Introduction
“Barreling in!”
Brewmaster is a melee strength initiator and teamfighter who is famed for his ultimate ability, Primal Split, which causes him to split into three units for a short duration, each of which has its own individual skillset.
Brewmaster's complete character profile can be found here.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Strong initiator
- Strong teamfighter
- Versatile laner
- Quite tanky
- Good crowd control
- Powerful nuke and slow
- Built-in crit
Cons
- Countered by silence
- Very high skill floor and skill ceiling hero
- Need to have good micro skills to play Brew
- Good anti-carry ability
- Tapers off in effectiveness late-game
- No hard lockdown outside of his ultimate
- Mana hungry
Item Build
Brewmaster is typically laned mid competitively, although in public matchmaking he will often take one of the sidelanes. Being innately tanky and having high base damage means he is a highly versatile laner and is capable of fitting it multiple different roles, from initiator to even ganking once he has a Blink Dagger.
Starting Items
A good set of starting items for Brew would be:
- Tangos, Healing Salve, 3x Iron Branches, 1x Gauntlets of Strength.
This gives you good all-round starting stats, plenty of regen to see you through the early laning phase, and gets you started on some of your early and core item pick-ups.
Early Game
Early game most Brews will opt for a Bottle. If laning mid it’s core. If laning elsewhere it’s more optional. Don’t be put off purchasing a Bottle as an offlaner, even if your mid intends to control the runes – for a mana hungry hero who’s likely to take a fair bit of harassment damage in the lane, a Bottle can be a great pick-up in the offlane.
Get some Boots of Speed, and then upgrade your Iron Branches into a Magic Wand and your Gauntlets of Strength into a Bracer for some good early stats.
Core Items
The most common upgraded boots for Brew are Arcane Boots. He’s a very mana hungry hero who is to a large extent reliable on Thunder Clap into Primal Split initiation. This takes a hefty chunk of mana from a hero with a low mana pool, leaving you little room to spam Thunder Clap outside of teamfights.
Arcane Boots help solve your mana problems but they don’t offer much else, and for this reason some players prefer Power Treads (stats and attack speed), and even Phase Boots (damage, chasing). It largely comes down to personal preference. I recommend Arcane Boots though.
Your first major item purchase is a Blink Dagger. This allows you to initiate teamfights properly. Your combo is Blink > Thunder Clap (ideally on multiple enemies) > Primal Split. You then use your warriors to deal damage and further lockdown enemies.
Blink Dagger also has some other great uses on Brew.
1) It allows you to chase very effectively. On top of the slows from Thunder Clap and Drunken Haze, as well as the damage between Thunder Clap and your passive Drunken Brawler, Brew is a fearsome chaser and ganker even when his ultimate is not available.
2) It allows you to escape once your ultimate’s duration is over. When this happens Brew will appear in place of the Earth, Storm, of Fire warrior (in that order). If he has a Blink Dagger he can use it to escape out of potentially sticky situations, or to keep up pursuit if chasing down enemies.
Luxury Items
Aghanim’s Scepter – Aghanim’s Scepter is Brew’s highest priority luxury item. Most of the time you’ll want to aim for this straight after you’ve bought your Blink Dagger. On top of the item’s standard +10 all stats, +200 health and +150 mana, Aghanims buffs Brew’s ultimate by:
- Giving the Earth Warrior Brewmaster’s own Thunder Clap ability
- Giving the Storm Warrior Brewmaster’s own Drunken Haze ability
- Giving the Fire Warrior Brewmaster’s own Drunken Brawler passive
Each of the above skills is also given its own independent cooldown (meaning you can Blink > Thunder Clap > Primal Split > Thunder Clap straight away. It makes your basic initiation combo a lot of stronger and gives your Warriors extra skills which gives you more options in teamfights. A great Brew player will, for example, be able to Drunken Haze two heroes at once as soon as he’s split, as well as get of two Thunder Claps on multiple heroes, followed by a stun from Earth and potentially a Cyclone from Storm if required.
Drums of Endurance – I'm a big fan of Drums of Endurance on almost any hero, and they synergise with Brew well too. They're cost efficient, easy to build into, and provide utility for your entire team with the move speed and attack speed auras.
If you bought an early Bracer then the Drums upgrade is a no-brainer. If someone else on your team already has them then they’re not as cost-effective though.
Vladmir’s Offering – Another aura item. Brew is one of the most popular heroes to go aura build on; you not only make yourself tankier you also provide your team with highly beneficial auras even when using Primal Split. During your ultimate – which will take up a lot of your teamfighting time – you will not be able to make use of active items anyway, so aura ones make a great alternative.
Vlad's is especially good if one of the other cores on your team is a melee hero, as they will benefit from all four auras.
Assault Cuirass – AC is the ultimate utility item. +35 attack speed, +10 armor for Brew, and +20 attack speed and +5 armor for allies, and -5 armor on enemies in a 900 unit AoE around Brew.
Don't go for an AC though if someone else on your team already has one or is working towards one. The auras won't stack and so the item becomes really cost inefficient at that point - you're better off using the gold on one of these other luxury items.
Shiva’s Guard – Shiva’s Guard is fantastic, granting you a significant armour bonus as well as increasing the effectiveness of your initiation (Blink into Arctic Blast & Thunder Clap, followed by Primal Split and a second Thunder Clap is a lot of burst damage). It also gives you further utility for the team, thanks to slow aura (-40% attack speed slow in a 900 unit AoE). Heaven’s Halberd – Halberd will make you deceptively tanky. 20 strength is a nice boost to your health pool whilst 25% evasion means you'll mitigate a lot of damage. And yes, it does stack with the dodge chance from Drunken Brawler.
It also has utility for your team, thanks to the ability to Disarm an enemy physical DPS'er for 3.0-4.5 seconds.
