Furion, The Prophet - DotA Hero Strategy Guide

Furion is a very flexible hero with an extraordinary skill set. His fighting abilities are not as high compared to other heroes but his mobility due to his teleport skill allows him to be useful to the team. On top of that he has great farming abilities that can make up for his mediocre standard fighting power. He can be played as a support hero, a DPS hero, or as a pusher.

I recommend you to play Furion if you

• Love to play the jungling style
• Like to be a devastating ganker
• Want to farm the shit out of nearly all heroes with only little effort
• Like to have options to choose between instead of sticking to one simple cookie cutter playstyle
• Want the hero with the best mobility in the game
• Want a hero with a great escape mechanism that is ready almost every time
• Want to be able to support your allies in combat almost every time no matter where they are on the map

I do not recommend you to play Furion if you

• Like to tank rather than support or dish out damage
• Don't have a decent map awareness
• Don't like to jungleIf this sounds interesting, please continue reading.

Now let's have a closer look on Furion's pros/cons, stats and abilities.

Pros

• Has the best mobility in the game
• Can move to almost anywhere he wants in nearly any time he wants it
• Has one of the longest lasting disables in the game
• Is one of the best farmers in the game
• Can be built as a supporter, carry and ganker and at the same time work as a pusher, so he can almost always fit the team's needs of a certain type of hero
• Is one of the best junglers in the game

Cons

• Has very low health
• Is easily countered by stun and silence (especially his escape mechanism)
• He is mostly terribly countered by Observer WardsStats

Hero Stats

Strength - 17 + 1,8Agility - 15 + 1,5
Intelligence - 21 + 2,9

Attack range of 600.
Movement speed of 300.

Level 1 information:
- Health: 473
- Mana: 273
- Damage: 39-53
- Armor: 3
- Attack Speed: 1,48 sec

Level 25 information (without any worn items):
- Health: 1670
- Mana: 1430
- Damage: 108-122 +20
- Armor: 8 +2,8
- Attack Speed: 0,99 sec.

Abilities

Sprout


Sprouts a ring of trees around an enemy unit, trapping it in place.

Level 1 - Lasts for 3 seconds.
Level 2 - Lasts for 3.75 seconds.
Level 3 - Lasts for 4.5 seconds.
Level 4 - Lasts for 5.25 seconds.

Cooldown: 11 seconds.
Mana cost: 115/140/165/205.

Comment: One of the longest lasting disables in the game but is also rather easily countered. The simpliest way is by buying a couple of tangoes and eat a tree when you summon them around the target. Some heroes can also cut down trees. Wild Axes and Smoke Screen are two examples. That means some heroes are pretty hard to catch.

Useful information: This ability does not stun or silence your target, but only captures them in a prison, however, for a rather long periode. That means that some heroes can still cut down the trees with their abilities, eat their way through with tangoes or simply blink out. The target doesn't have sight behind the trees so if you for instance capture a lone enemy in the forest, he cannot see you or anything else unless you attack him of course. You can target everything but magic immunes (ancients, Black King Bar, Repel) and yourself. Every other allie and enemy is targetable.

Teleportation


Teleports to any explored point on the map.

Level 1 - Cooldown 60 seconds.
Level 2 - Cooldown 50 seconds.
Level 3 - Cooldown 40 seconds.
Level 4 - Cooldown 30 seconds.

Cooldown: 60/50/40/30 seconds.
Mana cost: 50/45/40/35.

Comment: This is one of the most incredible skills in the game. 30 seconds cooldown and 35 mana cost is nothing. This ability is used for ganking, escaping, map exploring, ward placing - nearly everything.

Useful information: It allows you to teleport to anywhere you want on the map with only 2 exceptions; you cannot teleport into your enemies' base without your allies there and you cannot teleport to somewhere that you did not explored. You did not explored the places that are still hard black - the Black Mask areas. Someone needs to have been there once before you can teleport to it. When you teleport to somewhere, it can be seen by the enemies because there will be a small effect where you teleport to. Finally, it takes as long as a Scroll of Town Portal or Boots of Travel (~3 seconds) to cast.

