Gameplay

Playstyle
Terrorblade is a potent carry who demolishes buildings and heroes alike with his illusions. Reflection is useful for initiating, as it slows opponents and spawns illusions of themselves. Conjure Image allows Terrorblade to create an illusion of himself, which can be useful for pushing. With Metamorphosis, he transforms into an imposing demon avatar, gaining the ability to deal high damage at range, as well as transforming nearby illusions. Sunder can allow Terrorblade to swap his health with a target hero's, which can allow him to turn around a gank or save an ally from certain death. However, Terrorblade's low natural health and strength gain makes him quite fragile in the early game, and his reach is rather limited without Metamorphosis.
Pros	Cons
High damage in the early game for a late-game carry due to Metamorphosis. Good pusher. High base armor. Fast farmer. Can quickly turn the tables with Sunder. High agility gain. Very long illusion duration. Fairly easy to micromanage. Reflection can counter other carry heroεs.	Awful starting health. Dependent on Metamorphosis which has long cooldown. Less effective against mobile heroes due to his low mobility. Reliant on Sunder, Manta Style and Black King Bar to survive and powerless without them. Poor at clearing waves and cannot fight against more than one enemy hero at a time. Weak in the early game and being in the jungle nearly every game can make him prone to ganks. Vulnerable to all forms of disables, especially stuns, silences, disarms, and mutes. Very weak/useless when unfarmed and/or when played from behind. Easy to spot the real hero due to illusions from Conjure Image having distinguishable colors. Might not have time to use Sunder to stay alive against nukers. Has a low strength and intelligence gain. No "real" burst potential besides Sunder. Sunder cannot go through debuff immunity at all. Countered by items and abilities which give physical damage immunity, like Guardian Angel or Ghost Scepter.

Ability Builds

Generic Terrorblade
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Talents

Tips & Tactics

General

• Terrorblade is fairly item dependent, and needs to farm well.
• Terrorblade's item builds are versatile, and can range from an early/mid-game oriented build such as Wraith Band, Drum of Endurance, and Sange and Yasha, to a more conservative late game build such as a Linken's Sphere/ Eye of Skadi rush into Manta Style (similar to how you can itemize Medusa or Morphling). Build items this way to make his illusions stronger and to tank more magical damage since he has natural high armor to soak physical damage.
• Take advantage of high starting armor to build strength and health items to tank up. With respectable health regeneration even in the early game, enemies cannot easily harass Terrorblade with just physical attacks but they can still use magical damage. In this case, you should buy the inexpensive Infused Raindrops that can save your life by absorbing magical damage.
• Terrorblade excels at split pushing in the mid and late game, where he can summon up to four Metamorphosed illusions with a Manta Style.
• Sunder allows Terrorblade to dominate any one-versus-one fights with heroes who cannot disable or prevent him from using it.
• His illusions offer a great deal of scouting potential, as they're long lasting. If summoned at appropriate locations (usually runespots, either in river or safely on your own highground), his illusions can easily creep-cut and bring the creepwave into the jungle, making split-pushing much easier and effective.
• More tips needed.

Abilities

Reflection

• Use Reflection to slow down a fleeing or pursuing enemy.
• Reflection has a large radius, potentially allowing you to cancel enemy regenerative items like Healing Salve and Clarity potions, and disabling item abilities like Blink Dagger and Tranquil Boots from afar.
• One level of Reflection is usually enough in the early game.
  • However, you may put two points in it when facing against opponents with area abilities that keep destroying your illusions.
  • More levels also counter enemies like Anti-Mage, Juggernaut, or Treant Protector who have high attack damage or fast attack speed.
  • Consider maxing out this ability first if going mid - especially if facing off against heroes like Viper or Sniper. At higher levels, Reflection helps harass and gives Terrorblade an edge in one-on-one fights.
• Reflections of enemy illusions can also use their passives. Using it against heroes like Anti-Mage or Spectre can greatly cripple them.
• Enemy illusions carry the aura of the original heroes. Look for and use Reflection to get auras that enhance Terrorblade's physical attacks like Inner Beast and Vengeance Aura.
• Be wary of using Reflection during Metamorphosis because of longer cast backswing, especially for people who rely on the 'auto-attack' feature.
  • Cast backswing can be easily cancelled by ordering your unit to simply move or attack, so resolve this problem by constantly clicking on the ground or enemy.

