Doom

Lucifer, otherwise known as Doom, is a melee strength Hero with strong farming capabilities, good versatility, and one of the strongest single-target spells in the game. His very low starting armor makes him vulnerable to harassment, but his abilities and high health allow him to lane or even jungle quite effectively. As a ruthless demon, he possesses malicious abilities revolving around greed, fire, and death. His Devour ability allows him to consume creeps, providing additional gold and allowing him to absorb any powers that creep had, which potentially allows him to have up to six total hero abilities. Because there are numerous neutral creep abilities to choose from to supplement his other abilities, the role that he chooses to play is quite flexible. Scorched Earth serves numerous purposes, allowing him to chase, escape, regenerate, and slowly burn his enemies all at once. Finally, his namesake ult Doom serves as one of the strongest single target lockdown abilities in the game. A unit afflicted with Doom takes intense damage over a lengthy duration, while having all his active abilities - even those from items - completely silenced. With numerous expensive items in his arsenal and a key enemy hero rendered useless for a teamfight, a farmed Doom ensures that nobody can extinguish his flame.

Gameplay
Doom posesses an unorthodox set of abilities, meaning that whatever abilties he obtains through Devour will dictate how well the rest of his abilities synergyse. Devour allows Doom to instantly kill a creep for additional gold - though more importantly it allows Doom to adapt a new set of abilities to suit whatever role he plays. Because of this flexibility, Doom can play the full spectrum of roles from hard support to hard carry and anywhere in-between, though he's most often played as a disabler tank.

Devour allows Doom to gain lots of gold by eating lane creeps whenever it is off cooldown, which means that he does not have to stop farming if not necessary. Scorched Earth makes Doom even more durable by increasing his health regeneration and movement speed, as well as damaging all enemies within the area. Doom's ultimate, Doom, completely shuts down a target by disabling their abilities and items - forcing them to retreat from a fight entirely, or stay and die due to sheer helplessness.

The items and abilities that Doom acquires will further cement his role. As an initiator, allows him to blink in and  while his team follows-through. As a hard carry, the Alpha Wolf provides the, as well as a chance to. As a support, Doom can use combined with  to make his team survive longer in team fights. The only limit to Doom's flexibility is how far the player is willing to take it.