Force of Nature


Converts an area of trees into Treants. Treants have 550 hit points and deal 21-23 damage.

Level 1 - Raises 2 Treants for 60 seconds.
Level 2 - Raises 3 Treants for 60 seconds.
Level 3 - Raises 4 Treants for 60 seconds.
Level 4 - Raises 5 Treants for 60 seconds.

Cooldown: 37 seconds.
Mana cost: 160.

Comment: The treants are really fine tanks, especially when jungling. These treants make Furion one of the best junglers and one of the few heroes that doesn't rely on things like Bottles, runes or creep pulling. The treants are also good for tower pushing and scouting, but they are not to too good for hero killing purposes.

Useful information: Leveling the skill doesn't make the treants stronger, it only summons more of them. Each treant has 550 health, 21-23 damage and 0 armor (type: heavy). The 550 health and 21-23 damage make them great tanks when jungling early in the game and good tower push along with Furion himself. Every treant has a rather low bounty reward around 20 gold. When you summon the treants, make sure to target more trees. If you target a single tree, only one or two treants will appear.

Wrath of Nature (Ultimate)

Summons damaging energy to swath around the map and damage random enemies. Each enemy hit beyond the first adds 7% damage. Number of bounces increases per level.

Level 1 - Deals 140 base damage.
Level 2 - Deals 180 base damage.
Level 3 - Deals 225 base damage.
Level 4 (Sceper) - Deals 275 base damage.

Cooldown: 90/60/60/60 seconds.
Mana cost: 200/380/610/610.

Comment: This spell can be boosted by buying Aghanim's Scepter. It is extremely great for farming purposes. The mana cost is rather high, but the result is smashing. Later in the game, you can gain nearly ~500 gold every time you use it, depending on the situations. This spell is mostly used for farming but can also be used as a cheap nuke and harass.

Useful information: The spell is in fact just a Chain Lightning with huge range. It jumps from one target to the nearest and can only hit units you have sight of. It cannot hit something you cannot see. It can hit and be casted on ancients (golems), but it won't damage them, it will just bounce to other targets.

Skill order

The jungler

Level 1 - Force of Nature
Level 2 - Sprout
Level 3 - Force of Nature
Level 4 - Teleportation
Level 5 - Force of Nature
Level 6 - Wrath of Nature
Level 7-9 - Teleportation
Level 10 - Sprout
Level 11 - Wrath of Nature
Level 12-13 - Sprout
Level 14-15 - Stats
Level 16 - Wrath of Nature
Level 17-24 - Stats
Level 25 - Force of Nature

Skill explanation

Force of Nature is the reason why Furion is such a great jungle hero, so it is taken early on as fast as possible so you can jungle effectively. You do, however, not need 5 treants to kill the creep camps, so it's not worth taking level 7 anymore. Besides, 5 treants or 4 treants makes no difference, but an additional level of Teleportation does. Sprout is taken at level 2 because it makes Furion a really potential to get the First Blood along with some teammates. It lasts 3 seconds at level one already and it has a high increased mana cost per level, so we will max Teleportation as soon as possible after Force of Nature. When that is maxed however, we will max our Sprout to make the disable incredible long. Some might disagree because they think the mana cost is way too high, but with Teleportation every 30th second and the fact that Furion doesn't use his mana on hardly anything else in this state of the game, he can as well just use it on a 5+ seconds disable. Wrath of Nature is taken at level 6, 11 and 16 because it's a really good farming skill and it helps to wreck havoc to your enemies here and then. The last level of Force of Nature is taken at level 25 to allow you to get stats in order to raise your health pool as fast as possible. Still, +1 treant doesn't make much difference, but +2 stats will, especially when you have such low health.

