Brief Guide to Huskar in Competitive Play(updated for 6.84)

Very nice guide, altough I think armlet rush is the only way to play huskar since its so much fun to toggle.

this build is viable as ever, the time has come when huskar will be played moar based on his ult than a **** trash carry
my build;
Starting :Double Gaunlets, ring of protection and some tangos
early: brown boots, basilius, urn and a optional wand
Mid game core: mana boots, mekanism, Aghamihn, ghost scepter
Late game : GG boots, octarine core, buttlerfly, assault, shivas

Armlet+Hotd is a risky build if you are not babysat in the safe lane, and I very much advocate against playing Huskar in the 1 role(there are "infinately" many better choices for position 1 heroes)... And even if you are babysat safelane it's still risky against certain lineups, especially ones that have some reliable disable/physical/pure dps as you would likely not be able to abuse armlet toggle many times.

So, it boils down to risk aversion. Yes, you can snowball more with armlet/hotd, especially if the enemy team makes mistakes or is just having fun in an unorganized happy-go-lucky pub, but it's simply too unreliable for me to use it, especially when I am not babysat safelane, which will allow me to get it before min 10-11.

On a side note, most of the people that go armlet/hotd, especially those in ranked high-level pubs, rely on early Roshan killing and that is just not so viable in an organized game. Moreover, I see the killing of Roshan with Armlet toggle very much as somewhat of a bug that is bound to get fixed at some point(e.g. when Huskar gets more attention in terms of competitive pick)

Hmm I really like the idea of a Mek. It gives him what he needs. I can just not see a timing window for buying it.

Rushing armlet (+treads+HotD) gives you so much kiting potential and early game power. Huskar needs to shine in the early game to snowball imo.
Also a value point in IV is very good since the new update (10hpps) I would suggest getting that first point sooner (lvl4). It allowes some greedy kills

Cuirass is an excellent item on paper for Huskar and his team but I find it is very difficult to get such an expensive item with Huskar before very late game. Huskar is a terrible farmer, especially without Mael/Mjolnir - one of the reasons I prefer getting more mid game items instead of very expensive late game items.

Well I meant "get to half HP and then use BKB", not the contrary, of course using BKB when full HP is a waste. But when less than half HP it will give you a lot more right-clicking.

Anyways, I'm going to try out the build, I think it's pretty solid overall, even though I'll have to get over skipping Assault Cuirass (one of the best items on the hero which easily matches mek and veil in utility for the team). Going to try the utility/tank offlaner thing, I definitely think that the build is good for a 3 position if you have a mid game/teamfight oriented team with good AOE burst, although I think it's a bit lineup-dependent and can't always replace the Armlet/BKB/AC/Satanic Huskar when you have random picks in AP and no specific strategy in mind.

Yeah he would lose against e.g. Bane and BM... but pretty much all heroes do. Focus only on the relevant mids in competitive play, not the obscure ones that you will almost never see there. On a side note, Tinker gets completely thrown away from the lane or is killed after level 6 because LB dispells the laser debuff... But sure, encountering decent Huskars is difficult, so I am not entirely surprised that you have won mid against him(very rarely picked in competitive or/and high level mmr games).



I would argue that he should be considered a tank instead of a glass cannon(he is only a glass cannon at low HP :)), so if you don't have high physical/magic resist/burst hp to stay alive at below 50% HP - you do nothing) because he does very very low physical damage(even with physical damage items) on one hand and on the other he has high MR and Inner Vitality. Let's put things into perspective, a level 15 Huskar with the items that I have suggested will have about 74% effective magic resistance on average if he manages to pop mek/stick/armlet and about 64% if he doesn't - that is A LOT for a strength hero that has something like inner vitality, even if his str gain is low for A STR hero. E.g. Antimage is a Agi hero with piss poor str gain and lower magic resistance and he is still difficult to bring down with magic damage. Additionally, the fact that the items that give burst hp(Mek/Armlet,help you take advantage even more of his MR) also give good armor(solving his low armor problem) makes it rather convenient to build Huskar like a tank...

Coming back to your point about being chainstunned/bursted down, if you coordinate well with your team it should be difficult for the enemy to burst you down in 2-3 seconds without a ton of minus armor/pure damage and before your team gets a chance to counter initiate - at level 15 with your extended core, you will have 60% physical resistance(25 armor) and 64% magic resistance even without popping mek/stick/armlet... As far as whether or not you will be able to deal a lot of damage, sure with BKB you probably will be able to do slightly more damage because you will manage to get additional right clicks in since you are not chainstunned, but I guarantee you that won't be by a lot since when you are at close to full HP you do little physical damage and mediocre magic damage(you will have 1 attack less per second compared to a 30-40% HP when both of you are able to right click(not chainstunned)).

Personally I always won mid against Huskar when I was playing Queen of Pain by just kiting him and harassing with right clicks, and as Tinker as well ( Laser counters his harass and lets you survive his ult), not to mention Sniper who won't ever be in 400-500 range of Huskar if he's not completely drunk so LB is useless. Also... Bane owns him completely. Or if you want an imba mid, Broodmother. On the other hand indeed he can win against TA and OD. I agree he's a pretty good mid - but he's not really a midlane autowin like Sylla is, that was my point. Another example : Clinkz mid has more harassing power from a longer distance and can probably escape LB even if Huskar has dust, not to mention that he can probably out-DPS Huskar to at least trade kills if necessary.

Alright for Life Break dispelling disarms...indeed it might work but only with Aghanims for the cooldown - otherwise it's just too easy to disarm just after LB.

