Hello, my Dota II nickname is Sw00k1e and I have decided to write a guide for one of Dota II's most underrated heroes: Razor. I feel that not many players properly understand his unique play-style and how to secure victories with him.
Razor is an agility based semi-carry and a range hero that excels in the early game and mid game, but does tend to drop off in the late game, simply due to the fact that he is not a true hard carry such as Faceless Void or Phantom Assassin and cannot farm as fast as late-game heroes such as Anti-Mage with a Battle Fury and Shadow Fiend with his Shadow raze.
In the competitive scene, as well as in pubs, he should be a highly situational pick. He is not an ideal hero that fits nicely in any line-up due to his play-style, abilities and does not have an easily distinguishable role. This is why, before wanting to get straight into playing Razor, carefully decide if picking him in your team's current composition is a viable choice.
Razor IS
+A semi-carry
+A snowball hero
+Situationally picked for mid
+A teamfight hero
+Ability-Based hero First, Right-Clicking hero Second
Razor IS NOT
-A hard-carry
-A disabler
-A jungler
-A roamer
-A push-oriented hero
-A DPS Right Clicker
Role:
Before I discuss Razor's playstyle, skill builds and item builds, I think that the most important thing to cover first is WHEN to pick Razor. As I mentioned before, Razor is not your typical easily categorized support/carry/mid role hero.
He is not a straight up hard carry (Eg: Faceless Void or Phantom Assassin), nor a hardcore pusher (Eg: Nature's Prophet or Chen), nor a heavy disabler (Eg: Lion or Shadow Shaman).
The best way to describe him is that he is a semi-carry who has a high snowball-potential in the game and is also excellent at chasing as well as diving under the tower.
A semi-carry, like a carry, is able to positively increase its damage-dealing potential with a healthy progression of items. However, the main difference is that a carry simply can reach a much higher potential than a semi-carry would with the same amount of farm. In other words, late game hard carries will eventually outcarry semi-carries.
This is why Razor, in many aspects, is a snowball hero. A snowball hero is a hero that exceptionally and particularly benefits from having an item and level advantage over the enemy compared to other heroes that rely heavily on amassing several key items before becoming useful.
For example, Gyrocopter is a carry (if he is played as one) who is very item and level dependent. He is also quite squishy without a Black King Bar since as the main carry, he will be the highest priority target to disable by the enemy team. Therefore, he requires considerable space and time to farm up his few core items before being able to survive and significantly contribute in teamfights.
It's not that Snowball heroes are particularly item or level dependent, but more so that they absolutely need an advantage over the enemy team's heroes to be able to go for solo ganks or to have a huge teamgight presence. They simply cannot afford to be at anything but an advantage over the enemy team in order to take control of the game. Such heroes include Slark, Storm Spirit, and Queen of Pain. These heroes, like Razor, have the potential to snowball, and smart players will choose to do so in order to tip the game in their favour. They require a lower amount of farm, less time and items to be significant forces to win teamfights. Although this may not always be the case, due to other outside factors such as poor communication, poor decision-making or a crucial misplay, but in theory these heroes should come out on top during these exchanges.
Abilities:
Although this section will cover how you should utilize Razor's abilities, I will not be covering specific numerical values simply because you can find all that information elsewhere. (In fact Dotabuff already has that data)
Q Plasma Field
This is your primary nuking ability that you will spam out during teamfights, helping in pushes, or in lane to get some last hits from a safe distance. Be wary because Razor is a deceptively mana-hungry hero, in the early game at least. Remember that the field can hit an enemy hero twice.
W Static Link
This is what makes Razor seem like an "Anti-Carry" because you essentially steal the enemy hero's damage to add to your own. The mana cost is incredibly low, and you should try and latch on as long as possible in order to give you a significant advantage in last hitting, denying and harassing over the enemy hero.
Important Note: The damage added is counted as additional damage and NOT your base damage. This basically means that illusions will not benefit from the bonus damage.
E Unstable Current
Your only passive. It passively increases your movement speed and any single target spell or ability on to you by the enemy will cause them to take magic damage and slow their movement speed by a significant amount. A very handy passive which overall benefits your surviability.
R Eye of the Storm
Due to its relatively low cooldown, (80s-70s-60s), you should always make sure to activate it before going into a team fight or gank.
Skill Builds:
1) Offlane/Hardlane
Picking a Razor means that your team already has a safe-lane carry who will be taking bot (Radiant) or top (Dire). Unless of course if your team decides to go for an aggressive tri-lane, in which case you will go to safe-lane instead. Use the following Skill Build:
W-Q-W-Q-Q-R-Q-W-W-E-R-E-E-E-Stats-R-Stats
You will probably be facing up against a dual-lane or a tri-lane consisting of the enemy safe-lane carry and the supports. In this match-up, it is incredibly difficult and risky to attempt a full duration Static Link onto the carry since you would need to keep a close distance as well as take the harassment. This is why you will prioritize Plasma Field over Static Link as by the time your team is rotating around and pushing Tier 1 towers, you would be offering more damage and therefore more team-fight presence with your maxed out nuke. Remember to always get your ultimate at lvls 6,11 and 16.
2) Solo Mid
W-Q-W-Q-W-R-W-Q-Q-E-R-E-E-E-Stats-R-Stats
The reason why Razor is sometimes picked competitively to go into the middle lane is to counter the enemy's mid hero who is picked for its notorious consistently to win any match-up, such as Outworld Devourer and Viper. In these supposedly unfavorable match-ups, Razor will excel and win his lane against them, simply due to Static Link.
Outworld Devourer only wins his lane consistently because of his ability to spam Astral Imprisonment and gain a huge increase in base damage, therefore able to gain much more last hits and denies. In addition, any attempts to spam out abilities become neutralised because against an Outworld Devourer, the hero will constantly lack the mana pool to do so. This is especially brutal against int-based mid laners such as Queen of Pain, Invoker and Puck.
Since Razor only relies on his cheap Static Link to farm and harass decently as well as steal his heavily reliant base damage, he is an ideal counter to Outworld Devourer at the mid lane.
For the same reasons, Viper will find winning his mid lane much harder against a Razor match up due to the simple fact that Viper is essentially nothing without his auto attacks. Because of Viper's awful 285 movespeed, he cannot outrun Razor and is therefore forced to have his damage drained every time with Static Link if he moves too far out of tower range.
Because you will be using Static Link every time it is off cooldown to last hit, harass, and deny, you will be maxing out Static Link by level 7 and prioritizing Plasma Field second, with least priority in Unstable Current. Always skill your ultimate, Eye of the Storm at the usual levels 6, 11 and 16.
