Air support arrives - A dynamic guide to Viper

Introduction

Viper is a very flexible hero that can be played in most roles, from a #1 to a #4 (Possibly even solo offlane in this new meta) He is very powerful in the early game, and can remain a huge threat all the way to the late game.

With his abilities, Viper can dish out a lot of damage without needing high-tier items. He is not that good in a teamfight, but can be very annoying for specific targets, even if they are magic-immuned.

Viper is one of those popular low-level pubstomp heroes which I somehow enjoy playing even though people might say he's a no-brainer, because of how flexible he is and how he can be a huge annoyance for all phases of the game.

PS : There are probably going to be a lot of unattractive wall of texts in this really basic-format guide, so hopefully you can all bear with it. I will attempt to upgrade it when I have enough resources (screenshots and stuff) but in the meantime, it will be mostly words.

Pros and Cons

Pros [*] Very strong early to mid game [*] Average stat game [*] Doesn't fall off so badly in late-game [*] Relatively durable with the right items [*] Doesn't require DPS items to deal damage [*] Can hinder magic immune carries [*] Great lasthitting power, with good animation [*] Wins against almost every hero in the mid-lane

Cons [*] Low base movement speed [*] Relatively squishy early game [*] Not a fantastic late-game carry [*] Not much teamfight presence

I won't go through a "When to pick and when not to pick" part for Viper, because he is so flexible and able to fulfill any role effectively.
Although one exception is picking him as a #1 hard-carry when the enemy has harder carries as their #1

Poison Attack

The Netherdrake's inborn toxic breath quickly drains the vitality of its afflicted.

Poison Attack is an autocast-able orb effect that applies a slow as well as a minor overtime damage debuff onto the enemy.

This is a very strong harassing tool in the early game, and a really powerful chasing tool towards the mid game as it has a whopping 40% movement speed and attack speed slow. It some minor damage overtime as well, which can prolong the effect of dispelling blink dagger or consumables.

You should always have this maxed out as fast as possible, as the slow makes Viper a real annoyance and a big threat in all stages of the game. As with the 6.79 patch, the cooldown has been reduced to 0 at all levels, which makes Viper a really strong support being able to cast this without cooldown.

At all levels, it costs 20 mana and 0 seconds cooldown.

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What to keep in mind when using it
-Orb-walking does not draw creep aggro: This makes the spell a very powerful harassing tool.

Nethertoxin

Poison from the Nether Reaches turns wounds into fatalities, and fatigue into death.

Nethertoxin is essentially your bread and butter, making you such a monster in the mid-game. It also makes Viper such a painful support to deal with as he can deal so much damage without damage items, as well as an uncontested last-hitter in the game.

How this spell works is basically, the lower your enemy's health, the more damage you deal. You'll deal extra damage for 20% of health missing from the enemy, which doubles for every consecutive 20% health missing.

It's best to take at least one level of this ability to help you with your last-hitting, as your base damage is pretty bad.
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What to keep in mind when using it
-Deals half the bonus damage to non-heroes: Even though it's only half, it's still quite a bonus, making Viper such a powerful last-hitter, and somewhat a great pusher.

Corrosive Skin

It is not unusual for sword and shield alike to corrode in the very hands of those who attack the Netherdrake.

Corrosive Skin is one of your most annoying abilities, and also one of the reasons why you would almost always win the mid-lane.

Every time any type of damage hits you, you will inflict a slow and damage overtime debuff onto the source of the damage, and this triggers on every instance of damage you take, so damage overtime spells like Queen of Pain's Shadow Strike will essentially hurt her more than it hurts you.

Taking one level of this early is really good, especially in the mid-lane, as it helps against the enemy harass.

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What to keep in mind when using it
-It also gives magic resistance

Viper Strike

Once used to slay his sadistic summoner, the most powerful of Netherdrake infections spreads through the veins of those foolish enough to cross Viper.

Viper Strike is your ultimate, which will almost always guarantee a kill on a squishy support, and does a great amount of hindrance to the enemy carry.

This spell deals a massive amount of slow to the enemy target's movement speed and attack speed, making it such a great ganking and anti-carry tool as well.

