Nephilim

Summary

Strength	19	+1.95
Agility	22	+2.3
Intelligence	15	+1.55
Primary:	Agility

Ivarhem

Extremely flexible melee hero.

A demon seeking to use the undead to further his own ends, he weilds a vast array of abilities to lay waste to foes.

Guide

Nephilim (Neph) is a very versatile hero with a unique skill set in which any spell cast causes all of his abilities except his Innate to switch to a different skill..

Advantages of Neph are:

+ Very versatile with 26 spells total. Has heals, nukes, disables, and good utility.

+ Decent base damage and a fast base attack.

+ Several playstyles work well.

+ Makes great use of crystal as he can pump all attributes and skills and get solid gains from them.

+ Excellent attribute gain per level.

Disadvantages:

- Melee.

- Very limited Area of Effect(AoE) damage or debuff spells.

- No AoE buff to assist troops in fighting.

- Individual spells are typically weaker and less efficient than standard.

- Tends to deplete mana very quickly.

Base Dmg: 40-52. Has a Fast attack speed.
Base AC: 12
Move speed: 315

A Weapon Upgrade via crystal adds +6-10 damage, which is about average. It's actually pretty good considering his fast base attack speed.
Note that his total attribute gain per level is 5.8 which is very strong. Most heroes gain under 5.0.

Skills Chart

At any given time, Neph's current skillset will be one of the rows from the 5 rows. The same skills will always line up no matter what order they are chosen in. Using any skill will result in the row incrementing and the next set of skills available. Think of all 5 skills (4 masteries and 1 ultimate) as a Jackpot wheel, except each column is glued to the others so they all move together. Every use of a skill results in 1 click of the wheel.

War (W)	Flame (E)	Shadow (R)	Blood (C)	Ultimate (T)
Distract	Scintillate	Shadowveil	Adrenaline	Execute
Shred	Blastwave	Evasion	Vampiric Bite	Betrayal
Plunder	Scorch	Spellbind	Life Tap	Ignis Salvo
Retaliation	Conflagrate	Black Globe	Pain	Night's Eye
Swipe	Flame Gate	Duskslash	Close Wounds	Immortal's Breath

NY Version

War (W)	Flame (E)	Shadow (R)	Blood (C)	Ultimate (T)
Distract	Scintillate	Shadowveil	Vampiric Bite	Execute
Shred	Blastwave	Evasion	Adrenaline	Betrayal
Plunder	Scorch	Spellbind	Life Tap	Night's Eye
Retaliation	Conflagrate	Black Globe	Pain	Ignis Salvo
Swipe	Flame Gate	Duskslash	Close Wounds	Immortal's Breath

Skills

Innate: False Alliance - 90 mana. Indefinite duration. Forces a player to treat Neph as an ally, and thus cannot attack or hurt Neph. However, the player is still shown as hostile to Neph and if Neph damages the hero, False Alliance is broken. Do not overlook this spell as it cycles your skills and really irritates an enemy player

NY: The target is forced to treat the hero as an ally for 4 seconds. This no longer breaks on damage. The duration can be improved by the Diplomacy talent.

War

Retaliation - Anything that attacks Neph in melee range is instantly counter attacked. Thorns aura on steroids. A very strong skill, although it does require Neph to get beat up quite a bit.

• 1: 25 mana. 20 damage + 0.5 AGI for 8 seconds
• 6: 55 mana. 45 damage + 1.0 AGI for 18 seconds

Distract - Forces nearby enemies to attack a designated ally. Cannot be used on self! Pretty worthless, except maybe if you get stuck and can use it to help escape.

• 1: 20 mana
• 6: 30 mana

Shred - Direct damage that requires melee range. Hits hard, but STR dependency and no range limits its usefulness.

• 1: 70 mana. 95 dmg + 0.7 STR
• 6: 155 mana. 270 dmg + 1.45 STR

Swipe - Direct damage to nearby foes in front of character. Fairly weak damage and little AoE. Pretty worthless.

