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

 * It's usually better to wait a few levels (9-10) before getting your ult. Normally you don't have the mana pool to support all your spells until around then anyway.
 * Plague Wards deal weak damage in sparse numbers, but their power becomes significant when massed.
 * There is a temptation upon being killed to use Poison Nova out of spite. Resist this urge; as it is intended for initiation purposes and its cooldown, unless you have a Scepter at the ability's 3rd level, is not negligible.
 * Disabling or positioning items like Eul's Scepter of Divinity, Orchid Malevolence, Force Staff, Blink Dagger or Shadow Blade are very wise to build on Venomancer, as his frailty and lack of easily-used escape mechanisms are his Achilles' heel.
 * Use Plague Wards constantly in order to provide vision of your neighboring area, especially when across the river and inside enemy territory.
 * 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.
 * 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.
 * Keep Venomous Gale off cooldown during pushes, as its cooldown is quite long and you may need it at any time.
 * When chasing an enemy, constantly put Plague Wards ahead of them to maintain sight.
 * 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.