Death Prophet
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Krobelus, the Death Prophet, is a ranged intelligence hero who excels at pushing lanes. She is often played in the mid lane, since her Crypt Swarm gives her strong magic damage that can be spammed to her heart's content. As she levels her ultimate, Exorcism, Death Prophet can deal a huge amount of damage to towers and heroes alike, while healing at the end of the duration. If Exorcism's own heal isn't enough, she still has Spirit Siphon which drains health based on the target's health and can even be used on multiple targets at the same time. Finally, her Silence gives her a powerful tool to disable enemy casters and heroes that rely on escape abilities. Because she can deal large amounts of damage over time with her ultimate and Crypt Swarm, Death Prophet is mostly built as a tank, to ensure she can continue to stay in the fight.
Contents
Bio[edit]
Abilities[edit]
Notes:
- When targeting a unit, the Crypt Swarm is released towards its current location upon cast.
- The complete area is shaped like a cone.
Target Area
Enemies
Notes:
- Applies a debuff on enemies within the area on cast. Entering or leaving the area afterwards has no effect.
Notes:
- Upon learning, Death Prophet instantly gains 1 charges. However, leveling it up further does not instantly grant the other charges.
- The link breaks only when the target gets out of range or dies.
- The health restored on Death Prophet is independent from the actual amount of damage dealt.
- This means even if the target takes no damage at all, Death Prophet still gets healed.
- Drains 3.5 + 0.25%/0.625%/1%/1.375% (
0.45%/0.825%/1.2%/1.575%) of the enemy's max health in 0.25 second intervals, starting 0.25 seconds after cast, resulting in 24 instances.
- Can drain up to 84 + 6%/15%/24%/33% (
10.8%/19.8%/28.8%/37.8%) of the enemy's max health when the link lasts its full duration (before reductions).
- Can drain up to 84 + 6%/15%/24%/33% (
- With Aghanim's Shard, drains 0.19 armor from the target in 0.25 second intervals, starting 0.25 seconds after cast, resulting in 24 instances.
- Can drain up to 4.5 armor from the target when the link lasts its full duration.
- Multiple instances of the armor buff and debuff fully stack.
- Cannot be cast on units which already are affected by Spirit Siphon.
- Does not provide vision over the target. However, the link does not break upon losing vision.
- When losing vision over the target, the link visually draws to the location where the target was seen last time.
- Cannot be cast on Roshan.
- Choosing the health drain increasing talent does not increase the draining of any currently active Spirit Siphon links.

Notes:
- Spirits spawn from Death Prophet in 0.35 second intervals, starting immediately on cast, taking 2.45/5.25/8.05 (
5.25/8.05/10.85) seconds for all spirits to be released.
- The spirits are not units and cannot be interacted with, or affected by anything in any way.
- The spirits move at a speed of 525, roaming around Death Prophet within a 700 radius. They can only turn by moving in approximately 150 radius arcs.
- Spirits automatically attack nearby enemies within the 700 radius around Death Prophet.
- They choose their target randomly, but prioritize units Death Prophet is attacking currently.
- Once having chosen a target, a spirit usually sticks to that target until it dies, gets out of range, or until Death Prophet attacks a new target.
- A spirit's ongoing chase cannot be canceled. A spirit only stops chasing its target after reaching it, or when the distance gets greater than 1900.
- This means when giving Death Prophet an attack order, already attacking spirits do not switch targets.
- Although chasing for much further, the spirits cannot damage units which are 1200 range away from Death Prophet.
- After each attack, the spirits need to return to Death Prophet before being able to attack again.
- The spirits can attack every attackable enemy unit, including buildings, wards, and units inside the Fog of War, but not invisible units.
- Spirits do not choose invulnerable or ethereal units as their attack targets, but will continue to attack a unit if turns invulnerable or ethereal after already acquired as a target.
- The spirits do not actually attack their targets, but rather the spell simply deals damage to spirits' targets upon reaching them.
- This means the damage is affected by spell lifesteal and spell damage amplification, does not trigger any on-attack effects, and ignores evasion and damage block.
- When a spirit gets 2000 range away from Death Prophet, it disappears and then respawns from Death Prophet.
