Howdy all,
I know its long but if your planning on using this guide please dont just skip to the item builds, the rest of it is important! And I appologise for the wall of text, I will work on making it pretty in the future.

WARNING: This guide assumes you have a basic knowledge of DotA and Spiritbreakers abilities. It skips over some very basic information and number crunching. If you are new to DotA or you're a mathamatician look else where for a guide to suit you. AND MAKE SURE YOU KNOW HOW THE NEW CHARGE OF DARKNESS WORKS AS OF 6.72! Familiarise yourself with this hero here.

Introduction:

(No i didnt make this picture, google did)

SPIRIT BREAKER IS PRIMARILY A GANKER!

Thanks to his 2 passives he is easy to learn, but like all heroes, he takes a while to master.

My preferred tactic is perma-bash the enemy to death. Annoying, but effective. I play an extremely agressive spiritbreaker (some say suicidal) and care little for the score board. IMO the life of an enemy carry is more important than yours. Stopping them from farming/surviving should be your top priority.

Bara was the first hero I learnt and I've gone through many different stages of builds with him. Remember this is a GUIDE, there should be natural variations in YOUR SB build and MY build. As monty python would say, "You are all individuals!" I will also try to keep this guide fairly simple, yet in-depth and will continue to develop this guide as new information comes to light. Enjoy!

To pick, or not to pick?
There is almost always a role for a good Spiritbreaker, his stuns and ability to become a semi-tank or deal decent dps make him a good all rounder. I often look at what my team picks, rather than what the enemy picks.
If we have a team full of stuns and tanks, perhaps you are better off chosing a carry or nuker or pusher or other such hero. But if the enemy team has a banish ability (e.g shadow demon) they can counter you quite easily.

Skills:
Charge of Darkness:


-If target becomes invis, blinks, activates Manta Style, etc he will not be able to avoid charge.

-Target will become aware of the charge (a buff is visible in the status bar) when Barathrum is within 2500 distance.

-Activating an item while charging will cancel the charge. E.g leveling an ability, healing salve, etc.

-It grants site of the unit you are charging and those around him. If there is a crafty hero trying to get away from a team fight by juking in the jungle, cast the ability to give site and your ranged allies/stuns should get the kill.

-This is your boots of travel. If you are needed for a gank you normally charge in from any positon on the map. Just make sure no-one sees you!

-With new charged you CAN get stunned while you are charging. And because the cast is instant its very useful at short distances.

-You will bash all enemies in your path, so if there is a group of heros best to chage the one at the back.


Empowering haste:

-Pretty simple, the higher your movement speed, the greater your damage.


Greater Bash:

-Arguable spirit breakers most important ability for getting kills. That is all.

Nether Strike:

-You channel it for a second or two, then become magically immune for a tiny period before you move to the other side of the target seen from the point you cast it. So if are are chasing them down you will stun them back towards your team.

-A recent map reduced the mana cost, which means you wont have to return to base to regenerate mana as often.

-If you are stunned while channeling it, it will fail. If target gets banished thanks to Shadow Demon, Obsidian destroyer, etc, it will fail. If target has Linkens Sphere (assuming it's not on cooldown), it will fail. So think before you use.


Gameplay:
Using Barathrum is pretty simple.
1) Select a target
Early game kills will probably require another hero in lane with a stun or slow ability. Wait until they are a good distance away from their tower. In early game its a good idea to eat a tango before you charge in so you regenerate health, while taking damage. It makes a big difference early on.

2) Charge in
When you have site of the target and the timing is ideal, charge them. If there are 2 heroes in the lane try to charge the hero who will be the furthest back. That way you will hopefully walk through the other hero and stun him with greater bash as well as hitting the target.


3) Activate items
Once you hit the target you should use all your active items. Throw everything you've got at them. You should use all the skills available to you to make sure you get the kill, and then get out of there.


4) Bash/Ultimate
With the stun from Charge of Darkness your primary target should be unable to move. Now you should think about using your ultimate. If I'm attacking a hero with a blink ability I will usually use my ultimate nearly as soon as I land the Charge. That way when I'm channelling Nether Strike they come out of stun, blink away, Nether Strike finishes channelling and I blink with them and get the kill. But Ulti can also be very helpful for fleeing heros as it will bash them back towards where you came from.



