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Circlet
Mantle of Intelligence
ClarityClarityClarity
Tango
Bottle
Arcane Boots
Dagon 1
Bloodstone
Shadow Blade
Aghanim's Scepter
Orchid Malevolence
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1 | 8 | 9 | 10 |  |
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3 | 4 | 5 | 7 |  |
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2 | 12 | 13 | 14 |  |
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6 | 11 | 16 |  |
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15 | 17 | 18 |
Hello and welcome to my Zeus guide.
Zeus is the hero I am playing at the moment in a intensive manner, reaching soon 300 games. Not much but I keep going and making experiments to see everything Zeus has to offer.
*UPDATE* - 461 Zeus games and counting.
Why Zeus ?
I am a simple man that wanna do simple things, just not the normal way :). So I took the first hero from Z to A. And I like it very much since it suits my taste for game, agressive mid laner.
Even if sometimes I can't play mid I will still take Zeus as side lane, any new setup and possible role is a new challenge.
I hope you will find my guide detailed, easy to read an useful.
In any case, like it or not, please rate it.
Also feel free to point out mistakes, discuss builds and anything else that comes into your mind, topic related.(actually I really want you to do that)
Pros :
- Good damaging abilities.
- Global ultimate.
- Good dewarding capabilities.
- Reveals stealth units.
- Scales decent into late game
- Easy last hits if handled correctly.
Cons:
- Squishy (Puny God) depending on build.
- Very mana dependant ! Without very very good mana regeneration you will move a lot to your base and back. Without mana you are completly useless.
- So Squishy against mana draining heroes, like 
Anti-Mage, 
Lion, 
Keeper of the Light.
- Low base movement speed.
- Useless against 
Black King Bar and magic resistant heroes like Anti-Mage, 
Pudge.
What roles can Zeus cover:
o Nuker - Native. His abilities alone will cover this role, all you need to take care of is mana pool. Take "nuker" as for beeing able to focus high amount of damage on one or more targets during a short amount of time in teamfights.
o Lane ganker - Native. Lane Ganker means leaving your lane (mid) and take advantage of the enemies already partially damaged and/or subject for disables offered by team mates. You are there to quickly burst damage down one enemy and ensure a kill for your team. For Zeus this is mainly done early game, more than anything once you as mid take advantage of movement speed bonus offered by Arcane Boots (Lane heroes will normally get upgraded boots a little bit later, unless fed).
o Ganker - Build. Ganking in general will require more movement speed and freedom, and for that you will need items like 
Eul's Scepter of Divinity and 
Force Staff.
o Soft Disabler - Build for aditional disables. With no items bought for it you can use only two things:
1. Ministun from Lightning Bolt, very usefull to cancel any channeled spell or town portal. You can practically stop ultimates from heroes like
Witch Doctor and 
Crystal Maiden and do good damage at same time.
2. Same Lightning Bolt and Thundergod's Wrath to gain true sight on invisible heroes.
To get further disables you'll need to buy items like Eul's Scepter of Divinity, 
Scythe of Vyse, 
Rod of Atos.
o Durable - requires full item build. Will explain this further in the build.
o Support - requires item build. This will mainly apply if you are assigned to a side lane. Since you can nuke and take early kills you will be a decent Urn of Shadow carrier. Arcane Boots and later on 
Mekansm and you'll be able to fill your party with some mana and health. Get a Force Staff to assist your lane mate following or escaping and we have a Zeus support.
And of course you can do excelent warding and dewarding !
o Carry - ultimate challenge. If he can carry, any hero can carry. Ok, this can happen if you did excelent job on mid lane and managed to get enough kills to greatly get overgeared. Paired with your nuking and maybe a low HP oposing team things can get funny.
At the very start Zeus actually is a weakling, not worst, but his base stats are not great at all.
- Strenght 76,5 at 25(19+2.3/lvl). A starting 19 strenght gives him some survival in the beggining. It looks like a bonus but in the start I would have preffered more intellect, less strenght, cause Zeus will be very safe in his lane last hiting with Arc Lightning. The only thing strenght does is add little chance to survive an early gank, bonus canceled however by slow moving speed.
