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Bottle
Arcane Boots
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Hello,
As first thing in a guide I believe is most important to define the propose of making the guide in the first place.
Well, this time I will not make a standard guide, will not even insist on a certain build. What I will insist on however is flexibility, adaptability, deep understanding.
So let's go doing that.
Basically Zeus is a Nuker, nothing more.
Every other single role is not optimal, not natural and only available on circumstancial bases. Why I say this ? Let's pick each role and discuss it.
- Ganker. Closest most natural role. Zeus is a viable ganker starting with at least level 5 (level 3 [Lightning Bolt]), optimal at level 7. Where his ganking ability ends is hard to say, it depends very much on oposition picks, oposition tactics and so on. However in most cases you will not reach level 16 and still call yourself ganker. By that time you are either wining and you are purely nuker, either you are loosing and you are harassing.
Problems ganking:
1. Low mobility. He has bad movement speed, bad turning animation, bad auto attack. Add poor warding from your team and ganking becomes a two faced coin, it can turn against you very easy.
2. Limited mana pool. With the not so recent change on Lightning Bolt free ground targeting can also backfire on you. Good thing is now you can guess enemy positions when they got out of sight. Bad thing is if you miss to guess corectly, at low levels, when you have a very limited mana pool you will put yourself in very dangerous situations.
So, even with Arcane Boots your Ganking and Nuking capabilities are mostly limited at hit and run. You have closely to 7 seconds to decide a fight (WQW at level 5, add Thundergod's Wrath starting with level 6). If there are still doubts about the income you should be out already. If enemies are already fleeing and out of Arc Lightning range you should again leave ASAP, since you are already close to no mana, in emeny teritory, so opened to a backfire and also at a higher range from replenishing mana/HP than enemy.
Still speaking of mana pool, recent changes to Bottle makes the item ****pier, tho is still so needed since it also heals you, and you really have no spare cash for healing potions. If anything matters to Zeus, that's not falling behind as levels.
So actually Zeus ganking capability is quite situational. At level 5-7 is a little gamble. IF you succeed at your first 1-2 attempts you have the real chance to become a real ganker by buying a first item besides boots that will add something to your mana pool and maybe on mobility/range also, like 
Force Staff or 
Aether Lens.
- Support
Not even sure why this role is considered for Zeus, since the hero has nothing at all to offer for this role. Has no native healing, has no hard disable, has only a tiny interupt on channeled spells that is so rarely usable since usually those who will have to channel spells will go for either 
Black King Bar or 
Shadow Blade or 
Glimmer Cape. Hell, if you take 
Wraith King you'll see he has better "support" capabilities anytime, if you take alone his stuns and his survivability to stun at least 2-3 times per fight. Add to this his already discussed mana pool problems, add the no cash policy for support and you'll have a naked hero that will eventually build not sure what, probably only one item the entire game, that beeing 
Guardian Greaves. You take away completely his nuking possibility since you will buy Arcane Boots very late, so you have a blank warding hero for 15 minutes, doing nothing at all. You can't either push away melle heroes since your range is pathetic.
My advice, don't play Zeus support unless your pub game picks suck, your mid was filled with 3 heroes and everything looks already lost. And you'll probably lose cause Zeus is no support.
- Carry/Semy-carry
Erm, what ? I'd be damn if I didn't tried to play Zeus carry. I even won as one in an extremely low % cases. Zeus is simply no carry material. Once cause he has nothing, but nothing at all to make him carry.
He has bad range, bad attack animation so auto-attack dmg will always suck or will already require at least 2 item slots to make him decent (and by decent means making him cancel some innate disadvantages by using 
Dragon Lance and 
Orchid Malevolence).
Compared to some other intellect heroes with carry capability ( 
Silencer ), he has no spells with intellect effects, nothing to add damage from stats. That's why Zeus will always go for mana pool items instead of intellect items.
To even consider going and succeding as carry Zeus has to completely smash his oposition very early on, to get a huge gold advantage that will allow to buy the mentioned 2 items and still have some extra gold advantage after that. Even like that you will still relly more than 50% of the time on spells since the low cooldowns and long range of spells will most of the time do much more damage than forced close to melle placement of a fat auto-attack hero.
So as a conclusion, go carry ONLY when the game is already won, they have no heroes that can turn the game against you late on (
Anti-Mage). Is more than a situational role, one that you should NEVER choose from the start of the game.
