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Game strategy - Furion - The Prohpet

Strategy
Early Game

Levels 1-5

Laning Furion has the ability to lane solo, so whatever works for you. If you're going Forest Furion, take middle or bottom so that you can leave to creep at 3 or 5. Remember that Sprout lasts 3 seconds at level 1, so it's an extremely strong disable coupled with a nice stun nuke. Laning with a CM or VS, for example, will net you an easy First Blood at level 1 if possible, or at level 3 if that's not possible. Lina also works in this strategy, but because LSA kills your trees, it'll have to be timed fairly well by your ally LSA. Focus on getting last hits and deny when possible.

After getting first blood, Laning Furion should head over to a solo lane if possible. Also remember that Teleporting behind an enemy, and then just sprouting them will be effective in ganking them on top or bottom lane, away from the towers. Doing this with an allied stunner like you did for first blood makes it easy, also.
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Lina
You sprout, you both auto-attack, when Sprout is almost down, she casts LSA for the kill, followed by a Dragon Slave if needed.

Crystal Maiden
Sprout, auto-attack by both of you, when Sprout is almost down, Frostbite and attack for the kill, Frost Shock if needed.

Vengeful Spirit
Same as above, Sprout, attack, Magic Missile when sprout is over.
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At level 3, if you're going Forest, you may head into the... forest and start creeping, but because you're Force Of Nature isn't very strong yet, start with the weaker creeps. I suggest reading MrX's Creep Guide if you're going Forest Furion, as it will explain where the weaker and stronger creeps are on the map, and also which creeps are best to use your HoM on. I suggest playing a bit more passively when laning as Forest Furion, as you won't have the early stats from Circlets/Gauntlets to buffer your health a bit. If you don't feel safe going in at level 3 to creep, and think you'll do better in the lane, stay in the lane until level 5, then begin your neutral creeping.

Levels 6-9

Continue ganking/assisting your team as Laning Furion, or creeping as Forest Furion. Throughout this part of the game, you'll usually just gank as Laning and farm/assist with Forest Furion. As Forest Furion, once you have farmed up your HoM, you'll farm much, much faster, and your Force Of Nature will be max level at level 7, meaning that you'll blow through neutrals extremely quickly. Whenever Wrath is off cooldown and you have the mana to afford it, cast it on some neutrals, or just run into a lane with an enemy hero and cast it on the creeps there to harass the enemy heroes effectively.

If you get HoM, go for Centaur Khan and those Polar Furbolg neutral creeps first, they average around 230 gold for transmuting them, as MrX's guide already told you if you read it like I told you to.
Mid Game

Levels 10-12

GOGO GANK MACHINE. Maybe. If you've farmed up your Eul's by this point, which hopefully you have, you'll be an extremely strong and frightening presence on the map. Remember that if you're having troubles with health and mana in the Forest build, buying a vitality booster at this time in the game for your Heart later isn't a bad idea. Remember that at this point (after your Eul's), it's more important to assist your team in ganks then sit in the forest and farm. Farm all you want, but if you see a gank or team battle going on, teleport up to it to assist in the fighting, because you are quite a strong force with your Eul's at this point, considering that you have two disables to aid the team, and more damage. Remember that you have HoM, and use it when needed.

Levels 13-16

Rawr. At level 16 you'll finish up your ultimate. At this point in the game, Forest Furion should stop spending so much time in the forest, and start pushing and ganking a lot more. You may also wanna work with your team at doing a Rosh or something, as your high damage/DPS will make it fairly easy if you go with a tank. Start checking runes out a lot also, a Furion with a DD rune is a fearsome sight. From this point on in the game, you're mostly just ganking and assisting with pushes, and farming when you have the time.
Late Game

You have Eul's/Guin's, you have your Diffusal/Manta, maybe even have your Heart. Gogo kill machine. You're an extremely powerful force on the map, and all fear you. Play strong, go with team members that have disables if you're having trouble against certain enemy heroes, and remember that you're still the strongest pushing force on the map besides maybe Phantom Lancer because you can hop all around the map at will to push lane after lane.

