Sprout

Your 'disable'. There are some interesting effects from Sprout:

-Gives flying vision
-Denies vision to enemies inside the trees (although they may still have vision if there are enemies around the trees)
-Can disrupt pathing - enemies (or friends) may suddenly take a completely different route to reach their destination unless they change course.
-Trees can be used by Force of Nature
-Low initial mana cost
-Extremely low cooldown at lvl 4 (5.25 second hold with 8 second cooldown)

Sprout is much like Void's Chronosphere - although not quite as epic, it's potentially gamebreaking, and is also a double edged sword. Allies (including yourself) can be trapped inside with enemies - you'll have teammates screaming at you if you trap them with Ursa. It can also hold multiple targets, which is an added bonus if there are a bunch of enemies clustered together.

The key to effective sprouting is isolation. Take advantage of your 600 range and keep enemies pinned far away. Another thing to note is that it is not a true disable - don't rely on it to get you out of hairy situations. Yet another caveat with Sprout is that if you personally lose vision of a target, you may still Sprout at the last location you had vision of it...this can cause you to miss while opponents try to juke you. Regardless, the more experience you have with Furion, the better you will be able to effectively Sprout.

Although the cooldown is exceptionally low, ideally you will want to sprout a hero only once - he should be dead afterward. The next sprout 3 seconds later would then be used upon any reinforcements that were late in saving their ally.

Remember that it is countered by cheap items, i.e. Quelling Blade and Tangoes. Fortunately most heroes after mid game will not have the room to carry these items, so Sprout generally will serve its purpose some time during the game even against experienced players.

Besides the obvious ganking potential in Sprout, it also grants great vision of an area - use this to counter-juke, especially when defending against or initiating tower dives. The vision is also useful in landing an effective Wrath - more on this later.

Sprout is also one of the few abilities in DOTA that can change the terrain of the battlefield, much like Fissure and Shards. Pathing of units will automatically adjust to the new terrain, which at times may be even more effective than locking a target in place. Again, this is great in those juking spots in the forest and next to the mid and long tower lanes (bot Sentinel, top Scourge). This has the added advantage of being unexpected, and much harder to counter via Quelling Blade or Tangoes.

Teleportation

This is Furion's signature spell, and what makes him unique amongst DOTA heroes. There is only one restriction with Teleport - you must have had vision of that area at some point in the game, much like all Blink skills.

Not quite as instantaneous as Blink, Teleport nonetheless is an amazing skill.
With a thought, you can be anywhere on the map. Many people believe DOTA is a game of positioning, and if that is the case, Furion wins hands down in that he can position himself anywhere, anytime, with a ridiculously low cooldown of 20 seconds. Gank at bottom, push a top tower, and gank bottom again, and then fully heal at the fountain all in 60 seconds...whatever the situation requires.

For ganking, the ability to be exactly where you want to be within 3 seconds is priceless. If you are continually successful in making these kind of dramatic and epic ganks, opponents will generally become cowed to your prowess and be scared of their own shadow. Not only can you be anywhere, you can be anywhere and kill them wherever they are, whenever you want to. A dominant Furion is one of the scariest opponents to face, and Teleport is the reason for this.

You can use Teleport to play mind games with the enemy. Even if you have no intention of teleporting to a location, you can cast it right in front of the enemy, and immediately cancel it. The visual and audio effects will still occur, except you will not teleport - no cooldown or mana loss triggered - leaving you to explore other options. One usage of this is to prevent an enemy from retreating to their tower on the side lanes - fake a teleport between them and their tower, and they may opt for a detour into the forest or better yet the secret shop - this is a perfect opportunity for your real teleport, since there is much more fog in the forest and they may not hear/see the second swirl until it is too late. Also, sometimes these mind games are enough to discourage a chase or a push. Be careful though, because sometimes your teammate may become encouraged by your swirl and turn and fight a losing cause. Generally, teammates of Furion should not expect him to be there, until he is actually there. If your teleport was at a good location, it may set up the circumstances for your teammate to turn and fight, but only after you have actually teleported there.

Teleport also makes Furion easily one of the best chasers in the game. Just imagine where the enemy will be in 3 seconds, and you will be there as well. Use fog and especially higher ground to ensure the enemy does not see or hear where you are teleporting until it is too late.

