My old guide, will be updating to account for new items and changes.
Please be aware that at the moment the guide ends at about the start of the item builds, sorry for any confusion caused.

1. Introduction
Why did I write the guide?
Krobelus is a great hero and very fun to play with and master, (once my favourite hero), i wrote this guide to help people learn more easily. While initially an old guide, i decided to rewrite it for playdota as there is only one other krobelus guide at the moment.

Hero Overview:



Krobelus spent her living days as a fervent member of a cult of Death Sayers. Her belief in the ways of death and the perfect harmony it brings has given her dead spirit a chance to wreak havoc among the chaotic living. She uses her abilities to call upon carnivorous bats and long dead spirits to lay to rest all who still pump blood through their veins. She augments her powers through the use of witchcraft, and she is able to make opponents gape in fear, losing the focus needed to cast spells. She is devoted to death in all it's aspects, and would see all turned to ash.

Initial Stats:

Base Damage 19 - 31 (39 - 51)
Base Armor -1 / 1
Strength 19 + 1.8
Agility 14 + 1.4
Intelligence 20 + 3
Movespeed 285

For Enthusiasts:

Base Attack Time 1.7
Attack Range 600 (ranged)
Acquisition Range 800
Missile Speed 1000
Attack Animation 0.56 / 0.51
Casting Animation 0.5 / 0.83
Sight Range 1800 / 800

Her Skills:

All of Krobelus's skills are simple ladder based skills, 2 of them are ripped right of ladder warcraft! Nevertheless they are perfect. You can view her hero page here.

For a quick comment:



Carrion swarm is her aoe nuke, hitting units in a wide cone up to 1000 units away, its great for last hitting creeps and heroes alike as well as the obvious pushing reasons.



Silence is an amazingly large AoE semi disable that can potentially render most of a team 80% useless for up to 6 seconds! At level 4 with maxed witchcraft it only has an 11 second cooldown! A pretty scary skill for a non ultimate to say the least, balanced by its sometimes awkward casting animation making it useless when you're jumped. Will not be powerful unless you use it at the most critical time, requiring a good setup.



Witchcraft just boosts all her other spells and gives her a useful movement speed bonus, pretty cool just for the spell bonus, but without the movement bonus death prophet just wouldn't be the same.



FInally the scary ultimate, if you thought silence was what made her scary, take a look at this monster, good luck to any hero trying to live under this alone, this makes DP a godly hero 1 on 1 untill oponents have armour/lifesteal and allows her to push, counterpush, gank, tower dive, save ally's, bait, tank and many other things, all at once!

The good and the Bad

Pros:

• Not hero dependant, a one-hero wonder
• Good anti pusher/pusher
• High movement speed + small model
• Best non-ultimate silence in game
• Very fun to taunt with
• Easy to go Godlike with
• powerful mid game results in easier late game
• MVP of most games she's featured in.
• AOE powerhouse, 3 AOE spells.

Cons:

• Low Hp, is easy to firstblood/kill early
• Fairly Item dependant.
• Horrible MS without witchcraft
• Bad attack projectile requires getting used to
• No solid disable like a stun or hex
• Very weak if not played right

After glancing at her skills you will realise or not realise krobelus should be designed as an aggressive tank to survive while her skills do her dirty work annoying as many opponents as possible and taking out creeps, towers and heroes in the process. Now to do all this krobelus will need lots of survivability, mobility and patience but most importantly experience. This means you have to know your limits, something important with many heroes, but even more important with aggressive tanks like krobelus.




The most dynamic skill build for krobelus is as follows, you can modify it to your ingame needs.

1. Carrion Swarm
2. Silence
3. Carrion Swarm
4. Witchcraft
5. Carrion Swarm
6. Exorcism
7. Witchcraft
8. Witchcraft
9. Witchcraft
10. Carrion Swarm
11. Exorcism
12-15. Silence and stats
16. Exorcism
17-25. Stats

Level 1 carrion swarm is taken to use some mana on a last hit early on and not waste mana regen :P. It can also be used in some lucky first bloods! if you're scared of getting killed early, take silence level 1.

You will need up to and not exceeding 3 levels of carrion swarm, the 4th point is not really necessary until you have some mana regen, because its 50 more damage for 25 more mana. Hardly worth it. 250 damage is enough to harrass and last hit multiple creeps. 300 damage allows you to 2shot creep waves.

1 point in silence is mainly for defensive purposes however it also allows you to get a kill on that ganked potm/qop. Also a pretty effective counter to very aggressive laning, for example a tinker will come up to laser, silence before he casts (from >550 range) and pump in some hits as he retreats.

