Phooxeh
09-08-2009, 07:10 PM
Hello, dear forum readers. In the past few days, I've seen a few attempts at creating a blood hunter guide in this section but alas, none of them are up to the same level of quality as other hero guides. Consider this to be my personal attempt at doing so. In addition, this is my first guide. Constructive comments and help to build a decent Blood Hunter guide are highly welcome.
Blood Hunter
http://heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/16/icon_128.jpg
Note: Due to Hucklecat's hero/item portraits being down due to excessive bandwidth use, this guide won't contain any images for now.
Click here to see Blood Hunter's skills. (http://heroesofnewerth.com/heroview.php?hid=16)
Let's quickly analyze our red little guy:
Role: Ganker / Single-target disabler / support DPS.
Hero Primetime: Mid-game.
Blood Hunter or BH for short is a hero that excels at making quick, short work of fragile enemy heroes before quickly disappearing back into the fog of war. Before you attempt to play this hero, I highly reccomend that you are at least moderately proficient at lasthitting and denying creeps as it plays a large role in how well BH will be able to hold out in his lane. Note that this guide assumes that you are playing a normal, non-em game.
Pros:
1. Can completely disable a target through well-timed use of silence and hemorrhage.
2. Capable of staying in the field for extended periods of time without having to return to heal.
3. Access to a legal, if conditional, maphack in addition to a massive speed boost.
4. Relatively decent base stats overall.
Cons:
1. The disable mentioned above is not a true disable per-se.
2. The silence does not prevent the use of items.
3. A bit on the mana-intensive side.
(Well, to be honest, can't think of more.)
Skills
A quick look at his skills reveals the following:
Blood Crazy: BH's main means of disabling an enemy hero. This is a dual-purpose skill that prevents an enemy from casting spells whilst increasing their auto-attack damage. In this guide and for the most part of the game, this skill will be used in the same way silence is used. We'll only use it as a means of extra damage once the game has entered the late-game phase.
Feast: A skill that may look unimpressive at first glance. This skill is the most integral amongst BH's aresenal as it is what allows him to remain on the field for as long as he likes.
Blood Sense: Your legal maphack. This is the skill that gives blood hunter the right to his name.
Hemorrhage: This skill is the 2nd part of BH's disable combo. Once cast on an enemy, they'll take damage as they move, creating a win/win situation for you.
Skill Build
1) Feast
2) Blood Crazy
3) Feast
4) Blood Crazy / Blood Sense
5) Feast
6) Hemorrhage
7) Feast
8) Blood Sense
9) Blood Sense
10) Blood Sense
11) Hemorrhage
12) Stats / Blood Crazy
13) Stats
14) Stats
15) Stats
16) Hemorrhage
17) Stats
18) Stats
19) Stats
20) Stats
21) Stats
22) Stats
23) Blood Crazy / Stats
24) Blood Crazy
25) Blood Crazy
This, in my opinion, is the one and only skill build you'll ever need. The justification for this is as the following:
1) Feast is maxed first because it is what enables you to last in your lane / the field.
2) One level of Blood Crazy is gotten in order to alleviate boredom by having an active skill to play with. That, and to have an ability to harass and silence enemies with. You may opt for a second level in it once you reach level 4 for a longer silence and slightly higher total DPS on the spell.
3) Blood Sense is maxed after feast because it's only useful after getting your ultimate / the early mid-game phase.
Game Phases
Starting items:
2x Pretender's Crown
2x Minor Totem
1x Runes of the Blight
Explanation: Standard 6+ stats starting loadout, which isn't bad at all.
Alternative start:
2x Crushing claws / 2x Duck Boots
3x Runes of the Blight
Explanation: If you're not comfortable with healing off feast, not too comfy with your lasthitting / deny skills or are expecting very heavy harrasement then consider taking this as your starting items.
Picking a lane
While BH is overall capable of holding his own in any lane, it's best to take bottom if you're Legion and top if you're Hellbourne. These two lanes are the closest to your own tower in addition to allowing you the most chasing distance possible.
Levels 1-5
As an early gamer, BH isn't capable of much aside from silencing his enemies to prevent their barrage of nukes/stuns or the activation of their escape mechanism. At this stage, you'll want to focus on lasthitting for gold / healing and denying to heal any damage you've sustained.
