Dota 2 Hero Discussio: Rotund'jere the Necrophos

 
Rotund'jere the Necrophos is an unusual offensive spellcaster and healer, since he has two passive skills and only one primary attack spell. Necrophos' Death Pulse is his bread and butter. This powerful ability doubles as a damage and a healing, with both effects on every cast.  Death Pulse hits all nearby enemies causing damage, and also hits all nearby allies and the Necrophos which heals them. Since it has a short cooldown period, this spell can be cast very often, providing constant damage to enemies and health to allies and allowing Necrophos to plenty of creep kills. To fuel this barrage, the Necrophos has a passive skill called Sadist which replenishes some of his mana and hit points every time he kills a unit. To further weaken his enemies, his powerful  Heartstopper Aura slow drains the life of all foes in a large area of effect around the Necrophos. Necrophos uses  Reaper's Scythe when he sees a sufficiently injured enemy hero, which is possibly the best spell in the game for killing off damaged heroes. This deadly spell deals damage based on how much life the target is missing, so even the toughest heroes die just as a fast as the fragile ones. A strong Necrophos is nearly impossible to defeat, releasing constant  Death Pulse and draining enemies' life with Heartstopper Aura  until they are finished.

Lore of Necrophos

In a time of great plague, an obscure monk of dark inclinations, one Rotund'jere, found himself promoted to the rank of Cardinal by the swift death of all his superiors. While others of the order went out to succor the ill, the newly ordained cardinal secluded himself within the Cathedral of Rumusque, busily scheming to acquire the property of dying nobles, promising them spiritual rewards if they signed over their terrestrial domains. As the plague receded to a few stubborn pockets, his behavior came to the attention of the greater order, which found him guilty of heresy and sentenced him to serve in the plague ward, ensorcelled with spells that would ensure him a slow and lingering illness. But they had not counted on his natural immunity. Rotund'jere caught the pox, but instead of dying, found it feeding his power, transforming him into a veritable plague-mage, a Pope of Pestilence. Proclaiming himself the Necrophos , he travels the world, spreading plague wherever he goes, and growing in terrible power with every village his pestilential presence obliterates.

Abilities Necrophos

Death Pulse

Necrophos releases a wave of death around him, dealing damage to enemy units and healing allied units.

Level	Manacost	Cooldown	Casting Range	Area	Duration	Effects
1	125	8	N/A	475	N/A	Damages all enemies around Necrophos by 70 and heals all allies by 75
2	145	7	N/A	475	N/A	Damages all enemies around Necrophos by 125 and heals all allies by 90
3	165	6	N/A	475	N/A	Damages all enemies around Necrophos by 200 and heals all allies by 110
4	185	5	N/A	475	N/A	Damages all enemies around Necrophos by 275 and heals all allies by 130

• Magical Damage
• Hits invisible units and units in Fog of War
• Death Pulse can't be evaded by moving or blinking
• Can heal magic immune units
• Projectile move with about 400 movement speed

Combining his monk heritage with his newfound affinity for plague has a menacing result.

Heartstopper Aura

Passive
Necrophos stills the hearts of his opponents, causing nearby enemy units to lose a percentage of their max health over time.

Level	Manacost	Cooldown	Casting Range	Area	Duration	Effects
1	-	-	-	1200	-	Deals 0.6% of an enemy's Max HP as damage to all enemies in the area every second
2	-	-	-	1200	-	Deals 0.9% of an enemy's Max HP as damage to all enemies in the area every second
3	-	-	-	1200	-	Deals 1.2% of an enemy's Max HP as damage to all enemies in the area every second
4	-	-	-	1200	-	Deals 1.5% of an enemy's Max HP as damage to all enemies in the area every second

• HP Removal Damage
• Since  Heartstopper Aura deals HP Removal damage it will not disable abilities or items like Blink Dagger or cancel consumables
• Damage counts as negative regeneration
• Deals damage every 0.5 seconds
• Illusions of Necrophos do not have  Heartstopper Aura
• Displays a debuff on enemy units if they are in the aura's radius and if Necrophos is visible. If Necrophos is out of sight, no debuff is displayed yet the HP removal still occurs.
• Will not affect ancient units or Roshan, despite going through magic immunity

Those who come within a short distance of the Necrophos can feel pestilence and plague in the air.

