Dark lady guide by nfixis
The Dark Lady
Wielding twin, scythe-like blades, the she-reaper known
as the Dark Lady has moved through the Legion’s ranks
like a shadow of death. For soldiers seeking to buck up
their courage, she is a punch-line: “Careful you don’t find
the Dark Lady,” they joke to their carousing friend. But even
these jokes are accompanied by a shudder. Swift and cold and
lethal as the frozen winds off the steps, black as the
cloud-choked night, she is no laughing matter.
Stats
Attack Type=Melee
Attack Damage=46-48
Attack Range=100
Movementspeed=305
Turnrate=320
Armor=4.22
MagicArmor=5.5
Strength=18
Agility=23
Intelligence=13
Strength per level=2.0
Agility per level=3.1
Intelligence per level=1.75
Spells
Dark Blades
The Dark Lady activates the malicious energy
in her Wrath Blades, causing her attacks to silence
foes, preventing them from using spells and abilities.
The malicious energy in her blades also increase her
base damage temporarily.
Level 1 : +70% Damage, attacks silence target for 2.5 seconds
Level 2 : +90% Damage, attacks silence target for 2.5 seconds
Level 3 : +120% Damage, attacks silence target for 2.5 seconds
Level 4 : +130% Damage, attacks silence target for 2.5 seconds
Mana cost 75/85/95/105
Cooldown 25 seconds
Taint Soul
The Dark Lady forces her influence onto an
enemy unit’s soul, tainting it. The target enemy
is weakened, taking damage and reduced
movement speed for a brief duration.
Level 1 : Deals 75 damage, and applies Tainted soul to target for 2 seconds
Level 2 : Deals 125 damage, and applies Tainted soul to target for 3 seconds
Level 3 : Deals 175 damage, and applies Tainted soul to target for 4 seconds
Level 4 : Deals 225 damage, and applies Tainted soul to target for 5 seconds
Mana cost 90/110/130/150
Cooldown 12 seconds
Tainted soul effects
Reduces movement speed by 60%,
gradually returning to normal over 2/3/4/5 seconds
Charging Strikes
The Dark Lady launches herself toward a target
location at incredible speed, attacking enemies
as she passes by them.
Level 1 : Range 600 , deals 35% less damage to each consecutive target
Level 2 : Range 700, deals 35% less damage to each consecutive target
Level 3 : Range 800, deals 35% less damage to each consecutive target
Level 4 : Range 900, deals 35% less damage to each consecutive target
Mana cost 100/85/75/55
Cooldown 21/17/13/9 seconds
Ultimate
Cover of Darkness
Using the depths of her Dark Powers, The Dark Lady poisons
the minds of all enemy heroes on the map for a short while.
For the duration, enemy heroes move slightly slower, lose all
allied vision and have a reduced sight range.
Level 1 : Applies global darkness to enemies for 6 seconds
Level 2 : Applies global darkness to enemies for 9 seconds
Level 3 : Applies global darkness to enemies for 12 seconds
Mana Cost 50/150/250
Cooldown 150 seconds
Darkness effects
5% movement slow
Shrinks vision radius to 500
Unlink shared vision with allies
My strategy
I’m not sure it’s that optimal – but it gave me some interesting games and I really think of this hero as of my favorite one.
What I really like in this hero – Dark Lady always have an opportunity to escape, and, at the same time – prevent another hero from leaving the battle.
For the beginning you’ll need some stats – it would be easier to stay at line. I always play with my m8ts, so i prefer to make mana regeneration – we always play in aggressive manner, and it’s useful to be able to start attack asap.
So, this is my way of building:
At the beginning buy something to regenerate hp (i buy 2 packs of 
), then buy as many parts for 2 Soulscream Rings 
as you can (that really depends on game mode, in AR i buy everything for 2 rings except recipes – you have to understand, that recipe adds only +1 to all stats and costs too much for this bonus- this is the last part of a talisman to buy, if you have enough space. And you have more then enough space in the beggining).
