Wrath of Nature

Biography

When Verodicia, Goddess of the Woods, had finished filling in the green places, having planted the coiled-up spirit in the seed, having lured the twining waters from deep within the rock, having sworn the sun its full attention to the growing things, she realized that her own time had reached its end, and like one of the leaves whose fate she had imprinted in the seed, she would fall without seeing the fruiting of her dream. It pained her to leave the world bereft, for the sprouts had not yet broken through the soil--and they would be tender and vulnerable to every sort of harm. She found in her seed pouch one last seed that she had missed in the sowing. She spoke a single word into the seed and swallowed it as she fell. Her vast body decomposed throughout the long winter, becoming the humus that would feed the seedlings in the spring. And on the morning of the vernal equinox, before the rest of the forest had begun to wake, that last seed ripened and burst in an instant. From it stepped Tequoia, Nature's Prophet, in full leaf, strong and wise, possessing Verodicia's power to foresee where he would be needed most in defense of the green places--and any who might be fortunate enough to call him an ally.

Introduction

This is my first guide, and what better hero to do it on than Furion. This is not meant to be a professional guide by any means. This is made for the pub player looking to have some fun with an awesome character. I enjoy playing him so much due to his flexibility. He is one of those special heroes that can play almost any role on a team, and control entire games just by his presence. While he is very item dependent, his unparalleled farming capability will allow you to build any items you have your heart set on. That being said, this is not a guide on how to "meet your quota" and farm up 900 gpm.
Furion is a ganker by nature....no pun intended. An aggressive early Furion can rack up kills for himself and teammates due to his global port. Fights quickly go from even to an advantage for your team in a matter of seconds. As the game progresses Furion can transfer into any role needed, and push down towers like a madman in the mean time. Simply said no matter which way you decide to play you can have fun and know that you are going to control the pace of the game single handedly.

Pros / Cons

Positives(+)

(+)Jungler(Easier start)
(+)Extremely flexible character
(+)Very mobile
(+)Strongest Pusher in the Game
(+)Farming Monster
(+)Huge Global Presence

Negatives(-)

(-)Squishy
(-)Doesn't scale well w/out items
(-)No true disable
(-)Very reliant on good teammates

Skills

Sprout "Q"

Sprout is your only form of cc. It creates a ring of trees around a targeted area. The trees last for 3 seconds at level 1 and progresses to 5.25 seconds at level 4. This ability has many different uses, and can be a great asset to your team.

Positives-

1. Target an enemy hero to trap them within the trees. This effectively secludes an enemy melee hero from the fight, although if you stand to close to the trees you could be within range for their attacks. It's main strength though is to allow your teammates to either use ranged attacks on the trapped enemy or get in position to capitalize when the trees disappear.

2. Target yourself to surround yourself with trees. This also causes the other team to lose vision of you. This allows sprout to be used as a very viable escape mechanism since level 2 sprout allows enough time to cast "Teleportation" and be out before your trees disappear. This can also be used on a teammate, allowing them to use a tp. However sprout would have to be level 4 to allow them the time to teleport.

3. Sprout trees and use "Nature's Call" to summon treants when there are no trees close. This can save a lot of time when going for the enemy team barracks.

4. Sprouting trees also gives flying vision. This allows you to see up hills, and give you that little bit of extra sight that can show you where that fleeing enemy went.

5. Sprout can be used to block paths and either block enemies from escaping or keep your team alive.

Negatives-

1. While a well placed sprout can make or break a successful teamfight/gank, a misclick can in turn do the same for the enemy team. There is nothing worse than trapping a teammate and letting the other team surround him, or worse yet attempting to trap their carry and trapping him and your teammate or yourself inside the trees with him. These mistakes lead to almost certain death.

2. Sprout is a very inefficient ability as it can be countered by a number of items and hero abilities. Tangoes and Quelling Blade both allow an enemy either in or out. The hero abilities are to many to list, but pretty much any kind of aoe stun/silence will keep you from escaping.

Teleportation "W"

Teleporation is what allows you to control the game. It is a global port that allows you to go anywhere your team has explored during the game. At max level it has only a 20 second cooldown. This allows you to push multiple lanes at a time, while always being ready to jump in on a gank or teamfight wherever it may be happening.

Notes-

1. You can cancel the teleport at any time. This does not count as a cast, and therefore there is no cooldown. Since the enemy can see on the map where you are going to appear it is a good idea to test the waters early. Cast it near the enemy and see if they react to the animation, then cancel. If they don't react you can keep in mind for the rest of the game that they are easy prey since they will never see your ganks coming.

2. Any stun/silence will stop you from teleporting, so BE CAREFUL! You will soon develop a 6th sense of when you need to leave and when you are safe.

3. Invisibility is not broken by your teleport until you actually port. The build up does not reveal you.

4. Remember that clicking "W" twice will auto teleport you back to the fountain. To often do I see people fumbling with the mini map and either don't port or manage to trap themselves in trees next to the fountain. Don't be one of these people.

