Death Calls and my Enemies Come!

The Doors of Death Open Wide

Skills

Crypt Swarm is Death Prophet's nuke, dealing 75/150/225/300 damage at each level in a cone shape. With a cooldown of 4 seconds with maxed Witchcraft this allows Death Prophet to farm creep waves and neutrals camps very easily. While you can target heroes directly with this spell is much more effective to ground target this spell. This is because the casting range (range you have to be within to use it) is smaller than the actual range that the swarm flies. With some practice you'll be able to hit enemies through trees without having to click on them directly.

With Crypt Swarm, you can get last hits and harass the enemy at the same time. You can auto attack a creep that is not being attacked by your creeps until it is low enough to nuke down, and then nuke from an angle that allows you to hit both creeps and the enemy.




Silence is Death Prophet's only "crowd control" ability. It's very simple: it silences every enemy within a 425 radius circle upon casting for 3/4/5/6 seconds. This is devastating against heroes like Storm Spirit or Ember Spirit who need to use their abilities to fight and run away. Of course, Black King Bar completely nullifies this ability, but you can always silence the enemy supports.


Witchcraft

Witchcraft is a passive ability that improves Death Prophet's other skills. It reduces the mana cost of Crypt Swarm and Silence by 10/15/20/25, and reduces the cooldowns by 1/2/3/4 seconds. This allows Death Prophet to spam her skills in teamfights. And that's not all. Witchcraft even increases Death Prophet's movement speed by 5/10/15/20% and the Exorcism spirits by 3/4/5/6. All these bonuses are why Exorcism is maxed second.




Exorcism is Death Prophet's ultimate and one of the best pushing abilities in the game. Upon use Death Prophet unleashes 4/12/21 spirits (up to 27 spirits at level 16 with maxed Witchcraft), each taking 0.1 seconds to appear.

Exorcism can be used to push really really hard, but it can also be used to take Roshan. If you win a fight without using Exorcism it can be useful to take Roshan with Exorcism instead of pushing if your team doesn't feel safe pushing.

Since each spirit has to return to Death Prophet after attacking, it can be a good idea to stand RIGHT next to a tower (or hero) if you feel safe enough, which will help you push down towers or kill enemies faster.

Starting Items & First Purchases

Tango are bought for early game regen. Simple stuff.




I get a Null Talisman for easier last hitting (6 int + 3 damage = 9 extra damage!), and to be able to use Crypt Swarm just a bit more liberally to farm or push.



However if you really want to rush Bottle a Tango + triple Iron Branch bottlerush build can be good.



Bottle is the first item you should get. Death Prophet has no easy ways to regen hp or mana early games, and can use most runes very effectively.



Phase Boots are the boots of choice. While some people like to go Arcane Boots, I believe that Phase Boots fit Death Prophet's playstyle way too well to pass up. The phase active gives a large movement speed bonus, stacking with Witchcraft, allowing Death Prophet to go faster than most heroes in the game, while the +24 damage helps her push and fight. In addition Arcane Boots are usually gotten to transition into Bloodstone, which is an item I heavily dislike on Death Prophet.

Core Items

This right here is hands down the best item you can get for Death Prophet for under 3000 gold. The +40 movement speed means that Eul's Scepter of Divinity adds more than 40 movement speed in conjunction with Witchcraft. It also gives +10 int, and 150% mana regen. This allows Death Prophet to actually farm and push with Crypt Swarm without as much worry for mana.

Here is a list of what you can do with this amazing item:

• Lift yourself in the air to do damage with Exorcism while invulnerable
• Lift an enemy into the air, then Silence the moment they come back down
• Cyclone an enemy to purge certain buffs from them
• Cyclone yourself to remove debuffs (slows, disarms, etc)
• Go really fast and run circles around enemies

Death Prophet can farm an early (like 10 minute) Mekansm. This item is amazing, allowing Death Prophet to push even harder with the +250 hp heal for her creeps. However the steep manacost (225!) means that you have to manage your mana much more carefully to avoid running out. Also note that three bottles charges = one Mekansm use.




Drum of Endurance can be bought for some cheap early stats and the extra movement speed. If the game isn't going that well for you this can be bought to tank you up a bit and help you push more. Overall a good item, just not amazing or useful later in the game.




