Dota 2 Viper Guide – Tips

This Dota 2 Viper guide will reveal a lot of details about one of the interesting heroes in this game.

If you are looking for a hero that can counter almost everyone during the laning stage, Viper is the way to go. He’s known as one of the best early-mid game heroes in the game, and for a good reason. His ability to do damage and tankiness makes him a popular pick in PUB games and a situational pick in the pro meta.

Before taking a more in-depth look at the Viper Dota 2 guide, you must know that this is a ranged agility hero with 48-50 damage, 1.5 armor, and 275 movement speed. Don’t let these poor stats fool you – Viper is one of the best heroes in the early game, so let’s dive into this guide.

Abilities

The Dota 2 Viper build you go for will greatly affect your play style and the things you need to do. So, let’s learn more about the hero’s abilities.

• Poison Attack – This attack modifier allows the hero to deal 16 damage per second and slow down a target for 12% and reducing its magic resistance by 10%. Viper can stack the abilities up to 5 times.
• Netherton – This AoE ability allows the hero to release a Nethertoxin that deals up to 125 damage per second for 4s. The ability lasts 8s, and units that stay in it will have their passive abilities disabled.
• Corrosive Skin – Those who attack Viper will have their attack speed reduced by 32 and will take 32 damage per second for 4s. Furthermore, Viper gets a 25% magic resistance.
• Viper Strike – The ability deals 160 damage per second and slows down the enemy’s movement speed by 80% and attack speed by 80 for 5s. 

Getting a Shard will allow Pison Touch to stack more times and lower its targets’ armor. Furthermore, Viper can affect buildings with it. Players who want to try the Viper Dota 2 build with Aghanim’s Scepter will have a new ability called Nosedive. It will disarm all targets in a 500 AoE for 4s, and all enemies within 1200 AoE will be affected by Corrosive Skin.

Talents

Besides learning additional details about the Dota 2 Viper voice actor, you also need to know everything about the talents, so here it goes.

• Level 10 – Corrosive Skin deals +18 DPS or Poison Attack reduces Magic Resistance by 5%
• Level 15 – Corrosive Skin gives +15% Magic Resistance or Nethertoxin Deals +40 Min/Max Damage
• Level 20 – Pison Attack Slows and deals +25 Damage, or Viper Strike get +80 DPS
• Level 25 – Viper Strike costs 50% less mana and has 50% less cooldown, or Nethertoxin has -11s Cooldown

Dota 2 Viper Guide – Tips

The Viper Dota 2 wiki will show you that this hero can work in almost any position, which is true. However, you will mostly find Viper in the mid-lane or the offlane because he is strong in those kinds of matchups. There have been instances where the hero can also be a carry, but he’s not that good because other heroes are better for this role.

Early on, Viper’s goal is to crush the enemy lane. He can do that by constantly harassing his opponents with Poison Attack or by pushing the lane with Nethertoxin. Even though the latter does not seem that interesting, focusing on this build allows the hero to farm a lot faster, and he can also clear jungle camps and stacks.

Once the laning stage is over, Viper should be one of the strongest heroes on the map, so it’s a good idea to gather around him and start pushing. Since he is almost unkillable at this stage, a lot of people like getting team-fight items, such as Mekansm, Assault Cuirass, Pipe of Insight, and other kinds of things.

Viper is really easy to pick up and the hero does not require any specific skills, such as unit control or something similar. Consequently, he is often the go-to option for many people new to Dota 2.

Viper Dota 2 Guide – Pros and Cons

Before looking at the Viper Dota 2 Build and the items you can go for, here are some of the pros and cons you should be aware of.

Pros:

• Easy to play
• Very effective early on
• Great for pushing and winning the game faster than usual
• Hard to kill

Cons:

• Does not farm fast
• He is not that good in the late game

Dota 2 Viper Items 

Choosing the right items is one of the key things when playing Viper. Generally speaking, there are three types of builds to go for – Physical Damage, Magical Damage or a Tank/Team Fight one.

Starting items

Regardless of which option you choose, the best starting items are branches, Tango and a Healing Salve.

Early game

In the early game, most Viper players will have Boots of Speed and a Magic Wand. Depending on the build, people can get Null Talismans, Wraith Bands, or something else.

Mid Game

Those who like the physical damage build after reading this Dota 2 Viper Guide usually get a Shadow Blade + Manta Style or Sange and Yasha. People who prefer the magical damage build can get Shard, followed by a Veil of Discord. Fans of the third build often go for a Mek, followed by Pipe.

Late Game

Depending on the hero’s position, you can see items like Black King Bar, Force Staff, Aghanim’s Scepter, Assault Cuirass, Scythe of Vyse, Octarine Core, Mjollnir Butterfly, Daedalus, Monkey King Bar, HoT, and more.

Dota 2 Viper Counter

Another thing that we need to address in this guide is the Viper Dota 2 Counter. A few heroes work well against this one, so let’s go through them.

• Chaos Knight – CK is really tanky, and he deals a lot of damage, which makes him effective against Viper.
• Phantom Lancer– Although Viper has an AoE ability, a farmed PL can be almost impossible to deal with.
• Broodmother – Brood is way faster and can easily dodge the Nether Toxin and then kill Viper.

Final Thoughts

As you’ve seen in this Viper Dota 2 guide, this hero definitely has a lot to offer, but it’s not invisible. There are many ways of dealing with him, especially if you win the early game, so be careful when picking him because Viper is an option that will work in specific situations.