Nyx Assassin

Nyx Assassin is a melee Agility Hero who is a dedicated ganker until the end. Rather than focusing on enhancing his physical attacks like most Agility carry Heroes, Nyx Assassin specializes in killing lone and fragile victims with his high burst damage and various disables. Unfarmed carries, supports and many Intelligence spellcasting heroes with a low healthpool are easy prey for Nyx; he can open with a devastating backstab attack, followed by a painful stun and mana burn to deal even more damage and prevent retaliation. The Nyx Assassin also has a fantastic defense mechanism that not only blocks damage for a small amount of time, but reflects it back onto the enemy with a stun effect to boot. With his short cooldowns, the Nyx Assassin can continually dispatch key enemy targets, removing their ability and will to fight. Nyx Assassin is recommended for New to Intermediate players as he needs to prioritize and position himself to use his spells to their full effect.

Tips

 * Impale's effective range is longer than its casting range. It can be necessary to target the spell on the ground to hit targets just out of normal reach.
 * As Vendetta's invisibility dispels only when your attack connects the enemy, it is nearly always best to deal your backstab damage before your Impale and Mana Burn follow-up.
 * Use Spiked Carapace only just before your Impale's stun times out, so as to reduce the enemy's chances of noticing the effect and holding back their counterattacks until the Carapace expires.
 * If you know that you are targeted for a delayed or long-range nuke (such as Sniper's Assassinate or Invoker's Sun Strike), it can be a good idea to purposefully time your Spiked Carapace to reflect the incoming damage. This will aid your team by disabling or even killing the caster. Spiked Carapace makes Nyx a good counter for Keeper of the Light through the early-mid game.
 * Vendetta's fade time into invisibility is instant, and can be used to dodge many spells provided the enemy does not possess True Sight.
 * It can sometimes be necessary to not use Vendetta to open ganks or fights, leaving the spell to chase down a fleeing enemy with the high speed boost. Vendetta is also a great escape mechanism if need be.

Trivia

 * Nyx Assassin's original name was Anub'arak, and he was titled "Nerubian Assassin". Both were changed in the transition to Dota 2 due to copyright reasons.
 * Anub'arak was a main character in the campaign of Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. He was the king of the Nerubians, a race of undead spider people.
 * Nyx Assassin's fun name in DotA was Anoob'arak.
 * Nyx Assassin reveres Nyx as his Goddess (and has quotes such as "Nyx bestows her grace"), and Nyx was the Greek Goddess of the night (which might be explained by Nyx Assassin's invisibility).
 * Nyx was the daughter of Aether, whose name translates into Sanskrit as "Akasha", Queen of Pain's name.