This item can be very useful for ganking and getting kills. The +25 int and +350 hp synergizes with Death Prophet very well, allowing her to get kills with the insane 60% slow with 1200 range (!). However this item is usually outclassed by Eul's Scepter of Divinity in terms of usefulness.




A fast Necronomicon increases Death Prophet's pushing speed by a ton, and even gives her +int and +str, two stats that she really wants. An early Necronomicon Warrior can increase your damage output by a lot in early teamfights, and can help melt towers even faster. I heavily recommend this item if you are not pressured that hard by the enemy team and want to take more towers quickly.

Aggressive Extension/Luxury

The build up for a Scythe of Vyse is terrible (2700 gold Mystic Staff and 2100 gold Ultimate Orb), but Death Prophet can farm very fast with all the tower gold she will get. Get this item if the enemy has carries that NEED to be shut down like Anti Mage or Ember Spirit, or heroes with annoying evasion like Phantom Assassin. This item will essentially solve all your mana problems, give you some stats, and solve Death Prophet's lack of proper disables. Basically the best item for any int hero.




Assault Cuirass is actually a really good item for Death Prophet. Like many int heroes she actually has decent right click damage, but no attack speed. This item gives her and her teammates armor, and reduces the armor of enemies around her, thereby increasing the damage of Exorcism. If the enemy team has a lot of physical damage and no one else on the team is a very good holder, just go for it. Death Prophet should be tanky enough with it so you don't die quickly and leave your team without the aura.




Refresher Orb is a great item for Death Prophet, but should really only be bought once you reach late game and have 4-5 items already. Death Prophet relies on Exorcism to do damage once Crypt Swarm beings to fall off, and you might need a Refresher Orb to extend Exorcism. You cannot "double ult", or have double the spirits at the same time. Refresher Orb is bought so that once Exorcism runs out Death Prophet can re-use it and continue to fight or push.




If the game starts going late a Boots of Travel pick up is always a good idea. More movement speed and a free teleport to any of your creeps every 50 seconds? Yes please. If you die before using Exorcism, buyback, teleport into the fight, and ult.

Tanky Extension/Luxury

If the enemy team has a lot of disables and nukes, a Black King Bar is necessary for Death Prophet to be able to use Exorcism to its fullest potential. However don't get cocky with this item and run in thinking you can't die. If you went something like Eul's Scepter of Divinity -> Black King Bar you're still very squishy to physical damage.

Also keep in mind that you probably shouldn't buy this item against heroes with Black King Bar piercing disables like Bane with his Fiend's Grip or Batrider with Flaming Lasso




If you're thinking of buying a Black King Bar because of the enemy team has a lot of nukers, a Pipe of Insight can be considered as a replacement. While you won't be immune to magic damage, your teammates will also get the spell shield. A decent pickup against heroes with lots of aoe spells like Zeus or Venomancer.




The quintessential hp boosting item, a Heart of Tarrasque will increase your hp pool by a whopping 1000 hp. This is also gives you a ton of hp regen, enough that you can use Exorcism and stand in front of a tower. I'll get into why you might want to do this later.




If the enemy team has a lot of physical damage, and not a lot of magical damage, a Shiva's Guard is an amazing item. If you buy Eul's Scepter of Divinity along with the Shiva's Guard no one will ever be able to run from you with the arctic blast slow. If you get a fast Shiva's Guard you'll be REALLY REALLY TANKY against right clicks. The +15 armor along with the -40 attack speed aura will make right clickers cry.




Eye of Skadi gives Death Prophet about 700 hp, and 3.5 armor. The tankiness along with the Black King Bar piercing 45 attack speed and 35% movement speed slow makes it a very good pick up on Death Prophet. I recommend getting a Eye of Skadi with an Assault Cuirass to demolish melee carries. However in many games you are better off buying other items to help your teammates or yourself push.

The most important part of this item is that it makes your autoattacks pretty. Highly recommended for snowball fun.

