Visage
The Visage, the guardian of the underworld is a stone statue turned to life. Bound by the eternal spirit Necro’lic, Visage is an animated Gargoyle with incredible physical and magical damage. He is one of the least picked heroes of Dota 2 due to his relative complexity, with only the hard willed veterans of the game even going near picking this hero for the battle of the ancients.
Visage is an avid pub stomper, if known how to play properly, being reasonably tanky and an incredible damage dealer. In this article, we will learn from the professionals and how they build Visage in almost all positions in the game. Visage is as flexible as he is complex, being able to be used for an unfathomable amount of utility, damage or supporting prowess.
5. Sumail’s Mid-lane Visage Build
We start the list off with undoubtedly one of the best Mid-laners in the history of Dota. Although this gameplay video is a little more outdated that the rest on this list, the same principles and builds of the hero have not changed much and enables this Sumail build to still be more than relevant. Sumail has chosen Visage to go up against one of the most potent mid-lane heroes. With some good knowledge of the hero, we can see how Sumail absolutely dominates the game, showing us just how much damage this hero can do.
Sumail’s Skill Allocation:
Level 1 - Q - Grave Chill
Level 2 - E - Gravekeeper’s Cloak
Level 3 - W - Soul Assumption
Level 4 - E - Gravekeeper’s Cloak
Level 5 - Q - Grave Chill
Level 6 - R - Summon Familiars
Level 7- Q - Grave Chill
Level 8 - Q - Grave Chill
Level 9 - E - Gravekeeper’s Cloak
Level 10 - Left Talent
Level 11 - E - Gravekeeper’s Cloak
Level 12 - R - Summon Familiars
Level 13 - W - Soul Assumption
Level 14 - W - Soul Assumption
Level 15 - Right Talent
Level 16 - W - Soul Assumption
Level 18 - R - Summon Familiars
Sumail’s Item Build:
First Buy: Tangoes, Magic Stick, Quelling Blade, Faerie Fire and 2 Branches
Laning against a Shadowfield, the hero uses a lot of abilities in lane, making Magic Stick a good early game pick up. Sumail has opted also for a Quelling Blade as it gives him the best gold for damage in the early game to give him an edge when it comes down to last hitting.
2 Minutes: Blight Stone
Sumail’s first small item of choice is the Blight Stone as it gives him more damage against Shadowfiend’s low armor. The negative armor it provides on the target also synergizes well with his familiars once he reaches level 6.
3 Minutes: Magic Wand and Tangoes
Visage does not have much sustain, as such, upgrading to a wand for more stats and having some extra Tangoes can go a long way towards staying in the lane.
4 Minutes: Infused Raindrops
Sumail recognises that the early game damage from the Shadowfiend is magically based. As such, Infused raindrops is the best early game item in the game to ensure that his engagements are a little more favorable, negating a huge chunk of the enemy’s damage and providing some passive mana regeneration at the same time.
5 Minutes: Medallion of Courage
The Medallion of Courage is a build up from the Blight Stone and is an incredible core item on visage as it amplifies the damage your Familiars do the same as if you were to hit the enemy with a Desolator. The Medallion is also a much cheaper choice and doubles up as a source of mana regeneration.
7 Minutes: Boots of Speed and Sage’s mask
Sumail aims to play extremely aggressively, abusing his hero’s early power spike at level 6. Visage is relatively slow compared to his Familiars so boots are always necessary to keep up with your Familiars and the enemy you are pursuing.
12 Minutes: Orchid of Malevolence
Orchid is one of Visage’s best damage items in the early game, and the early timing of it makes it hard for enemies to react due to its active which prevents spell use. Sumail chooses to go for the early Orchid to ensure that he abuses the early game as much as possible, making as much space as he can for his safelaner to eventually carry the game.
19 Minutes: Solar Crest
Solar Crest is a heavily underrated item, especially on Visage. It gives a respectable amount of tankiness, mana regeneration and movement speed, all the while improving the damage you do with your Familiars by a significant portion. This combined with the Orchid, enables Sumail to nuke key targets down very quickly.