The lane partner

Level 1 - Sprout
Level 2-3 - Teleportation
Level 4 - Stats
Level 5 - Teleportation
Level 6 - Wrath of Nature
Level 7 - Teleportation
Level 8-10 - Force of Nature
Level 11 - Wrath of Nature
Level 12-14 - Sprout
Level 15 - Stats
Level 16 - Wrath of Nature
Level 17-24 - Stats
Level 25 - Force of Nature

Skill explanation

Force of Nature is not needed in the early game now, because you need to last hit and deny like any other hero. Instead, Sprout is taken at level 1 for eventually get the First Blood but also to prevail a potential early game gank. Teleportation is maxed as fast as possible to let you move forth and back at almost any time you want. Stats is taken at level 4 because Sprout costs too much mana and stats will help you survive better in your lane. Some might think 3 levels of Force of Nature at level 8-10 looks a bit ugly, but it helps you push down necessary towers and it raises your chances that you will actually last hit it yourself. Sprout is now maxed from 12-14 because you will now have the mana to support it and the Teleportation cooldown to go back and forth if you don't have. Finally, stats are maxed and Force of Nature is taken at the last level because you don't really need the 5th treant. Wrath of Nature is again taken at level 6, 11 and 16.

Item order

Path directions

The rise farmer

Yes, Aghanim's Scepter. It improves your ultimate's base damage with 50. That makes a huge damage rise when counting the total damage of it, which means you can farm so much more. However, it also takes a little extra effort to farm so you won't be quite as effective for your team because you will spend more time farming in the beginning.

The disabler

Guinsoo's Scythe of Vyse is gotten as early as possible so you will be more effecient to gank and hereby help your team and yourself with getting map control early on. And as always, the early game affects the middle game which again affects the late game. Have a good early game and you will be in advance in the middle game and the late game too. In oppose to the two other builds, Heart of Tarrasque is gotten here. You don't have any other items that really improves your health and because you have so many disables, you will probably be focused most of the time.

The supporter

Necronomicon is in the build now. The demons' aura work really great with Furion because of all your damage and disables. It gives you health and mana as well as a little damage boost, but the best thing is that they can mana burn sprouted enemies. This is a really great strategy; to sprout and mana burn. They are also good because they spot invisible units in e.g. team combats or ganks. They are also good for killing the enemies' wards. Furion can be anywhere on the map in any time he wants, so checking for hostile wards in the river for example is really helpful.

Items afterwards

Monkey King Bar is gotten because of the damage increase and especially the mini bash. Furion has a fine attack speed and especially with Power Treads and Assault Cuirass and perhaps even Necronomicon, he will bash many times and become an insane damager. Assault Cuirass increases your armor and again makes you more combat effecient because of the penalty armor and increased attack speed. Finally Manta Style makes you hard to focus through single targetting and it also improves your damage because you have two images that shoot on the targets. Lastly, Diffusal Blade is also a really good build-up to Manta Style obviously because of it's Purge.

Starting the build

2 Mantles of Intilligence + 1 Circlet of Nobility + 1 Clarity Potion
* 1 Ancient Tango of Essifation * (if you are not jungling!)
Gloves of Haste + 1 Circlet of Nobility
COMPLETE: 2 Null Talismans
Boots of Speed
COMPLETE: Power Treads
* Observer Wards + Sentry wards
* Scroll of Town Portal

* Buy and place wards from time to time. Especially in tougher matches, map control is really important. Furion is a good hero to buy wards with because of his abilities to farm, but he is also really good to place them because of this Teleportation.

* Buy a Scroll of Town Portal each time you go back to the fountain untill you are level 7+. Yes, you have Teleportation, but using the town portal to get back to the fountain makes you able to teleport back as soon as you've bought/healed. You don't need to wait another 40 seconds till the cooldown is over.