General Concept - Furion - the Prophet

General Concept

The general concept of the laning build is giving yourself enough health via Bracers to stay alive, and rush your Eul's for damage and a disable to help you stay alive. You get Treads because you have to get Bracers to lane effectively, and probably won't be able to farm up HoM fast enough because of this fact. Please note that this build is extremely open. If you use all your Eul's charges early, Guinsoo is okay to rush up, instead of going Manta first. You shouldn't make Manta until you use all your Diffusal charges, so if you have a lot of money, go ahead and grab your Mess. Reaver or Guin's, unless you really want/need the manta. This build is extremely open because after your Eul's, you essentially have three choices. Guinsoo, Heart, or Manta. Manta will give you extreme ganking and hero-killing power, and can also be used for pushing. Guinsoo will give you a massively strong, spammable disable and lots of damage and intelligence. Heart, while you won't have the damage output of the other two items if you get it first, you won't die easily. Because of the extremely strong farming potential of Furion, getting a Manta/Guinsoo and Heart in a normal guide isn't out of the question.

The general concept of the Forest build is giving yourself enough mana regen to spam Force Of Nature early to creep with, and HoM is taken for even more farming goodness. A quick rush to Eul's, and you'll be the most powerful force on the map early to mid game because you'll be the most farmed up and levelled the most. After the Eul's you may want to take an optional health item, the vitality booster for the Heart later, because you will have fairly low health because we skipped bracers earlier on to get HoM. Also, the early mantles are taken for +9 damage and more mana. They can be sold when you need more inventory space, but keep them as long as you can, +3 intell never really becomes completely useless. RoB gives your treants armor, that's good I guess.

Alternatives

Skadi is okay. It's a fairly decent item on Furion, and strong also, I just dislike that you don't get the full benefits until 7050 gold later, and that in the end, you're still not as strong as say, the manta build.

Aghanim's is okay, I guess. Some people really like it on Furion, some people really hate it. I'm undecided. A good thing about Aghy's is when you cast Wrath, you'll get quite a bit of gold from the Wrath hoping around the map killing creeps and the like.

Necromonicon is okay. A lot of other Furion guides and players recommend it, but at the moment, I'm still fairly neutral on it, probably because my micro sucks anyway. Furion has high stats anyway, so it's a good rush for him, and he farms pretty well.

Items Not To Get

Stygian Desolater is bad. It's a pubstomp item. I have realized this after testing.

Furion - the Prophet Skill and item build

Build your Furion wisely

Skill List

General/Lane Furion

Level 1- Sprout
Level 2- Teleport
Level 3- Stats
Level 4- Stats
Level 5- Stats
Level 6- Wrath Of Nature
Level 7- Teleport
Level 8- Teleport
Level 9- Teleport
Level 10- Stats
Level 11- Wrath Of Nature
Level 12- Stats
Level 13- Stats
Level 14- Stats
Level 15- Stats
Level 16- Wrath Of Nature
Level 17- Sprout
Level 18 - Sprout
Level 19 - Sprout
Level 20-25 - Stats/Force Of Nature

Forest Furion

Level 1- Sprout
Level 2- Force Of Nature
Level 3- Force Of Nature
Level 4- Teleport
Level 5- Force Of Nature
Level 6- Wrath Of Nature
Level 7- Force Of Nature
Level 8- Teleport
Level 9- Teleport
Level 10- Teleport
Level 11- Wrath Of Nature
Level 12- Stats
Level 13- Stats
Level 14- Stats
Level 15- Stats
Level 16- Wrath Of Nature
Level 17- Sprout
Level 18 - Sprout
Level 19 - Sprout
Level 20-25 - Stats

Skill Explanation

The first build is taken for a general, all-purpose Furion that pushes well solo with strong stats and Teleport to lane-hop quickly. Sprout's mana cost is absolutely huge at higher levels of the skill, so we skip getting it really early because you won't be able to handle the mana cost. Stats are taken in place of it because Furion has generally low health at first, and the improved last-hitting will help you farm up more quickly. Teleport is taken 7-9 so you can start hopping around the map much faster to aid in ganks and pushing. Sprout is finished up at 12-14 because at this point you'll have more mana to be able to afford using it.

