For the Twins - Bladeseeker Jungle/Offlane Guide (Updated for 7.01)

Introduction

Updated for Dota 2 Update 7.01. The biggest changes that matters big for jungling in 7.01 is the fact that the damage from Quelling Blade and Iron Talon stacks linearly now rather than multiplicatively like in the past.

For Bloodseeker, the effect is tremendous. Having buffed by level 1 Bloodrage and combined with Iron Talon+ Quelling Blade, he deals 120-130 damage to creeps every single hits without any other items whatsoever. That's VERY VERY fast, considering how cheap both items are. Even go above that he can forego the existence of Hand of Midas since he can snowballs like crazy fast now.

Who is Bloodseeker?

Strygwyr the Bloodseeker is a ritually sanctioned hunter, Hound of the Flayed Twins, sent down from the mist-shrouded peaks of Xhacatocatl in search of blood. The Flayed Ones require oceanic amounts of blood to keep them sated and placated, and would soon drain their mountain empire of its populace if the priests of the high plateaus did not appease them. Strygwyr therefore goes out in search of carnage. The vital energy of any blood he lets, flows immediately to the Twins through the sacred markings on his weapons and armor. Over the years, he has come to embody the energy of a vicious hound; in battle he is savage as a jackal. Beneath the Mask of the Bloodseeker, in the rush of bloody quenching, it is said that you can sometime see the features of the Flayers taking direct possession of their Hound.

Basically he is obsessed with blood and has fanatical worship to a twins that probably you will never care about. He is so obsessed with blood that he can pop cherries from afar, make anus bleeds, or hasten ones period, which we will make use of it.

Laning Bloodseeker

1. Take offlane when no one in your team occupies it and the lane is pushed towards your tower. If the lane is pulled, go towards your minor jungle near the lane. A medium+hard camp+bounty rune will cover any lack of farm and exp. With how fast you can clear jungle spots (with just Iron Talon alone, you will not miss any creep wave if the lane is pushed back on you, so essentially you get double creepwave exp and farm.
   
   With pulling lane is now nerfed to every odd minutes, chances are, they cannot pull lane very often. If they are somehow very competent in doing so, bring TP Scroll and abandon lane and stick to jungle. TP back to lane (if far) whenever the lane is pushed back or you know the support that currently babysits the carry is currently rotating.
2. Take full jungle when your team's main carry is strong at laning like Ursa or self sufficient with great escape like Slark so trilane is unnecessary. That offlane hero hopefully has huge impact with level superiority like Dark Seer.

DO NOT support other lane until you get level 6. It's crucial you have level 6 first to get kills fast and snowball.

Abilities and Talents

Hover over the icons for numbers

---

Bloodrage has no mana cost.

Bloodrage increases every damage source the buffed Unit makes at the cost of increased received damage with the same number. So if one's Bloodrage-ing an ally, he or she will deal 40% more damage (at level 4) but receive 40% more damage.

If one kills something (except units that has no health bar like wards, familiars, tombstone) he/she will be healed to the amount percentage of maximum killed units health, same goes for one who kills the buffed unit.

Bloodrage serves 4 purposes:

1. To Jungle. It increases damage for right clicks and heals when Bloodseeker kills the unit. It also serves to increase the damage from Iron Talon, so make sure to use Bloodrage before using Iron Talon. This is the ability (when combined with Iron Talon) that makes jungling for Bloodseeker more efficient than laning.
2. To enhance damage from abilities. Most notable usage is for your Blood Rite, but it also enhance damage from Rupture. Do note this has interesting interaction with Blade Mail. The damage returned is amplified, either you are the one that uses BM or the enemies.
3. Enhance allies damage. Especially effective on heroes with huge burst damage. Zeus, Skywrath Mage, Pugna, Kunkka, Storm Spirit, Timbersaw, Morphling Shotgun are among the heroes that you should buff with Bloodrage if possible. Do note that they also receive increased damage. This can also be a tool for them to heal when they kill creeps when they are buffed.
4. Pop Linken's Sphere before using Rupture. Use Bloodrage on enemies with Linken's and press R. One of the reason why Rupture is good.

