Gemini Guide

Guide brought to you by Mrhon2
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Maliken, the fallen King

Skill Build

1. Sword throw
2. Sword of the Damned
3. Sword throw
4. Sword of the Damned
5. Sword throw
6. Possession
7. Sword throw
8. Sword of the Damned
9. Sword of the Damned
10. Hellbourne Zeal
11. Possession
12-14. Hellbourne Zeal
15. Stats
16. Possession
17+ Stats

Justification

Level 1 Sword throw is a lot more useful than a Level 1 Sword of the Damned. Here are a few reasons why:
• Sword throw has a 20% slow and a blink
• Excellent for a Blood Lust attempt
• Escape a level 1 enemy gank
• The range increases by a decent difference so it increases mobility
So now we know why we level Sword throw first.

Why Hellbourne Zeal at Level 10?
By level 10, you would have already have maxed Sword throw and Sword of the Damned. Leveling it early on is a waste of a skill point, as these two skills are much more valuble at early levels. This is because your damage is not that high in early game too fully make use of it.

Possession is taken whenever possible because its crucial for your initiation with Sword throw. Its a powerful skill and scales nicely throughout the game.

Items

Starting Item

Option 1

This is a popular build that gives you health regen, hatchet for last hitting and other uses and crushing claws can be used to make a bracer or Chalice. Ofcourse crushing claws gives 45 hp and 3 damage. Thus overall, this option gives a boost in survivability early on, as well as some aid in last hitting.

Option 2

OR

This option, you get one health regen item, which is the good old health pot, use it if your very low life due to heavy harassments. Two minor totems for some survivability and last hitting power. Mana pot is for an extra throw i guess. This build is very solid and the totems can be used to complete a power supply.

Option 3

Pretty self-explanatory. A very very common starting build for carries. However you dont need to follow these builds every game. If your confident with last hitting, you may not pick up the hatchet and get the buckler only, plus some regen and totems.

THERE IS NO PERFECT BUILD

The reason i am not making a full build for each option is because its pretty much YOUR choice. You should make items thats good for you in that situation. I mean. There are not many combinations of items that are appropriate to start with, taking into fact you only have 603 gold in your pocket at the start usually. Unless you buy boots first, Or something completely retarded. Anyway, these are possible items you may pick up.

Possible Core

Stats

+10 Strength/Agility/Intelligence
+25 Attack Speed
+60 Movement Speed

Explanation
Best boots for Maliken. This is the only boot that scales. You benefit from the attack speed and can switch the attributes of the boots. You never know you might need the bonus mana. Please dont buy ghost marchers. You dont need the extra raw damage since you have Enchanted Flames skill. Sure the active skill grants mobility but for a strength carry, i think steamboots is better. Also Maliken needs the attack speed! You cannot rely on your passive for attack speed because it requires for you to be in low or medium health.



Stats

+3 Strength
+3 Agility
+3 Intelligence

Explanation
Power Supply is just so good! I get this on every hero. Again, very effective if enemy team has alot of spammers such as Thunder Bringer, Armadon etc. People may underestimate the burst heal it may provide. To be exact, it restores 10 health and 15 mana per charge with a maximum of 15 charges. In a full on team fight, this can provide 150 hp and 225 mana at max! Very useful for clutch plays and mind games. This item has a 17 second cooldown.



Stats

+3 Strength
+3 Intelligence

Explanation
It's a feasible item for those that enjoy spamming, in other words, solves your mana problems. The regen is nice and it should be on your mind as an option. Your Life Essence in conjunction with this item has synergy. Attack creeps to restore health and then activate this for mana. Just incase you didnt know, on use, it removes 150 health and grants 100 mana. If an enemy hero within 700 AOE is killed before 15 seconds after use, you are healed back the initial 150 health you traded. This item has a 35 second cooldown so try using it everytime its avaliable unless your mana is full.



