Bloodseeker Guide by Nikobaby
Artist: katzeimsack
  • Guide Navigation
  • HOME
  • ABOUT
  • DRAFTING
  • SKILLS & BUILDS
  • ITEMS & BUILDS
  • EARLY GAME
  • MID & LATE GAME
Date: 11/2018
Tags:
text
Bloodseeker
Builds
Tactics
Analysis

Welcome

Welcome to Nikobaby's Book of the Bloodseeker, a hero guide part of the Book of Dota series!

Here you will find all the information you need to learn to play Blood on a high level – from drafting and builds to the optimal playstyle in different lanes and situations. We hope you’ll enjoy this guide and find it useful!

niko blood stats
TL;DR:

Draft: You usually want to pick BS as a counter to passive or mobile core heroes on the enemy team. Picking him right away is usually not a great idea, because enemies will prepare for your early and mid game aggression.

Early Game: Use Bloodrage to last-hit and to sustain yourself. When you get a MS and AS boost from Thirst, use it to harass the enemy hero or even attempt kills. If enemies are trying to pressure you with strong offensive lanes, try to swap lanes – a good start is essential for you to snowball.

Mid & Late Game: Get your core item and start ganking the enemy farmers. Ward important areas (usually the enemy jungle) and take away map control from the enemy team. This will allow you to out-farm them and snowball. Make sure you have BKB when your opponents start grouping up for team fights and try to secure the game sooner rather than later (as any snowball hero should).

Authors

Nikolay "Nikobaby" Nikolov
Endorsement & Info

Niko is a rising star on the EU & CIS pub and pro scene and he is absolutely proficient at carrying. He has played for teams like Basically Unknown, Effect, DD, and recently - 20 min afk les, which won the TI8 CIS Open Qualifiers.

His peak placement on the EU Leaderboards is top 3, while his highest MMR before the reset was 8.5k. According to Dotabuff's player rankings, he is the rank 1 Morphling player in the world.

Nikolay "CTOMAHEH1" Kalchev
Info & Editing

CTOMAHEH1 started his pro career as a support in Basically Unknown together with Mind Control. Since then he has consistently been playing on the European T2 scene, most recently on Unchained Esports. 

His highest placement on the EU ladder is top 100 - he plays all roles (mainly support), which is untypical for high-ranking players and shows his great versatility and understanding of the game.

Martin "BRING IT ON" Slavov
Writing & Info

Martin has lots of experience writing about Dota and he is no pushover in the actual game - a Divine III player, Martin plays mid and carry heroes on a very high level.


He has been playing Dota since Guinsoo's Dota Allstars (more than 12 years) and he loves thinking about new builds and strategies.

Kyril "MrNiceGuy" Kotashev
PM & Editing

Esports and gaming enthusiast since forever and founder of Dotahaven.

Has been playing Dota since 2005 (5.84). An Ancient I player in Dota 2.

I smell blood.

Bloodseeker is an agility carry hero who’s most famous for his insane movement speed which increases the more wounded his opponents are. The hero is a potent laner and a terrifying ganker thanks to his unique ultimate, which damages his target based on the distance it travels. Bloodseeker reaches his peak in the mid game, eventually snowballing his way to victory.

Bloodseeker loadout
Stats
Level 1
Level 15
Level 25
STR
24
High
61
High
88
High
AGI
24
Very High
66
Very High
96
Very High
INT
18
Medium
41
Very Low
58
Very Low
Attack
57-63
Very High
99-105
Very High
129-135
Very High
Armor
4.8
Very High
13.2
Very High
19,2
Very High
Resistance
26
Medium
28
Medium
30
Medium
HP
632
High
1312
High
1798
Medium
MP
291
Medium
567
Low
771
Low
MS
289
Low
296
Low
301
Medium
STRENGHTS

MAJOR

Strong laner:
Bloodseeker has an insane lane control as he’s able to last hit and deny thanks to his Bloodrage while sustaining himself. His DPS and MS increases further with his Thirst ability and if there’s a fight even on the other side of the map, you still gain the benefits, making it very hard for the enemy to lane against you successfully.

