Author's Note
Hello and welcome to my very first guide about one of my favorite heroes, Jin'zakk theBatrider!
It's a bit embarrassing, but I haven't played DotA 2 YET... However, I am planning to do so once I get a laptop in the near (or maybe far...) future. For now, I only play AI DotA in my small and laggy netbook and do pubs in some internet cafe.
I made this chapter for the sole purpose of apologizing if my guide is too long and if some (if not all) of the parts in the guide may seem to differ from other professional guides for the reason that I haven't been in a bunch of really competitive games. But even with these "imperfections", I can assure you readers that this guide will contain everything I know about Batrider. Also, this is my first time doing a DotA/DotA2 guide so please be a bit constructive on your feedback guys.
Lastly.
A thought we should always keep in mind:
Although this is truly a "Guide with Hero Builds", it doesn't really mean that you really need to follow everything in it. You can change some things to suit different playstyles and situations (but please, refrain from getting DPS items likeDivine Rapier). A Guide never says "follow this guide in the same order and you'll win 100% of the time" but it will only "guide" you to a build where common (but sometimes uncommon or rare) scenarios are likely shown. I know someone else can come up with an idea of a "better guide", but there is no such thing as "Da Best Guide Evah!". Make changes, don't let your mind think that there's only ONE SOLID GUIDE to anything, being one-sided won't help you be a better player. (Hey, it works in the "real world" too. Don't let Society stop you from being -the good- you, have fun -that won't destroy other people's fun-, try -legal- stuff.)
Introduction
Batrider is a short-ranged Intelligence
Hero capable of wreaking havoc and confusion for the whole game. Even
at low levels, this Hero can be annoying to lane against and will
successfully kill you at all costs (don't even try hugging the tower) if you give him a glimmer of chance. He is commonly mistaken as an outright Ganker (he can gank, but due to the fact of not having a reliably long stun, he's no Ganker) he is mostly played as a Semi-carry early game then an Initiator (or follow-up) at late game.His first skill,
Sticky Napalm, is an AoE spell that will put any hero into a whole lot of trouble if stacked. 
Flamebreak
is a very versatile spell, it can be used to lasthit running enemies,
break channeling spells, disrupt positioning, scout an area, and if used
perfectly, get anyone stuck and helpless on impassable terrain. 
Firefly
allows Batrider to fly above any terrain and leave a trail of flames
below during its duration, making it deadly to the opposition when
coupled with a bunch of Napalm stacks. The Batrider's ultimate, 
Flaming Lasso
is one of the best single-target disable you can have, as it will allow
the Batrider to drag his helpless victim away from allies and into his imminent doom.Build : Offlane Fruit Bat (Can also be used in safelane)
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Good Strength and Strength gain even for an Intelligence Hero
- Can towerdive and still net a great kill with
- Can't be juked when
- One of the deadliest Heroes at early game
- Can and will try to end games early
- Can gank like nobody's business (Sorry
Night Stalker, but you can't truly gank at daylight)
- Invisible Heroes that are low on health may have a hard time escaping an expert
- His balls are burning! (You'll only get this joke if you have clicked on Jin'zakk multiple times in DotA 1 :P)
Cons
- Requires a lot of (in-game) suicidal tendencies
- Needs so much speed to be effective in teamfights
- Stuns. And. Slows. Hate. Him. So. Much.
Linken's Sphere
- Smart players (or mainly people that understand the
Magic Stick/
Magic Wand at early game if they see you
- May require some practice and map knowledge to really grab a fast game (or even a key target)
- Nearly every ranged Hero outranges him
Skills
Sticky Napalm
Ahh... I could almost remember the time when I first saw this skill, considered it useless, and then failed to realize its full potential at early games. Crazy times though... Okay, back to the real topic.
Well,
Sticky Napalm works like this, when you use it on a group of enemies that are NOT magic immune, the next damage they take from you would increase by 10/15/20/25. Sure, it's small, but if you use it several times (stacking the Napalm 10 times) on the enemy, you can get a whopping 100/150/200/250 extra magical damage.
Couple it with your skills and some items, you can even own at level 2.
Also, with its 3%/5%/7%/9% slow per stack and a good turn rate*
reduction, it's so irresistible to not activate Firefly and barbeque the hell out of them.Do take note that there are items that won't activate the extra damage given by
Sticky Napalm. These items are: 
Radiance, 
Urn of Shadows and 
Orb of Venom.Tips when using
Sticky Napalm:
- At level 1, spam this skill on enemy heroes you're laning against,
if they currently have ten stacks and you leveled up to 2, immediately
take and activate
- If possible, try to hit everything (creeps and Heroes) with Napalm, it'll make lasthitting a cinch and it'll prepare the enemy heroes for your
- Another tip when using this skill is that you can use it to provide some small vision by targeting it near the fog of war or in trees to (1)check if someone is hiding and/or (2)prevent jukes when Firefly's off cooldown (highly unlikely, but can be a possibility).