Just to emphasize, while it does sound as if Razor is a pretty decent mid laner, there are far better heroes in terms of ganking potential such as Queen of Pain, pushing power such as Dragon Knight and mobility such as Night Stalker who all outclass Razor. Razor is a weak pusher, very immobile before putting points up in Unstable Current and has no disable to contribute in ganks. This is why he is such a situational pick. Preferably against Outworld Devourer or Viper.
In order to adjust to this inflexible playstyle, you are required to win the lane against specifically chosen unfavorable match-ups, farm well and help push Tier 1 Towers with the rest of your team once the laning stages finish.
Your team should not be counting on you to make frequent rotations to gank, since the time you take to move around the map could much more efficiently be spent trying to farm up your core items and shut-down the other mid laner, who if left unpressured will become powerhouses later on.
If you plan on taking a more active role which means committing to frequent rotations to the side lanes to grab kills or to simply assist, you should definitely purchase a Bottle to sustain yourself in lane and store runes. If you are not having any problems with harass, you may choose to skip the Bottle for a faster accumulation for your core items.
Item Build:
Starting Items:
3 Iron Branches
1 Slippers of Agility
1 Tango
1 Ring of Protection
Cost: 600 gold
These items are best for an offlaner Razor. The stats from the Iron Branch expands your hp and mana pool very efficiently and you will later proceed to finish a Magic Wand. The Ring of Protection will be converted into a Ring of Basilius at your earliest convenience as the static (pun all the way intended) mana regen of 0.65 is extremely effective for a low int hero such as Razor and the +6dmg you gain also benefits your ability to last hit, deny and harass. The additional +3 armor is also useful for your ability to deal with the harass damage. Also, remember to turn your Ring of Basilius on during pushes in order to give the creeps +2 armor so that they can withstand just that much more incoming damage.
If you know that you will be going up against a heavy-harassing lane, feel free to substitute the Slippers of Agility for an extra Healing Salve.
Early Game:
Magic Wand
Boots of Speed
Ring of Aquila
Bracer
Try to farm up these crucial stat items during the laning stage, in order for you to survive ganks and spam out your abilities during pushes and team fights. A mana-empty Razor might as well just uninstall Dota II.
The Bracer and upgrading your Ring of Basilius into a Ring of Aquila help you bulk up your hp and boost your mana pool since survivability and ability spammability determines your overall teamfight presence.
Remember to turn on your Ring of Aquila during pushes to give that +2 armor to creeps.
Boots of Choice:
Power Treads
Phase Boots
Honestly speaking, I find both choice of boots to be equally effective. I would recommend getting Power Treads if you are facing heavy harass and burst damage, in other words: if you are finding it difficult to stay alive. The extra +8 strength equates to +152 hp increase, which is a pretty huge increase in the early game. The +30 attack speed also allows you to get that 1 extra right click with that stolen damage.
However, if you are noticing that you find it difficult to catch up to the enemy heroes, purchase Phase Boots as the +12% movement speed buff is further complemented by your movement speed bonus from Unstable Current. I guess it's all down to player preference.
Core Items:
Drum of Endurance
Aghanim's Scepter
Yasha
Vitality Booster
Proceed to upgrade your bracer to a Drum of Endurance as it is an extremely efficient stat boosting item. The movement speed and attack speed it provides is also a great teamfighting aura.
Another key item that really works well with Razor is Yasha. More movement speed, an agility boost and faster attack speed. You can choose to later upgrade to a Sange and Yasha or a Manta Style, depending on the situation of course.
The reason why I had included a casual Vitality Booster here was because I feel this item is very cost-effective for a great chunk of hp (+250 hp for only 1100 gold) to be added. Since Razor's survivability is absolutely paramount to how successfully your team's teamfight will go. This also prepares you for late game as you can choose to turn that into a Heart of Tarrasque.
For Razor to deal a significant amount of damage in teamfights during the Mid Game (25-40 minutes), he needs to make extensive usage of his Ultimate, Eye of the Storm, as by this point, his Plasma Field will deal very little nuking power and it becomes riskier and more life-threatening to idly stand next to the enemy carry and use Static Link. In fact, at this point you should try NOT to get balls-deep inside the middle of a teamfight and instead wait for your ally to initiate for you.
Aghanim's Scepter gives Razor amazing hp and mana pool boost, on top of also upgrading his Eye of the Storm. Why should you consider this item? Is the 4200 gold really worth it? Here is a numerical comparison of pre- Aghanim's Scepter and post- Aghanim's Scepter Eye of the Storm:
-lvl 3 Pre-Aghanim's Scepter Eye of the Storm DPS (Damage Per Second)
=62.5 (Damage Per Strike) / 0.5 (Cooldown of Strike) = 125 (Damage Per Second)
-lvl 3 Post-Aghanim's Scepter Eye of the Storm DPS (Damage Per Second)
=62.5 (Damage Per Strike) / 0.35* (Cooldown of Strike) = 178.57 (Damage Per Second)
That is a DPS increase of 42.86%.
Bear in mind that each strike at a ridiculously low 0.35cd reduces a hero's armor value by 1, and the fact that each strike is physical damage. In other words, each strike will do a bit more damage compared to the last strike.
Assuming somehow you were in a position to deal out Eye of the Storm's full DPS in the 30s duration, theoretically you would deal a total of 30*178.57 = 5357.10 physical damage. Let's put it this way. Most heroes at around 25-40 minutes have less than 1500 hp. Good luck to anyone misfortunate enough to tank that.
So, is the 4200 gold worth it? I think the math speaks for itself.
Late Game:
By this point, Razor will drop off compared to other hard carries. Here is how to counter that completely.
Refresher Orb
Cost: 5225 gold
This may seem extremely unorthodox and even ridiculous. Is it though?
Refresher Orb allows Eye of the Storm to be cast twice, on top of one another. This means you can have two Eye of the Storm active at the same time. Since Eye of the Storm prioritises the unit with the lowest hp, both will be striking the same unit until that until has either died or hacked.
Each strike lowers a hero's armor by 1, so it follows that two strikes will lower a hero's armor by 2.
The DPS for Eye of the Storm with an Aghanim's Scepter upgrade is: 178.57.
The DPS with a Refresher Orb, or double Eye of the Storm is: 357.14.
I will go on record (you are free to check out my stats) to say this:
I have never lost a Dota II match with Razor with both Aghanim's Scepter and Refresher Orb in my inventory.
Other Late Game Luxuries:
Assault Cuirass
Black King Bar
Butterfly
Heaven's Halberd
Heart of Tarrasque
Desolator
Satanic
Need more armor, but none for your enemies? Assault Cuirass is your choice. This item not only makes sure very few physical attacks will harm you, but also synergizes incredibly effectively with your Eye of the Storm. It also boosts your allies' armor value by 5.
