Introduction
This is a guide for Rigwarl, the only hero who is awesome enough to be used for bacon. Mmm, bacon. Bacon is awesome, and logic would dictate that whatever produced the aforementioned bacon would be awesome as well, and this is most certainly the case. Nonetheless, Rigwarl's potential is frequently squandered, and in a case like this, who really wants to share bacon?
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Advantages and Disadvantages
Because if shit were simple, it wouldn't be complicated.
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
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Hammer This Section Into Your Head
Davion Rigwarl is not a fucking tank. Davion Rigwarl is predominantly a carry.
There are two types of people in the world: people who are smart enough to realize this (ie, me) and retards (which may or may not include you). DotA players often mistake survivability for tankability. They seeDavion Rigwarl has a skill that increases both his HP regen and his armor reduces all damage when his back is turned and they jizz themselves over the possibility of pairing that with a Vanguard! OMFG IMBA!
While it's true that Rigwarl can be used in such a role (as can any other hero, to be honest), his skills give him a very different role.
Let's wade into this slowly. Let's cast Rigwarl as a tank and compare him to Axe and Centaur Warchief, as both heroes are commonly picked as tanks first. Ignoring choice of footwear, let's look at the HP of all three heroes with an item or two that they would almost always have at Level 11. With two Bracers, Rigwarl has 1214 HP. With a Magic Wand and one point in Stats, Axe has 1195 HP. With just a Magic Wand, Centaur has 1594 HP. At first glance, this would seem to indicate that with a couple Bracers, Rigwarl is pretty comparable to other, more commonly picked tanks.
But wait! Bristleback has, well, Bristleback! Assuming you took it to Level 4, this would give Rigwarl a maximum of 1699 EHP! Maybe the great Zotmaster is wrong after all!
Except as far as tanking goes, the Bristleback skill is largely irrelevant. Sure, the damage reduction is great, but you only get it when you're not facing an enemy. Were you to keep your back turned the whole time - and were the enemy team to be stupid enough to attack you from behind without moving to a more advantageous position - all you would be able to do is Quill Spray. Sure, the damage adds up, but it starts off as a very insignificant amount and this shuts you out from using Viscous Nasal Goo or even attacking. With that simple logic in mind, it should be clear that this is not truly the intended purpose of Bristleback. Well then, what is?
Consider the things a tank needs to be able to do. 99% of the time, this means initiate and immediately start some shit. To this end, Axe and Centaur commonly use Dagger to Blink into the middle of the fray. To further this end, both pack AoE disables: Axe's not only increases his armor, but forces enemies to attack him, which helps him deal damage with Counter Helix. Centaur's stun is 2.75 seconds at level 4, which is considerable. Were you to buy a Dagger with Bristleback and Blink in, you'd have two options: you could either fire off a Quill Spray for somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 damage, or blow snots on a single enemy, lowering his armor but dealing zero damage. Whoopty-fucking-do. Simply put, Rigwarl is not an initiator. This should be an immediate red flag.
Even so, initiating is not enough. Tanks have to provide the enemies an incentive to try to punch through their higher HP and armor. Axe doesn't give them a choice: like it or not, when Axe's disable goes off, the enemies will attack Axe. Even after that, if Axe targets heroes, it triggers creep aggro, and they can trigger Counter Helix as well, which increases Axe's damage output. Centaur also has a trick up his sleeve: namely, Double Edge. A 400 point nuke is nothing to sneeze at: especially when it's a 400 point nuke with a ministun that's on a mere 12 second cooldown. Simply put, Centaur's potential burst damage alone makes him a threat. Even better, as he gets attacked, he has scaling damage by way of Return. Without items, Bristleback has Quill Spray and that's about it. True, Quill Spray becomes significant over time, but if that's all Bristleback is bringing, he can largely be ignored in favor of scarier heroes. This is another immediate red flag.
Okay, enough with the pig bashing; after all, since I'm writing a guide about him, clearly he can do something well. Indeed he can: when it comes to chasing down fleeing heroes, it's no contest. Axe might be able to hit with a Culling Beard before the hero runs away, but beyond that, he has to hope to get lucky with Dagger (which includes being lucky enough to be able to use it in the first place). Same deal with Centaur: it's not a particularly good situation. Rigwarl, on the other hand, absolutely fucking shines in this situation. Not only does he have Viscous Nasal Goo to slow enemies down, but each time he casts a spell, he gets faster. With two spells with a low mana cost and cooldown, clearly it's Rigwarl's job to spam. And as he does so, he moves faster and faster and hits harder and harder. That's not the job of a tank. Rigwarl's AoE presence - especially combined with a Radiance - adds up to a significant damage output. His speed allows him to stay mobile, avoiding retaliation as he applies constant pressure via spammable spells. And then when the battle breaks off and heroes try to run for it, Rigwarl can gun them down.