• 1: 65 mana 50 + 0.4 STR
• 6: 160 mana 125 + 0.9 STR

Plunder - Melee range attack that steals gold, dispels 1 buff. Also can be used against Wall of Ice. (woopie) This is your only dispel. Theoretically useful vs a foe with a powerful buff like a heal over time.

• 1: 36 mana. 6-9 gold.
• 6: 61 mana. 36-54 gold.

Flame

Scorch - Direct damage spell. Decent range. Usable vs creeps.

• 1: 45 mana. 55 + 0.75 INT
• 6: 125 mana. 145 + 1.6 INT

Blastwave - Small AoE blast that does minor damage and slows down foes for 6 seconds. A great utility spell for chasing a hero, especially right before adrenaline or a stun expires.

• 1: 65 mana. 32 + 0.6 INT Also -20% move for 6 seconds
• 6: 160 mana. 77 + 1.0 INT Also -50% move for 6 seconds

Scintillate - A very nice self-buff that restores mana over time and also gives an immolate aura to damage nearby foes.

• 1: 60 mana. +150 mana over 30 seconds. 6 damage to surrounding foes.
• 6: 90 mana. +350 mana over 30 seconds. 21 damage

Flame Gate - A short range teleport. Great for chasing, escaping, and quicker movement past cliffs,etc. Range increases as it levels up.

• 1: 60 mana
• 6: 35 mana

Conflagorate - Converts an area of trees into 3 tree warriors under your control for 30 seconds. A nice insta-meat shield for troops.

• 1: 50 mana. 240HP, 11-13 damage normal attack, 0 armor.
• 6: 100 mana. 620HP 36-61 dmg. (May vary depending on map. I got a lower value on Stormpire)

Shadow

Evasion - Adds physical evasion for 10 seconds. Not very useful for the cost and low duration.

• 1: 30 mana. 10% evade for 10 seconds
• 6: 100 mana. 45%

Spellblind - Prevent spellcasting by affected troops/heroes for 6 seconds. Situationally useful although a bit expensive.

• 1: 65 mana. small area
• 6: 100 mana. much bigger area.

Dusklash - A very powerful Nuke at decent range. Does additional damage that is then healed a bit later. The idea is if the target dies, the heal is irrelevant. This is much better than Scorch due to lower mana cost.

• 1: 45 mana. 60 + 0.8 INT. 20% more temporary damage for 5 seconds.
• 6: 85 mana. 170 +1.4 INT 45% for 10 seconds.

Black Globe - A powerful spell that reduces armor on heroes for 90 seconds! Also makes 1 item worthless for a while, and is extremely cheap! On a creep, simply Phases it out for a short time.

• 1: 20 mana. -5 armor for 90 seconds. Itemhoze or creep Phase for 8 seconds.
• 6: 35 mana. -20 armor. Itemhoze for 28 sec

Shadowveil - Immediately turns hero invisible and can pass through units. Does extra damage upon first hit. This is very nice for getting the drop on an enemy hero. Also great for pursuing since creeps cant block you. Very cheap mana cost.

• 1: 35 mana. 12 seconds of invisibility. Attack adds 30 extra damage.
• 6: 55 mana. 32 seconds. Adds 105 dmg

Blood

Adrenaline - Self buff that increases attack speed and move speed. Cheap and effective for extra damage (siege) or to beat up and chase down an enemy hero.

• 1: 40 mana. 15% attack, +10% move for 12 seconds
• 6: 70 mana. 60% attack, +25% move

LifeTap - No mana cost. Converts 10% of health to mana at a fixed rate of 1 +0.01 STR mana per point of health. Really nice mid/late game since health is easier to regen than mana. Cooldown is reduced with each level.

Close Wounds - A single target heal over time. Very cheap mana cost and heals quite efficiently. Great combo with lifetap, since it's right after Life Tap.

