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Lifestealer
Strength attribute symbol
Agility attribute symbol
Intelligence attribute symbol
25 + 2.4
19 + 2.6
15 + 1.8
Level 0 1 15 25 30
Health 120 670 1396 2188 2496
+0.25 +2.75 +6.11 +9.71 +11.11
Mana 75 255 555 915 1047
+0 +0.75 +2.01 +3.51 +4.06
Armor 1 4.17 10.23 16.57 19.07
Magic Resist 25% 26.5% 29.02% 32.02% 33.12%
Damage Block 16 (50%)
Damage

22
28

47
53

80
86

116
122

130
136

Attack Rate 0.71/s 0.82/s 1.03/s 1.26/s 1.34/s
Attack Range Melee 150 (600)
Attack Speed ▶️ 120 (1.7s BAT)
Attack Animation 0.39 + 0.44
Projectile Speed Instant
Move Speed ▶️ 320 (Nighttime 350)
Turn Rate Takes 0.116s to turn 180°. 0.9
Collision Size 27
Bound Radius 24
Vision Range (G) 1800 (Nighttime 800)
Gib Type Default
Internal npc_dota_hero_life_stealer
Infests other units for mobility and strength.
What was once a man is now little more than a husk, its mind long since departed from lifetimes of imprisonment. Or has it? Now on the loose, N'aix appears to be driven by a new purpose, although what precisely that is, none would know. The Lifestealer Feasts on raw flesh, nourishing himself with every attack while inflicting grievous Open Wounds that make escape near impossible. By sheer ferocity, or perhaps a Ghoulish Frenzy, N'aix flies into a Rage, intensifying his assault while defying all wizardry. For a particularly nasty surprise, the Lifestealer Infests an unhappy victim, laying dormant inside its body in wait for the opportunity to Consume its host inside-out in a gory explosion.
Rage
Feast
Ghoul Frenzy
Open Wounds
Open Wounds
Infest
Infest
Roles: Carry Carry Durable Durable Escape Escape Disabler Disabler
Complexity: Hero ComplexityHero Complexity
Adjectives: Badteeth, Undead, Nose
Legs ( 2 )


Bio[]

Lifestealer minimap iconN'aix, the Lifestealer
▶️ "Oh Master, behold all these lives for the taking!"
In the dungeons of Devarque, a vengeful wizard lay in shackles, plotting his escape. He shared his cell with a gibbering creature known as N'aix, a thief cursed by the Vile Council with longevity, so that its life-sentence for theft and cozening might be as punishing as possible. Over the years, its chains had corroded, along with its sanity; N'aix retained no memory of its former life and no longer dreamt of escape.

Seeing a perfect vessel for his plans, the wizard wove a spell of Infestation and cast his life-force into N'aix's body, intending to compel N'aix to sacrifice itself in a frenzy of violence while the mage returned to his body and crept away unnoticed. Instead, the wizard found his mind caught in a vortex of madness so powerful that it swept away his plans and shattered his will. Jarred to consciousness by the sudden infusion of fresh life, N'aix woke from its nightmare of madness and obeyed the disembodied voice that filled its skull, which had only the one thought: To escape.

In that moment Lifestealer was born. The creature cast its mind into dungeon guards and soldiers, compelling them to open locks and cut down their companions, opening an unobstructed path to freedom while feeding on their lives. Lifestealer still wears the broken shackles as a warning that none may hold him, but on the inside remains a prisoner. Two minds inhabit the single form--a nameless creature of malevolent cunning, and the Master whose voice he pretends to obey.
Alias:
LS

Abilities[]

Rage
Rage icon
Ability
No Target
Affects
Self
Launch into a maddened rage, becoming Debuff immune, increasing magic resistance by 80% and gaining increased movement speed.
Move Speed Bonus: 9%/12%/15%/18% (Talent 21%/24%/27%/30%)
Magic Resistance Bonus: 80%
Duration: 3/4/5/6 (Talent 4.5/5.5/6.5/7.5)
Cooldown symbol
 20/19/18/17
Mana symbol
 75/100/125/150
Buff/Debuff
Modifiers [?]
modifier_life_stealer_rage
Death
The madness and brutality of N'aix makes him a vicious and unrelenting foe in combat.