Remember how I said the intended purpose of the Bristleback skill wasn't to tank? This is where the ability really comes into play. Okay, you've chased down the hero and clubbed him like a baby seal. What now? Well, you're likely facing retaliation. You have no disable and no escape mechanism other than running. So, you run. And now that your back is turned, Bristleback is there to save your ass. And that, my friends, is Bristleback's lovely synergy: strong AoE presence via ever-increasing damage, spell spamming to reduce enemy armor and speed while increasing his own speed, and then damage reduction while retreating to live to tell about it.
All this having been said, being flexible is what DotA is all about. With that in mind, there actually can be particular situations where tanking is in Rigwarl's best interests. This mostly depends, however, on team composition. If you have one of the proverbial "hard carries" - Phantom Assassin, Troll Warlord and Faceless Void obviously come to mind immediately - playing more of a supporting/tank role will probably yield better results. Don't underestimate your own damage output, though: with just a Radiance and Quill Sprays, Rigwarl can do upwards of 1000 DPS in team fights. That having been said, Mortred can do that much in a single swing and in such a case, she's almost certainly the better carry. Your job is then to farm up your Radiance as usual and just try to draw as much fire as you can. But even so, you're not "tanking" by soaking up damage: you're tanking by drawing fire and running interference. At the most, Rigwarl is a hybrid carry/tank that leans heavily toward the former.
Quod erat demonstrandum, bitches.
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Herp Derp Alt-Tab Guide
For those who can't live without an alt-tab guide:
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The Skinny on the Fat
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Skills and Commentary
Viscous Nasal Goo
Covers a target in snot, causing it to have reduced armor and movement speed. Casts on the same target are cumulative.
Ability Type: Active
Targeting Type: Unit
Ability Hotkey: G
Mana Cost: 30
Cooldown: 1.5 sec
Duration: 5 sec
Casting Range: 600
Note
Mmm, boogers. This spell is the primary reason why Bristleback is such a good chaser. However, it's worth noting that this skill also eats armor, which enables your Quill Sprays to do a bit more damage. You can also use this to dispel effects like Healing Salve. Once your mana pool can support this, use this over and over again to slow down would-be runners. This is also your primary weapon for the "Piggy Dance" (which I will cover later). Also reasonably effective against Roshan.
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Skill Build
1 - Quill Spray/Bristleback
2 - Bristleback/Quill Spray
3 - Quill Spray
4 - Bristleback
5 - Quill Spray
6 - Warpath
7 - Quill Spray
8 - Bristleback
9 - Bristleback
10 - Viscous Nasal Goo
11 - Warpath
12 - Viscous Nasal Goo
13 - Viscous Nasal Goo
14 - Viscous Nasal Goo
15 - Stats
16 - Warpath
17-25 - Stats
Bristleback's skill build is pretty simple and straight forward. As a carry, it is generally more advisable to give up the early game in favor of attaining dominance a little further down the road, but if you're playing with a team you know well, feel free to take a level of Viscous Nasal Goo early to see if you can snag yourself some early kills. Otherwise, the name of the game is to stay alive and use Quill Spray to last hit as many creeps as possible while keeping you as safe as a melee hero can be.
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Item Build
Without question, immediately buy yourself:
As a melee hero who doesn't pack the highest HP, two sets of Tangoes are an absolute must. Spend the rest of your gold on some combination of the following:
If you have absolutely no idea what you're doing, buy yourself two Circlets and turn them into Bracers. Buying Gauntlets to work toward an Urn is also an option, but the best overall starting build is definitely three Branches and a Quelling Blade. The Branches give good early stats and set you on the path toward a Magic Wand, and the Quelling Blade helps ensure that you get as many last hits as humanly possible. Rigwarl absolutely needs a Radiance to be relevant, and the Quelling Blade helps make sure you get there.
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Core Build
Rigwarl's core is pretty simple, with only very slight alterations:
Simply put, Magic Wand is too good. It does everything you want it to do without getting girls pregnant. A couple charges keeps you in lane longer and guarantees you'll be able to cast the spell you need.
Obviously, you'll need Boots, but Rigwarl is fairly unique in that any of the three main choices of footwear are viable on him. Treads is generally the preferred choice as it's cheap to build, provides much-needed HP and is the only one that allows your damage to scale. That having been said, Phase Boots are fairly cheap as well and give the highest boost to speed when you activate them. However, casting your spells removes the buff, making this less-than-optimal. Boots of Travel, on the other hand, give a huge movement speed bonus and allows you to Town Portal to your heart's content. That having been said, they're by far the most expensive option and you absolutely need to get Radiance ASAP. Unless you're farming unusually well, I recommend sticking with Treads.
