VERSATILE GUIDE TO THE AXECUTIONER (6.88)

Intro

Greeting my fellow gamers

First of all, this is not supposed to be short alt-tab guide, so expect many details in this guide. This is my first guide ever, and I am free for all kinds of help and feedback, so feel fre to comment this guide and contact me for for advices. This guide is hoing to be updated in future, and eventualy expanded to represend new trends and changes, and to keep it relevant. And, last but not the least, English is not my first language so dont go grammar nazi rampage on me, but feel free to contact me for my mistakes, that would be nice of you. So, let's get started:

This guide is all about Moghul Khan, better known as Axe, the One Man Army. Here I am going to (or at least try to) explain how to play Axe efectivly in pubs and how to be flexible and versatile while playing him, in such manner as to play for your team and to do your best to enable them to win.

Basic info, stats, etc.

Axe is an unique hero with such abilities and stats that allow him to be very effective disabler, pusher, ganker, initiator and, (omg, blasphemy!) semi support.

So first, there are some pros and cons to our daring red warior:
Pros:
Strong early game
Ok (2.2) Agi gain for Str hero
Strong disable and armor buff
High base HP regen of 3
Nice DOT and slow
Good speed buff
GREAT PURE DMG passive nuke
Strong early game ultimate
Best animations and quotes!
Voiced by the guy that gave voice to Duke Nukem!
Fun to use :D

Cons:
Low starting Int and Int grow (1.6)
Mediocre Str growth (2.5) for an initiator
Level dependant
Falls of late game of not overfed
Cries for Blink Dagger
Low aoe on Q
Unreliable DOT and slow in W
Ultimate dissapoints when fails to kill :(


Here are Axe's mediocre stats:
STR 25+2.5
AGI 20+2.2
INT 18+1.6

TO PICK OR NOT TO PICK

Pick Axe when:
Your team needs good initiation
Enemy team has 3 or more melee heroes
When your team needs early game ganks to create space for your carry to farm
When enemy team has Dazzle

Don't pick Axe when:
Your team is not in need one more initiator
Enemy team has Lifestealer or Necrophos
Enemy team has 3 or more ranged heroes
Your team needs hard support or hard carry
You do not feel manly enough

Abilities explained

Q-Berserker's Call

Axe taunts nearby enemy units, forcing them to attack him, while he gains bonus armor during the duration.

Cast Animation: 0.4+0.5
Radius: 300
Armor Bonus: 40
Duration: 2/2.4/2.8/3.2

CD:16/14/12/10
MC:80/90/100/110

This here is your main disable that is going to be effective throughout the whole game. At lv4 it taunts all enemies in 300 aoe for 3.2 secs, and it goes through BKB! And that 40 armor you get is going to be effective at all points. It is maxed last in my builds because you need Blink Dagger and Blademail to be able to fully utilize this, and that raise in mana cost really hurts your miserable mana pool. One poin here at level 3-5 is recomended, but, rest are better saved for later on.

W-Battle Hunger

Enrages an enemy unit, causing it to be slowed and take damage over time until it kills another unit or the duration ends. Axe gains movement speed for each unit affected with Battle Hunger.

Cast Animation: 0.3+0.5
Cast Range: 750
Damage per Second: 16/24/32/40
Move Speed Slow: 12%
Self Move Speed Bonus: 12%
Duration: 10

CD:20/15/10/5
MC:75

This is possibly one of, if not THE greatest DoT ability in the game. It slows your enemy, damages them and gives you speed for every enemy afeted, and it's mana cost is quite low, which works well with your sad mana pool! But, wait, it is not THAT great, right? Well, it's only (kind of) drawback is the fact that it is dispelled if enemy kills any creep or hero. However, this is not that bad for you, but more on that later as we move to:

Counter Helix

When attacked, Axe performs a helix counter attack, dealing damage to all nearby enemies.

Radius: 275
Proc Chance: 20%
Damage: 75/110/145/180
CD: 0.45/0.4/0.35/0.3
Can be used by illusions. Axe illusions have a fully functional Counter Helix.

Ahh, the good old CH, the bread and butter skill of our favourite red bruiser. Things one should know when playing Axe: Counter Helix deals PURE damage, it has chance to proc every time Axe is hit by a creep or hero, and is pseudo random distribution so it actually has more than stated 20% chance to proc! Good for punishing enemies that come close early game, DEVASTATING to melees in lanng phase and Axe's main farming/pushing tool. One thing to note, damage simpy becomes obsolete in mid-late game.

Culling Blade (AXECUTE!)

Axe spots a weakness and strikes, instantly killing an enemy unit with low health, or dealing moderate damage otherwise. When an enemy hero is killed with Culling Blade, its cooldown is reset, and Axe and nearby allied units gain bonus movement speed.