Tips

 * Doom is a versatile carry who can become a powerful late-game threat due to his ability to quickly farm with Devour, his strong nuking power, and his ultimate that lets him disable an enemy for at least 15 seconds. His skill set and fast farming potential allows him to be built in any number of ways to meet the enemy threat.
 * One of Doom's greatest weaknesses is his minimal base armor and extremely low agility, making him very vulnerable to physical damage despite being a strength hero, and reducing his physical damage output potential. Therefore, he must build armor items in order to survive in teamfights, and attack speed items in order to be able to deal any damage to enemies.
 * Due to his Devour ability, Doom is a good farmer who can quickly get the gold to purchase many strong core items to alleviate his weaknesses. His ability to obtain gold and experience using this ability also allows him to greatly diversify and play many different roles depending on what his team needs.
 * In general, Doom is best played as a safe lane carry, as his ability to farm can allow him to get numerous powerful items that give him strong teamfight presence. The degree to which he can carry is almost unlimited, and can be chosen depending on which stage of the game it is best to end on based on the enemy team's lineup.
 * Doom's ability to instantly kill creeps with Devour makes him a respectable jungler, as he can farm neutral camps relatively quickly with the ability. He can also rotate with any abilities he has gained through consuming creeps to gank the enemy off-lane or mid.
 * Doom can also play a utility or support role, as his ultimate gives him a way to contribute to a teamfight regardless of how much farm he has. Devour allows him to obtain gold without being given major farm priority, meaning that even if given the priority of a hard support he can get gold to buy items that help him or his team.
 * allows Doom to instantly kill a target non-friendly creep, gaining the gold and experience bounty immediately and then bonus gold after consuming it.
 * Devour is Doom's strongest early-game spell, as it accelerates his gold and experience gain, giving him an early advantage. It should generally be the first spell that is maxed out, as it allows Doom to obtain early levels and fast core items if left alone by the enemy team.
 * The ability to steal neutral creep abilities is very strong, as Doom gains both the active and passive abilities. This allows him to choose a creep that gives him the most benefits depending on what opponents he is facing or what he needs in-lane. Good Doom play requires understanding each neutral creep's strengths and how they can be best utilized depending on the situation; certain creeps are very powerful in the laning stage or give an edge while jungling, while others are powerful for initiating or disabling enemies in fights, and still others provide auras or can place buffs that greatly benefit the whole team in the late game.
 * Keep in mind, Doom must digest any creep that has been devoured before he can use Devour again, even if it has come off of cooldown. Doom digests creeps at a rate of 20 HP per second, based on the HP of the creep when it was eaten, so at higher levels of Devour it is often necessary to damage a creep somewhat before devouring it.
 * Beware that you get the bonus gold at the end of the digestion period, and that you lose the debuff upon death, so if you are killed while you are digesting a creep you will not gain the bonus gold. This means that it is a good habit to work down creeps in order to cut down the digestion period, as getting ganked by the enemy can cost you more than just unreliable gold upon death.
 * increases Doom's movement speed while simultaneously giving him HP regen and magical burn damage in an area around him.
 * At least one early level of Scorched Earth is recommended, as the movement speed boost is the same at all levels. The extra speed can be crucial in the early game to chase enemies down or outrun pursuers.
 * Due to its instant cast time, Scorched Earth allows Doom to activate it without breaking stride, which can help him to chase or escape without stopping to cast the spell.
 * If jungling, Scorched Earth can give a measure of additional damage output and HP regen. This can be additionally powerful if the Dark Troll Summoner from the Troll Camp has been previously devoured, as the summoned Skeleton Warriors also gain the HP regen from the spell.
 * Scorched Earth is a strong candidate for maxing out early, after Devour. In early game engagements, the burn damage and heal can allow Doom to efficiently trade attacks with the enemy, allowing him to be aggressive in the laning stage.
 * Be very mindful of Scorched Earth's extremely long cooldown. While it costs comparatively little mana to cast, the long cooldown means that using it will leave you vulnerable once the spell's effects end as you no longer have a movement speed boost or HP regen spell available for some time. Try to only use Scorched Earth when absolutely necessary, as the mobility and survivability it grants can make a huge difference if you are ganked.
 * is often considered the most powerful single-target disable in the game, as it silences and mutes its target for at least 15 seconds. Used on the proper enemy, it can convert any 5 vs 5 fight into an uneven 4 vs 5 fight.
 * Doom is an extremely powerful ganking spell, since it prevents the target from casting spells or using items, rendering them completely helpless. If Doom can be used to pick off one of the enemy's strongest heroes alone, it can give Doom's team a numerical advantage even before a teamfight happens, discouraging the enemy from engaging at all.
 * Be mindful that Doom's ultimate has a 0.5 second cast animation, longer than his standard cast animation of 0.3 seconds. This can allow particularly reactive enemies to dodge or evade Doom as he attempts to cast the spell, so the element of surprise is very important in allowing Doom to get the spell off.
 * In teamfights, Doom should generally be targeted on the biggest threat on the enemy team, as preventing them from participating in a teamfight can greatly tip the odds in your team's favor. However, the biggest threat is not always the enemy's hard carry, so use your best judgment.
 * The target that you choose for Doom is extremely important, as the huge 15 second duration can render spell-dependent heroes such as or  absolutely useless. As well, if you can catch an enemy hero carrying key support items like Mekansm or Pipe of Insight, you can prevent those items from being used during the subsequent fight, all the more so if they are being carried by a hero who has powerful teamfight contribution spells, killing two birds with one stone.
 * Beware that when enemies drop below 25% of their maximum HP, they can be denied by their teammates, preventing Doom and his team from gaining the gold or experience bounty. Additionally, Doom is not guaranteed to kill enemies that break off from a fight, and they can potentially limp away at low health and survive. If the goal is to kill the Doomed target, try to prevent them from escaping in order to prevent any of the two situations from happening.
 * Conversely, remember that once an enemy is Doomed, they lose much of their ability to contribute during an engagement. If the goal is to win a teamfight, the Doomed target can be ignored and their teammates should be focused on and killed, allowing Doom's team to kill the Doomed enemy at their leisure and take map objectives once the rest of the enemy team is defeated.
