Kurthifa the Crimson Knight by Cuttleboss

+ Excellent early game stats between attributes, extremely high base damage, respectable armor, high base regen, and good movespeed. This all adds up to a very powerful hero from the start of the game
+ Low mana dependence as only one spell costs mana
+ Low cooldown skills, does not have to play around cooldowns and thus has insane tempo potential
+ Good mobility between her two spells; not as kiteable as many other strength carries
+ Potentially very high scaling damage output with both right clicks and nukes
+ Has very easy and early access to heal reduction which can shut down certain matchups quickly
+ Activates with only a bit of farm and stays a huge threat into late game
+ With some items and levels she can be extremely hard to kill
+ Easily one of the hardest heroes to manfight and comfortable in the frontline
- Extremely item dependent throughout game, needs to stay farmed to be useful and is inflexible in role.
- Very level dependent and reliant on talents, needs multiple levels of skills for them to be powerful
- Mobility spells are soft mobility due to either short distance or not being able to bypass terrain; still kite-able.
- Very vulnerable to Break and burst damage, especially scaling burst damage.
- Poor natural agility and attack speed, reliant on Crimson Impact to attack fast
- Poor lane matchup can cause her to have a non-existent presence in a game
- Requires key synergy picks (like Dazzle, Oracle or Io) to be optimized
- Needs to be at low life to farm quickly and deal damage, meaning it’s much easier to get nuked or disabled to death than other tanky heroes. She also harms herself in order to use two of her spells. She is not as tanky as she seems

Kurthifa is almost always played as a carry that needs farm and levels. Because of how powerful and fast she is early game with her high damage that is further boosted by her passive and how much of an edge Run Through grants as an escape and physical crit nuke, Kurthifa is well suited as a midlaner. She can easily wear down most opponents by spamming Run Through on her opponent and can out last-hit them with the damage from Mortality Rush if she is missing a fair amount of health. She can clear the distance well against ranged kiter-based mids and trade with melee mids.

She can also be played as a carry in a sidelane and this is where her Crimson Impact shines more, as she can gain more attack speed from facing multiple foes. With the right partners she can stomp the lane with her huge damage output. Either way, her gameplay is mostly aggressive, as she wants to use her innate high damage, speed, armor and regeneration combined with her mobility to bully whoever she can. With her gameplay however, it can be very easy to overcommit to plays and end up feeding a lead. In terms of gameplay, she would be like a Huskar, Ursa or a Legion Commander as a carry and burst damage hero that activates pretty fast. She is not this super fast farmer but she hits hard and can be very hard to kill and puts a lot of pressure on enemies.

She can also be played as a utility position 3 hero built around regen reduction and disabling with her Run Through and nuking with her Retribution, however she is much less optimal with standard aura items than most tanky position 3’s due to only getting huge value out of strength and health. This type of build will probably just be more gimmicky and fun, but situationally could be strong. As a utility she is more like a Night Stalker, having tankiness, spells, and attacks to deal damage and pressure enemies. She can also be played as a goofy pure nuker for fun (or maybe legitimately, who knows, its Dota and weird things happen that aren't intended).

Kurthifa has a low skill floor as all her abilities are simple and she is mechanically easy to execute. She takes a lot of practice to master her low-health based decision making. Because of this, she has a low skill floor and a medium-high skill ceiling.

General Stat Priorities (Carry leaning stats):
High Priority: STR, Attack Speed, HP Regen, Status Resistance, Spell Immunity
Middle Priority: Armor, Movespeed, HP, Attack Damage, AGI, Lifesteal, Spell Amplification, Mobility
Low Priority: Magic Resistance, Spell Lifesteal, Mana Regen, INT, Cooldown Reduction, Cast Range, Mana

Early: Bracer, Soul Ring, Morbid Mask, Crown, Faerie Fire, Magic Wand, Helm of Iron Will, Orb of Venom, Blades of Attack, Blight Stone, Orb Of Corrosion, Falcon Blade, Bottle
Boots: Power Treads is generally more valuable as it adds more health and attack speed which is better for this hero but Phase Boots can be easier to snowball with. Tranquil Boots for utility nuker, as you’re trying to cast more spells and need the regen with that build.

