[ARCHIVED] LordVesper's Personal Guide to Meepo [7.06f]
LordVesper
November 1, 2017
Introductions
Greetings, everyone! I'm Marcus from House Vesper (on YouTube) but most of you know me by my Dotafire name, LordVesper! Today, I come back to life since my Reincarnation just went off cooldown so I'll be presenting you with a guide to Meepo, the Geomancer! Also known as the hero that's so easy to counter that players might have just countered him ACCIDENTALLY. Anyways, without further ado, let's get this guide... STARTED!
NOTE:
This guide is going to be an extremely big wall-of-text. Because of this, I advise starting with whatever you need help with first before trying to read the whole thing. For those who aren't experienced with controlling multiple units at once, please refer to my Micromanagement guide here: *LINK TO BE ADDED ONCE DONE*
Tips About Meepo's Abilities
EARTHBIND
Earthbind is the disable that makes
Meepo a hard-counter to most slippery heroes. It also serves as his initiation to setup for mass
Poofs from all
Meepos. It's a two second root on an eight second cooldown so with five
Meepos, you can keep an enemy locked down indefinitely (if you don't stack the root debuffs on top of each other) while you shovel them to death! Please note that you gain true sight over enemies while they are rooted (meaning they can't use
Shadow Blade to escape) and that enemy channeling spells are NOT interrupted. It's also worth noting that it takes some practice to hit
Earthbind accurately so a few bot matches might help.
POOF
Poof serves as
Meepo's main source of damage. On its own, it deals below-average magical damage (280) but makes up for this with the ability being available to ALL five
Meepos and the fact that it can be used to teleport to other
Meepos (including illusions). When used by all five
Meepos at once, it deals an insane maximum total of 1400 magical damage which should always be abused by players who are willing to play him. Players should also abuse the fact that
Poof can be used as a method of getting around the map. Combined with
Boots of Travel,
Meepo players can have strong global presence and be ready for any teamfight.
GEOSTRIKE
Geostrike is
Meepo's backup ability for cases where
Poof doesn't kill your enemy instantly. Just like with
Meepo's other abilities, Geostrike is very pathetic when used by only one
Meepo. However, since Geostrikes from multiple
Meepos stack, it can slow an enemy down by 100% and deal 200 magical damage per second for as long as all five
Meepos keep on shoveling the poor guy! Please note that while this ability will drastically lower chances of escape, it will not prevent the enemy from fighting back if they can handle all your
Meepos.
DIVIDED WE STAND
Divided We Stand is
Meepo's signature ability! It summons up to four
Meepo clones that can use abilities, boots, and gain experience or gold, but will kill every
Meepo if anyone of them dies. On paper, the ability may seem overpowered and IT ACTUALLY IS IF the enemies haven't countered you with their heroes or items (
Battle Fury or
Maelstrom). This ability is the main reason why people play
Meepo in the first place and abuse him in teams that are foolish enough to not include any sort of crowd control like
Earthshaker or
Sven. However, it's for that same reason that most players AVOID playing
Meepo since controlling multiple units is hard at first plus you HAVE to take care of the clones and not just leave them lying around... and that's not good! So many games could have been won if only you played
Meepo and abused the fact that your enemies didn't have any area-of-effect abilities like
Phantom Assassin!
Meepo's Roles
NUKER
Meepo is one of the best Nukers in Dota 2 just because of
Poof's potential magic damage burst. If you can cast
Poof rapidly on all five
Meepos, bursting down enemies should be easy unless they have magic resistance.
GANKER
Meepo is a very potent ganker once he acquires
Blink Dagger. Using your main
Meepo, use
Blink Dagger to close the distance between your enemy instantly and immediately cast
Earthbind afterwards. Make sure to have your other
Meepos casting
Poof to your main
Meepo's location while all of this is happening. This... This is the formula of a
Meepo gank! However, please keep in mind that unlike most gankers,
Meepo takes some time to come online and will usually need
Blink Dagger first to gank effectively.
