Asian Girls | Dota Guide and Strategy

Hey everyone! Yep, it’s me again… and yeah, I’ll be using the same format again. This time I’ve decided to write a guide on Nerubian Assassin, mainly because of the amount of people I see buying blademails on this hero makes me want to scream and /wrist, also after receiving many direct and indirect buffs, this hero keeps getting better.

So yeah I’ll be covering how to play NA effectively at a decent IH level. NA received buffs to Mana Burn’s cast range and Vendetta, he is becoming a better pick due to Dota’s current gank style gameplay and game time shortening, these are two things that are in NA’s favour. Anyway, better get on with it! Enjoy.

1. Hero Overview
2. Why Should I Play NA?
3. Skill Descriptions
4. Skill Build
5. Item Builds
6. Gameplay Walkthrough
7. Assassinations
8. Good Allies and Lane Partners
9. Worst Enemies to Face
10. Replays
11. Conclusion
12. Credits
13. Questions & Answers

    1. Hero Overview

Anub’arak was once the greatest champion of the Nerubians, but fell in the Second War of the Spider. He was resurrected by the Lich King Ner’zhul, who promised him eternal undeath in exchange for his unswerving loyalty. His layers of spiked armor are nearly impregnable, causing severe damage to attackers. When threatened, he shoots these spikes through enemies maiming and disorienting them. He channels his dark powers into a bolt of disarming negative energy, and those who witness him blending into the shadows of the frozen tundra have never lived to tell the tale.

Pros

• Pretty good early game for a Melee agility hero.
• Most annoying spell in the game to harass with.
• Has a great combo of spells for mid game assassinations.
• Makes a good lane partner.

Cons

• True sight can make it tough for you.
• Mana dependant agility hero.
• His nukes get pretty weak late game.

(Written mostly Pre-6.43 before he was popular)

As I mentioned before, everything happening in DotA right now suits NA very well. Here’s a small checklist as to why I think NA is becoming a better pick with the way DotA is right now. (I wrote this section for 6.41 a while back before NA was every considered a good hero.)

Only level 3 Necro has true sight, which won’t be affordable until mid game, giving you free reign to wreak havoc for the first half of the game! Also you’re forcing enemies to buy a $5.5k item just to counter your ultimate! (Check!)

Since Aegis was removed gem is quite easy to counter. Just kill the carrier with a big gank and take or destroy the gem. No more 3 lives with gem! (Check!)

Sentry wards just got buffed again in 6.44, but with wards of your own or a Necronomicon 3 you can take out the enemies’ sentry wards. Alternatively you could not rely on Vendetta as an escape tool and just use it as a damage tool. (Check!)

Ganking is NA’s middle name! It’s what he does and all he’s good at. When you play NA, you better be prepared to gank… a lot! (Check!)

The introduction of awesome and cheap mana restoration items solve these problems. (Check!)

Icefrog and co. are doing everything they can to try and shorten the average length of a dota game. This means fewer games are going to reach the stage at which NA is rendered useless. (Check!)

Well how about the recent buffs to two of his skills? Mana burn can now be cast from a very safe range of 725 on level 4. Vendetta now lasts a lot longer while also cooling down much faster, meaning on level 3 it gives you the longest active WW in the game, lasting 50 seconds and cooling down 10 seconds later, you can go invisible for another 50 seconds!

If you’re not half convinced he’s a much better hero by now, then you are beyond salvation and you should go read something else.

Impale is a good Nuke and stun with a reasonably low cooldown. The Stun duration begins once the unit hits the ground, so in total the disable lasts for 3.25 overall. It can be somewhat of a double edged sword due to the mechanics of Impale based spells.

Impale renders a unit invulnerable for 1 second while it is in the air, to prevent weird behavior such as a unit dying mid-air. In any case, the invulnerability is timed such that you can attack the unit as soon as it comes back down.

Units that are stunned by Impale cannot be affected by any other Impale based skills for the duration of the stun. This is hardcoded into the Warcraft 3 engine to prevent multiple Crypt Lords from dealing chained AOE stuns in Ladder games.