Max witchcraft for the higher ms and carrion swarm spam at earlier levels, later it contributes to silence. The bonus to the ultimate is also awesome.

Exorcism whenever you can, its an excellent crowd controller and tower pusher. However there are circumstances where there is no need to take at level 6 (heavy mana cost) such as when you and an ally are dominating enough on regular skills and/or you need early witchcraft/silence/stats.

Alternatively you can decide to play a more pusher oriented Krobelus where you level 3 carrion + max witchcraft, and dont level ultimate untill you're ready to take out the tower. A defensive build (super aggressive laning) forces 2 early levels of silence, and optional stats. This is because level 2 silence has a larger AOE meaning pretty damn impossible to miss , a defensive Krobelus shouldn't be lane hopping any time soon so MS and better cooldowns isnt really relevant.



The absolute core items are your cheap items that boost survivability, durability and mobility, priority is given to survivability at this point. A few early items you can take are as follows:



ofcourse consumables such as tangoes/clarities/teleports as well as other small items like a courier are a must. The most important item is easily urn of shadows and you should build it EVERY game. Since the nerf of phase boots I find that I more often then not take an early basilus or even buckler.


For early pushing and a quick game, the basilus can be upgraded to a vladmirs whilst a buckler will make a mekasm. After that you will want a shiva's guard to give you permanent spam and a new nuke, ending the game even faster. Another option is necronomicon, which tends to come in extremely handy at the most random times.



Otherwise I reccomend building a fast vanguard to immediately change from passive little blue witch to aggro head hunter.

If you are facing alot of heavy nukage, this item build would seem more fit.

http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/...TNSobiMask.gif

as well as http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/...ieldAmulet.gif AND/OR http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/...dOfCunning.gif

Optional here is http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/...st_Plate06.gif
Against Pretty heavy disable, where you find you will need BKB more then anything else, then :

http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/...nedBracers.gif

With optional http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/...of%20Water.gif

Why Did I choose what I chose

Before Hopping into it, I wish to say the items i analyse are all good items, However I merely wish to prove my point when saying Vanguard Euls works best in ALL situations.

http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/...nholyArmor.gif

Lets begin with the controversial Vanguard, On its own, its nothing special, i mean platemail + vitality booster ftw yeah (makes heart + shivas).. heck, RoB, stout and vitality booster > vanguard right?(makes vladmirs and heart) Even that damned netherzeim buckler + a rob and vit booster is more then enough? (makes mekasm, vladmirs and heart). I cannot dispute these facts however Vanguard is an easily built item that lets you begin aggression very early in the game compared to other item options.

Remembering that on its own its nothing special...

The thing is, you cannot consider vanguard alone, firstly, it gives Krob tanking advantages...

5hp sec regen
300 hp
65% chance to block 45 damage

No armour, just HP, regen and block, better for early game where it reduces damage by approximately 20-30 damage on average. Combine it with http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/...rification.gif for 2 slots, lets see what we get.


Now we got a potentially aggressive chaser + baiter. Block for the weak intel hero attacks, actually all attacks, it seems insignificant but the blocks add up.., the 300hp soaks up some spells and attacks too. 5hp a sec regen so that you can farm abit after a gank/countergank/teambattle, 16 intelligence and 100% regen gives you some very nice carrion + silence spam and doesnt make you have to constantly return to the fountain for that teensy bit of mana. + 20 movespeed is ftw in chasing/escaping and i dont need to detail how useful the cyclone is, do I? Actually i do. Whilst not by design the same as a hex from a guinso, it still has its uses, and i find it extremely useful for its cost. It also synergises very nicely with Krobelus as a hero and dispels 'some' buffs and debuffs that will frustrate you (for example laugh at that hasted hero chasing your friend :P)

Now I am not going to say Vanguard is better then bracers, 3 bracers give cheaper HP boost.. HOWEVER it does use up multiple item slots.. and doesnt 'tank damage' in the conventional sense, it merely increases your hp.

