Jungle Juggernaut (Updated for 7.02) - For those whose team is full of Cores

Introduction

So... Jungle Jugger... yeah...

Before anyone complain Jugger is better in lane, yes, he is indeed better in lane. But this guide is for those situations where you already pick Juggernaut but then someone else pick Anti-Mage or Spectre or Safelane Faceless Void or Drow Ranger or your team already has 3 cores then someone else on your team pick another core.

You know... those times.

So that means you are contesting farms and those are bad... like super... bad.

Or perhaps your team wants to play 4 cores instead of usual 3.

Anyway, what matters is Juggernaut needs levels, he needs farm, he needs to be greedy, thankfully with this guide he can look towards the trees rather than sharing them.

Obviously, you will have a hard time on high skill bracket where enemies will search for you in your jungle, but when you are on that bracket, your team composition is usually balanced that you don't need to jungle anyway.

What makes Jungle viable to him?

Something that can be seen as minor but actually huge in this build is the changes on how basic regen items ( Healing Salve, Clarity, Bottle) works. They are now only dispelled when your hero take hit from player owned damage sources (enemy illusions, summons, spells, right clicks).

This means you can right click jungle creeps while still having your mana refilled by Clarity potion.

This leads to:

1. Ring of Basilius becomes unneeded. Which means the gold for said item can be allocated elsewhere.
2. Clarity refills mana faster and more than RoB ever will in the laning stage. Meaning Juggernaut can now use Blade Fury to clear camps fast while having leftover mana for Healing Ward. This leads to very fast farming rate.

Second, The existence of Helm of the Dominator pretty much replacing any needs for lifesteal while giving great attack speed for quicker farming rate, and thus no need for Hand of Midas either. The item offers great stats that he can go online early, despite starting in jungle.

The farming rate in the jungle is also pretty fast.

Below Mid or solo 1 vs 1 lane, but higher than 1 vs 3 offlane or double laning. Also, jungling means guaranteed last hits.

By level 8 (which at most 09:00 if not interrupted), you can contribute damage to get kills from Blade Fury, at level 9, Healing Ward presence already contributes big in team fights and also pushes towers with Dominated Creep. This means, even if his right click is rather meh at this point of the game, he is already an asset to the team.

The jungling difficulty is also low, which is why I share this.

When to avoid using this build?

When there is roaming Riki, Bounty Hunter, or Treant Protector on enemy team. He cannot afford to share his exp, so those three will nerf his jungle hard. Just stay in lane when those heroes are among enemy teams, unless you are playing in low bracket games where people stay in lane / jungle for too long.

Skill Build

Blade Fury

Your primary damage in early clash, spell dodgers, escape artist skill, and now camp clearer. Refer to jungling guide in section below when using this skill to clear camps.

When casting Blade Fury, Juggernaut is basically spinning his sword around. The AoE damage basically follows him and he becomes spell immune. But he becomes Silenced in return. He can still use items however.

Common escape tactics is use Blade Fury then use Town Portal Scroll to run away unscathed.

Tips when using Blade Fury (click spoiler):



Blade Fury also gives basic dispels. So if you are slowed, using Blade fury will dispel the slow and Juggernaut will move at normal speed again. It also dispels most damage over time spells, so it's a great reason to grab Blink Dagger to enter and escape battles.

When spinning, Juggernaut does not deal right click damage except towards entities that isn't damaged by Blade Fury like buildings, wards, but right clicking still procs any UAM or chance based items like Skull Basher, Maelstrom. When you have such items, if the enemy is stunned or not moving while you are spinning on top of them, try right clicking them.

Maxing this first is a given since it reduces the cooldown and mana cost while at the same time increase the damage.

Healing Ward

The Healing Ward presence in fights is huge. Don't underestimate the regen, it's like bringing fountain to your fights. Always control the ward in fights so it doesn't get easily hit by enemies.

Healing Ward is also a powerful tool to push towers since your creeps don't die easily to tower hits. Synergize well with dominated creep since their health pool is huge, making the regen powerful.



See how the dominated creep able to tank all of those tower hits alone from full health until destroyed? Yeah, Healing Ward is that good.