What this means in Dota is due to Impale’s 1 second of invulnerability, certain buff placing spells will be canceled, such as Charge of Darkness, Assassinate and Borrowed Time. Anyone who’s been Impaled can land on top of a Chronosphere, also Damage Over Time spells will be affected by either one tick of damage from the spell being nullified by the invulnerability, or the actual casting of the spell be dodged or canceled.

A Quote from Virot2 about some Mechanics of Impale:

This is the skill that makes you the most annoying hero to lane against. Most guides will list NA as a “Worst Enemy” simply because of this skill and it’s ability to totally render most heroes useless in the early laning stages of the game.

The cast range was buffed recently from 500 on all levels to 500/575/650/725 on its respective level. It deals damage based on the amount of mana burnt, so if they have no mana you can’t deal any damage with this spell.

Carapace is a pretty bad passive overall. The return damage is bad for early to mid game and the fact that it only returns melee damage is just another nail in it’s coffin. The armour is nice against physical damage but not much of a reason to get it earlier.

Some people see this as his greatest skill and therefore stack blademails on him to increase the effect of the return damage, but this is the silliest strategy to use because it relies on you getting attacked by melee heroes. You’re not a tank, you’re an assassin and a ganker, you shouldn’t try and draw focus fire from the enemies and there are so many better suited items for NA’s playstyle and use of his other skills, which don’t rely on getting attacked by melee heroes to be useful.

Vendetta is basically a glorified Wind Walk, which until recent buffs was awful. The buffs included lowered cooldowns on levels 2 and 3, higher movement speed bonus and a longer duration.

This skill is what makes you an assassin. It is somewhat spamable at higher levels due to the cooldown only being 10 seconds longer than it’s duration. Although the damage later in the game is weak, you can cause major problems for lower HP Intel and Agility heroes throughout the game.

1. Impale / Mana Burn
2. Mana Burn / Impale
3. Mana Burn
4. Impale
5. Impale
6. Vendetta
7. Impale
8. Mana Burn **
9. Mana Burn **
10. Stats
11. Vendetta
12. Stats
13. Stats
14. Stats
15. Stats
16. Vendetta
17. Stats / Spiked Carapace
18. Stats / Spiked Carapace
19. Stats / Spiked Carapace
20. Stats / Spiked Carapace
21. Stats
22. Spiked Carapace / Stats
23. Spiked Carapace / Stats
24. Spiked Carapace / Stats
25. Spiked Carapace / Stats

What do I take on level 1?

If you’re laned with an allied stunner or are going for a level 1 gank for first blood then take Impale for the stun. However if you’re soloing or you just know you won’t need the stun then take Mana Burn, as that will allow you to establish some harassment and lane control.

Why max Impale first?

You should max Impale first at level 7, as it’s the most damaging of your two nukes and the stun duration gets better per level, giving you about 3 seconds of disable at level 4 including air time.

Mana burn is great, but why am I waiting to max it out?

Mana Burn damage isn’t guarenteed. That’s basically the main reason you’re waiting before maxing it. The damage dealt is based on the mana burnt. If they have no mana, you can’t deal any damage to them, which sucks if you miss a kill or are trying to harass and burn a pitifully small amount of mana. On the other hand, 120 mana burn for 85 mana is spamable and still enough to keep most enemy heroes’ mana down for the very early part of the game.

** Note: If you’re facing a lane against heroes with Mana replenishing skills (e.g KoTL) or dual nukers (e.g CM+Lina), you will need to Burn a lot more Mana to keep them down. In those situations maxing Mana Burn first would be more beneficial.

When should I take Carapace?

If the enemy team has 3 melee or more, then take Carapace at levels 17-20. This will help you against them at this stage, because they’ll have enough damage for the 40% return to actually do something. However if they have a team of 3 or more ranged heroes then you should ignore this skill until the last four levels.

So I get Vendetta A.S.A.P?

Take Vendetta as soon as you can each time. Since the recent buff to the cooldowns and MS bonuses the spell is somewhat better than it used to be. At level 6 you should only use it to gank with an ally due to mana restrictions, but by levels 11 and 16 you can use it liberally to scout, gank and escape.