  • Interrupts Lifestealer's channeling abilities upon cast.
  • Stacks multiplicatively with other Magic Resistance magic resistance sources.
    • Increases Lifestealer's magic resistance to 85%.
    • With the magic resistance bonus from this source, every 10 points of Intelligence attribute symbol intelligence further increases the total magic resistance by 0.2%. [?]


Feast
Cannot be used by illusions. Disabled by Break. Pierces debuff immunity. WF
Feast icon
Ability
Passive
Affects
Enemies / Self
Damage
Physical
Lifestealer's attacks deal damage and provide heal for a percentage of his target's max health.
Enemy Max Health as Heal: 1.6%/2.2%/2.8%/3.4% (Talent 2.8%/3.4%/4%/4.6%)
Enemy Max Health as Damage: 1%/1.3%/1.6%/1.9% (Talent 2.2%/2.5%/2.8%/3.1%)
Buff/Debuff
Modifiers [?]
modifier_life_stealer_feast
Undispellable
After escaping from his cell in Devarque, N'aix subsisted on flesh and bones of those unfortunate to cross his path.

  • Always heal for the full amount per instance, regardless of how much damage the target actually receives (before reductions).
  • The max health as bonus damage is considered as a conditional attack damage bonus.
    • Although the attack damage bonus values are not displayed in the HUD, it is still considered and directly added to Lifestealer's attack damage.
    • The attack damage bonus values are considered by lifesteal, critical strike, and cleave, and it can be reduced only by flat reductions (e.g. damage block).
    • Since it is considered bonus attack damage, it is not affected by percentage-based attack damage bonuses or reductions.
  • Feast first self-heals, then apply its attack damage.


Ghoul Frenzy
Can be used by illusions. Partially disabled by Break. Does not pierce debuff immunity. EG
Ghoul Frenzy icon
Ability
Passive
Affects
Enemies / Self
Passively causes Lifestealer's attacks to significantly slow enemy movement speed for 1.5 seconds. Grants you Attack Speed.
Self Attack Speed Bonus: 25/40/55/70
Enemy Move Speed Slow: 15%/20%/25%/30% (Talent 30%/35%/40%/45%)
Debuff Duration: 1.5
Does not pierce spell immunity.
The attack speed bonus is not disabled.
The movement speed slow is disabled.
Buff/Debuff
Modifiers [?]
modifier_life_stealer_ghoul_frenzy
Undispellable
modifier_life_stealer_ghoul_frenzy_slow

  • The debuff of successive attacks does not stack but refreshes the duration.


Open Wounds
Open Wounds icon
Affects
Enemies / Allies
Damage
Physical
Lifestealer rends an enemy unit, slowing the victim's movement speed and allowing all allies to regain health for a percentage of the damage they deal to that unit. All damage dealt will steal life, including damage from spells. The victim recovers movement speed over the duration. Deals 2% of the target's max health per attack on the target from real heroes. After receiving 500 damage, the Open Wounds fester and spread to a non-infected random enemy within 700 radius.
Cast Animation: 0.2+0.4
Cast Range: Affected by Cast Range bonuses. 800
Spread Search Radius: Affected by AoE Radius bonuses. 700
Spread Damage Threshold: 500
Lifesteal: 50%
Damage as Self Heal: 50%
Enemy Max Health as Damage per Hit: 2%
Max Move Speed Slow: 50%
Slow Duration: 7
Cooldown symbol
 15
Mana symbol
 75
Partially blocked by Linken's Sphere.
Blocked fully only when primary target.
The passive spread cast is not blocked.
Buff/Debuff
Modifiers [?]
modifier_life_stealer_open_wounds
Ability Draft Notes
Ability Draft Notes:
Upgradable by Aghanim's Shard.
Requires drafting Infest icon Infest to be unlocked.
Fresh wounds and the scent of blood often draw out the scavengers to finish the job.

