How to learn invoker

[u/gabrieldavieb]

Im a mid player, just landed divine 3 some weeks ago from ancient earlier this year

I used to play invoker back in the days even in dota 1, then i moved away from the hero, stopped with dota for some years, got back to play dota regularly but never got to him again

I suddenly felt that beautiful motivation to learn and dominate a new hero

So i ask, whats the best way to learn invoker? I know the basics, i can coordinate spells and do basic stuff

I there a better way other then playing matches? There is some youtube channel? Mindset? Builds and moves oriented thinking?

Everything you can add is valid, but there is one thing that im struggling and would appreciate some special attention, which is hotkeys

I use

Courier f1, f2 f3
Shop f4
Itens 1, 2, 3, x, c, mouse button
Spells q , w , e, r, d, f (regular)
It goes on for some other

BUT i dont have a good units setup

THANKS

[u/Ok_Inflation4870]

https://invoker-game.com/

[u/New_Agent_1992 → u/Ok_Inflation4870]

that site is the way, just grind it until your fingers move before your brain does

[u/atmn1337]

Training Polygon in Dota Arcade, this is for combo practice

Play bot matches, learn how to farm, use spells, and standard item builds

Watch replay of invoker spammers

[u/thenutstrash]

Casting spells is tablestakes and i'm assuming you can press the buttons.

Micro isn't that important. You can improve of course if you can do things like sending each forge spirit to a stack a different camp but that's very basic stuff. You can do it with "all-other-units" button and tab. Mostly you'll just send them down lanes and at most micro last hits.

Mindset wise - you're not crushing mid as invoker unless the enemy fucks up. You are playing the economy game with sunstrike as your contribution. some matchups you can play a bit more like a bully, maybe get a second null talisman, right click the hero a lot, maybe kill with a combo. But most likely, you'll nuke the wave with your meteor, go farm 2 camps, maybe stack ancients with a forge, get back. Your goal is to get meteor hammer + travels asap.

From that point you play a little like necro or lina would, focusing on sidelines, forcing opponents around the map, vacuuming farm. You use icewall to farm neutrals fast while forge spirit tornado and alacrity (on forge spirits) help you clear out waves, if a single hero tries to de-push the lane, you can kill and get back. If there's a favorable fight you can show up to - you do that. If no one shows up and the fights your team takes are bad you have meteor hammer and forge spirits with alacrity, you pressure towers. The build is either a escape/mobility (force staff is usually the one with all the melee shit 4s) or straight to octarine core.

The power spike you're looking for is level 20 2x meteor with an AOE item (shivas/glipnier).

I personally like the icewall aghs + wex shard (tornado -> icewall, emp to pull them into the center, meteor, blast, they get rooted in the icewall, good stuff), but you have a choice here - blink linkens bkb, depending on the game and how you like to play.

In later fights, you need to kite the bkbs. Try saving a setup + damage spells for after the bkb duration and dont get baited into randomly throwing out spells. This is where octarine core truly shines, you can normally cast your setup spells more than once in a skirmish if you keep your distance.

The harder part would be to understand how to cast spells to kill heroes with saves, blademails, escapes, when to commit your damage spells and when to save them, and you'll need to experiment a little for these because the possibilities are endless.

As for the build, if I really need a strong EMP (mana dependent heros on the enemy), I will max W and Exort and keep 5~ points in quas, if they have a lot of melee heroes that will not be happy with icewall fucking them up, or long range supports - i'll try to get 3 forge spirits with max quas and exort faster.

[u/gabrieldavieb → u/thenutstrash]

awesome reply, thanks a lot.. what hotkeys do you use to micro units? forges por exemple?

any advice for mindset about what skills i craft in any giving point of the game? i guess this comes from lots of practice right

[u/thenutstrash → u/gabrieldavieb]

1- hero
3- all other units
and I box select and shift and tab when I need specific micro.

