Empath is perhaps the most underratted support hero. Players tend to shy away from using her because she doesn't have a reliable stun. A stun that takes awareness to know when and what distance to trigger it. While her stun may be lacking, Empath makes up for it by being a Support hero (a hero that requires little to no items to be effective) while being nearly impossible to kill.
Table of Contents
1. Stats
2. Skills
3. Skill Build
4. Item Build
5. Best Friends
6. Worst Enemies
7. Tips and Tricks
8. Heroes who laugh at your wall
9. Replays
Stats
Empath is a 600 ranged intelligence hero.
Attributes: Strength Agility Intelligence
Starting: 17 16 21
Gain per level: 2.0 1.5 2.7
Base Attack Damage: 43-51
Skills
Essence Link: Steals life from a target non-friendly unit over time. If the link is shattered by distance, the target is stunned.
Why this move is overpowered: This spell lasts for 5 seconds at all levels, dealing more damage each second as it is leveled up (20/35/50/65). The spell also heals Empath 1:1 for all of the damage it deals. Not only does it deal damage and work as a cheap heal, but it also has a stun to go along with it! This spell has the complete package.
Illusory Veil: Creates a wall that blocks enemies but not allies. The wall also does damage to enemies that are near it.
Why this move is overpowered: A no risk, high reward spell. "The Wall" is Empath's bread and butter. The wall is an 800 range castable spell that completely halts the enemy's progress while allowing your allies to freely step through it. The width of the wall is more than enough to cut off any choke points in the jungles, cutting off any escape routes your enemies may try to take. It also doubles as a perfect way to escape an enemy zeroing in for a kill.
Synergy: A global aura that grants health regeneration to allied heroes.
Why this move is overpowered: All allied heroes receive 1/2/3/4 health regen PLUS an additional reneration equal to .05/.1/.15.2 percent of their max health! Amazing in the beginning because allies won't need to return to the well to heal. Amazing in mid game because allies can push towers or chase enemies with some extra health to back them up. Amazing late game because everyone gets a nice regen boost, especially tanks, based on their maximum HP.
As One: Empath jumps inside an allied hero, who then receives bonus attack damage and speed. Also allows Empath to use "Faster!".
Why this move is overpowered: At first glance, this move looks terrible. Why would you want to remove a player from the battle? It's one less target the enemy needs to worry about and it's one less source that's dealing damage. The answer lies in the fact that Empath is completely immune while inside of an ally. Yes, the 40/60/80 attack damage and speed buffs are nice, but what is truly amazing is that no matter what happends, Empath comes through completely unscathed. Slither uses his ultimate? No poison damage. Hammerstorm throws a stun? Throw a wall right back in his face. No matter what happens to your host, you can still cast spells and use items as if nothing had ever happened. Plus you get a low manacost spell that increases the movement speed of your host, making chasing fleeing heroes no challenge.
Skill Build
1. Illusory Veil
2. Synergy
3. Synergy
4. Essence Link
5. Synergy
6. As One
7. Synergy
8. Essence Link
9. Essence Link
10. Essence Link
11. As One
12. Illusory Veil
13. Illusory Veil
14. Illusory Veil
15. Stats
16. As One
17-25. Stats
Why this build?
1. Why wall first? - Getting the wall first is a must. It allows you to get your wards set up without too much worry about being killed by the enemy team. If they see you walking through the forest placing a ward and decide to chase, the wall will do a much better job of stopping them than Essence Link would.
2. Why Synergy before Essence Link? - Essence link is a great spell, there is no denying that. But it only helps you. Being a support player, you want what's best for your carries. Synergy gives your allies the health regen needed to dive a tower or escape a gank.
3. Why max Essence Link before wall? - Even though the wall only lasts 3 seconds at level one, that is plenty of time to disorient an enemy hero and allow your team to escape. You want Essence Link up quickly because the higher level it is, the more health you can restore to an allied hero while using As One.
Why this build?
