Zeus Guide by Qojqva
Artist: Valve
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Author:
Qojqva & Co.
Date: 12/2018
Tags:
text
Zeus
Builds
Tactics
Analysis

Welcome

Welcome to Qojqva's Book of Zeus, a hero guide part of the Book of Dota series!

Here you will find all the information you need to learn to play Zeus 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!

Qojqva Zeus stats
TL;DR:

Draft: Think of Zeus as a of a ranged glass cannon who deals magical instead of physical damage – you don’t want to play against lineups that can easily jump on you and who are great at dealing with magical damage (immunity, resistance, good pipe buyers, etc.). That being said, Zeus is a very safe laner and he is fairly flexible, which means even if you decide to pick him early on you are hard to counter.

Early Game: Your goal is to get as many levels and farm as possible early on – you need your cheaper core items to be effective. Last hit with Arc Lightning and later on push-out the wave and stack camps if you can. Assist in kill attempts initiated by your allies with your spells – you deal significant damage once you max your Bolt and get your ultimate. Secure kills with Thundergod’s Wrath to speed up your resource development.

Mid & Late Game: Stick to your team and deal damage from a safe distance in fights. Use your ultimate at the beginning of fights to reveal enemy positioning and disable Blink Daggers. Always remember to use Lightning Bolt to try to find enemy Observer Wards and leave the enemy team without vision. If you suspect smoke ganks, you can also use your ult to scout. 

Authors

Max "qojqva" Bröcker
Endorsement & Info

Qojqva is one of the very few old-school core players who have been able to consistently stay at the top of the game and to maintain their peak mechanical skill.

He has competed on legendary teams like MYM,  mousesports, Team Liquid, Team Tinker, Escape, NiP, and Alliance.

Nikolay "CTOMAHEH1" Kalchev
Info & Editing

CTOMAHEH1 started his pro career as a support in Basically Unknown together with Mind Control. Since then he has consistently been playing on the European T2 scene, most recently on Unchained Esports. 

His highest placement on the EU ladder is top 100 - he plays all roles (mainly support), which is untypical for high-ranking players and shows his great versatility and understanding of the game.

Martin "BRING IT ON" Slavov
Writing & Info

Martin has lots of experience writing about Dota and he is no pushover in the actual game - a Divine III player, Martin plays mid and carry heroes on a very high level.

He has been playing Dota since Guinsoo's Dota Allstars (more than 12 years) and he loves thinking about new builds and strategies.

Kyril "MrNiceGuy" Kotashev
PM, Writing & Editing

Esports and gaming enthusiast since forever and founder of Dotahaven.

Has been playing Dota since 2005 (5.84). An Ancient I player in Dota 2.

Zeus is one of the strongest magical damage nukers in the game. His entire skill arsenal is designed to deal damage – a lot of it and from a great distance. Zeus has a very unique laning stage as he uses his spells to last hit which makes him hard to bully. Unlike a lot of nukers, Zeus remains powerful even in the very late game thanks to his Static Field which deals percentage based damage of the enemy’s current health.

Zeus Loadout
Stats
Level 1
Level 15
Level 25
STR
21
Medium
53
Low
76
High
AGI
11
Very Low
27
Very Low
39
Very Low
INT
20
High
57
High
84
High
Attack
53-61
Medium
91-99
Medium
118-126
Medium
Armor
1.76
Low
4.448
Very Low
6.368
Very Low
Resistance
26
Medium
28
Medium
30
Medium
HP
578
Medium
1154
Low
1568
Low
MP
375
Very High
930
Very High
1335
Very High
MS
301
High
304
Medium
305
Medium
STRENGHTS

MAJOR:

One of the strongest nukers:
Zeus is one of the heroes with the highest magical damage output – he averages more hero damage per game than any other hero, comparable only to Tinker.

Stable laner:
Zeus is able to stand his ground against almost any hero on the lane and farm from distance with Arc Lightning. Keep in mind that this doesn’t mean he wins lanes – he just doesn’t lose them.

MINOR:

Global ultimate:
Having global abilities is always nice to contribute to (or steal) kills. Aghanim’s Scepter grants another global ability – the Nimbus, which is another global source of damage. Aside from damage, Thundergod’s Wrath can be used to scout the entire enemy team, wherever they are.

True Sight:
Some of Zeus’ abilities grant True Sight – this means he can deward wards or reveal invisible units. He doesn’t spend gold or waste inventory slots for revealing items, all he needs is mana.

Scales well in the late game:
Some heroes lose power in the mid/late game because their magical damage abilities don’t scale while the enemies gain more HP or magic resistance. This is not the case with Zeus – not only he deals massive amounts of damage, but his Static Field ability allows him to deal damage based on % of the enemy’s current HP which makes him potent even against very high HP targets.

WEAKNESSES

MAJOR:

Needs a ton of mana:
Zeus is very mana dependent as he pretty much uses spells even to last hit. He struggles with mana issues in the early and sometimes the mid-game.

Can’t win lanes:
No matter how good you are, if your enemy plays correctly, Zeus cannot win a lane. He can last hit, occasionally even harass, but the lane is always trading farm with the enemy. 

MINOR:

Not very mobile:
Zeus’ starting speed is 300 which is not bad, however, the hero lacks any form of mobility skills or movement boosts. He relies entirely on items to move faster or escape. This also makes him very vulnerable to ganks early on.

No disables:
Zeus has no slows and no disables aside from the 0.2s stun from Lightning Bolt. Pretty much all he does is damage.

Not good at denying:
Zeus has a horrible attack animation and low base damage, which makes last hitting and denying pretty hard. While Arc Lightning helps with last hitting, denying is almost impossible against a contesting enemy.

