Ophelia

[KatyPerry]

A detailed Guide to Ophelia

the least picked hero in HoN



TABLE OF CONTENTS


Post #1 (http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/showpost.php?p=1087180&postcount=1) deals with Ophelia's Stats, her Skills and a few Itembuilds.
Post #2 (http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/showpost.php?p=1087185&postcount=2) covers her role from early to late game, which minions to get during what phase of the game, counters to Ophelia and counter warding when certain spots in your jungle get blocked.
Post #3 (http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/showpost.php?p=1087195&postcount=3) shows how to push towers, gank in the early and mid game, how to solo Kongor as soon as you hit Level 6 and what heroes work best with/against her. There's also a little guide that shows how to jungle in the beginning and how to pull neutral creepcamps.

So if you check the hero usage statistics (http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/hero_use.php) you'll probably notice that Ophelia is only picked in 0,6% of all the games played! Is it because she sucks? Definitely not, as most of the higher tier players love her to death.

It's because she's probably the hardest hero out there to play right. Why's that? Because using her to her full potential means that you need to get your microskillz straight.




STATS and ROLE


Strength: 20 (+1.5)
Agility: 15 (+1.1)
Intelligence: 21 (+2.8)

Range: 600
Damage: 43-53
Attacks/sec: 0.68


As you can see her stats aren't that impressive, but if you play her right she'll be jungling for ~15 minutes and only come out for an occasional gank or two.

Her role in the game is to push and to support. Ophelia is one of the strongest pushers in the game. She may get weaker as the game goes on and on, but her creeps are amazing for tanking and damaging a tower.
Also her support is pretty crazy, because with that global heal and the supportitems you're going to get, you'll end up as an awesome addition to almost every lineup.


SKILLS




Nature's Wrath:
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/36/ability1_128.jpg

Type: Magic
Range: 600
Cast Time: 0.8 Seconds
Mana Cost: 100
Cooldown: 14.0 Seconds
Required Level: 1 / 3 / 5 / 7

Nature's Wrath Effects
7 / 14 / 21 / 28% Damage taken
8 / 16 / 24 / 32% Movement Slow


Nature's Wrath is a powerful single target spell. Ophelia can slow the targeted enemy AND amplifies the damage the target takes as well. If you're sticking your head out of the woods to gank an opponent using Nature's Wrath, having your buddy on the lane know whom you're going for, will often result in a free kill because of the sheer amounts of bonus damage your debuff will make you inflict. It's also good for preventing a hero to run away from a gank/in the aftermath of a succeded gankattempt.
The CD is pretty low for how impressive and useful this skill is, so use it every time you can.



Ophelia's Judgement:
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/36/ability2_128.jpg

Type: Magic
Range: 600
Cast Time: 0.8 Seconds
Mana Cost: 175
Cooldown: 30.0 Seconds
Required Level: 1 / 3 / 5 / 7

Activation
If target is a player controlled enemy unit, deals {50-100,100-200,150-300,200-400} True damage.

If target is an allied unit that you control, it will be teleported to your spawn point instantly.

If target is an allied unit that you do not control, they will be teleported to your spawn point at the end of the channel time.

Allied units can avoid teleportation by moving more than 200 units away from their original position at time of cast.



A highly situational skill. You don't need it early game, because you only control around 1-2 units and it's not like you can't get new ones. Yes, if you have 2 minotaurs sending the one that's near death back to the base might be a good choice on the first look, but it's actually a wasted skillpoint. You can port allies back to the base as well, which is actually very good, but you won't need that until mid-/lategame.
And for the nuke: It's actually horrible. You can try to nuke in the beginning of the attack, but KS'ing with Ophelia is horrible, as you don't need the money. And if you think that you need money, you can get it by jungling.



Command:
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/36/ability3_128.jpg

Type: Magic Dominate
Range: 900
Cast Time: 0.8 Seconds
Mana Cost: 100
Cooldown: 30.0 Seconds
Required Level: 1 / 3 / 5 / 7

Activation
Dominates target, taking control of it permanently. Only allows control of 1 / 1 / 2 / 3 units. Applies aura to all minions under your control.

Aura Effects
Radius: 9999
Target: My Other Units
Increases your minion's health by 75/150/225/300



That's Ophelia's bread & butter skill. I'm not kidding, you actually have to take it at Level 1 if you're not aiming for a superexotic build no one ever uses.
It actually enables Ophelia to dominate an enemy creep (NEVER do that. I'm not kidding. Just don't.) or one of the Neutrals. It may not sound like much, but those creeps are insanely strong in the earlygame and sometimes in the midgame. Lategame you can pick creeps like Ice Ogre or Wolf Commander, but more on that later.

The problem with this skill is that many people feel overwhelmed with controlling so many creeps. You actually have to group them right and use many of their abilities at the right time. Plus you need time to learn which creep has which ability.

To summarize: This skill is awesome!

Update as of the new patch: The newest nerf cripples your ganking and farming skills considerably until level 5. The skillbuild didn't change, but you still have to take Command on Level 1,3,5 and 7 to fully use Ophelia's potential.




Ophelia's Touch:

http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/36/ability4_128.jpg

Type: SuperiorMagic
Cast Time: 0.8 Seconds
Mana Cost: 200 / 300 / 400
Cooldown: 120.0 Seconds
Required Level: 6 / 11 / 16

Activation
Heals all allied heroes on the map for 200 / 300 / 400.

Fully heals all minions under your control.

Ophelia's Ultimate. Global heal, sounds boring, right? Well, it's not. If you have a good map awareness and check your teams HP from time to time, you can save their asses with it. You don't even need to be there, because it's GLOBAL!
But that's not all there's to it. You can pop it in ganks too, basically giving your team a free Astrolabe-pop every 120 seconds.
Plus you can use it for pushes, when all your creeps are low from tanking the tower.
With Staff of the Masters the Cooldown gets reduced from 120 to a whooping 30 seconds. But there are other items out there that are better for Ophelia.



SKILLBUILD





Level 4 Command gets left out, unless you're facing a team of AoE nukers that aim for your creeps, in which case that +5 to your creeps Magic Armor could come in handy.



1. Command
2. Nature's Wrath
3. Command
4. Nature's Wrath
5. Command
6. Ophelia's Touch
7. Command (now Command on Level 7 is a MUST HAVE, there's NO WAY AROUND IT! You need it now to dominate 3 creeps, because the skill got nerfed.)
8. Nature's Wrath
9. Nature's Wrath
10. Ophelia's Judgment/Stats
11. Ophelia's Touch
12. Ophelia's Judgment/Stats
13. Ophelia's Judgment/Stats
14. Ophelia's Judgment/Stats
15. Stats
16. Ophelia's Touch
17+. Stats

So it's basically like this: You get Command on Level 3 as soon as possible, and then you max Nature's Wrath with one point in Ophelia's Touch mixed in on Level 6. On Level 9 you can get one point in Ophelia's Judgement to port your mates to the base after ganks. If needed. They can actually save a lot of time running back there or 135g for a Homecoming Stone.
Always take the Ultimate as soon as it's available.

You can always swap Nature's Wrath with Ophelia's Judgment if you prefer, a lot of people like the nuke more than the slow and the damage amplifier early game.




ITEMBUILD

Early Game



You actually have a lot of options as Ophelia. If nobody buys courier, you're going to buy it. If nobody buys wards, you buy them. If your team is getting both of those things, you can go for an Refreshing Ornament and rush Astrolabe. The +2 Health Regeneration Aura is pretty nice. You'll probably not notice it, but your creeps will stay alive a lot longer with it, if you know how to micro them correctly.
And if you have somebody in your team that's already going for astrolabe (:deme: :jera: :accu: :plag:) you can save your money and rush a Puzzlebox.

So if you break it down, her items can look like this:



http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_GroundFamiliar.jpg/http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_FlamingEye.jpg /http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_MinorTotem.jpg

or

http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_MysticPotpourri.jpg

or

http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_BlessedArmband.jpg


As mentioned above, always buy a courier or wards if nobody buys it. Also that Refreshing Ornament is only a viable option if your team wants you to buy Astrolabe (= nobody else is buying it).
Bolstering Armband isn't actually that great. But on Level 1 you can tank for your creep, because it will be a little bit squishier without Refreshing Ornament. And it's only a good choice if you're rushing for Puzzlebox.


Core Items


http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_Astrolabe.jpg or http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_Summon.jpg/http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_Steamboots.jpg or http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_PlatedGreaves.jpg


Astrolabe is a great item on Ophelia, but if your team already has one, you can go for Puzzlebox. It's great for pushing, it's great for draining the enemies Mana, and it's great for dealing damage. It also gives True Sight if you're facing a team with heroes that can go invisible and one of the creeps has a nice aura that gives movementspeed to those standing nearby. Unfortunately the cost of the recipe got increased in the last patch again (1100 -> 1250), so you running around owning everything with your puzzlebox level 3 has to wait a bit.

As far as boots go Steamboots are a good choice if you need that extra survivabilty. I tested the Plated Greaves a lot in recent plays, and all I can say is that I totally prefer them over Steamboots. 20% to the base damage of your creeps is indeed awesome and you can push a lot better with the buff than without it.



Luxury Items


http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_NomesWisdom.jpg/ http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_Morph.jpg/ http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_Intelligence7.jpg/http://honwiki.net/w/images/f/fa/Stormspirititem.gif/


So, after the rework Nome's Wisdom isn't quite as good as it was. Yes, it's still viable because Ophelia doesn't need the regeneration, but personally I would buy a Stormspirit instead, because it's cheap and it has a disable. Or you could invest in a SotM or the Toten of Kuldra. Disable and a global heal every 30 seconds are always good and your team will love you for the Hex or your awesome healing powerzzz!





Honorable Mention

http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_WhisperingHelm.jpg


I know that Whispering Helm is a popular choice on Ophelia, but come on guys. Ophelia doesn't need the damage or the life steal and yeah, having more minions is great, but that's 1850g you could stuff into your Astrolabe or your Puzzlebox. It's nice to have 4/5 or even more creeps with you, but the helm has a 5 minute CD, so it will take 10 minutes for you to have 5 creeps. 10 minutes is a long time in a game where your team has Ophelia, because you should be pushing.
Yes, you can get it. Yes, it's actually pretty viable and useful, I just think that there are better items to get with Ophelia.




ITEMS NOT TO GET ON OPHELIA



Unless you're messing around don't get the following items:






http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_ElderParasite.jpg/http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_Splash.jpg/ http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_Weapon3.jpg


These three are just examples. Also never ever get Riftshards or Insanitarius. If you're wondering why I'm telling you this: Believe me, I've seen it all.

[KatyPerry]

THE GAME HAS STARTED, WHAT TO DO?


EARLY GAME



Buy your items. If you have wards, place them. Then you put one point into Command and wait for the Neutrals, which spawn at 0:30.

If you're Legion you'll jungle in the bottom forest and if you're Hellbourne you'll jungle in the top forest. Keep in mind that by jungling you're giving your team another solo lane, so announce that before you pick Ophelia. Why? Because your team wants to pick two heroes that are capable of soloing.

Okay, so now it's 0:30 and the creeps have spawned. What to do?
Well, you always want to dominate the strongest creep in an orange camp. For example Minotaurs, Catman Soldiers, Vulture Lords, Skeleton Kings etc.

Early on you can only charm one creep, so try to tank a bit and keep it alive until you get Command Level 2, which will increase your farming abilities by miles. If one creep gets low, pull it back and let the other creep tank. If both are low, send them back to the base and maybe check Runes or help out on a lane.

As soon as you hit Level 7 you're able to control 3 Minions. Now it's time for a push and or a few ganks. (You can also gank earlier, but your team needs at least some coordination, because you only have one minion until Level 5, where you can dominate a second creep).

