Necrophos - A Good Fit For The Meta
Every time we release our pub tier lists, there are heroes that repeatedly place amongst the top dogs of the pubs. Heroes, with incredibly consistently high winrates not only across multiple brackets, but also patches.
For the longest time, Necrophos has had one of the highest winrates in the Very High Skill bracket, but like a few other heroes in this category, he was never truly popular on a competitive level.
There have however been cases and scenarios where he was picked and truly excelled, as a few players have seen the potential in him and feel comfortable playing him. But all the potential aside, there are valid reasons for why the hero is not picked.
Necrophos’ Issues
Necrophos as a hero has always been in an uncomfortable spot. The hero may need the farm of a carry, but doesn’t have the same impact as other carries with the same amount of farm. Necrophos’ damage output doesn’t come through physical damage and his strongest weapon, his ultimate, is also reliant on the rest of his team to provide damage.
The itemization for Necrophos is also not something everybody seems to be able to agree on. Many pubs still opt, though possibly influenced by the recommended items, for a Mekansm, something you don’t often see in pro Necrophos performances. It’s not that pros never build Mek on the hero, it’s just that the item is not always necessary from a tactical standpoint and has the potential to slow down the hero’s impact--more on that later.
Necrophos’ impact is often highly dependant on a good, successful ultimate, though it does provide a lot of damage regardless of whether or not it is successful, while still being a BKB piercing disable. And his item decisions increase the focus on his ultimate, with 
Aghanim's Scepter and 
Refresher Orb being two of the more popular items for the hero--at least in pro games.
Cloud 9’s Io-Necrophos dual lane
Roughly 2 years ago, when Cloud 9 with the likes of EternalEnvy and pieliedie was around, the team had a go-to combination that would, in most cases, secure them a win. By combining Necrophos with 
Io, the team had a strong dual lane which they could even use to go aggressive with.
What made this combination so strong was how durable and sustainable it was and still is. It can contest pulls, farm and secure runes and is difficult to kill. In fact, this combination can even be the aggressor and secure kills themselves, given the situation.
EternalEnvy’s starting build of purchasing two 
Ring of Protections makes the strategy all the more viable, as it becomes increasingly more difficult to take down the hero in the early game.
Cloud 9 and EternalEnvy have shown that the hero does work in the competitive scene, though it has to be for a specific purpose. You can’t draft a normal line-up and substitute Necrophos in for any carry/core, he needs to serve a specific purpose.
There’s an argument to be made that he is more of a counterpick; rather than providing a gameplan or a win condition by himself, he makes sure the opponent doesn’t succeed with their gameplan.
A good fit for the meta
So what does Necrophos counter? He can counter tanky cores, he can punish single core line-ups and can counter aggression as well.
The current meta sees a variety of tanky cores picked and played, most notably Lifestealer, Terrorblade but also Timbersaw. Timbersaw’s competitive success might be the key to see more and more Necrophos pickups, as the hero excels against Timbersaw. Yes, Necrophos is generally good against all tanky cores, but there are factors that make it difficult to play against the likes of a Lifestealer or Terrorblade. Lifestealer has built-in magic immunity and works just as well against Necrophos, as he enjoys chewing through tanky heroes himself. Necrophos’ nuke doesn’t scale well enough to deal with the TB illusions properly and there’s always the risk of using the ultimate on a fake Terrorblade.
Timbersaw though is a hero that needs to be focused down with magic burst and if he doesn’t get killed, he’ll regenerate quickly. In addition, the longer death timer counters the often picked up Bloodstone and its short death timers.
The meta right now also doesn’t require a single core, which could be considered bad, because there is no go to target for Necro’s ultimate. However, it enables teams to even pick Necro in the first place. Giving him safelane farm does not mean shooting yourself in the foot anymore. You can have a farmer in the midlane and thanks to Iron Talon even your fourth position can transition into a farming core.
