There are negative, mathematically game-losing Factors and there are “bad” warrior Facets. The ones that receive scorn, while theoretically being reasonable in some scenarios. We’re going to examine how and when they might be the better choice today as we examine the facets of love that we believe are underrepresented.
Instead of pulling foes in front of him, change magnetism forces enemies to retreat all around Magnus.
Defending this component is minor. Base statistics alone are already quite a advantage, with a 20-second lower time and a ~60 % larger Phase on a BKB-piercing 3-second delete. Is it anti-synergetic to the rest of the Magnus ‘ equipment? Yes, if you are playing a right-clicking, damage-dealing Magnus. If you are all about power, there are a lot of things to consider.
First of all, the Skewer-back duo is more or less the same, if a second goal is concerned. A Blink-Skewer does n’t really lose potential in a coordinated game because most of the time Magnus is fishing for one pick-off. For when you need an additional setup, Blink into Horn Toss into Skewer is also left untouched.
Second, simply by definition, RRP is better at protecting your ranged friends. Only winking on top of them after they are put on will provide your carry a lot of breathing space. You can even follow up with a fork to get a difficult goal as far ahead as you can, focusing on smaller risks second.
Additionally, items and skills that can be saved are another issue. Lifestealer wants to invade a partner? Very bad, the partner is now ~1700 variety away. Io wants to move someone out of a dangerous situation or experience a Mekansm double-heal? Well, the Tether is now broken and they ca n’t. Abaddon simply used their Aghanim’s best? Let them spend it in a quiet nook, while you shoot their colleagues, who are now 900+ variety away from the hero.
This also applies to all the Glimmer Capes, Force Workers, and Wind Wakers, which can no longer be used by the helps unless they have a Blink Dagger or use multiple resources of put collection increases.
The end result, in our mind, is an definitely market, but powerful tool against lineups that have multiple keeping abilities and strong AoE healing. When your team is lacking in AoE damage and prefers to kill enemy heroes one-by-one in isolation, it is also pretty great for protecting glass cannon-type heroes on your team.
An effect that dramatically slows down enemies and speeds up allies in a given area replaces Chronosphere.
What might be one of the game’s strongest crowd-control abilities is much harder to contest. Time Zone does have a 30-second lower cooldown and a bigger AoE, but it is no Chronosphere. Having said that, we believe that in many matches, it might not matter as much.
The enemy gets to press BKB and other save items to ignore the effect, which is the main one. Wind Waker, which is the most dangerous, allows a target to travel from the center of the Time Zone to the edge of it without being vulnerable.
Similar to how Satanic works, it allows the enemy to carry to lifesteal and potentially survive through the ability, where otherwise they would die. This is when it comes to late-game scenarios. Early on, though, there are definitely some selling points going the way of Time Zone, which stats-wise is only ~0.8 % behind the Chronosphere in terms of Win Rate.
First of all, Void gets extra + 70/110/150 extra Attack Speed in the Time Zone. Even level one AS increase is not trivial, and the level two Time Zone AS increase is equivalent to a Mask of Madness. To understand it better, have a read through one of our previous posts, which explains the relationship between Damage, AS and DPS.
In essence, the early game solo-kill potential from a well-placed Time Zone can be higher than that from a Chronosphere, as Faceless Void can receive enough additional total damage to finish off a target with the extra duration and the extra AS. It is at its best when dealing with heroes who rely on mobility, rather than crowd control, for safety. So heroes like Queen of Pain, Ember Spirit, Void Spirit etc. can be really punished right away. Additionally, it’s unlikely that they will release a Wind Waker as their first item, let alone an Eul’s Scepter of Divinity.
Without the potential contributions of teammates who can freely enter the Time Zone and have higher stats, most notably Cast Speed, are present. Shadow Fiend’s Requiem or even Sand King’s Epicentre become almost instant inside the Time Zone, making it a great setup for otherwise hard-to-land-in-the-fight abilities. With the level 20 talent Faceless Void, one should n’t underestimate the AS differential inside the Time Zone, which increases + 230 AS while lowering the enemy AS by the same value.
The enemy team cannot fight in the Time Zone, just as it cannot do it in the Chronosphere. While there is definitely a lot more counter-play potential, as Time Zone is n’t a full disable, the extra duration and the AS/Cast Speed differential it creates can be significantly stronger teamfight-wise, especially if Void is n’t playing in a 4+1 lineup.
For DPS and farm speed maximization, it might be better to choose a Damage farming item in Battle Fury rather than the standard Maelstrom and Mask of Madness. Over the course of the Time Zone, the conventional construction causes 15 % more damage, but it also costs 25 % more. Moreover, it is possible to disassemble Mask of Madness to get one of the Battle Fury components, which allows for a pretty neat item progression.
Alternatively, since Wind Waker is a huge problem, there is an argument to be made about Radiance for farming early on. It has a good acceleration item and a good teamfight item for the early stages of the game, and can later be disassembled into components for Nullifier and Butterfly. Although it is very unconventional and we never tried it ourselves, it does make some sense in theory. If you are brave enough to try it out in practice, please leave us a comment about how it turned out.
