Lifestealer

N'aix the Lifestealer is a vicious melee Strength hero whose abilities give him the power to bring down durable heroes quickly, while sustaining his health by leeching the very life of his enemies.

The main role of the Lifestealer is to fulfill the job of a formidable carry, being able to restore his life thanks to his abilities. Feast is his passive ability and his signature, every attack he lands consumes the flesh and blood of his victim, dealing bonus physical damage while regenerating his own health. With Feast, he can munch down strong tanks. N'aix can send himself into a bloody Rage, increasing his attack speed and while granting a short period of spell immunity. Open Wounds tears the enemy, causing the prey's wounds to open, bleeding their life essence, allowing Lifestealer and his allies to feast down as well as greatly slowing them to a crawl. Rage and Open Wounds allows Lifestealer to brutally rip his victim apart, feasting on their health in the process. When in need, N'aix can use Infest to hide himself inside his allies or any non-hero unit, laying dormant, until he is ready to come out, devouring the flesh from the inside, killing the non-hero unit, bursting out the chunks of flesh and bones of his unfortunate host, damaging foes around him and ambushing them with carnivorous savagery.

The Lifestealer is a monstrous beast of gluttony and greed, bent on stealing the lives of every living creature he encounters, violently killing them to sate the Lifestealer's terrifying thirst and hunger.

Tips

 * There is a term called the N'aix bomb among players which includes a N'aix player infesting a high mobility hero such as Storm Spirit, Puck, Queen of Pain or Magnus to initiate upon enemies by having these heroes enter the fray and unleashing all of their own spells in quick succession before N'aix himself comes out of them and dealing the nuke damage of Infest while following it up with his DPS using Rage.
 * Heart of Tarrasque is a good item pickup as it allows Lifestealer to keep Armlet of Mordiggian activated indefinitely, and gives him greater durability and damage.
 * It is possible to solo Roshan if you are a higher leveled Lifestealer, although it takes a very long time. To do this, you keep attacking Roshan until you reach low health, then go to the nearby Radiant Jungle, and use your abilities to heal, then go back to Roshan and repeat the process. If you plan on doing this, be careful of enemy wards anywhere nearby, as if you get ganked by the enemy team you have a low chance of surviving.
 * Phase Boots allows the Lifestealer to close distance on his targets early on in order to get within Open Wounds' short range, and is ideal for ganking from the jungle. The lack of Attack Speed from not purchasing Power Treads is negated by allowing the player to level more levels of Rage, increasing both survivability and damage.
 * A Drum of Endurance works well when combined with Phase Boots as the combined movement speed from both allows players to catch up with faster enemy heroes. The attributes also help boost Lifestealer's lacking mana pool, and allow him to gank more often through frequent use of Open Wounds.
 * Daedalus lets Lifestealer crit his feast damage. Against high health heroes, such as Pudge and Sven, Lifestealer can deal huge crits to his enemies and heal himself for immense amounts of health.
 * Assimilate doesn't cancel toggled auras. It is possible to assimilate a friendly Pudge with Rot active, or a friendly Witch Doctor with Voodoo Restoration active, and the aura will stay active without costing any health or mana.

Gameplay
 Strategy & Tips Counters & Matchups

Audio
 Responses Sounds

History
 Lore Old Abilities Changelogs

Trivia

 * Lifestealer's fun/alternate name in DotA was Gollum, a significant character in the Lord of the Rings book series.
 * The references to Gollum are kept up in Dota2:
 * Just like written in Lifestealer's lore, Lifestealer is no longer the former self he was, but rather a possessed body. Gollum has a similar story. Once being a Hobbit, his soul got corrupted by the ring, turning into the Gollum he is now.
 * Both, Lifestealer and Gollum sometimes speak from themselves in plural form ("we", instead of "I"). They also talk to or about a "master".
 * His rivalry line towards Lifest rival 15.mp3 "Tidehunter…I love a bit of raw fish now and again." refers to Gollum's hate towards stewing - or the preparing in general - of fish. Gollum prefers his fish raw and "wriggling".