How to Play Death Prophet in Dota 2 Patch 7.35b

Dota 2 patch 7.35b slightly nerfed Death Prophet, but the buff she received in the previous patch was so huge that her win rate barely suffered from this.

Right now, DP has a 54% win rate and a 6% pick rate. However, the higher you climb in MMR, the more you’ll see her. In the Divine and Immortal brackets, her pick rate is almost twice as high as the average. That’s because the best players know how strong she is at the moment.

What makes Death Prophet a great hero in Dota 2 patch 7.35b

In the current meta, being able to both silence and slow enemies in a 450 radius for 5 seconds is absolutely huge and can facilitate winning team fights in the first 25-30 minutes of the game. After that, many enemies will have BKBs and Manta Styles or other ways of removing slows and silences.

But before that happens, DP’s W is almost as strong as Faceless Void’s ultimate. And keep in mind that she can cast it every 12 seconds. This means that if you’re on the opposite side of the river, you get seven seconds of no debuffs (from her, at least) followed by five seconds of silence + 25% slow.

As a melee carry, this spell completely destroys you. As a support, it makes it hard for you to help your teammates. Any hero that has channeling abilities, such as Witch Doctor, greatly suffers from DP’s Silence ability. But that’s not all.

DP also has her Crypt Swarm, which can clear lanes very quickly because it deals 325 damage in a large area and can be cast every 6s. The cost is 110 mana at level 4, which is not that much given DP’s high intelligence gain per level (+3) and item build.

She often goes for Shiva’s Guard, Kaya & Sange, Eternal Shroud, and Eul’s Scepter. All of these items give her excellent sustainability.

For situations that would cause most spell casters to run, Death Prophet is equipped with Spirit Siphon, which drains 100 HP per second and heals her for the same amount. This ability is perfectly viable for the first 25-30 minutes because it creates an HP difference of 1200 during its 6s duration.

The hero’s ultimate, Exorcism, deals physical damage, which means that BKBs will not help against it. Buildings suffer greatly when this ability is used, and it lasts for 40s! The movement speed bonus is tremendous: 12 – 20%. Combined with other movement speed items and the slows you can apply, it makes you inescapable.

When Exorcism is cast, the enemy team usually has to run away. This makes it possible for DP to destroy key buildings or kill Roshan. The only downside is the cooldown: 150s. That’s why DP players often buy themselves an Octarine Core.

Header: BlossomAlex’s Workshop (Dota 2 community)