Balphagore

[[RCT]IsmaelVera]

Balphagore

by IsmaelVera

*Updated to 2.6.27
Damage 56-58
Armor 2.38
Move speed 295
Attack type Melee
Attack rate 0.69
Attributes Strength 25 (+2.7) Agility 17 (+1.2) Intelligence 17 (+1.9)

"Balphagore's gluttonous love of corpses draws him to wherever the Hellbourne's atrocities are at their worst. Armed with an array of dark powers, this daemon is not to be trifled with when hungry -- and Balphagore is always hungry."

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Skills
• Pros/Cons
• Skill Build
• Items
• Strategy
• Skill Use and Comboes
• Best Friends and Worst Enemies
• Gameplay
• Replays

*In the paragraphs that follow, I use a simple color code on certain important phrases to make them stand out.

Spells
Important Numbers
Items
Heroes

Introduction

Balphagore


Difficulty


Pushing


Ganking


Nuking/Damage Dealing


Carry


Survivability


Initiating


Support


Disabler


Balphagore is a Tanky Support Hero with a diverse arsenal of skills suited for Teamfights, Ganking, and most importantly Pushing. He is most powerful mid game with his strong minions, being able to push and win games, sometimes before the 20 minute mark. He can also easily clear creep waves with Regurgitate and Corpse Conversion. He is also a good source of magic Damage, especially with his ultimate. He may also, if no other Initators are present, be a pseudo-Initiator, probably one of the best since he almost never requires a Portal Key, and is an excellent follow up to an Initiator.

Skills

Regurgitate

*This skill is an excellent way to quickly regenerate health in a pinch, in combination with Corpse Conversion.

*This skill works better if you have Enhanced Marchers so that you do not move around units and waste your 3 seconds of puking.

Demonic Pathogen

*This skill is near useless when you are levels 1-6. Dont bother getting it earlier. It is better late game when you can 4 second silence an area.

*This skill can be activated again so that it spreads. Use this to quickly silence Enemy Heroes around the target that need to be silenced. Just remember that the target won't be affected after it transfers!

Corpse Conversion

*The Corpse Minions have a stacking slow, which means that you want many of them to hit your target at the same time so that they have a heavier slow.

*Try having the Creeps in their own Subgroup. Have Balphagore + Creeps in group 1, and just Creeps in group 2. That way if you want to move Balphagore, you press F1, and you have every combination on your number keys!

*At max level and with Abyssal Skull and Plated Grieves, the minions deal a minimum of before armor reduction if all 250 Physical Damage creeps attacked the same target!

*Use them offensively and defensively. Offense: alternate attacking with them and Balphagore in order to cancel their attack animation and keep the target heavily slowed. Defense: use them to cover your retreat by blocking paths and slowing pursuing enemies.

*The minions counter certain hero abilities. They can easily kill things that die in a set amount of attacks or are relatively weak, such as Arachna's Spider Sting, Engineer's Energy Field, Pollywog Priest's Voodoo Wards, and Artesia's Essence Projection. They can also eat spells that target random units in an area, such as Moon Queen's Moon Finale or Plague Rider's Plague Carrier.

*They can also be sacrificed to detonate trap abilities, such as Engineer's Spider Mines.

*Since the creeps deal Physical Damage, keep in mind that items that reduce armor, such as Sol's Bulwark and ShieldBreaker are great items to have on your team so that the creeps can destroy single targets or towers faster!

Hell on Newerth

*This spell grows in power as enemy spells are cast, but this can also give you away with the blue orbs flying towards you show your position.

*You should save this spell until it is full in a fight, or at the very least at the second stage, so that you get a good damage nuke.

*Try to use this spell as soon as it's charged so that when it is on cooldown, the enemy spells lower the cooldown, 1 second per spell!

*At max level, the Volatile Minions you produce with this spell at max charges have 375 Hitpoints and 0 Magic Armor. They deal 80 Attack Damage (at max level) and only attack the enemy hero they spawned on.

*This means that your magic attacks will deal full damage to them.

