Top 0. Preface So this is what the people wanted apparently, a position 2 carry Necrolyte guide. Great! I decided to try and please everyone with this guide and create it in a dynamic, fun to read way. You will come across multiple diagrams along picture, etc. I hope you like it. Along those lines Goo's Guide To Magnus 2.0 is on development right now and will be the next release.



As I do in most of my guides this is just a preface, where I talk about the following guide and some of my past guides, which you can see here.



I am going to say write now that this guide is aimed towards players in the medium-experience range and up, I will not go into the bare basics. We are going to talk about Necrolyte ( Necrophos if you wish), and how he fits in a position 2, Core role; including the item progression and playstyle accordingly.



If this guide gets some visibility maybe I will be seeing less of this:







Top 1. Introduction Unless you have any sense of empathy whatsoever, Necro is a fun hero to play. He is what I call a slow Nuker, like Pugna (Funny how they are both usually secluded to a support-y role uh?), they are very strong at nuking, but usually decay only so slightly to make other heroes more viable than them at their work, this is why we dont see that much Necro out there, when people think nukers their first thought isnt Necro or Pugna, they go with Tinker, Skywrath Mage, Lina, and other heroes along those lines, and its a shame, I hope you guys give Necro a shot after this.



One of my favorite things about Necro is that he works along two big things, sustained regeneration and sustained damage. This is thanks to how his kit synergizes with his playstyle as a Core, and why he is a rather reliable hero to play once you get up on your feet. He can feast on weak heroes like supports as any nuker would, but he can also take down fat tanky heroes thanks to his ultimate, Reaper's Scythe. This makes him a nuker with unmatched kill potential, throughout the whole game . And people tend to hate him for that.



Also Necro has the infamy of being a killstealer, as all kill under Reaper's Scythe's effect are attributed to him, even if he didnt even assist in said kill. And people tend to hate him for that too.



The point is people tend to hate Necro.





Top 1.2. Pros & Cons This is the section for Pros & Cons. Dont take the pros as granted but more like things the hero is capable of achieving, or excels at by default, you still have to make the best out of them. Same goes with the cons, some of them are weights the hero has, but that you can work around, anyway here is the list:



PROS!



-High damage output nuking potential

-Sustains himself (With Death Pulse & Sadist)

-Can farm relatively efficiently during offtime

-Anti-carry by excelence

-Cancel Buybacks

-Sturdy Mid lane

-Heal & Nuke on low cooldown

-Annoying Aura

-Annoying Ultimate

-Hard to kill during high sadist stacks regeneration (Like kills in a teamfight will grant him absurd regeneration)

-Strong presence and threat throughout the entire game as long as he is farmed accordingly



Cons:



-Low movement speed

-Lacks utility on spells (No slows, only disable is Reaper's Scythe, and its a 1.5 second stun)

-Countered by early Black King Bars

-Ultimate centric & dependent

-High Damage on single target, cannot take multiple targets at once

-His counters counter him fully (this means that if he gets counterpicked he can get completely shut down)

-Lacks mobility

-Item dependent & gold hungry



Top 4. Middin' In this section I will go into how to tackle the laning stage and early game as a Necro mid. Text section by the way.



So everything starts in the decision, do you want to block or get the bounty rune. Ok the way to sort it out is by looking at the heroes, what heroes are in your team and what heroes you are against. If your team has better level 1 spells and overall stats (like movement, etc), ask a pair of your allies to come with you and get the rune, get Death Pulse just in case you get a chance of a kill or if you or an ally is close to death (even if the heal isnt that great), easy Bottle. If your team is not fit for it or you have a hero that could benefit from said rune more than you, like a Tidehunter offlane or something of that nature, if that is the case get Heartstopper Aura and block your creeps.



When in lane you have to focus on two things, getting a lot of last hits (to get your items, and the first dagon as soon as possible), and zoning the enemy mid, which becomes really easy once you get a couple of levels, you have permanent damage from Heartstopper Aura, got sadist to keep you healed from harass trades, and Death Pulse serves that same purpose but also damages them even more, overall you have a powerful set for laning one on one. Try getting the top rune every chance you have, and if possible have your support take the bot rune, this forces the opposing mid to bottlecrow, and gives you an opening to freefarm, remember you need two things to get rolling early game, dagon 1 and level 6.



