Stone Cold


Darkjr's guide to Kaldr, The Ancient Apparition

Intro

First, English is not my native language, so feel free to tell me if there is any errors. If you think that something in my guide is not right, leave a comment and I will see. Also, this guide isn’t made for someone that can’t support more than 4 active spells, duh.


Background story

Defeated in a battle long forgotten, this once great mage was banished to a tomb of ice for all eternity. For countless ages he lay in unbearable anguish until he was discovered by minions of the Lich King. In a vain attempt to gain favor with this ancient soul for his own purposes, the Lich King released him. But this soul no longer knew gratitude, it no longer knew friend from foe, it knew only pain. With it's bodylong since decayed, the soul took up the only form it knew. Consumed with hatred, even a touch from this monstrosity causes agony. Able to conjure devastating ice storms with a mere thought and hurl soul-shattering bolts of frost seemingly impossible distances, this creature punishes all who dare to stand their ground against it.


Changelog

(11/02/2010) - Guide uploaded
(11/02/2010) - Minor changes
(11/02/2010) - Remade the Alt-tab mini-guide
(12/02/2010) – Moved Urn of Shadows to optional core and added Point Booster to situational items
(12/02/2010) – Added a note to Ice Blast and Meepo to Best Allies
(15/02/2010) – Minors fixes
(19/02/2010) - Guide published


Table of content

1. Alt-tab mini-guide
2. Stats
3. Pros / Cons
4. Skills
5. Items
6. Gameplay
7. Enemies / Allies
8. Replays
9. Ending


1. Alt-tab mini-guide

Skills

Normal build
1. Cold Feet
2. Ice Vortex
3. Cold Feet
4. Ice Vortex
5. Cold Feet
6. Ice Blast
7. Cold Feet
8-9. Ice Vortex
10. Stats
11. Ice Blast
12-15. Chilling Touch
16. Ice Blast
17-25. Stats

Items

Starting
(or )



Core
(or )
then ->

Trouble surviving: after Nulls

Optional / Situational


Extensions / Luxuries



Gameplay

1. Harass with Cold Feet early game
2. Don’t use Ice Vortex early game, besides for kills
3. Gank at level 6
4. DON’T FORGET ICE BLAST and initiate team battle with it
5. Map awareness
6. Stick with your team


2. Stats

Hero Type: Intelligence

HP: 492
Mana: 325

Strength: 18 + 1.4
Agility: 20 + 2.2
Intelligence: 25 + 2.6


Advanced stats

Affiliation: Neutral
Attack Animation: 0.45 / 0.3
Damage: 44 - 54
Casting Animation: 0.01 / 0.75
Armor: 4.8
Base Attack Time: 1.7
Movespeed: 295
Missile Speed: 1250
Attack Range: 600
Sight Range: 1800 / 1400


3. Pros / Cons

Pros:
+ Very powerful early game
+ Good int gain
+ Good base armor
+ Very powerful ultimate
+ Good casting animation
+ Spammable spells

Cons:
- Lack of strength / HP
- Ultimate is hard to place well
- Chilling Touch can be a debuff for your team if you don’t use it correctly
- Silence is a pain for him


4. Skills

Cold Feet


The Apparition curses his foes with The Frozen Mark which will freeze enemies to the ground. Unless target enemy moves at least 740 away from the mark within 4 seconds he is frozen still.

Casting Range: 700
Damage per second: 37.5 / 50 / 62.5 / 75
Stun duration if triggered: 1.25 / 2 / 2.75 / 3.5
Cooldown: 15 / 13 / 11 / 9
Manacost: 90

Notes

• Deals 37.5/50/62.5/75 magic damage at 0.8, 1.6, 2.5, 3.4 seconds
• Effect ends when the unit dies, the distance is over 765 or it no longer has the aura placed buff
• Blocked by Linken's Sphere

Uses
Harass, nuke, disable, combo


Ice Vortex


Gathers ancient frost energy into one area to create a small, immobile ice vortex at a location. Whenever enemies are near it, their movement speed and magical resistance are reduced.

