Enigma

Darcrhow The Enigma

1.1. Pros and Cons

Pros:
• Deals AOE damage to enemy team which increases as the game progresses
• Can farm and push because of conversion
• Has a deny ability in the form of conversion
• Has a ministun to counter channelers
• Underestimated hero in general so it is easy to make people pay for their ignorance
• Insane intelligence growth and moderate HP growth for an intelligence hero

Cons:
• Very fragile, stuns, DPS, and nukes destroys Enigma
• No natural escape mechanism
• Has to be in the middle of the enemy team to deal damage
• Has a tendency to die
• Low IAS
• Mana junkie. Very mana dependent.

1.2. Enigma's Purpose

Enigma shines the best in team fights so don't expect to fight opponents one on one. Enigma's purpose is quite simple:

To severely damage as many enemy heroes as he can with Midnight Pulse then disable all of them with Black Hole to keep them within the midnight pulse area.

Executing a near perfect pulse/hole combination could determine the tide of a team battle. If you are lucky, your team might acknowledge you with a simple "nice hole" comment.

Surprising the enemy team is the key for Enigma. Slowly walking towards the enemy with your slow MS is simply begging to be stunned, focus fired, and nuked. This is why we shall use the trusty Blink Dagger to help us surprise the enemy and position ourselves properly in battles.

During peaceful times (a.k.a. farming period), Enigma must keep farming if his Black Hole is down. Exceptions to this occur when your team is ganking somebody near you. Farming is very easy with enigma because of Conversion. He can either jungle farm or push enemy creeps that are accumulating near your base. This helps his income for he needs some items to be at his best.

Also support your teammates if you can. Remember you have a blink dagger to escape sticky situations. For instance here is an interesting sequence of events that shows how Enigma can help his teammates.

An Enigma Comic Strip

1.3. Statistics

Damage: 42-48 | Range: 500 | Movement Speed: 290
Str: 16 + 2.1 | Agi: 14 + 1.0 | Int: 20 + 3.4
Life: 473 | Mana: 260 | HP Regen: 0.73 | Mana Regen: 0.81
Armor: 4 | Physical Damage Reduction: 19%
BAT: 1.46 | IAS: 14% | Initial Attack Speed: 0.78 Hits/Second

Enigma has average starting damage, range, life, and mana. He has a decent STR growth of 2.1 which is pretty high (sixth best) for an intelligence hero. He has a wonderful INT growth of 3.4 which is second only to Pugna and tied with Shadow Priest. His agility growth is a crappy 1.0 (second to the last from Dirge, Lucy, and Tiny) and this means he won't have much armor during late game. His movement speed is pathetic as well. His attack animation is really slow, so animation cancelling is important for this guy when farming early game so you could immediately move back after you attack. On a side note, his base armor is buffed, so you won't be too vulnerable to physical attacks early on. Please refer to H3u20R's guide to improve your animation cancelling.

2. Building the Enigma

2.1. Enigma's Skills

Malefice
Focuses Darchrow's hatred on a target, causing it to take damage over time and become repeatedly stunned. Author's Note: Each stun lasts for 1 second
Lasts 2/4/4/6 seconds.

Level 1 - 30 damage every 2 seconds.
Level 2 - 40 damage every 2 seconds.
Level 3 - 65 damage every 2 seconds.
Level 4 - 80 damage every 2 seconds.

Cooldown: 15 seconds.
Mana Cost: 110/130/150/160 mana

An okay skill. This is your only single target "nuke" and "stun". It can stop people who channel their spells. It can help you run away from battles or ganks. It can also help you land an early black hole. Since you have nothing to do early game, get this skill to harass or to make your enemy pay when they get too close to you. Malefice damage is weak (240 dmg without spell reduction) so you have to take advantage of its stun. When you cast it, immediately attack the enemy then use animation cancelling to move forward immediately. Attack him again when he gets stunned. In mid/late game cast this after you execute your blink-pulse-hole combo to hinder running enemies or to run away from enemies.


Conversion
Splits a friendly creep into 3 malevolent aspects of itself, coming under your control. All Eidolons have average movespeed, 450 range, heavy armor type, and 33% magic resistant. Lasts 30 seconds.

Level 1 - Spawns 3 Lesser Eidolons, 16-24 Normal damage, 200 HP, 0 Armor.
Level 2 - Spawns 3 Eidolons, 24-32 Normal damage, 225 HP, 1 Armor.
Level 3 - Spawns 3 Greater Eidolons, 34-42 Piercing damage, 250 HP, 1 Armor.
Level 4 - Spawns 3 Dire Eidolons, 43-51 Piercing damage, 275 HP, 2 Armor.

Cooldown: 15 seconds.
Mana Cost: 125 mana at all levels

This skill helps you in farming and allows you to jungle during mid game while black hole is on cooldown. It also allows you to deny your opponents experience by converting one of your creeps and sending them to the forest to farm kobolds or trolls while you stay in your lane giving you extra gold in the process. This skill costs constant mana each level and should not be used for pushing early game because levels 1 and 2 eidolons die so fast and deal pathetic damage. If you wish, get one point when you are level 1 but get the rest after you have maximized malefice and midnight pulse. To use your eidolons effectively, you simply have to convert one of your lane creeps and go to the jungle to farm a creep camp. Eidolons lasts 30 seconds so you have enough time to convert one of your eidolons to more eidolons then move ahead to the next camp while repeating the process.


Midnight Pulse
Steeps an area in dark magic, causing all opponents who dare enter to take damage.
Lasts 8 seconds.

