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DotA Hero Guide: The Venom Within

I play Venomancer (Lesale Deathbringer) in almost the same way I play Viper. Why? Well, because both of them are agility-type heroes and both of them are “poisonous”. Viper has the Poison Attack skill, which coats his normal attack with poison, slowing down the enemy’s movement and attack speeds for two seconds, while dealing some damage; the Nethertoxin, which adds a powerful toxin to his attacks; and finally, the Viper Strike, which strikes with a vicious bite, slowing movement and attack speed significantly and dealing poison damage over time. Veno, on the other hand, has the Venomous Gale (Skill 1), which poisons enemy units it comes in contact with. These poisoned units take initial damage, damage over time, and have their movement speed slowed for a short duration. Veno also have a passive skill—the Poison Sting—which adds poison damage to Venomancer’s normal attacks, slowing movement speed by 10% for 7 seconds. And finally, if Viper has the Viper Strike, Veno has the Poison Nova, which creates a ring of noxious poison that damages enemy units over a 12 second period.

Let’s talk about these skills a bit more in-depth. Skill 1, the Venomous Gale, is a very irritating skill from Veno. The skill’s effects are as follows: 50 strike damage, 10 duration damage (Level 1); 70 strike damage, 20 duration damage (Level 2); 70 strike damage, 40 duration damage (Level 3); and 100 strike damage, 50 duration damage (Level 4). Early on in the game, it is important to learn and max out the upgrade of this skill as soon as possible as this skill is really helpful for the team.

Now, for the passive skill Poison Sting, Level 1 deals 5 damage per second; Level 2, 10 damage per second; Level 3, 15 damage per second; and Level 4, 20 damage per second. Imagine that skill’s effect stacking up with your Venomous Gale, not to mention the considerable amount of damage from your normal attack. Surely, any enemy who happens to get lost and find himself face-to-face with Veno will never be able to return to base alive.