Asian Girls | Dota Guide and Strategy

Barathrum the SpiritBreaker
By Nori-

There are several reasons as to why I wrote this guide. First and foremost, to compete in contest(s). Yes, contests. Secondly, the coming of v6.49 gave rise to the possibility of new item builds. Most notably the Armlet and Power Treads. About a month ago, someone, or rather, Miss_Imperfect, came up with an idea of PowerTreads/Armlet Barathrum. Certainly a brilliant idea. It quickly made me realised that the age-old SB guide by Murin is severely outdated and no longer effective. Knowing that I will be ‘borrowing’ some of Miss_Imperfect’s idea, as a polite gesture, I suggested doing this guide together. Her guide afterall, is still in the sandbox under construction. She had to decline however, due to time commitment. I never feel good about ’stealing’ someone else’s idea, but I did what I could to avoid any misunderstanding.

This hero is very much underused and I won’t be surprised if people aren’t really interested in reading SB guides. Therefore, I made a video…

The video isn’t exactly the typical pawning Pudge hooks/Potm Arrows type. The idea is to give a feel of how strong this guy is (in terms of DPS) with just minimal items. Which in most cases, just Power Treads and 2 bracers.

Barathrum’s Skills

Almost all of Barathrum’s skills are unique. It is interesting how each of the skills actually and Virot2 had came up with a thread pertaining to all the nitty-gritty details for each of his skills.

Link: All about Spirit Breaker, Details, details

The relevant details will be summarized again in each of the respective skills in this guide. Skill usage, how to use, and its synergy will not be discussed here but in the later sections under Strategy.

Charge of Darkness

Barathrum fixes his sight on an enemy and accelerates towards it. As you increase speed, you begin to merge with the shadows around you, becoming difficult to see until you stop the Charge or hit your target. Upon leaving the shadows, Barathrum shocks his opponent into an immobile state for some time.

Level 1 - Accelerates slowly, 1 sec stun.
Level 2 - Accelerates moderately, 1.5 sec stun.
Level 3 - Accelerates fast, 2 sec stun.
Level 4 - Accelerates very fast, 2.5 sec stun.

Cooldown: 40 seconds.
Mana Cost: 120.

Detail #1:
Every four seconds, Barathrum’s speed increases, maxing out after 12 seconds. The speed increases at each level (starting at 0 seconds) are:

Level 1 - 10/20/30/40%
Level 2 - 15/30/45/60%
Level 3 - 20/40/60/80%
Level 4 - 25/50/75/100%

Note: Max Speed is 522ms
With Treads, his ms will be 360. At 40% increase, his total ms = 360*1.4 + 360*0.08 (from haste) = 532 (capped at 522). Therefore with treads and lvl 4 haste, he needs 12sec/8sec/4sec/4sec for levels 1/2/3/4 Charge respectively to reach maximum speed.

Detail #2:
As of v6.44, the Charge buff (the icon you see in his hero potrait) will remain for 4 secs after he has landed his Stun. Previously, his buff will dissapear completely once the stun has landed, or when he stops the charge. This 4 sec buff simply translates to 4 sec of maximum bonus dmg from Empowering Haste (16% of 522ms is 83.5dmg). With level 1 Charge lasting 1 sec and a level 1 NetherStrike at Level 7, this buff is devastatingly powerful.
Another area where this buff is made useful is when you realise that it is too risky to stun the target just before 1000 distance from you. The 4 sec buff allows you to escape out of sight in an instant. This change change/buff was possible made due to problems with Barathrum getting stucked in ledges and cliffs when he stops suddenly.

