Meepo - The (Long) Road to Victory

An Introduction

Meepo is an agility carry who, in the right hands, can take over the entire game. Meepo is by far the most unique hero in all of Dota 2, featuring a passive ability that gives him 3 permanent clones of himself. These clones can all be controlled separately, and when used correctly, can bring some serious hurt to the battlefield.

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Pros: Heavy damage dealer Has a great disable (that's hard to land) All clones have separate cooldowns Farms extremely fast Very easy to achieve a level advantage

Cons: Poor stat gains per level Difficult to play Very low base damage Requires some serious micro skills Countered easily by AoE and high burst People will get mad at you if you pick Meepo

Skills

Earthbind (Q)

Earthbind is a small 220 radius disable that disjoints any blinking and invisibility for 2 seconds, as well as interrupting any channeling. Despite the graphical similarities to Naga Siren's Ensnare, Earthbind does not go through magic immunity ( Black King Bar), and it is not a unit targetted ability. Earthbind has a cooldown of (20/16/12/8) and a cast range of (500/750/1000/1250).

Poof (W)

Poof is what makes Meepo both a very mobile hero and a high damage dealer. Meepo and any of his clones can poof to one another, or themselves. Poof has a 1.5s cast time and deals (80/100/120/140) magic damage in a 375 radius both in the departure and arrival locations. This means poofing a Meepo to himself will effectively deal (160/200/240/280) damage in a 375 AoE.

Geostrike (E) (Passive)

geostrike

Geostrike adds a passive debuff to all of your Meepos' auto attacks which slows an enemy for (5/10/15/20%) and deals (7/14/21/28) damage per second for 2 seconds. Geostrike works on all of your Meepo's and stacks between each Meepo.

Divided We Stand (R) (Passive)

Divided We Stand creates (1/2/3) permanent clone(s) of Meepo. These clones all share separate cooldowns on items and abilities as well as shared experience. The clones all share 30% of the attribute bonus from the main Meepo.

Skill Build

Depending who you are laning with and against, you can play around with your first skill. Typically it's a good idea to get Earthbind first, though Poof can be substituted instead if your lane partner has a reliable early stun.

Your next two points should go into Poof. Getting early points in poof will allow you to start dealing a little bit more damage in the lane as well as help with farming. If you put your first point in Poof instead of Earthbind, then your 2nd skill point will go into Earthbind.

You can play around with your fourth skill as well. Sometimes getting a second point in Earthbind is useful if you need a little bit more range on your net, but if last hitting is a bit of a problem getting a point in geostrike will help.

Pick up your third point of Poof at level 5 followed up by your ultimate, Divided We Stand. With a second Meepo, you can start farming the jungle while your primary Meepo sits in the lane. This will boost your overall experience per min (xpm) as well as your gold per min (gpm).

At level 7 you're going to want to max out your Poof. At this point you can clear out a creep wave with 2 consecutive poof's.

Afterwards, max out your Earthbind. The increased range helps tremendously with chasing, and you don't have enough Meepo's yet to be making full use of your geostrike.

Recruit a second clone at level 11 with rank 2 of your ultimate. By now you should be able to start trying to gank people on your own, and clearing creep waves is both quick and Easy.

Now that you have a decent army at your disposal, geostrike can start becoming very useful. Max out geostrike by level 14.

From here on out it's pretty standard. Get stats and your ultimate when you hit level 16.

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1. Earthbind OR Poof
2. Poof OR Earthbind
3. Poof
4. Earthbind OR geostrike
5. Poof
6. Divided We Stand
7. Poof
8. Earthbind
9. Earthbind
10. Earthbind
11. Divided We Stand
12. geostrike
13. geostrike
14. geostrike
15. Stats
16. Divided We Stand
17. Stats until level 25

Items

Starting Items

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Getting 2 sets of Tango's is a must. Being able to stay in the lane and farm is crucial early game to Meepo's success.



Picking up a Healing Salve for some quick healing is always a good idea.



Getting a Ring of Protection will allow you to finish your Tranquil Boots right in the lane, and the early +2 armor will help against harass.