Mid:
Carry: Armlet of Mordiggian, Sange and Yasha, Desolator, Orchid Malevolence, Echo Sabre, Black King Bar, Crystalys, Shadow Blade, Mask of Madness, Battle Fury, Aghanim's Shard
Utility: Spirit Vessel, Vladmir's Offering / Wraith Pact, Drum of Endurance / Boots of Bearing, Heaven's Halberd, Blink Dagger, Crimson Guard, Solar Crest, Lotus Orb, Pipe of Insight, Force Staff, Mekansm, Eternal Shroud, Mage Slayer
Nuker: Veil of Discord, Kaya and Sange, Ghost Scepter, Dagon 1

Late (all builds):
Heart of Tarrasque, Satanic, Daedalus, Silver Edge, Eye of Skadi, Aghanim's Scepter, Assault Cuirass, Nullifier, Bloodthorn, Mjollnir, Monkey King Bar, Butterfly, Abyssal Blade, Dagon 5, Ethereal Blade, Guardian Greaves, Wraith Pact, Helm Of The Overlord, Shiva's Guard, Gleipnir, Scythe of Vyse, Moon Shard, Overwhelming Blink, Hurricane Pike, Divine Rapier

Some Item Builds:
Early Activating Armor Reduction Carry: Power Treads/ Phase Boots> Armlet of Mordiggian> Desolator> Black King Bar> Assault Cuirass>then whatever late game items
Ganker Semi-Carry: Phase Boots> Shadow Blade> Black King Bar> Silver Edge> Abyssal Blade/ Assault Cuirass/ Heart of Tarrasque>then late game items
Farming Pusher Carry: Power Treads> Battle Fury> Sange and Yasha> Black King Bar> Satanic> Moon Shard> Daedalus
Utility: Tranquil Boots> Spirit Vessel> Heaven's Halberd> Blink Dagger> Aghanim's Scepter> Lotus Orb> Shiva's Guard
Nuker: Tranquil Boots>( Veil of Discord)> Kaya> Dagon 1> Blink Dagger> Ethereal Blade> Dagon 5> Overwhelming Blink

Item Discussion:

First Damage Item:
Armlet of Mordiggian: Probably most reliable first item as a damage dealer as is pretty common on strength right clickers, but very strong on Kurthifa due to how her passive works. This item can also be used to keep her health lower to get more damage, though with the Mortality Rush toggle, it means that it is not entirely necessary to get Armlet to keep health low.
Shadow Blade: A less damage but more of an impressive ganker item, Shadow Blade allows Kurthifa to get kills all over the map by positioning well for Run Through. Builds into Silver Edge too, which is a very powerful damage item and lets her take on many carries.
Echo Sabre: This item offers some mana regeneration and allows Kurthifa to easily deal a lot of damage with the double strike, since she gains a lot of attack damage from her passive. Effective with Armlet and if you keep your health low.
Orchid Malevolence: Against key core enemies like Storm or Queen of Pain, this item can be Kurthifa's core for shutting them down. The stats are useful and the silence has a ton of potential, since it lasts much longer than Run Through's disable, which does not prevent spellcasting or attacking. The silence damage can also add up to a lot with Retribution.
Mask of Madness: Because Kurthifa gains most of her damage from her passive, if she toggles off the passive she can farm very quickly if she has attack speed. MoM gives her the sustain and burst attack speed to farm and to fight once she has cast all her spells. It also can be disassembled into Satanic and Butterfly/Bloodthorn/Echo.
Battle Fury: If for whatever reason you decide to build Kurthifa as a farming hard carry that builds around her Crits, this item fits her, as she has built in damage, can cast a crit on command, and has mobility spells to clear camps very quickly. Also very useful against summons and illusions.

Minus Armor:
Desolator: A powerful item if bought reasonably early (to gain charges), this stacks well with AC and the hero’s level 25 Armor Corruption talent. If bought early it can be a huge power spike.
Assault Cuirass: A very good and balanced item on this hero, massively increasing the value of her hit points. Should be a big priority in late game in carry builds. Pairs well with Desolator.

