Updated for 7.33/7.

34: An Extensive Guide to Ability Draft

This is my attempt at a comprehensive compilation of everything you need to know about drafting
abilities in Ability Draft. If you see a mistake or think of things to add, please, tell me!

This post is current as of DotA patch 7.34.

General Drafting Tips

Your hero's base stats heavily affect the viability of many builds. Additionally, Talents should be
considered when drafting abilities, although they are usually far from the most important factor. Stats
can be found here, while Talents can be found here. You can also just hover over your hero in the
drafting screen.

Carefully consider the pick order when choosing which abilities to draft. The earlier you pick, the more
likely you are to get an overpowered stand-alone ability, while picking later raises the chances that you
can complete a combination of abilities. If you see an overpowered combo in the draft, but are first-pick,
tell your team what you see but pick one of the powerful stand-alone abilities instead, because it is
unlikely the second half of the combo will make it all the way back to you. Some heroes are also far more
likely to pick certain abilities than others (e.g., Warlock and Chaotic Offering) which can also affect your
assessment of whether you can get away with a combo or not.

Ruining your own build can sometimes be worth denying an enemy build. For example, Arcane Orb is
generally a grief pick unless you draft Essence Flux first, but sometimes it is actually the correct play to
deny-pick Orb if the enemy has Essence Flux and, say, Swashbuckle already. The very last person in the
pick order is the only hero that drafts two abilities back-to-back (in the first round of drafting), so if you
pick earlier be on the lookout for which abilities you need to pick to deny them a broken combo.

Sometimes your own team will pick abilities you needed for a combo. Communicate in the chat, but do
not assume everyone will play along. Try to get confirmation from your team that they understand not to
draft the ability you want. If you are met with negatives or even just silence, assume they may draft your
desired ability.

Gameplay Differences

Ability Draft often lags behind the main game in terms of patch updates. For a while after a patch, new
ability changes may or may not have taken effect, and entirely new abilities (e.g., from Aghanim's Shard
changes) are often missing entirely. Conversely, removed parts of the game may still linger in Ability
Draft. They've gotten better about updating AD, but this is still something to keep in mind for weeks or
months after a major patch.

If your hero's normal Talent option(s) pertain to an ability that you did not draft, you are offered Gold
instead. I know free Gold is tempting, but if you have the option, it is almost always better to take a
Talent that actually does something over the free Gold.

You must be flexible in your item builds, because you are essentially playing an entirely new hero each
game of Ability Draft. Ask yourself what your abilities need to succeed, then build that, no matter how
silly such an item build might seem out of context. Sometimes item builds that are ill-advised in the
regular game work exceedingly well in Ability Draft.

A corollary to the above point is that supports in Ability Draft tend to be greedier than in the regular
game. Sometimes this is even justifiable; if their build achieves perma-stun with an Octarine, is it really
better to get traditional items like Glimmer Cape instead? Well, yes, it probably still is, but the argument
is there at least.

The mid lane usually hosts one of three kinds of builds: The build that is completely useless before 6 but
comes online once they can use their ultimate (e.g., Ancient Seal + Decrepify + Ice Vortex + Finger of
Death), the build that completely dominates a 1v1 (the most 'vanilla' style of mid-laner, amplified further
by custom builds), or simply the strongest build on your team (the broken combos). This may sometimes
mean you see what should have been a clear safelane carry or offlaner go mid instead, and that may not
be a bad thing, simply because if they have a very powerful build they just need to outlevel everyone
else to roll over them. The point is, often you will see builds that do not fit the archetype for a traditional
midlaner nonetheless going mid in Ability Draft. Whoever needs levels the most generally goes.

The strength of various builds on a team often makes Ability Draft a more polarized game in terms of
target priorities. Identify whether there is someone on the enemy team that is worth losing 3+ of your
own heroes to take out, and if so, do that. This is sometimes the case in the regular game as well (e.g.,
going all-in on the enemy carry), but it happens more often in Ability Draft.

Special Cases / Tips

Unique sources of Bash that do not normally stack will fully stack in Ability Draft.

Geminate Attack stacks with Echo Sabre, resulting in 3 attacks at once for melee heroes.
Melee heroes can attack with the full attack range of attack modifiers (e.g. Frost Arrows) only if they
have a source of True Strike. Otherwise the attacks will miss if distance exceeds 350 units. Ranged heroes
can always use the full distance, but may suffer the reverse problem: Short-ranged modifiers (e.g.,
Infernal Blade) should not be manually cast, as you must autocast them to use your base hero's range.

