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THIS GUIDE IS OPTIMIZED FOR NORMAL MODE
PyromancerThis is what a call a quick flick pic (qfp for short). Basically you can easily flick to it while your in game and see what you need to skill up or buy, have fun.Definition: One who practices pyromancy
The yellow square around the portal key means its optional, some people don't like it or don't know how to use it. Thats understandable but I still highly suggested if attainable.
Pros
Great laner
High damage
AoE spells
Strong Early-Mid game
Low item dependence
FUN!
Cons
can be tough to land stuns vs good players
Weaker Late game
Low strength gain
Ward hoe
Easily killed and mostly first target
Skill Build: As Shown In picture above
This skill build gives you the most mana to damage efficiency possible. Some people will say stats over Fervor at level 5 or just another level on Dragonfire or Phoenix wave but I believe that the passive that Fervor has is invaluable.
Personal build: ------------------ Standard(cookie cutter) build:
1 - Dragonfire------------------ 1 - Dragonfire
2 - Phoenix Wave ------------------ 2 - Phoenix Wave
3 - Phoenix Wave ------------------ 3 - Phoenix Wave
4 - Dragonfire ------------------4 - Dragonfire
5 - Fervor ------------------ 5 - Phoenix Wave
6 - Blazing Strike ------------------ 6 - Blazing Strike
7 - Dragonfire ------------------ 7 - Dragonfire
8 - Dragonfire ------------------ 8 - Dragonfire
9 - Phoenix Wave ------------------ 9 - Fervor
10 - Phoenix Wave ------------------10 - Phoenix Wave
11 - Blazing Strike ------------------ 11 - Blazing Strike
12 - Fervor ------------------ 12 - Fervor
13 - Fervor ------------------ 13 - Fervor
14 - Fervor ------------------ 14 - Fervor
15- Stats ------------------ 15- Stats
16 - Blazing Strike ------------------ 16 - Blazing Strike
17-25 - Stats ------------------ 17-25 - Stats
Basics
- -
Your role
Pyromancer is a great laning partner and should never go mid. You should never go mid because you're not a carry and are fragile when soloing a lane. Building your pyromancer as a support/ganker is your best bet. Warding, courier, sheepstick all support your team immensely.
Yes you can go mid, yes you can do it well vs'ing certain hero's but I guarantee that laning is putting your hero to better use. AoE stuns and damage make using pyromancer to his maximum effectiveness only possible while against 2+ players.
Why cant I build pyromancer as a:
Carry - Putting your teams eggs into a pyromancer carry basket is not a good option. If you're banking on Pyro being a late game carry then think again his moves scale ridiculously bad into mid - late game. This leaves early game, Most likely there will be a more viable mid hero in every situation, If not then you need to re-evaluated your team picks. This is because your abilities are AoE and are able to hit multiple targets maximizing his use.
Tank - no just no.
What can I build pyromancer as:
Support - This is what you should build your pyro as and this guide show how to do it effectivly.
nuker/roamer - once you hit 6 you can shift to other lane's to help get ganks with 3 on 2's. The cool down on your ulti will limit your solo nuking abilities, but will turn your 3 v 2's into 3 v 1's fairly quick. Your best strategy is to jump from your side lane into mid to get a gank and keep there carry down. Then return to your lane.
Ward guide http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/showthread.php?t=4839
Items
Starting items:
Courier or wards (200g)
3x minor totems (159g)
1x mana potion (50g)
1x hp potion (100g)
1x runes of blight (90g)
Total = 599g
These items will give your team the support it needs early game and give you the stats and Regen longevity to be a strong force well into the laning process. The totems also build into a power supply later on. A mana battery (210g) can be picked up from the outpost and the recipe can be brought via courier.
Avg. Usage Statistics: Gold per min: 179 As you can see you wont be getting that much gold intake during your time as pyromancer. Honestly most games you wont even make it past the manatube in your sheepstick build but this is what makes the pyromancer such good support. You'll notice that beyond this phase of the game you wont really need anything else and keeping up wards should be your main focus.
Items are built piece by piece in the picture above save for recipes. They are built in the most efficient and effective way for maximum potential. Pyromancer is not an item dependant hero and therefore you should be buying WARDS for your team throughout the game. The item build is not strict; you can feel free to throw in a bracer or portal key if you are farming well.
