Watched 1 of your replays.  I don't like your starting choice.  I always go monks immediately with erb.  You get a kill at 1:40, but its entirely due to a bonehead move on sedna's part.  About 2-3 minutes in, its clear that you are very cautious with erb.  Overly cautious, imo, but you are hugging a tower and getting creeps, so no real issue there... at 3:30, u are using your minions to harass, but its not doing anything for you at all.  Just wasting your rollies.

Hmm... at level 6, you build looks like a so/so minion build.  7 min's in ... you head back to base for the first time.  You get bishops, siege archers and a lock.  Your 1 item is banded armor.  Your team also just hit level 3 when you went back and you did not buy currency for the team. 

The oak and sedna stick near you, but don't really make any effort to kill you or push you out.  9 minutes in, its clear that the problem is the level of competition.  You shouldn't be able to hold a lane against 2 dgs solo with banded as your only item.  To me, that means they are doing something very wrong. 

Anyway, tips from me - you are fairly cautious.  This is good, but its seemed like cautious to the point of being afk by a tower at one point.  You haven't died the entire time I've been watching (through 9min 50 sec), but I'd hope you wouldn't as erb.  You place alot of focus on minions, but you aren't maximizing the minion build.  I watched a little more...I don't know... it was kinda meh.  Competent enough, but i also didn't see any excellent team play on your part.  You bought currency 1 at 11min 32 seconds.  So you did pick it up, but you could have bought that 4 minutes ago for your team when you bought bishops/archers.  As you aren't engaging in direct combat all that much, poisoned blood this early was a bit of a waste.  I noticed you have night walkers and that you aren't sending them to attack the raise dead wards oak is setting. 

Your entire playstyle seems to be that of a 1v1 player.  I haven't seen you do much with your team at all... and you are the best equiped to gank on your team.  At the 15 min mark, I start thinking about the level of competition again.  The oak you are fighting with... he comes to engage u at the flag.  He does surge of faith 1, then casts a shield on himself and runs back to his tower.  Surely this will work...

And now at 17min, you buy gold 2... I get gold 2 0% of of the time in my games if I'm playing in a premade.  I don't think really get the return for it (unless the game lasts quite some more time... I don't remember the stat).  Anyway, you have finally bought items for youself at the 17 min mark.  Now you have banded and just bought scaled helm and scalemail (those the the items I pick up on my first trip back to base). 

I can't believe both teams have all of their towers at the 22min mark... holy crap.  (high towers, btw).  Ok... 22min 50sec - can't watch anymore.  Anyway, in this specific game, an assassin erb would have torn things up.  Stun can be a big deal - all the more so when you are playing high towers.  I'd have liked to see you paying more attention and looking for opportunities to port in and get a kill.... but as none of you wanted to risk running past the towers, that makes it a bit more difficult to kill without stun. 

Always start with monks level 1 when you play ANY general.

Even if you're not sure how to handle it yet, try to have one point in Mass Charm just to interrupt TP or Potion. Mass Charm is really useful for team move, stunning ennemy to prevent him from TPing or fleeing when you're ganking with a friendly DG. It may also save your team mates when they're low in life and purchased.

But, for example, Mass Charming (lvl 1) an ennemy DG when you're alone is totally useless. Why? Because 1 sec cast stun ennemy DG 1 sec = no tempo benefit and huge amount of MP wasted.

I've ended up basing a minion build off of a spirit oak build (surprisingly enough) that completely owned myself and mandatorycloud, who I usually play with. Going over the replay was quite educational.

My build is usually:

Level 1: Save

Level 2: Coven 1 + Improved Conversion Aura 1

Level 3: Stats 1

Level 4: Save

Level 5: Coven 2 + Improved Conversion Aura 2

Level 6: Swarm 1

Level 7: Save

Level 8: Coven 3 + Improved Conversion Aura 3

Level 9: Depends on how the game's going, usually stats.

Starting Favor: Ring of Divine Might/Horn of Battle

Starting Item: Monks

On my first trip back to base I get Siege Demolishers, + Gladiator Gloves + Tele Scroll, possibly the cheapest minotaurs if I can afford it.

Throughout the game, I focus on:

-Hauberk of Life

-Forest Band

-Theurgist's Cap

-Gloves of Fell-Dakur

-(Depending on the game) Boots of speed/Wand of Speed

Play style: I hug the towers religiously. My minions do all of the work, always, period. I hang close enough to pick up Night Walkers, but I rarely engage. This sometiems makes my teammates rage, because I'm just standing there, with 2000 health and 0 armor, and no way to heal or protect myself. But the minions are incredibly, incredibly powerful. Siege Demolishers are key, and coupled with monks chilling near them, take down towers. If the enemy kills them, I simply respawn them, send them again. This keeps them preoccupied, and I'll send in my walkers periodically to drive them off.

It seems to fit my play style because I tend to be overly cautious. Minions are incredibly expendable, and I have fairly decent micro.

A tactic that would work, I just have to  test it is to simply...get mass charm, even instead of bat swarm. A frozen enemy allows crazy minion dps.

Thoughts?

batswarm I is mandatory to any build for erebus. it really saves your ass in nasty situations. I only get batswarm II if Im playin pure assassin style, otherwise I stick with level I batswarm. About mass charm, I found that this particular skill is for assassin LE ONLY. it consumes a lot of mana which u don't have if u play a minion build. But still, 1 point in mass charm is crucial, its damn good against pots/locks. I would also suggest taking mist if you can buy vlemish + pleanor in addition to your minion items (haurberk, gloves of fell-darkur, theurgist's cap [whatever]), it keeps them alive when there is a big crowd, makes u invulnerable, and AoE damage enemies. Just my thoughts

***Uploaded wrong replay file

http://www.mediafire.com/?tzl0kzdggm5

http://www.mediafire.com/?nntdn1ndmzn

I've been working on my Erebus game, and have ditched the minion build. It's incredibly effective early-mid game, but mainly only for pushing towers. I can take out all of the towers. However, in late game against cat/giant creep waves and skilled opponents, it's entirely worthless. It can't do anything. So I go for a mainly assassin-style build, but also get bishops and siege demolishers.

I've been trying to improve my map awareness.

The one time I died in the replay was because I accidentally minimized Demigod (I play in a window) and when I came back found my warp stunned and me defenseless.