Explanation
Always carry this! You can use it to escape ganks, immediately go to defend a tower so you can deny it or prepare for a team fight, respond to teammate when enemy towerdive and so on. A must have regardless. Its good practice to carry this when you play.



Stats

+20 Damage
+5 Armor
+15% Life Steal

Explanation
The most common attack modifier on this hero. It stacks with your Life Essence so why not! Plus it can get upgraded to Symbol of Rage which is a very powerful item. Whispering Helm plus your passive synergises well. You can also control a creep with its active ability. Try getting a minotaur or ice orge for their ability. You can also get a minotaur or catman champion to stack ancients for the fact they are not so squishy. Oh, also buy the Helm of the Victim first as opposed to Hungry Spirit. The armor and hp regen is better than a 10% lifesteal. Plus this is early stage and i doubt your damage is high enough to benefit from 10%.

Dominating a creep cost 75 mana and the cooldown is 300 seconds. Funny thing is, there is no cap to how many you enslave.



Stats

+10 Strength
+24 Damage

Explanation
A very good item, if not the best item in the game. I know i said items are situational but you should just get it so you dont get permanently disabled. Maliken is famous for raping teams with just this item. Besides, there will always be a stuner or high burst nuker fag who cant wait to kill you. Cooldown is 80 seconds and thats probably enough time to use it in the next big clash.

Want to know more? The magic immunity lasts 10 seconds and dispels debuffs from self also which cannot be dispelled. Secondly, each time Shrunken Head is used, the duration of magic immunity is reduced by a second and its cooldown is reduced by 5 seconds. The duration of Magic Immunity will not go below 5 seconds, nor will the cooldown go below 55 seconds.



Stats

+12 Damage
+25 Attack Speed
+5 Armor
+3 Health Regeneration

Explanation
Get this early and it will be of use. Dont forget to turn it off just when it starts to quickly kill you and turn it back on for a sudden burst of hp. Insanitarious and lifesteal are a good combination. If your planning to buy this, get lifesteal first, and get this as soon as possible. Only reason its worth considering is because its cheap for the effects it provides when toggled.

When you activate it, you instantly replenish 475 Health and get the following: +25 strength, +31 damage and +10 Attack Speed. By the way, you actually get more health since it gives 25 strength. Yum! However, you lose 35 true damage per second. I see alot of noobs buying this item, turning it on and keeping it toggled for longer than they should. The cooldown is only applied when activating (not when toggling off), which means that one can (after the cooldown has worn off) toggle this item off and activate it right after healing yourself up to 475 health.

Possible Luxuries

Stats

+25 Strength
+20 Damage
+5 Armor
+25% Life Steal

Explanation
Symbol of Rage is so godly. Gives you passive 25% LifeSteal helps you last longer during battles and gives 45 damage. The real magic is its active ability which is just imba 150% life steal for 3.5 seconds upon activation! Sad thing is this items is quite expensive. Its nice to buy this if you bought whispering helm earlier on.



Stats

+10 Armor
+40 Attack Speed

Explanation
Contributes to team and team fights well. The two auras are really beneficial. Grants +10 armor and 40 attack speed. Works well with your Sword of the Damned and Possession skill. Also makes you tankier. I believe that this item makes a lot more impact in a team fight than a Heart on a single hero. Its more team orientated and because of that generally better to buy late game.



Stats

+35 Strength
+300 Hit Points

Explanation
Makes you tank. A very solid item on carries. Nothing more to say, just gives **** loads of hp and bonus 40 damage. Heart is great for tanking heavy damage. Massive + 0.75% of max health regeneration per second allows you to quickly recover between teamfights, pushes etc.



Stats

+45 / 55 / 65 / 75 Damage

Explanation
I guess with your extreme attack speed as your health diminishes and the splash from Possession this is a wonderful item for raw damage. This item is quite cheap for its effect since its recipe-upgradeable. I'd rather this, than save up for the entire item such as Savage Mace for its effect. After trying this out, i found i easily inflicted 500-700 critical hits at late game. I was amazed by the damage output with your skills. This is the item for pure damage.