Combined with Force of Nature and to a lesser extent Wrath of Nature, Teleport easily makes Furion one of the best pushers in the game. Pushing deep within enemy territory is effortless, although still a risky proposition for Furion. The core items aim to minimize this risk.

Bottom line - The key idea with Teleport is that there is always a weakness in the enemy's strategy - if they are team pushing, you can push a different lane and still have a significant presence in team clashes via Wrath and Teleport - if they are all separately farming, gank with impunity - if they are in their woods, push the lane furthest from their woods, and if they are ganking in your woods, again push the furthest lane. If they are together, you force them apart by pushing different lanes, and if they are already apart, you can go in for the kill. The 20 second cooldown ensures that if a team battle were to materialize, you will be there to seal the kill.

Force of Nature

The trees come alive and heed Furion's call. Most of DOTA's terrain consists of trees to dictate pathing, and Force of Nature can utilize any of these for whatever reason.

-Good for scouting - mobile wards
-Great for pushing - more dependable than BM's spiders and beefier too.
-Decent counter-juking, if not for the long cooldown
-Spell resistance makes them annoying to take down
-Very low experience and gold bounties awarded when killed - almost fully expendable

Although not at all impressive at first appearance, four Treants can tank a lvl 1 tower for 16 additional seconds for your team to pummel the tower to the ground. With the above suggested skill build, tower gold for all three outer towers can be easily had within 10 minutes of the game. This is potentially an extra 4000 gold advantage for your team, and also opens up their forest for wards and ganks.

The mana cost of Force of Nature is consistently an expensive 160 mana at all levels. During early game, players will have to choose between either a high level of Sprout, or a high level of Force of Nature and a low level of Sprout. I take the latter, since a three second hold for 100 mana is a great deal, and still gives Furion a tremendous amount of early pushing power.

More Treants also allow you to use them as scouts. This can be the difference between a successful tower push and a disastrous gank from your opponents. Use them to scout the main routes to Roshan as well while your team takes the Aegis...or just use them to tank Roshan himself. One thing is certain, there are no shortage of trees in DOTA.

You can also use Treants to divert a tower's attention during a tower dive. Have the Treants attack the enemy hero, and the tower will focus upon them while your team pummels them to the ground.

Wrath of Nature

Furion's epic nuke. Like nearly all aspects of Furion's gameplay, there is a relatively steep learning curve to effective Wrath usage. When and where do you cast it? How often? For what purpose?

For the longest time, I thought Wrath had to be targeted on a unit, since it only hits units and not areas. No, you can target Wrath literally anywhere. Just press W and click somewhere, and the orange lightning will start bouncing around. This works on the minimap too. It will keep bouncing off of the nearest target until it reaches its maximum of 16 (18) targets, or it runs out of targets to hit, globally.

I have six main usages for Wrath, tiered in order of importance:

- Counterpushing
- Setting up a gank
- Teamfights
- Finisher
- Pushing
- Farming

- Counterpushing is by far the most important aspect of Wrath of Nature, especially mid-game onward. More than likely your opponents will have eventually succeeded in pushing one outer tower, and may find the balls necessary to continue past a lvl 2 tower. Wrath the lane farthest from their push, and watch it eventually bounce onto them for significant damage. If they have mediocre or no support at all, this may effectively stop non-tanks from pushing. After watching a couple replays, I was astonished to see many agi carries without healing support promptly turn back to the fountain after a well-timed Wrath.

Also, remember that your team does not have the mobility you possess, and because of this you may find it at times advantageous to accompany them on a sustained push. This usually will cause a different lane to push naturally, or perhaps a hard-to-kill hero (Gondar, Clinkz, Abbadon) is trying to bait your team away from your main push. Wrath your current lane, and watch it obliterate the creep concentration on the other lane. These are two examples of Wrath's ability to stop an enemy push, and are by far the most important usages of Wrath. The usage of Wrath in the second example will save your team from having to split up in order to control a natural creep push in some far-off location.

- From the moment you reach level 6, Wrath is also very effective in setting up a gank. This is not quite as important as counterpushing, but if it results in a dead hero, then this also becomes a very good usage of Wrath and usually sets up a good push, made easier by Wrath's global damage. Once you get a good idea how much damage it will deal to your intended target, you can cast Wrath and immediately teleport to your intended target's escape route. The moment you appear, Wrath will connect, Sprout, and three to five seconds later they should be dead. The combination of Wrath connecting and your sudden appearance will send opponents into an immediate panic if Wrath damage was severe enough.

