IntroductionWindrunner is a quite unassuming hero in DotA. This is most likely because she plays as a hybrid of carry/support. There are only few true hybrids in DotA, and
Windrunner is one of them. For those that don't know, a hybrid is a hero who has the capability to fulfill two roles at once. As an alternate example, Slardar the Slithereen Guard is often referred to as a Tank/Carry hybrid.
Basically,
Windrunner strikes a hard to find balance between damage dealer and utility. She has one of the most unique skill sets that you can find, and each one of her skills can be used in a myriad of ways. This makes
Windrunner extremely versatile and undeniably dangerous.
This guide is intended to be used by those players who have gone beyond the point of the beginner. If you are still a beginner, I highly recommend that you refer to the
Learn the Game articles that IceFrog has made available to you before you continue reading this guide.
Summarily, the following are required to be able to play
Windrunner at a high skill level:
-Last hitting, including denies. I cannot stress this skill enough. You will NEVER be a good player if you cannot do this.
-General map awareness. Just like driving, you should check the minimap every few seconds.
-Prediction. All of Windrunner's abilities require you to THINK. 2 of these abilities require you to aim, and all of her abilities require timing.
-Adaptation. If your game doesn't go to plan, you must be able to fix it. It doesn't matter if they have more cs, kills, whatever. You can win!
-Reaction. You have to devise a custom strategy based on enemy heroes, items in possession by enemies and teammates, your role requirements, game flow, and other factors that all come up every game.
I'm no impartial judge on my own abilities, but I believe myself to be at the very least an excellent thinker even if I'm not a pro DotA player. I will endeavor to explain my reasoning at all necessary points. I hope you find this guide both useful and fun to read. I know I had fun writing it.
Fair warning, lots of reading ahead! I go in depth almost to the point of absurdity, but I feel that it's necessary to get a complete grasp on the hero. Reading everything will definitely help out your gameplay. You never know what tidbit is the one that will give you some great insight. On the plus side, plenty of nice pictures to break up all the walls of text
Skills DescriptionThis section is dedicated to showcasing Windrunner's abilities and discussing some of their characteristics and uses. Specifics and strategies will be covered in Advanced Tactics.
Shackleshot
Ability: Active
Target: Unit
Effect: Stun for 1.50/2.25/3.00/3.75 seconds or 0.75 seconds at 600 Range
This is quite possibly the most deceptively difficult stun to land in the game. The reason for this is that
Shackleshot is an apparent single target stun, but it has a twist. There must a target BEHIND the stun target in order for the full stun duration to have an effect. There are three different ways to land this stun, and each one is used in a different situation. If you fail to land the full stun, the ability will still incur a 0.75 ministun. It may not seem like much, but it has its uses. Overall, this will be the ability you end up using the most in teamfights. Specifics will be covered in Advanced Tactics.
Powershot
Ability: Active
Target: Point
Effect: Damage for 120/200/280/360 at 1800 Range on Units and Trees
*Damage is reduced by 10% per target encountered on subsequent targets.
One of the more absurd nuking abilities in the game. 1800 cast range, 360 AoE (area of effect) damage, and projectile speed of 3000. Use it for farming, harassment, knocking out fleeing heroes, and creating escape routes. In my opinion, the best non-ultimate nuke in the game.
Windrunner
Ability: Active
Target: None
Effect: For duration of 2.75/3.50/4.25/5.00 seconds grants complete physical evasion, 50% bonus movement speed, and AoE slow of 8%/16%/24%/30%.
Your signature move. And you can use it four different ways. Turns you into a dodge-tank, chaser, spearhead, and sprinter. Simply marvelous.
Focus Fire
Ability: Active
Target: Unit or Building
Effect: Grants maximum attack speed with reduced damage of 50%/40%/30% on a single target for up to 20 seconds.
Your ultimate skill, and one of the more deadly ones at that. Not even the Troll Warlord can scratch your attack speed, and that's saying something. This imbues you with MAXIMUM attack speed at the cost of damage on one target for up to 20 seconds; it's worth it. A couple of special notes on this though. First, changing targets will negate your ultimate, so take care to finish off your target. Second, the damage reduction is accomplished via one of two mechanisms based on whether you have Aghanim's Scepter or not. The particulars and how to use this will be covered in both The Toolbox and Advanced Tactics.
V. Role Discussion
In order to play
Windrunner well, you must play with your team. You must fill in the gaps for which your teammates don't account. I've prepared a quick walkthrough you can use for either pub games or competitive play to help you evaluate what role you fit best. What role you play heavily influences your skill and items builds, so this must be decided first.
Does our team have reliable carry type heroes?
If the answer is yes, you should focus towards supporting those carry heroes. They are highly specialized and can't extend too far past their role. If the answer is no, you will need to step up and be an active force throughout the game. You should aim to farm and gank where you can, but your focus must be on the late game.
