Jungle N'aix, So that is what gold is for!

Introduction

After reading a few of the guides on DOTAFire for N'aix some of them are quite interesting but none of them match exactly how I play N'aix so I figured I'de write this guide, I hope it helps you enjoy lifestealer better.


In Development
Add Situational Items to Item Explanation
Friends and Foes In Depth Discussion
Choke-point Jungling(If people want it)
Infest Gank Section
Item Explanations
Jungle Map
Better description in jungling section




Updates
2/26/2013 4:48pm Updated Skill explanations to better reflect what they do and situations to use them.
2/26/2013 3:34pm Updated Item Build to reflect more situational items and to show build order.
2/27/2013 3:08pm Updated Creeping/Jungle section to reflect Early/Mid/Late game play. Added Jungle Map.
2/27/2013 4:33pm Added Item Explanation Section.
2/28/2013 10:38am Added Infest In-Depth Section

Skills

Rage

N'aixs rage ability is an attack speed steroid with a built in Black King Bar(Spell Immunity). This ability allows you to tear into your opponents. Although this ability can be used purely as a steroid it has other purposes as well. If you are fighting a team with a lot of strong initiators you can use just prior to when you believe they will initiate, thus avoiding most stuns and disables thrown at you. It can also be used as an escape mechanism. Combined with your Open Wounds Skill(To be explained later) it can almost ensure you make a clean get away by stopping disables thrown at you by enemy players.


Feast

Feast is where N'aix really shines. Feast does a percentage of your opponents current health back to them as damage and that damage is also given to you as life (This applies to all creeps except Roshan). This should be the skill you prioritize above everything but your ult. Max this by level 7.


Open Wounds

Open Wounds is N'aixs third ability. Open Wounds is target ability then when cat on an enemy slows their movement speed by 70% and enables anyone who hits them to gain a percentage of that damage back as life, this also includes spells. This ability is great for trying to chase opponents down as well for escaping when used in conjunction with Rage.


Infest

Infest is N'aixs ultimate ability. Upon casting on a unit N'aix enters that unit like a parasite. When he reactivates he deals AoE damage to everyone in a 700 range. If it was a creep that was infested he will consume the unit as well restoring hp equal to the units current health pool. Infest is a great ability for ganking. Use it in conjunction with your teams initiators or even the more mobile members of your team to surprise your enemies. In the Friends and Foes section of the guide I will explain some good Peek-A-Boo tactics/matchups. Also Infest can be a life saver when you are running away from a team fight with low hp you can use it to hide or even come close to full health to re-enter the fight.

Pros / Cons

Pros

• High damage versus tanky heroes
• Can hard carry if no ranged carry picked
• Low learning curve
• Infest ganks are brutal
• Built in BKB is a plus

Cons

• Very item dependant
• Jungle speed dependent on creep spawns
• Weak early/mid game versus most heros
• Counter jungling/wards can hurt you bad
• Ganking is risky early

Creeping / Jungling

Early Game

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Alright so youve started your game and are ready to go, but where do you start? Well you cant start jungling till the 30 second mark. So take that early time to roam with your team and help them where you can, but make sure you are near the small camp(marked with an S) ready to start at the 30 second mark. Kill the small camp of creeps, depending on what spawn you got for small creeps you may be able to kill them by the 0:55 second mark. If you can do that back away from the camp fast and let the new creeps spawn at the 1:00 min mark. If you cant kill them by 0:55 you can try to stack your own creeps. This is hard to do and I would not suggest doing it, personally Im bad at it(9 times out of 10 Ive failed) so I dont do it. After killing the small camp proceed to move between the medium camps and small camp. Once you have feast level 2 you can start on the Large camps

Camps to be wary of:

Hellbear, Wildwing These camps should not be attempted until you have 3 points in feast(If possible), they hit extremely hard and will greatly hinder your jungling speed(Due to lowering your health pool significantly, especially if you fail to kill them.

Centaur This camp is not particularly hard but it can spawn in the medium camp zones so keep that in mind. They can be beaten without too much effort with level 2 feast.

At the 9 minute mark, that being the absolute longest time it should take to get your Hand of Midas you should be able to clear all camps with relative ease. With Hand of Midas take out the biggest monster in each camp so you get the 2.5x xp boost. This will get you higher levels faster so you can start ganking and killing ancients, which should be doable at level 7(4 Point Feast)

Mid game

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Now depending how you and your team are doing dictates your mid game. By mid game, 20-25 minutes, you should have your core complete. If you are doing well you may even be starting or even finishing your Skull Basher. With your armlet you are not capable of taking on most characters. As Naix your best bet in a fight is to take out the tankier fighters. Wait a minute, did he just tell me to go for the tanky heroes? Yes, I did. Naixs feast is the reason for this. Since you deal a percentage of their current health in damage as well as heal off that. It is more effective to fight tanky heroes. Youll be able to stay alive longer and better utilize your armlet. Note: THIS DOES NOT MEAN COMPELETELY IGNORE SQUISHIES! You are just as adept at taking out mid ranged health enemies too. It just may require a different approach and skill management. Make sure you are helping your team through the mid game while keeping your Hand of Midas on cooldown for that extra 190 gold.

Late Game

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This is where all that racing(farming as fast as you can) pays off. By now you shouldve completed your build. Your job now is to teamfight, and Naix excels at this. Use your Infest (See Peek-A-Boo section) to trick and devastate your opponents. At this point depending on how well Im doing I like to upgrade my Skull Basher to an Abyssal Blade(See Item Explanation for why).

