Outworld Devourer - I Have Solid Intelligence On What Is To Come....

Introduction

Hello everyone, I'm Eddie, and this is a guide to my personal favourite hero of DOTA 2 : Outworld Devourer. I've worked pretty hard on this guide but it is my first, so any constructive feedback would be appreciated.

Having played Outworld Devourer quite a number of times in many different situations and team build-ups, I think I have a pretty strong idea of how to make this character excel. Much like any hard carry, if you can get the early farm, you'll become an almost unstoppable machine and beat the enemy into submission well before they even get a chance to stop you.

Without further ado, I present to you my guide. I hope you find it useful.

Biography

One of a lordly and magisterial race, Harbinger prowls the edge of the Void, sole surviving sentry of an outpost on the world at the rim of the abyss. From this jagged crystalline Outworld, forever on guard, he has gazed for eternities into the heavens, alert for any stirring in the bottomless night beyond the stars. Imprinted deep in the shining lattices of his intellect lies a resonant pattern akin to prophecy, a dark music implying that eventually some evil will wake out there, beyond the edges of creation, and turn its attention to our world. With his whole being focused on his vigil, Outworld Devourer paid little attention to events closer in to the sun. But at last the clamour of the Ancients, and a sense of growing threat from within as well as without, sent him winging sunward to visit the plains of war. Harbinger's place in our own prophecies is unambiguous: he must be considered an omen of worse things to come. But his arrival in itself is bad enough.

Pros / Cons

Pros

+ Can get out of control very quickly with early farm.

+ Can deal massive DPS with Arcane Orb as PURE damage (ignores magic resistance).

+ Has an excellent team buff with Essence Aura - 40% chance to replenish mana is huge on most heroes.

+ Good crowd control with Astral Imprisonment. Useful throughout the game from laning early to teamfights late.

+ With enough intelligence, Sanity's Eclipse is arguably the most devastating AOE spell in the game.


Cons

- Magic immunity completely shuts you down.

- Generally quite squishy throughout most of the game.

- Like any carry (but almost more so I think) very VERY reliant on farm.

Skills

Arcane Orb




Harbinger's out-worldly knowledge allows it to tap into the ebb and flow of all spiritual energy, infusing it into his being.


Arcane Orb is your bread-and-butter skill. It's what makes Outworld Devourer deal huge damage all the way through the game that scales really, really well. Arcane Orb takes a percentage of your mana pool (after it has been cast) and deals it on every attack as PURE damage (completely ignores magic resistance). Couple this with Essence Aura which basically means you never run out of mana, and you are a squishy hero's worst nightmare.

Arcane Orb is arguably useful early on, as it can be used on single attacks to deal some large harass damage early on. Putting a point in it early and doing this is a good idea, however, I feel with the ability to harass with Astral Imprisonment and the danger of running down your mana pool, it isn't worth it. Each to their own of course though.

Around the mid game, when you have some decent farm and a large enough mana pool, this ability should be put on auto-cast and basically never turned off. It's just a huge buff to your standard right click damage. Remember, the larger your mana pool, the more damage you deal. Mana pool is controlled by intelligence - what's the Outworld Devourer motto... yep, MORE INTELLIGENCE.

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A few things to note...


+ Arcane Orb deals PURE damage. That means Anti-Mage's Spell Shield, Pudge's Flesh Heap and Viper's Corrosive Skin to name a few are completely ignored when calculating the damage this does. Use this to your advantage.


+ Black King Bar blocks Arcane Orb completely. Linken's Sphere however does not.

+ Arcane Orb also does large bonus damage to illusions. Most notably is how fast Outworld Devourer can tear through a Warlock's Chaotic Offering.


+ Arcane Orb is (would you believe it?) an ORB EFFECT. Dont, seriously, don't purchase an item with orb effect. Please.

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Astral Imprisonment




Locked away in the pocket between this world and the Outworld, victims realize their infantile knowledge and mortality.


Astral Imprisonment is your crowd control. It disables an enemy (or friend) for up to 4 seconds, placing them in an impenatrable invunerable prison. The only person who can cause damage to an enemy in Astral Imprisonment is Outworld Devourer's Sanity's Eclipse... but more on that soon.

If the ability targets an enemy, you also steal intelligence from them for 60 seconds which, crucially, stacks. Since the cooldown is much, much less than the duration of the intelligence steal, it isn't difficult to steal around 3-4 stacks of intelligence at a time.

In the laning phase, this is your best ability. Not only does it make last hitting a nightmare for your opponent, but the stolen intelligence adds to your damage dealt (as Outworld Devourer is an intelligence hero) so your standard right click is quite powerful when you have a few stacks of intelligence stolen.

In teamfights and late game the intelligence steal is less useful, but the ability still has its uses. In can be used to disable a pesky enemy initiator or nuker to enable you to escape, or counter attack. It is also great for avoiding ganks since you can use it on the enemy and just run.

