OlaOlaSasaya
10-11-2009, 06:58 PM
OlaOlaSasaya's Guide to Behemoth, the Earth-shaker
Written for Heroes of Newerth v0.1.48.3
This guide will be updated with screenshots and replays when we have replay function working. Any comment and discussion are welcome!
1. Brief Introduction
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/3/icon_128.jpg
Behemoth is a hero who's almost identical to his DotA counterpart Raigor the Earthshaker. This hero has been a major part of competitive gameplay for quite a long time and still shining today. Due to the excellent disables and damage output of Behemoth, he can always help a good team. Even in messy nooby pub games where not much team work happens, you can still catch enemy heroes carelessly crowded in a clutter of creeps and devastate their whole team in a pleasing way.
The purpose of this guide is to help players who's not familiar or didn't play well with Behemoth to always be able to make a solid or even outstanding contribute to your team. It will not cover competitive level of gameplay since people on that level don't need any guide xD.
1.1 Who should play Behemoth?
Behemoth is a very special hero that may not work for everyone. First of all he's a supportive hero and there's no way to guarantee you can get a lot of kills or god-like items with him. Second, he's a hero only useful with team mates. It's very hard for him to 1on1 someone and trumph. Also he's farm ability is poor so if you have farm issues with other hero, it may get worse with Behemoth. But if you are a team player who enjoys nice planed team strategy and combos, you are perfect for playing Behemoth.
1.2 Pros and Cons
Pros:
Long ranged disable that can be used in many different ways
High burst damage in team push/anti-push, also well scaled through mid and end game.
Comboed skills can disalbe a bunch of enemy for a long time.
Cons:
Mediocre or even crappy stat gain from level up.
Poor farming ability makes him struggle for core items almost all the time.
His large model brings trouble in positioning, chasing and escaping.
His skills need practice, coordination and a bit of luck to work perfectly.
2. Hero Overview
2.1 Stats
Primary Attribute: Strength
Strength: 22 + 2.5 per level
Agility: 12 + 1.4 per level
Intelligence: 16 + 1.8 per level
Health: 568
Mana: 208
Movement Speed: 300
Armor: 2.68
Damage Reduction: 13.9%
Melee
Range: 125
Damage: 45 - 56
Mediocre stat gain and initial attribute at best. Pay attention to the low mana pool and low int gain per level. You will have a lot of trouble pull off your combo in the early stage of the game due to that. Surely you need certain items to compensate.
It says that Behemoth has a range of 125 which I highly doubt. Maybe it's due to his huge model, you can seldom last hit a creep when there's something in between.
Similar to other strength mages (Pebbles, Magmus), Behemoth has low armor which makes him vulnerable to physical attacks.
2.2 Skills review
Fissure
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/3/ability1_128.jpg
Type: Magic
Range: 1,200
Cast Time: 1.2 Seconds
Mana Cost: 125 / 140 / 155 / 170
Cooldown: 15.0 Seconds
Activation
Deals 125 / 175 / 225 / 275 Magic damage to each target in a line and stuns them for 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 / 1.75 second(s). Leaves impassable mound of terrain for 8 seconds.
Fissure is Behemoth's signature move. First it's a disable with massive range and coverage. You can abuse the range to surprise your enemy or support your team from far away. This skill has great synergy with Portal Key, with both available you can better position yourself to land it exactly where you want, or straightforwardly snipe an enemy hero from over 2000 unit away.
Another important aspect of the skill is it blocks the ground it hits. You can use it to trap an enemy, destroy formation of enemy squad during team fights, or hold chasing enemies when your team mate is in danger. Detailed explanation and examples can be found in later part.
Enrage
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/3/ability2_128.jpg
Cast Time: 1.0 Seconds
Mana Cost: 50
Cooldown: 7.0 Seconds
Activation
Applies Enraged to self for 14 seconds or until your next attack. Enraged Effects
50 / 100 / 150 / 200% Base Damage
This skill is useless without Heavyweight. Don't be fooled by the +damage description, Behemoth should never get any DPS item. Also you don't want to level this skill more than once.
Heavyweight
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/3/ability3_128.jpg
Passive
Triggered when Behemoth activates any of his skills.
Deals 25 / 45 / 75 / 115 Magic damage and stuns for 0.3 / 0.7 / 1.2 / 1.5 seconds in 280 radius around self.
Heavyweight will be triggered when Behemoth use his other 3 skills. This skill will add up damage to his combo. If chained perfectly, his combo can stun enemies around him for up to 4.5 seconds.
After fully leveled, this skill adds 115 damage dealt to creeps which makes his Fissure farming easier.
Shockwave
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/3/ability4_128.jpg
Type: Magic
Cast Time: 0.7 Seconds
Mana Cost: 145 / 205 / 265
Cooldown: 150.0 / 130.0 / 110.0 Seconds
Required Level: 6 / 11 / 16
Activation
Deals 200 / 275 / 350 Magic damage to enemy units in a 500 radius around self. Deals 35 / 45 / 65 additional Magic damage for each additional enemy unit in range and 17.5 / 22.5 / 32.5 additional Magic damage for each additional corpse in range.
This is why enemy fears Behemoth in team fight. Most supportive heroes will lose their value gradually as game goes on, but with Behemoth is one of the few who shines even brighter in late game. Behemoth need a Portal Key to launch this skill in the middle of 15+ enemy units and deal insane damage. To use the skill in a jungle fight is not as effective as when pushing/anti-pushing, but still if you can hit 5 enemy heroes with it don't be hesitate. It will still deals decent AOE damage plus a stun from Heavyweight.
3. Skill Build
1. Fissure
2. Heavyweight
3. Fissure
4. Heavyweight/Enrage
5. Fissure
6. Shockwave
7. Fissure
8. Heavyweight
9. Heavyweight
10. Enrage/Heavyweight
11. Shockwave
12. Attribute bonus
13. Attribute bonus
14. Attribute bonus
15. Attribute bonus
16. Shockwave
Fissure is maxed out first at every possible level, since this is his most reliable nuke and disable. You also need it as a threat to block enemy's way back if they are getting too aggressive.
Heavyweight follows, it's of no use most of the time in your first 5 levels, but we need it to get more damage and stun on Shockwave. Once you hit level 6, with lv2 Heavyweight you can have a nice 500-550 damage combo with 2 seconds disable. Pretty good for an early game kill or even double kill.
