Nyx Assassin stats, abilities and strategy
Reflects enemy damage and stuns
Nyx Assassin is always hunting for fragile targets. Sneaking invisibly through the forest, when he spots his prey, he swipes them with his deadly claws and impales them on stunning spikes, then reverses any counterattack with his reflecting carapace.
Win Rate 50.8%
Pick Rate 4.4%
Attributes
494 +59.4/lvl
327 +31.2/lvl
17 +2.7/lvl
18 +2.9/lvl
21 +2.6/lvl
Stats
Damage:
65 - 69 + 5.7/level (261 - 265 at level 30)
Range:
150
Armor:
4.0 + 0.5/level (20.4 at level 30)
Movement:
310
Roles
Carry
Durable
Nuker
Pusher
Support
Escape
Disabler
Initiator
Patch 7.38
- Base Damage increased by 14
- Damage at level 1 unchanged (51-55)
- Strength gain increased from 2.5 to 2.7
- Agility gain increased from 2.3 to 2.9
- Intelligence gain increased from 2.5 to 2.6
- Damage gain per level decreased from +5.1 to +3.7
- Damage at level 30 decreased by 52 (from 228-232 to 176-180)
Facets
Mana Burn
Win Rate: 49.3%
Pick Rate: 33.9%
Mind Flare burns a percentage of the target's max mana.
Patch 7.38
- Mind Flare: Burns 16/19/22/25% of the target's max mana
Scuttle
Win Rate: 51.5%
Pick Rate: 66.1%
For the first 15s of Vendetta, Nyx is hasted and has unobstructed pathing.
Abilities
ABILITY: Passive
PASSIVE: Breakable
Nyx Assassin can detect heroes within 350 units of himself.
Impale
DAMAGE TYPE: Magical
PIERCES DEBUFF IMMUNITY: No
PASSIVE: No
DISPELLABLE: Strong Dispels Only
DEBUFF [E]: Yes
Rock spikes burst from the earth along a straight path. Enemy units take damage, then are hurled into the air and stunned.
The spikes move at 1600 units per second, over 750 range.
Impale cannot be blocked by Linken's Sphere.
STUN DURATION: 1.1 / 1.4 / 1.7 / 2
IMPALE DAMAGE: 100 / 160 / 220 / 280
17 / 15 / 13 / 11
90 / 100 / 110 / 120
750
LEVEL 20 TALENT: +100 Impale Damage
LEVEL 10 TALENT: +0.2s Impale Stun Duration
Patch 7.38
- Cooldown decreased from 18/16/14/12s to 17/15/13/11s
- Mana Cost decreased from 100/110/120/130 to 90/100/110/120
All zealot scarabs possess intimate knowledge of underground pathways, using them to their advantage.
Mind Flare
AFFECTS: Unit and area
DAMAGE TYPE: Magical
PIERCES DEBUFF IMMUNITY: No
PASSIVE: No
Deals damages to the enemy equal to a percentage of its Max Mana. Deals additional damage equal to a percentage of the damage the target has taken from Nyx Assassin in the last 15s. Resets accumulated damage before applying damage.
MAX MANA AS DAMAGE: 25% / 30% / 35% / 40%
MANA BURNT: %
BONUS DAMAGE: 20%
11 / 9.5 / 8 / 6.5
100 / 105 / 110 / 115
800
FACET: Mana Burn
Mind Flare burns mana equal to a percentage of the target's max mana.
LEVEL 25 TALENT: 600 Mind Flare Radius
LEVEL 15 TALENT: -3s Mind Flare Cooldown
Patch 7.38c
- Cooldown decreased from 13/11/9/7s to 11/9.5/8/6.5s
Patch 7.38
- No longer instantly kills creeps
- Max Mana as Damage increased from 20/25/30/35% to 25/30/35/40%
- Bonus Damage decreased from 25% to 20%
Spiked Carapace
PIERCES DEBUFF IMMUNITY: No
PASSIVE: No
When activated while above ground, Spiked Carapace reflects and negates damage dealt to Nyx Assassin (max once from each source), as well as stunning the source of the damage. Activating Spiked Carapace will not break Vendetta invisibility. While Burrowed, Spiked Carapace instantly stuns nearby enemies when cast.
The damage is calculated after all reductions.
Spiked Carapace will only trigger on damage from other player controlled units.
The damage reflected will have the same damage type as it had when it was dealt to Nyx.
REFLECT DURATION: 2
STUN DURATION: 0.4 / 0.8 / 1.2 / 1.6
DAMAGE REFLECTED: 125%
23 / 18 / 13 / 8
40
LEVEL 20 TALENT: +0.5s Spiked Carapace Stun Duration
LEVEL 10 TALENT: +25% Spiked Carapace Damage Reflect
While their carapace is relatively thin, it's guarded by a retractable field of razor-sharp spikes.
