Nomad : the sand nagger of newerth

Introducing : Nomad

Nomad is a Legion melee carry hero.
Some people tend to call him a semi carry aswell.
I do not know if this is debatable, but regardless of that he is definetely a force to be reckoned with late game.

Yet this hero has another role he can fulfill perfectly.
Nomad is (in my opinion) a pretty good ganker due to his chasing abilities.
Also because he is able to make allied heroes temporary invisible when using his first skill.
Enemy heroes will have no idea how many opponents are approaching,
and due to the increased movementspeed sandstorm gives it will most likely be a fought battle before they could even try to escape.

His attribute gain (as you can see) is pretty balanced.
With both a decent str and int gain you might say he will not stand out lategame because of his lack in agility gain.
This is partially true. Heroes like Chronos, The Dark Lady and madman will annihilate him in lategame.
Nevertheless he is able to beat any other hero solo.
And on top of that, it is pretty hard to kill him without any speed or stealth reveal.
Earlygame it is nearly impossible to kill it without chain stunning him during a gank.
Nomad is also blessed with a pretty high base damage and a good base movement speed.
Last hitting creeps will be a piece of cake with him, because his attack animation is also fantastic.

Nomads health will be a bigger problem than his mana.
His intelligence gain is high enough to stop worrying about mana useage after early game.
I might also add that Nomads skills are rediculously low mana cost too.

Nomads pro's and con's

Pro's :
- Many Escape Mechanism's ++
- Very good attack animation +
- Really high base damage ++
- High Movement speed +
- Fairly high mana pool +
- Great at ganking +
- Good magical armour +
- Able to save his allies by making them invisible ++
- Nullstone like ult with a big AOE stun and decent damage ++
- Low mana cost skills ++

Con's :
- Somewhat squishy -
- Pretty hard to play right --
- No AOE skills to farm with --
- Nomad WILL be getting picked on in teamfights -
- Low on physical armor -

I do not know any more pro's or con's.
If you know some, please post them and they will be added when I think you are right

Nomads Skils

This allround skill is what makes Nomad hard to kill, good to gank with and saves lives of your allies.
When you see an ally that is getting ganked or is getting stunned, you can run to him and use Sandstorm.
Your ally will be thankfull for the invisibility.
You can also do this when it might be hard for you to get out when they chase, because Nomad has two other skills to save his or someone else his/her hide.
When you are pummeling an enemy hero but manages to get out of range, just Sandstorm after him and slap the sh*t out of him.
Your movementspeed will be increased with 20% and his with -20% at skill level 4.



Yet another skill that can be used in many different ways.
This skill has two sub skills attached to it.
In game it will look like this. (not precisely like that lol..)



As you can see this skill exists out of True strike and Mirage strike.
You mainly use True Strike when you want to attack an enemy hero and chase him to death (or gank him with your allies ), or when you want to farm creep lanes a bit faster.

The second version, Mirage Strike is mainly used to harass enemy heroes without being in any form of danger yourself.
This merely creates an illusion that runs towards your selected target and hits him.
After that the illusion dissapeares and you become invisible for 3 seconds.
People that do not understand Nomad usually cast skills on the illusion.
Make use of this advantage !, immediately sandstorm in and shred him to pieces when he is alone.
(and when you are certain you beat him without his precious stun / disable ).
This skill is also used for escaping because you get three seconds of invisibility.
Do not use these three seconds to run into an obvious way (because the time you are invisible is just too short)
but try to hide somewhere in the meantime or take the opposite direction they would expect you to run at.
Important: When you kill someone, the cooldown of this skill will be RESET.



Wanderer is what gives Nomad a LOT of extra damage.
Every 1000 units of walking nomad gets a +100% bonus damage buff upon a direct hit at skill level 4.
Note that every hit you give an enemy hero that does not activate The Wanderer, its charges will go up with +25%.
So basically you hit someone with Wanderer each 2 consecutive hits.
This is why an item like geometers bane is GREAT for Nomad.
Your illusions will get the Wanderer damage bonus which is fantastic.

Important: The Wanderer will trigger upon an attack when its charges are higher than 20%.



Edge Counter is something like an itensified Nullstone.
In my opinion this ult is even a bit too strong to be called balanced.
This ultimate has the ability to completely change the outcome of a teamfight (or any battle really) within a second.
It is pretty hard to use however. You have to time an attack on you within a second.
Once you get the hang of this you will be much further into playing Nomad well.
And if that isn't enough, the ultimate also applies Mastery on the target. I do not know for sure what Mastery does.
I looked it up at the HoN Wiki, but it might have been out dated a littlebit.


