Will update it asap but i really recommend getting summons and nukes as they are more buff in a way that lets you out farm and out level str, agi heroes who would usally go for passives. **in new CHAU2 only**
Offensive skills
Carrion Beetle: useful when farming, however you cannot use this in the duel ecause there aren't any dead bodies available to summon it with. (unlike other summons has no expire limit)
Moonsoon: a channeling aoe nuke, good farming skill.
Death Pulse: Best farming nuke in my opinion, at level 12 does over 2k damage over 5sec around your hero, it can damage magical immune units AND it goes through avatar. (somewhat moderate mana cost, recommended for int melee hero as you would have to get close to do some damage, and the caster cannot use anyother spells as long as the spell is active.)
Life Drain: haven't used it yet, seems superior version of consume.
Pulverize: This is a must skill if you hope to out farm your oppnent who has mass nukes if you are a passive agi, str hero.
Healing wave:I wouldn't recommend this skill at all early game beacausethis will hinder your farmming capabilities, unless of course you decides to combine this w a summoning skill in which case it becomes a must. (also great for teambattles)
Tantacles: sort of like mass ward skill cept its tantacles, not great damage, i would prefer fire ward to this skill.
(acts as sort of tank against creeps as they are attracted to it.)
nova: simply great nuke at farming and such, extremely useful because in extreme mode spell will help you creep faster, and unlike chau1 melee heros can't catch up.
chain: same as above but more useful than nova because you farm faster.
Magic Volley: same as above (can be awsome counter to lesser summons)
vampiric: added over 100 damage at lvl 12 and gives about 45% lifesteal for long duration, however can be purged by other players, use it at your own risk. (simply great move against creeps and bosses alike, however not so great against smarter players as they will most definately purge it off.)
Thunder Clap: a decent skill early to mid game with the fast cool down and slowing effect, however late game it will not affect your opponent's attack speed AT ALL. ( even if you stack this with slow ward and psn strike it WILL NOT slow player's or bosses like rag, ? and badgers attack speed.) however this can be used as ganking skill early on if you choose to.
Death strike: Decent Skill later on (in many cases if you are lucky n gets few hits of this it can actually be more powerful than reincarnation.) its an ok skill, do not up this skill first if you have farming skill.
soul burn:pretty awsome move, slows, silences, lowers damage and deals damage over time for up to 10seconds.
use this skill on bosses or players to gank them or help in team battles ( not so great at gank early on because of short duration at lower levels).
Frenzy: very useful early game to mid game, however it becomes useless after your opponents gets farmed enuff to get exceptional orb of lightening.
Stormbolt: only get it if you are looking at mid to late game depending on your stretagy as the damage is crap and it will only be used for disable purposes. ( if you are looking at late game ownage try combining this with static field and demon spawn, at level 40 you will do 10 seconds of spammable stun.)
shockwave: narrow aoe but more useful in chau2 because if someone has nukes its harder for melee and passive builders to catch up late game. ( same goes for disablers, all nuke is way more effective because you level faster and creep spawn faster and at higher level because of it.)
Fire ward: awsome skill against regular creeps, crap against players and bosses alike.
(NOTE VERY SLOW ATTACK SPEED ON AT ALL LEVELS FOR AIMING SINGLE TARGET) also most smart players will kill the ward as soon as its summoned, and the bosses will naturally target any summoned ward/summons first before they target player. (again quite useful because lets you other farm other person.)
Corrupt Flesh: useless early on, however in mid to late game it becp,es extremely useful if you stack this with a corruption weapon. (apparently Glorn took out Degenerating talon in new v so i don;t know if it will be as effective as it used to be.) + has aoe when cast on packed units.
Defensive Skills
Devotion Aura: pretty decent skill in team games, wouldn't recommend it for 1 on 1.
Holy light: probably one of best skills in game.
Hardened skin: good skill on tanks and hybrids.
Defend: good skill on tanks and other builds, but slows movement speed and attack speed, decreases damages taken both physical and magical. ( i would recommend you pair this with a endurance aura or endurance aura giving items to negate the -speed debuff.)
Water summon: purely for tank against creep, has very narrow taunt range and crappy damage, does not work against nukers as well. (do not use this skill if you arent great at microing.)
combat master: nice all game (evasion and critical give you leaway into more items because you already have a critical and evasion) its an ok skill, do not up this skill first if you have farming skill.
Evasion: nice all game, becomes extremely useful later. (its really really useful at level 12 will provide about 54$ evasion and what i said above) its an ok skill, do not up this skill first if you have farming skill.
Shadow Strike: slows and damages over time, if you like slowing ppl get slow ward instead.
Spirit Link: very useful if you are using summons and or are playing a team game. ( not as effective on summons because they have expire timer.)
Unholy aura: you can't find crappier skill than this, the regen is awful, ms is decent but ppl mostly consider this skill for regeneration purposes. (supposedly you are supposed to gain 1 hp regen every 100 str point, or so i was told by someone and that means that you can only get about 20regen late game.)
Spiked armor: nice skill you can use this instead of evasion or combat master. (very useful early on as survival skill as well as late game because it reflects up to 12% of melee damage back to the attacker.)
Mana vortex: tired of people spamming mana shield? no problem just use this skill to instantly reduce YOUR AND THEIR MANA TO 0. ( this isn't only for mana shield, it can also be used to instantly debuff all units in its vicinity as well as killing their mana, and has really low mana cost so you can spam it if you want.)
Befuddle: decent skill silences and gives chance to miss. ( very high chance to miss late levels, use this in duel and it will come in handy against casters and dpsers alike.)