As for the 2.3 gain per level, it is actually very good for intellect heroes, biggest gains bracket beeing 2.3-2.5, with one exception on Ogre Mage (3.2).
So as an idea, base stats offer a background help for HP building if you choose so. Not best, but good enough.
- Agility 41(11 + 1.2/lvl). Very bad. So bad that is not worth mention.
- Intellect 87,5 (20+2.7/lvl). For a god he is not that brilliant. Compared with Dazzle (112 at 25) and Pugna (126 at 25) he seems a little dumb. Add a very intensive way to spend mana and you already described Zeus's highest need in any game - mana pool. That if you consider staying in a fight longer than a quick burst Q-W-R-Q.
- Auto-attack damage. Worst in game actually. Very bad animation, low attack rate, 350 range that almost makes you say he is not actually range (lowest range in game for range heroes). So if you ever think you can carry with Zeus (auto-attack carry), do it against melle enemies, not range ones, and be ready to stack HP as hell, you'll need it.
Arc Lightning
Usage:
* From start you will use this to last hit first creeps of the waves since your damage and attack animation will not help at all predict damage from full row of creeps. Feel free to try auto-attack last hit creeps when you have 1 friendly creep left and no enemy hero around, but in rest just take it with Arc Lightning. Since you're most probably going to take bottle very soon, you'll be able to spam it a lot.
* Harass - Also doable from start to keep heroes away from their own last hits. This might work or not work, depending on how much HP and healing the enemy has on it. Also Zeus nuking capability below level 5 is quite low and Arc Lightning spam can be partially denied with an early 
Magic Stick.
* Jungle pull. Very easy due to high range and instant effect.
* HUGE RANGE, cause as defined, it jumps. Sometimes it can prove one of the best last hit tools in the game for beeing an instant cast. For example an enemy runs from a fight and is currently more than 850 range, and his movement speed normally allows him to get out. If by any chance you can target any other target towards him you may benefit of a 500y arc lightning jump and actually take the kill. That of course if you don't want or don't have Thundergod's Wrath available.
Lightning Bolt
Usage:
* Nuking - This is your main nuke while ganking. Once you hit level 7 you already have Lightning Bolt maxed and also Thundergod's Wrath, now your main role is change lanes and take kills for your team. If you are sure you can get the kill but can't get very close unseen, use it always first since it has lower cast range than Arc Lightning and so you don't risk scaring the enemy before getting in range to use it.
* Dewarding - Once you get confortable with mana regeneration is advisable to deward as much as possible.
* Reveal stealh heroes
* Penalize runing stealth heroes. Sometimes you will find yourself chasing stealth able heroes that can be finished with 1 Lightning Bolt.
Actually you saw their HP, you know where they are going. If you are in range for an on-ground cast is already a kill if you guess their exact location.
Sometime you follow them but you are not in reach yet. And now comes the funny part. If you are following in jungle where there is no linear escape route usually even in stealth people will follow treeline, just like beeing seen and trying to get out of sight. Now when they do turn to the left or right take in considereation that suddenly he is closer to your cast range, predict and shoot, you will recieve back many times "WTF" replies :))
* Stack neutral camps :) (you need at least level 1 
Static Field for this to work.
Static Field
Now this is what makes Zeus scale into late game. Every time you cast any spell, you do also passive damage in a 1,000y range around you. Since the damage is percentual it will actually bother tank much more since the damage done will not be easily healed back.
This passive ability was and still is subject for many discussions around damage capability and better build.
I will not say that my reasoning is better than others, but will say my opinion.
If early on there will mainly be 1v1 or 2v2 fights, choose to level up Arc Lightning first. Once a hero is brought to low hp and try run a level 1 Arc Lightning might just not be enough and 5/7/9/11% of almost nothing is less than almost nothing.
If you see 5v5 team fights coming on soon, take Static Field higher first.
The hardest thing is to optimize late game usage to do full damage with this passive.
If you will play safe and throw Arc Lightning from max range there is a very high chance to actually damage with Static Field only the primary target since Arc lighting can jump 500y till next target but static field will work only 150y further from your initial target (if you used max range when you casted Arc Lightning.
