Dota 2 Death Prophet: Items Build | Game Plan

Dota 2 Death Prophet is one of the best Mid heroes you can play. She gets picked when the team’s strategy is to group up and start fighting early. The goal is to destroy all the tier 1 towers in the first 15 minutes and all the tier 2 towers by the 25-minute mark. Death Prophet enables that strategy thanks to her ultimate.

Occasionally, you will see players using Death Prophet in the Offlane role. But she’s much stronger in the position 2 roles because she gets to level up relatively safely and much faster.

If you enjoy playing this Dota 2 hero, our Death Prophet Dota 2 guide will give you a more solid understanding of her stats, strengths, and weaknesses.

Death Prophet’s Pros and Cons

These are the pros and cons of playing Death Prophet in Dota 2.

Pros:

She can drain a lot of HP from her opponents
She has a lot of mana
Her 6-second AoE silence is one of the strongest in the game
She has excellent mobility while her ultimate is active
She excels at taking Roshan, pushing towers, and clearing creep waves
She is difficult to kill in 1v1 situations
Her stat increase per level is amazing: 3.1 / 2 / 3.3
She has decent health and mana regen

Cons:

She is slow for the first 5 levels
Her HP at level 1 is low
She needs a lot of farm to be effective
Her ability to farm the jungle is not very good
She has no escape mechanisms

Lore

Krobelus, the Death Prophet, used to tell fortunes for wealthy people. But after a while, she began to wonder about her own fate. Her death was temporary, and she kept returning to life, not understanding why. But each time she returned from the grave, she was changed.

These changes made wraiths and other creatures of twilight follow her. She continued to die and return to life, hoping she would be freed from the cycle one day.

Attributes and Stats

These are Death Prophet’s general stats:

Win Rate	51.8%
Level	1 – 30
Health	578 (at level 1)
Health regeneration	0.25
Mana	435 (at level 1)
Mana regeneration	0.5
DMG	47 – 57
Armor	3.6
DMG Block	none
Magic Resistance	25%
Status Resistance	0%
Attack Rate	1.7
Movement Speed	285
Attack Speed	100
Attack Animation	0.5 + 0.51
Projectile Speed	1000
Attack Range	600
Turn Rate	0.8
Collision Size	24
Vision Range	1800 / 800
Gib Type	Ethereal

Ability Upgrades:

Death Prophet’s abilities are upgraded by some of her 8 talents.

Level 10 talents: +14% magic resistance / +30 damage
Level 15 talents: -2s Crypt Swarm cooldown / +30 Spirit Siphon damage and heal
Level 20 talents: +20% Spirit Siphon slow / +400 health
Level 25 talents: +8 Exorcism spirits / -20s Spirit Siphon replenish time

These talents turn Death Prophet into an unkillable hero during the mid-game. Once you reach level 15 and level 20, the enemy team will need to focus you down to get the job done. And you can easily survive numerous spells and attacks if you buy the right items. You should aim for high armor, magic resistance, and stats.

Roles Death Prophet Can Take On

Death Prophet is a natural Mid hero. The initial goal is to get to level 6 and then 12. Once you’re level 12, you can easily push towers, farm, and grow rapidly. This hero has excellent capabilities for 5v5 situations. However, you should never think of DP as a farmer. She is not. This hero thrives when her team fights often.

Death Prophet Item Builds

These are the most crucial items you should buy when picking Death Prophet. Your build may vary a little bit based on the enemy lineup but in most cases, the items presented below are the most useful.

One important decision you’ll need to make is whether you want to turn yourself into a durable tank or a damage-dealing Mid. Both builds are viable, and it’s up to you to determine what you want to do. Always ask yourself: what would maximize my chances of success against the enemy team?

