Nyx Assassin Guide by LeBron
Artist: Valve
Author:
LeBron & Co.
Date: 01/2019
Tags:
text
Nyx Assassin
Analysis
Builds
Mechanics
Tactics

Welcome

Welcome to Lebron's Book of the Nyx Assassin, a hero guide part of the Book of Dota series!

Here you will find all the information you need to learn to play Nyx on a high level – from drafting and builds to the optimal playstyle in different lanes and situations. We hope you’ll enjoy this guide and find it useful!

Lebron Nyx Stats
TL;DR:

Draft: You can afford to pick Nyx early into the draft because of his versatility. Nonetheless, you prefer to pick him later when you see greedy farmers, split pushers or high INT cores on the enemy team that you can counter. Moreover, always make sure your team has good follow-up to your initiation because if you don’t have kill potential you will have trouble ganking and your impact will be low.

Early Game: Roam around the map and try to win the lanes for your cores by burning the mana of the enemy farmers and trying to gank with your stun. Exchange hits and abuse your high HP regen. If you are a core – get resources in the lane and get lvl6 as fast as possible. Once you have it setup kills on the enemy cores with it.

Mid & Late Game: Provide as much vision and map control to your team as you can. Find pick-offs together with the best gankers on your team and help your teammates take over the map. Once you have the resource advantage, 5-man, claim objectives and end the game. In 5-man fights don’t position yourself too greedy with Vendetta. Be in the right place and time to counter-initiate and control the fight for your cores.

Authors

Nikola "LeBronDota" Popović
Endorsement & Info

LeBron is a professional Dota player currently playing support for EPG.

He rose to fame after finishing first in a season of the Faceit Pro League - a very impressive feat for a support player. Later he found success in various pro teams, including EPG and Na'Vi.

Nikolay "CTOMAHEH1" Kalchev
Info & Editing

CTOMAHEH1 started his pro career as a support in Basically Unknown together with Mind Control. Since then he has consistently been playing on the European T2 scene, most recently on Unchained Esports. 

His highest placement on the EU ladder is top 100 - he plays all roles (mainly support), which is untypical for high-ranking players and shows his great versatility and understanding of the game.

Kyril "MrNiceGuy" Kotashev
PM, Writing & Editing

Esports and gaming enthusiast since forever and founder of Dotahaven.

Has been playing Dota since 2005 (5.84). An Ancient I player in Dota 2.

Nyx, Nyx, Nyx, Nyx!

Nyx Assassin is one of the strongest dedicated gankers in Dota 2. He brings to the game a lot of nuke damage in combination with good AoE control spells, which allows him to initiate ganks/fights for his allies or even get solo kills. Nyx’s skill set makes him a flexible laner and a versatile hero overall. If you play him well enough you can have a lot of fun as Nex can snowball in pubs without needing to farm. Nonetheless, he is not an easy hero.

He is often played in different roles. Nevertheless, he is usually either a solo farming utility hero in the offlane or a roaming support. Whatever his lane or role in the game, his play style revolves around pressuring opponents through ganks and creating space for his teammates. Consequently, Nyx fits ganking strategies best but could be useful in most situations.

Nyx Loadout
Stats
Level 1
Level 15
Level 25
STR
19
Low
51
Low
74
Low
AGI
19
High
49
High
71
High
INT
18
Medium
47
Medium
68
Medium
Attack
46-50
Low
76-80
Very Low
98-102
Very Low
Armor
4.08
Very High
10.96
High
15.36
High
Resistance
26
Medium
28
Medium
29
Medium
HP
542
Low
1121
Low
1535
Low
MP
291
Medium
639
Medium
891
Medium
MS
298
Medium
304
Medium
308
High
STRENGTHS

MAJOR

One of the best gankers in the game:
Nyx is simply one of the best gankers in Dota 2 – the hero has the initiation (Vendetta), control (Impale) and burst damage (Vendetta, Impale, Mana Burn) to easily pick off lone heroes. This allows him to constantly pressure the enemy team and create space for his allies.

Reliable Laner:
Nyx is definitely not a lane dominator, but he is a consistent and reliable laner. He has a very high base HP regen which makes it hard for the enemy team to harass him and zone him out. Thanks to his skill set he is also very survivable and could (if given the mana sustain) farm and harass with Impale.

Scales well into the late game:
Unlike most support/utility heroes Nyx scales well as the game progresses. Not only does he become stronger with levels and items, but his spell Mana Burn becomes more and more efficient as enemy heroes get a lot of INT in the late game.

MINOR

Versatile hero, Flexible laner:
Nyx could be played in different roles (usually 3 or 4) and different lanes, which makes it hard for the enemy team to figure out what you intend to do with the hero and counter your plan. In addition, his flexible skill and item builds allow him to adapt to the specific game well and be useful in different situations and fit different lineups.

WEAKNESSES

MAJOR

Level Dependent:
Nyx is a very level dependent hero – he needs his lvl 6 as fast as possible to be able to rotate and gank efficiently. Moreover, he needs all of his spells maxed (ideally his ultimate as well) to have as much nuke damage and control as possible.

Bad Early Game Support:
Nyx is a bad babysitter early on and not particularly good at rotations before he gets to level 6. This makes him a greedy support pick that doesn’t contribute a lot towards winning the early laning stage. If he and his teammates are getting pressured early on, he could have trouble finding the farm and levels that he needs to start rotating efficiently.

Item Dependent Early On:
Nyx has a whole arsenal of mana intensive spells and even though his mana pool isn’t bad for an AGI hero, he struggles without items that increase his MP and mana sustain. This makes him quite item dependent early on for a utility hero/support.

MINOR

Hard to Land Spells:
Most of Nyx’s spells are relatively hard to land and because of this the hero is fairly difficult to play and unreliable in some situations. His stun is a skill shot and because of the relatively long cast animation, landing it is not an easy task and requires practice. Spiked Carapace is all about perfect timing because it is relatively easy for your opponents to see you activating it and not focusing you at all. Vendetta is theoretically very easy to land, however, with this spell you always have to be extra cautious about detection and have to make the decision whether to go for the Vendetta hit into stun or the more reliable but weaker direct stun out of invisibility

Replays

Mineski vs Optic Gaming, ESL One Birmingham 2018

MATCH ID 3909857306
Replay

Jabz plays a roaming Nyx against Optic Gaming. He roams actively the whole laning stage, but he spends most of his time on the offlane to help his Brew and to pressure the enemy hard carry Morph.

He is playing against ET and Underlord – two AOE heroes who are relatively easy to bully with the Carapace Stun. The ET finishes the game with a stat of 0-11, partly thanks to the pressure Nyx applies to him in fights.

Jabz finishes the game having participated in 26 out of 37 kills and with very significant hero damage for a roaming Nyx without farm.

