Doctor Repulsor- Item build?

[Move69]

Hallo! I really really like Doctor Repulsor, but i don't really know what to buy. Could you give me a good Item and Skill Build? What do you think about Doctor Repulsor actually? I don't see anyone playing him, is he that baaaad?

[Karming]

He is rarely played these days because he takes a while to get started and with the mass gankers there are these days he tends to get eaten regularly. If he is given the time to farm then he becomes very very strong, but again he does take time to nurse.

Item build - Nullstone is good if they have single target disables, else going for Hellflower first (as it is very easy to make) isn't a bad idea. Then you can end up with a Shrunken Head or Kuldras, whatever your team needs. Ideally starting items you want a Bottle, Steamboots, Ghost Locket (cheap stats). Chalice is optional but I don't like getting both Chalice AND bottle.

Skill Build - situational most of the time. If you have a lot of gankers or gankable sidelanes, skilling your disable is ideal. I tend to max this first anyway, but some people prefer the passive or the nuke. Luckily his skill build is very versatile and you can do whatever and it'll work! I prefer: 2/1/3/2/2/4/2/3/1/3/1/etc...

He is a good hero, I used to play him a lot, though now I believe he needs the right team to pressure the opponents while you farm (or easy tp-ganks at level 6/7) and I'd much rather be playing heroes like Gauntlet, Pebbles, MK, Fayde, DM, Dev, Polly, etc, who are all dare-I-say-it, better heroes mid. Though a good DR will stomp them with pressure

KT

[PrestonLee]

Hellflower is definitely the way to go imho, Nullstone can come after it when you're racking up kills. Hellflower is picked up for many reasons:
1. MUCH needed mana regen, hellflower is one of the best items for this with a very useful buildup (just arcanas, which are helpful for him even when not finished)
2. it gives him more auto attack damage (+71 including int) as well as attack speed, making him kill much faster than say with a rushed Nullstone or Sacstone pickup
3. the silence/perplex and 20% extra damage taken on target is HUGE. it makes ganking or killing a target sooooooo much easier and faster, and it's really hard to react to a hellflower initiation because usually the enemy won't catch it in time to activate shrunken until it's too late.

there are a few cases where you'd want to pickup nullstone first over hellflower (namely vs. heroes like Fayde or Pkey Pebs or other gank heroes that can surprise initiate-blow you up before you have a chance to get away). but in general if you have good awareness and wards up, with Steamboots+Psupply+Vestments vs them you should be able to get away in most cases.

you should only pick doctor when you know there are squishies you can eat up and feed off of early/mid game (pretty much the moment you hit 6) so you can become huge and unstoppable. otherwise picking doctor is quite risky and requires too much farm to justify being a good pick.

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items to get on doctor:

start off with: for early stats and regeneration. Steams stat-swapping and bottle+powersupply is extremely important for Doctor and I'd argue you shouldn't play him if you don't do it. Gravelocket is arguable because grabbing it makes your Steams swap less effective, but I like it anyway as it's a very efficient pickup. Your call. then go straight for .

then luxury: are all solid choices on him depending on the situation. is arguable depending on when you get it, and is usually needed by late-game vs better players.

even if they have NO single-target spells is going to be good because it will still protect you from enemy hellflowers or sheeps later on, or if they have A LOT of single target spells i'd argue it's still good just to make dr that much harder to take down. but again you get it AFTER . it's better to play safer with doctor and only go in when either enemies skills are on cooldown or you know it's a 100% kill on a gank; playing this way you really don't need that Nullstone early and getting Hellflower first makes your ganking potential MUCH MUCH stronger.

is extremely strong because it gives a ton of regen, an extra disable is always going to be good, and it also gives some nice damage and stats as well. hellflower has a much easier buildup, gives you more damage output, and synergizes with his skillset (big burst damage) much more though, so again get it first before sheep.

you grab this for the armor mainly (and the negative attack speed bonus helps a lot vs physical auto-attack carries as well). obviously the extra AoE magic damage burst and slow is very useful too, especially in combo with hellflower. when coupled with Shrunken (and Nullstone/Sacstone) it makes Doctor EXTREMELY hard to take down because Shrunken nullifies magic damage and armor takes care of physical.

