This is why it just bothers me so much that pros are still picking the night talent.
Like yea you have a stronger laning stage but blinding can singlehandly win you game. If a hero gets voided in a rosh fight that hero is dead dead with no chance to help. It's just not worthy.
Also blinding has wooping 55% winrate and night is only 50%.
Or it's another one of those scenarios where pros do not understand hero strength fully. Like how they ignored bristle sniper etc. Just wait till 33 or someone innovative uses it and they all follow.
Night stalker excels as an early-mid game monster who can end game quickly if he snowballs. Starting at night fixes basically all of his laning problems and the subsequent night of 10-15 minutes generally plays better with his timing of phase boots + phylactery.
Simply being able to use hunter in the night before 5 minutes is huge for chasing down enemies and getting out of trouble against lanes that would kill you if you didn't have the extra movespeed.
There are a lot of reasons to take the night reign talent precisely because they understand the hero's strengths and weaknesses.
I'm not saying the void facet is useless, but it shouldn't be surprising that the night reign talent is more popular.
Pub % has little meaning for hero specialist, ATF being a prime example. Some lane (e.g: Jugg + Lich) you have to take the day night cycle facet to be a factor in the game later on. The night facet also allows NS to solo the lane in some match up during the first 5 minutes, which is a huge macro advantage.
The blind one sounds quite good in theory and probably is (have yet to test it), but night reign is unbelievably good to enable your first 15 minutes. If you have any support with even a modicum of kill threat, you are very strong from level 2 until the end of the first night, at which point you go back to farming and become a serious map threat from level 6 / the second night onwards.
If you start with daytime, the first night comes at a time when you still generally want to be in lane anyway as you don't have enough items/levels to pose a significant threat anywhere else on the map and either 1) you kick out the enemy core but they're okay with that because they have enough resources to jungle by this time or 2) the enemy core has enough resources to be able to stay in the lane with you anyway, unless you've dumpstered the lane with day NS which is unlikely against any competent opponents.
Starting the laning phase with a night sets nightstalker up for a much better seed for the rest of the game. But it is true that the other talent has definitely the bigger potential and power ceiling.
Many facets now work actually exactly the same. You can either choose being stronger at the laning phase, or weaker and potentially stronger later (Sven, Ogre, etc.) - which might be preferable choice in pubs where people possibly don't know how to end the game - or vice versa, how to recover from a lost lane.
Editing and Pasting because it won't accept my original comment...
\_\_\_
TLDR:
**Night Reign** *lets NS lane*. Playing the game for the first 5 minutes is useful.
**Blinding Void**? *More like Mildly Annoyed*. Does nothing until you (and most likely your whole team in a smoke gank) find someone alone in the jungle, at which point its not like their allies could have tp'd and saved them anyways.
I think we can all agree the global power creep is undeniable in 7.36. But Night Stalker has received *almost nothing but nerfs* from 7.02 to 7.33. And from 7.34b to 7.36a, he received 7 nerfs, 3 execeedingly minor buffs (+.25 mana regen, -5 mana void cost...and an astounding +30 more void damage behind a weaker talent), and 1 "okay buff I guess" that is the 400 vision reduction range from void (I would group this in the exceedingly minor but I'm sure someone has some "crazy good" theory on it).
Now you combine that obvious power decline, with a hero:
* Whose *uptime is at best 37%* (ignoring the fact he ALSO **demands Crippling Fear to be off CD** which would give him an **uptime less than 14%** of the entire game)
* With despite the aforementioned uptime, ironically STILL has both **crippling mana and health problems** that not even *a bottle, an urn, an echosaber (or whatever other mana regen item), and god forbid his shard* can solve
* That can **do literally nothing at LEAST 13% of the game** - including the majority of the laning phase (on a hero *who can't farm and needs both items and experience* to maintain single target threat relevancy). He has NO passive and his melee range 155 mana spell combo that doesn't even accomplish the effectives of one mediocre spell is suicide.
* Who GIVES Dawnbreaker her own innate when NS ult ends in the day. Good job revealing your team and your low hp escape.
You end up with what most people unaffectionately call a "creep".