We level this to level 2 for three reasons.

One: To match duration with cooldown. It means you can continuously buff yourself.
Two: Cooldown reduction means it can be used on allies more often.
Three: Blood Rite has low damage in level 1 and short duration of silence, so we want to level it first.

---

Blood Rite is your crowd control. Pure damage, huge AoE, long silence duration (at level 4), but hard to land. Usually used as a combo after Rupture-ing opponents, but I often use it to force dispersing between back liner and front liner enemy heroes. It's more useful that way, and if the AoE lands on enemy heroes, it becomes better.

We max this second after Thirst since this is the second source of damage.

The reason to level this at 8 is because at that time, fights begin to erupt and having this at disposal is good. Maxing this gives reduced cooldown, which at max level able to be casted twice in one battle.

Other than the long delay, it's a straightforward ability, It also gives vision, so you can use it to prevent jukes. Can be Combo-ed with Eul's Scepter of Divinity active, just make sure to use the item's active first before using this ability, although this combo is easily negated by spamming Force Staff on the air.

If your team lacks Crowd Control or your team abilities has been casted, consider this ability as force zoning instead. Block enemies from trying to save their teammates or block paths an escaping enemy will take. The AoE is huge, the cast range is ridiculous, cheap mana cost, low cooldown, use it.

---

Thirst is the ability that makes Bloodseeker true to his title.

By this date (10/11/2016), Dotafire has not updated the skill description, so I will take a voluntary action.

Learning Thirst removes the 522 movement speed cap for Bloodseeker, though the haste rune still gives a fixed 522 movement speed.

Thirst starts in effect by the time the enemy's health reduced to 75% of their maximum health. This means, Bloodseeker gets the bonus damage and movement speed after their health is reduced more than the threshold. The bonus granted to you is equivalent to the proportion of enemy heroes' missing health between 75% and 25%, the closer they are to 25%, the bigger the bonus. This effect stacks per enemy hero.

Thirst gives the maximum amount of effect when the enemy's health reaches 25% and won't give anymore bonus movement speed and attack damage even when their health go lower. However, in exchange, Thirst places true sight on the injured enemy hero(es) and makes them visible through the fog of war.

Thirst does not trigger on Illusions, but does trigger on Clones. Meepo's Clones and Tempest Double's clone gives bonus on Thirst.

This is the one that makes Bloodseeker a hard hitting right clicker, and has huge movement speed to chase practically anyone.

---

Rupture is your ult. The sound is loud and bring haunts to the enemies. Pure damage and said damage can kill from full health to zero without any other help. The catch? It doesn't do jack when enemies don't move. Which, unless the enemy is total noob, is what they do: they stop from moving. Smarter enemies will TP-out and there's nothing you can do because you don't have innate stuns other than killing them with right clicks and hopefully they die before they can get out.

What's more, this ability can be blocked by Linken's Sphere.

Well, doesn't that make this ability Sh|t tier when compared to other ults?

That, my readers, is when you play Bloodseeker like typical carry or some other noobs out there.

See this from my perspective:

Rupture is NOT your primary damage. This ability's primary use is force rooting. I say this is force rooting because Rupture is not your typical root abilities.

Root abilities ( Frostbite, Searing Chains, Earthbind, Ensnare, Overgrowth, Pit of Malice) some has the ability to mini-stun at cast point and let the enemies cannot move away, but not stunned, and disable all Blink abilities. If they are rooted, after the initial mini-stun they can channel TP and out even when the debuff has not ended yet.

Rupture has no mini-stun, it doesn't prevent Blinks (except Blink Dagger, but moving away from the spot deals tremendous damage, even when they blink away. This is why I put this as forced rooting, because you don't root enemies instead enemies don't want to move.

"So what?" I know some of you readers will have this question.