• 1: 40 mana. 18 +0.1 INT healed per second for 4 seconds.
• 6: 90 mana. 38 +0.15 for 14 seconds.

Pain - A single target nuke that also stuns for 2 seconds. One of your few strong disables. A great spell that is used a lot. Unfortunately it does not level very well. Costs a lot more, but stun is the same and damage gain is weak.

• 1: 50 mana 32 +0.65 INT and stuns for 2 seconds.
• 6: 125 112 +1.23

Vamp Bite - A melee range nuke that does damage and heals you for the same amount. Expensive for its rather low damage, but used since its the only useful offensive spell in combat for Slot 5.

• 1: 60 mana 45 +0.5 STR lifedrain.
• 6: 155 105 +0.95

Power

Execute (40 second cooldown) - A very cool graphic single target damage/deathblow/stun. It has a surprisingly long range and teleports Neph to the target hero. Both heroes are paused throughout the spell. During the spell, Neph slaps the target enemy around a number of times equal to the spell level. Afterwards, the target is tossed to the ground where Neph originated and is stunned and takes damage.

• 1: 200 mana - 150 damage +1 second stun
• 4: 335 300 + 2.7STR +2.5 second stun

Immortal's Breath (30 second cooldown) - A solid one target immediate healing spell.

• 1: 90 mana 300 +2.0 INT healed.
• 4: 165 600 +3.5 INT

Ignis Salvo - Your only AoE nuke and it is a good one! Affects heroes, troops, and buildings. Generates fireballs that slowly home in on targets and do damage. A single target can only be hit by a certain number of fireballs.

• 1: 140 mana 12 fireballs, (120 + 1 x Int) each, 2 hits per target max.
• 4: 200 24 fireballs, (180 + 1.3 x Int) each, 3

Nights Eye (10 second cooldown) - Gives sight of all enemy heroes.

• 1: 50 mana 10 second duration.
• 4: 95 34 second

Betrayal - Causes a targeted hero to be treated as hostile to his own allied players. The primary use of this spell would be to prevent a hero from being healed by his allies or possibly cause their AoE spells to damage nearby allies.

(Pretty much breaks AI teams as they treat the target completely as an enemy)

• 1: 60 mana 9 seconds duration.
• 4: 105 mana 18 seconds

Skill advice:

You need 1 point in ALL skills, as this gives you versatility and the ability to Cycle. Cycling is the art of casting a cheap spell for little or no effect to get to a set of skills that you want. Example: You want to sneak up on a hero. You are at row 2. Cast lifetap, then cure wounds on self, then black globe on whatever is nearby or a flame gate to nowhere. Then you have cycled to Shadowveil.

I recommend focusing on two main skills.

War - Requires heavy STR to do much with. Retaliation is great for use as a tank. Not recommended usually though. Flame - Scorch gives ok direct damage and scintellate really helps with the mana regen. Ok for an INT-based Neph. Shadow - Long duration Shadowveil is the key here for a DPS build. Black Globe is very strong and cheap for hero killing. Dusklash is solid at finishing off a wounded hero. Shadow is highly recommended for a dps build. Blood - Great for DPS hero with a powerful heal, vampiric heal, and adrenaline for pumping damage and pursuit speed. Ultimate - obviously pump this up, as it benefits ANY build with a strong heal, awesome AoE damage spell, and a long range hero-stun/deathblow/damage.

Skill Combos:

There are tons of options for quick-press skill combination orders, but here are a few starters.

1) Use Shadowveil to sneak up on an enemy hero. Attack for bonus damage, then Adrenaline to add more DPS and ability to chase. (or execute) If it wears off, Blastwave to slow enemy, Dusklash for dmg, and Pain to stun and catch up. Goto execute and repeat if necessary(hope not!)

