Kaldr the Ancient Apparition is a hero unknown to pubs and relatively unused in ranked. I believe that should be changed. AA has it all: slows, stuns, nukes, and even a way to boost the damage of your teammates. He is a ranged Intelligence hero that serves as a disabler and a Support, and like many Support heroes, he is a bit squishy. However, with low-cooldown slows and a way to freeze enemies in their tracks, it's easy to work around that.

His base stats are:

492 HP and 325 Mana Points
A low 44-54 base attack
1.8 armour and 295 movement speed
He is slow and easy to chase down for heroes like Mirana, Enchantress, and Slark, which I'll talk about in a later section.

Ancient Apparition has a regular 1800/800 sight range and a large 600 attack range.

He also has a whopping 25 base Intelligence with a +2.6 gain- His mana problems are minimal and thanks to the latest patch, he'll also gain lots of bonus spell damage.
He also has a nice 20 base Agility with a +2.2 gain, so he doesn't share the annoyingly low attack speed that many intelligence heroes have a problem with.
Finally, he has a base Strength of 18 with a low +1.40 gain, which is amongst some of the lowest in the game.

Why?

• He's very useful early-game, and if you have a powerful melee hero laning with you, (Axe or Ursa, for example) it's very possible to get first-blood at the Rune spot.
  
• He can snipe any enemy heroes trying to run away with his powerful ultimate.
  
• His ultimate is also very effective in team fights; any straddlers will die if they reach below a certain HP, and it also deals a decent amount of damage at the start of the duration
  
• His skills generally have low cool downs
  
• He doesn't need expensive items to be useful

Why not?

• As mentioned before, he's very squishy
  
• He can be shut down completely if he's silenced, and he lacks a passive to aid him
  
• He has no AOE (apart from the Ultimate, but you don't want to waste that) and low base attack, so gaining gold and destroying creep waves is a slow process for him.
  
• Because of that, unless you are defeating masses of enemy heroes, buying items other than wards and low-cost items is a struggle

Cold Feet
Cold Feet is a single-target ability that causes the enemy to receive damage every second and if they stay relatively still, become frozen in place for as long as 3.5 seconds, but if they move too far outside of the point it was cast at, the spell is broken and they can no longer become frozen. It's useful against an enemy that is attacking an ally, or for enemies that don't have much movement, but against heroes that can easily blink or escape, it's not very effective. It costs 150 mana at every level, which means it can be spammed easily, and has a 13/11/9/7 cool down.

Ice Vortex
AA creates a circle of ice that stays in place for a grand total of 16 seconds. It slows any enemies that step into it, and while enemies are in it, they take additional magic damage. This means it works well with Cold Feet- You can freeze them into place and then create an ice vortex, and spam magical damage at them. It has a low 4 second cool down and costs 80/90/100/110 mana.

Chilling Touch
Generally, I believe that this is the least useful of AA's skills and it would benefit him for this skill to be replaced with a passive or another nuke. The skill envelopes all ally heroes in an icy magic, increasing the damage of their physical attacks for a number of attacks, while slowing their attack speed by 20, and it lasts for 30 seconds (or for the time that it takes for you to use up the max attacks). It costs 110/120/130/140 mana, and only works against heroes and creeps.

Ice Blast
Ah, the Ice Blast. A high-utility ultimate that has perfect synergy in team fights with the likes of Witch Doctor, Faceless Void, Magnus and Tidehunter. It's also good for picking off escaping straddlers, or ruining the enemy team's attempt at slaying Roshan. It works by selecting a direction on the map to throw the Ice Blast at that location, and then pressing the same button again to release the Blast when it reaches the place you desire. The radius that the Blast takes is based on the distance it has traveled from your location. It deals 250/350/450 base damage to all enemies inside the radius, and then deals damage per second for 8/9/10 seconds. Any enemies that go below a certain after being hit by the ultimate instantly shatter. It also disables any healing and cannot be debuffed. It's quite spammable for an Ultimate, with a cool down of 40, and a Mana cost of 100/125/150.

