Jungling Bloodseeker Carry

Introduction

This guide

This is my build for a jungling, carry Bloodseeker. I like the hero
a lot, but he has some problems that this guide tries to solve. While explaining
skills and items I will try to make some points about the build choices and
why such decisions were made.

Hope you find the information useful!

Bloodseeker

Bloodseeker is an agility hero that can snowball into a 1v1 killing and ganking
monster. I like to compare Bloodseeker to Lycanthrope because of his
speed and massive damage (minus the wolves of course) and if you play him like
that your are going to get some decent results.

This build is a jungling one, which means that your are going to spend your
early levels near the safe lane tower and the easy creep camp, without
harassing enemies much. While getting your skills I suggest that you get some
core items before starting to gank, since the hero can be easily evaded with
just a Town Portal Scroll.

Role

At the time of writing the guide, this hero doesn't get much competitive play
simply because of his skill set and how he doesn't fit a role. In terms of
the 1-role there are much better carries like Luna and Anti-Mage,
but I really think this is the correct role for the hero, with a good skill build
and item choices. With the 1-role in mind you might need at least one hero near
your and that should be definitely at the safe lane.

Don't use Bloodseeker as a 3-role on the offlane unless you are running some
sort of an aggressive lane as he lacks escape mechanic and can be harassed a
lot into not getting any farm. Also don't use him as a 4/5-role (support)
as this is going to be a waste. A 2-role (mid) can work, but again there are
much stronger heroes like Storm Spirit or Puck that can be placed on the
same lane and they will scale much better.

Pros and cons

Pros

- Lifesteal from last hitting
- Has long silence with purge
- A ton of damage
- Great ganker with the fast movement speed from Thirst
- Can snowball into a carry, but not a true hard carry
- Can solo most heroes 1v1 if well farmed
- Global map awareness of wounded enemies
- Friends with global nukers like Invoker, Nature's Prophet and Gyrocopter
- Ultimate goes trough Black King Bar

Cons

- No stun
- No escape mechanism
- Squashy early game
- Not that good if laning mid or offlane
- Slow default movement speed
- Prone to lane harassment
- Mana problems if you spam Bloodrage
- Requires items to be effective

Skill set

General notes

The best skills of this hero are his two passives so max them first
(Blood bath, then Thirst), while getting at least one level of Bloodrage
at level 4/5 (if you want to have the silence and be more aggressive) or on level 7
(if you want more points in the passives). Always get your ultimate Rupture
at levels 6, 11, 16.

The skills

Bloodrage

- A two-edged-sword spell
- A long silence
- Use on yourself as a purge if you want to remove slows and de-buffs.
It will remove the Scythe of Vyse de-buff on allies, so this is also very useful
- Can be used to deny yourself or allies
- The damage it does is not that good if considered to be casted on enemies
unless they have no regen and very low HP
- Use it on yourself to get a large damage boost
- Do not spam this skill on your enemies; They will lose health,
but also your mana pool will drain and you will buff their damage
- Max out after you have Blood bath and Thirst

Blood bath

- It gives you regen after killing creeps, heroes or denying them
- Arguably scales worse than Thirst but is as useful
- Max this skill first

Thirst

- Global! Your global team mate nuker's helper - e.g. Invoker
- Gives you movement speed and damage if an enemy hero is hurt
- You gain True sight of badly hurt heroes
- Max this skill second next to Blood bath

Rupture

- Your nuke that can be casted every minute or so
- Post the initial blow, the enemy hero receives more damage if he moves
- Enemies can Teleport out of it, which causes a problem for you
- Blocked by Linken's Sphere; cast Bloodrage on the target first
- Goes trough Black King Bar

Skill progression

[1] Blood bath
[2] Thirst
[3] Blood bath
[4] Thirst
[5] Bloodrage
[6] Rupture
[7] Blood bath
...

Items

Core items

[1] Starting items



- Stout Shield
- Ring of Regen

Early jungling items. The damage block from Stout Shield is great early game,
but quite bad later on, so we are not going to upgrade into the Poor Man's Shield
and get your AGI stats from Power Treads. PMS is a dead end, while it's probably
wiser to invest into more expensive items.

Ring of Regen gives you enough regen that you don't need Healing Salve
or Tango early on. You are going to build this item into Vladmir's Offering.

Magic Stick is never a bad choice and you should probably get it if you are
laning against a skill spammer like Zeus, but on the other hand if you wish to
rush Vlad's it's perhaps better to skip it. One good point here is that while it
can save you (charges -> HP), you won't be needing that much mana. It doesn't cost
much, but it does take a slot and can delay core items.

Quelling Blade is another item you should consider early on if you have
a Nature's Prophet in the enemy team as he can capture you with Sprout.
Then again Force Staff can also be used to escape that.

[2] Vladmir's Offering



(with purchase order)
- Ring of Protection
- Morbid Mask
- Sage's Mask (you get Ring of Basilius at this point,
turn it off, unless you want to push the lane)
- Recipe

A must have if you have melee team mates and all around cheep and great item.
Can be used to easily jungle and kill Roshan.

