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Null Talisman
Tango
Boots of Speed
Blink Dagger
Dagon 1
Aghanim's Scepter
Ethereal Blade
Shiva's Guard
Scythe of Vyse
Heart of Tarrasque
Refresher Orb
Boots of Travel
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2 | 3 | 5 | 7 |  |
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1 | 12 | 13 | 14 |  |
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4 | 8 | 9 | 10 |  |
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6 | 11 | 16 |  |
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15 | 17 | 18 |
Hello and welcome to my Necrophos guide. This is my first proper written guide to a hero so I'd like to hear from you guys on any comments. Thanks :)
The first thing you should know about Necro: He is much more powerful as a carry/semicarry than as a support!
Many people in pub games treat Necro as a support. I've tried support Necro myself and still could not figure out a way to make him powerful in the 4th/5th position. The fact is that Necro relies heavily on gold/exp. The longer he stays in a fight, the more uesful and powerful he is. In fact Necro is mostly treated as position one in pro matches if picked.
The role of Necro is Tanker/Nuker (mostly built as intelligence tanker). Please see my following guide for a better understanding.
Death Pulse: Good AoE at early stage of game with a short cooldown. Heals your teammate at the same time. Good thing is that it cannot be dodged with blink/invis etc. Be careful using it early game though because Nec doesn't have a high mana pool and you might not have enough mana to cast your ult at lvl6.
Heartstopper Aura: Make this your skill build at lvl1. You know how disgusting it is if you have faced a Necro on lane. It is also part of the reason why Necro should be build towards a tank. But it's not bringing much damage in early team fights so max your first and third skill first before you lvlup your Aura.
Sadist: This is what keeps Necro on the lane and in the team fight. After you max this spell and the first spell you can easily clear out creeps/neutrals at a really fast speed and no hp/mana cost.
Reaper's Scythe: This is what makes Necropho a Necropho. Extra 30s respawn time is a disaster in early and mid games, especially for the carries. Deals massive damage in late game with Aghanim's sceptre eqqiped, and preventing buy backs would be a nightmare to the enemy team.
Pros: Decent AoE damage at early stage
High regen with 3rd skill during the whole game
Annoying ultimate which may overturn a fight
Cons: Low mana pool comparing to mana-costing spells at early game
Vulnerable at early games, easily ganked
Gold/exp dependant however not dealing as much damage as other traditional carries
Safelane Necrophos focuses more on farming and instead of getting early kills.
Start the game with a set of Tango, a few 
Iron Branch, 
Mantle of Intelligence if you like and one 
Clarity. Mantle of Intelligence is for you to get better last hit so it's optional. Get a few Iron Branch and turn them into 
Magic Wand and 
Mekansm later on. Clarity is to get some mana regen so that you can guarantee yourself to be able to cast Reaper's Scythe at level 6. Just a personal preference, you can either take it or not.
If you are playing a position one and you are farming well, you should probably get a 
Hand of Midas. I would say it helps a carry Necro to catch up on levels by transmuting high level neutrals, but again just personal preference.
Core item for Necropho has always been 
Power Treads & Mekansm. However mana cost for mek has been increased to 225 in recent patches which has caused a mana crisis for Necro. It would be fine if you control your mana properly, or if your support has an 
Arcane Boots. So I still suggest building an early mek on Necro, unless you're having your mid hero building early mek for the team.
Remember to organise for a group push once you or your mid hero has the early mek!!! (especially when the enemy team don't have one)
After you've built the mek, gradually push towers with your team, and keep farming when it's not appropriate for pushing (say enigma's blackhole on cooldown). The next item you should consider is aghanim's sceptre. This is the point when Necropho gradually stop concerning about mana issues. You can also build 
Hood of Defiance as a transition if the enemy has high magic output and your team need you to build a 
Pipe of Insight.
However I don't recommend building Mekansm & Pipe of Insight straight, because you will have a greater mana issue with this build.
To be honest, there is not much skills on playing Necropho. All you should do is to tank up in a fight, use your item and first spell, good positioning and preferably land a nice ult onto the enemy's carry.
A few items that worth considering after building your Aghanim's Scepter:
Black King Bar: Useful when enemy team has good control spells or high damage nukes. Get one when you find it hard to stand in a fight or even land an ult.