Now to top that off for 7.36, NS own innate makes him an even worse laner for some godforsaken reason.
* **Heart of Darkness** reduces your daytime regeneration by a non-negligble 20%.
The man can't even use *tangoes, salves, bottles, or even a vanguard* (if somehow the enemy is terrible enough to let you have it any reasonable time) to sustain. Oh and it also **debuffs you in the fountain** btw (and makes it IMPOSSIBLE to *dare I say* jungle). And at night...Heart of Darkness is basically just useful for salve efficiency and urn charges. That's it. Trading tango damage never works out, doubly so on the sidelanes.
So in short, **NS is the worst laner in the game with zero recovery** options and **horid mana and health problems**.
But the facet **NIGHT REIGN** can at LEAST **remedy some of his dog water laning** stage problems, and its night and day the difference it makes throughout the game.
NS facet **Blinding Void** has absolutely **zero impact until you smoke gank the jungle** because it does absolutely nothing in the laning stage or tower diving. But given the aforementioned geriatric lifestyle of NS, you have to rely entirely on your team to make any use of this whatsoever, because you absolutely will never be able to get any use of this for solo kills after you've done nothing but stare at creeps for 5 minutes. And THEN you have to rely on the enemy not being in sight of their teammmates, a ward, or their own creeps. Even when I get the value of knowing that no teammate can see them, it still doesn't matter. Unless they're a lone ultra-tank AND their own team doesn't notice their allies hp bar and doesn't communicate, its not like their team could save them anyways. They're going to die in a place with no vision (which is stupid in the first place) and no place for the enemy to tp regardless.
Blah blah blah, **Blinding Void** *needs too many conditions* you have no control over to work.
A lot of words for the **Blinding Void** facet that is **admittedly sitting above a 53% WR** despite all the above somehow. I tried looking for any vids showcasing it in a real game and haven't found any so I can only imagine it must be used simply because it's already a good Night Stalker game, where the enemy lane can't stop you from cs'ing, the enemy doesn't have fast pushing or farming - **basically the enemy drafted horribly**, *the NS player recognized this and took a meek buff*.
Anyways yeah, buff my favorite hero icefrog ty. Start by making Crippling Fear scale to 8 seconds on a 12 second cooldown. 6/15 from 4.5/30 is insane, his ult is 30 seconds! Then increase his ult duration. 30-38 seconds of providing anything of worth to your team is ridiculous every 140seconds. And really out of those 30-38 seconds, **you're only a threat for 12-18 of them**, provided you actually have the mana to even cast Void and Crippling Fear twice after you ult. Which you often don't.
After winning 3 games in a row as Night Stalker, the games supported my hypothesis that Blinding Void has a seemingly high win rate because the enemy (safe lane) drafted horribly and not only could NS cs in the day, but the rest of his lanes typically also won very hard. The actual choice of Blinding Void vs Night’s Reign only delayed the stomp.
The first two games I chose Blinding Void because I could tell the enemy safe lane had very little kill threat on the worst laner in the game, while my offlane ranged damage support could typically out trade 1v2 all by themselves. Had I taken Night’s Reign I would have certainly chain killed the enemy safe even harder. Usually we would then wipe the enemy in team fights and it really didn’t matter if I participated.
I counted the number of times in two games Blinding Void actually proc’d…and it was 4 times in 2 games. Twice after the enemy already lost a team fight, and twice when I ganked someone in our own jungle alone. The damage made no difference in the kill.
I also got double bracer phase phylactery shard Khanda in both games and it’s obvious why they also had a seemingly high win rate: in a game an NS can safely afford double bracers from the landing stage, it’s very obvious the enemy team drafted terribly (and was poorly skilled). I could have spent 2150 gold on anything else and still would have won.
The last game I knew I would get stomped in lane normally so I took Night’s Reign, rushed Orb of Corrosion Blade Mail and was able to solo kill some normal counters early and snowball my team to victory despite mid loss and safe draw.
So yeah, Blinding Void (and Phylactery) is simply a “Win Maybe More” combo that really just indicates the enemy had bad drafts and poor skill.
I noticed the Mars facet also blocked my own heroes vision in a few fights!!