  • Open Wounds spreads to a random unit within 700 radius that does not have the debuff already, prioritizing heroes, once the affected target collectively takes 500 damage (after all reductions).
    • Treat creep-heroes as creeps.
    • Successive casts on the same target neither stack nor allow the debuff to spread, but refresh its movement speed slow values and duration.
    • Each Open Wounds debuff can only spread once. It cannot spread to the same unit again per cast.
    • The debuff also does not spread while reaching the damage threshold with no valid targets within its search radius.
  • The spreading is not limited to the unit Open Wounds was cast on, the Open Wounds debuffs created via spreading can spread as well.
  • The heal values are considered as lifesteal, and can still be subjected to lifesteal manipulation.
    • Stacks additively with other lifesteal sources.
    • Casting instant kill sources (e.g. Hand of Midas icon Transmute) on a unit affected by Open Wounds heals the caster based on the affected target's current health.
    • Spell damage from heals the caster as lifesteal.
  • The spread damage threshold condition still applies for the aforementioned damage sources.
  • Applies 7 instances 50%/50%/40%/30%/20%/10%/10% decreasing movement speed slow, decreasing one step per second for its duration.
  • The max health as bonus damage is only applied to attacks done by heroes.
    • Treats attack from clones and illusions as heroes, attacks from creep-heroes as creeps.
    • The damage is considered as a conditional attack damage bonus.
    • Although the attack damage bonus values are not displayed in the HUD, it is still considered and directly added to the hero's attack damage.
    • The attack damage bonus values are considered by lifesteal, critical strike, and cleave, and it can be reduced only by flat reductions (e.g. damage block).
    • Since it is considered bonus attack damage, it is not affected by percentage-based attack damage bonuses or reductions.
    • The conditional attack damage bonus does not affect Roshan icon Roshan.
  • Open Wounds first apply its damage (after reductions), then heal based on the damage dealt.


Infest icon
Affects
Self
(Upgradable by Aghanim's Scepter. Enemy Heroes)
Lifestealer infests the body of a target unit, becoming undetectable, and healing for a portion of his max hitpoints every second while inside. He can then explode from the host body, dealing damage to nearby enemies. If the infested unit is an enemy creep or a neutral creep, he can take control of the unit's ability to move and attack. Does not work on enemy heroes.
Cast Range: Affected by Cast Range bonuses. 150 (With Aghanim's Scepter 500)
Target Max Health Bonus: 400/800/1200 (Talent 460/920/1380)
Target Move Speed Bonus: 15%/20%/25% (Talent 30%/35%/40%)
Self Max Health as Health Regen Bonus: 3%/4%/5% (With Aghanim's Scepter 6%/8%/10%)
With Aghanim's Scepter Enemy Hero Attack Interval: 1.25
With Aghanim's Scepter Enemy Hero Duration: 5
Cooldown symbol
 80/65/50 (With Aghanim's Scepter 20)
Mana symbol
 100/125/150
Upgradable by Aghanim's Scepter.
Aghanim's Scepter Upgrade:
Increases cast range and reduces cooldown. Infest may target enemy heroes for a short duration, disarming them and attacking them from the inside while increasing Lifestealer's regeneration rate.
Upgradable by Aghanim's Shard.
Aghanim's Shard Upgrade:
Grants the Open Wounds ability.
Blocked by Linken's Sphere.
Upgradable by Aghanim's Scepter.
Cannot be reflected.
Buff/Debuff
Modifiers [?]
modifier_life_stealer_infest
Death
modifier_life_stealer_infest_effect
Death
modifier_life_stealer_infest_creep
Death
modifier_life_stealer_infest_enemy_hero
Death
With this infestation, N'aix consumes the life blood of the host, restoring him back to full unholy power.
Infest target indicator

Visual indicator above the Infest icon Infested target.


