DK's Carry Juggernaut Guide

Introduction.

Juggernaut is a well-rounded dps carry (not semi-carry) hero, which has the ability to be relevant throughout the whole course of the game from start to finish.

This guide will focus on how to effectively build a Juggernaut going to a safe lane with or without a partner, OR solo middle.

EDIT: I know about the current meta with players buying Drum of Endurance, and the usual Vladmir's Offering paired with a buff item such as Desolator. Please just take the guide as it is and try it out, regardless of how it compares with other item builds. It's not "wrong" or "bad", just different. The main focus is creating a Juggernaut that can match carries like Phantom Assassin in potential, which cannot be done without Satanic and Battle Fury's cleave (which i wouldn't replace by anything other than Divine Rapier)
Guides shouldn't be a competition on "how to write the same thing better".

P.S: Don't get Sange and Yasha, regardless of what other builds say. :P

EDIT 2: guide numbers (such as mana costs) have not been updated for several patches.

Pros / Cons

- Great early game set-up with Blade Fury.
- Can outfarm carries stronger than him.
- Great pusher/ganker.
- Can be a game deciding factor if gold farm is kept up.

- Very squishy/vulnerable if disabled.
- Very item dependent, loses relevance fast if he doesn't keep farm up.
- Has mana problems early game.
- Can be stutter stepped by ranged carries.

Skillset and Explanation

- Blade Fury.
- Stats.
- Blade Fury.
- Stats.
- Blade Fury.
- Omnislash.
- Blade Fury.
- Blade Dance.
- Blade Dance.
- Blade Dance.
- Omnislash.
- Blade Dance.
- Healing Ward.
- Healing Ward.
- Healing Ward.
- Omnislash.
- Healing Ward.
- max out Stats.



-- Blade Fury --

Blade Fury is one of the best starting abilities on ANY hero, and that is why it's maxed out first. It causes juggernaut to deal 80/100/120/140 damage in a 250 radius around him per second for 5 seconds, consecutively for each level put into it.

This adds up to a sum of 400/500/600/700 damage to an enemy who stayed in the AoE for the whole 5 second duration. As you can imagine, this is a devastating ability to have in the early game when enemy heroes have low HP.

It is worth noting that the damage type is Magical, the cooldown decreases by 2 seconds with each level starting from 30 (30/28/26/24) and mana cost is always 110.

Damage isn't actually dealt on a per second basis, it's per 25 intervals of 0.2 seconds each, for 16/20/24/28 damage each, consecutively per level (but you don't really have to know all that). Just consider it good vs abilities that protect against instances of damage like Templar Assassin's Refraction.

Some Tips:

- All heroes have a natural 25% magic reduction, so actual damage they take is 75% the actual amount of magic damage dealt unless you increase it using an item or ability such as Decrepify or Ethereal Blade.

- Blade Fury shouldn't be used on lane creeps unless pushing the lane isn't a problem. Doing it on stacked neutrals or a lane that was pushed into your side would be much preferable.

- When using this ability, always click on the ground next to the enemy hero and follow him, do not right click the hero himself. The latter will cause juggernaut to try and autoattack, and therefore stop, instead of continuing pursuit.

- This ability renders Juggernaut Immune to magic, a very useful tool for escaping without getting nuked/disabled. It can be used to dodge spells that have been cast but haven't taken effect/reached Juggernaut yet, such as Magic Missile's projectile.

- This skill does not affect buildings or mechanical units.

- This ability does not prevent you from activating items (such as Blink Dagger, or Shadow Blade), so you can use it to spin while invisible or in conjunction with a Town Portal Scroll to make a quick get-away if they don't have enough physical damage to kill you. You can also activate a Black King Bar before blade fury ends to increase the total magic immunity period.

- Juggernaut can hit a tower while using blade fury, but won't hit units (even though the attack sound and Blade Dance critical animation can be heard/seen). Debuffs such as corruption from Desolator however will be applied.

- This ability will dispel buffs. be wary of removing positive buffs such as double damage or the Phase Boots speed boost. phase boots should be activated AFTER blade fury has already begun. Ghost Scepter's ghost form does not take effect however, even if done after Blade Fury has been activated. (so you can't use it to be immune to both physical and magical damage at the same time)



-- Healing Ward --

Healing Ward is a pretty broken ability that will heal 2%/3%/4%/5% of nearby allied units' maxiumum HP per second, for 25 seconds. This means that if you are a Centaur Warrunner or a Pudge with 5000 maximum HP, you will be healing 250 health points per second from a level 4 ward. (in other words, Healing Ward is better when you have more maximum HP, regardless of damage taken).

