Axe - Prove Yourself! The Hunger Game

Axe MOGUL KHAN

FACTION:	THE DIRE
PRIMARY ATTRIBUTE:	STRENGTH
ATTACK TYPE:	MELEE
ROLE(S):	INITIATOR, DURABLE, JUNGLER,DISABLER

Axe's Stats

* STR	87.5 at 25 (25 + 2.5/level)
* AGI	75 at 25 (20 + 2.2/level)
* INT	58 at 25 (18 + 1.6/level)
HEALTH	2145 at 25
MANA	988 at 25
DAMAGE	49 - 53
RANGE	128
ARMOR	1.8
MOVEMENT	290

Hero Skills

Purchase Order

Skill Build Choice

While I love  Battle Hunger, remember this is Dota and everything is situational. Therefore your skill build should be flexible to the situation in game. Remember that every choice you make is a trade off at another point in the battle.

In all builds, you take your Ultimate when you can

The Lane Domination Build

• Helix
• Max Hunger
• Max Helix
• Max Call

Helix, Max Hunger, then Helix, then Call.

This is what you'll use if you get Solo Mid or if you have an early double kill (first blood double kill even better). This build is all about pushing the advantage early game to make your opponents super weak for mid-game. You will have to be ultra aggressive with this build, but if it pays off you will get your core and Blink Dagger extremely quickly.

The reason this is my preferred build is because Axe needs a level advantage to dominate, and with Hunger maxed you are focussed entirely on overpowering weaker Heroes (allowing you to snowball).

The Old School Initiation Build

• Max Helix
• Max Call
• Hunger
• Max Stats
• Max Hunger

The old school veteran Axe build. This is the mid-game team fight build that relies on a quick  Blink Dagger. You give up lane domination early game for powerful initiation mid-game.

Hunger is only really useful early-mid game when it deals crazy magic damage on lower HP bars. It's nice in a team fight if you're winning and the enemy is on the run, but it's generally just not worth skilling. Have 1 point in Hunger for the speed boost. With only  Berserker's Call, you won't be using your mana much for anything until you get  Aghanim's Scepter

The Helix Weighted Hunger Build

• Helix
• Hunger > Hunger
• Helix
• Hunger
• Max Helix
• Max Call
• Max Stats
• Hunger

This is what you will go with if you want lane power but you cannot rely on Hunger for your damage. This build will use Hunger to apply pressure and chase, but it will rely on your  Counter Helix for damage. It's very powerful against Melee laners because they will be forced to take Helix hits if you Hunger them. I wouldn't use it against ranged Heroes because Hunger is your main damage source in that situation (see the first build).

Since Hunger tails off towards mid-late game, you'll want your full power  Berserker's Call more than that final level of  Battle Hunger.

Items

Starting Items
2x  Iron Branch - Cheap stats, ensures a GG and all that. Great for your  Magic Wand if you want one. I tend to get 2 because I want inventory space for my early  Ring of Regen

2x  Tango - Cheap healing. You'll need this to offset the damage you take from creep aggro

1x  Stout Shield - Absolutely essential. Without Stout Shield you're useless in lane. Allows you to take creep aggro.


Core Boots of Speed
Ring of Regen into  Tranquil Boots - Get the Ring first, after your boots. Regen always helps Axe.
Tranquil Boots - The best boots on Axe by far. Extremely powerful early game for Chasing and Regeneration (you take a lot of damage). They're the best boots for Roaming which is what you should be doing if you get a level advantage.
Ring of Basilius - The best mana regen item for low intelligence Heroes like Axe. It also provides Armor, which never goes amiss.
Ring of Health - You'll most probably need either a  Vanguard or a  Hood of Defiance at some point in the game. The Ring of Health means you can ditch your  Tango and have the flexibility for later.
Magic Wand - Optional but always good. Axe has terrible mana regeneration, so 150 burst mana can save your life and guarantee kills.

Extension Poor Man's Shield - I'm not a huge fan of  Vanguard on Axe. It's expensive and delays his other items. The level of regen and block often isn't necessary and I'd rather save my  Ring of Health for a Hood of Defiance.  Tranquil Boots provides enough regen early game so picking up a cheap PMS gets you 'online' and ready to rock noobs much quicker.
Vanguard - Despite all that I've said, Vanguard is nice on Axe. He needs health, he needs regen and the block helps. BUT, I'd only get it if I'm dominating early game and the enemy has a lot of right-clickers. That's the only time it's really better than a  Poor Man's Shield
Hood of Defiance - My preferred  Ring of Health extension. Grants you tons and tons of health regen and some extremely useful Magic Resistance. If you're laning against nukers, Axe has a hard time. An early  Cloak into a Hood can give you the resistance you need to crush them. Later it can be upgraded into a  Pipe of Insight
Ring of Aquila - There's no real reason not to get this. You need the  Ring of Basilius and it gives you some nice stats. Why not?

Luxury Blink Dagger - While I have listed this as Luxury, it's still a pretty core item on Late Game Axe. Once laning and roaming ends, you'll need this to do anything of note (except culling people). Still, I do not recommend rushing it. I classed it as luxury because you should have your Core and main Extension item before this. You're not  Tidehunter or  Enigma, your disable has tiny range and a medium duration... Berserker's Call is not good enough to warrant a rushed Blink Dagger.
Aghanim's Scepter - I love this item. The mana and health increases are excellent for Axe (armor too!) and the ultimate improvement is the icing on the cake. You won't likely be culling enemies every 6 seconds, but it does mean that you can be a little more liberal with your executes. When you have Scepter you can use the principle "If in doubt, cull". Without it, you need to take smart gambles.


