MYM|Merlini's Guide to Zeus, Lord Of Olympia

Zeus remains one of the most popular heroes in DotA. Not only is he incredibly fun to play in public games, but he is considered so powerful that he is either a ban or first pick in organized games. Although he does not have an escape mechanism (more recently with the Dagger nerf), he is one of the few non-stun Intelligence heroes to see competitive play. Zeus is not too complex of a hero: He has insane burst damage early game, with great scaling lategame thanks to Static Field, and a global nuke that is perhaps one of the most annoying skills in all of DotA.

Hero Abilities

Arc Lightning

Hurls a bolt of arcing energy that laces through many nearby enemy units.

Level 1 - Arcs 5 times, deals 85 damage.
Level 2 - Arcs 7 times, deals 100 damage.
Level 3 - Arcs 9 times, deals 115 damage.
Level 4 - Arcs 15 times, deals 130 damage.

Cooldown: 2 seconds.

Level 1: 65 mana, 2 sec cooldown.
Level 2: 72 mana, 2 sec cooldown.
Level 3: 79 mana, 2 sec cooldown.
Level 4: 86 mana, 2 sec cooldown.

A great skill for finishing off creeps, harassing and controlling a lane. With static field the damage it does is highly significant.

Lightning Bolt

Summons a bolt of lightning from the heavens to strike a target enemy.

Level 1 - Deals 100 damage.
Level 2 - Deals 175 damage.
Level 3 - Deals 275 damage.
Level 4 - Deals 350 damage.

Cooldown: 7 seconds.

Level 1: 75 mana, 7 sec cooldown.
Level 2: 95 mana, 7 sec cooldown.
Level 3: 115 mana, 7 sec cooldown.
Level 4: 135 mana, 7 sec cooldown.

A very powerful single-target nuke that not only does 350 damage at level 4, but also gives true sight.

Static Field

Whenever Zeus casts a spell, he shocks all nearby enemy heroes for a percentage of their current hit points as damage.
Affects an area of effect of 800.

Level 1 - Shocks for 5% of current hit points.
Level 2 - Shocks for 7% of current hit points.
Level 3 - Shocks for 9% of current hit points.
Level 4 - Shocks for 11% of current hit points.

Passive

This skill enables Zeus's spells to effectively scale lategame since it does a percentage of HP.

Thundergod's Wrath

Strikes down all enemy heroes with a bolt of lightning.

Level 1 - Deals 210 damage.
Level 2 - Deals 335 damage.
Level 3 - Deals 460 damage.

Cooldown: 120 seconds.

Level 1: 225 mana, 120 sec cooldown.
Level 2: 325 mana, 120 sec cooldown.
Level 3: 450 mana, 120 sec cooldown.

A global nuke that is extremely useful for comboing, finishing off heroes, granting vision, and in team battles, it adds effective "AoE".

For a more precise description of skills, please visit: Lord of Olympia - DotA Allstars Wiki


Skill Build

Level 1 - Arc Lightning
Level 2 - Static Field
Level 3-5 - Lightning Bolt
Level 6 - Thundergod's Wrath
Level 7 - Lightning Bolt
Level 8-10 - Static Field
Level 11 - Thundergod's Wrath
Level 12-15 - Attribute Bonuses
Level 16 - Thundergod's Wrath

Justification: Bolt and Wrath are maxed as soon as possible since they are his most powerful spells, and static is gotten afterwards to add multiple-target damage during team fights. Some people max Arc before 23-25 but it is actually not always good to max arc because you can only re-cast arc lightning when the first one is done 'bouncing' and since level 4 hits 15 targets, the cooldown is often over before the lightning finishes bouncing. In rare occasions sometimes you might want to go Stats/Bolt/Bolt/Stats/Bolt/Ult/Bolt/static/arc/static/etc - I'll explain that more later in soloing.

Core Items

Nulls/Bracers: I started getting 3 nulls instead of arcane ring when Nerubian Assassin was popular. I feel that maximum hp / mana is very important on fragile int heroes: Feel free to make bracers instead.

Point Booster: Since a lot of battles are 2v2 3v3 or whatever from full health to death, mass hp is the most important factor for survival. Point Booster provides great hp/mana for its cost.

Bottle: Enables you to control the lane, have regen, and if you are soloing mid, collecting runes is very essential to your game.

Luxury Items

Guinsoo's Scythe of Vyse: Lategame, having a guinsoo will work wonders for your team - great stats, imba range, and mana regen, and of course hex is a priceless ability.