- Jungler
By the definition of jungler, Zeus has no chance of being one, since he can't stay in jungle 30 min and kill creeps fast and alone.
BUT
Zeus, if forced by picks, can level up in jungle using jungle pulls. Very easy due to Arc Lightning. You can do chain pulls, you can stack camps making use of Static Field.
Once you reach level 5-6 however there is nothing left for Zeus in jungle.
If later on you purchase 
Bloodstone and/or 
Octarine Core he can make jungle one with the ground very fast in terms of damage, still slower than true junglers due to lack of mobility. Of course you can add some mobility items also, but you will never match Anti-Mage at mobility. So late game farming in jungle is very situational, only worth in dead match moments or when you're trying to finish an item with no more than 1-2 minutes farm.
- Initiator
It is very hard to define Zeus as Initiator. You can use Zeus to do some initial damage, but in my opinion that has nothing to do with initiation.
You can throw some high range spells, but those are never intented to open the fight, that's more fight delaying or trying to make an initiation oportunity for a team member more oriented for this role. Initiation means much more disabling and/or tanking a large amount of heroes. Same goes for Thundergod's Wrath. In team fights you should use this spell very early on, but never first. If you do it first and with good damage you only risk pushing back and canceling a fight. Yes, you might wanna be second with that.
If you are insane however and really wanna die in a big fireworks, go ahead and try. Build 
Shiva's Guard, 
Blink Dagger and 
Refresher Orb, say a last prayer to gods (kind of odd, you are the god) and jump in. Don't hope on getting out alive. Miracles can happen if your team completely solves in the next 5 seconds ( you still have chances to leave the fight in a coffin even after only 5 seconds).
I will tell you this from start. This is a fake and useless question.
Let's talk this about.
In a normal and logical game you will want to play Zeus mid. That means you will most probably pick third for your team. That also means oposition made 3 picks or in 50% of the cases only 2 picks. You have close to no chance to avoid counter picks simply because first picks are almost always supports and Zeus doesn't have hard counters in support ranks. It does have some partial counters from heroes like 
Rubick and 
Pugna but both can be dealt with very easy. More than that, Rubick is more a later pick support since is highly dependant on spells he can steal. Making him a first pick is risky and can make the hero close to useless.
If by chance oposition made early carry picks, like 
Huskar or Anti-Mage, remember again that they open themselves to counters from your own team, so again your choice can be more relevant but is not crucial or game changing.
So in my opinion, if you're not going for last pick and respect the normal pick order, pick Zeus whenever you feel playing him. Use hard games (due to picks) to learn and adapt. As long as you adapt and learn you are actually wining something each game.
Now this is much more important, if not most important part of playing Zeus.
In my vision, there are 3 possbile depth lines in a fight.
First depth line is for initiators or if you wanna call it other, fight openers.
Second line is for the heroes that have a big contribution to the fight while taking risk in consideration,
Third row is dedicated for heroes with little impact in the fight, or for heroes with long cooldown spells, or simply for very fragile heroes.
Zeus can be on any depth line, greatly depending on farm and pick ups.
Ok, so where should Zeus be ? How to determine this ? Well, let's take each case and see.
What matters a lot to determine this ?
- Oposition heroes HP/resists.
- Stealth/nuke of the oposition.
- Number of disables on each team.
First of all, you need to determine from the start of the game and then recalculate all during the game how many targets can you handle with. If in any 1 vs 1 situation you estimate to lose the fight, you certainly don't belong to first line. If they have at least 3 fragile targets with poor disablers you might actually finish the fight before it starts. In any case it is a matter of judgement that will come with experience.
So, first line when your nuking power can actually blow the oposition before they can react properly. If you are ahead of the game you can certainly do this.
Second line when things are balanced and you are in danger of being disabled/nuked. Especially if you fight stealh heroes like 
Riki or 
Nyx Assassin. This is the normal line for nukers, disablers and low cooldown spells supports.
Third line when you fight scarry carries as Huskar, 
Viper or basically anything that will use 
Manta Style or Black King Bar and will kill you in 2 seconds. You have a hero that can do global damage. If you die before you can actually do anything....now that would be a waste.
After you determined on what line you want/should be, build items accordingly.
On first line build damage amplifying items, like Aether Lens, 
Aghanim's Scepter, 
Veil of Discord.
