Focus all your hatred on me! - Greater Bash's beloved Axe

Culling Blade (C)
Purges the weak from Mogul Kahn's sight. Deals moderate damage, but will kill a target that is low on life.
Level 1 - Deals 150 damage, kills if target is below 300 HP.
Level 2 - Deals 250 damage, kills if target is below 450 HP.
Level 3 - Deals 300 damage, kills if target is below 625 HP.
• Damage type: magic (regular), 100000000 physical (killing blow)
• The killing blow is dealt at the target if its HP is below 300/450/625 respectively, depending on the level of Culling Blade.
• The killing blow goes through magic immunity.
• The killing blow removes all buffs from the target unit before killing it.
• Casting range: 150
• Aghanim's Scepter reduces cooldown to 10 seconds at all levels
Mana Cost: 120/160/200
Cooldown: 75/65/55 (10 with Scepter)
Comment: FACTS Casting range: 150 Culling Blade deals Normal Damage. Only Phase Shift can dodge Culling Blade. Linken's Sphere will block this spell when target ain't below 300/450/625.

Skill Build:

1. Counter Helix
2. Berserker`s Call
3. Berserker`s Call
4. Counter Helix
5. Counter Helix
6. Culling Blade
7. Counter Helix
8. Berserker`s Call
9. Berserker`s Call
10. Stats
11. Culling Blade
12. Stats
13. Stats
14. Stats
15. Stats
16. Culling Blade
17. Stats
18. Stats
19. Stats
20. Stats
21. Stats
22. Battle Hunger
23. Battle Hunger
24. Battle Hunger
25. Battle Hunger

Item Build:

1.
Stout Shield (250)
Passive: Damage Block
60% chance to block 20 damage if the wielder is melee (10 if ranged).
We start off with a Stout Shield mainly because Axe wants enemies to attack him so this item is a perfect synergy with it.
2.
Ancient Tango of Essifation (90)
Active: Eat Tree
Eats a tree to restore 115 HP over 16 seconds. Purge will end the effect even though the status icon will remain.
Note: Stacks with itself in inventory. 3 charges.
Get 3 sets of this mainly because you need regeneration until you can buy your 2 Rings of Health.
3.
Ring of Health (875)
5 HP Regeneration
This one is for Vanguard/Hood of Defiance.
4.
Ring of Health (875)
5 HP Regeneration
This one is for Hood of Defiance/Vanguard.
5.
Phase Boots (1400)
60 Movement Speed
24 Damage
Active: Phase
Gives 16% movement speed bonus and lets you move through units. Using items or abilities cancels Phase. Lasts 4 seconds. 8 second cooldown.
Note: Movement speed bonus doesn't stack with Boots of Travel, Phase Boots, Power Treads, or Boots of Speed.
Boots of Speed + 2x Blades of Attack
Best boots for Axe in my opinion because the excellent speed and the surprise effect.
6.
Hood of Defiance (2125)
30% Spell Resistance
8 HP Regeneration
Planeswalker`s Cloak + Ring of Health + 2x Ring of Regeneration
A tank with good regeneration and good magic resistance is my key to victory.
7.
Vanguard (2225)
6 HP Regeneration
250 Hit Points

Passive: Damage Block
70% chance to block 40 attack damage if wielder is melee, or 20 damage if wielder is ranged.
Ring of Health + Vitality Booster + Stout Shield
You see that? I finish my Vanguard as my 3th item, no need to rush it.
8.
Kelen's Dagger (2150)
Active: Blink
Teleports the caster to 1200 range. Can't be used if the carrier was damaged by an enemy player-controlled unit or Roshan in the last 3 seconds. 75 manacost. 14 seconds cooldown.
Note: can't be held by Butcher or Vengeful Spirit.
Perfect for escaping/chasing/initiating with Berserker's Call.
9.
Talisman of Evasion (1800)
25% Evasion
A tank with evasion, I think this doesn't need further explanations.
10.
Heart of Tarrasque (5500)
40 Strength
300 HP
Passive: Health Regeneration
Regenerates 2% of max health each second. Only regenerates health when the bearer has not taken damage from a player owned source or Roshan in the last 6 seconds (ranged) or 4 seconds (melee). Doesn't stack with itself.
Messerschmidt's Reaver + Vitality Booster + Heart of Tarrasque Recipe Scroll
Pretty obvious, no need to justify that. So my item slots are full but no worries, more late game items will make their entry.

