Introduction
“Meepwned!”
Meepo is melee agility initiator and semi-carry. He is notoriously the hardest hero in the game to play, as not only does effective Meepo play rely on the micro-management of multiple hero units, but the death of any of his multiple hero units results in the death of all Meepos.
You can find Meepo's complete character profile here.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Can farm and level up like a monster if left unchecked
- Quickly out-levels all other heroes in the game
- A very strong snowball hero in the hands of a good player
- Has a lot of lockdown potential
- Slows through spell immunity
- Very high burst damage
- Develops into a global map presence
Cons
- Hardest hero in the game to play
- Requires good micro-management abilities
- The death of one Meepo results in the death of all Meepos
- Needs items and levels
- Quite heavily countered by magic immunity and high mobility
- Falls off in the true late game
- Vulnerable to AoE stuns and nukes
- Low base damage makes last hitting tough early on
Item Build
Starting Items
Meepo is usually laned either mid or in the safe lane as the team’s primary farmer. Typical starting items for Meepo in either lane will often look something like this:
- A set of Tangos, Healing Salve, Stout Shield.
Since he’s a melee farmer it’s expected you’ll face a fair bit of harassment early on. The Stout Shield will help to block a lot of this and the Tangos and Healing Salve provide you with plenty of regen to ensure you can stay in lane and continue last hitting despite the harass damage you receive.
Early Game
Unless you intend to purchase a Mekansim, which used to be the go-to build for Meepo but has fallen off dramatically in popularity more recently as a result of patch 6.79 (see Aghanim’s Scepter section below), then your only early game pick-up is some Boots of Speed, which you’ll immediately work on upgrading into a set of Power Treads.
Boots (unless/until you have Aghanim’s Scepter) are the only items in the game which share attribute bonuses amongst all of your Meepos, so Power Treads will help tank up all of your Meepos early on.
Core Items
Aghanim’s Scepter – Aghanim’s Scepter is amazing on Meepo and now considered core (since patch 6.79, which ended stat sharing on a non-Aghanim’s Scepter Meepo). +10 all stats, +200 health and +150 mana is great to have, but more important it substantially buffs your ultimate, Divided We Stand:
- You gain an extra Meepo, increasing the total Meepo count from 2/3/4 to 3/4/5 and resulting in a corresponding increase in damage output and farming efficiency.
- It grants your Meepo clones 100% shared attributes (i.e. your clones now benefit from the attribute bonuses from items and not just skill points placed in stats, which is hugely important).
Blink Dagger – Your other core item is a Blink Dagger. Blink allows Meepo to initiate fights strongly, using Poof to deal a huge burst of damage on the enemy hero you decide to Blink on.
Blink also allows you to close the gap, which is one of Meepos greatest weaknesses. Where beforehand you rely either on teammates disabling enemy heroes or on successfully aiming Earthbind in order to land your Poofs and deal auto-attack damage, now you can close the distance instantly using Blink, and Poof your clones in and instantly start auto-attacking, at which point you become incredibly tough to escape from.
Luxury Items
Once you have your core (and not before!) your list of potential item pick-ups increase dramatically. The following are the more popular luxury pick-ups for Meepo:
Vladmir’s Offering – A strong early and mid game utility item. Your entire team will benefit from the bonus damage, mana regeneration, and armour auras, and it’s doubly good if any of your team’s other core heroes are melee DPS’ers thanks to the lifesteal aura.
And, of course, most importantly, since you and your clones are melee they benefit from all four of Vladmir’s Offering’s aura bonuses themselvs, making them tankier, granting them lifesteal and bonus damage, and providing some mana regeneration that’ll help out when it comes to Poof and Earthbind usage.
Manta Style – Some stat gain, bonus attack and move speed, and 2 illusions, which will make your army of Meepos even more intimidating and teamfights even more chaotic for enemies to deal with.
Illusions from Manta Style have a couple of unique features when it comes to Meepo: They possess his Geostrike passive ability, you can teleport to illusions using Poof, and illusions benefit from Aghanim’s Scepter’s attribute sharing, so your Manta Style illusions will be quite strong.
