The Farming Powerhouse! A complete and updated guide to play Lifestealer with rage and infest strategies(6.79)

Introduction

One of the most powerful melee carries in DotA history, Lifestealer offers nothing but having the ability to take down durable heroes and still can sustain life for himself and/or his allies. He can also be (in my opinion) an "anti-intelligence" hero due to his ability to dodge most spells that are present in most intelligence-support ones.

However, this hero needs to farm a lot at the early stages of the game. This means obtaining every creep lasthits, killing enemy heroes, and pushing towers in order to achieve that farming and killing powerhouse the lifestealer should be!

This guide is made for the purpose of sharing my knowledge to others on how I play naix on pub games and matchmaking games on dota and dota2. Moreover, this guide has an additional section entitled "Rage and Infest Strategies" which will give you an idea on how to use these two important skills in a win-win perspective.

Pros / Cons

Pros

1. Easy to play
2. Can survive in jungling
3. Can life leech(him or his allies)
4. Can dodge most projectile spells
5. Can take down durable heroes
6. Serves as a co-initiator
7. Deadly from core up to late game

Cons

1. Item-dependent
2. Ineffective when not farmed well
3. A bit squishy early game
4. Support-dependent

Items

The Lifestealer is a very effective melee carry specifically from the middle up to the late stages of the game. If you don't manage to farm him well from early game, you would be screwed up later.
This section provides a list of items suitable for the Lifestealer with an in-depth explanation on each item. These are only suggested items and I suggest that you should buy items according to the situation.

Must-Haves

STARTING ITEMS

Stout Shield
Tango
Quelling Blade

Stout Shield is a must-have for the purpose of jungling. It gives passive damage block chance to lessen damage received by Naix. Tango enables you to survive longer in the jungle or in the lane with four(4)charges. Quelling Blade enables you to effectively lasthit every creep in the lane and to jungle effectively by dealing more damage to them. It can also be used to create shortcuts through the forest for a faster farming than making long routes to switch to another camp and as an escape mechanism by gankers.

STARTING ITEMS - CORE EARLY

Hand of Midas obviously is a must-have item at early game. WIth +30AS and a 190 reliable gold, this should be an effective farming item. Earning for HoM at early should be obtained within the 4-9 minute mark. Beyond that, forget buying HoM and instead, work for your other core items.

When using HoM, use it:
1. Against Melee creeps - Because a ranged creep gives more gold than the melee and naix has a greater chance of lasthitting a ranged creep because of its low health than the melee.
2. In the Jungle - There are two options:
a. Against large health neut creep - Fast creep killing but low gold gain.
b. Against small health neut creep - Slow creep killing but high gold gain.
Personally, I prefer letter "b" than "a" because high gold gain means high earnings and therefore, an early finishing of mid core items. For example, you spotted a Satyr Camp consisting of two Satyr Banishers and two Satyr Mindstealers with each unit granting bounties of(at a minimum) 15 and 27 gold, respectively.
If you will try to HoM the smaller banisher, you will be granted 190 gold but not the add'l 15 gold. Therefore, total gold gain is 259.(190+15+27+27)
If you will HoM the larger Mindstealer, same thing goes. 190 gold gain but not the add'l 27. Therefore, the total gold gain is 247(190+27+15+15).
Notice that even though the variance of the two totals is relatively small(259-247=12),Doing this farming tactic in other camps could be a great advantage to Lifestealer to farm for higher earnings.

Phase Boots. Actually, there is a debate regarding the use of phase boots as an early core running item. Some say Power Treads is much better because of its stats gain and Atk speed. Others say Phase Boots because of its movespeed and chasing ability. I personally prefer using Phase Boots than Treads because of its higher ATK dmg than treads and its chasing and escaping mechanism.

Scroll of Town Portal. A mobile item used especially for anti-ganking.

MID CORE

By having these items at 10-15 minute mark, you have the assurance of dominating the middle game!

Armlet of Mordiggian. A must-have middle game core item. When it is in its active form, grants Naix +31 dmg, +10AS, and +25 STR(a cheap version of Satanic) but drains 40 HP/sec.
In the latest version, AoM has no more cooldown but its downside: if you turn on your armlet, the strength gain is now gradually increased to 0.7 seconds in order to achieve the full stat gain benefits, unlike the past version where AoM is instantly increased to its full STR gain but with a 2 sec cooldown. Despite of its downside characteristics, AoM is still the best item for Lifestealer.

Skull Basher. The attack speed prowess of Rage together with a 25% bash proc, this item is certainly a deadly, jaw-dropping core power item!
If you are not contented with the bash proc, you can upgrade this into an Abyssal Blade which grants Naix more damage and an active heavenly bolt!

LUXURY

Any of these could be your late game items!

Heart of Tarrasque. The greatest strength item in DotA. With 300 HP, 40 STR, and a 2% regen rate while out of combat(regen loses while in combat with enemy heroes and Roshan), this is the tank item suitable for Naix! You can Armlet-on forever with HoT.

Mjollnir. A powerful hammer that fell from Asgard! With a chain lightning, an active static charge, +80AS, and another +80AS from lvl 4 Rage, is a berserked combination of blitz and power!