Take two levels of Healing Ward before maxing Blade Fury further. The reason is we need sustenance to survive jungle, and level one is not enough. Then max this after Blade fury, the sheer presence impact this skill brings is immense.

Blade Dance

The one skill that makes Juggernaut hit like a truck. With his natural attack speed gain alongside low BAT (1.4 instead of 1.7 like other majority of heroes) make this skill really great.

Click on Spoiler below if you are interested to learn Base Attack Time in simple way without mumbo jumbo of complex maths.




One value point is all you ever need until well... all your other skills are maxed. The scaling is bad and the skill is only useful after you have some major items to make use of the passive. Also, at one point the chance is already high at 20%.

Omnislash

A skill that's definitely not a rip-off Cloud's Omnislash. There's a history about this somewhere on Dota 1. Search it yourself if you are interested.

This ultimate in early to mid game is to grab kills, so you can snowball faster. Later stage in the game is to dodge mountains of spells or creating chaos on enemy ranks until your allies catch up.

Smoke Gank when reaching level 6. This level 1 ultimate has huge killing potential in early game.

Look for kills when reaching 12, level 2 of Omnislash is the ultimate killer since your farm if not interrupted would be among the top, level and gold wise.

Don't bother getting Aghanim's Scepter for this ultimate. Your right clicks will outdamage this skill entering late game. Also, don't use this when there are creeps nearby since Juggernaut can jump into them and deals no dps.

Talents

Level 10: +175 Health. Lately I have been taking +175 Health instead of +20 Damage. Reason is, the nerf to Helm of the Dominator makes him more of a glass cannon than he would be before the nerf. Only having 1k health at level 10 is not good when you are on the front line. +20 Damage can be easily compensated by the bonus attack speed of Hellbear Smasher or attack damage bonus from Alpha Wolf. Besides, your source of damage comes from Blade Fury until you finish your core items.

Level 15: +20 Attack Speed. At level 15, Blade Fury starts to fall off and we will transitioning to right click. Best pick Attack Speed. If you need armor, dominate Ogre Frostmage and buff yourself with his ability.

Level 20: +8 All Stats. Obviously, movement speed is redundant when you have Blink Dagger, Phase Boots, and Yasha at your disposal.

Level 25: +20 Agility. Blade Fury already falls off except for escapes or destroying building without interruptions. Stick to relevant matters, like right clicking.

Items

Starting Items

Quelling Blade Clarity

Stout shield Clarity

Tango Bounty Rune

Quelling Blade for faster jungling. Stout Shield to tank creeps. Tango for some regen before getting Healing Ward. Some Claritys to restore mana for Healing Ward.

Bounty Rune is a necessity for quick Iron Talon. Ask your teammates to cover one site of bounty for you.

First Courier Use

Iron Talon

Rush Iron Talon. You should get this after killing easy camp for the first time if you get Bounty Rune. Don't fight Medium Camp before getting this.

Second Courier Use

Gloves of Haste

Clarity

Clarity

Smoke of Deceit

Get your Gloves of Haste ASAP. It will fasten your farm by huge margin. Bring 2 Clarity-es and a Smoke of Deceit along with your Gloves.

Save Smoke of Deceit until you get level 6, we only brought it now because we want to minimize courier usage.

Reason for 2 further Clarity-es:

First clarity is for level 6 gank with Omnislash. We will abuse the power spike Juggernaut gain from getting level 1 ultimate.

Your mana is most likely spent on using Healing Ward and Blade Fury and has nothing left for your Ultimate. Pop clarity, walk to your target while waiting until your mana is about to reach 200 MP (since Omnislash cost that much at level 1) and pop Smoke of Deceit along the way.

Use Shrines if your health is low, getting that level 6 kill brings huge advantage that it's worthy enough to use them.

Ping your allies that you have ult, then enters as your ally starts to strike, when your target gets away from creeps, use Omnislash. Unless you are unlucky there are enemy supports / creep tanking your hits, your ult almost always kills him since your level 6 is fast (600 Physical Damage at level 1 is no joke!)

