The Underestimated Items: Mask of Madness

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Cost: 1900 gold Active: Berserk* Passive: Lifesteal Stats: -

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Common usage: in low level pubs, people tend to get it on carries with high damage ouput like Drow Ranger or Spirit Breaker to "double" the damage they can dish out and get more kills; the lifesteal is also useful. Talking about experienced people, they usually buy one on carries with evasion ( Faceless Void) or on carries with high health and/or armor that lack attack speed, usually STR-based (like Sven).

Hidden potential: while the 30% damage amplification is too high to be considered a good choice for increasing attack speed, the extra movement speed makes it a pretty good roaming tool especially on split pushers or carries that need to farm in the jungle. Talking about farming, the extra attack speed should also increase your gold income by quite a lot if you feel safe.


As everyone knows, the Mask of Madness is ideally the most pub-based item: as its negative side is too noticeable for it to be of any interest in competitive games, it's an item that does its best versus low-level players. The attack speed increase can really double your damage output versus non-coordinated players, especially if they have no disables.

But talking about team vs team matches, I think it's a bit underestimated for what it gives. The lifesteal is higher than the others: 20%, compared to the 15% of the Helm of the Dominator and 16% of Vladmir's Offering, means you roughly get one extra lifesteal proc every 3 hits (15*4 compared to 20*3); its price is also a bit less than the two. Talking about the Berserk ability, you can use it for a variety of things! Given its small low cooldown (25 seconds) and mana cost (25 mana) you can easily roam around the map with it; the extra attack speed makes you able to farm faster and push better if there are no enemies nearby and not activating it in fights still gives you that big 20% lifesteal. You can also use it to chase fleeing enemies.

What are its downsides then? Well, the Berserk ability is kind of a downside in the first place if you can't use it properly: if you expect to activate it and have a higher advantage in a fight, then you're wrong. Most of the time you'd better leave it off and just hit with your normal damage: activate it when you're chasing (and you're sure there are no enemies nearby) and if you're magic immune and/or have some evasion. Also, it doesn't scale well into late game: the Helm of the Dominator can be turned into a Satanic and Vladmir's Offering is percentage-based, so it's good at all stages of the game (but less useful as a first-pick item).

So why do I suggest to take it? You can kind of consider it as a Hand of Midas: the movement and attack speed increase will eventually make you gain so much gold you would've lost without them, especially when jungling early on or taking ancients. The lifesteal is also pretty good for your early-mid game and the extra movement speed, as said before, might get you kills on fleeing enemies. If you're in need of extra survivability after your first major damage item(s), you can always go for an Eye of Skadi which does stack with the lifesteal or just go full tank and buy a Heart of Tarrasque.

I would consider it on Heroes like Luna or Gyrocopter that usually rush a Helm of the Dominator to farm quicker and get ancient stacks early on: the 100 AS increase would make you able to clear camps - especially the ancient camp - much more quickly. If you still need that Satanic, you can always sell the Mask of Madness and get 950 more gold - the price of a Helm of Iron Will - than usual: basically, it's like the Satanic needed one extra Helm to make it.


What do you think? Is it worth it in your opinion? I really think it could change things if someone opened their eyes and saw what he'd been ignoring all this time. Maybe I'll find a like-minded player that plays in a good team, who knows.