Bloodstone on Zeus - why isn't this item core?

I do enjoy a bit of Zeus in a team fight line up, always play him mid and pretty active from levels 6 or 7 and usually go: 3 Tangos > Bottle > Arcane Boots > Force Staff > disassemble Arcane > Soul Booster > Bloodstone > Veil of Discord > Aghanim's Scepter> Refresher Orb.

I have generally had pretty good success at my level with this build, though if I'm having a bad game I might go Soul Ring > Drum of Endurance > Boots of Travel and try to hold the fort / lanes for as long as I can.

I've noticed that Bloodstone often gets trashed on Reddit and is despised for its high gold cost, but I really think it's fantastic for Zeus as it makes him tankier (lasts longer in team fights dishing out AOE) and the mana regen is obviously extremely helpful on Zeus.


I've been testing a different build, where instead of going Arcane Boots then Bloodstone, I go Soul Ring, brown boots,  Force Staff  then Eul's Scepter of Divinity (for the speed / mana regen / active) followed by Boots of Travel but I haven't found this to be as successful. I am sure a part of that is my relatively poor positioning (I tend to a bit too close to the middle of a fight to make sure that Static Field procs on most of the enemy team, and without the HP from Bloodstone this becomes extremely risky). I just think Bloodstone works so well for Zeus, so....

Bloodstone is GREAT on Zeus.....so why the hell isn't it core?

Because there are much better items that will solve ur mana issues. Eul's Scepter of Divinity is really good, and Scythe of Vyse is basically core on int heroes. You're just stuck in the nooby Bloodstone on every int hero mindset. Honestly it should only be built on Timbersaw and carry Leshrac.
Tldr build Force Staff, Aghanim's Scepter instead

Too expensive, you probably will be dead most of the teamfights once you had used all your spells, so is not worth the gold. For the price of a Bloodstone you could have an early Aghanim's Scepter that is going to be way more useful in early game than late. And you still have 850 gold for start buying the Refresher Orb

Basically you are correct... Zeus loves the HP and mana regen... its just that for 5,000 gold you can get more hp and mana regen OR you can get a  Force Staff and a Veil of Discord/Eul's Scepter of Divinity. You have to think of the tradeoff... buying the Bloodstone is 5,000 gold you aren't spending on other items.

Generally the only heroes Bloodstone is really superb on is heroes who easily burn through their entire manapool in a fight AND whose manapool directly correlates to their damage output. On top of that it is only really core on heroes whose skillset means they need to get close and personal to deal the dmg.

That's why its good on Storm Spirit (although only if you are snowballing because it allows you to really get out of control with lots of charges)

• It's great on a carry Leshrac (mana pool and facetanking directly related to his dmg output)
• It's ok on Tinker (mana pool = dmg and faster regen means more uptime with him in fights)
• Timbersaw - once again a good snowballing Bloodstone carrier because of his low CD's and being 100% magic dmg who needs to facetank enemie
• Skywrath Mage - As a third/fourth item on a carry skymage (IF you go Aghanim's Scepter Bloodstone is good after the Aghanim's Scepter, but you want to go mobility/utility before the Aghanim's Scepter- like   Force Staff into Rod of Atos/Eul's Scepter of Divinity/Scythe of Vyse)

Simply put, in a single teamfight Zeus won't generally use his entire mana pool before the fight is finished AND he definitely does not want to get close and personal with the enemy team.

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