Introduction Top
Idris is a relatively fragile hero. Thankfully, his weapon path allows him to neutralize targets quickly with menacing speed, while building some defensive items and health to ensure he stays alive. This build guide will run you through the gameplay, situations, and items you should pick up, along with tips and tricks that will help you slash your way to victory with that laser-tipped spear.
Laning as Idris Top
As a laner, Idris is just like Blackfeather. In fact, their kits are very similar: their A abilities both provide a good gap-closer, their B abilities are both long-range pokes, and their ultimates can be used defensively or offensively. However, Idris' Chakram makes two hits, and his A gives him the barrier. Understanding any hero's kit is the key to mastery, as is with Idris; if you've played a lot of Blackfeather, you should be able to perform very well as Idris.
The similarities between these two heroes make their builds quite similar, as could be seen above. Like Blackfeather, you start off with a Book of Eulogies. The other item slot can be either a Weapon Blade or Swift Shooter, which is entirely up to you. However, keep in mind that having a Swift Shooter early on would make it easier to build into that Poison Shiv later. As with any other laner, you'll want to keep in mind your position on the lane (up or down), and try to freeze the lane to your side whenever possible. You'll want to be able to trade with your ranged counterparts, so the Chakram upgrade is essential at level 1.
As you progress through your levels, sometimes you may want to upgrade the Chakram first. If you do consider doing this also consider the circumstances, particularly:
- Do you need the extra damage on the poke?
- Are you behind on farm, team gold, or objectives? If so, how would the Chakram upgrade help?
- Are there multiple high-level threats on the enemy team? Can you dive them easily?
- What does your team need more, a front-line fighter, or a skillshot-poker?
Answering these questions, among others, will help you decide whether or not to consider an early Chakram upgrade. However, you should never have to overdrive Chakram. If you do, consider giving up the last rank of Shimmerstrike for the Shroudstep overdrive.
Laning against other heroes can be difficult for the most part, but the key thing to remember is to freeze the lane on your side of the lane under stressful circumstances. Let your turret do some damage if the minions get too close, and then get the last hit. Optimally, you should keep the lane freezed just ouside your turret range. Try to hit the enemy hero at maximum Chakram range so that it deals the damage twice instantly. If you find yourself low on health, try to farm under turret and get some health back with the Book of Eulogies. By the time the jungle shop pops up, it'll be time for your first shop.
First Shop and Mid Game Top
At around 4 minutes' time you should be ready for your first shop. Depending on the amount of gold you have, you'll be able to do some, if not all, of the following:
-Get your Sprint Boots
-Get Heavy Steel
-Get Six Sins
-Upgrade Swift Shooter into a Blazing Salvo
-Upgrade Book of Eulogies into a Barbed Needle
The Sprint Boots is a must. In the early game Idris has yet to activate his perk, which means that his Shroudstep will have to be used wisely, and that it'll be available less often than when you've got your Sorrowblade. Therefore having a backup plan to escape is necessary. Prioritize getting the new component items for the Sorrowblade, and then think about upgrading your starting items. Personally, when choosing upgrade items I would choose a Balzing Salvo for more damage output. If you encounter a SAW or Petal (or any other huge threat) in lane, I suggest picking up that Barbed Needle for sustain.
After your first shop you should be able to start dealing some considerable amounts of damage. Keep your eye out for those threats! The reason Idris is hard to play is because he is a carry with the role of an assassin. While being able to deal damage in large amounts, Idris is also squishy and has only tools for juking it out; unlike Blackfeather, who has a reliable disengage. He also lacks the ability to build tank-ish-ly while dealing significant damage; that's Blackfeather's thing. All in all, it is important to keep an eye out for the heavy-hitters. At around 6 minutes, you may want to prioritize a Reflex Block if there are any hard crowd controls. Since Idris is a damage dealer, you wouldn't really need to build too much defense. Build against the larger threats, or the ones that you find a hard time dealing with. At the 10-minute-mark you should already be done with your Sorrowblade and Poison Shiv, and working towards defense and boot upgrades. At this point you have your passive, granting you more mobility and allowing you to deal damage more freely, allowing you to set up aggressive plays and secure kills.
