Rot starts at the head - a Carry Necro Guide

Introduction and Basics

Hello everyone, and welcome to my humble guide. This is the first guide I'm writing, so I apologize in advance for any discrepancies.

Necrolyte - The Pope of Pestilence

Necrolyte is a Dire Intelligence hero with a very unusual role. He starts the game focusing on support items early on, but can quickly transition to a carry with a decent amount of farm.

For the purpose of this guide, I'm assuming that most of you have a fair notion of the hero's stats and what his skills do. If not, I'll provide a very brief explanation later on.

A quick list of pros and cons:

Pros / Cons

Pros:
-A great AoE heal/nuke with a very low cooldown
-Amazing teamfight presence
-Great lane presence and durability thanks to Sadist/Heartstopper's Aura
-Not very farm dependant, but still benefits greatly from items
-Very underrated hero in pubs
-Can quickly turn the tide of battles
-Sexy voice

Cons:
-Low starting stats and stat gain
-No escape mechanism
-Low movespeed
-Low attack damage, which makes last hitting a lot harder
-Focused down if the enemy team knows what they're doing
-Mana problems early game

Now, for some notes before going forward:

Necro is not, I repeat, NOT a support. Most players have the misconception that, just because the hero is Intelligence and has a heal, he should be played as a support. He shouldn't.

Necro is NOT an initiator. He does not have the means of sustaining the initial retribution that comes with initiating.

Necro is NOT a hard carry. His skills don't scale well into late-game, so avoid dragging the game for too long.

With these considerations in mind, it's time to properly start the guide.

Skills

Death Pulse

Death Pulse is your bread-and-butter skill, and is what makes your allies love you in teamfights. With a 130 heal and a 275 damage nuke AoE with a 5 sec cooldown, this skill should not be underestimated, although you must be cautious when using it early game, due to the mana cost. You max this skill first.


Heartstopper Aura

A great aura that makes any enemies in a 1000 radius to lose a percentage of their HP. Initially it won't do much, but as a fight goes on, its effects are quite noticeable. And it is always nice to get a kill on a fleeing enemy with it.
Not that this skill deals HP Removal damage, with means that it will ignore magic immunity, but will not disable consumables and Blink Dagger.


Sadist

Sadist is what gives you a great sustainability in lanes and teamfights. With every unit killed, Necrolyte will gain increased mana and HP regen over 6 seconds. Also, for every hero kill, Necro gains 10x the regeneration, based on the level of the skill.
Note that the effects of this skill stacks, with each one operating independently. Denying allied units will also trigger Sadist.


Reaper's Schyte

Your ultimate, and also what makes heroes with high healthpools fear you. When used, it will stun the unit for 1 second, and shortly after, it will deal damage based on a percentage of the hero's missing HP. At level 3, you can easily kill heroes with around 40% HP.
Note that this skill does magic damage, meaning that it will be blocked by magic immunity. The stun, however, will not.

Skill Build

Necrolyte has a very flexibe build at the start of the game.

Game start

If you're facing a lane with nukers, pick an early level of Death Pulse.
If you're facing a lane focused on physical harass, pick an early level of Sadist.
If you're facing a very defensive and passive lane, pick Heartstopper Aura for a constant health drain.

For the purpose of this guide, I'll level Aura first.

After you max Death Pulse

After Death Pulse is maxxed, you must decide which skill to focus next.

If you're still having trouble with harass or if your mana pool is depleeting too fast, focus on Sadist first.
If teamfights are more frequent, pick Aura.

However, you can alternate between skills without fear of it diminishing your effectiviness.

Why not level the ultimate at level 6?

Personally, I feel that the effects of the skill at level 6 are very weak. Most of the time you can finish off most heroes with some waves of Death Pulse or a few auto-attacks. Not to mention that the cooldown is quite big and it has a very severe mana cost. You might consider it when facing healthpool monsters like Centaur, Doom Bringer or Pudge, but more often than not you're better off leveling your other skills.

Items

Necrolyte has a somewhat cheap core build, but can greatly benefit from luxury items.

Game start:
Start off with a set of tangoes and salve for lane durability, and iron branches for much-needed stats. Iron Branches can be used to make a Headress and a Buckler later on.

If going mid:

If you're going mid lane, you might want to just keep the tango and the branches for an early bottle/Ring of Health/Void Ring. Pick a bottle if the lane is aggressive and you need a stronger rune control, but you can also pick a RoH for the health regen or a Void Ring for the mana regen, allowing you to self-heal with Death Pulse. Note that these rings can be used to build a Perserverance later on, but it pretty much comes to personal taste.

Early-mid game:
Focus on finishing your Mekansm ASAP, and also get Arcane Boots for the increased mana pool and the burst mana.
Note that Arcane Boots can be disassembled, so that you can use the Energy Booster to build your Bloodstone.
After your Bloodstone is done, you can focus on upgrading your boots to Boots of Travel or whatever boots suits you best. When it's done, you can start focusing on your luxury items.

Understanding your core items:
Mekansm is your first core item. As a Necro, you're arguably THE best Mekansm holder in the game, since you have the mana pool and the survavibility to last longer in fights. It also works greatly with your Death Pulse, giving you an extra heal.

Bloodstone is one of the best mid-game items for Necro. It grants him a very large HP and mana pool, as well as increased regeneration. Not to mention that it heals allies when you die, and it also decreases the gold lost and the respawn time. A very, very good item.

