Axe is a niche pick who definitely doesn't get picked at the top level games regularly. However, that doesn't stop him from being a strong mid laner and boatloads of fun. For this guide you'll be taking him in mid in a 1v1 scenario. Why mid instead of the jungle? In the jungle, your jungling is very slow until you finish your vanguard, and you can't even begin to gank without at least your ring of health. Also, you don't get to spam Battle Hunger and kill dudes, and that sucks.

Let's go over the hero's role and skills before we look at the strategy involved.

The Basics

The skills:

Axe's skill set revolves around getting close to enemies, forcing them to attack him (causing damage to themselves), chasing them, and finishing them off.

Berserker's Call

Axe taunts nearby enemy units, forcing them to attack him, while he gains bonus armor during the duration.

Radius: 275

Bonus Armor: 30

Duration: 1.5/2/2.5/3

Mana Cost: 80/90/100/110

Cooldown: 10 seconds

This is Axe's bread and butter disable. It goes through magic immunity and forces all nearby units to attack him (while also granting him bonus armor to withstand the attacks). Because it's in an area around him, this makes a blink dagger a must-have on him. You can blink in and disable large groups of enemies to initiate a fight.





Battle Hunger

Enrages an enemy unit, causing it to be slowed and take damage over time until it kills another unit or the duration ends. Axe gains movement speed for each unit affected with Battle Hunger.

Duration: 10/13/16/19

Movement Slow: 10%

Bonus Movement Speed: 4%

Damage Per Second: 15/21/27/33

Mana cost: 75/85/95/105

Cooldown: 20/15/10/5

This is going to become the bulk of your early game strategy. While previously relegated to levels 21-25 this skill has received significant buffs making it one of the strongest ways to control a lane early. At level 4, it does a total of 627 damage, has a 5 second cooldown, and can only be removed by killing a creep (something you can work on preventing enemies from doing). It is important to remember that this slows enemies and gives you a speed boost for each enemy it is active on (even creeps!)





Counter Helix

When attacked, Axe performs a helix counter attack, dealing damage to all nearby enemies.

Radius: 275

Chance to Helix: 17%

Damage: 100/130/160/190

Cooldown: 0.65/0.6/0.55/0.5

This has always been Axe's big gimmick. When attacked he has a 17% chance to spin around and damage everything around him. He can use it to push, and he can use it to harrass by right clicking a nearby hero and getting creep aggro. If anyone gets in melee range while Axe is getting hit, they will thoroughly regret it. It synergizes well with Barbed Armor (they both return damage) and that's an item always worth considering. His illusions also get the spin chance, which can be kind of nifty.





Culling Blade

Axe spots weakness and strikes, dealing moderate damage but instantly killing an enemy unit with low health. When an enemy unit is killed in this way, Axe and nearby allied units gain bonus movement speed.

SCEPTER: Decreases cooldown.

Kill Threshold: 300/450/625

Damage: 150/250/300

Range: 150

Bonus Movement Speed: 25%

Movement Speed Radius: 600

Movement Speed Duration: 6

Cooldown: 75/65/55 (6*)

Mana Cost: 120/160/200

This is the best skill for assassinating absolutely everything. Battle Hunger will get people low and let you chase them, Culling Blade will finish them and give your team a massive speed boost afterwards. I always make it a point to consider getting an Aghanim's Scepter on Axe if my team's early game was strong enough. Killing someone every 6 seconds never gets old.

The Strategy

Skill Build

1) Counter Helix

2) Battle Hunger

3) Battle Hunger

4) Counter Helix

5) Battle Hunger

6) Culling Blade

7) Battle Hunger

8) Counter Helix

9) Counter Helix

10) Berserker's Call

11) Culling Blade

12) Berserker's Call

13) Berserker's Call

14) Berserker's Call

15) Stats

16) Culling Blade

17-25) Stats

Starting Items:





Always start with a stout shield, this is not optional. Part of your strategy will depend on drawing creep aggro and a shield will mitigate much of the damage you could be taking.

After your stout shield use the rest of your money on health regen. It's common for most mid laners to grab some early stats and clarities, but you plan on getting hit a lot. You can't afford to skimp on regen, and you won't be able to sit back while you wait for clarities. I usually go for 1 GG Branch, 1 set of Tangoes, and 2 Healing Salves.

Core Items:





Get a bottle as soon as you can. You will be dependant on rune control for both regen, and for upping your gank ability. Every rune is useful to you (even illusions proc counter helix).

Unless your farm is god-like and you really like teleporting, these are the best boots for you. You don't benefit from the attack speed of treads, and phase is much better for you than a mana boost. Phase will let you chase and keep up with your targets.

