Huskar is a ranged strength carry who excels at dealing a large amount of damage very quickly and surviving very harsh situations. The hero is most effective when he is missing a large percentage of his health. This is because through Berserker’s Blood, he gains magic resistance and attack speed, making him harder to burst down, and also harder to fight, as he will be applying more and more stacks of Burning Spears onto his enemies. He can even chase or initiate onto his enemies with Life Break, which also costs him an equal amount of his current health as it deals damage.
Huskar’s health bar is deceiving in that enemies will often think they can finish you off, but become overwhelmed by the damage output of a low health Huskar. When in doubt, a-click the ground and hope they don’t have enough damage to finish you off quickly.
He is countered by heroes who can deal burst physical damage and who can disable his passive with Break, which makes items such as Heaven’s Halberd and Black King Bar very important on him. Huskar’s most important item however, is the Armlet of Mordiggian, as it provides a lot of value to Huskar for several reasons. Most notably, it provides lots of great early stats, a large amount of health and the ability to drain your own health to ensure that you are always relatively low on health.
@ Valve
[/column]Huskar Skill Build
- Burning Spear
- Berserker’s Blood
- Burning Spear
- Inner Vitality
- Burning Spear
- Life Break
- Burning Spear
- Berserker’s Blood
- Berserker’s Blod
- Talent
- Berserker’s Blood
- Life Break
- Inner Vitality
- Inner Vitality
- Talent
- Inner Vitality
- –
- Life Break
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Huskar places a healing buff upon a target ally or himself which heals the target over time. If the target is below 35% health, the healing is increased. The healing is based partly off of a base health regen bonus plus an additional percentage of the target’s main attribute. This spell is usually maxed lastly because the healing amount is less in the early and mid game when heroes attributes aren’t necessarily very large. Huskar’s other spells are also much stronger in the early and mid game in comparison. One point is taken in the early game so that you can aid your allies or yourself in case you are gone on.
The duration of this spell is quite long, so don’t worry about casting it on yourself before initiating with Life Break. Since it’s the last spell you max, it will have quite a long cooldown for most of the game, so if possible save it for yourself. If there is a good chance it can be used to keep an ally alive however, you should almost always try. Inner Vitality also makes strength items more valuable on Huskar, because in addition to all of the benefits he gains from it being his primary attribute, it will also increase the total healing this spells does when cast on yourself.
Huskar sets his spears alight in order to make his regular attacks deal damage over time. Each attack adds a separate stack, counting additively to the amount of damage it will deal over time, but each attack costs Huskar some of his health. This skill is usually gotten at level one and maxed first. The health cost is HP Removal, which means it is not reduced by magic resistance.
When cast automatically, Burning Spears has the same cast-range as his attack, which is 400 units. However, when cast manually, it actually has a range of 450, which makes it a lot easier to finish off enemies who are just out of range by casting it on them. Burning Spears is a very powerful spell, particularly in the early game, as the stacks can very quickly add up to get you some easy kills if you are ever about to die. Take advantage of the fact that you will not aggro creeps when casting this on enemy heroes to zone them from the lane in the early game. Using this skill to its maximum potential will usually win you games and secure Dota 2 ranks as well.
Huskar gains magic resistance and attack speed based on how much health he is missing. This skill is usually maxed secondly because it makes him much harder to kill and also makes him a lot stronger in the early game, as he can contribute more in fight before dying and can often sway early skirmishes entirely.
This passive makes Huskar incredibly powerful in the early game while most of the attacks from enemies are relatively weak and while they will not be able to stand and attack you while you’re on low health and attacking them rapidly with Burning Spears. This means that you can be incredibly aggressive in the early game, especially against lineups with mostly magical damage, but watch out for disables. Just watch out for spells which deal massive burst damage such as Laguna Blade or Requiem of Souls while you have lots of health, as they will steal deal a relatively large amount of damage.
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Huskar leaps to the target enemy, dealing a percentage of their current health as damage and slowing them for several seconds. He will also deal the same percentage of his own current health as damage to himself. Aghanim’s Scepter increases the damage dealt to enemies and also reduces the cooldown. The slow pierces magic immunity and also applies a basic dispel to Huskar.
