Brewmaster's Guide

Build : The Ultimate Kegger

DotA2 Hero: Brewmaster

OFFENSE
Damage	52-59
DEFENSE
Armor	3.24
OTHER
Movement Speed	300

ATTRIBUTES
Strength	95.5
Agility	70.75
Intelligence	45.25
BASIC STATS
Health	2278
Mana	832

Purchase Order

FIRST ROUND

FAST BOTTLE (IF MID)

   

HEARTY BREW (CORE)

  

DARK AND FULLBODIED (EXTENSIONS)

       

HOPS

 

Hero Skills

THUNDER CLAP

	1		3		5		7

DRUNKEN HAZE

		2										12	13	14

DRUNKEN BRAWLER

				4				8	9	10

PRIMAL SPLIT

6

11

16

STATS

															15		17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25

Introduction

Oh, right! Brewmaster! This guy's awesome, you'll love playing him. His voice acting is great, his lines are funny, AND he has a decently high skill cap thanks to his ultimate, so you won't get tired of playing him! He's also a very flexible hero, able to be a tank, an initiator, a ganker, a semi-carry... even a hard carry depending on how you build him. So yeah, definitely give him a try.

And do remember, this guide is just suggestions based on my own experiences and understanding of the game, and shouldn't be followed to the letter (especially because, if you just look at the pictures, you'll end up buying two pairs of boots. Don't do that. Please? Ok, cool.) Being able to adapt to your specific game is what separates the pros from us rank amateurs. Feedback is appreciated, as long as it's constructive!

Pros / Cons

Pros Tanky with above average strength gain and built in evasion. Good base damage for an easier time last hitting. Versatile; can be built to match the situation. Flashy, showy ultimate with myriad uses.  Drunken Haze shuts down right-clickers hard.  Thunder Clap is an amazing slow, and stacks with  Drunken Haze. Scales decently well with items. Possibly the most interesting  Aghanim's Scepter upgrade in game. Fun to listen to, and fun to play!

Cons Mana-starved in the early to mid game.  Primal Split requires good micro to be used to its fullest. Can become a sitting duck if silenced before getting his ult off.  Thunder Clap casting rage is small. Requires a  Blink Dagger to initiate.  Monkey King Bar counters him. Hard.

Skills

Thunder Clap

Slams the ground, dealing damage and slowing the movement speed and attack rate of nearby enemy land units.
Radius: 

400


Attack Speed Slow:
25 / 35 / 45 / 55


Movement Speed Slow:
25 / 35 / 45 / 55%


Damage:
100 / 175 / 250 / 300


Duration:
4.25 seconds on Heroes (8 on creeps)
A slam of Mangix' mighty keg starts the festivities.

Mana Cost:
90 / 105 / 130 / 150 Cooldown Time: 12



Notes:

This is your bread and butter nuke, dealing good damage (even at level one!) as well as laying down that almighty slow. Just how almighty? Well, at level 1, the slow from this skill is already better than  Sange's maim, and better than  Viper's level 2  Poison Attack. At level 2, this skill already slows opponents more than anything  Lich can throw out. At level 4, it's almost equivalent to a  Rod of Atos, except that it can hit an entire team, and it ALSO slows attack speed to a level equivalent to stealing someone's Hyperstone, which is oft overlooked.

By who?

Me...

That's what I thought.

The catch, of course, is that the range is small, and centered around Brewmaster, which is why movement speed and positioning items are core on Mangix. It's also not terribly cheap, mana-wise, and you'll find yourself running low if you spam this too often early on. Another, lesser known catch that cropped up circa the 6.79 patch is that the slow is now purge-able, so  Diffusal Blade carriers can get out of it pretty easily. If they survive you being up in their face, that is.

