Guide to Bristleback

Author's Note

The guide is almost done but i dont have the latest map replays and screenshots that i deem fit for this guide . One more reason is that i dont play DOTA much now except for a casual game now and then as i have migrated to WOW now. PM me if you have a decent BB game that i can take a few screenshots from or a good replay to post. Any comments or criticisms are welcome.


This is my first attempt at guide writing, so it may not be at a very high level. I intend to give you the important guidelines, dos and donts while playing with BB.

Just a little info to start off the guide. Below is a list of changes Rigwarl acquired through the maps. Taken from Anura's Summary of Changelogs. It was last updated for 6. 60 so the changes that came later were included by me.



Table of Contents:

1. Introduction

2. How is this pig different??

3. Pros and Cons

4. Hero Skills and Statistics

5. Skill Build

6. Items-The great debate

7. Gameplay

8. Mindgames - What is it??

9. Allies and Enemies

10. Replays

Introduction

Bristleback. The hero who redefines tanking. He is not a traditional tank who goes in and soaks up damage while whacking enemies. You need to know when to do what, have a good presence of mind and most important of all, you should know well to play mindgames. I have seen people going in stacking quills and goo and whacking up enemies and dieing in an instant and go "WTF??He is supposed to be a tank and he dies so easily!!!". I have seen people play BB(or the pig as i call him) the exact opposite way of playing him. So i decided to make a guide for this snorting monster and try to give people some hints and on the best way he is to be played.

How is this pig different

This pig is not a traditional tank. Playing this guy as a tank is a different story altogether. He can be thought of as a distant cousin of axe in playing style. The aim is to soak up as much damage as possible while remaining alive and dealing shitloads of pain to them by stacking quills. He cannot be ignored in battle unlike Centaur(after Stomp+Double Edge his damage is mediocre)due to his Warpath damage and Goo armor reduction while he cannot be focus fired and taken down that easily due to his Atlas back. The whole guide revolves around this point.

Pros and Cons

Pros
1. One of the best tanks in the game.

2. Very good stats gain.

3. Good intelligence gain for a strength hero.

4. Spammable spells that are great for harrasment and farming.

5. Unignorable presence in team battles.

6. Good base damage

7. Excellent chaser.

8. Deadly in correct hands.

9. Ability to mind fuck opponents to a large extent.

Cons:
1. Average strength gain for a strength hero.

2. No stuns.

3. Casting animation is poor.

4. Requires a fair bit of presence of mind to play.

5. Will feed a lot if not played properly.

6. Requires some skill level to play properly as his main strength is his ability to
play mindgames with opponent to an extreme level.

As you can see his pros outweigh his cons heavily if played correctly. But he is not the type who just rushes in and gets all the damage. You have to position him, move in and out of battle and choose your targets well, play mindgames to be more effective.


Hero Skills and statistics



As you can see he has a pretty high base damage for excellent lasthitting and a decent base armor. There is a backswing aninmation at the end of the attack that can be avioded by animation cancelling. Onto his skills.

Vicious Nasal Goo

Covers a target in snot, causing it to have reduced armor and movement speed. Has a cooldown of 1. 5seconds, 30 mana and lasts for 5 seconds at all levels. Slows target by 20%on initial cast and the successive casts slows depending on the level. Reduces armor by 1 for each cast. Stacks upto 4 times. Slows by 3/6/9/12% a cast for successive casts after the first at levels 1/2/3/4 respectively.


Skill Usage and Explanation

This is your main chasing tool. Since it slows by percentage it is useful even in late game. The armor reduction is very useful for chasing and damage dealingas your quills are also physical damage. It can also be used effectively to slow a chaser and flee from the hero if timed correctly though its a bit risky.

Lets consider you have level 3 goo. On initial cast it slows for 20%. On successive casts it adds 9% cumulatively leading to 29, 38 and 46 slowed for succesive casts. As it lasts for 5 seconds, casting anytime before 5 seconds will result in the timer being reset. As you can see, it is a very powerful slow that can make the target to become standstill nearly at level 4 if stacked properly. At level four with full stack it slows for 68% and gives -8 armor which is no joke.

