[Centaur Warchief] I'll STOMP You.

[Miklotov]

Bradwarden the Centaur Warchief
Forum Version | Guide Version (Best View)

by Miklotov

English is not my native language so any grammar correction will be appreciated.
I write this guide with the assumption that you already know the basic things of DotA (Last-Hit,Deny,etc).

Detailed Stats and Skills Mechanics

Table of Contents
Click to jump to section. Use the "back" function on your browser to return here to the Table of Contents.

• The Alt Tab Mini Guide
• Skills and Strategies
• Skill Build
• Item Build
• General Outline
• Roaming Centaur
• Jungletaur
• Replays
• Credits

The Alt Tab Mini Guide

Core Items



Extension Items

In a pushing game or If you have an advantage over enemy -
Versus an AoE team -
If you want to be a Pusher or are against fragile teams -
Physical heroes can be countered with -

Brief Gameplay

• Be aggressive in the lane
• Always search for a ganking opportunity after you got Dagger.
• Initiate every team-fight
• Absorb damage and never back off if your team is nearby

Skills and Strategies

Hoof Stomp
Slams the ground, stunning and damaging nearby enemy land units.

Notes
• Damage type: magic

• Hoof Stomp is your initiating skill.
• Has a relatively small AoE, so unless you have blink dagger, try to cut off all routes of escape for the opponent.
• It's a stun, so don't forget to stop enemy's channeling spells whenever possible.
• Don't spam it or use it as harassment since you have a small mana pool and low mana regeneration, not to mention the mediocre cooldown. Only use it if you are attempting to go for a kill.
• If you want to get back for healing, don't forget to stomp nearby neutrals/creeps so your mana doesn't go wasted.

Double Edge
The Centaur summons a tremendous amount of inner strength and releases a very powerful attack. It can only be done at melee range, and it damages both the Warchief and the enemy unit.

Notes
• Damage type: magic (both on the target and the Warchief).
• It has 150 range.
• Centaur Warchief cannot kill himself with this skill.
• Double Edge interrupts channeling spells and items.

• The skill that makes Centaur Warchief a force to be reckoning with. Max it ASAP because 300 damage cannot be taken lightly early game.
• When engaging, use DE early. This skill has a short cooldown and by using it early, you have the chance to use this skill twice.
• Don't forget DE also has mini-stun which comes in handy to interrupt teleporting or other channeling spells
• When you have enough HP Regeneration, you can spam this skill to instantly kill neutrals or ranged creeps.
• Double edge can no longer be used to deny yourself. If you use it below 300hp (or less with HoD) then you will be left with 1hp.

Return
The Centaur Warchief immediately counters every attack against him with a swift strike.

Notes
• Damage type: physical
• Return causes damage when the enemy begins an attack, not when their attack hits.
• This ability damages anything that attacks the Warchief, including towers.

• Great skill for pushing and farming. With return maxed, you can draw creep aggro and simply wait for the wave to die.
• This skill deals negligible damage to heroes during the lane phase, so unless you are solo or leveling ridiculously fast, I would not recommend taking it over stomp or double edge.

Great Fortitude
The Centaur Warchief's mammoth body is capable of absorbing great amounts of punishment.

Notes
• N/A

• The STR it gives is equal to +228/+456/+684 HP, +12/+24/+36 Damage, and +0,36/+0,72/+1,08 HP Regeneration.
• One of the most boring and simple skill in DotA, but is simply Bradwarden’s bread and butter.

Skill Build

1. Hoof Stomp
2. Double Edge
3. Double Edge
4. Hoof Stomp
5. Double Edge
6. Great Fortitude
7. Double Edge
8. Hoof Stomp
9. Hoof Stomp
10. Return
11. Great Fortitude
12. Return
13. Return
14. Return
15. Stats
16. Great Fortitude

Why Hoof Stomp first?
At the start of the game, stun duration is more useful than a nuke that will hurt you. It will save your ass, and net you an early kill on the odd occasion.

Why Double Edge over Hoof Stomp?
Double Edge doesn't cost any mana while stomp's mana scales based on the level. The 0,5 second extra stun isn’t worth the extra 20 mana and loss of 25 damage, unless you can hit two opponents. The difference here is minor, and often comes down to personal preference. You may consider of maxing Stomp first if the enemy got super burst damage skill (Frost Nova/Carrion Swarm,etc).

The rest of the skill build are self explanatory and do not skip his skills for stats since all of his skills are important.


Item Build
for more detailed information about item, click here.

