Dota 2 Esports: Why is Mind_Control's Nature's Prophet so annoying to play against

Ivan "Mind_Control" Ivanov is one of the greatest off-laners in Dota 2 history. Among his signature heroes is Nature's Prophet.

At The International 7's Grand Final, Mind Control played a picture-perfect Nature's Prophet in Game 1. His performance forced Newbee to first-ban the hero in the subsequent games. Team Liquid went on to win the game 3-0, making it the only whitewash grand final in TI history.

Another iconic moment would come at The International 9 Grand Finals. Team Liquid were facing OG and were down 1-2. Mind_Control asked captain Kuro "Kuroky" Takhasomi to pick Nature's Prophet for him. Kuro infamously refused to do so, picking Omniknight instead.

Liquid would go on to lose the game and series 1-3. Topias "Topson" Taavitsainen built an unconventional Diffusal Blade on Gyrocopter. This completely countered Omniknight, rendering Mind_Control useless for the latter half of the game.

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Why is Mind_Control's Nature's Prophet so feared in Dota 2?

Nature's Prophet is a ranged intelligence hero. He can play almost any role in the game. The hero's toolkit is based around his 2nd skill, Teleportation. This ability allows NP to teleport to any point on the map, making him one of the most annoying heroes in Dota 2.

His 1st skill, Sprout, encircles a targeted enemy hero in trees, trapping them. The 3rd ability, Nature's Call, destroys trees and spawns 2/3/4/5 treants to fight alongside NP. His ultimate Wrath of Nature is a global nuke that bounces on 18 enemy units, dealing increasing damage to every next enemy hit by the spell.

Mind_Control is a menace on this hero. In the early game, he can win any lane using his micro-skills. Very few players in Dota 2 can micro-manage as well as Mind_Control. The treants spawned by NP give very little gold and experience but deal decent damage.

With his insane micro-management ability, Mind_Control can body-block enemy heroes with one treant and deal damage with the rest. With another support hero alongside, he can kill any enemy hero using his treants alone.

In the mid-late game, Mind_Control's Nature's Prophet is nearly unbeatable. He will have a near-global presence showing up for every pick-off or fight. He famously played a perfect split pushing game against Virtus Pro at The International 7.

Nature's Prophet's split push ability is second to none in Dota 2. However, players need to have a great amount of game sense and map awareness to pull it off. Mind_Control is one of the best split-pushers.

In the game against Virtus Pro, he took multiple lanes of barracks alone while his team fought. He successfully baited enemy teleports and then joined the team fight to clean up the stragglers. His ability to play the "rat" role won Liquid the game.

His flawless performance garnered a lot of praise from the both analysts and the community. Many fans considered him one of the best split-pushers in Dota 2 since Henrik "AdmiralBulldog" Ahnber.

Mind_Control's Nature's Prophet has been one of the most targeted bans against Team Liquid and Nigma ever since. Even when the hero was out of the meta and underpowered, some teams would ban it while playing against Mind_Control. He is just that good on the Dota 2 hero.