For most effects that refresh cooldowns (e.g., Rearm, Blur's Aghanim's Scepter upgrade, etc.), charge-
based abilities will only receive 1 charge back, not be fully replenished like Refresher Orb.

Dismember cannot be used while you have eaten someone with its Aghanim's Shard effect.

Several abilities have been altered to work in Ability Draft, but the most drastic of these changes is Poof,
which can now target any allied unit within 2000 range. Although I still would not recommend picking
Poof, it is not as useless as one might think.

Only Meepo can be globally targeted by an allied Poof from anywhere on the map and have them
appear at his location.

Only Monkey King can become trees with Mischief (which is tied to the Wukong's Command ability).
Other heroes can still turn into other things.

Bane can freely damage targets under the effects of Nightmare, even if he does not have Nightmare.

Faceless Void can move inside anyone's Chronosphere.

At one time, Batrider used to gain unobstructed vision whenever he had free pathing, which was easy to
abuse with abilities like Spin Webs and Arctic Burn. However, I am not sure if this is the case any longer
now that, in the vanilla game, Firefly was changed to be ground vision.

You can also find a helpful list of the current bugs here. Some of them are gamebreaking!

Dependent Abilities

Most interdependent interactions are now included in the tooltips provided by Ability Draft, so this
section is less necessary than before. I'm including some key interactions for completion's sake, however.
Any time another ability is directly referenced in the description of an ability or its upgrade (e.g., Scepter,
Shard, or Talent), that effect requires both abilities to function. The prime example of this is Eclipse
requiring Lucent Beam. Don't be that guy. Another notable example is Bristleback needing Quill Spray to
fully function.

Geomagnetic Grip, unlike Rolling Boulder or Boulder Smash, is entirely dependent on Stone Remnants
(and thus Magnetize) to do anything.

Arcane Orb needs Essence Flux to be fully viable, though it can deal decent damage on the first use if at
full mana.

Neither Charge of Darkness nor Nether Strike will inflict their Greater Bash components if the caster
does not have Greater Bash.

Natural Order does not lower Magic Resistance if Astral Spirit is not drafted.

Requiem of Souls requires souls, and thus Necromastery.

Less Drastic Improvements Include :

Astral Spirit and Echo Stomp, while decent abilities on their own, are heavily interconnected in terms of
how they were intended to be used.

Shuriken Toss can only bounce if Track is also on your team, though two different heroes can own the
abilities!

Avalanche, Toss, and Grow are all interconnected.

Familiars from Summon Familiars benefit from (almost require) Gravekeeper's Cloak.

Rolling Boulder and Boulder Smash are best used with Stone Remnants (and thus Magnetize).
Relocate can be useful on its own, but half the point of the spell is to take an ally with you, necessitating
Tether.

Summon Wolves are usually underwhelming without support from both Feral Impulse and Shapeshift.

Many other abilities (Plague Wards / Poison Sting, Dragon Tail / Elder Dragon Form, Spawn Spiderlings /
Spin Webs, etc.) use other abilities as part of their normal function.

Notable Talents

Multiple Talents :

Luna, Dark Seer, Lone Druid, Puck, Primal Beast, and Undying each have at least one Talent per Talent
tier (4 or more Talents) for Lucent Beam, Ion Shell, Summon Spirit Bear, Waning Rift, Trample, or
Tombstone, respectively.

Engima's Eidolons can be heavily improved by his Talents.

Kunkka's "waterpark" build benefits greatly from his Torrent and Ghost Ship Talents.

Snapfire can become a devastating carry with her relevant Lil' Shredder Talents.

Single Talents :

Medusa's level 25 Split Shot Uses Attack Modifiers Talent can drastically change how effective a build
becomes.

Crystal Maiden's level 20 Talent grants +225 Attack Speed, which can be quite potent with certain
modifiers like Scepter Chilling Touch or Bash of the Deep.
Jakiro gains +275 attack range at level 10, making abilities like Arctic Burn, Take Aim, Elder Dragon Form,
and especially Impetus much more desirable.

Techies gains +252 Attack Damage at level 25, which combined with his high attack range can be potent
on certain builds if you can make it there.

Invoker's level 25 Talent that doubles Quas/Wex/Extort passive effects is a massive power spike, as he
gets those orbs passively regardless of his abilities.

