Death Prophet Dota 2 Guide – Destroy Towers in Seconds in Patch 7.33c

Death Prophet is a strong pusher and effective in team-fights for her great crowd control. She relies on her ultimate to team-fight or push towers effectively, but still relatively item-dependent. As far as role type, she almost always lanes mid, which might explain why she isn’t very popular after Dota Update 7.33.

Nevertheless, Death Prophet’s item build is versatile because most utility item that offers stats too, compliments her skills, which are mostly magic damage.

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Complete Death Prophet Spell guide

Crypt Swarm

Death Prophet releases a damaging wave of bats in a cone in the target direction. Prioritize it alongside Spirit Siphon because it allows you to last-hit the range creep effectively while damaging your mid-lane opponent to help you dominate the lane. Crypt Swarm travels a much farther distance, up to 1110 range.

Silence

Death Prophet silences all enemies in the target area. Silence is usually prioritized last because your other two spells are crucial for your survivability and early damage output. If you are against a hero that is hard to lockdown or relies on casting a lot of spells, then you can get an earlier level of Silence. It has quite a long cast time, so try to use it pre-emptively or as a means of initiation.

Spirit Siphon

Death Prophet slows the target (with level 20 talent) and drains their HP by a percentage of their health pool, healing herself. This is maxed first as it provides you with survivability during the early and mid-game skirmishes. The slow it provides will ensure that the target(s) stay in range of Exorcism while it’s active. However, Spirit Siphon is more effective with a damage/heal rate by picking the alternate Level 20 talent.

Since it will drain a percentage of the target’s max HP, this means you should prioritize it on tanky heroes. However, the damage type is magical, which means that you will drain less from a target with high magic resistance. Spirit Siphon gains a charge with each point in the spell which means that you can have it active on multiple enemies at once and receive the healing from all of them simultaneously.

Exorcism

Ultimately, Death Prophet releases up to 32 wandering spirits around her that damage enemies and buildings in range. At the end of its duration, the spirits return to Death Prophet and heal her up to 16 health per attack dealt during the 40-second duration of Exorcism. Although these attacks are physical damage, they do not trigger on-attack procs such as Counter-Helix or Reactive Armor.

The spirits must return to DP after they have attacked a target before they can attack another hero and for this reason, Thus, it’s beneficial to stand close to enemies like a raid boss, as this will reduce their travel time. Death Prophet relies on Exorcism to fight properly, and when it is activated, it can be used to quickly destroy towers, kill Roshan or take a team-fight.

However, be wary of its long cooldown of 150 seconds, or 110 seconds of downtime. Having it activated will prevent enemies from being able to Blink in most cases, and severely deter enemies from fighting you and your team.

Talents

Level 10: +12% Magic Resistance or +30 Damage

The magic resistance is a good choice, especially if you’re facing heavy magic damage. Even if it’s not the case, the alternate option does not couple well with your magic damage-based skill set.

Level 15: -2s Crypt Swam Cooldown or +300 Health

Both of these talents are decent options in a Dota 2 esports setting. However, the bonus 300 health can mean the difference in surviving fights. Since Spirit Siphon continuously regenerate health for Death Prophet, having that extra capacity of health makes DP harder to kill.

Level 20: +30 Spirit Siphon Damage/Heal or -25% Spirit Siphon Movement Speed Slow

If you need to tank up to survive longer in team-fights then you should get the extra Spirit Siphon Damage/Heal to make it more efficient. While being able to slow down your opponents whilst being siphoned means your tether don’t break prematurely, there’s higher value from getting the extra damage/heal.

Level 25: +8 Exorcism Spirits or -22s Spirit Siphon Replenish Time

The 8 extra Exorcism Spirits will increase your DPS during your ultimate and is overall a strong talent. The reduced replenish time of Spirit Siphon seems like a great option on paper, but considering that BKB-activated heroes do not lose much from Spirit Siphon, makes it not great in late game.

What Items to build on Death Prophet

Starting Items

Tango
Faerie Fire
Iron Branch
Bottle

As a mid-hero, you’ll need more damage to last-hit and some regen before you get your Bottle. 3 Iron Branches and 1 Faerie Fire will increase your damage while being an emergency healing until you get your Bottle.

By using Tango on the planted Iron Branch Tree, you gain double the regeneration. Additionally, Faerie Fire could potentially be a lifesaver when you are being chased down. You can also get a Healing Salve transported by your courier later if you need more regen, or ask your supports.

However, contesting for the Water Rune at the 2-min interval is more cost-effective to refill your Bottle.

Early Game Items

Magic Wand

A Magic Wand is a good pickup when the enemy heroes have spammable skills. However, considering Death Prophet’s diving playstyle, which makes her the centre of the attention. It’s much easier to gain Magic Wand stacks.