So what you wanna do if you're ganking is to come out of the jungle, RIGHT BEHIND YOUR ENEMIES (if possible), and cast Nature's Wrath on one of them. Be sure to let your allies know on which one you're going to cast it. After that just rush in with your minions. You can switch through them by pressing tab, just try to get a stun in with a Minotaur or a slow with a Catman Soldier. A Root from a Skeleton King can also help you to get your Minotaur's stun off.

Now after you killed the lane and/or scared the enemies off, it's time to push. Ophelia is one of the best pushers in the game, keep that in mind. What you're wanting to do is to push with your mates as fast as you can, and then just hit on the tower with your creeps. If the tower focuses them you got lucky, just let them tank and pull the most damaged one back so one of the other 2 can tank.

If you're already Level 6 after that, you can actually use your Ultimate to get your creeps back to full health.
Now repeat that on the other 2 lanes, you can easily push the first 3 towers of the opposing site in the first 10-15 minutes.




MID GAME


It's ganking time! Just stay with your team and get them to push with you. By now you should've finished your Astrolabe/Puzzlebox and your Plated Greaves/Steamboots, so use them as often as possible. An early Astrolabe will turn almost every clash around and an early Puzzlebox is awesome for pushes and damage. If everything goes well you can actually get a lane down before the enemies team has time to farm.




LATE GAME



If you and your team somehow didn't manage to raze the enemies base by now, something went terribly wrong.
Your creeps are going down pretty fast by now and all you can do is heal and/or hex the enemy team.
You can still support your team with the aura of the Wolf Commander or the Ice Ogre's Armorbuff, but it's not all fun and games anymore, like in the first 25 minutes of the game.
You're also going to go down even faster than before when focused in teamfights, so try to stay back and support with your creeps and your heal(s).



WHAT CREEPS TO GET?



EARLY & MID GAME


Minotaur:
http://honwiki.net/w/images/0/0c/Minotaurunit.gif

1100 HP
200 Mana
Damage 65-73

Bodyslam
http://honwiki.net/w/images/thumb/c/cc/Minotaurskill1.gif/96px-Minotaurskill1.gif

Stuns for 2 seconds on enemy heroes and for 3 on every other unit. It also deals 25 damage and costs a whooping 100 mana.
Cooldown: 20 seconds

Attackspeed Aura
http://honwiki.net/w/images/thumb/2/2d/Minotaurskill2.gif/96px-Minotaurskill2.gif
Gives +15 to Attackspeed





Minotaurs are great. They have TONS of HP and an awesome AoE stun, which, if aimed right, can mean the difference between life and death in the early game & awesome at tanking towers. They're also viable lategame, because of their aura.



Vulture Lord:
http://honwiki.net/w/images/e/e0/Vulture_Lordunit.gif

950 HP
200 Mana
Damage 65-73

Tornado
http://honwiki.net/w/images/thumb/f/fc/Vulture_Lordskill1.gif/96px-Vulture_Lordskill1.gif

Damages enemies in a 150 radius for 45 Magic damage per second. Damages enemies in a 600 radius for 15 Magic damage per second.
Cooldown: 120 seconds



They're pretty okay early game, because their Tornade really has some damage going for it. But that spell is chanelled and the Tornade is slow as ****, so most people will simply outrun it. Vulture Lords are okay if there's no better creep around, but I avoid to command them unless I'm forced to do so. As of 1.0.6 they do not have their +3 armor aura anymore!



Skeleton King:
http://honwiki.net/w/images/1/1b/Skeleton_Kingunit.gif
1100 HP
550 Mana
Damage 32-36

The King's Grip
http://honwiki.net/w/images/thumb/e/e8/Skeleton_Kingskill1.gif/96px-Skeleton_Kingskill1.gif

Roots a target enemy for 1.5 seconds. (550 range)
Cooldown: 20 seconds

I love them. They don't have great damage, but their ability is actually pretty good. It's a ranged root and it helps TONS with positioning your minotaurs for that vital stun. I always get them early with 2 Minotaurs if I have the chance too.




Catman Champions:
http://honwiki.net/w/images/a/a9/Catman_Championunit.gif
1100 HP
300 Mana
Damage 65-73

Wildstrike
http://honwiki.net/w/images/thumb/d/d7/Catman_Championskill1.gif/96px-Catman_Championskill1.gif

Deals 150 damage to targets in radius and applies WildStrike to targets for 3 seconds.
Cooldown: 20 seconds

The damage from Wildstrike is pretty nice early game, plus it slowes the enemy down by -25%. But I like to think of them as Minotaurs gone bad. The 2 second stun is just so much better. But if there are no Taurs around, feel free to go for Catman Champions.




Vagabond Leader:

http://honwiki.net/w/images/9/95/Vagabond_Leaderunit.gif

1100 HP
400 Mana
Damage 65-73

Ground Pound!
http://honwiki.net/w/images/thumb/6/6f/Vagabondleaderskill1.gif/96px-Vagabondleaderskill1.gif

Deals 100 Magic damage up to 800 units away in a 200 radius cone.
Cooldown: 8 seconds

Presence of the Leader
http://honwiki.net/w/images/thumb/b/b7/Vagabondleaderskill2.gif/96px-Vagabondleaderskill2.gif
+3 Health Regeneration Aura


I guess the nuke and the aura is pretty nice to have around early game, but after that the use of having a Vagabond Leader in your "squad" actually disappears. They're certainly better than Vulture Lords, but other than that? Try to get other creeps.





LATE GAME



Your creeps are basically cannonfodder lategame, so the only viable option therefore are the following 3 creeps.



Ice Ogre:
http://honwiki.net/w/images/f/f0/Ice_Ogreunit.gif

600 HP
400 Mana
Damage 24-27

Icy Cold Armor
http://honwiki.net/w/images/thumb/7/71/Ice_Ogreskill1.gif/96px-Ice_Ogreskill1.gif

Applies Icy Cold Armor to any ally for 45 seconds. (+8 armor, when attacked the attacker gets a 30% Movement Slow and -30 Attack Speed)
Cooldown: 5 seconds

They suck and they are squishy, but the armor buff is HUGE. +8 armor? What's not to love. Plague Rider's skill gives +12 armor and you can get +8 and a debuff when attacked for free. The Cooldown got nerfed in the newest patch, but the skill is still very, very, very good. Use it & love it.




Wolf Commander:
http://honwiki.net/w/images/f/f9/Wolf_Commanderunit.gif

600 HP
- Mana
Damage 30-33

Damage Aura
http://honwiki.net/w/images/thumb/1/19/Wolf_Commanderskill2.gif/96px-Wolf_Commanderskill2.gif

+30% Base Damage Aura (500 range)


That aura is insane, even more so when your team already is farmed. Wolf Commanders are squishy, so you're going to look out for them. It's totally worth it tho.

The third creep you'll be aiming for is of course a http://honwiki.net/w/images/0/0c/Minotaurunit.gif. The aura from the Commander doesn't stack & the Ogre will have sufficient mana for buffing the team for a while. So that either leaves us with getting a Skeletton King or a Minotaur. I say that the Minotaur is the better option of those two. He has more HP and 2 second of AoE stun never go out of style.




WHAT TO DO IF NO CREEPS SHOW UP AT CAMP XY?




If no creeps show up after 0:30 in one of the camps the enemy team has probably warded it up. What you need to do here is to counterward as soon as possible. Yes, 200g may sound much early on, but missing out on 5 spawns on creeps (if we say that the wards last from 0:30 to 6:30) is an even bigger loss. So buy some Wards of Revelation!




COUNTERS TO OPHELIA!

A Team of Nukers


Nukers. You're squishy and your creeps go down fast if 2 or 3 nukers are going apeshit on you and your party of baddies.
If there's only one nuker around or their nukers don't pair up to give your creeps the middlefinger, you're good to go though. Keep that in mind.




Alchemist's Bones:

http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_Gloves3.jpg



You don't see it that often to counter Ophelia, but if a team decides to get at least 2 of them, you're officially ****ed. It has a high CD and you can dominate new creeps faster than they can use Alchemist's Bones again, but everytime they come near you, you're basically giving their carries (carries, because that's the heroes that usually aim for it) huge amounts of gold for free.
If you encounter a team massing Alchemist's, just try to play passive or use at least a few of your creep's abilities before they get raped by an instantkill.




POPULAR WARDSPOTS TO KEEP OPHELIA FROM FARMING AND HOW TO COUNTER THEM!

HELLBOURNE



http://i50.tinypic.com/sfh544.jpg

http://i45.tinypic.com/2coh1dw.jpg


LEGION


http://i50.tinypic.com/2uh1vro.jpg

http://i46.tinypic.com/21o1ttt.jpg

[KatyPerry]

HOW TO JUNGLE?



The good thing was, that once you hit Level 3 with Ophelia jungling becames a lot easier. This has changed since the last 2 patches, because you need at least Level 5 to get 2 creeps now. But until then, this guide is still accurate, you just need to farm a lot longer with just one minion.

The question is where to start on Level 1, and what to do if your minion is to fragile to survive until the second one "arrives". Just keep in mind that if the enemy have a hero that will probably jungle in their woods, you can really mess up their farm. Just swing your sexy ass over to the enemy woods and start dominating bosscreeps & harassing the enemy. It's pretty easy to counter, but if they don't send backup from the lane, you'll go crazy on their side of the jungle.



Legion



http://i50.tinypic.com/2r39m3a.jpg
http://i45.tinypic.com/987odd.jpg



This is where you'll start out. The first creepcamps spawn at 0:30 and after that every full minute (4:00 for example), but only if there are no corpses lying in the camp (they take around 11 seconds to disappear, keep that in mind!) and the spot isn't blocked with wards.
What you'll do is that after you've dominated the leader of the first camp (always dominate the strongest creeps in the camp, and only take over the creeps mentioned above!) and kill as much as you can with him. After the second camp (the yellow one) you'll hit Level 2 and if you can manage to kill the second orange one (depends on the spawns of course) you'll hit Level 3 and are good to go. 2 minions are all you need for jungling without a problem. Just pull them back before they die and use their skills if you have a Catman Champion or a Vagabond Leader, because they inflict around 100 damage.



http://i46.tinypic.com/2ag0upj.jpg



If you're only level 2 and your creep is going to die at the second orange camp, just dominate whatever boss creep is standing there.



Hellbourne



http://i50.tinypic.com/2vueavb.jpg
http://i48.tinypic.com/bf116c.jpg



Except for the different starting spot, the tactic stays actually the same. Dominate the orange creepcamp boss and try to extinct as much camps as possible with it.
I actually prefer the Hellbourne jungle over the Legion one, because you can farm better. If you're wiping through the jungle you can use the river to do a nice circle, where as in the Legion one you actually have to walk back for a million minutes to reach the outter orange camp where you start out.



HOW TO PULL CREEPCAMPS?



Neutral pulling is an awesome strategy. The guy that is soloing on the lane attached to the jungle can easily farm a neutral camp, your creeps may die due to tanking one of the neutrals, which means less XP for your enemies and you prevent your lane from being pushed to hard. But how to do it?



Legion



http://i50.tinypic.com/33li9gj.jpg



This is the camp you're pulling down towards the creeps. What you'll basically do is to hit one of the neutrals and run back to the lane so your creeps will attack them and follow them back into the jungle. You can do this between x:14 - x:16 and x:44-x:46. If you time it right, you and your mate are in for some free gold.

1. Hit & run!


http://i49.tinypic.com/2j5ystx.jpg



2. Pull them to your lane


http://i45.tinypic.com/2uo6l8p.jpg



3. Get back into their camp, deny your creeps, last hit the Neutrals.


http://i50.tinypic.com/nwlgr7.jpg



Hellbourne



http://i50.tinypic.com/5oimts.jpg



The only thing that changes is the creepcamp and maybe the timing is one second off on the Hellbourne side. But other than that it's exactly the same.

