Rotund'jere - The Necrolyte (A-Z)

Introduction

Necrolyte is a one of int heroes in Dota 2 which can serve beyond his role as Support.

Necro is considered as a very easy hero to play, because of only 2 active spells. Where one spell is flat and simple AoE Nuke/Heal spammable ability Death Pulse. Unlike many mainstream support heroes Necro has an single target, scalable offensive ultiate... Reaper's Scythe and offensive aura ( Heartstopper Aura), instead of any buff or support ability.

These features allow necro to play as semi-carry in the late game.

On the other hand necro is an extremely squishy hero and very much prone to ganks.. This has forced players to build defensive items on necrolyte, Giving birth to Tank necro concept.
If you farm well, necro can serve as an efficient and effective tank with items + heal ability.

PROS -
Spammable Heal/Nuke AoE.
Mana 'regain' abilities.
Effective ultimate in late game.
Hero with multi-role potential.
Good farming potential.
Comparatively very easy hero.
Good lane partner for any hero.
Good Int stat gain.

CONS -
Squishy.
No escape abilities.
Very prone to ganks, as a crucial support for team.
Intense farm requirement for tanking and carry specs.
Slow movement speed.
Reaper's Scythe is weak at early levels, and without Aghanim's Scepter

Skills

Q. Death Pulse
This is the heart and soul for Necrolyte, one of the two active abilities.
It is Spammable.
It is AoE.
It Heals.
It Damages, No matter what.. You can't hide from it, You can't run from it.

Once you have enough mana regen, and adequate levels of Sadist no reason for not using this ability for farming. In ganks, This ability should always be on cooldown.

W. Heartstopper Aura
If you ask me what Necrolyte is made of... Its surely some radioactive sh!t.
This ability isn't rocket science. Necrolyte can cause death and decay to all enemies dancing around in 1000 radius. This range is more than of many ranged carries.

It is very similar to Radiance but not the same. Heartstopper Aura will decay health on percent bases, instead of fixed based amount. Which makes Tanky heroes to lose more HP, compared to Squishy heroes..

E. Sadist
Reward for being a good last hitter.
According to many, This skill will save you from early game mana crysis.
But I have different opinions on it, which we will discuss in Builds section.

Please note that this is a mana 'regain' ability and not 'regen' ability, its benefit is simply dependent on player performance.

R. Reaper's Scythe
One of the controversial skills in Dota.
It is simply a punishment for loosing HP. Theoretically level 3 should be able to instantly kill a target at 45% HP, but it doesn't Magic Resistance is taken into account.

This is due to Reaper's Scythe talks about dealing damage based on missing HP, and not instantly killing based on missing HP. That is why this magic damage is filter through the Magic Resistance.

Dazzle's Shadow Grave can block the damage.
Pipe of Insight's active effect can block 400 damage.

However, even if the damage can be blocked.. The Mini-stun can't be.
Mini-stun will also effect the magic immune targets, and can also be used to block Teleport, even if the damage is blocked.

One of the problem with Reaper's Scythe is, It deals damage at the end of the animation. In earlier team fights. You will have to use it on heroes very low on HP to score a kill. But most of the time the target might be killed by someone else before you actually deal any damage. Happens mostly in Pubs.

Aghanim's Scepter improves this skill by increasing the multiplier and reducing cooldown for level 1 and level 2.

Builds & Playstyle (Build 1) - Babysitter / Support

Build 1 - Babysitter / Support

This is a most common and preferred support build for me. Death Pulse and Heartstopper Aura are equally promoted in this build, You can prioritize Death Pulse if you really wish to.

Sadist is avoided in this build, as you will be babysitting a farm intensive carry in your lane.. According to that your duty is to let your carry last hit, and not to compete with him just because you have Sadist. So don't be a sadist and simply grab some Clarity to compensate your mana needs.

Heartstopper Aura is a great deal. With radius of 1000 it can force out enemy heroes from gaining experience, intensifying harassment with spam and physical hits. Heartstopper Aura will ensure your opponents keep using regen and wasting their gold and farm.

It also encourages them to build extra regen items, ignoring offensive items for while.
It will discourage them from initiating an attack if you are able to keep them on around half HP all the time.

Important Items -

Don't be a sadist, Soul Ring is the reason to cheer up.

Phase Boots, essentially important on this old slug with no escape mechanics.

Observer Ward & Animal Courier, Important duties for a support.

Bloodstone, all around attribute and regen boost. Sooner you make it, more stacks you will have. Less gold & time loss on deaths, as you are a very easy to kill target in late game.

Aghanim's Scepter, all around attribute boost and empowerment of your ultimate. Specially important for quickly finishing off opponent Tanks / Carries causing havoc in team fights. Better to get Scepter after Bloodstone, as your level 1 Reaper's Scythe is pretty weak.

Situational -

Mekansm - If your heal isn't enough. Good against AoE spams in team fights.

Pipe of Insight - Alternative to Mekansm. Good against AoE ultimates in team fights.

Scythe of Vyse, Shiva's Guard & Eul's Scepter of Divinity - Simple utilities and stats as per requirement.

Builds & Playstyle (Build 2) - Semi Carry

Build 2 - Semi-Carry

To go with this build, You need at-least one Hard carry and at-least one dedicated support in your team. You can co-op with support/ganker in lane but not a carry.

You can solo mid lane if your team doesn't have ranged carry or ganker capable of holding and farming mid. Or you can solo bot lane with your partner in jungle.