This, my readers, means Rupture has many purposes when you overlook the damage:

1. When an enemy is out of position, Rupture will force them stay out of position or receive damage in return.
2. Prevent enemies who want to escape from your teammates.
3. Forcing an enemy to TP-out to bring unfair fights or taking an objective (like pushing towers)
4. Forcing the Ruptured enemy's allies to huddle. When a teammate of theirs is Ruptured, naturally their teammates will come to protect them, and will not stay far. A perfect time for your iniator to start. Or if they stay far, you can kill the solo hero with your team.
5. Prevent mobile heroes to move around the battlefield like flies.
6. Prevent heroes from taking proper positioning.
7. Prevent Blink Dagger dependent heroes from blinking away

So much practical usage, especially number 1, 4, 5, 6, and 7.

Able to do those things are almost a guaranteed win for your team fights.

Number 1 is fatal to back-line heroes. Crystal Maiden, Keeper of the Light and the like, will melt. They cannot afford to move at all because of their weak health pool. If they cannot move, they cannot get proper protection from their teammates (since of course your allies will target the weakest first from the enemy line especially if they cannot go back to the back-line) or help the teammates that are kited by your team, making them unable to contribute.

Supports make enemies unable to fight back or at disadvantage (debuffs) or strengthen their own carry (buffs or heals) to outfight and makes their carries able to sweep out the enemy team. Supports are the pillar for carries in team fights. Destroy the pillar, and the carries will crumble.

Number 4 is interesting. It's very human like reaction to protect ones teammate in battle. And this ability exploit this human nature. Rupture forces the enemies to choose: Protect or left their allies to die. If they choose to protect, they risk an Initiator to sweep them up, but if they left their allies to die, they will be at a disadvantage in future fights until their ally respawns. Of course it will be a relieve if the ally that is left to die able to escape, but you and your team will prevent that absolutely from happening right?

Number 5 should be a common sense. Destroy their mobility, and you destroy their effectiveness by 80% since they cannot move around and becomes easy target for your allies. Notable heroes among this category are: Timbersaw, Slark, Windranger.

Number 6 applies for heroes like Drow Ranger, Sniper, Lina. They have to get out of harm's way (which is by moving) or move to someplace to cast abilities properly. Get Ruptured and they become a sitting duck.

Number 7 is also important. Rupture disables Blink Dagger if the enemy moves even a centimeter and they can't do a thing. Blink Dagger gives precise positioning, but to have that positioning, it has to be in range of Blink Dagger. In reality, 95% of the time, to get that ideal positioning, they have to move a little, otherwise they are useless. Kill them from range (it means it's your allies that needs to do the job), since the reason for Blink Dagger means their powerful abilities has low cast range, and if you just walk on them, it's the same as asking for death. The only exception to this rule is Tidehunter, because his Ravage has very huge AoE that he doesn't really need precise positioning.


So much useful applications that this guide pretty much revolves around this skill.

The usefulness mentioned above is easily mitigated on organized party, but what happens when you can cast Rupture TWICE?? MAYHEM THAT'S WHAT!! CHAOS IN YOUR FAVOR!

It's already a handful trying to protect one Ruptured allies, but two is beyond reckoning. If one rupture anyone can expect it, two will be a delightful surprise for them. It will bring panic especially towards enemy supports who rarely pays attention to their health when they tries to reach their ability's cast range or miscalculate how much damage they receive by moving few steps away.

Introducing, Aghanim's Scepter for Bloodseeker.

Basically reducing your Ult's cooldown to 40 seconds and able to cast twice in one battle (as long as you have the Charges). The way the charges refill is like Sniper's Shrapnel or Ember Spirit's Fire Remnant. Double fun bruh.

Well talk is cheap. And probably the awesomeness of said item will be lost for you guys unless you try it directly. So go ahead and try Aghnanim's Scepter.

Let's go to next issue:

The important question that newbies rarely asks:

"Who the heck should I Rupture?"

Choosing your targets is also an important part to win team fights.

You don't want to Rupture Viper with Mekansm who pretty much stays in the front line and doesn't move much and relies on his freakish slows to prevent enemies from escaping. Just Don't. He will take all your Sh|t you throw at him and grinning about it in the end. You want to Rupture someone that opens a huge opportunity when he does something.

Here's the priority list from in my opinion, though depending on situations, the order can be switched.