As shown earlier on stacking neutral camps, you can take vengence on following heroes with low HP that are about to kill you by "calling" neutral help to finish off your followers. It is tricky but results will be amazing.
Thundergod's Wrath
Awesome global damage, can be boosted with Aghanim's Scepter and 
Refresher Orb
Usage:
* In team fights you should use this early on since you will want give the kills to your carries. So either use at start (not before initiation, but still when enemy heroes have near to full HP) or wait if your team can handle wait till the first targeted hero is nuked down to avoid stealing the kill.
* Finish off escaping enemies that could have been killed by others but just got out of reach.
* Stealth out heroes that were almost dying and used stealth to try get out of combat, across the map (in close range you better use Lightning Bolt.
On this section I'll try cover all items, even the some crazy picks (not base components tho), and will try to explain when and against what heroes certain items bring benefits.
A. Boots
1. Arcane Boots
Considered in almost all cases the best boots for Zeus. It will always be one of the first 3 items you take, usually bottle and then boots. On mid lane you should have those before level 6, without the extra mana pool you will not be able to start ganking early.
Excelent to prevent enemy heroes from getting their own farm since keeps your Arc Lightning spamable.
2. 
Tranquil Boots
You can use those if you are not on mid lane and compensate mana with 
Soul Ring. Later on try upgrade Soul Ring into Bloodstone and at that moment the lack of Arcane Boots will not matter that much anymore. The advantage of this boots is you can stay much longer in side lanes, since you will need healing and without bottle you will lack sustained healing without it.
3. 
Phase Boots
This is an uncommon buy, it will not help you regenerate mana or health. It will add lane ganking capability and escaping capability. I rearely use those myself, but did greatly helped against teams containing 
Centaur Warrunner 
Spirit Breaker 
Bloodseeker 
Night Stalker.
For this rare cases where enemies have 2 such heroes I use a max movement speed build, one item will not help much, so consider pairing this with Eul's Scepter of Divinity, 
Drum of Endurance and if you are crazy with 
Yasha. In late game if you can replace with 
Boots of Travel.
4. 
Power Treads
If you ever think on building auto-attack damage on intellect base this is your best choice sicen it also gives you attack speed. You really have to be ahead of the game to make any use of those however since as moving speed is worst option and Zeus is not brilliant on this subject.
5. Boots of Travel
Free TP. If you choose to take those early on you can change lanes very often. Late game it greatly depends if ganking is still available but still will get you much faster back in the fight.
B. Common and support items
* 
Magic Wand
A small item that can save your life if you remember to use it in the heat of combat. Good against heroes who spam spells a lot (Ironically like your own Arc Lightning).
* 
Hand of Midas
An item that I would use only if I would get a very fast kill (like first blood on rune site). It will boost your leveling even more and might recover the gold spent, but as stats is close to no use to Zeus. Clearly not a regular item for Zeus.
* 
Urn of Shadows
If you plan to do lane support is not a bad item at all. With your nuking capabilities you'll be able to get some charges early on. It ads HP and it ads 50% mana regen. For its price is not a bad option as support.
* 
Medallion of Courage
This makes little use to you, not as ganker, not even as support. There are better items if you wanna go for some extra armor and to support and reduce armor on enemies ...is better let someone who actually do physical damage or you risk use it for nothing. Only take if you really think you need that tiny extra piece of armor.
* 
Ring of Aquila
Small mana regen, minor armor bonus, some +dmg (useless for Zeus). For a caster that must spam spells the mana regeneration from this item is a joke.
* Mekansm
If you will be supporting your team it is an item to consider. Be sure there is only one Mekansm in your team however, as you can not heal allies again for 25 seconds. If you do take 2 in your team tho, be sure you have a very good comunication and timing, 2 of them might cover perfectly the 45 seconds CD.
* 
Pipe of Insight
Again, take it if you are doing support role and you wanna prevent aoe damage from enemy team. If with good coordonation you can have 2 x Mekansm, this is not the case for Pipe of Inshight, since CD of the object is almost same with reuse timer on same allies.
C. Caster Items
* Force Staff
Good item since it offers mana pool, HP regeneration and most important for Zeus an escape, since he has none of his own. If you wanna use it for chasing enemies while gank Force Staff alone might be enough, if you wanna build strong escape you should however pair it with additional items like Eul's Scepter of Divinity.
