Axe, the jungler

Skills

Axe's first ability Berserker's Call(Q) good for ganking, but unfortunately most players backs off when they see a axe coming towards them. Early game, before you get your dagger its important to position your self smart, come from behind/side/shadow. Also you want to have as many creeps possible attacking you, not only do you disable but you get to do some heavy damage with Counter Helix. With Blink Dagger you are now the initiator in both big battles and ganks, with Blade Mail you are also the carries worse nightmare.

Axe's second ability Battle Hunger(W) I use this ability for picking up that one guy who manages to get away. I usually gank when i get lvl 4 that's when i got Tranquil Boots that's when this ability comes in handy since i do not have Culling Blade yet. I get this ability at level 2 instead of 4 because I am afraid of being ganked while I am in jungle. With Battle Hunger I get to damage the gankers and if i am running toward a ally that is coming to help me(Either mid or top(dire)/bot(Radiant)) I will have already done some damage.

Axe's third ability Counter Helix(R) is the ability that allows you to jungle and is your primary source of damage.

Axe's Ultimate Culling Blade this ability should only be used for finishing targets, Abbaddon(if or when he gets added) when he uses his ultimate, to take out anyone you can when Omniknight uses Guardian Angel and who ever Dazzle uses Shallow Grave on. Except for those special occasions it's always good to take out disablers and carries as quick you can.

Items

Starter items
Ring of Regen and Stout Shield is a less traditional build for axe, but instead of the usually fast Ring of Health I go for a fast Tranquil Boots. with the Ring of Regen I only need 675 for Tranquil Boots which is 200 less then Ring of Health. comparing the two items Ring of Health gives 5 hp each second, while Tranquil Boots gives 80 ms, 3 armor which doubles your armor at this early state, 3 hp reg and 170 hp every 40 second. 170/40=4,25 that adds up to 7,25 hp regen.

Core items
Now that you got Tranquil Boots you need to get Vanguard and Blink Dagger, but which one to get first? The order is all situational the safe way would be too go Vanguard, the more offensive way would be to get Blink Dagger to get em all in Berserker's Call or blink in and use Culling Blade. Once you got these two items it's time to get Blade Mail it gives you armor which axe lacks off it gives you mana which is something you also need, but the return damage effect is heavenly, it returns all the damage you make them do to you in Berserker's Call, most heroes with aoe stun spam it when they are in your taunt and will use it the moment they get out it may not be aimed at you, but since you are so close it will most likely hit you as well and they will eat the extra 300+ damage after Berserker's Call. This isn't only relevant for aoe stuns, but numerous off other AoE abilities.

Extra items,
Enemy team tower diving? here you come for the rescue Town Portal Scroll, Muhahaha

if your jungle is warded, you cant farm, you cant gank, get a Sentry Ward you are a jungler you gain gold at much higher rate then a support let them ward your jungle, just keep a list on whom you will extract your revenge on.

Luxury items
Shiva's Guard 200 damage, gets you rid of your mana problem and it gives you a good portion of armor(also lowers the enemy attack speed) great item for axe
Pipe of Insight the magic starting hurt? might as well help your self survive and your team. great item, but it depends on whom you are against.
Heart of Tarrasque 40*19= 760, 760 + 300 = 1060 hp expensive but it gives you a lot of health. and 2% reg when not in combat.

3 great items for axe but you unfortunately only got space for 2, which one you should choose all depends on the fight you are in. You will hopefully get a good grip of which one of these you can live without when you get to the point of buying these.

Boots of Travel got no more spots but got loads of money? maybe time to replace
Tranquil Boots and get your self the extra movement speed and be able to defend and push wherever its needed.

Pros / Cons

PROS:

[+] High base health
[+] Great initiator
[+] Great farmer (jungle)
[+] Great damage output
[+] Great tower pusher


CONS:

[+] Low attack speed
[-] Low movement speed
[-] Small mana pool
[-] Proper positioning required
[-] Items are needed to initiate well
[-] You can be countered in jungle


It's always good to be informed on how you can be countered so you can possibly change that so here i will explain how axe can be countered in jungle.

#1 The enemy team can easily put one Observer Ward at the easiest creep spawn before the game start, this will annoy you to no end. To avoid this problem it is important to scout them early before they reach ward point, also get one of your team mate to check rune so he will be close by if they are trying to ward your creep spot.