Generally, this is the best Skill Build for AA. Cold Feet has the most utility near the start of the game, when enemy heroes may not have levelled escaping skills, and Ice Vortex compliments that nicely, and also helps to chase down enemies who are trying to escape, but Chilling Touch is useless in most situations, which is why I usually leave it for last. If you feel differently, you can change the Skill Build as it pleases you.

As I mentioned earlier, AA doesn't need a massive amount of items to help him, but there are useful and cheap items that I like to build on him.

Start:

While he doesn't tend to suffer from Mana problems, spamming Cold Feet in the early-game can lead to first-blood or at least an early kill, which will give AA the experience and gold he doesn't receive from last-hitting (as that is the Carry's job in the landing phase). Unless you have another eager Support on your team, always buy the Courier and at least one ward to place at the Rune spawn point. Magic Sticks are useful if you are dealing with heroes like Skywrath Mage or Bristleback in your lane, but if the opposing team does not have many spell-spammers, feel free to buy some Tangoes or even the start of a Bracer instead.

Early Game:


The Ring of Health will later be used to construct an Aether Lens, but for the Early Game, it provides HP generation that AA otherwise lacks. The Bracer is optional, but it helps to combat his squishiness, and the Magic Wand should only be constructed if the Magic Stick was useful. Flying Courier is a must unless there is another willing Support on the team, and wards should be bought when necessary. Lots of builds like to use Power Treads on AA to negate his low Strength, but I find that being able to spam spells on AA is more useful than being a bit tougher, and it also helps your allies who may need the extra Mana.

Core Items


In general, you should be constructing ONE out of Eul's, Force Staff, and Rod of Atos. This is because it's hard for AA to farm, so overall you'd only be able to buy one of these items by the Late Game, in which an item like Eul's may have less utility compared to Atos. Aether Lens extends the range of all of his skills, meaning you can slow and cripple enemies from a huge distance, since his skills already all have long ranges. The HP regeneration is also very welcome on AA. Out of the three other items, Atos is my favourite to construct because it slows down the enemy, which means it's harder for them to escape and break Cold Feet, which in turn, means you can freeze enemies far better which allows them to be shut down for the rest of your team to pounce on.

As previously mentioned, AA simply doesn't have the money, as a Support without an AOE, to buy lots of expensive items. However, on the off chance that you do earn lots of Gold, these are suggestions of ways to spend it:

The Octarine Core makes Cold Feet and Ice Blast even more spammable, and a global AOE nuke of 450 with extra damage over time and a reduced cool down of 30 seconds is nothing to laugh at... For the enemy team, at least. While it is more than a bit expensive, it also provides Spell Lifesteal, a large boost to Mana and HP, which are excellent for AA, more Intelligence (providing even more Spell Damage and attack damage for AA) and even more Mana Regen.

Surprisingly, I dislike the Aghanims' upgrade on AA, and find it to be a waste of money. The only upgrade is an increase of the duration of the 'Frostbitten' buff, but that's only an increase in 224 total damage over time for a huge 4200 Gold- hardly worth it, in my opinion. Yes, the stats it grants are also decent, but they aren't worth the price.

A favourite of many supports, the Scythe of Vyse disables enemies, blocking them from using skills and items, and slows them considerably. You can see where I'm going with this- Scythe of Vyse+Cold Feet= 7 second disable. That's a huge amount of time, and even the most incompetent teammates would be able to kill an enemy with a disable that long. The Scythe of Vyse is one of my favourite items, (maybe not on Ancient Apparition specifically though) mainly because I love how the icon looks.

Ancient Apparition needs to lane with someone who can deal damage and farm, while you harass the enemy heroes. I've picked a few examples of heroes who can benefit from his support.