Alternatively, you can opt out your Ring of Protection for a Stout Shield. This can work too, just keep in mind you can't purchase a ring in the side shop, so you would have to have the courier bring it to you. A shield can be purchased, however.



While getting some Iron Branches is a good idea on many heroes, Meepo actually has very good starting stats, despite their poor increase per level. And since Meepo's clones don't receive any health or mana from using a Magic Wand, it's kind of a waste of gold. Plus, the extra gold you save from not buying branches means getting Tranquil Boots or a Poor Man's Shield will come much quicker.

Early Game

Tranquil Boots are great to have early game as the extra armor and health regen will help you to stay in lane. Plus, because your Meepo clones all share cooldowns, you can use the tranquil's on each individual Meepo.



A Poor Man's Shield is actually a very good item early game. The constant 20 hero damage block it provides is great for those lanes where you are just getting constantly harassed, and the +6 agility will make last hitting surprisingly easier. Note that because your clones only share boots, the damage block will not be passed to each Meepo. However, the +6 agility will.



A Town Portal Scroll should ideally always be in your inventory. Because of how Poof works, you can TP your primary Meepo somewhere, and then poof the clones in afterwards.

Core Items

An Aghanim's Scepter is essential on Meepo. Having an extra clone to be able to poof in for ganks is great, and the 100% shared attribute bonus is even better.



Having a Blink Dagger gives you so much more ganking potential. With enough practice, you can poof all of your clones to your primary Meepo, and then blink on top of someone. They'll take an incredible amount of burst damage and will have several Meepo's beating down on their face.

See: The Blink Poof



Power Treads are good for later in the game when having Tranquil Boots is no longer necessary. The +8 strength will help with a bit of health, and the attack speed is great, too. An interesting thing to note is that changing your treads from strength to intelligence on your primary Meepo will do the same to all of your clones. Using this to your advantage, you can switch to intelligence right before blowing all of your abilities, and it will conserve your mana. If you are unsure what I'm talking about, go watch this.



Again, having a Town Portal Scroll on you is essential. Meepo is a great ganker and has quite a bit of utility once he hits level 6.

Luxury

A Reaver should be purchased almost every game for Meepo. Once you have an Aghanim's Scepter, the +25 strength bonus is shared in full to each of your Meepo's, giving them all an additional +475 health.



A Scythe of Vyse is great for ganking those heroes who have good escapes, or in team fights when one person keeps wanting to single you out. The +35 intelligence means you'll never have to worry about mana again, and the +10 to agility and strength don't hurt either.



Boots of Travel are a seriously fun item on Meepo. If someone is farming your creep wave, you can port to it and poof in all of your Meepo's instantly to kill them. And since all of your Meepo's don't share cooldowns, you can effectively have up to 5 boots of travel. This is extremely helpful if a couple of your Meepo's need to heal.



A Pipe of Insight is great to have when the enemy team has some heavy AoE magic damage. While the 30% magic resistance and health regen isn't shared between your Meepo's, the 400 magic damage block can be a true lifesaver.



A Medallion of Courage isn't often purchased because it doesn't benefit any of your clones, but the -6 armor can cause some serious pain to your auto attacks if you're going up against someone with high armor.



An Ethereal Blade gives a huge +40 agility to all of your Meepo's which equates to an additional 40 damage and 40 attack speed. If used correctly, using the ethereal blade on someone and then poofing all of your Meepo's will deal an incredible amount of damage.



A Manta Style isn't typically purchased but it does provide some interesting benefits. The stat bonuses are definitely worth noting, with an extra +26 agility, but more importantly, you can poof your Meepo's to illusions of yourself. Plus, using a manta in a fight means there are 2 extra Meepo's running around. Talk about confusing your enemy (see: Phantom Lancer)



Finishing that Reaver into a Heart of Tarrasque is great if you need a little bit of extra health. Keep in mind, though, that only the strength bonus is shared to your Meepo's. This works out fine, however, since your primary Meepo is the one initiating most of the time, so having the extra health on him is helpful.

