How-to Jungle Doom (without being a liability)

Introduction and Explanation

Jungling Doom is (in my opinion) the most fun way to play him. Up until recently, though, I'd been stuck on rushing dat midas, followed by building the ultimate tank build by rushing heart, even sacrificing Phase for Treads (moar tank).

The above method of playing Doom is rarely efficient, and rarely what the team needs. It can be what the team needs, but that circumstance happens to be quite rare, at least in pubs. The trick to jungling him correctly, is finding a way to do it as fast as you can with as little downtime as possible. Rushing a midas usually involves a fountain trip, and usually involves you being useless to your team until they've either won or lost the game already. Any good jungler should be an asset to their safe lane - usually as a pseudo trilaner coming in for ganks or creep pulls or a push. What doom lacks in pushing power as a jungler, he makes up for in killing power. He's a powerful semi-carry when he has the mana to support his abilities. He has 3 active abilities that should all be used in a gank, along with a potential 4th/5th depending on the creep he's eaten. Not having mana to use all of these is irresponsible - When ganking, you have the same potential for lockdown abilities as Chen and Enchantress. While limited to one creep ability, you have a nuke and an amazing DoT + Silence. Later on, you can sacrifice these abilities for desireable passives and aura's and transition into a harder carry, which shouldn't be diffuclt with some successful ganks.

The problem with Doom
There are two major problems with Doom, which become even bigger problems when jungling him. Jungling Doom relies on both spamming Devour and Scorched Earth. Unfortunately, Doom does not have the mana pool to support this, and often times when using these abilities to jungle will find it hard to step into a lane for a kill. The other problem is movement speed. Doombringer and Pudge are quite possibly the two scariest heroes to see heading your way. These two heroes often elicit a tower hug by the enemy team, quite appropriately. Pudge has hook, so if he's not spotted he can grab a hero easily. Doom, on the other hand, must run up to the enemy hero to kill them. He needs to use three of his four abilities for a kill most times, as well as a right click or two. It is crucial, then, to be able to reach the enemy hero as quickly as possible so they have little time to react.

Solving these problems
As I said earlier, I'd much rather rush a Midas and farm to my heart's content finishing off my super luxury core loosely based off the "Maelk Award" game in which EG.Fear played the a Doom that was the tankiest thing I'd ever seen in Dota. Unfortunately, using a Midas to accomplish this goal is inherently selfish, and has the tendency to lose games. I've also been forced to make a fountain trip before I can finish Midas usually, making it even more inefficient. Rather than do this, we can simply seek to solve Doom's two main problems as quickly as possible. There's actually a third problem when jungling Doom, which is early HP regen - so sometimes we need an extra salve to avoid a trip to the dreaded fountain.

Grabbing a fast Soul Ring solves the two issues that become apparent from minute one - HP and Mana. With Soul Ring, you can use Scorched Earth whenever it's available after level two. Level two Scorched Earth will net you 66 HP when you use Soul Ring to activate it, but it also grants move speed and Immolation. Ideally you'll use Devour and Scorched Earth with one Soul Ring usage, though that's not always possible.

After solving mana issues, you need your Boots ASAP. I've experimented with Treads, but Phase really are the way to go. You just need that movespeed if you want any chance at killing the enemy laners. The extra damage also helps you out earlier than Treads would.

When to Pick (and not to Pick) Jungle Doom

I'm not here to debate the viability of jungle Doom over lane Doom or over other junglers. I don't really care - he can jungle decently enough and I've worked out the most efficient way I can find to jungle him. It's fun to play, and in certain situations a pretty good idea. I've seen people say it's horrible blah blah blah, but in my opinion that's because most times you see someone jungle Doom they try to afk farm for 30 minutes while their team feeds or wins the game without him. Either way, I like it so I play it, and

When to Pick Jungle Doom:

• Your team only has 3 carries
• The enemy team has a single hard carry that has the potential to 1v5 lategame (Tiny, Void, etc) Or a hero that heavily relies on ability usage (Tinker, Storm, etc).
• You have a glass cannon carry that can dish out the deeps while you take it like a man.
• You have a valid offlaner or someone that wants to offlane and you want to play a jungling carry.
• You don't care so much about kills as you do completely demoralizing the enemy team.
• You want to show Anti-Mage what the true meaning of "no fun" is.

When Not to Pick Jungle Doom:

• Your team needs something else.
• Nobody on the enemy team stands out as a great Doom target.
• You don't think Doom will be useful early enough against the enemy's lineup. (unlikely but possible).

I don't know really, Doom is somewhat viable in any team against any team. He's got some decent teamfight, but he really thrives if you've got something like a Sniper or a Drow on your team. The enemy team can tend to get distracted by you while they get wiped off the map. I'm not saying good players won't focus the right heroes or ward your jungle, but the playstyle is fun and when it all comes together it's amazing.