Early Game:

 The History of Mogul Khan

I think it’s obvious, before we start, that I first let you know where he comes from. As you all know Mogul Khan was once the leader of the Half-Tribe of the Bloodied Axe Clan. He was a great leader and always knew what was good for his people. Sadly to say he was slain by human Paladins and his people all despaired because their great leader was gone forever, and they swore to avenge his death.

Just when the Clan wanted to go to war to destroy the humans once and for all, they mysteriously saw their leader hunting down the humans already. They soon regrouped with their leader, still very confused if he was a hallucination or not. After having defeated the scout camps of the humans, he told them that he was revived by The Lich King and demons while at the same time refreshing his spells to give him only 1 purpose: slaughtering humans.

The Clan, both relieved and astonished, are now reuniting with their leader once more. But not only with him, they are all loyal servants now from The Lich King. That was the price Mogul paid, serving the Lich King together with his Clan for all of eternity. Now that you all know his history it’s time to learn how to play with this fabulous strong hero in DotA.

Now we all know Axe is a strength type hero. Although people say he isn’t that good at late game, I say differently. I strongly believe he can be a very good late gamer if you truly know how to play him, which is what most people seem lack. Almost everybody says that Axe is a noob-friendly-hero, that he isn’t difficult to play with, that he’s imba,… and so on. These people are wrong.

Axe is truly a hero which requires some skills, tactics and last but not least, bravery. Being the “Tank” of your team isn’t an easy job. More so with a stat gain with +2.5 for strength, when other tanks have +3.0 or more.

He is very good early and mid game because of his skills, which I will explain later and he is an early game decent killer. When you reach mid game nothing changes in his tasks. Still hero killing, but also disabling (which actually I also do early game because I level up Berserker’s Call). When entering late game, nothing really changes except that he will be the main tank of your team. A lot of people call Axe a useless hero in late game… Wrong again! Since when are tanks considered useless? When are 3 second disablers useless? Although if he gets a really but I mean really bad start it might be impossible to tank all the farmed up heroes but hey, your job is to not let them reach that stadium.

My skill build of Axe

Level 1: Counter Helix

Level 2: Berserker’s Call

Level 3: Berserker’s Call

Level 4: Counter Helix

Level 5: Counter Helix

Level 6: Culling Blade

Level 7: Counter Helix

Level 8: Berserker’s Call

Level 9: Berserker’s Call

Level 10: Stats

Level 11: Culling Blade

Level 12: Stats

Level 13: Stats

Level 14: Stats

Level 15: Stats

Level 16: Culling Blade

Level 17: Stats

Level 18: Stats

Level 19: Stats

Level 20: Stats

Level 21: Stats

Level 22: Battle Hunger

Level 23: Battle Hunger

Level 24: Battle Hunger

Level 25: Battle Hunger

Now the questions of the day, why do you get this skill build? Why you max out Counter Helix right at the start? Why you not max out Berserker’s Call immediately if that is your build? Why you delay Battle Hunger till the last levels? Do you even use Battle Hunger?

Ok let me answer those.

Why do you get this skill build?

Because I think this is the most efficient way to play my precious Axe.

Why do you max Counter Helix first?

Because I think every little damage output helps. If you are going for level 1 only in early game then you only have a 100 damage Counter Helix nuke without the armor reduction. If you take it at lvl 4 (so if you max it out as fast as possible) you got a 175 damage Counter Helix nuke without the armor reduction. Looks kinda better for me to get those kills early game. The time in between Helix’s also gets reduced so you have more of a chance to proc Counter Helix in shorter amounts of time.

Why you not max out Berserker’s Call immediately if that is your build?

Because I think a 2 second disable in early game is enough to kill a hero with your Counter Helix together with some enemy creeps for the triggering. If he isn’t dead yet, he must be a huge tank or healer to take all that early game and of course you always got your unique ultimate to finish them off.

