Blacksmith

[Padawanabee]

Blacksmith

Stats
Strength: 23 + 3.2
Agility: 14 + 1.55
Intelligence: 19 + 2.1
Range: Melee





*Base armor -1 base damage -4. Yeah, I'm lazy.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction
• Pros/Cons
• Skills
• Skill Build
• Starting Items
• Core
• Luxury Items
• Strategy

Introduction

Blacksmith is a rather unique hero in Heroes of Newerth. A melee hero with above average starting armor, strength, strength gain, and base damage, the blacksmith is actually a intelligence-based nuke supporter who keeps his team strong (or at least fast) and the other team weak. His stats and skills started direct ports of the Ogre Magi from DotA, but S2 later balanced him around a bit. As with most heroes of HoN he received a significant aesthetic upgrade with the port.

How we will play blacksmith in this guide is as an early game ganker with late game team support. His excellent starting strength and strength gain, coupled with a spell that allows for a significant speed boost, allows us to focus on intelligence and support related items without having to worry about our survivablity.

Pros and cons


Pros

Ridiculous strength gain, one of the best in the game.
Basic stats and armor cover all survivability needs.
Excellent ganker with 2 nukes, one a slow and the other a stun.
Powerful support ability, adding a significant speed boost to allies.
Scales better mid-late than most intelligence heroes.
Easy to learn and play.

Cons

Only intelligence based hero with a melee attack.
Lackluster farming ability, which doesn't matter because you should be ganking.
Poor intelligence gain coupled with expensive and spammable spells.
Poor lane control due to melee range and low mana pool
The arguably most powerful aspect of PASSIVE ult is UNRELIABLE

Skills

Fireball
Hurls a scorching fireball at target opponent, both damaging and stunning them.

Enemy target
Magic damage
Range: 600
Mana cost: 75/85/95/105
Mana cost with level 1 Chaotic Flames: 105/115/125/135
Mana cost with level 2 Chaotic Flames: 155/165/175/185
Mana cost with level 3 Chaotic Flames: 185/195/205/215
Cooldown: 15/12/9/6 ::Important:: cooldown does not go down with the level of Fireball but with the level of Chaotic Flames. ::Important::
Deals 75/125/175/275 damage and stuns for 1.5 seconds.

This is the skill you will rely on more than any other throughout the game. It is your primary source of magic damage, as well as a powerful single target stun. Max it early, as until level 4 it deals sub-par damage. Also, just like in DotA if you get extra casts of Fireball from Chaotic Flames the stun lasts longer.

Early game it serves us well. Until you put levels in Chaotic Flames it retains its low mana cost, which is a necessity considering our mana pool. It is a single target stun, so use it to disable opponents as well as damage them. It allows you to set up a teammates spells as well. Tormentor or Pyromancer can easily hit someone who isn't moving for 1.5 seconds, although a Valkyrie might have more trouble. Or you could be ganking with someone like Pestilence, and stun the enemy at 600 range, allowing Pestilence the chance to run in and use his stun.


Flaming Hammer
The Blacksmith throws a flaming hammer at a target enemy, which explodes on impact. The explosion causes the target to burn, taking damage over time and slowing their movement speed.

Enemy target
Magic damage
Range: 700

Radius: target/150/300/450 ::Important:: radius does not go up with the level of Flaming Hammer but with the level of Chaotic Flames ::Important::
Mana cost: 95/110/125/140
Cooldown: 15 seconds
Deals 10/20/30/40 damage a second and slows for 15/20/25/30% for 7.5 seconds. Reduces magic armor by 1/2/3/4 decreasing to 0 over the duration..

If you're too lazy to do the math, it deals 75/150/225/300 magic damage over it's duration. Another nuke, it works differently than fireball. It deals it's damage slower, but for chasing the 7.5 seconds of slow will actually allow more hits than 1.5 seconds of stun. Also, when we level Chaotic Flames, instead of dealing more damage to the target sometimes, it will always deal it's damage, but in a larger radius, allowing for AoE slow and some farming potential.

