Meepo the Geomancer

Preface

In the interest of having others proofread this guide and help me with formatting, I have it published.


IT IS NOT FINISHED! It will be finished eventually.


I'm Kitkun, and this is my guide to Meepo. I've been meaning to write this one out for a long time, simply because my ideas on how to play Meepo differ from other people that I've seen, and I want to make them known. Meepo is one of my favorite heroes to play, and when you can manage to pull off some of his tactics, it can be really rewarding. I have over 100 games on this hero, and roughly a 75% winrate.

This guide is mainly for the strategy of Meepo - not to tell you basic things you should know about this hero. This basic info can be found [Here].

I'll do my best to keep this guide up to date with the current patches. As of now this guide is for 6.80.

Any comments, questions, etc. on this guide or on the hero will be answered!


Update List:
3:08 PM 4/5/2014 - Published Rough-Draft

Introduction: Meepo the Geomancer!

Meepo is a Melee Agility hero.

Meepo is often considered a carry. If there is one point I want to get across with this guide, it is that Meepo is NOT a carry.

Meepo is a Semi-Carry with some great utility. Like Pudge, Batrider, or Nyx, Meepo is fantastic for ganking, and can often surprise enemy players when all of your Meepos come out of nowhere to kill you.

Meepo should generally lane in the safelane. If there is another carry that should be in the safelane, Meepo should do the pulling, and get his early gold from the jungle, and then transition to jungling full-time around level 5 or 6, if ganking opportunities are inot available. Otherwise, if your lane partner is a support, stay in lane until you can gank or safely push the tower. NEVER RUN MEEPO IN A TRILANE!

Meepo can also mid, on rare occasions, but with the loss of his above-average magic resistance, nerfed in 6.79, he is generally too squishy to lane mid, unless you are far better at laning than your opponent. Heroes like Viper or Puck will tear you apart either way.

Meepo in the offlane is acceptable only in a situation of 1v1. With no escape abilities, Meepo will get torn apart early on.

Meepo is great at bursting down creepwaves and neutral camps once Poof is leveled completely.

Meepo's Skills

Meepo is considered one of the most difficult heroes to play, and if you don't know anything about him, you'll quickly see why.

His Ultimate Ability, Divided We Stand, is what makes Meepo unique. Each time you skill this passive ability, the respawn timer decreases by 10%, and you get a clone of the main hero. Some things to note:

• Each Meepo has all of the original Meepo's abilities, and its own cooldown timer for each.
• Each clone only gets the base stats of the original Meepo, and only a small percentage of the stats from any items the main Meepo carries.
• Each clone gets a copy of the main Meepo's boots. Clones can use the active ability on their boots, with the exception of Arcane boots.
• Getting an Aghanims Scepter gives an extra clone, and all the clones get the same base stats as the main Meepo - including 100% of the stats from items.
• Items that give increased health or mana pools, or increased damage, do not affect the clones.
• Each clone, as well as the original Meepo, has its own experience counter. This will be explained later.
• When one clone or the main Meepo dies, they all die.

The last one, in particular, is why most people will tell you that Meepo is a terrible hero. Alternatively, it can be the strongest attribute of this hero. All of the tricks for mastering this, and how to micro Meepo, will be explained later.

Meepo's first ability, Earthbind, is a disable which holds an enemy creep or hero in place. This prevents that hero or unit from using blink or becoming invisible, as well as cancels any abilities they might be channeling. The range on this is fantastic, however pointing and clicking will not work, because Meepo will send the net to where you clicked - it does not follow the hero or unit you clicked on. Each net lasts 2 seconds after landing.

Meepo's second ability, Poof!, is a magical AOE nuke. This ability is a teleport, of sorts. When using Poof, you select the ability and click it in the general location of one of the Meepos. After channeling for 1.5 seconds, the Meepo using Poof will teleport to the closest Meepo to where you clicked - including the Meepo who used Poof. This deals damage both where you poofed from, and where you poofed to. If you use Poof and have a Meepo teleport to itself, you deal both departure and return damage. This is a great ability for getting Meepo around the map, as well as for nuking down enemies.

Meepo's third ability, Geostrike, is a passive which makes Meepo's hits slow the enemy, as well as deal damage per second after the initial hit. The slow goes through magic immunity, however the damage per second does not. This is great most of the time, but for a Utility/Support Meepo, you should consider holding off until later in the game before leveling this.

Items, What to Buy and When to Buy Them

This is usually the part where a lot of people will diverge from my way of thinking. I'll comment on every relevant item.

Starting Items
Meepo has a similar starting item build to most other heroes. Think about a few things.

Quelling Blade - Are you good at last hitting? If not, this is worth it. Meepo has a starting base damage of less than 50, so getting last hits in lane can be difficult.

Healing Items (Tango, Salve) - I don't always get healing items, personally. At Level 3, I have a Meepo clone, and I can send one back to the fountain to get healed, while another Meepo, with good health, can stay in lane. And, when the injured Meepo is healed, he can just poof himself back to lane, and you miss out on little experience and probably not any gold.

Alternatively, you might want to get the healing items - leaning more towards the salve - so that you can abuse the separate experience counter that each Meepo has, in order to get more experience in lane (if you are planning on using a ganking/pushing/carry build). Remember, clones cannot use tangos, so they're only good if you plan on doing the pulling for your safelane.

Clarity - This item is only good if you think you'll be spending a lot of mana early on. Generally, though, Meepo does not suffer from mana problems past the 15-minute mark.

Stout Shield - This item used to be a lot stronger, when Meepo first got his ultimate ability at level 6, and not at level 3. Only get this if you expect tons of harass before level 3, for instance, if you plan on being in the midlane.

