Asian Girls | Dota Guide and Strategy

Introduction

This guide is designed to accommodate both Experienced, and Inexperienced players. This guide will not aim to teach any generic topics such as: Last hitting, Denying, Creep blocking, Creep pulling, Ward placement, etc. There are entire guides already devoted to topics such as these. Go to Strategy > Miscellaneous Guides to find them. This will only have information pertaining to Lucifer specifically. Doom is one of the most intricate and unique heroes in DotA. This guide is an effort to represent a balance from all his possible roles: Disabler, DPS, Caster, Tanker and Farmer.

Pros and Cons [II]

Pros

• Armed with the Greatest/Longest single-target Disable (Doom)
• Good farming potential
• Second Highest Strength/Gain per level (26+3.2 compared to Treant’s 27+3.4)
• Second Highest Int Gain of the Strength Heroes (+2.1 compared to Bristle’s +2.2)
• High base damage—easy last hitting/deny and early blow for blow hitting
• The greatest attack range of any melee hero (150)
• High Movespeed with Scorched Earth
• Strong early, middle, and late game
• Frightening presence in battle—difficult for enemies to approach
• Four usable spells in a powerful body—allows for diverse contribution

Cons

• No slow, stun, escape mech, or enhancing passive (unique flaw for a melee hero)
• Low Starting Int (16) for a hero with 4 spells–early mana pool is weak
• The Second Worst Agi/Gain (11+0.9 compared to Tiny’s 9+0.9)
• Low armor
• Easily harassed early game if not careful
• Clumsy targeting of items and units at very close range (unable to pick up/attack)

Basic Skills Information [IV]

Devour (E)

Swallows an enemy unit for a short period of time, digesting it and dealing 20 damage per second. Each level decreases the cooldown and mana cost and gives bonus gold when the devoured unit is killed.

Level 1 - Gives 10 bonus gold, can only devour enemy creeps or non-ancient neutral creeps that are no higher than level 1.
Level 2 - Gives 20 bonus gold, can only devour enemy creeps or non-ancient neutral creeps that are no higher than level 2.
Level 3 - Gives 30 bonus gold, and can only devour enemy creeps or non-ancient neutral creeps that are no higher than level 4.
Level 4 - Gives 40 bonus gold, and can only devour enemy creeps or non-ancient neutral creeps that are no higher than level 6.

Mana Cost: 50/ 45/ 40/ 35
Cooldown: 30/ 25/ 20/ 15
Casting range: 100 (melee)
Casting time: 0.5 seconds

Unable to devour: Dragons, drakes, green golems, dragonkin, siege units or Roshan.
Any “controlled” creep by the enemy team (chen/enchantress/HotD) can be devoured.

It is a common misconception that devour gives only 10-40g. It gives you the 10-40g in addition to the bounty gold for a creep.

Scorched Earth (T)

Blankets the ground in flames, damaging enemies and healing the Doombringer. Also increases Lucifer’s attack and movement speed.
Lasts 20 seconds.

Level 1 - 1 damage/health a second, 10% increased speed.
Level 2 - 2 damage/health a second, 15% increased speed.
Level 3 - 3 damage/health a second, 20% increased speed.
Level 4 - 4 damage/health a second, 30% increased speed.

Mana cost at all levels: 60
Cooldown at all levels: 10
Casting range: 100 (edge of circle being at your feet) - extends to opposite edge of circle (totalling 800 units)
Cast time: 0.5 seconds
Area of Effect: 700 is its Radius, so it has a diameter of 1400

Lvl? Death! (V)

Dissipates a piece of a target’s soul. Deals 250 bonus damage if the target’s level is a multiple of a specific number or level 25.

Level 1 - Deals 100 damage, 6 multiplier.
Level 2 - Deals 150 damage, 5 multiplier.
Level 3 - Deals 200 damage, 4 multiplier.
Level 4 - Deals 250 damage, 3 multiplier.

Mana cost: 85/105/125/145
Cooldowns: 8 seconds at all levels
Casting time: 0.5 seconds
Casting range: 600

Doom (D)

The target unit becomes inflicted with Doom. The afflicted unit cannot cast spells and will take damage per second.

Level 1 - Deals 40 damage per second. Lasts 12 seconds.
Level 2 - Deals 60 damage per second. Lasts 14 seconds.
Level 3 - Deals 80 damage per second. Lasts 16 seconds.

Level 4 - Deals 90 damage per second. Lasts 16 seconds.
From Aghanim’s Scepter Upgrade

Mana cost: 150/200/250
Cooldowns: 180/150/120
Scepter Cooldowns: 110/100/90
Cast time: 0.5 seconds
Cast range: 650

Skill build [V]

Level 1: Devour
Level 2: Lvl Death!
Level 3: Devour
Level 4: *Lvl Death!
Level 5: Devour
Level 6:Doom
Level 7: Devour
Level 8: *Lvl Death!
Level 9: *Lvl Death!
Level 10: Scorched Earth
Level 11: Doom
Levels 12-14: Scorched Earth
Level 15: Stats
Level 16: Doom
Levels 17-25: Stats

*Notes: Asterisks mark points in your skill build where you need to hold your skill point until the right moment.
Holding skill points is crucial to using Lvl? Death! You want to level it when you can get the most use of its bonus damage on the heroes you are immediately facing. Eventually you cannot be wishy washy with saving points. Have it maxed by lvls 9-11.

