|
Thanks a bunch for the great help guys!
So far, as what I've read in the comments, it seems like I really have to be flexible and determine the needed items according to the situation (example BKB for teams with many disables/nukes, armlet/halberd for more damage oriented teams)
Also gonna drop the Bfury hahah xD
Imma try it out tomorrow ^^
PS: Sorry for the uber late response...was busy the last month...
|
The most important thing with NS are the first 2 nights, if you cant kill anybody or at least stop your enemy farm you will have a lot of problems trying to stay strong in the game. If you see the other team has wards buy a smoke of deceit, use it when you want to gank, far from enemy sight, with that you can walk over wards without being spoted (you become invisible when arent enemy heroes nearby). I like to buy a casual point booster, during the 2nd day. It helps with mana, is cheaper and can be used in a Agha in the lategame, if necessary. Do get your ult level 6, but try to get level 1 and 2 before the second night and use it as soon as the night started.
|
United States47024 Posts
The issue with Medallion is not so much it's cost-effectiveness, it's that it's not slot-effective at the time you'd want it.
If you already have Treads Bottle Wand Urn TP, you have 1 slot left. If you buy another small item, you'd have to immediately sell something, and selling something already by the 10-15 minute range isn't all that effective--so you generally want to build something bigger into that 6th item slot.
If you're comparing it to the other 3 items you could replace, it has a hard time beating those. Bottle is more or less a necessity for your early laning and runes enhance your night time ganking a lot. Wand beats pretty much anything for early fighting effectiveness, and Urn is just better than Medallion for the first 1-2 nights--it's cheaper, the active is stronger until later when there is enough physical damage for -armor to outperform the 150 damage nuke, doesn't have the dual utility of being a healing item, and Strength is a better stat than plain Armor until mid-lategame on NS (since he has 5 base armor and high Agi gain for a Strength hero).
|
Remember that Balanar isnt a lategame carry, his effectiveness wears off at min 35ish. Try to have an impact before that.
And as stated before, refrain from using your ult in daytime(unless it means kills, and lots of them ) as it prolongs the day, which is a bad thing for NS.
|
Just played about 6 games, with 5 games being with NS, and I actually won 5! Thanks for all the help guys!
Armlet works wonders, both for the tankiness and damage output. Still haven't been able to try out halberd though. And I do agree, vlads is a great item on NS, though most of the time the melee carry players buy the vlads themselves, so I don't need to bother buying another one.
Still, I need more experience with jukes...I really hate blind spots...
|
^ or buy aghs, no more jukes for enemy lol
|
I get the idea of why you wouldn't use ult during the day since without using it during the day the nights come right at his good timings AND you don't run the risk of ult wearing off, but it's not really prolonging the amount of time spent in the day (since the ult is 'night'); it's just prolonging how long until the next natural night, right? Does it have an extra effect for night's duration beyond just pausing time?
|
On May 24 2013 03:21 Logo wrote: I get the idea of why you wouldn't use ult during the day since without using it during the day the nights come right at his good timings AND you don't run the risk of ult wearing off, but it's not really prolonging the amount of time spent in the day (since the ult is 'night'); it's just prolonging how long until the next natural night, right? Does it have an extra effect for night's duration beyond just pausing time?
Yes, the total duration of day time (and night time) doesn't change because you used the ult during the day. It "extends" the day light only in the sense that it takes longer until the next natural night.
Fun fact: at level 16, there's about 40 seconds of natural night per ult cd. That means you'll get about 12 ults off. 12 ults + 6 min natural night = 22 minute night O_O
|
Well, you know, if you are having a key fight during daytime, use that ultimate.
But typical NS builds skip his ultimate until 10+11
|
United States47024 Posts
On May 24 2013 05:30 Comeh wrote: Well, you know, if you are having a key fight during daytime, use that ultimate.
But typical NS builds skip his ultimate until 10+11 Its situational. You don't get it at 6, but you also don't wait till you're 4-1-4 either.
Essentially, you only ever plan on getting to ult twice during the first night (since even if you ulted right at 6:00, the 3rd day would start with a lot of time on your ult CD). This means you can get ult sometime later than 6 minutes, but generally not so late as level 10.
|
On May 24 2013 05:55 TheYango wrote:Show nested quote +On May 24 2013 05:30 Comeh wrote: Well, you know, if you are having a key fight during daytime, use that ultimate.
