Silencer

Version Control

This article is mostly accurate for the current version (7.38c) of the game.

• Overview
• Matches
• Changelogs
• Responses
• Sounds
• Animations
• Lore
• Equipment
• Relics
• Old Abilities
• Unreleased Content

Silencer

#65

19 + 2.2

22 + 2.2

25 + 2.9

Grants the following bonuses per level:
	+48.4HP and +0.22HP regeneration
	+0.37 armor and 2.2 attack speed
	+34.8MP and +0.145MP regeneration +0.1% base magic resistance +2.9 Main Attack Damage

Show/Hide Tooltips

538 +2.15

375 +1.25

3.67 Armor (656.47 EHP)

27.5% Magic Resist (742.07 EHP)

43 ‒ 57 ▶️ Damage (50 Avg)

900 Projectile Speed Melee units have their projectile speed set to 900, if they should ever need it.

600 Attack Range (800)

110 (132) Attack Speed (1.6 BAT) Attacks per Second is defined as ΣAS / BAT / 100

0.5 + 0.5 Animation

290 / 320 ▶️ Move Speed

0.6 Turn Rate This unit takes 0.175s to turn 180°.

27 Collision Size

24 Bound Radius

1800 / 800 Vision Range

Default Gib Type

npc_dota_hero_silencer

2012-01-12 Released

2004-02-03 (v0.60)

Competitive Span 2012-01-19 — 2012-10-25 2013-02-14 — Present

Show/Hide Tooltips

Can silence all enemies on the map.
Two hundred years of selective breeding had produced Nortrom, the prophesied war-mage that would bring glory to the order of Aeol Drias. Therefore, disgust and disappointment followed when it was found that the boy could cast not even a hex. Yet, on the day of final testing, Nortrom would have the Last Word. His arranged opponents fell under an Arcane Curse, draining their health and prolonging the curse with each incantation made. Then, there was Global Silence. Not a gasp or whisper escaped their lips as Nortrom cut his challengers to ribbons with his multi-pronged Glaives, stealing their intelligence to add to his own. At that moment, it became clear to all watching — The absence of magic can be the greatest magic of all.
Roles:	Carry Support Disabler Initiator Nuker
Adjectives	Nose Legs ( 2 )

Bio

Enemies should be seen and not heard.

▶️  Nortrom, the Silencer

Alias:

Nortrom

Lore:

Part of the seventh and final generation of a carefully designed pedigree, Nortrom was bred by the ancient order of the Aeol Drias to be the greatest magic user the world had ever seen. He was the prophesied one, the culmination of two-hundred years of careful pairings, a war-mage who would bring glory to the order, and destruction to their sworn enemies, The Knights of the Fold.

Raised with other young mages in a hidden cantonment among the hills of the Hazhadal Barrens, the order's preceptors waited for Nortrom's abilities to manifest. While the other students honed their talents with fire, or ice, or incantatory spells, Nortrom sat silent and talentless, unable to cast so much as a hex. As the day of final testing approached, he still hadn't found his magic. In disgust, the preceptors berated him, while the children laughed. "You are no mage," the head of the order declared. Still, Nortrom did not slink away. He entered the day of testing and faced down the young mages who had mocked him. And then his preceptors learned a valuable lesson: a lack of magic can be the greatest magic of all. Nortrom silenced the young mages one by one and defeated them in single combat, until he alone stood as champion of the Aeol Drias, in fulfillment of the prophecy.

Voice:

Michael Gregory (Responses)

Facets

Irrepressible

Silencer cannot be silenced, be it offensively, from ally, or self-applied sources.

Reverberating Silence

Global Silence applies two shorter silence debuff instances. The second debuff is applied on the affected unit when the first debuff ends.

Upgrades

Aghanim's Scepter Upgrade:

Applies an Arcane Curse of the current level to all affected enemy heroes.

The debuff has the same duration as the applied Global Silence debuff.

Aghanim's Shard Upgrade:

Attacks with Glaives of Wisdom bounce from the primary target to the secondary targets nearby.

Brain Drain

Increases both the self intelligence gain and enemy intelligence loss.