Early game, you can use this skill to harass: try and use it when your opponent approaches the creep wave to last hit, and ideally grab one or two last hits yourself. Get in a few auto-attacks while they're slowed, then back off, unless you think you can get the kill. And even then, you may still want to back off, because a lot of first bloods come from people attempting to secure kills that they're sure they have, and then getting pummeled by a tower. I've seen things, man.  Bloodseeker in the jungle on bottom lane.  Spirit Breaker charging past a tier 2 mid. All of it, gone, like first blood in rain.

That's kinda morbid.

Ain't it? Anyways, during the mid to late game, the relatively low cooldown on this skill coupled with your hopefully bolstered mana supply will make both farming and pushing a breeze. Press Q to kill creeps, it's that simple.

Drunken Haze

Drenches an enemy unit in alcohol, causing all units in a 200 AoE of the initial target movement speeds to be reduced, and causing their attacks to have a chance to miss.

Range: 

850


Radius:
10


Duration:
8 seconds on Heroes (12 on creeps)Movement Speed Slow:
14% / 18% / 22% / 26%


Miss Chance:
45% / 55% / 65% / 75%



The Order of the Oyo's solution to all problems - another round!

Mana Cost:
 50 Cooldown Time: 8



Notes:

So, you know how I was saying how one of Thunder Clap's biggest drawbacks is the small radius? It sure would be nice if Brewmaster had a skill that helped him get in range to use that spell, wouldn't it? Yeah. Yeah, it probably would.

This is where you yell 'oh wait', ri...

OH WAIT.

Predictable.

Shush. Anyways, this skill, man. It's good. Real good. A 14% slow might not seem like a lot, especially compared to the almighty thunderclap, but it's a 14% slow that lasts a whopping 8 seconds. EIGHT! When ganking and chasing most heroes, that's more than enough time to catch up and kill them, and if it isn't? Well, the cooldown is also 8 seconds, so you can spam this on an enemy indefinitely provided you have adequate regen.

The miss chance ain't nothing to sneeze at, either. See how it's 45% at level 1? That's already more evasion than a  Butterfly. I know, I know, it's not a fair comparison because one is a miss chance and one is evasion and butterfly gives a lot more stats and is always active and doesn't have a mana cost, yadda yadda, it's for emphasis, damn it!

The slow and miss chance is adequate for most purposes, even at level 1, which is why we take an early point in this and then skill it last. When would you prioritize this over drunken brawler? Well, if you're playing a very heavy gank game, or the enemy team has hard to catch heroes like  Death Prophet, Razor, and  Spirit Breaker (dem passive move speed buffs, man), it might be worth it for the extra slow, even if the scaling isn't the best. More likely, you're going to want to level this early if an enemy right clicker is starting to get out of control:  Lifestealer isn't that scary all of a sudden when he's missing over half of his attacks.

There's also been a pretty nice buff to this skill in the 6.79 patch, which gives it a small AOE of 200. This adds to its punch as an initiation ability, as you can potentially blink in, Thunder Clap, and then Drunken Haze a good portion of the enemy team all at once! Please note, though, that if your fingers aren't sufficiently fast, you'll probably get stun-locked right after you use Clap. Just... speaking from experience, over here.

Drunken Brawler

Gives a chance to avoid attacks and to deal double damage as critical.

Dodge Chance: 

10 / 15 / 20 / 25%


Critical Chance:
10 / 15 / 20 / 25%



When Mangix won his title as the Brewmaster of the Order of Oyo, he also claimed his place in the mastery of inebriation.

Notes:

Let me get one thing out of the way, since I know this is the question that's probably on your mind. Even though Dotafire's database says that this skill doesn't stack with evasion... it does. As of 6.79, ALL evasion stacks diminishingly, meaning that one source is checked, and if that source doesn't proc another source is checked independently of the first chance. Basically, 25% + 25% doesn't equal 50%, it equals 43.75% because it's (25% + (.25*75)%).

