Introduction
“Their sanity I'll shatter, their dreams of conquest I'll destroy.”
Outworld Devourer (previously known as Outworld Destroyer) is that rare beast – a ranged intelligence carry. Typically played in the mid lane role, he is almost always able to convincingly win his lane and snowball from there, dishing out huge amounts of DPS based on his intelligence gain and mana pool.
You can find Outworld Devourer's complete character profile here.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Will almost always win his lane handily
- Good DPS and deals pure damage
- Amazing, under-appreciated team aura
- Has a disable of sorts and good control
- Strong teamfight ultimate
- Scales well with farm
Cons
- Not the hardest of carries
- Heavily countered by Spell Immunity
- Somewhat squishy
- Very item dependent
- No AoE flash farm ability
Item Build
Outworld Devourer is usually played as a solo mid where he will quickly stack up creep kills and denies. He is typically picked competitively in order to straight out win his lane and shut down the enemy mid – using Astral Imprisonment you will be able to hamper the enemy’s ability to come in to get a last hit whilst at the same time boosting your own damage output.
Starting Items
A good all-round starting build is:
- A set of Tangos, Healing Salve, 3x Iron Branches, and a Mantle of Intelligence.
This gives you good regen as well as solid starting stats, which will allow you to compete for last hits effectively and get your fast Bottle.
Early Game
As already noted, your aim is to get a Bottle as quickly as possible (ideally before the 2 minute rune spawn). Ahead of the rune spawn timer (remember runes spawn every even minute) start to push your wave out. With the wave pushed towards the enemy tower you’re free to check for the rune – using Astral Imprisonment to help ensure it if necessary - and if your lane opponent does choose to contest it they will miss out on valuable experience and gold from the pushed-in creep wave.
After that grab some basic Boots of Speed, and work towards your upgraded boots of choice. This is most commonly Power Treads, which give you some much-needed health as well as attack speed. In the past, Tranquils were a popular alternative as they used to be activatable and would trigger your passive – guides that recommend these are now out of date and should be ignored!
Finally, upgraded any Iron Branches you have into a Magic Wand, and if you can also upgrade your starting Mantle of Intelligence into a Null Talisman.
At this stage you may wish to consider a greedy Hand of Midas – if you are dominating the lane and want to accelerate both your farm and levels (both of which are crucial on OD).
Core Items
Upgrade your Boots of Speed into Power Treads already then do that now, then work on your first big ticket item – this is Force Staff. Firstly, OD thrives off of intelligence and mana gain – Force Staff gives you that quick infusion of intelligence. Secondly, it gives you some crucial positioning and mobility capability, which is something OD inherently lacks.
Luxury Items
As mentioned in the section above, OD thrives off of strong intelligence and mana game, and so his items for the most part revolve around stack on intelligence whilst at the same time increasing his offensive capability. Popular luxury items on Outworld Devourer include:
Scythe of Vyse – Scythe is Outworld Devourer’s ultimate luxury item. 3.5 seconds of solid disable, excellent stats, including a huge +35 intelligence, and huge mana regeneration. There’s a reason in the competitive scene it is often rushed as soon as OD gets just one core item; it’s that damn good. The problem is it’s also really damn expensive.
Black King Bar – Not the ideal first core option, though always a great luxury item. Sometimes OD players are forced into purchasing Black King Bar as their first item if they find they’re being shut down hard and stun locked.
BKB gives you some much-needed health – only Power Treads and Magic Wand thus far give you health. Even more importantly Spell Immunity will allow you to play super aggressively, using the active to avoid being stun locked or burst down.
Rod of Atos – Good health and intelligence gain (+350 and +25 respectively), and a pseudo-disable/powerful slow. All things OD can make great use of. The intelligence gain greatly increases his DPS and the effectiveness of his ultimate, the large chunk of health helps remedy some of his squishiness, and the Cripple active is great for chasing down enemies.
Orchid Malevolence – Another good intelligence item (+25), but with additional stats that seriously increase your DPS - +30 direct damage, +30 attack speed, and the Soul Burn active which amplifies damage taken by a single target by 30% for 5 seconds.
Shiva’s Guard – Shiva’s makes for a great late-late game item on OD. By this stage you’re likely 5 slotted, and so it becomes a contender for your last item slot. The armour will go a good way to making you tankier, while the aura is great to have for your team. You also gain a nice chunk of intelligence (always helpful for OD; 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 a large AoE.