Starting Items



Buy Magic Stick as first item if you are in a game full of spammer.
Tango and Salve to deal with harassment and Double Edge.
Quelling Blade if you need to rush Blink Dagger and against easy lane so you don’t need early stats to survive.
Spend the rest of your item to GG Branch since you doesn't need any mana (Mantle or Clarity) as well as the needs to build a Bracer (Gauntlet or Circlet) and they are so ridiculously cost effective

Core Items



Using Double Edge often leave you with red HP that can be lethal if you engaging two enemies. Magic Wand will fix that with its imbalance burst heal.
Double Edge deals magical damage to the enemy and yourself so Hood of Defiance is a logical reason to reduce DE impact on us. And since you are an initiator, you will often be focused in team battles, so magic resistance will save your ass a lot.
Boots of Speed is self-explanatory
Stomp has a very small radius. That's what Blink Dagger for, as well as chasing, escaping, everything.
After reading some forum member's comment and then testing it myself, I change my mind about Blademail. Blademail cooldown is really imba. 5 seconds of invulnerable that also a super counter for AoE skills is just plain gay. Combined with your high HP, this item allow you to survive longer to spam your Stomp and Double Edge over and over again making you a threat so the opposite team can't ignore your presence in the teamfight and thus, you complete your job as a tanker. Don't forget it also give you armor and mana which both important to Brad.

Item order depends on the game line-up.

• If you are in a hard lane, Buy Hoods first will be better since the regen it gives will help you survive.
• If you are against a defensive lane, saving up and rushing Blink Dagger is the best choice.
• If you died and return to the fountain, Boots of Speed or Magic Stick or Both is your best choice.
• Blademail can be gotten after all of your core item has been bought.

Extension Items

If you manage to get three of them in less than 50 minutes, its means you farm too much.



Choose Travel if your/opposite team builds around pushing. The Teleportation really help you to attack or defend. Buy this item too if your team has the upper hand and play aggressive.
Pipe is the only upgrade to Hoods of Defiance. You also a very good pipe carrier since you tends to be in the middle of the fight.
Since you are always in the middle of the fight, Radiance is a good choice for you. Your monstrous HP also synergies very well with this item.
Assault Cuirass for more tankish power and helping your team with its aura. It also increase your DPS output and thus, makes sure that the enemy can't ignore you.

Item you buy depends on the game line-up.

• In an aggressive pushing game, buy Travel.
• Versus an AoE team its better to buy Pipe first.
• Against fragile teams, Radiance will sap their life away fast.
• Psychical hero can be countered with Assault Cuirass

IF YOU MANAGED TO BUY OTHER ITEMS THAN THE CORE + LUXURY, IT MEANS YOU FARMED TOO MUCH.

Questionable Items



If you have a hard game and struggle, Choose Phase for it's easy build and cheap price. Buy this item too if you seems to ganks a lot. It gives us a good mobility to roam around the map.
About Vanguard, It has decent regeneration which needed and also damage block which synergies well with Return. The thing is, in early game you don't want to take damage from the enemy and you don't learn return yet. In Mid-Game to Late Game where realistically the time you buy this item, the damage block part become weaker and weaker.
Shiva Guard is a nice item overall but has some weakness. First of all, the amount of EHP it gives kill your role as a tank. Nobody wants to attack a STR hero with monstrous HP and huge armor. This item also has an expensive buildup named Mystic Staff. The price of Mystic Staff is expensive and doesn't help you much when you got it. And Cuirass simply superior because Cuirass give you attack speed and thus, increase your DPS and make you a threat while the aura helps your team.
Heart of Tarrasque will make you ignored more unless you already got decent DPS. And to get the acquired DPS, you need to buy another expensive item and force you to farm like chinese farmer.
Manta Style is another great item on him. Brad's Illusions are very strong tanks since they got the magical resistance from Hood and give you pushing power as well as attract people to attack you. If you have Radiance, you can farm woods with you illusions. If you have BoT also, you are a decent pusher. The downside of this item is yasha doesn't give you much benefit for 2050 Gold.

General Outline

Role

• An AoE Stun and Monster Nuke screams Ganker. Always search for a ganking opportunity after you got Dagger.
• In teamfight, initiate ganks/team-fight is what you do.
• You also have bunch of HP allowing you to take a lot of damage and that part, allows you to be a tank.

What is a Tanker?

Basically a tanker is someone who absorbs the damage dealt by opposite team so our team can wipe them out without much trouble. To be a tanker, you have to be able absorb a lot of damage. You also have to posses something that can force the enemy's team to attack you.

When to Pick

• In pub play, you can pick him everytime you want. Best time to pick him if the enemies consist of fragile heroes.
• In cm/draft/competitive play, choose him if you lack of an initiator or your teams are fragile and need someone to tank the damage. He also a good choice if you need a strong and aggressive lane.

