Juggernaut, changing the meta

Introduction

Hi, i will be sharing my thoughts on one of my favorite heroes, Juggernaut. This guide is work in progress. I will format it/add pictures when i have the time.

The main purpose of writing this guide is to teach players how to play Juggernaut from behind. It is easy to play any hero when you are ahead. However, it is a real test of skill to turn the tables and win a losing game.

This guide is going to be unconventional. I will not spend time explaining Juggy's skills or explain hero counters etc. Instead, this is a list of things I am going to cover

0) When to pick and when not to pick Juggy
1) How I define a winning/losing game, doing well/ not doing well
2) The skill/item build when you are doing well---> justification
3) The skill/item build in a close game---> justification
4) The skill/item build in a game that you are doing badly(but team is not losng) ---> justification
5) The skill/item build in a game that you are doing badly(and team is not doing much better either) ---> justification
6) conclusion

When to and when not to pick Jug

Jug is a situational pick because he is terrible in some team line-ups/ matchups.

DO NOT pick Jug if
-your team lacks a stun
-your team has >3 carries

TRY NOT to pick Jug if
-The enemy team has to many heroes that can counter omnislash, eg mirana(leap), pugna(decrep), morphling(wave),

Pick Jug if
-Your team has CC
-Your team needs a carry
-Your team is push heavy

Definitions

Your item/ skill choices heavily depends on circumstance.

Going for battlefury in a losing game when you are also doing badly is as good as going for a midas, IE---> It is stupid---> You will most likely lose. I will explain this concept in much more detail later, mostly because it is the main thrust of my guide

TEAM DOING BADLY= >7 kill difference. Tier 1 towers count as 2 kills, Tier 2 towers count as 3 kills.

CLOSE GAME---> there is a difference of <7 kills

TEAM DOING WELL= the reverse of team doing badly


You follow the DOING BADLY build if
-You get phase boots late, due to the fact that you have almost to no last hits
-You have 2 more deaths than your kills by the time you get your phase boots
-Its actually quite obvious. You can actually just feel it. If you feel that you are doing badly, you probably are. Hence you should adapt appropriately

The skill/item build when you are doing well---> justification

Firstly, I would like to say that the conventional build of going battlefury as your first core item is almost certainly the best choice in the majority of games. Out of say, 20 games i play as jugger, 15 will be played with BF first, 3 with helm of the dominator first, and only 2 with MoM.

BF is good because it allows Jug to snowball. The gameplay is simple---> farm when omnislash is down---> join the teamfights and omnislash away.

I know that there are many more intricacies of playing a BF juggy, but that is not my focus of my guide. I just want to put it out there that BF is a good item.

WHY AGHANIM SCEPTER IS BAD WHEN YOU ARE WINNING(PLEASE READ)
- When you are winning(not stomping, in a stomp you can get dagon for all i care), you become more reliant on your right click, WHY----> it accelerates farm, It lets you fight heroes better.

-When you are losing/close game, you become more reliant on your ulti. Why---> The ability to take out a key hero in the forest/ increased team fight potential.

Lastly, another reason why aghs is bad when you are winning is because your ulti already insta gibs heroes. You don't need the boost to your ulti. What you need is EHP and damage to fight, chase, kill and clean up.

The skill/item build in a close game---> justification

In a close game, you have to pay attention to the enemy heroes/your team lineup and adjust your item build accordingly.

Most of the time, it is still best to go for the conventional BF build, but if your team is pushing/trying to end fast, i would lean more towards a helm of the ring of aquila/drums---> helm of the dominator-->maelsrome

WHY--> Pushing gives you space to farm fast, but BF is not the way to go, because if the push strat works, demolishing the towers gives you lots of gold already. Furthermore, juggy has to adjust his playstyle from "farming whenever omni is down" to "push with team all the time". In addition, your creep camp clearing speed will be reduced due to putting more levels into healing ward instead of crit.

--> In addition, a pushing strat frees up the ancients and it becomes much safer to stack it using dominated creeps. With healing ward+ lifesteal+maelstrome, jug can easily clear stacked ancients early in the game. I suggest you use the "automatic way point" method of stacking if you don't like micro

WHEN IS IT VIABLE TO GO AGHS
-> i would never suggest any juggy player to ever go aghs first. Always get at least a maelstrom before Aghs so that you have enough damage to clear camps/fight heroes. The build up to aghs is pretty ****, so you need an intermediate item first.

--> Go for aghs (after maelstrom) if you are up against a very tanky carry that you absolutely must take out in order to win the teamfight.

4) The skill/item build in a game that you are doing badly(but team is not losng) ---> justification

PLEASE READ---> pro advice here
1) If you are doing badly in lane, immediately learn at least a level of healing ward. Transition from tangoes to clarity potions, because they are much more efficient. a clarity costs less than half a tango---> gives you enough mana for 2 healing wards

---

> healing you 2x more than what a tango could heal. hence, a clarity is 4x more efficient that a tango.

MATHCRAFT--> TANGO= around 350 hp healing. Clarity=150 mana. healing ward = 80 mana. Healing ward heals 50% hp. You have roughly 600-700hp with branches/stats.

2)Get your phase boots from the courier. Don't risk the S.S unless its absolutely safe.

