Hero Discussion #13: Zeus

A noob hero by definition, Zeus is a noteworthy hero for two key reasons.
-One, he's the best killstealer in the game (His only rival in this category is Axe.)
-Two, he is quite possibly the most mono-dimensional hero in the game, for reasons you will soon find out.

His entire skill set revolves around him dishing damage at a safe distance (All of his abilities have a good casting ranges). Be it directly via spammable nukes such as Arc Lightning and Lightning Bolt or by constantly zapping opponents’ health away via his passive Static Field (A trait that allows his damage to more or less scale into late game, giving him a leg up on other Nukers such as Leshrac, Queen of Pain and Pugna), and of course Thundergod’s Wrath lets you pick off stragglers at the end of fights, counter-initiate, and scout. Though odds are you'll just use it to be a killstealing *******.

But, as is the case with most Nukers, Zeus falls off when it comes time for the late game (especially when BKBs and Pipes start rolling out), and his mono-dimensional skill set along his less than stellar scaling with items won’t be doing you any favors.

In addition, with the newly introduced talent trees, squishy supports that were once easy targets for Zeus, such as Crystal Maiden, have way more survivability (on top of the fact that Infused Raindrops exist) than they did before. Meaning that nukers like the Lord of Olympus have lost a key attribute that made them so useful: Early Game Kill Potential.

But it isn't all bad, 7.00 brought Zeus some new talents and a reworked Aghanim's Scepter upgrade. I figured that his talent tree, Nimbus, and his place in the new patch could be the topic of this hero's discussion.

So a few questions to get you guys started:
-Is Agh's now viable on Zeus?
-1.5% increase to Static Field noteworthy?
-Does this Talent Tree open up new playstyles for this non-versatile hero?
-Does he even have a place in the new meta?

Keep it civil.

A quick note: Zeus is actually one of the few nukers that doesn't fall off in the late game, thanks to Static Field doing percentage based damage. I know you say this yourself, but you also said he falls off right afterwards, so I feel like it needs to be repeated.

As for the questions:

Aghanim's Scepter is now basically core on the hero, in my opinion. Sure, Nimbus is a great teamfight spell, another way to proc Static Field, a second global nuke and AOE control that gives flying vision, but all of that is secondary to the one true reason to pick this up:

It casts Lightning Bolt. Lightning Bolt mini-stuns. This makes Zeus the only hero in the game that can cancel enemy TPs and channelling spells from a global range, on a 50 second cooldown. I go into this in more detail in my NEW AND IMPROVED IDIOT'S GUIDE TO ZEUS, FRESH OFF THE PRESSES FOR 7.01 if anyone's interested. :P

1.5% Static Field upgrade is... nice. Makes it about as strong as it was pre-nerf. I think cast range is probably the better call in most cases.

Talent Tree just complements the playstyle he already had, in my opinion. I actually think he got shafted, for the most part, none of his stuff is really that good apart from the lvl 20 choice of 35 MS or -40s respawn. Some nice stuff to make him tankier, though.

Hell yes. This is going to be the meta of early teamfighting, where you want a mid-laner who rushes veil to amp the damage of all your teams nukes so you can steamroll. Mark my words

1) Agh's fits the theme of Zeus very well - long range damage dishing. Can also be a permanent rosh scouting and dewarding tool (it has no down time iirc). Great for giving vision. Also good for global cancelling tp's (as safecyn has already said).

2) Zeus's talents are meh. The cast range is nice, because often at level 25 you would sell your Aether Lens. +35 ms is good for positioning, but -40 respawn is also really good.

My own questions:

Is the new atos good on zeus?
I always feel that I want too many items for my first item... I'd really like a bloodstone first, but then maybe I would want a force staff first, but then maybe euls or force...

What is zeus's optimal first item?

It's Veil of Discord, Sofa. Please build Veil of Discord first on Zeus. Just trust me on this.

Also, I think Atos has always been a decent option for helping Zeus tank/catch up to people... the item's purpose is pretty much the same, it just got a nice buff to not being useless against the usual suspects of Weaver, Slark, and Riki.

I think Rod of Athos is generally bad for him.He does not need setup to use his abilitys, he can nuke from far with Aether Lens, he can jump with Blink Dagger, only heroes like Skywrath Mage and Jakiro need this kind of setup.

People can argue of Nimbus need a setup for the enemy stays in the range of the skill

BUT I PRESENT A NEW META, Etheral Blade is the item Zeus wants to build right now, not only it will amplify the damage the enemy will take, he will get slowed so he cant kite the Nimbus AND HE CANT ATACK IT TOO.

10/10 New meta, would build right after Blink/Veil/Euls/Aghs, what do you think of this meta Hamster ?

If you could use Ethereal Blade on the Nimbus summon, that might almost be worth consideration. You can't though, I just checked it. Still doesn't sound.... bad... though I feel like you're sacrificing a lot by not going Octarine Core or Refresher as your huge item after Veil/Euls.

Using Etheral on the enemy instead of the nimbus is far better for the following reasons:

1)slow him so he can get up to 3 lighting strike from nimbus

2)Make him receive extra magical damage

3)He WONT atack it and destroy it.If you could etheral the nimbus instead of him, he would just need to usa Diffusal, but he cant use diffusal on himself, so he needs to use strong self dispel like bkb or manta, which lead us to...

4)Forcing enemy to use bkb, this is by far the best use of it, enemy carry will have to use bkb in order to destroy your nimbus

Ranged carrys are the real problem though, in that case would be good to etheral your nimbus, but then you can blink in front of them and use etheral

It does fits 6 slots Zeus, just remember you can keep Refresher in your bag :0), it would be like this :
Bots Blink Aghs OC Etheral Sheep Stick

Personally I like to have these items on Zeus:

Boots of Travel Blink Dagger Veil of Discord Bloodstone Aghanim's Scepter Octarine Core ( Refresher Orb)