Nerubian Assasin - DotA-Allstars Hero Strategy Guide

Anub'arak was once the greatest champion of the Nerubians, but fell in the Second War of the Spider. He was resurrected by the Lich King Ner'zhul, who promised him eternal undeath in exchange for his unswerving loyalty. His layers of spiked armor are nearly impregnable, causing severe damage to attackers. When threatened, he shoots these spikes through enemies maiming and disorienting them. He channels his dark powers into a bolt of disarming negative energy, and those who witness him blending into the shadows of the frozen tundra have never lived to tell the tale.

Anub'arak is one of the most superior lane controller and is known for his ganks. His Impale, Manaburn and Vendetta combo is enough to kill anyone early – mid game.

Starting HP: 492
Starting Mana: 234
Attack Range: 128
Base Movespeed: 300
Starting Base Damage: 49-53
Starting Armor: 3.7

Strength: 18 +2.0
Agility: 19 +2.2
Intelligence: 18 +2.1
Overall stat gain per level: +6.3

Advanced Data

Acquisition Range: 600
Cast Point: 0.40
Cast Backswing: 1.10
Damage Point: 0.46
Attack Backswing: 0.54
Base Attack Time: 1.7 seconds

Pros and Cons

Pros

As I mentioned before, everything happening in DotA right now suits NA very well. Here's a small checklist as to why I think NA is becoming a better pick with the way DotA is right now. (I wrote this section for 6.41 a while back before NA was every considered a good hero.)

Only level 3 Necro has true sight, which won't be affordable until mid game, giving you free reign to wreak havoc for the first half of the game! Also you're forcing enemies to buy a $5.5k item just to counter your ultimate! (Check!)

Since Aegis was removed gem is quite easy to counter. Just kill the carrier with a big gank and take or destroy the gem. No more 3 lives with gem! (Check!)

Sentry wards just got buffed again in 6.44, but with wards of your own or a Necronomicon 3 you can take out the enemies' sentry wards. Alternatively you could not rely on Vendetta as an escape tool and just use it as a damage tool. (Check!)

NA is so mana dependant, yet he's an agility hero with crappy INT gain!
The introduction of awesome and cheap mana restoration items solve these problems. (Check!)

NA sucks so hard late game when his spells lose effectiveness.

Icefrog and co. are doing everything they can to try and shorten the average length of a dota game. This means fewer games are going to reach the stage at which NA is rendered useless. (Check!)

Well how about the recent buffs to two of his skills? Mana burn can now be cast from a very safe range of 725 on level 4. Vendetta now lasts a lot longer while also cooling down much faster, meaning on level 3 it gives you the longest active WW in the game, lasting 50 seconds and cooling down 10 seconds later, you can go invisible for another 50 seconds!

Slams the ground with massive claws, shooting spiked tendrils out in a straight line, dealing damage and hurling enemy ground units into the air in their wake.

Level 1 - 80 damage, .75 second stun.
Level 2 - 160 damage, 1.25 second stun.
Level 3 - 230 damage, 1.75 second stun.
Level 4 - 300 damage, 2.25 second stun.

Level 1: 95 mana, 11 sec cooldown.
Level 2: 115 mana, 11 sec cooldown.
Level 3: 135 mana, 11 sec cooldown.
Level 4: 155 mana, 11 sec cooldown.

Impale is a good Nuke and stun with a reasonably low cooldown. The Stun duration begins once the unit hits the ground, so in total the disable lasts for 3.25 overall. It can be somewhat of a double edged sword due to the mechanics of Impale based spells.

Impale renders a unit invulnerable for 1 second while it is in the air, to prevent weird behavior such as a unit dying mid-air. In any case, the invulnerability is timed such that you can attack the unit as soon as it comes back down.

Units that are stunned by Impale cannot be affected by any other Impale based skills for the duration of the stun. This is hardcoded into the Warcraft 3 engine to prevent multiple Crypt Lords from dealing chained AOE stuns in Ladder games.