* 
Veil of Discord
Very nice item to help your ganking and nuking. It actually removes the initial 25% spell resist and you'll deal full damage to players. As much usage you find to this item you should consider your team composition. It is optimal to have 2 more casters(1 beeing support) or if not 2 then you should have 1 more high damage nuker (
Lina
Queen of Pain
* Eul's Scepter of Divinity
Good disable item and also very useful as for movement speed, since Zeus is lacking it. You can use it to escape in 1v1 situations, avoid many powerful attacks (like Sniper's Assasinate. Paired with 
Blink Dagger makes maybe best escape in game. Also said earlier to pair with Force Staff since Blink Dagger is not best option for casters who lack mana.
* 
Necronomicon
An item offering good stats to Zeus but hard to manage since it will require micro management, thing hard to do on a spaming hero. Good if you can try counter heroes who have a desperate need for mana, like 
Wraith King, very good against stealth heroes at level 3.
* Dagon
Now this item is insane on Zeus and will completely define you as ultimate glass canon. The worst thing about it is that once you start use it with success you will be overjoied and will upgrade it. This means you will become better and better at ganking and even team fighting since this item offers better damage and increased range usage each time you upgrade it, but also will send you in mid/late game with low HP.
Early game for example at level 7 your 2 seconds nuke on one target can go up to 810 damage (already took 25% spell resistance in consideration), so basically any hero that you catch without full HP is a walking dead. Greatly depends however if you wanna risk and go without boots in the start, else you'll get dagon a little later.
* Rod of Atos
Very good stats for not so much gold. Ads a 4 seconds slow, very usefull since it will cover your low mevement speed problem when chasing. Its 1200 range means you can slow the enemy after he escaped your Arc Lightning range, so back in for a new nuke period. That means on one target you might be able to cast a set of 1x Lighning Bolt + 2x [[Arc Lightning before using Rod of Atos and same set of spells again after the usage. Add Thundergod's Wrath if you still have mana and target is still alive. If you don't have a kill already you might consider going back since if you are alone the gank might turn against you.
* Aghanim's Scepter and Refresher Orb
In any pub game you go everyone expects Zeus to take Aghanim's Scepter and Refresher Orb.
Aghanim's Scepter will add good mana and health, and will provide an extra 825 overall damage(before resists, 618.75 after reists) each 90 seconds, that if used on cooldown (almost sure you will not do that unless you wanna set a new record for damage done in a game). So a max 618.75 damage (rounded) used on cooldown means 6.875 damage per second.
For math sake let's add Refresher Orb also . It has 185 seconds cooldown and will offer you another ultimate and maybe a faster use of Lightning Bolt, but not really by much, so will only take the math for ultimate, having Aghanim's Scepter on. That's 2,400 more damage each 185 seconds (took 25% resist in consideration). That's 12.97 damage per second also if you use it on cooldown.
Will certainly not take Static Field in discusion here since Arc Lightning would do it aswell, and more than that Thundergod's Wrath is global and might not triger it at all.
Refresher Orb however offers close to nothing to Zeus as stats. Mana regeneration is good but nowhere near to Bloodstone, offers bad HP regen, bonus damage to a very bad attack animation and a very low (10) attack speed bonus. .
So, before taking the standard combo, take this things in consideration:
- Stealth enemy units. The first time you will use Thundergod's Wrath if there are stealthed units, those will take NO damage, but instead will be revealed. If they have the possibility to quickly re-stealth (
Bounty Hunter, 
Clinkz) you will do to them NO damage from using Refresher Orb also.
Notice also that this combo ads bad HP, you will be very vulnerable against stealthies, 
Nyx Assassin for example will eat you alive, if he is bold enough even in towers or behind your team.
- Smart teams might/should/will buy a much cheaper Pipe of Insight.
- Silencers. If enemy team has good silences either stay very safe back till you can do you global nuking (that is they don't actually have 
Silencer with global silence) and risk lose damage from Static Field and a few seconds till you get into fight, either risk it and potentially become useless in the fight.