[3] Power Treads



(with purchase order)
- Boots of Speed
- Gloves of Haste
- Belt of Strength (or the alternatives)

You really need the stats and attack speed at this point. Switch to INT
treads before casting Rupture and Bloodrage. Use AGI treads most of the
time while attacking and farming. Switch to STR treads when escaping.

[4] Force Staff



Force staff is a core item for you. Use it to escape, save a teammate, pull
an enemy into a team fight or simply move him so that he takes extra damage
after you have used Rupture on him.

If you feel that you can play more aggressively early on get Skull Basher before Force Staff.

[5] Skull Basher



Basher gives you extra damage, some strength, and the thing you lack the most -
a stun! Once you have ruptured an enemy and he tries to TP, get near and just
start attacking. There is a good chance that you will cancel his
Town Portal Scroll with a bash and can then finish him off.

More of an item for STR carries, but still something that you can use on this
hero. You can later upgrade this item into Abyssal Blade.

[6] Sange and Yasha



Get Yasha first, sell your Stout Shield at place it in that slot, as your
6-th slot should hold a TP scroll at all times.

S&Y is a core on Bloodseeker because of the movement speed, attack speed and
maim chance.

Luxury/Situational items

[*] Boots of Travel



Once you have S&Y your attack speed is very good and you have some stats. Sell
your Power treads and buy Boots of travel - This frees up a slot.

[*] Black King Bar



Get this if your enemy has a lot of stuns. You may have to skip S&Y or some of
the core items for it. I personally try to avoid BKB on Bloodseeker.

[*] Butterfly



A great choice. If you don't have a slot you can potentially replace one of
your cheeper items like Vlad's at this point. Butterfly will make you more
survivable because of the extra armor (from AGI) and evasion; The damage boost
is also very good.

[*] Radiance



Not a favorite, because of a simple reason - the hero doesn't have illusions
and it becomes more of farming item. Still great for solo pushing the lanes
and chasing low HP enemies. In a team fight you may get stunned while
staying near your enemies to damage them, so Black King Bar is a much
better option for the hero if you are going to dive a lot more.

If you are going to get Radiance you might consider getting
Manta Style instead of Sange and Yasha.

[*] Abyssal Blade



Your end game item - upgrade Skull Basher and stun Black King Bar carries. A big damage boost.

[*] Satanic



The lifesteal and survivability is great.

[*] Heart of Tarrasque



Makes you very tanky. For both Satanic and this item, get Reaver first.

Gameplay

Early game

With your starting items go to the safe lane, get some XP, last hits/denies and
wait for the small creep camp to spawn. Watch the clock and pull the creeps if
you want your team mate to get more farm. Kill the small camp every time it spawns.

If you are laning with a carry like Sven probably would be best to leave
him solo the lane, while you take care of the small creep camp.
In the downtime when the creep camp has not spawned go back to the lane -
harass, get some more last hits.

If you are solo in the safe lane against a single offlaner you can try
staying there but if you start taking too much damage pull back, regen while
still getting some XP in lane or go back to the jungle.

You don't need runes early on, but still try to control and/or get them
when required if your mid is not interested. Since you are true ganker all
runes are welcome, except the Illusion rune which is less useful, but still
useful for farming.

Don't get ganked and don't feed before you get your levels!
If you have given 2-3 kills early on, the game is not over but you are in a
pretty bad shape. Stay near your team and try to help the team fight.
Force staff is your buddy.

Mid game

With Vladmir's Offering and a Skull Basher you can solo Roshan.
You can give this a try, but you may need Smoke of Deceit to enter the pit
if the enemy has wards nearby.

Always have enough mana for your 2 skill combo, make sure to switch your
Power Treads before casting any spells. With Vlad's, Power treads and the eventual
Force Staff you will have a decent mana pool and mana regen.

Create a good balance between joining team fights and farming. Always
look at the minimap and look for that team fight that is about to happen.
Teleport near the fight and prepare your combos from a good position.

Look for low health enemies and jump on them as Thirst will activate.
Bloodseeker is a great chaser when Thirst kicks in.

Position yourself wisely in a teamfight. Never jump blindly into the enemy
hero crowd unless you are very tanky and / or with a Black King Bar.

Late game

You should be really scary for the enemy team at this point. Try not to get
overconfident and feed badly. Once you have 5 kills in a row, giving away a kill
to the enemy carry is quite bad, really.

Try not to get chain stunned or disabled by expensive items at this point.
Monitor the item progression of your enemies and decide on which ones to initiate.

Don't stop farming between team fights. Stash enough money for buyback.

Boots of Travel are very useful at this point. They will help you TP to lanes
and push them. Also will help you to be with your team or gank enemies.

Outro

Bloodseeker is a strong but perhaps slightly misunderstood AGI carry that
depends on a lot of farm and items, but can pick the enemy team one by one and
do a lot of damage to single targets.

We may eventually see some more competitive play from him as he adds some
interesting mechanics especially the True sight reveal and the movement boost
from Thirst, but also the move-and-take-a-ton-of-damage effect from Rupture.

That's all.
Hope the guide was useful.