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Welcome to Nikobaby's Book of the Necrophos, a hero guide part of the Book of Dota series!
Here you will find all the information you need to learn to play Necro on a high level – from drafting and builds to the optimal playstyle in different lanes and situations. We hope you’ll enjoy this guide and find it useful!
Draft: Try to pick Necro in strong 5-man drafts that can fight in the mid game. This way you will maximize his impact and increase your chance of victory.
Early Game: Focus on farming in order to get your core items. If your supports rotate to your lane try to utilize the big kill potential of your ultimate.
Mid & Late Game: In the mid game you should gather with your team, force fights, and push towers. This is the easiest way to take map control and snowball with Necro. If you are ahead, you can even get Rosh and siege the high ground before the late game. If you are behind, you need to stick to your team and continue farming as much as you can. You are a strong late game core and Reaper’s Scythe on a hero without buyback could win you even very hard games.
Necrophos is an unusually tanky INT hero who is capable of surviving long team-fights while continuously healing his teammates and damaging his opponents. His signature ability Reaper’s Scythe allows him to finish off key enemies and add additional seconds to their respawn time, which is a unique mechanic and makes him very dangerous in the later stages of the game.
MAJOR
Strong throughout the entire game:
Necrophos’ skillset and item build make
him hard to kill at any stage of the
game. His Heartstopper Aura and Reaper’s Scythe deal percentage based damage,
so they remain dangerous even in the very late game, making Necro a monster no
matter how late the game goes.
Huge finishing blow:
The Reaper’s Scythe
is one of the most dangerous single target nukes in the game – not only it can
bring a hero down from half HP (which could be 1500-2000 HP in the late game),
it also stuns the enemy for 1.5 seconds and adds 30 seconds to their respawn
timer, which is insane in the late game.
MINOR
Very tanky:
The Ghost
Shroud ability turns Necrophos ethereal, rendering him completely immune to
physical damage and increasing any healing and mana restoration effects. His item
build is usually entirely defensive and it can be adjusted to provide armor,
magic resistance, spell immunity or whatever else you need in the specific
game.
Deals
damage with abilities:
Unlike most cores who need to build damage items, Necro’s skillset is enough to
deal large amounts of sustained damage in team-fights. This provides several
advantages – first of all, he doesn’t necessarily have to hit a lot in
team-fights, so he can move and position himself better while damaging enemies
with abilities. Second – he can focus on building defensive or mobility items
and is not pressured to build damage.
MAJOR
Item dependent:
Necro relies mostly on items to stay alive, so you never want to stay behind in
terms of farm. The hero is also not the
fastest farmer so unless you’re left unchecked, you might have a hard time keeping
up with faster farming cores.
Very low mobility:
Necro is very slow
with a movement speed of 285 and he
doesn’t usually build speed boosting items. This is a problem that can be fixed
with items like Blink Dagger, Force Staff and more, but it requires, of course,
gold.
MINOR
Relies on a
long cooldown:
Reaper’s
Scythe has 2 minutes cooldown, during which you won’t be that big of a threat
in a fight as it’s your only burst ability – everything else that Necro
provides is sustained damage and minor healing.
Only one
type of damage:
Aside from the Heartstopper Aura which is HP removal, Necro’s entire damage is
magical – even the items that can increase your damage output (like Radiance or
Dagon) deal magical damage. This is not that uncommon, however, it is completely countered by BKB, Pipe, Glimmer, etc.
MATCH ID: 4070612749
Replay
Serenity draft Necro for their offlaner XinQ and lane him against the enemy safe lane Ursa together with Pyw's support Tiny. XinQ uses his matchup advantage (Ghost Shroud is amazing against Ursa's physical burst damage) to heavily pressure the Ursa (he even tower dives) and together with Pyw they score three kills on EE's Ursa and two kills on PLD's Bane.
This gives XinQ a great start and he is the top net-worth hero for the first 30 minutes of the game. He invests in a lot of defensive items (Eul's, Lotus, Octarine, Aeon Disk) and finishes the game with only two deaths and the highest KDA in the game.
MATCH ID: 3544380687
Replay
Ori has an impressive performance on Necro versus Newbee in a very hard and contested game. He manages to deal the highest hero damage on both teams, twice as much as his hard carry Terror Blade despite having lower net worth than him. He demonstrates the late game strength of the hero and manages to turn the game around for his team despite VG being 7k gold and 8k XP behind in the mid game.