What this means in Dota is due to Impale's 1 second of invulnerability, certain buff placing spells will be canceled, such as Charge of Darkness, Assassinate and Borrowed Time. Anyone who's been Impaled can land on top of a Chronosphere, also Damage Over Time spells will be affected by either one tick of damage from the spell being nullified by the invulnerability, or the actual casting of the spell be dodged or canceled.

Impale-based abilities do not affect units that are already stunned by some other Impale-based ability. They also do not affect units that are under the effects of Frostbite or Overgrowth (because they are based on Entangling Roots) or of Ensnare.

Impale (Nerubian Assassin, Demon Witch)
Fissure (Earthshaker)
Ravage (Tidehunter)
Burrowstrike (Sand King)

Mana Burn

Sends a bolt of negative energy that burns a target enemy unit's mana. Burned mana combusts, dealing damage to the target equal to the amount of mana burned.

Level 1 - Burns up to 70 mana.
Level 2 - Burns up to 120 mana.
Level 3 - Burns up to 185 mana.
Level 4 - Burns up to 260 mana.

Level 1: 65 mana, 7 sec cooldown.
Level 2: 85 mana, 7 sec cooldown.
Level 3: 100 mana, 7 sec cooldown.
Level 4: 115 mana, 7 sec cooldown.

This is the skill that makes you the most annoying hero to lane against. Most guides will list NA as a "Worst Enemy" simply because of this skill and it's ability to totally render most heroes useless in the early laning stages of the game.

The cast range was buffed recently from 500 on all levels to 500/575/650/725 on its respective level. It deals damage based on the amount of mana burnt, so if they have no mana you can't deal any damage with this spell.

Spiked Carapace

Level 1 - 10% damage returned, 2 bonus armor.
Level 2 - 20% damage returned, 4 bonus armor.
Level 3 - 30% damage returned, 6 bonus armor.
Level 4 - 40% damage returned, 8 bonus armor.

Passive

Carapace is a pretty bad passive overall. The return damage is bad for early to mid game and the fact that it only returns melee damage is just another nail in it's coffin. The armour is nice against physical damage but not much of a reason to get it earlier.

Some people see this as his greatest skill and therefore stack blademails on him to increase the effect of the return damage, but this is the silliest strategy to use because it relies on you getting attacked by melee heroes. You're not a tank, you're an assassin and a ganker, you shouldn't try and draw focus fire from the enemies and there are so many better suited items for NA's playstyle and use of his other skills, which don't rely on getting attacked by melee heroes to be useful.

Level 1 - Deals 225 backstab damage. 10% movement speed. Lasts 20 seconds.
Level 2 - Deals 375 backstab damage. 15% movement speed. Lasts 35 seconds.
Level 3 - Deals 525 backstab damage. 20% movement speed. Lasts 50 seconds.

Level 1: 160 mana, 90 sec cooldown.
Level 2: 210 mana, 75 sec cooldown.
Level 3: 260 mana, 60 sec cooldown.

Vendetta is basically a glorified Wind Walk, which until recent buffs was awful. The buffs included lowered cooldowns on levels 2 and 3, higher movement speed bonus and a longer duration.

This skill is what makes you an assassin. It is somewhat spamable at higher levels due to the cooldown only being 10 seconds longer than it's duration. Although the damage later in the game is weak, you can cause major problems for lower HP Intel and Agility heroes throughout the game.

Skill Build

1. Impale / Mana Burn
2. Mana Burn / Impale
3. Mana Burn
4. Impale
5. Impale
6. Vendetta
7. Impale
8. Mana Burn **
9. Mana Burn **
10. Stats
11. Vendetta
12. Stats
13. Stats
14. Stats
15. Stats
16. Vendetta
17. Stats / Spiked Carapace
18. Stats / Spiked Carapace
19. Stats / Spiked Carapace
20. Stats / Spiked Carapace
21. Stats
22. Spiked Carapace / Stats
23. Spiked Carapace / Stats
24. Spiked Carapace / Stats
25. Spiked Carapace / Stats

Skill Build Explanations

What do I take on level 1?