After that i’m buying – 
(remember – you’re first to enter combat and last to escape, so boots are morte then usefull), if you still stay at line with somebody from your team – buy mana regeneration to power your enemy heroes on the line, i prefer Ring of the Teacher 
to build Abyssal Skull 
later.
So, after boots and mana regeneration (if it’s needed) build Steam boots 
.
This way, you’ll have an average HP, good attack speed, good movement speed, maybe mana regeneration. In this way you’re already prepared to work with someone, especially with mages – you’ll jump to hero, slow him – then you kill him with your partner. This is my style of game after building this set of items.
To upgrade your ability to kill people even without someone – i prefer to build Nullfire Blade 
– it has mana burn effect and, what is very helpful – charges to purge enemy – nobody will kill you (maybe stunners only) or run from you (even stunners 
)
Whatever you build further – doesn’t matter. Depends on enemy heroes, maybe something on magic resistance, if there are too many stunners, maybe Abyssal Skull (i mentioned it earlier)
My usual time-to-buy -> 1750 gold in pack. I usually play AR, so it’s enough to make 2 talismans (only 2 recipes needed) + boots + gloves for attack speed + ring of the teacher – waiting for 2600 to buy full steam boots is too long -> boots and gloves are enough to kill 1-3 heroes and fasten buying further items
About skills – as i said i prefer skills for ganging with someone – that’s why i prefer to upgrade Tainted Soul/Charging Strike to the maximum and only then begin to upgrade the first skill, that gives damage and silence.
Ultimate is very good to start gang – your enemy can’t see your partner and doesn’t think of escaping, and it’s really good to escape from battle. As i said – it’s hard to kill, and the same time you always have an opportunity to not to let enemy escape =)
Items:
1. Soulscream ring
2. Soulscream ring
3. Marchers
4. The ring of the Teacher (optinally)
5. Steamboots
6. Nullfire Blade
7. Abyssal Skull (optionally)
Skills:
1. Charging Strike
2. Tainted Soul
3. Charging Strike
4. Tainted Soul
5. Tainted Soul
6. Ultimate
7. Tainted Soul
8. Charging Strike
9. Charging Strike
10+ First skill and Ultimate if possible – then just +’s
This is quite a bad guide in my opinion and I’ve only played her a couple of times.
The dark lady, based on her skills, has some major positives and some major drawbacks which i will list and explain here with a quick guide for skill improvements.
Skills:
Dark blades: This skill is simply freakin my out and is the main skill of the dark lady (Very underestimated by the OP – sorry man). It requires activation and have a relative high mana cost but lasts somewhere around 4-6 seconds – where each hit in this period bestows silence for 2.5 seconds. THIS is your ganking ability!! At lvl 2 you get an 90% damage upgrade for the duration of a standard gank! This is your very own double damage which also silences those peski casters/stunners who then become ants. At lvl 4 a +75 damage item suddenly gives +172.5 damage etc etc.
Taint soul:
Its a slow … with damage. The reason to improve this is the duration of the slow. Dark blades yield more damage pr level on a single hit than this. Decent for last hitting runners near tower though. Beware the high mana cost.
Charging strikes:
It lets you do a melee hits in a line and teleport to that position. To max this skill is plain stupid. It is an escape skill as much as mush as killing. The only reason to improve this beyond lvl 1 is for range and lower mana cost ( range 100/lvl… FUCK THAT! lower mana cost can be needed if you want to activate all abilities ).
Cover of darkness:
A great team escape/gank or just for adding confusion to any 5v5 fight setup. High mana cost at higher levels – remember the 5% slow it adds on opponents – though little it can mean catching people for the last hits or not.
Strengths:
Highest damage in game on melee hits ( with silence ) for short durations, a decent slow ( with some damage on it ), a teleport ( dont use it for damage but for movement ) and a team ulti.
She can escape many situations with ulti/charging so hard to gank.
Has a silence which with microing can silence multiple targets for up to 8 seconds!
