Hello everybody!
This is my first guide so feel free to comment and criticize it. English isn't my first language so please forgive me any mistakes. Sometimes you may feel my writing style is a little cocky or even im too sure of myself in some statements. This guide has been based on my personal experience and that's why i am so sure. I already experienced all of this.

The Public Bracket.
I think it's a valuable information for all of You. In a moment of writing this guide i got 88 lvl and most of my games are played in High Bracket or how you may find them in Dota - Highest Diffuculty (in "Watch Games"). For now i played 185 Visage games and got 71% Winrate which i think is really high.

The Visage itself
I wanted to introduce reality in which i am playing to secure you that Visage is not only a hero to stomp low level pubs. Personally I find that hero so supergood for Pub stomping that i dont even consider famous Phantom Lancer + Keeper of the Light combo so powerfull.(personal opinion)
I am sick of people who has no basic idea how to play Visage. He's usually pointed as one of hardest heroes to play. Everybody who can play him know its not true. Visage Micro is nothing when it comes to Chen or Meepo. Even when you end up having 4 units they all keep together and basically do the same.

Visage is raising in popularity in Pro games. For now (May 2013) he raised from almost no picked or Tier 5 hero to Tier 3 support. I think there is going to be even more Visage after some players has prooven his high pottential.

In this guide i will try to write everything from basics to gameplay hints. Enjoy!

PS. Since this guide is titled "stomping" it involves also general informations about playing Visage. I tried to write as many in depth information as it was possible.

The fun fact is that most of pro players play him as a trilane support (which is absolutely fine coz he suits that role very well) but in addition Na'Vi KuroKy play him the same way like i do (First big item - Aghanim's Scepter) (By saying the same i meant the actual gameplay - not the lineup)

Grave Chill
Basically its 32% move speed and 64% attack speed slow. The best thing is that you steal all that effects for yourself and can use them for some time. It's both your escaping skill and ganking skill. Low cooldown makes it spamable.

Soul Assumption
Your main nuke. Aside from other nukes Visage needs soul charges to use this skill efficiently. You gain Soul charges when ANY (you, ally or enemy) hero receive damage. Its not complicated really beacuse they fill up really fast even when you fight 1 v 1 with a hero that just runes away from you. Your rightclicking + familiars will fill all your soul charges in 2-3 seconds. In team fights you can preety much spam that all the time.

Gravekeeper's Cloak
It gives you additional armor and magic resistance. At max level you got 4*16+25=89% magic resistance. Basically it means that if any Lina or Lion ultimate you as first skill, you are not going to even feel that. The layers recover quite fast. This skill makes Visage really durable considering he's Intelligence type.

Summon Familiars
Summons 2 (3 while having Anghanim Scepter Familiars to help you. They deal huge amount of damage and can stun enemies in medium AOE while going into Stone Form. Familiars rely on Damage charges which replenish slowly while flying and fully when Stone Form is used. They dont have any summon duration time so if you are carefull enough - you can keep them basically forever.


Skill Sequence explanation:
1. Your first skill should be Grave Chill while solo offlane or Soul Assumption while played as support or duo/trilane.
If you find Double Damage or Speed rune at 00:00 you can preety much make First Blood alone with Grave Chill on some support.
2. Then you are going to max Soul Assumption as fast as possible.
3. From my personal experience i realised that after Soul Assumption and your Ultimate you should split your points exually between your two other skills. (So give one point at Grave Chill then one point at Gravekeeper's Cloak and then repeat). It helps you keep nice defense all the time and additional seconds at slow with enemies progression in items/hp.

You are going offlane so you gonna need Observer Wards to ward their pull spot and second to secure yourself. Even if they deward their pull spot, care to pleace your secondary ward to dont let them deward it so easy.

Your first item is Boots of Speed to increase your survivability.

Then you gonna need Ring of Basilius in case you will need spam your Grave Chill to survive.