On the flip side, it can also be used to helping teammates out as long as it is used correctly. If you are entering a teamfight to back a member of your team up who is very low and will more than likely die, cast it on them, then whilst they are invulnerable and out of harms way, deal with the threat and your teammate should make it out.

Through playing Outworld Devourer a lot, you will learn when and when not to use Astral Imprisonment. You'll get it wrong from time to time - it happens. Just brush yourself off and keep going.

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Essence Aura

essence aura


The crystals of the Outworld produce arcane power, and the Harbinger channels it into the world of mortals.


Essence Aura is a spell that keeps on giving, literally. After every sucessfully cast spell, the aura gives you a chance to replenish 25% percentage of your remaining mana pool back. It also has a nice side effect people usually forget of giving you a general base increase to the size of your mana pool.

Above all else, this is CRUCIAL because it synergies perfectly with Arcane Orb.

Assuming you have enough mana, you should never, ever run dry because the replenish chance percentage gets really high (40%). Without going into mathmatically calculations of expected values and all that good stuff, just remeber this : When this skill is maxed, and you have around 1500 mana, you should never really run out of mana.

This means you can toggle your Arcane Orb to auto cast and should never have to worry about its 100 mana cost because your Essence Aura should regenerate your mana faster than you burn through it.

Also let us not forget ; this is an aura effect. That means it affects all friendly heroes near you. If you've got a Zeus, Lina, Tinker (the list goes on) along side you, don't forget to remind them to spam spam SPAM their abilities.

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Sanity's Eclipse




When an Outworld crystal ruptures, cataclysmic energies are released, and the reverberations of this power are felt inter-dimensionally.


An now we get to Outworld Devourer's ultimate. Not that I'm biased (well maybe I am, I do love OD) but in my opinion this spell has the coolest name, visuals when cast, and sound. I mean c'mon, just listen to the noise it makes... it's so eerie.

Anyways, bias aside, this ultimate targets an AOE and any enemies in the AOE take damage based upon the difference between their intelligence and Outworld Devourer's intelligence.

It has the capabilities to be one of the most devastating AOE spells in the game, as long as you remember a few things:

+ Just like pretty much everything in Outworld Devourer's arsenal - It is block by Black King Bar though not Linken's Sphere since its not a targeted spell. Wait for the right time to cast to avoid wasting it.

+ Sounds like an obvious point, but try and catch as many people as you can in radius - it's certainly big enough to get an entire team, definitely so from level 2 onwards I'd say.

+ Since it does damage based on intelligence difference, try to MAXIMISE your own intelligence or weaken your enemies prior to casting. Using Astral Imprisonment is the obvious one, but don't forget to tread switch before hand too, for that extra damage.

+ I cannot stress enough how exceptionally good this spell is against those pesky agility hard carries. A scary Drow Ranger with her stupid frost arrows for example, will quite literally explode when you cast this on her.

+ If used correctly, this is one of those "almost guaranteed" team fight winning spells - much like Enigma's Black Hole, Tidehunter's Ravage or Sand King's Epicentre as long as its used correctly. Due to this, make sure to keep an eye on the cooldown timer and plan your ganks/teamfights accordingly.

Interestingly, it has the exact same cooldown as the cooldown of a Refresher Orb, making them a perfect combo.

As well as your Arcane Orb, this is one of the other reasons why building up your intelligence stat items is so important. Get an early farm lead, throw off a few good Sanity's Eclipse's at the entire enemy team, and the game is all but over - it really can make that much of a difference.

Main Guide / Gameplay Guide

I appreciate this is lengthy but it is it depth and very helpful I promise!

For a TL ; DR version, see the bottom of the guide.

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Early Game / Laning Phase


After picking up your starting items, you'll want to head for mid lane. I might do a build for side lanes at some point, but I feel Outworld Devourer benefits most from mid lane early game and is the best way to get quickly out of control.

Your job during this early phase in the game is to last hit and deny as much as possible. Try to get your 2 Null Talisman's built as quickly as possible and after getting 2 points into it, use your Astral Imprisonment to harass and deny your opponent farm.

The additional intelligence you gain from this is also nice, meaning you shouldn't really run out of mana. It would also be best to get the odd right click on your opponent to either force them to use some regeneration items, or bring their health down a bit in preparation for your first kill / first blood which you'll go into shortly.

One of the fantastic things about an early game Outworld Devourer is that his Astral Imprisonment should make it nearly impossible for you to be killed (which is the one thing you 100% want to avoid at all costs at this crucial stage). If you have a Pudge trying to Meat Hook / Rot you, or any other early game nuke combo, just use Astral Imprisonment on either yourself or your opponent and make a getaway.

