Riki
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Riki, the Stealth Assassin, is a melee agility hero that uses stealth in order to surprise enemies and quickly kill them. His trademark ability, Cloak and Dagger, lets him sneak up on his enemies from behind and deal massive backstab damage, and then quickly escape. This enables him to close in on the enemy and drop his devastating Smoke Screen, which cripples fighters and spellcasters alike. Blink Strike allows Riki to chase with impunity, while Tricks of the Trade makes quick work of his enemies during teamfights.
Contents
Bio[edit]
 Riki, the Stealth Assassin
| |
| Play "There are none so stabbed as those who will not see." | |
| Role: |  Carry /  Escape /  Disabler
|
| Lore: | Riki was born middle child to the great dynasty of Tahlin. With an older brother groomed for the throne, and a younger brother coddled and kept, Riki, the small middle son, seemed born for the art of invisibility. It was an art he cultivated, and one which ultimately saved his life on the night that his people were betrayed and his family slaughtered. Of all the royal line, he alone escaped—small and agile, unassuming, using smoke as cover. He cut his way out of the royal grounds, using the advantage of surprise, quietly slitting the throats of one enemy warrior after another. Now free of his royal responsibilities, Riki uses his talents in service to a new trade: Stealth Assassin. He silences his enemies, sharpening his skills, hoping to one day take revenge on those who killed his family and robbed him of his birthright. |
| Voice: | Tom Chantler (Responses) |
Abilities[edit]
Smoke Screen
Ability
Target Area
Target Area
Affects
Enemies
Enemies
Throws down a smoke bomb, silencing enemies, and causing them to miss most attacks, as well as slowing movement.
Cast Animation: 0.4+0
Cast Range: 550 (
800)
800)Effect Radius: 250/275/300/325
Move Speed Slow: 10%/15%/20%/25%
Miss Chance: 40%/50%/60%/70%
Duration: 6
11 ( 7)
90
All effects persist if debuff was placed before spell immunity.Modifiers
Smoke Screen: Undispellable.Since his escape during the night of his betrayal, Riki has valued the use of a simple smoke screen to confuse his opponents.
Blink Strike
Teleports behind the target unit, striking for bonus damage if it is an enemy.
Cast Animation: 0.3+0
Cast Range: 800 ( 1050)
1050)Damage: 55/70/85/100
16/ 50
Can be cast on spell immune allies.Cannot be cast on spell immune enemies.
Modifiers
Blinkstrike: Undispellable.The Stealth Assassin's agile movement makes him impossible to escape.
Notes:
- The bonus damage is independent from Riki's attack damage and is instantly dealt to the target.
- Always teleports Riki behind the target.
- Cannot be cast while rooted.
- When targeting an enemy, Riki receives the Blinkstrike buff.
- This buff makes his next attack apply an ensured backstab hit with
Cloak and Dagger, regardless of angle. - This means when the target manages to turn around before Riki's attack hits, it still applies the backstab.
- The buff lasts for 1 attack, or for up to 1 second, whichever happens first.
- The buff is used up upon starting an attack, not upon landing it, so canceling or missing the attack wastes it.
- The 1 second duration allows Riki to use the ensured backstab against other units than the Blink Strike target if quick enough.
- This buff makes his next attack apply an ensured backstab hit with
- Riki is ordered to attack the target if it is an enemy.
- Can be cast on allies without damaging them.
Cloak and Dagger
Fade Delay: 6/5/4/3
Backstab Damage per Agility: 0.5/0.75/1/1.25 ( 0.9/1.15/1.4/1.65)
0.9/1.15/1.4/1.65)
Invisibility part works for illusions. Illusions play the backstab sound upon attacking from behind, but do not deal any bonus damage.Modifiers
Invisible: Undispellable.Riki comes for you.
Notes:
- Riki does not auto attack enemies while invisible.
- Riki turns instantly invisible after respawning, causing him not to be visible right after using
Aegis of the Immortal.
- Casting spells or using items does not break the invisibility.