1. Hit them


http://i50.tinypic.com/2k4vol.jpg



2. Pull them to your creeps and get back to the camp


http://i48.tinypic.com/nmwwvc.jpg


3. PROFIT!


http://i50.tinypic.com/2nlb8jl.jpg



HOW TO USE OPHELIA



If you want to set up a gank in the early game, wait for your enemies to push. If they've pushed far enough to your tower, now it's your time to strike.

1. Apply Nature's Wrath



http://i48.tinypic.com/2yllqqa.jpg



2. This is what it looks like when your enemy is debuffed


http://i47.tinypic.com/2eeezh1.jpg



3. Get in with your Minions and start doing damage. Don't forget their skills!


http://i45.tinypic.com/2qkkkxw.jpg



http://i47.tinypic.com/243rhok.jpg



4. ????

5. Profit! (which means a kill, or even better, an assist)

HOW TO TOWER PUSH?



1. Push the lane with your Minions and attack/tank the tower



http://i48.tinypic.com/k1s4qs.jpg

http://i46.tinypic.com/2r58c2o.jpg



2. Pull the Neutral that's about to die back and let your creeps/your other Minions tank!



http://i47.tinypic.com/xc3t5d.jpg



3. If the health of all of your minions hits a critical state and the tower still isn't down, cast your ultimate to get them up to full health! Yes, tower pushes early game are THAT important, you're allowed to "waste" your Ultimate like that!



http://i47.tinypic.com/qz54er.jpg



HOW TO SOLO KONGOR!



What do you need? Unlike in the earlier versions where Level 6 would've sufficed, you now need Level 7 so you can get Command on 4 to dominate 3 Creeps. Besides that you need your Ultimate & a few Auras from maybe Refreshing Ornament and Shield of the Five might help.



http://i45.tinypic.com/25fst28.jpg



So what you're basically aiming for is to let your creeps tank Kongor and pull them back as soon as they're low. Do that with all 3 of them and then use your Ultimate. And don't forget to use that Shield of the Five if you have it, it gives +2 Armor! An Astrolabe or a Puzzlebox would help too, but you're fine with these lower tier items.



http://i46.tinypic.com/5xlrwm.jpg

http://i49.tinypic.com/szic5h.jpg



If you're doing it right, the following will happen:



http://i48.tinypic.com/iyz9r5.jpg



OPHELIA'S FRIENDS!


Basically all the heroes that are good pushers are your friends. Why? Because the enemy towers will fall like nothing over your awesome pushingpower! Also Engineer with Tinker will result in crazy pushes early on!

http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/43/icon_128.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/5/icon_128.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/93/icon_128.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/90/icon_128.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/30/icon_128.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/122/icon_128.jpg


OPHELIA'S ENEMIES!


There are not that many enemies around, but basically they're nukers and/or Behemoth and Legionnaire. Nukers can bring you or your creeps down easily and Legionnaire will just port in and taunt you and your creeps for Maximum Whirling Blades.
And Behemoth's Ultimate... I don't think that I have to mention it will totally kill you. You will even die after you're dead from all the damage it will deal.

http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/3/icon_128.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/38/icon_128.jpg + Nukers. But there are too many to list them all.



REPLAYS!


For now there's only one replay, but I'll make sure to add more.

ID 2306854 (http://replays.heroesofnewerth.com/match_replay.php?mid=2306854) (SD 1500, with players ranging from 1500 to 1600)

Quite a good replay. Nothing special, but it shows ganks and a lot of jungling with just one creep. There's also an early Kongor kill in it and the use of a Puzzlebox.

_______________________________________________



Feedback would be appreciated, and if you find any spelling mistakes or stuff like that, tell me. English is my second language. :)

I'm going to add in a little tutorial for Neutral Creep Pulling and a few tips on how to jungle properly in the next few days.

Update 19.02.2010: Guide went online.

Update 20.02.2010: Added a little Gameplay & Kongor guide with pictures. Also a first replay. Ophelia's friends & enemies added.

Update 21.02.2010: Added a guide to pull Neutrals and one that shows how to start with the jungling.

Update 24.02.2010: Fixed a lot of typos.

Update 26.02.2010: Added a new replay and a new friend for Ophelia.

Update 28.02.2010: Now Premium! :D Working on better pics for the ward spots and a layout overhaul.

Update 01.04.2010: Updated the descriptions for Command and the Skillbuild, to reflect the changes in the new patch.

Update 02.05.2010: Updated the descriptions for Command, to reflect the changes in the newest patch.

Update 26.05.2010: Updated missinformation about Command giving the Courier more HP (got fixed) and new information on Nome's and Plated Greaves/her luxury items.

[Drasha]

your counter wards still block the spawn XD

heres some thing on counter warding though it does not over all the ways to stop creep blocks. http://www.hondb.com/?wards2

[KatyPerry]

I know that they do, those pictures are just placeholders. But you're right, there's no point in having them up, I'll replace them in a minute. :D

So, now I have a few places up there to counter ward. Yes, some Wards are pretty hard to get rid of, but even if you're still blocking the spawn with it, the Ward of Revelation is gone in 2 minutes instead of 6. So you'll have 4 more camps to farm.

[f0oster]

i just played a game using ophelia after reading this guide.

was a sweet game, we ended up winning

i didn't do great but it was really enjoyable so i will definitely be playing her more to improve my micro

thanks heaps :D

[fennecchan]

Bookmarked; thanks for the guide! I'm trying to practice Ophelia, though this is what usually happens:


Me: Is it okay if I pick Ophelia?
Everyone else on team: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

[Kcolraw]

you should always get monkey because it gets your passive buff

[iGame]

Great guide!

[KatyPerry]

Thanks for the feedback guys! If you like it vote please! And if you don't like it, vote too and try to tell me how I can improve my guide.


you should always get monkey because it gets your passive buff

I know that, but if your monkey gets caught due to bad management on your teams part, it will be dead, no matter what you do. It only has a MS of 300 so it's easy to chase and I've never seen that hit decide between it's life or death.
Thanks for the advice tho, I'll write it in the guide. Forgot to do that.

[Reonhato]

her nuke is much more useful early game then a slow+slightly more damage. it can save allies, creeps and does a helluva lot of damage for such a short cd.

also you forgot to mention her ability to sneak an early kongor

[KatyPerry]

A quick guide on how to solo Kongor is still coming, don't worry.

And I really don't think that her nuke is viable early game. It only does so much damage, the damage is random. Yeah, maybe maybe that 14% extra damage may not sound much, but it IS very much with 3 creeps and 2 heroes bashing on that target.

Thanks for the feedback though, it's really appreciated.

P.S.: Sending your mates back is not that bad, but regeneration items should suffice until you come ganking Level 5. If not you can come out even earlier.

[Gigglet]

very nice guide, go premium!
and letting the monkey die is stupid and shouldn't happen anyway. you don't buy +hp items for the courier just to keep him alive either, do you?

[KatyPerry]

Updated Ophelia's friends and enemies and also put in a small Kongor guide. Hope that helps.

Added the Staff of the Masters effect from her Ultimate, fixed a few typos and also added the Cooldowns on the Creeps abilities.

[BASH]

Nice guide, I am looking forward to reading about pulling and jungling.

Go for premium. ;)

[KatyPerry]

Added a little neutral pulling & jungling guide. :)

[KatyPerry]

Fixed a lot of typos. Wow, there were some ugly mistakes in there. :0

[Xristosx]

Nice little guide, i prefer to get whispering help and have 4 creeps to take out kongor by about 10 minutes into the game. and i also prefer maxing out ophelia's touch, because a 200-400 TRUE nuke rapes people early game hard

[KatyPerry]

From time to time I like to get Whispering Helm too, but if you're going to rush Puzzlebox it does so much more for you in the long run.
More Minotaurs are always welcome, but so are the Mauler and his compadr?, with that saucy Mana Burn and the +MS Aura. :D

And yes, the nuke isn't that bad, BUT it's random. If you have Nature's Wrath maxed out that's 28% more damage taken, which is far more (in a gank at least) than an average 300 damage from that nuke.

[Xristosx]

From time to time I like to get Whispering Helm too, but if you're going to rush Puzzlebox it does so much more for you in the long run.
More Minotaurs are always welcome, but so are the Mauler and his compadr?, with that saucy Mana Burn and the +MS Aura. :D

And yes, the nuke isn't that bad, BUT it's random. If you have Nature's Wrath maxed out that's 28% more damage taken, which is far more (in a gank at least) than an average 300 damage from that nuke.

hmm thats true.. i might try maxing natures wrath first from now on and see how it does. but people underestimate ophelia's nuke when i try to fight them and its a extremely good finisher because people wont have a chance to run from it

and i havnt tried puzzlebox in awhile, maybe i should

[KatyPerry]

It's a good finisher because most people totally forget about her nuke. :D

But you shouldn't actually get the kill with Ophelia anyways, your money comes from jungling. I only nuke the enemy if he's about to get away, if not I let our carry have the kill if possible.

[Aviseras]

Pretty straightforward guide, but hits all the main points. I had no idea how ridiculous Ice Ogre and Wolf were though, definitely going to help my late game when morons refuse to push earlier.

I think you could use a few more luxury items such as SOTM, though. Just played a game earlier, where with almost no heroes kills I had astro, puzz 3, kuldra, steam, and was wondering what on earth to do with my gold at that point.

[KatyPerry]

You are right about Staff of the Masters, I've added it to the Luxury Items. But after you get Astrolabe/Puzzlebox and Plated Greaves and the game still isn't over, you should go for a Totem of Kuldra or a Stormspirit. Both disables help a lot. And if the game STILL keeps going, you can then proceed to buy a SotM.

That 30 second CD on her Ultimate is crazy, but most of the times you're able to farm for a SotM the game is over anyways.

[Retardidiot]

I think the best items on her after marchers + ring of the teacher (allows your creeps to mana regen for continued ganking without returning to fountain) is astrolabe followed by either nomes (if your team needs the armor aura) or sotm (do not need armor aura). I like your creep choices and most of the guide in general. The only gripe I have is the fact I take judgement over natures wrath. Reason why is I max it by lvl 7 at which point with a good dice roll you can do over half a persons life in true damage. Also its much more effective against pseudo-blinks/blink heroes and in general people tend to not expect to instantly lose 30-50% of their life to ophelia. The slow and increased damage is nice the slow does not allow for reliable minotaur stuns (the only thing that does is an ally stun/immobilize or a skeleton king grip) because its 7% per level which is just poor when combined with the clunky minotaur movespeed + cast animation for stun. Now the major downside as pointed out with the nuke is that it frequently kill steals. However by playing aggressively and doing the gank in the first place your teammate/carry gets the aura gold (not as much as kill but still something), free xp, and a free-farm lane for a while as well as the enemy loses time in lane (loses xp/gold) and loses gold due to dying. I just prefer judgement because it makes killing much much more reliable even if I have to take the kill myself.

Also if your playing ophelia and your solo is a good hero like puppet, slither, andromeda (basically any decent stun/immobilize) you can easily pull off a level 1 bloodlust if you are lucky and find a minotaur immediately. For one nobody expects you to gank 30 seconds into the game but its really easy with the right combination because your autoattacks and the minotaur autoattacks alone can drop a lvl 1 hero in just a few seconds.

Overall I just assume I play her in a much much more aggressive playstyle (I think the majority of games I play her last between 15-25 minutes and I end with 5-9 kills and 3-6ish assists). Thats probably why I prefer ganking as soon as possible and judgement over natures wrath.

P.S. :engi: is by far the best pusher with ophelia, had one pub game with a random engie and we pushed 7 towers and 1 set of raxx 18mins in because at lvl 7 he had lvl 4 tinker and my creeps could drop towers in literally 10-15 seconds due to armor debuff. Tinker + Ophelia is a very very strong pushing combo and engineer is a viable solo in the lane ophelia is jungling next to.