If you're laned with an allied stunner or are going for a level 1 gank for first blood then take Impale for the stun. However if you're soloing or you just know you won't need the stun then take Mana Burn, as that will allow you to establish some harassment and lane control.

You should max Impale first at level 7, as it's the most damaging of your two nukes and the stun duration gets better per level, giving you about 3 seconds of disable at level 4 including air time.

Mana Burn damage isn't guarenteed. That's basically the main reason you're waiting before maxing it. The damage dealt is based on the mana burnt. If they have no mana, you can't deal any damage to them, which sucks if you miss a kill or are trying to harass and burn a pitifully small amount of mana. On the other hand, 120 mana burn for 85 mana is spamable and still enough to keep most enemy heroes' mana down for the very early part of the game.

** Note: If you're facing a lane against heroes with Mana replenishing skills (e.g KoTL) or dual nukers (e.g CM+Lina), you will need to Burn a lot more Mana to keep them down. In those situations maxing Mana Burn first would be more beneficial.

If the enemy team has 3 melee or more, then take Carapace at levels 17-20. This will help you against them at this stage, because they'll have enough damage for the 40% return to actually do something. However if they have a team of 3 or more ranged heroes then you should ignore this skill until the last four levels.

Take Vendetta as soon as you can each time. Since the recent buff to the cooldowns and MS bonuses the spell is somewhat better than it used to be. At level 6 you should only use it to gank with an ally due to mana restrictions, but by levels 11 and 16 you can use it liberally to scout, gank and escape.

Item Build

Core Item Build

Item Order

1. Tangos + Clarities (300)
2. Bottle Full (700)
3. Boots (500)
4. 2xBracers (1020)
5. Observer Wards (200+)

Total Cost: 2720 gold

Explanation

Tangos and Clarities are pretty self explanatory, the early regen will definitely be needed. Boots of speed again is pretty self explanatory for the invaluable move speed.

Bottle is probably the best early game item for NA. It restores HP and Mana over 3 seconds per charge and can be refilled via picking up runes. This kind of regen is ideal for a hero like Nerubian Assassin who should be ganking up and down the river. NA should be one of the primary Bottle buyers on your team.

Two Bracers will grant you some respectable survivability as a Melee agility hero in the early game, however two Nulls are also an option if you know you will survive fine and need the extra mana. Wraith bands wont really benefit NA even though they are becoming more and more popular for agil heroes. They give extra damage and IAS for agil heroes but since he will mostly be nuking and ganking, stick to Bracers or Nulls for the STR or INT.

Observer Wards are a ganking heroes best friend. I will go into more detail about Wards later, so read on.

Recommended Items After

The All-Rounder

Necronomicon 3 (5350)

Necronomicon gives NA everything he needs in terms of stats. The INT and STR bonuses get greater per level along with better Summons. The summons give you damage, MS bonus, another Nuke and level 3 has true sight allowing you to clear out sentry wards. This is for an "All-round" NA due to the versatility the item gives, survivability, Mana and an extra nuke.

I would recommend getting Necronomicon in most situations, if you are able to competently manage the two summons. It's also beneficial in games where your opponents are intent on trying to keep areas perma-sentried, allowing you to wipe the wards out.

NA is one of the few heroes I would ever recommend Dagon on. The logic behind Dagon on NA is to use it in conjunction with your other spells to assassinate an enemy hero almost instantaneously.

I'd recommend Dagon in games when you need that extra nuke to assassinate the enemy heroes because the damage from your combo doesn't do the job. It's also good when you're facing low HP Agility heroes who have low Mana pools. (Two Mana Burn nukes may not deal full Damage if their Mana Pools are empty after the first.) If you want to upgrade it, that's up to you, but just know you're paying 1300 gold for a 75 damage upgrade.