How to Jungle Doom (Properly)

This is perhaps the hardest part of playing Jungle Doom - actually killing the jungle creeps.

This comes down to efficiently using your MP and HP until you finish soul ring and get more levels of Scorched Earth. Remember, we don't want to take any fountain trips here, so we sometimes need an extra salve. Ideally we don't want to waste money on regen items, but sometimes it's needed.

I've had games where I've not had to use a salve at all before soul ring, and given it to the hard carry in safe lane. I've also had games where I need two salves before soul ring - it comes down to creep spawns; specifically, the Ursa camp.

Before 0:00 up until 0:20
At the start of the game, get your starting items ASAP and head to the jungle. Chop down some trees that will give you a little easier time moving around, and go camp a rune. A DD or Illusion rune can be the difference between needing a salve or not. Obviously use it for a First Blood if you can, but only if your safe lane has some kill potential already.

0:30
Once the creeps spawn, you need to be fast. Both Radiant and Dire have a large camp and a small camp next to each other (the trees between these are what you chop down to make things a tad faster). The best method usually is to eat the big large camp creep and kill the small camp. I need to do more testing as to what large camps are easier to kill than which small camps when the big creep is gone, but generally I just eat the big creep, kill the small camp for level two, then finish off the large camp. It's crucial to not stack camps this early or you'll slow yourself down. Once you've killed both camps, it should be some time during the first minute (1:XX) and neither camp will have respawned. Use your salve if you need it (Usually only if large camp was Ursa). Your devour should be up soon, so head to the closer camp (second large for radiant, medium for dire). If you're radiant and you see a wildkin in this camp, you can choose to stack it instead of killing it. I would only recommend this if you're confident in your ability to do so, and I would never recommend this if there is no wildkin, as I've had a game where none spawned and it slowed down my jungling by a lot. If this is not the case, simply eat the biggest creep and kill the camp. During this camp you should have enough for a Ring of Regen, and you should get it shipped ASAP. The only exception is if you had to use your salve, you'll want to wait to ship a new one along with your ring.

After 2:00 until Soul Ring
Be sure to not use any creep abilities aside from Raise Dead. This and Scorched Earth are basically give you Damage and HP at the same time, and are extremely mana efficient in doing so. By the time you run out of mana, you should have your Sage's Mask and Recipe heading out to you. After this, it's just more of the same except easier. Spam whatever you can from the extra Mana whenever you active Soul Ring and use Scorched Earth.

General Jungling Tips

• Try not to get stingy about your Creep abilities, at least early. You can't always get what you want (Satyr Aura <3), but what you truly need is a dead creep and the exp it gives. After you've finished Phase and another item you'll want to decide on an aura and maintain it (only eat that creep or non-ability creeps), but until then you need to clear the jungle as fast as possible.
• Use any salves you get wisely. Don't use it if you wont heal 400 HP, and try to use it when you're walking somewhere so you don't have to stand around and wait.
• Trees suck, destroy them.
• Stack and Pull if you can - but don't get distracted by it. If your safe lane is pushed out and you can help your safe laner out that's great, but you have to get as much out of it as possible. Only do it if your safe lane is in trouble, it's not always wildly efficient for Doom so if you spend any time sitting around you can hurt yourself. I would recommend practicing some timings on when you can manage to stack and try to work your way there as it hits the right time.

It's Ganking Time

This, in my opinion, is where a Jungling Doom truly shines.

You just finished those nice shiny Phase Boots, you've hit level six, and you've got your Soul Ring ready to go.

First, try to get a Centaur or a Troll for some lockdown if you can. It's not always necessary but it can help a lot.

Look at your map - check mid and your safe lane and decide which enemy hero is an easier target (lane equilibrium, minimal escape - likely to get Doom off before they can flee). If there's no opportunity, don't force it. If you can gank, though, inform your team and get into position. Activate Scorched Earth and Phase, run up to the enemy and Doom them (using Soul Ring gives you the exact level one Doom Manacost). Lvl? Death if you can, use creep abilities if you can. You should just need to get a swing or two in and the kill should be guaranteed.

Try to gank as much as possible in this manner. I always get frustrated when I see a Lifestealer, Doom, or Enigma jungling that never ganks. These three heroes can all pull off an insanely fast surprise gank, so you should be taking advantage of it as much as possible. At the very least you should have given your safe lane carry some room to farm, though most likely you'll get a kill or assist out of it. The initial reason for Soul Ring is to give Doom amazing staying potential with regen and mana, but the benefit of always having mana for ulti is reason enough to pick it up.