[Aviseras]

You are right about Staff of the Masters, I've added it to the Luxury Items. But after you get Astrolabe/Puzzlebox and Plated Greaves and the game still isn't over, you should go for a Totem of Kuldra or a Stormspirit. Both disables help a lot. And if the game STILL keeps going, you can then proceed to buy a SotM.

That 30 second CD on her Ultimate is crazy, but most of the times you're able to farm for a SotM the game is over anyways.

I think in a more competitive late game, SotM is going to be more viable than Kuldra. Unlike your carries, you can't clear ancient stacks, so getting the 2k and 3k gold runs that you need are pretty unfeasible since team clashes are going to be the majority of what happens now and they are going to happen pretty frequently.

In a soft game, you can get kuldra no problem, but you might want to address two different routes to go for soft/hard games.

[KatyPerry]

I think the best items on her after marchers + ring of the teacher (allows your creeps to mana regen for continued ganking without returning to fountain) is astrolabe followed by either nomes (if your team needs the armor aura) or sotm (do not need armor aura). I like your creep choices and most of the guide in general. The only gripe I have is the fact I take judgement over natures wrath. Reason why is I max it by lvl 7 at which point with a good dice roll you can do over half a persons life in true damage. Also its much more effective against pseudo-blinks/blink heroes and in general people tend to not expect to instantly lose 30-50% of their life to ophelia. The slow and increased damage is nice the slow does not allow for reliable minotaur stuns (the only thing that does is an ally stun/immobilize or a skeleton king grip) because its 7% per level which is just poor when combined with the clunky minotaur movespeed + cast animation for stun. Now the major downside as pointed out with the nuke is that it frequently kill steals. However by playing aggressively and doing the gank in the first place your teammate/carry gets the aura gold (not as much as kill but still something), free xp, and a free-farm lane for a while as well as the enemy loses time in lane (loses xp/gold) and loses gold due to dying. I just prefer judgement because it makes killing much much more reliable even if I have to take the kill myself.

Also if your playing ophelia and your solo is a good hero like puppet, slither, andromeda (basically any decent stun/immobilize) you can easily pull off a level 1 bloodlust if you are lucky and find a minotaur immediately. For one nobody expects you to gank 30 seconds into the game but its really easy with the right combination because your autoattacks and the minotaur autoattacks alone can drop a lvl 1 hero in just a few seconds.

Overall I just assume I play her in a much much more aggressive playstyle (I think the majority of games I play her last between 15-25 minutes and I end with 5-9 kills and 3-6ish assists). Thats probably why I prefer ganking as soon as possible and judgement over natures wrath.

P.S. :engi: is by far the best pusher with ophelia, had one pub game with a random engie and we pushed 7 towers and 1 set of raxx 18mins in because at lvl 7 he had lvl 4 tinker and my creeps could drop towers in literally 10-15 seconds due to armor debuff. Tinker + Ophelia is a very very strong pushing combo and engineer is a viable solo in the lane ophelia is jungling next to.

You're right, I totally forgot about Engineer. As you said Ophelia and his Tinker are madness when used together. My games with her last usually as long as yours do, but I try to keep my kills at a minimum, that's why I don't skill the nuke first.
The nuke IS viable, I just like to go straight for the slow and use Ophelia's Judgement for teleporting a creep back or two. That's why I don't buy Ring of the Teacher either. It's nice, but you don't actually need it.
If a creep is low I think you're better off letting it die and dominating a new one either way, so your opponents don't get the whooping ~100g from your creeps.

But whatever, I've added :engi: to her friends, thanks for your feedback. :D

[KatyPerry]

I think in a more competitive late game, SotM is going to be more viable than Kuldra. Unlike your carries, you can't clear ancient stacks, so getting the 2k and 3k gold runs that you need are pretty unfeasible since team clashes are going to be the majority of what happens now and they are going to happen pretty frequently.

In a soft game, you can get kuldra no problem, but you might want to address two different routes to go for soft/hard games.

SotM gives nice survivability, and yes, Kuldra is expensive. But stormspirit has many cheap parts. They don't add to your survivabilty, but they give tons of Int and a disable.

Don't get me wrong, I like SotM. I just think that it is highly situational. A disable is viable in almost every game ever. If Kundra is too expensive you can still buy Stormspirit.

I've added SotM to the luxury items tho, because it's probably just a matter of taste and by no means a bad item on her.

[KatyPerry]

Added a new replay from the guide. It was SD 1700+ and I was able to put a lot of pressure on the enemy team. Also the early Puzzlebox helped with the pushes. It also shows an early Kongorkill.

[KatyPerry]

Bump for Premium! :D

[ElementUser]

Good guide, but I only see 2 creeps following this statement & not 3 like you said:


Your creeps are basically cannonfodder lategame, so the only viable option therefore are the following 3 creeps.

[KatyPerry]

Good guide, but I only see 2 creeps following this statement & not 3 like you said:

Haha, that's terrible. Thank you for pointing that out, I will fix it right now. :)

[HellSperm]

i actually using this hero on pubs not really sure on competitive level but if playing on 1600++ game always have a hard problem with ward and afew nukes,

usually the most hated hero i faced is glacius, because its froze shield actually can make your creep being stuck like forever until dead.

and your point about whispering helm is good, its kinda wasted of money if you buy it.

btw good guide, love to see it as premium, will try your method next time.

[KatyPerry]

Glacius' Ice Imprisonment can only freeze on of your Creeps because of it's relatively high CD. What problems do you have exactly?
Just pop your Puzzlebox when he's around and you're good to go. :)

[ElementUser]

Glacius' Ice Imprisonment can only freeze on of your Creeps because of it's relatively high CD. What problems do you have exactly?
Just pop your Puzzlebox when he's around and you're good to go. :)

I think he meant at level 1-4 ganks where you can only have a max of 1-2 creeps

[KatyPerry]

Well then that's true. Against Glacius only a Skeletton King with his ranged Root can help. And even that's a big maybe. If it gets iced, just cast the root and hold Glacius so your mate can gank up on him.
It's not the best option, but with only 1 creep available that's actually the only thing you can try to do.

[KeY533]

I wondered why u ve a soulscream ring in your final inventory but after i watched the replay i know why ^^

ehhm a question why you dont picked up the items in your stash as u was in the base? any logical sense or u just dont care about equip for Ophelia early/mid game? xD

[KatyPerry]

I was probably leaving them in the base to assemble a Puzzlebox, didn't I? Which game are you talking about? The one were FA gave me her Soulscream Ring so she can take the Token?

[arieLOL]

nice guide, no mention of taking over the enemy jungle though?

If you have an organized team, still solo your jungle lane and send 2 to theirs + ophelia to their jungle. This gives you immense ganking power in the lane that usually has their carry in it, prevents them from pulling creeps in the lane and also messes up any junglers they have. (they also usually wont expect this) I am not big on Ophelia but one of my friends is and he will routinely take their jungle especially if the enemy has a war beast, zephyr, legion, predator or wildsoul. The only one you cant really force out is tempest cause he elementals your minotaur. Its extremely funny seeing a warbeast scared out of his own jungle then he must make a decision to lane and lose out on any benefit war beast might have given the team or try to go to your jungle which very few will want to do before they are 6. I have seen so many junglers taken out of the game by this strat. While it is counterable (support from lane + mid and maybe the other lane) very few people will go for this because they dont want to leave lanes early and let the enemy get a level or two on them.

[ElementUser]

nice guide, no mention of taking over the enemy jungle though?

If you have an organized team, still solo your jungle lane and send 2 to theirs + ophelia to their jungle. This gives you immense ganking power in the lane that usually has their carry in it, prevents them from pulling creeps in the lane and also messes up any junglers they have. (they also usually wont expect this) I am not big on Ophelia but one of my friends is and he will routinely take their jungle especially if the enemy has a war beast, zephyr, legion, predator or wildsoul. The only one you cant really force out is tempest cause he elementals your minotaur. Its extremely funny seeing a warbeast scared out of his own jungle then he must make a decision to lane and lose out on any benefit war beast might have given the team or try to go to your jungle which very few will want to do before they are 6. I have seen so many junglers taken out of the game by this strat. While it is counterable (support from lane + mid and maybe the other lane) very few people will go for this because they dont want to leave lanes early and let the enemy get a level or two on them.

Tempest + Ophelia dual jungle can be scary. Ophelia + Enchantress (if she gets ported) would be even scarier.

[KatyPerry]

Well, the guide shows how to start out with the jungling, so it should be no problem to go jungling in the enemy woods.
It's quite a nice tactic, but extremely situational. If they have junglers you can, as you pointed out already, really mess up their farm.

I'll add it to the guide, thanks for the feedback.

[HellSperm]

hehe and if you play ophelia properly it can be carry hero :P

[KatyPerry]

If you play her "properly" she is an awesome supporter. If you play her like a carry you don't use her to her full potential.

Yes, builds with Elder Parasite, Riftshards and Charged Hammer are fun from time to time, but only if your opponents really don't know what they're doing.

[sal]

How is a 200-400 true damage nuke horrible? With wrath on, that's 256 - 512 true damage. Chronos just popped elder parasite? 316 - 632 (with wrath). It's an excellent early-game finisher, and it can save your ass if people find you in the jungle. I would never use the cooldown to save a creep when there's an enemy nearby to use it on. Simply giving up too much damage.

Consider: pyro's ultimate from 6-10 is 450 magic damage, about 340 after magic armor. Judgment is a comparable (sometimes superior) amount of damage on a lower cooldown with lower mana cost. That's pretty awesome.

Personally, I find nome's to be far more core than puzzlebox. It gives your minions crucial mana regen, which means they don't need to stop for mana after every team fight. It also provides even more armor on top of the greaves, which makes it hard for them to get auto attacked down. Then, of course, there's the 100% mana regen and extra healing. Such a good item. I would also add frostwolf skull onto luxury items - great for boosting overall stats and it gets some intense slows going on in team fights.

[Ish`kafel_]

nice.

[KatyPerry]

How is a 200-400 true damage nuke horrible? With wrath on, that's 256 - 512 true damage. Chronos just popped elder parasite? 316 - 632 (with wrath). It's an excellent early-game finisher, and it can save your ass if people find you in the jungle. I would never use the cooldown to save a creep when there's an enemy nearby to use it on. Simply giving up too much damage.

Consider: pyro's ultimate from 6-10 is 450 magic damage, about 340 after magic armor. Judgment is a comparable (sometimes superior) amount of damage on a lower cooldown with lower mana cost. That's pretty awesome.

Personally, I find nome's to be far more core than puzzlebox. It gives your minions crucial mana regen, which means they don't need to stop for mana after every team fight. It also provides even more armor on top of the greaves, which makes it hard for them to get auto attacked down. Then, of course, there's the 100% mana regen and extra healing. Such a good item. I would also add frostwolf skull onto luxury items - great for boosting overall stats and it gets some intense slows going on in team fights.

You should've read my guide, I never said that Ophelia's Judgement is horrible, I only pointed out that I, personally, would never take it over Nature's Wrath.
Nomes Wisdom IS an awesome item, but an early Puzzlebox can make a HUGE difference, where as a Nome's is even the same amount of awesome when you get it after the Box.
And if your creeps are low on mana, you can dominate a new one. It's not like that Ophelia has problems with her mana, or that 100 Mana is an expensive spell. :)

Also Frostwolf Skull is WAY to expensive,you shouldn't have that much money on her. And if you have it after your Core Items, just go for a Totem of Kuldra. Or a Stormspirit which has a cheap buildup and a disable that helps a lot, but an additional slow to Nature's Wrath? Not really needed, I would say. Disable > Slow.

Thanks for the feedback though! :)

[Phase1Skeith]

Ophelia was the first hero I learned and is the main hero I use whenever possible.