1. Heroes that is slippery or deals huge damage when allowed to be mobile. Slark, Timbersaw, Windranger, Weaver, Death Prophet, Pugna (Core/Mid) are notable heroes that falls in this category and when team fights happens, always target these guys.
2. Heroes with Innate Blink (Not right clickers). Queen of Pain is the only in this category. Anti-Mage is not here because he has natural tankiness from stat growth, abilities, and the items he usually goes by, and the fact that he is a right click hero, so he is still useful just by right clicking opponents. He is also able to blink into trees without his health reduced to below Thirst vision, then when he blinks back, he is still dangerous.
3. Back-Liner Nuke/Support Heroes. Don't let these heroes hide behind their allies. Force them to stay in front line with Rupture so your allies can focus on him to kill him first before he does anything useful. Their weak stats does not let them moving around under the debuff. Crystal Maiden, Keeper of the Light, Ancient Apparition, Skywrath Mage, Witch Doctor, Rubick, Pugna (support) are notable ones.
4. Blink-Dagger dependent setup heroes. The reason is they cannot do much when their Blink Dagger is disabled. Axe, Magnus, Earthshaker, Dark Seer, Enigma, Sand King are notable heroes here. This priority can be higher if the enemies depends big from this guy.
5. Supports with short range disables that is dangerous with Blink Dagger. Lion, Shadow Shaman, etc. These guys can keep you back until their allies comes.
6. Ranged Position Dependent Heroes (not necessarily Back Liners). Lina, Drow Ranger, Sniper are notable ones.
7. Ranged Heroes with absurd long range disables. Invoker is the only one that comes to mind, since when he is ruptured, he just need to move a bit far, or cast Tornado from afar and wait for allies for help.
8. Heroes that is dangerous just by moving, but does not necessarily mobile. Doom, Bristleback, Razor comes to mind.
9. Melee Carries with innate blink. Anti-Mage.
10. Ranged Carries.
11. Melee Carries. They just face you back even if you Rupture them. But at least you can stop them from moving and doing damage.
12. Ranged Right-clickers that don't care if they are in the front. Huskar, Medusa, Viper, Luna, Necrophos. They just face you back even if you Rupture them.
13. Mekansm carriers. These heroes are tanky and the burst heal is not appreciated. Necrophos, Viper, Lich, though fire away at them when they have not yet hold a Mekansm.
14. Heroes with Innate ability to Hide AND HAS NOT CASTED THEIR ABILITIES YET. Outworld Devourer, Shadow Demon, Lifestealer...
15. Heroes that can escape to allies with their innate invincibility or able to escape far away without triggering damage from Rupture. Faceless Void easily shrug off damage from Rupture by walking away two seconds then use Time Walk to restore lost health. That is far enough to let allies help him. Morphling is also candidate with his Replicate. Ember Spirit who split push should not be ruptured since most likely he has Fire Remnant lying far away for him to escape to, Rupture him only when the enemies are on defending T3 tower. Storm Spirit is also dangerous since when he uses his ult to move around, he is invincible and receive no damage, don't rupture him unless his mana is low.

Huge list right?

Notice that Carries are listed below half. Why? Because their presence depends on their supports. Without support, they are vulnerable to stuns or at least no one to keep him alive after receiving those. When support falls, Carries will follow unless that guy is so farmed ahead that he doesn't rely on supports anymore, at that time, switch target to him.

---

Talents... the new thing added on Dota 2 7.01. Nothing really exotic for Bloodseeker here, but worth to mention nonetheless.

At level 10, better pick +5 Armor in general cases. Especially more important when facing minus armor heroes like Shadow Fiend, Weaver, etc.

Damage is not that important since it means you need to be in their face for it to be effective since you are a melee hero. And Bloodseeker enters the battle when enemies are not in full health since he want Thirst to be active.

But Damage is also good for farming on those down times where both team needs time to farm. So take your pick since both gives equally useful but different needs.

At level 15, Attack Speed is superior. Bloodseeker already has a huge health pool with Aghanim's Scepter or Echo Sabre so more health is just redundant. Attack Speed also scales better to late game.

