Gameplay
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Lifestealer Hero Strategy Counters Equipment Gear Responses Sounds Lore Old Abilities Changelogs Lifestealer 25 + 3.3 18 + 1.9 15 + 1.75 Level Base  is a voracious flesh-eater who Feasts on his prey to regain his health, after inflicting them with deadly Open Wounds. Consumed by madness, he will go through vicious Rages that will grant him magic immunity and bonus attack speed. If he`s especially hungry and desperate, he can Infest any creep and hide inside like a parasite, devouring him when he`s finally released. | |
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Generic/Laning Lifestealer
Lifestealer is mostly played in the safelane. With enough items, he becomes a terrifying carry that can man-fight most heroes, especially strength Strength is the attribute that grants health and health regeneration. For each point of strength a hero gets: 20 Health 0.06 Health regeneration Additionally, strength heroes also get 1 attack damage per strength point. To 
heroes with a lot of hp that will take more damage from Feast, healing N`aix in the process.
If you`re paired with a good support, and the enemy offlaner has no abilities to shrug off slows (such as Surge or Shukuchi), you`ll probably want to start off with a point in Open Wounds, which is your only disable. If you have no chance to get an early kill on the offlaner, you might as well level Feast and heal up a couple of hp each time you hit a creep. At long last, if you`re (team-)fighting at the 00:00 rune, 3 seconds of magic immunity can go a very long way to dodge an incoming nuke or two and secure the precious Bounty Rune Double Damage Haste Illusion Invisibility Regeneration Bounty Arcane See more: Runes#List Bounty Play AbilityNo Target AffectsSelf Grants bonus Gold and XP. Initial Base Gold: 100Initial Base 
, so Rage can be the correct decision. Overall, keep your first skill point until you need it, and if you don`t, take your passive.
Since all three of your abilities are so useful, you should probably be 1-1-1 at level 3. Open Wounds` cast range is catastrophic at level 1 so many players like to take at least a second point in it at level 4 to improve it. But the slow doesn`t improve, and the cooldown is too long to get it off twice in an early engagement, so if your supports already have enough disables to get you close enough to your target, you can keep leave Open Wounds at a single point. Feast directly increases your damage output, whereas Rage only indirectly increases it, so some players like to take extra levels in Feast before they level Rage. Be that as it may, Feast will not help you finish off an enemy once his @@@#@@@HP(hp.com)###@### is low enough (that extra 1% lifesteal will account for a measly one damage once your enemy is down to 100 HP), so Rage is eventually better to net you kills.
As for items, Lifestealer benefits greatly from the triumvirate of early game items: Orb of Venom Item Changelogs Orb of VenomBL Envenoms your veapon with the venom of a venomous viper. Cost275 Bought FromArmaments Passive Poison Attack Disassemble? No Alert allies? No Recipe The Orb of Venom 
, Blight Stone Item Changelogs Blight StoneB An unnerving stone unearthed beneath the Fields of Endless Carnage. Cost300 Bought FromArmaments Passive Lesser Corruption Disassemble? No Alert allies? No Recipe The Blight Stone is an 
and Wind Lace Item Changelogs Wind LaceB Hasten to battle on wind-touched heels. Cost250 Bought FromArcane Bonus +20 Movement speed Disassemble? No Alert allies? No Recipe Wind Lace is an item purchasable at the 
. Orb of venom should obviously be skipped if the enemies are not bothered by slows, Blight Stone should be skipped if one of your supports picked one up already (like a roaming Bounty Hunter "Bounty" redirects here. For the reward earned from last-hits, see Gold. Hero Strategy Counters Equipment Gear Responses Sounds Lore Old Abilities Changelogs Known Bugs 
) or if you`re against ranged opponents that you can`t get close to. Wind Lace is always nice, but it can be a little pointless if you already have enough disables to get up close and personal with your target. Else, Lifestealer has very good base damage which should allow you to skip the Quelling Blade Item Changelogs Quelling BladeBL The axe of a fallen gnome, it allows you to effectively maneuver the forest. Cost200 Bought FromArmaments Active Chop Tree or Ward Passive Quell Disassemble? No Alert , and it can be picked up later if you`re planning to go to the jungle. A Stout Shield Item Changelogs Stout ShieldBL One man s wine barrel bottom is another man s shield. Cost200 Bought FromArmaments Passive Damage Block Disassemble? No Alert allies? No Recipe The Stout Shield is an item can always be nice in a heavily contested lane, or if your supports are stacking and pulling to tank up some creep attacks.
Lifestealer`s boots of choice are usually Phase Boots Item Changelogs Phase BootsBL Boots that allow the wearer to travel between the ether. Cost1240 Bought FromCommon Active Phase Bonus +24 Attack damage+45 Movement speed Disassemble? No Alert allies? No Recipe 
, as he benefits greatly from the active to chase his opponents. Though Power Treads Item Changelogs Power TreadsBL A pair of tough-skinned boots that change to meet the demands of the wearer. Cost1350 Bought FromCommon Active Switch Attribute Bonus +25 Attack speed+45 Movement speed Disassemble? are nice as well, N`aix already has bonus attack speed from Rage. Also Lifestealer loves to build Echo Sabre Item Changelogs Echo SabreB A deceptively swift blade imbued with resonant magic. Cost2650 Bought FromArtifacts Passive Echo Strike Bonus +10 Strength+10 Intelligence+10 Attack speed+75% Mana regeneration+15 Attack damage Disassemble? No Alert 
which benefits naturally from the bonus damage of Phase Boots. Lifestealer is also a natural Armlet of Mordiggian For the cosmetic item equipped by Chaos Knight, see Chaos Knight s Armlet of Mordiggian Item Changelogs Armlet of MordiggianB Weapon of choice among brutes, the bearer sacrifices his life energy to 
carrier, since he will heal up the lost HPTechnology company from three of his spells, and you do not suffer the HP-loss while hidden inside a creep or allied hero.