Point Booster gives you much needed HP and Mana for a cheap price that you don't get from Dagon. Point booster supports the Mana cost of Energy Burst because Dagon uses more Mana than it's INT gives you.

The Disabler

Eul's Scepter of Divinity (2800) / Guinsoo's Scythe of Vyse (5175)

Eul's and Guinsoo are both great disabling items. They will definitely solve all your Mana issues, perhaps even to the point of overkill but I'm sure you can find something to use it on. Eul's gives you 6 cyclone charges which you should try and use liberally before upgrading to Guinsoo's which gives you limitless Sheep disables with a small cooldown.

I would recommend Guinsoo's in games where your team severely lacks disables. If you're team is full of DPSers or nukers the extra disable will give you another element of supporting them. You have one stun, but with an extra disable, you can really help your team mates to kill opponents while they're disabled for up to 6 seconds.

Radiance can work well on NA, in most cases when no one else on your team is buying it and you can farm it reasonably quickly, getting Radiance will help you to deal some amount of AoE damage, as well as improving your farming and chasing. By level 16 when you have almost perma-invis, Immolation can be used to harass enemies as you scout ahead of your team.

I would only recommend Radiance on NA in less competitive games, TDAs or pubs, where your enemies won't try and sentry ward you too often, they won't be getting Necronomicons and you'll have a decent opportunity to farm it.

Diffusal Blade is a situational item for NA. It gives you some agility, some intelligence, ten Purge charges and Mana break. Diffusal also upgrades into Manta Style, which gives you further agility, better Mana break and the ability to create images of yourself. Your images also benefit from Spiked carapace, although that's not the main reason for getting this item.

I would recommend getting Diffusal Blade in games where you're facing heroes that Purge counters. Heroes such as Warlock, Sven and Omniknight, Purge counters the first two's ultimates and Omniknights Repel. Once you run out of Purge charges, you can upgrade to Manta Style.

Once you obtain ONE of the above, you can upgrade your boots to:

The Speedy Bug

Boots of Travel (2200)

NA has no need for Treads because he rarely deals physical damage to enemies so the IAS would be a waste. He already has pretty good MS while in Vendetta, but you can't be in Vendetta all the time and the extra MS from BoT is useful for escaping or chasing. BoTs give the teleport ability as well, giving you map mobility and better ganking potential.

After you've upgraded your boots, move on to one of these survivability items.

The Tank Bug

Heart of Tarrasque (5500)

Heart gives you much needed survivability for a reasonable price. NA really needs survivability being a melee agility assassin hero, he will need to get in the middle of team fights, chase past towers and hang around after the main battle to continue to spam his spells. He is somewhat fragile with a mediocre STR gain so Heart is probably the best item for NA in terms of survivability and boosting his MHP.

Skadi is a good alternative to Heart. It doesn't give you has much HP or STR as Heart does, but it offers some other great bonuses. It gives you +25 STR (475 HP) +25 Agility (IAS, Damage, Armour), +25 INT (325 mana) a further 200 HP and 150 Mana as well as frost attack. If you don't have any other Orb effects, frost is quite good after the recent buff for melee heroes.

It is terribly expensive which is the only drawback of the item. Other than that, if you can farm it in good time it will give you and your team good benefits.

The Fried Bug

Hood of Defiance (2375)

If you're facing a lot of nukers or AoE damagers, then Hood of Defiance is a necessity. It offers good Magic damage reduction and 8hp/s regen, which will limit the amount of fountain trips you'll need to take. You can get this along with Heart or Skadi, you'll just need to judge weather to take it before or after either of those items depending on how many nukers you're facing.

Blademails are terrible to stack on NA contrary to popular belief. Even if you're facing a team of melee heroes (which shouldn't happen if your opponents have any clue how to play) Blademails are limited in their use anyway. If you get them early game, the damage reflected will be quite small due to the enemy having crappy damage. Then if you decide to get them late game, the reflected damage is only the base damage of your enemy's attack and not any modifiers. It also reflects it as magical damage which is reduced very heavily and blocked by magic immunity. Also, you can only return 20% of your own HP, because after that, you'll be dead... so stacking Blademails and not getting HP is useless because you can still only return a % of your MHP.

