Warlock

Warlock

The Dire

18 + 2.5 10 + 1 24 + 2.7

Level 1 16 25 Hit Points 492 1233 2012 Mana 312 858 1404 Damage 46-56 88-98 130-140 Armor 2.4 4.78 8.56 Attacks / Second 0.64 0.74 0.9

Movement Speed 295 Turn Rate 0.4 Sight Range 1800/800 Attack Range 600 Missile Speed 1200 Attack Duration 0.3+0.3 Cast Duration 0.5+0.5 Base Attack Time 1.7

Demnok Lannik the Warlock is a ranged intelligence hero and a good support. His Shadow Word ability makes for an excellent heal as well as a decent harassment tool, and his physical attack helps him to ward off any enemies and keep his friends safe. He also possesses a considerable presence in team fights, as most of his abilities cover up a rather large area of effect.

Bio

Demnok Lannik, the Warlock Play "My grimoire opens again to a new page." Role: Initiator / Support / Lane Support / Disabler Lore: As Chief Curator and Head of Acquisitions for the Arcane Archives of the Ultimyr Academy, Demnok Lannik was tireless in his pursuit of lost, rare and forbidden tomes. No cursed temple was so foreboding, no cavern path so treacherous, that any concern for his own survival could dissuade him from entering if rumors hinted that some pamphlet of primordial lore might still survive in its depths. However, so often did his investigations trigger the wrath of protector entities, that he finally found it necessary to master the arts of magic. He bent himself to learning sorcery with the same thorough obsessiveness that marked his quest for incunabula, becoming the most powerful Warlock of the Academy in less time than most practitioners required to complete a course of undergraduate work. Almost as an afterthought, he carved a staff of Dreadwood and summoned into it a captive spirit from the Outer Hells. And anticipating the day when he will have recovered every last lost spellbook, he has commenced writing his own Black Grimoire. It will undoubtedly be instructive. Voice: Sam A. Mowry (Responses)

Abilities

Fatal Bonds Q F Ability Affects Damage Target Unit Enemies HP Removal Binds several enemy units together, causing 20% of the damage dealt to one of them to be felt by the others. Cast Range: 800 Radius: 575 Duration: 25 Max Bonded Units: 3/4/5/6 Percent Damage Shared: 20% 25 120 Blocked only if cast directly on holder. An ancient incantation that links the vital energies of multiple lifeforms into one collective body.

Notes: Damage will not disable abilities or items like Blink Dagger because it's HP Removal. Any instance of damage above 6000 will not be calculated. A successful Culling Blade will NOT deal proportional damage to linked units. Although the initial AoE is relatively small, once the debuff has been placed there is no maximum range on the bonds between affected units or heroes.

Shadow Word W W Ability Affects Damage Target Unit Units Magical Demnok whispers an incantation, healing a friendly unit or damaging an enemy unit over time. Cast Range: 500 Duration: 9 Damage Caused/ Healed Per Second: 15/25/35/45 16 90/110/130/150 Warlock arcane arts have a myriad of uses, allowing them to be powerful friendly enchantments or damaging curses.

Notes: This skill does not allow for heroes to be denied. Shadow Word Heals/Damages a total of 135/225/315/405.

Upheaval E E Ability Affects Channeled Enemies A powerful slowing current that grows stronger as it's channelled. Lasts up to 10 seconds, slowing enemies up to 84%. Enemies are slowed for 3 seconds after leaving the area or the spell ends. Cast Range: 700 Radius: 700 Duration: 10 Slow per Second: 7%/14%/21%/28% (max 84%) 50 100/110/120/130 Slow remaining after leaving area of effect can be purged. Demnok manipulates space-time, impairing entire armies.

Notes: Slow percentage is calculated based on duration of the channel, not by how long enemy was in the area of effect.

Chaotic Offering R R Ability Affects Damage Target Point Enemies Magical Summons a Golem from the depths, dealing 100 damage and stunning enemies for one second. The Golem lives 60 seconds, takes reduced damage from spells, has Permanent Immolation and Flaming Fists on attack. Cast Range: 1200 Radius: 600 Stun Duration: 1 Number of Golems: 1 (2*) 165 200/250/300 Damage is blocked, stun is not. Impact delay 0.3 seconds, summons 2 Golems with 75% hp and damage, and 50% bounty each. Demnok unleashes the captive spirit in his Dreadwood staff, causing destruction in enemy ranks.

Notes: Stunned units cannot be purged of the effect. Golem is immune to Transmute and Dominate. Destroys trees in its area of effect. A golem will die instantly if targeted by most purges such as that from the active ability of Diffusal Blade.

Golem abilities

Warlock's Golem
Duration 60 seconds Hit Points 900 / 1200 / 1500 (675 / 900 / 1125*) Damage 75 / 100 / 125 (56 / 75 / 94*) Armor 5 / 7 / 10 Movement Speed 320 / 340 / 360 Sight Range 1800/1800 Attack Range Melee Attack Duration 0.26+ Base Attack Time 1.35 Bounty 100/150/200 (50/75/100*) Experience 98 Notes 33% magic resistance. *With Aghanim's Scepter.