Heart of Tarrasque – Perhaps the most popular post-core item for Meepo, Heart will make you and your army of Meepos full on tanks. Your health pool will be enormous and you’ll be hard to take down. A good luxury item if you find the enemy team is able to take down one of your Meepos too quickly in fights.
Eye of Skadi – A bunch of stats (+25 all stats, +250 health, +250 mana) will seriously tank you up and the unique attack modifier from Skadi stacks with the slow effect from Geostrike, making your auto-attacks even more crippling.
Assault Cuirass – The plus amour and attack speed auras for allies (including Meepo clones) and minus armour for enemies makes Assault Cuirass a good luxury item on pretty much any core in the game. You become a lot tankier whilst at the same time weakening the enemy team and providing auras for your own team and your army of clones.
Don't go for an AC though if someone else on your team already has one or is working towards one. The auras won't stack and so the item becomes really cost inefficient at that point - you're better off using the gold on one of these other luxury items.
Situational Items
Boots of Travel – When you are at that stage of the game when you’re becoming 6 slotted, swap out your initial set of boots for Boots of Travel. It frees up a slot you may otherwise have reserved for a TP Scroll and makes you much less susceptible to split-push.
Drums of Endurance – An early-game oriented item, Drums of Endurance can be purchased after your core if you feel the need for some cheap additional stats. Your army of clones will all benefit not only from the cost efficient stat boost once you have Aghanim’s Scepter but also the auras as well. They’re also a great utility pick-up for the entire team, assuming no one else is working into them.
That said, they’re very situational on Meepo, whose ability to quickly get a lead in experience and gold makes him a better candidate for more late game oriented stat items (such as Heart of Tarrasque or Eye of Skadi).
Shiva’s Guard – It will make you more durable thanks to the armour buff, and the aura will also provide utility for your team by slowing the attack speed of enemies. The Arctic Blast active also has amazing synergy with your own hero role, as it can be cast in the middle of your initiation to hit as many enemies as possible and thus further increase the impact your initiation combo.
Scythe of Vyse – Scythe of Vyse isn’t too uncommon on Meepo. You lack for lockdown, outside of Earthbind, which itself is fairly unreliable and easily countered by spell immunity. Scythe gives you much more disable potential, and will make it easier to pick off core enemy heroes later on in the game. In short, it’s a very strong utility pick-up, especially if you’re struggling to lock enemies down and attack them.
Pipe of Insight - If you didn’t purchase the Mekanism for your team then that opens up the possibility of going for Pipe later on. 30% additional magic resistance and 400 spell damage block in a 900 unit AoE makes your entire army of Meepos much stronger in teamfights and will help greatly your team when it comes to attempting to break the enemy base.
Skill Build
Earthbind is a disable which is usually skilled and maxed second. Earthbind allows you to throw a net out towards a target point. Upon landing it disables any units within a 220 AoE radius for 2 seconds. Additional levels decrease the cooldown (20/16/12/8 seconds) and increase the cast range of the ability (500/750/1000/1250).
Poof is a magic damage nuke. It is usually skilled and maxed first. Poof allows you to transport one Meepo to another or itself after a 1.5 second channeling time. It then deals 80/100/120/140 magic damage both at the point of departure and the point of arrival, in a 375 unit AoE around the Meepo.
Poof is thus used both as a means of teleporting Meepos to one another and as a high magic damage nuke – since each Meepo has access to the ability it opens up the potential for incredible magic damage (at level 4, it can deal 280 if you have 1 Meepo, 560 if you have 2, 840 if you have 3, 1120 if you have 4, and 1400 if you have 5).
Geostrike is a passive ability which affects Meepo’s auto-attacks. It is usually maxed last. Geostrike adds a move speed slow and a damage over time effect to Meepos attacks. Enemies are slowed by 5/10/15/20% and take an additional 7/14/21/28 magic damage per second for 2 seconds from Meepos attacks.