Investing in Sadist makes this build rely on maximum last hits, and maximum possible death pulse spam. As you do not have competition for farming in your lane, You can benefit from Sadist to maximum extent possible.

Avoid Heartstopper Aura, because you are concentrating on farm as a carry. In most solo cases your opponent will also be ranged and can farm from safer distance from you. Getting beyond creeps for harassing your ranged opponent is comparatively risky. Instead focus on denies and heavy farming with spams.

Important Items -

Even if you have sadist, Soul Ring is not a bad idea for even more spams.

Phase Boots, compensating missing mobility. +24 damage in early stage is helpful as you are a ranged int hero with low base damage.

Urn of Shadows, Why? When you already have a fascinating healing ability?
Well its simple. Use it for offensive purpose (as a DoT).

Necro doesn't have any stun/slow.. Instead his movement speed is slow itself. In that case many heroes may escape from you with little HP.. Urn of Shadows can help you secure more kills and rapidly killing opponent with Spams, and constant decay of Urn and Heartstopper.

Scythe of Vyse - Addition of missing disable. If you get Scythe of Vyse soon enough it will give you ability to gank more effectively as well as ensuring kills in team fights.

Vanguard - Your basic defense against hitters. If you are dying too quickly carrying a game is out of question.


Situational -

Black King Bar - Important protection against stuns, specially against disables like Silence.

Ghost Scepter - If you are experiencing too much hitters like Lycan or Lifestealer, vanguard won't be enough. A perfect troll item for pubs.

Aghanim's Scepter, With carry build you won't totally rely on your ulti only. But if you want you can boost it a bit.

Radiance + Heartstopper Aura, If you have good support/heal along. You can make your enemies cry just by walking around them.

Builds & Playstyle (Build 3) - Tank

Build 3 - Tank

Tank, pretty obvious it is used for tanking. Necro's good support abilities and physical weakness are the main reasons that this build was developed.

For Tank build, You can go with any skill build as per your lane preference. Personally I prefer to prioritize Death Pulse with Heartstopper Aura on secondary. It is also economical to get 1-2 points on sadist early as you will be farming more to build up your tank.

This build is farm intensive as you don't have any taking capability in-built, except heal.
For HP,Armor and Immunity you need to rely on variety of items.

Important Items -

Power Treads - Some extra stats for your help. Good choice as you are able to switch them as per your requirement.

Vanguard - Rush vanguard early. Just after you get boots.. You can complete treads after that. Vanguard is your primary defense in early game and its simply effective.

Buckler, Headdress/ Mekansm - Extra defense and heal at your disposal. Only if required (specially if no one in your team is going for Mekansm), else rush Bloodstone.

Black King Bar - Essential for tanking, An important protection against nukes, stuns and disables.

Bloodstone - If BKB isn't crucial, Rush Bloodstone earlier.

Situational -

Ghost Scepter - If you are experiencing too much hitters like Lycan or Lifestealer, vanguard won't be enough. A perfect troll item for pubs.

Heart of Tarrasque, If you tank, Tank like a boss.

Shiva's Guard - AoE Slow and Aura, with good boost to Int and Armor. Works great with Heartstopper and Death Pulse Spam.

Blade Mail - If Ghost Scepter isn't enough, Return the damage with interest.
Much safer option than Ghost Scepter, preferable for newbies.

Builds & Playstyle (Build 4) - Nuker / Nuker-Support

Build 4 - Nuker

Sometimes a team pick can have deficit on nuke or surplus of support. In such times Nuker build for Necro can be opted without any problems.

The skill build will stay same as Babysitter build.. With Death Pulse as first priority and Heartstopper Aura as second priority.

This build focuses completely on offensive items and play style, In-fact this build is for aggressive players who would like to roam around and gank.

Important Items -

Arcane Boots - Mana for you and your ganking partner. Arcane are much appropriate but for early game it is much wiser to get Arcane up quickly. Later you can disassemble boots into Boots of Speed and Energy Booster.. and utilize them for Phase Boots and Soul Booster respectively.

Soul Ring - The Good Old Soul Ring.

Aghanim's Scepter - For this build the most important upgrades from Aghanim's are reduction of cool-down for first 2 levels and multiplier boost.

Veil of Discord - Very important for this build. This affects Reaper's Scythe too. even if the damage is calculated based missing health and multiplier.. It is dealt after its calculated. Veil of Discord debuff stays for 15 seconds, useful for your 2-3 spams and ulti. (and don't forget rest of the team)

Situational -

Dagon - Just addition to your nuke.

Refresher Orb - Actually expensive to go with all other items. Outcome of it may not be worth. If you really need 2 Reaper's Scythe for 2 difficult opponents, It might help. If that's not the situation don't bother going for Refresher, pick up some damage/utility item like Orchid or Hex.

Bloodstone - Mana regen and Survival during and later mid game.

Radiance - Not nuke, but good empowerment for your AoE decay.

Team Work & Combos

Good Lane Combos -
Husker
Sven
Pudge
Axe
Pugna
Dark Seer

Ganking/Roaming Partners -
Husker
Pudge
Lion
Nyx Assassin
Bane
Dark Seer

Worst Enemies -
Bloodseeker
Pudge
Drow Ranger
Viper
Clinkz
... Many hard carries with Stealth or Mobility skill. Silence and Stun abilities make it even worse.

The End

If you have any questions, feel free to ask and comment.
If you find any error in guide, Please let me know.
Rate positive if you like the guide.
Don't rate negative only because the guide isn't advocating your play-style.

Thank you for reading..