0-8 W-L with soulstealer. Ground me with your tips please

[mrflagg]

Yea, that is my win/lose statistic. I can not find a good way to play the hero, the guides say almost the same. I usually go mid solo with him and level the 1st skill, but it does not seem to work. I've got no idea if I am the one who sucks too much or the hero is pretty underpowered.

[[E]Tripwyr]

Soulstealer is an extremely skill-intensive hero to play. I would recommend avoiding him until you've acquired a substantial amount more experience and understanding of the game.

With that being said, Soulstealer is an (in the current metagame) underpowered solo mid hero. Its not that he's a bad hero, his skillset just doesn't work well in the current metagame. The best way to play him is to go mid with some stat items, farm a bottle before 2 minutes, and attempt to maintain rune control. Do not gank, farm and try to get your core of Boots (Steam or Post Haste, depending on the game), Portal Key and Shrunken Head. Anytime the opposing mid hero leaves the lane, push hard and pressure his tower. If the enemy leaves the lane after ~level 5, you should be able to deal significant (50% or more) damage to his tower.

The above guide makes fairly obvious the reasons he is a weak hero, especially in soloMM. The current metagame strongly favors heroes who can gank effectively, which Soulstealer is not very good at. Additionally, he requires significant amounts of farm and can easily be shut down by ganks. Overall, the hero is a strong and fun hero, but is exceptionally hard to play well. As a result, I would recommend making him one of the last heroes you learn.

[mrflagg]

You are right, I usually do play solo mm, normal mode. Thank you for your response.

[[SK5]Pwn]

Mentioning the meta game to a new player is silly.

Ss is more than strong enough to be viable in standard mm play. He just requires a strong understanding of the basics and a pretty high level of skill all around. Wouldn't recommend him to new players.

[Raina_]

His ult got a buff. :P
Tl;dr if you are not very confident in last hit/deny, practice other heroes first.

[WorstAtHon]

i suggest looking at replays of good players if u wanna gain an understanding of how to play a hero.
anyway, i play ss a lot. the most important things to remember when playing ss are: dont die and farm a lot. in 1300-1700 games ppl will usually allow you to farm 600 gpm, just hit up the woods when u get level 4 demon hands.

[GeneralNoob9]

Soulstealer relies on early last hits.

Focus on last hitting early rather than harassing. I mean if the enemy mid is a melee then you'll just have to keep punishing him until he backs off and then you keep last hitting. Don't play aggressively until level 3-4 where you have souls and level 2 nuke. Skill build : 2-1-1-2-1-2-1-2 - Ult - negative debuff - ult - max negative armor

Lots of starting builds for him.

I go 2 duckboots 1 hp pot 3 runes 2 totems

If you can't land yoru hands then don't play this hero. He farms up VERY fast but is vital to ganks. He's not an easy hero, and if you're solo q'ing its even worse.

Your ult is KILLER with 30 souls. I hear it got buffed recently so even more to your favor.

In pubs go shroud and just go stand next to people and watch faces roll, you can get a pk though too. PK is actually better but w/e

just build him like any ranged agi carry, build what you need.

[[EHOP]herro`kiti]

Mentioning the meta game to a new player is silly.

Ss is more than strong enough to be viable in standard mm play. He just requires a strong understanding of the basics and a pretty high level of skill all around. Wouldn't recommend him to new players.

Um, it does make sense actually, even low level players like easy kills on squishy heroes who lack escape...

[mrflagg]

thank you guys, now from 0-8 i am 2-8 with w/l . First time I went pk then shrunken head, it was ok, 2nd time i went assassin's shroud and then shrunken head, and bought a wingbow too. The assa shroud worked better, though they rarely bought invi wards; the 2nd time I reached 390 gpm which is pretty nice i guess. Both times i went bot solo and there was a jungler legionnaire around.

[mrflagg]

Oh yes, and 1 more thing, going bot seemed better, because noone asked me to gank, therefore i could focus on my farm and denies and not on raging teammates.

[[E]Tripwyr]

thank you guys, now from 0-8 i am 2-8 with w/l . First time I went pk then shrunken head, it was ok, 2nd time i went assassin's shroud and then shrunken head, and bought a wingbow too. The assa shroud worked better, though they rarely bought invi wards; the 2nd time I reached 390 gpm which is pretty nice i guess. Both times i went bot solo and there was a jungler legionnaire around.