Casting Range: 1500
AOE: 275
Movement Reduction: 18 / 22 / 26 / 30
Magic Resistance: -10 / -15 / -20 / -25
Duration: 12
Cooldown: 6
Manacost: 80 / 90 / 100 / 110

Notes

• Since all your spells are magical, Ice Vortex boost them all.
• New units are checked for every 0.1 seconds.
• Does not affect magic immune units
• Does not affect Forged Spirit, Familiar, Stone Form

Uses
Scout: Since it has a very long range (1500) you can place it to watch against enemy ganks, but don’t spam it if you don’t have a good mana pool to support it.
Initiate: It breaks magic resistance, duh, use your nuke after
Chasing: It slows enemies, duh.


Chilling Touch


Releases a gust of cold wind at a target area, enchanting allied heroes with bonus magical damage on their attacks. Lasts for a limited number of attacks up to a maximum of 40 seconds. While the enchanted heroes have this chilling touch, their attack speed is reduced by 15%.

Casting Range: 800
AOE: 400
Maximum number of attacks: 2 / 3 / 4 / 5 (or 40 seconds)
Bonus Damage: 40 / 50 / 60 / 70
Attack Speed Reduction: -15%
Cooldown: 50 / 46 / 42 / 38
Manacost: 140

Notes
• Damage type: magic
• Extra damage is it's own instance of damage as opposed to added to the attack.
• If an attack is interrupted before dealing damage the count of attacks is not lowered.

Uses
Use it only just before a team battle or your team will suffer of a -15% ASR. Not good.


Ice Blast


Ancient Apparition projects his presence out to make way for a powerful ripple of hailstone and dark magic. Once cast, it can release the spell to strike targets within 200 area of where his presence was upon release. It will deal damage to enemy units and apply a frostbite curse on them for 7 seconds where their health regeneration will be frozen and will shatter if they fall close enough to death. This spell has global range depending on how long you wait for the projections to move. Frostbitten units will take minor damage over time.

Casting Range: Global (!!!)
AOE: *
Impact Damage: 250 / 350 / 450
Shatter Threshold: 10% / 11% / 12%
Cooldown: 44 / 32 / 20
Manacost: 100 / 125 / 150

Notes
• Damage type: magic
• * The area of effect for the damage is 225+50*TimeTraveled capped at 1000, The area of effect for HP freeze is 275 along the path of the second projectile and upon the final strike area.
• First projectile has a 1500 movespeed, stops when the caster dies or casts the second part of the skill
• First projectile clears fog in a 500 radius circle at its end.
• When a hero dies under the threshold the kill is granted to Kaldr.
• Fatal damage is 100000000 physical and clears all debuffs prior damaging.
• The instant kill does not work on Illusions or Meepo clones.
• HP freeze prevents most kinds of healing including those from skills or items.
• The frozen buff can be purged, and the shatter damage will not kill you if you are affected by Shallow Grave.

There is an interesting note from elsoloist:

Quote:

Having played onli AA (ok, 95% of the games i played is AA), since his introduction as a practice to perfect AA play, it's important to note that the current iceblast is pretty bugger (doesnt do all that it says), as sometimes, the aoe that does damage and the aoe that surrounds the point that gain the freezing debuff is different. What i mean is that if u and ur opponent is like this: You -------X--Opponent, there could be chance that when u toss ur ice blast to x, ur opponent get the debuff, but no damage. The opposite can sometime happen, but i'm not sure how the layout would be like.

Uses
Initiate: Works well in the face of 5 enemy heroes and freezes HP
Kill: Always fun when you are at your fountain and kill someone fleeing with low hp


Mini-guide to Ice Blast

When you press , click where you want you ultimate go. It is important to know that it will ONLY influence the direction Ice Blast will go. Now watch the little “missile” go (it move really fast, 1500 ms) and when it is at the location that you want to stop, press again. The second part of the spell is now activated and another missile is launched from Kaldr and will blast the area that the first missile stoped (Move extremely fast, needs about 2 seconds to travel the entire map). The second projectile will freeze the HP of all heroes it meets and damage is done only in the AoE. Instant kill when an hero is under the effect of the HP freeze and is under 10 to 12% of his max HP.

