My Erebus minion build: Pain in the neck

from Demigod Forums

Pain in the neck Erebus minion build

Been playing this build with good results online now, and it is also exceptionally wonderful against DGs with poor anti-creep abilities. (Sedna)

As always, basic tactics won't be discussed, just an overview on the build and some generalities of ideas to try.

You are in for a bit of a rough start, but you can get to level 2 without dying if you are even a little bit skilled. :)

So why this build? A mob of developed nightcrawlers is awesome. You can deny your enemy from going places and sitting still while you leisurely avoid DG combat and do other things until it is time to feed on them.

1) None (Yes, really, save that point)
2) Coven 1 + Improved Conversion Aura 1
3) Bite 1
4) Save
5) Coven II + Improved Conversion Aura 2
6) Bite II
7) Save
8) Coven III + Improved Conversion Aura 3
9) Bite 3
10) Bite 4
11+) I usually choose between morale and poisoned blood depending, and you naturally want army of the night at 15.

Items: Life and Speed, a mana helm later.

Favor item, horn of battle... whats better than a bunch of nasty little critters whittling down enemy DGs and towers? Rapidly regenerating nastly little critters once they think the situation is under control.

You may be asking why you don't take bite at level 1? Easy, this is a minion build, and the 2 nightcrawler skills + horn of battle make it very hard for an enemy to farm the lane you are in once you are level 2. As creeps die, more nightcrawlers are attacking them. Ignore them and keep farming, and suddenly you can't 1vs1 Erebus anymore and you are kicked out of the lane to your base when he comes for you. Trying to take the nightcrawlers down is even more futile for most DGs, as there is always more coming.

Also, suddenly having bite at level 3 often allows a surprise kill... as the enemy was worrying about minions, and now suddenly the difference in hit points changes by 500 and he cannot escape as fast. :D

The great thing about night cralwers is that as long as death is happening around you, you have an endless supply of free grunts ready to sacrifice themselves for the cause.

This is also not a very mana intensive build, allowing you to concentrate on life and speed. This is doubly true since you are taking bite levels later than typical builds, thus also giving you time to buy items before you get to the higher levels of bite.

This build is also useful against a tower rook. Build up a nightcralwer wave, send them in and target the rook. When health starts to get low on the nightcrawlers, use horn of battle. Repeat. You will slowly wear the rook down without any risk to yourself. You don't even really need to be there either, that is until the next creep wave starts dying on his towers.

Overall strategy:
1) Stay out of battle with DGs until they are going to die horribly by you and the nightcrawlers if they get bitten. Try and time your arrival so they aren't so hurt that they turn tail and run, but are hurt enough that if the bite lands you and the minions can do horrendous damage while their armor and speed is down.

2) Your minions don't need to be in the lane with you when there is no DG present (but always have an exit strategy in case one becomes present)... For example, you could premptively park them by a flag an enemy DG might want to capture while you continue to leisurly tear apart creeps. It is most pleasing to see Sedna arrive at said flag and say "You suck" and then sulk away.

3) Tower busting... at first you'll want to choose towers in the creep lane so you can replenish your casualties. The great thing about horn of battle is it is great(er) against weapon upgraded towers. The AOE hits all your creeps, you use horn of battle.... and the AOE keeps hitting all your creeps... and so what? Sure they may eventually die, but there is always another wave ready to be had with a few strokes of the sceptre.

As you get to a higher level you'll have enough night cralwers and idols to simply vaporize one tower, farm, and repeat...

4) We aren't using bat form in this build, so be cautious, be healthy, be fast, and have a wand of speed ready. When in doubt let the minions do battle and observe, waiting for an opportunity to bite.

2,750 views 16 replies
Reply #1 from Demigod Forums Top

Nice build but you might want to get morale instead of improved conversion aura, I usually get conversion aura 1 then switch over to morale since it increases each minions attack points and the favor item ring of divine might for +10 minion dmg is really nice it even has a nice activation effect.

Reply #2 from Demigod Forums Top

GET BATSWARM. Going no bite is fine, but no BAT SWARM IS CRIMINAL.

You will be quite vuneareble so batswarm is imperative for survival. For the rest, cool build.

Galactic Civilizations IV
Reply #3 from Demigod Forums Top

I pasionately hate playing against this FotM.  Lucky very few players have cought up to it.

BTW.  There is plenty of points left to distrbute to Bat Swarm and Morale... damn I gotta try this build :P

Reply #4 from Demigod Forums Top

Very annoying build that is weak end game (so I've noticed). Too strong in the beginning. I would use the minion advantage as early as possible and start to own flags/take down towers. Also, most AOE builds will not kill the crawlers until late game but will hold off the crawlers at bay. Put in 500 gold to get tower splash damage upgrade vs this.

Reply #5 from Demigod Forums Top

towers start out with splash, that upgrade just increases the damage 10%.