Once your enemies realize just how f**king painful your ultimate is now that you have an Aghanim's Scepter, they will do whatever it takes to focus you down with every form of disable, hex or stuns. Be smart and buy a Black King Bar of your own to not be disabled during teamfights.
You may choose to skip it entirely if there aren't any significant disables that can severely restrict your movement. This would only apply if somehow you were facing a team consisting of right-clicking carries with no stuns or disables. (Sigh, if only that could happen in real-life.) Chances are you will be facing high-level players who would try their best to counter you heavily. So be safe, buy a Black King Bar.
Butterfly pretty much makes you invulnerable to auto-attackers without a Monkey King Bar. Feel free to "laugh out loud" when RNGesus grants you 10 misses in a row against the enemy carry's auto-attacks. Good luck trying to farm 6000 gold though.
Again, more negative armor synergizes with your Eye of the Storm which makes Desolator a decent pickup. However, only purchase it if no-one else in your team has one and if personal survivability is not an issue. Desolator does absolutely nothing for you hp or armor. It just increases your damage and kill potential. Considering that, it is still quite a risky pick-up.
Heaven's Halberd gives you + 380hp with 25% evasion, making you much harder to kill for such a efficient cost. If you do pick up a Sange and Yasha previously at some point, I recommend you to disassemble it and build it into a Heaven's Halberd. Its active, "disarm", is also highly effective at shutting down a particularly nasty enemy carry. Pick this item up, if your team needs another disable, you have not already picked up a Butterfly since the evasion only stacks diminishingly, and you need more survivability.
As I had mentioned before, the ultimate item for survivability is a Heart of Tarrasque. The hp it brings cannot be obtained by any other single item in the game (+1060 hp), and you never have to return to your fountain again to heal. I would include Heart of Tarrasque as a core item but I still think that you should have definitely ended the game earlier before needing for such late game items. With this godly item, burst damage becomes mere mosquito bites and you are able to confidently walk in, balls-deep inside enemy territory.
If you really want to be impossible to kill, consider purchasing the unholy powers of Satanic, an item with an active so bullshit, even Faceless Void's Backtrack seems plausible.
Situational Items:
Mekansm
Pipe of Insight
Manta Style
Sange & Yasha
Eye of Skadi
If your team does not have a hero that could farm up a Mekansm or a Pipe of Insight because they are either relying on trying to build another crucial item and therefore cannot contribute into building either one of those items, or because they simply cannot farm as quickly as you can, you should consider building at least one of these great team-fight items. The base hp regen you gain from them greatly assist your sustainability during all stages of the game and provide to be great assets to your team whether your team is pushing or team-fighting.
Sange and Yasha is a really great early to mid game pickup as it boosts your movement speed, attack damage, attack speed and gives you a slow for extra disable. However, this item falls off as a mid to late game item since it fails to offer you a significant boost to anything other than movement speed. In other words, there are plenty of other items that outclass Sange and Yasha in granting more dps, hp or attack speed for its relatively inefficient cost of 4100 gold.
Manta Style seems like a great item on any agility hero but the problem is Razor, as mentioned before, has awful stats and his illusions have very little potential in split pushing or providing dps.
I would only recommend Manta Style if you are constantly the target of a silence from either an ability, such as Drow Ranger's Silence, Silencer's Global Silence or Skywrath Mage's Ancient Seal, or from Orchid Malevolence.
Pick up a Mjollnir if you really want to see more flashy lightnings.
Pick up an Eye of Skadi if you need an extra disable against a key Black King Bar using hard carry such as Phantom Assassin or Drow Ranger and want to slow them down. The cold effect from Eye of Skadi goes through Magic Immunity and is quite effective against right-clickers. In addition the +25 stats are really nice and will boost your overall survivability by granting +475hp and +3.5 armor.
However, if straight up hp is all you care about, I would definitely recommend spending that 5.75k gold on a Heart of Tarrasque. Only pick up Eye of Skadi if you require a Black King Bar piercing disable or if you're filthy rich and need to show off that net worth to those peasants still with Bracer.
NEVER EVER EVER EVER GET:
Vanguard
Cost: 2225 gold.
I have no idea, no level of understanding at how this item is considered by Dota II's suggested items a CORE on Razor.
The only condition in which I would reconsider this item as a viable choice is if it was able to be diassembled so that the Vitality Booster could be built into a Heart of Tarassque and the Ring of Health into a Pipe of Insight. For something worth 2.25k gold, it offers absolutely nothing for your offensive potential and on range heroes, it is especially worse since the damage block is halved. You may as well have spent that gold buying a Hand of Midas and not transmute anything for 20 minutes.
In Conclusion, Vanguard offers an incredibly poor trade off in getting you the basic hp and regen for its price.
A much more cost-effective hp boosting item at a similar price is a Sange, which is 2050 gold and provides +304 hp as well as give you +10 damage. The damage block is really negligible on range hero.
Problems You may Encounter: (Ones I have definitely experienced)
-Item Progression
It's really hard to farm well on Razor. Unless your team dominates the early-mid game and take fast Tier 1s, you will find severe difficulty in catching up with farm. His attack speed is slow, Plasma Field has a relatively high CD compared to QOP's Scream of Pain or Shadow Fiend's Shadow Razes. This is why I would not recommend this hero to newer players, as your success with Razor heavily relies on the early game and laning. How well you last hit and deny creeps from your opponents is a crucial factor. If you fall off, as a Snowball hero, you will find it extremely difficult becoming a useful member of the team with very little item and levels.
-Mana-Management
Razor has a very poor stat gain, this is why you build so many stat items early on to compensate for that. Constantly spamming out Plasma Field in the early game will drain you pretty quickly. Try to time it so that it both last hits at least 2 creeps and harass the enemy hero. This may take extensive practice.
-Focused Down + Positioning
Once you switch on your Ultimate, you will most likely be the priority target in team-fights. This is why positioning as well movement speed is such a crucial factor in your survival. DO NOT initiate the fight. Let someone else in your team initiate or wait for the enemy to make the first move. It is important that you survive in the team-fight, as dying frequently will really shut you down heavily.
Team Composition:
DO NOT PICK Razor IF YOUR TEAM:
-Lacks hard disables (Stuns, Magic Immunity-piercing disables, Hexes, etc.)
-Lacks a hard carry
-Already has a mid and an offlaner, that both lacks late game potential.
-Lacks supports
-Lacks gankers with any disables (Silences, slows, stuns, etc.)