Items to Avoid

Lots of people recommend going Bloodstone on Death Prophet (it's the third most bought item on her according to dotabuff). However I heavily dislike this item on Death Prophet. While the +500 hp and the insane mana regen help Death Prophet a lot, the item costs 4900 gold. That's pretty much the cost of a Eul's Scepter of Divnity + Mekansm combo (5050 gold), which gives you WAY more utility. Here's a comparison of the two:

Bloodstone +500 hp +400 mana +9 hp regen 200% mana regen Bloodstone charge mana regen Suicide

Eul's + Mek +40 movement speed +10 int (130 mana) 150% mana regen Cyclone +5 to all stats +5 armor 250 hp heal + 2 armor buff +4 hp regen aura

The problem with Bloodstone is that the fast respawn time isn't as useful for Death Prophet as it is for some other heroes. Death Prophet relies on Exorcism to remain useful, so if she uses Exorcism then dies, even if she instantly respawns she isn't going to be contributing as much. While the insane mana regen is amazing for Death Prophet I find the regen from Eul's Scepter of Divinity to be enough until I get a big int item like Shiva's Guard.



Some Death Prophet players pick up Shadow Blade so they can run around fights while invisible, allowing Exorcism to do massive damage while they remain hidden. Shadow Blade is a horrible item. You don't want to be invisible during teamfights, you want to be spamming Crypt Swarm and Silence. While Shadow Blade can be a very good escape tool, it does nothing for you during fights, it's way more worth it to just buy a Eul's Scepter of Divinity or something with more utility during fights.

There are also some items like Desolator or Radiance that might seem appealing to you, but I heavily advise against it. Radiance gives you ZERO tankiness and is way too expensive early on. Same thing with Desolator. All the other items in this guide offer some kind of protection against damage.

Early Game - Blocking the Creepwave

Before the creeps spawn, you want to block the creeps since you are mid. This is so that the creeps end up closer to your side of the river, making it easier for you to farm, and harder for the opponent to do so as well.

IMPORTANT: If you want to block on radiant side you should do the "RTZ block." Basically, creeps on the radiant side spawn behind the tier 3 tower, so one creep always goes around the tower in one direction while the rest go in the other direction:



This basically ruins your block since you can't block the creeps in "single file" until the tier 2 tower. To prevent this we do the "RTZ block," which makes the creeps all go around in the same direction, making them "blockable" from the get go:



What happens is that Death Prophet's model "blocks" the space between the tower and the barracks, so the creeps cannot go through that way. This makes all the creeps go "under" the tower, and if you move forward at the right time you can get in front of the creeps who are now in "single file."

Note that the little circle underneath the hero can't be touching the circle that appears if you click on the tower.


Fortunately, the dire creepblock is A LOT easier. The creeps spawn in front of the tier 3 tower, so you can just stand a bit in front of the tower, or just behind the icon on the ground:




A good block should let you have the high ground advantage, which makes it harder for the enemy to last hit (if they're ranged, due to the uphill miss chance), and easier for you to last hit or harass. Most importantly for Death Prophet though, is that a good block makes it a lot harder for an enemy support to gank you (they can't walk through the river to get behind you). An example of a good block would be:

Early Game - Laning/Pushing

Some tips for laning:

• If you right click the enemy while within 250 units from an enemy creeps, they will aggro onto you. This will "loop" the creeps around your own creeps, making it easier for you to last hit and harder for them to deny.
• If you right click the enemy mid when you're more than 250 units away from an enemy creep, then move in, you can harass the enemy without getting creep aggro for about 3 seconds. If you're facing a squishy mid, abuse this, and harass them out of the lane with a combination of autoattacks and Crypt Swarm.

By the time you hit level 6, you want to start to chip away at the tier 1 tower mid. Simply hit multiple creeps, then Crypt Swarm for easy last hits and pushing. You can Exorcism to get some damage on the tower, and even solo kill some enemy mids. If another lane is getting pressured it may be a good idea to teleport in and help that lane. Exorcism has a long cooldown but you normally won't be teamfighting that often, so use it whenever you want to push. You should have a tower down within minutes of hitting level 6 with some help from your team.

Runes

Double damage is a very good rune for Death Prophet. It allows her to dominate her lane with easy last hits and denies, and can be used for good amounts of damage to the enemy tower.



Haste rune is probably the best possible rune for Death Prophet. With it, you can gank very easily, or run around fights, melting people with Exorcism and spamming Crypt Swarm.



Illusion runes are pretty useful for pushing down lanes, but a double damage is usually more useful for that. Illusions can also be used to bait spells if you weren't seen with the illusion rune. Just send one up top or down bot and see if the enemy supports will waste their spells on it. You lose nothing, while they lose mana.

The most productive way to use illusion runes is stacking camps. Send an illusion to a hard camp (so no stupid mud golems), and attack it at x:53 on the clock. This allows multiple neutral groups to spawn in one camp, which you can then Crypt Swarm for easy gold.