Meepo's Level 25 Talent Pack Rat gives him an entire extra item slot!

Warlock's level 20 Golem On Death Talent makes Chaotic Offering very attractive on the hero, and he
gets further Talents for his Golems at 25.

Rubick's level 20 Telekinesis Talent drastically improves how effective the Shard effect feels.

Niche Talents :

Some heroes have Talents that provide auras for AFK Infest/Dismember builds (see the below Ally-
Dependent Builds section), such as Beastmaster's level 15 +20 MS aura, Doom's level 15 Devour Ancients
for auras, Underlord's level 25 Allies gain 50% Atrophy Aura, or Centaur's level 25 Retaliate Aura.

Tinker's level 20 Defense Matrix Grants 25% CDR Talent could allow some Aftershock builds to achieve
permastun (see the below Aftershock section).

Pangolier's level 15 Shield Crash In Ball Talent can change how you play during Rolling Thunder.

Nature's Prophet can remove his Teleporation cooldown at level 25.

Skywrath Mage's Global Concussive Shot at level 20 could be highly amusing with Rearm. Perhaps add
Rocket Flare into the mix as well.
With a sufficiently tanky build (especially with Kraken Shell), Terrorblade's 10-second Sunder at level 25
would be incredibly difficult to deal with.

Tiny with the relevant level 20 and 25 Toss-related Talents, some way to keep up with tossed victims, and
Rupture can be devastating and hilarious.

Tusk and Ogre Magi both have level 25 Talents that, with enough attack speed, can result in permastun
and ridiculous damage. This requires Walrus Punch / Fireblast, respectively.

Of course, many other Talents can be potent as well; be sure to know your hero's Talents before
constructing your draft.

Common Build Archetypes

Often, it can be beneficial to simply get several of the same type of ability, maximizing one strength.
Here is a list of common variants of this kind of build:

Always Useful :

All-stun builds are never bad. However, they can often lack in their own damage. This is not necessarily a
problem, since if the enemy can't move, your allies should be able to kill them. The more AoE stuns, the
better. Example: Hoof Stomp + Slithreen Crush + Echo Stomp + Reverse Polarity

Aghanim's Scepter / Shard Abilities: It is almost never a bad idea to just cram your build full of as many
Aghanim's Scepter or Aghanim's Shard - upgraded abilities as possible. You can find the full list here for
Scepter and here for Shard, although note that this list includes all upgraded abilities, some of which are
not in Ability Draft. You can also view all available Scepter/Shard abilities in the current draft by pressing
CTRL+ALT. Note that despite this being in the "Always Useful" section, it is still technically possible to
make a bad build, just unlikely. Example: Resonant Pulse + Laser + Gush + Shapeshift

Usefully Useful :

All-nuke builds are hard to do wrong. If used correctly one can often win fights by deleting a key enemy
early on. Example: Lightning Bolt + Brain Sap + Soul Assumption + Laguna Blade
All-right-click builds are often difficult to implement due to lacking control, mobility, or defense.
However, with proper support (or poor opponents), they can be devastating. Example: Searing Arrows +
Metamorphosis + Gunslinger + Grow.

All-long-cast-range builds, or "Artillery" builds as I like to call them, are some of the most fun one can
have in Ability Draft barring an OP combo. Just hang back and fire away! However, without good aim for
the skillshots these are obviously underwhelming. Example: Powershot + Heat-Seeking Missiles + Sacred
Arrow + Assassinate

Can Be Useful:

Pure defensive builds can work, don't get me wrong. However, they are often a burden to their team.
The wielder must have a way to punish the enemy for ignoring them, because otherwise, the enemy will,
of course, ignore them. This may be as simple as a good Radiance timing, or be more direct like having
sustain for their allies. Example: Nature's Attendants + Dispersion + Counterspell + Reincarnation

Pure mobility builds are usually a great way to end the game with triple 0s in your KDA, and that's not a
good thing. If you have an abundance of mobility, be sure to also have a low-cooldown disable or
damage option to complement it. Example: Slithreen Crush, Time Walk, Blink (QoP), Fire Remnant

All-summon builds are usually just food for the enemy. Have a clear gameplan (and preferably a
coordinated stack for a team) before trying this. Example: Demonic Conversion + Nature's Call + Summon
Wolves + Chaotic Offering

Aftershock Builds

Abilities that result in permastun until the caster runs out of mana:

Ball Lightning

Rearm (level 3)

This list used to be much longer before the 7.33 stun reduction nerfs :(
Abilities that are almost permastun but don't quite get there even with Octarine and Spell Prism :

Arc Lightning

Arcane Bolt

Viscous Nasal Goo

Purifying Flames is part of this group with Oracle's relevant Talent.

