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Tango
Wraith Band
Boots of Speed
Power Treads
Shadow Blade
Aghanim's Scepter
Manta Style
Butterfly
Heart of Tarrasque
Daedalus
Satanic
Black King Bar
Boots of Travel
Hood of Defiance
Monkey King Bar
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2 | 4 | 7 | 9 |  |
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1 | 5 | 12 | 14 |  |
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3 | 8 | 10 | 13 |  |
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6 | 11 | 16 |  |
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15 | 17 | 18 |
Hello. I'm Grim, and I wanted to share my experiences with playing Viper so that others might benefit from it. I'm always open to feedback and particularly enjoy constructive, thought-provoking debates, be it regarding item choices, skill choices, or strategies. I would like to point out that I mostly play pub games, and my guide would be centered around that, although I do believe that even pub games need to have a certain degree of modicum related to each player's role, their strategies for their role, etc.
As I go along, I'll try pointing out every minor detail that comes to my mind, so this can help even newer players understand the guide. That being said, I'll assume that the reader has some basic knowledge of what a game of Dota involves, and basic terminologies like laning, ganking, pushing, etc. If not, I strongly suggest that you read this beginner's guide before venturing further.
To give a background, I have been playing Dota on and off since 2007, back in the days when it was a Warcraft 3 mod. I have played through various patches and various roles during my years of Dota, and I must say that it has been an enjoyable adventure so far. It's been a memorable experience watching the game evolve, and the meta changing over the years. To put some perspective, I remember the days when the current 
Arcane Boots was Arcane Ring, the days of the old Terrorblade with his Soul Steal skill, etc.
Viper is a very versatile hero, being able to fit several roles, including a semi-carry, a support hero, and a roaming ganker. That being said, I find the hero to be most effective as a role-2 hero. If you are unfamiliar with what "role-2" means, I'll explain in brief.
In dota, the 5 heroes in a team are generally classified by their roles, and assigned numbers based on how much gold they need. What I mean by this is that, role 1 needs the most gold to be effective, followed by role 2, and so on. Role 1 is the hard carry who would most likely be farming in a safe lane with supports to allow him free farm, Role 2 would most likely be the mid player, Role 3 would be an offlane/support hero, Roles 4 and 5 would be soft and hard supports respectively.
In my opinion, Viper shines as a "Role-2" hero. That being said, he can also function as a Role 3 or 4. Depending on which role you play in your team, your items (for the most part) and strategy (slightly) would vary. For example, as a role-2 (which I will call a semi-carry from now), you will build more towards offensive items that help you actively deal damage in teamfights, and your role in the fights would be to kill the enemy heroes fast before they can kill your team. As a role-3, you would focus more on items that help your team survive teamfights, and your strategy would be to assist your carry in pulling off kills.
One important thing to keep in mind is that, Viper is a relatively snowballing hero. With a strong early/mid game, he can easily carry your team to victory, even being able to out-dps the enemy hard carry if farmed enough, however, if you get ganked early on and have a bad early/mid game, your late game is absolutely nothing. You are reduced to spitting out measly auto attacks that tickle the enemy heroes and your only use in the game from then on would be spamming your ulti every time it is up. Keep this in mind when playing Viper and capitalize on his strong early game presence to ensure that you have a secure late game with your core set of items.
To be able to play Viper effectively, you must first understand what your strengths and weaknesses are. You should be able to play to your strengths and mitigate your weaknesses. Let us look at the pros and cons of the hero.
Pros:
- Extremely strong laner/harasser
- Powerful slows
- Ability to orb walk without drawing aggro for first blood
- Easy to chase down enemy heroes
- Strong 1v1 hero
- Dangerous if left unchecked in teamfights
- Versatile hero (can fit several roles)
Cons:
- Very squishy early on
- Slow move speed (Base: 285)
- No reliable escape mechanism
- No ability to lockdown heroes (stuns/disables). In other words, nothing to stop an enemy from teleporting away when you have the advantage in a fight.