Next item should be Power Treads. You gonna need that extra boost on level 6 to start ganking your lane, jungle or mid lane. Power Treads are the most usefull boots for you. They provide extra hitpoints and in some cases extra mana when changed into INT. Your basic PT setting should be Strenght during the whole game. Phase Boots arent really nessesary because Visage can always keep up to slowed enemies and orbwalk. You dont really need that much mana so leave the Arcane Boots. Tranquil Boots gives you nothing when compared to Power Treads. Remember. You are going to stand in the battlefield for a long time and just nuke. You need that extra HP/mana.

Magic Wand is a basic item for many heroes so you probably know purposes for having one. Since you are a ganker, you will make a nice use of it.

Next goes the item which can be a little weird for some of you. Mekansm is a must for every Visage no matter if played as a support or a secondary carry. Main reason to have this item is to be sure that your Familiars will stay alive. While being semi-carry you are also semi-support so this item counts as a supportive. And while you are not going to buy wards this game, by getting Mekansm you let other full supports save money for wards, dust and smoke.

Anghanim Scepter is you absolute core. Buying order should be Point Booster > Ogre Club > Staff of Wizardry and Blade of Alacrity as last. While buying Staff of Wizardry you can sell your Ring of Basilius. Anghanim Scepter adds you another Familiar. Basically it means + ~500 burst dmg and additional stun to your stunlock. 20 lvl Visage with Anghanim Scepter can kill most of Intelligence supports just by using his Familiars wandering around the map.

Force Staff - This item is absolutely perfect on Visage. You need it for the following purposes:
1. Initiating. You just Force yourself ahead into enemy hero and imidiatelly slow him then execute your full combo.
2. Escaping. After Grave Chill just force yourself from the enemy and run. It helps a lot coz you got instant speed burst which leaves your slowed enemy behind you.
3. Its also a supportive item to help your allies im some cases.
4. Its an intelligence item means it gives extra damage to your DPS.

We are going to Luxuries now.

If your farm goes really well and you dominate on the map, you should buy Orchid Malevolence even before Force Staff. If you can execute full combo at the item duration (which is possible), Orchid will add you another 400-600 damage at the end. Not mentioning the silence.

Scythe of Vyse is a huge Intelligence bonus (mana + damage) and the Hex. Nothing to wonder about. Amazing.

Mjollnir is very viable item when you are facing high attack speed enemies (most of Dexterity Carries). With their 60% attack speed, lightning gonna give your huge boost in DPS.

Visage is also good Gem of True Sight carrier due to his high survivability and usually free inventory slots.

Pros
+ Visage is a very versatile hero. He's a Nuker, Ganker, Disabler, Pusher and Nuker even again.
+ Does absolute tons of damage in short time.
+ He's a level dependent hero and dont rely on items that much.
+ Can escape really well (Slow + dual/triple stun)
+ Suits any lineup (from trilane support to mid and solo offlane)
+ The secret skill (works on pubs only and explained later)
+ Since you are not first carry, you are not being focused that much and have time to farm (on lane) or to do your damage (in fight)
+ Superhigh magic def and phisical def on first hits you are taking (prevent from being ganked in seconds)
+ You are usefull in every stage of the game.
+ Even when you die, you can still kill/farm with Familiars
+ Your familiars fly so they become the antijuke mechanism as well as chasing people everywhere since they can reach any location.
+ Your nuke has looooooooooooong range, does superhigh damage and has very low cooldown. That means that you are going to get really a lot of kills (especially on running heroes which nobody else can get)
+ Familiars got 96% magic resistance. They just dont care. For example. Liche ulti casted on Visage usually ends up bouncing between familiars multiple times doing basically nothing.

Cons
- If they catch your without your disables, you are dead.
- If enemies outlevel you before you get to level 11 - your ulti is preety much useless.
- Really needs practice to master but still less then many other heroes.
- Weak (not useless) vs Black King Bar lineup.
- Very low base moving speed.
- Familiars arent really bound to your hero like Lone Druid Spirit Bear. When you teleport, you have to resummon familiars or transport them across the map.
- Visage itself is only 50% of your character. Familars are the other 50% so if you lose them and your ulti is on cooldown - its preety much VERY bad.

