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Thread: Empath
Empath guide - Kippetje
last updated: August 2nd 2012 (patch 2.6.12) latest changes will be shown in green
Basic stats
Primary attribute: Intelligence
Strength 17 (+2.0)
Agility 16 (+1.5)
Intelligence 21 (+2.7)
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Basic Stats
Damage 43-51
Armor 1.64
Movement Speed 300
Attack Type Ranged (600)
Attack Rate 0.667
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Unique to HoN
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Tied to the lifeforce of all creatures that move across the lands of Newerth, the Empath has suffered greatly in the war against the daemons. Nevertheless, her gift -- and curse -- is a powerful asset for the Legion, for the Empath is able to call on her magic to heal allies, weaken foes, and even merge her essence with other heroes.
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Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Pros and Cons
- Skills
- Skill build
- Items
- Play style
- Usage of Skills
- Strong against, Weak against?
- How to pick & how to play with Empath *new*
- Replays
- Changelog
- Credits
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Introduction
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Empath is an extremely strong hero, very often underestimated. I dare say that in her current state, when used correctly, she is actually overpowered!
The strange thing is that she isn't actually played a lot. Not in public, not in competitive play. The most likely reasons for this are:
for pub games
- She is quite hard to play
- Lack of teamwork and drafting
for competitive
- The basic usage of Q and W are somewhat easy to play against as an experienced player.
- You have to make sure she fits in your team and against your opponents team, which makes her somewhat of a situational hero.
- Competitors don't like trying new stuff/taking risks in tournaments
Empath's role is clear, she is a support hero. But what kind of support hero is she? The short answer to that is semi-support. She can get some wards but should try to get support items when possible. I will elaborate on this later.
There is also an in game guide for this:
click here
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Pros and Cons
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Pros
- Very good babysitter in ALL STAGES of the game
- Can get a lot of support items due to the high amount of assists she gets.
- Good survivability for a support
- Syncs extremely well with mobile heroes and carries due to long stun and ultimate buffs after early game
Cons
- Not very effective at killing creep waves.
- Needs good teamwork (specifically with lane partner/carry) to work at its best
- Generally difficult to master
- Somewhat weak against heroes with an escape
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Skills
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This skill is very effective in the early stages because it provides you with good damage and great survivability. It also provides you with a decent stun during all stages of the game.
This skill can deal a total of 100/175/250/325 magic damage. In a lot of situations you will be able to deal about 300 magic damage AND stun the enemy for 2.5 seconds (and get healed up)!
Please check out the usage of skills section for a detailed description for some examples on how this skill can be used.
- When you get out of your ally with your ultimate, the link will stay with your ally.
- notice on the image that the stun range includes the hero circle, meaning the actual breaking range is 700-750ish and not 800 range BETWEEN the heroes. See Usage of Skills.
This is your key skill in the laning phase. It is very effective in the early stages, let me explain why.
Though it may not last as long as a behemoth fissure, it's initial effect of 'panic' from the enemy and the fact that it works instant makes enemy players have a lot of trouble dealing with it.
Some very important notes about this skill:
- Deals 150/200/250/300 magic damage if the enemy stays next to it for the entire duration, which is often the case if used right at the lower levels (in combination with your lane partner).
- Very effective in cancelling potions, total range of damage is 1125.
- The wall will sometimes push/bug the enemy heroes & units to one of the sides. If you master this skill you can use it to bump an enemy hero towards you.
- It provides a LOT of clearvision, which is great for checking the woods for enemies that try to port away.
A lot of players think this isn't that good of a skill, but it is very underestimated. It provides regeneration for all your allied heroes. Your allies can take a few more hits every so often which will result in them having a better time in the lane than the normally would.
For some numbers, go to Usage of Skills.
The ultimate is what makes Empath after the laning phase. With it, she buffs an ally with attack speed, attack damage and with the usage of her spells she can provide movement speed and a heal. If you coordinate with your ally the right way, this skill becomes an absolute monster.
