Wildsoul

[Tryptophan]

I'm Back to Guide Writing after 1 year! Enjoy!

Wildsoul

http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/6364/wildsoul.jpg


Is the mighty Wildsoul a Beast who dreamed himself a Man, or a Man who dreamed himself a Beast? As much a bear as a human, this druidic warrior draws upon primordial woodland energies to strengthen himself and crush those who threaten the natural life of Newerth.
Table of Contents


Intro to Wildsoul
Basic Info

Strengths and Weaknesses
Base Stats
Abilities

Beardulon Stats


Skill Allocation
Item Build

Starting Items
Core Items
Luxury Items
Alternative Items


Step by Step Strategy

The Basics
Laning/Pulling
Jungling
Pushing
Teamfights
Counterpicks



Replays
Things to Do
Changelog

Credits




Intro to Wildsoul


Hello. This guide is your handbook to stomping with Wildsoul: stomping meaning strictly to mid level public games. I have found Wildsoul to be one of the most versatile heroes in the game in the sense that he can fill multiple roles: ganker, pusher, tank, and carry. Wildsoul's role depends on his team's composition and what role is needed. The most common role for Wildsoul is to be the support DPS/semi-carry. However, Wildsoul does not have any game-breaking skills (ie. Chronosphere, Shockwave, Elemental Void, etc) and does not have any skills that scale (ie. An innate critical ability or any skill that amplifies damage by a ridiculous % such as Dark Blades). However, what we have to work with is 1) a bear with an ensnare attack modifier, 2) a skill with no cast time that grants 40 AS/ 20% MS, 3) a metamorphosis ability that grants 1000hp and 8 armor at the cost of losing 30 movespeed, 4) a subskill that adds 60 damage and 8 armor.

That being said, is Wildsoul the hero for you? I recommend playing Wildsoul if you have decent micromanagement ability, have the knowledge of animation canceling, capable of creep pulling and stacking, and have quite some patience.

Basic Info


Strengths and Weaknesses


Pros:
-Insane movement speed
-Insane attack speed
-Can gain 1000 max HP in 0.8 seconds
-Very versatile
-Farming comes at ease
-Good attack animation
-Ranged

Cons:
-Other heroes perform his role better
-Does not scale
-Item dependent
-Decent stat gain at average
-Low base HP
-Low damage
Base Stats:



Base Attack Damage: 46-50
Base Attack Time (BAT): 1.7 sec / 1.6 sec (Bear Form)
Range: 550 / 100 (Bear Form)
Base Movement Speed: 315 / 285 (Bear Form)
Base Strength: 17 (+2.1 per level)
Base Agility: 24 (+2.7 per level)
Base Intelligence: 13 (+1.4 per level)
Base Armor: 3.36 (17% reduction)
Base Magic Armor: 5.5 (24.8% reduction)

Base Health: 473
Base Mana: 169




Abilities:



Summon Beardulon

http://honwiki.net/w/images/thumb/0/0e/Wildsoulskill1.gif/96px-Wildsoulskill1.gif

Wildsoul summons his pet bear, Beardulon.

Level 1: Summons Level 1 Beardulon
Level 2: Summons Level 2 Beardulon
Level 3: Summons Level 3 Beardulon
Level 4: Summons Level 4 Beardulon

Cast Time: 1.0 seconds
Mana Cost: 75 seconds
Cooldown: 180/160/140/120 seconds

My Notes:
This is a 2700 Health, 6 armor unit that can land a 3 second immobilize that deals 135 damage over that 3 second period. This is what makes Wildsoul annoying as f*ck and a major part of why he's so versatile. Having a tanky unit like Beardulon allows Wildsoul to play many roles such as the jungling carry, the pusher with his Demolish, the ganker with Entangle, and a pesudo-initiator by sending this buff ass bear in. Beardulon can also be the X-Factor in a teamfight due to the fact that he can absorb Plague Rider/Moon Queen bounces. However, this can also turn out worse for your team. That extra bounce on a Plague Rider ultimate/Voodoo Jester cocktail can chain to the next closest target if you're not positioned properly. However, running at 450+ MS, separating Beardulon should be no problem.





Wild

http://honwiki.net/w/images/thumb/2/2d/Wildsoulskill2.gif/96px-Wildsoulskill2.gif

Wildsoul drives both himself and Beardulon wild, increasing attack speed and movement speed.

Action: Global
Target: All Units

Level 1: +10 Attack Speed, +5% Movement Speed
Level 2: +20 Attack Speed, +10% Movement Speed
Level 3: +30 Attack Speed, +15% Movement Speed
Level 4: +40 Attack Speed, +20% Movement Speed

Mana Cost: 50
Cooldown: 30 seconds
Duration: 10 seconds
Improved by Natural Attunement
Applies to ALL owned units (Puzzlebox, Whispering Helm, etc)

My Notes:
Wild is bread and butter skill. This is his only advantage when the game is gearing towards the late game phase. You get 40 bonus attack speed which is why we focus on items that have special procedure (spec_proc or proc) abilities such as Charged Hammer, Riftshards, and Savage Mace. 20% movement speed is what makes Wildsoul an incredible chaser, ganker, and escape artist. With Wild activated, you can juke with ease while continuing to chase or escape. With Wildsoul's superior farming ability, we take advantage of this speed bonus by boosting his damage via proc items and boost his speed further with the use of a Frostburn (which will also slow enemies down)


Natural Attunement

http://honwiki.net/w/images/thumb/4/43/Wildsoulskill3.gif/96px-Wildsoulskill3.gif

Wildsoul attunes himself further to the needs of nature, adding to the power of his other abilities

Action: Passive

Level 1:
-Beardulon: +10 damage, +10 movement speed
-Wild: +10 second duration
-Bear Form: +100 max Health
Level 2:
-Beardulon: +20 damage, +20 movement speed
-Wild: +20 seconds duration
-Bear Form: +200 max Health
Level 3:
-Beardulon: +30 damage, +30 movement speed
-Wild: +30 seconds duration
-Bear Form: +300 max Health
Level 4:
-Beardulon: +40 damage, +40 movement speed
-Wild: +40 seconds duration
-Bear Form: +400 max Health

My Notes:
Another great skill in Wildsoul's set. Without this, you are nothing. Your bear will be slow as **** and deal no damage. Your Wild will last for 10 seconds. Your Bear Form only grants 600 max Health. This skill is without a doubt the #1 priority early into the game because it sets up the game for Wildsoul by giving him enhanced farming, pushing, and ganking abilities.




Bear Form

http://honwiki.net/w/images/thumb/d/df/Wildsoulskill4.gif/96px-Wildsoulskill4.gif

Wildsoul takes the form of a bear, causing him to switch to melee based attacks, have a faster attack time, and gain more armor and health.