You may have noticed I didn't mention Arcane Boots in the above paragraph. Sure, Arcane Boots seem cool, but in reality they're like the kid who used to always steal my crayons when he thought I wasn't looking. He turned out to be gay.
Rigwarl is also a great candidate for an Urn. The Strength bonus, of course, is always welcome. More than that, the mana regeneration is especially good on Rigwarl. As he levels up, Rigwarl gets a fairly large mana pool thanks to his high Intelligence growth, and the higher your mana pool, the better percentage-based regeneration gets. Also never underestimate the power of its charges. Having your own portable Healing Salve machine can be incredibly powerful, enabling you to quickly recover from ganks. Remember, you're carrying: you need to farm your ass off.
Radiance comes straight out of the "no shit" files for Rigwarl. It not only turns a decent farmer into an excellent one, but enables you to deal large amounts of damage and piss people off just by being there. It's effective against images, invisibility, backtalk, you name it. Spam your spells, boost your speed, and light shit on fire.
The big surprise, however, is the Orb of Venom. At a measly 450 gold, it transforms Rigwarl from a good chaser to a retardedly awesome chaser. What's better than a stackable slow? A big slow that disables Dagger! As long as you can manage a single melee attack every four seconds, you can pretty much make sure that an enemy hero can never escape unless you let him.
Remember, though, you're almost always going to be the carry. Your job is to get into a position to carry. Therefore, depending on the lineup - or whether or not you have a teammate who can do it better - you may require a detour:
Hood is solid and keeps you from having to retreat quite so often. Nonetheless, your job is to build yourself up and spam your spells, and this is a diversion from that.
Bracers are also always a consideration. Ifyou YOUR TEAM BECAUSE IT'S ALWAYS YOUR TEAM'S FAULT, LOLOLOLOLOL HAHAHA DISREGARD THAT, I SUCK COCKSis doing poorly, stacking one or two Bracers to enhance your survivability is always a welcome addition.
Remember, you need Radiance...unless your life depends on it, in which case you might need a Hood or a Bracer
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Then What?
For the most part, Rigwarl can whup enough ass with just the above items without even needing an actual Orb effect. Nonetheless, if you're trying to pull your best Leoric impression (by balling out of control), the following may be up to your speed:
Assault Cuirass is a pretty logical followup. More attack speed is good, more armor is great, and less armor for your enemies is even better. Depending on how much anti-Armor you have on your team, however, the other items may be much better for you.
At first, seeing Heart as an extension might seem like a curious pick. After all, I laid out why Rigwarl isn't really a tank. However, there's more to it than meets the eye. Huge amounts of HP and damage are obviously very good. However, Heart also has great synergy with Bristleback. Remember, Bristleback is there to help you chase people down and live to tell about it. Once you use your superior speed to get away, Heart is there to get you back to fighting shape in no time. Less than a minute later, it's like you never even felt it. After farming your core, this is almost always the first luxury you should get.
As for a Skadi, well, why the fuck not? You're already getting an Orb of Venom. Skadi has great stats all over the place. And I assure you: if you play Rigwarl to his potential, it's entirely possible to have your entire core and any two of these three items. If you can't win at this point...well, at least you know you're a tasty meal.
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Really? No Other Items?
Well, yeah. Unfortunately, most items - even the luxuries I've listed - don't really work as well with Rigwarl as they do with most other heroes. Let's go over some of them:
What Do These Items Have in Common?
The short answer: both items suck in general. But really, the longer answer follows:
What Do These Have in Common?
All of the above items require the hero to physically attack a target early and often. Rigwarl doesn't do that. Sure, you do need to put some hits in here and there, but none of these orbs do much for a hero who only attacks once every second or two. This is why Skadi is the only logical pick: true, it doesn't pair perfectly, but it's the only orb that really provides a benefit to heroes who don't physically attack all the time.
Well Then, What About These?
What the hell are you going to do with any of those? Again, all these items need heroes who physically attack the ever-living shit out of everything. You don't. Even the pubstomping Lothar's Edge doesn't work well with Rigwarl. You deal your damage over a prolonged fight. Being able to sneak in - because you turned off your Radiance, LOLOLOL - isn't going to help you kill anyone any faster. Again, there's just nothing that really provides a meaningful benefit.
Okay, Smartass, Look at These!
Sure, BKB is useful on any hero. But with your speed and range, you should be fighting on the outskirts of any teamfight for as long as possible. You're not playing the short game: you don't Blink in and launch some devastating combo or unload a massive amount of near-burst DPS. Disables are much less effective at range, anyway. Linken's is even less useful.