At level 20, pick +10 All stats. It's common trend in Dota 2 that reduced respawn times has lesser winning chance for many reasons still being researched. So yes, pick them stats, it's literally a free Ultimate Orb, a 2100 Gold item.

At level 25, well... if your team does things correctly, you won't even get this talent before winning the game (or losing). Anyway, always pick lifesteal. Not something really great, but it's not awful like a reduced cooldown on a skill that is already a pain in the butt to land. Also, you don't have mana to cast Blood Rite that often.

Items and General Gameplay

Starting Items

The starting is very poor for offlaning, but you don't offlane for farming, you want it for exp, don't even bother contesting creeps when the enemy carry has support babysitting him like a hawk. Gold comes from the jungle near you, which you should take when the lane is pulled from your tower. Bounty Rune is also a huge plus here.

One set of Tango is all you can afford and definitely enough until you get Stout Shield. Only use Tango when your health is reduced to 80%.

IMPORTANT: DO NOT TAKE THE HARD CAMP UNTIL YOU GET STOUT SHIELD. I CAN'T STRESS THIS ENOUGH. JUST DON'T. YOU CANNOT AFFORD TO GET LOW IN HEALTH. AND MAKE SURE THE BLOODRAGE BUFF IS STILL IN EFFECT ON LAST HIT.

Early Game

Stout Shield

Quelling Blade

Wind Lace

Power Treads

Only take the hard camp after getting Stout Shield. Well at 01:30 or less, you should already get this. By this time, Tango should have been used up, but you don't need them anymore.

Take Hard Camp as much as possible, and never get them blocked. It will hurt your EXP rate tremendously.

Pick Quelling Blade if you go full time jungle from the start. IT.WILL.BOOST.YOUR.FARM.TREMENDOUSLY.SERIOUSLY.

This item will replace your Hand of Midas. Don't pick this if you go part-time offlane since this will be just a waste of gold.

If you focus only on farming the jungle, it is not a surprise if you already hit level 6 by late minute 4.

Buy [boots of speed]] next before upgrading the boots to Power Treads then Wind Lace. Thirst bonus movement speed is percentage based, meaning higher base speed, also bigger bonuses. Wind Lace is enough the movement speed bonus similarly given by Sange and Yasha.

Lastly buy Power Treads. PT is superior compared to Phase Boots in this patch on Bloodseeker. The attack speed also scales better into late game.

Core (AGAINST IN-YOUR-FACE HEROES / HIGH DPS-LOW HEALTH ENEMIES)

Blade Mail

Echo Sabre

Echo Sabre covers many things with its cheap cost.

1. ES covers your mana problem to spam Blood Rite and Rupture by giving huge intelligece (+15 Int) and 50% mana regen bonus. It essentially doubles your mana regen.. The reason why we max Blood Rite skill second because we can afford to. Your mana problem is covered until you get Aghanim's Scepter.
2. It gives nice Strength (+10 Str). It means you are more tanky to take hits when you get close.
3. It covers your much needed Attack Speed in early-mid game
4. It gives a slow certainty for a fraction of second. That fraction of second means extra hits for you. More hits, lower health, more Thirst, more speed, more kill.
5. Easy to build and cheap. Cheap means faster to get your bigger items, mainly your next core.

Blade Mail is strong against high dps low health since they will eat their own guns. They cannot afford to take much damage themselves since they do not have the health pool. Pick this core build when facing heroes like Phantom Assassin, Shadow Fiend, generally many squishy carries. BM also gives armor which is great when facing minus armor heroes.

CORE (AGAINST MOBILE CORE ENEMIES)

Aghanim's Scepter

Echo Sabre

Next is the big boy Aghanim's Scepter. Reasons can be sought in Rupture section.

When you get Aghs, you will face the classic Bloodseeker problem: Mana Cost.

Doubling your ult means doubling your mana usage for Rupture.

Unless your teammates cover for you by giving mana burst heal from Arcane Boots or Chakra or strong mana regen from Arcane Aura, consider buying your first situational item: Eul's Scepter of Divinity. Having that item covers all your mana needs and doesn't cost that much with your farming rate, but delays your next big item. The bonuses you get are great, consult the situational section for the bonuses.