It's obvious to get this whenever possible, and it's Aghanim's Scepter upgrade is arguably one of the best, which increases the cast range and drastically decreases the cooldown and mana-cost.

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What to keep in mind when using it
-It partially goes through magic immunity: The slow does, not the damage. However, this spell is mostly useful for the slow.

Gameplay - Early

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Carry Oriented

Basically, this item build revolves around sustaining your lane in the early game, progressing to your core item which is Shadow Blade which allows you to start snowballing once it hits the 10-15 minute mark. Get into lane and focus more on last-hitting than harassing with Poison Attack. You may occasionally want to throw an orb-walk harass every once in a while, but ALWAYS prioritize last-hitting over anything else.

With a good lane combo, you can possibly set up some kills with your Poison Attack slow and massive damage from Nethertoxin. Progress on to your Vitality Booster for sustainability, and then your Power Treads for more DPS and also additional health points, damage or mana. After that focus on getting your Shadow Blade

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Support Oriented

As you're not really getting much last-hits, grab a level in all your three abilities as early as possible. Poison Attack for the orb-harass, and Nethertoxin along with Corrosive Skin allows you to trade hits effectively with the opposition, doing a lot of damage from Nethertoxin bonus damage and Corrosive Skin poison damage. Grab a Ring of Basilius to keep your, and your lane partner's mana pool up, and the additional armor and damage helps. You'll also be very effective in denying creeps as Nethertoxin does give bonus damage against creeps, but half.

What Phase Boots does is basically helps you for positioning which allows you to escape or initiate ganks really effectively. It also gives you a lot of attack damage which really helps.

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Mid-Lane Oriented

Grab a first level in Nethertoxin to help you last-hit effectively against the enemy mid-laner. Use the Poison Attack to orb-walk harass whenever there isn't anything to last-hit, and possibly grab a level of Corossive Skin to counter-harass annoying enemy mid-laners like Queen of Pain. You are really powerful in this lane, and will almost always win the lane unless you get ganked.

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Author's Preference

This is how I like playing Viper. Usually going for a utility/support build but transitioning into a strong mid-game ganker, something like what the mid-laner would do. The Mekansm components helps with my survivability in lane, and basically I'll just sit in lane pushing it, teleporting to any area which needs backup. The snowballing starts the moment I grab my Force Staff

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Gameplay - Mid and onwards

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Carry Oriented

Now that you have your Shadow Blade, you can effectively snowball, and farm safely at the same time as you have an escape and an initiation tool at the same time. What you want to do at this point is to start pushing out lanes, possibly killing anyone that you come across and farm on to your Black King Bar, which increases your survivability greatly in crucial teamfights.

If you can grab your Black King Bar before 30 minutes or so, you can start committing to team-clashes and stuff. Just make sure to Viper Strike the enemy carry, and especially WHEN they pop their own magic immunity. It is best to try to end the game at this stage after grabbing your extensions like Manta Style, so to not get outcarried later on.

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Support Oriented

By grabbing your Mekansm as fast as possible, you can make a strong contribution to a teamfight with the burst heal, and if you can hit level 6 as fast as possible, your Viper Strike will help a lot as well. Proceed to get whatever is listed on the situational items based on what the team requires and what the enemy has that needs to be shut down. As a support who is most likely not getting much farm, Aghanim's Scepter is listed in the Luxuries as it costs a lot for someone who's not planning to get much farm. But if you can, do grab it as it really makes a big difference in your effectiveness as a hero.

Avoid getting Black King Bar as a support Viper, as you are going to delay all your other items when not playing as the carry.

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Mid-Lane Oriented

I feel that as the mid-laner, you should be getting enough farm to rush your Aghanim's Scepter, and possibly got enough kills in lane for it too (if in low level pubs that is). You could opt to grab some other stuff before the scepter like a Mekansm or so, provided you can get it quick and that none of your other teammates are getting it first. But the Aghanim's Scepter will really help a lot once you manage to grab it, especially since you're carrying around a Bottle to sustain your mana pool.