Lane
for more detailed information about Lane Control click here

• Do not fucking Jungle. To jungle you need return and in order to leveling it up, you must sacrifice either Stomp or Edge, which both important early.
• A dangerous short lane with range disabler (lion, cm etc) is preferred.
• Centaur will work very very well in a Tri-Lane.

Example of Good Lane Partner

What to do in Lane

• Play aggressive and scare enemy off the experience range by moving close and pretending you want to stomp them.
• You need to get your Blink Dagger/Hood fast and to do that you need to last hit a lot. Get your ally to harass for you.

Animation Cancel
for more detailed information about Animation click here

• Centaur does his damage when his axe is midway in the air. To reduce the damage you take from harassment when you go to last-hit, as well as to keep up with fleeing enemy, click away just after you deal the damage.
  
  
  
  
  
• Stomp has a long animation. If you press s in the 0.5 seconds after hoof stomp is pressed (when Brad pulls his leg up), the animation will start but the spell will not go off.
  
  
  
  
  
  This can be abused to fake-stomp and wasting enemy's mana, for example against blinkers.
  
  
  
  

When is the right time to gank?

• First of all, make sure you got Dagger for a sure-kill ganks.
• Secondly, if you want to gank you must make sure that your lane partner can survive the lane alone. It's not a good idea to leave a CM in Lina-SK lane.
• Thirdly, Check his HP, Skills and check if your teammate in the lane you gank got a disable/nuke or not to make sure nothing can go wrong
• And last, the best time to gank in my opinion is when you just spawn/return to the fountain. The enemy will think you in your way to your lane or healing so they will not be very cautious when you are missing on the map.

Ganking

• Initiate with Blink + Stomp when possible.
• Otherwise try to walk in enemy's escape route so you can pull off your stomp.
• Don't hesitate to use Double Edge early unless the other team has a channeling spell and your allies don't have disables.

Team Battle

• Initiate with Blink + Stomp if you can. Stay back behind your team and stay in the fog to avoid enemy damaging you and thus, disabling your dagger.
  
  
  
  
  
• If you don't have Dagger, just walking to the enemy can also be good since you will be absorb disables and nukes for your teammates to initiate.
• If possible, blink to a squishy caster and kill him before the stun duration wears off.
• Never back off in the middle of the fight. You are a tank so you have to absorb damage as much as you can.

Late Game

• Brad still shines in the late game thanks to his Return. Return can be used to wipe-out the entire enemy's creep wave in a few seconds.
• Your job in late game team fights is; initiate, deal as much damage as possible, then die.

Roaming Centaur
for more detailed information about Roaming click here

IGNORE THIS SECTION IF YOU ARE IN A PUB FULL OF STRANGER

A Roamer is hero who ganking non-stop 24/7. To play as a Roamer, you must have patience because you mostly play with no-item and low level.

Yes, Centaur can be used for Roaming because he fit the criteria for a roamer.

• Has a disable skill (CHECK)
• Not too item dependant (CHECK)
• Does okay even at low-level (CHECK)
• Can spam his skills from level 1 (CHECK)

If you want to play him as a Roamer, make sure your team drafts a lot of disablers.

For the item build, buy Bottle as your first item. Yes, FIRST ITEM. It will works wonder especially if you manage to get the first rune.


Jungletaur
for more detailed information about Jungling click here

Personally I am against jungling with Centaur but since I want to make this as comprehensive as possible, I add this section to satisfy your curious on Jungletaur.

Basically, Jungling is a term for heroes that get their gold and experience from the jungle instead of lane.

When Jungling is an enabled option?

• Your team needs two competent soloers.
• You can gank (and kill) the lane which the soloer stays in.

Pull creep at 1:45 and kill the higher level creep at 5 or 3 if you have Quelling Blade.

For the Skill Build, change Double Edge to Return.
For the Item Build, buy Stout Shield as your first item.


Replays

Centaur by DarkMedina

Item Build:

Traditional Brad the Man build.

Compettive Replay, Mcity Vs Aeon

Item Build:

In this replay Brad played as a Pusher and later as a Carry because the team lacks one.


Credits

You for reading this and give this guide feedback
m1Lkman for his picture in his Centaur Guide at DA as well as fixing the grammar in my guide.
Dark Medina for his replay.
stealthfire for second game replay.

[Wendek]

Why delaying Double Edge? I mean, the reason you get it at 3 also applies to levels 5 and 7, doesn't it? 400 damage nuke at level 7 is almost Lina's ult, + the stun isn't that bad even with lvl 2 stomp iirc.

Rest seems good.

[Burninglegion]

Fail guide, Vanguard is not mentioned.

[Darentei]

Nicely compact, not exactly my choice of items, and as for grammar corrections, there comes a space after a comma (error located at the start of your guide).
I like the mini guide.

