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I need some help with pictures, my video card is outdated, and it won't show the spikes from impale so I can't get new ones. Although I have some old pictures, I'm also having trouble getting them sized properly to this format, I'll list you in the credit for any help if you want

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~Nerubian Assassin's Table Of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Info and Stats
3. Skill Usage
4. Skill Build
5. Item Build
6. Strategy
~6b. Nerubian Assassin Key Points
7. Hero Synergy
8. Screens and Additional Strategy
9. Conclusion
10. Replays
11. Credits
1. Nerubian Assassin Introduction

I will go through some lengthy descriptions and explanations of possible game play Nerubian Assassin (who I will usually refer to as NA from now on). To improve the readability of this guide, I've decided to include a lot of these in spoilers. This is also essentially the 2nd edition of this guide, or at least it will be by the time I finish it. I completed the first edition sometime during this past summer.

Opening spoilers is like getting the non-abridged version of this guide

The shorten version is still pretty text heavy and long.

General information like starting stats, stat growth, story, etc. can be found on playdota's page for NA.

This guide focuses on playing NA as a ganker for early/mid game and a support for late game.


This guide is based mostly off personal experience, whether it was a game I played, comment a teammate/opponent made, or some post I read somewhere. While I don't exactly know what competitive DotA play is like since I've only played on battle.net (briefly on Garena, but I had trouble finding games on it too), I feel the strategy should still be viable for higher level plays. It'll will be more difficult to do the things I mention in this guide, and invisibility counters and wards will be a guarantee.

In addition, this guide and its play style is meant for people who are decently acquainted with DotA and capable of making logical decisions. Since the first one will eventually come with experience, even if you are unfamiliar with DotA, I still recommend reading through the guide to get a feel for NA, and hopefully, you'll play some games and learn. However, if you are not capable of the second one, please persuade yourself to discontinue reading this guide (perhaps this stuck up statement pisses you off).

My main purpose this guide is to show and explain how I try to create favorable situations and play according to circumstances. This is why experience is really important. While I will discuss broad principles and concepts on playing NA, there will always be specific actions you have to take for certain heroes. Some of these actions can be generalized to suit types of heroes, but it is really important for the player to personally make decisions based on the circumstances. This guide merely provides suggestions as to how to make the situation better and better for you and your teammates. Nothing in this guide is particularly set in stone. While many ideas in this guide are pretty solid, there can be many reasons for a player to decide against a plan outlined in this guide. I cannot possibly list all the potential ways to react to different environments, and I don't think I even know all the possibilities.

About NA
Onto the hero himself, NA is an extremely capable ganker during early and mid game. This is due to his high burst damage, crowd control (scarabs/stun) and stealth. NA is capable of sneaking up to a hero, then eliminating the target with a quick series of attack that is difficult to counter. There are counters to him, but there are counter strategies to tip the scale back towards NA. Then it just depends on who executes the counter better. He has three main purposes during this period.
  1. To stunt or prevent the growth of the opposing team's carry or carries.
  2. To help teammates to either push or farm (if one of them is a carry, which should always be the case).
  3. To gank as much as possible.
There are many ways of accomplishing these goals that will be outlined in the guide.

During late game, his ganking capability is diminished because enemy heroes become more powerful so instead of ganking late game, NA supports by setting up kills for the team and micro-managing scarabs (more in the guide). NA is, at best, a sub-par carry. The main reason (in my opinion) being his incapability to deal high, consistent damage at late game in comparison to many other heroes (due to lackluster stat growth, any sort of ability to improve his damage over longer time periods, like any bash, and slow attack speed, so he is unable take full advantage of such abilities). Although this doesn't mean NA can't carry if the other team doesn't have any carries or the opposing carries were utterly demolished, and NA is ridiculously farmed in comparison. This doesn't mean he's useless during late game, quite the opposite, his main purpose simply changes to supporting and pushing.

More on these topics in other sections of the guide


Please do not build NA as a carry, if you want to play a carry, pick another hero.
See the spoiler above for explanation.
2. Nerubian Assassin's Information & Stats
Pros:
[+] Map Awareness (scarabs)
[+] Great ganking (early/mid game)
[+] Chain silence (micro-managing scarabs)

Cons:
[-] Poor late game potential (not useless though)
[-] Burns through mana
[-] Item dependent

For complete stats and information, click below:
Nerubian Assassin - DotA Hero Details
3. Nerubian Assassin's Skill Usage

Impale
For basic information:
Nerubian Assassin - DotA Hero Details

Key points:
• Area of Effect: 150
• Hit units will fly for 0.52 seconds before the real stun is applied.
• Distance traveled is 700 (so slightly longer than the range of most range heroes).
• Damage type: magical

NA's main disable and nuke. It has a small aoe, so it is able to hit more than one target if targeted correctly (really important for team fights). You can either just click your target with the spell (in which case, your cast will follow the target) or click on the ground to cast the spell. It is a lot easier to just click the target impale, so this is the way to cast it most of the time. However, there some benefits to targeting the ground with impale of instead of a hero.

• Hitting invisible targets.
You can finish off low health heroes who just used or cast invisibility if you aim your impales properly and cast it on the ground. However, if you click on your target then they gain invisibility, they can dodge the spell.
• Hitting enemies in fog of war
Ex. enemies running up ramps or trying to juke.
• Not blocked by Linken's
A similar situation is razor's passive. Impales that hit razor, but weren't targeted at him won't trigger his passive (I don't think so at least).