The Forest Furion is just my guess at what you would take to effectively creep as Furion. One level of sprout is taken to make escapes and help your team if you're near their lane. Remember that just because you're creeping doesn't mean that you can't aid your team in battles. Otherwise, we leave Sprout alone until later levels because the higher mana costs make it hard to spam with your mana pool until you get Eul's, considering that you have to use your other spells as well (Force and Wrath Of Nature). Also remember that you'll have low health because of no bracers in the build, so the Stats really help at this point in the game. Taking more levels of Sprout at 12-14 is acceptable if you want to, but it's a big mana hog.

Lane Item Build

• Two circlets, tangoes
• Boots, Gauntlets
• Treads
• Bracer Recipes
• Void Stone
• Eul's
• Optional: Vitality Booster
• Diffusal Blade
• Guinsoo's
• Manta (when purge charges are out)
• Heart OR Skadi

Forest Build:
• 2-3 Mantles, 2-3 Clarities
• Boots, Ring Of Basilius
• Optional: Midas
• Treads
• Eul's
• Vitality Booster
• Diffusal
• Guinsoo's
• Manta (when purge charges are out)
• Heart OR Skadi

Item Explanations

Eul's is an extremely strong disable item that gives you more mana, which you need, more damage, which is nice, and great mana regen, which you need. It's an all-around useful item. Diffusal gives you an amazing chasing mechanism that synergizes with ally melee heroes for ganks as well. Heart is taken because you'll need the health at this point in the game, and Guin's is finished up because you'll be out of cyclones by this time, and it gives a lot of intell and damage. Diffusal is also great because it counters Warlock, which is used in higher level play quite a bit (or used to be).

Furion - The Prophet

Furion, The Prophet

Introduction

Furion is pro hero

Strength: 17 + 1.8
Agility: 21 + 1.5
Intelligence: 15 + 2.9

Furion's stat gain is okay, I guess.

Skill descriptions

Sprout

Sprouts a ring of trees around an enemy unit, trapping it in place.

Extremely strong ability, definitely one of the most powerful trap spells. Enemies can still cast spells while in it, pudge's hook goes through it, and it can be blinked out of. Also, using a tango on the corner tree will give the person inside a way out.

Level 1 - Lasts for 3 seconds. 115 mana, 11 sec cooldown.
Level 2 - Lasts for 3.75 seconds. 140 mana, 11 sec cooldown.
Level 3 - Lasts for 4.5 seconds. 165 mana, 11 sec cooldown.
Level 4 - Lasts for 5.25 seconds. 205 mana, 11 sec cooldown.

Teleportation

Teleports to any explored point on the map.

This an absolutely amazing ability, and is what makes Furion so good at pushing, aiding ganks, etc. He has the ability to go anywhere on the map that he or one of his allies has explored. This is used in ganking, pushing, farming, and escaping for Furion. It's a short channel when you cast it, also, so take note of that.

Level 1: 50 mana, 60 sec cooldown.
Level 2: 45 mana, 50 sec cooldown.
Level 3: 40 mana, 40 sec cooldown.
Level 4: 35 mana, 30 sec cooldown.

Force Of Nature

Converts an area of trees into Treants. Treants have 550 hit points and deal 21-23 damage.

Some people like this, some people don't. It's effective for a forest Furion. I'm still not sure if he receives experience from their kills, even if he's not in the general area, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't. Still, this gives you free tanks and makes forest creeping extremely easy.

Level 1 - Raises 2 Treants for 60 seconds. 160 mana, 37 sec cooldown.
Level 2 - Raises 3 Treants for 60 seconds. 160 mana, 37 sec cooldown.
Level 3 - Raises 4 Treants for 60 seconds. 160 mana, 37 sec cooldown.
Level 4 - Raises 5 Treants for 60 seconds. 160 mana, 37 sec cooldown.

Wrath of Nature

Summons damaging energy to swath around the map and damage random enemies. Each enemy hit beyond the first adds 7% damage.

This ability is kinda meh-ish. It's strong because it hits all over the map, but is kinda random, and not as strong as say, Zeus's ultimate. It's damage is also fairly low, but improves over time. If you're casting it on a hero in your lane, cast it on the creeps first, so it bounces through all the creeps to increase damage and then hit them.

Level 1 - Deals 140 base damage. 200 mana, 90 sec cooldown.
Level 2 - Deals 180 base damage, hits a few extra targets. 380 mana, 60 sec cooldown.
Level 3 - Deals 225 base damage. 610 mana, 60 sec cooldown.