- a player teleporting while you are in him will make you teleport with that player!
- you cannot take damage in any way after casting this ultimate (even if you have a debuff like Salforis ultimate or Hellbringer death boil on you)
- you get an assist for every kill your ally makes. Combining that with you not dying and using your skills results in you having a lot more gold from fights than the usual support hero.
The movement speed buff can be a very strong skill, but it will cost you quite a bit of mana to use as a support. Because of this you need careful coordination with your teammate on when to use it. Don't ever use this skill if you think your ally is about to get stunned or doesn't really need it. (for instance, your ally is a ranged carry that is in range and in no danger) A thing to keep in mind is that the hero of your ally is build to be useful without you and should be able to handle himself without your speed buff, it's just an extra!
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Skill build
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This is the main skill build for Empath.
1. Illusory Veil
2. Essence Link
3. Essence Link
4. Synergy
5. Essence Link
6. As One
7. Essence Link
8. Synergy
9. Synergy
10. Synergy
11. As One
12. Illusory Veil / Stats
13. Illusory Veil / Stats
14. Illusory Veil / Stats
15. Illusory Veil / Stats
16. As One
17. Illusory Veil / Stats
18. Illusory Veil / Stats
19. Illusory Veil / Stats
20. Illusory Veil / Stats
21. Illusory Veil / Stats
22. Illusory Veil / Stats
23. Illusory Veil / Stats
24. Illusory Veil / Stats
25. Illusory Veil / Stats
At level one, you almost always want to start with your wall instead of your heal. This is because the wall effect usually results in more damage and if you force the enemy to run around the wall it will usually take longer than the 1 second stun at level 1. There are a few rare situations where a link would be just a bit better such as facing off in a 2v1 situation where you want to out harass the opponent and stop him from getting xp but even then it is debatable.
Though the wall is a great skill, it usually doesn't have to last longer than 3 seconds to have the desired effect. Because of this, you should be maxing out your essence link and aura first. If you still feel like you don't need more points in the wall you should be putting points in your stats which will give you that extra amount of mana among other benefits. In terms of damage, you will still usually be better of skilling E as you will probably heal yourself more than the extra damage you MIGHT be able to deal with your wall.
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Items
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First off, I'd like to explain the reason why Empath shouldn't be a hard-support hero. While she can definitely do it, she is tons more effective with items than a LOT of other support heroes in the game. She is basically a few extra slots for your carry in some cases, and that is a great bonus to have.
Start
Empath should always be starting out with some wards or a courier, beside that you should get a few mana potions so you can cast your spells more often in lane. Beside that you will still need some basic regeneration despite your Essence Link having the ability to heal you, and finally some stats that will help you in lane AND already having part of a power supply.
Early/Mid game
After the laning phase you should try having these items.
Finishing your Power Supply (546) is important as it will be a big source of your mana during the earlier stages of the game.
You don't really need any type of boots since most fights you will be using your ultimate. Because of this Striders (800) will be most effective so that you can roam to other lanes more quickly. Other possibilities for boots would be Steamboots (1450) or Plated Greaves (1303) but they are more expensive and you usually want to get your support items a bit faster.
Finally you can get a Ring of the Teacher (500). This is something you should only get if you are going to get an Abyssal Skull (2050), which would mean you either have a lot of melee heroes in your team or a hard carry like Chronos, Maliken, Dark Lady etc.
The benefit of getting Abyssal is something I'll describe below.
Core
Getting a Tablet of Command (2040) is very useful on Empath. You will get some nice stats and the effect is extra useful for you because you are able to push heroes in a way that it will benefit your hard carry greatly. For instance, pushing the hard carry forward like a jump towards the enemy to get another attack of. The great thing about this is that your carry will never really be alone despite you pushing them.
