[xyphxer] Zeus 6.86 Guide (For High Skill Rank Bracket)

6.86 - Zeus

With the introduction of Aether Lens, Zeus is pretty buffed up.
I will introduce my item choice, skill builds and rational behind these.
Also, please note that my game play of Zeus is like a sniper, never appearing in the middle of the fight.
Positioning, practice and patience plays a big part in playing Zeus.
I have won against magic counters, magic resisters team in Rank.
Works pretty well winning my last 8/9 Ranked matches with Zeus.
The only lost game is because of an intentionally feeding void.
Notice most games are ended with high KDA if used correctly.

I have matchmaked with teams like:
Magic Block/Resist teams: OMNI, JUGG team, NAIX, AM, HUSKAR team.
Tank Team: Centaur, Axe, BB

Before you say a BKB or high magic resistance heroes totally counter Zeus, once again, I emphasize that with Positioning, practice and patience, even those teams crumble before Zeus in 6.86 patch if played correctly.

For evidence: http://www.dotabuff.com/matches/2104732711

Some may agree or disagree, but at least it works for me.
Please rate, commend or subscribe if it works for you too!
I will be doing more guides if the response is good!
Happy Dota-ing!

Introduction to Zeus

Zeus in a Nutshell

I will skip the basic as this guide is for High Skill Rank Bracket or people aiming for >3.5K mmr.
Being said, you should have a basic understanding of how each skill works and their advantages, etc. true sight for Lightning Bolt.


As you can see from my introduction, this skill and item build works pretty well winning and having high KDA even in High Skill Brackets.

Starting Game Items and Playstyle

Starting Game Items and Playstyle

• Secure mid if possible, if not, anywhere is fine.
  
• Get Mango, 4x Clarity, Tango and Healing Salve
  
• Get level 1 Arc Lightning and start spamming
  
• Once you level up, put a point into Static Field for faster farming and heavier harassing
  
• Remain out of sight and only appearing for LH/Denies

Rational of Items and Playstyle

• Mid ensure fast level and undisrupted farming. If you are in the lanes, make sure you are the priority farmer.
  
• Mana shortage is a huge problem Early game, thus you will need more mana regenerative items before you get your first item, Arcane Boots.
  
• Your attack speed, damage and range is TOO LOW for last hitting. Get Arcane boots ASAP!
  
• Static Field increases your last hitting ability and heroes farming nearby takes tons of damage.
  I prioritize this over Lightning Bolt as you will need the mana to farm rather than bolting someone.
  
• Zeus is pretty vulnerable with no escape mechanism. Play safe rather than aggressive for the laning phase.

Skill Build and Rational

I will go on about Skill build before proceeding further so that it is clearer for the item choices in later stages.

Skill Build Explanation

• As mentioned in Section 1, Static Field is prioritize over Lightning Bolt due to the fact you have limited mana to spam.
  
• At level 3, start maxing out your Lightning Bolt but do not use it until you have your Arcane Boots and it is of level 3.
  
• Skill Ultimate at level 6 like duh~
  
• Max out Lightning Bolt at level 7.
  
• Max out Arc Lightning and get Thundergod's Wrath Level 2 at 11.
  
• Max out Static Field and get Thundergod's Wrath Level 3 at 16.
  
• Remaining stats.

Rational of build

• Level 1 Arc Lightning and Static Field is enough to harass the ♥♥♥♥ of out the opponent and getting pretty nice farm. Thus start maxing out Lightning Bolt starting at level 3 gives you the ability to kill.
  
• Static Field is meant for slightly more damage output and most importantly, a value point to prevent blink daggers, urn/bottle/salve healing.
  
• Arc Lightning is preferred for more damage and better last hitting.

Early Game Items, Playstyle

Early Game Items

• Mentioned earlier, get your Arcane Boots ASAP, 5 minutes if possible and the lane is about 80% won.
  
• Dissemble your Arcane Boots to form Aether Lens (Most OP item in 6.86)
  
• Re-buy your Arcane Boots.

Rational of Items

• 5-8 minutes is a pretty good timing for Arcane boots depending on which lane you're playing at. The faster you get, the faster you snowball.
  
• The rationale behind Aether Lens > Arcane Boots allows you to farm faster and safer. By not dying and farming safely from afar, getting back your Arcane Boots will only take about 3-4 more minutes.
  
• This will mean, you will have a huge pool of mana, insane nukes and safe farming in about 10 minutes!
  
• Aether Lens increase the cast range of Arc Lightning, Lightning Bolt and Static Field. It also increases damage to 3/4 of his skills! Now talk about fairness imbalance....

Mid/Late Game Items, Playstyles

Mid-Game Items

• After the 2 Early game items (which will last to end game), get your Aghanim's Scepter up in the quickest time possible.
  
• Situational items like Force Staff or Blink Dagger will be needed before/after Aghanim's Scepter if you are heavily hunted by Nyx Assassin or Rikimaru, etc.
  
• Get your Refresher Orb up and other items would be Luxury Items.
  
• You could see under Introduction sections my preferred choices of items.
  
• Ideal ending 6 Slotted Items: Boots of Travel II, Aether Lens, Refresher Orb, Aghanim's Scepter, Blink Dagger, Ethereal Blade.

Situational Items

• Veil of Discord - Deals heavy damage but requires Zeus to be very near the battlefield
  
• Observer Wards - Good to scout out low HP heroes or warding supports. Getting vision on where there are warding, you could call for de-warding together with Lightning Bolt which gives true-sight.
  
• Ethereal Blade - Gives insane high Nuke damage from far range.
  
• Octarine Core - A good synergy item that allows Life-steal on your spells and decreases the already-so-low- cooldown on Lightning Chain.