Why you delay Battle Hunger till the last levels? Do you even use Battle Hunger?

To answer the last question, no I don’t use it. And to answer the previous one, I don’t find it that effective to hero kill with this because I think Berserker’s Call is better all around to do that. After all you can simply get rid of the spell by denying or last hitting a hero or unit which in my opinion is not worth to level it at all since most high level players last hit anyways. Also it can seriously be avoided by some good regeneration. Nope I’m not a fan of this spell at all. I don’t level it up in mid game because I think stats are a lot better for his strength and intelligence at that point. Strength for tanking and Intelligence for spamming the awesome Dagger and Berserker’s Call.

This is the only skill build I would advise kinda because Axe doesn’t have other possibilities I like.

DOWN WITH BATTLE HUNGER!

My starting items

Time to discuss what items I get to start with and what items we are aiming for at the end of early game.

So you summoned Axe: let’s see what we get as our starting items in any aspect of the game.

In a 5v5 -ap:

  3x 

The Stout Shield is for blocking some damage you will certainly receive in early game because we want that the enemy hero and enemy creeps attack us or even target us the whole time. It triggers our spell Counter Helix which we use to harass enemy heroes and even do the last-hitting job. This Stout Shield will later be transformed into a Vanguard.

BTW: 1 Stout Shield already blocks enough for our Axe in early game, there is no need to start with 2 Stout

Shields to try to block more damage. Both Vanguard and Stout Shield stack diminishingly, so it would be more cost effective to only buy one. Where does your regeneration come from then? You will have a very hard time surviving the nukers in your lane then. Stout Shield doesn’t block Magical Damage.

The 9 Tangos are for the regeneration in early game during the little clashes that will happen (because Axe wants people to target him) and this regeneration will suffice until we will buy our Ring of Health.

In a 4v4 –ap:

  3x

Huh? The same items? YES! Because the difference isn’t that big between the starting gold from a 5v5 –ap and a 4v4 -ap we still take the same items. The difference is 296 gold which we will spare up to buy our Ring of Health as soon as possible.

In a 3v3 –ap:

  

The Stout Shield is still for the same reasons as I explained in a 5v5 –ap. Because we can immediately buy ourselves a Ring of Health with the starting gold in a 3v3 –ap its better to get an item we need in our recipe then the tangos.

In a 2v2 –ap:

  

In a 2v2 –ap we need all the regeneration we can get to have the most lane control. This gives already a 10hp/sec regeneration in early game. Not bad at all. We will use our 132 gold to spare up for our next items.

In a 1v1 –ap:

    

Same situation here. We need to get the lane control by not needing to go back to base for healing. This build already gives 13hp/sec regeneration which will be enough to withstand the most spells and attacks. Also notice that we already got a Hood of Defiance here. When facing a nuker in a 1v1 –ap they will have a hard time dropping your Health Bar to 0.

 

Now again some questions I will probably hear, why not Boots first? It helps with the harassing… Why not Flasks instead of Tangos? They heal more so it’s better… Why do I never see 2 Stout Shields in your build? Are you not getting 2 Vanguards? Why not Ring of Basilius? It gives armor and mana regeneration for spamming your Berserker’s Call… No bracers at all, or even Null Talisman? And stacking up some Stout Shields? How about Poor Man's Shield now which got introduced at 6.60?

Why not Boots first? It helps with the harassing…

Buying Boots first is probably the most idiotic thing you can ever do. Why? Because it give you no help whatsoever with lane controlling and staying alive. No help at all. Sure you get the extra MS in early game, but it won’t let you get more kills because your kills are coming from Counter Helix. With the Boots you also have no Stout Shield and not enough Tangos in the beginning which concludes in making it more difficult to survive and to tank the attacks of the creeps and heroes.

Why not Flasks instead of Tangos? They heal more so it’s better…

Wrong, the Tangos will help Axe to tank the attacks of the creeps and heroes WHEN rushing into them to trigger some Counter Helixes. A thing you can’t do with Flasks. Because Axe needs to be in the fight all the time the Tango’s will help to recover some of the lost hp in the battle.

