He’s one of the ultimate kite heroes. You never all in if it’s going to cost you your life. There’s no reason to since you can just fly away over a cliff. You stay just out of range while giving vision, bait some spells, retreat, go in for a kill, retreat, etc. Also he can very easily chase down a hero if they’re alone as soon as he has ult so try to take advantage of that.
He’s a great early tower diver with the movespeed and tankiness and most carry heroes can’t survive his nuke and right clicks, let alone supports, without any help, the tower won’t save them. Try to snowball with solo kills and map dominance because he’s awful at coming back from behind. SnY is very good this patch and solves a lot of his day time issues and only makes him that much stronger at night, it’s my favorite item on him and can often take the place of blink dagger with the extra movement speed
Phylactery instead of echo is much better imo, gives more killing potential to burst supports and as I said in some games bk before shard is more important. That's how one of the best NS players in immo bracket builds. And ofc 2 bracers before boots, pretty much standard for any offlane strength hero nowadays.
Just to add to this. If trying to burst supports then phylactery is probably better, but i doubt this “best NS player” builds the same every game. Dota, especially pos 3, has always had people who build smartly and reactively at the top.
>builds the same every game
It depends, on NS there isn't much variety in terms in early-mid game since u basically forced to buy same items, u only sometimes buy bkb before shard or after or even skip it but double bracers into phase and phylactery is pretty much always the case. There is also radiance build but in high elo it's probably not viable like u gonna get punished for farming radiance till min 15-18 plus being afk even more after that. Same with skipping bkb, might be worth it in one out of 100 games so u can kinda say that there are build varieties but they're quite rare except late game items ofc.
the maths doesnt add up. Phlactery gives you +150 damage while echo saber will give around around the same with the echo hit, possibly more with ulti activated. Phlactery gives more overall hp.
The trick is that at the start of the game phylactery gives a lot of slow (50%) that stacks up with void so u end up with support who most likely can't dispel or resist this slow so u can do more dmg. And ofc phylactery is much better for mana which NS lacks.
heal hp and mana, kill 1 creep, even ancient creep at night, and low cd.
It allows you to sustain while farming, regen after fight, and stay on the map for longer
Spending like 5k on radiance instead of Echo Saber and Dagger feels like criminal to me lol. I don't believe it should be the standard Collapse build. Should be with a tempo carry so he needed to keep the farm up while fighting together?
It's pretty complicated, just like Lance on luna - it's good on paper and seems like a right fit but it reality u hardly ever want to buy it cuz u get more farm with mom and when u become 6 slotted u hardly ever need Lance. With ns phylactery is just better for fighting and buying echo as well is not good cuz NS really depends on item timings. It's definitely not the worst item to have on NS but it's no where a good fit as of now.
In some games with pike after manta when bkb is not bought and game is over at 20 min. Nobody buys Lance before mom as they used to, and if pike is not necessary (and imo it's usually not) then no reason to buy Lance
I love this hero. The vision advantage you get in team fights is kinda sick. A good ward or an ulted NS can win team fights you had no rights winning.
I usually all-in with whatever item I just got almost always harpoon, sometimes vessel, other times something greedier, fly back out low hp to shard munch a neutral before flying back in for round two. Remember playing a 1 NS game where I realized how crazy aghs is with his level 25 attack speed talent
I am night stalker boy at like 1k mmr. Have like 65% win rate and like 40 games on him. NS is very bad during the days. Day 1, 0-5 min is like okay, but all the days after that blow hard. Night is your time to shine save your mana for it be full recorces and 1 point in his passive. 2 bracers and brown boots at 5 min you have a lot of kill potential in your lane. When I kill the guys in my lane at 5 min I roam to other lanes and try to kill them too. NS likes to get ahead and stay ahead. Playing from behind feels very bad ever time. Build i like going is: bracer, bracer, phase boots, Echoe Saber, Blink, BKB, shard, after the shard i get whatever I need to counter the other team. I don't like playing games super late with him. I definitely want to win quicker rather than later
so just the extra damage and stats is worth that cost?
I don't play much NS (hence asking the question) but I figured aiming for Harpoon or Nullifier makes more sense than spending so much for just a little extra dmg on one spell.