*Interestingly enough, your Volatile minions are also affected by any of your auras that negatively affect enemy units, like Sol's Bulwark.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Good lane partner that can harass and heal himself on his own
• Fast auto attack
• A fair mid solo
• Heavy Damage Nuke and Slow Regurgitate
• An incredible pusher with his minions; it is almost impossible to stop his pushes if partnered with another pusher
• Can stop channeling spells and important enemies with Demonic Pathogen
• Can solo Boss Units starting as early as level 8.
• Hell on Newerth has the potential to turn a team fight and maybe the game in your favor, a counter to heavy spell opposition

Cons

• Slow move speed
• Requires excellent micro managing skills for creeps, may block yourself
• Needs moderate farm to be effective at all
• Terribly weak against silencers
• Easily picked off in a team fight if not constantly moving
• Heavy mana costs limit his usefulness
• Hell on Newerth requires team coordination to make use of it
• Is NOT a tank, and cannot be in the front lines

Skill Build
Push(Main)

1. Corpse Conversion
2. Regurgitate
3. Corpse Conversion
4. Regurgitate
5. Corpse Conversion
6. Hell on Newerth
7. Corpse Conversion
8. Regurgitate
9. Regurgitate
10. Demonic Pathogen
11. Hell on Newerth
12. Demonic Pathogen
13. Demonic Pathogen
14. Demonic Pathogen
15. Stats
16. Hell on Newerth
17-25. Stats

*You can get at least 1 level of Demonic Pathogen if you are against a channeling hero.

Justification

Corpse Conversion is leveled first because it is your more powerful spell AND it allows you to survive the lane by eating creep corpses laying on the ground. You follow this up with your second most damaging spell, Regurgitate, because it is great at ganking and can also save you by producing creeps in front of you to eat. Using these two spells, you can easily clear creeps and push lanes, which is your main goal after the laning phase.

Due to the high mana cost, low damage, and low silence, avoid grabbing Demonic Pathogen until later, since it is crucial in team fights, but awful in the laning phase.

Hell on Newerth is ALWAYS picked up when available. Not only is it an excellent farming tool, it is also one of the best initiation tools and nukes in the game.

Items


Starting Items

• Hatchet is excellent at farming you much needed items and even better at denying farm.

• Combine Runes of the Blight with your Corpse Conversion and you will have an easy time staying in the lane.

• To compensate for his low Agility and to block harrassment, Iron Buckler adds considerable early game survivability when combined with Corpse Conversion, since you generally need to be close to melee range to eat corpses.

Laning Phase

• Ring of Sorcery is crucial. Not only does this allow you to harass them heavily, but it also lets you easily take the tower by spamming minions, and letting use Regurgitate to heal more often. However....

• Blood Chalice can be substituted instead of the above item IF YOU COULD NOT GET ENOUGH FARM
  
• You can regain the health you lost with this item by eating the creeps you shoot out with Regurgitate.

• Ring of the Teacher gives you decent mana regeneration and a +3 Ally Armor Aura. This item works well since your minions will last longer on pushes.
• You can also upgrade this to either an Abyssal Skull or sell it once you need the space for a luxury item.

Core

• Since its release, Sol's Bulwark has been considered core on Balphagore because it destroys towers AND also makes your minions deadly in ganks.
  
• Switch it to the -4 Armor Aura when pushing towers and ganking. Have it on the +4 Ally Armor Aura when defending you towers.

Since this hero is flexible enough to be played with multiple strategies, many items are viable on Balphagore. Below are a set of luxury items with the intent on focusing on a specific build for Balphagore. As you gain a deeper understanding of the game, you may mix and match these items depending on the situation.

1. Push Core
Usable with at least one other "push" hero or a team focusing on this strategy.

• Plated Grieves will boost your minion damage at the cost of the speed and maneuverability of Enhanced Marchers.
  
• Active them to defend you creeps when pushing or fighting Kongor.
  
• Grab these against heavy Physical damage dealers as well.

• Puzzlebox greatly boosts the damage you deal to towers by adding 2 strong creeps.
  
• It can also shut down heavy mana users once they attack them.
  
• Having this at level 3 will give you a Puzzlebox Mauler that can see Invisible units!

• Abyssal Skull makes your creeps very powerful, and grants a good Life Steal aura, making tower destruction and Konging a cinch, while boosting a carry's damage. An all around item.

• Energizer makes your creeps and allied creeps reach towers extremely fast! Use these for fast blitzkrieg style pushes and ganks.
• It also helps your creeps easily surround enemy units.

2. Damage Output Core
Usable when wanting to maximize the amount of Magic Damage and to deal consistent dps with Balphagore.

• Enhanced Marchers lets you not get blocked while using your creeps, greatly boosting your gank potential and letting you evade bad situations.

• The sheer amount of Magic Damage you deal will only be that much boosted by Spellshards, along with giving you a decent mana regen boost.