Leoric - Skeleton king - Gameplay Strategy

Gameplay Strategy: Early, Mid and Late Game
Early Game
Leoric, Skeleton King

Levels 1-5

Grab your starting items, head to a lane with an ally ganker, preferably a stunner. Your two-second stun is a great skill to combo with another ally for an easy first blood, either at level 1 or 3. You're not a very strong harasser either, so an allied nuker is recommended. Harass with Bolt when you get your Bottle, and remember to buy obs. wards to watch the runes, and at level 5-ish you can start ganking, but I would recommend waiting until level 7.
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Strong melee ally that can make use of your Vamp Aura, and can combo LVL Death and Storm Bolt spam with you. A quick Doom, and you can both run up and bash on the enemy hero without fear of disables.

Strong ally for the extra stun, strong nuke, and chasing abilities. Your two stuns together are immensely powerful, and you can lead with your stun, she can stun from a distance, and then leap in and Starfall, and then you both beat on the enemy if it's still alive (doubtful).

A strong melee that can make use of your Vamp Aura that is also a survival powerhouse and tank. You two together are a pretty unstoppable force, as both your ultimates are second chances, and you both have decent nukes. His Frostmourne slow is also powerful because you don't have a slow skill of your own for fast enemy heroes, so you both get more whacks in with Frostmourne.
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Remember to just play fairly safely and farm up early. You're gonna need your Bottle before you start ganking. I suggest reading

Levels 6-9

Start ganking now. Bottle is awesome for mana regen and health regen in between ganks, and remember to keep your obs. wards up to watch the runes, and whore them up. Gank with allies, like the one listed in the previous section, as they're pretty ownage when coupled with you. Any stunner is actually pretty godlike with you, so find a stunner and gank. If you're having troubles ganking, just farm up. Not much to really say. When ganking, just storm bolt, run up, whack on them a few times, and chase them, storm-bolting when the cooldown is off.

Mid Game

Levels 10-12

Hopefully by this time you'll have Hyperstone, but if not, that's fine. Keep ganking/farming, but try to get your Hyperstone soon if you don't have it. It's pretty useful. Once you get it, you can blow through creep waves and neutrals fairly quickly, so farming up your Cuirass shouldn't take too long. Support your team in pushes as well.

Levels 13-16

By now you should have at least BoT, and hopefully AC. From here, you need to make choice between tanking and straight damage dealing while being a semi-tank. If you're going tank, get Heart, Hood if you want it, and then maybe Manta. If you're going DPS, go MKB or Stygian.

Late Game

At this point you're a strong damage dealer and a good tank, and this is the part of the game where you should make use of this. Push hard, help gank with the enemy team, solo Roshan (you're extremely good at it with your high HP, fast attack, and Vamp Aura), and remember to keep your Obs. Wards up and watch the runes. DD runes are MASSIVELY amazing on this hero late-game, as he can have a two-second stun (longer if you're with teammates that have stuns/disables) to hit the enemy with 2.75 crits and heal 25% of all damage he deals. It's amazing. Haste and Invisibility are also strong runes with this hero.

Leoric Skill Build - Item build

Leoric, Skeleton King

For the skill itself you can see on the Leoric Skill Reviews

Skill List

Level 1- Storm Bolt
Level 2- Stats
Level 3- Bolt
Level 4- Stats
Level 5- Bolt
Level 6- Reincarnation
Level 7- Bolt
Level 8- Critical Strike
Level 9- Critical Strike
Level 10- Critical Strike
Level 11- Critical Strike
Level 12- Vamp Aura
Level 13- Vamp Aura
Level 14- Vamp Aura
Level 15- Vamp Aura
Level 16- Reincarnation
Level 17- Reincarnation
Level 18 - Stats
Level 19 - Stats
Level 20-25 - Stats

Skill Explanation

This build is taken pretty obviously. Early Storm Bolt and stats for ganks with your team and better lane control/survivability. Reincarnation at 6, but not taken until 15/16 because the mana cost is too high earlier and isn't really needed as much. If you're finding you're really needing the lower cooldown, you can take it earlier then 15/16. Crit taken before Vamp.

