HoN Guide: Soulstealer

Soulsteal
Soulstealer steals the souls of those he vanquishes, increasing his damage as his collection grows.
Action:Passive
Required Level: 1 / 3 / 5 / 7
On Kill:Adds one charge
Other:Adds 2 damage per charge to attacks. Dying will cause half of your charges to be lost.
Maximum of {8,15,23,30} Souls.
Dread
Soulstealer's appearance instills pure fear. Weakening enemies' morale, his mere presence lowers their Armor.
Action:Passive
Required Level: 1 / 3 / 5 / 7
Aura effects:900 radius
Target: Enemy Units
Other: -2 / -3 / -4 / -5 Armor
Soulburst
Soulstealer releases torrents of negative energy equal to half the number of souls he has collected. Each torrent damages nearby enemies. The closer an enemy is, the more torrents they'll get hit by.
Action:Target self
Type:Enemy units
Type:Magic
Cast Time: 1.4 Seconds
Mana Cost: 150 / 175 / 200
Cooldown: 120.0 / 110.0 / 100.0 Seconds
Required Level: 6 / 11 / 16
Activation: Releases one torrent for every 2 souls that have been collected via the Soulsteal ability. Each torrent deals 80 / 120 / 160 magic damage. Hits enemies within radius for 5 seconds.
Other:-15 / -20 / -25% Base Damage
15 / 20 / 25% Movement Slow1. Skill Build

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If you are faced with a tough lane and lack survivability, you can always level stats instead of Dread.

Skill Order
Soul Steal	1
Demon Hand	2
Demon Hand	3
Soul Steal	4
Demon Hand	5
Soul Steal	6
Demon Hand	7
Soul Steal	8
Dread	9
Soul Burst	10
Soul Burst	11
Dread	12
Dread	13
Dread	14
Stats	15
Soul Burst	16

2. Starting items

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When soloing middle, you need to determine what hero you're up against and what the lanes are going to be like. In most cases you will be fine getting the following:

Set 1 2x Minor Totem 2x Duck Boots 1x Health Potion 1x Runes of Blight

Set 2 1x Mana Battery 2x Minor Totem 1x Health Potion

The second set of the above starting items is my favorite against spammers like TB/Slither/Bomb, as it helps you stay in lane to nuke creeps for last hits. You can also get hp back from charges gained by enemy spamming, but the first set is preferable.

With these starting items, you have decent damage to last-hit, so you can gain souls more quickly and further increase your last-hit capacity. If you farm well and see yourself getting 50 cs by 10 minutes (what you should aim for), I would recommend getting an early bottle and steam boots.

From there you can do just about anything. While Soulstealer lacks health and the ability to escape quickly, with your bottle and treads you can push any lane, using two demon hands to clear a creep wave (level 4 only). By quickly nuking creeps, you can take your tower while their solo hero is unable to do much, with the creeps following them around their tower so that you can take it down with ease.

Once you have your core starting items, you can focus on getting these:

	1x Steamboots
	1x Portal Key
	1x Shrunken Head

2. Followup items

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Once you have Steam Boots, Portal Key, and Shrunken Head, your next items depend on the other heroes.

Geometer's Bane

In my honest opinion, a Geometer's Bane is generally the fail-safe item due to its nice stat gain. Also, the movement and attack speed bonus really help to execute attacks and take the enemy down more efficiently.

Frostburn

Frostburn is generally a good item for the Soulstealer; it allows his attacks to slow enemy movement speed, and at a later stage can be broken up into Geometers and a Frostwolf's Skull.

Wingbow

The Wingbow is really good if you have Geometers, as the agility is carried over to your images in a %. I'd only get this item if you have another 4th-tier item already.

Frostwolf's Skull

Frostwolf's Skull is more luxury, as it's really expensive and difficult to get early on without superb farming. It is extremely good for slowing down an enemy melee carry to a point where they can't damage you or your team quickly enough.

Nullfire Blade

Situational. Nullfire Blade is really effective against Hellbringer, as it instantly kills his mulfas with the purge. It is also good against Hammerstorm and the Dark Lady, purging both of their spells. However, there are usually better heroes for this item.

Savage Mace

Savage Mace is one of my favorite items, as you can't miss attacks, and the 100 damage proc is really good for battles since you can disable channeling. It also allows you to attack in Night Hound's smoke without missing an attack. This item is especially good if the other team's carry has a Wingbow. The downside to this item is that it doesn't give you stats, and with less HP you are weaker and can die fast.

Thunder Claw

I wouldn't recommend getting Thunder Claw because the SS farms well enough with Demon Hand and there are better items to get.

Shieldbreaker

I see a lot of people getting Shieldbreaker, as it stacks with his Dread aura. It does do a lot of damage, but it's the cheapest item in the game for raw DPS. I don't recommend it, as it gives you no stats and you will become food with a big sword.

