Soulstealer

**Exilya** · 09-17-2011, 12:17 PM

Soulstealer

Table of Contents

Introduction
- Stats
- Pros & Cons
Skills
- Skill Build
Items
- Starting Items
- Early Game
- Mid Game
- Late Game/Luxury
- Situational
Strategy
- Early Game
- Mid Game
- Late Game
- Extra Notes
- How to Play Against Certain Heroes
Drafting
- Synergy
- Counters
Replays
Miscellaneous

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Introduction
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The priests tell young men bound for the battlefield that if they fall, Elysian fields and peace awaits them. But this is not strictly true, not as long as the Soulstealer walks the battlefield. Gathering the spirits of those he kills in a bloody, shadowy sack, he augments his own power with their suffering. Those who see him quake in terror to know that death, for them, will be no release, but only a fiery captivity and oblivion.

Soulstealer is a strong solo-mid carry, whose power relies on great farming skills and strong teamfight presence.

Stats

Damage: 35 - 41
Attack Range - 500 (Ranged)
Move Speed - 300
Turn Rate - 900
Armor - 1.8
Magic Armor - 5.50
Strength - 15 (+2)
Agility - 20 (+2.4) Main Attribute
Intelligence - 18 (+2)

Pros & Cons

+ Good Farming Potential
+ Good Early, Mid and Late Game
+ Strong Teamfight Presence
- Squishy
- No Escape Mechaniscm
- Half of Souls Lost on Death

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Skills
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Demon Hand

This skill is Soulstealer's bread and butter. It grants him the best farming skill in the game, as well as strong nuking power, which leads to lane control. Farming a creepwave instantly for a manacost of 160 is pretty huge. This is why Soulstealer usually dominates games; Even if he is shut down early, maintaining 350 GPM is easy.
A thing to note is, that after 35 min mark the creeps have over 600 HP, meaning that they won't die in 2 Hands. This is a huge loss of effectiveness, but the skill is, and will always be, strong for farming and early / mid game hero-killing.
- All the Demon Hands have separate cooldowns and manacosts
- 0.65 second cast time

Soulsteal

While this skill raises your damage by a pretty good amount, it is also your weakness. Due to your weak base damage, you are forced to level this skill in order to maintain last hits properly. Dying causes you to lose half of your souls, which not only means you lose damage, but your ultimate becomes significantly less effective.
Always tell your team when you are in lack of souls so that they won't engage a teamfight!

Dread

This skill is not that great. It is effective yes, but for obvious reasons (Soulstealer's other skills are so strong) this skill is less effective than those are. But to actually analysis this skill; Basically a free Breastplate-aura for enemies, increases your and your team's damage.
This skill is NOT toggle-able

Soul Burst

Definitely one of the most damage dealing skills in the game if placed properly. With full 30 souls you can instantly kill an enemy hero, and drop multiple others to low hp, if not kill them as well. Having Shroud / PK to place this skill is quite necessary, or you can't drop it on the enemies. The slow is useful to drop couple extra last hits and/or Demon Hands, and the base damage decrease is something.
You don't want to level this skill early on, because you need 30 souls in order for it to be effective.
- Be ready to press Stop (S by default) if the enemies run too far away while casting this so you don't waste it.
- The skill deals damage in a much further radius (1350, I assume), but applies slow & damage reduction to only 700 radius.
- Cast time of 1.4 seconds.

Skill Build

Soulsteal
Demon Hand
Demon Hand
Soulsteal
Demon Hand
Soulsteal
Demon Hand
Soulsteal
Dread / Soul Burst
Soul Burst / Dread
Soul Burst
Dread
Dread
Dread
Attribute Boost
Soul Burst

Basically you want to max out Demon Hands as soon as possible simply because they are your key for farming & hero-killing. Soulsteal is also a priority to max, as you need it for last hitting and for your Soul Burst to be useful. I don't personally take Soul Burst at level 9 because I think that level 1 Ulti isn't that great and because you won't really be using it without PK / Shroud anyways. Dread is a good skill to max after other skills are maxed, but can also be skipped for Attribute Boost if needed.