Stats

+60 Damage

Explanation
Get this item before 20 minute mark at latest. If you are planning to build this, just buy boots and attempt to rush it. Once you get this, your farming potential will sky rocket. Its a great item espicially in mid game for harassing heroes in team fights, taking into account you are a semi-initiator. Also, if you have bad team mates and had poor farm early, Just make Shrunken or Insanitarious. Although Mock provides the auto aoe burn and helps in farming, its also great for chasing.



Stats

+10 Strength
+26 Agility
+10 Intelligence
+15 Attack Speed
+10% Movement Speed

Explanation
Most people find this as a bad item for Maliken. I have tried this out as an experiment. This is more for fast pushing and playing mind games on your enemy. I guess the invulnerability upon activation may come in handy for disjointing spells. When you activate this item while in your ult form, the illusions will be ranged. However if your ultimate duration ends, they switch to melee form. Obviously the illusions will not have the Sword of the Damned properties (it would be awesome if it did). The stats it provides isnt as that good.

According to Hon Wiki, the illusions take 3.5 times normal damage and deal 33% of your attack damage, and inherit properties from you, in this case not the Sword of the Damned skills! The Illusions have a 20 second life time. When you activate this, it dispels all Buffs and Debuffs on you.

Stats

+88 Damage
+15 Attack Speed

Explanation
True Strike and Mini bash is useful i guess. Improves dps. Im not sure about this, but i think the lifesteal works from Savage Mace procs in ultimate form. Not sure though.

Notes
When Maliken ults, he becomes a ranged hero and have the effects from items the same as any ranged hero. This is why Brutalizer, HotbL and Runed Cleaver are not picked up on him.

General Strategy

Laning

This hero is usually played in side-lanes (bot for Legion and top for Hellbourne). This is so the tower can provide shelter since tower diving is not common in early stages. If you or your partner does not push the lanes and maintain lane control; aggroing creeps, creep pulling and such. You will find yourself less pressured. Although, he can solo mid, he is countered by many other mid solo heroes.

What to do when your opposing lane is squishy?

This is a loaded question. If you have confidence in yourself and your laning partner, you may attempt to kill one of them or even a double tap. Situations might be if they have no regen items, their individual HP is 550 or lower, they have no disables, they have no strong nuking ability and so on. If they have some of these things, it's best to play abit passively, and counterattack if they screw up.

Heroes with some sort of Escape

Valk, Sill, Hag, Gemini etc... These heroes will be hard to kill since they can just pop out of battle, but there is a way to kill them with a well timed Sword Throw! Usually when these heroes activate their escape skill, there is a remnant at their destination. Such as when Hag blinks, there is a quick animation of bats at her destination spot from point A to Point B. A being the origin, and B being his/her new location.

Even if some heroes dont have this, as long as you know your opponents hero, im sure you will know what to do. Valk for example, her leap can only travel linear/straight. So as long as you can predict the range of her leap, you can take her down. Or if she is infront of you completely horizontally, and leaped towards her home base, just Sword Throw to the direction she was, problem might be timing. Reminders, your Sword Throw range is greater than her leap. I would like to add that its all prediction, reading your opponents and knowledge of their heroes, and yours.

Ganking Principals

1. You can initiate well with Sword Throw from the fog. Make sure you have Enchanted Flames turned on.

2. Attack, then activate your ult and auto attack to death. One or more team mates will probably have a stun or disable to lock them down longer.

3. Save Sword Throw for a finisher or a kill-steal. The cooldown is too long to be used twice for most ganks. Plus you need the gold more, unless a real hard carry was there.

4. Mid game, you won't have the DPS to solo gank, but you only require 1 partner with a stun to kill most heroes. Dont be afraid to use your ultimate because the cool down is pretty short.

