Bristleback

## **Base Stats**

 **Int.**
25 + 4
 **Agil.**
0 + 0
 **Str.**
25 + 4

 **Damage**
35 - 55
 **Move**
325
 **Armor**
0

**Rigwarl**, the **Bristleback**, is a melee strength hero 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 fight; this is directly reflected in his ultimate, Warpath, which powers up his movement and attack damage based on the number of spells he recently cast. He is able to increasingly slow his enemies down and reduce their armor with Viscous Nasal Goo and hit them with a barrage of Quill Sprays, making him an effective chaser when ganking enemies. His low strength gain makes him seem less tanky than most strength heroes at first glance, but his signature Bristleback passive substantially reduces all damage he takes from the sides and especially the rear, making him very difficult to bring down if he's facing away from his enemies. In the right hands, Bristleback is a powerful ganker in the early stages of the game, and a powerful hard carry in the later stages depending on how much farm he gets.

## Talents

 +25 Strength
 +15% Magic Resistance
 +240 Gold/Min

## Recommended items

#### Starting items:

* Tango provides health regeneration while farming.
* Clarities 180 mana regeneration over time for only 50 gold, since Bristleback tends to have mana regeneration problems at early stages.
* Shield 1 Basic Defense item, also can be used to upgrade into vanguard which is needed in completing the Earth Rapier

#### Early game:

* Power Treads / Phase Boots Your early game choice of boots.
* Tome of Knowledge 1
* Midas Armlet / Midas Crown 1 Early boost to gold/exp gain.
* Radiance Blade 1  Good to have more than 1 source of damage output.

#### Early Mid-game:

* Mega Treads / Haste Boots Boots upgrade.
* Dragon Heart 1 Adds Sustainability to farm harder creeps so that your team does not have to all pile up at the same place, the Strength adds more damage to Bristleback's Quill Spray.
* Tome of Knowledge 2
* Midas Armlet 2 / Midas Crown 2 Better yield from the bonus.
* Boots of Travel Only if you are playing Legend difficulty and above, and need to help your team constantly to against defend the Alliance waves

#### Late Mid-game:

* Tome of Knowledge 3
* Octarine Core 1 Very Optional, Since Bristleback does not really benefit from the cooldown reduction that much , only build this if you are planning to get Octarine Core 2 for late game.
* Midas Armlet 3 / Midas Crown 3 final upgrade for a great gold/exp gain.
* Radiance Armor 1
* Titan Armor 1
* Calaminh's Tutela Plate building towards Earth Rapier.

#### Late game:

* Ultra Boots a must have for mobility.
* Radiance Armor 2 more health and damage.
* Earth Rapier your choice of rapier.
* Titans Armor 2 provides 45 armor and a big boost to your health regeneration.
* Heart of Tarrasque 2 Only for Legend and above difficulty.

#### Other items to consider:

* Cursed Cuirass
* Heroic Helm
* Radiance Armor
* Octarine Core 2
* Bonus Stats +10
* Angelic Alliance

## Gameplay

### Starting:

* Start off by Hitting the Golden Rock located at the left side of the Base, it will provide you with gold and experience each time you hit it. Use this to help gain some lvls for bristleback and enough gold to buy a Midas Crown.

### Early game:

* It is most suggested that Bristleback head over the Spiders as soon as he gets Midas Crown and a couple of clarity and a shield as he is able to farm them by then.
* Help stack the spiders while farming to increase farming efficiency for you and your team. To do so simply attack the creeps until they are low health and kite them towards a spot and kill them off, the creeps will then respawn at the spot where they died, doing this will allow you to stack a lot of creeps in one location.
* As soon as your team are done with the Golden Rock and start heading over to the spiders, you may now head over to the Treants located just north from the spider's nest. You should have enough money to purchase some good sustainable item which will allow you to farm harder creeps. Doing so ensures that your entire team does not end up waiting at the same spot.

### Mid game:

* Bosses at the mid lane spawn every 10 minutes, always teleport to assist your team in tanking some damage as the bosses from early stage are quite touch since everyone does not have enough items to aid them in holding off the bosses.
* With a Radiance Armor and Dragon Hearts, you are pretty much strong enough to start roaming the swamp area which you can access by heading north from where the golden rock is located. Creeps spawn there can be stacked as well.

### Late game:

* Try to get to Undead Area as soon as possible, creeps there will drop a potion that will add to your max HP and base damage, more Hp means more damage output from radiance armor. They also have a chance to drop +10 Bonus stats, which is always a good thing especially for a hero like Bristleback who deals a proportion of damage based on his Strength.

## Additional Tips

* As Bristleback, you want to take on harder creeps ahead of your team. Because the more damage you tank, the more damage output you can put out from your passive skill Bristleback. Just Teleport home if you are low and start over again.