Level 1 - 3% max life lost per second.
Level 2 - 4% max life lost per second.
Level 3 - 5% max life lost per second.
Level 4 - 6% max life lost per second.

Cooldown: 25 seconds.
Mana Cost: 135/150/165/180 mana

A fantastic AOE damage skill that gets stronger as the game goes on. The AOE radius is large so it is easy to catch an enemy team inside it. A opponent that is caught within it for the full 8 seconds will lose 36% of their life after factoring in natural magic resistance. Therefore, ALWAYS cast this in team battles. Most enemies will run away from the pulse AOE, thus, it is imperative to immediately cast black hole AFTER you cast pulse in a team fight to keep the enemy within pulse's AOE. If black hole is on cooldown, just throw it in the general location of the skirmish, covering the enemy escape routes as much as possible. This skill is also good for killing stationary invisible units like Sand King or Templar Assassin. Midnight pulse can be used to stop pushes as it deals a considerable amount of damage to creeps. Get this skill after Malefice starting at level 8.


Black Hole (Ultimate)
Summons the powers from the darkest abyss, creating a vortex that sucks all nearby enemies closer, dealing damage. Author's Note: This spell is a mass disable that forces opponents to move to the center of the hole once every 0.05 seconds. Thus, spells which have 0 casting time can go through your black hole.
Lasts 4 seconds.

Level 1 - 30 damage at range, 60 damage close up.
Level 2 - 50 damage at range, 100 damage close up.
Level 3 - 70 damage at range, 140 damage close up.

Cooldown: 200/190/180 seconds.
Mana Cost: 200/300/400 mana

Black hole is Enigma. This skill is what makes him an initiator in team battles. Four seconds of disable while your teammates whack on your enemies as they stand on the midnight pulse AOE destroys enemy teams. When used with midnight pulse, the damage the enemy could potentially absorb is ridiculously large. For instance, lets say we have a 2000 hp hero with no extra magic resistance (no hood or cloak). Executing this combo (assuming the enemy stands in pulse aoe for 8 seconds) would deal:

Pulse Damage: 2000*.48*.75 = 720 damage (.75 denotes hero resistance, .48 denotes 8 seconds of 6% damage)
Black Hole Damage: 560*.75 = 420 damage
Total = 1140 damage.

Throw in a refresher and you would add extra 420 damage plus ability to cast another midnight pulse in the enemies escape path giving us:

Pulse Damage: 2000*.12*.75 = 180 damage (assuming a modest 2 seconds extra time within the 2nd pulse)
Black Hole Damage = 420 damage
Grand Total = 1740 damage

Don't forget the fact that your allies should be pounding on the enemy while you are casting black hole. Therefore, the enemy should be barely standing if not dead after your combo. The only drawback to this skill is its immense cooldown of 180 seconds. Recently, Icefrog buffed Magnus (120 sec) and Earthshaker's ultimate cooldown (110 sec) but he seemed to have forgotten poor Enigma. but we have to live with it. So NEVER waste his ultimate and always have it ready for fights as the game progresses.

I recommend you all to study these pictures that shows the range of Black Hole and Midnight Pulse.

Range of Midnight Pulse


The red shows you the MAXIMUM cast range of Midnight Pulse. As you can see, you practically have to be very close to the center of midnight pulse to cast it. Hence, you need to be close to the enemy heroes in order to catch them. However if you are already near the pack of enemies, it is not too hard to catch all of them because of this spell's large AOE.

Range of Black Hole


The radius of Black Hole (red circle) is decently large and about the size of midnight pulse, although a little bit slightly smaller. Within this circle, all enemies will be slowly sucked towards the hole. Enigma's casting range for Black Hole is very short. He has to be next to the center of the hole to cast it. Black hole is best cast at the middle of the enemies and within the Midnight Pulse AOE so the enemies receive damage from both spells.

Clearly, these two spells need proper positioning so we will get the item for position dependent AOE casters - the blink dagger.

2.2. Skill Build

Recommended Build

1. Conversion
2. Malefice
3. Malefice
4. Conversion
5. Malefice
6. Black Hole
7. Malefice
8. Midnight Pulse
9. Midnight Pulse
10. Midnight Pulse
11. Black Hole/Midnight Pulse
12. Midnight Pulse/Conversion
13. Conversion/Stats
14. Conversion/Stats
15. Stats/Black Hole
16. Black Hole
17. Conversion/Stats
18. Stats/Conversion
19. Stats/Conversion
20. Stats
21. Stats
22. Stats
23. Stats
24. Stats
25. Stats

Take Conversion at level 1. Getting Conversion early allows you to deny your opponents two creeps in the first creepwave. With sobi mask you will be able to keep using conversion to deny your creeps. We get another level of Conversion at level 4 because at this point, its damage is normal, which means 100% damage to heroes and creeps (thanks to sin-jackinn for this tip) which allows us to harass heroes who try to come close to our creeps with Malefice and eidolon attack. Getting level 2 Conversion also allows us to easily last hit and deny.

"But boybakla, why don't you get Malefice at level 1, you nub?" Malefice is useless at this point unless you are up against a horrible player. We get Malefice at levels 2 and 3 since we need that skill for harassment an survival. We then max out Malefice, get Black Hole at level 6 then max out Midnight Pulse.

"Why max Midnight Pulse so early?" This skill allows you to deal AOE damage early on to supplement the Black Hole damage. This allows you to also execute your combo during midgame once you have gotten your blink dagger. We have an option to get black hole at level 11 or level 15. If your team is generally cooperative then black hole can be skipped at level 11 to save you 100 mana points since we are mostly utilizing the damage from pulse + team pounding for 4 seconds anyways. If you find your damage not to be strong enough, then by all means get black hole at level 11 as it adds up to 160 AOE damage to your combo.

