Necrophos - Creeping Death

Soul Ring is ok, helps with mana. Refresher Orb is op.

How does he do it?
Imba guides in quick succession. So many in past few months.
Do you have a time machine?

+1

Small complaint:
I think bloodstone is not so desirable over other itens like aghs eblade or veil of discord.
I would rather get euls over bloodstone given a purge invulnerability and a ms boist necro would love.

I hate it so much when you puck necro and everyone picks carry and expects you to buy all the wards and treat you as #5

I'm actually talking in terms of burst heal when it comes to Mekansm on Necro. Yes, he has Sadist to help him regen his mana and this gives him great sustainability on lane. But when your team requires burst heals during clashes, Necrophos' mana pool becomes very insufficient. A level 4 Death pulse and a Meka activation will probably take away about 60-70% of his current mana pool, and that leaves him with almost no mana left for his ultimate. This is especially true during the early to early mid game phase. that is why I would recommend having another support hero taking up Meka instead of Necrophos. Also, because Necro already has an aoe burst heal/dmg skill, picking up a Meka on him might not be the best choice if your enemies know who to target first. If Necro goes down, your entire healing squad is lost, and your team is left with little to no sustainability. So why not split the burden instead? That said, if Necro can get a blink dagger and Mek in time then that would be a different case, because he can safely wait on the sidelines and just blink in to get the maximum heal and damage potential from his death pulse and Meka combination.

Wat?

If Mekansm isn't viable on Necrophos, it isn't viable on anyone. Necro is an INT hero with a plenty large mana pool for mek, and on top of that you have free regen with Sadist as long as you're denying or last hitting. It's still definitely core on him..

Since the latest patch, I have to say that picking up a Mek for Necro isn't really a viable option anymore. The mana cost for a Mek and a single death pulse will probably render you useless for the rest of any clash during the early and early mid game stage. That is unless you pick up Arcane boots. Also, I find many Necro guides lack one pretty key item for Necro, blink dagger. The mobility it offers you is irreplaceable. Especially when you're going for slower boots like Treads or Arcane. That said, it is only viable if Necro gets farm. Good guide though!

If you are playing correctly, that Centaur Warrunner would never be able to go on you (an early or even lvl 1 Boots of Speed is a must as an offlane Necrophos and the same goes for other trilanes, ultimately Heartstopper Aura has more impact when you are up against a trilane or you are offlane because it stops their ability to stay in lane and forces them to be aggressive on you or get so far away from you they don't get experience. I know your counter to this will be "that will just force them to be aggressive on you and kill you repeatedly because you are squish early game and without the burst dmg/heal you are toast" but if you are picking/drafting Necro in that sort of situation you are doing it wrong from the time you click "play Necrophos". Necrophos out lanes a lot of lane comps solo with hearstopper aura much better than he would by maxing Death Pulse. In the mid situation if you are going super ganky then yes level Death Pulse and as I said already, if you are burst dmg based then level Death Pulse. Just don't max it early for its "healing" capabilities (there isn't much there you basically less than double the hp/s from lvl 1 to lvl 4 while going from 0.07 hp/second/mana point to 0.14 hp/second/mana point which initially seems nice because you are doubling your healing per second with each mana point you use but it's really a negligable amount... you could get more out of paying 350 gold for a Ring of Regen that provides 14.29 TIMES more regen/second at 0 mana cost... of course lvl 4 Death Pulse really provides 26 hp/s regen (if cast every time it is off CD which isnt a realistic scenario) but the three skill points are still a waste for just the hp regen).

You make some good points and I agree Heartstopper aura can be the right option in particular situations - generally fairly passive ones where you can use it to harass an opponent effectively with minimal risk that they'll go on you.

The reasons I tend to favour Death Pulse are:

- Burst damage tends to secure or prevent kills, harassment doesn't (e.g. if that Centaur Warrunner decides to go on you, being able to throw out 550 magic damage in 6 seconds, while healing yourself/allies for 260 is more useful than draining a small amount of his HP over that time).

- Same with supports or even just the enemy mid/carry going on you in mid/offlane. You have very low survivability early on due to poor HP, armour and movement speed. Burst heal/damage is more likely to save you or turn things around. HA doesn't help you much here.