3)If you die more than 2/3 times in your lane, LEAVE THE LANE. Why? Because you will most certainly die more times/get no farm at all, especially if you allies don't tp over to help.

4)You CAN go to another lane, but the better option is usually to jungle. Either way, DONT GO FOR BATTLEFURY IF YOU ARE LOSING. Get a Morbid Mask ASAP.

REASON WHY BATTLEFURY IS ABSOLUTELY **** WHEN YOU ARE DOING BADLY
- The components are TERRIBLE, but the whole is vastly greater than the sum of its parts. The perseverance is undoubtedly, THE WORST item you could get when you are behind because it does not--> improve survivability/ cost an obscene amount for what it does/ does not sustain you jungle half as well as a morbid mask for twice the cost.
- It is like a midas. What do you say when that noob FV buys a midas at 25 min? A ****ing noob. Why the **** do you buy a farming item that late in the game? Buy a fighting item so we can turn the game around!

REASON WHY AGHS FIRST IS BAD, BUT NOT AS BAD AS BATTLEFURY
-You are gonna get it late. Because you farm. So. Slowwwww.
-It is Not as bad as BF because its components gives you a bit of survivalbility(Point booster and ogre axe)

5) IF YOUR TEAM IS DOING FINE---> (This fact is very important), upgrade your mask to a helm of the dominator, and start using the creeps to stack ancients. Don't do anything more than a triple stack, because it may get stolen, and 5 stacks tend to be abit hard for juggy to kill without cleave. In fact, it may be best to do 2 stacks. By the time you finish the stack, the next batch of ancients would have spawned.

---> why is the fact that your team is doing fine is so important

The answer is map control. If you are pushed in/losing badly, the chance of the ancients camps being stolen, or worse still, you being killed while doing the ancients, skyrockets. In addition, mask of madness is the superior turnaround item

6) Get a maelstrom to speed up that farm/clear stacked ancients better. Only ever join team fights if you have your ulti up. Otherwise, just stick to farming.

POINT 7 IS ANOTHER PRO TIP
7) If there is a teamfight which you cant join, create your healing ward and send it to your team while you farm. micro the ward well, your juggernaut can auto attack the creeps. Any bit of help you can give your team is crucial. There are countless times that my wards saved the team without my presence. Think of the healing ward as a 20% max hp heal in 10 seconds which is roughly 200hp for the whole team.

8) Once you have successfully farmed solo without dying for a while, you can once again become an asset to your team, with a item progression---> mjo/aghs both being pretty viable.

The skill/item build in a game that you are doing badly(and team is not doing much better either) ---> justification

Points 1-4 is exactly the same as the previous section

5) Instead of getting HoTD, get Mask of Madness.

WHY MoM is the GO TO COMEBACK ITEM
A) It is the most cost efficient DPS item in the game. The 100% extra damage don't matter against creeps because you have lifesteal.
B) You can use it to walk faster, meaning that you can NC faster
C) It is the MOST COST EFFICIENT ITEM to increase the damage of your ULTIMATE, OMNISLASH. I cant emphasize it enough. According to some google spread sheet(just type omnislash mechanics in google), MoM gold per damage increase in ulti damage is higher than ANY item in the game, with Agh scepter and maelstrom in 2nd and 3rd place respectively. When you are losing, solo killing even a support gives you that much of a boost.
D) MoM actually helps you avoid death. The extra speed boost+ phase makes you move as fast your healing ward(450ms). Coupled with bladefury, it is kindda hard to kill juggy. If you every get caught, immediately bladefury, turn on MoM and phase and run. I know it maeks you take 100% more damage, but the increased speed trumps the extra damage taken from my experience.

COMPARISON TO HELM OF THE DOMINATOR(which is quite good actually)
-You can't do the ancient stacking trick because the risk of getting caught is alot higher since you guys don't have map control
-In a losing game, you become absolutely reliant on your ulti and helm dosent really add much to your ulti's damage. Helm is more of a man fight item, which is what Jug should NOT be doing in a losing game---> REASON: You will die and you won't do much damage anyway.
-Without the ancient stacking, MoM is a better farming item than HoTD

6) Your item progression should be MoM--> Maelstrom--> Aghs. Justification is that you need to get the items that boost your ulti's damage most. After aghs, you best bet is to upgrade maelstrom.

7) If the turn around happened, and now you guys are pushing highground, sell the MoM and buy a HoTD.

Conclusion/Summary

So you skipped to the conclusion? Too much text? Okay heres the summary for you.

IF YOU DIDN'T READ ANYTHING, READ THIS BEFORE COMMENTING

1) BATTLEFURY IS THE BEST ITEM FOR JUG. MoM-->Mael-->Aghs build i am suggesting is only good if you are losing.

2) HoTD--> Mael build is good when you are behind, but your team ISNT. This is because you can do some ancient stacking and catch up on farm and levels.

3) LEVEL 1 or 2 points in healing ward early if your lane is hard. From my mathcraft, i have proved that clarity potions are 4x more effective in terms of gold/healing ratio, SO BUY THEM INSTEAD OF TANGOS.

4) Send healing wards to team fights and micro them if you don't plan on TP over to help.

5) DONT ****ING GET BATTLEFURY IF YOU ARE BEHIND. NO ONE LIKES THE JUG WHO GETS A 30 MIN BF.