Replays

Newbee vs VGJ.T, CHINA DOTA2 SUPER MAJOR

MATCH ID 3936473615
Replay

A record-breaking performance by Sccc on Zeus. He manages to deal 122.2k damage in a 62-minute game, which at the time made this the highest damage per minute in pro Dota.

The main thing that helped him achieve this is his brilliant positioning in fights. He has only four deaths for the entire game, 3 of which happened in the first 11 minutes of the game. The enemy team doesn’t have an easy way to close the gap and because of this, the first items Sccc gets are Lens (for the range increase and mana regen) and Dagger to be able to reposition himself in fights easily. Not being too afraid for his life helps him constantly spam his spells and achieve this huge fight impact.

FlyToMoon vs Team Empire, SL i-League Invitational Season 4

MATCH ID 3794749157
Replay

Iceberg is playing has a very high impact as Zeus against team Empire. He manages to deal 40k hero damage, while the highest on the enemy team is Storm’s 14.8k.

In this draft Zeus is a great pick against most of Empire’s heroes: he can reveal SK and break his dagger in he wants to counter-initiate. Ench is a squishy hero who is vulnerable to magical nukes. DK has a lot of HP and armor, which leaves him vulnerable to Static Field. The stats of all three of these heroes illustrate how difficult Zeus made the game for them and the fact that two of them bought Hood and one – BKB, is also a great indicator how they were forced to itemize against Zeus.

It’s also worth mentioning that Iceberg has great synergy with Rubick’s offensive aura and KOTL’s Chakra, which both help him increase his impact in the game.

Even though Zeus is not known for his great early game kill potential, in this game Iceberg manages to snatch a few kills, which makes the laning stage worth watching.

Drafting

Zeus is always a safe hero to pick – he doesn’t have any direct counters and he can stand his ground against almost any hero on the mid lane.

He does need a few cheap items to fix his mana issues and gain either mobility or damage increasing effects, so ideally you don’t want to play against lineups that push very early into the game.

As Zeus you usually don’t want people to hit you, so playing against not very mobile heroes is an advantage – that will allow you to throw lightnings from a safe distance without taking damage. Playing against mobile gankers is much harder because they will often prioritize killing you in fights because of your damage output.

It goes without saying, but since you only deal magical damage, it is very important to have a core that deals physical damage in your team. Otherwise, items like Pipe and BKB will be the bane of your whole lineup.

Roles

  • #2 Solo Mid

Zeus is mostly played in the mid lane where he can get easy levels and farm. He can farm his core items there and fix his mana issues very quickly, which will increase his impact in fights a great deal.

  • #3 Offlane

If played offlane, Zeus can use his Arc Lightning to last hit creeps from a safe distance if possible and his only goal is to stay in the experience range. This is a pretty risky lane, however, as Zeus requires levels to be effective and you can be shut down heavily on that lane.

  • #4 Support

As a support, Zeus is a very greedy hero – he can’t harass the enemy offlaner, nor can he help mid, so he mainly pulls creeps to get levels and farm. He uses cheap items like Tranquil Boots and Soul Ring to sustain his HP and mana. He’s also pretty good at dewarding with his Lightning Bolt.

A support Zeus is very rarely picked, so in this guide, we’ll cover mostly the play style of Zeus played as a core hero.

Synergy

Good friends to have are:

Bloodseeker

Bloodseeker: We can’t speak of Zeus without mentioning his best friend. Zeus is able to deal massive amounts of damage to multiple heroes, so he lowers the enemies’ HP while Bloodseeker gains the speed of a race car and hunts down the wounded heroes. Moreover, Bloodseeker can boost Zeus with his damage buff. The debuff doesn’t concern Zeus too much, as he wants to keep a safe distance anyway.

Disablers: Axe, Magnus, Earthshaker, Tidehunter

Axe Portrait
Magnus Portrait
Earthshaker Portrait
Tidehunter Portrait

Any hero with good disables will do the trick. Zeus deals a lot of damage but lacks disables so heroes who offer good disables and/or instant initiation for fights can buy you some time to burst down the enemies.

Front liners: Bristleback, Axe, Underlord, Abaddon

Bristle Portrait
Axe Portrait
Underlord Portrait
Abbadon
Shadow Demon Portrait

As Zeus, you want to stay in the back and throw spells from a safe distance. Furthermore, Zeus has very short cooldowns on his abilities, so the more you stay alive in a fight, the more damage you’ll deal. This is why front liners have good synergy with him – they can protect him by acting as a living shield who stands between Zeus and his enemies. 

Counters

Strong Against:

Invisibility: Riki, Bounty Hunter, Treant, Shadow Blade, Observer Wards, Sentry Wards

Riki
Bounty Hunter
Treant Protector
Shadow_Blade_icon
Wards Icon

Lightning Bolt and Thundergod’s Wrath both reveal invisible units, so Zeus can deal with such heroes with ease. He’s also pretty good at dewarding with Lightning Bolt without spending money on sentries or wasting inventory slots.

Counter-initiators: Axe, Magnus, Cent, ES, SK

Axe Portrait
Magnus Portrait
Centaur
Earthshaker Portrait
Sand King

Thundergod’s Wrath is one of the best abilities to break Blink Daggers. This makes it perfect for messing up the counter-initiation of the enemy team and at the same time revealing their location so that your team can take precautions. The heroes mentioned are also STR heroes who don’t usually like to build BKB’s, which makes them vulnerable to the damage of your nukes and Static Field.