- Heartstopper Aura isn't great for flash farming or pushing, if you haven't levelled DP much you reduce your ability to grab the farm you need or take/defend towers. You can be left in a situation where you're struggling to gain more levels to get the impact you need.

As I say, it can be a useful option, but personally I find Death Pulse is more flexible and effective in most situations.

P.s. I left out that if you really really REALLY need the healing then maxing Death Pulse is also an option. However, you must consider that you are spending 3 additional skill points early for an additional 17.25 hp/s and potential (not guaranteed) additional dps of 45.625 (while spending an additional 21.375 mana/sec) this is a trade off of 1/4/4/1 at level 10 that provides a static presence around you with Heartstopper Aura and Sadist that would provide roughly 480 mana/creep wave and 192 hp/creep wave (assuming you achieve 4 cs and 4 deny per creep wave, usually requires that you have Phase Boots). That 8 cs/deny per wave equates to roughly 16 mana/s and 6.4 hp/s.

P.p.s. It is also important to note that Sadist's hp and mana regen if a flat value. This means that it is increased by percentage based increase items such as: {+50%: Sage's Mask, Soul Ring Medallion of Courage, Urn of Shadows}, {+75%: Oblivion Staff}, {+100%: Void Stone, Soul Booster}, {+125%: Perseverance}, {+150%: Battle Fury, Scythe of Vyse, Orchid Malevolence, Linken's Sphere, Eul's Scepter of Divinity}, {+200%: Bloodstone, Refresher Orb}

Just a Sage's Mask would increase lvl 4 Sadist mana regen from 60 mana/last hit to 90 mana/last hit.

This however does not work for the hp regen aspect (only Heart of Tarrasque grants % based hp regen and it is based on your max hp and not how much flat regen you have).

Just remember that maxing Heartstopper Aura first is viable, especially against the proper mid or as an offlaner. At level 7 when most heroes have roughly 600-800 hp that is a consistent 9-12 dps when considering this look at a centaur (assuming you are bad and couldn't keep him out of xp range so you are equally lvl 7 and allowed him to adequately farm Tranquil Boots and Ring of Health): 1005 hp and a static hp regen of 18.62 hp/s when not being attacked or attacking. With lvl 4 Heartstopper Aura you are dealing a static 15.08 hp removal per second (that leaves 3.55 positive with Tranquil Boots or -8.45 hp/s when you force his Tranquil Boots to be deactivated. Now realistically you would be able to deny centaur enough farm that he would only have Tranquil Boots by lvl 7 further reducing all of those number by 5 hp/s.

To giver another hero example, look at a lvl 7 Vengeful Spirit (if you are offlane against a 2 or 3 lane this is a decent example): 777 hp, 1.26 regen. Heartstopper Aura = 11.66 dps = -10.4 health regen. This is an unsustainable lane for VS and would cause her to roam because it would only take 1.24 min (74 seconds) to kill her or a little less time to chase her back to base with only the aura. Any minor harass that you take from a non aggressive trilane will be mitigated by Sadist

So basically, if you are offlane you should almost always max Heartstopper Aura first with 1 point in Death Pulse and Sadist as second priority. This will allow you to sustain yourself in the offlane (or mid depending on the line up) by getting last hits and sustaining your Death Pulse must more efficiently.

However, if you are taking the semi-carry role in a trilane you can also consider the maxed Heartstopper Aura build unless your lane is built around burst dmg, then Death Pulse would be better.

Yup always get both.

Bloodstone vs Aghanim's Scepter is quite tricky on Necro these days (it used to be easy when his scepter upgrade was rubbish :)). I wouldn't say either is a bad choice:

500 hp vs 390 (200 + 19 x 10)
400 mp vs 280 (150 + 13 x 10)
0 armour vs 1.25 armour
10 damage vs 10 damage
9 hp regen vs 0.3 (10 x 0.03)
X charges (+200%) mana regen vs 0.4 (10 x 0.04)
Bloodpact (team heal on death, suicide active, faster respawn) vs Increased Ult Damage and buyback prevention

Basically, I want BOTH :). Sure the Bloodstone isn't always necessary, but it can be a big help when there aren't creeps around to farm, or your team are taking them (which is bad when you need to regen, but putting together a case over text while attacking the enemy base is tricky!). It certainly gives you a nice safety net. If I could only have 1 I would probably take the scepter thou.