4) Run Away
After a successful kill all your moves should be on cooldown. And you will be on pretty low health, especially if you tanked a tower. Fall back, use a healing salve or tp back to base if you are very low or need mana. Generally recover for your next gank attempt.


5) Rinse and Repeat
Once you are back at base you can buy items and heal. Try and line up your next target as well. If its mid-game and no-one is visible I normally head to neutral creeps and farm for a little bit until someone appears on the map. While in neutrals you should always have 1 eye on the map, ready to charge a target asap.



Skill Build:
Keep in mind you can change this to caiter for your personal preference and situation

1. Empowering Haste
2. Greater Bash
3. Empowering Haste
4. Charge of Darkness
5. Empowering Haste/Charge of Darkness
6. Nether Strike
7-10. Charge of Darkness/Empowering Haste
11. Nether Strike
12-14. Greater Bash
15. Stats
16. Nether Strike
17+. Stats

Justification:
Empowering Haste boosts damage more reliably than bash, allowing easier last hits. Also increases movements speed which makes chasing heroes down for those early kills a lot easier.

Greater bash makes it a lot more difficult for enemy heroes to fight or get away and increases your damage when it procs. Things needed if you are the only stunner in your lane and you're going for a kill early game.

Charge of Darkness I get at level 4 because thats normally the earliest I kill. With the new charge SB's skill builds are now a fine balancing act between damage and stun.
Just think "Am I missing ganks because this charge is too slow? Or do I need more movement speed and damage?" Your skill build lies in the answers to those questions.

Level ulti when you can.

Item Build (Here's where things get interesting):
The Boots Countdown (worst to best):
4. Arcane boots

Not needed, assuming you dont go for some off the wall aghanim, refresher orb, ulti spamming build.

3. Boots of Travel

Very expensive and not needed. Did I mention they're expensive?

2. Phase Boots

Movement speed over kill. You're fast enough as it is. One note though, if activating phase boots then Mom with level 4 empowering haste will get you close to movement speed cap, good fun!

1. Power Treads

Power treads. Bonus attack speed therefore the best.

But keep in mind at ALL times, powertreads have an active ability to switch from str to agi to int. Agility for attack speed in ganks. Intellegence for mana. Strength for health and damage.



Start/Early Game (Level 1-7):


Gauntlet and Circuit, the early stats boost always helps. I normally only get 1 of each to build into a bracer, thats normally all I need for early game stats. This also uses less space and less gold, allowing you to start working towards your other items faster.


Along-side that you can grab a magic stick, salve, or tangos, whatever you prefer. Personally I go for a salve and a set of tangos. I eat some tangos while I'm getting harassed or just before I attempt a kill, even if I'm on full health. That way as you take damage as you attempt to kill an enemy hero you are also regaining health from the tango you ate. It makes an unreal difference early game. Then after that first kill attempt I normally need to heal, so I use the salve so I'm at full health for the next kill.


Always a good idea to carry one of these. After a kill if you need health/items simply tp back to base and then charge your way out towards another kill.

To solo, or not to solo?
I have solo'd quite effectively at times. Farm to level 7 asap and run around ganking while someone else farms in your lane.Mind you I would only ever solo mid if I had a courier. Being in a side lane with another hero is more ideal for an inexperienced player. It allows a carry hero to farm, and most the items you need are readily available at the side shop and if you have another stun/slow in lane that would make the kills that much easier.

Up until level 4 I usually just try and last hit and deny, then once you have charge I usually try for a kill in lane. If you wait till the right time you should be able to get it, esspecially if your lane partner has a stun or slow and you have farmed some boots of speed by this point.

After this I use one of my salves to heal and stay in lane until I hit at least level 7.



Early/Mid Game (Level 7-11ish):



Optional:




With part or all of your power treads, your ultimate and a little help you should be able to get another kill at about level 7. I often look to gank a carry or a solo at this point. Anyone who really needs to be put in their place, no matter which lane they are in.

After this second kill you will probably need to heal so go back to base, complete your bracer and power treads and grab anothing healing salve, it allows you to move from one gank to the next without returning to base.