What does a Shiva's get you? An armor boost and an AoE slow, at the bargain cost of 4700 gold! You absolutely don't need the Intelligence boost, for starters. This is one of those items that one of your other teammates - an Intelligence hero or a Strength hero who behaves like an Intelligence hero, perhaps? - should buy, especially if you're carrying (and you probably will be).
Well, what about a Guinsoo? I'm a big fan of the item in general. The first thing you'll notice is that the (significant) Intelligence boost and the (significant) mana regeneration boost are near-useless on you. Sure, percentage regeneration works well, but that's overkill. But we all know the real reason anyone buys it is for the disable: a damn good one, at that. Sure, it's nice, but you're still fighting at range. Remember: most of your damage comes from you just being there, burning things and shitting out quills. Again, this is another item that one of your teammates should be buying.
That brings us to Vanguard. Ah, yes, Vanguard. Let me put it to you this way: if you buy a Vanguard, you pretty much fail. Even if you were going to tank, there's no way any team that isn't functionally retarded is going to focus you unless you have a Radiance. By the time you have that Radiance, what the hell is 40 damage block going to do for you? HAY GUYZ LOOK AT ME MORT ONLY CRIT ME FOR 760 INSTEAD OF 800 LOLOLOLOLOL. You're also not going to be tanking creep waves unless you're a fucking moron. Hood scales; Vanguard doesn't. Congratulations: you're a moron.
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Farm Your Ass Off
Always remember: odds are, you're carrying. As such, 100% of your efforts should be dedicated to getting into a position to take over the game as quickly as possible. Farm, farm, farm. Let your teammates babysit, ward and gank. Unless there's a damn compelling reason (such as your teammates setting up a gank for you), farm that rice! If you really want to go hog wild, why not set yourself up to make it possible?
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The Piggy Dance
Rigwarl's combination of high speed and lowering the speed of his opponents allows for some extremely cheap (and funny) possibilities.
While I can't make a video for you (since I forget to save replays and I have the artistic talent of a blind schizophrenic), the concepts are easy enough to follow and hey, practice makes perfect, right?
As I said before, your job is to isolate and eliminate. To further that end, or to simply run interference, all one needs to do is spam your spells. While doing so, you go faster and faster while they go slower and slower. Simply dance out of their range and let your Radiance and Quill Spray damage do the trick. With such simple tactics, you can easily frustrate most melee heroes (and hard carries, even) to no end, rendering them largely ineffective! Ursa's DPS doesn't mean a damn thing if he can't close on you. Even carries with a fairly short attack range (such as Harbinger) can be stymied in this way. While this doesn't work with all heroes (Nightstalker at night, anybody?) it's effective enough that it creates a lose-lose situation: either way, you win.
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The Power of the Pig: a Harrowing Tale of Survival, Triumph, and Bacon
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Allies
Some heroes are worthy of sharing in the goodness of bacon.
Initiators
You can't; they can. Sounds good to me.
Babysitters
Their whole purpose is to make sure people like you are in a position to dominate. Make it happen and try your best to make sure you're laned with one!
Armor Eaters Heroes Who in Some Way, Shape or Form Make it So Damage that Rigwarl Deals is Increased by at Least a Fairly Significant Amount Since Various People Have to Take Things Literally Instead of Allowing Ursa to Fit into a Group of Heroes Who Give Rigwarl the Same Advantages Even Though Ursa Does the Exact Same Thing But in a Different Way
Stygian carriers fit here, too. You pair well with them; they pair well with you. Bring the DPS!
Enemies
While Rigwarl has few enemies as the game develops, some heroes still want nothing more than to keep that tasty bacon for themselves!
Strong Laners
etc...
Unfortunately, this also includes a fairly large number of Intelligence heroes. Basically, all these guys can make last hitting hell, a fact that your presence only compounds...
Gankers
etc...
This also includes a fair number of the above heroes. Remember: at low levels, you're a low-HP hero with no escape. You need to be babysat!
Bloodseeker
Why does Bloodseeker deserve a special mention, you ask? Simple: Rupture. So much of Rigwarl's game relies on mobility, and Bloodseeker completely snuffs it out. He pulls your tricks on you: die to AoE, or bleed to death? Avoid.
Razor
Snot? Purge. Snot? Purge. Snot? Purge. Plasma Field. Static Link. Eye of the Storm. Razor is kind of a dick. Leave him alone.
Magic Stick
Yup. Guess what's good against a spell spammer? A Magic Stick. Guess what's even better against a spell spammer who spams very low damage spells? Sigh. Magic Stick. Especially if a strong laner gets it, you can be in serious trouble. Basically for every Quill Spray you use, you're giving an Orbwalker another cast of their orb. And that sucks. A lot.
