Off-lane Death Prophet in Dota 2 is a nuisance. You’re going to annoy their safe lane so much, he’ll run away to the jungle just so you stop hitting him. You will suck their soul, their towers and the morale of the enemy team.
Starting Items.
600 gold.
Quelling Blade. 600-130=470 Gold
You’re only getting the +6 benefit, as we’re not melee. However I’ve suggested quelling as the aim of the guide is to keep things simple, and making your last-hitting life easier with the extra damage, is a simple as it gets. Also helps clear trees with supports for vision, provides a tree clear in the case of Nature’s Prophet, and is just an all-round good newer player item.
Mantle of Intelligence. 470-145=325 Gold
You’re going to need these, so that you can build into Null Talismans. Whether you take one or two is your call, but they’re pretty standard. Provide some int, damage, mana, regen etc. Not much more to say here. You can consider sacrificing some other items, to grab two.
325 Gold.
Orb of Venom. 325-275=50 Gold.
I would say this is the most important item when starting in the offlane for this build. Like I mentioned with quelling blade, you want to make your safe lane opponent’s life hard. This is a great harassing tool. Makes it hard to escape to tower, can burn away their small HP pool, and make them think twice about getting close to you.
50 Gold.
Clarity. 50-50=0 Gold.
There isn’t much to say about clarity. It fits into your starting items nicely, with the 50 gold cost. It will help you with mana early. Perfect last item.
Early Game. (In Order.)
Null Talisman.
Null is pretty self-explanatory. You can turn you MoI into a Null, they provide everything you’re going to want as DP. They help you get last hits, some mana, mana pool. Great! If you’re lane is going well, you’re getting farm, they’re not, consider two.
Boots into Power Treads.
You’re going to want to get around quickly, whether to chase or escape. These need to be gotten pretty early, and turned into treads asap. Treadswapping is amazing, and it’s something you’re going to want to do often early as DP.
Need some bulk to survive a gank? Treadswap.
Need some quick attacks to apply pressure, with your poison orb? Treadswap.
Need some mana, or want to dish out spells in quick succession? Treadswap.
The movement speed from boots helps a lot. If you’re successful in your harass and win the lane heavily (which is our goal) their safelane is going to the jungle early. With movement speed, you can get in and out of their jungle quickly and safely – further harassing their safelane and preventing them from getting farm.
Eul’s Scepter of Divinity.
Eul’s provides everything we’re looking for as offlane DP, or as DP in general and it’s hard to look past regardless of what position you’re playing. I would say it is possible to skip this, if you’re pushing hard for a specific late game item, but I wouldn’t advise it.
We’re getting movement speed, which is amazing, just refer to the power treads speed advantages, with Eul’s enhancing those points. We get +10 Int, which speaks for itself, and will further enhance our late game items. We also get 3.5 mana regen. This combined with the INT gain, means you’re going to have plenty of mana, and fill your pool quite quickly. Combine this with a mana pool or regen neutral, and your mana problems are going to be few and far between.
Build Items. (In Order)
Aghanim’s Scepter.
“Whenever an enemy is affected by your spells or when you attack an enemy, a ghost will fly out, slow and hit the enemy for bonus its usual damage then return to you with life.”
I can’t explain how good DP’s sceptre is. Very, very good. Any time connect with a cast, or a right click, you’re getting a ghost from your ult as well.
Gives you great survive with the 10+ strength, combine with the heal from the ghost. It’s super annoying to deal with, a great pushing tool, and gives you all round stats. +10 AGI means you’ve got some more armor, and you’re getting out your right clicks quicker, which means more ghosts. +10 INT gives you all the good mana juice, and some more damage – and enhances our build further down the line. Should be purchased as quickly as possible once your gold starts to get up.
Aghanim’s Shard.
“Drains 0.75 armor per second and gives it to Death Prophet. Armor gain/loss lasts for 14 seconds.”
This works perfectly in the offlane. Drain is going to keep you around, and keep you annoying your safelane opponent as long as possible. After the laning stage, this is going to keep you around in teamfights, and disable the enemy cores in a big way. Pop ult, start the drain, hammer away with spam and right clicks.
DP was gifted a great shard, and it fits perfectly into our durable offlane build. It’s impact is such that you can consider it a swap for Eul’s in priority in buying, depending on the timing and how slow the game is. Though with the meta being quite quick at the moment, I’d suggest Eul’s early and grab the shard at the timer.