Does that mean you should get evasion on Brewmaster now? That's a question for a different section. Right now, we're focusing on skills, and boy is this a good one. A few levels with this let you hit like a truck and avoid damage like you're  Faceless Void. 25% evasion is a huge survivability asset, especially considering that it stacks with the blind chance from Drunken Haze (again, diminishingly). This skill can get so annoying to play against that enemy carries will have no choice but to buy a  Monkey King Bar.

At which point, this skill is reduced to a sub-par critical strike ability. So, y'know. Make sure your opponents don't get too much farm, and you're fine!

UPDATE: As of the 6.81 patch, this skill just got a whole lot more interesting! The following mechanic was added:
- If you have not attacked for 10 seconds, your next attack will always activate a Drunken Brawler critical hit
- If you have not been attacked for 10 seconds, Drunken Brawler will cause you to evade the next attack

Guaranteed crits? Virtual immunity to being brutally murdered by Nyx Assassin's  Vendetta Now this is what I'm talking about. Thanks for the love, Icefrog!

Primal Split

Splits the Brewmaster into elements, forming three specialized warriors, adept at survival. If any of them survive until the end of their summoned timer, the Brewmaster is reborn.

Duration:
15 / 17 / 19



SCEPTER UPGRADE:
 Aghanim's Primal Split grants Thunderclap to Earth, Drunken Haze to Storm, and Drunken Brawler to Fire.The skills granted are at the same level as Brewmaster's skills. Cooldowns are independent of the original Brewmaster.
It isn't clear whether Mangix is consciously aware of his potent bond with nature, as it often occurs in the midst of a drunken stupor.

- Dodges projectiles while transforming
- All auras that Brewmaster possesses are active on Earth, if he's dead, Storm, and if he's dead, Fire.
- When the duration ends, Brewmaster will take the place in order depending on who is alive, Earth, then Storm then Fire.
- All spirits possess abilities.

Mana Cost:
125 / 150 / 175 Cooldown Time: 140 / 120 / 100



Notes:

THIS SKILL. This skill has gotten some major buffs over the last two patches, the main ones being the new Aghanim's upgrade and the insane cooldown cuts: 140 used to be the level THREE cooldown on this skill, now it's level 1.

How you use this skill is by and large how people will judge whether you're a good Brewmaster or not. You can use it to dodge projectile stuns, survive ganks... oh, and it also gives Brewmaster a stun, a purge, a cyclone, a  Shadow Blade, and a  Radiance.

You're over-exaggerating.

Only a little! Yeah, the bonus damage from invisibility isn't as high and the burn damage isn't quite as powerful, but still! It's good. Using this skill to its full potential requires you to know the ins and outs of each individual spirit, something that is no small task, believe me. I'll try and wrap my tiny mind around it and give you the best info I can, so bear with me, ladies and gents.

That was a pun, wasn't it?

Not admitting to anything. Before we dive into each individual spirit, though, there's a few things to keep in mind when using this ability. The first one being that your spirits have fixed strengths. They get marginally stronger with each level of your ult, but don't get any sort of bonuses from the stats of your items. They DO however, benefit from auras, which is why pretty much every aura item is a viable choice on Brewmaster.

Another thing to keep in mind is that each spirit has a bounty of EXP and gold that's separate from Brewmaster himself, meaning that a poorly used ult can end up giving the enemy team a lot more than if you'd simply allowed yourself to die. Sacrificing one or even two of the spirits for Mangix' life is, of course, the best course of action in pretty much every situation, but you NEED to make sure at least one survives. Take into account the composition of the enemy team, possible escape routes, and your own comfort with playing the hero before deciding to press that R button is all I'm saying. Oh, and do it all within the few seconds you have before you're completely burst down and destroyed.

Care to give us an example?

Um... what? Dude, I told you I was bad at this game. First section. Don't go asking me for high-level advice like that, you knew what you were getting into when you started this guide.

... Can we just move on to the spirits now?

I thought you'd never ask.