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This is a guide for Rigwarl, the only hero who is awesome enough to be used for bacon. Mmm, bacon. Bacon is awesome, and logic would dictate that whatever produced the aforementioned bacon would be awesome as well, and this is most certainly the case. Nonetheless, Rigwarl's potential is frequently squandered, and in a case like this, who really wants to share bacon?
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Advantages and Disadvantages
Because if shit were simple, it wouldn't be complicated.
Advantages:
- Very good chaser
- Very strong 1v1 hero, especially against melee
- Few "natural" counters as the game goes on
- Strong AoE presence from mid game on
- Solid starting damage
- Highest Intelligence growth of any Strength hero
- Strong survivability...when back is turned
- Blows snots on people
- BACON IS MADE FROM HIM
Disadvantages:
- Melee hero
- Starting stats are fairly average across the board
- No disable
- Only real escape mechanism is running
- Strongly countered in lane by the simplest of items
- Slow base movement speed
- Low Strength growth for a Strength hero (only Io, Dirge, Rexxar and Razzil are as low or lower)
- Hit Points are low, especially for a Strength hero
- Have to kill him to make bacon
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Hammer This Section Into Your Head
There are two types of people in the world: people who are smart enough to realize this (ie, me) and retards (which may or may not include you). DotA players often mistake survivability for tankability. They see
While it's true that Rigwarl can be used in such a role (as can any other hero, to be honest), his skills give him a very different role.
Let's wade into this slowly. Let's cast Rigwarl as a tank and compare him to Axe and Centaur Warchief, as both heroes are commonly picked as tanks first. Ignoring choice of footwear, let's look at the HP of all three heroes with an item or two that they would almost always have at Level 11. With two Bracers, Rigwarl has 1214 HP. With a Magic Wand and one point in Stats, Axe has 1195 HP. With just a Magic Wand, Centaur has 1594 HP. At first glance, this would seem to indicate that with a couple Bracers, Rigwarl is pretty comparable to other, more commonly picked tanks.
But wait! Bristleback has, well, Bristleback! Assuming you took it to Level 4, this would give Rigwarl a maximum of 1699 EHP! Maybe the great Zotmaster is wrong after all!
Except as far as tanking goes, the Bristleback skill is largely irrelevant. Sure, the damage reduction is great, but you only get it when you're not facing an enemy. Were you to keep your back turned the whole time - and were the enemy team to be stupid enough to attack you from behind without moving to a more advantageous position - all you would be able to do is Quill Spray. Sure, the damage adds up, but it starts off as a very insignificant amount and this shuts you out from using Viscous Nasal Goo or even attacking. With that simple logic in mind, it should be clear that this is not truly the intended purpose of Bristleback. Well then, what is?
Consider the things a tank needs to be able to do. 99% of the time, this means initiate and immediately start some shit. To this end, Axe and Centaur commonly use Dagger to Blink into the middle of the fray. To further this end, both pack AoE disables: Axe's not only increases his armor, but forces enemies to attack him, which helps him deal damage with Counter Helix. Centaur's stun is 2.75 seconds at level 4, which is considerable. Were you to buy a Dagger with Bristleback and Blink in, you'd have two options: you could either fire off a Quill Spray for somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 damage, or blow snots on a single enemy, lowering his armor but dealing zero damage. Whoopty-fucking-do. Simply put, Rigwarl is not an initiator. This should be an immediate red flag.
Even so, initiating is not enough. Tanks have to provide the enemies an incentive to try to punch through their higher HP and armor. Axe doesn't give them a choice: like it or not, when Axe's disable goes off, the enemies will attack Axe. Even after that, if Axe targets heroes, it triggers creep aggro, and they can trigger Counter Helix as well, which increases Axe's damage output. Centaur also has a trick up his sleeve: namely, Double Edge. A 400 point nuke is nothing to sneeze at: especially when it's a 400 point nuke with a ministun that's on a mere 12 second cooldown. Simply put, Centaur's potential burst damage alone makes him a threat. Even better, as he gets attacked, he has scaling damage by way of Return. Without items, Bristleback has Quill Spray and that's about it. True, Quill Spray becomes significant over time, but if that's all Bristleback is bringing, he can largely be ignored in favor of scarier heroes. This is another immediate red flag.