People buy this item on NA because the have the belief that it helps you farm. This belief is entirely false. Battlefury helps you kills creeps faster and push faster, but in no way helps you get the gold from said creeps. Early game the regen from Perseverance is outclassed by Bottle or Arcane Ring and by mid game the regen is negligible, so that aspect of this item can be ignored. It won't help NA against enemy heroes either, as he would rarely be attacking anyway and cleave is poor with the small damage NA has.

You should avoid Sange and Yasha on NA because it offers him nothing that he can really use well. It costs almost as much as Heart, so if you're getting it for the STR that is a bad reason, 3 Bracers are cheaper than Sange as well as offering more bonuses. The MS is unnecessary due to the MS bonus you already get in Vendetta and Maim is useless because you won't be dealing physical damage, you'll be spamming spells. S&Y is usually taken if for times when you are really struggling to farm, but in NA's case it still won't provide much benefit and in that scenario you're better off massing Bracers and getting survivability items.

Refresher Orb

NA has 3 active spells, so refreshing them would be awesome right? Wrong. Refresher is a complete waste of money for NA. All of his spells have such short cooldowns that the refresh is really unneeded especially at 6k+ gold and 3 minutes cooldown. This item is best left for heroes with high cooldown large AoE ultimates rather than single target assassin skills.

DPS Items

NA is a low damage melee hero, his DPS is horrible. Trying to improve that is like flogging a dead horse... waste of time. If you buy DPS items, you will have to ignore either a Mana/Nuking item or a survivability item and without either of those you're neglecting his main strengths of assassinating heroes and spamming his nukes or you'll be dead before you even reach the enemy to try and deal physical damage.

Early game for Nerubian Assassin is an important time. A good early game can set the tone for not only your game, but for your team's game too. If you are not soloing then a good lane partner is crucial for NA to be successful early game. I'll explain who are good lane partners below, but please, I can't stress enough that it's very important to lane with a hero who will complement you and your skills so do not lane with any heroes who have no slows, stuns or nukes, as that will mean your lane will have 0 lane control.

Being a melee agility hero, NA's lane control is sub par for the most part, however if you ally yourself with the right lane partner your early lane potential can increase dramatically. If you lane with an AoE stunner or with another nuker your lane's potential for early kills is quite high. Alternatively laning with a Mana restoring ally will allow you to continuously spam your Mana burn to keep your enemies from using their abilities against you and liberal use of Impale to harass and possibly kill. You should also make sure that the hero you lane with will be able to survive on their own when you leave the lane to gank. (I say when, not if.)

Early farming is not as important for support/ganking heroes like NA as it is for late game carry heroes. Just farm enough to get your bottle quickly. NA is not very item dependant, so don't panic if you're underleveled by one or two levels and don't have a lot of money early on. Focus on ganking and hero killing and you should get sufficient amounts of experience points to stay reasonably leveled.

NA's ganking ability is the main reason to play him, so ganking should be a big part of his game. Before level 6 you can gank reasonably well with a stealthy approach from some fog of war. Good communication with your allies is a key part of ganking as timing their stuns with yours as well as not scaring them back before you arrive is important. Impale + Mana burn can deal pretty good damage in the first few levels and coupled with an allied stun or nukes you have the potential to pull off early kills.

It's after level 6 that your ganking potential increases with Vendetta. If you are sure the enemy has no sentry wards then initiate with Vendetta, but make sure when you activate the skill you are out of enemy sight. Once you are invisible, get in position behind the target enemy hero and call your team mates in. Depending on the positioning, you can either open with your combo, or you can wait for your ally to stun then while stunned you can attack a few times before using impale and mana burn.

If you have bottle, take advantage of refilling it with runes as they will aid you immensely. You can also use it to restore your mana mid combo if you run out. If you don't know how to do this, I have an extended explanation of using bottle properly in my Nevermore guide, so refer to that if you need to.

