Ember Spirit
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Ember Spirit
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Xin, the Ember Spirit, is a highly mobile and versatile melee agility carry, whose abilities make him a very slippery foe and enable him to dance around his enemies at will. His skill set allows for incredibly aggressive assaults on other heroes, as he can engage on them from long range using Sleight of Fist, and tie them down with Searing Chains to halt their movements. His Flame Guard ability deals damage while active and shields Xin from magic nukes, making him a force to be reckoned with by enemy casters. And finally, his Fire Remnant spell allows him to engage, escape or move instantaneously around the map, allowing him to show up where the enemy least expects and disappear just as quickly.
Despite a decent health pool early on, he lacks armor and a sizable mana pool, making him quite frail and easy to bring down with physical damage if caught or disabled. However, with good item choices and proper judgment, Ember Spirit can engage his foes using his speed and disables, dominating the battlefield with blinding speed. While he has only a limited presence in the early and mid game, in time Xin becomes a dangerous opponent even on his own, proving to friend and foe alike that for them, there is still much to be learned.
Contents
Bio[edit]
 Xin, the Ember Spirit
| |
| Play "Balance in all things." | |
| Role: |  Carry /  Escape /  Nuker /  Disabler /  Initiator
|
| Lore: | Lost within the Wailing Mountains, the Fortress of Flares lay abandoned, its training halls empty, its courtyard covered in leaves and dust. Upon a dais in its sealed temple rests a topaz cauldron filled with ancient ash, remnants of a pyre for the warrior-poet Xin. For three generations, Xin taught his acolytes the Bonds of the Guardian Flame, a series of mantras to train the mind and body for the harsh realities beyond the fortress walls. However, in teaching a warrior's way he earned a warrior's rivals, and in his autumn Xin was bested and slain. His followers spread to the wind. Yet as years turned to centuries and followers to descendants, his teachings endured by subtle whisper and deed. Touched by the teacher's lasting legacy, the Burning Celestial, inquisitive aspect of fire, cast himself to the Fortress of Flares and reignited the pyre ash. From these glowing embers emerged an image of Xin, wreathed in flame, his thoughtful countenance prepared to train and to teach, and to spread the fires of knowledge to all who seek guidance. |
| Voice: | Dave Fennoy (Responses) |
Abilities[edit]
Searing Chains
Cast Animation: 0+0.87
Search Radius: 400
Max Targets: 2
Damage per Second: 80/60/120/100
Total Damage: 80/120/240/300 (
240/240/480/500)
240/240/480/500)Duration: 1/2/2/3 ( 3/4/4/5)
3/4/4/5)
14/ 11.2/9.6/8/6.4)
110
Root effect persists and attempts to damage if debuff was placed before spell immunity and when not dispelled.Modifiers
Searing Chains: Dispellable with any dispel.Xin's harshest lessons often employed the use of red-hot chains.
Notes:
- Searing Chains interrupts Ember Spirit's channeling spells upon cast.
- Despite the visual effects, the Searing Chains' effects are applied instantly and cannot be disjointed.
- The units are selected randomly within its range. There are no priorities.
- Roots the targets, preventing them from moving and casting certain mobility spells.
- Interrupts the targets' channeling spells, but does not prevent them from starting to channel during it.
- Provides True Sight over the targets. Does not provide True Sight if applied during the fade time of invisibility spells.
- Forces a stop command onto the targets upon cast, so that their current move, attack and spell cast orders get canceled.
- Does not target invisible units or units inside the Fog of War.
- Deals damage in 1 second intervals, starting 1 second after cast, resulting in 1/2/2/3 ( 3/4/4/5) damage instances.
Sleight of Fist
Ability
Target Area
Target Area
Affects
Enemies / Self
Enemies / Self
Ember Spirit dashes around with blazing speed, attacking all enemies in the targeted area of effect, then returning to his start location. Deals bonus damage to heroes, and less damage to creeps.