PSG.LGD vs VGJ Storm, MDL Changsha

MATCH ID 3902849890
Replay

Chalice plays an offlane Nyx in an offensive dual lane with his support Jakiro (xNova). LGD likely go for this laning setup because Nyx is amazing against KOTL (the safe lane support of VGJS) and quite good vs Gyro. The plan is to slow down the development of the Gyro while LGD’s two cores are farming freely.

Note that after the laning stage VGJ is counting on their Enigma to control fights for them and enable their Gyro to deal damage and win them the fight. Stopping Enigma’s Black Hole is relatively easy for a Nyx before the Enigma gets a BKB. Moreover, Nyx is quite good at scouting Enigma’s positioning and Spectre is amazing at canceling Enigma’s Blink, which makes this an almost impossible game for Sneyking (the Enigma player) and he finishes the game with a stat of 0-7-6 even though he got very good farm in the laning stage.

Drafting

Generally speaking, you want to pick Nyx to counter easy to pick off squishy heroes or very high INT heroes. The hero, however, is versatile and could fit quite well in diverse situations and lineups.

Nyx’s main contribution is his ability to scout and initiate ganks and fights – two universally useful skills in Dota. Because of this, he fits various strategies well - for example, he could be one of the main gankers in a ganking lineup while bringing team fight potential to the team. Likewise, he could be the initiator/counter-initiator in a 5-man strat while bringing a lot of ganking potential to the team.

The main and prevalent reason to draft him is to make use of his amazing ganking potential. If the enemy team is running a passive farming/split-pushing strategy, having the pressure of Vendetta could be game-changing.

Nyx could also be picked to directly counter very high INT heroes like OD, Storm, Silencer, and Sky, especially if they are played in a farming role.

Support Nyx

Nyx Assassin is not a bad babysitter, because he can use Mana Burn to weaken his lane opponents and exchange harass favorably thanks to Spiked Carapace and his high regen. Nevertheless, he is usually played as a roaming support because he is more level and farm dependent than most hard supports and because his stun/nuke make him a decent ganker even early on when he has enough MS.

Once he gets lvl 6 he can set up kills for his team even more easily. As a support Nyx you usually wouldn’t be able to get solo kills, however, if you have good follow up by your teammates you can still threaten the enemy cores a great deal.

Solo Offlane Nyx

Thanks to his survivability and high base HP regeneration Nyx could do relatively well in the offlane. The reason to put him there is to secure good XP gain for him while leaving the mid lane to a more farm dependent hero.

If the enemy team doesn’t have a very powerful safe lane with kill potential the Nyx will be able to get almost solo XP because it is quite difficult to zone him out. Against powerful kill combos, however, the hero could struggle – this is a problem because he cannot rotate into the jungle and he is bad at rotating before lvl 6.

Solo Mid Nyx

The main reason to pick Nyx solo mid is to give him the best possible start. In this lane, he will have access to solo experience which means he will get lvl 6 as fast as possible and will be able to start ganking with Vendetta from very early on.

Because of his high regeneration and Spiked Carapace he is hard to harass and zone out. Nevertheless, you shouldn’t expect him to win his lane and slow down the development of the enemy mid laner. Nyx is in the lane to secure his own levels and to start ganking from early on.

Realistically speaking Nyx is not a 2nd position hero as he doesn’t have enough carry potential. When you play him mid you usually stop prioritizing farm and start prioritizing ganking or sticking with your team – you play like a support/utility hero.

Synergy

Good friends to have are:

Mobile gankers: Spirit Breaker, Storm Spirit, Clockwerk, NS, QoP

Spirit breaker
Storm spirit
Clockwerk
Night Stalker
Queen of pain
Picking mobile gankers with Nyx could create a very powerful ganking strategy.

Nyx is very good at finding gank targets with Vendetta. Unless he is very farmed, however, he will struggle to find solo kills. Because of this, he works very well with mobile gankers that can follow up his initiation and secure the kill.

Heroes with global presence:  NP, Zeus, AA, Specter, Invoker

Nature's Prophet Portrait
Zeus Portrait
Ancient Apparition Portrait
Spectre Portrait
Invoker
Global heroes work very well with Nyx because they can very easily help him finish off his gank targets.

Global heroes work very well with Nyx for the same reason as mobile gankers. When the hero finds a gank target such heroes can help him finish it off whenever he is on the map. The more nuke damage such heroes have, the better. 

Nuke Damage:  Visage, QoP, Zeus, Lina

Visage
Queen of pain
Zeus Portrait
Lina
When Nyx is partnered with another hero with high nuke damage the duo can get very fast pock-offs in fights or ganks.

Combining Nyx with other heroes with high nuke damage can help your team get pick-offs very efficiently – with Nyx’s initiation and own nuke damage even relatively tanky target are in danger of getting burst down. 

Counters

Weak Against:

Tanks: DK, Centaur, Tide Hunter, Bristleback, Axe, Night Stalker

Dragon knight
Centaur
Tidehunter Portrait
Bristle Portrait
Axe Portrait
Night Stalker
Getting pick-offs against tanks is a hard task if you rely only on Nyx’s nuke damage.

Nyx’s nuke damage is usually insufficient to threaten very high HP heroes. This means that finding pick-offs on such characters is very difficult and because of this, the pressure that Nyx applies to the enemy team is significantly lower.

Silences: Silencer, DP, Night Stalker, Orchid Carriers

Silencer
Death prophet
Night Stalker
Orchid
Silences might force you to go for an unusual defensive item build.

Nyx relies heavily on his spells to stay alive and to be able to have an impact in fights. While silenced, the hero has big trouble contributing and even staying alive since he rarely goes for items that counter silences (Manta, BKB).

Spell Immunity: Naix, Omni Knight, Juggernaut, BKB carriers

Lifestealer Portrait
Omniknight portrait
Juggernaut
Black King Bar
Team fighting with Nyx against spell immune targets is quite hard.

Spell immunity doesn’t only lower Nyx’s impact in fights (his disables and most of his nukes are magical) but makes it harder for him to survive. The reason is that he is reliant on the Spiked Carapace stun to get out of bad situations and he cannot stun spell immune targets.

Strong Against:

High INT heroes: OD, Storm, Skywrath Mage, Pugna, QoP, Puck

Outworld Devourer
Storm spirit
Skywrath Mage Portrait
Pugna
Queen of pain
Puck Portrait
Nyx is a powerful counter to high INT heroes thanks to his Mana Burn.

Mana Burn is a direct counter to all heroes with high intelligence. If such heroes are farmers and tend to go for INT items – even better. The reason is that the spell scales with the amount of INT on the target. In the late game against such heroes, Mana Burn becomes a 4 sec CD very high damage nuke with the added utility of burning mana.

Initiators relying on a spell combo: Batrider, Magnus, Dark Seer, Puck, Shaker

Batrider
Magnus Portrait
Dark Seer
Puck Portrait
Earthshaker Portrait
Carapace makes it impossible for initiators to cast a second spell right away.