-Lacks any significant pushing power
DO NOT PICK Razor IF THE ENEMY'S TEAM:
-Has heroes with high amounts of burst damage and nuking potential
-Has heroes with a YOLO pushing strategy or are split-push oriented. (Mass Necronomicon, Heroes with summons)
-Has heroes that can easily kite you
-Has heroes that can easily control and limit your movement
Burst Nukers:
Zues
Lina
Lion
Skywrath Mage
Nyx Assassin
These guys can just instagib you and take you out of the equation during teamfights, of course assuming that they are high-skilled players. Razor NEEDS to survive in the team fight as long as possible to first steal the main carry's damage with Static Link AND to deal damage through his Eye of the Storm with any additional right clicks. Any amount of burst damage usually makes sure he cannot do any of those things.
Kiters (Movement Restricting Abilities)
Venomancer
Shadow Demon
Invoker
Bane
WindRanger
With their ridiculous amount of crippling slows ( Venomous Gale, Demonic Purge, Poison Attack), movement restricting disables ( Tornado, Disruption, Nightmare) and really annoying stuns/disables ( Cold Snap, Shackleshot, Fiend's Grip), these heroes will kite the living crap out of you. Razor is an extremely movement speed dependent hero, or rather, movement speed is his only way to close in the gap between whoever he's trying to kill and himself.
If the enemy team has 2 or more of these heroes and unless you are involved in a training on how to control your rage, I recommend choosing another hero.
Special Mentions:
Clockwerk
Here we have the infamous Clockwerk. In the hands of a very capable player, you will be the only target for Power Cogs. By doing so, you need wait a stupid amount of time for his Cogs to end, while at the same time tank his Battery Assault. This is where a Black King Bar comes to mind, but this still does not prevent you being trapped in his Power Cogs. Since you cannot freely move around the teamfight, your potential to deal damage to the enemy heroes becomes completely countered, or at least severely reduced.
I know I have previously stated that Razor is very effective against right-click oriented heroes, but these heroes deserve special mentions:
Ursa
Ursa is able to deal a ridiculous amount of burst physical damage in a very short amount of time, making his threat to Razor akin to the burst nukers mentioned before. You would not have the opportunity to get a good Static Link off during an engagement if the Ursa goes straight for you.
Drow Ranger
In the same sense, Drow Ranger is another hero who can quickly deal intense amounts of physical DPS in a very short amount of time. In addition, her Silence will disable you ability to pull off any skills. With this considered, Razor is a deceptively skill-dependent hero and is very susceptible to silences without a Black King Bar or a Manta Style.
Juggernaut
Juggernaut in the hands of anyone with a brain will simply just Omnislash you, and you have no choice but to take it. That burst should either kill you, or take out a significant portion of your hp pool. So buy a Ghost Scepter. Problem solved! On the other hand, if the opposing Juggernaut is really bad, and you can tell if he decides to initiate you with Blade Fury, simply Static Link him because it goes through Magic Immunity.
Sniper
You can probably tell if the enemy team's Sniper is either someone who knows what he/she is doing, or a feeder. As a Dota II player looking to win most of your matches, never make the mistake of underestimating your opponents. Sniper is able to dish out heavy amounts of physical DPS like Drow Ranger, but from across the map, at least that's how I've sometimes felt. His range from Take Aim is ridiculous. You also will find it incredibly difficult in closing the distance between you and him, due to the constant mini-stun procs from his Headshot, and his 30% slow coming from Shrapnel. Once your hp is low enough, he can just Assassinate you. Be wary of initiating on Sniper and remember to bring Dust of Appearance or a Sentry Ward if he builds a Shadow Blade.
Tiny
Although Razor's main method to deal damage is by closing the distance, Tiny is simply much more deadly at close distances than Razor can be, at least for the most parts. His Avalanche+ Toss combo can instantly kill you or leave you with very little hp left. Again, Razor's main weakness lies in his inability to stand burst damage until he can farm up a Heart of Tarrasque to boost his tankability.
What do they all have in common? They are farm-dependent melee right clicking carries/semi-carries, with the exception of Lone Druid and Dragon Knight in his Elder Dragon Form. At just level 1, with only 20 mana cost on your Static Link, you can steal a maximum of 56 dmg. That is enough right click damage to last hit, deny and harass effectively, while at the same time making it absolute hell to last hit for the opponent.
Most of the heroes above will most likely be in the hard carry/hard farmer role in the enemy team, which means they are counted on by the enemy to carry their team to victory. This also means that they will most likely pick up a Black King Bar at some point in the game, or already possess a magic immunity ability such as Lifestealer's Rage and Juggernaut's Blade Fury in order to deal out their damage uninterrupted by most disables.
Razor's strongest feature is the fact that two of his abilities goes through any forms of Magic Immunity. Static Link will continue to drain damage from a hero who is currently Magic Immune or has just turned on his Black King Bar during its length. You may choose to all-chat while this is taking effect.
Eye of the Storm's damage is purely physical, which also means that it will go through Magic Immunity.
Because of his ability to completely screw over even the most farmed right-clicking carries, he is commonly referred to as the "Anti-Carry".
With a total of 21 games with Razor, my Win Rate with this hero with the play style my Guide has highlighted is 80.95%.
Now I know many of you are wondering why I have very few games with this hero. The reason why, despite having played Dota II for around 1.5 years, I only have total of 21 games is because, as I had stressed before, Razor is not a hero for every game. He is situational and requires careful consideration of both your team's line up as well as the enemy's. This is why Razor is a relatively high-skilled hero to play.
But don't let this deter you from how fun this hero is to play! Once you get into the feel of this hero and become accustomed to his unique and shocking (Pun-intended) play-style, he can easily dominate the game.
I cannot emphasize enough how successful and enjoyable it is to have Refresher Orb + Aghanim's Scpeter completed on this hero and have its fury unleashed upon the battle field. In order to better visualize it, here is a link to a first-hand gameplay of Razor at his finest:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSGTXkS1CxQ&list=TL1p8FN9fSHHMk4TMJAVMhT3hfFavnJ-sC (Don't worry, it is only 3:38 minutes long)
Yameteh of Zenith (at the time) really shows here how to effectively play a mid role Razor against Clockwerk, a melee hero, which greatly favors Razor. If you skip to 46:00, he has also made use of Refresher + Scepter build. So if you're looking for a professional's demonstration, this match best showcases Razor's play-style.
I hope this Guide has definitely cleared up most misconceptions about Razor and I hope, as a result, players will become much better at playing this amazingly fun hero!
If there are any significant mistakes or errors that captures your attention, please leave them at the comment section and I will asap look into them.
Introduction
Hello, my Dota II nickname is Sw00k1e and I have decided to write a guide for one of Dota II's most underrated heroes: Razor. I feel that not many players properly understand his unique play-style and how to secure victories with him.