Playstyles and Rationale of Items

• You should be playing safe and zapping from afar in battles. Your insanely low cooldown of spells with high nuke damage (from Aether Lens) requires you to stay in battle as long as possible to maximise output.
  
• Initiate battles with Lightning bolt and run! Let your hard carries and support do the work and tank it for you. Spam your spells from the fog. Aether Lens allows you to cast Arc Lightning from a whooping near 1000 range.
  
• Thundergod's Wrath is a global skill; no reason for you to be in the center of the battle.
  
• Arc Lightning + Lightning Bolt + God's Wraith (Static Field damage excluded due to incertainty) Damage on 1,000HP with 25% Magic Resistance Hero:
  145 x 1.08 x 0.75 = 117.45
  350 x 1.08 x 0.75 = 283.50
  640 x 1.08 x 0.75 = 518.40
  Total Damage = 919.35
  With Refresher = 1838.7
  
• Even with high magic resistance, they will take a minimum of 1,000 DAMAGE! INSANE

Heroes with Good Synergy and Bad Match-ups

Friendly Heroes

Magic Resistance Reduction/Magic Damage Boost
• Elder Titan - Elder Titan's Natural Order reduces nearby enemy's Magic Resistance by 33%. I can't even compute the amount of nuke damage Zeus can deal with the Refresher Orb Combo.
  
• Ancient Apparition - Ice vortex gives 30% extra magic damage in a radius.
  
• Skywrath Mage - Ancient Seal increases damage taken by spells by a whopping 45%!

Scouting/Ganking
• Invinsible Hunting Heroes - These heroes provide vision for you to pick off low-HP heroes that are farming NC or supports that are warding.

Regeneration
• KOTL, Crystal Maiden - Walking mana booster for extra spamming.

Nukers
• Tiny, Lion, Lina - A combo/ultimate by them ensures a 4v5 fight right off the bat!

Bad Match-ups

Magic Resistance/Anti-magic
• Huskar, Antimage - Natural anti-magic skills reduces your damage done greatly.
  
• Omniknight - Repel is a pain-in-the-*** skill to deal with.

Scouting/Ganking
• Rikimaru, Clinkz, Nyx Assasin - These heroes are a double-edge sword. Good to be on your team, bad if you're playing against them.
  
• Spirit Breaker/Night Stalker - You can't really deal with these Gankers as they can scout you out before you can do much

However said, if you have good positioning, these heroes can be easily nuked down before they could do anything. So, practice well!

Conclusion

In conclusion, Zeus is an unnoticed overpowered hero in 6.86 patch with Aether Lens.

Zeus is good for:

• Ganking, harassing
  
• Dealing high DPS
  
• Dewarding and thwarting of smoke ganks with his ultimate
  
• Game Control in lanes
  
• Clearing waves when defending

This guide is meant for damaging Zeus and not a support Zeus.
Thank you for reading my guide and if you like it, please Subscribe and give comments on any further improvements I can make!

"You can't run from Heaven!"

- Zeus

[Purple Time Dinosaur]

I disagree with that. Scepter and refresher basically makes you a walking ult, and you will be useless when it's not up.

[♥♥♥ ♥♥♥]

Mantaf

[Tonyololol]

Ags is no longer core. Force, blink or euls is now core. Zeus is fat old man who needs mobility to stay on the outside of fights. Aether is enough for your straight damage increase. As you progress late, build that veil to remain relevant.

[deadly]

GGWP anyway!

[deadly]

yeah its good too not bad really but i will never try this guide HAHAHA lols!

[xyphxer]

i hope everyone do read from the start, on the main focus of the guide. it is meant for players to deal a ton load of damage before the fight and let the carry do the clean up. my theory is that if the fight starts off with almost everyone on the opposite team with half HP, the fight is 50% won!

[xyphxer]

@IYD your guide is meant for prolonged battles with magic resistance/anti magic heroes. to be tanky and contribute more. my guide is meant for low skill players aiming to go into high skill. 4 clarities at the start for me is due to not appearing in the map till you last hit, so regening the mana in fog is just suitable IMO. everyone has their own sets of playstyle and each game is a variable. if you are facing a hard opponent like nyx who simply burns off every mana, getting a soul ring instead would be viable. maybe i could see you guide and people can compare and choose a different playstyle for their needs. :) but thank you too, for your input! you may wish to cut down on offensive words in your comments and make this a more positive environment for players to gain more valuable knowledge.

[xyphxer]

hello guys! thank you for the input. this guide is meant for people who is in TBA (collab games) or low skill bracket who wants to hit into high skill (>3K mmr). as i said in the introduction, this guide may not work for very high skill as it is not tested.

thank you for the input and enjoy the guide! this guide is to increase KDA and reduce being in the battlefield as lower skill level players may not be able to handle prolonged messy team fights. :)
and very high skill is above 3.5K. i got match made into very high skill bracket when i hit 3520 in the past.

the reason for scepter is to deal high damage right off the bat, and reduce as many exposure to team fight for lower skill players. high skill players who can contribute more certainly can get dagger/force staff. notice my SS where most of my items has dagger in it :)

[McRibbed for her pleasure]

You always get a second point in arc lightning for the laning phase. ALWAYS. Your skill build should be 2-2-1 or 2-3-0 When you hit level 6. You get a second point because in using arc lightning to last hit the melee creeps, the ranged creep will always be an easy deny with only 1 point + 1 point in aura.
Just a tip, and you might (should) want to revise your build accordingly. I'm not gonna go into the item build in detail, though agh's refresher is both not core and in most situations the worst possible thing you could rush. Veil + blink > Agh's rush in literally every game. Veil gives more damage than agh's, your mobility is a non thing without a blink or force. (Also lens does not increase the range of static field) Good luck.

[IYĐ]

And what the fuck is up with that 4 clarities at the start.