As Imperius, how should I approach wave and camp clear?

While Imperius that can land Q and do proper combo can be very strong in a team fight, I’ve always struggled with him when it comes to wave and camp clearing.

I might do one or two well positioned W to add some damage, but more than that, I drain mana too much for me to readily join team fight, and his AA without trait bonus doesn’t do much damage. Also, besides E, which is mana heavy, I have no way to generate shield/health against waves and camps.

How should I handle wave and camp clear as Imperius?

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You don’t do or clear camps alone. For waves, just W the wave. Try not to spend E because it costs a lot of mana. If you really need to clear waves as Imperius, pick the AoE talent at 7.

Best thing about Imperius is his waveclear sucks but his trade potential is extremely high. If you really need to clear waves or it is a macro heavy map you need another offlaner.

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You shouldn’t pick imperius if you really need camps or waveclear.

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W, right-click, and let the waves push in to where your towers will help kill stuff. Even if they take a little scratch damage, towers will kill things much faster than you will on your own, so it is worth trading a small amount of front wall damage for getting the things dead and you back to some place more suited to his kit.

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Basically, you can’t. Someone else on your team has to take care of it.

Replace waveclear with wavefreeze, as a start. Preferably while also adding “heroclear” into your dictionary.

As for campclear your first instinct should be to camp invade, preferably with your healer backing you up.

But if you really want to waveclear with Imperius then it has a single button for it, your W. You press that with as many minions hit as possible and then proceed to AA them. Anything else is a complete waste and hence why he struggles to kill waves compared to other Bruisers.

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Holy Fervor!

Imp sucks at minions and camps.

The best you can do is use W when minions are in a straight line.

Just don’t bother using your mana.

As imperius I clean waves slowly but surely, but I use his bruiser potential mostly by freezing waves close
to own towers. Denying the opposite team the xp from my minions is as good as gaining xp.

You should waveclear as imperius like you should with every hero
The question is are you looking for xp or to depush. Because if you stall the wave and let them clash you can attempt to steal the enemys leader globe and deny xp

There are three camps you can do (reasonably) as Imperius solo: Siege Camps, Firebat Camps, and Goat-Spear Camps.

Only do these when there’s nothing else to do (that includes defending, soaking, helping teammates, etc.) and you’re not under threat of being invaded.

As for wave-clear it’s all about W. It’s weak, but it’s all you got.

Sometimes I will deliberately start a Siege camp on Imperius, hoping the enemy team will try to invade. If they send too many people, I just leave, but if they send 3 or fewer, and they do not have a healer, well, a clump of enemy heroes in a small, contested space is pretty much exactly what Imperius thrives on!

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For wave clear W build. For camps - not yer job.

3 basic macro tips for solo-laning as Imperius.

  1. Don’t bother trying to solo camps in the laning phase. It takes too long and isn’t worth the wasted time, as just about every other non-healer in the game can do them faster.

  2. Always make sure you are not in the lane the bruiser mercs move to. If their bruisers go top, lane bot. If they go bot, lane top.

  3. Let the enemy wave push towards you. This forces the enemy player to play further forward if they want to soak and deters them from trying to shove, as they’d need to be a lot closer to your Towers if they want to clear the waves. This allows you to all-in them after level 7 much more effectively and safely, and forces them to play at your pace.
    Try to keep the enemy ranged minions alive and outside Tower range. This will freeze your wave in front of your Towers, holding the wave at just about the perfect position.

And 3 basic micro tips for solo-laning as Imperius.

  1. Cast your W straight down the middle line of minions as they walk single-file towards you. It travels fairly slowly, so don’t wait for them to walk all the way into the AoE’s splat and instead cast it a bit early. They’ll have moved into its AoE by the time it reaches them.

  2. When fighting heroes in minion waves, try to kite them out of them minion wave before you use your E. It heals for twice as much if it hits a hero, so letting it hit minions just wastes that healing.

  3. After level 7, once you’ve picked Flash of Anger (because why wouldn’t you, it’s his only good level 7 talent), landing your Q on an enemy in the middle of their wave provides a bit of extra waveclear, as the bonus damage from FoA is an AoE. It’s not much, but it can help in a pinch, especially if you’re trying to all-in them so you can shove your own wave up to their Towers.

How you approach it is you kill enemy heroes so they can’t wave and camp clear.

That way you’re even