Cast Animation: 0+0.7
Cast Range: 700
Effect Radius: 250/350/450/550
Jump Interval: 0.2
Hero Attack Damage Bonus: 20/40/60/80
Creep Attack Damage Reduction: 50%
30/ 24/17.6/11.2/4.8) 50
Modifiers
Sleight Of Fist Caster: Undispellable. Sleight Of Fist Invulnerability: Undispellable. Sleight Of Fist Marker: Undispellable.The studied warrior must whip and weave through its enemies, burning each without pause.
Notes:
- Ember Spirit is invulnerable during Sleight of Fist. Does not disjoint projectiles upon cast.
- Upon cast, all targets within the area are marked. A flaming sword appears above them as an indicator, which lasts until they get hit.
- All targets are determined upon cast. Entering or leaving the area after cast has no effect.
- Sleight of Fist has no range limit. Once a target is marked, it cannot escape Sleight of Fist with distance.
- Does not affect invisible units. When a marked unit turns invisible, it gets fully skipped if it is still invisible on its turn.
- Fully affects units in the Fog of War. Fogged units do get marked on cast, and get hit as well.
- Jumps in 0.2 second intervals. The jumps are random between all marked units, there are no priorities.
- On each jump, Ember Spirit is positioned 50 range away from his target, on a line between the target and the cast location of Sleight of Fist.
- Makes Ember Spirit perform an instant attack on each jump against the targets.
- This means the hits can proc any attack modifiers or on-hit effects like a regular attack.
- If Ember Spirit is blinded, the hits can miss, unless he has True Strike. They can also miss to evasion.
- When Ember Spirit is disarmed, no instant attack is performed on the jump.
- During Sleight of Fist, Ember Spirit does not need to turn to cast targeted spells or items.
- After all marked targets have been slashed, Ember Spirit returns to the position he had upon casting Sleight of Fist.
- That position is marked by a remnant for the duration.
- Casting
Activate Fire Remnant cancels Sleight of Fist. However, other sources of forced movement do not.
Flame Guard
Ember Spirit surrounds himself with a ring of fire that consumes incoming magic damage, leaving him unharmed. Flame Guard deals damage per second in an area around Ember Spirit while Flame Guard is active. If the shield is broken, the damage is also lost.
Cast Animation: 0+1.07
Damage Radius: 400
Damage per Second: 30/40/50/60
Magical Damage Absorbed: 50/200/350/500 ( 550/700/850/1000)
550/700/850/1000)Duration: 8/12/16/20
35 ( 28) 80/Modifiers
Flame Guard: Dispellable with any dispel.An enemy should never be allowed to approach without difficulty.
Notes:
- Flame Guard interrupts Ember Spirit's channeling spells upon cast.
- Deals 6/8/10/12 damage in 0.2 seconds intervals, starting 0.2 seconds after cast.
- Can deal a total of 240/480/800/1200 damage to a single unit (before reductions), assuming a max duration Flame Guard.
- Blocks damage before any reductions, except when spell immune, during which it does not block any magical damage.
- Recasting Flame Guard refreshes the buff and resets the barrier's absorb capacity.
- Does not stack with other magical damage barriers.
- If multiple sources of barriers are active on a unit, all of them lose capacity from the same absorbed damage instance.
Fire Remnant
Ability
Target Point
Target Point
Ember Spirit generates Fire Remnant charges every 35 seconds, with a max of 3 charges. Releasing a charge sends a Fire Remnant that runs to the target location at 2.5x Ember Spirit's speed. Using Activate Fire Remnant, Ember Spirit can dash out to his Remnants, exploding them for area of effect damage. The targeted Remnant will be arrived at last.
Cast Animation: 0+0.53
Cast Range: 1500
Max Charges: 3
Remnant Duration: 45
Charge Replenish Time: 35 ( 28)
28) 0Modifiers
Fire Remnant Charge Counter: Undispellable. Fire Remnant Timer: Undispellable.By the spirit's power are Xin's teachings spread anew.
Notes:
- Ember Spirit gets all 3 charges immediately upon learning Fire Remnant.
- The cast of Fire Remnant is not registered as a spell cast and thus does not proc any on-cast effects.
- Fire Remnants move to their targeted location at a speed of 250% of Ember Spirit's movement speed.