This is crucial to the skill build. Your early game power revolves around smart choices in leveling up Devour, and Lvl? Death! Generally, you will always want to max out Devour first, as you will surely gain more gold this way. Consider this, you always get Devour at Lvl’s 1 and 3, because you rarely (never) will be using Lvl? Death at lvls 1-3. Thus, you gain a creep’s bounty gold +20g every 25 seconds by lvl 3. If you choose to max out Lvl? Death! first, you will earn nearly 1/3 the gold until level nine, where you would then be able to max out Devour! By level 7, you will gain double the gold +40 bonus, every 15 seconds, as opposed to at level 7 (with lvl 2 devour) gaining +20 every 25secs. Devour also insures a creep kill, which is more important in a hectic lane of harassers and last hit/deny competition from friends and foes.

Would I ever max out Lvl? Death! first?
When you are in a 1v1 lane, facing an excellent farmer/denier, who is being too aggressive and careless with his/her hitpoints, then you may want to focus on killing that hero.

Doom’s best points to kill an enemy hero are at levels 5, 6, 8 and 9 in a 1v1. This is considering you level at the same rate—if a gap forms, the rules change. Your ability to kill him will grow as both your levels do. At level 5 you are relying on lvl 2 LvlD! At level 6 you are relying on lvl 1 LvlD! + Doom. At levels 8 and 9 you can have strong lvl 3-4 LvlD and Doom to earn fairly easy kills. In 1v1, a kill often means an entire level gained, and that grants great momentum for Doom, as he benefits a lot more from preying on lower leveled characters.

You will gain some more gold, decrease his gold, and more importantly decrease his exp and gain your own. While he was in your lane, he was harassing and hindering you from farming. While he is dead, you are free to farm easily with your high base damage last hitting. This will get you more gold than the occasional devour. When he comes back, you should be able to kill him again or keep him from safely farming. Eventually he will call his buddies over to help, or leave your lane. Watch the minimap, and farm your heart out while it looks safe. Then go hunt when you have Doom again. You will have a huge level gap from your solo lane of onslaught, and can kill many heroes easily with your 1-2 spell combo.

I max Scorched Earth before stats, because my item selection allows me to utilize and maintain it regularly by the time I am lvl 10-14.

In the Radiance/Heart build, I take a point of stats at 10 before moving on to leveling SE. This build has very poor mana in comparison to the other two. You will have to be more stingy with your Lvl deaths and scorched earths.

Very Bad Skill Build Ideas [VI]

• Not leveling Doom at 6, 11, 16. It is the best disable in the game. You should always get it.
• Taking stats early on. You won’t need them with my item selection.
• Putting points into Scorched Earth before maxing Devour and Lvl?D! The benefits are simply not that useful yet, and too costly to use with your low early mana.

  [Refresher Doom Build]
  
  Follow this build order and finish with these three core items (Arcane/Refresher/BKB). If your game lasts longer than this, head towards Skadi, Boots of Travel, and then either Assault Curiass or Radiance, depending on which you and your team needs more.

  In previous versions I opted Doom could buy the chicken, but this will truly work best if you can have someone on your team handle that. The reason is you can have an early Ring of Basilius plus a set of tangos. Now, I know that doesn’t seem like a lot of regen, but that’s where the chicken comes in handy. Have him bring over more if needed. If you can’t get an ally to purchase the team chicken, or require more tangos earlier, go Sobi + Tangos or simply Chicken + Tangos. You end up using all the items just the same

  The first real item you’re going to get is an Arcane Ring. Purchase your energy booster once you can, for this preferably place yourself in the top lane for Sentinel and bottom for Scourge. You’ll be hitting the secret shop a few times. Now, obviously you will have to go home eventually to complete the Arcane Ring. Deciding when to go should be based on how badly you need to complete the recipe. If your mana is fine, you’re owning the lane, and you really can afford wait…do so. If you’re not being too effective, and possibly risking death to stick around without the arcane, and/or your lane partner could really put the ring to use as well—go get it. You will need to use the circle of power (CoP) with your Ring of Basilius if you bought one. Doom cannot pickup stuff on the CoP, because he is a retard. So, what you must do is disassemble the RoB with the CoP, pick up the Ring of Protection with the CoP, hand it to Doom, and then again pickup the Sobi with the CoP and hand it to Doom. You can also use the animal courier to grab the items for you, but this is just faster.