The Abyssal Skull (2050) provides your team with a very strong aura. While it is already an underrated item, Empath getting this is great for your team. Especially for your carry as he will basically get a free life steal and 15% base damage. You could see it as a 7th item slot for your carry. While it is great item, you shouldn't be going for this unless you have melee heroes (pref. carry)
A Ring of Sorcery (1485) is something you should get if you have a very mana intensive team, you shouldn't be needing this unless that it the case. When you use this hero the right way, you won't have too many mana problems during fights anyway.
After getting a few support items, it is important to make sure that your hard-support player is able to keep up the warding. If he cannot, or he needs some extra survival items you should take over warding for a while.
Late/Utility
Beside these items there's really nothing you 'need'. If you feel it is necessary at this point, you should focus on warding & counter warding some more. If that is not the case you can always go for the items above. They all provide great benefits for your team.
Nomes Wisdom (2240) is another item that you can turn your Ring of the Teacher into. It gives you a lot of mana and the effect is always good to have on your team. Get this if you feel you need mana and you aren't planning on going for Abyssal Skull.
Astrolabe (1713) is a standard support item. While I prefer it on other heroes since a great benefit beside the heal is that it offers survivability to the support, which Empath doesn't need, it is still a good item to have.
Steamboots (1450) is something you can get instead of striders when you need more mana in the early stages. The +10 int it gives you will provide you with 130 mana which is basically 1 normal spell or 3 movement speed boosts (combined with the mana regeneration you get that is)
Plated Greaves (1303) are pretty much always needed at least once in your team, and since Empath doesn't really NEED other boots to be effective it might as well be her. You are also always guaranteed to give your carry/ally some extra armor when using your ultimate.
Stormspirit (3200) is a good item for Empath as well. Stormspirit has had a somewhat recent nerf in its range which was intended to make it harder to use on allies especially. But in the case of Empath, it doesn't really matter since you are in your ally anyway. You can't get stunned or perplexed in any way! This makes it very useful to help your carry out when he's in a pitch.
Nullfire Blade (3300) on a support?! Yes, in some rare cases this can be a very effective item on Empath. The ability to purge strong debuffs from your allies such as sheepstick or hellflower in the later stages can be extremely effective in team fights and can turn the tide of battle.
Energizer (1600) is the cheapest supportive item in the game (that cannot be upgraded). When you start playing Empath more and more, you will realize how big the movement speed buff on your ultimate actually is. In turn, it will make you respect this item a lot more because of it. Great to have on your team in general but not something that is specifically better on Empath than other heroes.
Bound Eye (700) is a great item to have as utility. It's effectiveness is slightly boosted by having your ultimate at your disposal, especially against invisible heroes. Your ally will not have to carry it (thus needing a free spot in his/her inventory) while still having true vision around him/her.
Other items
Because Empath doesn't have to move around and won't erally be in any danger, you can think of a lot more items to possibly pick up in some situations such as a puzzlebox. Personally I am not that great of a fan of getting that item on Empath because it is, like astrolabe, not specifically better on her than another hero and thus I'd prefer seeing it on an ally. (which is why it isn't on this list) I decided to leave the other items out because of these reasons.
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Play style
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Empath can be very aggressive in the laning phase, but you don't have a lot of mana to use your abilities. You often want to be harassing the enemy but not using your skills unless you have to or can get a kill. You have to make your moves count.
If your initiations on the lane fail, you will be in a bad position due to the lack of mana. Initiating in the laning phases should only be done if you are confident you can either do a large amount of damage or kill an enemy. If that is not possible, just use your auto attacks to harass and maybe wait for the enemy players to initiate. When the enemy players do initiate, you are often in a way better spot to react with your skills.
Empath generally has trouble against lanes that have a lot of burst damage or escape mechanisms such as pyromancer, hammerstorm, torturer, electrician etc. But if your enemy depends on damage over time or auto attacks, you will have a great advantage with Empath.
Players tend to go for the support players in the lane, but Empath has a heal to her disposal that keeps working even when she is stunned or silenced. You can usually absorb an entire nuke with your Essence Link as long as you survive the initial damage!
As long you are aware of what is happening around you, you shouldn't be able to die. Enemies trying to gank you won't be able to reach you, or they will have to try so hard that your teammates can help you out in time.
