Lifestealer, by noob, for noobs

if thats so, then how about you update your stupid *** item build, I mean really, a mask of madness is guaranteed to get you killed

Thanks
Fleet

Tl;RD
I'm not being nice anymore

Thanks for the feedback, but FYI, i did not just play a couple of games with lifestealer, i played quite a lot, and i just gave advice on what worked best on me, my guide wasn't made for people to explain them things like how to properly time a bkb or anything beyond first time players, this guide is trying to explain to noobs that not dying is one of the most important things to success in dota

thanks for saying anything wrong with this guide, i will update it so it doesn't just tear people's hair out.

people have said everything really^^^

lifesteal items lel wat
Bloodstone...please sir, play more than 1 game
love this part the most: "this guide is all about surviving" doesn't get a fairly early point in rage, tri lanes with stuns will whip your silly *** for this

Having said all this, doing some research and playing some more this could become decent, do everything listed above and it will be good. Then make a game-play section and list nooby life stealer mistakes and small but good tricks to do with him. E.g "you may think your life-steal will let you easily tower dive and be fine early game, however this is not the case ya-de-ya, Some nice tricks for life stealer include, if on low health infest in a nearby creep (enemy creep if possible), you can infest in a teammate to surprise the enemy, using open wounds can slow the enemy allowing you to get a kill

put in some stuff like that and you could really help some new lifestealer players who want to learn a first or second hero

Edit: stopped just *****ing and tried constructive feedback ;)

Thanks Fleet

I find that a lot of new carry hero guides have Bloodstone with them and find it weird, if you need the mana pool a Linken's Sphere would be a much better choice as it gives stats and can cancel a few magic spells. Also Armlet of Mordiggian is less useful in the late game and it might as well be rushed, Urn of Shadows should also be picked up by supports instead.

Few items that should be mentioned are Drum of Endurance to replace Vanguard, a mjolnir for the attack speed, Skull Basher or Abyssal Blade, Sange and Yasha though not as great, Assault Cuirass pretty self explanatory and lastly Hand of Midas which is a great farming tool. Though I might not have mentioned a few items, you should consider some of these in your build.

I'm sorry, but I have to downvote this for now. 8{(

Bloodstone should never be gotten on a Lifestealer, he has no real Mana problems, and what little Mana he needs can be gotten from a Drum of Endurance and a Magic Wand, or as bibidybaba suggested, your Support's Arcane Boots.

Vanguard is wasted on Na'ix as well, you'll get pretty much the same benefit from an Armlet of Mordiggian, but while Damage Block is a little better than 5 Armour early on, the Offense you gain is more than enough to make up. By the time you've built both, the Vanguard will have lost it's effectiveness.

Don't buy a Vladmir's Offering, let someone else do it. I like the Vladmir's Offering Aura on a Lifestealer since it stacks, but for the sake of losing out on 2HP/s, you might as well let someone else build it, since you benefit from the Aura whether you hold it or not.

Mask of Madness can work if you're confident the other Team isn't going to turn around and blast you as soon as Rage wears off, as well as for better Farming, but it's an Orb effect and Armlet of Mordiggian gives you similar offense but is a lot safer to use.

Except, Desolator doesn't stack with other Orb effects, such as the Lifesteal, i.e. Mask of Madness, Morbid Mask, Helm and the Dominator and Satanic.

Desolator + Maelstrom -> Mjollnir is fine though, since the Desolator Debuff lasts 15 seconds, and the Lightning only Procs every few hits.

I dont think lifestealer needs a bloodstone
The bloodstone will be a waste of money if ur playing a carry

Alright, I think it's very noble to try and help beginners by writing guides, BUT if you are a beginner yourself, you will give misleading information to others through a guide.

What is wrong here?

1. Putting one skillpoint in Feast is kinda fine, but it scales terribly with every additional point (starting with 4% lifesteal and going up by just 1%). Rage and Open Wounds are usually better during laning and midgame than Feast. Get points in Rage to play more defensively and points in Open Wounds to be more aggressive (the increased range is a pretty big deal).

2. getting early lifesteal is usually done to farm faster (eg Luna, Dragon Knight), but Naix does not farm faster with lifesteal, since he already has enough lifesteal himself and also hasn't the ability to farm multiple creeps at the same time.
Since your damage is very low early on, the 10% lifesteal is pretty insignificant, too!

3. Urn of Shadows is a support item and should not be bought on carrys! Naix needs his money for far more important items to become an effective damage dealer.

4. Only buy Bracer if you want to upgrade it into drums of endurance !

5. perseverence ! It is a common misconception amongst beginners, that this item is awesome, because: hell yeah, free regen! But let me tell you that it is basically wasted gold, because naix does not need mana regen, nor HP regen. In fights the HP regen does almost nothing for you.
Only get it, if you want to upgrade it to something else right away. which brings me to...

6. Bloodstone is not really good for Naix. As i said, you don't need mana regen (especially late game, where you have a lot of mana anyway) and for tankyiness there are simply better items, like BKB, satanic, heart, butterfly, AC, etc. Also Bloodstone is only usefull, if you get it as early as possible to get as much charges as possible.
If you really, really want to have mana regen, get an orchid, which additionally gives a nice silence. (very situational item on Naix)

7. Vanguard also not really a good item for carries (mostly), since it is only good the first ~20 minutes and is basically dead slot in the late game. Especially Naix can do much better during that time with an early Armlet/drums/SnY.
Vanguard used to be bought on melee carries a lot in the past, but since melee base regeneration got buffed it kinda got outdated. Usually even a Mekansm would be a better choice than Vanguard. (don't buy it on naix, though)

lifesteal on lifestealer? ironic.

no lifesteal on lifestealer .Why? because he doesnt need it.

NO BLOODSTONE. why do you need bloodstone?just ask a support to make arcane boots or something..

never max feast first.I'll tell you why.the fact is feast comes into play only when the opposite heroes get tankier. are they tanky from levels 1-11? definitely not.

deso good choice.make Mjollnir to maximise the damage output from Feast before you start maxing out the skill itself

It's not terrible (albeit I'm a terrible lifestealer, so I probably shouldn't be saying much), but typically you want to go for high damage output or attack speed, as it increases survivability through lifesteal (-waits for "no derp the character is called 'LIFESTEALER'"-)

In my games I typically go for basher -> Abyssal, other tanky items like Heart aren't too bad either. I would think a Satanic wouldn't be too bad for the extra tankiness + bonus lifesteal.

A Heaven's Halberd wouldn't be a terrible pickup either.