Axe's Berserker's Call is effective at keeping your enemies in place, which is good for Cold Feet and Ice Vortex, and your slows can help Axe to catch up to enemies, especially if he doesn't have his Blink yet. He's also tanky enough to defend you, and doesn't need much looking after while he earns Gold in the early game. Just ensure that he doesn't get too cocky and tower dive, because AA lacks any skills to heal him when he is damaged and can't instantly disable enemies.






Like Axe, Bloodseeker can deal lots of damage on his own, despite being far less tanky. His Blood Rite has perfect synergy with both Cold Feet and Ice Vortex, and his passive can help to track injured heroes so that you can Ice Blast them and get that precious Gold you so desperately lack. His ultimate, Rupture, ignites a need within the target to stay still as to not take damage, so it's a perfect opportunity to use Cold Feet and freeze them, allowing Bloodseeker to finish them off.






The main reason to lane with Faceless Void is, of course, his ultimate. Chronosphere provides an environment in which the enemies are completely trapped in place. Perfect to make them die a little on the inside when you destroy them with a well-timed Ice Blast, and then a Cold Feet, just to make sure they don't run away. Of course, this only applies when Void doesn't capture you inside his purple sphere of frozen time. We all know how frustrating a bad void is. #StopVoid2k16






Juggernaut benefits quite a bit from your slows and Cold Feet, and like the others, is durable enough to lane without you for a bit if you need to deward. It's unusual for Juggernaut to level his Healing Ward near the start of them game, (unless he's smart) but a bit of healing is appreciated on AA, who, unfortunately, has very minimal HP regen without items.








Clockwerk benefits you, and you benefit him, in numerous ways. You can slow down enemies that he needs to chase, and freeze them so that he gets a good Grapplehook set up. If he traps an enemy in his Power Cogs, it's your time to show how good you are at spamming your skills. Another huge advantage of having him on your team is the vision that his Rocket Flare provides, which lets you know if there are any enemies within a location, so that you can Blast them. Trust me, by the time this game finishes, your opponents will be fighting over who gets to play AA next game so they can show their blasting skills off. Maybe they'll even use this guide!



Finally, Slark also benefits from your slows, and if he pounces on the enemy hero, you can (surprise, surprise!) Cold Feet them.

As Ancient Apparition doesn't have much Strength, his HP is low, leaving him vulnerable to nukes and disables, and getting Silenced can be the end for him, so these are some of the heroes to look out for:

Not only can Lina nuke you with her Ultimate if she has the mana, but she can easily stun you, and her 'Dragon Slave' can also deal some pretty heavy damage too. While she herself may be squishy, she's difficult for AA to defeat unless she is already on low health.









Lion is probably even more of a threat to Ancient Apparition that Lina is. With an Aghanims', his Ultimate is even more powerful that Lina's is, and his long-range 'Spike' stun is more difficult to avoid than Lina's because of a shorter animation delay. He can also drain your Mana, leaving it difficult for you to fight back, or turn you into a harmless frog for a few seconds, making it hard to escape, or all of the above all at once. Avoid him unless you have a strong buddy like Axe.






Death Prophet has it all. She can silence you for up to six seconds, and then nuke you for 300 damage from a 800 range. She can slowly drain your life away and slow you at the same time. And then her ultimate is a pain for any hero to deal with. She's quite a bit faster than AA, too, and much more durable, so your only hope is that you're surrounded by tough friends when you face her.







And then, of course, we have Silencer, the bane of any Intelligence hero's existence. He just seems to hate magic, despite all of his spells dealing magical damage. He'll silence you left and right. If you have a Scythe of Vyse, you're safe against him, but otherwise, avoid at all costs.

Ancient Apparition is an underused and rather powerful Support hero. While I think that he deserves a buff, he is quite powerful, and it's easy to take your opponents by surprise. His main function is to support your Carries, and it's important not to stray too far from the rest of the time in case of a gank. Don't forget to ward, kids!

Thanks for reading my guide. Any feedback and constructive criticism is welcome in the comments.