Introduction
“Show me where I can do the most good.”
Huskar is a ranged strength carry and ganker who is known for abilities which both cost his own health and which make him stronger as he loses health. This makes him a very high risk, high reward hero, that can all-too often survive fierce engagements with just a slither of health remain, but on flip side can quickly be brought down and become food for the enemy team.
Huskar is almost never picked competitively and is considered unviable, but he is something of a pub stomp hero who can snowball out of control if fed a few early kills.
You can find our complete character profile for Huskar here.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Strong ganker
- Good snowball hero
- Very strong early laning presence
- Gets stronger the closer to death he gets
- Incredibly high magic damage resistance
- Potentially insane attack speed
- Only one ability which costs mana
Cons
- Abilities can be something of a double-edged sword as they eat into Huskar’s health
- Not viable in high levels of matchmaking or in competitive games
- Highly vulnerable to physical damage dealers
Item Build
Huskar is usually laned mid when he is picked (which is rarely, and usually only in all pick public matchmaking), although sometimes he will be forced to dual lane one of the side lanes. Regardless, a 1v1 match-up is best for Huskar, as he can dominate most 1v1 match-ups early on, and that makes him a good candidate to counter a lot of currently popular mid picks.
Starting Items
A good set of starting items for Huskar balances his need for a decent amount of consumables for health regeneration and some good cost effective early stat gain. I would recommend:
- A set of Tangos, a Healing Salve, 2x Gauntlets of Strength, 1x Iron Branch.
The health regen is especially important, as in order to be competitive in the lane you’ll need to use Burning Spears to harass your lane opponent(s). This costs health, but it is well worth it.
By manually casting Burning Spears you do not take creep aggro, which means you can force almost all lane opponents away from the lane, denying them last hits and making it easier to secure your own farm.
Early Game
Early on you want to grab some Boots of Speed and then upgrade them into either Power Treads or Phase Boots – those being the only viable early and mid game options for Huskar. I prefer Power Treads for the stats on Huskar, but either is fine.
Finally, upgrade your starting items: turn any Iron Branches you purchased into a Magic Wand, and upgrade the Gauntlets of Strength into an Urn of Shadows. As a fairly early and frequent ganker you’ll be able to build up charges quite easily.
Core
Armlet or Mordiggian is always a solid core item on Huskar. Despite the recent nerf, which made Armlet toggling slightly less effective, it’s still very much possible to toggle. Armlet also gives Huskar a nice damage boost, additional armour and health, and health regeneration on top of the active toggle ability.
| Tip: ‘Toggling your Armlet’ is the process by which you turn off and on Armlet’s active ability in order to quickly regenerate your health when you’re low, and effectively save your life when you would otherwise die. The key is to turn Armlet off when you’re at very low health and expect a killing blow, but to do so before such a blow hits. Then straight away turn it back on, so that your health pool regenerates. If timed correctly - between instances of damage - you will regain enough health to survive most auto-attacks/abilities. |
As a hero that is not only low on life a lot of the time but whose abilities intentionally diminish his own life pool, Armlet is even better suited to Huskar than most strength heroes.
A good alternative to Armlet, for those who aren't confident in their ability to make the most out of its active and toggling capability, is Helm of the Dominator. Burning Spears is no longer classed as a unique attack modifier and so you can use them whilst getting the lifesteal from Helm of the Dominator at the same time. The other advantage of it is that you can ugprade it into a Satanic later on, which is a fantastic item on Huskar.
Luxury Items
Satanic – Satanic is a great item on Huskar as of patch 6.81, which means you can use Burning Spears and an item with an attack modifier at the same time.
Lifesteal is fantastic on Huskar because it allows him to maintain a low health pool without quite dying, and Satanic’s active, Unholy Rage, will return an incredible amount of health providing you’re not stun-locked for its duration. On top of that it gives you a large amount of health and damage, as well as a small chunk of armour.
Assault Cuirass – A nice attack speed boost, good auras for your entire team, and a minus armour aura that affects enemy heroes, creeps and buildings makes this a great pick up; Huskar becomes tankier and much more deadly at the same time as providing utility for his team.
Black King Bar – On top of the added survivability +10 strength gives you, and a small damage boost, you gain Spell Immunity, which is crucial for surviving teamfights and not being stun locked; a clutch BKB usage can often mean the difference between a teamfight won or lost decisively, especially for Huskar because he often flirts with low life.
Daedalus – Damage, damage, damage. An excellent carry damage item if you feel lacking in punching power.
Heart of Tarrasque – Will make you a full on tank. Your health pool will be enormous and you’ll also hit a lot harder. A good luxury item if you feel you’re falling in teamfights too quickly, but I prefer…
Heaven’s Halberd – If you do feel you die too quickly in teamfights consider Heaven’s Halberd instead of Heart of Tarrasque. You get a nice chunk of health, damage, and bonus effective health (through evasion), but you also become an anti-carry thanks to the Disarm active.