CORE (AGAINST HEAVY PHYSICAL / MINUS ARMOR)

Blade Mail

Vanguard

Minus armor means more physical damage from multiple different heroes, which is not enough for Blade Mail to cover.

Enters Vanguard since the item blocks constant damage which is perfect when your armor is low. This will also upgrade to Abyssal Blade in the late game, so it's not a waste of space.

The way to play Bloodseeker in this patch is to be tanky enough to keep hitting them to the ground, so Vanguard is a great pickup against general laning as well.

Extension

Assault Cuirass

Monkey King Bar

Aghanim's Scepter

Abyssal Blade

Eye of Skadi

Attack speed is the most noticeable weakness of Bloodseeker. Entering mid-late, Echo Sabre DPS bonus starts to wane. A Moon stone should be bought first before upgrading to one of attack speed items ( Assault Cuirass/ Moon Shard/ Mjollnir).

Out of all three, Assault Cuirass is my most favorite. You have huge stats from Echo Sabre and Aghanim's Scepter, then damage from Thirst, the only lacking you have is Armor and attack speed. AC covers both.

Grab Abyssal Blade if your team is desperate for Crowd Control, especially towards enemy carries you have to go toe-to-toe with.

Eye of Skadi means pure stats. Having this along with Aghanim's Scepter means you have a monster health pool. Good for facing heroes that deals Pure Damage like Outworld Devourer, Silencer, or facing enemy line up that focuses on magic damage since they don't scale much.

Situational Items

Eul's Scepter of Divinity

Silver Edge

Black King Bar

Eul's Scepter of Divinity is cheap and the crowd control goes well with Blood Rite. Cast this, then cast Blood Rite for easy silence. Countered by Force Staff however, unless you get to Rupture them first.

This item is the one that prevents enemies to escape via TP when they get ruptured. Having this makes solo ganking very viable.

The huge intelligence and mana regen means you don't face any mana problem ever egain, unless of course your team push T2 towers and immediately follows after T3 since fighting twice in a row is very heavy.

Only grab when your team is THAT depserate for Crowd Cotnrol.

Pick Silver Edge or Shadow Blade when you need to sneak against pesky cores that only jumps when fight starts like Mirana, Enigma, Magnus to deal huge damage. Also great to get close to pop their Linken's Sphere with Bloodrage then Rupture them so they cannot blink away.

Black King Bar... every melee carries only friend when they are about to enter magical explosions left and right. Bloodseeker is no exception. Grab this when enemies likes to chain stun or kites you with slows. Also pick this when magic damage is very heavy on enemy team.

Rules of Engagement

1. If big fights is about to happen, never be an initiator. You can Rupture one or two of their enemy heroes when fights about to start, but never be the one to enter first into battle. You are asking to be stunned. Let your initiator do the job. Bloodseeker can take a few hits, but that's it, a mere FEW. Bloodrage makes you pretty squishy despite your awesome stats from items.
2. Try to land Blood Rite on heroes that is ability dependent, preferably less mobile ones since they are easier targets.
3. Careful of Kitings!! Especially slows and stuns when you have no Black King Bar
4. If the enemy is very dependent on big team fight spells, try to use Rupture on that hero before he blinks in if possible.

Tips

1. Blood Rite is a powerful anti-pushing spells when combined with Bloodrage and has low cooldown. With this item build, you can spam them, so spam it whenever convenience. Good to push lanes from the fog of war by casting them on creep equilibriums.
2. Use Bloodrage on your allies with huge nuke damages. Preferably those in the back lines since they have less exposure to enemy attacks.
3. Bloodraged allies heals when they are buffed, so buff them when they are low in health so whenever they kill creeps, they heal.
4. Bloodrage effect stacks if you are buffed and the enemy is also buffed. The damage you deal and receive both increase when facing each other. If you are trying to play gimmicky, casting the buff on enemies that cannot fight back is also good, like for an example Duelled opponents, since Legion Commander has less risk to receive increased damage.

Afterwords

I suppose this is my Bloodseeker guide. Have fun people. Probably updated in the future.