- No AoE abilities (only single target abilities)
I'll explain the pros and cons of the hero briefly. Viper is a very strong midlane hero. He can last hit creeps comfortably (thanks to Nethertoxin) to get a steady supply of gold. He can harass enemy heroes constantly with his auto attacks and Poison Attack. In the early game, he can be on the offensive very strongly if your supports can put down a couple of sentry wards/observer wards in key places to protect you from getting ganked. He is a strong contender for getting first blood with the ability to orb walk with his Poison Attack (explained below). Viper is also a great asset in teamfights with his ability to slow down the enemy team's carry by up to 80% (thereby reducing his DPS by 80%) and slowing down other enemy heroes to make them less effective. Viper is a great 1v1 hero due to his ultimate, Viper Strike which can slow your opponent by 80%, and your ability Nethertoxin which lets you deal more damage to your enemy based on how low his health is.
Looking at Viper's cons, he is a relatively squishy hero early on with a not-so-high life pool, and a slow movespeed. These disadvantages, combined with the fact that you don't have a reliable escape mechanism (like a blink) makes you susceptible to dying early on. This is where your supports can make or break the game for you. With strategically placed sentry and observer wards, you can spot enemy hero rotations, and fall back accordingly to avoid getting ganked. Once you hit level 6, this threat is mitigated due to the fact that you can use Viper Strike defensively (slowing the enemy attack and move speed by 40%) to get away, however, that still won't help you if you get ganked, as you only neutralize one hero.
Orb Walk - In Dota, aggro (or when the enemy creeps or tower attack you vs when they attack the creeps) is determined by certain factors. Generally, when you attack an enemy hero, the creep aggro switches to you. This means that the enemy creeps stop attacking your creeps and start attacking you instead. This can cause you to take significant damage early on, and more importantly, block you from pursuing the enemy hero to get a kill. Orb walk is a method by which you can avoid taking creep aggro (and thereby pursue your enemy without getting blocked/attacked by creeps). To do this, you need to have your Poison Attack on manual cast (instead of auto-cast. Click Alt+Skill button to switch between manual cast and auto cast). Once you have this, keep manually attacking your enemy with Poison Attack. In other words, click 'Q', click enemy, click 'Q', click enemy, and repeat. This will allow you to keep attacking the enemy without drawing aggro, which can allow you to get first blood.
Viper's skill set is pretty straightforward. You have two active skills that slow and damage the enemy over time. You have two passive skills - one offensive and one defensive.
Poison Attack is a strong early skill, and will continue to be effective throughout the game. Max this as soon as you can, after you have one level in Nethertoxin. During the early game, use Poison Attack to occasionally supplement your auto attacks to harass the enemy hero in lane. But the real use of this skill in the early game is to orb walk to get early kills if your enemy over extends. Don't turn this skill auto-cast or spam it to get last hits early on, since you won't have the mana pool to sustain it, and you need the mana in order to use it to get your hero kill. Once you reach mid game, and have a fairly decent mana pool, you can use this to constantly chase heroes and kill them.
Nethertoxin is a great skill to pick up at level 1. Since this skill deals bonus damage based on how low your target's health is, it comes useful in last hitting creeps. You should have a relatively easy time last hitting as well as denying with this skill. Make sure you take full advantage of the bonus damage to get the last hit gold as well as deny your enemy the farm. This skill also comes in useful when auto attacking enemy heroes. The lower they drop, the more damage they will take. Note that this skill only affects your auto attacks.
Corrosive Skin is a strong defensive skill. The effect of this skill is three-fold. First, it gives you some much needed magic resistance given your squishy life pool. More importantly, whenever an enemy attacks you, this skills slows them as well as damages them over time. You can level this skill early on if you are getting harassed in your lane (which shouldn't happen, but there are certain mid heroes that can harass a Viper). Otherwise, save this for the mid game which is the time that you will start constantly engaging enemy heroes.
Viper Strike is your ultimate, and it is an impressive one at that. While at level 1, the slow is only equal to a maxed Poison Attack, it starts getting more significant starting from level 2, at which point it will slow your target by 60%. This will ensure that your target cannot run away from you in most cases. This will be your choice of skill when initiating a fight. Cast Viper Strike on an enemy hero to start, and keep following them with your Poison Attack. This will ensure a kill on pretty much any hero 1v1. In teamfights, make sure you cast Viper Strike on the enemy carry. This will nullify them for the most part in a fight. However, there are certain heroes that you need to watch out for. These heroes can overcome your Viper Strike with some of their skills. For example, Lycanthrope's ultimate will make this skill useless since it gives him max move speed. Also, 
Slardar's Sprint and 
Dark Seer's 
Surge can help them outrun you even with Viper Strike on them. Keep this in mind before using this skill on them. One important thing to note is that, Black King Bar's magic immunity will protect your target against the damage over time done by this skill, but they will still be slowed, so even if the enemy carry has a BKB, you can use your ulti on them to render them ineffective in a teamfight.
