Guide to Soulkeeper

Model Summary

Attack range: Melee
Damage: 48 - 54 ------------- a bit low, quickly made up by agi gain
Armor: 7.22 ------------------ best in-game
Movespeed: 315 ------------- quite good
Strength: 15 + 1.9 ------------ fragile against burst damage
Agility: 22 + 3.2 -------------- very good, growth is second after PL
Intelligence: 19 + 1.75 -------- enough for daily mana usage
Attack Animation: 0.3 / 0.6 --- best melee animation
Casting Animation: 0.5 / 0.51 - very awkward
Base Attack Time: 1.5 --------- dualwield ftw

Skill Summary

Reflection - Melee-range 60% slow. (Ignores and uses up Linkens!)
Conjure Image - Creates an illusion for 32s.
Metamorphosis - Gives you attack range and more damage for 40s.
Sunder - Swaps your current %HP with targeted hero's.

General Strength and Weaknesses

+Terrorific in aggressive laning, especially with ranged supports
+Efficient jungler
+Strong sustained dps -- good pusher and farmer
+Scout, splitpush, mindgames with illusions
+Good item scaling, with illusions, Sunder and low BAT

-Single target fighter -- absolutely no AoE presence
-No hard disables
-Significantly weaker when Metamorphosis is down
-Short range offensive skills, with bad cast animation
-No gapclosers -- kited if not supported by teammates/proper items 

Skill build

1 point in Reflection , then Image and Meta (If Meta is not on CD, level it; elseImage). Sunder is situational, especially with the harsh 200 manacost and 160s CD at level 1. Level it when you have a surplus of mana and you feel you could put it to use in the near future. Do get lv2 and lv3 of it asap. Stats is generally preferred over more points in Reflection , but if the 4 sec CD reduction ever becomes good in fights, get Reflection .

In-game situations + Item build

Taking Reflection at level 1 can make you a strong first-blooder if you have the setup to land it. The slow is absolutely obnoxious and provides ample enough time for you and your mates to rightclick down the victim.

Laning

It is advised to go easylane, as both Reflection and Meta are very strong laning skills. With a ranged partner, a Reflection followed by Meta rightclicks (be sure to cancel attack backswing by clicking ground after an attack) means a sure kill on enemies with no escape. A PMS makes you immune to rightclick harass, so only pay particular attention to nukes; as they wreck you early-mid game. When no kill opportunities occur, focus on lasthits and denying to keep creep equilibrium at your tower.

Jungle

Alternatively, you can jungle from lv1 if your team is very experience-reliant. BUT, still remember to constantly look at the map and check if there's any kill opportunity on the lanes (mainly easylane). You don't want to miss them.

Get a QB, a Stout, and Tango/Salve, or 2xBranches if you are confident in your skills. Start with the easy camp, use Conjure Image and attack the creeps. You want the illusion to take some damage first, and when it is red HP, you want to keep it alive to keep delivering hits. A trick will come handy here. I call it Aggro Transfer, which is essentially the same as when you press A on your own creeps to avoid tower hits.

If your illusion is fresh, you want the creeps to attack it. Select your hero, and press "A" on your illusion. The aggro mechanics will now order the creeps to focus on your illusion.

If your illusion is red, you want to keep it. Select your illusion, and press "A" on your hero. Now your hero is taking hits instead.

As a rule of thumb, you only need one illusion for each easy camp. Satyrs and Trolls are the best camps, they die easily and give tons of exp/gold. Furbolgs and Centaurs are the worst. If you see them, please ignore them, and remember Icefraud hates you. JK! Golems are surprisingly nice, despite the statement "everyone hates mud golems". No, Terrorblade loves mud golems!

General jungling path: Kill easy camps twice (the 0:30 and 1:00 camps), then either stack and pull the camp near your tier 1, or if you see Satyrs or Trolls, reap them for profit. Feel free to use Meta and hit-and-run for hard camps.