- Teamfights comes after ganks in importance. Think about it - if some lone hero is gankable with Wrath, then more than likely their team is not organized enough at the time to launch a teamfight. By taking out this hero, you lessen the chance of a teamfight occurring until after that hero respawns. If there are no lone heroes, then more than likely a team fight is about to occur. The principle is the same as for ganking - if you see a teamfight about to happen, Wrath immediately at some location far away from the fight, and watch it deal significant damage to the enemy as the fight is taking place. Then, see whether or not your team is chasing or fleeing, and position your Teleport appropriately.

- It's generally difficult to use Wrath as a finisher, but it is possible and quite dramatic. The difficulty lies in maintaining vision of the target while Wrath is bouncing around, and that if you use it as an instant global nuke, the damage is initially pathetic. Sprout may come in handy if someone is turning corners repeatedly or juking you somehow. Chasing via TP is preferred to this.

- Many people think Wrath is great for pushing, but I strongly disagree. YOU are great for pushing, and if YOU are there, YOU get all the experience from pushing. If you mindlessly spam Wrath to push all lanes, it is little better than farming. Still, it can be advantageous to push all three lanes simultaneously in that it may set up warding opportunities. Use Wrath sparingly in this regard - if you become careless in spamming it, it may not be available for when you really need it, i.e. teamfights, ganks, or counterpushes.

- Even more people look at Wrath and go, wow, farm. True, Wrath makes Furion easily the richest person on either team, but it may rob your teammates of their own farm. Also, if your team is not aggressively pushing (i.e., lvl 2 towers are all still up), then you may be making it easier for the opponents to farm their GG items. Therefore, I strongly disagree that Wrath is mainly a farming spell. You want the enemy to fear Nature's Wrath, and making their farming lives easier is not the way to do it.

When NOT to Wrath - I believe warding is an essential aspect to Furion in particular. This may give you vision of enemy heroes when they do not expect it. Do NOT Wrath simply because you see large red dots on the mini-map away from your creeps - this may make the enemy aware of your warding and they may proceed to counterward. Wrath only when you or your team is ready to kill them - that will cause them to not even notice that you had already known their location and will make them less suspicious of your warding.

Bottom line - Wrath is extremely flexible, and can be used for myriad purposes. Wrath makes pushing against Furion a very taxing affair, much more so than against other heroes, all the while making the lanes naturally push towards the enemy base, eventually resulting in victory.

Early game

Furion certainly can jungle, and if you are new to Furion and are trying to increase map awareness, I encourage you to try jungling. You can then keep your eyes on all lanes without the intense micro-ing of laning, all the while leveling effortlessly. Teleportation gives Furion the opportunity to gank any lane at any time - this becomes even easier once Furion hits lvl 6. I recommend an extra sobi mask on top of RoB if you plan on extended early jungling...you can always sell it later.

I prefer laning with Furion. His range is excellent, and he is less fragile than most ranged heroes initially. He hits quite hard, and is excellent at harassing, and if the opponent cannot counter Sprout, can be quite deadly. If you can lane while maintaining map awareness for any ganking opportunities, then you will be able to help your team achieve a more dominant presence overall early game.

Side lanes are fine, as is mid. Mid in particular decreases the chance of you personally getting ganked, and can significantly increase the chance of a successful 3 man gank in either side lane. Getting Wrath early makes this even easier.

The suggested skill build allows for an early tower kill in your lane once you hit lvl 5. One, maybe two casts of Force of Nature are usually enough to take a tower down in a dual lane. Capitalize on this and move to another lane and repeat until all outer towers are down.

Some may complain that this interferes with farming, which may certainly be the case. However, if you are the carry, then this IS your farming. Personally taking down multiple towers contributes not only to your team's gold but your own gold quite handsomely, allowing you to buy your core and some wards to boot. It also opens up more of the map for your team to gank, which is always advantageous, especially with warding. If anything, taking down especially the long lanes (bot Sentinel, top Scourge) will tend to hamper the enemy's farming effectiveness by making their jungle vulnerable. You will generally be able to take down these towers with minimal towers lost on your end, allowing your team to maintain a distinct gold advantage.