Nature's Call "E"

Nature's Call summons 2-5 treants depending on the level. They can be used in many useful ways including jungling, pushing lanes, tanking towers, and scouting.

Notes-

1. When tanking a tower it is very beneficial to send 1 treant down the lane to intercept the enemy creeps and lead them away so that you are left with more time to hit the tower freely.

2. Treants are very effective for body blocking enemy heroes, thus slowing them down for your teammates to catch up. Sprouting and then putting treants in front of the enemy heroes escape route ensures a few more hits while they are trying to escape.

3. Treants are also very useful for scouting out jungles enabling you to push lanes safely, and have plenty of time to escape. They can also be very beneficial to scout while your team takes down Roshan.

4. Treants can be spawned from your Sprout trees when there are no trees in the vicinity.

*My reasoning for only leveling this twice, is because it is sufficient to jungle with, and for taking down towers you can use the pull technique I described already. If your team is doing an early push strat, then more treants might be beneficial for tower tanking during slow pushes.

Wrath of Nature "R"

Wrath of Nature is your second global ability. It is an insane farming tool and source of damage.

Notes-

1. To farm you wait till you can see all 3 lanes with visible creep waves and cast it on the opposite end of where you want the main damage to take place. One ult could get you 750+ gold in one click. While this sounds great, it can hurt the team if done to much. All that gold you are getting is being stolen from the rest of your team, and specifically your carry. With the lanes pushed all the time, he has less room to find his farm. Instead save this for ganks and teamfights.

2. This is a huge nuke in a teamfight, and if it is on cooldown it could be the difference.

3. Don't ks with this ability as it is easy to do. Use it to set up ganks, and end them only if that is the only safe option. Your team will benefit more if your carry gets the kill.

4. Your ultimate does 225*(1.07^n) which means the final bounce does 664 damage. With Aghanam's Scepter each bounce does 275*(1.07^n) The final bounce ends up doing 930 damage.

Item Explanation

Ring of Basilius in my opinion is the only way to go for jungle start Nature's Prophet. Your treants benefit greatly from the bonus armor and become much more survivable. More importantly though it allows you to have that extra mana without worry for early ganks. This is invaluable in my opinion.


Clarity Potions at the start of the game are needed for the same reason I suggest Ring of Basilius . It saves you from going back to the fountain when you could be farming/ganking.


Hand of Midas is absolutely required for a jungle Nature's Prophet. You can farm it within 5-9 minutes, depending on ganking opportunities, and it allows you to gain a level advantage throughout the game.

Teleportation Scroll
TP Scroll is SO underrated while playing Nature's Prophet. Don't be cheap, and bypass having one on you at all times. You will find yourself using them more on this character than any other character you play, and they pay off so much!


Power Treads are the only boots in my opinion for Furion, and give you everything you need. The extra damage and attack speed are great early game for both ganking and pushing towers down.

Shadow Blade is a somewhat situational item. I used to never get it, but have come around as of late. It allows for a little more aggressive pushing, and really doesn't slow down your item progression that much because of that easier farm. You farm way faster than anybody else on the map, so if you can force their team to buy sentries, and dusts for you, then it was worth the money. Make those supports that you keep picking off, even more poor than they already were.

Desolator is the bread and butter damage item on any Furion. It not only gives you a huge +60 damage but it cuts a targets armor down by 7 when attacked. This allows you to not only gank more easily but more importantly the armor reduction works on towers too. This allows you to cut down towers very quickly.

Orchid Malevolence is perfect for furion. It gives you more damage, more mana, and faster attack speed with an active 5 second silence that causes a target to take 25% more damage also. It can be used effectively for escaping, ganking, and team fights. At this point most squishy heroes wandering around by themselves are easy targets.

Daedalus is every carries dream item. If you are transitioning into a semi-carry build it is time to go killing. If you are farming decent and have gotten a kill advantage by now, almost any hero wandering around by themselves now is easy prey. With a massive damage increase and 25% chance to do 2.7x critical damage, you are now a right click monster. Gank to your hearts content....their are very few heroes that will be able to stand up to you 1v1 outside of MAYBE their carry.

Monkey King Bar next to Divine Rapier, is the best source of straight up damage money can buy. With +88 damage and +15 attack speed it is just icing on the cake. The 35% chance to mini stun and do 100 bonus damage is nothing to laugh at either. The real plus to this item though is its passive true strike, which makes your attacks never miss. Get this item if their is a pesky hero with evasion troubling you. Any melee carry that doesn't have quelling blade to escape your Sprout should die by this point due to your Orchid Malevolence keeping them from blinking/stunning.

Manta Style is a good item on Furion because it gives you everything else you need besides straight up armor and hp. It gives you more attack power, attack speed, movement speed, and to top it off images of yourself for even more damage/survivability. It also gives you the ability to push and knock down towers faster than ever. If the other team doesn't react fast enough, it will be their barracks or even their ancient in a matter of seconds.