Flaming Fists Ability Affects Damage Passive Enemies Magical Grants a chance to deal extra damage to nearby units when attacking. Chance: 60% Damage: 100/150/200 Radius: 300 full damage, 350 half damage

Notes: Will not damage ethereal units. Affects magic immune units but is reduced by magic resistance.

Permanent Immolation Ability Affects Damage Passive Enemies Magical Burns the Golem's nearby enemy units, with damage per second. Radius: 250 Damage per second: 30/40/50

Notes: Immolations of multiple golems stack.

Recommended items

Explanation: Early-Game Items: A Bracer provides additional attributes and bonus Strength to bulk up his health pool, as well as give him more attack damage. Ring of Basilius provides him with slightly more armor for defense, as well as bonus mana regeneration. The aura can also aid your laning partner or your summoned golem. Core Items: A Magic Wand will give him a source of regeneration, as well as more attributes. Arcane Boots gives him an instant source of mana, which can help his mana-expensive abilities. As well as this, the aura mana regeneration is helpful for his allies. Mekansm helps him support his allies even more, as he can provide instant healing and armor. Also, the instant health regeneration also helps with his own defense. As a support, you can provide Observer Wards for your team to have more visibility in the map. Situational Items: Scythe of Vyse gives him bonus attributes and more mana regeneration, as well as adding a silencing disable to his skill set. Shiva's Guard gives him additional armor and Intelligence, as well as an area-of-effect slow. Aghanim's Scepter bulks up his attributes, health, and mana, as well as splits his golem into two. Together, they can deal a total higher DPS than a single golem. Refresher Orb provides even more mana regeneration, as well as the ability for him to cast his Ultimate twice in quick succession. Necronomicon gives him additional Strength and Intelligence, as well as summoned units, which can aid against enemies slowed by Upheaval. Drum of Endurance provides him with more Strength, as well as some attack and movement speed. The speed bonus can help his allies and his golem. Pipe of Insight gives him additional health regeneration and magic resistance for additional survivability, as well as aid his allies in protection of magic damage. Veil of Discord slightly bulks up his health regeneration and armor, gives him more Intelligence, and also amplify the magic damage of Shadow Word and Chaotic Offering with its item ability.

Tips

• Consider going solo lane if your team wants to try an early push strategy. Warlock's attack range, projectile speed, and damage allows him to farm nicely against other solo heroes.
• Shadow Word can also be used as a harassing tool. Cast it on your opponent and keep hitting him whenever it's possible. Make sure you don't get hit by creeps too much while doing so.
• Fatal Bonds is an immensely useful spell which amplifies your team's damage output. Bond 5 enemies together, and if they are all hit by a single area of effect spell or attack, the total damage will be almost doubled, since everyone of them will suffer 5x20% extra damage echoed from others.
• You can use Upheaval to prevent wounded enemies from escaping. This is especially useful if used right after an area-of-effect spell, such as your Chaotic Offering. Let your golem or your teammates finish the job.
• If an ally is being chased, use your Upheaval to slow his chasers. Since the slow will last for some seconds after you stop channeling, you will also have time to fall back.
• When initiating, make sure to cast Fatal Bonds first, then Chaotic Offering; this way, you can output more damage against all your targets.
• Your golem is tanky; when possible, use it to tank creeps or towers, so that you can dispose of them sooner.
• You can heal the golem with your Shadow Word to increase its tankiness.
• When chasing fleeing heroes with your golem, don't stop to auto-attack them, since it will slow the golem down. Instead, keep it moving with the heroes, so that the Permanent Immolation can do its damage.
• Although both Refresher Orb and Aghanim's Scepter allow you to summon two golems, Refresher Orb allows you to summon two full strength golems and utilize two seconds of AoE stun, but will cost a lot of mana to pull off, while Aghanim's Scepter is easier and cheaper to build and gives nice stats.
• Do not let the golem die needlessly to your enemy heroes, since its gold bounty is quite high. If it's the last remaining unit for your team in a fight, have it flee unless you can ensure a kill. Having it die against creeps or towers is better than allowing an enemy hero to claim the gold bounty of your golem. Having two golems from Aghanim's Scepter will cut the bounty of each golem in half.
• Fatal Bonds and Venomancer's Poison Nova make for a deadly combination, as although Poison Nova cannot kill on its own, Fatal Bonds will cause anyone bound and affected by the poison to die from the damage ticking off.
• It also seems that Fatal Bonds and Bristleback's Viscous Nasal Goo compliment each other well. The armor reduction of the Viscous Nasal Goo on a hero means that any damage inflicted to bound creeps etc. will be applied to the snotted individual at the reduced armor value. Adding another attacking hero with area of effect damage such as Zeus' Arc Lightning, or items that function similarly like Mjollnir and Battlefury can quickly put a lot of damage on the armor reduced hero.
• Remember your role: as a support Hero, you should be leaving as much experience and gold as possible to the carry. While items like Aghanim's Scepter and Refresher Orb may seem so powerful, it's advised not to buy them too early, or not to buy them at all: concentrate on buying Wards, Dust and utility items like Mekansm, Force Staff, Necronomicon, Drum of Endurance or Eul's Scepter of Divinity first. Even Wards and Mekansm alone will certainly be more useful than a Warlock who stole kills from the carry, leaving him underfarmed and underleveled. Only acquire kills if the carry is unable to do so.