Talents

2 Arcane Curse Charges	25	+25% Glaives of Wisdom Damage
+250 Last Word radius	20	Glaives of Wisdom Bounces
+2s Arcane Curse Base Duration +1s Arcane Curse Penalty Duration	15	-20s Global Silence Cooldown
+20 Attack Speed	10	+0.5x Arcane Curse Penalty Multiplier
▃ ▃ ▃ ▃ ▃ ▃ ▃ +2 All / / Attributes

Innate

Brain Drain

Brain Drain

Ability

Passive

Affects

Enemy Heroes / Self

If an enemy hero dies within the radius, Silencer permanently steals that enemy hero's intelligence for himself.

Enemy Death Radius: 925

Enemy Int Loss: 1 ( 3)

Self Int Gain: 1 ( 3)

Aghanim's Shard Upgrade
Increases both the self intelligence gain and enemy intelligence loss.

• Details
• Status Effects
• Misc.
• Show All

• 
  • Reduces the enemy's base intelligence.

• 
  • Upon gaining a stack, a +1 ( +3) indicator appears above Silencer's head.
  • Grants base intelligence bonus.

• Grants a stack in the following conditions as long as Silencer is alive:
  • To gain a stack outside the kill radius:
    • Silencer has to be credited for the kill. Other player-controlled units do not count.
    • Dying enemy hero is debuffed by Silencer.
  • Upon enemy heroes' death, in any way, within the radius.
  • For Meepo, only the Prime loses intelligence.

• Does not grant a stack in the following conditions:
  • Killing an allied hero.
  • Considers The Double, enemy illusions, and the Spirit Bear as creeps.
  • Upon the enemy's reincarnation sources proc.

modifier_silencer_brain_drain

Permanent Intelligence Stolen: Silencer will permanently steal x Intelligence from any enemy hero he kills, and any enemy hero that dies within 925 range.

• Each stack effectively grants Silencer the following permanent bonuses, while reducing the affected enemy's:
  • 
    • 12 ( 36) mana bonus.
    • 0.05 ( 0.15) flat mana regeneration bonus.
    • 1 ( 3) flat main attack damage bonus.

Irrepressible

  Irrepressible

Ability

Passive

Affects

Self

Silencer cannot be silenced, be it offensively, from ally, or self-applied sources.

At that moment, it became clear to all watching — The absence of magic can be the greatest magic of all.

Details

• Selecting the   facet unlocks this ability.

• Doesn't apply to the silence component of the following sources:
  • Fear sources.
  • Hex sources.

Hero Model

Hero Model

Ability

Passive / Channeling

Affects

Self

Silencer's hero model has the following hidden innate abilities.

He may only perform or utilize the ability's functions upon a successful channeling.

Details

Hidden Innate Abilities

Tap on the innate abilities for more details.

Abilities

Arcane Curse

Q

C

Arcane Curse

▶️ ▶️ ▶️

Ability

Area

Affects

Enemies

Damage

Spell / Magical

Applies a curse on affected enemy units within the radius, dealing damage over time and slowing their movement speed.

Cast Animation: 0.3 + 0.37

Cast Range:  1000

Effect Radius: 350

First Damage: 20/40/60/80

Both the damage over time and movement speed slow of Arcane Curse are more effective on silenced enemy units.

Damage per Second: 16/24/32/40

Move Speed Slow: 10%/15%/20%/25%

Silenced Factor: 1.5 ( 2)

First Debuff Duration: 6 ( 8)

Anytime an affected enemy unit casts an ability, the curse duration on that unit is increased.

Additionally, the duration is suspended as long as the enemy unit is silenced.

Penalty Duration Increase: 2 ( 3)

Arcane Curse gains charges that replenish according to the cooldown value of the ability.

( 22/20/18/16)

( 2)

22/20/18/16 ( 0)

120/130/140/150

Nortrom's lack of incantations is less of a problem for him than it is for his adversaries.

• Details
• Status Effects
• Misc.
• Show All

• This ability was reworked into the current Arcane Curse in the 7.36 gameplay patch.