Detail #3:
Other details include:

• he gains shared vision of the target
• Charge will continue even when target blinks or teleport away
• Charge will target the ‘real’ image if target forms illusions
• Collision size reduced to 0 meaning he can pass through creeps and ledges/cliffs similar to Spectre’s Spectral Dagger ability. Charge however, is uncontrollable in a sense that you cannot manually spam-click ground to move through trees or across a cliff.
• When a target does BKB when Charged, the charge buff on the target will be dispelled and so does the shared vision. The Charge buff on Bara however will still remain and he will continue chasing the target. Worth noting is that his attack behaviour will change. If he crosses an area with enemy creeps, he will begin to auto-attack them first, kill them all, and once there are no more creeps, he will continue chasing the target again. Similar effects will be observed when the target is purged, dispelled, Naix hiding in creep, or against Tidehunter’s dispelling Kraken Shell.
• There exist a small window of a few milisecs where you can avoid being stunned by blinking or windwalking. This is when Bara is about to land the stun (which is actually a Storm bolt).
• Every few secs, his image will progressively turn transparent to near invisible similar to PA’s blur ability.

Empowering Haste

Causes the Spiritbreaker to swing his weapon faster with higher movement speed, allowing him to deal extra damage. His presence increases the movement speed of nearby allied units (300 AoE).

Level 1 - Increases movement speed by 2% and damage by 4% of his movement speed.
Level 2 - Increases movement speed by 4% and damage by 8% of his movement speed.
Level 3 - Increases movement speed by 6% and damage by 12% of his movement speed.
Level 4 - Increases movement speed by 8% and damage by 16% of his movement speed.

Passive Aura, 300 AoE
Attack type Hero, Damage type Normal

Details :

• Attack type Hero, Damage type Normal: similar to Bara’s own attack, reduced by Armor. Damage done is completely independent, hence orb effects such as lifesteal etc will not take effect.
• Illusions gain Empowering Haste
• Attack triggers when Bara begins an attack. To prevent abuse, Haste only triggers a maximum once every 0.3 secs.
• With Power Treads and Level 4 Haste, he has 388ms.
  388ms ~ 62 bonus dmg
  522ms ~ 83.5 bonus dmg
  With Charge buff lasting another 4 sec after stun, you gain 4 secs of 83.5 bonus damage. Great Synergy.

Greater Bash

Gives a 17% chance to bash enemies across the ground, doing more initial damage and damage as they skid.

Level 1 - 25 bonus damage, 140 knockback distance.
Level 2 - 50 bonus damage, 180 knockback distance.
Level 3 - 75 bonus damage. 220 knockback distance.
Level 4 - 100 bonus damage. 260 knockback distance.

Passive

Details:

• Greater Bash triggers at the start of Barathrum’s attack.
  He may Greater Bash even on attacks that then miss or are disrupted.
• Total of 0.95/1.15/1.35/1.55 seconds of slide time for level 1/2/3/4 respectively. This can also be viewed in terms of Stun seconds.
• Greater Bash triggers at most once every 1.5 seconds. Hencewise a level 4 bash, you will almost rarely get a chance to bash the target again while he is sliding.
• Target will destroy trees in its slide path. If his path is blocked by a cliff/ledge, he will start making jerking movements.
• Total slide distance of Greater Bash is 140.2/150.1/156.7/161.1
• The bonus damage (25/50/75/100) is dealt all at once at the start of the Greater Bash

Nether Strike

Moves you next to your target doing extra damage. Performs a greater bash hit. Casting range improves per level.

Level 1 - 200 mana, 75 cooldown, 400 cast range, lasts 1.55 seconds, 100 Damage, 1 Teleportation Delay.
Level 2 - 250 mana, 75 cooldown, 550 cast range, lasts 1.55 seconds, 200 Damage, 1 Teleportation Delay.
Level 3 - 300 mana, 75 cooldown, 700 cast range, lasts 1.55 seconds, 300 Damage, 1 Teleportation Delay

Details :

• After 1 second, Barathrum teleports to the target, is ordered to attack and delivers a level 4 Greater Bash
• Once Bara finishes casting Nether Strike, nothing will stop the bash. Even if he died, his dead body will still bash the target. If target teleports to another location, Bara will still appear next to him. Most common scenario is Bara teleporting to Enemy’s Fountain.
• Bara can target Magic Immune with Nether Strike. They will not receive the bonus damage but the bash slide effect will still occur. Useful for chasing down BKBed units.

