Lifestealer

Hero

 

Strategy

 

Equipment

 

Gear

 

Talents

 

Relics

 

Responses

 

Sounds

 

Animations

 

Lore

 

Old Abilities

 

Changelogs

 

Known Bugs

 

Lifestealer #61 25 + 2.4 19 + 2.6 15 + 1.8
Level 0 1 15 25 30 Health 20 570 1296 2088 2396 +0.25 +2.75 +6.11 +9.71 +11.11 Mana 80 260 560 920 1052 +0 +0.75 +2.01 +3.51 +4.06 Armor 1 4.17 10.23 16.57 19.07 Magic Resist 25% 26.5% 29.02% 32.02% 33.12% Damage Block 16 (50%) Damage 22 28 47 53 80 86 116 122 130 136 Attack Rate 0.71/s 0.82/s 1.03/s 1.26/s 1.34/s Attack Range 150 (400) Attack Speed ▶️ 120 (1.7s BAT) Attack Animation 0.39 + 0.44 Projectile Speed Instant Move Speed ▶️ 320 ( 350) Turn Rate 0.9 Collision Size 27 Bound Radius 24 Vision Range (G) 1800 ( 800) Gib Type Default Internal npc_dota_hero_life_stealer

Infests other units for mobility and strength.
What was once a man is now little more than a husk, its mind long since departed from lifetimes of imprisonment. Or has it? Now on the loose, N'aix appears to be driven by a new purpose, although what precisely that is, none would know. The Lifestealer Feasts on raw flesh, nourishing himself with every attack while inflicting grievous Open Wounds that make escape near impossible. By sheer ferocity, or perhaps a Ghoulish Frenzy, N'aix flies into a Rage, intensifying his assault while defying all wizardry. For a particularly nasty surprise, the Lifestealer Infests an unhappy victim, laying dormant inside its body in wait for the opportunity to Consume its host inside-out in a gory explosion.
Roles:	Carry Durable Escape Disabler
Complexity:
Adjectives:	Badteeth, Undead, Nose Legs ( 2 )

Bio

N'aix, the Lifestealer

▶️ "Oh Master, behold all these lives for the taking!"

Lore:

In the dungeons of Devarque, a vengeful wizard lay in shackles, plotting his escape. He shared his cell with a gibbering creature known as N'aix, a thief cursed by the Vile Council with longevity, so that its life-sentence for theft and cozening might be as punishing as possible. Over the years, its chains had corroded, along with its sanity; N'aix retained no memory of its former life and no longer dreamt of escape.

Seeing a perfect vessel for his plans, the wizard wove a spell of Infestation and cast his life-force into N'aix's body, intending to compel N'aix to sacrifice itself in a frenzy of violence while the mage returned to his body and crept away unnoticed. Instead, the wizard found his mind caught in a vortex of madness so powerful that it swept away his plans and shattered his will. Jarred to consciousness by the sudden infusion of fresh life, N'aix woke from its nightmare of madness and obeyed the disembodied voice that filled its skull, which had only the one thought: To escape.

In that moment Lifestealer was born. The creature cast its mind into dungeon guards and soldiers, compelling them to open locks and cut down their companions, opening an unobstructed path to freedom while feeding on their lives. Lifestealer still wears the broken shackles as a warning that none may hold him, but on the inside remains a prisoner. Two minds inhabit the single form--a nameless creature of malevolent cunning, and the Master whose voice he pretends to obey.

Alias:

LS

Voice:

Bruce Miles (Responses)

Abilities

Rage

▶️QR

Ability
No Target

Affects
Self

Launch into a maddened rage, becoming Debuff immune, increasing magic resistance by 80% and gaining increased movement speed.

Cast Animation:  0+0

Move Speed Bonus: 9%/12%/15%/18% ( 21%/24%/27%/30%)

Magic Resistance Bonus: 80%

Duration: 3/4/5/6 ( 4.5/5.5/6.5/7.5)

 20/19/18/17

 75/100/125/150

Modifiers [?]

modifier_life_stealer_rage

Death

The madness and brutality of N'aix makes him a vicious and unrelenting foe in combat.

