Five Reasons Night Stalker is Dominating the Dota 2 Meta

Dota 2

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Night Stalker has emerged as the biggest winner of Dota 2 patch 7.38b. The hero has been contested in 100% of the matches in PGL Wallachia Season 3, winning every time he has made it through the draft. No doubt about it, Balanar is ruling the meta right now.

There is a lot to like about Night Stalker and in this article we will be looking into why the hero is so strong, and how you can use that to grind MMR.

Five Reasons You Should Player Night Stalker

This guy got a lot of love from IceFrog recently. (Credit: Valve).

Night Reign is a powerful facet

In Dota 2 patch 7.38, Night Reign grants Balanar a free point in Hunter in the Night, along with making it a five skill point ability. This means the hero can start with Hunter in the Night and a point in either Crippling Fear or Void, depending on what he wants.

This is a powerful start for the hero, as his fighting ability at level one outscales all other heroes. At level two, he has a skill point in all his basic abilities, another strong power spike for the hero.

The facet is so strong it was nerfed in the subsequent patch, yet it's still a free skill point in a very useful passive.

Balanar provides draft flexibility

In the past, Night Stalker was played exclusively as an offlaner. The hero needed farm and levels to function. Teams that picked him tipped their hands in the draft, revealing one of the cores early.

Nowadays, Balanar has become a flexible pick. In four out of his five appearances in Wallachia, he has been played as a support. This gives teams tremendous flexibility, as you aren't sure what role the hero will occupy.

We personally like this change, as it makes the hero more versatile and less of a one-trick-pony. If you're thinking of picking him as a support, be sure to buy Phase Boots and Blink Dagger and jump on enemies.

Night Stalker is a strong laner

He's not as strong as this guy, but still. (Credit: Valve)

Whether he's a support or a core, Night Stalker does fairly well in the laning stage. We already mentioned his early power spikes thanks to Night Reign but there's more.

Firstly, he has fantastic stats for the early game. With five armor and 5.3 health regeneration at level one. He is also fairly mobile and deals 65 damage per hit. Void is a useful ability at both harassing enemy heroes and securing range creeps.

While we don't rank Night Stalker among the best laners in the game, there is no doubt that he is a mobile, and durable hero with decent harassing abilities. He also comes with great stat growth.

Balanar provides a massive vision advantage

If there is one thing we could pick that makes Night Stalker overpowered, it would be the vision advantage he provides teams.

The hero has 1800 night vision, which is incredible and tied with Slark for the highest at night. Not only is it massive, but when combined with Dark Ascension, it becomes flying vision, and with free pathing.

This makes it very easy for the hero (and to a lesser extent his team), to always take advantageous fights. Since Dark Ascension turns day to night, most enemies heroes will suffer a big vision penalty, further tilting the scales in Balanar's favor.

Customizable item build

Ranking all Neutral Items in Dota 2 patch 7.38

You're gonna want to pick these up whenever you can.

Apart from Blink Dagger to jump on enemies, we generally feel that Night Stalker can be built however players want.

Pros haven't settled on a specific build for the hero as a support yet. While all get Blink Dagger, some buy Drums and others don't, while some see Blade Mail as a core item and others prefer Sange and Yasha.

In general, you can build the hero as you like, though the emphasis should always be to stick on targets and use Crippling Fear to prevent spell casting. We recommend Phase Boots and Blade Mail as cheap utility items. An Aghanim's Shard is a great way to stay healthy between fights as well.

And that's our list for why Night Stalker is the best hero in Dota 2 patch 7.38b and why you should consider adding him to your hero pool as soon as you can.

Featured Image Source: Valve