Points to be noted:

1. The spell has a slight casting delay and can be cancelled.

2. It can help against invisible heroes as the goo chases them if u cast it.

3. It cancels Healing salve though it does no damage.

Quill Spray

Sprays enemy units with quills dealing damage in a 650 AoE. Deals 30 extra damage for every time the unit was struck by a quill in the last 10 seconds. Has cooldown of 3 seconds and 35 mana at all levels. Has a cap of 180 damage. Does 20/40/60/80 direct damage and 30 stacking damage at levels 1/2/3/4 respectively.

Skill Usage and Explanation

One of the most underrated spells in DOTA. The damage may seem puny individually but its strength lies in the physical damage and stacking part. This is your main source of damage and your farming skill. This skill does the damage in the area instantly. The fan of knives is just for the sake of animation. Though it has a damage cap of 180, since your bristleback triggers quill sprays in addition to your active spell every 3 seconds, you can achieve the 180 damage in no time. Since the spell does physical damage it loses its effect late game a bit. But with your armor reducing goo, the damage goes up very much.

Lets do some math here. Assume your back triggers one spray a second and every 3 seconds you trigger one of your own by the spell. If you have achieved the max 180 damage already, the damage you do along with your radiance(40 damage per second)is around 200 damage persecond in 650 aoe which is no joke. It can take down heroes pretty easily.

Points to be noted:

1. Rigwarl's previous order will not be interrupted if you press q. If he is walking, he will spray a quill and continue to walk though there will be a slight delay. So it is better to animation cancel once it is cast.

2. Quill spray deals damage INSTANTLY in the 650 area. The fan of knives is just for animation. So when a low hp hero is running away, quill spray him as it deals instant damage. U need not run towards thinking the spray must hit him. It can be the difference between a kill and death.

3. At level 4 it takes about three quills to kill the ranged creep and five to kill the melee creep. U can tank with ur back for additional quill sprays. You can also neutral stacked camps well with fourth level of Quill spray and Bristleback(the skill)just like axe. Stacked quills kills camps very easily.

4. Remember that your quills are physical damage. So it CAN damage that magic immune golems.

5. Since Quill spray is not targeted it WILL damage invisible units and units in fog.

Bristleback

Covers the back in spines and reduces incoming damage. Automatically releases a quill spray everytime his back receives 250 damage. It reduces damage by 10/20/30/40% from rear and 5/10/15/20% from sides at levels 1/2/3/4 respectively.

Skill Usage and Explanation

This is the skill that makes BB what he is(I will refer to the hero as pig or BB and the skill as bristleback from here on to avoid confusion). Tank, Mindgames mastery and your zero death game revolves around this skill. It is one of the most annoying passives in the DOTA and it makes your enemies tear out their hair and start smashing their keyboards in frustration. The usage of this skill is what seperates a good BB player from the ordinary. I will devote an entire section about the usage of this skill in the gameplay and Mindgames section. Below is a picture showing the angles of Bristleback passive.



Points to be noted:

1. Bristleback affects the incoming damage based on whether your back is turned to the damage or not. In case if spells that come from the hero directly, the damage reduction is based on whether your back is facing the hero or not. This might be a little confusing, so i will elaborate.

Consider spells like Starfall and Zeus's Lightning Bolt, that donot come from the hero but drops from the sky. In this case the damage reduction will be done based on whether you are facing the hero or not. If your back is facing the hero while he casts it, the damage reduction of Bristleback applies. Else it doesnt.

2. The working of Bristleback is that of pseudoheal. It first heals you for the incoming damage and then it applies damage. I will not go into it much here as it would just make this guide a lot more longer. The details can be found in this thread of Advanced Mechanics section - Bistleback - Mechanics.

3. Since it is a triggered heal/passive, Bristleback will reduce the damage from doom as long as your back is shown to Luci.

4. The 250 damage calculated for quill spray is AFTER the reduction applies and the counter is reset whenver quill spray is released. So even if u take 300 damage and quill is released, the extra 50 damage is discarded and not added to the next stack of damage. You have to take 250 damage again to release the quill. If u take 249 damage, the quill will not be released since it is not greater than or equal to 250.