Sword Throw Uses

Sword Throw can be used in many ways, ill show you some simple techniques.

Escaping

Countless times your going to be fleeing from enemy heroes. The solution? Use Sword Throw in a area that enemies cant pass or reach, then use a homecoming stone. Areas may be cliffs, unpassable terrain etc. This is a great way to escape and works most of the time, unless an enemy has a blink. You can also activate shrunken head to prevent getting killed by a long range nuke.

Blinking behind your Enemy

This technique is used commonly for ganking and It is very easy to use. Simply Sword Throw to an enemy and press it again so you blink behind him/her. By doing this, you will get an extra attack or two while the enemy is turning around. If the enemy is attempting to run, press 'S' and try your best to creep-block him while getting another few hits. This ensures he/she does not get to his/her tower or allies as fast. During this time, your allies can do whatever to kill.

Disjointing Spells

There is not much to say about this. When you Sword Throw, and blink in to the swords' current location, you can disjoint any projectile that was coming to you. This just requires good reaction. In this screenshot from an actual game i played, enemy voodoo throws that green stun thing at me. I used Sword Throw to disjoint it.

Killing Low Hp Runners

Like this! This is just instincts and reading the map. In the screenshot i just knew Night Hound would be there because its such a narrow passage-way. Dont ask me why the sword is green...

If that doesnt kill them and your already in iultimate form; try and hit an enemy creep or hero. The splash may be just enough to kill them! The screenshot below isnt the exact situation, but the Night Hound thinks he will leech off exp with his permanent invisibility. However little does he know that my attack does an extreme 50% splash when he is within 75 aoe.

Team Fights

Your job is to initiate a team fight by blinking in ult. You should not initiate first but, if there is other initiator or tank, its your job. Focus on disablers and carries. Remember you have your whole team behind you, as soon initiate and activate ultimate, this gives your team such a good advantage. I advise you to activate your ultimate. Dont try and save it to interrupt an enemy channel, because your disabler can do that.

If You had a Very Bad Start

In a scenario where the score is 13-28 and you can't farm very well due to ganks... Get a Gravelocket after your basic Whispering Helm and Boots. You should try to get Shrunken as soon as possible. With Whispering Helm, go jungle if most of them are miss and lane if they all go back in vision. If your team overall is under leveled and not very farmed, tell them to just play defensively and try not to separate that much unless they carry a home coming stone. Farm tank items such as Behemoth Heart or Daemonic Breastplate. If your team are complete douchebags and there is no possible way of victory like 2 heroes can annihilate all five of you, just concede. There is always that one fag who does not pass the vote. To prevent getting reported, go jungle. Hiding behind your base or selling all your items for wards is clear indication your super mad. Thats not healthy, even for a daemon king.

Your Role throughout Game

Early Game

Maliken requires safe play and precise farming. Creep-block at the start to so enemy creeps will end up near your tower for last hitting, (creep-blocking is achieved by walking in front of the units and spamming S or H) it should be pretty easy to last hit with his decent starting damage in addition with the hatchet. It gets much easier after you level Sword of the Damned. Due to your versatile nuke and decent damage, try and get a kill with your partner, but only if you feel its right to do so.

If your opponent is ranged make sure use attack enemy by pressing A near them to draw in creeps to stay away from harassment. Last-hitting and denying is primary thing you should be doing. Also, your partner should be a babysitter and helping you as much as he/she can. Whether that is healing you, harassing enemies etc.

Again, focus on last hitting/denying every thing and stick with your lane to have as much gold and experience as possible. Call miss to let your team know if someone is missing in your lane. If the enemy in your lane are missing, you can either keep farming or attempt to gank another lane and get a kill. This is because you Sword Throw has high damage, good slow and the ability to blink. However this requires atleast level 2 Sword Throw and level 2 Sword of the Damned.