Starting Items - :ManaBattery: and 2 :MinorTotem: will go into making your :PowerSupply:. The :RunesOfTheBlight: will be enough to keep you healed and the :ManaPotion: will allow you to spam your relatively low cost skills. The :WardOfSight: should usually be placed on the rune spawn before the creeps spawn.
Lanining Items - The very first thing you want to buy as soon as you reach 200 golds is the :FlyingCourier: for your team. It will help out everyone by not tying up the courier. Then you want to focus on buying wards for sight and counterwarding. If you find yourself with a good surplus of gold, work on getting your :PowerSupply: then :stri:.
Why :PowerSupply: over :chal:? - This is a good question. With all of Empath's healing, why not get an item that has a constant mana regen rate? Empath is already very squishy. Yes, I claim that she never dies, which is true, but you need to keep yourself with full HP to be able to survive a surprise gank. :chal: takes away too much health for me to feel comfortable using it.
Core Items - You are the ward hero. Get use to it. If there are wards available in the shop, you want to buy them. Also keep a :HomecomingStone: with you to aide allies across the map, or escape enemies that have you cornered. The good news is, because you never die, you can keep wards up AND be making enough money through assists to buy your most important item: :Astrolabe:. This item will give you and your team that extra boost to push into the enemy base or survive a battle that has turned sour.
Luxury Items - So you're keeping the wards up and still making money, what do you buy next? This really all depends on your team. if no one on your team has a :RingOfSorcery:, go for that. Else, It really all depends on how you want to play. Just don't forget that vision wins games.
Best Friends
These are the heroes that you love having on your team:
- His lifesteal in union with your Synergy and Essence Link make him hard to take down.
- Spin and Wall, completely ruins an enemy's day. Essence Link will also slow down enemies with escape mechanics.
- His tankiness is greatly helped by your Syngery. With Synergy, Armadon can tower dive at early levels to get kills.
- The attack speed boost with As One obliterates an enemy player's mana
- Ever play Halo? Ra's innate HP regen paired up with Empath's Synergy and Essence Link makes Ra's health go from red to green in seconds.
Worst Enemies
There are two types of hero that you hate seeing when playing Empath: Burst Damage Dealers and Blinkers.
Heroes with burst damage that can lock you down and kill you before you get a chance to react are difficult to deal with. When faced with this scenario be sure to stay with your team. If they target you, then they have wasted everything on a measly support hero while your allys tear him apart.
Heroes with Blink make placing your wall very tricky. Your best bet against Blinkers is to wait for their blink, then place the wall accordingly. Hopefully that will slow them down enough to where you can catch up to them or you can escape. Essence Link also works pretty well on blinkers. If they blink away from you while you have Essence Link on them, the link will snap and they will be stunned.
Tips and Tricks
Most important tip - You are a support hero. You do not need hero kills. You do not need creep kills. All you need to do is buy wards and help your team. Getting assists will give you all the money you need to ward up and buy a core item or two.
Make sure to stack! - Is the game slowing down a bit? Are you not needed to be in a lane right away? Then go into the jungle and start stacking creeps. Once they are stacked, ping the camp to let your allies know where the stacks are.
Don't farm a lane alone - If you are alone, not only are you not helping your team at all, but you're also at a huge risk for being caught out of place and ganked. Stick with your team.
Don't know where they are? - If you do not know where the enemy team is, then try to not ward their jungle without atleast one other team member around you. Warding isn't worth dying.
Know your ward spots - --Insert link to ward guide here--
Choking with the wall - The wall is wide enough to completely cut off most routes in the jungles. Use that to your advantage.
Angle the wall - An enemy is in the lane and you want to slow them down, but the wall isn't big enough to cut off their path. If they are near the trees, try to angle the wall so that it catches them and blocks their path, and forces them to run back towards your team.
Faster Faster! - When using As One, you gain a new E spell, "Faster!". This spell speeds up your host to make chasing enemies easier. If you use "Faster!" right as As One ends, your host will still receive the full duration of the speed buff.