Abilities that can be used for many stuns:

Any ability with a cooldown less than or equal to about 5 or 6 (there are several) are great for frequent
stun output. e.g., Counterspell, Static Remnant, Quill Spray

Charge-based abilities (e.g., Soul Siphon, Spin Webs, Shrapnel, Fire Remnant, etc.) allow for a burst of
multiple stuns, but take a long time to recharge fully.

Some abilities that involve multiple casts (e.g., X-Marks-the-Spot) get multiple uses out of Aftershock.

Abilities that make good use of Aftershock for setup:

Kinetic Field, Light Strike Array, Torrent, and other delayed skills appreciate Aftershock holding foes in
place for them to land.

Mystic Flare or (less potently) any other AoE-based damage over time skill makes great use of foes being
stunned for the first second or so of their duration. One of the better combos in the mode is Aftershock
+ Ancient Seal + Mystic Flare for incredible early-to-mid-game damage (before the Pipes start coming
out).
Sharpshooter allows other skills to be cast and appreciates the setup for its long charging period, not to
mention that point-blank shots while they are permastunned by your combo are hilarious.

Proximity Mines are both charge-based and need time to arm, making them almost ideal for Aftershock.

Attack Modifier Builds

Many abilities can make use of attack modifiers to great effect. Here we are talking about things like
Poison Attack, Mana Break, Frost Arrows, Curse of Avernus, Searing Arrows, etc. Some abilities that
interact with attack modifiers include:

Tricks of the Trade

Starbreaker

Wukong's Command (terms and conditions apply)

Swashbuckle

Anchor Smash

Stifling Dagger

Phase Shift's Aghanim's Shard upgrade

Split Shot when upgraded by Medusa's Level 25 Talent

That list is not comprehensive, it is just meant to get you thinking about potential applications.

Note that when multiple attacks are done 'at once' (e.g., Anchor Smash, God's Rebuke, etc.) only one
target gets the effects of a single-use attack modifier like Enchant Totem or Bash of the Deep.
Ally-Dependent Builds

The upcoming 'Combo' and 'Synergy' sections will go over how you can combine your own abilities
together, but some builds require that the synergistic abilities be on two different heroes. Most such
builds involve one hero going AFK inside of an ally, as described below.

Infest with Tether, Rot, Scepter-upgraded Spirits, Voodoo Restoration, Scepter-upgraded Heartstopper
Aura, or (less potently) any AoE passive (e.g. Atrophy Aura, Divine Favor, Inner Beast, etc.) can make for
an AFK build where you sit inside an ally all game but still contribute significantly. This requires that you
have a viable ally host, however.

An ally with Dismember and an Aghanim's Shard can accomplish the same effect (however, the Tether
combo does not work), though this has the additional requirement of not only needing a durable ally,
but also needing one that doesn't require an ultimate ability (because they wasted it on Dismember to
eat you).

If using the Dismember version, the interior unit can also contribute their ult (since they don't need
Infest), opening up builds like Scepter-upgraded Rupture constantly burning enemies down,
Reincarnation contributing its aura to the exterior ally, or Shard-upgraded Epicenter pulsing occasionally.

Special mention goes to Vengeance Aura with Dismember, since the Scepter illusion can re-eat your
hidden ally once your actual hero dies.

Bulwark's Scepter upgrade still works in this situation despite being disabled by stuns/disarms normally.

If the ally that is being Infested or eating their teammate with Dismember is durable, reasonably mobile,
and covers whatever weakness the hidden ally does not (e.g., you need damage for the Tether build, but
not for the Rot build since Rot deals so much damage anyway), these can be some of the most potent
builds in Ability Draft due to the combined chimera essentially being two heroes in one. The Rot builds
are very strong, and Tether with Infest is one of the most broken possible builds in the mode, easily
turning into 800+ heal per second.

If going for this type of combo, one ally should draft to be a durable meat shield (Flesh Heap, Dispersion,
etc.) that would be useless on their own, while the other goes for their 'hidden ally' combo (to buff the
meat shield vessel).
Other ally-dependent builds are also possible, such as one hero having an extremely mobile Flaming
Lasso build (Icarus Dive, Scepter-upgraded Pounce, etc.) and really wishing they could have also drafted
Rupture. If an ally has it... that's -1 enemy hero.

