Dota 2: Night Stalker dominates pub 7.22g

Night Stalker’s win rate is quite high, and has increased by about 2% over the past time. Therefore, it’s hard not to discuss this hero, as Night Stalker has a win rate of 55% of the games he’s appeared in. Now, NS is one of the strongest offlaners in the game.

WHAT HAS CHANGED

7.20 is the patch that changed NS the most, making Crippling Fear an extremely beneficial AoE silence for this hero. This is also the patch that removes Hunter in the Night’s activation and introduces Dark Ascension.

The result is a very different hero with a very different set of tools and goals in the game. Previously, Night Stalker was used for scouting, now NS is the leading tank hero that can take hits, while providing a large amount of information to teammates and detaching/killing supports.

In return, this hero does not appear much in the lane. Without the ability to farm quickly or recover in the jungle, NS’s success largely depends on the first 5 minutes of the game – the hero’s weakest period. It takes a lot of buffs and changes in deny XP to make Night Stalker really strong.

Night Stalker starts the game with 660 HP, heals 4 health per second, is close to 5 armor and does 63 damage. These stats haven’t changed recently, but something extremely important has been tweaked to take advantage of these stats. – Speed ​​of movement. As a melee hero with 285 movement speed, Night Stalker cannot create pressure and trade hits in his favor. Now, having reached 295 movement speed and dealing full Void damage during the day, Night Stalker can no longer farm slow creeps during the day, but can better hunt at night.

HOW TO BUILD

The most popular and effective build of Night Stalker is quite obvious. Maxing Void and two points into Hunter in the Night at level 7 is the standard build. Then, raise one point to Crippling Fear right at the start of the second night, and then max Hunter in the Night.

Specifically, most players ignore the talent at level 10, in favor of build 4-1-4-1. They usually choose the +200 HP talent at level 11, as it complements the current offlane playstyle – hard to kill and hard to ignore. At level 15, almost all chose the +15 Strength talent.

Talking about how to build items, it is not very diverse. Both Aghanim’s Scepter and Solar Crest are game-changing items for heroes, and the order in which to build first depends on the state of the game.

Engaging Aghanim’s Scepter early will make the hero extremely powerful for teamfight, especially if it’s built before the opponent has BKB. If your team is able to pressurize and gain control of the map, getting this item straight will ensure you always have a trading advantage throughout the map, and a way for the Night Stalker to continue to be useful even during the day. In addition, it can sometimes be used as a farming tool, but this method is quite mana expensive and should be used with care.

On the other hand, getting to Solar Crest early is suitable when you need to gank and create space for greedy cores to farm. It allows Night Stalker to handle his targets faster, but makes the hero extremely weak during the day and early teamfight.

Most of the time you’ll build both items, however, the order in which it’s up can make a big difference to your success: Night Stalker is a hero that needs snowballs and can’t farm fast. So, if you misjudge the intentions of your opponent, you can end up in a situation where you have very few options and your economy is in a big deficit.

AFTER MID GAME

Most pub players try to make Night Stalker core DPS late game. Talent levels 20 and 25 focus on extra damage and attack speed, making Night Stalker a pretty powerful carry. Although this hero cannot compete with other heavy carries, the kill speed of supports and support cores increases rapidly.

Item selection is heavily dependent on whether you want more damage after taking these talents, or if you need more support. Both directions require BKB, but then things become more varied: Basher and Nullifier in the DPS direction, or Blink Dagger, Heaven’s Halberd and maybe Shiva’s Guard to support the team. Spirit Vessel is also often the responsibility of the Night Stalker in games where the team needs this item, and should be purchased early.

DIFFERENCE IN HOW TO PLAY

There are some obvious differences between Night Stalker and other offlaners, although their gameplay is quite similar.

Night Stalker is not a carrier aura. Building items like Pipe of Insight or Crimson Guard will limit the hero’s snowball potential and DPS, especially since the hero lacks quick farming tools. There are some who think NS should go to Vladmir’s Offering, but the latest trend shows that this item increasingly belongs to supports. Assault Cuirass is a bit redundant because NS’s attack speed is already too fast.

Night Stalker’s teamfight should be fast and compact. This hero does not have damage reduction or escape items like other popular offlaners, so NS’s ability to stay long in teamfight is very limited. As a Night Stalker, you need to start fights quickly, kill a hero or two – the lack of vision is a big advantage of this hero.

Finally, due to the lack of heavy disables, Night Stalker is often paired with cores and supports that have binding moves. Sooner or later, the opponent will get the item and the teamfight will become more complicated. At that time, Night Stalker can be in a great disadvantage, compared to other offlaners, if it cannot deal damage and follow the target.

According to dotabuff