Death Prophet Resurrects The Death Ball
Image by motenai
Death Prophet has dominated the metas of recent tourneys, including the GESC Minor where she was the second most picked hero overall and the most picked in the first phase. During the Bucharest Major before that, she was the second most contested mid hero, right behind Razor, who was then nerfed in 7.10. Her rise in the meta is compounded by both a series of direct buffs since patch 7.00 and general changes to the meta, which has sparked a return of strong midlaners and the death ball, a strategy that dominated TI4, nearly four years ago.
A History Of Buffs And Nerfs
Exorcism used to be 100 seconds back in 6.80, and then TI4 happened and by 6.82c it increased by 45% to 145 seconds. This was just one of many changes to the meta that began to hamstring Death Prophet’s power. T1 towers gained the ability to refresh Fortification when they toppled. Towers not only give an armor aura to heroes but Fortification also protects lane creeps. The map grew stronger, while Death Prophet’s nearly two and a half minute cooldown for her ultimate became less impactful.
While Exorcism couldn’t be used at the same frequency to snowball down lanes, it became stronger—ghosts dealt more damage and the spell’s duration increased from 30 to 35 seconds—along with Death Prophet’s other stats and skills. She lost Witchcraft but gained Spirit Siphon. While Death Prophet could no longer be naturally hasted with just a few items, she gained valuable lane presence, a skill that became even more crucial in patch 7.07 when it reduced the XP by denied creeps given to the enemy from 70% to 25%.
The change to creep XP ushered a return of dominant mid laners. Heroes like Death Prophet and Razor have the ability to zone lane opponents with their link skills and widen the lane advantage with the new weight on denies. She can pressure towers without Exorcism, a spell that is now less of a crutch. With Spirit Siphon, Death Prophet is a threat between her ultimate cooldowns, so much that Blink Dagger is sometimes part of her item build.
Freeze’s Blink Dagger build in VGJ.Thunder vs Infamous at GESC:Indonesia
Death Prophet also became more resilient over time. From 7.05 to 7.06 her Strength gain went from 1.9 to 2.6. Then, in 7.07, her base health regeneration increased from 0.5 to 2.0 and her level 15 and 20 talents were reworked with +1% Spirit Siphon max health drain per second and +500 health. Death Prophet doesn’t need many toughness items, especially for a hero that is at the frontline pushing down towers.
Her Place In Pubs
The competitive meta today is focused on the laning phase and the momentum that comes out of it. Not only is Death Prophet dominant in the lane, she provides teamfight presence and a battering ram to push high ground. This skillset should also be transferrable to the pub meta, but this month she has been resting at a 48% win rate, paltry compared to GESC: Indoensia (66%) and Bucharest (62%).
Lane dominance should transition just as well in pubs as in the pro meta, but a coordinated death ball may be more difficult to manage. Death Prophet is no longer a "press R to win" hero in pubs. And the game today may not be the 10-minute deathball of TI4, but it does carry some of its nostalgia. With the way that the ongoing Dreamleague Minor is shaping up, it seems like Death Prophet is here to stay.
First wow!!!....
She's so clunky as a mid hero, attack animation wise. She just about makes up for it with decent attack damage, but still. I guess her upside is kill potential/gank survivability?
that base regen really helped her out, she's been quite strong ever since.
4th!
Maybe in pro scene death prophet is very usefull but im not really see that in pub
omae wa mou shindeiru
Shivas rush in pubs makes her tanky and dominate. I keep seeing phase > Euls or Drums > Shivas and the games over.
not very fun to play...these heroes will never appear be played alot in a majority of pub games
I made this like 2 weeks ago:
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/338878083362717697/426394858177953793/Mantra-of-the-Monarch.jpg
Public games are all about instant gratification - Death prophet is a jintoe that like to harass, go away and then come back in two minutes to harass again . - she's a booty call . not a constant pusher;
Don't care that much about winning to pick actual meta heroes and I still win games
I really like this hero, and she does feel strong right now. You can check out my guide here: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1216335298
она не теряла пассивку.
Кулдауны и манакост на другие скилы ей сделали с учетом пересчета от пассивки, ей дали МС и фактически добавили новый скилл
I fucking love deathball. The nerf to comeback gold has made games more tolerable. If you lose every single lane, you should lose the game. This why, comebacks feel more earnest and not just because "XDD can't push highground to Kotl, Lina, NP and Pango". I feel like the early game, despite kills being worthless, is now even worth more than before.
Personally I stopped playing her when she stopped being the mid-late game pusher, but that was years ago. In those days, I would buy Bloodstone asap then afk farm lanes while my team fought elsewhere. I'd have a heart by 40 and that meant game over.
I was not a good player...but man it was fun.
The +50 dmg combined with her durability is what makes her stand out. Heroes with high survivability and high damage with disables is always the go to.
the problem with pubs is that most players especially in the lower brakets (2k,3k) are oblivious to what heroes are in the meta and which arent. People will still pick Pudge half the games when there are so many better roamers out there... and most of the time they end up not being very good on him either. I will never understand the fascination with that hero and other similar ones that seem to get picked just on "coolness"...
Good article although my last hits with dp in lane will always be bad :Y
In other news,
Currently the Enchanted Mango has a 33.42% win rate. This is unacceptable. It is our duty as fellow gamers of the DotA 2 community to put this item in the position of power it deserves. It has been there for us when we needed mana for reincarnation, when we had that clutch nyx stun saving our teammate's life, and when we accidentally used it in fountain before the runes even spawned. Thank you in advance for your cooperation.
NaVi Dendi Shadow Fiend gameplay
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2B12ypLn1o
@Warhammer guy
>says he doesn’t care about meta heroes and still wins games
> spams Elder Titan and mostly loses
wow ! Just wow !
Maybe they should change her 2nd skill. Silence is too much for that hero
@Хлевопетляние
> meta heroes? meh.... Elder Rush B
> Mostly loses? meh... 57% WR Rush B
:p
Your Argument is invalid
ma 2nd Fav hero <3