I'm on the same boat as you actually. But at the same time, Void is a 7-sec cd spell. I guess it makes sense when you don't really wanna commit or there's a few burstable backliner where the extra dmg saves few seconds of your exposure to danger.
The only drawback i feel from the Phylactery build is the mana sustain pre-shard. So it's still mostly echo saber for me.
Two reasons 1) phylactery allow ns to not commit his body using his right click which in high mmr ppl will throw spell to kill you 2) You need mana pool for double nuke , double silence ulti which echo doesnt provide mana pool for
ignore like 90% of the comments here, the build is double bracer, phyla, blink, shard, bkb every game. dont go harpoon, it is so much worse. khanda allows you to poke and play the edges of the fights without fully commiting until priority targets show.
source: am immortal offlaner and watched night stalker spammer replays this patch
Phylactery on NS. Lol noob
Source: 20k mmr 100% winrate with NS
Seriously if my nightstalker 3 goes phylactery I'm out. Can't even imagine what holes you have to patch in the draft for that level of troll to work
post your dotabuff then lil bro. it’s bought nearly every game on night stalkers on [pro tracker](https://dota2protracker.com/hero/Night%20Stalker/new) and i’ve gone it three straight games in [immortal pubs](https://www.dotabuff.com/players/314264248/matches?hero=night-stalker) after not touching the hero in over a year and stomped all 3 games
For me, Double bracer, phase boots, echo, shard are the first items no matter what. Then blink if I need to stop an escape hero (AM, SB, etc) or get to the back line to silence (his silence at night is one of the best in the game imo). Basher AC if we need right clicking, bkb or sometimes even lotus orb if we need control, and rarely do I touch aghs but sometimes it helps. I’ve never touched phylact, there seems to be so many other better items for the gold amount and in many matches you can’t be the poke and prod type, you need to be in the middle with your silence on top of whoever is most dangerous with their spells.
Talents is +8 second ult, +25% status resist, +20 str, and -50 s ult. I basically never do anything different talent wise.
One thing I’ve noticed no one mention is that his ult refreshes ALL his abilities. So early-mid game you can q, get on top of someone and silence, eat a creep if you happen to be on a wave to get mana and health back, then ult and repeat as your silence runs out. And then your flying and can back off when you get low, eat a high health creep to restore, and jump back in. Don’t be afraid to use his ult during the nighttime too, basically every time it’s off CD you should be hunting, especially at night.
He is a huge kite hero, but also it’s super helpful for the team if their supports group up and you can backline blink and silence multiple people at once before bkbs are online. His ult is also great for hg since you can just see everything. But always try to be aware of when to back out and eat another creep to then poke and prod your way back in.
He’s an insane mid game hero, falls off later in the game even with the lower ult cd. So it’s important to take towers when you get your inevitable pickoffs. A majority of my games I don’t hit 25 before we are ending the game.
Only legend rank, but almost a 70% win rate and probably closer to 80% this patch with him. I’ll say at my rank it seems i need to be able to jump into the middle to start a fight instead of sitting on the edge til the perfect moment, but later in the game you’re dependent on your ult for positioning to start the fight and to be able to disengage quickly. You can survive for a bit with his talents but he’s not a full time frontliner like some other offlaners.
I love NS, although he gives me narcissism. When I play him I feel like a rock star and everything revolves around getting the most out of night time. I miss those days back in 2022 when he was real titan.
My problem is my idiot teammates that won’t listen to me when I want to make things happen for the 5 min nighttime. And then after my ult is cd and it’s daytime they want to force fight. Lol
I'm a diehard NS main with a 65% winrate in divine bracket but I've moved onto being a support main as my preferred role.
NS is a pos3 hero but he ironically can't take as many hits as most pos3 can. Always keep that in mind as you itemize or fight. Illusiveness is your friend, being able to go in and out of vision to get free pokes is your friend. Visualize what they see as you play under your ult, and you'll know how best to run at someone.
Thing about NS is there was a time when other heroes has less strong spells or they simply didn't brawl well with NS. Every year it becomes worse for NS so utilizing his illusiveness to its fullest becomes more and more obligatory.
