Nature's Prophet

Nature's Prophet is a ranged Intelligence hero, whose play style is different from most Intelligence heroes, because he can be almost anywhere at any given time with his Teleportation. This ability allows him to participate in most ganks and pushes at a moment's notice. With Sprout, he creates a ring of trees, trapping anyone within them in place, serving to disable anyone caught within them. The trees around him serve as his objects of power; using them, he summons sentient tree beings known as Treants from trees on the map with his Nature's Call ability. Wrath of Nature is the main and only directly damaging spell in his arsenal, but it can potentially be very powerful, as it can inflict increased damage with each bounce off subsequent enemies and can clear out multiple creep waves with its moderate cooldown and mana cost. Commonly played as a ganker, offlaner and jungler and known as a strong pusher, Nature's Prophet has superb farming capabilities and global presence, giving him the power to be anywhere on the map. Late-game, Nature's Prophet makes himself useful by constantly distracting and annoying the enemy team by pushing. If attention is not given to him, he can single-handedly win the game by constantly taking several towers or even the Ancient.

Recommended items
Starting items:
 * and can provide health regeneration for Nature's Prophet in the early game as required. If jungling, one or both can be forgone in lieu of using  to summon Treants to tank neutral creep attacks.
 * can provide Nature's Prophet with some armor, increasing his survivability, and builds into Ring of Basilius.
 * At least two can help keep Nature's Prophet's mana topped up so he can continually use his spells in the early game, particularly Nature's Call, as his base intelligence and comparatively costly spells means that he will otherwise quickly run out.
 * are cheap attribute items that can shore up Nature's Prophet's stats in the early game. Any leftover gold can be spent giving him a bit more HP, base damage and mana.

Early game:
 * can be useful to purchase on Nature's Prophet if he is laning rather than jungling. The burst HP and mana regen can give him the survivability to escape an enemy gank, or enough mana to cast one more spell.
 * provide Nature's Prophet with a boost to his movement speed, important for catching up to enemies to cast his spells during ganks. While he has strong global mobility in, having enough speed to re-position during fights is crucial.
 * provides Nature's Prophet with mana regeneration and an armor aura, which can increase the survivability of his Treants and lane creeps. This can help with jungling, and when pushing. If needed, it can be disassembled and the Sage's Mask recycled into another item, such as an for Orchid Malevolence.

Core items:
 * provide additional attribute bonuses to Nature's Prophet, and give him even more burst HP and mana regen. A fully-charged Magic Wand can give Nature's Prophet enough mana to cast any of his spells (short of a level 3 ultimate) even when completely empty.
 * provide Nature's Prophet with a boost to his attributes and additional attack speed, which are both very useful. The attributes allow him to give himself more HP or mana and base damage, while the attack speed allows him to land more physical attacks on enemy targets.
 * is a useful alternative to Power Treads. As it augments Nature's Prophet's physical attacks and allows him to boost his movement speed, it can make him a bigger threat in ganks since he can maneuver into position more easily after casting Teleportation, to pen in an enemy with Sprout and deal heavily damaging right-clicks. The movement speed boost is also useful for escaping pursuing enemies, and in a pinch can be used to walk right through other units, such as your own Treants.
 * , if obtained early, can greatly augment Nature's Prophet's late-game potential by accelerating his gold and experience gain at the cost of early-game aggression. As well, the bonus attack speed give his physical attacks more power.
 * significantly augments Nature's Prophet's global mobility. While Teleportation already grants him global presence without the need to target his destination at an allied building, a Town Portal Scroll allows him to use the two in tandem, such as retreating to base or defending a tower after using his innate spell. As well, using the Town Portal Scroll will leave Teleportation at the ready should an opportunity to gank an enemy present itself shortly.