5. Damage from towers is NOT reduced by Bristleback.

Warpath(Ultimate)

Whenever Rigwarl casts a spell, he works himself into a fury increasing MS and damage on repeated spell casts. Warpath adds 10/20/30 damage and 5/7/10 % base movement speed for first cast and 4/8/12 damage and 1/2/3% base movement speed for successive casts for levels 6/11/16 respectively.

Skill Usage and Explanation

At first sight it may seem like an useless passive and worthless for being an Ultimate. It is not as good as reincarnation or Multicast but hey, Rigwarl is not Leoric or Ogre Magi either. This is where the beauty of DOTA and the synergy of BB lies.

U tank, tank and tank stacking quills. The whole team gets low Hp and starts to run away. U can slow and chase them with your goo but what good are you if u are a pure tank like Centaur with medicre damage???It would take a much longer time to whack your enemies to death with your just above average damage. With all the tanking u would be low on Hp and to make things worse, YOU are chasing the hero which means your back is not shown to them. If they turn to attack you will die more easily as your Atlas spine is not protecting you. That is where the extra movespeed and damage comes in to make the job really easy.

With your goo and quill stacking, you would already be at the max damage and movespeed of warpath for chasing and it makes you the perfect chasing tool.

Points to be noted

1. Warpath stacks only FOUR times. So your damage increase at level 3 warpath is maximum of 30+48=78 damage which is pretty good considering your base damage.

2. Warpath increases your movespeed from your BASE movespeed. So irrespective of the boots you are wearing the bonus movespeed from Warpath remains the same.

3. Using items doesnot trigger Warpath but casting spells by your hero triggers warpath for illusions also.

Skill Build

1. Bristleback/Quill Spray/
2. Quill Spray/Vicious Nasal Goo/Bristleback
3. Quill Spray/Vicious Nasal Goo
4. Bristleback
5. Quill Spray
6. Warpath
7. Quill Spray
8. Bristleback
9. Bristleback
10. Vicious Nasal Goo
11. Warpath
12. Vicious Nasal Goo
13. Vicious Nasal Goo
14. Vicious Nasal Goo
15. Stats
16. Warpath
17. Stats
18. Stats
19. Stats
20. Stats
21. Stats
22. Stats
23. Stats
24. Stats
25. Stats

This the most widely followed and best skill build for BB. Quill Spray/Bristleback can be taken at level 1 according to need. If you are ganked by three heroes you can take Bristleback to try and make an escape but it would not be that much useful at level 1 with around 550 HP. Quill spray is maximized as it helps a lot in tough lanes especially by enabling you to farm and harass a lot simultaneously.

People tend to take goo instead of Bristleback at levels 2/4/8/9 which is not outrageous but bad enough to spoil your early game. Goo doesnot serve the purpose as a chasing tool effectively until mid game where team clashes and skirmishes are common. In early game, your aim is to survive ganks and farm up your core items. If you are caught in a gank, Bristleback will help you in getting your fragged ass out of there easily without which you are worse than a lategame Rylai(Not meant to offense to Rylai's Boyfriend). Your aim at early game should be to survive in lane and farm up your core rather than chasing around heroes. People may argue that taking goo at early levels may help you survive ganks by slowing the enemies while running away. But at early ganks, you will face 2 or 3 stunners depending on the lane and running away is near impossible and atmost you can turn your back to them. So, the damage reduction would go a long way in saving your ass. Sometimes a level of goo taken could have saved your ass, but from personal experience, such situations are rare. Tinker with the build as you like till you find out by yourself which one suits you better.



Warpath can be skipped at level 6 and taken at Level 9/10. But i suggest taking it at level 6 because due to your intelligence gain, you will be able to spam Quill near continuously now, thereby triggering Warpath. Its extra damage will help you to last hit more efficiently. If you want to skip Warpath to level 9, its fine with me as long as you dont get killed and can last hit really well.


Items - The Great Debate



Rigwarl is one of those heroes whose core and luxury items are nearly set in stone. Why??It is becasue these items are the BEST on him to do his job effectively. There are other item choices seen in pubs that work good on him but these are not obiviously the best. You can get a Lothars on ES to initiate but Dagger does the job much better. That is the reason why i say BB's items are set in stone nearly.

