Ember Spirit
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Xin, the Ember Spirit, is a highly mobile and versatile melee agility hero whose abilities make him a slippery foe who can dance around his enemies at will. His skill set allows for 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. His Flame Guard ability deals damage in a small area around him while shielding him from magic nukes, making him a force to be reckoned with by enemy casters. Finally, his Fire Remnant spell enables him to engage, escape, or move instantaneously around the map, allowing him to appear 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 frail and easy to kill 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, Xin eventually 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]
Abilities[edit]
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.
- Provides True Sight over the targets, but only when the targets were not invisible or within a fade time upon cast.
- Does not target invisible units or units inside the Fog of War.
Notes:
- Ember Spirit is invulnerable during Sleight of Fist. Does not disjoint projectiles upon cast.
- During Sleight of Fist, this ability is inactive, so that it cannot be recast until the current cast finishes.
- Ember Spirit is only disarmed during Sleight of Fist, so actions besides attacking can be performed normally during it.
- Upon cast, all targets within the area are marked. A flaming sword appears above them as an indicator, which lasts until they get hit.
- Sleight of Fist has no range limit. Once a target is marked, it cannot escape Sleight of Fist with distance.
- Does not affect invisible or attack immune units. When a marked unit turns invisible or attack immune, it gets fully skipped on its turn.
- Fully affects units in the Fog of War. Fogged units 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.
- The instant attacks of Sleight of Fist do not break Smoke of Deceit's invisibility.
- 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.
Notes:
- Flame Guard interrupts Ember Spirit's channeling spells upon cast.
- Can deal a total of 200/420/720/1100 (
600/1020/1520/2100) damage to a single unit (before reductions), assuming a max duration Flame Guard.
- Blocks damage before any reductions, except Mana Shield.
- Only blocks magical damage, coming from spells and attacks. Does not block any physical or pure 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.
- However, if a damage instance is greater than the capacity of all barriers individually, the damage gets blocked as if the barriers were one barrier with combined capacity.
Notes:
- Activate Fire Remnant levels up whenever Fire Remnant is leveled up.
- 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.
- The mana cost of Activate Fire Remnant is always the same, regardless of how many remnants he is traveling to with a single cast.
- Does not disjoint projectiles that are traveling towards Ember Spirit when he casts this spell.
- While traveling, Ember Spirit cannot turn, but can attack, cast spells, and use items (still requires facing his targets).
- 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.
- Ember Spirit damages enemies within a 225 radius around him as he travels, and in a 450 radius around a remnant upon reaching it.
- Enemies may only be damaged once per remnant, either by Ember Spirit as he travels towards the remnant, or by him upon reaching the remnant.
- Destroys trees within 200 radius around Ember Spirit while traveling to a remnant.
- Though at high speeds, some trees may be skipped.
Target Point
Notes:
- Ember Spirit gets all 3 charges immediately upon learning Fire Remnant.
- Acquiring Aghanim's Scepter the first time instantly grants 2 charges as well. This only happens once, so re-acquiring it does not grant them again.
- Fire Remnants move to their targeted location at a speed of 250% (
500%) 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 38 (
26) seconds, it is possible to have 4 (
4) (
6,
6) 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 cannot be seen when sent into the Fog of War.
- Fire Remnants deal no damage when they expire.
- With Aghanim's Shard, Fire Remnants deal 22.5 damage in 0.5-second intervals, starting 0.5 seconds after receiving the debuff.
- The remnants start dealing as soon as they are created, so they already deal damage while traveling towards their destination.
- The damage from multiple remnants with overlapping areas do not stack.
- The damage is sourced to Ember Spirit, and not to the remnants themselves.
- The damage is provided by an aura, it's debuff lingers for 0.5 seconds.
- With Aghanim's Shard, any hero kill (including clones, excluding illusions) done by Ember Spirit causes him to launch a Fire Remnant towards the exact death location of the target.
- This also happens whenever an enemy hero dies within 400 range of him. Denied do not count.
- The remnants are created like the ones from a manual cast. They still have to travel towards their destination.
- Remnants spawn even while Ember Spirit is dead, so if he gets a kill while dead, or an enemy dies within range of his corpse, the remnants still spawn.
- Remannts spawn even if the killed hero has Reincarnation.
