Viper, The Aura Carrier Arrives
Croofe
February 16, 2016
Choose Your Lane
You are not hard carry so safe lane is out for you, unless your primary carry goes jungle, and you can take his spot.
Mid lane (or 1 vs 1 offlane) is good for you, and you have powerful tools to snag kills (
Poison Attack to harass enemies, 
Nethertoxin to deal crazy right click, 
Viper Strike to secure kills), so early levels are good.
Dual Lane is better since you can zone enemies out with orb walking, but if getting kited, your support can help you.
If you go Tri-lane, makes sure it;s an aggresive one since we want to put pressure on enemy's carry.
Solo offlane (vs tri-lane) is not recommended and if you can avoid this, avoid it, but it's not impossible. Take 
Corrosive Skin at level 1, Nethertoxin or Poison Attack at level 2 to counter harass, Corrosive Skin again at level 3, and finally Poison Attack/ Nethertoxin at level 4 to orb walk. Corrosive Skin again at Level 5 and at 7.
Bring more regen items more than usual when starting solo offlane since you definitely will trade blows with their supports.
Skills
POISON ATTACK
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This skill is useful to harass enemies and prevent them to escape from ganks. One point early for Orb Walking, and second point on level 3 to give better slow and chasing power, and also prevent them to escape from ganks. We don't level this up further because Nethertoxin offer better damage and Corrosive Skin brings more presence in team fights and the slow you need can be gained from Viper Strike. If you face heavy harass, consider leveling Corrosive Skin instead and leave this at level 1 until other skills are maxed. Also leave this at level 1 when your team already have powerful crowd controlling heroes.
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NETHERTOXIN
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This skill is a mere value point in early levels because  Viper has no damage to trigger this passive alone from right clicks. But this skill is very good at helping last hits. This skill is leveled up further when your allies deals huge nuke damage and help you trigger this passive.
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CORROSIVE SKIN
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This skill is the one that makes Viper so tanky because of the increased magic resistance. The slow will reduce enemiies' movement speed and attack speed thus also means less physical damage for you. The damage return is mostly negligible at first, but the duration refreshes everytime you take damage, thus the damage also piles up. Most importantly, this passive trigger on every attack, including magic damage and pure damage. We max this first because we want to maximize our presence in team fights.
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VIPER STRIKE
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Viper's ultimate is a heavy Damage-over-Time nuke with huge slow. the damage is lackluster with its mana cost (in relative to your mana) and also being single target spell it's just simply bad compared to other spells like Laguna's Blade. But what we are looking is the slow. It is very good to prevent enemies to escape or get proper positioning. In midst of team fight, use this ultimate to prevent enemies have proper positioning when they target your allies.
Note that the slow pierces Magic Immunity.
With  Mekansm in your arsenal, Viper will have no mana to activate both, thus the needed item of  Arcane Boots.
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Itemization
Starting Items
Standard Agility hero starting item, good for rushing
Ring of Aquila. The regen is enough to stay in lane if being harassed or after a gank attempt from the enemies.
starting Items: Solo Offlane
If you go offlane solo, you obviously need more regen to fight the heavy harass.
Ring of Protection to reduce right-click damage from enemies. Rush
Ring of Basilius and
Boots of Speed because you want to escape quickly if ganked and use
Poison Attack to fight back harassment with Orb Walk.
Early Game
You want
Boots of Speed first before finishing Aquila because of your abysmal movement speed.
Ring of Aquila for regen, damage, and attack speed. You need this since you don't buy
Power Treads. Aquila is also good for pushing towers.
After finishing
Ring of Aquila, You want to buy
Buckler, which makes you so tanky when combined with
Corrosive Skin. Finally, buy
Headdress for health regen, and to be finished into
Mekansm
Core Items
Mekansm is your core. You will be in the front line, soaking damage from enemies, prevent allies getting blown up without letting their nukes out first, then finish your enemies with
Nethertoxin passive effect.
I chose
Arcane Boots instead of
Power Treads because of his abysmal mana pool that prevents him to use both
Mekansm and
Viper Strike in one team fight. The burst mana recovery makes him able to stay in the field for a long time thus able to pressure enemy towers continuously.
Viper doesn't depend on attack speed for
Nethertoxin to work, but the enemies to start losing their health first. Thus the need for allies to nuke them down first.
Arcane Boots also both help yourself and your allies mana problem. Your need for stats will be covered by next item.
If 3 of your teammates already buy
Arcane Boots, you should buy
Power Treads since the burst mana recovery from your team will make you able to use both
Mekansm and
Viper Strike. Don't forget to tread switch when using
Viper Strike and
Mekansm in team fights.
