Tryptophan's Guide to the Defiler
Created for Heroes of Newerth v0.1.33.0
Table of Contents
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[bkg] Background
[pnc] Pros and Cons
[bst] Base Stats
[skl] Skills
[itm] Items
[gmp] Gameplay
[ane] Allies and Enemies
[cre] Credits
[bkg] Background
Quote:
| Enshrouded with shadows and the echoes of damned souls, the Defiler is a lover of decay and madness and agony. She draws strength from death around her, and can expel living, suffering shadows from her flesh. Wielding both deadly attacks and unholy awe that strikes silence into her foes, she truly deserves her vile epithet: "Mistress of the Damned." |
[pnc] Pros and Cons
Every hero has their pros and cons and strengths and weaknesses.
Pros/Strengths:
- Has a high damage, large AoE nuke
- Has a large AoE silence
- Has a great primary attribute gain per level
- Has an awesome attack backswing/damage point which makes up for a great attack animation and easier last hitting
- Not very item dependent until late game
- Power in Death makes her skills more efficient and increases her movement speed
- Has multiple roles (carrying, pushing, tanking, ganking)
- Being an intelligence hero makes her basically paper in early game so don't go balls deep for kills
- Low base movement speed
- Big target for ganks
- Low base armor
[bst] Base Stats
Strength: 19 + 1.8 per level
Agility: 14 + 1.4 per level
Intelligence: 20 + 3.0 per level
Damage: 39 + 51
Armor: 0.96
Movement Speed: 285
Attack Range: 600
Attack Rate: 0.59
Health: 472
Mana: 260
[skl] Skills
Quote:
| Wave of Death  Exercising her mastery over death, the Defiler sends forth a Wave of Death which damage enemies in a line Level 1 - 100 damage per unit, 105 mana Level 2 - 175 damage per unit, 120 mana Level 3 - 250 damage per unit, 140 mana Level 4 - 300 damage per unit, 165 mana |
Quote:
| Grave Silence  The Defiler forces images of slain warriors into the minds of her foes, commanding a moment of silence which prevents them from casting spells or using abilities. Level 1 - 3 second Silence Level 2 - 4 second Silence Level 3 - 5 second Silence Level 4 - 6 second Silence *Also disables active item abilities for now *Cast range of 900 |
Quote:
| Power in Death  The Defiler embraces death, increasing her movement speed and power of her other spells. Decreases mana cost of Wave of Death by 5/10/15/20 Decreases cooldown of Wave of Death by 1/2/3/4 seconds Increases number of Level 1 Unholy Expulsion spirits by 1/2/3/4 Increases the number of Level 2 Unholy Expulsion spirits by 1/3/4/6 Increases the number of Level 3 Unholy Expulsion spirits by 0/2/4/7 So basically here's what it does: Level 1 - -5/1 Mana Cost/CD of WoD, +1/1/0 Unholy Expulsion Spirits Level 2 - -10/2 Mana Cost/CD of WoD, +2/3/2 Unholy Expulsion Spirits Level 3 - -15/3 Mana Cost/CD of WoD, +3/4/4 Unholy Expulsion Spirits Level 4 - -20/4 Mana Cost/CD of WoD, +4/6/7 Unholy Expulsion Spirits *No longer improves movement speed |
Quote:
| Unholy Expulsion  The Defiler expels several invulnerable spirits from her form. The spirits may not be directly controlled but will attack nearby enemies and will attack any unit that the Defiler directly attacks. When Unholy Expulsion ends, the spirits will heal the Defiler. Level 1 - Summons 5 spirits, 200 mana cost, 100 second cooldown Level 2 - Summons 10 spirits, 300 mana cost, 100 second cooldown Level 3 - Summons 16 spirits, 400 mana cost, 100 second cooldown *Heals 25% of damage dealt at all levels upon returning to the Defiler *Spirits do 43-48 damage at all levels *Attacks whoever Defiler sends the attack command to. It doesn't matter if she attacks the target or not. You can summon the spirits in the fog and send the attack command to somebody in the lane near you. |
Wave of Death - 1/3/5/7
Grave Silence - 2/12/13/14
Power in Death - 4/8/9/10
Unholy Expulsion - 6/11/16
Attribute Bonus - 15/17/18/19/20/21/22/23/24/25
Or if you prefer this format.
