Some Idiot’s Guide to Zeus
Holier than Thou
HELLOOOOOOO ONE AND EVERYOOOOOOOONE! Safecyn from over on DotaFire here bringing…
What the… what’s going on? WHERE ARE WE?
Oh um… the guys at FirstBlood managed to convince me to share some of my super-special-awesome sauce to help spice up their burgers. And by burgers I mean content. And by super-special-awesome sauce I… also mean content?
You’re contenting up their content with content?
Yeah! You get it.
I’d call you a sell out, but I’m pretty sure you’re not getting paid. You… you’re not, are you?
No idea, other me! This just seemed like fun and all. Anyways, Zeus! This guy’s awesome, you’ll love playing him. His voice acting and general air make him a riot to play, his lines are pretty dang clever, and he has one of the highest burst damage outputs in the game. Bar none. As well as guaranteed kill stealing if you’re the sort of awful person who does that sort of thing.
Which you are.
Shush.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Above average strength gain for an INT hero
- Arc Lightning has a fast cast point and is good for both last hits and harass.
- Built in true sight mechanics.
- Global, truly shocking ultimate. Groan.
- One of the few casting heroes that can mostly bypass Linken’s Sphere.
- Scaling damage output that makes him useful at all stages of the game.
- Great Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade that can cancel channeling spells and TPs from global range.
- Possibly the best Aether Lens carrier? It’s either him or Death Prophet these days.
- Fun to listen to, and fun to play!
Cons
- Can run out of mana easily due to his need for spell spamming, even with the new mana regen talent.
- Silences make him literally useless.
- Lacks an escape mechanism
- THE ATTACK ANIMATION! GOOD GOD, MAN!
- Pretty dang conceited. Not fun at parties.
Abilities
Anyone who’s played Zeus for even a game or two knows that he’s one of the worst last hitters in the game. His attack animation… it’s awful, like an old, decrepit man slowly throwing his arm back in order to bowl.
Or you.
Shush. Anyways, in order to help secure CS in spite of this, pick Arc lightning at level 1. Beyond that the damage you get from it isn’t worth it, and the additional bounce targets mean that you’re guaranteed to push your lane, even more so than you already are. Best to leave it for later in the game when you’ve got bigger waves to mow down.
It’s worth mentioning, though, that a lot of higher level players go two points in Arc Lightning, because that ups the damage just enough to where three casts of it will kill a ranged creep in the early game. So… keep that in mind! It’s totally acceptable to get a second point in this skill early on. People better than me would probably tell you to always do it. At level 2 you’re going to pick Static Field, for added shockiness on all your abilities, and from there on out your ability priority will look like this:
Thundergod’s Wrath > Lightning Bolt > Static Field > Arc Lightning.
Lightning Bolt is your workhorse beyond the laning phase and is a loooot more complicated than it might seem. I’m saying this assuming that it seems like just another nuke that you hit someone with to make them more dead? There’s no doubt that IS what it’s intended purpose is, BUT there are a hell of a lot of additional mechanics to discuss, most of which are AMAZING!
- It’s a mini-stun and might be the only ability in the game that can reliably interrupt a town-portal (TP) scroll when you can’t even see the target, because…
- It can be cast on the ground and will automatically search for and affect a target with a 325 range. This means that if an enemy ducks into the trees to try and escape, instead of getting vision on him and THEN using a stun to interrupt his TP, you can just call down a lightning bolt from the goddang sky over where you think he is, and interrupt it THAT way. It also makes it easier for you or your team to follow up on, because…
- It gives both flying vision and true-sight in a 750 radius around the targeted area for 4.5 seconds.
- The search effect will only search out enemy heroes. That’s right! No accidental miscasts on creeps if you’re ground-targeting this thing.
- The addition of this search effect now effectively makes the range of this skill 1025. This means that even if you aren’t technically in range of a fleeing hero, casting on the ground behind it might be enough to finish the job!
- Because this ability gives truesight, and because you can now cast this on the ground, you can use it to de-ward. PLEASE USE THIS SKILL TO DE-WARD. You are quite possibly the only hero with a built in ability to de-ward thanks to both your AOE truesight and your status as a ranged hero. Abuse this like CRAZY.