Action: Toggle

Level 1: +250 Max Health, +4 Armor, Melee attacks, BAT reduced to 1.6 from 1.7, base movement speed reduced to 285 from 315
Level 2: +400 Max Health, +6 Armor, Melee attacks, BAT reduced to 1.6 from 1.7, base movement speed reduced to 285 from 315
Level 3: +600 Max Health, +8 Armor, Melee attacks, BAT reduced to 1.6 from 1.7, base movement speed reduced to 285 from 315

Cast Time: 1.0 seconds
Mana Cost: 25 mana
Cooldown: N/A

My Notes:
Nut up or shut up. Sometimes you just gotta sack up, give up your ranged form, and take one for the team. However, the current metagame is still shifted towards ranged hero domination. With 1000 extra Health, 60 damage, and 14 bonus Armor through Battle Cry and the shapeshift, you will fare decently and will contribute greatly to your team in battles. When you switch to Bear Form, you retain the same percentage of HP as you had before. So if you need to tank something, switch to Bear Form. Keep in mind that it has a 1.0 second cast time and does not disjoint spells like it did in DotA. If you're healing, switch out of Bear Form and switch Steamboots to Agility. This way you heal a higher % of your health when your max Health is lower and you'll have a higher % of your health than if you kept Steamboots on Strength in Bear Form. Obviously this doesn't count in the fountain because the fountain restores your health/mana in by a percentage every second. Using Bear Form to reduce incoming damage is all dependent on the situation.





Battle Cry

http://honwiki.net/w/images/thumb/f/fa/Wildsoulskill5.gif/96px-Wildsoulskill5.gif

Wildsoul lets out a might battle cry, adding armor and damage to himself and nearby units he controls.

Action: Self
Target: Owned Units

Level 1: +20 damage, +2 armor
Level 2: +40 damage, +4 armor
Level 3: +60 damage, +6 armor

Mana Cost: 50
Cooldown: 30 seconds
Duration: 8 seconds
Area of Effect: 900

My Notes:
This will apply to all units that you own in the said radius. Short for, get a god damn Puzzlebox if you want to abuse this skill to the maximum. Puzzlebox minions running around with a bonus 60 damage AND Wild on is no laughing matters. Towers fall down in 3 seconds.








Beardulon Stats:




Base Attack Damage: 28-38 (68-78 with Level 4 Natural Attunement)

Range: 128 (Melee)
Base Movement Speed: 320/320/330/340 (380)

Base Armor: 3/4/5/6
Base Magic Armor: 0 (8.2)

Base Health: 1400/1800/2300/2700




Return

http://honwiki.net/w/images/d/d9/Boobooskill1.gif

Teleports Beardulon to Wildsoul's location.

Cooldown: 5 seconds
Learned at Level 1


Tangle Claw

http://honwiki.net/w/images/d/d4/Boobooskill2.gif

While attacking, Beardulon has a chance to root the target in place, preventing moving and attack

Action: Passive

20% chance to apply Bear Claw (immobilized, revealed) to target for 3 seconds

Cooldown: 5 seconds
Attack Modifier
Does not actually prevent attacking
Learned at Level 2


Demolish

http://honwiki.net/w/images/4/43/Boobooskill3.gif

Beardulon's massive claws have a demolishing effect on structures.

Action: Passive

Deals 60% extra damage to buildings

Learned at Level 3


Magic Resist

http://img713.imageshack.us/img713/4959/bear4.jpg

Beardulon is inherently resistant to Magic, adding extra Magic Armor

Action: Passive

Adds 8.2 Magic Armor

Learned at Level 4



Skill Allocation


There are several ways to build Wildsoul. However, they all lead up to the same result and have very little difference. Level Wild as top priority over Natural Attunement and Summon Beardulon is retarded. By leveling Wild as the top priority skill, you are giving you and your bear high attack speed to boost absolutely no damage. The only thing Wild is useful for that early on is for escaping. Why waste 4 precious skill points when the problem can be solved through Marchers or your team buying Wards?



The Cookie Cutter Build






Summon Beardulon
Natural Attunement
Summon Beardulon
Natural Attunement
Natural Attunement
Summon Beardulon
Natural Attunement
Summon Beardulon
Wild
Wild
Wild
Wild
Bear Form
Bear Form
Stats
Bear Form
Stats
Stats
Stats
Stats
Stats
Stats
Stats
Stats
Stats




The reason we get prioritize Natural Attunement over Summon Beardulon is because it gives us damage. However, you could also argue that health, armor, and attack speed is more valuable than damage.

Here's a little info. The bear's base attack animation is and will always be 1 second. Correct me if I'm wrong here. At level 1, the attack damage point is at .4 seconds while the backswing is .6 seconds. At level 4, the attack damage point is at 0.31 seconds while the backswing is .69 seconds. So, leveling the bear is a double edged sword here because you have a longer backswing to cancel. And since Natural Attunement + Summon Beardulon give the same movement speed bonus after level 2 of the bear, the damage is more important because the attack speed difference is miniscule. Also it will further help in jungling.




Variation 1






Summon Beardulon
Natural Attunement
Summon Beardulon
Natural Attunement
Natural Attunement
Wild
Natural Attunement
Wild
Wild
Wild
Summon Beardulon
Summon Beardulon
Bear Form
Bear Form
Stats
Bear Form
Stats
Stats
Stats
Stats
Stats
Stats
Stats
Stats
Stats




This build solely dedicates you to early game ricing and erases the idea of pushing since you do not have Demolish until level 11. Wild will increase your attack speed and the bear's movement speed more than leveling Summon Beardulon will. Using this build, your farming will be much quicker. However, I haven't tested this very much and I'd say that it's a decent build except you're missing 2 armor and 900 health on your bear. This is easily fixed by double stacking and creep pulling while you send your bear back to the fountain for heals and picking up items.

Speaking of items..

Item Build



Starting Items
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_IronBuckler.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_LoggersHatchet.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_HealthPotion.jpg

250 1x Iron Shield
225 1x Logger's Hatchet
100 1x Health Potion
575 Total Gold

Put the Iron Shield on your bear from the start. At Level 2, put the Hatchet on your bear for more damage.
Alchemist Bones (Optional)
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_Gloves3.jpg

1000 2x Gloves of the Swift
900 1x Alchemist Bones
1900 Total Gold

+30 Attack Speed
Active: Transmute (25 mana cost, 100 second cooldown, 600 range, target creep is killed by 3x bounty)

Contrary to most people, I find this item very optional. It will increase your GPM but by buying this item, you will delay your core item build (Thunderclaw + Frostburn).

