Night Stalker is one of the most aggressive and powerful gankers in the game, known for his very early presence on the map and unrelenting ganking. Night Stalker is both a "de-light" to play, and a horror to play against, with a unique skillset Night Stalker doesn't get old, as long as you get used to winning and seeing the enemy cry.

In this guide i'll do my best to show the best item builds as a 3-4 position Night Stalker. As well as show differet ways to combine his abilities to adapt your specific game.

Before we start, i've made a copy of this guide so you can use it in-game the link is here:
https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1362559104
Basic Information:
Night Stalker starts off the game with these stats

717 HP and 231 MP
61-65 Damage
4,88 Armor
Movement Speed 290
Sight Range 800(day) / 1800(night)
Base Attack Time 1.7

23 strength with 3,1 STR gained/level
18 agility with 2,25 AGI gained/level
13 intelligence with 1,6 INT gained/level

What does this mean?

Night Stalker is a very durable hero with high HP and armor from his STR and AGI gain, he has a very low mana pool and that doesn't change throughout the game. He gets a lot of Attack Speed from his passive ability and takes average advantage of it with his 1,7 BAT.
His Sight Range is inverted from most other heroes, with a larger Sight Range at night and lower during the day, this along with his skill set that improves during the night, just serments his position as night-time ganker.

Of the Night Stalker, there is no history, only stories. There are ancient tales woven into the lore of every race and every culture, of an impossible time before sunlight and daytime, when night reigned alone and the world was covered with the creatures of darkness--creatures like Balanar the Night Stalker. It is said that on the dawn of the First Day, all the night creatures perished. All, that is, save one. Evil's embodiment, Night Stalker delights in his malevolence. He created the primal role of the Night Terror, the Boogeyman, and as long as there have been younglings, his is the specter summoned to terrify them. This is a role he relishes; nor are these empty theatrics. He does indeed stalk the unwary, the defenseless, those who have strayed beyond the lighted paths or denied the warnings of their communities. Night Stalker serves as living proof that every child's worst nightmare....is true.

Creates a damaging void that slows an enemy unit and deals damage. Void also mini-stuns, interrupting channeling abilities. The slowing effect lasts longer at night.




Cast Range: 525 (Talent 675)
Damage: 90/160/255/335
Move Speed Slow: 50%
Attack Speed Slow: 50
Day Slow Duration: 1.25
Night Slow Duration: 2.5/3/3.5/4

Cooldown 8 Mana 80/90/100/110

Night Stalker horrifies the target enemy Hero, causing it to miss attacks and become silenced. The effect lasts longer at night.





Cast Range: 500 (Talent 650)
Day Miss Chance: 10%
Night Miss Chance: 50%
Day Duration: 3
Night Duration: 5/6/7/8

Cooldown 12 (Talent 4) Mana 50

Night Stalker is in his element at night, attacking and moving with great swiftness. Can be activated during night to grant Night Stalker flying movement for 2 seconds.




Move Speed Bonus: 20%/25%/30%/35%
Attack Speed Bonus: 30/50/70/90 (Talent 170/190/210/230)
Night Flight Vision: 1000
Night Flight Duration: 2

Cooldown 30/26/22/18 Mana 80
Night Stalker smothers the sun and summons instant darkness, so that he might use his powers at their fullest. While Darkness is in effect, enemy heroes, units, wards, and buildings have their vision range reduced.




Enemy Unit Maximum Vision Range: 675
Enemy Building/Ward Maximum Vision Range: 800
Duration: 40

Cooldown 160/120/80 Mana 0

Pros:

• Durable: Night Stalker has some insane durability from both his stat gain, and from the disables his abilities grants him, this means that in the early and mid game he can manfight just about everyone
  
• Early Map presence: Once the first night hits at 4:00 you're rolling, that first level in Hunter in the Night is going to give you a major advantage, use the movement speed to haste around the map ganking left, right and center.
  
• No actual counters: Night Stalker counters, or at least does well against most enemies, this is because of his skillset, he has a nuke, silence, ministun, slow and miss chance. Not many heroes has a way to deal with that without getting some items first.
  