On second line you should worry also on mana pool since you expect to live longer, so items like Aether Lens, Bloodstone, Octarine Core are best for you.
On third line you must consider more facts however. You need items to escape or follow up. In any case, consider very well your options, depending on what you are facing. You will want at least one of this items: Force Staff, Blink Dagger, 
Eul's Scepter of Divinity, Shadow Blade*, 
Ghost Scepter.
I know there will be comments on why that item. Every single of those is highly situational and will not work against certain heroes.
- Force Staff can be used as both escape or closing up. However will not do much as an escape againt heroes like Huskar, Anti-Mage, well geared 
Pudge, any heroes with big slows, any hero purchasing 
Rod of Atos.
- Blink Dagger can mainly be used to close up. Once you are hit his escape posibility is null. And has no damn stats on it.
- Eul's Scepter of Divinity will only help in 1 vs 1 situations and only if the enemy doesn't have a blink. It does add some mobility but will rarely be game changing for Zeus. At least not without a second mobility item.
- Shadow Blade is the ultimate escape/finishing item. Untill oposition will make good use of detection and becomes an useless item. If it saves you at least 4-5 times you can say it was worth since it saved you at least 2-3 minutes of experience/ cash gaining time. If not.....you screwed up with this item. Why I said is an ultimate escape and finishing item ? Cause can completly avoid a fight, can escape you from Huskar while no other item could. And if by chance you nuked him down enough and he hangs on his life only by a small %, where your magic cant harm him any longer', well, the bonus dmg for the first auto-attack from Shadow Blade will finish him off.
- Ghost Scepter is only an escape item
And I'll take all counters posted on regular guides.
- Rubick. He really is no real counter, really. Yes, sometimes he can solo kill you. Sometimes he can steal bad bad things from you. And his resist aura will bother you. But he will never have the HP to survive a real nuke. Once dead it's like he never existed. And you have a damn global hero. You are the one choosing when to face him or not. Simply embrace line two or three as I described, always end your spell sequences with an Arc Lightning and Rubick will be nothing for you.
- Pudge. He is no counter either. Not even when he already has 
Pipe of Insight. Against him your problem is vision, but that applies for almost any hero facing him. In rest, as long as you can avoid his meat hooks, you are the one who can spam him with Arc Lightning and take benefit of Static Field.
- Silencer. Now he is a real counter. And when facing him you have little options. You'll be forced to stay in 3rd line probably. Early on a 
Magic Stick will help you survive, but survival is not the problem agaisnt him, problem is you'll be doing nothing for quite some long time and when his silence is over there might not be something to fight for. Agaist him you have few personal option, his abilities must be canceled by team placement and escape options. Your must do your best to be the one choosing when or if a team fight happens or not, and do anything to delay one if it happens.
- 
Queen of Pain. You will probably be facing her on middle lane. Be sure you have 
Tango and Magic Stick and you will have no problems until level 5. At level 5 you have more nuking power, be aware however on vision over the runes, she has more mobility and better mana management. Later on you must be sure you will survive her since you have little to no option to avoid her nuke if she decides to visit you. One option is to build some HP items and pair those with 
Blade Mail. If she makes any mistake and pushes the fight too long while you have Blade Mail on she will have no escape from your Thundergod's Wrath.
- 
Storm Spirit. Same thing. You need enough HP to survive 
Electric Vortex and his nuking during it. And an escape item, most probably Shadow Blade. Any other will just not make any difference. He simply is just not a hero you can handle with on your won. Unless. Unless you are the one engaging him and you have Orchid Malevolence.
- 
Lion and 
Lina. They will do same things, disable and nuke. Again, you want a good chunk of HP and Blade Mail. If they are not really carefull they have huge chances to suicide on you. In fact this build will always work and is adviceable versus nuking heroes, and we can include here 
Tinker aswell.
- 
Puck. Against him you have to do 2 things. Harass him all the time. Do anything to always keep him at 50% HP. Throw a spell and go back. As long as you don't let him decide when the fight takes place he can't do much. Second thing, be extremely aware of your placement. Of course, an escape can help, but again not everything works against him. Shadow Blade cand be again an option, but if already trapped you in his ult, you are 100% vulnarable to dust.