- Reappearing spirits are still bound to the spawn interval, so when multiple spirits disappear, they do not reappear simultaneously on Death Prophet.
- The spirits heal Death Prophet upon returning once the duration is up. They do not heal her upon returning after each attack.
- The heal amount per spirit is based on their damage value, and not on how much damage they actually dealt.
- This means upon having fully returned, a spirit heals Death Prophet for 14.75-16 for each attack it did, regardless of how much damage the enemies actually took.
- Recasting Exorcism causes the previous cast to end prematurely, making the spirits start returning to Death Prophet and heal her.
- The spirits spawned with Aghanim's Scepter behave like the spirits from a regular cast, meaning they still obey the max distances, and have the same move behaviors.
- A spirit spawns for every unit hit by Crypt Swarm, and Silence, for the Spirit Siphon target, and for every unit hit by Death Prophet's regular attacks.
- If Spirit Siphon is blocked with Spell Block, or if her attack is evaded or disjointed, no spirit spawns.
- Spirits also spawn for buildings when attacking them, but not for wards or allies.
- These spirits deal 88.5-96 damage, and therefore also heal for 22.125-24 health upon returning.
- These spirits can chase their targets for up to seconds before giving up and returning to Death Prophet.
- In Ability Draft, spirits still only spawn for enemies hit by Crypt Swarm, Silence and Spirit Siphon, but not for other spells. They do spawn on regular attacks for any hero.
- The upgrade requires Exorcism to work. This means Morphling cannot use the upgrade, while Rubick can, but mainly with his attacks.
- With proper timing, Rubick can also use the upgrade with Crypt Swarm by using the projectile's travel time.
Talents[edit]
Hero Talents | ||
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+8 Exorcism Spirits | 25 | -20s Spirit Siphon Replenish Time |
-3s Crypt Swarm Cooldown | 20 | +400 Health |
+150 Cast Range | 15 | +0.8% Max Health Spirit Siphon |
+12% Magic Resistance | 10 | +30 Damage |
- The cast range talent also affects the max distance of Crypt Swarm and the link break distance of Spirit Siphon.
- The magic resistance talent stacks multiplicatively with other sources of magic resistance.
- The magic resistance talent increases Death Prophet's magic resistance to 34%.
- This attack damage talent is added as raw attack damage, so it does not benefit illusions, and is not affected by most percentage-based damage increasing or reducing effects.
- The health talent increases maximum health capacity, and keeps the current health percentage.
Recent Changes[edit]
- Increased movement speed from 310 to 335.
- Increased turn rate from 0.5 to 0.8.
- Spirit Siphon
- No longer increases/reduces the caster's/target's movement speed by 4%/6%/8%/10%.
- Reduced charge replenish time from 45/40/35/30 to 36/34/32/30.
- Increased Exorcism spirits movement speed from 500 to 525.
- Added Aghanim's Shard upgrade for Death Prophet:
- Causes Spirit Siphon to drain 0.75 armor per second from the target. The armor gain/loss lasts 14 seconds, starting from cast begin.
- Talents:
- Level 25 right talent changed: Exorcism grants 550 speed haste ➜ -20s Spirit Siphon charge replenish time.
- Reduced Crypt Swarm cast time from 0.4 to 0.2.
- Talents:
- Level 20 left talent: -2.5s Crypt Swarm cooldown increased to -3s.
- Level 25 left talent: +6 Exorcism spirits increased to +8.
- Talents:
- Level 10 left talent: +15% magic resistance reduced to +12%.
- Level 10 right talent: +40 attack damage reduced to +30.
- Level 15 left talent: +175 cast range reduced to +150.
- Level 15 right talent: +1% Spirit Siphon max health drained per second reduced to +0.8%.
- Level 20 left talent: -3s Crypt Swarm cooldown reduced to -2.5s.
- Level 20 right talent: +500 health reduced to +400.
- Level 25 left talent: +8 Exorcism spirits reduced to +6.
Recommended items[edit]
Starting items:
- Clarity allows Death Prophet to keep using Crypt Swarm.
- Tango provides health regeneration to keep Death Prophet in lane.
- Healing Salve also restores health.
- Iron Branch gives intelligence that boosts mana pool and attack damage to last hit; Death Prophet can use it with Tango to heal more.
