Jakiro/Guide

Hero

 

Strategy

 

Equipment

 

Gear

 

Talents

 

Relics

 

Responses

 

Sounds

 

Animations

 

Lore

 

Old Abilities

 

Changelogs

 

Known Bugs

 

Gameplay

Playstyle
Jakiro is a tanky intelligence hero with low cooldown damage over time abilities and high amounts of magical damage. He contributes disables and damage in team fights with Ice Path and Macropyre, and can push very quickly with Dual Breath and Liquid Fire. While usually played as a support, he may also find great success as a mid, utilizing fast levels to push and fight more effectively.
Pros	Cons
Tanky lane support, great harasser. Effective in almost any lineup with great teamfight and pushing potential. Low cooldowns and efficient AoE spells. Mostly item independent, although benefits from utility items. Can clear waves and stacks quickly to get the few items he needs.	Predictable abilities due to longer cast points, which may be hard to land without items or allies. Very low mobility and armor without items. Less effective against enemies who spread out. Level dependent, especially in the early game.

Lane Support and Pusher

Using low mana cost Dual Breath along with no mana cost Liquid Fire, Jakiro can bully even the tankiest heroes with damage block such as Axe and Tidehunter out of experience range. While Dual Breath helps with killing heroes during rune fights with its decent slow and damage, level one Liquid Fire gives earlier spammable harass and may force an early Healing Salve from enemy offlaners, crippling their laning. Either ability at level one is acceptable, just save your skill point until lane. Once your Liquid Fire has lost some of its potency against the enemy offlaner and your carry is farmed you should be aiming to take as many Tier 1 towers as you can, your Liquid Fire does huge amount of damage to buildings if you are ever left alone with them for a short period of time. By securing your team as many early towers as possible you open the enemy team to ganks and limit their farming. When grouping to team fight, open with Liquid Fire, then catch as many in your Macropyre as you can and drop an Ice Path over them, following up with Dual Breath to slow as many targets attempting to escape your ult as you can.

Disabler

Similar to the other style of Jakiro in lane except with an extra early point in Dual Breath and stopping Liquid Fire at level 2 to put towards earlier Ice Path levels for teamfights, forgoing some early push. Level 2 Dual Breath is twice the damage as level 1 for 5 extra mana. By level 8 Ice Path gives a 2 second disable on a 10 second cooldown, giving you serious disruption to enemy teams. This build is far more reliant on your teammate's pushing power and damage, but is effective when combined with a team that likes to group early with powerful abilities like Decay and Snowball, items such as Mekansm and Blink Dagger, or heroes like Viper, Clockwerk, and Slardar.

Ability Builds

Lane Support and Pusher Jakiro
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	20	25

Disabler Jakiro
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	20	25

Talents

Hero Talents
-2.5s Ice Path Cooldown	25	+100% Dual Breath Damage and Range
+25 Macropyre Damage	20	+0.4s/+0.5s Ice Path Duration/Stun Duration
+325 Health	15	50 Liquid Fire Attack Speed
-10%/10 Dual Breath Attack/Movement Speed Slow	10	+200 Attack Range

Notes:

• The attack range talent also affects the cast range of Liquid Fire and Liquid Frost.

• The health talent increases the max health capacity and keeps the current health percentage.