If you opt for a
carry role, you'll need to get some serious farming done. If at all possible, hog the kills where you can. You can put the gold towards better use than a full support hero. Your build will be geared towards farming, controlling your lane, and making sure you stay alive.
If you opt for a
supportive role, you should get some basic farming done. Then, participate in every gank you feasibly can. This will protect your carry and make sure theirs is feeling the pain. Your build should gear towards mobility and maximizing your carry's potential.
Finally, you can opt for a
hybrid build. This build specializes in maximizing Windrunner's personal potential. This build works well in most lineups and can be considered the base build from which to experiment.
Picking Items to Fit Your RoleThe Walkout
Option #1: 
This option gives you a courier,
Stats, and necessary consumables. It's the way I always go in pub games, and it's viable in competitive play.
Option #2: 
This used to be my favorite way to walk out. It allows you spam
Powershot quite effectively and still provides
Stats and regen. However, you have to choose between the salve and tangos.
Option #3: 
This is a very stat heavy build. It comes with some regen and 2 clarity potions. A very solid way to walk out of base.
Each option is completely and totally viable. The first option allows you the most flexibility and gives you a way to get your items faster; it is the most preferred option for soloing the middle lane. The second option is a bit of spammer build, but doesn't offer a great amount of anything else. The final option gives you a solid plus five to all
Stats, and none but the beastliest of combos will be able to take you out.
Phase vs
Treads 
Everyone gets boots of some sort, and you need to do so as well to keep up. There are two real options that offer what
Windrunner needs. It ultimately comes down to your preference, but here's a quick break down of how each will affect your game.
Phase Boots really complement your ultimate well. The raw damage is something that
Windrunner really needs and this is a wonderful way to get it. The phase ability also keeps you mobile, and it is a good utility power.
Power Treads pad your
Stats and grant you attack speed. The strength and intelligence settings are all you should ever consider with Windrunner. The extra HP can definitely help and so can the extra mana.
I would almost always recommend the Phase boots. You have your ultimate for attack speed, and you should stress maximizing your abilities instead of your base numbers.
Early Items
Getting a Flying Courier helps keep you in the field, and you could possibly talk teammates into buying it for you if you're pubbing. You should get a Bottle or Magic Wand if not both, these both provide great regen and emergency boosts. If you're having a little trouble farming, an early Bracer or Null Talisman can get you over your hump and into your late game. Also, Ring of Basilius can be a good cheap way to get some useful armor, mana regen, and damage.
Soul Ring gets a special mention from me. It doesn't have any really overpowered synergy like with Omniknight, but it is a feasible item for those that enjoy spamming. Its regen is nice on Windrunner, and while it's not core, it should be on your mind as an option.
Scrolls of Teleportation are a must at all times. Always have one on your person. You can use it to escape ganks after a successful juke, get to a team fight, respond to a call for aid for a teammate, get into position to defend, and retreat after a push. A complete necessity at all times.
Mekanzm has its uses if it is farmed quickly; in other words, within about 12 minutes. It provides some solid stat gains and the ability to heal yourself and allies. It also provides some needed armor. Mekanzm is effective as an item until about the 30 minute mark; hence the need to finish it fast or not at all. The longer it takes to make, the less time it will be useful. If you're past the 17 minute mark, I wouldn't bother. This will lend you towards a more Supportive role, but it has it's place in the Hybrid build if you follow up with good DPS items.
The Toolbox
21 Items are in my toolbox when I play Windrunner. Depending on my role, what heroes on are on my team and the enemy team, and how the game is flowing all determine what items I am eventually aiming to have in my arsenal. No item is exclusive to any one build for Windrunner, although some items lend themselves better to some roles than others.
You'll notice in the toolbox are what you could consider basic items. In particular the following:
These are what I would call fall back items. These are usually gotten for obscenely specific reasons or as a base item to boost you in the early or mid game. Gem of Truesight for invis enemies, counter warding, and Goblin Techies. Crystalys gives you a good damage boost for relatively low cost, so I sometimes get this item early and never get a Buriza. Vanguard should be in the back of your head in case you find yourself in need of a cheap tank item. Oblivion Staffs provide really good bonuses without ever needing to make an Orchid Malevolence; just one of these can give you great damage and mana. Kelen's Dagger helps when you're having trouble with positioning; of course, it's also great for running and ganking. Helm of the Dominator helps keep you in the field, and Satanic just doesn't always get finished. Perseverance by itself provides great regen and little bit of damage; if I can make any of these by minute eight or nine, it's totally worth it in any game, and these are what you should be aiming to make when you're not getting any farming done for some reason.
These 8 items are what I usually pick from for most games. I'll break these items uses down here a bit for you.