Now going to his item choices, it help him to do his role perfectly. His role is to tank as much damage as possible while dealing as much damage as he can by stacking quills. Most of the time in battle, you just run around and take damage with your back and thereby stacking more quills. You donot engage the hero face to face and whack then unlike ant traditional DPS or tanks like Centaur. The main source of your damage is by quill stacking and you can always finish off fleeing heroes by chasing them with your goo and whacking them. So the core items for BB can be split into two categories namely Survival and Damage items. Each category has a core and luxury item thereby making it four slots occupied without your Boots and TP scrolls/Aegis or anyother item you need. So we need one core and one luxury in both categories.

The Survival Items must do the following:

1. Make him survive the battle longer and take up nukes and spells thrown at him so that he does not die easily and lives longer to stack more quills.

2. It should give him good regen and beef up his hitpoints so that he can soak up large amounts of shit being thrown at him.

3. It should also give him some armor so that he can withstand physical attacks that are done to him by the caries.

So the possible items in survival category are:




Core Survival
The viable choices are Meknasm, Hood and Vanguard. Seeing these three choices we can see clearly that Hood beats the other two in satisfying our need anyday. See the spoiler for explanations.



Luxury Survival-HP
There are again choices for this too. The best items are Heart, Satanic and Bloodstone. Heart is the winner in this category



Luxury Survival-Armor
Now that the items for HP are out of the way, let us turn to his Physical damage tanking issue. He needs armor to tank up physical DPS. There are again many choices. Even a chainmail would give him 10 armor but what we are looking at is an item that you will get in late game. So an item than has an passive/ability that can help you in your job is better. The choices that suit our need are Blademail, Shivas Guard and Assault Cuirass.



Damage Items
Coming to the damage items, there are a few points to remember. The jobs of the damage items are:

1. It should enable Rigwarl to farm quickly and effectively thereby accelerating his farming speed to get more luxuries if needed.

2. It should also able Rigwarl to exert his presence his team battles by supplementing his Quill's AOE damage with an AOE damage of his own.

3. The item should able Rigwarl to damage opponents even when tanking with his back.

4. It should be able to help him in chasing either by having an additional slow/stun or damage.

So considering the items possible, the choices viable are



We already have three items for survival, one slot for boots, one for TP/Aegis. So we can choose only one or if your team decides aegis should be given to some uberfarmed other hero you can get one more damage item. But remember this item is got immediately after Wand, Boots and Hood. So it should be an item that enables you to deal damage while showing your back and letting you farm for other luxuries effectively.

If you see in the list of damage items there are some items that have some synergy with BB's job. We will now see the pros and cons of each item and decide upon which is the best for him.





Your ideal inventory should look something like this:







Gameplay
Now that the items are decided, we will move on to gameplay. He is a mid to late game hero who is a Tank/Semi DPS. Due to this, his gameplay style is unique in whole of DOTA as you will not stay in lane forever and keep ricing up items like PL. You are neither a good ganker like ES/Storm. The place where BB is most potent is team battles. A good BB can change the outcome of battle single handedly. He can push like mad and frustrate the enemy team so much that they get fed up and start doing things randomly thereby leading to their downfall. The best strength os BB lies in his ability to play Mindgames with opponents to such an extent that they get frustrated in their attempts to kill you thereby making them easy prey for your team.

I will now address to each stage of his game individually.

Early game - Level 1 - 8

Items

If you notice his core items, all except the Wand recipe can be got and finished from the side shop itself. Get the below as starting items:



Quelling balde for easy last hitting. Tango and Salve for surviving in ganks and harassment. The ironwood branch for the cheap stats and can later be converted into Magic Wand. BB really needs nothing for early stats like Wraiths or Bracers as he has good stats gain. You should start pushing and participating in team battles asap. So not wasting cash is one of the most important things to do.


Gameplay Walkthrough

In early game your main aim is to stay safe in lane and farm up your core asap. Go to Top for Sentinel and Bottom for Scourge preferably with a babysitter. I have even soloed BB mid, but it solely depends on the situation. He is a good soloer against passive solos but he is best in a dual lane. The long lanes are by far the best for him as he can be protected from ganks from the river by wards, have easy access to the side shop and leaving bottom lane for your carry.

