Thistle's Guide to Meepo, the Geomancer

Introduction

Meepo is a melee agility hero who excels at dealing massive burst damage and maintaining map control in order to snowball and end the game quickly. Meepo often comes up in discussions regarding the most difficult hero in DOTA 2, and is frequently compared to the likes of Chen and Invoker. This claim that Meepo is a particularly difficult hero is certainly a reasonable one in the context of DOTA 2, yet in this guide, I intend to prove that Meepo is not nearly as difficult to play as many would have you believe. Finally, before we begin, I would like to quickly bring up a few important points regarding Meepo. In no particular order, here are five things any prospective Meepo player should know:

1. Meepo requires excellent micro skills in order to be played to his full potential. (This is often the primary reason for people to believe the aforementioned claim that Meepo is one of the most difficult heroes to play in the game)

2. Meepo is not a good hero for beginners. You will need a relatively good understanding of game mechanics and proper item usage, as well as a number of skills including but not limited to: spatial awareness, positioning skills, unit micromanagement, creep blocking, denying, skill/item combos, and twitch reflexes.

3. The slightest mistake on your part as a Meepo player could mean life or death, as the death of even one Meepo clone will result in your death. Don't accidentally leave a clone in the other team's base.

4. People will target you in team fights, as your skill set poses a very immediate threat to the enemy team in the form of chained disables and extremely high burst damage. As such, it is all the more important for you to survive.

5. You will screw up and die. No matter how perfectly you micromanage your units and chain your spells and items, some things cannot be avoided. If you find yourself ambushed by a group of heroes (or a single hero who you know to be stronger than you), and you know that you cannot escape, use the opportunity to deal as much damage as possible to the hero. Often, the burst damage from Poof alone in enough to take down a full health hero, and even if you cannot secure the kill, you can force the enemy to return to their base to heal, buying your team time to push or giving them a reprieve from defending.

As a final note, Meepo can be played as a support (though this play style will not be addressed in this guide), but he is not a hard support. Meepo should never be buying wards or a courier at any point, as he needs every last bit of gold he can get to snowball and end the game before the late game hard carries out-carry him.

Pros / Cons

+Powerful disabler
+High burst damage output with Poof
+Fastest farming hero in the game
+Pseudo-global presence
+Can snowball very easily
+Hard to shut down once farmed
+Powerful ganker in early-mid game
+Remains relevant in late game due to Earthbind
+35% base magic resistance


-Easily out-carried by hard carries late game
-Item dependent
-Needs Aghanim's Scepter
-Vulnerable to burst damage, as killing one Meepo kills them all
-Requires high-level unit micromanagement to be effective
-Damage output falls off late game
-Often targeted in team fights
-Squishy during all stages of the game (without items)
-Recieves more experience from ganks, which can result in the rest of your team being under-farmed as the game progresses

[Q]

Earthbind

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Earthbind is your primary disable, and a powerful one at that. It can be difficult to land at times, but is one of the best disables in the entire game, and can be the difference between a failed gank resulting in you feeding and a rampage resulting in you snowballing out of control. You will need to learn to eyeball the range at each level, as well as the radius of effect which is constant across all levels. You should almost never cast this on every Meepo simultaneously, but rather chain it using it individually on each Meepo in order to disable an enemy for an extended period of time. If you time each cast perfectly to hit as the previous Earthbind expires, you can cancel channeling on each successive cast in addition to refreshing the duration.

-Interrupts channeling
-Reveals invisible units
-Units cannot blink out
-Spells that cannot be used to escape: Teleportation, Blink, Charge of Darkness, Phase Shift

[W]

Poof

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Poof is both your nuke and your primary mobility skill. It allows you to teleport any Meepo to any other Meepo anywhere on the map, dealing damage at both the place from which you depart, as well as where you arrive. You will often simply spam this on yourself in order to burst down low health enemy heroes as well as creep camps. A common tactic at higher levels of play is to blink Meepo Prime into an enemy, cast Earthbind on them, and them Poof all of your clones to you in order to deal massive burst damage to the enemy. If you execute this quickly enough, the enemy will still be rooted by Earthbind and be unable to avoid the damage.

For players who find such plays difficult to execute, simply running into an enemy with all of your clones, casting Earthbind, and then casting Poof on each Meepo as per the previous combo can be equally effective, particularly in games in which enemies are of a lower skill and cannot react in time. It is important to note, however, that this is almost guaranteed death in higher skill games, as most enemies will both anticipate and react to your attempted gank before you can fully execute, resulting in you feeding.

