DotA2 like a noob – Death Prophet

This week, I decided to take a break from the safety of the character, the Juggernaut and have a go with a new character. Not just a new character though, but a new style of play. Now everyone knows that the Juggernaut is a melee agility hero who is often used as a carry, except for me obviously, I just thought he was an awesome samurai dude. However, on consulting the Dota2 wiki, I quickly became educated:

Yurnero the Juggernaut is a melee agility hero whose abilities allow him to sprint into battle and recklessly devastate enemies in an impenetrable flurry of blades. Juggernaut is strong both offensively and defensively, and deals heavy damage both physical and magical with his Blade Fury and Omnislash ultimate, but he possesses below average strength and intelligence attributes, so he does not have as much health and mana as other heroes and is vulnerable when his abilities are on cooldown. For this reason, although his abilities make him powerful even in the early game, he cannot charge into forces without restraint until farmed and is usually played as a carry.

Now as a noob, I understood the carry part; basically carries are heroes that are vulnerable early doors but kick serious butt once they have levelled-up. Apparently, “they are the ones expected to have the highest number of kills at the conclusion of the game” I may have been letting the side down a little on that count…

Anyway, so in my brave attempt to learn the game I decided that I would go to the other end of the spectrum and after a quick look down the list I knew I had my hero:

Creepy huh? This, my friends, is the Death Prophet and would be my companion for the upcoming battles.

The Death Prophet matched my criteria in a couple of ways:

1) The Death Prophet is a ranged intelligence Hero.

2) The Death Prophet is mostly built as a tank; and most importantly

3) she looks kick-ass

Let’s delve back into the DotA2 wiki for some background:

Krobelus was a Death Prophet—which is one way of saying she told fortunes for the wealthiest of those who wished to look beyond the veil. But after years of inquiring on behalf of others, she began to seek clues on her own fate. When death refused to yield its secrets, she tried to buy them with her life. But the ultimate price proved insufficient. Death disgorged her again and again, always holding back its deepest mysteries. Her jealousy grew. Others could die for eternity—why not she? Why must she alone be cast back on the shores of life with such tiresome regularity? Why was she not worthy of the one thing all other living creatures took for granted? Still, she would not be discouraged. Each time she returned from the grave, she brought a bit of death back with her. Wraiths followed her like fragments of her shattered soul; her blood grew thin and ectoplasmic; the feasting creatures of twilight took her for their kin. She gave a little of her life with every demise, and it began to seem as if her end was in sight. With her dedication to death redoubled, and no client other than herself, Krobelus threw herself ever more fervently into death’s abyss, intent on fulfilling the one prophecy that eluded her: That someday the Death Prophet would return from death no more.

Pretty cool, she also has some particularly effective skills Crypt Swarm sends a swarm of bats damaging multiple enemies, you can silence other heroes to stop them escaping or blasting you to smithereens and the passive Witchcraft ability makes you faster and all your other skills more effective. Add to that the brilliant Exorcism skill which Unleashes evil spirits to drain the life of nearby enemy units and structures – it looks pretty awesome and heals you too! I’ll be honest, I was pretty confident going into my first game…

That did not go well…

The other team were very well organised and I tried my best, but playing as the Death Prophet was a whole other beast to playing as the Juggernaut, but I persevered and slowly I learnt how to play well. I took to the middle lane, picked up a courier and kept myself in the action as much as possible. Levelling up the Crypt Swarm early doors is key to fast levelling and getting your hands on some much needed gold. A level of silence is great for keeping safe around enemy heroes and stopping abilities like the Sand Kings Sand Storm, which caused me many problems in one particular game.

The key to the Death Prophet seems to be getting good equipment that boosts your mana regen and speed. Once you start to level Witchcraft you will be one of the nippiest people on the pitch and more often than not I was able to simply outrun danger. Also, with your mana regenerating quickly and Witchcraft up, you can spam the Crypt Swarm ability which is great for crowd control and it leaves you mana in the bank to unleash Exorcism to take out an enemy hero or tower. Once you have Witchcraft fully levelled-up Exorcism becomes a real monster. Powerful enough to make other heroes run for it is also great if you’re on the back foot. The ghosts still attack if you’re in retreat and once they disappear you get a bunch of health; that is when the hunter becomes the hunted!

That’s a bit better eh?

There is still a massive reliance on your team, but if everyone is pulling in the right direction, the Death Prophet really is a force to be reckoned with and definitely worth a play if you’ve missed her thus far.

PictoPirate will be continuing his DotA2 journey and coming back with regular updates. Feel free to get in touch if you’d like to teach him a lesson, you might even be immortalized on Expansive…