Io stats, abilities and strategy
Links to its allies to buff them
Io has a talent for making allies more effective. A powerful companion, the wisp's tether speeds allies and stops enemies. Capable of linking to and teleporting across the battlefield with an ally, Io can make a dangerous ally even deadlier.
Win Rate 50.0%
Pick Rate 2.9%
Attributes
494 +66.0/lvl
351 +20.4/lvl
17 +3.0/lvl
14 +1.6/lvl
23 +1.7/lvl
Stats
Damage:
58 - 64 + 4.4/level (216 - 222 at level 30)
Range:
500
Armor:
3.3 + 0.3/level (13.4 at level 30)
Movement:
320
Roles
Carry
Durable
Nuker
Pusher
Support
Escape
Disabler
Initiator
Patch 7.39
- Removed Sight Seer innate ability
Facets
Kritzkrieg
Win Rate: 49.8%
Pick Rate: 84.5%
Overcharge grants attack speed and spell amplification to Io and any Tethered allies.
Medigun
Win Rate: 51.3%
Pick Rate: 15.5%
Overcharge grants armor and magic resistance to Io and any Tethered allies.
Abilities
ABILITY: Passive
Io regenerates from consumables 2x faster.
Total amount of restored health or mana remains the same.
Only applies to Healing Salve, Tango, Clarity, Bottle, Urn of Shadows, Spirit Vessel, Mana Draught, and Pollywog Charm.
Patch 7.39
- New Innate Ability. Passive, can't be leveled up
- Consumable items and item abilities that restore Health and Mana over time affect Io twice as fast. Total amount of restored health or mana remains the same
- This applies to Healing Salve, Tango, Clarity, Bottle, Urn of Shadows, Spirit Vessel, Pollywog Charm, and Mana Draught
- Example: Usually Clarity restores 150 mana over 25s. For Io it will restore 150 mana over 12.5s
Tether
AFFECTS: Unit
PIERCES DEBUFF IMMUNITY: Yes
PASSIVE: No
BUFF: Yes
Tethers Io to an allied unit, granting bonus movement speed to both. When Io restores health or mana, the tethered unit gains a portion of that amount. The tether breaks when the allied unit moves too far away, or Io cancels the tether. Tether slows enemies touching it.
If you try to tether a unit that is 700 distance or further away from Io, he will latch on and pull himself closer to the tethered unit (to a distance of 300).
The tethered unit will heal faster and will heal even if Io is at full health.
Io's movement speed matches the tethered unit's.
MAX TETHER DISTANCE: 1000
MOVEMENT SPEED BONUS: 6% / 8% / 10% / 12%
HP/MANA TRANSFER: 60% / 80% / 100% / 120%
ENEMY MOVE/ATTACK SLOW: 15% / 30% / 45% / 60%
12
40
1600
Aghanim's Shard
Tether damages enemies touching it. Io is healed for 50% of the damage done.
LEVEL 25 TALENT: Attack Tethered Ally's Target (75% damage)
LEVEL 15 TALENT: +5% Tether Movement Speed
The benevolent touch of Io brings strength from between the planes.
Spirits
DAMAGE TYPE: Magical
PIERCES DEBUFF IMMUNITY: No
PASSIVE: No
Summon five particle spirits that dance in a circle around Io. If a particle collides with an enemy hero, it explodes, damaging all enemy units in an area around it. Creeps take minor damage from touching a particle spirit, but do not cause them to explode. When its duration ends, any remaining Spirits explode.
After summoning, Io can call the spirits in and out.
CREEP DAMAGE: 12 / 18 / 24 / 30
HERO DAMAGE: 30 / 50 / 70 / 90
OSCILLATION RADIUS: 650
EXPLOSION RADIUS: 360
DURATION: 19 / 19 / 19 / 19
26 / 24 / 22 / 20
Aghanim's Scepter
Spirits now passively spawn around Io constantly every second up to the max. Spirits colliding with enemy Heroes slows them briefly. Can be activated to explode spirits.