Immobile lineups: Terrorblade, Luna, Gyro, SF

Terrorblade
Luna
Gyro
Shadow Fiend Portrait

You are great against heroes who love to stay on the front lines and fight but at the same time lack the ability to close the gap and initiate on you. This makes your job of spamming your spells from a safe distance easier. Bear in mind that the shortcoming of such heroes can be overcome by their allies if they have great gap-closing and initiation. That’s why you are interested in the composition of the whole enemy lineup, rather than having one or two immobile heroes in it.

Weak Against:

Mobile heroes: AM, Storm, Spectre, Ember

Anti mage
Storm spirit
Spectre Portrait
Ember Portrait

Heroes who can instantly jump on you in a fight are bad for your health. Zeus is usually squishy and wants to stay in the back, spamming spells without being targeted – those heroes can prevent you from doing that. They’re not impossible to play against but you will have to itemize against them.

Magic immunity: Lifestealer, Omni, BKB

Lifestealer Portrait
Omniknight portrait
Black King Bar

Zeus can’t do anything to spell immune units, period. He has to switch targets and wait for the immunity to wear off. Lifestealer can also Infest into a mobile ally to gank you, which makes him a terrifying hero to play Zeus against.

Magic resistance: AM, Huskar, Viper, Rubick, Hood, Pipe

Anti mage
Huskar Portrait
Viper
Rubick
Hood
Pipe

Those heroes and items are able to greatly reduce the amount of damage you can deal. AM, for example, has 62.5% magic resistance with maxed Spell Shield – it’s almost impossible to take him down with spells. This makes magic resistance heroes hard to play against and you will need your teammates to deal physical damage to deal with them.

If you draft Zeus and your opponents counter you with such picks, it is possible to switch to a lower farm priority position (give the mid lane to another hero and play pos. 3 or 4).

Skills

Zeus Arc Lightning
Zeus Lightning Bolt
Zeus Static Field
Zeus Thundergod's Wrath
Zeus Nimbus

Hurls a bolt of lightning that leaps through nearby enemy units.

STATS

Cast Animation: 0.2+0.63

Cast Range: 850

Bounce Distance: 500

Number of Bounces: 5/7/9/15

Bounce Interval: 0.25

Damage: 70/95/120/145

CD: 1.6

Mana: 80

Arc Lightning

Mechanics:

  • The lightning bounces in 0.25-second intervals, so hitting all targets takes 1/1.5/2/3.5 seconds.
  • Does not bounce on invisible units or units in the Fog of War.
  • Can never hit the same unit twice per cast.
  • The Arc Lightning buff is a hidden buff required for the lightning to jump.

Uses and Tips:

Arc Lightning is a very useful spell in the laning stage – it allows you to last hit creeps from a safe distance and with very high damage, making it very hard for the enemy hero to deny.

Throughout the entire game, you will use Arc Lightning all the time – to farm creeps, to jungle, to damage heroes. The cooldown is 1.6 seconds, which makes it one of the most spammable spells in the game. It’s also one of the main reasons why you need a lot of mana sustain.

While in the mid/late game the damage is not that significant, it’s a great trigger for Static Field, which makes it strong even in the later stages of the game.

Calls down a bolt of lightning to strike an enemy unit, causing damage and a mini-stun. When cast, Lightning Bolt briefly provides unobstructed vision and True Sight around the target in a 750 radius. Can be cast on the ground, affecting the closest enemy hero in 375 range.

STATS

Cast Animation: 0.4+0.43

Cast Range: 700/750/800/850

Hero Search Radius: 375

Vision & True Sight Radius: 750

Damage: 125/200/275/350 

Stun Duration: 0.2

Vision & True Sight Duration: 4.5

CD: 6

Mana: 90/105/120/135 

Lightning Bolt

Mechanics:

  • When cast on the ground with no heroes within 375 radius, it still provides the 750 range flying vision and True Sight.
  • Provides the True Sight first, so that invisible heroes still take damage.
  • The lightning first applies the damage, then the stun.
  • When targeting a unit, vision and True Sight are provided at its position upon cast. The vision is stationary, it does not follow the unit.
  • When the ground is targeted but the bolt hits a hero, the vision is centered on the targeted point, not the found hero.
  • The flying vision and True Sight last for 4.5 seconds. The True Sight is provided by an aura, and its debuff lingers for 0.5 seconds.
  • Searches for enemy heroes, illusions, and creep-heroes when targeting ground. Whichever is the closest gets hit.
  • When targeting the ground, it can hit an enemy hero up to 1225 (1500 with talent) range away (cast range + search radius).
  • In order to hit a non-hero unit, it must be directly targeted.
  • Plays some lightning particles and a sound effect during the cast time, which are visible and audible to everyone.

Uses and Tips:

Lightning Bolt is your main hero damaging skill – it deals 350 damage (which is already pretty strong compared to other skills that usually deal around 300) and it’s further increased by Static Field as well.

Lightning Bolt is great for dewarding as it provides True Sight over the area for 4.5 seconds – more than enough to hit a ward twice. With some mana items, you will always be able to deward the enemy wards wherever you go.

Of course, you can also use it when you want to reveal an invisible unit/hero. This happens automatically in fights when you spam your Bolt, but you can also do it just to check if you think you are being stalked by BH/Riki/Clinkz, etc.

It’s also great for scouting – it gives flying vision, which means you can use it to gain vision on a high ground, the Roshan pit, etc.

Zeus shocks any enemy hit by his abilities, causing damage proportional to their current health.

STATS

Current Health as Damage: 4%/6%/8%/10%

Static Field

Mechanics:

  • The damage from Static Field is flagged as HP Removal, so it does not trigger any on-damage effects.
  • Applies its damage before the triggering spell's damage is applied.
  • Static Field does not trigger on active item abilities.
  • Does not affect Roshan.