22 Minutes: Aghanim’s Scepter
Aghanim’s Scepter is basically Visage’s version of a Shadowblade that does more damage as well as provide invisibility for his Familiars.
26 Minutes: Bloodthorn
As Sumail is the main source of damage for this team, a Bloodthorn compliments his playstyle this game, adding a strong level of critical damage to both his auto attacks as well as his familiars. From the team clash at 31:05, Sumail maintains his distance, doing both magical damage from his Soul Assumption and Physical damage with his Familiars, leading to a decisive victory, even with the enemy having an advantageous Aegis on the Riki.
4. N0tail’s Hard Support Visage Build
One of Visage’s biggest strengths is his ability to be extremely flexible and useful in all roles of the game. The hero can fill in many holes a team may require and can build its items accordingly to suit the situation. N0tail shows us how Visage can be played effectively as a hard support and how he itemizes to improve his team’s chances of victory.
N0tail’s Skill Allocation:
Level 1 - W - Soul Assumption
Level 2 - E - Gravekeeper’s Cloak
Level 3 - E - Gravekeeper’s Cloak
Level 4 - Q - Grave Chill
Level 5 - E - Gravekeeper’s Cloak
Level 6 - R - Summon Familiars
Level 7- E - Gravekeeper’s Cloak
Level 8 - W - Soul Assumption
Level 9 - W - Soul Assumption
Level 10 - Left Talent
Level 11 - W - Soul Assumption
Level 12 - R - Summon Familiars
Level 13 - Q - Grave Chill
Level 14 - Q - Grave Chill
Level 15 - Right Talent
Level 16 - Q - Grave Chill
Level 18 - R - Summon Familiars
N0tail’s Item Build:
First Buy: 2 Tangoes, 2 Mantles of Intelligence, Mango and a Branch
Laning against a Mirana, N0tail opts for stronger auto attack damage in lane, allowing him to build up charges of Soul Assumption, and make himself incredibly hard to trade with. The 2 Tangoes also help him to keep trading, eventually out sustaining the enemy offlaners’ and forcing them out of the lane.
2 Minutes: Healing Salve
Healing Salve is usually bought on the position 5 hard support to help with even more sustain, meaning you can give a couple of extra tangoes to your carry as required.
6 Minutes: Magic Stick and Healing Salve and Circlet
Visage has problems with health regeneration, as such, some extra salves and a magic stick can go a long way to keeping yourself healthy.
8 Minutes: Null Talisman
N0tail farms up a Null Talisman in this game to give his hero some extra tankiness and stats, making him an incredibly difficult hard support to pin down. As his power spike comes at level 6, N0tail aims to not be food for the enemy and offers a little more damage to the table for his teammates.
11 Minutes: Boots of Speed
Boots are always necessary to keep up with your Familiars and should be purchased with every hero in Dota.
12 Minutes: Tranquil Boots and Wards
Tranquil Boots are a very strong pick up on the hero as the hero lacks movement speed and health regeneration, both solved with the item’s passive effects.
15 Minutes: Aghanim’s Shard
Aghanim’s Shard is a very situational pick up on Visage, offering some invulnerability and sustain which is uncommon amongst position 5 supports. The team fight at 17:45 showcases how incredibly hard N0tail’s Visage is to kill. Even with a perfectly landed arrow from the enemy Mirana, they were unable to burst N0tail down, allowing him to waste a lot of the enemy’s resources. This resulted in a fairly one sided team fight for the Radiant team, leading to a quick Roshan.
20 Minutes: Drums of Endurance
Drums of Endurance is a strong pick up on Visage as it benefits his team’s auto attacking abilities. The Drums make N0tail even more tankier, making him an increasingly harder position 5 support to deal with. With the Drums active and the massive sustain and gold lead the Radiant team have on the Dire, they are able to close out the game with a decisive push at the 23 minute mark with little the enemy team can do to stop it.