Let's do some mathcraft. The cooldown for Alchemist Bones is 100 seconds. Now. If you get lucky, you could get 6 back to back Vagabond Leaders to turn into gold and that will pay off your Alchemist bones in 10 minutes (6 x 100 seconds). However, You'll get Vulture Lords, Centaurs, Skeleton Kings, and Catmen. You'll also get the occasional catapults when you'll be farming in the lane.

Average bounty for Catman Champion is 82. Vulture Lord is 72. Skeleton King is 58. Minotaur is 72. Vagabond Leader is 100. Catapult is 68. And them all up and you get an average of 75.33 repeated per creep. Multiply by 3 and you get an average of 226 gold per Alchemist Bones use. 1900/224 = 8.4 --> round up to 9 because you can use them .4 times. 900 seconds (15 minutes) is the average to pay off your Alchemist Bones. If you average 350 gold per minute (which is possible) during those 50 minutes, you'll get 5250 gold. That's pretty good. After those 15 minutes, Alchemist Bones will start becoming pure profit while giving you 30 IAS. However, with 5250 gold you've got a Mock. With the 1900 gold you spent from buying Alchemist bones, you could just get a pair of Steamboots. Doing some more math. With 1900 gold, 1450 could be used for Steamboots and another 50 will be needed to get Marchers for your bear. Now you have 5200 gold left over from that 15 minute rice. Thunderclaw costs 3000 and Icebrand costs 2200. Perfect. However, with Alchemist Bones you'll get all of these at the same time, except each individual part is delayed a little.

Alchemist Bones is a great item to improve your farm but is not necessary 100% of the time. If you choose to get it, rush it and get it ASAP to maximize its efficiency.
Core Items
http://honwiki.net/w/images/8/88/Steambootsitem.gifhttp://img14.imageshack.us/img14/4448/tclaw.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_StrengthAgility.jpg

1450 Steamboots

+10 Agility/Strength/Intelligence
+30 Attack Speed
+60 Movement Speed

3000 Thunder Claw

+24 Damage
+15 Attack Speed
20% chance to cast a 150 damage Chain Lightning (Exclusive Modifier) that strikes your main target and two additional targets

4400 Frostburn

+16 Agility
+16 Strength
+10 Damage
+20 Attack Speed
+14% Movement Speed
Passive Attack Modifier "Chilled"
-3.5 second duration when used by melee heroes, 2 by ranged
-5% MS reduction per charge
-Maximum of 3 charges
7400 Total Gold

Buying order is Steamboots and then Warhammer -> Recipe -> Gloves of the Swift. Then Icebrand and then Firebrand. This is because you never know when you need that extra hp or that extra slow. You may also get a pair of Marchers for your bear if you like. However, he still outruns you until you get a Firebrand/Frostburn.

You got insane attack speed with just Wild and Steamboots. Why not abuse it with Thunderclaw? Great farming tool and great for increasing your DPS in team battles. Frostburn is all around a great item. You get 503 movement speed in Ranged form with Steamboots and a Frostburn. More attack speed also means you get your charges up on Frostburn faster. And with Frostburn and Steamboots you have almost 3K HP in melee Form and you can run around over 450 MS. This is the cookie cutter build for Wildsoul.
Luxury Items
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_Lightning2.jpghttp://img227.imageshack.us/img227/4448/tclaw.jpghttp://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_Weapon3.jpg

Riftshards (2650/3600/4550/5500):
+45/55/65/75 Damage
10/13/16/20% chance for 1.8/2.0/2.2/2.4x critical strike

Charged Hammer (5500):
+24 Damage
+70 Attack Speed
20% chance to cast a 200 damage Chain Lightning (Exclusive Modifier) that strikes your main target and two additional targets
Active: Charged Up
-Gives 20% chance to cast Electric Jolt when attacked, dealing 200 damage to main attacker and two additional targets

Savage Mace (5400):
+88 Damage
+15 attack Speed
True Strike (ignore Evasion)
35% chance to deal 100 bonus Physical damage and a 0.1 second ministun

These are your basic luxury items. Finish your Charged Hammer for faster attack speed and stronger lightning. It costs 2500 more gold to finish the Charged Hammer.

The old Riftshards vs Savage Mace issue. With your attack speed, Riftshards will do more damage and is easier to build up. However, the interrupt and true strike of Savage Mace isn't something to ignore. You decide what you need based on your team composition. Most of the time, Riftshards will be the better option. Riftshards is only 100 gold more expensive but is much easier to build up.

[Tryptophan]

Alternative Items
http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_Summon.jpg

1000 Neophyte's Book
450 Bolstering Armband
1100 Puzzlebox 1
1100 Puzzlebox 2
1100 Puzzlebox 3
4750 Total Gold

+6/10/14 Strength
+15/21/24 Intelligence
Spawns a Puzzlebox Mauler and Puzzlebox Wizard (35 second duration)
-Mauler has 400/600/800 Health, 21/41/61 damage, melee, 25/50/75 mana burn exclusive modifier, 200/400/600 damage Last Stand, Revealing Eye at level 3, 6/8/10 armor, 11 magic armor, and 300 movement speed
-Wizard has 400/600/800 Health, 31/61/91 damage, 350/450/550 range, 125/175/225 damage active mana burn, 3/6/9% MS & 3/6/9 AS Haste Aura, 6/8/10 armor, 11 magic armor, and 300 movement speed

What the f*ck. Level 3 Puzzlebox Minions running around with +40 AS/+20% MS/+60 damage from Wild and Battle Cry!? Bye bye towers. Backdoor to win if needed ;o

http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_Damage10.jpg

3800 Sword of the High
1350 Mock of Brilliance
5150 Total Gold

+60 Damage
Brilliance Aura (40 Magic Damage per second in a 650 radius)

Old school Mocking Bear anybody? And when it becomes ineffective just slap it on Wildsoul for that 60 damage and the aura. Only get this if you farm it fast enough to be effective. I don't recommend this build because it doesn't give survivability and only a little team presence. 5200 Gold into Tclaw/Frostbrand covers for the damage and gives survivability + a slow that helps your team.

http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_DaemonicBreastplate.jpg

2100 Warpcleft
1400 Platemail
550 Ringmail
1500 Daemonic Breastplate
5550 Total Gold

+10 Armor
+40 Attack Speed
Aura (allies)
-Bonus 5 Armor
-Bonus 15 Attack Speed
-900 Radius
Aura (enemies)
-Debuff of -5 Armor
-900 Radius

Nothin like more armor and attack speed right? With Daemonic Breastplate, Bear Form, and Battlecry, you gain a total of 29 bonus Armor. What the hell. And since Wildsoul has a pretty decent Agility gain of 2.7, he will have a **** ton more Armor than you think.

http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_ManaBurn2.jpg

2200 Firebrand
2100 Blessed Orb
500 Geometer's Bane
4800 Total Gold

+15 Strength
+30 Agility
+10 Intelligence
+15 Attack Speed
+10% Movement Speed
On use: Creates two illusions (20 second life span) that receive 3.5x damage and deal 33% damage and inherit your properties. Using Geometer's Bane will give a 0.1 second of invulnerability and will dispell all buffs/debuffs.

