Definitive Prophet

About Me

First off, I'm probably the biggest noob you've ever seen. Don't believe me? On Dota 2 I'm level 12 (Really close to 13) at the time of writing this guide, and do not even have an MMR. Really bad. If that interferes with how you receive this guide, however, please leave now. I am, obviously, trying to change this fact and am getting better every day.

Q: Are you like all those other scrubs who only play carries and call support heroes "Bad Heroes?"

A: Um, no. I play all positions, from Antimage to Crystal Maiden. I am simply making this guide because it seems too many people in my trench MMR keep messing Nature's Prophet up. I'm sure it's the same in all MMRs, though.


Q: Being a noob, what makes you think that you can teach us how to play ANY hero whatsoever, even one as simple as Nature's Prophet?

A: I feel that, unlike other people in my MMR (Which is to say 0), I have an understanding of item choices, game mechanics and general know-how, far above the average person in said trench MMR. In other words, I've researched the **** out of it.

An Introduction to our Bearded, Tree-Lovin' Friend.

Nature's Prophet loves money, and he gets what he wants. Here's a video detailing what I mean. It's a better intro than I could ever do to him, but unfortunately the in-guide video feature isn't working, so here's the link.

PFlax's Guide for Nature's Prophet

See? his real name should be Nature's Profit

He's a very controversial hero, and a b#$@& to play against, but whenever they're on your team, it always seems like they suck.

Let's crunch some numbers.

If you look on dotabuff, Nature's Prophet has the 4th best economy, behind Shadow Fiend, Medusa, and Anti-Mage, with an average of 460 GPM, not far at all behind Shadow Fiend's 475.

Many associate GPM with winning, but Nature's Prophet's Winrate is 8th lowest of all heroes. That is because Nature's Prophet has a very high skill cap. Time and map awareness are key to playing a successful NP. This does, however, mean that even when you're losing, you're going to have more money than you know what to do with. Because of the map/time awareness thing, probably don't learn NP as your first hero. Maybe play Dragon Knight, buy a Helm of the Dominator and practice stacking with it. It'll sort of teach you how to stack the ancients as NP. It's the same idea, just with Treants.

Scources:
GPM
Winrate

Nature's Prophet can be played in the jungle and offlane. If you don't know exactly how WEIRD offlane Prophet is, don't. Play jungle. Unfortunately, he tends to suck in all other lanes. Sorry.

Pros/Cons

Pros Best split pusher in the game, even above Lycan Omnipresent, turning 2v2s and 3v3s into 3v2s and 4v3s One of the best pushers in the game, if not best, because Leshrac Global money ult, which is also useful for teamfights Jungles very well, and offlanes very well Best Hand of Midas carrier in game, even more so than Doom Can ball out of control with very high kill ceiling

Cons Is a squishy, blown up instantly in a teamfight Easily shut down in the jungle early. Lacks an escape (teleport doesn't count)

Jungling

This is probably the best for new players. Why? I'll show you.

Analysis of Admiral Bulldog Offlane Prophet

That's why it's hard.

The idea is that you can manipulate the creep equilibrium with your Treants to get you reliable XP and gold, so that you can get a midas at around the same time you would if you jungled.

The thing is, if you don't know how to do it, don't. It's like playing Meepo, Tinker, Earth Spirit, Visage, or Invoker.

So, jungle him. Let's get onto that part of the guide.

In the fountain, spawn Treants to save a little mana. You can then use them to scout both runes for your teammates. Stay in the fountain though. When your Treants come off cooldown again, spawn them, regain your mana, and head out with them. Go to the hard camp closest to the midlane, making sure not to block the creeps when they spawn. No matter what camp you get, exept one exeption, always kill the big creep first.

There is a 2/5 chance that you can take the hard camp at LV 1 with your basilius. Let me explain.

The 5 Hard camps are:

The Centaur Camp
The Large Satyr Camp
The Hellbear Camp
The Wildwing Camp
The Large Troll Camp

Out of these, the Centaur, Satyr, and Hellbear camps are unclearable at LV2 because they have AOE spells that rip through your Treants. They each have their War Stomp, Shockwave, and Thunder Clap. As of Dota 2 6.82, Treants now have 0% magic resistance. They used to have 10%. You just simply can't do it. Even though War Stomp only does 25 damage, The stun is still enough to let them murder your Treants.

If you do get Wildwings or Trolls, then you can kill those. Let your Treants go first and tank for you while you all wail on them. When a Treant gets to low HP, pull it back and reengage it to let it's buddies tank for it while it still outputs damage. This actually allows you to get more out of your buffed Treants than you actually should be getting, thereby accelerating your farm and getting you a faster Hand of Midas. We all know, the faster the midas, the better.

What if you get a bad camp? Go over to the medium camp and kill that, of course. Until you hit level 5, it's a little sketchy trying any of the problem camps but the centaurs, but you can do that one at LV3. If you're on the Dire, you can go and kill the other Medium camp, and if on Radiant, Spawn Treants over the few trees separating the easy camp from the path above it, and you'll have an unobstructed jungle. Make sure that at every XX:53 you stack a camp, and that at every 2 minutes you check the rune (Treants can too), but basically just rotate around the jungle killing stuff. Make sure to use your clarities just after you spawn Treants.

You should always have one eye on the Minimap, because you gan help in any gank anywhere, and be the difference between life and death to your enemy.

Items

Nature's Prophet is sort of unique as far as items go. Your first 5 items are, and will always be:

Clarity
Clarity
Ring of Basilius
Hand of Midas
Power Treads


Unfortunately, that's where any semblance of simplicity ends.

After that, you can pick one of these extensions:

Standard
Necrobook
Orchid
Dagon
"Alchemist"


All of these Builds have their pros and cons, and peak at different points.

Justify which build to go for with the reasoning below.

The Necrobook build:
Techies, Bounty Hunter, or Broodmother on the opposite team?
Want more split pushing power?
Benifit from a little survivability early?

The Orchid Build:
Opponents without escape mechanisms of there own, like Sniper and Dragon Knight
Opponents with escape mechanisms that are destroyed by Orchid Malevolence and other Silences, like Queen of Pain, Puck, Antimage, Earth Spirit, Templar Assassin, Timbersaw, and Weaver
You think you can snowball

The Dagon Build:
Your team already has enough hard carries and you need some midgame strength
You have Magic amplification on your team, like Ancient Seal, Decrepify, or someone buying a Veil of Discord, like a friendly Sand King.
Extended teamfights start happening
You want to have fun