And now to compare Vanguard and Euls to other similar priced/Slotted items

http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/...odstone_02.gif VS http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/...V_Sword_09.gif VS http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/...rification.gif

Personally i'd love to compare the items. Firstly I think Everyone will agree that Vanguard + Euls is the easiest items to build up. + it has the advantage of you not running around with 3 filled item slots all the time. alright so in build up, it gets a +3, bloodstone comes in second with +2, Guinsoo with +1

Now HP items give, Bloodstone gives some nasty 450 hp, this is goood, really good, also gives more regeneration then vanguard euls especially after you accumulate multiple charges. We will not take into account the mana regen, because what euls gives is MORE then enough.. but we shall consider the hp regen and hp, here bloodstone gets a + 3, V/E a +2 and guinsoo with its 190 hp gets a +1

Onto the next thing, extra effeX. Bloodstone has a veryyy nice passive to it, death prophet can easily get kills and this works nicely with the bloodstone passive, free xp and shorter buyback time + a heal whenever she dies.. Guinsoo has an AWESOME 3.5 sec hex, hands down winner, Despite the fact that I think cyclone is more useful then bloodpact, i will still give bloodstone 2nd place.. Guinsoo + 3, Blood, +2, Vanguard euls, + 1

finally we have the bonus's that do not come from items components. Thats a + 20 ms from euls, bloodstone has nothing.. (bloodpact counted before) and guinsoo has nothing.. so +1 to euls.

So based on this voting system we have proven that for a hero that is not heavily mana reliant Bloodstone is the best way to go ( +1 point on V/E). And yes it is if you are able to get all the charges, and you are dominating, kinda like how travels are better then phase boots if you have the gold.. however consider all circumstances, and consider which items help your team more.. then we must consider what Krobelus can use/needs the most.

Now onto what Krob needs more.. HP is good, but she NEEDS an easier buildup so she can begin her rampage as early as possible like she should be, vanguard can be gotten more quickly than the full bloodstone, and gives more hp and protection than just a vitality booster, and more protection and regen that a point booster + vitality booster.. she NEEDS the ms, her ms is high, and its good to go higher! she NEEDS cyclone MORE then she needs Bloodpact, granted she can get kills, but bloodpact is for heroes that go down fast with high mana outputs, Ie heroes that get into the middle of a fight, do all the damage they can do in the shortest amount of time possible then die... not for krob. This is because 1. She will be standing on the edge of the fight, trying to lure the opposing heroes out of their comfort zones and into silence and nukes and more focus between her and her allies and 2. because she does her damage gradually, the most successful Krob has to be alive for the longest time possible before going down. This takes away some of the significance of the team heal/vision gain and EXP gain while dead.. however it does retain the better buyback time benefits and less gold loss benefits. However what euls does is gives a nice disable that can group up heroes (I've described it in tips and tricks) for a silence, gives her some escape mechanism in desperate situations ( I know MS is good, but you will find it is not always enough. especially against a sven that only needs to run behind you for 3 seconds more before his stormbolt cools down.. know what i mean?) and gives more ms, im sure more ms can be pretty much useful on any hero.. especially Krobelus.

Not to mention Vanguard comes at the 'perfect' time in the game... or that Euls will prevent you from dieing in some stupid situations (Yes bloodpact doesnt stop death, it improves it).. as well as give your friends more support in times of need. 2.5 second disable is pretty long in the world of dota.

THE VERDICT: Vanguard euls gives -> more bulk for tanking, some regen in both hp and mana for spam, Some movement speed and a disable for chasing/escaping. And the disable doubles as an excellent isolation tool and synergises nicely with her silence and nuke (ie when your chasing euls them in spot while you wait for your carrion cd to catch up for a quick kill, also prevents them from getting any closer to the allies they are probably trying to run to.)

Meanwhile: Bloodstone gives even more bulk for tanking then the vanguard, more regen in both hp and mana (the mana extra is negligible), a very nice passive that is good for krob players that like to die nice and early and go with a bang, however for those that play more skillfully all it gives is less gold when you die, and faster respawn time, here the bonus exp is negligible, as is the heal. So it has the advantage of endless spam and gets stronger with your kills.

So in a nutshell Vanguard and Euls lets her tank + spam + chase + escape easier.
Bloodstone lets her tank more + spam more and thats all...

Think of all the kills you would've gotten if you had that euls (for the bloodstone players), or the kills you would have saved. You can argue that cyclone is no hex, but i can argue that bloodpact is no Aegis..

Now.. we got to compare V/E to the mighty expensive and hard to build guinsoo. As far as hex goes, its amazing, but that and the 190 hp is pretty much all your gonna use guinsoo for.. maybe also for 16 of its intelligence and 100% of its 200% mana regeneration , o wait and the 1.someting armour it gives *nodds*. Really this is a great item, simply because all heroes in the game can use a hex but its expensive, and doesnt offer much other then the mighty polymorph.

And so Vanguard + euls wins the fight (over-all at least)

And now for how i Solve the armour problem of Krobelus

http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/...PhaseBoots.gif Its as if this item was made for heroes like Krob, desperate for armour, Need the ms, and cant complain bout the bonus damage! gives some decent armour.

