To be blunt, you are really bad at Lifestealer. At least item-choice-wise. There was JUST a blog post on how shitty treads on lifestealer are and the godliness of drums on him, yet you dont build it. Try going phase then drums, it works wonders, then go armlet, basher, ac, whatever. Do this build, then tell us how well you did. its not a guarantee win, but it lets you enter fights WAY faster with even more effectiveness than the old treads armlet build, you can start teamfighting as soon as you have drums.
Please don't get power treads. Get phase boots so you can chase down people. I've been skipping armlet and doing basher first or sange/yasha first then basher.
http://dotabuff.com/matches/511909898
I suck as a carry, and usually go support but... i went 15/2 with him this time around. Power treads do give you that 30+ IAS but being fast as life stealer is the way to go. Power treads blow.
I also never pick life stealer against ursa. Ursa is hard counter to life stealer. I captain a lot in CM/CD and I never get life stealer if they have a lot of high armor AGI. heros, or invisible heroes. You get ganked in the woods if they have invis, and AGI high armor, or evasion type items really leave life stealer not stealing any life! :O
And since ranked I'm 9-0 with him. http://dotabuff.com/players/103418398/matches?hero=lifestealer&game_mode=&match_type=real
The main thing to remember is that his laning is SO strong that it just can't be passed out. Sending him to the jungle is a waste for your team. Also if you want you can watch these replays I guess. One of them is pretty fresh as well.
^ Phase is the key buddy. Sam has it right Wookie. Power treads are garbage on life stealer.
What wink said,
You will basically get kitted out of significance if you have no movement speed on N'aix, especially if you have no proper heroes to bomb with (puck, storm, slark). Remember, you can slow someone but only one person after that you are a melee hero that will rely on nothing but the disables of your allies to lockdown people (Don't count on nothing but your basher). This is why MS is very important on LS in order to be able to catch up to heroes, I've even seen successful LS's with SnY it actually works fine.
You need to also pay attention to enemy hero picks. You went LS against 5 heroes with low HP and high physical DPS first game, you were completely countered. Your survivability as a hero is completely dependent on enemy HP since LS has low armor and not the best STR either.
Also LS CAN jungle at lvl1 but can't really farm the jungle fast due to him having no AoE except for his ult. Sven, Axe, anyone with Battlefury, all of these people farm a whole jungle in mere seconds, not something LS can do. Consider laning with him for extra starting gold. It's more risky but it will also pay off much more only jungle if someone else needs the lane like you said.
I will try switching up the items, looks like phase and S&Y are good options. I would've done this sooner but like I said I cleaned up with him before ranked was introduced always following the same build, and over a pretty large amount of games.
Also I didn't pick him to counterpick ursa or anything like that, I probably picked him first since if going carry I was generally pick first so others know to get supports. The only time I counter picked with lifestealer was that one game vs sven and pudge.
I disagree on naix being bad at jungling. I usually farm better in jungle than in lane at lvl 1, probably cus my supports suck, let us get denied and pushed.
Sam,
I noticed that your skill build on Lifestealer seems totally situational. Do you have any tips on how to regularly skill him? Also, what is your starting, early and core item set?
Not to speak for him but pretty sure phase -> armlet is his starting every time, then drums s&y core.
@Stinkoman
for laning (the proper way to play LS) you either get rage or open wounds. open wounds is for getting kills, rage is for running away. Then you get the other one, then you get feast at level 3, then max rage (ulti at every level of course), then put points into whatever you want. Open wounds for range and duration (i prefer this maxed first) and feast for general tankiness.
@ Let the wookie win
Sorry i meant Ursa is hard counter to life stealer. I just was trying to mention that didn't help your situation is all! Looks like the 2nd game you posted was All Pick. He probably saw it and just countered you is all I was pointing out.