  Once you have an Arcane Ring, kiss any and all mana problems for the early game good bye. Spam whatever the hell you want, I don’t care. You have enough mana for almost anything. Now, once you get Refresher it gets a little tight. I like to get at least the Ring of Health first, possibly finishing Perseverance, but your mana is alright so you could get the Oblivion Staff next. Even if you have Arcane and Refresher by level 11, you can cast 2 Dooms. Refresher refreshes the Arcane Ring, so make sure you get the order of casts down correctly or it won’t work. You must Doom, Arcane, Refresher, Arcane, and Doom in this order. Level 2 Double Doom costs 200+375+200 (775) and Level 3 Double Doom costs 250+375+250 (875). The two Arcanes you hit in between get you an extra 220 mana, reducing the combos to 555 and 655 required mana, and this is why it works so well. You’ll even have room for LvlD’s to follow up.

  Once you have Refresher, it’s time to secure your effectiveness at Double Dooming. Go for Black King Bar, grabbing Ogre Axe first, and during pushes you’ll use this to simply walk up in the front line, initiate, and get off your 2 Dooms on the most desired targets before the fight even starts. Achieving something like this before with the old BKB was unrealistic, because you would not have immediate control of your hero after BKB launched, and those few seconds would be all the enemies needed to strafe back into safety and avoid your initiation. The 150 mana cost also was removed for activating BKB, so now Double Dooms aren’t a problem, and Double BKBs are not a problem. Refresher also will recharge this, and your fat hps can milk 20 seconds of magic immunity. This is the strongest pushing power you will ever witness Doom create.

  Items to follow after the BKB are a point booster and ultimate orb, for some more mana/hps/stats. Just gives you a little more breathing room after Double Dooms. Then I’d go for Boots of Travel. You don’t need them so early with this build, as it is more of a stand-your-ground steamroller tactic, with little hero chasing or hunting. Finish a Skadi if possible, then move on to an Assault Cuirass, grabbing armor first to go along with your good hps and spell immunity. If someone has one, get a Radiance. If someone is planning to get a Cuirass, see if they’d rather get the Radiance, as you’d be better off with the Cuirass probably. Either way should be fine, and it would be odd if the game wasn’t over by now.

  For a firmer grip on understanding BKB and all its potential, check this list of what works against it and the many things that don’t. Disables that go through will deal no damage, rendering some big ones pretty much wasted as you just sit there untargettable by spells. If they have enough disables that go through BKB however, things could go sour. You need to use some reason when initiating. One thing you can control is Treant’s ultimate; activate BKB as soon as he roots you, and you will be freed. If you do it before you are stuck but take no damage, and can still cast. The list is not entirely accurate or complete, but if you’re not familiar with BKB, check it:
  <a href=”http://forums.dota-allstars.com/index.php?showtopic=73365″ target=”_blank”>http://forums.dota-allstars.com/index.php?showtopic=73365</a>

The Guinsoo Build [VII]

• Chicken + RoR
• Void Stone + Staff of Wizardry
• Boots of Speed
• Robe of the Magi + Upgrade to Eul’s + Sobi Mask
• Upgrade to Boots of Travel
• Relic + Upgrade to Radiance
• Oblivion Staff + Robe + Upgrade to Guinsoo

This is the Core Item Build. You still need survivability items after this. Based on what you are facing. Check the bottom of The Why section.

Core Items: Eul’s/BoT/Guinsoo/Radiance 13,200g

The Why [VIII]
You’ve got a lot of items to buy in the early game. The chicken will shave off a lot of time wasted going to the shops. One chicken shared amongst the team will automatically improve your team’s potential. The chicken is a small investment for great returns.

Ring of Regen is chosen as you need some sort of regeneration versus harassment. I like it more than Tangos, because I’ll have the RoR in my inventory nearly all game, and benefit from it a lot more than if I were to buy the equivalent in Tangos all game. I do not buy RoH because it does not fit into any of my items.

The Void Stone and Staff of W. are for early mana + mana regen. I get the void stone first to spam devour. By the time I get Staff I am lethal, and able to dish out nukes more than anyone going against Lucy generally expects. Everyone needs boots, even early Doom. You can kill someone, but they will die on the run, and you want to keep up with them to get the experience. Robe of Magi + Eul’s just to finish off a nice starting item. This has saved my life in the early game many times. You’re going to be drawing a lot of attention to yourself at this point, and cyclone charges = good bye gankers. It is also nice for keeping people in place for another LvlD! Don’t use it on Doomed targets, because they will not take damage in the air and 4secs of Doom is wasted.

After the Sobi, your mana is about as good as its going to get. This is when you are most lethal and have maximum lane control. Combine that efficiency with superior map control via BoT.

Now you need Radiance quickly. Since version 6.42 increased the amount/rate at which creeps spawn, you will need the immolation to deal with the massive waves that will be sent down your lanes much quicker, in order to keep up with farming against enemy AoE heroes, and save time. Immolation is still your best DPS item vs. heroes, since Doom cannot frequently keep up with his prey for constant melee damage.

I get the quarterstaff next on the way to Guinsoo, and then the robe. Once you have Guinsoo, it’s a whole new ball game.