1. Wave of Death
2. Grave Silence
3. Wave of Death
4. Power in Death
5. Wave of Death
6. Unholy Expulsion
7. Wave of Death*
8. Power in Death
9. Power in Death
10. Power in Death*
11. Unholy Expulsion
12. Grave Silence
13. Grave Silence
14. Grave Silence*
15. Attribute Bonus
16. Unholy Expulsion*
17. Attribute Bonus
18. Attribute Bonus
19. Attribute Bonus
20. Attribute Bonus
21. Attribute Bonus
22. Attribute Bonus
23. Attribute Bonus
24. Attribute Bonus
25. Attribute Bonus*
* Means that the ability is at its maximum skill level
Explanation:
Wave of Death is ALWAYS maxed first. It is your primary nuke, harass, farming, pushing, and kill-stealing skill. It will help tremendously in team battles by taking out chunks of your enemies' life every five seconds while in the mean time your spirits and your allies are cleaning up.
One point should ALWAYS be put into Grave Silence at the beginning. Silence is always helpful in preventing ganks and preventing enemies from casting escape spells. It is maxed out later during late-mid game for a greater AoE and longer duration which helps by ridiculous amounts in team battles. You always want to hit as many casters as possible with this spell and if you can't, hit as many enemy heroes as possible because a spell is a spell and a spell is and will always be potentially deadly for you an your team. Remember how large the cast range of Grave Silence is. It has a cast range of 900; that's larger than the distance of Death Wave!
Power in Death is ALWAYS maxed second. Power in Death makes Unholy Expulsion and Wave of Death more efficient and effective while improving your movement speed. It's very important for Defiler that her spells are more mana efficient since she has one of the longest ranged AoE nukes out there and plays a critical role during team battles.
Unholy Expulsion will ALWAYS be taken whenever possible. More spirits = more damage = better pushing = more killing, etc, etc.
The biggest problem with Defiler's skills is that she doesn't scale as well as much as we'd like. Sure she gets more spirits as she levels up but their damage remains constant. So how do we help Defiler scale into mid-late game? Let's move on to the items!
[itm] Items
Starting Items: (Ricing)
- 1x Healing Potion - 100
- 3x Mana Potions - 150
- 2x Runes of the Blight - 180
- 3x Minor Totems - 159
Total Cost: 589 Gold
This leaves you with 14 gold left.
You can never have enough Healing Potions/Runes of the Blight. You want to stay in your lane for as long as possible. You should also have somebody on your team grab an Monkey/Winged Courier in case you run out of consumables. Mana Potions are to refill your mana pool so you can use Wave of Death. Minor Totems are just for an extra stat boost.
Alternative Starting Items: (Ganking)
- 1x Monkey Courier - 200
- 1x Wards of Sight (If you don't have a Scout) - 200
- 2x Runes of the Blight (1x if you didn't buy wards) - 180
- 1x Healing Potion (If you didn't buy wards) - 100
- 2x Mana Potions (If you didn't buy wards) - 100
- 2x Minor Totems (If you didn't buy wards) - 106
Use the Courier to run your Bottle once you've farmed enough gold. Lay wards to watch the runes. Don't forget healing items such as Runes of the Blight, Healing Potions, and Mana Potions. Minor Totems are also good for the extra stats.
Total Cost: 580 Gold (Wards)/596(No Wards)
Never start off with a Bottle alone. By starting off with a Bottle you're missing bonus stat items or other important items such as Wards. Lay your wards to watch the runes. Once you have enough gold, run yourself a Bottle and start your ganking.
Core Items:
- X Homecoming Stones - 135X
- 2x Fortified Bracelets - 1020
- 1x Enhanced Marchers - 1550
- 1x Sacrificial Stone - 5050
Total Cost: 7755 Gold
This is the core build for Defiler no matter which role you decided to play in the early game. Whether you decided to gank and rune-whore or stay in the lanes and ricing and ganking minimally this is your core item build. This is the most effective and efficient build for Defiler.
- The Bracelets are just in case you need extra health/survivability. You can skip Bracelets if you decide that you can farm your Sacrificial Stone in time.
- Enhanced Marchers are perfect for you. It boosts you armor and gives you extra movement speed when activated.
- Sacrificial Stone is also perfect for you. You will need the Sustainer early game to help you stay in line. When the Stone is complete your kills will further benefit you. The Sacrificial Stone is what helps Defiler scale into late game and what makes her a beast. Every kill she gets makes her a tougher tank. Every kill she gets allows her to spam her spells more frequently.
- Remember to always carry Homecoming Stones, one of the most important items in the game.