Uses and Tips:

Static Field is a key ability for the mid/late game. The more HP the enemy has – the more damage he takes. This allows Zeus to be a powerhouse even in the very late game where BKB durations are low and he can afford to spam everything.

Theoretically, it’s always better to first use Arc Lightning in a fight – that will leave more %HP to take away with Static Field when you use Lightning Bolt afterward, which will increase the overall damage of your two spells. Moreover, because of the super short CD of Arc Lightning, you will be able to cast it almost immediately afterward, triggering another Static. In practice, however, this is not always possible. Bolt has a shorter range, which means sometimes you need to use it first on an enemy who is running away, otherwise, you might not get the chance to do so. 

Strikes all enemy heroes with a bolt of lightning, no matter where they may be. Thundergod's Wrath also provides True Sight around each hero struck. If an enemy hero is invisible, it takes no damage, but the True Sight is still created at that hero's location.

STATS

Cast Animation: 0.4+0.43

Effect Radius: Global

Vision Radius: 450 

True Sight Radius: 900

Damage: 225/325/425

Vision & True Sight Duration: 3

CD: 90

Mana: 225/325/450

Aghanim's Scepter

Creates a storm cloud anywhere on the map that automatically casts Lightning Bolts on nearby enemies.

Thundergod's Wrath

Mechanics:

  • Provides 500 range flying vision and 900 range True Sight around each struck hero.
  • Does not provide any vision around invulnerable or hidden heroes, but does around invisible heroes.
  • The flying vision and True Sight last for 3 seconds. The True Sight is provided by an aura, and its debuff lingers for 0.5 seconds.
  • Thundergod's Wrath first applies the damage on every hero (if possible) and then applies the vision around every enemy hero. This means it cannot damage invisible units unless they are already revealed by another source of True Sight.
  • Hitting all 5 enemy heroes collectively deals 1125/1625/2125 damage (before reductions).
  • Does hit Tempest Doubles. Does not hit other clones or illusions.
  • Plays a visual and sound effect during the cast time, which is visible and audible to everyone.
  • The sound upon cast is global. Enemies can hear it when they have vision over Zeus. Else they can only hear the local hit sound.
  • Shifts the lighting of the whole map for a split second as another indicator of it being cast.

Uses and Tips:

Contrary to popular belief, Thundergod’s Wrath’s main purpose is not to damage, but to reveal enemy heroes – it provides a huge tactical advantage as the enemies can’t hide in trees, high ground or with invisibility. You should never be afraid to use it when you suspect a gank if you think the enemies are killing Roshan or using Smoke of Deceit.

Moreover, it’s great to use it right at the beginning of the fight. This way you may break the Blink Daggers of enemy counter-initiators and more importantly – instantly reveal their position so that your teammates can take care.

Using Thundergod’s Wrath to steal kills from a distance is always a good thing to do, especially in the early game – similar to Invoker’s Sun Strike, it gives you experience that you otherwise wouldn’t receive if you’re too far. This is great because Zeus is very level dependent and loves to play from ahead (the gold is also not wasted on him).

Creates a storm cloud anywhere on the map that automatically casts Lightning Bolt on nearby enemies.

STATS

Cast Animation: 0.2+0.64

Cast Range: Global

Radius: 500

Melee Hero Attacks to Destroy: 4

Ranged Hero Attacks to Destroy: 8

Non-Hero Attacks to Destroy: 16

Lightning Bolt Base Interval: 2.25

Duration: 35

CD: 35

Mana: 275

Nimbus

Mechanics:

  • Requires Aghanim's Scepter to be unlocked.
  • Casts regular Lightning Bolts on the closest valid enemy target, based on Lightning Bolt's current level.
  • This means it also applies the mini-stun and provides vision and True Sight around the target.
  • It also means that the Nimbus does nothing if Lightning Bolt is not learned.
  • The damage source is the Nimbus itself, meaning certain on-damage effects react on the Nimbus rather than on Zeus (e.g. Blade Mail).
  • This also means that any outgoing damage amplification or damage reduction do not affect the Nimbus' bolt damage either.
  • The base interval of the Lightning Bolts is NOT affected by percentage-based cooldown reductions (Octarine Core and Arcane Rune)
  • Starts striking immediately upon cast if an enemy is within the area.
  • Also strikes immediately when the last strike was longer than an interval ago and an enemy enters the area.
  • Can strike up to 16 times over its full duration, considering default strike interval.
  • Does not require vision of the targets. The Nimbus can strike invisible units and units inside the Fog of War.
  • Always strikes the closest valid target. There are no priorities. Cannot target wards or buildings.
  • The visual effects on the ground which mark the area of effect are visible to everyone.

Uses and Tips:

Nimbus is mainly used to offer global help to your teammates. It’s especially good for finding heroes like Tinker or Nature’s Prophet, stopping their teleports and killing them.

The spell is great with Refresher, especially when combined with your own Lightning Bolt spam and possibly the Bolt stun duration talent.

Skill Builds

Arc Lightning Build
Lightning Bolt Build
Zeus Arc Lightning
1
Zeus Static Field
2
Zeus Arc Lightning
3
Zeus Lightning Bolt
4
Zeus Lightning Bolt
5
Zeus Thundergod's Wrath
6
Zeus Lightning Bolt
7
Zeus Lightning Bolt
8
Zeus Arc Lightning
9
Talent Icon
10
Zeus Arc Lightning
11
Zeus Thundergod's Wrath
12
Zeus Static Field
13
Zeus Static Field
14
Talent Icon
15
Zeus Static Field
16
Zeus Thundergod's Wrath
18
Talent Icon
20
Talent Icon
25
Pros: great for last hitting and constant Arc Lightning + Static Field harass;
Cons: lower nuke damage because of delayed levels in Bolt;

Most players usually put 2 points in Arc Lightning to help them in the early game – it’s a bit better for last hitting and does more harass damage.