Razor is an agility based semi-carry and a range hero that excels in the early game and mid game, but does tend to drop off in the late game, simply due to the fact that he is not a true hard carry such as Faceless Void or Phantom Assassin and cannot farm as fast as late-game heroes such as Anti-Mage with a Battle Fury and Shadow Fiend with his Shadow raze.
In the competitive scene, as well as in pubs, he should be a highly situational pick. He is not an ideal hero that fits nicely in any line-up due to his play-style, abilities and does not have an easily distinguishable role. This is why, before wanting to get straight into playing Razor, carefully decide if picking him in your team's current composition is a viable choice.
Razor IS
+A semi-carry
+A snowball hero
+Situationally picked for mid
+A teamfight hero
+Ability-Based hero First, Right-Clicking hero Second
Razor IS NOT
-A hard-carry
-A disabler
-A jungler
-A roamer
-A push-oriented hero
-A DPS Right Clicker
Role:
Before I discuss Razor's playstyle, skill builds and item builds, I think that the most important thing to cover first is WHEN to pick Razor. As I mentioned before, Razor is not your typical easily categorized support/carry/mid role hero.
He is not a straight up hard carry (Eg: Faceless Void or Phantom Assassin), nor a hardcore pusher (Eg: Nature's Prophet or Chen), nor a heavy disabler (Eg: Lion or Shadow Shaman).
The best way to describe him is that he is a semi-carry who has a high snowball-potential in the game and is also excellent at chasing as well as diving under the tower.
A semi-carry, like a carry, is able to positively increase its damage-dealing potential with a healthy progression of items. However, the main difference is that a carry simply can reach a much higher potential than a semi-carry would with the same amount of farm. In other words, late game hard carries will eventually outcarry semi-carries.
This is why Razor, in many aspects, is a snowball hero. A snowball hero is a hero that exceptionally and particularly benefits from having an item and level advantage over the enemy compared to other heroes that rely heavily on amassing several key items before becoming useful.
For example, Gyrocopter is a carry (if he is played as one) who is very item and level dependent. He is also quite squishy without a Black King Bar since as the main carry, he will be the highest priority target to disable by the enemy team. Therefore, he requires considerable space and time to farm up his few core items before being able to survive and significantly contribute in teamfights.
It's not that Snowball heroes are particularly item or level dependent, but more so that they absolutely need an advantage over the enemy team's heroes to be able to go for solo ganks or to have a huge teamgight presence. They simply cannot afford to be at anything but an advantage over the enemy team in order to take control of the game. Such heroes include Slark, Storm Spirit, and Queen of Pain. These heroes, like Razor, have the potential to snowball, and smart players will choose to do so in order to tip the game in their favour. They require a lower amount of farm, less time and items to be significant forces to win teamfights. Although this may not always be the case, due to other outside factors such as poor communication, poor decision-making or a crucial misplay, but in theory these heroes should come out on top during these exchanges.
Abilities:
Although this section will cover how you should utilize Razor's abilities, I will not be covering specific numerical values simply because you can find all that information elsewhere. (In fact Dotabuff already has that data)
Q Plasma Field
This is your primary nuking ability that you will spam out during teamfights, helping in pushes, or in lane to get some last hits from a safe distance. Be wary because Razor is a deceptively mana-hungry hero, in the early game at least. Remember that the field can hit an enemy hero twice.
W Static Link
This is what makes Razor seem like an "Anti-Carry" because you essentially steal the enemy hero's damage to add to your own. The mana cost is incredibly low, and you should try and latch on as long as possible in order to give you a significant advantage in last hitting, denying and harassing over the enemy hero.
Important Note: The damage added is counted as additional damage and NOT your base damage. This basically means that illusions will not benefit from the bonus damage.
E Unstable Current
Your only passive. It passively increases your movement speed and any single target spell or ability on to you by the enemy will cause them to take magic damage and slow their movement speed by a significant amount. A very handy passive which overall benefits your surviability.
R Eye of the Storm
Due to its relatively low cooldown, (80s-70s-60s), you should always make sure to activate it before going into a team fight or gank.
Skill Builds:
1) Offlane/Hardlane
Picking a Razor means that your team already has a safe-lane carry who will be taking bot (Radiant) or top (Dire). Unless of course if your team decides to go for an aggressive tri-lane, in which case you will go to safe-lane instead. Use the following Skill Build:
W-Q-W-Q-Q-R-Q-W-W-E-R-E-E-E-Stats-R-Stats
You will probably be facing up against a dual-lane or a tri-lane consisting of the enemy safe-lane carry and the supports. In this match-up, it is incredibly difficult and risky to attempt a full duration Static Link onto the carry since you would need to keep a close distance as well as take the harassment. This is why you will prioritize Plasma Field over Static Link as by the time your team is rotating around and pushing Tier 1 towers, you would be offering more damage and therefore more team-fight presence with your maxed out nuke. Remember to always get your ultimate at lvls 6,11 and 16.
2) Solo Mid
W-Q-W-Q-W-R-W-Q-Q-E-R-E-E-E-Stats-R-Stats
The reason why Razor is sometimes picked competitively to go into the middle lane is to counter the enemy's mid hero who is picked for its notorious consistently to win any match-up, such as Outworld Devourer and Viper. In these supposedly unfavorable match-ups, Razor will excel and win his lane against them, simply due to Static Link.
Outworld Devourer only wins his lane consistently because of his ability to spam Astral Imprisonment and gain a huge increase in base damage, therefore able to gain much more last hits and denies. In addition, any attempts to spam out abilities become neutralised because against an Outworld Devourer, the hero will constantly lack the mana pool to do so. This is especially brutal against int-based mid laners such as Queen of Pain, Invoker and Puck.
Since Razor only relies on his cheap Static Link to farm and harass decently as well as steal his heavily reliant base damage, he is an ideal counter to Outworld Devourer at the mid lane.
For the same reasons, Viper will find winning his mid lane much harder against a Razor match up due to the simple fact that Viper is essentially nothing without his auto attacks. Because of Viper's awful 285 movespeed, he cannot outrun Razor and is therefore forced to have his damage drained every time with Static Link if he moves too far out of tower range.
Because you will be using Static Link every time it is off cooldown to last hit, harass, and deny, you will be maxing out Static Link by level 7 and prioritizing Plasma Field second, with least priority in Unstable Current. Always skill your ultimate, Eye of the Storm at the usual levels 6, 11 and 16.
Just to emphasize, while it does sound as if Razor is a pretty decent mid laner, there are far better heroes in terms of ganking potential such as Queen of Pain, pushing power such as Dragon Knight and mobility such as Night Stalker who all outclass Razor. Razor is a weak pusher, very immobile before putting points up in Unstable Current and has no disable to contribute in ganks. This is why he is such a situational pick. Preferably against Outworld Devourer or Viper.