I hate this build and any other build that uses Horn of Battle. It is in some serious need of reworking. Using it properly, you can cause the entire other team to have to react to your invincible minions running around killing all the towers and ciitadel.

Reply #6 from Demigod Forums Top

It's so bad in endgame its laughable though. At a certain point I was level 17, while the Erebus was only 12.

Reply #7 from Demigod Forums Top

Its not that bad end game. Its only bad if they are a horrible player. Me and 3 friends did a 2v2 with lvl 20 and filthy rich. My friend on the other team went with a minion build and Horn of Battle. Anytime the minions would come in they would kill a tower even when both of our uber DGs were beating on them. If we had left them alone, they would have killed our citadel 10 minutes earlier than they did.

Reply #8 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting regabond, reply 7
Its not that bad end game. Its only bad if they are a horrible player. Me and 3 friends did a 2v2 with lvl 20 and filthy rich. My friend on the other team went with a minion build and Horn of Battle. Anytime the minions would come in they would kill a tower even when both of our uber DGs were beating on them. If we had left them alone, they would have killed our citadel 10 minutes earlier than they did.
End of regabond's quote

 

Filthy Rich + level 20 isn't the same as endgame. That's fantasy game.

Reply #9 from Demigod Forums Top

I dislike how the author provided an uninformed strat against a rook.

First off the nightcrawlers don't do a lot of dmg in the beginning simply because there isn't enough nightcrawlers. If it starts to hurt the rook its because the rook didn't stack enough health items.

Then once the rook hits level 7 hammer the minion build in completely ineffective. A one level 7 hammer kills them all no matter how well you stack minion health. I won't discuss how a level 10 hammer makes this whole thing laughable.

Yes, even with a level 3 conversion aura, eb's minions won't survive a hammer slam. The hammer slam is on a 10 second cooldown (usually lower with cooldown flags), eb won't have enough minions to cause the rook any headache at that point.

Edit: Spelling

 

 

Reply #10 from Demigod Forums Top

You need bite sooner, other then that I agree, Id go with more points in Morale

 

-Foreshadowed

Reply #11 from Demigod Forums Top

Very hard build to play against early game (Having just played against Lord Orion and being soundly trounced by him).

In pantheon exceptionally hard on the light side considering the lack of aoe early on from most of the demigods available. I'm curious on ideas to remain competitive in scenarios where the demigod match is random. Sure at later levels with the wide variety of skills and items groups of minions are not as much of a threat, but by then the oposition seems to be at a serious disadvantage.

Reply #12 from Demigod Forums Top

this build is full of win

nice use of often ignored favor item

expect to see tonnes of minion erebus builds for a while, its the new FotM!

Reply #13 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting regabond, reply 5
towers start out with splash, that upgrade just increases the damage 10%.

I hate this build and any other build that uses Horn of Battle. It is in some serious need of reworking. Using it properly, you can cause the entire other team to have to react to your invincible minions running around killing all the towers and ciitadel.
End of regabond's quote

Incorrect, sir. Towers do not splash until they are upgraded at least once.

Note: I think I played against you and a good QoT once, and got completely destroyed.

Reply #14 from Demigod Forums Top

This strat is just well, imo cheating. I've used it a couple of times and if you ignore bite altogether and just focus on night walkers, moral and conversion aura with 2 points in bat wave your creeps CANNOT be killed by ANYTHING! Even lvl 10 Reg's Mines followed up by lvl 10 Hammer Slam will not kill them when the average minion has about 2.5k health.

This is achieved by having moderate minion item staking and is so funny it's sad (I think i've seen them push close or over 3k per night walker; +1800hp is possible). I shouldn't be able to push around an entire team on my own with nothing but minions. Currently this strat is even more broken then Sedna's 2k minion heal build.

If anyone has a counter to this I'd love to hear it because so far it's not even fun to win/lose with this. So far the closest I have come is a DPS/Mines Reg with BotS, Natures Reckoning, Gauntlets of brutality and Mageslayer; still not enough though :(

Reply #15 from Demigod Forums Top

This is achieved by having moderate minion item staking and is so funny it's sad (I think i've seen them push close or over 3k per night walker; +1800hp is possible). I shouldn't be able to push around an entire team on my own with nothing but minions. Currently this strat is even more broken then Sedna's 2k minion heal build.
End of quote

Um, no. You're not getting 3k HP nightwalkers in any remotely realistic game.

Reply #16 from Demigod Forums Top

Quoting Destroyer989, reply 14
Even lvl 10 Reg's Mines followed up by lvl 10 Hammer Slam will not kill them when the average minion has about 2.5k health.

This is achieved by having moderate minion item staking and is so funny it's sad (I think i've seen them push close or over 3k per night walker; +1800hp is possible). I shouldn't be able to push around an entire team on my own with nothing but minions. Currently this strat is even more broken then Sedna's 2k minion heal build.
End of Destroyer989's quote

 

Sir, you are on crack