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.
This particular guide will focus on that traditional, mid ganker Nyx role, where your main goal is to reach a quick level 6 and then hunt for kills using Vendetta.
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.You can find our complete character profile for Nyx Assassin here.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Great AoE disable
- Two separate stuns
- Highly survivable
- Great ganker
- Decent burst physical damage
- Very high health regeneration
- Has 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
Starting Items
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
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
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
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, and so is ranked quite low on this list (compared to Support Nyx). 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.
Skill Build
Usually you want to skill and max Impale first. It’s typically skilled first for defensive reasons (in case 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.