• Interrupts Lifestealer's channeling abilities upon cast.

• Upon cast, Rage first applies the debuff immunity, then the basic dispel.

• Stacks multiplicatively with other magic resistance sources.
  • Increases Lifestealer's magic resistance to 85%.
  • With the magic resistance bonus from this source, every 10 points of intelligence further increases the total magic resistance by 0.2%. [?]

Feast

WF

Ability
Passive

Affects
Enemies / Self

Damage
Physical

Lifestealer's attacks deal damage and provide heal for a percentage of his target's max health.

Enemy Max Health as Heal: 1.6%/2.2%/2.8%/3.4% ( 2.8%/3.4%/4%/4.6%)

Enemy Max Health as Damage: 1%/1.3%/1.6%/1.9% ( 2.2%/2.5%/2.8%/3.1%)

Modifiers [?]

modifier_life_stealer_feast

Undispellable

After escaping from his cell in Devarque, N'aix subsisted on flesh and bones of those unfortunate to cross his path.

• Always heal for the full amount per instance, regardless of how much damage the target actually receives (before reductions).

• Therefore, the healing value is not affected by the following:
  • Damage-negating sources (e.g. Refraction).
  • Damage block sources.
  • Incoming damage manipulation on the affected target.

• Does not heal from attacking ward-type units, Roshan, buildings and ally units.

• The max health as bonus damage is considered as a conditional attack damage bonus.
  • Although the attack damage bonus values are not displayed in the HUD, it is still considered and directly added to Lifestealer's attack damage.
  • The attack damage bonus values are considered by lifesteal, critical strike, and cleave, and it can be reduced only by flat reductions (e.g. damage block).
  • Since it is considered bonus attack damage, it is not affected by percentage-based attack damage bonuses or reductions.

• Feast first self-heals, then apply its attack damage.
  • The percentage-based heal per hit is affected by lifesteal manipulation but not heal manipulation.

Ghoul Frenzy

EG

Ability
Passive

Affects
Enemies / Self

Passively causes Lifestealer's attacks to significantly slow enemy movement speed for 1.5 seconds. Grants you Attack Speed.

Self Attack Speed Bonus: 25/40/55/70

Enemy Move Speed Slow: 15%/20%/25%/30% ( 30%/35%/40%/45%)

Debuff Duration: 1.5

Spell Immunity Notes:

The attack speed bonus is not disabled.

The movement speed slow is disabled.

Modifiers [?]

modifier_life_stealer_ghoul_frenzy

Undispellable

modifier_life_stealer_ghoul_frenzy_slow

Any

• The debuff of successive attacks does not stack but refreshes the duration.

Open Wounds

▶️DW

Ability
Target Unit

Affects
Enemies / Allies

Damage
Physical

Lifestealer rends an enemy unit, slowing the victim's movement speed and allowing all allies to regain health for a percentage of the damage they deal to that unit. All damage dealt will steal life, including damage from spells. The victim recovers movement speed over the duration. Deals 2% of the target's max health per attack on the target from real heroes. After receiving 500 damage, the Open Wounds fester and spread to a non-infected random enemy within 700 radius.

Cast Animation: 0.2+0.4

Cast Range: 800

Spread Search Radius: 700

Spread Damage Threshold: 500

Lifesteal: 50%

Damage as Self Heal: 50%

Enemy Max Health as Damage per Hit: 2%

Max Move Speed Slow: 50%

Slow Duration: 7

 15

 75

Spell Block / Reflection Notes:

Blocked fully only when primary target.

The passive spread cast is not blocked.

Modifiers [?]

modifier_life_stealer_open_wounds

Any

Ability Draft Notes:

Requires drafting Infest to be unlocked.

Fresh wounds and the scent of blood often draw out the scavengers to finish the job.

• Requires Aghanim's Shard to be unlocked.

• Open Wounds spreads to a random unit within 700 radius that does not have the debuff already, prioritizing heroes, once the affected target collectively takes 500 damage (after all reductions).
  • Treat creep-heroes as creeps.
  • Successive casts on the same target neither stack nor allow the debuff to spread, but refresh its movement speed slow values and duration.
  • Each Open Wounds debuff can only spread once. It cannot spread to the same unit again per cast.
  • The debuff also does not spread while reaching the damage threshold with no valid targets within its search radius.