More will be discussed later in the guide.


Mana Burn
For basic information:
Nerubian Assassin - DotA Hero Details

This spell vital to NA's survival early game since a hero with no mana can't cast spells.

I don't recommend leveling this skill past level 1 until later because I don't feel the reduce cooldown is worth the extra mana cost, and early on, NA won't have the mana to spam the spell anyways. Each level of mana burn will still do the same amount of damage and burn the same amount of mana regardless of the level of the skill.


Urna Swarm
For basic information:
Nerubian Assassin - DotA Hero Details

Basically the same usefulness of wards, except it never dies, and it can cast an aoe silence.

The aoe silence thing is a lot more useful if you're good at micromanaging. I'm personally not that amazing so I really just use them as wards and occasional silences.

More will be discussed later


Vendetta
For basic information:
Nerubian Assassin - DotA Hero Details

• The bonus backstab damage is considered to be normal, meaning it's reduced by armor and damage block (stout shield and such).

The first step in NA's deadly combo, and the main reason NA is so good at ganking. This spell is used mainly to initiate ganks, but it also becomes useful as an escape tool during late game (shorter cooldown and longer duration).

More will be mentioned in the guide
4. Nerubian Assassin's Skill Builds
Main skill build
Level 1 - Mana Burn
Level 2 - Impale
Level 3 - Impale
Level 4 - Urna Swarm
Level 5 - Impale
Level 6 - Vendetta
Level 7 - Impale
Level 8 - Stats/Urna Swarm/Mana Burn
Level 9 - Stats/Urna Swarm/Mana Burn
Level 10 - Stats/Urna Swarm/Mana Burn
Level 11 - Vendetta
Level 12 - Stats/Urna Swarm/Mana Burn
Level 13 - Stats/Urna Swarm/Mana Burn
Level 14 - Stats/Urna Swarm/Mana Burn
Level 15 - Stats/Urna Swarm/Mana Burn
Level 16 - Vendetta
Level 17+ - Stats/Urna Swarm/Mana Burn

Mana burn is taken immediately to start burning the enemy's mana. Afterward, whenever possible, points should be put into impale since it's NA's main stun and nuke and vendetta for ganking. Urna swarm is learned at level 4 for rune control and silence.

At level 8, I will usually go stats over urna swarm or mana burn. This is a personal preference for more mana and health to gank with. Since I'm not amazing at micro-managing, two scarabs are enough for me, one for rune control and the other can just follow if I need the silence (I usually don't even use scarabs, but I see no reason why I shouldn't). The skill description for mana burn explains why I don't level it past 1. However, there are many situations that call for leveling any of the three skills over the other two.

Situations that benefit leveling urna swarm
• Good teammates
Scarabs can help set up team ganks with the silence and vision of the area around them, and NA doesn't even have to be nearby to land a silence in a team battle (although NA can help a lot more when is actually in the battle).
• An enemy hero (or multiple heroes) are jungling.
The scarabs can help you and your team gank the guy(s) jungling.
• If the other team is ganking frequently.
Silence and map vision can help you avoid ganks.
• Ursa is on the other team.
Set a scarab to stop him from roshing (this applies to other heroes who have an easier time killing rosh too, one off the top of my head is troll).
• Goblin Techies is on the other team
Have the scarabs run around tripping land mines and search for techies when he's placing bombs.

Situations that benefit leveling mana burn
• Enemy team has multiple int heroes (usually means high int growth)
• You've built enough mana and mana regen to cast mana burn more frequently

Variation
• Impale at level 1 and Mana burn at level 2, everything else the same
The stun can potentially earn a kill or save a teammate's life at level 1. However, for the former to occur, you either need great team coordination (ex. going bot sent lane, and Earthshaker trapping the enemies by the tower) or a retarded enemy (one who tower dives, or something equally foolish). The later will likely occur when your laning partner is an idiot (he'll probably die anyways in a bit though) or if you and/or your partner are against a tri-lane (which I don't often encounter, but if you feel its something to worry about).
• Impale at level 1+3, Urna Swarm at level 2, and Mana Burn at level 4, everything else the same
Establishes rune control earlier and the silence could be used in some sort of combo (perhaps a hero with windwalk, although you could burn his or her mana too). I usually prefer mana burn though for nuking and mana burning purposes. I also don't think it's that important to get the first rune.

General guideline: I will usually go stats for levels 8-10, 3 points in swarm and 1 point in mana burn between level 12-15; after ult, max swarm then mana burn before returning to stats (nothing else left).

Alternative skill build
Level 1 - Mana Burn
Level 2 - Urna Swarm
Level 3 - Impale
Level 4 - Impale
Level 5 - Impale
Level 6 - Vendetta
Level 7 - Impale
Level 8 - Stats/Urna Swarm/Mana Burn
Level 9 - Stats/Urna Swarm/Mana Burn
Level 10 - Stats/Urna Swarm/Mana Burn
Level 11 - Vendetta
Level 12 - Stats/Urna Swarm/Mana Burn
Level 13 - Stats/Urna Swarm/Mana Burn
Level 14 - Stats/Urna Swarm/Mana Burn
Level 15 - Stats/Urna Swarm/Mana Burn
Level 16 - Vendetta
Level 17+ - Stats/Urna Swarm/Mana Burn

This build still levels mana burn immediately to help burn mana, but urna swarm is taken at level 2 to establish them at rune spawns earlier. Some folks say you should get swarm at level 1, but I think if you really care that much about the first rune, just go there at the beginning of the game. This build is suggested when NA isn't a solo (doesn't level as quickly) or if the enemies are creep pulling right off the bat.