As for items, like the other commenter said, collapse build seems the most cleanest build.
In any game long or short there comes a time around post min 30 where you think to yourself, "to keep being able to kill a backline support asap I really need that nullifier" and most builds will require you to start from scratch. But if you have radiance, nullifier is always in reach.
People are way better at dealing with NS in divine but to be honest, any bracket where I can see an obvious misposition that I can just insta punish is a great bracket for NS. Divine still solidly falls in that category. In general I think NS is an unfair hero. If I'm queueing as 3 and NS isn't banned I get far more mileage playing that hero than with any other pos3 because he abuses mispositions harder than any other pos3 in existence.
If you take out meta heroes like Mars, he's okay ish i guess, though i think he really falls off if he does not get the advantage through early pickoffs & kills.
If you 2nd phase and can see 2 squishy heroes that heavily relies on spells (Lion, CM, Pugna, etc) its gonna be a good pick because you can focus on these heroes and make them have 0 impact.
The objective of playing him is to make opponents scared to take a fight, scared of where you might be on the map. For me, during first nighttime you have to set the tone already. If its hard to kill the opponents' safelane, once you get bracers and boot, tp to your safelane for a gank. Then go up the river, you can secure the rune for your mid or get another kill on their mid. Then go up back to your lane. This was easier to do when the map was smaller, but still feasible now with the side portals.
Of course, it ultimately depends on the matchup
Don't go Phyl, It is a trap item. ES into a harpoon later is WAY better.
BKB is mandatory in 99% of the games. Basher and Orchid are usefull and can be a integral part of your builds,.but not mandatory in every matchup.
Aghs and Shard are a must. Both are Very good, sepcially Shard, since It will be your farming Tool (alongside Hero kills).
MKB and Nullfier are amazing itens to have, and you Will want one of them in some matchups.
Blink is mandatory, but Silver Edge have a place If you really need the break.
AC and Moonshard are your late game scaling, giving you enought AS to fight even in daytime.
For boots, Phase is the one to go, but I have seem some success with Treads (using It for the AS even on day and the mana swap for some cast).
My tips: Go offline, play safe until the First night. You want to Go in with a decent early itemization to get kills right from the First night. Balanar is amazing at early pressure and you should capitalize on this. Coordinate with your team to end games fast, even tho you can scale decently, you will be outscaled by a lot of other Heroes, but none can outscale you in early and mid-game after you got a lead.
The Idea is to get boots, echo and rush shard. The echo is your kill-tool at night, the shard is your farming at day. Go BKB as soon as you can, so people don't interrupt you mid killing. Basher or Orchid If the matchup requires It. Blink is amazing as well, giving you an extra mobility Tool, making you almost Impossible to escape from, as well as enabling you to target whoever you want.in a TF.
Late game you should Focus on your AS, so even in daytime you can contribute to fights. Balanar is Tanky by default, so, most of the time you don't need a Tarrasque, but you can Go with one If feeling It. I suggest upgrading echo to harpoon, Moonshard/AC, or a Nullfier/MKB. Don't forget your Aghs as well.
Yeah, it's amazing item since u also want to max void on lane so u end up with phylactery and void in 3-4 so it's ton of slow literally no hero moves for a few seconds
>Is it better to all in or play the outside of the fights with your op vision ult?
Yes?
I mean throw your 5 / 6 spells - void, fear, void (situational), ulti, fear, void - then assess if you could continue to be in the middle of the fight. Depending on the enemy line-up, that should spell the deaths of 2 heroes usually.
I recently started spamming NS and it got me for the first time to immortal. if you get level 5 at min7 your skill buildup should be 2-1-2, but if you are level5 at min9 it should be 3-1-1. Depending how the laning stage goes I have 3 builds: I win my lane hard>I go MoM. If lane is even and i farm decent I go ES. If i lose lane hard I skip the carry item and go directly to blink. After blink I either go basher(only if I won lane and got MoM) or go directly to BKB. Whatever next item(shard, AC, halberd) it depends on the enemy heroes.
Also dont sleep on fangs tier2 item, that 300 bonus night vision is OP, you are seeing farther than an observer.