Reasons for Guinsoo [IX]

• ”Rushing” Eul’s is a great asset for countering and setting up early ganks.
• No one expects such an early Guinsoo—Int heroes need bracers and farm slower.
• Guinsoo will get Doom early kills, and create exponential level gaps.
• Fast levels means more hp, mana, damage, and MS/AS from high stat gains and SE. This offsets the need for vanilla items such as bracers.
• Rushing Guinsoo gives an early mana pool for nuking and farming creeps, as opposed to mana for just one or the other.
• Polymorph ability is priceless; great to have in any game, against any hero, on any team.
• Best slowing option for Lucifer via items.
• Perfect counter versus escape mechanism heroes.
• It grants great momentum, and covers your weaknesses from the start.

The best way to see the full extent of Guinsoo’s power is to check out some of my replays, and then go try it out for yourself in-game.

Now that Aegis is gone, survivability items are not so easily decided. Build what the game calls for. If you are facing heavier DPS teams, build an Armor Cuirass. The 15 armor will greatly enhance your EHP versus physical damage, and the auras are quite game breaking. If someone on your team already has bought the Cuirass, buy 2 Chainmails (10 armor, and 160g cheaper than Plate).

If you are taking a lot of caster fire, build Hood of Defiance. Get the cloak first, then the Helm of Iron Will, and finally a second RoR. If you are fighting nearly all casters, following up with a HoT is probably your next best option, if no one on your team still has a Cuirass.

Radiance and Cuirass are team oriented items on a tank. Keep this in mind, it may always be better to buy the Curiass for the team if no one else has, and you are best suited. A good Cuirass carrier is generally a melee strength hero, who can benefit from survivability items.

After your Radiance, these item choices are important decisions. Mix and match them as needed. These will always be the most efficient for the situations you face. Do not go for anything else that isn’t listed above if you are following my build.

[The Quick Radiance Build]

For starting items I’d recommend 2 circlets and 2 sets of tangos (4 total). If you have no reliable support teammate/friend to buy you a chicken, I’d grab one and get what tangos or circlets/branches you can left. Lotta different preferences for starting items here—doesn’t matter too much. Just don’t turn the circlets into bracers or anything. Won’t be needed. You want your bottle and boots as soon as you can. This is where the chicken is a must. Even if you’re top or bottom, accessing the shop there is sometimes out of the question; suicide. Once you have bottle and boots you are setup with an amazing start for lane staying, harassing, and killing potential. This will in turn lead to optimum farming potential in the lane. Farm straight away for your Radiance next, and move on to Boots of Travel after that. At mid game here, you should be able to gank the crap out of almost anyone, especially if Doom is up. The immolation from Radiance synergizes perfectly with your ability to chase far, but not really get in any consecutive number of melee hits. You obviously will work a lot more with your body with this build, so Heart comes next. Assault Curiass is the next best thing. There is a correct time and place for this build. We do not get Radiance to rice farm and carry. We get it fast and in order to gank—you can farm quickly with it in between, but the emphasis still must be on ganking and aiming towards a quick win. The build needs certain situations in effect to be viable. So, let’s get right down to when to use each build.

[Which Item Build to Use]
The Arcane/Refresher build is the best one available. When won’t you use it? In leagues and tournaments where only one Arcane Ring is allowed, you may have to let the Zeus or Earthshaker on your team grab it. They need it more, and their Aring can still be yours if paired in the same lane. Splicing Refresher/Guinsoo builds is a possibility here if you’re confident with team coordination/communication.

Use the Guinsoo build when you can’t use the Arcane, or if you simply want to play a different strong alternative build. Keep in mind most high level games have rules on Eul’s Guinsoo as well: 2 per team. These two rules make having three different builds important. In my opinion, this is the most fun play style. Games can be fun! Enjoy the build! It’s plenty powerful.

Anytime you get Radiance on any hero, you want it asap. The same applys for Lucifer, but if you can’t get it quickly…abandon it. If you can’t get a relic by ~20mins then don’t even bother. If this is the case, you are likely dying and/or not getting kills or harrassing enemies out of your lane. You simply need to have a good start to use this build. Otherwise, you won’t have enough survivabilty to milk the immolation from Radiance at the point in time of the game. Radiance doesn’t turn you into a God. This is an excellent build if you expect to do well early on judging your lane. Judge the lineups too. If yours is primarily early game and theirs late, you have a strong chance at getting a fast radiance and putting it to great use. On the contrary, if their team is primarily early game support heroes versus late game potential, going Radiance could be disastrous.

The final thing you must be good at with this build is rune control. This applies to your own practice and the team you’re playing with. Keeping the runes warded and making sure not just you get them, but the enemy doesn’t is crucial for the effective mana supply of this build. This build is somewhat of a gamble, but can return some excellent results.

The Why Not [X]

Hand of Midas is going to slow down your momentum that you get rolling with an early Guinsoo. Doom can already farm exceptionally well, and should put this speed to a high-tier item early on. The IAS is not beneficial, as Doom does not deal most of his damage with attacks (hardly any) against heroes. HoM is for carry heroes, but Doom can carry a lot better with Guinsoo, and counter carry heroes from ever reaching their potential this way. HoM does not prevent enemy farming rates.

