Introduction
“These proving grounds shall be littered with the dead.”
Centaur Warrunner is a tanky melee strength hero who is most often played as either a support hero or an offlane initiator.
He deals tremendous short range AoE magic damage, at the cost of his own health, but his own innate tankiness ensures this deals far more damage to his opponents than himself. His AoE stun and global team-based ultimate also give him good team-based utility.
You can find Centaur Warrunner's complete character profile here.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Naturally tanky
- Has a good AoE stun
- Global, team-based ultimate
- High burst magic damage
- Good initiator
- Great creep clearance
- High strength gain
- Beginner friendly hero
Cons
- Cast delay on his stun often makes it avoidable
- Tanky but not a semi-carry – trails off in usefulness late game
- Melee range
Item Build
Starting Items
Centaur is commonly played as a solo offlaner, although he is occasionally ran in tri-lanes as a secondary support. Either is viable and doesn’t really alter his item build. To start with you want the usual combination of stat items and early regeneration to see you through the initial laning phase. I like to start with:
- A set of Tangos, Healing Salve, Ring of Protection, 3x Iron Branches.
Early Game
Grab some basic Boots of Speed as quickly as possible. Upgraded boots of choice are typically Tranquil Boots on Centaur – good move speed, some armour, and health regeneration. They synergise well with his eventual role in teamfights as an initiator and tank, and allow him to maintain good laning presence early on, with the health regen doing wonders for his ability to use Double Edge early on.
Finally, upgrade any Iron Branches you have into a Magic Wand and then save up for your core.
Core Items
Blink Dagger is the go-to core item on Centaur. It gives you superior positioning capability, which will allow you to initiate ganks and teamfights with Hoof Stomp (which is otherwise going to be hard to land, and virtually impossible to use as an initiation tool), followed by the huge burst damage from Double Edge on the target (hopefully more than one in an ideal initiation).
Next on the list is Hood of Defiance. Even more health regeneration, which allows you to use Double Edge liberally and ignore harassment, and high magic damage resistance. Double Edge deals self-damage to Centaur upon use, but this damage is magic based and can therefore be reduced by magic damage resistance, which is why Hood of Defiance is such a high priority item on him.
Luxury Items
Pipe of Insight – A natural extension to your Hood of Defiance pick-up. For an extra 1,500 gold you gain some extra health regeneration and, crucially, a 400 spell damage block active called Barrier. Barrier gives Centaur and any allied units within 900 units of him 400 magic damage block – this is simply an amazing teamfight ability, as well as a good way to ensure your team can break the enemy base safely.
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.
Blade Mail – A bit more of a defensive/passive option. Blade Mail is a good item to consider on Centaur because, being a strength hero you have a fairly large health pool, and being an initiator you will often take the brunt of any initial damage dealt in a teamfight. With Blade Mail you can use this to your advantage to take damage whilst returning it to anyone foolish enough to hit you without a BKB.
Blade Mail activation in low matchmaking will be ignored (meaning they die), and in mid-high tier matchmaking will often cause a knee jerk avoidance of attacking you unless you’re really low on health, allowing you to get off your initiation with relative impunity.
Heart of Tarrasque – Will make you a full on tank. Your health pool will be enormous, you’ll hit a bit harder, and the return damage from Return will increase a touch. A good luxury item if you feel you’re falling in teamfights too quickly after your initiation.
Drums of Endurance – I'm a big fan of Drums of Endurance on almost any hero. 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 Centaur - whose item progression revolves largely around becoming tankier - makes it a great choice.
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. It also has utility for your team, thanks to the ability to Disarm an enemy physical DPS'er for 3.0-4.5 seconds.
Shiva’s Guard – Shiva’s is fantastic, granting you a significant armour bonus as well as increasing the effectiveness of your initiation (Blink into Hoof Stomp, Double Edge, and Arctic Blast is a potent initiation combo). It also gives you further utility for the team, thanks to slow aura.
Situational Items
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 is worth considering on Centaur early on if you feel the need for an interim health increase but won’t be able to afford Heart anytime soon. If you do go Vanguard then Crimson Guard opens up as a great luxury item.
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.
Necronomicon – Great if you’re part of a pushing line-up or your team is struggling to break the base. Also a great item for teamfights and for countering any invis enemy heroes. Gives you some solid stat gain too.