After laning phase
Now it's night time, if your Meta is available, look on the easylane for any kills you can grab, a kill or two can usually result in a easy award of 460 tower gold. Make sure your jungle is warded, place some wards yourself if no one cares to buy. You can switch between jungle and lane for maximum farm. Remember your goal is to get stronger than enemy mid bullies asap and dominate the game, not fighting the enemy team just yet.

By now your typical inventory looks something like this:

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Boots of choice?  - Consider this most of the time. It gives the most dps and a bit more bulk when the situation calls for.  - If you somehow wind up thriving with Reflection ganks a lot, the extra ms can help you in landing it.  - It's debatable, especially with its all-around nerf and Terrorblade's regen buff. Get it if you rely on the heal a lot.  - Not for another million years.  - Except if you have Radiance, you shouldn't get it before any other upgraded boots; it's solid after 2-3 luxuries.

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Your first major item?  - Common choice, and a solid one too. Gives good stats, MS buff, and an okay slow. Somewhat fixes your beefiness. Since it could be disassembled and further remade into Manta/Halberd, you can't go too wrong with this. Always turn it into Manta late game.  - Compared to S&Y, it is pricier, and better at pushing, teamfight and anti-debuff (especially silences, which screw up your Sunder). Must-have later on.  - If you can get this before ~ 20 minutes, feel free to. Remember this item is not made for teamclashing, but for powerfarming and pushing lanes! Send a Rad illusion to lane or jungle and it's an easy 200-300 gold each. To be useful in fights you still need stat-based items to tank up and hit faster.  - For better positioning, splitpushing and ganking. Same as Radiance, be sure to get stat items afterwards. Note that as pointed out by Xevirath, it's not necessary to immediately complete S&Y or Manta with your Yasha; due to Yasha's cost-effectiveness by itself, you can jump straight to some other all around items, like Skadi/BKB.

Mid-game

Your illusions are now more capable. They can solo easy to medium creep camps, and each can hit half as hard as you do if you went for an agility-heavy build. Keep clearing the jungle, while sending illusions to lasthit lane creeps. The nukers are at their peak right now, so farming the bling-blings is important to phase them out faster.

Seeing you are going to reach Level MAX faster than your bro, your enemies won't be sitting ducks. If they plan to 5 man push, make sure you push out your lane, and start hammering at enemy tower with Meta illusion.

In terms of pushing power, you are probably equivalent to 3-4 heroes, provided the 3-4 don't include things like Leshrac, Lycan, Tiny or Troll. Send an illusion behind their tower to scout out possible TP's and/or map routes coming for you. Try to memorize the enemy player colors to see who's teleporting in.

If you see TP's, falling back is advised if the game is even, and you aren't that fed yet. Otherwise, you can even contest one or two heroes tping in, if they are deemed weaklings; but beware of more enemies flanking you from fog. Notify your allies for the TP's so they can catch retreating enemies with pants down.

-If their 5-man disappears, so should you.
-If clash is about to happen, teleport back to a safe position and prepare to fight, while your illusions continue working on their tower.

Attention: Bear in mind that there are situations where Split Pushing is not feasible; for example, when enemy has more than one map controllers like Spiritbreaker, Riki, or Storm that are dedicated to messing you up.

Farming up rather defensively is an answer for them. Besides keeping the wards up, you should constantly use an illusion to cover more blind spots in your jungle. Communication-wise, discourage your team from too much aggression when you are farming. If your team needs a gem, ask your team to be the gem carrier; as your illusions do get the true sight.

Smoke ganks are harder to deal with, as your illusions won't remove the smoke effect, and smart enemies take great advantage on that. Couple your team's Observer Wards with a Sentry Ward, and constantly watch the ward area and your gem illusions; because smoked enemies are not visible on minimap, even if they are revealed by true sight!