Escape Gaming bringing Necro back
Recent European TI6 Wildcard contestant Escape Gaming has brought Necrophos to the qualifiers for TI6. They picked him 3 times, every time responding to a Timbersaw pick of their opponents. In addition, they would pick two supports to compliment the sustain of Necrophos, namely Io and 
Dazzle.
Era’s itembuild also greatly differs from Envy’s, as he purchases 
Veil of Discord and a 
Dagon--a focus on the magic burst damage against the likes of Timbersaw.
Together with the two defensive supports, Necrophos provides a lot of sustain for his team and allows the other cores to be more effective. A playstyle and strategy that suits Escape Gaming, who don’t always have their primary core in the safelaner. Other teams have had similar farm distributions, Liquid’s Matumbaman has a number of performances on Necrophos as well. Liquid have built similar line-ups around the Necrophos, though their emphasis has often been more on the pushing aspect.
As the meta continues to allow multiple cores to be viable, especially in a teamfighting setting, Necrophos could very well gain in popularity. While 
Glimmer Cape is a very effective counter against the hero, it at least forces out economy from the opponent to be dedicated to one hero.
Necrophos may not be the bane of your upcoming pub matches, but it may be the pick for you if you wish to try something different that is very much viable right now.
Headline Image by motenai
The deadly SS
just 2d
Third
god i love necro
Thank god there is not another retarded first comment.
Rediculously easy and strong hero to play
If u just want some raw mmr without really getting any better in dota - necrophos is the way to go
An easy hero for beginners... good article
So, um.... I fed 29 kills yesterday as Necro... and I still feel that:
a) i got all the farm i needed
b) we lost not because of me, but because of a last-pick techies
I felt i should have abandoned right at the techies pick, but instead I wasted an hour and 14 minutes of my life, because of techies.
But please people, what could i have done better?
omg. noob.
buy a blink and u need just 11 seconds to comeback with aghs and refresher to get 3900 for bkb.
and u need a comeback with no raxes after
meka min 17 ez lane xD wtf.
1st tp scroll on min 16. ahahahah
2 wraith bands (gray face no space)
ahahahahahahahahahahahahaha
worst ever(
If Necro is coming back. Expect to see more of Nightstalker.
I honestly feel he is a very viable hero in the core position. Just tried him out in almost 10 matches, tbh most were losses but the impact ion the game and transition in the early to mid game is very suitable for a necrophos. The hero does need to farm like a carry, but is very formidable in today's meta.
start off as 4th position and transition into 3rd position if your offlaner doesnt scale well into late game. just rely on team for damage and get aghs at some point of game for 25 mmr lul
Dont forget to tell teammates u will not play supp
People play him bad, in potato bracket where I play, that is. And that's good, because when I pick him it usually results in ez mmr :)
Wrong picture used on the second Necrophos build, you've used the EE build twice.
^
As Retoonetoo said the EE build is up twice.
the 18th
lol
Necrolyte isn't a carry (I think he is semi) yet he can deal with carry like sf or wk. I usually make HoT, Guardian Graves, Radiance, aghanim, shiva, and gs/blink/forcestaff and win the game perfectly with comeback.
@FeatherSalt Although the techies performance and item build were lacking, you were definitely also a very key part of your loss. You died an incredible amount of times, especially considering you had an omni on your team. I assume you were picked off by pudge, clock, and slark a lot, so it is your responsibility (even as a core) to make sure that you had good vision wherever you went. This may mean buying observers and sentries yourself, especially with only one support, but it is well worth it. 4 obs only costs 300 gold, which if it saves even one life, pays for itself. Another thing, your item build was kind of weak. I don't think atos was the right call that game unless you were winning for the first 20 minutes. Atos is much better for aggressive play then defensive, so if you were losing the whole game, you shouldn't have gotten it. Also, Necro almost always needs a mobility item, and going force staff here would have soft countered Pudge, Slark, Axe, and Lina, and hard countered Clockwork. Force also has great synergy with techies, so ideally, your team would have had like 3 force staffs. Glimmer cape would have also worked as a substitute for Omni, or for you if you couldn't farm up a force staff. Looking at the Death graph, it looks like you died most of the time in lane, as you died 15 times in the first 25 minutes. There is no excuse for dying that much, and feeding lina and slark that much gold, especially as they are both snowballing heroes. With that start, you alone probably brought your odds of winning to ~25%, so don't blame techies. If you are in a solo offlane like that, just stay back, and get xp. You can farm later, but dying 15 times lost you around 4500 gold, so it is never worth dying for some cs. Watch Lina very carefully for her animation, especially her stun animation. Just be more careful in your games, and don't tilt from start because someone picked techies.
