Glacius

[Padawanabee]

The berserker warriors of the land of Frostfield have long had a legend of Glacius, an ancient warrior who would break free of his frozen prison when the lands of Newerth needed him most. When he did not appear to combat the Beast Horde, many lost faith. But on the eve of the war with the Hellbourne, a man made more of cold than flesh emerged from the tundra, wrapped in mist and armored in ice. The stranger claimed the name Glacius, and his potent magics have made believers of those who doubted his identity.


http://honwiki.net/w/images/4/4f/Glaciushero.gif (http://honwiki.net/wiki/File:Glaciushero.gif)

Glacius

Stats
Primary Attribute: Intelligence
Str - 16 + 1.7
Agi - 17 + 1.6
Int - 21 + 2.9
Armor - 1.44
Damage - 43-51
Range - 600


Contents


Skills
Skill Build
Items
Strategy

General Strategy
Skill use and Synergies


When to pick Glacius

Friends
Foes


Support Tips

Babysitting
Stacking and pulling neutrals for your carry
Ward tips


Replay(s)





Skills



http://honwiki.net/w/images/thumb/1/1b/Glaciusskill1.gif/96px-Glaciusskill1.gif (http://honwiki.net/wiki/File:Glaciusskill1.gif) Tundra Blast

Glacius assaults a group of enemies with an explosion of ice. All enemies hit by the explosion are damaged and have their movement and attack speed slowed.

Type: Magic
Range: 700
Radius: 400
Cast Time: 0.5 Seconds
Mana Cost: 100 / 120 / 140 / 160
Cooldown: 15.0 Seconds

Deals 80 / 130 / 180 / 230 Magic damage and applies Tundra Blast to all units in a 400 radius for 5 seconds.

A powerful damage-dealing slow that affects a distant area. Good for catching enemy heroes.

Tundra Blast Effects
30% Movement Slow
-20 Attack Speed

http://honwiki.net/w/images/thumb/f/fb/Glaciusskill2.gif/96px-Glaciusskill2.gif (http://honwiki.net/wiki/File:Glaciusskill2.gif) Ice Imprisonment

Glacius encases a target enemy unit in ice. The target unit is frozen solid, rendering it unable to move or attack. The target unit takes damage over time while frozen. If an ally is frozen, they are protected by ice.

Type: Magic
Range: 500
Cast Time: 0.5 Seconds
Mana Cost: 115 / 125 / 140 / 150
Cooldown: 10.0 Seconds

Performs a mini-stun on target then applies Frozen for 1.5 / 2 / 2.5 / 3 seconds.

When cast on an ally, applies Frosted for 1.5 / 2 / 2.5 / 3 seconds.

A single-target disable. Relative to similar spells, it lasts a long time but does not silence the target. Useful disable and has some utility in preventing damage on allies.

Frozen Effects
Immobilized
Disarmed
Revealed
70 Magic damage per second

Frosted Effects
Immobilized
Disarmed
Revealed
20 / 40 / 60 / 80% Damage Reduction

Notice that you can still cast spells while Frosted, and enemies can cast spells while Frozen. This is to offset the 3 second duration, which is longer than most stuns.

http://honwiki.net/w/images/thumb/d/d6/Glaciusskill3.gif/96px-Glaciusskill3.gif (http://honwiki.net/wiki/File:Glaciusskill3.gif) Chilling Presence

Glacius helps his allies remain cool in the face of danger, giving them a clear and calm mind. Increases Mana regeneration to all allied Heroes no matter where they are on the map.

Passive Aura

Aura Effects
Radius: Global
Target: Ally Heroes
0.50 / 1.00 / 1.50 / 2.00 Mana Regeneration

For many people, this ability is the reason to pick Glacius. It gives useful mana regen to your entire team, a powerful asset in the early game.

http://honwiki.net/w/images/thumb/8/87/Glaciusskill4.gif/96px-Glaciusskill4.gif (http://honwiki.net/wiki/File:Glaciusskill4.gif) Glacial Downpour

Glacius showers the area around him with shards of ice. The shards will randomly strike around Glacius, slowing the attack and movement speed of nearby enemies and dealing intense damage to them.