Refresher Orb – Essentially grants you two ultimates, which can be devastating against low intelligence line-ups and those that don’t have Black King Bar (or who have very low duration BKBs). Really only a 6 slot item.
Situational Items
Boots of Travel – The best super late game boots. It combines your TP Scroll slot with your boot slot, freeing up room in your inventory for an extra item when you’re starting to get maxed out. Also always reassuring to have in the late-late game when an enemy team can quickly break the base – if they catch you by surprise in a base rush you will always be able to TP back.
Necronomicon – Great if you’re part of a pushing line-up or your team is struggling to break the base – gives you up to 24 intelligence and 16 strength too. Also a great item for teamfights and for countering any invis enemy heroes.
Linken’s Sphere - Linkens can be a decent luxury item on OD. 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
Arcane Orb is a unique attack modifier that adds pure damage to Outworld Devourer’s attack. It is typically skilled and maxed last, as the bonus damage is based on OD’s mana pool – it adds 6/7/8/9% of his mana pool as bonus pure damage – which only becomes significant once he acquire levels and farm, and its 100 mana cost per cast makes it prohibitively expensive early on.
Astral Imprisonment is a unique form of single target disable – it removes an enemy (or ally) from the map entirely for 1/2/3/4 seconds. 4/7/10/13 intelligence is stolen from enemy heroes that are imprisoned, increasing OD’s own damage output and mana pool for 50 seconds. It is usually skilled and maxed first.
Whilst imprisoned the only ability which can actually harm the enemy unit is Sanity’s Eclipse – they cannot otherwise be attacked, and so it works as a reliable disable only for when you need to buy your teammates time to catch up (or alternatively to protect an ally who is about to die).
The reason it is maxed first is thanks to both the length of the imprisonment scaling with levels as well as the intelligence steal – between the two of them you should be able to heavily hamper an enemy laner’s ability to last hit and deny creeps whilst also increasing your own auto-attack damage at the same time as essentially hobbling the enemy with a tiny mana pool.
Essence Aura is an aura ability which gives you and your nearby allies a 40% chance to restore 10/15/20/25% of their mana whenever they cast a spell. It is usually skilled and maxed second. On top of the aura benefits it provides OD with an additional +75/150/225/300 base mana.
OD’s ultimate, Sanity’s Eclipse, is always skilled (levels 6, 11 and 16). This deals damage to enemy heroes in a large area of effect based on the difference between their intelligence and OD’s intelligence.
If they have more than OD then it will have no effect whatsoever, but if the difference is large enough it will deal substantial damage and will burn 75% of their mana.
Gameplay Tips
Arcane Orb’s hefty 100 mana cost per cast makes it prohibitively expensive early on – you will need several points in Essence Aura in order to be able to set it to auto-cast without running out of mana. Until this point it is best saved for when you need to deal substantial damage to an enemy hero.
Arcane Orb deals pure damage, but it is blocked by Spell Immunity. This makes Black King Bar a hugely effective counter to OD, as it is this ability which allows OD to become an effective carry.
In the early stages of the game you’ll want to spam Astral Imprisonment on the enemy laner as they are attempting to last hit. You will put them back in terms of farm progress relative to yourself and your teammates, and will steal their intelligence – drastically reducing their mana pool while at the same time increases yours as well as your right-click damage. This is what makes OD such a powerful mid laner.
Astral Imprisonment can be used later on to save an ally hero that is in trouble. Since they cannot be attacked for its duration you can keep them safe for 4 seconds.
| Tip: There are both audio and visual clues that let you know how long is left before the duration ends on Astral Imprisonment. It makes a distinct sound which you will quickly become accustomed to. Visually, there is a ring within the visual of the ability which gradual expands outwards. When it reaches the end of the outer circle the duration will end. |
In the mid and late game, when teamfighting is the name of the game, be careful when using Astral Imprisonment – don’t just automatically throw it out on the first enemy you spot. Often this will inadvertently save that hero from be insta-killed by your team and will by the enemy team time to come to their rescue.
Essence Aura is the ability which allows you to use your highly expensive abilities quite freely. Once maxed, it is unlikely you will ever run out of mana (you have to be extremely unlucky), which means you can use Arcane Orb permanently.
Sanity’s Eclipse has quite a confusing skill description. The crux of it is this: the greater OD’s intelligence relative to an enemy hit by it determines whether any damage is doubt at all (if he has less intelligence than them then they will not be damaged at all), and also determines the amount of damage dealt. In short – you want to use it on enemies who are not spell immune and who have low intelligence.
Last Updated - Patch 6.83.