is your BIG damage steroid pickup, when you get this in combo with Hellflower pretty much no one is going to survive your initiation except the tankiest builds out there ( , but in general you should be ignoring these guys until last in teamfights). the only thing is i'd argue other above pickups (and shrunken) are more important to get first because doctor with hellflower should already be doing enough damage to get the job done. Harkon's should only be picked up when you're already fully comfortable with your survivability and mana regen as repulsor's main two problems are his squishiness and mana regen to keep going (harkon's will EAT UP your mana if you don't have a good enough mana pool/regen, especially with your ultimate also draining your mana pool fast)

later game he will probably need if your opponents are decent in order to not get shut down by tons of magic damage/disables being thrown around in team fights. pick it up at your own discretion.

can be good if you're doing really well because of all the charges you can get out of it can make it really effective, BUT don't get this first over hellflower because it gives no damage nor stats, it's just raw health and mana. it doesn't help you kill faster at all, nor does it give armor or anything useful. in general just going nullstone is the more effective pickup though because it actually gives damage and stats, and has the single-target

IF you're going to eventually get , keep in mind that ++ can be taken for early game (for survivability+team mana regen), and then disassembled into + later to be more efficient.

Other mentions:

is nice for later game if you need more survivability, it gives huge stats and gives you the slow to make you damn near impossible to get away from. it's not as important as the other above pickups, but it can still be great so I edited it in here last second don't rush it til you have your mana regen at very high levels though because it actually makes your overall mana regen less effective because your ulti will actually drain more mana; this is also a reason why sac stone isn't that good, but at least with more kills Sac stone gives you more regen.

and can be considered if you're playing around or really really need a Nullstone bypasser for your Hellflower->Stun combo. they both give good utility for Dr, but in general farm can be placed better elsewhere.

is quite funny; i usually get it as a troll item to upgrade when I pick up sometimes or when my farm is REALLY bad, but it's actually quite decent on him it gives very nice mana regen for cheap and can help him heal a bit when using his skills. I wouldn't consider it at all though over the above pickups in a more serious game.

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Skills:

i'm personally a firm believer in the 1/4/1/1 build (maxing stun first) or maybe 1/3/1/1 -> 4/3/1/1, because it makes ganking SOOOOOO much easier earlier on, and I personally don't like afk-farming with doctor over being active with my team early on, I find that incredibly boring. it also makes your Q really cheap for spamming for harassment with your passive, and it still can get the job done for farming until later levels (which should come by fast anyway with ganks).

however if you're more focused on being passive and farming early game then 4/1/1/1 build works fine to help speed up your farm.

i would personally never level passive over maxing stun first, because that extra disable time is just HUGE, but if you're playing a greedy doctor repulsor 4/1/4/1 can work decently because IT HELPS YOU KS (i mean clean-up) BETTER in teamfights early on so you get all the gold for the kills to help you snowball fast.

lastly, I personally leave ultimate at level 1 and max the other skills first before putting extra points into ultimate. ultimate level 1 is good enough for initiation purposes until you get your other skills maxed, and it actually keeps you invincible for longer in teamfights for less mana because you're going slower. still definitely max it by 16, but imho level 2 can wait til level 14/15 over his other skills.

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Gameplay:

basically doctor repulsor has four stages of his gameplay:
Stage 1: level 1-5, pretty useless. just concentrate on getting to 6 as fast as possible, work on farming for your core items during this period.
Stage 2: level 6-10ish, you have ultimate and should have your ganking core done (again for me its: ), go help your team set up some early ganks and try to get some snowballing farm going. otherwise if you can't set anything up just keep farming for your Hellflower.
Stage 3: level 11-15ish, you should have done by this period. start ganking like crazy and really get your snowball farm going for those pickups to get your mana regen and damage REALLY high. still be careful about your diving until you get Nullstone/Sacstone/Shrunken
Stage 4: 16+ you should have all the tools you need to be a monster at diving, and can start initiating for your team reliably ( or just spamming ulti like no tomorrow). wreck people, backdoor towers, finish the game

usually if you do very well in stages 2/3 you either snowball to Stage 4 incredibly fast, or it's early concede because the enemy team is too demoralized from farmed doctor

[[xBM]Ackwell1]

I feel like hellflower is always the best option for first big item. Get steams, locket, bottle and psupply before it and after null/hex/shivas/harkons/savage/crit/sb/bkb.