• The ability has three components, utilizing the same debuff applied:
  • Applies the first debuff upon cast.
  • Increases the first debuff duration whenever the affected enemy unit casts an ability.
  • The debuff duration is extended as long as the silence duration.

• Does not proc in the following conditions:
  • On abilities that does not proc on-cast effects.

• Deals magical spell damage in 1-second intervals, 1 second after the debuff application.
  • Checks if the affected enemy is silenced in the same intervals and applies the silenced ability values factor.
  • Affects the following ability components:
    • The damage per second.
    • The movement speed slow.

• The ability sound effect per damage instance applied on the affected enemy unit is only audible to the affected enemy.

• Reapplying the debuff applies another independent instance.

modifier_silencer_curse_of_the_silent

Arcane Curse: Taking damage and slowed by x%. Duration increases when casting a spell.

modifier_silencer_curse_of_the_silent ()

Arcane Curse: Taking damage and slowed by x%. Duration increases when casting a spell.

• math

• The ability effects are applied as follows:
  1. The movement speed slow debuff.
  2. The first magical spell damage.
  3. The magical damage per second.

Glaives of Wisdom

W

W

Glaives of Wisdom

▶️ ▶️

Ability

Autocast / Active Attack Modifier

Affects

Self / Enemy Units

Damage

Spell / Magical

Each attack drains the affected enemy hero's intelligence, grants Silencer wisdom, and deals additional damage corresponding to Silencer's current intelligence.

Cast Animation: 0.5 + 0.5

Cast Range:  600

Int Damage Factor: 0.35/0.5/0.65/0.8 ( 0.6/0.75/0.9/1.05)

Enemy Int Loss per Attack: 1/2/3/4 ( 2/3/4/5)

Self Int Gain per Attack: 1/2/3/4 ( 2/3/4/5)

Duration: 20/25/30/35 ( 70/75/80/85)

Aghanim's Shard Upgrade
Increases the intelligence steal value and steal duration.

Attacks with Glaives of Wisdom bounce from the primary target to the secondary targets nearby.

Search Radius: ( 600)

Number of Bounces: ( 1)

Bounce Damage Factor: ( 1)

0

14/16/18/20

Although lacking in traditional incantations, Nortrom's pedigree of the Aeol Drias gives him uncanny wisdom, which he applies to physical combat.

• Details
• Interactions
• Status Effects
• Misc.
• Show All

• 
  • Glaives of Wisdom is an active attack modifier, and has the following properties:
    • EXPR
      CastRange = HeroAtkRange
    • Specifically affected by attack range sources of the same range-type as the caster.
  • Both Autocast and an active cast uses Silencer's current attack range.
    • Has Autocast off by default.
  • Neither works nor bounce to the following units:
    • Allied units.
    • Buildings
    • Couriers
    • Ward-type units.

• The ability has two main components:
  • The intelligence reduction and gain component.
  • The attack projectile bounce component.

• 
  • Both the enemy base intelligence reduction and self-gain component stacks and functions independently of each other, with both modifiers being death dispellable.
    • Both modifiers consider clones and the Spirit Bear as heroes; illusions and other creep-heroes as creeps.
      • debuff_counter
        • Restores the enemy's attributes back to the original values upon its death.
        • Does not affect Silencer's buff.
      • buff_counter
        • The base intelligence gain duration is dispelled upon Silencer's death.
        • Does not affect the debuff applied on the affected enemy unit.

• The ability effects are applied as follows per successful attack:
  1. Applies debuff_counter on the affected enemy unit.
     • 
       • Reduces the attacked enemy's base intelligence.
       • Cannot reduce the base intelligence below 0.
  2. 
     • Applies buff_counter on Silencer.
  3. Checks Silencer's intelligence upon the attack projectile impact, then sets the magical spell damage value.
  4. Silencer's attack instance.