Type: Superior Magic
Range: 400
Radius: 635
Channeling Time: 0.0 Seconds
Mana Cost: 150 / 175 / 200
Cooldown: 150.0 / 120.0 / 90.0 Seconds

Activation
Spawns an Ice Shard every 0.1 seconds at a random location within radius for 4 seconds or until ability is cancelled. Applies Glacial Freeze to targets within a 200 radius of where an Ice Shard impacts and damages them for 105/170/250 Magic damage

Deals 170/250/310 with Staff of the Master

Glacial Freeze Effects
30% Movement Slow
-20 Attack Speed

With even moderate success/luck, this ultimate will do very good damage to all enemies in the AoE. However, it is possible to get unlucky and do little, or lucky and do significantly more damage than usual. Also, it has a very low AoE and can be inturrupted, so casting this in many situations will just get you stunned and killed quickly. Use this ult with discretion.



Skill Build


You don't have to follow the builds exactly, as these are more like guidelines than anything else. In general, though, it's one each of the nukes/disables, as much Presence as is necessary, and then focusing on Imprisonment and a level of your ult.


Aura Focus



Tundra Blast
Ice Imprisonment
Chilling Presence
Chilling Presence
Chilling Presence
Glacial Downpour
Chilling Presence
Ice Imprisonment
Ice Imprisonment
Ice Imprisonment
Glacial Downpour
Tundra Blast
Tundra Blast
Tundra Blast
Stats
Glacial Downpour
Stats
etc.


Roamer/Ganker



Tundra Blast
Ice Imprisonment
Chilling Presence
Chilling Presence
Ice Imprisonment
Ice Imprisonment
Ice Imprisonment
Tundra Blast/Chilling Presence
Tundra Blast/Chilling Presence
Glacial Downpour
Glacial Downpour
Tundra Blast
Chilling Presence/Tundra Blast
Chilling Presence/Tundra Blast
Stats
Glacial Downpour
Stats
etc.






Reasoning


Tundra Blast is a huge AoE long range AoE slow that lasts 5 seconds. There is absolutely no reason to not get it at 1. However, it's only scaling aspects are damage and mana cost, so it isn't leveled until everything else of importance is maxed and the damage becomes important in team fights.

Ice Imprisonment is the Glacius spell with the most utility. It, along with Tundra Blast, both receive one point early to control the lane. It's best aspects scale with levels, so it will be the Glacius spell with the 2nd most priority in leveling.

Chilling Presence and how much of it you want will decide your Glacius build. You will ALWAYS want at least 2-3 levels, otherwise you might as well have picked Demented Shaman or Plague Rider. However, depending on the lineups and what role you're focusing on, you will either finish leveling Chilling Presence or Ice Imprisonment first, and then focusing on the other one.

Glacial Downpour is occasionally useful, but between the risk factor and lack of mana early game it's often better to put it off until the mid game.



Always take Tundra Blast at 1 and Ice Imprisonment at 2. These are essential to lane dominance.

Get at least 2 points of Presence early, and balance taking the other two over whether you want better mana regen on your allies or hero killing power.
Glacial Downpour is situationally excellent, so while points aren't essential early, you'll want to pick them up by the mid game.
Tundra Blast is filler, as it adds damage and mana cost only. However, having it leveled by the mid game, where team fights start to take over, will be an advantage if you opted for increased levels.






Items


Initiation



http://i34.tinypic.com/dxmz3k.jpghttp://i38.tinypic.com/313jh2d.jpghttp://i35.tinypic.com/20879ea.jpg
http://i36.tinypic.com/33o4aro.jpghttp://i36.tinypic.com/33o4aro.jpghttp://i36.tinypic.com/33o4aro.jpg

1 mana pot - 50g
2 runes of blight - 180g
3 minor totems - 159g
1 monkey/wards - 200g
Total - 589g

Some basic regen, chances are you'll be needing hp regen as you'll want to harass enemies often, but mana regen will not be needed in huge amounts as you'll want to use your spells situationally and your aura will kick in at 3-4.

The totems become a Power Supply, and the monkey is a classic support buy at the beginning. If you're going to the top lane and an ally is buying the monkey, you should get wards. See the ward guide for information on where to place them.

Core

http://i34.tinypic.com/sff52q.jpghttp://i36.tinypic.com/a59izo.jpghttp://i36.tinypic.com/w7mvsi.jpg
http://i36.tinypic.com/3128cp2.jpg

and

http://i38.tinypic.com/143q5it.jpg or http://i33.tinypic.com/2wd9esz.jpg

That +5 magic armor is actually quite effective against heavy magic damage lineups. I usually forgo the Bracelet in favor of Vestments against teams with at least 1-2 heroes such as Fayde, Pebbles, Pyromancer, Slither, etc.

and

http://i36.tinypic.com/33dy24x.jpg


Power Supply - 603
Mystic Vestments or Fortified Bracelet - 400-510
Ghost Marchers - 1500
Wards of Sight - 200 (each)
Homecoming Stones - 135 (each)
flying monkey - 400
Total - 3038+

The power supply and bracelet/vestments give survivability against burst. I prefer ghost marchers to any other boots option, as the speed and positioning granted from them will keep you alive longer than any hp or armor granted from the alternatives.

