For complete skills statistics click the icons below:


Devour

This skill allows him to farm very quickly and afford expensive items. In addition to that, by devouring a neutral creep, Devour gives Doom Bringer another skill of your choice making him very versatile and very dangerous. Use it everytime it's ready. Maximize his farming potential. Also, experiment with this skill. This is what made Doom Bringer exciting to play with.


Scorched Earth

An instant radiance (although somewhat weaker) and heal at level four. This skill also gives him great chasing capability. This skill makes up for Lucifer's low attackspeed (thru damage from flames) and below average movespeed. Very strong early game. Not many heroes can take the heat at early stages of the game.


LVL? Death

This is where it gets tricky. At early levels of the game you need to try and level it with the mindset of getting the bonus 250 damage. You can either try catching your opponent at level 5 with two levels of it or at level 6 with only one level. Later on, it wouldn't matter that much.


Doom

Ah...Doom... The best single target skill in the whole DOTA universe. A silencing skill with a long duration and capable of dealing a lot of damage over time. I don't think I need to elaborate more.

Lvl 1 Devour
Lvl 2 Scorched Earth
Lvl 3 LVL? Death
Lvl 4 LVL? Death
Lvl 5 Scorched Earth
Lvl 6 Doom
Lvl 7 Scorched Earth
Lvl 8 Devour
Lvl 9 Devour
Lvl 10 Devour
Lvl 11 Doom
Lvl 12 LVL? Death
Lvl 13 Scorched Earth
Lvl 14 LVL? Death
Lvl 15 Stats
Lvl 16 Doom
Lvl 17 - 25 Stats


Justifications:

This build is for maximizing the use of chasing with doom, LVL? Death and scorched earth. I max devour much earlier than LVL? Death 'coz i like getting abilities from creeps. Lucifer has so many different skill builds that everybody may have different opinions. His skill build is so flexible. It's a matter of making good use of the skill that you leveled that matters. Especially with LVL? Death.

Item Build

CORE ITEMS

1 or
2 or
3
4 or
5
6

Justifications:

I prefer going treads as boots of choice. +8 to str is very helpful, especially for tanks, for survivability. You also need to hit neutral creeps with a faster rate to be able to farm much more quickly. Phase Boots comes as close second. More chasing ability means easier kill. It's up to you to choose what's more suited for your game style.

If you are going mid then Empty Bottle is the best for you. With rune-whoring he can be a very dangerous ganker even at lower levels. Bottle also allows him to spam his skills 24/7. Soul Ring also gives Lucy unlimited mana but for a steep hp price. All his skills are active skills that require a lot of mana that's why he needs any of these two. Chances are, after devouring a creep, you'd have a 5th active skill. He really needs tons of mana for farming and chase-killing.

The ever reliable Magic Wand! This item is soooo gooood, you just can't do away with it.

Some would irk at the thought of having Vanguard on lucifer but chasing without any way of slowing down your opponent would usually send you chasing past or around towers. It also makes up for some of the life you'd be losing from using Soul Ring(if you ever got one). If you really think you don't need the damage block, you can go with Point Booster. This gives you hp and mana that lucifer really needs. Upgrade it to aghanim's later.

Radiance allows you to have a better AoE presence, making the opposing team focus on you and therefore doing your job as a tank. Doom, Scorched earth and Radiance can deal a butt-load of damage to anyone.

Always, always, always bring with you a Scroll of Town Portal. It is very important in teamplay. It is important that you are never late during tower defence. One hero late for the clash can mean the loss of the tower and sometimes loss of the game.LATE-GAME ITEMS



Assault Cuirass allows you to survive being focused upon, gives you fearsome attackspeed and helps your team through great auras.



Shiva's Guard gives you high armor and an additional nuke if you really need one. The -attackspeed to opponents are also helpful but only to some extent. Also gives you all the mana you need.LUXURY ITEMS



This item gives all that Lucy needs. I cannot say enough about the ulti upgrade to his Doom skill.