135g--------------------200g--------------------510g --------------------1450g--------------------600g
With the Nerf to power supply its value has dropped dramatically and its best to just pick up the mana battery for you're early lanning phase or not at all. however if you think you need a bracer and don't have this already, then this item is always better.
Always carry a Homecoming stone and always refresh your wards. Steamboots are set on INT until you get mana tube then they turn to STR, this stage in the game you will need more survivability and your regen will now allow you to use abilities almost every creep wave. Kuldra's sheepstick gives you excellent control can help set up ganks and stuns for yourself as well as stopping channelling spells instantly. Fortified bracer's are a good way to gain some extra survivability if you are farming well. Getting portal key will also add a good amount of survivability and extra ganking power but its probably best to get a manatube and then go for portal key so you can sustain your mana in long fights and while roaming.
-2150g------------------- 5675g -------------------- 5500g
Build you behemoths hearth next, it drastically improves your survivability and lets you keep up with the pace of the game. Anything that gives you more time to support your team and less time between cooldowns at the same time makes it an extremely good item.
Cool downs with Behemoths Heart:
Phoenix Wave : 7.65sec
Dragonfire : 8.5sec
Blazing Strike : 46.75sec
- 6100g -------------------- 5100g -------------------- 2800g
Harkons blade reduces opponents magic armour by 5 making your attacks that more potent. Frostwolf skull gives you even more survivability and a 30% slow. However if you are in a close/really late game somehow you may want to pick up stormspirit for even more control through cyclone etc.
Alternative build
Items to Avoid
Getting codex in my opinion is not a good option.
-Firstly it cost a lot when you consider all the upgrades you will have to do. If you dont plan on upgrading it then there's no point in getting it anyway.
-Second, It has a high mana cost on top of you already high mana ulti. codex is really only effective in the really early game and on top of harassing in your lane you don't have the mana.
- Your ulti does more damage. (yes codex has a lower cooldown but again YOU DONT HAVE THE MANA).
-2850 for a kill MAYBE every 3 mins isn't worth it on top of your essential build order.
-Total cost 8250g
For more info/ the stats on codex : http://honwiki.net/wiki/Codex
Staff of The Master: an example of what it does.
These numbers dont even count in and magic armor that an opponent may have. eg. shaman's headdress.
It results in a extra 150 hp dmg for 4300gold. you'd get better survivability from a portal key for half the price.
Skills
Phoenix Wave Pyromancer sends forth a phoenix that damages enemies in a line.
ActionTarget Position
TypeEnemy Units
Type: Magic
Range: 700 Cast
Time: 1.4 Seconds
Mana Cost: 90 / 105 / 125 / 140
Cooldown: 9.0 Seconds
Required Level: 1 / 3 / 5 / 7 Activation Deals 100 / 170 / 230 / 280 Magic damage to each target in a line.
Sending this bad boy flying towards your opponents can deal a ton of damage on multiple targets. The range is 100 units more than your auto attack range so it's sometimes better to fire off your Phoenix wave when an enemy is one auto attack away from death than it is to chase him down. Use your judgement to determine when to hold em and when to fold em.
Scaling: early laning phase its probably best to wait till level 3 (lvl 2 phoenix wave) to start harassing with it. That extra bit of dmg all counts and the time between level 2 and 3 is relatively small. By level 10 (lvl 4 phoenix wave) you will have no problem tackling most creeps with a dragonfire/phoenix wave combo in several seconds so look to head out and pick up some extra farm in your jungle if your carry is busy else where.
Notice the 'V' Shaped damage zone show in the picture above. The damage vector will spread from around 50 units starting at you hero and finish off at a width of 200 units before it reaches its max. range of 700 units.
Tip: If you get an opponent low and they go into stealth you may be able kill him.
Last edited by SupFresh; 03-26-2010 at 11:14 PM.
Dragonfire Pyromancer conjures a mighty elemental fire dragon at a target location, damaging and stunning enemies in an area.
ActionTarget Position
TypeEnemy Units And Trees
Type: Magic
Range: 600
Radius: 200
Cast Time: 1.4 Seconds
Mana Cost: 90 / 100 / 110 / 125
Cooldown: 10.0 Seconds
Required Level: 1 / 3 / 5 / 7
Activation Deals 90 / 150 / 210 / 280 Magic damage and stuns each target in the radius for 1.6 seconds.
