Zeus Overview

Lore & Bio

Zues is the father of the gods, who always treat the heroes as if they were from his own blood group. However, after many times being caught dating countless mortal women, the wife of Zeus finally sends you a follow-up letter:

“If you love mortals like that, then try becoming a mortal. If you can prove your loyalty, then return to be my eternal husband. If not, please die among the creatures you love.”

Since then, Zeus began to behave like the best husband, no longer attached to mortals, to give all his love to the goddess of his life. However, to prove that he is worthy of her, he will have to continue to win more victories on the battlefield.

Once a god of boundless strength, Zeus had sacrificed most of his immortality in exchange for the chance to crush the ferocious armies of the undead. Even though his soul had passed into martyrdom, his powers were greatly reduced, but it was not enough to quench the Thunder God's determination for justice. With absolute precision, he annihilated all enemy squads with his impressive electrical discharge, punishing stubborn idiots with fierce lightning bolts from the sky. Always wary of his fierce attacks, the Scourge cowered in fear as they suffered the Lord of Olympia's terrible wrath.

Attribute & Stats

Level: 0/ 1/ 15/ 25/ 30

Health: 200/ 580/ 1160/ 1820/ 2060

Health regen: +0.25/ +2.15/ +5.09/ +8.39/ +9.64

Mana: 75/ 339/ 891/ 1431/ 1647

Mana regen: +0/ +1.1/ +3.41/ +5.66/ +6.59

Armor: 2/ 3.83/ 6.63/ 10.63/ 11.97

Damage: Block -

Magic Resistance: 25%

Status Resistance: 0%

Damage: 33‒41/ 55‒63/ 101‒109/ 146‒154/ 164‒172

Attack Rate: 0.59/s 0.65/s 0.75/s 0.89/s 0.94/s

Attack Range:  Ranged 380 (800)

Attack Speed: 100 (1.7s BAT)

Attack Animation: 0.35+0.55

Projectile Speed: 1100

Movement Speed: 315

Turn Rate: 0.6

Collision Size: 24

Vision Range: (G) 1800 • 800

Legs: 2

Gib Type: Electric

Ability Upgrades:

• Upgradable by Aghanim's Scepter.
• Upgradable by Aghanim's Shard.

Abilities & Talents

Skills building guide

Zeus is a hero with a fairly simple way to increase points in the world of DOTA 2 because of his skills that have been little modified since then. At the beginning of the game, you should increase 1 point in Arc Lightning and Static Field to be able to stick to the Mid lane, both farm and harass your opponent.

Then max out on Lightning Bolt to take damage and go into fights in the mid game. You can then choose between maxing out Static Field or Arc Lightning first. The direction of increasing the Static Field first will have the advantage of "anti-tank" the opponent, while maximizing Arc Lightning will help you farm and deal pretty good damage but cause a shortage of mana.

This way is the traditional way and quite popular until now applied to Zeus following the Nuker + Ganker path. The reason to get the maximum Static Field (E) before Arc Lightning (Q) is to save mana for Zeus while still ensuring the amount of damage dealt.

Abilities

Arc Lightning

Cost: 65/70/75/80 mana

Cooldown: 1.75 seconds.

Cast Range: 850 range.

Effect: hurls a bolt of lightning at the target target, dealing 85/100/115/145 damage and jumping to nearby enemies for the same amount of damage. Each target can only be hit once.

Number of targets bounced: 5/7/9/15

Bounce radius: 500

Lightning Bolt

Cost: 75/95/15/135 mana

Cooldown: 6 seconds

Casting Range: 700

Effect: Summons a powerful bolt of lightning that strikes the specified target, dealing 100/175/275/350 damage and providing true vision around when the lightning strikes. This ability can target the ground and deal damage to the enemy champion closest to the lightning

Standard vision time: 4.5 seconds

Standard sight radius: 750

Damage range to champions (when directed to the ground): 375

Static Field

Effect: every time Zeus uses his kit, he emits lightning energy around himself, dealing damage equal to 5%/7%/9%/11% of the enemy's current health.

Effect radius: 1200

Thundergod's Wrath

Cost: 225/325/450 mana.

Cooldown: 90 seconds.