*In any case you were wondering, turn rate is the amount of time a hero will
Tiny).Flamebreak
Now, about
Flamebreak,
it's a skill that will most likely have the best effect at later stages
but can still be useful early in the game. It's a molotov cocktail (drink that 
Brewmaster!) that has a unique ministun (it pushes enemy units in a 375 radius around the target area away from the blast point) and deals 75/150/225/300 magical damage when it explodes.This skill requires some high-standard positioning to be effective and will take some time to master.
Like I said in the introduction page, this skill is very versatile and has many uses such as:
- basically nuking enemies
- clearing creep waves (stack
- pushing enemy creeps and heroes away from your tower
- stalling creeps and heroes so you can destroy their tower
- scout an area (it has a range of 1500!)
- disrupt enemy positioning
- disrupt channeling spells
- lasthit fleeing enemies (also works on Heroes that are invisible, provided you know where they're going)
- isolate heroes from their team (it's hard to do, but can put you out of danger when you plan on using
- save you or your ally from a gank by pushing enemies away from you/him.
But do make sure if your ally, especially if it's your carry, is really in any danger, we don't want to take away a potential kill he could make out of it (I've done that mistake before onSoul Keeper, I didn't know he could switch hp with an enemy at that time).
- lastly, one of the hardest
Firefly
Firefly!
This skill allows you to have movement of an aerial unit and deems you
impossible to be chased or escaped! For Heroes willing to chase the Bat,
they will have their balls burn out 20/40/60/80 health per second (provided the hero has no magical resistance, which will never happen) and will definitely see the Batrider turning around to chase them! For the Heroes being chased by the Bat, just hope you won't end up as lunch and miraculously escape Death's calling (unless you have some kind of reliable escape mech and Batrider doesn't have Flaming Lasso yet, then you're safe from him.). Firefly is usually used after you stacked multiple Sticky Napalms on the enemy hero but before you use your Flaming Lasso on them. It will make you one the most feared chasers since no one can juke you with Firefly on.Although the sound of you flying up high unjukeable may sound intimidating, this skill also has two major flaws, one is that it needs movement speed above all else to be very deadly and second is that you can be slowed and stunned while flying. Keep in mind that although you can gank, you have no reliable stun/silence to keep an enemy from slowing you down. Main reason why
Batrider ain't a ganker.Flaming Lasso
Now for the ultimate skill,
Flaming Lasso, a game-changing skill where you can disable a single enemy AND
drag him to your desired location, be it with your allies, the fountain
or just a dark place where you or your allies will beat him up to death
(but keep in mind that it only has a duration of 3/3.5/4 seconds,
so you can't drag anyone from their base to yours even with full speed).
The targets you should Lasso would most likely be the enemy carry, a
healer, or someone else that will be a problem to your team (disablers are also good targets). The good thing about this skill that it can go through 
Black King Bar (but not Linken's Sphere!!), so you can go and get that pesky carry out of the fight and kill him with your team's carry. Also, using 
Blink Dagger, 
Town Portal Scroll and 
Boots of Travel will break the Lasso but 
Force Staffing yourself won't (in some cases though, multiple Force Staffs
may break the Lasso, don't know if it's just a bug, but it happened on
me during the past. It was when 3 of my teammates -in case you're
wondering, those 3 happened to be 
Ogre Magi, 
Ancient Apparition and 
Invoker- used it and the Lasso "ended prematurely").But like
Firefly, Flaming Lasso requires some speed to be very effective, you can still be slowed or stunned by anyone and most of all, Linken's Sphere blocks it. Better choose targets wisely or better yet, harass them before they can ever think of getting a Linken's Sphere with 0 gold.The Skill Build
Okay, all of my Skill Build on Batrider is much like the generic build made on him.
- Level
- We then max
Sure, the damage is big if you look at it but if math talks then a level 4
- Stats are taken at 15 and 17+, common sense.
Note: If you are new and scared of getting killed at level 1 by a "stunning" trilane, get
Firefly at level 1. This is why not investing skill points while in the fountain is very important.Items
Okay now onto the Items! But first, here's a message from the Secret Shop Guy!Often I am asked... What does the
Batrider truly need?(creepy chuckle)Much depends upon the lane you're starting
Would you go safelane? Then for you I have these for some skill spam!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Tranquil Boots|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bottle!|
|
|
|
|
Batrider truly need?That is for you (and your team) to decide...