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Followup Luxuries (Top to bottom, from common to situational)  - All-around item with emphasis on HP pool, the slow is also great.  - Against the nukes/stuns/hexes that would be too much otherwise. Helps a lot in landing Sunder.  - Natural choice for any agility carry.  - Get it if you want illusions to hit extra hard. 40 agi speaks for itself; use the active to finish off fleeing targets. (Sunder-EB-Dagon? Happy stomping.)  - You already hit like a truck, now it's time to leech from it.  - Alternative bulk and regen compared to Skadi/Satanic. If you are going for an all-in stats build, this is the item for you.  - More DPS.  - Against fierce rightclickers if the fight extends after BKB duration.  - Against any miss debuffs and evasion, or even just highground miss. With your natural high attackspeed, the ministun also does great in 1v1 fights.  - When you find yourself manmoding against other fed carries.  - Against enemy summons/illusions/ghost scepter. Typical 6-slot:    Cookie-cutter        Raw Damage            Mass Stats                                                                                                             Stats is better than raw damage in most cases; as it also buff up illusions, which translates to better, risk-free pushing. However, think twice about going mass stats when facing SD/Morphling/Dark Seer. Enemy illusions of metamorphosed yourself can make your life a living hell. In this case, raw damage items (MKB, Buriza, BKB, Satanic, Abyssal) are preferred.

Late-game
If enemies have 2+ sheepsticks and gapcloser initiation, you should stick with your team, while having illusions pushing out potentially dangerous positions. Try to smoke with teammates (while your illusions do the pushing) and seek for fights near enemy base.

Remember, one good fight = All Their Base Are Belong To Your Blades.

Clashing Manual

Clashing procedures
Use Meta and Conjure Image in the fog, so enemies can't spot the real hero at first sight. If enemies are already committed into fighting your team's frontline, flanking them from behind is a good strategy.

If you don't have a BKB, take account of the nukes/disables blown, and go in the moment they are used up. By the time they react and start clobbering you to 30~50% HP (This value greatly depends on your HP pool, and enemy team's current damage/disable capability), Bam! You Sunder their full HP backrow and give them the full taste of their own medicine. If no high HP enemies are near, feel free to Sunderyour own illusions, or even your team's healthy supports. Remember, staying alive and delivering DPS is the best contribution you can make to the team, even if that means sacrificing a teammate's HP.

Later in the game, if you have items like Satanic, Skadi, or Heart, you will have lots of EHP. Try to soak up some damage in fights if your team is efficient at bailing you out from chain stuns. (Disruption, Forcestaff, Repel, your team's own AoE disables, etc.)

Illusion positioning
The important thing that differs your illusion "squad" from the notorious PL army is the range on your illusions. While a PL player can throw stacks of illusions at enemy team, he also has to because otherwise they deal no damage.

On the other hand, a TB can be pristine about his illusion's positions. A metamorphosed illusion deals damage comparable to an ordinary hero and therefore, should be treated like one. Place each of them in a way that enemies cannot cover you and your illusions at once with damage and disables.

What to do afterwards
If you win a clash, don't waste time chasing the fleeing, take any buildings you can, then either sweep their lanes/jungle, or Roshan if you can do it fast enough. Conjure an illusion and press M on Roshan, they will tank Roshan without autoattacking it.

If you lose a clash and managed to escape, make illusions and push other lanes while enemies are grouped up, and teleport back to defend later. Else depending on the situation, you might need to buyback and try to delay the push, and stay defensive before your team revive, and preferably before Meta cools down again.

Hero interaction

Your Worst Enemy/Best Friend Forever: 

Obsessed with the perfect Sunder? 

The monster known as ignores your armor, which you take much pride in; and hits your illusions with 400 bonus pure damage. Being an int hero, he also grabs ghey stuff like Ghost/Force/Sheep. Try to take either him or his team out in BKB duration.
Reflection slow should help a lot.

 can be quite bad, feel free to grab a Diffusal.

Beware of ! This guy's ult debuff completely trashes Sunder, and it goes through immunity.

You like having low HP. Guess what,  likes it more. It's nasty.

Any AoE nukes/general disables are welcomed, as they cover up your weakness.