Finally, before teamfights happen you should always try to make sure you can jump in one of the allies you want...but not so close that both you and your ally will get stunned & die. Make sure you are never the target at the start of the teamfight, if you are you will often be helpless (or very lucky and escape with your ultimate)
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Usage of skills
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Essence Link
This skill can be used in a lot of ways. It forces the enemy hero to decide between taking more damage or getting stunned. However, you are faced with the same dilemma. There are many different situations you can have with this skill, but usually you want to deal as much damage as possible and then have it stun just before it ends.
When playing against Empath you should be aware of this. Either make sure you get stunned right away, or make sure Empath isn't able to make the skill stun by stunning/slowing Empath, or running towards her for a moment. Being slightly out of position is almost always better than getting stunned for 2.5 seconds. (when Empath is lvl 7)
As Empath, when using this skill you should be aware of the fact that when you use your ultimate on an ally, it will stop. It won't stun or deal damage. But when you use this skill while in your ally, then leave your ally your skill will stay linked to your ally.
You can also use this skill on creeps. This allows you to heal yourself or your ally when either of you needs hp after a fight or a lot of harassment. It also allows you to tank neutrals for a small period of time when your carry is not yet strong enough to take the damage when farming (think about ancients for instance)
Illusory Veil
Being able to use this skill is key. If you cannot wall good with Empath you aren't going to perform in the early stages. The most important thing to keep in mind is that it doesn't matter if you don't get the perfect wall, it just has to be good enough. My rate of failed walls has been a lot higher due to the fact that I tried to get them perfect. What usually happens when you try this is that the enemy 'glitches' a bit forward so that the wall can spawn.
The best way to counter the Empath wall in a lane is to keep standing in wide areas and to stay in the middle. This way walls like these are not possible:
When playing Empath, these are also the kind of walls you want to have. Your enemy will be unable to avoid the 3 seconds of damage and have to walk farther to get past the wall due to the fact that he has to walk more than half the wall.
An effective way to combine this skill with your essence link is to first use the essence link and make it stun after some damage so that you have an easier time walling the enemy. (since they are stunned)
Another way to do it (the one I prefer) is to first use the wall as a surprise, and then use your Q after about 1-2 seconds. This adds a lot of the surprise factor and you won't have to risk going out of position as much as your wall can usually be used from a longer range. Then again, the enemy won't be stunned/blocked as long.
Synergy
As you can see, at just level one every hero can take an extra last hit every minute. (and still have some left) Because of this your allies will have some help in the lane or jungle and also have an easier time farming after a fight.
When you ask yourself if this skill is worth it, just keep in mind that it effects all heroes and while 4 + the % doesn't seem as much...if you mulitiply it by 5 it really becomes clear that this skill is truely amazing.
As One & Faster!
Using this skill may seem straightforward, but here are some tips & tricks for you.
Because of the fact that you cannot take damage in any way, you can use this skill to save yourself if you are in a bad position and about to die. In addition, you can use this spell to teleport with another player. While you cannot take damage, there are a few things that can still effect you. Vindicator's ultimate will still silence you and Engineer's ultimate will still silence & perplex you.
While staying in an ally is usually the best thing to do, try to practice on when to leave the ally before the time is over. The benefit will most likely be small even if you do it right, but it may give you the opportunity to stack neutrals in time, get back into the fight in time or even stay alive if you notice your ally is done for.
A neat trick is to place your wards while in an ally, this won't trigger allow an opponent to see at all if you warded or not.
Another awesome thing you can do is getting health or mana potions and feeding them to the ally you are in. (note that you can't use it on yourself)
For this skill to work, you really just have to use it a couple of times. You will need to know how your ally will play, and your ally has to know how you will play. Get the synergy going and you will own with this skill!
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Strong against, Weak against?