Friends and Foes

This section I will explain some good teammates that go with N'aix and Some match-ups that really hurt N'aix


Friends
Foes
As amazing as N'aix is he isn't unstoppable and these are a few of the Heroes that can really rip you apart.

Riki is also a great counter to Lifestealer. His Invisibility makes him tough to catch but his smokescreen is what will get ya everytime. If you can't hit him you can't heal. Almost forces you to buy a MKB if he's getting really strong.

Drow is another problem hero for N'aix. Her slow is tough to deal with. Now everyone says you can just Rage through her slow and catch her. Yes this is an option but I see a lot of Drows going Shadow Blade. Activate Rage she activates Shadow Blade, proceed to feel really stupid and then die.

Troll Warlord is a situational hazard. By this I mean he can or cannot pose a problem to you. His attack speed buffs and bash can really mess you up. So depending on your items and his plan accordingly.

Item Explanation

Core Build

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Hand of Midas
Hand of Midas is a must have for jungle Naix. The bonus attack speed is great, the more times you attack the more damage you can do and the more life you can steal. Aside from that you should be using Hand of Midass on CD(Cooldown). Before the 20-25 minute mark use it on large creeps to net the most experience. After the 25 minute mark use it on smaller creeps to be gold efficient.

Power Treads
Power Treads(Str Only) are great on Naix. Once again the attack speed bonus allows you to dish out more damage to your opponents and sustain yourself better in the jungle. The strength you get from the boots also boost your survivability because you have more health to take damage with.

Armlet of Mordiggian
Armlet is your main source of damage. To use Armlet correctly, make sure you do not leave it on too long. Use it to either prolong your team fighting capability or to give yourself that little extra damage to burst a hero down before open wounds runs out.


Late Game Items

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Skull Basher
Skull basher should be the next item in your built once youve finished armlet. Skull basher is a must have on Naix because it enables him to finish kills easier. Its especially useful against blink characters because it enables you to be capable of killing them with a lucky stun. Not to mention the extra strength you get boosts your survivability and damage.

Assault Cuirass
AC is next on your list finishing out your final build without luxury items. Its especially good for dealing with the tanky characters that pick up armor or even against squishies lowering their armor to nothing. After your basher, go straight for a Hyper Stone. With this bad boy you will be able to do some serious damage. After picking up HS finish up your AC and enjoy the pure damage and tankyness you bring to the table.

Luxury items

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Abyssal Blade
After Ive finished my AC I personally turn my basher into an AB. Now some may argue that Buriza(Daedalus) is better for damage output. Well to be completely honest, they are right. I choose AB over Buriza because of the utility AB brings to the table. Now, not only do you have a bash you also have a 2 second stun THAT CAN GO THROUGH BKB! That value of having an almost unmitigatable stun(Linkens stops it) that can take 2 seconds off an enemies BKB or even just to stop an enemy for 2 seconds so you can destroy them is worth more than raw damage output to me.

Daedalus
Buriza(Daedalus) Is the last item I usually build if there is no need for a situational item. Daedalus is your raw damage output item. The damage it adds combined with the crit will allow you to just rip into your opponents.

Infest In-Depth Explanation

Due to popular demand this section has been added to better emphasize the use of Infest. Infest is N’aixs ultimate, meaning you can take this skill at 6/11/16. What this ability allows you to do is hide in allied heroes, allied minions, and enemy minions. If you activate Infest a second time it will deal 150/270/400 damage to all enemies in a 700 radius, if you were occupying a minion/creep you will also consume them restoring health equal to their hp at activation. While you are occupying a unit you are “invisible”, by this I mean that there is no tell to the enemy team of which target you are infesting. This can be very useful if you are trying to run away from an enemy. If you can break line of sight you may be able to Infest into a jungle creep to hide and escape your pursuer. Where infest really shines is ganking. By hiding in your allies you can easily turn a 1v1 into a 2v1, so on and so forth. This element of surprise can really throw your opponents off if they do not suspect that you are infesting a team mate. You can also use infest on your minions heading to a lane and pop out and surprise and unsuspecting enemy who thinks he’s just farming away at minions.

These are a few of my favorite heroes to infest and gank with in what I call Peek-A-Boo style!

Peek-A-Boo Spirit Breaker

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Spirit Breaker is a really entertaining hero to do infest ganks with. Due to the sheer amount of CC he brings to the table, ganking with him is almost a guaranteed kill every time. Hop into Breaker before he begins his charge and use him to traverse the map to his target. Pop out and proceed to pound the poor unfortunate soul you chose to tear into.


Peek-A-Boo Rikimaru

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Rikimaru is an extremely fun person to infest gank with as well. As soon as riki hits 6 you can use him to sneak up on just about every hero. Hop into riki have him stalk the target and strike when you feel you can get the kill. Easy as pie!


Peek-A-Boo Tidehunter

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Tidehunter is my personal favorite to Peek-A-Boo with. There are more efficient people to do ti with but tidehunters ult combined with the infest damage can be almost enough to one shot people. If it doesn’t, well that stun makes it REALLY easy to mop up whoever is alive and in range. Hoping in tidehunter getting as close as you can to an enemy group and letting the damage fly you can easily pick up 2-3 kills if you catch them right.


This is just a few of the characters you can Peek-A-Boo style with. The general rule of thumb is to find characters with:

• High Mobility
• CC(Crowd Control)
• Stealth
• Global Range

Summary

So this is my first guide I've ever written. Please feel free to leave feedback about the build. If you vote, whether it be up or down, I would appreciate it if you left a comment about why you chose to do s. That way I can improve the guide. I will be adding Item explanations and Photo images for jungle route and such as time allows it. Thanks for reading and hope you enjoy Lifestealer.