Assassin's Shroud is much stronger than PK (purely from an ult perspective) unless they counter the Shroud with wards/dust/gem. However, PK allows better positioning and helps you to chase down heroes since you don't have any snares/stuns. Early on I would suggest using Shroud, but when you start getting countered and/or want to work on positioning, go for a PK instead.

Oh yes, and 1 more thing, going bot seemed better, because noone asked me to gank, therefore i could focus on my farm and denies and not on raging teammates.

There are several problems with going bottom. First, you are competing with 3 heroes for last hits instead of 1. Additionally, you're severely reducing your experience gain, which makes a huge difference once you get better at last hitting. In the bottom lane you'll notice that your last hits out-pace the gaining of Soulsteal skill points. You're also at greater risk of getting killed, because not only are there 2 heroes against you, mid is likely to come gank you as well. In mid, you only have to worry about the mid hero because sidelanes rarely come gank mid at <1700 levels.

[mrflagg]

In mid, you only have to worry about the mid hero because sidelanes rarely come gank mid at <1700 levels.

Unfortunately you have to worry in case of soulstealer, even in low brackets. My opinion is that you probably greatly reduce the effectiveness of 2 heroes while you are on bot, because you can almost spam those w-e spells, and you even get a big amount of souls and gold too, and if your lane gets pushed too far, you might be lucky enough to have a decent jungler who can stack neutrals and pull a wave.

[[SK5]Pwn]

Um, it does make sense actually, even low level players like easy kills on squishy heroes who lack escape...

Ss being squishy has nothing whatsoever to do with the meta game. Also low level players don't even pick teams that fit the current meta nor do they use it well. Remember all the 1600s failing tri lanes back in that meta?

[[xBM]Ackwell1]

Very often bad people will fail to gank ss who has a good lvl lead, like he should. They tend to over extend and doesnt realize how easily soul stealer drops them. Usually your hands are just enough to kill the ganker and if you get a decent ult off, some hands to both you can most likely kill them both.

Like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXDoR4v7GJ4 or this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KirgWlPOLqc

Just man up and use everything, because most likely if you dont you will die w/o getting anything.

E: The hero isnt underpowered and I cant say do you suck or not. The hero is pretty difficult, I can rape some 1600s with it but barely anything in my own bracket. That says pretty much about him.

[[E]Clytemnestra]

Very often bad people will fail to gank ss who has a good lvl lead, like he should. They tend to over extend and doesnt realize how easily soul stealer drops them. Usually your hands are just enough to kill the ganker and if you get a decent ult off, some hands to both you can most likely kill them both.

Like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXDoR4v7GJ4 or this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KirgWlPOLqc

Just man up and use everything, because most likely if you dont you will die w/o getting anything.

E: The hero isnt underpowered and I cant say do you suck or not. The hero is pretty difficult, I can rape some 1600s with it but barely anything in my own bracket. That says pretty much about him.

haha that made me want to play ss even more.i mean i got ganked only by 1 bonus hero and killed both mid and that hero.but 4?seriously?i can't stop laughing.
dunno how can you make 0-8 if you were mid.sidelane it explains a lot as he has no stun,he is squishy,exposed,and can be killed by a killer lane or mid gank.but mid should have level advantage and his hands+ult rape anything underleveled,with 700~ hp or with no magic armor.i tend do be ok getting killed after i combo on their face as long as my team takes the kills and pushes after since i know that is a won teamfight.i may or may not kill someone,but at least i drop them very low,especially now after the ult change.

[Pwnograhpy]

Buy lots of stats to help you last hit. Solo mid and farm. If you can have wards up and pay attention to runes and the map. If you're still having trouble last hitting by lv2 or lv3. Use hands to get souls, you can have a lane snowball fest as last hitting gets easier when you have souls. Only gank if you're ABSOLUTELY certain you'll get a kill. This is usually through a haste or invis rune. Even with an invis rune I'd just go back to mid ferry a tp if u you don't have one and teleport to a lane your team has a bunch of stuns laning in and use the invis to get the surprise kills since if they had a ward up when you use the invis rune you'll easily waste time. Any other rune you receive is much more effective at helping you out farm and out level mid. An earlier mentioned thought is that if the enemy mid leaves to gank punish him by taking down the tower and making sure your allies back off. Wards help a lot with this so that you don't get surprise pebbles invis/haste rune'd while you're pushing when you thought he'd gank bottom or something.