[Zephirdd]

why not metion BoT as a luxury? :P

nice btw.

[Asian]

always get double edge before hoof stomp unless youre level 1

stomp de de stomp de ult de

[3955elits]

max Double edge first then stomp.
why skip it for useless stun that cost mana?

[Clear]

Originally Posted by Burninglegion

Fail guide, Vanguard is not mentioned.

oh my!!! that f***ing vanguard again? Why do you love it? It's just good for early game. When mid game starts its use is not that good anymore. I think I'll better have BM if I want anti-DPS but if as a tanker I prefer HoIW to be AoM or RoH to be perse which can later be BF.

[gwho]

under hoof stomp description, you have that you shouldcome from the back b/c of small radius. when u get blink it's not an issue of course. just blink exactly where you want. this part should be mentioned in that paragraph.

does he realy stick with regular boots till the end? power treads gives him more str for cheap.

is return is negligible to heroes, then can't vangaurd be worth it? i'd like more justification to why one couldn't take it as the first item in place of hood.

animaction cancel section:
has been "dealt" not deal. just a quick fix there.

minor point, but i dont think many peopl recognize him as bradwarden. eveyrone calls him centaur. maybe he can be referred to as centaur throughotu the guide. but it's your choice and it's not a big deal.

i can't disagree on the skill build. item build seems fine eapart from the vanguard justification.

oh yeah, address boots more. power tread could be fine boost if ur just gonna use TP scrolls. imo travels is just too expensive.he may be better off using 2200 gold to work up to radiance or get more tank items like vanguard or other boots. phase is questionable but i suppose it can work. it's mainly for running away. your role is initiation, and the damge you deal isn't gonna be that significant. i would go for treads instead for the cheap extra HP/emergency mana.

[DarkMedina]

A very good mini guide. Imo no need to change much except from grammar really. I think that BoT is much more useful than PT or Phase and Radiance can be good even if you get it later on. Good item build, skill build and reasoning.

[Lycan]

The Alt Tab miniguide

Don't show skillicon's names are easier to remember people remeber by names not by pictures.
And organise it vertical instead of horizontal Easier on the Eyes

Order of items is kinda weird

magic stick after a dagger >.<" ?

Stick BoS Dagger Khadgar seems more fitting no bottle ? Cent is a natural ganker and bottle + gankers = make babies

correct the orders to the order of buying the stuff Both in Alt tab and Normal item build part

add to notes Double edge:
Double edge no longer can be used to deny yourself !!!

Well Radiance is quite useless imho but well if you're gonna play a carry cent sure do as you like i personally hate it.

No mention of Queling Blade Cent has quite the base damage so a QB is neat for the little pony


When to pick, if you need a tank that can jungle and axe is banned ?


Do not fucking jungle with cent ? Are you fucking retarded it's an option yea a stout shield helps out for this mention that you can disagree on it but if they choose to do so give them hints on how to do so. If cent is fucked in the lane you MUST jungle or i'll flame the shit out of you cent needs that dagger asap if the jungle allows the fastest way to get it GO FUCKING JUNGLE.

Blink + Stomp if you already have it

Save Double edge up for a bit since it's ministun can be used to cancel a channeling spell Add this

well that's it for now

[The Other Guy]

Originally Posted by Burninglegion

Fail guide, Vanguard is not mentioned.

As if your guides are actualy good...

On Topic: Well writen, consice guide. I like it.

[Miklotov]

Thanks all for the feedback.

For the Alt-Tab Mini Guide, If people prefer Text over Image and Vertical over Horizontal, I will change it.

[AduhAwas]

Decent item/skill build. Perhaps you could mention a bit more about initiating/laning, etc. Just flesh the guide out a bit.

[DemonicTrashcan]

Good guide, not too in-depth, but then again, Centaur isn't an overly complicated hero.

Disregard what pubs tell you, your item build is spot on.

[Miklotov]

No more comment so I assume this guide is perfect enough?

[DerMIMS]

Lol, no jungle?
Your item build is not bad, but the guide would be better if you did not shun jungling and placed it as viable option for early game.

[thoby123]

Good guide, like others stated short and sweet
One thing though, CW badly needs Heart come lategame. The massive health boost is essential to keep up Double Edge spammage in team battles, and it helps him heal up very quickly after fights.
As for boots, BoT is my choice. Phase's damage is wasted and you're already going for Blink, plus you're a scary pusher with Return and gay-high HP; noone will want to try and stop you alone
Good work so far!

[Miklotov]

No. Jungling Centa is so yesterday. With the recent buff to Double Edge, He is a monster in lane. I will added Heart to Luxury Item List.

[Miklotov]

wHAT HAPPEN TO MY GUIDE???