- As a matter of fact, abuse the true-sight of this ability like crazy in general. The 4.5 second true-sight duration coupled with the 6 second cooldown means that your opponents will only have a 1.5 second period of darkness to try and juke in. Not only that, but the true-sight from this ability can’t even be purged! Use this in chases to keep sight of a hero, or just randomly, when you think that a Bounty Hunter or a Riki might be nearby. Bonus points if you mentally hear the Metal Gear Solid !!! sound when you get lucky and find one.
Thundergod’s Wrath is your ultimate ability, and the reason why Zeus is such a popular hero amongst noobs, myself included of course. You hit everyone on the map for damage. That’s amazing. You can kill steal like a pro with it, though I should add that you should NEVER DO THIS. What you should do, however, is use it during teamfights to maximize the amount of damage the enemy team takes, as well as use it when it looks like the target of a gank might get away.
The cooldown on this skill is pretty low at 90 seconds, so it might also be worth using this ability just to get truesight on a hero in order to lock them down and finish them off. The truesight from this skill can’t be purged either, so if your team is trying to catch and kill a Riki, all the purges in the world won’t save him… at least, for the 3 seconds that the truesight of this thing lasts.
While the damage from this skill doesn’t go through Black King Bar, the truesight does! I’m not… sure when this would ever be useful, because I’m not sure how many heroes would be both magic immune and invisible at the same time, but… you know. There you have it. If the enemy Riki get’s a BKB, man. No escape.
One last thing. For maximum godlike nuking, your cast order should always be Q-R-W before level 12 and Q-W-R afterwards. This is because of some fancy math and the way that Static Field scales. I go into more detail over on DotaFire.
Items (hint: GET A VEIL)
Veil/Aether Lens/Eul’s/Octarine. This has been my tried and true way of beating the ever loving bajeebus out of people with this hero. Even against mega creeps! I may be replacing Octarine Core with Aghanim’s Scepter soon, it’s too early to say, but even then I’ll be sure to go for Octarine 5th. Here’s what this will look like, broken down:
Starting items
I’ve got three different situational starting builds depending on what/who you’re playing against:
- Bottle Rush (Two Clarities): This is what I used to go for, it’s a great option for newer Zeus players. With this you’re relying entirely on your Arc Lightning for last hits and harass. Luckily it’s a pretty damn reliable technique.
- Wand Rush (Tangoes and a Magic Stick): I use this if I’m against some other spell spamming idiot like Batrider or Skywrath, and would benefit from a fast Magic Wand. Typically, this build isn’t great, so its only for those situations.
- Pretend you’re Necrophos (Tangoes + Null Talisman): Something you can afford to do if you think you won’t be harassed out of lane by your opponent. The increased damage means you can actually last hit using your auto-attack and conserve mana, and it ALSO gives you the chance to deny, so I’ve been using it more frequently, and it’s what I’d recommend in most cases. Getting denied by a Zeus is something a lot of players don’t have to deal with, so if you’re able to do it with this build, you’ll get into their heads and tilt them. Not too shabby. The extra tankiness from the stats it gives is an added bonus.
Early Game
Veil of Discord is the single best item, possibly in the game right now, but definitely for Zeus. +6 to all stats (well, except INT which gets +12), +6 HP regen, AND +6 armor? And the ability to increase the damage output of every single one of Zeus’ abilities by 25%? I dare you to find a better item. Go on. I’m waiting.
On top of all of that, Veil amps the spell damage of all your teammate’s abilities too! So y’know. It’s pretty great in a meta that’s focused on early fighting, when nukes are the primary way of dealing damage, killing your opponents, and then securing objectives off won teamfights. Just saying.
Anyways, the other two items are Arcane Boots and Aether Lens which should explain themselves: Arcane Boots keeps your mana up and can be disassembled and turned into said Aether Lens, which will let you cast your spells from a safer distance as well as giving you a total of +14 HP regen when combined with the +6 you’re getting from Veil. Not too shabby on the sustain department.
Mid Game (Mobility & Mana, mmm)
By this point, you should be running low on mana a LOT. The addition of shrines in 7.00 will help with this to some degree, but it’s probably about time you pick up a casual Void Stone to keep yourself in the blue. You also have the option of taking a talent at level 10 to give you an additional +2 mana regen, which is pretty good. I recommend it if you’re not in risk of being nuked down quickly, otherwise grab the +health talent instead.