No mana for wall? - If you find yourself short on mana and need to stop an enemy from fleeing or chasing, then try to block their path with your body. If the enemy is chasing a low health allied carry, sacrifice yourself to make sure your team gets away safely.
The wall dance - Let's say something goes terribly wrong where you are by yourself (tsk tsk) and are being attacked by an enemy hero. You can see reinforcements on the way, but they are too far out where you will die by the time they reach you. If the enemy chasing you is a melee hero, place your wall down and keep walking back and forth across it. The enemy won't be able to reach you as they are forced to keep walking all the way around the wall. This may buy you enough time for your allies to assist you.
Melee over Ranged - When using As One, try to jump inside a Melee hero instead of a Ranged one. With a Melee hero, you will be able to cast all of your spells without worry of being out of range. In a ranged hero, you only have access to what you can reach while being outside of the battle.
Learn how to count - Your Essence Link always lasts 5 seconds. The more you use Empath, the better you'll be at letting the spell deal damage for 4 seconds, then causing it to snap and stunning the enemy.
Low on health? - Essence Link works on creeps too! If you are low on health and need to get some ASAP, target a creep and get that much needed HP.
The following heroes have abilities that make Empath's wall a bit less effective:
- Can use Ludicrous Speed - Can use Illusive Dash - Can use Venomous Leap - Can us Sword Throw - Can use Vampiric Flight - Can use Grapple - Can use Flash of Darkness - Can use Twin Fangs - Can use Lava Surge - Can use Wave Form - Can use Flash - Can use Trample - Can use Static Grip - Can use Shell Surf - Can use Elemental Warp - Can use Path of Destruction - Can use Cannon Ball - Can use Feint's Siphon - Can use Dig - Can use Desert's Curse - Can use Mirage Strike - Can use Charging Strikes - Can use Courageous Leap - Can use Cold Shoulder
:chro: - Can use Time Leap - Can use Pounce - Can use Facehug - Can use Tree Grapple
The following heroes can also cause problems for Empath's wall:
- Can use Clearcutting to get around any choke points - Can use Wrath of the Pharaoh to go through the wall - The final jump at the end of his Stampede will pass through the wall
This may seem like a lot, and it is, but most of the heroes listed have long cooldown times on their spells. You need to be aware of what spells your enemies have used and then react accordingly. Remember, if you are chasing an enemy with an escape mechanism, use Essence Link as it will stun them as soon as they use their abilities to run away.
Replays
To do:
Some replays
Make everything look pretty
More tips and tricks
:ManaPotion:x2):WardOfSight:
- His lifesteal in union with your Synergy and Essence Link make him hard to take down.
- Spin and Wall, completely ruins an enemy's day. Essence Link will also slow down enemies with escape mechanics.
- His tankiness is greatly helped by your Syngery. With Synergy, Armadon can tower dive at early levels to get kills.
- The attack speed boost with As One obliterates an enemy player's mana
- Ever play Halo? Ra's innate HP regen paired up with Empath's Synergy and Essence Link makes Ra's health go from red to green in seconds.
- Can use Ludicrous Speed
- Can use Illusive Dash
- Can us Sword Throw
- Can use Vampiric Flight
- Can use Grapple
- Can use Flash of Darkness
- Can use Twin Fangs
- Can use Lava Surge
- Can use Wave Form
- Can use Trample
- Can use Static Grip
- Can use Shell Surf
- Can use Elemental Warp
- Can use Cannon Ball
- Can use Feint's Siphon
- Can use Dig
- Can use Desert's Curse
- Can use Mirage Strike
- Can use Charging Strikes
- Can use Courageous Leap
- Can use Cold Shoulder
- Can use Pounce
- Can use Facehug
- Can use Tree Grapple
- Can use Clearcutting to get around any choke points
- Can use Wrath of the Pharaoh to go through the wall
- The final jump at the end of his Stampede will pass through the wall
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