  • During Infest, all of Lifestealer's abilities are hidden, while Infest is replaced by the Consume icon Consume sub-ability.
    • Lifestealer is now invulnerable, hidden, spell immune, and is periodically moved to the host's current position. This affects the following things:
      • Upon Infest ending in any way, Lifestealer reappears at the host's current location.
      • Every aura Lifestealer has (e.g. Radiance icon Radiance) is bestowed around the host.
      • Ability effects that interact with heroes' presence (e.g. Smoke of Deceit icon Smoke of Deceit, Marksmanship icon Marksmanship) react on the host's presence.
      • Relocate icon Relocate forces Lifestealer out of the Infested unit, dealing its area damage.
  • Can fully regenerate Lifestealer's health within 33.33/25/20 (Upgradable by Aghanim's Scepter. 16.67/12.5/10) seconds.
  • The following effects are applied to the Infested unit:
    • Grants current and max health bonuses by the given value. This counts as setting health.
    • If the affected target is a hero, including illusions and creep-heroes, it grants percentage-based movement speed bonus to the affected target.
    • If the affected target is a creep, Lifestealer automatically takes control of it, turning it into his unit.
      • Infest also replenishes its mana and set its base movement speed to
        expr
        LifestealerCurrentMS × 1.15/1.2/1.25 (Talent 1.3/1.35/1.4).
      • The controlled creep also retains its health bar colors for camouflaging purposes.
      • It also can be dominated (e.g. Holy Persuasion icon Holy Persuasion) normally, with its source ability notes fully apply. Lifestealer can only cast Consume icon Consume in this case.
      • For Warlock Warlock Golem icon Minor Imps, despite being uncontrollable, the Minor Imp continues its attempt to move to the last known location of its set target.
    • The affected unit also receives a hidden modifier, which creates the visual effect above it, visible to allies only.
  • The ability's cooldown starts upon leaving the infested unit, not upon cast.
  • Infest can now be cast on enemy heroes and creep-heroes.
    • Does not increase the health or movement speed of such targets, but disarms them.
    • Although having a limited duration on these targets, Lifestealer still may use Consume icon Consume to leave the host earlier.
    • Causes Lifestealer to perform instant attacks on the Infested enemy target in 1.25-second intervals, starting immediately upon cast, resulting in up to 5 attacks.
    • These instant attacks can proc any attack modifiers and on-hit effects normally. They do not have True Strike, but completely ignore disarms.
  • Although the same target can be affected by multiple sources of Infest, the health increase effect does not stack. If the target is a creep, only the first Infest cast can control the unit and use the Consume icon Consume sub-ability.
  • Upgradable by Aghanim's Scepter. Infest only affects the primary target.


Consume
Consume icon
Ability
No Target
Affects
Enemies / Self
Lifestealer eats the host body from the inside out, exploding from within.
Effect Radius: Affected by AoE Radius bonuses. 700
Damage: 150/275/400 (Talent 300/425/550)
Cooldown symbol
 0
Mana symbol
 0
Sub-ability
Sub-ability of Infest.

  • Replaces Infest icon Infest until the sub-ability is used, or until Lifestealer gets out of the host in any way.
    • If the infested target is a creep, and Lifestealer takes control over it, it also appears in the infested unit's HUD, in the next available ability slot.
  • Applies the radius damage instantly even when the Infested unit dies before Lifestealer consumes it.
  • If there are multiple sources of Infest on the same target, the first Consume cast causes both sources to be ejected from the affected target and damages the first caster who cast Consume.


Talents[]

Hero Talents
+1.5s Rage icon Rage Duration25+1.2% Feast icon Feast Lifesteal and Damage
+15% Ghoul Frenzy icon Ghoul Frenzy Slow20+15% Infest icon Infest Target Movespeed/Health
+30 Damage15+350 Health
+12% Rage icon Rage Movement Speed10+150 Infest icon Infest Damage
Notes:
  • The health talent increases the max health capacity and keeps the current health percentage.

Recent Changes[]

Main Articles: Changelogs, Old Abilities and Hero Lore
Version
Description
  • Reduced Rage icon Rage movement speed bonus from 15%/16%/17%/18% to 9%/12%/15%/18%.
  • Increased Feast icon Feast enemy max health as damage from 0.8%/1.1%/1.4%/1.7% to 1%/1.3%/1.6%/1.9%.
  • Talent Talents:
    • LVL 15
       
      +25 attack damage increased to +30.
      LVL 15
       
      +325 health increased to +350.
      LVL 25
       
      +1.2% Feast icon Feast max health as lifesteal  +1.2% Feast icon Feast max health as lifesteal/damage.


