A Jungler's guide to Nature's Prophet

Preface

Before you read this guide, know that it is no where near completion. Developing an in-depth guide is extremely time consuming and I'm too busy to complete this at the moment.

Please leave comments and suggestions.

Who is Nature's Prophet?

---

Nature's Prophet, Furion, is one of the most unique intelligence heroes featured on Dota 2. His kit doesn't allow him to follow the traditional caster mold. Instead of having a set of skills that directly damage enemies, his only damage dealing skill is his ultimate, leaving him with three others to utilize in combat. As a consequence of this he is dependent upon his auto attacks to satisfy most of his damage dealing needs, meaning many of his most effective builds play styles are geared around crowd control to get those auto attacks in. When playing Nature's Prophet, a player must have constant map awareness, be able to improvise in combat, and be bold when ganking or pushing. A Prophet can be invaluable to his allies across the map, using his ability to teleport as a means to assist his allies in various ways. This allows all allied heroes to be aggressive with confidence that they are not alone. When he faces heavy opposition, Furion can call upon the powers of nature to fight, sprouting trees and conjuring treants to protect him. Additionally, Nature's Prophet can teleport to an empty lane and spawn creeps to tank a tower, allowing him to push with the best of them. In a typical game, a Nature's Prophet player should expect to open as a jungler, become a global ganker and pusher, then become a carry towards the late game.

Pros / Cons

Pros:

• Global presence
• Superb pusher
• Easy to jungle
• Powerful late game carry
• Multifaceted kit
• High skill cap
• Easy team synergy

Cons:

• Vulnerable early and mid game
• This only crowd control can be easily countered
• Few spammable abilities
• You must improvise in battle
• Completely useless when silenced
• Dependent upon team mates to maximize effectiveness

Guide Legend

COLOR LEGEND:

---

General:

Cyan - Essential, do it
Green - Good, but proceed with caution
Yellow - Avoid this if possible
Red - Absolutely not
Grey - General item of importance

---

Skills:

Sprout - Q - Your first ability (dynamic crowd control)
Teleportation - W - Your second ability (global teleport)
Nature's Call - E -Your third ability (summon creeps)
Wrath of Nature - R -Your ultimate (global push/nuke)

Team Role

Nature's Prophet is an extremely multifaceted hero, allowing him to fill a large number of roles in a single game. He is picked up fairly often in both public and professional games, though few in the public scene play him to his full potential. In the early game, Furion can be played as a jungler with a reliable, fast global presence, making him one of the most feared gankers. It's common to see a Nature's Prophet an early game laning role, which isn't always a bad idea. Generally, this isn't as effective as picking up several levels in the jungle, though it's possible to get in a few early kills and maintain the lead.

Nature's Prophet may not have many abilities that deal large amounts of damage, but he is a strong carry and pusher, nonetheless. Despite being extremely valuable in a gank or team fight situation, it's important to remember that Nature's Prophet is by no means durable or a disabler, making this mistake is very easy and can cost you a team fight. If careful, he can be very good at initiating a team fight, using Sprout to restrict one or more enemies to a location. This will help allies to land skills shots and make their aoe abilities more effective. The only problem here is that his only built in crowd control is easily escaped (a tango, quelling blade, or blink dagger renders it completely useless).

Thinks to keep in mind when playing Nature's Prophet:

• Nature's Prophet is much more effective when cooperating with a team who is willing to set up ganks.
• Always to be ready to jump on opportunities across the map, few heroes can exploit these openings the way Prophet can.
• Use your abilities creatively.
• If you die in a team fight, your treants are probably still alive. You may be dead, but you're not gone.

Mistakes that are commonly make by Nature's Prophet players:

• Players see the Nature's Prophet is a carry and think they're playing Drow Ranger. Let me assure you, Furion is not Drow.
  
• Players see a team fight coming and use the opportunity to split push. Don't do this. Instead, do your best to survive the team fight and then split push while all other heroes are still weakened.
  
• Players get caught up in the jungle and forget that they're part of a team. Be sure you're always ready to leave your neutral creeps and defend your team mates, they need you.
• Black King Bar should be used for escape purposes, unless under outstanding circumstances. Do not use it to initiate team fights.

Overview - Early Game

SKILL AND ITEM GUIDE:

---

Skills:

LVL 1 - Jump in to the jungle as soon as possible. Use Nature's Call to take out small and medium camps.

LVL 2 - Continue to farm using Nature's Call. Don't hesitate to use Teleportation to get into a fight and help out your team mates.

LVL 3 - Continue to farm the jungle, prioritize medium camps.

