Night Stalker/Guide

Offlane Core
Most commonly seen and a strong reason for that. All Night Stalker mostly needs are levels and while having items is a bonus, he does not scale particularly well. In the first four minute during the day, Night Stalker can focus on getting the experience he needs to get his levels. Once night begins, he becomes a tremendous ganker in the first night and focus of getting kills on the enemy's middle lane or offlaner.

Jungle/Roaming Support
Quite recently with the introduction of the Iron Talon item, a plethora of melee heroes can jungle relatively efficiently. Since he is rather weak in the day and without levels, he can jungle with the Iron Talon to get the levels he needs without sacrificing a lane to do so. At the first night, a jungle Night Stalker should be or at least near level 4 to have 2 points in Void, and one in both Crippling Fear and Hunter in the Night. And that is all he needs to gank effectively.

Ability Builds

 * Void should always be maxed first as the nuke damage and slow durations scales well.
 * If you are snowballing or you are getting a lot of experience points early, consider delaying skilling at a later level. By the time you are level 6, it should be (or at least near) night. So casting it at night does not do a whole lot other than reducing your enemies vision. The vision reduction for is not particularly useful in the early skirmishes and a skill point in Crippling Fear might be more useful than your ultimate.

General

 * Unlike other heroes in the game, Night Stalker has below-maximum sight range in the daytime, with only 1200 compared to most other heroes' 1800. However, he more than compensates for this by possessing 1800 night vision, a value only equaled by a few other heroes in the game and more than double the rest. This means that while Night Stalker is relatively easy to sneak up on and gank in daylight, he possesses powerful situational awareness at night, which can allow him to use his abilities to the utmost.
 * Because of his reliance on levels to be effective in the early game, as well as need for items to take advantage of his passive, Night Stalker is best played as a core hero.
 * In many situations, Night Stalker can be a very strong solo mid-laner. His excellent base damage and high base armor allow him to get last-hits and denies fairly reliably, and he benefits greatly from solo experience as he can take advantage of the levels once the first night hits. As well, being mid gives him the option of ganking either top or bottom without the need for a Town Portal Scroll, as he can reach either lane easily and quickly due to Hunter in the Night.
 * As he can be very strong with just early levels, Night Stalker can be a relatively strong off-laner. His high base strength and armor, along with respectable base damage allow him to survive relatively easily in the off-lane, and use his early levels to punish the enemy's safe-lane once the first night comes.


 * Void is a damage nuke that mini-stuns its target upon cast and greatly reduces their movement speed, preventing them from running away easily.
 * Void is the best ability to max early, as it will deal nuke damage to the target, mini-stun them, and then slow them down to allow Balanar to easy get within attack range with Hunter in the Night. Its low cooldown also means that the spell can be used twice or more in a gank or teamfight.
 * When laning, it is best to avoid leveling Void beyond level 1 even if you have skill points to spend. The ability deals 90 damage at level 1, enough to get last-hits at range, and leveling it up will increase its mana cost. Therefore, it is wise to save the skill point until the additional damage is needed in order to deal damage to enemy heroes.
 * Remember that Void will mini-stun its target, so Night Stalker can use it to cancel channeled abilities, particularly Town Portal Scroll. Against smart opponents though, it can be wise to wait to cast it until the enemy attempts to use their Town Portal Scroll, as using it to initiate a gank can give them a window to begin channeling an escape, since Night Stalker does not possess any other interrupting disables.
 * Void's low cooldown makes it a strong spell for breaking on an enemy. This can pave the way for allies to cast additional disables on the target, or for Crippling Fear from Night Stalker himself.


 * Crippling Fear allows Night Stalker to inflict an enemy with a powerful silence and miss chance, which increases greatly in potency at night.
 * Crippling Fear has relatively poor scaling, as it gives Balanar a 5 second silence with one point but only increases slightly in duration with subsequent levels. It is wise to only spend one skill point in the ability early on, but leave it at level 1 until both Void and Hunter in the Night are maxed out.
 * In fights with multiple enemies, it is important to cast Crippling Fear on the right target in order to prevent the enemy from retaliating. Try to target Crippling Fear on an important enemy caster in order to remove them from the fight for at least 5 seconds, as it can prevent them from hindering your team during a fight.
 * Depending on the situation, Crippling Fear can be a powerful spell to cast on the enemy's carry. While most carries will build in order to ignore disables, catching an enemy without a BKB with this spell will not only silence them, but will prevent them from easily retaliating with their attacks.
 * While it is very weak in the daytime, Crippling Fear can still buy a small window of opportunity if cast on the right target. Even though Night Stalker is relatively weak during daytime, he can still disable the enemy with his spells if forced to.