Orb of Venom is a new addition to my build. That 12% slow (more if the slow is stacking with a team mates) makes escape near impossible for enemy heroes. And after getting even cheaper in 6.72 its a bargain! Although it delays damage increasing items the slow from Orb of Venom allows you to land more hits, increasing the likelihood of a bash. Also, it allows you to slow enemy heroes that are chasing an ally hero who is on low health. Be a team player!

Magic Wand is a great item when used effectively. If you can use it well; great, buy it. And although a lot of SB players say its core, I've never really been that good at it using it and now I feel like I dont need it for my barathrum game. For that reason I'm sticking it in the optional catagory.

After a lot of experimentation I've decided Quelling Blade is a good item on Barathrum. It allows you to get last hits a lot easier and get through a lot more creep camps while in the jungle.

You can also turn the Bracer into a Jango of Endurance during mid game, which is a good item but also quite expesive.



Mid Game (Level 11-16):
Midgame is where you will start committing to a build. Once you have farmed enough and gotten enough kills to have a mask of death and powertreads you can start killing neutral creeps.

The reason why I neutral is because once you have a couple of kills you will be feared. And if you are in lane the moment you go missing everyone on the opposing team will tower hug, making it difficult for you to kill. If you're in the neutral creeps you can farm some items while waiting for an opportunity to gank.

Neutral Creeps are also situated near the centre of the map, so it wont take long to get anywhere and you wont get spotted as easily as say, charging from bot lane to top lane.

With good map awareness you wont even have to watch your hero. Simply start him farming a camp and scout the map. As soon as it is ideal, charge the enemy hero you need to kill. Because you wont go missing from lane the enemy wont be able to see you coming and the neutral creeps are fairly central making it easy to get to ganks quickly.

If you're at base and a gank is needed don't bother heading to neutral, charge the target from base, even if only for site of the target for your allies.

And the most important piece of advice, be a team player. Stealing kills away from carry heroes isnt good, but letting the enemy get away is even worse. Wasting a charge is bad, an enemy escaping on 10 hp because you didnt is worse.



Late game:
You can become fairly useless here. Either buy items to tank up, deal more damage or just permastun enemy heroes without bkb while allies deal the damage. But most of the time the game will be decided by this point. If there is one or 2 carries on the other team giving you trouble, obviously target them.



MoM Item Builds:
Personally I believe MoM is the be-all and end-all when it comes to orb effects on SB. It gives the lifesteal you need, increased attack speed for bashing and increased movement speed for escaping. In other words MoM+SB=Win. Here's a couple of my favorite builds using it.


The tankish build:
Core:
/

Optional:

DPS or Tanking Items

Since S&Y lost its title as an orb effect its become an amesome item for SB, and since then has become part of my most reliable build.

With increases to attack speed, damage, tankiness, movement speed AND the chance to slow, its killer when your team doesnt require too much damage. And it comes in pretty small pieces when compared to other items.

If you do grab Orb of Venom then enemies will have no chance of escaping. Ive only used this a couple of times so far, but it is gnarly. I dont know if the slows stack, or if S&Y is still a buff placer when Greater Maim procs. Does anyone know? Eaither way teh orb of venom garuntees a slow, so even if they dont stack, it is still useful.


Return of the Perma-bash (Ganker):
Core:
/

Optional:


This is the build I used for the longest. Everything you need; attack speed for bash, damage for killing and health and lifesteal for tanking. And the great thing about these core items is each item helps all these things, so you dont find yourself becoming a glass cannon OR a tank with no dps. Another helpful thing in this build is that no base item costs more than 1000 gold, so you dont need to be too worried about risking a sacred relic worth of gold when you attempt a gank.


The Risk-taker (Ganker with carry potential):
Core:
/

Optional:


I feel I must mention this build is risky and I cannot recommend this to anyone. The only reason I mention it is when there is no agi carries on my team.

To consider it you have to have a killer early game to farm this. Then, even if you farm the Buriza in a reasonable time, it relies a lot on luck. You will be crossing your fingers for crit and bash, so orb of venom is a must. And make sure treads are set to agi to maximize attack speed.