• Controls the pace of the game: When you're Night Stalker you can decide what the rest of the game is going to look like, at least to some extend. Your ability to gank gives your own carry some space to farm up and if you gank the enemy carry (which i would highy recommend you do often and all the time) that creates a high difference between your teams mid game presence and the enemy teams mid game presence. Which is where most games are decided.
  
• Minimal item dependance: The reason we play Night Stalker is because we like to gank alot and win early, but there's more to the hero than that. Night Stalker is pricked alot in competitive play and it comes down to the fact that he doesn't need any items. As Night Stalker you only really need a pair of boots to be a great ganker, think about that 500 gold, that's all you need! Of course getting an Urn or Spirit Vessel help out a great deal, and Medallion and Solar Crest is nice too.. Bro that Agh's upgrade is straight up broken! ... But do you really need them?

Cons:

• Mana problems: Night Stalker suffers from having a really low manapool and spammy spells so he suffers from only being able to use Void three times and maybe Crippling Fear once or twice then he has to go back to base. We get Urn and Spirit Vessel to help out here, but if you find yourself running out of mana ALOT then see the situational item section on mana items
  
• Only truly relevant during nighttime: Arrh yes, the classic argument against Night Stalker - "You're only good like half the time", yes that is true but so is KotL with Agh's and we seem to think he's pretty insane too. But there's one thing Night Stalker can do that KotL can't, and you already know what it is - He can make it nighttime, only for 40 seconds and on a pretty huge cooldown, but this is why Night Stalker can be useful at daytime, even if it is cheating a bit.
  
• Only single target damage: Night Stalker only deals single target damage which is why he has problems with ganks where he is out-numbered, he can still get kills in a 1v2 but it gets harder, This also shows in his counters which consists of Illusion heroes and Meepo.

The Skill build:

The skill build is relatively simple, we max Void first since it's our kill tool in most cases and very potent when ganking, we go for Hunter in the Night in level 2 and take the one value point in Crippling Fear at level 4.
I used to switch the two and take Crippling Fear at 2 instead of 4, this was a horrible mistake. You can do that if you're lucky enough to be middle lane, but when you're offlane or support you can't be sure you get level 4 before the 4:00 minute mark. And if you're Night Stalker without Hunter in the Night, at nighttime - DURING YOUR FIRST NIGHT! Well that's just like having a chocolate teapot mate.
After level 7 get Talents and Darkness at the standard - 10, 12, 15, 18, 20 and 25. We max Hunter in the Night second so we can roam faster and get targets down quicker, also the Flight cooldown decreases alot so you can use it as a initiation tool and maybe an escape tool after the same gank. We max Crippling Fear last since it starts as 5 seconds and 50% miss chance and only increases the silence by 1 second and decrease the cooldown by 4 seconds per level, while Hunter in the Night, which is the ability that gives us our actual presence in the night, has more favorable gains. With that said, the cooldown of Crippling Fear is 24 seconds at level 1 which is huge, so if you want to level up Hunter in the Night and Crippling Fear simultaneously you could do that. Although I still max Hunter in the Night over Crippling Fear because I really like the added mobility i get from it.

First of all - Yes - but also it really depends on when you want to take your ultimate.
As Night Stalker your first night is the most important one, once you hit level 4 and have your entire kit online with boots, you're rolling. You roam around the map for kills, this strategy is very easy to screw up and relies heavily on getting kills in the four minutes where it's nighttime.
Depending on how the first night is going you can be level 7-8 when the night ends, or you can still be level 4, and what level you are when the first night ends changes the skill build.

When it's nighttime you want to level up Hunter in the Night since it's most useful now, this means skipping over Darkness even when you're level 6. Darkness used to pause time, therefore using Darkness at night extended nighttime, and so we always got Darkness at level 6. Now the clock keeps going and so it's most useful to use Darkness when it's day.

