Zeus

Zeus

The Radiant

19 + 2.3 11 + 1.2 20 + 2.7

Level 1 16 25 Hit Points 511 1195 1936 Mana 260 806 1352 Damage 41-49 83-91 125-133 Armor 1.54 4.34 8.26 Attacks / Second 0.65 0.77 0.93

Movement Speed 295 Turn Rate 0.6 Sight Range 1800/800 Attack Range 350 Missile Speed 1100 Attack Duration 0.633+0.366 Cast Duration 0.4+0.5 Base Attack Time 1.7

Zeus the Lord of Heaven is a formidable ranged intelligence Hero. Born with the divine power of thunder and lightning, his spells, when used altogether, are able to inflict the most superb and consistent magical damage in the game. Zeus is also one of the few spell-casters who is still an effective damage-dealer late game thanks to his scaling passive ability Static Field which zaps a current percentage of the enemies' health. Anywhere at anytime, the God of Lightning and Thunder is able to bring down his most powerful ability, Thundergod's Wrath. Zeus will call down a destructive bolt of lighting to all enemy heroes in the map, electrocuting them heavily.

Bio

Zeus, the Lord of Heaven Play "You can't run from heaven!" Role: Nuker / Support Lore: Lord of Heaven, father of gods, Zeus treats all the Heroes as if they are his rambunctious, rebellious children. After being caught unnumbered times in the midst of trysts with countless mortal women, his divine wife finally gave him an ultimatum: 'If you love mortals so much, go and become one. If you can prove yourself faithful, then return to me as my immortal husband. Otherwise, go and die among your creatures.' Zeus found her logic (and her magic) irrefutable, and agreed to her plan. He has been on his best behavior ever since, being somewhat fonder of immortality than he is of mortals. But to prove himself worthy of his eternal spouse, he must continue to pursue victory on the field of battle. Voice: Eric Newsome (Responses)

Abilities

Arc Lightning Q C Ability Affects Damage Target Unit Enemy Heroes Magical Hurls a bolt of lightning that leaps through nearby enemy units. Cast Range: 700 Bounce Distance: 500 Number Of Bounces: 5/7/9/15 Damage: 85/100/115/145 1.75 65/70/75/80 Spell will be blocked if the Hero is the main target. They are still subject to being hit from the jump. Arc Lightning is Zeus' favorite spell to use against puny mortals.

Notes: The damage of Arc Lightning is not reduced with each bounce.

Lightning Bolt W G Ability Affects Damage Target Unit Enemy Heroes Magical Summons a bolt of lightning to strike an enemy unit, causing damage and a ministun. Lightning Bolt also provides True Sight around the target in a radius of 900. Cast Range: 700 Damage: 100/175/275/350 6 75/95/115/135 The truesight cannot be purged. A shocking punishment for rebellious heathen.

Notes: Posseses a mini-stun, which allows Zeus to interrupt channeling spells and items with this ability.

Static Field E F Ability Damage Passive Magical Zeus shocks all nearby enemy units whenever he casts a spell, causing damage proportional to their current health. Radius: 1000 Percentage Of Current HP Dealt As Damage: 5%/7%/9%/11% The air crackles with static when the Thundergod walks the world.

Notes: The damage from Static Field is dealt before the damage from the used spell. Units need not be visible to be damaged.

Thundergod's Wrath R W Ability Damage No Target Magical Strikes all enemy heroes with a massive bolt of heavenly lightning, no matter where they may be. Thundergod's Wrath also provides True Sight around each hero struck. If an enemy hero is invisible, it takes no damage, but the True Sight is still created at that hero's location. Radius: Global Damage: 225/350/475 (440/540/640*) Sight Radius: 1000 True Sight Radius: 900 Sight/True Sight Duration: 3 90 225/325/450 Damage is ignored, but Hero is still revealed. The truesight cannot be purged. Increases damage. The Lord of Heaven smites all who oppose him, near or far.

Notes: Gives true sight within 900 range. Reveals the surrounding area (1000 range during both day and night) for 3 seconds.

Recommended items

Explanation: Starting items: A Tango and a Healing Salve are taken for the good HP regeneration. Two Clarities will make your spells more spammable, since Zeus is very mana dependent. Iron Branches will give you more stats, helping you with survivability and mana management. Early game: Boots of Speed will make you faster. Bottle will make your spells more sustainable and will grant more survivability. Core: Arcane Boots are taken so that you'll be able to use your skills even more without going back to the base. Veil of Discord provides a useful amplification of your magical damage dealt to any enemy caught in its blast. Situational items: Aghanim's Scepter will make your ultimate deal more damage and gives good stats. Refresher Orb is used to activate your Thundergod's Wrath twice if you have sufficient mana pool. Scythe of Vyse helps in many situations, and can be used to make an enemy helpless; it also gives a nice boost to your mana pool. Bloodstone grants more health and more mana, which are very needed for Zeus. The more kills you do, the more mana regeneration you'll have. Eul's Scepter of Divinity is a good utility item: it gives more mana regeneration, a bit more of speed and a good ability to incapacitate enemy Heroes.

Tips

• Always use Lightning Bolt before Arc Lightning so you may not lose your opponent in the fog.

