Situation-independently, which of these items are better suited for Nature's Prophet, and why?
Dota – Nature’s Prophet: Stygian Desolator vs Assault Cuirass
dota-2
Related Solutions
I found the setting, but I'm not sure how it got turned on as I chose expert or whatever the highest level setting was. Switched that and then everything got better.
Pretty much any hero in the game can benefit from jungle in order to free a lane (with creep stacking and pulling : See Video). There are several characters that can do it without the creeps, Nature's Prophet is one of them and you can start practicing with him. There are several starting items you can get with different benefits:
- 4 or 5 Clarity Potion: will help you sustain and summon more treants
- A Gloves of Haste + 2 Clarity Potion: for a Hand of Midas rush. However your low mana pool and high manacost of summon will force you to go back to base a few time
- Ring of Basilius + 2 x Clarity Potion (My favourite) : it will make your treants stronger, give you a pretty good early mana regen and give you a damage aura for you and your treant
- Null Talisman + Clarity Potions (not recommended) : Use this start ONLY if you want to have some fun with the ganking teleport Nature's Prophet and rush a Dagon. Thus the Null Talisman will be used for the Dagon.
Now the strat for an efficient start: Treants last for 60sec and have a 37sec cooldown (which means you can have 2 packs summoned at time). The first spawn of neutrals is 30 sec after creep spawn (00:30 gameclock). So for an efficient start you will want to summon treants 7 second before the game starts at the fountain (free mana regen). By doing this you make sure that the cooldown of 37sec will be up at 00:30 (when neutrals spawn) allowing you to get 2 pack of treant for starting. Kill a small camp, (you have about 25 second) > step away and let the camp respawn (at 1:00) > kill it again. You are now level 2 and you can start trying to kill either a big camp (avoid Hellbear Smasher before level 2 treants) or keep going with small/medium. It is really (really) important to micro your treants to not let them die, make them run away when they are low life so neutrals will change target, then put them back in the fight. You will gain a lot of damage thanks to this. You can even sometime let neutral target you instead of your treant to get more damage. I advise you get an early (at level 2) point in Teleport so you can fountain trip faster if needed.
I advise no matter what your starters items are, to rush a Hand of Midas and use it every time it's off cooldown on a big neutral from a big camp (you get x2.5 XP and this will help you boost your XPM (experience per minute)). I am not going to expand on how to play Nature's Prophet and what item build you should go for but Hand of Midas will help you farm faster any item you would need for you and your team (Power Treads, Shadow Blade, Mekansm, Scythe of Vyse etc.)
Some tips to keep in mind
- Being in the jungle does not mean ignoring the lane. You have one of the most powerful early game ability : Teleportation. You can turn any situation by teleporting in and giving your team a +1 advantage. If you get several kills you can even transition your gank into a tower push.
- Watch out for the enemy courier (especially in early game). If you spot it try to teleport on his way back and snipe it. If you manage to do that while the enemy mid is bottle crowing, it can ruin his early game but remember to...
- ...always keep a TP scroll on yourself. If you use Teleportation agressivley, the TP scroll will allow you to come back to base as soon as you're done.
- You can use Teleportation while invisible with Shadow Blade / Shadow Amulet / Silver Edge and it won't break the invisibility
- Try to get at least 1 escape mechanism (Force Staff, Blink Dagger or Shadow Blade so you can use Teleportation safely)
- When teleporting to a lane to push, don't TP directly in the lane but TP in the trees instead, then if the lane is safe clear your path by creating treants, it'll be much safer.
If you want to jungle with someone (like N'aix) who doesn't summon units, you migh want to check this video about Choke Point Jungling
Related Topic
- Dota – How does Slark’s autoattacks go trough Pugna’s Decrepify
- Dota – Non-squishy hero
- Dota – Mask of madness for Juggernaut
- Dota – Nature’s Prophet Teleportation skill interrupted from a stun from jungle creep – how
- Dota – Should Dazzle ult his friends or enemies
- Dota – What mechanic prevents Desolator and Mask of Madness from stacking
Best Answer
I'm going to disagree with both of your potential answers and instead suggest Medallion of Courage. While it doesn't increase your attack speed or damage, it does serve the same purpose of allowing you to gank by lowering armor. Nature's Prophet (when played properly) is an extremely strong ganker as he can be anywhere on the map at once. His pushing will obviously be weaker as this doesn't affect buildings, but you can easily pick up one of the other two items later.
Medallion gives him the single target focus that helps him gank and also allows him to more easily kill Roshan in the early game. The only time I would consider it a bad pickup would be against many heroes with high base armor or many agility heroes, as their armor rises much faster in the early game as they gain levels.