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Tango
Iron BranchIron Branch
Circlet
Tango
Wraith Band
Ring of Aquila
Null Talisman
Arcane Boots
Power Treads
Blink Dagger
Shadow Blade
Force Staff
Veil of Discord
Aghanim's Scepter
Silver Edge
Shiva's Guard
Refresher Orb
Orchid Malevolence
Octarine Core
Manta Style
Guardian Greaves
Eye of Skadi
Butterfly
Black King Bar
Boots of Travel
Scythe of Vyse
Sange and Yasha
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3 | 12 | 13 | 14 |  |
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6 | 11 | 16 |  |
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15 | 17 | 18 |
Hello one and everyone! Safecyn here, bringing you a guide to Venomancer!
...
...
Huh.
What?
It's just... you usually interrupt me before I get the hero out, is all. It helps, y'know, set up some momentum and humor for the beginning of the guide? It's a useful gimmick, is what I'm saying.
Are you callin' me a gimmick?
Um... no. Of course not. I'd never dare to say something that accurate to your face.
... This was a guide?
Oh, right! Venomancer! HE IS THE GREATEST HERO IN THE GAME.
Um... what?
That's personal opinion, of course, because, well... Venomancer is the reason I play Dota. He's the reason I got interested in the game all those years ago. Safecyn origin story here: when Dota 2's beta first released, two of my roommates in college (Safebulb and SafeWob, respectively) played it constantly, while I stubbornly refused to join. Then, one fateful day, I sat down and watched a professional game for the first time.
That game? EG vs. Mouzsports, that now-legendary game where Maelk went 0-20-21 on Venomancer. And won the game. BECAUSE. VENOMANCER. Since then, I've been a Dota 2 nut, and Venomancer has been my absolute favorite hero and will remain so for the rest of eternity, EVEN after the model change stabbed me in the heart. The snake's slithered up on my heart in recent months, I'll admit. Before you play Venomancer though, there are some questions you need to answer:
Do you want to play a hero that regularly gets double and triple kills, even when dead?
Do you want to play a hero that's capable of dealing over 1700 magical damage to all five enemy heroes with the press of a single button?
Do you want to win the Maelk award harder than anyone ever before you?
If you answered yes, then come my friend. Sit at my table, around my hearth, partake in my banquet. We are going to embark on a journey into the glorious world of sweet intoxication. Where we're going... we don't need antidotes.
Shut up and START already, ya weirdo.
Don't make me put arsenic in your coffee.
And do remember, this guide is just suggestions based on my own experiences and understanding of the game, and shouldn't be followed to the letter (especially because, if you just look at the pictures, you'll end up buying three mobility items before a Veil or an Aghs. Don't do that. Please? Ok, cool.) Being able to adapt to your specific game is what separates the pros from us rank amateurs. Feedback is appreciated, as long as it's constructive!
Pros
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Cons
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Bloodseeker with this and a single auto attack, him running away with his insane move speed, and then getting the kill on him 10 seconds later because he couldn't make it back to fountain in time. One of the few moments where I've literally lost control of my hero from laughing so hard. Venomancer once you get to a high enough skill bracket. Besides, in order to win the coveted Maelk award, you're not allowed to get kills anyways.
Riki or 
Clinkz, you can totally submit that clip to Headshot if you get the kill. 2) The slow from this ability isn't a constant 50% throughout, and actually gradually reduces over time. It's a constant rate, though, so you can make pretty easy estimates as to how much your target is slowed based on how long the skill's been active: for example, if the skill is halfway through its duration, the slow is 25%.
Venomancer? Blink Dagger, 
Heart of Tarrasque, 
Living Armor, 
Refraction, etc, but it also means it goes through Backtrack, won't get reflected by Blademail, and won't get you stunned from 
Spiked Carapace. So that's pretty nifty. Venomancer is affected by break, his plague wards won't be able to apply Poison Sting either! Well played, Volvo.
Orb of Venom, just in case you've heard otherwise. Anyways, movin' on!
Observer Ward for sure, but seeing as you get 12 of them a minute, it more than makes up for it. Plague Ward has its own Poison Sting that's half as effective as yours. The Poison Sting of plague wards also won't deal any damage when Venomancer has an active Poison Sting on their target, so keep that in mind. Venomancer. Meaning that you can't be killed if someone runs into a wall of your wards and pops 
Blade Mail, which should be comforting.
Dragon Slave and 
Illuminate do squat diddly against them. And while we're talking about pushing: Plague Wards AFTER all other creeps and heroes, so they can't pull too much aggro off of any creep waves you might be pushing with. On the other hand, that means they'll live longer to deal damage. Plague Ward provides a bounty of 20/25/30/35 experience and 14-17 gold. You're not quite as bad as 
Broodmother when it comes to giving the enemy team an advantage if you don't use your units properly, but it's definitely a concern.