- The ability icon shows a cooldown whenever the invisibility is broken. However, this has only informative purposes.
- This means that using
Refresher Orb does not refresh it. - This also means it is not affected by the Cooldown Reduction of
Octarine Core and 
Arcane Rune. -
Time Dilation and 
Chakra Magic affect the cooldown visually, but do not affect the fade delay in any way.
- This means that using
- Backstab damage is applied when attacking and denying allies.
- A unit's back is considered to be within 105 degrees from the back.
- The damage can be reduced with e.g.
Enfeeble or 
Static Link.
- However, it cannot be amplified with e.g.
Empower or the 
Double Damage Rune.
- However, it cannot be amplified with e.g.
- The sound effect plays at the start of the attack, but the damage is applied on hit.
Tricks of the Trade
Affects
Self / Enemy Heroes
Self / Enemy Heroes
Phases out of the world while striking every enemy from behind in a 500 radius once per second.
Cast Animation: 0.3+0
Max Channel Time: 3/4/5 (
7/8/9)
7/8/9)Radius: 500
Max Attacks per Unit: 4/5/6 ( 8/9/10)
8/9/10)Cast Range: 0 ( 1000, 1250)
1000, 1250) 40/ 75
Increases duration and allows you to target an allied hero, hiding inside them for the duration.Modifiers
Tricks Of The Trade Phase: Undispellable.The Stealth Assassin is not afraid to fight dirty, and specializes in attacking his opponents from behind.
Notes:
- Tricks of the Trade disjoints projectiles upon cast.
- Certain items which do not cancel channeling spells (e.g.
Shadow Blade or 
Shiva's Guard) do cancel Tricks of the Trade.
- Cannot be cast while rooted.
- Riki is invulnerable and hidden during Tricks of the Trade, turning him to an invalid target for every spell.
- Riki is phased during Tricks of the Trade, so that other units can pass through.
- Causes Riki to perform instant attacks on all enemy heroes within range once per second, starting immediately on cast.
- The instant attacks can proc any attack modifier or any on-hit effect like regular attacks.
- If Riki is blinded, the attacks can miss, unless he has True Strike. They can also miss to evasion.
- The instant attacks completely ignore disarms, so Riki still attacks normally during Tricks of the Trade.
- The instant attacks do not break Cloak and Dagger's invisibility, although it visually goes on cooldown.
- If
Echo Sabre is off cooldown, the instant attacks place the two slow procs on two randomly selected heroes in the radius. If there is only one hero in the radius, they will be slowed by the first proc. The second proc will then be applied on a randomly selected hero in the radius during the next round of attacks.
- The instant attacks always trigger a backstab from Cloak and Dagger, based on its current level.
- Only affects enemy heroes, excluding illusions. Creep-heroes are treated as creeps.
- Does not affect invisible units, but does affect units inside the Fog of War.
- The visual effects indicating Tricks of the Trade's attack radius are visible to both allies and enemies.
- The radius is always centered on Riki and follows him even when he gets moved (e.g.
Glimpse).
- However, the radius indicating visual effects on the ground do not follow Riki, and stay at the cast location.
- When upgraded with
Aghanim's Scepter, Riki can target an allied hero with Tricks of the Trade.
- Riki and all of the spell's effects then follow the allied hero. He still remains hidden.
- If the target dies, Tricks of the Trade is centered around its death location for the remaining duration, unless the target resurrects before the channeling ends (e.g. by using Buyback).
- Cannot target creep-heroes. Can target illusions.
Talents[edit]
| Hero Talents | ||
|---|---|---|
-4s  Smoke Screen Cooldown
|
25 | +0.4 Cloak and Dagger Backstab Multiplier
|
| +8 All Stats | 20 | +250 Cast Range |
| +30% XP Gain | 15 | +10  Agility
|
| +15 Movement Speed | 10 | +150 Health |
Notes:
- Upgrading health increases maximum health capacity and keeps the current health percentage.