Mid game (snow)baller:
Bloodseeker prefers to decide the game in its mid-stage as he is very strong in early fights and ganks. He’s able to chase down a specific target and secure a kill easily, becoming stronger and stronger in the fight as enemies lose HP. This play style takes away map control from the enemy team very efficiently and allows BS’s team to out-farm them.

MINOR

Great sustain:
Bloodseeker heals himself with every last hit, deny and killed hero, so he rarely needs to go back to base for regeneration. This allows him to constantly farm without worrying about his HP and he is always ready for battle. The only concern is his mana which is usually easily managed with cheap items.

Pure damage:
Both Blood Rite and Rupture deal pure damage, which makes them especially powerful against heroes with high magic resistance or armor. Furthermore, they both have an insane cast range which makes them very easy to use

Movement counter:
Rupture is an insanely strong counter to mobile heroes, as it deals damage based on the distance the target travels.

WEAKNESSES

MAJOR

On a timer:
While it’s not impossible to play late game with BS, he’s not as good as the more typical hard carries. He prefers to end or at least decide the game earlier. Passively farming with BS is usually a bad strategy.

Bloodrage weakens you:
While giving you a sustain and increased damage, Bloodrage also makes you take more damage. Luckily, Bloodrage can be used on the enemy hero as well to increase the entire damage he takes from all of your teammates.

MINOR

No disables:
Bloodseeker is amazing at chasing, but he completely lacks any disable or slow, so he often has to rely on his teammates to provide disables. Otherwise, the enemy can teleport away or survive long enough for his teammates to help him.

No comeback potential:
As we mentioned, BS is a snowball hero – he needs to have a good early and mid game in order to be effective. If enemies out-farm him and can afford to simply stand their ground against him, he will have great trouble winning fights.

Replays

PSG.LGD  vs Liquid, TI8

Match ID: 4074639753
Replay

Maybe plays a flawless (16-0-11) mid Bloodseeker against Miracle's Alchemist. He dominates the mid lane - on the 10th-minute mark he has 76 last-hits and 7 kills to his name, showcasing how powerful Blood could be in a matchup against a weak melee laner. He is able to snowball extremely heavily and stops Miracle's development entirely with the help of his roaming supports (Miracle- finishes the game with a stat of 0-8-1).

The first thing to take note is how after the good laning phase LGD never stop applying pressure. They repeatedly enter the enemy jungle, ganking Miracle even near the creep camps close to his mid T2 tower.

The second thing to notice is Maybe's item build: he goes for the standard Blade Mail which in this game is great agiasnt the AoE damage of Liquid (mainly Gyro). After Blade Mail, however, he goes for the unconventional Heaven's Halberd. He understands that the only hero on the Radiant lineup that could threaten to kill him is Matumbaman's Ursa, and Halberd is a direct hard counter. With these two cheap defensive items, he can afford to play very aggressively and even dive when needed. After he feels safe enough, he invests in Radiance to keep up in farm and deal more damage.

Liquid vs Secret, TI8

Match ID: 3890837233
Replay

Miracle plays pos. 1 Bloodseeker in a very interesting game where Liquid drafts a lineup that excels in early-mid game aggression and snowballing (Blood, Brood and Bat cores) against Secret's much greedier heroes (Alch, Storm and Necro cores).

The game plan is obvious - dominate the lanes, snowball into the mid game, take away map control, prevent Secret's cores from farming and secure the game.

Notice that even though Miracle has a good laning stage (gets a couple of kills + very decent farm, all according to plan), he decides not to go for a greedy build - he invests in BKB right after PTs and Aquila instead of building Radiance right away. The reason for this is simple - he wants to apply pressure right away and Secret rely mainly on magic damage. If he goes for Radiance, he will have to passively farm for longer or he will risk losing a lot of gold and momentum if he dies. If he has BKB, however, he can play aggressively and even dive for kills - the Radiant lineup doesn't have the physical damage to punish him. Despite slowing down his Radiance timing a bit, he finishes the game with more GPM than the enemy Alch.