If you choose to go for Orb effects, please be sure to only make one such item! I'm talking about the Stygian Desolator, Diffusal Blade, and Satanic. Stygian Desolator is a good way to push your damage to the breaking point. Diffusal Blade has two extreme pluses. The Purge is good for chasing after your
Shackleshot wears off or getting ridding of bothersome summons or buffs; the Feedback (mana burn) is a totally diabolical thing to use with your ultimate. You may very possibly make someone rage quit with the Diffusal Blade in your inventory. Satanic (or just Helm of the Dominator) gives you some needed HP and lifesteal; however, this has a curious interaction with your ultimate which is discussed below.
Raw damage items are good ideas when you're stressing your carry aspect and need to provide your team with some much needed DPS. The Buriza synergizes very well with your Ultimate and also with lifesteal items or a Stygian Desolator. Divine Rapier can really be a game breaker. I would recommend this as a surprise for final pushes and after you've already obtained some defensive items. The Force Staff also falls into this category. It gives you some very nice numbers and one of the more versatile abilities in the game. Finally, the Blademail also provides you with some raw numbers as well as the Return ability. This is a cheap and effective way to increase your damage as well as tone down or punish attempts to focus you down in fights.
The Linken's Sphere is a great way to pop up some HP, get some regen and dodge the occasional spell; it definitely helps on a hero like Windrunner, who is best countered by nukes. Guinsoo will also grant some
Stats and regen and gives you the Hex ability; Guinsoo will always be a game breaking item. I recommend considering this every game and usually end up with it if my team is low on stuns.
Aghanim's Scepter provides you with great
Stats and base increases. The improvements to your ultimate include a Reduced Cooldown to 15 seconds and a mechanic change. Usually, damage is reduced via a triggered heal mechanic when damage is calculated on the target. With Scepter, the mechanic changes to a Defend mechanic that reduces your damage so that it is calculated first instead of last. This really only comes into play for players with lifesteal. Lifesteal is calculated off of a player's outgoing damage. So, having a Scepter REDUCES your lifesteal on the frontend, and not having a Scepter grants you full lifesteal even if you do reduced damage on the backend.
This block of items is full of utility powers and effects. These should be on your backburner if you need them, but you won't generally make these too often.
Shiva's Guard provides you with a Frost Aura and an AoE effect as well as fantastic armor. This is used best when team fights tend to turn into fisty cuffs match-ups between the heroes; in other words, the enemies rely on their physical attacks most of the time.
Mjollnir can be effective when your team either needs a way to push faster or more AoE effects in team fights. You also get a utility buff to discourage attacking a particular player or to punish the enemies for targeting someone. Not really a serious item in most games.
Orchid Malevolence is a questionable item on Windrunner. The attack speed, damage, intelligence, and mana regen are amazing, but you get zero survivability out of it. No HP, armor, or HP regen. Soul Burn is best for taking out disablers in team fights or chasing down natural Blinkers. It can replace another item for raw damage quite effectively if you need the Soul Burn earlier. A note here for use against a single target, it's better not to overlap this with your stun. You are best off using it as your stun is ending.
Eul's Scepter of Divinity. It provides a decent disable, extra MS, intelligence, and good regen. It's tempting in a lot of games where you can't quite save up for the Guinsoo, and is not a bad buy in that situation.
Final say on items is all up to you. These are simply the items that work out most often and are typically effective. The items not on this list are not bad, but either offer less of what is needed for
Windrunner or can be easily become detrimental to your gameplay. As an example, Dagon is NOT a bad item for Windrunner. It gives you an extra nuke and great bonuses. The problem is that upgrading it more than once or even twice is generally a bad idea, and for some reason, most players have a sense of "needing to finish the item" by upgrading it the whole four times, which wastes at least 2600 gold that could be better spent elsewhere.
Typical Item Sets
This is a typical DPS build. In this build, Linken's is usually the first thing to build followed by Helm of the Dominator; you can build these in opposite order. Blademail is a good followup. Then, save for a Rapier. When your team is ready for a rax push, buy it at that point. Don't buy it early and lose it, or you'll ruin the surprise.
When you're game's not going well, you'll end up poor. A couple of bracers can help keep you alive. The Force Staff provides you with needed damage and nifty utility to keep up the fight. The Crystalys is a cheap way to give you a 30% boost in your overall damage.
This item set is geared for a supportive Windrunner. If you're a support, you won't have a great deal of farm, so your gold will be a bit limited. You should aim for some lower tier utility items that also complement your natural abilities. Mekanzm is great for prolonging team fights, Force Staff keeps your damage up to par and provides good utility if you have some imagination and timing. The Null Talismans expand your mana pool and provide some extra padding on your HP.
My typical gameplay lends me towards this item set. Gives you great mobility, great abilities for teamfights, plenty of damage, and a decent amount of survivability. In my opinion, a good all rounder, but definitely not the best. I almost never finish all these items in a game
Torrent
Tidebringer
X Marks The Spot
Return
Ghost Ship