Conjure Image

• Since illusions spawn with the same health percentage as you currently have but take 3.6x more damage, refrain from making illusions at low health as they will have poor fighting capabilities and effectively waste your mana.
  • However, you may still make illusions for purposes like scouting etc.
• Illusions from Conjure Image can be used to draw away creeps from the jungle, and thereby allow you to stack and pull camps to gain a significant gold and experience advantage.
  • With enough points in Conjure Image, Terrorblade can become an efficient jungler who can clear multiple camps with reasonable speed.
  • At higher levels, you should use illusions to stack and clear neutral camps to increase your GPM by a significant amount.
  • To master the laning phase, make sure to use illusions as a means to draw creep aggro (keeping yourself safely behind) when your tower is under siege, effectively dragging them to a safer place to farm, while considerably lessening damage done to the tower.
• When appropriate, farm the jungle with the main Terrorblade while micromanaginging illusions to farm in lane to boost your GPM.
• They are visually distinguishable from the original, but can still look quite convincing if you micromanage them into a behavior that would appear to be the real Terrorblade (i.e. running when an enemy approaches).
• Illusions last for 34 seconds, making them effective for scouting out jungles and highground.
  • With a cooldown time of 16 seconds, it is technically possible to create 3 illusions at any one time, though only within a time frame of 2 seconds.
  • This means that you can effectively have up to 2 active illusions for the majority of the duration.
  • To maintain a consistent supply of 2 illusions at all times, you must make a new illusion within 2 seconds after the cooldown expires. Otherwise there will be a small delay between when the previous illusion expires and when you could make a new one.
  • Being under cooldown-reducing effects like an Arcane Rune will indirectly grant your illusions more time.
• Conjured illusions can body-block the original Terrorblade, which can prove very irritating when chasing or escaping an enemy.
  • Phase Boots can allow you to pass through your illusions unhindered.
  • Similarly, Diffusal Blade can slow down the enemy at no mana cost, giving time for you and your illusions to surround the target.
• The biggest weakness of the illusions is that they take 360% more damage (comparable to Phantom Assassin's 450% crit), which means the enemy can pick them off quite easily - especially in early game.
  • To counter this, build items which give agility bonuses, as they affect and increase the illusions's armor as well.
  • While jungling early game, first engage the creeps yourself and then order your illusions to join in.
  • Long lasting AoE damage abilities (e.g. Jakiro's Macropyre and Enigma's Midnight Pulse) will literally evaporate your illusions, so take care to keep them out.
  • Unlike other heroes who can create illusions of themselves, Terrorblade's illusions from Conjure Image do not have the same color as Terrorblade, making him easy to find.

Metamorphosis

• This should be the first ability you level up, as it will give you a powerful edge in the fight over Bounty Runes.
• Metamorphosis greatly increases Terrorblade's damage and attack range, but at the cost of lowering his movement speed.
  • Items in Terrorblade's inventory will adapt to his ranged attack properties.
  • Likewise, certain passives will take effect while under Metamorphosis.
• Always keep Metamorphosis off cooldown if you suspect a teamfight is about to breakout.
• Metamorphosis has a very high cooldown, meaning you have to make good use of it should you choose to activate it. Avoid using it to farm camps, unless it is a stacked Ancient camp.
• Use Metamorphosis and illusions to take down towers; you can push reliably with just Dragon Lance so ask your teammates to scout and intercept defenders.
• While Metamorphosis is active, all illusions under Terrorblade's control will adapt to his current form so long as they are within the radius.
• Level 25 talent adds 240 range to Metamorphosis attacks, making it a very strong means of pushing, where you can maintain all your copies out of tower's reach, avoiding high ground, even considering the chance to miss.

Sunder

• Better to use Sunder too early rather than too late.
• While Sunder is most often used to save yourself from death or nuke an enemy carry, it can also be used to save allies. However, since Terrorblade often serves as the team's main carry, leaving yourself with very little health can be a game-risking mistake.
• Sunder can also affect illusions, including ones from Conjure Image.
  • Keeping a full-health illusion safe and hidden nearby can prove life-saving when sieging, or if you suspect a gank.
• Sunder leaves a minimum health percentage remaining, so it can act as a heal if you and an allied hero are both below the threshold, potentially saving you both when escaping.
  • If you are below the minimum health percentage threshold and have no one to sunder, you can spawn an illusion and sunder it.
• Sunder is a very expensive ability to employ during the early game due to the long cooldown and high mana cost, along with Terrorblade's low maximum health being a liability. However, once at level 3, Sunder becomes a much more potent ability since it allows you to use it more freely.
• Sunder is one of the few abilities that directly manipulates health, which allows you to bypass the damage checking portion of numerous abilities, such as Blade Mail or Kraken Shell.
• The level 25 talent allows usage of Sunder every 8 seconds at level 3. This can make Terrorblade an absurdly strong force to contend with, as you could engage battle after battle while virtually remaining at full health. It's advisable having a full health illusion made beforehand in case there are no enemy targets for a proper Sunder.
  • This is generally the best talent to level on a carry Terrorblade. However, if your team is full of good, well-farmed carries but lacks supports, you may consider leveling the other talent so as to support your team by pushing, while your teammates do the fighting.

