Elecctrician

Skills: Learns Static Grip, Energy Shield, Energy Absorption, Cleansing Shock

Disclaimer:
Although I originally intended my Soulstealer guide to be my last guide, after heavy analysis on Electrician's skills, as well as in-game tests, I have finally concluded that Electrician is one of the strongest heroes atm. He is one of the most reliable picks, and although I want to hide my knowledge of this hero's unknown strengths, it is in the best interest of the community to make them known.

Hucklecat's guide to Electrician is outdated and will not supply you with such vital, key information on Electrician.

Did you know that:
a) contrary to popular thought, Electrician is actually a decent farmer?
b) Energy absorption effectively costs no mana?
c) Electrician is actually a viable solo?
d) Electrician does more dmg/mana spent then any other hero?

If this has perked your interest, read on. I want you all to go abuse Electrician in everything from pub games to high-tier games by the time you have finished reading this guide.

Skills:

Static Grip: The Electrician binds a target in a static grip, preventing them from moving, casting spells, attacking, or using items for a short time. The Electrician is dragged slowly toward the target.

Target: Hostile, organic unit
Type: Magic, Channeling
Range: 500
Radius: 250/300/350/400
Channeling time: 2.5/3.25/4/4.75 seconds
Mana cost: 100/110/120/130
Cooldown: 14 seconds

Applies static grip to target for channeling time or until spell is cancelled. Deals 30/40/50/60 damage per second to target AND ENEMY UNITS IN RADIUS while static grip is active on target. Static grip completely immobilizes the target and reveals them as well.

Notes: One of the strongest early game spells in the realm of HoN, static grip is a skill that is feared by any and all players. Besides acting as a simple disable, the synergies with Energy Absorption are strong as it acts as a chain for Energy Absorption. Furthermore, this skill damages enemy units in the radius of the gripped target. This is a often overlooked aspect of static grip, which is a shame, because Static Grip can be used to farm. It gets better though.

Electric Shield: The electrician uses electricity to create a shield around himself. The shield will negate a portion of incoming damage at the cost of the Electrician's mana.

Type: Toggle, Self-Buff
Mana cost: 20 at all levels
When active, applies Electric Shield to self.
Electric Shield causes 50% of damage taken to be subject to negation at the cost of 2/1.66/1.25/.75 Mana per point of damage.

Notes: Electric Shield makes Electrician virtually unkillable late game. Electric shield absorbs damage before any damage reduction takes place, meaning that armor will not reduce the amount of mana needed to absorb damage (AFAIK). Contrary to popular belief this skill is not completely identical to Medusa's mana shield in Dota.

Energy Absorption: The Electrician discharges energy around him. Nearby enemies are damaged and have their mana drained. For each enemy damaged, the Electrician absorbs some mana, and gets a boost to both magic and physical armor.

Target: Instant
Type: Magic
Radius: 300 at all levels
Mana cost: 75/100/125/150
Cooldown: 15 seconds at all levels
Damages enemies in radius for 75/100/125/150 damage, draining 3/6/9/12% of their maximum mana. Applies Energy absorption to self for 7 seconds. If the closest enemy to Electrician when Energy Absorption was cast is a creep, 3 initial charges are applied. If it was a hero, 5 initial charges are applied. Additional creeps grant 1 charge, heroes 3 charges.

Replenishes 15/20/25/30 mana per charge.

+0.2/0.4/0.6/0.8 armor/charge
+0.4/0.8/1.2/1.6 magic armor/charge

Notes: This skill, combined with static grip, is likely the strongest 2 skill combo in all of HoN. I want you, the reader, to listen very closely to what I am about to say.

Do you notice something odd about the mana/charge gained in relation to the mana cost of energy absorption?

You should. The mana/charge is exactly one fifth of the mana cost at all levels.

What does this mean? It means casting energy absorption and hitting exactly 3 creeps will cost you no mana. Any more then this, and you actually gain mana.

This means, that casting energy absorption and hitting a hero first will cost you no mana. If there are creeps/heroes in the 300 radius, again, you will actually gain mana.

Do you see where I am headed with this?
Energy absorption is essentially a nuke that does not cost mana.

Cleaning Shock: Electrician shocks a target unit, removing debuffs and increasing movement speed if it was an ally, or removing buffs and decreasing movement speed if it was an enemy.

