Huskar's place in the competitive scene

Huskar is one of those heroes who, while not exactly a derpy pubstomper in the way Sniper and Bloodseeker are, is still a hero you've likely scene plenty of in pubs. But, as I've watched competitive games, I've noticed Huskar gets little to no picks/bans. Obviously, Huskar is not capable of being a number 1 position hero since any hard carry can kill him almost instantly, but he is still a good ganker since his damage scales well into the late game and said damage output is always ludicrous thanks to Burning Spear (possible core hero?).

So, what do you all make of Huskar and what he's (not) capable of in the competitive scene?

He has a lot of counters, imo. This is why I think it's a niche hero. I'm not exactly sure what are all his counters and stuff, I'll let that to the more experienced boiz. But you won't see a first pick huskar for sure.

Huskar aint that strong late game. Only his ult is great late, I think.

He's a difficult pickup - he has a really strong set of abilities, but his big problem is his playstyle/tactics are so predictable, and he's reasonably easy for that level of player/organisation to deal with.

I think he's got to have a core/farming role, but I wouldn't want him as a #1 carry, he just doesn't have what it takes late game compared to most of the other options.

Could see him being picked up as a niche/pocket strat pick, a bit like Ursa used to be. If you could sneak a couple of effective team mates for him onto your roster (ones with lockdown, silence, Shallow Grave etc), then grab him as 5th pick when they have no chance to react. He'd be a good pickup against a melee mid opponent and a team with lots of magic damage.

Would think a semi-carry/tank role, lots of HP to soak up damage, Aghanim's Scepter, Veil of Discord etc.

played a game last night withg a huskar in my team.

we already had mid and a safelane hc and a pos 4 so i picked a pos 5...

the team had viper wind am sf and someone else.....

and this last guy PICKED A HUSKAR.... if there is a team you dont want to play aginst as a huskar ....its that one.. needless to say he gave first blood and second and 3456789 and 10th ...

he kept saying i dont understand huskar is OP..

im like

against another team maybe but this one .. no

******!!!!! ugh

smuggel how you become editor ;_;

Smuggels i really like how you never write using capitals and use funny words altho u r actually a writer

its the mark of a good writer to not make the jokes apparent to the readers.

Huskar is the very definition of a niche hero : completely OP against teams that rely on magic damage, essentially worthless against teams that rely on physical damage and/or have lots of lockdown.

I think his main problem is that he's a complete glass cannon that can just get CC'd to death when he jumps in. I think good coordination in stuns/abyssals/sheeps/halberds etc AND kiting with Ghost Scepter/ Force Staff can essentially disable him for the few seconds that he can do damage. Sure he'll go BKB, but even that isn't enough.

Another problem with him is that he's a snowballing hero. He's definitely not a hard carry so position 1 makes no sense, he's really at his strongest in the early-mid game and he has no way to farm, so his only way to shine is to farm heroes, and farming heroes is always way more effective in pubs than in the pro scene.

Personally I think he should be rebalanced to be less niche, 99% magic resistance is just stupidly broken while his low mobility and snowball dependence make him still not such a great hero. Niche heroes are never a good thing it just shows bad game balance.

He isn't seen in pro scene because he is so situational hero that only works against magic damage heavy line ups.

I seen huskar in pro game only few times and those have all been mushis bans in CM

I may sound harsh, but to me Huskar is one of the weakest Heroes at the moment regardless of the team he plays against: he has low mobility (his ulti has a cast range of 550 units), no scaling into late game and is very susceptible to stuns. He might be difficult to bring down with magic damage, but he has low armor and is single target-oriented, two things that make him easy to kill for your average carry. But still, the only time I saw him being picked in competitive they played him in a dual off-lane with Abaddon and - believe it or not - it worked.

I tried the early Mekansm build on him and it's kinda nice, but it prevents him from snowballing in the mid game as all semi-carries do. The few times I play him I usually go Armlet of Mordiggian into Black King Bar, though I'm not so experienced with him; Blink Dagger into Black King Bar also works wonders.