Huskar (Orb Domination)

Introduction

Hello and welcome to another Asterii build!

This guide will focus on a laning, NON Burning Spear build for Huskar. I think he can be used effectively both ways and that both have there Pros and Cons. I will have another guide on using the power of Flame Spears later.

Huskar is one of those 'balls-deep' heroes like Night Stalker and Ursa where it is often better to continue attacking rather than look for a quick retreat. With some good CC and co-ordinationon from your team you can successfully gank almost every hero on the map at lvls 6 to 9.
Huskar does scale into the late game thanks to his passive third ability Berserker's Blood, but not as much as hard carries obviously. Hence why you should take all opportunity to gank whilst the game is still early to mid.

Item Build

Starting

X3 Gauntlets of Strength and x2 Iron Branch may seem like somewhat of an unorthodox lot of starting items but as the first item you will be rushing for is Morbid Mask directly into Helm of the Helm of the Dominator, the need for regen can hopefully be mitigated with a few decent last hits within the first few creep waves. Once you have Morbid Mask you can stay in lane as long as you like just from bashing on a creep or two.
Also in addition to this, Inner Vitality scales off of your primary attribute meaning that taking 11 points of Str into lane actually increases the usefulness of the skill by an extra 1.5 HP/sec equating to a total of 55 HP restored at lvl 1.

Because of your lack of regen and escape mechanics, try to pick someone with a hard stun to cover your back in lane. Sand King or Vengeful Spirit work great.

Lane Phase

Rushing directly for Helm of Dom gives you the ability to stay in lane until lvl6 even if you are taking harass just through lifesteal, and along with your bonus 11dmg from starting items and 20dmg from Helm of the Dominator, last hitting should be a piece of cake.
Even if a creep has 1HP and you attack them, you will still lifesteal for the full amount. Meaning that if you auto attack for 80dmg and the creep has 1HP, you will gain 16HP back. This is because lifesteal is calculated from what your damage is, NOT how much HP your target has.

If you are being attacked but you already have a couple of lvls of Berserkers Blood at this point and an enemy does decide to gank you, more often than not I have been able to simply turn around, pop Inner Vitality and right-click the **** out of them and either take one down with me or survive the encounter due to the lifesteal. If you do manage to survive, auto attack some creeps and you will be back to average HP in no time.

Power Treads come straight after this because of the obvious synergy with everything that Huskar is:
> 8x Str = dmg, hp and better Inner Vitality heal
> 30 Attack Speed is raw attack speed so goes perfectly with Berserkers Bloods percentage based increase
> Movement speed is nominal as your ulti will be slowing people down enough to not need Phase Boots to chase

Once you have these 2 items, you are ready to go ganking crazy.

Mid Game

Crit VS. Maelstrom!

I have played many games with both of these and have finally decided that it is better to side with Maelstrom rather than Crit.
Why? Because Maelstroms proc will give you more damage than if you land a crit proc at this early stage in the game, and can still be upgraded to Mjollnir late to scale up. The attack speed is also raw attack speed, so like I have mentioned before with the Power Treads, it works better with Berserkers Blood.


Eye of Skadi

This is a FANTASTIC item! I don't think that I ever see this used enough with heroes.


PRO-TIP: Contrary to popular belief, you can stack the orb effects of Lifesteal AND Eye of Skadi! This works on both melee and ranged heroes.