Utility:
Spirit Vessel: A great option, stacks with the regeneration reduction of Run Through. Makes her a huge anti-healer threat.
Heaven's Halberd: Useful against key rightclickers and generally makes the hero very survivable. A legitimate option even on the carry build of Kurthifa against the right foe.
Solar Crest: A good item for utility Crimson Knight, as it makes her tanky but also allows her to do some physical burst damage with the armor reduction.
Shiva's Guard: Another useful anti-regen item and it adds a huge amount of armor. The slow is also very useful for chasing enemies.
Eye of Skadi: If you need further anti-regen and slow. The slowing attack can help her if she is getting kited too. Helps you fight a lot of carries and prevents the enemies from running from you.

Mobility:
Force Staff/ Hurricane Pike: As Run Through allows you to drag the latched hero, you can use Force Staff and Crimson Impact to significantly displace your Run Through target far from the enemies the way a Batrider would. Useful in general as a utility hero with certain matchups as well.
Blink Dagger: If played like an initiator, Dagger allows Kurthifa to jump enemies with Retribution's stun (and significant damage, even if cast from full health) and then use the other mobility skills to flee, disengage or chase.
Aghanim's Scepter: With two charges of Run Through that is also faster, Scepter grants a large boost to mobility and disabling power.
Overwhelming Blink: Blink, but sexier. Due to Kurthifa's high strength itemization, the active will deal a lot of damage and the slow allows her to catch and outfight a lot of enemies.

Nuker:
Kaya and Sange: Boosts the damage of Crimson Impact and Retribution on two fronts with health pool and spell amp. Also makes Kurthifa much harder to kill with status resistance and regeneration boost. It can also be disassembled into Ethereal Blade.
Ethereal Blade: Can massively boost the damage of Retribution, making it one of the most powerful nukes. Its own nuke scales well with Kurthifa’s high strength too.
Dagon 1 to Dagon 5: It’s Dagon. 3 guesses on how it synergizes with the Nuker build.

Tank and Status Resistance:
Sange and Yasha: A good all around item, the speed helps with kiting and pairs excellently with lifesteal. An excellent 2nd damage item.
Satanic: A huge damage and survival boost for Kurthifa. With Run Through's crit, the Satanic active is an effective way to heal to full and dispel any potentially nasty debuffs.
Heart of Tarrasque: This is one of the best potential damage boosters on this hero, as it gives you more health and survivability which boosts 3 of your skills. However, if you do not use your Mortality Rush toggle, it will keep you at full health and will massively slow down your farming potential, so be mindful.
Black King Bar: A major pick up in most builds. Don't skip it since you can't do damage if you're disabled.

Neutral Items:
Level 1: Chipped Vest*, Possessed Mask*, Broom Handle*, Tumbler's Toy, Ocean Heart
Level 2: Essence Ring*, Vambrace*, Fae Grenade*, Dragon Scale, Nether Shawl, Brigand's blade
Level 3: Titan Sliver*, Ceremonial Robe, Elven Tunic, Enchanted Quiver, Paladin Sword, Spider Legs, Cloak Of Flames, Blast Rig
Level 4: Penta-Edged Sword*, The Leveller*, Flicker, Timeless Relic, Ninja Gear, Witchbane
Level 5: Apex*, Pirate Hat*, Desolator 2* Giant's Ring*, Arcanist's Armor*, Book Of Shadows, Ex Machina, Fallen Sky, Force Boots, Mirror Shield
*Denotes an extra useful neutral item

Kurthifa’s skill build is flexible and offers many options on how to play her.

Crimson Impact is a good spell to have during the laning phase, as the lunge distance is consistent it only needs one level in many lanes. In lanes with multiple enemies the extra points are valuable for a higher amount of attack speed and overall damage since in one on one, trading 20% of your health for 8-14% of it in damage on one enemy is not sound. Otherwise this spell would be maxed last, as it is a lot more useful when there are more teamfights and Kurthifa has more health.

Run Through is a powerful skill, it does a lot of things and is your primary disable. It is the preferred spell to max, especially in 1 on 1 lanes because the crit is useful as a nuke and it is your only spell that costs mana so you can spam it many times to crush your enemy in lane.

Mortality Rush is potentially a very strong skill. It grows a lot stronger as the game goes longer, but offers a fair amount of use early game in laning, as it can easily provide 10-40 more damage for last hitting and denying. The spell may be worth putting additional levels in if the enemies have less nukes and disables as it can allow Kurthifa to maximize her damage output in the lane. Normally however, it would be maxed second or possibly third.

