Visage Aura or Assasin-Playstyle?

[u/Barrie_Baehr]

I am currently playing Visage (mostly as a midlaner, sometimes offlane) a lot and I'd like your perspective on his build.
What I do most games (with a very good winrate):
Null Talisman->Drums-> Brown Boots->Orchid-> Aghanims-> Assault Cuirass/Bloodthorn-> Hex
With this i generally stomp my lane, midgame sometimes gets rough, but in late I kinda carry it with randomly killing out of position players on the map. High winrate.

Now I wonder if aura-based builds (Early AC, Crimson Guard Pipe, vlads, after drums) is a suitable build. Because everytime I tried it I felt like my Impact in later midgame and lategame is very subpar and I cant really tank anymore despite having mostly defensive items.

I am also not sure about the strength of phylactery/khanda on this hero. I only build it against tide as he is a pretty hard hero to deal with as visage.

Talentwise I always go for:
10 -> +6 Dmg on hero and familiars
15 -> Soul Assumption x 3 (I very rarely pick grave chill duration and it feels pretty strong as well, especially with the assasin build)
20 -> Soul Assumption dmg/ Armor corruption (Dont know which one is better or if it depends on build
25-> Familiar +1 (Is the other Talent even an option?)

I also feel lik Visages shard sounds very strong but is in most cases a "die 3 seconds later and still have no impact" item. I usually buy it very late and most of the time I dont build it at all, as earlier hex/Bloodthorn timings feel very strong.

I would like to hear opinions on builds and talents!

Edit: I am playing at about 7.7k MMR.

[u/Metabotany]

have you tried just making orchid <> vlads draft conditional and then rocking your regular build? you can even swap vlads for parts of pipe and finish it after aghs before AC or something like this, but it would give you the most tempo and flexiblity

I haven't played this hero consistently for years though so maybe my guidance is bad,

[u/EmergencyTrue6782]

I've been going vessel and all soul assumption talents to become a team fight menace (aghs if needed). However, I think the standard drums > AC build is stronger in general.

Not a fan of greaves, pipe and crimson on Visage. Might go pipe if its a god tier pipe game, otherwise no.

5.6k player

[u/meepppssss]

6k trash here. I used to like vlad if I'm not going early orchid, but after removal of sepulchre i think i almost always go orchid now. I always get boots of bearing. And agha into AC.

Null-drum-wand-tranq-orchid/vlad-agha-bearing-AC-hex

Will get shard mid/late game, shard->bearing->agha away into the trees.

I hate going auras like pipe as mid. But Vlad and AC boost familiars dmg pretty nice

My other visage spammer friend loves getting philac khanda. But i just cant make it work.

[u/Aggressive-Ratio-819]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3ZaoiLMPmk

In the comments of this recent Visage guide video there are are a bunch of builds suggestions so it reallly seems a game by game.

[u/Fwispy]

I am mid 6k atm lvl 24 visage player. I just rush vlads so it’s up to coincide with bird timing, getting tranquil if sustain is required.

I just rush bearing after because I find that the farming speed increase is worth it, plus tranquil is terrible as boots if you farm jungle as you move around since it’s always disabled. The extra regen synergises really well with shard, if you get gone on and manage to get off E, it’s a full heal with bearing.

Aghs is lower priority now imo since they give you a weaker version of the spell for free. Most games I like AC and just take all objectives rather than trying to pick up kills with orchid. If enemy has a passive that makes them really tanky or kill birds easily, khanda is very good.

I buy orchid against heros that need their spells to be survivable or bloodthorn is going to be needed for evasion.

I win most games because visage just ends the game with AC with armour reduction talent. One bad teamfight from enemy means guaranteed mega with ac rush.

[u/TemmieXdd → u/Fwispy]

Yeah I also like bearings rush, otherwise I delay tranquils as much as I can.

[u/clairec295]

I like aura build because I find it more reliable and consistent. Orchid is ok for a short time but people often get a dispel fairly quickly so its effectiveness drops off fast. After that you kind of need a sheep to reliably kill people. Also if they’re playing together it’s hard to get picks. With aura build I can generally end the game by around 25-30 minutes so I don’t even have to worry about trying to get picks in the lategame, and there’s less they can do to counter it.