Sinclair, The Magnificent, is a long-range spirit-burst trickster who pokes with curving Vexing Bolts, hexes a target into a rabbit to delete it, and swings teamfights by copying an enemy ult. He's a 730-HP glass cannon: land your skillshots and you out-range the whole lobby, miss and you're a fragile poke bot. Pick him to climb on mechanics, not for an easy ride — complexity 4/5, spirit-primary, off-lane or mid.
Early game
Solo or duo off-lane suits him. Open with cheap spirit and a charge so your poke pattern comes online. The golden rule: only fire Vexing Bolt while your Spectral Assistant is up — the Assistant casts its own (reduced-damage) bolt, so that's double poke for one charge; spamming bolts solo just burns charges. Weave gun last-hits and denies between bolts. You're brittle, so keep HP topped, win on chip, and spike as the lane goes long since the bolt scales with travel distance. Place the Assistant behind cover, walk up to harass, and swap to it the moment they retaliate — that swap is your escape, and recasting the Assistant also reloads your gun. First buys: Extra Charge, Extra Spirit, a Headshot Booster for gun harass, and Healing Rite for sustain.
Mid game
This is your spike. With Rapid Recharge and a spirit jump your bolts come back fast and hit hard. Rotate to gank short-range heroes: Rabbit Hex an isolated target so they can't fight back and take bonus damage, then land Vexing Bolt plus the Assistant bolt plus your gun and they evaporate. Imbue Vexing Bolt with Mystic Expansion so the bigger radius makes the skillshot near-unmissable, and stack Mystic Vulnerability so each follow-up bolt hits a softened target. Hold Audience Participation for a fight where there's a juicy ult worth stealing — don't waste it on a body-block.
Late game
Pure long-range spirit burst plus a fight-swinging steal. Stack spirit amp and burn — Escalating Exposure, Tankbuster and Spirit Burn — so every bolt chunks even through tanks. Echo Shard lets you double-cast Vexing Bolt for a burst spike or double Rabbit Hex a clustered team. Open fights with Audience Participation: it copies an enemy ult with 50% innate cooldown reduction, so you often fire the stolen ult more than its original owner. Stay at max range behind your team — anyone who reaches your 730 HP folds you instantly, so positioning is the whole game late.
Combos & tricks
Core kill: Rabbit Hex → Vexing Bolt → gun + Assistant bolt; the rabbit takes amplified damage and can't retaliate. Remember Hex does NOT interrupt channels, so use it to amp, not to cancel a cast. Fire bolts past a wall or corner then press to redirect them into your crosshair to bend them around cover onto runners — and since damage grows with distance, fire from max range. Echo Shard the bolt for two back-to-back hits, or echo Rabbit Hex for a double polymorph. For ult theft, copy big AoE nukes (Dynamo, Seven) or executes (Shiv, Haze) — it copies the ult's properties, not the owner's passives, so gun-ults are weaker; Refresher to chain a second stolen ult ends fights. Quicksilver Reload imbue on Vexing Bolt adds spirit, fire-rate and a reload on cast, which pairs with the Assistant firing your weapon.
Matchups
Favored into short-to-mid-range bodies he can chip from afar — Bebop, Mina and Pocket lane positively, as do most squishies that fear poke. He pairs well with lockdown and peel that lets him free-cast: Graves, Victor and Seven. He struggles into hard engage that ignores his range — Mo & Krill's Burrow gap-close, plus fast bruisers and divers like Infernus, Billy and Drifter that close on his 730 HP and shred it. Against those, buy Ethereal Shift, Debuff Reducer or Spirit Armor and play strictly behind your frontline.
Spectral Assistant
Rabbit Hex
Audience Participation