Luxury Items
Necrolyte scales very well with items. Below, I'll present some optional items and when you should consider then.

Heart of Tarrasque - This is one of THE best luxury items for Necro. It grants him an humongous amount of raw HP, further increasing his tankiness. The regen when out of battle also goes a long way.

Scythe of Vise - A great late-game item on every intelligence hero, it provides you with a good disable, good stats and an increased mana pool/regen.

Shiva's Guard - an item to consider if facing a lot of physical damage, since it reduces the attack speed of nearby enemies, and gives you some much-needed armor. Also provides a great slow in teamfights.

Black King Bar - focused down by disables in teamfights? This item is for you. With this, you can bring chaos without fear of getting disabled. Also provides you with some decent health increase.

Ghost Scepter - On the other specter, if you're focused down by physical attacks, buy a Ghost Scepter. Upon Ghost form, it renders you immune to physical damage, completely disabling that annoying auto-attacker to beat you up. However, be aware that it increases magic damage dealt to you by 40%, so be careful when using this against heavy AoE casters.

Blink Dagger/Force Staff - Necro lacks proper mobility and escape mechanisms, so consider picking one of these if you need to.

Necronomicon - A great item to have all around, it gives you 2 summons with a very good set of skills and auras, and can greatly help on teamfights. However, be careful when using then, since each one grants 100 gold on death.

Orchid Malevolence - pick this if the enemy team has a lot of heavy casters and/or annoying blinkers. It also gives you some nice stats and mana regen.

Pipe of Insight - Gives you and your allies 400hp resistance against magical attacks. Great to have if you're facing AoE nightmares such as Earthshaker or Sand King. The increase in magic resistance and the HP regen are also welcome.

Rod of Atos - A fairly underrated item. This item gives you 25 Intelligence, which is great for the mana pool and mana regen, and also 325 health, which greatly helps Necro. The 60% movement speed slow is also a very, very welcome addition when facing enemies with great movespeed such as Luna, Chaos Knight and Sven.

Radiance - Normally the game won't last enough for you to buy this, but if it does and you are swimming in gold, you can consider building a Radiance. The AoE damage compliments your Aura greatly, and being naturally tanky, it will also grant increased damage over time.

Laning Phase

Necrolyte is a hero that can be played in any lane and still do significantly well. If dual-laning, try to get a hard support hero with you. I wouldn't recommend going easy lane, since it's best suited for the team's hard carry, which you are not. The best lane for Necro, however, is solo mid. It's closer to the tower, meaning that ganking you will be harder, and due to it being a solo lane, you will have a much needed gold and xp advantage. The fact that you will most likely face an enemy solo hero also mean that the level of harass you'll have to withstand is lower (this is not a rule, though, since each player plays differently).

In lane, your top priority is staying alive. Due to how fragile he is early-game, you're a very easy target in ganks and the likes. Avoid being aggressive, unless a safe opportunity arises. You won't need to keep constantly harrassing, since your Aura can do that job very well and from a safe distance.

Due to how Sadist works, the importance of last hitting and denying is greatly increased on this hero. It can literally make-or-break your laning phase. However, Necrolyte is not an easy hero to last hit with, due to his low attack damage, low attack speed and somewhat unreliable attack animation. If you're facing issues when last hitting, try practicing solo. It will give a much better feel of how to last hit and getting used with the hero's animation.

Avoid spamming Death Pulse, since its mana cost early game is quite high. Use it only to heal you or your lane partner, to nuke enemies that get overly aggresive or to secure a kill.

Teamfights

Once teamfights start erupting, you should already have your Mekansm up along with your boots, and should have at least started building your Bloodstone.

In teamfights, avoid drawing attention to yourself. Your job is to stay alive and keep your teammates alive as well, since the longer a fight goes on, the greater is your presence. Stay safe behing your allies and let the more naturally tanky heroes absorb the initial damage. However, you must stay in a position where you can put as many enemies under your Aura radius as possible.

Spam Death Pulse as much as you can, and try to hit as many teammates and enemies as possible (the radius for DP is relatively small, so be careful when doing so). Also try to kill creeps when casting Death Pulse, since killing them will grant you more mana and hp regen to spam more pulses.

If you see yourself getting low on mana and hp, it's time for you to play Grim Reaper. Find an enemy with low HP, and cast your ult. Avoid ulting heroes that are being focused on, since it can often lead on your team killing the enemy before the damage from the ult occurs. Be aware that, even if not damaging the hero, the spell will enter in cooldown and the mana will be wasted. Due to how severe the mana cost of Reaper's Scythe is,
not getting a kill from it will gimp you greatly.

A great way to assume how low on hp your target is is to pay attention to its healthbar. You'll notice that it's sectioned. Each section corresponds to 250 healthpoints by default, so if your target has 4 sections, it means that it has a total of 1000 healthpoints. If he takes 500 damage, for example, he will have 2 sections obscured, with other 2 sections full. This is a great way to determine if your enemy will instantly die from Reaper's Scythe. It takes a while to get used to, so try and pay attention as much as possible.

Another tip is to avoid using your Mekansm late. Try to use when your allies are at around 50% hp. Using it later is risky due to the enemy being able to nuke your team before you're able to activate it.

Friends, Foes and Counters

To be added.