Weaknesses:
Shitty hit points ( since you want to focus on damage items with your blades ).
Shitty mana and in order to do anything at anytime you need lots of mana.
Needs to focus on damage/agi items to maximize her potential.
A sitting duck at a lane.
Yields very little to team fights unless she has full control all the time – her ulti has possibilities but quickly becomes situational.
How to play:
So we have a hero who dies fast with a single escape ability but potentially the highest dps bursts through her dark blades. At level 1 always take charging strikes .. it lets you survive. With a capable disabler ( electrician, pollywog etc ) quickly max dark blades and any single hero is an instant kill.
The trick with this little bitch is to simply … avoid dying. The early levels with her is going to be the toughest as you have absolutely no lane control. Every ranged hero or strength hero will own you at a lane leading to few kills/denies and possible a lost tower early on. As a more than usually soft target who is likely to take damage on the lane you’re going to get some ranged heroes from mid looking for an easy kill – often 1 stun will be enough to kill you before you can escape – so dont let them!
If you can manage to survive the early levels and gather together some gold you quickly become the main ganger of the team. The mid levels is about hunting as many heroes will be capable of taking you out on a lane. Many people see the farming as a big problem for this chick and goes for runed axe as it lets her push and farm better. It is however quite expensive for a bad farmer and just makes you a solo’er.
In my opinion the best items will be:
steamboots : early on – yes enhanced marchers can be good for burst movement – but that is what charging strikes are for, and I would not miss the int/str/agi ( whatever the situation calls for! – sometimes the ekstra mana is needed for all spells – sometimes str if you need the hp ) boost.
Soulcream rings : A couple doesn’t hurt her potential and the int/str is a nice improvement she often needs early on. Remember that 2 soulscreams yields 12 agi = 12 dam = 28 dam with blades active.
Now it becomes interesting as the possibilities arise. Note that while having those steamboots and soulscream rings mana pots and runes are a MUST! If you dont have them you’re not dangerous.
Some variations are seen and I will browse over them.
Nullfire blade: Often seen on her as it makes her a better teamplayer with a slow/debuff, mana burn. The int is good and so is agi.
Runed axe: In a long game it can make you a killing machine due the ekstra creep kills and the health/mana regen gives you a slower recharge time – not recommended for people who can last hit effectively.
Hack n’ slash : Gives you some needed hp and a speed enhancement maximizing the usage for dark blades without slow ( less mana used sometimes ) – there are better items though.
Abyssal skull : I usually get it.. lifesteal with that damage and another percent based damage increase is nice. Mana regen is not wasted either. Also creates another slot for a team mate making you more of a team player on occasions.
Frostwolf skull : I’ve seen people say “i can use the slow! I kill all!” .. they are stupid. Stay away from this! It does not maximize you and is way to expensive to remove your vulnerabilities.
Wing bow : If you can make the money – fine .. dont aim for it though.
Riftshards + upgrade : Good … can make you 2-3 shot low hp heores making you someone everyone runs from.
Savage mace : Hehehe … while building it you get amazing damage … very nice for late game.
Shamans headdress : if you get nuked to death alot … ok go for it. But it only gives survivability – not helping you from being controlled to death ( which is often the case in team fights )
Shrunken head : Expect to be controlled … if not .. then you own most fights taking out casters at will. Get it – and get it often! In team fights you now provide control through silence – charging strikes past their casters and you open with a semi global 2.5 sec silence.
My choice of items usually is:
opt Soulscream ring
opt ring of the teacher
Steamboots
Soulscream ring
If ring of the teacher -> abyssal skull
Nullfire blade
Shrunken head/riftshards/savage mace
The last is VERY dependent on the opposing team but one is always preferred. If you manage to get a hold of 3300 g suddenly without shopping during game .. do the wingbow.
The usual gang is:
A team mate stuns/disables – you hit until this is over, activate blades for silence and slows with taint soul – keep hitting and silencing for 5 seconds. People are now dead or you should not have been there.
