ZEUS
Hey guys, it's been a while, I've been here, just lurking instead of posting. The only guide I've needed to update is the Carrying one but no one reads that diamond in the ruff so what's the point(/plug).
So Dotabuff just put out an article about him recently, and I was thinking about why his pickrate is so low in the pros anddddddddddd
I think they're underestimating him.
Zeus is a nuker, and that's why he's not getting picked. Because there's glimmer cape and BKB's so what good does a nuker do lategame. So instead the pros get 
Lina and 
Windranger and 
Shadow Fiend and 
Queen of Pain because they want a mid hero that can do damage lategame through skills that ignore BKB and right clicks.But they're forgetting something
Zeus isn't just a nuker, he's a really good nuker.
It's all because of one thing:
Static Field11% of your current health is a BIG deal, especially at the start of fights. And if you get a Zeus that has Veil of Discord or Octarine or refresher or all 3???(yeahhh its awesome), then he will instantly put you at a huge disadvantage. If you're a core that regularly gets BKB it'll still be hard for you in the late game when the charges are low, but if you're someone like a Spectre that builds a lotta HP and not normally a BKB then.... woooooo you are in trouble.
Zeus definitely has an off stage in midgame where static field isn't a game changer, enemy BKBs are long and his spells aren't massive nukes anymore, but come on pros can turtle through midgame!
I think they don't like him because he can't right click or go through BKB, but the thing is he doesn't need to! As soon as BKBs are down his nukes will just be massive!
Imagine putting a Zeus-Io combo mid. Zeus spams
Arc Lightning, Io spams clarities and you harass the other guy outta there. Then with that advantage, you farrrrrmmmmmmm through midgame, farm through late game too for all I care. Then come out in the ultra late game with an octarine-aghs-refresher-veil and ownnnnnn some face.You can't run from heaven noobz.
R-Conqueror
Think of this
A zeus that has non core role, will go possibly mekansm/greaves, force staff and veil of discord. YOu literally need to just spam arc lightning.
Thing with static field is that it procs on all his skills. And its AoE!!! you don't need to use that big crack of lightning at the game start, you just need to be in the fight. That's zeus for you!
You're right that he can spam just as much without a ton of big items, I just think he needs an octarine so he can last a long time in fights.
A
Actually a support Zeus is far, far more survivable than a core Zeus. Because he doesn't clutter his inventory with "useless" items like
Building HP is actually massively cost-INefficient when it comes to survivability. Like, if your Zeus build gets jumped by
I don't know how he fares against Shadow Fiend, but he does well against Spectre, at least in my experience here
http://www.dotabuff.com/matches/1924337810
Thanks for reading!
Zeus is outclassed in damage by those other guys (Gals and Shadow Friend rather) because he's limited by his cooldowns, which only get reduced when he picks up
And yeah, a late game Zeus that rocks is a semi-support Zeus, preferably with some heroes that help his mana pool, like
Zeus is very useful late game, but it's for his global ult for scouting to decide whether to commit to a fight, see if enemies are roshing/smoked, and to cancel all blink daggers. Static Field does do a lot of damage with spammed Arc Lightnings, but he only needs 2 of the 3 items: Euls, Veil, Force, in order to be a menace.
But try to test this out with some friends, see if you can get the results you are foreseeing. When I'm really confident in an idea, I go test mode and piss off my friends with my Rat Abaddons and Octarine DKs.
Zeus has extremely poor scaling compared to the popular mid heroes because he scales very poorly with items. If you want to abuse