Preferable target:

• Mid with no escape abilities ( Invoker, Drow Ranger, Sniper, Pudge, Tinker to name a few).
• Enemy offlane with no innate Blink. Do not target Faceless Void, unless that guy already used Time Walk and you still reached him. Also Windranger for that matter for the same reason when she used Windrun.

Successful or not, go back to jungle after ganking attempt.

Second clarity for further sustenance from Healing Ward until we get Helm of the Dominator

Early Game

Helm of the Dominator

Phase Boots

Finish your Helm of the Dominator first. Geting it means there is no need for Healing Ward anymore. Then followed by Phase Boots after.

Helm of the Dominator is a very cost effective item for Juggernaut.

One Helm of the Dominator grants a total of 80 health, 8.12 health regeneration, 0.57 armor, 24 attack speed, 48 mana, 0.16 mana regeneration, 0.25% spell damage and 4 attack damage.

The stats are awesome for such cheap item. Lifesteal? That thing is so old news.

If you never bought this item before, try it, then you will find how great this item is.

Helm of the Dominator is good on its own, but it also has one more use: Dominate.

Good at micro? Great! Maybe you can use the dominated creep for extra crowd control, like Dark Troll Summoner from Troll Camp, a good alternative is Satyr Banisher from Satyr Camp since Purge is very strong to catch opponents with with it's low cooldown.

Bad at micro? no problem. For Juggernaut, the creep is more useful on tanking towers or giving him damage like Alpha Wolf from Wolf Camp (and still usable to tank towers), Ogre Frostmage from Ogre Camp is also good alternative (make sure to cast that Ice Armor). Dominate synergize well with Healing Ward, look at skill build section for details.

At level 9, you should start pushing tower with team, tower gold is the best gold to get your core items.

The item is nerfed pretty hard. +6 All stats to +4 All stats (That's from 18 stats gain (Str+Agi+Int) to 12 stats gain), and a constant bounty of 125 Gold on dominated creep killed. The effect is subtle, but definitely can be felt after trying it. The nerf is big enough for me to change my level 10 talent from +20 Damage to +175 health.

Unfortunately, this is still the best item to go out early from jungle and start contributing to the team despite the nerfs.

Tips:

If you are interested in simple Micro, I recommend configure your keys like this (click spoiler):

Core

Yasha

Maelstrom

Blink Dagger

So we already have powerful stats from Helm of the Dominator, and damage comes from Blade Dance and Phase Boots, but we are far from ready to be online.

Yasha for chasing power, damage, and attack speed, good for taking farming to next gear. Cheap for its cost when compared to Maelstrom, so we get this first.

Maelstrom, A.K.A. The new Battle Fury of 7.00, is for right click+AoE damage. Also an item to take farm to next level. Make sure to right click opponents even when on Blade Fury state after getting this item.

After getting these two, you will notice Juggernaut already hits like a truck, especially when taking pick offs on enemies. But even so, Juggernaut is still not ready.

He is still easily kited, making all that DPS becomes useless, since dead hero is no dps.

In here enters Blink Dagger. Getting this will change how you play Juggernaut. The shift is abrupt and your danger level is getting off the charts.

Now you are ready for teamfights.

Use Blink Dagger to drop on top of enemies, preferably squishy enemy supports to make the fights favorable quickly towards your team. Your damage is crazy, don't be afraid to right click your opponents. When they turn back towards you, use Omnislash to create chaos and dodge spells while your team hopefully use the opportunity to sweep down and control them down.

If fights get bad, use Blade Fury, retreat to a far distance using Blink Dagger, then TP out.

Extension

Mjollnir

Manta Style

Mjollnir is natural upgrade to Maelstrom. You want to get crazy with right click damage and farm? get this first. Need to stop silences, slows, debuffs, without using Blade Fury? get Manta Style first.

Luxury

Abyssal Blade

Eye of Skadi

Butterfly

Satanic

Luxury items is the item that fills your sixth slot and then replaces Helm of the Dominator. Naturally, you can only get two of these according to your item slot. Choose according to what you need.

Abyssal Blade is a natural choice with Juggernaut's attack speed and item choice. Great for destroying mobile heroes, like Storm Spirit.

