TormentorMaN's Necro

Introduction

Hello everyone, this is my second guide on DotaFire. This time, i'll be going over Necrophos, how he can be played, strengths and weaknesses, skills, items, etc. He is unarguably my favorite hero.

Attributes

Necrophos is an Intelligence Carry Hero. He can be built many different ways, but i'll focus on 2 ways to play him, the Tank Necrophos and the Burst Damage Necrophos. Attributes Strength: Base 16 + 2,0 X level Agility: Base 15 + 1,7 X level Intelligence: Base 22 + 2,5 X level This means he's very squishy early on, so getting 2 Iron Branches and a Circlet makes him a little less of a Teddybear.

Skills

When Necrophos uses Death Pulse, he releases a wave of Pulses that will heal allies for 70/90/110/130 or damage enemies for 75/125/200/275. You can either keep yourself in lane with this (or allies if they're desperate) or farm waves rather quickly as it's cooldown is only 5 seconds at level 4. Heartstopper Aura is a very annoying passive (for your enemies) which will deal damage to them based on their max HP. They will lose 0.6%/0.9%/1.2%/1.5% of their health pool per second. This means you can harass enemies while farming! The damage is HP removal, so it won't trigger items like Blademail or Nyx's Spiked Carapace. Nor will it put Blink Dagger or Heart of Tarrasque on cooldown. With this he can also work as an AFK jungler. To do this you'll have to stack ancients every minute and rush Hand of Midas. Will only work if the enemy does not gank you, it's not viable in higher skill games. Necrophos is a Sadist. If he kills any unit (including allied units) except for illusions and [Power Cogs, he gains a Sadist stacks for 6 seconds. This Sadist stack will restore 1/2/3/4 HP per second and 2/4/6/10 Mana per second. It stacks independently with other Sadist stacks. This helps farming and makes Necrophos a self-sustaining beast. When Necrophos kills a Hero (not illusions) he gains 10x the stacks. Reaper's Scythe is an insane ultimate ability that will, after a 1.5 duration where the enemy is stunned, deal 0.4/0.6/0.9 (0.6/0.9/1.2 for Aghanim's Scepter) damage based on the victim's missing HP. When the unit is killed by Reaper's Scythe it will have a +30 second respawn timer added. With Aghanim's Scepter, the victim also won't be able to buyback. Sad for them. Muahahahahahahahahaaaa. Skill Tips: -Spam Death Pulse while farming when both Death Pulse and Sadist are maxed, as you'll regain most mana. -Don't skill Heartstopper Aura when you can't get runes and the enemy will get a Bottle, it'll just be negated by their Bottle. Just max Death Pulse and Sadist -Only one Reaper's Scythe can make the difference between winning or losing! Be sure to kill the enemy carry with Reaper's Scythe so the enemy has less fighting potential.

Pros / Cons

Pros Can self-sustain himself well Incredible Laning Phase: Farm, Harass and Sustain! One Reaper's Scythe can be a game-changer **** Armlet toggling! Great teamfight presence, consistent damage output

Cons Squishy Early-Mid Game No escape or disable (except you want to waste Reaper's Scythe) Countered in lane by high regen heroes ( Dragon Knight and Quas Invoker

Items

I have two builds so i'll compare and go over both.

In both builds we start with:
-Of course Tango and Healing Salve for extra sustain. Sadist won't be enough.
-Stats, a Circlet and 2 Iron Branches to make you less squishy.

In the early game, we get:
-A Magic Wand first, you just have to buy the Magic Stick and you'll have it + free some inventory space.
- Boots of Speed. In the tank build we upgrade to Power Treads, but in the burst build we just stick to Brown Boots and rush our Dagon. We get a Null Talisman first.

The Core items are totally different.
In the burst build, we pick up:
-A Dagon which we rushed. Once we have this item and are at least lvl 6 we can start roaming and ganking. The combo of Death Pulse and Dagon into Reaper's Scythe is usually lethal enough.
-After that, we pick up Aghanim's Scepter with the money we got from ganking. This will make your ultimate even more deadly, and you are now able to kill enemies with about 55-60% HP left. Also, the victim can't buyback no more. How sweet.
- Blink Dagger is usually the next choice. You can now initiate and surprise enemies easily. DO NOT GET Shadow Blade!! You'll give away your position when you are near enemies with the Heartstopper Aura debuff, rather than showing its debuff for a split second before blinking in.
-As we still have our brown boots, Boots of Travel are usually the choice. Now you can get kills all over the map.

