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25 Votes

Viper Mid Lane - No nonsense early-mid game dominance

May 2, 2014 by beatSTV
Comments: 41    |    Views: 138808    |   


Mid Lane Early Pressure

DotA2 Hero: Viper




Hero Skills

Poison Attack

1 3 5 7

Nethertoxin

2 8 12 14

Corrosive Skin

4 9 10 13

Viper Strike

6 11 16

Talents

15 17 18


Viper Mid Lane - No nonsense early-mid game dominance

beatSTV
May 2, 2014


Introduction



Hi guys and welcome to my first guide on DotaFire.

Credit to TangoNCash as i used his "Why Mek?" sum up and the first part of his item explanation


As a competitive mid lane viper player I thought I would design a quick no nonsense early-mid game pressure guide. No nonsense no fluff just information you need to know. I am in no means a 6k mmr pro player but since using this build I rarely lose my lane even when faced against those annoying mids.

The main concept behind this build is to dominate your lane early with the change in vipers Q and the power of your passive E you can easily harass you opponent out of last hit range and make them terrified to get too close to you.

Early Lane Phase

Throughout the lane phase in mid you need to punish the opposing mid hero every time they take a step off their high ground with your if they attack back they can eat some Corrosive skin. As usual with mid (but especially with viper) you need to be very vary of rotating supports a stun and a nuke and you're pretty much dead make sure your ward vision covers the high ground on the opposite side of the river so you are protected and if you are ever in doubt hide under that tower until the supports reappear on the map.

First Blood

First blood should be quite simple to achieve when the enemy mid pushes too far up to grab that greedy last hit Q spam and get in front of them the slow your nethertoxin should kick in and bingo easy as pie. Alternatively grab one support from your safe lane (preferably with a stun and nab an easy first kill).

Ganking (Mid Game)

As soon as you hit 6 you should have completed your early game items (or getting close to it) its at this point that you NEED to carry a Town Portal Scroll if there is pressure on your off lane tower get there, if there is a team fight coming on your safe lane get there, if you see a hero out of position GET THERE. You need to be strike fear into the enemy heroes when they see you they should b immediately or your slow and damage over time will destroy them, use this presence to push the early towers top and bottom.

End Game

Once the tier 1 safe and off lane are down and you've picked up a few kills in the process you should have your Mekansm and be well on your way to Aghanim's Scepter. Once you have Aghs you should be spamming r as soon as it is off cooldown and be pushing towards your opponents tier 3.

From their its GG

Why Mekansm?

"Probably because Vanguard is horrible on ranged heroes, since the flat damage reduction is done before armor reductions and at just 20 damage block it's simply not worth the cost.
You want a cheap and fast armor+health buffer to get Viper tanky ASAP, while corrosive skin takes care of incoming magic damage.

Mek gives exactly that: 5 to all attributes (5 str = 95 hp and almost 1 armor from the 5 agi) and 5 armor. And the active which effectively gives him 250 extra HP (same as Vanguard) and 2 extra armor to work with. EDIT: And don't forget the +4 hp regen aura as opposed to Vanguard's +6 self regen. Though Vanguard wins in this regard the 2 extra hp regen still doesn't justify buying it on ranged heroes."

Skills

- Your bread and butter with the change in 6.79 to decrease cooldown to 0secs at level 1 its a must to secure your early lane dominance, spam it non stop if the opposition mid get too close, as soon as you get your Ring of Aquila your regen should be fine. As this is an orb effect spell don't be scared to push past the creep way and share the love.

- Great skill to grab early (just one point though) you dont need it to help with last hitting as vipers animation is great and you should not be getting harassed too much comes into play after level 6 when you can tie it in with your ulti to inflict huge dps and dot and melt heroes

- The slow and magic resistance is fantastic, max after your Q, adds to your tankiness and makes it even harder for those heroes trying to escape you.

- Your ganking spell tp into a fight single out your target and immediately melt them down with your Q. Tie in with an Aghs early enough and you will be near impossible to kill.

Items


The best choice of boots for you, because they will provide attack speed and survivability. Make sure to switch over to STR when you are getting ganked and over to INT when you are in need of mana.


So here is where this guide diverges from most other approaches to viper. The thing is, when combined with the magic resistance and attack slow you get from Corrosive Skin, mekanism will give you an incredible amount of survivability -- much better than whatever you would get from Vanguard. Rush this item after you get your Treads, preferably by initiating some ganks. If you can afford it, buy a Buckler before Headdress; the extra armour and the active from the buckler are much more useful in the early game.


Will help to address you mana issues and provide a bit more survival.


Last hitting power, armour, and mana regen. Turn on the aura when you're pushing towers early.


Your real power after the mek, cool down and extra range, huge damage over time and slow. 739.5 damage per target every 12 seconds with an 80% attack slow and movement slow means that they are pretty much sitting ducks.


Not needed in my opinion for viper its much more rewarding for your offlane to grab one and for you to concentrate on getting dat xp. A nice strat that we run is to pick clock and viper, early bottle on clock means that he can roam a lot earlier and be active on the map for a lot longer.

Summary

Early Lane Phase

- Dominate your mid lane with your Q at level 1

First Blood
- Really angle for first blood if your opponent gets to greedy and comes up your ramp (make sure you get in front of him if you are going for it) or grab a support with a stun to make the kill guaranteed. Just to elaborate on this, vipers hero model is pretty large and although your movement speed is pretty slow blocking should not be a problem make sure you get a good block off but not so good that your tower is in range you want the opposing mid in the river so you can harass with Q in between last hits.

Warding and Staying Safe
- Make sure your ward vision covers the enemy high ground across the river, with no escape and a shoddy turn speed and move speed you are a sitting duck vs 2 or more heroes.

Ganking Mid Game
- When you hit 6 move to pressure another lane and grab an early tower TP behind your off lane with a roaming support out of sight of the tri or dual lane and then try and make your way into the opponents jungle from there lead with your R follow with a support stun and its an easy kill. Make sure you always carry a tp scroll and use it regularly to keep your map presence up. If possible grab a ranged support to cover mid while you are out of lane to not lose out on the xp.

Mid Game transition
- When you have your mek up and some levels in corrosive skin you are un believably tanky try and take the attention away from your supports etc dont be scared to sit in the middle of a fight, with corrosive skin and slows coming from you it can turn the tide of a fight very quickly.

End Game (Hopefully)
- Grab your aghs and spam your ulti, get early enough this serious aid your team to a victory

- If the game continues at this level/ the rest of your teams lanes have gone awful pick up a manta or bkb (depending on their lineup) and then transition towards a Orchid or heavens halberd. Make sure you are fighting as 4/5 not 2/3 as you may be bursted down at a later stage of the game, hopefully by this time someone has got a pipe and your magic immunity is off the chart. When initiating a team fight focus first on the hard physical damage dealers (void, jug, am etc) target them with your slow before they can pop a bkb, with your aghs and range this shouldn't be an issue then push in with the rest of your team.


Hopefully you found this guide interesting if you have some criticisms/improvements I can make please let me know so I can work on them.

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