- The speed is set upon cast and does not adapt.
- Since Fire Remnants last for 45 seconds and the replenish time is 35 ( 28) seconds, it is possible to have 4 remnants up at a time.
- Every time a Fire Remnant is placed, Ember Spirit gets a status buff, showing the duration of the remnant. The status buff disappears once the Remnant expires or is used.
- Fire Remnants are visible to everyone. They do not grant any vision and thus cannot be seen when sent into the Fog of War.
- Fire Remnants deal no damage when they expire.
Activate Fire Remnant
Select the Fire Remnant to arrive at.
Cast Animation: 0+1.07
Cast Range: Global
Remnant Damage Radius: 450
Remnant Damage: 100/200/300
0 150
Modifiers
Fire Remnant: Undispellable.With blazing speed does a spirit fly!
Notes:
- Cannot be cast while rooted.
- Ember Spirit moves to a
Fire Remnant with a speed of 1300, or reaches it in 0.4 seconds, whichever is faster.
- Ember Spirit is invulnerable while traveling to a Fire Remnant.
- Activate Fire Remnant always costs 150 mana, no matter if Ember Spirit has to travel to 1, 2, 3 or 4 Fire Remnants.
- Does not disjoint projectiles that are traveling towards Ember Spirit when he casts this spell.
- While traveling, Ember Spirit can attack, cast spells and use items.
- Forced movement cancels the movement of Activate Fire Remnant and removes its invulnerability.
- However, the remnants still get used up and Ember Spirit gets instantly moved to the last one's location once it explodes.
- Always travels to the Fire Remnant furthest away from the targeted point first.
- The damage is dealt around each Fire Remnant upon reaching them.
- Destroys trees within 200 radius around Ember Spirit while traveling to a remnant.
- Though at high speeds, some trees may be skipped.
Talents[edit]
| Hero Talents | ||
|---|---|---|
+2s  Searing Chains
|
25 | 20% Cooldown Reduction |
| +10 Armor | 20 | +500  Flame Guard Absorption
|
| +6 All Stats | 15 | +20 Movement Speed |
| +30 Damage | 10 | +8% Spell Amplification |
Notes:
- The armor and attack damage are added as bonus armor and bonus attack damage, and therefore do not benefit illusions.
- Cooldown reduction affects abilities and items. Stacks multiplicatively with
Octarine Core and additively with 
Arcane Rune.
- Cooldown reduction affects replenish time of Fire Remnant.
Recommended items[edit]
Starting items:
-
Tango and a 
Healing Salve help Ember Spirit sustain during the laning phase, preventing him from being forced to return to base due to enemy harassment. -
Faerie Fire may help you survive a gank or lethal attack from tower after killing enemy. It also helps with last hitting. -
Iron Branch is a cheap and effective way to improve Ember Spirit's mana pool and health pool, both of which are lacking in the early game. -
Stout Shield is recommended as it will significantly reduce the enemy's auto-attack harass potential, meaning Ember Spirit is able to sustain longer in lane.
Early game:
-
Poor Man's Shield is good to reduce harassment from ranged heroes in lane. It is a go-to item when facing most heroes in mid. -
Bottle gives Ember Spirit a way to sustain his HP and mana, allowing him to remain out in the field to farm or fight. It is best purchased if Ember Spirit is played as a mid hero, as he can access runes more easily. -
Infused Raindrop can mitigate magical damage in fights, also helps with mana regeneration. -
Boots of Speed are essential for Ember Spirit, as the improved speed will allow him to escape deadly situations, as well as catch up to an escaping enemy. It also improves his ability to successfully catch an escaping hero with Searing Chains. -
Bracer gives Ember Spirit good stats all around, most importantly more HP. It can be upgraded into a 
Drum of Endurance. -
Ring of Basilius offers armor and mana regen, also helps with early game pushing. -
Town Portal Scroll should be carried at all times by all heroes. TP scrolls allow Ember Spirit to move around the map to find farm and reach fights and ganks quickly, as his spells make him a force to be reckoned with in any engagement. When Combined with Fire Remnant, it allows Ember Spirit to regenerate in fountain and come back quickly.
