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Gameplay
The Fortress of Flares lay abandoned within the Wailing Mountains, its training halls deserted and its courtyard covered with leaves and dust. A topaz kettle filled with old ash, leftovers of a pyre for the warrior-poet Xin, sits atop a dais in its locked temple. Xin taught his acolytes the Bonds of the Guardian Flame for three generations, a set of mantras designed to prepare the mind and body for the harsh reality beyond the castle walls.
However, by teaching a warrior's way, he attracted a warrior's foes, and Xin was bested and died in his autumn. His supporters dispersed like the wind. Yet, as the years passed and his followers became descendants, his teachings persisted in a quiet whisper and deed. The Burning Celestial, inquisitive element of fire, threw himself to the Fortress of Flares and reignited the pyre ash, touched by the teacher's lingering legacy. From the smoldering ashes sprang an image of Xin, wreathed in flames, his thoughtful countenance ready to train and teach, and to spread the flames of knowledge to all who seek its them.
In the game, Xin, the Ember Spirit, is a melee agility hero with a lot of mobility and versatility. His powers make him a slippery foe who can dance about his enemies at will. His skill set allows him to launch aggressive attacks on opposing heroes, as he may use Sleight of Fist to approach them from afar and tie them down with Searing Chains. Flame Guard deals damage in a limited region around him while also shielding him from magic nukes, making him a formidable opponent for enemy casters. Finally, his Fire Remnant magic allows him to engage, flee, or move about the map instantly, allowing him to emerge and vanish when the adversary least expects it.
Despite having a good health pool early on, he lacks armor and a large mana pool, rendering him vulnerable to physical damage if caught or disabled. Ember Spirit, on the other hand, may engage his adversaries with his speed and disables, dominating the battlefield with blinding speed, with the right item choices and discretion. Despite his limited presence in the early and mid game, Xin eventually develops into a dangerous opponent on his own, demonstrating to both friends and foes that there is still plenty to learn.
This is his in-game description:
“Ember Spirit is a fast and evasive enemy who attacks all around foes in quick succession and binds them up with scorching chains. Few can evade or grab his flame as he rushes across the battlefield to one of his exploding fragments.”
Ability Builds
Level 0/1/15/25/30
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Health: 200/620/1340/2100/2400;
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Health: regen 0.75/2.85/6.49/10.29/11.79;
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Mana: 75/315/675/1083/1239;
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Mana regen: 0/1/2.54/4.24/4.89;
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Armor: -1/2.67/9.43/16.27/19.02;
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Att/sec: 0.59/0.72/0.96/1.2/1.29;
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Damage: 33‒37/55‒59/95‒99/136‒140/153‒157;
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Magic resistance: 25%;
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Movement speed: 305;
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Attack speed: 100;
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Turn rate: 0.6;
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Vision range: 1800/800;
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Attack range: 150;
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Projectile speed: Instant;
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Attack animation: 0.4+0.3;
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Base attack time: 1.7;
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Damage block: 16;
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Collision size: 24;
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Legs: 2;
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Gib type: Fire.
Talents
Tips & Tactics
General
Ember Spirit is an agility hero, but despite his reasonable strength growth, he has relatively low armor and weak agility growth, making him vulnerable to physical damage. As a result, to avoid strikes, disjoint missiles, and evade counterattack, he relies on his spells and mobility. Because of his reliance on casting, he is vulnerable to disables, especially stuns and silences, which prevent him from escaping damage that his limited HP pool is ill-equipped to handle.
This skill build can serve as a general guide to help counter his weaknesses, but ultimately you can vary the builds depending on the team and the situation of your match. Generally speaking, consider taking more points in Searing Chains if the enemy is faster than you and that you need a reliable form of lockdown to stop them from escaping.
Taking a value point in Sleight of Fist in order to dodge spells such as Lightning Storm, Shadow Strike, Dragon Slave and more can help a lot in lane. If your enemy has a lot of magical nukes, make sure to max Flame Guard.
Ember Spirit can be built into either a magical or a physical carry. As a magical carry, he comes online early since abilities output high magical damage. Octarine Core and talents increase uptime of disables in Searing Chains and mobility in Fire Remnant, thus making him more survivable. Radiance increases his survivability by passive lifestealing using Bloodstone.
As a physical carry, he shines late game with Sleight of Fist enhanced with damage items, and against a high number of enemy units when having Battle Fury. Consider defensive items like Black King Bar, as physical Ember Spirit is not as survivable as the magical version.
Abilities
Searing Chains
Searing Chains (No Target, Magical)
Effect: Ember Spirit sends out fiery bolas that wrap around adjacent foes, immobilizing them and causing damage every second.