If the first night ends and you're still level 4 your skill build looks normal, Darkness at level 6 and max Hunter in the Night after. You want to get level 6 before 11:20, why that is we'll discuss in the Gameplay section.

However if you got a good first night and you're level 6 before the night ends skill Hunter in the Night and take Darkness as soon as it gets daytime.

TL;DR
Your skill build depends on how much you're snowballing, you want to maximize your presence on the first night so taking Hunter in the Night over Darkness when it's nighttime is more favourable. When daylight hits after your first night just level up Darkness asap and max Hunter in the Night after that. If you don't get level 6 before the clock hits 8:00 - Skill Darkness at level 6.


The Talent Build:














Your talents are rather standard you're a manfighter so we get Health and Strength at level 10 and 15, you might think you need the mana for extra spells but you're better off just buying an Energy Booster if you really need that. If you want Cast Range build Aether Lens out of your Energy Booster.
We take the 50 damage over 50 movement speed, since We'll be moving at near hasted speed at nighttime anyway and at level 20 you have Darkness level 3 and so it'll be nighttime all the time.
Level 25 is not really important, most of my Night Stalker games i don't even reach level 20, and if i do it's because i've snowballed alot and bought all the Tomes cuz i'm greedy. In typical games, if one of your Cores snowball and you keep the enemy Cores down you can end with your team in sub 30 mins, i'm usually level 18-20 by that point and don't get to think about level 25.
But if you do reach level 25 take +140 attack speed. If you survive the last teamfight you can reduce buildings very quick and the Crippling Fear cooldown reduction is nice, but at level 25 everyone has BKB and teamfights are usually decided before the 5 sec duration of magic immunity ends, so you wont get a chance to spam it.

This is what you want to buy at the start of the game




Night Stalkers natural Health regeneration is the 4th highest in the game at 3,25, only surpassed by Axe at 4,25 and Nyx and Ogre at a tied 1st place at 4,75. With 3 Mangoes you have 6,2 and with Tangoes and a Stout Shield I have yet to need a Healing Salve in the laning phase.

You can place the ward a few places, if you find yourself playing Radiant this ward gives vision of both the top rune and the middlelane it also shows if the middle hero roams for a gank.



If you're dire you can either ward at the runespot or the one that i prefer close to the bounty rune to ward off incomming ganks in the early stages.

I'll now go over your Core items, these items are in order until we reach Agh's where your options open up a great deal. While Night Stalker could go any item that benefits the team, i've had greatest succes with these items.
Phase Boots is the main choice for a ganker, and the added damage goes a long way in the early game, you usually get this within the first two kills you get if you managed to get some last hits in your lane.


You should go after Urn right after your Phase Boots, you are a hero that enjoy being in the mindst of battle and usually get a few kills yourself. Many times you'll find your team doesn't have enough health to push after an engagement but with Urn you can power through that.

Your inventory is pretty empty at this point if you've used your mangoes so just pick up a bit of speed, it also builds into your next item.


You go Spirit Vessel if you went Urn of Shadows, it's mandatory because it's just a sturdy upgrade, all the stats are used for Night Stalker almost as if it was only meant for him. The movement speed added gets increased by Hunter in the Night.



You know why this is good, I know why this is good, we all know why this is good. Considered one of the most powerful Aghanim's Scepter upgrades in the game. The only problem is you might not get the farm to get this item in a timely manner, but the upgrade itself is insane. It's my number one preferance on Night Stalker and my go-to item if i'm in doubt of what to buy.

Solar Crest is another great item pickup, in the mid game where the enemy might have a hero or two you have some trouble manfighting, picking up a Solar Crest usually negates any advantage those heroes have in a 1v1 fight. It's also a great pushing item and helps with Roshan so ending the game is easier if you want those sub 20 minute wins.

A little similar to Solar Crest only Vlads main purpose is pushing and teamfighting, i don't have much experiance with Vlads, but i can see the posibilities with this and a early pushing team with Nature's Prophet, Broodmother, Vengeful Spirit or Visage.