As we get into mid game you have two options. If you feel that your team is winning, then get more Stats from levels 12-13 to supplement your team pushes with more mana and hp so you can stay in the battle. However, if you think that you need more items to execute your combo properly (i.e. BKB) or if the battle is fairly even then get Conversion to help you farm.

To finish up, get Black Hole at level 16 then get Stats or Conversion (whichever ones you haven't maxed yet). Enigma is a very flexible character but the important thing is to maximize his primary skills ASAP: Black Hole, Midnight Pulse, Malefice. Conversion is optional and we will only use this skill primarily for farming because Enigma is a poor farmer without conversion.

2.3. Item Build

2.3.1. Core Items



2.3.2. Items to Get after the Core



2.3.3. Item Justification

Core Build
1. Blink Dagger
2. Sobi Mask
3. Boots
4. 2x Bracers
   
   Total ~ 4325 Gold including tangoes
   Achive by: Level 12
   
   

Enigma has the potential to disable and inflict massive damage to the whole enemy team. The best way he can accomplish this is by swift and sudden execution of his skills. Merely walking to the enemy doesn't cut it unless you have other AOE disablers like Magnus or Treant in your team. Therefore, we get a blink dagger so we can position ourselves in the middle of the enemy team before they realize that you are already there enabling us to execute pulse + hole right between their eyes. Blink dagger also serves as your primary escape tool because a lot of heroes dominate Enigma in one on one situations.

Enigma has low HP so without any HP boosting items, he can be killed quite easily after he executes his combo. With bracers at level 12, you have 1176 health, which is large enough to tank damage before and after you cast your combo. Bracers are essential because you draw too much attention with your AOE spells, you are SLOW, and you have a big model size. Boots is taken to increase your sluglike speed. Sobi Mask is needed so you have mana to cast Conversion and Malefice early game.

BKB Build
1. Blink Dagger
2. Sobi Mask
3. Boots
4. 2x Bracers
5. BKB
6. Boots -> Boots of Travel
   Total = 9670 Gold
   Achieve by: Level 16
   

If there are disablers on the opposing team and if you are a good player, you can blink and pulse + hole all of them so they are all disabled and can't interrupt you while you execute your combo. However, several spells like Guinsoo and Hex can be casted even while heroes are in the Black Hole. To avoid these spells, you buy a BKB so you have a better chance to survive. Also, even if you catch the disablers in the hole, I bet you that they have already commanded their heroes to stun you after Black Hole so if you don't have a BKB you are toast since they can pummel you while you are disabled. Some spells like Beastmaster's Roar, Naga's Net and Bash go through BKB and that simply stinks. We can't do anything about these guys but hope to catch them within your black hole and ask your team to kill them first.

BOT is taken afterwards to improve your mobility. See some creeps pushing towards your tower - teleport there and farm using your eidolons. If your allies are calling for a push, teleport to them and lend your services. Chasing and escaping is easier as well with BOT. If you are getting chased, blink to a blind spot and teleport away.

The other nice thing about this build is its affordability. 10,000 gold can easily be achieved with 200 creep kills and with your eidolons that is quite possible. Jungle farming is very profitable while you wait for your creeps to get pushed towards your base. This nets about 600 gold every minute. Once the enemy creeps are near your base, push them back with your eidolons until you notice heroes that are are missing which is a signal for you to retreat to the jungle.

Refresher Build
1. Blink Dagger
2. Sobi Mask
3. Boots
4. 2x Bracers
5. Boots -> Boots of Travel
6. Euls Scepter of Divinity
7. Refresher Orb
   Total = 14245 Gold
   Achieve by: Level 20
   

If the game has not ended and there are not much disablers in the enemy team, then you could consider making a refresher orb. But to use this along with your combo, you either need to not level your black hole up and simply use it for an 8 second disable or in most cases you can get an Euls Scepter to supplement your mana and be able to execute your refresher combo with a level 3 Black Hole.

If you are able to execute a double black hole, you would devastate your enemy and if you are lucky it could result in double or triple kills for you which makes people say "gg", "ff", or simply leave. It is very satisfying too, if you are able to complete this combo especially if it decides the game.

Support Build
1. Blink Dagger
2. Boots
3. 2x Bracers
4. Boots -> Boots of Travel
5. Necronomicron
6. Guinsoo or Refresher
   Total = 16395 or 16795 Gold
   Achieve by: Level 22
   
   

Necronomicron is an item that synergizes well with Enigma. It allows you do do more damage to the team while you execute your combo. Furthermore, it gives you mana and hp two things that are important to you. If you have necronomicron, cast it before fights and as you perform your combo, control your two minions and make them attack one of the enemies and remember to use the mana burn ability of the ranged necro as well. Guinsoo is another disable for you. Disable wins games at it allows you and your team to get free hits on an enemy. Get this if there is a problematic carry hero in the other team.

3. Playing Enigma

3.1. Early Game

3.1.1. While at base
Go pick Enigma if your team needs a mass disabler and an AOE damage dealer. Before you leave your fountain, buy a combination of these items. It all depends on your play style. I put asterisks on my recommended setup.

1. Courier* (if your team is not willing to share their couriers)
2. Tangoes (can be ferried by your chicken as needed)
3. Circlet of Nobility* or Branches
4. Sobi Mask*
5. Ring of Regneration
   

3.1.2. Creepblocking and Denying
As soon as you hear the gong, position yourself in front of your base to start creep blocking and if you learned conversion, deny the frontmost creep to create a split second block to the rest of the creepwave. Proceed with creep blocking. With Enigma, this could be very effective as he has slow movespeed and could potentially stall the creepwave for quite some time. Convert another creep. Remember, with conversion's 15 second cooldown, you can deny 2 creeps in the first creep wave and this pushes the creep wave towards your tower, giving you a better lane control.