 * Hunter in the Night empowers Night Stalker's attack speed and movement speed superbly during the night, making him a very powerful ganker during the earliest parts of the game.
 * Because it can greatly boost Night Stalker's hunting prowess, Hunter in the Night is best maxed out second among his abilities. The greatly enhanced movement and attack speed is crucial for allowing Night Stalker to chase down and tear apart enemies with his attacks.
 * With +50 movement speed from most boots, level 4 Hunter in the Night will give Night Stalker a movement speed of 465. A 16% movement speed bonus added on top of that, whether from Phase Boots' active ability or Sange and Yasha, will boost his movement speed to 520, nearly Haste speed. Use this to your advantage to chase enemies down or escape with near impunity.


 * Darkness will reduce the enemy's vision range for its duration, affecting heroes as well as buildings and wards.
 * As Darkness costs no mana to activate, Night Stalker is free to use it whenever the situation requires it.
 * Remember that Darkness will reduce all enemy vision to a maximum of 675. This means that heroes with abnormally high night vision such as and  will have their vision reduced by almost two-thirds, giving Balanar's team a significant advantage against them.
 * Because time continues to pass for the duration of the ultimate, Darkness can be most profitably cast whenever it is off cooldown during the daytime. By doing so, you effectively reduce the amount of daytime there is in the game, as daytime will continue to tick down during the darkness. At level 16, the enemy team will only have 90 seconds of daylight out of the 8 minute cycle, effectively reducing daylight to 18.75% of the time.
 * At night, reserve Darkness for until Night Stalker's team is preparing for a gank. While the enemy will suspect something once the ultimate goes up, reducing their vision range will also affect any Observer Wards that they have placed, meaning that they will be only barely more than 40% effective. This can allow Night Stalker and his team to move under the cover of darkness and bypass Observer Wards that do not explicitly cover travel paths.

Items
Starting items:
 * Two greatly increase Night Stalker's base damage, as well as give him more HP to survive enemy harass.
 * allows Night Stalker to maintain his early mana pool, particularly since his base intelligence is so low. Keeping his mana up can allow Night Stalker to get last-hits with safely.
 * One each of and  are generally recommended in most any lane that Night Stalker is put in.
 * is a very good starting item to purchase on Night Stalker, as he is a melee hero who can be easily harassed. The damage block can greatly increase his survivability in-lane, and can be later upgraded into a.

Early game:
 * is a very important item on Night Stalker, as he is very aggressive and must have mana to cast his spells when tower-diving. None of his spells cost more than 150 mana, so having a Magic Stick with full charges guarantees that Night Stalker will always have enough mana to cast something if he needs it.
 * are critical for Night Stalker to pick up before the first nightfall. As increases his base movement speed by a certain percentage, increasing Night Stalker's base movement speed will grant him unparalleled mobility at night.
 * is a very useful item on Night Stalker, as he is a very active ganker who can get charges easily. The extra strength gives him more HP and damage, while the mana regeneration helps him to maintain his mana pool. Urn charges can be used to heal Night Stalker and his teammates after a successful gank, allowing him to quickly be ready for another, or to add extra damage to an enemy to secure a kill.
 * is a must for Night Stalker if he is played as a mid. As he has a small mana pool, getting a rune will replenish a large fraction of his mana, allowing him to cast his spells to their utmost during a gank. Even in the late game, his high mobility from Hunter in the Night and superior night vision allows him to spot and grab both runes in quick succession while roaming.

Core items:
 * is very good to buy on Night Stalker for all the same reasons as Magic Stick. In addition to the stats, instantly replenishing your HP and mana by 255 can drastically increase your resilience and ability to cast spells.
 * provide Night Stalker with both a nice speed boost and extra damage, both of which synergize extremely well with Hunter in the Night. The extra damage is greatly augmented by the ability's attack speed bonus, while the active can be combined with Hunter in the Night to boost Night Stalker's movement speed to the limit.
 * is important to carry on Night Stalker at all times, as it can allow him to move around the map to react to gank opportunities more easily.
 * is a very powerful item to build as it removes terrain restrictions on Night Stalker's night vision, allowing him to take full advantage of his mobility and giving him a critical edge in situational awareness, particularly when is active. It also gives him more HP and mana, making him tankier and giving him more mana to cast his spells.
 * greatly increases Night Stalker's resilience by increasing the size of his health pool and giving him damage block, which can be useful early in the game when diving towers for kills. The increased health regeneration also helps him to stay topped up between ganks. Can be later upgraded into a or an.

