Balphagore

[[RCT]IsmaelVera]

still no spotlight?

If it's awful, then it'll only be ridiculed. Needs more time, and so I can spot any possible typo.

[[RCT]IsmaelVera]

Bump

[Drasha]

Any reason you don't mention vestments as an early game core item? Also your starting items don't spend all of your starting gold. (unless you are buying lots of runes)

[[RCT]IsmaelVera]

Any reason you don't mention vestments as an early game core item? Also your starting items don't spend all of your starting gold. (unless you are buying lots of runes)

Fixed the part about the missing Iron shield.
I wouldn't mention vestments because it is generally not needed until mid to late game when building the mentioned items. Since you're a pusher, you're better off utilizing the gold for mana regeneration, since the benefit/gold shows when you can push towers easily for gold, while healing yourself with Regurgitate.

[[WGH]Wolffmother]

For more my personal preference I would recommend getting rid of the ability description screenshot images from in-game and typing them out yourself as a lot of the guides do, kinda easier to look at imo.

Also on my screen (it may just be me) the post is really wide, as in wider then the screen so I have to scroll over to see the rest of it, maybe adjust whatever is causing it to expand sideways like that.

Another recommendation I would have is adding [ goto ] and [ anchor ] tags for your table of contents so people can skip to specific sections in the guide and navigate easier.

More thoughts/suggestions to come have to look at it a bit more! Overall pretty informative/helpful guide

[[B055]narvoxx]

you still mention enhanced marchers in your reguritate section, should be ghost marchers?
any word on what you think about tablet on balph? It's a very good item on it's own since it counters a number of abilities, but also generally helps, and the stats are pretty nice to have on balph + the extra mobility

[[RCT]IsmaelVera]

Yes. Ghost marchers is incredibly powerful mid game. Like the guide says, it lets you keep the dps up since you don't get stuck in ur creeps and it lets you deal full damage on Regurgitate. It also lets you travel quickly between lanes for bliztkrieg pushing.

Tablet...Never used it. Thing is, if you need it to counter enemies, then have another hero grab it. Late game you need to be the tankier, aura carrier.

[[KOKA]xantus]

there are some points in this guide i would have to disagree with. for instance.
I don't think that Gravekeeper is a good partner at all, while chasing an enemy Balphagore has to use regurgitate in order to chase & slow an enemy it is unavoidable to run over corpses while doing so, meanwhile Grave's slow also uses corpses and while chasing he usually runs over the corpse he used to be able to slow again. Together with balpha this is hard/impossible, and even if done successfully Balphagore has to move out of the way in order for grave to be able to pick up the corpses, and in doing so they lose precious dmg output and the slow.
Another thing about this combo, Balhpa needs corpses to survive a lane while getting the needed last-hits/dmg-output and so dose grave. no matter how good the players are, there will always be some struggle about the corpses. Another thing, Mid/Late-game during team fights it is unavoidable for Balphagore to avoid corpses efficiently, corpses that Gravekeeper needs for his corpse explosion & Slow.

With that said, i would call His best friend since the slow/stun gives Balhpagore a chance to catch up while he surrounds the enemy with his creeps as best he can, and then heal to finish him off. I've done this many times before, and it works like a charm.

Other good friends of Balphagore are heroes that can hold/stun (& slow) for a long time such as , giving Balphagore time to surround the enemy with creeps, efficiently blocking their path while dealing VERY high dps.


Also, balphagore is an very underestimated hero, use this to your advantage, push lanes & score kills as much as possible early/mid game, before the opposing team realizes how big of a threat you are.

Edit:

*sigh* i just made this post twice as long, but got logged out and my edit was erased, so heres a short version


Skillbuild.

swap lvl 1 and 2 skill picks, you will not be needing corpse conversion at lvl 1, ever. replay if you need me to elaborate why. but im pretty sure you get it. besides regu will helpyou in a possible lvl 1 kill, while corpse conversion won't since by the time you have enough corpses to summon creeps u will be lvl 2.

Portal Key

IMO useless on balphagore. in order to pop a full hell on newerth you need to be around a lot of spells being cast, if you pk in you will be the target of all of them, since you can't pk-> ult as an element of surprise like behe, you will become very susceptible and most likely die before you get charged up. you're better of running in with some teammates and popping hell when the team fights starts, not before it starts.

Puzzle box

Situational item, not at all core for pushing, Abyssal and plated are more then enough, you're better of putting your gold elsewhere.

[[RCT]IsmaelVera]

Actually, if Gravekeeper can land 1 slow, and Balph has a unit in his Q, then it's very easy for GK to be between both of them and grab a corpse, since the corpse are launched a ways forward. It takes skills and coordination, but pays off more.

You'd probably grab Q for an early kill, if you were doing a lvl1 kill, so I'll add that in.