From there on, it`s up to you to figure out what you need. If you`re against squishy ranged heroes maybe you need extra chasing potential so a Blink Dagger For the cosmetic item equipped by Axe, see Little Blink Dagger. Item Changelogs Blink DaggerBL The fabled dagger used by the fastest assassin ever to walk the lands. Cost2250 Bought FromArcane 
can be justified (especially if you have no other initiator to infest in your team), or an old-fashioned Sange and Yasha For the cosmetic item equipped by Riki, see Sange and Yasha (Equipment). Item Lore Changelogs Sange and YashaB Sange and Yasha, when attuned by the moonlight and used together, become . If the dagger is unattractive, maybe Shadow Blade For the cosmetic item equipped by Kunkka, see Kunkka s Shadow Blade. Item Changelogs Known Bugs Shadow BladeB The blade of a fallen king, it allows you to move unseen and is better suited, especially once upgraded into a Silver Edge Item Old Abilities Changelogs Silver Edge Once used to slay an unjust king, only to have the kingdom erupt into civil war in the aftermath. Cost5550 (700) Bought FromWeapons Active to remove those annoying passives like Blur. But maybe you need more damage, so get that Desolator Item Changelogs DesolatorB A wicked weapon, used in torturing political criminals. Cost3500 Bought FromArtifacts Passive Corruption Bonus +50 Attack damage Disassemble? No Alert allies? No Recipe The Desolator is an Item or Monkey King Bar For the hero, see Monkey King. Item Old Abilities Changelogs Monkey King Bar A powerful staff used by a master warrior. Cost5200 Bought FromWeapons Passive Mini-Bash, True Strike Bonus +66 ; or an Abyssal Blade for raw disable. If you`re facing plenty of summons and/or illusions Maelstrom can be your best bet; and don`t forget the static charge of Mjollnir also deals considerable AOE damage. N`aix usually doesn`t build a Battle Fury but it can be necessary against annoying line-ups.
Jungling Lifestealer
Equipped with your trusty Iron Talon and some Tangos, you can safely farm the medium camps from the get-go. Your passive will be your best friend so take it at level 1. If you`re lucky with the spawns (no wolves), and you get some good runes every two minutes, maybe you can max out Rage first and skip Open Wounds until level 5 (for ganking at level 6) or 8. Rage WILL make you farm faster, but Open Wounds WILL keep you healthy. To maximize the heal from Open Wounds, use it on a big creep with full HP, then use Iron Talon`s Chop on it.
Once you`re level 6, consider ganking a lane hidden inside a creep. Either you can hide in a lane creep and try for the element of surprise; or you can Infest a jungle creep and make the most out of his abilities; War Stomp and Ensnare are your best bets, but the Satyr Banisher`s Purge can also do the trick. If your lanes are going poorly (maybe the enemy team has roamers instead of a jungler of its own), consider ganking earlier than that, probably with a Smoke of Deceit.
You are not that tanky, so a Poor Man`s Shield can also do wonders to keep you healthy in the jungle. If things are going well, maybe you can rush a Hand of Midas. If things are going extremely well, be my guest and get that Sacred Relic for a Radiance rush, but please get at least some Boots of Speed first. If things are not going so well, you should probably aim for some earlier items. Drum of Endurance is not wasted on Lifestealer, neither is Vanguard...
Ability Builds
| Generic/Laning Lifestealer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | |||||||||
| Jungling Lifestealer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | |||||||||
Talents
| Hero Talents | ||
| +1s Rage Duration | 25 | +15 Armor |
| +25 Movement Speed | 20 | 15% Evasion |
| +25 Damage | 15 | +250 Health |
| +15 Attack Speed | 10 | +5 All Stats |
- The armor and attack damage are added as bonus armor and bonus attack damage, and therefore do not benefit illusions.
- Upgrading health increases maximum health capacity and keeps the current health percentage.
- The evasion stacks multiplicatively with other sources of evasion.
General
- There is a term called the N`aix bomb among players which includes a N`aix player infesting a high mobility hero such as Storm Spirit, Puck, Queen of Pain, Magnus, Spirit Breaker and invisible heroes like, Riki and Nyx Assassin to initiate upon enemies by having these heroes enter the fray and unleashing all of their own spells in quick succession before N`aix himself comes out of them and dealing the nuke damage of Infest while following it up with his DPS using Rage.
- It is possible to solo Roshan if you are a higher leveled Lifestealer, although it takes a very long time. To do this, you keep attacking Roshan until you reach low health, then go to the nearby Radiant Jungle, and use your abilities to heal, then go back to Roshan and repeat the process. If you plan on doing this, be careful of enemy wards anywhere nearby, as if you get ganked by the enemy team you have a low chance of surviving.