Why do I never see 2 Stout Shields in your build? Are you not getting 2 Vanguards?

NO, I WILL NEVER GET 2 VANGUARDS! Wonder why? Because 1 Vanguard already blocks enough damage and the money that would be spent on another Vanguard can be better used to spent on another item, in my case Hood of Defiance). I get this item to also become a little more tanky against the nukers. Also the regeneration this item gives is very nice to jungle and to survive in team clashes.

Let’s explain HOW they stack diminishingly. You can find all the combinations at this thread by Flodian. Only thing that is incorrect is that Vanguard can block 40 damage, not 35.

http://www.dotastrategy.com/forum/ftopic20712.html&highlight=vanguard+stack

I’m going to use the 2 Vanguard example. Now 1 Vanguard gives a 70% chance to block 40 damage. Now what happens to the other percentage from the second Vanguard? Well we still have 30% to get the total damage so we have to calculate how many percentage 70% is of the remaining 30% which is 21%. So this percentage we have to count with the other 70% of the first Vanguard. Together we will get a total of 91% to block 40 damage. I think I calculated this well.

I hope everything is clear now and that this second Vanguard is not worh it. People often think that they have a chance of 100% (even higher 0_o like 140%) that they will block 40 damage. This is not true!

Why not Ring of Basilius? It gives armor and mana regeneration for spamming your Berserker’s Call…

The mana regeneration I currently get in early game is enough to get some good Berserker’s Call’s in. Note that the manacost from Lvl 2 Berserker’s Call is only 90 mana. So you can spam it already a little in early game if you want. But always look out for some good occasions. Don’t rush with Berserker’s Call. The armor we get from Ring of Basilius is also not that good as getting a Stout Shield and Tangos.

No bracers at all, or even Null Talisman?

Getting those will only delay your item build, Axe won’t need those. He has enough mana in early game to cast some Berserker’s Call’s together with his ulti. He also got enough hp being a Strength type hero and regeneration at this point is more important for him than rather getting more strength or intelligence.

And stacking up some Stout Shields?

Don’t spend your money on something you will have to sell later on. If you are planning on stacking up some Stout Shields let’s say 3 Stout Shields then you have to spend 750 gold on it. Gold that you can use better for getting a Ring of Health.

How about Poor Man's Shield now which got introduced at 6.60?

I personally think Poor Man's Shield is made for the agility heroes who are very fragile early game, for that I'm not even gonna build it because I am going for a Vanguard. Also the 6 agility is almost useless for you, the little armor won't help.

Pros and cons of Axe

Pros

Great tank!

Good disable called Berserker’s Call!

Good farmer and damage dealer because of Counter Helix!

A very helpful ulti!

Very good early and mid gamer!

Excellent team player!

Cons

Becomes a little less effective in late game…

Counter Helix loses his touch…

Only 290 beginning MS…

Not that great strength gain…

Lane scenarios

I strongly advise you all (especially the beginners) to go top lane when you are on the Sentinels side and bottom lane when you are on the Scourges side. I advise you this because you got the better control over both the secret shops where we have to buy our regeneration a.k.a. 2 Rings of Health. Never place him in mid lane because he will get owned in that lane. The cliffs make it hard for Axe to initate, the towers are very close to each other, these are all things that are bad to Axe. Also you may have an ally with you but it is not needed. Axe can easy take a lane on his own but if you want to kill your enemies more quickly then another disabler hero is very good to make a nice synergy with Berserker’s Call. In leagues, you often see axe with Warlock because of his heal, and initiating ability. Also, a slower can come in handy to place your Berserker’s Call.

Now before I will show you my videos, I have to tell you that all are from 6.59d or a lower version so you might still see the old picture of Stout Shield in my inventory, don't confuse it with Poor Man's Shield.

If you laning, try to do this as it is a very easy thing to do. It gives you advantages in the farming process. Do this when you are pushing too much and when their creeps keep fighting at their tower.

Also a funny thing to do is using this tactic, I actually don’t advise you guys to do this in game because it can also serious fail and I’m not a fan of it either but because I’m making an Axe strategy I have to cover all details so here we go.