Situational items:
 * greatly increases the size of Night Stalker's health pool, making him much harder to bring down in fights. The extra strength gives him more base damage as well, and the passive health regeneration allows him to always begin fights at full health, allowing him to be more active on the map.
 * gives Night Stalker both offensive and defensive power. The extra armor makes him much tankier, synergizing well with his high strength growth, and the attack speed bonus combines with the enemy armor reduction to greatly improve Night Stalker's physical damage output.
 * makes Night Stalker immune to most crowd control and disables in teamfights, while giving him more HP and attack damage. It allows him to bring down key targets without worrying about being disabled.
 * gives Night Stalker many useful bonuses at a very cost-effective price. The +25 strength from the active boosts both his attack damage and HP, drastically increasing his DPS alongside Hunter in the Night, and the health loss can be mitigated with Urn of Shadows.
 * can be used in conjunction with to completely prevent an enemy from fighting back. It also provides a chance to proc Lesser Maim on an enemy, further slowing their attack and movement speed on top of Void.
 * , which can be upgraded into Abyssal Blade, can be used in conjunction with Night Stalker's naturally high attack speed during night to reliably proc a stun on an important target. This can allow Night Stalker to tear his targets apart with his high DPS while saving Void for another target if needed.
 * gives Night Stalker more HP and damage, giving him survivability, more DPS, as well as lifesteal to keep him at full HP. The active allows him to heal himself back up to full health in the middle of a teamfight, so long as he is not disabled, making him a much bigger threat.
 * gives Night Stalker lots of attack speed, making him a powerful threat even in the daytime. The passive night vision bonus boosts his already great night vision, allowing him to spot enemies from extreme ranges.
 * gives Night Stalker a blend of self-sustain and survivability through the HP and mana regen as well as the additional armor. The active can discourage enemies from casting targeted spells on him, making him a bigger threat in teamfights and preventing gank targets from easily disabling him to escape.
 * is a good early item for Night Stalker. It gives him more armor and some bonus damage, making him tankier and increasing his last-hitting power. The flat mana regen helps to keep his mana pool topped up, particularly given his low base intelligence. The item can be disassembled and recycled for components, or upgraded into a Vladmir's Offering.
 * can be a useful attack modifier to build on Night Stalker, as adding 12% movement speed slow to Void's 50% can greatly reduce the target's chances of escaping. It can be upgraded into an Eye of Skadi as needed, or sold for more inventory space for other items.
 * can be useful to consider on Night Stalker over Phase Boots, as attribute switching can allow Night Stalker to extend his mana pool and improve the value of his Bottle, as well as retain some measure of attack speed during the day when Hunter in the Night is not active.
 * greatly extends Night Stalker's reach when initiating. As he has abnormally high night vision, Night Stalker can spot targets from very long distances, allowing him to instantly close the gap on a foe who isn't even aware of his presence.
 * is a good mid-game support/utility item to pick up for your team, as it augments the attack power of all nearby allies and gives them armor. As well, it can provide lifesteal for your team, giving you more survivability in a teamfight. As an item for Night Stalker himself, it gives him mana regen and allows him to maintain his HP by lifestealing when farming neutral camps.
 * is a strong utility item that gives Night Stalker armor and evasion, hardening his resistance against right-clicks, as well as mana regen to sustain his mana pool. The active can significantly reduce a gank target's armor and induce a miss chance that stacks alongside Crippling Fear, reducing their ability to fight back and increasing the damage they take from Night Stalker's right-clicks.
 * provides many useful benefits, as it increases Night Stalker's attack speed, damage, health, and movement speed by large amounts. In particular, the constant 16% movement speed bonus means that he can move at a constant 520 movement speed when combined with Hunter in the Night, greatly increasing his mobility.
 * is a strong ganking item that gives Night Stalker a good combination of bonuses, and is particularly useful against enemies with powerful passive abilities. It gives him more damage output from his right-clicks, as well as a nice boost to his attributes. The Shadow Walk, combined with Hunter in the Night, allows him to gank while moving at maximum speed, inflicting bonus damage and a break on any enemies he finds.