A Dalliance into Death Pacts Both Current and Potential

Stiiiill waiting on that part two to the Lich post man.

Look, there's a LOT of math to sort through on that one, ok? Plus, I have the sneaking suspicion that the answer might actually be infinity like you said. With a Pudge that has enough stacks of Flesh Heap, an Anti-Mage, a Rubick, and the now-stacking Pipe of Insight on everyone, I think... I think you can just tank it forever, like Ancient Creeps. But I'll have to triple-check.

So what's this for then?

Boredom! I thought I'd pay tribute to the first hero I ever attempted to write a guide on, and give Clinkz and his Death Pact a shake-down.

You... tried to do a Clinkz guide? Really? I mean... you just get Orchid/MKB and win, right?

Dota is COMPLICATED. There are times you might want to get a Blink Dagger, or maybe an Assault Cuirass, to say nothing of the potential windfalls of a Refresher Orb but... that's... yeah, that's not what we're here for. We're here for math, and Death Pact! So let's dive in, shall we?

Now, when people talk about Death Pact they usually say that the best creep to kill is one of the large jungle creeps, Centaur Conqueror, Dark Troll Summoner, and Satyr Tormentor. Side note: why is there no Satyr Hero in the game? There's Centaur Warrunner and Troll Warlord, after all, so why no Satyr love? Maybe there's been a model change from Dota 1 I'm not aware of?

Probably.

I dunno. Anyways, each of these creeps has 1100 HP, which, when converted, gives Clinkz 550/715/880 health and 55/72/88 damage. This is a big deal! He essentially spends 100 mana and gets a Monkey King Bar for 35 seconds.

But can we do better? Of course we can, that's why I'm writing this.

A melee mega creep has a total of 1270 HP. That's right. If you're playing support, your mega creeps might be tankier than you are: fun fact! This is why they're impossible to deal with if you get raxed early on. If Clinkz were to use Death Pact on one of these bad boys, and they CAN be your own, since the spell can target friendly creeps, he will gain a total of 635/825.5/1016 health and 63.5/82.55/101.6 damage.

Over 100 damage, huh? Not bad. Of course, by the time mega-creeps are in play, it might not be enough, but having a free Abyssal Blade can be kinda cool, I'll give you that. Nice blog, this one was ok.

Patience, young szechuan. The math has yet to run its course.

What? But... that's the highest HP you can have on a creep, right?

Oh no. We're just getting warmed up. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you what should probably become a core item on Clinkz: the 6.82 Helm of the Dominator!! In the recent patch, this item was given a pretty sick buff: it gives the creep you dominate a bonus 250 Health. If you're only using the creep to stack, this doesn't seem like a big deal, but if Clinkz were to, say... nom on the creep right after converting it...

Oh. OH!

The big jungle creeps go from having 1100 to 1350 HP. Better than our mega! If Clinkz eats his new friend right after he makes it, he'll get a total of 675/877.5/1080 aditional health and 67.5/87.75/108 additional damage. As base damage, remember! So, you know, illusions would benefit a ton, if you're the type to build Manta Style on Clinkz.

But wait... you can dominate enemy mega creeps too, so...

Yup! Doing this gives you a creep with 1520 HP, and when Clinkz chows down on it, he'll gain 760/988/1216 health and 76/98.8/121.6 damage.

Alright, I'm impressed. 121.6 damage boost on Clinkz that he can reliably give himself. Well written.

I... I'm not done. We can do better.

... Chen

You're learning! I'm so proud of you. While some people have said that Helm of the Dominator's buff essentially turns creeps into Chen creeps, it's not entirely true. At max level, Holy Persuasion gives a creep an additional 300 health, giving a large jungle creep 1400 HP and an enemy mega creep 1570. This means that if you have a Chen on your team (or the enemy team, I suppose, but on your side makes it more reliable), he can serve you up a jungle creep that will give you 700/910/1120 extra health and 70/91/112 base damage. This, while not as impressive as the numbers beforehand, doesn't rely on mega-creeps being on the map and is therefore a lot more reliable.

And... the Chen mega creep?

1570 HP translates to 785/1020.5/1256 health and 78.5/102.05/125.6 damage.

That's pretty sick. Alright then, well... no, you know what? I know you. You've got some other BS tucked in your pocket, don't you?

You know me so well! I guess that's what happens when you spend every waking minute of the day with each other, huh? Those damage values are for if Chen is on your side... but what if he's on the enemy team?

Does... does it stack?

Yup! Bonus HP from Helm of the Dominator and Holy Persuasion stacks, as Reddit was kind enough to tell me since I'm not actually at home right now, and can't check myself! Thanks everybody! You'll receive your appreciation bucks in the mail in 2-4 business weeks.

But down to brass tacks. If you were to use Helm of the Dominator on one of Chen's big creeps, the creep would wind up with a total of 1650 HP! Nomming on it immediately afterwards yields a Clinkz with a total of 825/1072.5/1320 bonus health and 82.5/107.25/132 additional base damage, while a mega creep taken over by Chen and then re-taken by Helm would have 1820 HP, for a total of 910/1183/1456 health and 91/118.3/145.6 base damage.

This is where we begin to venture into the realms of absurdity, because if we start swapping back and forth between teams, the potential output of Death Pact onto our lab rat Clinkz is theoretically infinite. If Rubick steals Holy Persuasion, the Bonus HP from his spell will stack with both that of Chen and the effect of Helm, so... we could go on forever here, we really could. That last figure up there though is what I'll call the highest 'plausible' output of Death Pact... assuming you're going up against a Chen who doesn't take good care of his pets, you give yourself a Heart of Tarrasque and then some's worth of health and about one and a half Abyssal Blades. This, my friends, is the best we can do.

For now.

For now?

Humor me for a minute, will you? We all suspect that our dear Icefrog wants to give an Aghanim's Scepter upgrade to all heroes in the game, yes? Clinkz, as of the time of this writing, doesn't have one. The way Scepter upgrades are working these days, it could end up being practically anything but, well... I have an idea of something that'd be worth blowing money on an Agh's.

Go on then. Let us have it.

Simple. Make Death Pact work on Ancient Creeps.

... Oh lord.

Chen can muck around with Ancient Creeps now and he already HAD an Agh's upgrade, so why not Clinkz, eh? Let's see what he can get up to. Right now, there are three ancient camps in Dota, the Thunderhides, the Dragons, and the Large Golems. The Thunderhides, believe it or not, don't get us anywhere: the big dino only has 1400 HP, less than a Helm of the Dominator controlled mega creep. The other camps, though, both have an ancient creep with a whopping 2000 HP.

Oh my God... it's full of health... and the numbers? THE NUMBERS??!??

1000/1300/1600 HP and 100/130/160 damage. Nice, simple, and clean.

And broken as all heck.

Well... maybe? Keep in mind, this comes at the cost of having to fill one of your item slots with Aghanim's Scepter, which isn't the greatest item on its own. It's also entirely possible they could tweak the numbers a bit: if ancients were affected at 10% less each level, for instance (40%/55%/70%), you'd wind up with 800/1100/1400... even if it went 25%/40%/55% you'd still get 500/800/1100! I'd be surprised if Clinkz got an Agh's upgrade that wasn't some form of this, it just seems so straightforward.

Plus, with Chen's recent upgrade...

Even more reason for him to hate our little bone fletcher. A rivalry in the making? Only time will tell, huh? Only time will tell...

Yeah... wait, what was the point of this post again?

To.. uh... make some big numbers appear and... encourage people to get Helm of the Dominator on Clinkz? OOH, that means I can totally list this in the 'strategy' category, huh?

If you feel like lying to people, sure...

DONE!