Tips & Tactics

General

• Jakiro has a below average turn rate. Coupled with his long animations and low movement speed, Jakiro has difficulties landing his abilities when his enemies are behind him, spread out, or can react quickly, as nimble opponents are able to see Jakiro's actions being played out to them and can take the appropriate measures to either sidestep or counter them. Consider purchasing additional mobility or disabling items as necessary, to help compensate these difficulties.
• Most of the time, a value point into Ice Path early game is enough for disabling channeling spells, stopping movement and stacking camps.
  • In certain cases, however, such as a team composition relying on burst damage, you may wish to max Ice Path first to set up kills or keep enemies at bay.
• If you intend to max out Liquid Fire first on the other hand, you may want to opt for different boots, as you may not be consuming enough mana for Arcane Boots to be useful instead of stacking up Clarity potions. Instead, purchase Tranquil Boots for health regeneration and mobility, possibly buying Soul Ring later on to solve mana problems. Alternatively, you can even keep your Boots of Speed to upgrade into Boots of Travel, giving you split-pushing potential, a way of gaining resources without taking from allies, and ensuring your presence in teamfights with a 40 second cooldown TP across the map.
• Because of Jakiro's slow cast points and backswings, you should aim to cancel animation as often as possible to minimize downtime.
  • For instance, applying Liquid Fire right after the first wave of Dual Breath could make the difference between a enemy hero's death, and letting them escape.
• Whenever possible, always try to stack camps with auto attacks and Ice Path to allow for you and your allies to reap extra farm. Jakiro in particular benefits from stacking due to the nature of his spells being AOE and having attack speed slows.

Abilities

Dual Breath

• Jakiro usually wants to max Dual Breath first as it offers high damage increase for minor mana cost increase. Even in another build that relies on a different spell being maxed out first, it's advised to at least have 2 points in Dual Breath.
• Dual Breath has an enormous cast backswing, so you should cancel it by hitting the "stop" key or casting another spell after Dual Breath reaches its cast point, allowing Jakiro to use another ability, attack, or move quickly after.
• Dual Breath deals a greater than average damage compared to other similar area of effect abilities, helping Jakiro harass and gank the enemies.
• Therefore, avoid spamming this ability at level 1 as its damage at that time is still low. Save your mana and start harassing with Dual Breath once it's level 2.
• The damage is dealt over time and can be countered by high health regeneration and can be dispelled by heroes such as Abaddon, Oracle, and Legion Commander.
• Dual Breath applies a slow debuff first before the damage over time debuff. Along with its long casting animation, quick-fingered opponents may be able to evade the damage over time debuff.
• When chasing opponents alone, use the ability when they are within about half of the cast range; otherwise, they will get the slow debuff but not the damage debuff. Although you should opt for the slow only if you have teammates that can take advantage of it.
• Enemies can use Force Staff or some other forced movement to expel themselves out of reach of the flame debuff.
• Use Dual Breath along with Liquid Fire to wear down creep waves and medium or large jungle camps, giving Jakiro quick farm; Liquid Fire by itself is usually enough to clean up small camps.
• While the Level 10 talent allows for slightly improved slowing potential, it's usually recommended to skip it in favor of the Attack Range talent, due to having both Liquid Fire and Liquid Frost benefiting from it.

Ice Path

• Ice Path will stun any enemy unit that comes in contact with it for the duration it has remaining on the battlefield, meaning that opponents won't be stunned for the full duration of Ice Path if it doesn't land directly on them.
• Ice Path makes for a good area denial spell, as it covers a large area, similar to Invoker's Ice Wall and Underlord's Pit of Malice.
• Predicting where an enemy will go and casting Ice Path at that area right before the enemy gets there, causing the enemy walk into Ice Path, is just as effective as casting the Ice Path directly on an enemy. Be wary of those keen at dodging the spell.
• Due to the duration of the path lasting longer than the disable, you may wish to use leverage Ice Path to force enemies to travel a certain direction.
• Ice Path deals only 50 magical damage even at the highest level. Be sure to use Jakiro's other offensive abilities to follow Ice Path, or have teammates to support you to maximize the effectiveness of Ice Path's utility.
• The low damage is still enough to score last hits in situations where Jakiro is at low health, is too far away to use an attack, or there are multiple low health creeps.
• Shooting Ice Path from outside enemy vision is much more advantageous than using it in front of their faces, since its linear area and animation make it easily avoidable.
• Try to surprise enemies from the night's fog of war, higher ground, tree lines, or from invisibility effects like Glimmer Cape.
• When being chased, you may want to use Ice Path in the direction Jakiro is heading rather than having to turn around. The long duration and radius of Ice Path may stun to enemies who were getting too close to Jakiro before, although melee heroes may still be able to attack you if they keep their distance.
• Ice Path grants flying vision in its area, so use it to check Roshan's pit, deward or scout ahead.
• Due to the properties of Ice Path, combined with debuff immunity applying any disables immediately after the duration ending, an early Ice Path may force enemies to disengage, or risk the immediate disable.
• Because of Ice Path's formation delay, it allows for just enough time to channel Meteor Hammer} immediately upon cast, allowing for significantly more damage from a Macropyre combo due to both extra damage over time and slow.
• Be careful, while Eul's Scepter of Divinity allows you to have a guaranteed combo, it will still be easy for them to break out of Ice Path if they have any instant cast ability or item, as there is a short period of time where they can act before the stun.
• Whether you are intending to clear stacks yourself or simply wish to help out a teammate that can clear them instead, Ice Path also allows you to stack effectively due its long range, low mana cost and short stun time. With proper timing, roughly 2-3 seconds before the usual camp timing based on the current stun duration, it's relatively easy to stack without even being inside the jungle proper, allowing Jakiro to multitask while pushing out a lane or even stacking additional camps with ease. Consider doing this during down time, or when your build mainly focuses on maxing out Liquid Fire first, due to spare mana.

