Soul Reaper

[Glorify1]

http://img16.imageshack.us/img16/5070/soulreaperz.jpg (http://img16.imageshack.us/i/soulreaperz.jpg/)

Introduction
Most of the guides that I've skimmed through on the forums are pretty bad, and as this was the second most popular choice in the poll I've chosen him to be the next hero I write a guide for. He's a top level hero, nerfed subtly by the item nerfs to bloodstone and heart, but still 100% viable especially in HoN.

AoE damage/heal skill
Deals massive aoe damage
Executes a target at ~50% health
Strong range and animation
Strong solo
Likely to be targeted due to aoe abilities
Weaker in lanes, still viable however
Low movespeed
Requires quite a bit of gear


Skills
http://img220.imageshack.us/img220/616/nukeia.jpg (http://img220.imageshack.us/i/nukeia.jpg/)
Judgement is Soul Reaper's bread and butter, it allows him to simultaneously heal your allies while dealing damage to the enemies. It has a very short cooldown allowing you to spam it during team fights. Allies will get a green version of a spirit that flies into them, where as the enemy heroes who are struck receive a red scythe wielding grim reaper.

http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/605/auranj.jpg (http://img200.imageshack.us/i/auranj.jpg/)
Withering Presence is your main source of aoe damage next to Judgement, allowing you to deal massive and crippling damage to opponents if they allow you to remain living. The AoE is big enough that it should encompass all enemy heroes during team fights. This when combined with your first ability is extremely deadly, and one of the reasons you're focused during fights. It also provides massive damage during the early phase, merely because it's almost a permanent degen provided to opponents but also because it's so gradual it can in fact take people off guard.

http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/4374/inhumannature.jpg (http://img197.imageshack.us/i/inhumannature.jpg/)
Inhuman nature would be far more useful if you didn't have basically a single ability to spam. It does have it's uses, though should never be skilled beyond level 2, and when you do skill it to to you generally only do so in heavily aggressive or pushing strats.

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/9477/executeg.jpg (http://img87.imageshack.us/i/executeg.jpg/)
Demonic Execution is what makes you so deadly to heroes during team fights. It allows you to basically assassinate someone once they get past a certain threshold, which turns the fight into a 4v5 right off the bat. Similar to Axe's cull, this is however reduced by magic immunity, but easily able to kill someone much sooner than Axe.

Skill Build
1. Judgement/Withering Presence
2. Withering Presence/Judgement
3. Judgement
4. Stats/Inhuman Nature
5. Judgement
6. Demonic Execution
7. Judgement
8. Stats/Inhuman Nature
9. Stats/Withering Presence
10. Stats/Withering Presence
11. Demonic Execution
12. Stats/Withering Presence
13-15. Stats/Withering Presence
16. Demonic Execution
17-21. Stats
22-25. Stats/Inhuman Nature

First of all, depending on what you take first, it's obvious you'll take the other next. The aura does best when used against dual lanes, if you're soloing the strong lane or in a dual lane yourself, since it effectively doubles it's effectiveness. Your next decision is to choose between stats and inhuman your next open levels(4/8), and it's all dependent on that you're running and what your opponent is running. Stats provide that instant health/mana/damage that you may need in your lane, or even in early game skirmishes, where as Inhuman will provide you with a steady source of mana. I only suggest inhuman if you're running a very aggressive gank and push strat, where you may have to use a significant portion of your mana and have to continue pushing. I personally don't require the skill during the laning process, but others may. You can opt to take more points into stats, but you'll want to have aura maxed pre 16, so keep that in mind. Obviously the rest or all of inhuman nature is taken in the last levels.

Item Builds
Basic starting items
http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/4267/startingitems.jpg (http://img32.imageshack.us/i/startingitems.jpg/)
The starting items I suggest all link into later items, providing no waste at all. The items are based off maximizing your base damage and mana pool, in addition to supplying a sufficient amount of regen. The healing potion is for emergencies if they chase you into fog, or it can also be used if you take critical damage. Runes of blight are obviously meant to keep you up as high as possible, or to pre-use just before going into an enounter. Finally, the clarity provides mana regen if you find yourself running out of mana quickly.

Early Game
http://img651.imageshack.us/img651/6626/earlyitems.jpg (http://img651.imageshack.us/i/earlyitems.jpg/)
This should be your goal during the early game, opting for two null talismans early if you need the base damage and health or rushing your boots if you require the survivability it adds in addition to movespeed and pushing power. Your goal is to finish it all, as it provides you with a significant mana pool and armor base, something this hero is lacking. The ring plugs into later items, and provides you with the ability to massively add armor to your creeps, allowing for strong solo pushing when combined with your ability to nuke and heal simultaneously.

Mid game
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/3120/miditems.jpg (http://img175.imageshack.us/i/miditems.jpg/)
Nome's is a new item to HoN and it provides this hero just about everything he needs - mana regen, armor, additional heals. While lacking in the health department, our next item(staff of the master), provides cheap and easy steps to increasing your hitpoints. I would suggest getting your +10 strength item before your int item, but your best bet is easily starting with the Glowstone.

End game
http://img684.imageshack.us/img684/2416/enditems.jpg (http://img684.imageshack.us/i/enditems.jpg/)
A staff of the master upgrades your ult, allowing you to execute an opponent with ~half health. This is useful for obvious reasons, but with the change to the item, it's much easier to build and every piece is beneficial to what you need. It's very easy to build in comparison to a sheepstick, so you really shouldn't have any problems pumping this out at this stage of the game. Finally, if you find yourself just rolling in money, I'd suggest a sheepstick because it gives you basically infinite mana in addition to a disable. It's another one of those int items that adds both mana and hitpoints, so it increases your survivability as well as makes you multi-functional. Beyond that, I suggest merely using your best judgement, but tanking items are generally good(frostfield plate, headdress->pipe, heart).

Starting the game
Choosing a lane
This hero is very good at doing just about whatever it is required, but excels are soloing in two different places. He can solo mid, he can solo the strong lane(bottom for sentinel, top for scourge), and he can also be thrown with a decent babysitter against tough offensive lanes. Common strategies is to throw Soul Reaper and Accursed against powerhouse lanes like Magmus/Pyro, Hammerstorm/Pyro, etc because it turns their offense into their weakness. Their burst can't take you down, and Soul Reaper is far better at harassing than a pyro is.

Scouting for the rune
This is important, but this hero has very negligible early game damage and no disables, so he can either be used as bait or simply as damage/heals if a skirmish should happen near the runes. If you're soloing middle, double damage or illusion runes should be taken as they heavily increase your ability to cs. That is unless you have a very strong lane that could first blood with the rune.

Beginning of the laning phase and controlling the runes
I will never suggest a bottle for this hero, and as such, you gain far less benefit from runes. This doesn't mean you can leave the opponent to grab them over and over, as this will make both laning harder and generate kills for the opposing team via easier ganks. The runes are best controlled with a crow, as this completely negates their ability to grab a rune and also gives you more experience since you don't have to leave the lane. You should basically last hit as much as possible, harassing with heal when you are in a position to snag multiple creeps and dink opponents. If you have the lane in good equilibrium near your tower, generally where you are atop the hill and your opponent is on the bottom of it, this should be disregarded as you're in a heavily favored position over them. Harassing should be done against certain heroes, generally ones you don't want to farm, or want to leave in crippled hitpoint range for ganks or solo kills. Some examples would be valkyrie(as shown in my video), or arachna. And as with this build we'll be leveling aura, it's important that you stand in range of it to clip them, however you shouldn't compromise your positioning too much to achieve this.

Early game
Item Progression
Early game item progression depends on what you need in your lane - if you're having trouble last hitting it's best to finish those two nulls as quick as possible, though if you're having an easy time quickly building your boots can do multiple things. It allows you to easily push your lane when you want to scout rune or gank, and even allows you to push towers. It also allows you to tower dive, since your creeps can tank about twice as long, and you don't actually even have to auto attack to get kills. Merely running alongside and nuking when it comes up is sufficient, when combined with aura. Ring can be bought whenever you feel necessary, so if you're really just demolishing middle it might be best to buy your Nome's right off the bat.

http://img180.imageshack.us/img180/4273/branches.jpg (http://img180.imageshack.us/i/branches.jpg/)
This does two things: freeing up your inventory, and leaving your items close to your tower in case you finish an item and once again have inventory slots. It's pretty common, and if you've ever wondered why pro players leave items like branches near their tower, it's to leave them in range to pick up should they have free item slots. Freed either by completing recipes or using consumables. While this picture shows two branches on the ground, with the updated build you really shouldn't even have more than one and you'll only run into this problem if you delay boots by a lot.

Ganking
Soul Reaper moves very slow, having a base movespeed of 290(10 under average), as such most of his ganks will be done via counter ganks by utilizing the TP scrolls. Notice allies getting tower dived bottom? TP, heal, and ult something ASAP. While you can run down there and gank, it's generally very noticeable, but if you KNOW some key area doesn't have wards don't be afraid to exploit this fact.

Maximizing regen and manabattery/powerupply
Once you finish treads, you have the unique ability to (more easily) boost your regenerative abilities. While this probably sounds foreign and complicated, it really isn't, and I'll explain. Let's say with strength treads on you have 500/1000 health, and with agi treads it switches to 400/800. Assuming that we have a flask which heals 400, we obviously will only get to 900/1000 with strength treads on. As such, if we switch to agi treads and then flask we will be at 100%, allowing us to switch to strength treads with full hitpoints. This can be done with mana as well, and more notably with your power supply. Have 10 charges? Switch to agi treads(lowers your mana/hitpoints as low as possible) before you use it to reap as much benefit from it as you can. This can be done by dropping all of your stat items, for example your null's on the ground or the crow and quickly using you regen, or if you happen to find yourself with treads(which isn't a bad item).

Why does this work? Well, when you add hitpoints or mana via items or otherwise, you keep the same % hitpoints and mana, so by lowering your total before using any items that would heal you, you effectively increase your % to a higher amount than you would of if just normally regenerating. This can be done also by dropping your items in the ground/chicken, or any other method of lowering your total hitpoint/mana before healing.

Powersupply and manabattery are useful, but I only tend to take it if the enemies are good for it. A good example would be dual stuns, thunderbringer, or most of all armadon.

Team pushes
Either offensive or defensive, you should be at every team fight. You're far too useful at this stage in the game(~7-11) to not be in team fights, as you can literally be a 2k swing in damage with a single spell. In comparison to other heroes, all depending on how well you farmed, you should be pretty beefy at this stage in the game. With strength treads on you should be tilting around 1.1-1.2k hitpoints, making you one of the highest health heroes(especially int heroes) in the game. This doesn't mean you can run into the fight, balls to the wall, but you can take quite a bit of punishment. Depending on your team lineup, if you have a strong early game, you should try to push down towers as you're able to heal all of your allies and creeps while subsequently damaging all of your opponents in range. This gives you alone very strong pushing power, but also doubles as defending power, which is why I stress TPs as extremely important early on. You can defend towers, or show up to pushes near your own towers, and gain a very early economy advantage simply by knocking down their towers and keeping your own up.

[Glorify1]

Videos relating to the guide
Scrim between QuC and WNP, detailing my guide's item build and playstyle:
1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDsd73EShmM)
2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tt6qDrHPubU)
3 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUc3DQbHmwE)
4 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tYFeKYHYV68)

Recent pub game, altered skill build:
1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beDSMiYTVz8)
2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R14Of6ZL_Xw&feature=related)
3 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMfj5swdFcc&feature=related)
4 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq9qHg_kodQ&feature=related)
5 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVFyE-VNNt8&feature=related)

[Fenald]

I was going to steal your reserve and make you beg me to delete it.

[Glorify1]

[TT] Team Titties always gets their reserved post.