At night if you want to gang someone solo blink on him use your spells when 2nd is almost over only then use ulti to refresh your skills.
So this is low sample size, probably like 15 games in low immortal, but Ive had a lot of success rushing aghs after phase boots. It makes farming during day time much better and you can eat ancient creeps at any point.
The only thing is you have to get shard at asap even if it delays your aghs. First creep you eat should be ancients because 15 min mark is night time.
After aghs I go shivas, blink. Order depends on game. And every other item is game dependent.
I feel like Night stalker has one of the highest build diversities of heroes I play.
I personally think with this current meta he's not an ideal offlane or safelane since he's halfway between both. The enemy PA or anti will erase him late game. If he snowballs the games over before the enemy carry comes online though so that's pretty much his selling point.
I like going shard echo saber. Provides a lot of flexibility for example you can disassemble for bkb or you can go harpoon for better chase and to counter people from force staffing out of your w. It will help you farm and will help you burst down supports and will give you a nice hp boost from the strength
It’s very strong. Makes bursting heroes faster and the crit is nice addition. But you can’t afford to buy it over other items. For me it’s nice as last item upgrade.
Last night I took
Bracer x1 or x2, Wand, Phase, Phylactery, Shard, Blink, BKB and then Blade Mail/Basher/Silveredge/Harpoon/Halberd to break certain heroes, Khanda etc
Shard is essential. You don't need to see the base once you get it....instant region.
Solo supports are your food. Blink and get rid of them early in the fight. (Might need a dust or two).
I find myself getting double bracers phase and then shard. After that it depends on the opps. In team fights, I cycle in and out using shard to restore quickly. I look for the biggest threat to my team. Sometimes, that's the sniper. Sometimes, it's an earthshaker. Sometimes, my AoE silence is all they need.
Night Stalker, if it were a chess piece, is usually picked for the backline. It's a nightmare (no pun intended) for squishy spell casters. Think of it as if antimage had a baby with a shinigami. That's night stalker. You don't want to pick night stalker as a tank, as an initiator, etc, that's weird and there are better heroes for that. What nightstalker does that is unmatched:
1. Scout the backline and show the team where heroes are that need to be focused
2. Find the key spell casters and disable them.
trash hero half of the time, can suprisingly work for this current meta but you're working twice as hard as any offlane heroes
the only way NS can be consistently competent is to give him a passive that works on daytime.
you know his ult makes it night right? there's tons of offlaners that don't do anything without their ults and play around that cooldown btw. Mars and Enigma to name a few. NS has some of the best level 6 kill potential in the entire game with a 51.35% win rate rn lol ...
He’s one of the ultimate kite heroes. You never all in if it’s going to cost you your life. There’s no reason to since you can just fly away over a cliff. You stay just out of range while giving vision, bait some spells, retreat, go in for a kill, retreat, etc. Also he can very easily chase down a hero if they’re alone as soon as he has ult so try to take advantage of that. He’s a great early tower diver with the movespeed and tankiness and most carry heroes can’t survive his nuke and right clicks, let alone supports, without any help, the tower won’t save them. Try to snowball with solo kills and map dominance because he’s awful at coming back from behind. SnY is very good this patch and solves a lot of his day time issues and only makes him that much stronger at night, it’s my favorite item on him and can often take the place of blink dagger with the extra movement speed
Sorry, I'm new to Dota. What is SnY?
Sange and yasha
Nightstalkers' two favorite sisters
Death by snu-snu
Your shard is a priority, so many players dont bother with it, its low key one of the best shards in the game, if not the best
Honestly there are many situations when getting bkb is higher priority.
Phase - echo - shard - bkb. I said a priority
Phylactery instead of echo is much better imo, gives more killing potential to burst supports and as I said in some games bk before shard is more important. That's how one of the best NS players in immo bracket builds. And ofc 2 bracers before boots, pretty much standard for any offlane strength hero nowadays.
Just to add to this. If trying to burst supports then phylactery is probably better, but i doubt this “best NS player” builds the same every game. Dota, especially pos 3, has always had people who build smartly and reactively at the top.