Of course, this doesn't mean that killing heroes at this point of the game is impossible. It is possible, it simply requires a suitable lane partner and the opportunity to acquire said kill. Generally speaking however, you'll want to remain passive.
Items to consider / aim for:
Marchers: For obvious reasons.
2x Fortified Braclet / 3x Soulscream Ring: Go with braclets if you wish to have more survivability. Choose soulscreams if you prefer extra damage. Don't get Helm of the Black Legion if you choose to take braclets or soulscreams - you most likely won't be able to build it fast enough to receive the most benefit out of it.
Aim for:
Helm of the Black Legion: In case you don't take the braclet route, you may wish to aim for this item.
Levels 6-11
Level 6 is where BH finally gains some killing momentum. Before you attempt to kill a hero, make sure to check their inventory and hp/mp numbers.
Ideal conditions are as follows:
1) There's room to chase. This especially applies if you don't have helm of the black legion / don't have hemorrhage at level 2 yet.
2) Your target doesn't have a homecoming stone / it's just been used / has under 75 mana.
3) Your target is alone.
4) The target is not a beefgate and preferably not at full health. (optional)
Once you decide on your target, proceed to ambush them. Cast silence on them as soon as you can and auto-attack your target if they haven't started running yet. As soon as your enemy begins to run, cast hemorrhage on them. If they keep running, keep chasing otherwise they'll hold their position and you'll have free reign to pound them at your own leisure, hopefully scoring a kill.
While doing all of the above, do make sure to keep a keen eye on your Blood Crazy cooldown. If you have it at level 1, you might opt to bail out once the cooldown is approaching 4 seconds and less. If it's level 2, you'll want to decide whether to bail out or attempt to re-cast it on the target before you reach 1 second remaining. The one second gap is sometimes enough to get a quick re-cast versus opponents with slow reaction.
If the target is very low but still alive, use your judgement as to whether continue chasing them or retreating back to your base in case other enemy heroes are coming to the rescue. Of course, having an ally hero help you during the hunt will raise your chances of a successful gank by a fair bit.
Whether you succeeded or not, unlike most heroes, you have three choices in terms of recovery. You can stay in a lane and last hit back to full health, enter the jungle and kill a few creeps for health or simply return to the fountain just like any other hero.
Do remember however that while constantly attempting to kill the other team is fine and dandy, spending too much time roaming (especially if you don't succeed in most of your ganks) will leave you underleveled and underfarmed. Something we want to avoid.
Items to consider:
Helm of the Black Legion: If you plan on tower-diving a lot to grasp kills, then by all means aim for this item. The earlier you get this, the better. Preferably by or before the 10 minute mark. 15 minutes is alright too but it's slightly pushing it by then as the item has probably outlived most of it's usefulness. Do note that it is fairly expensive for what it's worth and that if your main reason to get it is the added health, you should get braclets instead. Not a personal fan of this item but it's legit alright.
Shaman's Headdress: Consider this item if you're not a fan of HotBL or don't plan on tower diving a lot. It is arguably more useful as the magic armor comes in very handy, especially versus a lineup containing lots of burst-damage.
Steamboots: Your phyiscal attacks play a large part in finishing off your prey - steamboots lets you output more damage thanks to increased attack speed in addition to slightly increasing your survivability / attack speed and damage / manapool.
Level 11-16
This is the stage where BH shines the most with all his skills at their best levels. You'll generally carry on doing what you were doing in the previous phase. Decide your first major item at this point:
A) Savage Mace: By aiming for this item, you're looking to acquire a fat damage boost in addition to a minor increase in attack speed but the main reason you'll aim for this is for it's ability to interrupt teleports should your target decide to use a homecoming stone.
B) Hack & Slash: This item gives you all you want in a nice balanced package. Increased attack speed? Check. Increased damage? Check. Increased health and armor? Check. Increased move speed? Check. A chance to proccess a slow? Well, that's a nice bonus. In addition, this item comes in small, easy to farm parts so you shouldn't have too much trouble getting it.