But typical NS builds skip his ultimate until 10+11 Its situational. You don't get it at 6, but you also don't wait till you're 4-1-4 either. Essentially, you only ever plan on getting to ult twice during the first night (since even if you ulted right at 6:00, the 3rd day would start with a lot of time on your ult CD). This means you can get ult sometime later than 6 minutes, but generally not so late as level 10. *shrug* I typically will grab it to get the extra 40 seconds on the first night, but a lot of pros (iirc when I've seen IG run it, back when they picked it a lot) seem to at least grab 4-0-4 (sometimes they skipped silence...it was weird.)
|
On March 24 2013 20:41 DrPandaPhD wrote: Go mid with 1 tango 3 branches. Buy bottle asap
Go treads + bottle + magic wand + urn
Get BKB and then there are a lot of viable options. Like skull basher / armlet / heart / heavens halbeard / agh scepter etc All depending on what you face
First and Second night are 2 very important moments for you. Especially first night (in pubs). That's when you have quite high moevement speed and supports barely even have boots at this point. Try to get as much kills as possible during this phase.
Whoa whoa whoa, wait a minute. I like reading your advice on here Panda, but one thing confused me a bit, Treads > Phase for NS mid? I was under the impression that Phase would be better, it just offers so much utility, and great burst speed to slip through creeps to kill, or to slip through creeps to escape. Clarification on this?
|
Honestly, I think NS is less about getting the right items and more about being very aggressive and ganking in the first night. I like to start with 3 branches and tango then rush into bottle, magic wand, and phase, but it's up to you what you do after that. Armlet, bkb, urn, halberd and even hotd are viable but I personally prefer BKB. I choose phase over treads because phasing is very helpful when chasing and the extra damage helps when the enemy is running, but treads gives more life and some emergency mana.
As people have said, the first two nights are very important but the first night is probably the most crucial. If you solo mid you should get to 6 before the first night (usually you will be around 6-7). Void should be maxed first but you will want one point in silence and one point in his passive buff when you start ganking. You should also have brown boots, bottle, and 3 gg branches at this time so you can chase down most enemy heroes. From here on out your main job is to pay attention to the map and see if there are any weak heroes to pick off. 2 voids and a few smacks are enough to pick off most heroes at that point of the game, so find an easy target and just go for it. Your ally should be able to assist you and even if the enemy hugs the tower, you have a good chance of securing the kill. You will be roaming most of the time so just repeat this, occasionally staying in the lane to help push and returning to mid so the other hero doesn't free farm. Pick up runes along the way so you can keep your life/mana up and continue to gank. Don't forget to spam your ult as much as you can during the night time to extend the duration of the night!
I don't play NS much because he's pretty imba in pubs but I do pretty well when I do. http://dotabuff.com/players/15553165/matches?hero=night-stalker&game_mode=&match_type=real
|
On May 24 2013 06:57 deadmau wrote:Show nested quote +On March 24 2013 20:41 DrPandaPhD wrote: Go mid with 1 tango 3 branches. Buy bottle asap
Go treads + bottle + magic wand + urn
Get BKB and then there are a lot of viable options. Like skull basher / armlet / heart / heavens halbeard / agh scepter etc All depending on what you face
First and Second night are 2 very important moments for you. Especially first night (in pubs). That's when you have quite high moevement speed and supports barely even have boots at this point. Try to get as much kills as possible during this phase. Whoa whoa whoa, wait a minute. I like reading your advice on here Panda, but one thing confused me a bit, Treads > Phase for NS mid? I was under the impression that Phase would be better, it just offers so much utility, and great burst speed to slip through creeps to kill, or to slip through creeps to escape. Clarification on this? Personally, I'm a fan of phase on this hero, but one of the biggest strength of treads on a good NS player would be the strength of tread switching. Also, the movement speed boost is a bit lost on NS, so the stats feel really nice. Sometimes, not having the phase ability to go through creeps will screw you on NS, though.