Hex: semi useful skill in 1 on 1 somewhat useful in teamgames
windwalk: only get this if you are going to gank your foes early to mid game, other than that use it to escape.
frost armor: decent early game, becomes crap after it becomes purgeable by oppponent. (however in team battle early on this will really help you because on top of the armor it provides, it also slows the attack speed of the attackers.)
slow ward: (gank skill) extremely useful against melee units only, will reduce ALL OPPONENTS MS TO TURTLE LIKE STATUS, however don't even think about using this skill late game IT WON'T AFFECT ATTACK SPEEED AT ALL. ( like i said late game not so good, but it is pretty effective early and mid where it can actually decrease attack speed of opponents.) o and the slow ms thing really works great all game against melee units, use this in the center of the duel spot and watch as you pummel them w nukes and what not while they try to actually reach and attack you.
static field: useful in team battles useful in 1 on 1, stuns all foes surrounding you.
Terrify: Extremely useful skill, able to reduce ALL OPPONENTS DAMAGE FOR 10 SECONDS AT ALL LEVELS, also can be used to escape when trapped by foes. (combine this with soul burn n u will make an opponent do no damage for 10seconds at max level.)
misc skills.
Consume: pretty good on any hero, can be used to counter nukers and summoners and healers, its even more useful on a hero that has innate wind walk ability.
Battle Roar: good skill, if you are going to be a tank and dpser it is a good skill to have, excellent in team game as well have buffing up your summons.
Fairy Fire: Awsome skill late game, sort of helps you creep early if you get it but not that much, use in combonation with corrupt flesh and degenerating talon to reduce your opponents armor by whopping 30+24+68-
122. (however i don't recommend it as it will hinder your farming and leveling speed.)
Sleep: use this to cancel channel and isolate and gang bang a hero in duel.
Stats: not bad skill however i wouldnt recommend it as it won't make much difference late game.
Brilliance aura: so you thought mana shield was imba? now it can be even more imba paired with this skill.
Endurance: decent early game, crap late game because you can just as easily get a auroric set or speed set to get very high endurance aura among other things.
rejuvination: hm... imba early, however gets useless as soon as it becomes purgeable. (however it is only against oponents, it is pretty awsome against bosses and creeps.)
Darkness: supposedly cancel special moves such as critical n evasion but doesnt seem to work for now.. can also slow a single target and make it have a chance to miss attacks,
immolation: a unpurgeable skill, however will turn to crap late game. but can be used early for farming purposes if you upgrade this skill mainly. (i think the damage it does at max level per sec is about 70ish and late creep have like 3-8k hp so its not really useful.)
banish: decent skill however only get it if you are aiming to get 10k nuke from mask, and 6k nuke from the staff.
(i forgot to mention that this skill can also be used on heroes to seperate them from rest of the fight in duel, so if you use this on a dpser they won't be able to attack your team for a short duration, so its sort of like disable)
anti magic shield: Omfg, get this skill to simply fuck your nukers, can also be used on team has no cool down and spammable with low low mana cost. (i wouldn't recommend this skill against disablers, instead get supersonic ring's immunity or avatar.)
slow psn: well.. to each his own.. this skill is practically useless late game and cannot be stacked with other orb effects other than lightening orb. ( should be used to gank, also can be pretty effective early-mid game if you invest alot of points into it.)
Summon skellies: Wheee... Skellies... useful early-mid game, not so great late game. (if you are aiming to get this skill i suggest you mainly put points into it to help win duels, can be used to surround your foes.) also this will prevent spawning of creeps for you and your opponent if you put them on their creeping spot.)
Summon Goblins: hmm multiplying goblins.. useful in 2 vs 2 or 3v3 however they have low hp and only summons about 2-4 of maximum, but they do have critical and evasion. (i wouldn't recommend this skill on 4v4 or higher because unless 1 or more of your teammates are also getting this skill the summons will get slaughtered in duel by your opponents before they get the chance to multiply. ( each goblin has to land independant 5 successful hits on a unit to multiply.)
Ultimates
Doom Root: nice immobilizing ult, decent damage and long duration, however its purgeable i think. (seems to have shorter cd than other ults,)
Reincanation: Nuff said (double tank anyone?)
Avater: anti disable anyone? can be more effective than reincarnation early game because reincanation only revives you with about 20% of you original 100% hp.
demon storm: a tornado.. wheee... does shit damage and the cyclone effect lasts short duration.
Volcano: imba early game, mid to late game use it on creeps only. (although i must say if multiple of your teamates got this skill it can be deadly even at late game because of its stun.)
Meteor: use it on creeps ( you may use it in duels but i wouldn't recommend it because it rarely lands on desired target,)
Tidal waves: creeps yet again. however it is good skill in team battles early on to mid game. (more chance to hit targets, but less damage than meteor individually.)
Demon spawn: Ooooh a lackie that will follow you around.. use it to stun your foes and killing bosses, very useful all game. (don't underestimate its stun, it can be quite annoying if you use this in combo with other disables.)
dread ritual: crap ultimate anyone? DO NOT GET IT THE DAMAGE IS CRAP THE AOE IS CRAP AND THE COOL DOWN IS CRAP. (other spell from the offensive tavern is much better than this beacause at lvl 12 most of them will do over 1k damage and actually spammable unlike this crap of a skill.) i really wouldn't recommend this skill because after you get it you will be dissapointed by its pathetic aoe and low damage increase per level.(with long cool down no less)
Locust swarm:useful if ur opponent has many summoining moves, otherwise DO NOT GET THIS. (this is a godly counter to any and all summons, upon activation will kill all enemy summons near you instantly.)
Mana shield: get this, nuff said. (has rigged regeneration late game, however consider subing it with reincar if your opponent has mana vortex.)