Introduction
"The search for blood begins."
Bloodseeker is a melee agility carry and ganker. His skillset provides him with potentially insane mobility whilst at the same time limiting a chosen enemy's ability to both move and cast spells.
Although never chosen in competitive matches, where he is considered an unviable pick, in public games he is often chosen and can potentially dictate the pace of a game.
Bloodseeker's complete character profile can be found here.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Very strong ganker and chaser
- Very durable laner and self-healer
- Can easily snowball if early ganks are successful
- Good lockdown
Cons
- Susceptible to burst damage
- Easily countered by Town Portal Scroll
- Considered one of the weakest carries in the game
- Skillset can work against him if not used optimally
- Needs a lot of farm or kills
Item Build
Bloodseeker can be played pretty much anywhere, from a dual side lane, safe lane, and mid to even the jungle. Ideally, though, you'll want to be in mid, so that you can ensure a quick level 6. Since Bloodseeker functions better as a ganker than a carry, gaining fast levels in the mid lane will enable you to gank earlier than you would otherwise be able to in any other lane.
Regardless of your starting lane, your starting items will be the same: a Stout Shield so that you can last hit without being forced out of the lane, a Quelling Blade to guarantee those last hits and thus trigger Blood Bath, and either a set of Tangos or a Healing Salve to provide you with some regen. Although for the mostpart you will be relying on Blood Bath to stay in lane rather than actual regen, some sort of regen is strongly advised in case you are harassed dangerously low and thus fear coming in for those crucial last hits. If you had no regen you'd be forced back to the fountain one way or the other.
Core early items on Bloodseeker are: Poor Man's Shield, Magic Wand, and Power Treads. You don't gain much from the move speed of Phase Boots so Power Treads should be your go-to upgraded boots. And Poor Man's Shield is a very cost-effective item given that you'll have grabbed a Stout Shield at the start.
Once you have your core you should be level 6 and thus should be ganking. Your next item pick-up is entirely optional/situational. I'll detail some of the optimal picks for Bloodseeker below and explain why and in what situations you should be picking them up:
Rich Bloodseeker
Radiance - If you have an amazing early game (decent last hits on the lane, a couple of successful ganks) then you can aim for a Radiance and get it within a decent space of time. It's the perfect item for a snowball Bloodseeker. Radiance increases your damage, but the main reason it is so strong on Bloodseeker is the burn damage. Not only will this provide you with the usual sustained AoE that is the bane of any support hero's life, it will also trigger Blood Bath for you on any creeps the burn damage happens to kill, thus giving you that extra sustainability.
Poor Bloodseeker
Yasha - On the flipside, if you had a poor start then consider a Yasha, which you will later build into a Sange & Yasha. It will help ensure that you have some presence in teamfights despite your poor farm and gives you some much-needed damage (from the agility bonus), attack speed, and stats. If not a Yasha then another item to consider if you have a lacklustre start is...
Force Staff - Force Staff has three key benefits for Bloodseeker. First, and most obvious, is that it gives you an escape mechanism - something Bloodseeker sorely lacks. Secondly, it gives you utility for your team, as you can force allies to safety or enemies into a disadvantageous position. Thirdly - and this is why most people in public games pick it up - you can combo the active with your Ultimate, Rupture, to force an enemy to move and thus take damage. The downside is it makes you largely irrelevant in teamfights, so although it makes you a more potent ganker it will mean you fall off in effectiveness even earlier than usual. That said, if you are not your team's core carry then it's a very good way of helping your team in the mid game.
Attack Speed Bloodseeker
Mjollnir - The other item build to consider is a damage and attack speed build. Bloodrage gives you a significant amount of extra damage (120% when maxed) which makes you a decent DPS'er. Mjollnir, meanwhile, gives you the attack speed you otherwise lack to be a fearsome carry in teamfights. Much like Radiance, the Chain Lightning passive will also trigger Blood Bath if you fight in the vicinity of a creep wave. This is very much a middle of the road build between the two extremes detailed above.