Frenzy
The Blacksmith uses his control over fire to motivate his ally the best way he knows how: with heat! Starts a non-harmful blaze on a friendly unit that increases attack speed and movement speed.

Target ally
magic effect
Range: 600
Mana cost: 75
Cooldown: 20/15/10/5::Important:: cooldown does not go down with the level of Frenzy but with the level of Chaotic Flames. ::Important::
Applies frenzy to target for 30 seconds, ally gains 6/9/12/15% movement speed and 20/30/40/50 attack speed. Also increases cast speed by 7/14/21/28.

This spell will keep you supporting your team well into mid-late game. For some reference, activating Enhanced Marchers adds 10% move speed for 6 seconds, whereas level 4 frenzy adds 15% move speed in addition to practically giving them a Warpcleft for 30 seconds.

Level 2-3 Chaotic flames allows you to keep this on your whole team. Put it on your carries and they will love it. Keep it on yourself and you run faster than all but the fastest heroes (Blood Hunter with 44% movespeed, for example).

Chaotic Flames
The Blacksmith is experienced at gambling with fire. increasing the power of his other spells. When casting his other spells, he has a chance to achieve a more powerful result.

Improves other abilities:
Fireball
Level 1: 25% chance to cast 2x.
Level 2: 20% chance to cast 2x. 20% chance to cast 3x.
Level 3: 25% chance to cast 2x. 12.5% chance to cast 3x. 12.5% chance to cast 4x.
Decreases cooldown by 3/6/9 seconds.
Flaming Hammer
Increases radius by 150/300/450.
Frenzy
When cast, has a 25/20/25% chance to impact at least twice, 0/20/12.5% chance to impact at least three times, 0/0/12.5% chance to impact four times. Decreases cooldown by 5/10/15 seconds.


This is really the skill that will make you love or hate this hero. It adds a chance to cast Fireball multiple times, adds an AoE to Flaming Hammer, gives a chance to apply Frenzy on multiple allies, and lowers cooldowns. This ability earns Blacksmith a lot of hate, as people who play him complain of never multicasting (multiple applications of the stun) and people who play against him complain of always getting multicasted. The key to playing this hero is to never rely on multicasted stuns, pretend you don't have the possibility at all and you won't get yourself killed relying on that 25% chance.

Skill Build

1. Flaming Hammer
2. Fireball
3. Flaming Hammer
4. Fireball
5. Flaming Hammer
6. Chaotic Flames
7. Flaming Hammer(max)
8. Fireball
9. Fireball (max)
10. Frenzy
11. Chaotic Flames
12. Frenzy
13. Frenzy
14. Frenzy (max)
15. Stats
16. Chaotic Flames (max)
17-25. Stats


Explanation

Fireball and Flaming Hammer are our nukes and our disables. It is suggested that you max them, flaming hammer first, as quickly as possible. Frenzy is taken afterward, and Chaotic Flames whenever possible.

Flaming hammer is superior to Fireball for a number of reasons. First, it does decen damage at levels 1-3, more than Fireball. Second, the 7.5 seconds of slow will give you more opportunities to chase and auto-attack that 1.5 of stun. The - magic armor goes up with levels, and it's range is longer.

You can delay Chaotic Flames if you need to. Each level increases the mana cost of Fireball by 30/50/30, and sometimes that 30 extra mana and extra level of fireball is more important than a 25% chance to multicast. Generally it won't be, though.

Items

Blacksmith is relatively item-independent. Once he fixes his mana issues he's set. His hp and armor don't need the intervention of items to be good. We don't need to waste money on our health pool, we can move directly to what we need.

And what we need is mana, and mana regen. There are many ways to get those. We quickly fix his mana, getting it on par with other int types by purchasing Talismans of Exile, Int Steamboots, and a Bottle. We then move onto a long-term solution. While you could get items such as a Sacrifical Stone, I prefer to get items with benefits outside of mana regen. The top contenders, then, are Hellflower, Kuldra's Sheepstick, Harkon's, Stormspirit, and Tablet of Command.