VG vs PSG.LGD, MDL Changsha

Match ID: 3890837233
Replay

Paparazi plays Bloodseeker against LGD – arguably the best team in the world at the time. He has a very rough laning stage – he dies three times and doesn’t get as much farm as the other cores in the game. The situation is made even worse by the fact that this is a very difficult BS game in general – the enemy team has a very strong 5-man team and is not susceptible to ganks at all. Nonetheless, Paparazi manages to finish the game with a positive stat (he has the least deaths on his team) and high damage contribution.

Notice his item build – he understands that he cannot play aggressively in fights this game and because of this he builds items that will increase his impact from a distance – a fast Aghanim’s followed by items like Aether Lens and Dagon.

A great replay to watch if you want to understand how to have an impact as Bloodseeker in tough games.

Drafting

Bloodseeker is good in lineups where you want to fight early and snowball your way to victory. This means heroes who reach their peak at around minute 20.

He is also very strong against single core lineups where the enemies only have one carry – you can Rupture him all the time so he can’t move freely in fights which limits his damage output greatly.

Having heroes with global or AOE abilities is also nice as dealing damage to multiple enemies give you more damage and speed from Thirst.

Bloodseeker is also used to counter specific heroes – usually mobile cores vulnerable to Rupture.

Role: Safe lane carry

This is the best position for Bloodseeker as it allows him to get uncontested farm and buy his core items ASAP, allowing him to snowball into the mid game. His laning is pretty strong and he can bully the enemy offlaner if he gets enough DPS and speed from Thirst, which means often his supports will be free to roam and help out the other lanes.

Role: Mid lane carry

Bloodseeker can also be played as a mid laner – he can last hit and deny very well if the lane is 1v1 but he struggles if the enemy supports are roaming. He relies on last-hits to sustain himself - zoning him out of the creep wave could cause great problems for him. 

Synergy

Good friends to have are:

AOE abilities: Phoenix, QoP, Veno, SK, Gyro

Phoenix
Queen of pain
Venomancer
Sand King
Gyro

Basically, any hero who can deal damage to multiple enemies works well with Bloodseeker as that gives you a lot of damage and movement speed from Thirst. This is very noticeable in team fights where nuking a few heroes can give you a huge boost at the start of the fight.

Buffs: Omni, Ogre, Io, Abaddon

Omniknight portrait
Abbadon
IO Wisp
Ogre Magi Portrait

Bloodseeker's major problem is his squishiness. Omni or Aba can help him play more aggressively and as a result - snowball harder. Io provides both an offensive and defensive buff. Ogre has a bit less synergy, but the AS and MS buff he provides are still very valuable.

Disablers: Lion, Shadow Shaman, Dark Willow, Magnus, Tidehunter

Lion
Shadow Shaman
Dark Willow Portrait
Magnus Portrait
Tidehunter Portrait

As we mentioned, Bloodseeker lacks disables, so he loves playing with heroes who do have some. Anything works, from single target, stuns to AoE disables like Reverse Polarity or Ravage – you just want your allies to keep your targets in one place for long enough to land your Blood Rite, to allow you to right-click or to stop TPs.

Global ultimates: Zeus, NP

Zeus Portrait
Nature's Prophet Portrait

Bloodseeker is especially strong with Zeus and NP – they just hit R and you turn into a race car. You can also boost their ultimates with Bloodrage which instantly increases their damage by 25%, giving you even more damage and speed as a result.

Counters

Strong Against:

Meepo

Meepo: Bloodseeker is incredibly powerful against Meepo as his clones losing HP add separated bonuses from Thirst. Against Meepo you’re playing against 9 heroes and all of them give you bonuses from Thirst. 

