What happened? Axe happened! -GOOD DAY SIR !'s Guide To Axe

Let the carnage begin: Lore

As a grunt in the Army of Red Mist, Mogul Khan set his sights on the rank of Red Mist General. In battle after battle he proved his worth through gory deed. His rise through the ranks was helped by the fact that he never hesitated to decapitate a superior. Through the seven year Campaign of the Thousand Tarns, he distinguished himself in glorious carnage, his star of fame shining ever brighter, while the number of comrades in arms steadily dwindled. On the night of ultimate victory, Axe declared himself the new Red Mist General, and took on the ultimate title of 'Axe.' But his troops now numbered zero. Of course, many had died in battle, but a significant number had also fallen to Axe's blade. Needless to say, most soldiers now shun his leadership. But this matters not a whit to Axe, who knows that a one-man army is by far the best.

A.k.a. The Bearded Menace (credit goes to Zotmaster).

There can be no battle till Axe is at hand. And Axe is: Understanding Axe

Good day ladies and gentlemen and welcome to What happened? Axe happened! -GOOD DAY SIR !'s Guide To Axe, you may play this video to accompany this guide and also overcome silence:

Before we start our tumultuous fanciness, I must state that therer are some fundamental requirement to play this so called hero named Axe:

1. Balls, the bigger and harder are better (more hairy the merrier).

2. A good axe, no kidding sir, at least Nightmare Blade, the better is any axe between Corpsemaker, The Blood Chaser or Wyvernguard Edge. Sylanshar the Winged Axe or Berserker's Witchslayer is OK too.

3. Demoon Blood set (ofcourse the axe is an option).

4. Fancy talk.

5. A trolling instinct.


At the very least, you must complete the first and fifth requirement. At the minimum size of fist and hard as steel.

And there's some question that you have to answer before playing Axe:

Do I have hair on my knuckles and/or my toes?
Is beef jerky the greatest food ever invented?
When the dishwasher stops working, do I kick her?
Do I want to show my sissy opponents the power of beards?
Do I prefer to deliver my beatdowns up close and personal?
Do I still pay with cash?
Am I smart enough to realize that if someone tells me to get Battle Fury as a starting item or to be a CHAMPION PUBBER, that this person is kidding?

If you answered "yes" to at least four of the first six questions, you are probably manly enough for this guide. If you answered no to the last question, well, I'll see you when you win your Darwin Award.

credits goes to Zotmaster

Now we'll proceed to his Advantages and Disadvantages, both of them quite much filled by Zotmaster and Lapis Lazuli:

Advantages:

Great last-hitting animation
Beefy and durable
One of the best farmers in the game, especially in the beginning
Amazing AoE disable
Makes every hero on your team better
Beard
2.0 HP/s at level 1
The only hero with the ability to force others to attack you
Fast farmer/backdoor pusher
Good animation
Smashing with Quelling Blade (though I don't recommend buying this)
Decent stats, suitable for what he does
Did I mention Beard ?

Disadvantages:

Melee hero
Mana problems, especially in the early game
Slow movement speed due to massive beard and testicles
Fairly ****py auto-attack
No skills that scale over time
Easily kitable (Since Battle Hunger buffed up this isn't a real problem now)
Requires close range to use most of skills
****py physical DPS

Done ? Very nice, you may now proceed to the next chapter.

Not by blade alone!: Skills Overview

"Axe taunts nearby enemy units, forcing them to attack him, while he gains bonus armor during the duration."

Radius: 275
Bonus Armor: 40
Duration: 1.5/2/2.5/3
Cooldown: 10 seconds
Mana Cost: 80/90/100/110

Notes:
- Berserker's Call affects invisible units, as well as units with magic immunity.
- Enemies who are taunted by Berserker's Call will be frozen for the duration if Axe dies or couldn't be attacked.

Deeper:
- Berserker's Call affects invisible units, this means if you can predict Rikimaru's movement you can get him the hell out of shadow.
- Goes through magic immunity.

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"Enrages an enemy unit, causing it to be slowed and take damage over time until it kills another unit or the duration ends. Axe gains movement speed for each unit affected with Battle Hunger."

Duration: 10/13/16/19
Movement Slow: 8%
Bonus Movement Speed: 8%
Damage Per Second: 15/21/27/33
Cooldown: 20/15/10/5 seconds
Mana Cost: 75/85/95/105

Notes:
- Heroes affected with this buff cannot be denied when their HP is low.
- Killing illusions, destroying buildings, or denying will also remove the spell.
- Has a maximum range of 900
- Total Damage: 150/273/432/627

Deeper:
- You may mark the real Phantom Lancer and any other illusion heroes if you got sharp eyes.
- Can't be denied, unlike poison or Doom

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"When attacked, Axe performs a helix counter attack, dealing damage to all nearby enemies."