Items

Starting items:

• Tango provides health regeneration during the laning phase.
• Healing Salve also restores health to Terrorblade in the early game.
• Slippers of Agility helps Terrorblade last hit and deny easier.
• Iron Branch gives attributes that increase health and damage; you can use it with Tango to get more heal.

Early game:

• Boots of Speed provide a movement speed boost.
• Magic Wand gives attributes and charges to restore Terrorblade's HP and mana.

Mid game:

• Power Treads provide attack speed and attributes, benefitting his illusions.
• Dragon Lance greatly increases attack range in Metamorphosis, helping Terrorblade and his illusions to hit towers from a safer distance. He can either upgrade the item into Hurricane Pike, or dismantle it to build Black King Bar and Yasha.
• Manta Style allows you to have even more illusions. Terrorblade can get stronger illusions and a shorter cooldown if he uses the item while in melee form, and then cast Metamorphosis to convert all to ranged illusions.

Late game:

• Eye of Skadi gives a large amount of attributes which help bulk up his illusions, and its attack and movement speed slow works nicely with Metamorphosis, bringing enemy heroes to a halt.
• Black King Bar prevents Terrorblade from being stunned or silenced when his health is low enough to warrant using Sunder.
• Butterfly provides agility for damage and evasion for defense, which all benefit illusions.

Situational items:

• Quelling Blade helps with grabbing last hits.
• Diffusal Blade offers agility and Manabreak which increase damage on Terrorblade and illusions; the active can slow enemy targets so they cannot easily retaliate.
• Hurricane Pike, upgraded from Dragon Lance, grants attributes and attack range, as well as a way to position Terrorblade and pop enemy Linken's Sphere.
• Sange and Yasha provides attributes for Terrorblade and his illusions.
• Boots of Travel can be purchased early to help Terrorblade with split pushing and farming.
• Linken's Sphere gives attributes, regeneration, and Spellblock to protect Terrorblade against most targeted abilities, increasing the success chance of Sunder.
• Aghanim's Scepter gives Terrorblade extra attributes and the access Terror Wave ability which allows him to gain Metamorphosis for a short amount of time and to fear enemies affected by it, giving Terrorblade much stronger crowd conrol he lacks.
• Aghanim's Shard gives Terrorblade access to Demon Zeal, which allows Terrorblade to dispel debuffs on himself and gain bonus movement and attack speed, bonuses are stronger out of Metamorphosis, so it should be used when Metamorphosis and Terror Wave are unavailable for Terrorblade to use.
• Blink Dagger allows Terrorblade to jump immediately right after casting Metamorphosis, forcing weakened enemies to take a personal fight with him and his illusions. If combined with Terror Wave, made available after Aghanim's Scepter and works as an alternative for Metamorphosis, Terrorblade can turn the tides right at them. Terrorblade can choose to opt for a Swift Blink, increasing his already-high attack damage and attack speed whilst providing bonus movement speed to chase fleeing enemies or an Overwhelming Blink to provide an instant magical damage burst upon cast and increases his sustainability during teamfights.
• Heart of Tarrasque gives you a massive health bonus, which is well needed as Terrorblade's strength growth is one of the lowest in the entire game, as well as powerful health regeneration.
• Satanic ensures Terrorblade with an active that increases his lifesteal to regain his health ludicrously quick whenever Sunder is on cooldown, allowing him to counter any bursts.
• Nullifier provides a reliable slow that further stacks with Reflection and his Eye of Skadi, while also acting as a counter against enemies who are dependent on Ghost Scepter, Eul's Scepter of Divinity, or any abilities that provides the same effect that kites Terrorblade from actually killing them.
• Radiance provides a lot of damage and the Radiance aura can accelerate Terrorblade's farm and increase his ability to push. Illusions also carry a weaker aura, and the aura does not stack from multiple sources.