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Empath, while being a very strong hero has quite a few counters against her. Here are a few in particular I'd like to point out:
weak against
Bubbles
This hero is a nightmare for Empath. Every single one of his abilities is a pain for her. He can escape the wall (W) with his shell, stop the link (Q) with his take cover, silence her to prevent her from using spells at all and finally his ult COULD prevent her from getting to an ally for her ultimate.
Parasite
Another real pain in the buttocks. Not only can he stop your link (Q) by simply jumping in a creep... his Q makes sure you no longer have control over the link if you use it on another enemy. (due to the massive slow) Finally, he can burst you down so fast you won't even have the time to react.
Magebane
Not as bad as the previous two, but still a pain to play against. You won't be able to wall him off or deal as much damage as you'd like with your link (Q). Meaning you won't be able to harass him as much as you want, and because of it... he will gain farm while sapping your precious mana away.
Magmus
Not as much of a problem as the previous ones, but he can still be very annoying for you. His Q will stop your link (Q), but his W won't do a lot against your damage. The bad part is that he is usually in a lane that wants to kill you, and he does enough damage to make it happen if supported by another damage dealer. When against him, if you notice they are trying to kill you, use the link (Q) on the other opponent to try and stay alive with the heal. Survive the initial damage and this guy won't be much of a problem.
As you can see from some of the above, Empath is not very strong against heroes that have escapes, heavy nukes or strong silence abilities.
strong against
Lord Salforis
This hero can't do anything to you. You wall him off to prevent his W from healing himself, and his R won't do anything against you if you use yours afterwards.
Pebbles
This may surprise you because I said Empath is weak against nuking heroes before. But this is more of a special case. When Pebbles uses his Q to go on players, it will take quite some time before it reaches & stuns the target. During this time you can usually get your heal off or block Pebbles away from you with your wall, or in a combination use both to survive and block pebbles on your side of the wall because for pebbles to do full dmg with chuck he will have to stand next to you. THAT is perfect for an Empath. Just make sure you don't stand next to pebbles...ever.
Swiftblade
Another no-brainer. Wall him off, he won't be able to dmg you using spin. (and in some rare cases you can stop his ult by using yours, or put him in severe danger)
Flint Beastwood
This also applies to other heroes that have to stay back in teamfights. (also known as glass cannons) While in one of your allies, you can make sure heroes like these cannot run away from you two and usually finish them off VERY fast. In other cases, you will be able to escape from them using your abilities too.
Like mentioned before, Empath is strong against heroes and lanes that don't have enough burst to kill her. If you manage to stay alive you will do fine and usually kill someone instead!
Keep in mind that a lot of this weak/strong against Empath heroes also depend on what Empath has to do. If she is babysitting a carry against a suicide laner, she will usually do very good, even against heroes that have an escape. This is because Empath is very good at harassing the suicide laner due to Q + W. Wretched Hag may not die to Empath but she will take a LOT of damage. The exception for this is bubbles though, he will eat you.
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*new section* How to pick & play with Empath *new section*
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This section focusus on team & competitive play. I will try to explain several situations in which Empath excels and where she can drop off as a useful hero.
When can you pick Empath?
Please also look at the above section for viablity in picking Empath.
What happens with the enemy when you pick Empath? They will think right away that you are going to have a hard carry as well and try to focus everything on the carry. They will try counterpicking against potential hard carries on the board or prevent you from getting one.
A common misconception is that Empath should only be picked if you have a hard carry like maliken, scout or predator. This is false. Empath works great with semi-carries as well! Now because of this you will generally have a vast amount of choices, and it doesn't matter as much when to pick Empath. Personally I wouldn't lock her though because it will probably alarm your opponent.
What heroes should you get when you have Empath?
There has been debate about hero combinations with Empath, but it should not be limited to this. If you focus on having Empath and just 1 carry to go with, chances are you aren't going to have a great game.
Like I explained in my guide before, Empath isn't best suited as a hard support. Because of this, you are going to want another hero that CAN be a hard support. This could be in the trilane but also in seperate lanes. I'll talk a bit more about laning below.