Luxury Items
Black King Bar - Typically a BKB should be your second major pick-up after you've opted for one of the above item builds. Combined with Thirst it makes it virtually impossible for anyone to disable you and then escape. It also provides you with some much-needed sustainability in teamfights, where you will often be nuked down.
Butterfly - If Radiance is your core big-ticket item when you get a good start, then Butterfly is your core luxury item if you have a good mid-game. It gives you massive amounts of everything you need to deal damage and stay alive during fights.
Additional damage items - Other good damage items to pick up on Bloodseeker are Monkey King Bar (high damage, a mini-bash, and a great counter if the enemy has an agility carry going Butterfly) and Daedalus (extremely good high-damage item).
Additional defensive/utility items - If you're not the team's primary carry then a Vladmir's Offering is a great utility item. The same goes for Assault Cuirass, which will also give your team more offensive power. Heart of Tarrasque will give you plenty of survivability, but perhaps consider an Abyssal Blade instead. This will give you a nice chunk of health but also give you damage and, most importantly, help to lockdown enemies.
Skill Build
Regardless of the lane you're in, your first point should always be in Bloodrage. This allows you to stay in the lane/jungle without requiring more than your initial starting regen. It's probably the skill you'll want to max first as well, although there are exceptions to this rule.
Be careful though, Bloodrage can easily backfire and end up healing an enemy if you fall in battle, potentially saving their life.
| Note: Blood Bath works on both creep kills and creep denies, so be sure to deny your own creeps whenever possible, not only to deny the enemy experience and gold but also to get free life return. |
The aforementioned exceptions apply to Thirst, which you can prioritise ahead of Bloodrage if you intend to be a full-on ganker. Regardless of which you choose to max first, you'll want to max the other one second.
Get a value point in Blood Rite early on (either level 2 or level 4) in order to silence enemies with escape mechanisms or squishy casters, but max it last. When ganking, you'll want to cast Blood Rite in order to prevent enemies from casting disables or utilising escape abilities.
Always get your Ultimate, Rupture, whenever you can (levels 6, 11 and 16). Once you hit level 6 you should either try and kill your lane opponent or rotate to another lane to gank.
Whenever Rupture is off cooldown you should be aiming to gank with it; you're far more fearsome a ganker than you are a carry, so don't be tempted to sit in lane farming; go out and get kills!
Gameplay Tips
It's important that you attempt to gank or grab a kill on your lane opponent once you have get Rupture. You don't scale all that well as a carry, rather your strength lies in early-to-mid game ganking and snowballing, Get the snowball rolling asap!
Thirst is an especially good passive when the enemy team has a jungler that tanks the creeps himself. Heroes like Axe, Lycan and Doom Bringer can really struggle against Bloodseeker if they opt to jungle. They will often dip below the threshold required to trigger Thirst, making them easy pick-offs.
| Tip: Thirst grants True Sight of enemies whose health pools dip below the 30% threshold, making Bloodseeker a decent pick to combat heroes that rely on invisibility to escape. |
Use Blood Rite in teamfights - this will really hamper heroes that require chaining of their spells to deliver wombo-combos in teamfights. Initiators like Earthshaker, Enigma and Puck can be shut down entirely in teamfights if the teamfight breaks out within Blood Rite's AoE.
Finally, careful choose when to cast Rupture. Remember that if the enemy does not move they will take no damage from Rupture, so only use it on someone who is out of position, or in a position where you feel confident diving them. Your goal is to force the enemy to move or stand and take your right clicks, so don't necessarily throw it out on the first enemy you encounter.
Rupture can also be used defensively to save yourself or teammates. If an enemy hero is chasing down a fleeing ally you can intercept them and cast Rupture, forcing them to break off their pursuit or take significant amounts of damage which will allow your team to turn-around on them.
Last Updated - Patch 6.82c.