The ward lasts for 25 seconds, therefore if no damage is taken it heals 50% of a unit's maximum health at level 1, 75% of it at level 2, 100% (full heal) at level 3 and 125% (more than maximum health) at level 4. (Yes I realize the latter two actually need you to take damage in order to be true but you get the point.)

If left unchecked for the whole 25 seconds during a team fight it will effectively be as if each hero's HP was more than doubled, (the centaur and pudge from the earlier example would have the equivalent of 11250 HP). The enemy team would have to have a high dps or burst damage output to negate the usefulness of the ward, or to destroy it (which, oddly enough, most people are too lazy to do in pub games)

It is worth noting that the healing ward is treated as a ward (structure) and can't be targeted by anything that can't target a structure, although it can be Decrepify-ed.
The mana cost increases by 20 per level starting from 80 (80/100/120/140, consecutively), and the cooldown is a constant 60 seconds. It has a heal AoE of 500 radius and a 350 cast range.

Some Tips:

- Healing ward can be controlled, you can make it run away from danger, follow you to another place to keep the healing up or scout runes/enemies with it. You can even send it from your lane to your team's jungling hero or another lane. You cannot, however, use it to block off a juke path through trees similar to Venomancer's Plague Wards as it has no unit collision.

- You might actually want to avoid the above scouting tip unless necessary, as Juggernaut cannot afford to spend the high mana cost of Healing Ward so casually and wait for its cooldown.

- Due to having a high mana cost which can alternatively be used for Blade Fury or Omnislash, leveling up Healing Ward in the early game should be done only if absolutely necessary, and even then should only be leveled only once due to mana cost increasing per level while the 50% HP regen would have been just fine. Doing this will also cost you a much needed stats gain level.



-- Blade Dance --

Blade Dance is just a generic ability that gives Juggernaut a 15%/20%/25%/35% chance to deal double damage on each attack, consecutively for each level point put into the ability.

This ability is, of course, what allows Juggernaut to be decent enough to be called a "carry" hero.

Some Tips:

- This ability is better the more damage you have, so it will really start shining once you get battle fury and it will render Blade Fury's damage obsolete in the late game, as auto attacking will provide MUCH more DPS. Blade Fury should only be used for the magic immunity late game.

- It might be worth noting that the red critical number that appears above your target's head when a blade dance activates during an auto attack is the damage you are dealing to him without the amount his armor is going to reduce. Same goes for any illusions you have from abilities or items such as Manta Style, the red number is the damage before counting an illusion's damage reduction.



-- Omnislash --

Omnislash is an ability that launches Juggernaut into a slashing spree, distributing the slashes between units in a 425 radius around and including each target hit. it deals 175-250 damage per slash, for 3/6/9 slashes consecutively for each level.

If there are no units around the main target, he will take the full brunt of the ability, getting a minimum of 525/1050/1575 damage, assuming every slash dealt 175 damage and a maximum of 750/1500/2250 damage, assuming every slash dealt 250 damage.

It is worth noting that cooldown decreases by 10 seconds per level starting from 130 seconds (130/120/110), mana cost increases by 75 per level starting from 200 (200/275/350) and casting range is a constant 450.
The time interval between each slash and the next one is 0.4 seconds.
The damage type is Physical.

Buying Aghanim's Scepter will add 3 more slashes at all levels and decrease cooldown to 70 seconds at all levels. Such item, much slash, wow.

Some Tips:

- Due to damage type being physical Juggernaut can still target and damage magic immune units.

- The first target always receives a physical ministun, which can be used to stop the channeling of certain channeled abilities or items such as Town Portal Scroll, Enigma's Black Hole and Bane's Fiend's Grip.

- Juggernaut gains flying vision in a 200 radius for the duration of omnislash to prevent it from dispelling when target walks up a cliff or between trees by losing vision of him.

- Creeps are killed in one hit of omnislash if they aren't player controlled or ancients, although it is almost always a waste doing that due to high mana cost and cooldown.

- Ethereal units from abilities such as Decrepify and Ghost Scepter will continue to be slashed, but will not take any of the damage as it is physical.

- Juggernaut cannot be targeted by any spells or attacks during the duration of omnislash, and will even not be affected by Faceless Void's Chronosphere till omnislash expires. The invulnrability however doesn't take effect until after the first target is hit, which can sometimes, albeit rarely, lead to juggernaut dying even though omnislash was triggered and started its cooldown.

