Dota is Fun: Axe's Guide

Build : Not-Jungle Starting

DotA2 Hero: Axe

OFFENSE
Damage	49-53
DEFENSE
Armor	1.8
OTHER
Movement Speed	290

ATTRIBUTES
Strength	87.5
Agility	75
Intelligence	58
BASIC STATS
Health	2145
Mana	988

Purchase Order

STARTING

EARLY GAME (BOTTLE IF MID)

BOOTS (PICK 1)

MID GAME

SITUATIONAL

Hero Skills

BERSERKER'S CALL

		2										12	13	14

BATTLE HUNGER

				4				8	9	10

COUNTER HELIX

	1		3		5		7

CULLING BLADE

STATS

															15		17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25

Introduction

Upon seeing a lot of the  guides posted, I realized that all of them focus a lot in his ability to jungle at level 1. In regular matches and in competitive matches, this Hero is also used a lot in the jungle.

Although I agree  can jungle from level 1, I don't think this is his best position. What is the team getting from an  jungle? Is it just to have a jungler? There are others that jungle much faster. Is it to farm a  and be an initiator? There are other junglers that can do so better, like . Even  can get a  and become an initiator, while also offering much more than  in the lategame. Is it to have early game pressure? Again, there are other junglers better suited for that role.

In my opinion,  jungle can often be replaced by another jungler much more effective at both jungling and whatever your team strategy is.

I think  can be played situationally in other positions, having a greater impact in the match. I'll try to be as brief as possible, since there isn't much point in dragging a very straight forward idea (also, the skills and items have been well revised in many other guides).

Bread and Butter

is a strenght, melee Hero. He has a lot of utility spells and is often played as thetank/initiator of teams. This hero benefits a lot from snowballing, as he will tend to fall off as the match progresses and aproaches the late game.

He can Jungle at level 1 and can later farm reasonably fast, with jungle stacks.

Pros and Cons

- Can Jungle at level 1
- Good tank (natural high HP and 40 armor bonus from
- Good Initiator, if he has a good initiation item such as
- Poor inteligence stats (you may encounter some mana issues during a match)
- You get the most out of this Hero if you snowball
- Not very good in lategame scenario
- Weak attack speed
- Reasonable utility for teammates.

Laning

is generally good against teams with a lot of squishy heroes, highly dependent in their abilities.  will stop them from casting anything, and you can easily kill low HP heroes with .
Mid
Some people don't realize this, but  is extremely powerful in the middle lane against other melee heroes. Against ranged heroes, doesn't make much sense to pick an , but if you want to shutdown an enemy melee Hero, consider getting .

With  and  the enemy Hero will have to be extremely careful when aproaching the creep wave for a last hit. If you catch him with  in the middle of the creep wave, you'll get at least 2 spins off, no matter how unlucky you are. You will aggro the creep wave, so you will be taking attacks from the enemy hero and 4 creeps. With 40 armor bonus and a  you won't feel the physical damage incoming your way.

At level 1, with only  you can aggro the creep wave by attacking your target, proccing the spins.

If the enemy hero is half HP, he just can't aproach the creep wave at all. The risk of feeding a kill is too high if he gets caught in your disable. Don't push the lane if your opponent is not approaching it; control the wave on your side of the river. If the other player tries to last hit, you'll end up pushing the creep wave when you try to kill him, since your Helix will damage all of the creeps. But even so, he will be forced to last hit under the tower, which is not ideal.

not only helps you harass your opponent, but also gives you more chasing power with the movement speed bonus. I usually level this ability when I get level 4 if I'm mid (level 3 if I'm not), as the lane is not long enough for you to really benefit from the movement speed.

Aggressive Trilane
The second place where I think  thrives is in trilane vs trilane scenarios, specially when the enemies' carry is melee.

A lot like in the middle lane, if the enemy carry tries to last hit, you can simply him. This time, you will also have the enemy supports attacking you, so the chance to  is very high. With base 625 hp and 40 armor bonus, it is extremely difficult for your opponent's to kill you before they die.

could be the core in your trilane, but he can also be (and this is what I prefer) the 4-role support, with another core in the trilane such as a , for example.

You can level up  at level 1, just to give your trilane another disable, while also making you extremely tanky. However, you can also level up  and creep skip. For those of you who don't know what "creep skip" is: its when you stand between the enemies' tier 1 and tier 2 towers, and kill the creep wave.  is really good at doing this and you will force your opponents to tank your own creep wave under the tower, giving you the chance to dive them under it, if you wish.

Against ranged carries,  is not the best option if you want to go aggro tri, since the enemy carry can just try to last hit, while keeping a safe distance from you. However, against melee carries, you will deny them a lot of farm, while, ideally, your carry is getting good farm in the safelane.

Good against carries such as  (disable goes through rage and damage is physical),  or specter in the lane.

Abilities

I'll briefly go over the usages of the abilities and how you should prioritize them in your build. If you want more descriptive explanation about them, just read what they do.

Your AOE disable that lets be an initiator. Put one early point in this ability, then maximize . Gives you massive 40 armor bonus when you cast it, which is insane during the early game. 40 armor bonus means you can shrug off any physical attack damage coming your way, for the duration of the spell.

The disable goes through BKB and general magic immunity.

Some people really like this ability for the harass. I really like this ability for the speed bonus. The harass is also nice.

10% movement speed bonus may not sound much, but when you have 4 points in this ability and only a 5 second cooldown, you will easily have 20 or 30% movement speed during a team fight.

I usually max this after I have max .

This ability is heavily dependent on luck. That is why you must be very careful with your initiations, if you want to dish out as much damage as you can. You want to tank as many auto attacks as possible. This way, no matter how unlucky you are, you'll get some spins off of . Also good for clearing creep waves.

A good finishing move, that buffs the movement and attack speed of you and your allies around you. If you successfully kill someone with this ability, the cooldown with be 0. This means you can potential get several "dunks" in a row, although it will cost you a lot of mana.

Don't be afraid to cast and "steal" the kill. There is no kill stealing in Dota 2. If you finish off some hero, you are saving your team time and you are also buffing them for the rest of the fight.

dispells several buffs before hitting. This means, you can kill targets with on them or you can potentially kill with his Ultimate on.

Conclusion

I hope I have made a good case on how you can use outside of his jungling capacity. Honestly, I would rather have another jungler if given the option. You may disagree with me on that point, but hopefully you'll agree with me in the hero's situational potential to lane elsewhere.

The item and skill build aren't set in stone. You can make small changes here and there. The builds are also very standard. Again, there is space for inovation, but generally the best items for this Hero are already well tested.

If you like the guide and feel like upvoting it, thanks. If you don't like it and feel like downvoting it, fair enough. If you like the guide, but don't like me and feel like downvoting, also fair.

Dota is Fun

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Axe's Guide