The usual escape:
Wow! Someone reported missing … yóu immediatly pay defensive as you’re probably the victim… perhaps even use charging to get back already now.
My problems with her is the low mana regen which means that after one kill you’re out of mana and will be no threat to anyone for some time. This would make some people go for a runed axe for mana regen … but as stated earlier – expensive for little actual effect. You are a hit n’ runner – sometimes all the way back to base for a recharge.
This guide is not meant for the ubah players which thinks they are pro – it is meant for those who actually enjoy the game and seeks inspiration
Damn it became a long one … my bad … just kept writing for some reason. Sorry.
Flejno, saying not to max Charging strike is like saying not to max blink. The Dark Lady has terrible survivability, she needs this ability just to survive early game, and at 100 mana a pop for a 600 range blink, not maxing this could prove Lethal. I definitely agree with Dark Blades though. It’s much better than her second skill for ganking.
As for item build, well… OP pretty much has it right. Bracers/Soulscream rings and Abyssal Skull are solid items, and Nullfire for late game. I haven’t decided which version of trea I like more with the new patch, but I’m leaning towards Enhanced Marchers to be honest.
Uhhhh, that’s about it… Dark Lady’s great at disrupting and Blades + charge = AoE silence.
What all of you are leaving out about the charging strikes thing?
Turn on dark blades and then do charging strikes.
You just aoe silenced their entire team.
listen to robbie ;D
I agree with Robbie, and more over you forget the increased attack speed after charging strike, which makes you a monster for a few seconds combined with dark blades.
Dark Lady is weak early game but needs money to be effective, so max up charging strike quickly and take at least 1st rank of the 2nd skill, beyond that the dark blades are better for ganks than the slow.
So for items i go iron shield first (helps you against str and ranged early game) but i avoid any soul scream ring for the overall cost/gain. I then directly go to marchers rather than steam boots for increased mvt speed/sprint and more dmg(which is more important i think than a bit more hp/attack speed).
After that going for runed axe enable you quick and non-stop farm/gank without retourning to base due to mana problems, then you can go for elder parasite instead of abyssal skull since you dont need mana regen anymore. You now have a monster sprint (if you stack marchers with it) and attack speed (parasite+charging strike).
Now you go for a brutalizer and a rift shard(i generaly ditch iron shield when i get rift shard to have a free slot for token of life). You can kill pretty much anyone.
As for teamfights use ulti(for confusion, you need to survive) dark blades+charging strike (you just silenced an already confused team) then activate parasite and focus the same target as your team if your in mid game or another easy target if your in end game (you should be able to down pretty quickly on your own).
Last argument in favor of runed axe when stacked with rift shard well your contribution to teamfights went up by 5 levels (in terms of dammage output).
And i ended up sayin a lot more than i wanted to, anyway…
Have fun playin
For starter items i would buy this (5v5 ap)
duckfeet x2, health potion x3. The duck feet are for the poor mans shield, and the potions are because you’re squishy, and even though you may escape with chargeing strikes and survive, you still don’t wanna have to go B2B.
I would upgrade to shield asap (only 250 additional gold) if you’re vs ranged heroes who knows how to harras, if you’re vs melee go for loggers hatchet first, since it makes last hitting a lot easier, then take the shield right after.
I use these starting items for most melee agi heroes (magebane, scout, nighthoud, blood hunter etc.) the hatchet is a must on every melee in my book, cause it’ll help a lot early on. and easily make up for the 225 it’ll cost you + it can be bought in the outposts.
mm i dont know about your skill build. it depends on how you play her.
i delay her ulti until l4 to increase her potentials in single ganks, rather than team clashes.