If you manage to farm a heart you will return to a more traditional semi-tank-stunner role for late game, and if you head down the MKB path you will rely so much on lifesteal that any stun could lead to your demise. The only circumstance I would get MKB instead of heart is when you lack a carry, are insanely fed, and are playing with friends who have AOE stuns or disables to back you up. So please, if you go down this path resist the temptation of having Bash, slow, mini-stun and critical hit, no matter how tempting.



Helm of the Dominator:

I occassionally get this for a short period of time when I'm using the permastun build. Dominate creep, scout enemy neutrals with creep, charge farming carry, kill, rejoice. But after a while I usually disassemble it and use the Mask of Death for MoM and the Helm of Iron will in Armlet. I wouldn't keep it long term unless you are planning to farm all game and eventually get a Satanic. And farming isnt really your role. Your a ganker, so gank. Leave farming to the carries.


Satanaic:

You would have to farm all game to get a satanic. Leave that to the carries. I'm sure people have managed to have epic games with this item on spirit breaker, but they would have been fed. And any fed hero is going to dominate, regardless of items.



Vlads:

Vlads is another build path all together. It makes you far more useful in team fights and frees up an orb effect. I wouldnt get it in conjunction with MoM, 2 lifesteals are unnecessary on SB. The money can be spent elsewhere.

Without MoM you are going to be lacking attack speed so I would build Armlet. But I know people who make up for the lack of attack speed by building 2 or 3 Wraith Bands early game. I've tried it a couple of times with mixed success.

The lifesteal Vlads gives you allows you to grab an orb effect other than MoM. The standard orb replacement used to be S&Y. But now S&Y isnt an orb, so Vlads is only really viable if you're using unusual orb effects with SB. We shall explore these options now.


Maelstrom/Mjollnir:

Interesting item on Bara. The attack speed synergizes nicely with bash, but it is very difficult to farm quick enough.



Eye of Skadi:

This item costs, A LOT! And for how much you pay it isnt really that amazing on SB. You already get a slow if you buy Orb of Venom or S&Y so that isnt that advantageous. Sure it gives you damage, health, attack speed and mana, but at what price? at what price? 5850, thats what price. WAY TOO EXPENSIVE! Maybe if Skadi got a buff for melee heros on the next map *cough* IceFrog *cough*.



Desolator:

I can honestly say I have not tried this. But when the opportunity arises I shall.



Diffusal Blade:

I can honestly say I have not tried this. But when the opportunity arises I wont. Just doesnt seem like a very good item when compared to other options.



Situational Items:
Dust:

You are an ideal dust holder, an early game must when playing against invis heroes.

Urn of Shadows

Another great item, if you know how to use it. The strength is also nice, but the mana regen isnt that helpful. A good item to think about none-the-less.

Smoke of Deceit

Great item for ganking against skilled opponents, but in pubs it isnt necessary.

Assault Cuirass:

If your build lacks attack speed maybe, but you get enough attack speed from all your other items like MoM, Treads and other situational items such as S&Y, Jango and Armlet. AC is just overkill.

Vanguards:

Not necessary. Queue Dramatic music. " Your goal is not to survive. Your goal is to kill!"

Hood:

Acceptable, but I've never really found myself needing it.

BKB:

You should know when to get this.

Blade Mail:

Finding you're being targetted in team fights? Get your revenge! The extra bit of damage and armour are also good for SB.



Personal Dislikes:
Nothing specifically wrong with these items, per say, but I personally dont like them and will explain why.

Butterfly:

The attack speed increase is good, but you should be trying to be at your ideal attack speed by mid game. By the time you farm a butterfly your time to shine will have passed. The only thing that has me mentioning this item is the evasion.

Battlefury:

Money can be better spent on other items.

Aghanim's Scepter:

Recently buffed, now with decreased cooldown AND small AOE stun, but I wouldnt use it unless you were in an epic 80 minute game and was finding that you were tank enough and dealing plenty of damage but your team needed an AOE stun.


Terrible Items On Spirit Breaker:

I dont really have to list why do I? Its pretty much all the items I havent mentioned, arent worth mentioning.

And that all folks!
I will update it in the future! If there is any feedback, any items or builds I've missed out let me know. Thanks for reading!