Situational items:
 * massively increases the ganking power of Nature's Prophet by giving him a Hex ability, giving him another way to control enemies' movements on top of . It also provides a large increase to his intelligence, giving him more damage and mana, as well as all-around stats and powerful mana regeneration.
 * gives Nature's Prophet more initiation and escape ability, augmenting his already formidable global presence due to Teleportation. Used offensively, Nature's Prophet can get in a powerful first strike on unwary enemies prior to disabling and focusing them down. Used defensively, the invisibility and increased movement speed allow him to evade any enemy rotations aimed at halting his pushes, and can allow him to invisibly cast Teleportation.
 * augments the strength of, allowing it to deal more damage overall and sprouting Treants upon successfully killing an enemy unit, be it a creep or hero. This greatly augments Nature's Prophet's pushing power, since it will summon reinforcements upon striking down enemy lane creeps.
 * is a powerful early aggression tool. Its low cost and easy buildup make it possible to obtain quickly in the early game, while the bonuses it provides augment Nature's Prophet's physical attacks (via increased intelligence, damage and attack speed) and allow him to gank enemies to great effect by silencing them, preventing them from casting retaliatory disables or escape spells. The augmented mana regen also allows him to stay out in the field longer without needing to return to base as often.
 * can greatly augment Nature's Prophet's offensive and pushing potential. The increased damage and armor reduction on targets make his physical attacks much deadlier, allowing him to soften up gank targets or reduce tower armor to hasten pushes.
 * provides Nature's Prophet with additional pushing power and an additional damage source when ganking enemy heroes. At level 3, the Necronomicon will also provide True Sight, which can be used to de-ward enemy vision and prevent invisible enemy heroes from escaping ganks.
 * provides Nature's Prophet with tremendously increased attack damage and a critical strike, allowing him to deal more damage to enemy heroes. It is primarily purchased with the intent to kill heroes rather than destroy towers, and can make him a force to be reckoned with when combined with his potent disables.
 * can be a strong utility item to build on Nature's Prophet. His global presence allows him to use this item to save allies when teleporting to their aid during an enemy gank, and can also be used to heal allied creep waves to augment their pushing power.
 * , when upgraded from Shadow Blade, can give Nature's Prophet additional ganking power when used properly. By applying a break on gank targets, enemy passives can be removed from play, increasing the odds of a successful kill. As well, the bonus strength provided by the Sange component gives Nature's Prophet increased resilience.
 * provides cheap stats, and improves Nature's Prophet's mana pool and damage output, making early jungling easier. Purchasing two or more can give him respectable early stats and allow him to fight enemies earlier on.
 * can be a useful item to purchase on Nature's Prophet, depending on the situation. It can enhance his mobility by allowing him to quickly re-position himself, such as pushing himself over a cliff, re-positioning allies, or breaking Linken's Sphere on a gank target prior to other disables.
 * can tremendously increase Nature's Prophet's maneuverability and ability to evade enemy ganks. After using Teleportation to arrive at a lane and Nature's Call to summon Treants to push, Blink Dagger can be used to instantly jump away to evade any enemies attempting to rotate in. It can also be used to initiate more easily on gank targets, as they may easily run away if they see a Teleportation coming in.
 * is a very unorthodox early-game item to build on Nature's Prophet, as he does not have the HP to efficiently utilize any reflected damage. However, it can be a powerful offensive item, as it provides a large amount of attack damage and intelligence, tremendously increasing the power of his right-click damage. As well, the armor increases his survivability and the active can still be useful when focusing down single targets, and any damage incurred can be replenished by returning to the fountain with Teleportation.
 * gives Nature's Prophet significantly more ganking power as he can instantly burst down a portion a gank target's HP, making successful kills more likely. His ability to farm and get kills also allows him to upgrade it to allow it to remain potent throughout a match.
 * is a very powerful offensive and pushing item. By boosting his attack speed and inflicting the enemy with a negative armor aura, Nature's Prophet's physical attacks become much deadlier, and the increased armor also gives him survivability against physical damage. As well, the negative armor aura affects enemy buildings as well as creeps, and the allied aura increases creep armor and attack speed, making pushes more powerful when outside of teamfights.
 * should be purchased if an enemy is building evasion items, as it allows Nature's Prophet to gank them without worrying about missing attacks. As well, the item gives him generally increased damage output and attack speed, allowing him to push more effectively.
 * is a strong all-around pushing and fighting item. The greatly increased attack speed as well as attack modifier allows Nature's Prophet to make short work of creep waves, and increases the potency of his attacks during ganks and teamfights. The active can be cast to increase damage output via proccing the shield.
 * is a situationally powerful casting item on Nature's Prophet, depending on the enemy lineup. While the spell lifesteal is not very beneficial due to Wrath of Nature being his only innate damage nuke, the cooldown reduction allows him to summon Treants more frequently, re-position around the map more often with Teleportation, and theoretically keep up a permanent Sprout on an enemy (excluding cast animation).