First-Pick Abilities

These abilities are so good that they are usually worth picking up first, before trying to get a combo /
synergy. Some of these are mainly first-pick because you probably don't want the enemy to have them,
while others are good regardless of your base hero or the current ability pool.

This list is in alphabetical order, not order of priority.

First-picks that are often essentially 'mandatory' include :

Arctic Burn (OP range, slow, and scaling damage)

Bash of the Deep (great on ranged, good even on melee)

Fury Swipes (strong on ranged heroes or with certain abilities)

Glaives of Wisdom (even if you aren't an INT hero, someone on the enemy team probably is)

Reincarnation (highest winrate)

Shadow Realm (arguably the top priority in most drafts)

Shukuchi (invisibility and high mobility)

Unleash (depending on the enemy heroes you may be required to deny-pick this)
Vengeance Aura (the Aghs is OP with many abilities)

Strong first-picks that nonetheless usually aren't really 'mandatory' include :

Atrophy Aura (DAMAGE... and damage mitigation too, I guess)

Either variation of Blink (Never a bad option for any build)

Borrowed Time (poor man's Reincarnation)

Burrowstrike (solid AoE stun and mobility in one)

Cloak and Dagger (most people don't like buying a lot of detection in a fun mode like AD)

Death Ward (until this shit gets nerfed, at least lol)

Heartstopper Aura (high winrate)

Storm Hammer (just a solid stun with an Aghs upgrade option)

Thirst (personally I think Thirst doesn't stand up to the rest of this list, but statistics disagree)

Time Walk (powerful heal and mobility, and the Shard opens many combo options)

You can check out this site for a list of the highest-winrate abilities, though be warned that you'll be
flamed if you pass up, say, Shadow Realm in favor of Corrosive Skin just because it has a higher winrate!
Stats can be helpful but shouldn't be your sole consideration.

Combos
A 'combo' is when both abilities need to be on the same hero to work, as opposed to a 'synergy' where
the skills just need to be used in tandem regardless of who casts them.

Several combos have already been discussed and are thus not included. Also, note that combos which
already existed in the main game (e.g., Ball Lightning + Overload, Counter Helix + Berserker's Call, etc.)
are similarly not included.

Vengeance Aura's Aghanim's Scepter upgrade allows one to cast spells twice: Once while alive, then
again after death as the illusion. This is extremely potent with fire-and-forget abilities independent of the
main hero like Tombstone, Chaotic Offering, or Serpent Wards. It can also be extremely strong with other
spells as well if the illusion can survive long enough to cast them optimally. Note that it "refreshes" the
full charges of charge-based abilities like Aghs Demonic Purge.

Nightmare is essentially just a 6.5 second stun if no other sources of damage (e.g., an ally Radiance)
interfere. This can allow many lengthy combos to land and run their course (e.g., Macropyre, Mystic
Flare), or just for your simple right-click build to freely damage the victim.

Any of the following combined with one or more of each other results in ridiculous attack range : Elder
Dragon Form, Take Aim, Arctic Burn, Psi Blades, Chilling Touch

Any Illusion-creating spell(s) with any passive(s) that transfer(s) to Illusions can be potent. Powerful
options include Split Shot, Mana Break, and Counter Helix with spells like Mirror Image.

The most broken iteration of the above illusion/passive build is any source of illusions combined with the
Scepter upgrade for Spirits, as each illusion gets their own ring of exploding balls.

Bristleback + Bulwark makes for the ultimate defense, but be sure to have a way for that to matter (pure
defense often doesn't do much on its own).

Berserker's Call with Stone Gaze forces foes to be turned to stone. This also works with any disable that
disallows turning, but is most potent with Berserker's Call because Berserker's Call forces foes to look at
the caster, making the feat much easier.
Enchant Totem, God's Strength, or Tidebringer with Mortal Strike, God's Rebuke, or (less reliably) any
other critical strike ability deals insane damage. Note that Enchant Totem, God's Strength, and
Tidebringer stack with each other as well; e.g., the most optimal build is likely Enchant Totem,
Tidebringer, Mortal Strike, and God's Strength.

Walrus Punch is an ultimate ability and thus cannot stack with God's Strength, but is otherwise arguably
the best critical strike ability for Enchant Totem and Tidebringer.

