Introduction
“Nyx, Nyx, Nyx, Nyx.”
Nyx Assassin is a versatile melee agility hero. He is capable of fitting into numerous roles, including mid lane ganker, offlaner, and support. In competitive Dota he is typically played as a hard support hero, and occasionally as an offlaner, whilst in public matchmaking he has traditionally been picked up for his ability to effectively gank from the mid lane.
Recent changes have made Nyx harder to play, but he is nonetheless still a popular pick up largely thanks to his 2.77 second AoE disable, his ability to reflect damage dealt and stun at the same time, and incredible burst physical damage.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Great AoE disable
- Two separate stuns
- Highly survivable
- Great ganker
- Decent burst physical damage
- Very high health regeneration
- Versatile hero capable of being mid, offlane, or support
- as a source of invisibility
- Fairly item independent
Cons
- Keeps getting nerfed
- Stun is harder to land now and all too easy to miss entirely
- Spiked Carapace is not as good as it used to be
- His vendetta and ganking presence is easily countered by detection
- Needs levels
- Melee attack range
- Mana issues
- Countered by silences
Item Build
Support or Ganker Nyx?
In public matchmaking Nyx has traditionally been played in the mid lane, where he gets an early level 6 before ganking, and from there a quick Dagon. Nowadays it’s probably a 40/60 split between mid Nyx and support Nyx, with support Nyx being more common the higher up the matchmaking ranks you go, as players have taken the cue from the pro scene of Nyx being a support rather than a mid hero.
He’s viable in both roles, and even capable of solo offlaning thanks to his high base move speed and health regeneration, on top of having very good defensive abilities. His itemisation is fairly similar regardless of the role he’s played in, although there are some notable differences (such as support Nyx purchasing Wards/Courier and ganking mid Nyx commonly going for an early Dagon and an optional Bottle).
I’ll discuss both options in this guide, and have included images detailed both options. The first image presents a typical support Nyx item build, and the second one you’ll see is for a greedier, gank-oriented Nyx.
Starting Items
Support
If you’re running Nyx as a support you should purchase the Courier and/or Observer Wards at the start. Ideally support duties will be split between yourself and a second support hero (in which case you need only purchase one of those, otherwise you’ll have to buy both yourself).
A typical starting build for support Nyx would be:
- A set of Tangos, a Healing Salve, Courier and/or Observer Wards, and 3x Iron Branches.
This gives you plenty of regen, covers your team’s initial support needs, and gets you start on your eventual Magic Wand.
Ganker
If you’re running him mid or offlane then go for something like this:
- A set of Tangos, a Healing Salve, 3x Iron Branches, and a Circlet.
The Circlet will give you some cost-efficient stats and will get you off to an early start on your eventual Dagon pick-up, while the Iron Branches give you some early cost efficient stats and a good chunk of your Magic Wand.
Early Game
Support
Make sure the Courier is upgraded into a Flying Courier at the 3 minute mark, and ensure that Observer Wards are always off cooldown.
Get Boots of Speed up and running as quickly as possible, and also finish off your Magic Wand.
Ganker
If you’re laning mid you may want to get a Bottle, even if you don’t intend to leave the lane until your ultimate is up. It’ll give you regen to sustain any lane harass (and Nyx will usually have to put up with a fair bit of lane harass mid) and will allow you to make more effective use of the runes when you start looking to gank.
Get your basic Boots of Speed up and running and then finish your Magic Wand and your Null Talisman.
Around this time you should be hitting level 6; look for opportunities to use your ultimate, Vendetta, and gank under the cover of its invisibility. The burst damage from Vendetta, followed up by an Impale, right clicks, and Mana Burn should be sufficient to pick off most heroes at this stage of the game.
Core Items
Support
Keep ensuring Observer Wards are bought whenever they’re off cooldown, and in the meantime work towards your Arcane Boots. These really are the upgraded boots of choice for Nyx, regardless of the role he’s playing; he’s a very mana intensive hero and Arcane Boots allow him to make more liberal use of all of his abilities and give him some much needed mana regen (in the form of Arcane Boots’ active).
With that you have your major core items for a support Nyx and can start working towards a mobility item. This can either be Force Staff or Blink Dagger. In professional play Blink Dagger is by far the more favoured option for Nyx Assassin, but Force Staff will give you more team-wide utility. Both are great items, however, and you can certainly pick up the one you didn’t opt for later on as a luxury extension.
Force Staff is an amazing escape tool, and can be used on allies and enemies, making it a great play-making item for clutch saves or to Force an enemy into bad positioning. Blink Dagger, on the other hand, is primarily oriented towards allowing you to get off the best Impale possible in teamfights (or in advance of teamfights, if you decide to initiate). Blink into Impale can often net you multiple stuns, allowing your team to follow up.
Ganker
As with support Nyx, when playing Nyx as a mid or offlane ganker you want to get Arcane Boots. The extra mana is even more important if you’re actively ganking and Arcane Boots will allow you to use your combos without worrying too much about managing your mana.