With level they meant Edge Counter.

Note that Edge Counter does damage in a straight line.
So the one that was so unfortunate to attack you while you activated Edge Counter, will get a massive shockwave in his face, stunning him,
and everyone that is behind him up to 625 range.
Try to time these Edge Counters perfectly.
For example when they try to chase you down.
They most likely run after eachother.
It is also perfect for nullifying a pyromancer ult or a witchslayer ult. Or perhaps a Wretched Hag ultimate.
In short, a very very strong ultimate, with an insanely low cooldown at level 3.

Important: Does damage in a straight line in the direction of your attacker. remember this

Nomads Skillbuild

This skillbuild is made under normal circumstances on a LONG lane.
(not that it would be very much different on a short lane though).
Behold my masterpiece.



Very Important : Only choose either of these red options at each level.
For example : At level 8, you either have to choose Mirage Level 4, or Wand level 1.
If your wanderer is already level one, you choose Mirage level 4 and vice versa.

I always start out with level one Sandstorm to gain some survivability for me and my teammembers.
If my lane partner gets ganked I could help him out with Sandstorm.
Then at level 2 I choose mirage to be able to last hit an enemy hero or to start harassing.
At Level 3 you can either choose to skill Wanderer, or another level of Mirage.
If you have only melee heroes in your lane or if you are next to the enemy melee hero often,
I would go for wanderer to harass him even harder for no mana cost.
If you can't get near the creep wave or simply don't have much melee contact with enemy heroes, go for a second level in Mirage, and skill wanderer later.
Now you should be able to last hit creeps with Mirage if you are desperate for gold, or take a considerable chunk out of an enemy hero his/her HP.

Level sandstorm and mirage again, and at level 6, your ultimate.
Now you are filled with burst damage, capable to gank, and when neccesary, able to change a teamfight with your devastating ult.
After this you max Mirage and go for level 1 Wanderer.
By the time you reach level 8 you should have 2 levels in Sandstorm, 4 levels in Mirage, one in your ult, and one in Wanderer.
No exceptions possible for this skillbuild to work.
The 4 levels in mirage will give you an opportunity to escape every 10 seconds, or will give you the chance to last hit someone with termendous damage for that time of the game.

Continue to max out Sandstorm.
You want this as high as possible now to be able to make use of it often.
When you are level 11, make your ult level 2 and continue maxing your wanderer.
After you did this (at level 15) you have maxed everything except your last level in your ultimate, so you level one attribute in stats.
After that you choose your ultimate and you have nine levels to spend in stats.

That concludes the skillbuild for nomad.
It is a pretty straight forward build useable on any lane on the battlefield.

Nomads Itembuild

Eventually, nomad should go for something like :
- Geometers Bane
- Runed Axe
- Wingbow
- Abyssal Skull or Symbol of Rage (super late)
- Ghost Marchers or Post haste (super super late)
- Savage Mace or Shrunken Head (depends)

There is no real ending item build for Nomad because nearly any item that gives damage / attack speed == agility would suffice.
Just be carefull you dont buy two items with an attack modifier because they won't fit together.
Ofcourse you could also add in a Shrunken Head.
That always does good and adds even more survivability.


BUILD1 Start Itembuild for solo Bot or Top (or mid)
- Runes of the Blight 1x = 90g
- Health Potion 1x = 100g
- Duckboots 2x = 300g
490g in total

This is the build i like the most.
It contains enough regeneration to stay in your lane for a while.
Also your attack damage will be 60 - 64 which is really high.
You leave 113 gold which you will use to continue your build.
When you are mid you might want to consider a different build.

BUILD2 Start Itembuild for mid
- Loggers Hatchet or Iron Buckler = 225g or 250g
- Health Potion 1x = 100g
- Duckboots 1x = 150g
475g or 500g in total

Yes you could also leave the duckboots out and buy an Iron Buckler.
But I prefer having a little bit more stats to compete with.
If you prefer an Iron Buckler above a loggers hatchet, you can do this.
If you think you get harassed by creeps often that is.
You could upgrade this to an Iron Shield instead of a Soulscream ring later.

Some people don't want a Loggers hatchet or an Iron buckler and use BUILD1 when they are mid.
You do enough damage anyway.
This is what I prefer too.