Sadist

Revelling in death and pain, the Necrophos gains HP and mana regeneration for killing units. Lasts 6 seconds. Hero Kills give 10 times the bonus.

Level	Manacost	Cooldown	Casting Range	Area	Duration	Effects
1	-	-	-	-	6	Each unit kill causes Necrophos to receive 2 mana regen per second and 1 HP regen per second. Hero Kills give 10 times the bonus
2	-	-	-	-	6	Each unit kill causes Necrophos to receive 4 mana regen per second and 2 HP regen per second. Hero Kills give 10 times the bonus
3	-	-	-	-	6	Each unit kill causes Necrophos to receive 6 mana regen per second and 3 HP regen per second. Hero Kills give 10 times the bonus
4	-	-	-	-	6	Each unit kill causes Necrophos to receive 10 mana regen per second and 4 HP regen per second. Hero Kills give 10 times the bonus

• Sadist is also triggered by denies
• Stacks with itself and each stack operates independently
• Regen a total of 12/24/36/60 mana and 6/12/18/24 health (120/240/360/600 mana and 60/120/180/240 health for hero kill)

Poor souls who succumb to Rotund'jere's plagues are recycled for future use.

Reaper's Scythe

Ultimate
Stuns the target enemy hero, then deals damage based on how much life it is missing. Heroes killed by  Reaper's Scythe will have 30% more time added to their respawn timer. Any kill under this effect will be credited to Necrophos .

Level	Manacost	Cooldown	Casting Range	Area	Duration	Effects
1	175 (150*)	100 (70*)	600	N/A	1.5	Stuns the target enemy hero, then deals 0.4 (0.6*) damage per life point missing
2	340	85 (70*)	600	N/A	1.5	Stuns the target enemy hero, then deals 0.6 (0.9*) damage per life point missing
3	500	70	600	N/A	1.5	Stuns the target enemy hero, then deals 0.9 (1.2*) damage per life point missing

• Magical Damage
• This Ultimate can be upgraded via Aghanim's Scepter, (*) shows the affected values. Aghanim's Scepter also causes heroes killed by  Reaper's Scythe to be unable to buyback.
• Heroes killed by Reaper's Scythe will have 30% more time added to their respawn timer
• Damage is dealt at the end of the stun
• Stuns goes through magic immunity but damage does not
• Even if the target is killed by another source before the damage is applied, the kill is credited to Necrophos and he receives a Sadist buff

The amount of death and suffering in the air increases the power of the Necrophos ' plague magic.

Comments:

tokamak_fanboy - Like most other heroes with a fixed heal amount

Like most other heroes with a fixed heal amount (rather than a heal %), it's more efficient to increase your effective HP than to get more raw HP. If you get a lot of armor or magic resistance means that the 130 heal from  Death Pulse will go further than if you focus on +hp items.

Shiiyouagain - After the buffs to Heartstopper Aura, I almost always run this guy in a dual sidelane, skilling it at level 1

After the buffs to  Heartstopper Aura, I almost always run this guy in a dual sidelane, skilling it at level 1. It does a ridiculous amount of work. If your enemy doesn't have a natural heal or didn't ferry out extra regen after a few minutes, it's a setup for easy kills. You can usually skip it in mid outside of a few matchups, as bottles basically negate it entirely.
The biggest mistake I've seen on this hero is getting Aghanim's Scepter as a first big item. It's a great lategame pickup, but it's super wasteful if picked up 1st or 2nd. I'd say jungling is wasteful but I've thankfully never seen anyone try it.
Great items on him include Phase Boots, Mekansm, Pipe of Insight, Shiva's Guard's, Rod of Atos, Scythe of Vyse, Heart of Tarrasque, Aghanim's Scepter.
Situational items: Assault Cuirass, Dagon, Ghost Scepter/Ethereal Blade, Blade Mail, Eye of Skadi,Radiance , Boots of Travel, Linken's Sphere, Black King Bar, Heaven's Halberd, and Force Staff /Blink Dagger.
I usually go Phase Boots-> Mekansm-> Shiva's Guard, personally. If the game isn't over at that point, I'm picking up more survivability or utility items to help the team.
I think he'd be a pretty good counter to the 'We lost a rax, but bought back our carry and just teamwiped everyone.' trend in Chinese dota lately, but laning him would be difficult even in this age of fairly fluid lanes.