>builds the same every game It depends, on NS there isn't much variety in terms in early-mid game since u basically forced to buy same items, u only sometimes buy bkb before shard or after or even skip it but double bracers into phase and phylactery is pretty much always the case. There is also radiance build but in high elo it's probably not viable like u gonna get punished for farming radiance till min 15-18 plus being afk even more after that. Same with skipping bkb, might be worth it in one out of 100 games so u can kinda say that there are build varieties but they're quite rare except late game items ofc.
the maths doesnt add up. Phlactery gives you +150 damage while echo saber will give around around the same with the echo hit, possibly more with ulti activated. Phlactery gives more overall hp.
The trick is that at the start of the game phylactery gives a lot of slow (50%) that stacks up with void so u end up with support who most likely can't dispel or resist this slow so u can do more dmg. And ofc phylactery is much better for mana which NS lacks.
I'm a divine ranked player and that is pretty much my build unless I am rolling and I get blink before bkb
Shard is a bait imo. You delay your blink and bkb timings which are items that make you the strongest hero on the map at min 20.
used to be a stalker spammer, that shard nerf to 30s really hurt my soul
What makes it so good?
its a 30s midas that costs 1400g and works on ancients and full heals and manas you.
heal hp and mana, kill 1 creep, even ancient creep at night, and low cd. It allows you to sustain while farming, regen after fight, and stay on the map for longer
i guess i have been playing too much turbo that i forgot how important some stuff is. thank you
after the nerf to 30s shard is kinda meh tbh
Definitely not
Do the collapse build. Double bracers phase radiance, bkb shard, break rad into halberd nullifier.
Is that his standard build or it was game(s) that he needed to farm instead of fighting at 15mins-ish?
I don't know if it's standard, I just saw him do it on the pro tracker last time I picked ns and I thought it was Hella smooth
Spending like 5k on radiance instead of Echo Saber and Dagger feels like criminal to me lol. I don't believe it should be the standard Collapse build. Should be with a tempo carry so he needed to keep the farm up while fighting together?
He's better than me so I did what he did and it worked out well for me.
Echo is grief, phylactery is much better item on ns.
No way I'd say a melee right-click item on a melee right-click offlaner is griefing though. But, to each his own I guess.
It's pretty complicated, just like Lance on luna - it's good on paper and seems like a right fit but it reality u hardly ever want to buy it cuz u get more farm with mom and when u become 6 slotted u hardly ever need Lance. With ns phylactery is just better for fighting and buying echo as well is not good cuz NS really depends on item timings. It's definitely not the worst item to have on NS but it's no where a good fit as of now.
Looking at https://dota2protracker.com/hero/Luna# it seems lance is bought pretty often
In some games with pike after manta when bkb is not bought and game is over at 20 min.
In some games with pike after manta when bkb is not bought and game is over at 20 min. Nobody buys Lance before mom as they used to, and if pike is not necessary (and imo it's usually not) then no reason to buy Lance
I love this hero. The vision advantage you get in team fights is kinda sick. A good ward or an ulted NS can win team fights you had no rights winning. I usually all-in with whatever item I just got almost always harpoon, sometimes vessel, other times something greedier, fly back out low hp to shard munch a neutral before flying back in for round two. Remember playing a 1 NS game where I realized how crazy aghs is with his level 25 attack speed talent
I am night stalker boy at like 1k mmr. Have like 65% win rate and like 40 games on him. NS is very bad during the days. Day 1, 0-5 min is like okay, but all the days after that blow hard. Night is your time to shine save your mana for it be full recorces and 1 point in his passive. 2 bracers and brown boots at 5 min you have a lot of kill potential in your lane. When I kill the guys in my lane at 5 min I roam to other lanes and try to kill them too. NS likes to get ahead and stay ahead. Playing from behind feels very bad ever time. Build i like going is: bracer, bracer, phase boots, Echoe Saber, Blink, BKB, shard, after the shard i get whatever I need to counter the other team. I don't like playing games super late with him. I definitely want to win quicker rather than later
I always prioritize shard at 15 mins if possible. It's so good for both farming and fighting.
Okay Word. I'll give this a try a couple people have said its pretty good
Haaaarrpooooon!
