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2 Votes

Zeus support guide for pub [by mat.]

September 4, 2015 by mat.
Comments: 7    |    Views: 56783    |   


2nd support build

DotA2 Hero: Zeus




Hero Skills

Arc Lightning

1 12 13 14

Lightning Bolt

2 3 5 7

Heavenly Jump

4 8 9 10

Thundergod's Wrath

6 11 16

Talents

15 17 18


Zeus support guide for pub [by mat.]

mat.
September 4, 2015


Introduction / Hints

Welcome,

are You a new player? You came along Limited heroes to the end ... and found Zeus?
Well, these basics will help You to get better, no more teammates shouting at You for kill stealing, get ready to become better support!


short early hints for lazy readers:
1. Never pick Zeus when facing 3 or more durable opponents (don't display your pick early)
2. When teamfight or any fight is starting pup Your ulti (more info later)
3. Come into peace of mind with this truth - Your final stats should look like this: kills>(0,unimportant number), deaths>(single digit number), assists>(40+,is ideal)
4. You will not be able to make good impact on game if You are only support (item dependent)
5. I like Zeus mid but You can play on sidelanes as well 36 percent of pub people do so (more later).
6. Never go for super lategame with Zeus, win in reasonable time otherwise you will not have enough damage and it would be a gamble anyways, it goes for most heroes.
7. I'm not sure now if rOtK or some other pro player got into Dota with Zues for the first time following durable skilled player zapping everything in a way. Well this is the way to have fun.

Gameplay

Ok, we established You want to play low Hp + slow movement nuker, few hints which will not get you killed in first few seconds just a bit later:

1. position yourself wisely, keep back, someone else must get jumped on in a first row, not You!

2. most of the time, do not throw the first punch, help teammates in early counter initiate.
(especially because Your ult doesn't damage invis units) but be ready to throw spells for detection purposes.

3. Do not ever save your ultimate, as fight begins first spells are thrown, throw it, jut to even the odds or help the team.

4. Participate - of course u can throw ult globally, but You must participate in fights to throw Lightning Bolts and You would be surprised how handy Arc Lightning comes to finishing someone off in longer distance.

5. Obvious - if possible give kills to hard carry, why? simply put Zeus cant push and cant survive on his own, You just need Your team to be strong.

6.Keep an eye on your budget, Zeus is extremely item dependent, as game procedes You need damage boost from aganims and later on refresher, as I mentioned before You will need someone else in team to buy wards.

7. Vision - zap warding points with Lightning Bolt for dewarding, usign it by random will make life harder for initiating invis enemy heores.

8. Farming Zeus base damage is really low and short range, therefore good way to farm is by using single level of Arc Lightning for last hitting the creep, because of manacost you should upgrade other skills and leave this one low for more reasonable farming.

9. Roaming yes it would be appriciated, best ask durable playe to stop / stunt / take a little damage at mid, when roaming to other lanes just remember let someone else to iniciate - be targeted instead of you, or it could end in tears ;-)

10. rune control this should be mentioned earlier but I thought its obvious, well do u have a bottle? than I guess it would be quite useless without getting runes, take care of it even buy yourself a ward or two if needed.

11. I almost forgotten zeus is magic damage based dont waste your ult during opponents bkb - invis units will be only revealed not damaged. Good team will buy lots of magic immunity items and try to counter you, that's also one of the reasons of keeping the time schedule.

Items

Buy order lineup mentioned above is based on Zeus start at mid.

* it must be based on real carry(s)-cores farming well benefiting from your early level 6 global or real gank, if this plan is not real for your game, this would be wrong strategy and items should be revised - buy different start items and go side lane if You have more important midder in team! (better solution is - Dont pick Zeus)

You cant get over excited with items, because of mentioned timetable there would be no time for long farming. Well theres a maybe if You get huge volume of kills, than Yes Zeus is inteligence/manadrain/lowhp/****mobility buy anything that can help to solve some of the issues.

If mid is available for You ask for 2 Tangos and get Bounty Rune and go for Bottle straight away.

Zeus is painfully slow, shoes - Boots of Speed are the second item - upgraded to mana boost Arcane Boots asap.

Aganims order: Point Booster folowed by health or inteligence last goes agility item.

If game goes well try to build Refresh Orb.

Other items, well mobility or mana boost would be great but its not essential as long as You have ags and refresher You must end game quite soon otherwise its getting risky.

*If You don't manage to get Ags in reasonable time there is an option just keep point booster and try to build refresher straight away. (as you build up levels as benefit is getting lower)

*please note this item build is made for low skill - new players, if You are more experienced - You can survive teamfight - well than, this guide is not for You anyway :-) there's no help for You, Dota got You, its late mate.

Skills

Arc Lightning
As mentioned above get it first and leave it there till you have have all other options up,
in early game it would otherwise drain Your mana.

Later on at higher level its great for finishing off opponent at longer distances ..even by hitting creap nearby it should bounce.

Lightning Bolt
Is the second one to max in a mixture with Static Field but this one gives u desired damage for early kills.

Static Field
Personally I would really put Lightning Bolt in front of this skill but usually I want to deal with opponent a bit better and one level helps, even though it pushes a lane further which is one of the Arc Lightning connected problems.

Thundergod's Wrath
As usual max it as soon as possible, & use it as soon as possible, if u manage to participate in early gank with your global ultimate it would be great benefit to your team.
Iniciating teamfight is not the best way (described above) but sometimes when vision-location of opponents is uncertain, appropriate information can be ground breaking.
Sometimes its even worth scouting the rosh..

Pairing

Here You have Zeus + Bloodseeked combo played by Arteezy, even thought its 6.84 bloodraging Zeus is still beneficial.

Pros / Cons

+ high damage
+ easy to play
+ global ultimate
+ reveals invis units by 2 spells
+ long range zap

- low hp
- no mobility, no stealth, atc..
- item dependent
- pick dependent
- easy team game abuse

References

heres introduction to Zeus by DOC


KS described in a funny way also by DOC


Good guide by NHS just skip crazy start intro.

Conclusion

Well I think, thats it.

Basic play style for noob Zeus surviving the game not stealing kills and grounding vision.
Zeus isnt the hardest hero to play, You just need to a bit of awareness and a team plan how to end the match...


Hopefully we will see new Arcana soon, because that lightning spear he is holding stiffly, man that's quite boring.. for an immortal it could have be a bit better.

good luck ingame and remember not every game is a zeus game ;-)

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