Starting Items
In safelane, you'd need a lesser amount of health regen and more mana since you'll be spamming skills there (why? the enemies are closer to your tower, that means that you can safely
Firefly without worrying of taking tower fire for a while).
Just remember to pull creep camps to your lane to deny the enemy some
exp and gold all the while making enemy creeps move closer to the tower
so you can repeat the process of killing them again. If you feel Tranquil Boots will be better than 
Power Treads, replace Gauntlets of Strength with a Ring of Protection and follow the Offlane's item building procedure.Offlane is somehow the opposite, where you need to survive first than spam skills and you're gonna play a bit passively, you can try to get the enemy closer to the tower but it's much more risky in the offlane since you might encounter an enemy trilane or get ganked. A Ring of Regeneration can help you mitigate some damage and that it can grant you the
Tranquil Boots in the side shop. The Clarity will help you if you're not feeling an aggressive lane, and might even make you own the offlane (you still need to be careful about ganks).Mid is where the
Batrider's love for the 
Rune of Haste goes totally out of hand. Same as Offlane, you should play a bit more passively without the Bottle. It is recommended that you should totally rush a Bottle and go rune hunting. When you see a Rune of Haste (or the 
Rune of Invisibility), Bottle it up, activate it, go back to your lane and go for a kill! If it's something else, Bottle
it, go back to the lane, see if it has any use for you. Also, if you're
feeling a bit badass and you're sure you can survive harass in mid. You
can take out the Healing Salve and Tango, then just buy 2 Ironwood Branches and get 1 or 2 
Tango (Shared) from your Supports, that way, you'll have a faster time getting Bottle. (credits to Xyrus for this badass suicidal starting items)Early Game Items
Tranquil Boots for mobility and more armor + health regen, after that go farm yourself a Blink Dagger so your team can get the upper hand (you can either farm in the jungle or just kill the Heroes in the lane, both of the choices work perfectly for you).In midlane, rush
Bottle and get 
Boots of Speed after that. Rune hunt when your creeps are pushing near the enemies' tower (always
check top rune spot first, it's closer and you can look at it just by
standing in a ledge, but it would be better if Supports warded the rune spots). Also, like the part in the offlane, farm for Blink Dagger afterwards. ( credits to Peppo_oPaccio for the build changes)In safelane (
Magic Wand, Urn of Shadows and a Boots of Speed before level 6. Magic Wand's there for stats and instant regen, Urn of Shadows
won't stop regenerating your Mana, creeps won't disrupt Urn's Heal and
you can use it as another DoT on enemies for some kills and Boots of Speed
for the extra movement speed and you'll be upgrading it soon. Also,
like I said in the Starting Items part, if you don't like it, just
follow the Offlane's building procedure since both sidelanes can have
the same scenarios (excuse me as I cry in the corner for being stupidly stupid).Core Items
Batrider is with his trusty Blink Dagger right? A good ol' surprise attack is why Batrider's skills need you to get up close to the enemy team. The way I use this in teamfights is a bit different though. I use Flamebreak first and blink in while the projectile's still travelling, activate Firefly and capture the enemy carry with Flaming Lasso and drag him to my team so I can go back, spread Sticky Napalm and get a kill or two with a 
Shiva's Guard Blast (I
know it's a bit early to put that Shiva's here but I do that combo so
many times that Shiva's is already hard-wired into my brain). :P Force Staff's here for the famous combo with Blink Dagger Batrider is well-known for. It gives Intelligence and the +3 Health regen will be a bit useful with not-broken Tranquil Boots
+12 Health per second regen. Its active is used when you've Lassoed
someone to give you that "push" to get to your allies faster. Another
trick for Force Staff
is when you caught a Hero, Force it to go into an impassable terrain,
if it's melee and doesn't have some way to escape the trench ( or trees or hills or whatever that "impassable terrain" is), and then have fun killing him by yourself (to get that reminiscent troll aura Jin'zakk had back then, just be careful not to get ganked though).Also, a bunch of
Town Portal Scrolls since at this time you'll be jumping from lane to lane to kill lots of heroes or help out the carry "lasso" himself a kill.The boots of choice is pretty flexible now, but seeing as I added
Tranquil Boots in Offlane Early Game. You can get to pick if you want Power Treads' versatility or Tranquil Boot's... tranquility?Lategame Items
Now my list of items for lategame would be only have three:
Optional/Situational Items
Batrider if you saw a team with a whole lot of stuns but there are some cases in tournaments wherein when Batrider gets miraculously picked (he gets banned a lot, even in DotA 2), the enemy team unleashes the fury of 
Earthshaker, 
Vengeful Spirit, 
Pudge, 
Earth Spirit and 
Puck and will try to make Batrider's life a living hell (been there, never survived that).