Spiked Carapace is very strong against initiators, especially if they rely on casting a combination of spells. If Nyx activates Carapace in time, the initiator’s first spell will end up stunning him. This will disallow him from using the second spell immediately after to complete the combo. For example, after casting an RP on Nyx with Carapace on, a Mag wouldn’t be able to Skewer for 2.4 seconds which is a long time. This tactic is easiest to use against heroes with AoE initiation.

AoE Nukers: KotL, QoP, Puck, Lesh, ET, Tinker, OD, Phoenix, Luna, Bristle

Keeper of the Light
Queen of pain
Puck Portrait
Leshrac
Elder titan
Tinker
Outworld Devourer
Phoenix
Luna
Bristle Portrait
Nyx is a good hero to have in team fights against AoE nukes.

Using Spiked Carapace against heroes with big AoE nukes is relatively easy. If you manage to reflect a high damage spell (Sonic Wave, Illuminate, etc.), you will deal very significant damage to the caster and the stun might allow you to follow up with Impale and your other spells to secure a kill.

Even if the damage you reflect isn’t that significant, the stun will allow you to follow-up with Impale an disable the enemy very easily for a long time.

Squishy Heroes: KotL, Skywrath Mage, Ancient Apparition, Sniper, CM, Witch Doctor

Keeper of the Light
Skywrath Mage Portrait
Ancient Apparition Portrait
Sniper
Crystal Maiden
Witch Doctor
Nyx could solo kill low HP heroes throughout the game especially if he is in a farming position and has a lvl advantage.

As all powerful nukers, Nyx is a decent counter to low HP squishy heroes – he will be able to solo-kill such characters much easier than most other targets. Squishy supports are the most vulnerable, however, low HP farmers that don’t tend to go for a BKB are also good targets.

Mana Dependent heroes: Wraith King, Medusa, Storm

Wraith King
Medusa
Storm spirit
Nyx’s Mana Burn is a big problem for heroes that are very mana dependent.

Nyx counters directly mana dependent heroes by removing a resource they desperately need. For example, a Mana Burn on WK after he has used Wraithfire Blast could mean that the hero doesn’t have enough mana for Reincarnation which is a big problem.

Skills

nyx impale
nyx mana burn
Nyx Spiked Carapace
Nyx Vendetta
Burrow

Rock spikes burst from the earth along a straight path. Enemy units are hurled into the air, then are stunned and take damage when they fall.

STATS

Cast Animation: 0.1+0.97

Cast Range: 550/575/600/625

Stun Radius: 325

Lift Duration: 1.1/1.5/1.9/2.3

Stun Duration: 1/1.25/1.5/1.75

Max Throw Distance: 375

CD: 28/26/24/22

Mana: 125

Impale

Impale is a spammable nuke/disable and one of your main tools for fights ganks, or even just farming. The spikes travel in a straight line damaging and stunning everything on their way.

The Spikes have an AoE width of 125. In practice, this means that you can hit units that are up to 825 away from you (700 + 125).

The most important mechanical aspect of the spell is that you cannot target heroes with it – you can only target the ground. This makes Impale a skill shot and you need to actually aim it in order to hit targets.

Aiming:

Spikes travel at a 1600 speed outward, which means they reach the maximum 700 range for a bit less than half a second. Nevertheless, if you take the 0.4 cast point into account this means that in practice the spikes will reach the 700 range almost a second after you click on the ground. Because of this if you are aiming at targets that are further away you need to take their movement into account – you need to aim at where you think they will be standing in a bit less than a second.

Because of this, in theory it should be more difficult to land long range Impales. Short range ones, however, are deceptively hard and you should take into account the hero movement as well (but make just a slight adjustment, don’t overdo it).

Set up:

Generally speaking, it is always better to use Impale after another ally has used a more reliable disable to set up for your hard-to-land stun.

Another option is to use your own Spiked Carapace to setup stuns – activate it as an enemy is attacking you (or preferably casting a high damage spell) and cast your Impale while the enemy hero is still stunned from Carapace.

Quite often you will have to land Impales without setup, however, so it is worth it to practice doing so to get used to the spell and get a feeling where to aim to hit targets.

Destroys the target hero's mana equal to a multiplier of its Intelligence, and deals damage equal to the mana burned.

STATS

Cast Animation: 0.4+0

Cast Range: 600

Mana Burned per Intelligence: 3.5/4/4.5/5

Mana Burned as Damage: 100%

CD: 28/20/12/4

Mana: 100

Mana Burn

Mana Burn is mechanically quite straightforward – it burns the mana of a target equal to 3.5/4/4.5/5 x INT of the target. The spell also deals damage equal to the mana burned. This means that at max level if you target an enemy hero with 100 INT you will burn 500 mana and will deal 500 magical damage.

In the early stages of the game, the spell is mainly used for its utility – you can greatly reduce the laning presence of some mana dependent heroes by repeatedly burning their mana. In the later stages of the game, however, Mana Burn becomes a very powerful nuke – it does very high damage against heroes with high INT but even more importantly it has only 4 seconds CD, which means you can use it multiple times within a single fight.

This gives you a choice regarding the spell in fights:

  1. To target the heroes, which are most mana dependent in order to reduce their impact by disallowing them to cast all their spells.
  2. To target the highest INT targets in order to nuke them down.

When activated while above ground, Spiked Carapace reflects and negates damage dealt to Nyx Assassin (max once from each source), as well as stunning the source of the damage. Activating Spiked Carapace will not break Vendetta invisibility.
While Burrowed, Spiked Carapace instantly stuns nearby enemies when cast.

STATS

Cast Animation: 0+0

Burrow Stun Radius: 300

Damage Reflected: 100%

Carapace Duration: 2.25

Stun Duration: 0.6/1.2/1.8/2.4

CD: 25/20/15/10

Mana: 40

Spiked Carapace

Spiked Carapace reflects fully (after reduction) the damage from ONE instance to the dealer of the damage and stuns him/her for a duration. The damage FROM Carapace doesn’t get reduced further as it is Pure. It reflects only hero damage, damage from summons or neutrals is not reflected.

The most important mechanical aspect of the spell is that it is instant – this makes it very easy to activate in time when you see a unit is about to hit you (the beginning of a cast/attack animation) or a projectile flying at you.

The relatively big CD of Carapace (especially at low levels), however, means that you need to be careful when you use it. It could be a great way to disable targets in fights and you might want to use it right away if you have the opportunity. Nevertheless, the spell is also one of your main escape mechanisms and using it too early might leave you open and vulnerable to get focused.

Since the spell returns the damage only from one instance, the stun is usually the more valuable aspect. It is true that you could, in theory, reflect the damage from e.g. a Finger of Death, however, this is hard and unreliable and you shouldn’t save the spell especially for such a use. Most of the time you want to make use of the stun by reflecting any possible damage.

A good way to reliably activate Carapace is to walk inside the range of AoE abilities (e.g. Batrider’s Firefly).