• The spreading is not limited to the unit Open Wounds was cast on, the Open Wounds debuffs created via spreading can spread as well.

• The debuff can spread onto invisible units and units in the Fog of War.
  • Does not spread to invulnerable units.
  • Neutral creeps are not aggro'd when the debuff is spread onto them.

• The heal values are considered as lifesteal, and can still be subjected to lifesteal manipulation.
  • Stacks additively with other lifesteal sources.
  • Casting instant kill sources (e.g. Transmute) on a unit affected by Open Wounds heals the caster based on the affected target's current health.
  • Spell damage from heals the caster as lifesteal.

• The spread damage threshold condition still applies for the aforementioned damage sources.

• Does not heal from and count the following damage sources to its damage threshold:
  • Damage flagged as HP Removal and/or self-damage, except for Corrosive Skin and Fatal Bonds.
  • Damage damage dealt by buildings, wards, neutral creeps, or the affected target's allies.

• Applies 7 instances 50%/50%/40%/30%/20%/10%/10% decreasing movement speed slow, decreasing one step per second for its duration.

• The max health as bonus damage is only applied to attacks done by heroes.
  • Treats attack from clones and illusions as heroes, attacks from creep-heroes as creeps.
  • The damage is considered as a conditional attack damage bonus.
  • Although the attack damage bonus values are not displayed in the HUD, it is still considered and directly added to the hero's attack damage.
  • The attack damage bonus values are considered by lifesteal, critical strike, and cleave, and it can be reduced only by flat reductions (e.g. damage block).
  • Since it is considered bonus attack damage, it is not affected by percentage-based attack damage bonuses or reductions.
  • The conditional attack damage bonus does not affect Roshan.

• Open Wounds first apply its damage (after reductions), then heal based on the damage dealt.

Infest

▶️▶️RT

Ability
Target Unit

Affects
Self
( Enemy Heroes)

Damage
 Instant Attack

Lifestealer infests the body of a target unit, becoming undetectable, and healing for a portion of his max hitpoints every second while inside. He can then explode from the host body, dealing damage to nearby enemies. If the infested unit is an enemy creep or a neutral creep, he can take control of the unit's ability to move and attack. Does not work on enemy heroes.

Cast Animation: 0.2+0

Cast Range: 150 ( 500)

Target Max Health Bonus: 400/800/1200 ( 460/920/1380)

Target Move Speed Bonus: 15%/20%/25% ( 30%/35%/40%)

Self Max Health as Health Regen Bonus: 3%/4%/5% ( 6%/8%/10%)

 Enemy Hero Attack Interval: 1.25

 Enemy Hero Duration: 5

 80/65/50 ( 20)

 100/125/150

Aghanim's Scepter Upgrade:

Increases cast range and reduces cooldown. Infest may target enemy heroes for a short duration, disarming them and attacking them from the inside while increasing Lifestealer's regeneration rate.

Aghanim's Shard Upgrade:

New Ability

Grants the Open Wounds ability.

Spell Block / Reflection Notes:

Cannot be reflected.

Modifiers [?]

modifier_life_stealer_infest

Death

modifier_life_stealer_infest_effect

Death

modifier_life_stealer_infest_creep

Death

modifier_life_stealer_infest_enemy_hero

Death

With this infestation, N'aix consumes the life blood of the host, restoring him back to full unholy power.

Visual indicator above the Infested target.

• Applies a basic dispel and disjoints projectiles upon cast.
  • Unlike a regular basic dispel, Infest also dispels various buffs (e.g. Double Damage Rune or Recall) on Lifestealer.

• During Infest, all of Lifestealer's abilities are hidden, while Infest is replaced by the Consume sub-ability.
  • Lifestealer is now invulnerable, hidden, spell immune, and is periodically moved to the host's current position. This affects the following things:
    • Upon Infest ending in any way, Lifestealer reappears at the host's current location.
    • Every aura Lifestealer has (e.g. Radiance) is bestowed around the host.
    • Ability effects that interact with heroes' presence (e.g. Smoke of Deceit, Marksmanship) react on the host's presence.
    • Relocate forces Lifestealer out of the Infested unit, dealing its area damage.