If you prefer a level of Enrage before lv6 to have one more disable, the overall damage of the combo will be a bit less, and the disable time will be the same if you chain them perfectly. That's why I wouldn't recommend leveling Enrage before max out Heavyweight. You pay 50 more mana for no reward. Even it seems that you have more choice with another activated skill, the fact is you can seldom land Enrage where you want before you have some movement boost. Also with only one level of Heavyweight, the AOE stun Enrage triggered is more like an mini one.
Once you have lv4 Heavyweight , Enrage will become a very handy AOE stun. With your Fissure it can deal 390 AOE damage, allowing you get most money from a wave of creeps with little effort.
Shockwave is leveled whenever possible. This skill is excellent anytime in the game. Early game there will be not many creeps to trigger huge damage but it's still very cheap and effective.
I would never invest more than one point in Enrage because you need Attribute bonus to compensate the crappy stat gain per level.
4. Item Build
4.1 Initial items
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_RunesOfTheBlight.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_ManaBattery.jpg
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_MinorTotem.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_ManaPotion.jpg
Runes of Blight x 2 180g
Mana Battery x 1 210g
Minor Totem x 2 106g
Mana Potion x 2 100g
This is a strong initial inventory, you don't really need too many stats for last hitting and survivability if you have enough mana to use your skill. You will need Mana Battery or Power Supply to be more persistent during early to mid game ganking.
You don't always need Runes of Blight if you play passively before lv6. I always bring some in case enemies decide to nuke you or I have a good lane partner allowing me to play more aggressively.
Mana Potion x 2 allows you to use 2 more Fissures in early game. That means you and your lane partner may have one more chance to kill (or force a fountain trip) an enemy in your lane, or you can use the two more Fissure to simply nuke enemy heroes and creeps at the same time, for 200+ damage on enemy heroes and 200 gold from creep kills.
4.2 Early to mid game items
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_PowerSupply.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_Bottle.jpg
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_Intelligence5.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_EnhancedMarchers.jpg
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_PortalKey.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_HomecomingStone.jpg
Power Supply x 1 519g
Bottle x 1 600g
Talisman of Exile/Fortified Bracelet x 1-2 485g
Ghost Marchers x 1 1500g
Portal Key x 1 2150g
Homecoming Stone x 101
Total 5154g
You will want to get those items in the given order with a early Marchers.
Personally I don't see holding both Power Supply and Bottle is an over-kill. They are extremely cheap and effective, gives you mana boost and survivability in early ganks. Behemoth doesn't need a big mana pool at this stage of the game since his only activated skill has a CD of 15 and shouldn't be spammed. As long as you can pull off a Fissure-Shockwave-Fissure combo to net you a kill, your mana pool is fine.
Why not Ring of Socery?
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_Replenish.jpg
This item is also good on Behemoth but it doesn't provide HP regen so you will still suffer a down time in between ganks. It's also much more expensive than Power Supply + Bottle. I'm sure it fixes Behemoth's mana pretty well and also mana of team mates perhaps. But still it will stall the progress towards Enhanced Marcher and more importantly Portal Key, which is too bad for Behemoth. Only in some situation when your team push together from very early on, this item will be a better choice.
Getting Talisman of Exile is not mandatory, you can also get Fortified Bracelet instead. I would recommend getting this item if your early laning is tough and you need more survivability. Otherwise go for Enhanced Marcher first.
Ghost Marchers is a must for Behemoth. You need the speed boost roam faster, to position yourself for a good Fissure, to keep distance with a running away enemy hero so your next Fissure can finish him off, and to get away from enemy line of sight quickly so you can use your Bottle and come back with another Fissure snipe. The unit walking ability is perfect for such a huge hero like Behemoth. With unit walking and speed boost, you can use your Fissure to stun a group of enemy first, then run up to them and use your ulti. You even need to activate it for last hitting purpose every now and then.
Ulti with Ghost Marchers is only a compromised way. Eventually you need your Portal Key for landing your ulti in a clutter of enemy heroes and creeps. Portal Key also increase your support range greatly. Once you got your Portal Key, enemy team will either fear to push or get some heavy casualty out of surprise. But saving up for Portal Key is very painful for Behemoth, due to his valuable mana and poor farming ability. I only start doing it after all other early game items are purchased.
Homecoming Stone is mandatory for every supportive hero if not for every hero. You need to gank, check rune, teleport to the opposite lane and gank, farm a bit and teleport back. Keep doing this will make enemy hard to track you and your threat. Also you don't want to stay in a lane for a long time because though Behemoth has some anti-gank tool, he's way more effective if he's the one initiating it. Whenever your mana is up or you need to upgrade some important items, use Homecoming Stone to save time. If you plan to teleport from base to another lane, you can walk back but you better take the chance to farm some neutral creeps. (use your Fissure to make it quick)
4.3 End-game core items
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_FrostfieldPlate.jpg
Frostfield Plate 4700g
Yeah that's the only item you need 100% for end game. At this stage, your job will be jumping in, dealing MASSIVE AOE damage, get out and wait for another Fissure to snipe escaping enemy (or save your team mates). With high armor and -25% attack speed on enemy heroes, you should survive from enemy carry hero most of the time. On activation, Frostfield Plate will add up to your total AOE damage and more importantly, slow enemy heroes for -40%. Combine this with your Ghost Marchers, you should have no problem get away from the center of the heat after your combo.
Also this item fixes your mana problem for good, from now on you can spam your skills for farming (don't use your ulti to farm of course....). You can clear a whole wave of creeps with Fissure (Heavyweight) + Frostfield in 2 seconds. This item is the foundation of all other end game items you want to get, so you should never miss it.
4.4 Optional items
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_Morph.jpg
Totem of Kuldra 5675g
A good anti-carry choice. Works on any carry hero especially someone with escape mechanics like Magebane/Valkyrie/Madman/Chronos. With this item Behemoth will just have too many disables and can hunt down any hero, or escape from a group gank.
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_BehemothsHeart.jpg
Behemoth's Heart 5500g
The name of the item is kinda ridiculous for Behemoth...WTF? Do I need to pay 5500 gold for my own heart? But if you do... it will grant you great survivability. Go for it and start tanking if your team is too squishy. It works very well together with Frostfield Plate. A Behemoth with his heart, Frostfield Plate and Portal Key is so impossible to be killed.
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_RestorationStone.jpg
Restoration Stone 5300g
Another cool item for Behemoth. Although his ulti scales good as game goes on, sometimes it's just not enough to kill the carry freaks on the other team. But there're not many can survive a double "Fissure + Shockwave + Enrage" outburst. The second Shockwave will do less damage than the first one due to the nerf on effect for corpses, but it's still unbearable for the other team.