Carapace is a big part of your initiation potential. If you see opponents using AoE spells you can jump or walk in with activated Carapace for an instant stun and you can follow-up with Impale.

Bear in mind that you can activate Carapace inside Vendetta without breaking your invisibility. This is very useful for initiating with Vendetta – if you enter a fight while AoE spells are active with your Carapace and Vendetta, you will be able to set up for your Vendetta hit and Impale very easily. Moreover, activating Carapace just as you approach is not a bad idea in case the enemy team has Sentries nearby and wants to focus you down before you initiate.

Allows Nyx Assassin to become invisible and gain a speed bonus. If Nyx Assassin attacks to break the invisibility, massive bonus damage is dealt with the attack. Applies a break status on the enemy for 4 seconds.

STATS

Cast Animation: 0+0

Fade Time: 0

Damage: 250/400/550

Move Speed Bonus: 16%/18%/20%

Duration: 40/50/60

Break Duration: 4

CD: 70/60/50

Mana: 140/200/260

Aghanim's Scepter

Grants the Burrow ability.

Vendetta

Vendetta is a generic Shadow Walk ability (works identically to the one from the item SB or the one BH has) – it turns Nyx invisible for a period of time and gives him bonus damage the first time he attacks while Vendetta is active.

Offensive Use:

The spell is your main initiation tool and the high physical nuke damage is essential for getting solo kills, especially early on. Your kill combo usually consists of Vendetta hit into Impale into Mana Burn and attacks to finish the kill. This will give you the maximum possible nuke damage, however, using the Vendetta hit first will make landing your Impale harder (it will give your opponent time to react, change direction to dodge or simply use an escape mechanism).

In the ideal scenario, an ally will be able to use a disable to set up for your stun. If you are the initiator, however, you will have to make a decision whether to hit out of Vendetta or to use the stun right away (which is the more reliable initiation but decreases your nuke potential a great deal).

The rule of thumb is that if you have allies backing you up that have enough damage to secure the kill, it is better to use Impale directly out of invisibility. If this is not the case and you need your nuke damage to secure the kill you wouldn’t have the luxury to use directly the stun and you will have to try to execute the full combo.

The target you are focusing could also help you decide whether to go for the full combo or for the safer option. Generally speaking, it is better to directly use stun on targets with a BKB, Blink or other fast escape mechanisms. Also, it is better to initiate on targets with instant disables from behind (this way their turn rate will give you the needed time to cast Impale).

If you are initiating into multiple opponents activating Spiked Carapace could keep you safe for a while and disallow them to effectively counter-initiate.

You need to keep true sight in mind and always check the inventories of opponents before you go in – you can easily get yourself killed if you walk into enemies that actually see you.

Defensive Use:

Vendetta amplifies the MS of Nyx which is useful for chasing down targets or running away. The spell also has an instant cast animation and a fade time of 0 seconds, which makes it a very powerful survivability tool, provided your opponents have no true sight.

Duration and CD:

Initially, the spell has a relatively long CD and usually, you would want to use it only for kill attempts – if you are forced to use it as an escape mechanism you will have to wait for the CD to go on the aggressive. As you level it up, however, the duration of the spell increases and the cooldown decreases.  At lvl 18 the duration will be greater than the CD – this theoretically allows you to stay invisible all the time.

If you initiate with Vendetta in the final few seconds of the duration you will be able to use it again almost immediately. If you activate it and use it right away, however, you will have to wait the whole 50 seconds CD. Because of this, it is a good idea to move around the map inside Vendetta so that when you find a target and initiate there wouldn’t be a lot of time left on the CD.

Nyx Assassin buries himself beneath the battlefield over a short duration. Once burrowed, Spiked Carapace instantly stuns nearby enemies when cast, the range of Mana Burn and Impale is increased, and Impale's cooldown is decreased. While burrowed, Nyx Assassin is stationary, unable to attack and invisible. His health and mana regeneration are also increased, and he gains damage reduction from all damage sources.

STATS

Cast Animation: 1.51.5 + 0.1
0.1

Fade Time: 0

Max Health/Mana Regenerated per Second: 1.5%

Incoming Damage Reduction: 40%

Impale Cast/Travel Range Increase: 525

Impale Cooldown Reduction: 7

Mana Burn Cast Range Increase: 450

Spiked Carapace Radius: 300


Burrow

Requires Aghanim’s to be unlocked!

Burrow is insanely useful in mid and late game team fights for two main reasons:

Once, it increases the effectiveness of your other spells. The range of Impale and Mana Burn are increased, the CD of impale is decreased, Carapace becomes and instant AoE stun if someone walks on top of you (in 300 radius).

Two, it makes you very tanky with 40% damage reduction and a percentage of your health and mana regenerated each second.

This allows you to stand in the middle of the fight and spam your spells without much fear that you will die. This entirely changes your play style in fights and makes you extremely effective in fights that happen in narrow areas (high ground fights mostly, but also Rosh pit fights).

Skill Builds

Nyx has a relatively diverse skill build that allows him to adapt to different situation.

Since all your spells give you good value on lvl 1, you usually want to eventually get 1 level in each. Which one you get first depends on the situation – the best practice is not to lvl up anything until you see what you need. Impale could help you set up a kill, Mana Burn could help you zone out and harass an enemy hero from the start of the laning stage.

You want to max Impale first – it is the spell that scales best with levels in the early game since both the damage and the stun duration improve a lot of extra points in the skill. It is your main kill-potential tool and if you are playing a core Nyx it will help you get last hits and harass.

You always get your ultimate whenever it is available as it is your main initiation tool, a big source of nuke damage and it scales well with extra points into the skill.

Usually, the choice you need to make is when to max Mana Burn and when to max Carapace.

Mana Burn Build
Spiked Carapace Build
nyx impale
1
nyx mana burn
2
nyx impale
3
Nyx Spiked Carapace
4
nyx impale
5
Nyx Vendetta
6
nyx impale
7
nyx mana burn
8
nyx mana burn
9
Talent Icon
10
nyx mana burn
11
Nyx Vendetta
12
Nyx Spiked Carapace
13
Nyx Spiked Carapace
14
Talent Icon
15
Nyx Spiked Carapace
16
Nyx Vendetta
18
Talent Icon
20
Talent Icon
25
Pros: nuke potential early on;
Cons: less control; lower survivability;

This build will make you more efficient in getting solo kills because it will provide you with the maximum amount of single target nuke damage. Because of the low CD on the high-level Mana Burn you could possibly use the spell twice or trice in a single engagement. The high INT multiplier will also allow you to counter hard heroes with high INT.