Another dilemma is whether to put a point in Static Field – at level 1 it’s only 4% of the current HP as damage and heroes don’t have very high HP, so the damage is not great. Nonetheless, it is great for harassing in the lane together with your Arc Lightning spam. If you think you need more nuke damage for kill attempts, get Lightning Bolt. If not, get Static for stronger Arc Lightning harass.

Zeus Lightning Bolt
1
Zeus Arc Lightning
2
Zeus Lightning Bolt
3
Zeus Static Field
4
Zeus Lightning Bolt
5
Zeus Thundergod's Wrath
6
Zeus Lightning Bolt
7
Zeus Arc Lightning
8
Zeus Arc Lightning
9
Talent Icon
10
Zeus Arc Lightning
11
Zeus Thundergod's Wrath
12
Zeus Static Field
13
Zeus Static Field
14
Talent Icon
15
Zeus Static Field
16
Zeus Thundergod's Wrath
18
Talent Icon
20
Talent Icon
25
Pros: maximum kill potential;
Cons: worse last hitting and harassing from Arc Lightning; more mana intense because of Bolt harass;

The Bolt on lvl1 is a great choice if you have higher attack damage than your opponent. This way you will be able to last-hit and deny with attacks while harassing with the Bolt. In the ideal situation, this will give you a slight XP lead in the lane, which can help you win it with further Bolt harass and ideally - rotations from your supports.

This build increases your nuke damage early on, which makes it better for kill attempts. The two levels in Lightning Bolt on lvl3 also mean you can try to kick your opponent out of the lane if he/she is a squishy hero and doesn't have enough regen.

With this build, you can skip Static Field on lvl4 if you feel you need more damage from your Arc Lighting for last hitting.

Talents

+155 Arc Lightning Damage

25
+275 Cast Range
+0.5s Lightning Bolt Ministun
20
15% Cooldown Reduction

+1.5% Static Field Damage

15
+40 Movement Speed
+25% XP Gain
10
+6 Armor

Lvl10: Zeus is fairly level dependent and is not supposed to tank damage – you rely on utility items like Force Staff, Ghost Scepter or Eul’s to stay alive, not armor. So 25% bonus XP is definitely the way to go.

Lvl15: On one hand the Static Field damage is not very significant and on the other - Zeus has mobility issues, so 40 movement speed comes very handy and is much more noticeable.

Lvl20: Lightning Bolt mini-stun becomes 0.7s with this talent which is actually pretty significant and very annoying to play against. It also works for the Nimbus, so this talent is usually prioritized in most competitive games. You could pick the cooldown reduction if you don’t plan to build Aghanim’s Scepter though – it is great when combined with Octarine and some active items.

Lvl25: Both are very good. The Arc Lightning damage is more than a double increase, so it becomes pretty strong in the late game. On the other hand, 275 cast range allows you to sell your Aether Lens and free a slot for a bigger item. However, games usually don’t go that long for you to start replacing items, so most of the times we pick the Arc Lightning damage.

Mid Lane Build

Zeus’ item build can actually be very versatile – he doesn’t have any particular core item that needs to be rushed and the mana (intelligence) items usually come with great passive or active abilities, so you have a huge choice of early/mid game items.

In this example you get both offensive options (Veil and Kaya) to increase your damage output in the mid game as much as possible. In the mid lane you will be able to build both items relatively fast. This is great if you are snowballing, but if the game is harder you can substitute one of the two with more defensive options like Eul’s to counter Silences or Blink/Force to increase your mobility and survivability.

Octarine and Refresher are your standard late game choices.

Starting Items
Null talisman
Faerie Fire
Clarity
Pulled Tango
Pulled Tango
Early Game
Bottle
Magic wand
Arcane Boots
Veil of Discord
Kaya
Mid Game
Aether Lens
Aghanim's_Scepter_icon
Late Game
Octarine_Core_icon
Refresher orb
Null talisman
Faerie Fire
Clarity
Pulled Tango
Pulled Tango
Bottle

Bottle: The Bottle is not 100% mandatory though most players still buy it. You should get it if you plan to take runes but if you’re going to stay on the lane all the time – better skip it and get e.g. Soul Ring. Always remember to switch your mana items to the backpack before drinking from the bottle – that way you will regain more mana. 

Magic wand
Arcane Boots

Arcane Boots: Arcane Boots are very useful because they give a big mana pool. The regeneration is not enough to sustain your mana, but Arcanes can later be disassembled for Aether Lens, so you lose nothing. 

Veil of Discord

Veil: Veil of Discord is one of the best ways to increase your damage in fights – Zeus’ high burst damage combined with lowering the enemies’ resistance guarantees for a lot of pain. Veil is also good for the laning stage as it includes 2 Null Talismans – one of them you start with and you bring another one shortly after which gives you a nice amount of damage to last hit with (and stats of course).

Kaya

Kaya: Kaya is one of the regular items on Zeus – it allows you to cast cheaper spells and provides a useful magic amplification bonus. Veil provides more damage, but it needs to be cast on the enemies first and it doesn’t help with the mana issues that much. If you prefer Kaya over Veil – feel free to swap them. Or you can also build both if you’re having a good game, but this might create item slot problems in the late game. 