Skill Build
1. Charge
2. Haste
3. Haste
4. Bash
5. Haste
6. Nether Strike
7. Haste
8. Charge
9. Charge
10. Charge
11. Nether Strike
12. Bash
13. Bash
14. Bash
15. Stats
16. Nether Strike
17-25. Stats

Skill Build Justification

You will start off learning Charge. The stun can be handy when you are harrasing with an early. Possible for first blood or even to save a dying friend. Anyways, even if you learn Haste at level 1, Charge at level 2, it wouldn’t make such a big difference. It will only be a matter of time for you to reach level 2. Haste is taken later and subsequently maxed first (till Lvl 7). Only one point in Bash is needed early on, which you will learn at level 4. The 17% chance at level 1 is too good to pass up. Nether strike is learnt at 6, 11, 16. Charge is maxed next and finally Bash.
Most importantly, at Level 7 you must have Haste maxed out, learn 1 level of Charge and Bash as well as Nether Strike. This will maximize your killing potential as a ganker by Level 7.

Item Build

Core Build

Total Costs: 700 (Bottle) + 1850 (Str Treads) + 1020 (2x Bracers) + 1950 (Mask of Madness)
= 5520 gold

I am not joking. Having played so many games with Bara, I can easily achieve Godlike status once these items have been attained. There is no where here in this forum where you can find such a cheap Core Build and I can assure you with this simple set of items, you can wreck massive damage even come late game.

Alternatively, Armlet is a great substitute (as of v6.49) for MoM. Personally, i have greater preference for MoM but for sake of completeness, I have added Armlet as an alternative. I will draw out some comparisons with Pros and Cons of choosing one over the other under Justifications.

Total Costs: 700 (Bottle) + 1850 (Str Treads) + 1020 (2x Bracers) + 2850 (Mask of Madness)
= 6420 gold

Item Build Justification

Treads (Strength) — The boots of choice. A very much needed item on SB. He needs the additional Ias to raise his Dps. The additional strength grants him additional damage and HP. Hence, saving space from the need to buy so many bracers.
Bonuses: +30%Ias, +10 Dmg, +190 hp, +65ms

Bracers — For early game survival during ganks. Good HP boost and additional damage. Allows you to survive a tower dive.
Bonuses: +6 Dmg, +3%Ias, +3 Int, +114 hp

Bottle — Yes. Bottle. Bara is one of the few heroes which I will go godlike every time, every game. The other one is Templar Assasin. Indeed the function of Bottle on him is the same as that of TA in that he needs to replenish him mana to sustain himself in carrying out more ganks. His ultimate has a great cooldown (75sec is as good as 60sec for Primal Roar) but carries along a high mana cost. At level 7, Bara’s mana pool is barely 350mana. A charge and a Nether Strike will consume 320mana. Going around ganking means alot of tower diving, hence the burst hp regen is very useful too.

Since you are ganking around from Top to Bottom Lane, you will crossing the Rivers quite a lot. Another reason to get bottle .. yeah.

Bottle is almost always gotten from the Side Secret Shops (Top/Bottom Lane) with the initial purpose of staying in the lane. When tangoes run out, Bottle comes in handy.

VS

I am not going into details on how Armlet works. If you don’t have a clue on what the Item does, take a look on this Armlet Guide by Patccmoi to have a basic understanding on how it functions. MoM is an age old which every should be familiar with. Along with the comparison, I will include a DPS Analysis in which I use a level 7 Spiritbreaker with the following items — Treads, 2x Bracers, either MoM or Armlet as shown in the image. Also to note is that the Haste bonus dmg is 83.5 at 522ms. This value will be used as your main dmg output occurs within the first 4secs after the stun.

Like I mentioned on earlier in the game, it is a matter of preference. In my book, MoM is far more superior than Armlet. One may argue that the extra damage taken is going to make you drop like a fly in thick battles. As a MoM user, you will need to learn to avoid biting more than you can chew. It comes through experience, good map awareness, and being able to predict if they are other heroes hiding and waiting to disable/nuke you. From experience, going the Armlet route usually leaves me with little health after a gank and sends me straight to the fountain. MoM allows you to recover life through neutralling.