Item Order

1. Tangos + Clarities (300)
2. Bottle Full (700)
3. Boots (500)
4. 2xBracers (1020)
5. Observer Wards (200+)

Total Cost: 2720 gold

Tangos and Clarities are pretty self explanatory, the early regen will definitely be needed. Boots of speed again is pretty self explanatory for the invaluable move speed.

Bottle is probably the best early game item for NA. It restores HP and Mana over 3 seconds per charge and can be refilled via picking up runes. This kind of regen is ideal for a hero like Nerubian Assassin who should be ganking up and down the river. NA should be one of the primary Bottle buyers on your team.

Two Bracers will grant you some respectable survivability as a Melee agility hero in the early game, however two Nulls are also an option if you know you will survive fine and need the extra mana. Wraith bands wont really benefit NA even though they are becoming more and more popular for agil heroes. They give extra damage and IAS for agil heroes but since he will mostly be nuking and ganking, stick to Bracers or Nulls for the STR or INT.

Observer Wards are a ganking heroes best friend. I will go into more detail about Wards later, so read on.

The All-Rounder

Necronomicon 3 (5350)

Necronomicon gives NA everything he needs in terms of stats. The INT and STR bonuses get greater per level along with better Summons. The summons give you damage, MS bonus, another Nuke and level 3 has true sight allowing you to clear out sentry wards. This is for an “All-round” NA due to the versatility the item gives, survivability, Mana and an extra nuke.

I would recommend getting Necronomicon in most situations, if you are able to competently manage the two summons. It’s also beneficial in games where your opponents are intent on trying to keep areas perma-sentried, allowing you to wipe the wards out.

The Nuker
+
Dagon 1 (3000) + Point Booster (1200)

NA is one of the few heroes I would ever recommend Dagon on. The logic behind Dagon on NA is to use it in conjunction with your other spells to assassinate an enemy hero almost instantaneously.

I’d recommend Dagon in games when you need that extra nuke to assassinate the enemy heroes because the damage from your combo doesn’t do the job. It’s also good when you’re facing low HP Agility heroes who have low Mana pools. (Two Mana Burn nukes may not deal full Damage if their Mana Pools are empty after the first.) If you want to upgrade it, that’s up to you, but just know you’re paying 1300 gold for a 75 damage upgrade.

Point Booster gives you much needed HP and Mana for a cheap price that you don’t get from Dagon. Point booster supports the Mana cost of Energy Burst because Dagon uses more Mana than it’s INT gives you.

The Disabler

Eul’s Scepter of Divinity (2800) / Guinsoo’s Scythe of Vyse (5175)

Eul’s and Guinsoo are both great disabling items. They will definitely solve all your Mana issues, perhaps even to the point of overkill but I’m sure you can find something to use it on. Eul’s gives you 6 cyclone charges which you should try and use liberally before upgrading to Guinsoo’s which gives you limitless Sheep disables with a small cooldown.

I would recommend Guinsoo’s in games where your team severely lacks disables. If you’re team is full of DPSers or nukers the extra disable will give you another element of supporting them. You have one stun, but with an extra disable, you can really help your team mates to kill opponents while they’re disabled for up to 6 seconds.

The Rice Farmer

Radiance (5325)

Radiance can work well on NA, in most cases when no one else on your team is buying it and you can farm it reasonably quickly, getting Radiance will help you to deal some amount of AoE damage, as well as improving your farming and chasing. By level 16 when you have almost perma-invis, Immolation can be used to harass enemies as you scout ahead of your team.

I would only recommend Radiance on NA in less competitive games, TDAs or pubs, where your enemies won’t try and sentry ward you too often, they won’t be getting Necronomicons and you’ll have a decent opportunity to farm it.

The Situationals

Diffusal Blade (3000) / Manta Style (5500)

Diffusal Blade is a situational item for NA. It gives you some agility, some intelligence, ten Purge charges and Mana break. Diffusal also upgrades into Manta Style, which gives you further agility, better Mana break and the ability to create images of yourself. Your images also benefit from Spiked carapace, although that’s not the main reason for getting this item.