Earth, Wind, and Fire

Earth Spirit

(Cousin of Riggy McRigrigged)

Hit Points: 

1500 / 2250 / 3000


Mana:
400 / 500 / 600


Damage:
37-43 / 75-84 / 159-171 (Piercing damage)


Armor:
5 (Heavy Armor)


Movement Speed:
325


Sight Range:
1800/800 (Day/Night)


Base Attack Time:
1.35


Bounty:
11-15/11-15/31-35


Experience:
196/242/242

Skills

Hurl Boulder [Q]

Throws a boulder at a unit, doing damage and stunning it.

Range:
800


Duration:
2


Damage:
100 (Magical)



Mana Cost:
100 Cooldown: 7

Spell Immunity

Immune to spells.

Pulverize

Provides a chance to do damage in a small radius.

Radius:
150 / 250


Damage:
20 / 40 (Universal)


Chance:
20%



Notes:

The Earth Spirit is the tankiest of the three, by a large margin. At max level, it has more than 1000 HP more than its two siblings, a good deal more armor, and on top of all that, it's magic immune! It even has a stun that has a really nice range to it: longer than  Sven's  Storm Hammer, for one. What's not to love?

He's slow. He's slow, and he's the default aura carrier, meaning that if your other spirits outpace him (which is a very real possibility), they no longer get the benefits of all the nice aura items you built. He's slow, and he's the one Brewmaster automatically jumps back into when the duration of the ult is over, meaning that if you're in full retreat, the enemy is going to be right on top of you when you come back.

But if he's so slow, the enemy will just kill him first, right?

Well... I mean, I'm not gonna lie. Probably. But that's actually bad play on their part, as by himself the Earth Spirit isn't a terrible threat. His damage is piercing, so it only does half to heroes, his stun does a measly 100 damage that can't be increased and gets reduced by magic resistance, and as for pulverize... I mean, just look at pulverize. Sure, it's a nice skill to get tacked on for free, but is that extra 40 damage a threat? It may be universal, but... no. Not really.

Keep that in mind when playing AGAINST Brew: if you've got the enemy team on the ropes, and he pops his ult to escape, just follow the Earth Spirit, and only kill him if you can guarantee kills on the other two. When that low-health Brewmaster pops back into him and your entire team is surrounding him, you can almost HEAR the player on the other side let out a surprised little squeak.

Aghanim's Upgrade: Thunder Clap [D]

Getting the all powerful ult stick adds one more thing to Earth's bag of tricks:  Thunder Clap. This means that, as an ideal initation, you can blink in, Thunder Clap, use Primal Split, and immediately Thunder Clap again, as Brewmaster and Earth Spirit don't share cooldowns (Earth Spirit is automatically selected when you hit your ult, so there's no need to hit Tab). Just remember that this skill gets mapped to D during your ult, so it's QRD not QRQ. I've mucked that up enough times, believe me. Anyways, onto the next guy!

Storm Spirit

(Cousin of Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah)

Duration:
15/17/19


Hit Points:
1000 / 1500 / 1900


Mana:
500 / 750 / 750


Damage:
37-43 / 75-84 / 159-171 (Piercing damage)


Armor:
2 (Heavy Armor)


Movement Speed:
350


Sight Range:
1800/800 (Day/Night)


Missile Speed:
1200


Base Attack Time:
1.5


Bounty:
11-15/11-15/31-35


Experience:
196/242/242

Skills

Dispel Magic [Q]

Damages summoned units in a small radius and purges most buffs or debuffs.

Range:

 500


Area:
200


Damage to summons:
200



Mana Cost:
75 Cooldown: 8

Cyclone [W]

Encloses a unit in a tornado, removing it from the battlefield.

Range: 

600


Duration:
6 on heroes, 20 on creeps
Mana Cost:
150 Cooldown: 8

Wind Walk [E]

Provides temporary invisibility. Gives bonus movement speed and attack damage when invisible.