-outworld devourer. After a long while I started to encounter this hero on mid fights again. And is quite annoying all during the game. On mid you have 0 options to get any lasy hits without using Arc Lightning, so your income will suffer due to mana starvation. The more you'll try get more cash with normal attacks, the more you'll suffer. In later game you'll still have a lot of trouble if you don't hug last line since against him you're not really intellect hero, you're a damn mana pool hero, so his ultimate will hurt as hell. 
Astral Imprisonment and Rod of Atos will make your life a hell. Best way to deal with him is harass and stay as much as possible near treeline while on lane phase, as far as possible in team fights. Purely hit and run tactic.
- Anti-Mage and other farming carries. No matter what late game carry you face, as nuker and potential ganger it is vital to disrupt and delay their farm.
Special notes to special carries:
- 
Doom. You can go as other heroes do and get 
Linken's Sphere, but the item will help you with almost nothing else. More than that, without another solid escape, it will work once or not at all, smart players will no do same mistake twice and waste a doom on linken. And then you have option 2 : Bloodstone. Pair it with one movement passive effect item and it will do little to no dmg at all to you.
- 
Arc Warden. If your team fails to control this guy.....think will get ugly and will be very hard to stop late game. His split push will be annoying. Good thing is 
Zeus can handle most of it. Arc Lightning will make easy work out of 
Necronomicon ads, and his duplicate only works for 20 seconds. For him you will want at least 1 
Ethereal Blade in your team, and Zeus even if is not best yelder of it, it surely can take one. If he already went for 
Divine Rapier it is crucial to keep him out of fight as much as possible.
Now, please understand that I explained several ways to deal with counters but you are facing a team of 5, not individuals. So it is up to you to learn where you should be by judging them as a team. If they don't play as one, the better, if your team doesn't play as one.....take that into consideration also :)
Why is this so damn important ?
Actually it is the most important thing and will affect you most.
1. Those picking after you will try to get counters or at least will do their best to reduce your game impact.
2. Low HP heroes will go for HP items. They will all try to make sure they will survive an Aghanim's Scepter + Refresher Orb combo, and till they are capable to do so will almost certainly focus you first. Speaking of HP, some will choose str heroes and stack tons of HP. Like Pudge for example. This is the point where you need to realise that your best damage comes from Arc Lightning and Static Field and not from any other spell.
3. They will buy more mobility than you can afford. And they actually only need Blink Dagger and a stun to finish you off.
4. They will either pick a healing support, if they didn't already took enough supports, either will build 
Mekansm, Black King Bar and Pipe of Insight to greatly diminish your nuke. If you are aware of all this items, delay your nuke, instead harass with Arc Lightning and avoid final confrontation untill they waste their defenses.
5. They will gank you early on if they have a good setup. If they succeed killing you once or twice on mid before you can make Arcane Boots.....you are in a big trouble.
So again, knowing what to expect to, knowing their individual heroes capabilities, their combos, make a plan, adjust, advance, evolve, learn, adapt. Even if you lose, make your game play matter. Win proud, or lose with dignity.
I really am one who tries everything. Really. Even the stupid stuff.
But after many tries, mistakes, even harsh talking I must admit several items just don't fit or help Zeus at all.
1. 
Faerie Fire. Listen to me. This item on Zeus sucks. You are allowed to have one of this on you, and only in the beggining, if you wanna risk on a rune in the start and you think the 75 HP heal can save your life. Other than that is total ****, you take no benefit from the +2 dmg and if you are in position to use more than one in a row you are most probably chased to death and you speed will not save you, cause you don't have a speed :)).
2. Tango. Ok, I said NEVER. Not true for Tango, but is very situational. You only need it to counter certain dots that will not allow Bottle to do its full regeneration. Like against Queen of Pain. In rest avoid buying useless consumables, it will only delay you from getting the so needed mana pool.
3. 
Soul Ring. Unless you go for Bloodstone ( even if you do I advice you to get 
Soul Booster first), just don't do it. It is true that you might have mana issues, but same goes for HP. And you have no way to restore HP either. And the mana from it is pathetic, one Lightning Bolt and is gone.
Will not go further on any other item, I am almost sure nobody will make Divine Rapier on Zeus :)
Instead of ending this guide I'll actually keep it open. In the following days I will add a few links to some of my games. Don't expect 3k MRR, 8k MMR, nor 1k MMR. Expect someone having fun, willing to adapt.
Are you ready to adapt to the game also ?
Do you have what it takes to change the game ? Or will you let the game rule you ?
Have fun! And Zeus be with you !
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