Necrophos
In a time of great plague, an obscure monk of dark inclinations, one Rotund'jere, found himself promoted to the rank of Cardinal by the swift death of all his superiors. While others of the order went out to succor the ill, the newly ordained cardinal secluded himself within the Cathedral of Rumusque, busily scheming to acquire the property of dying nobles, promising them spiritual rewards if they signed over their terrestrial domains. As the plague receded to a few stubborn pockets, his behavior came to the attention of the greater order, which found him guilty of heresy and sentenced him to serve in the plague ward, ensorcelled with spells that would ensure him a slow and lingering illness. But they had not counted on his natural immunity. Rotund'jere caught the pox, but instead of dying, found it feeding his power, transforming him into a veritable plague-mage, a Pope of Pestilence. Proclaiming himself Necrophos, he travels the world, spreading plague wherever he goes, and growing in terrible power with every village his pestilential presence obliterates.
Base STR
18 +2.3
Base AGI
12 +1.3
Base INT
23 +2.7
Move Speed
280
Attack Range
500
Base Armor
2
Attack DMG
26–30
Projectile
1200
Innate Abilities
Sadist
Necrophos gains stacking regen for 8 seconds for each unit he kills. Hero kills multiply the effect.
HP/MANA REGEN:
3.7
HERO KILL MULTIPLIER:
6
DURATION:
8
- Break disables the gaining of new stacks.
- Break does not disable the bonuses from existing stacks.
Abilities
Death Pulse
Cooldown
8 / 7 / 6 / 5s
Mana
115 / 130 / 145 / 160
Necrophos releases a wave of death around him, dealing damage to enemy units and healing allied units.
RADIUS:
500
HEAL:
70 / 90 / 110 / 130
- Death Pulse can't be disjointed.
Poor souls who succumb to Rotund'jere's plagues are recycled for future use.
Ghost Shroud
Cooldown
28 / 24 / 20 / 16s
Mana
75
Necrophos slips into the realm that separates the living from the dead. Unable to attack or be attacked, he emits an aura that slows enemies around him. He takes additional magic damage in this form, but his restorative powers are amplified.
DURATION:
3 / 3.5 / 4 / 4.5
RESTORATION AMPLIFICATION:
55 / 65 / 75 / 85%
MOVEMENT SLOW:
16 / 19 / 22 / 25%
SLOW RADIUS:
700
INCREASED MAGIC DAMAGE:
-20%
Rotund'jere uses the souls of his victims as bridge from life to afterlife.
Heartstopper Aura
Necrophos stills the hearts of his opponents, causing nearby enemy units to lose a percentage of their max health over time.
RADIUS:
700
HEALTH DECAY:
0.8 / 1.3 / 1.8 / 2.3%
- Damage won't disable items like Blink Dagger.
- Does not affect ancient creeps.
Those who come within a short distance of Necrophos can feel pestilence and plague in the air.
Reaper's Scythe
Cooldown
100s
Mana
250 / 375 / 500
Stuns the target enemy hero, then deals damage based on how much life it is missing. If Necrophos kills an enemy this way, he'll permanently gain Health and Mana Regen. Any kill under this effect is credited to Necrophos.
DAMAGE PER MISSING HP:
0.7 / 0.8 / 0.9
STUN DURATION:
1.5
HP REGEN:
1 / 2 / 3
MANA REGEN:
1 / 2 / 3
- Damage is dealt at the end of the stun.
The amount of death and suffering in the air increases the power of Necrophos's plague magic.
Talents
Aghanim's Scepter
Heartstopper Aura
Heartstopper Aura's Health Decay is increased by 0% of Necrophos's current health regeneration.
Aghanim's Shard
Death Seeker
Cooldown
19s
Mana
160
Necrophos turns into a large Death Pulse towards the target unit's position. Once it arrives to the location, the Death Pulse spreads towards nearby enemies and allies.
- Does not trigger spell reflect.
The Rumusque Faithful consider Necrophos to be more plague than person.
