Character Guide: Ix (the Interloper)

Ability 1: Psionic Bond/Displace

Ability 2: Refract

Basic Attack: Radiate

Mobility: Crystal Ascension.

General

Ix is one of the game’s more complicated nauts. He requires a lot more strategical thinking than the majority of the cast, because of his design.Ix is built, like most nauts, with two abilities, a jump, and a basic attack.His two abilities are incredibly useful in a variety of situations, his jump is long and his left click is powerful.Let’s detail!Ix throws out a projectile that connects to a player, friendly or hostile.It heals allies and damages enemies with a burst on contact and then steady damage.Ix can press the ability again before the timer expires to swap positions with his ally or enemy. Swapping increases the cooldown by 4 seconds. (8 —> 12)This ability is one of the game’s strongest. It has the ability to remove somebody from the fight, save allies, or put enemies into a bad situation.Healing your allies regularly. The heal is average without upgrades, but consistent with only an 8 second cooldown without swapping. Useful for characters who cannot sustain themselves, but Ix can only really keep one person in good health.Swap your allies out of a bad situation. There are two main situations here:your ally is trapped, blocked off or in risk of death. If you can get the bond on them, you can swap them safely away. Be quick, you’ll have only a few seconds and the range before breaking the bond is large but not limitless. Be sure you can escape the situation you’ll put yourself in. Ix’ other ability will be useful for this.Alternatively, swapping an ally provides both you and him with about half a second of invulnerability while you swap positions. Use this to avoid burst damage like Sentry’s Black Hole Sun (BHS) or Clunk’s explosion. This will give you a long cooldown, however, so use only in dire situations.Swap your enemies into bad situations. Bond an enemy, and before they can break the range, swap them into a turret, Timerift, Snare Trap or some other such position. Even just into your team is effective. But be careful! You’ll move to where they were, and if they stand in their team you may not be able to safely swap. You must consider where both you and your opponents are at all times! If you get too focused on where you’ll put your enemy, you might unwittingly kill yourself.Also use bond as DPS in fights, it’s surprisingly damaging and people often panic when they are bonded.0.8 seconds of invulnerability (to damage and CC) with a small amount of movement.Use this ability to react to whatever takes place, remove traps in your way, or just to bait out enemy attacks before a fight.Clearly telegraphed attacks like Explode, BHS, Airstrike, Precision Shot, can all be easily blocked with this ability.The amplify damage upgrade is amazing in a teamfight. Applying it to a team, combined with a high burst ability like Ted’s Airstrike or Clunk’s explode can end a fight in under a second.An attack with a main projectile and several smaller shots.Get up in people's faces with this. Those little scatters off of the main projectile will nearly double your damage, and with Ix' mobility you can take a lot of characters in a fight. You'd be surprised.Get the heal upgrade (Crystal Crunch) It’s really really good because Ix pierces on his attacks. The other upgrades are up to you (I like the one that gives extra small crystals (Shrubbery Gems). It’s more damage than the regular damage boost so is more useful in a close-range fight, which Ix is best in.You can hop like 12 times with this, it’s insane. Keep yourself airborne by tapping that jump key and confuse your opponents with erratic movement, or reach insane heights to easily switch between lanes.Ix’ matchups depend almost entirely on the player. However, you may have trouble against Sentry if he knows how to use his teleport for burst (though you can avoid BHS easily). Make sure to always be clicking towards Sentry to hit him before he can activate his teleport. Hitting him will cause a 2 second cooldown on his teleport, use this to your advantage, even with your limited range.Be aware of everyone and where they are. Does your teammate need healing more than that enemy needs swapping? Where will you end up if you swap? Will you accidentally kill a teammate by swapping them, or swapping an enemy into them? Pay attention! You’ll only get better at it with time, but it’s not all about those enemy swaps.Skølldir (Displace him with team), Yuri (Refract through mines), Derpl (easy Nuke block/Trap save), Vinnie (easy to chase and displace), Chucho (easy blocking of Bombs for you or your team), LUX (without their charge)Leon (he’s hard to hit and has easy escapes), Ayla (her consistent damage is rough, try a good Displace), Genji (he outranges you and Cocoon can get you easily), Penny (her fighting potential is higher), Ksenia (she can burst you down out of stealth with her silence easily, Refract and Displace won’t do much to help)like Derpl, Lonestar, Raelynn, Ted, Swiggins, LUX and Froggy G are very powerful with you. Set up into their abilities.