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Tango
Slippers of Agility
Healing Salve
Iron BranchIron BranchIron Branch
Power Treads
Ring of Health
Stout Shield
Wraith Band
Power Treads
Vanguard
Point Booster
Ring of Aquila
Power Treads
Vanguard
Aghanim's Scepter
Manta Style
Heart of Tarrasque
Monkey King Bar
Black King Bar
Shadow Blade
Tranquil Boots
Orchid Malevolence
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1 | 3 | 5 | 7 |  |
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2 | 8 | 9 | 12 |  |
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4 | 10 | 13 | 14 |  |
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6 | 11 | 16 |  |
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15 | 17 | 18 |
22/03/2013
Poor man's shield into Aghanim's. Directly skipping the Vanguard stage is hit and miss. Worked great for the first game, but than wished I hadn't in the second.
Going to test a suggestion to go Vitality Booster and hold onto that till heart instead of going Vanguard.
People really seem to hate the Vanguard.
Will report back,
I can appreciate that Viper among the many other more complex heroes and their builds stands shy in comparison. However, be it said that I have seen too many Vipers fail and this shouldn't be happening.
First off Viper is a snowball hero. If you balls things up early on and keep doing it, chances are you won't recover or at the very least find it hard to tackle much better end game carries.
This guide is based off my personal experience playing him and the do's & don't's I have found and experimented with. Feel free to take it as such and remember that no hero is set in stone and DotA2 gives you free range to try out new builds and practice them.
But be warned that doing this in public match-making will get your head mercilessly flamed upon.
MY OPINION:
DO NOT build viper as a carry, he is not a damage hero, he needs to survive. Tanky Viper will always trump a damage viper because no matter how much damage you can deal. It is the orb/ult that kills not the damage you deal.
As a preference, I like to play Viper mid as his ability to shut down nearly any mid hero is next to none. The fact that you start with a cheap poison attack means you can harass with the odd last hit from time to time but still deal enough damage to not have to focus on harassing and the opposing hero will be timid enough to want to stay back allowing you to win the mid.
Off-Lane Viper I have played not quite as much as mid but have had good experience in taking him off lane. If you were to go in the off lane your corrosive skin passive is a must. Hero's are much less likely to attack you if they know they will get some sort of damage feedback/slow if they do.
Safe lane Viper in my opinion is a waste. You want to play viper early to mid so that he can roll into the lane and hold his own against some of the harder carries. Taking him into the safe lane is counter productive as their are much harder carries you could give the lane too and you should be slightly more mobile than being bound to a single safe lane.
Game Start.
Core recommended items are as good as it is going to get as a couple heals the extra stat points will make a small but noticeable difference to your laning.
Sadly while I would like to tell you there is a "God" build this is never the case with almost any hero in DotA2, as the gaming experience is different from game to game and player to player.
Boots.
As someone commented "why tranquil?" and the answer is simple. Constant lane presence. Getting an early tranquil allows you to harass, heal and move at a quicker pace than most which can win you a lane that would otherwise have you buying heals just to stay in the game and not be bullied off your lane.
In other instances where there is not so much pressure on your lane the standard treads are probably the better buy with stat points and attack speed.
Vanguard.
This item is far to under considered with people just ignoring the early game advantage this item gives. Viper is what I refer to as a "chisel" hero with his attacks first being ignored on account of you not dealing such notable amounts of damage but as you continue to orb-hit the hitpoints start to steadily role off.
To be able to reach the point where you have orb-hit them enough to get your damage ticker going you need to survive long enough to see that come full circle. This is why the Vanguard.
Everyone has their two cents and that's what makes the DotA2 community so diverse. This guide is to show you from experience how I feel is one of the many ways viper can be played.
Item build is your call but be smart about it. Viper isn't so much a right click hero like Drow or Luna so you need to play him and build him right or you will just end up having a bad start to finish game.
One of the ways to do this is to forget about high damage dealing items till later. Go for the Aghanim's Scepter sooner rather than later, get Vanguard, and go Black King Bar if you find yourself in high stun/disable team fights.
OPINION:
Always target the melee damage dealers with your ult this will prevent them from reaching your team fast enough. In the meantime you could kill them or go for their supports so that by the time they reach you they are 1/2 health and have no support.
While Viper is quite a tanky hero when built right, unlike other tank heroes it pays to hang on the outskirts of the fight to let the teams supports have their chance if possible. Once you have your Aghanim's Scepter you ult can be used as an initiation due to the range increase and the fact that with the slow it provides it can leave and enemy far from their team quite quickly.
Ideally you want to try and get a couple ultimate's off in a team fight. Seeing as he is a highly picked hero you might want to initiate on someone like Naix. This slows him enough to keep him away from your team and if he has taken enough damage previously is likely to cause him to run with the poison ticking down on him.
The poison ticker works but not as effectively as Venomancer's or Queen of Pain's, try and keep hitting them till they are dead as too many times I have seen "sure kills" survive on low health. While you are chasing you may have some heroes after you and attacking you. This is ok because as long as you have been careful not to dive, your corrosive skin should slow/damage them enough for you to make a get-away or even pick up another kill.
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