Ginsing's Juggernaut - Midgame Superstar

A bit about me...

Hi, I am Ginsing.

I started playing original DOTA back around 2007 or so when some WoW friends introduced me to it. Have really loved this game and its endless re-playability, I have spent many a sleepless night "just one more game" at a time.

I am currently at just under 4k MMR, and I have a 65% win rate with Juggernaut. He is my "go-to" carry.

Please leave a comment, like or hate, but please be constructive :)

Also always looking for new teammates!

Should I Juggernaut this game?

Yes you should if...

• Not many kiters in game
• Enemy doesn't have escapes
• You have a ranged lane support who will help you
• Your team has more than one carry who will be probably be farming mid game(spectre/medusa)
• You need to stand up to some early game nuking (free BKB)

• Enemy has a lot of range that can kite you (viper/drow/Sniper)
• Enemy has tons of escape: Storm, QoP, AM, invis is also an issue.
• Your team needs a really strong late game carry
• You have no lane support, or are 2v1.

General Idea behind build

What I am shooting for with Juggernaut

This build is what I generally like to go for when playing Juggernaut. The thought behind the build is you will have solid team fight presence with a massive ult, you are tanky enough to initiate/escape and you can farm quickly between team clashes.

The goal here is to be strong mid-game to buy some time for the other members or weaker carry to come online.

However, given the farming capability of this build it has the potential to be very acceptable super late game.

Pros / Cons

+Good Early Game Damage
+Great attack animation for last hitting
+Very sustainable in lane Healing Ward
+Magic Immune Ability that lets gives you AE damage
+Good move speed
+ Omnislash is a very powerful ult


-No disables (slow or stuns)
-Can't cancel Blade Fury - it is almost a disable onto itself late game
-There are many items which can negate Omnislash
-Needs lane support (offensive is best)
-No range abilities at all

A note about Items

The items listed are just an example of what I usually shoot for on Jug. The basher build is best for dealing with a strong carry with supports team.

When you are up against different things you need to alter your build. Many items are acceptable on Juggernaut.

Against creep army heroes or images, I often get a Maelstrom and a battlefury. Building both makes for a truly terrifying initiation ultimate. Very good for breaking their high ground. If you can nuke down their creep wave, go in and ult. Watch the panic as you jump around cleaving and throwing lightening everywhere. It creates an opening for the rest of your team to come in and land their disables and properly initiate, or pick off someone who didn't retreat as fast. If no one comes to help, just Bladefury and run away.

I have now moved away from building Aghanim's Scepter in my matches. My usual build starts with some BF components and works towards yasha either before or after BF is finished. I do still like the build and it is still viable in certain games, but overall I find Jug's ult to be powerful enough, so I would rather build his carry power.

I find that a fast yasha really ups your killing potential when ult is on CD. It also drastically speeds up your farm. I am usually aiming to have BF and SnY done by 25 mins doing well and 30 mins doing so-so.

Skills and Reasoning

Blade Fury
-Excellent for first blood attempts
-Best used to escape after a team omnislash
-can Shut down the "Eul's combo's" from Lina or Invoker
A lot of people say with early stats to get just one level of this... I have always preferred to max it out. The damage after reduction (it's magic) scales from 300 at level 1 to 525 at level 4, so it isn't a huge increase. The biggest reason I max it early is it's CD which drops from 42 to 18 and mana cost drops to 90

At 18 seconds, it is always up when you need it. With your early Perseverance you can spam it or posture to spam it. It buys you farming room is the important part. Against weaker players you and your lane support with any kind of slow/stun can usually net a kill.

Note: While spinning you do not auto attack! Except for things magic immune such as buildings. You can however activate "on hit effects" like a stun or MKB. That fact that you can hit magic immune things (such as buildings) come in handy when you are trying to last hit that low hp tower that is about to be denied though!


Healing Ward
-Great Lane Sustain for you and Ally
-Amazing if you can keep it alive during a team fight
-Early team Roshan kill
This thing is just great, even if you aren't having a stellar game, you can still help out your team a lot. For a low 1500 hp hero, this thing heals 75hp a second. It is a big difference. It also gives your enemies something else to focus on.

Best scenario is you drop it into the woods next to a team fight, enemy doesn't see/kill it and you heal your whole team for 125% of their life over 25 seconds!

Also useful to just save it for after the fight if you are confident in victory. Heal everyone back up and push the next tower.

I usually just leave this at level 1 till later in the game. Your main role is damage anyhow. This is just a nice bonus.


Blade Dance

Not much to say here. It is a very solid crit for 200% damage. That said, the damage doesn't scale so I usually just take one point until mid-game.


