Venomancer

	Plague Ward
Summoned Ward
Health 120/230/340/450 +0.25
	⤷ 300/575/850/1125HP
This unit has no mana.

Venomancer #30 19 + 2.1 24 + 2.8 19 + 1.8
	+20HP and +0.1HP regeneration/point.
	+0.17 armor and 1 attack speed/point.; +1 main attack damage/point.
	+12MP and +0.05MP regeneration/point.
	Release Date: 2011-04-09
L0	Base Hero Values
L1	⤷ + Base Attributes
L15	⤷ + Attribute Gain
L25	⤷ + 6 levels of Attribute Bonus
L30	⤷ + 7 levels of Attribute Bonus
	All values shown are without talent bonuses.

Hero

Strategy


Deals damage over time with venomous attacks.
Venomancer brings slow death to its enemies. It infects other living beings by its very touch, and spewed Venomous Gales to slow and poison escaping prey. Part reptile and part orchid, it sprouts an endless army of toxin-spitting sentinels, the Plague Wards, to defend its perimeters with Acid Spit. Should foes draw near, they are sprayed with a massive, noxious Poison Nova, ensuring that even those who get away eventually succumb to the Venomancer's many Latent Toxins.

Roles:	Support Nuker Initiator Pusher Disabler
Complexity:

Bio[]

Lesale Deathbringer, the Venomancer

▶️ "No necromancer shall raise what the venomancer puts down."

Lore:

In the Acid Jungles of Jidi Isle, poison runs in the veins and bubbles in the guts of every creature that scuttles, climbs or swoops between fluorescent vines dripping with caustic sap. Yet even in this toxic menagerie, Venomancer is acknowledged as the most venomous. Ages ago, an Herbalist named Lesale crossed the Bay of Fradj by coracle, searching for potent essences that might be extracted from bark and root, and found instead a nightmare transformation. Two leagues into Jidi's jungle, Lesale encountered a reptile camouflaged as an epiphyte, which stung him as he mistakenly plucked it. In desperation, he used his partial knowledge of the jungle's herbal bounty, mixing the venom of the (swiftly throttled) reptile with the nectar of an armored orchid, to compound an antidote. In the moments before a black paralysis claimed him completely, he injected himself by orchid-thorn, and instantly fell into a coma.

Seventeen years later, something stirred in the spot where he had fallen, throwing off the years' accumulation of humus: Venomancer. Lesale the Herbalist no longer—but Lesale the Deathbringer. His mind was all but erased, and his flesh had been consumed and replaced by a new type of matter—one fusing the venom of the reptile with the poisonous integument of the orchid. Jidi's Acid Jungles knew a new master, one before whom even the most vicious predators soon learned to bow or burrow for their lives. The lurid isle proved too confining, and some human hunger deep in the heart of the Venomancer drove Lesale out in search of new poisons—and new deaths to bring.

Voice:

Dave Fennoy (Responses)

Abilities[]

Venomous Gale

▶️

▶️QE

Ability
Target Point

Affects
Enemies

Damage
Magical

Launches a ball of venom in a line, poisoning enemy units so that they take both initial damage and damage over time, as well as suffering slowed movement. Venomous Gale deals damage every 3 seconds over its duration.

Cast Animation: +

Cast Range:

800

Max Travel Distance:

850

Gale Radius: 125

Initial Damage: 50/75/100/125

Number of Instances: 5

Damage per Instance: 15/45/75/105

Move Speed Slow: 50%

Duration: 15

Number of Plague Wards: 2

21/20/19/18 (

16/15/14/13)

95/105/115/125

Modifiers []

Any

Ability Draft Notes:

Plague Ward must be drafted as well for

Plague Wards to spawn.

A concoction of various stings, poisons, and toxins gathered from the jungles of Jidi Isle, victims surviving it are rare.

NOTES

A unit with less than 25% of its max health can be denied when it has the Venomous Gale debuff on.

The gale travels at a speed of 1200, taking 0.71 seconds to reach max distance.

With the travel distance and gale radius, it can hit units up to 975 range away.

The movement speed slow decreases over time. Hit units regain 1% of their movement speed in 0.3-second intervals, starting 0.3 seconds after the debuff is applied.