Target: Any organic unit
Range: 600 at all levels
Mana cost: 50 at all levels
Cooldown: 16/14/12 seconds
When cast on ally: removes debuffs and increases movement speed by 30/40/50% decreasing to 0% over 5 seconds.
When cast on enemy: removes buffs and decreases movement speed by 40/60/80% decreasing to 0% over 5 seconds

Notes: A very handy ultimate, especially against certain heroes with strong buffs like Hammerstorm, Jereziah, Arachna, Madman and Predator. What is considered a buff or debuff is rather odd, for example, a hero with an active rune can be purged, while purging a poisoned ally or a stunned ally does nothing. Nevertheless, it is a strong spell both offensively and defensively.

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Core Analysis: This is where we analyze hero-specific stuff like stat/stat gain and movespeed. Again, I want you to pay very close attention.

Electrician has excellent base stats, with a high base str (though rather avg if not less) for a str hero and absolutely freakish base int, only matched by demented shaman and torturer. His base agility isn't too great but agility is a relatively useless stat if your hero's primary attribute is not agility.

His stat gain is rather disappointing, with relatively low gains except in, ironically, agility, which again is rather useless. Because of how we play and build Electrician, though, you will see this is not a problem.

Electrician has rather high base damage even for a melee hero, and his base movespeed is average at 300. His base armor is rather mediocre.

Now this is where it gets interesting. The static grip + energy absorption combo does very good damage for its mana cost. Whether you cast energy absorption manually or shift-queue it is completely up to your own preference.

At level 2, the combo deals 150 damage, for 100 mana or less.
At level 3/4, 205/230 damage, for 110 mana or less
At level 5, 300 damage, for 120 mana or less
At level 7/8/9, 385/410/435 damage, for 130 mana or less.

I think you can see where I am going with this. Not only does Electrician deal the best damage/mana cost, but the enemy is disabled while he is at it. There is no hero that can even come close to the early game-dominance that is Electrician. That might be an overstatement, but not really. He is incredibly powerful in lane with many, many heroes, and the dmg/mana cost of his combo allows him to even handle solo lanes with relative ease. He is a very strong ganker throughout the game, and Electric shield keeps his viability up as the game drags on.

People occasionally say Electrician is weak in team battles. I say, when you have ganked the other team 10 times before the first team battle, it doesn't matter.

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Skill build:
1: Static Grip
2: Energy Absorption
3: Static Grip
4: Energy Absorption
5: Static Grip
6: Cleaning Shock
7: Static Grip (maxed out)
8: Energy Absorption
9: Energy Absorption (maxed out)
10: Electric Shield
11: Cleansing Shock
12-14: Electric Shield (maxed out)
15: Stats
16: Cleansing Shock (maxed out)
17-25: Stats

Explanation: This is, believe me, the one and only skill build you will EVER need on Electrician. Static Grip and Energy Absorption are taken ASAP due to their extremely strong presence early game. Cleansing Shock scales reasonably and should be taken whenever possible, being a very strong defensive and offensive skill.

Some people might like to delay Electric shield until later, like level 17-20. You don't have to wait this long to skill Electric Shield unless you can't farm with Electrician. I will teach you to farm with Electrician.

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Item build: The goal of this build is rather simple. It will focus on Electrician's laning/ganking prowess early/mid game, and his incredible tanking abilities late game. Rather pub or higher-tier game, item build is not going to change.

- 2x Fortified Bracers (optional, 510 g each)
- Wards (optional, applies if you are roaming, 200 g each)
- Courier (optional, applies if your allies don't get one, 200 g each)
- Bottle (optional, 600 g)
- Steamboots (1490 g)
- Shaman's Headdress (optional, applies if other team has many nukes, 2250 g)
- Helm of the Black Legion (optional, applies if you want to tank early and enemy team is somewhat reliant on physical dps early, 2225 g)
- Portal key (optional, 2150 g)
- Frostfield Plate (4700 g)

Start off with minor stat items, as well as some runes of blight + mana pots. If your team does not have a courier I would highly recommend buying one. You will want it for bottle ASAP.

Because Electrician does not have particularly high str gain or base str for a str hero, I suggest reinforcing his stats with 2x fortified bracers. Talisman of Exile is not necessary. Electrician's base int and low mana cost on his combo is more then enough mana. I have gotten away without boosting Electrician's stats early on though, so it isn't completely necessary.

