"Peek A Boo" Guide to the Nerubian Assassin

Who am I?

Whats up guys, my name is BKvoiceover and this is my 3rd published guide on Dotafire. Today's guide is going to be for my favorite offlaner in the game. The one and only Nyx Assassin. As always any questions, comments, and concerns are always welcome in the comments section. I really hope you guys find this guide helpful. Enjoy :)

Introduction to the Assassin

: Nyx Assassin is an agility based support hero who is usually played in the offlane because of his good harassment abilities and survivability. Nyx Assassin is a highly feared ganker who has everything in his arsenal to pick off lone heroes before they can even react. Unlike other agility heroes who are usually feared for their right clicks Nyx Assassin is feared for the massive amount of burst damage he can deal out in a fairly short amount of time. Nyx has a powerful stun that is great for setting up enemies for powerful follow ups. He also hates magic as he has an ability which burns mana and deals damage. In the survivability department he has a great defense skill which is the main reason he is thrown in the offlane. And no assassin is complete without stealth which Nyx Assassin uses as his most deadly weapon.

The Good, The Bad, and the Buggy

Good: morph agility gain
- 2nd highest base regen in the game.
- Low cost defense ability through Spiked Carapace
- Vendetta has a 0 second fade time allowing him to dodge abilities if timed correctly.
- Great single target nuking ability.
- Not very item dependent in the late game. Usually only requiring Arcane Boots, and sometimes a Blink Dagger and/or Dagon

Bad: morph strength gain
- Initiating power is severly diminished if they other team buys detection items.
- Nukes really fall off in the late game.
- Silences make him useless.
- Right-Clicks do no considerable damage.

Buggy:
- 6 legs
- Hive mind
- Creepy
- Crawly

Skills

: This is one of Nyx's powerful ganking tools and is very similar to Lion's Earth Spike. It will send out a line of spikes that will throw enemies into the air for .5 seconds and then stun them for 2.25 seconds when they fall back down at maximum level. This skill is a great follow up to Vendetta when ganking enemies. However, be very careful with this skill since it does not automatically target heroes but instead moves to the point on the map you clicked. This makes the stun very hard to land at longer ranges so be very wary on where you target.

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: Nyx hates magic too. This skill is a great harassment skill against int. supports who need mana to spam their skills and succeed in lane. This skill will burn mana equal to a multiplier of its intelligence as well as dealing damage equal to the amount of mana burned. This makes Mana Burn an ability that can scale greatly into the late game and can be a great follow up skill in ganks.

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: This ability is Nyx Assassin's premier defensive ability and is one of the main reasons he can succeed so well in the offlane. This ability will cause Nyx to deflect 1 instance of damage from any form of player based damage except HP loss since it is not considered a form of damage. When the damage instance strikes Nyx the enemy will be stunned for a duration of 2.4 seconds at maximum level which can serve great when used offensively and defensively.

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: No assassin is complete without stealth and boy does Nyx have that. Vendetta is what makes support heroes have nightmares of Nyx. Some stealth abilities such as Shadow Walk will deal extra damage when attacking out of invisibility, Vendetta does the same thing but amplifies the damage quite a bit. When striking out of Vendetta at level 3 you will deal 550 backstab damage as well as passively having a 20% movement speed increase while invisible. Plus, the spell duration at level 3 is equal to its cooldown allowing for nyx to be "technically" permanently invisible.

Item Choices

Starting Items #1

: This is a good starting item for Nyx as it will give him increased mana which he will need for the laning phase, as well as some nice stats.

:Tangos for basic regeneration are a must in the offlane.

Starting Items #2

: Basic Regeneration to keep you in lane.

: Branches are great for stats, these can also be turned into a magic wand if you so desire.

: As an offlane hero this damage block will help with your survivability.

Boots

: These booties will keep you supplied with mana for your merciless rampages :P

Mid Game/Ganker

: This is a great secondary initiation item if your invis ganks are being foiled by detection.

dagon: As if Nyx didn't have enough burst damage as it is. Dagon will be a great pickup for ganks and pick offs.

Early Game Utility

: Urn of Shadows is such a great utility item for Nyx if you are looking at playing as a more support oriented player.

: Fairly rare pick-up for Nyx but can be great in select roaming pairs with heroes such as Alchemist.

: This will make your usefullness train more towards the late game should the game last that lone. Force Staff is an incredible item for mobility, saving teammates, and screwing up enemy positioning along the way.

: If you grab a Stout Shield for a starting item a PMS wouldn't be a horrible pickup.

Late Game/Luxury

: I'm pretty sure I recommend this on almost every hero as a late game luxury item and for good reason. It can assist with pushes, and better your presence in fights.