The thing I am concerned is, I know you have a decent early ganking potential but Maliken is a carry, although he will reach his limit faster than any other hard carry. So farm! Make sure you don't feed, and above all else finish your base items by the time you hit level 7 to 9. Call for ganks in your lane and get the kills if possible. No, just kill steal all of them. The point is don't waste a large amount of time ganking, you need to get farmed. Shrunken Head is a must.

Mid Game

A lot of team fight are going to happen. Thats why having your shrunken and basic core items are imperative. Your role is to play initiate and hit those fools hard, how dare they mess with the boss of S2.

Before you initiate, make sure all of your teammates are in the position to back you up, because you dont want to suicide by charging into 5 people. Activate Shrunken Head after the 'Feared' ends. Attack the first disabler you see, if you don't see the disabler then attack the squishiest enemy hero. If an enemy is dying and is running away don't blindly chase him too far, you might want to check if your team can do okay if you leave them, if you chase the target too far away and even if you manage to kill him, there's a chance that your team might be wiped out due to your absence. This is a common mistake noobs do.

When there are no team fights, participate in ganks or push with your team once you finish Shrunken Head. Your going to shine most at this point of the game, make use of that. Dont forget, one attack on each creep and nuking them will wipe out a whole creep wave! Superb farming. Also you should dominate a creep if you bought whospering helm and control it to stack Ancients. Dont be afraid to use your ultimate to take down these boss monsters quickly.

Late Game

If you did really good in mid game, you will not struggle in this stage. If you have a potent initiator and tank, get luxury items to improve your damage. If not, get luxury items to increase your tankability.

I would imagine your either going to be turtling or pushing hard. In this case, you will probably be done a few towers, quite high level with one or two or more luxury items. At this stage, the next clash of the titans will most likely decide the fate of your game.

To increase the chances of winning, read the following. Dont get cocky and spend all your gold at once. Alot of people finish off a huge item thinking it will gurantee a victory. The answer is no. You must play safe therefore save about 2000 gold for a buy back just incase. Dont ever farm a lane by yourself! People with invisibility or blink will gank you. So stay with team! A team gank is common in this late stage. Kill Kongor for Token after a mild team fight or if they are turtling. If there are no heroes that are more potent carries than you, you get the aegis.

Furthermore, I would like to add that stacking ancients and wiping them out is a good source of gold. Oh, and dont be scared to die. You are not the true carry, but a semi regardless, you are very powerful.

As a summary, do NOT go 1 v 5. Play safe and seize any opportunity for victory you find. Look at the enemies respawn time and dont bite more than you can chew. Im sure you have experienced a team where they are still raxxing with low hp and the enemy team are gradually coming back. Suddenly your whole team gets annihilated. They proceed to push mid and win the game.

Allies and Enemies

Allies

Support/Disablers

These guys are a carrys' best friend. They help you throughout the game and even sacrifice themselves for you. Quite touching...

Initiators

This group of heroes are the one that excel in this role. You are a secondary initiator compared to these guys. Coupled with you, you make a fearsome duo.

Carries

The real trump card. Dont be jealous when they shine brighter than you at late game. They are meant to farm farm and farm and carry your ass to victory.

Enemies

Predator
This growling son of a dog is a pain to you. Avoid 1 v 1 with this guy, and focus someone else. This hero is an anti-tank. When you face him one on one, he will life steal harder than you.

Magebane
You have a poor mana pool. a few hits with this guy and your rendered useless. Magebane is also a stronger carry than you. Hes also got a solid escape skill.

Vindicator
His Sages's Lore is a godamn annoying spell. His Gylph of Silence passive makes you unable to blink in if you were within 800 aoe. His ult is game breaking. Well i guess if he used it after you have already activated ultimate and exhausted Sword throw, its another story.

Pandamonium
Panda is known to be an anti-tank, his disables are as deadly as His Facesmash goes through magic immunity too which can screw you big time.