---

• TALENT NOTES
  • Silencer's attacks will now bounce toward a random enemy unit, without priorities, within the search radius centered around, nearest to the attacked enemy unit.
  • The bounce projectiles has the following properties:
    • Does not bounce when the first attack misses.
    • The bounce projectile speed is defined as:
      • EXPR
        BounceSpeed = HeroCurrentProjectileSpeed
    • Cosmetically identical to Silencer's regular attack projectile.
  • The attack bounce deals two damage instances utilizing the bounce projectiles:
    • The bounced physical spell damage.
    • The intelligence-based magical spell damage.
  • The bounced damage instance can only be affected by the following sources:
    • Before reductions-type damage manipulation sources of the target's (e.g. damage barrier sources.).
    • Bonus conditional attack damage sources that are specifically considered by critical strike sources.
    • Damage block sources on the enemy individually upon projectile impact.
    • Specifically Bulwark, but not Resonant Pulse.
    • Has the following damage flags:
      • No-spell-lifesteal
      • No-spell-amplification
      • The flags prevent the spell damage from interacting with their respective sources.
  • In general, after reductions-type damage manipulation do not affect the bounce spell damage instance.
  • The bounce spell damage value is loosely defined as:
    • EXPR
      SpellDmg = (ΣAtkDmg × CritFactor) × DamageFactor

Interactions: Debuff Immunity

The intelligence change component do not work on debuff immune units.

Interactions: Self-Illusions

Non-functional nor is toggled .

Interactions: Spell Steal

Cannot acquire active attack modifiers.

Interactions: Ability Draft

Utilizes the caster's current attack range while Autocast is active, manual cast utilizes the ability's current cast range.

• ABILITY DISJOINT
  Does not bounce when the primary attack target disjoints the attack projectile.
  • When disjointed by a secondary target, the attack projectile is not condsidered as a hit. The attack may immediately bounce again if it is within the search radius.

modifier_silencer_glaives_of_wisdom_debuff

Hidden modifier

modifier_silencer_glaives_of_wisdom_debuff_counter

Glaives of Wisdom: Temporarily losing intelligence

• Increases Silencer's and decreases affected unit's stats by the following amount per attack:
  • 1/2/3/4 ( 2/3/4/5) attack damage.
    • Always works for Silencer but changes for affected unit only if its primary attribute is intelligence.
  • 12/24/36/48 ( 24/36/48/60) mana.
  • 0.05/0.1/0.15/0.2 ( 0.1/0.15/0.2/0.25) mana regeneration.

• TALENT NOTES
  Does not bounce to the following units:
  • Invisible units.
  • Fogged units.
  • Ward-type units.
  • Couriers.

• Bounces to the following units:
  • Buildings
  • Untargetable units.
  • Outposts
  • Ethereal units, but does not apply a damage instance in the combat log.
  • The attack does not bounce back to the same units if it already hit all other valid units within the search radius.

• Specifically bounces off the following units when attacking them:
  • Ward-type units.
  • Couriers

Last Word

E

T

Last Word

▶️

Ability

Unit / Area

Affects

Enemies

Damage

Spell / Magical

Enchants an enemy unit while granting vision over it.

Deals damage corresponding to the intelligence difference between Silencer and the affected unit.

Cast Animation: 0.3 + 0.47

Cast Range:  900

Base Damage: 120/160/200/240

Int Difference Damage Factor: 1/1.5/2/2.5

First Debuff Duration: 4

Silences the affected enemy if it casts an ability during the first debuff duration, or when the enchantment expires.

Silence Duration: 3/4/5/6

Last Word is now an area-targeted ability and applies the debuff to all enemy units within the radius.

Radius: ( 250)

22/18/14/10

100/105/110/115

Nortrom ensures that spells uttered by his opponents will be their last.

• Details
• Interactions
• Status Effects
• Show All

• Grants shared vision over the affected enemy unit for the entire first debuff duration.

• The following conditions proc the ability effects:
  • Upon an ability cast during the first debuff duration.
  • Upon the first debuff duration expiring.

• The ability effects are applied as follows upon an affected enemy's ability cast point:
  1. The total magical spell damage in one damage instance.
  2. Applies the silence debuff.
  3. The enemy unit's ability cast.