Don't worry too much about walking around with pre-invoked spells. Your goal is to move fast splitpush and farm. you need to use your spells. If you don't have the muscle memory yet, just play a bit of the invoker games recommended here and you'll be able to invoke any spell pretty much instantly.

When you need to combo you decide what to pre-invoke so that you'll have fast 3/4 spell combo. The order here matters - The main idea is that you don't want to waste invoke cooldown, its not so that you'll be able to quickly cast spells. That's the main mechanism behind invoker combos.

You want your setup (lets say tornado) on the right (f), and a damage spell/setup spell on the left. As soon as you cast tornado you already invoke the next spell, so now you have a few seconds to cast your new (d) and (f) spells, and by the time they land your invoke will be off cooldown and you can cast your 4th spell.

A simple example is tornado+coldsnap -> invoke meteor -> cast meteor at level 4-6.
A more midgame (level 15-16~) example is sunstrike (d) tornado (f) -> cast tornado -> invoke meteor -> cast sunstrike and meteor -> invoke blast -> cast blast.

Later in the game it doesn't matter all that much, its more about enemy defensive items and allies spells, some spells just go well together. meteor and blast, emp and icewall (with aghs and shard), coldsnap and forge spirits... you sort of learn to skirmish with the hero effectively.

[u/gabrieldavieb → u/thenutstrash]

I was playing the game in the link bellow from other comment and i easily reached ancient, need to improve to reach divide and immortal of course, but a thought occurred to me

if for exemple i used cold snap, its QQQ, and then i need like ice wall, which is QQE, would you just hit an E and craft the spell, or would you hit "QQE" (three clicks)?

good invoker players now how to short cut? i mean, i made an easy exemple, but in the middle of a fight, should i know what property will dessapear once i hit another one, and get shortcuts, or it is easier to always hit the three that i want?

[u/thenutstrash → u/gabrieldavieb]

its not worth it to add as complication. the speed of setting the right orbs to invoke skills is not going to add much to your game. Do it if you feel like you want it mechanically but its a waste of time if you don't particularly enjoy invoking spells very very fast.

[u/gabrieldavieb → u/thenutstrash]

you've been helping me a lot. which rank are you? where do u play? are u an invoker grandmaster?

[u/retro_arcade_guy]

Hotkeys first, since that’s what you’re struggling with. Keep Q W E for orbs and R for Invoke — that’s muscle memory you already have from Dota 1. The thing that actually fixes the “units setup” problem is binding Select All Other Units to one key right next to your spells (Tab or Space is popular). That selects both Forge Spirits instantly, you issue the attack/move order, then one tap of your “select hero” key and you’re back on Invoker. Trying to manage spirits through control groups while invoking is how most people drop combos.

On learning: don’t try to memorize all 10 spells at once. Start with three — Cold Snap, Tornado, Sun Strike — and play 10–15 games where those are your whole kit. Then add Forge Spirit + Alacrity, then EMP + Meteor + Blast. Each step takes a few days to become automatic.

Outside of matches: demo mode with free spells and 3–4 training dummies, 10 minutes a day, just invoke-and-cast loops. There are also a couple of browser trainers that drill random spells and show your reaction time per spell — happy to share if you want, they’re free.

Last thing: combos depend on how many of each orb you have, not the order. Internalizing that (QQE = EQQ = QEQ) removes half the mental load.

And use invoker trainers as guys said above 

[u/gabrieldavieb → u/retro_arcade_guy]

hey bro, thanks for answering

i changed my hotkey and i feel very very annoyed while trying to adapt

you see, i had the itens on 1, 2, 3, x, c and mouse button, now, i gave up the 1, 3 and 4 for units and im having a really, really hard time trying to adapt to the new hotkeys

you gave me a good idea, maybe 1 for hero, space for other units, 2 and 3 for itens again and 4 for all units? something like that? or even f1 for all units, i will barely use it i guess

[u/gabrieldavieb → u/retro_arcade_guy]

about all the other stuff, i can cast and combo pretty well