Divided We Stand is Meepo’s ultimate and it is always skilled (levels 3, 10 and 17). Divided We Stand grants you an additional 1/2/3 (2/3/4 if you have Aghanim’s Scepter) Meepos on top of your original Meepo. It also reduces your respawn timer by 20%.
This is what makes Meepo a unique and notoriously difficult hero to play. Each Meepo clone has access to its own independent Earthbind, Poof, and Geostrike abilities, and can gain (and shares) experience and gold with all of the others. However, Meepo clones cannot wield their own items (aside from whatever Boots the main Meepo owns) and if one of the Meepos die all of the Meepos die, meaning that each clone is just as important as the main Meepo.
Gameplay Tips
Each Meepo unit has access to Earthbind, which gives Meepo access to incredible lockdown potential thanks to Earthbind’s long cast range and very low cooldown. When attempting to chase someone, rotate through your Meepos, casting Earthbind, in order to lock that hero down and get within melee range.
| Note: Earthbind is not a stun, so does not prevent ability usage, but it does prevent blinking, invisibility, and movement. It will also interrupt channelled abilities (and TP Scrolls). |
Earthbind has a very long cast range once maxed (1250), but it is a target point ability not a target unit ability, which makes it harder to land the further you are away from the target. It also has a slight cast delay of 0.3 seconds, further adding to the ability’s skillshot nature. It’s highly recommend you learn to practice timing and placement of Earthbind against bots prior to using Meepo competitively for the first time.
Earthbind is typically combined with Poof to lockdown an enemy target long enough for you to get in range to activate Poof. Early on this is an incredibly strong combo, as the damage dealt by Poof is effectively doubled if cast within range of the enemy.
Poof can be used as a means of teleport (basically a free tp scroll) for your Meepos. A basic tactic, for example, is to send just one Meepo to base while the others farm the jungle, and then use Poof on all but 1 Meepo to go back to base. You can then return straight back into the heart of things by Poof’ing to the remaining Meepo in the jungle.
The teleport can also be used as a method of escape (you can rotate out a Meepo on low health and then teleport the rest to him when he’s clear of danger), although you do need to watch out for stuns when doing this.
| Tip: You can use Poof to teleport to Meepo illusions, not just the main Meepo or the clone Meepos from Divided We Stand. |
Poof makes Meepo one of the strongest gankers in the game. Not only does he effectively have access to Boots of Travel as soon as he hits level 3, he can also continue to farm up with 1 Meepo whilst another goes on the hunt for ganks. You can then use Poof to teleport to the Meepo that is ganking if the opportunity arises.
| Tip: You don’t actually need to click precisely on a particular Meepo in order to teleport using poof - Meepo will teleport to the Meepo closest to the target point. |
Although the Geostrike effect from a single Meepo will not stack with its own attacks, the attacks from multiple Meepos (and illusions) do stack, making it almost impossible to run away from a Meepo army that has managed to get within melee range.
| Note: Meepo’s illusions also acquire the Geostrike passive. |
The fact that Meepo’s clones from Divided We Stand can also gain experience and gold (both shared) is how Meepo is able to almost always get ahead of all other heroes on the map in levels and GPM. Because you can teleport your Meepos to one another using Poof you should split your Meepos up so that they maximise your farming efficiency early on. Even if it’s just so that one Meepo is farming the small camp while your main one farms in lane, that’s still much more efficient than any other hero in Dota can be at that stage of the game.
| Important: If any of the Meepo clones die then all Meepos die. It is therefore vital that you practice micro’ing your various Meepos, and keep a constant eye on the mini-map and the status of your individual Meepos, so that one Meepo isn’t being killed while you’re busy last-hitting with another in the lane, for example. |
Once you hit level 3 and gain your first Meepo clone, you can send that Meepo into the jungle to stack jungle camps. These can then be quickly cleared using Poof to provide you with a bonus source of experience and gold gain.
Last Updated - Patch 6.83.