 * The strongest counters to Doom are and, which can cause the ultimate to be entirely wasted or even reflected back to Doom himself. When targeting Doom on an enemy, try to hit them with an expendable unit-targeted spell or ability first, in order to break Linken's Sphere prior to using Doom, and be very wary of any Lotus Orb carriers on the enemy team.
 * While Aghanim's Scepter is very powerful on Doom, it is not absolutely necessary as a core item. If the enemy lineup has strong threatening heroes with troublesome passive abilities such as, and , applying a Break on them can greatly reduce the threat they pose to your team. However, not building an Aghanim's Scepter lets you use the gold and inventory slot to build a different item, which may counter enemy heroes in a better way.
 * Due to Doom's flexibility, he can benefit from building many different types of items, depending on what role he is playing for his team.
 * In general, a or two is recommended during the laning stage, and especially if jungling, as Doom's abysmal base intelligence means that he will run completely out of mana after casting less than a handful of spells.
 * allows Doom to be very aggressive in the early game, as combined with Scorched Earth it can give him a powerful movement speed advantage and let him chase down enemies easily.
 * It is possible to build any type of boots on Doom, as his flexibility allows him to be played in many different ways.
 * can be powerful to get on a support Doom, however it is also powerful on a roaming Doom who wishes to play aggressively early on and can give him a powerful early-game advantage even as a carry. The armor drastically increases his early-game survivability, while the increased movement speed can allow him to chase down enemies quickly, especially once combined with Scorched Earth. Finally, the HP regen allows him to recover HP between fights, allowing him to quickly prepare for another gank.
 * can be useful for giving Doom good physical damage output due to the extra attack speed, and the extra attributes allow him to increase the size of his HP or mana pools depending on what is needed. Treads are a powerful alternative to Phase Boots in any situation.
 * can free up an inventory slot to allow Doom to get a full six slots of core items. It additionally improves his mobility, both through increased base movement speed and higher bonus through Scorched Earth.
 * can be extremely powerful on a carry Doom as he can get lots of early gold from Devour to be able to afford it early on. As well, the item's attack speed can mitigate his low agility, giving him more physical damage output for farming.
 * can be extremely important to get on Doom, so that he can prevent himself from being chain-disabled and killed before getting his ultimate off. As well, once he gets farmed enough he needs to prevent himself from being disabled in teamfights so that he can take the enemy team head-on.
 * is a powerful mid-game item that gives Doom many powerful benefits. The increased intelligence greatly offsets his low base mana pool, the armor alleviates his weakness to physical damage, and the active works alongside his huge HP pool to punish the enemy should they decide to attack him.
 * can greatly offset Doom's vulnerability to physical damage, and make him much beefier overall. It is a useful mid-game item that can be upgraded into a powerful utility item.
 * is a decent mid-game item on Doom, as it gives him armor as well as many useful stats. It greatly increases his attack power and survivability, and the HP loss from the active on can be negated by Scorched Earth.
 * greatly increases Doom's attack speed, giving him much more damage output with his physical attacks. The increased night vision also gives him better situational awareness, allowing him to spot enemies farther out in order to initiate on them with Doom. It can also be purchased as a seventh-slot item and consumed to give Doom a permanent attack speed bonus, given his ability to quickly farm using Devour.
 * , upgraded from a purchased Shadow Blade, gives Doom more damage output and HP, and increases his initiating potential by allowing him to deal more backstab damage and inflict break on enemies prior to casting Doom. Its break can also be used alongside that of an Aghanim's-upgraded Doom to debilitate two enemies simultaneously.
 * can be a good item to build to give Doom enough attack speed to offset his low agility growth. Using the active on yourself can discourage the enemy from focusing you down for fear of proccing Static Charge. It is a powerful complement to Doom's tankiness once he has enough armor and HP.
 * is a powerful all-around stat booster, giving Doom more HP, mana, armor and attack speed, to make him a much bigger threat to the enemy team. The attack modifier allows Doom to greatly slow enemies, and gives him a strong mobility advantage when combined with Scorched Earth.
 * is an unorthodox item to build on Doom, but can be a powerful hybrid caster-survivability item. It greatly improves Doom's HP and mana, giving him more survivability and casting power, and reduces Doom's cooldown down to 75 seconds, allowing it to be used tactically. The spell lifesteal also greatly increases Doom's survivability, as he can lifesteal off of Scorched Earth and Doom in the middle of battle.
 * can be useful to get on Doom once he has built enough attack speed to increase the chances of proccing a bash, as it greatly increases the strength of his attacks while also providing some strength to increase his HP and base damage. The active ability can also be used to instantly disable a target, through spell immunity if needed.
 * Doom's flexibility allows him to be played as a non-core hero as well, as he can contribute to teamfights with his ultimate alone. His ability to farm with Devour allows him to build items even when not given farm priority.
 * is usually a good pickup on a support Doom, as his low base intelligence often limits his ability to cast spells or use active abilities on items. He can replenish his and his teammates' mana pools to accomplish more in the field.
 * is a useful item on a support-utility Doom, as it gives him stats across the board and a respectable amount of armor. The active also heals Doom himself and teammates, however its high mana cost means that Doom must increase the size of his mana pool if he decides to purchase this.
 * can be a good item to get on Doom due to the increased intelligence and strength it provides, increasing the size of Doom's mana and HP pools, respectively. The summoned warriors give increased contribution in teamfights, and they can benefit from Scorched Earth's healing as well.
 * is a good utility item that vastly increases Doom's survivability against physical damage. The active ability can further protect all teammates from physical damage for some time as well.
 * gives Doom a much bigger mana pool, good mana regen, good stats across the board and a ranged hard-disable that is a powerful complement to his ultimate. It is also useful on a carry Doom due to the Hex alone.
 * greatly improves Doom's overall survivability, as its aura can make him much harder to bring down at low health. The active is very powerful in teamfights for healing and replenishing mana, and can remove debuffs from Doom himself.

