Nyx Assassin

Nyx Assassin is a melee agility hero who is feared as one of the most effective gankers and solo-killers in the game. With his powerful burst damage nukes, Nyx Assassin specializes in disabling and killing lone and fragile enemies with little to no warning. He possesses an area nuke and stun ability in Impale, allowing him to disable enemies in a straight line in front of him while dealing damage. His Mana Burn ability can destroy a significant fraction of a target hero's mana pool while dealing the same amount as damage, making him the bane of weak intelligence heroes with lots of mana but very little health. Should the enemy attempt to attack him, Nyx Assassin can dissuade them with Spiked Carapace, stunning any heroes that attack him while reflecting their damage back at them. His ultimate, Vendetta, turns Nyx invisible, allowing him to deal tremendous physical damage to the next target that he strikes out of invisibility. Stalking from the shadows, Nyx Assassin can strike without warning and lay low his foes before they realize that their death is upon them.

Recommended items
Starting items:
 * and provide Nyx Assassin with basic attributes, particularly to his intelligence to boost his mana pool so that he is able to cast his spells more easily. Both components can build directly into a Null Talisman.
 * allows Nyx Assassin to replenish his mana pool in-lane, crucial since most of his spells will consume almost half his base mana pool with a single cast. Having the mana to continue casting gives Nyx Assassin more chances to use his disables to score kills.
 * and give Nyx Assassin basic health sustain, allowing him to continue laning despite enemy harass.

Early game:
 * allows Nyx Assassin to chase or flee enemies more easily, and is important for getting within range to cast on a gank target.
 * provides a good spread of attributes, particularly boosting Nyx Assassin's intelligence to give him more mana. It can be upgraded directly into a if needed.
 * is important to get early on Nyx Assassin, as he can easily get charges from successful ganks. It provides strength for more HP, as well as mana regen for sustaining his mana pool. The charges can be used to restore any HP lost during a gank, or can be used to add more damage to a future gank to increase the odds of success.

Core items:
 * are crucial to obtain in order to allow Nyx Assassin to roam for ganks. It increases the size of Nyx Assassin's mana pool, allowing him to more easily cast his full combo of spells, and boosts his movement speed slightly to provide extra mobility. Most importantly, the active allows Nyx Assassin to replenish his own mana pool in order to ensure that he is able to continue roaming without needing to return to base as often.
 * greatly boosts Nyx Assassin's burst alpha, giving him much more kill potential. The item boosts his intelligence, allowing him to more easily cast his spells, while the active can be added on top of Impale and to deal tremendous burst damage to a single target to secure a kill.
 * is important to have on all heroes at all times. Nyx Assassin's ability to initiate and kill using means that global positioning is key for allowing him to capitalize on any opportunities to secure kills.