Coup De Grace's buff can reliably land a massive critical hit along with Enchant Totem or Tidebringer.
Enchant Totem works especially well with Stifling Dagger in this case.

Focus Fire with Shadow Realm, Time Lock, Bash of the Deep, Greater Bash, Headshot, Fury Swipes,
Poison Attack, Chilling Touch, or basically any attack modifier results in the victim nearly always
succumbing to the modifier's effects.

Omnislash or Unleash with the aforementioned Focus Fire abilities can also be potent, albeit less reliably
and on a longer cooldown.

Geminate Attack (especially on a melee hero with an Echo Sabre) or Gunslinger can have a similar but
more tame effect with the aforementioned Focus Fire abilities. These have the advantage of not relying
on a cooldown, however, situationally performing better than their ultimate-ability counterparts!

Impetus with any range-boosting ability deals massive damage, even if the range boost is temporary
(e.g., Penitence, Scurry, etc.).

Impetus with any long-range forced-attack abilities (e.g., Boundless Strike, Acorn Shot, Stifling Dagger)
also deals massive damage. Assassinate is especially funny with this.

Swashbuckle with Impetus or Arcane Orb is overpowered, though the latter also requires Essence Flux.

Attack Modifiers like Infernal Blade or Walrus Punch are especially potent with long-range attack abilities
like Acorn Shot or Stifling Dagger.
Cloak and Dagger with any channeled or sustained ability (e.g., Shackles, Battery Assault, Rot) allows the
user to stay invisible for the duration of the latter spells. Other forms of invisibility also work with this,
but are harder to execute.

Rearm with Nether Ward, Tombstone, Living Armor, Shallow Grave, Sacred Arrow, Split Earth, or Rocket
Flare are all very potent for different reasons.

Rearm makes the Aghanim's Scepter upgrades for Torrent, Metamorphosis, and Sun Strike completely
broken.

Rearm with Nature's Call, Demonic Conversion, Enchant, or other summoning spells can make a huge
army, but be careful not to feed them.

Sticky Napalm with abilities like Ion Shell, Rot, Shackles, Torrent, Rocket Barrage, or Dark Pact deals a lot
of damage since these abilities deal many instances of damage individually, proc-ing Napalm damage
each time.

Thirst with any ability that grants percentage-based movement speed gets very, very fast.

Rolling Thunder with most movement skills (Blink, Time Walk, etc.) can 'come back for seconds', so to
speak: Roll through someone, then teleport back and roll through again. Sleight of Fists can do this for
multiple enemies at once!

Tether with Chemical Rage, Shadow Dance, or Burrow (Scepter upgrade for Vendetta) could grant
considerable healing to the Tethered target.

Blast Off combined with Reincarnation, Berzerker's Blood, or Sunder could use the health cost to its
advantage.

Omnislash allows one to cast spells during the duration, so short-ranged spells go well with it (e.g., Hoof
Stomp, Double Edge).
Snowball allows one to cast spells in the prep period, opening up a wide variety of options. For example,
using Teleport to escape while invulnerable.

Rage, Blade Fury, or Repel with any channeled (e.g., Black Hole, Freezing Field, Fiend's Grip) ability grants
one protection from interruptions.

Sunder with any invisibility or long-range mobility allows one to intentionally reach low health, sneak up
on a foe, Sunder them down to 25% of their health, then finish them off in some way, usually a nuke or
Dagon.

Supernova with any long-cooldown ability can be potent due to the refreshed cooldowns. Tombstone is
the prime example that comes to mind.

Icarus Dive with any channeling abilities like Death Ward, Dismember, or Black Hole allows one to dive in,
begin channeling, but be taken back out by the back-swing of the dive while still channeling. This can
also be used for drive-by uses of other spells, but is funniest with channeling spells.

Flaming Lasso with any mobility spell that does not use teleportation (Leap, Pounce, Blast Off, Boundless
Strike with Shard, etc.) will take the Lasso target along for the ride. Special mention goes to Icarus Dive,
allowing one to dive in, grab someone, and drag them back out. Reverse Time Walk is the most insane
with this combo, as you can Time Walk forward, Blink Dagger even further forward, then Reverse all the
way back with your kidnapping victim.

Duel or Culling Blade with Thirst, Charge of Darkness, or Teleport allows one to easily catch up to low-
health foes.

Teleport with X-Marks-the-Spot or Time Lapse allows one to teleport in, take an action, then send
themselves back. Combined with a nuke, stun, or summoning spell, this can be extremely annoying to
the enemy.

