Lifestealer

Lifestealer

The Dire

25 + 2.4 18 + 1.9 15 + 1.75

Level 1 16 25 Hit Points 625 1347 2088 Mana 195 559 1001 Damage 57-67 95-105 134-144 Armor 1.52 5.72 10.62 Attacks / Second 0.69 0.87 1.07

Movement Speed 315 Turn Rate 1.0 Sight Range 1800/800 Attack Range Melee Missile Speed Instant Attack Duration 0.39+0.44 Cast Duration 0.01+0.01 Base Attack Time 1.7

N'aix the Lifestealer is a vicious melee Strength hero whose abilities give him the power to bring down durable heroes quickly, while sustaining his health from absorbing the very life of his enemies.

The main role of the Lifestealer is to fulfill the job as a formidable carry, able to restore his life thanks to his skills. Feast is his passive ability and his signature, every attack he lands deals extra physical damage and consumes the flesh and blood of his victim, regenerating his health. With Feast, he can munch down tough and strong tanks. N'aix can send himself into a bloody Rage, increasing his attack speed and a short period of magic immunity. Open Wounds tears the enemy, causing the prey's wounds to open, bleeding their life essence, allowing him and his allies to feast down as well as greatly slowing them to a crawl. Rage and Open Wounds allows the Lifestealer to brutally rip his victim apart, feasting on their health in the process. When in need, N'aix can use Infest to hide himself inside of his allies or any non-hero units, laying dormant, until he is ready to come out, devouring the flesh from the inside, killing the non-hero unit, and bursting out the chunks of flesh and bones of his unfortunate host, damaging his foes around him, and ambushing them with carnivorous savagery. The Lifestealer is a monstrous beast of gluttony and greed, bent on stealing the lives of every living creature he encounters, violently killing them to sate the Lifestealer's terrifying thirst and hunger.

Bio

N'aix, the Lifestealer Play "Lives for the taking." Role: Carry / Durable / Jungler / Escape 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. Voice: Bruce Miles (Responses)

Abilities

Rage Q R Ability Affects No Target Self Launch into a maddened rage, becoming immune to magic spells and gaining increased attack speed. Attack Speed Bonus: 30/45/60/80 Duration: 3/4/5/6 15 75 The madness and brutality of N'aix makes him a vicious and unrelenting foe in combat.

Notes: Activating Rage will dispel many buffs.

Feast W F Ability Affects Damage Passive Enemies Physical Regenerates a portion of the attacked enemy's current HP and deals the same portion of damage per attack. Life Leech: 4%/5%/6%/7% After escaping from his cell in Devarque, N'aix subsisted on flesh and bones of those unfortunate to cross his path.

Notes: The regeneration does not work on Roshan. Affects magic immune units. Heal works independent of damage. Lifesteal works on damage dealt by Feast, including Open Wounds.

Open Wounds E W Ability Affects Target Unit Enemies Lifestealer rends an enemy unit, slowing the victim's movespeed and allowing all allies to lifesteal on that unit. All damage dealt will steal life, including damage from spells. The victim recovers movement speed over the duration. Casting Range: 200/300/400/500 Duration: 8 Movement Speed Slow: 70% Life Leech: 15%/20%/25%/30% 24/20/16/12 110 Fresh wounds and the scent of blood often draw out the scavengers to finish the job.

Notes: Any damage dealt will activate lifesteal, including spell damage. Slows by 70%/70%/60%/50%/30%/10%/10%/10%, decreasing one step per second.

Infest R T Ability Affects Target Unit Units Lifestealer will infest the body of the target unit, lying dormant and undetectable inside. When he reveals himself, he deals damage to all nearby enemy units. The Lifestealer can gain experience from units that die while he is Infesting a unit. If the unit is a creep, he will devour it first, gaining health equal to the unit's current HP. Does not work on enemy Heroes. Damage: 150/270/400 Damage Radius: 700 100 50 With this infestation, N'aix consumes the life blood of the host, restoring him back to full unholy power.

Notes: If the infested unit dies before Lifestealer consumes it, no health is gained. N'aix is treated as banished for the purposes of spell detection upon infesting a target, disjointing most spells. In addition, damage is not taken from area spells nor any other spells that add damage onto other targets. (A side effect of banishment means he also will not gain gold from assists.)

Consume R T Ability Damage No Target Enemies Magical Lifestealer eats the host body from the inside out.

Notes: Lifestealer will not be healed if he is released as a result of the infected unit being killed or if it is an allied hero. Consume will not harm an allied hero that Lifestealer has infested.

Recommended items

Explanation: Armlet of Mordiggian is N'aix's core item due to his lifesteal. The player may have this item active throughout every fight, since his Feast ability negates the health loss. N'aix's Rage increases his attack speed, thus the players should aim for either Mjollnir or Skull Basher which are chance based items and with a higher attack speed it allows the items to proc more. Desolator increases Lifestealer's damage, lifesteal and eventually critical hits (if you chose to go for Daedalus or Crystalys) to hit incredibly hard against any targets. Assault Cuirass is sometimes more often used if your team wants to end the game fast and is pushing a lot as it gives a attack speed and armor bonus and decreases the armor of towers. Skull Basher / Abyssal Blade is situational, though it greatly improves the Lifestealer's attack capabilities, able to disable his prey long enough for him to tear down. If the enemy carry has evasion or has a way of making you miss attacks such as Riki's Smoke Screen or Brewmaster's Drunken Haze, get a Monkey King Bar as you will make these skills partially useless. Heart of Tarrasque will allow Lifestealer to keep Armlet of Mordiggian activated indefinitely, and gives him greater durability.