3. Sccc’s Mid-lane Visage Build
Sccc plays the Visage at mid against a fairly annoying hero, Keeper of the Light. However, even with a couple of levels in Gravekeeper’s Cloak, we can see how it is near impossible for a high harass hero like Keeper of the Light to garner a kill on the mayhem gargoyle.
Sccc’s Skill Allocation:
Level 1 - Q - Grave Chill
Level 2 - E - Gravekeeper’s Cloak
Level 3 - Q - Grave Chill
Level 4 - E - Gravekeeper’s Cloak
Level 5 - Q - Grave Chill
Level 6 - R - Summon Familiars
Level 7- Q - Grave Chill
Level 8 - Q - Grave Chill
Level 9 - E - Gravekeeper’s Cloak
Level 10 - Left Talent
Level 11 - E - Gravekeeper’s Cloak
Level 12 - R - Summon Familiars
Level 13 - W - Soul Assumption
Level 14 - W - Soul Assumption
Level 15 - Right Talent
Level 16 - W - Soul Assumption
Level 18 - R - Summon Familiars
Sccc’s Item Build:
First Buy: Tangoes, Quelling Blade, Faerie Fire and Circlet
Sccc starts the lane off comparable to Sumail’s starting items. However, in this case, he opts for a Circlet instead of a Magic Stick as he wants to concentrate more on obtaining last hits than poking the Keeper of the Light.
1 Minutes: Magic Stick
Sccc recognises that Keeper of the Light relies heavily upon casting his illuminate and mana restoration ability, yielding him quick stick charges. As such he ferries himself a stick as soon as humanly possible.
3 Minutes: Null Talisman and Blight Stone
As a mid lane Visage, one of the best core starting items to obtain are Null Talisman for overall more stats, damage and mana regeneration, and the Blight Stone, to compliment the damage he will do with his Familiars.
7 Minutes: Tranquil Boots, Magic Wand and Wind Lace
Once again, Visage’s weakness is his movement speed and his lack of health sustaining items. Tranquil Boots solves both these gaps and makes it so he can roam a lot better being a lot faster. Sccc doubles up on the movement speed with a Windlace which he can later build into either Drums or a Solar Crest.
10 Minutes: Drums of Endurance
Drums of Endurance is currently a meta item with Visage as it increases the damage, movement speed and tankiness of the hero which also benefits his familiars. The Drums can also be later built into the rather new boots, Boots of Bearing which is currently a rather underrated item.
14 Minutes: Witch’s Bane
Witch’s Bane is an incredibly strong pick up on Visage, aiming for more damage on his main hero rather than relying on his Familiars. Sccc has gone for the item as the enemy has ample ways to deal with his Familiars in the form of AOE abilities. Witch’s bane is very powerful on Visage as the hero benefits from its intelligence bonus as well as providing some much needed extra damage for the hero in the early game.
17 Minutes: Boots of Bearing
Boots of Bearing is a natural upgrade to the Tranquil Boots with the Drums of Endurance, offering an even stronger active and marginally more powerful stats. This makes Sccc and his Familiars that much harder to kill.
24 Minutes: Black King Bar
The enemy Radiant team has an abundance of disables and debuffs which make it push the high ground. Sccc opts for a Black King Bar this game as he wishes to brute force his way through the enemy’s spells and into a quick victory. We can see the item take full effect with the team fight at 24:40. Here, he pops the active of the BKB and turns the fight around, chasing victim after victim as the enemy team have all but exhausted their spells.
31 Minutes: Assault Cuirass
The Assault Cuirass is one of the best items to pick up on Visage in the late game as it serves not only to buff his damage and his tankiness, but also that of his Familiars. The item shines at the team fight at 31:30, also helping out with the Broodmother’s physical damage, and with that, winning the game. Notice just how fast the push towers with the bonus armor reduction from the item.
2. EG.Nightfall’s Off-lane Visage Build
By far the most noticeable position Visage players are picking this patch is in the Offlane. The hero operates quite similarly to a Beastmaster or Lycan, overwhelming enemies with a surprising level of tankiness, damage and utility on a ranged hero. Witness EG.Nightfall plays with Visage in this game, showcasing the hero’s powerful impact from the offlane.
