Pride of Nyx (Offlane, Updated for 6.84!)

A Quick Introduction

Hello Everybody, my name is Cpfran6, and before we jump into this guide, a little bit about myself:
I have been playing Dota for the better part of a year now, mostly in the offlane (especially solo) and ganking positions. I have come to see many people in the offlane play it as if you are in a safe dual-lane. Nothing infuriates me more than a terrible offlane that ruins your game. So, I took it upon myself to specialize in this sometimes difficult position. Nyx Assassin is personally one of my best heroes with a 65% win-rate. I saw that the guides on Nyx Assassin are more focused on Bursting down opponents as soon as you grab Dagon. This is my second guide in a series of guides I will be making on Heroes in the Offlane, the First being my guide on Clockwerk. I will do my best to reply or explain as best as possible. But enough about me, on to the guide.

The Pros and Cons of Nyx

Pros
+ Burst Damage, he can burst down most Carries and Supports until the Mid-late game
+ Escapes, Spiked Carapace and Vendetta allow you to escape from many hairy situations
+ Somewhat useful in teamfights, Spiked Carapace
allow you to go in and initiate, soak up some damage,
and allows the Carry to clean up the mess.
+ He cuts down Int. heroes with Mana Burn

Cons
+ Relies on Surprising lone enemies
+ Fairly one-dimensional, not much variety in play styles (unless you try mid-support)
+ Gets destroyed Late-Game by every Carry ever
+ Is a bug

Items

When it comes to items, Nyx Assassin is actually not to reliant on them.

Starting Items:

We start with a standard Nyx build
Tango- Regen is always good
Healing Salve- See above
Null Recipe
Gauntlets of Strength- We use these and the mantle to make our quick Null Talisman
I actaully recommend not buying the mantle and going for Recipe, that allows you to get Null the moment you get the money, just goto the side shop and grab teh Mantle of Intelligence

Usually my offlane builds have a Stout Shield, it helps block harass while you grab CS. However, Nyx does not rely on this CS to function. I have started a game AFK, then come back with a 6 level deficit and stomped. If you feel you need it, grab one though.

Early Game:

The Early game is where we start our core items


These are Very important to Nyx. He is very Mana starved in the early game. Even until the late game, his full combo takes almost half his Mana. Arcane Boots are a must.


We build this from our Mantle and Gauntlets. It serves as a start for our Dagon and provides some neat stats.


While some people don't get urn, I usually do as is provides great healing in the Laning phase. The more ganks you score, the more health. Seems legit.

The Mid Game:

By now you should have your Dagon, start ganking

Dagon
Dagon is core on Nyx, it boosts his burst damage to around ~1000 at level 11, depending on the hero. Upgrade this as your get the money to do so.


As if you were hard enough to kill with Spiked Carapace. This is a Handy Utility item that adds mobility. Never a bad idea, can be swapped with Blink Dagger if that suites your Fancy.

The Late Game:

Nyx Begins to take a back seat as many heroes can survive his burst. So, build more burst.


This is a rather weird item on Nyx, but serves its purpose. It adds 200 damage and a 40% slow to your combo. This is also great for when you decide to initiate.


Adds to Burst and slows. If you use it well it will be a great help, E-Blade that fed Ember Spirit and he isn't much use to his team. This adds damage and a disable.

Luxury and Rejected

Luxury

These two items add to you survivability late game. Blade+Carapace= dead Carry



Makes Mana and Health Regen no longer a problem. Great item late-game


Interchangeable with Force Staff


Necro Book adds a small amount of push and farming ability. The Warrior Necro is great for initiating on a farming Carry, 500 damage is killer. Orchid is a great item for shutting up that stupid caster or shutting down escapes.


With 6.84 Nyx has gotten a nice Aghs upgrade. I only find myself buying this when We are behind, it makes defending highground easier, you can even do it from the lowground.

Rejected

Don't buy these items. Only in certain instances are these needed by Nyx


Right Click items are fairly worthless as Nyx doesn't really right click often at all.


I have no idea why people build this on Nyx. it serves no purpose as he has a Escape and Vendetta is a better version of its active.

Skill Build

Range: 700
Radius: 125
Sun Duration: 1.27/1.77/2.27/2.77
Damage: 80/140/200/260
Mana Cost: 95/115/135/155
Cooldown: 13 seconds.

Impale is your bread and butter. You will often use Impale right after Vendetta followed by Mana Burn and Dagon. Its damage is good and it stun!

Notes:
- Impale targets the ground not units directly
-Deals magical damage
-Completely blocked by Black King Bar but not Linken's Sphere
-Spikes travel at 1600 MS
-Spell can be stopped with the "stop" button (default is S) during cast time (which is rather long).



