You may know this guy: his nickname is Guardian Wisp and a simple youtube query gives tons of videos of his signature carry Io playstyle.

He’s been doing this since forever: his Io playstyle, however, might be in the best spot ever at the moment. The introduction of new talents and numerous item changes allow Guardian Wisp to currently stay around top-100 leaderbords rank. Only playing carry Io.

I reached out to Guardian Wisp to discuss his gameplay, itembuilds, tricks and latest 7.14 Io changelogs.

On dotabuff I noticed you’ve been playing carry Io since 2012. This all started at Dota AllStars, right?

Yep, I started the moment the hero just came out at Dota 1, I instantly fell in love with all his abilities. I had a friend which we dual laned with; he picked WK and I followed with Wisp. Not sure about the first game, but as he was making Armlet, I soon followed him and we just fought together. Since then I pretty much don’t know how to play without Armlet xD

So, it is years of Armlet toggling experience by now.

Yea. I did like the old Armlet a bit more, when regen was not based on STR which isn’t smth Io can boast and had less HP burning per second. The difference is not that big though, since my Overcharge + Arlmet burns all my HP so fast. In most fights this is the main source of my damage taken — and that’s a bit of trouble before I get Satanic. But then again, toggling feels so good.

How did you come up with Satanic-Euls idea though? It’s fucking broken :D

I needed something to purge Spirit Vessel, so I thought Euls is the best for it. It’s cheaper than Lotus Orb and can save me.

this is how Satanic + Euls combo works. Io gets lifesteal even while cycloned as he keeps dishing out attacks with lvl 20 tether talent

What position do you prefer for ranked solo queue?

I would prefer perhaps to farm safelane. But my team often doesn’t like it. So I jungle, go dual offlane, help safelane and jungle nearby. What I want is a good lineup around Wisp.

Guardian Wisp plays a more supportive style helping his Bristleback in the offlane. Illidan is mad

Would you go to woods after Soul Ring?

Either at the very star, or after lvl 3. Soul Ring isn’t needed, I can buy a couple of clarities and then get Soul Ring after some farm.

What would you prefer: starting as a support taking lots of farm on the map with traditional cores, or Io as a main core hero with traditional supports who leave him all the farm and make space?

As I said, I want a good lineup around Wisp above everything. Troll and Sniper can work, Pangolier 4x hit from Swashbuckle makes up for 4 additional hits of mine with 20 lvl talent.

Best are the the mulitshot heroes though. Drow is nice, the damage aura + Aghanim’s split shot. Gyro, I’ve done a lot of Gyro-Wisp, Medusa too.

Do you also get multishot for your tether talent attack?

Yes. I attack as my allies do, so if Gyro let’s say goes Flack I attack all the enemies too. Same with Dusa and Drow Aghs.

Drow + Io combo is so strong it is possible to comeback from 20k networth disadvantage. The match ended with Dire victory

Morphling was played by Nikobaby, a pubstar currently sitting at 40 leaderbords rank

It’s actually like even if you start as a support, you still take farm and then your core becomes your support.

xD Right. I consider these heroes my supports the moment I hit lvl 20. They are like my attack speed buff.

Are there allied drafts you would not pick Io into?

I play Io for lategame, the longer the better. Back then I used to do these 4 rapiers build I needed tons of farm. So if my allies just go for earlygame draft — I don’t like it. But then again, I play Io. I would try to play Io in any draft probably if it’s available xD

once his Io gets Armlet, he starts making plays all over the map. Notice how he leads the creepscore with 73 CS by 10 minutes, while having started the game as a lane support

Do you ever get reported or flamed for your gameplay?

There are people who don’t like my way of play, indeed. I don’t get reported as much anymore I think though, I’ve been winning a lot lately, but half a year ago I got into LP 1–2 times a week at least xD When I play Wisp the way I do, who do you think team usually blames? :(

7.14 сame out and Io got huge changes. What are your first impressions?

I really like the spirit slow, mostly in lategame. I deal most of my damage with auto-attacks anyway, so the spirit slow is very ncie, both while running away or after enemy. 80% slow is no joke.

The spirit bomb kinda passed away though?

Well, I can’t do spirit bomb anymore, since you no longer can summon new spirits until the first ones expire. I still get 2x spirit damage in fights quite often, it’s just now I gotta use all 5 spirits first. You will have hard time bursting heroes like Morph though since you want damage to be instant.

I don’t know whether Valve did the spirits change on purpose, but if the didn’t, I hope they change it back xD

this is how Spirit Bomb used to work. Look at the amount of burst TB receives with lvl 3 spirits

The creep collision damage got increased. Does it speed up your farming?

The creep damage is nice, but I actually think my farm got kinda slowed, cause I can’t recast spirits anymore. It takes 19 seconds for spirits to explode, and the cooldown is 14 seconds. Before the patch I could resummon them after 14 seconds, use the exposion damage and kill a creep camp with lvl 4 sprits 5 seconds faster. Now I have to wait full 19 seconds.

What about the item changes? I saw you trying out Maelstrom.

I’m not to sure about it yet, I’m still testing new things. New MKB though feels amazing: I didn’t really need attack speed as my partner hero basically works like an AS boost for me with lvl 20 talent.

Anyways, I gotta try to adapt to the changes and take all out of the good things too: tether through bkb ❤; spirit slow ❤; and minus 60 sec cd relocate talent is really nice.