Witch Blade
“Causes your next attack to apply a poison for 3.0 seconds, slowing by 25% and dealing 1.0x your intelligence as damage every second.”
Witch blade baby, surprise. This item is where we really, REALLY, come online in a huge way. Orb of Venom loses it’s potency, so we’re swapping it for the room in our bag. Into witch blade. Witch blade works so well with offlane DP, it’s the crescendo of our build and plan.
We’ve got the attack speed from the treads, witch blade provides more. More attack speed, more applications. Boom.
We’ve got big INT gains from our null’s, Eul’s and Scepter – the intelligence based DoT is going to annoy big time, and hurt. Boom.
+6 Amor and +300 projectile speed. We’re going to survive some right clicks, and we’re going to be spamming right clicks of our own like Vin Diesel – fast and furious baby. Boom.
The slow is absolutely perfect. 25% is a huge chunk, they’re going to have a hard time getting away from your spell spam, your ghosts, your right clicks. You’re generating ghosts with the shard the entire time. The slow makes you an absolutely annoyance monster.
End Game Items / Luxury Gold Items (No Order)
Black King Bar (BKB)
“Grants Spell Immunity. Duration decreases with each use.”
There’s nothing worse than getting locked down, disabled, silenced whether we’re trying to spam as many right clicks and spells as humanly possible. BKB prevents this. Grab your immunity, take out those who you know are going to disable your ability hard when the timer runs out, then go on your merry way with witch blade and spell spam.
If you’re getting specifically countered by someone with some heinous lockdown, communicating with your team can be just as important as, or alleviate the need of, black king bar. Let your team know what you need, join the teamfight after their initiation, and then apply your pressure. If you can do this frequently, you can perhaps considering using the BKB gold elsewhere. If not, grab it.
Yasha and Kaya
Yasha and Kaya further enhances what we’ve already got a lot of. Lots more attack speed, between the treads, your witch blade and Y&K – you’re going to be spamming right clicks fast. As our spells don’t require channeling, and the casting animations for the others is pretty quick, we’re going to be getting our right-clicks out plentifully. Not to mention the gain from the AGI.
The INT gain is also going to beef up our witch blade % damage as well, so that’s a nice enhancement. 30% mana regen ontop of our huge int, and regen from Eul’s means we simply do not have to ever worry about mana. Like, ever.
So, 10% movement speed means that we can keep up as people start to swap to boots with higher speed than our Eul’s and Treads provide. It’s not a huge boost, but it means we can keep the bonus from treads without having to swap to faster shoes.
16% spell amp, and 30% spell lifesteal amp. Wowsers. Our drain is going to hurt, and provide so much health. And spam gets amped in a big way, they wont want to get hit by that. And the spell lifesteal and amp make fighting with our ult a HUUUUUUUGE no-no for the other team. They’re going to want to wait out your ult, in the time they do that, you can make plays as you like.
Y&K might not provide the utility and viability that BKB does, but it does mean that you’re going to dish out big numbers damage wise, and the spells are going to keep you alive if you can live through the lockdown.
Got the gold for both? Both is good.
Scythe of Vyse
“Turns a target unit into a harmless critter for 3.5 seconds. The target has a base movement speed of 140.0 and will be silenced, muted, and disarmed. Instantly destroys illusions.”
Whilst the build we have is going to keep us alive, and we’re going to dominate the offlane, we don’t have a big disable. Scythe of Vyse gives us this. Disabling a key member into a teamfight, bursting them down and making the fight 5v4 is going to go a long way into winning the game.
We’re already getting a STR and AGI gain with the Scythe, more on top of our considerable sustainability and attack speed is never a bad thing. A whopping +35 INT means our witchblade gets a big boost, and our rightclicks are severe. But we’re here for the disable.
Shiva’s Guard
“Active: Emits a freezing wave that deals 200 magical damage to enemies and slows their movement by -40% for 4.0 seconds. Radius: 900.
Passive: Reduces the attack speed of all enemies by -45 and all heals, regeneration and lifesteal by 25%. Radius:1200″
If you’re not turning your Mystic Staff into Scythe of Vyse, you’re turning into Shiva’s Guard. If your team has plenty of disable, and you’re comfortable just using Eul’s as your own, get this instead. It’s a great teamfight item. You can use the slow in combination with your Witch Blade to ensure that you have lockdown, and nobody is escaping your damage.
