Batrider Review/Hero Guide

MoTuT — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 06:36:21 +0000

Besides Tauren Chieftain, the other new hero is Jin’zakk, the Batrider. His skills have been changed a lot since the beta release. Batrider’s strength and intelligence gains are pretty decent, his attack range is only 375 however, and his movement speed is a standard 290. Now for Batrider’s skills :

Sticky Napalm

Hmm. Do you understand this skill? Do you see its usefulness? No? Neither do I. Sticky Napalm “amplifies any fire damage by 25 and slows the movement speed by 9% and turn rate of units in that area. Extra casts of this on the same targets stacks up to 10 times”. Cooldown is very low at 3 seconds. The idea is to use this in conjunction with the other fire-based skills like Flamebreak, Firefly and Flaming Lasso (explained later)…but I highly doubt you’ll have the time to do this unless the enemy or enemies are either stunned or hexed. And what does it mean “by 25?, is it 25% or 25x? Anyway, because you can’t autocast this, it’s unlikely the enemy will allow you to carefully cast this more than once on the team, and the only option for you is to spam “C” on the keyboard every 3 seconds, this skill can be forgone for stats in my opinion.

Flamebreak

This is where the fun comes in. Flamebreak is by far batrider’s best skill. It works like Mirana’s Elune Arrow or Pudge’s Hook in the sense that you have to aim it, but its easier to land because its AOE, it stuns or knocks back for about 1.5 seconds, and it deals a massive 300 damage at level 4, which can be increased with Sticky Napalm. The cooldown is only 11 seconds. Its a great defensive/offensive spell for pushing, defending, chasing, even initiating if you’re desperate. It can be used to farm up a storm as well.

Flamebreak aimed

Kncck back effect of Flamebreak

Firefly

More fun. Firefly is imba shit. Just like in the beta, Firefly leaves a trail of fire behind you, which does 80 dmg per second at level 4 :

So you can actually draw faces and stuff if you’re bored as it lasts a decent 15 seconds. Making fire on the ground isn’t the only thing the skill does though. Firefly allows you to…fly :

The red arrow on the side of the fire is the exact route I took. With firefly activated you can fly over impassable terrain : hills, trees, over Roshan, wherever. The possibilities for escaping, chasing and ganking with this skill are therefore endless, and because of its high damage it can also be used to farm.

Flaming Lasso (Ultimate)

The “LOL-I-GOT-U-RUN-RUN” skill. Its basically Rhasta’s Shackle skill, except you can run away and “drag” the enemy with you. It has a synergy with Firefly as you can drag the helpless enemy in the fire created with Firefly :

The duration of the lasso at level 3 is 4 seconds, so 4×80 dmg/sec with Firefly = roughly 320 dmg, which can be increased with Sticky Napalm.

Item Build

I’m against fixed item builds, these are only suggestions for what you could have by mid-game/end game to best support your team.

Boots of Travel

Farming is no problem for Batrider, so get yourself a BoT, as early as possible. Phase boots would be ok too, but Treads/Boots of Speed just wouldn’t be good enough. Batrider would then be able to gank and chase better, TP quickly to defend towers, and generally just be better in supporting the team.

Guinsoo’s Scythe of Vyse

This is generally a standard must get for most Intel heroes with the exception of Lion and Rhasta, but it makes even more sense on Batrider.

The Hex effect of Guinsoo’s lasts for 3.5 seconds. Flaming Lasso maxed out lasts for 4 seconds. Pulled off right, using both Guinsoo and the Flaming Lasso, Batrider can disable a hero for a crazy 7.5 seconds. The cast range of Guinsoo’s is much greater than Flaming Lasso, so it should be used first, then the hero is attacked, then Lassoed as soon as the hex wears off. Try this on a Troll or Mortred with no BKB and watch them cry for mercy.

Shiva’s Guard

Shiva’s on Batrider isn’t as essential as Hex is, but its still useful. The idea is to activate Firefly, cast Shiva’s, and force your enemies to walk through the 80 fire dmg/sec, increased further with Sticky Napalm, which you’ll actually have time to cast a few times as your enemies are slowed.

And that’s it. You can throw in other survivability or support items such as Bloodstone and Mechanism, but it may be a better idea to use extra money for ward placement to benefit the team.

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