By my Master's command

Introduction: My Master

Lifestealer is one of the strongest Junglers in the game. His ability to jungle at level 1 is very strong and his late game presence is there. If your Lifestealer is unable to jungle well in the early game, be prepared to actually lose the game.

I really love this hero as with him, I would normally be able to own the game in the mid game. With this guide, you would probably be able to farm up that Assault Cuirass at about the 35 minutes mark. This guide makes you not care about ganking, which is not really a good thing. But for the late game presence, you would probably want to try doing this as ganking without killing wastes the farm you could have gotten in the time you wasted.

Lifestealer is an anti-tank carry. His W, Feast deals 4% / 5% / 6% / 7% of the target's current HP to the target and lifesteals it. As his name implements, Lifestealer gets his name by stealing life, to make it his own. Rage is a Black King Bar that also adds your Attack Speed by 30 / 45 / 60 / 80. While this is a cheap alternative to the Black King Bar, this allows you to get Attack Speed early in the game.

Lore of N'aix

In the dungeons of Devarque, a vengeful wizard lay in shackles, plotting his escape. He shared his cell with a gibbering creature known as N'aix, a thief cursed by the Vile Council with longevity, so that its life-sentence for theft and cozening might be as punishing as possible. Over the years, its chains had corroded, along with its sanity; N'aix retained no memory of its former life and no longer dreamt of escape. Seeing a perfect vessel for his plans, the wizard wove a spell of Infestation and cast his life-force into N'aix's body, intending to compel N'aix to sacrifice itself in a frenzy of violence while the mage returned to his body and crept away unnoticed. Instead, the wizard found his mind caught in a vortex of madness so powerful that it swept away his plans and shattered his will. Jarred to consciousness by the sudden infusion of fresh life, N'aix woke from its nightmare of madness and obeyed the disembodied voice that filled its skull, which had only the one thought: To escape. In that moment Lifestealer was born. The creature cast its mind into dungeon guards and soldiers, compelling them to open locks and cut down their companions, opening an unobstructed path to freedom while feeding on their lives. Lifestealer still wears the broken shackles as a warning that none may hold him, but on the inside remains a prisoner. Two minds inhabit the single form--a nameless creature of malevolent cunning, and the Master whose voice he pretends to obey.


Originally copied from Dota 2's Official Website for Lifestealer

Pros / Cons

Pros:

Good ability to jungle well in the early-thru-late game.

Ability to be Magic Immune.

Ability to quickly gain back health by using Infest

Strong ganking skills with Open Wounds and Infest




Cons:

Requires quite an amount of skill to play.

Requires farm early game.

Requires good teammate who can solo the jungle lane well.

Skills

This is something like a Black King Bar with a Hyperstone built-in. This is one of the strongest counter to casters as you would be rendered Magic Immune. Although ultimates like Primal Roar, Dismember and Fiend's Grip would be able to stun you, it would not be able to damage you.


This is the ability that makes Lifestealer, Lifestealer. At max level, it steals 7% of the enemy's CURRENT health and deals it to him. So as example; the enemy has 100health, and your base damage is 50. You deal 7+50 damage to him and gain 7 health back as lifestolen. This is the ability that tanks such as Centaur Warrunner and Pudge and Night Stalker is afraid of at late game. With high DPS and this to back it up, they would be gone within a few seconds.

To add on, this ability also allow you to jungle at level 1.


This ability starts off at a 70% slow but slowly, the target regains it's movement speed. All damage source, including spells are turned into lifesteal. This is the ability that most Lifestealer players, like myself, use to initiate and kill a target. The lifesteal does not work like Feast though.

Items

As the items to get are pretty much self-explanatory and they are the core of simply every Lifestealer guide, I would not go into details with it.

Friends & Foes

Friends

Friends are those who have high DPS in the early game as they would help you kill easily.

Treant Protector. His second skill, Leech Seed and your third skill, Open Wounds. High lifesteal,'nuff said. This being said, Treant Protector's ulti, Overgrowth allows you to pop into the battle and kill most of the enemies as they are not able to blink or attack. But they are still able to cast spells. So Rage up and go in and kill everyone!

Anti-Mage, Queen of Pain are heroes that allow easy initiation. Infest in them and blink in and BOOM! 400 damage done to them right of the bat.

Clinkz, Riki, Bounty Hunter have invisibility that allows you to gank even more easily and allows you to think of placement before just jumping right in.

Storm Spirit with his Ball Lightning works well as well. His speed and disable is good for intiation.

Foes

Pudge Although you have Rage, his Meat Hook and Dismember passes through Black King Bar or Magic Immunity. Although they do not deal damage, they still disable you; allowing his teammate to go in for the kill.

Bane His ultimate, Fiend's Grip disables you as well. Enfeeble sucks out your damage and you will not have much damage when you are attacking the enemy.

Beastmaster's Primal Roar goes through Rage and Black King Bar.

Leshrac's Diabolic Edict causes Composite damage (or Physical, I have forgotten). The damage output at level 4 in a 1v1 is so ridiculous that he can take you out no matter how fat you are.

Summary

To sum this guide up, Lifestealer is the best early game jungler and he possesses that early-thru-late game presence if he is well-jungled. If he is not, your team would probably lose as he is not much help in the late game without much items. To look at my builds and gameplay simply go to this link: Lifestealer match from DotaBuff

Thanks for looking at this guide. Upvote if you liked, Upvote if you disliked :)

Changelogs

3/28/2013 - Published guide.