This is your stun. At first you will be missing a lot of these, the spell is relatively difficult to get off on a smart opponent and they will make you work for it. Some things to remember when trying to place this stun on top of your opponent are:
-Its cast time is 1.4 secs, add around 0.1 - 0.3 secs depending on your ping, factor this in when placing it down. (Fervor will help this problem later on)
-Its range is the same as your auto attack, use this to gauge whether your hero will have to move forward in order to cast the stun and factor this in.
-The best way to apply this stun is to a slowed or previously stunned enemy, this ensure that you will get it off 100% of the time. Kuldra's Sheepstick is an easy way to get your stun off if you happen to be alone or otherwise.
Scaling: Early game its best to keep this at a low level so you can make sure that you always have enough mana to use it. The stun doesn't increase in duration with level's so you gain the same stun for less mana early game. Missing out on the extra dmg is the catch but its made up for with Phoenix wave. At level 6 your combo of stun/wave/ulti is almost a certain kill. If not you've built up 60 IAS to finish the target off.
Fervor Pyromancer becomes further attuned to the Flame, increasing his attack speed, cast speed, and movement speed.
ActionPassive 10 / 20 / 30 / 40 Cast Speed
Required Level: 1 / 3 / 5 / 7
On Attack
Applies Fervor to self for 5 seconds and adds one charge.
Fervor Effects
Attack Speed Per Charge: 0.2 / 0.3 / 0.4 / 0.5
Movement Speed Per Charge: 0.02 / 0.03 / 0.04 / 0.05
Adds magic burn Per Charge: 1/2/3/4 Per Second
Note: Many people overlook this but Fervor increases your cast speed passively EVEN when you don't have any charges up.
This is a passive ability that activates when you cast one of your three spells (Phoenix Wave, Dragonfire, Blazing Strike). It stacks on top of itself up to 3 times but the passive only last for 5 seconds after an ability is used and increases attack and movement speed. It can be tricky and impractical but there is a way to keep the passive up for the majority of a fight as shown in this video. With the latest changes to Pyromancer it now adds a low damage burn on targets that you hit with your abilities and attack. It has infinite stacks and is best used on structures to take them down quickly.
Scaling: Fervor is good at all stages of the game. Some other abilities take priority in the first few levels for it to take effect obviously but after that its great.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MY_SVA1KCuQ
Blazing Strike Using power granted from Sol, Pyromancer hurls a blazing hot fireball at a target enemy, dealing massive damage.
ActionTarget Entity
TypeEnemy Units
Type: Magic
Range: 600
Cast Time: 1.0 Seconds
Mana Cost: 280 / 420 / 680
Cooldown: 150.0 / 90.0 / 55.0 Seconds
Required Level: 6 / 11 / 16
Activation Deals 450 / 675 / 950 Magic damage to target.
This ability can be boosted by Staff of the Master.
Welcome to your ultimate weapon, your ulti. Blazing Strike is one of the highest damage on demand abilities in the game. Depending on their level, hero and items, this baby can take your opponent from 60 to 0 in 1.0 seconds flat and leave them wondering what you've got under your magicians hood.
Although you maybe dominant early to mid game, heading into late game this ulti drops in power as the enemy team gains Hit points and Items, the ability just can't keep up. This however is slightly compensated by its dramatic drop in cool down to 55 secs and 46.75secs if you pick up your Behemoths heart.
Scaling: Early game (at lvl 6) this is an extremely powerful ability but from that point it begins to drop in effectiveness. Unless you are out leveling your opponents you really want to take advantage of the level 6 to 14 window that you have.
Oh and SotM adds 200dmg, 150hp after magic armour is factored in and is NOT worth it.
Laning and Team fights.
Your best partners are ones with stuns/lockdowns and high survivability. These heroes mostly come from the strength category can make landing your stun an easy job. Hammerstorm or magmus paired up with you easily make one of the strongest lanes in the game and bloodlust is a sure thing with well timed stun combo's aswell as many other combo's.
Other than being STR heroes these heroes also have common spells. All of the stuns/slow are relatively easy to perform and can hit more than one target. This makes a double kill a large possibility if you and your laning partner have good co-ordination .
