Mystic Swashbuckler

Summary

Strength		+
Agility		+
Intelligence		+
Primary:	{{{Primary}}}

A swordsman whose body has been severely deformed by a rare disease, he has been on a constant journey to find a way to heal his body.

The Mystic Swashbuckler is a great hero for chasing heroes, but is also capable of quickly killing units. A good skill order would be to Dash up to the hero and then hit them with Demoralizing Blow. If they're low on health after that (say, under 400) turn on Keen Edge and just auto attack them to death. If not, use Pilfer and Dash away again. If you get a potion of Invisibility or Assassin's Flask, use that instead of Dashing away. Then, once Demoralizing Blow has cooled down, hit them again (or auto attack them first if you got Assassin's) and they (should) either start running, or be dead. If they run, Dash up to them (preferably through them for the extra damage) and keep auto attacking till they die, reach a base, or Demoralizing Blow is cooled down again.

Skills

Flurry [Proc Buff]

Hotkey: Q
Passive

Innate

N/A

s

N/A

Each attack has a 10% to increase the hero's attack speed by 150% for 2 seconds.

A nice little damage boost to have in any situation, but has a low enough chance that it shouldn't be counted on to help you kill a hero.

Dash [Damage, Teleport]

Hotkey: W
Physical

The hero dashes in a line through to target location, dealing damage to enemies he passes through

Spell Details
Level 1	4s	70		25 + 0.4 * Agi damage
Level 2	4s	72		40 + 0.52 * Agi damage
Level 3	4s	74		55 + 0.64 * Agi damage
Level 4	4s	76		70 + 0.76 * Agi damage
Level 5	4s	78		85 + 0.88 * Agi damage
Level 6	4s	80		100 + Agi damage

A great skill utility skill. Demoralizing blow has a much higher damage for actually killing heroes, this skill is better used to its teleport to either chase after a hero or run away if your low on health. Can also be used while solo in a lane to help kill creeps.

Keen Blade [Buff]

Hotkey: E
Enchantment

Gives the Hero a chance to deal a critical strike (3x normal damage) when attacking for a short duration. Lasts 20 + 0.1 * Int seconds.

Spell Details
Level 1	s	35	N/A	10% chance
Level 2	s		N/A	15% chance
Level 3	s		N/A	20% chance
Level 4	s		N/A	25% chance
Level 5			N/A	30% chance
Level 6			N/A	35% chance

A better skill the higher your attack speed, this can help greatly with the killing of a hero if Demoralizing blow leaves it with a lot of health left.

Demoralizing Blow [Nuke, Debuff]

Hotkey: R
Evocation, Enchantment, Deathblow

A powerful blow against an enemy hero that demoralizes surrounding enemies, reducing their attack damage.

Spell Details
Level 1	s	50	Melee	45 + 1.2 * Int, 20%
Level 2	s	64	Melee	80 + 1.5 * Int, 28%
Level 3	s	78	Melee	115 + 1.8 * Int, 36%
Level 4	s	92	Melee	150 + 2.1 * Int, 44%
Level 5		106	Melee	185 + 2.4 * Int, 52%
Level 6		120	Melee	220 + 2.7 * Int, 59%

The Swashbuckler's most powerful skill, with enough Int you can easily hit an enemy for around 1/2 their max health. Not much strategy to it's use, just hit the enemy whenever you can.

Pilfer [Stun, Random items]

Hotkey: C
Conjuration

Stuns the target for a very short time and causes them to drop some of their gold coins around the area. Also grants the Swashbuckler a random consumable item if he has inventory room to hold it.

Spell Details
Level 1	s	80	Melee	1 second stun, 12-18 gold
Level 2	s	100	Melee	1.2 stun, 24-36 gold
Level 3	s	120	Melee	1.4 stun, 36-54 gold
Level 4	s	140	Melee	1.6 stun, 48-72 gold
Level 5		160	Melee	1.8 stun, 60-90 gold
Level 6		180	Melee	2 stun, 72-108 gold

The stun duration is not really long enough to do much other than land a good Demoralizing Blow. Never go for the coins after hitting the hero, come back for them after the hero is either dead or back at their base. The place where this skill really shines is the random items. Some of the possible items are an Invisibility Potion (20 seconds), 2 types of healing potion (250 and 500 health), Bombs (Targeted AoE damage), Knives (Fan of Knives ability), a Speed Potion (30% move speed), and best of all, an Assassin's Flask, which gives 200 bonus damage upon breaking invisibility.

Mockery [Aoe Hex]

Hotkey: T
Enchantment

Turns surrounding enemies into chickens for a short duration.

Spell Details
Level 1	s	175		10 on units, 2 on heroes.
Level 2	s	215		12 on units, 2.5 on heroes
Level 3	s	255		14 on units, 3 on heroes
Level 4	s	295		16 on units, 3.5 on heroes

Best used in the middle of a large creep wave, can also be used to stop a running hero. If you use it in the creep wave, this skill combined with Dash can usually let you destroy large creep waves alone

Strategy

While where to put your points and exactly what items to get are under Builds, there are two main ways to play Swashy. The first way is using Keen Blade and stacking lots of Agility, with mixed points in Dash or Pilfer. It takes advantage of Agility for lots of Keen Blade crits, and just uses Swashy's normal attack to kill Heroes. This method is great against slow moving or high health Heroes, or Heroes without an escape skill. Good Heroes to use this method against would be Colossus, Elder Treant, Glacial Tyrant, or Rune Knight.

The second is using Demoralizing Blow and Dash to surprise and nuke heroes. This method is great against low health targets, mainly casters such as Time Cleric, Grim Hag, Icespinner, High Oracle, or Divine Wizard (but watch out for Vengeance!). It is also very useful against Heroes that have a lot of escape skills, since it doesn't require them to stand still like the first method, and if they are expecting the first method they will waste one of those escape skills getting away.

With both strategies, make sure to get Pilfer for the great items it offers!