Zeus - I want to be God Like - help me please.

So inspired recently by watching some pub/ranked matches by pros using Zeus, I decided that I would concentrate on the mortal god and see if I can become God like !

I just wanted to get some opinions really on the way i have been playing him, so here are my current thoughts and would love some feedback.

I want to use him as a ganker who can transition to semi-support/carry dishing out a lot of damage to soften people up for the main carry or secure kills for the team and work on pushing lanes when need too. Also pull some weight in warding when vision is really important.

Problems with Zeus:
Slow, 2nd worse attack range in game for ranged hero, no slow / stun or escape method, Mana hungry to spam abilities, really bad attack animation.

My Answer to the above:
Building items that mitigate and complement Zeus, so my core being :
Arcane Boots, Veil of Discord, Eul's Scepter of Divinity

After the above it depends on how the game goes but I have been moving onto:
Force Staff, Ghost Scepter, Drum of Endurance, Boots of Travel

Basically all of the above is to mitigate Zeus weaknesses : make him faster, gives him escape, gives him a kind of stun with the Eul's, greatly increases mana regeneration and stats/armour.

When I concentrate and play not too aggressively (as I tend to do) I play a bit behind the main carry in fights pouncing on weakened heros and firing off as many Chain lightning as possible because along with his passive Static Field the damage racks up, especially when you drop the Veil of Discord on the heros (a must as it mitigates most of the 25% magic resistance - not all). I do also find Zeus can push out lanes quite well (by no means the best) and play my part in that and can do a bit of roaming early/mid if you pick your targets well. Not quite mastered Thundergod's Wrath yet as I have tended to waste it by not securing a kill or kill steal (by mistake) in misreading the situation. Some games I thinking getting a fast force staff would be better than the Veil of Discord but the states , armour and regen are really nice.

In the last 11 days I have used him 9 times (i only play about 6 games a week) and got 55% win ratio which is fine so far, hardly amazing but workable. 2 recent losses were mainly down to 1 or 2 team mates ruining it for the rest of us though I had my poor moments as well.

I have not made an Aghanim's Scepter and only in one game did i do a Refresher Orb

Here are the list of games i played - feel free to look and critique me (please do if you have time) :)

549791791 - win - 8/3/20
548569211 - loss - 7/6/13
548516435 - loss - 5/12/16
544574676 - win - 12/8/23
544511163 - win - 13/10/14
544422901 - loss - 11/14/27
544373649 - loss - 4/8/11
540098695 - win - 13/3/19
534748830 - win - 9/3/23

Would love some feedback on the above comments / games - is my thinking sound on Zeus, if you have looked at some games, how does my gameplay look ?

Ok so first of all i am very new to this page but still ill try my best to help, u first thing is if u.want to be godlike try changing the build for ex try getting arc last and level up other spells also get dagon right after arcane and make viel luxury.

I would just suggest getting a Black King Bar with Force Staff. Zeus needs to stay alive in fights to manage to dish out his spells and make good work of Static Field.

Do not get Aghanim's Scepter, it's a trap.

I personally like racecar Zeus. Phase, Euls, BKB, then a mana item. This only works if you snowball well though, but if you do, and your allies carry at least 2 arcane boots, you can make it work. Otherwise Arcanes, Euls, BKB, Sheep/Bloodstone.

I agree with Wulfstan, you need BKB to help you stay alive in battle, making Static Field very deadly if you manage to survive.

/twocents

I've never really seen the attraction of building a Eul's Scepter of Divinity on Zeus. With no built in Escape, he doesn't really make use of Tornadoing himself, and he has no "wonky" skills to combo it with on his enemies either. I feel Phase Boots + Drum of Endurance would be much better on him.

...then Black King Bar and Force Staff...not necessarily in that order, then any Situationals/Luxuries/etc.

i dont like to get euls on almost any hero, most people just get it for infinate mana, and then end up being useless becouse they cant farm a hex.

Thanks for the comments - interesting points on Eul's Scepter of Divinity that I am not sure I agree with. Zeus needs mana and he needs mana regen plus he is slow - Eul's Scepter of Divinity seems to greatly help in this area. I have found the tornado to be helpful in both escaping and allowing me and/or team mates to catch a hero - i understand how it can be used to synergies with certain abilities but just because Zeus has none, I cant see why its useless? Happy to be shown the light but not quite sure I see the negativity on it.

Black King Bar - definitely see the benefit, some of the losses I have had I should of seen the line up and thought "BKB this game" so I need to be more conscience about that and Force Staff is always handy - so thanks.

As for Scythe of Vyse, lots of benefits here but very expensive - I guess I should keep it in mind if the game is going well for me.

Next batch of games I have with him I will give some of the points a try and see how I get on.

For the math and more explanations I suggest you watch Lumi play Zeus :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PffSViyEdqA


Edit: Video reminded me of something else that Zeus might find useful : Veil of Discord

Thanks wulfstan, I shall check it out.

If you refer to my OP you will see I have Veil of Discord as my core item for Zeus- I have been getting it after eul's but getting an early talisman. The magic amplification us great and getting +6 on stats and +6 armour, damage and regen are all really useful - enables Zeus to be more survivable and dish out more pain .

Hey Wulfstan - I watched the Lumi match with Zeus and it was indeed very good and informative. Confirmed a number of points I was considering and confirmed that the damage output from Zeus comes from Arc Lightning and Static Field - with Lightning Bolt a great finishing move and i have always known but this confirmed how useful the 3 sec true sight window can be.

I think for that game, having Crystal Maiden on Lumi team made a big difference from a mana regen perspective - though having a bottle most of the game was a big help - something to consider. The game confirmed my opinion of Veil of Discord, though I can see why many might say its not core, for my intended game play i certainly view it as core.