No I disagree with that to a degree on jungling. He's good at jungling, but the game I posted above:
http://dotabuff.com/matches/511909898
What I did was call out I wanted to lane for 1 lvl then I dove into the jungle afterwards with tangos/quelling blade and stout shield. I farmed Hand of Midas @ 7:30 even with 1 lvl side laning. I just ate ez creeps and even pulled early on a few stacks, stacked a camp during the wait time for ez camp to regen. Big deal to stack those early when your ult can be acquired to smoke a triple stack fast.
On dire I just Shift+A clicked the top 3 dire creep camps and stacked when I could checking the timer. I farmed until about the 15 minute mark and was team fighting after the yasha/phase/hand of midas and didn't go back to my jungle.
Yes biggest problem are those dirty power treads brother. I like seeing you win dude so trade em out! :)
P.S. I keep my left thumb mouse button as phase boots and constantly click it all the time. + it gives you thumb exercise. A big bonus! :D
I still think Lifestealer one of my top 7-8 heroes , but statistic won`t be on my side http://dotabuff.com/players/134203835/matches?hero=lifestealer&game_mode=&match_type=real I play him fine but so freaking unlicky at pub and just picking him vs big counterpickers for ls seems like..
Cpt. Caveman, I just watched your replay.
Did you ever consider Drums or Armlet, or is that not part of your playstyle on Lifestealer?
I generally just skill him based on the lane I'm against. If I'm constantly low on on health few extra points in Feast is sometimes useful. If we have high kill potential and play aggresive, I'll go with more point in wounds to reduce the CD and increase the range. If they have a lot of disables and I'm afraid on ganks at least 2 levels in rage will provide enough to time for you to Rage-TP out.
Also I generally go to the lane without a QB as his base damage is already really really high. I go with more regen and shield because of his shit base armor. I usually don't go midas because as I said I like to use his laning presence and early game power to the best. I will probably get one if I'm jungling though because jungle farm can be slow and needs to be speeded up. I like Phase-Drums-S&Y together as you move with almost max speed and that lets you kill people even without slowing them. Orb of Venom also helps in lane and %12 slow is actually pretty big on a very high base MS hero. Last game I didn't go S&Y because I felt like speed is useless against a Weaver so I went basher so we could have a higher chance of lockdown against him. Also went for a fast AC because I desperately needed armor to survive against weaver and LD as well as AS to make the basher a better item.
I don't think you need quell blade in lane. Like sam said, high base dmg, good attack animation, last hitting isn't hard.
Another disgrace of a game. Should've won easily.
http://dotabuff.com/matches/514623350
Legion jungles, ok that's fine. Our offlane picks clock, maybe not the greatest considering we have LC and naix so that's a lot of melee getting tangled in cogs, but whatever. Enemy team has natures in jungle and no great off laners, then send terrorblade solo offlane. Crystal maiden babysits me in safe lane but instead of harassing TB she decides to constantly jungle pull, like she is literally never in lane. Terrorblade can't really kill me but when he pops ranged form and an illusion his high dmg can push me out of lane, deny and farm for him. Then at lvl 6 with swap he is able to 1v1 me. Pretty fucking stupid. All CM had to do was Q to nuke him and the illusion, illusion will take more dmg thus revealing the real one, then W the real one, easy kills. But she was retarded, and it wasn't just in lane, she made stupid mistakes the entire game.
Also doesn't help when pudge wins mid vs qop. I don't think he won the lane but he ganked very effectively while our qop didn't. And our clock was pretty bad with his cogs, caught me in them several times, once getting me killed. Once he cogged terrorblade when LC and me were both on him so we couldn't hit him, shadow shaman runs up and ults and hex's us and TB runs away lol. Freakin dumbass clock.
I'm sure I can play better, my first death was to a hook I saw coming, but it's really hard to carry players who make as many mistakes as clock and CM in that game. I did get phase boots and sange, my farm was terrible, but I did like the extra move speed for what it's worth. Didn't really notice missing the attack speed.