You usually want to go for this build if you expect to be able to gank your opponents a lot (if they are not moving as 5).

nyx impale
1
Nyx Spiked Carapace
2
nyx impale
3
nyx mana burn
4
nyx impale
5
Nyx Vendetta
6
nyx impale
7
Nyx Spiked Carapace
8
Nyx Spiked Carapace
9
Talent Icon
10
Nyx Spiked Carapace
11
Nyx Vendetta
12
nyx mana burn
13
nyx mana burn
14
Talent Icon
15
nyx mana burn
16
Nyx Vendetta
18
Talent Icon
20
Talent Icon
25
Pros: more control; higher survivability;
Cons: lower burst damage;

Maxing your Spiked Carapace will give you a second source of control that is very useful in group engagements. This is usually your go-to build if you expect to be 5-manning a lot because it will allow you to contribute more in fights as an initiator (and will screw up counter-initiation by your opponents). The lower CD also makes you more survivable in general.

Talents

Vendetta Unobstructed Pathing

25

+100 Agility

+175 Impale Damage

20

 75% Spiked Carapace Damage

+35 MS

15

+325 Health

+90 Gold

10

+8% Spell Amp

Lvl10: Usually you get the GPM as a support (you need all the extra help you can get economically) and the spell amp as a core.

Lvl15: Depends on the game you play. Generally, you are always in Vendetta, scouting, so MS can be very useful. Nonetheless, if you are in a game in which you think enemy heroes can burst you easily, you can take the HP.

Lvl20: Impale damage can help you clear waves quicker, while Carapace damage can return a lot of damage (generally it’s not that reliable and you should go for it only in situations when you feel you can use it efficiently, for example, against KOTL blasts).

Lvl25: Unobstructed pathing is your choice almost every time. The only time you take the AGI is if you are snowballing – you are becoming a right-clicker or you are building E-blade.

Item Builds

As is the case with most utility heroes, the item builds of Nyx are fairly versatile. He has many items that work great on him (Urn, Meteor Hammer, Dagger, Aghanim's) and many more that could be useful for his team in different situations (Force Staff, Pipe, Crimson Guard, Lotus Orb). This means you should plan and adjust your build in every game.

Offlane Build

The starting items are suited for an offlane in which you expect to take a lot of harass.

In the early game, you go for your core Arcane Boots in order to be able to stay on the map and gank more easily.

Your next item is a Midas – since you are not going to spend any time farming, Midas will become your main source of income, making sure that you will get your other core items. It’s important to bear in mind that this is a greedy option. In very active games you can choose to get Meteor Hammer right away or even to go for utility items - Crimson or Pipe (or both) will make sure you are more survivable and will help your teammates in fights.

Afterward, you invest in the standard Dagger and Agh’s. The late game item choices are very open, but in this example, you go for an Aether Lens so you increase the range of your spells even further combined with Burrow. Lotus is great for saving your cores and making yourself even harder to focus while Burrowed.

Starting items
Stout Shield
Tangoes
Healing_Salve_icon
Iron branch
Mango
Mango
Early game
Magic wand
Arcane Boots
Hand of Midas
Mid game
Meteor Hammer
Blink_Dagger_icon
Aghanim's_Scepter_icon
Late game
Aether Lens
Lotus Orb
Stout Shield
Tangoes
Healing_Salve_icon
Iron branch
Mango
Mango
Magic wand

Magic Stick: In the early game the mana and HP burst could keep you alive and give you enough mana to use your spells and survive a bad situation. 

Arcane Boots

Arcane Boots: Arcanes are Nyx’s boots of choice because he is an AGI hero without a big mana pool while his skills are pretty mana intensive. 

Hand of Midas

Hand of Midas: HoM is a greedy pick for Nyx (it will delay other impactful items) but it may pay out in the long run. Usually, you don’t have a lot of time to farm with the hero – you are either constantly hunting for ganks or sticking to your team to be useful in team fights. HoM will allow you to gain resources without investing time in passively farming. This way you will more easily reach late game luxuries like the Ethereal Blade + Dagon combo or simply more expensive utility items. The bonus XP is also useful – the lvl3 Vendetta is very powerful and getting it sooner rather than later helps a lot.

Meteor Hammer

Meteor Hammer: it gives very decent stats. The active, however, is what makes this an amazing item on Nyx. You can set up for the Meteor with your Impale (the stun duration of Impale on lvl4 is longer than the channel time of Meteor). Nyx doesn't deal high right-click damage, so you don't sacrifice much by channeling instead of hitting your target.

Moreover, it gives you a good tool for pushing-out waves and even dealing building damage - things that Nyx is typically very bad at.

Blink_Dagger_icon

Blink Dagge: Blink makes your initiation much more reliable (you are not countered by detection anymore). Moreover, if the enemy team doesn’t have reveal, you can use Vendetta after you initiate to finish kills, chase enemies or even simply disengage. Blink is your go-to core item if you know you will be team fighting often.

Aghanim's_Scepter_icon

Aghanim’s Scepter: Nyx get’s a new Burrow ability from Aghanim’s – it makes the hero invisible and unable to move after 1.5 sec cast time. While burrowed Nyx regenerates 1.5% of his health and mana per second, has 40% damage resistance, Mana Burn and Impale have +75% cast range, Impale has reduced CD and Spiked Carapace stuns targets within 300 AoE instantly. The item gives a lot of utility to the hero, but the immobility and 1.5 sec casting time are an obvious drawback. Aghanim is the go-to utility item for the hero since it increases his impact in team fights a great deal.

Aether Lens

Aether Lens: Lens can be very useful for Nyx - it increasing your Impale and Mana Burn range and more importantly it combines very well with Agh’s and Burrow. You can cast your spell from a long distance.

Lotus Orb

Lotus Orb: Lotus gives you decent stats and can be extremely useful defensively not only for you (returns spells if enemies try to focus you when they see you with detection) but for your team as well (you can use it to save your cores in fights).

Support Nyx Build

You get your Arcane Boots as fast as possible to sustain using your spells more often and to provide mana to your teammates. Afterward, you finish an Urn to collect as many charges as possible and provide HP sustain in addition to increasing your damage output a bit (upgrading Urn to Spirit Vessel is always possible if it’s a good Spirit Vessel game). You get a Force Staff immediately to allow yourself to initiate fights more efficiently and to help your teammates disengage. The Eul increases your MS (especially useful during Vendetta) and the active skill allows you to lock down enemies or save allies that are being focused. If the game goes late buying your core Agh’s to increase your team fight impact is the traditional choice.

Starting items
Boots of Speed
Tangoes
Early game
Arcane Boots
Spirit Vessel
Mid game
Force staff
Euls
Late game
Aghanim's_Scepter_icon
Aether Lens
Boots of Speed
Tangoes
Arcane Boots

Arcane Boots: Arcanes are Nyx’s boots of choice because he is an AGI hero without a big mana pool while his skills are pretty mana intensive. 

Spirit Vessel

Spirit Vessel: movement speed and survivability are extremely useful for a roaming initiator. The active can be very powerful offensively if placed on high HP heroes or on heal targets.

Force staff

Force Staff: Force Staff is an alternative to Blink Dagger: it gives you mobility and helps you initiate fights. Force is inferior to Blink in terms of initiation, but it gives you an additional survivability tool and could help you disengage more easily. It is also a team-centered utility item and could help your allies if they are getting focused by enemies.