Mid game

Once you hit lvl 6, Wrath allows you to be able to force a gank anytime, anywhere. If players are still laning, then generally Wrath will open up ripe opportunities for an easy kill somewhere on the map. Spam Wrath during this stage whenever possible, as slowly but surely opponents will have to either spend more on consumables than they intended, or simply retreat back to the fountain. The latter makes taking down towers much easier.

Before you have your core, caution is advised. Your survivability is low, and unless Sprout is unusually effective, you'll probably be targeted first and easily killed. Farm your core and concentrate on taking down all outer towers. Suggested warding spots are along the river/rune paths until all outer towers are down.

Once you have your core, aggressively ward. Ward their jungle, ward the 'uber' spot, and see what their team does. Take any opportunity to push any lane, and concentrate on taking down the lvl 2 towers. Your core will make this relatively painless, and Teleportation will allow you to do this on all lanes. Keep pushing and keep an eye out for ganks and teamfights. The more aggressive you are with pushing, the richer you will become, and soon you will also achieve a distinct level advantage as well.

Generally, I suggest that Furion not stay with a ganking party, but arrive after Wrath has been cast and the enemy's movements are determined. This takes full advantage of Wrath, Teleport, and Sprout to either stop an enemy chase or seal a kill. If something goes wrong, your core will help you survive. My own experience has been that Furion is almost always easier to kill than anyone else on your team once targeted, and to have to initiate with Lothar during a gank because of this is not fun.

If no opportunities present themselves, i.e. the enemy is nowhere to be seen even with wards, farm your jungle, and make sure to keep the entrance to your jungle warded. Make this a low priority - take advantage of your mobility and let your team farm in the relatively safe haven of your own jungle.

End game

Successful end-game for Furion has two options - you semi-carry with Sprout as a disable, Wrath as global burst damage, and Deso as DPS augmentation for your team, or you fully carry and become a frightening omni-present force anywhere on the battlefield. Keep doing what you did mid-game, and take down all raxes in all lanes. GG.

Introduction

Furion is an INT long-ranged attacker, much like Silencer. It may be tempting to copy Silencer's build and go straight for Guinsoo, but Silencer actually has some natural damage augmentation with Glaives to make Guinsoo a viable damage item whereas you have none. Also, you already have a quasi-diable via Sprout, and you'll have to pray that the enemy remains caught in it for the full duration. If not, Furion becomes a weaker carry and a weaker support than Silencer, as he has no steroids whatsoever and a terrible disable. If Sprout works, then Furion potentially has one of the most potent mobility counters in the game. This leaves you free to augment what you lack - steroids.

Furion's range when combined with Sprout is designed to grant him a full 5 seconds of immunity while his target gets pummeled by your attack. So, item-wise, the goal then becomes prioritizing high-damage items over other considerations. However, Furion also has no real escape device - if he gets stunned, that is usually enough time for the enemy to close in so that Sprout becomes useless, and teleportation is a very weak form of escape. Therefore, survivability is also a main concern with Furion, and since he is an INT hero, he has all the disadvantages that INT heroes face - low HP and armor progression.

What makes Furion viable as a DPS beast is his incredible farm. Items will fix all of these problems, and items come very easily to Furion.

Core



Optional Core:


Yes, Lothar. Lothar accomplishes both of the goals of DPS and survivability for Furion better than any other item in the game. Yes, it can be countered, but not nearly as easily as three seconds of you standing there getting pummeled praying for a teleport back to the fountain. The 20% IMS from the windwalk is key to escaping even if the enemy has dust. Get some distance and use Sprout to disrupt pathing. Stay alert while pushing deep in enemy territory, and you should be fine. If Lothar saved you from 3-4 deaths, then it did its job. Add to that the bonuses from the damage items, and it will serve as a decent DPS item until you get your first real extention. One incredible bonus to Lothar is that it allows you to invisibly teleport - you stand there for 3 seconds invisible until the moment your teleport activates. Yet another benefit to Lothar is that it increases your survivability if you choose to heavily ward deep inside enemy territory. These wards can dramatically increase the chances of victory for your team during team fights, as you now know when it is and isn't advantageous to start a fight. Lothar makes placing these wards relatively painless.

RoB serves two main purposes - a 10% damage increase and devotion aura. The brilliance aura is just gravy, but the other aspects make you more potent while laning and pushing as well. STR treads for cheap IAS and HP, and a Null for cheap damage and some more HP.

