Necrophos + Riki

Why this works

Pairing Riki with a Necrophos gives the team a simple and effective kill combo. Riki can Blink Strike onto a target and drop Smoke Screen, trapping them in a slowed and silenced area. This forces the enemy to stay inside Necrophos's Heartstopper Aura, taking constant damage while being unable to cast most escape spells. The combination of Riki’s physical attacks and Necrophos’s magical damage rapidly brings enemies into Reaper's Scythe range, securing a kill and adding a long respawn timer that creates pressure across the map.

In practice, Riki acts as the setup, finding isolated heroes or diving the back line. Once a target is smoked, Necrophos can walk in, using Death Pulse to damage the enemy and sustain himself through the fight. It's a difficult situation for the victim, who has to slowly walk out of the cloud while taking damage from two different sources. The opposing team is forced to play defensively, stick together, and often build early mobility items like a Force Staff to have any chance of surviving this initiation.