Starting Items
When starting, grab a set of Tangoes, a 
Slippers of Agility and a 
Circlet. If your opponent is one of the heroes that can harass you, grab a 
Healing Salve as well. You can optionally skip the salve and instead get an early 
Bottle that can help you with regen as well as controlling runes.
Early Game
During the early game, complete your Wraith Band as well as Power Treads. For treads, start with Boots of Speed since they will help with your low move speed.
Once you have a Wraith Band and Power Treads, you can start building your core items.
Core
When going the semi-carry build, your core items should improve your attack damage, and the ability to kill enemies.
Shadow Blade gives you some juicy attack speed to spam out those slows, as well as the ability to go invisible for a short duration. Depending on the level at which you are playing, this might either work, or be totally useless. In most pub games, using the Shadow Blade will get you out of ganks and sticky situations since very few players use counter vision. However, against a fairly decent opponent, you should be aware that they might carry 
Dust of Appearance or 
Sentry Wards which can render the invisibility useless.
Aghanim's Scepter is, in my opinion, a fantastic pickup on a Viper. Regardless of whether you are playing a semi-carry or a support, the 12 second cooldown on your ultimate, combined with the increased 900 range will help you get kills that you otherwise could not have got. I classify this as a core item on my build, and strongly stand by it. When building this, start with the 
Point Booster before buying the other components, since you'll appreciate the additional life and mana.
Luxury
Manta Style is a strong item for any agility based carry, and Viper is no exception. Move speed, attack speed, damage, stats are all useful to have. Having additional illusions means, more damage, and triggering Manta Style can help you avoid most targeted stuns/disables. For example, when you are running away low on life, and the enemy 
Sniper has locked you for 
Assassinate, by triggering your Manta Style just before the shot is fired will help you avoid the hit, and potentially save you from certain death.
Butterfly is another luxury item that is great for any agility carry. Get this if the enemy carry is a strong physical DPSer. 35% chance to evade hits is nothing to scoff at, and the enemy would have to get a Monkey King Bar to get around it. Even then, the agility, damage and attack speed are all useful to have.
Heart of Tarrasque will ensure that you no longer need to return to your fountain (unless you die, of course). Just got out of a team fight with 150 health, no problem, just go into the jungle for a bit and return to the fight in no time with full health. This is a great item to have if you have a siege going on at the enemy base. Being able to heal up to full life after a fight without having to return to base means that you can have the creep wave pushed, and several times, this means the difference between winning and losing a game.
If for some reason, the enemy team is not focusing you (they should be, if they have half a brain) and you see yourself not needing a massive health pool, you can skip the heart, and instead, pick up a Daedalus. This will make you hit like a truck, and suddenly, those auto attacks start to do a lot more damage.
Satanic is a good pickup if the game goes pretty late. Generally, the life steal doesn't apply to your Poison Attack, but by the late game when your damage from auto attacks is more than enough to take care of your enemies, and you only use the Poison Attack to slow them down, this item is a wonderful choice. When you get burst down to low HP in a teamfight, activate it, and watch yourself go back to full HP.
Situational
Black King Bar is a situational item that can be useful if the enemy team has strong stuns/disables and you find yourself being chain-disabled in a teamfight unable to do any damage.
Boots of Travel can replace your Power Treads if the game goes extremely late and you need to deal with a split-pushing 
Nature's Prophet or a similar hero that's being an annoying prick, trying to rat dota his way to victory.
Hood of Defiance is a good pickup if your enemy team has strong nukes, and your corrosive skin doesn't negate enough damage for you to survive these fights. However, if your supports do their job, they should have a 
Pipe of Insight and 
Mekansm that should take care of all your damage mitigation/healing needs, in which case this item might not even be needed.
Monkey King Bar is necessary if the enemy carry decides to pick up a Butterfly. Pretty straightforward.
Starting Items
Grab a set of Tangoes, a Ring of Regeneration and a couple of Ironwood Branches. Your priority is to stay alive, get levels and rotate to pull off ganks on the enemy heroes that are caught out of position (preferably their carry or mid).
Early Game
During the early game, complete the 
Headdress and the 
Buckler. Also, get a Boots of Speed, which you will later build into Power Treads. If faced against a strong spell-based lane, it might be worth picking up an early 
Cloak for the added magic resistance.
