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Gameplay[]

Playstyle
Riki minimap icon Riki's permanent invisibility is both his greatest strength and his greatest weakness. On one hand, it makes him able to surprise enemies and farm with very little concern. On the other hand, without invisibility he has no real defense. He still has to watch out for revealing items such as Dust of Appearance icon Dust of Appearance and Gem of True Sight icon Gem of True Sight, as well as abilities that prevent him from going invisible. If he stays alive and picks off lone enemies, he can quickly get out of control.
Pros Cons
  • Permanent invisibility.
  • Can use items and abilities without breaking invisibility.
  • Relatively mobile.
  • Very high physical damage output at all points in the game.
  • Smoke Screen is extremely useful against all opponents.
  • High base health regeneration.
  • High base armor.
  • High base damage. Very easy to last hit or deny creeps with after level 6.
  • Good strength gain.
  • Abilities have short cooldowns.
  • Low health points.
  • Low agility gain while being heavily reliant on it.
  • Limited waveclear potential with most item builds.
  • Low intelligence with mana costly spells.
  • Usually can't manfight farmed hard carries.
  • Easily countered by wards and true sight.

Support[]

Riki can be played as a position 4 support, relying largely on using Smoke Screen and leveraging on his ability to roam around the map and provide vision.

Carry[]

Playing Riki in this role needs caution,as he farms slower than most carries, unless he has items like Battle Fury icon Battle Fury.Then,you can opt to farm jungle camps with Tricks of the Trade icon Tricks of the Trade,while at the same time, looking for fighting opportunities around the map.

Offlaner[]

In the same manner, Riki is viable for the offlane. His spells allow him to easily escape gang attempts by the enemy team, while staying in the lane to leech experience until level 6. A decent strategy is an early Diffusal Blade icon Diffusal Blade for roaming on isolated, fragile heroes around the map or help his team. Keep in mind, however, that buying Observer and Sentry Wards icon Observer and Sentry Wards may be needed, if against competitive enemy supports.

Ability Builds[]

Support Riki
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Tricks of the Trade iconSmoke Screen iconTricks of the Trade iconSmoke Screen iconBlink Strike iconCloak and Dagger iconSmoke Screen iconTricks of the Trade iconSmoke Screen iconTalent iconTricks of the Trade iconCloak and Dagger iconBlink Strike iconBlink Strike iconTalent iconBlink Strike iconUnknown iconCloak and Dagger iconTalent iconTalent icon
Carry Riki
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Blink Strike iconTricks of the Trade iconBlink Strike iconTricks of the Trade iconBlink Strike iconCloak and Dagger iconBlink Strike iconSmoke Screen iconTricks of the Trade iconTricks of the Trade iconSmoke Screen iconCloak and Dagger iconSmoke Screen iconSmoke Screen iconTalent iconTalent iconUnknown iconCloak and Dagger iconTalent iconTalent icon

Talents[]

Hero Talents
Tricks of the Trade icon Tricks of the Trade Applies a Basic Dispel25-3 Tricks of the Trade icon Tricks of the Trade Cooldown
-4s Blink Strike icon Blink Strike Replenish Time20+0.3 Cloak and Dagger icon Backstab Multiplier
-3s Smoke Screen icon Smoke Screen Cooldown15+30% Tricks of the Trade icon Tricks of the Trade Agility Increase
+8% Cloak and Dagger icon Cloak and Dagger Movement Speed10+50 Smoke Screen icon Smoke Screen Radius

Tips & Tactics[]

General[]