Omnislash
-Can solo kill just about anyone
-Short CD with Aghanim's Scepter
-Gets weaker with more people around
-Scales upwards slightly

This skill is similar to Luna's ult in concept. You want limited creeps/heroes around to make it as strong as possible.

Omnislash actually scales a bit though, it lets you right click attack in between omni slashes. So you can make use of Maelstrom or Battlefury both on the omnislash attack and on the standard right click that you get during the omnislash duration.

The faster your attack speed the more attacks you can get off during your omnislash. Even without focusing attack speed you should get 6 or 7 extra attacks off on level 3 with Aghanim's Scepter.

So just know that this isn't a fixed ult that is the same at lvl 25 as it is at 16 such as Laguna Blade
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Example of Ideal Game Flow

I thought it would be helpful if I explained how my ideal Juggernaut game would go. DOTA is very dynamic so you will have to adjust, but I find it helpful to have mental picture for how I want it to be.

Prior to Start
You can pick jug early as he doesn't have too many counters unlike a sniper/drow which wants to avoid a SB/PA pick. I try and pick him around 3 or 4. Giving me the option of picking something else that counters them better.

It is important that you get a lane support. If you don't I suggest getting someone who can get farm more safely at range.

Any range lane support is just fine, but you really want a slow or stun. Venomancer is a great example.

With you, a slow, and a stun at rune you should walk away with first blood. It can be worth leaving base with boots just for this... however, assuming you can't get it, grab the rune and head to safe lane with your support.

If you are against any type of caster finish your magic stick first. Otherwise grab your boots first. Your support should be playing up on the creeps threatening to do your stun/spin combo if they touch you. This should allow you pretty decent early farm. You should be shooting for phase boots in 5 mins while still having your tangos. If you face heavy harass, shift your items and maybe build a Poor Man's Shield and Ring of Health first instead of full phase boots.

But if all went well and you have phase, now you have a choice Ring of Health or Void Stone. If you have 3 or more tangos still, I would say Void Stone, otherwise get your ring. Your primary goal here is to stay in lane and get XP and Farm.

Keep up farming and be aggressive with your Blade Fury and stuns. It is very possible to get kills early with this combo.

Ultimate Available
Once you hit 6, you should be ready to kill one enemy for sure. Wait until the new creeps show up. Run to enemy, he should retreat, pop phaseboots, cast omnislash, finish with bladefury. If they don't retreat, just do the reverse order, bladefury first, and after you chase them from creeps follow w/ Omnislash.
**Don't actually click the enemy, you don't want the creeps following you. Click the ground near them.
Even without support help that should be enough for a kill on most. If not, don't tower dive! Just head back to your farming while they run back to heal for a long 60 seconds.

You take down the tower in your lane
Keep farming your lane and push it whenever you get a kill. If you and your partner are successful enough, often players will abandon the lane under the guise of ganking your offlane.

You should be finishing Battle Fury at about 12-16 minutes. Use your new damage and healing ward to take down the enemy tower ASAP.

After you get BF and the lanes dissolve, I usually try and stay in the jungle while team groups to push another tower. With BF regen you can farm jungle and flash farm safe lane when it pushes to a less gankable spot for you. Object now is to get your Ahg's before you hit level 16. Keep a TP scroll and support your team's retreats. Enemies will often chase too deep and be in a great spot for you to TP and omnislash. Try not to get into team fights without your ult up. You aren't that strong yet.

You really need to get level 11 before going for too many team fights.

You are level 11+.
Stop farming, get out and make an impact with your team. Group up and force a fight. Let your team know that at the start of a fight. Creeps need to do die, so use ae nukes early. So that you can ult.

Only be pushing when your ult is ready. If it isn't have your team play safe while you continue to farm.

Late game is approaching
Keep the pressure up, don't AFK farm!
Push towers every minute that your ult is ready. Or do roshan with some vision. If contested make sure to get out of the pit so you can use Omnislash to full effect. The healing ward really helps to make sure no one is too low.

You and your team want to be finishing the game now! That being said, if you can't manage a push on the first try with Roshan. It is not wise to continue to suicide on their high ground. At this point you still have an advantage. Maintain it and grow it slowly. Barricade the enemy in their base and take over their jungle while keeping lanes pushed. Wait for a mistake from them before your next push. Your team is getting more farm than them and the gap will continue to grow. Just be sure not to let their carries out to farm.

Summary

Thanks for Reading my first guide!

The main focus of this guide was how I find success in the early game. Juggernaut is a strong hero that can use farm very well if he gets it. But he is a solid choice in pubs because he can also make his own luck, and recover from a bad start with a good ult or two.

Juggernaut is a solid carry, but he will never be the 1v1 machine that troll is, you want to end the games around 45 minutes if possible.