Poor Man's Shield, 
Vanguard, and Tide's 
Kraken Shell are powerless to stop the annoying, tiny bits of chip damage they toss out.
Aghanim's Scepter: Increases damage and decreases cooldown. Aghanim's Scepter knock off 40 seconds from the ult's cooldown. It's an expensive item and all, it should give crazy amounts of upgrade for no reason, hehe...
Someone plz tell me who to credit for this it's amazing.
Venomancer can put out with the touch of a button. Then maybe after that I'll show what he can do with two!
Laguna Blade, with Agh's, does 950 damage to a single target. Now, this is instantaneously and not over a long duration and can be fatal but you get what I'm saying, yeah? Still good, and we haven't even touched on the Aghanim's Scepter damage output! Poison Nova becomes 870/1296/1836. Which... is crazy! Even after MR, that turns into 652.5/972/1377. 
Leshrac, eat your heart out. Imbalance demands it.
Zeus guide should know where I'm going with this, but THIS time... this time I'm probably going to do the math right the first time around. Probably. That's right, I'm going to take this time to show just how much more damage you'll get from a simple, relatively cheap pick up: Veil of Discord. Veil of Discord, your spells are doing just under 94% of the printed value. Still though, that makes non-aghs Poison Nova go from doing 351/652.5/972 damage to 438.75/815.625/1215 damage. Add Veil of Discord on top of Aghanim's Scepter, and you'll be cranking out a total of 1721.25 damage. Black King Bar pick-up and it's all useless, right? Venomancer. Oh sure, you might not take any damage while magic immune, but that debuff? It still gets placed. So when your puny little 5 second BKB charge is gone, there's still 11 more seconds of pain coming the way of the enemy carry. The debuff can't be purged off either, so 
Diffusal Blade won't save you, Riki. You'll die like the squishy little bugger you are. (Which reminds me, it's worth nothing that this spell will fully affect invisible units.) Poison Nova in this patch. I'm leaving that all up there for reasons I already touched on, so here I'll discuss briefly what 6.85 did to Poison Nova Poison Nova used to deal 432 total magical damage, it now deals 480! Veil of Discord is now a more important item than ever before for ensuring you do massive damage. As a a matter of fact, because of how the skill was buffed, this should now ALWAYS be your first pick up, even if you're doing well. It's true that Aghanim's Scepter now makes your spell even MORE powerful than before, but because the spell was buffed significantly the item is also less necessary. Still great. But on the fringe of luxury, for sure.
Core? You're actually doing two this time around?
That's right, we're pulling out all the stops on this one. While core Venomancer is my hands down favorite way of playing the hero, and how I think he's strongest, playing him as a support is perfectly viable, so it's worth going through that separately. Right now though, we're focusing on our farming Veno.
Circlet, true, but with Venomancer in particular I feel the extra stats really do make a difference when it comes to both last-hitting and surviving in lane. If instead, you've managed to be the team's safe-lane farmer, you're stuck in off-lane, or you just want to prioritize last hits and don't plan on spamming spells, do this:
Bottle first anyways is up to personal preference, but my advice would be to get it all the time, unless you're the one position safe-lane farmer. The mana regen is crucial for maintaining pressure on the enemy team with Veno, but if your role is to statically farm it isn't as necessary.
and
OR
Ring of Aquila is an amazing cost-efficient item on agility heroes, particularly ones that need mana regen. +18 overall damage, some strength, some intelligence, some armor, what's not to love? This is your first pick up after 
Boots of Speed. Null Talisman will also help pad your general stats, particularly your mana pool, which is lacking. This will build into Veil of Discord later on, so it's more than just a value pick-up. Arcane Boots are almost always the go-to: between these and Ring of Aquila you'll be able to spam your spells on a pretty regular basis, nabbing those early kills and getting your team ahead. If you're more focused on farming, however, Power Treads are the way to go: you can still tread switch to help with casting spells, and the extra HP from strength treads will help you survive ganks. Attack speed's always good too, though Venomancer doesn't benefit from it quite as much as other heroes, since Poison Sting won't stack with itself.
