Bristleback as a Carry

I still don't get this, why nobody gets Drum of Endurance and Medallion of Courage or Bristleback? Those 2 are enough to get a ton of kills early.

Drum is something I always get on him, and it helps him out so much. Everyone else rushes Vanguard/Treads, etc. But Drum gives him movespeed that stacks well with his ulti, and general stats, of which, the intelligence fixes his mana problems for the most part.

He isn't a great carry, but more of a decent semi-carry that can potentially carry mid game if he gets fed. Late game he just doesn't have the skillset to compete with other carries, but he can still be tanky as hell and a huge nuisance for the enemy team.

I think it depends on your definition of a carry. You could make an argument purely based off the current meta by saying that there are only a handful of carrys your anti-mage, gyrocopter, alchemist, etc. Carrys who largely if not wholly depend on farming to become carrys. In my opinion this is a rather narrow definition of a carry. You then have a whole other bracket of carrys who aren't flash farmers and depend much more on early kills to get their levels and gold, Viper, Bounty Hunter, etc. I would put Bristle in this second category, no less of a carry than the other bracket in my mind, just different. What makes them less effective is the quality of the opponent they are facing where you cannot count on getting those early kills you need so desperately. I definitely see Atlas' point of view when calling him a semi-carry. However, to call him a semi-carry would put him in the same bracket as almost all other heroes. The exceptions to who isn't a semi-carry (e.g. a hero that has the potential to carry a game) may be even smaller than the previously mentioned definition of who is a carry. I mean a whole host of supports are semi-carrys Lich, Bane, Disruptor, Treeant, etc, etc can all be described as semi-carrys. So to call him a semi-carry is in my opinion too wide a definition. I take Atlas' point about his time being mid game, but isn't that also true of Sven? For me he belongs in the carry bracket as he should be built that way, however if he doesn't get those early kills or if there are better carries on the team who are doing better then he should be the first to adapt into a utility role. A fantastic mek carrier with arcane boots I would have thought. Perhaps we need a new bracket, a Carry-Semi, for carrys who aren't always great at carrying.

Anyway I like the idea of medallion and drums on him, especially drums. One thing I do slightly differently on him compared to a lot of guides and the way I've seen others play him is getting a crystalis>Daedlus fairly early, sometimes just leaving it at crystalis if there are more important items. It just makes so much sense to me given the added damage from his ulti. Can anyone tell me why they are not seen as core items? I also sometimes will get a Battlefury on him, one of the few heroes I really like this item on*. The mana is great of course for the even more spell spammage, the RoH is a really nice early game item for him and BF also helps him with his slightly less than excellent farming potential.

*I really don't get a BF on many heroes not even anti-mage, but that's a whole other conversation.

Just be wary, if there's a naix, sk, or Slardar you may want to avoid Bristleback...Slardar powers your av and bashes the **** out of you, Skeleton king has lifesteal, crits, and gets back up, naix will just eat you.

The main issue with bristleback is that there are so many better carries out there.
Assuming you are going a 3 core trilane setup, where do you put bristleback?

Reading over his abilities again, and about how good at chasing he is, why not look at him for mid? He fits the melee mid criteria (spammable Aoe for last hitting, disable, able to man up vs a ranged hero and level dependant)

Rush bottle so you can keep on spamming spells, he benefits from most runes and if you can catch someone out of position (jungle or even pushed up in lane) his slow should let you get the gank off on someone.

He is my favourite pickup when someone grabs rikki. Back strike and I out DPS him while he's wailing on me :D