Blade Mail: To avoid nukes and other damages. You can see blademail on Necrophos quite often.
Drum of Endurance: Drum is always a good transitional item in early/mid game. Gives you some stats and a movement/attack speed aura. I don't usually get a drum on Necro, but I think it would be a good idea to get one. In pro matches carries in a pushing strategy (
Luna, 
Dragon Knight old meta
Juggernaut etc) always builds an early drum.
Rod of Atos: Good item on Necro. It's actually a decent item on many other heroes as well. Try it yourself!
Veil of Discord: Provides a bit extra armour and damage amplification. Your team will always need one if there is a 
Sand King/
Zeus/
Earthshaker etc
After all these you can start building your core items towards later game.
There are another three items that are considered musts on Necro other than your Agh:
Shiva's Guard: Actually it's a must item on most intelligent heroes who needs intel/armour/bit of AoE. Necro does not have a high armour at mid/late game, and getting a Shivas can greatly increase his survivability.
Heart of Tarrasque: Tankiest item in dota. No comments. Similar reason to a heart build on 
Death Prophet.
Scythe of Vyse: Brings you good stats/intelligence/mana regen. And everyone wants a sheep stick for sure!
For those of you who knows about full Exort 
Invoker ganking with Blink Dagger/
Eul's Scepter of Divinity/
Sun Strike/
Chaos Meteor/
Deafening Blast, this build for Necro would be a bit similar.
NOT RECOMMENDED FOR BEGINNERS
Grab a null talisman and set of tango and go to mid lane. Null of talisman allows you to get better last hits and it can be upgraded to dagon which is the core item for nuke Necrophos.
Focus more on last hits than harassments, as your Heartstopper Aura is already a good form of harassment. And you need your dagon as soon as possible. Don't think about getting solo kills at this stage because you only have one active spell and no stuns.
Get a bottle and help out other lanes a bit if you think it is necessary to do so. Personally I think bottle is a good item for Necrophos, but in most cases I don't recommend ganking at early stage. What you can do is to carry a tp scroll and pay attention to the side lanes at all times.
If you are a good farmer, you should be able to get your dagon and Boots of Speed at around 10mins. Getting an early dagon can help you on getting kills and gradually snowballing your golds and levels. But if you think you won't be able to get a dagon even at 15 minutes or so, don't insist on making it. Consider change to a tankier item build and turn to items such as Power Treads Drum of Endurance to increase your survivability.
Once you get your dagon, try to land a few kills with your teammate. Consider your level one ultimate as a way of KS(kill stealing) instead of a way of dealing damage. The reason is that getting the enemy killed under Reaper's Scythe can increase their respawn time by 30s, and you get heaps of mana regen by triggering Sadist, which is essential for a dagon Necro.
You can land easy kills and annoys carries on the other team with nukers like 
Lion 
Lina, but make sure you communicated well and land your ult slightly before theirs.
Get a Blink Dagger at some stage to increase your mobility and you can use it to land solo kills now. I usually get a blink when I'm at level 11.
The correct order of casting when you spot an enemy:
Blink Dagger/ Reaper's Scythe/ Death Pulse/dagon/auto attack(if you're fast enough)
Try to do this in one second to prevent enemy from escaping and maximise your damage. Get more practice and you'll be quick.
After you've gain enough gold you could consider getting the following:
Boots of Travel to get solo kills everywhere
Aghanim's Scepter to increase hp/mana and deals more damage
upgrade your dagon to get more violent.
And you can consider the following items for late game (if you have that money):
Ethereal Blade extremely violent item on a Nuker Necropho.
Refresher Orb takes down two enemies instantly and prevent buyback with Aghanim's Scepter. Makes your enemy team frustrated. Get an Orb only if you think you have enough mana to do so.
Scythe of Vyse Shiva's Guard Heart of Tarrasque Items that fits Necrophos of all kind. Get the health/mana/regen/armour/stat/control items as you like according to real life situations
Item build on Necrophos can actually be quite flexible. Depending on you and your enemy's team build and real life situations, you can build your Necro as a tanker, a nuker, or somewhere in between. The guides I written above are just examples and references only, as item build should not be fixed with laning.
Get to play Necrophos for a few games, and you will have a good understanding of it.
Just prepare to destroy the game by landing your extra 30 seconds!!
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