[Daily Hero tl;dr #12] Stealth Assassin

Stealth Assassin is one of my personal favorites. I get happy when he's used in competitive play, which is rare, but whatever. Also, today introduces the next tl;dr line, how to counter, which is how you can play against the hero successfully.

TL;DR

• Skills - Cloud (2,12,13,14) Blink Strike (1,3,5,7) Backstab (4,8,9,10) Invis (6,11,16)
• Items (lane) - branches, regen, rush PMS
• Items (early) - Wraith Bands, Treads
• Items (later) - Diffusal, Manta, Butterfly, BKB (if necessary)
• Tips - be stealthy (duh), scout team fights, cloud after initiation, save your blink strike
• How to counter - destroy early, buy gem, get force staff to get out of cloud, buy MKB

Who knew you should be stealthy with Stealth Assassin?

This guy is pretty flat and simple. Laning and early game your job is to get farm and pick up easy kills. Hopefully you are supported by a nice babysitter and can get some Wraiths and Treads easily. PMS in lane is nice for you to tank some hits.

Notice how this build does not include Vlads, or MoM, or lifesteal at all - you do not need it. It is a waste, because you HAVE to get Diffusal ASAP. Wasting that time on something not as good could really delay your awesomeness.

Get one level of Cloud early for the nice slow and silence, max Blink Strike because that 5 second cooldown is great - you can use blink for chasing and escaping. Backstab is where you get your major DPS, so you need to get that pretty early as well.

When fighting heroes, only Blink Strike when you need to. The damage doesn't do much, but you can chase quick / blinking heroes if you save your strike for after they try to get away. Blink on PotM AFTER she leaps, not before. If you have your Diffusal, then pop your cloud, purge them so they can't move, and you should be able to do enough damage before they get away to kill them.

If your opponent gets a gem, then you are kind of screwed. You have to play like you're just any other hero without much of an escape mechanism. Do your damage and get out. If you have Diffusal, you can purge off debuffs like Amplify Damage and Track. Also, remember how powerful Cloud is, it lasts a long time, confuses everyone, and silences, slows, and causes enemies to miss .. a lot.

// I'll answer questions in the comments and take suggestions for tomorrow's write up.

/// I am compiling a list of my threads (until something better comes up) on my profile at GG.net