CARRY
Divided We Stand is arguably the best ability in Dota 2. Although
Meepo's other skills make him more of a midgame nuking ganker,
Divided We Stand was enough to push him into the Carry Role. To be honest, five level 25
Meepos shoveling you to death will always be scary no matter what even if no right-click oriented items were bought.
PUSHER
Meepo also takes position as one of the most mobile heroes in Dota 2 once he acquires
Boots of Travel! Being able to teleport to five different locations every 40 seconds is insane and may even be compared to
Nature's Prophet's level of mobility! Because of this, he is considered a really good Pusher. It also helps that
Meepo has
Poof for easily clearing out creep waves and multiple
Meepo clones to help him destroy towers and barracks as quickly as possible.
INITIATOR
While
Meepo isn't the best initiator out there, he can do just fine especially once he has
Blink Dagger and
Scythe of Vyse. He initiates teamfights by jumping on someone and hopefully killing them with
Poof and constant right-clicks. This usually forces the enemy team to either save their ally by joining the teamfight or to just run away and accept their losses.
Ideal Gameplan
EARLY GAME: Goals
[*] With things going well for your lane, farm up and rush your
Boots of Travel. Do try to kill the opposing laner/s if possible by chaining
Earthbinds and
Poofs! Avoid ganking unless it's the enemy carry and you're sure that it will be successful or else you just end up wasting time and delaying your
Boots of Travel timing.
[*] If things are going rough in lane, just do your best to farm what you can. Buying cheap items to help you fight and survive early on such as
Ring of Aquila and
Dragon Lance is recommended but keep in mind that you still have to get
Boots of Travel later on. The timing will be delayed, yes... but it's better to have it delayed than to end up dying multiple times trying to rush
Boots of Travel!
EARLY GAME: Reminders
[*] While
Meepo is a carry, he has some decent killing potential upon hitting Level 3 because of
Poof's insane damage early on. However, you cannot benefit from this nuke damage without some sort of initiation whether it be your own
Earthbinds or disables from your allies.
[*] Before reaching Level 3,
Meepo is probably one of the weakest laners in the whole game! But, upon reaching Level 3, he easily becomes one of the strongest. Abuse this power spike by last-hitting and denying creeps with your permanent double-damage and constantly threatening your enemies with
Earthbinds and
Poofs that could easily lead to kills.
[*] You can rotate between your two
Meepos by sending the injured one to the fountain while the healthy one farms up safely. This allows
Meepo to sustain himself even when up against heroes with strong harass such as
Queen of Pain's
Shadow Strike and
Tinker's
Laser!
[*] You can clear a creep wave with just two Level 4 Poofs! This is especially useful when you plan on rotating to the jungle immediately after clearing a creep wave like a
Shadow Fiend would do.
MID GAME: Goals
[*] Assuming that you have both
Boots of Travel and
Blink Dagger, you should be doing your best to abuse this power spike by farming every single creep wave and jungle camp that you possibly can while constantly looking for ganks on lone or weaker enemies. Midgame is when
Meepo shines the most as he can take out an entire team on his own if he's ahead enough of his enemies! Knowing this, do try your best to take objectives whenever possible and ending the game while you're still in charge and haven't fallen off... yet!
[*] While
Meepo typically dominates the midgame, there will be games where you aren't ahead enough of your enemies to be able to gank them freely without much risk! In these games, your best bet is to either gank with your team or split-push in hopes of forcing your enemies to separate, making them easier to gank. Whatever you decide upon, just make sure that all five of your
Meepos are doing something productive at all times so that you don't fall off too hard. You might even make a comeback with the help of some crucial kills!
MID GAME: Reminders
[*]
Blink Dagger +
Earthbind +
Poofs from all your
Meepos is your usual combo whenever you initiate a gank. It works well against most heroes except those who have Dispel abilities like
Omniknight with his
Repel or
Abaddon with his
Aphotic Shield.
[*] Against heroes with Dispels or ways to escape from both
Earthbind and Geostrike, you should be aiming to get
Scythe of Vyse as soon as possible in order to gank these enemies successfully.
[*] Since you will be in control with all five
Meepos at this point, you should be separating them as much as possible while farming to prevent overlaps in farming patterns. Just have them unite again with
Poof when going in for a gank or teamfight... preferably before it starts to avoid any unnecessary complications such as having your farming
Meepos stunned by a neutral Centaur while your teammates are dying!