What Defiler needs the most is mana, mana regeneration, health, health regeneration, and armor. According to these needs you will only need certain luxury items if the game goes on for that long.
Luxury Items Include:
- Frostfield Plate (4700) for extra armor, mana, and a second AoE nuke along with a passive AoE attack speed reduction. Gives +30 Intelligence, +15 Armor, -25% IAS Aura, AoE Nuke dealing 200 damage/-40% Movement Speed (30 Second Cooldown).
- Behemoth's Heart (5500) for extra health and regeneration. Once you have this and a couple of charges on your Sacrificial Stone you'll be getting an awesome 60-70hp/sec regen. Gives +300 HP, +35 Strength (665 Health), and 1% of Max Health Regeneration per second. This item is also what helps you scale well as you go into late game. With the Sac Stone and Behemoth's Heart you will be near unkillable.
- Null Stone (5175) comes with a spell block and extra regeneration along with stats. Gives +15 All Attributes, +6 HP/sec Regeneration, 150% Mana Regeneration, and a passive Spell Block (20 second Cooldown)
- Totem of Kuldra (5675) gives you a disable along with stats and mana regeneration. Gives +35 Intelligence, +10 Strength, +10 Agility, 200% Mana Regeneration, and a 3.5 duration Morph (turns target into chattering teeth - 35 Second Cooldown).
- Puzzle Box (Level 3 - 5350) is nice for the health, mana, and the minions. Gives +24 Strength, +14 Intelligence, and summons a Puzzle Mauler and Puzzle Wizard (Lasts 35 seconds). The Puzzle Mauler has 400/600/800 Health dealing 21/41/61 damage (100 range melee) with a passive 25/50/75 Mana Combustion per hit, a 1000 AoE True Sight at level 3, and a 200/400/600 damage Last Will (deals damage to the killing unit). The Puzzle Wizard has 400/600/800 Health dealing 31/61/91 damage at 350/450/550 range with an active 125/175/225 Mana Burn, and a 3%/6%/9% Attack and Movement Speed Aura. Both summons have 40% spell resistance at all levels.
- Frostwolf's Skull (6650) gives decent stats and health and a slow attack but is very expensive. Not really recommended but it's a good luxury item. Gives +25 All Attributes, +200 Health, +150 Mana, and a passive Frost Attack (30% MS Slow/20% AS Slow)
Situational Items Include:
- Shrunken Head (3910) is always an awesome item if you need the magic immunity. I usually, if not always, get a Shrunken Head depending on the situation. Gives +24 damage, +10 Strength, and magic immunity upon activation. The magic immunity lasts for 10 seconds initially with a 75 second cooldown. Duration is reduced by 1 second and cooldown is reduced by 5 seconds for every use. It will not go under a 5 second duration and 55 second cooldown
- Shaman's Headdress (2350) is also good if you need the magic resistance if you need extra reduction against nukes. It's also a great item for when Kedgar's Pipe of Insight is released for HoN. The Barrier will be incredibly helpful. The Headdress gives +10 Magic Armor and +8 HP/sec regeneration.
I usually end up swapping out the Enhanced Marchers for Post Haste sometime after I have completely by Shrunken Head for the extra pushing power.
[gmp] Gameplay
It's always best to solo as Defiler. You want to organize your lanes. If your team sees your Defiler pick then right away they should grab either Thunderbringer or Pyromancer for the insta-gib capabilities. It's not just because they can take down Defiler quickly in early game but also because they are good roamers and will help the team. It's always nice to have a backup carry supported by a strong support hero. A good lane would be something like Swiftblade and Puppetmaster. Glacius is always nice for the extra spell spam that he gives with his Chilling Prescence. Having a jungling hero is awesome since it allows for an extra solo lane. Wildsoul, Legionnaire, and Ophelia are all good jungling heroes. A good lineup would look like this (for Legion). Thunderbringer at middle lane. Defiler at bottom lane. Legionnaire jungling Legion forest and ganking bottom lane to support Defiler. Legion bottom/Hellbourne top are usually considered the "safe" lanes for carries so for the top lane you want to have a powerful combination that shuts down their safe lane. This could be where you put your Swiftblade and Puppetmaster. This would be an example of a gank to push lineup since in team battles this lineup would have a definite disable until Legionnaire has his Portal Key to Taunt. You could also go with the 1 carry (Defiler), 1 gank, and 3 support/initiators strategy. An example of this lineup would be Valkyrie, Defiler, Ophelia, Glacius, and Behemoth. The best team strategy is to have at least one initiator and one or two support heroes. You also want a ganking hero and/or a secondary carry hero.