Necro is good in lineups where you plan to group up with your team and either push together or look for team-fights. This means you usually want your other heroes to be good in the mid game, preferably with some disables, protective skills and pushing power. Due to his tankiness and HP sustain, he fits very naturally into such 5-man Dota lineups.
Even though Necro is good at all stages of the game, he has a great timing in the mid game. He usually needs 12-15 minutes of farm in order to get his small core items and he can go with his team afterward. His ultimate will delete a hero from the fights and often enemies won’t have the damage to kill you at this early stage of the game. If you have potent pushers to combine with Necro, your team will be able to take fights, push towers and take over the map.
Safe lane is where Necrophos shines most. This lane allows him to get some uncontested farm, build his core items as soon as possible and then group up with his team.
Necro can also be played on the mid lane where he gets less farm but more levels. He is not that good at last hitting in the first levels because his starting damage is only 44-48. However, with some levels, he’ll be able to secure last hits and occasionally harass the lane enemy with Death Pulse. He’s not a lane dominator, however, which is why his opponent will most likely also get a lot of farm. This is a why mid is (arguably) his secondary role.
Heroes with defensive skills: Dazzle, Omni, Abaddon, Undying
Those heroes are pretty good when you group up with your team as they can protect you when you’re on the front line. They also provide useful abilities in team-fights and early pushes.
Strong 5-men heroes: Pugna, Brewmaster, NP, Phoenix, DK, Viper, Terrorblade
Heroes who are good at grouping up and forcing team-fights in the mid game are perfect with Necrophos – they are often very tanky or push well (or both), so you can gain a huge advantage from pushing towers or getting kills. Having a few good tanky heroes makes it extremely hard for the enemies to fight against you.
Nuke Damage: QoP, Lion, Lina, TA, PA
Necro has good synergy with heroes with great nuke damage because of his ultimate. They help you easily finish-off targets with Reaper’s Scythe very early in the fight a fight, which gives your team numbers advantage.
Physical damage: TA, Clinkz, Jugger, Ursa, PA
The Ghost Shroud ability makes you completely immune to physical damage, so Necro is extremely strong against heroes who want to burst you down with physical damage. The only way they can deal with you is with Nullifier, but most carries need other items first, so you’re safe in the early to mid game and you can build other defensive items in the late game.
4-protect-1 strategies: Spectre, Gyro, TB, Sven
Necro is very good against teams who only use one carry and everybody plays for him. You can use Reaper’s Scythe to leave them without their big hero and increase his respawn time. The exception here are Anti-Mage 4 protect 1 drafts, because with his Spell Shield he is very hard to take down even with Reaper’s Scythe.
High HP heroes: DK, Centaur, Sven, LD, Tiny, Bristleback, Bara, Axe
Heartstopper’s Aura deals damage based on a percentage of the enemy’s maximum HP, so heroes with high HP take more damage. On top of that, Reaper’s Scythe can always be used when they’re at half HP to take them down instantly, no matter how tanky they are.
Dispels: SD, Invoker, Enchantress, Oracle, Doom, Nullifier
Those heroes can dispel your Ghost Shroud, making you vulnerable to physical damage. Doom, in particular, is one of the worst heroes to play against as he will also prevent you from spamming Death Pulse, casting Reaper’s Scythe or using your defensive/mobility/healing items. If he doesn’t cast his ultimate on you, however, (because he has a higher priority target), you are quite decent against him because he is a high HP strength hero and you deal a lot of damage to him with your aura and ult.
Heal blocking: AA, Spirit Vessel
Necro relies on healing, sometimes even doubling his effective HP in a battle by killing a hero with Reaper’s Scythe and using Ghost Shroud to increase the heal you get from the Death Pulse passive. Against AA or a hero with Spirit Vessel, you’re not nearly as tanky.
Saving skills: OD, SD, Omni, Oracle, Dazzle, Glimmer Cape
Those heroes have abilities that can save their teammates when you use Reaper’s Scythe which is very, very annoying to play against. You have to specifically wait for those heroes to get disabled or use their abilities when you want to cast your ultimate. Glimmer Cape serves the same purpose, as it increases the spell resistance of any hero and can be instantly cast on the target you just decided to chop the head off.