Remember the next 2 items you should get in most games are http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/...st_Plate13.gif as well as http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/...BTNSoulGem.gif In that order. Then you finish heart, then you finish shivas.

http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/...omancy.gifWhen do you buy bkb?

Bkb is bought against disable based teams, because its a situational item and not ALWAYS used... I didnt include it in the core build. If you need bkb get it asap after vanguard euls, but be careful if you skip phase boots for this! Remember its OK to get disabled, its NOT ok to get chain disabled, there is a difference.

So you ask, why not buy a hood or mass bracers on Krob? and i say, this is good when you are against mass nukers, the best build would be 2 bracers, hood and mekasm then BKB. Why? because against heavy casters you can do more damage then them the longer you last, hood is the main protection from the damage they can produce, whilst the mekasm is a nasty dent in their outburst, giving a free vitality booster to you and those nearby when you trigger it.

I dont think i need to say why items like Lothars are bad for Krob, if you wanna ask, you are welcome to ask me for the FAQ. As far as all the items i didnt mention in my analysis.. you can ask me about them if you like, i just dont think any deserve enough mention for this guide.


Krobelus is not a fussy hero, however you should be predicting what hero's and lane combinations you will be facing. Solo mid is an ideal lane for Krobelus, however if there is a tinker, zeus or or kunkka you'd probably better go to a side lane. In short, its best to predict you're enemies first.

That being said, Krobelus works best in this order, Solo Mid > long lane with creep pulling ally > dual nuke lane in short/long lane. This is basically the 3 best lanes krob can have. If she is solo mid, it has to be against a passive playing sort of hero, for example a broodmother or magnus, krobelus can handle dual lanes, however like all heroes, dual stun lanes eat her alive.

In the long lane (bot sent, top scourge), try to go with some-one who will creep pull so you get more exp and tower action. Even better would be if you have an enchantress/chen or a jungle hero to stay in the jungle and pop out to gank, they will love your silence/nuke .

As far as dual nuke lanes go, try and pick a ranged nuker that can support you well, for example leshrac works alright with death prophet, some other heroes work alright too, for example a krobelus + shaker means an easy to land silence after fissure and some pretty decent harras. Dual nuke lanes require at least decent lane aggression, so make sure you do the whole animation cancelling attacking and nuking.

As far as starting items go, stats, stouts and regen are the best items for krobelus. If you are the chicken bitch of you're team, your kinda forced, otherwise u can choose whether to buy a chicken or not, as chicken will give u regen whenever u need it, good for hard lanes. For pubs, generally stout + 5 branches will do the trick, because your going to have an easy time farming the RoH anyway :P.


http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/lists/BTNAncientOfTheEarth.gif x1, x1x1
http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/...terChicken.gif x1
http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/...fOgrePower.gif x1
http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/...eTouchGrow.gif x3, x5,x4.
http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/...BTNCirclet.gif x1
http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/...nholyArmor.gif x1

All these items should work fine for u, different colours indicate different starting groups. For example Yellow is what you buy if you wish to buy the chicken. You can modify your starting items as you wish, but remember u should be aiming for the shown items at the start.



Levels 1-9

Target Items : http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/...nholyArmor.gif
then: http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/...BTNSoulGem.gif to make A http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/...nholyArmor.gif for more bulk to begin your aggression and get some 'lucky' red hp getaways (trust me its VERY common)

Next items if you got the gold would be: http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/...otsOfSpeed.gif for obvious reasons
and euls components in whatever order is good for you:
http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/...dOfCyclone.gif
http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/...eOfTheMagi.gif
http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/...BTNPeriapt.gif

If you go mid, stay back near the tower to creep block a bit, early laning in the middle lane revolves around whos ramp the creeps are on and you will need all the advantages you can have as a Krobelus. If you go into the long lane, you might wish to camp out at the nearby rune spot waiting for a rune, or you might block, this is your preference and depends on the game. If you go short lane, ur best bet would be to block whilst trying to make a more bulky ally go camp nearby the rune spot to check if the heroes u face in the lane will get a good rune for fb (they will often come down to get the rune) if they do not come, the rune is up for grabs or for later when your team ganks. short lane is the dangerous lane, and you dont want to be accidentally first blooded, DP's movespeed is horrible at level 1, and her hp isnt all that great.