A special place on silences effects that will most probably kill you is 
Doom.
* Scythe of Vyse
Ads a good disable for 3.5 seconds. However is not cheap at all and ads good intellect but not much in rest. It is one of the top items for intellect and mana regen, but not best for Zeus for same reason explained before. Attack speed and animation are so bad that damage bonus from intellect will not matter much.
Take this item only if you really need the disable and find it vital to counter heroes as:
- 
Faceless Void during his Cronosphere,
- 
Phantom Assassin and any other hero to remove his annoying dodge.
- Any other overfed hero that will kill you and your team in a matter of seconds. If he can do that tho I don't really see how you'll gather the gold to buy Scythe of Vyse however.
D. Weapons
* Shadow Blade
Actually re-writing this section, since this item in many cases can be vital, specially in early game. In specific games whwn facing heavy control/mobility team this is my 3rd item after bottle and boots. How can it help ? First of all, it offers you a very safe way to collect runes vs heroes like QoP or Storm Spirit. Secondly, since you are mid and highest level you are supposed to gank at least starting with level 7. At low levels it offers great moving speed, an almost 300 nuke (so same dmg as your W. So SB initiation + W +Q + R end is a nuke around 700 dmg after resists. Add if u can one more W and you get seriously close to 1k dmg. At level 7-10 most of the times this get you a sure kill. Of course chances to be succesfull will go lower for example if u decide to help on a lane where you already have a stealher.
As a special note for my invis build. Having 2 items (or 3 if u are nuts, Shadow Blade, 
Shadow Amulet and glimmering cape) and Eul allows you to care much less about dust, since once they use dust you can simply eul yourself to remove dust debuff and reenter stealth with the second item. Unless they have multiple dust users there is a big chance to get away safely.
* 
Ethereal Blade or 
Ghost Scepter
A strange form of nuke for Intellect heroes, since, well, is not an intellect item. 4 Seconds of physical imunity is purely situational since if you are in need to use it most probably you will not be able to get away in time, and the cost of an non-core item means if you ever get this will be in mid/late game so low chances to use it in 1v1 situation.
* All rest of items listed as Weapons are for you only if as said you are enough crazy to go pure damage. You will be worst hero for it since you will play as an almost blank(with no skills) hero and make little use of Arc Lightning and Static Field.
E. Armor
* 
Hood of Defiance
You are one doing the nukes, would be a waste of space. Enemy team must be ultra heavy on magic damage to consider this. If that would be the case I would always go HP build to survive and 
Blade Mail to return the nukes. So not much use as I see it.
* Blade Mail
An item any hero can use as long as you make sure you survive long enough. If you are less than 1,400 HP at high levels just forget about it. If you build some good HP tho it will make sure either you are not touched for its duration so you will be free to nuke, either they will try nuke you and be punished.
Can however be denied if enemies are good and just stun you and let it pass so if they are heavy on disablers is not really an option.
* 
Shiva's Guard
A very nice item against physical teams if you already have decent HP. Slow effect and Intellect are both pf great help. You will not even need blink since nobody will see a big threat in a Zeus coming melle if you wish to go into them, or can help you escape if you don't wanna be in melle.
* 
Linken's Sphere
Not worst stats, decent mana regen, but most important will make you resist once each 20 seconds a spell. Use it against Doom, 
Viper, 
Legion Commander, 
Sniper and so on, basically against any hero with low arsenal of targeted spells.
F. Artefacts
* 
Maelstrom - 
Mjollnir
If you ever consider going for autoattack spam you will need Mjollnir for sure. If not you can still use Maelstrom in mid game to push lanes. Early game you will need other items and more last hits in lane with enemy heroes, so not a good use early on. Once you get a little HP you can solo creep groups solo very fast with Maelstrom and Arc Lightning.
* 
Diffusal Blade
I bought this item in very late game a few times, when I had plently gold and wanted to make enemy melle carries to ****. Not mainly for the mana burn but mainly for the slow and debuffing.
And with that we are done with all items I could get in my mind as possible useful to Zeus (some if them being low usage but still granting something).
This area will cover each build with aditional information as is during development. Will add more info while I play each build for a serious amount of games.