Hero Performance
Median across all public matches · OpenDotaForm
52%
Win rate in recent matches
Performance
100%
KDA ratio (kills + assists / deaths)
Laning
57%
Last hits per minute over full game
Farm
72%
Average gold per minute
Fighting
41%
Average kills + assists per match
Experience
88%
Average XP per minute
Strategy
When to Pick Necrophos?
Pfff... you know what makes Necrophos special? He is one of those heroes where the enemy team either has the specific tools to deal with him or the game is already decided the moment the draft is locked and he is in your lineup. There is almost no middle ground. BSJ said it directly and perfectly—Consecrated Wraps is insanely good on Necro for the magic resistance, stats, and health, and that is literally all this hero needs in the early game—just to exist and live.
That sentence tells you everything about why Necrophos in the current patch is genuinely strong. The new Consecrated Wraps item gives him the magic resistance to survive burst damage that would previously kill him before his own sustained damage can accumulate, and the barrier charges absorb burst hits that would otherwise punish his naturally squishy positioning in the offlane.
He is not in DM's S-tier or A-tier for the current offlane meta—Bristleback, Doom, Tidehunter, Enigma, and Batrider are the top priority picks—but for specific draft situations Necrophos is one of the most oppressive heroes in the game, and "situational" does not mean weak; it means you need to be smart about when you pull the trigger.
Heartstopper Aura drains a percentage of maximum health per second from every nearby enemy hero — meaning the bigger and tankier the enemy, the faster Heartstopper kills them simply by existing in their vicinity.
In the current meta full of high-HP strength carries like Lifestealer, Doom, Bristleback, and Tidehunter, Heartstopper Aura is one of the single most punishing passive abilities available in the offlane position because those exact heroes are the ones standing near Necrophos the most during extended teamfights.
Death Pulse spamming in teamfights simultaneously heals your entire team and damages theirs—creating a sustained advantage in every extended fight that the enemy team cannot outlast without magical damage burst to stop the cycle. And then there is Reaper's Scythe.
When the enemy hero drops below forty percent health, you fire a guaranteed kill on them—and if Necrophos gets the kill, he gains permanent health and mana regeneration stacks that make him increasingly unkillable as the game progresses. Every stack. Permanently.
The longer the game goes and the more Reaper's scythes land, the harder he becomes to kill—which in a meta of extended team fights where carries need many items to deal with tanky frontliners is a quietly disgusting power curve.
He is disgusting specifically into lineups without reliable reincarnation mechanics and without Oracle, Dazzle, or Abaddon—because all three of those heroes can prevent the Reaper's Scythe kill credit, and Wraith King's double life means Reaper's Scythe just burns through both lives, and buyback prevention is what you are actually paying for.
He thrives in high-HP lineups with no magic damage reduction that have to stand in Heartstopper Aura range during teamfights—Centaur Warrunner, Tidehunter, and Axe—heroes that deliberately stand in the front lines and absorb hits, because every second they are within 1000 range of Necrophos is a second where Heartstopper is bleeding them for percentage health that compounds over the duration of every extended fight.
He pairs beautifully with aggressive supports that can extend fight duration long enough for Heartstopper and Death Pulse spam to accumulate—Bane, Disruptor, and Shadow Shaman—heroes that lock the enemy team in place for several seconds while Necrophos cycles Death Pulse on everyone simultaneously and Heartstopper drains them continuously during the lockdown.
Avoid picking him into lineups with Oracle or Dazzle specifically—because False Promise and Shallow Grave make Reaper's Scythe completely useless in every critical moment it matters, and a Necrophos whose ultimate is reliably countered every fight is just a tanky hero with an aura and some spells doing mediocre damage.
Also feels genuinely terrible for Wraith King and Juggernaut specifically in the current meta—Reincarnation gives WK his second life and Reaper's Scythe does not prevent the buyback from this specific ability, and Juggernaut's Blade Fury makes him spell immune, preventing Reaper's Scythe from landing while he is spinning directly on top of your face.