Don't rush this item until you have Frostfield Plate, because it will not help your farm and can't be pulled off with your original mana pool either.
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_PostHaste.jpg
Post Haste 2700g
If your team don't have another pusher or it's a game lasts over an hour. You should consider get Post Haste for better farm and instant teleport to enemy base if your team has a chance. If you have money to buy back in a suicidal push, Post Haste to immediately get back to the battlefield can ensure your rax.
Why not Sacrificial Stone?
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_HealthMana3.jpg
This is generally a good item on all caster. But it's too expensive for Behemoth in early-mid game, and loses its efficiency in late game. If you go for this item from beginning, it will greatly slow down your process towards Ghost Marchers + Portal Key. Once you got your core items, Sacrificial Stone is not as good as Frostfield Plate for late game, not even close. But if you are very lucky to either farm well or get a lot of kills early on, you can get this item and spam your skills to farm Portal Key. I wouldn't recommend it for most scenarios.
5. Strategy aka mastering the pace of the game
The biggest problem for a supportive hero like Behemoth is how can you support your team with your disables and nukes throughout the game but still can catch up with farm and items?
Behemoth should not bother buying wards but still he needs lots of Homecoming Stones and his farm ability is so poor early game.
This section will tell you how to master the pace of the game so you always know when to farm and when to support.
5.1 Early game (lv1-8)
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_Bottle.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_Marchers.jpg
Get your initial items. You should make plan at this stage based on your lane partner and enemy. If your partner has good nuke/disables, you should try to get a kill from lv3 on. Try to use your Fissure to trap the enemy with your own creeps and let your partner and creeps nuke him to death. Most of your enemy will be aware of that and will not give you a big openning so just use your movement as you are going to Fissure trap them and their last-hitting will be distracted and give you more chance to last hit/deny.
You should avoid lane with a carry hero or another melee with no strong disables/nukes. But if it does happen, don't be aggressive in last-hitting/denying if your opponents are ranged heroes or nukers. Behemoth has very low armor so ranged attack from your enemy can be really hurting. You can still use your Fissure to net some gold, it is very important for your Bottle/Marchers. Try to kill 2 creeps with your lv2 Fissure, if it's not possible, kill one and hit 2 enemy heroes is also acceptable.
Although you want to get as many gold as you can early game, you don't want to empty your mana if there's a chance to get a kill. Pay attention to the mid laner of your team. If he knows how to roam, save up your mana for 1 Fissure and call for a gank at the right time.
If you have no support from neither your lane partner nor the mid laner, your best bet is when you reach lv6, get a kill with Shockwave + Fissure. Try to run up to enemy hero and creeps from shadow of forest, launch your ulti (you should be close to your enemy so Heavyweight damage and stun is triggered), move in the way enemy hero is trying to escape, use your Fissure to block it, then auto-attack for the kill. You can always get a shot like this no matter how hard your early game was. If you are lucky enough for 1 or 2 hero kills, you should have enough money for Bottle + Marchers + Power Supply.
Then it's time to give up your lane and roam. First you need to check if a gank is possible in mid lane. With the superior range of Fissure, you can easily initiate a gank to the mid laner on the other team. Just leave your lane, check rune, move on to enemy team's territory, get in range of Fissure, call your team mate in mid lane, wait for the target to stop moving (eg when he's last-hitting), Fissure and block his way back, let your team mate finish the job, if he can't, follow the target and kill him with another Fissure.
You should keep doing this in different lanes. Be sure to move on to another lane when a new rune is about to spawn (at 1:50 mark for every 2 minutes) so you can check it on the way. In between ganks, try your best to last-hit some creeps because every cent counts for Behemoth. But never stay in a lane for too long. Use outpost to buy Homecoming Stone and teleport back to base if you're out of mana/bottle or teleport to the opposite lane to support your team mates.
5.2 Mid game (lv9-15)
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_EnhancedMarchers.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_PortalKey.jpg
You should enter the stage with Bottle/Ghost Marchers and start saving up for your Portal Key. This is a painful stage because you don't have item boost and you still need to support your team. I don't agree with people saying Behemoth should farm in a lane until his Portal Key is up. I think the solution should be support your team as you did ever since, but try to stay alive the best you can. That means unless you need to use Shockwave, try to keep distance from enemy and abuse the range of Fissure. That is easier to be done if you force yourself to forget you can melee attack enemy heroes... That's also part of the reason why we don't level Enrage before Heavyweight. Behemoth will not do much attack damage to your enemy, though you can still do if you're sure there's no danger. But for other uncertain situation, just don't get close to enemies at all or get away as soon as someone start to nuke you. By saying "get away" I don't mean abandon your team mate, you should get away from enemy's line of sight but still keep in the range of Fissure, so you can always get a last-hit on escaping enemy or save your team mate's ass with it.
These principles will not let you farm more money but it will save you a lot from death penalty.
Once you have saved up like 1800 gold, you can forget about supporting for a while and use up all your mana on creeps for the final rush. Because you don't want anything bad happen to you when you are so close to the shiny Portal Key.
After getting Portal Key, tell your team you are ready for push. A jump-in Shockwave combo is so devastating for every push/anti-push so you want to abuse its cooldown as much as you can. If you keep ganking like what you did before, you will probably miss the LOADS of damage from every creeps and enemy heroes when they are all croweded together.
So just push/anti-push for every available Shockwave, you should get enough money from creeps killed by your ulti or only need a bit more farm for your Frostfield Plate.
I will explain the run down of a jump-in Shockwave combo more specificly in later section.
5.3 End game (lv16+)
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_FrostfieldPlate.jpg
The late game evolves around Frostfield Plate. You will survive more of team fights with Frostfield Plate, Portal Key and Fissure. And in between team pushes/anti-pushes, you should farm as much as you can. With Fissure + Frostfield combo, money will keep rolling in like tap water. But don't get obsessed with it... you still need to keep a Homecoming Stone in your inventory and be ready to join your team at any time. With all the money from farming/team fights, you can choose your other late game items according to the situation. Check item build section again if you still not sure.
During a push, you still don't want to auto-attack enemy heroes once you jumped in with your ulti. Some people say Behemoth is useless after his ulti is used. I disagree. Fissure is a great skill to keep most of your team mates alive after a push. There will be a lot of chasing and running after each push. You should keep distance and use Fissure to escort every hero on your team with low hp out of danger. Then Portal Key away yourself.