[Jigglypoop]

Sweet guide so far.
If Soul Reaper was the second most popular, who was the second?
I'm guessing Madman, since you mentioned you're going to make one for him.

[Fenald]

With staff of the master, if the target would die at 0 magic armor, demonic execution will 1 shot the person regardless of magic armor.

If the person will survive with 1 HP with 0 magic armor it'll get hit by magic armor.

This is a bug and should (NEEDS TO)be fixed but it's definitely worth mentioning that with staff of the master you can 1 shot that 55% magebane who has shamans headdress and 4/4 spell resistance.

[Ehbrus]

Does the aura effect cancel regen effects like mana/health pots regen rune/bottle as normal damage would?
I am going to test this when I'm home, however was just curious :)

[ElementUser]

Stats vs Heartstopper thoughts on levels 2 & 4?

Not even 1 point of Inhuman Nature (Sadist) at any point (except 22-25)?

[Glorify1]

Either or on stats vs aura, I prefer aura personally.

No, bad skill.

[Ekizel]

Weaker in lanes, still viable however

He's anything but weak if you actually get inhumane nature before level 22. As long as you land 2-3 last hits per creep wave you should have no problems keeping your mana up allowing you to spam your nuke/heal and keep your lane controlled. I'd rather be able to self heal / nuke at will than deal 5 damage per second, which gets weakened further by regeneration.

[crazysheep]

Does Inhuman Nature work on denies as well? If it does you might be able to use it without pushing your lane too much.

[theqat]

Either or on stats vs aura, I prefer aura personally.

No, bad skill.

Taking aura early doesn't cause the lane to be pushed too much, in your opinion?

[rockchalk]

i think soul reaper should rush staff and 1shot people

[Ekizel]

i think soul reaper should rush staff and 1shot people

Yeah, just wait for your aura to get them down, that way you actually have mana to use it.

[rockchalk]

Yeah, just wait for your aura to get them down, that way you actually have mana to use it.

I think my build of inhuman nature/aura is superior. I suck at regular last hitting so I get my last hits for inhuman from aura.

[ForumTroll]

Withering presence doesn't seem very good, at mid game when its level 4 the most you can expect an enemy hero to have HP wise is like 1.5-2k right? That is only 15-20 damage (it is true damage correct?) per second right? Doesn't really seem like it is great. Early game when people have only about 1k HP it'll only be doing 10 damage per second IF you have it level 4 (considerably less if you don't have it at level 4), that is 4 points for a very mediocre amount of harassing damage early on. The only situation I see it dealing acceptable damage is end game tanks who have stacked a ton of HP, where it could possibly deal damage similar to a mock of brilliance. Seems like once it gets to mid game and end game it would barely cancel out an enemies HP regeneration let alone do significant amounts of damage.

Correct me if I'm wrong about anything above.

I feel the gains from adding stats early on would be more useful.

[cvk]

pro way to play necro is max nuke/manaregen early on, then stats till lvl 12-13, then get your shitty aura skill cause thats about when tanks start getting buff with hp items. But then again, my psr is too low to talk about a hero i can dominate with:P

[Sabre]

I see why Angel's going for presence, but I too don't agree. Yes, Soul Reaper totally works as a great baby sitter, and should be giving the majority of lasthits to the 'baby'. But that doesn't negate the fact that a couple of kills can mean a whole extra judgment wave, and that over paltry dot doesn't stand up. Extra judgments mean lane control much more then simply mild harassment. If you're arguing he should be a babysitty and not a aggressive laner, then I think it stands all the more reason to go with Inhuman.

[Akavir]

I'm really not a pro (or maybe not even "average") by any means but reading this topic leaves me with a couple of questions.

You say Inhuman nature makes you push a lane because it makes you want to kill more creeps, no?
But wouldn't a passive AoE damage aura push the lane a lot more than last hitting creeps for mana?

I'm not mocking you, I really would like to see your opinion on this.

[Murlox]

Who likes to lane with constant -5 to -10 hp per second in early game?

I take aura too.

[Murlox]

@ akavir : you can't compare the damage done by your spell and the damage done by your aura...

Your spell will push the lane, not your aura (1% HP per second will hurt creeps for 10% hp at max, aka nothing).

However if you opt for inhuman nature, it means that you plan on using your spell, therefore you'll push the lane (~300 aoe damage does push a lane). Inhuman nature > push the lane, except if you don't use your spell.. in which case inhuman nature is useless.

[Akavir]

^Makes sense. I see now why it's a debatable topic then, thanks.

[LegoPirate]

@ akavir : you can't compare the damage done by your spell and the damage done by your aura...

Your spell will push the lane, not your aura (1% HP per second will hurt creeps for 10% hp at max, aka nothing).

However if you opt for inhuman nature, it means that you plan on using your spell, therefore you'll push the lane (~300 aoe damage does push a lane). Inhuman nature > push the lane, except if you don't use your spell.. in which case inhuman nature is useless.

but the spell only becomes spammable at lvl 7 forward, at which point you want to push your tower so you can go gank.

[Svante]

Judgment -> Inhuman Nature -> Demonic Execution -> Max Judgement -> Max Inhuman Nature -> Max Withering Presence (except get lv2 Demonic Execution at lv11) -> Stats



However if you opt for inhuman nature, it means that you plan on using your spell, therefore you'll push the lane (~300 aoe damage does push a lane). Inhuman nature > push the lane, except if you don't use your spell.. in which case inhuman nature is useless.

Not necessarily in the start. I use Judgement to harass nukers in mid lane and once I get manatube and I keep last hitting it'll be pretty easy to have lane control making the nuker loose a lot of XP from running away constantly. At level 7 as the guy said above it's time to push the tower any way.

Unless you need the extra mana from the threads I rather get BoT for pushing lanes later on. As long as you get your 2700g staff you'll have enough mana to keep spamming pretty freely before you finish your Totem.

I would start with nothing and rush
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_Manatube.jpg

After that I'd have lane control until I get
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_AcolytesStaff.jpg

Now I have enough mana to push down the tower (if not already done so) and rush for
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_Confluence.jpg
to finish my
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_Morph.jpg

I would also throw in a pair of boots in the build there depending on the necessity.
Then I'd continue with
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_FrostfieldPlate.jpg or http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_PostHaste.jpg or http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_Intelligence7.jpg

[Llama]

Guide in a guide! love it.

If you dont like the guide, just write another one, then I can be up to the readers to choose which one to play by

[InsaneOdin]

jup inhuman nature works better then the aura
everytime i pick soul reaper i get a positive score (winning depends on the team )

by spamming that first ability u and ur teammate can gank em more that means more kills that means gg

but its also easy to counter him :) if u know how

[Ranx]

I'm intrigued on your midgame solution without BoT and Sadist - BoT makes Soul Reaper capable of outleveling any other hero since he is guaranteed to wipe out an entire creep wave in 5 seconds from lvl 7 and on (regardless of other items) whilst keeping both is health and mana filled up nicely.

And yes, perhaps I will indeed make a Reaper guide, and I will in fact be looking forward to your responds to it.

[Kirbynator]

Fwiw my personal favourite build is Judgement, Inh nature, Judg, Inh, judg, ult, aura, inh, inh, stats until 11, ult, stats until 16, ult, aura, aura, aura, stats.

I dont like completely skipping inhuman nature, but I also like getting one level of aura ''early''. The first skill is worth two.

[Glorify1]

I'm intrigued on your midgame solution without BoT and Sadist - BoT makes Soul Reaper capable of outleveling any other hero since he is guaranteed to wipe out an entire creep wave in 5 seconds from lvl 7 and on (regardless of other items) whilst keeping both is health and mana filled up nicely.

And yes, perhaps I will indeed make a Reaper guide, and I will in fact be looking forward to your responds to it.

Soulreaper can outfarm your carry and do awesome job at keeping your own team's carry underfarmed.

By the way Izzy, I fraps'd that scrim and am in the process(long process -_-) of uploading it.

[FuzzyWuzzy]

Great guide so far Angel.

On the Inhuman Nature topic though, I find one level really helps early on and you don't lose much from the aura. I find Withering Presence also pushes somewhat the lane, so it's not such a clear cut distinction what to take. In addition, if you are going solo mid, a lot of the current heroes like Defiler and SS will push the lane with nukes, so you might as well use Judgement to push it away from your tower.

I personally would go for 1 level aura 1 level passive and stats, I've seen many Asian teams actually max aura even before nuke (but certainly not babysit anyone in lane).

P.S Did you actually say that Soul Reaper is used to babysit someone?! I have never seen such a thing in Dota or in HoN for that matter. Babysitting means almost no items, you yourself said a Necro without items sucks.

[Happyfish]

another quality guide

Aura > stats > useless skill

[Bloodaxe]

I've been playing this guy for a bunch of game, so i came to the conclusion. Aura over inhuman. But i never though of Stats before inhuman, i want to try that now.

Mostly becuase i think soul reaper shines late game. I either rush a bloodstone, or if i am getting focused a lot a lot, I get Vanguard and headress, then bloodstone. and laugh as they chase me, as I am spamming my spells, and my aoe is hurting.

The way to kill with this guy is to run. cast your spell, let them chase you, spam your spell more. Your aura + your spell will kill them a lot faster then just sitting there attacking them, then when it is to late for them, ult.

[Happyfish]

u guys can have your mana crutch while i'll enjoy the monster amounts of lane control the simple auto attack+aura harassment brings, deathpulse harssment is just icing on the cake.

dont underestimate how much mana regen this guy gets with new intel treads and a void stone and how fast you can farm it up when the enemy cant even lane near solo

[Larcenous]

Excellent guide.

[FuzzyWuzzy]

dont underestimate how much mana regen this guy gets with new intel treads and a void stone and how fast you can farm it up when the enemy cant even lane near solo

You are talking about 2.5k in there for Steamboots + Manatube. This is hardly laning phase (as I see the guide is pretty much early game guide still)

But I do agree the aura is quite nice on its own to warrant a discussion. And by the way, the guide's author is the typical Dota player, arrogant and jerky, yet anonymous for obvious reasons, so don't mind him.

There a millions of ways to play him, hell, Yamateh played Necro with Pulse + stats ;)

[dreamex]

One level of Sadist early is more valuable then an extra point of Heartstopper or Stats.

Just by denies and last hits you can afford to hit your lane mate that you're babysitting with more heals, you don't need to push the lane at all.

It has a lot of value early on because you allow your lanemate to be more aggressive.

*shrug*

[theqat]

Well, unlike almost anyone so far, I will say that I'm going to try Glorify's skill/item build :) The one time I played Reaper so far, I liked farming up with Judgment/"Sadist", but I was in a position to "carry" so it was okay to farm. This build sounds very interesting from a lane control perspective.

[Elerion]

Btw, there are no multi-roles. He was a good 'tank' because he has good passive dps w/ over 50 hp/sec regen from 2 items & a few kills. Since those 2 items give you a total of 6 regen now, gl.
The nerf is overrated.

To reach 50hp/sec regen, Necrolyte needed say 3000hp and 7 stacks on pre--both-nerfs bloodstone. That's achievable around level 20 with just those two items.

Given a 10 second fight where necro is under constant attack, the 6.59 Necrolyte would have:
3000 (hp) + 500 (regen) + 390 (3xheal) = 3890hp assuming no external sources of heal

Given a 10 second fight where necro is under constant attack, the 6.63 Necrolyte would have:
3000 (hp) + 60 (regen) + 390 (3xheal) = 3450hp assuming no external sources of heal

That's an 11% nerf in survivability. For 5 second fights it's a 6% nerf, for 20 seconds the number is 19%. For engagements lasting longer than that you're not unlikely to drop into heart-regen mode so the calculations are less straight forward. Note that additional heals lower the nerf severity.

While those are significant numbers, and the nerf to Heart especially is very well felt, it's hardly enough to kill his status as a high aoe damage tank.

