Io Guardian Wisp Guide, Strategy & Build

Io The Guardian Wisp Guide, Strategy & Build. Io is a Strength hero which belong to the Sentinel since Dota 6.68. This post will provide you with the Guardian Wisp Skill Description, the Guardian Wisp Guide, the Io Strategy, the Io Item Build and the Io The Guardian Wisp Skill Build. If you are playing Dota 2, check also Dota 2 Wisp.



Originally nothing more than a lowly spirit of the trees, Io dwelt peacefully amongst his kind in the Great Forest. As the Great War spread across the land the creatures of the forest were forced to defend their home. The desire to protect his kin awoke power in Io he had not known he possessed. He discovered he was able to connect his life force to another creature to strengthen them or help them flee by instantly transporting them out of harm. Io became known amongst his people as the Guardian Wisp, a protector of the Spirits. All other spirits swore to assist him and can be summoned to his side to aid him in his battle. Uninterested in the battle between the Sentinel and the Scourge, Io fights only to protect his people.

Guardian Wisp Skill Descriptions



Hero Class: Guardian Wisp
Hero Name: Io

Alliance: Sentinel

Strength: 17 + 1.9 (Primary)
Agility: 14 + 1.6
Intelligence: 23 + 1.7

Base Damage: 33-42
Starting Armor: 0
Movement Speed: 295
Attack Range: 525


Tether



Io tethers himself to an allied unit, granting both units bonus movement speed. Any enemy units that contact the tether will be stunned. The tether will break if it stretches beyond 900 units. Lasts 12 seconds.

Movement Bonus: 20/25/30/35%
Stun Duration: 1.25/1.5/1.75/2.0

Cooldown: 12
Manacost: 40

If you try to tether a unit that is a outside its range (by up to 900) Io will latch on and pull himself closer to the unit.

Tether transfers other states on the hero to the allied unit. This includes Overcharge, Relocate and any time you regenerate hp/mp.

Note: Has a sub ability that lets you break the tether.

This skill is what makes Io such a scary supporter. Combine him with Ursa and say goodbye to your target. However, this skill won't do much if you don't wanna be a support hero.

Spirits



Io summons 5 ancient Spirits over the course of 6 seconds; the Spirits dance around Io in a circle to protect him. If an enemy hero moves close enough to touch a Spirit, the Spirit releases its life energy in a burst, damaging and slowing all enemies in a 300 area of effect. Non hero units only take minor damage upon touching a spirit and do not cause them to explode.

Spirits duration: 6 seconds
Min damage per spirit: 8/14/20/26
Max damage per Spirit: 25/50/75/100 (explode damage)

Min/max spread range: 100/875
Slow: 30% (only works on heroes)
Area of Effect: 300
Slow duration: 3 seconds

Cooldown: 20/18/16/14
Manacost: 120/130/140/150

Note: You have two sub abilities. One to move them outwards and one to call them back in. You can stop them at any distance by toggling the ability order.
Its primary use is for slowing and scouting. It can spread up to 875 range and each spirit has a sight range 300 Aoe. So you can scout around 1175 range Aoe from wherever you are.


Overcharge



Io draws on more energy than he can safely handle, granting him bonus attack speed, but draining 2.5% of his current HP and MP per second. If Io is tethered to an ally the bonus attack speed is also granted to that ally.

This is a toggle ability.

Attack Speed: 60/80/100/120

Note: This bonus affects a tethered unit as well.

Another support skill which should be combined with Tether for maximum benefits.

Relocate



Io temporary relocates himself, along with any tethered hero, to the target location for 12 seconds.

There is a casting delay and the enemy has visual indicators on the minimap and the world of the teleport before it happens.

Cast Delay: 2.5/2.25/2.0
Cooldown: 90/75/60
Manacost: 100

Note: If an allied hero is Tethered, that hero will teleported along with you. You can break the tether at any time to prevent that hero from returning back with you. -disablehelp is available for this ability.

An instant gank skill. Tether Ursa or Sven, kill your enemy quickly and you going back to your place before. Need some coordination with your partner to maximize the gank. Also useful during line phase to refill Bottle and buy something in your base with ease.


Io The Guardian Wisp Skill Build

Level 1: Tether
Level 2: Spirits
Level 3: Spirits/ Tether
Level 4: Tether/ Overcharge
Level 5: Spirits/ Tether
Level 6: Relocate
Level 7: Spirits
Level 8: Tether
Level 9: Tether
Level 10: Overcharge/ Tether
Level 11: Relocate
Level 12: Overcharge
Level 13: Overcharge
Level 14: Overcharge
Level 15: Stats
Level 16: Relocate
Level 17-21: Stats
Level 22-25: Stats

Here is my initial skill build for Io The Guardian Wisp. Tether is taken first as it will help you initiate or escape from first blood attempt. Spirits without a doubt is maximized first. It's your only nuke and give quite much damage if you manage to hit the enemy with all your spirit. The only exception is if you got Ursa/Slark on your line. You might want maximize Tether first. You can pick overcharge early to help your partner with +IAS for early kill.