Dagon is the most common first big ticket item pick up (aside from upgraded Boots) on a ganking Nyx. A Vendetta initiation, followed by Impale, Mana Burn, and Dagon will kill almost any hero you manage to find isolated in the early and mid game; only the tankiest or most well farmed heroes will avoid death if you get your combo off effectively.
This is a very standard pub-stomp oriented build and relies on you managing to snowball with your ganks.
Luxury Items
Support
Support Nyx has quite a wide selection of luxury items to choose from. What you opt for will be dependent both on your own farming situation as well as what your team needs most of all. Common pick-ups include:
Blink Dagger/Force Staff – Whichever you didn’t purchase as a core item earlier makes for a good luxury pick up, giving you the best of both worlds. You’ll gain the superior positioning and initiation capability of Blink Dagger as well as the team-wide utility and defensive options a Force Staff grants you.
Drums of Endurance - Drums of Endurance are a great option because they give you team bonus attack speed and move speed auras, whilst at the same time giving you plenty of stats and being easy to build into (since the components are so cheap you can buy them up whenever you have the spare unreliable gold, meaning you won’t lose much gold when you die).
Necronomicon - Great if you’re part of a pushing line-up or your team is struggling to break the base. Also a great item for teamfights and for countering any invis enemy heroes.
Vladmir’s Offering – Why Vlad’s? Surely Nyx gets very little out of it. True, but you’re not really buying it for yourself, you’re buying it for your team. Vladmir’s Offering is great to pick up on a support even if your team doesn’t have any other melee heroes because of the bonus damage and armour it provides. If your team does have a melee core and no one else has purchased one then it’s an even better utility item to purchase.
Scythe of Vyse - The likelihood of you being able to afford a Scythe during all but the longest of games (or largest of stomps) as a support is minimal, but if you can afford it then definitely get it! Another 3.5 seconds of disable for your team is absolutely enormous, and that’s on top of the stats it provides.
Dagon – One of the greedier luxury options for Nyx Assassin support. Usually Dagon is reserved for ganking Nyx’s who can get the most out of its effectiveness as an early insta-gib item. The longer the game goes, however, the less useful Dagon becomes.
Ethereal Blade – E-Blade is a great offensive and defensive item. Defensively it grants you 4 seconds of physical immunity, and allows you to give that effect either to an ally (ideally someone who’s the target of enemy right clicks), or an enemy hero (the enemy physical DPS’er). This gives you time to create distance between yourself and the enemy carry or at the very least buys your team 4 seconds of distraction time.
Offensively, when combined with burst magic damage E-Blade becomes a tool by which magic damage nukers can scale into the late game. After casting E-Blade on an enemy nuke them with as much burst damage output as possible; E-Blade will buff that damage by a huge 40%.
Ganker
Blink Dagger – For more aggressive ganking possibilities grab a Blink Dagger. It will also allow you to become a reliable initiator and chaser. Blink is often chosen first in competitive Dota, whereas it's a more common luxury pick-up following Dahon in public matchmaking.
Ethereal Blade – E-Blade is a great offensive and defensive item. Defensively it grants you 4 seconds of physical immunity, and allows you to give that effect either to an ally (ideally someone who’s the target of enemy right clicks), or an enemy hero (the enemy physical DPS’er). This gives you time to create distance between yourself and the enemy carry or at the very least buys your team 4 seconds of distraction time.
Offensively, when combined with burst magic damage E-Blade becomes a tool by which magic damage nukers can scale into the late game. After casting E-Blade on an enemy nuke them with as much burst damage output as possible; E-Blade will buff that damage by a huge 40%. For a hero who goes Dagon early on, this is a great way to augment its damage.
Veil of Discord – A Veil of Discord is the other way. Magic Weakness increases the magic damage taken by an enemy caught within its 600 unit radius by 25%, which augments your Impale and Dagon combo (and eventually E-Blade into Dagon) superbly. It lasts for a lengthy 25 seconds, making it a great active for teamfights, and won’t just buff your own magic damage output either - it will also increase the potency of any other magic damage spells your teammates cast on affected enemies in that time frame too.
Necronomicon – Great if you’re part of a pushing line-up or your team is struggling to break the base. Also a great item for teamfights and for countering any invis enemy heroes.
Drums of Endurance – Drums is a great item to transition into once you have your core up and running. Cheap, cost-efficient, and easy to build into, it gives you great stats gain for its cost as well as increased mobility thanks to the move speed aura. It also doubles up as a support/utility item, by giving your team move speed and attack speed auras. You can never go wrong with Drums.
Vladmir’s Offering – Another item that’s more geared towards providing utility for your entire team and not just yourself. You gain the life steal aura, as do any melee heroes on your team, and the entire team will benefit from the armour, mana regeneration and increase damage from Vlad’s. A solid pick-up if no one else has already bought it.