Reasoning Behind the Supertank Build

While I'm fairly certain Fear stuck with Speed Aura for most of the "Maelk Award" game, my reasoning behind the Supertank Doom Build being viable in most games is this:

You don't need a single (fully) Offensive Item thanks to Alpha Wolf.

Essentially, if you need damage, you simply eat the creep that gives it to you. This also enhances damage for your whole team. There's no reason to build an offensive item - you're better off building tank and teamfight, while grabbing Alpha Wolf for your damage.

Doom is kind-of a teamfight Monster. If you've got a potent Aura like Packleaders, and an amazing crit (both for free!) you (should) become a priority target. You're sitting there, buffing everyone's damage and Immolating the enemy team. You're huge. You make one of the enemy heroes useless. You have a nuke that when used correctly deals insane damage and ministuns. You are a monster and the enemy team wants you dead.

Lets not let them do that.

The first thing to solve is Doom's Armor. Even with the recent massive buff, we want more. Platemail is awesome, and rushing an AC makes us more of a Teamfight Monster - both buffing our team and debuffing the enemy team. If it's safe to rush this, go for it.

Sange gives us some quick damage and HP, and a decent enough slow if we pull it off. It's not amazing, but Heaven's Halberd is. Rushing this vs certain carries can save lives.

Why no BKB in the core biuld: BKB is an obvious pickup, though equally obviously situational. I usually don't get it for one reason: I want to soak up the damage. Nuke me, not my team. Again, obviously required in some cases but consider those nukes are heading in someone else's direction. It's an option one must consider on any carry, but consider the drawbacks as well.

If you've got an AC, Heart becomes even more effective than it was before. I recommend AC first, but once you've got that bad boy you just can't turn down more Health.

Shiva's replaces Soul Ring - gives us mana, armor, and more teamfight. This is usually my last item as once you get it the game is usually over. At this point you have evasion, massive armor, and massive HP. It's really tough to bring a Doom like this down, and he's not alone.

BoT's, like BKB, are obvious. Once you run out of room for TP scrolls you should pick 'em up.

Skadi gives some insane Tank, as well as some insane Anti-Carry. The whole idea here is making the enemy team unable to kill you. Skadi gives you stats, HP, and an anti-carry orb effect that stacks with Shiva's. I consider this ultra-lategame. I've never gotten that far on him, though it's the obvious final item IMO.

As far as how tanky this makes you - I played with this build in a practice lobby and was able to get every item on the list. I had a wisp port me into the enemy fountain so I could kill everyone. I didn't even come close to death thanks to Scorched Earth regen. I also had a recent game where it ended with me having Shiva's. It took the enemy team chasing me for a good two minutes to finally kill me. By then, our team had already gotten mega creeps (from 0 rax down to all 6 down). The only reason I really died was Tinker perma-hex. It's near impossible to bring a Doom like this down, but you need a team to back you up if it comes down to you distracting the enemy team.

Chapter Title

Levels in Lvl?Death are always situational. If you can get away with delaying level one and maxing Scorched Earth and Devour first that's always nice, but you want it when you go to gank. It's tough to define a skill build because of how odd an ability Lvl?Death is, so just go with what's right. Still, it should be maxed before 16 - it's getting there that can change.

With some extra salves you could always prioritize Lvl?Death over Scorched Earth for more killing power, though I've never tried it. Along with items, just adjust your skill build to the situation.

Situational Items

As I said with BKB, I usually want to be eating all the nukes. Doom can survive some heavy fire, so abuse that fact if you can and take it for the team. This does not make BKB a bad item, and does not change the fact that it's basically a situational item for any hero - Doom being no exception. If only we could eat Mud Golems...

Hood and Pipe again are kind-of obvious situational pickups here. If the enemy lineup has some potent magic damage and you don't really need the Armor, go ahead and get Hood and up it to Pipe when you can. I like this better than BKB as it's another team pickup - you can still eat the nukes, and you can also give your whole team magic shield. Good item when you need it.

Radiance, again kind-of obvious. If you manage some early kills and notice you're on track for a decently timed radiance go for it. Makes you more of a teamfight monster and beefs up your right clicks. Don't get it later on, get it early and abuse the advantage it gives you. You're sacrificing an item slot you could devote to tank, so use it early to ensure the enemy team doesn't get items they could kill you with. Consider selling it if you start to have survivability issues late, but it's still great in teamfights.

Not the biggest fan of having to get these items on Doom, but I'm not about to suggest they aren't required/viable depending on the game.

As far as Aegis goes - obviously you're a good candidate for it, but ideally you're not going to die once. Hopefully you have someone else that can hold it as you should be able to stay alive without it. Not saying Doom's a bad holder, but don't get it if the enemy team can't kill you as it's a waste.