Ward Use

Observer wards and Sentry wards are NA's best friend and worst enemy.

Early game Obs wards will be important for you, as having them up in the river will allow you to see the runes and their surrounding areas, so you can not only pick up the runes for your bottle, but also be ready to suprise attack any enemy heroes who are camping there waiting for runes. It will also help your allies if an enemy hero is roaming and ganking.

Mid and late game placement of Observer wards around the map can allow you and your team to gank unsuspecting foe as they quietly farm neutrals or open lanes. These kind of ganks followed by a good push can be game breaking, as they will turn team fights from 5v5 into 4v5, giving your team a strong advantage.

Sentry wards on the other hand counter your Vendetta, which isn't good news for you. They can also be used to clear out your Obs wards, which is again, undesirable. You should avoid engaging in what is commonly known as a "ward war." In which you and an opponent continuously purchase Sentry wards to clear out the the other ones wards. This is too much of a strain on NA, as he is not an outright "Ward whore" and not the strongest farmer around, so the purchasing of wards needs to remain strategic and logical.

If your opponents are using Sentry wards a lot to clear out your wards, change your Observer ward placements and don't rely on Vendetta as an initiating or escaping tool while in the areas you know Sentry wards will be placed. Also if you have a Necronomicon 3 on you or a team mate, spawn the summons and sweep the map killing his wards as you go.

Mid game (Levels: 11-17)

Mid game is probably strongest part or the game for NA, presuming his early game wasn't hideous. His combo is at full strength and the lanes have broken up allowing him to sneak in behind where towers once stood to gank unsuspecting foe.

You can farm a little more mid game when you aren't ganking, which should only be when Vendetta is on cooldown. If you have a full bottle and full mana, use Impale to farm big creep waves, but don't just Impale the full HP creeps because you won't get the kills. Walk around the creep wave, attack the ranged creep once and position yourself behind the ranged creep so the impale will hit the melee creeps as well. If you do this successfully you should get the ranged creep kill and the one melee creep kill that was being hit by your own creeps, you can then proceed to last hit the remaining creeps but be warned, this pushes the creeps further into enemy territory. If all the lanes are pushed or taken you can farm some neutrals as well.

Check out your opponents inventories before you gank. Check for Necronomicon 3, Sentry wards or Gems, if they're clear of these items then gank with Vendetta as you're opener. Like I stated earlier, communication with your team mates is important when ganking. Vendetta in behind the target hero and call your mates in, you should be initiating the proceedings with hitting the target with Vendetta then Impaling followed by Mana burn and Dagon / Necronomicons if you have those. Don't be concerned if you don't get the kills that you initiated, remember it's a team game and if you all play your part it doesn't matter who gets the kills as long as the enemy dies, that's the main thing.

Also remember that ganking is your main role, so always be looking to gank people by watching your mini map for heroes who are alone. Don't be afraid to take a wander through the enemy's neutral creep areas for heroes creeping who may be on low hp that you can kill, if you get called a MHer tell them to stfu and learn to play =). If your team has wards up then this will make it easier to spot them.

When your team decides to push or you're defending, don't immediately use Vendetta, you may need it for escape purposes. Instead, before the fight is initiated, hit a few long range (725) Mana burns on their Mana dependant heroes and if one gets close enough, Impale them. Hopefully your team will take that opportunity to focus them to death, if not then move back and wait for another opportunity.

Once the battle has started spam your spells as much as possible, Mana burn whoever you see fit and Impale anyone who has a channeling spells or high DPS. If your team mates die before you, use Vendetta and get out, but if your team gets the upper hand in the fight use Vendetta and allow your spells to cooldown as you chase any fleeing heroes or if they're defending wait until the come back out to defend again and combo whoever comes out first.

Late game, NA loses his some of effectiveness due to the power of his nukes decreasing. While this means you probably won't be able to lethal to many heroes when you perform your nuke combo, but you still can play a good supporting role for your team and chase down escaping heroes.

