Welcome back to another episode of Dota 2 Tips and Tricks. Here we will be talking more about hero specific tips, and if you missed previous editions, you can check them out here, here, and here.

Consider Hoarding Skill Points on Slark in a Hard Lane

The most popular skill build for Slark is maxing Dark Pact by Level 7. Well, it may be optimal to save up skill points on Slark in lane and keep Dark Pact at Level 1 for now until you hit Level 6. If the lane has enemies with a lot of annoying spells, especially with damage over times like Poison Touch, you should leave Dark Pact at Level 1. Using it will only damage yourself for 37.5 magic damage, but you will dispel anything that would probably do more damage to you. Consider if you started maxing Dark Pact to Level 3 when Level 5 on Slark, you would take 112.5 self magic damage every time you use the skill. And when you hit Level 6 or later levels, you can put all the levels back into the Dark Pact so you can jungle and farm efficiently.

Force Staff Works on Gyrocopter Homing Missile

Ever find an enemy as Gyrocopter and then use Call Down and Homing Missile only to see him try to TP out? Well, if you or a teammate happen to have a Force Staff, the Homing Missile can actually be “Forced” to travel faster and hit the enemy to cancel the teleport. Since Hurricane Pike is a fairly common build on Gyrocopter, this feature could be utilized frequently.

Use Nyx Carapace to Avoid Astral Imprisonment and Cyclone Damage

Both of these spells don’t do damage until the end of their duration. This is enough time for Nyx Assassin to use Spiked Carapace to avoid and return the damage back. This is one of the reasons why Nyx is a good counter to Outworld Devourer. Also, you can use Spiked Carapace after Invoker’s Tornado or Eul’s Scepter to both return damage and stun the opponent. In addition, if you have a Blink Dagger, you can Blink right after coming out of Astral Imprisonment or a Cyclone spell.

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Nyx Assassin: Easy Counter to Centaur and Razor

Nyx is a good counter to basically 90% of the heroes in Dota 2. You can easily counter Centaur and Razor by first activating Spiked Carapace and then hit Centaur or Mana Burn the Razor. Both of these heroes have passives that return damage to the sender, which with Spiked Carapace, returns and stuns Centaur or Razor.