The total gold you have to farm in your lane for your core will be

Hood - Helm + 2 ROR + Cloak = 2150 gold

Magic Wand - Stick+Recipe = 350 gold

Power Treads - Boots + Belt + Gloves = 1450 gold

It makes a grand total of 3950 gold. When you hit level 9, you could have easily farmed up around 3000 gold, if you have managed to do ok in the lane without dying. You should finish up Hood, Boots and Wand when you reach level 8/9. Pt can be delayed a bit but if you sense you need that stats and IAS, by all means finish it before Rad. I prefer to rush Rad once i get hood but it depends mostly on the game. If your team has managed to take down a tower well and good as it gives you extra gold.

After early game your inventory should look like this:



ALWAYS carry a TP scroll. It can be the difference between a death and escape or a tower loss and tower deny or a failed gank and a successful gank and I say this from personal experience.

Mid game - Level 10 - 15

Items

There is nothing much to say here since you will be trying to farm up Relic. Try to get the Rad asap as there is nothing more painful than a rushed Radiance with the damage capability of you now.

Gameplay Walkthrough

This is the part of the game where all hell breaks loose. Ganks start coming left, right and center and ganks in the middle of nowhere will turn out into full fledged team battles. The teams will be trying to push outer towers or second tier towers now. Farm up in the lane when your team mates are ganking in other lanes but if they are going to push towers or gank in your lane by all means you SHOULD help them. Since you have hood and around 1000 HP now, you will be a bit hard to take down and you will be able to spam quills continuously due to your intelligence gain. When your team is focussed on ganking other lanes, let them gank some heroes and use that opportunity to farm your relic. If things are going somewhat bad, try to force as much team battles as you can because it is where you really shine. A couple of team battles going wrong can destroy the enemy team's morale and force them on backfoot, giving you time to farm up Radiance. Dont gank with team too much or just keep farming in your lane when your team is getting owned. Strike a balance between the two!A good rule of thumb can be coming to lane, taking down about 25-30 creeps and then going for pushes again. By this way you will be able to keep constant pressure on the enemy team and giving your team the chance to get the items they need.

At Level 14-15, your inventory should be:



Late Game- Level 16 - 25

Items

In this part of the game try to get your luxuries. If you need more HP get Heart or if you are doing well without it get Assault instead so that it can help in much better damage dealing. Go Roshaning when your team has the advantage and take Aegis if no better choice is available.

Gameplay Walkthrough

This is the part where you push towers as a team and try to take the enemy Throne/Tree down. You are an unstoppable force in this part of the game due to your constant AOE damage and your ability to survive even the worst of shit storms. BB will be at his best in team battles, so try to force them as much as you can. Push with your team and take down towers. You are the tank, so you should go in. But just dont rush in blindly without the team following you. You can die in a matter of minutes if you charged in blindly without your team to back you up. This part of the game is all about Team Work and Team battles. Aim for Heart and get Aegis if your team is in the driving seat. Else try to get Heart by passive farming and stop the team from taking towers. You can stop pushes single handedly now due to your AOE damage dealing capability. If the enemy team tries to Roshan, confront them and forcr battle there as they would be a bit weak from roshaning. The rule is simple:PUSH, PUSH AND PUSH. It is the best and safest way to victory.

Mindgames - What is it??

If you have read through the guide, you would have read me mentioning Mindgames often. I have already said that BB is one of the best heroes of Mindgames and it is one of his greatest strengths. What is Mindgame??In its simple form it means that you trick your opponents into making a mistake there by earning you or your team a kill or free farm or even a tower.

I say BB is the Master of Mindgames because he REALLY is the master. BB's greatest skill that sets him apart from other heroes and makes him so much unique is his passive Bristleback. People think that you are easy prey and keep chasing you till they realise that the Hunter has become the Hunted. People check the HP bars or your HP and think that they can kill you easily forgetting the most important fact that you are Bristleback. I have seen Lion ulti me when i am at 500 Hp thinking that i am an easy kill only to make him realize that it would do only half damage to me. For playing mindgames, you need to predict your opponents, make them think that you are easy food and pull them from the protection into your trap. BB is master when it comes to survival and damage reduction. All this may sound too complicated but i will show you what i am trying to say by using screenshots to make it easier. The examples will be in spoilers so that the guide does not get too lengthy.