After that things get really simple, who should you kill, and who can you kill. Basically, have in mind you can kill any hero in the game every 100 seconds, you just have to choose a reliable target, so no magic resisting heroes, no escape heroes; be sure that whoever you ult, dies, otherwise you will be very sad, have an ult on cooldown and being unable to gank for 100 secs is not good. Enemies will fear you as long as they know reapers scythe is not on cooldown.



If you think it is best, kill the opposing mid, especially if its something like a Shadow Fiend, sure, kill them, dont think it twice, that should set them back a bunch. But if its something like a Pudge you can consider other options, maybe killing their natures prophet in the jungle, or their Troll Warlord in the lane.



From there is even simpler, get any kill you can, get your items built and go for objectives with your team.



Top 4.1. Ganking & Occupation When you see the opportunity you are going to want to go for a gank, this opportunity could be a window when you know the enemy team doesnâ��t have wards up, or the lane is pushed, or someone on your side drew the attention of enemy supports or the opposing mid.

If have played any patient ganker before from mid lane, like Pudge Tusk Queen of Pain Tinker you need to wait for your chance or the gank could backfire on you, and you cant be waiting there all the time either, wasting your time, ganking is an art of patience.



And no guide by Goo would be complete without picture graphs:







When playing radiant side: This is a first option for ganking openings, the orange line represents the creepwave, the blue one represents their safe zone, if they cross that line you can initiate with your teammates. Red crosses are possible enemy encounters, and red lines are possible enemy movements. Green lines on the other hand represent your movement options/your ally's.







This one is similar, but more aggresive. In this situation you can get your teammates to safely dive the tower with you wrapping around, your team focuses the high priority target (like a carry) and take them down with Reaper's Scythe Death Pulse

For dire just a single example:





You can get creative with your ganks, these are just some examples. You have to be able to see in before if a gank is safe to perform and to know when you are overextending and putting your allies in danger.

Occupation is very similar, usually you can perform it like a quad lane line, if you have a trilane (defensive or offensive), and you go like ganking but stay there for a prolonged period of time that will force rotations, is like a regular gank, but instead of taking down heroes to break their lineup, you just unbalance the field in order to bait the rotations, basically it is a much slower but more significative way of creating space.

This is what I explained about quads in another guide:



Quoted: What the hell? Four heroes, thats a bit much, dont you think? No no, the quad lanes are not about running a lane with four heroes as if it were a trilane, it is just a pressure point strategy. It starts as a variation of a trilane or aggressive trilane, adding the mid or offlaner.



The big thing of a quad is to make the opposing team really feel helpless, as you are totally nullifying their main lane. Same concept as of an aggressive trilane, but way more risky and way more rewarding, you have to measure yourself if you think you can pull this off without losing momentum, as you are throwing 4 heroes together for an objective.



You want to perform this only if you have a mid that is available from early on, so leave out farmers, maybe Outworld Devourer Phantom Assassin Pudge Clockwerk Queen of Pain What you do is, first, call supports mid and kill the opposing mid, this should give you enough time, if they had the advantage, go ahead and kill them twice or more times, if in this process supports from their safe lane come in and help him, you are already leaving their carry alone, and he should be your next objective for ganks. If they dont rotate, go ahead and with your midder, move up to their safe lane, and stay there, be as aggressive as you can, its like summoning a constant 4 man gank, and try to divide them into smaller groups you can take down without losing teammates, etc.



After harvesting any kills you come across take down the tower and move on with your strategy, as if you stay as a quad for too long you are losing exp per second and missing out a lot of last hits. Very greedy team move, but very effective if done correctly.