If you prefer to get a Power Supply or an Iron Shield that is all fine.
You could get both of these at the cost of the two duckboots. (which would be upgraded to Soulscream Ring later on).

Now, what we want is a Runed Axe as soon as possible. Once you got this you will earn gold much faster.
So the longer you wait with getting it, the more gold you spoil by going for other items first with a slower farming rate.
During the early laning phase you should try to work for a sustainer as soon as possible. The LifeTube can be get at the outpost, and the at the secret shop.
Finish the Axe as soon as possible.
An early game Itembuild could be this :

Early Game Itembuild :
- Runed Axe
- Duckboots 2x
- Marchers

This should be achievable BEFORE the 20 minutes streak.
Just farm hard and don't do anything else.
The marchers are the only item that would be understandable to buy before your Runed Axe.
It certainly delays it a bit, but its better than getting outrunned by the enemy and losing 230 gold.

If you really need damage or speed right now, you could fix your marchers up to Ghost Marchers or change your Duckboots x2 into a Soulscream Ring x2.
But only do this if your farm is interrupted somehow (be it concurrention by allied carries or enemy harassment)
This is certainly not recommended.

Now after you have the early game itembuild complete you finish your boots to Ghost Marchers if you haven't done that already,
and make your two ready.
Now you should look at how the game develops.
Are you losing ?, why is that ?. Are you busy farming too much and literally leaving it 4vs5 ?. They lack damage and a good stun you can give ?
Then you might want to consider going Abysall Skull fast to increase their damage, and then participating in teamfights a little more.
During this you should get up a Shrunken Head very fast to avoid being focussed by the enemy team.
You are the hero that deals the damage here, you need to survive.

After this you can add whatever you want.
For example a Wingbow or a Geometers Bane.
I would suggest the geo's bane before the wingbow because this can be used a lot better (scroll up if you forgot why..)
You will eventually be able to get them both anyway.

Lets get back to the Early Game build.
I just told you what you should do if your team is having a hard time without you.
But if your team manages to fight equally without any (or hardly) help from you, then you can continue to farm.
This will result in strong items much faster.
Just keep farming and farming, coming out to participate in teamfights about the protection or destruction of towers only.

At the end it should look like the ending build I mentioned on top of this section.
Important : The ending build could be a lot different than the one i mentioned above.
For example : if they got many target spells like pyromancer and witchslayer's ultimate, you should consider a Null Stone.
Together with your ult you can easily block any incoming targeted spells.

Playing Nomad from start 2 end

Pre-Game Phase
Lets assume you are relaxing in the Legion or Hellbourne fountain with fresh teammates right now.
You just bought your itembuild (according to Build1),
and you are moving to a top or bot (or mid) lane.

Make sure you get a babysitter on the lane, like Demented Shaman, Nymphora or any other long range hero.
Nymphora would be the best choise here since she can refill your mana. With that you can either harass terribly hard or last hit with Mirage Strike constantly.

The early laning Phase
Just try to get as many lasthits as possible.
When your lane is rather agressive, just stay back and come in range to last hit a creep, then run back.
You might get one or two hits each time you do that.
But atleast you get your farm.
If they try to kill you every time you attempt to last hit a creep (which would be really REALLY agressive), you should do it with your skills at the cost of mana, and call for a gank asap.

If you get much farm without having to use your spells to get last hits, you can always cast spells on their weakest low HP hero to help your lane partner harass.
Eventually you might try to kill it resulting in a firstblood.
When your lane partner is low on health and they try to kill him, come to aid with a sandstorm immediately.
If that isn't enough, try to do as much damage possible in an attempt to drive them back.

The Late Laning phase
You should be level 6 now with some decent farm.
Perhaps you have your Manatube already and some boots.
If your team needs you a bit, and you see an enemy hero that is so low on health it is nearly calling you to kill him,
Go there and set up a gank.
Whenever you are healthy and have atleast one skill to escape with, keep farming creeps !.

Late Early Game
You should have like 20 minutes of good farming behind you.
Now you should be able to buy your Runed Axe with a good farm.
If not, then continue farming untill you have this.
Really try to get it before 25 minutes at all costs.

Now you should focus on your GhostMarchers and perhaps two Soulscream Rings (or PowerSupply or whatever earlygame item you prefer).

