Icefrog Angry at Zeus?

Zeus is one of my favorite hero but I find so difficult to use him at captain's mode Dota games. Zeus was a dangerous hero during 6.48b. He was even a top pick and a decent ban. Why was Zeus's era ended? Most tournaments today doesn't use him anymore. I last saw him used by a top professional team when DTS used him to counter Windrunner at lane but if you want to assure your game to win you wont pick Zeus. Zeus was nerfed indirectly so badly. Zeus has powerful lane control back then and has great early mid and late game potential. But these things happened...


Dagger was nerfed

This was the end of Zeus's escape mechanism. Zeus without dagger can't escape once he is caught by stunners. It will be very easy to gank him. He can try to kill one hero with his combo but whether he kill him or not, he'd still die in ganks. In team fights he will always be the main target because with him alive means a lot of damage for the opponents.


Hood of Defiance was Added

Lightning bolt is one deadly skill, but with defiance it is one funny skill. Arc lightning also contributes a lot of damage before because of its short cool down, but defiance made it ignorable. Wrath doesn't give enough damage too on a hood of defiance holder. Zeus was made to spam spells. All his spells are long range but his normal attack is quite short and it doesn't give enough damage to hurt opponents. Zeus can't beat most opponents with hood of defiance because before he can use 3 lightning bolts he may be at the tavern already waiting for him to resurrect.


Crystal Maiden's aura was nerfed

It was so fun to pick Zeus when there is an allied Rylai because he can use his nuke a lot early. Mana regen along with a bottle or ROB is enough to make Zeus's opponents bleed. Nerfing the aura removes that fun. The aura's regeneration now is only sufficient for heroes having low mana requirement skills.


Magic stick/wand was added

Zeus, having a very short range normal attack, needs his arc lightning to safely farm against dangerous opponents. However, intelligent opponents would simply buy magic stick and benefit from Zeus spamming arc lightning to farm and harass. When clash/gank comes, the opponents have big advantage because of having a lot of magic stick charges.

Hood can already be upgraded to Khadagar's Pipe of Insight

Hood already made Zeus weak but now Khadagar's Pipe of Insight made him pretty much useless to be picked. The barrier made by this skill will last for 8 seconds, enough time to finish a clash. Zeus obviously cannot use his ultimate at once because that would be useless. Spamming his skills will somehow help to break the barrier but still he cannot damage that certain hero quickly. He would have to wait to break that barrier and cast his spells, but good teams will end the clash before he even have the chance to cast one lightning bolt. rofl. Furthermore, the price of the recipe of this item is now cheaper(from 1000 to 900 gold).


Smoke of Deceit (New item at 6.70)

This skill will place a buff on everyone on the team but they shouldn't be near at enemy towers/heroes. This somehow countered Zeus's wrath of god because Wrath of god doesn't damage invisible units. It may be a good way to hide whenever you have low hp and Zeus might use his Wrath. It lasts for 40seconds, enough time to run through your base and regenerate.


On the positive side, arcane boots was made that makes Zeus a little better and lightning bolt's cool down was reduced from 7 secs to 6.5secs. I hope Ice frog can make Zeus stronger because I'm a big Merlini fan and I miss using this hero. Maybe remove arc lightning from the list of skills that charges magic stick or make lightning bolt pure damage. Doing so, Zeus may not be able to run from gankers but he may use his nukes to kill the threat and escape.
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

true2x. zeus (was)is my favorite hero back then. but he is kinda weak now becoz of new items. i hope icefrog improves his third skill like putting a passive 30percent chance to thunderbolt. hahaha

Anonymous said...

well said

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