[mrflagg]

Like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uXDoR4v7GJ4

Soloing mid works nicely but they start to insult me starting at lvl 6 for the reason that I don't gank. Today I got angry and told them to win their lane by themselves and continued farming, and won :P

[[MOE]Zloka]

First of, Soulstealer is NOT a hero you should instapick in matchmaking, this is because he has a fair amount of hardcounters that also happen to be popular pubstomp heroes (DW and pebbles due to their high AA dmg, Monkey king because of his burst to mention a few). If no real heavy burst/high early game autoattack dmg hero has been picked you can pick Soulstealer for middle. The standard cookiecutter build is, as mentioned, RotB, 2x duckboots, 2 minor totems, 1hp pot. The first few levels you should play somewhat passively, if you're good at blocking creeps and get the high ground in the middle lane you should be able to score a few last hits. Always level your W at level one, but then max Q over W. If you're struggling in terms of last hits at level 1 and 2, start last hitting with Demon Hands to boost your autoattack damage, a skilled opponent will (ab)use their superior autoattack damage as much as possible and deny alot. If you're Legion, keep in mind that the small camp can be stacked at ~XX:55 and should provide you some easy souls (snotters<3).

Playing against common mid heroes, Pollywog Priest, Torturer, Pyro etc. involved NOT letting them get up to you. If you let them walk up to you, disallowing yourself of using at least 2 demon hands, they will kill you. To prevent this from happening either A; move back, or B; Use your mid range demon hand and if they keep going, use the low range and simply man up. This applies to pretty much any hero throughout the laning phase.

Runes: Despite what some may say runes, especially the 02:00 and 04:00 runes, are incredibly important for middle. Even an illusion rune will provide you with a bottle refill and +66% damage done, making it a lot easier to score last hits and boost your own damage with soulsteal. Pre level 5 you might wanna ask your teammates (preferably your jungler, if you happen to have one) to camp one rune while you secure the other, at lvl 5/7, simply nuke the creepwave with demon hands at roughly 5-10 secs before the next rune spawns. This gives your opponent two options, either A; they give up the runerace and you get a guaranteed rune or B; they follow you, and will lose out ALOT of experience due to the fact that your creepwave will die to their tower while they are gone. Either way, you made the best out of the situation.

As for itembuilds, I'd say this is 95% preferance/situational, there are many different ways of building a hero and every itembuild could be good/bad depending on the situation/your opponents picks. The standard boots are steamboots, Post Haste work well with Soulstealer and allows him to farm a lot, but mostly you pick them up because you CAN and not because you HAVE TO, in other words when you've had a GREAT early game. PK is kind of a must if you want to land a good ultimate. However, without any good initiator on your team (read: Magmus, Legionnare, Tempest(?), Keeper, Behemoth, Hammerstorm, you name it), skilled opponents will spread out and you wont be as effective as you had hoped to be. If the case is that you don't have any good initiator, you could go a shroud (this is maybe more so in the lower brackets, 1500-1600, because of the lack of players wating to support/buy revelation). Personally I wouldn't recommend Shroud anymore after the "rape area" with the ulti was removed, imo. you could go a Nullstone instead, as this will give you great stats, mana regeneration to keep you from running oom, and obviously the nullstone effect which does wonders against many popular pubheroes (Devourer, Monkey King, Parasite, Pebbles/DW to an extent).

There's more, such as swapping steamboots to agility whenever you use a bottle charge to gain the maximum effect out of it, but honestly I cba typing anymore . Feel free to ask anything either in PM, here or ingame even if you have anymore questions.

This post probably contains a shitton of grammatical errors, but i aint even mad.

EDIT: a pretty important note that I left out, is that you DO NOT gank the sidelanes SS unless you're already outfarming your opponents or you get a golden opportunity to do so (haste, invis...) despite what your team says. I'm assuming you're playing in the lower brackets, and even if you go 20-0 and carry your team on your shoulders there will always be the whiners who just cant get over that you stole a kill from them 35 mins ago, leaving middle to gank before you're ready to do so will result in you losing the lane 100%.

[[VVC]Julmapena]

I think that the picking phase is pretty important. There are lots of heroes which just shits on soulstealer. Creep blocking is important also in the beginning, it will make easier to deny creeps.

[[SBT]``DucK``]

Don`t know if someone allready said this cus there are walls of texts.
But one thing that made me change my playstyle with ss was when i realised that your middle demon hand is the same range as your auto attack. So as soon u get in range for auto attack u get 2 free demon hands on them, and if the enemy isnt carefull, then u can easily get them very low with a bit of tactic.