Tips & common mistakes
- Consecrated Wraps is your most important early purchase in the current patch, and most Necrophos players are not buying it yet because the item is newer than the habits of most pub players. Buy it early—BSJ confirmed the interaction and the magic resistance plus barrier charges solve his two biggest early game problems simultaneously: surviving initial burst damage and being able to stay in the lane long enough to farm. Do not skip this item. It is the reason he works in the current meta.
- Heartstopper Aura deals a percentage of maximum health per second—which means you should be STANDING NEAR the enemy heroes at all times during every fight rather than positioning at the back of your team like most ranged offlaners. The aura has a 1000 radius, and every second spent outside that radius against a tank is a second of lost Heartstopper damage that cannot be recovered. Walk into the fight. Stay near the enemy frontline. Let the aura work while you spam Death Pulse and wait for Reaper's Scythe threshold.
- Ghost Shroud makes Necrophos ethereal—which means he cannot be physically attacked AND he receives amplified healing from all sources during the duration. Most pub Necrophos players use Ghost Shroud purely defensively when already dying, but the correct use is proactively during fights, specifically when Death Pulse is coming off cooldown—the amplified healing from Ghost Shroud applied to a Death Pulse that hits multiple nearby heroes produces an enormous burst of personal sustain that lets Necrophos stay in fights long past the point where the enemy team expected him to die.
- Reaper's Scythe fires and then delays before dealing damage — do NOT use it on a target at full health expecting the damage to land before the enemy team can respond. The ability threshold is forty percent health or less for reliable kills, and the execution damage is calculated at the END of the stun duration. Cast it only when the target is clearly below the threshold AND your team can keep them from escaping during the 1.5-second stun window before the damage lands.
- Death Pulse heals allies AND damages enemies simultaneously — which means positioning yourself in the center of a fight where maximum heroes are within the 475 radius is dramatically more impactful than standing at the edge where the pulse only hits two or three targets. Every Death Pulse cast should be optimizing for how many heroes it touches on both sides simultaneously, not just for personal mana efficiency.
- The permanent regeneration stacks from Reaper's Scythe kills compound indefinitely—which means Necrophos late in a game with five or six Reapers Scythe Kills is a hero with genuinely terrifying base regeneration that makes him nearly impossible to kill in sustained fights. Prioritize securing the Reaper's Scythe kill credit rather than letting your team steal the kill—the long-term benefit of the permanent stack is worth more than the immediate gold and experience from a shared kill.
- Sadist regen from creep kills is your primary mana sustain in the laning phase — kill as many creeps as possible with Death Pulse and last hits to keep your mana pool healthy enough to maintain Death Pulse spam without running dry. Most Necrophos players in the early game go out of mana because they over-extend Death Pulse usage without tracking how many creep kills they need to sustain the next cast. Deny your own creeps too—each denial triggers Sadist.
Summary
Necrophos is situational but genuinely strong in the right draft—BSJ highlighted him as a direct beneficiary of the single most impactful new item in the entire current patch, Heartstopper Aura bleeds percentage health from exactly the tanky strength heroes dominating the current carry and offlane meta; Reaper's Scythe permanently makes him harder to kill with every hero it kills; and the Death Pulse healing loop in extended teamfights creates a sustained advantage that the enemy team simply cannot outlast if they do not have the specific tools to deal with it.
He is not a first-pick hero. He is not a blind-pick hero. He is a hero. You look at the enemy draft and identify that they have three strength cores without reliable Grave or False Promise coverage, and then you smile and lock him in because what is about to happen to the enemy team in every extended teamfight is going to be deeply unpleasant. Buy Consecrated Wraps first. Stand in Heartstopper's range always. Spam Death Pulse on cooldown.
And wait patiently for the moment that Carry drops to thirty percent health while looking you directly in the eyes and realizing exactly what is about to happen to them.
Strong Against
Popular Items
Starting Items
Early Game
Core
Late Game
Popular Neutral Items