Here is an animation that shows how to effectively creepblock using Enigma (or with any other hero).



3.1.3. Early Game (Levels 1 - 9)
Your goal at this point of the game is to farm for your much needed dagger. Therefore, you can't afford to die. Unfortunately, Enigma is an easy hero to kill because he lacks both hp and armor. Harassment from attacks significantly damages him so you can't afford to draw creep aggression. Play it safe and just last hit and deny. The only exception to this suggestion is if your opponent is melee. If this is the case, harass him when he tries to come close your melee creeps but immediately use animation cancelling to avoid creep aggression.

Do not spam Malefice. It is not a strong nuke (deals only 180 damage when maxed out) and costs a lot of mana. Instead deny the enemy by converting creeps then sending the eidolons to the nearby forest to farm. Send the eidolons to the weakest creep camp as those are the camps that you have the chance to clear with two or three groups of converted units. By doing this, not only do you deny your enemy, you also gain extra money. However, always have mana left for Malefice, in case your teammate tries to kill an enemy in your lane or if you are trying to save either yourself or your teammate from dying. You can also use your eidolons to last hit and deny but make sure they don't draw too much aggression as they get killed quite easily.



If you play passively, you won't draw much aggression, and you can simply last hit and deny to get money for your dagger. Once you hit level 7, you can try to kill your enemy by yourself if he has about 400 hp left and you have 360 mana left. When your enemy becomes careless and moves toward you, here's what you do:

How Kill Noobs during Early Game

1. Malefice him and immediately attack him together with your eidolons (if any)
2. Run towards him while he gets stunned twice. (The opponent will definitely run)
3. You have one more stun left before he runs away from you, but by this time you should be close to him.
4. Cast black hole on top of him sucking him closer to you.
5. He should be dead. If not, then attack him.
   Total Damage = 180 (hole) + 180 (malefice) + 2 attacks (~40 - 80 damage) = 400-440 damage
   

If you can't kill him, well either he has too much hp or you are late in animation cancelling. Either way, you have successfuly harassed him so don't attempt to chase him because you have slow MS and risk getting too much damage from his creeps and tower. Remember you have to farm 2150 gold and to do that you must be at your lane at all times during the early parts of the game.

3.1.4. Mid Game (Levels 10 - 15)
At these stage, you should have a blink dagger already. If not, try to get it as fast as you can. You should be able to farm your core items at this point and start working on your next item (BOT or BKB). This is where you begin to have an impact, at level 10, you have a level 3 pulse and black hole, so you can now assist teammates on ganks which are usually not doable because the enemies are either tower hugging or being careful not to get close to all of you.

But you are Enigma! You are an initiator and a mass disabler and you have a blink dagger. You can easily flush out heroes who think they are safe behind their towers because you don't have to walk to them. You can blink to them! For instance, suppose you have 2 allies with you trying to siege the first mid tower and there are 2 or 3 enemy heroes hiding behind the tower to protect it. Here's what you do:

Initiating Battles with Blink, Pulse, Hole

1. Ping hard on the map and let your team know that you are going to blink towards the enemy. Its important that your team understands your intentions because you do not want to blink in and do your combo only to find out that your team went to go farming some kobolds. You will get massacred this way.
2. Blink in the middle of the enemy. Your enemy does not expect this. You have about 1-1.5 seconds to execute the next two steps before they realize you are right next to them.
3. After blinking, cast midnight pulse immediately and make sure you get all the enemy units. The hotkey for pulse is D and since its AOE is rather large, it is very easy to aim. It is very easy, press D, then left-click to the ground below you.
4. Cast black hole in the middle of the enemies. The hotkey for black hole is B. Press B then immediately left-click to the the ground between the enemimes. This should suck them all towards the hole and inside your pulse.
5. Remember, that the faster you execute this combo, the less likely you'll absorb damage from the enemies or even get disabled. Like I said, do this combo within 1 to 1.5 seconds or else consider yourself dead. Practice, practice, practice. If you are afraid of trying this combo in a real game, go practice in an AI map or do it on creeps.
6. Now that black hole is channelling, your allies should begin pounding on the other team and unleash their spells. Hopefully not their stuns because the enemy is already stunned. The enemies should begin to lose health fast.
7. If you have eidolons, have your eidolons focus fire on one of the enemies. This should add to your damage output.
8. After black hole is done, the enemy survivor(s) if there are any will run. Malefice the one who you can kill for sure and finish him off together with your allies.
   

If you are doing this next to an enemy tower, make sure the tower has engaged your creeps before you blink in! Otherwise you might die from tower fire but again you have your two bracers to help you tank damage.

The Power of a Blinking Enigma
Look closely at the time to see how fast you should execute your combo to succeed.



While black hole is in cooldown, keep farming using your eidolons. If the creepwave is moving towards the enemy tower, convert one of your creeps and take it to the jungle to farm with you. Convert the eidolon that is mostly damaged to create new eidolons. Clear the forest of creeps. Hopefully, the lanes have pushed back towards your side once again so you can farm those lanes again. Remember, in order to be a successful Enigma, you need more items to support your team. Your next goal should be a BKB if the enemy has disablers or a BOT to ensure that you can teleport and aid your allies in a fight.

Your mid game is simple. Whenever black hole is ready, inform your allies so you can organize a push and potentially destroy the enemies. If black hole is not ready, go ahead and farm.

