Introduction
"Sweet spoilage."
Necrophos, previously known as Necrolyte, is a ranged intelligence semi-carry. Despite rarely ever being picked competitively and being a relatively unpopular pick in public matchmaking as well, Necrophos has persistently had one of the highest win rates in the game since Dota 2’s release. This is thanks largely to his great sustainability in pushes and extended teamfights thanks to Death Pulse, and from an ultimate which is a fantastic counter to tanky heroes.
You can find our complete character profile for Necrophos here.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- High sustainability
- Has an AoE heal which is also an AoE nuke
- Deals good damage over time
- Good in push and base siege line-ups
- Good creep clearance capability
- Amazing anti-tank ultimate
- Fun to play
Cons
- No real place in the metagame – he neither excels as a carry nor is considered viable as a support
- Slow move speed
- No escape mechanism
- Mana issues until ~level 9/10
- Heavily outscaled late game by other carries and semi-carries
- His passive abilities often feel lacklustre
- Needs levels and farm
Item Build
Starting Items
I like to start off with the usual mixture of regeneration consumables and stat items, so the following:
- A set of Tangos, a Healing Salve, 3x Iron Branches.
This leaves you with a nice chunk of leftover gold. Ideally you want to spend as much starting gold as possible in as efficient a way as possible. So if you intend to build a Null Talisman (for a Dagon, for example) or a Bracer (to later upgrade into Drums) on Necro in the early going you can spend the remainder of your gold on components for these items.
I generally don’t build these items on him, and like to go straight into Magic Wand, Boots and then Mekanism, so I stick with those starting items listed above and save my remaining gold for my next set of item purchases.
Early Game
Early on you want to grab some basic Boots of Speed. Necro has low base move speed and is really quite squishy early on, so they’ll help you to avoid being a sitting duck for offensive ganks.
Next upgrade the Iron Branches you have into a Magic Wand, and then consider which boots you’re going to get as part of your core item set-up and start saving towards them.
Core Items
When it comes to upgraded boots there are three major options: Power Treads (tankability), Phase Boots (movespeed, damage), or Arcane Boots (mana-based, spell-centric build). I almost always opt for Arcane Boots. Necro’s actives cost a lot of mana, and Death Pulse is very spammable. Whilst you can use it to clear creep waves and recoup the lost mana through your Sadist passive, you cannot reliably do this in teamfights or ganks, which is when you most need to be able to spam it. Arcane Boots solves this problem, and also allows you to be an effective Mek carrier.
Which brings me on to my major core item recommendation: Mekanism. Necro is a good Mekanism carrier for similar reasons to the likes of Viper or Outworld Devourer. While it is ordinarily considered a support item (and Necro is generally not considered a support hero), on these heroes it is nonetheless a fantastic item pick-up because they thrive off of sustainability in teamfights. Since they’re farm-based heroes, it also means they’ll get the Mekanism much sooner than a support would, which allows them to better sustain their entire team in teamfights and tower pushes.
Luxury Items
Drums of Endurance – I recommend Drums on a lot of heroes for various reasons. As far as Necro goes - you're slow, you’re a semi-carry that thrives off of sustainability in teamfights, and you’ve already got a fantastic utility item as your core pick up in Mekanism. Drums synergises so well with all of these points. The attack and move speed aura affects both yourself teammates – helping remedy your movespeed issues whilst simultaneously providing even more team utility - the stats gain makes you a fair bit tankier, and it's a very cost effective item that's easy to build into, making it an excellent choice if you’re somewhat behind or fighting frequently and thus don’t want to put too much unreliable gold at risk.
Bloodstone – Bloodstone is the greedier tank item. Because it’s so expensive you’ll only want to build it if 1) Your team is ahead and you’re farming well, or 2) The pace of the game is slow, with little in the way of early teamfights. So as a quick rule of thumb: after Mekanism, go from Drums if there’s a lot of fighting going on and you don’t want to put too much unreliable gold at risk. Go for Bloodstone if you’re well ahead or if the pace of the game lends itself to having a lot of unreliable gold stacked up.
Scythe of Vyse – Fantastic luxury item. Good stats, fantastic mana regeneration, and 3.5 seconds of enemy disable. The prohibitive cost makes it more of a second or third luxury item though, as you’ll probably need a tank item to go with your Mekanism first. That said, the sooner you get a Scythe the more game-breaking it can be for your team.
Shiva’s Guard – A great late-late game item. By this stage you’re likely 4 or 5 slotted, and so it becomes a contender for your last couple of item slots. The armour will go a good way to making you a full on tank, while the aura is great to have for your team. You also gain a nice chunk of intelligence (always helpful for Necro; both as a way to increase damage and maintain your mana pool). You can also use the Arctic Blast AoE nuke to damage and slow enemies in teamfights.