RampagingKoala - Don't skip Sadist, it's what makes him ridiculous as a last-hitter.

Don't skip  Sadist, it's what makes him ridiculous as a last-hitter. If he's supporting, let him get the denies, because those proc Sadist as well. That way he has the mana to spam  Death Pulse, which heals the carry.
If you're mid, get at least one level of it so that you can stay in lane and are tankier and more resilient to harass.
Mekansm is core on him because his spells do most of his dps anyways, if you're autoattacking with him you're doing it wrong. Just get in, spam Death Pulse, get a couple of plinky autoattacks off, let Heart of Tarrasque do work, pop Mekansm if you're low, then ult. If you get your Mekansm at 8 (which is possible if you run him mid), then two  Death Pulse with Sadist regen will allow you to Mekansm and Reaper's Scythe, maybe only one if you plink away at him.

WestheimerO - Don't skip Sadist, it's what makes him ridiculous as a last-hitter.

Necrophos is my favorite mid hero in pubs because people often underestimate him.
Death Pulse is an insane nuke that isn't targeted, heals you, and scares off the enemy. Any creeps you kill with it in the meantime give Sadist stacks so you can sit around and ooze death all day.
What a lot of people don't get is that  Reaper's Scythe isn't instant. This gives you time to throw another  Death Pulse and auto attack at your opponent to ensure a kill. They think their safe at ~50% health? Nope.
Also, the longer Necrophos is in the fight, the better. While his  Heartstopper Aura is ticking away everyone's health, he is also healing his team and killing creeps with  Death Pulse, giving him more health with  Sadist ! And that's not all! That support trying to escape him just got Scythe of Vyse and gave him a shit ton of Sadist stacks so he is literally taking no damage.
I always pick up Necrophos in games against tanky cores like Centaur Warrunner, Tiny, or Doom Bringer.

Plasma_Ball1 - I really think that Necrophos will be seeing a lot of play soon

Honestly, playing Necrophos in the carry role (or really any role that allows him to get farm) opens up so many possibilities for team fights and pushing, especially when going for Aghanim's Scepter.
Aghanim's Scepter with him now is game-changing. For example, causing the main carry to be unable to buy back right after a teamfight leaves the barracks open to be pushed and destroyed. The enemy is literally unable to defend.
I really think that Necrophos will be seeing a lot of play soon (especially in pubs after it happens a lot in pro games, since pubs only copy popular picks from pro games).

BLUEPOWERVAN - Heart is never a better pickup than Skadi unless you are bizarrely facing primarily spell or pure damage.

Heart is never a better pickup than Eye of Skadi unless you are bizarrely facing primarily spell or pure damage.
VS physical, Eye of Skadi and Heart provide basically identical EHP due to the armor difference on Eye of Skadi. The fact that Necrophos is a healer means the armor will provide more EHP over a typical fight. This is completely aside from the very large mana pool increase, the slow, and the increased right click.
I like Power Treads-> Buckler -> Rod of Atos, then halberd or finish Mekansm or w/e. Heaven's Halberd provides significantly more EHP than Shiva's Guard and I kind of prefer the disarm. Anyway, Shiva's Guard makes a lot of sense if didn't boost your mana pool yet (a weakness of Phase Boots-> Mekansm). I think I prefer treads just because I like to tread swap and Necrophos gets a lot out of it.
Anyway, I find the idea of Phase Boots-Mekansm-Shiva's Guard kind of strange from a hp pool perspective -- Doesn't this leave you open to a lot of ganks from early-mid burst? Stun, couple spells, seems you'd be dead before you can even Mekansm...

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Sources: Reddit