Treads is the footwear of choice, and STR treads gives you cheap HP. Nulls then give you cheap damage and some more padding. Don't get Bracers.

Other options to the core include Urn and Medallion. If you are gank-oriented, you become a great Urn carrier - it gives your team a mobile heal and 120 HP for yourself as well. I would prioritize Medallion after Lothar, as Furion early on really does suffer from survivability without it if ever attacked head-on. If you are pushing deep in enemy territory, Medallion will serve no purpose other than to extend your death by 0.2 seconds or so.

Warding is key to taking full advantage of Furion's mobility. The best way for Furion to play support is warding, and he can do this while carrying. I've tried Mek and it can work decently, but it contributes nothing to his DPS and is much more expensive than wards. Leave the healing to Lich or Chen, or just get an Urn.

What is absent from the core is any sort of regen or mana augmentation. Within 20 seconds, you can go back to base, fully heal, shop, and go wherever you want to go, even if it was back to what you were originally doing. Don't waste your money on regen or mana pool items, as you will need all of your incredible farm to make up for your lack of steroids.

Extensions



Optional Extensions:


Deso is the first suggested extension. Deso not only dramatically increases your DPS, it also melts towers as well. Because of this, and because Furion doesn't have any real need for regen of any sort including lifesteal, Deso becomes not only the first real DPS item Furion gets, but also his orb of choice. Lothar and Deso before 30 minutes into the game is usually enough to do frightening damage to most opponents.

Next is Manta. Manta gives Furion a good boost to damage through images, and further increases survivablity to single-target stuns and nukes, and offers a nice debuff opportunity. It also gives modest HP and MS, which is always nice.

After Manta is either Assault or Heart. Heart turns Furion and his images into a real beast, and combined with Assault makes you very difficult to kill, especially if you have maintained a distinct item advantage over the enemy. Assault also stacks with Deso, including on towers. All of this - Lothar, Deso, Manta, Assault and Heart, can be farmed under 1 hour in an AP game if you are doing relatively well.

Other extensions include Guinsoo, Orchid and Shiva. For Orchid especially, keep in mind you are paying a lot for useless mana regen. As discussed already for Guinsoo, it doesn't pack enough punch to double as a DPS item for Furion, although it may certainly help in ganking. Someone may get the bright idea that Guinsoo's 3.5 second stun is exactly what you need to disable someone between Sprout cooldowns...but wouldn't it be better still if the target were dead before the first Sprout wore off? Hard DPS items ensure the latter outcome. Shiva is less effective against towers than Assault, and Furion generally is offensively oriented. Still, this does provide 30 damage, so it's something to consider, especially if someone else on your team already got Assault.

Luxuries

There are no luxuries for Furion...he can afford just about anything.

Situational



Top amongst situational items is MKB. Evasion is a bitch, and MKB solves it. MKB also solves the problem of anyone trying to do their best impression of you and TP out of your sprout. I recommend getting MKB before Deso against heroes like Morty, Riki, and especially WR.

Midas - in theory, an item that pays for itself is always a good investment. In practice, I see this as somewhat stifling early kill potential and slows your build to an early Lothar. If you go for Midas, I recommend that it be your first item, before RoB or boots.

Is Bara or Huskar on the other team? Ghost Scepter, then TP. Regardless of whether or not you get this, I still recommend Lothar first. Manta may still be better.

Force staff is meh on Furion in my opinion. The distance is generally still not enough to ensure a safe TP, it does minor damage compared to Lothar and it DESTROYS TREES. WHAT??? NOT IN MY BACKYARD!

Blademail after Heart preferably. Most people counter Furion with this. If Lothar, GS, or Heart is not enough for survivability, then I doubt this will fare any better.

BKB - I prefer Heart and Manta, but maybe this works for other people. If AOE stuns are a problem, then it's probably of the ultimate variety, and Heart works better, in my opinion.

Buriza - if you prioritize damage over survivability and Lothar is more than enough, sure, get this.

Linkens - for really pesky single target spells, particularly Doom, Finger, and Laguna Blade. Getting this against a rampaging Pugna or Ogre is also quite viable.

Blink - Anyone can benefit from Blink, and Furion is no exception. Still, you already have TP for positioning, and this does nothing for your DPS. Think hard before getting this.

