Viscious Venomancer Ganker/Carry/Support

Venomancer aka. the Hydralisk if built properly can be a deadly force slithering his way through the battlefield! First off do not go wards venomancer, although you will farm better it makes you a less effective early ganker and you will be more vulnerable to gank mid game.(lvls 7-11) The only reason you would want to go wards is if you were laned against two ranged nukers (eg.Lich and Leshrac) otherwise it will be really hard to last hit and your getting nuked to death. If the other team has alot of nukes or if you see alot of them in the -rd circle be prepared for a hard matchup if you pick him. If they only have one or two then try to not lane against them to start. This being said the serpent ward is a VERY VALUABLE TOOL that is basically an unlimited short time obs supply if you wish to use them in this way. I like to place one or two in the woods if I am laned top or bottom to give site and detect ganks. Even if I am stopped to buy real fast or typing and not engaging any hostiles the ward will blink on the minimap and it may say "your units are under attack!" so its better than an observer ward in that manner at catching your attention. They have a short cooldown, verylow mana cost, and can be dropped at a range of 1000 away from veno and they last for 30 seconds. I also love to set up a perimeter if I'm jungling to help farm/detect gankers, especially at night. This is my skill set that is best for ganking while still having wards for defence.

SKILL SET
LVL1 Poison sting
LVL2 Venomous gland
LVL3 Venomous gland
LVL4 Serpent Ward
LVL5 Venomous gland
LVL6 Poison Nova
LVL7 Venomous gland (maxed)
LVL8-10 Poison Sting (maxed)
LVL11 Poison Nova
Now here is where you must make a decision. Levels 12-15 you can either max out serpent wards or add stat points based on what would be more beneficial. If your up against alot of nukers like we talked about earlier go stats so you have more HP, damage, and mana. If not, maxing out serpent wards is nice for farming or soloing Roshan if you are farmed enough. Level 4 does like 40-45 damage and you can drop multiples and they have more HP and creeps dont own them. They also give hardly any gold if destroyed compared to other wards which is nice. Level 16 get Posion Nova obviously, then max out serpent wards and stats at your leisure. By level 11 you will be a deadly ganking machine capable of killing almost any hero except really tanky ones, like centaur or abbadon, if you hit venomous gland, poison nova combo and a few hits. Ok, now for the fun part the item build

ITEM BUILD
1-Treads(Str or Agi, based on your preference HP vs Damage)
2-Bracer or Wraith Band (again preference)
3-Lothars
4-Perserverence
5-Mantastyle
6-Finish Linkens with Pers OR make Helm of Defiance/Kadgars Pipe (more support for team since ideal postioning for unleashing poison nova is in the middle of everyhting so you can hit as many enemies as possible, nice item if your 2nd or 3rd dps hero)
7-If you finished Linkens or just ditch the bracer/wraith band and make a Buriza,Butterfly,Radiance,or MKB. I prefer butterfly usually if the games goes this long but if your the primary dps then buriza is the way to go since the illusions will also get crits which is so nice.
By level 16 if you ganked well and farmed decently you should have or be close to Mantastyle. Now you can really have fun.I like to use the illusions to create a diversion, waste mana, and hopefully an ultimate or two Or you can just sneak up right next to someone alone with lothars, hit them with venomous gland, pop mantastyle, unleash posion nova, and pummel them with 3 venos until they die. Mantastyle can also be used to escape nets and even some ultimates like Tide's Ravage if its timed just right.While veno has pretty high dps once you get manta, its not godly, but with the added posion and skill combo venomancer can dish out massive damage. Poison nova is one of the strongest AOE ults in the game and has a huge radius. The other team would be wise to make HOD's but even if they do, then that cuts into their damage or HP items. I find this build on this hero to be very enjoyable to play and its ownage at the same time if all goes right.

Nice,