Guide to Carry Necrolyte

Introduction

Hello, I am Firaja and this is my guide on Necrolyte. This guide is based on my personal exprerience on this hero.

I will be going over the hero skills, items and play style. I will try to be as exhaustive as possible during your reading.
Last premise: this guide is for those who already have a little experience with Necrolyte (in any case I will try to explain the basics of this guy); but above all I don't recommend this hero for dota beginners (regardless of the build).

Oh and last but not least sorry for my bad english and feedback will be appreciated. This is my first guide

Can you play Necro?

In public match after picking Necrolyte you can often read on chat

RiGhTcLiCkEr: can u play necro?

Why? there is a saying: if tou pick Necrolyte or you are noob or you are pro.
Most of the average players don't know how to use this hero because of his play style (I will talk about that further); BUT you can take this to your advantage: opponents may underestimate you because few know the potential of this hero (in pubs).

Pros / Cons

Pro

• Ranged Hero (550 range)
• Unlimited mana with Sadist maxed
• Spammable AOE Nuke/Heal (5s cooldown if maxed)
• Anti-tank hero with Heartstopper Aura + Reaper's Scythe
• Very annoying if farmed
• Very very versatile hero
• Good harrasser (if you decide to max early Heartstopper Aura)

Cons

• No stuns/disables (or you can troll with Heartstopper Aura's stun)
• Easy to gank if solo
• First focused in teamfight
• Item dependent to prevent his death

When I should follow this guide?

This guide is not the universal bible of Necrolyte and it has some limitations (especially in early/mid game).
It can't be used when

• There are no supports (in this case YOU are the support)
• An hard carry is with you in lane (you have to harrass and not to farm)
• Squishy friend is with you in lane (you must defend your little friend and keep away from him harrassment)
• If you play mid (or solo)
• You are not very good as a carry

It can be used when

• In lane fase you have with you a good disabler
• There are no carry in you team (LOL)
• You have in your team 1 or 2 supports

Skills

Death Pulse

Necrolyte releases a wave of death around him, dealing damage to enemy units and healing allied units. Radius: 475 Damage: 75/125/200/275 Heal: 70/90/110/130 Cooldown: 8/7/6/5 Mana: 125/145/165/185

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This is your primarly and nuke skill. It's very important during teamfights or ganking. It guarantees to you and to your team durability and can save more then a life.
Can be spammed very easily with a very low cooldown if Sadist is maxed.




Heartstopper Aura

Necrolyte stills the hearts of his opponents, causing nearby enemy units to lose a percentage of their max health over time. Radius: 1000 Max Health Lost Per Second: 0.6%/0.9%/1.2%/1.5%

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This ability makes Necrolyte very annoying. With this aura your durability in teamfight is essential. Also it can hits invisible and magic immune units.




Sadist

Revelling in death and pain, the Necrolyte gains HP and mana regeneration for killing units. Lasts 6 seconds. Hero Kills give 10 times the bonus. Duration: 6 Mana Regen Per Second: 2/4/6/10 Health Regen Per Second: 1/2/3/4 Hero kills: Gives 10x the current bonus rate

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This is your source of mana and hp! If maxed you can survive during teamfights easily (if you kill an hero... Reaper's Scythe will ensures you at least one kill). It helps you during the lane phase when you have to farm and survive (spamming your Death Pulse).
It also triggered by denies.




Reaper's Scythe

Stuns the target enemy hero, then deals damage based on how much life it is missing. Range: 600 Stun Duration: 1.5 Damage Dealt Per Missing Hit Point: 0.4/0.6/0.9 (0.6/0.9/1.2) Cooldown: 100/85/70 (70/70/70) Mana: 175/340/500 (150/340/500) Damage is blocked; Stun is not Increases damage per HP missing, decreases mana cost for Level 1, and decreases cooldown for levels 1 and 2.

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Use this ulti only if you are sure to get the kill because of the hp/mana regen given by Sadist. You can kill heroes with 20% / 30% / 45% health
With Aghanim's Scepter you can kill heroes with 55% health (ignoring magic resistance...45% is good for everyone)

Item Choice

Starting Items

Tango are very usefull to help you sustain lane harrasement
Blades of Attack helps you to last hit (ca$h) and harrass
Iron Branch gives you little stats and and should be turned into a Magic Wand
if you randomed buy other 2 Iron Branches

With this items you are very squishy and you must be very very carefull while farming!!!
Also keep in mind that if you harrass costantly you make 2 mistakes:

1. If you harrass you may lose some last hits
2. The harrassment is always returned back and you have no sustain (death for you)

Note: I started building with these 3 items after seeing a Purge gameplay

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Early Game

Boots of Speed helps you to catch last hits and gives you some chanche to run away in dangerous situations. Buy it soon as possible

Magic Stick makes the difference between making a kill or dying. Sometimes Death Pulse is not sufficient to save you

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Core

Magic Wand it explains itself: good stats and fixes mana problems
If your lane mate has Arcane Boots or is Keeper of the Light you can forbear to upgrade your Magic Stick (remember: you must optimize your farm)

Phase Boots gives you a good amount of damage and helps you to be more aggressive. Why no Power Treads?? Because positioning for Necrolyte is absolutely important and the speed burst allows you to perform your job. Then if you are chasing an enemy hero the burst helps the range of Heartstopper Aura to catch the bounty or can get you out of sticky situations.