Situational Items
Support
Sentry Wards, Dust of Appearance, Gem of True Sight – all-important detection. You’ll need at least one of these in your inventory if the enemy line-up features an invis hero. Sentry Wards will also allow you to deward rune spots, and Gem will give you superior vision going into the mid and late game.
Smoke of Deceit – If you roam with another support in the early stages of the game a Smoke will allow you to do so more quickly and without being spotted by enemy wards. Smoke will also come in handy in the post-laning phase if your team wants to gank as 5.
Skill Build
Usually you want to skill and max Impale first. It’s typically skilled first for defensive reasons (in case there’s a level one engagement or you need to avoid a level 1 gank). However, this is not a universal rule. Mana Burn is often taken first if Nyx is played in the mid lane, so that he can harass any mid opponents who are heavily reliant on good mana management, such as Queen of Pain, Storm Spirit, Outworld Devourer, or Puck. It is riskier starting with Mana Burn though, as it makes you vulnerable to level 1 ganks. Whichever you went with at level 1, get the other ability at level 2.
Impale is maxed first in order to increase the duration of the stun (from 1.27 at level 1 to 2.77 seconds at level 2) and damage dealt (80 to 260, respectively).
Spiked Carapace is typically skilled last, but you can max it second or last. Extra levels increase the duration of the stun (from 0.6 to 2.4 seconds) and reduces the ability’s cooldown (23 seconds to 14 seconds).
Mana Burn is the ability most Nyx’s max last, but it can be worth maxing second after Impale if the opposition line-up is heavily tilted towards intelligence heroes or heroes that rely heavily on having topped up mana pools for engagements. Additional levels reduce the cooldown (28 seconds to 4 seconds) and increases the damage dealt, so if you find yourself spamming Mana Burn whenever it’s off cooldown as harassment consider maxing it second.
Vendetta is always skilled (levels 6, 11 and 16). This makes you invisible for a short duration (20 seconds at level 1) and gives you extra move speed whilst under its affects. If your physical attack breaks the invisibility you will deal bonus physical damage to the target (from 250 at level 1 to 550 at level 3). This is a considerably potent ability that is for the most part used as an offensive ganking or initiation tool.
Gameplay Tips
| Important: Impale is no longer a ‘Target Unit’ ability, it is a ‘Target Point’ ability, which means that simply clicking it on an enemy hero will not guarantee the stun will land. Instead, you have to estimate where they will be when the stun reaches them, in similar fashion to Leshrac’s Split Earth stun. This change has made Impale much harder to land, but with practice you should still be able to land it most of the time. |
Mana Burn destroys the target’s mana and deals damage based on the enemy hero’s intelligence. This means it deals more damage, and burns more mana, from intelligence heroes; if the enemy team has an intelligence-heavy line-up consider prioritising Mana Burn before Spiked Carapace for maximum harassment potential.
Spiked Carapace telegraphs its use to your enemies by spikes covering Nyx’s body. Decent players will notice this and avoid attacking you or using their nukes on you until the ability has ended. However, it is hard to avoid triggering Carapace if you have AoE teamfight abilities, so use this to your advantage to stun heroes with AoE abilities like Bat Rider, Leshrac, Lina, Luna, and so on.
Spiked Carapace is especially good for dodging slow projectiles or attacks. If you anticipate, for example, a Sniper using assassinate or a Vengeful Spirit using Magic Missile, wait until you see the ability cast and then use Spiked Carapace in the split second you have before the ability hits you.
As soon as you hit level 6 look for opportunities on the map to gank – any lanes that are pushed in towards your tower, any fragile junglers you expect to find in the enemy woods (such as Nature’s Prophet), and enemy supports are all prime target for a Vendetta gank. For those heroes a Vendetta, followed by Impale, right clicks and Mana Burn should be enough to net you a kill.
Vendetta is primarily used as an offensive ganking and scouting tool, but it can also be used defensively if you suspect the enemy team does not have True Sight detection to avoid a gank or retreat from an unfavourable teamfight. Vendetta's fade time into invisibility is also instant, and so can be used to dodge many spells provided the enemy does not possess True Sight.
| Tip: Using Vendetta does not break channelling, which means you can use it after you’ve cast a defensive TP Scroll as a clutch way to try and escape under the cover of invisibility. |
Once you hit level 16 (and have 3 points in Vendetta), the ability’s duration is the same length as its cooldown. Assuming you have the mana to cost it, you can theoretically cast Vendetta indefinitely and only break invisibility once every minute. This will also allow you to time its usage so that you can use Vendetta’s bonus damage twice in a single teamfight.
Nyx’s most common ganking combo is Vendetta > right click > Impale > Mana Burn/Dagon > right click. The invisibility from Vendetta does not dispel until your attack damages the enemy, so it can usually begin your initiation. Beware of highly mobile enemies or those with Blinks, as they may then be able to dodge your Impale as soon as they see your invisibility break.
Last Updated - Patch 6.82.
