Disclaimer:After a successful 1st guide I am back, this time with Slither. This guide is meant to be straightforward and to the point. I will not go over basic skills like last hitting and ward placement, however, you can refer to Nome's guide on warding by following this link http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/showthread.php?t=4839
As the formatting of my other guide was considered acceptable by the vast majority of the forumers, I will use the same format in this guide.
Skills:
Poison Spray: Slither sprays a torrent of toxins toward a target location, infecting any enemies that come into contact with the torrent. Infected enemies take some initial damage followed by damage over time and reduced movement speed.
Target: Location
Type: Magic
Range: 800 Mana cost: 90/105/120/135
Cooldown: 22 seconds at all levels
Duration: 15 seconds at all levels
Allowed targets: Hostile, organic units
AoE: 125
Applies poison burst to targets for 15 seconds. 50/70/70/100 initial damage, 10/20/40/50 duration damage. Duration damage is dealt every 3 seconds, for 5 total ticks. Poison burst initially slows for 50% at all levels, movement speed is regained during a 10 second duration.
Notes: This is your bread and butter skill. It is incredibly powerful early game both for the slow and for its damage. Take note of the targeting type for this spell. It is NOT unit, it is location. NEVER target an enemy hero directly with this skill unless they are point blank. Once you are in range, aim poison spray slightly behind the target. There is no real excuse for missing poison spray and it makes you look like an idiot.
Toxicity: Slither adds poison damage to his attacks. His attacks then reduce movement speed and deal damage over time.
Type: Passive, Magic
Slows for -10% ms at all levels
Duration is 7 seconds at all levels
Deals 5/10/15/20 damage/second.
Allowed targets: Hostile, organic units
Toxicity is an attack modifier, it will not stack with other attack modifiers. Toxicity does not stack with itself.
Notes: An excellent passive, it becomes weaker as the game progresses but is incredibly powerful early on. The damage adds up quickly, and the slow, while minor, is certainly enough to get off multiple hits on a target.
Toxin Ward: Slither summons a ward at target location that will attack nearby enemies, dealing minor damage and slowing their movement speed. The ward is immune to magic.
Target: Location
Range: 850 at all levels
Mana cost: 20 at all levels
Duration: 40 seconds at all levels
Wards have an attack cooldown of 1.5 seconds at all levels.
Toxin Ward has 75/200/325/450 hit points, and 11/21/32/42 max damage. Toxin Ward does not actually slow, I believe that is a typo. Although not mentioned anywhere in the game, S2 does have different "combat types" that allows some attacks to do more/less damage against different targets, so the effectiveness of toxin ward against creeps and heroes is similar to what it is in Dota. My sincere thanks to S2Jason for pointing this out.
Notes: This is slither's scouting skill, with 850 range and 20 mana cost it is incredibly spammable. However, it is inferior to poison spray and toxicity unless you are soloing. Nevertheless, you will still be putting points into this skill. It helps you push lanes faster and can easily be used as temporary wards. A good slither will be casting this skill alot once he has it leveled. Map awareness is incredibly important.
Poison Burst: Slither expels poison in all directions. Enemies hit by the ring of poison become infected, taking damage over time. The damage is non-lethal and as such will not drain the target's health below 1 health. This skill can be improved by staff of the master
Target: Instant
Type: Magic
AoE: 950
Duration: 12 seconds at all levels
Mana cost: 200/300/400
Cooldown: 140/120/100(60*) seconds
Allowed Targets: Hostile, organic units
Effects: 36(58*)/58(81*)/81(108*) damage per second
(* shows the improved values when staff of the master is applied)
Notes: A very strong ult that is feared by virtually every hero early in the game. As the damage is magical, it can be nulled with magic immunity, and heavily reduced by shaman's headress. As the game goes on, chances are that this skill will pale in comparison to other AoE ults. In many cases this is due to increased hp regeneration and health pool.
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Core Analysis: This is where we analyze hero-specific stuff like stat/stat gain and movespeed. Slither's initial stats are not impressive whatsoever, and his stat gains are mediocre at best. +1.9 str gain/level will leave this hero squishy throughout the game, +2.6 agi gain/level is not sufficient for dps, and without any steroid skills, we will not bother. +1.8 int gain/level is decent, but you will find in many cases that it is just enough to get by, especially with his low base int of 15.
His base damage is low, he has decent range (450), and he is slow. 290 ms is nothing to be proud of. His base armor of 3 is rather average for an agi hero.
From this we can assume that naturally, slither is not a dps hero despite being an agi hero. His stats will be mediocre all game, and he is slow. However, his skills are incredibly potent early game and can easily bag early kills. We will play Slither with one purpose, and one purpose only. We will roam the map, ganking non-stop, babysit lanes when there is nowhere to gank, push with our team, and do our absolute best to be there at every fight. We will always carry homecoming stones and will always maintain map control. We will assure that slither's dominating early game is not wasted.