Core
Mekansm will be one of your first core items. This will provide your entire team with survivability in teamfights, and help in pushing towers after winning a teamfight. Make sure you get this before the mid-game engagements start.
Pipe of Insight is another core item that will help your entire team. The magic damage block can be a deciding factor in the mid game teamfights where enemy supports can otherwise nuke down your supports or even your carry. The added magic resistance is a bonus for you that helps you tank nukes without dying.
You should also complete your Power Treads at some point to give you some additional life.
Luxury
Force Staff is a key luxury item for any support hero. You should pick this up once you have finished your core. This item can be used in a lot of ways. Are you being chased by an enemy hero? Force staff yourself away to escape. Is your carry being chased? Force staff them to allow them to escape. Is your carry chasing an enemy hero? Force staff your carry so that he gets in range to attack. Are you having a standoff at the enemy base, and are looking for an opening to breach high ground? Force staff one of the enemy heroes into your team, and pick them off. You just created an opening for your team to move in. As you can see, the possibilities are endless. I prefer this to 
Blink Dagger for its versatility (Blink can only be used on yourself, and you cannot use it immediately after being attacked by an enemy hero).
Aghanim's Scepter is a great addition to you for the same reasons that I have already explained. Reduced cooldown and increased range on your ultimate can setup several kills easily, and turn entire teamfights in your favor since you can potentially cast your ultimate twice or even thrice during a teamfight.
Early game as a Viper is pretty straightforward. It is also a very important phase for you. You should really aim to get as much gold as possible, with your easy ability to last hit with Nethertoxin.
If you are solo mid, keep harassing the enemy hero. Always be on the lookout for first blood. If you see the enemy overextending, or if your harassment gets them to about half HP, with your creeps pushing at his tower, that's your cue to orb walk and get first blood.
There are very few heroes that can stand up to a Viper in mid. Against these heroes, you need to be careful, since you are squishy in the beginning and one wrong move will mean that you will feed first blood to your enemy. The thumb rule is that, if one mid hero gets first blood on his enemy, the chances are that, the match-up will continue to favor the hero that got the first blood (unless the other team repeatedly counter ganks). Given this, beware the following heroes in mid.
Tinker - It's annoying to harass a tinker in lane. His 1 point 
Laser means that you miss 100% on attacks. His 
Heat Seeking Missile keeps threatening your low life pool. His 
March of the Machines doesn't let you pursue him without taking considerable damage. Once he gets level 6, he can 
Rearm and do the whole thing all over again.
Silencer - His Curse of the Silent makes you take damage over time until you cast a spell. Guess what? You have no spells until level 6. Poison Attack doesn't count as a spell; it is only a unique attack modifier. Well, there goes your early game. Protip: If you see a Silencer in lane, switch lanes. Once you get farmed, that Silencer cannot stand up to you. But early game, do not go up against him.
Zeus - This tiny little fellow can zap you from across the river with his 
Arc Lightning. He then pops a couple of auto attacks on you, and then bam, one 
Lightning Bolt and you are dead. His spells do even more damage, thanks to his passive 
Static Field. You are extremely weak against heavy nukes early on, so watch out for this one.
Weaver - His 
Shukuchi will keep you munching on tangoes as you take constant harass. Add in 
Geminate Attack and 
The Swarm, the possibility of first blood going against you is pretty high.
Pudge - His 
Rot hurts your meager life pool. Even as you harass him, he backs away into the high ground where you have no vision on him, pops a salve, heals back to full life, and as you are farming creeps, he pulls you in range of the enemy tower with his 
Meat Hook and suddenly, you're dead.
These are the most common mid heroes that have a significant advantage over you. So if you are up against one of these, play safe. But otherwise, you have a comfortable early game if you just avoid getting ganked.
Once you hit your level 6, you can gank other lanes. Always keep a TP scroll handy - be it to counter gank, or return to your lane after a gank or to escape a bad situation. For the most part, you should have your Power Treads and Shadow Blade by now, so it should be easy to setup ganks. One important thing that most people tend to overlook is that, when you win a teamfight, the job is only half done. You should be able to convert it into a tower kill to really gain the advantage over the other team.
