General DiscussionWhy is Atos now core item for viper

The stats are great.

good all round stats. synergy with the hero and it's abilities - viper is immobile, atos is long ranged catch, keeps them in nethertoxin for longer plus gives time to get in range for viper strike.

atos is like when helm of dominator gave 6 all stats or drum was 9 all stats - you got a lot of value from the recipe. in the case of atos it's +2 int and +4 agi / str as well as the active for 850g.

I think it was midone who popularised it, after nethertoxin got 2 buffed twice so it's damage and area were about 50% more than before.

it also stops tps which are #1 counter to viper dominance in ranked match

Atos stops TP now? Wow.

I wonder how well it would work for bloodseeker. I tried it in some smurf games for a joke but that was when it was high int. Now it would be 12 strength 12 agi and 20 int plus cancel tps and guarantee bloodrite hits or give time to get close for rupture all for only 2750 gold. Certainly better than blademail would be.for 2200 gold.

yea, the fact it stops TPs is huge since it is the main counter to Viper and now that it also gives some decent STR and AGI it can be more consistently picked by STR and AGI heroes
yea, like you said also works for Bloodseeker, costs the same as Eul but gives better stats and allows you to land a Blood Rite much more consistently than Euls
also Phoenix, Razor, Venomancer and Pudge

the true question is, is it worth saving a bit more money and buying Nullifier, Abissal or Vyse instead? Bloodseeker for instance, I am never sure if I rather buy Atos or Basher since the hero has so much attack speed and Basher allows you to man up and fight face to face the enemy carry. Atos in the other hand, has much more range and doesnt depend on RNG to work

Alright I think I know the current best 6 slot item build for Bloodseeker

Early game Stout, QB, 2 WB, phase, build into Atos.

6 Slot after you have phase boots WB and Atos is first into MKB to capitalise on the damage it gives you which he currently now lacks, for 4k its a damage item (+52) plus importantly about 3/4 attacks you deal an extra 100 magic damage which adds a good amount of extra damage.

Then after that you finish it off with an abyssal, BKB and butterfly. Abyssal provides tankiness and further chances to stun plus land a bit of extra damage, I find BKB is almost always needed for Bloodseeker, but maybe if you aren't being cced so much you could substitute Skadi instead for better tankiness/and the added slow. Butterfly is necessary to provide the attack speed to get him going until thirst kicks in, plus it provides some defence against auto attacks and also adds a bit of extra damage as well.

Basically you just build him like Alchemist except instead of 25 seconds of guaranteed 500 attack speed (plus 100hp regen to boot) you get it for only a few seconds and only when the enemy is already half dead. Pretty cool design icefraud.