Late game Top
By around 15 minutes you should be around full build. At this point, you should have built either an Aegis or Metal Jacket. It is important to know that in the build graphics above, weapon defense and crystal defense show up together as placeholders, meaning that you should build only one if you need to. The defense item of your choice should correspond to the largest threat you face. This allows you to build that Breaking Point for insane amounts of damage. Do what you've been doing: dive the back-line, eliminate the enemy carry, and proceed to help your team win the fight. Get weapon infusions to augment your damage.
Tips and Tricks Top
Keeping these tips in mind will help you in your mastery to Idris:
-Positioning is key: even though you're a melee assassin capable of inflicting massive damage, you're still quite squishy. Make sure you're close to your team so that you can get behind them when you get too low. Afterwards, you can dive back in with the Shroudstep barrier to deal more damage. Make sure you deal damage with your chakrams.
-Chakram accuracy is a must. Your chakrams can deal lots of damage, but they're still sorta slow. Try to aim ahead of your opponents or throw it earlier so that your chakram can hit even if they choose to flee. Hitting enemies with the chakrams can be hard at first, but with practice, you'll be deadly.
-One thing you can do when enemies begin to get to far is to use Shimmerstrike to latch onto the nearest enemy hero, and then launch yourself as close to your target as possible. This is a risky move and should only be used when the enemy team has exhausted most of their damage or crowd control.
-Your Shroudstep is a gap-closer, but can also be used defensively or evasively. Use it to dodge easily predictable but powerful abilities.
-Your ultimate, on the other hand, should be used to dodge devastating abilities, like Adagio's Verse of Judgement, Catherine's Blast Tremor, Baron's Ion Cannon, Joule's Big Red Button, or even Ringo's Hellfire Brew.
-If you want to use Shimmerstrike offensively, use it when enemy heroes are bunched together to maximize damage.
-You can use Shimmerstrike to latch onto a teammate as part of an engagement strategy, but it could be risky. You could also use Shimmerstrike to latch onto an ally for escape.
-Even if you're following Idris' weapon path, it doesn't mean his chakrams are relatively useless. Use your other two abilities and your allies' utilities to chain chakram combos and maximize damage.
-Idris' weapon path's version of Shroudstep can bypass most abilities, like Ardan's Gauntlet. Surprise!
Hero Counters and Tips Top
Idris is a hard-to-play hero partly because of his various counters. Reading this section should help you understand what heroes counter Idris, and what to do against his hard-counters.
If you've examined the threat meter you would've noticed that the roamer heroes (Lance, Lyra, Fortress, Catherine, Ardan, Adagio, Flicker) are listed at the bottom of the spectrum. Usually these heroes deal little or no damage and pose no real threat to Idris, and therefore are supposed to be the last heroes you try to take down in fights. However, some abilities (like Bright Bulwark), when paired with others, can be a problem. Here's what you should do to effectively bypass these roamer heroes.
Phinn
Phinn's kit has to do with standing up to the opposition and keeping them near him. However, river trolls are slow, which is good news. With good timing, you should be able to easily dodge Phinn's Quibble with Shroudstep. This will deny Phinn a stun and will enable you to deal more damage. Since your basic attacks reduce the cooldown of Shroudstep, as long as you keep attacking, the ability will reset in no time. In teamfights, Phinn can be especially annoying. If you choose to evade Quibble, do so with keeping an optimal position in mind.
Another annoying (and nasty) thing about Phinn is his Forced Accord. The easiest way to counter this is to get a reflex block. If you feel the need for more defense, you can switch out the Breaking Point.
DO NOT switch out the Tyrant's Monocle; it is a very good source of damage and the critical strike chance is what makes your empowered attack from Shroudstep powerful.
Adagio
Adagio, like Lyra, can be a good kiter, and it is important that you either out-damage him or out-smart him. Usually, Adagio is played as a roamer, so the only thing you have to worry about is his Verse of Judgement. This ability has a long channel time, which gives you options. You can either kill him before the nuke blows (if he's low), or dig under anyone with Shimmerstrike to evade the damage.
If Adagio is a carry or jungler, however, things could get a little tricky. Whether he is weapon or crystal, his Gift of Fire paired with Agent of Wrath could bring you down. Therefore it is essential that you counter-build against him, and try to get your Shroudstep barriers more often. When diving a carry Adagio, make sure you have a barrier ready for Shroudstep. If the first barrier is not enough, use Shimmerstrike to dig under and buy some time. Be sure to combo this with your chakrams.
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