@ stinkoman
Yes I considered it. I am kind of tired of armlet so I didn't get it. Drums I was wanting to get but I thought I heard someone was going to get it and then didn't. I will probably grab boots/drums next time and call out early that i'm grabbing them. I try to avoid drums on a carry since most supports seem to get them and the word I heard was someone was building them. Woops! :)
@ Sam
Agreed I typically dont get midas when laning because I dont hit 2100 gold under 8 minutes. I feel that beyond 8~9 min I don't like getting hand of midas. Seems I am lacking in team fights and presence if I see a mate (or in my past tries) getting it beyond 10 minutes.
@ Let the wookie win.
If you liked the attack speed, compensate with the sange/yasha combo instead of the Heavens halberd? You would get more move speed plus more increased attack speed.
Yes looks like your support didn't support. too bad! Solo offlane terror blade is pretty weak. Could've shut him down early! Add me I'll show you what a good support does ;)
I was going for S&Y, I build Sange first, but by that point game was over, I just finished the halberd a few minutes before game ended to maybe disarm TB or jug. It wasn't a serious build.
He's not as good as he used to be when they nerfed that open wounds. You almost have to max it to just slow people down. Also I've been noticing alot of noobs don't know or like to infest enemy creeps for free escape.
And finally armlet is no good if the enemy can kite you. You almost have to go racecar build with s&y or basher after.
Yeah skip that armlet and opt for S&Y or basher. Not a fan of armlet and fan of going fast vroooooom! racecar!
I love this build for troll too ( drums, S&Y ) its just too good on a hero that moves at 340 with no boots.
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I'm having some sort of issue playing lifestealer in ranked. He used to be my go to hero for wins, before ranked was released I was 34-9 on him. Since ranked I'm 1-4.
I pretty much always do the same thing with him, jungle power treads and armlet (sometimes lane if no other carries need a lane or really bad off lane options but farm is about the same), then push lanes/team fight, rotating through ancients and jungle when appropriate building basher/ac and abyssal/satanic if it goes really late.
Looking at the games, I can blame a lot of this on picks and lane setups. The one win was won really without me. I was 2-1-7 with the best gpm on our team and 2nd most tower dmg but they were winning before I even began team fighting. Good example of how not pushing jungler/hard carry teams early nets you a loss.
http://dotabuff.com/matches/423087396
This loss our team just couldn't handle Ursa. LC fed a ton of duels, Ursa snowballed too much. I could 1v1 him with rage up mid game and did a couple times but his team would just spam disable me otherwise. Maybe team needed me to help out sooner, don't remember, mainly I remember LC sucking.
http://dotabuff.com/matches/425837767
This one I don't remembr that well but I believe pudge got hosed mid by invoker and game was lost plus we had safelane void with veno as his support, easy lane to kill with some disables.
http://dotabuff.com/matches/430120292
This one was terrible, we played it all wrong. I had safe lane with rubick vs a solo bristle. But instead of harassing or trying to gank bb, rubick keeps pulling jungle. Bristle spams me with quills, every time I hit him he runs. So I'm forced to lifesteal on creeps or back up and not farm, it was just bad. We killed bristle once and he still almost double killed us with quills. Our other lanes got beaten as well, but we played it poorly.
http://dotabuff.com/matches/494241971
This one lost due to picks. I picked naix first on our side specifically to counter sven and pudge, who were randomed. Last two guys make retarded picks, grabbing spirit breaker and huskar. SB and husk are ok vs squishy gankable heroes, not vs an all strength lineup. they fed the crap out of LC, she snowballed like crazy, I couldn't out carry that. It might look like storm and me died too much but storm started out like 5-0-1 and I was something like 3-1 but then legion was too fat and kept killing us.
http://dotabuff.com/matches/509058681
So it seems like I'm getting crap luck with my teammates in most games, but I don't know, it could be my poor play. I know most people prefer phase over treads on naix, but my 34-9 non ranked record seemed like treads were working great for me.
I also wonder if jungle changes are effecting this since I like to jungle naix a lot, or maybe more popular heroes just counter him now like legion.