Recommended Items[]

Starting items:

Early game:

  • Boots of Speed icon Boots of Speed are needed to gank in combination with Open Wounds.
  • Magic Stick icon Magic Stick sustains Lifestealer if the enemy has a certain number of spammable skills.
  • Blight Stone icon Blight Stone increases Lifestealer's early game damage, and builds into Desolator icon Desolator later.
  • Orb of Venom icon Orb of Venom is a nice early game pickup if his lane has a moderate level of kill potential, as the slow helps Lifestealer to catch up with the enemy.

Mid game:

  • Phase Boots icon Phase Boots allows Lifestealer to close the distance on his targets in order to get within Open Wounds' short range.
  • Magic Wand icon Magic Wand, as an upgrade of Magic Stick icon Magic Stick, greatly improves the hero's effectiveness mostly by compensating for low mana pool.
  • Armlet of Mordiggian icon Armlet of Mordiggian shines with the extra HP, armor, and damage from the active Unholy Strength, all of which Lifestealer wants.
  • Desolator icon Desolator increases Lifestealer's damage output greatly as it reduces armor of the enemy, allows him to tear down supports and carries with the help of extra attack speed and Spell Immunity of Rage. The item helps with farming and pushing towers as well.Feast and Open Wounds negates the health loss to some extent, while the rest of the abilities offer a chance of armlet toggling.
  • Heaven's Halberd icon Heaven's Halberd provide evasion against the physical attack of enemies, extra heal from Feast and Open Wounds, status resistance as well as a disarm for the enemy carry.

Late game:

  • Abyssal Blade icon Abyssal Blade gives Lifestealer a reliable source of stun, allows him to disable an enemy long enough for him to tear down. Lifestealer has almost no damage output outside of melee range, so it is really crucial to stick to his target as a melee carry. Besides, this item improves the hero's survivability with damage block and bonus health.
  • Assault Cuirass icon Assault Cuirass compensates for Lifestealer's low base armor and gives more attack speed to use with Feast. The armor reduction allows for a faster tower pushing and stronger team fight presence.
  • Aghanim's Scepter icon Aghanim's Scepter will increase the cast range of Infest icon Infest and it's health regeneration, reduce cooldown and will allow Lifestealer to use Infest icon Infest on enemy heroes, disarming them and attacking them from inside, even if they are debuff immune, similarly to Juggernaut minimap icon Juggernaut's Omnislash icon Omnislash and Swiftslash icon Swiftslash from Aghanim's Scepter icon Aghanim's Scepter. Aghanim's Scepter icon Aghanim's Scepter upgraded Infest icon Infest can make Lifestealer strong even against most heroes he would usually have difficulties to fight against. But watch out for the enemy heroes who choose to buy Linken's Sphere icon Linken's Sphere, as they will be able to counter this tactic with it's spellblock.
  • Aghanim's Shard icon Aghanim's Shard will give Lifestealer access to Open Wounds icon Open Wounds that will allow him to severely slow down an enemy hero, and to make every type of damage the affected enemy hero takes heal Lifestealer's allies while attacking the affected target, even the one coming from abilities. Open Wounds icon Open Wounds will also deal 2% of the target's max health per attack on the target from real heroes and will fester and spread on the nearby allies within 700 radius of the enemy hero affected by it when they 500 damage.

Situational items:

