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Healing Salve
Tango
ClarityClarity
Mantle of Intelligence
Null Talisman
Arcane Boots
Perseverance
Town Portal Scroll
Phase Boots
Bloodstone
Heart of Tarrasque
Scythe of Vyse
Shiva's Guard
Vanguard
Force Staff
Eul's Scepter of Divinity
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1 | 7 | 8 | 10 |  |
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4 | 12 | 13 | 14 |  |
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2 | 3 | 5 | 9 |  |
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6 | 11 | 16 |  |
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15 | 17 | 18 |
Hello and welcome to my guide for Krobelus, the Death Prophet. Although she may seem either weak or hard to play at first (Two skills that you need to aim and an ult that chooses random targets), I believe that Death Prophet's ult is one of the most powerful ults in the early-mid game.
As an excellent pusher, Death Prophet will be able to take the mid tower early and go around the map to gank enemy heroes and secure a huge early game advantage. With this, hopefully your team will be able to outplay the other team before it reaches the late game.
Although this guide was written for a mid lane player, the general ideas can be ported to either of the side lanes.
Starting Items
These are just to keep in lane while building for the Null Talisman.
Early Game
- Null Talisman: This should give you a slightly larger mana pool and a bit more damage so that it will be easier to last hit creep. If you seem to be doing very well in lane, you could technically skip this and go straight for Arcane Boots. But a tiny bit of Strength is always nice.
- Arcane Boots: Even with Witchcraft, you may find that you are running out of mana often. Arcane Boots will keep your mana up so that you will be able to continuously harass the enemy hero while getting the gold you need.
- Perseverance: The Soul Booster's price is a little steep to buy in the early game. Also Perseverance gives a nice boost to your HP and mana regen, which you will find useful. (And you hit a little bit harder)
- Town Portal Scroll: Rule of thumb with ANY hero; always carry a scroll. The price is only about 2-3 creep kills, it will pay off in the long run. You can use it to gank, to stop a push, or get yourself out of a sticky situation.
Mid Game
- Blood Stone: Once you get the remaining two items of the Soul Booster, Vitality Booster and Soul Booster, disassemble your Arcane Boots to change it into a Blood Stone. DO NOT BUY ANOTHER ENERGY BOOSTER. The 1000 gold can be spent on more valuable items.
- Phase Boots: These are used to run away from/chase down heroes. Plus the damage it gives is pretty nice.
- (Wards): If your team is composed of all carries or the support isn't doing their job (Or just doesn't have enough money), be sure to pick up a couple of wards. If placed in the correct spots, this will net you a great advantage with positioning and ganking.
Late Game
All these items are situational; please choose what to get according to what's happening in your game.
- Heart of Tarrasque: This will increase your suvivability in team fights by a large amount, helping your ult do its job.
- Vanguard: Same as the Heart, but if you find yourself a bit tight on gold (Or you want to save up for a buyback, or you're buying wards), you may opt for the Vanguard instead.
- Scythe of Vyse: This is just a support item that will help out in team fights or in ganks so you can disable the enemy team's most dangerous hero.
- Eul's Scepter: Similar to the Scythe.
- Shiva's Guard: Another great support item that will slow down the enemy's teams attack speed and movement speed, while giving you a boost in armor.
- Force Staff: This is another great pickup as you can force teammates or yourself out of a bad situation of push an enemy into yours for a quick and easy kill.
The skill build heavily relies upon Death Prophet's great passive, Witchcraft. With a movement speed boost, mana cost decrease, a cooldown decrease AND a buff to her ult, it may be one of the best individual passives in the game. The skill build I have chosen takes advantage of this passive to utilize it to the max in the early.
Although crypt swarm does a fair amount of damage in the beginning, it is critical to have 3 points allocated to Witchcraft at level 6. This is due to the fact that Exorcism with 3 levels of Witchcraft is almost as strong as a base-level Exorcism level 2! By choosing to level skills this way, you can push down towers very fast once you hit 6.
Although taking an extra level in Crypt may be tempting to some players, I HIGHLY suggest that you take 1 level in Silence as it can help you escape a gank since Death Prophet has no real escape mechanism.
I tend to wait until I level up my Crypt before I max out my Witchcraft, but depending on the situation, it may be a wiser choice to max out Witchcraft first. (Perhaps your team already has a lot of nukes, or you need to cast the Silence more often due to disables on the other team).
If being chased by an enemy hero, you can always activate Exorcism while running away. Exorcism can be seen as an "escape skill" since it will continuously attack nearby heroes. If it is only a single hero, there is a high chance that you will be able to lower their health to an amount where you are at an advantage. If successful, the chasing hero will be killed and you will be back to full health due to the spirits healing you at the end of the ult.
Early Game
With an abysmal missile speed, and a fairly long pre-attack animation, Death Prophet is one of the hardest heroes to lane with in mid lane. You will be getting minimal last-hits and denies. I suggest you use your Crypt Swarm to take your last hits while harassing the enemy mid hero. By taking only one level in Crypt with 3 levels of Witchcraft in the early game, you will be able keep your mana fairly high while building up your gold for your core items.
Bottle Play?
Although using the bottle as Death Prophet may be a good idea, I believe that the 600 gold can be used in better places than a bottle. The fact that Witchcraft level 3 decreases the mana cost a fair amount, the starting items should be enough to keep you in lane. Of course, you should be checking on the runes every two minutes to have a slight advantage over the enemy mid hero (Either kick them out of lane, or have them play passively)
You Hit Level 6
This is your time to shine! With 9 spirits, you should be able to take down the Tier 1 tower fairly quickly. Usually two Exorcisms are enough to take out the tower. Make sure you clear out the enemy creep wave at the river; this is so that you have an almost full creep wave by the time you reach the tower. Make sure you use your Silence if the enemy hero has a stun/disable in case of a gank. Once that tower is down, it's time to roam around and take down the other Tier 1 towers.
Pre-Blood Stone
So you've now pushed mid tower, their mid hero is kicked out of lane. What do you do now? Go and gank of course! With some great early burst damage and a fairly long silence, Death Prophet can be a competent ganker. Using your ult whenever it is off of cooldown, use it to push the remaining two Tier 1 towers. Once they are down, your team will be at a significant gold advantage, making you that much closer to your blood stone and giving the items that your team needs.
Tier 1 are Down, what now?
As an excellent push hero, you should be constantly trying to push lanes! At this point, laning phase should be over, and you should at least have your perseverance. Try to pick a lane as a team and push to the Tier 2. You will have probably reached level 11 at this point as well; your team should have no problem taking down the towers.
Alright, so I got my Blood Stone
With the huge boost in HP and mana regen the Blood Stone gives, you will be able to spam your Crypt and Silence without much worries of running out of mana (You also have your Arcane Boots). Use this to your advantage by catching enemy heroes off guard in their jungle or by pushing towers! Remember, Silence can be a great initiation against a disable/stun heavy team as they will not be able to do anything.
Late Game
I believe late game items builds are completely situational, but the most important part of playing Death Prophet is that you need to stay alive for your ult to do work. Thus I suggest in building items that will increase your survivability so that you will be able to maximize the 30 second duration of your ultimate.
With some smart gameplay and good teamwork, you can finish a game in the early-game with a Death Prophet. Being an excellent pusher, you will be able to keep the enemy team contained on the map and have them play passively.
If there are any errors in this guide, or you would like to make a suggestion, feel free to let me know.
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