Huskar Portrait

Huskar: Bloodseeker is commonly picked to counter Huskar – you have 2 pure damage abilities and with a Blade Mail you can man-fight him from early on. Huskar also usually wants to stay at low HP which means you will always have a bonus from Thirst. 

Anti mage

AM: Anti-Mage is another hero Bloodseeker is great against as you can hunt him down very early in the game, while he still wants to farm his items. He can’t blink without receiving a massive amount of damage from Rupture and with an early Shadow Blade you can easily find him, be it in the lane or jungle. 

Slark Portrait

Slark: Slark also hates playing against Bloodseeker. First of all, Rupture can’t be removed with Dark Pact. He’s also prevented from healing if he falls below 25% HP as Bloodseeker has vision over him. Like AM, Slark is also pretty mobile and with Pounce or in his shadow blade (while out of vision) he will take a lot of damage from Rupture. A Blade Mail also ensures that Slark will never to able to kill you in a man-fight in the early-mid game.

Pangolier

Pango: Bloodseeker is a counter to Pangolier, at least until the latter builds Linken’s Sphere. You can Rupture Pangolier while he’s in his ultimate form and he will take a lot of damage if he doesn’t stop rolling. 

Phantom Assassin

Phantom Assassin: PA is vulnerable to Rupture because she is mobile and she is extremely vulnerable to Blade Mail because of her crit. 

Carries with weak early game: Drow, Spectre, Sniper

Drow Ranger
Spectre Portrait
Sniper

Those are heroes that can’t do anything to you in the early game and whom you can chase down and kill consistently around the map with an early Shadow Blade and/or Blade Mail. They also hate playing against very aggressive early game heroes as they need large amounts of farm before they can be effective and constant ganks restrict the space they have for safe farming.

Weak Against:

Physical Nuke Damage: Clinkz, Ursa, Jugger, Slardar, TA, Troll, Sven, WK

Clinkz Portrait
Ursa Portrait
Juggernaut
Slardar Portrait
Templar Assassin
Troll Warlord
Sven
Wraith King

Bloodseeker doesn’t have a very high armor (for an AGI carry) and Bloodrage causes you to take more damage. This is why those heroes can be very dangerous against you as they all have abilities that increase their damage output (or reduce your armor) in the early game. Blade Mail is usually a must against physical nuke, but TA has refraction, Jugger – Omni, and Ursa – Enrage to mitigate the return damage they receive.

Another problem is that such heroes usually love to stand their ground and man-fight, which makes them less vulnerable to Rupture.

Magical Nuke Damage: Tinker, Storm, Tiny, Puck, Morph, Techies

Tinker
Storm spirit
Tiny
Puck Portrait
Morph
Techies Portrait

The Bloodrage damage amplification is also a problem against magical nuke damage, especially in the early-mid game before you get your BKB. Techies deserves a special mention because besides nuking you down, he also delays the game for long, which allows his allies to recover even if they lost the early-mid game to your ganks.

Illusion heroes: TB, CK, PL

Terrorblade
Chaos Knight
Phantom Lancer

As most single target carries BS struggles versus illusion heroes. If you draft Blood against them make sure your allies have tools to deal with them. CK and TB in particular are very hard to face because they can simply stand their ground and man-fight you when you Rupture them. PL is a bit easier to deal with if you manage to put Rupture on the real one because he is mobile and cannot dispel your ultimate.

Taunters or BKB piercing disables: LC, Axe, Batrider, Beastmaster

Legion commander
Axe Portrait
Batrider
Beastmaster

Disables are, of course, very annoying for any hero with great mobility. Those, however, are some of the nastiest heroes you can face. LC and Axe can pretty much solo kill you anywhere on the map with just a Blink Dagger and Blade Mail. You will have to build a Linken’s Sphere early on, but as a Bloodseeker you don’t usually want to build that item as it slows down your other core items and makes it a bit harder to snowball. 