Magic resistance: AM, Viper, Pipe, BKB
AM and Viper (or just a hero with Hood) have higher magic resistance, making it much harder for you to burst them down with Reaper’s Scythe.
BKB is obviously an insanely strong item against Necro and you will have to wait for it to wear off before you can ulti the enemy. Luckily, BKB durations goes down with every use, so it doesn’t bother you too much in the late game.
Pugna: His ward is a nightmare to play against – you are constantly casting high mana cost spells and on top of that you reduce your own magic resistance with Shroud, which leaves you vulnerable not only to his ward but also to his nuke and ultimate.
Necrophos releases a wave of death around him, dealing damage to enemy units and healing allied units.
Cast Animation: 0+0.77
Search Radius: 475
Damage: 100/150/200/250
Heal: 60/80/100/120
CD: 8/7/6/5
Mana: 100/130/160/190
Death Pulse is your primary source of nuke damage and heal, which makes it an important tool for farming, harassing & kill attempts.
The low cooldown allows you to constantly spam it in team-fights. Even though it doesn’t damage or heal that much, casting it several times on multiple heroes adds up to a large amount overall.
It is mana intensive for the damage it deals - to get max value out of the spell, try to utilize the heal as well (i.e. trade some harass with hits and use it when you're not on max HP). Remember that the Heal is amplified by Shroud.
Necrophos slips into the realm that separates the living from the dead. Unable to attack or be attacked, he emits an aura that slows enemies around him. He takes additional magic damage in this form, but his restorative powers are amplified.
Cast Animation: 0+0
Slow Radius: 750
Enemy Movement Speed Slow: 6%/12%/18%/24%
Self Restoration Amplification: 75%
Self Magic Resistance Reduction: 40%
Duration: 3/3.5/4/4.5
CD: 28/24/20/16
Mana: 50
Ghost Shroud is another great ability that provides several bonuses and as such, it can be used in different ways:
The obvious use is to cast it when you’re being focused by a physical damage core – the enemy won’t be able to hit you at all, so you avoid even mana burn or bash effects, or anything else that procs when you’re being hit.
Another use is to cast it to increase your healing effects. This has extremely good synergy with Magic Wand, Death Pulse, and Mech.
Lastly, you can use it offensively for the slow aura when you want to chase down and finish off an enemy.
Necrophos stills the hearts of his opponents, causing nearby enemy units to lose a percentage of their max health over time. Passively provides regen for 7 seconds for each unit Necrophos kills.
Radius: 700
Max Health Lost per Second: 0.5%/1.1%/1.7%/2.3%
Stacks per Hero Kill: 7
Stacks per Non-Hero Kill: 1
Health Regen Bonus per Stack: 2/3/4/5
Mana Regen Bonus per Stack: 2.25/2.5/2.75/3
Stack Duration: 6
The offensive element of Heartstopper Aura is pretty effective in the later stages of the game as heroes get tankier and the aura is neither dispellable, nor can it be blocked by spell immunity, reduced by spell resistance or anything else.
It is also a pretty good harass tool in the laning stage as heroes will constantly lose HP if you stay within 700 radius of them. For example, a 700 HP hero will still lose 3.5 HP/sec with a level 1 aura. Not that much, but when it’s constant damage it adds up. Most heroes don’t even have that much innate regeneration, which makes your harass with attacks and Death Pulse stronger, as your lane opponents cannot easily regenerate the damage you deal.
The HP and MP regen component is your main sustain tool in the lane and makes you extremely hard to harass and push out of lane. Becuase of this last-hits (and denies) are even more valuable on Necro - if needed, use your nuke to secure them.
Stuns the target enemy hero, then deals damage based on how much life it is missing. Heroes killed by Reaper's Scythe will have 10/20/30 seconds added to their respawn timer. Any kill under this effect is credited to Necrophos.
Cast Animation: 0.55+1.33
Cast Range: 600
Damage per Missing Health: 0.6/0.75/0.9
Respawn Time Increase: 15/30/45
Stun Duration: 1.5
CD: 120
Mana: 200/350/500
Reduces cooldown.
As we already mentioned, Reaper’s Scythe is one of the scariest single target nukes in the game. It stuns, it adds seconds to the respawn time and it can deal massive amounts of damage in the late game.