The same variations from the main build for levels 8 and higher still apply to this build.

I haven't actually test this build that much, but I felt that it was worth mentioning. I will usually just go with the main build above with the variations suggested depending on the game.

5. Nerubian Assassin's Item Builds
CORE ITEM

The construction and purchase of these items concludes early game for me.
I set the estimated time to farm these items around the first 18 minutes of the actual game (so the time spent picking heroes doesn't count).


Dagon
The final piece of NA's gank combo. The nuke makes it possible for NA to one-shot a squishy hero at full health, although hardier heroes usually need to be hurt to assassinate.

DO NOT LEVEL DAGON
please buy something else with the money. I will discuss this another section later.

Mana and health regen items
Some people will consider Urn of Shadows to be in this discussion, however, urn doesn't provide enough mana regeneration for NA to be ganking at full potential. Although the extra health and heal/damage is useful, you're better off spending the money on a staff of wizardry (urn costs 875 gold, you only need 125 more gold to get the crucial dagon).
Main option

Bottle

Rune whoring enables NA to continually gank without returning to fountain for health or mana (doesn't guarantee it though). General information on runes and bottle is available on playdota (Runes - Learn DotA). It goes through all the major points of using bottle and rune, if you don't really know what it means to rune whore, I highly recommend reading through this guide.

Supplements

Soul Ring
• Consider getting this in addition to bottle (more in spoiler and early game guide)
• Can be built using the side shop if recipe is purchased during the pre-game
• Health and mana regen
• Cheap
• More useful in side lines because of side shop and less rune abusing potential

Additional information and counter argument to arcane boots


Arcane boots are another option available as a supplement, or if gotten with soul ring, it could replace bottle. However, I don't like arcane boots because they're not efficient or necessary since the booster can't be built into anything else useful for NA. The 1000 gold for an energy booster would be better spent on a staff of wizardry. Even though the 130 mana and minor mana regen it provides is inferior to arcane boots, it can be built into a dagon which is vital to NA's ganking capabilities, and with a proper use of bottle, NA will have enough mana without having to get arcane boots.

I prefer bottle because it provides better benefits for less cost if used properly (player's skill level isn't the only factor to using bottle well; luck, teammates, and others matter too). Getting all three is absolutely redundant, especially since dagon is so critical to NA's success. As a matter of fact, getting either of these two items is excessive if the bottle is properly used. I will lay out more situations that either benefit from these items instead of bottle, vice versa or a bottle in addition to one of these items in NA's early game strategy and NA's additional strategy sections.



Boots of Speed
I don't really think I need to explain this. There are suggestions to which boot upgrade to make that I will elaborate more on in the mid-game strategy.

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INTERMEDIATE ITEMS

This is just a listing of items that I consider to be both effective and efficient for helping NA maintain success in mid game and farm for late game/luxury items or situational items. The use of these items will be explained in depth throughout various sections of this guide and briefly mentioned in this section. If I'm doing really well, I have a tendency to skip these items and go onto the late/luxury items. Although these items are still useful for late game, so there's no reason to not build them after getting other items. Necro can almost be considered a core item for NA.


Necronomicon
• Components of moderate costs
• Truesight (once upgraded to level 3)
• Additional mana burn
• Pushing, tanking towers and creeps
• Stats (Strength and Intelligence)
• Counter to Techies (run minions around to trigger/destroy land mines and find remotes to destroy)
• Scouting
• Last Word (useful against aoe heroes, especially if your team has more than one necro).


Manta Style
• Components of moderate costs (except for the ultimate orb)
• Increase survivability thanks to increased movement speed and the split images
• None to minor micro-management necessary (a benefit for those who aren't so good at it)
• Stats (especially the int and str from manta)
• Increases ganking ability (increased damage, movement speed, and attack speed)


Sange and Yasha
• Components of moderate costs
• Increased survivability (increased health and movement speed)
• Increased ganking ability (increased damage, increased movement speed, and maim)
• Decent support (slow and attack speed reduction helps your teammates)

I would say only build this item if you really aren't able to build anything else due to a poor game.
I will almost always get other items over SnY because other items are usually more effective than SnY. This opinion was formed before the recent patch (6.69) gave maim an attack speed reduction which I can see being pretty useful. However, I haven't actually seen it in effect or personally used it, but I figured I should mention it because it isn't a bad item (just isn't that good either). It's also a viable option if you're doing poorly since it's pretty easy to build.



Phase Boots
Power treads aren't too bad on NA either, and I use to get it over phase boots most of the time. The extra boost of cheap stats from treads (either str or int) is pretty useful, but it becomes negligent as the game progresses. The attack speed is pretty useless on NA since he doesn't really deal physical damage, while the extra movement speed and zero collusion help you either catch up or escape from enemies. I rarely ever get boots of travel because of how expensive they are.


-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
LUXURY/LATE GAME ITEMS

Guinsoo's Scythe of Vyse
Gives you amazing mana regen and hex. Impale only has an 11 second cd and mana burn has 5 (if you get a guinsoo, definitely level mana burn).