Nightfall’s Skill Allocation:
Level 1 - W - Soul Assumption
Level 2 - Q - Grave Chill
Level 3 - Q - Grave Chill
Level 4 - E - Gravekeeper’s Cloak
Level 5 - Q - Grave Chill
Level 6 - R - Summon Familiars
Level 7- Q - Grave Chill
Level 8 - Q - Grave Chill
Level 9 - E - Gravekeeper’s Cloak
Level 10 - Left Talent
Level 11 - E - Gravekeeper’s Cloak
Level 12 - R - Summon Familiars
Level 13 - W - Soul Assumption
Level 14 - W - Soul Assumption
Level 15 - Right Talent
Level 16 - W - Soul Assumption
Level 18 - R - Summon Familiars
Nightfall’s Item Build:
First Buy: Four Branches, Tango and a Blight Stone
By far the most different starting build from the other builds covered in this article, Nightfall opts for more stats and a value Blight Stone to assist his Primal Beast trade against the enemy safelners.
1 Minutes: 2 Mangoes
Nightfall immediately ferries himself two mangoes to keep up with some initial harass, and to assert his dominance in the lane. He cannot directly manfight the Lifestealer, so instead, assists the Primal Beast with his harass on the Ancient Apparition.
3 Minutes: Magic Wand
Nightfall trades in his two branches for a Wand to build up some early stick charges.
4 Minutes: Boots of Speed, Ring of Basilius
Nightfall builds a Basilius to complement Primal Beast and his own mana sustain issues.
6 Minutes: Buckler
The Buckler is tilted towards a more offlaners choice as it increases Visage and his Familiars armor values, making him and his summons slightly harder to kill.
9 Minutes: Vladmir’s Offering
Vladmir’s Offering is a nice pick up on Visage that does well to deal with his mana and health regeneration problems. The item also works well in increasing the damage of his summons as well as his team mates when they group up.
11 Minutes: Point Booster
A Point Booster increases Visage’s tankiness and builds up into the Wraith Pact.
12 Minutes: Wraith Pact
Wraith Pact is an underrated item, giving incredible damage reduction to both himself and his summons due to its active. The item synergises well with his skill set, giving an aura that enables more aggression and tanking ability.
22 Minutes: Assault Cuirass
The Assault Cuirass is one of the best items to pick up on Visage as it gives a strong level of armor and tanking potential to both Visage and his teammates. It makes Nightfall extremely hard to burst down, and offers his team some more aura effects.
31 Minutes: Aghanim’s Scepter
Nightfall opts for an Aghanim’s Scepter in this game to initiate upon the enemy backliners who are very susceptible to being bursted down. As the Ancient Apparition and Enigma are prime damage and crowd controllers of the enemy team, Nightfall prioritizes them in engagements, to which the Scepter can rightfully position himself to do so.
37 Minutes: Scythe of Vyse
Lacking reliable lockdown, Nightfall opts for a Scythe of Vyse to punish and disable the squishy supports of the Radiant Team. With the pick off on the Enigma and Ancient Apparition at 37:00, Radiant is unable to contest Roshan, and as such, with one swift fight, Nightfall and his team are able to seal the game.
1. Tundra33’s Off-lane Visage Build
We finish off this list with Tundra33’s offlane Visage and is this one a treat. In this game Tundra33 goes toe to toe with the Dire team in an extremely evenly matched game right up until the end.