When laning against a stealth Hero it's a good idea to pick up or send down some wards of revelation, lane control for 12 mins and 200 gold is defiantly worth it.
Harassing: This is where I believe the pyro shines in a lane. The ability to hit both hero's at once with a well placed phoenix wave will make lane dominance no problem. Make sure you hit both heros each time you shoot this out to make it worth it. Even when you're not going for a gank its will keep them back, at low HP and very annoyed at not being able to do anything.
Team fights are a bit tricky for pyromancer because he will almost always be first target due to him dying so fast. Wait until your team initiates to come in. Drop you stun to stop a channel or pin down as many as you can. Phoenix wave as many as you can an then proceed to blazing strike your teams main target down if he's not dead yet. Kuldra's sheepstick should be used to control their most devastating hero, for example plague rider, tempest, magmus etc. The sheepstick is devastating to any channelling hero such as a succubus, voodoo jester or tempest.
Who to Watch out For
These guys are the int killers.
Magebane is obvious with his manaburn and his ulti against pyromancers high int gain, as well as his magic armor.
Vindicator is the best combo breaker in the game and will mess you up while rolling cooldowns and has a strong mana burn.
Witch Slayer is your parallel, much like pyromancer he is able to destroy other int hero's with his high damage abilities.
Predator's charge/ slow and immunities gives him an immense advantage over you and many other hero's.
Armadon will eat up your dmg like no one else. Be very weary of this hero while laning against him and in late game. Geting caught in his slow/ quill spam could spell the end for you.
Chronos also has tank like features. There's nothing worse than watching your ulti fly towards him and see it do no dmg at all. This is Chronos' rewind ability at work.
Anyone with Mystic vestments or even worse Shaman's Headdress is going to eat a considerable amount of your damage. Try to keep up with who has what items in game.
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Change Log:
first release 13/11/09
Added codex info 15/11/09
Added SoTM info 17/11/09
Added baddies 21/11/09
Added scaling 30/11/09
Added gold price etc. 18/12/09
Added update to item build 14/2/2010
Last edited by SupFresh; 02-13-2010 at 10:39 AM.
Pyromancer is one of the heroes that benefits immensely from having a Blink Dagger. It makes him twice as effective in ganking when he has it at his disposal and adds to his survivability greatly. To skip over it seems rather foolish.
qft. You should really consider Portal Key.Originally Posted by Deathlust
Blink dagger aka portal key is considered in the guide although I may have to go into it more. Although I wouldn't recommend it before manatube just because the regen is extremly important for you.
Hey nice guide... No mention of hellflower or codex? Pk is amazing on him. Though I really like the idea of a qfp
I have a friend who only play pyro and i have to say this has increase his play from 1300 to 1700 easiest
As sYthex said no mention of hellflower, and no mention of SotM? i think its more useful then Codex. and ive gotta say this guide was a bit uneccesary as there are alrdy like 3-4 pyromancer guides
Im going to justify this now for you cause you obviously didnt read the guide fully and require a direct response.
1. Hellflower Vs. Sheepstick - Sheepstick always wins out because not only does it do everything that hellflower does its slowes there movement speed making you're stun easier to place. The 40% dmg factor is really not a factor as you are there for control firstly and nukes second (this assumes you are at the point in the game where you could have one item or the other and at that point your nuke is already fading). A guaranteed stun (sheepstick) against a non guaranteed stun. you decide.
2. I did mention in the guide and explained that SoTM was a terrible item to get as it only adds 150 hp dmg on your ulti and minimal survivability. You'd be better to get Portal key.
3. I said codex was bad not good, I only mentioned it because sYthex commented about it and had to justify why it was a bad idea.
4.The other guides lay out strategies that are only really effective in pub play a.k.a getting SoTM or codex. This is a guide to play pyromancer the most effectively for both serious games and even in pubs this guide works. But hey maybe it was my fault for not making that clear.
Edit: have now added SotM explanation/math into guide.
Last edited by SupFresh; 11-17-2009 at 12:16 AM.
thanks nice guide, as many of the heroes, this hero shines in good players where as a good feed under the bad players. (and if you have noticed in pub games, mainly people going for staff of the master and marchers i still dont get it)
qfp is so awsome! thanks! luv ya
can u tell me where to find more qfp, from u or some other member
One thing, I really love starting with getting this point booster, right after boots and pots. Imo getting that extra hp/mana increase is really nice. Then continue to get even more hp/mana with 10+str and 10+int (sry, im so stuck with dota yet, dont know the item names) also helps you to boost effectivity (survival / fire power). Then just getting that recepie you get all that for one slot and also get a slight ulti boost as a bonus.