Break: Viper, Silver Edge

Viper
Silver edge

Break removes all aspects of your Thirst passive ability which is a death blow for Bloodseeker. This is why heroes who manage to build Silver Edge are very powerful against you – even if the duration is very short, it’s usually enough for the enemies to kill you.

town portal

TP scroll:

This is one of the strongest counters to Bloodseeker. Unfortunately, the hero has no natural way of stopping teleports which is why the enemies will often be able to escape from you by simply teleporting to base. Many carries lack disables to stop TP, but most of them are split-pushers or 5-man heroes, while Bloodseeker usually plays the role of a ganker, which makes this a much bigger problem for him.

One way of countering TPs is Eul’s Scepter which has been very popular on the hero lately (more on the item – later).

Skills

bloodseeker bloodrage
Bloodseeker Blood Rite
Bloodseeker Thirst
Bloodseeker Rupture

Drives a unit into a bloodthirsty rage during which a unit deals, and takes, increased damage. Units affected by Bloodrage will be healed for a percentage of the max health of any units they kill. Units affected by Bloodrage when killed will heal a percentage of their max health to their killer. If you do not get the last hit, but are within 300 AoE of the dying hero, you will take 50% of the heal.

STATS

Cast Animation: 0.2+0.6

Cast Range: 800

Enemy Death Heal Radius: 300

Damage Amplification: 10/15/20/25%

Max Health as Heal: 16%/19%/22%/25%

Duration: 9/10/11/12

CD: 9/8/7/6

Bloodrage

Mechanics:

  • Bloodrage amplifies all three damage types the bloodraged unit deals and takes, including self-inflicted damage and damage dealt by allies.
  • Does not amplify outgoing damage when it has the no-reflection flag.
  • The heal is based on the dying unit's maximum health, and not on the health of the unit that gets healed.
  • Bloodrage does not heal upon killing illusions, Tempest Doubles, Roshan, wards, or buildings.
  • Denying allies while bloodraged, or denying bloodraged allies heals the killing unit.
  • Suiciding heroes still heal buffed allied units when within the radius, but for halved values.
  • Since the cooldown is shorter than the duration from level 2 on, it is possible to have two units bloodraged at a time.
  • Does not amplify damage dealt by abilities that use an independent source of damage (e.g. Proximity Mines, Death Ward).
  • The disable help function prevents an allied Bloodseeker from casting this ability on you.

Uses and tips:

Bloodrage is an incredibly useful ability in the early game – it increases your damage so you can last hit and deny much better and also heals you with every creep you last hit. This ability allows you to pretty much always move around the map without having to bring healing items or go back to base to regenerate.

Later on, the damage amplification works wonders even against the toughest heroes. You can use it on allies (for example Lina or TA with Bloodrage can single-handedly kill heroes in just a couple of hits or spells) or you can use it on enemies so that you can increase all the damage they take from your teammates as well.

  • At level 3 and 4 of the ability, you can have 2 targets affected by it – this means you can use it for instance on yourself and then use it on an enemy that you’re attacking, increasing the overall damage you deal to your target by close to 50%.
  • Bloodrage also increases the damage you deal to buildings, which makes it incredibly powerful on tower hitting heroes like Tiny, Lone Druid or Clinkz for example. They can demolish a tower in just a few seconds with Bloodrage on. Only use it in this way when enemies can’t defend, though, because otherwise, you might get your ally killed.
  • You can also use Bloodrage to heal your allies – just give it to them when they’re farming and they’ll heal by killing creeps.

Bloodseeker baptizes an area in sacred blood. After 2.9 seconds the ritual completes, causing any enemies caught in the area to take damage and become silenced.

