Samuro Abilities and Strategy

• Hearth Trick: Mirror Image can be used to heal in an unconventional way. When you are outside of combat, hold Left-Shift and cast Image Transmission on a Mirror Image while channeling Hearthstone. If the Mirror Image is still alive when Hearthstone's channel completes, you will instantly return to lane with the health restoration provided by the Hall of Storms.
• Clones' initial focus or movement can be controlled prior to Level 10, by using an Attack-Move command in the same moment they are created (This can be done by holding the button during the Mirror Image usage).
• Use Mirror Image to tank tower shots while ganking, or to damage structures without a friendly minion wave.
• Critical Strike resets your Basic Attacks; activate it immediately after delivering a Critical Strike for optimal effect.
• Wind Walk can be used to quickly approach enemies, or to help you escape dangerous situations. Remember the cooldown starts ticking as soon as the ability is activated
• Use Bladestorm to clear waves or to deal some AoE damage in fights, when enemy has no crowd controls available.
• The Movement Speed provided by Image Transmission can be used not only to chase, but to dodge or to disengage from combat as well.
• Activate Image Transmission to engage on a Hero near one of your Images, or to reposition to safety when you are in danger.

Image Transmission can help Samuro to apply additional Basic Attacks onto fleeing enemies, and to dodge enemy Abilities during confrontations. More importantly, it can be activated to swap places with Images. This opens up a variety of ways to deceive or outmaneuver your opponents. Mirror Image can be used to heal in an unconventional way. Hold Left-Shift and cast Image Transmission on a Mirror Image while channeling Hearthstone. If the Mirror Image is still alive when Hearthstone's channel completes, you will instantly return to lane with the Health restoration provided by the Hall of Storms.

Mirror Image is Samuro's most iconic Ability. As a squishy Melee Assassin, he relies on these to take damage for him. Activating Mirror Image will remove negative effects, move Samuro slightly in the direction of the cursor, and create Images in the opposite direction. Images will spawn with the same percentage of Health that Samuro has at the time of casting, meaning that Images are most effective when cast while you are at full Health. The Images can clear Minion waves, clear Mercenary Camps, and confuse and damage enemy players. Images can soak many shots from enemy Structures, allowing Samuro to siege without Minions, known as backdoor. When using the Images against enemy Heroes, it is a good idea to input as little as possible. Controlling Samuro in an intelligent manner will give away the real Samuro; only do so when you are ready to disengage. If you have Illusion Master, consider moving one of the Images away. This will give you an exit via Image Transmission, or fool enemies into thinking the Image is Samuro.

Activating Critical Strike will reset the passive portion of the Ability, so it is a good idea to use Critical Strike immediately after applying a critical via the passive. Critical Strikes activated through the passive will not expire, and can be saved for use at a later time. By quickly activating Critical Strike after a passively triggered crit, you can hit an enemy with 2 Critical Strikes in quick succession. This can help to speed up Mercenary Camps or other PvE activities, and can deal burst damage to enemy Heroes.

Wind Walk can be used to approach enemy Heroes or to help you retreat. The Health Regeneration provided by it can be quite useful if you need to double soak, by using it instead of mounting in rotations, you will always be in a good state to duel whoever you are facing.

Here we explain how this Heroic Ability works. If you are looking for more information about it, check the dedicated section in the Talent Build page.

Samuro can move during Bladestorm, and cancel it by reactivating the Ability. Bladestorm greatly improves Samuro's waveclear. Given it deals less single target damage than your Basic Attacks, it should mostly be used to clear a wave, as it deals enough area of effect damage to quickly kill all Minions. It has higher range than your Basic Attacks, so it helps you to secure kills that could otherwise be prevented by enemies moving outside of Melee range. If an enemy is low on Health and you are able to get in range, this Heroic will almost always result in a takedown. If you do not have Mirror Image to self-cleanse a Blind, Bladestorm will be a great way to keep dealing damage to your target. Keep in mind that Samuro will be an easy target during that Heroic, because enemies will instantly know that you are the real one and will be able to focus you down.

Here we explain how this Heroic Ability works. If you are looking for more information about it, check the dedicated section in the Talent Build page.

Illusion Master is a novel Heroic that is more of an extra passive, rather than an actived one. Illusion Master will increase the efficiency of your Mercenary clear, so if you are playing on a Map where Mercenary Camps are very important (like Blackheart's Bay,) it can be a very strong choice. If you want to try a challenging and unconventional approach focused on cunning and subterfuge, try this Heroic out! Although powerful, this Talent adds a layer of mechanical complexity; we recommend Illusion Master for players who are already quite comfortable with Samuro's other mechancis.