• Can fully regenerate Lifestealer's health within 33.33/25/20 ( 16.67/12.5/10) seconds.

• The following effects are applied to the Infested unit:
  • Grants current and max health bonuses by the given value. This counts as setting health.
    • Does not increase the health of ancient creeps.
    • Cannot Infest spell immune units.
  • If the affected target is a hero, including illusions and creep-heroes, it grants percentage-based movement speed bonus to the affected target.
  • If the affected target is a creep, Lifestealer automatically takes control of it, turning it into his unit.
    • Infest also replenishes its mana and set its base movement speed to
      expr
      LifestealerCurrentMS × 1.15/1.2/1.25 ( 1.3/1.35/1.4).
    • The controlled creep also retains its health bar colors for camouflaging purposes.
    • It also can be dominated (e.g. Holy Persuasion) normally, with its source ability notes fully apply. Lifestealer can only cast Consume in this case.
    • For Minor Imps, despite being uncontrollable, the Minor Imp continues its attempt to move to the last known location of its set target.
  • The affected unit also receives a hidden modifier, which creates the visual effect above it, visible to allies only.

• Infest also has the following cast restrictions on units:
  • LEVEL 1+
    Can be cast on, but cannot control ally heroes and ally creep-heroes.
  • LEVEL 2+
    Can be cast on and control ancient creeps.
  • Cannot be cast on Roshan, Couriers, Undying Zombies, wards, buildings, enemy heroes and enemy creep-heroes.

• Reinforced units receive 10% less damage (before reductions) from the infested creep.

• The ability's cooldown starts upon leaving the infested unit, not upon cast.

• SCEPTER
  Infest can now be cast on enemy heroes and creep-heroes.
  • Does not increase the health or movement speed of such targets, but disarms them.
  • Although having a limited duration on these targets, Lifestealer still may use Consume to leave the host earlier.
  • Causes Lifestealer to perform instant attacks on the Infested enemy target in 1.25-second intervals, starting immediately upon cast, resulting in up to 5 attacks.
  • These instant attacks can proc any attack modifiers and on-hit effects normally. They do not have True Strike, but completely ignore disarms.
• SPELL STEAL
  Although the same target can be affected by multiple sources of Infest, the health increase effect does not stack. If the target is a creep, only the first Infest cast can control the unit and use the Consume sub-ability.
• SOULBIND
  Infest only affects the primary target.

Consume

▶️RT

Ability
No Target

Affects
Enemies / Self

Damage
Physical / Instant Kill

Lifestealer eats the host body from the inside out, exploding from within.

Cast Animation:  0+0

Effect Radius: 700

Damage: 150/275/400 ( 300/425/550)

 0

 0

• Replaces Infest until the sub-ability is used, or until Lifestealer gets out of the host in any way.
  • If the infested target is a creep, and Lifestealer takes control over it, it also appears in the infested unit's HUD, in the next available ability slot.

• Consume only instant kill creeps upon cast.

• Applies the radius damage instantly even when the Infested unit dies before Lifestealer consumes it.
• SPELL STEAL
  If there are multiple sources of Infest on the same target, the first Consume cast causes both sources to be ejected from the affected target and damages the first caster who cast Consume.

Talents

Hero Talents
+1.5s Rage Duration	25	+1.2% Feast Lifesteal and Damage
+15% Ghoul Frenzy Slow	20	+15% Infest Target Movespeed/Health
+30 Damage	15	+350 Health
+12% Rage Movement Speed	10	+150 Infest Damage

Notes:

• Grants bonus attack damage.
  • Does not benefit illusions and is not affected by most percentage-based damage increasing or reducing effects.

• The health talent increases the max health capacity and keeps the current health percentage.

Recent Changes

Main Articles: Changelogs, Old Abilities and Hero Lore

<div> <div class="updatetablehead"> <div id="version">Version</div><div id="description">Description</div> </div> <div class="updatetablebody">

7.35

• Reduced Rage movement speed bonus from 15%/16%/17%/18% to 9%/12%/15%/18%.