Initial purchases

2 runes of the blight - 180
2 mana potions - 100
2 minor totems - 103
Monkey courier/wards of sight - 200
Total - 583

Standard support start, with decent regen for both pools, the minor totems that turn into power supply, and your monkey for the strong lane/wards for the weak lane.

Working on our core

There are several cheap items that work well on Blacksmith before working on a big purchase. I will list them in order of importance and convenience (distance, cost, space) on a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being the highest.

Mana Battery
Importance: 3 Convenience: 5

A very effective item that can be purchased at the outpost. Good source of burst regen, something Blacksmith can definitely make use of. While more effective when laning against Nymphora/Armadon, it is useful against all lanes and in team fights, even mid game. Convenience rated 5, since you should have the two totems used to make this a Power Supply anyway.

Logger's Hatchet
Importance: 2 Convenience: 4

Blacksmith is a melee hero, and while he doesn't need farm or help farming, it's a useful enough item if you have an extra slot. Can be purchased at the outpost.

Iron Buckler
Importance: 2 Convenience: 4

An effective defensive item that can be purchased at the outpost. At no point would you upgrade this to a HotBL, you only use it for a HUGE damage reduction against creeps. Since Blacksmith often follows up stuns/slows with a right-click attack, he can aggro enemy creeps easily.

Bottle
Importance: 5 Convenience: 2

Blacksmith is in dire need of regen, especially burst regen obtained by items such as bottle and power supply. It is highly recommended you pick one of these up to augment your early game and gank phase. Unless your team bought a courier you're gonna need to run back to base for this, however.

Marchers
Importance: 5 Convenience: 2

Obviously, you'll want to pick up Marchers at some point in the first 10 minutes of gameplay. Blacksmith's role as a ganker and chaser makes this a smart purchase on your first trip back to town.

Power Supply
Importance: 3 Convenience: 4

If you decided to pick up a mana battery, you'll want to purchase this upgrade to open up a few inventory slots.

Boots upgrade
Importance: 5 Convenience: 2

Steamboots or Ghost Marchers are your best choices. Steamboots will help with mana, if that's a problem, while Ghost will help your chasing ability and ganker role.

Core

Alternatively




Explanation:

You are both melee and a high mana cost nuker with high strength and low intelligence. The talisman, bottle and (maybe) steamboots provide the mana supply you will need to be effective early-mid. Then, Blacksmith can focus on gear that adds mana pool/regen, support, and damage.

Hellflower is easily the best item to get on Blacksmith after the core. It solves your intelligence and mana regen problems, while adding significant damage and attack speed. Why would we want those on Blacksmith? Because he has a stun, a slow, and Frenzy. While an agi carry will get more out of frenzy than you, you can become a respectable DPS source in a fight yourself. On top of solving mana issues and adding damage capabilities, it casts a 5 second silence+perplex and 1.2 damage multiplier on an enemy hero. Perfect for your support role, and deadly if followed up by a 3x or 4x Fireball.

If you don't like Hellflower, there are plenty of similar items (+int, +mana regen, clickable for a support spell). Tablet adds some mobility, and Stormspirit->Harkon's is a good build. Puzzlebox counters invis heroes quite well, while the summons speed up your little dwarf legs, and provide excellent burst, more than dagon, at level 3.

So what next?

Luxuries

Kuldra's Sheepstick [Supportive] (5675g)

An obvious choice and a good one. Adds support in the form of an anti-carry active.

• Powerful and well-known disable

Behemoth's Heart [Protective] (5500)

With the recent changes to Behemoth's Heart, it's now viable as a luxury item on Blacksmith.

• Combined with innate str gain and Frenzy's movespeed, Blacksmith can be extremely difficult to kill
• Reduces cooldown's further, Fireball goes all the way from initial 15s to 5s, with Heart and 3 levels of ult

Frostfield-Plate [Protective] (4700g)

This choice is respectable, though probably not as powerful in the hands of blacksmith as Hellflower or Totem of Kuldra. A support int item like the rest, this one also allows us to farm to a certain extent when combined with Flaming Hammer.

