An intro guide to the Nyx Assassin | Dota 2 Guides

Nyx Assassin is a nuker/disabler AGI Dire hero. The Nyx Assassin excels in taking down single threats, especially INT heroes caught off position. In a teamfight, his role is to stun/initialize and help to nuke most fragile heroes. Nyx Assassin is usually played mid, where he can reach level 6 fast and start ganking opponents while benefiting from runes/Bottle around the map. Nyx Assassin is also one of few heroes in the game that can play with almost no farm at all, having as prerequisite only a pair of Arcane Boots. This allows you to try a lot of different builds on him and adapt him to your play style.

Nyx Assassin Skills

 

Impale

 “Rock spikes burst from the earth along a straight path. Enemy units are hurled into the air, then are stunned and take damage when they fall.”

Impale stuns and damage every foe in a straight line from Nyx Assassin to the direction where the skill is pointed. Remember that, unlike Lion's stun, this skill doesn't need a target but works just by clicking on the terrain. This has pro and cons: if it is true that you can hit invisible foes if you know they exact position (a Templar Assassin hid in a spot and you have no sentries/dust to spot her), it is also true that you can miss a stun by selecting the wrong direction; most clever players will also try to suddenly change direction when chased by the Nyx increasing the chance to fail the stun. A failed Impale mostly lead to a failed kill, your death or the fate of a teamfight. Mastering this skill is the second hardest point in learning to play a good Nyx Assassin.

 

Mana Burn 

"Destroys the target hero's mana equal to a multiplier of its Intelligence, and deals damage equal to the mana burned."

Mana Burn is what makes the Nyx a very good killer of INT nukers/supports. This skills scales well in every stage of the game and can literally own intelligence-hungry heroes like Outworld Devourer. It is also a good skill to harass heroes with small mana pools such as Juggernaut/Wraith King who still need skills to be effective.

 

Spiked Carapace 

"When activated, Spiked Carapace reflects and negates damage dealt (max once from each source), as well as stunning the source of the damage."

This skill is tipically underrated by whoever doesn't play Nyx. Until they suicide by receiving back they own most powerful nuke. Let's see how it works in detail: for 2.25 seconds, every enemy hero who deals physical or magical damage for the first time after this skill is activated, will receive the damage back + will be stunned for X seconds based on skill level. This means that if an enemy hero hits you 3 times in the 2.25 skill duration, his first hit will reflect to him but not the other 2 hits. When taken to level 4 however, 2.4s stun will be enought to avoid anthing else that could damage you. If playing against a lot of carries/nuker, levelling this skill fast is very important for its awesome cooldown reduction and stun time increase. A 0.4 stun every 28s might not be really effective, but a 2.4s stun (+ 100% reflected damage) used 2 times can really make the difference in a teamfight

Using this skill at the right time is by far the most important thing a Nyx Assassin has to learn. You can avoid heavy nukes and stuns not only nullifing the damage, but also reflecting it back to the source. Or even better, you can stun every enemy hero in a teamfight if you suddenly blink into them and start to harass. The easiest nukes you can avoid with this skill are Sniper's and Spirit Breaker's ultimates, and combined with your other skills will let you kill both of them in 1vs1 every time; other very easy nukes to avoid are Windranger's Powershot, Lina's skills, channeled skills (Witch Doctor and Sand King ultis). This skill is also very useful to survive a gank, especially by countering right-click heroes at skill level 3/4.

 

Vendetta

 "Allows Nyx Assassin to become invisible and gain a speed bonus. If  Nyx Assassin attacks to break the invisibility, massive bonus damage is dealt with the attack."

Vendetta is what makes Nyx Assassin a great Assassin. At level 1 you will have only 20s to find a target, so your best bet is to approach an enemy hero, use the skill while not in sight of heroes/creeps (hopefully you are in a position not warded by the enemy team) and then go for him. At level 3 your skill duration and cooldown are the same, so you can basically move always invisible and with +20% speed bonus.

Excellent. A great way to use this skill is to wait the best moment to attack, and position yourself on a line where your target and other enemy heroes are standing: a right Impale after Vendetta is the key to secure the kill, as with Vendetta/Impale nukes + Mana Burn/Dagon your target should be doomed.