Boots Choice:
-
Phase Boots gives Ember Spirit the mobility to chase or escape engagements in order to cast Searing Chains. Yet the raw bonus damage doesn't scale, and the item doesn't help Ember Spirit to farm that much. It is best to get this item if you aim to fight aggressively in early to mid game. -
Power Treads increases Ember Spirit's attack speed as well as his stats. It can be the choice if Ember Spirit need to play defensively in early game. Tread Switching also helps with regeneration. -
Boots of Travel can be a powerful purchase on Ember Spirit in the mid-game. Aside from freeing up an inventory slot and saving gold from not having to constantly purchase Town Portal Scrolls, the increased movement speed gives Ember Spirit increased mobility, allowing him to chase down enemies more easily. As well, the teleport increases Xin's global presence, especially when combined with Fire Remnants, as he can make quick returns to base to grab items or replenish HP and mana, assist in gank opportunities on other parts of the map, and so on.
Mid Game Item Choice:
-
Drum of Endurance, gives Ember Spirit all-around stats, shoring up his HP and mana pool as well as giving him increased damage, which combined with the aura allows him to engage in teamfight earlier. The bonus movement speed increases his mobility, allowing him to position himself to use his spells more easily. -
Ring of Aquila is a natural upgrade of Ring of Basilius. It gives Ember Spirit more last-hitting power and protection against physical damage, while the small amount of mana regen can allow him to use his spells more often. The Aquila Aura helps with pushing a lot, and when combined with Fire Remnant the item allows Ember Spirit to push deep in enemy territory. -
Battle Fury is a highly potent item in Ember Spirit's hands, both for farming and fighting. The HP and mana regen help to keep him topped up, allowing him to farm jungle camps using his spells and ensuring that he can enter fights will full HP and mana. The cleave allows him to farm creeps more easily, and can inflict vast amounts of damage to the enemy team when combined with Sleight of Fist.
- A second Battle Fury, and possibly a third or more, is very powerful on Xin when dealing with illusion army or swarms of heroes, as it increases the cleave percentage as well as the amount of damage he deals with Sleight of Fist.
- A second
-
Veil of Discord is a very powerful mid game item for Ember Spirit. With Discord and 8% Spell Amplification talent, Xin can deal lots of magic damage with his abilities.
Late Game items:
-
Blink Dagger is very situational, but can drastically increase Ember Spirit's mobility by allowing him to initiate on enemies without having to use a Fire Remnant, so that Ember Spirit can save the remnant in the back and return to in bad situation. It also allows him to move around the map more quickly and bypass trees and terrain, which lets him catch enemies unaware or run from fights more easily. Blink Dagger also give Ember Spirit much more chance to right-click enemy by jumping forward and deal more damage. -
Daedalus provides Ember Spirit with great additional damage and a chance to deal 2.2x damage on an attack. It synergies extremely well with Sleight of Fist, allowing for powerful damage output at a distance.
- Multiple Daedalus allows Ember Spirit to inflict tremendous amounts of physical damage using Sleight of Fist, potentially resulting in multi-kills against the enemy team if they are clustered together.
- Multiple
-
Monkey King Bar is a strong damage item that also provides True Strike, eliminating any possibility of the enemy evading his Sleight of Fist slashes via evasion or blind. It can be a powerful purchase in the face of enemies purchasing evasion or when facing enemies with blind spells, and the mini-bash proc can allow Ember Spirit to deal even more damage during Sleight of Fist.