Ethereal Blade
An extension to your ganking combo. Your spell combo will do even more damage thanks to a new nuke and ghost, and you can use this item to become immune to physical damage too.

Boots of Travel
Although I think phase boots are useful enough to last the entire game, if the game is taking really long, or you've done exceptionally well (dagon first though), boots of travel is good on any hero so go ahead and get it.

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EXTRA/SITUATIONAL ITEMS

These items should be built after dagon, boots, and bottle. However, there aren't any particular order, and when or why to get them are up to the player's discretion.


Khadgar's Pipe of Insight
Get this item if the other team has a lot magic damage, in particular aoe magic damage. Examples: Queen of Pain, Tauren Chieftain, etc.

Orchid Malevolence
Useful against heroes with escape abilities like windwalk or blink. The extra 20% damage is also helpful to take down tougher opponents.

Black King Bar
The avatar buff makes you immune to most spells. This is really useful when the other team has a lot of aoe spells that also silence, slow, or stun as oppose to simply damage, or if they just have a lot of stuns, slows, or silences.


Linken's Sphere
Useful against heroes with powerful click spells like lina, lion, zeus, etc.

Helm of the Dominator
If you're good with microing, this is a great item to get for NA. There are many creeps that can be useful in different situations. Centaurs have the stuns, the gnolls have speed aura, etc. The life steal is somewhat beneficial, but it's not that important.


Ghost Scepter
An extremely important item to get against heroes who deal heavy physical damage (usually late game heroes). It can also be combined with an eaglehorn to make Ethereal Blade. Do be wary of the extra magic damage you take though, you should try to use this when being chased or targeted by heroes like lycan, pa, etc. I personally think this is one of the most underrated items, and it can be very helpful in many situations.


Force Staff

The force staff can be used to escape spells that have an area of effect with some form of crowd control. For example, kinetic field from Thrall or black hole from Engima, but I don't know a full list. Also, just because it's an area of effect disable, doesn't necessarily mean you can use it to free yourself or a teammate. For example, Syllabear's entangle or Pit Lord's Pit of Malice, if you use force staff while under either of these spells, you'll simply be moved, but still entangled.


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6. Nerubian Assassin's Strategy
When to play Nerubian Assassin
This section obviously doesn't apply if you're in an all random game.

If the game mode is AP, you'll find NA in the Scourge (Agility) building, and other game modes just vary. Regardless of the game mode (except captain where the captain is forced to pick), I recommend waiting for the other team and your teammates to pick their heroes before you make your decision.

Favorable situations for NA
Since NA is an able ganker for early/mid game and good support and crowd control in late game, NA will usually be a decent fit into your team. If some or all of the following circumstances apply, then I highly recommend picking NA:
• The other team has pick quite a few agility or intelligence heroes (meaning low health and armor)
This is really important since many of these types of heroes are food for NA during early and mid game.
• Your team doesn't need a carry or a tank
• Your team needs a stun
• There are no other rune whorers on your team
I want to elaborate a bit on this. If there are other gankers (Pudge, Tinker, Mirana, Zeus, vengeful spirit, and others) on your team, then there will be competition for who gets to take mid solo, and if two heroes who both need to abuse rune/bottle to dominate are on the same team, there is a good chance neither of you will get the runes that you need. This won't always be the case because some people don't understand how much more powerful these gankers become by utilizing mid and controlling the runes, and this issue can be solved to a certain extent with a courier. If it doesn't appear like your teammate who picked a ganking hero understands this concept, if they're playing a different style (like a support vs that maxes aura or howl by level 7), or you have a courier, then it still isn't a bad idea to pick NA provided you're not depriving your team of a decent tank or carry.


Trouble Signs
On the other hand, there are also some situations that will make playing NA a bit more harder, so if these following apply, picking NA might be a bad idea. However, it doesn't necessarily mean you'll do awful so use your own judgment. There are also some counters to these difficult situations that I will go through later in the guide.


• Silencer is on the other team.
This isn't necessarily a huge problem, but it is kind of annoying because you won't be able to chain spells as easily with his ass around. However, dagon is an item so you can cast it while silenced, and if you cast vendetta, you can just wait.
• If the other team consists mainly of strength heroes (high health/armor)
This is probably the most important of all the negatives I'm listing. If the other team has a bunch of strength heroes, chaining spells to kill these guys will be very difficult once they get beefy enough.

• If Abaddon is on the other team
When his ult is up, it's very for you to combo him to death since none of your spells/items deal more than 400 damage under normal circumstances. Of course, there are ways of bypassing Borrowed Time's trigger, but if the Abaddon is good enough, he can still manually activate it. There's also the fact that Aphotic Shield removes debuffs off the recipient, then put it together with death coil, and Abaddon becomes very effective at ruining ganks if he shows up while you're in the middle of unleashing your arsensal onto your target.

• If Omniknight is on the other team
He's less of an issue early on because you can limit him by mana burn, but once he farms past a certain point, Omniknight is capable of ruining your ganks since repel will block most of your damage, purification can greatly damage you and heal your target, his aura makes it harder to chase/escape, and, finally, guardian angel is just ridiculous.