Take Relocate whenever you can. This skill is like a global ganking tool. For maximum performance, get a ward on the enemies jungle and grab a friend to gank them. Don't forget that you can also recharge on the fountain with this skill.

Overcharge is maximize on the late game as on that time, attack speed hold important factor.


Io The Guardian Wisp Item Build

1. Gauntlets of Strength, Magic stick, some of Tangos or Healing salves
2. Get Sobi Mask and finish Magic Wand
3. Boots of Speed
4. Finish Urn of Shadows
5. Finish Power Treads
6. Get Mekanism after you get all core items

Io's core item should be like this:


Magic Wand - Very useful when the enemy has spell spammers. Don't need time to get healed and has some stats too. Combine with Tether to give your ally free healing.

Urn of Shadows - Pick this first if the other team doesn't have good spell users. Urn will give you strength for survivability and charges for healing ally or damaging enemy. You can using this with tether to heal your tethered ally.

Power Treads - Movement speed and 10+ strength stats which you badly need for gain more survivability or 10+ intel for mana stock.

Mekanism - Good support item for support hero like Io. Especially when you using Tether, your ally get not only 250hp healed but also additional 250hp. Total will be 500hp. It's really awesome. The other positive buffs will be useful when the teams clashes.

Bracer - An optional. Gives you good stats for early game. HP, armor, mana, and damage. Get this if you feel difficult dominating your lane.

Arcane Boots - Buy this for helping your nuker friends or spammers. A situational item.

Vanguard - Situational item for Io. You will need to survive when you or your partner get ganked by other team or gank the opposite team. It means you have the responsibility to save or help your partner's ass when the gank happens. Dont get this item if you still able to gank the enemies well.

Luxury late game items:


Heart of Tarrasque - Good item for survivability during battle because it gives huge amount of HP and HP regen. When it active you can share your 2% hp regen to your tethered ally.

Guinsoo's Scythe of Vyse - You are a support hero and need a good ability to disable enemies. Use hex and your target will do nothing in 3.5 sec. It's +35 intel stats dont do much for Io but it will help you using your Overcharge freely anytime you want. But still the other additional stats will be useful for survivability.

Kelen's Dagger of Escape - It can be used for escaping, ganking or chasing enemies. When you are tethering your ally, you can jump close to your target for stunning him.

Black King Bar - A survivability item and an anti-nuke ability will almost help you around. Especially when the opposite team has disabler or nuker units.

Eye of Skadi - Very expensive but will be very useful when you manage to buy this item. It can slow your enemy and add your survivability to survive in late game. Get this item if you have a lot of money to spent.

Io The Guardian Wisp Strategy

You can pick this hero when your team has a lot of gankers and needs supporter.

You need to support:
- Carries : You can speed up them, both their movement speed and attack speed. Tether them and use your Overcharge. They will be more deadly with you on their side. Such as mortred, traxex, na'ix or hero with stun and critical hit such as bara, skeleton king.
- Blinkers : Good positioning while Tethered is their ability. So your Tether's stun will absolutely land on your target. Gank with them will be easy if you do it right. Darkterror, magina, and rikimaru for example.
- Battle Initiator : Usually have mass disable skill. Relocate them in the middle of battle can change the tide or just give them a free kelen's dagger for initiate or gank. Such as Raigor, Bradwarden, and Magnus.

Beware of his counter:
- Nukers : They can blow you up in one combo. Especially in early game when you has little HP pool. Play safe and stay away from them. When their mana drained and you can try to kill them. Such as Lina, or Lion.
- Silencers and mana burners: Without your skill you cant do anything. Just stick to your partner to prevent enemies to get easy gold from killing you.

Playstyle

You need partner when it comes to laning. Usually players have the middle lane for solo hero. So you will choose up or bottom depend on your partner's hero. It will be good if you can support a carry hero which have a disable skill or slow skill. Always give priority to your partner so he can get his core item as fast as possible. Support him when he want to kill. But not forget to try harass and dominate your lane. Remember to get your target, as much as possible, killed by your partner. They need to lvl up and get more gold than you do.
Roam in early game will get you overleveled by your opponents. But your carry partners can get the advantage if you roam with him. Get tether and overcharge first if you want to do that.
Tri-laning using Io is possible. Prefer to lane with stuner or slower hero. When your partner initiate by stun or slow, tether your carry and overcharge for more easy kill the target.

Mid game will let the teams always ready to gank or be ganked. Relocate is very useful when it comes to this. But always bring your partner when you do that. Do as fast as possible to kill your target before you come back to your previous place. Give all the kill to your partner. Between ganking, you can help him farms faster. You should get your core items on this phase. Scouting is important in this phase of the game. Use your Spirits effectively to prevent being ganked.

The last phase of the game. Get your core items and at least 1 luxury item in your pocket. Support your team in when the battle occurs. Tether and overcharge a hard carry hero for letting him be more deadly with your additional AS and MS. Use tether and heal combination to give your partner more survivability while he continue to rapes enemy units. Its very possible your enemies target you first, but all you can do is support as much as you can before get killed.

Based on: Playdota Guide

This post contain Io Guide & Build - The Guardian Wisp Strategy. If you have different build or strategy, you can give your comments or make your own guide on Guardian Wisp forums.