*I will make a short video of how to use it when I’ll have time.


Tips and tricks

1v1: You and your enemy are level 20. You have hex. No spell in cooldown. Let’s start.
Chilling touch before initiating the battle
Ice vortex (Behind him if he doesn’t do anything or farm, in front of you if he charges at you)
Hex
Cold feet (7 second disable, hell yeah)
Wack, wack, wack
Ult him and wack to death


Skill build

1. Cold Feet
2. Ice Vortex
3. Cold Feet
4. Ice Vortex
5. Cold Feet
6. Ice Blast
7. Cold Feet
8-9. Ice Vortex
10. Stats
11. Ice Blast
12-15. Chilling Touch
16. Ice Blast
17-25. Stats

Skill choice

Cold Feet is your main nuke/disable. Level whenever you can. Ice Vortex is leveled right after, because Ice Vortex/Cold Feet is a good combo. Take Ice Blast when you can for obvious reasons. Take one stat point at level 10 to give you a little more survivability and mana. Take Chilling Touch right after since you might not use it early game, since you don’t have a large mana pool.

Special build

1. Cold Feet
2. Chilling Touch
3. Cold Feet
4. Chilling Touch
5. Cold Feet
6. Ice Blast
7. Cold Feet
8. Chilling Touch
9. Chilling Touch
10. Ice Vortex
11. Ice Blast
12. Ice Vortex
13. Ice Vortex
14. Ice Vortex
15. Stats
16. Ice Blast
17-25. Stats

Not very sure of this build, but Chilling Touch can input a very good amount of damage with a good ganker with you (you are better not do that if you are planning to be alone, Ice Vortex would be a better choice), but personally, I don’t use this built.


5. Items

Beginning:
(or )



Obvious reasons, mana and health and start your Null Talismans / Bracers

Core:
(or )
then ->


2x Null (or Bracers) for mana and health, boots: my first choice would be Power Treads (Str for your HP needs) since he lacks strength terribly, Boots of Travel if you want to, or just normal boots is okay, it depends on your farming. Grab a Void Stone first while doing your Guinsoo for mana regen / spammability. Why Guinsoo? For a powerful 7 seconds disable. Hex then Cold Feet. For the win. Only works if the enemy hero doesn’t call himself Lycan with is ultimate (It’s always fun to see a chicken running at 522 ms, but it is not the purpose of this guide).


Items to consider

Optional Core

Trouble staying alive? This is the item for you. It is one of the only item that you could take if you need to delay your core. Try to stick with your team most of the time to heal them (and yourself) and have charges. Buy it before Guinsoo if you need to.

Extensions / Luxuries

Need armor? Another slow?
Think you are made of paper?
More disable? Move speed?
Ice Vortex / Dagon always welcome.
Ice Vortex / Soul Burn always welcome too + DPS.
Note on Soul Burn: Amplify damage (20%) and it is dealt at the end of the duration as MAGIC damage. Also silence the target and lasts 5 seconds. Only hope the targeted hero is on the Ice Vortex at the end of the duration, or ask a perma-disabler to have it stay.
More slow, yay. (Skadi is not an orb since your hero is ranged, only a buff placer)
Alright, it may sounds weird, but anyways. It is an alternate way to Shiva and try a wannabe DPSer. Don’t take it if someone else does.
For supporting your allies.


Optional / Situational

For early game ganks and mana needs.
Scared of Ursa, or glass cannons? (Very situational and underestimated item)
Too many nukers?
You hate invisible heroes?
Anti glass cannons for the win.
Good for staying alive early game and boost your mana pool. Vitality Booster could also do the job, depending of your needs.


Orb effect item

Wannabe DPSer + good orb, for fun only, because there are better items for Kaldr.


Rejected items

First on the list and you know why, extremely low cooldown skills.
Try to have a better attack speed before getting this.
The hell, disable all of them before thinking of that.
I’ve seen someone with that… MS? Take Eul’s. DPS? Take Orchid. And they both have a disable included.
Treads and BoT are better.
What? It is a good item for him! Since Guinsoo is in core and your spells doesn’t cost more than 150 mana each, you don’t need a lot more mana regen. If you need HP, take Tarrasque goddamn. I recommend Eul’s if you REALLY want infinite mana.
I’d rather want to see a Kaldr with 3 Tarrasques than one with lifesteal.