Behemoth is considered to be one of the most powerful heroes in the current version. So if you managed to do all the things I mentioned above and have decent team mates, you shouldn't be far away from a win.
6. Skill usage and team fight guide
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/3/ability1_128.jpg
Fissure trap:
This technique either completely block enemy hero's way back, or force him to waste time walk around it. Thus it equals a hard stun disable plus a long time movement disable, making it very effective to kill enemy hero in early game.
To make it work, target your Fissure right behind enemy hero and form a triangle with Fissure and trees. If it's done right, the enemy hero will be trapped in the triangle and most likely get killed. This is not as easy as said and needs a lot of practice. Keep in mind that Fissure has a cast time of 1.2 sec so if enemy hero is moving you need to anticipate his position in the next second.
You need a lot of practice to understand where to target your Fissure given different moving direction and speed of enemy heroes, kinda like Devourer's Hook and Valkyrie's Javelin. But if you do it wrong, the consequences is much worse than a missed Hook or Javelin: you may block the enemy on the other side of Fissure, thus make it impossible for your team to finish it off. Sometimes you just need a 1.75 sec stun to help your team catch the enemy, so just try to hit the enemy without blocking any path is also a solid strategy.
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_PortalKey.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/3/ability1_128.jpg
Portal Key + Fissure snipe:
With a blink from Portal Key and chained Fissure, you can hit an enemy hero from over 2000 unit away. Use it for finishing off an escaping enemy, or support your team in lightning speed when your team mates encounter enemy in the jungle or river. Also with this technique, Behemoth has no excuse not supporting your team in mid-late game.
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/3/ability4_128.jpg
Shockwave Combo in team fights:
This combo requires Portal Key and Ghost Marchers, ideally with Frostfield Plate too. When teams are gathering up, hide yourself in some shadows or on higher ground, out of enemy line of sight. If there's no such place to hide, just keep distance from your team but make sure you're in range of Portal Key's blink. The last thing you ever wanted is get disabled together with your team.
Wait until most of the enemy team are in your line of sight. If the other team has Tempest, you will want to wait for his jump-in Void, and interrupt it with your Fissure. If not tell your team to engage the enemy, when there're 4 or more enemy heroes engaging your team, use your Portal Key to jump in and immediately use your Shockwave. While jumping in, check if your ulti would miss any enemy disabler. If there's someone not affected by your Shockwave, Fissure him right after your ulti. Beware of your Fissure's delayed cast, if you want to chain your stun, you better use your Fissure immediately after Shockwave. It will waste like 0.3 sec of stun but who cares? Just make sure enemy heroes don't have any open window to use their skill to escape or disable your team. After Fissure, activate your Ghost Marchers and move close to the prior target like enemy carry, and use Enrage for another 1.5 sec stun. Now all your skills are in cooldown, before your still can unit-walking, get the hell out of the center of combat. If you have Frostfield Plate, activate it when you are moving out, so your team mates can finish any escaping enemy with the slow effect.
Now you are out of danger (hopefully), take the time to read the whole situation, see if there's an enemy hero trying to escape or one of your team mates is low on HP. Take a good position for a followed-up Fissure. Portal Key has a similar cooldown time with Fissure, so when you can use your Fissure again, you can blink to ensure enemy can't escape from your line of sight. Or use your Fissure to save your team mate first, then blink away yourself. If you are not a fan of melee attack, you should survive most of team fights like this. Which I think is the right thing to do with Behemoth.
7. Lineup Analysis
7.1 Good Friends
Behemoth can use his skill to setup your partner's skill. Here's some example:
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/103/icon_128.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/6/icon_128.jpg
Valkyrie/Devourer
Is there anything better than a guaranteed Javelin of Light hit for Valkyrie? Fissure can make it easy as blink your eyes. Let Valkyrie hide in shadow or on higher ground 900 unit away from your target. When there's no enemy creeps in between with target and Valkyrie, use your Fissure to stun enemy. If Valkyrie throw her Javelin as she see your cast animation, it will be a guaranteed 5 sec stun (including your Fissure's stun). Same thing for Devourer's Hook, nothing easier than hook an immobilized enemy hero.
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/108/icon_128.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/20/icon_128.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/15/icon_128.jpg
Plague Rider/Moon Queen/Swiftblade
Those heroes have ulti that works best when there's no enemy creeps around. Shockwave is a perfect tool to clear all enemy creeps in one shot, making ulti of your team mates more devastating.
Lane Partner
For choosing lane partner, you need another strong nuker/disabler and preferrably a ranged hero to compensate your crappy lane ability. Anyone below works well with Behemoth:
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/94/icon_128.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/12/icon_128.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/18/icon_128.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/22/icon_128.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/106/icon_128.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/90/icon_128.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/102/icon_128.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/21/icon_128.jpg
Pyromancer/Glacius/Thunderbringer/Pollywog Priest/Hellbringer/Plague Rider/Torturer/Succubus/Andromeda/Swiftblade/Valkyrie/Slither/Pebbles/Magmus
7.2 Worst Enemy:
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/115/icon_128.jpg
Vindicator
For obvious reason, his aura can interrupt any jump-in combo. He can also initiate with his ulti and within 6 secs Behemoth is no different from a creep. Actually he's a common counter pick for Behemoth. Get Shunken Head if you got counter picked.
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/37/icon_128.jpg
Magebane
Though it seems that Magebane is a counter for every caster, he's even worse for Behemoth due to the low mana pool. If you got hacked several times before you get in position, you may not have the mana for your Shockwave combo.
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/16/icon_128.jpg
Bloodhunter
A very long time silence can make you useless during the whole team fight. Either jump in from shadow or get Shrunken Head to ensure you can throw out your combo. Behemoth is vulnerable to physic attacks so a chaser with silence like Bloodhunter is a nightmare.
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/26/icon_128.jpg
Dark Lady
You can never pull off your combo if you don't know where to jump to. She also has a silence which is quite annoying for a heavy caster like Behemoth.
Sand Wraith
His ulti will disable your Portal Key for a long time, also reveals your position. Make it impossible to surprise your enemy with your combo.
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/14/icon_128.jpg
Night Hound
He can cover the center of combat with a well placed Smoke Bomb and silence you as soon as you jumped in. You will want to secure the true sight before engaging so you won't get caught silenced in the middle of the hell.
8. Miscellaneous
9. Conclusion
Behemoth is a fun and deep hero to play with. A lot of people curse him because they hate jump-in ultis. But a good Behemoth is made of your skill, experience and wisdom. I hope this guide help you keep being a fear to your enemy!
