Night Stalker

Night Stalker
Night Stalker
The Dire
The Dire
Movement Speed	295
Turn Rate	0.5
Sight Range	1200/1800
Attack Range	Melee
Missile Speed	Instant
Attack Duration	0.55+0.55
Cast Duration	0.3+0.3
Base Attack Time	1.7

From Dota 2 Wiki

Jump to: navigation, search

Balanar the Night Stalker is a unique melee Strength hero in that his skills are affected by the time of day during the game. During daytime, he is weaker than a hero of an equal level, especially in the early game. But once the sun goes down, Balanar's real power is unleashed, becoming the beast known as the Night Stalker. His Void damages and slows his target to a crawl as he pursues them. Crippling Fear prevents his enemy from attacking Balanar, silencing them and causing their attacks to miss, making him an effective counter against spellcasters and physical attackers. Hunter in the Night is what defines the Night Stalker. He becomes a brutal and merciless hunter during the night, with supernatural attack speed and movement speed, which allows Balanar to chase and savagely attack his victim. Darkness creates a period of darkness for the Night Stalker to enjoy and use his abilities to the fullest. Though the Night Stalker is feeble and isn't much of a danger in daytime, it's too late when the light of the day begins to fade. When the night beckons, the Night Stalker rises. Poor souls would likely never survive his horror in the dark fields and would never see daylight again.

[edit] Bio

Balanar, the Night Stalker
Play "Day walker, night stalker."
Role:	Durable / Initiator
Lore:	Of the Night Stalker, there is no history, only stories. There are ancient tales woven into the lore of every race and every culture, of an impossible time before sunlight and daytime, when night reigned alone and the world was covered with the creatures of darkness--creatures like Balanar the Night Stalker. It is said that on the dawn of the First Day, all the night creatures perished. All, that is, save one. Evil's embodiment, Night Stalker delights in his malevolence. He created the primal role of the Night Terror, the Boogeyman, and as long as there have been younglings, his is the specter summoned to terrify them. This is a role he relishes; nor are these empty theatrics. He does indeed stalk the unwary, the defenseless, those who have strayed beyond the lighted paths or denied the warnings of their communities. Night Stalker serves as living proof that every child's worst nightmare....is true.
Voice:	Tony Todd (Responses)

[edit] Abilities

Void

Ability	Affects	Damage
Target Unit	Enemies	Magical

Creates a damaging void that slows an enemy unit and deals damage. Void also mini-stuns, interrupting channeling abilities. The slowing effect lasts longer at night.

Day Duration: 2
Night Duration: 4
Move Slow: 50%
Attack Slow: 35%
Damage: 90/160/255/335
Range: 525

8	80/90/100/110

Balanar creates a vortex of infinite night, tearing opponents violently into the eternal darkness that once was.

Notes:

Does full damage during the daytime but only slows for 2 seconds.

Crippling Fear

Ability	Affects
Target Unit	Enemies

Night Stalker horrifies the target enemy Hero, causing it to miss attacks and become silenced. The effect lasts longer at night.

Day Duration: 3
Night Duration: 5/6/7/8
Day Chance to Miss: 10%
Night Chance to Miss: 40%
Range: 500

12

90

A vision of the twisted maw of Balanar etches itself into the minds of the poor souls unlucky enough to cross his path.

Notes:

Causes 10% miss and silences for 3 seconds at all levels during daytime.

Hunter in the Night

Ability	Affects
Passive	Self

Night Stalker is in his element at night, attacking and moving with great swiftness.

Move Speed: 20%/25%/30%/35%
Attack Speed: 45/55/65/75

The hunting prowess of Balanar improves as the night beckons.

Notes:

This ability only works at night.

Darkness

Ability
No Target

Night Stalker smothers the sun and summons instant darkness, so that he might use his powers at their fullest. When used at night, it extends night time by Darkness' duration.

Duration: 25/50/80 seconds

180/150/120

Grants unobstructed vision in the night. The improved vision does not depend on using Darkness.

It is a humbling sight to see when the mightiest of warriors become afraid of the dark.

Notes:

With Aghanim's Scepter the Night Stalker will get unobstructed vision at night, meaning that trees and terrain will not block his vision.

In contrast to how Aghanim's Scepter works with other heroes, this improvement does not have anything to do with his ultimate (Darkness), but instead is active all the time.