3. Defensive Core
Usable when against heavy Magic/Physical damage dealers, and when you wish to draw fire away from your carry.

• Helm of the Black Legion boosts your tanking abilities, making you a constant threat.
  
• The health regeneration greatly complements Blood Chalice.

• Shaman's Headdress is great against heavy magic using teams.
  
• The health regeneration greatly complements Blood Chalice.

• Barrier Idol is great for helping out your team to counter spike Magical damage users, while still giving you the 10 Magic Armor from Shaman's Headdress.

Late Game

• Daemonic Breastplate gives you a devasting 40 Attack Speed aura along with a +5 Physical Armor
  
  
• It complements auto attackers on your team.

• Behemoth's Heart is a luxury item that makes you quite tanky, but should only be obtained once you have your other items.

• This item is excellent for initiation when you combine it with Hell on Newerth, since the nuke it shoots also hits your volatile minions, and once you combine that with either 200 Magic Damage Demonic Pathogen or Regurgitate, it will make your Volatile Minions explode immediately for burst damage, along with its 40% Slow.

Situational

• This item is excellent at initiation, making sure everyone is hit with Hell on Newerth. However, get it only if you do not already have a better initiator, since the 600 Range of Hell on Newerth is already huge enough for you to rush in and hit everyone.

• This item is great when up against a team of heavy magic damage dealers. If there are only a few magic users, you may consider having a just a Barrier Idol or Shaman's Headdress.

*You are welcome to mix and match these items in whatever combination you want for when the situation calls! Use your judgment when seeing what your team needs and your strategy!

Best Friends

• Gravekeeper is the perfect lane partner for Balphagore, due to their synergy. They can both produce corpses for each other, and benefit from the other's corpses. Try eating the ones produced from his Corpse Toss!
• A devastating combo is having Balphagore use Regurgitate to produce 6 corpses in a tight secluded area (don't eat them!), then when an enemy walks over them, Gravekeeper can quickly activate Corpse Explosion to deal the full 540 Magic Damage without having to wait for them to pile up!

• Demented Shaman is one of the oldest and cheapest lane partner. Surround an enemy hero with your minions and use his Healing Wave to deal 700 Physical Damage.
• Use his Entangle to slow the target enough for your creeps to surround it, then auto attack the target to apply full slow charges.

Worst Enemies

• Behemoth is the perfect counter to heroes that make many creeps, because his ultimate gains power when there are more creeps in range.
• His Fissure can also block you and your minions away from towers and heroes.

• Pyromancer is excellent at destroying your creeps with his Phoenix Wave and Dragonfire combination.
• If he focuses you before you activate any of your spells, you may be focused by the entire team and killed by Blazing Strike.

• Amun Ra's 3 first skills are incredibly powerful and can easily kills your 5 minions.
• Hell on Newerth will not gain charges from any of his skills since they do not use mana!

• Zephyr can melt your creeps incredibly fast, making ganks against him difficult.
• If he can activate both his Cyclone and Gust before you silence him, he can easily destroy your initiation and shut you down.

• Chipper is a hero that can both slow your creeps with his Tar Toss and shield himself or allies from your heavy spells, up to 600 Magic Damage.
• His ultimate, Sawblade Showdown is devastating since it almost instantaneously kills your creeps, and can even slow you if he has Staff of the Master, rendering your initiation useless.

• Midas has 3 damage dealing nukes that can kill your creep waves and minions before they can even touch the towers.
• His ultimate, Transmutation, coupled with an initiation of Elemental Warp, can shut you down in seconds before you can charge.

Powerful Against

• Witch Slayer has very "forward" skills, meaning that surrounding tactics are easy. Try to split up into 2 groups (Balphagore and minions) and surround him from both sides. If he stuns one group, the other will make short work of him.
• Even though his Silver Bullet deals massive damage and his Miniaturize disables for a long time, they are still only single target and will not stop your whole group. Some players may even misclick and hit one of your creeps!

• Nymphora is veeeery susceptible to dps dealers and is as slow as Balphagore. Some rounds of attacks from your creeps will easily kill her.
• Her Volatile Pod and Nymphora's Zeal are relatively easy aoe nukes to dodge. Once you dodge these, she has no other choice but to run away. If she tries to Teleport, you can silence her with your Demonic Pathogen.

