Role of Lifestealer

I find LS to be a really interesting hero, the only problem is I can't figure out exactly how to play him. Is he supposed to be a carry, pusher, or ganker? Is jungling a viable option for LS? Also, same thing goes for Nightstalker as well, since he's generally NOT considered a farming hero but looks like he could use a few items to increase his effectiveness.

Suggestions?

Lifestealer is a mid-game carry (in)famous for his tendency to get kited harder than a cat chasing yarn in the wind. Generally you farm until you have a couple of items and then try and end the game before the supports manage to get a ghost scepter and/or force staff. Due to the prevalence of Slark, Storm and Ember, he's kinda fallen out of the meta as he just doesn't have the mobility. If your lanes are already ****ed, Lifestealer can jungle, but generally he goes in the safelane with one or two supports to help him get $$$.

Night Stalker is a semi-carry who is best put mid. Come the first night, he should go, level 5 with boots and bottle, ganking everyone everywhere as he is the most powerful hero on the map at that point. It's really easy for him - farm during day, gank during night. I like both heroes because they build armlet as core and armlet is the best item in the game.

he is kited harder than fame kited Pamela Anderson after Baywatch.

Think about that.

I don't think you can pick Lifestealer as a solo hard carry any longer, unless there's very specific hero line-ups. He's still good against tanky heroes, but struggles massively against kiting. He also has real issues with the prevalence of Eye of Skadi in recent patches, allowing you to kite for days.

^What they said-I just wanted to ask something: you find Lifestealer...interesting? Well, people are entitled to their own opinions

Lifestealer is hard carry, but the problem is he's totally zoned out of the game along with Alchemist. Both received heavy nerfs and are not playable.

There are usually two play styles when you pick him. Either go race car build on him so he has strong chase or team him up with strong jump heroes or heroes than can help him get into combat.

Storm Spirit, Puck, Qop, Clockwerk, and Phoenix are strong jump heroes. Also any hero with a blink dagger.

Other hero choices would be Visage, Beast Master, Nature's Prophet, Chen, Enchantress, or any hero that builds items that enchant minions. He can infest into their minions and bomb heroes that think their getting an easy creep kill.

You could also have a Tiny just Toss him into the enemy. I saw it done once, and it's terrifying the first time you see it in a match.

My OCD had to fix this sorry

Lifestealer isn't a hard carry, he's much too kiteable. With the possible exception of Medusa, hard carries are supposed to be almost impossible to kite (almost) whereas Lifestealer tends to... well, you know. He has the DAMAGE and the PRESENCE of a hard carry, but just gets kited too easily to hard carry past 40 mins when supports start getting force staves and ghost scepters.

Snowballing Midgame carry is his role. You can run him safelane farmer, offlane, or jungle. I like to run him with Midas-Phase-Blink-Orchid, since his damage falls off anyway, so its better to control your enemies since Open Wounds + Silence is essentially a disable, letting you snowball him.

But yes, this hero is underpowered right now.