How many blades am i holding up?

Introduction.

Ok so this is my guide for Juggernaut. It is also my first guide EVER. I made this because I saw so many Juggernaut guides getting low rating. I wanted to try and make one that actually helped people. Please no flaming for bad presentation or formatting; I don't know how to do it. There will be many spelling errors and grammatical errors, or just plain stupid parts of my guide. Feedback is greatly appreciated.

The man himself

Juggernaut is mainly a semi carry that can hard carry if he has enough farm and if the occasion calls for it.

He has great early game presence with blade fury. If paired with any support that has a stun or disable, (Rhasta, Crystal Maiden, Vengeful spirit, etc.) then the potential for punishing pushed lanes becomes amazing. HOWEVER, Juggs is very mana hungry early game, and spamming his spells is only right if you're sure you can get the kill, or assist in one.

After the laning phase 'ends', you should probably farm just a LITTLE bit more. until you at least have your battlefury. At this point you should be...Around level 9 (correct me if I'm wrong) and therefore have great killing potential on any squishy supports.

Pros/Cons

Pros

+Great early game presence
+Hunts down squishies like no other hero (except maybe pudge)
+Can easily become a hard carry if the situation calls for it
+He's a ninja (what more do you need?)
+His ultimate gives him temporary invulnerability

Cons

-Mana hungry until late game
-Melee (farming against ranged or double ranged sucks)
-Requires a support or stupid opponents to get early kills
-Easily outcarried by proper hard carry heroes

I realise that there are more pros and cons than this.

Skills

Blade Fury

Blade fury is what makes Juggernaut's early game so dangerous for enemies. At level 4 it does 140 damage per second and lasts for 5 seconds.

Let me put that into perspective. 140 x 5 = 700 damage if you manage to stay near the enemy at all times during the duration. At the early stages, most heroes only have 600-700 hp or lower. 1 level 4 spin (plus auto attack, if needed) will kill an opponent.
It drops off very hard at the late game, but it won't matter because your right click will be much more potent at this stage.

This move also gives you magic immunity for those 5 seconds

This ability is also the reason that his mana is drained so quickly.

Blade Dance

It sounds like the creators combined ballet with ninjitsu.

It's a crit which deals double damage with 35% chance at lv 4. Not much else to say about it. Oh, and It also makes a cool "whoosh" noise when it procs.

Healing ward

Oh boy is this one OP heal in late game. At level 4 it heals 5% of all allied hero's max hp. It has quite a large radius, and can be moved about freely. It only has 1 hp though, so positioning is key!

Some of the most fun heroes to use this with are

-

Pudge
- Axe
- Wraith King
(any other strength hero, really.)


It's hilarious to use this with any tanky hero, because their max hp will be huge during the late game, and the enemy might as well not be attacking them, for all the good it does them.

Omnislash

Juggernaut's ultimate is Omnislash. Using this on an enemy makes you leap towards the target, and continually slashes them up to 9 times at lv 3. Whilst preforming said slashes, you are invulnerable to ALL forms of damage, and can bounce to other enemies! That's important to remember when using this ability. If you use it near creeps, almost all of the damage will be absorbed and your ulti wasted. A way of doing this is seeing if an enemy is on health that's about 300-500. Aim your ulti at them and you should finish them off, and THEN bounce to others.

Something else to remember about Omnislash is that you can still auto attack while it is in use, so long as your attack speed is good enough. These auto attacks can still proc Blade dance, therefore dealing even MORE damage.

With Aghanim's Scepter, you will slash 12 times with a 70 second cooldown.

Item explanations

Out of the fountain

Iron Branch

Early stats, and can be built into your Magic Wand later on. Plus, they're more efficient than getting 1 Circlet

Clarity

You'll need the mana in order to use Blade Fury and Healing Ward early on.

Stout Shield

Stout Shield allows you to take harassment slightly more effectively, as well as tank creeps a little more. Can also be built into Poor Man's Shield later.

Tango

I really shouldn't need to explain this one to you.

Early game

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Phase Boots

Phase Boots will grant you a much needed 24 attack, and also make your Blade Fury much more effective by being able to move through units.

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Magic wand

Grabbing a Magic Wand will aid your mana pool in the early stages. You may want to stick with just a Magic Stick if you find yourself not having to use mana all the time.

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Poor Man's Shield

Poor Man's Shield will guarantee protection against enemy harassment, but is still a 60% chance for creep damage.

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Possible Cores

Battle fury

I seriously only suggest Battle Fury if you plan to play like a hard carry. If you DO decide to pick it up, it will give you extra farming ability, as well as great hp and mana regen. Oh, and quite a large damage boost at +65. I must add that if you are getting no farm and dying often, forget about battlefury. You NEED escape items like Blink Dagger before thinking about your expensive core items.

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Desolator

Desolator is a really good item on Juggernaut, hard carry or not. The negative armour effect will assist Omnislash in tearing through enemies, because remember: you can still auto attack during Omnislash!
It is rather expensive though, and if you feel like delaying it for more important items, it's ok.

