The Crawling Terror: Lifestealer

+1 for the guide and +1 for puck as friend. We also use Lifestealer in combination with Sand King as soon as SK got his blink dagger. I think that also works with other great team fight initiators like Tidehunter, etc. pp.

I think you need puck as a friend her initiaton with some silence and the bomb can make devastating combo

Thanks for a great build!
I used your guide in a game a few min ago. We lost but thats just because 2 of my team mates got disconnected. My stat was 6/1/7 :). It is a excellent guide to lifestealer :P

Great build.


I do my first early points a little differently:


For safe laning i tend to not pick up feast untill level 3.

My reasoning.

In early laning, you mainly need the regen of feast if you are getting harrassed, if you are getting harrassed, you will/should be only going in for a quick last hit then b. You wont be hammering at a creep long enough to get any real life steal (and if you do you will push the lane anyways)


Rather if I tend to go for rage first, as it it can save you from an early first blood, and it can also help you get a first blood.


Then having open wounds second can make first blood easy, you can also do it to save your support (or yourself from a gank).


If im going for a level 1 first blood, il put first point in open wounds, its an amazing slow for level 1.





For jungling i tend to go rage level 2 instead of open wounds, as i think its better for escaping.
I will go open wounds second if im coming strait into lane for a gank at level 2

Thanks for appreciating my effort, Peppo!

And yeah, I've already stated the following items in 'Extension(s) / Situational', since, yeah, Armlet of Mordiggian is a necessity, but not Drum of Endurance, Phase Boot, Orchid Malevolence and Desolator, to be honest. It's more of a choice build, I'd say.

If there're more than 2 carries, it's that time I prefer to buy a Deso. I don't think 4000 for an item, which only works for yourself. (Since the carry is the only hero making the most physical damage, usually). If there's a Troll/Naga, or just about anyone, I'd go ***asult & Desolator instead of Basher. If there're comparatively less stuns/hold downs, I'll go Skull Basher. Orchid Malevolence is rarely needed, but yes, very useful, though it does not buff a Lifestealer as a hard hitter, so I skip it, unless someone like Puck, Mirana are being troublesome.

Drum of Endurance and Phase Boots are pretty solid items, but, to be honest, I don't think they're 'Required for Lifestealer'. The competitive scene has been focusing very much on the mid-game factor, since Lifestealer is not a hero who can go lategame, against carries like Gyrocopter, Faceless Void or even an Anti-Mage considering his early six-slot capability. Hence, they just focus his early game, Drum of Endurance is rather an aura item. You can get it any of your carry who's trying to focus on Mid-game, i.e: Juggernaut, Phantom Lancer, Naga Siren, and even a Luna. I don't consider Drum of Endurance a 'Lifestealer' core. It's just a good stat item for the team, I'd say.

And yes, thanks about the Shadow Blade suggestion. I'll write it up. Split pushing is pretty decent seen with Mjollnir and Shadow Blade combined. It's seen a lot these days, with Alchemist, with Nature's Prophet, not as much with Lifstealer, the chances of him dying are low, since he can just Rage + TP-out, unless there're some Rage - lockdowns.

Finally a Lifestealer guide which shows the proper way to play him, as a safe lane carry! I'm very satisfied by this guide (so you get my +1), but there are a few things you might want to consider:

You forgot the free farming Phase Boots + Drum of Endurance + Armlet of Mordiggian build, which gives a lot more mid-game advantage but delays your late-game items by quite a bit: it's very useful if you have a free farming lane and you want to push down towers very quickly, it even makes you an awesome chaser.

Also, you should consider three main extensions after your Armlet of Mordiggian: Skull Basher, Orchid Malevolence and Desolator. The first one is for improving your overall damage especially against the enemy carry, the second one is occasionally bought while dealing with blinkers or squishy Heroes and the Desolator is for combining pushing power with an armor-reducing strategy.

Plus, you don't quite get the main purpose of the Shadow Blade: it's (very) rarely bought by competitive players for split pushing, not solo ganking.