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Table of Contents

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1.Foreword
2.Advanced Statistic
3.Skill Overview
4.Item Build
5.Game Plan
6.Not (forever) alone
7.Dramatic ending

Holy sh- 3 guides in one month
Well yes, actually quite a bit of those have been planned or thought out before beginning to actually putting the codes together. Also one who's keen would be able to see a pattern for the guides which I'm writing, but nevermind on that
I plan to have this one completed very soon. However, I'd assure you it'd be great quality when it comes out. And sure as hell I'll update it.

Also, credits to gwho for his original Dodge Viper concept

Here you can find all the necessary basic information on Viper. This link is only temporary, I'm planning to port over the statistics once I have the time

Now let's start analyzing his statistics. First, there are the pros and cons of the base attributes of the hero

[+] Decent attack range
[+] Awesome animation

[-] Low movement speed
[-] Terrible stat gain
[-] Squishy and vulnerable

Now what you see from the above might be shocking to some. But if you consider it, it's absolutely true. If just considering those aspects above, Viper truly is one of the worst heroes in DotA.

However, what truly sets him apart, is his skills

Poison Attack is what defines Viper as he is today. It is numerous things:
+ A slow, which is a semi-disable
+ Extremely low (to no) cooldown, means it's somewhat spammable on all occasions and situations
+ Deals decent damage over time
+ Synergizes well with his attack range
Those are the pro's, the cones are
+ Orb Effect and Buff Placer
+ Has minimal duration, must be used consecutively for max effect
This skill is, if you hasn't seen it yet, is a very strong skill. The strategical uses will be covered later in the guide

Now what conclusion can be made from these characteristics? One, you could see clearly that Viper has no AoE potential, which severely hampers his chances to see any competitive play. Of course other heroes have that problem too, but then again usually those hero has a stun, which Viper has none. That's why enemies could simply TP away from you if they get themselves in a bad position against Viper. However, enough of the downsides, the thing this guide should be focus on telling is how, or what you should do in order to maximizes Viper's potential, hence on to the skill build

The classic build is exactly what it's supposed to be. Standard, easy to use and impact the game.

1.Poison Attack
2.Nethertoxin
3.Nethertoxin
4.Poison Attack
5.Poison Attack
6.Viper Strike
7.Nethertoxin
8.Nethertoxin
9.Poison Attack
10.Attribute Bonus
11.Viper Strike
12.Corrosive Skin
13.Corrosive Skin
14.Corrosive Skin
15.Corrosive Skin
16.Viper Strike

On the to explaination. First, Poison attack at lvl 1 is for harassment. Starting off, Viper has decent attributes by himself, and Poison Attack can help you take advantage of that and quickly creates a decent HP gap between you and the enemy hero. However, be careful not to use it too much, else you won't have the mana when it's absolutely needed. Nethertoxin is taken at the later 2 levels simply because it scales better. We absolutely need to hit Poison Attack lvl 3 at lvl 5 (as early as possible) to abuse the 0 cd Orb, meaning it's a no brainer what to take at 4 and 5. Ultimate is gotten whenever possible for obvious reasons. Proceed by maxing Toxin, the Poison Attack. Begin taking Skin when you feel that nukes are hampering your potential too much, usually when early hp items becomes obsolete, at level 12 onwards.

The item build is actually quite straight forward and stays the same. However, there are some that I personally thinks has a lot of potential, and could be considered

Starting Items

People might notice this build is copy pasted from my other guides (sort of) but that's simply because it is optimum for all heroes, all the time. Regeneration items and stats boostings are no-brainers, you just need to think of the combination of these that fits you the most

Early Game Items

It's essentially you get what you need

Nice hp and a boost to your piss poor ms. Also a great early synergy with Nethertoxin due to the IAS

The build up is actually quite sexy, and diminishes most of Viper's early mana items.

Survivability items, great +EHP for the squishy hero that's Viper. I recommend Vanguard though, since you already have Corrosive Skin

More speed boosting item, a great item to have in general and can be upgrade later

Gives a nice dps boost early game, considering your early damage comes from DPS. Also decent mp regen should be enough for Viper

Get only if you're solo mid and feel like ganking too much

The first piece of Dodge Viper, give you better mobility, nice attack speed and the int boost is always appreciated.

