LogFAQs > #963650662

This one took a bit of extra research just to confirm that yes, it feels just as bad as I thought it did, and I really should've thrown him lower. I'll also be following this post up with some mechanics posts - status effects (stun, the different flavors of slow, disarm, break, mute, silence, hidden, forced movement, untargetable, etc.) and the "creep abilities" I'll mention, which are relevant to a few different heroes already mentioned - Chen and Enchantress being the two main ones, but also:

87 - Doom (melee Strength)
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/4/0/5/AAAACbAADDaV.jpg
Basic Abilities: Devour, Scorched Earth, Infernal Blade, (monster ability 1, monster ability 2,) Doom
Shard Ability: Upgrades Infernal Blade to act like an old ability of his, Level ? Death - if an enemy struck with it is at a level which is a multiple of 3, or are levels 25/26/28/29, they receive an extra 150 damage on top of the affects of Infernal Blade and are stunned for 1.8 seconds. If they aren't, the stun duration is still improved over base Infernal Blade - 1.2 seconds instead of 0.6.
Scepter Ability: Upgrades Doom (the ability) to apply Break to the target also, while lasting an additional 6 seconds.
7.31 changes of note: Devour provides armor while digesting. Infernal Blade base DoT slightly improved (+4/6/8/10 DPS) while max health percent DoT slightly nerfed by .25%. Doom (castable) manacost increased at levels 2/3.

Ugh, his basic abilities have changed so much over the past few years, usually every patch, to the point where I had to refresh myself with a wiki dive and a few games to see what he's capable of now.

First, Devour. Devour's mechanics have changed throughout the years a bit. It still instantly kills an enemy creep or jungle monster (or, if talented, an ancient monster) gaining any of the actives or passives it has, with a minimum level of 4/5/6/6 (so no immediately eating the strongest camps for their abilities.) In addition, it places a 60 second Digestion "buff" on Doom which grants him unreliable gold when it expires without Doom dying. While this buff is active, Doom has too much armor gaining 1/3/5/7 armor, helping his early game defensive shortcomings. If he toggles off autocast before using it, he won't replace his current list of "borrowed" spells and passives in the Monster Slot 1/2 abilities.

Scorched Earth is an ability which blankets the ground around (and follows) Doom, granting Doom alone a movement speed buff while dealing magic damage per second in an area around him. That's it. That's the ability, now.

Infernal Blade uses the enemy's own vitality against them - it powers up an autoattack with a minibash, which will also debuff the struck enemy to deal magical damage over time based on the enemy's max health (20/30/40/50 flat damage per second plus 1/2/3/4% max health, which is capable of being raised by talents.) Again, if sharded, this will deal an additional 150 magic damage up front if the target is levels 3/6/9/12/15/18/21/24/25/26/27/28/29/30, and extend the minibash to a more proper near-two-seconds.

Last, his namesake: Doom. Doom dooms the doomed unit with Doom, which dooms them with a potent 30/45/60 DoT, applies a basic dispel them, and also afflicts the target with both Mute and Silence (and, if Sceptered, Break.) This means if it's not blocked in some way (Linken's Sphere, or reflected by Lotus Orb) the enemy is essentially relying on their passives for the next 16 seconds, and not even that if Doom picks up a scepter. ...Doom.

Now that we've gone over that, let's talk why Doom is on the below average end of my scale: it's all in his... flow, I suppose. Even with a maxed out Scorched Earth, everything about Doom feels sluggish to no end. Almost all of his damage is based on DoTs, and he gets absolutely neutered by people picking up Linken's Spheres or Lotus Orbs, as he'll need to pick up a quick cast-point creep with Devour to not waste his Doom cast, and those just don't exist. What's more, even though Doom will remove someone from a teamfight for upwards of 15 seconds (if not outright killing them,) they are still capable of using full-powered autoattacks without a scepter, and one of Doom's biggest strengths - Infernal Blade's max health percent damage - requires an attack animation to complete, which is a huge deal if you're getting constantly disarmed or ministunned during the swing (Primal Beast, Clockwerk, Earthshaker, Zeus, or Sniper are all awful in this regard.)

Ostensibly, he can gank literally any hero in the game 1v1 if his ult is up. Realistically, he's hamstrung just by how sluggish and un-subtle everything he can do is, and once midgame is over he's useless after ulting unless he's EXTREMELY fat and built tanky items, in which case, there's so, so many better options, and ones whose base stats and growths weren't in the dumpster, too.

Next hero hint: Ho ho.