Don't steal fizzy lifting drinks

Introduction

I'm not going to waste time, so let's just get into it. This guide was made by how I play him as well as I've seen some other axe players play him to great success yada yada. I'm no DOTA pro, so if there is something in my guide so amazingly stupid that you need to call me names and correct me, please do so.

I'll be updating more later on.

Your success may vary

About Axe

Axe is a straight tank and initiator. He can be built to be really beefy and soak a-lot of damage. The more people attacking him, the better his damage output is in return...thus cementing his tanky status. He's also red, has very well kept beard, and references Willy Wonka.

Unfortunately, axe has problems. He's very slow...VERY slow. Without blink he has some serious trouble getting into position for a decent Beserker's call. His main source of damage requires that not only enemies be close to him, but that they also be attacking him. From a range there isn't much axe can do. He's also very skill dependent, despite having mana problems, so that is another area that must be covered with items. Lastly, axe requires a good amount of farm in order to be relevant, because he is extremely item dependent.

Items

Axe is a tank. What does this tell us? It's simple, get tanky items.

Start

There are two starter builds. Personally I think 2 is more reliable, but if you have a courier I think one can work as well. If you're not jungling...do not go with starter 1.

Early

More regen...and boots. The rings will pretty much make you be able to jungle indefinitely. The arcane boots are obvious, they help out your mana problems, which is more important at this stage than what power treads or phase boots will give you. You don't need the attack speed and the strength bonus won't do that much for you. Phase boots are a better choice, but why have a speed increase when you can blink and better sustain it with boots?

Core

Blink dagger is fairly obvious...you're slow, and you are also an initiator...so you're getting blink dagger. You need the mobility...without it you can enjoy running around everywhere trying to hit somebody that is in fact faster than you. Vanguard makes you more tanky...Hood makes you more tanky...pretty straightforward. Your early items build into both of these.

Late/Situational

Blade mail is so useful on axe, I'd almost consider it core. Look at it this way, axe is usually getting hit, and Mail returns any damage taken. Not only is he tanky, but blade-mail makes him dangerous too. Good in combination with beserker.
More Armor, and the passive and active are effective in teamfights. Seeing as how your usually in the middle of the fray, you're a prime shiva's carrier. Do not get this if someone else already has this.
Like Shiva's being a teamfight item, but more expensive, however Cuirass's benifits cannot be ignored. Your probably going to be the beefiest player on your team. As such, you'll be the most reliable to carry this item during teamfights. Again, you'll also be in the midddle of the fray most of the time, so your team will get the most out of it's effects with the negative and bonus armor aura. Like shiva's, if someone has this before you, don't get it. They don't stack, and two assaults is a ****ty waste, like throwing out an everlasting gobstopper. Damn kids...
Need some magical tankiness for your team? Get the pipe. It builds from your hood, and gives you as well as your team a anti-magic shield. Useful if the enemy team is nuking you to hell.
This one is a tricky one. Not what it does, that much is easy. It reduces the cooldown of axe's ultimate from 75/65/55 to 6...that's a big difference. However, how useful will this be? You can kill steal like crazy and at level three with a kill threshold 625, you'll be hearing that ping sound a-lot. I wouldn't recommend this early though, such as getting this before getting a teamfight item like shiva's or assault but it has it's uses and can help you make sure you won't have to do any chasing. It's mostly a selfish item for getting kills and saying "look at me, I'm a semi-carry axe", so get this when you feel your team is already set with teamfight items.

If you were hard to kill before, you be nigh impossible to kill when you get tarresque. Simple as that.

Skills

Berserker's Call

Axe's main disable and initiation tool. If forces any enemy unit in a 275 AOE to auto attack axe, while disabling there abilities and use of items. It gives axe a whopping 30 bonus armor, making any damage received during the spell tickle worthy. You'll see that the AOE is small, and is difficult to hit multiple opponents. This is why blink is essential to get in the proper position. This moves works well with counter helix, and I usually max this after helix for ganks and to have a good disable for mid game fights.

Battle Hunger

This spell is iffy. It is a long range plain DOT spell with one cache, if any enemy kills a unit, the debuff ends. This is anything from lane creeps, heroes, neutrals, or denying. If not ended, the duration actually lasts a very long time. However, when you factor in healing items, regen, and the cache, this spell becomes very situational and not too reliable. Still, some people get this early. If you do get this spell, make sure you know when and who to hit it on. Preferably characters with poor last hitting potential. This can usually be decent as a finisher if you can't ulti them. If they're running away for their life, they're probably not going to try and kill anything.

