Haw-haw my claws are red with the gore of first blood!

Introduction

This guide focuses on BKB (Black King Bear) because it is essential to any bear looking to stomp some noobs. Ursa is a strong mid game carry much like Templar Assassin that has the tools to make it out in the late game if required. Though he can't fight a Faceless Void 50 minutes in, he can destroy him when the game starts, 3 minutes later, again after he roshes, twice more after that, and then the game is over 35:00 minutes in and the Phantom lancer you were up against managed to farm a tranquils + diffusal and got to level 13.

Note: The first build is focused on staying in lane, the second one is mostly for jungling and focuses on getting tranquils first.

Why are you still reading this wall of giant text go read the actual guide already god dammit

Pros / Cons of the Bear King Bar

Pros

Extremely fun to play

Versatile item builds

You can kill Roshan on your own

Extremely strong all throughout the game

You can be a killing machine even with only Vlads + BKB

Very strong 55% slow that lasts 4 seconds and has a 6 second cooldown (Your enemies will only have normal movespeed for 2 seconds before they are slowed again)

Overpower counters things like Enchantress's Untouchable and Shiva's Guard.

Cons

Not good at chasing

Mana problems may surface if not taken care of

Without proper items he is easily kite-able.

No stuns, or disables

Early Game

Grab the items above (Get the Tango, Stout Shield, and the Healing Salve, when the match starts you will have 163 gold, the second it reaches 175 send your Ring of Protection to you via courier (You may also wait until you have 475 and send the Vladmir's Recipe too), and take top or bottom (Bottom if radiant, Top if Dire), you can also jungle as Ursa. If you just want to get by, then you can lane with pretty much anyone. If you wanna go for first blood, go with someone like Shadow Shaman who's Shackles can destroy the enemy and give you easy FB. I like to level Overpower first for that very reason. (If you know you won't be getting any FB's, level Fury Swipes first). The very first thing you want to do is start on vlads, build boots while you are in the middle of making vlads, and then finish vlads.


About your skill build:

Go for Overpower first (just one skill point) if you want first blood, and then start leveling up your passive

Max out Fury Swipes first

Do NOT get Enrage until at least level 11

Get Overpower to level 2-3, and then do not get level 4 until you have a level 3 Earthshock. This is because the mana cost gets higher each time, so you may even want to leave it at level 2 so the cost is only 55 mana, and you could level your slow earlier which helps you by giving your team an additional slow and 240 dmg nuke.

IMPORTANT NOTE: After hitting level 11, it's really your choice how you want to level the rest. You can either get your Overpower to level 4, or skip it til later (will have cheaper mana)and instead get level 2 Enrage at levels 12 and 13. At 14 you could then get Overpower. What I prefer to do, is to just get your Earthshock at 4, Overpower at 2, Fury Swipes at 4, and Enrage at 0. Then I decide what is most important. Usually I leave Overpower at 2 or 3.

Jungling as Ursa

If your team does not have any junglers, then this is a great idea. Start the game off with a Stout Shield, Ring of Protection, and skill Fury Swipes first. after this you should grab at least one tango. Wait until 0:30 and head to the small camp, and clear it. You want to get a Ring of Basilius asap, so you can spam Overpower in the jungle. Once you kill the camp, there should be about 5 seconds left until 1:00, leave and come back when it hits 1:00. Kill the camp again. Use your teams courier to send a Ring of Basilius and Ring of Regen to you. This is the order in which you want your items:

Ring of Protection > Ring of Basilius > Ring of Regen > Recipe: Vladmir's Offering > Morbid Mask


Because of your skill Fury Swipes, Morbid Mask is useless until built into Vladmir's. this is why it is better to send the recipe through your courier, and as soon as you hit 900 gold you can just go to the side shop to pick up the mask and finish your vlads. You also want to grab phase around this point, or at least have a boots of speed by now.