[JellyBeans]

Nice guide, will be interesting to see this one play out as i can see the benefits of the 1k range -hp, might even affect the enemy heroes item builds :D.
Can i just request a picture ( or just words written next to it) of the boosted ultimate and the gains it has from the boost? thanks in advance

[Murlox]

Whitering presence does pure damage, means not reduced by armor, not reduced by magic resistance (of course not stopped by jere's shield either -tested)

At level 7, jereziah without stats has 815 hp, means that the aura deals up to 8,15 pure damage to him per second. In a 1000 radius range..

X2 if you dual lane. And it scales like crazy (while less effective in late game imho, where encounters are often shorter and more violent). It is awesome early / mid-game.

They can't lane against you.. and since they are forced to, they will just stay between 50-75% HP all the time -> perfect synergy with your ult. Rush in, judgement, whack whack, ulti, whack more during 1,5 sec stun if needed -> dead most of the time.

What, he escaped you with a ridiculous 25 hp? just chase him and the aura will get you the kill most the times (works against invis, too).

[ElementUser]

Well, until you get either Totem of Kuldra or Sacrificial Stone (or some other semi-expensive form of mana regen), 1 point of Inhuman Nature/Sadist goes a long way in most cases. It's the same thing with Legionnaire's Terrify/Battle Hunger: you get 1 point depending on the circumstances.

[Mephs]

What about Mock on this guy? It would probably only work in -em modes anyway as any competent team would mow you down in a heartbeat, but still, would be fun to melt teams just by getting near them :P.

Time/cost is better spent on something else for a hero that really (ideally) shouldn't be tanking.

[Brannock]

I have to wonder if many people objecting to the aura are playing EM, because hanging around for one full creep wave with Aura active will clear off 30% of your enemies' HP without you having to do anything at all.

It's one of the absolute best harassing skills in the game, and is even more lethal combined with his AOE nuke and his execution.

[Sabre]

This is not true, 12 mana per creep kill is hardly a reason to waste a point in a useless skill. Learn to manage your mana, it's a crutch, like buying vanguard because you need health regen.

You also (I think) get mana for each deny, of which you should be getting plenty while babysitting no?

[dreamex]

I have to wonder if many people objecting to the aura are playing EM, because hanging around for one full creep wave with Aura active will clear off 30% of your enemies' HP without you having to do anything at all.

It's one of the absolute best harassing skills in the game, and is even more lethal combined with his AOE nuke and his execution.

I hope you're aware standing at the creep line is not the best position for Soul Reaper.

[Happyfish]

optional skill is optional, once sheep is up u can pretty much spam forever without sadist anyways, so you go 15-20 mins without sadist.

so instead of spamming like a monkey and pushing your lane you get better lane harassment tool and presence over the opposition.

I perfer NOT to get meka on Necro, does that make my guinsoo any less effective?

build heros however you wish, this build in paticualar stress's lane control and disrupting your opponent which makes it so you do not have to spam deathpulse for your lane to win

[Murlox]

Looking at the video you posted, I think two things should merit your consideration regarding your guide.

1°) You'd have get a **** ton more mana at early stage of the game with a level 1 mana tap, since you last hit at the very least 4 creeps per wave. That's 48 mana minimum per wave. (edit: Hell you could even not buy mana potions)

Even though most of the time you get all 5 plus some denies, making that up to an average 72 mana per wave.

2°) Soul Reaper natural lane is mid, not babysitting, imo. (edit : he will babysit his whole team during all mid-game / late-game, thus needs the early game farm to improve that)

[dreamex]

the aura has 1000 radius...

And if you're at max range (600 units) and they're at max range (600 units) you're only hitting creeps with Withering Presence.

Like I said, against some lanes (where they run 2 melee for some reason LOL?) an extra level of Withering Presence could do more damage then the value of having 1 rank of Inhuman, but to discredit it completely against all possible lineups and opposing skill levels is pretty hilarious.

Feel free to hang around the creep line against a strong dual and let me know how that works for you.

[Pro]

Which video? I see no post with a video Q_Q

[FuzzyWuzzy]

http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/showthread.php?t=25026

[Pro]

ah k thanks. watched part 1 angel constantly running around with no mana and beeing useless and autoattacking. But atleast he got imba xtra 7dps while doing so! -_-

[Testknight]

Not sure if it's completely finished, but the information added since the last time I looked (during the flame wars) is great quality, so nice work Angel.

[Eros]

Guess my last post was deleted, along with many others that simply put forth their opinion on the guide. Regardless, I still feel that Sadist is not a bad skill and that a few points taken early on situationally is a great choice.

[JOSHPFANBOY]

I still prefer the mana giving skill over the aura early on, the enemies don't have much HP for the 1 percent to matter much.

You also will dominate your lane if you can last hit, which in turn lets you get the items you need quicker.

[Vodka]

Welp, I tried leveling aura early over sadist, and it worked great against a hag/scout middle lane (not sure what they were thinking). It pushes them beautifully back from the creepwave, there was no competition for cs and denies!

EDIT: I take back my criticism, baller aura is baller.

[dskzero]

Personally, I don't think Inhuman Nature is worth it. Early game it sounds like a good idea, but it's difficult to rely on, and Withering Presence can give you random last hits.

I actually think both abilities are a bit underpowered, but the character works very well regardless. Dunno what to think abou it.

[Robwiks]

... Inhuman Presence... ...but it's difficult to rely on...

and Withering Presence can give you random last hits.


Haha. :D

Anyway, i prefer the aura.

[dskzero]

Haha. :D

Anyway, i prefer the aura.

Yeah, I noted that :P At least you don't really have to manage the aura :P

[excessivly]

public > rush staff of master , then build up a radience then shivas and annihilate everybody. Just the way i play him, very agressivly and as long you have ulti you will stay alive.

[excessivly]

Time/cost is better spent on something else for a hero that really (ideally) shouldn't be tanking.

in a public, it annihilate with a shivas if you can get it imo.

[Glorify1]

Less spam.

[knarkadost]

I tried this guide out and seemed to have one problem, when I go 1v1 or 1v2 I tend to have no problem survivng at all but in 5v5 fights the low ms makes it hard for me to hit everyone with my heal. And if I rush in to the center to get the heal of for everyone the enemies simply disable and nuke me asap. I've watched your vid and still have no idea of what to do. Any tips? :D

[iKeff]

I used this and went 15-3.

Not bad, not bad indeed.

[Magil]

I hope this qualifies as "constructive criticism," but as this is a guide, I think you should go back and change all the areas where you refer to items by their DotA names. It'd be a lot less confusing for those who haven't played DotA.

[Glorify1]

I tried this guide out and seemed to have one problem, when I go 1v1 or 1v2 I tend to have no problem survivng at all but in 5v5 fights the low ms makes it hard for me to hit everyone with my heal. And if I rush in to the center to get the heal of for everyone the enemies simply disable and nuke me asap. I've watched your vid and still have no idea of what to do. Any tips? :D

Wait for all of the damage to go in if you can't survive the initial damage, and just clip as many of the enemies as you can while hitting most of your team.

[`M`ao]

You're talking more on the "you're the carry" build.
Not on the supportive build.
The dude's is not that inclined to be a carry.
IMO supportive junk like astro and pipe would suit his supportive role better?
Too much emphasis on survival with stuff like plate bkb and heart.
You're not the carry, what's the point surviving when you have nobody to support.
Sure you have aoe 1% mhp dmg which is pretty huge. Aoe dmg.
But when the battle doesn't last more than 5 seconds, it's pretty retarded the way you get pooped on.
Situational carry imo.
Guide should include other circumstances.
Undeniably you covered the carry part 99.97%.

[luvs2spooge]

Nice guide. But: in a premium guide, is it too much to ask that HoN terms are used in place of dota ones? Axe - legionnaire, tangos - ?? etc.

[stonedape]

Horrible guide. The item and skill build is totally wrong, you waste like 10k gold to have a decent mana regen, which you can get by putting a skill or two in Inhuman Nature. Soul Reaper needs HEALTH not mana items, so he can stay on his lane. Withering Presence does nothing to enemy heroes early game and it helps your creeps push, you really don't want to push early game.
And seriously, what the fu**k is this doing in premium section? My post is longer than this guide.

[St4ud3]

What is wrong with all these flamers. If you are that freaking good with this hero, play him your own way and don't look in these guides, that are intended for new players.
While I would put 1 pt in Inh Nature, the skill build is absolutely viable and so are the items, if you want to play him as a carry (which is fine btw).

There is more than one way to play a hero, so if you think you should play him another way, make your own guide and stop being an annoying *****.

[`M`ao]

I was extremely constructive in commenting.
I think a PREMIUM guide needs to cover all aspects with regard to the hero, not just one side of the story.
I shall share my skill build.

1.Withering
2.Judgement
3.Judgement.
4.Inhuman
5.Judgement.
6.Inhuman/Ulti
7.Judgement

Withering with massive aoe at lv 1 and 0.4% of mhp is insane.
The dmg of withering is increased by 0.2%/level but with lv 1 u get 0.4% straight off. Good value for skill point!
Stops enemies from regening naturally, which is insanely good against str heroes with higher hp pool but still relying on tangoes for regen.
Taking of ult based on your mana capacity, if you feel you have the mana for it by all means take it.
Do note however, 0.3 dmg / hp missing is rather low.
A guy with 800 mhp, and 600 hp missing, won't die from a lv 1 ult.
If you wanna do 200 dmg you're better off with a judge.
Depends if you have the oppurtunity to judge twice or you need to ult.
If not, take inhuman for the extra mana.
If you farm up mana regen early, max out inhuman later.
And oh yeah, power threads is garbage.
Versatility is the key.
Level and buy based on your CURRENT needs.

[Dio]

I've gotten so many aura kills that I completly forgot about the mana regen. I would never have builed him liek this before this guide. I really love it

[SwiftTurtle]

Horrible guide. The item and skill build is totally wrong, you waste like 10k gold to have a decent mana regen, which you can get by putting a skill or two in Inhuman Nature. Soul Reaper needs HEALTH not mana items, so he can stay on his lane. Withering Presence does nothing to enemy heroes early game and it helps your creeps push, you really don't want to push early game.
And seriously, what the fu**k is this doing in premium section? My post is longer than this guide.

WROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG! even 1 point in the aura will help you harrass alot better. who buy's regen when they first come to a lane? you stay fairly close to the creep line... depending on your opposition even behind enemy creep line to deny them xp and harrass hard.

I usually go with 1 point in aura at lvl 1 heal lvl 2 heal lvl 3 and depending on opposing hero(es), if range mana back if melee aura. 1 in aura along with you auto attacking and hitting them with your heal is enough to keep them tower hugging for MOST heroes. Ofcourse that only works if you are aggressive and can act quick.

Edit: Quality > Length
but i do agree SR will be better off with health and armor then mana. base mana pool from stats and lvling +1null is enough to keep you going. its the living long enough to be able to use your ult thats that problem.

[JimALim]

does damage from the aura cancel mana/hp pots? If so getting that first point in it would be super useful.

[Mellow]

does damage from the aura cancel mana/hp pots? If so getting that first point in it would be super useful.
Nope

Level and buy based on your CURRENT needs.
Actually, no. This is always wrong. You should be levelling and buying thinking ahead.
For example, let's take Armadon. In the beginning of the game he has poor max mana and mana regen. Should you get anything for it? No, because he has fantastic int gain, and has no problems with mana in the lategame. And Armadon is a lategame hero. Using money to enhance your mana is a complete waste of money and will gimp him lategame because you didn't use your money on other things.
Also, ulti at level 6 is always better because it stuns.

[Dustbin]

I've never taken an early rank of Inhuman Nature, mainly because I don't have many mana problems early-game with Soulreaper, I don't think you should be spamming his heal in any lane, it's usually by level 10/11 that I find myself oom often in ganks and by then I'm about to start putting points into it.

