Bristleback is not a Tank

40% damage reduction is hardly "not tanky".

Force staff as well, more mana and the active is pretty fun on bristle...
Not a tank tho? I have to disagree you can fountain dive with the hero absorb the damage and kill everything with stacked quills and walk away from it.

Wulfstan and I actually watched you play him one game. We did a cast on it, but I screwed up the audio.

Here are the problems that we discussed in the cast, and Wulfstan can certainly back me up on this if he sees this post:

You don't get mana regen on bristleback, which is a problem. With mana, his spam is incredible. the game that we observed your items were quelling, stout, and 1 set of tangos against a dual melee lane. Hopefully you can see where your items may have faltered there. For a first item, you got a RoH against a dual melee lane. You weren't taking harass, so I feel this wasn't necessary. You should've went for early mana to spam against melee. Push them out of farm range, or even better exp range.

Your skill build needs work as well. You skipped all points of snot until 10. It's very easy to chase melee heroes. They go in for a last hit, snot them. If they go in for another, snot them and decide whether or not you can spam to kill them. Only one had a wand, so you could have went on the other hero which was spirit breaker if I remember correctly.

After vanguard, you went for a hood. You still had no mana items, which is a problem on bristleback. No one is going to focus you if you can't spam. You're just a walking creep, essentially. With higher mana, they have to decide: "Try to focus him to make him back, or eat 5 more stacks of quills".

Your mana management needs work as well, especially without any mana items. You used W spam to farm creeps instead of level 4 E. You should have just put your back to them, went to the kitchen, grabbed some food, come back with a sandwich AND SURPRISE GOLD!.

I'd suggest changing your items up a bit. Two huge pick ups that Wulfstan and I both agreed on for Bristleback that you lacked that game (And several other games I've seen you in) are rod of atos and medallion of courage. Both solid pick ups for bristleback, and not terribly farm heavy.

Another thing that I see you skipping a lot is a wand. Try grabbing one more often. You rarely seem to get early stat items like wand and such. With bristleback making you so tanky, you're going to get a lot of charges with heroes trying to kill you. When they over commit a dive to finish you off and you're oom, pop that wand and smash that W key. It will save you more times than any other 500 gold item in the game.

Edit: Also, bristleback CAN tank, but it's difficult. You have to turn to goo and quill, then run when the opponents hero models face you in anticipation of attacks and spells. If they don't face you, keep focusing supports with no armor. Just be patient. Even with his back to heroes, he's kind of mediocre. If you're facing heroes head on, and diving them... You're going to have a bad time. -_-

He's not a straight up tank. He's more a kiting specialist. The better you are at kiting and baiting, the better you will be with BB.

You don't really need Force Staff when you have a 1200 range 60% slow from Rod of Atos and the Viscous Nasal Goo.That's just me on it.



I like Bristleback and I used to play it often in DotA.He is a really good hero when facing either:

• Heroes with no escape abilities: Sniper, Enchantress, Lone Druid just to name a few.
• Heroes that are melee and he can bully so he can take over the lane: Basically any melee hero, but let's say Kunkka (sorry Angelo) could be a good example since he can easily be pushed out of XP range with Bristleback, and he can also easily be killed.
• Heroes that have low range but rely much on farming so Bristleback can bully them too:
  Luna, Batrider are the examples that come up to mind now.
• Riki (guess this one is kind obvious, HINT : Bristleback > Backstab)

Just get your quills up, get a lvl 2 goo point, get a lvl 4 bristleback point.Bully the lane, take it over, even if the enemy will have wands, just keep the fear factor there, run up and smack their face.


Now the items( here comes the fun part): Bristleback can be quite flexible, with items ranging from Vladmir's Offering to Pipe of Insight in his build, however there are 2 core items that I never skip: Medallion of Courage and Rod of Atos.

The first one is quite obvious, gives the armor reduction, that works wonders with Quill Spray and Viscous Nasal Goo early game, and gives the mana regen that you need so badly.Its also cheap.

If you are doing really well I wouldn't neglect the possibility of getting a Drum of Endurance. +8 to all stats, and extra movespeed(guess what the stats and movespeed synergise perfectly with Bristleback cause he has mana problems and Warpath while giving some movement speed, still does not make him a racecar).

Second one is I believe the best thing you could get as Bristleback: Rod of Atos.Do you like snotting and quilling people down to death but there are slippery little targets that escape your high stake chase like Weaver or Slark? No problem, we have a whooping 1200 range 60% slow at our disposal + the extra movement speed from Warpath.

Alternatively you can just get a Ring of Basilius on the lane(that will also lead into medallion after dissasembling it).Getting a stout shield is generally good too since you want to trade hits as Bristleback on the lane.

Around the mid game, an Armlet of Mordiggian will serve you well.Better than Vanguard from all standpoints, and if you are decent at armlet toggling(totally shameless affirmation that I am quite decent with it), you can make an enemy chase you forever.

Late game there are 3 major pickup possibilities: Assault Cuirass, Heart of Tarrasque and Shiva's Guard, depending on what you need.

He is also decent mid, but I will go over this one in another post if given the chance.

Some great points here. I will have to play him again and see if I can improve. WHat about getting a Mek on him?