Enjoy the earth-shaker :cool:
Written for Heroes of Newerth v0.1.48.3
This guide will be updated with screenshots and replays when we have replay function working. Any comment and discussion are welcome!
1. Brief Introduction
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/3/icon_128.jpg
Behemoth is a hero who's almost identical to his DotA counterpart Raigor the Earthshaker. This hero has been a major part of competitive gameplay for quite a long time and still shining today. Due to the excellent disables and damage output of Behemoth, he can always help a good team. Even in messy nooby pub games where not much team work happens, you can still catch enemy heroes carelessly crowded in a clutter of creeps and devastate their whole team in a pleasing way.
The purpose of this guide is to help players who's not familiar or didn't play well with Behemoth to always be able to make a solid or even outstanding contribute to your team. It will not cover competitive level of gameplay since people on that level don't need any guide xD.
1.1 Who should play Behemoth?
Behemoth is a very special hero that may not work for everyone. First of all he's a supportive hero and there's no way to guarantee you can get a lot of kills or god-like items with him. Second, he's a hero only useful with team mates. It's very hard for him to 1on1 someone and trumph. Also he's farm ability is poor so if you have farm issues with other hero, it may get worse with Behemoth. But if you are a team player who enjoys nice planed team strategy and combos, you are perfect for playing Behemoth.
1.2 Pros and Cons
Pros:
Long ranged disable that can be used in many different ways
High burst damage in team push/anti-push, also well scaled through mid and end game.
Comboed skills can disalbe a bunch of enemy for a long time.
Cons:
Mediocre or even crappy stat gain from level up.
Poor farming ability makes him struggle for core items almost all the time.
His large model brings trouble in positioning, chasing and escaping.
His skills need practice, coordination and a bit of luck to work perfectly.
2. Hero Overview
2.1 Stats
Primary Attribute: Strength
Strength: 22 + 2.5 per level
Agility: 12 + 1.4 per level
Intelligence: 16 + 1.8 per level
Health: 568
Mana: 208
Movement Speed: 300
Armor: 2.68
Damage Reduction: 13.9%
Melee
Range: 125
Damage: 45 - 56
Mediocre stat gain and initial attribute at best. Pay attention to the low mana pool and low int gain per level. You will have a lot of trouble pull off your combo in the early stage of the game due to that. Surely you need certain items to compensate.
It says that Behemoth has a range of 125 which I highly doubt. Maybe it's due to his huge model, you can seldom last hit a creep when there's something in between.
Similar to other strength mages (Pebbles, Magmus), Behemoth has low armor which makes him vulnerable to physical attacks.
2.2 Skills review
Fissure
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/3/ability1_128.jpg
Type: Magic
Range: 1,200
Cast Time: 1.2 Seconds
Mana Cost: 125 / 140 / 155 / 170
Cooldown: 15.0 Seconds
Activation
Deals 125 / 175 / 225 / 275 Magic damage to each target in a line and stuns them for 1 / 1.25 / 1.5 / 1.75 second(s). Leaves impassable mound of terrain for 8 seconds.
Fissure is Behemoth's signature move. First it's a disable with massive range and coverage. You can abuse the range to surprise your enemy or support your team from far away. This skill has great synergy with Portal Key, with both available you can better position yourself to land it exactly where you want, or straightforwardly snipe an enemy hero from over 2000 unit away.
Another important aspect of the skill is it blocks the ground it hits. You can use it to trap an enemy, destroy formation of enemy squad during team fights, or hold chasing enemies when your team mate is in danger. Detailed explanation and examples can be found in later part.
Enrage
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/3/ability2_128.jpg
Cast Time: 1.0 Seconds
Mana Cost: 50
Cooldown: 7.0 Seconds
Activation
Applies Enraged to self for 14 seconds or until your next attack. Enraged Effects
50 / 100 / 150 / 200% Base Damage
This skill is useless without Heavyweight. Don't be fooled by the +damage description, Behemoth should never get any DPS item. Also you don't want to level this skill more than once.
Heavyweight
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/3/ability3_128.jpg
Passive
Triggered when Behemoth activates any of his skills.
Deals 25 / 45 / 75 / 115 Magic damage and stuns for 0.3 / 0.7 / 1.2 / 1.5 seconds in 280 radius around self.
Heavyweight will be triggered when Behemoth use his other 3 skills. This skill will add up damage to his combo. If chained perfectly, his combo can stun enemies around him for up to 4.5 seconds.
After fully leveled, this skill adds 115 damage dealt to creeps which makes his Fissure farming easier.
Shockwave
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/3/ability4_128.jpg
Type: Magic
Cast Time: 0.7 Seconds
Mana Cost: 145 / 205 / 265
Cooldown: 150.0 / 130.0 / 110.0 Seconds
Required Level: 6 / 11 / 16
Activation
Deals 200 / 275 / 350 Magic damage to enemy units in a 500 radius around self. Deals 35 / 45 / 65 additional Magic damage for each additional enemy unit in range and 17.5 / 22.5 / 32.5 additional Magic damage for each additional corpse in range.
This is why enemy fears Behemoth in team fight. Most supportive heroes will lose their value gradually as game goes on, but with Behemoth is one of the few who shines even brighter in late game. Behemoth need a Portal Key to launch this skill in the middle of 15+ enemy units and deal insane damage. To use the skill in a jungle fight is not as effective as when pushing/anti-pushing, but still if you can hit 5 enemy heroes with it don't be hesitate. It will still deals decent AOE damage plus a stun from Heavyweight.
3. Skill Build
1. Fissure
2. Heavyweight
3. Fissure
4. Heavyweight/Enrage
5. Fissure
6. Shockwave
7. Fissure
8. Heavyweight
9. Heavyweight
10. Enrage/Heavyweight
11. Shockwave
12. Attribute bonus
13. Attribute bonus
14. Attribute bonus
15. Attribute bonus
16. Shockwave
Fissure is maxed out first at every possible level, since this is his most reliable nuke and disable. You also need it as a threat to block enemy's way back if they are getting too aggressive.
Heavyweight follows, it's of no use most of the time in your first 5 levels, but we need it to get more damage and stun on Shockwave. Once you hit level 6, with lv2 Heavyweight you can have a nice 500-550 damage combo with 2 seconds disable. Pretty good for an early game kill or even double kill.