Around levels 4-5 you should now be thinking about lane dominance. Hopefully you've got your Null Talisman's by now, and are well on your way to your Power Treads. Once you hit level 5 and invest in your level 3 Astral Imprisonment, try to use it whenever it is off cooldown and steal that intelligence over and over! Your Essence Aura should make sure you never run dry of mana, but if you find it dwindling, maybe stop spamming as much.

As you hit level 6 and take a point in Sanity's Eclipse you should find you already have a stockpile of intelligence stolen still sitting on your active effects list (who's brilliant idea was that?). This means assuming you have stolen intelligence consistently you should have 4 stacks of 8 intelligence stolen equating to 8 x 4 = 32 extra intelligence gained and crucially your opponent should have 32 intelligence less.

32 + 32 = 64 Intelligence difference before even taking into account Outworld Devourer's naturally high intelligence stat + per level increase? I think you know what's coming next...

Astral Imprisonment your opponent one final time, and cast Sanity's Eclipse on them (remember it is the only thing that can damage then in the prison). If they don't die outright - yes, this is entirely likely - then finish them off with a few right clicks.

From here on I'd stay in lane and farm a bit. Try the same tactic a few times more times, you'd be surprised how many pub players don't get wise to this since not many know how Outworld Devourer works. Once you have your Power Treads and Force Staff (or at least are on the way to it) I'd start leaving lane and ganking. Always gank with your ultimate (unless the lane you are ganking has some reliable stuns or nukes) and hammer your mid lane dominance into the outer lanes too.

Personally, I always ALWAYS imprison before using my ultimate. It's a no brainer really, stealing extra intelligence before using an ability which is worked off hero's intelligence difference sounds good to me! However, be careful to tell your teammates you're planning to do this. There is nothing worse than everyone wasting there stuns and ultimates on an opponent in an impenetrable invulnerable prison for 4 seconds because you didn't let them know you were planning it!

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Mid Game


Your role during the mid game is an important one, and will more than likely determine the outcome of the game. In teamfights, you want to be disabling any durable or nuker heroes with your Astral Imprisonment ( Lina, Lion, Axe, Centaur Warrunner to name a few). This will give your team that extra crucial 4 seconds to focus down the opponents carry.

Don't initiate with Outworld Devourer; you're far too squishy. Instead, enter teamfights after initiation (force staff is great here, though think about saving it if you need to quickly escape), imprison and then pop your Sanity's Eclipse on the largest group of enemies possible.

Remember, your DPS should be pretty huge at this point too, with your Arcane Orb dealing PURE extra damage based upon your remaining mana pool. Don't be surprised if your bringing down squishy supports or under farmed carries in 3,4,5 hits - it's what Outworld Devourer excels at!

Also remember to remind your team about that little buff they have on them - Essence Aura. At this stage, a 40% chance to replenish mana on spells cast is going to be like all Birthdays and Christmas' all rolled into one for someone like Zeus, Lina, Skywrath Mage to name a few.

For a bit of survivability and some extra intelligence (yes, you need more!) Rod of Atos is perfect. I usually pick this up in-between Force Staff and Black King Bar. This is a situational order of course, and depends on how the game is unfolding. The 60% cripple is really, really useful too - to escape ganks, as well as finishing fleeing opponents off.

A Black King Bar is almost essential at this point, as it enables you to continue dealing damage without being disabled or killed off early in a team fight (which is likely, since you're likely to be targeted). The extra strength and health gain, coupled with the additional damage of the Black King Bar is also more than welcome on your squishy hero.

After your Black King Bar, you want to be grabbing a Refresher Orb as soon as possible. Double casting Sanity's Eclipse in a teamfight is almost laughable, and should bring down most heroes to next to no health. A good time-scale to note is that I usually have all of the above items built around the 30-35 minute mark or less if I'm really farmed.

If you've done your job correctly (and so has the rest of your team!) the game should be all but over by now, but if it isn't then your heading towards...

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Late Game


At this stage, you should be completing your item build. You'll more than likely have one spare item slot if you've built your hero as above. I'd consider this a slot for a situational item that is going to benefit your team. Scythe of Vyse is never a bad idea ; a 5 second disable is not to be snuffed at. Other valid options are Shiva's Guard, Ethereal Blade or maybe an Orchid Malevolence. Basically, anything with a useful active effect, which pumps up your intelligence (and consequently, your mana pool and Arcane Orb damage) is a decent choice.

You should also have been able to isolate by now the main trouble makers in teamfights. Show them a 4 second Astral Imprisonment sentence for their troublesome ways. Also remember to remind your team to spam spam spam their spells! A 40% chance to replenish mana from spells whilst around you is going to make lots of very happy teammates.

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TL ; DR

How could you skip my guide? Do you know how long this took me? :(

Early Game

• Last hit, deny like mad.
  
