Support-Carry is the Nyx way to go !

Introduction: the Nyx guides me

The Nyx Assassin, preferably known as the Nerubian Assassin by DotA players, has the best potential of being the support-carry in the Agility tavern. People would prefer Vengeful Spirit as the support-carry, but I myself prefer Nyx. The reasons why I prefer Nyx would be provided in the Skills section where I explain the skills.

Pros / Cons

Pros:

- Nyx has a guaranteed disable.

- Nyx is a direct counter to the Intelligence heroes in your lane.

- Nyx is a counter to any hero with nuke spells such as Laguna Blade (Lina) and Finger of Death (Lion).

- His ultimate, Vendetta is a nuke, on top of that, it also provides invisibility and improved MS, Movement Speed.

- Shuts down heroes easily after hitting Level 6.

- Not very item dependant (Not really in this guide though)

Cons:

- While he is a counter to every single hero with nukes, when Nyx's E is not casted at the right timing, he can be nuked down very easily at the level 6-10 period, the Mid-Game.

- If you are going for the carry build and you cannot really carry, get ready to be flamed :>

- Easily shut down in Early-Mid Game if not played strategically.

Skills Introduction

Rock spikes burst from the earth along a straight path. Enemy units are hurled into the air, then are stunned and take damage when they fall.

Although it seems like 95 mana is not very costly, to Nyx it is very costly in the early game as he has a relatively low intelligence gain for a hero that uses his skills to nuke.
Destroys the target hero's mana equal to a multiplier of its Intelligence, and deals damage equal to the mana burned.

At the laning phase of the game, it is not advisable to add Mana Burn as your first skill as it is more mana-costly than Impale and it is not a guaranteed disable on top of that. The mana cost and cooldown gets lesser and lesser over the course of leveling up the skill, making it a powerful tool for Nyx in the late game.
When activated, Spiked Carapace reflects and negates damage dealt to Nyx Assassin (max once from each source), as well as stunning the source of the damage.

Although it looks like a great tool, I recommend adding it at level 2, prior to my skill build; only if you're facing a AoE constant-nuker like Ezalor, KoTL. It returns the damage back to them and STUNS them, it's like punching yourself in the face and blacking out from your own punch! A well-timed Spike Carapace can turn the fight around.
Allows Nyx Assassin to become invisible and gain a speed bonus. If Nyx Assassin attacks to break the invisibility, massive bonus damage is dealt with the attack.

This is the ultimate tool for Assassins, young and old. The increased MS allows you to chase down enemy target. If that's not bad news enough for the Chased, the Chaser gets 250/400/550 damage bonus on top of his base damage! This is a very powerful ganking tool as you are invisible when moving, allowing easier initiations.

Items

: To allow you to sustain damage from those pesky harassing ranged heroes
: To allow you to get easier last hits or denies
: It never hurts to get some extra regen items!

The laning phase is pretty simple, get last hits, initiate, kill, repeat from step 1. Having stun as a support-carry really helps out with the killing and initiation as you can get the kill OR the assist; you just need to use one skill!

For the mid-game phase, there are a few items you can choose from:

This is the most popular boots of choice among them all. This allows you to switch the type to Strength; for extra survivability; Agiliy; for extra last-hitting potential; Intelligence; for extra mana at any point of time. It also gives you 30 Attack Speed which is very good for last hits and chasing down enemy at early game. This would be my boots of choice.


This would be the basic recommended boots for the Nyx Assassin as he would be very slow in the early game. The bonus damage of 24 is very beneficial at the early-game, but in the long run, the damage bonus would be gone to Physical Resistance of the enemy carries. I would not recommend this but this is also a good choice of boots.


Although you have a high lack of mana in early-game, you scale off into a balanced hero that doesn't have to take much note about your mana. As this is a right-clicking carry build, you would mostly be using your R and Q the most, and nothing more.

Now that the boots has been settled, let's move on the the choice of blocking items:


The PMS is a very great tool for stopping harass from enemy Heroes. It has a guaranteed damage block from enemy Heroes and it provides +6 Agility at early game. It is a good and cheap item. I recommend this over Vanguard as it is easier to farm, considering that you need a lot of gold for the luxury items later on.


The Vanguard is a good choice of damage blocking item as it provides survivability, health regen and the damage block is higher than PMS and Stout Shield. This will only be recommended if you gank-killed a lot of heroes in Early-Game.

Why Yasha?

Yasha provides good stats, +16 Agility, which means good news for Agility heroes. Every 7 Agility provides you +1 armour, which means +16 Agility means +2 armour already! The +16 Agility also translates to base damage for Agility heroes. You also hit faster, as if you are not hitting fast and hard enough already!


Sange and Yasha provides passive Maim, a good tool for slowing and killing targets that are running away. It also provides Strength, which increases your Health and Health Regen.

Manta Style is also good, but not that good for chasing down heroes. The increased DPS from the 2 illusions can be great, but it does not provide that much Strength as the rival, SnY.

Why Vladmir's?