LEVEL 15 TALENT: +60 Spirits Hero Damage
Patch 7.39
- Aghanim's Scepter Movement Slow increased from 15% to 25%
Io twists the particles of the universe with its unimaginable capabilities.
Overcharge
PASSIVE: No
Io gains health regeneration based on max health. If Io is Tethered to an ally, that unit also gains any bonuses granted by Overcharge.
MAX HEALTH REGEN: 0.5% / 0.6% / 0.7% / 0.8%
DURATION: 8
25 / 22 / 19 / 16
40 / 60 / 80 / 100
FACET: Kritzkrieg
Overcharge grants attack speed and spell amplification to Io and any Tethered allies.
FACET: Medigun
Overcharge grants armor and magic resistance to Io and any Tethered allies.
LEVEL 25 TALENT: Unslowable during Overcharge
LEVEL 20 TALENT: +0.2% Overcharge Max HP Regen Bonus
LEVEL 10 TALENT: +1.5s Overcharge Duration
Drawing on the energy of matter from all worlds, Io begins the unravelling of time.
Relocate
PASSIVE: No
Teleports Io and a tethered ally to any location. After the spell expires, Io and the tethered ally will return to their original location. Double-click to teleport to your team's base fountain.
Enemies receive a visual indicator in the world and on the minimap of the target location during the cast delay.
If Io is disabled during the cast delay, Relocate is cancelled.
If an allied hero is Tethered, that hero will teleport along with you. You can break the tether at any time to prevent that hero from teleporting with you.
Only heroes, creep heroes, and illusions can be relocated.
CAST TIME: 3.5 / 3.25 / 3
RETURN TIME: 12 / 12 / 12
90 / 80 / 70
175
Patch 7.39
- Cooldown decreased from 100/90/80s to 90/80/70s
Io is the embodiment of the mystery of the universe.
Spirits In
PASSIVE: No
Spirits Out
PASSIVE: No
Break Tether
PASSIVE: No
1
Talents
Attack Tethered Ally's Target (75% damage)
Unslowable during Overcharge
+ 0.6%
-30s Relocate Cooldown
+0.2% Overcharge Max HP Regen Bonus
+ 0.9%
+60 Spirits Hero Damage
+5% Tether Movement Speed
+ 4.5%
+12 Attack Damage to Tethered Units
+1.5s Overcharge Duration
+ 2.7%
Win Rate
Pick Rate
Strategy
Tether breaks trees which is useful at making tree line paths or optimize farming routes.
Make sure to have spare consumables with you to keep your laning partner healthy.
Look around the map for opportunities to Relocate in and prompt your teammates to set up kills.
Past laning stage, you typically want to play with a core on your team who plays aggressively and utilizes their HP and mana pool while you buff them with Tether and Overcharge.
Avoid showing yourself at the start of the fight as you are number 1 target for opponents.
When using Relocate to save an ally, consider relocating nearby to be able to re-engage faster.
You can use Relocate to push out a wave or rat a tower when not much is happening around the map.
Pick up 
Aghanim's Shard later in the game to do damage to enemy heroes along the Tether link, as well as improve the HP sustain of your hero and the Tethered ally.
Io is one of the best 
Cheese carriers in the game as you can extract double the value through the Tether.
Grab the 
Healing Lotus to have a burst of HP and mana regen for yourself and the tethered ally.
Past the laning stage, if you do not have fighting core hero on your team, look to play with your farming core to boost his farm and stack camps.
Counter Strategy
Someone should buy 
Spirit Vessel against Io to offset healing and regeneration.
Harass either Io or his laning partner, not both equally.
Relocate can be cancelled by disabling or silencing Io during channel time.
Focus Io in the fights as he's good at sustaining and saving his cores.
Gap closing items will help you get on top of Io.
Items that reduce healing and regeneration are great against Io.
Be careful about Io's ratting potential with Relocate.