Allthough, I guess this is more used in pub-games. But I really say that it helps getting that early point booster. Especally if your mid with an early bottle.
Last edited by angeltear; 11-20-2009 at 12:24 PM.
I dont know if you have noticed but portal key has a 3 second cooldown everytime you get damage. So Portal key is not rly that much of a get away item.
Last edited by Didiuz; 11-21-2009 at 05:51 AM.
Use it before you take damage.
Rewind has no cooldown (only on the ANIMATION, not the effect). Otherwise, great guide!
Not getting SotM cos it has 150 only extra damage isn't a good reason. Do you want to add 500 extra damage to make it worthy for you? Ofc not cos that would be far imbalanced. SotM is key item to Pyro for several reasons:
1- Its components help you accordingly to what you need at early game.
(sort on mana capacity? get Neophyte's Book. Short on hp? Get Mighty blade first.
2- Reduces cooldown too along with Behemoth's heart. With both of them you have your imba nuke every 43.75 seconds. (this can be be even 2 times in a battle in some long occassions).
3- 150 extra damage (after the reductions) is quite worthy damage. Along with Harkon's blade that 150 dmg becomes more too (bored to do the calculation). Why is it worthy? because you often need to nuke one target before he even cast a spell. Like jera for example. In that case you need to MOST spell burst.
4- If you can rush it, it ensure your kills, adds to your surviveability and makes you a feared enemy even by tanks. If you cant rush it, forget it.
Ofc every game is different and you might not be needed to nuke down fast anyone, but rather disable as much as you can. In these cases prefer Stormspirit/Kuldra over it, with no remorse.
...
1. I dont see how you could be getting SoTM early game but ok. You building your steam boots will give you more than enough survivability unless you find yourself randomly running in without teammates.
2.By the time you have SoTM and Behmoths heart in a game your ulti has faded and your opponents have probably picked up shamans headdress. This is the point in the game where you need to be supporting your teammate or become useless. choosing between a 150dmg increase and a complete lock down for your team (kuldra's sheepstick) is pretty simple.
3. With kuldra's sheepstick you can guarantee a kill anyway as if used in combo with your abilities it gives you time to bring your other abilities off cooldown and score a kill.
4. If you can rush a SoTM then you can rush a Sheepstick, simple as that. Rather than fading in usfulness over the course of the game like SoTM, Sheepstick will keep your mana topped off and provide contol for your team.
Last edited by SupFresh; 12-09-2009 at 12:17 PM.
fixt.
1- You dont need steamboots. the extra 1000 gold , better to spend it in Sotm, to rush it. Boots simple are fine.
2- Rushing Sotm will give many kills, meaning that you will have a big advantage in gold against the others. Behe's heart may be easy for you when they still struggling for shaman's headress. Moreover you can always nuke someone that doesn't have the Headress. IF they all have headress, GJ to them they are immune to you, your carry/ies will slaughter them.
3- If you want CC that much, pick Witch Hunter. Don't pick Pyro. An arachna with Kuldra will still ensure his kills, but that doesn't mean it's the ideal item. Pyro is a heavy nuker, don't make him a poor disabler with an aoe stun and a 30-sec-cooldown kuldra.If you pick Pyro for his disables, you just fail.
4- Yea you can rush anything you want, but as i said above, don't make a nuker into a disabler. Nuker, nuke hard, nuke as much as you can.
You honestly do not know how to play if you think 150 damage on your ult every ~50 seconds which continues to go down is better than a 30 second cd 3.5 second hex. Stopping the enemy carry from doing damage for 5 seconds when you combine both of your disables is invaluable and that 150 damage which gets reduced further by hood is not worth it. Steamboots give you pretty much enough survivability if you aren't ramboing in.
If you wanted a pure nuker you would rush a dagon and be a glass cannon but you don't. In your logic, the 400 burst nuke is over 2x better than an aggies and it costs less gold, so obviously we should all rush dagons.
TL-DR; You suck if you rush aggies over sheepstick.
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