Situational items:
 * greatly increases Nyx Assassin's mobility, allowing him to jump on top of enemies and initiate without relying on Vendetta. In particular, being able to quickly re-position to cast Impale can allow Nyx Assassin to stun multiple enemy heroes at the start of a fight, and in a pinch can be used to prevent enemy initiating nukes from putting it on cooldown.
 * is a handy utility item that grants Nyx Assassin many strong bonuses. It provides more intelligence for increasing the size of his mana pool, as well as HP regen for sustaining his health pool. The active greatly improves Nyx Assassin's mobility, allowing him to re-position for casting his spells, or chasing and escaping more easily. In a pinch, it can also be used as a cheap way to break an enemy Linken's Sphere prior to landing other disables and nukes, and can even be used to re-position Nyx Assassin during.
 * gives Nyx Assassin an instant ranged hard disable, useful in many situations. As well, it gives him stats across the board, particularly improving his intelligence for more mana and providing powerful scaling mana regen to allow him to roam independently.
 * is a useful stat booster that is easy to build. It gives Nyx Assassin all-around attributes, improving his HP, attack damage and mana. The aura can be very useful, as it boosts Nyx Assassin's movement speed, allowing him to chase down enemies more quickly.
 * is a strong nuke booster that improves Nyx Assassin's ability to burst down enemies. As his primary attribute is agility, the bonus agility will increase the damage that Ether Blast deals, which will also greatly slow its target's movement speed while weakening their magic resistance, leaving them wide open for Impale, Mana Burn and Dagon.
 * greatly improves Nyx Assassin's survivability, and allows him to engage and gank enemies through single-target disables. The Spellblock allows Nyx Assassin to ignore any targeted disables that enemies may try to hit him with, allowing him to continue pursuit and kill the enemy.
 * can be useful to purchase on Nyx Assassin, as he is a very heavy roamer who can place wards before or after ganks to spot out enemy movement to strike again.
 * is a strong laning item, as it provides a small boost to HP regeneration, augmenting his innate base HP regen to greatly increase his survivability in the off-lane. It can also be consumed for instant mana replenishment to be able to cast one more disable or nuke to secure a kill.
 * can greatly increase Nyx Assassin's resistance against harass damage when off-laning. Along with his innate HP regen, the damage block can keep his HP full and able to continue gaining gold and experience.
 * is a very strong self-sustain item that allows Nyx Assassin to replenish his HP and mana, increasing his autonomy. As he constantly roams, Nyx is able to easily pick up runes to refill his Bottle, and utilize the runes during ganks as needed.
 * provides Nyx Assassin with an assortment of attributes, as well as increasing his armor and providing some mana regen. It is a good cheap stat-booster that helps to sustain his mana pool.
 * is an expensive investment, but greatly increases Nyx Assassin's ability to move around and secure kills for his team. The increased movement speed makes it easier to scout and roam for kills, particularly when further boosted by Vendetta, and the global teleport allows him to show up to get kills whenever opportunities present themselves. As well, it provides a way to easily return to base to retrieve items and replenish HP and mana, or quickly return to the field after respawning.
 * is an unorthodox utility item to build on Nyx Assassin, but can be useful in certain situations. The ability to summon minions to assist him during ganks can increase the odds of getting a kill, and upgrading to level 3 Necronomicon provides True Sight that can debilitate an enemy's chances of using invisibility spells to escape. It also provides teamfight contribution, adding damage output on top of Nyx Assassin's disables and nukes.
 * is a strong casting item that boosts Nyx Assassin's ability to roam and gank. The increased intelligence and mana regen help to sustain his spell casting, ensuring that he doesn't have to return to base to replenish mana, and the increased movement speed gives him more mobility for hunting down enemies. The cyclone can be used to dispel debuffs from Nyx Assassin while providing temporary invulnerability, or can be cast on an enemy as a further disable.
 * does not give Nyx Assassin many strong attribute benefits, but can be a strong utility item nonetheless. While Nyx Assassin does not rely on his physical attacks to deal damage outside of Vendetta, he can use Diffusal Blade's purge to pin down enemies and remove their buffs during ganks, or to remove debuffs from himself if he is being chased by the enemy.
 * allows Nyx Assassin to further use the enemy's spells against them on top of Spiked Carapace. Echo Shell can give Nyx Assassin a 5 second window with which to reflect enemy spells rather than 2.25, and even though it doesn't block the damage done by these spells it can reflect debuffs and stuns rather than just the damage. It also provides armor, increasing Nyx Assassin's survivability, and HP and mana regen for self-sustain.
 * provides Nyx Assassin with a soft disable that can greatly improve his ability to gank and kill enemies. By silencing an enemy during a gank, Nyx Assassin can prevent them from casting retaliatory disables to get away; as well, his high burst damage can take advantage of the burn damage at the end of the silence to increase the odds of getting a kill during a gank. The item also provides increased intelligence and mana regen, further improving Nyx Assassin's ability to roam independently.
 * unlocks Burrow, which can give Nyx Assassin a strong tactical advantage against certain enemies. It also improves his overall attributes, aiding in his survivability and buffing up his mana pool.

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 is a character of Blizzard's franchise "Warcraft", who first appeared in the campaign of Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. He was the king of the Nerubians, a race of malevolent arachnids who were slain and raised as undead.
 * Typing "Nerubian" in the Heroes grid will highlight Nyx Assassin.
 * 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 is the Greek Goddess of the night (which might explain Nyx Assassin's invisibility).
 * Nyx is the daughter of Aether, whose name translates into Sanskrit as "Akasha", Queen of Pain's name.

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