Tips

 * Nature's Prophet is a very unorthodox hero most renowned for his ability to push and gank, as his combination of abilities gives him powerful global presence and pushing potential. However, the hero himself is quite frail and can be killed easily if caught by the enemy.
 * Due to his global mobility, map awareness is extremely important with Nature's Prophet. Good Nature's Prophet play requires paying constant attention to the map in order to find opportunities to exploit the enemy's weak spots. Since Teleportation allows Nature's Prophet to quickly re-position himself to any point on the map, he can effectively assist in ganks, help allies in need, aggressively push lanes when the enemy leave them unattended, finish off fleeing enemies, and so on.
 * Generally, Nature's Prophet can be effective in almost any lane required by his team. His flexibility allows him to perform well in many roles.
 * Most frequently, Nature's Prophet is played as a jungler, as his ability to summon Treants through Nature's Call allows him to kill neutral camps relatively safely by using the Treants to tank their attacks. While this can end up weakening his team's laning by leaving his safe lane more vulnerable to enemy offlane aggression, it also improves his team's overall economy by allowing four heroes to farm at the same time rather than just three.
 * Nature's Prophet can also be played as an off-laner, as he can disrupt creep equilibrium by using Nature's Call. By kiting the enemy creep wave using Treants, he can secure last-hits and experience for himself even if the enemy attempts to pull neutral camps. As well, the Treants can disrupt enemy pulls or outright block the pull camp from spawning, as the enemy will be unable to kill Treants in a timely manner in the laning stage.
 * Unlike most other casting-focused intelligence heroes, Nature's Prophet relies on his physical attacks to deal damage. His respectable base damage, ample attack range and good attack animation give him a strong edge when trading attacks with enemies in the laning stage, and can be a force to be reckoned with when boosted up by farming items that give him more damage and attack speed.
 * can summon trees to serve multiple purposes, and can be a very powerful spell in the right hands.
 * In general, only one early skill point should be taken in Sprout, as it does not scale as well compared to Nature's Prophet's other spells. While the skill benefits from being maxed out eventually, Nature's Prophet can benefit more in the early game from putting his skill points into other spells.
 * The most basic use of Sprout is to pen in an enemy hero to block off their movement so that they can be focused down and killed. Keep in mind, however, that the trees can still be destroyed by items such as and, both of which are common in the early game, as well as abilities such as  and . As such, be careful not to assume that it will be a foolproof way to trap enemies.
 * Conversely to the above, however, Sprout can be a powerful spell in the late game, when nobody has a Quelling Blade or Tango anymore. Against the right line-ups, it can potentially lock down enemies for its full duration, as spell immunity will not allow them to path through the trees, meaning that their only method of escape will be through their own abilities (which can be silenced) or items such as or, which may not always be on hand.
 * When casting Sprout to hinder enemies' pathing, remember that it does not have to be targeted directly on an enemy. Placing the trees to block an enemy's path can limit their escape options (such as forcing them to run towards your allies), or can prevent reinforcements from coming to their teammate's aid by halting their approach and splitting the battlefield. Try to be creative with how you use Sprout, as its low cooldown, long cast range and high duration allow it to be cast multiple times in a single engagement to great effect.
 * Remember that at level 1, Sprout lasts for 3 seconds, exactly enough time to channel Teleportation or to use a Town Portal Scroll (provided you are not teleporting to a building that an ally has recently teleported to). As such, it can be used to shroud yourself in the fog of war while escaping, but beware that enemies can still use area-targeted disables to stop you in your tracks, or can simply destroy the trees to reveal you for a unit-targeted disable.
 * Sprout provides flying vision within the ring, as well as in an area around it. This allows it to be used to give vision over obstacles such as high ground, or to completely reveal an area that an enemy may be trying to juke through to escape. In a pinch, it can also be used for de-warding by providing vision over elevated ward spots.
 * Sprout can be used to protect allies, not just to pin down enemies. If an ally is running away, casting Sprout in the enemy's path can block off their chase route, forcing them to path around to pursue. However, be extremely careful not to accidentally pen in allies with this spell, as you may accidentally secure a kill for the enemy instead.