Cast Animation: 0.3+0.5
Cast Range: 150
Kill Speed Bonus Radius: 900
Damage: 150/250/300
Kill Health Threshold: 250/325/400 (300/425/550)
Kill Move Speed Bonus: 30%
Kill Attack Speed Bonus: 30
Kill Bonus Duration: 6 (10)
CD: 75/65/55 (6)
MC: 60/120/180

Upgradable by Aghanim's Scepter. Decreases cooldown, increases kill threshold, and increases bonus movement speed duration.

This is by far the most fun ultimate to use when used with good timing. It goes through BKB, and basicly dispells the target first, and then if target is under threshold obliterates them with best animation ever. Dispel is important, because it even dispells Dazzle's Shallow Grave and kills the target, so it is good counter to that! Speed bonus and CD refresh after kill are great and enable for more carnage to settle Axe's bloodthirsty desires. Butt beware! manacost is very high for our friends natural mana pool, so use it wisely!

Items and Strategy

So, first some things to note.

EVERY HERO CAN SUPPORT TO SOME POINT

. That goes for Axe too, but that does not mean he is hard support, as he is best at position 3 or very greedy 4. However, it does not hurt to buy few wards even if you are not generally supporting, and sometimes Axe can do semi-support role if that is what his army needs!

Now when we have that cleared up, we can move to actual Items and Strategy part of the guide.

When game is starting, you should know if there is going to be need for you to do some more dedicated supporting, bc there si no way you can do solo offlane thing that way. There are ways to play jungle Axe, but that part is going to be added in later updates, and such Axe can support too, actually very well! and can make part time tri-laning with safelane.

So, lets cover the less supportive, Offlane Aggresor Axe

first.

Always buy Tangoes, and eventually an Healing Salve if you are solo and expect alot of harasment early on. Stout Shield is a must, as many creeps are going to hit you throughout the whole game, starting early on, while the rest is optional. Want to boost INT to spam your W more? Few Iron Branches and a Circlet of Nobility will do, and will later upgrade to Magic Wand. Clarity can help, and Ring of Protection can help against physical harasment.
If you are going to do solo lane, buy some wards, as ganks are going to punish your aggresion easily if you don't see them coming.

From level 1 start spamming your W on their support as he is less likely to kill creeps, and has lower HP. Dont overextend when soloing, but when in dual lane with support (in the best possible scenario OMNIKNIGHT) be reckless as you can! When you hit level 2 and get that Counter Helix start pushing ocasionally, and make sure to get few hits of your passive on their carry. Soon they will back of with low HP, so keep spaming W as they will have to CLOSE IN to kill some creeps, and that is how Axe settles his deals:up close and personal.

However, this aggressive playstyle will hurt both your mana and HP, and if they have some strong disables that is too risky, so get that Tranquil Boots ASAP! If, in turn you manage to get some early kills and assists, get just Boots of speed and move on to get your Vanguard. You can eventually get Arcane Boots, to be able to spam that W even more, but it is not really your best option, as you have more important items to get.

When you hit lvl4-5 and get that Q use it wisely. Great use of it is to turnover gank. When you see that gank coming from mid, keep it close to your tower but let them think they can get you, fight untill you are around 30% HP and then just Q and run to your tower! That will make them to run for you and take that tower damage, and you can even pull of some Counter Helix procs, and that makes the easiest way te get early kills that really piss them of. Other way to use your Q aggressivly early on is to go for tower dive, use it even if thhey are not near you, that 40 armour can save your head to live to fight another day, and you can get that kill too!

Depending on how well you fared, you should be able to get that Blink Dagger around 17 min. mark, maybe later if you died or went to base for emergency mana and HP refresh. NOW get your Mana full and start tp-ing arount the map, initiating fights and geting kills and assists from ganks. Soon you will have that core done with Blademail, and that is all you really need to dominate if you have any XP advantage. Just do and repeat Blink-Q-Blademail-W-Culling Blade combo untill they are all dead or you are on very low HP.

Later you can get extensions that best suit your situation. Invoker/Lich/Pugna/any other nuker screws you and your team with their nuke combos? Get Pipe of Insight. Need more durability to sustain even more nukes, an ability to heal fast? Get Heart of Terasque. Need more mana and armor, and some good aura to help your team? Shiva's Guard (Note, first get some HP then armor, as that way you will be much more durable). Or you can make your Ulimate more relevant with Aghanim upgrade, Upgrade your Vanguard to Crimson Guard or Swap HoT and Shivas with Bloodstone, it is completely your choice!

And, if things go that way that you are in desperate need of pushing, get Boots of Travel and Necronomicon and ed that game ASAP!

On that more

Supportive Axe

As a support, Axe is still disabler and kind of initiator, but lets other farm more as he concentrates to get more auras on him to help in teamfights. This build is viable only if you have some other way of initiation than your combo on your team.

Get Bracer and Magic Wand to sustain you in lane early on, and then that Headdress, as it gives some nice stats and regen. Get that blink, as you are still Axe, then get some of optional cores if noone on your team is getting them. Later, items are mostly like in previous build, so no need for explanation. Just beware as you will not be as tanky as Aggressor Axe, so be more carefull in fights

Synergy and Counters

Coming soon :D