The reason why ranged heroes dominate the current metagame. If you aim for Geometer's Bane, I suggest you either skip Frostburn all together or just disassemble it and create a Frostwolf's Skull with the Frostbrand. Farming a Frostwolf should not be that great of an obstacle considering Wildsoul's farming capabilities. 30% MS slow and 20% AS slow is just overpowered. But then again, it costs 6200 gold; well over the cost of any other major core item by at least 1000 gold. Another great combination is to abuse the images' ability to procreate the Savage Mace interrupt. And the bonus damage does not get reduced. So with Wildsoul and two images, you should have at least one proc every set of attacks. And did I mention Wild is applied to images?

http://honwiki.net/w/images/3/3a/Frostwolf%27s_Skullitem.gif

2200 Icebrand
2100 Blessed Orb
1200 Point Booster
700 Frostwolf's Skull
6200 Total Gold

+25 Strength
+25 Agility
+25 Intelligence
+200 Health
+150 Mana
+10 Damage
Passive Attack Modifier "Freeze"
-20% Attack Speed
-30% Movement Speed

Great item. Imba slow. Best part is you already got 1/3 of it. Split the Frostburn. Make Frostwolf. Use Firebrand to make a GeoBane for imba images and imba slow. Read above/below for more info.

http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_Pierce.jpg

1600 Warhammer
1600 Warhammer
1200 Shieldbreaker
4400 Total Gold

+60 Damage
Passive Attack Modifier "Broken Armor"
-Reduces target's armor by 6

Great item to stick on Beardulon and is relatively easy to farm. You already have the Frostburn attack modifier on Wildsoul so you will need to put this on Beardulon. Giving Beardulon +60 damage (+96 to structures) and a Broken Armor Attack Modifier greatly increases his team fight presence. I suggest using this only if your team has enough crowd control that you don't need Tangle Claw because Tangle Claw is also an Attack Modifier. Otherwise, your best bet is to switch back and forth between modifiers. When you get a Tangle Claw, switch to Shieldbreaker. I don't recommend this build but it could be fun if you try it. Using Beardulon + Shieldbreaker effectively would require "400 APM (Drasha)". 4400 gold is better off spent elsewhere, such as for a Shrunken Head. Another way you could us Shieldbreaker is to get it as your core item over Frostburn. It's the same price but you're sacrificing survivability and movement speed to get damage and a Broken Armor modifier. You could also get both Frostburn & Shieldbreaker since in teamfights, all you need Frostburn for is the movement speed and extra health and not the slow. A slow capped at 15% MS doesn't do **** especially when your team is laying the smackdown with the slows/cc. You'll provide more to the team with insane damage output and armor reduction. If you take another look at this, Shieldbreaker is 4400 gold and you already have your Frostbrand. Frostwolf's Skull only costs 4000 more and by not going Shieldbreaker you'll get an insanely overpowered slow and more survivability. And now you only need 2200 more for a Geo Bane/Frostwolf combo by using the money that you save by not farming a Shieldbreaker.

http://www.heroesofnewerth.com/images/items/Item_Immunity.jpg

1600 Warhammer
1000 Mighty Blade
1300 Shrunken Head
3900 Total Gold

+24 Damage
+10 Strength
On Use: Spell Immunity for 10 seconds. Cooldown of 80 seconds. Every use decreases duration by 1 and cooldown by 5 with a limit of 5 second immunity and 55 second cooldown.

Two words: yes please. Extra health, extra damage, and best of all you take care of those pesky disablers (unless of course their disable is Superior Magic).

Step by Step Strategy


To be honest, I don't know what the public consensus is on Wildsoul. Many people seem to find him to be simple to play and many people don't get past the "omg I need to control ONE extra unit?!" barrier. By reading my step my step strategy, hopefully you will have a better understanding of the hero.

The Basics
We're obviously controlling more than one unit so let's begin with hotkeys. Hit Ctrl + # to assign hotkeys and then press the # to recall that assignment. Here's my recommended set up.

1. Wildsoul
2. Beardulon
3. Wildsoul + Beardulon

This will help you keep track of your units and micromanage them easier. Let's also go over some basic commands.

A - attack
A + move - attack targets in acquisition range until target(s) have been removed and destination has been reached
S - stop (cancels animation)
H - hold (holds unit in place and prevents attacking)

These are all very important. The basic killing strategy of Wildsoul early in the game is to have both Wildsoul and Beardulon selected and right-click. Now here's where it gets tricky. As soon as you see Wildsoul's projectile being launched, recall his assignment right click to move closer to your target quickly and then right click your target. This is to cancel the backswing of his animation and to improve chasing. Now as seen as you see Beardulon make his attack, do the same. Beardulon has a longer ass backswing (.6 seconds at his lowest level, .69 seconds at his highest without any attack speed modification). That backswing on Beardulon costs us chasing time and rooting time.
Laning/Pulling

Wildsoul can easily be the one of the most annoying heroes early into the game. This being due to the fact that his bear is useful for pulling and is completely expendable. This strategy is completely countered by anti-spawn warding, however. In lower level games/unorganized pubs, you won't see this much.

I prefer Hellbourne side but the beginning of the pulling strat can be done on either side. I prefer Hellbourne because this can't be seen coming.

I will add pics later so it's easier to understand. However, I'm using a P.O.S. laptop right now where I run everything on 800x600 windowed and low textures and still get 17 FPS average.

But you start by letting Beardulon sit right above the river (but behind the tree) in the Hellbourne side (below if it is on legion) in the short lane and pull the first enemy creep wave in front of your second tower. What this does is it allows you to free farm temporarily. Any denies made here are also denied fully because the enemies are over 9000 units away.

While doing so, send your bear to the neutral creep spawn and double stack it at 00:52 by pulling it to the side of the camp. Don't pull it into your lane yet. At 1:15, pull the double stacked creep camp into your lane and farm that camp while your lanemate takes care of the creeps at the tower.

From here, my lanemate and I usually harass and pressure them while we push. "Omg! early game pushing is bad!" That's when creep pulling comes into play again. At XX:55, pull the hard camp into the lane. At the same time, this camp will stacked. This is why I prefer Hellbourne over Legion because there is no second pull on the Legion side. Your enemies will be too busy dealing with the creeps pushing their lane. If you get a Catman or Minotaur, they will stomp and they will stand in your lane for a while. So you can use your bear to eat up the creep damage and delay them until your creep wave is pulled into the jungle.