Trivia

• In DotA, Warlock's ultimate is named Rain of Chaos and the summoned unit was called an Infernal, a hulking golem with green-colored flames. Both names were changed in the transition to Dota 2 to avoid copyright conflict.
• Warlock is related to Disruptor and Axe, as he comes from the Oglodi tribe.

Update history

February 07, 2013 Patch

• Fixed Flaming Fists hitting ethereal units.

January 31, 2013 Patch

• Fixed Flaming Fists damage not leveling properly, damaging magic immune units, and having incorrect chance to proc.

January 24, 2013 Patch

• Fixed Aghanim Warlock Golems not doing enough damage.

December 19, 2012 Patch

• Fixed Golem's Flaming Fists not dealing damage to the primary attack target.

December 06, 2012 Patch

• Updates on sound effects for Visage, Viper, Warlock, Tiny and Earthshaker.

August 10, 2012 Patch

• Fixed Warlock missing his pants.

July 19, 2012 Patch

• Fixed Glimpse affecting Warlock's Golem and Spirit Bear.
• Fixed Curse of the Silent affecting Warlock's Golem and Spirit Bear.

July 05, 2012 Patch

• Fixed the burn aura from Warlock's Golems so it stacks correctly.

June 20, 2012 Patch

• Updated Aghanim's Scepter tooltips for Beastmaster, Necrolyte, Queen of Pain, Warlock, and Windrunner.

June 11, 2012 Patch

• Fixed the following spells being castable on magic immune allies: Nightmare, Frost Armor, Nature's Guise, Holy Persuasion, Decrepify, Astral Imprisonment, Shadow Word and X Marks The Spot.

May 24, 2012 Patch

• Added overhead healing messages for Warlock and Bloodseeker.

May 18, 2012 Patch

• Fixed Warlock Golem being able to buy and use items.

May 10, 2012 Patch

• Fixed arcane orb doing bonus damage to Warlock illusions.
• Fixed Golem's Flaming Fists doing half damage in a bigger aoe.

March 22, 2012 Patch

• Fixed Golems having incorrect magic resistance.

March 08, 2012 Patch

• Fixed Golem being considered a creep for some spells like Paralyzing Casks.

February 17, 2012 Patch

• Fixed Fatal Bonds hitting invis or fogged units.

February 16, 2012 Patch

• Warlock has a new alternate attack animation.

December 01, 2011 Patch

• Fixed Golem's Immolation not doing any damage.

November 17, 2011 Patch

• Fixed the following ability interactions with Repel/Purge: Inner Vitality, Weave, Moonlight Shadow, Overload, Holy Persuasion, Warcry, Shadow Word, Focus Fire, Sukuchi, Berserker's Call, Chilling Touch.
• Fixed Rain of Chaos AoE stun not lasting longer with Scepter.
• Fixed Rain of Chaos not destroying trees
• Fixed Rain of Chaos not doing any impact damage.
• Fixed Fatal Bonds disabling Blink Dagger/Regen.
• Fixed Fatal Bonds damage being reduced by resistance.
• Fixed Golem's Immolation working against Ancients.
• Enabled Warlock for Captain's Mode
• Added burned ground to Warlock's Rain of Chaos.

November 11, 2011 Patch

• Increased Warlock's Golem size slightly.
• Added a missing model for Warlock's effects.

November 10, 2011 Patch

• Added Warlock.

August 13, 2011 Patch

• Fixed Golem's Immolation not doing any damage.

July 08, 2011 Patch

• Shadow Word can now be cast on catapults.

May 13, 2011 Patch

• Fixed Fatal Bonds not always adding the primary target.
• Fixed a number of abilities having incorrect interaction with Sphere: Slithereen Crush, Jinada, Wind Walk, Echo Slam, Moon Glaive, Death Pulse, Purification, Scream of Pain, Fatal Bonds.

Balance changelog

6.77

• Shadow Word's cooldown decreased from 20 to 16

6.76

• Warlock's Golem attack damage increased from 50/75/100 to 75/100/125.

6.75

• Shadow Word damage/heal increased from 10/20/30/40 to 15/25/35/45 per second.

6.74

• Shadow Word duration increased from 8 to 9 seconds.
• Golem's Permanent Immolation damage increased from 20/30/40 to 30/40/50 per second.

6.73

• Golem's Flaming Fists
  • Trigger chance increased from 40% to 60%.
  • Damage increased from 75/115/150 to 100/150/200.

6.72c

• Shadow Word cooldown reduced from 24 to 20.

6.72

• Fatal Bonds
  • Link count increased from 2/3/4/5 to 3/4/5/6.
  • Casting range increased from 600 to 800.
• Upheaval cooldown decreased from 65 to 50.

6.71

• Aghanim Golem's HP and damage increased from 50% of original to 75%.

6.70

• Fatal Bonds damage increased from 15% to 20%.

Gallery

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  Splash artwork

See also

• Warlock responses
• Hellgazer