Also, Ghost marchers give a large damage boost, and it quickly adds up considering the amount of disable Glacius has. The only alternative to Ghost Marchers would be Plated, but after the nerf I would only get them against heavy physical damage teams.

After

Do not expect to get these items. I've gone entire games with nothing but that basic core, which I only managed to obtain around 30 minutes in. This is because Glacius' job is not to farm, but to ensure farm for his allies. Also, because in my average Glac game I end up spending at least 3k-4k on Wards of Sight and Revelation.

Wards of Sight - 200 each - Never stop buying and placing these wards.

Wards of Revelation - 200 each - Use to counter ward and to counter invis heroes.

Portal Key - 2150 - A huge boost in survivability and catching enemies. An everygame item once you've obtained your core.

Route 1 - Shrunken Head -> Staff of the Master - 8300

Focusing on his situational but effective ult. Portal Key will make positioning easy, and Shrunken Head will prevent most interrupts.

Keep in mind, however, that some skills (Pharaoh's ultimate, Plague Rider's ultimate) will still interrupt you even with Shrunken Head activated.

SotM obviously improves the damage dealt if you've opted for this route, though you will get much better success if you get it after the other two items.

Route 2 - Support Items

Basically, whatever support style items your team could want. Puzzlebox for invis heroes, or Astrolabe for some staying power.

Hellflower is extremely effective against heroes such as Magebane, Wretched Hag, or any carry who has built a Shrunken Head. Between your Ice Imprisonment and Hellflower, you can keep a hero like Magebane from Flashing for up to 8 seconds, usually enough to kill a Magebane as the player rarely stacks hp, relying on Flash for survivability.

Kuldra is always a good option if you can afford it, and Barrier Idol was made to counter heavy AoE teams.

[Padawanabee]

Strategy



General Strategy


Glacius is a support hero. This means you will spend the majority of your time finding one or more reliable allies and giving them the best game of their life. Often I spend more time warding and stacking camps than actually fighting, though when a fight goes down you must have a tp scroll to ALWAYS be there and disable enemies.

Glacius can do a decent amount of damage on his own, having two nukes and a decent attack point, but he is not a 1v1er. The nature of disables, and a hero such as Glacius with multiple disables, is that their power exponentially increases with every ally in the vicinity. Glacius on his own is .5 of a hero. Glacius and Zephyr are worth 2.5 heroes.

I have sections designated for doing complicated things such as warding/counterwarding and stacking neutral camps so that allies can clear them. These are things that support heroes do, and these are things that win games, even if they aren't things that get put in replays or talked about in competitive chat.

Glacius is not a nuker. Apart from his situationally devastating ultimate, his spells focus on utility more than power. Ice Imprisonment on it's own only does 210 of damage, but 3 seconds of auto attack from a carry will do far more than the extra 90 magic would have if it were a nuke.

In fights, it is almost always beneficial to hang back and avoid the AoE's, and to avoid getting focused or caught. You will never be very tanky if you focus on support, so do not run into a fight all rambo style, because 9 times out of 10 it will be an instant death for your hero.



Skill use and synergies


Tundra Blast

Glacius can affect an area 700 units away with this spell. That's slightly farther than any heroes range. It also has a radius of 400, meaning it's largest reach is 900 units, which is HUGE. It will damage and slow all enemies within the AoE. While the damage isn't great, the slow is very nice for an AoE spell.

The damage portion if this spell is rather unimportant 90% of the time. The best feature is it's amazing range, coupled with it's slowing power. If you do choose to use it to harass, you will be fairly safe with it's distance, although most of the time you will be using the spell to catch fleeing enemies.

Provided your movespeed is relatively close to your opponents, 30% slow over 5 seconds should be enough time for you to get into 500-600 range. You can either follow up with Ice Imprisonment or auto attacks.

It has a quick cast animation, so you can use it just as well to slow down an enemy who is chasing you, but keep in mind that between the animation and turning times they will have a small amount of time to catch up to you.

Summary: Amazing range and utility in the form of slow, will often be used to disrupt enemies or allow for you to catch up and Imprison them.

Notes:


Don't dismiss it's combat uses. At 4 it becomes a powerful nuke on it's own, and the -20 attack at early levels will bring even good auto attackers down to Glacius' level, albeit briefly.
Again, it's stellar 900 max range and AoE effect makes it very useful for setting up damage, even though it may not do much on it's own.
Spamming spells to harass is not Glacius' style, he prefers to follow up disables with auto attacks or more disable.