Reaper’s Scythe will kill a hero when he is at approximately 31%/35%/40% HP or lower. This is after reductions, assuming the hero only has his innate 25% magic resistance.
The damage is magical, so it can be further increased with Veil of Discord, Ethereal Blade, or abilities like Decrepify (Pugna), Ice Vortex (AA), Ancient Seal (Skywrath).
What to get at level 1? It’s advisable to wait with your skill point until the laning stage starts. If there’s no fighting, you can get Heartstopper Aura at level 1 to start favorable harass trades and HP sustain. Death Pulse is the standard, however, because the nuke damage or heal could help you in lvl1 fights.
You should max Death Pulse – it is your only source of nuke damage (and burst heal) and you need it for fighting & farming.
The second ability to max is Heartstopper. You need the HP & MP sustain component as fast as possible in the laning stage. Nonetheless, you still want to get one value point in Ghost Shroud (usually on lvl4) for defensive purposes - the burst heal amplification and ethereal form can keep you alive in fights and ganks from your opponents.
-2.5s Death Pulse Cooldown
+0.8 Heartstopper Aura
+70 Attack Speed
+30% Ghost Shroud Slow
+30 Damage
Lvl10: The damage is being picked by pretty much every pro player. It makes you hit much harder, especially combined with a Power Treads or Phase Boots and it’s pretty useful in the early game. 10 strength (200 HP) is not bad either but the damage is much more noticeable. Moreover, it increases a bit your farming speed, which is not great.
Lvl15: The heal increase is rather insignificant percentage-wise, while the Shroud Slow is doubled. This makes the Slow the “stronger” talent. Nonetheless, if you don’t really use the slow that often because of the enemy lineup you can always go for the Heal.
Lvl20: Even though Necro is not a physical damage dealer, +70 attack speed is very significant, especially with the damage talent at level 10 and a Radiance (if you decide to go for that build). The magic resistance increases Necrophos’ magic resistance to a total of 40% which is not bad either. This is your call, both are pretty good, one of them – offensively, the other – defensively.
Lvl25: This choice usually goes in favor of Heartstopper Aura – the aura is pretty strong in the late game and this talent pretty much gives it one extra level. At the same time Death Pulse has only 2.5s CD if you opt to go for the CD reduction talent which is also pretty strong if you have the needed mana regen.
Necro’s item build can be very versatile – the hero’s damage comes from his abilities, so you don’t have any ‘must buy’ items. You can build survivability, mobility, disable or anything else you feel you need.
The build focuses on increasing your damage output and farming speed in the mid game with Veil and Radiance. This will allow you to more easily finish off targets with your ult and even more importantly – farm faster and get luxury items for the late game. The obvious drawback is that you are squishier in the mid game, which can be a problem, especially against heroes with potent magical damage nukes.
Magic Wand: Magic Wand is a 100% MUST BUY item, always. It has an insane synergy with Ghost Shroud, which increases its effectiveness by 75%, even at level 1. A full Magic Wand will restore 446 HP/mana if used while shrouded.
Power Treads: give you stats for survivability and mana.
Veil: Veil is a great item on Necro for several reasons. First of all, a second Null Talisman is very strong, especially on the mid lane. Second – it gives you stats and armor. Third – the magic resistance reduction increases the power of your Death Pulse and Reaper’s Scythe – this also helps your teammates and scales well in the mid game. Veil has many possible substitutes, so definitely check ‘OTHER ITEMS’ for other ideas.
Radiance: Radiance is probably the best way to increase your damage output in fights. You’re a front liner, you want to always be close to your enemies in order to use Death Pulse effectively and always affect as many heroes as possible with your aura. Necro is also usually built to be very tanky, so Radiance fits perfectly. We usually want a smaller item like Veil or Hood before Radiance so that you’re not too vulnerable and useless until you farm it. It also increases your farming speed dramatically.
BKB: BKB is often needed in order to survive in team-fights. Most of the times, the physical damage enemies won’t target you as they know you have Ghost Shroud and you will be mostly targeted with magic damage, making BKB really good on the hero. The timing of BKB may vary, if you’re having a good game you can delay it as much as possible. If you’re being constantly burst down or disabled a lot, get it sooner.