Its up to preference, though, and compelling arguments to both boots.
|
On May 24 2013 07:15 Comeh wrote:Show nested quote +On May 24 2013 06:57 deadmau wrote:On March 24 2013 20:41 DrPandaPhD wrote: Go mid with 1 tango 3 branches. Buy bottle asap
Go treads + bottle + magic wand + urn
Get BKB and then there are a lot of viable options. Like skull basher / armlet / heart / heavens halbeard / agh scepter etc All depending on what you face
First and Second night are 2 very important moments for you. Especially first night (in pubs). That's when you have quite high moevement speed and supports barely even have boots at this point. Try to get as much kills as possible during this phase. Whoa whoa whoa, wait a minute. I like reading your advice on here Panda, but one thing confused me a bit, Treads > Phase for NS mid? I was under the impression that Phase would be better, it just offers so much utility, and great burst speed to slip through creeps to kill, or to slip through creeps to escape. Clarification on this? Personally, I'm a fan of phase on this hero, but one of the biggest strength of treads on a good NS player would be the strength of tread switching. Also, the movement speed boost is a bit lost on NS, so the stats feel really nice. Sometimes, not having the phase ability to go through creeps will screw you on NS, though. Its up to preference, though, and compelling arguments to both boots.
I see, I guess there will never be a for sure answer since it's all situational, however, I run into this predicament ALL the time. The thing about you mentioning Treads better, but you get so punked often by being blocked by creeps as melee, I sometimes feel obligated to forgo the benefits of Treads, and just B-line for Phase boots.
|
On March 24 2013 21:30 Ramiz1989 wrote:
About leveling up, you should have 2-1-2 at level 5, or 3-1-1, but at level 6 you shouldn't level up ulti, since night will come around that time, and you can level it up next level.
On March 25 2013 18:34 Jetaap wrote:Show nested quote +On March 25 2013 18:20 meijin wrote: lots of good advice here. i would just like to add that during day time you want to be using your ult as much as possible (the more you use your ult the higher % of the game is played during night). i'm not saying to just blindly use it every cooldown but you should be planning out what you're going to do after first night is over so that you can make the most of your ultimate. you can group up to push a tower or tp gank if you see the opportunity. I assume it's a typo and you meant that you should use your ult during NIGHTIME not daytime. Using your ult during daytime will delay the next night, so don't do it unless to secure a kill.
On May 22 2013 21:47 Ramiz1989 wrote:Show nested quote +On May 22 2013 14:03 hacklebeast wrote:I have a lot of success using this guidebasic idea is have boots, bottle, quelling blade, and gauntlet before the first night, and have upgraded boots and helm (and usualy an ogre club) by the second night. I like helm because it gives you something to do during the day. I don't go AM level of afk farming, but i would really prefer if there wasn't a whole lot of fighting during day time. Also it is a not insignificant source of regen during night. Tower dive a squishy hero->kill ancient stack-> have enough health to do it again when they respawn. follow up is aghs->basher->bkb->heart/ab. I get aghs just about every game, usually first major item. The only exception is in the games you dominate so hard that they are already playing 5 man dota 20 min in. Bkb can be gotten earlier if either they have lots of stuns, or you personally aren't doing so well. Something I see a lot of NS do wrong that is really easy to fix is not using the ultimate at night. It should constantly be on cool down during night time. If you keep using it makes the second night almost 50% longer (depends on things like what level you are, and when you die relative to the cooldown timer). The only reasons not to use it is if you are about to level up, and you will get more night time if you wait another 30 sec, or if natural night is about to end, and using it will leave you with no escape mechanism for 60 sec in the following day. Next up, you need at least one point of Fear in first 5 levels for your ganking to be effective. You also don't need Darkness at level 6. Up to level 6, skill build should be 3-1-2.
Halps please, I know that I want to extend night as long as possible by using ult during night, but this 1st night part I'm supposed to not have ult so I can have an extra point elsewhere? But don't I want ULT by first night so i can get as long a 1st night as possible?
|
On May 24 2013 07:45 deadmau wrote:Show nested quote +On March 24 2013 21:30 Ramiz1989 wrote:
About leveling up, you should have 2-1-2 at level 5, or 3-1-1, but at level 6 you shouldn't level up ulti, since night will come around that time, and you can level it up next level.