Just a great item to turn a decent initiator into a pretty good initiator, you still don't have any crowd control though. But now you can completely surprise any and all heroes caught just 2 cm out of position. I rarely buy this just because Hunter in the Nights active does similar things, no one expects a surprise Night Stalker coming out of the treeline near the jungle. So Blink Dagger for the first time falls a little short, but only a little.

Yet another item that gives Night Stalker some manfighting prowess, the only difference from Solar Crest is the Disarm cannot be dispelled, meaning you can, for three seconds(five on a ranged hero), Silence, Slow and Disarm an opponent, which means they can only stay and tank your damage or run away which they will do very ineffectively. Also counters heroes that can dispel miss chance from Solar Crest with a spell that rely on Auto Attacks like Troll Warlord, Sven and Chaos Knight.

There are many items that can fall under here, if an item gives utility to the team then it has a place here. But there are too many items to go over so here are the ones that i thought about.
Normally you should have enough items for a whole game in the Core items section but you might need something to counter an enemy hero.
Keep in mind that these are just in alphabetical order and not in the order of which i think they should be bought.

BKB is just a really good pick-up for heroes that enjoy being in the middle of fights and don't like disables, Strength manfighters are especially good with BKB since they actually use the minimal stats BKB gives which makes it worth just a little extra.

Blade mail is typicaly worn by people who tank alot of damage, if you find your enemy groups up you might want to buy this or BKB this being the cheaper option.


This is a more semi-carry option and pairs well with Skull Basher and Solar Crest. If you find your own cores aren't using the extra space you might want to go a more carry oriented route to victory

Extra late game little rivals Heart of Tarrasque for a Strength hero and Night Stalker is no exception. But not alot of games reach beyond 30 mins so you wont always have neither time or farm to get this.

Another BKB alternative, this time it also works on an ally who might not want to go BKB or simply can't afford it. Also helps in the mana department so it's just a solid pick-up

You can in theory have 2100 nightvision and +360 Attack Speed at level 25, this along with Agh's gets you very close to the maximum Attack Speed limit at which point you attack around 3,5 times a second, have fun with that little fact.

Now you can effectively collapse a target reducing their ways of escape to zero, a great pick-up against heroes with Blink that can't escape you if their items are muted like Tinker, Earth Spirit, TA and SF.

Very expensive for what it does, but if you need two sources of silence you can get Orchid.


Yeah as mentioned Night Stalker has some mana problems so investing in one of these items can be useful if you're playing against someone like Pugna or enemies with Diffusial Blade. However if you're playing against Anti-Mage, just buy Heavens Halbard and Solar Crest before he gets Manta.

Yeah Arcane boots are quite a good pick-up on Night Stalker so why don't we always get them? Because Phase Boots are better for ganking and they have a better build-up consisting of two Blades of Attack that costs 420 gold each, rather than one Energy Booster at the cost of 900 gold.

Eul's is a very good pick-up for you if you're getting rooted or silenced alot when you're ganking since the active purges.


I don't know how big a fan i am of this item, but i can see the usage, you use Void quite alot so amping up the damage and reducing the cost is quite nice. Kaya just loses some of its potency when not carried by and Intelligence hero.

My personal favourite is Aether Lens, and the reason for that is the +250 Cast Range, when you use Darkness you reduce their vision radius to 675 and with Aether Lens your Void and Crippling Fear's cast range increased to 775 and 750 respectively, so you can silence and stun someone ... Who can't see you. What a fun idea you heard it here first!

Hopefully i've made it apparent that Night Stalker games really depend on that first night. Obviously the bigger advantage you start out with the easier the following nights will be, so how do you get that first advantage?






Horn-3:59 minutes


The start of the game, get your starting items and head towards your lane, preferably I'll be in the dual offlane position but alot of times you'll see a roamer, so get used to being in a 1v2 or 1v1 situation with the enemy carry. Neither of which are too bad for you since you have so much regen harrasing you out of lane will be near impossible unless you do something too aggressive or really stupid like diving or going on the offensive with no support from your team.