Then, we make a decision on what mobility item to grab. As mentioned previously, I get Eul’s Scepter of Divinity a lot: the additional movement speed helps me chase people down, the cyclone is great for cancelling tps of players smart enough to wait for me to use Lightning Bolt, and it straight up BUILDS from the void stone I get anyways. All around good stuff, but it’s very much for the Zeus that’s consistently teamfighting and rotating with his team. Which… I mean… that’s how you should play Zeus so… yeah.
Luxury/Extensions
Aghanim’s Scepter is now really, really good! Nimbus, the ability it grants, is a great skill and you should definitely look into getting this item once you’ve got your core set done. Against heroes like Nature’s Prophet and Tinker, the Nimbus ability can be used to interrupt their TPs from global range and keep them in one place for your team to kill, so definitely grab it against them. On top of that, it’s another way to proc Static Field.
Octarine Core is also a standard part of my build-up on a richer Zeus: it single-handedly gives you sustain, tank, and an increase in DPS. It’ll also make Nimbus strike faster with its lightning bolts, which is just awesome.
Picks and Bans
Allies
Elder Titan, Ancient Apparition, Pugna, & Skywrath Mage
Anyone who can further amplify the magic damage being dished out is alright in Zeus’ book. Magic amplification DOES stack multiplicatively, so this isn’t effective as the numbers may imply, but it’s still… really good. Get one or two of these guys with Zeus and the numbers you can do to a man will skyrocket.
Centuar Warrunner, Tidehunter, Bristleback, & Axe
These heroes can tank like crazy, and make it so that no one decides to focus the mustached gentleman raining down lightning from the sky on everyone. In the case of everyone here but Bristleback, these tanks can even provide hard disables that make it actually impossible for anyone to focus you! And that’s nice.
Jakiro, Earth Spirit, & Venomancer
Any hero who does a boatload of magical damage and might ALSO pick up a Veil of Discord is a good ally to Zeus as well. They don’t stack, so don’t pick one up if they’re going to get it, but the fact that they’re getting it frees your gold up for other items, which is always nice. Of course, it works just as well if you get the Veil and they get something else… either way, man. It’s your life, you live it however you want.
Enemies
Silencer, Skywrath Mage, Night Stalker, Bloodseeker
So, uh… you remember how aaall the way back up top I said that silences make you literally useless? These guys can silence you. Plus, they can all kill you really, really quickly. If you have the option to sidestep playing Zeus against these heroes, I’d highly recommend it! It’s not fun.
Oracle, Pudge, Anti-Mage, Rubick, & Lifestealer
These heroes all have built in magic resistance or spells that provide magic immunity: heck, Rubick even gives resist to his entire team. Rubick can also steal your spells, and if he gets Thundergod’s Wrath, your team is NOT going to be happy. Pudge can also pull you out of position and murder your face, so… there’s that. Anti-Mage both burns your mana AND punishes you for using all of your mana, so you hate this guy. Smite him. HARD. If you can. You probably can’t, and shouldn’t have picked Zeus into Anti-Mage, ya dummy.
Nyx Assassin, Pugna, Keeper of the Light, Invoker, Diffusal Blade
Anyone who makes it more difficult to cast your spells makes gods cry. They’re all nasty in their own way, too: Nyx Assassin will sneak up on you and burst you down insanely, the Nether Ward on Pugna will tear through you before you have a chance to stop casting your spells (unless you have really, really good reflexes) and KotL… he’s not TOO bad, because you can just stand still when he tries to mana drain you? But if he does it when you’re trying to get away and you use your Force Staff… hilarity ensues. Deadly, deadly hilarity.
Conclusion
Aaand…. that does it!
I object to being nearly completely edited out of this, by the way. Just throwing it out there.
Man… if I cared at all, I might actually feel for you but uh… nope. Nothing doing. Heart is an empty void over here. But if y’all want to see the quote-unquote-yes-i-just-wrote-that-out-entirely “hilarious” back and forths between myself and… this guy… then you can head over to Dotafire and check out the full build guide. It even has more details, and a Safecyn’s Math Corner that had to get taken out for length reasons and… pictures! More small ones, but less big ones. Them’s the trade offs. Anyways, go play Zeus! He’s fun. I enjoy him. K bai, Safecyn signing out.