  
• Steal intelligence use it to cripple and dominate mid with Sanity's Eclipse.
  

Mid Game

• Take note of Arcane Orb, and see that it is good.
  
  
• Build your Force Staff, Black King Bar, Rod of Atos in an order situational to your needs and the actions of your opponents.
  
  
• My usual order is Force Staff > Rod of Atos > Black King Bar as I dont seem to get shut down too much with spells at this stage. Again, it is dependent.

Late Game

• Get Refresher Orb.
  
  
• Boost intelligence as much as possible and disable those troublemakers in teamfights.
  
  
• If you cant decide what to get for your final item, get Scythe of Vyse. Make sure to use it in EVERY TEAMFIGHT.

Win. Thats an important thing to do too.

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What to do if....

You get harassed, killed mid?
Your opponents wouldn't be doing their job if they didn't try. Play a little more defensively, DON'T push the lane, hug your tower a bit more but still try and get some farm. Even calling in assistance from another lane for a counter gank isn't a bad idea. I can't convey how terrible an under farmed Outworld Devourer is mid to late game, so it's essential you get some.


You get silenced?
Run. Just run. Seriously, Outworld Devourer is useless without spells. If it's happening often, prioritise your Black King Bar over Rod of Atos and even Force Staff. You need spells. Simple.


The enemy team all have Black King Bar?
Congratulations. You have discovered why Outworld Devourer isn't really a popular pick at a professional level. Black King Bar SHUTS YOU DOWN COMPLETELY. If the game gets to this stage, you're in trouble. Try to time Sanity's Eclipse when Black King Bar's are down and just do what you can to deal damage.


You keep getting caught out / ganked?
Prioritise your Force Staff. There is a reason is on the item build list. The combo of Astral Imprisonment and Force Staff should be more than enough to escape most ganks.


You're too squishy?
Prioritise Rod of Atos. It's a fantastically useful item since it gives you a chuck of intelligence, (remember the Outworld Devourer motto: MOAR INTELLIGENCE), and HP to boot. Also, the 60% cripple/slow is invaluable to escape if you're being chased down or need to secure a kill on a fleeing enemy.

Oh, as a side note, the cast range on the Rod of Atos slow is HUGE. It just keeps getting better and better!

Friends / Foes

Friends

Dark Seer


This little guy can be a BIG help.
Vacuum is a fantastic spell to help you land Sanity's Eclipse on everyone.

Magnus


Reverse Polarity is even more useful than Dark Seer's Vacuum as it groups the enemies AND stuns, ready for Sanity's Eclipse. If you can't hit an ultimate on a fully RP'd team, something is dreadfully wrong.

Enigma


Same trend as the 2 above. Black Hole also has the added unique bonus of an individual on your team being able to yell 'BLACK HOOOOOLLLLLEEEEE' as you suck your opponents into a vortex of death, whilst peppering them with attacks.

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Foes

Pugna


Pugna has a larger intelligence gain than Outworld Devourer, meaning your ultimate will have a limited/no affect on him. In addition, Nether Ward does count Arcane Orb as a spell and burns you every time its cast. A teamfight in the area of a nether ward is bad, bad news for Outworld Devourer.

Silencer


The clue is in the name. What does Outworld Devourer suck without? - Spells.
What does Silencer do? - Silences you.

Global Silence is particularly nasty and Last Words can deal a lot of damage to you early/mid game. Curse of the Silent can also it can empty your mana pool early game. That is a BAD thing.

Nyx Assassin


Mana Burn is scary all the way through the game. If your sole goal (as is Outworld Devourer's case) is to maximise your main attribute, a hero with a spell that does multiplier damage based on how high it is it not a nice situation.

Even when you're a heavily farmed Outworld Devourer tipping 200 intelligence, Mana Burn can crush you. Also, much like any dedicated ganker, Nyx's Vendetta, Impale, Mana Burn combo is deadly during your squishy stage. Avoid at all costs.

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Special Mention

Anti-Mage


You shouldn't actually have to worry about Anti-Mage too much interestingly.

His Mana Void should do next to no damage on you since your Essence Aura should always keep you topped up. What can be a problem is his Mana Break and Spell Shield. Just because you're an intelligence hero, don't be as scared by Anti-fun as you normally would be playing a 'standard' intelligence hero like Lina for example when Mana Void can be like being hit in the face by a train.

Conclusion

Outworld Devourer is a fantastic carry when picked against the right heroes. Although he needs the farm and skill to not die much early on, he has the ability to end games very, very quickly.

If you've made it this far into my guide then I commend you for sticking with me, and remember - when in doubt

MOAR INTELLIGENCE.

Comments, criticism (constructive please), alternative builds, item ideas, "BUT YOU MISSED THIS THING OUT!" all welcome :)

THANKS FOR READING!