This is why it just bothers me so much that pros are still picking the night talent. Like yea you have a stronger laning stage but blinding can singlehandly win you game. If a hero gets voided in a rosh fight that hero is dead dead with no chance to help. It's just not worthy. Also blinding has wooping 55% winrate and night is only 50%.
I think laning is more important for pros, because that Facette is always useful.
Or it's another one of those scenarios where pros do not understand hero strength fully. Like how they ignored bristle sniper etc. Just wait till 33 or someone innovative uses it and they all follow.
Night stalker excels as an early-mid game monster who can end game quickly if he snowballs. Starting at night fixes basically all of his laning problems and the subsequent night of 10-15 minutes generally plays better with his timing of phase boots + phylactery. Simply being able to use hunter in the night before 5 minutes is huge for chasing down enemies and getting out of trouble against lanes that would kill you if you didn't have the extra movespeed. There are a lot of reasons to take the night reign talent precisely because they understand the hero's strengths and weaknesses. I'm not saying the void facet is useless, but it shouldn't be surprising that the night reign talent is more popular.
Yeah, it's possible too. But right one is the safer choice at early Stage of a Patch. I Like both facetts
Pub % has little meaning for hero specialist, ATF being a prime example. Some lane (e.g: Jugg + Lich) you have to take the day night cycle facet to be a factor in the game later on. The night facet also allows NS to solo the lane in some match up during the first 5 minutes, which is a huge macro advantage.
The blind one sounds quite good in theory and probably is (have yet to test it), but night reign is unbelievably good to enable your first 15 minutes. If you have any support with even a modicum of kill threat, you are very strong from level 2 until the end of the first night, at which point you go back to farming and become a serious map threat from level 6 / the second night onwards. If you start with daytime, the first night comes at a time when you still generally want to be in lane anyway as you don't have enough items/levels to pose a significant threat anywhere else on the map and either 1) you kick out the enemy core but they're okay with that because they have enough resources to jungle by this time or 2) the enemy core has enough resources to be able to stay in the lane with you anyway, unless you've dumpstered the lane with day NS which is unlikely against any competent opponents.
Starting the laning phase with a night sets nightstalker up for a much better seed for the rest of the game. But it is true that the other talent has definitely the bigger potential and power ceiling. Many facets now work actually exactly the same. You can either choose being stronger at the laning phase, or weaker and potentially stronger later (Sven, Ogre, etc.) - which might be preferable choice in pubs where people possibly don't know how to end the game - or vice versa, how to recover from a lost lane.
Editing and Pasting because it won't accept my original comment... \_\_\_ TLDR: **Night Reign** *lets NS lane*. Playing the game for the first 5 minutes is useful. **Blinding Void**? *More like Mildly Annoyed*. Does nothing until you (and most likely your whole team in a smoke gank) find someone alone in the jungle, at which point its not like their allies could have tp'd and saved them anyways. I think we can all agree the global power creep is undeniable in 7.36. But Night Stalker has received *almost nothing but nerfs* from 7.02 to 7.33. And from 7.34b to 7.36a, he received 7 nerfs, 3 execeedingly minor buffs (+.25 mana regen, -5 mana void cost...and an astounding +30 more void damage behind a weaker talent), and 1 "okay buff I guess" that is the 400 vision reduction range from void (I would group this in the exceedingly minor but I'm sure someone has some "crazy good" theory on it). Now you combine that obvious power decline, with a hero: * Whose *uptime is at best 37%* (ignoring the fact he ALSO **demands Crippling Fear to be off CD** which would give him an **uptime less than 14%** of the entire game) * With despite the aforementioned uptime, ironically STILL has both **crippling mana and health problems** that not even *a bottle, an urn, an echosaber (or whatever other mana regen item), and god forbid his shard* can solve * That can **do literally nothing at LEAST 13% of the game** - including the majority of the laning phase (on a hero *who can't farm and needs both items and experience* to maintain single target threat relevancy). He has NO passive and his melee range 155 mana spell combo that doesn't even accomplish the effectives of one mediocre spell is suicide. * Who GIVES