Liquid Fire

• Liquid Fire is an amazing pushing skill due to being manaless area damage that can affect towers. Over time, even hit-and-runs with Liquid Fire chip away tower health significantly.
• With high magical damage combined with attack speed slow, Liquid Fire is particularly good at killing creeps, especially combined with Dual Breath, making Jakiro great at pushing lanes and clearing any nearby camps.
• Use Liquid Fire to harass opponents during the laning stage. On top of the damage, the attack speed reduction should mess with the enemy laner's ability to last hit or deny effectively.
• At level 4, Liquid Fire can be applied to the same opponent continuously, as the debuff lasts for 5 seconds, dealing 45 magical damage per second while the ability has a cooldown of 4 seconds.
• Liquid Fire can keep enemies in check by hampering their attack speed almost indefinitely should Jakiro be in range and able to attack.
• Liquid Fire naturally counters enemies with low attack speed, such as Tiny, Roshan, and siege creeps Be sure to apply it onto them when possible. In turn this effect is minuscule against enemies with fast attack speed such as Windranger or Troll Warlord, and as such the attack slow should not be the primary usage of this spell on those enemies.
• Liquid Fire has 200 bonus attack range when cast manually. Keep this in mind whenever when you're against enemies with a naturally greater attack range than you or when your target is just out of reach of your own natural attack range.
• The damage over time may be enough to kill opponents, with similar effect to Urn of Shadows or Spirit Vessel. Combine both to finish off enemies even after they use their mobility or invisiblity.
• Like all active attack modifiers, a manual cast of Liquid Fire does not draw lane creep aggro, but autocast does.
• Also like other modifiers, the bonus range stacks with other attack range bonuses, particularly with the Level 10 Attack Range talent.
• The placement of the middle filler building in front of the enemy team's tier 4 towers allow for the AoE of Liquid Fire to apply to both. If this building is still alive, target it instead of the tower directly for bonus siege damage.

Liquid Frost

• Unlocked with Aghanim's Shard, Liquid Frost, like Liquid Fire, is a manaless autocast attack modifier that can be manually casted to increase Jakiro's effective range and to siege.
• This attack orb may be used in conjunction with Liquid Fire when set to autocast, and vice versa.
• Compared to Liquid Fire, Liquid Frost has a longer cooldown, but considerably higher damage potential with it being based on the maximum health of the of the target, as well as providing a movement slow rather than attack speed slow.
• Due to these properties, this makes Liquid Frost a very versatile option for its cost, especially for a mid Jakiro: being usable in tandem with Dual Breath to make enemies stay in Macropyre for far longer, slowing enemies to land easier Ice Paths, siege extremely quickly in tandem with Liquid Fire and Meteor Hammer, and even simply covering bases which Jakiro would otherwise lack: an innate way of dealing with high health targets effectively.
• Tips that would apply to Liquid Fire apply here as well.