Watch out for casting this on enemies who are either magic immune or who have high magic resistance, especially if you are not low on health, as it may deal more damage to yourself than to your enemy. However, this may still be worth it, as they will be slowed for several seconds. The damage is magical which means that it is reduced by your passive when you’re low on health. Life Break can also be greatly amplified by spells and items which reduce the magic resistance of your enemies, which is worth keeping in mind.
In general, the extra damage is usually a better option because it helps Huskar to carry a lot more effectively in the early game. It’s especially strong if you’re managing to stay alive while on low health, because Huskar gains a massive amount of attack speed, which really makes the extra damage more impactful. On the other hand, the extra health can be good if you’re playing against a lot of physical damage or are finding yourself being killed too often. In most cases, you should get the extra damage, as it will have a bigger impact in the early game than the health.
The extra Burning Spears DPS is effectively a 50% damage increase to the damage output of the spell. This is a great talent if you are having no problem staying alive in team-fights, as it will help you to carry harder. The extra lifesteal can be very helpful if you’re struggling to stay alive in team-fights as is. It will also help to negate some of the self-damage from Burning Spears and will keep you alive on lower health for even longer, especially if the enemies have relatively little physical damage.
The extra strength is almost always a good talent choice, since Huskar really benefits from it. It will help to tank you up a bit and will also allow you to deal a bit more damage. On the other hand, the increased Life Break cast range almost doubles the cast range of the spell. This is helpful in a number of situations, most notably in situations where you are facing some very mobile heroes who can move quickly. It can also be great against enemies who you need to kite around more easily, such as farmed melee carries.
The extra cast range can be good if you’re facing some very mobile heroes who you may struggle to catch up to. It can also be good if you’re playing against heroes who may be able to kite you around quite easily through slows, for example. It may also be good if you’re playing against heroes who you want to kite around more easily, as it will help you to stay out of range of their attacks, and allow you to attack from a safer distance.
The pure damage talent can be very powerful in many situations and is usually more preferred. In most cases and against most heroes, it will increase the damage output by 25%, assuming they have only the base magic resistance. Against any hero with higher magic resistance or any kind of damage reduction, it will deal more damage and be more significant. Lastly, it pierces magic immunity which makes it a great passive against BKB carriers and any heroes who have innate magic immunity. Overall, it helps Huskar to carry in the late game a lot more effectively.
Huskar’s starting items are somewhat unique but pretty basic. In general, he doesn’t need that many regenerative items, since he benefits from being low health. As such, it’s often best to skip a Healing Salve, and control your health-pool with Tangos, as these allow you to stay relatively low while not being at risk of dying. However, if you’re playing against heroes who can burst you down easily if you are low on health, then you should consider buying a Healing Salve. In addition to regen, some minor stat items can be helpful.
Huskar’s damage isn’t very great at level 1, and although this is slightly offset by Burning Spears, you may have trouble last-hitting for the first few minutes of the game. A Bracer can help with this, as can items such as Faerie Fire and Iron Branches. Lastly, consider purchasing a Wind Lace, as it will allow you to position yourself to use Burning Spears more effectively. If you cast it on the enemy, you will not draw creep-aggro, so try to be as aggressive as you can in the early game and get some stacks of Burning Spears up on the enemy. Just watch out for your own health pool, as the damage can begin to stack up quite quickly.
A Magic Wand is a great item on Huskar because it can provide a large amount of burst health regeneration. Given that Huskar likes to fight with low health, the ability to heal up when you get dangerously low will keep Huskar fighting effectively but will also heal him enough to keep him alive. It’s especially effective because the extra couple of hundred health you regenerate is a lot more valuable when you’re low on health, since you gain more magic resistance through Berserker’s Blood. This effectively means that the relatively small amount of, let’s say 200 hp which you’d restore upon activating it, with a massive amount of magic resistance, will be more than 200 health worth of damage. These are imaginary figures, since Berserker’s Blood is adaptive, but essentially it will keep you alive for longer, giving you a wider window through which to burst down your enemies.
Armlet of Mordiggian should be rushed in almost every single Dota 2 esports game. You can usually get Boots of Speed first, but after that you should be looking to get your Helm of Iron Will. This provides more armor and hp regen, which makes you even stronger against physical damage, and will also help to offset the hp cost of Burning Spears. If you saved some of your starting gold, you can get a fast Blades of Attack to help you to last-hit a bit more effectively.
The Armlet provides Huskar with a massive power spike, as the item provides a huge amount of valuable stats for him. It’s also very strong because you can activate the Armlet and let it drain your health while you are farming at any point in the game to bring your current health percentage down. This is good because it will make you attack faster, and increases your magic resistance, which means you will be ready to fight more often and it will also help you to farm a bit faster as well.
Power Treads are usually the best boots to get on Huskar. They provide you with more strength and attack speed which will help to tank you up a bit and will also allow you to get more stacks of Burning Spears off. Phase Boots can be good on Huskar if you’re facing very mobile heroes who you may struggle to catch up with otherwise. However, Power Treads are usually the safest to build.
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A Heaven’s Halberd is a very strong mid game item on Huskar. It provides him with more strength and damage in addition to the evasion and powerful disarm from the active. The maim is less significant since Huskar is a ranged hero, but the item is still very effective against any physical damage dealer who may be able to kill you or deal a large amount of burst damage.
A Black King Bar is important in Huskar because it allows him to stand his ground in team-fights and attack his enemies uninterrupted. A side note is that it will also prevent you from taking damage from Life Break, although this may not always be beneficial, since you perform better at low health, at which point you usually have higher magic resistance anyway. If you’re facing a line-up with lots of disables, it’s usually very important to get. As a strength hero, you also benefit from its stats a bit more.
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An Assault Cuirass is a very strong item on Huskar in the mid-to-late game. This is mainly because Huskar has relatively low armor throughout the game. This is because he is balanced by being somewhat vulnerable to physical damage, since he gains magic resistance from his passive. The armor from Assault Cuirass goes a long way in tanking him up against physical damage, and the increased attack speed also helps you to carry more in the late game. It will allow you to get more stacks of Burning Spears off and will make enemies take more physical damage from you and your allies, which can be very helpful if you have lots of physical damage dealers on your team. Assault Cuirass is also very strong because it allows you to attack quicker while you are mostly at full health, because otherwise Huskar relies on being low HP to fight effectively.
A Satanic is another great item to get on Huskar in the late game. It provides a large amount of strength and damage, and also 25% lifesteal which is very helpful for Huskar. When activated, it can be used to bring you back from the brink of death, since enemies may often have a hard time finishing you off. Huskar can also deal a massive amount of damage very quickly when on low health, which means that he can heal more health during the active Unholy Rage. The passive lifesteal will also help to sustain him throughout longer team-fights and mitigate most of the self-damage from Burning Spears.
A Blade Mail is a situational item but can certainly be very good on Huskar. If you’re facing heroes such as Ursa, Phantom Assassin or Templar Assassin, it can be an excellent item. This is because these heroes tend to deal burst physical damage, which Huskar is quite weak to. The ability to reflect this damage makes it much harder for these heroes to do this and will often keep you alive or end up getting these heroes killed in their attempts to kill you. It may be better to get a Heaven’s Halberd first and it’s often best to get both.
An Aghanim’s Scepter can be good if you are playing against several tanky heroes. The reduced cooldown and increased damage will allow you to be able to deal with heroes who have larger health pools or who have very high armor. Be careful about how much damage you end up dealing to yourself with Life Break, usually it won’t be a problem since you have high magic resistance from Berserker’s Blood, but it can be helpful if you have some form of sustainability such as lifesteal to heal you up in between casts if possible. The cooldown is also lower than the slow which is applied to enemies, which means it can be used to disable more mobile heroes and can also help to kite enemy carries.
A Solar Crest is a relatively cheap option which provides Huskar with a lot of utility. Firstly, it provides a large amount of armor and evasion which can be helpful if you’re playing against lots of physical damage or minus-armor de-buffs. The active can be used on enemies with evasion to make them more manageable as well, which makes this a great item against heroes such as Phantom Assassin. It can also be a strong item if you have lots of physical damage dealers on your team and you want to capitalize on the strong early game potential of your line-up.
A Hurricane Pike can be a good item if you’re playing against melee heroes who can dish out a lot of physical damage very quickly. The extra cast range and the ability to instantly create space between you and the target makes it ideal to be used to kite enemies, especially if you use it after using Life Break on an enemy, as they will be slowed and thus even more easily kited. However, Blade Mail and Heaven’s Halberd are already great alternatives to deal with these kinds of heroes, and a Black King Bar is more effective at dealing with incoming disables. Therefore, it’s usually better to get it if you need it to deal with movement impairing abilities such as Power Cogs or Fissure. In these kinds of situations, it can be a great item.
A Monkey King Bar may be necessary against enemies with lots of evasion. The extra damage and damage proc is also very helpful because Huskar can potentially gain a massive increase to his attack speed when low on health, making for lots of potential damage procs.
A Lotus Orb is more of a situational item on Huskar, because usually it’s better to get a Black King Bar in order to completely negate most spells. However, if you’re playing against a lot of single-target spells which also place negative de-buffs on you, a Lotuts Orb can be a great item, since it will purge you from them upon cast. It also provides a decent amount of armor, which Huskar greatly lacks. Overall, it can definitely be a good item to get on the hero.
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Abaddon is very strong against Huskar because he can cast Aphotic Shield on any ally affected by the slow from Life Break. His ultimate also makes him much harder to kill, as he can simply pop it while he gets low and let the damage over time from Burning Spears heal him back up. However, Aphotic Shield will not remove Burning Spears, since they are undispellable.
Ancient Appariton’s Ice Blast is also incredibly powerful against Huskar. The magic damage per second is reduced from Berserker’s Blood, however it completely counters Inner Vitality and Armlet. Essentially, if Huskar is caught on low health with an Armlet activated, he is almost certainly doomed, as his health will continue to drain until he dies to Ice Blast. His other spells are also quite strong against Huskar, because Cold Feet will almost always stun him, since he can’t afford to run away usually, and the magic damage amplification from Ice Vortex also helps to mitigate some of the magic resistance he gains from Berserker’s Blood.
Axe is another great counter to Huskar because he can use Culling Blade on him whenever he gets low. Counter Helix also deals pure damage which Huskar is vulnerable to and since he can be instantly killed when low on health, he will not be able to fight as effectively, since he will need to have higher health most of the time. Axe almost always buys a Blade Mail as well which is very powerful against Huskar, since he can return the damage from Life Break.
Huskar has a very hard time dealing with illusion heroes since he has no AoE damage of any kind. Huskar also has very little armor which makes it hard for him to deal with tankier illusions which hit hard later in the game.
Heroes such as Ursa, Phantom Assassin and Templar Assassin are all great counters to Huskar. This is because they can very quickly deal a very large amount of physical damage to him. Huskar suffers from low armor, and if he is brought down quickly, he won’t have a chance to heal up from Inner Vitality or deal lots of damage from the attack speed increase gained by Berserker’s Blood.
Heroes who have spells which decrease armor are very strong against Huskar. This is because they decrease his already very low armor value, and make him very vulnerable to any physical damage. Consider buying a Solar Crest if you’re playing against these kinds of heroes as Huskar.
Any hero who can deal pure damage is very strong against Huskar, since it is not reduced by Berserker’s Blood. It’s also very good because Huskar likes to fight on low health, but with the risk of taking lots of pure damage and getting burst down quickly, he may not always be able to.
Heroes who have spells which apply the break de-buff are very strong against Huskar. Viper is the most notable hero who has an innate Break, but you should be wary of any hero who can naturally purchase a Silver Edge also. This is because they will cancel the effects of Berserker’s Blood and make you very vulnerable against magical damage and will also reduce your damage output. Against these heroes, you will almost certainly need a Black King Bar to fight effectively.
Any hero who can deal magical damage is countered by Huskar’s Berserker’s Blood. It’s particularly effective against heroes who deal magical damage over time, since they will almost never finish him off completely. It’s also quite strong against magical damage spells which are typically used to finish off a target such as Assassinate or Thundergod’s Wrath.
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