Lifestealer/Guide

General

 * There is a term called the N'aix bomb among players which includes a N'aix player infesting a high mobility hero such as, , , , and invisible heroes like,  and  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.
 * 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.


 * increases his attack speed, thus chance based items like or  become safer choices, as higher attack speed it allows the items to proc more often and reliably.


 * Heal for a percentage of the damage they deal to that unit. Using on a Creep will also heal you.


 * can control Ancient Creeps at level 2.
 * Controlling a creep while Infested won't break the creep's cover.


 * Assimilate doesn't cancel toggled auras. It is possible to assimilate a friendly with  active, or a friendly  with  active, and the aura will stay active without costing any health or mana.

Items
Starting Items
 * Consumables like and  are good for covering your health issues until you can sustain yourself with lifesteal.
 * Stout Shield helps deal with harassment in lane, or block damage in jungle. Later can be upgraded to and a future.
 * makes last hitting easier.

Early Game
 * are needed to gank in combination with Open Wounds.
 * sustains you without consumables.

Core Items
 * is N'aix's core item due to his lifesteal. The player may have this item active throughout every fight, since his Feast ability negates the health loss.

Situational Items


 * increases Lifestealer's feast damage (lifesteal remains the same) and eventually critical hits (if you chose to go for or ) to hit incredibly hard against any targets.
 * compensates for N'aix's very low base armor, and also gives more attack speed for use with . It is also useful for pushing enemy towers.
 * / is situational, though it greatly improves the Lifestealer's attack capabilities, able to disable his prey long enough for him to tear down.
 * If the enemy carry has evasion or has a way of making you miss attacks such as  or , get a  as it makes these abilities partially useless.
 * lets N'aix close the gap between vulnerable heroes who like to keep their distance from fights such as or  before casting Open Wounds and Rage. This is useful if you find yourself unable to get in range for what would otherwise be free kills. Excellent for escape after using Infest.
 * is a good item pickup as it allows Lifestealer to keep activated indefinitely, and gives him greater durability and damage.
 * 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 is negated by allowing the player to level more levels of Rage, increasing both survivability and damage.
 * works well when combined with 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.
 * lets Lifestealer crit his feast damage. Against high health heroes, such as and, Lifestealer can deal huge crits to his enemies and heal himself for immense amounts of health.