Surviving 3K: Doom and That All Mighty Money

I have been playing a lot of Doom this patch. This hero is naturally greedy and is picked on-and-off in the pro scene because he excels against single and dual core line ups and will always get gold out of the map. This latter reason importantly results in items to help the team, like Puppey's very notable Buckler. In a 3k MMR game, Doom plays a different role: he removes the best player from the game. His ultimate deleting a hero from a fight, allows your team to take a 5v4 against the weakest 4 players on the opposing team (goodbye and good riddance, OD.) But this isn't always the easiest thing to accomplish and begins to break down against 3 and the dreaded 3k MMR 4 core lineup. Let's give Doom one last hurrah! before the next patch.

There are 2 main roles Doom is currently played in: jungle and offlane. He spends the laning stage trying to get ahead and then the mid game staying ahead. He needs his levels and items to be effective but has the tool in the form of Devour. The question then becomes what to get with all this loot? And the answer is easy: Randiance.

Rather than getting an Aghanims, Radiance affords you the magical damage you need to become a true team fight nightmare and increases your solo pickoff potential. The nerf to Scorched Earth hindered Doom's ability to chase people down and kill them quickly but Radiance solves this. Radiance also allows you to farm quickly, provides you with some additional tankiness in the form of evasion, and increases the value you get from the attack speed bonus of power treads. Radiance also takes advantage of Doom ability to naturally acquire currency so a radiance by 20 minutes is normal. Let's dive a little deeper into the build.

I start with two rings of protection, a set of tangos, a ward and salve before heading to the offlane. Depending on the lineup you're facing, you can ward the pull camp or put it in a place to grant you vision. From here, you need to play the game by ear. Generally, it's correct to finish the Basilius so that you can continually devour creeps and pick up boots so you aren't as susceptible to ganks before weighing what item to get next. You can get Vlads to help your team, Vanguard  to front line or Midas to further increase your farm depending on the tempo of the game. Also don't be afraid to get Power Treads for the attack speed; with Scorched Earth, Treads, Radiance and AC your right-clicks become relevant. After itemizing for the midgame, you need to farm your radiance.

Upon acquiring Radiance, I usually get auras for my team and by stacking armor with Vlads, AC, and Shiva's. If you went the Vanguard route, this would be the time to get a crimson guard. If you're against a Zeus, then pipe is the item. These items help  your team fight. The patch favors early aggression to get ahead in the laning and early mid game stages and team fighting. If your team suffered because you went for a greedier build, these items will help make up for that.

The skill build is fairly straight-forward because you don't want to fight early. Maxing Devour lowers the cool-down, allowing you to farm faster. After that I max Scorched Earth then Infernal blade, getting Doom whenever possible. Scorched Earth increases your survivability and AOE damage which is preferable to the single target focused Infernal Blade. If you find yourself fighting a lot in the early game, then only get 1 point in Devour and focus on the other two skills + Doom. As always, go into each game with a plan and then tailor that plan as the game unfolds.

This build is greedy, to say the least however it's merit lies in Doom's ability to get a fast radiance. For some games, getting a fast radiance is good enough. Make sure that the team isn't going to be relying on you to get a tool of initiation and make sure you have the space to farm. The last thing you want to do is burden your team with an under-farmed and item-less Doom. Other than that, have fun burning down your opponents.

Thanks for reading!