Aether Lens

Aether Lens: Aether Lens is so good on this hero that you can even go for it as a first item. First of all, don’t forget to disassemble your Arcane Boots – that almost reduces its cost by a half. Aether Lens allows you to cast Lightning Bolt from 950 range and Arc Lightning – from 1100. This means that you can have a better positioning in fights as you can stay further away from your enemies and throwing spells from a safe distance. It also increases the casting range of a variety of items like Veil, Blink, Eul, Hex, etc. 

Aghanim's_Scepter_icon

Aghanim: Building Aghanim’s Scepter allows you to better contribute to ganks or fights – even if you’re not there. The Nimbus deals a lot of damage and if a teammate provides a disable or slow, it’s guaranteed to hit a few times. It’s also pretty good for catching heroes like Tinker or Nature’s Prophet who like to teleport everywhere and split-push – you can reveal them with Thundergod’s Wrath and then cast a Nimbus on top of them. 

Octarine_Core_icon

Octarine: Octarine Core is one of the best items on Zeus who has only offensive spells – it allows you to deal more damage in fights and the spell lifesteal could be useful on rare occasions when you’re focused.

Refresher orb

Refresher: Refresher Orb allows you to cast 2 Thundergod’s Wraths and 2 Nimbuses – this is a huge deal in a team fight and those abilities are both global, so you don’t have to worry about positioning or anything. You can also swap it for another item in your backpack while it’s on cooldown so it doesn’t waste an inventory slot. 

Support & Offlane Build

The way you play Zeus doesn’t dramatically change based on your position. Because of this reason his build also follows the same logic, with the only difference that having less farm means you need to go straight for your core items. You need to build cheap items to deal with your mana issues early on – Arcanes. Eul’s afterward will make you more survivable and mobile and will help further with your mana sustain. After Eul’s you can cheaply get Lens by disassembling your Arcanes. After you’ve dealt with your mana issues you go straight for Agh’s – it’s your most important team-fighting item.

In case you are having a very bad game, you can even skip one or even both of your mid-game items and go straight for the Aghanim’s to ensure you will have a significant fight impact.

Starting items
Tangoes
Clarity
Clarity
Healing_Salve_icon
Mango
Early game
Arcane Boots
Magic wand
Mid Game
Euls
Aether Lens
Late Game
Aghanim's_Scepter_icon
Octarine_Core_icon
Tangoes
Clarity
Clarity
Healing_Salve_icon
Mango
Arcane Boots

Arcane Boots: Arcane Boots are very useful because they give a big mana pool. The regeneration is not enough to sustain your mana, but Arcanes can later be disassembled for Aether Lens, so you lose nothing. 

Magic wand
Euls

Eul’s Scepter: Eul’s is a great item that will give you more movement speed, help with the mana issues and allow you to sometimes survive when focused, which is one of the primary concerns for Zeus who usually has no escape mechanism.

Aether Lens

Aether Lens: Aether Lens is so good on this hero that you can even go for it as a first item. First of all, don’t forget to disassemble your Arcane Boots – that almost reduces its cost by a half. Aether Lens allows you to cast Lightning Bolt from 950 range and Arc Lightning – from 1100. This means that you can have a better positioning in fights as you can stay further away from your enemies and throwing spells from a safe distance. It also increases the casting range of a variety of items like Veil, Blink, Eul, Hex, etc. 

Aghanim's_Scepter_icon

Aghanim: Building Aghanim’s Scepter allows you to better contribute to ganks or fights – even if you’re not there. The Nimbus deals a lot of damage and if a teammate provides a disable or slow, it’s guaranteed to hit a few times. It’s also pretty good for catching heroes like Tinker or Nature’s Prophet who like to teleport everywhere and split-push – you can reveal them with Thundergod’s Wrath and then cast a Nimbus on top of them. 

Octarine_Core_icon

Octarine: Octarine Core is one of the best items on Zeus who has only offensive spells – it allows you to deal more damage in fights and the spell lifesteal could be useful on rare occasions when you’re focused.

Other Items

Early & Mid Game
Null talisman
Force staff
Ghost Scepter
Hand of Midas
Late Game
Scythe of Vyse
Black King Bar
Aeon Disk
Boots_of_Travel_1_icon
Ethereal Blade
Dagon5
Null talisman

Null Talisman: A second Null can help you to last hit in the lane. You want to go for a second only if you want to upgrade them to Veil later.

Force staff

Force Staff: Force Staff can be a lifesaver against many heroes – it’s great at increasing the distance between yourself and a raging Lifestealer, Ursa, TA or any other hero that will try to focus you. It’s also especially useful against heroes like Skywrath or Clockwerk whose abilities can pose a huge threat if you don’t move. If you ever feel vulnerable – build it. 

Ghost Scepter

Ghost Scepter: Ghost Scepter is a great counter to heroes like Ursa, Lifestealer, TA, Clinkz or any other hero who will try to burst you down with physical damage. It’s very cheap and it provides some stats so you can always build it in any game if you feel threatened by high physical damage.

Hand of Midas

Midas: Midas is a very controversial item on Zeus – on one hand, he is a slow farming core so Midas can give him a serious gold boost. On the other hand, he usually needs other core items. You can actually build it after Arcane Boots in games without much action and where you don’t need urgent escape items. If you can get it without hurting your early game – it will be really good.

Scythe of Vyse

Hex: Scythe of Vyse is sometimes needed to deal with elusive heroes when your team doesn’t have many disables. It’s especially good with Aether Lens (the casting range becomes 1050) and you also have an easy way to break a possible Linken’s from distance with Arc Lightning before you hex the enemy. 

Black King Bar

BKB: BKB is usually needed if the enemies are trying to focus you in every fight. Against heroes like Storm, QoP, Ember who can always catch you no matter how good your positioning is, you will need a BKB to stay alive. If possible, you want to first build your other items, but if you feel you need it – don’t delay it too much. 

