Thunderbringer is identical to Zeus in
DotA (Defense of the Ancients), but as of right now is slightly more effective due to the limited number of mana burning skills and improvement of his ultimate enabling him to both reveal and damage invisible units. If played correctly, he can be devastating to the enemy team. He has one main long range nuke combined with a global nuking ultimate and a spamable mid damage aoe nuke.
ThunderbringerTable of Content
- Skills Description
- Skill Build and Usage
- Item build
- To start with...
- Alternate Starting Items
- Then...
- Mid-late Game Items
- Hero Specific Strategies and Techniques
- Laning
- Ganking
- Escaping Ganks
- Replays and Videos
- Changelog
1. Skills Description
Chain Lightning
Description: The Thunderbringer zaps a target enemy unit with volatile lightning, the lightning then bounces to additional nearby enemy units. Mana Cost 65/72/79/86. Cooldown 2.5 seconds.
- Level 1: Deals 85 magic damage to 5 units.
- Level 2: Deals 100 magic damage to 7 units.
- Level 3: Deals 115 magic damage to 9 units.
- Level 4: Deals 130 magic damage to 15 units.
Usage: This is Thunderbringer's best farming skill as it enables him to spam on creeps to last hit, while at the same time harassing enemy heroes in the lane. It loses some effectiveness as the game goes on, but combined with his passive it still can do some serious damage in team fights. Usually it is the first skill that you should level, but never level it past level one as the mana cost increases and the damage increase is very minimal.
Blast of Lightning
Description: Thunderbringer blasts a target enemy unit with lightning, dealing moderate damage and briefly stunning it. The area around the target is lit up briefly giving vision and revealing nearby invisible units. Mana Cost 75/95/115/135. Cooldown 7 seconds.
- Level 1: Deals 100 magic damage to target and stuns for 0.1 second. Gives vision and reveals stealth units for 3 seconds around the target.
- Level 2: Deals 175 magic damage to target and stuns for 0.1 second. Gives vision and reveals stealth units for 3 seconds around the target.
- Level 3: Deals 275 magic damage to target and stuns for 0.1 second. Gives vision and reveals stealth units for 3 seconds around the target.
- Level 4: Deals 350 magic damage to target and stuns for 0.1 second. Gives vision and reveals stealth units for 3 seconds around the target.
Usage: This spell is one of the best spells in the game, if used with his passive ability it can do an excess of 400 damage to heroes at level 4. Usually you will level up this skill as fast as possible maxing it out at level 7. It is great to start off ganks with this skill for two reasons. First, it has a very short cooldown of 7 seconds, usually giving you a chance to possibly cast it twice. Second, if there should happen to be nearby invisible units, then you can detect them before they start to attack you.
Lightning Rod
Description: Enemies near the Thunderbringer act as lightning rods, taking damage every time he casts a spell. The damage is proportional to their current health.
Passive - Level 1: Deals 5% of each enemy hero’s current health as magic damage in a 800 aoe radius around self.
- Level 2: Deals 7% of each enemy hero’s current health as magic damage in a 800 aoe radius around self.
- Level 3: Deals 9% of each enemy hero’s current health as magic damage in a 800 aoe radius around self.
- Level 4: Deals 11% of each enemy hero’s current health as magic damage in a 800 aoe radius around self.
Usage: This is a very effective spell throughout the entire game as it is unlike most nukes in the game. It is based on the current health of the hero and therefore encourages Thunderbringer to cast as many spells as fast as possible in team fights in an effort to get the most use out of the skill. In early game play, getting it to level one right after Chain Lightning adds a nice bonus in damage to each chain you cast to last hit creeps.
Lightning Storm
Description: Thunderbringer strikes every hero on the map with lightning, dealing damage and revealing the area around them briefly. Mana Cost 225/325/450. Cooldown 120 seconds.
- Level 1: Deals 210 (335) magic damage to each hero on the map. Gives vision and reveals stealth units for 3 seconds around the target.
- Level 2: 80 Deals 335 (460) magic damage to each hero on the map. Gives vision and reveals stealth units for 3 seconds around the target.
- Level 3: Deals 460 (570) magic damage to each hero on the map. Gives vision and reveals stealth units for 3 seconds around the target.
Numbers in brackets represent damage with Staff of the Master
Usage: This can have various uses in games. Early on, it can be used to finish off enemy heroes who are getting away with low hp, however, as the game progresses it is better used as soon as team fights begin in order to get maximum potential out of it. Furthermore, it can be used to detect where enemies are for a short time to avoid ganks or simply just to be cautious while pushing or doing Kongor.
2. Skill Build and Usage
- Chain Lightning
- Lightning Rod
- Blast of Lightning
- Blast of Lightning
- Blast of Lightning
- Lightning Storm
- Blast of Lightning
- Lightning Rod
- Lightning Rod
- Lightning Rod
- Lightning Storm
- Stats
- Stats
- Stats
- Stats
- Lightning Storm
Getting Chain Lightning and Lightning Rod early enable you to spam to last hit as well as harass the hero. You then max out your highest damage nuke as fast as possible, and then at level 7 you have 3 skills which do a combined 645 damage plus 5% of the person's current hp three times over. This can almost assure you an instant kill on most agility and intelligence heroes at this stage of the game.