2) HeroKiller: Execute (stun), Lifetap(cycle), Dusklash/Shred/Ignus(dmg), Pain(stun), Vamp Bite(dmg/heal from lifetap). Repeat for an effective stunlock.

3) Lategame Base Siege: Ignus Pwnage(T), Nights Eye(T, 1clik-cycle), ShadowVeil(R, 1clik-cycle), Retaliation(W,1clickcycle), Lifetap(C, mana+1clikCycle). Repeat for total destruction of base.

4) Tank/AoeKill: Shadowveil to get in position without collision, attack and Retaliation for superthorns, Immortals Breath for heal, Close Wounds for more heal, and Flamegate to escape when HPs get low.

5) Mana/HP recovery: Lifetap, Scintellate(if fire focused) or Cure Wounds to gain HPs, then Flamegate(cheap if firefocused to teleport nowhere, Shadowveil, and Evasion to cycle). Use black globe if an enemy troop is nearby to cycle instead of flamegate.

Playstyle Options:

DPS focus - This exploits Nephs utility spells, having heals, several ways to slow an enemy and one strong way to catch up to beat up enemy heroes and deliver lots of damage to enemy troops. With his high attack speed, and Adrenaline to boost even further, Neph only needs some additional damage. Orb of Fury is best since it is just as efficient as an orb of battle (including its AoE even vs 1 foe 20% of the time) and has a higher maximum value. Mana is a big problem though so I would recommend getting the mana regen hat, or plan to make trips to the fountain a lot. That is all you really need. From there, Crit gloves or AGI gloves are good, as is leather armor and sun talisman. I would pick Blood for Adrenaline and healing, and Shadow for long lasting invisibility, black globe for armor reduction, and dusklash as a cheap finisher.

INT focus - I HIGHLY recommend this approach. The high INT gives you a much larger manapool and a quicker base mana regen rate (which will be multiplied by your mana recovery helm). These are extremely desirable since Neph burns through mana so fast. The concept is to do solid damage with your direct damage spells that depend on INT. Also, you can spam a LOT of skills and stunlock an enemy hero with Pain and Execute, with direct damage interweaved.

You want to crank up your INT and mana regen rates and spam your skills to harass and kill heroes. Lategame this is a killer with Ignus Salvo, as mentioned with the Ignus cycle technique earlier in the wiki.

Item wise, start with orb of skill as both AGI and INT are desirable. Second, grab that Mana regen helm! Pump both of these items up, and then grab the Sorc Robes for even more efficient INT gain.

I recommend Flame as your primary domain: Scintellate gives you strong mana regeneration and a decent Aoe damage buff. Scorch is your staple dmg spell, and even Conflag can help push. The cheaper flame gate is good for cycling since you can do a nowhere teleport. Blastwave will do AoE damage and snare a hero after an Execute.

Blood is your second school: Cure Wounds with high INT is a very solid healing spell, giving you two heals out of 5 skill cycles. Pain will do more damage, as will Vamp Bite (even though it is STR-based), and finally adrenaline is good for chasing and melee.

STR focus - The idea is to combine strong HPs, Retaliation which is Acid Sheathe on steiroids, and decent healing into one strong tanking package. For items, the Orb of Life is a solid start, followed by the Helm of HitPoints and the Armor of STR/armor most likely. Getting the talisman of the sun would be great if possible. Once again, mana is a big problem. Your main sequence will be retaliation followed by Lifetap (for a big mana boost), then Cure Wounds for a decent heal, Blackglobe&Shadowveil can be used for cheap cycling back to Retaliate. Execute, LifeTap, Shred, Globe, VampBite are STR-based skills that can crush any hero that gets too close. (Execute has long range remember) Blood is recommended for a powerful Close Wounds and Vampiric Bite. War is recommended for Retaliate since it is key. Shred can be used as well. Fire is useless, EXCEPT that Scintellate would be really really nice for both mana regen and immolate. But the 2 above schools are key for the build.