Rod of Atos usefull or needless ?

I wanted to try the rod so hard, so i was happy when i had a sd game where i could choose necrolyte - because i thought this item must be good on him.

I had great farm and got rod very fast. it had no use because i couldnt escape ganks with any form of cc. in my oppinion this item will benefit you greatly if you are on the winning side and have to chase down fleeing heroes, but against an half organized team that doesnt just try to solo you its useless.

i also think, that this item (unfortunately) has limited uses. I think it would be best for heroes that need the high int and HP gain this item can provide. Furthermore its usefull on heroes that dont have a cc their selfs but need to stay in range of an enemy as long as possible to deal their damage --> namely Outworld Devourer Necrolyte Silencer.

THe problem is, since most int-heroes dont really rely on auto attacks and therefore prefer raw mana(regen) over int and Force Staff or Eul's Scepter of Divinity provide better chasing potential than a 4 sec slow, RoA kinda gets outclassed.

Elder Titan benefits from it quite a bit. He's pretty item independant, and Rod of Atos gives him that needed HP, the Mana, and the slow really synergizes well with his aura.

A hero that I believe it works wonders for is Skywrath Mage. It increases his Q damage, lets him chase better to get off more spells, and helps with his low hp.

Indeed he can make use of it, but he's a squishy caster regardless, his real weakness is his lack of armor. I find that having a core Force Staff and avoiding getting targeted in the first place is a good strategy, an Atos works well as a core extension in that case.

In the case of Skywrath Mage,I believe that Ring of Basilius increases his EHP drastically.