Survivability Items:
-
Black King Bar is a must-have item in the face of heavy disables. As he can be killed very quickly if ever stunned or silenced, spell immunity allows Ember Spirit to engage the enemy head-on and ignore their disables while fighting, giving him a bigger damage window before he needs to retreat. As well, it gives him additional strength, increasing the size of his HP pool, as well as more raw damage. -
Linken's Sphere gives Ember Spirit stats across the board, as well as passive HP and mana regen. The Spell Block passive allows Ember Spirit to shrug off one targeted spell during a fight, hopefully a targeted disable, increasing his slipperiness and allowing him to fight without fear of being disabled. -
Manta Style gives Ember Spirit a measure of defense against silences, as he can instantly purge off debuffs, especially silence, while also creating two illusions with which to confuse the enemy. The item itself also provides very useful bonuses, giving him all-around stats, more agility and attack speed, and a movement speed bonus that increases his mobility. Finally, as items can be used during Sleight of Fist, combining this item, Sleight of Fist and Searing Chains can allow Ember Spirit to root and place illusions near a target from long range.
Situational Items
-
Divine Rapier is one of the strongest items that Ember Spirit can purchase, as, combined with a cleave and crit, can allow him to deal absurd amount of physical damage to the entire enemy team during Sleight of Fist. While it is extremely expensive and extremely risky due to the possibility of giving it to the enemy upon being killed, Ember Spirit's ability to evade the enemy and avoid damage allow him to push this item to its limit and emerge victorious. -
Butterfly can be very powerful in the hands of Ember Spirit, as it grants him evasion while also increasing his physical DPS. The passive evasion decreases his vulnerability against physical damage, while the active can give him more mobility to flee from a fight or chase an enemy down. -
Eye of Skadi provides Ember Spirit with stats across the board, greatly increasing his survivability and offensive potential. Combined with Sleight of Fist, he can inflict the slow to multiple enemy heroes at once, through spell immunity, slowing them down drastically and preventing them from chasing, escaping or spreading out as quickly. -
Assault Cuirass increases Ember Spirit's damage output while also negating his weakness to physical damage. The increased armor and attack speed mitigate his low agility growth, giving him stronger presence on the battlefield. The aura helps give allies more armor and attack speed, and reduces enemy armor as well, making them more vulnerable to Sleight of Fist strikes. -
Octarine Core is a powerful late item for magical Ember, which gives hip more survivability and increases spells cooldowns. With 15% Cooldown Reduction and +2 sec Searing Chains talents, Xin can easy catch his opponents.
Uncommon Items
-
Maelstrom is an alternative item choice other than Battle Fury. The Chain Lightning effect will proc when casting Sleight of Fist. It is much cheaper than Battle Fury and allows Ember Spirit to clear illusions much earlier.
-
Mjollnir can be upgraded from Maelstrom. The Static Charge ability can be used to discourage enemies from attacking Ember Spirit as well, for fear of proccing the discharge. Note that the additional attack speed is not very useful on Ember Spirit as his main source of physical damage is Sleight of Fist.
-
-
Satanic greatly increases Ember Spirit's survivability in fights. The lifesteal, on top of allowing him to farm more easily, also procs during Sleight of Fist, allowing Xin to lifesteal drastic amounts of HP in fights, especially when the active ability is used. The increased strength and armor also give him more survivability against physical damage, making him harder to kill if he is ever caught. -
Shadow Blade increases Ember Spirit's physical DPS, and gives him an additional method with which to initiate on enemies during ganks. As well, if Sleight of Fist is cast during the 0.3 second fade time, Ember Spirit will deal the 175 bonus damage to all slashed targets and remain invisible upon returning to the remnant. However, beware that this tactic does not apply to 
Silver Edge.
Gameplay[edit]
Audio[edit]
History[edit]
Equipment[edit]
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Trivia[edit]
- Ember Spirit, like
Brewmaster, 
Earth Spirit and 
Storm Spirit, was a Pandaren in DotA. However, he was re-skinned to avoid copyright issues with Blizzard Entertainment, since Pandaren are a race of creatures in the Warcraft Universe. - The hat on Ember Spirit's back was originally intended to be worn on his head. This model and positioning can still be seen when using Ember Spirit's Hat, a cosmetic item that was made available via drops when Ember Spirit was released.
- Most of Ember Spirit's responses are exactly four words long, a reference to four-character Chinese idioms known as chengyu. According to Xin himself: Play "Four words is plenty."
Gallery[edit]
Concept art
Concept art
Ability icon progress [?]
Hero icon progress
References[edit]
