Just as higher states of energy seek a lower level, the Spectre known as

Spectre
Mercurial is a being of intense and violent energy who finds herself
irresistibly drawn to scenes of strife as they unfold in the physical world.
While her normal spectral state transcends sensory limitations, each time
she takes on a physical manifestation, she is stricken by a loss of self--
though not of purpose. In the clash of combat, her identity shatters and
reconfigures, and she begins to regain awareness. She grasps that she is
Mercurial the Spectre--and that all of her Haunts are but shadows of the
one true Spectre. Focus comes in the struggle for survival; her true mind
reasserts itself; until in the final moments of victory or defeat, she
transcends matter and is restored once more to her eternal form.

20 + 2.3 23 + 1.8 16 + 1.9

Level Base 1 15 25
Health 200 600 1240 1700
H. regen amp 0% 14.29% 37.29% 53.71%
Mana 75 267 579 807
M. regen amp 0% 32% 85.2% 123.2%
Armor 0 3.83 8.03 11.03
Spell dmg 0% 1.14% 3.04% 4.4%
Att/sec 0.59 0.72 0.87 0.98
Damage 23‒ 46‒50 71‒75 89‒93
27
Move sp amp. 0% 1.38% 2.89% 3.97%
Base health regen 1.5
Base mana regen 0.9
Movement speed 285
Turn rate 0.5
Vision range 1800/800
Attack range 150
Projectile speed Instant
Attack animation 0.3+0.7
Base attack time 1.7
Magic resistance 25%
Collision size 24
Legs 0
Gameplay
Playstyle

Spectre is a hard carry who can dominate the late game if she gets the necessary farm. Her Desolate ability lets
her take on solo opponents with the upper hand, and Dispersion makes her a tanky foe who deals damage by
reflecting incoming attacks. However, her early game is one of the worst in the game, being squishy and her only escape
using up a lot of her mana pool. Get past this, however, and Spectre will be a force to be reckoned with.

Pros Cons
 Global map presence.  Low early game health and mana.
 Extremely strong late game.  Slow farm without Radiance.
 Difficult to catch.  Item dependent.
 Fairly tanky.  Low agility gain for an agility hero.

Hard Carry
The standard Spectre build, it focuses on taking advantage of Spectre's amazing late game but awful early game.
Early game, Spectre can't do much but farm for Radiance, but after getting it Spectre can become a huge threat with
Haunt. She can Haunt and push lanes while harassing enemies, or even use it to kill fleeing enemies. In a teamfight, Spectre
becomes a huge threat. She has plenty of area damage to constantly wear down opponents, while tanky enough that punishing
her for it is extremely hard. She is heavily item dependent with this build, but once she gets Radiance farming her other
items becomes really easy.
An alternative that can work against line-ups with no summons or illusions is to rely on Desolate for most of your
damage, and therefore focusing on attack speed with items such as Power Treads and Mask of Madness. It should
make you less vulnerable in the early game, while simultaneously accelerating your farm for your next big item.

Ganker
Another build she has is an early to mid game ganker build. Instead of focusing on rushing Radiance, she instead grabs items
like Drum of Endurance and Urn of Shadows to help dominate the laning stage, and can transition into a very
effective carry late game, but it won't be as strong as the standard hard carry build.

Ability Builds
Generic Spectre
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 20 25

Talents

Hero Talents

+8% Dispersion 25 +20% Haunt Illusion Damage

+20% Spectral Dagger Slow/Bonus 20 +500 Health

-8s Spectral Dagger Cooldown 15 +8 All Stats

+15 Desolate Damage 10 +5 Health Regen

Notes:
 The all stats talent effectively grants Spectre 160 health, 5.71% health regen amplification, 1.33 armor, 8 attack speed,
0.48% movement speed, 96 mana, 16% mana regen amplification, 0.57% spell damage and 8 attack damage.
 The health talent increases maximum health capacity, and keeps the current health percentage.