  • Riki's Cloak and Dagger allows him to scout and place wards without revealing himself, making him a viable roamer or support hero.
  • Riki is exceptional at ganking lone heroes and picking them off one by one. He can snowball easily through just getting lots of kills even without farm. Try to get kills before the enemy starts grouping up, so they cannot punish you with detection items.
  • Riki is an attribute-based carry, thanks to Cloak and Dagger's backstab damage. This means that he continues to get stronger and stronger as the game goes on, as long as you continue to farm, gank, and purchase the right items.
    • Because of this, Diffusal Blade icon Diffusal Blade should be your first core item completed, it gives everything Riki needs: the agility scales well with Clock and Dagger, and the active slow helps keep enemies within Smoke Screen, which is your main ganking combo.
  • Do not walk straight up to enemies and deep into enemy territory and expect never to die. If they have any kind of detection (e.g. Sentry Ward icon Sentry Ward), then Riki dies very quickly.
    • As a result of this, make a habit of constantly checking the enemy's inventory for revealing items.
  • Be wary around more durable enemy heroes. Spell immunity allows enemies to ignore Smoke Screen and fight Riki.
  • Riki is a key hero to catch slippery foes and heroes that are heavily reliant on their own active skills since he can approach without detection and use Smoke Screen to prevent them from using escape spells, so it is wise to pick him as a counter pick to many heroes like Slark minimap icon Slark, Juggernaut minimap icon Juggernaut, Anti-Mage minimap icon Anti-Mage, Weaver minimap icon Weaver or Storm Spirit minimap icon Storm Spirit. However, be careful of enemies carrying escape items, like Force Staff icon Force Staff, Glimmer Cape icon Glimmer Cape, Blink Dagger icon Blink Dagger or Shadow Blade icon Shadow Blade/Silver Edge icon Silver Edge.
  • Scout the enemy jungle once in a while, you may encounter some enemy farming alone for an easy kill, as well as helping high mobility heroes like Spirit Breaker minimap icon Spirit Breaker or Nature's Prophet minimap icon Nature's Prophet set up a gank.
  • Do not be afraid of enemies carrying Gem of True Sight icon Gem of True Sight. Track down their movement and wait, and sooner or later they are going to end up alone. When this happens, do not hesitate and use the fog of war to approach them from the sides, and go for the kill and recover the Gem.
  • Riki requires a lot of map knowledge as some supports or players place sentry wards in obvious positions. Knowing heroes who carry dust, knowing the range of the sentry detection and knowing hot spots for sentry placement can increase your overall survivability in the game.

Abilities[]

Smoke Screen icon Smoke Screen[]

  • Smoke Screen AOE silences and gives enemies a high miss chance.
  • The 500 cast range allows you to silence key targets during teamfights. Don't always use Smoke Screen on your own target.
  • Try to throw Smoke Screen in the enemy's path, rather than where they are presently.
  • Use Smoke Screen's blind to defend buildings as enemies will be missing their attacks, similar to Arc Warden's Magnetic Field (Radiant) icon Magnetic Field.
  • Cancels channeling abilities.

Blink Strike icon Blink Strike[]

  • Blink Strike can target allies and enemies, which makes it useful for escaping or chasing.
  • Blink Strike helps Riki catch up with fleeing enemies, jump into fights quickly, and escape from situations by targeting allies.
  • Blink Strike pairs well with the backstab damage from Cloak and Dagger, as it teleports Riki behind the enemy.
  • Use Blink Strike to secure last hits in lane, especially the ranged creep.

Tricks of the Trade icon Tricks of the Trade[]

  • Tricks of the Trade pairs well with large AoE disables such as Ravage icon Ravage, Reverse Polarity icon Reverse Polarity, and Black Hole icon Black Hole.
  • Later in the game, you can use Tricks of the Trade after Blink Strike + Smoke Screen to initiate, giving enemies little chance of retaliation without items, then safely Blink Strike again to escape enemies waiting for you.
  • Tricks of the Trade may be combined with cleave from Battle Fury icon Battle Fury or Empower icon Empower to devastate grouped enemies.
  • Tricks of the Trade turns Riki invulnerable and hidden for a maximum of 2 seconds. Do not be afraid to use the skill to avoid dying from spells such as Assassinate icon Assassinate.
  • When trying to escape, use Tricks of the Trade and watch as enemies try to run away. After they have left the area, Riki should stop channeling and run to the opposite direction; the enemies will then have to turn around if they want to chase.
  • Despite the short cast range, you can use this ability to get over cliffs and trees, making it a good escape mechanism.