Assault Cuirass. If you want to have the attack speed bonus with a great armor gain for you and your allies, and you want to lessen the armor of enemies, this is the right item for you.

Daedalus. Wanna be demi-mortred-like?! This could be your item.

SITUATIONALS EARLY GAME

Drum of Endurance. If you want to have a fast push early game that could help even your allies, use this.

Magic Wand. For heroes that are skill-intensive and for an additional survivability in the lane.

SITUATIONALS CORE MID AND LATE GAME ITEMS

Black King Bar. Dealing with too much skilled enemy heroes in a clash and a 6 second Rage isn't enough? Buy this one for an additional 10 seconds in its first use(duration decreases for every use by 1 sec until it reaches its minimum 4 seconds). However, not effective against heroes with skills that have magic penetration such as Enigma, Magnus, or Bane.

Blade Mail. Dealing with hard-hitting enemies? Activate this when an enemy hitter attacks you. Deals magic damage return for 4 seconds. However, if an attacker uses BKB, BM has no effect.

Blink Dagger. No one can escape their fate from the claws of Lifestealer with this item. Blink onto an enemy to quickly activate open wounds and grab that sure kill.

Desolator. An enemy with an armor of 7 would make them top-less with this item. Better item against large armored heroes.

Heaven's Halberd. A strength item version of the Butterfly with a maim chance from Sange. Do not build this item together with blade mail!

Linken's Sphere. An item intended for Doom. Remember, he can still bring you doom even when magic immune.

Monkey King Bar. No match against Riki, Windrunner, any evading hero or with a Butterfly? With a 100% sure landing hit, they will surely use their escape skills in no time!

Sange and Yasha. Nowadays, this item seemed to be neglected in pub games but due to increasing popularity in the competitive gaming arena, this item could be your option. A cheap but a powerhouse item, this is very effective for fast takedowns and fast pushes, especially if you have a hard time farming your core. With Phase Boots as your boot item, they are a powerful combination!

Shadow Blade. Having a hard time initiating at clash? Use this to successfully land your open wounds and grab that kill!

Satanic. Remember, feast life leech can stack additively with other sources of lifesteal. With these two lifesteal arsenals, no one can or would bother to kill you.

MUST-NOT-HAVE ITEMS!

Mask of Madness. The lifesteal's good and the Berserk makes you go mad together with Rage. But the berserk effect is way too suicidal for Lifestealer. I'd rather buy other good lifesteal items without sacrificing durability than this one.

Vladimir's Offering. Another lifesteal item that is not worthy for Lifestealer. Just lifesteal with neither damage nor ATK speed.

Radiance. +60 DMG and a burning effect? A costly item not worthy.

Eye of Skadi. 35% slow, huge stat gain and life gain? A great item for Naix except for one thing - huge cost. At 5750 with so many requirements? Not worth building it and could take a long time just to finish it.

Battle Fury. 65 dmg with a cleaving ATK and life/mana regen. Not beneficial to Naix.

Infest Strategies

This is originally intended as a "effective-allies-of-Naix section". However, I will show you not only the good allies of Lifestealer but also the do's and dont's of using infest as an ultimate skill.

The general rule is that any hero that can help Lifestealer farm well, grab kills, and push towers is an effective ally. From healers such as Dazzle, Omniknight, and Warlock, up to the heroes with stuns or holds such as CM, Lion, ES, Shadow Shaman, etc. can be a great ally of Lifestealer.

As far as the Infest Strategies is concerned, I will enumerate some heroes that are effective in obtaining a kill with the use of Infest that's why I called Lifestealer a "co-initiator".

Spirit Breaker. Infest on him when he is ready to charge an enemy hero and you know what to do next.

Storm Spirit. Infest on him when he is going for an electrically-charged ball lightning attack!

Puck. Infest on her when she is going to initiate a clash via illusory orb.

Batrider. Most effective with Blink Dagger, he can initiate clash via Blink to use his Flaming Lasso and let Naix do the hitting.

Magnus. With Dagger and a Reverse Polarity, Naix is a sure winner with this tandem.

Riki. Permanent Invisibility means permanent danger for the target.

Nyx Assassin. Same as with Riki.

Tusk. A snowball and an infest. Great combination too.

As you see, any hero that can initiate clash, invi heroes, or who has a dagger for initiation can be a powerful hiding place for Lifestealer.
Now I'll discuss some instances when shall we use infest and what should we infest.

When to use infest?
1. Farming(applicable for early game)
2. Aiming a gank to secure a kill.
3. Seeing an ally using TP(Infest in a TPing ally. It saves money on buying TP)
4. Defensive purposes(Like infesting huge creep Furion wave)
5. If Naix is more likely to be killed than not, Infest to a nearby ranged enemy creep if possible.
6. As a dodging tool to evade incoming damage.