Talents[edit]
Hero Talents | ||
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-12 Remnant Charge Restore Time | 25 | 2 Sleight of Fist Charges |
+65 Sleight of Fist Hero Damage | 20 | +8% Spell Amplification |
+0.8s Searing Chains | 15 | +50 Flame Guard DPS |
+280 Flame Guard Absorption | 10 | +15 Damage |
- This attack damage talent is added as raw attack damage, so it does not benefit illusions, and is not affected by most percentage-based damage increasing or reducing effects.
Recent Changes[edit]
- Increased intelligence gain from 1.8 to 2.2.
- Aghanim's Scepter upgrade:
- Increased Activate Fire Remnant mana cost from 25 to 75.
- Added Aghanim's Shard upgrade for Ember Spirit:
- Causes Fire Remnants to deal non-stacking 45 damage per second within a 600 radius around them, and causes Ember Spirit to send out a Fire Remnant to the death location of heroes he kills, or heroes that die within 400 range of him.
- Reduced Flame Guard damage per second from 30/40/50/60 to 25/35/45/55.
- Talents:
- Level 10 right talent: +20 attack damage reduced to +15.
- Level 20 left talent: +50 Sleight of Fist hero attack damage bonus increased to +65.
- Level 25 left talent: -13s Fire Remnant charge replenish time reduced to -12s.
Recommended items[edit]
Starting items:
- Tango helps Ember Spirit sustain during the laning phase, preventing him from being forced to return to base due to enemy harassment.
- Healing Salve also restores health to Ember Spirit.
- 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.
Early game:
- 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 Raindrops 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.
- Town Portal Scroll allows 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.
Mid game:
- Power Treads give intelligence so Ember Spirit can use abilities more often. The attack speed and agility also add to his damage output.
- Boots of Travel gives Ember Spirit high global mobility in conjunction with Fire Remnant, letting him quickly assist in ganks, pushes, and defenses all around the map or heal up at the Fountain before returning to farm near-instantly.
- Battle Fury keeps Ember Spirit's mana topped up and gives cleave damage to Sleight of Fist, making him more dangerous in teamfights and increasing his farming speed. Multiple Battle Furies for more cleave damage can be considered to counter illusion swarms.
- Maelstrom is a cheaper alternative to Battle Fury for giving Sleight of Fist splash damage, and is often more useful for magical builds.
Late game:
- Blink Dagger lets Ember Spirit save his Remnants for escape rather than initiation, letting him easily jump on enemies to deal right-click damage and bind them with Searing Chains.
- Daedalus provides Ember Spirit with great additional damage and a chance to deal 2.2x damage on an attack. It synergizes 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.
- 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 dispel 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.
- Aghanim's Scepter augments nearly every aspect of Fire Remnant, making Ember Spirit amazingly mobile, reducing his mana drain, and giving magical builds more burst damage.
Situational items:
- Drum of Endurance, gives Ember Spirit all-around stats, shoring up his HP and mana pool as well as giving him increased damage. The bonus movement speed increases his mobility, allowing him to position himself to use his spells more easily.
- Veil of Discord is a powerful mid game item for Ember Spirit. With Discord and spell amplification talent, Ember Spirit can deal lots of magical damage with his abilities.
- Eul's Scepter of Divinity's movement speed bonus and cyclone helps Ember Spirit catch up to enemies and set up Searing Chains. It also dispels silence and grants mana for him to keep using abilities.
- 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.
- Octarine Core is a powerful late item for magical Ember, which gives him more survivability and increases spells cooldowns. With 25% Cooldown Reduction and +1 sec Searing Chains talents, Ember Spirit can easily catch his opponents.
- 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.
- 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.
- Divine Rapier lets Ember Spirit deal absurd damage with Sleight of Fist. While his natural mobility helps him hold onto the Rapier, it is nevertheless still a very risky purchase.
Gameplay[edit]
Roles: | Carry Escape Nuker Disabler Initiator |
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Complexity: | ★★☆ |
Playstyle: | Impressed by the teachings of Xin, the Burning Celestial breathed life into the warrior-poet's ashes, and from there an image of Xin appeared, born anew as the Ember Spirit. The great teacher dashes through his opponents, a Sleight of Fist that strikes each foe once before returning to his original spot. He immobilizes enemies with Searing Chains, holding them in place against the scorching heat of his Flame Guard. Across the land, Xin's glowing likenesses stand silent guard. The Ember Spirit arrives at his Fire Remnants from impossible distances, catching the unprepared in a burst of flame before they surrender their lives to Xin's burning blades. |
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: ▶️ "Four words is plenty."