[*] Focus on squishy but deadly heroes first (like
Sniper) by bursting them down with
Poof before moving on to the durable heroes like
Wraith King or
Centaur Warrunner . In most cases, durable heroes tend to be easy to kite or bully around so they shouldn't serve as much of a threat to you therefore making them last in your priorities.
LATE GAME: Goals
[*] At this point, you should be six-slotted meaning equipped with all the necessary items against the enemy team. Typically,
Scythe of Vyse is included since the
Hex ability it provides is too strong to pass up and solves
Meepo's lack of strong disables.
Bloodthorn should be bought against heroes that rely on abilities while
Ethereal Blade should be bought against right-click carries. However, note that these items will only delay the inevitable fact that
Meepo is not a hard carry and will soon end up outcarried by more dedicated carries such as
Spectre and
Medusa. End the game whenever possible!
[*] If
Meepo isn't ahead of his enemies by the time it reaches lategame, then it means you failed carrying your team and ended up being a burden if anything. To lessen these negative effects, you can just serve as the team's splitpusher, utility, or even just bait in teamfights. Find a way to make yourself useful in whatever way possible to compensate for the leeched gold and experience. You may have failed but the game isn't over yet so keep on fighting! Your team might just end up winning despite the odds stacked against it...
LATE GAME: Reminders
[*] Make sure to adjust your mindset from "I'm powerful enough to kill anybody" to "I can kill enemies but only with help from my allies". Remember that
Meepo is a snowballing carry that falls off HARD in the lategame. Besides, the fact that the enemy team survived your midgame wrath only means that you weren't strong enough to end the game on your own. On the bright side, it does mean that you can rely on your allies now and won't have to carry the burden of being the team's game changer!
[*] Your item decisions are what will matter the most in the lategame! Choose wisely what items you plan on buying and make sure it's appropriate for the game's situation. The last thing you want is throwing the game by buying
Bloodthorn in games where your team lacks survivability.
[*] From a Carry/Nuker role,
Meepo transitions into more of an Initiator/Utility hero. Keep this in mind and adjust your gameplay accordingly! While
Meepo isn't as good as initiating as
Enigma with his
Black Hole,
Meepo will do just fine and is usually enough.
Laning and Jungling
Midlane
the most preferred lane for a
Meepo especially since Patch 7.06 added an extra melee creep to the mid lane!
Meepo is a carry that needs to snowball in order to be successful so he needs to have as much gold and experience possible to himself. This makes the midlane perfect for him even when the opposing laner is someone he's weak against such as
Templar Assassin or
Bristleback. While weak at laning at first,
Meepo makes up for this weakness by being extremely powerful upon receiving his first clone at Level 3!
Safelane
while significantly worse for
Meepo than the midlane due to the presence of a laning partner who will most likely just sap gold and experience from you, it's still a viable lane for him if you SOMEHOW can't convince your allies to take midlane yourself. However, by going into the safelane, keep in mind that this prevents you from snowballing without numerous ganks on the opposing laner/s or considerable efforts from your laning partner to pull creeps and gain experience from there rather than leech experience from the creep wave.
Offlane
worst-case scenario for a
Meepo player. It has the same issues as with going into the safelane except this time you're up against a stronger enemy duo that cannot be ganked easily without the use of
Smoke of Deceit or the hope that they haven't bought
Observer Wards to lookout for incoming ganks (unlikely). It also doesn't help that pulling creeps from the offlane is hard if not impossible! Since you went to this wretched lane, assume that you will be having a bad earlygame and will need to make a comeback through flash farming in the midgame.
Jungle
not viable for
Meepo until he has some levels in
Poof. And even with maxed-out
Poof,
Meepo will still struggle clearing out jungle camps with high magical resistance such as Mud Golems and all Ancient Camps except Acolytes + Prowlers. However, once you have three or more
Meepos, you'll come to realize that the creep waves are simply not enough gold and experience. This is when you take both creep waves AND jungle camps at the same time to maximize gold and experience gain.