The usual items listed would be no match for that lineup. What you
would need are other situational items and I'm going to list the ones I
have tested and deemed useful on Batrider along with the reasons why they're useful.Blade Mail - Too much DPS guys hitting you? This ought to make them think twice. And hey, it makes you Sturdier and Smarter too! xD
Bloodstone - It's more of a luxury item though, gaining charges would be a piece of pie for you and those stats and mana regen per charge is no laughing matter (It might be better on
Storm Spirit though).
Drum of Endurance - Speed boost and stats. Good for ganking early-mid.
Eul's Scepter of Divinity - Movement speed bonus that'll stack with Boots' MS Bonus, 150% mana regen, an active that can be used defensively by taking out silence or waiting for cooldowns or offensively by disabling enemies.
Beastmaster's
Primal Roar and some skills that'll waste yours like
Nether Swap. This would be a good counter against them.
Mask of Madness - Random person: Wait, what the hell is this peice of tihs doing here? Me: I don't know either, but I've seen it used on
Orchid Malevolence - Use
Pipe of Insight - This item here will turn you into a team player. Saving everyone from the likes of
Zeus,
Lina and a whole lot more. The HP regen is great on you too!
Rod of Atos - It may not seem much, but this item's importance lies in the HP it gives and the active slow that is annoyingly spammable.
Scythe of Vyse - More disables, more mana, more stats, more fun!
Smoke of Deceit - Your supports should be the one to buy this, but there are some cases when push comes to shove, you'll just have to buy it.
Veil of Discord - What's better than a
So these are all the optional items you can go for when using
Gameplay
Levels 1-5
Batrider, to stop the enemies from realizing that power, especially the enemy carry. As you and your team plan for the battle (pubs rarely do that, but still),
try to think where the enemy's carry would likely lane and go with some
of your teammates. It's a fact that not all carries need a babysitter
and some may go "solo" (but has someone secretly helping them out in the jungle) so you better think of a good approach.As the game starts and you're already in your designated lane, try to bathe the enemies with
Sticky Napalm while lasthitting and denying creeps, in the event that your carry's with you (which is bad if you're not in for lanecontrol),
focus more on denying and drenching the enemy heroes rather than all
the creeps. As level 2 approaches, do make sure your enemies have been
marinated with the Napalm cause it's about time for a barbeque!Let's assume that you're with
Sven, you can tell him to use 
Storm Hammer at a given time (most probably when the enemy's Napalm stack is 10 and your Firefly's ready), you can go soften the enemy and let Sven land the killing blow or if he was to slow, accidentally kill the enemy that's under your Firefly. (Whichever works, at least First Blood goes to your team). Rinse and repeat until you get your early game items, level up to level 6 and farmed that Blink Dagger. Once at 6, say goodbye to your lane cause you'll be going for a kill spree from now on.Levels 6-10
Blink Dagger fast if you still don't have it yet and start to teleport to the lane with an enemy Hero near your tower.Here's a good tip, before you click on the tower you're teleporting to, activate
Firefly and tp to the tower, but while you're channeling, hold shift while clicking the Blink Dagger and target a few units behind your target then release the shift key (if you know shift-clicking spells and are fast enough, you can also shift-click your Flaming Lasso on your target).
Once you teleported to the tower, you'll instantly Blink behind the
target and Lasso him, drag him away from his team as fast as you can and
kill him with your team. That'll teach them to think twice when going
near your towers! (This combo I made may be reminiscent to 
Sand King's 
Epicenter because of the tp's channeling time, guess what? I really did just copy that combo from Sand King and used it on Batrider. Although I'm not quite sure if I'm the only person who thought of this or not.) After getting a kill, try jungling while you wait for your cooldowns.Anyway, keep killing Heroes if the chance arises, but do make sure you're not stealing kills from your carry or better yet, help them out getting one. Also, if you're having troubles in killing a target (e.g. enemies always escape from you, stun you, or slow you down) grab a buddy or two and pop up some
Smoke of Deceit and GO BURN SOME BALLS!Levels 11-15
Soul Keeper's their carry).