At XX:15 following the hard camp pull, use your bear again to pull the neutral camp next to your lane. That's almost another two waves denied. At the same time, you should be harassing heroes in the lane. Take note that if you get Tangle Claw off this early into the game, it's most likely a guaranteed kill.

Here's a make-shift picture of what I'm trying to describe. I'll get some real ones when I get back to the states.


http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/9625/24041310.jpg

You sit Beardulon at the red circle until first wave enemy creeps come and then pull along the red path to your second creep wave comes. While you're farming that wave, send Beardulon to the neuts and pull along the green path at specified times to double stack and then creep pull. Once you've pulled, start pressuring and pushing so your lane enemies are busy with creeps. Then use the hard camp pull (Hellbourne since it doesn't exist on Legion side) at XX:55 to double stack and pull creeps.

Rinse and repeat the push and pull until you've farmed your Alchemist Bones. And from here on, head into the jungle. As long as you have wards up (which won't be likely) or you're taking notice of the minimap, you should be able to avoid ganks. Right now you'll be going into a semi-turtle strat. You're basically free farming the jungle and pushing that short lane while your team plays 4v5. You're not completely useless because Wildsoul's pushing ability excels due to Beardulon's demolish. Your best team composition would obviously consist of healers and pushers (ie. Defiler, Soul Reaper, Demented, Accursed) so you can pull off a turtle strategy while you do work. Obviously if your team is that organized you can pull a level 1 Kongor and then proceed to push at early levels (7/8) and keep pressure on the enemy team.

Here are some examples of good lane partners:
:deme: Demented Shaman - Nuking heal and slow. Very deadly when combined with a Tangle Claw to set up a 700 damage heal bomb.
:soulr: Soul Reaper - Heal and ranged harass. Helps early pushing in order to pull.
:plag: Plague Rider - A slow and the ability to fully deny creep experience. Will add to the annoying factor.
:nymp: Nymphora - Unlimited heal bombs. Possible a Zeal to increase Tangle Claw % or visa versa.
:blac: Blacksmith - I love a good Blacksmith as my lanemate. Slow, stun, GG.

In short, any ranged hero with a slow/heal bomb helps greatly in order to pull off the strategy. Heal bombs also assist greatly in pushing early/later in teamfights.
Jungling
Wildsoul is, without a doubt, one of the best junglers in the game due to his skillset.

You can start off with the classic jungle from level 1. However, I prefer my laning strategy.

Couple notes about jungling. All creeps have a corpse time of 19 seconds. So if you want to clear the camp immediately, lower them to as much health as possible and then pull them further away from the camp to kill them. This way there are no objects within the 500 radius of the camp. This of course is an exception for the legion neutral camp near the sidelane because you can double stack if they pass through the trees in the back.

Video of jungling will be provided soon.

If you want to level 1 jungle with Wildsoul, start with the easy camps. Attack them until they are low and then pull them out of the radius to finish them. This way they will respawn at the next minute mark and you can kill them again.

You have couple of options here. You can switch between the easy and medium camps until you get level 4/5 using the same strategy so the spawns are available as much as possible.

I have experimented by starting with the easy camps and then moving to hard camps immediately. This does work effectively. If you get Skeleton camps you're even luckier. Basically you do is you take on the hard camps and then send your bear back to heal when it's low. If it's low but not too low, you can just take on a medium/easy camp. While it's being sent back to heal, your job is to double stack easy/mediums and creep pull the side lane.

Repeat the jungling process until you have your desired items. Obviously if the enemy isn't retarded, they will notice that you're missing and will come to gank you. If the short lane reports missing (or you notice enemies are MIA) then send your bear closer to scout. Stay on high terrain so you have sight advantage. Usually when they catch sight of your bear along they'll back off.

If the opportunity comes up, gank the crap out of the side lane. A 135 damage/3 second hold early into the game is basically free 200 gold every time it procs. It's retarded. And now that you can get it on level 2 Beardulon you can start the ganking and pressuring much earlier. Wildsoul excels at many roles. Being the AFK-Jungle-Carry is one of them. However, this leaves your team playing 4v5. This works in turtle strategies and team compositions that have several heal bombs, AoE spells, and crowd control. Don't AFK jungle the entire game. Gank when you can and watch for teamfights where it is necessary for you to be in. Most of the time, 4 heroes + tower is enough to defend with. While the enemies are distracted, you make yourself useful and push.

The easiest counter to a jungling Wildsoul in any situation is wards in the jungle to see where he's at. Wildsoul is also easily countered by anti-spawn wards which will screw him over. Best way to prevent either of these is to bring wards of your own (not recommended because you need your rice) or to have teammates place them. This way you can watch for enemies coming to you and see where the place their wards. This is why a purely jungling Wildsoul is not reliable. If you and your team are solely depending on your ability to AFK jungle farm, then your entire game is ruined by 200 gold. You need to abuse Wildsoul's versatility not only as a jungler but as a ganker and pusher.
Pushing
Due to Demolish, Wildsoul excels as a pusher. Beyond level 8 (and level 5 although its not as efficient that early), Wildsoul can take down towers fairly easily. With Demolish, Beardulon deals about 109-125 damage to towers. With tower armor, that comes to just below 61 damage on average per hit. That's a lot. If you're in the short lane and the neemies are caught up in ganking or dealing with your team, push like mad. Before you know it you'll have one tower down and possibly a second one too. Bear gone? Summon another one. It's expendable. It's got 2.7k HP and 6 armor for you to tank with. Wildsoul fits great into pushing strategies.

Wildsoul is not only limited to pushing but works wonders as a ganker. Tangle Claw is one of the most annoying skills in the game. If you're playing against Wildsoul, it could feel like he's hitting Entangle 9/10. When you're playing Wildsoul, it feels like you get that Entangle 1/10. However, 3 damage hold that reveals and deals 60 dps (135 total with magic reduction) is f*ckin crazy. Want more entangles and demolish? Stack multiple Gloves of the Swift on Beardulon. This will help both in ganking and pushing.

It's an old school build where people stack the bear over Wildsoul himself. An old build used to be Steamboots/Mock/Daemonic on the bear and only Steamboots on Wildsoul. Wildsoul runs at 443 with this set up and has decent survivability due to the extra Health on steam boots and Bear form. In bear form he's capable of running at 407 which is still above average. However, he gets that extra 8 and 1000 health and also the Battle Cry ability giving +60 damage and +6 armor to him and Beardulon. Beardulon at this point is a machine. He's got 120 extra attack speed, 60 extra damage, 21 extra armor from Battle Cry and Daemonic. This is where towers go down with ease. Did I mention towers also get -5 armor due to Daemonic?

