Teleporting out of the trench with Nature’s Prophet

Playing DotA 2 has never made it high on my priority list. Well, even now, it still isn’t. But somehow, I’ve finally found some joy with playing this game.

Like many others, I started out with spamming Sniper. Mere weeks before The International 2015, I started spamming the disco pony and meta-hero Leshrac along with Lina and Gyrocopter. I had decent success with them, but I still didn’t really feel at home with these picks. I still didn’t really have a lot of fun, per se.

After playing a lot of games, I decided to give Ranked Matchmaking a try. I calibrated at a mere 1,900, if not mistaken. I know. It sucks. And yes, trench life sucked big time. I was told to create a new account, given that I have played way too many games before I entered Ranked Matchmaking, hence the shitty calibration… but I stuck by it (mainly because I have a lot of items on this account and don’t want the gift-to-new-account mess).

My go-to carry was Gyrocopter, however, assholes won’t allow me to stack properly or would take away my stacks so I decided to play Bounty Hunter and other roam-type/offlane heroes more frequently. That’s when I finally crafted my new signature Nature’s Prophet. Indeed, I have spammed a lot of Nature’s Prophet all throughout. It started when my friend introduced me to him. I used to be that passive AFK jungler with Midas first for quite some time until I started my new type of Nature’s Prophet.

Dual Null + Urn Prophet

In most of my games, the offlaner wanted to be left alone, hence my decision to go jungle instead. I don’t require massive farm to come online, just dual Nulls and an Urn at which point I would teleport whenever my aid was required. I could turn the numbers with any engagement thanks to his Global Teleport while also providing healing for the team after a successful defensive or offensive play.

Depending on how successful the early skirmishes have been, I’d finish my Maelstrom before my Power Threads. Everything seems rather standard, until I start building my next item… Mask of Madness.

I often get called out for that ridiculous build, but I, even more often, manage to prove them wrong. Mask of Madness gives me that burst of attack speed that I require to focus down enemies in team fights that I teleport into or ganks that I initiate myself. I usually top off my core build with a Crystalis. Here on out, my build varies on the more specific needs of the team. From MKB, BKB, Necrobook 3, Heart + Blademail… the list goes on.

Nature’s Prophet is like my boyfriend who is a Gemini. He’s a Jack of All Trades and play support, pusher, carry, you name it. But he’s not an Ace at any of it (well, except for pushing, of course). He requires a decent team (especially offlaner) that doesn’t feed in the first 3 minutes for him to get ahead. But after that, he can be a beast. Slowly but steadily I’m working my way out of the trench. (2.8k as of press time)

Cheers to all the teammates that I have had recently: Kugerts, Sky, Wing Knight, et al.