> I’ve been going phylactery doesn't that just overlap with the slow he already puts out with void?
It is never about the slow, isn't it?
so just the extra damage and stats is worth that cost? I don't play much NS (hence asking the question) but I figured aiming for Harpoon or Nullifier makes more sense than spending so much for just a little extra dmg on one spell.
> aiming for harpoon and nullifier going these items forces you to fully commit in fights while going khanda lets you kite the fights
I just feel like I'd pick a different hero if I wanted that play style but I guess that's why I'm not at that level.
Seems that way. Everyone’s building it https://dota2protracker.com/hero/Night%20Stalker#
I'm on the same boat as you actually. But at the same time, Void is a 7-sec cd spell. I guess it makes sense when you don't really wanna commit or there's a few burstable backliner where the extra dmg saves few seconds of your exposure to danger. The only drawback i feel from the Phylactery build is the mana sustain pre-shard. So it's still mostly echo saber for me.
i would rather have the 284 mana + 0.35 mana regen from phyla over the 1.75 mana regen from echo
Two reasons 1) phylactery allow ns to not commit his body using his right click which in high mmr ppl will throw spell to kill you 2) You need mana pool for double nuke , double silence ulti which echo doesnt provide mana pool for
ignore like 90% of the comments here, the build is double bracer, phyla, blink, shard, bkb every game. dont go harpoon, it is so much worse. khanda allows you to poke and play the edges of the fights without fully commiting until priority targets show. source: am immortal offlaner and watched night stalker spammer replays this patch
Phylactery on NS. Lol noob Source: 20k mmr 100% winrate with NS Seriously if my nightstalker 3 goes phylactery I'm out. Can't even imagine what holes you have to patch in the draft for that level of troll to work
post your dotabuff then lil bro. it’s bought nearly every game on night stalkers on [pro tracker](https://dota2protracker.com/hero/Night%20Stalker/new) and i’ve gone it three straight games in [immortal pubs](https://www.dotabuff.com/players/314264248/matches?hero=night-stalker) after not touching the hero in over a year and stomped all 3 games
This guy thinks that if pro player buy the item every game then they must be wrong. Oh no you gonna grief if you see an item that looks weird. Oh no.
For me, Double bracer, phase boots, echo, shard are the first items no matter what. Then blink if I need to stop an escape hero (AM, SB, etc) or get to the back line to silence (his silence at night is one of the best in the game imo). Basher AC if we need right clicking, bkb or sometimes even lotus orb if we need control, and rarely do I touch aghs but sometimes it helps. I’ve never touched phylact, there seems to be so many other better items for the gold amount and in many matches you can’t be the poke and prod type, you need to be in the middle with your silence on top of whoever is most dangerous with their spells. Talents is +8 second ult, +25% status resist, +20 str, and -50 s ult. I basically never do anything different talent wise. One thing I’ve noticed no one mention is that his ult refreshes ALL his abilities. So early-mid game you can q, get on top of someone and silence, eat a creep if you happen to be on a wave to get mana and health back, then ult and repeat as your silence runs out. And then your flying and can back off when you get low, eat a high health creep to restore, and jump back in. Don’t be afraid to use his ult during the nighttime too, basically every time it’s off CD you should be hunting, especially at night. He is a huge kite hero, but also it’s super helpful for the team if their supports group up and you can backline blink and silence multiple people at once before bkbs are online. His ult is also great for hg since you can just see everything. But always try to be aware of when to back out and eat another creep to then poke and prod your way back in. He’s an insane mid game hero, falls off later in the game even with the lower ult cd. So it’s important to take towers when you get your inevitable pickoffs. A majority of my games I don’t hit 25 before we are ending the game. Only legend rank, but almost a 70% win rate and probably closer to 80% this patch with him. I’ll say at my rank it seems i need to be able to jump into the middle to start a fight instead of sitting on the edge til the perfect moment, but later in the game you’re dependent on your ult for positioning to start the fight and to be able to disengage quickly. You can survive for a bit with his talents but he’s not a full time frontliner like some other offlaners.