If you happen to have all big 5 items then it is time for your to change your boots to Boots of Travel. The extra mobility is priceless and the ability to buyback and teleport back to where the action is game-breaking.EXTRA/SITUATIONAL ITEMS


Sometimes you really have to jump first into the fray to be able to silence your target before he ever gets to cast any of his skills. This item helps you achieve that. You can also devour a centaur to be able to stomp after casting doom. It really helps.



Pipe of Insight allows you and your teammates to be able to absorb more magical damage. It is better if someone else gets it for your team.

Strategy

Early Game

I suggest you go for a solo lane. If possible, go mid: He needs levels to become effective. He cannot afford to share exp with others. The earlier he levels his skills the earlier he can gank and/or kill. If you are going mid get a bottle.
Focus on farming: Because he doesn't have a disable skill early game before level 6, he needs to stay in lane as much as possible. Since he wouldn't be much use ganking unless he gets a good rune or when an opponent shows himself with red hp bar.
Gank whenever Doom's cd is up: Whenever Doom is available and when an opportunity arises, go ganking and go for a kill. Of course, do this with your teammates. Never force the situation. If your team wins a small clash you can continue farming. Don't waste time roaming too much if you don't have a target yet.

Mid Game

Farm for your items: If you can go straight to Radiance then all the better. If you are dying much and needs some sort of survival then go for Vanguard first. Proceed to farming Radiance as it would give you the team presence that your team needs from a tank. Remember the earlier you get Radiance the better since your opponents would have less HP and EHP. Later in the game, the AoE damage from it would not be too effective. So when going Radiance, get it as earlier as possible.
Cast Doom on the opponents main caster: The best thing about Doom is in its ability to silence the target for a long duration. So if your opponent has a Shadow Shaman, Tinker, Fairie Dragon or Shadow Fiend then those are your main targets. Your team can also decide on which hero to Doom depending on the situation. Whichever hero you cast Doom on make sure that it dies or it may come back, pop some salves or bottle charges and catch your team unprepared for its skills.

Late Game

Get tanking items: On most cases than not, you are gonna be designated as the team's tank. Pushing on the front lines of your team. That's why you should go for tanking items. You should be able to absorb everything they throw in your way. Assault Cuirass is the most suggestible. Shivas Guard and Aghanim's Scepter is decent. Pipe of Insight is more situational and only if there is noone better to get it other than you.
Make sure you devour the creep with the best ability depending on the situation: With Lucifer, every skill counts. And since you are capable of having another skill depending on a wide range of choices, I'd say make the most out of it. There are a lot skills from neutral creeps that can really make a difference. Experiment with it and get the one you need for the moment.
Don't go rambo in by yourself: It doesn't mean that if they can't bring you down during 5 team skirmishes, that you can handle them all by yourself. This is a usual pubber's mistake. DOTA is a team game and winning the lanes, skirmishes and the game takes 5 players. If you wanna go pro, keep that in mind. Even Kobe changed his game.

Replays

I suggest you go to Dota Commentaries.com as they don't just give you replays, they also give some analysis of the item builds, warding and team play. Not to mention, they are commentating competitive games and not your ordinary pub games where any build would work.

Hero Synergy

Anybody with a decent disable is a good ally to every hero so I would mention only a few with great synergies with him.


If zeus is around, any hero targeted by these heroes are almost a sure kill. Both having high damage nukes and with zeus being able to help even if he is nowhere near makes this pair a scary combination indeed.

Weaknesses


Having a target doomed and suddenly get healed and survive is really a very unlucky situation. Though, Lucy can easily disable and/or kill if the healer is the one Doom-ed.


Have you ever used Doom on Mirana and/or Akasha not knowing that they have Linken's Sphere already? Yeah, I know. It pissed me off too.

Competitive Scene

An almost perma-ban and/or picked, Lucifer is really one of the scariest heroes in DOTA. A tank who can kill quickly, silence any hero he wishes to, and still be able to be extremely useful even without big items makes this hero a very solid pick. A pesky tank that can counter almost any hero is a welcome addition to any team. If you're not picking him, I suggest you ban him.