If you prefer a level of Enrage before lv6 to have one more disable, the overall damage of the combo will be a bit less, and the disable time will be the same if you chain them perfectly. That's why I wouldn't recommend leveling Enrage before max out Heavyweight. You pay 50 more mana for no reward. Even it seems that you have more choice with another activated skill, the fact is you can seldom land Enrage where you want before you have some movement boost. Also with only one level of Heavyweight, the AOE stun Enrage triggered is more like an mini one.
Once you have lv4 Heavyweight , Enrage will become a very handy AOE stun. With your Fissure it can deal 390 AOE damage, allowing you get most money from a wave of creeps with little effort.
Shockwave is leveled whenever possible. This skill is excellent anytime in the game. Early game there will be not many creeps to trigger huge damage but it's still very cheap and effective.
I would never invest more than one point in Enrage because you need Attribute bonus to compensate the crappy stat gain per level.
4. Item Build
4.1 Initial items
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_RunesOfTheBlight.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_ManaBattery.jpg
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_MinorTotem.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_ManaPotion.jpg
Runes of Blight x 2 180g
Mana Battery x 1 210g
Minor Totem x 2 106g
Mana Potion x 2 100g
This is a strong initial inventory, you don't really need too many stats for last hitting and survivability if you have enough mana to use your skill. You will need Mana Battery or Power Supply to be more persistent during early to mid game ganking.
You don't always need Runes of Blight if you play passively before lv6. I always bring some in case enemies decide to nuke you or I have a good lane partner allowing me to play more aggressively.
Mana Potion x 2 allows you to use 2 more Fissures in early game. That means you and your lane partner may have one more chance to kill (or force a fountain trip) an enemy in your lane, or you can use the two more Fissure to simply nuke enemy heroes and creeps at the same time, for 200+ damage on enemy heroes and 200 gold from creep kills.
4.2 Early to mid game items
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_PowerSupply.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_Bottle.jpg
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_Intelligence5.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_EnhancedMarchers.jpg
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_PortalKey.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_HomecomingStone.jpg
Power Supply x 1 519g
Bottle x 1 600g
Talisman of Exile/Fortified Bracelet x 1-2 485g
Ghost Marchers x 1 1500g
Portal Key x 1 2150g
Homecoming Stone x 101
Total 5154g
You will want to get those items in the given order with a early Marchers.
Personally I don't see holding both Power Supply and Bottle is an over-kill. They are extremely cheap and effective, gives you mana boost and survivability in early ganks. Behemoth doesn't need a big mana pool at this stage of the game since his only activated skill has a CD of 15 and shouldn't be spammed. As long as you can pull off a Fissure-Shockwave-Fissure combo to net you a kill, your mana pool is fine.
Why not Ring of Socery?
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_Replenish.jpg
This item is also good on Behemoth but it doesn't provide HP regen so you will still suffer a down time in between ganks. It's also much more expensive than Power Supply + Bottle. I'm sure it fixes Behemoth's mana pretty well and also mana of team mates perhaps. But still it will stall the progress towards Enhanced Marcher and more importantly Portal Key, which is too bad for Behemoth. Only in some situation when your team push together from very early on, this item will be a better choice.
Getting Talisman of Exile is not mandatory, you can also get Fortified Bracelet instead. I would recommend getting this item if your early laning is tough and you need more survivability. Otherwise go for Enhanced Marcher first.
Ghost Marchers is a must for Behemoth. You need the speed boost roam faster, to position yourself for a good Fissure, to keep distance with a running away enemy hero so your next Fissure can finish him off, and to get away from enemy line of sight quickly so you can use your Bottle and come back with another Fissure snipe. The unit walking ability is perfect for such a huge hero like Behemoth. With unit walking and speed boost, you can use your Fissure to stun a group of enemy first, then run up to them and use your ulti. You even need to activate it for last hitting purpose every now and then.
Ulti with Ghost Marchers is only a compromised way. Eventually you need your Portal Key for landing your ulti in a clutter of enemy heroes and creeps. Portal Key also increase your support range greatly. Once you got your Portal Key, enemy team will either fear to push or get some heavy casualty out of surprise. But saving up for Portal Key is very painful for Behemoth, due to his valuable mana and poor farming ability. I only start doing it after all other early game items are purchased.
Homecoming Stone is mandatory for every supportive hero if not for every hero. You need to gank, check rune, teleport to the opposite lane and gank, farm a bit and teleport back. Keep doing this will make enemy hard to track you and your threat. Also you don't want to stay in a lane for a long time because though Behemoth has some anti-gank tool, he's way more effective if he's the one initiating it. Whenever your mana is up or you need to upgrade some important items, use Homecoming Stone to save time. If you plan to teleport from base to another lane, you can walk back but you better take the chance to farm some neutral creeps. (use your Fissure to make it quick)
4.3 End-game core items
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_FrostfieldPlate.jpg
Frostfield Plate 4700g
Yeah that's the only item you need 100% for end game. At this stage, your job will be jumping in, dealing MASSIVE AOE damage, get out and wait for another Fissure to snipe escaping enemy (or save your team mates). With high armor and -25% attack speed on enemy heroes, you should survive from enemy carry hero most of the time. On activation, Frostfield Plate will add up to your total AOE damage and more importantly, slow enemy heroes for -40%. Combine this with your Ghost Marchers, you should have no problem get away from the center of the heat after your combo.
Also this item fixes your mana problem for good, from now on you can spam your skills for farming (don't use your ulti to farm of course....). You can clear a whole wave of creeps with Fissure (Heavyweight) + Frostfield in 2 seconds. This item is the foundation of all other end game items you want to get, so you should never miss it.
4.4 Optional items
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_Morph.jpg
Totem of Kuldra 5675g
A good anti-carry choice. Works on any carry hero especially someone with escape mechanics like Magebane/Valkyrie/Madman/Chronos. With this item Behemoth will just have too many disables and can hunt down any hero, or escape from a group gank.
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_BehemothsHeart.jpg
Behemoth's Heart 5500g
The name of the item is kinda ridiculous for Behemoth...WTF? Do I need to pay 5500 gold for my own heart? But if you do... it will grant you great survivability. Go for it and start tanking if your team is too squishy. It works very well together with Frostfield Plate. A Behemoth with his heart, Frostfield Plate and Portal Key is so impossible to be killed.
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_RestorationStone.jpg
Restoration Stone 5300g
Another cool item for Behemoth. Although his ulti scales good as game goes on, sometimes it's just not enough to kill the carry freaks on the other team. But there're not many can survive a double "Fissure + Shockwave + Enrage" outburst. The second Shockwave will do less damage than the first one due to the nerf on effect for corpses, but it's still unbearable for the other team.