Nyx Assassin Gameplay

When to pick Nyx Assassin?

Nyx Assassin should be a situation pick, even if he can counter a lot of heroes if played the right way. Generally Nyx Assassin does great against heavy nukers teams and early/mid game heroes. In late game his damage output will only get worse and won't be able to kill solo hard carries. Nyx Assassin does a great job versus lone wolves like Nature's Prophet, Dark Seer and basically every jungle hero while they are still farming. If the enemy team has 2 supports and a jungler hero, Nyx Assassin is your best bet. If they have durable carries and heroes such Bounty Hunter and Slardar, who can reveal you position, it's better to pick something else than Nyx Assassin.

Laning phase

The best way to play Nyx Assassin is to place him mid where he shouldn't have problems staying alive (you have 2 stuns!) and where he can get money/exp fast enought to start ganking other lanes early. Get a set of Tango, a salve and nothing else, because you'll want to save for the fastest Bottle possible. A ward or two on the runes are a great help to prevent ganks and to Bottle every possible rune to refill your Bottle, which is going to be for all early/mid game your primary source of mana. If you are against a melee hero you shouldn't have problems last hitting/denying creeps and it should be your only objective while farming to level 6. Rightclicks on your opponent aren't a bad idea if you can, but don't rely on them to go for an early kill. You miss damage, durability and equip to do so. It's very important to focus on farming and getting exp since you'll need the soon as possible a pair of Arcane Boots, which paired with the Bottle will avoid mana problems.

Pubs build: the assassin of lone heroes

Your basic equipment progression should be something like:

• Starting items (Tango set + Healing Salve) -> Bottle -> Boots of Speed -> Arcane Boots -> Null Talisman -> Rod of Atos -> Dagon -> Blink Dagger
• If you keep hunting for solo preys you'll start get money fast and with a Dagon you'll be able to kill almost anything if gained fast. I also advise you to always carry with you at least 1 Town Portal Scroll and some dust if you are over heroes like Nature's Prophet, Templar Assassin, etc.
• Dagon is a situational item for Nyx Assassin, but since you'll be facing at least 1/2 supports or squishy heroes, it helps to kill them fast.
• Blink Dagger is very important, and since 6.80 (no more mana activation cost) you can spam it around to save yourself from bad sitations and to chase enemy heroes that are still alive after your gank.
• Usually if after a Blink you still don't kill your target, forget it and TP/stealth away because someone will already be looking for you.

Gank/teamfight/support build (reccomanded build)

Your basic equipment progression should be something like:
Starting items (Tango set + Healing Salve) -> Bottle -> Boots of Speed -> Arcane Boots -> Blink Dagger -> Urn of Shadows -> Necronomicon

As before, now with Necronomicon. Level 3 Necronomicon gives one of your puppies True Sight as well as other cool abilities like Mana Burn or pure damage upon death. The Urn of Shadows is a really cheap item and if you keep ganking/teamfight it will never be out of charges. The heal is 400, and if used on enemy heroes they'll take 150 damage over time. Use it as you leave invisibility to start its cooldown and use it again after 7 seconds and you'll have a total of 300 dot. Not as good as Dagon, but cheaper for sure.

Blink Dagger is usually best used to initialize a teamfight (instead that using Vendetta). Blink in a good position to land a good Impale, follow up with Spiked Carapace and Mana Burn, and then use Vendetta to secure a kill or escape. You should also be able to use again Mana Burn and Spiked Carapace in the same teamfight if they are level 3/4.

A few last words: I really encourage you to try different builds with Nyx, since he really needs only Arcane Boots to be effective. You want him a better AGI hero, while being still useful in teamfight? Try Ethereal Blade. Then try using Heaven's Halberd, for a similar result but with a tankier item build. Are you going to do a lot of teamfight? Try to trick your opponents with a Blade Mail: its animation is the same as the Spiked Carapace skill, so they will try to avoid attacking you for the duration of the  Blade Mail, thinking it's your Spiked Carapace, then when it's off and they feel sure, pop out Spiked Carapace! Are you fighting a lot of INT heroes? Take a Soul Ring and Mana Burn them to death!