon Tango sustains health in the laning stage.
  • Clarity icon Clarity sustains mana to use Ion Shell.

Early game:

  • Soul Ring icon Soul Ring covers most of your mana issues and allows you to constantly use Ion Shell in order to harass your lane opponents and get some last hits.

Mid game:

  • Helm of the Dominator icon Helm of the Dominator allows Dark Seer to pull off Vacuum combos by yourself. Also, gives you an additional controllable unit to use Ion Shell on to fight or to push out waves.
  • Arcane Boots icon Arcane Boots increase your mana pool and allow you to restore your teammates' mana.
  • Mekansm icon Mekansm adds to Dark Seer's teamfight effectiveness and increases durability. Also his decent intelligence gain means he will generally have enough mana to use the heal.
  • Blink Dagger icon Blink Dagger can help Dark Seer's positioning to place a better vacuum wall combo or to escape from bad engagements.

Late game:

  • Guardian Greaves icon Guardian Greaves restores both health and mana to team; the health regeneration and armor aura works better on wounded allies.
  • Shiva's Guard icon Shiva's Guard grants Dark Seer more punch to his Vacuum and Wall of Replica initiation, and gives him armor and intelligence.
  • Lotus Orb icon Lotus Orb removes debuffs from Dark Seer or an ally, as well as granting Echo Shell to reflect spells.
  • Scythe of Vyse icon Scythe of Vyse grants mana regeneration and Hex to completely nullify an enemy hero from using abilities or attacking.
  • Refresher Orb icon Refresher Orb allows Dark Seer to use his abilities and items twice in a row if needed.

Situational items:

  • Force Staff icon Force Staff changes position of Dark Seer or any heroes.
  • Pipe of Insight icon Pipe of Insight grants you and your allies protection from magical damage.
  • Crimson Guard icon Crimson Guard can protect your team from physical attacks in teamfights.
  • Black King Bar icon Black King Bar guarantees Dark Seer's initiation with spell immunity to ward off almost all disables.

Dota Plus Progress[]

Main Article: Hero Challenges

Relics track a hero's actions and statistics, and display in-game notifications when a milestone is reached. They are only available to Dota Plus subscribers.

Relics Voice Lines
Relic Rare icon
Three Hero Vacuum icon Vacuums
Relic Rare icon
Blink Dagger icon Blink Vacuum icon Vacuum Combos
Relic Rare icon
Ion Shell icon Ion Shell Creep Kills
Relic Rare icon
Vacuum icon Vacuum Walled Heroes
Relic universal icon
Ally Surge icon Surge Duration
Relic universal icon
Ion Shell icon Ion Shell Damage
Relic universal icon
Teleports Leading To Kills
Relic universal icon
Motion Controls Leading To Kills
Relic universal icon
Shiva's Guard icon Shiva's Guard Slow Duration
Relic universal icon
Channels Cancelled
Relic universal icon
Triple Kills
Relic universal icon
Mega Kill Streaks
Relic universal icon
Kill Assists
Relic universal icon
Kills
Plus Hero Badge 1
Bronze
Plus Hero Badge 2
Silver
  • ▶️ Oh, you didn't see that coming, did you?
  • ▶️ Your life, much like your head, lacked a point.
Plus Hero Badge 3
Gold
Plus Hero Badge 4
Platinum
Plus Hero Badge 5
Master
  • ▶️ We are not so different, my enemies and I. Except my brain is much larger.
Plus Hero Badge 6
Grandmaster

Equipment[]

Trivia[]

  • Dark Seer's response, "Speed is the heart of battle." is an indirect quote of Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu, who said "Quickness is the essence of war."
  • Dark Seer's response, ▶️ "No, I will not calm my beard." is a response to Beastmaster minimap icon Beastmaster's and Clockwerk minimap icon Clockwerk's rival hero taunts, both voiced by Sam A. Mowry.
  • Dark Seer's Vacuum's lore is based on the military term, center of gravity, which is a concept developed by Carl Von Clausewitz, a Prussian military theorist, in his work On War.
  • Normal Punch icon Normal Punch makes numerous references to the anime "One Punch Man".
    • The name of the ability references the protagonist's move "Consecutive Normal Punches".
    • The particle effects include a giant red fist striking the enemy, which looks like the fists of the protagonist.
    • The particle effect generally has an anime-style theme to it, with the static lines and whirls, the haloes, and the Japanese floating texts, which are the Japanese equivalents of "Pow!".
    • ドゴン (do-go-n), the text upon knocking back an enemy unit, with ド (do) usually representing a really normal soft bang sound like lightly dropping something on a table, and トントン (ton ton) akin to a knocking sound.
      • dogo-, dogon, dogoo- ( ドゴオッ ):
        • Big punch, chop (karate), or kick, big impact; quick punch, impact, or emphasis [do] + hard impact [go].
        • It is also used as a dramatic impact. (SFX: Kapow! Whomp! Wop! Chop!)
  • The effect of Normal Punch icon Normal Punch punching an illusion out of the body may be a reference to the scene in "Doctor Strange"" in which Doctor Strange's "astral form" is getting separated from his physical form.[1]

Gallery[]

References[]

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