Lifestealer - Jungle Guide

Introduction

Welcome to my Lifestealer jungle guide. Lifestealer is an amazing hard carry who is normaly chosen to counter tanky hero's like Pudge. He is fairly weak early-mid game but makes up for it with an amazing late game. This is also my first guide, so criticism is always welcome.

*This guide is made for pubs and should shouldn't be looked at as a competitive guide.

Pros / Cons

Pros

-Only takes a few games to lean.
-Built in BKB with attack speed steroid.
-Walk all over any tanky hero.
-Can hide inside hero's on your team for deadly ganks.
-Good amount of free lifesteal for you and your team.
-Great late game.

Cons

-Weak early game.
-Less damage vs. non-tanky opponents.
-Jungle speed is spawn dependent.
-Farm dependent.
-Wards, Smoke of Deceit or Ganks can hurt your jungle greatly.

Skills

Rage
-80% attack speed at max level
-4.75 seconds of magic immunity
-15 second CD with 75 mana cost

-Great skill to help you stay alive while increasing your damage.
-Don't use it at the start of a fight to increase your damage if you're fighting someone with a stun like Skeleton King or Vengeful Spirit, try to use it when they cast their stun (takes a little practice).
-Some hero's have ability's that go trough magic immunity, Pudge hook or Viper Ulti for example.
-Don't use it at all in the jungle, its just a waste of mana if you do.


Feast
-Heals you for 7% (at max level) of your enemy's current HP every attack while doing the same damage to them
-Passive skill

-This skill is what makes Lifestealer an incredible tanky hero destroyer.
-Gives a great deal of sustain.
-Allows him to jungle at level 1.
-Goes very well with items that grant attack speed like Mjollnir.



Open Wounds
-600 range (if you have console enabled type "dota_display_range 600" to get an idea of the range)
-12 second CD at max level
-30% lifesteal at max level for anyone who attacks the target while the debuff is up (this includes spells)
-70% slow but it reduces over time
-110 mana cost
-lasts for 8 seconds

-Use it to close the distance if no one else can stun/slow or to slow someone chasing you.
-Make sure not to stack it with other peoples snares, slows or stuns.
-The heal includes spells so it is useful for everyone on your team.
-If you get an Ursa camp (they do the most damage to you early game) spawn in the jungle around level 3-5 and are out of Tangos and under 75% hp use it so you have the HP to gank, survive a gank or not have to buy more tangos.


Infest
-150/275/400 damage in a 700 aoe
-100 second CD
-50 mana cost
-Hide in an ally or creep
-When you leave a creep you infested you will be healed for their current hp

-Great for ganking.
-One shot creeps in the jungle, speeding it up early. Don't use it on jungle creeps to save time past 25 minutes or if you want to gank soon.
-Allows you to leave Armlet on when you are killing jungle creeps.
-You still get XP while inside something.
-Use it in a teamfight on a nearby creep to get a quick heal or just hop into an ally with a good escape ability.
-The damage is done to invisible units, so if someone just stealthed with not much hp near you use infest to deal that little extra bit of damage that will kill them.
-Goes together well with hero's like Storm Spirit and Natures Prophet.

Items

Starting Items

Stout Shield - 250
Quelling Blade - 225
Tangos - 90

This is the basic starting build for jungle on Lifestealer.
The Tangos can be switched out for a Healing Salve, although I find it much easier to start out with Tangos.

*If you are a little low on HP because of jungle spawns or ganking buy a Healing Salve or some Tangos and send them over with the courier.

Core

Hand of Midas - 1900, Gloves of Haste + Recipe (1400)
Armlet - 2600, Gloves of Haste + Blades of Attack + Helm of Iron Will + Recipe (700)
Power Treads (Keep them on STR) - 1450, Gloves of Haste + Boots of Speed + Belt of Strength

*Note that you can buy everything but the recipes from the two side shops.

These items are all must have for Lifestealer jungle and should be picked up as soon as possible.

To jungle as fast as possible buy the items in this order.
Hand of Midas > Boots of Speed > Armlet > Upgrade Boots of Speed into Power Treads.

Because Hand of Midas gives bonus gold and experience while instantly killing the creep (works on everything but Roshan and Ancients) it is best used on the larger creeps early game. When you get to around level 16 and can kill larger creeps with a few auto attacks its best to use Hand of Midas on the smaller creeps.

If you are over 75% hp Armlet can be left on while in the jungle, it is very dangerous to be walking around the jungle with less than 75% hp when midlane could roam and just happen to find bump into you. Just remember to turn it off when you are traveling between camps.

Power Treads should be left on STR 99% of the time. The only exception to this is if you need just a little bit more mana for a spell you should switch them to INT, they should be switched back to STR ASAP after.

Late Game

Daedalus - 5750, Demon Edge + Crystalys + Recipe (1200)
Assault Curi*** - 5350, Platemail + Chainmail + Hyperstone + Recpie (1300)
Mjollnir - 5400, Hyperstone + Maelstrom + Recipe (600)

Daedalus - You general want to get attack speed items like Hyperston, Mjollnir or Assault Curi*** because of the synergy with your skills. Although if you are playing against a very squishy team Daedalus is much better item.

Assault Curi*** - An amazing item that works very well with your skill set. Not many spells will be cast on you because of rage, so you will be focused more by physical damage and Assault Curi*** covers this weakness while helping your teams damage and survivability. Get this if no one else on your team has one or is making one(the aura doesn't stack).