Macropyre

• Like Dual Breath, Macropyre has a long cast backswing animation. Hitting the "stop" key during Macropyre's backswing animation after the cast point will make Jakiro ready for other actions. As in the case of Dual Breath, mastering this mechanic increases Jakiro's damage output and effectiveness.
• If the enemy is preoccupied with chasing down or attack an ally for example, you may be able to get away with a fast Macropyre into Ice Path combo if you are out of focus.
• Macropyre lasts for a long duration and has a relatively short cooldown, making it good at area-denial.
• Use this whenever the creep wave arrives to score free gold and experience while damaging and potentially scoring a kill on heroes.
• While you should use Macropyre to damage the enemy directly, you should also try to position it to block off or protect strategically important areas e.g. allied/enemy towers, treelines, escape routes, or Roshan's Pit.
• In addition Jakiro can opt to use Macropyre on creep waves, helping with pushing or defending buildings, and even shutting down 5 man pushes before they can break backdoor. You may also wish to use it on stacked camps should you lack points into Dual Breath, preferably multiple camps at once.
• If the situation isn't to your advantage, have you and your allies retreat towards Macropyre, damaging any enemy that dares chase you.
• Macropyre has potential for huge damage output; considering the situation you can use it to bump off any low health enemy, preferably after slowing or stunning them first. Merely touching the large AOE guarantees 2 seconds of damage, with potential for even more the longer they stay.
• Combine Macropyre with spells that keep the enemy in place as long as possible, such as Chronosphere, Black Hole, Upheaval, or Duel. It does not guarantee damage without these effects, and is a fairly low damage spell, so chaining it with other spells is necessary for any real effect.
• This also works to counter enemy abilities and melee heroes that require they stay in an area; throw Macropyre from outside Chronosphere, for example, to dissuade Faceless Void from attacking your teammates.
• With Aghanim's Scepter's upgrade, Macropyre lasts for 30 seconds. When cast at the right intervals, it can clear 2 waves of creeps and give your team a huge advantage in terms of pushing.
• Aghanim's Scepter also changes Macropyre's damage to pure and allows it to pierce debuff immunity, dealing significantly more damage to enemies under this effect.
• Purchase Scepter mainly if the enemy team has tanky heroes, debuff immunity, or a significant map advantage over your team, otherwise it may be worth ignoring this upgrade early on in favor of more versatile yet equally expensive options such as Scythe of Vyse, Aeon Disk, or your shard upgrade, as the impact may be minor at best.

Items

Starting items:

• Tango offers cheap health regeneration during the laning phase, allowing Jakiro to stay longer in lane and get the experience he needs.
• Healing Salve also restores health to Jakiro and allies.
• Clarity replenishes Jakiro's mana over time, allowing him to keep harassing enemies using Dual Breath.
• Iron Branch increases Jakiro's overall survivability by providing additional attribute bonuses for cheap; Jakiro can use it to get more heal out of Tango, or save up to build Magic Wand.
• Observer Ward grants vision of the enemies so Jakiro and allies can better plan ganks and pushes.
• Blood Grenade combined with Dual Breath early on can signifcantly increase Jakiro's chances to obtain First Blood advantage. Later on, this may be purchased to enhance Macropyre's deadliness.