 

Jungling is very popular with Axe although you have to be lucky that the neutrals trigger some helixes to not let you go on low hp even with your Tangos. The creeps I would advise you guys to kill or at least try to kill are:

3 Gnoll Assassins

1 Kobold Taskmaster, 1 Kobold Tunneler and 3 Kobolds

 

1 Forest Troll High Priest and 2 Forest Troll Berserkers

1 Kobold Taskmaster and 2 Forest Troll Berserkers

1 Alpha Wolf and 2 Giant Wolves

2 Satyr Soulstealers and 2 Satyr Tricksters

1 Ghost and 2 Fel Beasts

These are all Tier 1 creep camps and the easiest way to get that gold in early game for your Ring of Healths without risking to go on low HP. What you can do, while farming a lane, is stack the Tier 1 creep camps. At around 54 seconds in any minutes, agro the creeps and run as far as you can and let them go back. Neutrals spawn every minute, and when they aren’t in the area, the game registers it as being empty and therefore spawns another camp. Do this about 3-4 times while still laning or neutraling and you will level up more effectively. As soon as you get 1 Ring of Health or even 2 you can go try to kill the other ones also. But again it depends on how many helixes they trigger, there may be times that you kill them in a couple of seconds but there also may be times that you are standing forever on such creep camp because they trigger no helixes.

Axe beloved spells

Berserker’s Call

A 3 second disable, that’s what it is. I personally like this spell a lot because there are a lot of synergies hiding in it. Berserker’s Call has many purposes in every aspect in the game, and keeps its effectiveness throughout the game. I level it up in my early game because I think this spell is a lot more useful than Battle Hunger to get some kills on your opponents. Another reason is that a lot people still use the Battle Hunger + Helix build I can surprise them with my Berserker’s Call early game. So when do we use this spell?

1) We use this spell when your enemy is standing beside some enemy creeps to help you trigger the helixes you need to kill them. Have you ever seen such great synergy? Well you should because all heroes need to have synergies.

2) We use this spell to make a combo with your ally in your lane, you aren’t obliged to have some creeps targeted by Berserker’s Call also because sometimes the few seconds disable can be enough for your ally to land a stun and finish the enemy or the other way around, when your ally stunned you can target him with Berserker’s Call to get those extra seconds of free-hitting for you both. But like always if there are creeps targeted it’s always better to finish the enemy off more quickly and let them trigger helixes.

 

 

3) We use this spell to save our allies because it really is a life-saver spell! It can even send our enemies in the wrong direction, I mean in the other direction where my ally or allies are going.

 

 

 

4) We also use this spell to initiate in a large bunch of heroes or clashes to try to disable them all and hopefully kill them. Try to do this with a teammate to make an awesome combo like the one I will show you guys now. These sort of kills can really turn the tide of the game.

5) Berserker’s Call can effect invisible heroes. To show you I got a nice gif/video here that will show you a Gondar who gets targeted by my Berserker’s Call (and was mad after).

 

6) Berserker’s Call can hit a magic immune unit or hero which makes it an excellent disable to count on.

Battle Hunger

 

FAIL-> DOWN WITH BATTLE HUNGER!

Well I will still say a few things about it if I may although I hate to depend on this spell. Battle Hunger deals Magical damage so actually it will deal a total of 468.75 damage with the 25% magic resistance at lvl 4. Not bad at all at first sight but there is a huge disadvantage. This spell can be removed by last-hitting or denying a unit and that’s why I don’t like this spell at all. Also I wish to make my Axe stronger at mid game and that’s why I don’t go Battle Hunger. Yes it is true that this spell can give you some kills early game but you will miss a lot of kills in mid game. It compensates and I rather want to have more mana to spam my Dagger and Berserker’s Call than rather spend it on Battle Hunger and that’s why I go stats before Battle Hunger. I won’t kill you if you decide to take this spell even after levelling up Berserker’s Call and Counter Helix but you will see the difference soon enough.

BUT: When your opponents are Dagger heroes and they decide to buy the item it is smart to get 1 level of Battle Hunger to prevent them from blinking in or blinking away. Only get 1 level of Battle Hunger if the opponents already bought their item!

