Help/rework Nyx.

[xStiven]

Hello, Nyx enjoyer here with 12k kills on kill count gem. Over the past years, most Heroes got so much buffs and new stuff, that it is ridiculous. Trying to read out, lets say Skeleton King passive, is like reading a novel - so much stuff/text is cramped inside it. But it feels like Nyx is left behind, and don't got any major updates in a years... So without hoping for much, please allow me to make some suggestions on how change Nyx, to make him more fun to play. I apologize for my bad English in advance :)

The problem:

Imho, this character has some sort of identity disorder, from gameplay point of view. He is melee fighter, with very expensive spells, who is also agility based hero, with almost no agility gains. He is a mess. He can't last hit, because of low damage and low agility, he can't last hit with spells because they are expensive, and old trick with soul ring no longer working as before, because of HP regen nerf. All of those problems can be mitigated with farm and items. But. The biggest problem of Nyx, as i see it - his current toolkit pushes him into aggressive play, but it cannot support him in a thick of the battle. He has no ways to avoid/mitigate damage. Carapaces is not enough. In first dota Nyx has nice 30% blade-mail effect on him if damage come from behind him. It made people very cautious with their retaliation against Nyx, when he come-out of Vendetta inside the enemy team pack. But the current Carapaces are just not enough, People usually hold their attack for a second, until Carapaces wears off. And so...

//Spiked Carapace // suggestion number 1:

Make Carapaces recharge quicker, based on how many hits from enemy heroes Nyx had take. If no-one attacked carapaces while they active - carapaces recharge almost instantly. It will force people to make at least some attacks against Nyx, or he will just keep on pressing them again and again, keeping carapaces up.

//Spiked Carapace // suggestion number 2:

Make Carapaces have a secondary effect - when Nyx bumps into enemy Heroes - he stuns them as if they hit Carapaces. It will make perfect sense for the current Nyx aggressive toolkit to charge and initiate fights and live past them.

One of the biggest problems, of Nyx, is that he can be easily countered by wards. Bounty hunter, Clinkz, even just any hero with invis item, do not have such a problem with wards because their invis is "cheap". Be it from invis items, or from skill - their CD is low, and those examples do not rely on stealth as much as Nyx. Who literally needs to be invisible to use his ultimate. In my opinion it is monstrous oversight, which has resulted in low Nyx pick rates (4%). Why pick the Hero whos ultimate can be countered by proper warding? It's not a problem with invis as a whole, this problem exists only for Nyx, because for him his ultimate=invis. And so my next suggestion for solving this problem...

//Vendetta// suggestion number 1:

Vendetta should have an additional effect - while under Vendetta buff Nyx can sense all enemies around him in a big circle. Even if they invisible. He can’t "see" them, this effect do not grant vision, or even any info on the targets. This effect only outlines enemy heroes/units/wards as some sort of generic flying sphere in the fog of war, or in the range of vision. Nyx CAN attack invisible target if the target has been highlighted by the effect but only once. Because once he do attack, Vendetta buff goes off, and with it the sense. Also, while under Vendetta effect, Nyx is also under permanent Smoke of Deceit effect, which end when Vendetta ends (maybe it can be a level 2-3 upgrade of ultimate). This change will help Nyx to get around invisible wards in jungles, and be, you know - an Assassin, strike out nowhere. This change can elevate Nyx ultimate, from low tier BH knock off, to the unique thing that only Nyx can do. And with that, the current long CD and relatively low damage will be offset by Nyx unpredictability. Also, people can still see him, when he near Wards, and in their vision, so its not letting Nyx just ez-mode farm enemies jungles. It just gives him a chance to kill the farming hero if he sneaks past wards.

//Vendetta// suggestion number 2:

Vendetta can guarantee proc of any chance based item inside Nyx inventory. For example, if Nyx has Crystalys, when he hits the enemy with Vendetta, it makes Crystalys always crit. Same with basher or any other percentage to proc chance effect. The reason for this is, relatively low damage from Vendetta, which do not scales to end game at all. Or in a very little way. In current state, late game Vendetta is usually used as escape tool, because its not worth much as a damage tool. Which again, seem to goes with the theme of worthless ultimate.

//Vendetta// suggestion number 3:

Alternatively, Vendetta could place debuff on enemy hero, when the enemy dies under the Vendetta debuff, Nyx gains +10 agility +5 int +3 Str. This will make jungle diving potentially more desirable, and also offset weird stat budget for Nyx.

As i said before, in current state, Nyx has not option for escape or even survive long in a fight. Aside from above mentioned changes, i want to suggest change Burrow mechanics, because currently Burrow is utterly useless for the price of Aghanim.

//Burrow// suggestion number 1:

Instead of instant cast, make it channeled cast. After Nyx finishes channeling Burrow for, lets say 3 sec, he spawns/makes underground entrance which he can then go in/out at will. When he is inside Burrow he gain all usually Burrow bonuses. But he can create those "Burrow" entrances into underground all over the map and move freely between them at will, with the 1200 speed. Let's say he can create 3 entrances at level 6, and 2 more at level 12 and then extra 2 on level 16, so up to 7 Burrow "spots". Those Burrow do not provide vision for Nyx, but otherwise work like Threant Protector ability "Eyes In The Forest". With one difference - once enemies detect Burros spot via gem or ward, they can destroy it in 10-20 hits. With this change, Nyx will be able to escape compromised positions, be it a hot Burrow spot, or a hot battle. But it also allows him to strike deep behind enemy lines, And not for a cheap price tho - his Burrows spots can be detected to make Burrow behind T2 Nyx will need to sneak up there and channel his skill for 3 sec, and the number of Burrow spots is limited. Also, even if he has Burrow Spot behind T2, he still he still needs Vendetta buff to go around possible detection in the jungle.

Talents suggestions.

Current talent left much to be desired. Aside from the many other problems that Nyx has, he is also, for some reason, very mana starved. In comparison, Lina/Lion/Lesharac, and pretty much any other heroes, have nuke spells which cost around 80 mana at level 1, and usually do more damage. while also having better utility (for example, lina's dragon slaive has a better range while also giving her stacks of passive). What is so special about Impale, that it cost 100/110/120/130? Nyx has an abysmal mana pool, 100 mana on the first level is huge costs, for no real reason, when compared to other heroes. And so i suggest to lower mana costs in a way that will be in tune with the rest of casters, or at least give us some talent to help us mitigate this. I suggest talent at level 10, which reduces mana costs of all spell by 30%, at least. It's not like Nyx has some awesome low cd nukes spells, like Zeus, Lina, or Lion, - so why restrict him from casting more often? Mana burn is awesome, but it takes too much game time before it will do big damage.