You’re getting more armor, and a huge INT boost as well to boot. More damage for out rightclicks, huge mana pool and decent sustain. Not to mention that heroes that rely on their regen and lifesteal are going to suffer. Get this in combination with a disarm on your team, and you’re going to make AGI lifesteal carries want to disconnect.
Skills and Talents.
Crypt Swarm
“Sends a swarm of winged beasts to savage enemy units in front of Death Prophet.”
Skill at: 1, 4, 5, 7
We want to grab a point early, as it makes farming waves very easy and can also be used to harass your safe lane opponent and keep them at arms reach. Late game the damage can really ramp up, especially with spell amp % items. We’re going to have plenty of mana for spamming this late too.
Silence
“Prevents enemy units in a target area from casting spells.”
Skill at: 8, 13, 14, 16
We wont grab this early, as it’s primarily for shutting down during teamfights, and that’s not our priorty early. We want to annoy the safelane as much as possible, and a short silence isn’t going to achieve that. Can perhaps consider earlier if the enemy team is caster-heavy.
Spirit Siphon
“Creates a spirit link between Death Prophet and an enemy unit, draining 14 + 1%/2.5%/4%/5.5% Max HP per second and steal 6 movement speed from the enemy.”
Skill at: 2, 3, 9, 11
Grab a couple early as this is going to be our bread and butter in the offlane. It’ll keep us topped up, as we don’t have the natural bulk that most traditional offlaners do. So, we get two points early. Use in combination with your poison orb, clarity, to keep the harass up early. If your support doesn’t need to harass, and can focus their attention elsewhere, you’re doing great. Don’t forget you can get last hits, whilst having this active as the same time on the enemy hero.
Exorcism
“Unleashes evil spirits to drain the life of nearby enemy units and structures. At the end of the spell’s duration, Death Prophet is healed in proportion to the damage dealt. Lasts 35 seconds.”
Skill at: 6, 12, 18
Use this to bring down towers, and be a nuisance in team fights. Ensure that you’re getting the maximum value by playing safe in team fights, and building for a bit of bulk so that you don’t get bursted before the duration of exorcism expires. Use spirit siphon to keep yourself up and healthy, and let the ghosts do the rest.
Once mana isn’t an issue, and you’ve built some attack speed, get plenty of bats and right-clicks spammed in and pause to siphon if you’re dipping.
Level 10: +12% Magic Resistance
This is going to be my select the vast, vast majority of the item. We’re going to get plenty of damage from our INT items, that I can’t really recommended more. The magic resist however, is going to help huge early, and help you sustain, especially if you’re still in offlane.
Level 15: +150 Cast Range
This one is much more difficult choice. And you can’t go wrong either way. The siphon choice will help your sustain, but not taking the cast range can be pretty frustrating at times. As such, I’ve chosen the +150. Plus, you’re getting regen from other items, and with this you can skip aether lense.
However, if you’re deviating from the item suggestions and want to end up with Octarine Core, then go with the spirit siphon talent.
Level 20: +400 Health
We’re playing the off lane, so health seems like a no-brainer, but by the time you hit 20 the laning stage is well and truly over. Nevertheless, the +400 health a huge boost to your surviving potential. And the longer we’re around, the more havoc we can reap.
I would say the other talent can be a hindrance in this build. We want to be a hybrid, massive INT using witchblade right clicks. If our bats are on such a huge cooldown reduce, we want to be spamming them, we want more spell amp, and less right clicking power.
That’s not the point of this guide, don’t grab this talent – it doesn’t work with the rest of the build at all. The talent can work with caster DP, but this isn’t that build. Again, do not get this. Get the health. GET THE HEALTH!
Level 25: +8 Exorcism Spirits
Exorcism spirits are so valuable, and your ult stays potent really late into the game at 25. I like the opposite talent to keep yourself around, but by the time you’re 25, you’re not that far off having both talents anywa
So, take the extra spirits for the engagements between 25 and 30, if the game survives that long. As it works well with the items we’ve chosen – we have sceptre and shard. We have lots and lots of ghosts, with a long uptime and make ourselves a very risk engagement late. We’re present in late team fights, we’re tacking the barracks, and we’re surviving late game cores.
Credits
| Program | Founding Writers |
| Author | Luke Cowling |
| YouTuber | Dota Bayo |
| Publisher | MGN |
| Game | Dota 2 |