Counter Helix

This is the spell that makes Axe, without it he would be totally useless. I hope nobody ever played Axe without Counter Helix because that would be the most ridiculous thing you could have ever done. This is mainly used for harassing, farming and of course killing heroes. A very strong spell at early and mid game when the HP bars are still not that high so it actually loses its potential in late game. But it will never be useless, even in late game it can be a huge damage dealer. Recently buffed (or that’s what I think) from 0.60 second to a 0.55 second at cooldown at level 4 so that more helixes can trigger in time. Also this spell will not cancel your normal attack although it seems that it does. Even when he is spinning he is attacking the opponent with his normal attack so don’t worry that you will deal less damage. Remember that Counter Helix triggers when the attack animation of the enemy begins, not when the attack actually reached Axe. There are sometimes people who try to cancel their attack by clicking backwards or pressing S, but as soon as you begin the animation for the attack, it counts as targeting Axe, so even if they don’t hit you, you’ll still get Helix’s off.

So what are the purposes of this spell?

1) Harassing comes to mind, especially in early game when harassing is one of the most important things to do. Just right-click the heroes and the creeps will come to you, I will show you some videos where I harass successfully.

 

 

2) Besides that it is used to harass enemies it can also mean the difference between alive or dead. This is all explained better with the walking helix tactic which is a very important tactic to use with Axe. When you are oom or whenever your spells are on cool down, try to follow them as close as you can when rushing into creeps or crossing creeps. The creeps could still trigger an important helix which could mean that the enemy will die or stay alive. Also pay attention how I try to block his path. I almost stuck him between me and trees.

3) And of course, killing enemies very fast! I don’t even know what Windrunner’s intention was here.

4) Counter Helix deals normal damage which means it gets reduced by armor.

5) Counter Helix can hit invisible units or heroes.

Culling Blade

A very unique ultimate in your arsenal and a very dangerous one for those heroes with low hp and low strength gain. Be sure to always have that little mana left to use it when you need it. Now some may say that this is a very KS-ing spell when you use it in ganks and such but actually, you should use it when you can on a hero whose hp drops below the killing threshold. Be sure to not intentionally KS when you are very sure that the enemy will die. This spell also synergizes very well with your 2 other spells, Berserker’s Call and Counter Helix. Those 3 spells make Axe a very decent, I mean EXCELLENT hero killer.

1) Culling Blade deals normal damage which means it can kill magic immune units and heroes (never use it on a creep lol).

2) Sadly to say there is one spell that can counter this ultimate which is called Phase Shift (Puck).

3) Culling Blade can be cancelled when the enemy dodges it like this:

Farming

Now I think it’s pretty clear that Axe‘s skills help him farm and that’s right. Also his attack animation isn’t that bad so he can last-hit and deny creeps easily when you’re skilled at it. Because of his Counter Helix, he can easily jungle when he has 2 Rings of Health or even 1. When he’s gained some experience and we are at the end of early game then he can easily go live in the wild and kill the neutrals. Don’t forget to stack neutrals whenever you can! This is a very important tactic that will make farming a lot easier and faster because more neutrals causes more triggers so they cause more helixes which would mean that the neutrals will die more quickly. Also jungling gives another advantage to your team, your carry heroes get free lanes to farm and get more experience which is a very smart thing to do, but don’t forget Axe is the carry hero of early and mid game.

Hero killing: Solo and Combo

I know all of you guys want to see more Axe action so I won’t disappoint you all!

Solo

 

 

 

Combo

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

Earned items

When finishing early game you should have at least (or pretty close to it) these items:

Remember Axe is a good farmer so he can easily have last hits at creeps because of Counter Helix.

When you farmed good and got some more kills than suspected on enemy heroes you could have these items:

When it went perfect and you earned a lot of money you could even have your Vanguard already. In a league environment, rushing Phase Boots is a great idea because of the surprise effect, and burst of move speed that can be used to help get your Berserker’s call off. The ability to go through creeps isn’t bad either :P

This concludes early game, I hope you enjoyed it.