Vendetta
DAMAGE TYPE: Pure
PIERCES DEBUFF IMMUNITY: Yes
PASSIVE: No
Allows Nyx Assassin to become invisible and gain a speed bonus. If Nyx Assassin attacks to break the invisibility, massive bonus damage is dealt with the attack. Nyx Assassin has 75 additional attack range and a 70% faster attack animation for this attack.
Has a 0 second fadetime.
If a spell is used to break the invisibility, or the invisibility expires, the bonus damage is lost.
With Aghanim's Shard, the Break is applied before the bonus damage.
DURATION: 60
MOVEMENT SPEED: 16% / 18% / 20%
BONUS DAMAGE: 300 / 400 / 500
BREAK DURATION: 0
80 / 70 / 60
FACET: Scuttle
For the first 15s of Vendetta, Nyx is hasted and has unobstructed pathing.
Aghanim's Shard
Vendetta applies Break on attack.
LEVEL 15 TALENT: +50 Vendetta Damage
The scarab kills for the glory of his queen.
Unburrow
PASSIVE: No
Emerge from the burrow.
Some castes of zealot scarab are known to create small burrows to lie in wait, ready to ambush their prey.
Burrow
Scepter grants new ability
PASSIVE: No
Nyx Assassin buries himself beneath the battlefield over a short duration. Once burrowed, Spiked Carapace instantly stuns nearby enemies when cast, the range of Mind Flare and Impale is increased, and Impale's cooldown is decreased. While burrowed, Nyx Assassin is stationary, unable to attack, and invisible. Nyx gains damage reduction from all damage sources.
Casting Vendetta will cancel burrow.
MAX HP REGEN: 1%
MAX MANA REGEN: 1%
BURROW DAMAGE REDUCTION: 40%
BURROW BONUS CAST RANGE: 500
BURROW BONUS COOLDOWN REDUCTION: 25%
BURROW SPIKED CARAPACE RANGE: 400
Some castes of zealot scarab are known to create small burrows to lie in wait, ready to ambush their prey.
Talents
+80 Agility
+ 1.5 %
600 Mind Flare Radius
+100 Impale Damage
+0.5s Spiked Carapace Stun Duration
+ 0.3 %
-3s Mind Flare Cooldown
+ 0.7 %
+50 Vendetta Damage
+0.2s Impale Stun Duration
+ 0.8 %
+25% Spiked Carapace Damage Reflect
Win Rate
Pick Rate
Patch 7.38
- Level 10 Talent +40 Vendetta Damage replaced with +25% Spiked Carapace Damage Reflect
- Level 15 Talent +0.5s Spiked Carapace Reflect Duration replaced with +50 Vendetta Damage
Strategy
Nyx is a fairly weak laner. Focus on creep equilibrium, pulling and securing runes for midlaner.
Use Impale to secure the ranged creep and stun opponents at the same time if possible.
Consider hijacking a second opponents' creepwave behind the tower at 50 seconds into the game.
You can use Spiked Carapace during Vendetta without exiting it.
Once you have Vendetta up, be active - setup kills and scout. Avoid showing yourself on the lanes too much.
Pick up Aghanim's Scepter as it improves most of your spells among other things.
Remember to use Mind Flare only after you have used all your other damage dealing spells and items.
Use portals to roam between lanes and get kills with your Impale and Carapace setup.
When not much is happening in the game, look to use Mind Flare to instantly kill some jungle creeps for some quick farm and experience.
Counter Strategy
Be careful not to use a major damaging spell when Spiked Carapace is on or Nyx Assassin is about to use it.
To counter Nyx Assassin's mana burn facet, get a Magic Stick or Arcane Boots.
To see Nyx under Vendetta buy Sentries and Observer Wards.
Carry detection on multiple heroes.
Spell immunity is great against Nyx.
Avoid buying too many mana pool increasing items against Nyx Assassins Mind Flare.
Lore
Deep in the Archive of Ultimyr, shelved between scholarly treatises on dragon cladistics and books of untranslatable spells, there is an ancient tome of entomological curiosities. Compiled by scholars, the book describes the telepathic talents of the zealot scarab, a strange species of social insect with abilities unique to all the seven planes.
Unlike most grubs of his colony, Nyx Assassin did not arise from metamorphosis with the plodding thoughts and blunted appendages common to the worker caste of his kind. For his was a special transformation, guided by the grace of Nyx. He was the chosen one, selected from the many and anointed with an extract of the queen goddess herself. Not all survive the dark blessing of the queen's chamber, but he emerged with a penetrating mind, and dagger-like claws--his razor sharp mandibles raking the air while his thoughts projected directly into the minds of those around him. Of all zealot scarabs, he alone was selected for the highest calling. After his metamorphosis, he was reborn, by grace of Nyx, with abilities which shaped him for one thing and one thing only: to kill in the name of his goddess.