After the initial damage, it deals damage over time in 3-second intervals, resulting in overall 6 damage instances.

Venomous Gale can deal up to 125/300/475/650 damage to a single unit (before reductions).

Debuff from successive casts do not stack but refresh its duration.
- This means the initial damage is not dealt again, since it only applies upon debuff creation.

The projectile has 280 radius flying vision. This vision does not last.

TALENT NOTES
2 Plague Wards based on its current level are created around each hit enemy hero, including clones, excluding illusions.
- The wards are placed within 100 range of every enemy hero affected, on opposite sides of each other.
- If Plague Ward is not learned, no wards are spawned.

Poison Sting

WT

Ability
Passive

Affects
Enemies

Damage
Magical
(HP Removal)

Adds poison damage to Venomancer's normal attacks and slowing movement speed.

Damage per Second: 8/16/24/32

Plague Wards Damage Percentage: 50%

Move Speed Slow: 8%/10%/12%/14% (

16%/18%/20%/22%)

Duration: 6/9/12/15

Health Regen Reduction: 20%

Break Notes:

Also prevents Plague Wards from applying Poison Sting.

Modifiers []

Any

Ability Draft Notes:

Mass Serpent Wards' attacks can apply Poison Sting based on its level on enemies when drafted.

The paralytic sting of the creature which caused his transformation now belongs to the Venomancer.

NOTES

The damage from Poison Sting is flagged as HP Removal, so it does not trigger any on-damage effects.

Deals damage in 1-second intervals, starting 1 second after the debuff is placed, resulting in 6/9/12/15 instances.

Can deal up to 48/144/288/480 damage (before reductions).

The debuff from successive attacks does not stack, only the duration is refreshed.

Plague Wards' attacks apply Poison Sting based on its current level on enemies as well.
- If Poison Sting is not learned, no debuffs are applied.
- The Poison Sting applied by the wards uses a different modifier than Venomancer. These modifiers do not interfere with each other.
- However, the wards' debuff does not apply damage, movement speed slow, or the health regeneration reduction if the enemy is also affected by both debuffs.
- The wards' Poison Sting can deal up to 24/72/144/240 damage.

TALENT NOTES
With the health regeneration reduction talent, Poison Sting also applies health regeneration reduction, but not heal reduction or lifesteal reduction.
- The health regeneration reduction value is not halved for the Plague Wards.

Plague Ward

▶️EW

Ability
Target Point

Summons a plague ward to attack enemy units and structures. The ward is immune to magic. Wards gain the Poison Sting level from Venomancer, dealing 50% of the full damage.

Cast Animation: +

Cast Range:

850

Ward Duration: 40

5 (

4)

21/24/27/30

Modifiers []

Ability Draft Notes:

Poison Sting must be drafted as well for it to get applied.

A mixture of his old herbalist talents and newfound toxic mastery creates a living embodiment of plague.

NOTES

Plague Wards automatically attack enemies within their attack range, using ◉ Standard auto-attack rules.
- It is possible to manually give the wards an attack target with A or Right Click an enemy in range.
- With Unified Orders with Ctrl, Ctrl+ Right Click an enemy in range commands all wards to attack the target.
- It is also possible to stop the wards from attacking with S (only works when the auto-attack option is ◎ Never).

Plague Wards' attacks apply Poison Sting based on its current level on enemies as well.
- Poison Sting notes fully apply.
- The damage source of the wards' Poison Sting is Venomancer, meaning certain on-damage effects (e.g. Damage Return) react on the Venomancer rather than on the wards.
- Leveling up ability and learning the health regeneration reduction talent immediately update all current active Plague Wards' Poison Sting ability values.

The wards' attack damage is not reduced by damage block.

Plague Wards have a lower target priority than units and heroes, so they are attacked by towers and lane creeps last.
- Roshan always prioritizes wards if there are no other units within his attack range. He also destroys Plague Wards with 1 attack.

The wards gain their spell immunity through a buff, so it is possible for enemies to ‼ Ping it to display its remaining duration.

