Doom

Lucifer, otherwise known as Doom, is a melee strength Hero with strong farming capabilities, good versatility, and one of the strongest single-target disables 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. A ruthless demon, Doom 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 their powers, using them to increase his own strength. 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. He can deal tremendous damage with Infernal Blade, an attack modifier which mini-stuns enemies and deals damage over time based on their maximum health, making it a powerful nuking ability that scales into the late game. Finally, his namesake ultimate 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.

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. As well, he has the lowest base attack time in the game, meaning that his attack speed is extremely slow unless boosted by items. 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 as needed.
 * With a few points in Scorched Earth, Doom can be a very strong off-laner, as the spell can give him the mobility and survivability he needs to stay alive. Devour allows him to consume creeps, both enemy and neutral, to guarantee gold and experience gain, while Infernal Blade allows him to inflict surprising amounts of damage against enemy supports that attempt to trade hits with him.
 * 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.
 * If you are going to jungle at the start of the game, a Satyr Tormenter should be first priority to use your Devour on, as it's will greatly increase your survivability and regeneration and make up for Doom's low attack speed and armor. This is not recommended if you are going to lane, however, as the aura will push the lane and either make you more vulnerable to gangs or hurt your farm, while  uses too much mana to be spamed in lane for harass.
 * A very good choice for at early game is to devour a Hill Troll Priest as it is usefull if you're either going to jungle or lane. In lane it will provide you and your lane partner much higher mana regen (even higher than the bonus provides with ), allowing you to continously spam your abilities. In addition, it's  Can allow you to heal without using consumables (this is rather unefficient due to the longer cast time it has when used by Doom).
 * If you intent to gang often or simply want to score early kills, good choices for Devour targets would be the Ghost, Centaur Conqueror, Hellbear Smasher or the Satyr Banisher. The Ghost's can in coalition with an Orb of Venom greatly slow the enemy; provided you continue to hit them. A Centaur Conqueror's  can potentially stun the enemy for a reasonably lengthy duration and score your team a kill, but it's small radius and big delay when casted by Doom makes it very unreliable and requires good positioning to be successfully used. The Satyr Banisher's  is a very strong ganking ability, as it not only greatly slows the enemy and has an extremely low cooldown (3 seconds), but it also dispels many buffs. A Hellbear Smasher's  is often times more reliable than War Stomp and it's  allows you to deal more blows, but it pushes your lane once the gang is over so you should quickly replace the abilities with others.
 * Mud Golems are also possible choices, as they give you a reliable but somewhat weak nuke and stun in, although you should mind the large cooldown. Their greatest strength, however, is in , which spawns two Doomlings on your death, both of which have the Hurl Boulder ability. If the enemy is weakened enough and they don't dispose of the Doomlings quickly, you may get your revenge from beyond the grave.
 * Obviously, the best choice for late game is the Alpha Wolf, which not only increases the right-click damage of your entire team with, but it also gives you a , both of which greatly amplify your strength as a carry.
 * 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.
 * Due to the amount of health regeneration and damage it provides, Scorched Earth is a good ability to max out early in a match. The self-heal can greatly increase Doom's survivability in engagements, which in turn helps to keep him alive and active on the map rather than retreating to base to heal or respawning.
 * Regardless of leveling priority, 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 to farm 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 an attack modifier that allows Doom to inflict a damage-over time burn on enemies he attacks, damaging them for a portion of their maximum health. The initial strike with the spell also mini-stuns its target.
 * Because Infernal Blade's damage is expressed as a percentage of the target's maximum HP, it scales into the late game where it will reliably deal damage no matter how much health the enemy has. However, due to Doom's need to farm and stay alive in the early game, it is wise to avoid leveling Infernal Blade too much until after both Devour and Scorched Earth are maxed out.
 * Due to its ability to mini-stun targets upon attack, an early value point in Infernal Blade can greatly benefit Doom and his team. Stopping an enemy channeled spell or interrupting a Town Portal Scroll can halt powerful enemy spells or prevent them from escaping or reinforcing their teammates.
 * Keep in mind that despite its low mana cost, Infernal Blade has a very long cooldown at low levels, limiting its damage output. As well, Doom's low base intelligence means that even casting the spell a few times in the early game can greatly drain his mana pool, preventing him from casting his other spells as needed. Try to avoid using Infernal Blade profligately, and cast it only when necessary to either inflict harass damage against lane opponents or when the nuke damage is needed for a kill attempt.
 * As a castable attack modifier, Doom can manually inflict enemies with Infernal Blade during the laning stage without drawing creep aggro. Even though the percentage-based fraction of damage will not do much, the flat damage portion is much stronger in the laning stage, allowing Doom to inflict powerful harass damage against enemies should he get within range to trade auto-attacks with them.
 * When casting Infernal Blade during a fight, try to utilize the mini-stun as a disable if possible. Rather than trying to inflict the debuff on an enemy at the earliest opportunity, it may be wise to avoid stun-stacking if an ally has already disabled the enemy with a leading stun. Try to work down the enemy with regular attacks while they are disabled, and then cast Infernal Blade in order to impede them once they are able to act.
 * 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. If possible, try to get a teammate with strong initiating abilities and items disable key enemy targets first, so that they cannot react to Doom coming within range to cast his ultimate.
 * The strongest counters to Doom are and, which can cause the ultimate to be entirely wasted or even reflected back to Doom himself. If possible, try to break an enemy Linken's Sphere with a cheap unit-targeted ability first, either from an item or a creep ability obtained through Devour. Teammates can also help Doom by using their cheap unit-targeted abilities to break a Linken's Sphere for him.
 * 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 may not always be 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.
 * When considering purchasing Aghanim's Scepter, keep in mind that it is best purchased only if the break can be utilized effectively. 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.
 * is a very powerful farming booster for Doom that can allow him to accelerate his farming speed as needed. It boosts his damage against creeps while also providing armor, increasing his physical damage resistance whether it's against creeps or heroes. Using the active on creeps can greatly reduce the amount of time Doom takes to clear a creep camp, and in particular can instantly reduce any neutral creep's health so that Devour can completely digest them before it comes off cooldown.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * 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 health and mana, giving him more survivability and casting power, while the cooldown reduction allows him to apply Infernal Blade's debuff and interrupt enemies more frequently in fights and reduces his ultimate's cooldown to allow it to be used more regularly. The spell lifesteal also greatly increases Doom's survivability, as he can lifesteal off of Infernal Blade's scaling damage, 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.