Ice Imprisonment

Unlike it's counterpart, Tundra Blast, Ice Imprisonment has a very short range. 500 on a glass hero like Glacius forces you to get a little dirty to cast it. However, it has a very short cooldown of 10 seconds, with a duration of 3 seconds. This is a very good "uptime" for a spell, meaning Glacius can keep someone immobilized almost 33% of the time.

The utility of this spell is astounding. The most common use of this spell will be as an offensive disable, as an enemy is unable to do anything but cast spells and take a lot of damage. It can be used on an ally, and while it will immobilize them just as an enemy, they will be mitigating up to 80% of the damage taken and still be able to cast spells. Often enemies don't know better than to switch targets for 3 seconds, or the spells are already flying, and that 80% mitigation is extremely powerful.

In fact, I'm gonna go on for another paragraph about it's uses on allies (and yourself) because it is just that good. It's defensive uses are most useful in team fights, where spells are being dropped without too much thought about placement. For example, a Pyrmancer in a team fight will almost always want to drop all three nukes on the highest-threat target. If that target is frozen, Pyromancer will most likely keep dropping spells for another second or two before he realizes his mistake.

In skirmishes, you'll be using it offensively most of the time. It isn't as useful on a pyromancer with spells up as it would be on a Magebane, so keep the non-silencing factor in mind, always.

It is also useful for picking up the occasional neutral camp, as it lasts for 10s on all creeps. This applies to things like Ophelia's creeps and puzzlebox minions. You can also imprison a unit tanking a tower for a little bit of pushing power, but this is a rare use of the spell.

Notes:


Short cooldown and high duration gives it a good "uptime" despite it's low range making it dangerous to use.
Great utility, and who to cast it on is often an important choice to the outcome of fights. When in doubt, use it on an enemy auto-attacker or the most out-of-position bad guy.
While it's defensive use on an ally is highly situational, the rewards can be equally high and you feel pretty ****ing awesome if you save an ally this way.
When cast on self, provides for a fairly safe use of your ultimate, though it won't stop stuns or inturrupts, just mitigate any damage enemies might throw your way for 3s.
Lasts for 10 seconds on creeps, the same as the spell's cooldown. Useful for killing neutrals for a couple hundred extra gold.
Can be used on a friendly creep to mitigate tower damage briefly while pushing.



Chilling Presence

There is very little strategy to a passive mana aura.

Glacial Downpour

Glacius dances on his ice platform, and random chunks of ice fall from the sky. Enemies about 100-200 range are hit the hardest (on average), but anyone in the range of the spell is subject to being hit anywhere from 1-30 times. It deals damage and slows anyone hit by a random blast.

Strategy with this spell is all about placement and timing. If you have Pkey or Shrunken Head you can disregard each hurdle, respectively.

If you can utilize fog when casting this, such as if you are on a hill or hidden by trees, it will be much more effective than if you are in the middle of an enemy team with their stuns off cooldown.

Notes:



Can do a colossal amount of damage if you aren't interrupted and enemies stay in the AoE.
Ice Imprisonment can be used on an enemy to hold them down, or on yourself to mitigate the damage enemy teams will likely throw at you.
Utilize fog of war and enemy cooldowns to get a successful ulti in. Portal Key and Shrunken Head are also of great assistance.
95% of the time, trying to ult with Glac will be a suicidal endeavor. I often end up just using my 2 disables at a safe distance more than I run in and try to ult an enemy team.


Synergies

http://honwiki.net/w/images/thumb/f/fb/Glaciusskill2.gif/96px-Glaciusskill2.gif (http://honwiki.net/wiki/File:Glaciusskill2.gif) + http://honwiki.net/w/images/thumb/1/1b/Glaciusskill1.gif/96px-Glaciusskill1.gif (http://honwiki.net/wiki/File:Glaciusskill1.gif) You can either slow someone out of range with Tundra Blast to get them into Ice Imprisonment range, or you can use Ice Imprisonment, and then Tundra Blast them when the duration ends. Keep in mind that in the former case you should let the 5 second slow last as long as possible before Imprisoning, as casting Imprisonment right after Tundra Blast will waste some of the slow's usefulness.
http://honwiki.net/w/images/thumb/f/fb/Glaciusskill2.gif/96px-Glaciusskill2.gif (http://honwiki.net/wiki/File:Glaciusskill2.gif) + http://honwiki.net/w/images/thumb/8/87/Glaciusskill4.gif/96px-Glaciusskill4.gif (http://honwiki.net/wiki/File:Glaciusskill4.gif) You can either Imprison yourself for 80% damage reduction, or an enemy so that they can't escape your ult's AoE.