Having an additional 50% Ias can grant you an additional Bash. It is based on chances, yes, but as far as Theorycraft is concerned, it is insufficient to come to a conclusion that Armlet has higher DPS than MoM and therefore Armlet wins flat-out. A bash on a target could mean more additional hits, acts as a disable preventing him to cast a spell, buys time for your allies to reach your location, or even saves you a Nether strike since you won’t be needing it to finish him off.

The best part of Armlet is likely the Hp boost you gain upon activation. Allows for better tower diving and survivability. Even so, the hp gain from Treads and 2x Bracers (total of 418hp) is more than sufficient to last you in battle. It is great for mindgames too but that is not something you want to toy around in higher level inhouse games.
Still, it’s a matter of preference. If you don’t buy my arguments, go ahead with the Armlet Route. To be honest, it is almost as effective as MoM after weighing their pros and cons. There exists a very thin line in which MoM is better than Armlet overall and this is hard to see if you have little experience playing this guy.

Seriously, No. You should head straight for Tier 4 items. It is all about game progression. Building an item takes time. It may seem at that point in time, they enemy team is scattered with solo individuals around the map giving you an easy kill. It is highly likely that 10-20mins later, they will begin to bunch up. In essence, you need to start building up your team items in preparation for the incoming team battles.
Tier 4 items like Assault Cuirass and Heart are powerful team items. One grants massive armor buffs/debuffs auras while the other transform you into a tank which is greatly useful to your team.

Assault Cuirass — You can either grab a Platemail or a Hyperstone first. Usually I go for Hyperstone for greater killing power. You might need to free up some space, sell a bracer if needed. AC is built first before Heart. It has superb synergy on your hero. Armor bonus is helpful for survivability. The key bonuses that makes it deadly on Bara are the 50%Ias as well as the -5 armor aura debuff. One grants your greater DPS and higher bash chance while the other, amplifies your damage. Also to note is that your Empowering Haste Dmg is amplified also since it is of ‘Type: Normal Dmg’ reducable by armor.
This item is a must for Barathrum.

Heart — Heart and AC always comes in pair. If you get one, you get the other. The reason is simple. As much as you want to balance Ias and Dmg to maximize your DPS, you will want to maximize your EHP too with Armor and Raw Hp. Upon completion of this Item, you become an unstoppable tanking perma-basher.

Alternative
Satanic — In the case where you went the Armlet route, this item will help you more instead of Heart. Great Lifesteal, good Hp bonus. As a dps cum tanker, it is important for you to have some form of lifeleech which you hasn’t already has unless you went the MoM route.

Black King Bar — It is very likely that you will be needing this item somewhere in the game. You will get the hint when your opponent starts building up items like Guinsoo and Eul’s or you tend to be the prime target for disables. Then get this immediately. AC can wait. So does Heart.
My playstyle usually involves coming into battle late , so I usually forgo this item because by the time I enter the fight, they have exhausted all their disables.
Remember that besides the Magic Immunity it offers, it comes along with HP/Dmg bonuses too.

Hood of Defiance — This item is best used against a team of heavy nukers. Not necessary usuallly. I rarely see a need to make one. BKB will usually solve all Magic Dmg problems but every game is different, I can’t deny that.

TP Scrolls — Carry one with you for emergencies. Sometimes after a gank you run out of health. Find a tree, hide behind it, and tp away. It is quite a standard procedure to keep a scroll on you at all times. But again, it depends on the player’s playstyle. Sometimes I see players carrying tp scrolls but never used it. Reason? They forgot. lulz.

Observer Wards — Sometimes you just gank too much and the enemies just keep hiding and not appearing on the map. It leaves you with no victims to gank. Place them in the neutrals forest and catch them off-guard. If you see them bunching it, don’t worry. It is actually a good sign, they fear you. Take that opportunity to stop your ganking duties and farm the free lanes. Gank appropriately when they seperate.

