HONicle : Rhapsody Hero Guide

RHAPSODY

A new Intelligence based Supporter/Pusher from S2 Games

Basic Statistics

Strength	18	+1.8 / level
Agility	17	+1.7 / level
Intelligence	25	+2.8 / level

Move Speed		300
Base Armor		2.88
Attack Range		550
Base Damage		47 - 51
Attacks/Sec		0.69

Skill Descriptions

Staccato (Q)

Type: Magic
Range: 500
Cast Time: 0.5 Seconds
Mana Cost: 100 / 110 / 120 / 130
Cooldown: 12.0 Seconds

Deals 50 / 60 / 70 / 80 Magic Damage and a 1 second stun to the target.

Gains 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 charges. Activate again to consume a charge and deal 50 Magic Damage and a .25 second stun to the target.

This is your primary nuke and ganking tool, providing a maximum of 2 seconds of stun and 280 magic damage to a single target, making it one of the longest stuns in the game with a solid amount of burst damage.  With good timing the total time a hero spends disabled can be quite a bit longer, as you can stagger the secondary pulses out over about 4 seconds after the initial cast, allowing you to influence your target's position for nearly 5 seconds while your allies beat them into paste.  I recommend taking your first point in Staccato in nearly every situation, as the relatively low mana cost and short duration make it a potent harassment tool right from the start. 

Disco Inferno (W)

Type: Magic
Range: 500
Radius: 400
Cast Time: 0.5 Seconds
Mana Cost: 85 / 95 / 105 / 115
Cooldown: 15.0 Seconds 

Creates a dance floor with 400 radius at target location for 6 seconds.

Enemies who stop moving on the dance floor take 20 / 40 / 60 / 80 Magic Damage per second, with a .5 second linger time.

Allies who stop moving on the dance floor heal 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 Health per second, with a .5 second linger time. 

Disco Inferno is a potent pushing and support tool.  Early game it's best to use it sparingly, as the total health gain at level one is only 60 points, scaling up to a maximum of 240 at level four, and also to use it away from the creep wave so it doesn't push the lane prematurely.  During early tower pushes and throughout the mid game you can drop the dance floor on a creep wave to simultaneously heal your lane creeps and damage the enemy lane creeps, absolutely melting waves as you make your way to the tower.  This also acts as a farming tool if you need to make a little bit of quick cash, as you can drop it on a stacked camp to kill all but the strongest creeps while healing yourself enough to tank any damage they may deal.  

Arcane Hymn (E)
Passively grants allies in a 500 radius around self 1 / 2 / 3 / 4 Magic Armor Penetration and 6 / 12 / 18 / 24% Magic Damage Lifesteal against enemy heroes.

Rhapsody's only passive skill, Arcane Hymn, is a strange and very situational ability, especially during the laning phase.  Ideally, you want to lane with a hero with strong magic burst damage such as Pyromancer in order to utilize the power of this spell when it is at it's most effective as well as your multi-stun combo.  If you find yourself laning with a hero such as Rampage or Flint Beastwood who relies on physical damage it is probably better to hold off on leveling this skill until later when you can roam with a magic damage based ganker like Pebbles.

Later game this spell can also be utilized by nearby carries to improve the functionality of Harkon's Blade, an item that hasn't seen much use since the ability to combo it with lifesteal was removed.  Now the hero with Harkon's will steal life whenever attacking another hero while near Rhapsody. 

Protective Melody (R)

Mana Cost: 150 / 200 / 250
Cooldown: 120.0 / 105.0 / 90.0 Seconds

Channels for 5 / 6 / 7 seconds, granting allies within 500 units immunity to everything for the duration of the channel.

Protective Melody is by far the most difficult of Rhapsody's skills to use effectively, but also the only skill that is equally functional at level six and level 25.  Activate it too early and it's wasted, as the enemy team will either wait to initiate or just stun you out of the channel before it becomes useful.  Activate it too late and your team is already too close to dead and you'll just be beaten down and killed.  Activating Protective Melody at the right time, though, will cause nothing but rage for the other team as their spells and attacks do absolutely nothing to your allies.  Starting the channel right as a behemoth blinks in or a Pyromancer starts his combo is thoroughly satisfying

There are a number of possible uses for this skill outside of teamfights, though.  It can be used to push a tower quickly, as the immunity applies to creeps and heroes, or to make Kongor even easier, since this skill will prevent him from stunning or damaging your allies while they fight him.

The Laning Phase

There are three very distinct roles that Rhapsody can play during the laning phase, which are primarily determined by your team makeup.

She can solo lane, although she won't get a lot of farm due to her slow attack projectile, she will get levels, which will allow her to start pushing earlier.  Generally for this to be effective you will need another pusher that relies on minions or pets, such as Keeper of the Forest, Tempest or Ophelia, to put damage on the tower while you maintain the health of the minions.  This guide will not cover much in the way of solo laning.

Rhapsody can babysit a carry in either the short or the long lane in a 2-1-2 or a 1-1-2-Jungle setup.  Her potent heal and strong stun will help to keep your lane partner alive, while dropping a Disco Inferno on the far side of the creep wave will dissuade the enemy from approaching the creep wave to attempt last hits of their own.

Where Rhapsody really shines, though, is in the trilane.  With an area-of-effect heal and harassment tool as well as a long duration targeted stun, she excels as a trilane support as well as a strong roamer to help out the mid lane.  Disco Inferno can also be used to make double or triple stacking in the jungle much easier, as you can blindly pull creeps out of their camps with the large AoE right at the 0:54 mark.