#2 Chen & Enchantress these 2 heroes can make your life a misery, at 30 second mark they get a huge centaur interrupting you while you are trying to take the easy creeps, now you gotta go back and heal or you are dead, and he just continue to harass when you return. You don't touch any creeps before ~ 51 sec map(when you pull and stack easy creeps) before this time, you have good time to scout and search for intruders, you shouldn't be scratching your balls while waiting for creeps, you do not wanna get caught by surprise. At level 2 with your Battle Hunger you can do damage while kiting or while chasing for a good period of time, this is where battle hunger really starts to shine.

Creeping / Jungling

The first set of creeps comes at 30 second mark, after that every creeps spawns at minute change. Stacking neutral means to have more then one set of neutral at one spot, how do we achieve this? by pulling the creeps in the spot away from the spawning point at the minute marker, the goal is to have every creeps in the spawn point not be able to see their own spawn point, the golden rule is to pull away at ~xx,51 easy to learn hard to master.

-Jungle groups-
Easy: #1

Kobold camp Forest Troll Camp Forest Troll and Kobold Camp Gnoll Assassin Camp Ghost Camp Harpy Camp

Medium: #2 & #3


Centaur Camp Wolf Camp Satyr Camp Ogre Camp Golem Camp
Hard: #4 & #5


Centaur Camp Large Satyr camp Furbolg Camp Wildkin Camp Troll Camp
Jungling
We don't do anything except scout before the ~51 when its time to pull, we pull group #1 out to the side so we can stack them, after these are killed you got 2 options.

Option nr 1 Stacking
Go to spawn point #2 and stack these, the creeps at #1 should be dead at 01:15-25 which gives you the time to check rune or check what neutral there are at #3 and #4. After #2 are stacked go back to #1 and kill them or #3,#4 (depends on what you scouted). after you have killed 1 of the options go back to #2 and stack yet again. Now that you have group of 3 pull them into the lane when they will come across your laning creeps, the 3 groups will most likely denies the whole wave, and maybe a second one. this will give your laning partner a huge advantage over the opposing laners.

Option nr 2 farming
This option is less beneficial to your team mate. Either go to #2,#3 or #4, try to avoid centaur camp, Furbolg camp and possible Large satyr camp( not sure how you would manage against large satyr camp. then go back to #1 if you come at a stacking time, stack of course if its less then 35 seconds, just kill it.

Remember when you jungling keep a close eye on mid and the lane closest to you, you don't wanna be ganked and you also wanna take advantage of a opportunity to gank if it comes. your job is quiet passive so calling miss for all lanes wouldnt be hard for you and it would be beneficial for your team mates.

Runes

Runes, Never take rune from mid hero if he got bottle, reason for you to take the runes are mid doesn't have bottle and doesn't want it. Bloodseeker is a fine example of a hero who doesn't need it. some mid heroes has to take rune not because they need it but to denie the opposing mid hero the rune, help them and take the rune away from him.

Haste

good for ganking makes it easy for you to get close and use berzerker's call

Invisibility

good for ganking makes it easy for you to get close and use berzerker's call

Double Damage

completely useless for you, it may help you kill that big neutral guy faster but every other hero would have better use of it, except for techie's

Regeneration

Helps you get your mana up and health, but you should have good enough hp regen that you could let anyone else that needs it have it.

Illusions

these illusions are quiet harmfull against creeps, they have equal chance to you to proc Counter Helix and do the same damage.

Ganking

Fog is your friend.
I usually wait for my Tranquil Boots(lvl4) before I gank top/bot lane. Once you have ganked continue your farm in jungle and wait for them to come back. This will give you a great gpm. your main goal is to make it comfortable for your top laner(especially if he is a carry).

Need help?
if the lane furthest away from you need help or you see a good chance of successful gank buy or use your Town Portal Scroll and do your job. after you have ganked the lane furthest away from you are now in position in ganking mid. you can at them from their own jungle behind them and take them easily if they are in river.

Towers
axe is a great hero to kill towers, why? he doesn't do much dmg on the tower, but he gets between towers and kills and their creeps and let your creep tank tower while a potential partner nuke it down.

blink
Now that you got blink all your positioning problems are over this item should help you do your damage, but also make it easy for your team mates to just burst on them. blink in, use berzerker's call and enjoy....