Cast Animation: 0+0.5
Search Radius: 400
Max Targets: 2 (Talent 3)
Damage per Second: 50/70/90/110
Duration: 1.5/2/2.5/3 (Talent 2.5/3/3.5/4)
Cooldown: 13/12/11/10
Mana: 80/90/100/110
Does not pierce spell immunity. Root effect persists and attempts to damage if debuff was placed before spell immunity and when not dispelled.
Notes:
Searing Chains interrupts Ember Spirit's channeling abilities upon cast.
Despite the visual effects, the Searing Chains' effects are applied instantly and cannot be disjointed.
The units are selected randomly within its range. There are no priorities.
Roots the targets, preventing them from moving and casting certain mobility abilities. Provides True Sight over the targets, but only when the targets were not invisible or within a fade time upon cast.
Does not target invisible units or units inside the Fog of War.
Deals damage in 0.5-second intervals, starting 0.5 seconds after cast, resulting in 3/4/5/6 (Talent 5/6/7/8) damage instances.
Can deal up to 75/140/225/330 (Talent 125/210/315/440) damage to each unit.
Sleight of Fist
Sleight of Fist (Point Target/Physical)
Effect: An ally blessed with Shallow Grave, no matter how close to death, cannot die while under its protection.
Cast Animation: 0+0.7
Cast Range: 700
Effect Radius: 250/350/450/550
Jump Interval: 0.2
Hero Attack Damage Bonus: 40/80/120/160 (Talent 105/145/185/225)
Creep Attack Damage Reduction: 40%
Talent Number of Charges: 2
Talent Charge Replenish Time: 18/14/10/6
Cooldown: 18/14/10/6 (Talent 0)
Mana: 50
Notes:
Ember Spirit is invulnerable during Sleight of Fist. Does not disjoint projectiles upon cast.
During Sleight of Fist, this ability is inactive, so that it cannot be recast until the current cast finishes. Ember Spirit is only disarmed during Sleight of Fist, so actions besides attacking can be performed normally during it.
Upon cast, all targets within the area are marked. A flaming sword appears above them as an indicator, which lasts until they get hit. Sleight of Fist has no range limit. Once a target is marked, it cannot escape Sleight of Fist with distance. Does not affect invisible or attack immune units. When a marked unit turns invisible or attack immune, it gets fully skipped on its turn. Fully affects units in the Fog of War. Fogged units get marked on cast, and get hit as well.
Jumps in 0.2-second intervals. The jumps are random between all marked units, there are no priorities.
On each jump, Ember Spirit is positioned 50 range away from his target, on a line between the target and the cast location of Sleight of Fist.
Causes Ember Spirit perform an instant attack on each jump against the targets. These instant attacks can proc any attack modifiers and on-hit effects normally. They do not have True Strike. If Ember Spirit is disarmed, no instant attack is performed on the jump. The instant attacks of Sleight of Fist do not break Smoke of Deceit's invisibility.
After all marked targets have been slashed, Ember Spirit returns to the position he had upon casting Sleight of Fist. That position is marked by a fiery replica of Ember Spirit for the duration.
Casting Activate Fire Remnant cancels Sleight of Fist. However, other sources of Forced Movement do not.
Xin's Sleight of Fist attacks originate in the direction from which he cast the spell.
Xin can cast spells and use items during this skill.
Xin can place buffs and trigger chance effects (like Bash) on each attack.
Disarming Xin causes Sleight of Fist to deal no damage.
A temporary remnant appears where Xin cast it, showing his return location for when the ability ends. This remnant is merely a visual indicator and has no interaction with his ultimate.
Does not hit invisible units.
Xin cannot cast this skill while rooted.
Flame Guard
Flame Guard (No Target/Magical)
Effect: Ember Spirit creates a ring of fire around himself that eats all incoming magic damage and leaves him uninjured. While Flame Guard is active, it does damage every second in a radius around Ember Spirit. The damage is also lost if the shield is broken.
Cast Animation: 0+0.6
Damage Radius: 400
Damage per Second: 25/35/45/55 (Talent 75/85/95/105)
Magical Damage Absorbed: 110/240/370/500 (Talent 390/520/650/780)
Duration: 11/14/17/20
Cooldown: 35
Mana: 80/90/100/110
Notes:
Flame Guard interrupts Ember Spirit's channeling abilities upon cast.
Deals 5/7/9/11 (Talent 15/17/19/21) damage in 0.2-second intervals, starting 0.2 seconds after cast. Can deal a total of 275/490/765/1100 (Talent 825/1190/1615/2100) damage to a single unit (before reductions), assuming a max duration Flame Guard.
Blocks damage before any reductions, except Mana Shield.
Only blocks magical damage, coming from abilities and attacks. Does not block any physical or pure damage.
Recasting Flame Guard refreshes the buff and resets the barrier's absorb capacity.
Does not stack with other magical damage barriers. If multiple sources of barriers are active on a unit, all of them lose capacity from the same absorbed damage instance. However, if a damage instance is greater than the capacity of all barriers individually, the damage gets blocked as if the barriers were one barrier with combined capacity.