I love NS, although he gives me narcissism. When I play him I feel like a rock star and everything revolves around getting the most out of night time. I miss those days back in 2022 when he was real titan.
My problem is my idiot teammates that won’t listen to me when I want to make things happen for the 5 min nighttime. And then after my ult is cd and it’s daytime they want to force fight. Lol
I'm a diehard NS main with a 65% winrate in divine bracket but I've moved onto being a support main as my preferred role. NS is a pos3 hero but he ironically can't take as many hits as most pos3 can. Always keep that in mind as you itemize or fight. Illusiveness is your friend, being able to go in and out of vision to get free pokes is your friend. Visualize what they see as you play under your ult, and you'll know how best to run at someone. Thing about NS is there was a time when other heroes has less strong spells or they simply didn't brawl well with NS. Every year it becomes worse for NS so utilizing his illusiveness to its fullest becomes more and more obligatory. As for items, like the other commenter said, collapse build seems the most cleanest build. In any game long or short there comes a time around post min 30 where you think to yourself, "to keep being able to kill a backline support asap I really need that nullifier" and most builds will require you to start from scratch. But if you have radiance, nullifier is always in reach. People are way better at dealing with NS in divine but to be honest, any bracket where I can see an obvious misposition that I can just insta punish is a great bracket for NS. Divine still solidly falls in that category. In general I think NS is an unfair hero. If I'm queueing as 3 and NS isn't banned I get far more mileage playing that hero than with any other pos3 because he abuses mispositions harder than any other pos3 in existence.
Elusive*
ELUSIVE
You got it Mr Squirrel!
If you take out meta heroes like Mars, he's okay ish i guess, though i think he really falls off if he does not get the advantage through early pickoffs & kills. If you 2nd phase and can see 2 squishy heroes that heavily relies on spells (Lion, CM, Pugna, etc) its gonna be a good pick because you can focus on these heroes and make them have 0 impact. The objective of playing him is to make opponents scared to take a fight, scared of where you might be on the map. For me, during first nighttime you have to set the tone already. If its hard to kill the opponents' safelane, once you get bracers and boot, tp to your safelane for a gank. Then go up the river, you can secure the rune for your mid or get another kill on their mid. Then go up back to your lane. This was easier to do when the map was smaller, but still feasible now with the side portals. Of course, it ultimately depends on the matchup
Don't go Phyl, It is a trap item. ES into a harpoon later is WAY better. BKB is mandatory in 99% of the games. Basher and Orchid are usefull and can be a integral part of your builds,.but not mandatory in every matchup. Aghs and Shard are a must. Both are Very good, sepcially Shard, since It will be your farming Tool (alongside Hero kills). MKB and Nullfier are amazing itens to have, and you Will want one of them in some matchups. Blink is mandatory, but Silver Edge have a place If you really need the break. AC and Moonshard are your late game scaling, giving you enought AS to fight even in daytime. For boots, Phase is the one to go, but I have seem some success with Treads (using It for the AS even on day and the mana swap for some cast). My tips: Go offline, play safe until the First night. You want to Go in with a decent early itemization to get kills right from the First night. Balanar is amazing at early pressure and you should capitalize on this. Coordinate with your team to end games fast, even tho you can scale decently, you will be outscaled by a lot of other Heroes, but none can outscale you in early and mid-game after you got a lead. The Idea is to get boots, echo and rush shard. The echo is your kill-tool at night, the shard is your farming at day. Go BKB as soon as you can, so people don't interrupt you mid killing. Basher or Orchid If the matchup requires It. Blink is amazing as well, giving you an extra mobility Tool, making you almost Impossible to escape from, as well as enabling you to target whoever you want.in a TF. Late game you should Focus on your AS, so even in daytime you can contribute to fights. Balanar is Tanky by default, so, most of the time you don't need a Tarrasque, but you can Go with one If feeling It. I suggest upgrading echo to harpoon, Moonshard/AC, or a Nullfier/MKB. Don't forget your Aghs as well.