Now that your in your lane there is some things you must remember. Firstly its alright to use carrion swarm to net you some last hits, make sure it hits the other heroes when it goes of as well for full effect. Also make sure you dont go casting it every time the cd is done and u got the mana.. that makes you very stupid as you will not be harrasing smartly, rather just wasting your mana. Secondly, if you have a stout, you can trade hits with pretty much any ranged hero you face, with the exception of if they are weakening you up for a quick combo later to kill you. Remember after you attack and then when ur projectile fires to quickly click a spot of ground in front of your hero so you can get another hit in quickly. krob like any ranged hero can outlane most melee hero's. Don't play too agressively against most ranged heroes, however if you are facing any carries/bad early gamers, you are welcome to play very aggresively because you will not be suffering much. Be careful just 'how' aggressive you play however, because even if your only missing 150hp, that can be enough for a ganker from another lane to come clean you up. If you face carries with their nice babysitters, then your going to experience some problems, Ie. Lich will nuke ur face out and Warlock will maintain heals and damage. So take into consideration the spells the enemies have at their arsenal, remember your focus is to finish your early vanguard before you can become aggressive. Basically you will have to get used to your horrible animation, and dont expect to perfect it if its you dont plai DP that much.

Hopefully you will buy at least your Ring of health and stout by this stage, if you are doing well you will have your vitality booster (and thus vanguard) and even your boots and euls components. In the mid lane, just go to the shop when your creeps are at the opposing tower, or if you are in a side lane, you have the side shops to buy rings and stouts, also if u feel the need buy a magic stick, do so, they can come in very handy. Remember to buy anything you need from the base as soon as you get the gold, so if you get ganked, you dont lose as much.


Aiming for these items: http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/...rification.gif for the disable, movement speed and nice mana + regeneration as well as http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/...PhaseBoots.gif for the very nice armour boost as well as the increased ms and 'phase' ability

Yes, once you complete your vanguard you are welcome to begin aggressive play and ganking/pushing. Something i always do if i can would be to take out the tower im facing ASAP with the help of my allies, assuming the tower doesnt focus me, and theres not many units around, approximately half of the towers hp can be destroyed JUST from the ghosts... so make sure you build up a nice creep wave and geta an ally or 2 down to help you push, keep the mana for your ultimate.

(i wish i had pictures here...) Now that the tower is down begins the ally saving and ganking, krobelus is probably the best counter ganker/ally saver in the game, assume for example your allied sven is running from a beastmaster + lich that was almost succesful in killing him, suddenly you pop up and throw a silence to prevent lich's ulti and activate exorcism as they try to follow up on sven and kill him (lol move away from sven though :P), if theyre smart they will know they can no-longer kill him without dieing as well (unless hes got like 40 hp :P, or they are full hp + mana) and will probably try to run to their allies or even in some cases fight you instead. If they continue following sven, you can get a 2 for 1 deaths. or at least 1 for 1 or save him as a bare minimum. If they run, chase them, you have your vanguard to protect you should the problem arrive, ofcourse it wont protect you from something like a full blast luna ultimate but you should know what heroes you are facing. Saving from ganks is best done when your ally's come to help or if the gankee has some mana to support your countergank.

As far as ganking goes, you should be going in with your swarm and silence ready, and whenever possible your ultimate. When you are out of mana, exorcise is on cd or cant gank for whatever reason make sure u farm a lane, pull some jungle creeps or just jungle, you must always be trying to farm with krobelus when not ganking, you are not a roamer seeking ganks after all, krobelus works best when she has the element of surprise. If you get ganked whilst your ultimate is ready, use the fact that you have a strong ms and silence, turn on the ulti if necessary and run. if they follow you, they will get seriously hurt from your ghosts, and you can simply run to an ally. As krobelus make sure u always stay at least 3000 range away from an ally because you will be doing alot of running between heroes, and ally's will help you out always (to turn a gank into a counter gank :P). Stuns > krobelus because it prevents her movement, watch out for mass stuns.

In team fights, expect to be focused, no-one likes fighting underneath an exorcism cloud of ghosts, in this case you have to think very fast and maintain your reflexes, try and stay on the side if you can and not in the middle of the fight and silence as many heroes as possible whenever possible, be smart in choosing the heroes to silence. Only throw a carrion swarm when you are sure you have the mana to back it up. If you find yourself focused, and youre lucky enough to not be disabled or stunned, simply run, krobelus is amazing at doing that so always be moving, force them to chase you, effectively getting less physical attacks in and letting your allies have free farm on heroes :P

In the middle of all this action, make sure you buy items in the base, and from the shops around you, you should at least complete a euls, and then later phaseboots, do -ms to make sure you get the correct ms of 420 (?) with euls and phase boots, and when you activate phase you should have 462(?). The point is if your ms doesnt look right, it probably isnt, there seems to be some bug with the way that phase and euls interact, so if your ms is wrong, drop both the euls and the phase boots and pick them back up.