C) Charged Hammer: If you're feeling comfortable with your survivability and wish to acquire more damage, you might want to aim for this item. It'll give you a decent kick in terms of attack speed as well some good damage in addition for a chance to release a fairly powerful burst of lightning. What makes this item even better for you is its active ability. While silenced, your opponent can only auto-attack so by casting it on yourself, you essentially double up your chances for a big burst of damage (% to proc off attacks and % to proc from being attacked).
D) Mock of Brilliance: The build up is quite brutal but this item can be worth it. It will constantly damage the target you're chasing for 40 dm/s as well as give you a nice kick to your attack damage. Overall useful item but building it may be hard if you die or don't have map control. As an added bonus, there's always a chance that you might take a few creeps out with the area damage, gaining a sudden burst of health.
Levels 16+
By this stage of the game, you'll be more or less relegated into finishing off stragglers after team fights as well as disabling any casters that are capable of major havoc such as behemoth or tempest with your silence. You can still hunt and kill lone heroes but for the most part, this is the stage where it's rare to find a single, lonely hero without any nearby allies.
As the game goes on and on, BH generally steps down into the role of a supportive damage dealer that chews down stragglers or mangles the faces of disabled heroes. At this stage, the game should have been decided already so I highly doubt you'll be able to get more than one major item (if you even managed to finish one in the first place) but in case the game continues consider going for:
A) Completion of the standard damage trifecta: Wingbow, Flayer and Savage Mace.
B) Behemoth's Heart / Daemonic Breastplate: The former is usually the better choice but in case predator is on the other team or if you're facing lots of physical damage, taking the latter may be just as good if not better.
C) Lifesteal: Whispering helm / Symbol of rage may give you an edge over other physical damage dealers, especially when used in conjunction with blood crazy on yourself.
D) Geometer's Bane: In theory, this may be a good choice if the other team doesn't have too many area of effect spells or if you have a decent disabling team with you. I haven't personally tried this yet so I can't vouch for it yet although in the theortical situation mentioned above, some questions are raised over how you haven't been able to finish the game yet.
Final Word
I hope you have enjoyed reading this guide. I know this isn't up to par in terms of quality being my first guide and all but I look forward to editing it as I receive feedback and comments, improving it and refining it in the process. With pretty pictures of course!
Discuss.
Blood Hunter
http://heroesofnewerth.com/images/heroes/16/icon_128.jpg
Note: Due to Hucklecat's hero/item portraits being down due to excessive bandwidth use, this guide won't contain any images for now.
Click here to see Blood Hunter's skills. (http://heroesofnewerth.com/heroview.php?hid=16)
Let's quickly analyze our red little guy:
Role: Ganker / Single-target disabler / support DPS.
Hero Primetime: Mid-game.
Blood Hunter or BH for short is a hero that excels at making quick, short work of fragile enemy heroes before quickly disappearing back into the fog of war. Before you attempt to play this hero, I highly reccomend that you are at least moderately proficient at lasthitting and denying creeps as it plays a large role in how well BH will be able to hold out in his lane. Note that this guide assumes that you are playing a normal, non-em game.
Pros:
1. Can completely disable a target through well-timed use of silence and hemorrhage.
2. Capable of staying in the field for extended periods of time without having to return to heal.
3. Access to a legal, if conditional, maphack in addition to a massive speed boost.
4. Relatively decent base stats overall.
Cons:
1. The disable mentioned above is not a true disable per-se.
2. The silence does not prevent the use of items.
3. A bit on the mana-intensive side.
(Well, to be honest, can't think of more.)
Skills
A quick look at his skills reveals the following:
Blood Crazy: BH's main means of disabling an enemy hero. This is a dual-purpose skill that prevents an enemy from casting spells whilst increasing their auto-attack damage. In this guide and for the most part of the game, this skill will be used in the same way silence is used. We'll only use it as a means of extra damage once the game has entered the late-game phase.
Feast: A skill that may look unimpressive at first glance. This skill is the most integral amongst BH's aresenal as it is what allows him to remain on the field for as long as he likes.
Blood Sense: Your legal maphack. This is the skill that gives blood hunter the right to his name.