Manta Style — Images gain Empowering Haste bonus. With MoM, you can easily deplete the target’s mana, grants bonus damage. Overall a good item with a good build-up (Diffusal is a good disable). Still, I leave this as optional. I suggest completing AC and Heart first before building this. If there is a Warlock on the opposing team, Id get diffusal instead of AC. He certainly will utilize it more than some useless heroes like VS.

Radiance/Battlefury — You never know, sometimes you can get a superb lane with a noob where you can almost last hit every single creep. With that massive farming speed, a Radiance rush becomes viable. Gameplay becomes clear-cut from then on. All you need to do is farm, farm, farm… Of course, the chances of this happening is rare.
Come out 50th min with AC, HoT, Manta, BoT and BKB to pawn their bases.
Battlefury on the other hand, is great for speed-farming during late game. If you have leavers on your team, there is a necessity to push the creeps fast or you will be outpushed. The same goes when some of your raxes are down. You will need additional firepower to kill those super-creeps.

Boots of Travels — Eversince the introduction of the new Strength Treads, BoT becomes obselete. It even face some ms nerf. This item cost too much, and have little utility on Bara. He doesn’t even need the extra ms bonus to boost his haste dmg. The bonus is negligible.
Unless of course, you make him into a Radiance Carry. You will need to hop around free lanes to farm.

Sange & Yasha — This item is also obselete on Bara. Offers little synergy on him. The ms bonus provides him a mere +6dmg, which is as good as nothing. Ms bonus is better supplemented with MoM. Maim effect is far from useful. All your skills revolves around bashing and stunning. The target won’t be able to escape you easily. All in all, you are paying too much for this item. The age of S&Y on SpiritBreaker is over.

Basher — A single bashing skill is enough to achieve a near perma-bash rate. Don’t spend unnecessary money for a duplicate skill. You can use the same amount of cash to get a BKB.

Vanguard — Pubs love this on him. It makes him a beefy tank with the hp boost but that can be easily fixed with the Treads and Bracers. Getting this will slow down your Core. If the intention is for greater lane staying, then you are probably not playing him according to what he excels in (ie a ganker)

What about other items not mentioned?
To reduce cluttering the guide, I have avoided discussion on unnecessary items. Certains items are far too situational to be taken or just plain wrong. If you have a question on a specific item to be discussed, feel free to ask but I will answer it in another section under F.A.Q.
In a nutshell, what Bara needs is a Treads, 2x Bracers, a Bottle, either MoM or Armlet, an AC, a HoT. If he has spare cash for more items, Manta will be great, Buriza is good too, so is MKB, or even Butterfly. An additional Heart is an awesome choice too.

You start off with 2x Gauntlets and as many tangoes as possible. Head for either the top or bottom lane. This is important because you can access the secret shop to buy your bottle.

Last-hitting with Barathrum — A level 1 haste deals about 10dmg, 20dmg at level 2. Take you time to get used to the feeling of last-hitting creeps with this skill. It isn’t easy if you are new to playing Bara. Your last-hitting might get screwed up because of haste proccing before an attack. Last-hitting at with Level 4 Haste is fun though. It does about 65dmg and its like a touch-and-go kind of last-hitting where he doesn’t even need to swing his lantern.

Dual-Laning — There is nothing much I can help out in this. Do the usual thing of last hit and denying and help out your teammate as best as you can. Figure out how best the two of you can synergize as a team.

Solo-Laning against a Dual-Laner — Fret not, this can be done. I have faced dual ranged heroes before and managed to keep myself alive. Usually, I will employ this creep pulling strategy:

Guide Link: Rosenrot

Rosenrot, lulz. What you do basically is to hug your tower by constantly pulling the creeps and last-hitting them for cash from a safe distance. Focus more on last-hitting for cash rather than denying your creeps.