Drum of Endurance gives everything you want: Stats, Movement Speed, and Attack Speed. The latter two is also given to your team. Drums may be skipped if you want to buy
Guardian Greaves immediately, but after buying GG, you want this item as well.
Extension
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Guardian Greaves is a natural item to get after you have both Arcane Boots and Mekansm. With the increased mana cost of your ult, every time you leveled it up, you will once again find Viper face mana problem again. Guardian Greaves is a free mana cost version of Mekansm which is a huge relief for your mana pool. The passive effect is also good for your team. After getting this, you will face no mana problem again. Guardian Greaves also purge any debuffs on you.
Skip this item if you need situational items. Buying this item at later stage is not a bad idea.
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Luxury
OK, before you complain that 3 out of 4 item is not an aura item, there is a reason why I choose them.
You have covered the aura part, but you have no nuke other than your ult, which is more of a slow rather than proper nuke. So, to cover what you lack, you have to
strengthen what you already have:
Right clicks. You already have a good steroid:
Nethertoxin, now it's time to utilize it properly rather than waiting for your allies to nuke your enemies.
These items alone does not put you on hard carry because you will definitely lose to other carries out there, which is why you have harder carries for your team. But with these items, you can destroy enemies with your carry.
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Since you are always in the front line, this item is good. Minus armor for enemy team and building (more damage from you and your carry), and also more armor for you and your team. The attack speed is not bad either, so what's not to love? Rush this if you face an abundant of minus armor heroes like  Vengeful Spirit,  Shadow Fiend,  Dazzle,  Slardar, etc.
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Damage, attack speed, evasion for more survival, and active effect to chase enemies down. You have Nethertoxin to cover your damage, thus this is a natural item to have.
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Damage is a bit lackluster with your less than stellar attack speed but not unwelcomed. However, what you want is its passive: True Strike to destroy enemies with evasions. This item works better after you buy some attack speed items.
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Buy after you somehow get six slotted (which is doubtful) or need the global presence to push or defend.
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Situational Items
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Buy if somehow you are focused down heavily at the start of the battle. This item will scare them off until your allies get to you. Your tankiness makes you a good carrier for this item. Good item to procs your Nethertoxin passive if they focus on you.
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To stop enemies from chain stunning you to death. You are useless if you die first in team fights.
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Buy this if someone on your team already buy Assault Cuirass (or a natural carrier of said item), but you still need extra armor. The active and passive effect is fantastic in team fights and chasing enemies that survive.
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This item works well with your skill repertoires. Silence to prevent fight back or escape, extra 30% damage for your skills. The mana regen and attack speed are also welcomed additions. Buy this if you need to disable heroes that likes to use low cooldown abilities to enter/exit team fights like  Windranger,  Queen of Pain,  Weaver,  Timbersaw, etc.
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If you face stacks of crazy AoE nuke damage from multiple heroes like  Necrophos,  Sand King,  Earthshaker,  Jakiro, bat rider, etc. This item brings your Magical Resistance to 65% when combined with Corrosive Skin before you use your active, thus makes you able to soak enemies nukes much better.
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When your team have a bad game and enemy carry is fed to destroy your team. Buy this to stop him.
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Rejected Items
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This item offers no benefit for your team. Offers little damage, and doesn't work well with Nethertoxin. You will be in the front line, soaking damage, and let your team nuke the enemies down. This item doesn't offer anything with your playstyle.
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Lifesteal aura, +5 armor aura, mana regen, 15% damage increase (physical). On paper it's good, but in reality its useless. The Lifesteal is lackluster compared to the burst heal you have. You already have armor for your team from Mekansm, mana from Arcane Boots, and the damage is just not worth it when Monkey King Bar or Butterfly does much better. Ask your teammates to buy if your team does need this, since the effect is redundant for you.
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This item suffer the same predicament as Sange and Yasha. Lack of support for your team, and you only upgrade your ult, which is cast range and cool down. With such a weak nuke which only usage is to prevent enemies from positioning, you don't really need this item. The increased cast range is not needed since you will be in the front line most of the time.
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Gameplay
So you choose Viper after considering many things like weakness and strengths of your allies and enemies.
General guideline to use this build is to put pressure on enemy team by pushing their towers by pushing their towers early to early mid game where enemies' fighting power is not yet too high thus you want 4 vs 4 situation means always the winning side for you or even when powerful enough to fight in 4 vs 5 under enemy towers. Then push enemy tower down, preferably mid and offlane towers first if your primary carry is still farming in lane.
Immediately start pushing towers after you get
Mekansm and ask your other core and supports to follow you. Don't underestimate the power of early
Mekansm even if your support is underleveled because of baby sitting tri-lane your carry.