Cast range: whole map

Effect: uses his divine power to hurl lightning bolts on enemy champions, dealing 225/350/475 damage and granting true vision around enemies hit by lightning (does no damage to enemies). stealth state but still gives standard vision around the target)

Standard vision time: 3 seconds

Standard sight radius: 900

Upgraded by Scepter:

• Damage: 440/540/640

Nimbus

Time: 30.0

Lightning bolt frequency: 2.5

Number of lamps to break: 8

Number of lamps to show: 16

Effect: Creates a storm cloud at any location on the map, automatically jerking the Lightning Bolt on nearby enemies.

Effective items guides

Early game

Boots of Speed

Boots of Speed will make you faster, allowing for easier escapes and a better time catching up to enemy heroes.

Bottle

Bottle allows for lane control and sustainability through runes and crowing. Getting it early helps you to maintain your mana to get last hits consistently.

Aegis of the Immortal

Null Talisman

Null Talisman gives more intelligence, allowing for a larger mana pool and more damage, as well as bonus attributes to help with survivability.

Mid game

Arcane Boots

Arcane Boots sustain Zeus' high rate of spell casting and give him the mana pool necessary to remain relevant in longer engagements. It can also be later disassembled to use the energy booster in another item like Aether Lens, and eventually upgrades into Boots of Travel.

Aether Lens

Aether Lens makes you better at your job by dealing lots of magical damage from as far back as possible.

Blink Dagger

Blink Dagger can also be picked up, as Zeus benefits a lot from mobility items.

Eul's Scepter of Divinity

Eul's Scepter of Divinity gives mana regeneration, a bit more of speed and a good ability to incapacitate enemy heroes.

Veil of Discord

Veil of Discord provides a useful amplification of your magical damage dealt to any enemy caught in its blast. In addition to this, the armor bonus helps mitigate the impact of Zeus' poor base armor, allowing him to survive longer against physical damage.

Bloodstone

Bloodstone grants more health and more mana, which are very needed for Zeus. The more kills you score, the more mana regeneration you get.

Late game

Aghanim's Scepter

Aghanim's Scepter unlocks Nimbus, giving Zeus extra nuking power and global influence.

Octarine Core

Octarine Core increases Zeus's damage output with its cooldown reduction and gives Spell Lifesteal to counteract his squishiness.

Situation items

Soul Ring

Soul Ring can help with early mana issues.

Force Staff

Force Staff is a good choice for mobility and utility, very useful for evading carries and kiting spell immune targets.

Ghost Scepter

Ghost Scepter can be a great choice if you find yourself getting blown up by physical damage. It can also be upgraded into an Ethereal Blade, which can be used to disable the enemy carry, save allies and deal a massive amount of burst damage in combination with your spells.

Kaya

Kaya increases spell damage and decreases mana cost, making Zeus a better caster in the mid game as he can use more abilities and deal more damage.

Refresher Orb

Refresher Orb allows Zeus to use Thundergod's Wrath and Nimbus twice in quick succession given sufficient mana, increasing his damage output in fights.

Scythe of Vyse

Scythe of Vyse gives a much-needed boost to Zeus's mana and grants a hard disable to deal with troublesome enemies.

Shiva's Guard

Shiva's Guard increases your mana pool enough to cast your combo while offering good enemy control.

Enemies & Allies

Allies

Slardar

• Slardar has high priority on building moblity items such as Blink Dagger rather than tank items. Zeus can easily deal large amount of damage to him if not caught out of position first.

Enchantress

• Enchantress has a very low health pool, allowing Zeus to burst her down quickly before she can heal off the damage.
• Zeus will not be affected by Untouchable, as he won't try to attack her with right clicks anyway.
• Zeus can stay out of her attack range while trying to kill her, especially if he has bought an Aether Lens.
• Most heroes would want to get on top of Zeus to kill him, but Enchantress does not have this option as doing so would severely limit her Impetus damage.

Timbersaw

• Reactive Armor will not trigger from Zeus's spells or protect Timbersaw from their damage.
• Early game Timbersaw's strength is average and Zeus can heavily aid in bursting him down.
• Late game, if Timbersaw has built a lot of HP items, Zeus's passive Static Field will be more effective at chipping away Timbersaw's large HP pool.