Here is a VERY useful image I found:

Soloing Roshan

You are ready to solo roshan when:

1. Fury Swipes is level 3 or 4
2. Your support wards roshan, and you get smoke of deceit (If your support is being a dumbass then wards aren't mandatory, but smoke is a must if you are going against good players)
3. You have Vladmir's Offering
4. You are level 7 (really tough to do level 6, but can be done if you have vlads built, and you have level 3 Fury Swipes

Keep in mind that your ultimate, Enrage is a map-wide ultimate, like Pudge's Dismember. Remember that one time you heard "AHAHAHA FRESH MEAT" and then your teammate fed pudge across the other side of the map? Yeah, well everyone can hear you when you activate your ultimate, and they'll be paying the Roshan pit a little visit.



^^^Here is a map of where wards are commonly placed, used smoke to get by undetected!!!^^^


Make sure there are wards (Have your support place some), anytime your enemy sees an Ursa on the enemy team they know that bear is gonna try to kill roshan again. (The second you see someone going near roshan RUN AWAY, if you kill roshan or are very close to kill him and grab the Aegis FAST, as long as they don't get it it's a success, don't forget your team gets +200 gold each).

Once you emerge victorious from the dark cave of despair clenching the Aegis in your right paw, get Phase Boots finished and then save up for Blink Dagger. (Get Shadow Blade if there are no invis heros on your team, or if the enemy team consists of a bunch of drow ranger and sniper noobs, they either wont buy gem of true sight, or if there are no invis heros on your team they wont think to buy wards and gem so Shadow Blade may help) That being said I myself like to use BD.


After you have done this, whenever you want to farm go jungle like crazy. You want to get a Blink Dagger and BKB asap.

Build your BKB

Black King Bar will SAVE your ***, this item is a must for Ursa. Help your team in fights, and farm a BKB fast. This will help you not get focused down with chainstuns and slows and whatnot. *****es cant touch yo *** with Black King Bar watching your back. The 10 strength that you get also gives you more health, which makes your ultimate do more damage. This is also about the time when you should pick up a Void Stone to help you with mana, and then complete it with a Ring of Health to make Perseverance which means even more dmg, and 125% mana regen. You need that stuff to spam your Overpower and Earthshock.

Kill roshan again, collect your Aegis.

Late Game

Take out towers with Overpower

Make sure you have said items


If you are getting wiped out fast, you either don't have a BKB, or you lied and still didn't buy BKB. (Or Beastmaster/Bane is on the enemy team, sometimes you might want to skip BKB and just try to tank all the damage if they have too many magic immunity piercing skills like Dismember and Black Hole)

Our favorite Bear's power starts to fall off late game, so it's important to realize that Ursa is not a late game carry, and does most of his destruction early/mid. Ursa is still very strong late game, but don't expect him to take on a Faceless Void or an Anti Mage...

Kill roshan again and get your delicious cheese. If you are running low on space, just take the aegis, and leave the cheese to one of your teammates that could benefit most from it. (Sometimes I deny aegis, sometimes I have a teammate pick it up, most of the time a teammate grabs it but I always try to keep one spot open for ursa, you shouldn't be six slotted until late game anyways, once you've got all 6 item slots taken up, just give em to your teammates)

Why you shouldn't get "those" items

Manta Style

Manta Style is a bad choice because your illusions do not get your Overpower, which is where your damage comes from. That being said, it's bad. Though, your illusions DO deal bonus damage according to how many times the target has been hit with Fury Swipes. So if you get 6 stacks of Fury Swipes on someone, they are taking a bonus 180 damage. Your illusions will deal that much extra. So if you see an illusion rune, I would go for it.

Assault Cuirass

You are spending way too much money on an item that does not even stack with Vladmir's. The +5 armor from Vlads and the +5 armor aura from AC do not stack. Also, the +55 attack speed is really not that useful. If you want armor reduction you should either
1. Get a medallion
2. Have a side carry/carry/support on your team that can really make use of medallion get it (Lycan, Bounty hunter, Lina)
3. Play a hero that needs AC if you like this item so ******** much

Sange and Yasha

This item may seem good but it does not give you enough stats to be useful, sange is pretty **** any time, and you do NOT need the attack speed from yasha. Getting Phase Boots removes the need for yasha's 10% move speed bonus (They stack but still, you really don't need that much movespeed)I MIGHT pick this up if my team has no slows at all, as this provides an "ok" slow, but a bash from abyssal blade is a lot better, so is a slow from Rod of Atos or a Hex from Scythe of Vyse.