Early Mid Game
By now you got all the items you want including your Runed Axe.
Now you should look at the current situation of your team.
Also consider looking at the heroes of the enemy team. (you should have done this at the start of the game).
If they got a lot of target spells, consider going a Nullstone.
This will also remove the need of mana even if you would spam your Mirage strike constantly.
If they got atleast three heroes with a stun it might be wise to go for a Shrunken Head.
If all of their heroes are terribly annoying and can finish you off in a blink, you might want to consider buying both of them.
After this you should definetely go for geometers bane.
An Abyssal skull is not a bad idea either, for it gives you lifesteal and gives your allies a beautifull damage bonus.
Ofcourse you can also go for geo's bane after runed axe instead of things like shrunken and nullstone.
This you can do when they don't have that much stuns and disable's, or when they simply do not focus you and your skills are enough to escape.

Mid Game
This is a phase in the game where you should be careful.
Many enemy heroes should reach their strong point.
Your Runed axe and your shrunken or nullstone should be finished or nearly finished here.
If you want to and when it is neccesary, you should participate in teamfights now.
Throwing your ult in results in many kill rewards (gold) and could be a substitute for your farming.
Also, getting level 16 fast is required.
Remember, at this phase you are not dominating, unless you had a terrific farm and many kills early game and mid.

In this phase you should sit back a little and farm another round for your Geometers Bane, or if you have that already, any defense items like shrunken or nullstone.

For example, you have a Runed Axe, a Shrunken head, and a geometers bane (with good farm).
The 4th thing you could make is pretty optional.
Do they have very tanky heroes with a good amount of armor ?, try to go Shieldbreaker.
Do you lack damage ? go Savage mace.
Also your illusions you get from your geometers bane will benefit from this (I think ? ).


End of Midgame
This is the last stand of midgame heroes untill carries begin to take over the game.
Right now you should have your 4th item ready.
You are ready to carry your team now.
Your geometers bane and your shieldbreaker or savage mace will shred any hero to pieces really.
If you are still not strong enough to carry, use this last phase to farm a bit more and try to get your 5th item.
For example you could try to finish a Wingbow.

Lategame
This is where you start to carry your team for real.
Just push somewhere terribly hard and force the enemy to defend over there.
Farm even harder and swap your abyssal skull or whispering helmet for a symbol of rage.
Turn your boots into post haste for even more speed and the ability to teleport for free.
The bigger your mobility as a carry, the better it is for you and your team.

Uber Late game (75 min +)
This is what you should avoid with Nomad.
Nomad is a strong carry, but not competable against hardcarries like chronos and the dark lady.
At this phase of the game chances are big they outcarry you.
Never wait to long to end it. You should end it as soon as possible.

Strategy Pointers

Attacking and killing with nomad
When you see a potential kill, try to delay it as long as possible.
When he is farming just annoy him one or two times with your Mirage strike.
If he attempts to run away, go after him with sandstorm, and keep your fingers on your Edge Counter.
When he autoattacks you or nukes you, press it fast.
That will give you a good chance to finish it off.

When he is harassed for 40 / 50% of his health and he is still in the lane, attack him for real this time.
Use your true strike and slap the crap outta him.
He will notice his life dropping terribly fast.
He will either run, which results in his dead for you can sandstorm after him, attacking it and eventually use another True strike,
Or he will attempt to spam all his skills on you.
This is where you have your edge counter, which will finish him off for sure.

Pretty darn important! : Do NOT Sandstorm in to attack someone, unless you gank with your team.
You should try to use this skill for Chasing and Escaping only.

Escaping With Nomad :
When you are being ganked, and you see a stunner coming your way, use your sandstorm and get out of range asap.
The stunner is gone, but now you might see another hero that does not have stuns (or does).
If he doesn't have a stun, attack him with your Mirage Strike and try to juke your chasers while invisible.
If he does have a stun, try to do this before he will stun you, or use your shrunken (lol).

It should be really hard to kill Nomad like that.
Ganking him will be difficult if you think about what you are doing.

Positioning with Nomad
Your place on the battlefield will be next to the support in the backrow untill you are farmed enough.
When you are farmed enough your position will be in front.

When you are farming, always try to scan the place you are farming at. "What if I would get ganked now, where would I go". Try to look for a hiding place for example, or a good juke spot. For example, position yourself behind some creeps, away from the forest when the enemy has a devourer in game, etcetera.

If it doesn't feel safe, do not hesitate to go back.
Its better to leave your farm be then dieing.