• Always watch your positioning as Lightning Bolt and Arc Lightning have relatively long ranges, and Thundergod's Wrath has global range. Often, there is no reason to be up close in battle unless you are chasing down heroes; and Zeus' fragility compounds this.

• When trying to kill low hp heroes (low, but not low enough for Ultimate only) in hard to navigate areas use Thundergod's Wrath to gain vision of your enemy so you can Lightning Bolt them to death.

• During team fights, use all of Zeus's spells (including his ultimate) as soon as possible to make the best use of his passive. Static Field is based on the percentage of current health, not maximum health, so it will do more damage to heroes at full HP. If you wait for the enemy team's health to go down before using Thundergod's Wrath, then Static Field will not do as much damage as it could have.

These tips were taken from this guide written by the famous Zeus player Merlini.

• While skipping most of your core items to get Aghanim's Scepter and Refresher Orb earlier is a good idea to deal a lot of damage in a short time, it has many downsides. First of all, it will use most (if not all) of your mana, making you really weak and not very useful for a good amount of time. Second, if you don't have items which can increase your mana pool enough to cast your combo (Shiva's Guard, Rod of Atos, Bloodstone, Scythe of Vyse...) you may find yourself without mana even after using your Refresher Orb. Third, you will lack a very needed HP boost or an escape mechanism; this means that you'll be rather squishy and a lot of Heroes could kill you with just a stun and some damage. Fourth, you will probably kill a lot of Heroes, but your carry should do that. Zeus scales well into the late game thanks to his passive ability, but carries are far more useful than Zeus at dealing a reliable amount of damage in the late game. You shouldn't be killing anymore.

• Thundergod's Wrath should only be used to acquire a kill if your carry is unable to attain it themself. In most encounters, it should be used early in the fight to make things easier for one's team.
• In late game, Refresher Orb is a better item than scepter as it will allow Zeus to use his spells more often, which owing to his scaling passive is more important than stronger ultimate damage. Using your three spells with a scepter in late game will deal less damage than using your three spells, then refreshing them and using them again. However, Refresher Orb provides you with no survivability, so if you need to be more tanky and durable Aghanim's Scepter is the best choice, since it gives both HP and Strength, as well as other useful stats. Furthermore, using a Refresher Orb will drain a lot of mana, making you unable to cast your abilities if used carelessly.

Trivia

• As suggested by the game's files, Zeus's name was, at one time, Zuus. The reason why is unknown.
• Zeus's alternate/fun name in DotA was "Merlini", a tribute to a professional DotA player.

Update history

February 28, 2013 Patch

• Updated Arc Lightning's visual effects and sound.

March 08, 2012 Patch

• Added rival taunts and misc. lines to Razor, Zeus, Tiny and Tidehunter to fill out basic voice set.

February 16, 2012 Patch

• Fixed Lightning Bolt's aoe truesight not revealing wards.

November 03, 2011 Patch

• Fixed a bug with spamming Arc Lightning quickly while there is another one still bouncing (only happens for very large amount of units).

September 29, 2011 Patch

• Fixed cast fx/sounds being spammable on Shadow Fiend/Zeus ultimates.

September 09, 2011 Patch

• Fixed Zeus's ultimate sometimes hitting invis heroes.

July 29, 2011 Patch

• Static Field now refreshes properly when leveled up.
• Fixed incorrect vision range from Lightning Bolt.

June 24, 2011 Patch

• Fixed Zuus's Arc Lightning to correctly jump to the nearest unit.
• Fixed Zuus's Wrath hitting illusions.

May 20, 2011 Patch

• Fixed Zuus's Arc Lightning so that it no longer bounces to invisible units or units in the fog of war.

March 22, 2011 Patch

• Fixed Thundergod's Wrath and Lightning Bolt not granting truesight in the affected area.

February 12, 2011 Patch

• Updated Omnislash and Lightning Bolt tooltips to indicate that they ministun.
• Static Field no longer damages creeps.

February 09, 2011 Patch

• Scaled Zuus up 10%.

Balance changelog

6.77

• Strength growth increased from 1.8 to 2.3.

6.76

• Thundergod's Wrath
  • Damage increased from 210/335/460 to 225/350/475.
  • Aghanim's damage increased from 400/500/600 to 440/540/640.

6.75

• Arc Lightning cooldown decreased from 2 to 1.75.
• Thundergod's Wrath cooldown decreased from 120 to 90.

6.73

• Arc Lightning level 4 damage increased from 130 to 145 damage.
• Lightning Bolt cooldown decreased from 6.5 to 6.
• Static Field
  • Now affects creeps.
  • No longer requires unit visibility to take effect.

6.72c

• Lightning Bolt and Thundergod's Wrath now reveal the same area at night as during the day (1000/750 to 1000/1000).

6.72

• Arc Lightning
  • Cooldown decreased from 2.25 to 2.0.
  • Manacost reduced from 65/72/79/87 to 65/70/75/80.

6.71

• Static Field AoE increased from 900 to 1000.
• Thundergod's Wrath Scepter damage increased from 355/460/570 to 400/500/600.

6.70

• Lightning Bolt cooldown reduced from 7 to 6.5.

See also

• Zeus responses