Bounty Hunter

• Bounty Hunter has a very low health pool, allowing Zeus to burst him down quickly.
• Zeus can cast Lightning Bolt to gain True Sight in any area he suspects Bounty Hunter may be invisible or any area he thinks Bounty Hunter may have warded.
• If Bounty Hunter tries to escape a gank by using Shadow Walk, Zeus can gain vision of him with both Lightning Bolt and Thundergod's Wrath.

Winter Wyvern

• Any ally that Winter Wyvern tries to save with Cold Embrace can still be damaged by all of Zeus's spells.
• If Winter Wyvern tries to juke vision by flying up a cliff or in the trees, Zeus can gain vision there with Lightning Bolt or Thundergod's Wrath.
• If Zeus is forced to attack an ally by Winter's Curse, his unimpressive attack damage and attack speed means they won't be hurt much by him. Zeus will also stay near the back of fights away from his allies, making a deadly Curse less likely.

Lich

• Lich does not pose a big threat to Zeus in teamfights, as his spells don't have great cast range and Zeus should be too far back for a Chain Frost to bounce among him and his allies.
• Lich has a low health pool, allowing Zeus to burst him down quickly.

Necrophos

• Necrophos' Ghost Shroud increases the magic damage taken by Necrophos.

Tinker

• Due to Tinker's low health pool, Zeus can easily burst Tinker down, while also cancelling Rearm.
• Once Zeus gets Aghanim's Scepter, he will gain Nimbus, which allows him to scout out Tinker on the map, especially when he is pushing lanes while hiding in the trees.

Counters

Anti-Mage

• Anti-Mage can burn mana, which is a big problem for a spellcaster like Zeus that heavily relies on it.
• Counterspell decreases magical damage taken from Zeus.
• Zeus' high intelligence and mana pool makes him a perfect target for Mana Void.

Faceless Void

• Time Dilation can limit Zeus to casting his abilities only once in a fight, effectively serving as a 6/8/10/12 second silence.
• Time Walk negates Zeus's burst damage.
• Chronosphere makes Zeus the best target for Void because of his low mobility.

Chaos Knight

• Chaos Knight's high health pool makes him resistant to Zeus' burst damage. Phantasm can dispel Veil of Discord, a typical item purchased by Zeus.
• Zeus is easily overwhelmed by Chaos Knight's strong illusions, as Arc Lightning is not enough to kill them fast enough to have any impact.
• Zeus' low base armor makes him extremely vulnerable to Chaos Knight's high damage output and armor reduction.

Juggernaut

• Blade Fury negates all magical damage from Zeus.
• Omnislash can easily take down Zeus. However, be aware that most players will get a Eul's Scepter of Divinity or a Ghost Scepter against Juggernaut.

Lifestealer

• Rage is very useful against Zeus, as it negates magic damage and provides spell immunity. In addition, the increased attack speed can tear Zeus apart in combination with Open Wounds.
• Lifestealer can avoid Thundergod's Wrath with Infest.

Meepo

• Thundergod's Wrath strikes only the first Meepo.
• Zeus has low mobility so consecutive Earthbinds are easy to hit and he'll quickly die from Poofs.

Pudge

• Meat Hook's high range allows Pudge's team to drag Zeus in the middle of the fight and abuse his frailty.
• Flesh Heap's health and magic resistance bonus makes Pudge exceptionally resistant to Zeus' nukes. In later stages of the game, Zeus is usually unable to seriously damage Pudge at all. Even Static Field, which deals damage based on a percentage of the enemy's health, won't be doing much.
• Even if Zeus buys a Black King Bar, Meat Hook and Dismember still disable him for a long time, usually causing Zeus' quick death.
• Zeus is vulnerable to early ganks, which Pudge excels at.

Pugna

• Even though Pugna's low HP means that he can be quickly burst down, his Nether Ward heavily punishes casters whose spells cost a lot of mana, like Zeus. Casting 4 of his active spells, including Nimbus, close to an enhanced level 4 Nether Ward, can make the ward deal up to 1750 magical damage.
• Decrepify can further increase the damage dealt by Nether Ward upon Zeus. However, if used on Pugna himself or on one of his allies, it will amplify the damage done by Zeus' abilities.