Tank Item Build
• Two circlets, tangoes OR RoR, Circlet if going Hood
• Boots, Bottle
• Two Gauntlets, two bracer recipes
• Hyperstone
• BoT
• Assault Cuirass
• Optional: Hood
• Heart OR Radiance
Items Bought Throughout the Game:
• Observer Wards (For watching runes)
Damage Build:
• Two circlets, tangoes OR RoR, Circlet if going Hood
• Boots, Bottle
• Two Gauntlets, Treads
• Two bracer recipes
• Sacred Relic
• Radiance
• Heart OR MKB
Item Explanations

Bottle is for rune-whoring, this hero is exceptionally strong when comboed with a haste, invisibility, or DD rune, and the Bottle itself will give you practically permanent staying status in your lane, and some good mana regen between ganks and storm bolts. Hyperstone is taken to make use of Vamp Aura and Critical Strike, BoT next for movespeed and farming, Assault Cuirass to use the Hyperstone, help yourself and your team. Heart taken if you wanna be a huge tank, MKB for more damage oriented. Hood taken if lots of intell heroes on the enemy team, and if you wanna be more tank centered. Obs. Wards taken to watch runes.

General Concept

This build is to make sure that you're your most useful early on with some bracers for health, mana, and a bit more attack power, and Bottle so you can rune-whore and have regen in between bolts and have more lane-power. Bottle will make your ganking more effective, and because your Vamp Aura and Storm Bolt synergize with almost every melee hero in the game, you're a good ganker.

Alternatives

Stygian Desolater instead of MKB is okay if you want more -armor against the enemy team.

Satanic is okay, the new one is pretty nice, it's just not my favorite item.

Radiance is a strong item on this hero, get it if no one else on your team is, get it in place of Cuirass, but still get the Hyperstone.

Items Not To Get

Dagon, Basher, Refresher are all bad items for this hero. Basher seems okay, but it's so expensive and your problems can be solved with just a little teamwork and getting one of your teammates to help disable, rather then just get a basher. Dagon is just not effective with this hero, he doesn't have the mana or the need for it. Refresher is dumb, he doesn't have the mana for it, and why refresh Reincarnation? It has a somewhat low cooldown for how powerful it is, just don't be stupid.

Leoric - Skeleton King

Leoric, Skeleton King

Introduction

Skeleton King didn't have a guide, and he's fun and easy to play, so I decided to write him a guide. This is an awesome hero if you're a new player, and is a good hero to learn DotA with.

Range: 128 (melee) Move Speed: 300
Str: 22 + 2.9 Agi: 18 + 1.7 Int: 13 + 1.6
Damage: 54 – 56 HP: 568 Mana: 169
HP Regen: 0.91 Mana Regen: 0.53
Attack Speed: 1.39 Armor: 3

Skill descriptions

Storm Bolt

A magical hammer is thrown at an enemy unit, causing damage and stunning the target for 2 seconds.

2 second stun, decent damage, and the cooldown is low enough that it's a good initiator and can then be used for chasing.

Level 1 - 100 damage.
Level 2 - 150 damage.
Level 3 - 200 damage.
Level 4 - 250 damage.
Mana Cost: 140
Cooldown: 8

Vampiric Aura

Allied melee units within 600 AoE gain hit points when they hit enemy units.

This aura applies to yourself as well. It's one of the skills that makes Skele King so powerful, and useful to his team.

Level 1 - Gains 5% of attack damage.
Level 2 - Gains 10% of attack damage.
Level 3 - Gains 15% of attack damage.
Level 4 - Gains 20% of attack damage.

Critical Strike
Gives 15% chance to do more damage on an attack.

Critical Strike is absolutely amazing coupled with your Vampiric Aura. With damage items, critting will result in you getting massive amounts of health regenerated.

Level 1 - 1.25 times normal damage.
Level 2 - 1.75 times normal damage.
Level 3 - 2.25 times normal damage.
Level 4 - 2.75 times normal damage.

Reincarnation

When killed, this hero will come back to life at the cost some mana.

Skeleton cannot reincarnate if he is silenced, therefore Doom, SA's Smoke Screen, Bloodseeker's silence, Death Prophet's silence, Drow Ranger's silence, etc. stop this ultimate from activating.

Level 1 - 300 second cooldown. 100 mana.
Level 2 - 240 second cooldown. 150 mana.
Level 3 - 190 second cooldown. 200 mana.