Eye of Skadi is a general tank up. Great for fighting spell dependent line up.

Butterfly gives great stats to finish enemies off. If your farm is ahead, taking this is great. The cost is not very friendly, so if you are hunted by minus armor line up and starts to losing or dying easily, picking Assault Cuirass maybe better since the item progression is easier.

Satanic works best when combined with Black King Bar. If you get BKB, getting this is preferable. Best item to fight head-to-head the enemy carry.

Situational

Black King Bar

Monkey King Bar

Linken's Sphere

Diffusal Blade

Assault Cuirass

Sometimes you want to damage enemies without spells interrupting you, but cannot be bothered with damage limitation given by Blade Fury. Picking Black King Bar is natrual. Replaces one of your luxury items, sometimes getting this before Extension maybe mandatory.

Monkey King Bar to fight evasion enemies like Phantom Assassin, Butterfly carriers. Replaces one of your luxury items.

Linken's Sphere to stop pesky single target ultimates like Doom, Nether Swap, Primal Roar.

Diffusal Blade when facing heroes like Ursa (to stop his ultimate) and Omniknight (to stop his ultimate as well). Facing Pugna and Necrophos also may make this item mandatory since they can turn Ghost Form because of their skills, but better purge them with Satyr Banisher's Purge. Purge (status effect) actually can be done with Satyr Banisher's skill: Purge, but you will need crazy calmness and micro skills to use micro in the middle of the fight, especially since you are a very high profile target. If you can do that, you don't need this item, and I also will give my salute to you.

Assault Cuirass is a very situational item. Only take this when facing heavy minus armor line up like for example Slardar, Templar Assassin, Vengeful Spirit on one team. The +15 Armor is what you want, the attack speed corresponds Blade Dance nicely, the minus armor is icing the cake. The reason you don't take this normally is because your Agility Gain of +2.4 is already great enough to give natural armor. Make sure to have one item to stack health after or before getting this ( Eye of Skadi, Satanic) since we want to use that EHP Assault Cuirass gives.

Starting Items: When no Courier

Quelling Blade Clarity

Stout shield Clarity

Tango Bounty Rune

Animal Courier

Sometimes, you get a team that already makes you sigh from the start of the game. Man up and buy the courier. But make sure to grab the Bounty Rune and use it to buy clarities. Guilt trip them if you have to. That double clarity on the start is crucial.

Starts with Quelling Blade, Stout Shield, Tango, and buy Animal Courier. Grab Bounty Rune at 0:00 mark, then buy 2 Claritys. Then Jungling as normally this guide would.

Your item is delayed a bit, but not much. The double easy camp at 0:30 and 1:00 should net you Iron Talon regardless. The existence of courier is far more detrimental than a simple delay.

Jungling

Knowing which items to buy is not enough.

The proper way to jungle is also needed.

Rule of Thumb: Always use Iron Talon active on highest health creep.

Farming Route

1. Starts by killing the easy camp at 0:30 using Blade Fury located on number 1. Don't pop any clarity after clearing it. Step 2 is optional, but recommended since you have nothing to do until 1:00.
2. Stack the hard camp located at number 2 at 0:53. Then leave it alone until you get Helm of the Dominator. You won't touch this camp until you get said item. The stacked camp can be used by your sllies to pull creeps.
3. Kill the easy camp once again, don't use Blade Fury. Now some people will complain that they cannot use the easy camp to pull camp until 3:00. But that's what step 2 is for. This should net you Iron Talon even if you don't get Bounty Rune. You should be level 2 now. Level up Blade Dance.
4. Kill the medium camp at number 4. If it's Wolf Camp or Satyr Camp, use Blade Fury (with Iron Talon in conjunction of course), if others, just tank it (and use Iron Talon as well) and use the mana for Healing Ward in future use. Pop Clarity if you do use Blade fury.
5. Grab the bounty rune at 2:00 at number 5.
   