If you did your job right, your carry should be near his last items
while the enemy's carry is having a hard time because of you and the
other gankers/disablers your team has. Finish this game now.Levels 16-25
Batrider or the enemy had countered your every move, it's mostly because you wanted to see how lategame goes). Worst case scenario, the enemy team is farmed and has Black King Bars and Linken's Spheres where in this awful case, you'll get screwed up and become utterly useless in teamfights (tip, go support your team by using all your money on wards, that 
Mekansm, 
Arcane Boots, Drum of Endurance, and Pipe of Insight and hope your not the first person to get killed in those clashes).But if it's going good on your team, then try to follow-up your initiator's stun (or if you're the initiator then just initiate) by grabbing the team's main target and dragging him down your trail of fire and into your team's array of weapons. You actually do the same stuff since level 6 if you've noticed.
Also, should the enemy be in your base, Lasso their carry and let your team (if
Force Staff is provided for your whole team) Chain Force* both you and the victim into your fountain!*Chain Forcing is what I would call the act of repeatedly using Force on a stunned enemy hero forward into a
Goblin Techies' 
Land Mines or their enemies' fountain. Very annoying yet very devastating if used right on enemies.Heroes - Friends and Counters
Friends
Batrider
loves to make chaos, to have some early kills and most of all, have
speed. The following Heroes listed will be able to fit two of those
criteria on Batrider's BFF list but won't be limited to:
Believe me, you'd want this guy to be with you all the time. He
can push you towards the enemy, you Lasso an enemy, he drags you back to
him with the enemy. A few seconds later, your gold just went up!
Rune of Haste in a spell? Check! A sheild of DoT that'll make melee Heroes think twice? Check! A faster (and larger) version of 
Black Hole? Check! A Huge Wall you can run through with a Lassoed pig? Check! They may be weird couple (gaaay...) but it's still a better love story than twilight.
Okay, this ganker loves to snowball so much, he can take you into a winter wonderland that you'll never forget. 
Snowball in, Firefly over the enemy as the 
Frozen Sigil slows him down, 
Ice Shards and Flamebreak will stop any intervention as this 
Walrus Punches the poor guy to heaven. You haven't even used your Flaming Lasso yet!Counters
Batrider would most likely hate (hate is such an understatement, maybe despise would fit better?) Heroes that can avoid his ganks, Heroes that can counter his attempts of dragging an enemy away and enemy Heroes that carry STUNS. These Heroes would include but is not even at the least limited to:
Primal Roar may not damage you when you've activated Black King Bar's Avatar Mode but the stun will pass through! His pig also slows you down if you ever have a Linken's Sphere, he's pretty much made to stop you from Lassoing anyone, even him!
Go near this fatso and 
Rot activates, try to take his teammate away 
Meat Hooks you to him, Blink behind him, congratulations! You just gave him a free shot at 
Dismembering you! Oh look, he can now hold a Blink Dagger like you... run.
Hmmm... it says in most Weaver guides to get Linken's Sphere as core. 
The Swarm is annoying, he can escape with 
Shukuchi and can negate all the harass you gave him using 
Time Lapse (your disable lasts for 4 seconds, he can go back to where he was 5 seconds ago. Great, just great...). Oh, did I mention he can kill you fast with a 
Desolator and 
Butterfly?The End Chapter
If you're reading this now, I'm thankful if you have read the guide to this part (if you haven't, then it doesn't matter since you won't be reading this part :P). I do hope that you have learned something after reading the guide.So without further ado, my list of thanks:
Me - for creating the guide and
Batrider.My Girlfriend - for understanding and loving a gamer. (I owe her a lot of thanks here)
Parents - for also understanding and loving their smart yet stupid son (they pay the bills, so I study hard-but play harder :P-and be a good boy)
IceFrog - for the awesome game and hero.
DOTAFire - for being the site where I publish my first guide (it's called hosting right?).
DotA AI Team - without AI's I couldn't have practised my skills that much.
Dr. D - without his guide on guide formatting, I wouldn't have made this guide since I'm oh-so-new to the world of html formats.
My High School Friends - Crazy pub games with crazy friends, miss those times.
My College Friends - Welcomed me to the competitive scene.
The Secret Shop Guy! - for the inspirational "What does a hero truly need?" video.
Peppo_oPaccio - for making me like
Tranquil Boots and the new build (just enough to make me recommend it).BKvoiceover - for the MoM, so good in fun pubs.
The Editor who likes smileys with mustaches - for saying that nobody likes
Vanguard on Batrider and for the starting mid build (I kind of copied it in a way?)Timminatorr - for reminding me about the mana cost increase on
Flaming Lasso. (Man, I feel so stupid)You, the Readers - for taking the time in reading my guide.
Guide by by JasChe_XXIV - Dotafire.com
Post a Comment