However in the tank build..
-We go Mekansm after Treads. This makes us alot more tanky with regen and an HP boost. We won't have any mana problems as we just regain the Mana from Sadist on top of the fact Necrophos is an Intelligence hero.
-Then we still go for Aghanim's Scepter. It's just too good of an item not to get on Necrophos.
- Shiva's Guard helps in teamfights as a small anti-carry item. It'll passively slow down their AS, and the active slows their MS. Frost Blast together with Death Pulse will also help pushing creep waves.

Late Game
In the Burst Build I put in 4 items to finish the build.
- Bloodstone helps sustaining Necrophos even more and gives you the much-needed HP.
- Octarine Core gives massive Spell Lifesteal with Reaper's Scythe and reduces the cooldown of Reaper's Scythe and Death Pulse. [Death Pulse now only has a 3,75 cooldown and Reaper's Scythe with or without Aghanim's Scepter only 52,5 seconds.
- Radiance will deal even more damage and is great with Octarine Core
- Scythe of Vyse makes escaping from you harder, while the mana regeneration and intel will help you too.
- Refresher Orb DOUBLE Reaper's Scythe for even more destruction. 'nuff said.

In the Tank Build I also added 3 extra items.
- Black King Bar should be picked up if the enemy has a lot of nukers that can cripple you pretty quickly.
- Pipe of Insight is an alternative for Black King Bar. It makes you more resistent to Magical Damage e.g. Dragon Slave or Finger of Death.
- Lotus Orb also makes you tankier with Armor, more regen and spell reflection. Pick up if the enemy has a lot of single-target bursts like Laguna Blade.

Situationals are similar in both builds.
-In the burst build, Black King Bar should only picked up when completely necessary.
-In the tank build, Guardian Greaves can be picked up if your team really is mana-hungry.
And in both builds:
- Glimmer Cape can be really good on Necrophos as an escape or ganking tool.
- Ghost Scepter counters right-clicks. In the burst build it can be upgraded to Ethereal Blade if more burst damage is required.
- Rod of Atos its slow will, similar to Scythe of Vyse, cripple enemies and they will not be able to escape easily. Get Scythe of Vyse over Rod of Atos if the enemy has a blink ability.

Friends and Foes

Friends: Who does Necrophos work well with?

Huskar's ultimate can quickly deal a lot of burst damage so Necrophos can jump in and quickly burst him down with Reaper's Scythe. Works best if Huskar and Necrophos both get Aghanim's Scepter rather quickly. Can work with any high-burst damage hero like Lina, Lion or Lich Foes: Who does Necrophos hate to go up against? ****ING DAZZLE RUINS your Reaper's Scythe with his Shallow Grave. He can also heal his allies which can also kinda screw up Reaper's Scythe Silencer or any hero with a Silence like Drow Ranger or Death Prophet will make you useless in teamfights, so get that Black King Bar if you go up against some of those. Mass Black King Bars on enemy carries will force you to use Reaper's Scythe on supports or offlaners, otherwise it'll not deal damage. It will stun but do you seriously waste Reaper's Scythe if you're not trying to escape?

Fun Tactic

Necrophos AFK Ancients. As of 6.84, this change was made.
A lot of spells (including Heartstopper Aura) now affect Ancients.
The way you do this is:
-Buy a Glove of Haste and an Observer Ward.
-Go to the Ancient camp of your team.
-Skill Heartstopper Aura and Ward the Rune Spot so you can't get ganked an potentially go for some runes.
-Stack the Ancients every .53 seconds.
-Once you start getting more levels and gold, buy Hand of Midas before ANYTHING.
-Skill points usually go into Heartstopper Aura until you start ganking.
I won't say it's viable in higher skill levels, but it can be quite fun and pretty good in unranked or lower MMR tiers. But you can get Reaper's Scythe and a Midas at 6 minutes in. That's crazy fast.
This video (thanks Leafeator) shows it in-game. Play Video
You should practice this in a private lobby first.

-ALWAYS STACK THE CAMPS

Watching Pro Players + Conclusion

I could not actually put a short one in as the song was copyrighted i guess?
Play Video
-BurNIng (720p60)

-Tank Build + Blink

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Play Video
Arteezy (720p)

-Burst Build

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-Phew, that was a heck load of hours writing this guide.

Necrophos is my favorite hero. He can deal a lot of burst damage and is versatile in his item build. He can be played as a tank or as burst damage dealer, whatever the game calls for. He can sustain himself and has a fantastic laning phase.

That'll wrap it up, y'all! Be sure to give me some feedback for this guide, this was only my second guide! Be sure to tell me which hero i should give a guide next and leave suggestions in the comments.