Black King Bar – Necro doesn’t typically buy BKB, but sometimes it is necessary; if you find you’re being shut down in teamfights and unable to get off your abilities you’ll need the Spell Immunity from BKB to be able to make an effective contribution to teamfights – you’ll also get some decent health and some ok damage out of it.
Aghanim’s Scepter – Aghanims grants you 10 all stats, 200 health and 150 mana. By no means a bad chunk of stats, it is however not a very cost effective way of getting them. But they’re just bonus perks. The main reason people purchase Aghanims on Necro is for the buffs to your ultimate, which are threefold:
– It increases damage dealt from 0.4/0.6/0.9 to 0.6/0.9/1.2 respectively. This essentially takes the kill threshold for your ultimate from 23%/31%/40% of enemy health to 31%/40%/47%.
- It reduces the cooldown from 100/85/70 seconds to 70 seconds at all levels, and reduces the mana cost from 175/340/500 to 150/340/500
- It disables buyback on any enemy you kill with it.
These are reasonable buff, although they are by no means the best Aghanims upgrades in the game. It is generally considered to not quite be worth the cost compared to other items you can get on him, although it’s certainly a fun item to get and can be important late-game when buybacks on core heroes become one of the keys to victory.
Heart of Tarrasque – Purely to help tank up – you’ll become almost unkillable unless severely outnumbered when you add this to your other item purchases.
Necronomicon – Should be seriously considered. Necronomicon is amazing if you’re part of a pushing line-up (which it really should be if you’ve opted for a Necrophos core) or your team is struggling to break the base. Also a great item for teamfights and for countering any invis enemy heroes.
Heaven’s Halberd - I love going Halberd on Necro when I'm playing the 2 or 3 position role. It gives you so much utility for your team because you can prevent the enemy carry from physically attacking for a few seconds. On top of that it makes you much tankier, gives you damage mitigation, and even a little bit of extra right click damage.
Situational Items
Bottle – Bottle is taken if you lane mid with Necro. He is not a common mid at all, but sometimes will be expected to lane there in public matchmaking if the line-up makes him the best option.
Boots of Travel – Great for the late game, when you need to free up a slot which would otherwise be taken up by a TP Scroll. With this, you combine your Boots and TP Scroll slot into one, allowing you to put a slot to better use if you’re about to become 6 slotted.
Dagon – 400 to 800 burst magic damage. Dagon is a good snowball item, but a terrible item to get if you’re not snowballing because it will gradually taper off if effectiveness over time. Dagon 5 is also the least cost efficient item in the game at 7720 gold for an 800 magic damage nuke. Highly situational (and risky!) but very fun on Necro – you can use it to burst an enemy below the kill threshold for Reaper’s Scythe and then insta-kill them with your ultimate.
Ethereal Blade – E-Blade is a great offensive and defensive item. Defensively it grants you 4 seconds of physical immunity, and allows you to give that effect either to an ally (ideally someone who’s the target of enemy right clicks), or an enemy hero (the enemy physical DPS’er). This gives you time to create distance between yourself and the enemy carry or at the very least buys your team 4 seconds of distraction time.
Offensively, when combined with burst magic damage (such as Dagon, or your ultimate) E-Blade becomes a tool by which magic damage nukers can scale into the late game. After casting E-Blade on an enemy nuke them with as much burst damage output as possible - E-Blade will buff that damage by a huge 40%. When purchased on Necro the typical strategy is to use your ultimate first (because of its long cast time and because the damage is applied at the end, when it lands), and then E-Blade the target just before the Reaper’s Scythe hits them to magnify significantly amplify the damage.
Linken’s Sphere - Linkens can be a decent luxury item on Necro. The stats it provides are decent but expensive for its price; you’re really getting it for the passive Spellblock. If the enemy team has a lot of single-target disables, or that one key ability which is really frustrating your ability to do your job in teamfights, then it’s worth considering. The Spellblock ability can also be transferred to an ally if need be, giving you a way of protecting your team’s carry if they’re the focus of stuns as well.
Skill Build
Death Pulse is an area of effect magic damage nuke which also doubles up as a healing ability. It is skilled and maxed first. It deals 75/125/200/275 magic damage to each enemy unit within a 475 unit radius of Necrophos, and heals allied units within the same radius by 70/90/110/130 health.
Death Pulse is Necrophos’s bread and butter. With a low cooldown of 5 seconds at level 4 it is a spammable nuke and heal which you should cast numerous times during teamfights. The only downside to the ability is its huge mana cost – 185 at level 4, which means you’ll need some hefty mana regeneration. Fortunately you have a passive ability which grants you precisely that.