And to start it, since is an *UPDATE CHAPTER*, I will start with the last build added, lucky
--- number 7 Annoying God --- .
I called it "Annoying God" cause it ads and focuses on controling team fights and ganks but not in a solo manner.
First big change from normal that you'll notice is the usage of Power Treads. Is very important to understand what this change offers and what it takes away, while you compare it with Arcane Boots.
On one hand it takes away some movement speed and also some of your mana pool aswell as your 100 mana gain once in a while.
On the other hand it gives you the option to be a little more safe by switching on strenght, and also makes you auto attacks much better when u go for last hits.
With arcane boots and low initial auto attack damage you are very dependant on your Q spam. It works fine for first 2-3 levels, but even with arcane boots and Bottle you will find yourself mana dry at level 5-7, exactly when you are supposed to start gank.
Whatever boots you purchase, it will not solve movement problem for Zeus, so at least one more escape/movement speed item is highly recommended. So Eul's Scepter of Divinity, Force Staff or if people are still on their lanes Rod of Atos to help your side lane ganking.
Bloodstone will greatly add survivability and mana regen, very important if you skiped Rod of Atos.
Now, take it as second effect or main effect, but this build gives you a very good fight control since we have the following:
- ministun from Lightning Bolt to interupt channeled spels.
- Eul's Scepter of Divinity offers both movement speed and very good crowd control.
- Force Staff, use it on yourself to aproach escaping heroes/gank targets, help your initiator get fast placement(your force staff + his blink dagger can make very nice things) or force enemy heroes out of positions.
- Rod of Atos gives you good mana and HP and even in late game will screw up melle carries a lot.
If you need extra silence and magic debuff (only way for you to contribute against Anti-Mage) take also Orchid Malevolence.
Gathering all this items will also give you decent auto attack damage and AS(for Zeus) .
While this is not a focus for Zeus, it is an welcome bonus when you are forced to stay and fight enemies under BKB effect. Will not help a lot in a 1 vs 1 fight but in a group fight might just add those 50 dmg required to reduce losses/turn the fight around. Way better than just looking.
As pure statistics, I got this result for build no. 7 after 30 games(medium values):
K/D/A 8.70/9.63/21.63 so 3.15 KDA rate, and a win rate of 50%.
--- Build 1 - Instakill ---
Is a regular build, using the basic Arcane Boots. What is different is the usage of dagon and shadowblade. Lets face it, Zeus is a mid hero and you are expected to gank. Nothing can help ganking more than those 2 items. Still, using this items in pub games will most probably make ever single game a long talk with team mates that only can asociate Zeus with standard build. Actually any build other than Aghanim's Scepter and Refresher Orb will end in same state.
Now, this build is focused on instantly bring down one enemy, perfect to use early game (dagon only) and mid game against lanes, jungle heroes. In late game if you have a good understanding of the fights and learn when to get into fight you can destroy an enemy agility carry like Faceless Void or Phantom Assassin in 2-3 seconds. Or maybe a nasty support/disabler. Your choice.
Lane last hiting - Very simple as long as you have mana, still complex to master if you wanna keep the lane balanced.
Things to do if you solo your lane (mid most probably)
- If allowed, always auto-attack enemy creeps that are not recieving any damage, that way when you hit with Arc Lightning the one curently targeted by own creeps you will get more than 1 last hit with it.
- Attack your own creeps as much as possible, not only for deny. Any time you use Arc Ligtning you will push lane so you need to counter that.
- Between waves go back and do your best to delay the next wave. However as Zeus you want the lanes to meet in the river as much as possible, not closer to your tower. That will prevent damage from tower (possible lost last hits) and also will be more probably that enemy hero will get damage from Arc Lightning and Static Field
Jungling
Perfectly viable for Zeus after you build Bloodstone ignoring/asking help with magic imune camps. Arc Lightning spam from safe distance will kill camps very fast. If you still have bottle also you will not have to worry much about running away from creeps.
Of course, don't go jungle if you are needed in team fights or there is already another hero needing it more than you.
I will give some advices for public games, since for 5 man teams Team Work will come naturally with good communication.