Aghanim: Aghanim’s Scepter decreases Reaper’s Scythe cooldown to 25 seconds (at level 3), which is very significant. It allows you to use it much more freely without saving it for a specific target. It also provides a nice HP/mana bonus which is also important for the hero. Aghanim is not 100% mandatory on the hero, get it if you feel you need to cast Scythe more often. If you die easily in fights, you should choose a better defensive item than Aghanim.
Octarine: Octarine doesn’t let you lifesteal from Heartstopper’s Aura, but it works with everything else – it’s especially good with Radiance and you usually spam Death Pulse in battle, so it works well with that too. The healing is also amplified by Ghost Shroud and it shortens your cooldowns, which is pretty important for all of your skills. Simply a perfect item on Necro.
Shiva: Shiva is the best defensive item against physical damage that you can buy. Ghost Shroud doesn’t last forever and if your enemies are mostly physical damage oriented, feel free to build a Shiva. You can also buy a casual Plate Mail without finishing the Shiva immediately after. So if you’re playing against physical damage team and you want a different item – simply buy the Plate Mail and proceed with the next items.
The build focuses on getting a quick Hood to counter the burst damage of the enemy team in the early and mid game. Later on, you get Eul’s Scepter to counter silences and to make it even harder for enemies to jump on you. Aghanim’s gives you even more survivability and boosts your ult a bit. In the late game, your choices are open, but if you want to make yourself even tankier Shiva’s + Octarine will make you almost impossible to kill.
Bracers are a survivability-focused alternative of Null Talismans. The magic resistance stacks with that of Hood or Locket and makes you very hard to nuke down.
Magic Wand: Magic Wand is a 100% MUST BUY item, always. It has an insane synergy with Ghost Shroud, which increases its effectiveness by 75%, even at level 1. A full Magic Wand will restore 446 HP/mana if used while shrouded.
Power Treads: give you stats for survivability and mana.
Hood: Hood of Defiance is a very good item if you’re playing against mostly magical damage users. Keep in mind that Ghost Shroud lowers your magic resistance, so the active barrier is a pretty nice ability to use while Ghost Shroud is active. A great defensive item overall and it’s ok as a first item as well – for example before Radiance. Hood can also be upgraded into Pipe if you want to offer magical protection to your team as well.
Eul’s Scepter: Eul is a nice dispel item that can save you in the early game from silences, roots, or by simply using it on yourself or an enemy to dodge an ability or escape.
Aghanim: The Aghanim’s Scepter decreases Reaper’s Scythe cooldown to 25 seconds (at level 3), which is very significant. It allows you to use it much more freely without saving it for a specific target. It also provides a nice HP/mana bonus which is also important for the hero. Aghanim is not 100% mandatory on the hero, get it if you feel you need to cast Scythe more often. If you die easily in fights, you should choose a better defensive item than Aghanim.
Pipe:Generally when you rush Hood you want to upgrade it to Pipe later on (increases your team fight potential).
Shiva: Shiva is the best defensive item against physical damage that you can buy. Ghost Shroud doesn’t last forever and if your enemies are mostly physical damage oriented, feel free to build a Shiva. You can also buy a casual Plate Mail without finishing the Shiva immediately after. So if you’re playing against physical damage team and you want a different item – simply buy the Plate Mail and proceed with the next items.
Octarine: Octarine doesn’t let you lifesteal from Heartstopper’s Aura, but it works with everything else – it’s especially good with Radiance and you usually spam Death Pulse in battle, so it works well with that too. The healing is also amplified by Ghost Shroud and it shortens your cooldowns, which is pretty important for all of your skills. Simply a perfect item on Necro.
Guardian Greaves: The heal gets amplified by Ghost Shroud, which makes it a great defensive item for Necro. It is too defensive and the need for Arcanes makes it unpopular, but in games where your teammates have good damage output but need sustain and saves, Guardians could be a good choice.
Drums: Another nice idea for a first item – it’s great if you want to fight early, it will increase your movement speed and provide some useful stats. When combined with Phase Boots and the damage talent, the active ability will allow you to hit pretty hard in fights. The parts are cheap and useful as well.