Item Explanations
Starting Items (Easy Lane)
Boots of Speed- heroes in Dota 2 need boots and
Meepo is no exception. You start off with
Boots of Speed in an easy lane so you can rush straight to
Boots of Travel and start snowballing from there. Buying boots early also gives you a movement speed advantage over your enemies which means landing
Earthbinds and
Poofs will be easier.
Tango- standard form of regeneration to help sustain yourself in lane. While it's less useful on
Meepo since his clones can't benefit from
Tangoes, I'd still advise buying some since
Meepo is a pretty weak laner and will take some harass while
Poofing for last hits.
Iron Branchx2- bought to spend all of your starting gold and prepare for worst case scenarios where you have to eat
Iron Branches with
Tangoes. It also provides some stats which
Meepo always appreciates.
Starting Items (Hard Lane)
Tango- standard form of regeneration to help sustain yourself in lane. While it's less useful on
Meepo since his clones can't benefit from
Tangoes, I'd still advise buying some since
Meepo is a pretty weak laner and will take some harass while
Poofing for last hits.
Healing Salve- preferred over
Tango in situations where
Meepo’s clones are the ones that need regeneration. However, one must always remember that the amount of HP healed by
Tangoes is more than that of a
Healing Salve. Also, player-based damage will cancel
Healing Salves.
Ring of Protection- basic starting item for many heroes. For Meepo, it’s somewhat less beneficial since your clones cannot copy bonus armor. However, it can still be bought if you plan on getting a Ring of Basilius early on or if you’re up against an enemy who deals mostly physical damage such as Templar Assassin or Bristleback.
Iron Branchx2- bought to spend all of your starting gold and prepare for worst case scenarios where you have to eat
Iron Branches with
Tangoes. It also provides some stats which
Meepo always appreciates.
Faerie Fire- assuming that you're going to have a rough laning phase, you'll need cheap items to help you get through it.
Faerie Fire gives
Meepo more last-hitting potential and can be consumed to save
Meepo in clutch plays where that burst HP heal can help you survive or kill the enemy.
Earlygame Choices
Ring of Basilius- bought if you started out the game with a
Ring of Protection. It provides some damage for last hitting and an aura that increases the mana regeneration and armor of nearby units including your
Meepo clones. I consider this a fairly decent earlygame choice on
Meepo especially if you want to aim for early pushes.
Dragon Lance- used to be a core item on
Meepo even for pro players like Abed due to how cost-efficient the stats were. Nowadays, it's been nerfed quite a bit, but I don't think people should start ignoring the item. Always remember that stats are potentially five times more effective on
Meepo and the fact that
Dragon Lance CAN BE DISASSEMBLED! This means that you can use the
Ogre Club for your
Aghanim's Scepter later on while leaving the two remaining
Band of Elvenskin and just selling those once you start running out of inventory slots. To summarize, buy
Dragon Lance early on if rushing straight to
Boots of Travel isn't recommended. Just don't forget to disassemble it later on once you start working on your
Aghanim's Scepter.
Bottle- assuming that you went midlane with
Meepo (which you should), then buying a
Bottle isn't a bad idea since you can use it on your
Meepo clones too. However, doing so delays your other much more important items such as
Boots of Travel. As a rule of thumb, I only buy a
Bottle in games where I find myself roaming around the map often since this ensures that you will be getting a ton of runes thus benefitting more from the purchased
Bottle.
Ring of Aquila- upgraded from
Ring of Basilius by buying a
Wraith Band. While I don’t recommend buying this item, there are situations where the early game is filled with many teamfights and you’ll need every single item to ensure that you have a good early game.
Ring of Aquila solves this issue since it provides nice stats for all your
Meepos and an aura to give you an edge in fights and pushes too!
Yasha- should be bought immediately after
Boots of Travel if you plan on getting
Manta Style later. It provides all your
Meepos with tons of agility and extra movement speed to the main
Meepo too. However, keep in mind that by buying
Yasha, you are switching to a more right-click oriented
Meepo rather than the typical
Poof bursting one. It works wonders though in games where your enemies have increased magic resistance such as
Anti-Mage with his Spell Shield and
Rubick with his Null Field.
