- Tittle: Let my cries chill the living!
- Author: Piejonk
For a long time Krobelus has been considered a very good hero capable of carrying, pushing, nuking. She is an excellent AOE and team battle hero. She is easy to use and will appeal to the new players. Krobelus is a very fun hero to play and I'm sure you will come to like her too.
When to pick:
- Your team needs more AOE
- Enemy team has a lot of spellcasters
- Your team needs a solid late-game carry
- Your team is using a pusher strategy
When to not pick:
- Enemy team has lots of gankers or high burst damage heroes
- Your team has other better carries that need lots of farm
Pros
- Strong, spammable nuke allows for easy farming and pushing
- 6 second AOE silence with a 11 second cooldown
- Excellent in team battles
- Excellent carry and pusher
- Excellent AOE potential
- Very strong ultimate
- Strong mid-late game
Cons
- Weak early game
- Fragile
- Mana dependent
- Item dependent
- Awful attack animation
Skills
Carrion Swarm
Sends a horde of bats to damage enemies.
- 1. Mana 105 / Cooldown 8 / 100 damage per unit
- 2. Mana 120 / Cooldown 8 / 175 damage per unit
- 3. Mana 140 / Cooldown 8 / 250 damage per unit
- 4. Mana 165 / Cooldown 8 / 300 damage per unit
- Damage type: magical
- Can hit units up to 1110 range away.
This is your main and only damage nuke and after Witchcraft is maxed out, it is easily spammable, providing you have enough mana, and therefore it allows us to clear creep waves quickly which allows quick farming. You have to aim this skill and it damages enemies in a 700 AOE cone in front of you.
Silence
Stops all enemies in a target area from casting spells.
- 1. Mana 80 / Cooldown 15 / Duration 3 seconds / Silences units in a target area
- 2. Mana 80 / Cooldown 15 / Duration 4 seconds / Silences units in a target area
- 3. Mana 80 / Cooldown 15 / Duration 5 seconds / Silences units in a target area
- 4. Mana 80 / Cooldown 15 / Duration 6 seconds / Silences units in a target area
- Targets can still use items while silenced.
This skill is excellent! This skill is what makes Krobelus scary in team battles. A six second silence is no joke, and if well placed, your team can easily obtain the upperhand and wipe out the other team while they are busy smashing their buttons. The extremely low cooldown also means that you will be able to use this skill multiple times in battle, if needed.
Witchcraft
Increases the potency of each of Krobelus' spells and provides a passive movement speed boost.
- 1. Improves spells, increases movement speed by 5%
- 2. Improves spells, increases movement speed by 10%
- 3. Improves spells, increases movement speed by 15%
- 4. Improves spells, increases movement speed by 20%
- Decreases Carrion Swarm and Silence cooldown by 1/2/3/4 seconds.
- Decreases Carrion Swarm and Silence manacost by 10/15/20/25.
- Creates 3/4/5/6 extra Exorcism spirits.
A great passive, that improves the abilites of Krobelus. The upgrades are very significant, and we need this skill to be an effective farmer and pusher. Now since the buff in 6.65 this skill is great. In fact just because of the movement speed buff, Krobelus will probably see some future competitive play.
Exorcism
Unleashes evil spirits to attack your enemies.
- 1. Mana 200 / Cooldown 100 seconds / Duration 30 seconds / Summons 4 evil spirits
- 2. Mana 300 / Cooldown 100 seconds / Duration 30 seconds / Summons 12 evil spirits
- 3. Mana 400 / Cooldown 100 seconds / Duration 30 seconds / Summons 21 evil spirits
- Spirits do 43-48 hero type damage.
- Area of Effect specifies the area around Krobelus where spirits will choose new targets.
- If a spirit gets 2000 range or more from Krobelus, it will be destroyed.
- After the spell ends, the spirits will heal Krobelus for 25% of the damage dealt by them.
- The spirits' damage is reduced by armor, but not by damage block (Stout Shield, etc.).
Once activated, your enemies have two choices. One is two run like hell, and one is to stay and fight and most likely die. Towers also go down in no time at all. Each spirit does 43-48 hero damage which is a lot. For example in a 1vs1 situation if you have your level 3 ultimate activated then for every round of attacks the spirits would do 43*23=989 damage! Don't forget it lasts for 30 seconds. Not only does it have high damage but when it ends it heals Krobelus for 25% of the damage dealt up to a maximum of 1000. This makes her a great pseudo-tank and carry late game, as she is very hard to take down. Enemies must be in a 700 AOE around Krobelus to be attacked by spirits. Getting closer to them will also result in faster attacks and more damage overall. Also if you target someone the spirits will also target that enemy.
Skill Build
- 1. Carrion Swarm
- 2. Silence
- 3. Carrion Swarm
- 4. Witchcraft
- 5. Carrion Swarm
- 6. Exorcism
- 7. Carrion Swarm
- 8. Witchcraft
- 9. Witchcraft
- 10. Witchcraft
- 11. Exorcism
- 12. Silence
- 13. Silence
- 14. Silence
- 15. Stats
- 16. Exorcism
- 17. Stats
- 18. Stats
- 19. Stats
- 20. Stats
- 21. Stats
- 22. Stats
- 23. Stats
- 24. Stats
- 25. Stats
Reasoning: We try to max out Carrion Swarm first as it is our only farming tool, and that is what we will be trying to do early game. Take one level of Silence early for escaping ganks or any first blood attempts. Since Witchraft helps a lot, we take it as much as we can after Carrion Swarm is maxed out. Finish with Silence and then after that Stats. Take your ultimate whenever possible.