• If treant, templar assassin, rexxar is picked by the other team
Treant has his sentinels, ta has the traps, and rexxar has his hawk. All of these heroes have a way of detecting ganks before they occur. This can also apply to players who just get observer wards too, but since everyone can buy wards, I won't get specific about it. This is a bigger issue early on than later because of the shorter duration and longer cooldown of vendetta. You can bypass these issues by being invisible while running through key locations, and Treant and ta can be countered by placing sentry wards at key locations to destroy their sentinels or traps (for more information on warding, Heldarion's Total Warding - DotA Guides). Rexxar's hawk has to be killed, but he's kind of hard to find. Instead of sentry wards, observer wards are needed (you might still need true sight since the hawk can go invisible).

• If Gondar, Slar, or Bloodseeker is picked by the other team
These three guys have abilities that prevent invisibility which isn't necessarily a huge problem since Vendetta's main purpose is to gank, not escape. It does become a pain however, when you do need to use it to escape and amp damage or track is on you (this will become more of a problem at late game, especially if you're against slar or bloodseeker since they can carry). Bloodseeker's thirst can detect you if you're below the health mark, thus making vendetta an ineffective escape tool.

• If Anti-Mage (Magina) is picked
It should be pretty apparent why AM is a pain in the ass for NA. Since NA is built as a semi-caster, he has a decent mana pool so it make him vulnerable to AM's ult. Also, if AM takes away NA's mana, then NA becomes useless. And finally, AM is extremely difficult to gank because of his passive that reduces magic damage and his blink.

• If Goblin Techies is picked
Landmines can ruin ganks, which will most likely throw off your rhythm , unless you get even luckier at other ganks to compensate for the foiled ganks (let's not bank on that). Although scarabs and necro can be used to effectively seek out and destroy all of the bombs, it's still quite a bit of attention focused on simply destroying to bombs, but techies himself is quite easy for you to kill since your combo should kill him before he has a chance to suicide. This means bad techies are really, really easy for you to take down.
Early Game
Anyways, so you get NA as your hero for a game...

Starting Items

If you're in a 5v5 DotA match, and you didn't random NA, then I recommend buying a bottle right off the bat. If you're in a match with 3v3 or less, then boots and bottle should be the priority then whatever else you can afford (nulls is good).
Recommend option

Empty Bottle

Bottle enables you to gank continually. If you were ganking and had to keep making trips to the fountain, you'd easily get out leveled. If you don't know the basics of using the bottle and runes, please read Runes - Learn DotA. I will also cover the principles of using a courier and bottle in conjunction in the additional strategy section.

I would say bottle is more useful to NAs who are going mid solo, and you should try to convince a teammate to buy, then share a courier. Someone can crow it later. I'll have more on which lane and starting item set to go with in a bit.

Alternative

Some players feel bottle is not necessary right at the beginning, and they also dislike the lack of stats given by buying just the bottle. If you are one of these players, then you should purchase a chicken, some tangos/clarity potions, and then some misc. stat items like branches to potentially make magic wand or a null talisman. In the past, I would have considered getting bracers instead of nulls, but with the recent change to dagon, a null talisman is much more useful. Although if you get two of the starting stat items, then consider making the second one a bracer.

There are advantages to this option in certain laning situations that I will discuss in the next section.

It is absolutely imperative that you get the chicken if you don't get bottle in the beginning, because the chicken will eventually deliver your bottle to you. This needs to happen very quickly, within 6 minutes of the game. If you're doing really well, you can get it by 3 minutes, but I usually consider 4 minutes a good pace. This pace needs to be followed pretty strictly for a solo NA , but if NA isn't solo, then bottle can be farmed later without detriment (although not much later).

If you randomed NA, your options are basically the same, but I recommend buying a chicken and a branch if you plan to start with bottle. Four branches and a bottle is also worthy of consideration, especially if a teammate already got a courier.


Choosing your lane

In terms of laning, I split them up into two main options. One is soloing mid, and the other is any lane with a partner. If you plan to take solo, then you shouldn't solo any other lane since you need the runes and position to set up ganks. If you're laning with a partner, you should most likely be in the side lanes for the side shop, although some people might want to solo a side lane.

Do not solo mid if you are inexperienced

Taking mid solo requires that you're good at last hitting, know the majority of information in the game, map awareness, rune whoring, and other stuff people usually call skills or knowledge. There are also match ups that make it difficult for you to take mid solo, and this is once again something that depends on the player's judgment. If you don't have good reason to take mid solo, go in the side lanes with a partner where your mistakes won't have as big of an effect, and eventually when you're confident that you know what you're doing, give it a shot.

Solo (Mid)
Benefits soloing mid
• Runes
• Position, easier to gank other lanes
• Faster leveling
• NA can counter some heroes that often take mid
• Able to control the game if things go well
Difficulties of soloing mid
• NA isn't as adept at harassing, last hitting, and denying as most range heroes
• Some heroes that sometimes take mid can counter you.
• You could be up against a dual lane by yourself
• Mistakes are more costly than if you had a partner, especially if you're against another solo
• No side shop
• Position, easier to be ganked by other lanes

Further discussion on soloing mid
[spoiler] When I first started to play NA, I was passionate about always taking mid solo, especially since I usually tried to pick NA only when there was no one that needed it more than him. As I've gotten a bit more experience (NA was the first hero I really started to use bottle with), I've realized that it's still pretty effective to play NA in other lanes. I use to think that NA should always solo mid. However, soloing mid fits an aggressive play style and certain situations and has a faster pace, both of which I enjoy so I usually won't play NA if I can't or shouldn't solo mid.