Retribution is a huge power spike and should be skilled whenever you can. There is no reason to wait on increasing its level, as the health cost does not go up while the nuke damage does.

Attribute Bonus: The Crimson Knight has the option to go for some bonus attributes over levels in Crimson Impact if Crimson Impact is mostly used for mobility and because the spell mainly shines for its damage much later in the game. This may still be a bad idea to neglect the attack speed it grants. You also have the option to choose it over Run Through, but that is riskier.


Talent Choices:

Level 10: Health vs Lifesteal. For Kurthifa, Health pool is more potential damage with all her abilities (and general survivability) while Lifesteal gives her an impressive ability to go toe to toe with many early activating heroes at that point of the game. The Lifesteal also has strong synergy if she is buying an Armlet as it will give her sustain.

Level 15: Health Regen vs Attack Speed. This is another sustain vs damage talent, the health regen can be useful for sustaining if you are not relying on lifesteal, as Retribution and Crimson Impact deal a bunch of damage to Kurthifa. The attack speed is straightforwardly good for farming and fighting in general.

Level 20: Bigger Retribution Damage Cap vs Double Mortality Rush damage. This one lets you decide nuker vs carry. Retribution's cap increase keeps it a very powerful spell into very late game and the improved Mortality Rush is a massive boost to damage all around and allows Kurthifa to do more damage at higher health.

Level 25: Armor Corruption vs Retribution Stun. Armor Corruption fits well with Impact, Run Through, and Mortality Rush and can be incorporated into an armor reduction strategy or draft. Kurthifa is very strong if she can bring down the armor of her foes. The Retribution Stun is very useful in nuker and utility builds to disrupt the enemies and becoming a very annoying disabler and is much better if you are not the main carry.

Ideal Allies:

Last Chance Hit Point Heroes:
Heroes that allow Kurthifa to stay alive at very low health and able to output her peak damage for a while. If she has lifesteal she may even make a recovery with Dazzle and Oracle's cases.


Aggressive Combo Heroes: Healers are extra good here as it allows Kurthifa to keep moving forward with her mobility spells, but essentially a hero that helps Kurthifa play aggressively early game in lane can snowball her hard. A lot of initiators count here as well.


Armor Reduction: Kurthifa is a hero that is natural as an armor reducing hero. These synergistic picks can make her a massive threat through the midgame and lategame.


Damage/Speed Boosters: Kurthifa likes heroes that make her attack faster or hit harder. She has a lot of strength and it does not inherently provide huge amounts of damage. Damage boosters make her less reliant on being low on health to use Mortality Rush.

Good Against:


Man-Up Heroes: Manly as many of these heroes are, they are at a disadvantage in close combat against Kurthifa as she can fight them to low health, can suppress the lifesteal or regen they usually rely on to fight, and nuke them for huge amounts of damage as she gets low on health. Even if they are stronger than her, she can use her two mobility skills to disengage.


Short Ranged Agility Carries: These heroes are usually at a disadvantage against Kurthifa. She is tanky and thus hard to DPS down and having a nuke that she uses when she’s low on health lets her overpower most of these heroes. She is good against evasion (as all her spells pierce it) and is a good armor reducing hero (which counters most of these heroes), which nullifies a lot of standard agility carry tools.


Mobile Heroes: As Run Through has a latch and a root, the Crimson Knight can counter these heroes by taking away their mobility and bursting them with her huge damage output.


Lifesteal, Healer, and Regen: As Run Through provides a powerful regeneration suppression aspect to it, many heroes that rely on huge amounts of regeneration or lifesteal get hurt badly by it and Kurthifa has access to it before almost all other heroes. A lot of heroes that benefit from these types of skills (like DK, Necro, and Timber) also counter Kurthifa however, as seen below.

Worst Enemies:


Damage Dampeners: These heroes weaken Kurthifa’s damage output, which limits her ability to tear apart her enemies. Anyone who applies Break also applies here in the same manner as her passive is the source of most of her attack damage.


Root Kiters: Most slowing based kiters are not a threat since Kurthifa has Crimson Impact and Run Through where she cannot be slowed. But root based kiting is a nightmare for her and often can lead to her death as she will not be able to use two of her spells it is almost akin to a silence.