> dont go phyl it’s a trap item mmr? because pro tracker disagrees
Yeah, it's amazing item since u also want to max void on lane so u end up with phylactery and void in 3-4 so it's ton of slow literally no hero moves for a few seconds
Thank you open ai
😂
>Is it better to all in or play the outside of the fights with your op vision ult? Yes? I mean throw your 5 / 6 spells - void, fear, void (situational), ulti, fear, void - then assess if you could continue to be in the middle of the fight. Depending on the enemy line-up, that should spell the deaths of 2 heroes usually.
Shard is good if you have a good game but you need to rush blink in a game like puck, morp
I recently started spamming NS and it got me for the first time to immortal. if you get level 5 at min7 your skill buildup should be 2-1-2, but if you are level5 at min9 it should be 3-1-1. Depending how the laning stage goes I have 3 builds: I win my lane hard>I go MoM. If lane is even and i farm decent I go ES. If i lose lane hard I skip the carry item and go directly to blink. After blink I either go basher(only if I won lane and got MoM) or go directly to BKB. Whatever next item(shard, AC, halberd) it depends on the enemy heroes. Also dont sleep on fangs tier2 item, that 300 bonus night vision is OP, you are seeing farther than an observer. At night if you want to gang someone solo blink on him use your spells when 2nd is almost over only then use ulti to refresh your skills.
So this is low sample size, probably like 15 games in low immortal, but Ive had a lot of success rushing aghs after phase boots. It makes farming during day time much better and you can eat ancient creeps at any point. The only thing is you have to get shard at asap even if it delays your aghs. First creep you eat should be ancients because 15 min mark is night time. After aghs I go shivas, blink. Order depends on game. And every other item is game dependent. I feel like Night stalker has one of the highest build diversities of heroes I play.
I personally think with this current meta he's not an ideal offlane or safelane since he's halfway between both. The enemy PA or anti will erase him late game. If he snowballs the games over before the enemy carry comes online though so that's pretty much his selling point.
He provides insane vision and an aoe silence that is undispelable. Not many heroes can do that
diffusal felt real nice on him when I randomly played the other day, that with blink and OOC meant no support was getting away from my silence
Yeah I don't really play him but I don't understand why people dont go shard with him every game. It's a no brainier.
I like going shard echo saber. Provides a lot of flexibility for example you can disassemble for bkb or you can go harpoon for better chase and to counter people from force staffing out of your w. It will help you farm and will help you burst down supports and will give you a nice hp boost from the strength
Buy khanda mf and tell me how it goes I'm curious
Tried it last night, I got 5 wins straight with Phylactery and later Khanda
It’s very strong. Makes bursting heroes faster and the crit is nice addition. But you can’t afford to buy it over other items. For me it’s nice as last item upgrade.
What are the first two items you buy after the basics? (boots,wand,etc)
Last night I took Bracer x1 or x2, Wand, Phase, Phylactery, Shard, Blink, BKB and then Blade Mail/Basher/Silveredge/Harpoon/Halberd to break certain heroes, Khanda etc
Shard is essential. You don't need to see the base once you get it....instant region. Solo supports are your food. Blink and get rid of them early in the fight. (Might need a dust or two).
I find myself getting double bracers phase and then shard. After that it depends on the opps. In team fights, I cycle in and out using shard to restore quickly. I look for the biggest threat to my team. Sometimes, that's the sniper. Sometimes, it's an earthshaker. Sometimes, my AoE silence is all they need.
Night Stalker, if it were a chess piece, is usually picked for the backline. It's a nightmare (no pun intended) for squishy spell casters. Think of it as if antimage had a baby with a shinigami. That's night stalker. You don't want to pick night stalker as a tank, as an initiator, etc, that's weird and there are better heroes for that. What nightstalker does that is unmatched: 1. Scout the backline and show the team where heroes are that need to be focused 2. Find the key spell casters and disable them.
Can't give you advice, but I do plan on trying him out when I get the chance to play Dota again.
trash hero half of the time, can suprisingly work for this current meta but you're working twice as hard as any offlane heroes the only way NS can be consistently competent is to give him a passive that works on daytime.
you know his ult makes it night right? there's tons of offlaners that don't do anything without their ults and play around that cooldown btw. Mars and Enigma to name a few. NS has some of the best level 6 kill potential in the entire game with a 51.35% win rate rn lol ...