Spirit Vessel: Spirit Vessel makes you tanky and provides another source of healing (that is amplified by Ghost Shroud). It’s also composed of cheap items and an early Urn of Shadows can be very useful. Both Urn and Vessel can be used aggressively as well and the Vessel is a counter to a number of heroes who are usually hard to deal with like Morph, Huskar, Alchemist and more.
Rod of Atos: Another good first item. Atos makes you extremely tanky and the active ability can synergize well with many heroes – for example, if you have Skywrath or Pudge in the team, they can land their abilities easier. The root is also pretty good against heroes like Storm, QoP, AM and many more.
Force Staff: Force is another great mobility item which is always useful so you don’t need a special occasion to buy it. Good for both escaping and chasing, can be used on teammates as well. It also helps a lot against ground targeted abilities like Riki’s Smoke Screen, Skywrath’s ultimate and so on.
Blink Dagger: Blink is the best item you can buy for mobility – it allows you to move faster, farm faster, you can position yourself better in fights in order to land the perfect Reaper’s Scythe. It’s generally a great mid game item.
Holy Locket: the item fits Necro ideally - provides him with much-needed survivability and even icreases the potency of his heals and regen. The components are useful on their own, which means it has a convenient build-up. It fits the survivability build perfectly - combined with a couple of Bracers it gives very good magic resistance.
Dagon: People have mixed feelings about Dagon, mostly because it doesn’t have any defensive side. Dagon is, however, the strongest item to increase Reaper’s Scythe strength – stronger than Veil and even EBlade. Dagon is useful in the early game to land solo kills and also very powerful in the late game when BKB durations are low.
EBlade: Ethereal Blade has a great synergy with Dagon, allowing you to kill heroes with tons of HP alone. It can also be used to save teammates or yourself from physical damage cores. It’s optional because it doesn’t provide any survivability.
Lotus Orb: Lotus is a great armor item that will also protect you or your teammates from a variety of abilities – it’s especially good against Tinker. Lotus will also dispel nasty late game stuff like Bloodthorn, Nullifier (cast on an ally, you obviously won’t be able to use it when you’re nullified).
Aeon Disk: Another great survivability item, Aeon Disk is perfect against heroes with high burst damage that will try to end the fight fast, it will keep you alive if enemies try to initiate on you, etc. It’s also one of the best protections against Bloodthorn/Nullifier combo in the late game.
Refresher Orb: Refresher used to be a mandatory late game item on Necro but now falls off in favor of Aghanim. Refresher has, however, one advantage over Aghanim – you can cast 2 ultimates in quick successions and you put it in your backpack after that, allowing you to swap it for a different item.
Linken: Linken is sometimes necessary against heroes like Batrider, Doom or simply heroes who can try to solo kill you with Abyssal for instance. It can also save you from the Bloodthorn/Nullifier combo, although Aeon Disk is better for that purpose.
The early game of Necrophos is rather passive, you just want to last hit creeps, get levels and the necessary core items. The hero doesn’t have much potential for early aggression and relies only on his teammates for kills.
It’s hard to dominate a lane as Necro, but it’s also quite hard to lose the lane – the large amounts of HP sustain and decent ranged attack means he is a very reliable laner and can find farm even in difficult early game situations.
Necro starts with 44-48 damage which is pretty weak. You will really have to focus on last hitting in the first few levels.
For a mid lane Necro, you will start with a Null Talisman, which increases your starting damage to 53 (still bad compared to most mid heroes). Try to bring a second Null Talisman as soon as possible to raise your damage. On the mid lane, you can use Death Pulse as much as you want to secure last hits and occasionally to harass the enemy hero. When you have both Heartstopper and Death Pulse, it's a great idea to trade a lot of right-click harass. You'll be able to out-sustain the enemy thanks to the heal and HP regen from both spells.
It’s probably obvious, but try to get as many denies as possible as well – you gain HP and mana with each creep kill, including your own. If you’re last hitting and denying well, you will have a huge sustain on the lane and it will make it much harder for the enemy to harass you.
Try to stack the big camp close to your lane if possible (if you have an opportunity where you won’t lose last hits) – this will give you a nice gold and experience boost when you farm it at level 6-7. It’s easy to farm, although it’s a bit slow. Killing the small creeps will regenerate your mana so you’ll be able to clear the stack with a few casts of Death Pulse.