And another thing @Feathersalt, your skilll build was awful. Never max heart stopper first, because it's % based, it does very little damage early game. Almost always max Death Pulse first, and Sadist second. You want 4-0-2-1 or 3-0-3-1 by level 7. In a solo offlane, you can justify skipping your ult until you leave the lane, or someone ganks.
I hate people who think that Necro consists solely of his ultimate.
He's useful all around.
The 9gag reaper
without a pushing line up necro is pretty much useless since he cant push that well. he can kill creeps but not towers. and against heroes like kotl, tinker, jugg might as well say gg since you will never break high ground
Yeah, i got Atos after Slark had a Linkens, so i got it to pop the linkens, but it didn't work that well. I was so angry with the techies pick that I guess i just tilted. I'm surprised how late the game went all things considered.
You always have a choice not to tilt, you can only improve on your own game through reflection. Outside of that you can only do your best through polite, non confrontational communication. If you tilt, refrain from any kind of communication. You can also abandon so your teammates may have a chance, and you save yourself time. I've had better odds microing multiple heroes than playing with a teammate who has tilted so far that they've stopped thinking about their own game.
Emotional regulation and self awareness are important milestones in your development towards adulthood.
^I've had games where someone hopelessly feeds and then ragequits, sell his (shitty) items and get gold advantage, as long as your cores/carry are/is still in the game you can perfectly win with 4 even more than with 5 in some cases.
I won a game as enigma once where viper dc'd and we still had Jugg, lina and some other hero xD And all it took was 1 black hole while defending and ez gg push
17-1 winrate on two accounts right here. Treads, Aquila, Blink, Force, Shiva's, Agh's, gg. Blademail or bkb if needed. Skip aura entirely until later unless you're laning against a hero with high base hp. If you're not aggressive in lane you're doing it wrong.
ridiculously designed int hero with 2! passives. c'mon, Terrorblade has no passive!!
@reto
Thanks! I was so concerned in making sure they'd link to the right page, that I forgot to insert the right picture. Of course I wanted to highlight Era's build!
33rd
@Leviathan3rd , what does gs mean? :3
@Quinkerros it's Ghost Scepter, mate. Usefull against physical attacker.
Necro is only good if you rush radiance octarine Kappa
I <3 this hero , whenever u wanted a radiance , it doesnt matter
Blade Mail > Ghost Scepter! Gives a lot of damage and armor and active is so good. This article just made me play a game with Necro. Sweet Ultra kill. Just Force Staff in and ult! I build Threads>Force Staff>Veil>Blade Mail>Aghs. Not necessarily in that order.
How is it, this guy http://www.dotabuff.com/players/774185 does so good - his Necrophos winrate (51 matches) is 98%?
Just red the first few sentences and knew this will be bullshit post.
I have to say for a beginner, Necro is probably the easiest hero to play.
Necro is one of my favorite heroes. Now the cool thing is i usually start the game as a support but as the game passes, from a 4th or 5 position u become a 3rd. Eventhough ur still supporting the team with wards, u get enough gold to build up damage dealing items. But the key is how u play. U should pull and lvl up in ur lane and at some point early on the game start ganking.
not true, necro can be hard carry hero with nice build, his ultimate oneshots idiots with scepter, this is just a view of amateur dota player :)
How about the biggest factor this hero brings to the table in late game, his ability to prevent a buyback with his aghs. I've lost games to this, necro ults your superfarmed carry and then hes out for three minutes and cant buyback. One of the best heroes for a late game comeback.