: If you require more nastiness from your magic damage nukes, an e-blade might not be a horrible pick-up.

: For an agility hero like Nyx, Scythe of Vyse is an amazing pick-up because of its amazing disable, mana regen, int., and mana.

: a great disable as well as set-up for your hard to land stun Impale.

: If there is a lot of magic damage nukes preventing you from reaching your objective feel free to work on a black king bar as it will make many magic nukes against you useless.

: This will help make Nyx much more tankier if some event arises where you might need the extra hp and regen.

: This is a great ganking item that will extend the usability of your nukes by also increasing incoming damage and giving you a nice silence.

Wards

: If the need for wards arises, and no one else can purchase them, be a kind lad and pick some up.

Always Carry TP

: Buy a TP, Save your Life. Always have at least one TP scroll on you at all times.

When to Pick, and When not to Pick

Nyx is at his peak when he can deal the most amount of burst damage against the squishiest heroes he can so naturally I would pick Nyx Assassin if.

• They have heroes that have a high intelligence gain which will capitalize on mana burn. These include Storm Spirit, Outworld Devourer, Skywrath Mage, and Pugna.
  
  
• They have 2-3 squishy supports which makes ganking and getting kills much easier.
  
  
• They have heroes with long missile speed times on their abilities. If a hero such as Sniper is about to use assassinate on you just Spiked Carapace. If Keeper of the Light is charging Illuminate then just use Spiked Carapace. I think you see the point now.
  

However in certain sitiuations Nyx's true colors just can't shine. So in certain situations such as.

• If they have a pretty tanky lineup with 2-3 strength heroes with a lot of hp the power of your nukes will be quite limited.
  
  
• If they have heroes that can break invis such as Bounty Hunter and Slardar, say bye bye to the majority of your initiation power.
  

Friends and Foes

Friends of Nyx include heroes that can quickly follow up a gank attempt by you. Some of these include.

- Juggernaut
- Anti-Mage
- Phantom Assassin

Easy Matchups for Nyx Assassin on the enemy team include heroes with high intelligence as well as squishy supports. These include but are not limited to.

-Outworld Devourer
- Storm Spirit
- Shadow Shaman
- Windranger
- Nature's Prophet

Some foes of Nyx include heroes that can prevent invisibilty, have long silences, and increased magic resistance. These include but are not limited to.

- Slardar
- Bounty Hunter
- Drow Ranger
- Death Prophet
- Bloodseeker
- Anti-Mage
- Rubick

Laning

In most cases with Nyx Assassin you will want to plop yourself down in the offlane in a solo situation. This will allow you to achieve level 6 quicker which means you can gank and create space for your team much earlier on. In most games you will either be playing against a dual lane or tri-lane in the enemies safe lane. In this situation you will want to be denying as much farm to the enemy lane as possible. You will have skilled Impale first as an offensive/defensive ability. At level 2 you will pick up 1 level of Spiked Carapace because that will increase your survivability and just flat out annoy the enemy to no end.

Attempt to go for last hits when/if the creep wave is close to your tower. If the enemy lane pulls their safe lane wave a little trick you can do if you are playing the radiant offlane is to break down one of the trees on the left side of the big camp to the right of your lane above the river. This will allow you to pull their wave right back up to your tower as well as screwing up their double pull if they attempt it.

You will also be wanting to harass the enemy supports as much as possible with Mana Burn and keep them without mana for as long as possible as this will make aggressing on you much harder.

Once you reach level 6, coordinate with your mates in the others lanes and prepare ganks for throughout the game as this is where almost all of your gold will come from. It will also strike fear into the enemy team and make them much more cautious and unwilling to push a tower in fear that a gigantic bug is going to show up out of nowhere, stab them in the back, impale them, and steal their money.

The Ganking Combo

There is a proper order to using your skills and items for the best gank setup.

0. (If you have Blink Dagger) Blink Close to the enemy heroes.

1. Find your target.

2. Activacte Vendetta

3. Right-click your target activating the extra backstab damage.

4. Activate Impale while they are still close.

5. Use Mana Burn to deal extra damage as well as burn mana to keep them from using escape abilities if they have them.

6. (If you have Dagon) Activate your Dagon if they previous combo was not enough to kill the enemy hero.

7. Back off, if reinforcements arrive and start to chase you, activate Spiked Carapace to deter their chase.

Conclusion

Thanks you guys so much for reading my guide. If you enjoyed it feel free to upvote this guide and use what you learned to dominate the offlane with the creepy assassin bug himself.

See you on the battlefield,

-BK