Shadow Blade

First off, you are a bear and bears do not wield swords. Second off, Shadow Blade is easily countered by dust, gem, and wards, not to forget certain hero's passives like Bloodseeker's. The +30 atk speed is pretty much useless, and +30 damage is not that useful, you will get all your damage from your ultimate late game, and other items like Phase and Black King Bear give you damage (+24 from each, making +48 damage total). Don't be a drow, pick up a Blink Dagger instead. Blink Dagger gets you from point A to point B that much faster, just try both in game and you will see that Blink Dagger does a better job. (For the love of all bears everywhere don't get both!)

Get ****ing wrecked shadow blade

Heart of Tarrasque

NOTE: After testing out Armlet of Mordiggian I have concluded that it is alot more effective in matches, and I strongly recommend taking Armlet and not building a Heart. If you still feel like getting a Heart, no one is stopping you. There are other alternatives as well.

Do NOT just get Vladmir's, and then go "ok time to jungle for 30 min and get HoT" It is pretty useless for the most part, until late game where it helps your ultimate, Enrage wreck people's ****. at level 3 Enrage, you get 7% of current health to damage.
So lets see how much health you will have after heart and level 25. 2,278 (your health at level 25) + 1,060 (HoT health given) + 190 (Black King Bear gives +10 STR) = 3528.

3528 * .07 = 246.96.

After Heart of Tarrasque and BKB, you will instantly get +247 damage from your 0 mana cost ultimate. That's ALMOST a Divine Rapier. Keep in mind, this is CURRENT HEALTH, so if you have 678/3528 health it's not going to do **** for you.