[Anosou]

Opinion on Nome's Wisdom for this build? The items used for it and the item itself seems to really benefit the aura-focused build.. thoughts?

[Zephon1]

I don't get why people say that the aura is useless and doesn't do damage <_<"
After I saw Glorify's video with Soul Reaper I started playing him like hell, and powning everything (this is pub games but hey) And I've also noticed that getting Sadist at anytime wont help you, you don't notice the mana you get from it.

And with aura I think i've seriously gotten tones of kills from standing on the side line and killing people with the auras. Believe it or not, but it has happend.

Also, getting an invis rune at level 6 will grant you an instant kill if you got precence. Standing next to someone and letting there hp drop to like say... 80 % and then doing judgement, auto shot, auto shot, ulti and you got your self a kill.

[sitterSan]

I was super skeptical about prioritizing aura over inhuman, but I've used it several times now and the results are always awesome. I find myself harassing much more heavily during early laning; very nice when you enter into mid game leading by a level or 2. Good guide, but I do have a question. Execute, by it's very nature is a finisher, but often times I'd rather let the carry I'm babysitting take the kill. You don't exactly want to just blow execute early for the stun either, because it's not an especially cheap cast. So when would you consider throwing it out?

Thx for the guide is really helpful..

[Rommi]

I liked the guide, yet i Don't think totem of kuldra as fist item (i do e.g SoM after treads)
but if you can tell me why maybe i may consider changing my mind =)

[Anosou]

Any changes to items, item progression or skill build after the patch? The ulti fix probably doesn't change anything but items like Nome's Wisdom might be viable, especially if not in the mid lane.

[ZlPPERHEAD]

why max withering presence when you have 800 hp early.

get level 1 withering presence max judgement ult at 6 then get inhuman

[Glorify1]

Because only scrubs need 12 mana a last hit.

[Supplicium]

The only reason to get mana regen early is if you're in a pub and you're not sure about the rest of your team, the extra mana can provide some extra heals for your self, keep you farming longer. But tbh, it's a minor difference,

Or as Angel says

it's for scrubs.

[Galneryus]

Good Guide, I will use it a lot. Thank You!

[Lolololage]

I asked this in strategy but this is probably a better place.

How well does hellbringers life void synergise with your ult? Seeing as they nerfed it (rightly so) to be affected by magic armour.

[Xeroti]

Nice guide but it would be better if you used HoN terms instead of DOTA.

[InsaneOdin]

hmm he uses the same build as me :0

except i go for post haste early on and he goes for steamboots first
his build is cheaper early on then post haste 2700 against 1540 can't beat that :)

that extra 1260 can be used to get kuldra hmm tempting

good build :)
isn't really need inhuman nature since in teamfights i rather want the 1% damage to kick in then killing creeps which aren't there anyway most of the times

[ColdBreeze]

Seems to me like the mana from creep kills would only be significant between the laning phase and getting your Kuldra, if even that.

[Lolololage]

Seems to me like the mana from creep kills would only be significant between the laning phase and getting your Kuldra, if even that.

It is very usefull at the start of the game, but the problem is that withering soul (especially in a side lane) and CAREFULL use of judgement forces the heroes to run away from the lane (you cant use a bottle OR a potion while near him, so once your down on low hp you have to retreat and might aswll go to the fountain, slowing your levels right down), which is a damn sight MORe usefull than extra mana.

Also, is the OP ever gonna update the judgement picture so we no longer see the brown sperm of doom? It could be confusing any newbies xD

[AkisChelsea]

Necrolyte i think xD

[Lolololage]

Is it still better to get steamboots over post haste? Seeing as they only provide +5 to each stat and +5 int?

[InsaneOdin]

+5 is much already lol

and u save 1160 early game
u could use that for a mana tube
and go on

depends on the team tho
if i get easily feeded which always happens with soulreaper
i just go for post haste

my build normally is boots / bracelets/ finish boots / kuldra/ staff/ (posthaste) behemoths hearth just for the lolz

[Glorify1]

I'd still grab steamboots on him, simply because it provides a decent movespeed increase. However, before it was far more beneficial to grab it on him.

[Chone]

why max withering presence when you have 800 hp early.

get level 1 withering presence max judgement ult at 6 then get inhuman

You fail at math, whether you're doing 1hp/sec damage or OVER 9000hp/sec damage with the aura it's still 1% of your enemies' HP, ALWAYS, all the time, it will always take you 100 seconds to kill an enemy with aura meaning aura is just as relevant in early game as it is in late game, I'll even say, in early game it pwns even more because in the laning phase you have a chance to stand near your opponents for longer periods of time than say in ganks or team fights. It's free harass.

Judgment/Aura is the only way to go with Soul Reaper.

[Lolololage]

You fail at math, whether you're doing 1hp/sec damage or OVER 9000hp/sec damage with the aura it's still 1% of your enemies' HP, ALWAYS, all the time, it will always take you 100 seconds to kill an enemy with aura meaning aura is just as relevant in early game as it is in late game, I'll even say, in early game it pwns even more because in the laning phase you have a chance to stand near your opponents for longer periods of time than say in ganks or team fights. It's free harass.

Judgment/Aura is the only way to go with Soul Reaper.

Definately, the aura combined with a couple of good judgments just ensures your opponent is on the back foot all the time, they are pressured to try to damage you.

Does anyone find it better to go wither/judge/judge/wither? I find it works better because you can only really cast one or 2 judgments early so its best to save it for lvl 3 anyway.

Or am i doing it wrong?

[Anosou]

Does anyone find it better to go wither/judge/judge/wither? I find it works better because you can only really cast one or 2 judgments early so its best to save it for lvl 3 anyway.

Or am i doing it wrong?

I've gradually shifted to doing this but it really depends if you're going early rune spawn gank or straight into lane imo. In most pubs I go wither/judge/judge/wither

[JewishNinja]

does the wither cancel bottle?

[Distort3d]

I disagree. I think that when you're doing a lane, if you're solo, inhuman nature is an excellent ability to lane using. However, if you have a lane partner, the withering pres is deff a better pick.

[Lolololage]

I disagree. I think that when you're doing a lane, if you're solo, inhuman nature is an excellent ability to lane using. However, if you have a lane partner, the withering pres is deff a better pick.

Yea but at lvl 9 id rather have lvl 4 withering and judgement than inhuman nature of any lvl.

[ElementUser]

Withering Presence doesn't cancel healing potions, mana potions, Bottle or Portal Key.

Yeah I find that getting Withering Presence at level 1 to be more beneficial than Judgment

[Evozer]

Yeah I find that getting Withering Presence at level 1 to be more beneficial than Judgment

I could not agree more

[lolsroyce]

Sure I'm not some super pro dota player or anything, but I've been playing soul reaper lately using a build that gets something like the following:

Starting
2x Minor Totem
1x Runes
1x Mana Pot
1x Guardian Ring

Then I build a
Ring of the Teacher
Boots
1x Fortified Bracer
Steamboots Int
Glowstone
Great Arcana -> Nome's Wisdom

After that I finish off Staff of the Master

Depending on hero composition I get Frost Field plate if the enemy team is heavy on phys damage, a sheepstick or Shrunken head. It's been working out fairly well for me so far. Thoughts anyone?

[Lolololage]

Sure I'm not some super pro dota player or anything, but I've been playing soul reaper lately using a build that gets something like the following:

Starting
2x Minor Totem
1x Runes
1x Mana Pot
1x Guardian Ring

Then I build a
Ring of the Teacher
Boots
1x Fortified Bracer
Steamboots Int
Glowstone
Great Arcana -> Nome's Wisdom

After that I finish off Staff of the Master

Depending on hero composition I get Frost Field plate if the enemy team is heavy on phys damage, a sheepstick or Shrunken head. It's been working out fairly well for me so far. Thoughts anyone?

Is there much point in getting ring of the teacher?

I mean his spells are so expensive i wouldnt imagine it gives you that many castings for its cost.

I find that rushing a mana tube and then steam boots (boots, mana tube, components for steam boots) gives me very good regeneration. This combined with a couple of mana potions for when i need to gank.

[raced]

I just played a game with a soul reaper that solo'd mid and had a set of marchers with a sword of the high. At this point we were level 11 or so, and he still had less than 900 health. I tried so hard not to rage... Why even build a radiance on him? It was so disgusting!

I had never played necrolyte on dota so I learned how to play soul reaper from this guide and this was very helpful, especially the video. I wish the guide had brought it up, but it is vital to remember that his ult does stun. I have found myself using it just for that, even if I'm no where near killing the person with it. If it's going to save a lot of people on your team, it's worth the "Waste". At the same time, I've used my ult to stun someone and then kill them with judgments since they would have gotten away otherwise (using ult when they are just above half health). I played with necrolyte on dota the other day and had a blast - sucks I never got into him while I was playing dota frequently.

Also, judgments is a better pick than withering at level one since you are practically useless if things start happening around rune spawns.

[Benevolence1]

excellent guide.

I've always done the judge/inh build, but not anymore. it makes sense too.

What people seem to be missing is that its not about the dmg...

The aura FORCES your enemy to tower hug and lose last hits/denies. if the enemy stays near enough to try and last hit they will be low hp in a couple waves.

check his video. his valk opponent is not allowed to farm up because of the aura. whereas he safely stands at the creepline farming his ass off. sure hes always low mana at the start... but he sets himself up to have an early steamboots/totem.


Aura pros: minimal lane pushing, MASSIVE harassment to the enemy, totally disabling them from farming. Can provide random last hits as well as kill those enemies juts out of range escaping with 20hp.



inh pros: Gives you mana so you can judge again and push the lane more. pushing is bad. at least early. by the time you wanna push lanes you'll have a tube and enough regen not to care.




Even babysitting a carry in your strong lane, you can harass with aura keeping your enemies at bay while your carry rices up.


aura is superior in every way. get a couple mana pots if you envision needing mana early.

[Kcolraw]

i always go aura first bc you shouldn't be wasting mana on lvl 1 judge anyway

and start harass earlier

[Ernie888]

very good guide well written. I am not a top player / theorist so could you please explain the reason why you pick steamboots over marchers?

From what i see in the video you linked it seems SS shouldnt stay stationary very often to auto attack so the attack speed wont really benefit him. So really its the stats and general average speed increase for the aura chase down?

[Kijiyama]

Steamboots provide nothing since the general attack speed of SR is pretty horrid. The Unit walking is nice not really not needed since most of your damage isn't going to be coming for your aura and your aura range is large enough to affect a lot of people. The boots are better because you can toggle between stats to either increase survival or increase spam. Either way you would want it since most of the time you aren't even auto attacking towards mid and late game.

[Thermalwolf]

awesome guide, gonna finally try this dude tonight!

[Ernie888]

Thank you!!! This guide is amazing and i followed it to the letter. I've only played this hero probably 4 times in my life (2 times in dota over a year ago). And wow!!! I would say im above average skill but by no means pro. Lots of bad luck lately with pubs but o well. Guess i should add more ppl to friends list.


Our scout was pretty dire with the eyes until late game but once farmed up he was ok i guess. I started off baby sitting the magebane in hellbournes bottom lane. Trying to let him last hit, but he wasnt very good at it during the lane phase. Although we did have puppet and swiftblade in our lane. I died a few times carelessly to puppet + spin and the legionnaire was pretty good rushing a quick portal key to harass us.

Usually i get 1-2 bracers but i was rushing sheepstick this time. Once i realised i didnt have bracers so a lil more careful around midgame, it was all over for the other team... I didnt check my score till the end as I usually just have the mini board out showing when heroes come back to life. But i got a few lucky kills with Aura and even a double when tempest caught them with ulti lol. I am really happy as i usually play support!! my new fav hero with Pest! as both are support but can carry if team carry doesnt step up. I could of farmed a lot more but i just hung around healing the team which was definately the better choice. Aura + heal = win.

