Zeus

Zeus, the Lord of Heaven, is a ranged intelligence hero who functions almost solely as a nuker. He is usually played as a semi-carry ganker type hero, who instead of utilizing disables, focuses solely on delivering tremendous amounts of magical damage to his foes. With the high cast range and low cooldown on his spells, he is able to deliver the most superb and consistent magical damage of any hero in the game. Arc Lightning is a highly spammable nuke that creates a stream of lightning that bounces between enemy foes (up to fifteen times at max level), dealing minor damage. Lightning Bolt is more focused, dealing heavy damage to a single target, also on a very low cooldown. Static Field is a potent passive ability that allows Zeus's magical damage to scale into late game, dealing damage to all enemies within a decent AoE equal to a certain percentage of nearby targets' health whenever he casts a spell. Finally, his ultimate Thundergod's Wrath allows him to strike all enemy heroes with a bolt of lightning, no matter their position, inflicting heavy damage. It can be used for multiple purposes: to finish off low-health enemy heroes limping away, to soften up the entire enemy team during a teamfight, or even to scout out the enemy's position. With the ability to strike down enemies both near and afar, the Lord of Heaven ensures that nobody can escape his wrath.

Talents

 * The mana regen is added as a bonus and does not benefit illusions.
 * Upgrading health increases maximum health capacity and keeps the current health percentage.
 * The armor is added as bonus armor, and therefore does not benefit illusions.
 * The magic resistance stacks multiplicatively with other sources of magic resistance.
 * Respawn reductions cannot reduce respawn time below 1 second.

Recommended items
Starting items:
 * and a are taken for the good HP regeneration.
 * Three will make your spells more spammable, since Zeus is very mana dependent.
 * An and a  will give you more attributes, helping you with survivability and mana management.

Early game:
 * will make you faster, allowing for easier escapes and a better time catching up to enemy heroes.
 * allows for lane control and sustainability through runes and crowing. Getting it early helps you to maintain your mana to get last hits consistently.
 * will give more intelligence, allowing for a larger mana pool and more damage, as well as bonus attributes to help with survivability.

Core:
 * are used to help 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, and eventually upgraded into BoT.
 * provides a useful amplification of your magical damage dealt to any enemy caught in its blast. In addition to this, the 6 armor bonus helps mitigate the impact of Zeus' poor base armor, allowing him to survive longer against heavy physical damage lineups.
 * makes you better at your job by dealing lots of magical damage from as far back as possible.

Situational items:
 * will grant you a new charge based ability Nimbus, which further expands your global presence. If you need to be more tanky and durable Aghanim's Scepter is a better choice than Refresher Orb, since it gives both health and Strength. Note: with Refresher Orb, you can potentially spawn up to four Nimbuses at the same time.
 * is used to activate your Thundergod's Wrath twice if you have sufficient mana pool. In late game Refresher Orb is a better item than scepter as it will allow Zeus to use his spells more often, which owing to his scaling passive is more important than stronger ultimate damage. Using your three spells with a scepter in late game will deal less damage than using your three spells, then refreshing them and using them again. Using a Refresher Orb will drain a lot of mana, making you unable to cast your abilities if used carelessly.
 * helps in many situations, and can be used to make an enemy helpless; it also gives a nice boost to your mana pool.
 * grants more health and more mana, which are very needed for Zeus. The more kills you do, the more mana regeneration you get.
 * is a good utility item: it gives more mana regeneration, a bit more of speed and a good ability to incapacitate enemy Heroes.
 * is a nice addition to Zeus' inventory as most of his damage output will be from his spells, which means that he will be healed for 25% of all spell and item damage that he inflicts. The lower cooldown of his ultimate will also be appreciated by Zeus players, especially for global scouting. His DPS in teamfights will also raise dramatically, as the lower cooldown on his nukes allow him to trigger his passive more often.


 * can help with early mana issues, easing jungling and can be used to make a later.
 * is a good choice for mobility and utility, very useful for evading carries and kite magic immune targets. can also be picked up, Zeus benefiting a lot from mobility items.
 * can be a great choice if you find yourself getting blown up by physical damage. It can also be upgraded into an, which can be used to disable the enemy carry, save allies and deal a massive amount of burst damage in combination with your spells.
 * increase your mana pool enough to cast your combo while offering good enemy control.
 * gives you a much needed health boost, catch-up and a possible escape mechanism. The intelligence stats are very cost effective as well.

Gameplay
 Strategy & Tips Counters & Matchups

Audio
 Responses Sounds

History
 Lore Old Abilities Changelogs

Trivia

 * Zeus was the first hero to be implemented in Dota 2.
 * Zeus is based on the Greek mythological god of the same name.
 * As suggested by the game's files, Zeus's name was, at one time, Zuus. The possible reason being that 'Zuus' is the correct pronunciation of his name 'Zeus'.
 * Zeus' alternate/fun name in DotA was "Merlini", a tribute to a professional DotA player.
 * Zeus' title in DotA was "Lord of Olympus".
 * Static Field is most likely a reference to the Sorceress' skill of the same name in Diablo II. In Diablo II, the spell also reduced enemies' HP by a percentage within a short radius.
 * Zeus' respawn line zuus respawn 07.mp3 "To err is human. To respawn, divine." is a reference to Alexander Pope, whose quote is "To err is human; to forgive, divine."
 * Zeus' rival line towards, Zuus rival 03.mp3 "Keep in mind, Chen, Godliness is next to deadliness." is a reference to an old and well-known saying "Cleanliness is next to godliness."
 * Zeus' rare response line, Zuus rare 05.mp3 "In Me I Trust.", refers to the national motto of the United States – "In God We Trust".