Nyx Assassin

Nyx Assassin is a melee Agility Hero who is a dedicated ganker until the end. Rather than focusing on enhancing his physical attacks like most Agility carry Heroes, Nyx Assassin specializes in killing lone and fragile victims with his high burst damage and various disables. Unfarmed carries, supports and many Intelligence spellcasting heroes with a low healthpool are easy prey for Nyx; he can open with a devastating backstab attack, followed by a painful stun and mana burn to deal even more damage and prevent retaliation. The Nyx Assassin also has a fantastic defense mechanism that not only blocks damage for a small amount of time, but reflects it back onto the enemy with a stun effect to boot. With his short cooldowns, the Nyx Assassin can continually dispatch key enemy targets, removing their ability and will to fight.

Tips

 * As Vendetta's invisibility dispels only when your attack connects the enemy, it is nearly always best to deal your backstab damage before your Impale and Mana Burn follow-up.
 * Use Spiked Carapace only just before your Impale's stun times out, so as to reduce the enemy's chances of noticing the effect and holding back their counterattacks until the Carapace expires.
 * If you know that you are targeted for a delayed or long-range nuke (such as Sniper's Assassinate or Invoker's Sun Strike), it can be a good idea to purposefully time your Spiked Carapace to reflect the incoming damage. This will aid your team by disabling or even killing the caster. Spiked Carapace makes Nyx a good counter for Keeper of the Light through the early-mid game.
 * Vendetta's fade time into invisibility is instant, and can be used to dodge many spells provided the enemy does not possess True Sight.
 * It can sometimes be necessary to not use Vendetta to open ganks or fights, leaving the spell to chase down a fleeing enemy with the high speed boost. Vendetta is also a great escape mechanism if need be.
 * Spiked Carapace can also be used to stun escaping enemies, or enemies chasing your wounded ally, if they have caused you to take damage over time (such as Viper's Corrosive skin) or created an area that deals damage (such Enigma's midnight pulse)
 * Spiked Carapace is arguably one of the best defensive abilities in the game that when used properly can disrupt whole teams and save you from many deaths despite your low health pool. Sometimes it might be a good idea to max it before your Mana Burn as the increased stun duration will come in handy when combined with your Impale.
 * Due to its scaling Mana Burn becomes more powerful as the game progresses as it reduces the mana and damages its target based on their intelligence. High intelligence gaining heroes with low health pools such as Pugna, Enigma, Silencer, and Skywrath Mage make excellent targets later in the game.
 * When the ultimate is level 3, use it when the cooldown is at 1 seconds remaining, so you can attack the enemy and stun him, then fade again and attack it another time.
 * Nyx Assassin has the second highest base health regen in the game at 2.5, behind only Axe's 3. Keep this in mind in the early game when deciding whether or not to use precious regen items.
 * A Blink Dagger allows for better initiation, chasing and escaping. It also allows better positioning of impale; considering impale has the exact same stun duration as a level 3 Ravage, landing this skill on all 5 enemies can instantly change the course of a team fight.

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.
 * 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.