|
Night Stalker
Of the Night Stalker, there is no history-only stories. There are ancient tales woven into the lore of every race and every culture, of an impossible time before sunlight and daytime, when night reigned alone and the world was covered with the creatures of darkness-creatures like Balanar the Night Stalker.
It is said that on the dawn of the First Day, all the night creatures perished. All, that is, save one. Evil's embodiment, Night Stalker delights in his malevolence. He created the primal role of the Night Terror, the Boogeyman, and as long as there have been younglings, his is the specter summoned to terrify them. This is a role he relishes-nor are these empty theatrics. He does indeed stalk the unwary, the defenseless, those who have strayed beyond the lighted paths or denied the warnings of their communities. Night Stalker serves as living proof that every child's worst nightmare... is true.
For abilities, stats, and other information, visit this hero's Liquipedia page here: http://wiki.teamliquid.net/dota2/Night_Stalker
|
Alright so I wanted to start this topic to ask about this hero. Right now I'm having issues on deciding what is a good first item for him. Armlet I don't like because he doesn't regen well enough for the HP degen to offset, and bkb first seems pretty bad as well since he needs to do some damage early on.
I was considering Sange first and the more I think about it, the better it seems. Obviously it is still a bit situational, but I love Halberd right now and I think NS with a late game halberd is pretty good as during that time he starts to fall off a bit.
Am I crazy, or is it not a bad choice?
|
I also dislike armlet, maybe I'm just bad at toggling. Two other items to maybe consider, basher and vanguard (I normally like basher -> AC/BKB).
Also, I think Eul's is not bad on NS, but I haven't had the balls to try it.
|
How do you actually use Eul... you fly one then kill one?
|
Armlet is good because gives a tremendous boost on early stages of the game. which is when NS is strongest as a ganker. I usually go urn->Armlet, as the first give some mana regen plus the active heal, which offsets the armlet losses.
|
boots bracer bkb basher
bkb first is pretty good because you don't need an item to deal damage during the night
|
Lol, I remember when I first posted here to look for help when my NS performance was getting poor...
On April 17 2014 17:09 ishida66 wrote:
Armlet is good because gives a tremendous boost on early stages of the game. which is when NS is strongest as a ganker. I usually go urn->Armlet, as the first give some mana regen plus the active heal, which offsets the armlet losses.
Same goes for me, in fact even as a mid I skip bottle and just go for fast urn, then go urn>phase>armlet/bkb depending on the number of disables. If the game goes longer than 30 mins that usually means a halberd for me, followed by Heart/AC depending on the heroes I'm facing.
Well that's my cookie cutter build, but I don't know if anyone should follow this; I'm still a noob and it's just the way I build up NS...
|
On April 17 2014 15:43 haduken wrote:
How do you actually use Eul... you fly one then kill one?
If you void first hero, usually people will TP back against NS.
With eul? No, can do sir. Or you can use it during teamfight to disable 1 initiator or supporter or even carries.
|
Okay so this guy has fallen off really hard since the day night changes. A bit sad to be honest as this type of game really suits the hero. I think a buff may be in order to give him the boost he needs to see competitive play again.
I think overall his numbers are fine, the issue IMO is that the 2 less minutes to first night make his ganking nearly impossible. If you get 1 gank you're already doing better than expected.
I think a buff to Darkness level 1 is in order. 20 seconds for a 180 cool down just makes it impractical to use early, and that is when he needs it most. At the very least a duration buff is needed if not a cooldown reduction. I don't think he'd become dominant, but at least pickable would be nice.
|
Eul was a synderen build. I personally don't agree with it, although I can see where he is coming from. I think that you should be ganking with allies, so you don't exactly need the extra disable.
Yea the day night changes screwed him up. The first night comes way too early before he got his levels to gank. The night also last too short. Essentially his window of destruction got pushed from min 6-12 to min 6-8. Arguably his impact from min 12-16 is much weaker because he cannot wreck sidelane heroes anymore.
I think armlet is the best first item to go for NS now. Makes you so tanky early on, and that makes you scary because its hard to chase you away.
|
United States47024 Posts
What your first item is depends on your early development. You can't really use the first night that well, so you pretty much have to aim your item development for how you expect the 2nd and 3rd nights to play out. Minutes 0-12 unfortunately have to be farm-time, and the first night essentially acts as a breather where your laning strength is boosted and your farming speed rises.
One of the important things to recognize is that how this hero plays out also has a lot to do with how you manage the daytime. The daytime is your farm time. You need to maximize your farming efficiency during the day through every means possible--if a lane is difficult to farm, then you may need to Treads Swap+Bottle Crow+Void spam to farm jungle. You NEED to maximize your daytime farming speed through whatever means possible.