I highly suggest implying multiple skillbuilds and giving Judgment the credit it deserves.
Basicly the skillbuild you're suggesting here is the one I've always been using for a long time when I started playing Oph but once you go into organized teams you reallize that the main reason Judgment isn't as usefull early because of it's high mana costs.
On level 10 your mana pool will be more large enough to support wrath+jugement combinations though.
The skillbuild I'm trying to use as much as possible is the following:

1. Command
2. Nature's Wrath
3. Command
4. Nature's Wrath
5. Command
6. Ophelia's Touch
7. Ophelia's Judgment
8. Ophelia's Judgment
9. Ophelia's Judgment
10. Ophelia's Judgment
11. Ophelia's Touch
12. Nature's Wrath
13. Nature's Wrath
14. Command
15. Stats
16. Ophelia's Touch
17+. Stats

Wrath is skilled early for its slow, the damage bonus is not all too great in early game, to get your creeps closer.
Since all strong creeps are fast level 2 is more than sufficient.

Command is self-explanatory.
Of course Commands Level 4 position changes depending on the enemy team.

Judgement gives you enough damage to easily nuke low HP heroes in combination with some creep power or at least deal enough damage to give no chance of escape.
It's also way more effective than Wrath against certain heroes such as Predetor and Pebbles.

Wrath is also Ophelias only scaling skill unlike judgement which becomes rather weak in late game - so use it's power while it's effective.
Getting Judgement even before Wrath is prevented by it's (on low level) insane mana costs. Unless you swollow lots of mana potions your creep converting mana will be gone after the first gank.

P.S. Nice guide, I've been thinking about writing one but it's so much work. ^^

[Shipooki]

push for Skeith he plays an awesosme ophelia:o

[Sizaro]

Boots, Nomes Wisdom, SotM, Frostwolfs Skull, Frostburn, Charged Hammer = gg
I almost won 2v5 ^^, too bad if they take me 5>1 they win ;<

[sal]

You should've read my guide, I never said that Ophelia's Judgement is horrible, I only pointed out that I, personally, would never take it over Nature's Wrath.

And for the nuke: It's actually horrible. You can try to nuke in the beginning of the attack, but KS'ing with Ophelia is horrible, as you don't need the money. And if you think that you need money, you can get it by jungling.
Just sayin', is all. :)


Getting Judgement even before Wrath is prevented by it's (on low level) insane mana costs. Unless you swollow lots of mana potions your creep converting mana will be gone after the first gank.
Personally, my starting inventory is wards, 3x minor totems, 3x mana pots, and runes. The 3 mana pots almost always gives me enough mana for multiple ganks, and if I need more I'll just put one or two on the courier when it brings me a new set of wards.

[KatyPerry]

Meh, that is just badly written. I actually ment that it's horrible if you use it to kill people. Ophelia should actually never get kills. If you can manage that, there are most like 4 heroes in your team that profit TONS more from the gold the kill is giving.

[Vexew]

Personally i find Nomes into a Staff of the Master the best build.
Being able to almost spam heals on your whole team from anywhere is incredible.

[exnx]

guide is great, sorry i dont have time to read comments so this may have been asked but

The only thing I'd like to see is a section focused on actual ingame bindings and grouping setups with recommendations. Like ophelia bound to f1 or 1 and her creeps bound to 2. Or should you make binds for each creep aswell? Should you constantly rebind your creep group in a certain order so you can quickly and efficiently tab through your creeps abilities in a certain order?

[ElementUser]

Oh yeah oargestory, I'm just wondering why you didn't list Snotter Boss or Sporespitter anywhere in your guide.

Snotter Boss may be a bit fragile compared to other neutrals (your Command bonuses sort of remedy that though), but the +% Movespeed Aura can be really useful later on.

Sporespitter has Arachna's Webbed Shot level 2, pretty much. 20% MS slow and -20 AS for 2 seconds.

[RogerDodger]

Vagabonds have a spammable 100 mana burn, you can hang one outside of the short lane and burn the mana of an enemy every few seconds.

[KatyPerry]

Vagabonds have a spammable 100 mana burn, you can hang one outside of the short lane and burn the mana of an enemy every few seconds.

True, burning Mana is nice and I'll try how it works, but right now I would say that a ranged hold + 4 seconds of stun from 2 Minotaurs and 1 Skeletton King are far superior.

But I'll see how it works. The problem I see is that Vagabonds die extremely fast and you'll lose 1 creep just for the mana burn.


guide is great, sorry i dont have time to read comments so this may have been asked but

The only thing I'd like to see is a section focused on actual ingame bindings and grouping setups with recommendations. Like ophelia bound to f1 or 1 and her creeps bound to 2. Or should you make binds for each creep aswell? Should you constantly rebind your creep group in a certain order so you can quickly and efficiently tab through your creeps abilities in a certain order?

I always group Ophelia and her creeps on 1, creep #1 on 2, creep #2 on 3 and creep #3 on 4. Ophelia alone can be targeted with F1. It may be a bit complicated, but you'll eventually get the hang of it.


Oh yeah oargestory, I'm just wondering why you didn't list Snotter Boss or Sporespitter anywhere in your guide.

Snotter Boss may be a bit fragile compared to other neutrals (your Command bonuses sort of remedy that though), but the +% Movespeed Aura can be really useful later on.

Sporespitter has Arachna's Webbed Shot level 2, pretty much. 20% MS slow and -20 AS for 2 seconds.

If you go for Puzzlebox the +MS% won't be needed. Also a slow may be neat, but a ranged hold from a skeletton king, +8 armor from an Ice Ogre, a 2 second AoE stun from the Minotaur or +20% base damage from the Wolf Commander are far superior imho.

[ElementUser]

If you go for Puzzlebox the +MS% won't be needed. Also a slow may be neat, but a ranged hold from a skeletton king, +8 armor from an Ice Ogre, a 2 second AoE stun from the Minotaur or +20% base damage from the Wolf Commander are far superior imho.

I meant in scenarios where you need creeps fast & can't afford to base your findings on chance & take whatever you can at that time. :)

Give your opponents too much time to recover and you'll lose out (ie, pushing a tower when some enemies are dead or defending your tower & waiting for allies, so you just take whatever that's good for the situation)

[Phase1Skeith]

True, burning Mana is nice and I'll try how it works, but right now I would say that a ranged hold + 4 seconds of stun from 2 Minotaurs and 1 Skeletton King are far superior.

I think you didn't quite understand how the Vagabond burn is used... ^^

Basicly you're not using him for your roaming and farming purpose but always hold him near the lane hidden in the forest or behind the tower.
Whenever his cd is off, send him on the lane to burn mana and hide him again - the Vagabond has too high hp for your enemies to kill him with melee attacks so they pretty much have to use a most likely mana consuming ability if they want to kill him. Even if they kill him, he's neither worth much gold nor experience. Heroes such as Defiler or Accursed will be incapable of laning because they lose 100 mana every 20 seconds and you can also time it to interrupt potions.

BUT you're right that instead of making the enemy incapable of laning in certain cases yoU'd rather let them lane until they push a little and double kill with 3 boss creeps.

[KatyPerry]

I see.

Well, I actually never encountered a time where I had to pick one of these creeps, the orange and yellow camps usually spawn a Catman, a Vulture Lord, a Wolf Commander, an Ice Ogre, a Skeletton King or a Minotaur for me.

I'll try it out next time when I'm short on creeps tho, to see how they add up.

[KatyPerry]

I think you didn't quite understand how the Vagabond burn is used... ^^

Basicly you're not using him for your roaming and farming purpose but always hold him near the lane hidden in the forest or behind the tower.
Whenever his cd is off, send him on the lane to burn mana and hide him again - the Vagabond has too high hp for your enemies to kill him with melee attacks so they pretty much have to use a most likely mana consuming ability if they want to kill him. Even if they kill him, he's neither worth much gold nor experience. Heroes such as Defiler or Accursed will be incapable of laning because they lose 100 mana every 20 seconds and you can also time it to interrupt potions.

BUT you're right that instead of making the enemy incapable of laning in certain cases yoU'd rather let them lane until they push a little and double kill with 3 boss creeps.

I know what you meant, I most certainly did. It's a nice way to harass, there's nothing to discuss here, I agree with you.

I actually don't know if the last paragraph was sarcasm, but I actually really believe that letting them push and then proceed killing them with 3 creeps is a more viable option.

[Phase1Skeith]

I actually don't know if the last paragraph was sarcasm, but I actually really believe that letting them push and then proceed killing them with 3 creeps is a more viable option.

No, it wasn't.
It's a basic event in pretty much every game played with :ophe:.

Unless it's one of those virtually impossible to kill lanes.

[arieLOL]

New viable build
flying courier
mock
boots
beast heart x4
lulz

http://replays.heroesofnewerth.com/match_replay.php?mid=30327398
bd 1600 + us

I shoulda been way higher than 5 kills but I think it counts kills via mock courier like kills via creep, you have to be only one doing damage in last x seconds to get credit, a few went to legion.

[OPHELIA_24`7]

When I instapicked Ophelia, my team was like: GG. We lost.
But watch what happened.
- Some random .apem, noobgame.

@ 31931053

[NoskillzNils]

i personally ALLWAYS get a ring of the teacher on ophelia :)

3+ armor and + 0.85 manaregen is such good for pushing and you dont have to send your creeps back for mana, just jungle some minutes and they got full mana :D

[KatyPerry]

The coming change to Command leaves me... baffled. :/

[ElementUser]

The coming change to Command leaves me... baffled. :/

The nerf to Ophelia is to make it more like DotA's Chen (but not the same still); Chen's Holy Persuasion creep scaling is 1/1/2/3, Ophelia's post-patch will be 1/2/2/3.

Point is, Ophelia currently has access to 3 creeps at level 5, while Chen can only have 3 creeps at level 7.

[made`]

How do you bind your creeps/groups? I tried to ctrl 1-4 the creeps and 1 as group but feels like it is wrong all the time :p if you got my question

[Hadonis]

Nigga you have to include an Ophelia Offenseive guide, Courier and some items + mid solo + 1st skill and 2nd skill = GG then get codex and its more GG

[KatyPerry]

@made`: I know what you mean, binding the creeps on 1-4 actually DOES feel wrong in the beginning. But that's what I do too, you'll eventually learn how to manage it.

@Hadonis: I know how to play her that way, but... no. This guide is meant to show how to play Ophelia, not buy stupid items (I know it's fun sometimes, but meh) and/or play her like a carry. :/

[Sauron`]

Thanks for the guide, I've been playing a good bit of Ophelia now and I've won the past games with her. she's really fun.

Loved ur guide btw.
Quick question though. I usually bind Ophelia + Creeps to 1, and Ophelia to 2, and creeps to 3.
I use tab to cycle through creeps when ganking (for stun/abilities) is this the right way to do this? or should I bind each creep separably (i find tab easier however)

[KatyPerry]

There's no "right way" to do the binding for your creeps. Just do what works best for you.
But I actually never bind Ophelia on any key, you can select your hero with F1.

[KatyPerry]

Just wanted to let you guys know that an update is coming soon, I just had very little time in the past few days.

[Phase1Skeith]

Thanks for the guide, I've been playing a good bit of Ophelia now and I've won the past games with her. she's really fun.

Loved ur guide btw.
Quick question though. I usually bind Ophelia + Creeps to 1, and Ophelia to 2, and creeps to 3.
I use tab to cycle through creeps when ganking (for stun/abilities) is this the right way to do this? or should I bind each creep separably (i find tab easier however)

That's how I do it:

Use both methods.
There are more than enough keys to bind units to so if you have your group bound to one button and every creep/Oph to a single one you will be able to move them seperatly when needed but are able to tab micro while you're moving the big group.

[PsiRedEye22]

I still dislike the movement speed of some creeps. Pathing in this game is ridiculous enough as it is without getting stuck behind a 270 ms ogre. Dear lord, please fix this S2. You've nerfed and buffed ophelia into oblivion, but normalized creep speed is just plain necessary.

[FlamePhoenix]

UPdate the guide. Level 4 Command no longer adds magic armour to creeps.