Duration:
20


Bonus damage:
100


Bonus movement speed:
50%



Mana Cost:
75 Cooldown: 7



Notes:

The Storm Spirit is cursed to be the middle child of the three. He's the second one selected when tabbing through, the second one to carry the auras and re-spawn Brewmaster if Earth dies, is the second fastest, the second most armored and just, in general, looks kinda pathetic when compared to the other two. His base attack time is also noticeably worse than the other two spirits, though he makes up for that a little with his range.

But where he shines, and what makes him by far the most difficult spirit to use, is his spells. All three of them are active abilities, and all of them are good. Cyclone is the one most people learn about first: free Eul's, right? Well, keep in mind you can't Cyclone yourself, so double-tapping does nothing. Also, unlike Eul's, this cyclone doesn't dispel anything.

Luckily, you have Dispel Magic which, you guessed it, DISPELS things. Did a crucial teammate just get stunned? Dispel Magic. Did the enemy carry just get hit with  Bloodlust? Dispel Magic. Did  Warlock just summon four golems at once? Dispel Magic and... you know, it does some damage anyway. An important thing to note is that since  Thunder Clap can now be purged, Dispel Magic will remove it, so... don't do that. Being able to use this skill effectively is what separates a good Brewmaster from an average one, so keep it in mind.

Storm's last skill, Wind Walk, is basically a  Shadow Blade with less bonus damage and a boatload more bonus speed. No unit-walking, though. As you can imagine, you typically want to use this skill the same way you would a shadow blade: to make an escape, to catch up to a fleeing enemy, or to dodge an incoming stun, as the Storm Spirit isn't immune to magic. All in all, he's the caster of the group, and mastering him is to tackle a large step on the way to ultimate Brewmastery.

Aghanim's Upgrade: Drunken Haze [D]

The almighty ult stick gives the Storm Spirit one more button to press, but it's worth it. Why? For all the reasons I listed in the previous section, that's why, Drunken Haze is an all around baller skill. Just remember: Dispel Magic THEN Haze, not the other way around. Oh, and don't Haze the guy that you're going to Cyclone anyway. And remember that it's D instead of W, or you'll end up Cycloning the guy you meant to haze! And...

Yeah. Practice is probably the best advice I can give here. Not messing up the order of your skills while trying to not die AND trying to use the skills of two other spirits is way too complicated. Lucky for us amateurs, though, we don't technically have to worry about that. Bring out the last spirit!

Fire Spirit

(Should really be named Ember Spirit. Get on that Valve.)

Duration:
15/17/19


Hit Points:
1200 / 1200 / 1200


Damage:
72-82 / 115-130 / 144-164 (Hero damage)


Armor:
0


Movement Speed:
522


Sight Range:
1800/800 (Day/Night)


Base Attack Time:
1.35


Bounty:
11-15/11-15/31-35


Experience:
196/242/242

Skills

Permanent Immolation

Burns nearby enemy units.

Damage per second:
15/30/45 (Magical) Area: 220


Notes:

And Lo, Icefrog, in his infinite wisdom, decreed that having 6 active skills split between two units was sufficient, and was difficult enough for the minds of mortals to comprehend. Therefore, he bequeathed upon us the Fire Spirit, a unit who was useful simply by staying alive and right clicking enemies.

The catch of course, being that he has no armor and the lowest health of all three spirits. Though his damage is noticeably lower than those of his siblings, it's calculated as HERO damage, which does 100% damage regardless of armor, magic resistance, and denial. This actually makes his DPS the highest of all three spirits, especially with his passive, and a prime target for the enemy to take out. Good thing he runs at max move speed, eh? Provided someone tells him to move...

Aghanim's Upgrade: Drunken Brawler

The synergy here is actually somewhat amazing: the DPS spirit with no active abilites gets another passive that increases his DPS. Not only that, but evasion. Evasion! For a squishy guy like Fire Spirit, evasion is a godsend.

And there you have it! A hopefully complete look at each and every spirit that comes out of  Primal Split. Hope you learned something! I know I did.