Necrophos, how he is supposed to be played

Agreed with S***tron. Sadist is not reliable. I understand the reason why people think Bloodstone is waste on Necrophos but Bloodstone has a lot of other features beside mana regen. Extra health, mana and respawn reduction time is the most significant of them. Eye of Skadi is good item, especially with that slow feature, but I have feeling you should not rush for it (but I will probably try it sometimes in future :).

Being able to spam Death Pulse is essential imo, since it has two uses. Sadist just isn't reliable enough. Catch-22 ability.

Also, Bloodstone is a lot more useful than that:

- Each charge grants 1 mana regeneration per second.
- Each charge reduces the gold lost from death by 25.
- Each charge reduces respawn time by 4 seconds.
- If the bearer dies, 500 + 30 health per charge is restored to allies within 1675 radius.
- If the bearer dies, a bloodmark is placed granting 1800 vision and allows the bearer to gain nearby experience while dead.

So, if you die, you heal your team, you get experience, you respawn faster and you lose less gold. For a Necro, Bloodstone is the item to get.

Bloodstone is a pretty weak item on him. Only thing this item does is give mana regen. And Necro doesn't need mana regen because he has Sadist which pretty much gives him infinite sustainability. Only thing he may need is increase his mana POOL because his ult is fairly mana intensive but any kind of regen is completely wasted on him.

If you want to commit to such an expensive item for HP and mana pool, Eye of Skadi is better in every way.

Bloodstone :
4900 gold
500 HP
400 mana
useless regen

vs

Skadi :
5675 gold
725 HP
3.5 armor
575 mana
35% slow

Skadi is like 50% more HP, some armor, AND a well-needed slow to kite BKB heroes while Bloodstone is just regen he doesn't need.

Bloodstone?
FOR WHAT?
Sadist

Completely agreed. This is the way to play Necro. It's just flat-out not that great if played as a pure support.

About 85% win-rate here. I usually get mana boots, rush for bloodstone, disassemble mana boots and go for tranq/phase/travel.

Thanks! I am glad you like it. The "standard build" isn't bad per se but in my opinion it's not optimal and this guide efforts to prove it. Soul Ring is of course a perfect early option if you gonna build Bloodstone. I will mention it in my next update. Also I am about to add new video from which is apparent the positioning is a key factor to be successful with Necrophos (i.e. Tranquil Boots for speed and Blink Dagger). Maybe I even add some mid build with Null Talisman. So stay tuned!

Best build for this snowballing carry on DotaFire! You didn't waste his potential (power treads/meka and rest of this "standard build" items" Tranquils combined with soul ring works wonders especially with spammable Death Pulse. You could add soul ring after magic wand for early section. Thanks!

Thanks!!

While core Necrophos is better, the first time I ever won a game as Anti-Mage(After a 7-loss streak I might add) I was in a tri-lane with Necrophos and Keeper of the Light. The way this worked was Necrophos simply stood where Heartstopper Aura was in range and occasionally threw out a right-click or two while Keeper of the Light farmed the hard camp near the lane and stacked both it and the pull camp to pull. It was extremely effective; http://www.dotabuff.com/matches/875263597

Try the second video from Competitive section: GOOMBA vs PowerRangers. I don't know if he fits hard carry concept here but he is by far the most farmed hero in this game.

I'd like to see a hard carry necro. Anyone has a link to the video??

You could say that about all heroes of course. Core CM is best CM. Need that blink, BKB, and aghs to pull off a clutch 10 second ultimate that destroys the enemy team.
But I agree, necro needs the farm to be truly effective. He's even got a skill that forces him to farm to be effective. Best played in positions 2-4, not hard carry nor hard support.