LogFAQs > #966790189

69 - Void Spirit (melee Intelligence) (aka Inai) (nice)
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/5/1/AAAACbAADfKD.jpg Basic Abilities: Aether Remnant, Dissimilate, Resonant Pulse, Astral Step
Shard Upgrade: Improves Dissimilate's damage by 135 and provides an extra 6 portals to teleport to, on each far side of the hexagon.
Scepter Upgrade: Improves Resonant Pulse to a charge-cooldown system with two max charges, and casts of it will silence enemies damaged by it.
7.31 changes: Astral Step distance improved at levels 1/2. Shard bonus damage lowered by 40.

Ah, yet another one of the Spirits. Void Spirit is somewhat of an oddity from the bunch, since he's less reliant on spam (despite the usual mobility and multiple charges on his mobility spell) and more reliant on his raw delayed damage output and CC. Talented, at level 25, he has access to an impressive array of debuffs, with slows, silences, taunts, stuns - to say nothing of the bread and butter item pick of his of a Scepter of Divinity giving targeted cyclones, too. He's also got some utility, with Aether Remnant having true sight as a talent option, and he's got some nutty burst damage capabilities even if behind with some good aim.

Aether Remnant is a vector-targeted ability that is sort of like Arc Warden's Spark Wraith. Inai vector targets the remnant, to send it to the initial cast point, where it will stare in the direction it was targeted, damaging and hypnotizing the first enemy to break the beam. to walk towards it. At level 15, it can gain access to a talent that provides True Sight around the remnant, which lets it function as a scouting tool, dewarder, and a brief early gank detector.

Dissimilate, after the cast point goes off, ducks Inai into a portal under his feet, while six other circular portals surround him in a hexagon shape (or 12 in a snowflake shape, if a Shard is purchased.) While in this portal, Inai can right click any of the other portals to "move" there when the ability ends, where he'll pop out of the center and deal damage (and later stun) anything in the vicinity. He can also click multiple portals to fake out the enemy, because the portal he is going to appear from is lit up.

Resonant Pulse looks like an instant Shield+Damage ability, but is almost like a shorter-ranged Razor Plasma Field that activates quicker. A ring pulses outwards that damages enemies, then the ring retracts and buffs Inai with a physical damage shield - one that gets slightly stronger the more enemy heroes hit by the outgoing pulse. It should be noted that the mechanics of this are NOT instant - it's possible to dodge by blinking over the expanding shield, but the timing is extremely strict.

Void Spirit's ultimate is the charge-based Astral Step. Cast it at a generous area in the cast range, and Void instantly teleports to it, instant-attacking everything along the way, debuffing them with a slow, which detonates for extra damage when the slow is removed a moment later. You've seen this omae wa mou shindeiru shit before.

Void's in a pretty good spot, honestly. He's never been, as far as I'm aware, QUITE as bullshitty as the other three spirits in each of their heydays, and he has some clear strengths (heavy damage, easy core items, solid stat growths, remarkably bulky for an int hero, especially thanks to being one of the two melees) offset by some pretty clear weaknesses too (most damage is choreographed, and therefore dodgeable with quick thinking; he suffers against magic-heavy teams; he can't really scale as well off of attack speed as much as damage.) Also, and he's got the egregious sin of his utility being tied to talents more so than base kit - Support Void Spirit is something that only happens by accident rather than intentionally, because Remnant, his main CC at long distance, requires a long setup time and is easy to whiff. I rarely see him outside the mid lane, and that lack of flexibility hurts him in my POV.

Non-gameplay aside - I will note that I find it kinda strange that I think of him as a "new" hero due to my boomer viewpoint of "everything before Earth Spirit is old" and he's been out for a few years already, huh? And yet I've played Dawnbreaker, PB, Marci, Hoodwink and Snapfire a whole lot more than him. Ah well.

Next hero hint: We're gonna have a bit of a trend with this and the next few, and the next is defined almost exclusively by their ultimate.