Io Overview

Lore & Bio

Io exists in all planes simultaneously, each fragment of its body can transform into a form of matter at any time. Like the great Twin Knights of Light and Shadow, or any other traveler from the past, Io is as old as history, it is a Fundamental of the universe – something A power older than time, a wanderer from a realm beyond human understanding.

Io is a combination of attraction and repulsion, a manifestation of the force that binds matter particles together. Compressing and controlling these powers is the only way Io can exist in the physical plane. As a form of the power of mutuality and cooperation, Io connects his powers with others, making their powers all the more powerful. No one knows what its purpose is, just as no one can imagine its power, Wisp through the planes of matter, being the perfect expression of the mysteries of the universe.

Attribute & Stats

Level: 0/ 1/ 15/ 25/ 30

Health: 200/ 540/ 1380/ 2220/ 2560

Health regen: +0.25/ +1.95/ +6.15/ +10.35/ +12.05

Mana: 75/ 351/ 627/ 975/ 1107

Mana regen: +0/ +1.15/ +2.34/ +3.79/ +4.32

Armor: 1/ 3.33/ 7.07/ 11.73/ 13.4

Damage Block: -

Magic Resistance: 25%

Status Resistance: 0%

Damage: 28‒34/ 45‒51/ 87‒93/ 129‒135/ 146‒152

Attack Rate: 0.59/s 0.67/s 0.8/s 0.97/s 1.03/s

Attack Range: 500 (800)

Attack Speed: 100 (1.7s BAT)

Attack Animation: 0.3+0.4

Projectile Speed: 1200

Movement Speed: 320

Turn Rate: Takes 0.15s to turn 180°. 0.7

Collision Size: 24

Vision Range: 1800 • 800

Legs: 0

Gib Type: Ethereal

Ability Upgrades:

• Upgradable by Aghanim's Scepter;
• Upgradable by Aghanim's Shard.

Abilities & Talents

Skills building guide

With this general Sp, gamers can choose the first move at will. However, for the most effective combat, you should increase the Tether skill first. This move will help you increase the mobility of both your teammates and yourself. Tether is suitable for early game battles when both sides of the teamfights are still quite slow.

Going to the next level, gamers should increase skill points for Spirits. Thanks to this skill, gamers help themselves Io and Ad quickly push the creeps to the enemy field. In addition, this is also a way to increase damage to prepare ganks from the enemy. To help maintain teammates' movement speed, gamers can also increase Overcharge.

Abilities

Tether

Consumption: 40 mana

Cooldown: 12 seconds.

Cast Range: 1800 distance.

Effect: Io creates a link with an allied unit, when the link is created, Io and that ally gain movement speed, and the linked ally gains 1.5x the ability to heal. Io's recovery every time Io recovers health or mana. Enemies that touch the link are briefly slowed. Reactivating this skill will unlink sooner.

Impact time: 12 seconds

Movement Speed Slow: 100%

Attack Speed Slow: 100

Movement speed bonus: 17%

Disconnect distance: 900

Note: when cast at a distance from the target, Io will automatically dash to the target being cast and then stop at 300 distances next to that target.

Break Tether

Effect: Break the link to the tethered unit.

Spirits

Cost: 120/130/140/150 mana

Cooldown: 20/18/16/14 seconds

Effect: Releases 5 souls that fly around Io for 2.3 seconds in turn, these souls deal 8/14/20/26 damage each time they pass through an enemy minion or monster. If it hits an enemy champion, the soul explodes dealing 25/50/75/100 to that champion and surrounding targets, or explodes when the timer expires. This skill has 2 secondary skills to increase the radius of rotation or decrease the radius of rotation around Io.

Initial radius: 150

Minimum radius: 100

Max Radius: 875

Impact time: 19 seconds

Note: this skill gives a bit of vision where the soul is going.

Spirits Movement

Effect: Summon spirits closer to you. Can be turned on or off.

Spirits Out

Effect: Push the spirit away from Io. Can be toggled on/off for the spirit to pause or resume.

Overcharge

Cooldown: 2 seconds

Effect: Consumes own health and mana to increase attack speed by 40/50/60/70 and reduce damage taken by 5%/10%/15%/20%. Linked allies also enjoy this beneficial effect intact

Cost per second: 4.5% of current mana and health

Relocate

Consumption: 100 mana

Cooldown: 90/75/60 seconds.

Cast range: whole map

Effect: automatically teleports to a specified location on the map after a delay and then returns to the original location when the time is up. The linked ally is also teleported to the selected location and returned to the original location if the link remains.

Delay time: 2.5/2.25/2 seconds

Return time: 12 seconds

Effective items guides

Early game

Bottle

Bottle, available at the Secret Shop, restores both ally's health and mana with Tether.

Urn of Shadows

Urn of Shadows heals Io while Tether passes that healing to an allied target.

Magic Stick

Magic Stick instantly restores mana and health to both Io and a tethered ally.