Once you reach Level 7, look out for heroes to gank. Make sure you have boots and a bottle first though or chances are the gank will fail. The ganking phase will last as long as pre-lategame. Do not be afraid if you have yet aqquired MoM even at the 30th min. As long as you have done your job well as a ganker, it is good enough. With your effort, your other allies can easily farm up the items they need to win the game.
Bara’s ganking style can be compared to that of Nerubian Assasin, one that roams around 24/7 from one end of the map to the other.

Look out for runes to capture and replenish your mana consistently. Remember that a Charge and a Nether Strike combo costs 320 mana. At level 6, you will only have around 312 mana which is insufficient to pull off a straight combo. This problem can be solved either by buying 1x GG branch during early game, or simply wait for a few secs to get back 8 mana.
Only initiate a gank when you have that amount. After every successful gank, look around and see if it is safe to farm for a while. Finding some time farming is important so you won’t lag out in terms of items. Neutrals are a great choice to farm on when you have MoM. They keep you hidden in the forest making enemies be on their toes for a gank.

You will be going back to the fountain often to replenish your hp and mana as well as bottle. Take this time to upgrade your inventory. Form your Treads, Bracers and MoM as and when you can. This is as much advice I can give you on what to do during the ganking phase. Other than that, all I have are ganking techniques which will prove useful during this phase.

Good Old Fountain Charge — You start off charging right from the fountain. A trick would be to position yourself as close to the fountain so that when you start to move, you get to recover your used mana (from Charge) for a longer duration. It looks like a noob move but don’t be fooled. You may argue that “Pros won’t fall to that kind of trap, yada yada.. ” but this technique in fact has a lot of advantages.

• Best case scenario — the target does not notice himself being charged, he becomes a sitting duck. Extra money for you.
• You save alot of time getting yourself back into your lane with the insane speed.
• Good opponents carry a TP scroll. They will tp away, but it cost them 135 gold. Atop of that, you just successfully stopped their farming momentum.
• Good opponent who doesn’t carry a scroll will either move towards their ally or hug a tower. Again, you just wasted their time moving around the map doing nothing.
• Granting Truesight on Invisible targets for your allies.
• You recover back most of your mana after the charge and cooldown isn’t that bad either.

Here is an example of a charge right from the fountain. Bara was only level 7 with a boots (Drow doesn’t have one). Even with 815 hp, Drow was easiliy slaughtered by Bara. Certainly, Drow underestimated the power of SB. His bonus dmg from haste (in this case around 80 dmg for 4 secs at 510ms). Drow couldn’t possibly outrun him. Double stun/bash is definitely a fearsome combo.

Now think, what other heroes can single-handedly take out a full 800hp at Level 7. Not many I guess. Maybe Pudge, Luna or SK. Even so, they need to be lucky to have a good opportunity to strike.

Hidden Charge — Hidden Charge basically means Charging from a shorter distance while under fog of war (hence hidden). As far as possible, you want to reach full ms of 522 before hitting the target. As a general rule to reach Max speed with Treads, you need 12sec/8sec/4sec/4sec for levels 1/2/3/4 Charge respectively. The faster your speed, the less time your target wil be able to react. He could be a stunner but at such high speeds, it is easy to miss landing a stun. Night time plays a role too. With reduced vision, your target won’t even know when you came. This form of charge is used in a pre-planned ganking with an ally.

Nether Before Charge — This combo starts off with a nether strike first rather than Charge. The aim is to push back the enemy hero towards your own allies so they can land a disable or nuke him to death. You wouldn’t want to do a charge cos it will take some time for you to reach the target. Nether is immediate. Again, Charge accordingly with respect to whether they are a disbler or a non-disabler afterwards.

Communicating for a gank — Sometimes you charge an opponent from a distance and it takes 10-15 secs to actually reach the target. Use that time to communicate to your allies. Say in chat, “Charging [insert hero name]” and ping the target’s location on the map. This will inform your nearby ally to get ready to assist you in the gank. At times it may be helpful if you ping your own current location so that your ally can have a good judgement on how much longer you will take to reach your target. Bara is a very proficient tower diver. Inform your ally that you will be tower diving and tanking the damage when it comes to it.