Core Items
Boots of Travel- is considered core on
Meepo because of how powerful it is on him. It's basically buying five
Boots of Travel for the price of oone since even your
Meepo clones can use it on separate cooldowns. This item is the main reason why
Meepo has incredibly strong global presence thus making him an effective pusher and ganker. When combined with
Poof,
Meepo can be quickly pushing all three lanes at once while still being ready to teleport to wherever he is needed, may it be a gank or a teamfight. I personally ignore all the other boot upgrades since
Boots of Travel just offers far too much to be skipped.
Blink Dagger- also considered core on
Meepo because of how potent it is on him. The combination of
Blink Dagger from the main
Meepo plus
Poof from all the other
Meepo clones allows him to initiate ganks really well. This item solves
Meepo's problem of not having any short-distance mobility skills like
Slark's
Pounce or
Faceless Void's Backtrack. Keep in mind as well that once
Meepo has both
Blink Dagger and
Boots of Travel, he becomes a serious threat to the enemy team at all times due to his strong global presence. Experienced players will know that for as long as there are enemy units around the area, they are never safe as
Meepo can simply appear from there at anytime.
Aghanim's Scepter- bought to further abuse
Divided We Stand's potential power. It gives you another
Meepo clone to work with, giving you the maximum of five
Meepos. It's also the magic number for pushing lanes since you can have two
Meepo clones pushing top, two other
Meepo clones pushing bottom, and the main
Meepo either pushing midlane or roaming around the map to look for enemies to jump on with
Blink Dagger. It's also worth noting that
Aghanim's Scepter provides some stats while are technically five times more effective on
Meepo.
Extension/Situational Items
Assault Cuirass- an alternative to
Heart of Tarrasque as a durability item. It provides a lot of armor to all your
Meepos and some bonus attack speed too! However, since it doesn't provide raw HP,
Assault Cuirass should only be preferred over
Heart of Tarrasque in games where the enemy team deals mostly physical damage. Most effective when bought against
Bristleback or
Sven. But then again, you shouldn't be picking
Meepo in the first place when up against these heroes.
Bloodthorn- should be bought in games where your team is lacking in terms of silences and/or damage.
Bloodthorn's active ability alone solves both of these issues! But aside from that, it's pretty useless on
Meepo since most of its provided stats only work on the main
Meepo such as the mana regeneration and passive critical strike. If possible, have another ally buy this instead but please do buy it yourself if nobody else does especially when up against
Anti-Mage or
Puck.
Butterfly- while the evasion is greatly wasted on
Meepo, the agility and attack speed it provides help him a lot. It should be bought after
Manta Style (if you planned on getting that item in the first place) so that your illusions can benefit from the added agility and evasion. But remember,
Butterfly is only bought if you're going for a right-click oriented
Meepo. Don't bother buying it in games where
Poof is your main source of damage.
Eye of Skadi- while there is an argument to be made between
Heart of Tarrasque and
Eye of Skadi, I finally figured it out! You should look at
Eye of Skadi as an offense-based version of the
Heart of Tarrasque. While it does give
Meepo tons of survivability, it also gives him more damage potential from the agility and the slowing effect on attack. Combined with multiple Geostrikes,
Meepo can slow down most enemies to a crawl even a
Bloodseeker with maximum
Thirst benefits. Anyways, just buy this item in games where you need a mix of both durability and offensive potential.
Diffusal Blade 2- in case you didn't know,
Diffusal Blade AND
Diffusal Blade 2 are some of the most cost-efficient items in terms of agility gained. While the mana burn only works on the main
Meepo, it's still worth buying on him since the agility bonus is excellent plus the active ability still works perfectly well in slowing down enemies and purging them of any buffs. However, I personally don't buy
Diffusal Blade unless I'm going for a right-click carry build or if there are strong enemy buffs to be purged such as
Guardian Angel from
Omniknight or
Flame Guard from
Ember Spirit.
Manta Style- upgraded from
Yasha assuming that you're going for a right-click focused build on
Meepo.
