Devourer

[Delfofthebla]

Just a quick update for everyone.

I've almost got the hooking map done, and you should see that added in soon. If I can find some time this weekend I'll probably add a section on blind hooking as well.

Also, my guide has made it to the premium section!

[[JNS]Hawkseye]

Don't know if anyone considered already that you can use Portal Key not only to jump into enemy's but also you can extend your hookrange with it.

Let's take midlane for example, hook the enemy, while he's being hooked blink behind your tower -> freekill.

[[BABU]Sync]

Hey, awesome guide! Devourer's a tough one to play, but this guide covers every single one of the necessary topics in order to play him right.

You might want to add that SotM also makes his ultimate scale, dealing an extra 0.75 * Strength per second. By the time you acquire SotM, that's pretty close to a 75 DPS boost on your ultimate (which is now a direct heal as well).

[[FEED]Ernie888]

sotm for the money you might as well spend it on more HP / tanky items.

Chances are you'll be close to full HP when you initiate in team fights so the heal is meh. And with 4 of your team mates bashing (assuming you did a good initiation like grabbed a guy across the river) then the extra DPS is meh too.

[Delfofthebla]

Hey, awesome guide! Devourer's a tough one to play, but this guide covers every single one of the necessary topics in order to play him right.

You might want to add that SotM also makes his ultimate scale, dealing an extra 0.75 * Strength per second. By the time you acquire SotM, that's pretty close to a 75 DPS boost on your ultimate (which is now a direct heal as well).

I do have it noted that staff increases his ult, but its within the skill description, not the item itself. Perhaps I should add it to both.

sotm for the money you might as well spend it on more HP / tanky items.

Chances are you'll be close to full HP when you initiate in team fights so the heal is meh. And with 4 of your team mates bashing (assuming you did a good initiation like grabbed a guy across the river) then the extra DPS is meh too.

I love getting sotm on Devourer. How "useful" it is depends entirely on how fast you can farm. The components needed to create the item give you some decent bonus's during mid game, which allows you to farm/kill better; getting you more gold to finish it early.

Sure, you could go straight for tanky items, but you'd have to be able to farm them before their team gets buff enough to destroy you. SotM is an amazing item if you get it early enough. The heal may not be "top notch", but you can use it every 30 seconds while simultaneously killing their team off.

[BarneyGumbal]

I used your guide and did well. I ended the game at 5-4-14. I won't post the replay though, the game was pretty noob level and doesn't really showcase anything your replays don't. Early levels in hook though make a HUGE difference to damage output. I'd recommend leveling it first to everyone. If you're really bad with your hooks and the damage isn't worth it, maybe Devourer isn't the right hero.

[Occ1]

Finally a nice Devourer guide.

Some of my own humble observations:

• Glacius is a hella good lane partner -> solves mana problem and provides freeze for extended decay time. Demented Shaman is also ridiculously good to have around, since he can heal you, dmg enemies, and provide an extra slow/stun/dot while you chase with decay.
• With a good lane partner I like to go shield + regen relic (cheapest part of hood) and farm a second relic asap. Shield is good for early game chasing and ignoring creeps and your victim's teammates.
• If you have a bad early game you're typically not going to have a good game period.
• Even though I get a shield, I never get HotBL (a silly item for him, imo). Agree with SotM over Behemoth's Heart. SotM gives you sustainability, mana, and can be farmed in nice ~1000g pieces. Actually, as a hangover from when Behemoth's Heart was nerfed majorly, I tend to get Daemonic Breastplate instead after staff (lulz, right?), as it solves one of Devourer's main weaknesses: low armor. Usually at that point I have 12+ hp regen from hood + cadaver armor, and tactical use of his ult provides the rest, so I'm not usually worried about hp pool/hp regeneration. The armor aura and his decay makes him a ridiculously good lane pusher as well. Obviously if someone else is getting this I would go heart instead.

[[S2]ElementUser]

Did you ever consider getting Tablet of Command? It's actually a pretty good item on Devourer since it gives him some mana pool & more utility.

Regarding cast time & cast points again....what really matters is cast point, not the total cast time (since the cast backswing can be cancelled). So Guttling Hook's cast point is actually 0.41s (from the game code).

More useful information, Guttling Hook travels at a speed of 1600 units/second. Since it extends up to 1100 units, its max travel time is 1100 is 0.6875 seconds in 1 direction. If you count the time it has to travel back, then it has a true max travel time of 0.6875 x 2 = 1.375 seconds.

Regarding the 900 range & 1100 range cast range & force range thing....S2 actually did a stealth-buff and made it so that the cast range matches the force range, so you'll have to change that (the following is once again from the game code):

    range="1100"
    forcerange="1100"

Also, a typo:

Great Laning Parters

"Parters" -> "Partners

[Delfofthebla]

Finally a nice Devourer guide.

