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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
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.
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 laneWhile 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 6-11Level 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.
Last edited by Phooxeh; 09-08-2009 at 09:29 PM.
a most excellent post and guide...
This is exactly what ive been after, thank you.
Try formatting this a bit dude.
More pictures, more colours!Originally Posted by TinyBlkTears
We are gamers so flashy colours always work!
A full description of the skills and their progression. You refer to the length of silence but without having it listed new players might not understand what you mean.
Last edited by Vascariz; 09-08-2009 at 10:58 PM.
Will edit this when I wake up to include more pretty pix and colors. Took me quite a while to write it in the first place. Guide makers, I tip my hat to you!.
I can't find anything to nitpick on although I merely scanned through it. I looked for what I thought needed to be in a guide for him and you touched everything. I like the explanations for when to get a particular item as that seems to be the problem most new players have - finding which item is best in what scenario.
Nice guide.
enhanced marchers are better.... most people would argue they are OP'ed right now....... if you want to kill an enemy that's running away... a lot of time you'll get blocked by teammates or good enemies will try to block the BH from reaching his target. Even a few seconds of delay can be enough to lose your target... this is where enhanced marchers come into play. Keep in mind that the best part of these marchers is how cheap they are....... also keep in mind you might only need that slight burst in speed to get the enemy to 40% ...then you dont need the boost any longer. (if rushing for mock of brilliance get enhanced marchers afterwards)
Early game the BH is a very good solo hero.... i would argue the best solo hero in the game. The only hero that could probably scare a BH away might be a well played Thunderbringer because a few missed last hits and you'll be hurtin' .... a lot of good solos depend on aoe spells, this allows the BH to quickly feed off the denies caused by these AOE spells. The trick to solo BH is getting one of those 40% block shields + 1 rune of blight and 4 minor totems. vs a TB you might want to forget the shield and get 2 runes of blight and a pretenders crown...
18 min mock of brilliance is possible..... honestly i feel like it's not that hard to get as BH ... but i can see people having trbl getting it....... not sure what to say, but consider getting +dmg (savage mace/flayer) ... early and mid game the BH is about dmg not taking hits...
-- sPloOsH --> -click for my 1st video-
Balls of Steel video
Chu-
Yes, my rustiness pisses me off very often, but after playing around 80 games per day, I have recovered quite a bit. At the beginning of my comeback, my brain was functioning at a very low capacity and I couldn't help but think, 'Wow is this how bkid feels like?'
If you were to go for enhanced marchers, what would be your next item? Attack speed being low doesnt seem good to me on BH.
no mention of wingbow? i like it over most late game items
He mentioned Wingbow as one of the best Late-Game DPS-Items?!?!
Helm of the Black Legion, terrible. Adds no damage for a lot of gold. Bracelets are better if you are needing the HP. Hack and Slash, Charged Hammer are both terrible items on him.
Also Blood Crazy must be maxed at 12-14, because the damage becomes negligible and thus doesn't matter, while the increased silence length does. There is no reason whatsoever to not max it after early game.
Depending on the situation, I have two item builds.
* If farming well, rush Mock of Brilliance, then Enchanted Marchers, then Behemoth's Heart
* If having a hard time farming, Nullfire Blade, then Steamboots, then Behemoth's Heart, and Geometer's Bane whenever Nullfire runs out.
Throw Shrunken Head into both builds as you need, seeing as it works with his passive unlike in DotA
In short, your guide won't work outside pubs
Last edited by _Archangel_; 09-10-2009 at 06:11 AM.
Imo, I think you should get Blood Crazy before you start on Stats, but it's the last skill you max (besides Hemorrhage). Getting Blood Crazy on Level 1 is for good harrassing too though.
Ive found blood crazy at level one and then 2x feast and 2xsense to be the best set up.
Ive had numerous kills right off the bat with blood crazy, especially if you save it untill you get an enemy to red hp. Most of them dont expect to be taking 120 extra damage.
Feast isnt needed untill lvl2 unless your really bad at micro, and 2 levels of sense allows you to just about insta kill anythign as soon as you hit level 6 when combined with your ultimate.
I still cant get an idea of not taking first ability on first lvl. Threat it as an silence at lvl 1, harass with it. Than at lvl 13-15 max it and feel 80% more dmg. Are stats really better than that? After using hemmorage there are no more spells you could ever use on bh...
I find the Poor Man's Shield port to HoN a worthy first item, even in 5v5's.
except for the fact that hatchet is amazing?
i currently get hatchet, battery, 1 health potion, and a minor totem
i solo'ed vs 2k rated players (kyky) and was like 53/35 and i'd say the opponent was maybe 12/6 at best.......
bh just went from amazing to unstoppable solo ... also tb was nerfed a bit (yay)
Balls of Steel video
Chu-
Yes, my rustiness pisses me off very often, but after playing around 80 games per day, I have recovered quite a bit. At the beginning of my comeback, my brain was functioning at a very low capacity and I couldn't help but think, 'Wow is this how bkid feels like?'
I liked your guide its short, therefore you dont get bored reading it.
Even thought it might be short you have it all included skills early game, mid, late etc.
And i might try BH after reading this guide!
What you need;
More detail on itembuilds, all the when and whys
Add a so called "Core build"
More coluor, whit is okey but really put in a little red and yellow to highlight
Add some information on what heroes you want to go up against and why etc.
This guide is just scratching the surface, go more into details..
A few things that can be added:
-solo laning mid (he is damn good at that)
-as soon as one of the enemies got any type of invisibility, he should be the one carrying dust; different from dota his blood sense will not reveal invisible heroes
-silencing is one thing, your guide doesn't tell clearly enough that the silenced enemy receives a huge DPS-boost, so it should not be used on pure DPS-heroes (late Soulstealer for example) if they are fighting
-useful items not being mentioned: hatchet (early game, farming), frostwulf skull (enemy is silenced+ultied and now hitting you with high dps, skull counters that), shrunken head/Nullstone (he's weak if disabled), codex (yaya, wouldn't recommend this item, but against low HP-Heroes this can ensure to get the kill -> regain HP, BH has to ks; additionally you can drop an enemy's HP to gain your speed buff)
-nothing being said when to pick blood hunter (whome does he counter? which are the counters against him?), no word about synergies with other heroes
-your item build doesn't have any form of mana reg/manapool items, homecoming stone (post haste) not mentioned (silence+escape, TP to other lane tower to be in range for blood sense which enables you to kill a fleeing enemy)
-deny friendly heroes/yourself with your buff (they die to a slither/hag poison, you cast that buff on them and enemy won't get the kill, if you succeed doing the very last amount of damage)
Hey, just a few tips n tricks on BH for people reading this guide I've picked up so far:
(1) Silence on Devorer and prevents him from turning off his Decay Spell. With the long silence this is pretty awesome.
(2) Quick silence on Jeraziah prevents him from using his spells, godly counter if u can get to him in time.
(3) If the other team has Nymph, it is your main job to silence and gank this fairy before she starts pushing hard.
(4) Never whack on rupture on heroes too early, mainly if theres a group of 3-5, don't just slap on rupture as the other heroes will defend the target, try and use it for hereos specifically being chased by your team.
(5) As mentioned, carry dust, the amount of times I've got a hero on blood sense but can't see, just carry it.
(6) I notice debate between marchers and steamboots, IMO Marchers, the most irritating thing after invisible heroes on blood sense is being blocked by creeps/other hereos whilst chasing, marchers ftw.
If i think of anything else I'll edit this.
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