Important Reminders

1. Don't engage the enemies on your own unless they are almost dead.
2. Don't waste your ultimate on one on one fights. The enemy will absorb lots of damage but most probably you might not be able to kill him.
3. Don't push alone. Enigma is a juicy and vulnerable target.
4. In the event that you get ganked, run and remember to use your blink dagger. Try to use it to blink over obstacles that your enemy has to get around before it can catch you.
5. Don't stop farming. A lot of Enigma players suffer late game because they don't have the items they need to survive and support.
6. Help your team. You are a support hero and if your team is calling for a push while black hole is down, go push with them. You have midnight pulse and malefice, two skills that can be debilitating to the enemy. Remember, if you are dying, blink out of the fight.

3.1.5. Late Game (Levels 16 - 25)
This is the part of the game where players push as a team and players defend as a team. Your role is very significant at this stage. To be effective, you must have farmed a BKB, BOT and/or Euls at this point (and on your way to a refresher). Every time your team calls for a push, make sure you participate with them. Your task is simple, if your ultimate is up, you must choose a perfect time to use it to ensure your team the victory. You should not be afraid to jump inside the enemy lines and initiate a battle because your ultimate and your allies will be your protection! If you cast your ultimate properly then the enemies should be disabled and can't really harm you (unless they get BKBs [but there is a way to counter this]).

The BKB Hole Combo

1. Hang back and make sure you are not the most vulnerable target of your team.
2. If your team has a tank, let your tank engage/bait the enemy. Let your team know you are blinking and casting Black Hole.
3. Turn BKB on (if you have it) and/or turn Necronomicron on. BKB must be turned on before you channel black hole otherwise if you turn it on while you are channeling black hole, you'll cancel black hole.
4. Blink in and immediately cast midnight pulse so it catches enemy players as much as it can.
5. Cast black hole a split second after and make sure it sucks in enemies towards the center of the pulse.
6. While you are channeling black hole, micro your necrominions and/or eidolons so they are attacking enemy heroes. If you have time, use mana burn on the enemy.
7. After black hole is over, use an Eul's cyclone (if you have) to disable the enemies' largest remaining threat.
8. Malefice enemies who are running away and chase them.
9. If you are low on health, run away, move back and let your allies clean up.
   

Here is a picture illustrating the steps that I have explained above.

Using Enigma with BKB



Meantime, if your team is not going for a push, farm up to finish your Guinsoo or Refresher. Be wary of the enemy. You are an important part of your team and enemies would want to gank you! If you die and your enemy decides to push, your team is at a huge disadvantage and that could probably decide the game. So remember, a good Enigma player is a smart Enigma player. If the enemy is missing, go farm near your allies and/or be ready to use your dagger to escape the moment you see an enemy hero while you are alone. Most likely, he's part of a gank squad hiding nearby.

If you now have a refresher orb, don't hesitate to use it in a team battle. Just make sure you have the mana to perform your combo with a refresher. Here's how to use the refresher orb:

The Hole Refresher Hole Combo

1. Guinsoo a potential enemy disabler/damage dealer
2. Turn BKB on (if you have it)
3. Blink in
4. Midnight Pulse
5. Black Hole
6. Refresh. The enemy might start running away at this point so be very quick. I suggest using the items hotkey, which is the numpad location of your refresher orb. While you are channeling black hole, rest your finger to this hotkey and once you're done with hole, press this key immediately.
7. Cast Midnight Pulse again such that enemies would run into it when they are running away. - 180 mana
8. Cast Black Hole so that it sucks the enemies to your new pulse. Or alternatively, don't use midnight pulse again, instead just cast Black Hole so your enemies doesn't have much time to react. Your old pulse should still be there and should still damage the enemies. -400 mana
9. Finally, use your refreshed blink dagger:
   

   1. Blink out of fights if you're almost dead.
   2. Blink to a more appropriate location to position your 2nd Black Hole
   3. Blink to a chasing position to catch up to escaping enemy heroes.

10. Use Guinsoo and Malefice

You need about 1600 mana to execute the core combo

If the game has not ended yet, keep farming when Black Hole is down to buff yourself up. What you really need at this point of the game is hitpoints, hence two options for you is HOT and Skadi. If no one is getting Radiance in your team, you can risk getting it but prepare to get focus fired. Skadi is a bit expensive but if your team needs a slow and if you can realistically farm it up, then get it.

3.1.6. Some Words of Wisdom
With the item builds I described, you may not get any kills but surely you'll be doing insane damage. The reason why you might not get any kills is because you are primarily an initiator not a finisher. Furthermore, your attack speed is slow to effectively deal damage after your combo. So do not fret or scream "KS" when you don't get any kills even if you dealt most of the total damage to the enemy team. The important thing is that you have secured your team the victory in that battle.

Sometimes, you might even die by initiating battles. We have done our best to ammend this by buying some HP boosting items but the fact is, your role is a very dangerous one. Your black hole + pulse combo might not catch everyone on the enemy team and you might be focused fired by the enemy heroes outside of the hole. Below, I have provided an itemized list of the main causes of Enigma's death and how to avoid them.