Purpose of soloing mid
Without a doubt, taking mid solo is the more difficult path, but if you do it right, the game will be yours. I only play pubs, and when I have a good game with NA, games are usually over by half an hour. This is often due to leavers/feeders/ragers, but if NA is played properly, 1-2 of the enemies' barracks should be destroyed by 45 minutes, regardless of leavers (although your team still has to be better than your opponents).

Sounds pretty amazing what NA can do with mid solo right? Of course, things won't always go as intended, but there many factors that contribute to the effectiveness of soloing mid, while there others that diminish it. Some of these factors are random, but part of playing NA well is using what's given to you. This is where experience and logical thought comes into play, and even though I will go through a wide variety of situations in detail, I can never really tell you what the I think the right move to make is (which might not even be the right move) unless I'm playing with you or watching you play.



How to achieve this purpose
The following are things that I watch for, and the possible implications that these things could have. I'm sure there are things that others watch out for that I don't or won't mention, and there will probably be disagreement on what I propose could happen. If you really think you have reason to watch for or react differently to the things what I suggest, then by all means go for it (don't lie to yourself), but these are just things from my personal experience.

Hero match up
[spoiler] I cannot stress how crucial this is. Unless your opponents are noticeably less skilled than you, the make up of each team is what will make or break the game (although this often happens on b.net). While the match up has effect throughout the entire game, it has a couple of specific effects on NA early on when he solos mid.

• Could a teammate use mid solo more?
First of all, there are some heroes that could use mid solo more effectively than you so if you're confident in the skill of the your teammate, and the match up doesn't suggest anything unfavorable for him or her, then you may want to consider going other lanes. In most match-ups, I'd say like Puck or Nevermore would be more effective, but once again, there are situations can work against them which might favor NA.

Argument against drow, sniper, and other range carries
Some range carries like Drow or Sniper commonly try to get mid solo, but this is a situation that I'll will argue against. Carries don't need solo. Their main purpose is to get beefy for late game and then destroy the other team, and their skills often don't benefit as much from being higher level compared to say tinker's laser or NA's impale. All they really need is the gold, which can be farmed equally in every single lane if they're good at last hitting (although being against two people trying to deny and another trying to last hit too does make it more difficult). On the other hand, NA really does need the levels early on since rune control can be established 4 minutes into the game, and Vendetta is what really start NA off in ganking so it needs to be learned while opponents are still weak.


• Match up
When I first wrote this guide, I didn't really care that much about who I might lane against. However, after my hot streak ended (aka, encountered better players) and further experience with other heroes, I've realized how foolish this was. Since mid is usually solo in most games, I'll start off with being against another solo in mid.

Based on the heroes of the other team, you can usually predict which hero will be mid solo or at least limit it down to 1 or 2 heroes. For example, if the other team has the bottle abusing gankers I mentioned earlier, then they will most likely solo mid. Of course, this is based off assumptions I make which is, in reality, just what I would do if I was one of the heroes on the other team. Different play variations of a hero could throw your prediction off, and another assumption I make is that my enemies aren't morons which isn't always the case. If the opponents don't know what they're doing, they're harder to predict, but they usually make bad decisions to make up for it. The main point being is that you should try to figure out who you'll lane against, but be ready to see another hero.

There many heroes that NA will do well against in mid, and I will list more specific strategies as to how to lane against them in the additional strategy section. However, there are also many heroes that NA will have a difficult time with that I would caution soloing mid against. I will go into more detail in other parts of the guide, and some counters against these heroes will be discussed later too.


Rooftrellen
• Difficult to harass
Treant has high armor, health, health regen, and doesn't need much mana to be effective. He will brush off the mana burns and impales that NA normally uses to harass enemies.
• Sentinels
They can ruin your rune control, and also help set up kills for tree pretty easily. You'll need to impale the area they're around or get wards to kill them, otherwise they will become a nasty surprise when used in conjunction with tree's ult.

CONTINUE HERE



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Below this line is still under development and edit

You can read it, but even a small dip in your dedication to reading this labyrinth of text could force you to lose your spot.
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From level 1-6:

From the my skill build, you can see I level mana burn right off the bat. As soon as the enemy hero is visible (most likely some other sort of solo hero like zeus), you should cast mana burn. Whenever the cooldown for mana burn is up, then you should try to use it again, but make sure the enemy has more than 4x his int in mana to get the full effect of mana burn. The range on mana burn is pretty long so doing so should be pretty simple.

Focus on last hitting and denying, and the reason for doing so should be obvious to everyone.

Once you hit level 3, you should have level 2 impale, and it should be right around 1:45 into the game. Start impaling the enemy in order to make him lose health. When you're trying to impale the enemy hero, you should try to position yourself so that the creeps are also stunned along with your target, and the impale should be also timed to help clear some creeps to earn gold. If at all possible, try to stun the hero when he's the only one standing so your creeps will also attack him. Your timing and position is kind of important for these first few impales, but as long as you hit the hero, it isn't a big deal. If you impale him and you have a clear path to the enemy hero, you should try to nail a few attacks on him. While doing this, you will most likely lose health, but just start using your bottle at the right time to restore your health and mana. Repeat this until your bottle runs out, or if you didn't get a bottle right off the bat, just standing back and use some regen items.