You never know when you face off in a 1 on 1 and win with a slither of health with the help of lifesteal, y'know. It also increases your mana-regen and damage and armour. It also allows your MELEE (Only, sadly) allies to have this Aura when you are near them. Which also increases their mana-regen, damage, armour and allows Lifesteal Aura.

Battlefury:

This is a good item for mid-to-late games. If you are the guy backdooring always, you will find this item well-loved by yourself. It also allows you to jungle (if your opponent carry is fatter than you) and push lanes like crazy. It keeps the pressure to the towers and you don't have to worry about roaming for ganks. It provides health-mana regen at a steady rate, so you can forget your mana problems at this point of the game. It provides +65 damage as well, which is always good.





This is the crucial part of the game where if you buy a wrong item, as I did with SF; I bought Desolator and Helm of Dominator (save your flames please ><)

As you can see in my luxury-situational items Purchase Order, you see many items that are used frequently as "Must-buy items for carries". As Nyx is a semi-carry; he has Vendetta to make up for the 2 stars missing from the carry-ness; he does not need those must-buy items!


It's always good to reduce your enemy's armour, reducing Physical Resistance. Therefore you deal more damage per hit!

A fantastic counter to single-target nuking spells such as Laguna Blade and Finger of Death. You do not really need this as you have Spiked Carapace.

This item is great for survival. You get evasion (35% at that too!), +30 Agility and +30 Attack Speed, which is Heaven for Agility heroes! On top of that, +30 Damage too!

I would not recommend this if you are right-clicking away. You can buy this just for the mad +40 Agility gain from this item. Allows you to survive right-clicking heroes as well.

It's always a good item to get. You get +10 armour, enemies get -5 armour; Allies get +5 armour. You get +55 Attack Speed, Allies get +20. What's more to say? Stack this armour reduction with Desolator and you'll be decreasing their armour to -11!

Summary

To conclude, Nyx Assassin, to me, has the greatest potential of being a support and a carry at the same time. While there are no pictures, I have just made this account a day ago and was too lazy to figure out how to post pictures of skills and items :P This is my first guide, my first installment to the other Right-Clicking guides to come. (As of 3/26/2013)

Tip: Junglers are the most efficient carries in the game, so get back in the jungle and farm up that Rapier!

I would probably update the Friends & Foes when I have the time to update. Please leave me comments on how to improve my guide (Sorry for being lengthy and such!). Upvote this if you like it, upvote if you dislike it! Thanks for your time, this is Aepollon, signing off :)

Check out my friend's guide as well:

Juggernaut Guide

Help him comment and improve his guide as well as this one! I will try to add in colours, columns and item pictures as I learn how to use this format!

Reference battlelog/replay: DotaBuff

Friends & Foes

Everyone is your friend, literally.
Keeper of the Light is a great person to lane with as he can supply you with the mana you need to spam your Q and W.

Drow Ranger is another fantastic hero to lane with as she can harass the enemies to a safe range where you can farm your last hits. Although you would rather give her the last hits as she is a carry that can outcarry you easily.

Any heroes with Point Target / Unit Target stuns are a friend to you, such examples are:

Lion with his Earth Spike

Lina with her Light Strike Array

Sand King with his Burrowstrike

Skeleton King with his Hellfire Blast

And many many many more heroes with ranged stuns.


Heroes that have the ability to shut you down early game with True Sight or invisible heroes detection are your enemies. Namingly;

Bounty Hunter with his ultimate, Track. Once you are tracked, you shall be tracked for eternity. Once he hits level 6, you are most likely the target that Bounty Hunter is going after.

Bloodseeker with his passive, Thirst. His thirst for blood enables true sight whenever you drop below 25% health. This only applies if he maxes his Thirst.

Riki Although Riki is not a hero that has True Sight, he can easily get a gem and he is a walking sentry.

Slardar This is an upgraded version of Bounty Hunter. He has the ability to track you, AND reduce your armour. If that's not bad news enough, he has -20 armour at level 3 ultimate, Amplify Damage



This is the category where you are the direct-heavy counters to the heroes I have listed.

Outworld Devourer As this guy has to max his third skill, Essence Aura, he would have a lot of mana to spare and he has to stack Intelligence; to deal damage with his ultimate, Sanity's Eclipse. And you are the direct-counter to this guy. You, with your W, is all it takes to suck out of all Outworld Devourer's mana pool and deal heavy damage to him.

Silencer As this guy kills heroes, he gain +2 PERMANENT Intelligence. That's bad news for your teammates and good news for you. With your W, you will burn all his mana away, almost INSTANTLY!

Keeper of the Light This guy has the ability to Chakra Magic. And when he gets back his mana via Chakra Magic, you W him again. Repeating this step makes him low on both Mana and Health; forcing him to back off the lane, allowing you free farm.

Changelogs

Time accordance to GTM+8:

3/26/2013 - Published guide.

3/27/2013 - Fixed some typo errors.

3/27/2013 - Added reference link to battle history/replay.

3/27/2013 - Added some links with code.
- Added some colours to make it look attractive.
- Corrected some errors.
- Fixed links.
- Added pictures.
*Friends and Foe yet to come.

3/28/2013 - Added Friends&Foes&Food.
*Not yet improved/improvised.