Hemorrhage: This skill is the 2nd part of BH's disable combo. Once cast on an enemy, they'll take damage as they move, creating a win/win situation for you.
Skill Build
1) Feast
2) Blood Crazy
3) Feast
4) Blood Crazy / Blood Sense
5) Feast
6) Hemorrhage
7) Feast
8) Blood Sense
9) Blood Sense
10) Blood Sense
11) Hemorrhage
12) Stats / Blood Crazy
13) Stats
14) Stats
15) Stats
16) Hemorrhage
17) Stats
18) Stats
19) Stats
20) Stats
21) Stats
22) Stats
23) Blood Crazy / Stats
24) Blood Crazy
25) Blood Crazy
This, in my opinion, is the one and only skill build you'll ever need. The justification for this is as the following:
1) Feast is maxed first because it is what enables you to last in your lane / the field.
2) One level of Blood Crazy is gotten in order to alleviate boredom by having an active skill to play with. That, and to have an ability to harass and silence enemies with. You may opt for a second level in it once you reach level 4 for a longer silence and slightly higher total DPS on the spell.
3) Blood Sense is maxed after feast because it's only useful after getting your ultimate / the early mid-game phase.
Game Phases
Starting items:
2x Pretender's Crown
2x Minor Totem
1x Runes of the Blight
Explanation: Standard 6+ stats starting loadout, which isn't bad at all.
Alternative start:
2x Crushing claws / 2x Duck Boots
3x Runes of the Blight
Explanation: If you're not comfortable with healing off feast, not too comfy with your lasthitting / deny skills or are expecting very heavy harrasement then consider taking this as your starting items.
Picking a lane
While BH is overall capable of holding his own in any lane, it's best to take bottom if you're Legion and top if you're Hellbourne. These two lanes are the closest to your own tower in addition to allowing you the most chasing distance possible.
Levels 1-5
As an early gamer, BH isn't capable of much aside from silencing his enemies to prevent their barrage of nukes/stuns or the activation of their escape mechanism. At this stage, you'll want to focus on lasthitting for gold / healing and denying to heal any damage you've sustained.
Of course, this doesn't mean that killing heroes at this point of the game is impossible. It is possible, it simply requires a suitable lane partner and the opportunity to acquire said kill. Generally speaking however, you'll want to remain passive.
Items to consider / aim for:
Marchers: For obvious reasons.
2x Fortified Braclet / 3x Soulscream Ring: Go with braclets if you wish to have more survivability. Choose soulscreams if you prefer extra damage. Don't get Helm of the Black Legion if you choose to take braclets or soulscreams - you most likely won't be able to build it fast enough to receive the most benefit out of it.
Aim for:
Helm of the Black Legion: In case you don't take the braclet route, you may wish to aim for this item.
Levels 6-11
Level 6 is where BH finally gains some killing momentum. Before you attempt to kill a hero, make sure to check their inventory and hp/mp numbers.
Ideal conditions are as follows:
1) There's room to chase. This especially applies if you don't have helm of the black legion / don't have hemorrhage at level 2 yet.
2) Your target doesn't have a homecoming stone / it's just been used / has under 75 mana.
3) Your target is alone.
4) The target is not a beefgate and preferably not at full health. (optional)
Once you decide on your target, proceed to ambush them. Cast silence on them as soon as you can and auto-attack your target if they haven't started running yet. As soon as your enemy begins to run, cast hemorrhage on them. If they keep running, keep chasing otherwise they'll hold their position and you'll have free reign to pound them at your own leisure, hopefully scoring a kill.
While doing all of the above, do make sure to keep a keen eye on your Blood Crazy cooldown. If you have it at level 1, you might opt to bail out once the cooldown is approaching 4 seconds and less. If it's level 2, you'll want to decide whether to bail out or attempt to re-cast it on the target before you reach 1 second remaining. The one second gap is sometimes enough to get a quick re-cast versus opponents with slow reaction.
If the target is very low but still alive, use your judgement as to whether continue chasing them or retreating back to your base in case other enemy heroes are coming to the rescue. Of course, having an ally hero help you during the hunt will raise your chances of a successful gank by a fair bit.