Wards, Watchers and Revenants — Having played many games with him, I can feel the difference when my allies starts warding, putting watchers and revenants. It makes ganking easier. To charge, he needs vision and these will fulfill its purpose. I’ve caught many by surprise neutralling in the camps.
When without wards, you need to be observant in looking at the minimap. When all they heroes are missing, do not immediately charge the next red dot that appears in the map. You might end up in a trap with 4 other heroes waiting for you. As a general rule, you might want to have at least 3 enemy heroes visible in the minimap before charging the lone hero. Make sure the other two are far away from him. Now you are left with two other heroes with unknown positions. As you close in, keep track on the minimap and see if anymore red dots appear.

Remember you are a god damn assasin! You kill and you move out! Do not hang around unless you have allies in your back.

A Split Stun — A Spilt Stun is when you split your Charge and your Nether strike on two different targets. This is most notably used when you are chasing more than one targets which are on low life after a major battle where you arrived late. For example, your allied SK landed an Epicenter but two of them escaped with near red health. With a level 4 charge, you will charge one of the target, once you landed the stun, immediately nether the other fellow. You will most likely kill him in 1-2 hits. 2.5sec stun is quite a long duration. Quickly finish him off before he recovers.
Another scenario could a chasing scene where you have allies behind you. Knowing that they will come to support you, land a charge on one target, and Nether the other. Focus hitting on the ‘healthier’ one while your allies finish off the low health target. Hopefully you land a bash or two on your target hence buying more time for them.

Escaping A Failed Gank — A nether escape is done when a bunch of heroes tries to gank you and you have no choice but to run. Yes, a failed gank, one where you didn’t notice that he had other allies waiting behind trees. If say, 2 disablers a Sven and VS are chasing you, let one of them land a stun on you and then immediately nether the other guy who has yet to land a stun. Then quickly make an escape in the other direction. The general rule is to nether the furthest guy from you or someone who is near a tree bend or cliff so you can nether and run into fog of war.

Joining A Late Battle — A skirmish erupts on the other side of the map and you are not there. Use Charge to reach the location ASAP. Target a full health hero (not a semi-dead one because once he is dead, you will lose your Charge buff and the ms bonus). Someone in your team will usually die. Once you’ve landed a stun on your target, if you have a fleeing ally, use your Nether Strike to save him from the nearest threat. Now decide whether you can manage the battle, whether to flee or fight is up to your judgement

It could be 40th min, it could be 50th min. Around this time, you probably have built your AC. This is the period when team battles often erupt. Whenever possible, enter the battle late. Leave the initiation to your allies. Use your stun well, either to disrup3 a channeler, disable their carry or finish off their main support hero before he causes trouble on your team. BKB comes useful during these times but it isnt always a necessity. You begin your battle with a charge. Strange, but SB is actually a very mobile hero. If he ever gets focused, he can easily escape with nether strike and disable the hero at the same time. He is a cow, he is beefy, but never treat him like a tank. Not until he gets his Heart. Activate your MoM wisely. Activate it in mid-battle, not during the start. If in any case I get disabled or trapped, I won’t die an insta-death. As heroes slowly exhaust their disables and ultimate, activate your MoM to clean-up your opponents. The speed boost will prove useful in outrunning your opponents.
A good time to use his Nether Strike is when you get trapped in between creeps and can’t dish out proper dps on their heroes.

Videos

SpiritBreaker Video

Replays

Game 2: GG-C Inhouse Game
Replay File:
SB17_IH_GG.w3g ( 697.59k )
Number of downloads: 324

This game was an inhouse, but I don’t really know them. It just happens that one day I drop by to pass some important information to one of them, and they were playing an inhouse. It is a GG-C game and most of them are around level 20 or somthing.
The game started with me and weaver laning against Rasta and Furion. Towards mid-game, we ganked aggresively to maintain map dominance. I ended up 15-1

End Game Screenshot: http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q148/Ironfisto2000/GGCIH17.png