Check out my gear :)

http://i36.tinypic.com/11b81aw.jpg

I bought in order:
Battery
Steam Boots
Sheepstick
heart
Shruken head

Literally towards the end it was Kraken running around with real low hp whole team chasing us and id be running to help him with aura + heals and we'd end up killing 3 of them LOL. So funny. Poor magebane and scout were like why couldnt i save them like that hehe.

[luxie]

used it and owned.

[Ernie888]

i've played a few more games and had trouble when i had a bad start. Got harassed really hard so couldnt rush sheepstick. I guess those who know SR's power late game really try hard to shut him down early.

[Blaky039]

jup inhuman nature works better then the aura
everytime i pick soul reaper i get a positive score (winning depends on the team )

by spamming that first ability u and ur teammate can gank em more that means more kills that means gg

but its also easy to counter him :) if u know how

The thing is that it only helps (well not so much) in early game, late game in team fights its useless, the extra stats work better.

[simparoo]

great guide, good uploads too. WTB more

[Mopealot]

Since the Boots have changed abit would you still take them ? Or would you now take other boots ?

[Nopattern]

im having trouble with SR early game. I'm so used to demented shaman that his slower attack is really throwing me off :(. He gets really fun later though with his ult and Staff.

[Sheapy1]

Would you still get steamboots as of the changes right now? It seems the amount of speed gained hurts a lot as Soul Reaper cannot chase/run away compared to other heroes

[krapht]

Yeah, soul reaper is one of those heroes who stands around autoattacking a lot in team battles, so I would still go steamboots.

[tapewar]

oh man once you get sheepstick, and staff of the master online, its all over baby!

[Hi]

Great guide!

[marshallq]

How about going for plated graves now? I really like those boots to support. And yes its mostly on pubs so one might argue that there will be someone else with plated graves in a real match instead of a pub.

Love the sheepstick, once i get that its game time, but it's also really really expensive. How about going stormspirit and then maybe nome's wisdom instead? Cheaper and it gives regen + disable.

[krapht]

Once you sheep someone, you want to be able to damage them, not give them invulnerability.

Plated greaves are fine, they are a more defensive choice than treads.

[headbussa]

you really need to talk more about this hero as a babysit and late game tank carry...

soul reaper is also AMAZING AT CREEP STACKING... a three year old with down syndrome can creepstack 3 camps and instantly give the team mounds of gold to work with even while pushing a lane

[PistoIero]

you really need to talk more about this hero as a babysit and late game tank carry...

soul reaper is also AMAZING AT CREEP STACKING... a three year old with down syndrome can creepstack 3 camps and instantly give the team mounds of gold to work with even while pushing a lane

how?

[marshallq]

Once you sheep someone, you want to be able to damage them, not give them invulnerability.

Plated greaves are fine, they are a more defensive choice than treads.

I use it to safe teammates and interrupt enemies as much as i can. Or to catch them for long enough so my team can catch up to me.

[ElementUser]

how?

He thinks the aura aggros the creeps, but it doesn't

[Ernie888]

He thinks the aura aggros the creeps, but it doesn't

Hmm maybe he is thinking that but im wondering, say legion neutrals you could pull the far right one manually then use the heal to aggro the two that are close together... Probably not possible but im throwing it out there.

[TurpinoS]

I dont understand how a hero was played so well in Dota, and suddenly, hes ported in HoN, and people totally manage to NOT play him correctly.

SoTM is total crap, Dont remember the exact numbers but on a 3k hp hero, you can kill him like 200 hp earlier..

Withering early is crap. Seriously, I have never seen a single Necrolyte player go aura early for the simple reason that stats is 20 times better early game. With that build you have level 2 withering till level 7, doing an average of 2-3dps per second when the other guy is near, I would get 2 levels of stats over it anytime.

But yeah, I guess the rest is okay.

[Debbye]

Sheepstick is definitely the best choice, since it solves all the problems with mana regen along with providing a disable tool. However, novice players may find it hard to farm all those pricey items (acolyte's staff and ultimate orb). So I suggest including sacrificial heart as one a possible first item. There are several reasons for this. The components are cheap and easy to buy without leaving the lane. Almost all of the bonuses this item offers are most useful for soulreaper. He needs HP to stay alive longer in teamfights, he needs mana to spam his spell, he needs mana regen to farm effectively in mid game. Hp regen is the only thing that may seem needless, since soulreaper can heal himself with his spell.However, I found this item most useful for him.

[Ernie888]

Another reason to go heal + stats. When you go gank early game, the alert players cant see you coming / sitting in wait by watching their mini map + aura debuff location.

[Sergeles]

you really need to talk more about this hero as a babysit and late game tank carry...

soul reaper is also AMAZING AT CREEP STACKING... a three year old with down syndrome can creepstack 3 camps and instantly give the team mounds of gold to work with even while pushing a lane

I don't quite follow this logic. The only hero that is exceptional at stacking from a distance as far as i know is pharoah, who can stack them across the map with rocket. The rest of the heroes either use a dominated creep to do it, or manually go up and pull them.

[Sergeles]

I've only played soul reaper once or twice, and while i see now after reading your guide why you'd never take inhuman nature, i'm wondering why stormspirit is a bad item on him. It is not a totem of kuldra, i agree with that... but it is still a good disable in a teamfight to put one of them out of commision or cancel a channel, and is half the price (as well as having a nicer buildup). With getting it earlier than you could a kuldra, the mana regen would help your spammability for lane pushing/farming the SotM quicker (not only can you get quicker mana regen, you have a 2k headstart since you didnt get the kuldra), as well as giving you the movement speed that soul reaper lacks.
While i agree that yours is a good item build, i'm just wondering if the stormspirit one is also good strategy.

[SkuzZlebuZz]

the Guide isnt bad but why shouldnt u level Inhuman Nature?! The Aura is so weak in Earlygame. With that mana replenish its so easy to control the lane and even to outfarm heroes like Bloodhunter in mid... I wouldnt go for those items, instead u should rush :SacrificialStone: it gives u THE manareg and HP to live long enough in teamfights and spam wave, then a fast :StaffOfTheMaster: +:Steamboots: and u are pretty unkillable in this gamephase. Its not the big problem to get those items until minute 30 when u got Inhuman Nature to farm creepwaves like NP. And Soulreaper as Babysitter is just very stupid... this hero relys so much on items - he is a semicarry which should never babysit

[Debbye]

Go for aura if your lane opponents are two strength heroes.
And yeah,the key point is to learn to lasthit well early game,it's not that easy taking into consideration his attack animation,but master it,and you will rock. Mark my words.

[SkuzZlebuZz]

true Debbye BUT show me a recent Lane with TWO str heroes in a Clanwar

[ironyman]

A few thoughts:

First of all, I don't know why nobody has mentioned codex. It's better than staff of the master in terms of damage, and makes it so you don't have to fully rely on your teammates to do damage for a kill. A codex + ult will fry any int or agi hero. If you think it terms of gold, a staff is 4300, which is about the same as a level 2-3 codex. The codex will clearly do more damage on a hero with 2000 or less hp.

To make up for survivability, I usually go void talisman or blademail. Assassin's cloak can also work. But these items will let you win a 1v1 fight 90% of the time, and fry the crap out of someone right off the bat in a team fight.



Secondly, the withering presence discussion is all about the meta-game and what your opponent does.

For it to work, your opponent basically has to take a hero with no regen abilities or items, and low range. If they go all stat items and only 1 set of runes, then it may work alright. However 2 sets of runes will keep them high enough until they get a lifetube or trinket of resto, both of which make withering pretty worthless.

If your opponent(s) are double ranged and have healing abilities, then your withering isn't going to be doing squat early game. And if it's so bad that you're getting pushed out of your lane by something like demented + stunner or something, then you may be in real trouble if you keep focusing on getting the aura and don't adapt.

Inhuman is very good for creeping. Especially neutral creeping. If you need the gold, aren't doing well in the lane, this could be a very useful skill to get. Also, even if you are doing well in the lane, it lets you stay out there forever at pretty much full hp/mana getting xp while a courier ferries items to you.



TLDR:
Codex > Staff. Consider getting blademail or void talisman.
Withering vs Inhuman depends on what opponent you get in the lane.

[SkuzZlebuZz]

rofl....

Codex is so bad for him, it costs to much Mana, gives no Manareg and makes u useless after using because you are OOM then... U have to live long + need good Manareg to spam as much Waves as possible in Teamfight

[trollfac3]

You got it all wrong, Nome's or Meka HE IS NOT A CARRY STOP LAYING OUT PUBBIE BUILDS.

And Stats at 10 over manaregainthingy? You would rather have like 38 hp than over 10 creep kills have an extra free nuke? jeeeeeeeeeez

[trollfac3]

Lol i just reread it you suggest taking Manabackthingy at 22-25. This is perhaps the worst guide i have ever seen =(

[Gangbangjoe]

You got it all wrong, Nome's or Meka HE IS NOT A CARRY STOP LAYING OUT PUBBIE BUILDS.

And Stats at 10 over manaregainthingy? You would rather have like 38 hp than over 10 creep kills have an extra free nuke? jeeeeeeeeeez

How is sheepstick a "carry" thing? He plays support at a different level. There are plenty of heroes who match with him in a lineup like Shaman who can take the astrolabe. Sure it's viable, but a sheepstick is as neccesary. It's not like you can finish aghanims anyway in most games.

[trollfac3]

How is sheepstick a "carry" thing? He plays support at a different level. There are plenty of heroes who match with him in a lineup like Shaman who can take the astrolabe. Sure it's viable, but a sheepstick is as neccesary. It's not like you can finish aghanims anyway in most games.

Astrolabe = 2500 gold
Sheepstick = 2700+2100+875
This is the part where u say "lol i fail" and this stick is way too much farm imho. Whatever happened to Stormspirit?!
Besides, at some point ur right, if you're allowed to get demented and soul reaper the demented should make astrolabe but then there is STILL Nome's, wards, counter-wards, flying courier, TP scrolls, early stat boots ETC ETC. It's just not holding up duh.

[Evil_Andrex]

Why not get inhuman nature????

I don't get it.

[Gangbangjoe]

Why not get inhuman nature????

I don't get it.


I'll explain.

Inhuman Nature requires you to have a loss in mana. Thus it requires you to use spells. Using spells in a lane is a 260 nuke (on level 7) on all creeps in the lane, and possible harassment on a enemy hero. This pushes the lane really hard.

The aura, provides you with a lesser pushing ability, makes sure you can keep the mana of your nuke to last hit multiple creeps OR set up a gank. Also the aura greatly harasses heroes in a lane with a constant HP loss. If you get yourself the 2 mana potions and later the int threads + mana tube you shouldn't have mana problems later on.

Since you don't have mana problems from ending early --> lategame, Inhuman Nature is worthless AND you need creeps + last hits around you to make it work. It's just not good.


:edit: He took stats over inhuman nature because stats give HP & MANA + Regen. Soul Reaper is always focused in teamfights because of his constant AOE nukes , passive healthdrainage (that scales REALLY good) and his execute. That makes getting health over mana preferrable aswell.

[awayish`]

meh. if you are not going to farm and push with this guy, why pick him?

ok, dont want to push before lv10. not until lv20?

[Mellow]

Getting astrolabe on this hero is a bad idea, he needs his mana to spam heals. He doesn't have mana for astrolabe. Astrolabe is gotten on heroes that don't have heals themselves but huge manapools/regeneration like Plague rider and Witch slayer. Same reason why Shaman shouldn't get it unless he's farmed as ****.

Soul Reaper can get Kuldra instead of Nome's because he's a good farmer. Kuldra gives more regen than nome's and is much more useful in teamfights, so if it can be gotten it should always be preferred over Nome's.