It is always a good idea to get at least one aggressive hero that is able to gank around or apply pressure with Empath. Usually this will be a hero that has a good amount of burst damage, low cooldown abilities and a somewhat mobile hero.
How do you play with her?
Teamwork is key with Empath. You can be a great carry player and have a great Empath player but if there is no teamwork, it just won't work. So make sure you communicate clearly in what you want to do.
Empath shouldn't always be stuck on one person. If you have a well farmed Wretched Hag and a well farmed melee carry hero but you are against heroes like pharaoh or tundra it may be better for Empath to jump into Wretched Hag intead. You can often leave the decision to the Empath player, as they will probably have the best idea of how effective they are being. If you want Empath to jump into you for specific reasons, just mention it but do it beforehand...because the range is only 300 and you don't want Empath running towards you after you just PK'd in a teamfight.
Always keep in mind that Empath is in you and she can use all sorts of abilities. Be ready for assistence in walls, healing or item abilities such as tablets. If Empath uses her heal, YOU are the one to decide if you want to autoattack or get a stun off. Heroes such as the dark lady are able to use this very effectively because they can break the link (stunning for 2.5 seconds) and then charge back in right away.
What NOT to do with Empath on your team?
Because Empath works great with hard carries, it is very tempting to play passive and get your carry as farmed up as possible. Sadly, this isn't the thing you should be doing. Empath relies a lot on teamfights. It is where she gets all her gold & experience, not to mention the fact that you should use your heroes as effectively as possible and Empath is ment to be aggressive. Always makes sure there is something Empath can do beside stacking & keeping the enemy suicide hero away. (such as ganking mid)
You don't need your hard carry to make Empath useful as she is very useful with other heroes which usually solo such as Wretched Hag, Tundra, Bubbles or Silhouette. Which also brings me back to the point I mentioned before. You don't NEED to have a hard carry in your team to make Empath useful. Semi-carries are often stronger in the early stages and with Empath they can basically take over the game so fast the enemy carries won't be farmed up in time.
Don't assume Empath is dead when she is taking some damage and run away. It is extremely annoying when Empath is being gone on and your ally runs away while you could have simply ulted that ally and maybe even turned around the fight. The key here is communication and synergy with your teammates.
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Replays
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As I pointed out before, Empath is not played a lot. But she has been played at dreamhack winter by BxF against Fntc. Props to BxF for playing the hero!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8UI6AupNqc
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Changelog
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Temporarly removed due to lack of space (have to request 2nd post slot)
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Credits
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Thanks for reading my guide, please leave feedback and discuss!
Last edited by kippetje; 08-02-2012 at 12:31 PM. Reason: colored all changes, added new section!
This is real quality, from probably the most Empath-experienced player in Heroes of Newerth.
+1 <3
Kippe, how about the situational skill build which maxes Synergy first?
Aside from that one flaw(?), extremely good work as expected, keep it up
I don't think there is ever a situation where you would level your aura over your Q, because it isn't just the damage that increases but also the stun. (1///2.5)Originally Posted by Jezu
Kippe, how about the situational skill build which maxes Synergy first?
Aside from that one flaw(?), extremely good work as expected, keep it up
Excellent guide.
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Great guide. One thing I'll add is a shoutout for puzzlebox on Empath - like nullfire its a bit pricey for the kind of hero she is, but she has a definite advantage over many other heroes since she can devote a lot more attention to controlling the minions while using As One, the minions themselves add a crazy amount of dps, and if you can get it to level 3 you've got free counterwarding.
#7
That's the first time I've seen Empath not go anywhere near maxing W before maxing everything else. :O
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Excellent guide. Empath is one of my favorite heroes, and I'll use your ingame guide as my default as of now :-)
I also appreciate you writing another premium guide, as it has been a long time since the last one.
Thanks a lot for replys, I'll add a part about puzzlebox asap
Great guide.