* Help ganking. Once you get level 7 and you have Arcane Boots is time for you to help your team. From now on you must move A LOT. You are a nuker as long as you can cast Lightning Bolt.
* Prevent ganking. Always call misses. With the risk of beeing annoying and spamming chat, if you don't see you mid enemy for 3-4 seconds, specially near rune respawn timer, an untold miss and a rune of haste can quickly turn bad.
* In mid/late game, sacrifice damage. If you have all enemies miss for longer times, feel free to use Thundergod's Wrath to get vision on them. You might detect a Roshan fight or who knows ? get a free kill from low HP heroes farming jungle. As much as you ward, you will never be able to ward all map at all times.
* Use Thundergod's Wrath to initiate jungle ganks, if you enter with 1-2 more from river entrances, specially if you play Radiant. There are good chances to be able to cut a junglers retreat path by knowing his position, and also you will not get ugly surprises once you get in there.
* While ganking, if possible, let your carry take the last hit. Do that when your target has no reliable escapes like blinks. Stealth does not apply if your Lightning Bolt is ready or on 1-2 seconds cooldown left. If your carry is melle and you are safe stay also close to your target, If your carry will not be able to take the kill in 3-4 seconds, finish the target yourself, DO NOT let the target live more than 10 seconds if possible, he might get unwanted help.
* DO NOT USE Thundergod's Wrath to steal kills over the map. Zeus already have a bad reputation for that, do not contribute further into this. DO USE it if enemies go low HP out of reach or you have doubts your allies will get the kill and the one fleeing is a stealther.
* If you are out of mana with low mana regeneration, just GO AWAY in base. Without mana to use Zeus in almost all cases will be a free kill for enemy team.
Actually this is an advice that applies to all casters and even more important for supports, since not only you will contribute with nothing in the fight, but your team will not be there to check you mana status and will engage counting you in. You will end by getting killed yourself and maybe more players and probably will get flamed at.
So no mana = get back. Announce and leave before a teamfight starts so everyone else fall back in time or engage without counting you in if ods are still on your team side.
Ok, so here I will present a list of heroes that normally put some pressure on Zeus and some ways to counter them.
It is ideal if you can make your own game and somebody else in your team take care of the problem for you, still in Public games don't count on it that much.
1. Pudge
Now this guy is bad ! Once he 
Meat Hook you he can almost cook you. Well, not if you are prepared for him with items that will not make you even go on the wrong stats.
You will need three things to counter him however:
- fast reactions, so you can act before he can 
Dismember you.
- Eul's Scepter of Divinity. Instantly as you are hooked(if you can't dodge the hook) spam it. You will end in a cyclone right next to Pudge.
- Force Staff. Once you are in the cyclone, spam it. Now you are away from Pudge and is up to you to get away or predict next Meat Hook. Don't fail twice !
2. 
Clockwerk
He will 
Hookshot and 
Power Cogs you instantly. You only need Force Staff and some spam to get out of it. Once out he might become the victim depending on how much mana you have left.
3. Legion Commander
Simply Linken's Sphere to deny 
Duel
4. 
Doom
Linken's Sphere and Bloodstone can both work against his Doom.
5. Anti-Mage
Not much to do against him if he gets 
Manta Style. Try Thundergod's Wrath to determine which is the real one and use Scythe of Vyse and RUN. In 1 vs 1 against him you will die most of the time.
6. Bloodseeker
If he does 
Rupture stop at once and use town portal. And hope he got no stuns.
7. Nyx Assassin and stealth units in general
There is a naughty item name Necronomicon. Use it ! And when is on cooldown be sure you have mana and throw some Lightning Bolt.
8. Silencer
Not sure why people seems scared of him. If he uses Curse of the Silent, instantly throw back an Arc Lightning, he will be hurt more. If he does 
Last Word, cast anything and use Bottle. If he uses 
Global Silence go back, still use Bottle as needed.
9. 
Rubick
Again saw him posted a couple of times as counter against Zeus. I say he is not. You only need get rid of him first and is not hard since he is squishy, with less items and will need to come close in combat if he wants to do anything since his cast range is not great. Just don't let him steal anything good from you, always put Arc Lightning as a second fast spell. Without your Static Field component is useless.
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