In order to adjust to this inflexible playstyle, you are required to win the lane against specifically chosen unfavorable match-ups, farm well and help push Tier 1 Towers with the rest of your team once the laning stages finish.
Your team should not be counting on you to make frequent rotations to gank, since the time you take to move around the map could much more efficiently be spent trying to farm up your core items and shut-down the other mid laner, who if left unpressured will become powerhouses later on.
If you plan on taking a more active role which means committing to frequent rotations to the side lanes to grab kills or to simply assist, you should definitely purchase a Bottle to sustain yourself in lane and store runes. If you are not having any problems with harass, you may choose to skip the Bottle for a faster accumulation for your core items.
Item Build:
Starting Items:
3 Iron Branches
1 Slippers of Agility
1 Tango
1 Ring of Protection
Cost: 600 gold
These items are best for an offlaner Razor. The stats from the Iron Branch expands your hp and mana pool very efficiently and you will later proceed to finish a Magic Wand. The Ring of Protection will be converted into a Ring of Basilius at your earliest convenience as the static (pun all the way intended) mana regen of 0.65 is extremely effective for a low int hero such as Razor and the +6dmg you gain also benefits your ability to last hit, deny and harass. The additional +3 armor is also useful for your ability to deal with the harass damage. Also, remember to turn your Ring of Basilius on during pushes in order to give the creeps +2 armor so that they can withstand just that much more incoming damage.
If you know that you will be going up against a heavy-harassing lane, feel free to substitute the Slippers of Agility for an extra Healing Salve.
Early Game:
Magic Wand
Boots of Speed
Ring of Aquila
Bracer
Try to farm up these crucial stat items during the laning stage, in order for you to survive ganks and spam out your abilities during pushes and team fights. A mana-empty Razor might as well just uninstall Dota II.
The Bracer and upgrading your Ring of Basilius into a Ring of Aquila help you bulk up your hp and boost your mana pool since survivability and ability spammability determines your overall teamfight presence.
Remember to turn on your Ring of Aquila during pushes to give that +2 armor to creeps.
Boots of Choice:
Power Treads
Phase Boots
Honestly speaking, I find both choice of boots to be equally effective. I would recommend getting Power Treads if you are facing heavy harass and burst damage, in other words: if you are finding it difficult to stay alive. The extra +8 strength equates to +152 hp increase, which is a pretty huge increase in the early game. The +30 attack speed also allows you to get that 1 extra right click with that stolen damage.
However, if you are noticing that you find it difficult to catch up to the enemy heroes, purchase Phase Boots as the +12% movement speed buff is further complemented by your movement speed bonus from Unstable Current. I guess it's all down to player preference.
Core Items:
Drum of Endurance
Aghanim's Scepter
Yasha
Vitality Booster
Proceed to upgrade your bracer to a Drum of Endurance as it is an extremely efficient stat boosting item. The movement speed and attack speed it provides is also a great teamfighting aura.
Another key item that really works well with Razor is Yasha. More movement speed, an agility boost and faster attack speed. You can choose to later upgrade to a Sange and Yasha or a Manta Style, depending on the situation of course.
The reason why I had included a casual Vitality Booster here was because I feel this item is very cost-effective for a great chunk of hp (+250 hp for only 1100 gold) to be added. Since Razor's survivability is absolutely paramount to how successfully your team's teamfight will go. This also prepares you for late game as you can choose to turn that into a Heart of Tarrasque.
For Razor to deal a significant amount of damage in teamfights during the Mid Game (25-40 minutes), he needs to make extensive usage of his Ultimate, Eye of the Storm, as by this point, his Plasma Field will deal very little nuking power and it becomes riskier and more life-threatening to idly stand next to the enemy carry and use Static Link. In fact, at this point you should try NOT to get balls-deep inside the middle of a teamfight and instead wait for your ally to initiate for you.
Aghanim's Scepter gives Razor amazing hp and mana pool boost, on top of also upgrading his Eye of the Storm. Why should you consider this item? Is the 4200 gold really worth it? Here is a numerical comparison of pre- Aghanim's Scepter and post- Aghanim's Scepter Eye of the Storm:
-lvl 3 Pre-Aghanim's Scepter Eye of the Storm DPS (Damage Per Second)
=62.5 (Damage Per Strike) / 0.5 (Cooldown of Strike) = 125 (Damage Per Second)
-lvl 3 Post-Aghanim's Scepter Eye of the Storm DPS (Damage Per Second)
=62.5 (Damage Per Strike) / 0.35* (Cooldown of Strike) = 178.57 (Damage Per Second)
That is a DPS increase of 42.86%.
Bear in mind that each strike at a ridiculously low 0.35cd reduces a hero's armor value by 1, and the fact that each strike is physical damage. In other words, each strike will do a bit more damage compared to the last strike.
Assuming somehow you were in a position to deal out Eye of the Storm's full DPS in the 30s duration, theoretically you would deal a total of 30*178.57 = 5357.10 physical damage. Let's put it this way. Most heroes at around 25-40 minutes have less than 1500 hp. Good luck to anyone misfortunate enough to tank that.
So, is the 4200 gold worth it? I think the math speaks for itself.
Late Game:
By this point, Razor will drop off compared to other hard carries. Here is how to counter that completely.
Refresher Orb
Cost: 5225 gold
This may seem extremely unorthodox and even ridiculous. Is it though?
Refresher Orb allows Eye of the Storm to be cast twice, on top of one another. This means you can have two Eye of the Storm active at the same time. Since Eye of the Storm prioritises the unit with the lowest hp, both will be striking the same unit until that until has either died or hacked.
Each strike lowers a hero's armor by 1, so it follows that two strikes will lower a hero's armor by 2.
The DPS for Eye of the Storm with an Aghanim's Scepter upgrade is: 178.57.
The DPS with a Refresher Orb, or double Eye of the Storm is: 357.14.
I will go on record (you are free to check out my stats) to say this:
I have never lost a Dota II match with Razor with both Aghanim's Scepter and Refresher Orb in my inventory.
Other Late Game Luxuries:
Assault Cuirass
Black King Bar
Butterfly
Heaven's Halberd
Heart of Tarrasque
Desolator
Satanic
Need more armor, but none for your enemies? Assault Cuirass is your choice. This item not only makes sure very few physical attacks will harm you, but also synergizes incredibly effectively with your Eye of the Storm. It also boosts your allies' armor value by 5.
Once your enemies realize just how f**king painful your ultimate is now that you have an Aghanim's Scepter, they will do whatever it takes to focus you down with every form of disable, hex or stuns. Be smart and buy a Black King Bar of your own to not be disabled during teamfights.
