Mid Carry Bloodseeker

Introduction

Hello! Paperbags here, with my first guide to one of my new favorite heroes: Bloodseeker. I began to play this hero after witnessing his devastating Ganking potential, having lost numerous games to Bloodseekers who have fed themselves well in the early game.

Bloodseeker isn't nearly as complex as some would like to believe, but he does have some skills with varied usage. He's fantastic at early and, if played well, late game ganking, in addition to a surprising aptitude for pushing lanes and destroying towers. His ultimate is one of the most powerful, both in damage potential and in restricting enemy escapes, initiates, or chases. Bloodseeker's powerful array of skills all adds up to making him one of my new favorites, with a high win chance if played correctly. Also, he's damn fun.

Skills

Bloodseeker's Skills are rather powerful, and we'll discuss them starting from his Q to his Ult.

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Bloodrage


Bloodrage is a casted ability, with a compound silence as well as damage amplification, as well as a damage over time. The initial duration/cooldown doesn't really allow for perma-silence or for the ridiculous teamfight/lane-pushing that the later game has potential for.

We start off getting a level of this at Level 2, and we keep it that way until we max everything else. We do this for many reasons.
1: The early silence is good for ganking, keeping the enemy from casting spells, taking damage, and not giving them enough of a damage boost to counter your gank.
2: The damage boost would wreck your mid game if you maxed this ability and were freely casting it on your enemy.
3: You'll want to silence carries but not give them damage during a teamfight, which a maxed Bloodrage wouldn't allow for.
Now, this ability still has a lot of usage. Early on, you cast it on the enemy you're attacking, making them take extra damage and silencing while not giving them enough bonus damage to make a difference. As you begin to max this out, a new strategy emerges of self-casting. Yes, you will take some damage over time, and you will be silenced (this shouldn't matter, as long as you Ult first, then self-cast.) However, at max, this ability grants the target a whooping 120% boost to their base damage! With this, you can more than double your base damage, allowing you to score kills even easier.

If the enemy team has annoying casters in the late game who wouldn't be auto-attacking (such as Lina, Lion, Crystal Maiden, Invoker, etc.,) than you shouldn't be afraid to silence them with Bloodrage, as the damage buff won't make a difference.

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Blood Bath
Blood Bath

Blood Bath is one of Bloodseeker's most useful abilities when it comes to ganks as well as lane presence. Early on, it helps to negate any potential harass from enemies, as well as vastly reducing the amount of regen items you'll need to bring to lane. With every last hit (and even Deny, which is really nice) you'll get health back, ensuring you can stay in lane longer. This ability will drastically heal back any damage you take while ganking (as long as you secure the kill) and will give you a decent amount of health for kills that you didn't even have to put any work into! All in ll, Blood Bath is a fantastic ability throughout the whole game, and putting more points into it just makes it even better.

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Thirst


Thirst is an incredibly powerful passive, that lets Bloodseeker find and secure ganks on enemy heroes. We don't get this ability until level 3, however, because it is only useful in securing kills, and most kills that happen that early will be in your lane, where you don't need an ability to secure it. However, we level this and Blood Bath together equally so that you'll be able to secure more ganks, kill more heroes, get more gold, get more levels, and will give you devastating potential to carry into the late game. This is one of the greatest abilities for chases as well as escapes, giving you massive bonus speed when an enemy is below a certain health threshold. Chase down a fleeing hero with this, or tactically maneuver yourself around a teamfight. The potentials are limitless.

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Rupture


Rupture is Bloodseeker's main ability. Not only does it do decent damage on cast, but if the enemy attempts to run away, they take loads of damage for every step they take. Most players will realize they've been Ruptured and not attempt to run away, but this allows you to do as much damage to the enemy without the threat of them escaping. You can use this to disable to escapes on carries like Anti-Mage, or to destroy squishier supports while your allies have their teamfight, allowing you to cut the backup of the enemy carries. Rupture allows for massive gank potentials, and it actually scales well into the late-game, despite what others may see

Items

When you first pick Bloodseeker, without random gold, the first things you should buy are Quelling Blade, Stout Shield, and Tango. The shield will allow you to get in there and secure last hits, the Quelling blade will make last hitting easier, and the tango is for when you've lost too much health that you're afraid to get to the creeps for last hits. The Stout shield should first be upgraded to a Poor Man's Shield for some nice agility increase. Naturally following would be a pair of Power Treads, which you should leave on strength (for the bonus health) until you're comfortable with your base health and would benefit more from the damage bonus of Agi treads.

Sange and Yasha is one of your core items, and you should complete the Yasha first, gaining a nice move speed bonus to help with ganks and such. Once you complete this, you should transition smoothly into Butterfly, an essential item for Agi carries. If you're doing well enough to not have to worry about losing gold, I'd suggest purchasing the Eaglesong first. However, if you're worried about dying and losing gold, purchase the Talisman of Evasion first. Quarterstaff should always be last, as it's bonuses aren't nearly as essential.

If you're suffering through a lot of stuns and magic harass, you should at this point purchase a Black King Bar. If the magic is too much to handle early game, don't be afraid to purchase this from the get-go. Really, BKB is an item that should only be purchased when it's necessary to do so. At this point, a Radiance is a nice item to aid in ganks, giving tremendous damage as well as burning. I personally love Radiance, and it's potential as an aid in teamfights.

If the game is dragging on at this point and your Rupture target is able to survive through your attacks, consider purchasing a Skull Basher and upgrading it into an Abyssal Blade for the nice stuns. Your attack speed should be high enough at this point to ensure a stun. If you're suffering a lot of physical damage from your targets, consider an Assault Cuirass to help prevent this. The huge boost to attack speed works incredibly well with a maxed out Bloodrage self casted, giving you incredible DPS. I occasionally purchase an AC before Abyssal, just because I like the attack speed.

If you're suffering from Evasion from heroes like Faceless Void of Phantom Assassin, a Monkey King Bar can help ensure a kill. This is one of the items recommended as a core by the game, but I have only needed this item once in my many times playing Bloodseeker.

A Daedalus is nothing but icing on the cake if you're doing incredibly well during a game that for some reason will not end, but it should not be purchased as a core or before a Radiance or Abyssal. It's a nice item, but those other too would help your late more than crit chance would.

Why You Need the Mid Lane

I know how annoying it is to play someone like Invoker or Drow Ranger and have the mid lane denied to me by a Bloodseeker, believe me. But a Bloodseeker mid (that does well enough on his own) can guarantee very early ganks as soon as the Bloodseeker reaches level 6, helping other lanes in farming undisturbed. Bloodseeker's early game burst effectiveness comes from the fact that he can't do anything until he reaches level 6, at which point he can secure solo ganks, and even run through the enemy's jungle in order to finish off lower health heroes who escaped death in a lane. Thirst allows him to see these heroes as they run away, and the speed boost gives him the maneuverability to shrug off the potential to be ganked while doing this. All in all, a mid lane Bloodseeker who isn't being killed, harassed heavily, or being denied huge amounts of xp can help secure the early and mid games, giving both him and his allies the potential to carry into the late game against underfarmed heroes.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading my first guide, please leave comments and critiques after you've read. Please forgive me if I made any mistakes, but notify me that I've done so.

Bloodseeker is a great hero to play and a blast to win with, and I hope you use this guide to elevate your play. Thanks!

Yours,
Paperbags