Soul Ring

Soul Ring grants strength and health regeneration. More importantly, Io can pass the created mana to the tethered ally so both parties can use their respective abilities. Consider items like Tranquil Boots or Helm of the Dominator that boost health regeneration to sustain the health cost of Soul Ring.

Mid game

Magic Wand

Magic Wand gives attributes and a bit more amount of heal compared to Magic Stick.

Spirit Vessel

Spirit Vessel, upgraded from Urn of Shadows, increases regeneration and healing for Io to keep allies healthy, while providing bonus health and movement speed to boost Io's survivability.

Arcane Boots

Arcane Boots restore a large amount of mana to Io and allies with Tether.

Mekansm

Mekansm heals Io's tethered partner for much more than the standard 275. It also provides a health regeneration aura to boost survivability.

Helm of the Dominator

Helm of the Dominator provides extra health regeneration for tethered allies, and has an attack speed aura that stacks with Overcharge. 

It also allows Io to dominate a creep to take advantage of its auras and abilities, as well as boosting the movement speed of both parties thanks to Tether, giving Io an option of skipping buying boots.

Late game

Guardian Greaves

Guardian Greaves, built from Mekansm and Arcane Boots to save an item slot, restore a huge amount of health and mana to Io and its team, especially with Tether.

Glimmer Cape

Glimmer Cape allows Io or allied targets to escape from enemies with invisibility and magic resistance.

Ghost Scepter

Ghost Scepter shields Io from physical attacks, so it stays alive longer to help allies.

Heart of Tarrasque

Heart of Tarrasque gives a huge amount of health and health regeneration, increasing the tethered allies' health regeneration and survivability.

Mjollnir

Mjollnir provides huge damage output, which allows taking down tethered ally's targets (with the appropriate talent taken) rapidly.

Situation items

Tome of Knowledge

Tome of Knowledge grants experience to help Io reach its talents.

Tranquil Boots

Tranquil Boots heels Io and tethered allies more if they do not need the mana from Arcane Boots.

Drum of Endurance

Drum of Endurance gives cost efficient attribute bonuses and further boosts Io's and its partner's attack and movement speed.

Pipe of Insight

Pipe of Insight grants an aura of health regeneration and magic resistance, a great item to absorb magical damage.

Vladmir's Offering

Vladmir's Offering has a useful aura with many perks, including bonus attack damage and lifesteal, enabling allied physical attackers.

Solar Crest

Solar Crest further buffs allied targets with attack speed, movement speed, and armor. Moreover, Io can use it on the enemies to slow and remove their armor.

Force Staff

Force Staff provides useful ability to position different heroes, including Io. 

Holy Locket

Holy Locket enhances Io's healing power, as well as strengthening its defense with bonus health and magic resistance.

Heaven's Halberd

Heaven's Halberd gives strength, evasion, status resistance, and the ability to disarm an enemy carry.

Scythe of Vyse

Scythe of Vyse provides a valuable disable, some useful attribute bonuses, as well as mana regeneration which can pass on to tethered allies.

Desolator

Desolator adds damage and applies armor reduction on enemies; works better in the late game after taking talent that lets Io attack tethered ally's target.

Enemies & Allies

Allies

Drow Ranger

• Drow Ranger's lack of escape abilities makes her an easy target for Relocate ganks.

Meepo

• Tether helps Io escape from Earthbind even if Meepo has Blink Dagger.
• Io's Spirits can pressure Meepo while laning and will usually hit at least one of his clones.

Nature's Prophet

• Nature's Prophet is extremely easy to gank with Relocate while he's split pushing.
• Tether on a friendly unit can destroy Nature Prophet's trees should he surround himself with Sprout as a defense.

Phoenix

• Phoenix's limit AoE, damage-over-time abilities give Io plenty of time to save allies with Relocate.

Pudge

• Tether and Overcharge makes it much harder for Pudge to kill a target with Meat Hook, and Relocate can save the Io's ally while Dismember is being channeled.

Underlord

• Io can escape from Pit of Malice with Tether or Relocate.
• Relocate can counter Dark Rift's split pushing.

Counters

Ancient Apparition

• Ice Blast prevents Io from healing the target.

Bloodseeker

• Thirst allows Bloodseeker to see where Io relocated to, should either Io or the tethered hero have low health.
• Rupture forces Io to stay in place, preventing it from using the Tether bonus movement speed to escape.

Bristleback

• Quill Spray is very effective against Io, as it has very low armor and has to stay close to the fight to not break its Tether.

Clinkz

• Strafe and Searing Arrows allow Clinkz to quickly kill Io due to its low armor.

Disruptor

• Glimpse directly negates Relocate.

Grimstroke

• Grimstroke can catch Io and his ally easily with Soulbind as Io has a tendency to tether himself with an ally frequently.
• Io is highly vulnerable to disables. Hence, Grimstroke's Phantom's Embrace is a great ability to hinder Io's potential.