Charging Strikes + Dark Blades is the way to go.
wow. alot of u guys are using her all wrong. her charging strike is not something you should max out but only get lvl 1. u get it lvl 1 becuz u wud want to do a aoe silence wit it and thats it. her extra atk spd in the beginning is useless with her low dmg. Now if ur thinking she doesnt have low dmg becuz of the 1st skill well ur right. but in order to get high dmg u need to sacrifice charing strikes. now if you are thinking you should max out both then once again your wrong because you need the slow or team games. Her slow at lvl 1 is only 2 seconds. do u really think that’s long? her slow has INCREDIBLE long distance and the longer they are slowed the more they react and move slower. If you think movement doesnt matter, then why do most ppl get Ghost Marchers?
Btw: U should get runed axe(battlefury) with Dark Lady. If later in the game when u max our charging strike and her 1st skill.The combination becuz an amazing DPS. The reason why is because your charging strikes becomes cleave and you hit everything MUCH MUCH more. trust me. try it in a practice game if u dont believe me……Runed Axe = Staff of the Master for charging strikes
On runed axe, imagine a 110% damage buff splashed on 40%. I’m playing her a lot although i havn’t yet perfectionized it however, I once changed into a 4man team (alone) in a desperate move to just kill their hybrid (Zephyr was overfed). While I aimed for him, I managed a quad kill due to a 110% damage buff splash by 40%. That was a witch slayer on full hp, a 40% hp night hound in splash range and a moonquen right next to zeyphr. IF you grab wingbow and have charging maxed, you easily get to at least 2,5 attacks per second. Then again, the early item bo.
I always get hatchet, its simply … wow. Imagine a 32% bonus dmg vs. creeps with a 40% splash on 110% damage buff charging through 20+ creeps. Thats a 400+ gold attack in 1 single charge = hyper farm. her slow becomes better because of the increased duration per level. 2 to 5 seconds for a 60% slow is rlly mint. Since you can initiate from distance with your ult and/or slow, dont run as the first woman into the fight since shes a really fragile ninja. Even on lvl25 with all the recommended items you WONT get over 2k hp. Shes a hard carry who can match swift and Sand, defo. Besides you really should hit steamboots rather then ghosts, simply because of a possible 35 atk speed buff. 25 std and 10 by using agi boost. Further i wouldnt recommend a supporter item on her like teacher ring and or others. Ask a mate to do so, you need your own items to be effective for the team, not having items for the team. She really starts to excell from mid to late game though. I actually give Shroud a go for a direct blade silence standing next to the enemy, then taint the soul and charge after or back if the enemy team comes for the help. As for the engaging. If you can, cast the ulti before attack, then hit the fragile int gankers. Witch is a powerful guy, yea, but when hes silenced, confused adn slowed, hes a useless chicken vs. a female ninja dps carry with 110% dmg buff and 2,5+ attacks per second. You can easily take a pyro and witch out within the next 3 seconds by ulting and silencing, not even using charge or soul slow.
For me, she is an insanely good carry, but as already mentioned takes a lot of skill due to 4 abilities and high fragility. She lacks of a direct stun, but whatfor? A silence and two slows plus a leap for back/forth movements is good enough. The only thing that can really stop you late game is an actual stun that lasts over 2 seconds so the enemys have either the time to run far far away or surround you with everything they have. Grab a demented in your team and force him to constantly cast hide on you. It’s … more than lethal, lol. And yea, early game, she is … shit. I love her, but early game just dont try to push hard. You won’t succeed unless the team is more stupid than your own grandmom playing this. You can support by the distant slow and a silence, but don’t go aggressiv until at least being lvl6 or above.
Comment on the soulscreams, I really would grab, hatchet, marchers, runes, If you can farm hard, lifetube, if not, 2 scream rings, you can sell them later for 240g, thats better than nothing plus the constant attr boost is nice, then proceed with getting runed. if your hyper fed, wingbow straight, if not, grab elders parasite. It’s recommended and its simply delicious on her. If she charges into the enemy team she grabs the life steal from every single target she hits, thats partically a full life regen for a 75 mana move into the enemy team, doing nice dmg and eventually silencing them aswell. Further elders gives you movementspeed buff upon activation, ideal chasing/escaping item. The 30% more dmg taken is a big drawback for me though, if your stunned, you are actually dead if elders is on. You simply are fragile and will always be fragile, its a fact and that wont change with frostwulfs, headdress and/or any other item. Even with token dont dive into things alone, they can easily stun you two times and you wasted the kongor buff in no time.
