Dota 2 Heroes – An Introduction to Naix the Lifestealer

By: Jason McCarthy

  |   December 2nd, 2012   |  

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A strength hero in nature, Naix the Lifestealer is someone who we can be classified as an anti-tank. Being able to rip through two heroes with large health pools is one of his many uses. His very presence on the battlefield is enough to strike fear in the hearts of enemies.

His first ability Rage is essentially a Black King Bar (BKB) on steroids. When activated at its highest level, Lifestealer will gain magic immunity as well as attack speed increase by 80%, with all of this lasting 4.75 seconds. Using this in both offensive as well as defensive manner is feasible.

His second skill Feast is what makes him so good and effective against heroes with high health pools. When auto-attacking a hero, you will gain life-steal based on 7% of the enemy’s current amount of health. In addition, the life you steal is also dealt as damage to the enemy, thus the higher the health of a target, the more life-steal and damage will come out.

His third skill Open Wounds is what allows him to catch up to enemies. It is a single-target spell that, when used on enemies, will slow them down for an 8-second period. The slow starts out at 70% and slowly diminishes through the 8 seconds. Now the other aspect of this skill is that any ally who attacks the specified target on whom Open Wounds is applied will gain 30% life-steal on to them. Now the important thing to note here is that the magic damage is included, so if an ally nukes the target for 300 damage, it will gain 90 health.

Lifestealer’s ultimate Infest is an interesting skill that can be used in several ways. It is a single-target spell that can be used on either an enemy or allied creep. When used, you will literally sit dormant inside the targeted creep, undetectable to enemies. When you pop out of the creep, you will deal 400 damage in a 700 Area of Effect (AoE). Also, if the aforementioned creeps was of the enemy persuasion, when popping out you will also gain health equal to that of the creeps.

When playing as Lifestealer, it is important to go for items that boost your attack damage. Another popular choice of items is Desolator as it reduces an enemy’s armour. This buff is of great significance as Lifestealer relies on his physical attacks to damage enemies and is therefore immensely aided by the armour reduction. Being a strength hero, it is only natural to go for strength-boosting items, which will increase both his hit-points (hp) as well as grant him more damage. With his skill set and a good inventory, Lifestealer is able to take on enemies with twice as much health him with apparent ease.

Disclaimer: The research used in this article is accredited to Dota Cinema and SUNSfan. No copyright infringement is intended.