Situational Items

Scythe of Vyse is a great item in general, and that doesn't change for Furion. Many people will have this in their core build, and I am not here to argue with them. You can't go wrong with the huge stat boost and 3.5 second hex. Since I focused this guide on early ganking and sustaining the momentum though I differ to Orchid Malevolence due to it being 1550 gold cheaper. Like I said, I can't argue against this item at all, so feel free to use it when the situation presents itself.

Assault Cuirass the item i like to get for armor instead of the standard that most guides use. While nothing is wrong with Shiva's, I prefer for this build to go with Cuirass due to its extra attack speed, movement, and armor for you and your teammates, as well as armor reduction for the other team. If you don't already have somebody building it, and are having problems with physical dps, this item is the way to go imo.

Mjollnir can be purchased for a couple of reasons. If you feel as though you are going to be pushing almost exclusively all game, then Mjollnir helps push those lanes a bit faster than deso. Going up against a Phantom Lancer, or Chaos Knight, etc... could also justify this item over deso. Use your best judgement.

Animal Courier is the most annoying thing to be asked as a jungle Furion as it slows any build you want to do down, and keeps you from making an impact on the game a little longer. This should be done by somebody else on the team, but if you must you must. If you are the only character that can fit the support role and buy a courier you may want to consider going for a full support build anyways with much more team and disable items.

Wards are not really your job to buy early game, and should be left to the true supports. Later in the game though you have plenty of money, and for your own good could buy them and set them up in very aggressive areas so you can catch people out alone in the jungle. Your great mobility also allows you to place them wherever you'd like and get out safely where other heroes could not. Courier sniping is also very fun ;)

Rejected Items

Aghanim's Scepter, while entertaining, should not be under any circumstances be bought on Nature's Prophet. It does give some nice stats, but the upgrade to your ultimate is more of a negative than a positive. Yes you can farm even harder than normal, but at the cost of the rest of your team. What good is all your farm, when your true carry is hindered with no lane to go to farm. Please don't buy this item.

Gameplay

Start Game

To start the game put your first skill point in Nature's Call and summon treants right away. Send them to scout out the map. You do this because your teleport ability only lets you port to an area on the map that has been previously explored. As soon as your skill comes off of cooldown, then rinse and repeat. You can do this twice, and still have time to spawn a 3rd set of treants at around 10 seconds into the game. Get your mana back, and continue to the jungle with your treants.

Jungling

Start at the first big creep camp unless it is an Ursa camp(we hate these). If it is an Ursa camp go straight to the small camp, and kill it/pull it. If it is any other kind of camp then start attacking using your treants as tanks. Cycle the weak treants out as they get weak and let higher hp ones take their place tanking. When your cooldown for Nature's Call goes down summon more treants to finish off the first camp. If you can manage it, as your first treant gets low send it up to the small camp and pull the camp at 00:52 for maximum early farm.
Now cycle between camps while killing the small camp at every opportunity. Keep your mana pool high by popping Clarities. By the time you use your second potion you should have enough gold to buy Gloves of Haste. All this time you should be scanning the map for ganks. Gank early and gank often! You should be looking for ganks as early as level 2, and once you have sprout it becomes easy.

Hand of Midas or Not?

I usually make this decision based on if my Midas will be farmed fast enough to give me that early level advantage I need. The general rule of thumb for me is 8-9 minutes. If you don't have it by then, I don't believe it to be beneficial anymore. If you have even got 2 successful ganks early, you could have it by 5-6 minutes even.

Mid Game

By 20 min you can easily enough have Midas, Treads, Shadow Blade, and your Deso almost finished. Some games you can have it earlier, some a few minutes later. I usually say I'm having an average game if by 30 min I have all of that plus my orchid done by 30 min. I again stress that you do not make it difficult for your carry to farm. Don't ult unless ganking, or stopping pushes on your towers. Look for ganks, and opportunities to push down towers.

Late Game

By late game, if you have not been shut down you should be hitting your big damamge items. If the game is not over, look for those pick off kills and continue pushing. With just Orchid and Deso, you should be able to take down any wandering support and escape with ease. Push all the lanes, and keep the other team hiding in their base. At end game, I feel as though 600-700 gpm is what you should probably shoot for in a pub. Any more than this, and I feel as though your hindering your team. Any less than that....and you probably got beat pretty bad, because its hard not to get 500 gpm with Prophet without actively trying not to.

Summary

All in all, Nature's Prophet can be a lot of fun to play, and not that difficult to be decent at. He is a tier 1 pick for a reason, and while this is definitely not a competitive guide you will see how good/fun he can really be. I wrote this while bored at work :P So I will update it to include an offlane section, some more item choices, and an allies and foes section. Any comments you have, feel free to message me and express your thoughts. I know there are a lot of different builds, and I have played them all. I plan on including them all in the near future. This first part was just my favorite way to play him. Not necessarily the best for some people or playstyles.