Brewmaster 101

Have a few pointers on how to play Brewmaster more effectively. I am no competitive player, just a pub but I've had decent success with this hero so hear me out.

Brewmaster is a strength initiation hero with a great ability to tank and control the midgame. He is not a carry, more of semi-carry but if you do really well, he certainly can carry. Let us have a look at what Brewmaster has and has not:

• Amazing survivability
• One of the best passives in the game with drunken brawler gives both damage and survivability
• One of the most unique and powerful ultimates in the game
• Some of the best voice acting ingame

He does not have:

• Mana
• Mobility

Tips:

-Brewmaster fits well into most lineups. Be wary of picking him vs silencers and Rubick.

• Brewmaster is versatile and can be played on any lane

• When played mid, use thunderclap to farm and if vs a melee opponent also deal damage. Use it to push the lane and rune control.

• Thunder clap scales really well damage wise and has a long slow of 4.25 seconds at all levels. If laning with a partner, it is fairly easy to be aggressive at level 3 with 2 points in thunder clap and go for a kill, especially if you have another disable on your side.

-Thunder clap has 400 AOE. It is larger than melee AOE and a lot of other spells like degen aura that seem to be of similar AOE. Use dota_range_display 400 in console to get a hang of its AOE.

• You need to fix your mana problems. The options are:

• Bottle - best if you play mid or if your mid does not buy a bottle
• Magic Wand - you will still run out of mana
• Soul Ring - Great item on Brewmaster. The burst mana allows you to get your ult off.
• Arcane boots - best if you don't buy it yourself because you need phase for mobility. try to get a support to buy it.

• You need to fix your mobility problems. Get:

*Drums - more tankiness, movespeed and mana *Blink dagger- core, allows blink initiation. Skip if enemy has radiance of a good spectre. *Phase boots

• It is generally agreed that thunder clap is maxed first. Points of contention include:

• Is it worth it to get 1 level of drunken brawler? - The 15% MS slow at level 1 helps a lot when chasing so I say yes, especially if you have arcanes in your team. On the other hand, it strains an already thin mana pool.
• Stats - Brewmaster is one of those heroes whom you need to calculate your mana pool. Make sure you have enough for a clap into ult combo - 275 mana at early levels. Getting one or 2 level of stats helps you to get the combo off easier.

• Drunker brawler makes Brewmaster really tanky. Add on to this tankiness with a stout shield and it allows you to tank a large amount of creep aggro in the laning phase to harass opponents.

• More about his ult:

*It has a long cooldown so use it like a tide ult - if you need to escape, secure an important kill or in a teamfight. Do not use it to solokill.

*It allows Brewmaster to enter situations other heroes can't. When you are split into 3 brewlings, you are nigh unkillable in the early-mid game.

Basic brewling micro: -Get a thunderclap on as many enemies as possible, then ult ASAP. Remember to look at your manapool before deciding to do this combo

-Your ult has cast time so be careful some spells like hex that have no cast time. They can stun you before cast time is over.

-Your earth(green) panda has a very low cooldown stun that is spammable and does 100 damage(sizeable in early levels). Use that on the first target you want to kill.

• Your wind(blue) panda has cyclone. Use it on an annoying enemy hero you want to ignore/deal with later. Cycloned units are invulnerable.

• Right click your target with your pandas. Renew the stun and cyclone when off cooldown.

-Your wind(blue) panda has wind walk on a very low cooldown. Make sure you use it when your pandas are autoattacking to gain the 100 bonus damage.

-Keep an eye on your ult duration meter, when its about to expire, move your green panda to a safe location. If your green panda is dead, Brewmaster will come from the blue panda. If the blue panda is also dead, Brewmaster will come from the red panda.

-When your ult is about to end and there is enemy rubick, please move away or make sure you kill rubick. It is very hard to prevent rubick from stealing your ult otherwise.

• Your red panda does the most damage and has the higher MS.

• When chasing, use red panda to block. Do not autoattack a fleeing enemy, the damage from the AOE immolate is stronger than autoattacks.

-If you have a cycloned target, use blue panda's dispel if you want the target down for killing.

• Use dispel also on enemy buffs like MoM, dust on your friendly invis heroes and summons. This is the spell that is mostly forgotten to be used.

• When in ult form, Brewmaster still gains passive regen from items like Heart.

-All auras and Gem are available on the green panda when in Ult form. This makes brewmaster a great early gem carrier as it is hard to die as long as your ult is up.

• In the late game, good items include AC for its aura and AS.

-Aghanim's scepter is often built by pro players. It is an amazing item and improves his ultimate tremendously. At level 11, Agha's ult gives your brewlings as strong as level 16 ult. But do not get Aghanim's if your doing badly. Brewlings are not as strong vs a fed carry and do little to help.

-Your role in teamfights is to:initiate, disable the enemy carry and kill the supports.

• Remember to try to get Drunken brawler off on the carry whenever you can. It is easy to forget when you are eager to initiate

• In the late game and the enemy's carry is fat, brewlings die fast and your role diminishes. Try to get into a position where you can disable/control the enemy supports. You no longer stand a chancer vs carries.