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I highly disagree with skipping Culling Blade. It's a ridiculously strong ability that helps you snowball like crazy. Axe sucks without a level advantage because Culling Blade is so strong (and seriously suffers if enemies outlevel you).
Btw for Counter Helix, 105 damage per spin is a lot of damage... and while the chance doesn't increase with leveling, the interval between spins improves. This gives you more damage. It is also a great lane ganking ability which can be made reliable with good timing and intelligent creep aggro management. Axe without Counter Helix has no threat so players can remove Battle Hunger (by getting a last hit) and are not punished by trying to do so.
The reason Battle Hunger is so strong is because Axe can force you to choose between removing Battle Hunger and taking a ton of Helix damage, or taking a ton of Hunger damage. Without maximizing Helix and taking Cull, you're reducing all of Axe's threat early game.
Culling Blade is very situational, as Axe is not the nuker/carry type of heroes which need more golds and levels to survive.
For your info, higher level does not really improves the interval a lot until it poses a huge threat on enemy heroes, it only aids Axe to farm NC more on GPM early/mid game.
Battle hunger is STRONG only if you combo with other stunners/nukers in same lane, a good player with decent Last Hit skill can basically ignore your helix and Last Hit the creep, if AXE is ALONE facing the player.
Geez, all your points are taken from easy pub games and easily countered by decent teamplay.
why would you tend to support w/ axe? he needs a lot of xp to be more effective... if you'll use him as a support..he'll be level gap and loses his effectiveness.. also, he'll be delayed to get the blink dagger..
He is a semi-gank/semi-support instead of hardcore lane support. You can use him to farm till Blink dagger, but his skills can not allow him farm any longer than that.
Btw for Counter Helix, 105 damage per spin is a lot of damage... and while the chance doesn't increase with leveling, the interval between spins improves. This gives you more damage. It is also a great lane ganking ability which can be made reliable with good timing and intelligent creep aggro management. Axe without Counter Helix has no threat so players can remove Battle Hunger (by getting a last hit) and are not punished by trying to do so.
The reason Battle Hunger is so strong is because Axe can force you to choose between removing Battle Hunger and taking a ton of Helix damage, or taking a ton of Hunger damage. Without maximizing Helix and taking Cull, you're reducing all of Axe's threat early game.
Pretty nice guide, too bad people tend to carry with
A +1 from me.
Yea, a lot of people failed to perceive what makes a carry, or even a semi-carry. AXE has none of scaling ability fit as semi-carry, at all.
Thanks for the feedback.
Eh, BH does nice damage, but against higher skill players who can land the LH's to cancel it, it definitely loses its allure. I think Axe is probably more valuable as a jungler since it allows him to get a ton of farm, as well as a semi-carry to get a solo lane. It's obviously preference, but I feel like as the skill level of your opponents goes up this builds viability goes down.
1. It is only true if you BH a hero alone, players will Last Hit and dispel AXE's BH, thus the BH timing I refer is:
Eg: Always rush the enemy hero with ganker, BH it, nuke and make the enemy retreat(psychologically threatening him) if cannot kill the hero, and let the BH doing its job. You can't just BH a decent player and let him LH.
2. AXE farm and be a semi-carry? You need to re-define of your values of a SEMI-CARRY.
3. In late game, you might say his BH and Helix not longer effective as in early game, but his blink-call ignore BKB and his culling blade is still able to kill INT support, both of these skills are indispensable even in late game.
A +1 from me.