Foes

Gyrocopter - One of hardest possibles carries. His Flak Cannon prevent you from using familiars on lane farming and instantly kill them in gang fight. We hate that guy.

Axe and Bristleback - They just dont care about your familiars and instakill them with Counter Helix or Quill Spray. You cant kill them alone. While chasing with friends just slow and nuke them and keep familiars away. When vs Bristleback - in his face!

Omniknight - His Purification totally destroys Familiars and thanks to Repel his untouchable to you. We dont like that guy too.

Phantom Assasin - Level 4 Stifling Dagger will just two-hit your familiars. The same with Bane who kills your lvl 1 familiars with 1 Brain Sap

Lifestealer When laning versus him he will just laught your slow in your face and slow you instead. Deadly in lane comboed with a support but possible to kill while ganked in jungle.

Enchantress and Chen ganking from jungle. Wards please! The first one is also hard to focus due to her Untouchable

Bloodseeker, Silencer, Drow Ranger, Night Stalker - because the obvious Silence reason. You dont like also all Orchid Malevolence gankers like Storm Spirit, Clinkz and Bounty Hunter

Friends

Since i treat Visage as a secondary carry you gonna love every hardcarry who can tank a lot and keep the fight as long as possible.

Examples: Lifestealer, Lone Druid, Alchemist, Chaos Knight, Dragon Knight, Phantom Lancer, Skeleton King and some other.

Keeper of the Light - Since in long fights you gonna need his mana

Drow Ranger - Her Precision Aura absolutely boost up your DPS. Familiars without any damage charges still has +damage from her aura.

Troll Warlord in enemy team is your friend too. Troll is squishy hero and can be focused really fast and what more important if he ults, you steal 60% of his attack speed and apllies that on yourself.

Any Mask of Madness users in enemy team are going to die in seconds vs your familiars. 20 lvl Spirit Breaker with Mask of Madness turned on, dies in three seconds vs 16+ Visage

Visage basically kills on his own and thats why he dont really benefit from any particular hero presence specially.

Introduction
First of all Visage is very rare hero. According to Dotabuff hes the least played hero of all(not including new heroes). Take advantage of it. Most pub players didnt face good Visage player that much to understand what to expect and how to prevent that. Thats the secret skill i was talking about earlier. Positioning and knowing possible danger sources is a crusial part of Dota. Many enemies you will face wont understand that they are going to die in seconds if they keep positioned badly.

Unless you are Visage foe - you dont even try to kill Visage while being solo. Suprisingly even now in high bracket games i find people literally suiciding themselves into fully loaded (mana + familiars) Visage and dying in a seconds. Of course you cant assume that everybody wont know what to expect from your hero but reality shown me that most of them dont.

Game preparation
When starting a game you should inform your allies that you are not goint to be a support Visage (unless you want) and you are taking offlane. Nobody would discuss about that. If you have basic dota Knowledge you will figure out enemies lineup to know what heroes you are going to face. If you are sure it is going to be agressive trilane you can ask for some assistance. In every other case you should insist to get a solo offlane, ward yourself and farm.

Laning
Ok. You got your basic items and you have warded yourself. Good. Stay safe. Try to get lasthits if you can ( Visage animation i'snt the easiest to micro - i know) and try to keep the order of item purchasing. Dont let them gank you. Refresh the wards if nessesary. I asked you to insist on solo lane because getting to level 11 as fast as possible is Visage priority. While you are 11 barely NOBODY can kill you alone and only some heroes can evade being killed by you.
Experienced Visage can survive 3 people ganks.

Visage is able to push enemies towers really fast with Familiars so make use of it anytime you can. If you can push the tower before even level 11 - do it, then go gank people. In the laning phase Visage can gank preety much any jungler. Ursa needs some kiting and Lycanthrope needs really fast Familiars focus followed by instant stun. Nature's Prophet, Enchantress, Enigma, Lone Druid, Chen arent the problem. Only Axe is.