- If the target manages to blink away or go invisible with no detection in the vicinity, omnislash will prematurely end.

- With enough attack speed, Juggernaut can auto attack while doing omnislash and place debuffs and trigger chance effects. These however can be avoided by evasion just like any normal auto-attack.

- Evasion cannot avoid Slashes.

- Force Staff can sometimes be used to exceed omnislash's jump radius if pulled off correctly, same as Blink abilities. but it needs to be timed almost instantaneously before the next check which makes it mostly luck dependent.

- Linken's Sphere will block only the first slash's instance of damage, and only if the holder is the main target. It will still not block the ministun.

- Omnislash, same as Blade Fury, does not prevent Juggernaut from using his items.

- Damage mentioned above is calculated before armor reduction.



-- Stats (AKA Attribute Bonus) --


You might be asking yourself "what is the purpose of the two level points in stats early on?"

Well, without buying any attribute increasing items at the start, as is the case in my build, Juggernaut will have 260 mana and 701 health at level 6.

After using Omnislash on a target (which costs 200 mana at level 1) juggernaut will only have 60 mana remaining, which is not enough to do a Blade Fury, or even a Healing Ward.

The same goes for using a blade fury before omnislash, as you will be about 50 mana short of using your ultimate, although you could still use a healing ward.

The first stats point will gives us +2 intelligence, raising our mana up to 286. The second stats point will give us another +2 intelligence, raising our mana up to 312.
This is enough to do a Blade Fury right after an omnislash, provided you had full mana before starting the fight. If you intend to level up Blade Dance and/or Healing Ward on levels 2 and 4 instead of attribute bonus, make sure to get 4 intelligence from items prior to reaching level 6.

Very few heroes have the ability to survive the damage output of both abilities early in the game, and it is almost like a certain kill every time omnislash's cooldown ends. This is of course the main reason for leveling up stats, although the extra 76 health and 4 damage/attack speed don't hurt.

Items and Explanation

Juggernaut, what are you doin?
Juggernaut... stahp!

Most builds have you buy a couple of ironwood branches and/or a circlet, stats items in general.
Truth is, for a hero like Juggernaut the regeneration can be better because you exchange it for more time on the lane, i.e more experience and gold.

If you intend to level up blade dance or healing ward instead of attribute bonus (on levels 2 and 4), make sure to get at least 4 intelligence points prior to reaching level 6 from items.

As a side note, the Clarity potions are really good regardless. always use them to fill your mana to the maximum when you are about to have an Omnislash, and always have enough mana to Blade Fury your way out of a surprise tough spot even when an omnislash needs a while to finish cooling down.

The lack of stats is made up for by a couple of points put into attribute bonus at levels 2 and 4. But this is mainly to allow for an Omnislash into Blade Fury combo succession later on rather than for survivability.

- Phase Boots are an essential item to have, as the speed boost can still be applied if used AFTER (not before) Blade Fury is activated. This will allow you to catch those sneaky heroes that almost get away with 1 hp left, even if just by an auto attack. And let's not forget about the "no collision" deal, where you can surprise them while spinning and suddenly pass through the fighting creeps.

- Perseverance is an item you'd want to have when your regeneration starting items have finally all been depleted, as it will allow you more time outside the base to gain experience and gold without having to come back to refresh HP and mana.

As for which one to get first?

Well... it depends.
If you're running out of regen items really fast and it's a hard lane you might wanna save up to get that Ring of Health from the sideshop first. then Boots of Speed, then finally Phase Boots.

Sometimes it's better to go for Boots of Speed before Ring of Health.

If you're doing alright on regen items and you're feeling aggressive you'd go for Boots of Speed into Phase Boots before Ring of Health, using the regen items till you can get the Perseverance later on.

It's really up to you and what you think is best for the game you're currently in.


Your sole core item is Battle Fury and the sooner you get it the better.
My own personal benchmarks are great before 15 minutes, good before 20 minutes and bad after 20 minutes.

Battle Fury allows you to easily farm without having to use Blade Fury, so you can save it till it's needed. It gives you the damage and cleave you need to start being relevant at team fights when you have no spells left, in conjunction with Blade Dance.

It's basically the stepping stone into your late game items and you should use it to farm lanes and jungle whenever your omnislash is on cooldown. Start farming ancients as soon as you have a level 1 Healing Ward (level 13 in this build).