Primal Split with Rot gives your current Brewling (begins as the Earth Brewling) your Rot aura. This also
works with Bulwark's Scepter upgrade.
Currently Bugged: Infest your own Summon Spirit Bear for shenanigans. (currently the bear has no
abilities)

Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Infest can be surprisingly potent with certain attack modifiers like Arcane
Orb or Chilling Touch.

Trample with abilities that grant mobility without teleporting (e.g. Skewer, Surge, Windrun, Time Walk,
Shard-upgraded Boundless Strike, etc.) can proc its effect many, many times in rapid succession.

Freezing Field highly benefits from any mobility spell when upgraded by an Aghanim's Scepter, with the
most notable example being Shukuchi.

Bulwark's Scepter with any source of cleave (e.g. Tree Grab, Greater Cleave) or potent attack modifiers
(e.g. Caustic Finale, Curse of Avernus) can apply their effects to many enemies at once.

Currently Bugged: Haunt (Shadow Step's Scepter) can also apply attack modifiers to the entire enemy
team, with the most notable being Curse Of Avernus (like a Global Silence on a 4-attack delay).

Essence Flux with Mana Shield makes for an extremely tanky hero, provided you have something to
spam like Arcane Orb.

Exorcism with abilities that hide the user (e.g., Snowball, Phase Shift, Astral Imprisonment, etc.) can stall
for the ghosts to burn enemies or buildings down.

Arcane Supremacy is powerful with most targeted abilities, but is particularly funny with abilities like
Pulverize, Dispose, or Walrus Kick where the cast range makes for weird displacement rules.

Poof can target illusions globally, which is one of its only viable uses in my opinion. Conjure Image or
Mirror Image with Poof could make for an annoyingly mobile, farm-efficient build.

Lucky Shot with any rapid damage over time (e.g. Ion Shell, Rot, etc.) can trigger its effects reliably and
repeatedly. Supernova is one of the most powerful with Lucky Shot due to the massive AoE and Lucky
Shot's attack slow synergising very well to protect the Egg.
Skewer or Boulder Smash with any kind of mobility (e.g., Blink, Burrowstrike, etc.) can reposition
enemies even early in the game.

Assassinate's attack effect can be combined with effects like Mortal Strike and Enchant Totem for
extremely long-ranged and damaging shots. It can also convey attack modifiers like Infernal Blade, Meld,
or Shadow Walk's stun.

Decrepify amplifies the damage of Pierce The Veil, providing an innate source of Ethereal.

Dark Ascension can refresh high-impact abilities like Tombstone, Metamorphosis, and Cataclysm. It is
also excellent for simply refreshing your kit, especially stuns.

Heartstopper Aura's Scepter can be combined with regenerative effects like Chemical Rage or especially
Infest for extremely high damage.

Not tested: Sidekick with Bulwark (Scepter) makes for excellent healing against grouped enemies.
Furthermore, with either Infest or an ally that has Dismember's Shard, one can remain inside that ally
providing damage and healing to them from safety.

Synergies

A 'synergy' is when the abilities merely need to be used in tandem regardless of who casts them, as
opposed to a 'combo' where both abilities need to be on the same hero to work. However, most
synergies do indeed work better (in terms of execution) if both abilities are on the same hero, hence
their potency in Ability Draft.

Note that synergies which already existed in the main game (e.g., X-Marks-the-Spot + Torrent, Kinetic
Field + Static Storm, Mana Break + Mana Void, etc.) are not included, nor are any already mentioned in
this post. Some synergies were already included in the 'Combos' section for brevity, as I was already
describing their build with other abilities.

Laguna Blade or Finger of Death with Decrepify, Ancient Seal, or any other magic damage amplification
deals massive damage.
Vacuum with any AoE stun can make for a one-man wombo-combo. Note that you can cast Vacuum on
units affected by Song of the Siren as well.

False Promise with Shallow Grave work together extremely well for two reasons. Firstly, no matter how
much damage is taken during False Promise, Shallow Grave will allow the victim to survive at the end.
This alone makes the target of the caster's protection extremely difficult to kill. Additionally, if any
cooldown reduction is obtained, it is possible to Shallow Grave -> False Promise - > Shallow Grave if done
with precise timing (i.e., very little overlap in spell duration is allowed). This means that - barring Culling
Blade's interference - the targeted unit cannot die for 17, 18.5, 20 seconds (+1.5 if the caster is a level 25
Oracle with the relevant Talent).