Scaling Burst Damage: Kurthifa has a lot of health in many of her builds and as her health gets lower she gets more powerful. Many nukers can blow her up before she does any real damage and generally she eventually counters them as her health pool gets larger, but ones that scale will be able to do so even into the late game. These are some of her biggest threats.


Low Health Killers: Similar to the scaling burst damage, these heroes specifically counter being low health. They finish her off before she can do her best work at low health.

(Design by Yun A Nam, not made for this concept)


Personality:
The Crimson Knight is a cool and soft spoken character who is more or less accepted she is constantly teetering on the edge of life and death. When she gets kills and uses her spells, she does explode with energy however, as her powers are built around adrenaline. As such her personality comes off as very dynamic. She has an affinity towards summoned units and will greet them if she sees them on her team. She generally speaks about her redemption and about the duty of protecting those who are weaker.

Interactions with Other Heroes:
Kurthifa’s background links her to Dragon Knight who she reveres and respects despite his actions leading to the start of the Order which she turned away from. It also links her to Huskar and Dazzle, and she will comment that seeing the Nothl Realm changed her and is glad there are others out there that have seen it too. As Kurthifa is a justice seeking character, she obviously would like others like that such as Omniknight, Magnus, Sven, and Crystal Maiden. Related to that she will give respect towards very heroic characters like Clinkz, Phantom Lancer, and Ursa. She also will judge the other knights based on how she sees them, like she has a generally favorable look of Sven, Omniknight and Dragon Knight, while having a less favorable one of Chen and obviously an extremely unfavorable one towards Chaos Knight. She also has opinions on Legion Commander, the hero that physically resembles her the most, in that she’s wild and angry and should not be so hateful.

Voice Sample:
Based on Dorothea from Fire Emblem: Three Houses, voiced by Allegra Clark Play Video

Equipment Slots (7) and Default:
Head: Kurthifa’s Locks
Chest: Kurthifa’s Plate Mail
Shoulder: Kurthifa’s Pauldrons
Legs: Kurthifa’s Greaves
Weapon : Kurthifa’s Longsword
Off Hand: Kurthifa’s Shortsword
Taunt: None

Set ideas:
Master-At-Arms of the Dragon Hunters
Design by Yun A Nam


Head: Hairstyle of the Dragon Hunters
Rarity Mythical
The Dragon Hunters were a unique group of knights in Candoness that specialized themselves to train to slay dragons. All of the female members wore their hair in this manner, though Kurthifa did not like that it covered and warrior’s eyes and forehead.

Chest: Cloak of the Dragon Hunters
Rarity Uncommon
The Dragon Hunters wore a long cloak to make themselves more visible to dragons if need be. The light dragonscale armor tends to draw much of their attention and ire.

Shoulder: Pauldrons of the Dragon Hunters
Rarity Common
The shoulder support was important to the Dragon Hunters to protect from close range strikes. Dragons are smart and often aim for weak points like joints.

Legs: Silver Greaves of the Dragon Hunters
Rarity Uncommon
These special greaves came an effective way to hold many useful tools to kill dragons, which was helpful as there was a decent chance your weapon would get melted.

Weapon: Banner Lance of the Dragon Hunters
Rarity Legendary
Kurthifa managed to get one of these before and it was a proud moment, as the Banner Lances were usually given to the most skilled of the Hunters who was the main one to draw the attention of the dragon.

This Cosmetic changes Kurthifa's attacking animations, as it is a spear and handles differently than a sword.
When equipped, this cosmetic changes the icon of Run Through:
>

Off Hand: Ornate Dragonslayer
Rarity Rare
After a long battle and chase, there were specially forged shortswords that were used to execute dragons. They often did the job with a simple thrust into the heart.

Standalone Item: Ghastly Edge
Weapon: Ghastly Edge

Based on the Silver Edge item. It is a large sword based on the item. When invisible from the Shadow Blade or Silver Edge cosmetic, the item glows.
Kurthifa has considered using this legendary kingslayer to slay her former master. But she decided against it.

Standalone Item: Falcon Blade
Offhand: Falcon Blade

Based on the Falcon Blade item, it is used in her non-dominant hand.
Who thought such a simple blade could make a king?

Relative Size Comparison:
Check out the original forum version of Kurthifa (as the Cutlass, a completely different hero) here