Radius: 275
Chance to Helix: 17%
Damage: 100/135/170/205
Cooldown: 0.65/0.6/0.55/0.5 seconds

Notes:
- Counter Helix checks for triggering whenever an attack against Axe begins, not when Axe is actually damaged by said attack.
- Attacks from mechanical units cannot trigger Counter Helix. This includes Towers, Siege Creeps, Plague Wards, Serpent Wards, the Death Ward, and some others.
- Does not damage mechanical units.

Deeper:
- It's type is physical, it means if you got your Assault Cuirass or Shadow Fiend or Dazzle in your team you'll spin harder.
- Goes through magic immunity.
- While enemy is under Berserker's Call, ordering another action would simply increase the chance of triggering Counter Helix
- The skill is based off of Brilliance Aura with a base, meaning having this skill present would increase your mana regeneration rate by the abyssmal amount of 0.01 mana/sec, it just an unecessary mind ****. both by Lapis Lazuli, dunno if this works on DotA 2 though

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" Axe spots weakness and strikes, dealing moderate damage but instantly killing an enemy unit with low health. When an enemy unit is killed in this way, Axe and nearby allied units gain bonus movement speed."

Kill Threshold: 300/450/625
Damage: 150/250/300
Range: 150
Bonus Movement Speed: 25%
Movement Speed Radius: 600
Movement Speed Duration: 6
Cooldown: 75/65/55 seconds
Mana Cost: 120/160/200

Aghanim's Scepter: 6 sec cooldown (all levels)

Notes:
- Damage type: magical (regular), 100000000 physical (killing blow)
- The killing blow goes through magic immunity.
- The killing blow removes all buffs from the target unit before killing it.
- This includes any hero that is under the effects of Shallow Grave as well.

Deeper:
- Earthquake/Slam Dunk/Gacroot.
- Blood and Gore.

Special by Zotmaster:
- The name of this skill is misleading. As we all know that there is no such thing as telekinetic and invisible blades - though that would certainly be cool - the attack works by Axe showing his opponent the magnificence of his beard. Those who are weak of heart explode due to the sheer awesomeness. If the ***** in question's HP is below the listed threshold, he or she dies instantly, regardless of buffs, magic immunity, Abaddon's ult, testicular fortitude, or standardized test scores. If the ***** has HP above the threshold, they instead receive a pitiful amount of damage, reduced by magic resistance and blocked by things like Linken's Sphere. Though counting is not a necessary prerequisite for most men, looking stupid is decidedly un-manly. Do not tarnish the beard!

Axe grows stronger!: Skill Build

Early Game:

1. Counter Helix
2. Battle Hunger
3. Battle Hunger
4. Counter Helix
5. Battle Hunger
6. Culling Blade

Mid Game:

7. Battle Hunger
8. Counter Helix
9. Counter Helix
10. Berserker's Call
11. Culling Blade
12. Berserker's Call
13. Berserker's Call
14. Berserker's Call
15. Stats
16. Culling Blade

Late Game:

17-25. Stats

Axe will whittle them down one by one: Early Game

Dont forget to greet everyone with 'Good day and have fun sir.' at every game you play with Axe

first of all, pray to God you face 2 melee heroes, because everything will be easier that way

secondly, walk your way to power up, but don't pick it up until the enemy's first wave of creeps collides with our's, done ? now pick that rune and pick one place to wait for the enemy creep (star), my personal favorite is number 2 and 3, position yourself so you can see enemy creeps better. (note that if you got haste, try to first blood on the easy lane, if you got illusion, send one to green jungle camp and the other to whack the second wave, if he didn't make it, take his position, if you got invis just wait in the middle of the lane, and if you got dd just do everything as usual)
alternative second, if your rune's not there, go to the waiting point (triangle) for the second wave of enemy's creeps.

after that, aggro all of your enemy creeps at the Down Arrow Icon named CLASH (my favorite spots), remember to close the gap between you and the ranged one, whack them all to death. Done ? good.

next, get back to the waiting point and see your enemy confused, if they managed to push farther to your tower, hit the third wave. BUT, if they're coming to you, go to the green (easy creep camp) or yellow circles (med creep camp) then rinse and repeat, BUT if your lane mate notices and come to your aid, keep hitting the third wave, and the time they come, man up and hit them, you may score first blood if you got the right lane mate, or even doublekill if you're lucky. Either way you're good to go, especially if one or both of them are melee heroes. If the middle lane hero is missing (probably coming to kill you), just get back, ore if you're man enough, hit him in the face, make him regrets leaving his lane, giving our mid hero experience and gold advantage.