Range: 600
Intelligence Multiplier: 3.5x/4x/4.5x/5x
Mana Cost: 100
Cooldown: 28/20/12/4

Mana Burn is your nuke against int heroes. The cooldown at lvl 4 (4 seconds) is the greatest thing ever. It deals damage based on their intelligence multiplied by the level of spell (3.5/4/4.5/5) and then deals damage both to their health and mana of that amount.

Notes:
-Magical Damage
-Targets one hero only.
-Blocked by both Black King Bar and Linken's Sphere
-Burns 26.8%/30.7%/34.5%/38.4% of the hero's mana if they have no flat mana bonus such as; Arcane Boots, Soul Booster etc.
-Only burns available mana so if they have only 20 mana it will only burn 20 mana and deal 20 points of damage to the hero.



Duration: 2.25 seconds
Damage Returned: 100% of negated damage
Stun Duration: 0.6/1.2/1.8/2.4
Mana Cost: 40
Cooldown: 23/20/17/14

The unreliable stun for Nyx is Spiked Carapace. Why is it unreliable? Well quiet simply, the other team's heroes have to use a spell or hit you to actually trigger it. It also only activates once per hero so if the same hero hits you with a melee attack and then a spell during the duration, the first source of damage will be blocked.

Notes:
-Only blocks player based damage, can't prevent tower, fountain, Roshan or creep damage
-Deals magical damage
-Blocked by Black King Bar but not by Linken's Sphere
-Doesn't prevent debuffs such as stuns, slows, silences etc.
-Silence cannot disable once activated
-Doesn't prevent hex's or any spell/item that doesn't deal damage.
-Prevents first instance of damage not the second or third from the same controller.



Fade time: 0
Duration: 20/35/50
Bonus Movement Speed: 16%/18%/20%
Bonus Damage: 250/400/550
Mana Cost: 160/210/260
Cooldown: 70/60/50

Your ult, Vendetta is the icing on the cake for killing lone heroes along with Dagon. Its probably best invis spell because you get bonus movement speed, bonus damage when you attack to break the invisibility and a 0 second fade time (which is great). On top of that at lvl 3 you can stay invisible permanently

Notes:
-0 second fade time(!!!)
-Deals physical damage and thus is not stopped by BKB
-Revealed after the damage is dealt not during attack animation
-Activating Vendetta doesn't break the channeling of Town Portal Scrolls

Playing the Offlane

Playing Nyx in the offlane is (in my opinion) where he really shines. The Amount of harass you can direct towards their Carry or his support is immense, especially since supports are usually Int. based. When you're going offlane you must creep block. The wave needs to be as close as possible to your tower. You're not going to get farm with your creeps close to their tower.
Now, when laning against a dual lane you must hang back just in xp range. If you do this, keep map awareness and keep vision of possible Ganks. You'll do just fine. If you can get a couple of easy last hits, then do so. Otherwise try to deny creeps and harass the carry if they're going for a last hit with Impale, then try to deny. If you are facing a tri-Lane, be super cautious. I suggest grabbing wards to ward the jungle and river. You do not want to get 3 guys sneaking up on you.
Remember your abilities! Don't panick at low health and forget to use Spiked Carapace. Few things are more satisfying than a Sniper trying to Assassinate you with 50 health and reflecting it back for the kill.
Once you hit Level 6 it is often a good idea to get aggressive, gank mid or go help the safelane if they are under pressure. This will propel yourself to getting a early Dagon if successful, can you can often help your team take a tower by picking off defending supports.

Friends, Foes, and Food

Friends

Track allows you two to endlessly massacre their supports and squishy carries.


So much burst Damage. In the Laning Phase you two are unstoppable.


You go in and weaken then he cleans up. His Rockets are great for this.

Nyx Assassin doesn't rely a lot on teammates, but against certain heroes he can't go in alone.

Foes

These guys are no bueno...


Tanky heroes render you useless, they have way more health than you have burst.


Illusion heroes, unless you know which one is real, all that burst is wasted. Even if you kill the main hero, his illusions may finish you off.

Food

These heroes are the greatest thing to have happened to Nyx. Squishy Int. Based supports are easy pickings for Nyx. Happy Hunting

Outworld Devourer
These two heroes suffer from Mana Burn as they both have massive Int. Gains or rely on Intelligence.

Final Wrap Up

I hope you liked this guide on Nyx Assassin. If you liked it, check out my guide on Clockwerk. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to ask or comment. I'll try to answer As soon as possible. Thanks!!