Solo middle lane is a good but the only problem is that you're not a ganking hero and you're taking away the advantage of having a gank hero soloing mid when you're taking mid lane. However, if you continue to rice the middle lane then your teammates will farm better when other heroes come to gank you.
If you're playing ganking Defiler then solo middle lane is a great choice. It gives you the ability to control both runes so you can run up and down the lanes ganking. Ganking as Defiler works pretty well because of the spammability of her Wave of Death in early game. It has an incredibly large range and can easily mow down enemy heroes in one or two casts. Ganking is also really easy when you're ganking a lane where you have a partner that has a disable. Once you've ganked the lane, use your Unholy Expulsion and push the tower down. Remember not to over-gank because then you will lose too much experience and gold because you've left your lane.
Another great lane choice is soloing bottom on Legion or top on Hellbourne. If you're soloing a side lane then you have an extra person middle lane which can help shut down the other team's mid solo. It's also a great idea if you have a jungler who can help you with ganks and pulling creeps in your lane.
Your main goal is to farm and then push in early game if you decided not be the ganker. Wave of Death can be used to harass and farm creeps at the same time. If the other team has multiple low HP creeps, line up your Wave of Death so it hits the hero(es) at the same time to harass and control the lane. Once you hit 6 or 7 you should be able to take towers and clear lanes with Unholy Expulsion and Wave of Death. It's nice to do a multiple lane push with your teammates. Have your four teammates do a team push on one lane while you mow down another. You will be guaranteed at least one tower kill for the team.
No matter which early game role you decided to play as, whether it was ganker or ricer, you will become a carry/tank from mid-late game.
You want to grab a Sustainer and make it into a Sacrificial Stone ASAP. Remember to grab Marchers along with Fortified Bracelets if you need them. Lifetubes and Manatubes help you a lot during early game. Remember to constantly watch the minimap for ganks. In 1v1s, Defiler never dies as long as she has Unholy Expulsion. However, watch for ganks. It's important not to die as Defiler as dying hinders your farming and experience which will delay your core items and your level 3 Unholy Expulsion. Playing as Defiler makes you a big target. Everybody knows how dangerous and deadly a Defiler is so they will come to gank you constantly, trying to shut down your farm. Avoid dying as much as you can by carrying Homecoming Stones and consumable items such as Healing Potions which help get you out of a clutch. Always, always, always remember to check the minimap. It's also very important that you have a teammate set up wards to watch ganks. Knowing how to juke is very important if all else fails. You can check out Juking like the 1950s - How to juke [Pictures] by Viole if you need help with juking and jukespots. No matter what phase of the game it is, NEVER use your Unholy Expulsion right before you die. It has a relatively long cooldown and you will be wasting it for upcoming team battles. Many people make the mistake of doing that to "get as much done before you die". If you want to do that then just hit a Grave Silence if your team is coming or land a Wave of Death which will do more damage than a half second of your Unholy Expulsion. Unholy Expulsion, unlike Moon Queen's Moon Finale, will not remain active once Defiler has died.
During mid-late game team battles you just want to sit back, tank, and spam your Wave of Death while your Unholy Expulsion spirits wreak havoc. Grave Silence as many heroes as you can while your team lands their AoEs/disables to help you kill them.Your role as a multi-role hero is to carry and tank during team-battles. Don't chase heroes out of the lanes unless your team has at least one dependable disable. Your Unholy Expulsion has limited time and you want to use it more for pushing. In team battles your team should be able to kill at least 2-4 people. When the survivors wander off into the jungle and escape, don't chase. It wastes precious pushing time and will also act as a distraction while their teammates revive.
[ane] Allies and Enemies
You always want good supporting heroes/ganking heroes to help you on your team. Any hero with a disable, AoE or not, will help you and your spirits.
Good allies include:
-Keeper of the Forest (Root)
-Pebbles (Stalagmites)
-Behemoth (Fissure)
-Pyromancer (Dragonfire)
-Legionnaire (Taunt)
Enemies include any hero with massive burst damage or ganking heroes that will target you early game to shut down your farm
Enemies Include (but not limited to):
-Thunderbringer (Entire skill set has great synergy and is very deadly)
-Pyromancer (Blazing Strike and Phoenix Wave)
-Behemoth (Fissure and Shockwave)
This guide is from Heroes of Newerth forum
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