Euls

Eul’s Scepter: Eul doesn’t increase your kill potential but makes you a harder target to bring down and gives utility to your team. The MS bonus is very useful when you want to catch up to targets with Vendetta. The mana regen allows you to use Impale more often for farming. Besides its regular use, you could Cyclone an enemy hero to set up for your Impale.

Aghanim's_Scepter_icon

Aghanim’s Scepter: Nyx get’s a new Burrow ability from Aghanim’s – it makes the hero invisible and unable to move after 1.5 sec cast time. While burrowed Nyx regenerates 1.5% of his health and mana per second, has 40% damage resistance, Mana Burn and Impale have +75% cast range, Impale has reduced CD and Spiked Carapace stuns targets within 300 AoE instantly. The item gives a lot of utility to the hero, but the immobility and 1.5 sec casting time are an obvious drawback. Aghanim is the go-to utility item for the hero since it increases his impact in team fights a great deal.

Aether Lens

Aether Lens: Lens can be very useful for Nyx - it increasing your Impale and Mana Burn range and more importantly it combines very well with Agh’s and Burrow. You can cast your spell from a long distance.

Other Items

Early & Mid Game
Soul_Ring_icon
urnn
Crimson Guard
Pipe
Late game
Ghost Scepter
Dagon5
Ethereal Blade
Scythe of Vyse
Soul_Ring_icon

Soul Ring: If you decide to go for Tranquils instead of Arcanes, Soul Ring will provide you with the mana sustain you need in the early game. The HP loss is taken care of by the HP sustain coming from Tranquils.

urnn

Urn of Shadows: Like all good roamers you can get a lot of utility out of Urn – you will be involved in kills very often and you will likely have access to lots of charges. The mana regen is also useful while roaming, while the STR makes you a bit tankier and more survivable in early fights. You could consider skipping the Urn in order to get your other core items faster, especially if there is another good Urn carrier in your team.

Crimson Guard

Crimson Guard: makes you extremely hard to take down with attacks and gives your team a lot of team-fight utility.

Pipe

Pipe: the go-to tankiness item if you are facing a magic-damage lineup. It is very useful for grouping up with your team from earlier on to force fights.

Ghost Scepter

Ghost Scepter: Even if you don’t intend to build an E-Blade, a casual Ghost Scepter could be very useful to protect you from physical damage dealers. You will need such protection especially against carries that have a BKB (protecting yourself with Impale or Spiked Carapace wouldn’t be an option against spell immune targets).

Dagon5

Dagon: Like most heroes that rely on nuke damage, Dagon increases your kill potential a great deal by making your nuke combo even stronger. If you are a core Nyx and you intend to roam around and gank a lot getting Dagon as fast as possible is very important. If you support, however, or you simply don’t have access to a lot of gold, you need to consider if you need Dagon at all. Getting the item too late might not be enough to allow you to get solo kills anyway and in that sense, a Dagger could be much more useful to help you set up kills for your allies.

Ethereal Blade

Ethereal Blade: EB is one of the best luxury items for Nyx because it increases your nuking potential even further. Besides Vendetta, all your spells deal magic damage, which is amplified from EB. Moreover, you are an AGI hero which means you can make good use of the stats of the item. Finally, Dagon and EB are a very powerful item combo and since Dagon is a core item for a ganking Nyx EB is a very natural item progression.

Scythe of Vyse

Scythe of Vyse: If you need more reliable single target initiation Hex will provide it – it has great synergy with Blink Dagger and combining it with Impale will allow you to chain stun targets, allowing your team to bring them down.

Early Game

Farming:

Nyx has a decent attack damage and attack animation and contesting last hits, in general, is not a huge problem. Nevertheless, against ranged heroes or heroes with very high damage, you might need to use Impale often to secure last hits. The problem with this comes from mana sustain – Impale costs a lot of mana considering Nyx’s low mana pool.

As with every AoE nuke, ideally, you want to secure multiple last hits with one Impale. To do this you need to get a few creeps to relatively low HP (but above deny range) and use Impale afterward.

In the side lanes it might be a good idea to preserve the creep equilibrium – to do this you shouldn’t damage the enemy creep wave with Impale, rather use it to secure single last hits.

Using Impale and/or Spiked Carapace on your lane opponent(s) is a good way to allow yourself to get to the creep wave and secure last hits without getting severely punished by harass.

Harassing & Zoning out:

With a core Nyx, your primary tool to harass is Impale. Ideally, you will be able to use the spell to secure last hits and damage your opponent at the same time.

Using your Mana Burn is possible, however, because using both spells is very mana intensive you wouldn’t be able to afford to do it continuously even with a Bottle. Since last hitting is more important than harassing for you, usually you want to preserve your mana just for Impale. Against mana dependent opponents, however, you could use Mana Burn to decrease their laning presence and challenge last hits mainly with attacks.

For a support Nyx, your main harassing tool is Mana Burn – you want to decrease the laning potential of your opponents, and since you are not last hitting using Impale just for the damage is usually not worth it. You could deal similar amounts of damage with Mana Burn and at the same time reduce the mana of your opponents.

Exchanging right-click harass with heroes is usually favorable for Nyx. You have decent armor and attack damage and more importantly, you have high base regen that will help you recover from such exchanges faster than your opponent. You can also always use a Spiked Carapace to deal more damage to your opponent or simply disengage.

Surviving:

Before lvl 6 you have two survival mechanisms:

With Impale you have the opportunity to stun multiple enemies and run away before they manage to initiate on you. Utilizing the high range of the spell is important in order not to get disabled first. Bear in mind that the spikes could hit units up to 825 range away because of the 700 cast range and 125 AoE of the spikes.

Spiked Carapace could also give you an opportunity to disengage: activating it means that if your opponents damage you in some way they will become stunned. Spiked Carapace is instant and this allows you to use it as projectiles are flying towards you. Another benefit is that it doesn’t require you to face any particular direction - you can use it right away, while with Impale you have to turn towards the targets and back to the other direction in order to run away.

During the laning stage, while Spiked Carapace is low level and stuns for a short duration, it is smart to use it as a setup for your Impale. Let your opponents get stunned by Carapace and immediately use Impale on them – the longer stun duration will allow you to disengage.

Moreover, since Carapace has a relatively long CD, you shouldn’t use it to harass if you are having doubts opponents could gank you. You will need the spell to disengage and survive.

After lvl 6 you have access to your ultimate – Vendetta makes you instantly invisible and increases your MS, which is very powerful especially if your opponents don’t have true sight. Enemy players know this, of course, so if they are intentionally ganking you they will have reveal. Because of this Vendetta is more useful as an escape mechanism in more chaotic fights.

Even if your opponents have true sight, however, you can still use the spell for the bonus MS. Activate your Spiked Carapace, activate your Vendetta and run away.