You should be finishing 2 of these and an upgrade Boots once you head to mid game

Choice of Boots

Yep it's this part again. Though it shouldn't be too complicated

A great boost to the slow aircraft that is Viper. However, it's extremely costly. Consider buying it very early if you're definitely needing to push (which you shouldn't) or really late when the teleport ability become invaluable

Has been the standard for Viper for a long time. It provides a nice burst of ms for chasing heroes or escaping. However, as Dodge Viper, this item really isn't that needed anymore since you actually focusing on the mobility items which makes this one redundant. Also note casting your spells (even the manual cast orb) will cancel out the Phase Ability. This item is not that great anymore, but still the standard choice

Providing nice stats, IAS which scales well with Nethertoxin and good constant ms boost. Despite IAS not synergizing well with orb walking, it's still a good choice to have if you plan to be a little more defense or delaying your survivability item

You might be thinking "wtf is Arcane Boots doing here?" Well it's here to do what it does, providing the best constant ms of all the low-priced boots and the ability to ultilizes active items, allowing Viper to gain more flexibility. Only get it if you're confident enough with it

New, cheap and good off the block kind of items. It remedies Viper's passive ms rather well, also work as a ganking station item, if you don't like Bottle and want to keep a heads-on for sudden ganks.

Core Items

This is what separates the classic Viper from the Dodge Viper, of course you can always cross over if you wants

Nice stats booster, now that it no longer intefers with the Orb, the slow (if applicable) stacking is insane, enough to chase down any target.

Here it is, the ultimate pub raper and sometimes ms booster in old competitive games. It holds its own reputation even now, can also be used to "dodge" in an unreliable way.

Extensions

Probably the most controversal item on Viper to date. Some say it sucks, some think it's godlike. Well it's totally up to you whether you want to buy it or not. It's a flexible item, adding nice stats (increase your piss poor survivability) also gives an extreme boots to your ultimate. It doesn't really fit the Dodge Viper team, however it is a solid item to have. Get it whenever you want during mid game, or even rush it. However, I suggest after early damage item (Yasha/Phase Boots) and before large extentions (perhaps before Manta Style).

The next piece of Dodge Viper. This item is obviously not standard for usual games. Get it only if you're facing physical attackers that outshine you while also having someway of stopping your dps (traxex comes to mind). You can use this as a work-around, seeing how you can still "attack" while Ghosted.

Standard item against heavy disables. It's quite obvious when you get this
Hint: When you are facing too many disables

Used as an upgrade for your Hood. Despite this works, you better off letting someone else gets it.

Luxuries

Best DPS item for Viper short of Divine Rapier. It gives everything you need: EHP against physical attackers. IAS, huge dmg all packed into one. However, seeing how Viper might farm a bit slow in today's metagame due to his lack of initial AoE, he couldn't ultilizes its full effect as early as he wants to

Standard ultra-late survivability, not much to say

Extension to Ghost Scepter. Works for the same reason as Butterly, but to a more extreme degree

Boosting your effectiveness that is waning fast within the game while also powering up your teammates considerably. Also adds survivability

Well what to get? Both of this items are of DPS Class, dealing heavy damage to the opponent, but only one at a time. MKB are more prefered since it's cheaper and can be used to cancel channeling. However Buriza is such power as a DPS booster, but only if you have decent attack speed items to go with it

Deviation

This section is for those strategies that works, in some cases, but usually is too much of an extreme roads to work. This section is not to be considered as situationals, since it makes its own road and not as an add-on to the existing build

Well you're seeing it right. This is exactly what you think. AoE Viper! Going straight this if you're going to the tanking build. Building Viper as a tank chaser, synergizes well with his early hp boosting items (only if you get any). Also amplifies his farming potential

A more offensive oriented Vanguard, in a sense. Can later be upgraded to

and sets a nice survivability push into the late game.

Follow up from Radiance. This item offers great survivability, regen and should be a breeze to farm once you got your Radiance, adding if you build Phase Boots

Alternate to Linkens Sphere, provides a way to cancel channeling, adding if you build Power Treads

Go adding to Arcane Boots, seeing as how the minions can freely wack your opponents as they are forced to disable you instead. Requires decent micro-ing

Rejected

Orb Effects/Buff Placers in general. Doesn't work with your slow and is redundant not ultilizing it.

Get yourself an Agha

...seriously

Get Lothars and Salves/RoB instead

Early Game

Straight forward. As Viper, you should always be having a solo, or at least a tri-lane carry (If you opt to go tri-lane). Meaning, you should have as fast leveling as possible. Killing your lane opponent as soon as possible should also be a priority, since if give you tyour much needed free farm early game. Viper should be aiming for early ganker late game tanker semi carry. However, unlike other semi carriers, he has no AoE skills in order to catch up his farm if he ever falls behind. As such, he is a momentum hero, and it's good to build up the momentum from level 1. The problem with Viper however, is despite he has extreme offensive early game capability, he has next to no ability to survive a gank. So, what you should do early game is harass occasionally, bring the opponent down to go for an early kill while not overextending yourself so much to become vulnerable to a gank.

