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Hero Discussion #7 Bristleback

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Forum » General Discussion » Hero Discussion #7 Bristleback 17 posts - page 2 of 2
Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep by Sando » August 26, 2016 9:36am | Report
A Bristle/KOTL dual lane is pretty rough to cope with.
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Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep by Cuttleboss » August 26, 2016 10:05am | Report
For Bristle combos, he pairs very well with hard dispels and heals. Hard dispels ( Abaddon, Oracle, LC) are good for him because he's weak to getting stunned since he needs to face his back to his targets, normal dispels are also nice since slows hurt Bristle a lot. Healers also give him a good time in lane, preferably ones that give him mana in some way (Arcane Boots works), since he is actually not as tanky as people think he is unless he has a gold lead, so people like Warlock, Oracle (again), Omniknight, Abaddon (again), Io (works well mid), and Treant Protector (in his case, doesn't even have to be the same lane).

As for the Bristle-KotL lane, it is surprisingly early to dismantle even though it sounds powerful on paper. All you have to do is kill the KotL, he is the most fragile support in the game, up there with WD and AA. If Kotl doesn't have the cover of the safelane trees, he is easy to kill. So in the offlane the only point where he is safe is if Bristle pushes the lane to the tower. Most trilanes and many dual lanes can thus easily beat the lane by killing the KotL, then Bristle who is lacking in XP is easy to take care of. This is a lane I've played as and against before, it doesn't work out well.

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Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep by Sando » August 26, 2016 10:15am | Report
Cuttleboss wrote:

As for the Bristle-KotL lane, it is surprisingly early to dismantle even though it sounds powerful on paper. All you have to do is kill the KotL, he is the most fragile support in the game, up there with WD and AA. If Kotl doesn't have the cover of the safelane trees, he is easy to kill. So in the offlane the only point where he is safe is if Bristle pushes the lane to the tower. Most trilanes and many dual lanes can thus easily beat the lane by killing the KotL, then Bristle who is lacking in XP is easy to take care of. This is a lane I've played as and against before, it doesn't work out well.


Obviously execution is as important as the plan - like any of the KOTL/mana hungry tank lanes. Or indeed any "lane dominator" + "support" lanes. Especially if you're against a defensive trilane.

The secret is for the support to play relatively passively, side-pulling, stacking the offlane hard camp etc. KOTL should be sat well back of Bristle, he only needs to feed him mana roughly every 15 seconds. The rest of the time he can be sat back waiting to Illuminate if they try to go on BB.

Most defensive trilanes struggle to hold discipline if they're not getting kills, and when they're looking to roam or stack you can push in and be more aggressive.

I would agree it's not an auto-win against a competent tri lane (or dual lane even), but it can be very strong if used correctly.
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Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep by ChiChi » August 26, 2016 10:27am | Report
You guys covered it all - defence options and less armor strats, besides disables (BB himself doesn't have one so he needs his team to do that for him until he gets it).

I think Sando is right about Keeper of the Light, it's a known combo that works very well when used by pros (which we've seen some times in competitive). The specific problem you pointed out is there anywhere you want to lane the KOTL, and with anyone - the secret here is you're not trying to get kills with Bristle, you're merely farming him up and getting him to the point where you can engage and then the Illuminate also plays a huge part. Kotl in our games are usually terrible players that are constantly out of position, that doesn't mean he's not one of the best heroes to pair with BB. Also you're talking about BB offlane Cuttle, which is almost exclusively again a thing of our pubs - competitive BB is mostly not played in the offlane. So we are talking about a safelane KOTL with BB. If you do a duolane offlane with BB that's supposed to go aggresive on the enemy duo or trilane you probably need more damage/disable, you won't put a BB with a KOTL there, that's just a waste for both.

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Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep by Sando » August 26, 2016 10:48am | Report
I'd agree ChiChi, there are so many players who think KOTL is:

1) A hero you should play aggressive with
2) A need to constantly spam Illuminate and push the lane out
3) Take farm from everyone wherever possible
4) Never level Mana Leak
5) Never use your ultimate effectively
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Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep by TheSofa » August 26, 2016 4:29pm | Report
Quick side note: Mana Leak is super super strong.

Why is Io Bristle strong? is it because of the attack speed that bristle gets from overcharge, or is it because io makes bristle never die?

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Permalink | Quote | PM | +Rep by Wulfstan » August 27, 2016 2:10am | Report
TheSofa wrote:

Quick side note: Mana Leak is super super strong.

Why is Io Bristle strong? is it because of the attack speed that bristle gets from overcharge, or is it because io makes bristle never die?



Because you get both of those in one skill. And MS as well.

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