LVL 4 - Continue to farm the jungle. Be aware of ganking opportunities, use Teleportation and Sprout to get into battle quickly and hold an enemy down.

LVL 5 - Continue to farm the jungle, start to prioritize large camps. At about this time, you should be getting more and more aggressive with your ganks.

LVL 6 - Now you can push, globally. Save using your ult until you can see every enemy creep wave or you need to drop a nuke on an enemy.

---

Items:

Clarity Potion - After casting Nature's Call, immediately use a clarity. Be sure not to let neutral creeps hit you.

Ring of Basilius - Keep this item turned on; you won't be spending much time in lane when you aren't pushing, meaning you want your creeps to get the bonus armor.

Hand of Midas - Use this to instantly eat the largest creep from large camps. You and your treants will easily cleanup the remaining neutrals. Plan on getting rid of this item before the game is over.

Overview - Mid Game

IDEAS AND PRIOIRITIES GUIDE:
This section is more laissez faire than the last. I won't be focusing on strict level and item outlines, as they are already indicated above. Instead, I will be discussing the general ideas a Nature's Prophet player should keep in mind during this time. Many of the ideas brought up in this section will have dedicated, more verbose sections later in the guide, to cover the motivation and specifics in the decisions you need to make. Keep in mind that this hero fills a variety of roles, meaning if you keep your priorities straight and exercise good decision making, it's hard to make a decision that will cost you the game. Above all, remember to be available to help your team mates, they need you.

Map presence:
Nature's Prophet needs to fill more roles during the mid game than at any other time in a match. It's likely that he has not yet farmed up all the items to reach his full carry potential, so don't expect to be destroying the enemy team alone. Because of this, you need to keep a VERY close eye on the map, as using Teleportation to get into a skirmish can lead to a lot of extra gold and experience for both you and your team mates. If a gank fails, and you don't get any kills, it's still likely that your ability to jump into combat will keep your team mates alive, especially when you're able to use Sprout intelligently. The details of how you should use Teleportation in different scenarios will be discussed in a later chapter. For now, just make sure you can be there for your team.

Team fighting:
Nature's Prophet's kit allows him to use his abilities in very diverse ways, especially when using Sprout and Nature's Call in conjunction. These two abilities allow you to change the environment where an engagement occurs by directly morphing the terrain and by spawning creeps to take damage and hinder enemy movement.

Nature's Prophet needs to be extremely careful in using this abilities as they are just as effective against your allies as they are against your foes. When using Sprout on an enemy, it can be very easy to accidentally trap an ally in the ring, putting each of them in easy melee range of each other. In specific circumstances, this can work to your advantage, though it is generally a very costly mistake. Being on a small cooldown, Nature's Prophet can use Sprout multiple times during a single team fight, giving him a very dynamic crowd control potential. Utilizing this and thinking on your feet will allow you to preserve the life of your friends while you watch your enemies melt.

One ability almost completely unique to Nature's Prophet is quickly spawning a wave of tanky creeps in the heat of battle. Using Nature's Call will turn a section of trees in a large aoe into up to five treant creeps that you control; these creeps deal very small amounts of damage, but will take a beating. This has very immediate and useful consequences in a team fight: when fighting in an area without a friendly creep wave, your team can quickly have one. The way a Nature's Prophet player uses these creeps makes the possibilities endless. It's important to note that a player can use Sprout around an enemy hero (or heroes) and, before the trees disappear, follow up with Nature's Call, turning most of the trees into creeps. This means that an enemy that just spent several seconds unable to engage in battle is now faced with being surrounded by a ring of creeps, keeping him out of battle even longer. This is one of the most basic uses of these treants, more sophisticated uses will be discussed at length in a later section. Just keep in mind that these creeps can take the heat off your team. Be creative and experiment.

Pushing:
It's very easy for a Nature's Prophet to wander into a lane, use Nature's Call, and push down a tower. This is one of them most formidable pushing abilities in the game, as it's not just one quick ability that pushes a wave (such as Pugna's Nether Blast or Keeper's Illuminate). Furion's iconic pushing ability, Nature's Call, has an extremely long duration and gives the player complete control during that time. Because of these factors, Nature's Prophet is widely considered to be one of the best pushers in the game. One thing to be careful of is using Teleportation to enter an empty lane just to find yourself ganked or to witness a team fight play out across the map. Pushing is a fantastic aspect of Nature's Prophet's kit, but it is not his priority during the mid game. When the opportunity arises, though, be sure to completely commit. When you show up in lane, the enemy team should understand that they're about to lose a tower or two.

Overview - Late Game

IDEAS AND PRIOIRITIES GUIDE:

Pushing: