[Daily Hero tl;dr #40] Axe

I said good day sir! Axe - the manilest hero in DotA. Or at least he was, but since all the buffs to Battle Hunger, he's been much less manly.

TL;DR

• Skills (MANLY) - Call (2,4,8,9) Hunger (never) Spin (1,3,5,7) Culling (6,11,16)
• Skills (annoying) - Call (4,12,13,14) Hunger (2,3,5,7) Spin (1,8,9,10) Culling (6,11,16)
• Items (lane/jungle) - stout, branches, regen
• Items (early) - Soul Ring, Phase, Vanguard, Blink
• Items (later) - Blademail, Heart, AC, Aghs
• Tips - MANLY
• Counters - spells

Alright, I will be explaining both playstyles. Starting with the manly one: jungle until you can get a Vanguard or some sort of tankability and then force teamfights. Run into the middle, be manly, use call, rely on your spin, and wreck people. It's pretty simple, and it's quite effective especially when you get Blink.

Now for the less manly (but probably more effective) build: Battle Hunger. At level 4, it does over 650 damage (over time). Yeah. Cast in on CM, what's she going to do? This is why I suggest Soul Ring, it's super spammable, gives you bonus MS, and slows them. It's extremely effective and super powerful. I personally argue that the buffs to this spell are ruining Axe's playstyle, but I won't go into that.

The items are pretty self explainatory. I like Phase because you need positioning. You have enough stats and you're not a DPS hero. Tranquil Boots may work, I have not tried them. Soul Ring is very nice because you are always low on mana, but it's not required. Get Vanguard Blink ASAP so you can force teamfights and gank constantly. Aghs gives you a 6 second CD on your ultimate which may be extremely useful, especially since now allies get +25% MS when you kill someone with it.

Basically, be manly. You cannot fear death as Axe, else you'd be completely useless. Run into the fight, grab some people with Call, and believe in your spin and teammates. Call is a pretty long AoE disable, and with a Blink it's easy to hit.

// You can see a list of guides on my profile at GG.net.