Hyper-Viper: The Guide

Honestly, i feel that Viper is definatly the most effective hero in the game. Only if you have an effective support to grant him the early kills. Aghnahams Scepter could make him spam Viper Strike in team fights; where viper is most effective. MKB is also useful.

What you did is certainly valid, although Sange and Yasha are pretty useless on Viper, as you would do better to complete Yasha into Manta Style, which has always proven to be useful. The definite drawback of what you did though is a lack of mana regeneration, and if you even use your ultimate rarely, you will find yourself running back to base ever so often, and that was one of the points of Orchid Malevolence, which is the best item you can get on Viper, imo. Or if you don't want to go for orchid, you can buy an Eul's Scepter of Divinity, which also adresses your mana regen problem, while also giving you a nifty movespeed bonus along with a useful active.
The last thing i will say, Vitality Booster was there only as an early ingridient for Heart of Tarrasque.

Used the casual viper item guide and got 40 kills for 1 Death. I opt out of Orchid Malevolence and instead go for Assault Cuirass, then Butterfly and make Yasha into a Sange and Yasha before going on to get Heart of Tarasque. I opt out of Vitality booster as well. Thanks for all the effort, I really appreciate it! Keep up the good guides :)

Thanks for the appreciation and stay tuned for updates!

Signed up for dota fire just because of this guide. have been using the item guide from the usual viper and have met with great success. Thanks for all the hard work, it is appreciated

Surprise! Updated the guide with a new build, inclined towards being tough and durable. Comments to the build will be done a bit later!

Try it out and see if you can make it work for you. The increased range opens up many more situations to use Viper Strike, e.g. when both teams are poking around for a 5v5 team fight: If one of them is even slightly out of position just ulti him from 900 away and see if your team can initiate on that. The increased range really helps in this aspect.

In my last game I was up against a Silencer. I went for an early Aghanim's Scepter which was great: any silencer worth his gold knows that Viper Strike is your only spell and they will spam curse of the silent and Last Word on you (the debuffs can only be avoided by using Viper Strike) which was a big problem until I got the reduced 12 sec cool down on my ulti- then I completely owned the silencer. Then I went Manta Style which sucks against silencer if he spams curse of the silent a lot because even with an upgraded ult you will loose some mana and often not have enough for manta. Should have built Butterfly.

Thanks for the notice Yosiu, i forgot to change the starting items on the rest of the builds, the starting items for the second build are the same as the first one! And yes, the Circlet and one Slippers of Agility pretty much means that the first thing you will buy is the Wraith Band.

I really like the guide, i have only one notice:
The starting items for dps build(second one) are not cost efficient. There is no point in taking them if you don't plan to get Wraith Band. In exactly same cost as 2x Slippers of Agility and 1 Circlet you can get whole Wraith Band and you get this way 1 more strength, inteligence and atk dmg in one equip slot instead of 3. Or you can get your proposed starting item and then get Wraith Band before or just after Boots of Speed. Taking them to sell, and not to create wraith band is waste of gold.

Well, maybe i am doing it wrong, but i rarely find myself enough opportunities to use the Viper Strike in the same teamfight. That, and i think there are much more useful stuff to get that early on. And yes, i completely forgot about the fact that the ult-stick reduces the manacost too, as i didn't buy it much in my games. I will definitely give it a try, and maybe add another build with a relatively early Aghanim's Scepter
Thanks!

Actually I have played Viper a lot with getting Aghanim's Scepter straight after my boots, ring (and maybe Shadow Blade). The scepter gives you enough bonus mana (+280) that I rarely find myself lacking mana even when " spamming" the ult every 12 seconds in every teamfight- like I said my experience is that it actually solves Viper's slight mana issue instead of making it worse: During mid-game if you don't have the scepter sometimes after prolonged teamfights the enemy escapes because I'm out of mana at a critical point so I can't slow them down (or I cannot escape with Shadow Blade)

I know you don't recommend Vanguard, the comment was directed at other players and Valve's official item build for Viper.

Heya Tikru8, the reasoning is quite simple: Viper just can't spam his ultimate much, unless he is defending the base, which is a bad scenario to be in. You should have enough mana to spit some Poison Attack, and at least for about 2 Shadow Blade uses. Basically, in a typical mid-game teamfight, one ultimate and the things i mentioned above will pretty much drain all your mana. Another ultimate from the scepter is possible, but you wouldn't have the mana to cover your retreat and you will be pretty much screwed. Therefore, i do not recommend the Scepter as something to rush after your basic core items. Sure, the bonus stats are good, and the fact of it composing from many relatively cheap parts is too, but those stats are not worth all the gold and an increase to youw ultimate that you can abuse only in a very limited number of situations. It is more of a late-game buy for me.
And if you would've actually read the guide, you will see that i do not recommend buying Vanguard on him, as it is just so massively cost-ineffective on him.