Counter Helix

This is by far axe's best skill. It is a passive that has a chance to trigger whenever an attack is directed towards axe(not when he receives the damage). Counter Helix has a very low cooldown(.65-.55), and deals high physical damage. This is what enables axe a viable jungler, as well as making people think twice before attacking axe. Its axe's main source of damage and a free one at that. The AOE is 275, and enemies need to be attacking you for it to trigger, but it is still a very reliable skill to have. While the game says 17%, if Helix is affected by PSD, than its not the whole story. I'll explain in a a section below. Helix's damage drops off later game, but if you have enough people attacking you, your damage output can still be pretty high thanks to it's low cooldown.

Culling Blade

Basically a close range finisher. Axe's ultimate does pretty low damage plain, but if used on an enemy below a certain HP value(300/450/625), they are instantly killed no if's, and's, or butt's about it. It ignores magical immunity(killing blow only), and removes all buffs to the target before killing it. Useful for ganking, or for just finishing of someone quick in a teamfight. There is no rush to take this as quickly as possible, but this is a useful skill in my opinion, and makes a cool effect when you kill someone making you feel like Willy Wonka telling charlie to shove that factory up his ***. I'd take this whenever I can, but if you feel like delaying it a few levels, then go ahead.

Playing as axe

Jungling

At the start, go to your jungle, and go the the easier camp. This camp is located near the middle lane, and is the easiest camp to kill. If you kill the camp before the 1:00 mark, get out of vision and go back as the neutral spawn every 30 seconds if you're not in vision. The creep spawns are random, so try to find the easier creep camps early, or at least ones you know you can kill. Just don't try to go into a wildkin camp at level 2. Pull when your teamate asks, and if he needs a gank, try and gank.

Mid game

When the teamfights start rolling out, you're there. Your team needs your disable, and you should have blink during this phase. If not, get it asap. Axe is only useful when he's up in everyone's faces. Remember, while dying is not exactly desirable, if you find yourself trading the red man for 3 or 4 other heroes, then you're doing your job. Your the tank, so don't be shy. Get in there and start making a mess. Cull whoever you think is low enough, and after your berserk is done, just start auto attacking anyone you think is important. If they turn to attack you, then they'll be facing the helix.

Late

More or less the same as mid. In teamfights your still soaking up damage and trying to disable the best you can. At this stage you might have important teamfight items like shiva's. Make sure you get in there and use them.

17%? Not exactly.

I know I said before that if helix is affected by PRD, then it's not the whole story. For those not aware, PRD (Pseudo-random distribution) is basically a system that controls probability controlled items. Things like critical strike, bash, and damage block. I'm not sure exactly the numeric values of Helix, nor do I even know for sure if Helix works under PRD, but I've been told yes so I'll explain it. Helix doesn't have a plain 17% chance to activate every hit. Initially, the chance to helix is much lower. I don't know the value, but let's just use hypothetically 4%. Every time axe is attacked and helix doesn't come out, the chance increases by 4%. Eventually, if helix has yet to come out, the chance will reach 100% and will be forced to come out. After the helix, the chance goes back down to 4%. This makes it so random based items and skills aren't actually "random" and are more consistent. Clearly, having pure random base skills and items isn't healthy for a competitive game, so this system makes a lot of sense.

What does this mean for axe? Well, nothing that would make you change how you would use it, you can't really manipulate this system, but it is important to know. The majority of people whom I played with think it is a flat 17% per hit and completely random. While you can get very lucky and have a helix come out one after another since there is always a chance, you can never get really unlucky and have it never come out, because PRD will force it to come out after x amount of attacks. The more people hitting axe, the better the chance that helix has of coming out. This is true whether it be pure random or under PRD, but more so for PRD as the chance increases with each attack. The optimal use of helix would be taking very small amounts of damage from multiple sources. Basically, lane creeps can really help you proc helix.

You can read it here at http://www.dota2wiki.com/wiki/Pseudo-random_distribution

Dangerous Heroes

Ursa

The more he hits you, the more damage is done. Being as how you're a tank...this is rather problematic. Also, he can increase is attack speed to maximum...which is further problematic.

Lifestealer

Another tank killer, Feast eats you up pretty bad, and Open Wounds makes you slower than you already are, if that were possible. Not the best match-up.

Best Buds

Dark Seer

Surge can actually make axe fast for once in his life. Ion Shell also goes really nicely with you, being how your up in everyone's faces. Shell+helix+blademail=pwnage.

Closing

I could type something here, but let's just have Gene state the Axe's player motto.

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