Guide Request: Slither / Venomancer

[Sordak]

I play Slither pretty ofthen (50% of my matches) but i keep getting tips that differ from another.

One said he is a pretty good Heroe killer in Early and Middle game, than someone said hes a Supporter and someone else said hes only for pushing lanes. Now im realy Confused.

I pretty much suck with him a little exeption was one noob game (The only noob game wich realy only consisted of noobs ive ever played) where i got plenty of kills. But i found the Wards pretty useless but it appears that they should be one of his major skills.

So can anyone write a good Tutorial for him? Please?

[VeNuM]

I will consider putting a guide up.

But until then I can say to you that yes, hes a great hero killer but he can be built in another way, and that is to go with wards from the offset and just be a lane pusher. It depends how you want to play him.

[Netukka]

I was actually planning on writing a guide for Slither/Soulstealer, since they play *quite* (dont take this too much to the word )similarly, but in the end, didnt.

Basically, you have two options: You go poison ward thingies and push, or you go poison spray/toxicity and gank/carry. I cant really imagine him as a supporter though. Usually you should go spray/toxic and aim for...

Steamboots (Str in almost all cases)
Whispering helm -> Heart of Rage (Before or after Wingbow)
2x Soulscream/Fortified (Depends a bit)
Assassin's Shroud (Portal Key as an option, wouldn't say its as viable as on Soulstealer)
Wingbow

And 2 more damage items of your choise.

For skill builds, 1-8 go Spray/toxic, 9 Burst, 10 stats (ward), 11 burst, 12-21 stats and 22-25 ward. You CAN pick one in wards instead of stats at lvl 10 if you want it as a spotter.

Your shining point is from lvl 8 onwards, just as mid game begins, Slither has extremely good chasing cababilities, his attack animation is downright awesome and with good animation cancelling, you can easily chase ANY hero you hit with poison spray.

Its not comprehensive at all (And probably wrong on more than one point, havent really played ranked/high level games with it), but it still gives you a rough idea how to play it.

Oh and one note. Seems like his Toxicity is considered Exclusive Attack modifier, which means if you get Shieldbreaker, you have to choose between the -armor or Toxicity debuff.

[Euphoria]

Because the slow is so powerful early game and his orb effect eats away a ton of HP when you harass the most prevalent build is to go 3x Bracers + Enhanced Marchers and to get his first 2 skills maxed with his ulti. You normally just patrol up and down river early game ganking since your slow + passive poison rip people apart. He has no role as a carry, more as a ganker/initiator. Assassin shroud is also doable if you want to get into the fight/escape after your ulti, but HP/marchers will do the same thing. You can go Toxic Wards and farm heavy , especially if you have glacius, since you can jungle incredibly fast. There are at least 3-4 ways to play him, ganker, pusher, jungler, carry(but i disagree on this one), so do what ya want with him.

[Sordak]

I was actually planning on writing a guide for Slither/Soulstealer, since they play *quite* (dont take this too much to the word )similarly, but in the end, didnt.

Basically, you have two options: You go poison ward thingies and push, or you go poison spray/toxicity and gank/carry. I cant really imagine him as a supporter though. Usually you should go spray/toxic and aim for...

Steamboots (Str in almost all cases)
Whispering helm -> Heart of Rage (Before or after Wingbow)
2x Soulscream/Fortified (Depends a bit)
Assassin's Shroud (Portal Key as an option, wouldn't say its as viable as on Soulstealer)
Wingbow

And 2 more damage items of your choise.

For skill builds, 1-8 go Spray/toxic, 9 Burst, 10 stats (ward), 11 burst, 12-21 stats and 22-25 ward. You CAN pick one in wards instead of stats at lvl 10 if you want it as a spotter.

Your shining point is from lvl 8 onwards, just as mid game begins, Slither has extremely good chasing cababilities, his attack animation is downright awesome and with good animation cancelling, you can easily chase ANY hero you hit with poison spray.

Its not comprehensive at all (And probably wrong on more than one point, havent really played ranked/high level games with it), but it still gives you a rough idea how to play it.

Oh and one note. Seems like his Toxicity is considered Exclusive Attack modifier, which means if you get Shieldbreaker, you have to choose between the -armor or Toxicity debuff.


yeah tahts pretty much how i play him but i still have to learn :D seems like im not playing him wrong.

[Netukka]

I cant stress out how important animation canceling is on this hero. His attack shoots out WAAAAY faster than his animation ends, so you cant just right click on a hero with Poison spray and hope it dies, you should constantly alternate between attack/move to keep up with your target.

[Sordak]

I cant stress out how important animation canceling is on this hero. His attack shoots out WAAAAY faster than his animation ends, so you cant just right click on a hero with Poison spray and hope it dies, you should constantly alternate between attack/move to keep up with your target.

WASD moving would help :D

[FuriousPeon]

... I personally believe that he should be played as support in a TEAM AOE setting, and as a semi-carry otherwise. I do not think he needs Assasins Shroud, I think enchanted marchers, and warp key does the job for less the money. some argue he needs damage, I argue he's better off with scepter of masters to abuse his aoe. but we'll see. if someone writes a guide on his semi-carry potential and leaves out his support, I'll fill in those blanks

[Netukka]

The thing with Staff is that it only boosts his ulti damage by 19 dps (81->100 IIRC, does it do something else as well?). Thats not a lot for an item which costs 5k and gives nothing but health/mana pool for Slither.

[Hucklecat]

Another reason why Slither is so much more powerful than Venomancer is, 1) his ultimate has a much larger radius, 2) His passive poison attack can kill, 3) There is no magic stick to counter his wards, and 4) The heroes that were in DotA to counter him are not in HoN.

I will write a guide if someone else doesnt do it.

[Darxio]

He can be built so many ways, but I think one of the best things everyone should use on him is the Assassin's Shroud. Works wonderful in DotA, works wonderful here.