Boots of Travel: It is a standard choice on Zeus for mobility and movespeed.

Other Items

Arcane Ring: You dont see many people going for mana regen or arcane because those only help with the laning phase and since zeus is such a glass cannon, he is often focused first.

Other Lategame Items: If you farm more than a guinsoo etc., you are probably farming too much (taking away from carries) or not fighting enough, or both. Zeus is still very potent late game, but reserve the farm for heroes on your team who are more item dependent.

Playing Zeus

Early Game: For starters, its 4 branches + 3 clarities + eaters (tangoes). Since I tend to solo middle when I play Zeus, I rush bottle to get the quick lane advantage. Usually my build is 3 nulls, boots, tp scrolls, and bottle.

Attack Animation: His 'wind-up' (frontswing) is very long, but you can use that to your advantage to 's- cancel your attack and out-lasthit your opponent. Many players rely on Arc Lightning too much.

Lane Control: Arc pushes the lane and is also dependent on clarity potions, but pushing the lane also gives you free time to check the runes, so you have to weigh both choices. Both Arc and Bolt have a range of 700, enabling you to stay out of danger when casting

Strong Enemies: Against a good laner, Bolt/Stats build is needed sometimes against Shadow Fiend or Silencer. It's important to get early last hits against SF, and stats helps with both allied/denied units (obviously, Arc only works for offensive purposes). When dealing with a really problematic hero like Broodmother, make sure you keep a tp scroll on you at level 6 and definitely go Arc. Try to rune whore it with bottle while keeping sentries up (from teammates) and you should do ok. Go gank the side lanes

Oh, maybe try out the stats/bolt build a few times so you can work on last hitting with zeus

The 5 MYM|Merlini Golden Rules

1. Always Lightning Bolt before Arc
It may seem better to arc before lightning to get maximum effect from static field but if you arc first you may lose your opponent in the fog

2. Always ALWAYS watch your positioning
Lightning bolt has a hell of a long range, Thundergod's Wrath has infinite range, and Arc has pretty damn long range too, so there is almost no reason to be 'up close and personal' in battle unless you are chasing down heroes.

3. Wrath for Vision
When trying to kill low hp heroes (low, but not low enough for wrath only) in hard to navigate areas (e.g. below sentinel bottom right tower), use wrath to gain vision of your enemy so you can bolt them to death.

4. Share control with your allies
Communicating to a teammate to do something is always much slower than doing it yourself

5. Abuse Bolt Range
Try to ninja that extra bolt in before team fights actually start - it has ridiculous range and helps in battles way more than you think

Replays

Replay Download

Sentinel:
Scourge:
Description: This is a friendly game played recently where I solo mid against QoP.

The Zeus Clip



Extras

Alright, somebody pointed me out to some of the more constructive criticisms in the thread and I''ll try to expound on some of the finer points of Zeus. Some people may say that I'm "holding something back" in my description of how to play the Lord of Olympia; however, I feel that this is more of a reference to my personal playstyle. There are many different ways to play Zeus and I don't want to say that one particular style is better than another. Some games you gank a lot because the other team has a lot of late game, you have good ganking heroes, and your support player is badass at taking out enemy wards. Some games you have to settle for farming for the first 15-20 minutes because your opponents have vision of the whole entire map or you have better late game and are 'turtling' until late game. Because a lot of the playstyle depends on the exact situation of the game, I choose not to explain the intricacies of play that may change from game to game.

Zeus only has 3 nukes. He is not a very difficult hero to play per se. How difficult can a hero be if they don't have any 'difficult to use' spells (Earthshaker's Fissure, Meepo's chain netting/poofing)? Some people use this same argument to relegate Skeleton King to a 'noob hero'. After all, he only has 1 activated skill (3 passives!?!?). But of course, it is easy to tell the difference between an experienced Skeleton King from a first-timer. Things to note include how aggressive the player is, the timing of the actual stun (are his teammates close?), target of the stun, target of attack, map awareness, etc. But these are things that come with many many games played, not something that can easily be taught in a guide. However, maybe there are some 'skilled maneuvers' that can be taught in a guide, and I'll try to the best of my ability.


