This Guide is for intended to help new players and give some advanced tricks for experienced players as well. This guide is neither quick nor dirty, the name refers to the strategy involved.

Basic Tips (experienced players skip down)

• Not Dying is more important than killing.
• Your Warscore might as well be the actual Score.  Control the flags and the map.
• Keep an eye on the minimap, especially for DGs heading towards flags solo.  They make easy kills.

Items

• Banded Armor - 550g +400 hp, 5 hp per second (later sold for Nimoth Chest)
• Boots of Speed - 1000g +10% movement speed
• Vlemish Faceguard - 1750g +1050 mana, +15 mana per second
• Plenor Battlecrown - 1500g +1575 mana +70% mana per second
• Groffling Warplate - 5200g +675 hp, +1200 armor
• Nimoth Chest Armor - 1500g +500hp +750 armor

You will get the swift anklet (+15% movement speed) for your favor item.  I chose these items because speed, mana regen, and armor are your most important stats.  Just make sure you have 3k+ hp and you'll be fine.  You should buy 2 combat mana potions at some point and only use them if you really need them during a fight.  The reason you don't see any artifacts or +dmg items is because they are expensive, and Erebus does not scale well with physical damage, the way that Unclean Beast, Regulus, or Oak would.  His damage comes from Bite, Batswarm, and lastly his melee attacks.  You will find that armor + mana regen will allow you to last much longer, and honestly do around the same damage (or more considering you always have mana).  You can get all of this gear and be complete by level 9 or so, if the game is going in your favor.

Skills

Always max bite first, and get batswarm at level 5.  You will be maxing Bite, Mass Charm, and Batswarm.  You will put 1 point into mist by level 3.  For level 1-3 you will get Bite -> Mass Charm -> Mist, unless they have an Unclean Beast and you will get Mist 2nd and Charm 3rd.  Late game you can get poisoned blood/vamp aura and max mist(order is up to you).

Bite - Rank 4 steals 900 health and reduces the targets armor.  Bite will be your main source of damage and healing.  Don't bite immediately, unless the enemy is on the run, or targetting your ally.  Use it to its full potential by waiting until you lose some life.  Often times you can run around at 60% health and bait DGs into attacking you, only to find you at full hp a bite later, and them hurting.

Mass Charm - Rank 4 Aoe stun that lasts 3 seconds on DGs.  Use Mass Charm to slow DGs who are fleeing(while your ally pummels them), and most importantly to interrupt teleport scrolls, potions, and to keep Sedna from healing.

Bat Swarm - Teleport that does 600 damage to anything in its path.  Use batswarm for catching running enemies(very often the death blow), killing a whole wave of enemy reinforcements, for escaping, and for navigating the map(more on this later).

Mist - Erebus turns into mist, becoming invulnerable and doing aoe damage.  Mist is very important.  It will save you countless times.  It let's you wait for your cooldowns to be up so you can bite again, or batswarm away.  It's also very important to have against Unclean Beast since Mist removes his spit an only costs 50 mana to cast(rank1).

Allies

My preferred allies are Sedna an Unclean Beast.  I generally run with a Sedna, because pounce+bite makes a pretty wicked combo, not to mention that mid game your team becomes nearly unkillable.  Unclean Beast is also very good (especially at killing Sedna), because his Grasp does not count as a stun effect, therefore you can lock someone down for 6 seconds using Mass Charm and Grasp.

Starting the Game

As soon as the game starts, pick your swift anklet, buy 2 teleport scrolls and banded armor.  Immediately teleport out to the center, and start heading toward the Celerity flag.  You are going to cap it and move on to the artifact/gold mine flag where you will hit level 2.  Your partner should be capping the experience flag while you do this.  If you're lucky you have met with an enemy DG on the way and it's time for your first kill.  Erebus is the strongest early game solo DG, so fight him if he doesn't run.  Wait to use bite until you lose 300 hp(amount it drains).  Ideally when he starts running your ally is coming up from behind him.  Very often times you can score 2 kills right in the beginning because his friend will come too late to his aide.

Once you have all 3 flags, keep a close eye on them.  You need to control the map.  Many times a solo enemy DG will try to go cap a flag.  Always be there to counter him.  If you see one head down to the celerity/artifact flags, go with your teammate and kill him.  He will either have to fight, or try to teleport.  Charm him if he does, kill him if he doesn't.  Erebus is so strong early game that you should find it fairly easy to control the map and get a few kills.  The best times to kill the enemy is when they are going for flags, because you have time to kill them before they run to the towers.  If you can't see the enemy, and they don't appear to be going for flags, sit in the center killing their reinforcements for xp and gold.

Once you have made enough gold for Boots of Speed, Vlemish Faceguard, and 2 teleport scrolls, teleport back to base and buy them.  You should be able to hold the map for awhile killing DGs when they think they can get flags, and killing mobs in the center.  Don't worry about hurting their towers.

If things are going your way, around level 7-9 you should have your Groffling Warplate.  The fun begins.  Teleport or run to the celerity flag.  From there, walk over to the edge of the map that is closest to the back of the enemies base.  When both enemy DGs are somewhere in the middle, Batswarm across the void into their base.  Stand between their portal and one of the towers.  You will be capping their portal flag, and only one tower will be able to hit you.  Destroy that tower while the flag is capping.  Batswarm out when the tower is dead.  If your partner is Sedna, she can actually heal you across the void if you stand near the ledge.  You are now saving gold for citadel upgrades.  I find that if you've outleved and outgeared your opponents at this point, all you need to buy is the priest upgrade.  Batswarm back over, take over the flag, and have your ally teleport in.  With the first wave that comes out of the portal, destroy the surrounding towers, and start attacking their citadel.  The enemy will come back and fight you, and if you've outleved them you can laugh as you kill them in their own base and continue to attack the citadel.  Just watch out for the other towers scattered around their base.  If you haven't outgeared them then it's usually smart to buy up to catapults before you make your stand.  Often times you can win the game right then, and if not, you should have lasted long enough in their base that your reinforcements from your base have crushed the middle and are pushing further, since they have no units.  This works for me nearly EVERY single game.  If for some reason you can't hold them at their base for a bit and they are killing you, just use this strategy to annoy and preoccupy the enemy while your ally and team push.  Remember to use Mist when you need to and to Batswarm out if you have no other choice.  Once you are good at Erebus you should hardly ever die.

I hope this guide helps some of you.  I want to stress that you need to have a strong early game.  Erebus is very powerful early, and you can quickly get the gear and levels neede to win the game while you have that advantage.

-Crank