Item Build
Core Build
Early Game
- Grab a gauntlet, circlet, 3 branches and one set of tangoes. This should be enough for the laning phase. Later turn the branches into a magic wand, and the gauntlet into a bracer. After that buy a pair of boots. Now you are good to go to farm up your next item.
Mid Game
- Once you have completed the items from the laning phase, it is time to concentrate on your next core item. I am still going to recommend the good old Bloodstone, as even after the nerf it is an extremely effective item for Krobelus. It allows her to spam her spells more easily, and she can gain kills pretty easily from Carrion Swarm + Exorcism. It also gives her some nice HP and MP that she needs badly. The other choice is to go for Shiva's Guard. It is also a great item for Krobelus, as it improves her mana pool greatly, fixes her armor problems, and adds more AOE damage. Its your choice and you must decide which one to go for. If you need more survivability and spammability then go for Bloodstone, if you need more AOE potential then go for Shivas. This is your basic core build for the game.
Optional Core
Bottle is ok for Krobelus, but since she doesn't gank much, she doesn't benefit much from this item. It is still a viable option for her though if you find that you are having to go back to base time and time again.
With the recent addition to Witchcraft, I believe that Phase Boots are once again a viable choice for Krobelus. It provides great chasing with the ghosts. You can also later decide to upgrade to BoT later on if needed.
This adds to her survivability but it really strains your mana. Its your choice if you want to go for this item or not, if you think you have enough mana to support it, then go for it.
This item allows Krobelus to go into the middle of the battle and wreak havoc without getting disabled (which is what we want). The downside is that it delays your core and might not be needed in some situations. If the enemy team has lots of disables, I recommend getting this item.
Eul's is also a great choice for Krobelus. It gives her some nice mana regen and move speed. It alos gives her a disable which can be used offensively and defensively.
Krobelus does not want to be focused. That is what Blademail will help us do. Turn this on and enemies will think twice about attacking you.
This item helps Krobelus tank more throughout the game. It also helps protect agaisnt burst damage making you harder to kill for some heroes.
I really dont like vanguard on Krobelus, but it does help with her tanking so it is possible to get it if you need it.
Luxury Items
First thing is first. It's time to finish your boots on the best choice for use are Boots of Travel. It gives us much needed map mobility for easier pushing. After your boots are completed you have a choice of luxury items. Heart gives us HP and survivability allowing us to tank easier. Skadi gives us HP and MP and a useful slow that can be used for chasing with your ultimate on. Guinsoo`s gives us nice mana regen and a second disable. So it`s up to you again to choose which one will best be of use to you. Usually the game will end before or very soon after you finish one luxury item.
Rejected Items
DPS items are not a viable option for Krobelus, because of her fragile nature and very low agility. Seriously, there is no reason to take any of these items over let's say Heart.
Gameplay and Strategies
Laning: Krobelus is a viable hero for mid, however most of the time there will be someone else that will benefit more from soloing mid. If not then take it. Otherwise head bottom lane Sentinel or top lane Scourge. Last hit to the best of your ability and occasionaly harass with Carrion Swarm. Make sure that you don't have to go back to the fountain as this wastes crucial time and we need every second of last hitting and XP to be more effective mid game. By the end of the laning phase when people start to gank and push seriously, you should have finished your basic laning core items.
Farming: Since Carrion Swarm is your only real nuke, this is the skill that we will be using to farm. 2 swarms will destroy a creep wave, but usually one together with your normal attack is enough. Remember we need to conserve as much mana as we can early game, and once we get enough mana and regen, then we can start spamming this skill to farm. So before you have the mana only use one swarm per creep wave, and last hit to farm.
Late Game: Late game our job is to go around the map pushing, stopping pushes, and fighting in team battles. Since we should have BoT at this point of the game, those things are pretty easy for us to do. Go to one lane push one tower quickly, then switch over to another lane and push there. Since teams stick together at this point, it is also a good idea to stick with your team. Counter pushing is easy for us, 2 swarms take care of creep waves easily. So during this part of the game, you want to push with your team, push by yourself when not pushing with your team, and counter pushing the enemy team's pushes.
Team Battles: Our role in team battles comes after the initiators. Once they go in and disable the enemy team, it is our turn to go in. First of all turn on your ultimate immediately. Then use your silence on the most heroes possible. After that you are free to spam swarm. Use one more silence if needed, but that really won't be necessary as the enemy team should be dead by then. So to sum it up, here is what we do in massive team battles:
- 1) When the initiators on your team have disabled the opposing team, go in.
- 2) Turn on your ultimate.
- 3) Silence the other team. Always try to silence their most dangerous spell caster/disabler.
- 4) Spam Carrion Swarm/use Shivas if you have it.
- 5) Use Silence again if necessary/chase fleeing heroes down with ultimate turned on.
Edited by basicdotaguide.blogspot.com