Getting towers is helpful in many ways. It pushes the creep wave closer to their base, so their effective space for farming is lesser. They will constantly be afraid of getting ganked, so their farm will be slower, which will eventually push the game in your favor. Destroying towers also lessens their map control and vision over the map. They can no longer teleport to a tower to respond to a gank or do roshan, etc. In most cases, the team with a significant tower lead controls the map, and in turn, controls the momentum of the game. So, taking towers is a crucial part of winning a teamfight.
During teamfights, always Viper Strike your enemy carry. They are the biggest threat if left alone, so they should be neutralized first. You see that 
Phantom Assassin blink into the fight, don't use your Viper Strike on the 
Crystal Maiden even though it's a guaranteed easy kill. Negate the effect their carry has on the teamfight, and you would have won the fight for your team. An 80% slow on a carry is nothing to scoff at. Since most carries have a fairly good attack speed, negating 80% of it is a heavy disadvantage to them, and will win you the fight in most cases. Once their carry is taken care of, the supports can be dispatched easily with a few Poison Attacks. I've seen so many games where Vipers use their ulti on a squishy support only to have the enemy carry turn the fight around. Don't make that mistake.
At this point, if your team is leading, you would be pressuring their base. By this time, you should have some or most of your luxury items as well, so I needn't tell you how to play. With your Aghanim's, you should be able to spam Viper Strike to get individual hero kills. One word of warning though, you are still a squishy hero and you are a single target hero, so don't try manfighting against illusion based carries that are farmed well. An excellent example here would be against a farmed 
Phantom Lancer or an 
Anti-Mage with manta and MKB.
By this time, you should be pushing with your team. If you are leading, the main thing you need to fear is getting caught out alone. Stay with your team, and steadily push their tier 3 towers, and the ancient.
If you are on the backfoot at this stage, with the other team winning strongly, it will most likely be a losing game, but you can still try finding openings by grouping up with your team, and picking off the enemy carry. It will not be easy, but if you do have that Aghanim's, your presence in a teamfight will still be significant.
Allies
Since your main disadvantage to get kills is the enemy teleporting out, any support with strong stuns/disables will help you. Also, if they have a heal, it's icing on the cake. Let's look at some of your favorite allies.
Lion is a great ally for you. His 
Earth Spike can stun the target, interrupting a teleport. He can 
Hex the target for you, and use his massive nuke 
Finger of Death to finish off enemies.
Dazzle is an ally everyone loves. Great heal, a good ulti that lowers enemy armor, 
Shallow Grave that can save you from death, all are good abilities to have.
Nyx Assassin is a great roaming support that can help you setup ganks. 
Vendetta is useful for surprise ganks, and if the enemy tries teleporting away as you orb walk them, 
Impale takes care of that.
Pretty much any standard support hero can help you pull off ganks.
Enemies
This is the more important part. You should know when NOT to pick a Viper depending on how the enemy team is built. The thing most people underrate is the fact that a game of DotA is decided 25% in the hero picks. For example, if you pick a 
Clinkz or 
Riki when you know the other team has a 
Bounty Hunter and Slardar, I can tell you that the game is going to be pretty bad for you. It is all about knowing your strengths and weaknesses, and similarly, the enemy's strengths and weaknesses. Here are some heroes that Viper fares poorly against.
Burst heavy nukers like Zeus, Lion, 
Lina can kill you with a single combo of their skills, so watch out for them in the early game. As the game progresses, this is not be such a threat, since their nukes are all number-based, rather than percentage-based.
Enemies that can outrun you even with your ultimate, or have a good escape ability are hard for you. Lycanthrope, Slardar, Riki, Dark Seer, 
Night Stalker are all good at escaping even with your ultimate.
Also keep in mind that, any well farmed hard carry will beat you late game, unless you have a significant item advantage over them. This includes heroes like Phantom Lancer, Anti-Mage, 
Faceless Void, Phantom Assassin, etc.
To give you a sense of Viper play, here is one of my favorite plays, this game between Quantic Gaming and Duza. Watch FATA play Viper so effectively as a Role-2 hero.
In conclusion, Viper is one of my favorite heroes when I feel bored and want to own pubs. I have tried sharing my experiences and insights about the hero with you through this guide. As I mentioned earlier, I am open to discussions and debates about anything related to the guide.
Here is one of my better matches with Viper to give an example of how well this hero can dominate a pub game.
Finally, thank you for taking the time to read through the guide, and I hope it does help some of the newer players take a liking to this hero.
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