7.34d

• Increased Feast enemy max health as damage from 0.8%/1.1%/1.4%/1.7% to 1%/1.3%/1.6%/1.9%.

7.34

• Talents:
• LVL 15

   

  +25 attack damage increased to +30.

  LVL 15

   

  +325 health increased to +350.

  LVL 25

   

  +1.2% Feast max health as lifesteal ➜ +1.2% Feast max health as lifesteal/damage.

</div> </div>

Recommended Items

Starting items:

• Tango regenerates health early on until you can sustain yourself with lifesteal.
• Healing Salve for situations where you need to heal quickly.
• Quelling Blade helps last hitting early on and allows you to cut trees
• Iron Branches provide stats early on and build into Magic Wand later on.

Early game:

• Boots of Speed are needed to gank in combination with Open Wounds.
• Magic Stick sustains Lifestealer if the enemy has a certain number of spammable skills.
• Blight Stone increases Lifestealer's early game damage, and builds into Desolator later.
• Orb of Venom is a nice early game pickup if his lane has a moderate level of kill potential, as the slow helps Lifestealer to catch up with the enemy.

Mid game:

• Phase Boots allows Lifestealer to close the distance on his targets in order to get within Open Wounds' short range.
• Magic Wand, as an upgrade of Magic Stick, greatly improves the hero's effectiveness mostly by compensating for low mana pool.
• Armlet of Mordiggian shines with the extra HP, armor, and damage from the active Unholy Strength, all of which Lifestealer wants.
• Desolator increases Lifestealer's damage output greatly as it reduces armor of the enemy, allows him to tear down supports and carries with the help of extra attack speed and Spell Immunity of Rage. The item helps with farming and pushing towers as well.Feast and Open Wounds negates the health loss to some extent, while the rest of the abilities offer a chance of armlet toggling.
• Heaven's Halberd provide evasion against the physical attack of enemies, extra heal from Feast and Open Wounds, status resistance as well as a disarm for the enemy carry.

Late game:

• Abyssal Blade gives Lifestealer a reliable source of stun, allows him to disable an enemy long enough for him to tear down. Lifestealer has almost no damage output outside of melee range, so it is really crucial to stick to his target as a melee carry. Besides, this item improves the hero's survivability with damage block and bonus health.
• Assault Cuirass compensates for Lifestealer's low base armor and gives more attack speed to use with Feast. The armor reduction allows for a faster tower pushing and stronger team fight presence.
• Aghanim's Scepter will increase the cast range of Infest and it's health regeneration, reduce cooldown and will allow Lifestealer to use Infest on enemy heroes, disarming them and attacking them from inside, even if they are debuff immune, similarly to Juggernaut's Omnislash and Swiftslash from Aghanim's Scepter. Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Infest can make Lifestealer strong even against most heroes he would usually have difficulties to fight against. But watch out for the enemy heroes who choose to buy Linken's Sphere, as they will be able to counter this tactic with it's spellblock.
• Aghanim's Shard will give Lifestealer access to Open Wounds that will allow him to severely slow down an enemy hero, and to make every type of damage the affected enemy hero takes heal Lifestealer's allies while attacking the affected target, even the one coming from abilities. Open Wounds will also deal 2% of the target's max health per attack on the target from real heroes and will fester and spread on the nearby allies within 700 radius of the enemy hero affected by it when they 500 damage.

Situational items:

• Hand of Midas allows Lifestealer to comeback from a bad laning stage. Note that the item would delay your mid-game power spike as better items could be purchased with the gold spent.
• Sange and Yasha gives Lifestealer movement speed, attack speed, and attack damage. The movement speed bonus helps Lifestealer catch up with the enemies.
• Monkey King Bar helps with the problem of evasion. The magical damage procs also help improve damage output, but the main draw for this item is the attack damage that can pierce through evasion it offers.
• Maelstrom is a very good item due to the attack speed provided by Feast allowing you to get more procs from Chain Lightning. It provides extra damage, early flash farming capability and overall improve Lifestealer's attack damage. If Lifestealer is going for this item, it is recommended to get this item early on and to forego Armlet of Mordiggian.
• Nullifier will give Lifestealer good armor and excellent attack damage, and it will allow him to dispel defensive buffs from items like Ghost Scepter, Glimmer Cape, Wind Waker, Satanic, Crimson Guard, Disperser etc.
• Radiance will give Lifestealer a great amount of damage and evasion, and will also allow Lifestealer to deal magical damage around himself, giving him much needed AoE capabilities.
• Revenant's Brooch, an alternative to Nullifier will give Lifestealer great attack damage and spell lifesteal. Revenant's Brooch can be activated to have Lifestealer's attacks deal magic damage that can bypass armor and attack ethereal units, making this item very good against heroes who rely on Ghost Scepter for defense against Lifestealer.
• Mjollnir can be purchased first to farm faster and play for late game but it makes you weaker in the early-mid game as it provides less damage and no survivability compared to Armlet of Mordiggian with Desolator. The attack speed of this item allows for maximum use of Feast and Open Wounds damage and lifesteal. It's useful against illusion heroes, as both Static Charge and Chain Lightning help dealing with them. As a frontliner, Static Charge can be triggered towards its maximum effect.
• Orchid Malevolence will give Lifestealer good attack speed and damage, along with the bonus health and mana regeneration, and intelligence and the ability to silence enemy heroes after catching them unprepared with Infest.
• Bloodthorn, an upgrade for Orchid Malevolence allows Lifestealer not only to silence an enemy hero, but also allows every of Lifestealer's attacks he lands on the affected hero to have true strike and weaken spell damage of the affected enemies, making it very good item against heroes with evasion.

Dota Plus Progress

Main Article: Hero Challenges

Relics track a hero's actions and statistics, and display in-game notifications when a milestone is reached. They are only available to Dota Plus subscribers.

Relics	Voice Lines
Kills During Rage Life Stolen From Feast Enemies Killed With Open Wounds Enemies Killed Leaving Infest Health Restored from Feast Slow Duration Physical Damage Damage With Active Armlet Radiance Damage Last Hits Triple Kills Mega Kill Streaks Kill Assists Kills	Bronze	▶️ Ha! Ha ha ha ha! ▶️ This pleases the Master.
	Silver	▶️ Surprise! ▶️ The master is here!
	Gold	▶️ Alone with my rage! ▶️ Sweet, sweet violence.
	Platinum	▶️ You feel the red hand of death.
	Master	▶️ Ta-da!
	Grandmaster	▶️ Life, given freely?

Equipment

Lifestealer Equipment (expand sets) Sets Bloody Ripper   Bonds of Madness Set   Compendium Bloody Ripper   Obsidian Atrocity   Redrage Crawler   Torment of the Chainbreaker   Transmuted Armaments   Trappings of the Ravenous Fiend Head Dark Maw Inhibitor   Golden Dark Maw Inhibitor Back Golden Profane Union   Profane Union Arms Dread Requisition   Golden Dread Requisition Taunt Taunt: Chain Break Dance

Trivia

• Lifestealer's fun/alternate name in DotA was Gollum, a significant character in the "Lord of the Rings" and "Hobbit" book series.
  • The references to Gollum are kept up in Dota 2:
    • Just like written in Lifestealer's lore, Lifestealer is no longer the former self he was, but rather a possessed body. Gollum has a similar story. Once being a Hobbit, his soul got corrupted by the ring, turning into the Gollum he is now.
    • Both Lifestealer and Gollum sometimes speak from themselves in plural form ("we", instead of "I"). They also talk to or about a "master".
    • His rivalry line towards Tidehunter ▶️ "Tidehunter…I love a bit of raw fish now and again." refers to Gollum's hate towards stewing - or the preparing in general - of fish. Gollum prefers his fish raw and "wriggling".

Gallery

• 

  Model

• 

  Low Violence model

• 

  Splash artwork

• 

  Concept art

• 

  Concept art

• 

  Ability icon progress [?]

• 

  Hero icon progress

• 

  Lifestealer on the 6.85 update page.