Some of my own humble observations:

• Glacius is a hella good lane partner -> solves mana problem and provides freeze for extended decay time. Demented Shaman is also ridiculously good to have around, since he can heal you, dmg enemies, and provide an extra slow/stun/dot while you chase with decay.
• With a good lane partner I like to go shield + regen relic (cheapest part of hood) and farm a second relic asap. Shield is good for early game chasing and ignoring creeps and your victim's teammates.
• If you have a bad early game you're typically not going to have a good game period.
• Even though I get a shield, I never get HotBL (a silly item for him, imo). Agree with SotM over Behemoth's Heart. SotM gives you sustainability, mana, and can be farmed in nice ~1000g pieces. Actually, as a hangover from when Behemoth's Heart was nerfed majorly, I tend to get Daemonic Breastplate instead after staff (lulz, right?), as it solves one of Devourer's main weaknesses: low armor. Usually at that point I have 12+ hp regen from hood + cadaver armor, and tactical use of his ult provides the rest, so I'm not usually worried about hp pool/hp regeneration. The armor aura and his decay makes him a ridiculously good lane pusher as well. Obviously if someone else is getting this I would go heart instead.

There are a lot of heroes that are "great" with devourer that aren't on that list. I could go about listing every single hero with a slow/stun, but that wouldn't really be useful. Glacius is definitely a good laning partner for Devourer, he's just not anything special. His aura is global too, so it's not really "necessary" to lane with him to get the benefits.

I've often thought about getting a shield and simply selling it later, but I'm always so concerned with rushing power supply/bottle that I don't ever get around to it; once you've gotten a bottle/PS there's really no need for it anymore.

Getting shield/relic would definitely improve your survivability in your lane, so if you're up against an annoying lane that might be a better choice to make. I just prefer to rush mana sustaining items so that I can gank the crap out of whoever I want, whenever I want.

Did you ever consider getting Tablet of Command? It's actually a pretty good item on Devourer since it gives him some mana pool & more utility.

Regarding cast time & cast points again....what really matters is cast point, not the total cast time (since the cast backswing can be cancelled). So Guttling Hook's cast point is actually 0.41s (from the game code).

More useful information, Guttling Hook travels at a speed of 1600 units/second. Since it extends up to 1100 units, its max travel time is 1100 is 0.6875 seconds in 1 direction. If you count the time it has to travel back, then it has a true max travel time of 0.6875 x 2 = 1.375 seconds.

Regarding the 900 range & 1100 range cast range & force range thing....S2 actually did a stealth-buff and made it so that the cast range matches the force range, so you'll have to change that (the following is once again from the game code):

    range="1100"
    forcerange="1100"

Also, a typo:

"Parters" -> "Partners

Thanks for the excellent info, I've incorporated a bit of it into the guide, and fixed the typo.

As for the stealth buff, I didn't even notice the change at all. Old habits take forever to break though, it will take me a while to reap the benefits.

Tablet has always seemed like overkill on heroes like devo. When it comes to his mana pool, I don't have that many issues once mid-game comes around. Power Supply+Bottle+Glowstone(usually what I buy right after) is really enough to sustain my mana. I definitely see where you are coming from, but I can't imagine too many situations where it would be more useful to push someone rather than simply hooking the target you would have clicked on. The main utility I could see this being used for is to create hooking spots within trees.

My main problem I have with trying out Portal Key/Tablet on Devo is that I'm not normally willing to sacrifice my game in hopes of making use of an item I've never really used before. I'd really just like to see some replays of tablet/portal key in action so I can see the possibilities in the hands of someone who's used them before.

[RocketMoose]

Thanks for the guide, I found it about half way through my first game as devo last night. Ended up 4-6-bunches

My team lost the match cause we didn't have a true carry, not to mention we ended up screwed over by one or two not joining in team fights and making us go 5v4, but I was able to find out some good and bad things about hooking and really just how powerful a combo I can put together, walked up to a level 20 Swiftblade @ level 16, hooked, decayed, and ulti'd. Needless to say, pwned was he.

[BarneyGumbal]

Regarding the 900 range & 1100 range cast range & force range thing....S2 actually did a stealth-buff and made it so that the cast range matches the force range

Omg, thank you! I wondered why people were stepping out of hook range when I thought it was supposed to extend past where I clicked.

Question, does the hook return to where you currently are or where you were?

[Delfofthebla]

Omg, thank you! I wondered why people were stepping out of hook range when I thought it was supposed to extend past where I clicked.

Question, does the hook return to where you currently are or where you were?

The moment that it reaches its maximum range, it will start to return to your current position. That means that if you blink or even move away from your current position, the hook will not follow.