Ghost Shroud with False Promise makes for extreme healing. The hero being targeted by False Promise
must have Ghost Shroud, not the other way around.

Rupture with Meat Hook, Skewer, Toss, Spear of Mars, X-marks-the-Spot, Dead Shot, or any other forced-
movement ability allows one to deal massive Rupture damage. Usually more than one of the above
movement skills is needed to be effective.

Spark Wraith or Proximity Mines with Meat Hook or Skewer allows one to set up a stack of death then
force an enemy into them. Flaming Lasso and Nether Swap can also be used this way for Spark Wraiths.

Ice Blast or Doom with Purifying Flames allows one to nuke one's victim without worrying about healing
them.

Maledict with Finger of Death, Laguna Blade, or an assortment of nukes (i.e., more than one) deals
massive damage over time.

Aphotic Shield with Double Edge, Blast Off, or Life Break both mitigates the self-inflicted damage of the
latter spells and also pops the shield for added burst.

Earth Splitter, Ghost Ship, Unstable Concoction, Light Strike Array, Kinetic Field, Cold Feet, Torrent, or any
other delayed spell benefits greatly from another disable to set it up. Often, the spell to be set up (e.g.
Ghost Ship) is cast before the aiding stun or disable (e.g., Ghost Ship into Burrowstrike, not the other
way around).
Nightmare with any ability in need of setup can generally guarantee the ability lands. This applies to the
examples mentioned above (e.g., Earth Splitter, Ghost Ship, etc.), but can also be used for abilities like
Meat Hook, Skewer, or other hard-to-hit spells. Special mention goes to Nightmare + Static Link.

Mystic Flare with any stun or root allows its full duration to be reliably inflicted, turning a mediocre spell
into a terrifying one. The same effect can be achieved with any ground-targeted damage over time spell,
but Mystic Flare is the most potent.

Cloak and Dagger with any dispel (e.g., Fortune's End, Aphotic Shield, etc.) can get rid of the Dust debuff
on the caster. If the caster also has a Gem to destroy enemy Sentry Wards, the only thing that can
reliably see them is an opposing Gem. Dark Pact is a 'combo' using this same premise, as it is required
that the same hero have both abilities.

Pit of Malice with any other disable allows one to disable the victim(s) during the 'downtime' of the Pit
of Malice root, allowing subsequent Pit of Malice root(s) to trigger.

The Scepter Upgrade for Fiend's Gate and Pit of Malice combos extremely well with the Scepter Upgrade
for Sun Strike. The former two abilities must be present on the same hero. The Scepter upgrade for
Wrath Of Nature is arguably even better for this purpose, since it has a lower cooldown and is even
easier to execute if you only want to hit a couple of targets.

Sacred Arrow with Hookshot, Fortune's End, Fissure, Homing Missile, or Nightmare (with a mobility spell
to move away after casting said Nightmare) allows one to land long-ranged Arrows with ease.
Sharpshooter can work similarly.

Tombstone with Decrepify or Sprout allows one to protect their Tombstone.

Proximity Mine with any disable of sufficient length makes the mines' wind-up time irrelevant.

Requiem of Souls with any sufficiently-long disable can insta-kill anyone caught out, provided one has
enough Necromastery souls. The stun must be 1.67 seconds or longer, and the caster must also have
Necromastery. If the stun also provides mobility (e.g., Burrowstrike, Blast Off, Firesnap Cookie) this
makes the execution much easier.
Penitence will allow a Death Ward to attack ludicrously fast. It also works well with Winter's Curse and
Chaotic Offering.

Arena of Blood is excellent with large-AoE spells like Midnight Pulse, Shrapnel, or Tombstone (place the
Tombstone outside of the arena).

Savage Roar is hilarious with Arena of Blood or Dream Coil, forcing enemies to run away into even worse
effects.

Song of the Siren with Tombstone allows zombies to begin stacking up while the Tombstone remains
safe. Upheaval can serve a less effective but similar purpose.

Phantom's Embrace, Proximity Mines, or Supernova with any source of disarm (e.g. Inner Fire, Decrepify,
Reactive Taser) stops the enemy from attacking the phantom, mines, or egg, respectively.

Any stun that has a moderate cast range works very well with the Ability-Draft-exclusive version of
Shadow Raze, which gives 3 charges of the medium-range Raze. Often this can be a free kill once your
hero reaches level 2 or especially 3 (for the second point in Raze).