TALENT NOTES
The Plague Wards health and damage multiplier talent does not immediately update current active Plague Wards.
SPELL STEAL
Poison Sting applied is based on Venomancer's current ability level when acquired.

Latent Toxicity

DL

Ability
Target Unit

Affects
Enemies

Damage
Magical

Applies a weak poison that minorly slows and deals damage to its target. If this poison is dispelled in any way, the target will receive a large amount of damage and be stunned.

Cast Animation: +

Cast Range:

800

Damage per Second: 20

Move Speed Slow: 10%

Dispel Damage: 300

Debuff Duration: 7

Stun Duration: 2

20

75

Spell Immunity Notes:

Cannot be cast on spell immune enemies.

Stun and damage from dispelling debuff pierces spell immunity.

Modifiers []

Any

Strong

Ability Draft Notes:

Requires drafting

Poison Nova to be unlocked.

As Venomancer's own origins corroborate, some of Jidi's most horrifying dangers become apparent only with time.

NOTES

Requires Aghanim's Shard to be unlocked.

The projectile travels at a speed of 1800.

Upon dispelling the debuff, Latent Toxicity first applies the damage, then the stun.
- The stun upon dispel pierces spell immunity, but it is not applied while invulnerable or hidden.

Deals damage in 1-second intervals, starting immediately as the debuff is placed, resulting in 7 instances.
- Can deal up to 140 damage (before reductions).

It is possible to deal up to 420 damage, if the debuff was dispelled at the end before the last damage interval.

Debuff of successive casts does not stack but refreshes the duration.

Poison Nova

▶️

▶️RV

Ability
No Target

Affects
Enemies

Damage
Magical

A spreading ring of poison that does damage over time to enemy units around Venomancer. Poison Nova cannot deal lethal damage; targets will be left with at least 1 health.

Cast Animation: +

Start Radius: 255

End Radius: 850/900/950

Base Damage per Second: 20/30/40

Max Health as Damage per Second: 2%/2.75%/3.5% (

3%/3.75%/4.5%)

Duration: 20 (

25)

Attack Speed Slow: 100

140/120/100 (

100/80/60)

200/300/400

Aghanim's Scepter Upgrade:

Increases damage and decreases cooldown.

Aghanim's Shard Upgrade:

New Ability

Grants the Latent Toxicity ability.

Spell Immunity Notes:

Places debuff on spell immune enemies.

Does not deal damage to spell immune enemies.

Does not slow attack speed of spell immune enemies.

Modifiers []

In the Acid Jungles, creatures releasing noxious poison to their attackers is common; Venomancer spreads this plague beyond the Jidi Isle.

NOTES

Interrupts Venomancer's channeling abilities upon cast.

Poison Nova expands at a speed of 550, taking 1.08/1.17/1.26 seconds to reach max distance.
- Starts expanding at a radius of 255, enemies within this radius are affected immediately upon cast.

Deals damage in 1-second intervals, starting immediately as the debuff is placed, resulting in 21 ( 26) instances.
- Poison Nova's damage over time is not lethal. It does not drop affected units below 1 health from its damage ticks.
- Can deal up to 420/630/840 + 42%/57.75%/73.5% of max health ( 520/780/1040 + 52%/71.5%/91%) damage to a single unit (before reductions).
- SCEPTER NOTES
  Can deal up to 420/630/840 + 63%/78.75%/94.5% of max health ( 520/780/1040 + 78%/97.5%/117%) damage to a single unit.

Debuff of successive casts does not stack but refreshes the duration.

Talents[]

Hero Talents
2.5x Plague Ward HP/Damage	25	Poison Nova reduces 100 Attack Speed
Gale Creates Plague Wards	20	+5s Poison Nova Duration
+8% Poison Sting Slow	15	-1s Plague Ward Cooldown
+20% Poison Sting Health Regen Reduction	10	-5 Venomous Gale CD

Recent Changes[]

Main Article: Venomancer/Changelogs

Version

Description

7.32c

Reduced Venomous Gale mana cost from 125 on each level to 95/105/115/125.
Aghanim's Shard upgrade:
- Latent Toxicity
  - Increased cast range from 600 to 800.
  - Increased projectile speed from 1200 to 1800.