2 fully loaded 11 lvl familiars are able to push 1/4 of tower alone. 3 fully loaded 16 lvl familiars are able to push 1/4 of any tier tower with even backdoor protection.
Watch for enemies tower health all the time and send familiars there to finish it up. Since you have quick damage burst, you can even push damaged raxes without carring if your creeps are there. Yes - its backdoor but you are the one who gonna decide about that.

You are going to leave your lane in this cases:
1. You pushed enemy tower and lane went too far to continue farming.
2. You are level 11 and already ganked enemy carry enough.
3. Allies desperately needs you because enemies are pushing your towers and only you can help.
It is very important to know your potential. If you already casted your ulti, in some points there is no sense to teleport to opposite lane without familiars. If you are sure that only your hero pressence will do any difference - do it. If you know it gonna change nothing, stay and farm or at least move familiars there as fast as possible.

Ganking
Visage can kill enemies very very fast. Combined with another ganking hero (mostly a mid hero) you can preety much gank 3 people with 2 of you. Do it. Just do it. Good team communication is essential but if you got wards and enemy team is splitted, make use of your outstaning burst damage.

Early-Midgame behavior
Try to always have your familiars damage charges up. Dont use them to push creepwaves unless you are 100% sure you are not going to need them in next 10-20 seconds. Keep the charges for towers or enemy heroes. Since you are ganker, be present everywhere when something is happening and just spam your damage.

You are going to need some games to realise full pottential of your damage but when you get to this point, you have to be sure who is going to survive your full combo and who is not.

A basic combo looks like that:
0. Initiate with a Force Staff if nessesary or/and Orchid Malevolence is you posses one.
1. Grave Chill
2. Full focus with familiars and your hero rightclicking. If enemy is running - orbwalk (move and hit basically)
3. Spam your Soul Assumption as soon as you are going to have all soul charges ready.
4. Stun your enemy with familiars. The most efficient way is stunlock obviously so wait like 0,7 a second with a next familiar and then stun.
5. Cast another Soul Assumption
6. If you want to secure that kill you can resummon your familliars just after casting Stone form and continue.

KDA
I play all type of heroes but among all of them my Visage KDA is the highest. The main reason of that is that his Soul Assumption has insanely long range of casting.
In fights your nuke is usually latest one the enemy hero see before death. Remember that you are secondary carry and you dont need so much farm, especially when you are sure it is going to be a long game and you are facing some hardcarries. If it possible - let your main carry lasthit the enemy heroes. Remember. You have to be 100% sure that your ally is going to kill him. Otherwise dont lose any opportunity to frag.

Familiars
They dont care if you are dead or alive. If you managed to die on lane, use them to lasthit and farm a gold. If you died in a gank, continue to do your job, chase running heroes or stun if its nessesary either to defend your allies or offensively.

Since Familiars fly you can use them as a antijuke and to scout a forest for a running heroes.

When you face Tinker, Anti-Mage or Queen of Pain blinking into the forest to teleport back to base - you dont care. You just fly there and Stone Form their face while teleporting. The same goes with Nature's Prophet sprouting himself. You dont care.

When you are going to a team gank and you are facing Batrider, you can send them over the forest or the edge of map to secure yourself that he's not going to blink from nowhere.

If you have your ulti up to cast again and you are going to gank with full team, you can use Familiars as a splitpush and summon new ones when it comes to actual gank. Be smart though because instead of having 6 familiars during a gank, you end up with 3 only.

Familiars has 96% magic resistance so you can make a nice use of them. They can take full Lich ulti on themselfes. When you or your team are being catched by Magnus Reverse Polarty your familiars are actually not. You can preety much stunlock Magnus for the whole duration of his ultimate and prevent him from skewering away with your allies.

When facing Warlock, familiars can nuke his ultimate in one full load. The same goes with Undying Tombstone

Remember that while ganking you have to spend around 3-4 seconds to fully deploy familiars attack charges. Sometimes is better to skip that and just stun enemies. It depend on situation mostly but thats what good Visage player should know. Remember that instead of chasing easy to kill support, sometimes its better to secure some carry kill from not blinking away for example.