Butter - This can work on non-agi carries. However, for non-agi's it's usually a choice between Butter and Assault, and for Furion especially, Assault is a better choice.

Necrobook - Well, you can farm this easily, and it gives truesight if you sprout Nerub. Not much else good to say about this though. You'll compromise your DPS by buying this, and only one of the minions will be attacking whatever you sprout.

Diffusal - Omni, and only Omni, should require you to even think about this. There are much better Diffusal holders than Furion, although you are one of the very few heroes that can meaningfully chase and kill a good Omni. If for some odd reason you choose to buy this, forego Deso and get Manta and MKB.

MoM - I've yet to try this, but if Sprout is working well, this may be viable. Perhaps make Medallion part of your core, replace Deso with MKB, and get Buriza.

Rejected



All other orbs - Deso is too good on Furion. Satanic is tempting but Manta should be enough for survivability. Mjol is also tempting but does nothing against towers. Ditto for Skadi, even in conjunction with Satanic - also, Skadi gives you a meaningless increase to your mana pool. TP is your chasing skill, you don't need the slow from Skadi.



Radiance - overfarm. The sparkle is below the range of your attack.

Refresh - no.

Dagon - This relegates Furion to at best a mid-game hero. You sacrifice any late-game potential for a one-hit wonder. You are not Nerub or WD, you have no combo, and you only live to KS if you buy this item.

Aghanim - I used to get this as my first core, but there are so many disadvantages to Agha compared to other items that I finally threw it into the rejected pile in disgust. The HP augmentation is nothing without Lothar, the DPS is non-existant, you don't need the mana, and while important, you do NOT rely upon your ultimate for your core gameplay - you rely upon your DPS. This relegates Aghanim to a farming item that gives modest HP for the same price as Deso. As discussed already, Wrath for only farming is highly discouraged.

By far the main disadvantages for Agha is that it barely increases survivability and does nothing for DPS - in fact, it will probably cause you to attain the same level of damage as a Clinkz without his steroids...but he has his steroids, doesn't he? I don't think Furion's ultimate is nearly as important to his gameplay as it is for Enchant or Lich.



Travels/Phase/Arcane Boots - Treads by far is the best choice for Furion. He doesn't need the mana from Arcane, and he uses TP to chase. Travels is an insult to your own TP, and is far too expensive for what it gives to you.



SnY - This is usually considered marginal or situational for STR and AGI heroes, and Furion is neither. Again, TP to chase - the maim and IMS are not required.



I've tried this on Furion and true, it increases survivability. It also increases your presence in team clashes IF you are there at the beginning of the clash. IF you are there at the beginning of the clash without Lothar, you will be focused and killed instantaneously. Mek will increase your survivability by one nuke, and only if you are not chain-stunned so that you can actually use the heal. Will it help your team? No, because you will be focused first, and you will die quickly.

What does Mek do for your DPS? Zero. It delays any sort of damage even from Lothar significantly. What about Furion's incredible farm? Can't you buy this AND a good DPS item suite? No, because your farm is making up for your lack of steroids...you need the distinct DPS advantage to carry, and delaying your DPS items by buying this will almost guarantee that you will fall behind anyone else that has even just an average farming game. If you absolutely need a healer on your team GET URN. Avoid this.

Friends



No question Furion thrives with a strong ganking team. High burst damage makes up for your general lack of it, while your ultimate and eventual TP will at times turn a questionable gank or a panicked run into a resounding victory for your team. Watching an SF blink into a Sprout is generally a bit more panic-inducing than a heart-attack.



Cent, Axe, Magnus, Enigma, Levi, besides just being good picks, also are able to keep vision of your foes for extended periods of time for Wrath to connect, as they are generally in the middle of everything.



WR - Guaranteed Shackelshot.



Invoker - Chaos Meteor, Forged Spirits, Deafening blast, all within
Sprout...Cold snap to add humiliation.



Drow, Venge, Ogre - Steroids to make your damage even more frightening.



Riki deserves special mention - smoke and Sprout essentially cripple anything caught in it for the full 5 seconds. All the while, the enemy is probably shitting in his pants waiting for your Sprout the end, meaning his back is turned...the effective order is Riki scouting, Furion TP, Sprout, Smoke, Blink.