Final builds
If you ever reach all those 6 items in a real game…

Nuke + Disable




DPS + Disable




Support + Disable




Why your builds always have a Tarrasque?
I want to stay with my team as much as possible for support purpose.

And Eul’s?
It helps me to place a combo on a fleeing hero.

Do I have to follow those builds?
Not necessarily. A good combination of the core and extension / optional items does a great job. And don’t forget that your build MUST be in function of your game. Anyways, you will probably never have a final item build in a normal game.


6. Gameplay

Early Game: Level 1

Take with you 2 Mantles of Intelligence (2 Gauntlets or 1 Gauntlet and 1 Mantle can do the job if you need more HP), 1 Circlet of Nobility, 1 Tango and 2 Clarities.

You should not go to the middle lane unless no one is a good pick to solo in your team. The thing is that it could be very difficult for you to stay in lane if you face a nuker like Lina or a spell spammer like Zeus. A good lane partner would be a disabler or a stunner to provide you an easy first blood. However, a good nuker can do the job.

Kaldr have a good attack animation, so it will be easy for you to last hit and deny creeps. For the enemy heroes, harass them as much as possible, it is your role at this state of the game. You have to prevent them to do anything.

Nevertheless, don’t spam your Cold Feet. Use it when they come to last hit a creep so they will have to get away, or they will take damage and be disabled. Don’t use any other spell unless you think you can have the kill. The key is communication. Have your partner know what you are intending to do.

Buy boots when you have 500 gold and try to not miss too much exp.

Mid Game: Level 6

Alright, if you are in a 2v1 situation (you and your partner vs enemy), just kill him. In a 2v2, Ice Blast them both if you can and if you have enough mana to support it, do a Ice Vortex / Cold Feet combo on the hero that have the less HP. If your lane partner is good, you should do a double kill with the shatter. In a 1v2, do the same thing, but only if you think that you can kill one hero without tanking too much damage, or be dead. If you ever are in a 1v0 lane, you can use Ice Vortex to scout, but I recommend you to go kill some heroes when you reach level 6.

Next, as Kaldr and having an ultimate with global range, like Silencer and Lord of Olympia, you must check the map as much as you can and kill those fleeing heroes. Oh, yeah, and as a teammate of the Ancient Apparition, you must say it when you see someone fleeing, even if you think it is maybe too late. A fountain kill is always fun (or very raging, depending on which side you are).

When you are in a big battle (let’s say 5v5), Chilling Touch before the battle and cast Ice Blast. It is better to initiate than to kill with this spell, because of the HP freeze. They are now more vulnerable to your attacks. Spam Ice Vortex and Cold Feet on the glass cannon (or disabler) whenever you can.

For items, buy your Null Talismans / Bracers, then a Void Stone. Always have a TP for emergencies or to return to your base faster. Buy a Mystic Staff and an Ultimate Orb after that.

Late Game: Level 16

If you have farmed well, I will assume that you have your core now. This means Hex. Now have fun with your Ice Vortex / Hex / Cold Feet combo. Stay with your team and support it as much as you can. Initiate all fights with Ice Blast. Always target the disablers and glass cannons first, and buff your team.


7. Enemies / Allies

Enemies to avoid



If you can’t use your spells, what can you do? Silencer also prevent you from spamming your spells.

Best allies



Fall in love with a combo of Enrage / Overpower / Chilling Touch. Beastmaster and Troll for extra DPS. Murloc does well with Chilling Touch and Kaldr with Pounce. Perma-disablers are always good teammates. And Geomancer is made for Chilling Touch!


8. Replays

Feel free to give me your good replays; I will add them to the guide.



9. Ending

Thanks to elsoloist for the Ice Blast, Meepo, Point Booster and Urn of Shadows infos.

I would also like to thanks everyone who contributed to the community of DotA, especially IceFrog for making this awesome game and also all the people who made good guides; you all gave me the inspiration for this one.