Gameplay

Playstyle
Doom is a versatile hero who can become a powerful late-game threat due to his ability to quickly farm with Devour, good chasing potential with Scorched Earth, his strong nuking power in Infernal Blade, and his ultimate Doom that lets him mute and silence an enemy for a long duration. His skill set and fast farming potential allows him to be built in any number of ways to meet the enemy threat.
Pros	Cons
Doom's ultimate is one of the strongest single target disables in the game. Devour boosts gold income and grants Doom access to neutral creep abilities. High base strength and high strength growth gives Doom naturally high HP and base damage. Potent scaling damage-over-time debuff from Infernal Blade. Versatile hero that can be built in a variety of different ways, as either a support or core.	Vulnerable to ranged heroes. Vulnerable to slows. Has low intelligence and armor gain. Very low attack speed. Infernal Blade can miss if the opponent has evasion. Any other proper tank can be a better aura carrier, if they get equal or more farm than Doom.

Offlane

Doom is best played as a solo offlaner as an early level 6 grants him almost surely a kill of the enemy safelane carry. Try to devour the neutral creep in the enemy side to boost your experience gain. Once you are close to level 6, prepare for killing the laning opponent; you may need some lockdowns from your supports.

Roamer/Support

With Devour, Doom can find good abilities from neutral creeps early on to gank lanes. Also, Doom does not need to farm as much since he can always get gold from Devour and bounty runes.

Ability Builds

Generic Doom
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	20	25

Talents

Tips & Tactics

General

• One of Doom's greatest weaknesses is his low agility, reducing his physical damage output potential. In addition, 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 Devour, 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 diversify and play many different roles depending on what his team needs.
  • Doom's ability to kill creeps with Devour makes him a respectable roamer, as he can farm neutral camps with the ability. He then also rotates with any abilities he has gained through consuming creeps to gank the enemy as often as possible.
  • With a few points in Devour for bonuses in gold, Doom can be a strong offlaner. Also, Infernal Blade allows him to inflict damage against enemy supports that attempt to trade hits with him.
  • His increased farming ability allows him to get numerous powerful items that can give him a strong teamfight presence. This grants him a high degree of versatility in his item build to maximize his impact during different stages of the game and based on the enemy team's lineup.
  • 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.

Abilities

Devour

• Devour allows Doom to instantly kill a target non-friendly creep, gaining the gold and experience 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. You can choose to max out this spell first if left alone by the enemy team to maximize Doom's farming speed and obtain early levels and fast core items.
• Assuming it is always used when off cooldown, Devour increases Doom's GPM by 3/4/5/5 - not including the bounty from the creep it is used on. For comparison, Hand of Midas gives Division by zero. GPM.
• The ability to steal neutral creep abilities is 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 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.
  • A good choice during the early game is to devour a Hill Troll Priest, as it is useful if you are either going to jungle or lane. In lane it provides you and your lane partner much higher mana regeneration, allowing you to keep spamming abilities. In addition, its Heal can allow you to heal without using consumables.
  • A Hill Troll Berserker is useful for farming early game with Piercing as it deals bonus damage against non-hero units including creeps, however be cautious as Piercing also gives Doom reduced damage against heroes although its other passive, Break can be useful for disabling troublesome passive skills such as Bulwark or Dispersion.
  • If you intent to gank 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 Frost Attack can in coalition with an Orb of Venom greatly slow the enemy; provided you continue to hit them. A Centaur Conqueror's War Stomp can potentially stun the enemy for a reasonably lengthy duration and score your team a kill, but its small radius and big delay when cast by Doom makes it very unreliable and requires good positioning to be successfully used. The Satyr Banisher's Purge 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 Thunder Clap is often times more reliable than War Stomp and its Swiftness Aura allows you to deal more blows, but it pushes your lane once the gank 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 Hurl Boulder, although you should mind the large cooldown. The ability costs no mana, allowing Doom to conserve his limited early game mana pool. Their greatest strength, however, is in Shard Split, which spawns two Doomlings on your death, both of which have the Hurl Boulder ability. If the enemy is weakened enough and they do not dispose of the Doomlings quickly, you may get your revenge from beyond the grave. Hurl Boulder is also useful in the late game for breaking an enemy's Linken's Sphere before Dooming them.
  • Satyr Tormenter's Shockwave and Harpy Stormcrafter's Chain Lightning deal a lot of damage at early levels,can bully the enemy hero out of the lane and farm creeps or the jungle.The former affects you with Unholy Aura aswell, increasing your survivability.
  • Devouring a Kobold Foreman for Speed Aura is also a good choice because it grants a movement speed aura that allows Doom and nearby allies to gank more effectively or outmaneuver the enemy team during fights.
  • Obviously, the best choice for late game is the Alpha Wolf, which not only increases the attack damage of your entire team with Packleader's Aura, but it also gives you a Critical Strike, both of which greatly amplify your strength as a carry.
• When upgraded with the required talent, it allows Doom to gain to Devour ancient creeps with some of them can benefit Doom later in the game:
  • Devouring an Ancient Thunderhide would be a good idea, not only the Frenzy increases Doom's attack speed but provides both him and his allies with War Drums Aura, passively increasing attack speed and accuracy against heroes with evasion. Even though Slam does little damage in the late game, it can be used to slow down enemies.
  • Ancient Black Dragons can be an excellent choice for Doom to devour. The Fireball has a decent cast range while dealing decent damage against enemies within its splash radius. Dragonhide Aura provides some armor bonus to compensate Doom's already low armor. The splash damage from Splash Attack makes farming and pushing effortless.
  • An Ancient Granite Golem can be a great choice, the Granite Aura gives Doom and his allies bonus HP although they should be careful against heroes with abilities that deal damage based on max HP.