Aeon Disk

Aeon Disk: if the enemy team has good initiators and gap-closers this is a great item to ensure you stay alive for long enough to let your allies help you or at least to use your spells.

Boots_of_Travel_1_icon

BOTs: great in the late game for split-pushing.

Ethereal Blade

Eblade: Ethereal Blade serves the same purpose as Ghost Scepter, but has an offensive use as well – it lowers the target’s magic resistance by 40% which greatly increases the power of your abilities. 

Dagon5

Dagon5: In the late game Dagon increases your burst potential a lot.

Early Game

Zeus 350px

Zeus’ early game revolves only around farming on the lane and getting levels. He is not a hero who can dominate his lane. Getting levels and a few cheap core items, as well as surviving, is your top priority.

Farming:

Farming with Arc Lightning:

Farming on the lane is simple – you try to last hit the creeps with normal attacks if the enemy doesn’t contest them. If he tries to deny – then you use Arc Lightning to last hit them. Try to last hit 2 creeps with the same Arc Lightning whenever possible to conserve mana. Moreover, try to last-hit when your opponent is close to the wave for the Arc Lightning harass damage.

If possible, you can try to deny – Zeus’ damage is not that bad (if you have Null Talisman), only his animation is horrible.

Farming with Attacks:

Because the damage of Zeus is not bad, there are some situations in which on the first few levels you will be able to out-last-hit your opponent just with attacks if you start with a Null (e.g. against SF and other low starting damage heroes). In that case, you can get your Bolt on lvl1 and use it to harass your opponent while last-hitting and denying with attacks. This will make the lane harder for your opponent and if you manage to burn through his regen and get ahead in levels, this will make him more vulnerable to pressure from your Bolt harass and to potential ganks from your allies.

Mana Sustain:

One of the problems you will face is the mana issues – you don’t have that big of a mana pool early on so last hitting with Arc Lightning will quickly deplete it. This is where Clarities come in handy – as Zeus, you always want to have 1 or 2 Clarities with you to sustain your mana early on. Just try not to get hit and use Arc Lightning from a distance while the Clarity is active.

Clarities are also very important throughout the entire early and mid game. Their regeneration is increased by your intelligence (2% per point of INT), so they scale with levels and items.  

If you have some jungle stacks, you can also get an extra point in Arc Lightning so you can clear them – you should have enough mana to do that with Arcane Boots and/or Soul Ring.

Harassing & Kill potential:

Harassing the enemy with Zeus is easy and hard at the same time:

It’s easy because you are harassing with the Arc Lightning bounces while you are farming. In the same time, it’s hard because Wand is the perfect item against your Arc Lightning spam.

If your team’s laning is obvious (meaning the enemies will know you’re mid), the enemy midlaner will even start with a Magic Wand instead of just a Stick. Moreover, playing against Zeus effectively means you have more mana as it will always be regenerated by Magic Wand, which allows your opponent to use spells more often.

This is why you don’t want to use Arc Lightning just harass the enemy – hitting him with Arc Lightning while taking a last hit, of course, is good, but don’t use it to only to harass him because you will burn your mana with little results. Your realistic goal on the lane is to farm – not to dominate it. Accept that playing as Zeus on the lane is essentially trading farm with the enemy.

Harassing with Lightning Bolt:

If you are playing against a low HP hero (e.g. an AGI mid laner, especially melee ones), you could decide to invest more levels into your Lightning Bolt. This way you can harass with Bolt instead of just Arc Lightning – it is much more efficient since it deals much more damage for the Wand charge it gives. This is great to do if you know you have roaming supports that are likely to gank your lane – the higher levels in Bolt will increase your kill potential.

This is a risky decision, however, because this playstyle is even more mana intensive and you will have less mana for last-hitting with Arc. If you are unsuccessful with your Bolt harass and kill attempts, you might put yourself in a bad position farm-wise, which is terrible for a core Zeus.

Timings and rotations:

Once you get to level 6, make sure to watch the other lanes for possible kills. Thundergod’s Wrath doesn’t deal that much damage but it could still help. Taking the kill is not only acceptable but advisable – getting the experience for the kill is a big deal. Zeus is also not a great farmer, so the gold is not wasted at all.

You should stay on the lane until level 8-9 – at this point, you will have Lightning Bolt maxed and you’ll probably have some core items to sustain your mana – for example Arcane Boots, Bottle, Soul Ring.

Don’t try to find solo kills – even though you deal a lot of damage, you don’t have any form of disable or slow. You should always look to go with teammates to get kills.

Keep farming with Arc Lightning whenever possible and make sure to always have a clarity to sustain your mana. 

Mid Lane Priorities

Farm
Get Levels
Look for kills after level 6
Video Example:

In this game, we’re going to observe Sccc’s Zeus against VG.

The game starts very passively (as usual) for Zeus. He simply uses Arc Lightning to last hit. His lane opponent is actually doing a pretty good job in zoning and harassing him whenever possible.

He’s even forced to teleport to base to regenerate his mana at 3:00.

Take a note, however, how he’s trying to last hit the creeps with normal attacks if possible to preserve mana. You should always try to do that instead of last hitting everything with Arc Lightning even when you don’t need to.

He buys Raindrops which are very good against Tinker – they block the majority of Missiles’ damage.

He gets ganked at 6:00, but he managed to buy items before he dies so he didn’t lose any gold.

Despite the fact that the lane was lost, Zeus still manages to catch up on farm to some extent, if not on levels.