My argument about BKB is the fact that it's extremely easy to prevent Huskar from contributing to teamfights by disabling him because as you said yourself he needs to be at 30-40% HP most of the time which is a very short time frame. Mek is the same problem and you won't even get it off of you get chainstunned and blown up quickly (I hate mek on intiators for that very reason). If you go Mek-Veil-Armlet-Maelstrom you probably won't ever have BKB because of how badly this hero farms. Position 2/3 *is* a main damage dealer, especially if you're playing a freaking Huskar in that role - you are your team's only mid game and your can't trust your #1 who's probably a greedy prick who went Midas into Linkens or something.

I understand that you want to tank the stuns yourself to keep pressure off your carry and your supports, but what confuses me is : what about Huskar makes you want to play him as a tank? His stength gain is mediocre. His base armor is horrible and it doesn't get better with levels because his agi gain sucks. He always needs to sit at around 30-40% HP in the middle of teamfights in melee range to be effective. When he gets focused with stuns he stops dealing damage. And he's one of the best mid-game DPS heroes. For me that's pretty much the definition of a glass cannon, not of a tank - that's always how I saw Huskar. I mean if you want to play Wraith King or Centaur Warrunner like that I'd understand perfectly, but Huskar...I just don't.

Thanks for the feedback! I appreciate all the comments you guys make and will try to address most of your concerns, questions etc. I currently don't have much time to add new things to the guide but I will try to at least answer questions/concerns.



I disagree, if you play appropriately, you should lose to very few heroes(e.g. Sylla, Razor and Viper). And even if you are having a difficult time before level 6, after you hit level 6 you can kill all the 3 heroes above if they don't have significant level advantage. Not sure which heroes you are referring to, any decent Huskar will win lane against e.g. OD, Tinker, and current Voker with the nerf of cold snap, same with heroes like Puck and DP, unless they get all the runes.



In general yes, BKB is gotten more often for blocking disables rather than blocking magic damage but that doesn't mean you can conveniently disregard the second part. The item is already fairly expensive and imho unnecessary for Huskar in 95% of the cases. The way I am suggesting Huskar be played is as a tanky initiator utility. Getting disabled often should not be a problem and your contribution will not be nullified - you still have mek, veil, and your ult. You have to realize that someone inherently has to absorb most of the nukes and disables and it's better this someone be Huskar than a support like Skywrath Mage, Leshrac, ES, Sand King etc. Running in with BKB defeats the purpose of the hero:
1. You do most damage at low HP and BKB does not help with this at all since the enemy team will not focus you but rather focus the supports - so, all in all, your "damage won't be that nullified" even if you get disabled in 60-70% of the time...
2. Getting initiated upon and tanking some focus fire is not necessarily a bad thing when e.g. you have an aoe nuker behind you that just waits for the opportunity to blink in and unload massive aoe damage/disables on clumped up enemy team(e.g. QOP, ES, Sand King, AA, etc.)

So, I will get BKB only in 3 cases:
1. There are A LOT of disables that don't go through BKB(e.g. a team with Lion, ES, Tide, Puck, Alchemist)
2. There is A LOT of pure damage (Timbersaw and Spectre on 1 team)
3. You are the main damage dealer(this should happen only in games where you are doing abnormally well and competely dominating the game, while position 1 is struggling). It's relatively rare since you will be playing position 2 or 3.

P.S. Heaven's Halberd should not be a counter for Huskar. There is a bug in the current version(before 6.78-6.79 LB dispelled Disarm) that prevents the disarm to be removed by e.g. Naix's rage and Huskar's Lifebreak while things like Blade Fury, Repel and BKB dispell it. Expect this inconsistency to be fixed soon... On a side note, in dota 1, LB still dispels the disarm :). So, be warned that it may get fixed soon... I wished someone had warned me when this bug suddenly appeared.

The idea of making a magic-damage oriented Huskar makes complete sense on paper, although from experience every time I was killed by a Huskar the log was very clear : half physical damage and half magical damage - so whether it's optimal or not is not obvious. Still Veil is a good item for the team and I agree with the idea of playing Huskar as a #3 (which your Mek -> Veil builds seems to suggest) - he's a horrible #1 and as a #2 it all depends on who he's up against in the midlane, essentially from experience he loses mid against any hero with 600+ range who can kite him - it's not just Viper.

I completely disagree with the " Black King Bar is not an optimal item for him" part though. IMO Huskar is pretty much unplayable without BKB, just like every hero whose playstyle is basically to go YOLO in melee range in the middle of the enemy team. Magic resistance is not an argument for not getting BKB : BKB is not an item you get to block nukes in the first place ( Heart of Tarrasque is the item that blocks nukes), BKB is an item you get to block *stuns*. Huskar is a hero who gets focused HARD when he's low HP, and "low HP Huskar" only survives for 4-5 seconds at most against a team who remotely knows what they're doing. Because of this short time you can just stun Huskar and his damage is nullified - I always played against him like this and it always worked. And I'm not even mentioning the most *obvious* way to counter your build : Heaven's Halberd. Which is an item I pick up against Huskar in every game if he's becoming a problem.

Yeah, they removed his ability to attack during GS, it was simply too strong considering his extremely high attack speed and magic resistance.

Anyway, I think Huskar is bound to receive some buffs next patch since he is not picked at all currently in the competitive scene. I don't think he needs much but it will probably be a good idea to have any of the minor buffs below:
1. increase starting damage by 4-5 damage
2. increase starting armor by 2-3
3. decrease BS duration by 1-2 seconds without decreasing overall damage

Any of those three I think will make him a little better but not broken.

Hey there,

I was playing today and the healing power of this build is really good.

The ghost scepter is great when you pop it just before you gonna die - they try to focus you and the rest of your team can finish them off.

But I realized that I cannot manually cast BS when in ghost form (GS or Ethereal blade). Appereantly it has been removed from the game in some latest patch..