Meepo's illusions are actually quite strong since they inherit Geostrike and can be
Poofed at by other
Meepos, allowing for multiple mindgames as the enemies try to judge whether or not the
Meepo is a clone, an illusion, or the main one. It also helps that
Meepo usually builds stat-heavy items such as
Heart of Tarrasque which will greatly benefit the illusions. Personally, I buy
Manta Style even in games where I'm not going for a right-click carry build in order to further abuse the enemy team's lack of AoE damage or crowd-control abilities. But of course, this is just my personal opinion on the matter and I'll leave it up to you to decide whether or not to get the item.
Pipe of Insight- if you'll be playing
Meepo often, then it will be inevitable for you to be hard-countered by crowd-control caster heroes like
Earthshaker or
Lich in games where you don't get to pick
Meepo last but you picked him anyways because you felt like it. In these scenarios, you should buy
Pipe of Insight for you AND your team to prevent from getting absolutely dominated in teamfights. Special mention to
Echo Slam that increases in magic damage as more units are affected by it. Heck, I believe that Earhshaker was made purely to counter heroes like
Meepo!
Silver Edge- typically considered a worse alternative to
Blink Dagger on
Meepo. However, there are games where
Silver Edge ends up being better than
Blink Dagger! These games involve enemy heroes with powerful passives such as
Bristleback and
Timbersaw or it may also involve
Radiance-users that put your
Blink Dagger on cooldown more often than not such as
Naga Siren and
Alchemist. Special mention to
Spectre who has a strong passive called
Dispersion and typically buys
Radiance too!
Scythe of Vyse- while this is only my personal opinion, I believe that
Scythe of Vyse should always be bought on
Meepo in the later stages of the game to assure dominance over your enemies. The active ability it provides works well in ganks especially when combined with
Blink Dagger and
Earthbind. It ensures that enemies can't escape from
Meepo even if they had some way to escape
Earthbind and multiple Geostrikes. It also helps
Meepo keep up in the lategame since he does have a tendency of falling off hard especially once
Poof's damage isn't that significant anymore compared to the high HP your enemies would have by then.
Scythe of Vyse also provides some great stats although the mana regeneration it provides is heavily wasted on
Meepo.
Ethereal Blade- bought to amplify
Poof's magical damage and greatly increase
Meepo's agility. It gives
Meepo greatly increased damage potential both in terms of magical damage and physical damage. Just like
Scythe of Vyse, you buy
Ethereal Blade to prevent
Meepo from falling off too hard in the lategame. However, you should also keep in mind that
Ethereal Blade's active ability ALSO makes the target unable to attack and receive physical damage. This becomes especially useful in the lategame where physical damage carries are far more dangerous compared to spellcaster heroes which would have fallen off by then due to the presence of magic resistance items like
Pipe of Insight or
Black King Bar.
Heart of Tarrasque- bought to greatly increase
Meepo's survivability which he would be lacking since all of his other items are focused on increasing his damage potential and utility. While some players could argue that
Eye of Skadi is better since that provides a slowing ability and makes
Meepo nearly as durable as if he had
Heart of Tarrasque, I still prefer buying
Heart of Tarrasque since it has a somewhat better buildup and provides insane regeneration if
Meepo isn't attacked by players over a short period of time. Now while
Heart of Tarrasque isn't an insanely good item on him since the health regeneration only works on the main
Meepo, this ability can still be utilized to sustain him in teamfights. This is done by only teleporting your injured
Meepo clones back to base while the main
Meepo hides for a bit and just jumps on someone again once the
Meepo clones are ready for battle once more. Doing this reduces the downtime for a
Meepo to re-engage in teamfights after being badly wounded and we all know at this point that every second counts in Dota 2.
Changelog
7/23/17: Started the guide. Finished Introductions, Roles, and Tips for Abilities
7/31/17: Haven't finished guide yet due to many... challenges. Made some decent progress though since I finished a bunch of sections including the longest one which is the "Item Explanations"
8/2/17: The guide is officially finished! But, more changes will come as patches change the flow of the game.
9/2/17: Heard about the guide contest in Dotafire! Hopefully I can win some prizes from it.
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