Cupid Guide - by dignitas/YOUNGBAE

CUPID
   - by dignitas/YOUNGBAE (April, 8, 2015 - Patch 2.3.2660.0)

Cupid is quickly becoming a more common pick for the Hunter role and
has been quite often drafted throughout the SPL. Here the Team
Dignitas hunter, YOUNGBAE, gives his insight and tips on playing the
God of Love - Cupid.

Transcribed by Sam Oakley/Karma. 

Related links:
@DIG_YOUNGBAE - Profile Page

INTRODUCTION

Cupid is one of the strongest hunters in the duo lane right now. He has great ability to bully due to his low cooldown yet powerful Heart Bomb aswell as his Mana and Health sustain. On top of this Cupid fits very well into objective taking with a strong teamfight ult and being able to heal team members which can cause mass problems for opposing teams!

BUILD

Starting items

Bluestone Pendant	Spiked Gauntlet	Healing Potion
This is the standard start for any hunter. Bluestone is great for Cupid because he generally uses a bit more mana than other hunters: 1. His heartbomb is a 10 second cooldown which is lower than most other high damage abilities from other hunters. 2. He needs to spam his hearts (Share The Love) everytime its off cooldown for max sustain for him and his support in lane. The good thing here is that when an ally picks up his hearts, he gets mana back.

Full build

Devourer's Gauntlet	Ninja Tabi	The Executioner	Rage	Deathbringer	Titan's Bane
This is the most standard build for any hunters at the moment since it gives everything you want: a good amount of attack speed, crit, pen and flat damage. This build is best against any team comps aswell since it has a balance of all the important stats you want as a hunter. For example; The crit from Deathbringer and Rage will destroy any mages/squishies. The pen will destroy any bruiser/support and the attack speed is to make sure you can get more auto attacks off which means your target dies faster. Hold onto your Bluestone until you are fully built and then swap it out for Titan's Bane.

ACTIVES

Greater Purification	Greater Sprint

These are standard actives for any hunter. Every hunter will get these two actives 90% of the time.

Greater Sprint removes the movement penalty you get when you auto attack which means you can easily chase targets down and at the same time it makes it harder for the enemies to hit you while you can still hit them without movement penalty. Greater Sprint is great for defensive purposes aswell, if you're getting ganked you can easily run away, it also removes all slows from you.

Greater Purification is pretty simple. It removes CC effects from you which is really important because in team fights, they WILL try and go for you as you just can't leave a hunter to do what he/she pleases in a team fight otherwise they are going to kill everyone! Greater Purification also reduces the cooldown of all spells by 3 seconds so you can use it aggressively aswell, if you have, let's say, your dash coming up in 3 secs and you're chasing someone down and you need the gap closer.

SKILL ORDER

Note: At level 8 you skip putting a point in any of the skills; instead when you hit level 9 you put one point into Heart Bomb and the other in Fields of Love.

PLAYSTYLE

Early Game

Cupid is all about lane pressure and how aggressive he can be at early levels. It's best to have a support that can clear well and is aggressive like Ymir, Ares, Hercules or Sun Wukong. Cupid has A LOT of kill potential so you should always try to poke your opponent as much as you can, however, your main priority is to clear the wave first before trying to poke enemies, which is why having a support that can clear well is a plus. Once you have cleared the wave you can be aggressive and poke them with your dash and Heart Bomb, in some cases you won't even need to dash into them. Also make sure you always have your passive maxed so you get the stun when you use Heart Bomb. At level 5 when you have your ult, it should be a free kill on the enemy hunter if they aren't level 5 or are level 5 but have no CC immunity ults.

Mid Game

In my opinion the mid game is where Cupid is at his strongest. You should fight around objectives like Gold Fury because Cupid's ult is probably one of the best team fight ults in the game: it cripples, mesmerizes and slows; you should take advantage of this.

Late Game

Late game Cupid falls off in comparison to other hunters with steroids like Rama or Artemis. At this point in the game the enemy team will have full actives done and at least 4-5 items completed. You will want to use Cupid's ult as a tool to force their actives like Beads, Sprint, Aegis, etc. ALL your damage at this point is from your auto attacks so make sure you land as many as you can!

How Cupid fits into a team

Cupid fits well into teams because: 
- he has heals which helps the team,
- his ult is great for zoning and to help teammates as well as causing problems for gods that are prone to cripples. For example when Thor ults onto you, you can ult him right back, so he can't hammer out without Beads - it will stop him from being aggressive and you can possibly even kill him.

His team fight is really good because of his ult but you also have to look out for your teammates so you can throw your hearts near whoever needs the healing.

COUNTERS

Counter Picking

Cupid beats every hunter in lane besides Anhur and Artemis. This is simply because they have high burst and CC immunity ults.

Dealing with a Cupid

You don't want to let a Cupid bully you around in lane. Make sure you have a support that can push. If Cupid doesn't get to push the wave then he won't be able to bully you. Generally you'd want to play Artemis or Anhur, so you can somewhat bully the Cupid back pre level 5 and maybe even kill him when you hit level 5.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

Make sure you make good use of your passive stacks; really try to make sure it's full before you use Heart Bomb so you can get the stun off and put out more damage on your target. A lot of players don't do this but you should always throw your hearts out everytime it's off cooldown for your teammates and for you to get mana back. Remember, if you're playing with a Cupid, always pick up his hearts even if you're full HP! Always remember that your passive will reset if you use your hearts and ult aswell as the Heart Bomb.