Blink lets you chase and more importantly lets you initiate with your Berserker's Call. An early blink can turn the tide of the entire game, and you will notice a significant upgrade to your ganking ability as soon as you finish it.

Finishing your Build:





Vanguard: Believe it or not, I don't find this absolutely necessary on Axe. Your level advantage and stout shield is plenty enough to gank side lanes and build an advantage for the mid game. If you find you absolutely need the early game regen and hp boost get one, but if you're not losing too much health after your Blink and Phase Boots you might be fine without it.

Drums of Endurance: Consider these whenever you feel like your team needs a speed boost or you want extra chasing power. It has a great buildup and gives you great early stats and HP.

Urn of Shadows: If no one else is getting an urn, you should. You will be doing a lot of ganking and will load this up with plenty of charges. In addition you will be tanking a lot and be diving a lot, the heal is fantastic early on.

Aghanim's Scepter: This item doesn't provide a whole lot of defense for you, but will turn your midgame teamfight ability way up. You wil be spinning around assassinating everyone. If you already have a significant lead, the scepter is a great way for you to spread your lead out even farther. (Also has a great build up and gives you a bunch of mana).

Pipe of Insight: If their team relies mostly on magic damage or if their team has at least one large teamfight ultimate (Ravage, Epicenter, Black Hole, etc) a pipe is always a great choice.

Black King Bar: If you find yourself getting disabled too much before you can fully contribute to a teamfight (outside of basic initiation) a black king bar will give you the immunity you need.

Heart of Tarrasque: It's a huge chunk of HP. It makes you a brick. What's wrong with being a brick?

Blade Mail: Blade Mail synergizes really well with Counter Helix. Especially consider this if they have very high damage and low hp carries (sniper for example).

Shiva's Guard: Shiva will tie into your initiation well giving you another disable. It provides a ton of armor and also slows enemy attack speeds. It also solves any mana problems you could possibly be having.

How to lane:

You'll be using Counter Helix and Battle Hunger to control your lane's tempo and to harrass your opponent. If he gets close to you (or you get close to him), right click him to draw creep aggro and to proc Counter Helix spins which will damage him. If he doesn't have many creeps to last hit, or is too far away to last hit them, Battle Hunger him to start slamming him with a hefty amount of early game damage (wait till it's level 2 so you don't waste your mana on the weak level 1 damage). It has an amazing cast range, abuse it.

The basic strategy is this, if he is close enough to last hit, you spin on him. Once he can't last hit, you Battle Hunger him.

Because you're in mid and using a bottle, rune control is important. Before every rune spawn, draw creep aggro by right clicking your opponent. This will push your lane with Counter Helix which gives you an opportunity to run for the rune.

Ganking:

Often times you'll get first blood in your lane, but in any case, ganking works the same way as laning. Get close to them and spin, then Battle Hunger to chase and finish them off once they can no longer last hit anything. Culling Blade will finish all of your ganks off. Never be afraid to chase heroes behind their creepwave, they can't last hit back there and you can spam Battle Hunger to your heart's content. Don't be afraid to dive either, you're a naturally tanky dude and can afford the risk.

Teamfights:

Teamfights are Axe's specialty. Blink and Berserker's Call to initiate. Low health heroes will try and peel away from you, Battle Hunger them and chase them down. Make sure you follow enemy threats to your carries and peel them off with Berserker's Calls. Finish off high-priority targets with Culling Blade (or finish everyone off if you have a Scepter). Chase everyone, never let anyone escape. However, watch how much health your enemies have. If they are low enough for Battle Hunger to finish them then you can start chasing other people.

Counters:

Your mid strategy relies on Battle Hunger, however if they have many skills to last hit from range without coming close enough to reapply it they can easily get rid of it. It is especially dangerous if they can harrass you with the same skill.

Beastmaster: Wild Axes

Shadow Fiend: Shadow Raze

Puck: Illusory Orb

Windrunner: Powershot

Death Prophet: Crypt Swarm

Dark Seer: Ion Shell

Tips and Tricks:

* Your illusions spin

* Battle Hunger has a GIGANTIC range. Cast it early and often.

* You can push by getting in front of a creep wave, getting the next wave's aggro, and spinning it down. This is called "creep skipping." Use this to push towers early as well.

* You're voiced by Duke Nukem, act like it.

* There is no team in Axe!

* Rest is for the dead!

* Enemies need killing!

* I ran out of tips, these are all actually Axe quotes. His personality very nicely compliments his play style. Axe is an aggressive hero. Play him like that. If they're not terrified of you, be scarier. The end.

(P. S. Stay tuned for a future video showing examples of play described in this guide. If you have questions, or want to play with me, I can be reached via my steamid: akatookey)