This guide is based on personal play. Fuck the arcane mysticism of the competitive scene, I’ll preach only what I have actually understood through playing and trying myself (dunno if that brings any more credibility to my case though ~_^).


As Necrolyte you have one sole purpose. That is to out farm and out level your enemies hard. How are you to do that? Why I’m glad you asked. The second that your Soul Ring is completed and you hit level 7, a ticking time bomb has begun. It’s not a matter of whether Necrolyte will dominate you, but whether in how long that task is achieved.


You at 7 in conjunction with your soul ring have the capacity to capture EVERY SINGLE CREEP EVERY SINGLE WAVE. Even with an enemy hero present in lane you are bound to get 2-3 creeps every wave, WHILE HARASSING THE ENEMY AND HEALING! It’s incredible.

Now I won't go to say that he is the most omnipotent of heroes in mid lane as he can go down to heavy nukers or strong lane control heroes such as Huskar/Viper (though that doesn't necessarily mean you don't have a chance).

Starting gold

Get whatever the situation demands. If you see ranged auto attackers grab some tangoes, flasks for nukers, gg branches other common sense shit. Take enough survivability to farm your soul ring. If no one has a chicken in your team to share, get one yourself. It is integral that you not leave lane and get as much gold/exp as possible. You are going to out level your opponents and you don't want to make unnecessary trips to the fountain for recipe ingredients. Once you have your soul ring you have virtually no reason to go to base. Short of mana? Hit up the easy neutral creeps.

What lane?

I always go mid solo with Necrolyte. He is a beast once he has some levels under his belt and pulse/sadist harass is most effective when the skills are maxed out. That is not to say he couldn't operate in a side lane, just less efficiently.

Skill build

Max pulse/sadist. The real question lies whether or not to take reapers scythe at level 6. Tbh it is kind of useless at that point as you rarely have a full mana pool at level 6, HOWEVER, it is still a disable. And only an idiot skips a disable.

What do I do in lane?

You're not the best of laners at the very onset of the game, but take advantage of what your hero does have available to him at that moment. Necrolyte can harass like no tomorrow as his animation is very fluid and you deny enemy farm by harassing the hell out of him.

Get enough money for your soul ring (what is 700 LOL) and SURVIVE! You are absolutely paper and a gank will mean death. Stay safe and live. It will pay off massively later on. Assume every mia is a gank that was called 30 seconds too late. However, this is not to say that you have to be totally static. If you have a full mana pool and spot something like a dd or invis, go ahead and gank the side lane that’s pushed too hard. A kill or two doesn’t hurt.

Got soul ring?

Okay now what you start doing is pulse farming (ofc this is possible earlier as well but it is less efficient). In conjunction with soul ring and skillful lowering of creep hp, you can with one wave slowly get all the creeps, or spam two pulses and get all the waves faster. This is better late game where you have more mana to spam and can be more careless with how you use pulse.

Remember every wave is yours.

Again the beauty of mid lane is that even pushing it out too much is not the biggest of deals. YOU CAN BRING THE PUSH BACK TO YOUR TOWER QUITE EASILY. You have two options.

A) you can quickly go neutral a camp. Mia calls will go off and enemy lanes may ease in pressure.

B) Attack the enemy. Right clicking an enemy attracts creep agro. Utilize your range to draw the creeps back to your side of the hill. Doing so you gain much. Tower protection, gank protection and the enemy is drawn out in need of farm. On top of that you harass the enemy. Be careful not to do this when enemy creeps are directly next to you as this kind of damage can really add on without a stout shield. And frankly speaking you don’t need a stout shield to harass and keep the lane towards your side.


Man I have a lot of money. Now what?

With smart farming don't be surprised if you find yourself with a 20 minute guinsoo. Necrolyte is the master of farming and this is how he pawns enemies. He outfarms/outlevels them hard and then he rapes them with tier 4 items. Necrolyte can farm any int + survivability item. I tend to find myself being very flexible with his skill build. Guinsoo (more disable), Linkins (Survivability + mana), Skadi, shivas, etc.

Notable mentions are ghost scepter/force staff. They are very useful even after a guinsoo (or before even) and all help necro with positioning, survivability, while giving him some stats. You can even really go a tanking build if need be. With CM + Soul ring you don't need any big int item and can become this monster tank that still attracts plenty of aggro. Farm a hood or vanguard or whatever, and then proceed to farm your guinsoo/linkins whatever.

Remember with just a soul ring and sadist you have A LOT of mana, but not enough to spam mindlessly. With one int item, you cross that threshold and never have to worry about your mana pool.

Boots debate: Get travels or treads? Treads is actually not bad on Necro. He can utilize the much needed early game +hp/mana and the attack speed does not go to waste since Necro does a fair amount of right clicking.

Travels on the other hand can maximize his farming potential. That can be game breaking in its own right, but with pulse you can very easily clear your own jungle if lanes get pushed out too much. As soon as the flow comes back to the sentinel side he starts farming like mad, rinse and repeat.

Who to ban when picking necro?

Get rid of hard nukers, silencers, mana burners.

Hope this helps.