The design of most characters in the MOBA space should suggest that they are made to do a thing. A lot like the air filter in my 1999 Ford Ranger, or your wife’s tall, handsome friend from work with whom she spends a lot of time. What exactly do these two things do? It just depends on information we don’t have, and we’re not looking too deeply and we have faith, don’t we?
Invoker is built out of a different era; an era of imagination and limitless possibilities where the only anchor for the world of video games was the programmers’ mathematical abilities (and they were all pretty good mathematicians, back then.) These days? All of the programmers with an IQ over one hundred and five are slaving away for the sake of the optimization imperative as sprawled out over AI data centers, and what we’re left with is a collection of developers who are rely on Unreal Engine 5’s ability to produce “good’ looking aesthetics and YouTube tutorials on how to implement I-frames on their very unique, very fun Souls-like.
With this barely-limited ceiling of possibilities, a mod for Warcraft III was created: Defense of the Ancients. And in that mod, a character was designed: Invoker.
Three abilities, Quas, Wex, and Exort. Also known as Blue, Purple, and Yellow. These abilities grant Invoker passive stats when leveled; Strength, agility, and intelligence, respectively. When activated, they create a floating orb that revolves around Invoker and grant him active benefits while they are selected. Quas orbs grant health regeneration, Wex orbs grant attack speed and movement speed, and Exort orbs grant damage. But only three can be activate at any one time, in any combination.
In the small amount of information we’ve gone over, Invoker already establishes himself as a relatively complicated character. Leveling your abilities reflects a passive upgrade to the hero and further presents complicated micro decision-making in the form of orb selection. For instance, if you should try to deny the opponent a creep, the ideal scenario is that you you’ll have maximum possible damage while doing so. If you’re also trying to regen HP while in lane, you’ll also want to keep your regen ticking at maximal efficiency. So what is there to do?
Naturally, a good Invoker will stick to three quas orbs for the majority of this time, switching rapidly to three exorts to deny, then switching back to quas for the regen. Sounds simple, but absolutely tests a player’s focus and brings fun to the moment to moment gameplay where other heroes might have lulls in their early game.
Invoker’s Abilities
In tandem with the passive benefits, Invoker’s quas, wex, and exort combinations provide him with his base kit’s abilities. His primary ability is his ultimate, which is unlocked by default at level 1; Invoke
Invoke allows Invoker to invoke an invocation that corresponds to the three combinations of quas, wex, and exort that he happens to have at any given point, with a total of 9 combinations. So, for instance, with three quas orbs activated, Invoker will create the cold snap ability. Two quas orbs and a wex orb will allow Invoker to invoke the Ghost Walk ability. Two quas orbs and nothing else will not allow Invoker to invoke anything at all.
Along with invoking the spells themselves, the levels placed into quas, wex, and exort also alter the spells functionally. With exort levels often scaling the damage exerted, while quas and wex generally dictate crowd control durations and utility functions, like attack speed and movement speed alterations.
Fun Fact: Although the number of abilities Invoker current has access to extends to nine total, the order of the abilities actually used to matter, and this would bring his total spells up to 27. Referred to as “Old Invoker”, this version of the hero was not only vastly more difficult to play, but also had a large swath of spells that were next to useless in practice. Fun!
Let’s go over all of his spells.
Cold Snap
Q, Q, Q. Three quas orbs and you can invoke Cold Snap. This spell is the bread and butter of any good Invoker player. Target an opponent, and they become rooted. Damage them within the next few seconds of casting this, and they’ll become rooted again. Excellent in the early, mid, and late game for wearing down foes over time and interrupting key channeled abilities.
Ghost Walk
Q, Q, W. Two quas and a wex will allow Invoker to cast Ghost Walk. Turn invisible, gain or lose movement speed based on your level of wex, and increase your mana and HP regeneration while invisible.