Don't rush this item until you have Frostfield Plate, because it will not help your farm and can't be pulled off with your original mana pool either.
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_PostHaste.jpg
Post Haste 2700g
If your team don't have another pusher or it's a game lasts over an hour. You should consider get Post Haste for better farm and instant teleport to enemy base if your team has a chance. If you have money to buy back in a suicidal push, Post Haste to immediately get back to the battlefield can ensure your rax.
Why not Sacrificial Stone?
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_HealthMana3.jpg
This is generally a good item on all caster. But it's too expensive for Behemoth in early-mid game, and loses its efficiency in late game. If you go for this item from beginning, it will greatly slow down your process towards Ghost Marchers + Portal Key. Once you got your core items, Sacrificial Stone is not as good as Frostfield Plate for late game, not even close. But if you are very lucky to either farm well or get a lot of kills early on, you can get this item and spam your skills to farm Portal Key. I wouldn't recommend it for most scenarios.
5. Strategy aka mastering the pace of the game
The biggest problem for a supportive hero like Behemoth is how can you support your team with your disables and nukes throughout the game but still can catch up with farm and items?
Behemoth should not bother buying wards but still he needs lots of Homecoming Stones and his farm ability is so poor early game.
This section will tell you how to master the pace of the game so you always know when to farm and when to support.
5.1 Early game (lv1-8)
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_Bottle.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_Marchers.jpg
Get your initial items. You should make plan at this stage based on your lane partner and enemy. If your partner has good nuke/disables, you should try to get a kill from lv3 on. Try to use your Fissure to trap the enemy with your own creeps and let your partner and creeps nuke him to death. Most of your enemy will be aware of that and will not give you a big openning so just use your movement as you are going to Fissure trap them and their last-hitting will be distracted and give you more chance to last hit/deny.
You should avoid lane with a carry hero or another melee with no strong disables/nukes. But if it does happen, don't be aggressive in last-hitting/denying if your opponents are ranged heroes or nukers. Behemoth has very low armor so ranged attack from your enemy can be really hurting. You can still use your Fissure to net some gold, it is very important for your Bottle/Marchers. Try to kill 2 creeps with your lv2 Fissure, if it's not possible, kill one and hit 2 enemy heroes is also acceptable.
Although you want to get as many gold as you can early game, you don't want to empty your mana if there's a chance to get a kill. Pay attention to the mid laner of your team. If he knows how to roam, save up your mana for 1 Fissure and call for a gank at the right time.
If you have no support from neither your lane partner nor the mid laner, your best bet is when you reach lv6, get a kill with Shockwave + Fissure. Try to run up to enemy hero and creeps from shadow of forest, launch your ulti (you should be close to your enemy so Heavyweight damage and stun is triggered), move in the way enemy hero is trying to escape, use your Fissure to block it, then auto-attack for the kill. You can always get a shot like this no matter how hard your early game was. If you are lucky enough for 1 or 2 hero kills, you should have enough money for Bottle + Marchers + Power Supply.
Then it's time to give up your lane and roam. First you need to check if a gank is possible in mid lane. With the superior range of Fissure, you can easily initiate a gank to the mid laner on the other team. Just leave your lane, check rune, move on to enemy team's territory, get in range of Fissure, call your team mate in mid lane, wait for the target to stop moving (eg when he's last-hitting), Fissure and block his way back, let your team mate finish the job, if he can't, follow the target and kill him with another Fissure.
You should keep doing this in different lanes. Be sure to move on to another lane when a new rune is about to spawn (at 1:50 mark for every 2 minutes) so you can check it on the way. In between ganks, try your best to last-hit some creeps because every cent counts for Behemoth. But never stay in a lane for too long. Use outpost to buy Homecoming Stone and teleport back to base if you're out of mana/bottle or teleport to the opposite lane to support your team mates.
5.2 Mid game (lv9-15)
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_EnhancedMarchers.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_PortalKey.jpg
You should enter the stage with Bottle/Ghost Marchers and start saving up for your Portal Key. This is a painful stage because you don't have item boost and you still need to support your team. I don't agree with people saying Behemoth should farm in a lane until his Portal Key is up. I think the solution should be support your team as you did ever since, but try to stay alive the best you can. That means unless you need to use Shockwave, try to keep distance from enemy and abuse the range of Fissure. That is easier to be done if you force yourself to forget you can melee attack enemy heroes... That's also part of the reason why we don't level Enrage before Heavyweight. Behemoth will not do much attack damage to your enemy, though you can still do if you're sure there's no danger. But for other uncertain situation, just don't get close to enemies at all or get away as soon as someone start to nuke you. By saying "get away" I don't mean abandon your team mate, you should get away from enemy's line of sight but still keep in the range of Fissure, so you can always get a last-hit on escaping enemy or save your team mate's ass with it.
These principles will not let you farm more money but it will save you a lot from death penalty.
Once you have saved up like 1800 gold, you can forget about supporting for a while and use up all your mana on creeps for the final rush. Because you don't want anything bad happen to you when you are so close to the shiny Portal Key.
After getting Portal Key, tell your team you are ready for push. A jump-in Shockwave combo is so devastating for every push/anti-push so you want to abuse its cooldown as much as you can. If you keep ganking like what you did before, you will probably miss the LOADS of damage from every creeps and enemy heroes when they are all croweded together.
So just push/anti-push for every available Shockwave, you should get enough money from creeps killed by your ulti or only need a bit more farm for your Frostfield Plate.
I will explain the run down of a jump-in Shockwave combo more specificly in later section.
5.3 End game (lv16+)
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_FrostfieldPlate.jpg
The late game evolves around Frostfield Plate. You will survive more of team fights with Frostfield Plate, Portal Key and Fissure. And in between team pushes/anti-pushes, you should farm as much as you can. With Fissure + Frostfield combo, money will keep rolling in like tap water. But don't get obsessed with it... you still need to keep a Homecoming Stone in your inventory and be ready to join your team at any time. With all the money from farming/team fights, you can choose your other late game items according to the situation. Check item build section again if you still not sure.
During a push, you still don't want to auto-attack enemy heroes once you jumped in with your ulti. Some people say Behemoth is useless after his ulti is used. I disagree. Fissure is a great skill to keep most of your team mates alive after a push. There will be a lot of chasing and running after each push. You should keep distance and use Fissure to escort every hero on your team with low hp out of danger. Then Portal Key away yourself.
