Underrated Facets in Dota 2

There are bad, statistically game-losing Facets and there are “bad” hero Facets. The ones that receive mockery, while technically being decent in some scenarios. Today we are going to go over facets that we feel get underserved hate and analyse how and when they can be the better option.

Reverse Polarity

Reverse Polarity pushes enemies away all around Magnus instead of pulling enemies that are in front of him.

Defending this facet is trivial. Base stats alone are already quite a benefit, with a 20-second lower cooldown and a ~60% larger AoE on a BKB-piercing 3-second disable. Is it anti-synergetic to the rest of the Magnus’ kit? Yes, if you are playing a right-clicking, damage-dealing Magnus. If you are all about utility, there are a lot of things to consider.

First of all, the Skewer-back combo is more or less the same, if a single target is concerned. A lot of the time a single pick-off is what Magnus is fishing for, so a Blink-Skewer doesn’t really lose potential in a coordinated game. Blink into Horn Toss into Skewer is also untouched, for when you need an extra setup.

Secondly, just by default, RRP is better at protecting your ranged teammates. Just blinking on top of them after they were initiated on will give a lot of breathing room to your carry. You can even follow up with a Skewer to get a problematic target as far away as possible, dealing with smaller threats first.

There is also the question of save items and abilities. Lifestealer wants to infest a teammate? Too bad, the teammate is now ~1700 range away. Io wants to relocate somebody out of a bad spot or Mekansm double-heal? Well, the Tether is now broken and they can’t. Abaddon just used their Aghanim’s ultimate? Let them waste it in a quiet corner, while you kill their teammates, who are now 900+ range away from the hero.

This also applies to all the Glimmer Capes, Force Staffs and Wind Wakers that suddenly can’t be used by the supports, unless they have a Blink Dagger or multiple sources of cast range increase.

The end result, in our opinion, is an undoubtedly niche, but powerful tool against lineups that have multiple saving abilities and potent AoE healing. It is also pretty great when protecting glass cannon-type heroes on your team and when your team is lacking AoE damage and is better off killing enemy heroes one-by-one in isolation.

Time Zone

Chronosphere is replaced by an effect that dramatically slows down enemies and speeds up allies in an area.

It is much harder to argue against what is possibly one of the strongest crowd-control abilities in the game. Time Zone does have a 30-second lower cooldown and a bigger AoE, but it is no Chronosphere. That said, we feel like in many matchups it might not matter as much.

The big one is that the enemy gets to press BKB and other save items to ignore the effect. The most problematic one is Wind Waker, which allows a target to get from the centre of the Time Zone to the edge of it, while being invulnerable.

Similarly, items like Satanic fully work, allowing enemy carries to lifesteal and potentially survive through the ability, where otherwise they would die. This is when it comes to late-game scenarios. Early on, though, there are definitely some selling points going the way of Time Zone, which stats-wise is only ~0.8% behind the Chronosphere in terms of Win Rate.

First of all, Void gets extra +70/110/150 extra Attack Speed in the Time Zone. The level two Time Zone AS increase is equivalent to a Mask of Madness and even level one AS increase is far from trivial. To understand it better, have a read through one of our previous posts, which explains the relationship between Damage, AS and DPS.

In short, early game solo-kill potential with a well-placed Time Zone can be higher than with a Chronosphere, as the extra duration and the extra AS can give Faceless Void enough additional total damage to finish off a target. It is at its best when dealing with heroes who rely on mobility, rather than crowd control, for safety. So heroes like Queen of Pain, Ember Spirit, Void Spirit etc. can be really punished early on. It is also unlikely they will have a Eul’s Scepter of Divinity as their first item, let alone a Wind Waker.

This is without the potential contribution from teammates, who can freely walk into the Time Zone and also have increased stats, most notably the Cast Speed. Shadow Fiend’s Requiem or even Sand King’s Epicentre become almost instant inside the Time Zone, making it a great setup for otherwise hard-to-land-in-the-fight abilities. One shouldn’t underestimate the AS differential inside the Time Zone either: with the level 20 talent Faceless Void gains +230 AS, while reducing the enemy AS by the same value.

It is impossible for the enemy team to fight inside the Time Zone, much like it is impossible for them to fight inside Chronosphere. While there is definitely a lot more counter-play potential, as Time Zone isn’t a full disable, the extra duration and the AS/Cast Speed differential it creates can be significantly stronger teamfight-wise, especially if Void isn’t playing in a 4+1 lineup.

Perhaps going for a Damage farming item in Battle Fury, as opposed to the usual Maelstrom and Mask of Madness is also a decent idea for DPS and farm speed maximisation reasons. The conventional build deals ~15% more damage over the duration of the Time Zone, but it also costs ~25% more. Moreover, it is possible to disassemble Mask of Madness to get one of the Battle Fury components, which allows for a pretty neat item progression.

Alternatively, since Wind Waker is a huge problem, there is an argument to be made about Radiance for farming early on. It can be later disassembled into components for Nullifier and Butterfly, while being a decent acceleration item and a pretty good teamfight item for the earlier stages of the game. It is very unconventional and we never tested it ourselves, but it does make some sense in theory, so if you are brave enough to try it in practice — leave us a comment about how it went.