The Common Reasons for Enigma's Death

1. You missed your black hole and caught only 1 or 2 enemies. Of course, you'll get focus fired by the rest of the enemy team. To avoid this situation, understand the range of the black hole (slightly smaller than the midnight pulse AOE) and keep practicing until you are able to manage to catch 3 or more enemies in your hole.
2. A ranged dps hero managed to stay out of the black hole range and focus fires on you (Viper, Clinkz, Razor, etc). If you can't get him together with his teammates, let your team get him instead! Make your team aware of the situation so they can disable that DPS hero or inflict damage on him so he can't be that aggressive to you.
3. You forgot to cast midnight pulse before black hole. This is an Enigma mortal sin, black hole deals weak damage without pulse, so most likely after you cast hole, the enemy would still be alive and kicking and you will be punished for your stupidity. Focus on executing your combo flawlessly.
4. Someone turns on BKB or avatar while you execute your combo and pounds on you (i.e. Naix). Fuck. Just pray that he doesn't deal much damage. Your only hope is to make him use BKB before you cast black hole. Hole won't deal damage but it still disables the avatared unit. Remember, the avatared unit will only be disabled if he uses BKB and before you cast black hole. If he uses BKB while you are casting black hole then he will get free. A weak counter to this is to have your team focus fire on the avatared unit.
5. You blink in but your teammates don't follow immediately. This is fucking suicide and if your team is not there to back you up then you'll be toast after you cast your combo. Remember, be smart, know what your team's decision is. If they are hesistant or are not at full HP, then don't waste your ultimate. Make sure your team knows that you are going to blink in. Coordinate with them so your combo succeeds. If your team is too slow and you end up dying, then scream and curse at them gently remind them to be faster next time.
6. You blink in without using BKB and get disabled. Well, why did you buy BKB if you are not going to use it? Use your BKB before you cast your ultimate or buy one if you are facing mass disablers.
7. You stopped channeling Hole. Don't move, run, cast a spell and activatable items like BKB, Mek, and Guinsoo while you are casting black hole even if you are dying! You'll probably end up dead even if you try to run away so just channel hole as long as you can and pray that your team will win the battle.

4. Advanced Enigma Gameplay Information

4.1. Shift Clicking to Queue Commands

Shift clicking is an effective way to cast a combo. With Enigma, it could be very effective when executed perfectly but it acts like a double edge sword. If something goes wrong after you issue your queued commands, your combo could be quite useless. So what is queueing? Well, to queue commands, we hold the shift key as we perform different commands to our hero like move, cast spells, use our items, etc. What happens next is that our hero performs each of those commands immediately in the order that we specified when we queued the commands. This is very effective because there are no pauses after executing each command. This would be a very useful tool when we execute our blink-pulse-hole combo. Here is a little guideline how to execute queueing for our combo.

Shift-clicking the Blink-Pulse-Hole Combo

1. In the event of a team fight, relax and hold the SHIFT key. Do not release this key until you finish queueing your combo.
2. Move your hero to a spot where you can blink towards the battle. Keep the SHIFT key depressed.
3. While still holding SHIFT, use your blink dagger to get in the middle of the fray.
4. Don't release the SHIFT key yet. Now cast midnight pulse in the middle of the enemy team.
5. Finally, cast black hole in the middle of the enemy team.
6. Release shift. Your hero would perform all the commands you asked him to do in order and if all goes well, your combo will work out flawlessly.

However, shiftclicking can be dangerous because you cannot control what happens in the battlefield. If the enemy shifts position after you queue your commands, you might be casting your combo into empty air and waste your ultimate! The only way to avoid this from happening is to cancel your command queue. This could be done by releasing shift and issuing another command immediately to your hero. Use this technique at times. Mastering it could be the solution to avoid being disabled in the middle of your combo execution.

4.2. Black Hole Mechanics

Black Hole is not a perfect disable. Sadly, the mechanics of black hole allow certain spells by an enemy unit to be casted even if the unit is being sucked inside the hole. Black hole doesn't stun or silence units at all - it just moves them continuously every 0.05 seconds, so if a spell that has less then 0.05 seconds casting time the unit will able to cast that spell. So be wary of these spells, especially escaping and disabling spells. To help you prepare, I have shown below some of the spells that go through black hole.

Spells That Go Through Black Hole

1. Windwalk - WWed heroes will still get sucked in the hole, but you can't see them unless you got wards.
2. Leap - Yeah, leap takes zero seconds to cast so POTM could easily escape your trap.
3. Blink Dagger - Yup, the item we love is a counter to black hole.
4. Burrowstrike - As long as Sand King is facing the direction that he wants to burrowstrike into, he can use this spell. If he's not facing the direction he wants to burrowstrike, he needs to face that direction first which takes more than 0.05 seconds of animation. To counter the stun, we can get a BKB.
5. Hex, Guinsoo - Similar to Burrowstrike, if the enemy hexes a unit he is facing, then the spell activates, otherwise, he has to move to face the unit he wants to hex. We can counter this spell by getting a BKB.
6. Eul's Cyclone - Similar mechanics as hex. BKB also counters this.
7. Echo Slam - Be wary of ES when you black hole him, because his most powerful ability can still be casted! BKB is a good solution to counter the stun.
8. Dragon Tail - Do you see DK doing anything when he stuns people - NO. This is because this ability has no casting time.
9. Mekansm - This has no casting time whatsover.

4.2. BKB Counters

Okay, there are a lot of counters to BKB that could potentially ruin your combo. I won't be listing all of them but will list some important ones that are common happenings in games. A guide that describes the effects of spells to BKB can be found in simafuhan's guide. Make sure you get these heroes in the hole before they cast their spells or better yet, wait until they use these spells before you cast your black hole combo.

