Dota Nerubian Assassin Hero Guide

Nerubian Assassin

Nerubian Assassin is the one of the best ganking heroes in Dota and, in my opinion, the most fun to play, because you can get shitloads of kills by yourself.  The optimal strategy is simple: kill heroes every time your ultimate is up, and farm items in between.  Here is a look at the abilities:

Impale (e)

Stuns and damages units in a line.  Use to stun more than one hero at a time or to last hit creeps and harass simultaneously early in the game.  Max this out first.

Mana Burn (r)

Burns mana and damages heroes.  While clearly useful for disabling casters early, spamming this too much is a waste and will leave you without enough mana when you actually want to make a kill.  Max this out second.

Spiked Carapace (d)

Passively adds armor and melee damage return.  Don’t bother learning this early game, but it’s great later on.

Vendetta (ultimate) (v)

Makes NA invisible with a bonus backstab damage when he makes an attack.  Make sure you cast this while fogged or your opponent will hear the characteristic “windwalk” sound and get out of the way of your gank.

Strategy

Early Game

With any hero that is a gifted ganker, it is easy to get caught up in trying to get kills and forget about items altogether.  While it is definitely ideal to attempt a kill every time Vendetta cools down, it is important to use the time in between ganks and before you reach level 6 to farm as much as possible, because Nerubian Assassin is actually very item dependent.  Even though NA has three great damage dealing abilities (Impale, Mana Burn, and Vendetta), adding a Dagon to this armada is what will make you really deadly and able to kill heroes on your own, without the aid of an ally.

Therefore, it is of crucial importance to focus on last hitting early and get a Bottle and Boots as quickly as possible.  This will allow you to control the runes and gank swiftly as soon as you are level six.  Get what kills you can at this point, and then get back to farming your Dagon intermittently, whenever Vendetta is cooling off.

Mid Game

As soon as you have farmed your Dagon, hopefully the game is still early, and you can have a sigh of relief as you have reached the “tipping point” where you can effectively kill a bunch heroes completely by yourself.  Any intelligence or agility heroes on the other team have now become your food, and you can completely kill them without them having any say in it, i.e. you Vendetta + Impale + Mana Burn + Dagon, and the target is dead before Impale’s stun has even worn off.  After which you get back to farming briefly, before grabbing another rune to refill your mana and going to pick off another helpless pub when Vendetta is up again.

Dagon kills are fun

Set two milestones for yourself: level 11 and level 16.  At these points Vendetta becomes significantly better, with a duration of 50 and 60 seconds respectively.  This is long enough for you to cast Vendetta from the fountain (and regain the mana), and then walk all the way to your target and kill it without the invisibility wearing off.  At level 16, the cooldown (60 sec) is equivalent to the time Vendetta lasts, which means you can gank continuously, getting one kill per minute, which is of course, extremely satisfying, and why you are playing NA in the first place!

Late Game

After your Dagon, set your sights on Stygian Desolator.  While it is incredibly tempting to spend the 4400 gold for this item on Dagon upgrades instead, getting Desolator is something that will make your hero much more dangerous in the long run, and not useless late game.  Desolator greatly enhances the initial damage done by Vendetta (since it reduces armor), as well as your following attacks, and will allow you to destroy much stronger targets.  Remember that wimpy heroes on the other team will be continuously tanking up, so you must stay one step ahead so that you are able to keep killing them whenever you want.

Good luck, and by following this guide you can have plenty of games like this.

HoN Witch Slayer Hero Guide

Witch Slayer

Witch Slayer is the new hero in HoN patch 0.1.53. This hero’s abilities are identical to Lion’s in Dota, though the hero itself has gone from being a Demon Witch to a Witch Slayer who hunts the likes of Lion with a Blunderbuss and silver bullets! Here are the abilities:

Graveyard

Equivalent to Impale;  “creates a temporary graveyard”,  which stuns and damages heroes in a line in front of Witch Slayer.  Use this spell to stun multiple heroes and kill creeps at the same time to dominate your lane early game.

Miniaturization

Equivalent to Hex; shrinks an enemy (sheeps them) for several seconds.  This is basically like having Kuldra’s Sheepstick aka Guinsoo’s Scythe of Vyse built into your hero.  Phenomenal spell for disabling carries late game.

Power Drain

Equivalent to Mana Drain; sucks Mana from the enemy and gives it to you.  Use this on enemy heroes directly after you stun them with Graveyard to keep your Mana supply healthy.  This can also be used on neutral creeps or the ranged creeps in lane.  This spell has a short cooldown so spam it as much as possible with Graveyard to control your lane.

Silver Bullet (ultimate)

Contrary to your expectation, this does not involve the hero slamming a Coors Light before motorboating boobies.  This spell is equivalent to Dota’s Finger of Death.  Demon Slayer shoots the desired target in the face with an extremely quick animation.  Very satisfying and deadly.

Strategy

Early Game

Control your lane by spamming Graveyard and Power Drain on enemy heroes as much as possible.  As soon as you are level six, start getting kills with your ultimate and Graveyard.  Kills will never come as easy again as they do at this point in the game.  Get boots and a bottle, bracers if your opponent is competant, control runes, carry a Homecoming Stone aka TP scroll, and gank as hard as possible.  Your goal should be to make the carries on the other team ragequit.  If your team is getting slammed, then Astrolabe aka Mekanism is an option; just teleport to counter-gank and protect your team as much as possible.

Mid Game

Buy Wards of Sight aka observer wards, upgrade the courier to a flying courier, and get control of the map.  Keep ganking, but realize that it will be more difficult for you to kill any opponent on your own, and that your role as a damage-dealing hero killer should be morphing into that of a disabling support hero who must aid the team’s carries to win the game.  If your enemy is trash, then by all means get a Portal Key aka Blink Dagger and Post Haste aka Boots of Travel, and continue to crush them on all parts of the map.  Otherwise go for a Staff of the Master aka Aganhim’s Sceptre or a Puzzlebox aka Necronomicon Book to bolster your abilities for late game.

Late Game

Go for a Totem of Kuldra aka Guinsoo’s Scythe of Vyse to add another weapon to your arsenal of disable.  Keep supporting your team’s carries and remember that you will win the game by making it easy for them to farm, and by disabling the enemy for them in team battles.  If you are getting focused in these battles, remember to use as many spells as possible, including your ultimate, before you die, so that your team may still benefit.