 * Keep in mind that certain allied spells can be cast in tandem with Sprout to create extremely powerful combinations. For instance, can be virtually guaranteed to latch for its full duration,  can focus its full power on an immobilized target,  and  can run for a much longer duration,  can be used to quickly move to a destination where there would normally not be trees, and so on. Be creative with how you use Sprout if a teammate can benefit from it.
 * is one of Nature's Prophet's signature spells, as it allows him to globally re-position himself to suit his needs.
 * With one early skill point in this ability, Nature's Prophet gains tremendous global mobility. As the only constraint on this spell is the 3 second cast animation, he can appear anywhere on the map that he wishes. This allows Nature's Prophet to show up to ganks even if he's on the other side of the map, and possibly use Sprout to aid his teammates in disabling and focusing down an enemy.
 * Remember that this ability has a 3 second cast animation, and is not a channeled spell. This means that, at any time during the 3 second delay, you can cancel it and choose a different place to teleport to, without incurring the mana cost or cooldown. This can be used to fake out the enemy into maneuvering down a different path to avoid your arrival, to choose a different arrival point to better suit an evolving situation, and so on. However, beware that cancelling the animation means that you will delay your arrival by that much longer, which may result in you arriving too late to make a difference.
 * With good timing and possibly assisting ward vision, Teleportation can be used to kill the enemy's courier as it is en route to deliver items. This can be particularly effective if you can kill the courier before it can deliver a to the enemy's mid, giving your mid player a firm advantage. It is advised, however, to carry a Town Portal Scroll when attempting this, as you may require a speedy escape in order to avoid being caught and killed.
 * Judicious use of this ability is what makes Nature's Prophet such a powerful hero. If the enemy is seen using their Town Portal Scrolls to teleport to one lane, you can cast Teleportation to jump to another lane and then quickly push it and attempt to take a tower if the creep wave is close. If a low-HP enemy hero is seen retreating after an engagement, you can interdict them and kill them before they get back to their fountain. If an ally is engaging an enemy in a one-on-one fight and neither side has teammates nearby, you can teleport in to turn it into an uneven match and secure a kill. Proper use of this ability requires strong map awareness and good judgment.
 * allows Nature's Prophet to summon Treants to do his bidding. It is a very flexible spell that is most powerful in the early game, but requires good micromanagement in order to get the most benefit out of the ability.
 * Never underestimate the survivability of Treants in the laning stage of the game. They possess 550 HP at all points in the game, rivaling that of heroes in the beginning. As such, they can be used for multiple purposes such as scouting out pre-rune aggression, physically blocking enemy pull camps, and so on.
 * In general, Treants are used to assist Nature's Prophet in jungling in the early game, as they can deal additional damage to neutral camps while tanking creep attacks, keeping Nature's Prophet safe from harm; as such, it is generally the most important spell to max out in the early game. Remember to micromanage Treants so that they do not get killed by creeps, as even low-health Treants can still contribute attack damage to increase the rate of farming.
 * Treants can act as strong lane pushers past the early game. Not only can they add their attack power to a pushing creep wave, they can soak up tower hits and can be maneuvered to kite away approaching enemy creeps to delay defenders from arriving. They can also provide vision behind towers and around treelines to spot any enemy attempts to teleport in.
 * Keep in mind, Nature's Call will destroy all trees in its area. This can be used to allow easier transit between neutral camps while jungling, destroying enemy juke paths, and so on. However, also remember that trees take 5 minutes to respawn after destruction, so it can be beneficial to target the spell such that only the minimum number of trees are destroyed per cast, in order to preserve some trees for later summons.
 * Trees created by Sprout are valid targets for Nature's Call. This means that should Nature's Prophet need reinforcements in an area outside of the jungle (such as pushing up the enemy's high ground or while within the enemy's base), casting Sprout first will allow him to summon Treants wherever they are needed.