7.32

Increased Plague Ward mana cost from 20/22/24/26 to 21/24/27/30.
REWORKED
Aghanim's Shard upgrade:
- OLD
  Increases Venomous Gale projectile speed by 400 and causes it to summon 2 Plague Wards based on its current level around hit enemy heroes.
- NEW
  Grants Venomancer the Latent Toxicity ability.

Latent Toxicity

Applies a weak poison that minorly slows and deals damage to its target. If this poison is dispelled in any way, the target will receive a large amount of damage and be stunned.

Cast point: 0.2+0

Cast range: 600

Movement speed slow: 10%

Damage per second: 20

Dispel damage: 300 (Magical)

Dispel stun duration: 2

Debuff duration: 7

Cooldown: 20

Mana cost: 75

Notes: The ability has a projectile speed of 1200.

Talents:

LVL 10

+175 health ➜ +20% Poison Sting health regeneration reduction. [?]
LVL 10

-6s Venomous Gale cooldown reduced to -5s.
LVL 15

12% spell lifesteal ➜ -1s Plague Ward cooldown.
LVL 20

-1.5s Plague Ward cooldown ➜ Venomous Gale creates 2 Plague Wards around hit enemy heroes.

7.31

Increased base attack damage from 18‒21 to 22‒25.
Poison Sting
- Now starts dealing 1 second after the debuff is applied, instead of immediately. [?]
- Increased damage per second from 6/14/22/30 to 8/16/24/32.
Poison Nova
- Increased travel speed from 500 to 550.
- Rescaled end radius from 885 on each level to 850/900/950.

Talents:

LVL 25

+640 Poison Nova radius ➜ +100 Poison Nova attack speed slow.

Recommended Items[]

Starting items:

Tango regenerates health, allowing Venomancer to stay longer in lane without going back to the fountain.
Healing Salve restores health as well.
Clarity is highly recommended in the laning stage, as Venomancer is highly dependent on casting spells in order to be effective. Venomancer's base mana pool and intelligence growth are quite poor, and casting Venomous Gale once at level 1 drains more than half of your mana pool.
Observer Wards are a core requirement as a support. While you can place Plague Wards to scout enemy movement, they are limited in vision, duration and sight range, and can be far more easily spotted and destroyed.

Early game:

Magic Stick provides good regeneration, especially if you are laning against opponents who keep casting their abilities.
Boots of Speed are important to get early on Venomancer, as his base movement speed is quite low. More mobility allows you to position yourself for your spells, particularly getting within range to cast Venomous Gale.
Sentry Ward is crucial on Venomancer as a support item. As he can place Plague Wards through terrain and fog of war to get vision, he can easily place Sentry Wards alongside them to de-ward enemy Observer Wards. Since Plague Wards are summoned units, he can "set and forget" them after finding an Observer Ward, rather than risk getting ganked by staying to de-ward.

Mid game:

Magic Wand gives attributes, and health and mana restoration for emergencies.
Power Treads are a good purchase as the extra attributes can be used either to increase your intelligence to make casting easier or to increase your strength to give you more survivability.
Force Staff is useful on Venomancer if you are having trouble farming a Blink Dagger. The increased mana pool helps greatly with his ability to cast spells, and the item's active ability serves as a useful escape mechanism on a frail hero without escape abilities.
Town Portal Scroll is necessary on virtually all heroes, but is important in Venomancer's case due to his ability to show up to teamfights to cast his nukes and slows, and defend a tower and counter-push at the same time. As well, his low mobility and lack of escape abilities means that having a TP scroll on hand at all times should be the case.

Late game:

Aghanim's Scepter greatly increases the killing potential of Poison Nova: it can deal tremendous amounts of magical damage to the entire enemy team, making it perfect for initiations when assisted by teammates.

