TTTA or Time to talk about : Doom

kk so those who are watching any pro doto have seen a huge increase in the pick rate of Doom.

big change from NEVER being picked in 6.84 to being a huge pick in 6.85.

Sooooo why and how? also when and why?

- Why has doom become such a meta pick?

- Where is he strongest? jungle? lane?

- what position is he?

- what should you be drafting with him?

- what skill/item build is best now?

- thoughts on the Doom/alche meta?

1. Scorched Earth. It's so damn good right now.

2. I'd put him solo/dual offlane, or perhaps an aggro tri as a (semi-)carry.

3. He's pretty flexible. I'd say a #2 or #3, and in rare circumstances a passable #1.

4. Again, he's flexible and can fit into many lineups. I'd put him with a fairly aggressive one now, since maxing W is legit as hell. Dive lineup, perhaps?

5. I don't think it's changed much - Blink-Aghs is still very potent. Perhaps a Silver Edge can work.

666. ****ing hilarious.

Doom is popular because Scorched Earth is kinda broken. Like, seriously that **** is insane. You can dive towers without a care because of the regen, and it makes you the tankiest hero in the game for 20 minutes at least, without any items. An OoV, Phase Boosts, packmaster Aura, and Vlad's means that you hit for about 200 damage a hit, (Without critting), and can run down anything.

Like Scorched Earth is so good, you max it before Devour. That's how good it's become.

He's still an offlaner; usually solo because you want the exp. But he's also a really good 1 position due to his nature as an anti carry (And technically a conventional carry early on). Still stacking aura's, just a little more priority on cheaper fighting aura's like Vlad's or Drums than straight Blink Ag's rush.

He should not be jungling, he is good awful at level 1 jungling.

And I think Doom - Alchemist meta is hilarious. And kinda weird because it's a meta without convetional carries (Given how Alch's are buildinghalf the time)

Radiance is stupid strong on him right now. You can farm stacks like a madman with Radiance+ Scorched Earth. You burn people for 98 damage/s at about 15 minutes into the game. That if you play him as a position 1, hell maybe even 2. He's good in the offlane now as well thanks to the Scorched Earth buff.


I'd argue with maxing Scorched Earth before Devour, but I'd skip Doom over Scorched Earth if offlaning. Sort of like a Dark Seer thing, you get ult at 10/11 or 9/10. (one level of LVL?Death is still awesome)


I don't understand the sudden discovery of Alchemist. You could have done this last patch ago as well. It's no secret that Radiance is a good item on him due to the increased speed he farms it with. And then it helps him farm more. Is it because Manta Style has no more mana cost? Though he had plenty of regen from ult. The Radiance thing was way more beast in 6.66 when he received 1k raw HP from Chemical Rage instead of the regen. He was like Tiny on roids.

You pick him because he's such a strong counter to super-mobile heroes, that are pretty much always popular.

Usually play him as a #2 or #3 - he's not a good support (too item dependent and doesn't really have any team utility) or as primary damage dealer (due to awful attack speed/lack of passives).

Usually play him in the offlane (possibly with support, although he's pretty level dependent) - basically use Q/W to mess up the lane position so it comes to your tower. Can also nom a jungle creep for some passive goodness.

Suffers from ****py agility / armour, and mana. Very tanky with armour, so a great aura carrier and can get a pretty reasonable right click too.

Item builds are very flexible - everything from tank/auras to caster, even right click focused.

EDIT: Wulfy, Alchy has to go from best/worst to worst/best hero in 0.01 seconds after each patch. Apparently. I don't think he was ever as bad as people made out.

The most concise answer: His biggest weakness was that he took forever to come online, everything else he's already pretty good at. Scorched Earth buff makes him come online in half the time he used to. It's like BS from 6.84.

Alch was probably just numbers tweaks and people experimenting a little. Also mid becoming a lot less hostile; Like he was never gonna be viable in last meta's mid enviroment.

Like in essence, the things holding him back from his lanes are gone, and he himself got a lot of buffs (Cheaper Radiance, better Manta style illusion uptime, better acid spray, even better bounty runes). Kinda makes sense he'd shift in as a result.

Level 4 Scorched Earth heals for 768 HP, does almost as much damage/second as a Radiance, and gives far more movement speed than a Manta Style.

That is why. You max it by 7, pick up an Orb of Venom, and chase people down with your 7 min Radiance, Yasha and 3 Vitality Boosters.


I really don't see why this is balanced, but Scorched Earth used to be so bad that I really don't care too much.