I would recommend getting Diffusal Blade in games where you’re facing heroes that Purge counters. Heroes such as Warlock, Sven and Omniknight, Purge counters the first two’s ultimates and Omniknights Repel. Once you run out of Purge charges, you can upgrade to Manta Style.

The Speedy Bug

Boots of Travel (2200)

NA has no need for Treads because he rarely deals physical damage to enemies so the IAS would be a waste. He already has pretty good MS while in Vendetta, but you can’t be in Vendetta all the time and the extra MS from BoT is useful for escaping or chasing. BoTs give the teleport ability as well, giving you map mobility and better ganking potential.

The Tank Bug

Heart of Tarrasque (5500)

Heart gives you much needed survivability for a reasonable price. NA really needs survivability being a melee agility assassin hero, he will need to get in the middle of team fights, chase past towers and hang around after the main battle to continue to spam his spells. He is somewhat fragile with a mediocre STR gain so Heart is probably the best item for NA in terms of survivability and boosting his MHP.

The Rich Bug

Eye of Skadi (7050)

Skadi is a good alternative to Heart. It doesn’t give you has much HP or STR as Heart does, but it offers some other great bonuses. It gives you +25 STR (475 HP) +25 Agility (IAS, Damage, Armour), +25 INT (325 mana) a further 200 HP and 150 Mana as well as frost attack. If you don’t have any other Orb effects, frost is quite good after the recent buff for melee heroes.

It is terribly expensive which is the only drawback of the item. Other than that, if you can farm it in good time it will give you and your team good benefits.

The Fried Bug

Hood of Defiance (2375)

If you’re facing a lot of nukers or AoE damagers, then Hood of Defiance is a necessity. It offers good Magic damage reduction and 8hp/s regen, which will limit the amount of fountain trips you’ll need to take. You can get this along with Heart or Skadi, you’ll just need to judge weather to take it before or after either of those items depending on how many nukers you’re facing.

Blademails

Blademails are terrible to stack on NA contrary to popular belief. Even if you’re facing a team of melee heroes (which shouldn’t happen if your opponents have any clue how to play) Blademails are limited in their use anyway. If you get them early game, the damage reflected will be quite small due to the enemy having crappy damage. Then if you decide to get them late game, the reflected damage is only the base damage of your enemy’s attack and not any modifiers. It also reflects it as magical damage which is reduced very heavily and blocked by magic immunity. Also, you can only return 20% of your own HP, because after that, you’ll be dead… so stacking Blademails and not getting HP is useless because you can still only return a % of your MHP.

Battlefury

People buy this item on NA because the have the belief that it helps you farm. This belief is entirely false. Battlefury helps you kills creeps faster and push faster, but in no way helps you get the gold from said creeps. Early game the regen from Perseverance is outclassed by Bottle or Arcane Ring and by mid game the regen is negligible, so that aspect of this item can be ignored. It won’t help NA against enemy heroes either, as he would rarely be attacking anyway and cleave is poor with the small damage NA has.

Sange and Yasha

You should avoid Sange and Yasha on NA because it offers him nothing that he can really use well. It costs almost as much as Heart, so if you’re getting it for the STR that is a bad reason, 3 Bracers are cheaper than Sange as well as offering more bonuses. The MS is unnecessary due to the MS bonus you already get in Vendetta and Maim is useless because you won’t be dealing physical damage, you’ll be spamming spells. S&Y is usually taken if for times when you are really struggling to farm, but in NA’s case it still won’t provide much benefit and in that scenario you’re better off massing Bracers and getting survivability items.

Refresher Orb

NA has 3 active spells, so refreshing them would be awesome right? Wrong. Refresher is a complete waste of money for NA. All of his spells have such short cooldowns that the refresh is really unneeded especially at 6k+ gold and 3 minutes cooldown. This item is best left for heroes with high cooldown large AoE ultimates rather than single target assassin skills.

DPS Items

NA is a low damage melee hero, his DPS is horrible. Trying to improve that is like flogging a dead horse… waste of time. If you buy DPS items, you will have to ignore either a Mana/Nuking item or a survivability item and without either of those you’re neglecting his main strengths of assassinating heroes and spamming his nukes or you’ll be dead before you even reach the enemy to try and deal physical damage.