• Aura and activatable amplifies support role
• Amazing armor supplied. Combined with Blacksmith's hp he can be quite tanky.

[Padawanabee]

Strategy

When should I pick Blacksmith, and why?

• You should pick Blacksmith if your team needs a ganker early, or support late. He does both.
  
• While Blacksmith is not a carry, he has a lot to do with them. He is an allied carries best friend, with frenzy and 2 disables. He also has the ability to keep enemy carries weak with consistent ganking.
• When your team needs int support, but the enemy have many heroes that can easily drop a squishier int, like Magmus and Night Hound.
• Blacksmith is good for most lineups, as he has his nukes early and, due to his ultimate and skillset in general, scales better than most int support/gankers. His weakest point is in the laning phase.

When shouldn't I pick Blacksmith?

• You have a melee-heavy lineup and poor lanes.
• Enemies have large amounts of mana burn or silence.

A big part of whether to pick a hero is, of course, lane synergy. Blacksmith does very well with any nuker in a kill lane. Hellbringer and Blacksmith is one of my favorite lanes, and BS+pyro/slither is very, very scary. Even semi-carries like Forsaken Archer and Valkyrie do well with him. But don't pick him to lane with a melee hero, or in a safe/farm lane. He is best in an aggressive nuke lane. Also, you can solo mid with him to an okay degree, but there are many better choices for mid solo.

Laning

Blacksmith's weakest time is in the laning phase. His melee attack range makes free farming much easier, especially if you pick up a Hatchet, but puts him at a disadvantage when laning against an enemy hero. Since most Blacksmith's will build him with Fireball+Flaming Hammer, he has a nuke and a disable. His nuke is weaker than most until level 7, however, and his mana pool is worse than other int types.

Blacksmith should always lane with an ally. He can easily dominate a lane with a fellow nuker/disabler, such as Torturer. But if he gets laned against Magmus+Pyromancer with a tDL at his side, you're probably going to be tower hugging until 7.

Notes:

• If you are going to go after the enemy heroes, try to make sure you have an advantage somehow. If you can get 3 creeps attacking him while he's stunned, or you and your teammate will be able to pound on one of your enemies while the other is out of range.
  
• Follow up stuns and slows with auto attack unless it would place you in a position to be killed. Such as if they have the creep advantage and a stun or two, or you'd be chasing too far while mid is mia.
• Pushing is not always bad in a lane. If you have pushed bot lane to the enemies tower, your entire lane is fogged. You can use this opportunity to pull, or check rune, or even gank. Enemies are far less likely to call mia in time if they believe you are just waiting outside of the tower's range for the next creep wave.
• Blacksmith can easily get shut down if you have a bad laning partner. If all else fails, stay back at the tower and keep up in levels, you'll catch up on cash in the ganking phase, hopefully.

Mana Conservation

At least until you get a Bottle and 2 Great Arcana's, mana will be a constant problem with Blacksmith. Blacksmith's play-style basically amounts to spamming his spells constantly and following up with auto attacks. You keep Frenzy on as many people as you can, and you cast Fireball and Flaming Hammer as soon as they're off cooldown. However, before you buy mana and mana regen this strategy will last for about 4 spells before you're oom (out of mana) and down to auto attacking.

Tips

• If Flaming Hammer is level 4, and Fireball is level 2, it may be smarter to only use Flaming Hammer on enemies, since it will be much more mana efficient. During a gank you should probably use Fireball, though.
  
• It is not mana efficiant to keep Frenzy on your entire team until you have high amounts of mana regen. Keep it on an auto-attacking carry and maybe yourself.
• Make the most of stuns and slows. You can auto attack a stunned enemy at least once before the stun wears off and you need to Flaming Hammer to slow him down.

Fireball

Fireball is one of the simplest abilities in the game. You cast it on a target, you lose mana, and the target is damaged and stunned. It requires no skill to use or aim, you simply click on bad guys and they explode.