Allies and Enemies

Allies who you help



Any DPS carry while love you for your abilities.

You can lower enemy armor making their DPS increase, help them in chasing fleeing targets, tank all the damage from the enemy team so that they can do their job well.

Nevermore, Razor and Sven deserve a special mention here as they have very good synergy with all your abilities.

Allies who help you




These are the best allies you will get.

Harbinger because his Essence aura will help you maintain your constant mana pool as you are a spell spammer. Being a carry he loves you as you will keep enemies away from him. Its a symbiotic relation.

Admiral because his boat lets you feel only half damage now thereby allowing you to tank more.

Warlock, Kotl, Chen, Necrolyte as they are healers and will help you survive in the battle much longer. Kotl can replinish your mana with chakra magic in lane allowing you to farm and harass more effectively.

Dazzle deserves a special mention here. The synergy between you and Troll is just sick. Dazzle can heal you, keep you alive in battle. His ultimate helps you with quills and even his poison touch is physical damage. I prefer to have this guy as my babysitter in games as he can help you throughout the whole game. RECOMMENDED BABYSITTER FOR OUR PIG.

Enemies who counter you




Silencer, Drow, Krob and any other hero with silence - They make you unable to loose your 3 sec CD quill spray thereby taking away nearly half the damage you deal.

Harbinger - His orb is pure damage. His ulti will fuck you up even though you have a good intelligence gain. He is as much your enemy as he is an ally.

Viper, Necrolyte, Huskar - You run around most of the time with only half health or sometimes even less. These guys damage you based upon the HP you have lost which means you will feel their pain more than anyone else.

Bara, Axe - These guys force you to show your face to them(Nether strike and Call) thereby taking away your greatest strength. When you do not show your back, you are nothing short of free food. Axe is even more dangerous as his ulti cannot be reduced by Bristleback thereby killing you instantly.

Naix - He deals damage based on HP and he has a perma heal built into it. All tanks should fear this guy.

AA-He makes you take more damage from spells, enchants allies to do more damage and his ulti is plain pain in the ass(No regen, Stun, Instakill. WTF??). You need to be real careful against this guy or he will make Iced Ham out of you.

Enemies whom you counter

You generally counter most heroes especially nukers due to your strong back making them use their abilities go waste. There is one guy though who will run at your sight as you counter him perfectly just like Dazzle supporting him perfectly. He is:



Bristleback counters his backstab, your MS bonus lets you get out of smoke easily and if he keeps hitting you he will just trigger more quills. Goo will help you in taking him down easily. You are one hero who counters this satyr perfectly.

Items and Abilities you should be careful about

Magic Stick - You spam spells continuously and the charges fill up like mad. Use it once and charges will be accumulated before the CD is over. Magic stick abuse is quite an easy way of countering BB in lane.

Hex, Voodoo, Gussino - One word, HEX. It takes away all evasion, passive reduction and everything thereby really making you a sitting duck(or a chicken in this case).

Reaper's Scythe, Life Break, Culling Blade - The abilities that counter you hardcore. Be careful when you have these guys on the enemy team especially Necro. He can heal the damage you deal every 5 seconds, kill you instantly if you are not careful in an instant.

Replays

MYM vs XCN

Map :6. 48b Patch :1. 21

This game is one of my all time favorites of Rigwarl. In this game MYM are outganked by XCN and the game is completely in their favor with the score standing 4-21. Thats until one mistake brings about their doom. They let our pig, played by MYM|Fear to farm his core. Bristle, with his core, shifts the match in MYM's favor single handedly. A superb replay showcasing the power of Rigwarl.

I am trying to get replays for the latest patch. Any good, latest replays are also appreciated.

My Thanks

To Icefrog for making this wonderful map.
To the guys in Advanced Mechanics section for helping me understand the finer points of DOTA.
To my friends, members of Play Dota forum for their views.
Team MYM and VP for making me really hooked to this game for so long.
And to anyone who read this guide for putting up with me through this guide.