Arcane Boots

B-but MUH MANAH! **** YOUR MANA, this item is terrible compared to Phase Boots, which is: Cheaper, Gives Damage, Gives speed boost (can use to run away and to chase people down, ive used them for both). Your supports or your pansy Sand King (just kidding your stun and ult is so valuable I love you) or whatever should be getting this item NOT YOU. You are the carry you should not take these boots ever, you could use the MS and the damage way more. If you REALLY need mana you should get it taken care of from Vladmir's early to mid game, and then work on something else to get you mana like begging a teammate to go Crystal Maiden before the match starts, or pick up something with mana regen that isn't totally useless like Urn of Shadows for example, which gives you about 125 ish health? and 50% mana regen, both useful, and you can be an Urn bro with it! (If you do have two people on your team getting Arcane, or KotL/CM on your team, you don't really need it, and should save money for something more useful).


~~~Experimental Items~~~

Armlet of Mordiggian

"ARMLET'S ATK SPEED IS USELESS U SED SO URSELF" That's not what we're here for, young cub. The purpose of Armlet is for its +25 STR. Armlet, when activated gives 40 dmg, and 25 STR, and 5 armor. Also you get some atk speed and you lose 40 health per second, but we aren't interested in either of those. Let's take a look at something:

Heart of Tarrasque = +1060 Health, decent health regen passive

Reaver = 3,200 gold = +475 Health

Armlet = 2,700 gold = +475 Health, 40 damage, 5 armor

2,278 + 475 + 190 (10 STR from BKB) = 2943 * .07 = 206.01

Armlet gives 246 damage (40 more from activating). I haven't tested this item yet.

EDIT!!! Tried it out, I am VERY impressed with the results. Not only is the +5 armor so valuable, the attack speed is useful when your Overpower is on cooldown, and you have NO trouble at all making the health back with Vladmir's

Also something funny I noticed: STR carries get 25 damage from the 25 STR it gives. Well,
475 * .07 = 33.25, this means you get more damage from it as an AGI carry than a STR carry does!!! Skeleton King go back to your little corner and collect more dust please

Rod of Atos

Now this item I like. It gives you many valuable stats and a VERY useful active. Rod of Atos provides a 60% SLOW, with a very short cool down, making it quite spammable. At +325 Health this will also provide a decent bonus to your ultimate, lets see how much.

Rod of Atos (RoA) = 3,100 Gold

+325 Health
+25 INT

2,278 + 190 + 325 = 2,793 health + .07 = 195.51

RoA when combined with your own health pool and Black King Bar's 190 health rewards you with +196 Damage when you activate your ultimate. But wait, there's more!

25 INT * 13 mana per INT point = 325 Mana!

You have 325 extra mana to spam. Now what about that slow? Let's take a look at Ursa's skills. He has a 55% slow with a small nuke, a steroid, another steroid, and a third steroid. The slow lasts 4 seconds whichis pretty good. Try out Rod of Atos, the 60% slow will let you catch up to people fast, like Naix does. Now if you are blinkin' and slammin' with blink dagger and preactivated Enrage and Overpower, all you have to do is press Q when you land near the unlucky enemy, and wail on them. Some heroes are too fast and will not die from just that. And that's why RoA is a good pick up. It's kinda like a cheaper "it gets the job done" Scythe of Vyse.

Friends and Foes

EXCEPTIONAL FRIENDS

Shadow Shaman
You are an unstoppable combo. Rhasta's Shackles can score first blood easily with you. Simply wait until level 2, and pick off your enemies in your lane. He can also disable multiple people at once.
Vengeful Spirit

Io

Spirit Breaker

Lifestealer
You can do something called a Bear-Bomb with Naix. Have naix infest you and then with your blink dagger blink into 1-2 enemies and immediately use your slow, naix will come out and both of you benefit from the slow. Naix can also use his Open Wounds to give him and you lifesteal on a target as well as make them easier for you to reach.

EXCEPTIONAL FOES

Drow Ranger
Drow is normally weak against you, but her slow is very strong. To avoid getting kited by it, Blink RIGHT next to her and use Earthshock to keep her in place.
Shadow Demon
Shadow Demon can disrupt you, and take you out of the fight. His slow can also kite you and prevent you form getting kills.
Shadow Shaman
For the same reason you destroy with him, he dominates you. Don't let him Hex you or Shackle you, pick up a Black King Bar immediately if Rhasta is on the other team.
Nature's Prophet

NP can tp anywhere on the map, and if they know you are roshing, guess what will happen. He can also sprout and trap you, rendering you useless. Be sure to carry a quelling blade on you at all times.

BONUS!

If you are playing as Ursa, you can easily kill roshan at LEVEL ONE when paired as a duo with one of these heros:

Skeleton King

Wisp

Lich


You CAN get it done with other heros but it is more difficult. I myself have only done it with Skeleton King, but when I get the opportunity I will most definitely attempt with a Wisp or Lich.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAgQPxC7kgE

This is a very good video that explains how to get it done. You basically take turns swapping back and forth taking the damage. Flip the skill sequence so that you level Fury Swipes first, and THEN Overpower. Since you have already killed roshan, you can afford to level Earthshock earlier as well. If this is done right, you and your partner will both start the game off level 3-4 while the enemy stares in disbelief with their pathetic level 1 heros.


Have fun tearing your enemies apart mercilessly! Also thank you for reading this was my first guide on Dotafire.com.

Questions/Complaints/I'm a noob and you're going to track me down and murder me because you don't like my build? PLEASE comment below I want to know what's wrong how I can make this guide better, thanks!


REMINDER: URSA + WISP > CK + WISP

Dotabuff games

Here are some dotabuff games I'll post in case you wanted to see my builds, and whatnot, enjoy.

http://dotabuff.com/matches/134133834

^ here is one where I build Monkey King Bar because of the Phantom Assassin on the other team, I also tried out Armlet, and it is surprisingly good.


http://dotabuff.com/matches/79783984

^ here is an ideal build, great for people that aren't used to using Armlet or just want to try Ursa without messing anything up, this is my "stock" build or basic one. Basically if I have no idea what to buy I just buy these, they're my "recommended items"

http://dotabuff.com/matches/57219950

^ *shudders* here is one of my old games when I was new, for some reason our Lycan built vlads even though I was on the team, and I rushed shadow blade... yuck I ended up getting carried by some ***** that shoots wooden arrows which is pretty embarrassing for a young cub like myself