OR
OR
, then
and
. Shadow Blade: good damage and attack speed, plus the move speed and invis can be used for both initiation and escape. Initiation is dependent on the enemy not having true sight, however, and if you get caught out... you're just dead. The preferred item on a more farming oriented Veno, as it'll lead into Silver Edge, and your team will hopefully have a designated initiator that isn't you. Blink Dagger: excellent mobility and initiation, in fact the preferred initiation item if you're the primary fight starter. Unreliable as an escape, particularly because of how slow Veno already is, but an overall flexible and strong item, and the one I personally go for the most. Force Staff: good for giving Venomancer the escape mechanism he so desperately lacks, though sub-par as far as initiation goes. Definitely more of a defensive item, though the HP regen and additional INT are both useful. Can always be considered in addition to one of the above items, though it'll delay your other core items considerably. Almost necessary against 
Clockwerk. Aghanim's Scepter first can really help your team snowball: all that damage while the enemy cores still don't have BKB? Insane. Whether you get Veil of Discord before Agh's is also dependent on how well you're doing: if you're off to a slower start, Veil is an easier build-up and provides you good survivability to keep you alive long enough to farm that scepter.|
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A natural extension from Shadow Blade that'll give you even more slows, more survivability, and the ability to break pesky passives while reduces damage. For the hardcore farming Veno, it offers a heck of a lot. Say goodbye to any mana problems once you pick this up. The armor and the aura do wonders for your survivabilty, and the active adds another punch of magic damage to your combo, while slowing people even more. Pretty awesome. Some might immediately call me a noob for putting this on here, seeing as none of Veno's spells stack with themselves and their cooldowns are pretty low. But the regen this item provides is pretty dang useful, and in an extended teamfight, being able to use your ultimate, and then immediately have it on again if the fight's still continuing once it's done ticking out can be game-changing. Not a common pick up, though, for sure. Orchid gives Venomancer a lot of good stuff: mana regen for more spells, attack speed for more DPS, a silence to counter-play those who might want to initiate on him and burst him down, and a damage boost to his combo. Pretty. Dang. Awesome. Octarine Core is actually a pretty nice pick-up on Veno if you've got the money. It'll tank you up and give you that sweet spell-steal, though only Venomous Gale and Poison Nove will heal you. The really nice thing here, apart from the additional HP and mana, is the cooldown reduction: with Agh's, you'll be Nova-ing on a 45 second cooldown! You can practically use it to push out creepwaves at that point. If... I mean, don't do that, but you could. Manta Style is surprisingly good on Venomancer: the active will save you from being silenced before you can cast your ultimate, the extra move speed is nice for someone as slow as Veno, the extra stats tank him up, and the illusions, as mentioned earlier, get a Poison Sting with a slow that stacks with yours. Not. Too. Shabby. In fact, with 6.85 giving illusions your damage from Poison Sting, this may have worked its way up to core on a 2 position Veno. We'll have to see! Guardian Greaves are another great item if you need to purge a silence off yourself to ensure your spells get off in a team fight, plus the aura and burst heal will keep you alive longer too. If you're the only reasonable carrier for this item on your team, its' not going to hurt you too badly, especially if you already went Arcanes. Eye of Skadi. I love this item on Venomancer. I just DO. Getting an Orb of Venom on the hero seems so silly, but once you're farmed up and it's been turned into this, you are TERRIFYING. Tanky, hard hitting, inescapable Venomancer coming to sting you right in the rear. Butterfly is a good item for increasing Venomancer's survivability, and the Flutter active will help him catch up to fleeing heroes to hunt them down. He doesn't get as much from this item as other heroes, since most of his damage doesn't come from right-clicks, but if you're looking for a fifth or sixth item you could certainly do worse. Black King Bar is for those games where there's so much dang lockdown, you're not going to get a single Poison Nova off without magic immunity. The extra HP and damage is also kinda nice. Boots of Travel are for the late game, when you need to always be able to teleport around to exactly where you need to be. Venomancer is a strong pusher with his Plague Wards, so this is almost certainly your boots of choice in the late game: backdoor for the win, man. Scythe of Vyse: because hex is good on everyone. Like, for serious. Particularly for Venomancer, this gives him a hard disable to stop TP's, catch up to people, or save himself from initiators, as well as giving him good stats and a mana pool that removes all his spellcasting woes. Sange and Yasha probably should have been higher up at the top of this list, but... I forgot about it and am only adding it in now. Bad guide writer is bad. This is a really nice and cost-effective pick-up on Venomancer, padding out his stats while providing him with an additional slow AND a move speed boost. If you're shooting to end the game earlier on, this can do wonders to keep your snowball up.
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And now for support Veno! The whole idea here is to a lot with a little, gold-wise, since you're mainly going to be harassing people out of lane and stacking/pulling.
and
or
Tango is for keeping your health up in lane, the Clarity and Mantle are for keeping yourself topped off and ready to use spells, and both the Mantle and Circlet will build into the Null Talisman you'll need for your eventual Veil of Discord. Whether you get courier or wards depends entirely on what your other support buys, and if they don't buy either? Forego the Mantle of Intelligence and grab both: you'll be able to pick it up later in the side shop.