Aghanim’s Scepter – Most carries or semi-carries never even consider purchasing Aghanims; it’s stat boost although decent is mediocre compared to more cost-effective alternatives, and it does little to boost your damage. However, it is definitely a viable luxury item on Huskar because of how it buffs his ultimate. The cooldown is reduced from 45/30/15 seconds to a mere 4 seconds, making it highly spammable. Not only that but it also deals 65% of the enemy’s current HP as damage, rather than the normal 50%; a potent damage buff that should not be ignored.
Situational Items
Drums of Endurance – If you are struggling early on consider going for a cost-efficient set of Drums of Endurance; good stats, team-wide utility, and easy to build into.
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 as well as allowing you to teleport to the front lines if you die or if you’re off split-pushing.
Skill Build
Inner Vitality is skilled and maxed last in most situations. This is a healing ability – and the only ability which costs Huskar mana to use – which heals over 16 seconds based on the target’s primary attribute. The healing rate is further increased if the target has less than 40% of their health remaining.
Largely regarded as Huskar’s least important ability, it is nonetheless useful to get a value point in it in the early laning stage simply so that you can providing healing for yourself and your teammates – what else, afterall, will you be using your mana pool on?
Burning Spear is skilled and maxed first. This adds flames that deal damage over time to enemies hit by Huskar’s right-clicks but at the cost of Huskar’s own health. Multiple attacks result in additional damage.
Now, when you’re relatively new to the game you might find the cost to your own health off-putting, and will be reluctant to even skill Burning Spear. Resist this urge. Burning Spear is an amazing early game ability which allows Huskar to force his opponents out of the lane.
Don’t set it to auto-cast; instead, manually use it to attack lane opponents and try to build up as many stacks as possible. Manually casting it means you won’t attract creep aggro, thus resulting in free right-click harassment. You will always deal considerably more damage than it costs to use so long as you use it exclusively on enemy heroes early on.
Beserker’s Blood is skilled and maxed second. This is a passive ability which increases Huskar’s attack speed and magic damage resistance as he loses health, up to a maximum of 14 stacks (up to 280 attack speed and 98% magic resistance).
This makes Huskar both an incredibly dangerous right clicker, because his attack speed goes through the roof, and also effectively spell immune when his health is really low.
Life Break is always skilled (levels 6, 11 and 16). A great ganking tool, Life Break launches Huskar at an enemy, slowing them by 40/50/60% for 4/5/6 seconds and dealing damage to the target in proportion to their current health. It also deals damage to Huskar, albeit a lower percentage than that inflicted on the enemy target.
Life Break allows you to close the gap on an enemy incredibly quickly, deal huge amounts of damage (35% of their current health!), and slow them long enough for you to get off plenty of right click damage. When you hit level 6 either try to set up a kill on your lane opponent with this or gank on of the other lanes.
Gameplay Tips
As Inner Vitality lasts 16 seconds and becomes more effective as Huskar’s health pool is reduced, it’s a good idea to cast it just before you gank someone with Life Break, this way you will get incredible passive health regeneration without having to cast it in the middle of an engagement, costing you precious attack time.
| Note: Remember you can cast Inner Vitality on allied heroes! Huskar isn’t a support hero, but that doesn’t mean you should help out healing allies when they’re low on health and you’re not in need of it. |
Burning Spear is a unique attack modifier. This means it will not stack with items that produce attack modifiers, such as Desolator or Satanic. If you want to benefit from those attack modifiers you will need to either turn Burning Spears off auto-cast or manually alternate it in order to get both effects.
Burning Spear is an amazing ability in the early game; use it to its full potential and manually cast it on your lane opponent to dominate the early laning phase. This way you can bully your opponent back away from the creep wave with right clicks without actually attracting creep aggro (make sure you manually cast the Burning Spears, not auto-cast, otherwise you will attract creep aggro). Not many heroes can trade blows with Huskar, and since he can do so in the midst of a creep wave this makes it supremely difficult solo laning against Huskar.
| Note: Burning Spears is no longer classed as a unique attack modifier. This used to prevent Huskar from using them as well as opting for early attack modifier items like Helm of the Dominator, but now you can. |
Beserker’s Blood makes you incredibly dangerous when low on health. Not only will your attack speed go through the roof, you’ll gain incredible magic damage resistance which makes magic damage nukes completely ineffective against Huskar.
Life Break is an amazing ganking tool. As soon as you hit level 6, look for a kill. A Life Break followed up with a few Burning Spear auto-attacks will kill off most enemy heroes with ease.
| Tip: When very low on health Life Break will have hardly any negative affect on Huskar’s health, as its self-inflicted damage is reduced by magic damage resistance (and blocked entirely by Spell Immunity). Since Huskar has incredibly high magic damage resistance from his passive Berserker’s Blood, you can use Life Break to potentially grab a kill before you die or deal a large amount of damage in the process. |
Life Break is especially effective against tanky heroes with large health pools, as the damage it deals is based on a percentage of their current health (35% normally, or 65% with Aghanims).
| Note: Spell Immunity blocks all damage from Life Break, so not use it in someone who has Black King Bar activated; you will take damage and they will not! The reverse is also true – if you have Black King Bar activated you will not take any damage from Life Break. |
Last Updated - Patch 6.83.