• Sandwraith is an auto attacker that relies on constantly attacking you. Since he will target you, it makes it easier for your creeps to focus him down. His Deserted skill only works when you are alone, and a good Balphagore player is never without his creeps.
• His ultimate, Mirage, spawns an illusion that auto attacks you, and he may teleport to it. Use this to your advantage and ring the illusion to make sure you creeps attack him when he comes.

Gameplay

*New players can also view the S2 official Spotlight. Even though it's old, it contains a fair amount of examples that I am demonstrating.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eD460Fwizec

Early Game

In the early game, you actually need a good amount of farm. This period affects your entire game. Make sure to use your hatchet, and eat corpses to heal, and weasel yourself out a Ring of Sorcery or Blood Chalice, before letting your lane partner take the farm. An item that give mana is your most needed core. Once done, you can harras and push a lot, so take advantage of good opportunities to gank the enemy when they are low enough for the kill. The laning phase ends once you win your tower. From there, take the mid tower asap.

1. Evade the enemy harrassment. You are not a tank and therefore will take great damage from auto attacks.
2. Eat all corpses as possible with caution.
3. Take advantage of your fast auto attack to last hit.

Mid Game

Take advantage of your incredible pushing power, and your speedy minions, and take mid tower as fast as you can. Once there, take any remaining 1st tier towers as soon as you can in order for your team to have an easier time farming, and to get an experience and gold advantage.

Your job from then on can go from ganking, or continuing pushing. If you continue a push, the enemy wastes gold teleporting to that tower, which is foolish since the won't find you over committing. Leave once they come in groups to irritate them, and at the same time deal considerable damage with this "hit and run" technique.

If your allies have push abilities, such as creating creeps, clearing enemy creep waves, or deal heavy physical damage, then you may rush the middle towers, even destroying the middle melee barracks in as little as 19 minutes!

Another strategy is to kill Kongor. Once you have Ring of Sorcery and Mana Ring, you can continuously create creeps while spamming Regurgitate to get more corpses in order to have more creeps by the time your active ones die. Remember: never let Kongor focus a minion. They can die in as little as 5 hits from him. Immediately pull back a creep that he is attacking, then make it continue attacking. You can also have yourself tank the damage for the creeps if you can micro yourself out as well.

1. Push as soon as you have a mana item by summoning minions and using Regurgitate to clear creep waves.
2. Let your normal faction creeps tank the tower, since your minions have terrible armor, but great damage.
3. Buy a Homecoming Stone to teleport to other lanes and quickly take down the outlying towers.

Late Game

Late game, you will be carrying many important auras and activateable items, and can soak up damage away from your supports. Since you can shut down many heroes with your silence and game changing ult, it is best to never stay in one spot, and wait until someone in your team initiates. Once you start dealing significant damage in a team fight, you will get focused. When that happens, move around and distract them away from your carry and supports, using Regurgitate to heal if needed, and waiting for the perfect moment to use Hell on Newerth.

It is possible to be a potent initiator. If you farm a Portal Key, and have max charges, you can:
1) Blink in.
2) Hell on Newerth to hit the maximum amount of enemy heroes.
3) Frostfield Plate and Demonic Pathogen/Regurgitate so that your Volatile Minions explode immediately for a big burst of damage.
*If you want, you can also not kill your Volatile Minions since they deal a good 80 Physical Damage per attack.

In a Team Fight...

You are not a tank. Your skills are far too valuable to be focused down upon so soon, as you are a flexible tank, but not the best. Think of yourself as more of a caster. In a team fight, you should be around the mid range, not too far way, yet not to close to tank everything. Don't be hasty! The first thing that you must accomplish is gaining full charges on your ult. This already requires you to be in range of enemy spell casting. Because of this, you should stay on your toes by moving around.

The best way to describe yourself is the cavalry. You are more powerful when charging into a crowd, but are easily destroyed if you stop and take everything. When you hit full charges, you charge in hitting every enemy hero with Hell on Newerth and focusing a cluster of enemies with Regurgitate, then use Demonic Pathogen to silence any enemy casters that would hinder your team. When done correctly, your ultimate will spawn Volatile Minions, while at the same time your spells will be hitting those Volatile Minions, making those minions explode and dealing massive damage quickly. Then, you may activate your minions to "ring" an enemy Hero.

1. If the enemy team has an important channeling ability, wait until they enter to use your Demonic Pathogen immediately on them.
2. Focus down at least 2 heroes when you charge in.
3. Try to disrupt! Once the fight starts and your spells are cast, take the focus away from your carry.

Replays

All Replays are of Me

Match 95157376: Push Balphagore strategy with an excellent solo push rax at bot

[[RCT]IsmaelVera]

Need some feedback.

