An Erebus that actually scales well to level 20?!

By Vielfrass on May 19, 2009 4:05:02 PM from

Ugh...a hybrid. But I have to say, after playtesting it a few times today, it tops out much more powerful in the endgame than a straight assassin Erebus. Here's how it looks:

1) Bite

2) Coven I (Mist I will be taken later, but early on the extra 4 Nightwalkers will be your best creep killing tool, and are also fairly useful vs. other DGs)

3) Mass Charm I (only for the anti-teleport stun to get kills)

4) Bite II

5) Bat Swarm I

6) Mist I

7) Bite III

8) Poisoned Blood I

9) save

10) Bite IV / Bat Swarm II

so far, nothing out of the ordinary...

11) Improved Conversion Aura I

12) Coven II

13) Coven III

14) ICA II

15) ICA III

16) Army of Night

17) Mist II

18) Mist III

19) Mist IV

20) Bloody Haze

What's going on here? Well, up to level 10, you're nothing terribly different from a standard assassin spec Erebus. You've got your six nightwalkers and I'd recommend priests and siege archers, but bite is maxed, Bat Swarm II is reached ASAP and the standard anti-DG abilities are all in there at their first (and best) level. You try to end the game at the midgame by the standard method.

If this doesn't work out, however, this build allows the option of switching tracks to a heavy minion build in the mid-late game, with a fully assembled army by 16th level. If it gets that far, you end the build by moving up to Bloody Haze and going heavy mist in support of your minions/creeps in the endgame, which I'm starting to see more and more is generally Erebus' best tactic in a stalemated endgame. At some point along the way, you exchange typical 1 v. 1 gear for minion buffing gear and enough mana regen to get funky with mist for long periods of time.

I haven't playtested this extensively, so I can't swear that it's a better lategame progression than anything else, but "in theory" it should be, without sacrificing early game 1 v. 1 ability. Can a midgame flip-flop for Erebus be the best way to save him from irrelevance if you can't put things away quickly? Magic 8 Ball says "quite possibly".

+2 Karma | 7 Replies

I've been trying a similar Erebus setup lately, and I really think it is a good way to go.

At level 13, with 10 nightwalkers in this build, you should be tearing towers down like nobodies business. Bat swarm/bite are still potent tools, and the potent blood upgrades are worthless past one.

Two thumbs up

That... actually looks pretty sweet. Gonna try that out. Putting more than one point into ICA seems a bit overkill (like with coven, I think Erebus' innate coversion aura has a pretty low conversion chance), but I'm not sure what else I'd put extra points into anyway.

of course minions are the way to make erebus scale to 20, the dps they add is insane. when you have army of the night you don't have the problem of losing your army so much. i really think the points you're putting into mist to get the haze are getting wasted. try less bas swarm and only 1 into mist and see what that can get you into morale or mass charm. it's also worth pointing out htat vampiric aura isn't actually all that bad.

Thinking about it some, using that basic plan you can switch into three builds toward the late game, depending if you want offence (more assasinish), defence (mist/minionish), or a combination. Use that build until level 13 (although I think I'd switch ica to 12 or 13 instead of 11), then you can choose between maxing mist, minions, morale, vamp aura*, and/or mass charm.

*I've been wanting to ask, how much lifesteal does vamp aura give? The actual % is a big reason whether to put points past the first level of poisoned blood.

EDIT: Also, does morale/minion items affect idol minions? Wether the effect is X10 or X16 is a big difference.

No mass charm = team fail. While you do more damage with your pretty little minion effects, a good couple seconds of stun is what you really need when doing a 2v2 encounter. Mist form... is not very helpful.

Personally, I don't think army of the night is worthwhile. Very mediocre skill overall.

I'd also have to say that you should really pick your skills based on your enemy DG's. If you see Sedna, muddle is really a must. This is one of the best ways to throw a wrench into a team that has a coherent defensive combo going, and being able to adapt your build to bring out that ability if need be is definitely a requirement.

Quoting Darvin3,

reply 6

Personally, I don't think army of the night is worthwhile. Very mediocre skill overall.

I'd also have to say that you should really pick your skills based on your enemy DG's. If you see Sedna, muddle is really a must. This is one of the best ways to throw a wrench into a team that has a coherent defensive combo going, and being able to adapt your build to bring out that ability if need be is definitely a requirement.

You're right, of course, that any build must remain flexible. I think the real point here is that the "best" way to manage Erebus' skill tree up to level 10 is with just that fact in mind - max Bite, get Bat Swarm II and take the other skill sets only at their first level. This allows a fairly "standard" Erebus into the midgame and then the option of going in whichever direction seems to be most strategic after level 10.

Building up a minion army is probably the strongest "default" strategy from 11-16, though one can argue the benefits of Army of Night, ICA vs. Morale, etc. It's also not clear to me whether maxing the Mist or Mass Charm skill tree is better from 17-20, though again that probably depends upon the specifics of the game at hand. Nevertheless, an assassin Erebus build that retains its' flexibility and at least the potential to switch over to a hybrid general build in the midgame is probably better than one that tries to raise any of Mist, Mass Charm or Poisoned Blood (which looks increasingly useless after 1st rank - I agree with werewolf here) above rank one before the midgame - in most cases. In terms of raw power, a hybrid Erebus seems to be the only one that can really compete in the lategame.

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An Erebus that actually scales well to level 20?!