Early game:
- Boots of Speed allows Death Prophet to be more efficient at ganking early.
- Magic Stick is generally good to pick up because even minimum charges can mean the difference between casting a spell or not.
- Null Talisman increases Death Prophet's mana pool, as well as giving some extra health and damage.
Mid game:
- Phase Boots should almost always be picked up on Death Prophet due to Death Prophet's strong synergy with movement speed.
- Magic Wand is a fairly inexpensive upgrade to the early Iron Branches and Magic Stick that provides an extra heal.
- Eul's Scepter of Divinity is an amazing item on Death Prophet because it gives movement speed, mana, and a way to disable an enemy or herself. When paired with Exorcism, Death Prophet can be kept out of combat while her spirits do massive damage to enemies.
- Aghanim's Scepter gives Death Prophet bonus damage and sustain for a relatively cheap cost, lessening her dependence on Exorcism.
Late game:
- Octarine Core is essential item for Death Prophet because it heals her through spell lifesteal and reduces cooldowns. It also gives her enough mana to sustain during teamfight.
- Black King Bar gives a boost to HP as well as the ability to get in the middle of team fights, giving Exorcism the most damage potential.
Situational items:
- Drum of Endurance gives good attribute boosts for the price as well as even more movement and attack speed for her team, and generally should have one person buy this item on your team in almost any situation because the buff can win team fights.
- Mekansm is a great pick up because Crypt Swarm allows Death Prophet to flash farm, allowing her to build the Mekansm quickly, and her high intelligence gain makes casting not too taxing on her effectiveness in team fights. Headdress and Buckler are also nice early game items to have to make her more survivable.
- Pipe of Insight is a notable pick up because of the health regeneration as well as magic resistance, and when paired with Mekansm, Death Prophet can turn around a losing fight, or create a strong initiation.
- Shadow Blade can be used after Exorcism is cast to deal great amount of damage while Death Prophet positions itself without being noticed.
- Solar Crest slows and makes Exorcism do a lot more damage to a single target, as well as providing mana regeneration, armor, and attributes, which Death Prophet wants.
- Aeon Disk keeps Death Prophet alive during Exorcism with strong dispel, damage reduction, status resistance, and bonus health.
- Boots of Travel allow global presence as well as a more reliable escape than Phase Boots.
- Shiva's Guard gives Death Prophet another nuke, as well as a larger mana pool and a lot of armor, both of which she needs.
- Scythe of Vyse gives a full disable as well as a larger mana pool.
- Heart of Tarrasque allows Death Prophet to stay in team-fights near indefinitely when paired with Shiva's Guard.
- Assault Cuirass is fairly easy for Death Prophet to farm because of Crypt Swarm being a fast farming tool, and her ability to take towers in seconds with Exorcism. Assault Cuirass gives a lot of armor and attack speed to herself and her team, as well as reducing the enemy's armor, allowing Exorcism to do even more damage in engagements and pushes.
- Kaya improves Death Prophet's damage output and lessens the strain on her mana pool. Can be built into Kaya and Sange for better survivability or Yasha and Kaya for better chasing.
- Rod of Atos gives bonus stats, keeps enemies within range of Death Prophet's spells, and makes it easier to land Silence.
Gameplay[edit]
Roles: | Carry Pusher Nuker Disabler |
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Complexity: | ★☆☆ |
Playstyle: | Denied her own death time and again, Krobelus returns from the grave with skills acquired from the beyond. Gathering a Crypt Swarm, she sends forth a flock of winged beasts to harass the living. A pall of Silence falls over the land, stifling any objection as she Spirit Siphons her enemies dry. Mortals beware. The Death Prophet performs an Exorcism, unleashing the banshee remnants of her previous lives to turn the battlefield into her own haunted ground. |
Audio[edit]
History[edit]
Equipment[edit]
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Trivia[edit]
- At some point, she, along with Io and Silencer, had her costume and ability color palettes changed. Before, Death Prophet's garments and ability icons were more purple in color.
- The icon for her old ability, Witchcraft, shows a pentacle, a symbol that became associated with magic in the Middle Ages and traditionally used in witchcraft.
Gallery[edit]
The International 2014 artwork