Electrician is one of the most feared gankers in a capable player's hands. Gankers love bottle. The scary thing is, is that Electrician is actually such a strong ganker that he can even do fine without bottle! Nevertheless, you can't go wrong with bottle, especially if you are soloing mid or roaming. Not going bottle, though, is not going to cost you the game. For its low cost though, I highly recommend it

Shaman's Headdress is an item I initially overlooked, it is strong all game and I recommend getting it after bottle if the other team has plenty of nukers. The benefits of magic armor and hp regen are not to be overlooked. You will probably be getting this item 90% of the time in higher-tier games, though this guide caters to all levels of play so I will leave it as optional. Full credits to Evo_shamoke for pointing this out.

Steamboots are a no-brainer. Cleansing shock while serve your chasing/escaping needs, and early stats=good.

Portal key is a possible luxury that provides a rather generous element of surprise, with strong uses both offensively and defensively. It is not necessary whatsoever, but should be considered in any practical scenerio.

Frostfield plate gives a significant boost to your survivability, via both armor and Electric Shield, and furthermore, is the link that will turn Electrician into a capable farmer.

How to farm with Electrician: Cast static grip on a creep, preferably one in the middle of the others. Chain with Frostfield plate, followed by energy absorption. Viola! 635 AoE magic damage , at very likely no mana cost. Remember that Frostfield plate has a cooldown of 30 seconds. Don't nuke down a lane when you anticipate needing the aoe slow in the very near future.

There are a couple reasons why Frostfield plate is superior to Sacrifical heart on Electrician.
1: Frostfield plate makes farming with Electrician ALOT easier then farming without it. There is a very big difference between dealing 635 aoe damage and dealing 435 aoe damage when it comes to clearing waves of creeps.

2: Electrician has no real ways to assure he gets kills to charge Sacrificial Stone. I do not advocate Electrician to kill-thirsty carry players. Electrician is a strong team player and a king among kings in the assist column. In my last game as Electrician I went 2-0-21. Sacrificial heart is significantly weaker when you cannot guarantee charges on it, so much to the point that I consider Frostfield Plate superior to it.

Luxury items: With Electrician's farming reinforced via Frostfield Plate, you can proceed to farm the next logical item, which is none other then Behemoth's Heart (5500 g). In situations where disables are needed, feel free to build Totem of Kuldra (5675 g). If you feel like doing some of your own dps, build Frostwolf Skull (6650 g). Note that these items all of one thing in common, they will all help you tank.

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Laning: Electrician is the most flexible hero during the laning phase, case closed. You can roam. You can lane with devestating combos like Swiftblade or Torturer. You can even solo if need be. There is only one thing you have to remember. Electrician does the most damage/mana for his spell combo. I will drill this into your head until your brain bleeds. His high base int further reinforces his terrifying early game. You have absolutely every right to be as aggresive as you want. I cannot remember the last time I was outlaned as Electrician. Keep the pressure up. Give the enemy no breathing space. Feel free to gank other lanes as well.

Ganking: This is fun. Electrician will initiate most ganks. If you can get in range to static grip, do so. If not, cast cleansing shock on yourself and rush the target to grip him. Chain with energy absorption and cast cleansing shock as required. Keep an eye on the cooldown of both energy absorption and Static grip. I have been able to use both spells twice in a gank on more then one occasion.

Team fights: Pretty similar to ganking, except that by now you probably have levels in Electric Shield as well. Have Shield on before the fight begins, and follow your initiating hero (Hellbringer, Kraken, Tree, Legionaire etc).

Cast Static Grip on a key hero, and do your best to hit as many targets with energy absorption as you can. Note that this is probably the only time you don't want to immediately chain grip with energy absorption. Energy Absorption has a 300 AoE so do your best to make use of that. Don't forget to cast Frostfield Plate too. As the dust clears, finish off survivers with cleansing shock and static grip, or help your own teammates flee using the same techniques. As an Electrician, you will always be the last man standing.

Other: Some people are not sure as to when they should activate electric shield with regards to invested levels. Personally, I find that the skill consumes too much mana at level 1 and 2 to be useful. By level 3 and 4, though, it is a strong asset and you should basically always leave it on.

Don't forget Cleansing shock can be used on allies. I have saved many allies and chased down many enemy heroes from a whole screen away through this use of cleansing shock. The self-cleansing shock + static grip + energy absorption combo is a technique that you will want to master.