Once you’re level 7 you can start clearing the creep wave with Death Pulse and moving to the jungle to increase your farm. Make sure to bring clarities with the courier so you can always have enough mana. The Heartstopper sustain is not enough on its own.
Necro is pretty good against melee heroes as they will always be in the range of your Heartstopper’s Aura and you can harass them with Death Pulse while also last hitting in the process. Against a melee hero, try to always hit him (without drawing creeps’ agro) when you’re not last hitting. Feel free to use Death Pulse, but try to time it so you can last hit a creep as well with it (only on mid lane).
Ranged heroes are much harder to harass as you have to get much closer to them for a Death Pulse and you risk getting hit by their abilities. Their range will also allow them to stay outside of your aura’s range. Be more passive on the first few levels, once you have Death Pulse level 2, you can try to harass them with it while also last hitting.
Killing heroes on your own is pretty much impossible, even at level 6. If your enemy is good, he will buy Infused Raindrops and will always try to stay above 50% HP so you can’t kill him with Reaper’s Scythe + Pulse.
Reaper’s Scythe will kill an enemy under 31% of his maximum HP (at level 1). If you manage to bring your enemy to below 50%, you can try to go on him. You don’t have to necessarily wait for 31% HP to use Scythe – you can use it as a short disable even if your enemy has a bit more HP and then chase him for one last Death Pulse + a few attacks, though this is riskier.
This all changes if a teammate roams to gank for you – all you need is one more nuke or disable and you can easily score a kill.
In a fight, you always want to use Reaper’s Scythe when the enemy is at a bit higher HP than the threshold – if he’s being focused, you and your teammates will bring his HP down to the threshold anyway.
As we mentioned, at level 7 you start pushing waves and farming the jungle with maxed Death Pulse.
You usually want to be farming for the first 10-12 minutes – until you have Magic Wand, upgraded boots, and your first item – be it Veil, Drums or whatever else you chose.
At this points, you should decide what you want to do – farm a Radiance or start moving around the map. This generally depends on your teammates – if you have an early game lineup that can fight and push, you can just go with them and take towers and fights. If they need some more time to farm their core items, you can farm too.
Your core items will make you pretty tanky and you can move to another lane – preferably the enemy safe lane, where you can try to kill the enemy carry and push his tower afterwards.
Using Reaper’s Scythe is ok on any hero in the early game – it’s more of a standard nuke than anything else. It gets much more powerful in the mid/late game where the heroes have more HP and items. Just don’t use it on heroes who are dying anyway – better save it for a kill that your teammates otherwise won’t be able to land.
Pushing the enemy safe lane’s tower early gives a huge advantage – it basically opens the enemy jungle for your team, making it much harder for the enemy carry to farm – your team can ward his jungle and gank him. The absence of the tier 1 tower also means it’s much more dangerous to go far on the lane to farm – his teammates can’t teleport to help him.
Once you do that, start grouping up with your team and push the other towers.
In this game, we will observe Ame’s Necro against VGJ.T.
With the start of the game, we’re presented with an opportunity to see how to react when the offlaner pulls our creeps – you catch his wave and bring it between your 2 towers, so it can clash with your next wave.
Puck is a hard hero to harass and he’s getting experience anyway, so Necro simply focuses on last hitting and denying, using Death Pulse as well.
It’s worth mentioning that Puck is playing very well too – he’s always saving Phase Shift to dodge an auto-attack when he’s already outside the Death Pulse range, so Necro can’t bait him into using it and then nuking him.
After a very passive early game, he gets his Veil of Discord and immediately goes to the mid lane to push with his team, and after that – to the safe lane.
This game is also an example of why the damage talent at level 10 is better – it really helps with farming, especially with Power Threads. Clearing waves and jungle camps gets much easier.
Of course, those 5-man pushes are coordinated much better when you’re playing with a team. If you’re in a game with random players, that will be much harder – in a scenario where you can’t push, simply focus on your farm and get a Radiance.
In this game, the enemies have tons of magical damage and disables, so Ame decides to build BKB in order to survive in the fights and then proceeds with an Aghanim’s Scepter.
Necro definitely has the potential to snowball in the mid game. If you can, gather with your team as 5, force fights and take objectives. A successful Reaper’s Scythe kill will give you a lot of time to claim objectives because of the increased respawns time.
