LogFAQs > #966817009

Guess what! We're all about the void now. There is no leaving. Suffer as I do.

68 - Enigma (ranged Intelligence)
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/1/3/AAAACbAADfap.jpg
Basic Abilities: Malefice, Demonic Conversion, Midnight Pulse, Black Hole
Shard Upgrade: Improves Black Hole to have a non-interrupting Pull towards the damaging/disabling area of effect while it's being channeled (in the same counterclockwise spiral as affected units in the AoE, though not quite as severe an angle.)
Scepter Upgrade: Improves Black Hole by making it deal 5% of entrapped units max health per second on top of its normal damage.
7.31 and onward changes: Midnight Pulse adjusted from max health damage to current health damage. Eidolons buffed with a slightly shorter attack point (less attack windup) and more attack range, plus a better turn rate. Eidolon magic resistance improved by 10% (to 60%) and gold/xp bounty lowered slightly. Cooldown on Demonic Conversion increased by 10/7/4/1 seconds.

Name a more iconic duo, Enigma existing and Rubick/Silencer counterpicks.

Enigma is an oddball - he basically builds for initiator items, yet is squishier than the squishiest of supports. His stats and even his spell damage are utter garbage to start (and his agility will never, ever get better) yet he deals frightening physical damage to heroes, creep waves, jungle camps, and buildings with a slight amount of micromanagement, dealing exponential magic damage and CC besides with his other abilities.

Malefice is your bog standard medium range point-click ministun/damage, and essentially the only reason why people even think of him as "support." As it levels, the damage and stun intervals increase slightly.

Skipping his W for a moment, Midnight Pulse is a huge ground-AoE puddle that deals percentage damage to any units caught inside. It also obliterates trees in the wide AoE swath on cast, so mind that if there are any Monkey Kings, Hoodwinks, or Treant Protectors in your game.

And now for the definitive two abilities of Enigma, and the only reason to really ever pick him; first up, Demonic Conversion. Where Lich used to be used to spam his creep denial ability on cooldown, Enigma "supports" much the same - getting a free deny on a full health unit (or free creep kill, if he's feeling gutsy in a lane) and splitting it into three tiny summons called Eidolons. These Eidolons have roughly the same attack range as Enigma himself, and if they successfully attack an enemy unit, building, ward, or neutral camp a total of seven times, they will immediately split into two full health Eidolons (with an extra two seconds duration so they don't immediately sputter out near the end of their life cycle.) Demonic Conversion can also be cast on an Eidolon to... do the same thing, really. Kill their own unit, gain three fresh duration ones out of it. Each of these Eidolons are fully controllable (though squishy) so it's not uncommon to have Enigma hang around in a lane until level 3 and then fuck off for fifteen minutes.

Once he hits level 6, his enemies now get to worry about one of the most iconic abilities in the game. Black Hole - a channeled ability with an awful cast range and cooldown, which channels for four seconds, dealing four pulses of damage over the full duration and fully disabling anybody stuck in the event horizon as they spiral inwards to the center of the ability. Allies also can't be Force Staffed/Hurricane Piked out of it, nor saved by a Geomagnetic Grip or Snowball (Tusk used to also be an Enigma counter, because why the hell not?) Black Hole is honestly one of the most iconic things about Dota - be it Tobiwan's screeching about it to the point of forced memery, or that dude who dressed in a blue bodysuit just to do the cast animation in synch to the game during one of the Internationals.

It's a shame that Enigma is necessarily in the dumpster as a result of it. He folds to any harass, which kind of makes him necessary to jungle, but his jungle has been nerfed to hell over the past three years between being unable to convert higher-levelled creeps and the recent jungle patch being minion-slapping in general (mostly to stop Lycan, but Enigma was unfortunate collateral damage.) His stats, again, are in the toilet - not merely his base str/agi/int, but also his health/mana regeneration, manacosts, and cooldowns , which are oppressive at best. Black Hole has, if I'm not mistaken, THE longest cooldown of any ability in the game, with a three minute cooldown at its best (cooldown reduction notwithstanding, which isn't nearly as easy to come by in Dota as it is in OtherGame.) Let's also not forget that Midnight Pulse's change from max to current percent health vastly diminished his killing power: Enigma is useless in pubs now beyond "fuck around" tier, which sucks because for a simple kit he's quite fun. He'd probably be sub-100 if 7.31 happened earlier, mind you; as it stands now, though, he's best left to watch in competitive than to try and play on your own.

Next hero hint: Pattern recognition with a side of clip-show fodder.