I think it depends on the game... personally I enjoy having 8 minions early on with 1.3k HP each... great for harrassing and tower wrecking. I imagine on the bigger maps also I could cause so much annoyance with them.

As for his hero killing ability... not as good IMO as the other 2 since UC has speed and mega dmg and well Torch is just awesome.

Like hes a general and he needs to be used in that way to take advantage of his stuff.... late game minion he can be awesome if properly geared for his minions considering I dont know many good spells other side has to totally wreck em except smash.

I played with a guy the other day who tried to use Erebrus like an assasin and got worked everytime... hes not as strong as the others so he needs to have minions to do that extra dmg...

Some +HP minion +DMG minion items can go a long way when you have 10 nights and 6 others.

Generally take bite, stun, mist, pick up batswarm when you can. Keep get all of those maxed. Take the potion ability as well for the lifetap aura. I start off with the hp regen bp and the mana regen helm. I pick up the 10% movement boots later, Then get the helm with 25% reduced mana cost. You'll never have to base ever again, after that I get the cloak of flames and lastly get the x4 crit thing. If I'm rolling in dough I'll upgrade the citadel like crazy and also pick up the ring of the all father. Generally it doesn't get to that point.

Bite early and often, use bat to chase or get the hell out. Stun to keep people from porting away. Mist I use if I'm getting low and everything is on cooldown. Mist, wait for bite/bat, get up and generally I'll bat swarm at people and bite. Even if i'm low odds are you'll get it off before they know what the hell is going on and they're completely boned. I get cloak of flames for some kills when you're low and theres a group of enemies around. Bat in cloak of flames them and mist right away. That stacks up to a buttload of AE damage and they'll be freaking out if they live Also a good way to initiate team battles. Later on you can throw it down on towers for a little bonus damage.

Once you get to 6 or so you'll hardly ever die. Once you're 10 you're immortal unless you're suiciding in their base or something.

Bat Swarm damages towers.

Sedna's silence is the best way to kill us erubus players.

That thought escaped me, probably because I always use bat storm to escape ambush during a tower raid, than to attack tower with it.

It only takes too much resources to play minions if you also want your General to be powerful too. If your General supports your minions like they are supposed to and your main concentration is Minions, they do amazingly.

This is the exact mentality that lead to people playing Generals as assassins. Idols are good, hell they are great, just not at the beginning. Get your minion skills up, some minion equipment THEN buy idols. I usually start buying them mid game when I have some Moral and + health and Damage minion items and skills.

Aside from the exploit, buying minions right off the bat is useless. When they are complimenting your other 8 minions, well, then things get interesting.

So, I agree with you so long as we are talking right out of the gate and, afterwards so long as we are talking items with +minion on them. Once your minions are up and you have a couple +minion items, those idols can add quite the punch to your little army.

Just played my first proper games as Erebus. I don't really like assassin Erebuses (Erebi? ), as they're all over the place. So I just went for night walkers, Bite and mist later. All I really needed was some more health and a decent amount of mana regen with some minion boosting gear later, it was really easy to dominate stuff.

I planned on going for idols later, but the games I played ended at around lvl 12, so I really didn't get much chance to buy those. Mostly I just ran towards enemy demigods with speed stuff and pretty much used Bite as often as possible, even on creeps if enemy Regulus kept his distance. Large pushes were just too easy to counter with Mist, I needed only a few nightwalkers to begin with, and ended up with an army. And there's not really much enemy demigods can do about it at that point.

Need to test night walkers more though, basing anything on few games is pretty unreliable. But really, like it's been said many times on these forums, Bite needs some nerf. It doesn't need to be a big one, but the 1700 life swing along with the other benefits, on low cooldown and additional benefits feels a bit too much. It would have been even easier if I had just taken Bat Swarm, much easier to reach Biting distance with it. But I consciously avoided it, the build would've been bit too much assassin by that point.

While I think that is one way to play. 

I don't think it's the best way to play him as I'm pretty sure my minion Erebus will not only out DPS you, but will be able to take your Erebus in a fight (as long as I come with my army).  Sure after I've died, until I hit a creep mob, I can be weaker.

Yes, gear that increases minions as well is expensive (two really good pieces run about 3K each, but 6K is really not that much, combine that with 2-6K idols and you can do really well).

Chaosbrynn, has it right.  Don't bother with idols until you get your skills up that improve your minons (and gear).  Granted the one exception to that is Archer idols as they can help you take down towers early game.

Poisoned Blood twice for Vampiric Aura since it affects your minions, and Morale. A decent minion build would be the one listed below in my opinion. When geared with minion increasing equipment. You lose out on two levels of Morale only, but if you feel they are important to you can reduce some levels of Bat Swarm and only place a point into the first level of it for easy escaping and additional damage to support your minions.

Though this build is verstaile and based on the equipment you purchase. I use this setup with damage increase, attack speed increase, and all those for a effective assassin type Erebus.

Level 1:Bite I
Level 2:Improved Conversion Aura I
Level 3:Coven I
Level 4:Bite II
Level 5:Bat Swarm I
Level 6:Poisoned Blood I
Level 7:Bite III
Level 8:Improved Conversion Aura II
Level 9:Coven II
Level 10:Bat Swarm II
Level 11:Bite IV
Level 12:Poisoned Blood II
Level 13:Improved Conversion Aura III
Level 14:Coven III
Level 15:Bat Swarm III
Level 16:Vampiric Aura
Level 17:Army of Night
Level 18:Morale I
Level 19:Morale II
Level 20:Morale III

Vampires are overpowered, they are assassin's with pets.

Getting the first priest idol is a great way to keep Erebus up towards the start of the game. That and a few mana potions will let you rack up some easy kills in 1v1 situations. Just be careful when Sedna or twin Rooks come out and you should be fine.