Beginner's guide to carry Viper

In pub games, you just can't escape a Viper without an escape mech.

My main issue with Aghanim's on Viper is that while it does buff his ultimate, it does little for his right-click carry ability. You're sitting on 4.2k for a mediocre stat boost if/when their carry gets a bkb and can just right-click you to death or can shrug off your ultimate.

I don't deny that Aghanim's is awesome on Viper, but I disagree entirely that it's the best option, let alone that it should be rushed. Having a 12 second cooldown on the alt is great, but the other stats don't do much for him. Viper is primarily a right-clicker, and for that he needs as much agility and attack speed as you can stack on him. Manta Style should be your first choice every time. After that, I have to say that Butterfly and MKB are far more powerful options than simply relying on the ult.

yeah i usually rush Aghanims most games.

Aghanims is actually godly as hell on Viper.

I've never particularly had a problem with Lycan, between ganking him while he's jungling and manta split putting out a good amount of DPS late game. Then again that's based off my own personal (not super extensive) experience. I can see your point and I've added it.

So, one issue I have is the lack of the Lycan special mention. As far as counters go, there is no counter harder for Viper than Lycan. Max speed, unslowable, and with bashes and ludicrous damage, Viper doesn't stand a chance

Thanks for the feedback.

I'm not a fan of shadow blade for a few reasons: it doesn't add as much damage for its cost as other damage items; it encourages very aggressive play since you think you're safe; and it's easily countered by dust/gem/sentry wards (which a competent team will bring next time they try to gank you, so it's only really useful the first time).

However, if the enemy team doesn't specifically bring invis detection to teamfights/ganks, you can escape from even the hairiest of situations and the bonus damage + ability to sneak up on people is nice. Since this is a guide for beginners there's a good chance the enemies won't be that organized and they can get away with it indefinitely. I'll make a mention of it as optional (though I still recommend yasha->manta)

Maybe add shadow blade (lothars' edge), I personally think it's the first core item (after boots) for any low hp/armour dps hero (i.e. viper, sniper, drow, etc.). Some kind of escape mechanism is an absolute necessity for viper.

Other than that, v. good guide.