Tips & Tactics

General
 Spectre has a terrible early game, so enemies will likely try to take this advantage. Make sure you always have enough
mana for Spectral Dagger while laning so you can escape from enemies who are trying to kill you.
 Spectre has a weak lane presence. Picking her requires a team that will largely be able to support her in the laning
phase.
 One of Spectre's biggest strengths as a carry is her ability to participate in teamfights and ganks instantly through
Haunt without wasting valuable farming time.
 Spectre's main focus should be getting Radiance, which makes her significantly more powerful, both at fighting
and farming.
 Using Manta Style to farm is a common tactic, allowing Spectre to farm areas of the map in which she would
be in risk of a gank. Combined with Radiance, Spectre can be a rather effective split pusher.
 In late game teamfights, Haunt and Desolate will allow your illusions to wither down support heroes at the back at
significant speeds. In addition, you should always be in the middle of team fights to maximize the damage reflection
of Dispersion.

Abilities

Spectral Dagger
 Level up Spectral Dagger first to provide Spectre with extra mobility so that she is harder to pin down during ganks.
 However, be wary of its mana cost, as a single Spectral Dagger will typically consume half your mana pool
per cast in the early game.
 Early on, always make sure you have enough mana for Spectral Dagger in case you need to make a quick escape.
 During fights, instead of aiming at an enemy, aim it at the ground in a way that it will hit as many enemies as possible,
increasing the overall damage dealt.
 However, target it at fleeing enemies when the fight is ending to guarantee the hit so they do not escape.
 There is a grace period after getting off the dagger where you still have free pathing. Use this to your advantage.
 The shadow path left by Spectral Dagger lets her keep track on her prey even if the are invisible or have
blinked/teleported. It also slows her target and enemies who came in to the path.

Desolate
 Desolate works on creeps, so it makes farming in jungle slightly faster when you can kill that last creep faster. Try
to kill the weaker creeps first to maximize the damage bonus.
 Similarly, the bonus from Desolate still works if the enemy is near neutral creeps, so engagements in the jungle will
not lower your overall damage.
 If you attack a lone enemy creep but do not get the bonus damage, invisible enemies are nearby.
  Do not forget that Desolate only works on solitary enemies. Try to chase targets away from allies, causing them to
take more damage.
 Desolate damage is done before the attack, and cannot miss. While it does not serve as an alternative to Monkey
King Bar, do not hesitate to engage evasive enemy heroes who are alone.
 Illusions of Spectre, from Haunt for example, do apply Desolate to reduce enemy vision.

Dispersion
 Dispersion effectively reduces all damage you take by 22% at max level, scaling well into the late game.
 Dispersion is classed as HP Removal, meaning it will proc things such as Bristleback, but it will not cancel items
such as Healing Salve.
 Because the effect lessens with range, heroes with long attack range like Sniper will take less damage from you
than a melee hero would. The amount of damage you take is still fully reduced, however.
 Dispersion synergizes well with both raw HP as well as damage reduction like armor and damage block.

Haunt
 The illusions from Haunt carry the same things regular illusions would, which makes Radiance and Diffusal
Bladeeven more effective on Spectre.
 Always keep an eye on the minimap to Haunt to teamfights when needed.
 Use Haunt to finish off fleeing enemies with low health.
 Use Haunt to immediately return to a fight after buying back.
 Use Haunt to assist in fights across the map while you farm in the jungle, and to even drop in if you're needed in
the fight.
 Use Haunt to quickly return to defend your base when the enemy is pushing a lane.
 It is sometimes beneficial to leave Haunt at level 1 in the early and mid-game. Your illusions will not be strong
enough to significantly benefit from an extra one or two seconds during skirmishes or team fights, and the extra
points may be better spent in your other abilities.
 Haunt can be used to escape from a bad situation if you're being ganked by 3 or 4 opponents.