Chaotic Flames makes this one of the sickest abilities in the game. Even at 7, Blacksmith has a 25% chance to turn this simple nuke into 550 damage, more than Pyromancer's ultimate, and stunning for about 2 seconds. At level 3 Chaotic Flames, you can deal 1100 damage and stun for about 3 seconds with a x4 multicast.

With 3 levels in Chaotic Flames, it has a 50% chance for 1x, 25% for 2x, 12.5% chance for 3x, and 12.5% chance for 4x.

It starts with a fairly long cooldown, but eventually gets dropped to 6 seconds. It's mana cost also become incredibly high, but by this point you should have enough mana items that it shouldn't be a problem.

Notes:

• Simple to aim and use
• With levels in Chaotic Flames, it effectively becomes a Pyromancer ultimate with a stun included every 6 seconds. This is partially offset by it's significantly higher mana cost.
  

Flaming Hammer

Flaming Hammer starts as a 75/150/225/300 damage over 7.5 seconds, with a 10/15/20/25% slow. Levels in Chaotic Flames make this an AoE ability, giving it more utility. 25% slow is actually quite a lot, it would bring an average ms hero with Steamboots (360) back down to 270.

At early levels, it will be your most useful spell. It deals good damage at good range, while slowing and debuffing enemies. Oftentimes you will want to take care while chasing, however, as you can easily overextend yourself and get counter-killed while chasing fleeing enemies, slowed or not.

Keep in mind that Flaming Hammer has a slightly longer range than Fireball, so it can be used to slow down a fleeing enemy for Blacksmith or an ally to catch up.

Notes:

• Not as powerful as a stun in an actual fight, but the slow will allow you more hits against a fleeing enemy than the stun would have.
• Has a higher range than Fireball. This, in addition to it's removing magic armor, suggests that you cast this spell and follow it up with Fireball in most situations.
  
• Gains an AoE effect with levels in Chaotic Flames, rather than increased damage against a single enemy.

Frenzy

Frenzy is a carries' best friend. The speed bonuses are significant, provided you can keep casting it. Since Blacksmith has such major mana problems early, points in Frenzy are practically wasted early game. However, once you get some mana items it becomes an essential spell to keep on all allies within range.

The movespeed boost is helpful at all stages of the game especially during ganks. The attack speed boost becomes more important later, when auto-attacks gain power and spells become relatively less powerful.

Notes:

• Levels in Frenzy should be taken as mana items are obtained. It is a powerful skill, if you can maintain it without running out of mana for stuns
• Place on carries first, yourself second, and other allies third

Laning and Early Phase.

Your buddies are fellow stunners/disablers. Always lane with a teammate, and try to lane with a teammate with good magic damage, such as Pyromancer, Hellbringer, or Tormented. Keep as much coordination between your ally and yourself going as possible, as Blacksmith can burst pretty damn hard early to mid game.

Keep good map awareness, as all the strength in the world won't help against an Swiftblade+Electrician gank if you aren't near your tower. If you do decide to go bottle, think about buying wards to watch the runes and for ganks. Blacksmith isn't classified as pure support, but he ranks pretty high on the scale of item independency, making you a prime purchaser of wards and courier upgrades.

Ganking phase.

This is where you will shine, so enjoy it while you can. Hopefully by now (probably 10-15 minutes in) you will have Marchers (maybe upgraded), bottle, and a level in Chaotic Flames. Look for any hero who's pushed too far, look for enemy heroes your allies are having troubles with, and gank your enemies jungle. Rune whore if you got bottle, and keep up the coordination with your teammates. If you keep the enemy low during this phase you've already won.

Once you reach level 11 you can hit for (275x3 multicast +300 AoE with slow and stun) and supply at least level 1 frenzy to your allies.


Your skill-set peaks in between mid and late, so do whatever you can to give your allies the edge.