Behemoth is considered to be one of the most powerful heroes in the current version. So if you managed to do all the things I mentioned above and have decent team mates, you shouldn't be far away from a win.
6. Skill usage and team fight guide
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/3/ability1_128.jpg
Fissure trap:
This technique either completely block enemy hero's way back, or force him to waste time walk around it. Thus it equals a hard stun disable plus a long time movement disable, making it very effective to kill enemy hero in early game.
To make it work, target your Fissure right behind enemy hero and form a triangle with Fissure and trees. If it's done right, the enemy hero will be trapped in the triangle and most likely get killed. This is not as easy as said and needs a lot of practice. Keep in mind that Fissure has a cast time of 1.2 sec so if enemy hero is moving you need to anticipate his position in the next second.
You need a lot of practice to understand where to target your Fissure given different moving direction and speed of enemy heroes, kinda like Devourer's Hook and Valkyrie's Javelin. But if you do it wrong, the consequences is much worse than a missed Hook or Javelin: you may block the enemy on the other side of Fissure, thus make it impossible for your team to finish it off. Sometimes you just need a 1.75 sec stun to help your team catch the enemy, so just try to hit the enemy without blocking any path is also a solid strategy.
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_PortalKey.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/3/ability1_128.jpg
Portal Key + Fissure snipe:
With a blink from Portal Key and chained Fissure, you can hit an enemy hero from over 2000 unit away. Use it for finishing off an escaping enemy, or support your team in lightning speed when your team mates encounter enemy in the jungle or river. Also with this technique, Behemoth has no excuse not supporting your team in mid-late game.
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/3/ability4_128.jpg
Shockwave Combo in team fights:
This combo requires Portal Key and Ghost Marchers, ideally with Frostfield Plate too. When teams are gathering up, hide yourself in some shadows or on higher ground, out of enemy line of sight. If there's no such place to hide, just keep distance from your team but make sure you're in range of Portal Key's blink. The last thing you ever wanted is get disabled together with your team.
Wait until most of the enemy team are in your line of sight. If the other team has Tempest, you will want to wait for his jump-in Void, and interrupt it with your Fissure. If not tell your team to engage the enemy, when there're 4 or more enemy heroes engaging your team, use your Portal Key to jump in and immediately use your Shockwave. While jumping in, check if your ulti would miss any enemy disabler. If there's someone not affected by your Shockwave, Fissure him right after your ulti. Beware of your Fissure's delayed cast, if you want to chain your stun, you better use your Fissure immediately after Shockwave. It will waste like 0.3 sec of stun but who cares? Just make sure enemy heroes don't have any open window to use their skill to escape or disable your team. After Fissure, activate your Ghost Marchers and move close to the prior target like enemy carry, and use Enrage for another 1.5 sec stun. Now all your skills are in cooldown, before your still can unit-walking, get the hell out of the center of combat. If you have Frostfield Plate, activate it when you are moving out, so your team mates can finish any escaping enemy with the slow effect.
Now you are out of danger (hopefully), take the time to read the whole situation, see if there's an enemy hero trying to escape or one of your team mates is low on HP. Take a good position for a followed-up Fissure. Portal Key has a similar cooldown time with Fissure, so when you can use your Fissure again, you can blink to ensure enemy can't escape from your line of sight. Or use your Fissure to save your team mate first, then blink away yourself. If you are not a fan of melee attack, you should survive most of team fights like this. Which I think is the right thing to do with Behemoth.
7. Lineup Analysis
7.1 Good Friends
Behemoth can use his skill to setup your partner's skill. Here's some example:
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/103/icon_128.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/6/icon_128.jpg
Valkyrie/Devourer
Is there anything better than a guaranteed Javelin of Light hit for Valkyrie? Fissure can make it easy as blink your eyes. Let Valkyrie hide in shadow or on higher ground 900 unit away from your target. When there's no enemy creeps in between with target and Valkyrie, use your Fissure to stun enemy. If Valkyrie throw her Javelin as she see your cast animation, it will be a guaranteed 5 sec stun (including your Fissure's stun). Same thing for Devourer's Hook, nothing easier than hook an immobilized enemy hero.
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/108/icon_128.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/20/icon_128.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/15/icon_128.jpg
Plague Rider/Moon Queen/Swiftblade
Those heroes have ulti that works best when there's no enemy creeps around. Shockwave is a perfect tool to clear all enemy creeps in one shot, making ulti of your team mates more devastating.
Lane Partner
For choosing lane partner, you need another strong nuker/disabler and preferrably a ranged hero to compensate your crappy lane ability. Anyone below works well with Behemoth:
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/94/icon_128.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/12/icon_128.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/18/icon_128.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/22/icon_128.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/106/icon_128.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/90/icon_128.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/102/icon_128.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/21/icon_128.jpg
Pyromancer/Glacius/Thunderbringer/Pollywog Priest/Hellbringer/Plague Rider/Torturer/Succubus/Andromeda/Swiftblade/Valkyrie/Slither/Pebbles/Magmus
7.2 Worst Enemy:
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Vindicator
For obvious reason, his aura can interrupt any jump-in combo. He can also initiate with his ulti and within 6 secs Behemoth is no different from a creep. Actually he's a common counter pick for Behemoth. Get Shunken Head if you got counter picked.
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Magebane
Though it seems that Magebane is a counter for every caster, he's even worse for Behemoth due to the low mana pool. If you got hacked several times before you get in position, you may not have the mana for your Shockwave combo.
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Bloodhunter
A very long time silence can make you useless during the whole team fight. Either jump in from shadow or get Shrunken Head to ensure you can throw out your combo. Behemoth is vulnerable to physic attacks so a chaser with silence like Bloodhunter is a nightmare.
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Dark Lady
You can never pull off your combo if you don't know where to jump to. She also has a silence which is quite annoying for a heavy caster like Behemoth.
Sand Wraith
His ulti will disable your Portal Key for a long time, also reveals your position. Make it impossible to surprise your enemy with your combo.
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Night Hound
He can cover the center of combat with a well placed Smoke Bomb and silence you as soon as you jumped in. You will want to secure the true sight before engaging so you won't get caught silenced in the middle of the hell.
8. Miscellaneous
9. Conclusion
Behemoth is a fun and deep hero to play with. A lot of people curse him because they hate jump-in ultis. But a good Behemoth is made of your skill, experience and wisdom. I hope this guide help you keep being a fear to your enemy!
Enjoy the earth-shaker :cool: