Viper - Tank/Survival Build

As a viper, expecially if you're going mid, regen shouldn't been a problem, just don't put your first skill on auto-cast so that you don't drag aggro on yourself, and simply get a bottle!
Maxing your E also make you a less desiderable target for harassing, and you can easly punish evryone who dare moving to your part of the river.

For Tensin: shadowBlade it's not an escape mecanism! :) (unless you find poor opponent ofc!XD)

Tank should prioritize E and harass alot in lane to aggro from heroes. When one actually bites, take the kill with Q.

In all honesty, you should never get a Vanguard on Viper. It does give you some more HP, but since Viper is ranged the Damage Block is pretty weak. What I consider much better, (and what I see people in the very high bracket/pros) build is a mekansm, instead of the vanguard.

It is better, not only for you but also for the team. It costs a tiny bit more and gives a little less health regeneration, (but this is not what you build a Vanguard for anyway). It does give you 5 of every stat and 5 armor, which is a lot better than an 80% chance to block 20 damage. Thanks to the active the mekansm essentially also gives you 250 effective HP, so nothing is lost there.

The main benefit of the mekansm though is that it is better the earlier you get it. If you play Viper (mid, or offlane, wherever), you will be the one taking the last hits. (Or your lineup is terrible). Essentially you will be able to get it much earlier than any support can and for early pushes or early defence it is a fantastic item. It also makes sure that your supports have more gold, so they can spend more on "common support items" like wards, or other utility items (Force Staff, Aghs etc. )

So essentially it does what a Vanguard does, except that it offers more in terms of armor, stats and what it does for the team.

Oi,

Here's some more suggestions for this guide.


In my opinion, the best way of laning Viper is 1v1 safe lane with an agressive trilane. This is because there are heroes which benefit more from the mid-position though runing.

I will have to agree with the comments about Vanguard, that item doesn't provide a whole lot and it delays your Aghanim's Scepter by a substantial amount. Though you imply rushing Aghanim's Scepter is quite risky to do, I feel it's worth it if you know how to position propertly. The cooldown reduction of Viper Strike is just too good to miss out on and obviously, it can wreck havoc in the early mid-game.

After getting Aghanim's Scepter, your item build really depends on what your team needs in that stage of the game. What I usually do is get a Vitality Booster into Yasha and then finish the Heart of Tarrasque, but if you can get away with a Yasha before Vitality Booster, it does wonders to your DPS as well as ability to chase. A Black King Bar might be needed in some situations, the items afterwards are all situational.

Something unorthodox which I sometimes do is getting a Mekansm. It makes Viper decievingly tanky and provides huge utiliy to his team as well. I only do this on rare occasions in which our team needs to group up a bit more.

Another Viper build which I sometimes use is getting Phase Boots, Drum of Endurance and Yasha for ultimate chasing, but this might not be as relevant for this guide, since it is focused on a more tanky build.

Cheers!

Latest DotA patch made the "broken" tranquil bonus to be only 25 points, which will be half the utility the basic boots provide. I think the tranquils will do more harm than good, unless you have any sort of escape mechanism, like Shadow Blade. What do you think about that?

I will try it out with just holding onto the Vitality Booster till heart so I won't make a top of my head comment till I have actually done it. If it works, then hey you might be onto something.

I have seen Viper played in so many different ways with such a broad variety of item builds. Lets use a what if, HoT costs a lot of money and you may very well have a rough start and it could take you forever to finally get the cash. If things are going well then why not but on your average public game chances are you would need the little items in-between to help you reach the stage where you are killing enough to have decent cash.

The poor man's shield is actually a decent idea as it can keep you alive for long enough till you get Aghanim's or some other item. Viper also rides the early game and being farm focused to rush HoT is not the best idea. Most games though I can usually pull it up by about 35 mins which is not too bad coupled with the other items in the pool.

As my opinion I feel that if you play viper as a DPS carry you are doing this character a great disservice as he is better played another way.

This is one of the hundreds of builds that people go for, this is one that has worked for me and some of my gaming buddies were curious as what to more or less go for.

FYI - In light of trying things, skipped the whole HoT stage and it seemed okish.
http://dotabuff.com/matches/154375897

If you're going for tanky viper with shield, grabbing a couple early slippers leads you to a poor man's shield which is more relevant than Vanguard. The theorycrafting behind poor man's over vanguard seems pretty established - though I will admit, it didn't register with me intuitively either until I read up on it. Just something you might like to look into.

For the rest, I'm very interested in your comments on tranquils. I do spend early cash on heals and I always seem to have either too much or not enough, depending on what I'm facing. Tranquils mean you always have enough and it combines with your boots slot to ensure you have room for the other upgrades that you'll (hopefully) be farming in like mad. Something I will try, we'll see how it goes.

Just like someone said on my own Viper guide, i disagree strongly with getting a Vanguard altogether. Why not keep the red orb till your Heart of Tarrasque? Just want some insight on this.

I am still in the process of editing this but keep in mind that this is all from personal experience and each gamer is free to build as they want. Going for tranquil boots in some instances allows you to stay in lane and harass without the need to use the teams courier to bring you more heals if the lane is hard.

Hard lane? Get Tranquils
Not a hard lane? Get Treads.

So yes I agree treads are the better choice but each variety of build is situational and I have in some instances skipped the Vangaurd phase altogether but have found it more helpful to help you pull through mid game team fights.

This was my most recent game with Viper. http://dotabuff.com/matches/152762952

Like the guide stresses he isn't hard to play or build items for. This is for people who are just curious or new to how viper is played/built

Well, i can already say that this kinda build is not too good imo. Vanguard is needless, Power Treads suit him better than Tranquils.
Let's see how will it come out though.