This skill pauses the current time, so if it's cast at night it prolongs it.

[edit] Recommended items

Explanation:
Early-game Items

An early Urn of Shadows can be used not only to remedy Night Stalker's mana issues, but also to assist your teammates or finish off weak enemies.

Core items:

Phase Boots provide Night Stalker with both a nice speed boost and extra hitting power. Its active ability, Phase, can also stack with Hunter in the Night's movement speed, allowing Night Stalker to either chase down an enemy or escape.
Vanguard provides health regeneration and durability if you wish to be the first to initiate in team fights.

Situational items:

Black King Bar makes Night Stalker immune to most crowd control and disables throughout ganking situations while providing him more survivability.
Assault Cuirass is an excellent item. Not only does its attack speed stack with Night Stalker's Hunter in the Night, it also provides armor for your allies while decreasing enemy armor.
Armlet of Mordiggian provides more attack speed, damage and capability to tank, allowing Night Stalker to perform at his finest throughout team fights.
Aghanim's Scepter grants Night Stalker unobstructed vision at night, allowing him to gank or counter-gank more efficiently. However beware that the Aghanim's Scepter does absolutely nothing at daytime.
Skull Basher, which can be upgraded into Abyssal Blade, is used in conjunction with Night Stalker's naturally high attack speed during night time to permanently stun your enemies in place, allowing you or your allies to clean up.
Heart of Tarrasque boosts Night Stalker's health regeneration and provides the greatest amount of Strength per item in the game. It can be used to remedy the degeneration of Armlet and heal Balanar after a long fight.

[edit] Tips

Void is the best skill to max early, as the damage increase and slow allow you to use it to kill your desired target.
Crippling Fear is most effective during the night. Use it when you are ganking during the night time. An enemy affected by Crippling Fear will be silenced and blinded, making the ability a powerful debuff on your target.
Balanar has one of the highest overall defense in the game with a starting armor of 5, one of the highest Strength in the game, and the third highest Agility among Strength heroes. Balanar is a powerful semi-carry with great durability and an amazing skillset.
Hunter in the Night empowers his attack speed and movement speed superbly during the night, making him the best ganker during the earliest parts of the game.
Night Stalker will greatly benefit from being on the same team as a Luna. Her Lunar Blessing will give her bonus damage as well as full night vision (although Balanar already has the highest night sight range in the game) and her Eclipse will turn the time of the day to night for 10 seconds. This 10 seconds is often significant enough for the Night Stalker to set in and go for the kill.
Using Darkness during night time will prolong the duration of the night, allowing Night Stalker to ultimately change the time to his favor.
During the night, most heroes have below average vision, rendering them to be ineffective on chases and gives enemies a chance to hide the blind spot. Night Stalker, however, is at home in this time and has full vision, allowing him to effectively chase without getting obscured on his sight. With Aghanim's Scepter, he gains full unobstructed vision, allowing to see through trees, higher terrains, and even spy at Roshan in his base.

[edit] Trivia

Some people call him "The Legal Map Hack" after getting Aghanim's Scepter due to the unobstructed vision at night.
Night Stalker is one of the few heroes to have 1800 night vision instead of the usual 800. However, he is the only hero with less than 1800 daytime vision.
- From patch 6.78 onwards, Batrider has 1400 sight range during day time, meaning that Night Stalker is no longer the sole hero with less than 1800 day vision.

[edit] Update history

May 24, 2013 Patch

Updated Night Stalker Darkness sound and made it global for teammates.

January 17, 2013 Patch

Fixed Night Stalker's darkness indicator persisting across games.

January 03, 2013 Patch

Added Night Stalker Darkness graphic to day/night clock.

November 15, 2012 Patch

Fixed Night Stalker losing his wings at night.

August 02, 2012 Patch

[Undocumented] Added new attack sounds for Night Stalker.

July 26, 2012 Patch

[Undocumented] Added spawn animations for Earthshaker, Night Stalker, Shadow Demon, Tidehunter, Tinker.
[Undocumented] Added teleport start and end animations for Earthshaker, Pudge, Night Stalker, Shadow Demon, Tidehunter, Tinker.
[Undocumented] Added Haste Rune Run animations for Night Stalker and Pudge.
[Undocumented] Added the following animations to Night Stalker: Injured Run, Injured Idle, Victory and Defeat.

April 19, 2012 Patch