Situational items:

Veil of Discord provides attributes and armor for Venomancer as well as the item's active, Magic Weakness, which increases the effectiveness of all of Venomancer's spells and even his passive. Though not as powerful as Aghanim's Scepter regarding Poison Nova, it is much cheaper and easier to build. Combining both can result in an astounding amount of damage over time, and also benefits teammates if you have a caster-heavy lineup.
Eul's Scepter of Divinity gives a lot of mana regeneration, some movement speed and intelligence, eliminating your mobility and mana issues almost entirely. It also makes positioning for casting your spells easier by disabling an opponent for a short time, and can be used to temporarily save yourself after casting Poison Nova amongst the middle of the enemy team.
Blink Dagger is the best choice if you are your team's main initiator. Use it to position yourself before casting Poison Nova and/or Venomous Gale.
Shadow Blade gives more damage, more attack speed and a useful escape mechanism. You can also use its ability to initiate on the enemy team and cast your ultimate.
Butterfly is a very expensive item and generally not recommended when playing as a support. It drastically increases Venomancer's attack speed and damage, as well as giving him evasion and a small amount of armor, allowing him to weather physical attacks better and apply Poison Sting to multiple targets over a short amount of time.
Orchid Malevolence solves all of your mana problems and gives you more physical damage per second. Additionally, the silence can be used to disable enemies, which is useful both as a semi-carry and support.
Manta Style gives Venomancer more overall stats, as well as movement speed. Its active can be used to remove debuffs from yourself, and the illusions can assist in applying slows to enemy targets.
Drum of Endurance gives Venomancer stats across the board, and the increased movement speed can offset his low mobility somewhat. The extra attack speed also helps him apply his Poison Sting more easily.
Octarine Core is a highly expensive item, but can give Venomancer many strong benefits. The item grants increased HP and mana, giving Venomancer more staying power. More importantly, the cooldown reduction allows Venomancer to place Plague Wards much more frequently, and the spell lifesteal combined with his powerful damage-over-time spells, particularly Poison Nova, give him immense survivability in any fight as he can regenerate health almost as quickly as he takes damage.
Gem of True Sight is a stronger permanent investment but also risks surrendering the gem to the enemy if they can successfully kill Venomancer.
Arcane Boots are highly recommended on Venomancer, as his ultimate costs a large amount of mana and his mana pool is otherwise extremely limited. As a support, you also help your team by being able to replenish their mana as well as your own, allowing you to cast your spells more often.
Ghost Scepter is very helpful for giving Venomancer protection against physical damage. It can be used to buy yourself some time if you are jumped on by the enemy team in a gank or teamfight, or allow you to survive long enough to cast Venomous Gale after using your ultimate.
Glimmer Cape can be a very useful utility item. The magic resistance gives Venomancer survivability against magic nukes, while the attack speed facilitates the utility of Poison Sting. The active can be used to initiate with Poison Nova if a Blink Dagger or Force Staff is unavailable, and can be used to shield yourself or a teammate from magic nukes, or as an escape tool if the enemy has no detection.
Rod of Atos gives Venomancer a lot of health, a lot of intelligence to increase the size of his mana pool, and a long range root that can help him with initiating and ganking. The active allows Venomancer to set up his Venomous Gale.
Shiva's Guard is expensive, but provides Venomancer with many strong benefits. It gives him a much larger mana pool to use, allowing him to better utilize his spells, and gives him armor for resisting physical damage. The auras add to his ability to slow enemy heroes, and the active can be used in conjunction with Poison Nova to slow enemies enough to catch them in its radius, as well as add an additional movement speed slow on top of Venomous Gale and Poison Sting.
Scythe of Vyse is a very farm-intensive item to purchase, however, it permanently solves all of Venomancer's mana issues while also giving him an instant hard disable that he can cast on the enemy in a teamfight, even in the late game.

Gameplay[]

Strategy & Tips

Counters &
Matchups

Audio[]

Responses

Sounds

History[]

Lore

Old Abilities

Changelogs

Equipment[]

Trivia[]

Venomancer's name, Lesale, may be a reference to "Le Sale", which is French for "The Dirty" or "The Nasty".

In DotA, Venomancer's hero model was a hydralisk. Hydralisks are a ranged combat unit of the Zerg, an alien race in "Blizzard Entertainment"'s RTS game "Starcraft". Hydralisks are a very common and well-known image in Blizzard games.^[1]

▶️ "It's in my nature." likely alludes to the animal fable The Scorpion and the Frog, in which the scorpion answers to why it stings the frog in the middle of a river, drowning them both.