Atropos is an elemental force personifying the nightmares and fear of this world. He manifests where there is promise of inflicting horror and feeding off dread. Sapping his foes' psyche heals him. Manifesting his enemies' fears, he greatly enfeebles their ability to fight. He revels in disabling foes by sending them into dread slumber. When need be he can rip his soul and force it into his foes, effectively immobilizing them with despair and pain. Atropos is, in one word, Fear.

Are you familiar with the hero already? If not, you might want to take a look at the Bane Elemental guide. It'll tell you the basics of how to play him during a DOTA match.

• Dagon: Always a good choice. In fact, I often play games where all I have is a constantly upgraded Dagon staff and five gg branches (Ironwood, +1 all attributes). It's a lot of fun when other DOTA players assume you're a total newbie! Use this to finish off anyone left still living from a Fiends Grip, or to kill steal at will.
• Shiva's Guard: An excellent item for the Bane Elemental in DOTA. However, it's not necessary. Simply disable someone with nightmare whenever you really need a slow. Be careful of silly allied heroes who'd wake them up from their slumber though. It happens far too often.
• Orchid Malevolence: A decent item, but not much synergy with Atropos' skills. You shouldn't make a DPS bane elemental build due to his low attack range.
• Guinsoo's Scythe: Do you need another disable? One of these is always a great choice for any intelligence hero, and even anyone else. Time your disables with your team so you don't waste the cooldown. There's no point sheeping someone just to grip them either.
  
• Boots of Speed: Why would you want these? Atropos doesn't have any feet! Just kidding. But, it's a great excuse if you don't bother buying any instead of cooler stuff. Thanks to your disables you actually don't need these to run away unless it's a major gank.
• Heart of Tarrasque: A good choice if you've already procured Shiva's Guard. Between it and Brain Sap you'll be a tough cookie to crack!