Stormspirit is an inferior version of Kuldra. Since Soul reaper can farm the Kuldra, why would he ever get Stormspirit? Stormspirit is an item that should be gotten if you don't have a lot of farm but still want a disable.

[Mizaru1]

nomes is awesome on him and easy to get as hell.....i would prefer nomes 1st then aim kuldra. this way, u can surive mid game without any prob.

The new buff to nomes is also good as it gives really really solid stats, as well as heals that dnt make u use ur own mana.

[trollfac3]

Getting astrolabe on this hero is a bad idea, he needs his mana to spam heals. He doesn't have mana for astrolabe. Astrolabe is gotten on heroes that don't have heals themselves but huge manapools/regeneration like Plague rider and Witch slayer. Same reason why Shaman shouldn't get it unless he's farmed as ****.

Soul Reaper can get Kuldra instead of Nome's because he's a good farmer. Kuldra gives more regen than nome's and is much more useful in teamfights, so if it can be gotten it should always be preferred over Nome's.

Stormspirit is an inferior version of Kuldra. Since Soul reaper can farm the Kuldra, why would he ever get Stormspirit? Stormspirit is an item that should be gotten if you don't have a lot of farm but still want a disable.

1. astrolabe is only for heroes w/o heal? LOL
2. demented shouldn't get astro? DOUBLE LOL
3. stormspirit is inferier to kuldra? TRIPLE LOL OMG
4. stormspirit is 300+1000+875+600 = CHEAP ITAM. It gives movespeed which allows you to stay out of trouble in teamfights and the cyclone is superior to hex if you're against heroes like SW or Tort (which you will face in good games)
5. AND NO SOUL REAPER CAN'T GODDAMN FARM UNLESS YOUPLAY NOOB GAME FFS. He's a SUPPORT hero and shouldn't be farming anymore than you should be trumpfing arguments with theorycraft instead of experience )=.

Nome's + Stormspirit is cheaper than kuldra and so much more a TEAM ASSET which is why you would pick SR in the first place, it's much easier to farm and the components benefit on a much higher level than your kuldra.

[trollfac3]

I'll explain.

Inhuman Nature requires you to have a loss in mana. Thus it requires you to use spells. Using spells in a lane is a 260 nuke (on level 7) on all creeps in the lane, and possible harassment on a enemy hero. This pushes the lane really hard.

The aura, provides you with a lesser pushing ability, makes sure you can keep the mana of your nuke to last hit multiple creeps OR set up a gank. Also the aura greatly harasses heroes in a lane with a constant HP loss. If you get yourself the 2 mana potions and later the int threads + mana tube you shouldn't have mana problems later on.

Since you don't have mana problems from ending early --> lategame, Inhuman Nature is worthless AND you need creeps + last hits around you to make it work. It's just not good.


:edit: He took stats over inhuman nature because stats give HP & MANA + Regen. Soul Reaper is always focused in teamfights because of his constant AOE nukes , passive healthdrainage (that scales REALLY good) and his execute. That makes getting health over mana preferrable aswell.

Btw, your argument is valid but it still sucks. Soul reaper is a pusher hero and if you intend to preserve lanes instead of gaining 200 gold pr hero x 3 early towers = 3000 team gold you're doing it wrong. Then you should pick hard carrys with almost no farming ability (like SW) who can turtle, NOT pick soul reaper. Therefore YOU PICK THE GODDAMN INHUMAN NATURE so you can get pushing and those 5 denies you get in a push can heal and dps a big difference instead of a few useless points in stats.

[crappular]

I'll explain.

Inhuman Nature requires you to have a loss in mana. Thus it requires you to use spells. Using spells in a lane is a 260 nuke (on level 7) on all creeps in the lane, and possible harassment on a enemy hero. This pushes the lane really hard.

The aura, provides you with a lesser pushing ability, makes sure you can keep the mana of your nuke to last hit multiple creeps OR set up a gank. Also the aura greatly harasses heroes in a lane with a constant HP loss. If you get yourself the 2 mana potions and later the int threads + mana tube you shouldn't have mana problems later on.

Since you don't have mana problems from ending early --> lategame, Inhuman Nature is worthless AND you need creeps + last hits around you to make it work. It's just not good.


:edit: He took stats over inhuman nature because stats give HP & MANA + Regen. Soul Reaper is always focused in teamfights because of his constant AOE nukes , passive healthdrainage (that scales REALLY good) and his execute. That makes getting health over mana preferrable aswell.
This goes to everyone saying that inhuman nature is equatable to pushing the lane: it's really not that hard to MOVE OUT OF MELEE RANGE OF THE CREEP WAVE AND USE YOUR HEAL ON YOU/YOUR TEAMMATE. Yeah, real novel idea, I know.

[medicinewolf]

^ It's actually a really crappy heal though eh. It's better for damage.

@ Stahl. You like to push lanes really early so your carrys can't farm?

[awayish`]

if you make your soul reaper a babysitter, yea maybe you dont want to push that lane. but do realize that's not the only function of this hero.

this hero IS a carry. he has been a carry since forever, and was used very recently as a carry in smm and awl pretty frequently. maybe a support route is fine too, and it is probably the right role for him in hon given the many strong carries available. but it's not to say the hero is only able to be played as support.


^ It's actually a really crappy heal though eh. It's better for damage.


yea, a crappy heal, ok

[trollfac3]

^ It's actually a really crappy heal though eh. It's better for damage.

@ Stahl. You like to push lanes really early so your carrys can't farm?

Yes of course. I know HoN is a cocksucking piece of **** on the current strategy level because of all the imba carries and their insane buffs earlygame - but a good team can still outpush a carry-oriented setup within 15-25 minutes and end the game.
So yes, i'd like to push the lanes and maybe tell my "carries" to start denying and pulling so that they can farm anyhow.
Besides, I've recently come across these thing called WARDS LOL which anywho makes the carry able to farm. It's not like the creatures get 500 extra hp if you push tower duh.
:mage::dark::sand::corr::madm: <--- besides that you should nerf these *****es earlygame

@awayish
He's NOT a carry in HoN, in HoN the skillset of the hero is so important compared to dota because of the speed difference - a well farmed necrolyte could farm and his attk animatino was way more effective than in HoN IMO. So things change and he's a ward***** now.

[crappular]

^ It's actually a really crappy heal though eh. It's better for damage.

@ Stahl. You like to push lanes really early so your carrys can't farm?
130 heal to you/your teammate at level 4 at the cost of 185 mana. Shaman's heal is 140 at a 110 mana cost. It also pushes the lane unless you move a good distance away from the creep line. Does this mean you shouldn't use it frequently because it can push the lane? Absolutely not, lane control is very dependent on how much hp you have compared to your opponents. Note that Soul Reaper's heal is so costly because it does reliable AOE damage to heroes AND because Soul Reaper has the ability to gain back mana on every deny and creep kill.

[Shoryucas]

note if you're near creaps, shaman's heal will push the lane too

i tend to get 1-2 levels of his nature so i can keep mana up, but after that get the aura

[Chosenary]

People, I recently done quite a couple of games with Soul Reaper with new experimental build. I've totally aced some games, and totally fcked up, like real bad some games, especially my last few games, but still.. it's equal to win/loss with that build.

I've been getting Hellflower as a core item, most of games I manage to farm it, any comments? It seems to work wonders if u make to it.. but if u dont, u'r screwd.

[RogerDodger]

Steamboots are inferior to Plated Greaves for Soul Reaper.

Inhuman nature is a waste of skill point and stats are better, I agree with that.

I would say Nomes is the best item for soul reaper giving stats, mana regen and an armor aura for pushing.

[Ernie888]

i dont like hellflower for another 600 or so u can get sheep stick which is far superior imo.

[Passthechips]

I usually go for some marchers, then rush to complete SotM. One easily completes it before level 16, giving you a shorter cooldown and the increased damage much earlier. The stats are all incredible for Soul Reaper, making him somewhat tankish and giving him a lot of mana

After that, I usually go for Kuldra or Storm Spirit. Sometimes Tablet of Command.

[zircon]

You CAN carry with Soul Reaper simply because if you're building him properly, he ends up with a powerful auto-attack, high HP, and massive AoE DPS. With Sac Stone, Power Supply and Armor Boots he's incredibly hard to kill and will put out tons of damage just by walking around a spamming Q, much less attack and using his ult. In some games, I've farmed up Nome's and a Frostfield Plate as well, which really makes him lethal.

[Mellow]

1. astrolabe is only for heroes w/o heal? LOLI meant spammable heal. Heroes with spammable heals like Soul reaper and Shaman are better off getting more mana regen to spam their heals more.
2. demented shouldn't get astro? DOUBLE LOLYes, he should get mass mana regeneration first, and maybe astrolabe when the game is very long
3. stormspirit is inferier to kuldra? TRIPLE LOL OMGOf course it is, you can't hit people hexed by it. It also gives less regeneration and Int.
4. stormspirit is 300+1000+875+600 = CHEAP ITAM. Cheaper and much easier to farm than Kuldra

It gives movespeed which allows you to stay out of trouble in teamfights and the cyclone is superior to hex if you're against heroes like SW or Tort (which you will face in good games)
The movement speed is a nice bonus but negliable.

You won't ever face torturer in a good game, he is currently an underwhelming hero.

Kuldra is superior against any other hero.


5. AND NO SOUL REAPER CAN'T GODDAMN FARM UNLESS YOUPLAY NOOB GAME FFS. He's a SUPPORT hero and shouldn't be farming anymore than you should be trumpfing arguments with theorycraft instead of experience )=.
Actually, these things are all from experience and using my actual brain. Unlike you.

I said he CAN farm, not that he's SUPPOSED to farm. Furthermore, Soul Reaper is a good mid and a pretty cool ganker because of his ultimate. Mid will allow him to get some money in the beginning and he can easily farm when there's not any big team fights going on. Hell, you can even jungle with him without a lot of problems.


Nome's + Stormspirit is cheaper than kuldra and so much more a TEAM ASSET which is why you would pick SR in the first placeNo, you pick him because of his ultimate and his usefulness as a semi-carry. There are heroes that have far more utility and are more of an asset to their team, but none of them have the offensive capabilities of Soul Reaper.


it's much easier to farm and the components benefit on a much higher level than your kuldra.Exactly, the entire idea is that stormspirit is a cheap and easier to farm alternative to Kuldra. It is also vastly inferior. Nome's is crazy good, I'm not going to deny that. Way too good.

[Xylias]

Why is this guide still premium when it hasn't been updated in ages?

[MisterLahey]

u guys can have your mana crutch while i'll enjoy the monster amounts of lane control the simple auto attack+aura harassment brings, deathpulse harssment is just icing on the cake.

dont underestimate how much mana regen this guy gets with new intel treads and a void stone and how fast you can farm it up when the enemy cant even lane near solo

^This

I always go to one of the sidelanes with soul reaper so I can harrass their melee heroes with aura and autoattack.

[lunchstolen]

You never get mana batter as the first item. Always get it during the early laning phase.

[coolstorybro]

http://www.freefoto.com/images/33/15/33_15_15---Fire-Flame-Texture_web.jpg

good guide... withering presence.\
just played soul reaper and was concerned how i was gonna weaken my enemy to 50%health... withering presence is there and judgement skill is great for pushing mid/late along with healing yourself after or during a gank. having massive mana pool is key

[Pattas]

I usually get level 1 inhuman nature. It's enough to keep my mana pool high.

[Mellow]

I've tried astrolabe on Soul Reaper, and he has much more mana than I remembered. Disregard my posts about it being a bad item choice.

[PzKw]

Who likes to lane with constant -5 to -10 hp per second in early game?