• However, the ability effects are applied as follows upon the first debuff expiring:
  1. The total magical spell damage in one damage instance.
  2. Applies the silence debuff.

• This affects the following things:
  • The silence debuff does not prevent the affected enemy unit's ability cast that procced the effects of this ability.
  • Does not apply the other ability effects in the following conditions:
    • If the spell damage kills the affected target.
    • Upon the affected enemy's death.
  • Hence, damage negation sources do not prevent the magical spell damage.

• Does not proc in the following conditions:
  • On abilities that does not proc on-cast effects.

• The following mechanics interact uniquely with Last Word:
  • Procs at the end of channeling sources.
  • Specificaly for the following sources, Last Word procs when the ability is canceled prematurely:
    • Phase Shift
    • Tricks of the Trade

• The spell damage is defined as:
  • EXPR
    ΣSpellDmg = FirstDmg + (SilencerInt - EnemyInt) × DamageFactor
  • EXPR
    EnemyInt = 0 If the affected unit has no attributes.

• TALENT NOTES
  The level 20 talent changes the ability targeting functionality from unit-targeted to area-targeted.

• DBF IMMUNITY
  Shared vision affects debuff immune units.

• SPELL BLOCK
  Procs Spell Block sources.
  • Does not proc Spell Block sources.

• SPELL REFLECT
  Procs Spell Reflection sources.
  • Does not proc Spell Reflection sources.

modifier_silencer_last_word

Last Word: Will be damaged and silenced if the timer expires, or if they cast a spell.

modifier_silencer_last_word_disarm

Silenced: Silenced

Global Silence

R

E

Global Silence

Ability

No

Affects

Enemy Units

Stops all sounds, preventing enemy heroes and units on the map from casting abilities.

Cast Animation: 0.3 + 0.37

Radius: Global

First Duration: 4.5/5.25/6

Aghanim's Scepter Upgrade
Applies an Arcane Curse of the current level to all affected enemy heroes.

The debuff has the same duration as the applied Global Silence debuff.

Curse Duration Factor: ( 1)

120 ( 100)

300/450/600

With a shock to the ground, all magic and sound pauses, and Nortrom fulfills his prophecy.

• Details
• Status Effects
• Misc.
• Show All

Reverberating Silence

Global Silence applies two shorter silence debuff instances. The second debuff is applied on the affected unit when the first debuff ends.

First Duration: 3/3.5/4
Second Duration: 1.5/1.75/2

---

• 
  • Reapplying the debuff refreshes its duration.
  • Affects the following units:
    • Fogged units.
    • Invisible units.
    • Invulnerable units.
    • Debuff immune units.
    • Spell immune units, except Couriers. The only way to Global Silence a hero under the effects of Spell Immune is to use Silencer's ultimate during Juggernaut: Omnislash or Swiftslash.
  • Does not affect the following units:
    • Hidden units.
  • FACET NOTES
    The silence ability effects are applied as follows:
    1. The first silencer_global_silence.
    2. The subsequent silencer_global_silence (reverberating) is applied upon the first debuff being dispelled in any way, except upon the affected unit's death.
       • Hence, reapplying the first debuff refresh its duration, but does not affect the subsequent debuff application despite both debuffs utilizing the same modifier.
       • The subsequent debuff is not reapplied upon being dispelled in any way.

---

• SCEPTER NOTES
  The Arcane Curse debuff applied affects the same aforementioned units.
  • Considers clones, illusions, and creep-heroes as heroes.
  • Other Arcane Curse notes apply.
  • Works independently of Arcane Curse's cooldown, and does not cost mana.
  • Does not proc on-cast effects.

modifier_silencer_global_silence

Global Silence: All heroes are silenced.

• 
  • Has the highest priority of ability sound effects, toning down all other game sounds for all affected enemy units.
  • This ability sound effect is independent of the ability's debuff.

• FACET NOTES
  Applies a max 4.5/5.25/6-second silence duration.