If you are not in a position to play so aggressively, it’s best to stick to your team and flash-farm as fast as you can. You are not a real carry, but you have very good late game potential and even when you’re playing from behind a kill with your ult on a hero without buyback can secure your team the victory.
Whether you decide to go for Radiance or not, you’re starting to reach your peak around minute 25-30. You become very tanky with the right item build and you the longer you survive in fights – the more damage you deal.
As we already mentioned, BKB is usually required at some point in order to survive big team-fights, so this is another important timing.
If you’re tanky enough and you want to use Reaper’s Scythe more often, you can go for Aghanim’s Scepter. If you find yourself being killed too easy, better focus on survivability items like Shiva or Octarine or BKB.
You usually want to decide the game in the mid game – around 30-35 minutes. Necro is not a bad late game hero at all, in fact, he’s very powerful, but he’s also a snowball hero. You want to pressure the enemies in the early game, push towers to get an advantage and then finish the game.
If your game doesn’t start well, you
will have to play very passively. It’s
not impossible to make a comeback but it’s not easy either.
The problem comes from the fact that Necro is not a flash farmer, so if you’re having a bad game, you will probably be very underfarmed. This also means you can’t get tanky enough and you won’t be able to stay on the front lines. You will need an earlier BKB than you’d usually want.
Focus on farming but also teleport to help your team is they’re forced to fight. Try to organize smoke ganks whenever possible – Reaper’s Scythe remains a very powerful finisher, no matter how far behind you are.
In a fight, ask your team to focus a certain important hero so you can quickly burst him down with Reaper’s Scythe.
In a team fight, your job is usually to stay on the front lines if you’re tanky enough. This positioning allows you to spam Death Pulse on a maximum number of heroes and you will affect a maximum number of heroes with Heartstopper’s Aura (and Radiance if you have it). That way you also protect your squishier teammates, so they can use their abilities more effectively.
Use your Magic Wand only while you’re under Ghost Shroud for maximum effectiveness.
If you’re being focused and you feel you might die, back away for a while, especially if you still have Reaper’s Scythe.
Try to use Reaper’s Scythe on the enemy mid or carry hero if possible. Another good target would be a hero who still hasn’t used a fight deciding ultimate – for example, Enigma, Magnus, Tidehunter, Void, etc.
Once again – don’t forget to use Scythe before the enemy hero is low enough for a direct kill. Using it while the enemy is at 60-70% is also fine if your teammates are focusing him anyway. You and your teammates have 1.5 seconds to bring him down to 40%. Using your ultimate that early will also limit the window that the enemy has to cast his abilities or use BKB.
Ori showcases Necro’s late game strength: the fight is very long, which gives him the opportunity to deal a lot of damage and to use his ultimate twice (thanks to Agh’s). It’s quite obvious how extremely hard he is to take down thanks to his items and his constant healing – at the end of the fight he is the only hero left standing.
Necro is one of the best 5-man pushers, especially early on when the enemies are not farmed enough to kill you.
You can constantly heal your teammates with Death Pulse – even though it’s a minor heal, spamming it can make a huge difference.
Sieging high ground in the mid game is also pretty easy if you have some advantage and a strong pusher because you don’t deal enough building damage.
You always pose a threat with Reaper’s Scythe as well – if you delete a hero from the game with +30s respawn time, it’s very easy to push afterward. The enemy will definitely be forced to buy back or he will lose barracks.
Farming in the mid and late game is basically pushing waves and then moving to the jungle.
Necro, however, is pretty bad at pushing alone. His damage against towers is not that significant and he can’t kill creep waves as fast as a carry hero with Battle Fury or wave clearing abilities like SF for instance.
Moreover, even though Necro is survivable, he is not mobile, which means if you are split-pushing and you get ganked, you will most probably die.
Although Necro is a pretty bad ganker on his own, you should always join your teammates when they’re grouping up to gank a core hero.
Applying 30 seconds extra to his respawn timer actually hurts more than one would think. First of all, this hero can’t farm for more than 100 seconds in the late game. Second – you can try to get an objective – Roshan or barracks – and force his buyback.
Especially if you have an Aghanim’s Scepter, you can use Reaper’s Scythe on anybody and still have it for the next engagement. Aghanim allows you to cast it again while the first hero is still dead for a very long time.