Silencer

• Silencer's Global Silence will render Zeus useless for 6 seconds in a team fight.
• Arcane Curse will punish Zeus for casting spells, which can cause continuous damage to him should he continue to cast spells.
• Last Word can silence Zeus and prevent him from spamming his spells.
• Silencer often builds Orchid Malevolence (or Bloodthorn) which can be used on spell casters like Zeus, forcing him to invest in a Linken's Sphere.

Templar Assassin

• Refraction blocks all of Zeus' damage and Zeus has no innate way of removing the instances quickly.
• Meld helps burst down Zeus' small health pool while he's still working through the Refraction instances.
• Psi Blades allow her to harass and zone Zeus in lane.
• Templar Assassin usually buys Blink Dagger, enabling her to quickly close the gap to Zeus' defensive positioning.

Ursa

• Enrage will make it very difficult to burst him down.
• Zeus has little armor, HP and mobility; Ursa's favorite kind of target.

Viper

• Corrosive Skin counters Zeus in lane by canceling the effects of Clarity as Zeus relies on Arc Lightning to farm and secure last hits.
• Nethertoxin breaks Static Field.
• Due to Zeus' poor mobility, Viper Strike will cripple Zeus and will allow Viper and his teammates to land a lot of attacks.

Items Counter

Blade Mail

Blade Mail will return the damage Zeus deals. At the start of a fight, the percentage-based damage of Static Field can be especially harmful to Zeus.

Diffusal Blade

As an intelligence hero with a big mana pool and low armor, Diffusal Blade deals a lot of damage against him. The slow also heavily cripples his already low movement speed.

Smoke of Deceit

A special mention should go to Smoke of Smoke of Deceit, since it will immediately hide you and your nearby allies from Zeus' ultimate, potentially saving your lives for a small 50 gold cost.

Heart of Tarrasque

Heart of Tarrasque makes it very hard to deal serious damage with magical nukes only.

Favorable Matchups

Ancient Apparition

• Ice Blast makes enemies die quicker than they should. Along with Zeus huge damage and the fact that both Thundergod's Wrath and Ice Blast are global ranged, enemies are very unlucky.
• The Apparition also amplifies the magical damage enemies take by reducing their magic resistance with Ice Vortex.

Bloodseeker

• Both Zeus and Bloodseeker love enemies with low HP since they have great pick off abilities.
• Their skill set grant vision of the unlucky enemy for each other.
• Zeus can start the fight with Thundergod's Wrath to give Bloodseeker a boost in damage and movement speed from Thirst.
• Bloodrage is one of the few abilities that can grant Zeus bonus spell damage.

Dazzle

• Can protect the fragile Zeus, allowing him to stay in the fight longer to output damage.

Tidehunter

• Both Zeus and Tidehunter have great teamfight abilities, a mix between damage and disable for every fight.

Game plan

Early game

With the skill set consuming a lot of mana when ganking, the first thing you need to do is to farm Bottle as soon as possible. Zeus is a good damage stacker, but with his slowness, the ability to eat initially is not very high. Just farm the Bottle and then calculate whatever you want. 

You can use Arc lightning (Q) to farm in combination with poke the opponent's blood and snatch the Lightning bolt (W) to knock down the enemy depending on how much health and mana you can collect in each case. Lightning bolt (W) is a very good ward detection and anti-stealth skill, you can use it to destroy enemy wards in the early game and later.

Mid game

With the skill set consuming a lot of mana when ganking, the first thing you need to do is to farm Bottle as soon as possible. Zeus is a good damage stacker, but with his slowness, the ability to eat initially is not very high. Just farm the Bottle and then calculate whatever you want. 

You can use Arc lightning (Q) to farm in combination with poke the opponent's blood and snatch the Lightning bolt (W) to knock down the enemy depending on how much health and mana you can collect in each case. Lightning bolt (W) is a very good ward detection and anti-stealth skill, you can use it to destroy enemy wards in the early game and later.

Late game

With the skill set consuming a lot of mana when ganking, the first thing you need to do is to farm Bottle as soon as possible. Zeus is a good damage stacker, but with his slowness, the ability to eat initially is not very high. Just farm the Bottle and then calculate whatever you want. 

You can use Arc lightning (Q) to farm in combination with poke the opponent's blood and snatch the Lightning bolt (W) to knock down the enemy depending on how much health and mana you can collect in each case. Lightning bolt (W) is a very good ward detection and anti-stealth skill, you can use it to destroy enemy wards in the early game and later.