Ball Lightning is your bread and butter as it is what makes
you strong at initiation and elusive in fights. The most important thing to
consider when casting Ball Lightning
is how much mana it is going to cost you. Bear in mind that in the later stages
of the game when you have a decently large mana pool, its cost is mainly %-based;
so, no matter how large your mana pool is, it is going to take the same part of
it based on the distance you travel (this means that with experience you can
start expecting how much mana each jump will cost you).
When you
use the spell for initiation, it is important to consider how much mana you
will have left after the jump. Generally, you want to have enough to use all
your spells and to disengage with your ult.
Nevertheless, if you have heroes to help you with the gank, you can afford to
be more wasteful and save just enough for your disable. When initiating,
especially when you are initiating with a fairly long jump, try to go through
your target so that you deal the Ball
Lightning damage. For short jumps, it
is mostly not worth it to try and go through your target.
The last thing you need to consider when initiating is that you can actually
use items and abilities or even attack while you are still in Ball Lightning form. This means that you
can cast Orchid’s Silence/Scythe of Vyse’s Hex right when you get in range and
not even give a chance to your target to use important defensive spells and
items (BKB, Blink, etc.). You can also use Static
Remnant and Vortex. Consider,
also, that the higher level your Ball
Lightning is, the faster you move, so your targets will have even less time
to react - the faster travel speed is the main reason to level-up the ult - it
makes you an even faster hero, a more dangerous initiator.
When you
are running away with the ult, it is smart to get enough distance between you
and your opponents so that they can’t catch up to you. Nonetheless, it is also
important to leave enough mana so that you can jump again if something goes
wrong. Generally, the smartest thing you can do is use high ground ledges, so that
your opponents can’t continue chasing even though you haven’t traveled a great distance.
Finally,
you are invulnerable while in Ball
Lightning form, so you can use it to dodge spells. When doing this, you
need to consider your own casting animation (Ball Lightning isn’t instant, you enter the ult form after 0.3
seconds). This means that dodging long range slow projectiles is quite easy,
while instant spells might give you problems (hence, heroes with instant or
very fast disables are included as a counters for Storm in the Drafting section).