Mid Game

You should try a kill once you have lvl 6 and a reasonable amount of hp/mana. If you don't, continue farming carefully or go b to regen and start ganking. You should never overgank, since you're useless without your item going into the 30 mins of the game. As such, gank when necessary, but never over confidently since you have no disable (so you can't stop a tp by yourself) and no hp without items along with shitty base ms (means you die almost instantly to a counter gank). However, since your effectiveness wanes after this face, do not let it goes to waste.

Late Game

Your skill can no longer overwhelm the enemy, as they now tend to stick together more and you have no AoE, unless of course you go Radiance. Staying alive should be a priority at this point. If you face multiple disablers, always make sure to have your BKB ready going into a gank/team battle/Roshan. Your job is to quickly take our weak enemies and then kite the main opposing carry to death. This isn't at all as easy as it was to write though, so only experience would teach you here

Ganking

Most of the time, during early/mid game it is safe to open up with your ultimate. Since if your opponent disables you in return, they should still be significantly slowed once it wears off. Then proceed to Orb Walk them. However, if you go strictly for the Dodge Viper, then it is actually a different situation. Using your items (which you should have the mana to), you can gain a ground advantage and chase through longer distances and also be less vulnerable to counter-gank.

Team Battles

This is when it gets hard. Unless you have Radiance, you should feel the lack of AoE presence within yourself very quickly. Always remember to NOT be the focus fire. You should be running around the battlefield, even with your measly ms and killing weak supports with your great burst damage, Later in the game your DPS usually wouldn't be fast enough, so you would be relying in your sense of battle to:
+Not die
+Kill as fast as possible, but if you feel like you can't don't give chase, unless you have good enough hp and your mobility item ready
+Shake off the focus unless you are going for a straight tanking build

Now it's the time for some mechanics

Credits for this section goes to gwho (the creator of the orginal Dodge Viper and the mechanics of playdota.com. I quote him undirectly without writing my own because this is mechanic-related, coming from another person the meaning stays the same anyways. There's not reason to try to out-do what's already been done so great

Quote:

Nethertoxin

Base bonus damage starts off as 2/4/6/8 damage for enemy HP = 100% to 80%, and doubles for each 20% HP the target is missing.

-Nethertoxin only works on enemy units (enemy heroes, enemy creeps). Does NOT work on neutral creeps or allied units.
-Against creeps, the bonus is halved.

TL;DR: You do more damage the lower your opponent's hp is, if that wasn't obvious enough already

Animation Cancelling / Orb Walking

<CLICK:: Animation Cancelling Page>

Animation Cancelling is an micro control technique for attacking by giving a new command after the point of actual attack. Doing it results in your hero not going through the aesthetic animation sequence AFTER the the point you actually attacked, allowing your to utilize that time to do other things earlier, rather than stay stationary unnecessarily. The most common usage is to enhance chasing.

Orb Walking is simply Animation Cancelling with an added spell/ orb effect on every attack - when you use Poison Attack instead of regular attack.

How to Animation Cancel / Orb Walk:
1) Give the attack command.
2) Wait for the actual attack point.
3) Immediately after the attack point, give another command (usually the move command) to cancel the portion after the attack point - called backswing animation. Giving a new command any time during the backswing animation is fine, but the closer it is to the attack point, the more time you will save. However, if you do it any earlier than the attack point, it will force you to complete the backswing animation, and you lose out.
-When chasing, give the move command in the predicted path your target is running.
-When backing up, but not completely fleeing, as in lane micro or neutral creeping, give the move command between 90 and 180 degrees, instead of 180 degrees backwards. This reduces the turning time, while getting you out of the enemy's attack range. Works best if you have high move speed or higher move speed than your target.
4) Attack again, repeating #1-3

Orb Stacking/Conflits

<CLICK: Orb Stacking Page>

Viper's Poison Attack lasts two seconds. When getting another orb/attack modifier on Viper, you use the minimum attacks necessary for perma-slow and use the other attacks for the other orb. Some secondary orb effects can require some highly polished mechanical skills. High attack speed is especially helpful for using multiple orb effects with Viper.