Okay, enough with the pig bashing; after all, since I'm writing a guide about him, clearly he can do something well. Indeed he can: when it comes to chasing down fleeing heroes, it's no contest. Axe might be able to hit with a Culling Beard before the hero runs away, but beyond that, he has to hope to get lucky with Dagger (which includes being lucky enough to be able to use it in the first place). Same deal with Centaur: it's not a particularly good situation. Rigwarl, on the other hand, absolutely fucking shines in this situation. Not only does he have Viscous Nasal Goo to slow enemies down, but each time he casts a spell, he gets faster. With two spells with a low mana cost and cooldown, clearly it's Rigwarl's job to spam. And as he does so, he moves faster and faster and hits harder and harder. That's not the job of a tank. Rigwarl's AoE presence - especially combined with a Radiance - adds up to a significant damage output. His speed allows him to stay mobile, avoiding retaliation as he applies constant pressure via spammable spells. And then when the battle breaks off and heroes try to run for it, Rigwarl can gun them down.
Remember how I said the intended purpose of the Bristleback skill wasn't to tank? This is where the ability really comes into play. Okay, you've chased down the hero and clubbed him like a baby seal. What now? Well, you're likely facing retaliation. You have no disable and no escape mechanism other than running. So, you run. And now that your back is turned, Bristleback is there to save your ass. And that, my friends, is Bristleback's lovely synergy: strong AoE presence via ever-increasing damage, spell spamming to reduce enemy armor and speed while increasing his own speed, and then damage reduction while retreating to live to tell about it.
All this having been said, being flexible is what DotA is all about. With that in mind, there actually can be particular situations where tanking is in Rigwarl's best interests. This mostly depends, however, on team composition. If you have one of the proverbial "hard carries" - Phantom Assassin, Troll Warlord and Faceless Void obviously come to mind immediately - playing more of a supporting/tank role will probably yield better results. Don't underestimate your own damage output, though: with just a Radiance and Quill Sprays, Rigwarl can do upwards of 1000 DPS in team fights. That having been said, Mortred can do that much in a single swing and in such a case, she's almost certainly the better carry. Your job is then to farm up your Radiance as usual and just try to draw as much fire as you can. But even so, you're not "tanking" by soaking up damage: you're tanking by drawing fire and running interference. At the most, Rigwarl is a hybrid carry/tank that leans heavily toward the former.
Quod erat demonstrandum, bitches.
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Herp Derp Alt-Tab Guide
For those who can't live without an alt-tab guide:
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The Skinny on the Fat
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Skills and Commentary
Viscous Nasal Goo
Covers a target in snot, causing it to have reduced armor and movement speed. Casts on the same target are cumulative.
Ability Type: Active
Targeting Type: Unit
Ability Hotkey: G
Mana Cost: 30
Cooldown: 1.5 sec
Duration: 5 sec
Casting Range: 600
| Level | Effect |
| 1 | -1 armor, 20% and +3% slow a cast |
| 2 | -1 armor, 20% and +6% slow a cast |
| 3 | -2 armor, 20% and +9% slow a cast |
| 4 | -2 armor, 20% and +12% slow a cast |
Note
- Stacks up to 4 times.
Mmm, boogers. This spell is the primary reason why Bristleback is such a good chaser. However, it's worth noting that this skill also eats armor, which enables your Quill Sprays to do a bit more damage. You can also use this to dispel effects like Healing Salve. Once your mana pool can support this, use this over and over again to slow down would-be runners. This is also your primary weapon for the "Piggy Dance" (which I will cover later). Also reasonably effective against Roshan.
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Skill Build
1 - Quill Spray/Bristleback
2 - Bristleback/Quill Spray
3 - Quill Spray
4 - Bristleback
5 - Quill Spray
6 - Warpath
7 - Quill Spray
8 - Bristleback
9 - Bristleback
10 - Viscous Nasal Goo
11 - Warpath
12 - Viscous Nasal Goo
13 - Viscous Nasal Goo
14 - Viscous Nasal Goo
15 - Stats
16 - Warpath
17-25 - Stats
Bristleback's skill build is pretty simple and straight forward. As a carry, it is generally more advisable to give up the early game in favor of attaining dominance a little further down the road, but if you're playing with a team you know well, feel free to take a level of Viscous Nasal Goo early to see if you can snag yourself some early kills. Otherwise, the name of the game is to stay alive and use Quill Spray to last hit as many creeps as possible while keeping you as safe as a melee hero can be.
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Item Build
Without question, immediately buy yourself:
As a melee hero who doesn't pack the highest HP, two sets of Tangoes are an absolute must. Spend the rest of your gold on some combination of the following:
If you have absolutely no idea what you're doing, buy yourself two Circlets and turn them into Bracers. Buying Gauntlets to work toward an Urn is also an option, but the best overall starting build is definitely three Branches and a Quelling Blade. The Branches give good early stats and set you on the path toward a Magic Wand, and the Quelling Blade helps ensure that you get as many last hits as humanly possible. Rigwarl absolutely needs a Radiance to be relevant, and the Quelling Blade helps make sure you get there.
