Murloc Nightcrawler

Slark the Murloc Nightcrawler is a new melee agility hero in Dota version 6.55.  Much like Bounty Hunter, Nightcrawler is a speedy hero with invisibility that is great for map control, picking off individual heroes, and carrying late game.  Here is a look at his stats and abilities:

Stats

Range: 128
Movement Speed: 305
Hero Type: Agility

Agility: 21 + 2.0
Strength: 21 + 1.0
Intelligence: 16 + 1.6

Dark Pact (d)
Slark calls upon deities of the swamps to seal a dark pact. Sacrificing some of his lifeblood, Slark is redeemed of all negative effects. After 2 seconds, a dark wave of destruction emits from theNightcrawler, dealing damage to himself as well as all nearby enemies.

Damage: 75/150/225/300
AoE: 325
Manacost: 55/50/45/40
Cooldown: 10

Deals half the damage to you immediately as part of the cost.

On top of emitting a formidable AOE nuke where Nightcrawler stands, Dark Pact works just like an allied purge to remove negative effects and help Nightcrawler escape from trouble.  Though dealing half damage to self is costly, this setback is offset by an extremely low mana cost– only 40 mana to deal 300 damage when this skill is maxxed out!  Spamming this ability can make a huge difference in controlling a lane early game but will require a large amount of health regeneration items.  Once you reach Level 6,  the passive health regeneration of Shadow Dance will help with this.

Pounce (e)

Surges directly forward and latches on to the first enemy he hits, binding it with chains of darkness. The enemy is unable to move more than 275 distance away from the point of impact for 3.5 seconds.

Pounce Range: 400/500/600/700
Pounce Damage: 50/75/100/125
Leash Range: 275
Leash Duration: 3.5

Cooldown: 16
Manacost: 75

The first part of this ability is analogous to Priestess of the Moon’s Leap; Nightcrawler pounces in whichever direction it is facing.  The second part works something more like Windrunner’s Shackleshot.  Whichever unit Nightcrawler bumps into during his pounce gets chained to the spot and can’t run more than a short distance from there for a short duration.  Pouncing successfully takes some precision and finesse, but once landed on an enemy hero it lets you get some additional attacks in before they can run.  Pounce can also be used to jump gaps and escape from enemy heroes, again just like with Leap.

Essence Shift (passive)
Reciting ancient Nightcrawler incantations, Slark enchants his blade to steal the power and courage from his enemies. Every time Slark hits an enemy hero, he steals 1 point from all attributes and 1 additional from the main attribute of that enemy hero while Slark gains 4 points of Agility.

Duration: 15/30/45/60

Making use of the same icon as Obisidan Destroyer’s Essence Aura, Nightcrawler’s Essence Shift allows him to drain several attributes from enemy heroes it attacks, not just Intelligence like Obsidian does.  Each point of attribute he steals is converted to 4 of Agility for a short time.  This can be used to great advantage in a lane against melee heroes, which will increase Nightstalker’s last hitting damage through Agility increase.  Later in the game this will cause Nightstalker to continually get more powerful as he land attacks while chasing enemy heroes, as they have their own stats drained and die quicker.

Shadow Dance (ultimate) (passive and active) (d)

Covers himself with a dark smoke, he becomes invisible and does not reveal himself while attacking or casting spells for 5.5 seconds.

Passively increases Nightcrawler’s movement speed and regeneration when he is out of sight of hostile units. Has a 0.7 delay when activated or deactivated.

Movement Speed: 30/35/40%
Health Regeneration: 2/3/4%

Active duration: 5.5 seconds
Cooldown: 25
Manacost: 120



The active part of this ability just makes Nightcrawler invisible for 5.5 seconds.  Because enemy heroes cannot see him, the passive part kicks in as well, giving him increased movement speed and health regeneration.  This leads to the epic chasing scenes we’ve seen in the Nightcrawler teaser video:

While going invis for 5.5 seconds is all fine and dandy, the passive part of this ability is what’s really awesome, giving Nightcrawler increased movement speed and hp regeneration whenever he is out of sight of hostile units.  This means anytime you are running to or from the base, controlling runes, running through the jungle or to a different part of the map you have a big speed boost without having to spend any mana or anything.  And you get a mellower version of the billowing black clouds behind you too:

Recommended Skill Build

1. Pounce
2. Dark Pact
3. Dark Pact
4. Essence Shift
5. Dark Pact
6. Shadow Dance
7. Dark Pact
8. Essence Shift
9. Essence Shift
10. Essence Shift
11. Shadow Dance
12. Pounce
13. Pounce
14. Pounce
15. Stats
16. Shadow Dance
17. Stats -> Level 25

Item Build

coming soon

Counters

The Nightcrawler relies heavily on Shadow Dance for increased movement speed and invisibility, but because he’s always billowing black smoke and all it’s pretty easy to tell where he’s at. Take care of business with Dust of Revelation or Necronomicon Level 3 whenever he goes invisible. These items will not only give you vision of him during his ultimate, but also negate the passive speed boost he gains from being unseen by enemies. Disable and nuke him with heroes like Lina and Lion that can take advantage of a low hit point agility hero and prevent him from wiggling away with the escaping characteristics of Dark Pact and Pounce. Late in the game use Guinsoo’s Scythe of Vyse to disable a farmed Nightcrawler and kill him.

Tags: 6.65, Dota, hero guide, Murloc Nightcrawler

This entry was posted on Friday, December 25th, 2009 at 4:28 AM by daggius and is filed under Guides: Dota. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.