Trivia

• Lifestealer's fun/alternate name in DotA was Gollum, a significant character in the Lord of the Rings book series.
• The old version of Lifestealer was a Strength hero with an incredibly high Agility potential (+4.5), much more than almost all the Agility hero themselves. Despite being a Strength hero, he had poor overall Strength. His old skills were:
  • Feast used to be an aura-based lifesteal which stacks with lifesteal attack modifiers. Unlike the Skeleton King's Vampiric Aura, Feast only applies to himself. The high life gain and high Agility makes N'aix a vicious warrior of great survivability, able to take down the old mighty Roshan.
  • Poison Sting acts almost similar to Venomancer's Poison Sting, but the slow is more potent, and it's an attack modifier.
  • Anabolic Frenzy was also a passive ability that gave some attack and movement speed.
  • Rage used to be his ultimate, with a longer duration, but it increases attack damage instead of attack speed. Rage makes N'aix an already strong fighter more fearful and dangerous.

Update history

June 14, 2013 Patch

• Fixed allied cast Infest killing the creeps and healing you.

January 24, 2013 Patch

• Fixed Rage not removing certain buffs that BKB does ( Empower, Haste, etc).

September 13, 2012 Patch

• Beefed up Lifestealer's Open Wounds debuff effect.

August 09, 2012 Patch

• Fixed Ensnare not going away after using Infest.

August 02, 2012 Patch

• [Undocumented] Added Teleport animations for Beastmaster, Bounty Hunter, Broodmother, Clinkz, Lifestealer, Necrolyte and Shadow Shaman.

May 24, 2012 Patch

• Fixed Rage being dispellable.

May 17, 2012 Patch

• Added healing overhead messages for Mekansm, Chen, Lifestealer, Necrolyte, and Witch Doctor.
• Added bonus damage overhead message for Lifestealer's Feast.

May 10, 2012 Patch

• Fixed turn rates for the following heroes: Lifestealer, Alchemist, Clockwerk, Bounty Hunter, Dark Seer, Dazzle, Ancient Apparition, Brewmaster, Chen, Silencer, Lone Druid, Spectre and Spiritbreaker.
• Fixed Feast working against wards.

April 26, 2012 Patch

• [Undocumented] Updated the hero selection portrait.

April 12, 2012 Patch

• Fixed being able to hide inside an enemy Spirit Bear/Golem with Infest (wasn't doing damage to it though).
• Fixed Infest not removing buffs before jumping in.
• Fixed Feast bonus damage type allowing it to critical strike.

March 28, 2012 Patch

• Fixed being unable to Infest Mud Golems.

March 08, 2012 Patch

• Lifestealer now has his own variation on the lifesteal effect rather than using the generic one.
• Updated Lifestealer's Open Wounds and Infest effects for clarity.
• Added idle injured animations.

January 19, 2012 Patch

• [Undocumented] Added injured-animation for Lifestealer.

January 12, 2012 Patch

• Made Lifestealer's Rage effect slightly more subtle.
• Fixed Rage not properly dispelling negative debuffs
• Fixed Open Wounds healing towers.
• Fixed Infest not working on Mud Golems.

December 16, 2011 Patch

• Enabled Lifestealer and Death Prophet in Captain's Mode.
• Fixed a bug where ground blood wasn't showing up for a bloody Infest emerge.

December 08, 2011 Patch

• Fixed Feast working on denies.

December 02, 2011 Patch

• Fixed Feast not working properly.

December 01, 2011 Patch

• Added Lifestealer!

November 23, 2011 Patch

• [Undocumented] Added new icon for Lifestealer and all abilities.

Balance changelog

6.78

• Open Wounds cast range decreased from 600 to 200/300/400/500.

6.75

• Rage duration increased from 2.5/3.25/4/4.75 to 3/4/5/6.

6.72

• Infest reworked:

Old Infest:

Naix infests a target, hiding in it.

Regains health based on the HP the unit has when he gets out of it.

Level 1 Targets: Allied and Neutral Units,

Level 2/3 Targets: Enemy, Allied and Neutral Units,

HP Healed: Current Target HP (for level 1/2), Max Target HP (for level 3).

Cooldown: 100/60/30

Casting Range: 150

Manacost: 50

Note: This kills the infested unit.

New Infest:

Naix infests a target, hiding in it. When he comes out of a unit, he deals damage to all nearby enemy units.

Damage: 150/275/400

AOE: 700

Targets: Allied Heroes, Allied Creeps, Enemy Creeps (including neutrals).

If the unit is an enemy creep, Naix will devour it first, gaining health equal to the unit's current HP.

Cooldown: 100

Casting Range: 150

Manacost: 50

6.70

• Open Wounds team life steal increased from 10/15/20/25% to 15/20/25/30%.

6.68

• Base damage improved by 5.
• Casting Open Wounds no longer loses attack focus.

6.67

• Open Wounds cooldown from 30/25/20/15 to 24/20/16/12 .

6.65

• Movement speed increased from 300 to 315.

6.49

• Reworked.

Gallery

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  Splash artwork

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  Concept art

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  Concept art

See also

• Lifestealer responses