Aghanim’s Scepter first came out with a bang when it was granted to Doom, but it has slowly taken nerf after nerf ever since then, and now is quite unimpressive towards empowering your ultimate. I consider it a large delay in your momentum, along with the fact that newer and better items can replace the scepter to achieve much greater success.

Battlefury may seem ideal for quickly farming up the large creep waves that came with 6.42, but it is still a horrendous choice against heroes. Radiance will do the job, it is practically a game breaker in team battles, but cleave will almost never be utilized against heroes.

I see Doom users rush these three items way too much, and I advise against them all. Anything else outside my build is obviously advised against as well, within reason. Certain games call for counter items. Gem, Wards, Blink Dagger, BkB, Diffusal Blade and Necrobook all fall into the variable items list that can make or break a victory. TP scrolls are something you should learn to purchase and carry regularly in order to get out of binds and rescue falling structures.

Devour [XI]

Just divide creep’s current hps over 20 (for instance 560/20=28 for ghoul/treants)
Example creep devour times:
Devour 100%hp ghoul/treant in 28secs (560hp)
Devour 100%hp necro/druid in 16secs (310hp)

*Note: Creep waves gain 10 maximum hps every 7.5mins.

How to best use devour when you are soloing against 2 enemy heroes:
Ideally, if you are safe enough to spam devour, and packing enough mana regen, you want to use this skill like clockwork. Try not to devour anything for longer than your spell will be cooling. As soon as you devour a creep, the cooldown for devour starts. Glancing above, we notice ghouls take 28s seconds to digest at full hps. So, at level 1…go ahead and use devour on a full hp creep. You do not want to push far into the enemy tower, for numerous reasons, however, in a 1v2 (where you are alone), you will certainly be pushed into your tower. Eventually you will be pushed so far that it is unsafe for you even at the tower, as many creeps are tanking the tower. The two enemies can rush towards you, and if they have early synergies, you will die with little options available to counter. Creep waves get complicated with their pendulum effect, but trust me that in a solo situation you may want to devour full hp creeps (for the starting levels of devour). At lvl 2, devour will cool in 25 seconds. So, give that ghoul a whack or two, and then devour. At level 3, you want your ghoul to be about 40-55% hps tops before you devour. At lvl 4, the most hps you want your ghoul to have upon devouration is 30-40%. Generally, you always want to devour red hp creeps, almost as if it were a last hit.

If you are completely alone in the lane: You can often devour 2 creeps from 1 wave (with lvl 4 devour). To do this, do not attack at all except for last hitting. Devour the first creep that gets weakened around 40% life, or run to the Necro/Druid creep, whack it once, and devour that. Last hit only for the next 2 creeps, and you should have devour cooled for the last remaining creep.

With enemies in the lane, or even allies…these “clockwork” numbers are usually never met. Harassing enemies and allies will screw up your timing one way or another with their own contributed attacks. Don’t worry too much about the small numbers, but use this skill as often and efficiently as you can.

• The experience for completely digesting the creep is divided amongst all heroes nearby, not just Doom.
• Devour will not waste mana/start cooling if you target it on a creep that dies before you land the devour.
• Devour can miss if your target is moving. It will waste mana, and start Devour’s cooldown. Make sure your devoured targets are standing still. If a hero right clicks an enemy hero to physically harass them, nearby enemy creeps will move to attack that hero, and vice versa.
• When digesting enemy creeps (non-neutrals), the opposing team will have vision of you, wherever you go, while that creep is inside you. This is another reason not to devour creeps at full hps.
• The +10-40 gold image that floats up can be seen by enemies always, even if they are looking into a fogged area you are under.

Excellent reading for farming creeps/neutrals made by MrX:
http://forums.dota-allstars.com/index.php?showtopic=52615

Scorched Earth [XII]

Casting Scorched Earth at your feet will give you 6 seconds of increased move speed (IMS); from when you cast, run across, leave the scorched circle, and have your SE effects wear off. SE has a cooldown of 10secs. This leaves you with 4 seconds down time without SE MS boosts. Scorched Earth is funny in how it works. If you simply cast it and stay within the radius for its 20 second duration, you will lose the IAS/MS bonusii immediately when the flames extinguish. Yet, you get 4 seconds duration of the IAS/MS boost if you simply run out of the radius after casting.

To calculate average movespeed over 10 secs, account 60% of the SE speed and 40% of the base speed: (Lvl4SE speed * 6) + (Normal speed * 4) / 10 + 1 = average speed over 10 seconds. Doom with lvl 4 SE and BoT has an average movespeed of 418. Base MS for Lucy with BoT is 390, and with SE on it is 506.

Use SE non-stop almost once you have your Guinsoo. Place it in front of your feet for the best potential chase/duration of the IMS. If you’re going to be fighting at a tower/base for a while, you may want to place 2 or even 3 Scorched Earths down. One should go more or less around the tower, the other past that tower so you can chase enemy heroes, and/or one behind the tower so you can exit the battle quicker. Generally one will suffice (remember to refresh it before 17-20secs pass) and I may cast 2 if I’m pushing into the enemy base and have tons of mana. Even Guinsoo does not leave Doom unlimited mana, so don’t go crazy with SE. You can actually run low often, but this just means you are maximizing your potential. Check out the pics below for important tips.