To utilize both Poison Attack and lifesteal together, you must toggle auto-cast to swtich between one orb and the other - could be challenging.

Lifesteal (MoM, HotD, Satanic - Vlads does not conflict, but useless to ranged units anyways), & Feedback (Diffusal Blade).
- Auto-casting - Poison Attack
- Manual casting (becomes useless) - lifesteal/feedback
- No casting - lifesteal/feedback

To utilize Poison Attack and critical together, you can auto-cast to critical when it doesn't slow, OR use manual-cast to slow when desired.

Critical & Bash
- Auto-casting - crit/bash when it procs, Poison Attack when it does not
(still consumes mana and shows attack animation when crit / bash procs, even though it does not slow)
- Manual Casting - Poison Attack
- No casting - crit / bash chance

Chain Lightning and Desolator - can be used with manual-casted slow alternatingly, but chain lightning is outdone by Radiance, and corruption is outdone by critical and other DPS items. They can work, but non-orb substitutes have the edge over them.

-Maim and Skadi Don't ever get them; Poison Attack and Viper Strike slow at a higher percentage.

Images

<CLICK: Images/Illusions Page>

- Images don't get the bonus damage from Nethertoxin.
- Images don't get direct damage bonus from items like Demon Edge, but do from stats, like Yasha.
- Corrosive Skin's poison part works for images, but not the extra magic resistance aspect.

The following items and effects DO work on images

Stat bonus items. Images gain hit points from strength, armour and attack speed from agility, and bonus to damage from your primary stat. I believe they also gain hitpoint and mana regeneration from stats as well.
Feedback (Diffusal Blade/ Manta Style). Only works on melee images. Ranged images do not burn mana.
Critical Strike (Crysallis / Buriza ). Just the critical strike ability is transferred to images not the bonus damage from the item.
Evasion (Butterfly, Radiance)
Raw movement speed gain items (Boots, Treads, Teleboots)
% Movement Speed gain items (Sangeyasha, Yasha).
True Sight (Gem of True Sight)
Radiance burning aura (Radiance) - Note that while images get the burning aura only one such aura will apply to an enemy at a given time (i.e. 4 images do not mean 4xdamage from the burn aura). Also note that only the aura damage and evasion bonus transfers to images. The bonus damage from the Radiance item itself does not transfer.
Direct Hit Point bonus items (Vitality Booster, Point Booster, Soul Booster, Heart of Tarresque, Manta Style)
Direct Mana Point bonus items (Energy Booster, Point Booster, Soul Booster, etc)

The following items and effects do NOT work on images (despite what the attack animation might suggest!)

Direct bonus to damage items (i.e. items that say +x to damage do not give that bonus damage to images)
Direct bonus to armour items (Chainmail, Platemail, Aegis etc). Note: Java's Premium Naga Siren Guide says the opposite so I am prepared to be corrected on this point!
Direct regeneration items (Ring of Regen, Ring of Health etc)
Increased Attack Speed percent (Hyperstone, Treads, Hand of Midas, Monkey King Bar, Butterfly)
Lifesteal (Satanic, Mask of Madness, Mask of Death, Helm of Dominator)
Frost Attack (Eye of Skadi)
Chain Lightning (Maelstrom)
Cleave - Percentage Splash Damage applied to nearby targets (Battlefury)
Bash - % chance to stun (Cranial Basher). To be precise it is a bit more complicated than just saying it doesn't work - see notes below.
Maim (Sange, Sangeyasha)
Corruption effect - minus to armour upon hit (Stygnian Desolator). Bear in mind however the images will benefit from the corruption given by your main hero so it's still a decent option
Return damage % from melee attackers (Blademail)
Damage block (Kraken Shell, Stout Shield, Vanguard)
Spell items - images can't cast spells (Dagon, Ginsoo,
Mechanism, Manta Style, BKB etc)
Magic resistance items (Planewalker Cloak, Aegis) - images only get innate hero resistance.

Creep Aggro

When you give the command to attack an enemy hero and there nearby creeps allied or belonging to the target hero, they will switch their target to you.