Mid-Late game

Hopefully you ganked well and helped your carries become stronger than theirs, because you start losing power at this point. DON'T BE ALARMED. If you got a Hellflower or Sheepstick, you can still decide fights for your team. Blacksmith scales exceedingly well late game for an int hero. Slow, silence and stun their carries and frenzy your own. Work with your teammates and don't go in alone unless you wish to die.

Even supposing your carries did poorly and the enemy carries are big, don't panic. If you played significantly better than others, you can decide fights yourself. A Blacksmith with Hellflower and Totem of Kuldra has:

• A stun on a 6 second cooldown that can do up to 1100 magic damage
• An AoE 25% slow
• A 3 second hex
• A 5 second Silence and 20% damage amplification
• A team-wide +15% ms and +50 attack speed buff
• Upwards of 2.5k hp and 200 a swing.

There's enough disable there to hold not only your weight, but another teammate's as well. Blacksmith scales MUCH better this late in the game than heroes such as Pyromancer and Demented Shaman.


How to pull your weight in a fight.

• Flaming Hammer as many people as possible to apply slow, damage, and -armor.
• Follow that up with a Fireball on the highest threat target. This will normally be a DPS carry or a Behemoth who hasn't ulted yet.
• Frenzy has cd of 5 seconds when Chaotic Flames is maxed, and lasts 30 seconds. That means its possible to keep all allied heroes Frenzied at the same time. You should be casting Frenzy before fights, and worrying about stuns and slows during them.

Never stop casting if you have mana.

Ultimately, this is the only thing you need to remember while playing Blacksmith. If you have mana to cast a spell, do so. Your item builds, skill builds, and gameplay all revolve around the simple fact that Blacksmith has powerful spells, so long as he can keep casting them without running out of mana.

[[Mi7]Thooom]

First of all - great guide. I just wanted to make a suggestion. After I buy the Arcane Ring I usually get the item with Intelligence, Damage and +20 Movement Speed that can cast Cyclone. It's got a short cooldown and have both saved my life and secured ganks for me lots of times. The extra intelligence and movement speed is a good bonus too. And a well timed Cyclone often opens an opportunity to cast that second 4x Multicast

[MrSoada]

I hardly ever played Ogre Magi in DotA, but amongst top players I noticed that they would hold out on upgrading their stun and just save the skill point til a gank opportunity arose. This way they could last hit creeps with a 75 mana cost fireblast.

[[BP5]Karacis]

I like Black Smith and this is a good guide, thanks man!

[Dare]

Personally I find his attack animation great, almost instant when you attack.

[Geo]

This is my favorite Hero. I searched for Blacksmith Guide and this didn't come up. Thanks for the bump!

[CB_Laen]

Great guide! Following this guide and quickly turned the blacksmith into my favorite hero! People fear his dots in the begining, are terrified of him in mid game, and the flower, and frenzy are amazing late game!

I'm not very good with last hitting, though I am getting better, so I usually skip the arc ring and after EM I start building my Flower.

I buy the items in this order, Scarab, Shirt, then the orb.

I've found the mana regen is of upmost importance.. and since you are running from lane to lane and not constantly getting farm xp the extra mana regen helps loads.

I've also found that sometimes, after the first or second orb when building the flower, I rarely need mana.. Also.. if your careful the smith almost never takes damage ^_^ ohh and I usually skip the bottle as well.. but I am aware that it can help A LOT if your opposing team is refusing to leave their lanes, thus giving you more time to gank ^_^

anyway.. I've played about 6 games with him so far and have lost 1 out of those 6. HoooRA! (btw, the loss was because we had 1 person leave at the begining of the game and we chose not to remake... for some reason.. we didn't have a tank.. and I was getting man handled... it was the first game with blacksmith :P )

[Ajay]

Well written guide. I like the silence stick option a lot. Also nice use of colors and pics.

thx bud.