Kill Potential:

Unless your lane opponent(s) makes a big mistake you don’t have the necessary damage output to get solo kills before lvl 6. Nevertheless, the control you provide could be very useful for setting up kills.

Impale

The ideal situation is to let an ally initiate and then to follow-up with your Impale and Mana Burn. If the mana of your opponent is low, he/she might not have enough to use an important escape mechanism. Scout the mana of your targets often.

If you are the only one who can initiate, you should try to aim and hit a long-range Impale that allows your allies to follow-up and secure the kill.

Carapace

Activating your Carapace after initiating could be useful against opponents that have some kind of AoE spells or disables that deal damage – if the opponent fights back or tries to disengage with the disable the Carapace will stun him/her.

It is possible to use Carapace to set up for your own stun. To do this you need to wait for your opponent to harass you with attacks or spells and when you see the projectiles activate Carapace – you will be able to land an easy Impale afterward.

If you manage to put yourself in the way of a strong AoE nuke with activated Carapace you could theoretically get even solo kills. The return damage of the Carapace, the damage of the Impale and the Mana Burn could be enough to finish off a squishy target.

Vendetta

After lvl 6 your kill potential becomes exponentially bigger. Vendetta is not only an additional source of nuke damage but a very powerful initiation tool. Of course, to be able to initiate successfully you need to stay invisible – check for Sentries in the inventory of opponents and avoid spots where they are commonly placed.

With Vendetta getting solo kills on squishy heroes (especially INT ones because of Mana Burn) is possible. Nevertheless, you will still need the help of allies to bring down tankier targets. Make sure you hit your impale after Vendetta – follow up an ally’s disable or even use Impale straight out of Vendetta (if you have enough damage to finish to secure the kill without the Vendetta nuke).

Timings and Rotations:

Your most important timing is lvl 6. Vendetta is your main initiation/killing tool and once you get it, it is very important to utilize it: try to use it on CD to attempt ganks on the enemy heroes, especially while the laning stage is not over and they are still sticking to their lanes and not moving together. Keep in mind that the supports are the easiest targets to pick off (especially when you are a solo Nyx and you have a lvl advantage), however, supports are likely to stick close to a core hero and to provide Sentries.

The duration of lvl 1 Vendetta is rather short – this means you cannot simply activate it and start randomly searching for a target. You need to find the target first and use Vendetta to get close to it and initiate. Ideally, you need to have allies in position to follow-up your initiation, unless you are a high-lvl core Nyx and you are hunting squishy enemies.

Roaming Nyx

Priorities BEFORE lvl6

Harass your lane opponent
Roam around the map, control runes and attempt ganks

Priorities AFTER lvl6

Find an important pick-off with Vendetta
Stick to your team while your ultimate is off CD
Playstyle:

You have to decide where to go with Nyx. Generally, you don’t want to stay in one lane too much and steal the XP of your cores, so you have to be active on the map. It is very hard for you to find solo kills early on, but at least you can force some rotations by ganking enemies. You can always use your Mana Burn as a zoning tool and help your core players in their lane matchup.

Something very important: not only for roaming Nyx but almost for every roaming hero is to contest runes. A lucky haste/Invis rune might secure you a kill and bounties are always useful since you are resource dependent early on.

Video Example:

Starting with Boots is nothing unusual for Nyx since he knows that he will move around the map a lot. Nowadays boots are more expensive. You can still go for them, but it is a very greedy choice and usually, you want just Wind Lace.

He scouts that Pango rotation early on and with the Sven and Invoker help, they manage to take the first blood even before the runes spawn.

At early game, Nyx is not afraid to trade hits with Storm (Nyx has a lot of HP regen without items and will recover even from a bad exchange) and after Nyx gets lvl2,  he instantly starts mana burning Storm.  He also controls the runes and moves around the map: with more good rotations he secures early Arcane Boots, which make the laning phase much easier as he can spam his spells.

At the end of the laning stage, since Nyx is behind in levels, his teammates are giving him a free lane so he can farm up some gold and more importantly to get lvl6 as fast as possible. After he gets lvl6 he starts to move around the map and sets up for Sun Strike kills.

Offlane Nyx

Priotirites BEFORE lvl6

GET xp
Rotate out of the lane: control the rune/gank mid

Priorities AFTER lvl6

Roam with Vendetta and find pick-offs
Stick to your team while your ultimate is off CD
Staying in XP range:

Your main priority is to get lvl 6 as fast as possible. To do this you need to stay in XP range – as every offlaner, you would have two problems:

1. Supports trying to zone you out
2. Supports trying to kill you

As Nyx you are quite well suited to deal with supports trying to zone you out: first of all, you have a high passive regen, which allows you to deal with harass easier than most heroes. Second, you are well suited to fight back supports trying to harass you. You can use Carapace to return the damage of spells, stun your target and get in range to right-click, Impale to stun and damage and Burn to reduce their mana (less active harass) and damage them.

The most important thing to decide, however, is when to use your spells and when to save them - you have very limited resources in the early game (low mana pool, long CD on important spells).

The main thing that will determine this decision is the possibility of getting killed – if the lane against you has very good kill potential it is smart to preserve your mana and the CD on Carapace and Impale for situations when you need them to save yourself.

Rotations:

If you are able to leach XP you should do it rather than rotate – it is your first priority.

If you are getting zoned out, however, you might want to try to be useful in another way.

The simplest thing to do is to try to go and control the rune. With Impale and Carapace, you are generally quite safe even if the enemy supports try to contest it as well. Furthermore, runes like Regeneration, Haste, and Invisibility could solve your problems and help you stay in XP range, at the other side Bounty runes are always useful for you.

The other option is to try to gank the mid lane – before lvl 6 and without a rune, however, this would be rather difficult. Only do it if you think you actually have a chance to secure the kill (your allies have enough damage and the stun you provide is sufficient).

After lvl 6 you generally want to rotate out of the lane and set up ganks for your allies with Vendetta.

Offensive Lanes:

If you have a support that is staying in your lane to help you, you can afford to be more aggressive. You still want to prioritize your own XP gain, but you can also try to trade harass with the enemy supports and farmer and even attempt kills with Impale and Mana Burn if your partner has kill potential. This will prevent the enemy core from free-farming and most likely you will win the exchanges in the long run because of your very good HP regen.

After lvl6 your priorities return to normal.

Mid Nyx

Priorities BEFORE lvl6

Get XP
Get Farm
Harass your lane opponent

Priorities AFTER lvl6

Roam with Vendetta and find pick-offs
Stick to your team while your ultimate is off CD
Playstyle:

The sole reason you are in the lane is to get lvl 6 as fast as possible and start roaming and ganking with Vendetta. Because of this logically your top priority is to get as much XP as possible – be defensive if you need to, make sure you don’t get zoned out and use Impale to last hit.

You don’t have a mobility skill that helps you get to the rune before your opponent, however, Impale is very useful to push out the creep wave before you go for a rune. Impale and Spiked Carapace is also valuable to help you survive if you get initiated while you are trying to get the rune.