Point Booster makes you a bit more tanky and it will turned into Aghanim's Scepter

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Late

Aghanim's Scepter is a must item because you can kill the enemy tank easily (often strenght tank has low magic resistance). Also gives you good sustain

Radiance the fun begins! With your Heartstopper Aura + 45dmg/s you are very very annoyng during long teamfights! And in addition you have more damage
Build it after Bloodstone or Heart of Tarrasque if there's no tank in you team

Bloodstone very good item for extra HP/Mana and allows you to respawn earlier (you have to be the more present as you can in fights). This can help some hero running away with low health (and maybe grants you a kill if the chaser has low hp too)
A good alternative is Heart of Tarrasque

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Luxury/Situationals

Shiva's Guard makes you more tanky with extra armor. A good choice to counter enemy's lifestealing or right-clicker heroes during teamfights

Heart of Tarrasque is a must if you play Necrolyte as a tank not as carry in my opinion. Build it if you don't have a tank or if you are the first focused in teamfights

Dagon ZAP!
It can help you to complete a kill (or to reduce enemy's hp and then use Reaper's Scythe) or to finish/impair some annoying support

Boots of Travel in latest stages of game if you have extra gold your Phase Boots are outclassed if you need to push for the victory. You can TP yourself in any lane in order to push. You should be enough tanky so don't worry and GO

Aegis of the Immortal the usual rule: the more you stay alive the more damage you deal with only your presence.

Gem of True Sight where are you Riki, Clinkz, Bounty Hunter and Shadow Blade?

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Trolling

Shadow Blade + Radiance + Heartstopper Aura maxed
never stay in the middle of enemy team with invisibility actived (or they can understand where you are) but at the sides of the group!

Play Style

Early Game
An early level of Death Pulse guarantees subsistence to you, but do not abuse: if you push too much you may be targeted for a gank.
At this stage your goal is farming better as you can. A really good companion is Lich that prevents you from pushing too much with Sacrifice.
You are a a really bad ganker ( Heartstopper Aura reveals you even if hidden, you are very slow (390) and you haven't any initiation skill); therefore stay in your lane and farm! As I said Blades of Attack facilitates last hitting.
Level 1 time Heartstopper Aura for a good passive harrassment and makes every tango reduced in power.
Don't be too aggressive unless a good coordination with your lane mate
Just farm.


Mid Game
It's time to get some kill!! Remember you are not a good hitter (like Morphling or Shadow Fiend): you make the difference if you use correctly Death Pulse and Reaper's Scythe; also even if your health is low try to stay close to the fight: if an enemy is fleeing is not so unlikely that Heartstopper Aura kills him.
Also remember that a good coordination with your team is very usefull: how many wasted Reaper's Scythes because all focus one target...team should reduce enemy tank's hp and let you to kill him easily! So meanwhile your team can focus other targets
If the enemy tank is not too dangerous then focus their carry
Using your ulti on a squishy hero or support is a waste too!!!
Another waste is using Death Pulse instantly: you should wait a bit in order to heal and damage. If you use this skill immediately you waste the healing power! (may seem like a small thing but really makes the difference)


Late Game
With your double aura ( Radiance + Heartstopper Aura maxed) enemy supports with less than 1200/1500 hp can't stay too cloeser to the battle! If you decently farmed with Dagon enemy team will no longer have supports.
You have a moderate attack damage and with Bloodstone (or Heart of Tarrasque) the game is in your hands!
Keep alive and never initiate! Remember that often in late game a lost teamfight will decide the fate of the match!


In pubs game you are understimated
I noticed that in public matches peolple understimates you...and this is a good source of kills!
I have seen low hp carries who came to me in order to kill me, but they made a bad end thanks to Reaper's Scythe and I won a charge on my Bloodstone, HP / Mana regen...so I could stay in battle longer

Friends & Foes

Friends
Lion, Nyx Assassin, Bane, Sven, Tiny for their powerfull stuns/disables
Lich, Keeper of the Light if ueses Illuminate only to harrass and not to hit creeps
Venomancer if initiates correctly makes your double decay aura is really devastating
Lifestealer is the best anti-tank you can imagine
Huskar's Life Break + Reaper's Scythe = GG for low magic resistance enemies
Dazzle & Omniknight make you unbearable


Foes
Pudge because you don't have any escape
Dazzle can ruin your Reaper's Scythe with Shallow Grave
Silencer, Drow Ranger, Doom Bringer you are not very good if silenced and you can't help with your aura only
Riki just kidding...he's not a problem for smart players...just stay away from smoke and buy Gem of True Sight

Notes

I think this build for Necrolyte is quite uncommon because a lot of people build him as a support (me too). I have seen many pro players picking Necrolyte in pubs (in professional contexts this guy is less effective than other heroes) and builded like that (with some variations...like SingSing with Heaven's Halberd rotfl).
Also I think is very difficult to build a pure carry Necrolyte...is closer to the role of semy-carry
I really appreciate constructive feedbacks! This is my first guide
And sorry again for my bad english :( I promise I will improve