Early Game

For the early game, consider buying these items:

Magic Wand
Mangoes
Phase Boots / Arcane Boots
Wind Lace
Bottle
Null Talisman

Mid Game

During the mid-game, you will usually purchase several of these items:

Aghanim’s Shard
Ghost Scepter
Eul’s Scepter of Divinity
Black King Bar
Guardian Greaves
Kaya and Sange

Late Game

In the late game, this hero thrives if you have one of these items:

Pipe of Insight
Shiva’s Guard
Scythe of Vyse

Abilities

Death Prophet has 4 abilities that can be further upgraded by her talents. You can use them against nearby enemy units or to decimate heroes that rely on casting spells. Every enemy unit you’ll encounter can be brought down with them, but you must prioritize and not just waste your mana or long-cooldown spells on anything.

Crypt Swarm

This is Death Prophet’s farming ability; you can quickly kill a creep wave. The damage is substantial: 85 – 310, and the distance traveled by the swarm is 810. This allows you to farm from afar and stay safe during the laning stage. You can also use this ability to harass the enemy Mid.

If you utilize the level 15 talent associated with Crypt Swarm, its cooldown will be reduced by a third.

Mana cost: 80 – 110

Cooldown: 9s – 6s

Silence

This AoE ability allows Death Prophet to silence enemies for 3s – 6s in a 425 radius. What’s great about this ability is its cast with great speed. This makes it incredibly difficult to dodge. Against heroes like Storm Spirit or Puck, 6 seconds of silence is enough to get them killed.

Of course, in the mid and late game, those heroes will have BKBs. But keep in mind that you can cast Silence 5 times per minute, while they can only cast their BKBs once.

Mana cost: 80 – 110

Cooldown: 15s – 12s

Spirit Siphon

This ability allows Death Prophet to keep herself alive during a battle. It deals 25 – 100 damage per second and heals you for the same amount. Its duration is 6 seconds, meaning you create a 1200 HP difference between yourself and your opponent if he chooses to fight you instead of running away.

Thanks to this ability, Death Prophet is very hard to duel. To make matters worse, DP has 1 – 4 charges instead of 1. The replenish time is long (38s) but you’ll only need to use the ability in team fights and when farming large jungle camps.

If you buy yourself an Aghanim’s Shard, you will have 5 charges instead of 4, and you’ll cause your enemies to flee for a few seconds.

Mana cost: 80

Exorcism

This is Death Prophet’s ultimate ability and it allows her to deal massive amounts of physical damage to buildings and enemy heroes. You can also use this ability to kill Roshan a lot faster. That is why DP teams tend to kill Roshan more often and then push to end the game or destroy a set of barracks.

The number of spirits greatly increases with each level: 8 / 16 / 24. At level 25, thanks to the talent, you get to 32. The damage of each spirit is 59 – 64.

While Exorcism is used, Death Prophet gains 8% – 16% active move speed bonus. She also gains a passive bonus from this ability: 8% – 20% movement speed.

Exorcism lasts for 35 seconds and can be cast once every 2.5 minutes. While it is active, the enemy team will try to avoid you at all costs. This means that you can cast it to secure a Roshan kill.

Mana cost: 200 – 400

Cooldown: 150s

Ability Build Guide

When you play Death Prophet in Dota 2, you should try to follow this ability build order:

Crypt Swarm: levels 1, 3, 5, 7
Silence: levels 8, 11, 14, 16
Spirit Syphon: levels 2, 4, 9, 13
Exorcism: levels 6, 12, 18

Against some heroes, such as Storm Spirit, you’ll want to maximize Silence much faster and prioritize it over Spirit Syphon or Crypt Swarm. That’s because it’s much more valuable to have a long-duration silence in a team fight than a bit more damage.

Combo

When playing Death Prophet, your combo is simple. If the target can cast powerful abilities and doesn’t have a Blink Dagger, start with Silence. Otherwise, start with Spirit Syphon or Crypt Swarm. The goal is to cast your abilities to ensure the enemy cannot escape.

Always cast your ultimate while being around enemy heroes, unless of course, you can get the kill without it.