Early game:

• Boots of Speed provide a significant bonus to Jakiro's movement speed, which help catch up to fleeing heroes or escape from danger himself.
• Arcane Boots expands Jakiro's mana pool so he can use abilities more. The active ability sustains Jakiro's and nearby teammates' ability usage. In the late game, Jakiro has the option to either upgrade Arcane Boots to Guardian Greaves to better support his team, or Boots of Travel to increase pushing prowess.
• Tranquil Boots is a sidegrade option to Arcane Boots providing high HP regen and movement speed instead of mana. May be combined with Soul Ring to solve any mana issues.
• Magic Stick and Magic Wand grant charges as enemy heroes use abilities, which exchange for a burst of health and mana restoration.
• Wind Lace adds a little bit to Jakiro's low movement speed, and builds into Eul's Scepter of Divinity. Also advisable to purchase another for extra speed once built.
• Urn of Shadows allows Jakiro to carry on demand healing, as well as boister his impressive damage over time combined with Dual Breath and Liquid Fire.
• Veil of Discord's active Magic Weakness increases the magical damage enemies take from Jakiro's and his teammates' abilities.

Mid game:

• Eul's Scepter of Divinity provides intelligence and mana regeneration at a cost effective price, and it gives Jakiro an active ability that allows him to land his abilities more easily. After using Cyclone, Jakiro will have enough time to set up Macropyre and time Ice Path to ensure maximum stun duration on enemy target. Jakiro can also use the active on himself to dispel debuffs or silences. Upgradable to Wind Waker late game for additional defensive utility.
• Rod of Atos' long-ranged root can set up Ice Path as well as Jakiro's other abilities, being a good alternative to cyclone. The bonus stats also help Jakiro's effectiveness. Can be upgraded later to Gleipnir for additional AOE prowess.
• Force Staff acts more as an escape item compared to Blink Dagger, as Jakiro can use it while taking damage. Jakiro can also use it on allies if they want to chase after a kill or escape from danger themselves. Later it can be upgraded into Hurricane Pike, for both additional mobilty options and extra attack range.
• Aghanim's Shard will give Jakiro access to Liquid Frost that will allow his attacks to slow down movement speed and deal magical damage in an area based on enemy heroes's maximum health.
• Meteor Hammer is a very cheap and strong item for Jakiro's game plan as it works twofold: not only allowing further destruction of enemy structures in tandem with Liquid Fire and Liquid Frost, but also allowing for more advanced Macropyre combos with Ice Path, perfectly syncing when you channel it immediately after the cast point. Be wary of enemies with Status Resistance, for they will be able to escape and counter this maneuver.

Late game:

• Boots of Travel, for a support Jakiro, may be purchased in the late game to provide pressure to enemy lanes should they go undefended, or bag massive pushing advantage after winning a teamfight. For a mid Jakiro, this item may be instead be purchased in place of Arcane Boots, allowing Jakiro to maintain a global presence throughout the match by simultaneously remaining a constant threat to enemy map control as well as providing many opportunities to farm his other items quickly. The high movement speed provided also helps make up for high cast times.
• Spirit Vessel is the upgrade to Urn of Shadows, allowing for Jakiro to deal current HP% damage and reduce healing of those affected, allowing for significantly higher effective damage combined with Liquid Frost.
• Scythe of Vyse provides a great disable with its active ability, Hex. It also provides a great increase to Jakiro's mana and mana regeneration, as well as all around attributes to help with his survivability.
• Shiva's Guard provides a massive increase to Jakiro's mana pool and resistance to physical attacks. The active Arctic Blast provides additional damage in a teamfight and slows enemies' movement speed, making Jakiro's abilities easier to hit. The passive Freezing Aura helps reduce damage from enemy carries by slowing their attack speed.
• Blink Dagger allows Jakiro to initiate teamfights much easier, along with the added ability to travel the map quicker and offers quick escape from incoming enemies. However, it does not guarantee escape because taking damage will disable the ability to blink for 3 seconds. At the late game it can also be upgraded into Arcane Blink for a reduced cooldown and increased cast range.
• Black King Bar provides debuff immunity, allowing Jakiro to use his abilities with little problems of getting interrupted.
• Aghanim's Scepter will increase duration and width of Macropyre, increasing it's area of effect, and will cause Macropyre to emit two Ice Paths along the edges of Macropyre that can seriously slow down enemies by 60%. Aghanim's Scepter will also change Macropyre's damage type from magical to pure and will also allow Macropyre to pierce debuff immunity, making it very useful against heroes who rely on Black King Bar to survive in teamfights.
• Gleipnir, an upgrade for Rod of Atos will give Jakiro ability to root multiple enemies at once and make them easier targets for his abilities while also giving his normal attacks a chance to release a chain lightning that can damage and bounce between enemies.
• Hurricane Pike, an upgrade for Force Staff gives Jakiro extra mobility to use for either escaping or catching up with enemy heroes and the increased attack range that allows him to use Liquid Fire and Liquid Frost from Aghanim's Shard from safer distances.