Another pushing build is to build Puzzlebox 3 as core on Wildsoul. I'll do the math for you.

http://honwiki.net/w/images/8/83/Puzzlebox_Maulerunit.gifhttp://honwiki.net/w/images/thumb/3/3c/Puzzleboxmaulerskill1.gif/96px-Puzzleboxmaulerskill1.gifhttp://honwiki.net/w/images/thumb/b/bf/Puzzleboxmaulerskill2.gif/96px-Puzzleboxmaulerskill2.gifhttp://honwiki.net/w/images/thumb/f/f4/Puzzleboxmaulerskill3.gif/96px-Puzzleboxmaulerskill3.gif

Puzzlebox Mauler (Level 3 w/ Lv3 Battle Cry):
-400/600/800 Health
-21/41/61 (121) Damage
-25/50/75 Mana Burn as Passive Exclusive Modifier
-200/400/600 damage Last Stand dealt to killing unit
-6/8/10 (16) Armor
-11 Magic Armor
-300 Movement Speed
-Revealing Eye at Level 3

http://honwiki.net/w/images/d/dc/Puzzlebox_Wizardunit.gifhttp://honwiki.net/w/images/thumb/a/a9/Puzzleboxwizardskill1.gif/96px-Puzzleboxwizardskill1.gifhttp://honwiki.net/w/images/thumb/3/36/Puzzleboxwizardskill2.gif/96px-Puzzleboxwizardskill2.gif

Puzzlebox Wizard (Level 3 w/ Lv3 Battle Cry):
-400/600/800 Health
-31/61/91 (151) Damage
-350/450/550 Range
-125/175/225 damage active Mana Burn
-Bonus 3/6/9% MS & 3/6/9 AS Haste Aura with 350 Area of Effect
-6/8/10 (16) Armor
-11 Magic Armor
-300 Movement Speed

That's crazy. And now you you also have another AS/Speed bonus. This is a very effective pushing build that you can pull out as a last resort to backdoor. Yes I'm telling you to backdoor. Yes you will make people made in these games. You'll also help tremendously in teamfights with this build. If they have stealth heroes, you're in luck because now you're even more useful.
Teamfights
In order to be successful in team fights, you need to first assess your situation. Are you on the offensive or the defensive? Has your team been winning or losing team fights as the game progressed? What is your team composition and your enemies' team composition?

One of the most important elements to a team fight is the element of surprise. You don't want to be taken by the element of surprise. What tools do you have? A bear that moves at 513 with just a pair of Marchers. And now you abuse his speed by using him to scout. Making sure your team has wards up first is a good idea.

The next thing I find to be important is numbers. Make sure your team sticks together. Make sure you try and pick off any wanderers before starting a team push. 5.5 (I'm counting Beardulon as half) vs 4 pushes the odds in your favor if they decide to clash. Otherwise, you get a free tower, or two, or maybe even a barracks.

Going back to team composition.

Does your team have a good amount of heal bombs. Does your team have crowd control? Does your team have ranged support DPS?
-If all of the above is answered with yes, then go Bear Form and start tanking and wreaking havoc with Battle Cry your 1000hp bonus.

Example of this: :valk::deme::poll::soulr::wild: SR+WS/Polly/Valk+DS

Does your team have another hero that can play the sub-role of tanking or some other form of initiation?
-If yes then use Battle Cry for the boost and then switch back to ranged form. You got 7 seconds now to blow **** up with Battle Cry.

Example of this: :accu::hell::pyro::slit::wild: Acc+WS/Slith/HB+Pyro

Does your enemy team have crowd control? Does your enemy team have an all ranged team?
-If they have crowd control and if they have range advantage, then you want to stay in ranged form as much as possible to balance out the range advantage.

Example enemy team: :temp::fors::arac::andr::witc:

Does your team have a pushing line up?
-If yes, then go melee and FSU (phuck shiit up). Because your team has enough power to support you if they get close.

Example of this: :defi::accu::slit::soulr::wild: Acc+WS/Defiler/Slith+SR

Keep in mind that Wildsoul is similar Troll Warlord (DotA reference) without a bash/blind. Going melee allows you to be more powerful but staying ranged allows you to play safely. And with the current ranged carry = gg metagame, I suggest playing it safe most of the time.

And also keep in mind your speed with Bear Form and how much of a tank you can be. Sometimes you just need to sack up and start taking it like a man.
Counterpicks

What counters Wildsoul? Obviously the herp-derp crowd control (disabling) heroes that are counters to everything HoN. Just a few to list.
:pyro: Pyromancer - AoE stun. You get hit, you get focus fired. You get nuked, you get insta-gibbed.
:witc: Witch Slayer - Long range hex along with an AoE stun. Keeps you down for quite a long time while.
:temp: Tempest - Glacial Blasts is a real ***** early game. A good Tempest will realize that he only needs to get you in his ultimate to win the game if it's pretty close. And you can't escape his ultimate unless your team cancels.

What else counters Wildsoul? Any hero that can get rid of his movement speed advantage. A few to list.
:slit: Slither - This muthaf*cka cuts your total movement speed in half.
:arac: Arachna - An attack modifier that slows you by 40%? Spiderling that slows you by 80%? It also slows your attack speed? Good luck. However, having Beardulon gives you a good advantage when it comes to killing the Spiderling
:elec: Electrician - I got Wild on! I run at +20% Movement Speed. *Cleanse* **** you!
More Wildsoul counters? Any hero that can outcarry Wildsoul or abuse his large Health pool.
:soulr: Soul Reaper - Lose 1% maximum health every second? Dead when I'm under half health? ****.
:thun: Thunderbringer - Lose 11% of current health in magic damage ON TOP of his high damage nukes? That's at least a quarter of your health gone in a split second. If you don't choose to go Bear Form because of how much Static Field takes away then he will abuse your lowered Health via nukes.
:pred: Predator - He can outcarry you. And he can take away 7% of your current health in physical damage per attack.

This f*cker is also worth mentioning.
:scou: Scout - Hai I can pharm at your pace while I place my eyes in your camp to prevent spawns.
Replays


Currently none. However, if anybody has replays to add, please post here. I'm unable to add any replays at the moment because my current laptop runs the game at 17 FPS with 800x600 windowed and all low textures. I'm also playing from Hong Kong so once I get back to the states I'll get some up.
Things to Do
What I'm working on adding:


Pictures for pulling
Jungling FPVoD
Replays

Changelog



7/15/2010 - Draft Released
7/16/2010 - Guide published; Added Geometer's Bane to Alternative Items; Added a minimap picture to show lane pulling; Mention of Shieldbreaker
7/17/2010 - Added Counterpicks section
7/18/2010 - A bit of reformatting.