Tundra33’s Skill Allocation:
Level 1 - W - Soul Assumption
Level 2 - E - Gravekeeper’s Cloak
Level 3 - W - Soul Assumption
Level 4 - Q - Grave Chill
Level 5 - E - Gravekeeper’s Cloak
Level 6 - R - Summon Familiars
Level 7- Q - Grave Chill
Level 8 - Q - Grave Chill
Level 9 - E - Gravekeeper’s Cloak
Level 10 - Left Talent
Level 11 - E - Gravekeeper’s Cloak
Level 12 - R - Summon Familiars
Level 13 - W - Soul Assumption
Level 14 - W - Soul Assumption
Level 15 - Right Talent
Level 16 - W - Soul Assumption
Level 18 - R - Summon Familiars
Tundra33’s Item Build:
First Buy: Three Branches and a Magic Wand
Once again, Tundra33 in this game is laning with a Primal Beast Support. Very similar to Nightfall’s starting build, Tundra33 instead opts for a quick Wand, preferring more early game stats as opposed to damage due to the enemy Sven’s higher kill potential.
1 Minutes: Healing Salve
Despite the relatively low harassment of the enemy safelane, the enemy does have some strong burst damage that can run Tundra33 down if he is not careful. As such, Tundra33 goes for a quick Salve in case he needs to get back to a healthy amount of HP to ensure that his presence in lane is optimized.
2 Minutes: 2 Mangoes
Exactly like Nightfall, Tundra33 immediately ferries himself two mangoes to keep up with some initial harass, and to assert his dominance in the lane. The extra consumption of the mangoes provides Tundra33 with more nuking potential and complements his relatively poor initial health regeneration.
3 Minutes: Ring of Basilius
Tundra33 builds a Basilius to complement Primal Beast and his own mana sustain issues and is the best starting item in the path towards a Wraith Pact.
7 Minutes: Boots of Speed and Blades of Attack
With the strong damage coming from the combo with the enemy Sven and Ancient Apparition, Tundra33 aims to increase his movement speed so that he can escape or keep up with targets in engagements. The skirmish at 8:00 shows us what a little bit of movement speed can do, eventually whittling down Sven who is a naturally quick hero.
10 Minutes: Vladmir’s Offering and Wind Lace
It seems that Vladmir’s Offering is the item of choice for Offlane professional players as it provides more sustain than the Mid-lane item choices, allowing Tundra33 to be always ready for a fight. Additionally, Tundra33 picks up a Wind Lace on top of the Vlad’s/
11 Minutes: Point Booster
A Point Booster increases Visage’s tankiness and builds up into the Wraith Pact.
12 Minutes: Wraith Pact
Tundra33 obtains his Wraith Pact at almost the same time as Nightfall. Learning these item timings is crucial to having a successful game. As before, Wraith Pact offers a very powerful damage reduction to Visage and his flock of Familiars, allowing for more aggressive and fearless plays.
16 Minutes: Tranquil Boots
This is where the difference in itemization between Tundra33 and Nightfall begins. Being behind, Tundra opts for Tranquil Boots in hopes he can later build it into some Boots of Bearing. Nightfall’s Assault Cuirass was more for pushing towers and pushing objectives. As Tundra33 realizes that his team is not at its power spike yet, Tundra33 goes for a more defensive item build that focuses on sustain, utility and kiting potential.
19 Minutes: Drums of Endurance
Tundra33 goes for more tankiness and kiting potential with the active and passive stats of Drums.
22 Minutes: Aghanim’s Shard
Tundra33 has decided to build a defensive Aghanim’s Shard in hopes that it will save him from potential burst damage from the enemy’s Sven.
26 Minutes: Aeon Disk
Lacking a front-liner, and being more squishy than other conventional offlaners, Tundra33 goes for an incredibly defensive item choice, the Aeon Disk to deflect the enemy’s attention and ensure that he is unable to get bursted through Sven’s ultimate. We can see how the combined defensive item choices of the Aghanim’s Shard and Aeon Disk pay off at 27:50 as he is initiated upon by a juiced up Sven. With the Aeon Disk, he is able to survive the first onslaught of the enemy Tiny and Sven, allowing him to go into Stone Form, stunning the enemy, and allowing time for his team to group up and counter initiate the enemy team.
31 Minutes: Boots of Bearing
Finalizing his build for the game, Tundra33 finishes his Boots of Bearing, giving more tower pushing and kiting potential for the rest of his team.