At 7:20 he dewards a very well placed ward on the edge of the Ancient camp – the enemy team specifically placed it there so that it’s not dewarded easily.

Once he has Arcane Boots and Soul Ring, he starts farming with Arc Lightning as he has enough mana to sustain it now. A nice fight on the mid lane allows him to finish his Aether Lens.

If you keep watching the game, you’ll see how he constantly tries to deward with Lightning Bolt – every possible spot. This gives his team a big advantage. His positioning in fights is also pretty good and there’s much to be learned from his play. 

Support Priorities

Harass with your spells to create space for your farming core
Use your nuke damage to secure kills if the opportunity presents itself
Deward with Lightning Bolt to give your team a vision advantage, use ult to scout when needed

The main reason to play Zeus as a support is to use his vision tools to scout out the enemy team when you suspect they are looking for a fight/gank or are trying to sneak a Rosh kill AND to win the ward wars thanks to Lightning Bolt. Make sure you use these tools often  - Clarities are absolutely vital to have enough mana to use your spells for fights and for constant dewarding.

Make sure your positioning in early fights is immaculate - stay out of initiation range, but close enough to deal damage. Kills and assists will be your main source of income, and unlike other supports, you scale very well with levels (and some items). Try to survive the early fights so that you have enough levels to deal significant damage in the mid and late game fights.

Mid & Late Game

Zeus Arcana 350px

The playstyle of Zeus in the mid and late game is a bit like a magic damage Sniper. He can deal high damage from a very high range and he doesn’t want enemy heroes to reach him. Because of this, positioning is key for Zeus not only around the map but also in fights. Stay close to your team, ideally out of vision, and always be in position to contribute in fights with damage. Use your spells also to provide vision – your ultimate to find enemy heroes and Bolt to reveal invisible units.

Look for fights with your team
Farm and out-push lanes
Deward and provide vision
Comeback Potential:

Zeus could possibly snowball with a good start and a lot of levels, but he is not a bad hero when you’re playing from behind either. The only concern you have is that the enemies will have their initiation/disable items sooner so you need to be more careful not to get picked off. You will also have to itemize more defensively with Force Staff, Ghost Scepter, Eul – depending on the enemy lineup.

Zeus is an insane base defender and anti-pusher. It’s very hard to push high ground against him as he can spam spells from very far away and they hurt a lot. You need very little farm in order to be dangerous – a simple Aether Lens + Veil of Discord allow you to cast spells from 900+ range and deal massive amounts of magical damage.

For that reason, your job in a game where you’re playing from behind is to be wary of ganks and stay alive in order to be able to counter-push. You can buy a Blink Dagger and split-push with Arc Lightning – it’s good for clearing out creep waves and you can blink away as soon as you’ve cast 2 or 3 Arcs to stall the game even more when you’re not anti-pushing. 

Team Fights:

As Zeus, your impact in team-fights is massive. Even if the enemy cores have BKBs, you will still be able to deal a lot of damage to the rest of their team and if you have defensive items – you should be able to wait for their durations to end.

As soon as the team-fight breaks out, use Thundergod’s Wrath. This will reveal the enemy’s positioning and will disable all Blink Daggers.

From this point forward, your job is to position yourself as far away from the enemy team as possible. Try to spam all of your spells from the maximum possible distance.

Keep in mind that the enemy cores will likely try to target you, most of the times with a BKB on and you will need some defensive items, especially against heroes with high burst damage.

Zeus is actually even better in the late game fights as BKB durations are low and you can pretty much waste the enemy’s BKB with a simple Ghost Scepter or Eul or Force Staff. Moreover, the more HP enemy cores have, the more damage Static Field will deal.

Iceberg uses Smoke before the fight – this is not a bad move if you are afraid of getting initiated upon. The global range of Nimbus and your ult help you contribute to the fight without breaking the smoke until you want to.

He also uses the global Nimbus range to cancel the Blink Dagger of Sand King and prevent him from getting off an effective stun. When he reaches the battle he uses his nuke potential to kill Ench – she is the ideal target because she is a squishy damage dealer.

Pushing & Split Pushing:

5-man Pushing:

Zeus is not a tower hitter. Not at all. Not even a little. If your team is sieging, your job is to keep spamming spells on the enemies. That gives your team 2 advantages. First – you give vision by casting Lightning Bolt in the enemy territory, which is a valuable scouting information. Second – you disable Blink Daggers with the Static Field.

Split-Pushing and Farming:

As we mentioned, Zeus is bad at pushing, so you can’t actually pose a threat to the enemy towers.

However, you can push out creep waves rather fast with Arc Lightning. Using it 2 or 3 times is enough to push a wave and you have a huge casting range on it.

Pushing out waves is the way Zeus farms in the mid/late game. You push a couple of waves and run to the jungle – Zeus is not a very good jungler but if he has enough mana, he can still kill neutral camps easily. Try to always keep a lane pushed but watch out for ganks as well and don’t overextend – without your team you are defenseless.

Vision & Dewarding:

As we mentioned, one of your priorities is to deward whenever possible. If you have enough mana, throw Lightning Bolts everywhere – at any possible ward spot that you’re passing through.

This is especially important when you’re together with your team – dewarding the usual ward spots can be a huge deal. Zeus is very annoying to play against as he can always leave you without vision.

One mistake that a lot of players make is that they save Thundergod’s Wrath for fights or kills and never use it for scouting. Don’t be afraid to use it when you suspect the enemies are smoking, ganking or going for Rosh. Your ultimate has 90 seconds cooldown which is not too long and it deals 225/325/425 damage – it’s not a game-breaking amount of damage that you totally need to save for a fight. Scouting info can be just as important (if not much more) as the damage.