Situational items:

• Aether Lens's cast range increase helps Jakiro maintain a safe distance during fights. Because almost all of his abilities affect the whole area between him and the maximum cast range, this also increases the area in which enemies may be hit.
• Kaya will improve the damage output of Jakiro's abilities, and will also increase his mana regeneration, allowing him to use more abilities in a single fight. Later it can upgraded into Ethereal Blade to reduce enemy heroes's magic resistance and disarm them.
• Glimmer Cape helps in increasing survivability of Jakiro and allies by granting invisibility and magic resistance.
• Wind Waker, an upgrade for, provides Jakiro both the ability to move while cycloned, and the ability to use the active on allies, potentially saving them from enemy assault.
• Pipe of Insight will allow Jakiro to shield himself and his allies from magical damage, on top of giving passive health regeneration and magic resistance.
• Guardian Greaves allow Jakiro to provide a steady supply of health and mana to the team, and increases Jakiro's survivability with armor, health regeneration, and dispel.
• Witch Blade will give Jakiro extra intelligence, armor, attack speed and will also increase projectile speed for Liquid Fire and Liquid Frost from Aghanim's Shard and give them true strike every 9 seconds.
• Octarine Core greatly increases Jakiro's survivability by giving him all round health and mana boost. In addition, the cooldown reduction dramatically increases his damage and crowd control in teamfights.
• Dagon will give Jakiro spell lifesteal, which will allow him to heal himself by damaging enemies with his abilities, and will also provide Jakiro with burst damage, allowing him to finish off enemy heroes faster.
• Ethereal Blade will allow Jakiro to disarm an enemy hero and make him/her more vulnerable to his magical damage output. Ethereal Blade will also allow Jakiro to defend himself against heroes reliant on direct attacks to be effective.
• Revenant's Brooch, an upgrade for Witch Blade will give Jakiro even more intelligence, attack speed, armor while also increasing projectile speed for Liquid Fire and Liquid Frost from Aghanim's Shard and give them true strike every 9 seconds. Revenant's Brooch's active ability will allow Jakiro to use Liquid Fire and Liquid Frost from Aghanim's Shard on ethereal units and to have true strike while also weakening magic resistance of the affected targets by 20% for 3 seconds, causing them to take more damage from Jakiro's abilities that deal magical damage.
• Silver Edge will give Jakiro escape mechanism to escape from pursuing enemy heroes or to prepare a surprise ambush to unsuspecting enemies with his abilities. Silver Edge will also give Liquid Fire and Liquid Frost from Aghanim's Shard a chance to deal critical strikes and to apply break on enemy heroes, making it useful against heroes who rely on passive abilities to be effective.
• Linken's Sphere will give Jakiro bonus health and mana regeneration, nice attributes, good damage output and spellblock that can block single-targeted abilities every 12 seconds.
• Eternal Shroud will greatly increase Jakiro's magic resistance and will also allow him to convert portion of any type of spell damage into mana.
• Eye of Skadi will give a very big boost Jakiro's health and mana, allowing him to withstand more damage and to use his abilities a lot more often.
• Scythe of Vyse will greatly boost Jakiro's intelligence and will improve his mana regeneration, and will also allow him to hex an enemy hero, preventing them from attacking and using both, abilities and items, and will make it easier for Jakiro to land his abilities on the hexed enemy hero.
• Lotus Orb will give Jakiro a low cooldown dispel and spell reflection to him or any of Jakiro's allies if needed.