Another thing to know, if the enemy heroes being passive and tower hug, grin to them, because no matter what they do, our lane creeps and lane mate will harass them while we chopping their creeps. after some time they will realize that they're dying and your battle hunger burns their head, man up and go LEEROY JENKINS those **********er, double kill is almost assured.

Last thing in the Early Game, their first tower is down, if you do good, it will go down at 3 minutes, what a fast way to bring a tower down.

And that includes everything in Early Game, buy boots as soon as you have enough money and your Vanguard should be set by now. Good day sir !

Axe warms his blade in your guts!: Mid Game

TIME TO GANK !

Get the hell out of your lane and gank every hero that appears on the minimap, if all of them are missing, sweep their jungle. Don't forget to bring some friends !
At this point, do everything you can to get that Blink Dagger, but don't forget to buy the Arcane Boots first, because all Axe's skills are relying heavily on mana, which what he lacks of. Oh, don't forget to disassemble Arcane Boots later on to build up Bloodstone and upgrade to Boots of Travel

Got the Blink Dagger ? Very good. Now gank !

Check my Mini Guide to gank:

And now proceed to the next item that you should build: Bloodstone, and continue to the next phase.

This day belongs to Axe!: Late Game

Damn, Counter Helix's almost does almost nothing to the enemy heroes. But that doesn't mean that you lose your usefulness.

Now is the time where both team collides, team fight time !

Mini guide to start a team fight:
1. Burn them **********ers up with your Battle Hunger (40% ms bonus at max for every friendly hero, wonderful !).
2. Blink in (at least 3 heroes gotta get near you).
3. Call them up.
4. Whack the one who will bring most misery to your team.
5. Cast Culling Blade on that *****'s face.
6. Continue whacking the next hero who will bring another misery to your team, and keep up those Battle Hunger.
7. Die or proceed to rax some ****.

And at last, chop down their Ancient, and win the game ! (Fountain camping is optional)

Earned through blood: Axe's War Gears

Fountain Spawn

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Cost: 600 gold "OMG WTF 2x Stout Shield? n00b that doesn't even stack !" Anyone who said that clearly doesn't know DotA mechanics. Here's the equation for you, **********er: Chance to block = 1 - [(1-X)*(1-Y) ...] {X, Y, ... } are replaced with the percentual chance that the source will trigger described as a decimal value. by Phoenix.dss and I will test it in a while with -createhero npc_dota_creep_badguys_melee enemy 5 creeps attacking hero autoattack off max level high HP hero one time with stout and another with double stout My results were: Doom Bringer level 25 (2468 HP, 5 Armor, 4HP regen) Over one minute of 5 melee creeps attacking him he took: With one Stout Shield, he ended with 817HP. With two Stout Shields, he ended with 1850HP. So it's working as intended. by Noya It works, **** you. And yeah I'll buy that another Stout Shield for that 24%. Live with it. Oh and the Healing Salve for maximum healing, spent another gold for tango if you randomed Axe.

Early Items

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Cost: 3675 gold "OMG WTF NO Tranquil Boots? n00b!" Hello again little ****er, now read this : http://dotabuff.com/heroes/axe/items?date= Yep that's right, Arcane Boots have 10% advantage of winning percentage than Tranquil Boots Look at his manapool! it's ****ty! something gotta do about it, and [[Arcane Boots] did good ! And Vanguard, nothing much to say about this, it has damage block, bonus health and bonus regen, all the things you need. BUT DON'T BUY 2 OF THIS THING, WASTE OF MONEY.