Yea thats about it what i can think of with her, im constantly playing her though and thats my full opinion on her. Ive seen nice comments her and even gathered new ideas for some ninja item bos, hence shroud. Riftshards arent bad, in general though. I wouldnt rlly recommend them, however. You’ve got, with a high farm, a 20% chance to do a 2.4 crit.
Okay let’s see
110% dmg buff with 2,5+ attacksp er second on a 40% splash and 20% chance to do 2.4 the damage. Sounds almost imba for me lol, but you dont need the shards since 110% dmg buff is hilariously high enough plus having the recommended items is deadly enough, proceed on improving attack speed and damage output, its your signature attribute and your most deadly feature.
hf gl no lagg out there, Skadow.
dark blades + charging strikes is kickass
dark lady is sexy. super cleavage and very very fast damage + silence + slow. make a basher after you’re core items.
i killed chronos before he could even cast his ultimate everytime. just silence charge beat the fck outta him he dies in 3 second without his big ball of timestop
I dont agree with any1…
When I play DL i always start with buy 1 loggers hatchet and 1 iron buckler + runes of the blight. Then if they try to harass me they dont deal so much dmg and I still can last hit gd because of the hatchet. Now to skill build..
1 spell i pick is taint soul because the cheap mana cost and i keep it on level 1 until later. Then i go charging strikes and after that dark blades and keep doing so with the two abillities.If u are laning with a stun/disabler/slow u can go and harass pretty much with the attack speed bonus from charging strikes and with the dmg bonus of dark blades.To items,I first go on ghost marchers and then i go to elder parasite (the attack speed u get in spell combo + elder is ridiculous high) and then u do massive DPS and can easly kill almost any hero in end early game and mid game. After elder i go to Riftshards and try to get that to lvl 4 as fast as I can. Lets see what we got… Lets say that we are lvl 15 and we have Ghost marchers, riftshards and elder parasite. First u do dark blade, charge them and do elder, u should have about 500 movementspeed if u activate g marchers and elder. U dont need the slow but its gd to have. Lets say that u have about 170 dmg with g marchers and riftshards. U have about 160-170 attack speed with no buffs or anything. If u activate dark blades then u get around 340 dmg for 4 sec, and with the attack speed bonus from charging strikes ( 75 ) u get around 230 attack speed combine that with elder and u have 330 attackspeed with 340 dmg!!!!!!
Then u pwn ! Then if u are facing a nice escaper like witch slayer, u may think :
I will never be able to kill witch.. she will just stun and ulti me bla bla bla….
That is NOT true.
U will demolish a witch.
U silence and then before u can say hello hes so fcking dead.
Late game items i like to get either savage mace, ruined axe or shieldbreaker + wingbow.
Try this build and U WILL WIN!
this is a good guide for beginners but not for experienced players
heres how you play tdl
the starting items are iron buckler loggers hatchet and runes of blight. (the items for ALL melee carries except for swiftblade.) the skill build is this
1.tainted soul (to last if your against a range and to harrass)
2.charging strike (to get away if you get ganked or if your low health.
3.tainted soul
4.dark blades
5.tainted soul
6.charging strike
7.tainted soul
8.charging strike
9.charging strike
10.stats
11.cover of darkness
12-14. dark blades
15.cover of darkness
16.cover of darkness
items end game should be runed axe, steam boots (agi) wingbow, frostburn or shieldbreaker, savage mace and charged hammer or brutilizer.
you should get sustainer before boots because you can then camp a lane and if you get ganked you can spin away. tdl is in the tops right after magebane. hope this helps you guys that are more experienced.