If you did get a bottle however, once it runs out, it should be about 10 seconds past the two minute mark. Rush to one of rune spawn locations and try to get rune. If you don't get lucky on the first try, quickly run to the other rune spawn location. I'm going to assume you know where the rune spawns, but I do want to mention a few things about runes and controlling them. Runes spawn every 2 minutes, so sometime it helps to head towards the spawn spot a few seconds before so you can grab the rune as soon as it spawns. I want to stress that you shouldn't make it obvious that you're going to try and get a rune. Some players will notice this and try to gank you when you try to get the rune or even get the rune before you do. Sometimes your lane opponent will also have a bottle, in situations like this you should watch for which rune spawn he goes for and go to the opposite side and hope you get lucky. If you managed to get the rune, replenish your mana and health. Continue to harass the enemy with spells since you have really high mana regen due to the bottle. I don't recommend spamming your spell everytime it's up, but using it enough to harass and potentially create situations where you could get the kill. Time your spells to match the amount of mana regen you're getting from your bottle. For example, if you have two charges left in your bottle as a rune is about to spawn, then spam your spells and bottle since you'll most likely get a rune very shortly afterwards.

Once you hit level 4, you should have the skill urna swarm. Immediately raise two scarabs and move them to to the spawn locations of the runes. Make them burrow so they can't be see. These scarabs will make controlling the rune considerably easier than it was. You should have your bottle already or soon if you chose to buy a chicken in the beginning instead of a bottle by the way. If you chose, you can just have one scarab at one of the rune spawn points, and send the other scarab into the jungle or something to scout. You can still tell where the runes are spawning because if it's not at where your scarab burrowed, then it's at the other spawn spot. However, I personally don't do this for a few reasons. First, by having a scarab at both rune spawns, you have better rune control because you can tell if someone took the rune. If there is only 1 scarab at one spawn point, then someone may potentially take the rune from the spot where you don't have a scarab before you reach it. Also, the two rune spawn locations are actually pretty good areas to have scarabs because you can watch for ganks and such easier since the river is like the main path between places.

Once you hit level 6, you gain windwalk (extra speed and no collision) and a backstab damage from your ult. This makes ganking much easier because you can now chain spells. Until you build dagon, your sequence of ganking should be like this. You start off by attacking the hero you want to attack while in Vendetta to get the backstab damage and so he can't see you. Where you are when you make your first strike is kind of important. You usually want to be in the direction that your target is most likely going to run to, or in a location where the chances of you getting aggro from creeps or being harmed is less likely. As soon as you attack, you impale the hero, and hit him a couple of times. Keep hitting the hero until he can be killed or almost killed by your mana burn, then mana burn him and kill. Do not use mana burn right after impale unless the mana burn will kill the target. Since mana burn has a long range, you should save it as a finisher once they move out of your attack range. Instead of wasting the time to cast mana burn, the time can be used to simply attack the hero. Coordinating these ganks with your teammates isn't absolutely necessary, especially if you start your combo when the hero isn't at full health, but it helps a lot.

Besides having endless health and mana by abusing bottle, you also get the benefits of each rune that you get. The regen and illusion runes are kind of useless besides filling up the bottle. Whenever I get a regen rune, I will often waste all of my mana and then use the rune. I use illusions to just basically push. Invisibility runes allow you to sneak up on players, and haste makes it impossible for them to run away from you. Double damage is extremely useful for impales because you can deal twice the damage with each hit you while the enemy is stunned.

Controlling the runes is extremely important, and each time you get a rune, take a look at the hero(es) in the two lanes around surrounding the rune you got (top/mid or bot/mid). When looking at these heroes, a few things to look for are:
What skills do(es) the hero(es) have? Any windwalks or stuns?
How much health and mana does the hero have
What type of hero it is (int, str, or agi)
The positions and number of creeps

You should also make sure you have enough mana to combo your spells.
Vendetta (level 1)+Impale (level 4) + Mana Burn (level 1)= 405 mana total

This combo will currently do around 450 damage + mana burn (which varies depending on the target's int).

I'm going to assume that if you're reading this, you know the basics of dota. This means you should be able to make your own personal judgement about who is better to gank since a lot of things are situational. However, a few basic guidelines are: usually avoid the heroes that have windwalk (gondar, weaver, clinkz), go for the one with the stun or other forms of crowd control, int and agi heroes usually have less health and armor than str heroes, a hero with low mana can't cast spells, position your stuns to hit more than one target, and most important, always go for the one you can finish with backstab, impale, and a few quick hits while the target is stunned (this will usually be like a half health int hero). Even though it's usually not the best to try and gank strength heroes, in early game, it isn't as big of a problem as it is later since they're still low level, thus low health. Don't forget to position yourself properly to get max benefit from your stuns.


After you past level 7, I will usually ignore leveling urna swarm and mana burn and level stats. The reason I don't level mana burn is mentioned under the skill explanation. Leveling stats becomes even more important if you went with a bottle in the beginning because it gives you extra mana to help you gank. If you feel that having urna swarm will be more beneficial to you than the extra stats, you can level it instead of stats. I consider the swarms to be mid game though, so I'll have more on them the next section.

Once you manage to farm dagon, I consider early game to be over. Hopefully this occurs around 18 minutes into the game, and you should be around level 11.
Mid Game
MID GAME (UNEDITED)

Now that you have gotten dagon, mid-game has begun. Mid game is rather simple, and it's also pretty similar to late game. Late game merely has a different goal.

Now that you have dagon, you can upgrade your boots.