If you have your Sentry wards placed in a warding spot, you can send familiars to deward enemy observer wards if nessesary.

Remember that you have 3 independent stun sources. You can disturb 3 different heroes from casting their channeling spells.

Your familiars (especially those from Level 1 of your Ultimate) are very easy to kill. Since you ulti has long cooldown, and Familiars provide rather big bounty (100 gold) to enemies, try to keep them save and dont feed. Especially vs Ranged heroes like e.g Windrunner who can basically follow them for long time.

It is very important to keep your familiars cooldowns together. If you were forced to cast a single Stone Form try to wait a little and refresh all you

Lesson 1: Perfect stunlocking. Since familiars needs some time from preparing Stone Form to casting it, you have to practice and learn how to maximize your stunlock with 3 familiars.

Lesson 2: Basic Visage will cast Grave Chill on enemy that he's going to nuke. You should learn to quickly recognise the most dangerous target or the target with fastest attack speed, steal his speed and then use it on a target you want (even different one)

Lesson 3: Single Familiar Micro. Basic Visage just control everything in one group and spam skills and TAB button. You should be able to quickly select any familiar and Stone form it when its being focused without forcing every other familiar to leave the fight.

Lesson 4: Observe and learn the attack speed and move speed of enemy heroes. Stealing always highest attack speed increase your DPS while knowning which hero is the fastest can increase your survivability. Sometimes this little difference in stolen movement speed can decide if you are dead or not.

Lesson 5: While being ganked by multiple heroes you should think ahead how they are going to disable you. Your speed burst doesnt last long. If you know you are going to be stunned or for example Frostbitten, wait for the end of disable duration and then cast your Grave Chill and escape. If you are going to cast it before disable, you will lose it's effect while being actually unable to move.

Lesson 6: Since you can burst a lot of damage in a long time, even when being ganked by multiple heroes you can usually take one of them to the grave with you. Learn your pottential and execute your full combo when they are ganking you. (Do it ONLY if you know you are going to die, and there is no way to survive)

Visage isn't really a hero that you are going to counter but its good to know how to defend and being prepared to his presence.

For squishy supports
Fact is that high level Visage can deal ~2000 dmg in a matter of 5 seconds. If you cant survive that then think about any survivability items like Eul's Scepter of Divinity or Ghost Scepter

For carries
Black King Bar is a absolute must. In midgame any carry is going to be absolutely focused and shut down by Visage. You wont resist his familiars damage but you wont lose your attack speed and at least wont suffer his nuking damage.

Pipe of Insight helps too.

Gyrocopter is only one hero that imidiatelly shut down Visage since he kills familiars intantly and Black King Bar is always in his build.

While being ganked by solo Visage.
1. If he attacks you - it means he can kill you. Thats a preety bad fact for you.
2. You have to react quickly.
3. Ask yourself if you can kill Visage in max 7 seconds or his familiars in 3 seconds. If you can do any of this things - you gonna live.
4. If you are support or a hero without any burst damage - RUN
5. Now the most important thing. Visage is really slow hero. When his Grave Chill ends you can leave him behind. There is one basic rule when running from him. Take any long straight line and run in this direction. Dont juke beacuse it wont work. Remember that if you are going to choose any curved patch or change the angle, the familiars that are chasing you are going to make the same distance faster because they can fly in straight line. After that you are going to be stunlocked and stunned again and thats not what you want.

Dont focus Visage alone unless you are just a rightclicker with a constant damage. If your main damage source is any kind of burst, Visage will just take it into his Gravekeeper's Cloak and eat your face right away.

Thanks for being patient and reading my guide. I hope you guys got some important info or even learned something from this wall of text.

Since i think its a complex guide with many aspects taken into consideration i will update it when everything important will come into my mind.

Be aggresive, dont hold yourself in killing enemies and show them true power or Visage

Thanks!

Viveroth