[KatyPerry]

UPdate the guide. Level 4 Command no longer adds magic armour to creeps.


Just wanted to let you guys know that an update is coming soon, I just had very little time in the past few days.


Geez, please read the thread. :(

[FlamePhoenix]

Geez, please read the thread. All 4 pages !? hell no ... I find it curious how you make ophelia look so easy to play and yet she is one of the hardest heroes to master.

[KatyPerry]

It was posted on this page, so meh. It's not like I ask you to read through 120 pages of spam. :D

If you get comfortable with the micromanagement and her skills she actually gets very easy to play. Sure, Forsaken Archer or Arachna are probably a lot more easier to play, but it's all just training.

[JellySmelly]

Ophelia is in one of my most played heroes list , so depending on enemy setup i ussualy build Nomes / Ghost marchers (not plate cause mobs die easy anyway) tho remember to micro them early and they will give you nice kills.
If enemy has alot of casters Nullstone is nice , alot of games i played i made a harkoons. SoTM is really viable item too , if your low on supports Barrier Idol/Astro works nice.

[KatyPerry]

Plated Greaves are not only for your mobs.

[KayKitten]

hey guys i cant seem to download the replays because they are an older version.

if anyone gets the chance to play oph in a game again, i would appreciate a ID.

im learning oph but still having trouble with the early game playing (pulling creeps, ganking etc.)

[KatyPerry]

Update 01.04.2010: Updated the descriptions for Command and the Skillbuild, to reflect the changes in the new patch.

[kikkomann]

I always see the pros go for Judgement over Wrath yet whenever I ask someone the consensus is always to go Wrath first. I like the finishing power on judgement personally as I dont find the snare that valuable. Thoughts?

[KatyPerry]

As far as my experience goes you can skill Wrath or Judgement, I personally just think that Wrath is vastly superior. True, Judgement on Level 4 can rape face, but the snare and the amplified damage is way too good to pass up. But that's just my opinion, if you look around in this thread you'll see a few people who like to skill Judgement over Wrath.

[FlamePhoenix]

7. Command (now Command on Level 7 is a MUST HAVE, there's NOW WAY AROUND IT! You need it now to dominate 3 creeps, because the skill got nerfed.) Perhaps you mean: (now Command on Level 7 is a MUST HAVE, there's NO WAY...) Just a little typo I found.

[KatyPerry]

Thank you, I appreciate that. Fixed. :)

[WickedCraazy]

Really great guide Oargestory, I found everything extremely helpful in helping me to learn how to play Ophelia--The only thing that escapes me is the proper microing of creeps...Could you perhaps address some of the tricks to doing this? Is it just more practicing until I get better?

Thanks for your contribution to this guide!

[FlyingFury]

just to let you know about the ice ogre the frost shield is now a 5 sec cd.

[KatyPerry]

Really great guide Oargestory, I found everything extremely helpful in helping me to learn how to play Ophelia--The only thing that escapes me is the proper microing of creeps...Could you perhaps address some of the tricks to doing this? Is it just more practicing until I get better?

Thanks for your contribution to this guide!

I tried to do a guide on how to micro your creeps, but it's just practice, practice and more practice. There are numerous ways to micro them. You can just group them in one group and tab through them, or you can put each creep on a seperate number. Just use the method that works best for you and practice your micro. It will get better pretty fast! :)


just to let you know about the ice ogre the frost shield is now a 5 sec cd.

Geez, I totally forgot about that. Thank you!

[FlyingFury]

no problem. Great guide btw

[DarkSeer]

meh, your guid does not explain how to play Ophelia to her fullest. And slow first? Wow dude :((( 2 minotaur ideally? :(((((( /wrist

snare in the start comes either from your creep pick / blocking them with it and your ally on the lane, wrath does in no way compensate for the nuke and I can say this because I've never lost a single game as Ophelia.

[FlamePhoenix]

snare in the start comes either from your creep pick / blocking them with it and your ally on the lane, wrath does in no way compensate for the nuke and I can say this because I've never lost a single game as Ophelia.
Then please, talk about your tactic here. I believe you can help a lot more people this way. If it is good, it can even be add to the tutorial.

[Kamelkaze]

What about skilling Command only 2 times. 2 Creeps are enough for jungling, pushing and ganking


1. Command
2. Nature's Wrath
3. Command
4. Nature's Wrath
5. Ophelia's Judgment
6. Ophelia's Touch
7. Ophelia's Judgment
8. Ophelia's Judgment
9. Ophelia's Judgment
10. Nature's Wrath
11. Ophelia's Touch
12. Nature's Wrath
13. Command
14. Command
15. Stats
16. Ophelia's Touch
17+. Stats


Mainitems are Astroblade and Codex


I want to try this next time :smile:

Btw. if you get early Codex then this one:

1. Command
2. Nature's Wrath
3. Command
4. Nature's Wrath
5. Nature's Wrath
6. Ophelia's Touch
7. Nature's Wrath
8. Ophelia's Judgment
9. Ophelia's Judgment
10. Ophelia's Judgment
11. Ophelia's Touch
12. Ophelia's Judgment
13. Command
14. Command
15. Stats
16. Ophelia's Touch
17+. Stats

[BarneyGumbal]

Awesome guide. I never realised how powerful it was to go straight for Astrolabe.

[Kroobs]

in your 1700 game, I like how the other team was really disfunctional and kept calling each other tards in their chat in the start. Then how you guys were like the exact opposite.

Other than that, the guide is awesome.
I've tried a couple games and although I haven't been exactly "undefeatable", I had fun and won some and then :D

[Niveum]

Thanks alot for this guide.
What most of us is having problems with would be micro management.
I used to bind every creep to 2,3,4 and myself to 1, but it got way too complicated to keep control of, simply tab'ing helped me out alot.

Also, I used to learn the damage spell for ganking, and the slow. (Skipping Command >.< ), but after trying out Command from level 1, everything went off easier.

Awesome guide, awesome hero!

[icantrixx]

Nice guide, I have some comments!

Some people asked about microing, this is how I do it effectively:
1) Make sure to have only Centaurs and Catmans in your slots if you can. They have the same mechanic to their spells so it becomes homogenous and easy to land them.
2) Bind all your units under the same slot (CTRL+1), Ophelia showing.
3) When you gank (always coming from behind), press Q for your slow, click the enemy hero, attack-move with all your units, when your Minotaurs/Catmans are close press Q-TAB-Q-TAB-Q, trying to wait 1,5 second between each stun.

There you go. Nice and easy stunlock.

Why you get slow instead of nuke
You get slow before nuke to guarantee that you can land your stuns, also the damage extra it gives is roughly the same as the nuke.
At level 7 you have 3 creeps doing 70 dmg, you doing 70 dmg and another hero doing 70 damage. At level 7, this skill should be lvl 2.
If you, your ally and your creeps hit just 3 times, which is very realistic, your spell did 150 bonus damage (The exact average your nuke deals). If your ally nukes, you surpassed it.

Microing your Puzzlebox
When you get puzzlebox, spawn the minions before battle, group them as 2.
Think of Ophelia and her creeps as one group, which you've learned to master from the above.
Treat your puzzlebox as a seperate entity, target the hero that depends mostly on mana or has invis by issuing the following commands holding both your minions.
1) Q- Click enemy hero to burn mana
2) Attack
That's all you gotta do

Early Jungling
I disagree with the creep camp the author chose for initial jungling. You can take on harder camps from level 1, giving more xp. Also, by positioning yourself so far away from the lane, you miss the opportunity to quick-gank at level 1 if you get a minotaur. I uploaded where you should position yourself at the start, for clarification. First drawing shows Hellbourne side, second shows Legion side.

http://img682.imageshack.us/img682/417/oph.png (http://img682.imageshack.us/i/oph.png/)

If the first points isn't enough, this video by FreshFriFly should convince you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQLdo6RDQcQ

Starting items
I would recommend getting a Ring of the Teacher ASAP. This item is core whether or not you turn it into Nomes.
1) It provides a huge boost for your creeps early survival, which is invaluable.
2) Even more invaluable is that it gives mana regen to your creeps. How useful is your creep if it can't stun any longer?
3) If someone else gets the courier, you can get RotT from start, and ship the wards to you before the 2min mark, when your ally in mid needs it.

Lane Setup
If your solo aside from mid is strong enough to handle his own, for instance Zephyr, Magebane or Puppet Master, a good idea is to have teammates lane in following order:
Solo Top - Solo Mid - Dual Bot (For Legion, reverse if Hellbourne)

1) If you get a Minotaur at level 1, you have two teammates to help you get first blood, which raise the odds to almost certainty.
2) You have better backup, which means that the enemy team is highly unlikely to succeed on ganking you in woods.

Avoid getting Ganked
There's 2 tricks that highly improves your survivability, while taking no effort and means no loss in efficiency

1) Always place a ward by the rune close to the jungle, this way you can see if the middle hero comes for you, while your mid hero gains rune control
2) When clearing creep camps, don't stand in the campspawn like an idiot. You're ranged for god's sake. Have your creep stand in the spawn, and shoot from the side of the surrounding trees closest to your base. This way your creeps will scout a gank from the lane in case you didn't get miss, and Ophelia can just walk away.


Ask if you didn't get it!

[levo]

hello, it's a great guide and ophelia is the most underestimated hero in the game, lately some people trying something different, or lets say abusing ophelia, i have witnessed in 3 games and 1 happened today, our ophelia farmed for 20 mins kept ganking and etc, 1st get herself a sword later on helm of the blacklegion. she made a mock and get 2 beasthearts and place them all into the courier, a bird with 1.5k hp, and mock, and in all fights she controlled the bird and our opposing team tried to kill the bird :) (even cronos used his ultimate to kill the bird)
is it a reliable tactic? the game we played was not a noob game as people would ask, it was a 1650psr game with mainly decent players playing, here is the replay 40508215.

[Dragnmn]

That has got to be one of the most epic replays I've seen in a long time.

It might actually be a great tactic, because it will never be targeted by towers or the fountains, I'm not sure if creeps attack it either. IMO all it misses is mana and a Codex.

[Spankspank]

Really inspiring guide. Will keep on working on multiboxing, been doing a couple of games with Wild Soul to master he and his bear. But will be ongoing with Ophelia a.s.a.p!

Thanks!

[Nooblet0023]

1. Command
2. Nature's Wrath
3. Command
4. Nature's Wrath
5. Nature's Wrath
6. Ophelia's Touch
7. Nature's Wrath
8. Ophelia's Judgment
9. Ophelia's Judgment
10. Ophelia's Judgment
11. Ophelia's Touch
12. Ophelia's Judgment
13. Command
14. Command
15. Stats
16. Ophelia's Touch
17+. Stats
This is a good setup for ophelia except dont get command past 2 the extra bonus isnt worth it by that time in the game and stats are more benifical heres a decent video besides the others teams feeder 34966129

[Phase1Skeith]

Adjusting to the nerf I changed my skillbuild to what you usually see in pro games, meaning no Natures Wrath before Command and Judgement are skilled out.

It's just a lot more usefull now than Natures Wrath now due to the little forced level in Command.

[hallanhype]

How do I view the matches? Says download coming soon.

[Dragnmn]

Open HoN, go to Match Stats, input the match ID and click download replay. Took me a while to find out too.

If it says "check for file", you obviously cannot download it. You'll just have to wait for it to be uploaded, if it ever is.

[hallanhype]

Says same thing. Oh well I guess

[Maels_]

nice guide there

[FlamePhoenix]

Ophelia was nerfed again. Now the creep numbers are 1/1/2/3. Please update the description of the tutorial.

[KatyPerry]

I will do it in time, don't worry. I still don't like where all the nerfes are going. I understood the nerfes of the magic armor and cutting Command down to 1/2/2/3, but 1/1/2/3 is a bit harsh.