Show nested quote +On March 25 2013 18:34 Jetaap wrote:On March 25 2013 18:20 meijin wrote: lots of good advice here. i would just like to add that during day time you want to be using your ult as much as possible (the more you use your ult the higher % of the game is played during night). i'm not saying to just blindly use it every cooldown but you should be planning out what you're going to do after first night is over so that you can make the most of your ultimate. you can group up to push a tower or tp gank if you see the opportunity. I assume it's a typo and you meant that you should use your ult during NIGHTIME not daytime. Using your ult during daytime will delay the next night, so don't do it unless to secure a kill. Show nested quote +On May 22 2013 21:47 Ramiz1989 wrote:On May 22 2013 14:03 hacklebeast wrote:I have a lot of success using this guidebasic idea is have boots, bottle, quelling blade, and gauntlet before the first night, and have upgraded boots and helm (and usualy an ogre club) by the second night. I like helm because it gives you something to do during the day. I don't go AM level of afk farming, but i would really prefer if there wasn't a whole lot of fighting during day time. Also it is a not insignificant source of regen during night. Tower dive a squishy hero->kill ancient stack-> have enough health to do it again when they respawn. follow up is aghs->basher->bkb->heart/ab. I get aghs just about every game, usually first major item. The only exception is in the games you dominate so hard that they are already playing 5 man dota 20 min in. Bkb can be gotten earlier if either they have lots of stuns, or you personally aren't doing so well. Something I see a lot of NS do wrong that is really easy to fix is not using the ultimate at night. It should constantly be on cool down during night time. If you keep using it makes the second night almost 50% longer (depends on things like what level you are, and when you die relative to the cooldown timer). The only reasons not to use it is if you are about to level up, and you will get more night time if you wait another 30 sec, or if natural night is about to end, and using it will leave you with no escape mechanism for 60 sec in the following day. Next up, you need at least one point of Fear in first 5 levels for your ganking to be effective. You also don't need Darkness at level 6. Up to level 6, skill build should be 3-1-2. Halps please, I know that I want to extend night as long as possible by using ult during night, but this 1st night part I'm supposed to not have ult so I can have an extra point elsewhere? But don't I want ULT by first night so i can get as long a 1st night as possible? You will have your ulti during your first night, you just don't need it at level 6, at that level point in Void/Fear/Hunter in the Night is better spent, and if you are solo mid, Night will come around your level 7 - 10 anyway when you are going to pick Darkness and use it to extend the Night.
|
ult is rarely worth it on NS before level 8 or 9. In fact, in most games I play as NS I get double level in ult at 10/11.
There are games where I go 4/0/4/0 and some games where I go silence @ level 2 - primarily if you're going to be diving stunners or blinkers, take a point in silence. Else, it's a waste of mana.
Bottle, urn, and wand are definitely core IMO, and in almost all situations I prefer treads to phase-you're so fast already that the movespeed bonus and even the clipping are not that great-the damage is nice, but you don't need it. Treads, on the other hand, give you a lot of flexibility, and tread switching allows you to maximize your time on the map, even if you miss a rune for some reason.
|
United States47024 Posts
On May 24 2013 10:12 wherebugsgo wrote: There are games where I go 4/0/4/0 and some games where I go silence @ level 2 - primarily if you're going to be diving stunners or blinkers, take a point in silence. Else, it's a waste of mana.
An important thing--don't use your skill points on silence or passive until either the night time, or (in the case of silence) if you absolutely need it. They do virtually nothing during the day, so you may as well just save the skill points. Decide whether you need them then.
|
On May 24 2013 10:49 TheYango wrote:Show nested quote +On May 24 2013 10:12 wherebugsgo wrote: There are games where I go 4/0/4/0 and some games where I go silence @ level 2 - primarily if you're going to be diving stunners or blinkers, take a point in silence. Else, it's a waste of mana.
An important thing--don't use your skill points on silence or passive until either the night time, or (in the case of silence) if you absolutely need it. They do virtually nothing during the day, so you may as well just save the skill points. Decide whether you need them then.
Generally I find silence before night useful in mid lane to keep myself alive, especially if I didn't go stout shield. Against someone like QoP or puck or a gank it can be the difference between dying and living with 50 HP.
I haven't saved points in practice, mostly because I feel like if I need the silence, it would be in a stressful situation, and I don't trust my skill enough to not panic and place the point + cast properly. Generally just by looking at the enemy lineup you'll know if you will need the silence or not, at least for pubs.
|
|
|
|