Not Very Good Items

Despite an Assault Cuirass's AoE armor and attack speed bonus, it isn't always a very good item on Meepo. A cuirass gives the majority of the bonuses to the wearer, while nearby units only receive a small portion of that. It's not a bad item at all, it just doesn't synergize well with Meepo in my opinion. If your goal is to have armor reduction, consider a Medallion of Courage instead.



A Diffusal Blade, while offering some tempting stats, just isn't necessary on Meepo. Meepo already has a disable to hold people in place, and geostrike's slow is far superior to a diffusal blade's.



But a Mekansm is the first thing I get for Meepo! That's fine and all, but it just loses its use as time goes on. Plus, the +4 hp/sec bonus isn't very viable, as your Meepo's are typically split up farming. This is not to say you don't need a mekansm, but it may be a better idea to let one of your supports buy it instead. Skipping a mekansm will allow you to get an early Aghanim's Scepter as well, which is crucial.



While a Shadow Blade is a decent replacement for a Blink Dagger, it just doesn't work well with Meepo. Being able to blink on someone is much more useful than having to shadow blade up next to them while you keep your clones back so the enemy doesn't see you coming. Plus, the +30 attack speed and +30 damage isn't shared with your clones.



A Vladmir's Offering seems like it would be a good item on Meepo because of all the AoE bonuses it provides, but in reality it isn't that great. Like I mentioned above, your Meepo's only receive those bonuses if they are all together. As with any hero, getting a vlads early game is next to worthless. Meepo has very poor attack damage and his usefulness comes from using his Poof. You'll be lucky to get any more than 10hp from the lifesteal early game.

Friends

In the lane, Meepo needs a good ranged support that can deal some heavy harassing. Because he is melee, and deals poor attack damage, harassing the enemy is kind of a waste, as you'll most likely end up taking more damage than you dealt.

Good lane partners include...

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Dazzle's Shadow Wave is great for healing, allowing you to conserve some of your Tango's. His Shallow Grave is great to have when you might have otherwise given the enemy first blood, and his Poison Touch slows enemies enough that you can lay down an Earthbind. Later in the game, Dazzle's Weave negates the need for you to stack armor items such as an Assault Cuirass.



Keeper of the Light's Mana Leak is great for forcing people to stay in the same spot if they don't want to lose all their mana, making an Earthbind easy to hit. His Chakra Magic also will make sure you have enough mana to use your two abilities. An Illuminate that's lined up correctly to not hit the creep wave will deal an incredible amount of damage too, keeping your enemy frightful of pushing up too far.



Lich's Frost Blast is very spammable because of his ability to regain mana using sacrifice. Using sacrifice will also help to even out the creep wave in the case that you use Poof to get some extra last hits. And if an early point in ice armor is picked up, it will make harass against you less effective.



Lion's Earth Spike is spammable as well because of his ability to steal mana using Mana Drain. The stun duration should give you plenty of time to setup an Earthbind, and Lion can even use that time to drain their mana while they are immobile.



Venomancer's Venomous Gale will make lining up Earthbind's very easy, and the damage done from his Poison Sting make him one of the best harassers early game.



Warlock's Shadow Word is very helpful to have for a little bit of extra healing, and depending if they get early Fatal Bonds first or early Upheaval you can either deal a lot of extra damage with your Poof or land an easy Earthbind.

Foes

At the time of me writing this guide, Meepo has the second lowest win rate of any hero with a 40.06% win rate (according to dotabuff.com). Obviously, the skill of the player is a big determining factor in whether or not you'll win a game with Meepo, but that's not the only reason Meepo has such a low win rate.

Meepo is easily countered by high amounts of single target burst damage and AoE. For this reason, I highly suggest picking Meepo after everyone else has picked their heroes. People won't expect you to have picked Meepo, and thus, their lineups are usually not ideal for countering him.

Anyways, moving on to heroes you should keep an eye out for...

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Earthshaker is the bane of any Meepo's existence. If you have an Aghanim's Scepter, earthshaker's Echo Slam on all of your Meepo's will be like he ulted your entire team (5 people). The amount of stuns he can do in a team fight because of his Aftershock also make it very difficult to use any of your Poof's as they have a 1.5s cast time.