i played with maxing the slow when i started playing hon, but soon realised that doubling the mana cost and slow duration and as a consequence have no dps boost whatsoever was the wrong way to go. there are several item builds to go for on every hero, but for my favorite items and my skillbuild the order is always:
Hatchet + Iron Buckler + Health Potion / RotB
Health tube
Ghost Marchers
Sustainer
Runed Axe
Remainder of her equip is completely determined of what you’re up against, but I don’t really like to get Elder Parasite because you either kill someone or you get stunned by their teammate’s and then your Parasite’s current 20% extra damage makes you a way too easy kill. Crit, Shieldbreaker, Wingbow and Savage Mace are all nice though, I’ve not really played her with the Brutalizer yet, but I’m going to see in what way that can be used to make her as effective as possible. The reason as to why this hero has the most powerful gain from Runed Axe, which noone has commented so far in this thread, is that she has the Charging Strikes ability, which in difference from other aoe based abilities causes her to execute an unlimited amounts of attacks and even though they decrease by 15% damage per consequtive hit, this is where the cleave from Runed Axe comes in. Hitting the first target results in a 40% cleave damage to the remainder of the targets, and on the next hit she deals 85% dmg and therefore cleaves the remainder of the targets for another 34% or so, and continuing, this means that its an exponential curve that grows until her damage on the coming target is about as good as zero, but during the trip down to this damage, the cleave has done its job and dealt out way more damage than any other kind of similar abilties are capale of aswell as moving TDL to a new position, AND boosting her with a potential 70 extra attackspeed.
Even though this hero does not have very high base damage nor burst damage spells other than her Dark Blades, I still prefer to maximize her Charging Strikes because it is way more powerful when upgraded. The manacost stays the same unlike her other abilities, the attackspeed increases, the range increases, and maybe most important, the cooldown decreases from 21 seconds on rank 1 to a wooping 9 seconds on rank 4. This means it can be used almost as effectively as blink on most blink-heroes to get away or catch up to someone, and the attackspeed is incredible earlygame considering you’ve got no + attackspeed until very much later with the items I prefer to get on her (GMarchers, RAxe, Hatchet, Iron Shield/Helm of the Black Legion, depending on the enemy team, etc., etc.)
My order of skill-leveling:
Level
1: Charging Strikes (to prevent level l 1 first blood attempts, her other 2 abilities are completely useless compared to it because your charge can be used to get away from area spells and heroes, or to catch up to people more effectively than a rank 1 slow and most definately rank 1 Dark Blades)
2: Tained Soul (Very usefull spell because it has an incredibly low manacost of 35 and deals 60 damage which is more than most ranged heroes very earlygame and therefore could get you alot of creep kills that would otherwise get you 4-5 ranged hits from a decent harasser, not worth using to harass as stated further up, but it is well worth using to remove health or mana potions from enemy heroes)
3: Charging Strikes
4: Dark Blades (time to get some controlling and damage output up and running)
5: Charging Strikes
6: Cover of Darkness (although she is low on mana this is an insanely powerful team spell, it works both for ganking or surviving on your own lane, and it is a very nice spell earlygame aswell as late to help out your teammates in the other lanes with the same issues) Potentially CoD could be postponed for Dark Blades if you do not enjoy having 4 abilities on a low mana hero, but the ultimate is way more usefull in most cases compared to 1 extra second of increased attackdamage which will get you 1-2 hits extra with your attackspeed being as low as it is earlygame)
7: Charging Strikes
8: Dark Blades rank 2 or 3 depending on your level 6 choice of skill
9: Dark Blades rank 3 or 4
10: Dark Blades rank 4 or CoD
11: CoD rank 2, still more powerfull with increasing duration by 50% and slow by 100% than increasing the slow with 1 second and 30 damage for 10 extra mana meaning 50% slow duration and 50% damage for about 23% manacost increase and a small cooldown decrease if I remember correctly.
12: TS
13: TS
14: TS
15: Stats, obviously
16: CoD
17-25: Stats, obviously
I hope some of this way usefull, and if you’re like me and just enjoy trolling around on forums and happen to also like The Dark Lady well then good for you
Give me a whisper ingame