[lorddaniel]

Goog guide.
Still, Balpha is a good underrated hero.
Hoping for a buff.

[[RCT]IsmaelVera]

Goog guide.
Still, Balpha is a good underrated hero.
Hoping for a buff.

Just wait for my spotlight. You will see that he doesn't need a buff.

[[AFK8]Zakalwe]

*This spell grows in power as enemy spells are cast, but this can also give you away with the blue orbs flying towards you show your position.

can ya explain i dont got it about the blue orb trick (ulti)

[[RCT]IsmaelVera]

It's not a trick and it can mess you up.

Any time an enemy casts a spell in range a blu orb flies towards you. It helps you find them, but it can also give you away.

[[HBCB]SuperMcRad]

You have a repeated Nymphora tip under Sand Wraith.

[[AFK8]Zakalwe]

ok thx, range is 600 for that i assume?

[[DlVE]SinZ]

It's not a trick and it can mess you up.

Any time an enemy casts a spell in range a blu orb flies towards you. It helps you find them, but it can also give you away.

There are players who think that you and I are the same person. Please clear this matter up immediately.

[ChompyBird]

Seems like one of the more in-depth guides I've read around here, and for one of my favorite heroes, too.

From what I gather, Balphagore actually seems potentially very strong, although hard-push isn't a strategy I've seen much of. What would I know, though? I'm just a noob with a penchant for multi-unit control and iconic sound clips.

Hell on Newerth!

I'm not sure what else you could add here. Perhaps a more in-depth match-up guide? For instance, you've already gotten an ally/enemy/counter section for picks, but perhaps a section detailing how you would play against some common lane compositions you come up against, or fringe case lanes where things went pear-shaped in picks?

[[RCT]IsmaelVera]

Seems like one of the more in-depth guides I've read around here, and for one of my favorite heroes, too.

From what I gather, Balphagore actually seems potentially very strong, although hard-push isn't a strategy I've seen much of. What would I know, though? I'm just a noob with a penchant for multi-unit control and iconic sound clips.

Hell on Newerth!

I'm not sure what else you could add here. Perhaps a more in-depth match-up guide? For instance, you've already gotten an ally/enemy/counter section for picks, but perhaps a section detailing how you would play against some common lane compositions you come up against, or fringe case lanes where things went pear-shaped in picks?

Spotlight is on its way...u slave driver...

It will give you detailed examples of laning, mid soloing, and mid/late game strategies. It will also detail special techniues This is what you wanted no?

Right now mass creep push is ridiculously powerful, so adding to her team is rape.

[[RCT]IsmaelVera]

There are players who think that you and I are the same person. Please clear this matter up immediately.

Tell them I'm Ecuadorian, not Brazilian.
Case Closed.

[[RCT]IsmaelVera]

*Fixed the Sandwraith info

[[AoLv]LoveIsDead]

No frostplate?
i've seen single handed annihilations with a full hell on newerth followed by a frostplate straight after... hag used scream to finish balph, combines with the frostplate it killed the minions and wiped the whole team out.

[[RCT]IsmaelVera]

No frostplate?
i've seen single handed annihilations with a full hell on newerth followed by a frostplate straight after... hag used scream to finish balph, combines with the frostplate it killed the minions and wiped the whole team out.

Forgive me. I mentioned the pk/frostfield/hell on newerth, but forgot to add the item info.

[skowt]

2 in carry/support and 4 in damage? Wat? More like 0 in carry/support and 2 in damage...

[[RCT]IsmaelVera]

2 in carry/support and 4 in damage? Wat? More like 0 in carry/support and 2 in damage...

I was surprised as well, but I found that info in Prodex. Balph can farm wards and grab support items faster than other supports, and if he's a solo, he works as a semi carry. Ex fujiapples raping with

[[RTH]Omgopolis]

:RingOfSorcery: "use use" was the only thing that jumped out at me. Also, I've always been fond of the blood chalice since the minor hp loss isn't really a big deal for Balphagore.

Looking forward to the spotlight.

[[GVD]Skylinx]

well done

[[nBi]Khakhan]

Demented Shaman is a "best friend" due to high damage heal bombs via Balph's minions. Could you also make a few of those item screenshots that show what 6 items you'd have starting, mid, or late game? Or just change the item list in some way, it lacks a clear purpose, like some reasoning why you would deviate from what you think the best all-purpose build is and go for damage or defensive core.