Centaur and Return

Despite his all-time high winrate, I can't see how he's a good pick. His role is highly debatable since there's nothing in his skills suggesting to a core or even pos 3. Med, BB, WK are way tankier than him. Timber, DK, Brew, Aba, Axe, core Undie, Spec are up there with him if not more.

I can't see where the "tanker" element comes from. His STR is a bit higher than treant but his skills are not at all promoting his ability to tank. After armor reduction, returns deals like 10 damage.

Share why you pick Centaur and your favorite build.

Tanks pretty much HAVE to be position #3 (Dusa aside perhaps) - you're not building for damage, but you need enough gold for items to make you durable in the face of the opposition. His str gain is insane, he has great initiation and disengage potention with Hoof Stomp & Stampede (with Scepter is extremely good).

Return isn't particularly a tanking skill, but it's very useful at the start and end of the game. Hitting yourself for 20 damage isn't much fun at the start if you have a weak auto-attack. Hitting yourself for 100+ damage isn't much fun at the end either when his EHP is well into the thousands. In the middle it's pretty meh. It's actually quite a good farming skill too.

Overall he's a very useful and well rounded hero - AOE stun, AOE damage (useful for farming and ganking), anti-harass skill, and a very useful teamfight ult/escape/initation. Being able to go in when you haven't got a Blink Dagger yet is VERY helpful if you're under early pressure. Also gives you a lot of flexibility on builds.

Personally -> Tranquil Boots -> Blink Dagger -> Crimson Guard/ Pipe of Insight -> Blade Mail -> Aghanim's Scepter / Heart of Tarrasque / Shiva's Guard. All good stuff.

Centaur is picked for his ultimate, which gives the ability to engage or disengage from any teamfight on a 60 second cooldown. There is no other initiator with a skill like that, the closest being Song of the Siren, but Centaur ult being global and low cooldown is really his selling point.

Also, Hoof Stomp is really good, one of the best non-ultimate stuns in the game, especially since Slardar's stun got the nerf bat.

And you're completely underrating Return.