BKB counters

1. Mana Void - the damage doesn't go through, but the ministun is in effect.
2. Nether Swap
3. Global Silence
4. Omnislash - First slash has a ministun
5. Overgrowth - You get disabled but damage is blocked
6. Black Hole - In case you play mirror mode. Damage is blocked but you get disabled.
7. Doom
8. Bash (Slardar), Time Lock (Faceless Void), Wolf bash, Bashers, MKB - They stun but don't damage
9. Chronosphere
10. Reverse Polarity - Sucks you in but no damage
11. Fiend's Grip - Just the disable, no damage
12. Reaper's Scythe - Just the stun, no damage
13. Greater bash, Netherstrike - Stuns and damages
14. Rain of Chaos - Stuns, no damage
15. Ensnare, Earthbind
16. Assasinate - it stuns, but doesn't damage

Due to requests, I was forced to put this section but it turned out fine. I hope you guys put these information to good use. For other content requests, just PM me or reply to this post.

5. Enigma and the Other Heroes

5.1. Good Allies

Heroes that Support You
Magnataur, Tide Hunter, Dark Seer
Magnataur and Enigma are meant to be together. Reverse Polarity presents you a neat little pack of enemy heroes to pulse and hole. Meanwhile, Magnataur has 8 seconds to Cleave away at those enemy heroes.

On the other hand, Tidehunter is a weaker version of Magnus. He has a slightly shorter stun but larger range. Tidehunter also gives you some time to cast hole + pulse while his Anchor Smash helps the decimate enemies as they are getting sucked by the hole.

Dark Seer deserves to be mentioned here as his vacuum + ion shell + hole + pulse could deal a pretty powerful amount of damage to the opposing team. His vacuum also makes it easier to capture enemies with hole + pulse.


Heroes that You Support
Crystal Maiden, Twin Headed Dragon, Sand King, Shadow Fiend, Obsidian Destroyer
CM and Jakiro will love you, since everybody runs away from their ultimates. Your black hole prevents this from happening and the enemy can just wince as they experience the full power of the Freezing Field or Macropyre.

Sand King's ultimate hurts. With Enigma around, Sand King doesn't need to initiate battles, he simply goes in your hole and epicenters right in the middle of the hole (or he could blink in). Enemies get slowed by his epicenter and spends more time in your midnight pulse AOE. He also has a stun to help you run away after you execute your combo.

Guides often say that SF's ultimate can deal up to 1200 damage - if he can position it properly. Well, with Black Hole sucking all enemies in a neat little area, SF can potentially score quintuple kills when he casts his ultimate within the hole! He also has shadow raze and insane DPS that can help shatter enemy teams.

Obsidian Destroyer can deal up to 2000 damage to an area of effect. A good enigma can trap all the enemies and obsidian destroyer can do the rest. He is similar to Shadow fiend, only much stronger and less position dependent AOE damage.


Earthshaker
Jeez, talk about killing the whole team. You blink in and cast pulse + black hole. A few seconds later, ES blinks in and destroys everything with his Echo Slam + Fissure, + Enchant Totem. This totally annihilates teams, you and this guy could take on teams 2 vs 5 if the other team is not too fed and if you time your combo properly.


Treant Protector
Treant is another one of those heroes who rush refresher orbs. Together with enigma, we are talking of about 14 seconds of disable (18 if you have refresher)! This combination simply makes teams say gg and cry imba. Treant also helps you setup a decent pulse + hole with his ultimate although not as clean as Magnus. The only drawback to this is unlike Magnus, Treant does not have good DPS but still you have your other allies, right?


Heroes that Amplify your Damage
Warlock, Undying, Witch Doctor
Warlock is pretty powerful because of his fatal bonds. This amplifies your damage and his as well and together with 2x Rain of Chaos, no one will survive your combo.

Like Warlock, Undying's plague will amplify your black hole damage and would cause the enemies to become slowed thereby setting them up for a black hole and pulse would be easier.

Witch Doctor's Maledict and Death Ward is so easy to do and so damaging to the other team with a great Black Hole + Pulse Combo.


Lich
Um, Lich + Enigma means free 2 denies every creepwave. Which means, you will easily have a level gap early on. Lich also makes your lane much stronger and allows you to survive even better early on.

5.2. Bad Enemies

Keeper of the Light
Enigma is a combo hero and with KOTL in the other team makes Enigma ... uh... useless. If he manages to cast mana leak on you on a team fight then consider yourself useless as any spell you cast will be your last. If you failed to notice the mana leak on you and blink in the enemy lines, well, consider yourself a dead man. The only thing that will be sort of useful is to just use black hole so at least your allies can benefit from a mass disable. Oh and did I mention, eidolons = free food to KOTL's illuminate.


Anti-Mage
You use a lot of mana. He takes away your mana. After battles, you usually have NO mana. He has mana void that will potentially kill you. You blink away, he blinks to chase you. This guy is one of your top problems. Just let your team focus all their fire on him so he won't be blinking towards you. Try to avoid him at all costs and make sure you catch him in your pulse + hole combo so he gets severely damaged.


Silencer
This guy simply counters you. He disrupts your combo and the moment you blink in and cast pulse, you are silenced. What's worse, he could cast global silence and signal his team to rape your ass before you can even do anything. Thus, you are fucked and rendered useless. If the other team picks him, just repick or hope he is a noob. Alternatively, have your team kill him first because he doesn't have a lot of HP.


Faceless Void
Another one of those guys who can jump around the map. If he catches you farming, he will permabash you death. Even if you blink away, he will jump to your location. Before team fights, he will jump from nowhere and cast chronosphere and kill you at once. This guy could take away you ability to initiate team fights before you even fight. Your only hope is to try to juke him when he ganks you or not let him farm any godly items. He is very item dependent and if you don't give him a chance to farm or even level up he is useless. Just keep pushing with your team and end the game early.