Remember that phase lets you run significantly faster and walk through creeps so use this to your advantage. Meanwhile Euls will let u set up a cyclone to move closer/further away from a target where necessary or even temporarily remove a target from a clash. Euls is a perfect setup for a silence too, because oftentimes when you cyclone a hero, you will see their ally/s come closer in a means to defend them, thus making it easier to double/triple silence. You should eventually get used to the duration of euls and the cast time of silence, and then when you're like me, you will be able to predict to silence JUST when they come down from the cyclone, preventing spells instantly.

When you have your euls or at least the components, you can begin becoming a bit more loose with the frequency of your spell casting, as you will have some nice intelligence and regeneration boosts. Push lanes whenever you can, because you can, Krobelus really shines in the mid-game.


Theres not much to say about this stage, your ultimate slightly loses its power against heroes as the opponents begin to stack up on the armour and hp but retains its usefulness against towers, your silence is still powerful, and your Carrion swarm is still a creep wave swinger to be used to that extent, so basically, your just a push monster by now. Exorcism is still strong against heroes, however you must understand its limitations now, no longer will you be able to easily run from that super late gamer hero laughing as exorcism rips of their hp, i mean you can still run laughing, but without the hp ripping part. Stick to your teammates. Normally I end my krobelus games early and do not have much experience with extreme late game parts.. often when its late game for me, i am either ruining their base and have raxed 1-2 lanes (80% of games) or I am losing my base to the other team (15% of games) the other 5% is about how many games I have where it drags into the 60-80 minute zone..

The content of this might have been covered before however I am repeating for people who are maily interested in learning how to play a Krobelus generally rather then specifically.

Firstly Krobelus at an early stage is limited. She can last hit, albeit quite badly like any other hero. And has some decent lane control in the form of 600 range and carrion swarm (silence isnt lane 'control' as such). What this means is that you should generally try and play as passive as possilbe at this stage because it is 1. Not your strong point and 2. Not successfully playing a good early game makes the rest of your game significantly worse. Staying approximately 400 range behind the creep line with the ranged creep allows for you to do this in most cases. Last hit the creeps and hit any melee heroes that come forward. Chuck a carrion as a nasty surprise to someone expecting to deny a creep and last hit that creep and hurt that hero at the same time. Against certain situations such as aggressive laning or dual stun it is a better idea to stay about 600-800 range away from the line at an angle where it is difficult for them to harrass you if possible. Carrion should sill be used, but obviously its going to be harder to hit the heroes. In a pub where you will expect to face anything from mortred + bloodseeker to solo techies to Earthshaker + Mirana you can adjust your early game style as you see fit. For example the mortred + bloodseeker requires aggressive laning and decent denying as well as last hitting so you level faster. The techies means free farm and you getting almost every last hit. Weaken and when you feel like killing him silence first.. the mirana + ES lane means play extra careful and take note of their skill builds, these guys can be 'pro'. IE if the ES is going fissure + stats he is probably a good player and you should play extra cautious, Similarly if he is going fissure + earthshock he probably doesnt know his earthshaker very well, but still take care because he has a stun that synergises a bit too well with mirana's. Theres not much to say on early game.

Now in the part where you will be doing your best, the middle of the game, you must seriously be using Krobelus in the best way possible. This means understanding her skills.

Carrion should not be 'spammed' until you at least have euls parts, last hitting is enough to farm for you unless you have excessive mana or are going back to the fountain to pick up parts/heal/restore mana. Silence should not be casted at the first hero you see, Sometimes its better to wait until someone uses a skill and wastes it before silencing. For example you see a puck coming up the lane, ready to orb into you and another hero, instead of running up and silence-ing him before he orbs, stay a bit away from your friend and then when he orbs up and waning rifts immediately silence, its hardly hard considering the orb travels pretty slow. Witchcraft gives you some nice MS, but that does not make you as fast as a lycan, don't go chasing heroes you cant chase before your phase boots, chasing a power treads Magnus for example can be a waste of your time.

Finally Exorcism. People dont seem to realise that this spell is at its most powerful when its hitting a small amount of heroes or a tower. Krobelus doesn't have to be in the middle of a fight for it to take full effect. If she was they would be spreading out in up to a 700 range arround her doing their damage, (however the majority will attack units Krob attacks or who-ever attacks Krob as their AI tells them to). Krob is best on the edge of the fight. Being on the edge amplifies all of her spells. Carrion Swarm will hit more units, Silence can be predicted and used on the most dangerous heroes rather then being used desperately and Her ultimate will be doing its damage from ~300-700 range away to a small amount of units rather then the whole pack of units.