  • Hand of Midas icon Hand of Midas allows Lifestealer to comeback from a bad laning stage. Note that the item would delay your mid-game power spike as better items could be purchased with the gold spent.
  • Sange and Yasha icon Sange and Yasha gives Lifestealer movement speed, attack speed, and attack damage. The movement speed bonus helps Lifestealer catch up with the enemies.
  • Monkey King Bar icon Monkey King Bar helps with the problem of evasion. The magical damage procs also help improve damage output, but the main draw for this item is the attack damage that can pierce through evasion it offers.
  • Maelstrom icon Maelstrom is a very good item due to the attack speed provided by Feast allowing you to get more procs from Chain Lightning. It provides extra damage, early flash farming capability and overall improve Lifestealer's attack damage. If Lifestealer is going for this item, it is recommended to get this item early on and to forego Armlet of Mordiggian icon Armlet of Mordiggian.
  • Nullifier icon Nullifier will give Lifestealer good armor and excellent attack damage, and it will allow him to dispel defensive buffs from items like Ghost Scepter icon Ghost Scepter, Glimmer Cape icon Glimmer Cape, Wind Waker icon Wind Waker, Satanic icon Satanic, Crimson Guard icon Crimson Guard, Disperser icon Disperser etc.
  • Radiance icon Radiance will give Lifestealer a great amount of damage and evasion, and will also allow Lifestealer to deal magical damage around himself, giving him much needed AoE capabilities.
  • Revenant's Brooch icon Revenant's Brooch, an alternative to Nullifier icon Nullifier will give Lifestealer great attack damage and spell lifesteal. Revenant's Brooch icon Revenant's Brooch can be activated to have Lifestealer's attacks deal magic damage that can bypass armor and attack ethereal units, making this item very good against heroes who rely on Ghost Scepter icon Ghost Scepter for defense against Lifestealer.
  • Mjollnir icon Mjollnir can be purchased first to farm faster and play for late game but it makes you weaker in the early-mid game as it provides less damage and no survivability compared to Armlet of Mordiggian icon Armlet of Mordiggian with Desolator icon Desolator. The attack speed of this item allows for maximum use of Feast and Open Wounds damage and lifesteal. It's useful against illusion heroes, as both Static Charge and Chain Lightning help dealing with them. As a frontliner, Static Charge can be triggered towards its maximum effect.
  • Orchid Malevolence icon Orchid Malevolence will give Lifestealer good attack speed and damage, along with the bonus health and mana regeneration, and intelligence and the ability to silence enemy heroes after catching them unprepared with Infest icon Infest.
  • Bloodthorn icon Bloodthorn, an upgrade for Orchid Malevolence icon Orchid Malevolence allows Lifestealer not only to silence an enemy hero, but also allows every of Lifestealer's attacks he lands on the affected hero to have true strike and weaken spell damage of the affected enemies, making it very good item against heroes with evasion.

Dota Plus Progress[]

Main Article: Hero Challenges

Relics track a hero's actions and statistics, and display in-game notifications when a milestone is reached. They are only available to Dota Plus subscribers.

Relics Voice Lines
Relic Rare icon
Kills During Rage icon Rage
Relic Rare icon
Life Stolen From Feast icon Feast
Relic Rare icon
Enemies Killed With Open Wounds icon Open Wounds
Relic Rare icon
Enemies Killed Leaving Infest icon Infest
Relic strength icon
Health Restored from Feast icon Feast
Relic strength icon
Slow Duration
Relic strength icon
Physical Damage
Relic strength icon
Damage With Active Armlet of Mordiggian icon Armlet
Relic strength icon
Radiance icon Radiance Damage
Relic strength icon
Last Hits
Relic strength icon
Triple Kills
Relic strength icon
Mega Kill Streaks
Relic strength icon
Kill Assists
Relic strength icon
Kills
Plus Hero Badge 1
Bronze
Plus Hero Badge 2
Silver
Plus Hero Badge 3
Gold
Plus Hero Badge 4
Platinum
Plus Hero Badge 5
Master
Plus Hero Badge 6
Grandmaster

Equipment[]

Trivia[]

  • Lifestealer's fun/alternate name in DotA was Gollum, a significant character in the "Lord of the Rings" and "Hobbit" book series.
    • The references to Gollum are kept up in Dota 2:
      • Just like written in Lifestealer's lore, Lifestealer is no longer the former self he was, but rather a possessed body. Gollum has a similar story. Once being a Hobbit, his soul got corrupted by the ring, turning into the Gollum he is now.
      • Both Lifestealer and Gollum sometimes speak from themselves in plural form ("we", instead of "I"). They also talk to or about a "master".
      • His rivalry line towards Tidehunter minimap icon Tidehunter ▶️ "Tidehunter…I love a bit of raw fish now and again." refers to Gollum's hate towards stewing - or the preparing in general - of fish. Gollum prefers his fish raw and "wriggling".[1]
  • Ghoul Frenzy icon Ghoul Frenzy shares the same name with the passive upgrade for the Ghoul units of "Warcraft 3", an Undead unit whom Lifestealer was based off of in DotA. Both abilities increase the respective user's attack speed, but the similarities end there since Lifestealer's passive has a slow effect, while the Ghoul's passive grants bonus movement speed.[2]

Gallery[]

References[]

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