Ghost Walk is not only a great escape tool, but because nearby foes are also slowed down, you can use it after rotating through your applicable abilities to finish out a fight and allow your team to mop up. Additionally, the quas facet of Invoker makes Aghanim’s Shard allow this ability to deal Ice Wall’s damage per second to nearby enemies, which is incredible in the early and mid-game. Late game, Ghost Walk annoys your foes by forcing them to maintain vision or use inventory slots on dust of appearances.
Ice Wall
Q, Q, E. Two Quas and an Exort will allow Invoker to use the Ice Wall Spell. Casting horizontally at Invoker’s front, Ice Walls massively slows enemies and deals a small amount of damage each second.
Good players use this ability when fleeing foes who are greedy. Great players use this ability aggressively to force foes into taking bad fights.
EMP
W, W, W. Three wex orbs will allow Invoker to cast EMP. After a brief period of time, EMP detonates, draining foes of their mana and dealing damage based on the amount of mana drained.
While not particularly strong from a raw damage perspective, and generally more difficult to use than other more straightforward spells, EMP can be utilized by resource-conscious players who want to rotate to weaker lanes and cause mayhem by destroying their opponents’ ability to… use abilities. Forcing players to spend 150 gold on mana regeneration is an underrated asset of EMP
Tornado
W, W, Q. Two wex and a quas orb. This ability is the first half of the most noob-friendly combo newcomers learn (more on that later.) Tornado launches itself, depending on Invoker’s level over a loooooong distance, knocking up enemies caught in its path. Upon landing, enemies are dealt a modicum of damage are (usually) ambushed with roughly 5000 abilities that have all been lined up ahead of time.
Indeed, Tornado is Invoker’s most used ability for setting up ganks and teamfights thanks to how long it hold opponents still for.
Alacrity
W, W, E. NOT the wrestling organization Alacrity can be targeted on a friendly unit to give it attack speed and damage. Straight forward and effective.
Sun Strike
E, E, E. Triple exort. High amounts of pure damage from anywhere on the map. This ability can snag low HP enemies or, if placed properly, will force good players to alter their movement to a less then ideal path.
Generally, this ability is used to relegate all mid-lane hand-holding duties to other lanes with a quick poke of damage. Combine with high amounts of crowd control, and this ability becomes far more deadly.
Forge Spirit
E, E, Q. One simple “Eek!” and out pops a forge spirit.
Forge Spirits are summons that deal minor damage individually. There more powerful aspect is their ability, per attack, to reduce their target’s armor by one. Indeed, what you’ll find is that while laning in the mid lane with invoker, weaker supports who choose to gang you will often put themselves into a weak position by simply ignoring these
In the video above, Invoker uses a forge spirit and a cold snap to whittle an opponent down, which allows him and his teammate to finish off an opponent.
Chaos Meteor
E, E, W. Two exorts and a wex and what you’re left with is the second half to the noob-friendly combo.
Chaos Meteor summons one (or three, depending on talents chosen) meteors or “meatballs” that deal damage over time. The damage is dictated by whether or not the opponent is directly on the meteor and, additionally, some remnant damage over time. This AOE ability is great in teamfights and is why tornado is so noob-friendly: Knock everyone up with tornado, then send a meteor where they’re going to land.
Even the invocation is easy to remember; try it yourself! W, W, Q for tornado, then E, E, W for the meatballs. Like playing a piano: do the same pattern, but go up a note.
Deafening Blast
Q, W, E. One simple “kweh” and the enemy carries have nothing to do with their time.
Deafening blast creates an outward propulsion that prevents foes from being able to attack for a time. Evidently, this ability is also a new player’s “oh shit” ability since everyone is so easily able to remember Q W E in stress. If a new Invoker is about to die, you can be sure he is going to panic send deafening blast into the ether.
Tie it all together
This little clip doesn’t have it all, but it does showcase the ability that invoker has to completely outplay his opponents and leave them unable to do anything at all. And damn is it satisfying to pull off.
Tornado to initiate, meatball + cold snap to kill off the OD, then forge spirits and alacrity to whittle down the beefy pudge, whose armor was eviscerated over the second half of the fight.
Invoker is the most enthralling character to ever be created in any MOBA ever. Hwei, eat your heart out.
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