Fire Remnant
Fire Remnant (Point Target)
Effect: Xin gathers the energy needed to construct a Fire Remnant. The secondary ability allows you to choose a location that is closest to the Remnant of your choice. Xin will then run forth, going through each relic one by one until he reaches the one he wants. Each Remnant you pass over causes it to detonate, causing damage to those in its immediate vicinity.
Cast Animation: 0+0.53
Cast Range: 1400 (With Aghanim's Scepter 3000)
Remnant Travel Speed: 250% (With Aghanim's Scepter 500%)
Remnant Duration: 45
Number of Charges: 3 (With Aghanim's Scepter 5)
Charge Replenish Time: 38 (Talent 26)
- With Aghanim's Shard Enemy Death Radius: 400
- With Aghanim's Shard Damage Radius: 600
- With Aghanim's Shard Damage per Second: 45
- With Aghanim's Shard Damage Aura Linger Duration: 0.5
- Cooldown: 0
- Aghanim's Scepter upgrade: Increases cast range, initial remnant speed, and maximum charges.
- Aghanim's Shard upgrade: Fire Remnants deal 45 damage per second in a 600 AoE around them. If an enemy hero dies within 400 range of Ember Spirit, a Fire Remnant charge will be replenished.
Notes:
Leveling this ability automatically levels Activate Fire Remnant as well.
Ember Spirit gets all 3 charges immediately upon learning Fire Remnant. Acquiring Aghanim's Scepter the first time instantly grants 2 charges as well. This only happens once, so re-acquiring it does not grant them again.
Fire Remnants move to their targeted location at a speed of 250% (Upgradable by Aghanim's Scepter. 500%) of Ember Spirit's movement speed. The movement speed is set upon cast and does not adapt.
Since Fire Remnants last for 45 seconds and the replenish time is 38 (Talent 26) seconds, it is possible to have 4 (Talent 4) (Upgradable by Aghanim's Scepter. 6, Talent 6) remnants up at a time.
Every time a Fire Remnant is placed, Ember Spirit gets a status buff, showing the duration of the remnant. The status buff disappears once the Remnant expires or is used.
Fire Remnants are visible to everyone. They do not grant any vision and cannot be seen when sent into the Fog of War.
Fire Remnants deal no damage when they expire.
With Aghanim's Shard, Fire Remnants deal 22.5 damage in 0.5-second intervals, starting 0.5 seconds after receiving the debuff. The fire remnants start dealing damage as soon as they are created, so they already deal damage while traveling towards their destination. The damage from multiple remnants with overlapping areas do not stack. Can deal up to 2047.5 damage within 600 radius for the entire duration. The damage is sourced to Ember Spirit, and not to the remnants themselves. The damage is provided by an aura, it's debuff lingers for 0.5 seconds.
With Aghanim's Shard, any enemy hero kill (including clones, excluding illusions and allies) done by Ember Spirit replenish a Fire Remnant charge. This also happens whenever an enemy hero dies within 400 range of him. Denies do not count. A charge is replenished even if the killed hero has Reincarnation. If Ember Spirit dies, he leaves behind a Fire Remnant at his death location.
Activate Fire Remnant
Activate Fire Remnant (Point Target)
Effect: You dash past all other Fire Remnants until you reach the one you've chosen, bursting it for area of effect damage.
Cast Animation: 0+1.07
Cast Range: Global
Remnant Damage Radius: 450
Remnant Damage: 100/200/300
Cooldown: 0
Mana: 150 (With Aghanim's Scepter 75)
- Aghanim's Scepter upgrade: Activate Fire Remnant costs less mana.
Notes:
This ability level scales together with Fire Remnant's level.
Ember Spirit moves to a Fire Remnant with a speed of 1300 if it can be reached within 1 second at that speed, or reaches it in 0.4 seconds. Ember Spirit is invulnerable while traveling to a Fire Remnant.
Does not disjoint projectiles upon cast.
The mana cost of Activate Fire Remnant is always the same, regardless of how many remnants he is traveling to with a single cast.
While traveling, Ember Spirit cannot turn, but can attack, cast abilities, and use items (still requires facing his targets).
Forced Movement cancels the movement of Activate Fire Remnant and removes its invulnerability. However, the remnants still get used up and Ember Spirit gets instantly moved to the last one's location once it explodes.
Always travels to the Fire Remnant furthest away from the targeted point first.
Ember Spirit damages enemies within a 225 radius around him as he travels, and in a 450 radius around a remnant upon reaching it. Enemies may only be damaged once per remnant, either by Ember Spirit as he travels towards the remnant, or by him upon reaching the remnant.
Destroys trees Ember Spirit collides with while traveling to a remnant. Though at high traveling speeds, some trees may be skipped and not destroyed.