Probably one of the more useless runes for Death Prophet. You can use it for escaping a gank (supports probably won't carry dust unless you have invis heroes).

It can also be used to suddenly silence an enemy hero during a gank that would be able to escape with an ability, like Anti-Mage or Storm Spirit.



While at first this may seem like the most useless rune (it really is), it has its merits. That tiny bit of experience can help you get to level 6 just that tiny bit quicker, and a full Bottle is a good bonus as well.

Mid Game

By this time you want to have some core items and level 2 Exorcism. Having Exorcism at level 2 lets you push so much harder. I follow the general rule that level 1 Exorcism should take tier 1 towers, and level 2 Exorcism should take tier 2 towers. This won't apply to every game but you should be pressuring lanes hard enough that it won't be too difficult of a goal to reach.

With Phase Boots and Eul's Scepter of Divinity along with Town Portal Scrolls you should be all over the map, snatching runes and pressuring lanes. You'll dominate almost every fight with your Silence and Exorcism. Fly around fights with Death Prophet's amazing movement speed melting heroes with Exorcism, using Silence on supports, and spamming Crypt Swarm. If possible try to fight near enemy towers, so you can push down towers if you win fights.

If the game is going slowly it's perfectly fine to farm lanes or the jungle. Death Prophet, if farming fast enough, can stay relevant into the late game. Remember to farm, don't get caught up fighting or in those stupid standoffs that always happen in pubs where both teams just sit in one lane and watch each other. You don't all need to be in one lane, that's why we have Town Portal Scrolls. Rotate, farm, and work towards your next big items.

Late Game

When the game goes later, it becomes much harder for Death Prophet to stay alive, even with items like Shiva's Guard and Heart of Tarrasque. With Black King Bars coming out, and heroes just becoming naturally tankier, Death Prophet's skills start to fall off a bit. However her Silence will always stay relevant, due to the fact that even after 40 minutes many supports will not have a Black King Bar due to its cost and the need for items like Force Staff.

Keep in mind that as the game goes on the importance of items like Scythe of Vyse increases, that 3.5 second disable might be all it takes to win a single teamfight. If you are six slotted, consider farming a Refresher Orb to keep in your stash, so you can buyback, refresh Exorcism, and teleport back into a fight.

If you are losing the game, and know that you can't fight 5v5, you can use Exorcism to chip away at towers. If you have Boots of Travel, you can teleport to a lane that is pushed in, Exorcism, and take a tower, teleporting out when people come to defend. This is more of a desperate move and shouldn't always be done. If you can, you should always fight with your team and take towers after winning fights. However in some games this won't be the case, and you'll need to rat a bit to buy some time. Don't underestimate the tower damage Death Prophet can dish out in the time it takes for the enemy to run back to defend.

Friends

Heroes that reduce armor are best friends with Death Prophet, allowing Exorcism to do more damage and continue to do so into the late game. These include Dazzle, Slardar, and Shadow Fiend.

Death Prophet combos well with other pushing heroes, which should basically cause the enemy to lose all their towers in 20 minutes. Heroes with summons like Nature's Prophet and Enigma are particularly helpful because the summons can tank the tower while Exorcism melts it.

Heroes that help Death Prophet avoid or simply tank more damage are also helpful. That means heroes like Dazzle (again!), Abaddon, even Centaur Warrunner , who can take the brunt of the enemy team, allowing you to continue to move around. ( Stampede helps with this too!)

Foes

Heroes that can burst down Death Prophet before the full duration of Exorcism is up will straight up ruin your day. This means heroes like Lion or Skywrath Mage in terms of magical damage, and Phantom Assassin for physical damage. Buy a Black King Bar against these heroes (even Phantom Assassin, so she can't Phantom Strike you then crit you to death).

Some heroes make Death Prophet A LOT less tanky, like Slardar with his Amplify Damage or Skywrath Mage with his Ancient Seal. Again, Black King Bar is very useful against these heroes.

Then there are heroes that straight up destroy you once it gets to late game, regardless of Black King Bar or not. These include hard carries; Faceless Void ( Chronosphere goes through Black King Bar), Spectre (her Haunt illusions combined with Dispersion will end up hurting your team more than you hurt her), and heroes with cleave like Kunkka or Sven, due to the fact that armor does NOTHING against their damage.