Situational Blade Mail - Blade Mail isn't a great item on Axe but it does have its uses. Using  Berserker's Call + Blade Mail is NOT a good combo. Blade Mail deals back the damage dealt to you, which will be very little because of the +30 armor. You use Blademail when you're not taunting, when enemies have no choice but to attack you or get helixed. It's a great anti-caster item in small skirmishes. The stats are pretty meh. Armor is useful, as is Mana, but the damage is wasted.

One occasion when  Blade Mail is a great item is if you're snowballing out of control. If you have a level advantage, and 4 seconds of Blade Mail, then that's 4 seconds of Helixes on top of your Call, on top of Hunger. Nothing is going to survive that. If the enemy retaliates, they take a nuke (unless they're Rhasta) which makes them even easier to Cull.
Boots of Travel - Late game, when you have all your items, you might as well trade in your  Tranquil Boots and upgrade them to Travels. Great for defending towers.
Heart of Tarrasque - If you need to be even more tanky, this is the item for you. Unfortunately it's so expensive that you're unlikely to get the gold for it... and by the time you do, you should have won the game already.
Medallion of Courage - I'm surprised you don't see this more on Axe. Armor is great in laning, Mana Regen is nice too (although the effective mana regen is pretty bad with his low intelligence). The active is great though. If you manage to catch the enemy with  Berserker's Call in a packed creep wave, the -6 Armor will make short work of the enemy when you start  Counter Helixing
Shiva's Guard - Great for your late game mana troubles and the armor and active are awesome. It's just so damned expensive.
Pipe of Insight - If you picked up  Hood of Defiance, you should probably upgrade it. Just make sure you have enough mana to use it! I usually pick this up after my  Aghanim's Scepter.
Bottle - If you're going mid, Bottle is a nice pickup on Axe. You have very low mana regen and Bottle will help you spam  Battle Hunger once you hit level 3+. For a slow melee Hero, you actually have quite good rune control. If the enemy leaves the lane,  Battle Hunger will deal a lot of damage. You're a natural pusher with  Counter Helix so you can often keep your opponent's back against the tower, giving you free runes. If you get  Bottle, there isn't much need for  Ring of Basilius.

Playing as Axe

Unlike  Dazzle, who can play a multitude of roles (and was the Hero in my last guide), Axe has a pretty simple playstyle.

Laning
When laning as Axe, you just have to be super aggressive. If you get unlucky, you can do pretty badly but don't let that deter you. Axe can only be effective if he's aggressive. If you cannot threaten the enemy with  Counter Helix,  Battle Hunger will be ineffective and you're a glorified creep. You have to take your chances and scare enemies.

So remember the lessons...

1. In a new creep wave, if your enemy steps forward to last hit, judge whether you can get within melee range of them.
2. If you can get into range, charge them for  Counter Helix damage.
3. If you can't get into range, wait for their last hit and  Battle Hunger them.
4. While  Battle Hunger is active, make sure you stay ahead of the creep wave. Try to push them out of attack range

If you are playing Mid, you'll want to keep this up. Smart use of  Battle Hunger can completely cripple an enemy opponent. Weak use of  Battle Hunger will result in the enemy mid getting very very fat. Keep the lane pushed, control the runes and cast  Battle Hunger at smart times.
If you do really bad, really early in lane... you can switch to the Old School Veteran Axe build. Stop skilling  Battle Hunger and transition to a  Berserker's Call +  Counter Helix build.

Mid-Game Ganking and Roaming
If you were powerful in lane, this is your greatest time to shine. Use your  Tranquil Boots to intelligently crush lanes. If an enemy is over extended in lane, run around the back (you're tanky enough to take hits) and draw creep aggro. Even if you don't get a kill, you'll have dealt around 200-300 damage with your Counter Helix and you can leave the lane by dropping  Battle Hunger on your target. A kill doesn't matter, the enemy will have taken a significant chunk of damage with the 600+ magic damage of Battle Hunger. They might cancel  Battle Hunger with a last hit but if you time your ambush properly, and scare them enough, you'll be too much of a threat that no smart carry will risk it. If they do, use  Culling Blade.

Smart play and a lack of enemy wards will give you more presence than you actually have. As Lord Varys says in Game of Thrones "Power resides where men believe it resides". Try to visualize the enemy's line of sight, imagine you are them and whether they can really risk farming while you're around.

If you did badly in lane, don't fret. In general your team is going to have to play defensively. You've basically left them with a 4v5. You're going to be a complete waste of space (or a massive kill stealer) butyou can farm up for mid-late game if you play smart. Stack creep camps, carry lots of TPs and make sure you gib creep waves. You will catch up in XP and gold eventually, which will let you grab your  Blink Daggerand help you transition into an initiator.

Of course, by this point you've missed your time to shine, so you'll have to rely on your carries.

End the game here! After this point, you're nigh on useless

Late-Game Team Fights
Axe is pretty bad late game. His  Counter Helix does nothing to Heroes and his  Battle Hunger is pointless. By late game, Axe is a  Blink Dagger +  Berserker's Call bot.

His only job in life is to jump into a bunch of Heroes and taunt them for 3 seconds. After that, make sure you stay in the midst of the fight and look for enemies you can  Culling Blade. You deal no damage and have little mana, once you've initiated you just run around executing people (this is why  Aghanim's Scepter is so good on Axe late-game).