Vladmir’s Offering – If you're providing a utility role for your team Vlad's can be a good pick up. 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 - The plus amour and attack speed auras for allies and minus armour for enemies makes it the ultimate late-game utility item. It will also make it easier to break the enemy base, as the minus armour applies to enemy buildings as well as units. Why is it listed as situational then? Two key reasons: 1) it’s very expensive and a Centaur is unlikely to be able to afford it in most games. 2) They will usually be more viable AC carriers on your team. Centaur’s item progression makes Assault Cuirass a pretty late game pick up and so he’ll probably not be an ideal candidate for it. That said, if no one else on the team intends to build one then you should definitely consider it a high priority luxury item, assuming you can afford it.
Skill Build
Hoof Stomp, as of patch 6.77, is Centaur’s only stun. As such it is almost always skilled first and maxed second. Hoof Stomp stuns for 2/2.25/2.5/2.75 seconds and deals 100/150/200/250 damage to any units within a 315 unit radius of Centaur.
Because both the damage and stun duration scales decently with levels, it is recommended that you max this ability second.
Double Edge is Centaur’s primary damage ability and so it is always maxed first. A 190 AoE magic damage nuke, Double Edge deals a huge 150/250/325/400 to the targeted enemy unit and any other enemies who happen to be within a 190 unit radius.
There are two downsides to Double Edge. One is the short range on the ability – 150 units – which means you will need to be essentially in melee range of your target in order to cast it. The second is that the damage dealt also applies to Centaur (so yes, that 400 magic damage applies to both your enemy and Centaur). As with Pudge, another character with an ability which harms himself as well as his enemies, it’s not as big a drawback is it may first seem. Centaur is both naturally tanky and his itemisation leans towards tanky items or items with high magic damage resistance, so any damage dealt to Centaur is likely to be much less impactful than that dealt to your chosen enemy.
Return is Centaur’s only passive ability. It is always maxed last and is usually skilled last unless you're offlaning. Return, as the name implies, deals damage to any units that attack Centaur. The damage dealt is a flat 16/18/20/22 physical damage, and a percentage of Centaur’s strength (26/34/42/50%).
Although Return is always maxed last you may want to get an early value point if you’re in a tough lane and subject to a lot of right-click harassment, because this ability will almost always put supports off harassing you. A common tactic for an offlane Centaur is to skill Hoof Stomp and Return at levels 1 and 2 (or vice versa), to ensure maximum safety in the lane.
Stampede is a global ultimate which is always skilled (levels 6, 11 and 16). This grants Centaur and allied heroes maximum movement speed for 3.75 seconds. Any enemy units passed through during this time are slowed by 100% and dealt damage based on your strength.
Gameplay Tips
Hoof Stomp has a slight cast delay which makes it possible to avoid the stun if the enemy moves outside of the small radius the ability covers before it takes effect. For this reason you typically want to use it only after you’ve completely closed the gap with the enemy or enemies in question, otherwise you risk missing the stun completely. If you are stood right next to them when you cast it then your chances of them avoiding the stun are significantly reduced.
Precisely because Hoof Stomp can be hard to land, Blink Dagger is a recommended item on Centaur. Blink into Hoof Stomp followed by Double Edge will kill most heroes in the early and mid game.
Double Edge deals magic damage, which means that you can reduce the damage you yourself take by stacking magic resistance – this is one of the main reasons Pipe of Insight is so heavily recommended on Centaur.
Remember that Double Edge has a small 190 unit AoE. If possible, try to target enemy heroes who are stood close together, that way you will deal considerably more damage.
Double Edge is great for quickly clearing creep waves and jungle camps. Once Centaur is decently levelled and farmed he can do so without incurring much damage to himself, making him a good pusher.
Be flexible with your skill build; sometimes a value point in Return is well worth it just to dissuade enemy supports from harassing you in the laning stage.
| Note: Return actually works on towers, further enhancing Centaur’s surprising pushing potential. If you’re able to tank tower shots without incurring much damage you can do so while also dealing additional damage to it. |
Stampede has two main uses. Firstly it is a good initiation ability; prior to a Blink Dagger this will often be the best way to initiate a teamfight. Secondly it’s a good escape mechanism, both for Centaur and allies; if an ally is in trouble don’t hesitate to use Stampede if the max movespeed will potentially save them.
Last Updated - Patch 6.82.