Whether you succeeded or not, unlike most heroes, you have three choices in terms of recovery. You can stay in a lane and last hit back to full health, enter the jungle and kill a few creeps for health or simply return to the fountain just like any other hero.
Do remember however that while constantly attempting to kill the other team is fine and dandy, spending too much time roaming (especially if you don't succeed in most of your ganks) will leave you underleveled and underfarmed. Something we want to avoid.
Items to consider:
Helm of the Black Legion: If you plan on tower-diving a lot to grasp kills, then by all means aim for this item. The earlier you get this, the better. Preferably by or before the 10 minute mark. 15 minutes is alright too but it's slightly pushing it by then as the item has probably outlived most of it's usefulness. Do note that it is fairly expensive for what it's worth and that if your main reason to get it is the added health, you should get braclets instead. Not a personal fan of this item but it's legit alright.
Shaman's Headdress: Consider this item if you're not a fan of HotBL or don't plan on tower diving a lot. It is arguably more useful as the magic armor comes in very handy, especially versus a lineup containing lots of burst-damage.
Steamboots: Your phyiscal attacks play a large part in finishing off your prey - steamboots lets you output more damage thanks to increased attack speed in addition to slightly increasing your survivability / attack speed and damage / manapool.
Level 11-16
This is the stage where BH shines the most with all his skills at their best levels. You'll generally carry on doing what you were doing in the previous phase. Decide your first major item at this point:
A) Savage Mace: By aiming for this item, you're looking to acquire a fat damage boost in addition to a minor increase in attack speed but the main reason you'll aim for this is for it's ability to interrupt teleports should your target decide to use a homecoming stone.
B) Hack & Slash: This item gives you all you want in a nice balanced package. Increased attack speed? Check. Increased damage? Check. Increased health and armor? Check. Increased move speed? Check. A chance to proccess a slow? Well, that's a nice bonus. In addition, this item comes in small, easy to farm parts so you shouldn't have too much trouble getting it.
C) Charged Hammer: If you're feeling comfortable with your survivability and wish to acquire more damage, you might want to aim for this item. It'll give you a decent kick in terms of attack speed as well some good damage in addition for a chance to release a fairly powerful burst of lightning. What makes this item even better for you is its active ability. While silenced, your opponent can only auto-attack so by casting it on yourself, you essentially double up your chances for a big burst of damage (% to proc off attacks and % to proc from being attacked).
D) Mock of Brilliance: The build up is quite brutal but this item can be worth it. It will constantly damage the target you're chasing for 40 dm/s as well as give you a nice kick to your attack damage. Overall useful item but building it may be hard if you die or don't have map control. As an added bonus, there's always a chance that you might take a few creeps out with the area damage, gaining a sudden burst of health.
Levels 16+
By this stage of the game, you'll be more or less relegated into finishing off stragglers after team fights as well as disabling any casters that are capable of major havoc such as behemoth or tempest with your silence. You can still hunt and kill lone heroes but for the most part, this is the stage where it's rare to find a single, lonely hero without any nearby allies.
As the game goes on and on, BH generally steps down into the role of a supportive damage dealer that chews down stragglers or mangles the faces of disabled heroes. At this stage, the game should have been decided already so I highly doubt you'll be able to get more than one major item (if you even managed to finish one in the first place) but in case the game continues consider going for:
A) Completion of the standard damage trifecta: Wingbow, Flayer and Savage Mace.
B) Behemoth's Heart / Daemonic Breastplate: The former is usually the better choice but in case predator is on the other team or if you're facing lots of physical damage, taking the latter may be just as good if not better.
C) Lifesteal: Whispering helm / Symbol of rage may give you an edge over other physical damage dealers, especially when used in conjunction with blood crazy on yourself.
D) Geometer's Bane: In theory, this may be a good choice if the other team doesn't have too many area of effect spells or if you have a decent disabling team with you. I haven't personally tried this yet so I can't vouch for it yet although in the theortical situation mentioned above, some questions are raised over how you haven't been able to finish the game yet.
Final Word
I hope you have enjoyed reading this guide. I know this isn't up to par in terms of quality being my first guide and all but I look forward to editing it as I receive feedback and comments, improving it and refining it in the process. With pretty pictures of course!
Discuss.