You may choose to skip it entirely if there aren't any significant disables that can severely restrict your movement. This would only apply if somehow you were facing a team consisting of right-clicking carries with no stuns or disables. (Sigh, if only that could happen in real-life.) Chances are you will be facing high-level players who would try their best to counter you heavily. So be safe, buy a Black King Bar.
Butterfly pretty much makes you invulnerable to auto-attackers without a Monkey King Bar. Feel free to "laugh out loud" when RNGesus grants you 10 misses in a row against the enemy carry's auto-attacks. Good luck trying to farm 6000 gold though.
Again, more negative armor synergizes with your Eye of the Storm which makes Desolator a decent pickup. However, only purchase it if no-one else in your team has one and if personal survivability is not an issue. Desolator does absolutely nothing for you hp or armor. It just increases your damage and kill potential. Considering that, it is still quite a risky pick-up.
Heaven's Halberd gives you + 380hp with 25% evasion, making you much harder to kill for such a efficient cost. If you do pick up a Sange and Yasha previously at some point, I recommend you to disassemble it and build it into a Heaven's Halberd. Its active, "disarm", is also highly effective at shutting down a particularly nasty enemy carry. Pick this item up, if your team needs another disable, you have not already picked up a Butterfly since the evasion only stacks diminishingly, and you need more survivability.
As I had mentioned before, the ultimate item for survivability is a Heart of Tarrasque. The hp it brings cannot be obtained by any other single item in the game (+1060 hp), and you never have to return to your fountain again to heal. I would include Heart of Tarrasque as a core item but I still think that you should have definitely ended the game earlier before needing for such late game items. With this godly item, burst damage becomes mere mosquito bites and you are able to confidently walk in, balls-deep inside enemy territory.
If you really want to be impossible to kill, consider purchasing the unholy powers of Satanic, an item with an active so bullshit, even Faceless Void's Backtrack seems plausible.
Situational Items:
Mekansm
Pipe of Insight
Manta Style
Sange & Yasha
Eye of Skadi
If your team does not have a hero that could farm up a Mekansm or a Pipe of Insight because they are either relying on trying to build another crucial item and therefore cannot contribute into building either one of those items, or because they simply cannot farm as quickly as you can, you should consider building at least one of these great team-fight items. The base hp regen you gain from them greatly assist your sustainability during all stages of the game and provide to be great assets to your team whether your team is pushing or team-fighting.
Sange and Yasha is a really great early to mid game pickup as it boosts your movement speed, attack damage, attack speed and gives you a slow for extra disable. However, this item falls off as a mid to late game item since it fails to offer you a significant boost to anything other than movement speed. In other words, there are plenty of other items that outclass Sange and Yasha in granting more dps, hp or attack speed for its relatively inefficient cost of 4100 gold.
Manta Style seems like a great item on any agility hero but the problem is Razor, as mentioned before, has awful stats and his illusions have very little potential in split pushing or providing dps.
I would only recommend Manta Style if you are constantly the target of a silence from either an ability, such as Drow Ranger's Silence, Silencer's Global Silence or Skywrath Mage's Ancient Seal, or from Orchid Malevolence.
Pick up a Mjollnir if you really want to see more flashy lightnings.
Pick up an Eye of Skadi if you need an extra disable against a key Black King Bar using hard carry such as Phantom Assassin or Drow Ranger and want to slow them down. The cold effect from Eye of Skadi goes through Magic Immunity and is quite effective against right-clickers. In addition the +25 stats are really nice and will boost your overall survivability by granting +475hp and +3.5 armor.
However, if straight up hp is all you care about, I would definitely recommend spending that 5.75k gold on a Heart of Tarrasque. Only pick up Eye of Skadi if you require a Black King Bar piercing disable or if you're filthy rich and need to show off that net worth to those peasants still with Bracer.
NEVER EVER EVER EVER GET:
Vanguard
Cost: 2225 gold.
I have no idea, no level of understanding at how this item is considered by Dota II's suggested items a CORE on Razor.
The only condition in which I would reconsider this item as a viable choice is if it was able to be diassembled so that the Vitality Booster could be built into a Heart of Tarassque and the Ring of Health into a Pipe of Insight. For something worth 2.25k gold, it offers absolutely nothing for your offensive potential and on range heroes, it is especially worse since the damage block is halved. You may as well have spent that gold buying a Hand of Midas and not transmute anything for 20 minutes.
In Conclusion, Vanguard offers an incredibly poor trade off in getting you the basic hp and regen for its price.
A much more cost-effective hp boosting item at a similar price is a Sange, which is 2050 gold and provides +304 hp as well as give you +10 damage. The damage block is really negligible on range hero.
Problems You may Encounter: (Ones I have definitely experienced)
-Item Progression
It's really hard to farm well on Razor. Unless your team dominates the early-mid game and take fast Tier 1s, you will find severe difficulty in catching up with farm. His attack speed is slow, Plasma Field has a relatively high CD compared to QOP's Scream of Pain or Shadow Fiend's Shadow Razes. This is why I would not recommend this hero to newer players, as your success with Razor heavily relies on the early game and laning. How well you last hit and deny creeps from your opponents is a crucial factor. If you fall off, as a Snowball hero, you will find it extremely difficult becoming a useful member of the team with very little item and levels.
-Mana-Management
Razor has a very poor stat gain, this is why you build so many stat items early on to compensate for that. Constantly spamming out Plasma Field in the early game will drain you pretty quickly. Try to time it so that it both last hits at least 2 creeps and harass the enemy hero. This may take extensive practice.
-Focused Down + Positioning
Once you switch on your Ultimate, you will most likely be the priority target in team-fights. This is why positioning as well movement speed is such a crucial factor in your survival. DO NOT initiate the fight. Let someone else in your team initiate or wait for the enemy to make the first move. It is important that you survive in the team-fight, as dying frequently will really shut you down heavily.
Team Composition:
DO NOT PICK Razor IF YOUR TEAM:
-Lacks hard disables (Stuns, Magic Immunity-piercing disables, Hexes, etc.)
-Lacks a hard carry
-Already has a mid and an offlaner, that both lacks late game potential.
-Lacks supports
-Lacks gankers with any disables (Silences, slows, stuns, etc.)
-Lacks any significant pushing power
DO NOT PICK Razor IF THE ENEMY'S TEAM:
-Has heroes with high amounts of burst damage and nuking potential
-Has heroes with a YOLO pushing strategy or are split-push oriented. (Mass Necronomicon, Heroes with summons)
-Has heroes that can easily kite you
-Has heroes that can easily control and limit your movement
Burst Nukers:
Zues
Lina
Lion
Skywrath Mage
Nyx Assassin
These guys can just instagib you and take you out of the equation during teamfights, of course assuming that they are high-skilled players. Razor NEEDS to survive in the team fight as long as possible to first steal the main carry's damage with Static Link AND to deal damage through his Eye of the Storm with any additional right clicks. Any amount of burst damage usually makes sure he cannot do any of those things.