Credits


Hope you enjoyed my handbook to Wildsoul. There will be more to come in the future so keep your eyes peeled ;o

DamnStraight (http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/member.php?u=3032470) - Brought up use of Shieldbreaker
yyr_ (http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/member.php?u=118372) - Mentioned using Bear Form to reduce incoming damage

Want to be on this list? Help me add some replays, pictures, etc. Point out major errors or give me suggestions. I will also give a shout out to Blue_Aura (http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/member.php?u=652117) for his Premium Chronos Guide (http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/showthread.php?t=48106) because I got ideas from his format and stole his original font :P Sorry!

[Tryptophan]

Reserved

[Spathi]

Good guide, pretty much the same strat that i'm doing. The description of the laning/pulling phase is confusing though. Pulling the first enemy creep wave to your second tower... wouldn't that push the lane and give the enemies the same freefarm?

Anyway, just wanted to add that Frostwolf Skull is a terrific item for Wildsoul, one that will increase his ganking power 200%. 30% slow is soooo goooood, and AS debuff, survivability and mana are the cherry on top. Sometimes I rush it as the first thing right after Alchemist Bones.

[Tryptophan]

Yeah it really is confusing without pictures. I'll use the mini map as an example but I'll have real pics up when I get back to the states.

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/9625/24041310.jpg

You sit Beardulon at the red circle until first wave enemy creeps come and then pull along the red path to your second creep wave comes. While you're farming that wave, send Beardulon to the neuts and pull along the green path at specified times to double stack and then creep pull. Once you've pulled, start pressuring and pushing so your lane enemies are busy with creeps. Then use the hard camp pull (Hellbourne since it doesn't exist on Legion side) at XX:55 to double stack and pull creeps.

[DamnStraight]

Great guide, nicely in-depth and helpful overall. However, I found that :Shieldbreaker: is a pretty decent item on either Booboo or Wildsoul. The -6 armor helps significantly when jungling (gives most creeps -armor value), and increases you, Booboo, and your team's DPS considerably in teamfights.

Booboo also absorbs bounces from Plague ults and MQ's ults, as well as Voodoo's cocktail and Balph's demonic pathogen. By using him in teamfights, he makes such bouncing spells THAT much less effective in a woods teamfight, and can mean the difference between a win and a loss.

[Tryptophan]

Shieldbreaker is worth mentioning and is a great item for Booboo since Wildsoul will already have an orb. Giving Shieldbreaker to Booboo will increase his damage to towers and by having Broken Armor, his team fight presence will be known.

Booboo does make the difference by absorbing bounces. However, this could prove wrong in woods depending on the space and numbers. You want to be able to separate yourself from Booboo and your other teammate(s). This shouldn't be a problem running at above 450 movement speed.

Thanks for the feedback. I'll make a mention of this.

[KungFuJV]

Just a heads up, I am also in a area where its hard for me to get replays, but I have some pretty good replays of wildsoul (him being my favorite hero), so I'll send you some when I get back home.

I also use the 'old school build' more than the others you described.

Good Guide though, Might try sheildbreaker on wildsoul in the future to see how well it works.

[Tryptophan]

Yeah, that will help a lot. I appreciate it :P I can't get any replays because of my specs and the 1 second delay to USA servers.

[red_gyrados]

IMO codex is core on ws

just play em and u can get it by afking in the jungle for approximately 15 mins

i also like feeding booboo to the enemies, i feel they are too disadvantaged already playing against me and deserve the extra gold

[CMaNN17]

WS/syllabear has been my favorite hero since i started playing dota so i have tried quite a few builds on him.

My current favorite is the puzzle box build. I also like your alternative skill build with the level 6 point in wild. It can be helpful for getting an early game gank with a lucky root. I like getting a couple early game soulscream rings or an agi shield to help early game as well.

I think puzzle box is a better overall item than thunderclaw almost regardless of situation. If you want to go a strong push build, abyssal skull is a good item. Frostburn or geometers are good overall items. always worth building one of them.

I would also suggest a couple gloves of swift for the bear in addition to the red boots.

[Tryptophan]

I had made mention of stacking gloves of the swift on the bear.

Puzzlebox is a great item but you can't carry with it.

[BarneyGumbal]

As much as I despise the item, Brutaliser can be a viable item vs Chronos or other heroes who buy Brutaliser. That way, instead of being stun locked by these bastards, you stun lock them instead.

[Tryptophan]

You're right in saying the only way to beat a stunlocker is to stunlock them. But that's what your team is for. No need to waste 3k on a Brutalizer unless it's for absolute facerolling/rage inducing.

[Drasha]

shieldbreaker is an attack modifier
tangle claw is an attack modifier

putting shieldbreaker on booboo means you only get one effect at a time unless you are pro enough to cycle between them perfectly. (probably need an apm of 400 to play wildsoul with a shield breaker on booboo effectivly)

[Tryptophan]

Yes I've mentioned everything you've said in my guide :P But I will add mention of the 400 APM as a joke

[frtzarn]

good guide! ill try out wildsoul with this soon, ill probably try the jungling strat because people in my psr bracket suck. and by the way, you might want to change " You get 40 bonus attack speed which is why we focus on items that have procreate abilities such as Charged Hammer, Riftshards, and Savage Mace" because i doubt you and your bear will be procreating :p

[Tryptophan]

Oops. You're right :P Proc = spec_proc = special procedure; not procreate. My bad.

[Rokman]

Really nice guide, props

[Tryptophan]

Thanks. You got a great bh guide there. Love the formatting.

[yyr_]

Excellent guide, just thought something worth mentioning is form toggling to reduce incoming damage and increase heals. If your maledicted or poisoned and running away changing to melee form increase your hp pool so the DoTs do a lower % of your total life so when you swift back your effectively got healed part of the damage. You can also do similar toggles if your about to be nuked. When a d-wood grips you you swap to melee form so when he punches you your armour is higher as is your health pool. You can then swap back and either kill him or run.

[Tryptophan]

That's true but it's very dependent on the situation whether to use Bear Form that way or not. Bear Form has cast time of 1.0 and doesn't disjoint like it did in DotA.

[Spathi]

Shieldbreaker is great for many heroes, but I'm not sure about Wildsoul. Can't give it to bear without losing its Entangle ability, and for a hero with no other form of slow or stun, the slowing effect from Icebrand, Frostburn or Frostwolf Skull seems better. Let me reiterate that Frostwolf Skull is an awesome item for Wildsoul. While Shieldbreaker gives you a lot of DPS, Frostwolf Skull gives you kills.

[Tryptophan]

Perhaps you missed the part where I say to swap between attack modifiers. And to keep it simple - Tangle Claws for ganking and Shieldbreaker for DPS/teamfights. Just rebind your hotkeys. I'll add Frostwolf in there (among the other xxxx times I've mentioned it if it makes you happy).