Game 1: GG-C High Level Game
Replay File:
SB_16_GGC_hi_lvl.w3g ( 1.25mb )
Number of downloads: 381

Sentinel:
-Sw-DulanZzz (Level 22)
-Sw-Nona147 (Level 38)
Tensa-Zengetsu (Level 20-30 somthing)
C4Prince (Level 35)
Dota_kia (Level 21)

Scourge:

rotloi (Level ???)
jin(o0o) (Level 15)
Nori- (Level 17)
EHT_Monster.CC (Level ???)
lapsap[kill] (Level 21)

The Potm, AM, Luna are friends. I can’t remember exactly how I ended up in this game but their names looks familiar. I’ve played with them before, so I expected it to be a good game. Early game was total map control by Scourge. I kept ganking them and quickly went godlike with 10-0 or something. Perfectly served his purpose during early game. AM left somewhere during that period. He was feeding me a lot of kills. It was a mistake to drag the game longer. With AM gone, Luna had more creeps to farm on. She became a monster with all the stacked items and we almost lose every team battle. Seriously, she has to be nerfed…
I don’t know how i ended up buying wards. It got really tiring after so many failed pushes.
The game dragged on till 1:30 hr. Not intentional but we seriously couldn’t take them out. So I decided, let’s end this with … backdoor.

They cried foul.
Ah.. im sure they are going to hate seeing me in the room now.

End Game Screenshot: http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff54/Dotapic/end_game_stats.png

Game 2: GG-C Europe Hi-lvl Rm ?? Game
Replay File: http://www.dota-allstars.com/replay/24416/index.html

The replay parser doesn’t seem to work but as far as I remember, I was playing under lag (Oh lol, it showed Edlife < 437 > (Public))… with 437 ping. I did some stupid moves because I was quite angry with my lane partner in the beginning (the VS). Then I fed silencer at mid by doing random charges lol. I pulled my self together later on and had something like 12-8 in the end I think.

Game 3: IHCS Game
By: iMbaQ
Replay File:
_dota_allstars_com_iMbaQ___Spiri.w3g ( 1.16mb )
Number of downloads: 151

SB solos mid versus Magnus. He does well farming early game so he proceeds to get some regen item (ie RoH) for longer lane staying. He aimed for Radiance, had it around 30min, and went for BoT to assist farming. You need to use logic in your head (lulz) for situations like this. If you are farming well, it can be wiser to aim for Carry items first. This hero became madness late-game. Only Hakuna’s Centaur (with 4.5k hp) could go toe-on-toe against him.

As far as I know, there is no league replays on Barathrum. If he ever were to make an appearance, it will be in a form of a ganker type as there are better Carries available. Nevertheless, he is a very strong back-up carry.

Conclusion

I intended to make this a short guide, but oh well it ended up pretty long. To play him, there are 3 things you need to know. 1) The mechanics of his skills, 2) His Item Build, 3) How to Gank. Hence, the emphasis in this guide. I will try to come up with more visual aids for the ganking portions, soon hopefully. You will also notice that I am very rigid when it comes to item choices. I am not a fan mix-and-match item builds. Need hp? Go for this. Need Dmg? Go for that. In my book, there should be only 1 optimal build. The ganking builds. Rigid, yet flexible. If you are uncomfortable with MoM, go for Armlet. If you are also uncomfortable with Armlet, then start getting used to it. AC and Heart with no questions asked.

About this hero, personally, I like this cow. He is such a rofl-copter hero. It is so exciting to Charge someone and see how he reacts. They get all confused and panicky and when they do something really stupid, it makes me lol. Then we have the imba-bashes. It feels awesome to see your target skidding back and forth unable to do anything. It is much more visually exciting to see trees breaking apart rather than seeing spirals on top of the head everytime (from Bash ability).

And if I were to compare how Bara is played as to other heroes, I would say his playstyle is similar to Lanaya and NA.

Gank, gank, gank till the cows come home!

Credits:
Armlet Guide by Patccmoi
Suizida for helping with ???
Beta-testers for the fun cow games
Virot2 for Mechanics