As a side note, getting Claymore and Broadsword before Perseverance isn't always worth it unless you somehow manage to gather enough money to get them both at the same time. But even then it's debatable.

So we have damage, Area of effect Cleave, Magic immunity and a nice ultimate. What do we lack?

The answer is attack speed and survivability. Since we got Phase Boots instead of Power Treads, we don't have the attack speed we need to make Blade Dance really shine. Also, at this point in the game it's hard to survive relying only on Blade Fury since the DPS of enemy heroes is better now , and the cooldown and duration of it aren't up to Par anymore.

Butterfly is a perfect item. It will give us attack speed, even more damage, some armor AND a chance to evade enemy auto attacks. Getting this item using your superior farming will allow you to easilly defeat most slower farming carries without having to use Omnislash.

Satanic might not give us attack speed, but it will give us lots of health, normal life steal and INSANE life steal when activated. Once you have this item you are a full fledged carry that can take on 2 or 3 heroes at a time, even more when you have support.

With that in mind, you can get Helm of the Dominator but never finish Satanic before Butterfly. As the higher your attack speed and damage are the better satanic is, but not the other way around.

Countless times I've been stunned/disabled/attacked and nuked to near death only to activate satanic and watch my health refill back up with the Blade Dance criticals while enemy heroes drop like flies.

Abyssal Blade for 100 more damage, 10 strength and a disable that goes through magical immunity.

Heart of Tarrasque for more survivability. (1060 health and epic regeneration out of battle, equal to a level 1 Healing Ward.)

Black King Bar? but don't I already have Blade Fury for magical immunity?

A little while after you have Battle Fury your auto attack DPS will be much better than using Blade Fury, and your ability's 5 seconds of being useless in a team fight might not be enough anymore to get you safely out of danger without getting disabled or nuked. Get this when it's a very heavy disable/nuke oriented team.

Shadow Blade is an item that can be very beneficial, OR a waste of money. the movement speed and backstab can be a perfect addition to your killing capabilities before the Omnislash (make sure you use the extra backstab damage when you can always). You can get out of really dicey situations if the other team neglects to get detection. Get this only if it will translate to getting more ahead in farm, not for a better kill/death ratio.

Shadow Blade might not be a good option if you have heroes that can already go invisible on your team such as Riki or Bounty Hunter, as the other team should already be trying to deal with detecting them, and they'll detect you as a bonus.

These items of course come instead of the luxury items.

Strategy and Conclusion

You're gonna want to last hit creeps while looking out for Blade Fury first blood opportunities, especially if your lane's team mate is someone with a disable like Crystal Maiden or Shadow Shaman.

After reaching level 6 and beyond, you should always pressure yourself to go looking for a kill. Just catch a guy away from creeps, Omnislash him, then Blade Fury and use Phase Boots while following him. This should give you a little bit of extra GPM.

Work on your Battle Fury then use it to farm un-attended lanes, jungle and, once you have a level 1 Healing Ward, ancient creeps. Always make sure to use your ultimate on someone as soon as cooldown expires.

After building Butterfly, try to find ways to win the game right there and then or at least secure mega creeps at a lane while farming Satanic. The game needs to end before the opposite team's carries are able to defeat you, as even though your Blade Dance is the best chance percentage of all similar abilities, it also has the lowest damage multiplier.

Please feel free to buy whatever item you feel is necessary for the game and don't just stick to the build, if it makes sense then do it! I once bought a "scythe of vyse" to defeat a ranged carry that kept stutter stepping me with a slowing attack. (albeit as Heroes of Newerth's SwiftBlade)

Finally: a youtube replay of me trying out the build in a safe lane (bottom as the radiant).

Link to part one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mo-GDCXGzMA

In it I had to buy the situational Shadow Blade which saved me a couple of times because the only invisibility on my team was Templar Assassin's Meld.

It also features me losing a fight against windrunner and Bounty Hunter teaming up, even though they were outfarmed, because of windrunner being ranged and having a slow.

I used Blade Fury a couple of times to damage bounty hunter even when I had no detection, obtaining a kill in one of them (just try to guess where he would go and move there).

I also used Omnislash extensively to secure kills, one of them being from up a cliff down on Nature's Prophet, who died fast to the burst damage without having enough time to realize what was happening and triggering his own shadow blade to escape.

Finally, near the end, I showcase the power of Satanic by diving their fountain just as the game is ending and getting a kill while healing up against the massive damage.

Go forth and remember, Juggernaut is one of the most fun heroes in the game so do just that, have fun!