I did mentiin pushing all towers quickly.

Also, you pk once you have full charges obviously.

Puzzlebox rush is surprisingly good, especially since Balph can farm off Ancients early. I wouldn't take it out, but I also wouldn't say situational. That's why I put it in Push.
Thank you for your feedback.

[[KOKA]xantus]

if you're within the proximity of charging your ult with enemy skills you most probably don't need a pk to get close enough, i would seriously consider putting my gold elsewhere

and i still do think that puzzle box is situational.

you rarely need the extra "oumf" so to say in order to push a tower, you will do just fine with the abyssal and plated. i still think the gold would serve a better purpose being invested elsewhere.

[ExiledTyrant]

have you ever tried 3 regurgitate and 2 silence build for ganking?


at level 6 i was able to instagib any thing under a tank level of hp. I thought it was pretty fun. drains like all your mana though so it has to be a sure gank, but its real fun for roaming around to kill farming carrys or to assist in a 3 vs 2 gank.

[[RCT]IsmaelVera]

have you ever tried 3 regurgitate and 2 silence build for ganking?


at level 6 i was able to instagib any thing under a tank level of hp. I thought it was pretty fun. drains like all your mana though so it has to be a sure gank, but its real fun for roaming around to kill farming carrys or to assist in a 3 vs 2 gank.

The problem with grabbing W is that it's a horrendous skill early game. It deals negligable damage and is rarely grabbed, only for the 1 second silence. Majority of your damage comes from the ~225 dps from minions which instagibs supports, and regurgitate which can harrass, heal, and slow.

[Drakinho]

You should update Gravekeeper into the guide.
Balph is both his mortal enemy as well as his best friend.

Activating both their ultimates in a teamfight is pure devastation as Balph slows and spawns his exploding minions while Gravekeeper zombies have no problem to surround and attack while slowly blowing up Balphs minions with unstable zombie explosions.

When your Gravekeeper is mid you can also easily gank with Balph minions-only when they are a few seconds away from fading since he can make corpses of summoned minions explode too.


As his enemy, Balph can and will obviously nom on all his corpses.

[[HitM]Yugoloth]

There is more uses for those evil oompa loompas (I like to play Balpha, is a cool hero):
-At retreat time, spam them to creep block enemy heroes.
-They can destroy pollywog priest ult in seconds.
-They can waste moon queen ult sometimes, if luck is with you.
-Same against Swift blade ultimate. Even you can block his spin.
-You can send them while laning to jungle and get some extra gold.
-They are creeps, and can negate fayde stun.
-If you are at mid, against tremb, and he is trying to attack you, spam them and hit. He will never harass you again
-They work pretty fine against paraoh and his jail. Spam them when he lock you and.. voilá! 1 extra kill.
-Sometimes enemy team have an engineer... And he wastes a lot of mana setting mines. Laugh hard scouting with 1 of this evil guys some classic mined zones.
-Since Arachna or Artesia or Eng have destroyable ultimates... 5 hits to kill arachnas ult. 5 hits to take down engineers' one. 3 to 5 to finish Artie's one. Problem?

I managed to get kills at lvl 3 on hellbourne top lane. sometimes solo, sometimes with another laning hero. 2 points in corpse conversion and 1 in puke, spam those evil little oompa loompas and bind them to number 2. Balphie to number 1, and you send them to the forest. Let the enemy push, and then send them for the back. Since a lot of ppl dont have boots yet, and they are overconfident against creeps, you get the kill. Forsaken archer, plague raider, flint, vindicator and that kind of squishy heroes are easy to kill.

Have fun

[[RCT]IsmaelVera]

Thank you for that Yugoloth!

[Apostate]

It's a really solid guide, but it lacks a lot of the nuanced tips that I have seen other Premium guides have. With a hero like Balphegore especially, I would expect a section DEVOTED to his minions and their most effective use, tips and tricks, how to learn to micro them, etc.

It's great up until the Early/Mid/Late game part of the guide, when it really tapers off and lacks content it needs.

[[RCT]IsmaelVera]

It's a really solid guide, but it lacks a lot of the nuanced tips that I have seen other Premium guides have. With a hero like Balphegore especially, I would expect a section DEVOTED to his minions and their most effective use, tips and tricks, how to learn to micro them, etc.

It's great up until the Early/Mid/Late game part of the guide, when it really tapers off and lacks content it needs.

Yea the spotlight was gonna have all that, but I've been slacking off on making it. Rest assured, Ill do my best to put the info into words here.

[[TKRS]DragonFire]

u should add Dsham in as an allie the entangle can help u get the minions on them and your slows and then heal bomb and ill be suprised if there not dead

[[RCT]IsmaelVera]

Will update dsham.

[[E]SkyLore]

Oooh, nice Balphaghore Guide Ismael! I like it