1. Lightning bolt has a very short mini-stun. Some uses are obvious - canceling tp's, canceling long channeled spells (Black Hole, Shackle...). Others are less obvious. Canceling blink animation of QoP. Interrupting the delicate timing of Earthshaker's Blink Echo, Fissure, Enchant Totem combo. Canceling 1 of your opponent's attacks. The last one may seem ridiculous, who cares about just one attack? My argument is that, in the solo lane, everything matters. One gank, one extra attack thrown in, can upset the balance in one person's favor. Use the mini-stun to maximum effectiveness!

2. Zeus is one of the rare heroes that can 'see' an opponent in a fight without the opponent seeing Zeus. Other heroes that can do this are Bloodseeker, Alchemist, etc. When you bring a fight to a place heavily obscured by fog, Zeus has a huge advantage if you can get a Lightning Bolt or Wrath off. You can cast spells/attack normally (as can your allies) while your enemy is still searching for you in the fog. It's like creating your own hill. I abuse this aspect of Zeus more than anybody I think, and this can dramatically improve your Zeus play.

3. Going along with the first point, Zeus only has one way to cancel tp's. This can be an issue when you are ganking heroes with relatively high hp left because an enemy needs to feel 'threatened' in order to tp. Typically you start off a gank with a Lightning Bolt / Arc Lightning combo, then recast each spell when you can and Wrath if needed. A skilled opponent will just tp after your first Lightning Bolt...then you are shit out of luck because of the 7 second cooldown. If you save bolt for his tp, then he'll just run away (and he surely won't die from Arc Lightning spam). Sometimes forcing an opponent to tp out is almost as good as killing them. They lose out on a lot of farm and they won't be able to tp assist their teammates for another 60 seconds. But if you really want to kill somebody and you think that they will tp out safely, you could actually start off with Wrath then arc, to 'fake' your opponent out into thinking that you bolted them first (the animation is the same), then bolt when they tp. There is no mini-stun on Wrath, but if your enemy is so observant that he notices that, then he probably deserves to survive anyways. Most people just think, "Oh fuck, Zeus!" and run away panicking


I'll try to add more of these detailed descriptions of specifics if I can think of any more. Good luck in your Zeus endeavors!


Q&A / Comments

Why not get level 2 Arc against dual lanes?

Getting Level 2 Arc means that you have to sacrifice a level of Lightning Bolt or a level of Static Field before level 8 (which is a big deal). I advise just waiting until some creeps die so that Arc will hit all 5 targets instead of leveling up Arc in this case.


Why not get Arc/Bolt/Bolt/Static/Bolt instead of Arc/Static/Bolt/Bolt/Bolt?

If you start spamming at level 3 (when the build is actually different), then mathcrafting it...

It's 65 mana for 85 damage + 5% of Current HP (~25 hp) + almost a guaranteed creep. 95 mana for 175 damage. I value the former choice over the latter. And I don't usually spam bolt until level 5 anyways unless I'm at full mana (rare) or I think I can get a kill. Another argument for static at level 2.


How is Eul's for Zeus?

I view Eul has an item well suited for very few heroes. The heroes that I like to get it on are Lion and maybe Rhasta. I think that there are much better item choices for intel heroes. If you are looking for survivability, the same gold (~3200 for Eul's) can get you an Ulti Orb and Point Booster for huge stats gain. Eul's offers no strength or hp, so if you get it on Zeus, you are a very fragile int hero with just Cyclone (not much) as an escape mechanism. I view the almost 400 hp given by the PB/Ulti Orb combo far more valuable because it will help you survive chain stuns and it allows "much more room for error" so to speak. Sometimes you have to be really quick on the Cyclone to survive while straight up HP will get you through a lot of situations. Also, Sheep is unquestionably far superior to Cyclone (although it costs almost twice as much), and since Zeus probably won't be getting that many items, working ultimately towards a Guinsoo will serve you far better than a Eul's in my opinion. The comparison of mana regen is almost nonexistent - if you are in dire need of regen, you can get an early Void Stone that will help towards your Scythe as well. Eul's components are much easier to farm; however, if you have trouble farming, I would just suggest getting 4 bracers/nulls and tp scrolls and learn how to fight without a huge item advantage. There are certainly other opinions on this matter, but I would almost always not even consider getting a Eul's on Zeus.


Anyone else get stuck in no man's land after you get your point booster? It's hard to farm all the way to Guinsoo when you know that the other heroes should be farming instead. Any advice for this mid game stale period?