Null Talisman and the Bracer will build into your next tier of items. Since you're not going to have the luxury of going for that Aghanim's Scepter (unless you start snowballing out of control, of course), these items are crucial for making sure you don't immediately get blown up before you can contribute to a fight. Your boots of choice in a support role should always be Arcanes: they'll keep your mana pool up and let you aid the rest of your team keep theirs up as well, and they can be built into Guardian Greaves as well if you're the only Mek carrier for your team.
OR
,
OR
, and
Drum of Endurance is a good item for padding your stats and giving you some much needed movement speed. If your team is more push-oriented or doesn't scale as well into the late game as the enemy, using the charges during tower sieges will help you take them faster. Mekansm, you should probably get that instead of completing your drum, however. It's also a great item to help with pushes and gives you some nice armor and regen to tank yourself up. Blink Dagger has already been discussed, so I'll skip that for now. Glimmer Cape, on the other hand, is far more useful for your team as a whole, as it'll let you keep your cores alive if they need to escape or tank through some heavy magic burst. It's the best for initating, for sure (the invis only lasts five seconds, after all) but it can work. If you've got the money, you can always pick up a Blink Dagger in addition to this. Veil of Discord. This is on the edge of being a luxury item for the support Venomancer as well, and if there's another hero on your team who can build this, it's probably best to let them do it.
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Eul's Scepter is on the cheaper side and gives Venomancer a lot of what he could use: a bigger mana pool, more mana regen, and movement speed! Glorious movement speed. You can also cyclone yourself to avoid getting blown up, and cyclone the enemy without worrying about purging your spells off of them. Assault Cuirass doesn't provide enough that a core Venomancer needs to be a worthwhile pick-up, but having one when you're a support will make you tankier and benefit your carry: freeing up one of their item slots by getting this for them can be super useful. Vladmir's Offering works under similar logic: the mana regen, armor, damage, and lifesteal you get are certainly NICE, but they don't benefit you directly all THAT much. But when you're supporting, if you can get this so your carry can benefit from all that? Totally worth it. Lotus Orb is just plain fun. It's actually really nice for Venomancer, giving him good sustain and some extra armor, but again: this is for your carry more than you. Using the active purges things from them, and then gives them a protective bubble that's all 'go ahead. Cast spells. See what happens, punk.'
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How have your fingers not fallen off? You've done so much dang writing already.
My venom sustains me. And by venom, I mean coffee. And by sustains, I mean 'keeps me awake and dulls the pain from my soon to be arthritic digits'.
Veil of Discord for you are great pairings with everyone's favorite Deathbringer. Pugna and Undying even show up wearing matching colors with you. Jus' sayin'.
Crystal Maiden is a favorite partner for all heroes that have mana issues early on in the game, and she supplies slows and a harder stun to pair with your abilities. Plus, think of the insane amount of damage Veil of Discord, Poison Nova, and 
Freezing Field will do when combined together. KotL also helps you with your mana early on, and a Keeper/ Venomancer offlane can be an absolutely nuisance to go up against. Horses and poison and wards, oh my.
Venomancer fits right into a pushing line-up, his wards clearing out creep waves and damaging towers like no one's business. It's worth noting that since they're ward-type units, they won't get any added benefit from 
Howl. I know you were thinking it, don't try and deny it. When doing a straight pushing strat, you'll obviously want to max wards first, since they'll go down super fact against tower shots before level 3.
Venomancer's existence, slow and squishy snake he is. It should be mentioned, though, that between Venomous Gale and Plague Ward, you actually completely wreck TA in the mid-lane, so there's a good chance you can keep her down long enough to tank up against her eventual bursts.
Glimmer Cape is probably the reason he doesn't exist in competitive anymore, as it basically ensures the enemy carry will never drop from your spells. And Pipe! Hello item that makes Poison Nova do close to 25% less just from the active alone. You're a good item and I love you most of the time, but when I play Veno I really wished you didn't exist.
All done! Now go forth and prosper, my budding young Plague Wards. Overwhelm your enemies and make them suffer! Don't listen to anyone who tells you he's not a good hero, trust in Safecyn.
Trust in Safecyn? That doesn't just sound like bad advice, that sounds like an example you'd give to a child about what bad advice sounds like.
Shush.
On a serious note, thanks all of you for reading this guide. I'm open to suggestions and constructive criticism, so feel free to call me out on what I messed up! Safecyn, signing out.
Remember: always shake your boots out when camping. ALWAYS.
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