Fake Guide To Venomancer

Venomancer is a very versitile hero and, while he has a slow movement speed, he can initiate for his team and gank the whole game.

His stat growth isn't great, but his agi growth is quite nice and with the proper items he is still a worthwhile hero endgame, though he's no drow.

Skills


Shadow Strike: (Hotkey D)

"Hurls a poisoned dagger which deals large initial damage, and then deals damage over time. The poisoned unit has its movement speed slowed for a short duration. "

The initial damage and damage over time increase with levels, along with mana time and cool down. This skill's main use is as a slow, which it does quite well, but it's damage is quite nice early game as well. This is an important skill that you will use for ganking the whole game.

Poison Sting:

"Adds poison damage to this hero's normal attacks, slowing movement speed by 10%.
Lasts 7 seconds."

I'm not a huge fan of this skill, though one level of it is a good idea. Getting a lot of it early is good for harassing but it'll lose it's effectiveness quickly. As a special note, the DoT from this skill will NOT kill enemies, unlike Shadow Strike.


Plague Ward: (Hotkey W)

"Summons an immobile serpentine ward. The ward is immune to magic.
Lasts 40 seconds."

Another one of Veno's early game centric skills, Ward does decent damage and has a low manacost. These make for excellent farmers and will be the center of your early game. With a bit of mana regeneration you can spam them early for easy farming, allowing you to focus on harassing your enemy hero out of the lane.


Poison Nova: (Hotkey V)

"Creates a ring of noxious poison that damages enemy units over a 12 second period."

As this levels, damage and manacost increase and reuse time decreases. This is one of your main skills, if not your most important. The damage is excellent, it's AoE is huge and will hit all players involved in the fight, and it doesn't need to be targetted making it an easy to use and especially good initiation skill. It cannot kill the enemy, however, so if you want to make sure your DoTs score you a kill make sure Shadow Strike is on the one who you're aiming to kill.

Skills Progression
1. SS
2. Sting
3. Ward
4. Ward
5. SS
6. Nova
7. Ward
8. Ward
9. SS
10. SS
11. Nova
12. Stats
13. Stats
14. Stats
15. Stats
16. Nova
17. Stats
18. Stats
19. Stats
20. Stats
21. Stats
22. Stats
23. Sting
24. Sting
25. Sting


Item Build

2 Tangos
2 Circlets

STR Treads
2 Wraith Bands (Use circlets from start)

Lothar's Edge

Butterfly
Buriza

Item Explanation

All you need early game is tangos and circlets. Circlets will give you a bit of hp and a bit of mp, which is exactly what you need to get started. If you're having trouble supporting your wards, you can pick up some clarities too, or if you're going to focus on wards early you can opt for a sobi mask instead.

STR treads are important because you're going to need some extra HP at this point in the game, and I prefer the +10 STR from STR treads to Bracers. It's a personal choice, really, but I just like wraith bands and STR threads better.

Next up is Lothar's Edge, which is your quintessential ganking tool. This item makes you invisible, which is completely nasty combined with your Shadow Strike. Come up behind a low hero invisable, shadow strike them and shoot them while they struggle to run past you to the safety of their tower.

Finally butterfly. Butterfly is an excellent item, pumping your DPS considerably (securing your worth lategame) as well as giving you +30% evasion, which we need because Veno isn't all that tanky and this late in the game, physical damage is the brunt of the damage you'll be taking.

If the game drags on and on, pick up a buriza for the spike damage. This is really a personal choice and you could take lifesteal or skadi over it. Just be warned that Skadi's slow effect is overwritten by Poison Sting.

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This guide will be updated as time goes on. Ne