When to pick Glacius


Friends



Glacius is a situational pick to a degree. He's not as situational as many heroes, such as poor lane controllers like Keeper of the Forest or Chronos, in that he will almost always be an asset to his lane. However, there are lineups that take advantage of his skillset more than others. Namely, two kinds of heroes.

A. Designated Carry - While Glacius may not be the best babysitter on Newerth, he is my current favorite. A good attack point, 600 range, 2 harass/disables, and a lack of reliance on items put him on par with counterparts such as Plague Rider and Demented Shaman.

Glacius babysits in a very aggressive manner. Rather than using heals or consistent denies, he forces the enemy to back off of the creeps. Either by harassing with auto attacks and regening it back with consumables, or using his double disable combo in conjunction with his carry to get a kill.

A 900 range slow to set up a 1.5-3 second disable will guarantee some damage input from the lane partner. If this partner is Zephyr, Swiftblade, Predator, or a variety of other possible designated carries, it will provide a very threatening lane. Swift+Glac is silly in it's synergy, and Glac+Zeph+tower is my favorite kind of Bloodlust.

B. Mana-dependent heroes - It would be silly to list all the heroes who benefit from a mana regen aura. Armadon, Accursed, and Madman are just three I could think of with no effort. The global mana aura is what seperates Glac from his counterparts, and is a huge part of why you would pick him. I, myself, love playing Armadon. But I only pick him when someone on my team is going Glac, just because of how immensely beneficial his aura is to my early game.

You don't have to have A or B when picking Glacius, but I do know that these are the conditions in place when I opt to play him.

Foes

Glacius has two major weaknesses. His support role focus on buying wards over Fortified Bracelets and 1.7 str gain make him fairly squishy throughout the game, so burst types of heroes will have an advantage over him. The other weakness is magic immunity, which will ignore his powerful ability to disable his opponents.




Support Tips


Babysitting

Glacius' best laning option is to babysit the designated carry. The key to babysitting is to give your lane partner the best lane possible, even if it costs you your early game success.

You will spend much of your time harassing the enemy heroes, so that they don't harass your carry. You will probably need lots of hp regen in the form of consumables to keep this up. Keep in mind while harassing that you don't play too aggressive and get yourself or your carry killed, but try to maintain pressure as much as you can. When using your spells, you shouldn't just cast them, as the damage they do on their own is negligable. You should look for them to be out of position, and then slow/imprison them with things like a creep advantage or their ally being far away, and follow up with auto attacks whenever possible.

You should spend most of your time harassing the enemies, but at the same time there are many other things you can be doing while babysitting. In many cases you'll want to neutral pull, as explained in detail below. You can also deny allied units, and pick up the occasional creep kill of your own if the carry won't get it, such as if he's a melee and it's far away or he's pulling/dead/whatever.

I do a fairly good job of babysitting SS in the replay, if you want a visual guide.

Stacking and pulling neutrals for your carry

Replay 1679729 - I stack for my SS at 15-16 on the clock (replay clock, not game clock), and then we clear it afterward for much $$$.

Safe lane only - If the lane gets pushed, you will want to stack and pull the neutral camp nearest your lane. Stacking the pull involves hitting a creep at :52 on the clock. This will get two camps at the pull if done successfully. You can then pull the camp into your creeps.

The reason you stack before pullling is that more allied creeps will be killed or denied. If you pull without stacking you will end up pushing the lane when your pulled creeps meet up with the next wave.

If your designated carry has AoE skills, such as Soulstealer or Swiftblade, or is making a Runed Axe, such as The Dark Lady might, or can last a while while fighting neutrals, such as Predator, you'll want to stack multiple camps in your jungle at once for them.

Ward tips

The best places for wards are on the cliffs surround rune spawns, as they provide sight of runes for bottle gankers and usually sight of the popular gank avenues for farm safety.

Ward guide (http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/showthread.php?t=119117)

Replay 1679729 - I successfully counterward at 5:30 to 6 on the clock (replay clock, not game clock), and unsuccessfully counterward between 23:10 and 23:45, despite placing the Wards of Revelation in good spots.

[Padawanabee]

Replay - 1679727 (http://replays.heroesofnewerth.com/match_replay.php?mid=1679727)

I play a 1600+ no ab with my friend swobew and 3 pubs who knew each other. Not exactly high skilled, but I do everything right and follow my guides advice so it's a good replay for this purpose.