[Tapioka]

Nice guide. Its the way i like to play him. Nothings better than hellflower and a sacrifical stone after. Really like to see, that you recommend to cast frenzy on allies. I told that 100times and glad that a guide says it too.
I think a bottle isnt necessary, because the manaregen/-pool should be high enough thanks to the hellflowers parts.
I think its a good idea to buy a courier, since you cannot get the hellflower from the outpost (like in "late" dota). You really need those items to keep your enemies busy.
The only thing i dont like is the sentence about blacksmith beeing a carry. He isnt a carry. You have 2 casts and 1 buff. The buff could make you strong in lategame, but you better want to be a caster and if you dont get a 3/4x multicast with hellflower, they just ignore you. I saw some guys buing hack%slash, abyssal scull and such things. It was ridiculus.
Hellflower and bloodstone are the best items in my opinion, because you can support with your frenzy and hellflower and can do massive damage if you stay alive long enough to cast fireball multiple times.

[dlordtemplar]

In the DOTA days, I liked BF/Runed Axe. Plenty of regen, farming ability, and heavy damage to accompany bloodlust/frenzy. I guess I'm more of a farmer than a ganker, though :P

[Lappi1]

** added images, links and costs as well as the category where to find the items in
** updated old dota names, e.g. frostfield plate

As mentioned previously, all our strength and armor needs are taken care of already. We don't need to waste money on our health pool, we can move directly to what we need.

Core Build

1-2x Runes of blight [Supplies] (90g); 2 if you can afford it.
1-2x Mana potion [Supplies] (50g); 2 if you can afford it.
1-2x Talisman of Exile [Initiation] (485), 1 if you farm badly.
1x Bottle [Supplies] (600g)
1x Enhanced Marchers [Initiation] (1550g)

You are both melee and a high mana cost nuker with high strength and low intelligence. You need regen when you first go to the lane. Spend at least 140 on runes and a mana potion. It's your decision whether you spend the extra starting cash on more regen or starting your Talisman of Exiles. By the time you're done laning, you will have 1-2 Talismans of Exile, a bottle, and Enhanced Marchers.

Enhanced marchers is an obvious choice, they're cheap and make you go fast. The bottle is more arguable. If 2-3 people on your team or the other have bottles, don't bother with it. But being a MELEE NUKER who GANKS, you are the perfect candidate to rune whore if noone else is.

Later items
Ring of Sorcery [Supportive] (1700g)

if you have mana problems, solves your mana problem for a short while and helps support your team. However, if you want a more long term solution to your mana woes you should build a....

Hellflower [Combative] (5025g)

probably the best item to get on Blacksmith after the core. It helps your intelligence and mana regen problems, while adding significant damage and attack speed. Why would we want those on Blacksmith? Because he has a stun, a slow, and FRENZY. While an agi carry will get more out of frenzy than you, you can become a respectable DPS source in a fight yourself. On top of solving mana issues and adding damage capabilities, it activates for a 5 second silence and 20% pure damage addition on an enemy hero. Perfect for your support role, and DEADLY IF FOLLOWED UP BY A CHAOTIC FLAMES PROC.

Totem of Kuldra [Supportive] (5675g)

An obvious choice and a good one. Addresses mana issues, while adding to your support role in a team fight or a gank.

Sacrificial Stone [Protective] (5050g)

While you play a support role, a blacksmith played well will definately get his share of the kills. Why not solve those mana issues for good by getting some charges on a sacrificial stone and making sure our health and mana pools are both enhanced and always full?

Frostfield-Plate [Protective] (4700g)

The final item of my suggested items, this one is respectable, though probably not as powerful in the hands of blacksmith as Hellflower or Totem of Kuldra. A support int item like the rest, this one also allows us to farm to a certain extent when combined with Flaming Hammer.

[contra]

Good guide! I think you should always use HoN and not DotA names for consistancy though.

For some reference, activating phase boots adds 10% move speed, where at level 4 frenzy adds 15% move speed in addition to practically giving them a hyperstone.

change it to warpcleft.

[`aNarchy]

decent guide, but far more effective hero if you take frenzy over flaming hammer and here's why:

Blacksmith is a melee hero that has slow attack speed. This means it is tough to farm a lot of your items by the time you need them. Frenzy enables blacksmith to farm like a beast, chase down heroes, and buff your dps/carry to rape face on someone.