Kiters (Movement Restricting Abilities)
Venomancer
Shadow Demon
Invoker
Bane
WindRanger
With their ridiculous amount of crippling slows ( Venomous Gale, Demonic Purge, Poison Attack), movement restricting disables ( Tornado, Disruption, Nightmare) and really annoying stuns/disables ( Cold Snap, Shackleshot, Fiend's Grip), these heroes will kite the living crap out of you. Razor is an extremely movement speed dependent hero, or rather, movement speed is his only way to close in the gap between whoever he's trying to kill and himself.
If the enemy team has 2 or more of these heroes and unless you are involved in a training on how to control your rage, I recommend choosing another hero.
Special Mentions:
Clockwerk
Here we have the infamous Clockwerk. In the hands of a very capable player, you will be the only target for Power Cogs. By doing so, you need wait a stupid amount of time for his Cogs to end, while at the same time tank his Battery Assault. This is where a Black King Bar comes to mind, but this still does not prevent you being trapped in his Power Cogs. Since you cannot freely move around the teamfight, your potential to deal damage to the enemy heroes becomes completely countered, or at least severely reduced.
I know I have previously stated that Razor is very effective against right-click oriented heroes, but these heroes deserve special mentions:
Ursa
Ursa is able to deal a ridiculous amount of burst physical damage in a very short amount of time, making his threat to Razor akin to the burst nukers mentioned before. You would not have the opportunity to get a good Static Link off during an engagement if the Ursa goes straight for you.
Drow Ranger
In the same sense, Drow Ranger is another hero who can quickly deal intense amounts of physical DPS in a very short amount of time. In addition, her Silence will disable you ability to pull off any skills. With this considered, Razor is a deceptively skill-dependent hero and is very susceptible to silences without a Black King Bar or a Manta Style.
Juggernaut
Juggernaut in the hands of anyone with a brain will simply just Omnislash you, and you have no choice but to take it. That burst should either kill you, or take out a significant portion of your hp pool. So buy a Ghost Scepter. Problem solved! On the other hand, if the opposing Juggernaut is really bad, and you can tell if he decides to initiate you with Blade Fury, simply Static Link him because it goes through Magic Immunity.
Sniper
You can probably tell if the enemy team's Sniper is either someone who knows what he/she is doing, or a feeder. As a Dota II player looking to win most of your matches, never make the mistake of underestimating your opponents. Sniper is able to dish out heavy amounts of physical DPS like Drow Ranger, but from across the map, at least that's how I've sometimes felt. His range from Take Aim is ridiculous. You also will find it incredibly difficult in closing the distance between you and him, due to the constant mini-stun procs from his Headshot, and his 30% slow coming from Shrapnel. Once your hp is low enough, he can just Assassinate you. Be wary of initiating on Sniper and remember to bring Dust of Appearance or a Sentry Ward if he builds a Shadow Blade.
Tiny
Although Razor's main method to deal damage is by closing the distance, Tiny is simply much more deadly at close distances than Razor can be, at least for the most parts. His Avalanche+ Toss combo can instantly kill you or leave you with very little hp left. Again, Razor's main weakness lies in his inability to stand burst damage until he can farm up a Heart of Tarrasque to boost his tankability.
Heroes Razor Excels Against:
Lycan
Faceless Void
Phantom Assassin
Anti-Mage
Lone Druid
Slardar
Alchemist
Lifestealer
Rikimaru
Spectre
Dragon Knight
What do they all have in common? They are farm-dependent melee right clicking carries/semi-carries, with the exception of Lone Druid and Dragon Knight in his Elder Dragon Form. At just level 1, with only 20 mana cost on your Static Link, you can steal a maximum of 56 dmg. That is enough right click damage to last hit, deny and harass effectively, while at the same time making it absolute hell to last hit for the opponent.
Most of the heroes above will most likely be in the hard carry/hard farmer role in the enemy team, which means they are counted on by the enemy to carry their team to victory. This also means that they will most likely pick up a Black King Bar at some point in the game, or already possess a magic immunity ability such as Lifestealer's Rage and Juggernaut's Blade Fury in order to deal out their damage uninterrupted by most disables.
Razor's strongest feature is the fact that two of his abilities goes through any forms of Magic Immunity. Static Link will continue to drain damage from a hero who is currently Magic Immune or has just turned on his Black King Bar during its length. You may choose to all-chat while this is taking effect.
Eye of the Storm's damage is purely physical, which also means that it will go through Magic Immunity.
Because of his ability to completely screw over even the most farmed right-clicking carries, he is commonly referred to as the "Anti-Carry".
Final Notes:
My current stats (February 22nd 2014) for Razor is:
(http://dotabuff.com/players/83474048/matches?hero=razor&game_mode=&match_type=real)
17 Wins
4 Losses
With a total of 21 games with Razor, my Win Rate with this hero with the play style my Guide has highlighted is 80.95%.
Now I know many of you are wondering why I have very few games with this hero. The reason why, despite having played Dota II for around 1.5 years, I only have total of 21 games is because, as I had stressed before, Razor is not a hero for every game. He is situational and requires careful consideration of both your team's line up as well as the enemy's. This is why Razor is a relatively high-skilled hero to play.
But don't let this deter you from how fun this hero is to play! Once you get into the feel of this hero and become accustomed to his unique and shocking (Pun-intended) play-style, he can easily dominate the game.
I cannot emphasize enough how successful and enjoyable it is to have Refresher Orb + Aghanim's Scpeter completed on this hero and have its fury unleashed upon the battle field. In order to better visualize it, here is a link to a first-hand gameplay of Razor at his finest:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSGTXkS1CxQ&list=TL1p8FN9fSHHMk4TMJAVMhT3hfFavnJ-sC
(Don't worry, it is only 3:38 minutes long)
Another video is this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uc2ffS7k0-A
This match was Game 2 of Fnatic vs Zenith at The Internationl 3 (Group A)
Yameteh of Zenith (at the time) really shows here how to effectively play a mid role Razor against Clockwerk, a melee hero, which greatly favors Razor. If you skip to 46:00, he has also made use of Refresher + Scepter build. So if you're looking for a professional's demonstration, this match best showcases Razor's play-style.
I hope this Guide has definitely cleared up most misconceptions about Razor and I hope, as a result, players will become much better at playing this amazingly fun hero!
If there are any significant mistakes or errors that captures your attention, please leave them at the comment section and I will asap look into them.
Other Criticisms/Comments are welcome as well.