Items
Starting items:
Stout Shield reduces the harassment Spectre takes in lane, and it later builds into Vanguard.
Tango regenerates health to keep Spectre in lane as long as possible.
Healing Salve also restores health which can save Spectre at the last moment.
Enchanted Mango gives passive health regeneration and burst mana for one more usage of Spectral Dagger.
Early game:
Quelling Blade helps with getting last hits to farm for later items.
Boots of Speed help her escape gankers and chase down weakened enemies.
Ring of Aquila provides agility and bonus damage, as well as mana regenerating aura.
Mid game:
Phase Boots grant movement speed and damage to hunt enemy heroes.
 Radiance speeds up Spectre's farm and deals burn damage to all enemies during Haunt, complementing her
tanky and AoE fighting style.
Manta Style lets Spectre farm fast by sending illusions either into lane or into other jungle camps that,
with Radiance, lets them take out the camps, and combines with desolate to deal a ton of damage to unwary
foes.
Late game:
Heart of Tarrasque gives a huge amount of health and health regeneration, coupling with Dispersion's damage
reduction to make Spectre tough to kill and reflecting that damage back on her enemies.
Butterfly grants agility and evasion to increase Spectre's and her illusions' damage output and survivability.
Situational items:
Urn of Shadows is a great early game item to take advantage of Haunt to get a lot of charges.
Power Treads benefit Spectre's illusions more than Phase Boots do. Against weakened targets that can't deal
with the illusions, the extra attacks with Desolate may produce a kill.
Diffusal Blade increases the damage your illusions deal, gives you some much needed mana and agility, and
has a slow to keep up with enemies.
Mask of Madness is a good early-game farming tool. Once you've haunted, rifted to a target and thrown your
dagger, you don't mind being silenced, and will gladly take the bonus movement and attack speed.
Drum of Endurance is a good item to get if you desperately need the stats. It combos well with Urn of
Shadows.
Vanguard gives a large amount of damage block, which is calculated after Dispersion. It also gives much
needed early-game HP, as well as HP regeneration, which most farming heroes need to farm without breaks.
Blade Mail works well with Spectre's constant AoE damage and punishes enemies who try to focus you down.
Sange and Yasha is a midgame snowballing item. The stats transfer well to illusions and the extra movement
speed will help Spectre stick to her target.
Eye of Skadi is a good luxury item on Spectre. The stats benefit dispersion and your illusions, the slow means
enemies won't be able to escape you, and the mana can help sustain the low cooldown Spectral Dagger talent.
Assault Cuirass adds extra durability and damage and makes Haunt a global -5 armor for the duration while
giving any teammates in range extra armor and attack speed.
Abyssal Blade adds some damage and HP along with immunity-piercing anticarry and chase potential that
again forces attention onto her.
Mjollnir adds significant farming and push potential, while filling the AoE damage role of Radiance while
also scaling better and having an easier buildup. Illusions can benefit from the attack speed but not the lightning
effect.
Bad against  Reaper's Scythe at level 3 kills Spectre at around
20% due to magic resistance and Dispersion.