I take aura too.
A good Necrolyte player can got a lot more than that with superior lane control gained from Sadist fueled Pulse harrassfarming. A well played necro in anything other than a very strong lane, can get lane control simply by last hitting and harrassing well with Pulse. Even in a strong lane, Sadist lets you cling on by fueling heals while tower hugging.

Sadist is just much more versatile than Aura early.

Oh man, I'm loving Reaper just now, just carried a pub with him. Like, hardcarried with a really early mock, reasonably early Frostwolf, followed by heart and frostfield. Planned to swap the steamboots out for post haste, then get either a bkb (tbh spells weren't flying thick and fast) or a barbed armour so I could lol at their Magebane who had the same farm as me even harder.

For the record, their Magebane had nearly the same amount of farm, and I also outcarried a Swiftblade and a SW. T'was delicious and so much fun in that guilty way that pub carries always are. ^_^

Game 21341756 if you want to see what a freefarmed Reaper carry looks like against less than elite players.

[cyansylph]

Thoughts on Sac stone following its recent buff?

[Ernie888]

Game 21341756 if you want to see what a freefarmed Reaper carry looks like against less than elite players.


im sorry but although you have mentioned they are "less than elite players", showing a replay of a 5 v 4 game is just silly. You'd never get that in proper game. And of the 4 remaining.. they had 3 carries. And they nearly beat you.

[got4close]

For my Soul reaper, I usually play support / staff.
Most of the time, I don't play mid lane, I just support and do few kills until I have nome + plated greaves + astrolabe. Then I go staff. Then, most of the time, end game :) . If you can afford it end game, go behe heart. It str bonus and -15% CD is such a nice thing :)

[KazeTanade]

Information regarding boots can be modified?

Treads do not give +16 int and +10 str, I believe. O.o Considering the pictures have been blocked for my connections, I cant be sure if its been edited but I dont think it has been.

Note on people who advocate last hitting: Although it is easy to say "Last hit properly", you have two problems regarding that; SR doesnt have a large base damage to pull last hits from. If you were to lane with auto-atk + Sadist against a Scout with logger's, I can almost guarantee the smart scout getting 90% of those last hits before you can deny. Your only choice to out-lasthit to fuel sadist is to spam your first skill, but until sadist is lvl 4, you dont gain back enough mana to reuse another heal from getting an entire creepwave. That's assuming all creeps reach that low hp enough to be killed with 100+ dmg all at once. ~_~

With that said, a lot of us in HoN aren't pros yet. Last hitting with pitiful base dmg is hard for some of us. So with that in mind, it is more player-friendly to advocate a harass which does not need to be aimed (significantly) and makes SR a viable babysit together with his heal. If you were with a carry, and you went Sadist, you'd be stealing his kills, meaning he is underfarmed; carries dont need early kills though it's good, they need reliable farm. Your needing to last hit creeps undermines this principle.

[PoleSana]

My input on Soul Reaper:

1. Get Nome's wisdom. It is very easy to buy early and provides mana regen at first and then a stat boost making your mana pool fairly large very early. The extra heal on a hero that spams a heal/nuke is incredible as well later in the game. This item is also a very good support item that can benefit your entire team. After Nome's it takes me minutes to farm boots of travel.

2. Get level 1 aura immediately and use that to nullify a bit of the enemy hero's regen. Then focus on leveling nuke and mana return. This will ensure that you can farm like a fiend once you have Nome's (Nome's gives a big enough mana pool to have endless mana with level 2 or 3 in your mana return skill provided you aren't a terrible last hitter).

3. You have the opportunity to build several items after Nome's and Post Haste since Soul Reaper is insane at farming (walking fountain). Become a tank and you won't regret it. There is nothing worse than a 3000 hit point juggernaut walking around healing everyone and damaging you every 5 seconds all the while passively removing 1% of your life per second (relatively early game too since he is a very strong farming hero).


I will say just to appease the ones who think this is an attempt to be a carry, it is not. The goal here is to be a strong presence in team fights early/mid game and allow your carry to pick up some easy kills and get some of the focus on you in those fights. Soul Reaper can be a fairly strong tank with a good dps output.

[HaruBlader]

Does Withering Presence affects creeps?

[CommunismNow]

I'm getting steamboots stormspirit on him atm, normally i wouldnt get the health boots (even though he needs health) because he is slow and needs positioning more, but stormspirit helps, and gives you mana regen too.

Then sacrificial stone since the new buffs is worthwhile i think.

Then heart

Then maybe sotm if the game goes on that long (never).

[awayish`]

your autoattack dmg isn't high enough to warrant going steamboots over armor boots. with the recent bloodstone buff the viability of a reaper carry just increased a bit again. he shouldn't be your main carry, but as a solo 2nd carry he can do just fine.

[CommunismNow]

yeah thats a good idea actually, armour boots should work, and they're a little faster than steam which is nice.

[Glorify1]

Armor boots suck.

[pyrated]

no they don't

[Mateui]

I think that post haste is the only way to go with Soul Reaper. You can farm so fast by teleporting to your creep wave and then casting judgment on the opposing creep to weaken it greatly. Then last hit the ranged creep, since they'll be one autoattack away from dying, and then just autoattack the melee creep that survived. You become such a pushing/defensive machine with post haste that it's so worth it.

My item build is Nomes->Boots->Post Haste->Shaman's Headress/HotBL->Staff->Beast Heart. I just like making him very tanky.

[Mellow]

Does Withering Presence affects creeps?
Yes, you'll sometimes get random lasthits on creeps because of withering presence

[TriPoison]

I swear this guy is never used in game.

[Glorify1]

Here is another game of me recently playing Soul Reaper.

1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beDSMiYTVz8) 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R14Of6ZL_Xw&feature=related) 3 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMfj5swdFcc&feature=related) 4 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq9qHg_kodQ&feature=related) 5 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVFyE-VNNt8&feature=related)

[ElementUser]

Can you make a comment about how terrible Mock of Brilliance is on Soul Reaper? :/

I hate it when Soul Reapers rush that

[Glorify1]

Radiance sucks on Soul Reaper.

[Mateui]

I find it funny that the same people that get Mock on Soul Reaper think his Withering Presence Aura is useless. It's such a great harassment in the lane. Why? Because you're passively damaging the enemy without having to even attack them, allowing you to focus on getting last hits on creeps, or if you're babysitting, to allow you to put out more damage by autoattacking the enemy. Do this and they'll be forced to fall back or endure the slow health loss. Either way it's a positive for you and your lane mate. Sometimes the enemy heroes don't even realize how much health they are losing to your aura (since it is so gradual) and that puts them an at easy to kill position.

[WindRaven]

Completely satisfies all his mana needs, ala mock supplying health on bh.

Still a shitty item on him, 'cept for the lulz. :cool:

[Nurz]

Here is another game of me recently playing Soul Reaper.

1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=beDSMiYTVz8) 2 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R14Of6ZL_Xw&feature=related) 3 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMfj5swdFcc&feature=related) 4 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yq9qHg_kodQ&feature=related) 5 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVFyE-VNNt8&feature=related)


By any chance, do you have the Match ID for this? It takes a while for streaming vids to work for me, so it'd be great if I could just see the replay in the actual game.

[ElementUser]

23826731

[Glorify1]

I see you've all met Element, my personal secretary.

[Czech0]

Armor boots suck.

And then you build them in your replay, WTF lol.

[Glorify1]

Circumstantial - my advice was general knowledge.

[ElementUser]

I see you've all met Element, my personal secretary.

Lolwut

Why did you get SotM in that game though? I see that it helped you get the kill on Vindicator uphill near the middle tower....but that's really it :P. Unless you got it just because you were dominating (and for the lulz)

[Glorify1]

Hitpoints, mana, damage.

No it's a bad item, I agree.

[Lethe]

seeing how sotm is ez to build and has very relative components, it should get alot more credit then people give it. The ult boost is just the icing on the cake.

Either sotm or kuldra are the best cores imo

[Escorponox]

I've tried the following tank build and it works GREAT.

Skills:
- AOE heal, aura, ulti, stats, inhuman nature

Items:
- Mana battery, HotBL, Shaman Headress, Post Haste, Frostplate (game ended before his)

I saw it in a 1900 replay and it works wonders

Edit: Forgot to mention Barbed Armor on him, saw it i a few competitive games.

[Jayrod]

Guides like this are only helpful if they're updated...

Nomes + tank items = win on soul reaper. Hes not a CC'er, totem is great dont get me wrong but hes a carry/tank face smasher. He needs to last in a fight not cc someone before he gets his block knocked off. Get a nomes (spammable 300 heals are nice) and tank items (staff has good enough HP gain to fit in this category). If you go staff rush glow stone and then build nomes (major totem first) and since you wiseley leveled inhuman nature because you are not a bad you won't need the RoT early. I normally get barbed armor before staff though and push staff if the team needs another stun.

This guy is a tank hex rush is for the birds and people that like getting one shot at the 25th minute

mark of novice build, sell one off and end up with two necklaces, get some boots, get a nomes unless someone else is carrying it, bladed armor/hotbl (or both), whatever else the situation permits, harkon's is not terrible.

[TriPoison]

Hitpoints, mana, damage.

No it's a bad item, I agree.
#sarcasm?


+ what type of hero is soul? eg tank carry support.

and what does cc mean?

[DANAYO]

Crowd control.

[phunkenstein]

I swear this guy is never used in game.

You obviously never play decently high level games...

(1500+)

[Anaklu]

He's used in in 1 out of 2 pro games that i've ever seen streamed, Methinks your on the wrong side of the skill ladder to be posting in here ;)

[NoskillzNils]

since your a support hero i dont recommend rushing staff, your not a hero that need kills
so i would rather say mock than staff, also i recommend buying nomes wisdom (cheap manaregen + supportive item) use the ulti so the poor victim survives with just a little hp and let the carry kill him for gold :)

or you can ruin the game by killstealing the carry with your nice little ulti


also i allways gets 1 level of inhuman nature at level 3 or 4 just for the mana when u get a lasthit with aura. (turn the aura of when no heroes are nearby)

[phunkenstein]

You can kill with his ult and not KS. Your carry isnt with you every second of the game. I agree with not rushing staff though :)

[Sync]

Yeah, I really disagree with the SotM pickup.

All it means is you can kill someone below 48% hp instead of 40% hp. A Sacrificial Stone is a thousand times better, imo. I also find that picking up Nome's early is the best thing you can do, since 99% of the time if you can rush a Kuldra first, you've already won. Soul Reaper doesn't get that kind of farming ability until level 12 and up.

[NoskillzNils]

Yeah, I really disagree with the SotM pickup.

All it means is you can kill someone below 48% hp instead of 40% hp. A Sacrificial Stone is a thousand times better, imo. I also find that picking up Nome's early is the best thing you can do, since 99% of the time if you can rush a Kuldra first, you've already won. Soul Reaper doesn't get that kind of farming ability until level 12 and up.


sac stone is a waste in my opinion since i try not to die ( that means the healing, less gold loss and fast respawn is pretty wasted)

focus on survival instead :)
(rush nomes and get orb for sheepstick ASAP)
:soulr: <3

[IMaTRUCK1]

Mhm,I go for plated graves + nomes = makes me pretty unkillable early-early mid game.
After,I like going SOTM,it gives stats which are highly appreciated,and improves your ult by more than you think.Enemy has 300 hp left after your ult who u just 1v1ed? No u cant auto attack him to death :p

[pyrated]

nomes is definitely a good item for him, as are plated greaves

I hate sotm...I'd rather get a sac stone, or a sheepstick, or any number of things

[Glorify1]

Aghanims has amazing stats, easy build up, and adds killing power right away.

While bloodstone is relatively easy to build and it provides that regen, it really offers nothing to the table right off the bat and even after a few kills it's only mana regen and minor health/health regen.

Anyways I've decided I'm going to update the guide right now.