Jakiro's ultimate Macropyre can decimate your Meepo's if your enemy has any sort of crowd control (CC) to keep you forced inside the ultimate. Unlike other heroes, Meepo does not benefit from a Black King Bar, so your only option is to stack health items or make sure to not be caught inside the ult.



Despite Warlock being a helpful lane partner, he is also a deadly counter to Meepo. Warlock's Fatal Bonds, if put on your Meepo's, will make your health drop so incredibly fast. And since fatal bonds is HP Removal, a Pipe of Insight can't actually be used to counter it.



Most of the 'right click' heroes such as Drow Ranger, Phantom Assassin, and Sniper aren't an issue for Meepo, but Sven is particularly a problem. His AoE stun can interrupt all of your Meepo's if they are casting poof, and between his 200% damage ultimate God's Strength and his cleave, he can rip through all of your Meepo's extremely quickly.

Army Management 101

Control Groups

Set up some control groups to easily manage your Meepo's. I personally use 3 control groups:

• CG #1: The primary Meepo (bound to 'z')
• CG #2: All Meepo's (bound to 't')
• CG #3: All but the primary Meepo (bound to 'g')

To add units to control groups, make sure you set some specific keys in your options to be designated control group keys. Select the units you want to add to a control group, and press shift + <control group key here>. Keep in mind that using shift will add units to a control group while using control will set the control group to your selection. So, if you ever accidentally add the courier to your control group, simply deselect the courier by shift clicking the courier itself or the icon next to the portrait, then press Ctrl + <control group key> to reset the group to your Meepo selection.

Using the UI

Luckily, managing all of your Meepo's in Dota 2 is fairly simple. In the top left hand corner if your screen, you'll notice icons for each of your Meepo's. These icons will flash red when any of the respective Meepo's are taking damage. Using this to your advantage, you can click on the icon and move the Meepo away from harm. Monitoring all of your Meepo's health while they are off farming to make sure they don't get ganked at low health is very important. With your units selected, you can press TAB to cycle through them. The Meepo that is currently selected will have a slightly brighter icon than the others. Being able to tab through all of your Meepo's to issue commands to each one quickly is a big determining factor on whether or not you can play Meepo effectively. Your opponent isn't going to sit there waiting for you to plug your keyboard back in after you threw it at a wall in a fit of confusion and frustration (see: Invoker).

The Blink Poof

A "blink poof" consists of queueing up Poof on all of your secondary Meepo's, and then using a Blink Dagger to blink in with your primary Meepo right before the poof's are about to go off. The result is high burst damage as well as having all your Meepo's be on top of someone.

To perform a blink poof, switch to the control group that has only your secondary Meepo's. It's extremely important that your primary Meepo isn't selected if you're not experienced with this, because chances are you'll accidentally tell your primary to poof as well and it will mess the whole thing up. Tell all your secondary Meepo's to poof to where you want to blink to. An important thing to know about how Poof works is that it checks for the nearest Meepo when the poof is done casting, not when you initially cast it. This allows you to queue up your Meepo's in a certain area, despite a Meepo not being there.

After queueing up, you have 1.5s from the initial poof to blink your primary to the target. If you don't do it in this 1.5s time frame, some of the Meepo's will be left behind. Giving your Meepo's a move command while they are poofing will not stop them from casting. Only pressing the stop or hold position keys will actually cancel the animation (protip: turning on Unified Unit Actions will allow you to press Ctrl + S to send a stop command to any units under your control, regardless if they are selected or not).

A properly executed blink poof should look something like this:



Note that the poof commands were sent with the cursor over the target. This ensures that when you blink to the target, all of the Meepo's will poof correctly.

The End.

Thank you for reading through my extensive guide on Meepo! There's still plenty more that could be added as the hero can be quite versatile. If you are interested in learning more about Meepo, I highly suggest going to n0tail's channel over at twitch.tv/Fnaticn0tail and watching some of his streams. N0tail is very good at playing Meepo and this guide is based off how he builds him.

As always, I hope you learned a lot from this guide. Feel free to leave my any comments, questions or suggestions and I'll be glad to answer them. Thanks!