DOTA 2 - Viper

Introduction

"With malicious intent."

Viper is classed as a ranged agility carry, although he is perhaps more accurately described as an anti-carry.

Typically played either in the mid lane or, increasingly, in the offlane, he is a fairly tanky hero that is a pain to kill off and who is very effective against enemy carries that have a small attack range or which rely on spell immunity.

You can find Viper's complete character profile here.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Fairly tanky and hard to kill.
• Great anti-carry.
• Good ganker.
• Amazing slower and chaser.
• Can lane well virtually anywhere and easy to last-hit with.
• Has highly adaptable skill and item builds.
• Naturally counters Black King Bar & Spell Immunity.

Cons

• Falls off late game.
• No hard lockdown.
• Medium stat growth.
• No escape mechanism and low move speed.
• Jack of all trades master of none.

Item Build

Viper has a very flexible item build. Instead of a strict 'core item' build what I'm going to do is lay out the various core build options available to him, and you can then pick whichever works best for you.

Traditionally, in public games, his core recommended item was Shadow Blade. The item's popularity has rapidly fallen off, however, after being nerfed. It's a good pick still for Viper, though I personally prefer the Mekanism into Aghanim's build on Viper. I'll go through both options below though.

Starting Items

To start with you need the typical stats, regen, and foundation items that can be effectively upgraded. A typical set of starting items on Viper are:

A Healing Salve, a set of Tangos, a Circlet, and 2x Iron Branches.

Early Game

Early on grab a pair of Boots of Speed, and work on upgrading them into Power Treads. Phase Boots are viable, and good for increasing your mobility and base damage, but Power Treads synergise better with your innate anti-carry potential in my opinion.

Upgrade any Iron Branches you have into a Magic Wand, and upgrade the Circlet into a Wraith Band (which in turn I recommend upgrading into a Ring of Aquila, which is a nice cost-effective item and will help maintain your mana levels).

Core Options

As outlined at the start of this section, there are two very common core builds for Viper.

The first, which is more pub-stomp-centric, is the Shadow Blade build. If you opt for this you build Shadow Blade first to increase your ganking potential in the post-laning phase. It allows you to initiate/gank under the cover of invisibility, whilst also giving you some decent DPS stats and a pseudo escape mechanism.

The other is the Mekanism build, which is more popular amongst higher level players (when picked competitively Viper tends to almost always build Mekanism). The advantages of this build are increased tankiness, good all-round stats, the ability to push with your team early, and you will almost always have the Mekanism advantage in early teamfights, as it's unlikely the opposing team will have built theirs before Viper does. The 250 burst AoE heal in teamfights should give your team a large advantage in those early teamfights.

Aghanim's Scepter is the next natural item progression for Viper, and if someone else on your team wants to build the Mekanism then you can go straight for it if you want. Aghanim's makes you a good bit more durable whilst also giving some amazing buffs to your ultimate. The cooldown is significantly reduced from 80/50/30 seconds to just 12 seconds, making it almost spammable at a reduced mana cost. The increased range (from 500 to 900) also makes you an even more annoying anti-melee hero.

Most melee carries will build a Black King Bar for spell immunity. The movement and attack speed slow (40/60/80%) from Viper Strike goes through BKB's spell immunity and any spell immunity provided by abilities (Lifestealer's Rage), making you a massive pain in the backside for such heroes.

Luxury Extensions

Viper has a lot of luxury items to choose from, which I'll discuss below:

Crimson Guard – A good defensive/utility item. If you decide to opt for an early-ish Vanguard then later upgrading it into a Crimson Guard is a good way of buffing your inventory in the late game when Vanguard’s usefulness tapers off and inventory slots are at a premium.

So you get a nice chunk of flat health (250), +2 all stats, +5 armor and 6 health regeneration. On top of that you gain a passive Damage Block ability, which gives an 80% chance to block 20-40 damage, and an active Guard ability, which allows you to create a shield which applies to yourself and allies in a 750 unit radius that grants everyone affected by it +2 armor and a 100% chance to block 50 damage.

Crimson Guard is somewhat comparable to Mekanism, but more suited to heroes with low mana pools (following Patch 6.82’s hefty increase in Mekanism’s mana cost). It performs a similar protective and +armor role (albeit granting damage block rather than direct health). If you fear being unable to sustain a mana pool for Mekanism but want to add utility/tankiness to your teamfight then a Crimson Guard is a great option.

Black King Bar - BKB features on most heros' luxury items list and Viper is no exception. It gives you a nice chunk of health and a small damage boost, but most importantly its active gives you 10-4 seconds of spell immunity (you lose a second each time you use the active, down to a minimum of 5 seconds), which means it's great for avoiding burst magic damage during teamfights or to prevent the enemy team stunlocking you.

BKB is always good on Viper, but the precise point at which you get it is situational - if there's a lot of burst magic damage or lockdown which is preventing you getting much done in teamfights prioritise it earlier, if you're largely given free reign during teamfights or the lockdown goes through spell immunity then you can build into something else instead.