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Skill build:
1: Poison Spray
2: Toxicity
3: Poison Spray
4: Toxicity
5: Poison Spray
6: Poison Burst
7: Poison Spray (maxed out)
8: Toxicity
9: Toxicity (maxed out)
10: Toxin Ward
11: Poison Burst
12-14: Toxin Ward (maxed out)
15: Attribute Bonus
16: Poison Burst (maxed out)
17-25: Attribute Bonus
Poison spray is, as I mentioned many times already, incredibly strong early game and must be taken ASAP.
Toxicity has strong synergy with both poison spray and poison burst and will be taken secondary to poison spray.
Toxin Wards are useful for scouting and are useful for clearing creeps even later in the game. Slither's mana pool is not strong enough to support both toxin wards and poison spray early in the game though. We level this skill last, but it is still superior to stats.
Poison Burst is strong and should be taken at level 6, 11, and 16, no questions asked.
You might be wondering about the toxin ward spam build in both dual lanes and solo lanes. Imho it is an incredibly poor way to play Slither, and while it works to some degree, it doesn't make use of him as a ganker, but rather some strange ricer that attempts to rush staff of the master. I believe in getting you, the reader, on the right foot, so I will not advocate inferior ways to play Slither.
Item Build: Whether you are playing in pubs or competitive play, the item build with Slither will never, ever change.
-Monkey/winged courier (200/400 g)
-bottle (600 g)
-wards (both types, 200 g)
-fortified bracers (510 g)
-steamboots (1490 g)
-staff of the master (luxury, 4400 g) / portal key (luxury, 2150 g)
-Start off with either monkey courier or a set of wards, minor stat items and minor regen items. If you are in a pub you should almost certainly get the courier asap over wards, if you are in higher level play an ally might buy the courier, allowing you to buy wards right off the bat. Share courier control with your allies regardless. Slither's base mana is low, and so you will want some mana potions, I personally recommend two. Minor health regen, either in the form of runes or health potions is required, although in either case you will likely only need one set of runes/health potion.
- Maintain map control as early as possible with wards, particularly at the rune spawns. Farm both bottle and marchers, and buff your hp with fortified bracers, I recommend at least two if not three. Upgrade your marchers to steamboots, continue to pour your money into wards, and if the game drags on, you can begin to build up staff of the master.
Note that you will likely never get this far. I have played many games with both venomancer in dota and slither, and I am only able to farm staff of the master/agahnim's scepter like 15% of the time. The main benefit of staff of the master is not the damage increase but rather the cooldown decrease which only applies at level 3. I think it should be obvious that staff of the master is not core on Slither but rather a luxury. Portal key is also a strong alternative that can ensure you pull off a good poison burst, while some potential as an escaping tool. It is also a luxury though, so don't think you have to farm it to be successful.
Explanation: Slither is the ganker's choice, he is item-independent and needs little more then his skills to kill early in the game. Wards are THE core item on Slither and allow him to coordinate ganks with your allies. With a low mana pool and near-infinite roaming, bottle becomes a core item as well. Fortified bracers and steamboots are a necessary for a hero that will spend a good deal of time roaming, and as such will be likely underfarmed.
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Laning: Any lane is fine, but never take a solo lane. It is a good idea to have vision of a rune spawn when the first rune spawns, allowing for a potential bloodlust. Be wary though, as the other team may try to do the same. Your goal in lane is to harrass the opponents in your lane. Farming is not a priority. Combos like electrician slither and PP slither is more then enough to net an early kill in your lane. However, your other teammates will need your ganks as well. Keep a homecoming stone with you (buy them from the sideshop while in-lane) and tp to the other lanes when you see the potential for a kill. Maintain map control with wards and control the runes as best as you can. Communication is key.
Ganking: Get within range of the intended victim and cast poison spray, followed by poison burst. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ENOUGH MANA TO USE BOTH. The combo takes 320 mana at level 6, 335 mana at level 7, 435 mana at level 11, and 535 mana at level 16. If you intend to gank and your ult is up, make sure you meet the criteria. Do not autoattack the target. Move closer as soon as your attack is released, allowing you to better position yourself for the next attack.
Team fights: Not much difference then ganking, except that you will probably want to cast poison burst first instead of poison spray, in case you get focus-fired and die an untimely death. Due to the nature of poison burst, it is one of those ults you want to get off ASAP in a fight.
Other: By the time toxin ward is leveled, be sure you use it both to scout and push, 850 range is very solid and should not be underestimated. You should be casting toxin ward as soon as it is leveled, by level 10. Poison spray can be used to push lanes if you want, but there is a golden rule when playing Slither: ALWAYS HAVE ENOUGH MANA FOR THE POISON BURST+SPRAY COMBO.
And so we come to the end of my second guide. Slither is an incredibly straightfoward hero to play. There are just some key things you have to remember:
1) gank, gank, and gank. Buy items that will help you gank, these include homecoming stones, bottle, and wards.
2) Always have enough mana for the Poison spray+burst combo if Poison burst is not on cooldown.
3) Use toxin wards as point 2 permits. Even at low levels the sight alone makes the skill useful.
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