Core Items

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Cost: 7200 gold "OMG WTF Soulbooster? n0000000000000000000000b!" OMG WTF YOU AGAIN? READ THIS ****: What is the Win Rate for Bloodstone on Axe? In 11,125 Games this month it won 79.57% of the time. (10/24/2012) So the idea that you can't win with Bloodstone on Axe is WRONG! Why would I make this a Core Item on Axe? - With three active abilities (two have 5-10 second cooldowns) this item lets you spam them as often as possible which is CRITICAL on Axe. - Still gives you 500 bonus health and 9 HP Regen PLUS more Regen the more charges you amass. - Reduces gold lost on death by 25 for each charge. When you do finally die from initiating it will not affect you hardly at all. - Reduces respawn time by 4 seconds per charge. If you're doing great on Axe you will get to respawn and get into the fight FASTER. Which means you'll be much more useful to your team. - When you are forced to initiate on the high ground... Should you die, your allies will gain the critical vision they need AND you will heal all your allies for 400 + 30 per charge. This often means the difference between raxing or just getting the tower. - If you initiate successfully, even if you die this item will make sure that you get XP for your troubles. - EXTREMELY easy to farm the components. This is probably one of the more important points. The most gold you'll have to save is 1200. - If you have Arcane Boots you can disassemble them and use the Energy Booster towards Soul Booster to save 1000 gold. - Did I mention the almost 80% Win Rate? To me this item is the dark horse of Axe items. Nobody realizes its potential on Axe but IF ONLY THEY KNEW... (The Power of the Dark Side?) One of the big reasons I mentioned above is the component cost. You're an Initiator. One of the few leather wearing, motorcycle riding tough guys that is supposed to be on the front lines. But what if you have 2600 gold? 3000 gold? Will you be as willing to initiate if you're really close to an item like Reaver? No, of course not. Those kinds of situations rarely emerge when you only need to save 1200 gold. by Kasan0va, it's pretty much explains everything, all credits goes to him Blink Dagger ofcourse for positioning, and to get the hell out of ****ty situation. Upgrade your boots to Boots of Travel, you don't wanna walk around slowly don't you ?

Situational

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Cost: ???? gold Assault Cuirass: When facing Enemy with armor-reducing skills ( Slardar, Bounty Hunter, Shadow Fiend, Dazzle, etc.)and Desolator carrier. Blade Mail: When facing hard hitting Enemy, remember this: DON'T USE IT WHILE Berserker's Call because when you got that 40 armor bonus, their hits won't really hurt, use it BEFORE or AFTER Berserker's Call. Heaven's Halberd: Again, for facing hard hitting Enemy, such as Red Sven, if you're quick enough, you can render Faceless Void's Chronosphere useless by using it right after he blinks in. It's pretty funny watching him sit and cry while Chronosphere is up Pipe of Insight: When facing "We are 5 Casters and we all haz Dagon 5" Team. Nuff said. Shiva's Guard: When none of the above really applies, it is better than Assault Cuirass in my opinion, no attack speed **** wasted.

Luxury

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Cost: 14850 gold Why did I put Aghanim's Scepter on Luxury ? simple, it is because of you can hardly handle 200 mana every 6 seconds, BUT I suggest get this if you got your Shiva's Guard because your mana will hold up, also you may add this to team fight strategy: after burning all those Enemy Heroes, cast Culling Blade on one of their creeps, SWEET 65% BONUS SPEED OH GOD, use it again later on Enemy Hero(es) in the fight. Heart of Tarrasque is here because the Optional Items provides better counter to certain situation than plain health and regen, but nonetheless the best health item for any Hero, makes you doesn't have to go back to fountain. In my best game with Axe I got this in 12 minutes, WTF happened ? see my reply (Sorry Zotmaster my Axe is better ! mwahaha !). Buying Radiance is very risky, because of no whatsoever defense in this item, and that bonus damage is meh.

Oh btw if you think about Magic Stick or Magic Wand, well maybe if you face Zeus or Bristlebog(not released yet, meh) it may provides some use, but I'll say:

Oglodi fight side by side: Friend and Foe

Actually pretty much of this section is owned by kasan0va, but I'll add some little things up. (the Italic words are owned by Kasan0va)