[FlamePhoenix]

I understood the nerfes of the magic armor and cutting Command down to 1/2/2/3, but 1/1/2/3 is a bit harsh.
I totally agree. It cripples your jungling considerably and forces you do pick Command to lv5 for sure.

[KatyPerry]

Updated the guide to reflect the changes on Command. I played her a few times since the changes and oh boy... she's still very powerful, but I think that S2 might have overdone it.
I just hope that this was the last nerf for a long time. >.<

As an avid Oph player, I'm actually offended that your guide plays down Ophelia's Judgement. The potential 400 damage from this nuke so early in the game on such a small cooldown is DEVASTATING. Sure it's a little random, but even then if 200 true damage is negligible then people wouldn't play Jeraziah as often. I have won more than one game going Command -> Judge -> Judge -> Command -> Judge -> Judge, farm a codex before 10-15 minutes (9 minute Codex is my record :), and pop out of forest with a skeleton/minotaur/catman/vagabond leader (It all depends, but in the end they all do the same thing: make sure the enemy dies), and literally bring int heroes/carries from full health to dead on a 30 second cooldown.

No, this is not viable in all games, but I find that if you manage to dominate 10-30 minutes into the game with a codex, your team can farm/exp up to steamroll the team without much ease.

Typical build goes like this:

Items: Courier only, potentially one set of wards if bot won't purchase for you.
Reasoning: Ophelia is the only hero in the entire game that can survive without items. Every team needs a courier. Save up that 400 gold for your codex later. As for wards, depending on where you end up (Hellborne or Legion), I mostly wind up warding either the rune ramp area or the forest entrance from top/bot lanes to prevent incoming ganks. Oph is pretty brittle, and so the best way to mitigate that is to avoid actually being seen.

After this, I get the +10 int item (the name escapes me), followed by the punchdagger and then the codex recipe. If you have wards and are smart, you won't need boots for survival. Pop out of the forest every now and then with a minotaur and try and scoop up first blood if you can. When you get Codex, immediately start ganking, as the time this will be most potent is when their team has realized what you've done and isn't expecting to be instantly killed by Ophelia.

Skill build:
Command
Judgement
Judgement
Command
Judgement
Heal
Judgement
Wrath/Command
Command/Wrath

etc...

Since the creep nerf (really 1/1/2/3 /sigh), this build is sort of even more viable as you're going to have to get good at farming with only one creep early game anyways. That being said, if money's slow or if I get farmed, I'm not adverse to delaying level 3 judgement and your ult for another level of command. Be skeptical all you want, but I've ended more than one game this way.

Less serious suggestions:
farm one pickled brain
farm whispering helm + courier
give courier pickled brain
courier -> charm creep
courier drops pickled brain until 5 min cooldown is up
go back to step 2.

You'd be surprised how many creeps you can actually get.

first item mock -- expect to be done 15-20 minutes in, but the mentality is sort of the same as codex, the benefit here is you rape in team fights and all you have to do is play run away, and it speeds up your forest farm threefold. Mock done before 20 minutes kills people faster than some might realize. Imagine constant l3 slither ults.

doombringer strat:
for pubstomping really. have a friend play scout in the solo lane, have him farm up runed axe and shrunken head. farm up a doombringer, drop it with your favorite method to scout, go kill kongor quickly and then let the charades begin.

[hallanhype]

Anyone think a more attack/support based ophelia instead of command one would do ok? Tried last night but still have some ideas to work on it. More less get just level 1 command to get 1 creep and farm a bit and use it as needed. Then get judgement and your nuke. Go for Codex which when you buy it out with judgement fully leveled does over 1000. More less you can use your 1 creep when needed to push or whatever. But you throw judgement on and codex and nuke away. Also have your heal for sticky situations.

[Myk3r]

Dude, You're guide is genius.

I recently figured that adding an Ice Ogre to your squad works wonders when taking on Kongor. That shield of theirs slows that bastard down very nicely and the armor isn't bad at all.

Kudos for the guide. I <3 :ophe:

[billyxgoat]

:nymp::nymp:ummm level 2 command only gives 1 creep still level 3 gives 2 and level 4 gives 3.....

just to let you know, havent seen anyone mention it

nvm i see it someone right above me :D

[KatyPerry]

I know, that's what it says in my guide.


Activation
Dominates target, taking control of it permanently. Only allows control of 1 / 1 / 2 / 3 units. Applies aura to all minions under your control.

[Charging_in]

if u hit 'm' with a creep and left click yourself he'll wander around really close to u without being drawn into attacking. a great way to keep your attack damage aura creep out of the fight late game where he'll get smoked in 2 seconds, to maximise the usefulness of his aura in helping the team

[win`]

Really great guide Oargestory, I found everything extremely helpful in helping me to learn how to play Ophelia--The only thing that escapes me is the proper microing of creeps...Could you perhaps address some of the tricks to doing this? Is it just more practicing until I get better?

Thanks for your contribution to this guide!

One of the most effective tool for ganking is command queues:

Eg. If you're coming from in the jungle with a minotaur and skeleton king (and another creep) you can set up most of the gank before you even get there:

1. With ophelia press q (natures wrath) and click on the target of the gank
2. hold shift (with ophelia and all creeps selected) and right click on the target.
This causes ophelia to use nature's wrath and proceed to auto attack the target.
3. Select skeleton king -- use grip on target
4. hold shift (with ONLY skeleton king selected) -- right click on target
Causes the skeleton to grip the target as soon as they come within range and proceed to auto attack the target.
5. Repeat 3/4 with a second skele or vagabond leader if you have it. If it's catman/mino skip to 6

These steps free you up considerably to position your aoe abilities on the catmen and minotaurs.

6. Select remaining creeps (should be only catman champions and minotaurs left) and do your best to position them for their stun/slow abilities -- preferably use mino stun first -- press q -- press tab -- press q again for catman stomp.
Meanwhile, ophelia should slow your target with wrath, and the skeleton king should grip your target.
7. Right click the target with the creeps selected.

If at any point ophelia starts to be in danger of surviving -- I usually have her bound to 1 (as well as every hero in the game) -- , press 1 and move her away.

This method is quite effective for reducing the micro needed to pull off ganks in the lane.

However; it should be mentioned that if at any point the target goes into the fog, the queues will be cancelled.

Hope that helped anyone.

[Sukki]

i played a few game with ophelia, yet again nothing special, got to lvl 10 i think before the other team gave up.
Didnt get chance to really play her properly.
The guide seems groovy enough though =D

[Sukki]

i played a few game with ophelia, yet again nothing special, got to lvl 10 i think before the other team gave up.
Didnt get chance to really play her properly.
The guide seems groovy enough though =D

[win`]

example of a pretty good ophelia game for people interested :)

Match ID: 1530201

[Augmenter]

I would like to add that the penitence in Hon I think applies damage AFTER it is over. So it is rather pointless to get and I just don't get it at all. I'd take a solid nuke over ms slow any day. So I think that 1st skill should just be skipped and taken at 22.


Anyone think a more attack/support based ophelia instead of command one would do ok? Tried last night but still have some ideas to work on it. More less get just level 1 command to get 1 creep and farm a bit and use it as needed. Then get judgement and your nuke. Go for Codex which when you buy it out with judgement fully leveled does over 1000. More less you can use your 1 creep when needed to push or whatever. But you throw judgement on and codex and nuke away. Also have your heal for sticky situations.


ophelia without maximizing on creeps is pointless. go get voodoo instead with a hotd. better for your purposes.

[win`]

I would like to add that the penitence in Hon I think applies damage AFTER it is over. So it is rather pointless to get and I just don't get it at all. I'd take a solid nuke over ms slow any day. So I think that 1st skill should just be skipped and taken at 22

Wrong.

It increases damage taken instantly, it got changed a long time ago.

[KatyPerry]

Wrong.

It increases damage taken instantly, it got changed a long time ago.

That's true, the damage taken is increased instantly.

[Mr`Imperator]

what is ur opinion of nomes on ophelia now?
is abysmal better?

[KatyPerry]

If your farm is not THAT good, try to aim for Stormspirit. But if your farm is awesome, get SotM or Totem of Kuldra.

Nomes is, in my opinion, a pretty meh item now. :/

[Yoshi0p]

new replays plz!!

the ones in the guide is outdated ^^

[KatyPerry]

That's true. I recently played Ophelia, I'll put the link to the replay up as soon as I get home today. :)

[KatyPerry]

Update 26.05.2010: Updated missinformation about Command giving the Courier more HP (got fixed) and new information on Nome's and Plated Greaves/her luxury items.

I also added a working replay again.

[Dragnmn]

I just watched the replay. It shows some good play IMO, but I'm not actually going to use it to get better at Ophelia because I'm having trouble microing my ult as Hellbringer, I won't manage 3 creeps and a puzzlebox.

By the way, that's one of the funniest Nymphora's and players in general I've seen in a long time. Also, that double kill at the end there was epic.

[KatyPerry]

The dude that played Nymphora is hilarious, I started to play a lot with him after that game. : D

[Ophelia]

No because I don't need to know how to play myself.

[Wakikeke]

Well.. I dunno if u discussed this already but me and my friends have been debating wether or not Ophelia is playable anymore nowdays. Its true that the nerfs brought her back to the level Chen was in dota, but in HoN things are a bit different with carries being stronger in earlygame aswell.
That brings me to my question: When would be a good time to pick Ophelia and why? (not taking account "yay we gonna go for a push team" for instance.) When would u wanna take her instead of some other support hero? and why.

[KatyPerry]

Maybe carries are stronger in HoN than in DotA, but they can't do **** against an Ophelia who comes rushing and to gank them. And she's really awesome if you want to end the game fast, even in a non-pusher lineup. Just buy a Puzzlebox and raze their towers. It's really that easy.

[KatyPerry]

And another nerf to Ophelia/Puzzlebox. The recipecost is now 1250. Yes, I'm aware of the fact that in DotA the recipe costs 1300.
Ophelia is still very strong, but the Puzzlebox gets delayed another 1-3 minutes, depending on your farm.

[FlamePhoenix]

Maybe you should also talk about ophelia's enemies. Per example, golden hand item (which is 1900 gold and can convert your creeps into gold for the enemy) is extremely bad for you. AOE heroes such as magmus or tempest are also something you and your creeps would like to avoid (since they no longer have magic armor nor protection).

Finally, about countering creeps and jungle ... you should mention the courier tactic:
- Basically the enemy team cuts a tree near a creep spot in your jungle, hides the stupid monkey, and when the trees go back you will NEVER see the monkey (because of the fog) and the creeps will NEVER spawn again. I know ... it is odd right? I was astonished when I first saw pros using it in honcast tournaments. It really works well, and the only way is to "guess" if the enemy is using wards OR a monkey. If he is using a monkey you will have to cut down all of the trees and hope that fog reveals the little bastard.
I can get my hands on a replay where a clan uses this tactic if you want.

[KatyPerry]

Post #2 talks about Alchemists Bones and post #3 talks about nukers and stuff. I can add Magmus and Tempest in, but I honestly don't think that Tempest is a good counter. You can outmanouver him with a Taur and cancel his Ulti, if he's in the game.

Well, show me a replay if you have one and I'll add it in! Curious to see how that stuff works.

[FlamePhoenix]

Post #2 talks about Alchemists Bones and post #3 talks about nukers and stuff.Sorry I missed that. I didn't see any icons not big titles so I assumed you didn't mention them. Can you link me to them please? I am having trouble finding them :S


As soon as you hit Level 5 you're able to control 3 Minions. Now it's time for a push and or a few ganks. (You can also gank on Level 3, 2 Minions can also ensure a guaranteed kill if your team is competent).I think I found another "bug". In level 3 you can only have 1 minion and in level 5 you can only have 2 iirc.