Manta Style - Arguably the most cost-efficient luxury item for any ranged agility carry. It gives you decent stats, more mobility, and the ability to create illusions, which can be used to dodge projectiles or to help your team push faster.

An all-round great luxury item for Viper.

Assault Cuirass - It's always great (arguably essential) to have an Assault Cuirass on one hero in the team as you approach the late game. Viper may not be the most obvious hero to pick it up on your team however, so make sure no one else is working on it before you start buying up the components. If they're not, and you'll be able to afford it, get it.

Monkey King Bar - MKB is all about the damage. If you're your team's core carry then you'll need a high-damage item if you're going to take the game late. MKB has two additional benefits: 1, it makes base sieging much easier, because you won't miss your attacks from the low ground. 2, it's a hard counter to Butterfly and evasion carries (like Phantom Assassin).

Butterfly - The ultimate agility carry item. Huge chunks of damage, attack speed and evasion. As noted above, it's hard countered by MKB, so don't build it if you see an enemy hero working towards one - opt for a different luxury item instead or consider a Daedalus if you want to increase your right-click damage output.

Heaven's Halberd - I love going Halberd on Viper when I'm playing the 2 or 3 position role. It gives you so much utility for your team because you can prevent the enemy carry from physically attacking for a few seconds. On top of that it makes you much tankier, gives you damage mitigation, and even a little bit of extra right click damage.

Orchid Malevolence - Gives you a good damage boost, attack speed boost, and will end any potential mana regen problems you may have as a result of having a spammable orb and ultimate, and also being the Mekanism carrier.

Orchid is a fantastic counter to mobility-based heroes like Queen of Pain or Anti-Mage - the silence prevents them from Blinking away whilst the damage amplification will really hurt whilst they're locked in place.

Situational Items

If no one else on your team is willing or able to buy Courier and/or Observer Wards then bite the bullet and purchase them yourself. Wards win games unless you're playing in very low ranked matches.

Drums of Endurance - I'm 50/50 about putting this in the Core or Luxury sections above, but on balance I think Drums are situational on Viper, even though they're always a decent pick-up.

When would I definitely get them on Viper?

• If I really struggled in the early game and need some cost-efficient stat items.
• If I'm playing a 3rd position utility role, Drums will allow me to both tank up and give my team the aura benefits.
• If we're fighting early; Drums are always a great option in such scenarios because they're easy to build into, so you won't lose much unreliable gold upon death.

Pipe of Insight - Ordinarily I wouldn't recommend the Mekanism purchaser also buy Pipe, because it piles too much of your team's utility on a single hero, which is always a dangerous thing to do. Since Viper is innately hard to bring down it's a good item to grab for your team if you think you can survive the focus it'll bring to bear upon you.

And if you didn't buy Mekanism for whatever reason then Pipe is that much more viable an item pick-up.

Other potential situational pick-ups include Heart of Tarrasque, Linken's Sphere, and Shiva's Guard.

Skill Build

Viper's skill build is as flexible as his item build. All of his abilities are good and arguments can be made for prioritising each one, depending on the laning situation. The only hard and fast rule is to ensure you have at least one point in Poison Attack fairly early on because it's such a powerful orb, and to always skill your ultimate, Viper Strike, whenever you can (levels 6, 11 and 16).

The image above shows the skill build I tend to use most frequently, but certain laning scenarios may force me to switch things up.

I tend to play quite an aggressive Viper, even in the offlane (unless the two enemy supports both stick in lane to babysit, in which case you've already won the lane), so I typically max Poison Attack and Nethertoxin first. These allow you to dish out some really potent harassment. Melee carries will not be able to last hit without significant baby sit support, and the supports themselves can easily be forced back, allowing you to stay within experience range and grab some last hits. The only thing you have to watch out for is that you don't over-extend and give them opportunity to gank you as three.

If the enemy does trilane in the offlane and aggression would not pay off for me, or if I'm in the mid lane facing off against a typically equally aggressive hero (such as Queen of Pain), then a few early points in Corrosive Skin should dissuade them from harassing you, since they'll take almost as much damage as they dished out without you even having to do anything.

In short: if playing aggressively and you want to max out your killing/ganking potential, prioritise Poison Attack and Nethertoxin. If playing defensively and you want to increase your survivability, prioritise Corrosive Skin.

Gameplay Tips

Poison Attack is a unique attack modifier. This means it doesn't stack with the attack modifiers from items like Desolator, Eye of Skadi, Sange & Yasha, or Helm of the Dominator - avoid purchasing these items!

An early point in Nethertoxin is also advisable, even if you intend to max it last. It makes last hitting creeps extremely easy.

The bonus damage from Nethertoxin also applies to towers. If you're in a push-heavy line-up it's advisable to max this before you start pushing down towers; it makes them a lot easier to take down.

The slow from Corrosive Skin and the attack speed and slow from Viper Strike all go through spell immunity. Poison Attack's slow also partially goes through spell immunity. This makes Viper a great counter to carries that rely heavily on spell immunity or melee carries that lack mobility, like Lifestealer.

Last Updated - Patch 6.82.