Seraphim!? I hardly know him!

Disclaimer: This is not a full guide on Seraphim. For that I recommend Inuya's contribution (currently available on the discord).

People often go Seraphim. They often go the same Seraphim every game, maybe even on the same round, every game. And hero choice? Archmage of course, every game. If you're asking yourself "Why do it differently if it works?", well, then this guide is for you. Here you will find some advanced knowledge. Uncover, peradventure, the esoteric truths to life. Cease being a fellow traveler and becometh a Seeker. Wait, we still talking about hellhalt?

First let's consider some situational positives and general negatives of no/later than usual Seraphim.

Positives:

• Certain frontline units (Assault Tank, Doomsday, Seer to name a few "standard" choices) get to be very efficient in their roles. Round 16 is probably the clearest example of no-Sera carry potential but depending on unit composition it can also work on other rounds, such as 21. To be clear, I do not recommend to skip level 20 Seraphim if round 20 is at all a threat.

• On dual-lanes there is a lot more value which can be shared, enabling one side to carry on, say, round 17.

• You may greed servant gold but this only works if the servants actually stay alive and you don't kill your team! ;)

Negatives:

• There is no efficient doing away with "bad" units.

• You will likely struggle on round 17 particularly, with some few exceptions. Even Assault Tank mass isn't all that great without good auras here.

• Dedicating yourself and your team to a no-Sera build such as Veterans or Furb-Wolve will be "challenge mode" on Endless rounds, to say the least.

Seraphim level 1? Yes. We Seraphim level 1.

Big, kinda cheap, tanky with an immolation aura that works on 5. Why wouldn't you love it? Well, the bad part is it can mess up your positioning and it does little damage output if no surge-immo. Avoid using with a melee-heavy build. If you don't have good backline you'll suffer rounds 6-7.

It can be worth to sacrifice mass units into Seraphim for round 11 in order to maintain offlane corner-build positioning. More often people will sacrifice early game units, like furbs or excessive amounts of mass, to transition into a "standard"-wall or -corner build for round 6+. These are competent use-cases for it.

Next up is level 5 Seraphim. Should you ever do it? Probably not lmao.

No but for real, it is quite weak and very susceptible to the infamous assassin-Infernal. Basically, it will rely on you already having a solid "standard" build, with good mix of frontline and backline. Don't count on a level 5 Seraphim doing much beyond reviving a couple units. Paradoxically, it is awfully weak early but OK 14-19. A likely explanation here is that it is a relatively minor part of your build these levels, whereas earlier it will practically be your build.

How about level 10 Seraphim? Pretty much the same as 5. The only caveat is that due to level restriction on Seraphim being tied to round number, level 10 is still optimal play up until round 15. This is also the reason why Seraphim is generally weak before 15, only properly strong with the right units combined with surge. Though of course, if you're expecting a huge 12 send then the Seraphim can transform a bad build into one that has (somewhat inconsistent) potential for hold. Essence Dissipate is strong here, as with all ranged rounds, but is quite bad 15-19 -- why it is often ill-advised for offlane and usually done only on a single dual lane.

For level 15 Seraphim you must make a damn hero. A level 3 hero. Archmage or Gorgon usually. The only valid excuses to not is:

• You're on dual lane, you think the enemy already spent all their crystal, you want to send 1k extra crystal.

• You're on dual lane, you picked Essence Dissipate. No one is counting on you to be strong 15-17, so you can wait and get Dark Ranger (mainly relevant 20+, though one option would be placing DR on teammates side early then moving to your own).

• You're on offlane. You and your team are ridiculously strong. You just held the enemy send. You have Messiah. You want to send 1k extra within next few rounds.

While Judgement is the obvious choice for level 15 sera, the 20 skill is not always going to be Army. This is because Cleave Seraphim is incredibly strong, sometimes, and Nova is generally a preferred choice for it.

Cleave somewhat suffers from the same issues as Revive prior to level 15, though is strong round 14, and extremely so 13 (paired with level 3 Gorgon). Beyond 15, your hold is still going to be relatively unit-dependent. Cleave is naturally decent round 17 but not an automatic carry, and with a lower ceiling than a really competent Revive build. Similarly to Revive, Spirit of Pain is by far the stronger alternative against melee rounds. Pain is therefore a sensible choice as it plays to already existing strengths while simultaneously making good use of the mana-pool (which would otherwise be unused before reaching Nova). The obvious weaknesses to Cleave are the ranged rounds as well as the boss levels.

So why Cleave if it's not that superior mid-game, when Revive seemingly wins out in so many regards? Well, on dual lanes there is not usually any reason to, considering that even weaker rolls are often salvageable through team-play.

But for offlane, Cleave can easily be the difference between life or death. With poor unit composition and/or poor value, offlane is susceptible to being punished 21 and 24. With enough punishment it will become difficult to survive 26. Cleave largely solves this. Cleave is really good 26, both for keeping sera alive as well as keeping other units alive (through Nova mass healing). Add to this that it enables higher push mid-game and you'll have a fantastic time. You do however need decent DPS-backline and a small amount of melee, about 2 ~450 value unit for 14 and something like 6-8 for 26 (more than what is needed on dual). With additional melee units it becomes important to stagger them, so as to avoid unnecessarily wide fight.

As Cleave you will -- to a higher degree than otherwise -- need the duals to cover rounds 16, 20, 22, 24, 25, which, to be fair, is not all that different from playing Revive. These rounds are simply quite rough for offlaners. If it is mostly offlanes' task to carry rounds 6-10, 14, 15, 17-19, then it is duals' towards the endgame. On 26, offlane generally just needs to be able to survive a raged send, while the duals commonly can afford bringing upwards of 10 meridian (a fairly weak unit on 26) without too much danger. As a Cleave offlaner, you too can start bringing 10 meridians! (probably try to avoid this still lol, 6 is perfectly fine for one lane, and is more than I'd typically recommend for Revive offlane).

The key factors to deciding whether to Cleave will be how many roles you have left, what was already given, and whether or not you have a good revive unit (zeus, ea, spectre). If you have only 2-3 rolls leftover and nothing to help out 21 or, mainly, 26, then Cleave is definitely a solid choice. If you do end up rolling Elite Archer, Colt, Azure, and Messiah in these last few, then sure, it probably would have been better not to Cleave. Yet more commonly, you may find yourself raging 26 with confidence and killing the enemy offlaner. And that confidence is something Cleave inspires.

okthxbai.