Heartstopper Aura is a passive ability which deals direct negative health regeneration to enemies within a 1200 unit radius of Necrophos. It is maxed last, although an early point can be advantageous in the laning phase in order to deal indirect harassment to lane opponents. The damage dealt is based on a percentage of the unit’s maximum health – 0.6%, 0.9%, 1.2% and 1.5% per second, respectively.
Traditionally it was maxed second, and many Necro players still do this. However, the standard build is max Death Pulse, followed by maxed Sadist, and then Heartstopper is maxed last. That said, I will take early points in it if I am 1) against a dual or tri lane that is not hanging back and so will take a lot of damage from this passive, or 2) if I am not the last hitter in the lane – since Sadist is only useful if you intend to last hit and as a more utility/support-based Necro you can afford to take Heartstopper instead.
Sadist is Necro’s other passive – the one that increases his mana regeneration. It is usually maxed second (see previous paragraph). Every time you last hit a creep you will gain bonus mana and health regeneration for 6 seconds. If you last hit an enemy hero the rate of regeneration is x10.
As the benefits stack, Sadist allows you to maintain the mana to spam Death Pulse, since you will gain +2/4/6/10 mana regeneration and +1/2/3/4 health regeneration per creep kill for 6 seconds.
Finally, Necrophos’s ultimate, Reaper’s Scythe, is always skilled (levels 6, 11 and 16). An extremely powerful single target magic damage spell, Reaper’s Scythe is an excellent counter to tank strength heroes and a great way to ensure you get kills. Scythe, when cast on a target, holds them in place and stuns them for 1.5 seconds, before dealing damage based on how much health they are missing.
Thus, the lower the hero’s health, the more chance of dealing a killing blow, and if it manages to kill them their respawn timer is increased by 30 seconds.
Assuming the hero has a base 25% magic resistance and that you do not have an Aghanim’s Scepter, the kill threshold is: 23% of total health, 31% of total health, and 40% of total health. If they have less than that Reaper’s Scythe will kill them. Even if it doesn’t kill them, it still deals damage based on the amount of health they are missing.
Gameplay Tips
Death Pulse’s damage and healing total is fairly low as burst damage and burst healing, instead its effectiveness comes from its low cooldown and AoE basis. In teamfights you should be looking to cast Death Pulse whenever it comes off cooldown, hitting as many enemy and allied heroes as possible in the process.
Heartstopper Aura may seem relatively ineffective, but its strength lies in dealing direct damage over time. This quickly adds up, especially in lengthy teamfights when the aura will likely affect multiple enemy heroes for several seconds.
| Note: Heartstopper Aura’s damage is direct negative health regeneration – it is neither physical nor magic damage based, and so cannot be blocked. Any unit within 1000 units of a Necro with this ability skilled will take the full damage (which is a percentage of their max health). |
Heartstopper Aura is a situational early laning stage skill to consider getting. While nowadays the cookie cutter build recommends it be skilled and maxed last, an early point can be great at punishing greedy lane opponents and forcing them to quickly eat through consumables.
Once you’ve maxed Sadist you can effectively use Death Pulse to quickly clear creep waves – the mana regeneration bonus will ensure you recoup the lost mana so long as you net at least 3 last hits (each creep last hit grants you +60 mana and +24 health).
| Tip: Sadist actually works on denies, so don’t neglect to deny your own creeps (or heroes!). You should be doing so anyway, in order to maintain good creep equilibrium. |
Reaper’s Scythe has a somewhat confusing skill description. Here’s basically what it boils down to: if the enemy hero’s health bar is below 23% early on then it will guarantee you a kill. By level two, if their life bar is at around 1/3 of its max you will net a kill. And finally, by level 3, if they have only around 40% of their overall health bar full it will guarantee a kill.
If an enemy hero has a lot of health missing but is not necessarily about to die, use Reaper’s Scythe to deal a crippling blow. Do not use it on targets who have most of their health bar still full; it will deal minor damage only and is a waste of the cooldown.
| Note: Reaper’s Scythe is magic damage based and so the damage IS blocked by Spell Immunity. However, the stun goes through Spell Immunity, and so can be used to cancel TP Scrolls or channelled abilities if necessary. |
Don’t just save Reaper's Scythe for when the enemy is at the kill threshold, though; damage dealt during the 1.5 second stun (i.e. before the Scythe swoops down and hits the target), will still be factored in. This often allows you and your teammates to deal sufficient additional damage to ensure a kill even if, when you initially cast the ultimate, they were not within the kill threshold.
| Note: If you cast Reaper’s Scythe on a target but they die before it lands, you will still be credited with the kill. |
Last Updated - Patch 6.82.
