Do you want to know how to play Razor to win more games in Dota 2?
One of the most prominent anti-carries in Dota 2, Razor, the Lightning Revenant, is an exceptionally versatile hero. With the ability to work as a Midlaner, Offlaner, or even a support, Razor can do it all. Furthermore, his fierce scaling in the lane and the early game make learning how to play Razor in Dota extremely valuable.
Adding to his strengths, Razor has elevated initial stats, making him tankier in the lane. These include his agility, which rivals those of carries, allowing him to last hit efficiently. Besides this, his attack speed and AoE nuke allow him to farm creeps over a large area.
Another piece of his arsenal that empowers him so much is his high movement speed. Using this movement speed, Razor runs circles around enemies and is able to position himself and his abilities appropriately. In addition to this, an integral reason to learn How to Play Razor in Dota is his vast snowballing potential.
Lastly, it is quite important to discuss that Razor works well against heroes with minimal lockdown and excess damage. Heroes like these include Troll Warlord, Ursa, and Phantom Assassin who have no way to dispel Static Link. As for who he is compatible with, heroes with lockdown to keep hostiles in place are great for Razor.
Razor’s Abilities
Plasma Field is a magic-damage nuke ability that sends out a circular wave of lightning, damaging units in its way. As the wave travels outward from Razor’s center, the plasma grows stronger and deals a max of 180 magical damage. Apart from this, the ability acts as a mini-disable because it slows all targets it hits for 1.5 seconds.
Razor’s gift to demolish right-clicking carries is his second ability called Static Link. With this ability, he can steal an incredibly large amount of the enemy’s attack damage. Consequently, without their physical prowess, most agility-based carries become utterly useless and do not offer much more than lane creeps.
Razor’s passive ability is Storm Surge and is as simple as ability can get. With its only benefit being an additional movement speed of 24%, it boosts his mobility incredibly. Though the ability is simple, this speed increase allows Razor to outmaneuver hostiles and bamboozle them. Moreover, it also allows appropriate execution of abilities.
Bringing down a storm of thunder, Razor uses Eye of the Storm to destroy towers and enemies alike. Every bolt that strikes an enemy damages them and lowers their armor by one. A minimal cooldown of just sixty seconds makes this ability a great utility to farm and push lane creeps effortlessly.
How to Utilize his Abilities
Along with slowing heroes, many underestimate another great aspect of Plasma Field. This often overshadowed angle is its wide radius and the vision it gives over that radius. Consequently, it is an essential tool to scout high ground or fog of war like the Roshan and T3 towers. Using it in combination with Static Link allows one to complete the link fully.
In lane, usually as an offlaner, Static Link becomes integral to bully enemy carries out of the lane. Moreover, just his presence and the possibility of linking someone and bringing them down is enough to scare cores into the jungle. Static Link does break when the target exceeds a distance of 800 units, thus, combining slows and stuns are a priority. Therefore, positioning becomes even more important when you play Razor in Dota 2.
Due to Static Link’s animation, using it too late gives enemies the chance to swiftly break it. Because of this, the player should use it in close range to maximize efficiency and the amount of damage stolen. In the lane, every time a player steps up to hit creeps, Static Link is something one should abuse to harass enemies.
With Storm Surge, there is not much one can do, which means perfecting mechanics is the best way to progress. As the article states above, Razor excels in lane due to his high movement speed and comfortably land spells. However, many choose to put one point into the spell as it provides much lesser utility than his other moves.
With each hit, the bolt lowers enemy armor and favors low-health units over heroes. As a result, it is extremely beneficial to clear the creep wave with Plasma Field first to avoid mishaps. In addition to this, Eye of the Storm prioritizes units affected by Static Link, so one needs appropriate timing. It has a long duration, often spanning the whole team fight.
Item Build
In lane, Razor is already quite strong due to his base stats, and amplifying them further is optimal. To achieve this, multiple Wraith Bands are important to pursue, all while gathering enough heals. Healing can be in the form of Tangoes, Healing Salves, Clarities, and Enchanted Mangoes for mana regeneration.
Once one completes these items and the lane reaches a stable position, Razor starts to become extremely potent. With levels in his abilities, Razor becomes unmatched in laning prowess, and more items become prominent. One example is the Falcon Blade which provides additional stats, attack damage and supplements his attack speed.
Per the current meta, there are multiple thoughts on what items best suit the Razor Offlane playstyle. However, after witnessing the winrate, it’s best to build towards a skillset and playstyle centering around Eye of the Storm. For this build, the first item to chase is often Black King Bar which makes dominating the early game easy.
Following up next is pursuing the Aghanim’s Sceptre. Using this item, Eye of the Storm becomes much more overpowered as it becomes able to target towers. Apart from this, it also hits two targets at once, making it extremely potent at crowd clear and farming. This is then usually followed up by Refresher Orb to double its effect.
The next items are usually game-dependent and differ from game to game, and can vary quite a bit. Although many items can now suit him, Assault Cuirass and Eye of Skadi are fan favorites. This is because these items provide both offensive and defensive advantages like either slowing enemies or decreasing armor. Understanding these itemizations makes it easier to play Razor in Dota 2.
Laning Stage and Gameplay
In the lane, there are arguably very few Offlaners who can threaten cores as much Razor. This is because moving up to Static Link enemies as soon as they try to hit creeps is extremely overwhelming. Moreover, one should never shy away from diving through enemy creeps just to output additional damage onto enemy cores.
As the laning stage ends, and Razor has a point in his ultimate, he can start pushing. Using Eye of the Storm to quickly finish the creep wave and immediately hit the tower is desirable. Besides this, one should time there pushing with the arrival of the siege creep every five minutes.
Moving onto the game, Razor feeds on momentum to become absolutely unstoppable. To enable him to do this, the most essential step is to push the T1 towers as fast as possible. Performing this task successfully allows Razor to pressure their jungles as well as control the map constantly
Razor, the Lightning Revenant is one of the most popular Ofllaners in this patch and deserved to be. His extremely overpowered Static Link renders enemy cores useless, and his even better ultimate ability is among these reasons. These reasons have made it essential to learn How to Play Razor in Dota 2.