What should we Infest?
1. Large health creep neuts(for easy farming)
2. Enemy Creeps(Melee creeps for farming or ranged creeps for safety against ganks
3. Enemy Summoned Units(Like those of Invoker or Chen)
4. Enemy Necronomicon Warrior - The one that causes you damage if you killed it.(However, you are not damaged even a bit if you consumed that unit)

What you should not do when infesting?
1. Do not infest on allied units(that includes creeps and summoned units) because you will not gain from infesting in it unless when dodging an incoming damage from an enemy.
2. Do not infest in a neutral if you are likely to be killed. Not only you would be killed but also the neutral you infested with. Better save your infest skill and just accept your imminent death.

Rage Strategies

Rage functions as a built-in BKB for the Lifestealer. It is also used as a dodging tool but its powerhouse ability is it has +80 AS at level 4. The strategies on using Rage is pretty simple but needs practice to effectively obtain its benefits.

This chapter enumerates ways on how to use Rage effectively.

1. Do not use Rage immediately when facing with projectile stun heroes such as Sven, Vengeful Spirit or Skeleton King. Wait for their skills to be thrown out before you activate Rage.
2. For heroes with no projectiles such as Lion or Ogre Magi, better activate Rage IMMEDIATELY.
3. When dealing with chasing some heroes with slow orb effects(such as Drow Ranger or Viper), Activate Rage immediately to cancel the effect of orb.
4. Do not ever use Rage when farming. Better off to use open wounds for an additional lifesteal instead of just attack speed.

5. General Rule: Magical skills are no match against Rage.
6. Heroes having active ultimates that can penetrate Rage in its whole ability:
Axe(for instant kill only), Batrider, Bloodseeker, Broodmother, Death Prophet,
Doom, Faceless Void, Juggernaut, Medusa, Nyx Assassin, Razor, Rubick,
Spectre, Timbersaw, Tusk, Vengeful Spirit, and Witch Doctor.
Heroes that have active ultimates that can penetrate Rage in other abilities, but
not damage:
Anti-Mage, Bane, Clockwerk, Dark Seer, Earthshaker(echo effect is blocked but not initial damage), Elder Titan(Slow and vacuum is blocked but damage is only half blocked), Enigma,
Gyrocopter, Huskar, Invoker(some skills only), Kunkka, Lich, Magnus, Nature's Prophet,
Necrolyte, Outworld Devourer, Pudge, Sand King, Shadow Demon, SF, Sniper, Spirit Breaker,
Viper, and Zeus.
7. For a safer farming, always bring TP. If you see that stunners are going to gank at you, immediately activate your Rage and use your TP. An effective escape mechanism that lets you TP in front of their faces! Haha!
8. When facing a clash, ACTIVATE RAGE IMMEDIATELY! Even though you are good at dodging spells, you'll never know surprises that is in stored for you like having been silenced for a duration and you have no idea what to do to survive and eventually, you'll die. Activating Rage first in a clash will help you obtain double to triple kills and can even wipeout them to ensure a GG.
9. If attacking an enemy with Blade Mail activated, use Rage to

Welcome to the Jungle or the Lane mean killing machine?

Well, this is simply about Jungling or Laning Lifestealer. In the updated version, the jungle camp map is changed a bit. The position of the easy jungle camp(If radiant, one nearest to the middle lane. If dire, one that is in the center of the dire jungle) is transferred to the neutral pulling camp (If radiant, the one nearest to the bottom lane. If dire, the one nearest to the top lane). Also, time spent in reappearing neutrals is now random from the fixed 1 minute neutrals time.

A change in the updated version is also present in the lane. If you are in the safe lane (If radiant, the bottom lane and if the dire, the top lane), you will notice that the meeting point of the creeps in the start of the game is now in front of the side secret shop instead in a point nearest the Radiant bottom tower or Dire top tower, therefore there is no concept of the safe lane or hard lane anymore and side lanes can be a potential target for gankers.

Therefore, despite the changes made in 6.79, is it advisable to go jungling or to go laning? These are the pointers:

1. Analyze the situation. If you can manage to lasthit creeps in the lane without being harassed by the opposing enemy, then do laning.
2. Well, in response to number 1, if you don't manage to lasthit properly because of a harassing enemy, go jungling. Remember. Naix's goal is to farm at all costs during the early stages of the game.
3. Also consider their heroes. Are they having a potential move to gank at you for the purpose of not letting you farm? If yes, go lane with a request for some wards at key locations for anti-gank.
4. Always keep in mind the mobile item, TP and the Rage anti-skill. They can help you a lot to keep you at farming stage without being spotted by gankers.
5. If faced with a 3-man heroes with Naix as a solo safe laner, save your mana for Rage.
6. You can do Laning while Jungling when your creeps have pushed near an enemy tower.

Summary

In general, Lifestealer is a hero that is farm-dependent but can manage to escape danger with the use of his skills. When playing at early game, farm, farm, and farm. Avoid being killed. Get every lasthits. Don't waste every opportunity to farm. If you have your core items, go for the kill, but continue farming. Use your infest and rage advantage to obtain that easy naix kills. During the late game, be a deadly storm. Let your enemies shout an instant GG.

Thanks for reading this guide. This is my first time making a dota guide so if you spotted any errors regarding any information presented here, please inform me so that I can correct that error right away!