AXE'S BROS:
- Disruptor
I love this combination for the spam. Thunder Strike and Battle Hunger is usually way too much damage for any hero to handle early. If they come in to last hit the creeps usually Disruptor will just Kinetic Field them. He can also bring a fleeing hero back to you with Glimpse. Almost no hero can match up against this combo, Oglodi fights together !(Doesn't know what Oglodi is ? You haven't play enough Axe or you haven't heard of his responses, boy)
- Dark Seer
SWEET MOTHER OF SPEED , like kasan0va said: If you look closely after picking you will see Axe bro-fisting Dark Seer. Seriously one of the best lane wombo combos in the game. Dark Seer casts Ion Shell and you just murder the enemy lane with Counter Helix and Berserker's Call. This is one time where I would max Berserker's Call first because Dark Seer can Vacuum the enemy heroes close to you OR use Surge to speed you up. Totally agree, but damn I still love Berserker's Call better.
- Dazzle
Poison Touch helps keep enemies from running away, Shadow Wave helps keep you alive, and Weave not only makes you beefier, but causes you to hit harder as well. Shallow Grave, of course, allows you to Rambo in and live to tell about it. this one by Zotmaster.
- Omniknight
Sweet mother of healing, also if you're going to Tower-Dive Rambo, Repel blocks those magic ***** that the Enemy Heroes will throw at you, and his Degen Aura also works great to help your *** reach them.
- Io
Tether will help you in the lane tremendously. Charge straight at them with your buffed movespeed and roll face on keyboard as the enemy heroes die. This is another combo where Call first might not be a bad idea especially when Io starts Relocating you to gank other lanes OR to initiate.
- Jakiro
Hey look my dragon friend! I stuck everyone in one place for you!
- Magnus
Reverse Polarity and Berserker's Call works like wonder.
- Witch Doctor
Another great lane partner who benefits from at least one level of Berserker's Call. Battle Hunger + Maledict = dead hero. And not to mention Death Ward, sweet !
- Tiny
Nothing's really funnier that seeing flying Axe that Berserker's Call everyone right away, though doesn't really reliable, this may substitute for early Blink Dagger, also great position for Tiny to cast Avalanche if you got many Heroes.
- Keeper of the Light, Outworld Destroyer, Crystal Maiden
Heroes that you can mana leech early on.
- Shadow Fiend, Earthshaker, Enigma, Kunkka, Invoker, Leshrac, Slardar, Tidehunter, Sven, Alchemist
Yeah you know, Heroes that need some positioning, nuff said.

He's basically do good with everyone.

COUNTERS TO AXE
- Lifestealer
If you're facing N'aix, you're pretty much screwed. Open Wounds keeps you from running away. Feast not only heals N'aix but chews up fatties...like you. Rage lets him do it faster. If you somehow lower his health, he needs only to Infest a creep to make you do it again. Run away (by attacking in the opposite direction, of course) and come back with friends. By Zotmaster.
- Ursa
Yeah, Ursa is arguably one of the worst heroes, if not the absolute worst, in DotA. Yeah, beating the **** out of a bear is probably the manliest thing anyone can ever do. But yeah, Ursa will still kick your ***! There's a reason why a good Ursa player can solo Roshan at no later than Level 8: his single-target DPS is disgusting. He gets more powerful the more he beats on the same target, and guess how you fight? By letting things beat on you repeatedly. You're better off not picking Axe if Ursa has already been picked, but you absolutely have to rock the beard, make sure something else has Fuzzy Wuzzy occupied or you're done. Also by Zotmaster.
- Jakiro
The Mother of all Axe counters. If you look closely at Axe you can see him shed a single tear when Jakiro is picked. You effectively depend on standing in one place for Berserker's Call to work; Jakiro will just use Macropyre to take advantage of this and now your initiation is ruined because you're going to have to run away. He'll usually hit you with Ice Path at that point and his team will easily finish you off.
- Dazzle
He will watch you run up to the creep waves and laugh as you take tons of Shadow Wave damage. Weave makes you lose A LOT of armor as well.
- Dark Seer
He'll use Ion Shell on the creeps and there's no way you'll be able to get close to him.
- Silencer / Outworld Destroyer
Pure damage hurts Axe a lot and there's no way for him to counter it. In the WC3 days I remember I could press W and use that to attack and it would force Counter Helix not to proc. I have no idea if that works anymore.
- Necrolyte
He says "Look at all that damage you're taking! LOLOLOLOL Reaper's Scythe"
- Any ranged Heroes as your enemy in line
Templar Assassin isn't really counted.

Axe is grateful: Credits, Notes, and Replies.

First I want to thank Allah that he gave me life and those giving me the chance to build this guide. (Problem?)
Second I want to thank IceFrog and Valve for making such a great game.
Third I want to thank Zotmaster, Lapis Lazuli and Kasan0va for great reference, especially Zotmaster for opening my eyes to that lane-cutting strategy.
Fourth I want to thank those Omniknights and Dark Seers or any other Heroes that actually helps me while I lane-cutting. Oh and also Astrowolves (now Ranger Pink, LOL GAY) for lending me those Healing Salve and Tango and keep up with me while lane-cutting.
Fifth thanks to you for reading my guide !

Wait. waitwaitwait. Isn't this guide started as a fancy guide ? **** I totally forgot ! Whatever just type 'Good game sir' after one of the Ancient is destroyed.

BUT WAIT ! THIS GUIDE IS NOT OVER YET !
Yep, there's more that I wanted to add, just wait !
Oh if you got any suggestion or want to battle me over the internet for not buying Battlefury ?

All copyright belongs to their owner.