Scorched Earths’ bonusii will actually work for any owned unit of Lucifer’s: Images, chickens/crows, or controlled units like necro summons or Helm of Dom stolen creeps.

Lvl? Death! [XIII]

Early usage of Lvl Death is forbidden unless you’re going to make it count. Meaning…scoring kills (heroes of course–it won’t target creeps), whether by means of severely weakening a hero in 1 shot, and killing in the next. Set your scopes on people that fall within your Lvl Death’s current bonus damage multiples. Lvl Death also has a fraction of a second mini-stun which you can use to quickly end enemy channeling spells. This is the greatest mini-stun available, as others rely on chance (Mkb/sniper/bash), projectile traveling (storm bolt/magic missile/etc), and may miss the intended target (AoE stuns). Lvl?D! hits from 600 range and instantly lands its mini-stun (regardless of bonus damage occurring). It is available every 8 seconds.

So, to calculate the maximum damage on a randomly selected target, first we must choose one. I’m going to pick on a lvl 6 Tinker without any items. Okay fine, we’ll give him a sobi mask, but that’s all! This will be using lvl4 of Lvl?D, granting that sweet second nuke from the multiple of 3 [3,(6), 9, etc]. A lvl 6 Tink has 4 armor without items/stat boosts (18% reduction).

First nuke: 250dmg * (1 - .25) -> (25% hero spell resistance) = 187.5dmg
Bonus nuke: 250dmg * (1 - .25) * (1 - .18 ) -> (Armor resistance % of hero) = 153.75dmg

341.25dmg or 340 for safe bets.

Remember when you look at their hps, they will have regenerated more, with or without any regen items by the time you actually nuke. Keep these reductions in your head at all times. Let’s jump right into Doom, as you also must do in-game calculations here in conjuction to LvlD.

Doom [XIV]

Example: Lvl 1 Doom on lvl 6 Tinker with a RoR (2hp/sec). We also have to account for a hero’s base regen, which is usually 0.25 per/sec, + (.03 * STR). (40*.75*12) – (.03 * 27 + 0.25)(2)(12) = 335dmg

If you see a lvl 6 Tink below 675hps, without regen items, fire away with Doom/Lvl?D and follow him if you can safely, to gain the experience from his certain death. Later in the game, the bonus nuke loses power against heroes with high armor. Someone with 21 armor will only be hit for 84 damage by the bonus nuke. There are lots of factors that go into these equations, and you don’t have the time to micro a calculator during your game. Just remember the rough resistances/reductions, and then remember that number is likely to be overestimated as well.

Calculating roughly in your head is crucial while playing Doom, especially in the early game. This is when you want to finish targets with your 1-2 punch combo, (Doom+LvlDeath) and not have to rely on anymore hits, if possible.

• Make sure you have enough mana. Level 1/2/3 Doom + Level 4 Lvl Death.
  150/200/250 + 145 = 295/345/395.
• Make sure they have low enough hps and/or armor/spell resistance (rarely high early game).
• Expect them to run. They are disabled and dying.
• Make sure you are close enough to get off a Doom and a LvlDeath. 300-400 range is a safe bet to land both nukes.
  
• Know who is faster. This goes hand in hand with getting close enough. Know their speed and yours.

As the game progresses, 1-2 hit combos will not always fly. Your foes will have more hps, and you will have to put away the mental calculators, and take on a more cunning perspective. Walk in and attack them first before unleashing Doom. Let them win a little. Deceiving your opponents is half the battle to playing Lucifer.

Guinsoo will help out when the 1-2 hit combos become less useful. You will still find targets that are low enough to 1-2 hit throughout the mid-game and possibly even late. Come late game, you don’t need to concern yourself much with hunting—team battles and whom to disable is now your best decision, not always who you can kill. In order for you to know who is best to shut down, you need to know exactly what Doom does and doesn’t disable. Well…

This is the full list of everything Doom disables, does not disable, and the things that can block, remove, avoid, ignore, enhance and pause Doom’s effects. Its entire content was manually tested for confirmation, and much of it was unknown even to moderators.

If you have never seen this, I highly recommend you read the entire list. Knowing this list is crucial to knowing who is the greatest threat on the opposing team, and answers who you should Doom.

Doom disables: [XV]