Always in the front line in team fights. You want to soak damage, your allies comes in, then use your
Mekansm to heal damage they inflict on you.
If you don't have
Arcane Boots, don't use your ultimate unless you are on full mana, because using
Mekansm is much better than using your
Viper Strike. Getting your allies to stay alive until they let out all their nukes is your first priority.
DON'T use
Mekansm to save allies that has exhausted his juice to commit back to team fight unless that person is your primary carry or has an escape. Save it for allies that low on health but has mana left to use his or her nukes for one more time.
Push to tier 2 tower if you face little resistance in destroying tier 1 tower or your team stream roll the fight so hard, otherwise start pushing other tier 1 towers.
Ask your supports to purchase
Observer Ward (or buy them yourself once in a while) and ask them to put them in aggressive positions since we want to push their towers or gank their jungling heroes to have that needed space to push towers.
If you have good game, by 20 minutes most likely you already finish your core items, and being a more powerhouse to push their towers down.
Most likely after getting the core items, you want a situational item to increase your team survival and push the rest of the tier 2 towers, or perhaps rush immediately to
Assault Cuirass after buying
Guardian Greaves.
If having a hard time to push tier 2 towers, consider buy
Smoke of Deceit and gank one of the enemy team members, doesn't matter if either support or core hero. 4 vs 3 is a situation you want to have because in mid-game usually enemy carries doesn't go online yet if you are successful to put pressure to enemy towers in early game.
So then, you manage to destroy all tier 2 enemy towers, the gameplay now changes.
Unless your team is that far ahead, don't try your luck by pushing tier 3 towers unless you have that 4 vs 3 situation once again.
Instead wait for your carry to be ready.
Pick off enemy members with
Smoke of Deceit, exhaust their jungle down, go Roshan if possible, put your
Observer Wards always on aggressive side, since we want to limit enemies farming capability.
By the time your carry is ready, ideal situation is you already have one Luxury item to support him dealing damage.
If forced on defensive due to bad game, try to extend the game until your carry is ready. Gank enemy carry with
Smoke of Deceit, put
Observer Ward on defensive, guard your carry from ganks, and defend towers.
Viper's tankiness makes him a powerful asset in team fights even if being defensive.
Allies and Enemies
Allies
Viper works well with other semi-carries, and often able to give space for your hard carry to farm. Due to this build, you also help support and other semi-carries spam his or her abilities more because of your mana burst heal. Your allies are also those that can deal impressive nuke damage to tear enemies down for your
Nethertoxin to start working.
Heroes that benefits much from his presence on team fights:
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Razor can deal crazy damage with his right click, but have to be in enemy's face. The longer he is on the fight, the more dangerous he is. With you on his side, you can prevent him from dying early to dish damage to your enemies. Your slow makes him able to  Static Link longer.
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Or any similar heroes that can destroy teams in early game, but need survival to do so.
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Spectre is good, spectre is tanky, and spectre is one of the hardest hard carry out there. The longer she is on battle, the more damage she is able to give. With you on her side, she can enter fights early and snag kills (or assists) without dying.
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Or any hard carry that will destroy enemy team later but need farm and space to do so.
Enemies
There are similarities on these heroes. Either they are an illusion hero or able to empty
Viper's mana.
Viper need mana to use his items and being empty makes him useless.
Viper is also a single target killing hero, thus illusion heroes are your primary weakness.
If enemies take these heroes, hopefully your teammate counter picks them.
Beside carries and semi-carries, heroes that makes you able to take towers early is your definite friend:
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 Chain Frost is an easy to dodge nuke, but just few bounces is enough to make your enemies back off for your team to push towers after team fight happens.
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 Chaotic Offering hurts especially in early game. Almost a guaranteed win team fight when combined with your presence when pushing your first or second tower.
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What's more dangerous than one tanky hero? Two tanky heroes in one team fight. Dragon Knight can take physical punishment, and some magical damage done can be mitigated with your healing burst from Mekansm. He also has a stun to disable a pure damage dealer like Outworld Devourer long enough to put your team in favor. And he also has Corrosive Breath when in  Elder Dragon Form to push towers quicker.
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Two pusher hero is more dangerous than one. Even if Viper only push with 2 other heroes, he needed to be stopped by 4 heroes because 3 vs 3 is not ideal when against Viper in early game. Nature's Prophet can take advantage of created space to push the other tower. In situation like this, you should just poke enemy tower to force them to TP then back off.
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Outro
I think this is enough for now. Hopefully my build helps you in your game.
Morphling, Viper can be safely assumed buried under the dirt. Semi-Carry role for him has also fallen with heroes like 
Sven bringing much more to the plate in team fights.
Pugna's pet fall off from popularity.
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