Daemonic Breastplate

Situational item. Daemonic Breastplate stacks with your Dread aura and allows you to take and deal more damage in fights, as well as gives your teammates a nice buff. It also helps you push towers because the aura works on buildings. However, like the Nullfire Blade, there are usually better heroes for this item.

Symbol of Rage

Symbol of Rage is very good, with nice stats and a high life leach even when not activated. And when activated, it gives you the stats that you need as well as the 100% life steal.

Behemoth's Heart

Since the change of Heart, it's no longer a core item but more situational and luxury. It's expensive and gives you no damage, only survivability. Get Frostwolf Skull instead.

Crit: Your images gain crit, and is also very effective as SS has a high damage output. However, it is a lot better once you have another 4th-tier item.

3. Last Hitting Early Game

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Basically what I have done here is taken a few screen shots of a level 1 Soulstealer versus a level 1 Valk, who have similar base damage at the start of the game. The screenshots show you the right time to last-hit the creep to gain the soul.

In the first picture, we see the SS and Valk both attacking the red-HP Imp. It seems like the SS will easily take kill, but as the Imp has 58 hp and the SS only does approximately 50 damage, he'll end up dropping it to 4 HP for the Valk to grab the deny.



4. Soloing mid effectively as a carry with Soulstealer

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As a solo hero in the middle lane, you need to be more aware than a normal side-lane hero as it's easier for you to get ganked.

You also need to able to read your opponent and, once you have your bottle, be able to push your lane before the even minute mark (every 2 minutes) so you can get and use the rune effectively. If you don't push your lane out, you will lose valuable experience, and getting the rune to try and gank with it will be redundant, because the enemy solo will freely farm and damage your mid tower substantially (which is very bad).

Soloing middle doesn't mean you must kill your opponent at all costs. If you farm well and don't die, you can use your farm in fights and take towers which will give you an advantage and win you the game.

Now that runes no longer spawn at the start of a game, you can focus on body blocking creeps and positioning yourself on the hill so that you don't get the 25% miss rate that you get when hitting uphill. If you do this successfully, your opponent may end up with the 25% miss disadvantage. Only hit the creeps for the finishing blow, as you want to keep the wave stable and not pushing. Once you hit level 3 you can easily harass your opponent with a Demon Hand and kill a creep if he is next to it, or just damage him and the creep, which is really good. Get your lane to his side of the river by the even minute so that you can grab the rune, and go back when he pushes so that you don't lose experience. Do this until level 5 and try not to die, because as soon as you hit level 7 you can gank or push a tower and essentially cripple a lane for the rest of the early to mid game by ganking. I personally like to kill my middle tower if I get a regen or an illusion rune; if I get haste or double damage I'll most likely gank and help them kill their lane and take their tower.

Remember, once you leave your lane it's quite easy for your opponent to do the same, so try keep tabs on him and make sure your team knows that he is missing and to get under the tower for safety!

5. Heroes Soulstealer works well with and why

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As Heroes of Newerth is a team game, you need to be able to combine your spells well with your those of your teammates. Heroes that work well with SS are Tempest, Kraken, Andromeda, Succubus, Bubbles, Glacius, Jeraziah, Keeper of the Forest, and Pharaoh.

Tempest

His ultimate keeps heroes together while Soulburst does a truckload of damage.

Kraken

Same as Tempest: his ultimate keeps heroes together and his torrent reduces armor.

Andromeda

Armor reduction and damage buff.

Succubus

Her sleep and a Portal Key initiate on top of the hero will most likely kill it instantly. Especially good if it's a central, game-winning hero.

Bubbles

His ultimate keeps heroes in a tight space so that Soulburst is more effective.

Glacius

As SS is quite mana dependent at the start of the game, Glacius' aura helps him spam Demon Hands in order to more effectively farm.

Jeraziah

Good heal and ultimate to keep the SS alive in battle, and gives you the equivalent of a Shrunken Head for 20 seconds.

Keeper of the Forest

Can combo up with ultimates easily. Also provides a nice armor boost.

Pharaoh

His mummies keep heroes packed together, allowing Soulstealer to be the counter-engage once the enemy team engages and uses spells on Pharaoh. The combo's spells will do lots of damage.

6. Weaknesses and Tips

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As a hero with low base damage early game, heroes like Devourer, Electrician, Keeper of the Forest, Blood Hunter, Deadwood, Gauntlet and Pebbles dominate him middle, because they have a higher base damage and can easily out-last-hit him, leaving you at a disadvantage which could result in loss of the lane.

To cope with this disadvantage, click on the hero and aggro the creeps towards you. This brings their creeps closer to your tower so that you can creep more easily. It also makes your opponent miss their last hits. When you are in this position, you can most likely harass them with an attack. And if they come up next to a creep, you can nuke them in order to kill the creep and drop their health, forcing them to step back.