Ganking

You shouldn't be able to score kills with your combo this late in the game if your opponents have an IQ above 50, but you can still assist in many kills by ganking with team mates. Use the same strategy as above and check for wards and Gems as always. Your enemies will have their Necronomicon 3 by now if they were going for it, so don't rely on invisibility too much. Good late game ganking can often determine the outcome of the game because the revival time is so much longer and being 1 hero down in a team fight is a big disadvantage.

Team Battles

In major team battles you will be a supporting hero and meat shield for your carry hero. Use your spells to stun and Mana burn whoever your team is focusing. Don't forget about your Guinsoo/Necronomicon/Dagon if you bought any of those and get in the mix of the fight if you have Heart/Skadi and Spiked Carapace to take some damage in place of your allied DPSers.

On level 16 Vendetta lasts for 50 seconds and cools down in 60. This will allow you to use two Vendettas in one team fight if you time it well. In this diagram below it shows the Vendetta cooldown period.

What you want to do is go into Vendetta as early as possible, you have about 40 seconds to get to where you need to be, so generally use from your side of the map as you'll have plenty of time to waste. Once you are in position, the aim is to use Vendetta as close to the end of the 50 seconds as possible. If you do this, you will only have to wait 10 to 15 seconds before Vendetta is cooled down again, which is about the same time as Impale takes to cool down.

Once you've comboed Vendetta with your other spells the first time, move back with your team for the 10 or so seconds your spells will take to cool down and get ready to go again. It's very simple and doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out, but it does take observant players.

Assassinations

Nerubian Assassin is quite obviously an assassin hero. He has the skills for quick assassination kills and even his name says assassin! Below is a quick table I made showing the damage possible with NA's combo.

You can add a bit more damage on to that because you should have enough time to physically attack the target once or twice during the stun duration. If you have Necronomicon it burns 125/175/225 mana.

Generally people run their Necro summons around to scout areas, but what's really suprising is when a Nerubian Assassin pops out of nowhere with those Necro summons to kill you! Below is a series of pictures showing the stages of a gank with Necro summons. They can generally do more damage than Dagon with a few attacks + mana burn, the only difference is that it's not burst damage.

Generally when ganking heroes you should do it with an ally or two. But there are just some heroes that you can assassinate alone during the early to mid sections of the game. These heroes are weak early game heroes with no natural escape mechanisms. Here are some examples of the type of heroes you could hunt alone if you are sure your combo does enough damage to kill them in one go.

There are other heroes you could kill in one combo as well, however they may be slightly more dangerous. Heroes like Zeus, CM, Rhasta, Lion, VS, Dazzle and others are also possibilities, however you'll need to be 100% sure that you can kill them in one combo, because if you don't, they will fight back and likely kill you if you're alone or escape. Use the damage guide above to judge your combo's damage and check if they have hood of defiance or not.

These heroes are able to chain their nukes and disables with your own for quick kills, lane control and ganking. Generally you should use your stun first so they have an easier time aiming their stuns.

Melee agility heroes tend to have a hard time laning. Even though you have some lane control with Mana burn, you will still face a decent amount of harassing. Laning with an ally who has the ability to heal you will make your early game a whole lot easier.

Any ally that can help restore your Mana is going to be a great lane partner for you. It will allow you to totally spam Mana Burn to keep your enemies down and not allow them to nuke, disable or kill you.

Self explanatory. They counter your invisibility if they get an opportunity to cast their spells on you. This will mean you can't rely on Vendetta for escaping, so you'll just have to use it as a damaging tool.

AoE Damagers

AoE damage and stuns hit you while you're invisible. Not desirable for a low HP agility hero.

Ward Whores

Ward whores who will spend the entire game purchasing Obs and Sentry wards are a tough enemy to deal with. The Sentries will render your Vendetta useless and the Obs wards will make it difficult for you to gank at all, thus countering your entire purpose.