Your base damage is insanely high and if you get used to Night Stalkers animation you'll be able to get some last hits and maybe even get Phase Boots for your first night which is a great advantage. But as long as you don't die and get 5-10 last hits you'll be able to afford Boots by the 4:00 minute mark. Speaking of which.





4:00-7:59 minutes


The wolf calls to me. Now we're talking, as soon as the night hits you're golden and you can get kills, ideally you'll have level 4 by this point but this isn't always the case, if so you can be greedy and get the XP by creeps, but you wanna get level up by getting a kill if you can. Your main objective the first night is to get an early advantage for your team and get some XP for you and the 1st and 2nd position on your team, this means killing the enemy carry in your lane, then ganking middle and your safelane - in that order. You don't want to waste time running between lanes here when you dont have the added insane speed of your Phase Boots and Hunter in the Night fully maxed.

The killing starts right as soon as the night hits so pay attention to the clock and when you hit 4:00, you try for a kill on the enemy carry. Communicate with your team, ask for a gank and you'll probably be able to kill the support too and get your level 4 if you don't have it yet.

Getting a triple kill as Night Stalker just as the first night hits is not unheard of.
*Please look past the sound quality, my recording software is for free and terrible.






8:00-11:20 minutes


It's once again daytime, if your night went great you should have your Urn of Shadows and Phase Boots, now you farm away trying to get that Spirit Vessel, prioitize Medium camps in the jungle and Lane farm that is the quickest and effective way to farm at this stage of the game. If you have leveled up Darkness always carry a TP scroll and stay within running distance from your team, so if a fight breaks out you can Ult and run to where the action is within 5-10 seconds or just TP there.

Always cast Darkness 40 seconds before natural nighttime(in this case at 11:20) it's just smart planning and prolongs night.





11:21-16:00 minutes and the rest of the game


It's nighttime, you have your Spirit Vessel, or most of it, so get out there and start ganking, from now on nighttime is no longer for giving your cores XP, it's to give them space so they can farm themselves. Killing the enemy in this stage of the game creates a huge lead for your team since your cores get uncontested farm because of the fact you are constantly putting pressure on the enemy.

The more effective you are during this night the closer you come to getting your Agh's upgrade, if you can get half way purchasing Point Booster and Ogre Club you're on the right track.

Daytime after 16:00 minutes are just windows where you can ward and farm up a bit before your team decides you want to fight, gank or take Roshan, Darkness should be up most of the time and once you get your Agh's you use Darkness basicly on cooldown.

Heroes that likes Night Stalker as an Ally, are everyone who appreciate the space he creates and generally enjoy the XP from his ganks or can gank with him. So that means generally every single hero in the game, too long for this section. So instead who does Night Stalker like on his team and who deserves special mention in term of comboes?

















Crystal Maiden, Lion, Ogre Magi and Shadow Shaman are all in the same catagory - Heroes that help Night Stalker secure kills. "You're a big boy but even the strongest people need help now and then" - Sun Tzu

Shadow Shaman and Lion are excelent because they typically buy Blink Dagger in the Mid game, which is when you could use a hand if the enemy team has some slippery or very durable heroes.
Crystal Maiden is just lovely because of her global Aura that greatly increases your lane presence and her root and slow that are useful when you inevitably gank for your safelane.
Ogre is super great since he likes to gank and the Bloodlust bonus is so bonkers on Night Stalker your game might Crash.


















Next up are your cores that really takes advantage of the presence of a Night Stalker and can bring something unique to the relationship. "The people who want a ride on somebody shoulders are usually the ones who have to carry others" - Abraham Lincoln
Luna and Lycan are some of the only carries that can keep up with Night Stalkers movement when he ganks and fights in the mid and late game. Luna is really good since Eclipse turn day into night for 10 seconds.
Lycan's Howl greatly increases in potency when it's nighttime and Night Stalker really appreciates the HP and Damage buff.
Shadow Fiend can really decimate heroes in the mid game if he snowballs and Night Stalker is great at getting that ball rolling, since your slow makes it easier to land those Shadow Razes and the quick burst damage makes your ganks alot more potent.

