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Tango
Healing Salve
Wraith Band
Ring of Aquila
Power Treads
Headdress
Buckler
Mekansm
Point Booster
Aghanim's Scepter
Heart of Tarrasque
Yasha
Sange and Yasha
Butterfly
Monkey King Bar
Black King Bar
Boots of Travel
Shadow Blade
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2 | 12 | 13 | 14 |  |
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1 | 4 | 8 | 10 |  |
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3 | 5 | 7 | 9 |  |
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6 | 11 | 16 |  |
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15 | 17 | 18 |
Hello!
So what're we doing here?
Oh right, this is a guide on 
Viper, the Netherdrake. According to me, he is a really great hero, with the ability to win the early-mid game so hard that you can cruise to victory with little effort.
Until recently, he was quite rare in the competitive scenario. Only FATA (currently in Team Dog) played him often. However, with the recent shift in the meta game towards early and mid game aggression, this hero is getting more and more popular in the competitive scene, and successfully so.
Viper is a really versatile hero that can fit a variety of roles. He can be played as a carry, a semi-carry or a support. That being said, I think the best position for a Viper is 2. He is a great semi-carry, but loses out to harder carries in the late game. Don't pick a Viper as a 1 position unless you plan on ending the game before 40 minutes.
Viper's 'Q' is a great harassment and chasing skill. At level 1, it is nearly as effective as an 
Orb of Venom on a melee hero, and by level 4, it is a 40% slow. To put that in perspective, 
Eye of Skadi gives 35% slow. By refreshing Poison Attack every alternate hit, you can make sure that most enemies cannot run away from you.
This is a great passive that does more damage as the enemy's health gets lower. This is the skill that makes Viper the best 1v1 hero early to mid game. As you keep trading blows against your enemy, your attacks hurt a lot more. Keep in mind that this only applies to Viper's auto attacks, and not Poison Attack.
This skill is what makes Viper a great tank. 25% magic resistance lets you eat most nukes and live through them. The slow and DoT on attackers plays a significant part in teamfights. With Viper's strong DoT skills and tanky nature, teamfights that prolong for an extended period of time favor you heavily.
Viper's ultimate is, in my opinion, one of the best ultimates in the game. An 80% attack speed and move speed slow on the enemy carry is gamebreaking. Once you get Aghanim's Scepter, the cooldown goes down to 12 seconds, and the cast range increases significantly, so you can cast it on multiple targets in a teamfight. Always prioritize this on the enemy team's carry.
Before playing a hero, we need to be clear on what the hero can do, and what he cannot do. DotA is primarily a team-based game, so you need to know your role in the team, and play accordingly.
Viper is a tank.
This might seem contradictory to his lowish HP pool in the early game, especially since he isn't a strength hero, but once you have 4 points in Corrosive Skin, you mitigate a large amount of magic damage, and return a significant portion of the damage. Especially once you get Mekansm up, Viper has decent armor and burst HP regen, making him very tanky. Viper should stay on the front lines (much like a 
Centaur Warrunner ), and take damage like a boss, while dishing out large portions of his venom.
Viper is a lane dominator.
Early to mid game, Viper is a great harasser. He is a good candidate for an aggressive trilane. Between Poison Attack and your auto attacks helped by Nethertoxin, you can prevent the enemy carry from getting last hits without taking significant risks. Moreover, Nethertoxin means that your last hitting and denying are significantly more effective, even if your opponent is competent at last hitting. (Keep in mind that Nethertoxin only works at half-effectiveness against creeps)
Viper is primarily a damage-over-time hero.
The longer you stay alive in a fight, the worse it gets for the enemy. What I meant to say here is that, Viper gets a ton of damage from Corrosive Skin and Nethertoxin. Unlike other heroes, it isn't just your right clicks that hurt, but the DoT.
Viper can be an initiator with Aghanim's Scepter if you don't have any other initiators on your team.
Ideally, this shouldn't happen, as you need a reliable initiator on your team (like a 
Magnus or 
Clockwerk), however, if necessary, Viper with Aghanim's Scepter can initiate with Viper Strike. The huge range combined with low cooldown makes it a good initiating skill.
Viper is a teamfight controller once he gets Aghanim's Scepter.
Viper Strike is a fantastic skill in teamfights. 80% attack speed slow on an agility carry is a gamechanger. With Aghanim's Scepter, it is easy to get your ulti off about 2-3 times in a teamfight, and this can turn fights around. A thumb rule in teamfights is to use your ulti on their carry. Don't use it to pick off squishy supports, since Poison Attack is more than enough to take care of them.
Viper is NOT a right click hero.
Items like 
Daedalus don't play as much a role in Viper's play. Sure it would help, but it is not as necessary on a Viper as it is on a hero like 
Drow Ranger or 
Mirana or 
Sniper.
Viper is a good hero to safe lane, if you had hard carries like 
Shadow Fiend or 
Naga Siren that can take mid. Early game, Viper is very squishy, and susceptible to ganks, so you need the safety of supports. Once you get a Mekansm and 4 points in Corrosive Skin, the entire game changes. A safe lane Viper is great for another reason - getting first blood. With a single point in Poison Attack, you can easily get first blood if you have a support (like 
Lion or 
Crystal Maiden or 
Shadow Shaman) that can setup for you.
