Guide to Night Hound - Extremely detailed guide for newbie and pro alike

[[G04T]Caboose]

I'm wondering what boots to get as well now. I'm pretty sure the Ghost Marchers are going to be the way to go, because if you're chasing someone with pounce, attack speed is much less useful than damage. Also, movement speed is lower with Steamboots which will make chasing more difficult, especially since people with Ghost Marchers will be significantly faster than you (more MS all the time + 10% extra every 6 seconds).

Edit: Does activating Ghost Marchers remove NH's stealth?

[Juular]

Considering ghost marchers no longer gives ANYTHING that night hound needs - no ias or agility...sure it has higher move speed, and it has damage, but night hound doesn't need straight damage at all - and steamboots does, i would say the latter is still, even after the nerf, the more solid pick.

[Xylias]

Considering how +dmg from Ghost doesn't improve your Backstab, and the +armor from Plated doesn't improve your damage whatsoever, Steamboots seem to still be the best bet, even though they're at least 10 MS under anything else available. The change ruins NH's ability to chase very well, as it will probably be slower than its prey on average.

If Slash was not previously an item in your arsenal, it needs to be, because NH needs all the IMS he can get, and it should be obtained ASAP after getting your boots, if you're going to identify yourself as a serious threat or asset to anyone.

p.s. Activating Ghost's phased ability does put you out of stealth, mrvage. That's also part of why Ghost or previously Enhanced Marchers were not a great choice on NH.

[[E]Tripwyr]

Way too long. There is no way I would ever read this much for a simple hero guide. Especially not when it's this badly formatted and colored. How do you manage to make 1 and 4 in yellow but not 2 and 3? It hurts my eyes and my brain.

[Xylias]

Color for emphasis, bro. Those points are the more important ones. And there's nothing wrong with the format. I suggest you buy specs, or fix your monitor's settings.

And the guide isn't short because there isn't a very straightforward way to be playing Night Hound. Near permastealth, the cloud's effects, and your ability to port to both enemies and allies give you lots of options, many if not all of which are explained here.

[[Bla]Lujo]

Ok, guide author here

the guide will be updated soon, and yes the new steamboots have too low movespeed to be effective. The big pain is that you lose the hp bonus of old steam (new ghost damage, and odl steamboots backstabe dmage are both 24 so that is fine)

I will be using ghost boots from now on, and so should you.

Also, yes the yellew nubers are there for emphasis, and the guide is not a quicky item/skill list, its a comprehensive guide to master a very versatile and multipractical hero (possibly the MOST versatile and tacticaly deep hero in the game)

This was the best guide i've read in a while. Really good job. I love NH and thought I knew how to play it but this guide really helped me to know him even more. Keep up the good work

[Juular]

Way too long. There is no way I would ever read this much for a simple hero guide. Especially not when it's this badly formatted and colored. How do you manage to make 1 and 4 in yellow but not 2 and 3? It hurts my eyes and my brain.

That's kind of a dick thing to say. The guide was great.

[[VNG]Mittsies]

Fantastic guide; extremely detailed (as advertised!). Deserves premium IMO; but there are several minor details you need to test, such as immunity in smoke bomb.

[[TCND]Tanubis]

New boots make this a little different - I actually think you are better served by saving for post haste these days. You want the movespeed, and the stat gain on steamboots is just pathetic.

Situational item for NH is also Void Talisman - it's cheap, cools down fast, gives decent stats and the physical immunity lasts a bit longer than is needed for him to fade away.

Plus, it's a direct counter to legionnaire. His taunt and whirling blades do absolutely nothing to you when you turn it on - you can enable it, pounce (doing backstab damage), smoke him if you want, and get away clean taking no damage whatsoever with no risk of him taunting you. You can't attack him directly during the four seconds, but against a lot of the heroes night hound has problems with it is a direct and easy counter, and your guide is for a support/ganker NH anyway - not a hard carry.

[[170]Xasz]

Just a comment: you probably want to remove riftshards from items now, as it does not stack with backstab anymore. Just an observation.

[[Bla]Lujo]

Message from Lujo to guide users:

I will be updating the guide soon, I planned to do it days ago, but i was in a car accident AND there is no internet conn where i'm laying so as soon as I get better the guide will be updated.

[Fazzmania]

deserves premium

edit: bad luck, get well soon

[opcon]

Damn, I have been waiting for you to update the guide for ages. Sorry to hear about your car accident, was it bad?

Also, who posted this for you?

[Lii1]

I would appreciate any feedback, but advise picking NH to play with a good team you have communication with, as his usefulness rises with good team coordination.

I will also try something revolutionary, for better or for worse, and have a section in the guide about it when it is done - playing WITHOUT invisibility and going for maximum support and teamplay while buffing HP a little. This might be plain bad and insane, but it might actually work really well against popular countermeasures since none of you other (powerfull) skills really require you to actually be invisible. It might also require heavy use of defensive observer wards. Who knows?

This idea would shine in against a team of very good players that you know will counter your invis.. that would only make them waste gold.. The element of wtfness of doing such a build could also confuse them.

[HoneyGirl]

I absolutely hate fighting against NH in pub games, especially a good one. I usually play INT so I have to get the eye to keep the look out for the little bugger. I've always wanted to try him out though but don't know anything about him. Thanks for the amazing guide! Think I'll finally try him out soon.

[[GaY]WizEye]

Best ******* guide ever, you sir are a god. With it I could finally dominate an enemy pub stomp as a poor little riki. You really made me think differently of the cloud of death, and that changed my approach completely.

[[1B]KithKanin]

I personally find getting steamboots, slash, 2 soulscream rings, and wingbow is almost all I'll ever need. Occasionally I will get a whispering helm, but the reason you don't need lifesteal so much on NH is because you're going to be fighting under cloud so you won't be getting hit that much anyways.

But I don't play him as much as I use to anyways.

Ironshield is wasted on NH--unless you just want the extra agility. In which case I still feel soulscream rings are better as they give you HP/INT/AGI.

[[GaY]WizEye]

I personally find getting steamboots, slash, 2 soulscream rings, and wingbow is almost all I'll ever need. Occasionally I will get a whispering helm, but the reason you don't need lifesteal so much on NH is because you're going to be fighting under cloud so you won't be getting hit that much anyways.

But I don't play him as much as I use to anyways.

Ironshield is wasted on NH--unless you just want the extra agility. In which case I still feel soulscream rings are better as they give you HP/INT/AGI.

I think the shield is just a way for you to avoid losing extra tiny bits of HP early game so you don't have to care about healing as much.

[Caeons]

we should do a test.

case 1: level 7 NH with steamboots
case 2: level 7 NH with ghost marchers

see how many hits you can hit on a hero that is running away.

my guess is that you'll pounce, then land another hit, then pounce again with both boot types.

however, you also have to realize that since you are invisible, it's very likely that the hero will NOT be running away immediately, thus having more attack speed will be much more beneficial. Honestly, if NH didn't have pounce, then ghost marchers would be the better choice, but that's not the case, that's why I think that steamboots is the better option.