Naix
Lots of noobs use this hero and sadly, if your team is noob and keep letting him farm and get the proper items, he will simply rape you. His magic immunity lets him escape your combo without any scratches at all and he will eat you to death with your shitty armor. Even if you blink, he can catch up to you because you are slowed and have shitty movespeed. The only way to kill him is to cast black hole on him while he has casted avatar and have your team focus all fire on him. He usually doesn't have too much HP and relies on his life steal for extra HP. Also, if you are laned with him, punish him, with Malefice if he tries to get near your creep wave. Also deny him as much as you can. End the game early!


Omniknight
Repel owns your ass. You can't kill him or any repelled unit because you are magic dependent. Guardian Angel protects his whole team from physical attacks. And you can't run away from him except by Blinking. Try to get a Diffusal Blade to get rid of repel and he will fall down fast.


Sniper
This guy is a pussy and stays away from battles. He has invisible shots and headshots cancel your ultimate. Gank this guy a lot so he is useless in team fights. Try to kill him first too if possible.


Medusa
Her purge goes through BKB and will most likely purge after you cast your combo if not before and will slow you down making you a prime target. Mana shield makes her a strong tank and could absorb most of the damage that you inflict. She's one tough nut to take down and my suggestion for her is to inform your team not to focus on the Medusa but on her teammates as she is a very strong tank and she could possibly tank your damage while her team focuses on your own team.


Lucifer, Treant Protector, Magnataur, Beastmaster, Naga Siren
Their spells all go through BKB and could still disrupt your channeling of Black Hole. You have no true counter to these guys but hope that they use their skills before you engage them. Also, try to get these guys inside your Black Hole. Also, get your teammates to disable them while you are casting black hole so they can't use their anti-Enigma skills.

6. Other Item Considerations

6.1. Not Recommended

Buriza, MKB, Stygian Desolator, Mjolnnir, Battlefury, Butterfly, Divine Rapier
Your attack speed is very slow and you won't be able to use any of these items to deal the damage that they command. You'll be owned before you can even land 4 hits with any of these damage items.

Aghanim's Scepter
You can just wish this increases your Black Hole damage and duration. Sure it gives you HP and some Mana but there are other items that would be far more useful to Enigma than this.

Sange Yasha, Bashers
The ultimate "I don't know what to get for him" item. First of all, SY doesn't help you that much except for giving you some HP. The maim effect is useless because you don't attack fast enough to make it happen. A bad item overall... and with its price you can almost get a Guinsoo which is much more useful. Regarding bashers, you are ranged which means only 10% chance to bash and since you attack slow, you won't bash, 'nuff said.

Bloodstone
This item is useless as none of its components are important to your build other than the perseverance for Refresher. You are just delaying more items if you get this. If you really need some HP, get a Heart instead.

Assault Cuirass
Another item which you can consider getting but which I don't recommend. Only consider this if facing DPS heroes. The IAS it gives you is wasted since you are a caster not an attacker. Your team will be better off having your DPS hero get this because he probably needs this item more than you do.

Dagon
Okay, it is an expensive single target weak nuke that delays you from acquiring your core items. I see lots of Enigma players get this and I wince each time I see them do that. Lots of items are much better than this and this item will not help your hero become better late game. So don't get this or I'll personally hunt you down.

Lothar's Edge
Man, this item will probably work with noobs but against a competent player, this item is useless. It gives you 9 seconds of invisibility so you might think that you can use this to setup your combo. But blink dagger is much better! Dagger is cheaper and allows you to position yourself instantly and sentry wards don't screw the dagger up.

6.2. Alternatives

Hood of Defiance
If you are suffering from nukers, consider this item instead instead of another bracer.

Mekansm
Another support item, use it to heal yourself and your allies on a push. Get it if your team is pushing early and needs extra healing.

Arcane Ring
Get this after you core build if you have lots of mana dependent heroes on your team and if your team is pushing early.

Radiance
A decent item for you as it synergizes with your ultimate. Get this if your confident enough that you can survive battles so your immolation won't go to waste.

Diffusal Blade/Manta Style
Get this for the diffusal blade primarily. If your opponent is an Omniknight, Sven, Broodmother, and of course Warlock, you might consider getting a diffusal blade instead of Guinsoo to counter the said heroes. After the charges has been used up, get Manta Style to improve your survivability. You can either split before you cast black hole for extra damage or split after black hole to confuse your opponents and give you time to escape.

Helm of Dominator
An alternative to Necronomicron. The Helm of Dominator is a decent item to get to boost your armor and gain lifesteal but more primarily it allows you to convert Centaurs or Furbolgs to help you stun and deal damage when performing your combo. You could potentially add a few extra seconds of stuns to your arsenal with this item. The lifesteal you is useful to regenerate some health while farming. The drawback of this item is its long cooldown so you have to micromanage your creeps to ensure that they don't die pointlessly.

Linken Sphere
BKB is much better in team battles which is where you are needed. Linken's Sphere gives you moderate mana and hp regen and some stats so this item is good if you are facing only one caster. For me, BKB is just much better because it gives you full 10 seconds to execute your combo without much fear of getting disabled. I am testing the viability of this item right now to possibly include it in a core/secondary build.

7. Last Words

There you go. I've passed down my knowledge of playing this fantastic team hero to you - the reader. If you feel that I might be mistaken on some points, feel free to comment and I'll consider your argument and I shall ammend my guide as necessary. As I said before, this is my first guide so please be kind as I am not a professional player. I wrote this guide for fun and so that people would play Enigma more.

I hope this guide helps you become a better Enigma player. I have posted some replays below to help get you started on playing this awesome hero.

thx to 1st post boybakla@dota-allstars.com