Trivia

 * His official name used to be Doombringer instead of Doom
 * Several of Doom's abilities are inspired by Final Fantasy's Blue Mages. LVL? Death was based off of the Level 5 Death ability and the mechanics of a LVL? S-flare. Devour is highly similar to Quina Quen's eat and cook ability from Final Fantasy IX. His ultimate, Doom, also shares the same name of another Blue Mage ability, but the mechanics differ.
 * His name, Lucifer, is taken from the Bible's Book of Isaiah and translates roughly to "morning star". It is often used to refer to the Biblical Devil (or Satan), thus fitting Doom's evil and demonic image.
 * Doom's ultimate icon depicts a pentacle which, despite its popular connotation as Satanic/"evil" mark, is actually a Pagan symbol of protection. For its common "evil" symbolism to apply, the pentagram has to be inverted; this only occasionally occurs in-game, as the "star" inside the circle of the ability's particle effect slowly rotates.
 * Doom's response upon taking an Invisibility rune doom invis 03.mp3 "Heheheh, see no evil." refers to the and their associated phrase: "See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil."
 * His ultimate and signature ability, Doom, is derived from the Pit Lord's, a playable hero in Warcraft III: Frozen Throne. The original ability varied in that it was only castable on non-hero units, is non-removable, and would spawn a Doomguard on its death. The Doomguard's model was Lucifer's hero model in DotA.