Dota 2 - How to lane against Lifestealer in patch 7.24

Introduction

Patch 7.24 "boosted" some pretty interesting heroes that we haven't seen in awhile, at least not as often as we do now. One of those heroes is Lifestealer. Even though LS was popular last patch, this was mainly due to his hidden "support" capabilities. Yes, believe it or not, many teams ran him as a support, which was very strange because we've never seen LS as legit support. However, this only lasted so long because IceFrog nerfed.

However, 7.24 brought a lot of changes with it and one of them was LS's buffs. He quickly became one of the most picked heroes due to his amazing attack speed and damage. Having said that, let's take a look at a couple of interesting things you need to know when you have to late against LS.

Do not overextend

The first very important thing that you need to remember is not to overstep your boundaries. This is something that's true for many heroes but it's very important against LS. One wrong move will result in him using Open Wounds, which in most cases will result in a kill. To avoid this, simply keep a safe distance or at least try to pull the creep wave towards you so you can land some last hits.

Always wait for Rage before going for a kill

Despite the fact that Lifestealer is a very strong laner, he is by no means immortal. In fact, the hero can often suffer against certain aggressive lanes. However, in order to be effective in killing him, you have to wait until he uses Rage. This is one of the best abilities to avoid ganks because it's essentially a free BKB that can be used whenever. Needless to say, the last thing you want is to waste all your cooldowns and time just so Lifestealer can pop his Rage and walk away.

Be extra careful when LS hits level 6

Many people tend to underestimate Lifestealer's damage during the laning stage. While it's true that he doesn't have any nukes, his ultimate is pretty strong, especially early on. As a result, he uses all his spells on you, he can deal anywhere between 1k to 1.5k damage, which is more than enough to kill you early on. That's why you have to be extra careful when you see that LS hits level 6.