From here, continue with the items you have chosen to buy, e.g. Scepter, Guinsoo, Monkey King Bar etc. You want to start with 2-3 Null Talismans in order to increase your mana as Force of Nature and Sprout are pretty costly. One Clarity Potion is needed so you don't need to go back to the fountain before you are approx. level 4 where you have Teleportation.

Optional and possible items



Health, mana, armor, damage - everything and a slow. Skadi is good on nearly every hero in the game and Furion is no exception.

Radiance is fine, but Furion is not the best candidate. However, if your team really needs it and noone else can farm it, I see no reason why not to get it.

Buriza-do Kyanon is a pretty good item on Furion and can sometimes be considered instead of Monkey King Bar. Some likes to crit a lot, I myself admire the mini bash more. It's potatoe potato.

Sentry- and Observer Wards. Furion is a hero with excellent map control. In order to optimize it, Observer Wards are needed in most cases. Furion can also be countered by Observer Wards, Watchers of a Hawk himself, so Sentry Wards should be bought to counter this by either you or a teammate.

What the fuck. No Hand of Midas?

Hand of Midas is an okay item, but as you get both Treads and Assault Cuirass you get plenty of attack speed already. The transmute is okay, but is not worth getting. You can farm incredible fast already and it just takes up item slots. It's more heroes who need to farm, but still aren't excellent farmers that should get Hand of Midas.

Items not to buy:

• The Butterfly and Mjollnir are not recommended. The attack speed, evasion, chain lightning, damage and whatsoever are of course not but paying so much gold when you don't gain the bonus damage from the agility is lame and there are so many other items that you can choose between. Besides, The Butterfly probably has the worst build-up recipe in the game.
• Refresher Orb is not recommended. You don't have any cooldowns that really needs to be reset and your ultimate only has 60 seconds cooldown.
• Boots of Travel are not recommended. Your Teleportation has 30 seconds cooldown. You don't need another teleport to get around.
• Mask of Madness is not recommended. Taking 20% extra damage is always bad, and Furion is often getting focused because of his damage and his disable(s). You already have a really low health pool, so reducing it by 20% is not a good choice. Not even for the extra 75% attack speed.How to play

Early game

The first thing you need to decide is whether you should jungle or not. In 95% of the cases, you should jungle because Furion is built for this. Whether you should go into a lane or not is dependant on the teammate that you leave to solo. If he really needs help, you should go and help him but else you should go to the jungle. Start with buying two Mantles of Intilligence, a Circlet of Nobility and a Clarity Potion. If you are heading for a lane buy a pair of tangoes. This strategy will mainly be based on jungling. If you are laning, you will just be last hitting/denying like any other heroes and it doesn't really take much more descriptions than this. Here goes.

Before you take off, summon two trees at the fountain. Send them towards your enemies' top and bottom second towers. See later in this guide to know where and why to send them. Wait till 1:40 and send them towards the place you want to creep. Make sure not to place them directly on a creepcamp spot before 2:00 as this will prevent the creeps from spawning. When you have full mana (approx 5 seconds later, run towards the creep camp yourself). Try not to go back to the fountain untill you are level 4 where you have skilled your Teleportation. If you really need a fountain trip though, don't hessitate.

Keep jungling untill you are around level 6. If your teammates are good harassers, you can try to get an early first blood by popping out of the forest, sprouting and killing an enemy between level 2-5. From level 6 and above you should start controlling the rune spots with Observer Wards and Teleportation and try to gank as many heroes as possible from this stage of the game. Always know where your enemies are and always be aware if some of them are on low health. Furion is one of the best early and middle game gank initiators because of his Teleportation and his Sprout. He can pop out where he wants when he wants it and 3-4 seconds disable from one single hero is insane. Utilize this as much as possible in order to help your teammates gain the upper hand of their lanes. Bring fear into your enemies' hearts by suddenly popping out and get a kill. Mostly you shall not sit and wait for your teammates to gank, but initiate them yourself.

Of course remember to make your allies aware of this so you don't stand alone against one or two enemies.