That being said, you will ask the question, so how do I play my Krobelus. So i'll give some tips.

Pre-Team battles
1. Play passive early untill you finish Vanguard, after that you can attempt to get your first tower or first kill, early game is a simple matter of farming up like any carry would.
2. Keep a check on your mana at all times. Especially earlier, Captain Obvious says that a vanguard doesnt give you enough mana regen. You should at least have enough for a silence if there are heroes missing. You will not need to keep enough if you will retreat immediately after the wave to go to fountain or if you know you will die soon and want to leave an impression ;D.
3. As far as ganking goes, dont run smack bang into the middle of the heroes to die, try and get your ally to initiate and then silence safely before running in Guns Aho with ultimate in full blast.
4. However when you do run in, once again dont run into the middle of them, strategically run around them so they have to choose whether to stun you or your ally, to run away from you or from your ally.. etcetc. In these cases consider how far their allies might be from them. Often times it is best to come from the same side as your ally anyway.
5. There is nothing wrong with a quick fountain trip to heal up your mana every now and again.
6. That being said, I often buy a magic stick or a bottle or sobi mask as a side item (ie. before vanguard) because they significantly improve my mana. Rarely do i go straight from vanguard to euls to phase boots..

Team battles/Ganks

7. Carrion swarm from the edges of a fight, try and stay in fog when carrion swarming 'pre-fight' to soften up any heroes. Make sure you only pre-carrion if you have enough mana + regen or if your team intends to retreat soon and you wont get much more spell oppurtunity.
8. Abuse the Fog, this is important before you let your ultimate loose.
9. Once you do let your ultimate loose, try and let them see you but do your best to stay out of stun range unless they are silenced. In most cases Heroes will either chase you or run from you anyway, that or target your allies. Its actually better if they target you because you are a tank, that runs at high speed.
10. So RUNN, always be moving in a fight, dont stand in one spot and do you stuff, thats stupid, your normal attack isnt exactly what does your damage anyway. Im not saying dont attack, im saying keep on the move, you're not drow who is going to turn on the auto frost arrows and auto attack until she needs to orb walk..
11. Remember stunZz counterzZ YoU. Try not expose yourself to chain disable. This can be pretty damn hard sometimes.. especially against 100% stunZ teams.
12. Euls has quite a cooldown so Cyclone what you need to Cyclone when you need to Cyclone, for example a broodmother that hasnt got her BkB yet is trying to take out your Zeus.. Do your duty as a Euls wielder! likewise a kunkka on your team needs to hit a running Warlock, Do your DURTY Duty.
13. Do your best to silence at the best times, and dont be too hasty, for example its 'generally' a better idea to try and lure some heroes in a spot where you can silence rather then silencing an individual hero.
14. DONT INITIATE, the biggest baddest bad arse mistake is A death Prophet that initiates.. Omg its pure stupid and [ sarcasm ] I only reccomend it if you bought a bloodstone, so you can make the most of those charges y'know. [ / sarcasm ]

PuZhing

15. Try and build a wave of creeps before taking out a tower (duhh) granted you can hurt a tower, but did you know that towers hurt you back? (unless its -em)
16. Come with heroes, that way you dont have to use your ultimate against that damn half hp tower, save it for the next tower behind it.. (except in rax breaking attempts)
17. Dont fucking push if Mirana, Zeus AND NA are currently missing.. Your not going to survive that unless you had a heart or something..
18. Dont over push, What i mean is that a push that you have been working on for 2 minutes with no allies around you is going to end with a gank and an RQ.
19. Abuse seige machines, yup try and autoattack those creeps and carrion if mana allows when you hav a 7 creep wave + a seige (or more)
20. Carrion 2 shots creeps until they get more then 600 Hp.
21. Attack the tower if exorcism is on, even if you have enemy creeps there, just carrion them if you can, because if you attack them, then the ghosts will no longer prioritise the tower.


The best heroes for krobelus are the AOE bitches, especially if their AOE has a disable, preferably said hero is at least slightly bulky of course :

http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/.../BTNTreant.gif

The next best are simply heroes that can draw focus to them, takes the spotlight of krobelus and ghosts for a while at least, thats some of the heroes above, and here are some more:

http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/...Brewmaster.gif

Then we have the pushers, faster pushers work the best:

http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/...eroFarseer.gif

The standard disable heroes and nukers also work well :P but they hardly deserve a mention...
Ofcourse there are some heroes I Might have forgotten, but if it fits the criteria..
As far as heroes you will hate go, Krobelus hates assassins that can rip her up if they find her.. or at least keep a vigilante on her or weaken her in some way.