In this patch, I love doing quad movements with Tinker Blink Dagger Boots of Travel Bottle



A great item for quads is Urn of Shadows if you have any support that could go for an urn there is going to get a lot of charges if they contest the tower, and if they dont, then you could sell it or use it later on. Its damage over time, big heal to sustain your allies and some stats for the support.

the quad lanes are not about running a lane with four heroes as if it were a trilane, it is just a pressure point strategy.Same concept as of an aggressive trilane, but way more risky and way more rewarding, you have to measure yourself if you think you can pull this off without losing momentum,so leave out farmers, maybeandcould work even if they are farmers, but works best with stuff likemid,, etc.first, call supports mid and kill the opposing mid, this should give you enough time, if they had the advantage, go ahead and kill them twice or more times, if in this process supports from their safe lane come in and help him, you are already leaving their carry alone, and he should be your next objective for ganks. If they dont rotate, go ahead and with your midder, move up to their safe lane, and stay there, be as aggressive as you can, its like summoning a constant 4 man gank, and try to divide them into smaller groups you can take down without losing teammates, etc.Very greedy team move, but very effective if done correctly., I love doing quad movements with. With a max nuking spell build (building him as QWQWQWQWR) you will be as scary as you can be as a member of a quad, and you can take down anyone you come across by yourself, get a fastwith it, and go refill mana with your. Also refilling other people´ss or sharing charges.if you have any support that could go for an urn there is going to get a lot of charges if they contest the tower, and if they dont, then you could sell it or use it later on. When you see the opportunity you are going to want to go for a gank, this opportunity could be a window when you know the enemy team doesnâ��t have wards up, or the lane is pushed, or someone on your side drew the attention of enemy supports or the opposing mid.If have played any patient ganker before from mid lane, likeoryou know what I am talking about, you are not something like aor athat can just go in guns blazing,and you cant be waiting there all the time either, wasting your time,This is a first option for ganking openings, therepresents the creepwave,represents their safe zone, if they cross that line you can initiate with your teammates.are possible enemy encounters, andare possible enemy movements.on the other hand represent your movement options/your ally's.This one is similar, but more aggresive. In this situation you can get your teammates to safely dive the tower with you wrapping around, your team focuses the high priority target (like a carry) and take them down with, then take the other targets or back out. A maxed outhelps a lot with this kind of moves., usually you can perform it like a quad lane line, if you have a trilane (defensiveoffensive), and you go like ganking but stay there for a prolonged period of time that will force rotations, is like a regular gank, but instead of taking down heroes to break their lineup, you just unbalance the field in order to bait the rotations,

Top 4.2. Taking Down Targets (And Who To Focus) This is something that Dagonphos excels at. As long as you are in for the game, and stay relevant you should be able to solo any hero, Necrophos has unmatched single target damage potential; there are a few exceptions to the rule, for example Anti-Mage who can survive your output and turn the fight around.



Necrophos is an intelligence carry, and just as the rest of intelligence carries he usually peaks at some point between the 30-45 minute mark. From there their kill potential starts to fall off and they have to pass the wheel to a better fit position 1 carry. In the time you are still in the game you have to make the best out of it and not spend your time farming for the later game, farm is important, but using it is even more important. You take opportunities and farm in any time is left (unless it is you are playing from behind, see that section in a bit).



During fights try staying a little bit out of the middle, avoid stuns and any damage over time and wait for a clean opening. This opportunity can come with a teammate’s initiation, a timely stun, an incoming (but predictable) enemy initiation or if your carry goes in and makes it look like overextension when you got his back. Cue reaper’s scythe.







Let me set an example, so a teamfight breaks out during the mid game, one of those dumb fights that just happen because someone crossed a line, not roshan, not a tower, just a dumb fight. And as always those dumbfights can end in a trade 3 for 3 and even worse, because people have to walk and end up unorganized and arriving at different times not being able to end a proper combination of spells (You are on radiant side):