Keeping a Scroll of Town Portal with you at all time untill you are level 7 is a good idea. Use it to teleport back, quickly heal and use Teleportation to get back again (remember to buy a new scroll). It's not compulsory, but it's very, very helpful.

Middle game

You should now start to farm a little more on your own. You should always be ready to gank with your teammates but meanwhile try to farm as much as possible. Try to push down lonely towers, especially the three outer onces if they aren't killed yet. Be careful with staying too far at the enemies' ground. Again, always watch the map. Know where your enemies are. Be ready to escape or to teleport in and get a kill. Have at least two wards up at all time. Spam Wrath of Nature as much as possible as it's your main farming ability.

The most important thing during the middle game is map awareness because it's about this time the most ganks are going on. It's important to know where everyone is and what they are doing. If an enemy is not on the map he is probably ganking someone somewhere and it might even be you. Always look out for an opportunity to gank someone. Sometimes, teleport in and assist your teammates in their ganks, but mostly you should be the gank initiator just like in the early game.

Team battles happen often already during the middle game. When fighting in a team combat, the most important thing is your position. Because of Furion's general low health, try not to position yourself so you get targetted. If you stand right up in the front you are most likely to get targetted because you have low health and are an easy target. Therefore try to position yourself in the back. You are a ranged damage dealer and should act like this and not as a tank. Try to disable the hostile heroes that your team wants to focus.

Using Guinsoo on the enemies' main damage dealer such as Razor, Nevermore, Obsidian Destroyer or Faceless Void can many times be useful if your team can take down one or two enemies meanwhile without taking too much damage. Try to dish out as much damage as possible from a range where you feel safe and disable your enemies as much as possible. If you see a huge battle coming, saving Wrath of Nature can be a good idea because the damage can be pretty useful to either catch escaping heroes or as a spell to soften up the enemies before you engage the combat.

Late game

The time of the big battles have come. People are gathering more in groups now and they gank less. This means you don't need as much awareness and the wards become less important. It's still important to know where your enemies are though. Don't lose your map awareness completely.

In the big fights, your job is to disable the hero(es) that your team wants to focus and then dish out loads of damage. Try to avoid getting killed. Do not rush in and get yourself torn apart. Let your tank tank and disable and kill whatever you can. Always try to follow your team when they gank and don't play as a soloer. If there is no ganking or no combats going on, farm with caution in your forest or in a lane. Just make sure you stay alive because you are an important piece in your team.

The main things in the late game is to disable, dish out damage and most important to stay alive.

Heroes to watch out for

Silencers

You cannot teleport when you are silenced. It also stops you if you are already about to teleport. That means you lose your escape mechanism.

Escapers

Heroes that can escape from your Sprout rather often can be really hard to gank. As Furion relies much on ganking, some heroes can many times be hard to hold in one place in order to kill them.

Bane Elemental

Enfeeble reduces your damage by 80%, making you shoot with bubble gum. Furion is often a primary damage dealer on teams and Enfeeble prevents that.

Scouts and Observer Wards

It's hard to gank someone and hide in the forest when Observer Wards, the hawk or a watcher see you. Furion's main thing during early/middle game is ganking. It's not that easy when you get spotted before you appear. In addition, Observer Wards can counter your jungling if used correctly on the creep camps.

Furion's best friends

The global strategy

The global strategy is a very strong strategy with Furion as a keystone. Generally, the point is that the lineup aims to be able to move around the map with as much ease as possible or be able to affect players at global range (Global Silence, Hand of God, Haunt, Thundergod's Wrath), hence to turn e.g. a 1v3 combat to a 4v3 or 5v3 combat in no time. Tinker has Rearm + Boots of Travel, Furion has Teleportation, Beastmaster has his hawk and quillbeast (hence they can teleport to him + it gives the team a great scout) and Zeus, Silencer, Chen and Spectre have their global ultimates.