• Any and all activatable item effects (cannot be used/”clicked”)
• Critical Strikes (from all items and hero skills—no exceptions)
• Evasion (from all items and hero skills—this does not include dispersion or backtrack, which are not considered to be evasion)
  *Note: Phantom Assassin will still appear blurred, but has no evasion under Doom.
• Passive Bash (from skills, forms, or bashers—does not include Greater Bash)
• Lifesteal (from items only, not including Unholy Rage (buff))
• %chance Proc’d damage (Maelstrom/Mjollnir/Mkb/Maim) – Will not fire chainlightning, mini-stun (and bonus damage), or maim
• Meepo’s Geostrike (for the Doomed Meepo only)
• Venomancer’s Poison Sting
• Beastmaster’s Pig’s Poison Sting (doomed pig cannot psn targets)
• Beastmaster’s Greater Scout Hawk’s Passive Invis (invisibility is disabled if you doom the Scout)
• Ursa’s passive Fury Swipes
• Silencer’s Last Word - Even immediately after Dooming Silencer, you won’t get silenced, but if a spell is cast while Silencer dies (even when still Doomed), it will silence
• Witch Doctor’s Voodoo Restoration - When turned on, and Doomed: animation remains, but does not heal at all and cannot be turned off
• Stealth Assassin’s Permanent Invisibility
• Feedback orb
• Antimage’s Passive Mana Break orb
• Any and all consumables (entire Chimaera Roost/Graveyard shop)
• Gem of Truesight (Doomed player with Gem loses true sight)
• Splash Damage (from battlefury, Sven’s great cleave, or Magnataur’s Mighty Swing)
• Radiance’s AoE (chance to miss + burning)
• Blocking damage (Vanguard, Stout shield, and Kraken’s Passive melee reduction–it still removes buffs, and Doom)
• Picking up Runes
• Dropping items
• Picking up items
• Juggernaut’s Blade Fury - Doom can be casted on Jugg during Bfury, and will end its duration on the spot
• Syllabear’s Entangle
• Sniper’s Headshot (passive +ministun/dmg)
• Dragon Knight’s Elder Form 1 (Corrosive Breath) - DoT to towers does not work (20+dmg per second)
• Dragon Knight’s Elder Form 3 (Frost Effect) – Frost will not work on DK’s targets, or nearby hit targets from the splash (which still works)
• Drow’s Marksmanship
• Broodmother’s Incapacitating Bite
• Broodmother’s Web (Invisibility) - Doomed Broodmother inside the web is still visible
• Medusa’s Splitshot
• Eye of Skadi “Ranged” (cold orb) - as opposed to Eye of Skadi “Melee”, which is not disabled under Doom
• Lord Avernus’ Frostmourne
• Nerubian Weaver’s Germinate Attack
• Leviathan’s Anchor Smash
• Revenant’s Storm Seeker (ultimate)
• Sand King’s Sandstorm - Rendered visibile and sand storm ends on the spot
• Sand King’s Caustic Finale
• Sand King’s Epicenter - stops its channeling
• Prophet’s Teleportation - stops its channeling
• Sniper’s Assassinate - stops its channeling
• Potm’s Moonlight Shadow (global invis) - stops its channeling and/or heroes that have gone fully invisible
• Tormented Soul’s Pulse Nova (recoded) - It now stops dealing damage, but will still drain mana and show the animation. It cannot be turned off while Doomed. It will end if TS’ mana reaches zero.
• Storm Spirit’s Electric Rave - the IAS is completely disabled and mana still gets drained
• Storm Spirit’s Barrier - barrier will not block doom’s damage, but doom does not disable the ability. Many DoT’s work against barrier.
• Puck’s Phase Shift (on autocast) - Even if Phase Shift is on autocast, Doom will go through immediately, phase will not trigger, and will be disabled for Doom’s duration.
• Puck’s Ethereal Jaunt (blink to Illusory Orb) - Disabled while Doomed. Can’t blink to his orb even though iit’s released.
• Obtaining new skills - If you level while doomed, you cannot enter your skills tree and increase a skill’s level

Doom does not disable: [XVI]