Guinsoo is a 'nice' item to have, but by no means is it necessary. You will inevitably die a lot as Zeus because you wreak so much havoc in team fights. I often find myself with just 2 Nulls, Point Booster, Bottle, TP scroll, and Boots (around 3400 gold total). But sometimes I'll get lucky and I'm able to switch out boots & tp scroll for BoTs and a branch or something (~ 2200 gold). And if I manage to get a sick nasty Godlike streak or get lucky with the kills, I "might" have my Guinsoo's (~5700). The sheep stick costs more than everything else in your inventory COMBINED, so obviously don't expect to get it every game. In competitive games, I'll probably get my Guinsoo once every 6/7 games, and on top of that, the game is usually 'decided' before I finish my Guinsoo - it's just the icing on top of the cake. But really, Zeus doesn't need items outside of the core build.


About your first golden rule, doesn't that only apply when your target is running? During big team fights (Or if you gank someone from behind, so there is no chance he will run into the fog) isn't it better to get Arc off first to get the max out of Static Field?

I believe that starting off with Lightning Bolt is still better because in team fights, it is imperative to have as much vision as possible. Having vision a third of a second earlier (or however long it takes you in between chain casting two spells + cast animation times) of vision may be crucial because of an ES hiding in the fog or something else relevant to the opponent's positioning. If you see something like that or any other Blink initiator just waiting to engage, you can use your ult and prevent them from blinking. This is HUGE advantage in battle compared to the meager benefits from casting arc before bolt (maybe 30 damage?) and preventing the initiator from blinking can be the main deciding factor of a team fight if your team follows through after you cast Wrath. This is just one scenario but my point is that knowing your opponent's position is far, far more important (to you and to your team) than the damage increase from casting arc before bolt.


Is orchid good on him for silence or no?

JustinKong puts it quite well: He does not benefit from the damage, or get any stats, and hex is a better effect overall, so while Orchid is good, Guinsoo is simply better.
***But regarding any other Tier 3/4 item suggestion, chow again also states it better than I can: The problem with other items such as scepter, refresher, orchid, bloodstone, shiva on zeus is that they are all good items but pales in comparison with guinsoo, zeus is an int hero without a stun/disable. therefore hex is a virtual necessity on him.


If you are having a hard time and can't farm and get owned a lot, would you consider getting Strength treads?

Yes, if you already filled up on your other slots (3 bracers + tp + boots + PB/Bottle) and you don't see yourself farming travels ever (your gold amount isn't rising above 700-800), then I would shoot for Strength treads and just keep my inventory at that, buying the occasional TP scroll and maybe even wards if you have a little extra money. Consider those your end game items and don't even bother farming for gold anymore. Let your teammates carry you!


Is point booster really worth it for that 1200 gold? Aren't bracers better? And should you be working on Guinsoo instead of buying an item that you're not gonna turn into anything?

Point booster gives 200 hp and only takes 1 slot. 2x Bracers cost slightly less and give 228 hp...so why not just get 2 bracers? My reasoning is that Point Booster only takes 1 slot (so effectively your 'paying' 200 gold for a slot - a bargain!) AND it gives more mana. If you don't understand this reasoning, think about how much you would pay to have SEVEN item slots instead of 6 (more than 200, right?). The 3 Bracer/Null and Point Booster build gives you maximum HP (and mana) for the amount of available slots you have. The only upside to bracers is that they come in pieces. Also, the argument that you aren't turning Point Booster into anything doesn't really work because you aren't turning your bracers into anything later, now are you


Why max Static Field at levels 8-10? Isn't the damage negligible?

You get Static Field instead of stats because a lot of team fights happen around those levels (9-13 let's say) and it is imperative that you have as much 'AoE' as possible so you can do maximum amounts of damage in team fights. It's kind of like why some people get Orb/Stats on Obsidian instead of Astral. Astral is way better early game (like stats on Zeus instead of Static), but the Orb/Stats build is superior after 15 minutes or so (like maxing Static on Zeus).



Feel free to ask more questions!


Summary
In short, Zeus is a glass cannon. His firepower is incredible but his defensive abilities are lacking. If you are one of those people that believe that the best defense is a good offense, then you'll love Zeus. He is easily focused down when out of position (as are most non-strength heroes), but if you make good use of fog, know when to move in and out of battle, have extremely good awareness of your surroundings, and love last hitting with a shitty attack animation, then you can give Zeus the loving he needs to nurture him into a true Thunder Badass.


Credits
Special thanks to rsfx for his amazing header image/signature!