Legion Commander

• Duel is very effective against Io due to its low health and armor.

Leshrac

• Lightning Storm will usually hit both Io and its tethered target since both will be close enough for the lightning to jump.
• Diabolic Edict and Pulse Nova hit all units near Leshrac, meaning he can do colossal damage to Io and its tethered target.

Lich

• Lich's Chain Frost forces Io to give up providing buff to his ally with Tether or suffer devastating damage with his tethered ally.
• Lich could easily use Sinister Gaze to disable Io from getting away with Tether or Relocate.

Luna

• Lucent Beam can cancel Tether and Relocate.
• Moon Glaives and Eclipse make short work of Io and its tethered ally.

Phantom Assassin

• Phantom Strike allows Phantom Assassin to jump directly to Io.
• Coup de Grace makes short work of Io's low health and armor.

Sniper

• Take Aim and Assassinate allow Sniper to reach Io even if it stays in the backline

Spirit Breaker

• Charge of Darkness can be used to escape or counter-initiate against a Relocate gank.
• Greater Bash and Nether Strike is devastating due to Io's low armor, and can even knock it away from tethered target.

Items Counter

Dagon

Dagon takes out Io quickly in teamfights.

Blink Dagger

Blink Dagger allows players to jump on Io for quick kill.

Rod of Atos

Rod of Atos shuts down Io's mobility.

Favorable Matchups

Chaos Knight

• Chaos Knight's single target disables makes him a formidable ganker when Relocated.
• Reality Rift can bring an enemy into the Spirits slow.

Gyrocopter

• Tether's regeneration and movement speed buff fuel Gyrocopter's abilities and ganks in the early and mid game.
• Spirits' movement speed slowly keeps enemies in range of Gyrocopter's abilities and attacks.
• Overcharge's attack speed buff complements Gyrocopter's attack damage items in the late game.

Juggernaut

• Healing Ward works with Tether, healing both heroes for an enormous amount.
• When Juggernaut uses Omnislash, Io's Tether will persist, buffing Juggernaut's attack speed with Overcharge.

Legion Commander

• Press the Attack's heal is very powerful when combined with Tether.
• Relocate can be used to pick off lone enemies using Duel.
• Overcharge helps Legion Commander win Duels more easily.

Lifestealer

• With Infest, Io can Relocate two heroes at the same time for a surprise gank.

Phantom Assassin

• Stifling Dagger's movement speed slowly helps Io land Spirits.
• Overcharge makes Phantom Assassin more durable and allows her to get more hits in.

Spirit Breaker

• Greater Bash becomes more powerful with higher movement speed, and benefits from Overcharge's attack speed increase.
• Tethering to Spirit Breaker while he is using Charge of Darkness can pull Io along for a considerable distance.

Sven

• Sven's mobility is greatly improved by Tether.
• Storm Hammer and God's Strength will take down an enemy in no time after a Relocate.
• Mana regeneration from Io's items allows Sven to initiate much more often with Storm Hammer.

Tiny

• Tiny's burst damage with Avalanche and Toss is ideal for finishing off enemies quickly during a Relocate gank.
• Tiny can also Toss Io if the enemy gets away.
• Relocate helps negate Tiny's mobility issues.
• Overcharge greatly boosts Tiny's slow base attack speed.

Ursa

• Ursa's burst melee damage makes him an ideal ally to bring along on Relocate ganks.
• Ursa's mobility is greatly improved by Tether.
• Overcharge will allow Ursa to dish out heavy damage with Fury Swipes as well as making him literally invincible while enraged.

Game plan

Early game

Io's gameplay is quite complicated and tiring at every stage of the game because the ability to bond with teammates is the most troublesome thing when you play this hero. Io has a relatively good initial roam/gank ability and average protection. 

When laning with teammates, your job is to pull jungle camps, deny minions, and poke the enemy's blood with Spirits (W) and use Tether (Q) appropriately, supporting teammates to run away. /chasing/recovery. When roaming, you have the advantage of range thanks to the ability to link and pull yourself close to the target of the link very far and slow down up to 100% of the enemy's movement speed when they touch the link.

Mid game

This is the time when you should gank a lot with your teammates. Once you have the skill Relocate (R), you can create the most unexpected ganks on the enemy, but to do this you need to have full vision, so warding in this phase is very important. 

Or you can save your teammates in many situations like dragging your teammates home with your ultimate then disconnecting then you come back to sacrifice while ganking or standing in a small teamfight, you choose a favorable position after Link with allies and then use Overcharge (E) in combination with healing items to increase attack speed, reduce damage taken, and heal the linked ally.

Late game

You can play the role of the initiator in this phase by dragging your initiator or tanker/ganker into the middle of the enemy formation then backing out. Re-apply the way of linking in the middle of the game for team fights at the end of the game, and at the same time take full advantage of the opportunity if the opponent slips away, what are you waiting for without dragging your ganker/carry team to pick it up.