Iron Branches - Always handy to start with, and you can always sell them later. Sometimes I get 4 or 5. Definitely get at least one if you plan on being a utility, you can build one of them into a Headdress for your Pipe of Insight.

Ring of Protection - If you plan to build Vladmir's Offering or Tranquil Boots, definitely get this. Alternatively, a Ring of Basilius can almost always solve your mana problems early. I start with this item 7/10 games.


Boots

Boots of Speed - Have these by level 3. If your farm is fantastic, upgrade them straight into Boots of Travel, either after one or two core items, or on some rare occasions, immediately.

Tranquil Boots - On the utility builds, these boots can be handy for the movement speed and regeneration they provide. When jungling, remember to drop your boots before attacking the creeps, and pick them up after, so as not to invoke the 13 second cooldown on the regeneration properties.

Power Treads - In the item build I learned with, these were the go-to boots. However, I don't think that they are the best choice. While they do provide extra stats to the clones, almost always the extra stats will not be the most helpful choice. It's not a bad choice, I just usually recommend against it.

Boots of Travel - The end goal for any Meepo build. These allow Meepo to be pushing any lane at any time, since each individual Meepo has its own cooldown timer for its own pair of Boots of Travel. Since Meepo can poof to any other Meepo on the map, there is virtually no cooldown on when you can teleport your entire force of Meepos!


Early Game

Teleport Scroll - Always have one to be able to help out other lanes when kills or assists are available!

Headdress - A good item for survivability, since it gives the aura to every Meepo clone. Get this if you plan to build a Pipe of Insight. Do not get this otherwise. In some cases, there are better heroes to hold a Pipe of Insight than Meepo, like a Centaur Warrunner or a Pudge. Let them build it.

Mekansm - 99% of the time, there are better choices, and much better Mek carriers. This is usually a recommended item, but for the same gold, you could have a Blink Dagger, Vladmir's Offering, or half of your Aghanim's Scepter - three items that are tons more useful to you than a Mek. Why? On paper, unless you are running away (in which case your team will be there), a Vladmir's Offering will do more to keep you alive than the Mek. If you are playing a team game, the Mek-carrier on your team will be able to use it on you when you need it, anyway. Since, as Meepo, you will most likely be splitpushing on your own at some point, Mek is a selfish item to get, since in the long run, it will do more to help you than it will to help your team. If that Witchdoctor has the Mek, for instance, he can heal you, as well as heal the team with it while you're splitpushing.

Blink Dagger - This is one of the best items for Meepo. It allows you to initiate ganks on heroes just out of your normal net range. More on this in the initiating section.

Shadow Blade - An alternative to Blink Dagger. This is a very situational item, and I only recommend it if you are bad at using a blink dagger, and when you know the enemy team has no detection. It comes with the added bonus that people just don't expect it.

Ultimate Orb - If you plan on being a utility/initiating hero for your team, pick this up after Blink Dagger. It gives good stats, and


Midgame

Pipe of Insight - Get this as a utility hero if the other team has big damage nukes that can ruin your day without warning. Examples are Lich, Disruptor, or Puck. This is generally not something you should get, however, since you wouldn't pick Meepo when the other team has these big magic-damage nukes.

Vladmir's Offering - This has a lot of nice aura bonuses, including lifesteal, which benefit every Meepo clone within range. If you get this, get it after Blink Dagger at the very least, since it offers a percentage bonus of damage and lifesteal (which means that it will be next to useless until your Meepos deal damage with their right-click attacks).

Aghanim's Scepter - This is a fantastic choice, if the farm is there. Get this in all situations, except when you are playing as a Utility/Support Meepo. For more carry or ganking-oriented builds, get this item as soon as possible after your boots!

Scythe of Vyse - Extra disabling power! This, when used in conjunction with Earthbind and Poof, can help you deal with even the hardest of counters to your hero and your team.

Manta Style - This is a good item to get when you plan on pushing a lot. This gives you two extra Meepo illusions, plus some good stats, which will allow you to knock over towers through backdoor protection, assuming you have some other good items too, like Aghanim's Scepter and Vladmir's Offering. You can poof to the illusions, and the illusions are good for scouting or creating confusion.


Late-game

Heart of Tarrasque - The +40 strength from this gives you the survivability you need to take on your enemies with a much reduced risk of getting killed. For carry/ganking builds, it might not be a bad idea to stack a few of these!

Ethereal Blade - This gives Meepo two things. First, and most obvious, is the +40 agility, which gives every Meepo 40 more damage, as well as extra armor and movespeed. The second is that, when used on a target, the target takes 40% extra magic damage from each poof. This is almost always a definite kill! The reason it's a situational pickup, and not core, is because most of the time this is highly unnecessary, and you can get kills just fine without it. And, Heart of Tarrasque gives you much better survivability.

Eye of Skadi - This item is mainly for the stats. +25 in all attributes grants you some nice survivability. It isn't necessarily as helpful as a Heart, which offers +40 Strength. However, Skadi gives each Meepo +3.57 armor, +25% attack speed, as well as +475 HP, whereas a Heart of Tarrasque gives each Meepo +760 health. It is something of a middle-ground between Ethereal Blade and Heart of Tarrasque.

Assault Cuirass - I really dislike getting this one, because the buildup to it is unhelpful. The Hyperstone (2000 gold) is insignificant and not worth it, when you could get an Ultimate Orb for 100 gold more, and that would benefit you so much more. For 1400 gold, you can get a Platemail, which slightly improves the survivability of just one of your Meepos, the main one, who already has more survivability than the others. Assault Cuirass itself is nice, but let someone else build it, you'll still get the aura.