Dota 2: Guide to confront Huskar in 7.24

Huskar is currently one of the most popular and successful heroes in pubs. In addition to being strong, this is also a hero that makes opponents extremely uncomfortable when losing. Today’s article will discuss why Huskar is so strong and what you can do about it.

BUFFs that are (and are not) RECOGNIZED

7.23 makes Huskar’s ultimate, Life Break, able to penetrate spell immunity and that helps a lot against strength heroes at all stages of the game. What some of you don’t realize, though, is the change is more impactful:

• Spell Immunity no longer has 100% magic resistance

The above sentence may not say much, but with heroes like Huskar it makes a huge difference. Burning Spears, Huskar’s main source of damage, do not pierce Spell Immunity but cannot dispel either. That is, all stacks burned before the enemy hero turns on BKB or receives the Spell Immunity buff will still exist and continue to deal damage.

Now, you can’t dodge most of Huskar’s damage when you turn on BKB in the middle of a fight – either you have to turn it on early or suffer the consequences of being burned. In a meta where BKB activation timing and smart BKB usage become very important, then of course Huskar will definitely be stronger.

UNDERSTAND THE COMPETITOR

Huskar’s build is almost stable, which makes it easier to deal with him: he will go to Power Treads, Armlet, Halberd, BKB in the middle of the game, and the only difference is the order in which they are built.

With this in mind, you’ll understand you’re up against heroes with high health regeneration, strong armor, and some dodging with multiple sources of disarm in over 95% of games against Huskar. Sometimes, Huskar will have additional healing in the form of Satanic or aura. With the way Huskar works, you also know that most of this hero’s damage comes from multiple Burning Spears stacks as well as hand attacks.

There are many ways to counter Huskar in the direction of item up. With supporting core heroes and little greedy play, Spirit Vessel was soon seen as the perfect item. We often see it in the pro arena, with farm heroes like Ember Spirit or Kunkka getting on Vessel early and starting to roam around the map. Chances are that Huskar still doesn’t have BKB when you get to Vessel, and that not only counters Huskar’s healing effect but also makes his Armlet a burden. However, make sure you use it AFTER Huskar uses Ultimate, as Life Break will dispel Huskar.

Going to Halberd is never a bad choice. Again, for it to work, this item has to be on the core hero: if it’s too late, Huskar can snowball out of control. There is also an opinion that it should be MKB early, because it can burst Huskar quickly even with BKB. But in reality, it is only suitable for Winranger and perhaps Pangolier. Going up against Huskar doesn’t mean you can ignore the rest of the game and your opponent’s other heroes.

Multipurpose Cores and Supports should prioritize additional sources of magic resistance, like Glimmer Cape or Pipe of Insight. These two items are extremely important if your core gets to BKB at the right time: you need to save your teammates from burning stacks even though they have Spell Immunity.

HEROS THAT CAN COMPETE WITH HUSKAR

Ancient Apparition is the counter to everything related to healing or stealing. However, the article advises players not to pick this hero too soon because this is just a hero that can be used to counter certain objects. Of course, AA is extremely effective when dealing with heroes that specialize in healing, but this hero is not a good and stable support in other cases. And as mentioned above: confronting Huskar doesn’t mean you can ignore the rest of the game. Thanks to the change in the latest patch, the article believes that AA is now a good support in general, and there is no reason why you should not pick this hero if you know what you need to do.

Another humorous option to deal with Huskar’s new powers: The Witch Doctor and the Maledict skill, which also cannot be dispelled, could spell disaster for Huskar. If you debuff Huskar before he casts BKB, Maledict will continue to do the same amount of damage during Spell Immunity and since Huskar needs to lose health to use Burning Spears, the hero won’t last long.

As for the core, we have a lot of options: there are many flexible position 2 and 3 heroes that can build auxiliary items without fear of being left behind. Halberd and Spirit Vessel are not noticeable, but they are extremely effective and can be used for mid heroes who are “not exactly carry”, like currently Razor, Visage and Necrophos, as well as aura-generating 3 positions, like Clockwerk or Beastmaster.

EPILOGUE

Huskar was nerfed a bit in the latest minor patch, but he still wins close to 52% of pub games and is one of the heroes that annoys you the most when you lose: sometimes players really feel like they can’t. do more and that feeling started at the very beginning of the laning phase.

Hopefully this article will help you counter the hero and maybe drag Huskar’s win rate down: 57%+ win rate with 13%+ pick rate at top rank is really not good.

According to Dotabuff