• N’aix’s Feast (triggered lifesteal)
• N’aix’s Rage (passive AS/Spell immunity) — Still goes through and damages Naix, along with silences.
• Regeneration from items
• Eye of Skadi “Melee” (cold orb) - as opposed to Eye of Skadi “Ranged”, which is disabled under Doom
• Blademail’s damage return
• Bloodseeker’s passive skill Blood Bath
• Bloodseeker’s Thirst - can trigger under Doom before heroes have fallen below 40%, and remain on after
• Enchantress’ Ult Untouchable
• Stealth Assassin’s Backstab
• Spiritbreaker’s Greather Bash
• Spiritbreaker’s Charge - will not cancel the charge, or disable the stun/vision on his target
• King Leoric’s Reincarnate
• Stygian Desolator orb (-armor attack)
• Antimage’s Spell Shield (Spell reduction)
• Any kind of +stat, +dmg, +hp/mana, ias, ims, or regen
• Any type of buff
• Unholy Rage (active Satanic ability) - This is a buff granting 15% extra lifesteal that will work if on, even though Satanic’s passive 25% is disabled.
• Twin head’s Auto Fire (passive fire attack)
• Juggernaut’s Healing Ward
• Sylla’s Synergy
• Syllabear’s Demolish (+dmg vs. structure) – doesn’t actually work ever
• Phantom Lancer’s Juxtapose (Hero’s passive creation of images–Doomed Lancer can create more images)
• Phantom Lancer’s Phantom Edge (Images’ ability to passively create images–Doomed images can create more images)
• Tiny’s Craggy Exterior (passive bash to melee attackers)
• Tiny’s Growth (passive movespeed and +base dmg)
• Alchemist’s Goblin Greed (still works and stacks)
• Alchemist’s Chemical Rage (+hp, +hp regen, +AS)
• Luna’s Glaive
• Sniper’s Take Aim (passive range increase)
• Beastmaster’s Beast Rage (passive ias bonus per attack on same unit)
• Bristleback’s Bristleback (dmg reduced if Doom is facing his back, and not reduced if Bristle is facing direction opposite of Doom’s direction)
• Bristleback’s Bristleback (Auto-Quill Fire) - Quills obviously cannot be manually casted under doom, but will fire per every 200dmg dealt to Bristle
• Panda’s Primal Split Pandas - none of the 3 summoned pandas can be Doomed
• Bounty Hunter’s Windwalk Backstab - +Dmg attacking out of WW not disabled
• Bounty Hunter’s Track (Vision) - Track still gives vision even if Bher is doomed (and truesight)
• Dragon Knight’s Dragon Blood - regen and armor work fine
• Dragon Knight’s Elder Dragon Forms 2 & 3 (Splash) - Dragon2 and Dragon3 work (Frost Effect on Dragon3 does not work, only the splash damage)
• Omniknight’s Repel - Damage is dealt, but does not remove Repel (magic immunity)
• Omniknight’s Guardian - Damage is dealt, but does not remove the 25hp/sec regen and 1000+ Armor (the regen severely lowers Doom’s DoT)
• Tormented Soul’s Diabolic Edict - Damage is dealt and follows the TS as it normally would
• Broodmother’s Web (Movespeed/Regen bonus) - Still present, but no longer invisible
• Medusa’s Mana Shield - Specific mechanics towards damage dealt: http://forums.dota-allstars.com/index.php?showtopic=100620&hl=
• Treant’s Eyes of the Forest - Doomed Treant still has sight+true sight of units nearby Eyes
• Treant’s Nature’s Guise - Doomed Treant is not turned visible–if Treant leaves the range of a Truesighting unit, while near trees, he will not be seen
• Nerubian Assassin’s Spiky Carpace - Damage return and Armor still works
• Nerubian Assassin’s Vendetta (Invisibility and Backstab) - the extra “exiting-invis” dmg still works, and NA is not rendered visible via Doom
• Invisibility from Lothars - Use Truesight to Doom a char that is Invis via Lothars, remove the Truesight, and you will no longer have vision of that unit
• Axe’s Counter Helix
• Viper’s Corrosive Skin (poisons and reduces magic as normally)
• Nerubian Weaver’s Shukuchi (Movespeed+ and invisibility)
• Clinkz’ Wind Walk (+Movespeed and Invisibility)
• Spectre’s Desolate
• Spectre’s Dagger (collision size) - still able to walk over cliffs and such
• Spectre’s Dispersion - can avoid doom’s dmg each second, return it, and mini-stun
• Void’s Backtrack - can avoid doom’s dmg each second
• Pudge’s Flesh Heap - spell resistance and str gain from kills still work
• Pudge’s Rot - still deals dmg, slows, but cannot be turned off and deals huge self-damage during doom
• Shadow Fiend’s Necromastery
• Necrolic’s Gravekeeper Cloak (dmg return) - Returns Doom’s dmg, and any other sources
• Pugna’s Decrepify (spell dmg+) - Increases Doom’s dmg by 44%, calculated after hero resistance, during decrepify’s duration
• Morphling’s Replication (image a hero) - Morph can still swap into the Doomed image, and the img has 25% spell resistance
• Morphling’s Morph (agi/str swap) - If this was turned on after being hit by Doom, stats will continue to swap, but cannot be turned off. It will stop swapping if Morph’s mana reaches zero.
• Centaur’s Great Fortitude (passive str+)
• Obsidian’s Astral Imprisonment (intelligence absorption) - gained Int on Obsid and lost int on targets is not reset by dooming Obsidian
• Meepos - Dooming one Meepo will only disable that Meepo’s skills - All other Meepos can still Geostrike, Earthbind, and Poof to each other and the Doomed Meepo. Non-Doomed Meepos can still level up skills, for all Meepos, if you level when Doomed.
• Storm Spirit’s Overload - does not disable the ability to fire ready overloads, charge them up, etc. Works fine.
• Templar Assassin’s Refraction (+Dmg and Instance Immunity) - the damage bonus remains, and she will potentially block 6 ticks/secs of Doom’s damage
• Templar Assassin’s Meld (invis and -Armor) - Doom will not reveal TA or disable her opening attack that deals bonus damage/negative armor
• Templar Assassin’s Psi Blades (range and spill attack) - still has increased range and line splash attack
• Templar Assassin’s Trap Detonation (per trap) - she can still detonate traps, using the trap’s own detonate button, but not with her in-hero skill.
• Sacred Warrior’s Inner Vitality (Heal below 40% and above) - both work to their complete potential under Doom
• Sacred Warrior’s Berserker Blood (+IAS and +Dmg) - both work fine and increase under Doom as SW loses hp%
• Bloodstone - None of Bloodstone’s special death effects are hindered by Dooming the carrier.
• Auras - does not remove or hamper any auras (hero or item based)