Originally Posted by
Lysah
Viper is a lot better with the buff to nethertoxin, his main problem is just not having much damage. Against someone above half health or so, he practically has zero damage modifiers, which makes him as viable of a carry as Dazzle. Of course, his damage goes up pretty fast as they start getting low and his overall utility is great, but, carries are defined and ranked by the modifiers they get to their damage, generally. Drow gets 60 agility and trueshot aura. Luna gets to hit 6 things at once and has a flat damage aura. PL has 12491285 copies that all do damage. AM gets 64 pure damage as long as they have mana, which is really 120ish with his ult, and it applies directly to images. Viper gets some slows and a passive that won't do anything when fighting a full health Drow.
It doesn't make him a bad hero, he simply won't measure up to other carries end game. Viper has a great lane phase and peaks early, he hardly needs items to start wrecking face. Rushing phase>scepter is good enough to win most games if his team is at all competent. Typically, you shouldn't rely on him as your only carry, however; if the game lasts longer than 45 minutes their hard carry will win.