Cloak and Dagger icon Cloak and Dagger[]

  • Riki can use any abilities and items without breaking Cloak and Dagger's invisibility.
  • If Riki's enemies do not have any form of detection, the invisibility will let Riki escape with ease and roam freely.
    • If they do, Riki has to rely on his cunning and speed in order to get the drop on enemies, and get out alive.
    • When enemies are standing on top of the bounty rune, spam right click and stop command to take the rune.
  • Cloak and Dagger also enables him to deal incredible damage from behind based on a multiplier of his agility.
  • Since good supports always stay behind, you can flank the enemy team coming around from there and catching the supports as soon as a teamfight begins and the enemy team is so busy fighting yours that they do not realize that their supports are already dead. This strategy also applies to enemy initiators with game-changing ultimates like Enigma minimap icon Enigma or Magnus minimap icon Magnus, as a good interruption can set victory in critical situations.
  • A well-organized team will often buy Sentry Ward icon Sentry Ward to keep vision of Riki. You may want to take it upon yourself to de-ward your lane if needs be; if you are without a support, or so that your support can concentrate on other items.
    • Attempt to draw creep aggro to check if enemies have vision over Cloak and Dagger's invisibility.

Items[]

Starting items:

  • Tango icon Tango or Healing Salve icon Healing Salve regenerates health so Riki can stay longer in lane and reach level 6 sooner.
  • Iron Branch icon Iron Branch gives cheap attributes and builds into Magic Wand, or Riki can use it with Tango to get more health.
  • Slippers of Agility icon Slippers of Agility increases agility for Riki to last hit; it builds into Wraith Band later on.

Early game:

  • Magic Stick icon Magic Stick replaces your consumables with an alternative source of recovery, and is particularly useful if the enemy team includes heroes that rely on abilities.
  • Boots of Speed icon Boots of Speed provide movement speed, allowing Riki to keep pace with fleeing heroes while Blink Strike is on cooldown.
  • Orb of Venom icon Orb of Venom helps secure kills with its movement slow and helps compensate for Riki's own horrible movement speed.

Mid game:

  • Power Treads icon Power Treads give Riki increased attack speed as well as a further bonus to attributes, which help increasing Cloak and Dagger's damage output.
  • Diffusal Blade icon Diffusal Blade provides a way to slow fleeing heroes, keeping them in Smoke Screen, as well as burning mana from casters for extra damage. It also boosts agility which will increase Cloak and Dagger's backstab damage.
  • Skull Basher icon Skull Basher provides increased damage and strength, which is always nice on a right-click hero that gets close for kills, like Riki. In addition, the Bash is useful for keeping enemies inside the Smoke Screen.

Late game:

  • Butterfly icon 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 backstab damage.
  • Abyssal Blade icon Abyssal Blade allows Riki to cancel channeled spells with its stun and bash, as well as continuing to lock-down opponents once they have acquired Black King Bar icon Black King Bar.
  • Nullifier icon Nullifier's movement speed slow keeps enemies inside Trick of the Trade. Furthermore, the mute and dispel complements Smoke Screen's silence and miss to disable enemies further, countering and preventing them from using defensive abilities and items like Ghost Scepter icon Ghost Scepter.

Situational items:

  • Drum of Endurance icon Drum of Endurance is a good early to mid game pickup, as it makes everyone faster and gives Riki attributes and mana regeneration.
  • Black King Bar icon Black King Bar allows Riki to effectively fight in team-fights and get kills against opponents that have strong disables.
  • Eye of Skadi icon Eye of Skadi gives attributes across the board as well as a flat health and mana pool bonus, allowing Riki to take more hits, deal more damage and use more abilities. It also gives a powerful, spell immunity piercing slow that will prevent your target from escaping.
  • Blink Dagger icon 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 icon Manta Style can be used to dispel debuffs. However, it will not dispel Dust of Appearance icon Dust of Appearance if you remain inside the AoE radius of the dust. The illusions could serve as decoy instead. Riki can use the illusions to scout, and as targets for Blink Strike when escaping.
  • Battle Fury icon Battle Fury can proc with Tricks of the Trade and Backstab, and gives Riki much needed Mana regeneration.
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