As far as boots go Steamboots are a good choice if you need that extra survivabilty. I tested the Plated Greaves a lot in recent plays, and all I can say is that I totally prefer them over Steamboots. 20% to the base damage of your creeps is indeed awesome and you can push a lot better with the buff than without it.
Also Plated Graves do NOT affect creeps controlled by players now afaik (so they won't add 20% bonus damage to your creeps). You may want to update this section as well. Personally I think SteamBoots are THE boots now :P



Well, show me a replay if you have one and I'll add it in! Curious to see how that stuff works. One of my friends has the match ID, he even has the replay. I will try talking to him tonight.

[KatyPerry]

Sorry I missed that. I didn't see any icons not big titles so I assumed you didn't mention them. Can you link me to them please? I am having trouble finding them :S

I think I found another "bug". In level 3 you can only have 1 minion and in level 5 you can only have 2 iirc.




http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_Gloves3.jpg



You don't see it that often to counter Ophelia, but if a team decides to get at least 2 of them, you're officially ****ed. It has a high CD and you can dominate new creeps faster than they can use Alchemist's Bones again, but everytime they come near you, you're basically giving their carries (carries, because that's the heroes that usually aim for it) huge amounts of gold for free.
If you encounter a team massing Alchemist's, just try to play passive or use at least a few of your creep's abilities before they get raped by an instantkill.

There you go!



Also Plated Graves do NOT affect creeps controlled by players now afaik (so they won't add 20% bonus damage to your creeps). You may want to update this section as well. Personally I think SteamBoots are THE boots now :P


They work on player controlled creeps again, since 1.02. :)One of my friends has the match ID, he even has the replay. I will try talking to him tonight.

4char.

[KatyPerry]

Also


Required Level: 1 / 3 / 5 / 7

Activation
Dominates target, taking control of it permanently. Only allows control of 1 / 1 / 2 / 3 units. Applies aura to all minions under your control.

2 units on level 5, I don't actually see the problem here. On level 3 one minion, on level 5 two and on level 7 three.

[FlamePhoenix]

As soon as you hit Level 5 you're able to control 3 Minions.
So, with Ophelia in level 5 you have the control ability in level 3 right?
Control ability in level 3 allows you to have only 2 creeps and not 3, as you state.



Now it's time for a push and or a few ganks. (You can also gank on Level 3, 2 Minions can also ensure a guaranteed kill if your team is competent).
With Ophelia in level 3, you have the control ability in level 2 right ? Thus you can only control 1 creep and not 2 as you state.

I hope the mistake are now clear, please fix the tutorial.



They work on player controlled creeps again, since 1.02. :smile:Then we have a bug to report. The description says "Applies Plated to all non-player controlled creep units (...)"

As for the game where the pros use monkey to prevent creeps from spawning:
http://hon.esportmedia.com/video/2010/06/13/honcast-tournament-vii-xfin-vs-jgg

You can see how it works, they use it around min 30 (+/-) and the zephyr (on the green team) can not creep on his jungle.

[KatyPerry]

So, I fixed those errors you pointed out, Phoenix. Thanks again for reminding me I'm a blind dumbass. :D

It took me a while, but university got the better part of me last week.

[FlamePhoenix]

Well, now that you have some time you may want to check out the replay I posted. You can even add it to your replays on "how to counter ophelia" if you want to.

I am glad I could help.

[boombitches]

6040913

That's how u play Ophelia boys.

[KatyPerry]

No, that's how you don't play her. That only worked because the enemies weren't on par with your team, you would've won with every build you could possibly imagine.

[pk_thunder]

ophe + sotm = <3

needs some regen tho >.>

[KatyPerry]

As of 1.0.6. Vulture Lords do not have a +3 armor aura anymore. Keep that in mind guys. Now they're only good for nuking a double/tripple stacked easy creepcamp in the first few minutes.

[KatyPerry]

ophe + sotm = <3

needs some regen tho >.>

SOTM is actually a really good item on her, after you bought Puzzle/Stormspirit/Totem. A global heal on a 30 second cooldown is really awesome.

[pk_thunder]

SOTM is actually a really good item on her, after you bought Puzzle/Stormspirit/Totem. A global heal on a 30 second cooldown is really awesome.
so after the regen xD

[Lynx]

6040913

That's how u play Ophelia boys.


You tell me, boy.

http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/222/1001943234crcr.jpg
This is Ophelia of Doom. 5996856 (http://replays.heroesofnewerth.com/match_replay.php?mid=5996856)

And with lame codex build I had 9-0-9 once.

[KatyPerry]

Early Puzzlebox beats every other build out there. I just love it.

[RogerDodger]

Early Astrolabe is better imo

[KatyPerry]

Well, an early Astrolabe is nice, but an early Puzzlebox just kills the whole enemy team & their lanes.

[Lynx]

What you think about Abyssal Skull on Ophelia? I've found that manaregen and lifesteal are pretty damn good if you want to keep your creeps alive and useful without sending them to the fountain. Also, if plated greaves and abyssal skull aura stacks? Did not test that yet.

[KatyPerry]

It's just a waste of money. If you want to push you can use Plated Greaves as they give your creeps a whooping +20% base damage. Also a Puzzlebox is awesome for pushing and damage dealing.
Abyssal Skull is not necessary, you can heal your creeps up with your Ultimate if you're about to raze a tower, and if they die you can just dominate new ones.

But as for your question: Plated Greaves and Abyssal Skull stack afaik, but it's just not worth it.

[Paine]

Although I agree with this guide for the most part... I do disagree with the skill build. I enjoy her nuke early game... and I find it a lot more useful then the slow. I can also instantly cycle creeps back to fountain to heal and keep creeping.

I guess it's a matter of player style.

[KatyPerry]

Sure, you can always take the nuke before the slow. As you've said, it's all a matter of personal taste.
I really like her slow early game, it helps so much with positioning your creeps and stunning the enemies, I can't imagine how to gank without it. But if you like the nuke, just go for it. I guess 100-200 damage early game really make a difference.

[R3dD09]

You tell me, boy.

http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/222/1001943234crcr.jpg
This is Ophelia of Doom. 5996856 (http://replays.heroesofnewerth.com/match_replay.php?mid=5996856)

And with lame codex build I had 9-0-9 once.

... ophelia shouldn't get kills. she is the last person that should benefit from a kill in a TEAM game.

[SGP]

... ophelia shouldn't get kills. she is the last person that should benefit from a kill in a TEAM game.


He's right. GAME OVER LYNX!


BTW, best Oph guide I've ever seen. Great job man. What do you think of using Slime Bosses for their Ghost Marchers aura? I always thought it was nice to have in ganking phases.

[R3dD09]

He's right. GAME OVER LYNX!


BTW, best Oph guide I've ever seen. Great job man. What do you think of using Slime Bosses for their Ghost Marchers aura? I always thought it was nice to have in ganking phases.

it all depends on the situation of course. I snag some SB's when i'm going codex build for ganking. I will usually have a mino with me to help out just in case codex doesn't finish the job. but then, you can also chase them if SB didn't die when roaming.

very situational overall. it had to play to your taste and style of ophelia. *I love playing her for the micro needed, not much of a support player** which is bad, i love getting kills with her, but if someone else is around, i let them take the kill** and also what the game/team is in need of. You learn what is needed the more you play her of course.

i like to get a codex * good and bad* then rush a sotm, with a boot somewhere in there and i play ward whore the whole game.
then late game, i get what is needed, nomes, astro. etc. i usually ask the team what they'd like.

[Drasha]

This guide needs images showing the range of all her abilities and 3 or more replays.

[Emery]

I would also like to suggest Slither as one of ophelia's friends. Slithers slow/dot helps ophelia's creeps catch up and pick off early kills.

Pretty much when I play ophelia, I try and get someone to go slither and solo the lane, while I'm in neuts. When Slither hits lvl 2 he has his first and second skill, I come in from behind, he spays. Pretty much 100% kill rate and like 20% of a double kill.

[Lucifer]

Nice guide.
I use the same skill progression, not sure why some people like going nuke first :<
I usually prefer to have one of the following heroes soloing the lane I'm supporting; Slither, Engineer, Bubbles, Valkyrie, Hag, Madman, Pharaoh, Maliken, Dampheer..
Bubbles + Ophelia in particular is really nasty, but bubbles isn't a carry so feeding the **** out of him won't guarantee a win..

I started playing Ophelia after I hit 1800 PSR after retail, got up to 1860 mostly playing her and she's my most played now, awesome hero ! :)
Only hero really that can spend all her starting gold on support without crippling your early game - great support, great pusher, easy to farm with and a good ophelia will virtually guarantee your side gets kongor first (and again 10/20/30 minutes later)

Used to mostly play with a rushed Whispering Helm, but I've since decided minions die too easily and you're worthless if the helm creeps die with that build..
Still pretty entertaining going into enemy base with 8 minions + 2 from puzzlebox and just shredding raxes/buildings..

Here's how I mostly play her now; (as Hellbourne since it's much better for Ophelia)

Start by buying flying courier and one counterward (and a normal ward if my teammates are too noob to buy wards) - I never spend less than 500g on support at start.
grab the boss from spawn farthest to the left at 30 sec
if they don't ward the pull I stack it at 50 seconds (otherwise use my counterward to kill the ward - might need the flying courier to see it depending on where they place it, I always prefer to pull with a stacked spawn)
Then I go harass the lane, often getting a kill - then I go pull the double spawn wiping out an entire wave of our creeps.
After that I mostly focus on ganking our 1v2 lane and pulling as much as I can to reduce their XP - (I probably don't gank mid enough.)

Boots are my first item, then upgrade them to Ghost marchers before buying any other items (barring occasional health pots/wards)
Usually I'll be warding the top rune spot ~6 minutes in.
Then I go Elder Parasite, why you ask ? Because it's awesome - ghost marchers + EP = 488 ms, it's also a very cheap source of great damage output, helps a ton when pushing towers and doing kongor, and it makes you a lot more viable and independent from your creeps in the lategame - try running away from that with oph's slow on you ;O

Next is ring of the teacher, after that it's kongor time, usually solo but preferably team's carry will pay attention and come take token, I make sure to ward+counterward and destroy any enemy wards with sight of the lair before kongoring.

Then I'll build astrolabe followed by puzzlebox and maybe upgrade ring of teacher to abyssal skull (not a great item on oph tbh) or maybe a barrier idol depending on how much gold comes my way.

Here's a game I played yesterday;
http://replays.heroesofnewerth.com/match_replay.php?mid=26018551

Was pretty sure we'd lose before it started, other team all had good TSR, one 2000 psr guy, one 1870.. :O
But instead we stomped them )

[CatInHat]

Now THIS is the guide we need to put for her in Premium.

[Esteban]

It is better to not take command at lvl 3, but instead nature's wrath. You don't get any more creeps with rank 2 command, but you you get a 16% slow instead if you go

command
nature wrath
nature wrath
command
command

The above skill build is much better as a few bonus hp on a 1k hp creep isn't gonna do much at lvl 3.

With that said, here is a completely different build.
If you aren't good at microing 3 creeps and want to be more gank oriented, you can use this build.

boots/tango first - given someone else bought chicken

command - get bloodlust with your boot first + creep(doesn't matter what creep, just any large creep), takes some practice
judgement
judgement
natures wrath
judgement
ophelia's touch
judgement

and proceed to get an early codex ~ 12-15 minutes. Use judgement and codex to finish off most heros. Use natures wrath first once it is past lvl 2 or 3. Maximize codex to 5 to instant gib the enemy team's agil and int players.

[Lucifer]

Good point about skill build, i always get command 2 at lvl 4 - didn't realize OP had it at lvl 3 when I said I used same as him.

[Arod]

Now that Ophelia's Command is nerfed, i recommend getting the skills like this:
1 Command
2 Nature's Wrath
3 Nature's Wrath
4 Command
5 Command
and on like the first build in the guide.

[Esteban]

lol, its been like this for quite a long time, unless they rebuffed it when they converted ophelia from dota. Its been like that for a long time in Dota.