Anti-Mage
 Spectre has no way to prevent Blink, for escape Omniknight
or initiation. Anti-Mage can easily pick off enemy  Global Guardian Angel will protect his allies
supports and Spectre cannot do anything about it. from Spectre's Haunt, both when they are alone
 Her low mana pool will quickly empty and in teamfights.
with Mana Break.  Purification is a major problem for melee
 Manta Style's illusions prevent Desolate enemies, Spectre included, since they must be next
damage. to an enemy in order to attack. AoE damage also
allows Spectre to be singled out from her illusions.
 Degen Aura will prevent Spectre from chasing
Omniknight, further exacerbated by her terrible
Viper
mobility outside Haunt.
 Nethertoxin removes passives, instantly killing
Spectre's damage and survivability by removing
both Dispersion and Desolate.
 Due to haunt and radiance burn, Spectre is heavily Pugna
susceptible to being persistently slowed and  Nether Blast is one of the best tower pushing
damaged by Corrosive Skin without even abilities in the game, with a low cooldown. A
competent Pugna will (at the very least) destroy T2
directly attacking Viper. Poison
towers and make space for his team before Spectre
Attack and Viper Strike further slow Spectre's can finally come online.
movement speed to a crawl, while his improved
 Spectre's spells, while not spammable, have a fairly
magic resistance means he can shrug off radiance
high mana cost, so Nether Ward can be fairly
burn easily.
damaging to Spectre early game. The mana degen
will also dampen Spectre's early game power
significantly.
Lycan  Once Pugna gets Aghanim's Scepter, he can
 The movement speed granted spam Life Drain on any illusion Spectre
from Shapeshift means that Spectre has no way summons, whether it'd be from Haunt, Manta
to punish Lycan if he wants to splitpush or pick off Style, or some other means.
supports. Furthermore, he will kite Haunt and
 In addition Pugna can disable Spectre's Desolate
cannot be slowed by Spectral Dagger.
ability (although its damage is pure, it requires
 As Lycan typically has Summon Wolves out and
physical attacks) with his Decrepify ability,
builds Necronomicon, very rarely will he be leaving Spectre only with Spectral Dagger.
damaged by Desolate if he does manage to get into
a fight against her.

Storm Spirit
 Storm Spirit can exploit every one of Spectre's
Necrophos weaknesses, and thus is one of the best counters
 Death Pulse can single out Spectre from her against her.
illusions, as well as heal his team against her. He
also usually stands close to his allies for Death
Pulse, so can disable Desolate.
  Spectre has to be in melee range to deal damage,  Dark Seer can pull together Spectre's illusions
making her likely to trigger Static Remnants and with Vacuum, and Wall of Replica creates an
susceptible to being kited by Overload procs. illusion of Spectre that deals massive damage.
 Electric Vortex can lock Spectre down, who  Slardar's Slithereen Crush allows him to
doesn't like to build Black King Bar. stun Spectre and illusions, and Corrosive
 Ball Lightning for multiple reasons: Haze prevents her from juking with Spectral
 Spectre cannot evade Storm Spirit, as Ball Dagger.
Lightning is superior to Spectral Dagger in  Heroes with good escapes such
terms of mobility.
as Slark, Clinkz, and Weaver can
 Storm Spirit can kite her and her Haunt
usually outmaneuver and escape from Spectre
illusions when it's later in the game due to
(Spectre also rarely has the inventory space
her having no form of pseudo-blinks
(Reality is far inferior to Ball Lightning). for Dust of Appearance or a Gem of True
 It is very difficult for Spectre to deal any Sight).
substantial damage against Storm Spirit  Heroes that are strong in lane can cause a lot of
with Desolate. Ball Lightning grants problems for Spectre in the earily game, preventing
invulnerability and can mitigate damage her from getting farm and experience.
done from Dispersion and Radiance.  Meepo is also strong against her. She usually
doesn't like building Black King Bar and will be
prey of Poof and Earthbind.
Undying Items
 Spectre must chase for kills and relies on  Scythe of Vyse will hard disable Spectre, and
movement speed for mobility in fights, and has no she rarely builds a Black King Bar to prevent
way to counter the Tombstone zombies. this.
 The potency of Soul Rip can be increased from  A Battle Fury (or Mjollnir on ranged
nearby illusions, so Undying can use Haunt against carries) will deal AoE damage and allow Spectre to
Spectre. be identified from her illusions.
 Early game Decay will make Spectre easy to  Mjollnir's active ability can deal a lot of damage
shut down in lane. to Spectre during a team fight, as both Dispersion
damage and Radiance burn will drastically
increase the proc chance of Static Charge.
Winter Wyvern  Spectre rarely has the inventory space for Dust
 Arctic Burn makes it nearly impossible for of Appearance or a Gem of True Sight, and
Spectre to juke into the trees. Haunt means she will sometimes attack away from
 Cold Embrace negates all of Spectre's physical her team. A Shadow Blade can usually be an
damage. Furthermore, Cold Embrace will generally easy escape (Spectral Dagger and Radiance will
outheal Desolate. reveal your position while invisible, although she
will be unable to attack you).
 Winter's Curse can taunt illusions, not only
wasting the entire duration of Haunt but also  A Shadow Blade upgraded into
turning its illusions against Spectre's own team. a Silver Edge can be devastating for
Others Spectre as the break component disables
both Desolate and Dispersion.
 Disruptor can control where she goes
with Kinetic Field and Glimpse. Static Good against
Storm shuts her down in teamfights.