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Core Build
Rigwarl's core is pretty simple, with only very slight alterations:
Simply put, Magic Wand is too good. It does everything you want it to do without getting girls pregnant. A couple charges keeps you in lane longer and guarantees you'll be able to cast the spell you need.
Obviously, you'll need Boots, but Rigwarl is fairly unique in that any of the three main choices of footwear are viable on him. Treads is generally the preferred choice as it's cheap to build, provides much-needed HP and is the only one that allows your damage to scale. That having been said, Phase Boots are fairly cheap as well and give the highest boost to speed when you activate them. However, casting your spells removes the buff, making this less-than-optimal. Boots of Travel, on the other hand, give a huge movement speed bonus and allows you to Town Portal to your heart's content. That having been said, they're by far the most expensive option and you absolutely need to get Radiance ASAP. Unless you're farming unusually well, I recommend sticking with Treads.
You may have noticed I didn't mention Arcane Boots in the above paragraph. Sure, Arcane Boots seem cool, but in reality they're like the kid who used to always steal my crayons when he thought I wasn't looking. He turned out to be gay.
Rigwarl is also a great candidate for an Urn. The Strength bonus, of course, is always welcome. More than that, the mana regeneration is especially good on Rigwarl. As he levels up, Rigwarl gets a fairly large mana pool thanks to his high Intelligence growth, and the higher your mana pool, the better percentage-based regeneration gets. Also never underestimate the power of its charges. Having your own portable Healing Salve machine can be incredibly powerful, enabling you to quickly recover from ganks. Remember, you're carrying: you need to farm your ass off.
Radiance comes straight out of the "no shit" files for Rigwarl. It not only turns a decent farmer into an excellent one, but enables you to deal large amounts of damage and piss people off just by being there. It's effective against images, invisibility, backtalk, you name it. Spam your spells, boost your speed, and light shit on fire.
The big surprise, however, is the Orb of Venom. At a measly 450 gold, it transforms Rigwarl from a good chaser to a retardedly awesome chaser. What's better than a stackable slow? A big slow that disables Dagger! As long as you can manage a single melee attack every four seconds, you can pretty much make sure that an enemy hero can never escape unless you let him.
Remember, though, you're almost always going to be the carry. Your job is to get into a position to carry. Therefore, depending on the lineup - or whether or not you have a teammate who can do it better - you may require a detour:
Hood is solid and keeps you from having to retreat quite so often. Nonetheless, your job is to build yourself up and spam your spells, and this is a diversion from that.
Bracers are also always a consideration. If
Remember, you need Radiance...unless your life depends on it, in which case you might need a Hood or a Bracer
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Then What?
For the most part, Rigwarl can whup enough ass with just the above items without even needing an actual Orb effect. Nonetheless, if you're trying to pull your best Leoric impression (by balling out of control), the following may be up to your speed:
Assault Cuirass is a pretty logical followup. More attack speed is good, more armor is great, and less armor for your enemies is even better. Depending on how much anti-Armor you have on your team, however, the other items may be much better for you.
At first, seeing Heart as an extension might seem like a curious pick. After all, I laid out why Rigwarl isn't really a tank. However, there's more to it than meets the eye. Huge amounts of HP and damage are obviously very good. However, Heart also has great synergy with Bristleback. Remember, Bristleback is there to help you chase people down and live to tell about it. Once you use your superior speed to get away, Heart is there to get you back to fighting shape in no time. Less than a minute later, it's like you never even felt it. After farming your core, this is almost always the first luxury you should get.
As for a Skadi, well, why the fuck not? You're already getting an Orb of Venom. Skadi has great stats all over the place. And I assure you: if you play Rigwarl to his potential, it's entirely possible to have your entire core and any two of these three items. If you can't win at this point...well, at least you know you're a tasty meal.
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Really? No Other Items?
Well, yeah. Unfortunately, most items - even the luxuries I've listed - don't really work as well with Rigwarl as they do with most other heroes. Let's go over some of them:
What Do These Items Have in Common?
The short answer: both items suck in general. But really, the longer answer follows:
What Do These Have in Common?
All of the above items require the hero to physically attack a target early and often. Rigwarl doesn't do that. Sure, you do need to put some hits in here and there, but none of these orbs do much for a hero who only attacks once every second or two. This is why Skadi is the only logical pick: true, it doesn't pair perfectly, but it's the only orb that really provides a benefit to heroes who don't physically attack all the time.
Well Then, What About These?
What the hell are you going to do with any of those? Again, all these items need heroes who physically attack the ever-living shit out of everything. You don't. Even the pubstomping Lothar's Edge doesn't work well with Rigwarl. You deal your damage over a prolonged fight. Being able to sneak in - because you turned off your Radiance, LOLOLOL - isn't going to help you kill anyone any faster. Again, there's just nothing that really provides a meaningful benefit.