Casual HoN
I disagree with your skillbuild, I believe you should get ur Q level one to increase ur survivability as it's near impossible to slay with level 1 wall anyways. Ure the best harasser inthe game with the Q at level 1 seeing as ur both gaining hp and dealing damage whilst the wall even though dealing damage unless u manage to place it perfectly is rather ineffective as for your own survivability.
Also as for alternative builds I think with certain lanes maxing the wall over skilling synergy is the right way to go seeing as 1.25hp/second is really not a big deal. I personally find that synergy is rather useless unless you max it as some pointed out - and that build is only effective if you are in no need of early damage, i.e. laning 2v1 and just need a low level life link to push someone out of experience and then move onto stacking.
Getting Q at level 1 is viable, but I have often experienced it to not be as useful as the wall at level 1. The wall often gives you a better chance at killing an enemy before 0.00 and even in the lane it is very strong in harassing. The reason for this is that not only will the enemy take damage from the wall, but also from several autoattacks you can get off when you get a decent wall off. Because of this, damage wise the wall is usually stronger, the time it takes for an enemy to escape is usually longer, the range is longer and the amount of hp you get at level 1 is only worth it if you are attempted to be killed in a first blood attempt and you are able to survive because of it. Which is why you should wait skilling your wall so that you could potentially take Q to save yourself. But beside that it isn't a great idea.
Maxing wall is almost always the wrong way to go because enemies won't be effected by it for longer than 3 seconds and the hp/second insane as it effects 5 heroes meaning it is a lot more than you'd think on first sight.
#13
What do you think about Maliken/Empath? Certain competitive players seem to disagree about that lane combination as well as the choice of jumping into Maliken as Empath.
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Tech Support and Customer Support: https://www.heroesofnewerth.com/support/
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Empath maliken is a good combination, but it isn't the best.
The reason for this is that maliken isn't the most aggressive hero in the laning phase, while empath really shines the most with a hero that can do some serious stuff early on. (not to say you won't be able to get kills/win your lane with it, but that it can be countered easily)
This combined with the fact that maliken doesn't really need that much help in terms of movement speed or heal during fights. Sure the other buffs are still amazing, and that is why it is still a good combination.
BUT if you want to get a really strong combination with Empath heroes like predator, the dark lady or cthuluphant for instance are better choices.
A very important thing that I'll probably add sometime soon about Empath that you should keep in mind is that she needs to have action happen. If you want to go for a farmfest, trilane vs suicide hero and farm for a long time she is not the best choice. Her main income is from fights, and an Empath without income isn't that great. Get a dsham instead in that case
Added new section and some small other parts, please give feedback on new section: "How to pick & play with Empath"!
Curious as to why you don't mention Blood Chalice as a potential item? Q/E make the health loss a very moot drawback and the mana potential it provides enables spam use of Faster! if need be.
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While blood chalice is good in theory, you still need to have hp in the early game. If you were to use this in the laning phase chances are you'll die faster than you'll get the hp back. Once you have your ultimate, you usually already have a ring of the teacher or some other item that gives you some mana so you won't need as much.
That said, blood chalice is by no means a bad choice. I personally just don't like getting blood chalice because of this.
Good guide overall. I play a bit of Empath. Early Synergy is HUGE if you have a team that is a bit weak in the laning phase or a team that is aiming to rice for a while. It's a free lifetube for all your allies. That's powerful early game. Especially with a Magebane/Predator.
Also, I LOVE rushing refreshing ornament. The HP regen for your lane mate is silly by level 7, if you max it synergy first and have ornament.
Yes, life link is more damage. But dat passive heal. Just my two cents.
Of course, you can balance between the two moves as well...
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Awesome guide. The only thing that I wanted to say about early synergy is that it would certainly help teammates like a Legionnaire. I once had an empath who maxed her synergy in my team so I went for a PK first item. It was really fun having a PK at 8 min.
The problem with maxing synergy first is that your stun (Q) won't last very long and you will not have that good of an early game because you lack the harassment/damage/killing power. It would have been debatable if the stun were static at some number but because of all the benefits Q gives you leveling it, you should never max synergy first.
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