http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/...gaMyrmidon.gif (slardar gets special mention his ulti + ur ulti = rape!)http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/...s/BTNakama.gif

And ofcourse this guy...

http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/lists/BTNArthas.gif his damn heal counters ur nuke.. his slow slows ur ms (duhh) repel annoys everyone.. and guardian angel counters ur ultimate as a chasing tool..

as well as the obvious..

http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/...oCryptLord.gif I dont need to say why this guy counters her pretty well do I...
[/quote]


[quote name='Eozm' date='Jan 24 2009, 04:14 AM' post='3499159']
Overviews and analysis'

Tips/Tricks and strategies

http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/...rrionSwarm.gif

I will start with carrion swarm. This skill has a casting range of 600 units and the wave travels 700 range, according to DA wiki, it can hit units up to 1000 units away. The projectile is pretty damn fast too.
This means that to last hit running heroes that are on the edge of the maximum range, its not always a good idea to cast at more then 600 units in front of you, this is because heroe's can change direction or can run just out of the maximum range, extremely annoying if you miss. So to land this, aim it approximately where you think Krobelus's normal attack could hit and cross your fingers. Remember this can be casted through fog. Now when using level 3-4 carrion swarm, you can easily get 3 creep kills no frills. How do I do this? you ask.. well simply attack ranged creep once, next attack creep your creeps ARENT attacking, then when the creep your attacking AND the creep your creeps are attacking are approximately low enough to be killed, Carrion Swarm. Easily nets 3 kills. For larger waves, this will probably take longer :P. If there is a large wave and none of your creeps around (or a few) do a carrion swarm, run back/around for a bit then carrion swarm them all again for a 2hko. If they have >600 hp.. then your going to have to wait a bit longer while you attack :P.

http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/...BTNSilence.gif

As far as silence goes, you will have to know its limitations. It has a 900 casting range and takes about half a second to trigger. You will have to get used to this to land it on heroes. When you cast it on heroes coming towards you, the best time to cast it is to do it just before they look like theyre going to be able to use their spell. For example a tinker in your lane might be coming up to laser you, but you dont silence when hes a good deal outside your attack range.. this way you waste valuable seconds. Try and hit him approx half a second before he performs his spell. This is difficult and takes some getting used to but gives you maximum silence time benefits. Consider in an extreme circumstance a pudge coming up to disember you from 900 range, he missed his hook (but you cant move for the sake of the analogy), instead of silencing him on the spot you wait untill hes about 400-500 range away (at least) and silence. Bam, so instead of him getting about 1.5 secs of effective silence, he gets the full 3 seconds.
This is also effective to know if your friends for example just got stunned by a leoric, instead of instantly silencing, wait about 6-7 seconds after the stun before you silence for maximum benefits, given it is hard to predict, but you get used to it...
http://www.dota-allstars.com/images/...evourMagic.gif

Finally exorcism her ultimate, excellent baiting skill, now i will teach you the art of bait. read below

If it is a pub (or even some more skilled games) you will find that you can turn the tables on a non-double stun gank providing that you have enough hp, by simply silenceing, nuking and turning on your ultimate as necessary. However this is strictly level 6+. For example Imagine that you were facing a juggernaut + bloodseeker (happened to me before) with an allied Skeleton king (typical pub) and when u all hit level 6, the bloodseeker decides to rupture you so the juggernaut can come and spin by you, however easy laning means you got full hp and enough mana to ultimate, simply turn on your ultimate, and try and survive the spins, then after rupture ends you will be running with last bit of red hp left, but juggernaut has no mana to ultimate you, and bloodseeker was only half hp to begin with, so now ghosts are eating him alive.

Here I will state 2 explanations as how to counter Krob, the long one and the short one:

Short Answer: StunZ and GankZ same as every carry hero in the game

Long Answer: Learn your limitations, a krob is at her best when she can easily carrion and silence from a protected zone on all your heroes.. therefore unless you got powerful initiation dont try anything stupid when shes got ramp advantage and allies.. etc. Dont fight underneath her ultimate unless you're absolutely sure you CAN do your damage (ie get a kill) and come out alive (ally saving ftw). A starting tip is 5 seconds, if you cant do your job in 5 seconds, then gtfo. later you will get used to playing with or against her and then know your exact limitations. Shutting down a hero with high hp and armour requirements isnt too hard earlier in the game :P.

Here is my first replay, Godlike and game ends at 36 mins all raxes down.. not the best game because i was spiking bad but worth a watch.

http://www.dota-allstars.com/replay/90687/index.html
Anyways that concludes my guide for now

If there is any mistakes or any problems with the guide. Please say so!