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Mjollnir

Mjollnir is another good item for any sort of attack damage based carry. It will grant you an extra 80 attack speed, for more proc chances on Blade Dance.
There is one issue with it though. If Mjollnir's effect procs, Blade Dance cannot proc at the same time.

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Drum of endurance

This item...Is all round a great chasing and aura item. It's passive allows you and all your team mates to move 5% faster and attack with 5 extra speed. It's active has only 5 charges, but will double those effects for the duration. Did I mention it also gives you 9 of all stats? That's almost an Ultimate Orb's worth of stats, with lower price and MORE EFFECTS.

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Extensions

Butterfly

Ah, the good old Butterfly. Any agility carry will find this item a HUGE asset to their item slots. Juggernaut in particular. The evasion will allow you to tank a little bit more, and therefore stay in battle longer. Combine this with Healing Ward, and you will be nigh unbeatable in 1v1 battles with the enemy carry. Butterfly grants you even more attack speed and damage, at quite a large gold cost of 6000. Again, if you don't feel that you require this item, you probably don't.

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Black King Bar

I probably don't need to explain this to you, but Black King Bar will grant you magic immunity to prevent you from being nuked down in teamfights. If there's 1 thing that a team doesn't want, it's their carry being taken down before it can even reach an enemy.

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Assault Cuirass

A great item for some extra armour, Assault Cuirass will boost you entire team in a radius, and also debuff your enemy's armour, making your auto attack and Omnislash that much stronger.

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Aghanim's scepter

Ok, this item is a little iffy for me. I feel that buying this item means you rely entirely on Omnislash to get kills. The stats that it grants are not that great, and you could easily get the same stats with a much cheaper Ultimate Orb. The health and mana bonus aren't that good either. All in all, if you have gotten great farm, and have nothing to spend it on, Aghanim's Scepter is an OK pickup, but not a great one.

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Skull Basher

A great pickup for any right click carry. On top of 40 damage (remember the much more expensive battlefury only adds 20 to that) you also get a 1/4 chance to stun on hit, with a two second cooldown inbetween proc chances. If you want this item for just the strength bonus...You might just die of a brain fart.

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Monkey King Bar

Most people make the mistake of only getting this against evasion heroes or Butterfly carriers. That shouldn't be your only motivation! it gives 88 damage and 15 attack speed to boot. Not only do both of said things assist Juggernaut greatly, the true strike does come in handy, on the offchance that you DO face Blur or something :P.

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Manta Style

I have seen soooo many pub players get this just for the illusions and stats, instead of the debuff removal effect. Whilst the illusions are sometimes useful against, say, Pudge, The extra agility and the stated debuff removal are what you really want this item for.

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Sange and Yasha

Some better players might question my decision on this item. I say that if you combine it with a drum of endurance and phase boots, you have one of the best chasing heroes next to Bloodseeker. You get extra tankiness, attack speed and 16 bonus damage. All of this is topped off with a passive which has a chance to slow enemies on hit.

Laning

Game start

Politely request that someone on your team be support (even better if you're a two man stack. Just ask your friend.) so that you can get early kills and all the other benefits that come with a good support. If nobody does, and they all go carry, be prepared to lose the game. Unless the enemy is all carry too.

Which lane?]

If you want to go hard carry, I would suggest the safe lane with a support. However, if you have a hard carry already, you will have to go on the long lane and (if there's only one support) leave the support to them. You will need to keep the lane pushed near your tower if you want ANY farm whatsoever. This means utilize creep pulls and blocks as much as possible!

Early game

Early game is where Juggernaut is at his second strongest. With any form of stun on your side, you can easily net kills with Blade Fury. A good item to get for Juggs is the Phase boots. You can use them whilst in Blade Fury, which will allow you to get past creeps and continue the chase. They'll also give you good extra damage. Other than that, farm as usual until about lv 9-10, then begin looking for kills more actively. Once you have farmed Battlefury, your mid game begins.

Mid game

You should slowly be beginning to carry your team (if you're playing hard carry style) at this point. Start leaving your lane more often to help get kills and defend towers. During teamfights your job is to get that healing ward up (in advance, if possible) and then possibly initiating with Omnislash. After that, simply right click the enemies down. You will still be slightly mana hungry at this point, so in-between fights it's a good idea to go to base (unless pushing a tower) in order for you to be prepared for the next battle.

Late game

The point where you are at your strongest. Your late game is much the same as your mid game, except you start to lose your mana hunger. Blade Fury will have lost it's usefulness (except as free magic immunity) and you will only be using your Healing ward and Omnislash for spells.

When the game is won (or lost)

Erm...Do you really need a guide for this? Collect items (if received) and gtfo :P.

That's it.

Thanks for reading my Juggernaut guide guys. I realise it's probably the worst thing you've ever read, but constructive criticism is always welcome. No flames though.

-ThreadOfFate