Your team’s Techies is setting mines in the bot rune for some reason, and he is spotted by a ward, so the enemy Vengeful Spirit comes and stuns him to make some time for his buddy Disruptor to get there, Thunder Strike is casted, suicide squad attack is on cooldown, he runs up the hill and enters the radiant jungle, he is glimpsed back. At that moment your team’s Anti-Mage who was jungling blinks in to try pick up the kills on their supports. Kinetic Field is casted and catches both Techies and Anti-Mage, Vengeful Spirit and Disruptor start backing out and go uphill and head to dire’s ancients. At this point you teleported to the bottom tower and walked through the jungle up to the bot rune. Anti-Mage blinks to the uphill and out of the Kinetic Field with no vision. Up there is Phantom Assassin and he gets stunned by Vengeful Spirit. There is your opening, Phantom Assassin phantom strike’s Anti-Mage, you blink in and reaper’s scythe Phantom Assassin and dagon; Death Pulse, Anti-Mage blinks out, you walk off and Phantom Assassin dies afterwards.



If fights don’t happen you can still use the offtime to your advantage, with the help of a few aggressively positioned observer wards you can go blink+ult+dagon any unsuspicious enemy, take down carries in the jungle and rotating supports instantly, pickup your kills, set them back on gold, go upgrading your items.Simple. If you feel the game is getting sluggish because the enemy over-warded or stopped playing normally and is now set more defensively, then go push a lane or farm the jungle, Necrophos can do all those things with ease. Necrophos' flash ganks can only be countered by defensive items like Black King Bar or Linken's Sphere; usually the second one is the most problematic, as you can pop Reaper's Scythe fast enough for the disable to take care of the BKB situation.



Top 5. Pushing Your Advantage (And Setting Back Enemies) As with many other intelligence nuking focused heroes the main way to push your advantage is by skipping items and going for bigger impact more expensive items, greedy purchases. This can be for example skipping BKB to get a Scythe of Vyse faster and shut down their BKB, or even greedier, skipping both and getting straight Dagon 5. Of course these are extreme examples at most, the usual skip you do in Necrophos (and sometimes Tinker) is the Ethereal Blade. Basically goes like this:



You are having an already good game, and you are saving gold for whatever item you plan of purchasing next (for example getting a level 2 dagon) and you have something like 1000 gold. Then someone goes out of position and a teamfight happens, and in that fight you kill 3 people for example, and now you get skewed to 1900 gold. Now you get to choose you either decide if you keep your momentum and buy that dagon 2, and keep going from there, or you get a Ghost Scepter and go straight for Ethereal Blade just along dagon 1. That is pushing your advantage. Now keep in mind this is always a risky play, a.k.a throw. But if you pull it off you will keep your upper hand with a really big item on your team while they are still trying to get up on their feet. Same deal with [color=#00ffff]scythe of vyse[/color]



This goes along what I am about to explain in the next section.

Top 5.1. Relevance & Decay Relevance & Decay is crucial part of any core role, and it comes with the hero you are playing. For example Axe is the most relevant during the early game, and starts to decay, until he isn’t that important at the 25 minute mark (unless fed of course, there are always exceptions), but the difference between an Axe and Necrophos is the itemization, and by said itemization they have different peak points and relevance intervals.







Think of Dota as an arms race, items come and heroes come online; and your item choices and the enemy lineup dictate your expiration date as an intelligence carry. And there is the problem with Necrophos he cannot end a game, he needs a position 1 to come and fight to siege and end ; Necro takes the wheel but only to a point, what happens beyond that becomes a slippery slope and you start depending on your carry, you stop being able to frag down heroes and only be useful for that sick double reaper’s scythe.



So this is how you keep yourself relevant:



During early game your friend is the early dagon, you must stay as a big magic damage output for as long as you can, and that starts with a pre-min 8 dagon. People must look at you and be scared that you will insta-kill them with your nukes. As the game scales you got to see, if they start getting tanky you can pause whatever item you are building and get another dagon level, just to keep yourself afloat .



During mid game the heroes spread out (unless it’s a five man), they go farm the jungle, be in solo lanes, push towers in pairs, etc. There are two items that help you out, the Blink Dagger first is



The second item is of course, aghanim’s scepter . Basically if you aren’t level 16 this will give you the push and the advantage, having a level 3 ult at level 12 is just game swaying, this means the damage to keep your relevant as always, but also the reduced cooldown for you to be up online all the time if possible, Necrophos so he can do stuff, take part in fights and gank.