Pit also deserves special mention. There are times where your team may not be able to gank effectively, and may find themselves defending at a tower. The combination of Pit's spells and Wrath alone will usually set up the situation for a chase. After the chase, Pit can then 'press the attack' with his own ultimate. With you on the team, all lanes will probably be dangerously close to their base, meaning that any successful turtling attempt may immediately result in a raxed lane for your team. Pit is also a walking Mek for your team and an incredibly good pusher on his own, although sadly most player simply do not recognize how powerful Expulsion is. All of Pit's spells work very well with Sprout, and he has more than enough time to fully channel Rain. It's kinda funny to see the STR hero bust out the nukes, and the INT hero the DPS, but whatever.



Anyone that can ignore the terrain synergizes well with Sprout. Spec deserves special mention here, as she is also a 'global' hero.



Other global heroes also work quite well. I've yet to try this, but I can imagine a game with (of course) an SB charging at a target. Shortly before he connects, Zeus Wraths, you Wrath, Spec Haunts, SB connects, ulties, Spec throws dagger, you TP. This could not only kill just about anybody, it could also bring anyone in the area, indeed anyone on the map, to dangerously low levels of HP, so that if they are in the area, they may also see reason to flee. You can pull this off every 2 minutes or so. For a real surprise have Naix infest SB. This can turn even the most suicidal SB into an unstoppable force, and can synonymize Charge to a guaranteed death sentence in any situation.

Foes

Furion's foes generally force him to radically alter his item build away from DPS.



ES is top of the list as one of your biggest threats. You can have up to 10 Treants at a time pushing a tower...you may find the need to go Heart before even Deso if faced against ES. For enhanced spell protection just get the
Planeswalker cloak...no need for the extra regen from the Hood.



AM and Spec are two more rape picks against Furion. You may have to go Guinsoo before Deso against either of these two, although against Spec, TP is enough to easily survive.



A farmed Morty would seem to call for Guinsoo as well, but she'll probably rape your entire team before you notice her anyway. Morty also has the exceptionally annoying skill that can negate your map awareness in multiple ways via Blur. If you can get MKB or Deso before Morty completes her first luxury item, gank at will.



Ursa can tear anyone apart, and you are no exception. Always be prepared to WW if he blinks in - again, Guinsoo may be more important earlier than Deso here.



Bat and SB totally negate Sprout. Thankfully, your team should be able to take either of them down before they ulti you. If not, prepare to WW, or get Guinsoo.



Lich and Doom are two of the most frightening picks in DOTA. You will be
thankful you carry Lothar against Lich, and you will be equally thankful you enter the battle late against Doom. Again, the cloak may come in handy here.



Silencer's ultimate is incredibly annoying - it will cancel any casting of TP right when you need it most - during a team fight. Silencer will probably force you to travel with your team during ganks, which lessens your pushing power and mobility. Guinsoo after Lothar is recommended, since he is generally easy to take down without enhanced DPS, and he cannot silence items.

Prey



Techies - This guy wants to turn your backyard into a nuclear wasteland. Fortunately you have all the tools at your disposal to negate Techies' effectiveness, right from the beginning. Use Force of Nature liberally to scout for mines, TP to base for sentry wards, and buy a gem after you get Lothar. You are one of the best carriers of a gem against Techies, with your high mobility, superior range, excellent scouting skills, easy base access, and your tendency to ward and push towers.

Unfortunately, the opposite is not true. Techies makes a terrible teammate for Furion, as both players have a tendency to stay away from gank parties, making team ganks much less effective. Unlike Pit, Techies cannot effectively project his turtling abilities into pushed lanes.



Meepo - A good Meepo is usually an unstoppable force after mid game, but Meepo demonstrates how effective Sprout can be. Like I said earlier, the key to Sprout is isolation, and interestingly, Meepo clones cannot carry a Force Staff, QB, or Tangoes. Also, unlike other single-target spells, Sprout can trap multiple enemies if they are close together, and your range places you safely out of Poof's AOE.

Early game, make it your mission to kill Meepo as many times as possible before he reaches 11. If he is laning, this is ridiculously easy, just TP behind him every opportunity you get - Wrath and a teammate makes this almost an assured kill.



Invisible Heroes - Furion makes frequent trips back to base, allowing him to constantly spend his income on DPS items...and dust. Ganking Clinkz, Gondar or Weaver is not difficult with a well-timed Teleport and immediate dust.