You can actually pull off some funny stuff with portal key using this trick. You can essentially hook a hero and then blink away before they ever arrive. This creates an effect similar to Andromeda's swap.

[Delfofthebla]

I've released V2.2! Looking forward to hearing some feedback on this guys, this was a major update.

V2.2
-Added a new subsection called "Hooking a Moving Target"!
-Added a new subsection called "Blind Hooking"!
-Added a new section called "Future Plans"!
-Renamed the "Aiming your Hook" subsection to "Hitting Stationary Targets".
-Updated text & screenshots according to the 1.66 patch. (The Decay slow effect and the hook target range increase).
-Removed more colored text for abilities where I felt it wasn't needed.

[[BHO]X18]

I play Devourer pretty much exactly like your guide. Here's my replay 11/2/13 (nothing special) 25700945

Got some nice kills early game, it should show the potential of devourer early.

[Foo]

I like your guide but I find that getting decay at level 1 is more useful then hook, especially if you have a haste rune. Haste + decay= bloodlust quite often.

[[AoS]Extreme_Cake]

You should at least mention HotBL. See this thread: http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/sh...ad.php?t=67029

[[S2]ElementUser]

He did mention it...:/

[Delfofthebla]

You should at least mention HotBL. See this thread: http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/sh...ad.php?t=67029

Gee, people sure do love to spam that thread everywhere.

I mentioned HotBL, I just didn't give it any props. I've read the thread, and I just couldn't see the benefits. You need to think of just how those numbers are being decided.

Shamans Headdress gives 10 magic armor and an 8HP regen
HotBL+Vestments gives 5 magic armor and a 6HP regen

How could something that gives less magic armor and less health regen actually mitigate more damage than shamans headdress? This concept didn't make sense to me. Then I noticed; the reason his numbers are lower, is because he's comparing them to the base health.

(These values were taken at lvl 16 with max level Cadaver Armor)
Over 15 seconds you take 534 damage with Shaman's Headdress.
Over 15 seconds you take 675 damage with HotBL+Vestments.

Over 15 seconds you're taking more damage with HotBL+Vestments.

That's not the point he's trying to get across though. He's saying that if you buy HotBL+Vestments instead, you will be left with a higher HP value than if you had just bought Headdress; and this is true.

With Shaman's Headdress you start with 1575 health. After the 15 second duration of decay you are left with 1041 health.
With HotBL you start with 1875 health. After the 15 second duration of decay you are left with 1200 health.

Shaman's Headdress = 2050g.
HotBL + Vestments = 2625g.

Instead of just buying a Headdress, you can spend 575 gold more (overall) and you will have a whopping 139 more hp after spamming decay for 15 seconds.

HotBL+Vestments will make you take the most damage over time, but you will end up with the highest health value.

While that's all nice and dandy, the thing is that Shaman's Headdress does more than just mitigate decay damage. It mitigates the other teams spells and abilities as well! Not to mention that you can easily obtain a Barrier Idol from headdress, whereas you would have to spend another 2050g to get to the same point if you go the HotBL route. Barrier Idol mitigates damage for you, and your entire team. The only question is whether or not you're actually going to buy it.

While HotBL+Vestments has its advantage over shaman's Headdress, it also requires that you waste two inventory slots as apposed to just having one. Late game, you don't really have much room to spare. While you could sell your bottle/power supply, I still don't find it worth doing for such a small bit of health.

Overall, yes. HotBL+Mystic Vestments is actually better than headdress. Would I buy it over headdress though? No.

I'm more biased due to my hatred of HotBL and I'd honestly rather buy a bracer than HotBL if I was planning on wasting the inventory slot. The fact of the matter is though, that HotBL is more expensive, wastes an additional inventory slot, and delays your core build for a very minor buff to your health.

[[FL0]HosainH]

Would recommend taking 1 level in decay early on (for the slow/ganking purposes) and leveling cadavor armor max and hook before taking a second level in it. getting cadavor armor earlier has obvious benefits (much more strength by endgame) and levelling decay up to max before it is quite suicidal especially if your farm is bad. Got a double kill early 25956194 due to not levelling decay to level 2 in a solo lane (would have died if I did).

Is a soft counter to because of carnivorous, or is the extra damage negligible with some armor and the fact that rarely runs around with full hp? One of my friends who loves to play always avoids picking him against , but I'm beginning to doubt his justification for this.

barbed armor will rape predator if he jumps you late game no?

[thugwaffle]

I actually don't like the 2 second decay buff at all. Takes a lot of skill away from rotwalking, and it wasn't hard enough to begin with...

How about we buff Devourers starting int instead, pharaoh has more than him and I don't think that's fair