3. Item build
3.1 To start with...
Bottle
Thunderbringer has quite a high starting mana pool and is able to spam quite well. If you are able to control the runes early in the game, (assuming you are solo mid, but it can work for other lanes as well) then the power of the hero increases dramatically. Usually it is quite simple to farm 1000 gold in under 6 minutes if you know how to last hit with Chain Lightning. The key is to not use your Blast of lightning on heroes unless it gets you a kill. Getting two Chain Lightnings off will do almost the same amount of damage and get you at least 2 creeps.
3.2 Alternate Starting Items
This build works best in a side lane, preferably with a courier.
3x Mana Potion
Runes of the Blight
3x Minor Totem
Pretenders Crown
This alternate build works particularly well in side lanes, as it gives you a slightly bigger mana pool and more health to start with while maintaining regen through disposable pots. The reason these extra stat ups may be needed is because you receive less levels in the side lane and lose your level gain stats. If your team has a courier, then as soon as you have 600 gold then you should run a bottle to your hero. By this time, one of your disposable items will have run out and you can use the open slot for bottles.
3.3 Then...
Ring of Sorcery
Steamboots (Strength)
Homecoming Stone
Fortified Bracelet
Combined with the bottle, Ring of Sorcery enables him to not only spam to last hit creeps but also spam his Blast of lightning. While keeping both items, you are able to roam around from levels 7-11 dominating heroes with your high damage nukes and seemingly endless mana supply. The Homecoming stone is a must on all heroes, but on Thunderbringer it is particularly effective because it enables him to escape and to counter gank people who decide to dive towers.
3.4 Mid-late Game Items
Ward of Sight
Kuldra's Sheepstick -or-
Behemoth's Heart
Staff of the Master
Always ... Ward of Sight
Depending on the situation, Thunderbringer is able to get a variety of different items. If you feel that even with the Ring of Sorcery and the Bottle you lack the mana regeneration to stay active in battles, you may want to buy a Kuldra's Sheepstick. It will solve any remaining mana problems you have with it's large intelligence and mana regeneration increase, as well as aiding both yourself and your teammates in battle by giving you a decent amount of health and a disable.
Alternatively if you find yourself dying or being forced to return to the fountain to heal you may want to begin building a Behemoth's Heart. The Behemoth's Heart is useful for several different reasons. It drastically increases your health to keep you alive much longer, and it reduces the cooldowns on your spells. The reduced cooldowns increase your potential damage output as well as giving your team much better map control by removing 18 seconds from your Lightning Storm's cooldown. That combined with a few well placed Wards of Sight should mean that you always know approximately where your enemies are. All of these things aid in your ability to survive.
Staff of the Master is almost entirely a luxury item. In most cases it won't help as much as either Kuldra's Sheepstick or Behemoth's Heart. If you have the gold for it though, it does increase your Health and Mana pools by a good amount as well as causing your (Super) Lightning Storm to do 110 more damage to each enemy hero when you use it. The extra damage can be useful when initiating fights and 570 damage to all enemies is nothing to scoff at.
While your hero does benefit from these late game items, it is not entirely necessary for your team to be successful in most cases, which is why at a certain point in the game when Thunderbringer becomes ineffective at nuking down heroes, it would be in the team's interest if he became the ward buyer, and also carry Dust of Revelation if there is an invisible hero.
4. Hero Specific Strategies and Techniques
4.1 Laning
Usually Thunderbringer is a solo mid hero, but can be equally effective in lanes. The skill build remains the same and the game plan is almost identical. Use your mana on Chain Lightning to last hit creeps, while at the same time harassing enemy heroes with the bounces. In side lanes, due to less accessibility to runes, you may want to reduce the amount you spam in comparison to if you were soloing mid.
4.2 Ganking
Once level 5, Thunderbringer becomes one of the most feared gankers in the game because if he is solo going to outside lanes for ganks usually heroes are around level 4 and around 500 hp. With Thunderbringer's two nukes he is very capable of pulling off successful ganks with an ally hero if the ally has just 1 stun. Furthermore, roaming with runes on Thunderbringer enables him to have an increased chance of success when ganking.
4.3 Escaping Ganks
One downside to Thunderbringer is that he is accessible to ganks quite easily, which is why it is important to have teammates who put early game wards up and also another reason as to why you should constantly be swapping lanes and ganking. If you do realize you are getting ganked, his best bet is to throw out a Blast of lightning on the lowest hp hero and hope you can run around your tower. Despite his low hp, it is very difficult to tower dive Thunderbringer because of his tremendous nuking power.
5. Replays and Videos
-REPLAYS COMING SOON-
6. Changelog
08/30/09 First release
10/15/09 Updated the boots change
10/17/09 Changed mid-late game items
