DOTA 2 - Bristleback

Introduction

"Time to mash some faces, I'd say."

Bristleback is one of the few carries in the game that excels at being targeted in fights. Like Axe, his damage output significantly increases as he takes more damage.

With abilities that all synergise around his ability to dish out physical damage that increases over time, he's an excellent candidate for purchasing 'tank' items on. If farmed up he can be very difficult to bring down, and all the while will be dealing tremendous physical damage.

Bristleback's complete character profile can be found here.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Very tanky
• Easy to play
• Great damage dealt over time
• Can zone out supports during teamfights
• Good chaser
• Good offlaner

Cons

• Mana intensive early-on
• Quills are countered by Magic Stick/Magic Wand in laning phase
• Needs items to tank up
• Poor strength gain
• Not ideal in a traditional 1 position carry role

Item Build

Bristleback's optimal item choices are those built around making him tankier at all stages of the game, so he is able to stay in the offlane in the early game and enter the fray of teamfights in the mid-late game, casting Quill Spray and Nasal Goo, without being burst down.

This forces squishy heroes out of position, and the constant harassment of Quill Spray forces the enemy team to either focus you (and thus trigger more Quells) or ignore you/kite you (in which case you have free reign to do your thing). If he gets to this point then he becomes very tricky to deal with.

Starting Items

For starting items you'll typically want to go with the following: a Healing Salve, a set of Tangos, a Stout Shield, and 2x Branches.

Between the regen and Stout Shield you should be able to stay in lane. It's difficult for support heroes to harass you out of the lane between these items and the in-built damage reduction of your passive ability. You're only really susceptible to being forced out if the enemy team commit to a three man gank or you over-extend, which is what makes Bristleback a great offlaner.

Early Game

In the early game you want to pick up Boots of Speed, and then work on building them into Power Treads. Also upgrade any Iron Branches you have into a Magic Wand.

If you want to get some extra armour and mana regen at this early stage of the game before/whilst working towards your first big-ticket core item, then a Ring of Basilius or a Medallion are both great pick-ups on Bristle. They're both optional but do synergise well with your hero.

Since your Quill damage is physical and you tend to be a bit mana hungry a Medallion is often recommended (cast it on the enemy you're focussing with Goo and Quells).

A Ring of Basilius, meanwhile, is especially recommended if the other cores on your team are melee (so that they benefit from the lifesteal aura), or if you want to provide some utility for your team during teamfights (armour, damage, and mana regen auras).

Core Item Options

Now you need to decide which core tank item you're going to go for.

Vanguard - Vanguard has a degree of stigma attached to it because of its cost inefficiency and will often be criticised as an item pick up. It's actually good on Bristleback though, and he's one of the very few heroes I would still consider the item a core option on.

Go for Vanguard if: the enemy team has a lot of physical damage early and late game, there's not a huge amount of magic damage to worry about, or you want to grab a Ring of Health during the laning stage in order to stay in the lane (in which case building into Vanguard is naturally good).

Hood of Defiance - The other option is Hood of Defiance. It makes you tankier against magic damage, but your health pool will still be quite low and Hood will do nothing to increase it. Go for a Hood over a Vanguard if the enemy line-up is very magic-damage reliant. Eventually build it into a Pipe of Insight so that your entire team can benefit from the magic damage mitigation.

Often line-ups will be fairly balanced between magic and physical damage. In such situations it's common for Bristleback to pick up a Vanguard or Hood as a first core item and then build the other straight afterwards.

Drums of Endurance - I'm a big fan of Drums of Endurance on almost any hero, and they synergise with Bristleback 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.

As one of the most cost-effective stat items in the game, the stat gain it provides a hero like Bristle - whose item progression revolves entirely around becoming tankier - makes it a great choice.

Luxury Item Options

Pipe of Insight - If you bought a Hood of Defiance earlier, a Pipe of Insight is a no-brainer. For an extra ~1,500 gold you get 400 magic damage block for your entire team during teamfights.

Crimson Guard – A good defensive/utility item. If you decide to opt for an early-ish Vanguard then later upgrading it into a Crimson Guard is a good way of buffing your inventory in the late game when Vanguard’s usefulness tapers off and inventory slots are at a premium.

So you get a nice chunk of flat health (250), +2 all stats, +5 armor and 6 health regeneration. On top of that you gain a passive Damage Block ability, which gives an 80% chance to block 20-40 damage, and an active Guard ability, which allows you to create a shield which applies to yourself and allies in a 750 unit radius that grants everyone affected by it +2 armor and a 100% chance to block 50 damage.