Starting Items

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As a primary support, it is your job to upgrade the courier and/or buy the wards.  If there is another support that buys a courier first, get two wards instead and drop one of your minor totems to make space.  If you get the courier, they should get wards.  The health potion in your inventory is not likely to be used on you, but rather on the carry in your lane so that they can save that 100gp to go towards their first midgame item.  You will eventually be using all of the Minor Totems in recipes in most cases.  

During the laning phase you need to be aware of the map to keep your carry safe.  It's also your job to assist mid with ganks and with rune control, primarily through warding but also by guarding the rune if it comes up on your side.  In ganks you are usually the secondary stunner, as your stun can potentially have the longest duration of any non ultimate stun except for Javelin of Light, which you are a master at setting up because of the variability of when you spend the Staccato charges.

It is also your job to keep the lane opponents away from the creep wave as much as possible.  Rhapsody doesn't have great base damage, and her attack range of 550 isn't the best, so the primary way to do this is to plant Disco Inferno behind the wave when the enemy starts to push up to try for last-hits.  With Disco Inferno down, most enemies will be afraid of getting trapped on the dance floor and stunlocked, resulting in them backing up.  Timing is crucial on this, as you don't want to risk enemy lane creeps being damaged by your spell, resulting in a pushed lane.

Because of your multiple responsibilities, you can level your skills in a number of ways.  There are two primary skill builds that work well for the early game.  One focuses on magic burst damage when ganking with another magic damage burst hero such as Pebbles or Pyromancer.  The other focuses on pushing, healing and maintaining your creep waves.

Pusher Build

Ganker Build

Your decision on early game skill builds depends entirely on your team.  If your team includes Torturer, Pollywog Priest, Tempest, Ophelia, Keeper of the Forest, or any other strong pusher, you're going to want to augment that focus with the first build.  If your team includes heroes like Pyromancer, Fayde, Pebbles, Myrmidon, Thunderbringer, Bubbles, or any other strong ganker, you will probably want to focus on the second build to provide those heroes with the early Magic Armor Penetration and Magic Damage Lifesteal to increase the effectiveness and survivability of early and mid game ganking.  Ideally, you won't really need your Protective Hymn early on if you're ganking, but it can be incredibly useful in preventing counterpushes and concentrated tower defense efforts if your team is focused on pushing. 


The Mid-Game

Rhapsody works best as a component of a push strategy and, if your hero picks are good, she really shines in the mid game.  While she doesn't have any way of damaging towers beyond autoattacks, Disco Inferno simply melts creep waves while at the same time restoring your creeps to full health.  With a maximum damage of 480 over the full duration and a maximum heal of 240, one cast is usually enough to take out an entire wave.  Additionally, dropping Disco Inferno directly on an enemy tower allows Tempest's Elementals or Keeper of the Forest's Treants to survive the tower attacks for substantially longer, increasing the total damage output against the tower.  In a clutch situation when your team needs just a few more hits to prevent a tower from being denied, your ultimate can be used to postpone the enemies defense for a few seconds, earning precious gold and map advantage for your team.

One of the side effects of Rhapsody's wave-pushing potency is that she usually ends up with substantially more farm that many supporters.  After budgeting for warding and counterwarding, Rhapsody should be focusing on survivability, especially when it can be applied to her entire team.

Mid-Game/Core Items

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If you have another ward hero on your team and you built an early Astrolabe, it can be a good idea to also build a Blood Chalice to fill the empty slot left by not needing to carry wards/counterwards as often.  If you built the Ring of Sorcery instead you and your team will need to take more breaks to heal, as you won't be able to heal them as quickly with Disco Inferno and Astrolabe combine.  The advantage to having Ring of Sorcery is, of course, that you'll be able to keep high mana cost nukers like Pebbles and Behemoth in the fight for longer.

Once you have the six outer towers down, you're ready for the late game, which is where Rhapsody rapidly tapers off.  If you're losing towers just as quickly as you're taking them, you will be a powerful force in defending your base.

The Late Game

Rhapsody tapers off quickly in the mid game, but can still be useful.  Her ultimate, Protective Hymn, still functions fantastically, especially while trying to make that all-important first push into the base to take a barracks, and of course, Staccato is still a very strong stun.  Your farm is probably going to be sitting in the 200-250 gpm, meaning you won't likely have a lot of money to be spent on big items, so it's only likely that you'll be able to get one big late game item, if any at all.  Because of this, it's best to work on an item that benefits your team, whether through activated abilities, auras, or keeping you alive.  Here are some good options.

The first three items on the list, Barrier Idol, Tablet of Command and Nome's Wisdom are all intended to aid your allies in surviving.  The Barrier Idol is most important against teams with high magic burst and heroes such as Magmus, Behemoth and Torturer, while the Nome's Wisdom is strong against autoattackers and when your allies have spammable spells.  Tablet of Command is strongest when the enemy team has higher mobility than you through blinks or charge attacks.  It also helps you get your stun onto targets that are carrying a Nullstone.

The other two items are intended to keep you alive while you're using your ult and burning charges on Staccato.  Nullstone is good if the enemies have a few powerful single target spells and Shrunken Head is best to ignore massive AoE skills like those that come from Pyromancer, Witch Slayer and Bubbles.

Friends and Enemies

Rhapsody's best friends are heroes that need some setup to get their stuns off or have abilities that work best with long duration stuns.  She also works well with large AoE disables and strong pushers.

Rhapsody's worst enemies are heroes with strong turtling abilities, superior magic stuns, and inherent magic immunity, meaning that many of her best friends, especially Keeper of the Forest, Tempest and Swiftblade, are also her worst enemies.  Other examples are shown below.

That concludes the guide.  Remember to always keep wards up, always carry a Homecoming Stone, and always check out Escapism for an interesting take on games of all sorts.