Although if you feel like it, you can level scarab in early game, I usually don't level scarab past level 1 until I'm about over level 11. There are a lot of benefits to having the scarabs out, but it makes an even bigger difference if you have good teammates. If you have good teammates who are willing to coordinate with you, the scarab gives a great advantage because they move extremely fast (read skill description for more information about the scarabs), have an aoe silence, can be planted anywhere so you don't have to be right next to an ally to help, and the vision they grant is useful too.

Here are two quick pictures to demonstrate using them, but to be honest, I'm quite bad at microing, so I don't use these guys to their full potential. These pictures are from one of the rare moments I used them.

During mid and late game, you can chose to level mana burn if you want, but I'll usually max urna swarm before leveling mana burn. The extra mana cost isn't really a big deal anymore, and since more team battles occur now, the lower cooldown might allow for two casts during a fight.

Once you hit level 11, later 16, Vendetta lasts longer and also has a shorter cooldown. This means vendetta can be used to escape fights now instead of just for ganking. If you're forced to use vendetta to escape, try to turn around and gank someone, but don't get too arrogant. If you can't do anything with it, just let it run out, after all, if it runs out naturally, then the skill will be back up pretty soon.

Ganking now is still essentially the same principle it was for early game, but now it's changed slightly because you have dagon. Just because you're higher level now doesn't mean you should neglect runes. If you're around constantly ganking (which you should be), then you will still run out of mana. Although you can be more loose with using spells now like to kill multiple creeps who are all near death.

As mid game progresses into late game, team battles will become more and more frequent. This by no means mean you are becoming less useful. With your aoe silence (if you're good at microing), stun capable of hitting multiple targets, and ability to cause insane burst damage, there's no way you could be useless. In team battles, you should work on picking off the heroes that are either low on health or just have less health in general, and it now becomes even more important for you to position your stuns properly to hit multiple targets if possible.

Now your combo of Vendetta (level 2), Impale (level 4), mana burn (lvl 1-4), and dagon will cost a total of 715 mana to 775 mana.

Factoring natural spell resistence, you'll do about 850 damage + mana burn + any extra attacks you do.

Here are a series of pictures showing and explaining a gank I made on sniper.

This is where item selection greatly diverges depending on player preferences and the game situation. I'm going to go through a list of items that I would recommend building for, and these list of items to build for can apply to late game too. It really all depends on what you want and need. If you're doing really well, you might want to consider skipping to the items listed in the late game section instead of the following items.

Do not level dagon, the money spent on leveling is better spent on other items. Only level dagon if you have more inventory spots left to buy anything else (unlikely to happen).



Late Game

LATE GAME THUMBNAIL ICONS GO HERE

FIRST STRATEGY POINT GOES HERE: FIRST POINT EXPLANATION GOES HERE
SECOND STRATEGY POINT GOES HERE: SECOND POINT EXPLANATION GOES HERE
THIRD STRATEGY POINT: THIRD POINT EXPLANATION GOES HERE

7b. Nerubian Assassin's Key Points

KEY POINT #1 GOES HERE
EXPLANATION OF KEY POINT #1 GOES HERE

KEY POINT #2 GOES HERE
EXPLANATION OF KEY POINT #2 GOES HERE

KEY POINT #3 GOES HERE
EXPLANATION OF KEY POINT #3 GOES HERE

KEY POINT #4 GOES HERE
EXPLANATION OF KEY POINT #4 GOES HERE

KEY POINT #5 GOES HERE
EXPLANATION OF KEY POINT #5 GOES HERE
7. Nerubian Assassin's Hero Synergy
YOUR HERO SYNERGY INTRODUCTION GOES HERE

HERO ICON #1
EXPLANATION OF HERO #1 SYNERGY GOES HERE

HERO ICON #2
EXPLANATION OF HERO #2 SYNERGY GOES HERE

HERO ICON #3
EXPLANATION OF HERO #3 SYNERGY GOES HERE

HERO ICON #4
EXPLANATION OF HERO #4 SYNERGY GOES HERE

HERO ICON #5
EXPLANATION OF HERO #5 SYNERGY GOES HERE
8. Nerubian Assassin's Screens and Additional Strategy
SCREENSHOT EXAMPLE #1 TITLE
EXPLANATION OF SCREENSHOT EXAPMLE #1

IMAGE OF SCREENSHOT EXAMPLE #1 GOES HERE[/indent]


SCREENSHOT EXAMPLE #2 TITLE
EXPLANATION OF SCREENSHOT EXAPMLE #2

IMAGE OF SCREENSHOT EXAMPLE #2 GOES HERE[/indent]


SCREENSHOT EXAMPLE #3 TITLE
EXPLANATION OF SCREENSHOT EXAPMLE #3

IMAGE OF SCREENSHOT EXAMPLE #3 GOES HERE[/indent]
9. Conclusion
YOUR CONCLUSION GOES HERE
10. Replays
YOUR REPLAYS GO HERE
11. Credits
The Right Guide to Guide-Write - DotA Guides for the code necessary for the presentation.
12. Changelog
First Edition, no changes yet





Anub'arak the Nerubian Assassin
Author: Flyingpigg
Map Vers.: 6.69c

The Neurbian Assassin

Extensive guide to NA

Date Posted: 12/19/10
Last Comment:19/12/2010
Total Votes: 0
Current Rating: 0.00
Views: 1469



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