A good way to build up to the Blink Dagger combo is to practice in a bot game. Blink in with Meepo Prime and use Earthbind. As soon as you cast Earthbind, use Poof to teleport a single clone to Meepo Prime. Practice this until you can do it near-instantaneously. Continue by using Poof twice to bring two clones to Meepo Prime, and practice this once again. Continue this until you can successfully blink in Meepo Prime, Earthbind, and Poof all of your clones in a single fluid combo. This can take time, so do not move up until you have mastered the previous number. Often the most difficult part is the initial Blink --> Earthbind --> Poof. In order to overcome this difficulty, a good method is to simply practice it in reverse. Position Meepo Prime appropriately, cast Earthbind, and Poof in a clone as fast as you can. Once you can execute the Earthbind --> Poof, the use of Blink Dagger should be relatively trivial.

[E]

Geostrike

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Geostrike is a passive attack modifier. While it is probably your weakest skill overall, The DoT as well as the slow both stack with orb effects, which allows for some interesting item interactions. This is one of the main reasons for buying an Orb of Venom, as it will make your ganks much more effective. This skill, when maxed, is also useful as a semi-disable, as attacking with all of your clones will result in the enemy hero being slowed to the point of essentially becoming stationary, allowing your team to come in and assist you should it be required.

[R]

Divided We Stand

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Divided We Stand is your ultimate, and is also singlehandedly responsible for making Meepo the hero that he is. For each point you put into Divided We Stand, an additional clone of Meepo will spawn, up to a maximum of 3 clones (4 with Aghanim's Scepter). This is what allows you to farm incredibly fast, as well as deal massive burst damage, disable enemies indefinitely, and gank effectively throughout the game.

While I addressed this in the introduction, I feel it is important to note it again. You must be able to micromanage all of your units at a high level. Leaving a clone in enemy territory will result in you feeding almost 100% of the time. If you see a clone taking damage that you did not expect, immediately check on it, as many heroes will use the fact that you must manage so many units to their advantage to get easy kills on units that you are not actively controlling, preventing you from escaping in time. Heroes such as Riki, Nyx Assassin, Bounty Hunter, Clinkz, and Queen of Pain, just to name a few, can become a serious problem if you aren't careful with your clones and allow them to catch you off guard focusing on a single Meepo.

Control Groups

You should have the following groups bound to your control groups 1-6. I personally use the number keys, but the particular key binds for each group are a matter of personal preference. In order of importance:

All Meepo Clones (- Meepo Prime)

Meepo Clones 1 and 2

Meepo Clones 3 and 4

Meepo Clone 1

Meepo Clone 2

Meepo Clone 3

Meepo Clone 4 ( Aghanim's Scepter)

If you can use unified unit commands effectively, you shouldn't need a group for Meepo Prime + All Clones, but if you still plan on using a group for them it would fall directly under priority for the 2 Clone groups. Meepo Prime should not require a separate group as it is bound to [F1] by default, which is already a good position.

Starting Items

Ring of Protection: provides much needed early game survivability. Builds into Ring of Basilius.

Tango: provides regeneration to help you stay in lane and get farm until you can begin jungling.

Early Game

Ring of Basilius: Provides additional mana regeneration, armor, and damage; all of which you desperately need in the early stages of the game.

Boots of Speed: Useful for obvious reasons. Movement speeds helps you chase, escape, position yourself better for ganks, and much more.

Orb of Venom: Stacks with Geostrike to vastly improve your early game ganking. The slow in combination with Earthbind almost completely prevents a target from escaping, and the DoT can be much more effective that you may think.

Core Items

Aghanim's Scepter: Rush this immediately. You will want this as soon as possible in any game. The additional clone alone is very useful, but without the shared stats it provides, many of your other items are nearly useless.

Mekansm: Increases survivability for you and all of your clones. Also helps with pushing, which helps you end the game before other carries come online.

Armlet of Mordiggian: Great synergy with Aghanim's Scepter, as all of your clones will share the stat gains from the active ability, but only Meepo Prime will be affected by the health drain.

Blink Dagger: See Earthbind paragraph 2

Power Treads: Attack speed and stats help with ganks as well as survivability

Extension Items

Eye of Skadi: Helps you shut down opposing carries. Also massively improves your team fight contribution and ganking potential.

Scythe of Vyse: Provides excellent stat bonuses as well as an active which helps you gank much more effectively.

Heart of Tarrasque: Massively improves your survivability.

Ethereal Blade: Provides a good escape mechanism as well as a very powerful ganking tool.

Situational Items

[Coming Soon]

Friends / Foes / Food

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Change Log

June 8, 2015:
-Improved aesthetic appeal
-Shortened Introduction
-Various Fixes/Corrections
-Started Work on Skill Tables

June 4, 2015:
-Added Winter Wyvern to Foes