Scorched Earth

• Scorched Earth increases Doom's movement speed while simultaneously dealing magical damage in an area around him.
• Regardless of leveling priority, at least one early level of Scorched Earth is recommended, as the extra movement 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.
• Be mindful of Scorched Earth's long cooldown. While it costs comparatively little mana to cast, the long cooldown means that using it to farm leaves you vulnerable once the spell's effects end, as you no longer have a movement speed boost available for some time. Try to save Scorched Earth, as the mobility it grants can make a huge difference if you are ganked.

Infernal Blade

• Infernal Blade 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, reliably dealing 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 bash 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 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 does 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 attacks with them.
• When casting Infernal Blade during a fight, try to utilize the bash 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.

Doom

• Doom is often considered the most powerful single-target disable in the game, as it silences and mutes its target for at least 16 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 Linken's Sphere and Lotus Orb, 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 a Neutral item or a creep ability obtained through Devour. Teammates can also help Doom by using their cheap unit-targeted abilities ( Stifling Dagger or Arcane Bolt) to break a Linken's Sphere for him. Alternatively, try buying items with single-target actives such as Heaven's Halberd to break the Linken's Sphere.
• 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 16 second duration can render spell-dependent heroes such as Zeus or Lina 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 that 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.
• With Aghanim's Scepter, it also applies a Break effect onto the target and increases its duration.
  • 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 Phantom Assassin, Bristleback, and Spectre, 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. Additionally, Silver Edge serves the same purpose of inflicting Break but comes with extra utility.

Items

Starting items:

• Tango restores health to stay in lane.

• Healing Salve restores health quickly to stay in the lane.

• Gauntlets of Strength gives Doom strength and builds into Soul Ring.

• Iron Branch provides bonus attributes and can later be upgraded into a Magic Wand.

Early game:

• Soul Ring solves his mana problem during the early game.

• Boots of Speed grants Doom movement speed bonus to increase his mobility with Scorched Earth, helping him to chase down or run away.

Mid game:

• Phase Boots give bonus armor making him tankier and with Scorched Earth give even more mobility.

• Magic Wand provides burst health and mana regen that can often be enough to survive.

• Hand of Midas is a good item for any role Doom as he can get lots of early gold from Devour to be able to afford it and to get levels for talents.

• Drum of Endurance is a good attributes booster that has an easy buildup and lets Doom participate more often in early fights. It provides more health, a bigger mana pool, and an active that increases attack and movement speed to boost his team's mobility and damage output.

• Blink Dagger is a useful initiating item on Doom, as he can use it to quickly get within range to disable enemies using any abilities he has gained via the use of Devour, as well as his ultimate. It greatly improves his mobility, allowing him to move around the map or position himself for casting spells more easily.

Late game:

• Shiva's Guard rectifies Doom's low base intelligence, allowing him to cast his spells much more often, while simultaneously alleviating his armor problem. The active can be used in a teamfight to debilitate enemies' movements, and is powerful when chasing enemies down.

• Lotus Orb helps Doom survive with regeneration and armor. The active dispels and reflects targeted spells, which can be used on allies.

• Refresher Orb is a powerful complement to Doom's ultimate, as it allows him to remove two enemy players from a teamfight, drastically tipping the odds in his team's favor. However, due to Doom's low intelligence and the high mana cost of refreshing cooldowns, Doom should increase the size of his mana pool before attempting to purchase this.

Situational items:

• Shadow Blade improves Doom's physical damage output, helping him deal damage in fights or farm more efficiently. The active allows Doom to invisibly initiate on enemies while dealing backstab damage prior to casting his ultimate, or can be used as an escape ability as needed.

• Blade Mail 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 health pool to punish the enemy should they decide to attack him.

• Heaven's Halberd can give Doom increased survivability against physical damage by giving him more strength, status resistance, as well as evasion against attacks, helping to offset his armor vulnerability. The active is also powerful in eliminating a target's ability to attack, a powerful complement to his ultimate if the target decides to stand their ground and fight.

• Crimson Guard 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.

• Assault Cuirass is a strong item on Doom that solves his armor and attack speed issues, giving him and his team increased physical damage output during fights.

• Radiance turns Doom into a walking hazard, as it inflicts burn damage to all nearby enemies (as well as stacking with Scorched Earth), and augments his attack damage. The Burn also induces a blind on all nearby enemies, causing them to miss some attacks and giving Doom more survivability against physical attacks.

• Heart of Tarrasque is a very strong item on Doom, as it augments his already impressive strength growth. Once he has sufficient armor, bulking up his health can make him much harder to kill in teamfights, allowing him to outlast the enemy. The passive health regen allows him to completely recover his health pool outside of battle, which lets him be much more active.

• Black King Bar 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.

• Scythe of Vyse 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.

• Guardian Greaves 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.