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Items
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Starting items

x2

x2
These items provide you some nice +damage to get fast souls with your Soulsteal, as well as enough regen.

x5
In my opinion the best starting items. Some good bonus attributes, and minor regeneration to get a fast Bottle of Tears.

x2

x4
These items should be taken if versing a hero such as Thunderbringer or Bombardier in the middle lane. Mana Battery becomes very useful due to them constantly spamming spells, and Minor Totems provide bonus attributes, as well as Runes of Blight provide regeneration.

Early Game

+

+ (

OR

)
Bottle and Power Supply are fairly obvious pickups. Bottle makes rune-whoring much more effective, and as Soulstealer has strong rune control, he should abuse it. Power Supply is one of the best items in this game, because it provides so much survivability and mana, as well as minor attribute boost.

Steamboots are the boot choice you will most likely go for in most of the games. They give you the +10 stats, which when permanently toggled has so good synergy with Bottle that it becomes extremely powerful. Post Haste is more situational choice, but it is definitely useful if you have the farm to get them fast. Mobility and map control in these boots are superior compared to anything else.

Mid Game

+ (

OR

)

Shrunken Head is your core item; Without it you are useless in teamfights as the enemies will stun you before you even get your ulti out. Portal Key / Assasin's Shroud are not 100% core, but you usually want to have one of them. Generally Portal Key is better, but for lower level pub-games, Shroud can be very deadly.

Note, Shroud's Stealth will not break before your Soul Burst is fulfully casted, meaning that if you cancel the animation, you will still be invis.

PK
-Cheaper
-Faster initiation
-Better for chasing
-More team oriented

Shroud
-Damage
-More damage while ulting
-Better for sologanking
-Better for escaping

There are occasions where you might not want to get an item:
Shroud - When enemies have revelation, such as Thunderbringer or Arachna, or heroes who can carry a Bound Eye with ease, such as Tundra or Devourer.
Portal Key - When enemies have global and/or long range spells, such as Bombardier, Thunderbringer, Vindicator, Andromeda, Aluna or Chipper. These heroes do not all directly counter PK, but they do cause some issues within the use of it.

A thing to note about building items is, that you don't have to finish an item. What I mean is, that you can buy Mighty Blade for some extra HP, and then buy Portal Key, finishing Shrunken Head after the PK.

Late Game/Luxury

My preference here is to get Whispering Helm --> Wingbow --> Symbol of Rage --> Savage Mace.

OR

Symbol of Rage; Arguably the best item for survivability after Shrunken Head, so get this if you need more survivability.
Frostwolf's Skull; The slow from this is extremely useful, so get this if you want to slow the enemies down.
Shieldbreaker; One of the best DPS items in the game, but that is pretty much it. If you already have enough survivability and you don't need the slow from FWS, get this as your attack modifier.
Wingbow; If you are getting raped by the enemy carry and he doesn't have Savage Mace, this is your savior. 60 AS and 62 Damage and armor+Evasion, thats very useful. Get this if you want to avoid enemy carries' attacks and want to deal more DPS.
Demonic Breastplate; Auras are always good for the team, especially this one as armor is very useful and often underrated. Get this if nobody else is getting it and you have other physical damage in the team.
Geometer's Bane; Not that good anymore as the attack modifiers won't transfer to illusions. However the disjoint and +MS can be useful but i highly suggest a Wingbow over this anyday.
Savage Mace; If the enemy carry has a Wingbow, this item is an obvious choice. But even if he doesn't, this item is extremely useful for pure DPS.
Riftshards; The extra damage and the critical strike are extremely powerful for DPS, get this item after couple other items to unleash the full potential.

Situational

Personally I build this item in most of my games. That is because this item not only gives you strong mana regeneration and movespeed with cheap cost, it also provides you a quaranteed kill on an enemy by ulting just after the cyclone on the enemy ends. On top of all that, it is great for escaping in combination with a Portal Key.

This item is great if you play versus a hero such as Doctor Repulsor who needs to be silenced. Keep in mind that the enemies can't activate Shrunken Head or any other item when affected by this item. Provides you with strong mana and some DPS on top of the extremely useful silence.

Sheepstick isn't bad on any hero. 3.5 Second disable can be devastating in teamfights or ganks, as well as the mana regeneration for farming. SS can farm so swiftly, that getting Sheepstick is very easy.

Nullstone might be necessary against strong single target spells, such as Rampage's ultimate or Succubus' ultimate. Against magical disables, a Shrunken Head is just enough.

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