Refresher Orb – Refresher Orb can be a good pick-up on Brew. If Primal Split is making the crucial difference in teamfights that allows your team to stay ahead, then consider a Refresher for the double Primal Split capability.
Boots of Travel – Boots of Travel are great for the late game, when you need to free up a slot which would otherwise be taken up by a TP Scroll. With this, you combine your Boots and TP Scroll slot into one, allowing you to put a slot to better use. Will only become an issue in the extreme late game though.
Skill Build
Thunder Clap is an AoE nuke and slow. It is usually skilled and maxed first. It deals 100/175/250/300 magic damage in a 400 unit AoE around Brew and also slows both the attack and move speed of any enemy units affected by 25/35/45/55% for 4 seconds.
Thunder Clap is your only direct damage ability outside of Primal Split and the skillset your warriors have, which is why it is prioritised early on. The 300 magic damage in a 400 unit AoE actually makes it a very strong nuke, especially when combined with the slow effects which allow you to follow-up with right clicks.
Drunken Haze is a slow ability which also causes the enemy units in a small 200 unit AoE it affects to have a substantial chance to miss with their attacks. It is usually skilled and maxed last. Haze slows enemy movement by 14/18/22/26% and, more notably, gives them a chance to miss with their attacks of 45/55/65/75%.
Drunken Brawler is a passive ability which gives Brew’s attacks a chance to critical strike, and which also gives Brew a chance to dodge attacks. It is skilled and maxed second. Drunken Brawler gives Brew a 10/15/20/25% chance to miss an attack, and a 10/15/20/25% chance to deal a 2x critical strike with his attack.
Also, if Drunken Brawler has not been triggered within the last 16/14/12/10 seconds, then Drunken Brawler will always activate on the next attack.
Primal Split is Brew’s ultimate and it is always skilled (levels 6, 11 and 16). This causes Brew to split into three units for a short duration, each of which has its own individual skillset (for more detail on these abilities check out Brewmaster’s Skills section, and the gameplay tips below).
Primal Split has a brief cast delay, but after he has split it will last for 15/17/19 seconds and it has a very lengthy 140/120/100 second cooldown, so is not to be wasted. Each elemental warrior actually fulfils a specific gameplay role, which will be detailed in the section below.
Gameplay Tips
Thunder Clap is great for securing last hits, dealing good harassment damage, slowing enemy heroes, and for starting off your team’s initiation into a teamfight using a Blink Dagger. One of the reasons Bottle (and Arcane Boots) is such a popular item pick-up on Brew is that it allows him to use Thunder Clap for these various different roles.
Always target the enemy physical DPS’er(s) with Drunken Haze. A 45/55/65/75% chance to miss will massively hamper their ability to dish out damage in teamfights unless they have a Black King Bar. It is a very strong anti-carry ability and you should not forget to use it.
| Note: Drunken Haze affects units in a small 200 unit AoE of the targeted unit. |
Drunken Brawler is a passive, so there’s little you need to pay attention to. There are a couple of interesting unique aspects though:
- The evasion from Drunken Brawler DOES stack with other sources of Evasion (most notably Heaven’s Halberd)
- Drunken Brawler will always activate if you have not attacked, or have been attacked, in the last 10.0 seconds (the two are on separate timers)
| Note: If he is guaranteed to perform a critical strike on his next attack, a red streak will appear on the icon, and he will gain a red shimmering affect around his shoulders and weapon. |
There is a slight cast delay for Primal Split, during which time Brew is vulnerable to stuns and silences. Be aware of this and take note of the abilities the enemy team has access to at the start of the game (and how likely they are to interrupt you in a clutch situation).
Remember: When Primal Split ends, Brewmaster takes Earth's place. If Earth is dead he takes Storm's place, and if Storm is dead he takes Fire's place. If they all die, Brew dies.
Also remember that Brewmaster will return with the health he had before Primal Split was activated – if you activated it because you were about to die make sure the Earth one is well clear of enemy heroes when the ability is about to end!
| Note: Every aura Brewmaster has will still be active when he uses Primal Split. The auras are assigned to the Earth warrior (and if he’s dead, the Storm warrior, and if he’s dead the Fire one). |
The Earth warrior is used primarily for his low cooldown stun – Hurl Boulder - which allows you and your teammates to catch up with an enemy and surround them/deal damage with your other warriors. He is also notable for being the only spell immune warrior and for being the slowest of the three (325 move speed).
The Storm warrior primarily provides utility. He has access to a Cyclone which removes an enemy hero (or unit) from the field of play for a very lengthy 6 seconds – great if you want to take an enemy carry out of the teamfight. He also has a purge ability, and an invisibility skill, which grants the warrior 50% bonus move speed and 100 bonus damage when attacking from invisibility.
The Fire warrior is the primary source of DPS from Brew’s ultimate. It has access to a 220 unit AoE burn passive that deals 15/30/45 magic damage per second to nearby units. He also has by far the largest damage base of all the warriors, at 72-82/115-130/144-164, and the highest move speed, at 522. However he is also the squishiest, with 0 armor and only 1200 health.
If you aren’t confident in your micro abilities you can get by in lower skill levels of matchmaking with only using the Earth warrior’s stun active – as opposed to the Storm warrior’s actives - and grouping and attacking with the individual warriors collectively.
| Tip: You can actually prematurely end the Cyclone if you want to bring an enemy back into the teamfight by using the Storm warrior’s Dispel Magic ability. |
As your micro improves, use the Storm warrior’s Cyclone to remove a particularly annoying enemy that your team does not want to focus on initially from the battle. Stun the target you intend to focus with the Earth warrior, then attack him with all 3, ideally using Storm warrior’s Wind Walk ability to increase your DPS.
Last Updated - Patch 6.83.