Mjollnir - Because of how attack speed works with feast this item will up your damage output by a huge amount. But the amazing attack speed isn't the only thing that makes Mjollnir a great item, the orb effect has a 25% chance to send out a 160 damage chain lightning spell that will bounce to other near by enemies (500 range aoe). The orb damage is averages out to 40 extra damage per attack in an aoe, so if it was to bounce to the max amount of targets possible (4) you would be doing an extra 160 damage per attack. It also has a spell called static charge you have to activate it by casting it on a teammate or yourself, it gives a 20% chance every time you are attacked to deal 200 damage to the attacker and two others near him (900 range), this effect can only happen once every second. Remember to save 50 mana to cover the cost of static charge.

Situational

Black King Bar (BKB) - If you are playing against a team that has a great deal of spells that are blocked by magic immunity and rage just isn't enough. Remember that a few skills go trough magic immunity, like Doom Bringers doom.

Blademail - Get this if you find yourself being focused a lot. Its also a great item to deal with any fed carry.

Butterfly - Although this item does have agility and is rather expensive it has amazing stats. Great for going against a team with a lot of hero's that are dependent on auto attacking while giving you good damage and a lot of attack speed.

Desolator - Not that great an item on Lifestealer but if you find yourself playing on team that has a lot of armor reduction abilities (Dazzle or Slardar) it will be a great increase in damage. It gives -6 armor to who ever you attack for 7 seconds, just remember that it is an orb effect that doesn't stack so make sure no one else on your team has one and that you don't have any other orb effects already.

Hood of Defiance - If you are going against a team with extremely heavy magic damage and rage just is not preventing that much magic damage then get this item. Note that it can be fully made in one of the side shops.

Monkey King Bar (MKB) - Makes it so your attacks will not miss while giving you good stats and a mini-bash. This item is an amazing counter to Riki and should always be rushed (after core) against one. Note that it doesn't work against Faceless Void.

Satanic - This is the best lifesteal item in the game, giving you 25% and an extra 175% every 3.5 seconds on a 35 second cooldown. Its an amazing item to get if you find yourself being focused and against a team with not that much cc.

Skull Basher - Get this if you find yourself on a team with no or very little cc. Its very cheap and affordable but I recommend getting one of the items I mentioned in the late game section of the item guide before Skull Basher.

Jungling

Jungling in dota takes a little bit of explaining and I find this video to do it well. Play Video This video (not mine) explains some of the more detailed jungling concepts but to simplify it.
-Creeps will not spawn if you are standing near their camp.
-They spawn every minute.
-There are 3 different types of jungle camps
Large - Hardest to kill but give a lot of gold. Avoid these till level 4-5 and use Hand of Midas on the biggest creep at these camps.
Medium - Not that hard to kill but annoying at levels 1-3 .
Small - Easy to kill but give very little gold. -Always look for options to gank.
-Let your team know you are going to jungle and someone will have to solo a lane.
-The jungle doesn't mean you are safe pay attention to MIA calls and be ready for possible ganks.
-Be ready to cover a lane if needed.
-If you are passing by take 2 seconds to check the rune if they just spawned (every 2 minutes).
-The jungle doesn't spawn till 30 seconds into the game.
-Always focus the biggest creep first or the healing troll.

Now with that aside, here is the jungle route I take
-Start of by checking the rune or by helping your team creep block.
-Head over to the small camp on your side of the map and stand off to the side a little so you don't block the creeps from spawning.
-Kill the small camp asap, if you killed it before 00:56 on the clock move away so it spawns and then kill the camp again. This is spawn based, healing troll and wraiths mean you just got unlucky and wont be able to kill the small camp for free again.
-Use your Tangos when you start getting around 70-80% hp.
-Now after you have killed the small camp once or twice, head over to the medium camp.
-Dire go left and pull the medium camp into an on coming creep wave (attack the creeps once then move into the lane behind the tower so the creeps in the lane will attack them and tank the damage, practice this part in a private game first for a while).
-Radiant go Right to the medium camp.
-After you kill the medium camp head over to the other medium camp.
-Focus on killing small/medium camps and ganking till you are level 3.
-At level 3 add the large camps into your jungle, just be more careful.
-When you get to level 6 use infest to instantly kill large hp jungle mobs and get some hp back if you are low. Don't use if you plan to gank with it.
-I find hiding in a creep wave while out of sight is an amazing way to use this skill for early game ganks.
-Try to have Hand of Midas before 10 minutes.
-Around 25 minutes you should have your core done, this is the ideal time to come out of the jungle and start carrying your team. You should also stop using infest in the jungle around this time.

General Tips

-Make sure someone on your team can win a 1v2 lane.
-Hero's with a lot of CC or a good stun go great on a team with Lifestealer.
-Be careful for hero's who can perma-bashers like faceless void.
-Magic immune stops blademail damage.
-Pudge hook wont do damage but still pulls you if you are magic immune.
-It is better to pick Lifestealer as a counter pick not a first pick.
-Farm lanes if no one else is there to take the farm.
-Side shops are just short distance out of the jungle, use them a lot.
-Remember that helping your team is more important than farming the jungle.
-In team fights and ganks always focus the hero with the most hp.
-It is very easy to kill Rosh on Lifestealer and you should be looking for an opportunity to at all times past 25 minutes.
-If your jungle is warded at the start lane for 6 minutes then go back.
-Use your Quelling Blade to open shortcuts between camps.
-Don't use Rage in the jungle and only use open wounds if you need it.