This is actually where the draw of Armlet comes in--it's not just an item that gives you tankiness and damage at night. Very critically, it gives you a huge, cost-efficient boost to daytime farming speed from the DPS stats. Your ideal tempo with Armlet is getting it for the 2nd night, using it during the 2nd night, then using it to farm your 2nd major item for the 3rd night.
|
On August 18 2014 13:44 DucK- wrote:
Eul was a synderen build. I personally don't agree with it, although I can see where he is coming from. I think that you should be ganking with allies, so you don't exactly need the extra disable.
I rarely built Eul's, but ever since 6.81 it earned a little more utility as a way to start off a gank against a hero with Blink Dagger (700 cast range versus Void's 525). So there's that.
Both the day/night change as well as the pub metagame shift of "lane to 6 and deathball to victory" messed with this guy hard. I think he does okay in/against certain lineups as a safelane "carry," rushing armlet/BKB and basically running into the position you would have taken in the late-mid game in the old days in the early-mid game instead.
|
Hero is in a really awkward state right now, since first night comes at a time where you don't really have enough of a level advantage to go around yolo killing people, and if you leave it till the second night it kind of feels a bit late. Doesn't help that level 1 darkness is probably the worst ult in the game, I never skill it till 10 and generally then just wait till 11 to use it.
That said hero is super fun and you can still snowball if you have a team to back you up for those first night kills.
|
The hero is definitely super cool. I'd love to see buffs/changes to make him more powerful in the first night, maybe he'll be a competitive pick again.
|
I still think he can wreck the sidelanes by the first night. Lvl 5 and urn/bottle plus brown boots or simply brown boots 4 mins in mid is not too far-fetched, even with a difficult lane. Snowball and/or create space for the carry. And the nice thing about it is that if you don't get much from the first night, the second night comes really early.
|
On August 23 2014 16:31 xAdra wrote:
The hero is definitely super cool. I'd love to see buffs/changes to make him more powerful in the first night, maybe he'll be a competitive pick again.
Honestly all i think he really needs is a buff to level 1 Darkness. Give people a reason to get it. Now granted you can't make it too strong or else he'll be broken, but still I think at least a bit more duration wouldn't be bad.
|
On August 23 2014 23:01 Checkm8 wrote:
I still think he can wreck the sidelanes by the first night. Lvl 5 and urn/bottle plus brown boots or simply brown boots 4 mins in mid is not too far-fetched, even with a difficult lane. Snowball and/or create space for the carry. And the nice thing about it is that if you don't get much from the first night, the second night comes really early.
First night if NS is missing mid, sidelanes should play safe. You still cannot dive tower to get kills yet, and all roaming so early does is you being level 5 while the mid is like 7 with more farm.
|
On August 24 2014 10:30 DucK- wrote:Show nested quote +On August 23 2014 23:01 Checkm8 wrote:
I still think he can wreck the sidelanes by the first night. Lvl 5 and urn/bottle plus brown boots or simply brown boots 4 mins in mid is not too far-fetched, even with a difficult lane. Snowball and/or create space for the carry. And the nice thing about it is that if you don't get much from the first night, the second night comes really early. First night if NS is missing mid, sidelanes should play safe. You still cannot dive tower to get kills yet, and all roaming so early does is you being level 5 while the mid is like 7 with more farm.
An ally that needs farm can rotate mid to offset your lack of levels. And I think you're really underestimating his diving power at 5. NS with 2 gaunts at 5 has around 1000 hp (exactly 1005 if you follow the default recommended build). Surely you can kill squishier heroes even under their towers. And it's not like you don't have allies to assist you.
Edit: Anyways, I'm currently experimenting with helm of the dominator. Taking a creep in the jungle with you to help with ganking is quite nice. With it your ganking is still good even at daytime. With good ganks you can get it around the time the second morning begins, with a really unsuccessful first night you can get it around the beginning or midway the second night if you skip phase. The armor and lifesteal seems good too...
|
On August 24 2014 10:30 DucK- wrote:Show nested quote +On August 23 2014 23:01 Checkm8 wrote:
I still think he can wreck the sidelanes by the first night. Lvl 5 and urn/bottle plus brown boots or simply brown boots 4 mins in mid is not too far-fetched, even with a difficult lane. Snowball and/or create space for the carry. And the nice thing about it is that if you don't get much from the first night, the second night comes really early. First night if NS is missing mid, sidelanes should play safe. You still cannot dive tower to get kills yet, and all roaming so early does is you being level 5 while the mid is like 7 with more farm.
This is why ns is worst hero in th game imo. Night starts and ends too early currently.
|
United States47024 Posts
There's like zero reason to start 2x Gauntlet. You're going to start Stout or bottle rush most of the time, and most conceivable advantages of a double gauntlet start are outdone by one of those two.
HoD sucks on NS. The creep can't keep up with your nighttime MS, so even if you got it early enough, it would only slow your ganks down. You don't farm stacks well, so it's farming function doesn't help you, and Vladimir is overall better for you because Satanic isn't a high priority.
|
|
|
|
|
|
EPT![[image loading]](http://wiki.teamliquid.net/dota2/images/c/c4/Night_Stalker_Large.png)