If you don't have a good mid hero, Viper can definitely lane mid, however, it is not ideal. If you are laning mid, carry an extra Healing Salve in the beginning. If you are mid, you can have a strong lane presence, and shut down the enemy mid, especially if it is a melee hero. With Nethertoxin, you can deny and last hit even if your enemy is playing well. However, early game Viper is extremely squishy, so you need to have a support ward the river. Even then, smoke ganks are possible.
Finally, laning Viper offlane isn't a good idea unless you go dual lanes. Solo Viper can easily get shut down really hard, since he doesn't have any reliable escape mechanism, combined with the fact that he is squishy.
All my item choices are focused around making Viper tankier. Like I mentioned earlier, the main role of Viper is to stand in the front in teamfights and soak up damage. Your items need to help you do that.
Ring of Aquila
This is a great early game pick up for Viper since it gives you everything you need. The Wraith Band is a good starting pickup for any agility hero, and Viper is no exception. It gives you a slight increase in damage as well as stats. 
Ring of Basilius gives Viper the much needed armor early game. The mana regen is also nice to sustain your Poison Attack. Remember to turn off the aura so you don't push the lane into the enemy tower early on.
Power Treads
This is a debatable pickup on Viper. Some people prefer 
Phase Boots since it gives Viper some much needed mobility. However, I prefer Power Treads. The main reason is the ability to switch between strength, agility and int. Against a lane where you aren't harassed much, you can leave the treads on agility and enjoy the bonus damage. If you are being harassed, you can keep them on strength and gain some extra hit points. While chasing down an enemy, you can switch to intelligence to get that extra Poison Attack off. The versatility of Power Treads appeal a lot more to me than the mobility of Phase Boots.
Mekansm
This should be your first pickup on Viper after treads. It gives you everything you need for the midgame. The armor bonus is great on Viper, the burst regen helps you sustain fights and the extra stats definitely help a squishy hero like Viper. Most people make the mistake of going Yasha after treads on a Viper. This is a bad choice. Yasha is a good pickup on agility heroes, but it is less optimal on Viper compared to a Mekansm. Picking up a Mekansm also frees up your supports to buy items like 
Urn of Shadows and 
Force Staff, which help your team as a whole.
Aghanim's Scepter
After getting a Mekansm, pick up a Point Booster at the secret shop. You will build this into an Aghanim's Scepter which, in my opinion, is core on Viper. Having a 12 second ultimate is insanely overpowered in teamfights. The range cannot be underestimated either. It nearly DOUBLES the range of your ultimate (from 500 to 900). To give you a scenario, the range on Viper is 575, and the range on Poison Attack is 600. Having an Aghanim's Scepter allows you to slow an enemy that you cannot otherwise reach.
Heart of Tarrasque
After your core is done, I prefer getting a Heart of Tarrasque. This goes back to your role in teamfights - tanking up. Heart lets you do just that. This is also a great item for sieging since it acts as a portable fountain once you are out of the fight for a while. Much like on a Centaur Warrunner , this is a great pickup on a Viper, since your tankiness skyrockets after this pickup.
Sange and Yasha
Most games should have ended by this point, but for some reason, if it is still going on, you can pick up a Yasha and build it into a Sange and Yasha. I prefer the SnY over the 
Manta Style on a Viper. The reasons for this are, first, Viper isn't inherently an illusion based hero. As such, you don't really build into stat items. This means that, your illusions aren't really that effective compared to, say, a 
Luna's illusions or a 
Morphling's illusions, who naturally build into stat items. As a result, Manta Style just ends up being an item to disjoint stuns and some EHP from the 
Ultimate Orb. However, by this point in the game, you shouldn't be caring about disjointing stuns with your high tanking power. Also, compared to Manta, Sange and Yasha gives more EHP, which is exactly what you need.
Butterfly
Why hasn't the game ended yet? Well, you should pick up a Butterfly next. As with any agility hero, Butterfly gives Viper a ton of EHP. Definitely worth the late game investment. Keep in mind though, make sure you have enough gold for buyback by this point :P
Monkey King Bar
Holy ****! End the game already! I assume by this time, the enemy carry has a Butterfly, and you need to transition to dish out more damage in a teamfight. What better way to do that? Grab an MKB! You can get rid of the Mekansm, since the heal/armor should be negligible by this point.
Is a Shadow Blade useful?
Shadow Blade is a highly debated pickup on a Viper. The initiation factor can prove useful, however, your core is much more important, and by the time you can build a Shadow Blade, it becomes useless. I feel this item is more suited to natural gankers like a 
Slark or a 
Doom.
Why isn't there a Daedalus?
As I have mentioned earlier, your main damage sources comes from the constant DoT and Nethertoxin. A Daedalus is a great item for a hero that relies heavily on direct damage, which is something you don't do. Don't buy a Daedalus on a Viper. The gold can be put to much better use.
Do I need a Black King Bar?
This is a situational pickup. If the enemy team has high control, you should definitely consider getting this after grabbing the Mekansm and Aghanim's Scepter. Often times, I find myself not needing a BKB, but it can definitely be necessary depending on the enemy team.
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