Okay, Smartass, Look at These!
Sure, BKB is useful on any hero. But with your speed and range, you should be fighting on the outskirts of any teamfight for as long as possible. You're not playing the short game: you don't Blink in and launch some devastating combo or unload a massive amount of near-burst DPS. Disables are much less effective at range, anyway. Linken's is even less useful.
What does a Shiva's get you? An armor boost and an AoE slow, at the bargain cost of 4700 gold! You absolutely don't need the Intelligence boost, for starters. This is one of those items that one of your other teammates - an Intelligence hero or a Strength hero who behaves like an Intelligence hero, perhaps? - should buy, especially if you're carrying (and you probably will be).
Well, what about a Guinsoo? I'm a big fan of the item in general. The first thing you'll notice is that the (significant) Intelligence boost and the (significant) mana regeneration boost are near-useless on you. Sure, percentage regeneration works well, but that's overkill. But we all know the real reason anyone buys it is for the disable: a damn good one, at that. Sure, it's nice, but you're still fighting at range. Remember: most of your damage comes from you just being there, burning things and shitting out quills. Again, this is another item that one of your teammates should be buying.
That brings us to Vanguard. Ah, yes, Vanguard. Let me put it to you this way: if you buy a Vanguard, you pretty much fail. Even if you were going to tank, there's no way any team that isn't functionally retarded is going to focus you unless you have a Radiance. By the time you have that Radiance, what the hell is 40 damage block going to do for you? HAY GUYZ LOOK AT ME MORT ONLY CRIT ME FOR 760 INSTEAD OF 800 LOLOLOLOLOL. You're also not going to be tanking creep waves unless you're a fucking moron. Hood scales; Vanguard doesn't. Congratulations: you're a moron.
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Farm Your Ass Off
Always remember: odds are, you're carrying. As such, 100% of your efforts should be dedicated to getting into a position to take over the game as quickly as possible. Farm, farm, farm. Let your teammates babysit, ward and gank. Unless there's a damn compelling reason (such as your teammates setting up a gank for you), farm that rice! If you really want to go hog wild, why not set yourself up to make it possible?
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The Piggy Dance
Rigwarl's combination of high speed and lowering the speed of his opponents allows for some extremely cheap (and funny) possibilities.
While I can't make a video for you (since I forget to save replays and I have the artistic talent of a blind schizophrenic), the concepts are easy enough to follow and hey, practice makes perfect, right?
As I said before, your job is to isolate and eliminate. To further that end, or to simply run interference, all one needs to do is spam your spells. While doing so, you go faster and faster while they go slower and slower. Simply dance out of their range and let your Radiance and Quill Spray damage do the trick. With such simple tactics, you can easily frustrate most melee heroes (and hard carries, even) to no end, rendering them largely ineffective! Ursa's DPS doesn't mean a damn thing if he can't close on you. Even carries with a fairly short attack range (such as Harbinger) can be stymied in this way. While this doesn't work with all heroes (Nightstalker at night, anybody?) it's effective enough that it creates a lose-lose situation: either way, you win.
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The Power of the Pig: a Harrowing Tale of Survival, Triumph, and Bacon
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Allies
Some heroes are worthy of sharing in the goodness of bacon.
Initiators
You can't; they can. Sounds good to me.
Babysitters
Their whole purpose is to make sure people like you are in a position to dominate. Make it happen and try your best to make sure you're laned with one!
Stygian carriers fit here, too. You pair well with them; they pair well with you. Bring the DPS!
Enemies
While Rigwarl has few enemies as the game develops, some heroes still want nothing more than to keep that tasty bacon for themselves!
Strong Laners
etc...Unfortunately, this also includes a fairly large number of Intelligence heroes. Basically, all these guys can make last hitting hell, a fact that your presence only compounds...
Gankers
etc...This also includes a fair number of the above heroes. Remember: at low levels, you're a low-HP hero with no escape. You need to be babysat!
Bloodseeker
Why does Bloodseeker deserve a special mention, you ask? Simple: Rupture. So much of Rigwarl's game relies on mobility, and Bloodseeker completely snuffs it out. He pulls your tricks on you: die to AoE, or bleed to death? Avoid.
Razor
Snot? Purge. Snot? Purge. Snot? Purge. Plasma Field. Static Link. Eye of the Storm. Razor is kind of a dick. Leave him alone.
Magic Stick
Yup. Guess what's good against a spell spammer? A Magic Stick. Guess what's even better against a spell spammer who spams very low damage spells? Sigh. Magic Stick. Especially if a strong laner gets it, you can be in serious trouble. Basically for every Quill Spray you use, you're giving an Orbwalker another cast of their orb. And that sucks. A lot.
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