   
   
   
6. After killing medium camp at Step 5. You should get level 3, if not kill the other medium camp. Level up Healing Ward.
7. Follow the farming route. Make sure to hog the bounty runes as much as possible. Use Blade Fury on eligible camps below as much as possible while leaving mana for future Healing Wards.
8. Pop clarities whenever your mana gets low or you need that fast Healing Ward.
9. Reaching level 6, you should Smoke Gank. It's a huge waste not to use level 1 Omnislash to kill enemies, and it's also your first contribution to the team. Details on Smoke Gank:
   Spoiler: Click to view

   Copy pasted from Item section:
   
   First clarity is for level 6 gank with Omnislash. We will abuse the power spike Juggernaut gain from getting level 1 ultimate.
   
   Your mana is most likely spent on using Healing Ward and Blade Fury and has nothing left for your Ultimate. Pop clarity, walk to your target while waiting until your mana is about to reach 200 MP (since Omnislash cost that much at level 1) and pop Smoke of Deceit along the way.
   
   Use Shrines if your health is low, getting that level 6 kill brings huge advantage that it's worthy enough to use them.
   
   Ping your allies that you have ult, then enters as your ally starts to strike, when your target gets away from creeps, use Omnislash. Unless you are unlucky there are enemy supports / creep tanking your hits, your ult almost always kills him since your level 6 is fast (600 Physical Damage at level 1 is no joke!)
   
   Preferable target:
   

   • Mid with no escape abilities ( Invoker, Drow Ranger, Sniper, Pudge, Tinker to name a few).
   • Enemy offlane with no innate Blink. Do not target Faceless Void, unless that guy already used Time Walk and you still reached him. Also Windranger for that matter.
10. Go back to jungle whether the gank attempt successful or not.
11. After getting Helm of the Dominator, dominate a creep, preferably the ones that contributes to farming, Alpha Wolf, Hellbear Smasher, then use them to tank ancient creeps while you hit them from the side.
12. Reaching level 9, get out of the jungle and start pushing lanes with dominated creep alongside you. Don't fight and go back if your team is not strong enough to face them, split push the lanes, trade towers if you have to. What matters is, you have tower gold, which will getting your core items fast. This is your contribution to the team until you get your core items.
13. The best creep for solo pushing is Hellbear Smasher. That +15 Attack speed aura combined with your HotD +10 Attack Speed aura gives great attack speed for creeps and yourself to siege towers.
14. The best creep for pushing with allies (or preparing for teamfights) is Ogre Frostmage. Needs a little micro, but the armor buff duration is long so you can buff everyone first before sieging towers. you will give everyone and yourself +8 Armor with attack speed debuff when you are attacked by melee heroes. Ogre Frostmage is also the best counter to Desolator carriers.

Blade Fury Do's and Don'ts when being used to clear camps

General Rule: Always save mana for Healing Ward until you get Helm of the Dominator


At level One Blade Fury, Do :

1. Wolf Camp
2. Satyr Camp

Don't:

1. Centaur Camp. Reason: Cloak Aura
2. Ogre Camp. Reason: Too tanky to be effective. Waste of mana.
3. Golem Camp. Reason: 50% Magic Damage resistance.
4. Any Hard camp. Too tanky to be effective.
5. Any Ancient Camp.

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At Level Two Blade Fury, Do:

1. All Level One Blade Fury Do's
2. Large Satyr Camp
3. Wildwing Camp
4. Troll Camp
5. Ogre Camp

Don't:

1. Centaur Camp. Reason: Cloak Aura
2. Golem Camp. Reason: 50% Magic Damage resistance.
3. Large Centaur Camp. Reason: Double Cloak Aura.
4. Hellbear Camp. Reason: Cloak Aura
5. Any Ancient Camp.

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At Level three Blade Fury, Do:

• All Level Two Do's
• Centaur Camp
• Hellbear Camp

Don't:

1. Golem Camp. Reason: 50% Magic Damage resistance.
2. Large Centaur Camp. Reason: Double Cloak Aura.
3. Any Ancient Camp.

---

At Level 4, Do:

1. All Level 3 Do's
2. Ancient Prowler Camp.

Don't:

1. All Level 3 Don'ts
2. Any other Ancient Camps.

Afterwords

Please give feedback if you do try this build. Especially on the jungling difficulty. I want to make this more noob friendly guide.