In addition to map presence, fight positioning, etc., the order in which you cast things is also important to contemplate. Following are some examples:
Lion and Shadow Shaman and Guinsoo's Hex - Hex is an instant cast and should generally be cast first.
Brewmaster - You typically blink clap and ult. By clapping and ult-ing, the animations will be merged. This is one of the reasons why we do not typically skill haze early on, because you have no time in the combo to cast it. In the later game if you add a shiva's or hex, you should cast this item slot after blinking and before clapping in order not to disturb the animations. If for instance you try to shiva's between clapping and ult-ing, the shiva's will wait for the clap animation to finish before casting.
Queen of Pain - If you want to quickly combo your nukes, you should cast ult before screaming. This is because ult has a pre-animation, must travel and be aimed and scream is almost instant in an AoE around you. However if you want to scream and dagger, though it is done both ways, we recommend screaming first for two reasons: first of all, scream with a 7 second cooldown is your main nuke and can be cast multiple times in a fight so you want to get it on cooldown quickly before the dagger cast animation. secondly, though dagger animation is slow and the range is smaller than scream, if you cast it directly after scream it will start casting immediately even though still mid-animation and sometimes it even looks like the dagger flew very far. however if you try to scream after daggering, the scream must wait for the dagger animation and your target sometimes may already be out of range.
Jakiro - If you are running and want to cast ice path for example, sometimes it is better to cast ice path in front of you and keep running. turn rate is a large part of dota and sometimes you may not have time to turn and cast and turn and run.
Lifestealer - This hero more than other carries requires a bit of "operation." first of all, phase boots active speed boost/no collision is disabled when you cast a spell or use an item. Because gap-closing is so important for this hero, appropriate thought must be given to the order of ability and item usage. Most typically you first open wounds a target, phase boots to gap close, and then rage and activate items. However if your target is out of open wounds rage, you may need to gap close with phase boots or drums first.
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