Ancient Apparition
 As Ancient Apparition like to stay far away from
the fight to get full effectiveness from Ice Blast,
he is a very good target for a Haunt gank. Ancient
Apparition has no hard disables, so if Spectre wants
to kill him, she will kill him.
Broodmother
 Broodmother can usually be caught by Haunt, and
Spectre can chase her inside the web with Spectral
Dagger.
 However, Spectre has very little solutions to deal
with Spiderlings, but that should not be a problem
to her since she can withstand their attacks and they
can almost kill themselves from Dispersion.
Crystal Maiden
 Being squishy with very bad movement speed,
Spectre can easily stay on Crystal Maiden with
Haunt and Spectral Dagger.
 Late game, with enough farm, Spectre can tank an
entire Freezing Field and perhaps causing
Crystal Maiden to kill herself from Dispersion.
Drow Ranger
 Spectre can easily close the distance on Drow
Ranger with Haunt and stick on her with Spectral
Dagger, negating the bonus agility
from Marksmanship.
Sniper
 Spectre can reach him easily in the backlines with
spectral dagger, or teleport to him with Haunt
 He is usually a fair distance away from his allies;
Desolate will quickly tear sniper down
Lina
 Spectre can very easily close the distance on Lina
with Haunt and Spectral Dagger and due to Lina's
abysmal mobility without a Blink Dagger and
terrible health pool and armor, Lina easily gets
slaughtered due to Desolate.
 Dispersion can mitigate a good portion of Lina's
burst damage, allowing Spectre to turn against her
afterwards.
Magnus
 Spectre can use Haunt to intercept and disrupt
Magnus's initiation attempts.
 Spectral Dagger can severely slow down Magnus
after he uses Skewer.
 Magnus often travels alone when he is trying to
initiate, so Desolate can be very effective against
him.
Nature's Prophet
 She can get to him anywhere on the map with
Haunt (it is impossible to rat against Spectre)
 Spectre pass through his trees with Spectral Dagger
 Desolate damage (he is almost always alone) will
melt him quickly
Phantom Assassin
 Spectre's Desolate passive can bypass Phantom
Assassin's Blur. in patch 7.07, Phantom Assasin
can't use BKB to counter desolate.
 Spectre's durability and can withstand Phantom
Assassin's attacks.
Pudge
 Spectre becomes very tanky late game. Hooking in
a Spectre with Manta Style + Diffusal Blade will
lead to quick death for Pudge.
 But beware of hook ganks early game, because he
will try to shut down Spectre quickly.
Rubick
 None of Spectre's spells are very good for Rubick
to Spell Steal.
 Null Field will only protect from Spectral
Dagger and Radiance.
Tinker
 His global teleportation with Boots of Travel +
Rearm is easily countered with Haunt, and Spectre
can reach him anywhere on the map
 He is squishy, and if alone Desolate will kill him
very fast
 Cannot use Laser Beam's miss chance for defence
against Spectre (Desolate cannot miss)
Windranger
 Spectre can catch up to her with Spectral Dagger,
even if she uses Windrun
 Spectre can instantly reach a ratting Windranger
with Haunt
 Windrun miss chance is countered by Desolate
Others
 Spectre's entire ability set is designed to get to and
destroy heroes that stay in the backlines, both
carries (Drow Ranger, Sniper, etc.) and supports
(Dazzle, Shadow Shaman, etc.)
 Heroes that rely on miss chance (Such as Phantom
Assassin's Blur and Troll Warlord's Whirling Axes)
are completely countered by Desolate.