-Creep aggro effect is 500 distance from your position.
-Creep aggro lasts 2 seconds
-The location of the Hero does not matter; you can click a hero accross the map, but if there are creeps within 500 distance of you, you will aggro them.
-The aggro occures the moment you click the attack command, rather than when you actually attack them.
-Giving the attack command while outside of 500 creep range causes the moment of aggro to be triggered when you actually attack (again, the condition that creeps within 500 range applies)

Tips:
-To minize damage from creep aggro, you can use the move command or right click the ground to get within range of the target hero, and issue the attack command at that moment, rather than giving the attack command from the beginniing.
-Spells don't trigger creep aggro, even if you target an enemy hero. Poison Attack is considered a spell, so it does not trigger creep aggro, which you can use to your advantage.
-Creep aggro is not always a bad thing. It has 500 range, so you can aggro them without being hit at all and keep the creep conflict closer to your tower.

Tower's Targetting Priority

Viper shouldn't be afraid of tower diving if it means killing a hero. So here's some info about the towers targetting AI to use to your advantage when tower diving and being near the tower in general:

The towers' target acqiusition priorities is in this order:
1) that which is attacking the nearby hero
2) that which is attacking the tower

(strikethrough are incorrect. erased for the time being)
3) that which is closest
4) creeps over heroes

-The tower will finish continuing to attack the current target before acquiring a new target. The listed order applies during that interval when it looks for a new target.
~~-If there are multiple units targetting the hero, the tower will attack the closer one. (*confirmation needed)~~
-what #4 means is that in a situation where creeps and melee heroes are attacking a tower, the tower will attack creeps before the Hero. And if it's ranged creeps and melee heroes, then the tower will target the melee hero (defaulting to #3)

Tips:
1) When tower diving - 1) use the move command/click ground and; 2) Orb Walk, rather than chasing having right clicked the hero. This will reduce the amount of time that the tower recognizes that you are attacking the hero, putting you lower on the priority chain.

2) Preventing tower targetting you - Since the tower finishes attacking the current unit, you can temporarily stop attacking the tower when the unit about to die to ensure that the tower won't attack you.

3) But if you do get targetted by the tower - attack an allied creep with almost full HP or full HP and the tower will cycle to a different target.

Synergy Formulas

1) DPS (Attacking) :
The synergy formula for physical attacks is: high attack damage * high attack speed * an attack modifier. The same concept is contained in the fact that 5*5 is greater than 4*6 or 3*7, even though they all add up to 10. What this means in terms of practical application is that, given a finite amount of resources, they are best allocated so that the each factor bolsters one another via the multiplicative effect to maximize the output/usage. This is also known as synergy. Having 200 attack damage when you have almost no attack speed boost is not as effective as diverting some of that investment into attack speed. Your overall DPS and effectiveness (when orbs are applied) is what we're trying to maximize. The variables being multiplied are damage and the frequency of damage (attack speed) which results in your damage/time value. The third variable, which is effects like slow and chain lightning, usually benefit more with attack speed, since it activates upon attack. Other modifiers like critical and cleave make their foundation upon both damage and attack speed.

2) Survivability:
The factors for defense is high raw HP, reduction (armor and magical), and special blocking abilities like invisibility/dpell immunity/damage immunity/Lifesteal
In early game as well as later on, a boost in raw HP helps immensely. On tanking heroes, damage block provided by Vangaurd or Poorman's Shield is quite invaluable and sometimes underestimated. Viper goes under the category of fragile DPS machine like Razor, Clinkz, Sniper. His main weakness is getting stunned then nuked. Because Viper's playstyle isn't like that of Clinkz, where he can high-tail it any time, we compensate for for this weakness in the item build, whereas it would not be worth doing for Clinkz.

It is obvious you're not going to play alone. Which means you'd have to depend on both your teammates and your opponents to function. Now there are 2 things you can work on: skill and picks. Skill you can't control, and so does picks (in pubs). However you should be well aware of the point of which you are standing from and play accordingly. Now this might sound too complicated, as I tend to do that sometimes,

Disablers

These are everyone's most feared enemies but also valuable allies. With them, you can snag some easy kills while also preventing your opponent from escaping with their escape mech. However, against them, unless you get BKB or Aghnim ulti-ed on them, they probably won't be killed by you. A stun/hex or even a silence would mean you're useless for a good portion of the game, unless you go strictly Dodge Viper item build.

Survivability Booster

Invaluable ally if played else, otherwise feeder. Coming into the game with these heroes having your back is extremely good. It fixes your dire problem of survivability, while if you ever go against them it wouldn't be THAT bad. But it would still be bad.

Burst DPS/ without stun disable
Some hero you just can't kill alone. These guys can plainly rape your face 1vs1. You can't gank them (if they're decent) alone. IF they gank you, you should be able to escape up until mid game. However, if you tp away in front of that Lycan with Treads Vlad BKB Deso, you won't even survive that 3 second.