With a powerful weapon (and deadly venom to match), Vyper can slither into the back of teams and assassinate high-priority targets in a storm of bullets.
With a powerful weapon (and deadly venom to match), Vyper can slither into the back of teams and assassinate high-priority targets in a storm of bullets.
Description
Fully annotated. Some of the annotations might even be useful!
My personal build that tries to power spike both early (with Spirit-based Dagger + Venom + Bola combos) and late game (with gun-based Weapon and Spirit Damage), with a fast-farming midgame to bridge the transition.
Item Build
Lane / Early Game
The patch changed spirit Vyper's laning phase from bursty poke to sustained poke. The biggest choice here is between Opening Rounds and Mystic Shot (I wouldn't get both); read annotations. Venom on Guardians makes you even more of a objective melter (remember to be in range when it triggers!)
Overstatted item. Spirit resist, spirit power, regen, cooldown reduction? Good early priority in most lanes.
I like this in losing lanes or vs close quarters heroes; your goal in lane is to keep your enemies at or below half health so Venom is scary, this helps with that. Also good for farming.
More spirit burst, on your already-good gun. The more-reliable option. Good in winning lanes or against long-ranged characters who you can poke with this.
You need to hit two daggers to trigger this now, or trigger it on a decent Venom pop, but it still helps a lot in lane with your poke.
The news of its demise was greatly exaggerated. Still hugely helpful with big venom pops (or bolas), even if it's hard to trigger on dagger now. In losing or farm-heavy lanes, get after Tesla.
Big farm accelerator and buying it now makes Vyper's gun significantly better earlier to make up for the damage we lost on dagger. You're gonna be shooting more early, and this helps.
Defensive Lane Items
Buy as needed. You probably want at least one or two unless you're truly stomping lane. In hard lanes, get one of these first thing.
Good in most lanes, although can be inconsistent if you're dealing with double long-range poke heroes. The greediest option here; gives gun instead of health investment.
If you have 800 souls and your options are buying healing rite or backing to heal, buy healing rite. Having to leave lane is punishing in this game.
Map Sustain
Choose your favorite; Fortitude feels better in current patch but VW still has its place. Can delay in very greedy games, or if you're desperately hurting for damage.
Mid / Late Game - Core
Buy simulatenously with the Greens category below as needed. Healbane should be picked up early if you're getting shredded by sustain-heavy heroes; otherwise this is in rough order of priority L -> R.
High priority, even if you're itching for more gun-oriented items. Movespeed, scaling for tesla bullets and merc magnum (not to mention your abilities), and did I mention the movement speed?
Gaben personally designed this item for Vyper. My dad works at Valve and he told me that. Makes your slides 200% more silly and slippery. Priority pickup for me most games.
Not particularly important by itself, but we want it as a component of Merc Magnum, and it's nice for a quick reload.
Crazy, crazy good item. High priority after Boundless. Basically doubles your gun damage AND gives fire rate. Make sure it's always active when you're shooting.
Late Game Luxury
What I would buy if and only if I had all the Core items and felt I didn't need more green items.
It's VERY fun, and can shred teamfights if you happen to catch them all clumped up (and not die in the process). Only pick up in very late game.
More gun investment, and more movement speed. The MS (and spirit resist) when below 50% can save your skin. Get if you're facing a heavy spirit lineup in the very late game.
Greens
You probably want Leech, eventually upgrade Enduring Speed to Juggernaut when you run out of slots, and maybe one of Escalating / Spirit Resilience as needed. The rest are highly situational but sometimes important to have (counterspell, debuff remover, etc.)
Honestly, this is just a better bullet resilience for Vyper. Get if orange characters are terrorizing you.
Shuts down gun carries and upgrades Enduring Speed. Good slot-efficient (albeit expensive) item. I prefer this (+ Escalating) for dealing with heavy gun lineups late game.
For your friend who came into this game from League of Legends and is now raging about how many stuns there are in this game. Or you, I guess.
The added movement is nice but not essential most games. Can help escape and chase, and bullet res after blinking is huge. Can be good vs slippery gun carries (Haze, Infern, etc).
For that MnK that just loves you so much. Deadlock's BKB, for you Dota knowers. Although far less ubitiquous or generally necessary than BKB...
Counter Actives
In a perfect world, you wouldn't be the one buying these - Vyper is a fairly greedy, stat-intensive carry. However, in pubs, often you need some of these to shut down dominant enemies, and if nobody else is doing it, it falls on you. Or yell at them in chat. Annotated for the kind of heroes they counter.
Shuts down heroes with slippery movement abilities in the early / mid game; Calico (it turns off everything but her 1!), Mina, Wraith, Pocket, etc.
Often a necessity against dominant fliers. If they buy debuff remover, ask somebody on your team to buy it too and apply it after the first is removed; Vindicta, GT, Lash, Bebop ult, etc.
AoE silence is incredibly useful to turn fights, and the minus spirit res is really nice too. Easy to apply after a group bola; good vs pretty much everybody.
I HATE this guy and want them to SUFFER. Comboing this after Bola can remove an enemy from fighting for an obscene amount of time. If the enemy is being carried by one person, get and spam on them.
Can be game winning vs a dominant gun carry. Get on top of them, right into melting range, and disarm them too. Often overkill, but helps if REALLY struggling to stay on them. Blink wisely.
Situational Items
All are annotated with my thoughts. I wouldn't consider any of them a core part of the build and almost never get them, but if you have a soft spot for one of these items, go for it. Unordered.
I have re-re-changed my opinion on this item and think it isn't quite good enough to be core still - the buildup takes too long for a mediocre result.
Spirit power, gun investment and a good active. Throw it on the ground right after Bola to let it ramp up before they awake. Not priority, but if you do pick it up, pick it up early.
See Split Shot. I don't like this item early as it rewards drawn out engagements (which Vyper is weak at), and late game there's just higher value options.
It's really good on gun Vyper, and not bad on hybrid either, but it's not priority for me. It can help make Vyper's spray more consistent in chaotic fights, and great with e.g. Billy ult.
Feels a bit overkill, cooldowns aren't really a problem outside of bola, but another reasonable upgrade path w/ Transcendent.
It's solid, but Merc Magnum and Boundless are just higher priority and if we fill up all the slots with purple there's no room for the orange and green, yknow?
A bit overkill, but if you're out of things to upgrade and have Mystic Expansion. Does make your bolas bigger, that's fun.
In theory a tank shredder, but I've always found this item to be a bit underwhelming. Would rather have Tesla Bullets + Healbane, unless you're going against Victor + MnK + Abrams + Billy + Shiv.
Your gun shoots real fast, this can be decent, but again nothing special. Maybe if they're ALL spirit - outgoing damage reduction is quite nice.
Effect is pretty weak for a tier 4 in my humble opinion, but 60% fire rate and a bit of CD reduction is far from nothing. If you need the reload speed, you're doing something wrong.
Better now with the Dagger changes making it easier to proc, and stacks nicely with t2 dagger. Underrated, but a bit of a detour imo. Crippling Headshot is more worthwhile.
Ability Point Order
Screwjab Dagger
Lethal Venom
Slither
Petrifying Bola
1
1
1
2
5
1
2
2
5
2
5
5
1
2