 Invisible heroes can usually be caught by haunt, and
Spectre can chase them, while simultaneously
providing detection to her team.
 Spectre can intercept Blink Dagger dependent
initiators to aware her team, while simultaneously
disrupting enemy engagements.
Works well with
Treant Protector
 Nature's Guise can help Treant scout out
enemies for potential Haunt ganks.
 Leech Seed will heal Spectre and her illusions,
also providing a slow in case Spectral Dagger is on
cooldown.
 Living Armor can be used to heal Spectre while
she farms the jungle. It can also be used to heal
towers, stalling the push of enemies and biding time
for Spectre to farm her items.
 Overgrowth holds enemies in place. If enemies
are rooted but far away enough from each other,
Haunt illusions can be very devastating as then all
of their attacks will be amplified by Desolate.
Bounty Hunter
 Spectre can use Haunt to reach a Tracked enemy
anywhere on the map
 Gold from killing Tracked enemies will allow
Spectre to snowball and become unstoppable
quickly
Chen
 Hand of God can heal Spectre from anywhere on
the map
 Late game he can push lanes by himself, and
Spectre will be able to protect him from anywhere
on the map with Haunt
 Ganks from the jungle will allow Spectre to
snowball quickly, and he can protect her in lane
from enemy ganks from the jungle
Zeus
 Thundergod's Wrath allows him to help Spectre
with Haunt kills from anywhere on the map.
 Thundergod's Wrath also gives global True Sight
on enemy heroes, allowing Spectre to kill invisible
targets with Haunt
Io
 Io's relocate combined with Spectre's Haunt will
allow for almost unlimited global presence. The
enemy will be under constant danger, no matter
where.
  Lane supports in general (Dazzle, Shadow Shaman,
Shadow Demon, etc.) can help Spectre secure last
hits and control the lane
Bloodseeker
 Any heroes with global abilities (Io, Chen, Zeus,
 Thirst can reveal enemies on low health anywhere
Nature's Prophet, Ancient Apparition, etc.) can
on the map (and provide True Sight) so Spectre can
work very well with Spectre's Haunt
Haunt to a low health enemy for an easy kill.
 Spectre deals almost exclusively physical or pure
 Bloodrage Can increase her damage damage. To complement this, nukers such as Lion,
from Radiance and Desolate Lina, Zeus, etc. can prevent the team from lacking
(25%/30%/35%/40%). in magical damage

Works poorly with

Storm Spirit
 Once both heroes get their ultimates, every time
Haunt is off cooldown, Storm Spirit can easily Alchemist
jump in on a squishy support with Ball  Radiance is effective on
Lightning and Spectre can Haunt in as backup,
both Alchemist and Spectre, but multiple
killing that support nearly instantly.
Radiances do not stack.
 Alchemist is a type of mid hero who cannot
gank early and has to farm for a while. If Spectre
Nature's Prophet gets shut down in lane, there isn't much Alchemist
 Haunt and Wrath of Nature being used together can do.
can constantly cause colossal global damage to the
enemy team every cooldown cycle.

Ancient Apparition
 Ice Blast can reveal and weaken enemy targets
for Spectre to use Haunt to score the finishing kill.
Or it can be done the other way around.

Earthshaker

Magnus

Enigma

Outworld Devourer
 Enemies will have to make a tough decision during
teamfights: either clump up and risk getting hit by
a big ultimate from one of the heroes above, or
spread out and be picked off by Haunt.
Others