When you get your ultimate your play style totally changes. You are not item dependent and you are not too level dependent after lvl 6, which means that staying in the lane to trade farm with the enemy mid laner is a bad idea. You need to utilize your ultimate – either set up a gank on the hero against you or rotate to the side lanes. While you are roaming an ally could get farm mid instead of you.

When your ultimate is on CD you have two choices: either to farm up a free lane and get your core items faster or to stick to your team to help them with your disables.

In that sense after lvl 6, Nyx is played more as pos. 3 hero rather than a conventional pos. 2 mid lane farmer.

Mid & Late Game

Nyx 350px

After the laning stage, Nyx is all about applying pressure and providing map control. Finding pick-off opportunities with Vendetta and setting up ganks is what you are best at and because of this is your first priority.


In case, your opponents are moving together and you cannot gank you should stick to your team and help them out however you can (usually by being the initiator). 

Search for pick-off opportunities
Stick to your team and initiate/counter-initiate fights
Timing:

After the laning stage, your important timings are related to your items. Getting your first big core item is usually the most important timing. Getting your Blink Dagger will make you a much better fight initiator.

Getting your lvl 3 Vendetta is also a timing worth mentioning – the very long duration of the spell will allow you to constantly roam around the map in search of pick-offs and the very significant damage will help you solo kill squishy targets.

Comeback Potential:

The laning outcome for Nyx doesn’t change the play style of the hero in any way.

Whatever the laning outcome (good or bad), you are good at one thing and this is finding pick-offs. You don’t need levels (besides lvl 6) or items to do this, so you should try to do your job regardless of how the laning stage went. If the laning stage went well, you should gank to press your advantage and take away map control from your opponents. If the laning stage went poorly, you should gank to win back map control and create space for your farmers.

Of course, if you had a bad laning stage and you are under-leveled you will be unable to take solo kills easily. This means you should gank in conjunction with your allies in order to be successful.

Team Fights:

Generally, in fights with Nyx, you are either the initiator or the counter-initiator.

Starting a team fight:

How you can start the fight depends on your items. If you have Blink Dagger you could initiate by blinking in a good position and hitting as many people as possible with Impale. Hitting more targets is always easier if you counter initiate because opponents tend to cluster together while fighting. Because of this, it might be a good idea to enter the fight after your tank (if you have one). If your opponents are in a bad position, however, you could just simply start the fight by disabling the closest targets.

If you don’t have Blink Dagger you will have to enter the fight with Vendetta. This is considerably more difficult because when teams are moving together they tend to have a true sight with them. You should check all enemy inventories and enter the fight from a location you think is least likely to have a Sentry Ward placed.

Who to focus:

You excel at single target nuke damage and because of this your ideal targets to focus are high impact heroes that you could easily kill. These are usually squishy INT or AGI carries. If the cores of the enemy team are too tanky, you might have to try to pick-off supports.

Because of this when you don’t have the Dagger one of the best practices is to flank the enemy team and enter the fight from behind, where you will be able to reach the squishier targets.

If your nuke damage is not your primary contribution in fights but your control is, you should simply control the highest impact targets and allow your teammates to burst them down.

What to do in a fight:

If you have initiated with Vendetta + Impale you need to think about who to use your other two spells. For mana burn you have two choices – hitting the most mana dependent target or the highest INT target. Generally speaking, the second option is better since most high INT targets are mana dependent and you deal much more damage to them with Mana Burn. Hitting low-INT heroes that need their whole mana pool to have an impact, however, could also be valuable in a fight.

You usually want to use Carapace immediately after you initiate – this will disallow the enemy team to counter-initiate efficiently on you. If the enemy team has one important combo-initiator, you might want to save the Carapace until you see the hero entering the fight (the Carapace will directly counter him/her).

If you have Carapace off CD and you see enemy heroes using AoE spells, it is worth it to activate the spell and walk into the AoE – this will give you a valuable stun and might allow you to hit an easy Impale.

After you have used your spells you want to disengage. Usually, it is enough to walk away while Carapace is active. If you have initiated with Blink, it is a good idea to activate Vendetta for the invisibility and bonus MS. This way you can walk backward and rejoin the fight to pick-off a low-HP hero with the Vendetta nuke.

After you disengage you generally want to stay safe until your spells are off CD. Mana Burn will be the first ready spell and you might want to spam it on targets that are nearby. However, be careful not to get initiated while you are doing this because you are an easy target for pick-off without your defensive cooldowns.

Pushing:

5-man pushing:

You are a relatively squishy target and you deal low physical damage. Because of this while 5-man pushing your place is at the back-lines, waiting to counter initiate.

If you have Vendetta ready you might want to use it to provide vision around the area you are pushing and ideally find the enemy team before they initiate on your allies.

Split-Pushing:

Nyx is a bad split-pusher because he kills creep waves slowly and deals very little damage to towers. Because of this you want to stick to your team or search for ganks instead: you are great at scouting and ganking the enemy split-pushers, so that’s what you should do.

Vision & Map Control:

You give vision while scouting with Vendetta. You should move around important areas (the enemy Jungle, Ancients, River, etc.) to try to find pick offs or even simply to show the positioning of enemies to your allies.

You should always bear in mind that while scouting with Vendetta you are risking your life – if enemies see you they could easily make a trap and kill you when you least suspect it. It is a good idea in the late game to carry a gem with you so that you are warned about placed Sentries.

Bear in mind that if enemies don’t see you on the map they will assume you are ganking with Vendetta. This will more often than not make them play more defensively, which will create space for your own farmers. In that sense even when you are not ganking it is a good idea to stay out of vision.

Ganking:

Even though ganking is your main activity and what you will be doing most of the time, it is relatively straightforward. Your search for targets with Vendetta and provide a vision for your team. Once you find a target you need to make a decision how to approach the kill. If it is a squishy hero you could go for a solo kill [Vendetta into Impale into Mana Burn (into Dagon)]. If the target is tanky you need to follow it and wait until your allies are in position. Once they are, you initiate in the same way to allow your allies to finish the kill.

Against targets with BKB or other defensive spells/escape mechanisms, you should use the Impale straight out of Vendetta. If you are ganking with your allies and they have enough damage this is the safer way to approach pick-offs.

In this example Jabz ganks the enemy carry Morph. He knows that trying to hit with Vendetta is way too greedy here, so he initiates with his stun straight away. This doesn’t give Morph time to switch his attribute shift on and leaves him on low HP. Moreover, Impale isn’t cancelled by Linken’s, which is important for this example.

His core Timber immediately follows up and provides the needed nuke damage to secure the kill.

Farming:

Farming is your last priority and you should only do it when Vendetta is on CD and your team isn’t going to fight.

Mechanically, farming with Nyx is very straightforward – you use your Impale to damage creeps in AoE (if you have the mana sustain) and finish-off creeps with attacks.