Recent Changes

Main Articles: Changelogs, Old Abilities and Hero Lore

Version

Description

7.38c
(2025-03-27)

• CHANGED Brain Drain ability operations:
  • OLD
    • The ability effects proc as long as the affected unit has a Silencer -applied debuff, even when out of intelligence gain range from both kills and assists.
    • This includes assists when the debuff was applied by Silencer and then was removed or lost in any way within the assist-grace duration.
  • NEW
    • When out of range, the ability effects procs only if the dying enemy is affected by Silencer -applied debuffs at the moment they die.

7.38
(2025-02-19)

• Arcane Curse
  • CHANGED from applying the first damage instance from applying immediately to 1 second after debuff application .
  • Now deals a 1.5 spell damage upon being silenced.
  • Now increases the debuff duration per enemy ability cast.
  • Now affected by and interacts with status resistance sources.
• Glaives of Wisdom
  • No longer applies a 2.5-second silence duration on the enemy unit after 3 consecutive attacks.
  • Increased intelligence to damage factor from 0.2/0.4/0.6/0.8 to 0.35/0.5/0.65/0.8.
• REWORKED Last Word .
  • OLD
    • Grants a 1200-radius aura that applies a 6%/9%/12%/15% movement speed slow and 20/30/40/50 damage per second per silence debuff on enemy units.
  • NEW
    • Applies a 4-second debuff that deals 120/160/200/240 + (SilencerInt - EnemyInt) * 1/1.5/2/2.5 magical spell when the enemy hero casts a spell or when the debuff expires.
    • Applies a 3/4/5/6-second silence duration if the affected enemy unit casts an ability during the first debuff duration, or when the debuff expires.
• Global Silence
  • No longer affect Couriers .
  • Rescaled cooldown 130/115/100 to 120 on each level.

• Talents:  

  LVL 10  +15 Arcane Curse damage per second ➜  +0.5x Arcane Curse penalty multiplier.  

  LVL 20  +35/5% Last Word damage/movement speed slow ➜  +250 Last Word radius.

7.37c
(2024-08-28)

• Reduced agility gain from 2.4 to 2.2.
• Increased base attack speed from 100 to 110.
• Increased Arcane Curse movement speed slow from 10%/15%/20%/25% to 16%/19%/22%/25%.

Dota Plus Progress

Main Article: Hero Challenges

Relics track a hero's actions and statistics, and display in-game notifications when a milestone is reached. They are only available to Dota Plus subscribers.

Relics	Voice Lines
Multi-Hero Curses Intelligence Stacks Stolen Last Word Damage Damage During Global Silence Hurricane Pike Target Damage Silences Leading To Kills Channels Cancelled Smokes Leading To Kills Triple Kills Mega Kill Streaks Dusts Leading To Kills Wards Placed Kill Assists Kills	Bronze	▶️ Ah ha ha. ▶️ You almost had that.
	Silver	▶️ The silence deepens. ▶️ Calm yourselves.
	Gold	▶️ What a racket. ▶️ Silence, fool!
	Platinum	▶️ All for naught.
	Master	▶️ Shhh, did you hear something?
	Grandmaster	▶️ What is that horrible noise?

Trivia

• Unlike most heroes, Silencer's attack projectiles actually use the model of his equipped cosmetic weapon.
• Like Death Prophet, Omniknight and Io, Silencer received a color palette change, changing his model and icons, having his former red armor replaced with violet.
  • Before his palette change, newer players would occasionally mistake Silencer for Dragon Knight, and he would sometimes be referred to as "The other Dragon Knight". Even after the palette swap, some older players may refer to him as "Purple Dragon Knight".
• His abilities' sound effects are based on some of his voice lines.
  • ▶️ "Curse you!" is used by ▶️ Arcane Curse.
  • ▶️ *Laughter* is used by ▶️ Last Word.
  • ▶️ "Silence!" is used by ▶️ ▶️ Global Silence.
• Based on Silencer's lore, Chen is a rival of him, due to Chen being a member the Knights of the Fold.
  • Despite this, there is no dialogue between the two heroes.

• Warcraft 3 similarities:
  • Silencer uses the model of the Spell Breaker, a ranged Human unit.

Gallery

• 

  Splash artwork

• 

  Ability icon progress

• 

  Hero icon progress