Phase Boots

Phase Boots are usually the boots of choice on Death Prophet as they allow her to chase down heroes with Exorcism. The increased movement speed also lets you keep up with siphoned targets, so you consistently have health regen.

Kaya

Kaya is made for Death Prophet, due to its amplifications of spell damage, spell lifesteal and mana regen. It lets Death Prophet sustain her usage of skills more frequently to outlast the fights.

 

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Mid Game Items

Eul’s Scepter of Divinity

A Eul’s Scepter increases your movement speed, intelligence and mana regeneration, much like Kaya with an added utility. These stats are very helpful in the early and mid-game, but the ability to Cyclone yourself is what keeps you longer in fights, subjecting enemies to Exorcism. It can also be used to purge yourself of silences and negative debuffs, which is crucial since DP lacks an escape mechanism.

Kaya and Sange/Yasha

Kaya can be later combined with either Sange or Yasha, albeit Sange might be the better option. It’s because of the higher endurance it offers, such as status resistance, health regen amplification and lifesteal amplification, that makes it the better deal.

Black King Bar

A BKB is crucial in most games, as it will prevent you from most negative debuffs for the duration. This is no Dota 2 news to a decent mid player. Couple with DP’s aggressive playstyle to dive into enemy heroes, BKB works very well with Exorcism as you’ll be immune to most damage and allow you to get in the middle of the enemy team. This will make you deal more damage, as the spirits will have to travel less far.

 

Late Game Items

Octarine Core

An Octarine Core will reduce the cooldown of Exorcism by quite a lot, as well as all of your other spells. It will also give you spell lifesteal which will help sustain you during team-fights through the damage that Exorcism deals as well as Spirit Siphon and Crypt Swarm.

Scythe of Vyse

Scythe of Vyse gives you more team-fight control and a massive amount of mana regeneration and intelligence. Additionally, its disable can be an absolute lockdown on a specific hero, preventing them from using BKB or any abilities.

Overall, it’s a fantastic late game item for DP, as she relies on team-fighting.

Shiva’s Guard

A Shiva’s Guard tanks you up against physical damage thanks to its bonus armor, but more importantly it has the ability to slow nearby enemies during Exorcism in order to keep them near you for longer.

Boots of Travel

Boots of Travel will give you even more movement speed and the ability to teleport between lanes and push them out.

Situational Items

Linken’s Sphere

Linken’s Sphere is the perfect counter against strong single target spells, such as Legion Commander’s Duel. If Legion Commander gets the jump on you, dealing physical damage, chances are Death Prophet won’t survive the duel.

Furthermore, it gives decent stats and health/mana regen.

Refresher Orb

What’s better than one Exorcism? Two Exorcisms. Multiple instances of Exorcisms stack upon another, letting more Spirits hit more targets at a time.

Considering the long cooldown of Exorcism, Refresher Orb is a great item to also refresh your other items, such as BKB, Scythe of Vyse and Shiva’s.

Veil of Discord

If you have a lot of magical damage on your team, you can get a Veil of Discord in the early-to-mid game to amplify the amount of magic damage they deal. Although Exorcism is physical damage, Spirit Siphon and Crypt Swarm are magical and are amplified through the Veil.

Pipe of Insight

Pipe of Insight will tank you and your team up against magical damage. It’s a good option if your offlane player do not buy one for the team since DP typically lasts long during fights, utilizing the full duration of Pipe’s buff.

Force Staff

A Force Staff may be needed against heroes like Clockwerk or Nature’s Prophet. It can also be a great item against heroes that you need to kite, such as Ursa, who can burst you down quickly.

Blade Mail

A Blade Mail can be a good item if you are facing heroes that can burst you down very quickly. This serves as a deterrent for enemy heroes to attack you while you charge into them with Exorcism.

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Interesting Death Prophet Match-ups

High armor heroes

Enemies with high armor take much less damage from Exorcism spirits and can stand in range of Exorcism for longer. Hence, consider picking up Solar Crest to nullify their high armor.

Timbersaw

Timbersaw can be silenced with Silence which prevents him from escaping and doing any damage in fights. The Exorcism spirits also don’t trigger Reactive Armor, making quick work of Timbersaw’s durability.

Oracle

Oracle’s False Promise is obsolete when attempting to survive a stacked damage of Exorcism spirits. Oracle’s heavy reliance on using active skills also makes him an easy target to silence, hence why Oracle players are on a disadvantage.

Tinker

Similarly, it’s just as easy to catch Tinker off-guard in the trees with Silence as it interrupts his channeling Rearm ultimate. With Euls just to cancel Tinker’s potential blink attempt, Tinker will not escape the ruthless Death Prophet attacks.