 * Nature's Call can be used to great effect for scouting enemy player movement prior to the horn, particularly around the rune spots. Cast Nature's Call a bit after the minute mark (around 0:55 or 0:50), and then maneuver one Treant to the areas around each rune spot. While they cannot block the enemy from picking up the rune, they can scout out enemy positions, giving your team valuable intelligence and allow them to re-position to engage the enemy as needed. Be sure to maneuver the Treants and avoid feeding them to the enemy, as they do provide a small gold and experience bounty.
 * If your Treants are about to expire and cannot be readily used to farm another neutral camp, it can be useful to maneuver them to the rune spots prior to the even-minute mark. They can be used to scout out and guard the runes for your mid player, and under optimal circumstances can deny runes for the opposing mid player.
 * Treants become less effective as games progress, as they eventually become easy fodder for enemy heroes. However, they still provide useful service when utilized properly.
 * As they are still treated as regular units, Treants can be used to frustrate enemy attempts at using their spells. For instance, they can physically block attempts to hit heroes with spells such as, and , and can act as additional targets for random-target area spells such as , , , , and so on.
 * Treants can give vision and can be directly controlled, allowing them to be used to gather intelligence. They can scout out dangerous areas for enemy movement (such as checking behind treelines for hiding initiators), increase your vision radius at night by placing them at the outer perimeters of your team's location, look inside Roshan's pit, and so on.
 * is a respectable global nuke that allows Nature's Prophet to put damage all around the map, which can be used to multiple ends.
 * Generally, Wrath of Nature is best used to halt enemy pushes, or add an initiation nuke to a gank. It should generally not be used to farm lane creeps around the map every time it is off cooldown, as this can take away farm from teammates and push creep waves, giving teammates less safe places to farm.
 * Remember that Wrath of Nature deals more damage to the units hit at the end of its duration, so skillful use of this spell requires targeting it to land on as many units as possible prior to reaching your intended target, but without overrunning the unit cap. Watch your mini-map for how many possible targets there are currently, and cast the spell at the right moment. If your target is in the bottom lane, target the spell on the top lane to give it units to build up on, and vice versa.
 * Wrath of Nature can be used to effectively stall enemy pushes and give them pause. If the enemy is attempting to push a tower, using the spell can deal heavy damage to their creep wave and any heroes within vision, possibly killing their whole creep wave and preventing them from effectively pushing. To the same purpose, it can be used to push out lanes so that your team can more easily take towers.
 * Wrath of Nature can be useful for starting up a nuke prior to ganking an enemy. If cast right before initiating with Teleportation, it can hit enemy creeps to build up its damage before arriving at the gank target, striking them shortly before Nature's Prophet emerges.
 * With Aghanim's Scepter, the overall nuking power of Wrath of Nature increases, giving it a greater chance to kill any creep it strikes and summoning a Treant for every successful kill. This can greatly augment Nature's Prophet's ability to push, as every successful kill will also summon instant reinforcements for that lane to increase its pushing power.

Trivia

 * During the transition from the original DotA to Dota 2, one of Prophet's abilities, Call of Nature, was renamed to Nature's Call.
 * A fun/silly name for Nature's Prophet is Nature's Profit, due to his farming and splitpushing playstyle.
 * Nature's Prophet original name was Furion, a reference to Malfurion Stormrage from the Warcraft universe. His Dota 2 name had to be changed in order to avoid copyright issues with Blizzard. He is still called Furion by the majority of the player base and is referred to as "Furion" in the game files.
 * As well, in DotA, his lore revealed him to be the father of, and . This has since been changed in Dota 2, as the two heroes' lores were also modified.
 * He briefly had the name "Tequoia" in Dota 2, but was then removed for unspecified reasons.
 * Prophet's spawning response, furi spawn 01.mp3 "I speak for the trees." is a direct reference and homage to Dr. Seuss's .
 * One of Prophet's last hitting responses, furi lasthit 07.mp3 "Green is good.", is reference to "greed is good," a quote from the 1987 film Wall Street, and the Warcraft III cheat code of the same name.

Audio
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