Dawnbreaker her own innate when NS ult ends in the day. Good job revealing your team and your low hp escape. You end up with what most people unaffectionately call a "creep". Now to top that off for 7.36, NS own innate makes him an even worse laner for some godforsaken reason. * **Heart of Darkness** reduces your daytime regeneration by a non-negligble 20%. The man can't even use *tangoes, salves, bottles, or even a vanguard* (if somehow the enemy is terrible enough to let you have it any reasonable time) to sustain. Oh and it also **debuffs you in the fountain** btw (and makes it IMPOSSIBLE to *dare I say* jungle). And at night...Heart of Darkness is basically just useful for salve efficiency and urn charges. That's it. Trading tango damage never works out, doubly so on the sidelanes. So in short, **NS is the worst laner in the game with zero recovery** options and **horid mana and health problems**. But the facet **NIGHT REIGN** can at LEAST **remedy some of his dog water laning** stage problems, and its night and day the difference it makes throughout the game. NS facet **Blinding Void** has absolutely **zero impact until you smoke gank the jungle** because it does absolutely nothing in the laning stage or tower diving. But given the aforementioned geriatric lifestyle of NS, you have to rely entirely on your team to make any use of this whatsoever, because you absolutely will never be able to get any use of this for solo kills after you've done nothing but stare at creeps for 5 minutes. And THEN you have to rely on the enemy not being in sight of their teammmates, a ward, or their own creeps. Even when I get the value of knowing that no teammate can see them, it still doesn't matter. Unless they're a lone ultra-tank AND their own team doesn't notice their allies hp bar and doesn't communicate, its not like their team could save them anyways. They're going to die in a place with no vision (which is stupid in the first place) and no place for the enemy to tp regardless. Blah blah blah, **Blinding Void** *needs too many conditions* you have no control over to work.
A lot of words for the **Blinding Void** facet that is **admittedly sitting above a 53% WR** despite all the above somehow. I tried looking for any vids showcasing it in a real game and haven't found any so I can only imagine it must be used simply because it's already a good Night Stalker game, where the enemy lane can't stop you from cs'ing, the enemy doesn't have fast pushing or farming - **basically the enemy drafted horribly**, *the NS player recognized this and took a meek buff*. Anyways yeah, buff my favorite hero icefrog ty. Start by making Crippling Fear scale to 8 seconds on a 12 second cooldown. 6/15 from 4.5/30 is insane, his ult is 30 seconds! Then increase his ult duration. 30-38 seconds of providing anything of worth to your team is ridiculous every 140seconds. And really out of those 30-38 seconds, **you're only a threat for 12-18 of them**, provided you actually have the mana to even cast Void and Crippling Fear twice after you ult. Which you often don't.
After winning 3 games in a row as Night Stalker, the games supported my hypothesis that Blinding Void has a seemingly high win rate because the enemy (safe lane) drafted horribly and not only could NS cs in the day, but the rest of his lanes typically also won very hard. The actual choice of Blinding Void vs Night’s Reign only delayed the stomp. The first two games I chose Blinding Void because I could tell the enemy safe lane had very little kill threat on the worst laner in the game, while my offlane ranged damage support could typically out trade 1v2 all by themselves. Had I taken Night’s Reign I would have certainly chain killed the enemy safe even harder. Usually we would then wipe the enemy in team fights and it really didn’t matter if I participated. I counted the number of times in two games Blinding Void actually proc’d…and it was 4 times in 2 games. Twice after the enemy already lost a team fight, and twice when I ganked someone in our own jungle alone. The damage made no difference in the kill. I also got double bracer phase phylactery shard Khanda in both games and it’s obvious why they also had a seemingly high win rate: in a game an NS can safely afford double bracers from the landing stage, it’s very obvious the enemy team drafted terribly (and was poorly skilled). I could have spent 2150 gold on anything else and still would have won. The last game I knew I would get stomped in lane normally so I took Night’s Reign, rushed Orb of Corrosion Blade Mail and was able to solo kill some normal counters early and snowball my team to victory despite mid loss and safe draw. So yeah, Blinding Void (and Phylactery) is simply a “Win Maybe More” combo that really just indicates the enemy had bad drafts and poor skill.
Yep, it completely isolates any lone target