Crimson Guard is somewhat comparable to Mekanism, but more suited to heroes with low mana pools (following Patch 6.82’s hefty increase in Mekanism’s mana cost). It performs a similar protective and + armor role (albeit granting damage block rather than direct health). If you fear being unable to sustain a mana pool for Mekanism but want to add utility/tankiness to your teamfight then a Crimson Guard is a great option.

Heart of Tarrasque - It goes without saying that Heart is a good item on Bristle, making him even tankier and hard to kill in teamfights. If you get a Heart up and running you usually won't die in teamfights and the enemy team will instead take out your allies before focussing on you.

Assault Cuirass - Generally I would recommend AC over Heart. AC makes you tankier as well (though not as much so as Heart), but it also helps you team, rather than just yourself. The plus amour and attack speed auras for allies and minus armour for enemies makes it the ultimate luxury pick up for Bristle in my opinion. It will also make it easier to break the enemy base, as the minus armour applies to enemy buildings as well as units.

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 a great option if you're not building the team's AC. It gives you utility for the team, thanks to the AoE Arctic Blast and slow aura, gives you a nice chunk of armour to increase your tankiness, and will completely put an end to any mana problems you may still have.

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. As with the last two items I described it also has utility for your team, thanks to the ability to Disarm an enemy physical DPS'er for 3.0-4.5 seconds.

Black King Bar - BKB is a good luxury pick up on almost every hero in the game. If you find you get stun-locked or Hexed and brought down too quickly as a result, then go for a BKB. Those 10-4 seconds of Spell Immunity will prevent the enemy locking you down in teamfights.

Rod of Atos - Huge chunks of health and mana, and an active that slows an enemy by 60% for 4 seconds. I'm actually a fan of Atos, but most people are not. If you like it, you can get it on Bristle as a luxury pick-up.

Situational

Vladmir's Offering - If you're providing a utility role for your team Vlad's can be a good pick up, doubly so if you opted for a Ring of Basilius in the early game. 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.

Mekanism - You're not an ideal Mekanism carrier because of your low mana pool (which you'll be dipping into a lot in order to build up Quill stacks on enemies), but if more ideal carriers on your team are too poor to buy one within a decent time frame, or refuse to get one, then it's a must-have tea item and you should bite the bullet and get it yourself.

Everything it provides you benefit greatly from, so it's a great pick up anyway, but that mana cost really will hurt.

Blade Mail - Blade Mail is also situational. If you have a poor game it can sometimes be the most cost-effective item to get which helps prevent you feeding.

It's also a great pick up if the enemy team consists of fairly squishy heroes with high damage output (such as Phantom Assassin, or Skywrath Mage).

Armlet of Mordiggian - If you're the team's primary carry then you'll be needing some DPS. Armlet will give you that much-needed DPS whilst at the same time making you all-round much tankier. A good item to get if you're put into a less than ideal role, to be honest.

Skill Build

You want to max Quill Spray first. Although it's your only damage spell, and on the surface can sound quite low damage dealing, all of your skills are built around it and the damage becomes deceptively potent as Quill Spray stacks build up on enemies. Once you have the mana to support it, you want to be spamming Quill Spray whenever you're around enemy heroes.

If you're playing defensively grab Bristleback at level 2. If you're in a dual or tri-lane situation where you have the potential to go aggressive at level 2 then skilling Nasal Goo at level 2 is advisable. Whichever you didn't get at level 2, skill it at level 4.

Max Bristleback second of all, to increase your tankiness and synergy with Quilly Spray. Max Nasal Goo last - one point in it is sufficient in the early game.

Always get your ultimate, Warpath, whenever you can (levels 6, 11 and 16). It synergises superbly with Quill Spray and acts as a steroid to increase your own presence in teamfights.

Gameplay Tips

Your passive, Bristleback, makes you very tanky, but only when taking damage from the sides or from behind. Use this to your advantage and turn your back on opponents when expecting high damage attacks.

Warpath is a steroid that increases your move speed and damage as you cast your abilities. Since you'll be spamming them during teamfights it becomes a potent steroid, but you can also use it to increase your move speed outside of teamfights when you have enough mana to sustain spamming Quills constantly.

Keep casting Nasal Goo on enemies when pursuing/ganking them. It stacks up to 4 times, thus reducing enemy armour and move speed by 4/4/8/8 and 32/44/56/68% respecitvely when maxed out.

Last Updated - Patch 6.83.