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Bristleback is a melee and strength hero usually played as an off-laner in Dota 2. He is famous for his array of synergistic, simplistic, and yet effective spells with low mana costs and cooldowns.
Though each cast of his spells has relatively weak potency on its own, their instances have a cumulative effect, making the Bristleback quite deadly the longer he stays alive in a team fight during a game of Dota 2.
How to play Bristleback in patch 7.29c of Dota 2
Playstyle
Bristleback can increasingly slow his enemies down and reduce their armor with Viscous Nasal Goo, his first skill. When cast on a target, the spell covers a target in snot, causing it to have reduced armor and movement speed. Applying it off cooldown makes the spell stack and refreshes the duration.
Quill Spray sprays enemy units with quills dealing damage in a small AoE around Bristleback. This effect deals a bonus for every time a unit is hit by Quill Spray in the previous 14 seconds.
Bristleback takes less damage if hit on the side or his back due to his insane passive, Bristleback. If he takes 210 damage from the rear, he releases a Quill Spray of the current level.
He spams his low cooldown spells on opponent heroes, thus working himself up and building stacks of his passive ultimate, Warpath. Warpath stacks increase his movement speed and damage.
Starting Items for Bristleback
The items, along with a quelling blade, make Bristleback very strong in the laning phase of Dota 2. He has to bring in mana regeneration items due to his spell spamming nature.
Core Items on Bristleback
Bristleback usually goes for Phase boots, and then depending on his team's needs, can build a variety of items.
If the opposing team has a lot of spellcasters, Bristleback might build a Pipe of Insight. If the two other cores of the team in a game of Dota 2 are natural Black King Bar carriers, then he might settle for a more Selfish Eternal Shroud.
He can build a Lotus Orb if there are a lot of Point targeted spells in the opponent line-up.
For increased armor and intelligence, he might also build a Shiva's Guard in a game of Dota 2.
If played as a carry, Bristleback can also build an Abyssal blade, which helps in lockdown, in addition to his own slowing of Viscous Nasal Goo.
He also has an excellent Aghanim's Scepter, in which Viscous Nasal Goo becomes a no target area of effect (AoE) ability, applying to all enemies within range. This increases stack limit to 8.
Given the situation in a Dota 2 game, Bristleback might also transform into a hard carry. He can also build a Blade Mail and Heart of Tarrasque just to become more tanky than he naturally is.
