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Stout Shield
Gauntlets of Strength
Tango
Healing Salve
Boots of Speed
Power Treads
Bracer
Armlet of Mordiggian
Maelstrom
Black King Bar
Mjollnir
Drum of Endurance
Vladmir's Offering
Mask of Madness
Black King Bar
Assault Cuirass
Daedalus
Monkey King Bar
Heart of Tarrasque
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2 | 9 | 10 | 12 |  |
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6 | 11 | 16 |  |
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15 | 17 | 18 |
All guides: AM, SB, Weaver, Axe
Hello.
DotA is constantly evolving and the best DotA players are those that can adapt. This guide is aimed at matchmaking (obviously) and if you're reading this guide to learn how to do well with SB in matchmaking then this guide is for you. If you are not reading this guide to learn how to do well with SB in matchmaking then this Guide is not for you. I also have a dota 2 channel with tips, guides etc if you want to check it out.
I've been playing DotA for about 9 years on and off and have had DotA 1 league experience on platforms like Bored Aussie, Garena, DotAlicious etc.
- DhampirKnight
Memo
Purchase orders aren't a one size-fits all games thing and the best sequence will change from game to game.
THE CORE
Stout Shield
Has become a must for almost all melee heroes who want to be serious about doing well in laning stage. In the same way Ring of Protection has become standard on many ranged heroes. So it's a no-brainer.
Power Treads
Self explanatory. The extra attack speed and survivability are far better than anything Phase Boots or Tranquil Boots can provide for Spirit Breaker.
Bracer
Gives you some extra stats which are always good for survivability. Even if they only save your life once, it's basically paid for itself and it only takes up one slot. It's also there in case you decide to go Drum of Endurance later.
Armlet of Mordiggian
Armlet is one of the best items in the game on almost any hero because of survivability it gives. You'll see many higher level pub players going this item on heroes you'd normally think have no business with an armlet because of this reason. Its attack speed, survivability and burst damage capability makes it a must on SB.
1 ROLE
Maelstrom
Maelstrom gives you amazing DPS and permabash capability on Spirit Breaker. However, if you are farming extremely poorly for whatever reason, you can get Drums instead or rush Black King Bar if teamfights are already beginning to decide the game.
Black King Bar
BKB is self-explanatory. I'd say try not to get it too early. Depend on how you're farming you want to get it on the cusp of entering the mid-late game where teamfights begin to decide the game. You do not want to have Black King Bar when there are only still small skirmishes going on and you don't want to be popping it to secure single kills. Save it for big teamfights.
Mjollnir
Practically gives you permabash and lets you decide teamfights as long as you position and charge well. It lets you burst down important heroes, keeping them bashed.
TEAM ORIENTATED
Drum of Endurance
If no one on your team has it or you are farming poorly, Drums can be amazing. It will delay your BKB and/or DPS items so if you get this, it should be in place of your Maelstrom.
Vladmir's Offering
An highly underrated item, especially if no one on your team has one already. It offers a lot- armor, mana regen, dmg and melee lifesteal for your entire team.
LAST DITCH
Mask of Madness, Black King Bar
In a game where your team is exceedingly behind, MoM into Black King Bar as quick farm items can be exceedingly cost-effective. It really is a last ditch effort, like going for a Divine Rapier when you're 2 sets of rax behind and it falls off very quickly if the game drags on.
LUXURY
Assault Cuirass, Daedalus, Monkey King Bar, Heart of Tarrasque
It's up to you to decide but in the current metagame, games rarely last longer than 50 mins. Assault is pretty foolproof as it provides you with both tankability and DPS. If you find you're not dying much (unlikely), then I would go for an MKB or Daedalus. MKB if they have Bfly or evasion heroes, and Daedalus if they don't. Heart is situational if their damage is mostly magical/pure rather than physical.
Mask of Madness?
As a general rule of thumb, MoM is a ****ty item that gets you killed too quickly. There are exceptions and Spirit Breaker is close to being one, but in serious games, MoM just doesn't quite get there.
Memo
Charge is an amazing ability now, especially with the recent buffs but there's still a lot to utilising it well.
How not to Charge
A massive mistake many newer SB players make is to charge too eagerly. Charge is a great initiation ability but once you're in there, you'll no longer have an escape mechanism to get out. Never ever charge in to multiple heroes alone unless you're absolutely certain you can deal with them. That either means you have a massive farm lead on them or they're all really really low HP.
Charging to gank
You should be charging to gank during to early-mid game but when you charge, you must be certain to get the kill, otherwise you'll be wasting valuable farming time while getting no trade (possibly even a death) in return. The way to ensure you'll get a kill is to charge a lowish HP hero, a squishy hero or to make sure you have one or two allied hero in support.
If you think a hero is a bait and there's a lot of heroes miss on the map, it's likely a bad idea to charge them. Trust your instincts when it comes to this. You also have to watch for TPs so it's usually a bad idea to charge in to a tower or past a tower unless the hero you're charging is super low HP with no escape mech.
Charging to gank
What a lot of players don't realise is that charge is also a great escape mechanism. If you charge out of a bad situation, it's highly unlikely that your charge will be stopped. You want to be charging any other enemy hero or creep on the map so you'll have to have decent camera control to pull it off in a timely fashion.
This makes SB a decent split-pusher as well, as long as you save charge to get out of any sticky situation.
Charging to teamfight
Charge support heroes on the backlines during teamfights when you know your team is there in support. The optimal timing is to hit your charge just as a team fight breaks out so you can cause chaos from the outset. He is similar to a Storm Spirit in the way he initiates.
Memo
Things are going to vary drastically from game to game but I'll do my best to walk you through what you want to be doing at each stage of the game.
Laning
The best way to lane Spirit Breaker is as a safe-lane carry. He can also go mid if you know how to, but he'll lose to most good mid heroes. He can also go in the offlane if you have a strong dual lane or trilane composition, since you can use charge to escape sticky situations, but obviously being in the offlane will severely limit your farm. (Note: laning in pubs is 100% random and dynamic so any laning advice can safely be ignored most of the time)
Early-mid game
When you are not charging to gank or charging in teamfights, you need to be farming your items as a carry. Just farm wherever you can as you're the 1 or 2 hero. If a support hero is in a lane farming, tell them to go do something else and let you farm. If you get in trouble while farming, charge out.
You should very rarely walking anywhere to optimize your time. To get places, you should either be charging or TPing. If you're low on HP, play it safe and get your courier to bring you a Healing Salve to heal yourself back up, or go jungle/pull for a while.
The timing to charge for a gank is around when you're level 7 or 8 because that's when you'll be at your peak in terms of damage in comparison with everyone else. But before that you should be farm-farm-farming.
You'll have 2 guaranteed greater bashes, first on Charge, and secondly on your ult, and in between you'll probably get another one or two. This can guarantee you a kill on most non-full HP heroes, especially if you've got back up. Read the Charge section for more details.
Late game
So that's it. For the rest of the game, you're either charging for ganks or teamfights or farm-farm-farming. You should improve everything with more practice and there's not a lot else I have to say.
Armlet in to vlads + drums
You might want to check out this live pub commentary of me playing SB, going armlet in to vlads + drums.
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