Later on you have two ways to go, you can get a little Bloodstone defensive and get items such as BKB,, an aura, etc Scythe of Vyse Ethereal Blade casting power, like, finish your dagon, whatever you need Scythe of Vyse with a jump in like your Blink Dagger . Ethereal Blade DMG+ . It can also come in handy to use defensively for yourself and on your allies.



If you fail at keeping yourself relevant to the match or the circumstances are overwhelming you are going to start to lose and playing from behind, see the next section.

and your item choices and the enemy lineup dictate your expiration date as an intelligence carry. And there is the problem withas a carry,; Necro takes the wheel but only to a point, what happens beyond that becomes a slippery slope and you start depending on your carry, you stop being able to frag down heroes and, you must stay as a big magic damage output for as long as you can, and that starts with a pre-min 8 dagon. People must look at you and be scared that you will insta-kill them with your nukes. As the game scales you got to see, if they start getting tanky you can pause whatever item you are building and get another dagon level,There are two items that help you out, the. Mobility is a big thing on Necro, especially since with your low movement speed coming in range for reaper’s scythe can become kind of difficult, mainly because they see you coming. Blink solves this problem. Blink also opens the possibility for safely farming lanes, getting a TP and pushing down, then blinking to the trees and tping out, for long term farming if it is really needed. And it gives you a jump in to kill people jungling, etc, as I said before.. Basically if you aren’t level 16 this will give you the push and the advantage,, this means the damage to keep your relevant as always, but also the reduced cooldown for you to be up online all the time if possible,needs his ult out of cooldown all the time,, you can get a little. Or you can go for more. The biggest up side to having theis that,does a similar thing, but it doesn’t silence items, it will amplify your dagon damage and your reaper’s scythe as well, so it is really the definition of keeping yourself relevant,

Top 5.2. Playing From Behind Playing from behind is always a little annoying, but you can live through it and make it kind of painless actually, as long as the other team isn’t all over your side of the map and trying to push high ground 24/7, you can work around it.

First point , Necrophos Death Pulse Death Pulse Death Pulse Death Pulse

Second point , Necrophos

Third point goes along the second one, you know how people say if you want to win just pick Omniknight Tidehunter Necrophos Necrophos Pudge as long as you don’t get asaying “me mid” you can do your thing.

is a rather decent farming hero, in terms that with his sustain he can keep on farming uninterrupted, that be the lane or the jungle. The technique is 1+1 simple, you go to a jungle camp and attack all creeps and leave them around 200 health, do not kill them off, then useand the heal of that on top of the sadist stacks you will get your mana back instantly and any health you lost by tanking the camp itself, you can do this if you have a level 3 sadist andbut level 4 is more self-sustaining with more sadist regen and more damage and heal from. If nothing is going on in the map go do this, you can also take stacks with this same technique, even usingtwice to keep yourself healed up.excels on landing finishing blows, as he can last hit you as soon as you hit a health threshold, with this, and in a teamfight he can take down the enemy pos1 carry with only his ultimate and help of some teammates for softening them up. You get the kill and the gold gets balanced out, become relevant again. On top of that you got rubber-banding to help your team out, as that carry gets killed everyone gets a ton of gold and the supports get three level ups.goes along the second one, you know how people say if you want to win just pickbecause as long as your idiots are alive and they are hitting something you have a shot at winning? Orbecause your team cannot lose to a bunch of stunned guys? Basically the same thing withif you kill their carry with an aghanim’s scepter upgraded reaper’s scythe. If they don’t have a carry for 100 seconds your idiots can just hit their buildings and game is over, does not matter how much gpm you had for the last 40 minutes, if you get killed by this **** and you cannot buyback, game is over for you. A goodcan climb MMR quite independently from their teammates,

Top 6. Update Section Nothing here, yet.



Any changes I do to the guide in the future will be documented here.



The upcoming update will be deeper explanation in the item progression, the reason I didnt include that in this first edition is because it will be a lengthy section and this guide is sort of delayed, hope you dont mind.