[Spathi]

Thanks :)

Regarding counterpicks and enemies... I understand that's a hotly contestable topic as well, but here's my list of worst enemies from my experience as Wildsoul:

Early game:
:fayd:- As soon as she hits level 6, even with nerf she can make your farming phase hell if she really wants to. Wards are of little use - she has to be countered with perma-bearform, which is annoying.
:gaun: - Big magical burst damage, stuns, grab and SLOW. Skillfully played, with an assassin shroud and such, he could simply farm WS most of the game. Having magic armor is a must.
:arma: - NEVER underestimate Armadon earlygame. As long as he's not out of mana, he can permaslow you and his stacking spine spam will kill you faster than you can kill him.
:vood: - that goddamn curse. Almost guaranteed kill for him if he gets the drop on you.
:thun: - lategame Wildsoul will eat him for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but early game his nukes are very powerful and you won't have levels in Wild to get away from him quick enough.
:devo: - got to be on your toes with the big guy around, until you get farmed.

There's no doubt that other gankers such as :witc::pyro::succ::pebb: also pose threat, but you can usually see them coming and outrun them.

Mid/late game:
:nigh:- Nighthound is surprisingly good at killing WS before WS has outfarmed everybody, particularly if he has a Nullfire for slow/debuff. Not that NH was that powerful 1v1 per se, but he's able to get the drop on him alone in the middle of a forest where there's a long way to run to towers, and the bear can get unlucky with entangle. Even if the bear gets a root it's hard to run from him because of his pounce. Perma-bearform helps, but he remains a dangerous opponent.
:legi: - the bane of most carries lategame at teamfights, when he has a portal key.
:pest: - can stun, -15 armor, usually has portalkey, and can outrun you or at very least keep up.
At lategame other physical carries like :dark::madm::mage::scou::swif: :warb::chro: can go toe to toe as well, as they would have a Brutalizer/other stun and you normally wouldn't.


On the other hand...
:arac: is not a huge threat to Wildsoul solo at comparable gear/levels, since thanks to bear WS can quickly kill the spiderling, then duke it with superior DPS in either bearform or otherwise. Failing everything else WS can switch to bearform and TP to base, as Arachna can't stun.
:pred: is less effective against WS than other high HP heroes, since being an AGI hero WS has tons of physical armor. With Daemonic Breastplate, some other AGI gear, bearform and Battle Cry Wildsoul will have 45+ physical armor, which makes Predator's Carnivorous fairly negligible.
:dead: is a fearsome ganker against most heroes, but Wildsoul in Bearform and Battle Cry can go head to head with him thanks to high HP and physical armor. It's pretty fun, actually, as long as he's alone. :)

[NightY`]

Hey, thank you, for your great guide :)
I played with your itembuild and it rocks :D
You need a replay, here i have one =)

8050585 - Replay - Or Download Here! (http://uploaded.to/file/die9ji)

[Tryptophan]

Thanks :)

Regarding counterpicks and enemies... I understand that's a hotly contestable topic as well, but here's my list of worst enemies from my experience as Wildsoul:

Early game:
:fayd:- As soon as she hits level 6, even with nerf she can make your farming phase hell if she really wants to. Wards are of little use - she has to be countered with perma-bearform, which is annoying.
:gaun: - Big magical burst damage, stuns, grab and SLOW. Skillfully played, with an assassin shroud and such, he could simply farm WS most of the game. Having magic armor is a must.
:arma: - NEVER underestimate Armadon earlygame. As long as he's not out of mana, he can permaslow you and his stacking spine spam will kill you faster than you can kill him.
:vood: - that goddamn curse. Almost guaranteed kill for him if he gets the drop on you.
:thun: - lategame Wildsoul will eat him for breakfast, lunch and dinner, but early game his nukes are very powerful and you won't have levels in Wild to get away from him quick enough.
:devo: - got to be on your toes with the big guy around, until you get farmed.

There's no doubt that other gankers such as :witc::pyro::succ::pebb: also pose threat, but you can usually see them coming and outrun them.

Mid/late game:
:nigh:- Nighthound is surprisingly good at killing WS before WS has outfarmed everybody, particularly if he has a Nullfire for slow/debuff. Not that NH was that powerful 1v1 per se, but he's able to get the drop on him alone in the middle of a forest where there's a long way to run to towers, and the bear can get unlucky with entangle. Even if the bear gets a root it's hard to run from him because of his pounce. Perma-bearform helps, but he remains a dangerous opponent.
:legi: - the bane of most carries lategame at teamfights, when he has a portal key.
:pest: - can stun, -15 armor, usually has portalkey, and can outrun you or at very least keep up.
At lategame other physical carries like :dark::madm::mage::scou::swif: :warb::chro: can go toe to toe as well, as they would have a Brutalizer/other stun and you normally wouldn't.


On the other hand...
:arac: is not a huge threat to Wildsoul solo at comparable gear/levels, since thanks to bear WS can quickly kill the spiderling, then duke it with superior DPS in either bearform or otherwise. Failing everything else WS can switch to bearform and TP to base, as Arachna can't stun.
:pred: is less effective against WS than other high HP heroes, since being an AGI hero WS has tons of physical armor. With Daemonic Breastplate, some other AGI gear, bearform and Battle Cry Wildsoul will have 45+ physical armor, which makes Predator's Carnivorous fairly negligible.
:dead: is a fearsome ganker against most heroes, but Wildsoul in Bearform and Battle Cry can go head to head with him thanks to high HP and physical armor. It's pretty fun, actually, as long as he's alone. :)

Strength Steamboots + Wild is usually more than enough to tank Fayde and GTFO. Burst damage works on everybody. Not just Wildsoul.

You just gotta stay out of range of Gauntlet and you'll be fine. Burst damage works on everybody.

You realize that imba slow + massive spike damage from Armadon will pwn just about anybody.

Thunderbringer's burst damage in early game works on everybody. Not just Wildsoul.

I think you get the point. Certain heroes get early game advantages through burst damage. Examples being Thunderbringer, Fayde, and Gauntlet.

Devourer.. uh what? Select Beardulon. Return to Wildsoul. Hook blocked.

[Spathi]

Heroes that can gank, will gank. I think every HON player knows to avoid Witch Slayer, Pyro and MQ to name a few. Wildsoul can bear kite, outrun and harass those low HP heroes, so personally I don't feel those as a a particular threat. Fayde can strike when you least expect it, Gauntlet has a slow in addition to nasty burst damage and a temporary disable to your bear, and people tend to underestimate Armadon in general :). A smart Devourer will obviously not hook the bear.

[Tryptophan]

No matter how smart that Devo is, it's still impossible for the hook to go through the bear.

[Sheriff]

You're right in saying the only way to beat a stunlocker is to stunlock them. But that's what your team is for. No need to waste 3k on a Brutalizer unless it's for absolute facerolling/rage inducing.

rage inducing is core