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Author's Preference

I mostly play Viper in a really unusual way, and that is as the safe-lane farmer but grabbing mid-game oriented items. This is really risky as if you don't snowball well enough, it's hard to keep up with the enemy carry. Basically, grab a Mekansm for the survivability in the early game, along with Phase Boots for positioning. Then, I will grab a Force Staff, which will be followed by a Blink Dagger for extra positioning. With this build I will leave the lane to gank the moment I grab my Force Staff, as the extra positioning helps a lot against certain enemies like Queen of Pain or Puck. Grabbing an Orchid Malevolence next helps against the much more mobile enemies like Weaver or Storm Spirit. This is basically a safe-lane farmer transitioning into a very mobile ganker.

I've tried this build quite a number of times in low-level pub games, and it really helped out in the element of surprise. Well, the enemies never expected a Viper to appear out of nowhere spitting poison at them all of a sudden. Again it is a very risky build, as it still leaves you quite vulnerable to burst damage, but it is quite a fun build.

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Situationals and Luxuries

Viper can benefit from a wide array of items, here are the list of items you could purchase on Viper that was not looked upon in the gameplay guide:

Viper can transition into a really durable hero in the late game. Grabbing tons of health and health regeneration helps you to sustain yourself on the battlefield longer, as well as make you harder to kill, especially since you have Corrosive Skin

After grabbing a Heart of Tarrasque, having evasion will make you crazy hard to kill, especially since you have such a nasty attack speed slow. It also gives you a lot of damage and attack speed.

A great item to have if you feel like you're nowhere close to having enough for a Butterfly, it gives Viper more health and also evasion, as well as a disarm ability, which helps a lot.

Very mediocre item to get on Viper, grab this if you're really far behind, and you can possibly build it into a Manta Style and Heaven's Halberd eventually.

If you feel like you're lacking in DPS, try testing your luck on some critical hits!

This is great to counter all those slippery evasive heroes, and also channeling spells.

A good extension to Yasha, which helps you confuse single target spells and also purge off annoying debuffs like silence.

A good item to grab on Viper if you feel like you're lacking stats as a utility support. Gives great stats for his health and mana-pool, as well as movement speed and attack speed.

Do not underestimate what -6 armor can do even as a utility support Viper, as he can achieve nasty amounts of physical damage with Nethertoxin. It also gives him armor and mana regeneration, something that he benefits greatly from.

Against a very magical-nuke oriented lineup, having even more magical resistance, as well as a barrier to block 400 magical damage turns Viper into this really hard to nuke down kite-looking dragon thingy.

SO.MUCH.SLOW. It also gives you health and adds up to your mana pool and helps mana regeneration items, which is very useful. Also, the cast range for this thing is RIDICULOUS.

Viper can benefit pretty well from the stats this item give, and also the aura from the ranged demon helps you to dish out a lot of damage, as well as become a huge pushing monster.

Again, more armor AND MORE SLOW. The intelligence helps give you a lot of mana to keep casting Poison Attack.

Not only will you be able to leave Poison Attack on autocast, it also gives you a very strong disable for the late game, where you can shut down the enemy carry while magic immune with Viper Strike, then hex while the magic immunity wears off. It also helps you cast a lot of Viper Strikes if you have your Aghanim's Scepter

The silence is very good against super mobile heroes like Storm Spirit or Weaver. It also gives you a lot of mana regeneration to possibly leave Poison Attack on autocast, and even spem Viper Strike with the Aghanim's Scepter upgrade as much as you can.

and

I love getting these items on Viper. The problem with Viper is that he has horrible base movement speed and if his initial Viper Strike doesn't kill the enemy, and they get away, it is hard to keep up. Enemies like Dark Seer or Queen of Pain can easily survive a Viper gank, unless the Viper can blink as well. Positioning is very important, and these items help you so much in that department, save for the fact you're risking survivability by investing on positioning.

Author's Notes.

Remember, all item and skill builds are fluid. Dota is a game that is ever-changing and to be good at it, one must be able to adapt to the situation and do what is needed in that situation. Don't go for a static build, but be more flexible and look at the synergy with your team and the counters to enemies.

Viper is a very flexible hero that can be played, and fulfill almost any role pretty well. If you've been stuck to carrying as Viper for all your Dota life, try out something new! You may enjoy it more than carrying, or you may not. Anyways, just pick what suits you best and have fun!

More to come :
-Friends and foes section
-Solo offlane build (Might need some help on this)