Venomancer

Lesale Deathbringer the Venomancer is a ranged agility hero who is focused on dealing damage over time and slowing enemies down. He is not granted with a big amount of base attack and attribute gain, but he can bring enormous area damage with his poisonous abilities. Venomancer can unleash a Venomous Gale to enemies in a straight line, infecting them, damaging and slowing them over time. His attacks are hazardous thanks to his lethal Poison Sting, which adds a toxic effect to his normal attacks, poisoning opposing Heroes for a duration. Plague Ward, his next ability, lets him summon a sentient ward to a targeted point, which attacks enemies or structures. While weak on first use its power grows in numbers, which means the more the wards are placed the deadlier they become. This gives him good versatility, providing vision, pushing power, and a helpful block, preventing enemies from running away when trapped in a sticky situation. Venomancer's most dangerous ability is Poison Nova, though it isn't lethal and won't kill an enemy, the damage it inflicts is tremendous, the duration is very long, and it affects an area around him. It is mostly used to initiate battles, since Poison Nova isn't a killing type spell. When used altogether, the Venomancer is a powerful killing machine, like a virus, slowly killing enemies with venom and poisons. Despite being considered by most players as a support, because of his slowing capabilities, extra ward vision, and being item independent, this doesn't hinder his power to gank and kill enemies, especially in the earliest parts of the game, and with enough kills, farm, and domination, Venomancer can transition into a semi-carry, with formidable venomous power and deadly specialties.

Tips

 * As an Agility caster, Venomancer suffers from severe mana problems. It is recommended to focus on increasing the size of your mana pool and purchasing mana regen items when possible. Due to the high mana cost of Poison Nova, you will need to carefully manage your mana so that you can cast it in a teamfight.
 * Venomous Gale is one of the best ranged slows at level 1. If you have a team that has reliable damage output, putting Venomous Gale on a target can ensure a First Blood.
 * Try to keep Venomous Gale off cooldown unless it is absolutely needed. Its cooldown is quite long, and you may need to use its slow on enemy heroes when an unexpected situation arises.
 * Poison Sting is not a Unique Attack Modifier, and as such it can be combined with other slow modifiers such as Orb of Venom to give your attacks increased slowing power.
 * Be careful when trying to apply Poison Sting to enemy heroes with your attacks. Venomancer's attack range is quite short, so it is easy to accidentally put yourself out of position.
 * When pushing creep waves or killing neutral camps, attack each creep once at the beginning to apply the Poison Sting debuff to all of them. This will drastically increase the amount of damage you can do to them, as they will all be taking damage over time while you focus them down one at a time.
 * Plague Wards deal weak damage in sparse numbers, but their power becomes significant when massed.
 * Early game, if you use Plague Wards during your laning phase, try to deny them or they will provide a gold bounty for enemy heroes.
 * Use Plague Wards constantly in order to provide vision of your neighboring area, especially when across the river and inside enemy territory. You can also use them to scout out areas behind trees and up cliffs to ensure that enemies cannot initiate on you easily.
 * When chasing an enemy, constantly put Plague Wards ahead of them to maintain sight. They can also help slow the enemy by blocking their path.
 * You can place Plague Wards within juke paths to block the enemy team's movements if you are fighting in the jungle. This can be used to either stop the enemy from juking by closing off the path that they want to take, or to block them from pursuing you after passing through a narrow path.
 * Remember that you can control your Plague Wards as immoveable units. This can be useful if you want to change attack targets, stop a Plague Ward's auto attack or deny friendly creeps, and even the Aegis of the Immortal.
 * Unless you have teammates who can follow up, do not use Poison Nova out of spite if you are about to be killed, as the cooldown is very long and it will not result in any kills unless the enemy is affected by other damage-over-time debuffs.
 * Remember that Poison Nova can never bring an enemy below 1 HP by itself. Therefore, you should try to apply Venomous Gale or Poison Sting to your opponents immediately before or after casting Poison Nova, as both debuffs last as long as Poison Nova itself and can help guarantee that they do not survive the Poison Nova.
 * Positioning items like Force Staff, Blink Dagger or Shadow Blade are good items to build on Venomancer, as his frailty and lack of easily-used escape mechanisms are his Achilles' heel. Additionally, harder disables provided by items such as Eul's Scepter of Divinity and Orchid Malevolence can greatly increase his offensive potential.
 * Note that the Valve recommended items are not for playing a support style Venomancer. To play support, starting items should include Observer Wards or Courier (or both), early game should be Observer Wards/Sentry Wards and Boots of Speed, and core should be Phase Boots/Power Treads/Arcane Boots, and Mekansm. Everything else listed would be luxury.

Trivia

 * Venomancer's name, Lesale, may be a reference to "Le Sale", which is French for "The Dirty" or "The Nasty".
 * In Warcraft DotA, Venomancer's hero model was a hydralisk. Hydralisks are a type of alien combat unit in the RTS game Starcraft, which was also made by Blizzard. Hydralisks are a very common and well-known image in Blizzard games.