[sal]

You really can't underestimate the power of instantly taking someone out of a fight 8% sooner, especially when that 8% is a carry that's raping your team. People get progressively more cautious and aware the lower their hp is; people think they're safe at 60%+; they look at their inventory and think, okay, I've got my power supply, or a symbol of rage, and they don't think it's time to use those yet. That power also synergizes with your heart extremely well; you're not only ulting every 59 seconds, but you're almost guaranteed a kill.

On a different note, I despair over all the boots choices for soul reaper. It seems like none of them really offer what the old steamboots used to bring, that being early-game mana and late-game strength. The attack speed on the current steamboots is totally wasted, in addition to having atrocious movement speed.

Also: would bkb really be superior to nome's, even late game? You're getting a bonus 46 healing on each judge, and 125 on each ult. Still pretty beastly, alongside the stats and armor. If anything, I'd imagine skadi would be the best choice.

[Glorify1]

Updated the guide - BKB is alright, but not necessary, I'd much rather get a Hood if I need survivability.

Also, I can make more videos, just curious if people are interested in watching. They would be high end pubs, as opposed to scrims because I currently don't have a team.

[PzKw]

I stand by Radiance being the first port of call if you are able to get it around the 20 minute mark and you're looking to pull a carry with him, however in a more conventional semicarry role I've been liking Sac Stone quite a bit. He's one of the few heroes who you can pretty much positively guarentee a lot of charges for it at any stage of the game because of his ulti. At the moment I'm fiddling with 3xNulls to Phase or Greaves (depending on allies) to Sac Stone to Frostwolf to Heart/Frostfield/Barrier/Whatever. It struggles for a while after the boots and stats, but really takes off with Sac stone.

Seems pretty solid.


(And to those saying I said aura was useless, I never did, it's simply _less_ useful than Sadist in a majority of games early. Late it's obviously better, but in the early and early-middle game it makes SR more versatile, particularly in the lowish-middling pub games I play where the ability to rapidly farm for a caster carry on him is the most reliable way of winning with him).

[Kcolraw]

Aghanims
i understand when people type something like "tiny" instead of "pebbles" or "bkb" instead of "shruken head"

but aghanananims instead of sotm

just trying a bit too hard

[TriPoison]

Updated the guide - BKB is alright, but not necessary, I'd much rather get a Hood if I need survivability.

Also, I can make more videos, just curious if people are interested in watching. They would be high end pubs, as opposed to scrims because I currently don't have a team.

what is a hood? and I would be very interested in watching a video :) + what are scrims?

[Glorify1]

what is a hood? and I would be very interested in watching a video :) + what are scrims?

Scrims are two teams playing eachother, I already have two scrims up in the post after the guide.

[dannyoronden]

i recently wrote a guide on Soul Reaper :D
http://honpros.com/Intelligence-Hero-Strategy/Soul-Reaper

[Archatype]

With staff of the master, if the target would die at 0 magic armor, demonic execution will 1 shot the person regardless of magic armor.

If the person will survive with 1 HP with 0 magic armor it'll get hit by magic armor.

This is a bug and should (NEEDS TO)be fixed but it's definitely worth mentioning that with staff of the master you can 1 shot that 55% magebane who has shamans headdress and 4/4 spell resistance.

Is this true of the ultimate only when you have sotm?

[Archatype]

Curious why you go inhumane/stats while in the laning phase. I've found pure judgement / withering to be the way to go. I think SR is one of the most underrated baby sitters in the game. His harass can be downright insane if you don't put pressure on him right off the bat.

[TriPoison]

What are the luxerious items in him? I.e. after i got nomes, greaves, sotm, and 2x talisman.


+ should i get 2x talisman and greaves?

[jay`t]

You obviously never play decently high level games...

(1500+)

way offtopic but rofl :soulr:

updated guide and item build look good, also like the mentioning of sadist for push strats, but i never really thought hard about ultistick until people mentioned about getting their carry dead faster. makes a lot of sense

think i'll be trying that more often

[Fowdall]

Looking at this thread just had a brainwave

What about building a quick vanguard, then going nomes/boots and finishing sac stone after disassembling vanguard.

Yeah you "waste" 250 gold, but the extra HP/block you get is well worth it imo

[Sync]

Eh, I dunno about HotBL. Once I have Nome's and Plated Greaves I find I have enough EHP + powerheals to survive most fights. After that, I just pick up a Glowstone, and it's all good from then on.

Most of the time, you're not going to be taking lots of physical damage (well, sometimes you will be). You're a primary target for the enemy team thanks to your spammable heals and instantaneous 4v5 ability. It's certainly an option, but delaying Nome's/Plated Greaves seems kinda fruitless to me.

[Fowdall]

Hmmm well, I was mainly thinking if you had another hero on your team going for nomes.

[TriPoison]

What would be a luxerious item for this fella?

+ is sotm of sacston recommended?

[Glorify1]

I did suggest luxury items, I however decided against repeating a "tiered out" section because it's unrealistic and merely leads to unwarranted debate. I did discuss briefly what I'd get if you still have extra gold laying around.

[TriPoison]

Oh yeah it was in writing and I just assumed that there would be some piccys:P

[Glorify1]

Oh yeah it was in writing and I just assumed that there would be some piccys:P

No real sense in having a picture.

[TriPoison]

k chill didn't mean it as an offense.

[PzKw]

What would be a luxerious item for this fella?

+ is sotm of sacston recommended?

The following items could be considered core on him depending on the level of play and what build you were following (ie. all are not core in all games).
Greaves
Nomes
Sac Stone
Astrolabe
Some form of early stats.

The following are very situationally very good and may replace elements core in very specific games where unusual roles need to be filled or uncommon capabilities must be countered:
Enhanced Marchers
Shaman's
Vanguard
Nullstone
Mock

The following are highly desirable in every game, but are never core mainly due to cost (generic luxury items - none of these will really change your core function, only slightly influence it):
SotM
Frostwolf
Frostfield
Heart
Kuldra


Hope this helps.

[awayish`]

priority goes

sac stone
hex
shiva/heart

void talisman is excellent if facing a high dps physical carry.

astro is more of a pushing item. if you are going for a lategame build, get hex

[Ayoh]

I have been trying to learn this character, here is a game i had tonight, i thought it was pretty good- im interested to hear what people have to say.

constructive criticism is highly valued... please rip me up

27797373

[_Syphilis_]

if you get aura at level 1 then you cant start jungling from minute 1 all you gotta do is stand out of range of the creeps aggro and let your dot start working. so aura helps you get your farm on
/end of discussion

[Spectralite]

I honestly see Behemoth's Heart as a more of a useful item than sotm. Heart provides 15% reduced cooldown and a lot of other attributes that help tanking. In a most team battle, you are not going to need couple of extra damage to be able to kill the enemy as most of the time you use the ultimate in a team battle, it will most likely kill them anyways.

[Hasuna]

Really helpful guide, I never played dota, and when I first started playing hon I thought this character was trash. Thank you for proving me wrong :D <3 soul reaper!
Btw, its REALLY annoying when people use dota terms in their guides or when people reply to guides with dota terms.... Usually guides are meant to be for noobs, and noobs will NOT have any idea what you are talking about if you use dota terms >.>

[Cyra]

if you get aura at level 1 then you cant start jungling from minute 1 all you gotta do is stand out of range of the creeps aggro and let your dot start working. so aura helps you get your farm on
/end of discussion

Now I see the errors of my ways. SR is a jungler.

[_Syphilis_]

Now I see the errors of my ways. SR is a jungler.


SR is now considered a derogatory term.
His new name is BOSS

[Lyneux]

No sacrifial stone? Wtf?

[FiskOgHon]

I don't really understand this guide. The skill build i would think awesome in a side lane when babysitting some other hero. In a solo lane, especially mid, having aura is kinda pointless compared to Inhuman Nature.

With the amount of CS you get in a solo lane IH will give large amounts of mana, letting you cast more spells, which in turn gives you more CS, thus more mana.

I play this hero as solo mid always (almost anyway). whenever i do i go for survival items first and pick up IH for endless mana.

My item build would be along the lines of:

Greaves
1-2 x Fortified Bracelet
Barbed Armor/Void Talisman
Extra luxury

Start out with a bunch of minor totems and a mana pot + runes. work your last hitting right and you're an unstoppable farming machine.

Also, pushing in mid lane is awesome as it let's you run to check for runes or go gang while your opponent is hiding at his tower trying to lasthit some creeps in there.

You WILL be focus fired when you play this hero. You NEED to be as hard to kill as possible. You won't be that when you have to buy a lot of mana regen.

Couple of replays:

26001349 - 13/3
27905068 - 9/9

[BluesSteenV2]

Nomes + SotM and you are set. After that you can go for multiple items. A heart works more then nicely as a luxury 3rd item. You will be a fat spam healing and damaging machine. Love Soul Reaper.

[Ernie888]

Nomes is core, if someone else isnt getting it. But i think Sac stone and SotM dont give any CC. Guess depends on the game but really i feel SR needs a SS to be truly ultimate support.

[BluesSteenV2]

well with ur ult u dont need the cc cause u try to quickly demolish the dmg dealer on there team...then they panic. when u can take any tankish/fed hero out so damn quickly it causes so much havoc for the other team.

[Glorify1]

31080999

I get it occasionally.

[iaguz]

I am surprised you skip on the power supply, SR has early game mana issues. A power supply helps mitigate that a ton.

[Glorify1]

That game has a power supply..?

[Andycrapped]

i recently wrote a guide on Soul Reaper :D
http://honpros.com/Intelligence-Hero-Strategy/Soul-Reaper
This guide is fantastic. Its helped me alot and Ive used it religiously.

My only qualm with it is that I usually get level 1 inhuman at level 10 instead of a single stat pt. It helps a bit more I think.

[Herate]

I have try this item build yesterday and it s good, thx

[Sofferenza]

I personally play Soul Reaper as a mid hero. I get one level of Withering Presence as my first skill because it stops the hero in middle from using regen items unless they get more than 1000 range away. After that I max Judgement and Inhuman Nature. Taking my ultimate when I can of course. After that Withering Presence gets maxed. Why? Because if you are chasing those heroes that get out at very low HP (With your Ghost Marchers), you have a small chance of getting a kill. I know it isn't much, but it does really help.

[Blessed_]

What do you need Inhuman presence for?
If you are farming a lane you don't want to use your nuke until the last wave of creeps you want to kill appears.
If you are jungling you or your team are quite likely doing something wrong.
It's quite useless in teamfights.
Withering presence does make a difference though, early game during the laning phase and mid-late game when it's basically a free half-mock.

Also Withering presence does not cancel health/mana potions, afaik it only cancels Nymphora's grace.

[Glorify1]

I personally play Soul Reaper as a mid hero. I get one level of Withering Presence as my first skill because it stops the hero in middle from using regen items unless they get more than 1000 range away. After that I max Judgement and Inhuman Nature. Taking my ultimate when I can of course. After that Withering Presence gets maxed. Why? Because if you are chasing those heroes that get out at very low HP (With your Ghost Marchers), you have a small chance of getting a kill. I know it isn't much, but it does really help.

Withering doesn't stop them from using regen items.


What do you need Inhuman presence for?

You generally take a point or two of it when you're soloing against a dual lane. It helps much more since you'll be using your nuke more frequently to harass, and at the same time taking more harass from the enemies. I generally tend to only level aura once in these situations, and then 1-2 point inhuman depending on how well the lane is going, rest into stats to buff my meager hitpoint pool. I didn't touch on soloing the strong lane in the guide because when I wrote it, it was impossible to do so.

[Omnom1]

Need a subsection for being able to pull ancient stacks and farm them with aura for pub lolz.

[Toobaditsmeh]

31080999

I get it occasionally.

That quad kill (almost annihilation) near top was the best thing I've seen in hon.