Recommended items[edit]
Starting
-
Tangos and 
Healing Salve compensate for poor starting HP, allowing you to stay longer in the lane and reach level 6 sooner. -
Slippers of Agility and three 
Iron Branches to increase early damage and both health and mana regeneration, while the slippers prepare for the shield and the branches set up for the wand later.
Early Game
-
Magic Stick replaces your consumables with an alternative source of recovery, particularly if the enemy team includes heroes that rely on abilities. -
Boots of Speed provide movement speed, allowing Riki to keep pace with fleeing heroes while Blink Strike is on cooldown. -
Poor Man's Shield gives Riki damage block, aiding escape from attempted ganks or providing the defense to land one last hit on an almost dead opponent. -
Orb of Venom helps secure kills with its movement slow and helps compensate for Riki's own horrible movement speed. Remember that neither Orb of Venom nor 
Diffusal Blade are Unique Attack Modifiers, so they stack with other ones.
Core
-
Power Treads give Riki increased attack speed as well as a further bonus to attributes. -
Magic Wand is an obvious upgrade from the 
Magic Stick and 
Iron Branches purchased earlier, freeing up inventory slots while retaining the attribute bonuses and healing ability. -
Diffusal Blade provides a way to weaken heroes receiving bonuses from buffs, as well as slow fleeing heroes and burn mana from casters. And using purge on an enemy under Smoke Screen allows for a long silenced duration in which you can back-stab them or just fight them while they have an increased chance to miss. It also boosts 
Agility which will increase Cloak and Dagger's back-stab damage.
Situational
-
Butterfly provides a huge increase in both survivability and damage, as well as attack speed. It also boosts your Agility which scales well with Cloak and Dagger's back-stab damage. -
Drum of Endurance is a good early/mid game pickup, makes everyone faster and gives you stats, coupled with Orb of Venom for a better chasing power. -
Black King Bar allows Riki to effectively fight in team-fights and get kills against opponents that have strong disables. -
Sange and Yasha give great attribute bonuses, as well as an alternative slow method to save charges on, or use in place of a drained Diffusal Blade. -
Skull Basher allows Riki to cancel TPs with a lucky bash and continue to lock-down opponents once they have acquired a 
Black King Bar, and upgrades into 
Abyssal Blade which allows for more reliable stuns. -
Eye of Skadi gives stats across the board as well as a flat HP and mana pool bonus, allowing Riki to take more hits, deal more damage and cast more spells. It also gives a powerful, Black King Bar piercing slow that will prevent your target from escaping. -
Blink Dagger allows Riki to initiate using Blink Strike and Tricks of the Trade, then safely blinking away just before Tricks of the Trade finishes. -
Manta Style can be used to dispel debuffs, including 
Dust of Appearance, as it's the only source of dispel which has beneficial stats for Riki. -
Battle Fury can be utilized when allies such as 
Enigma and/or 
Magnus are present. -
Maelstrom can proc with 
Tricks of the Trade, but only up to once per strike due to the item's internal cooldown of 0.2 seconds. Can be upgraded to 
Mjollnir for higher damage. -
Desolator can be used with Tricks of the Trade to hit multiple targets and reduce their armor, causing it to essentially be a multiple target 
Medallion of Courage.
Gameplay[edit]
Audio[edit]
History[edit]
Equipment[edit]
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Trivia[edit]
- In DotA, Riki was named "Rikimaru", a reference to one of the main characters in the Tenchu video game series.[1]
- Riki's fun/alternate name was Riki Martin, which is a pun on Ricky Martin, a famous Latino pop singer.
- Riki's line upon dying, Play "Good assassins never die… they just fade away.'", is a reference to a quote by General Douglas MacArthur, "Old soldiers never die; they just fade away."
- Riki's line Play "There are none so stabbed as those who will not see." is a reference to a proverb: "There are none so blind as those who will not see."
- Riki's line Play "I speak softly, but carry a sharp knife." is a reference to the West African Proverb "Speak softly and carry a big stick.", popularized by U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt.
Gallery[edit]
Splash artwork
Trading card art
Old model and icon
Ability icon progress
Hero icon progress
References[edit]