Zeus gets a special mention, he can snowball just as effectively as Shadow Fiend, but the global presence to all of your ganks, especially if Zeus gets Nimbus is just a whole other level of disgusting. I've done this combo with a 3-man squad 13 games now and not lost once. (I'll keep this number updated)(Now lost once #Sadtimes, apparently buying 3 Pipes of Insight counters this combo)

As said before Night Stalker counters or at least does moderately against almost every hero, but Night Stalker has two weaknesses that he can't generally itemize around, these are:


Big durable heroes that excel at manfighting even without spells

















Not much explanation required here, as Night Stalker you need to gank AND get kills in order for you to be effective and gain an advantage for your team, but if the enemy carry is too durable for you to kill you're in a tough spot. Dragon Knight has too much armor and regen early, Lifestealer can just eat you instead of running and wait out your silence, then really eat you with Open Wounds after the five seconds are up. Other heroes would include Ursa, Huskar, Phantom Assassin and Legion Commander.
Centaur and Underlord are also just big, fat tanks that you don't really want to fight but usually carry the enemies Auras like Pipe of Insight and Guardian Greaves. plus they have disables that can stop your ganks and escape abilities to save their teammates once you've used your kit on them.

These heroes are very durable, but if you gang up on them you can typically get them down without too much trouble, and while they are very annoying and cause problems and require a little help from your team(which lets be honest can be hard), they aren't the ones i tend to lose to. For those heroes we need to move on to the next ones.

The Illusion based heroes ... and Phoenix

















Night Stalker only has single target damage and therefore you have no way of dealing with a lot of enemies even if they only have 1/3 the HP of a real hero. Chaos Knight and Phantom Lancer overwhelm you very easily with the relative army of illusion, Chaos Knight is especially annoying since he can survive your initial onslaught and then press all his buttons in any order and somehow come out on top with his insane damage output. Phantom Lancer can be stressful with his manaburn if he picks up Diffusial Blade and you can absolutely not gank him alone unless he is low, but other carries tend to deal well with Phamtom Lancer if you give them enough space early. This cannot be said with Chaos Knight, he has the highest physical damage output of any hero in the game, do not give him space to farm! Chaos Knight sucks at farming unless he gets Battlefury, but if he gets an Armlet before 10 mins then you're in for some trouble.

Terrorblade is in my opinion the most annoying illusion hero to deal with, he start off the game with 12 armor so good luck with bullying him out of lane. While his illusions and him are clearly seperable he is still very difficult to gank since he can survive the 5 seconds of your silence then use Sunder and turn the fight with his Metamorphosis. And that is a very reliable way to lose your sanity.

Just to add insult to injury all of these heroes will pop up in the enemy safe lane which mean you'll have to lane against them and they can easily deny you farm. I don't often lose games as Night Stalker subtle brag, but when i do, it's usually to these three jerks.. Or Riki, but he doesn't count, he is super broken.

Phoenix however is a whole other story, he doesnt have illusions and if you silence him he is typically dead like any other squishy hero, but in teamfights he is a nightmare. His attack speed slow from his Fire Spirits negates your bonus from Hunter in the Night, and the Sun Ray can turn the tide of a gank or engagement. But the most annoying aspect by far is the fact that when this Firecracker Rooster uses Supernova it turns night into day.. And it has the highest prioity of any of the abilities that manipulate the day/night cycle so you cant use Darkness to turn it back. The only way to counter this is by ALT+F4, which in my experience is very effective.

This was my guide to Night Stalker thank you for reading this far i really appreciate it!
If you have any questions or any feedback just post it in the comments below and i'll get to it I promise.

Special thanks to the two people that endured my experimental games as Night Stalker and willingly played with me after I really appreciate that too, much love in your directions Anton and Asmus.
There's nothing more to say than i hope you enjoyed reading, i hope you learned something and feel a need to play the best ganker in the game. Hope to see you in-game, just don't pick Night Stalker before me or i'll be sad.