Some good items for him are frostfield plate/totem/orchid/etc. This hero also has possible carrying potential if you go frenzy first for a lot of dps. Don't be scared to stand and fight with him either because he's no squishy hero.

edit: don't get sac stone with this hero, it's a waste of your money. Blacksmith has a decent amount of strength, and if you plan on getting frostfield(which you should for massive slow) you don't need the sac stone which gives you 0 stat bonuses. This hero was made melee so he could fight as well as cast spells, not just sit back and spam fireball/flaming hammer and run away.

[Padawanabee]

Thanks for the editting help, Lappy, and I put your prettier version in the guide itself with thanks above it.

@ Bennet. Thanks for catching that hyperstone error, I'd come right outta dota when I wrote this. The origional draft had multicast, ignite, and all sorts of dota terms all over it and as you can see I missed more than a few.

And Koen, I've rarely seen an ogre/blacksmith go anything but Fireball/Ignite, And I've never seen one do well. That doesn't mean it's not a good build, it just means I'm not gonna suggest it and would have no idea how to do well with it! I might just go and try it now and see how I do.

Just updating the guide following the feedback, hope it's better. It's prettier thanks to Lappy, at least!

[[BRO]Mellow]

decent guide, but far more effective hero if you take frenzy over flaming hammer and here's why:

Flaming hammer is very useful as a slow, and it can help you and your laning partner to get kills. Even at lower levels of the skill Flaming hammer is useful, and to be honest, Frenzy is **** until 3-4. Furthermore, at that point no attack speed boost is needed.

[Lappi1]

One note in general: I tend to only buy 1 Talisman of the Exile and head directly for hellflower. If you've got the first Scarab, you will really get into the game and rule mid-game with the first staff completed. If you stick with a hero that uber-profits of Frenzy, e.g. Arachna, you will quickly get the remaining three staffs for hellflower.

@Padawanabee: Thx for the credits (though my name ends on i like in India)
@Mellow: It depends on your lane buddy. With a weak one I go for flaming hammer to annoy the squishy enemies, with a strong buddy, I really like to buff Frenzy, and then stun and try to hurt em.

[Padawanabee]

Latest edit: Added the ability to replace a Talisman of Exile with a Power Supply for those enlightened enough to use the item under the Core. Also replaced Enhanced Marchers with Steamboots in the Core following the changes made to boots in the last patch.

@ Lappi: Sorry about messing up your name in the acknowledgment, I coulda sworn it was Lappy when I read your comments. *Shrug

Also, I agree on the faster you start making those Great Arcana's the better. However, the ganking power allowed with bottle+steamboots really let's you pick up speed in late early/early mid game.

[[TL]Ruscour]

Thanks for this guide!

One question: I never get kills! I'm ending games with 2 kills, 1 death, and 20 assists. I never get the damn killing blow! I know that the amount I'm contributing to the team overrules this, but still, it's not helping my KDR. Suggestions?

As a thank you for this guide, I sized down the steamboots icon for you.



EDIT: On second thought, I have another question.

This is how my items tend to go...
Bottle > Marchers > Steamboots > Talisman of Exile x2 > Hellflower > Totem of Kuldra

Should I be getting Talismans of Exile earlier than I am? Because I really like my Bottle.

[Padawanabee]

Thanks for the resized image, Ruscour.

To answer your question, Blacksmith is a support hero and should NOT be getting kills in a normal game. You should be giving them to your allies. 2-1-20 is quite possibly the perfect Blacksmith record.

That said, if you REALLY want kills the best way to do it would be to build damage items like Hellflower and save your stun for finishing enemies. Saving your stun like this is DEFINATELY not a winning strategy, but if you sneak a kill in like that every once in a while I'm sure noone will mind.

Edited for your edit: Most people would say don't go to your lane with bottle unless you were going to be grabbing the runes at 2-4-6 minutes in. The simplest answer would be this; if bottle works for you, go for it. If it doesn't, go to the lane with something else.