STATS

Cast Animation: 0.3+0.63

Cast Range: 1500

Effect Radius: 600

Effect Delay: 2.6

Damage: 125/175/225/275

Silence Duration: 3/4/5/6

CD: 18/16/14/12

Mana: 100

Blood Rite

Mechanics:

  • The affected area is visible to enemies.
  • Applies a silence within the targeted area after the 2.6-second delay.
  • Bloodrite first applies the damage, then the debuff.
  • With max level Bloodrage on Bloodseeker, Blood Rite deals 168/224/280/336 (273/329/385/441 with talent) damage (before reductions).
  • With max level Bloodrage applied on both Bloodseeker and the enemy unit, it deals 235.2/313.6/392/470.4 (382.2/460.6/539/617.4 with talent) damage (before reductions).
  • Grants 200 radius ground vision at the center of the affected area for 6 seconds after cast.

Uses and tips:

Blood Rite is a very versatile ability – it can be used for farming creeps, damaging heroes, granting vision over the area, silence.

Although it doesn’t seem to deal much damage, keep in mind that the damage is pure, which is also amplified by Bloodrage.

You can use it in combo with Rupture – the enemy will be forced to either move (taking damage) or stay in one place, get silenced and still take a lot of damage.

Bloodseeker is invigorated by the wounds of his enemies, gaining bonus movement speed and attack speed whenever an enemy hero's health falls below 75%, with the bonuses increasing as their health falls further. If an enemy hero's health falls below 25%, he will also gain vision and True Sight of that hero. Bonuses stack per hero.

STATS

Radius: Global

Thirst Health Threshold: 75%

Visibility Health Threshold: 25%

Max Attack Speed Bonus per Hero: 30/45/60/75

Max Move Speed Bonus per Hero: 12/24/36/48%

Thirst

Mechanics:

  • Learning Thirst removes the 550 movement speed cap for Bloodseeker.
  • The first stack is applied when an enemy hero is below 75% health and the last when below 26%.
  • When an enemy hero drops below 25% health, Thirst applies True Sight and makes them visible through the Fog of War. When enemies are revealed by Thirst, a debuff and particle effects are placed on them, which is visible to everyone.
  • Bloodseeker himself also gets a status buff and particle effects and speaks certain lines, making it clear that an enemy is currently being revealed by Thirst.
  • Thirst is not triggered by enemy illusions but is triggered by hero clones.
  • Bloodseeker does not receive any Thirst bonuses for hidden enemy heroes but does for invulnerable ones.
  • The bonuses linger for 4 seconds if the enemy dies. However, it does not linger and disappears immediately if the enemy has Aegis of the Immortal or Reincarnation.

Uses and tips:

Thirst is the most iconic ability in Bloodseeker’s arsenal – it grants you huge bonuses to movement speed and AS even in the very early stages of the game. It makes you a very potent laner (provided there are heroes at relatively low HP on the other lanes) and you can even score kills if the enemy hero has no escape mechanism.

Thirst synergizes very well with heroes with AoE abilities like Zeus or Queen of Pain who are able to deal a lot of damage to multiple heroes in the start of a fight – this gives you a lot of damage and movement speed to work with and you can finish enemies off easily.

Causes an enemy unit's skin to rupture. If the unit moves, it takes a percentage of current health as damage per 100 units moved. The damage is dealt through spell immunity.

STATS

Cast Animation: 0.4+0.53

Cast Range: 700/800/900

Current Health as Damage per 100 Moved Distance: 8%

Duration: 8/10/12

CD: 70/60/50

Mana: 200/225/250

AGHANIM'S SCEPTER

Grants 2 charges to Rupture with a 40 seconds replenish time.

Rupture

Mechanics:

  • If the unit did not move or moved a distance greater than 1300 between a check, no damage is applied. That’s why TPing to base doesn’t deal damage and very long “jump” skills (blinks) can be done without taking damage.
  • Can be cast on, but cannot damage couriers.
  • The damage is a % of current HP, which means it cannot be lethal.
  • Rupture deals pure damage and damages through magic immunity which makes it very powerful even in the later stages of the game when heroes have BKBs.
  • Multiple casts on the same target do not stack but refresh the duration instead.
  • Affected units take no damage when moving upwards (with e.g. Torrent or Impale).
  • Checks the distance the affected unit moved every 0.25 seconds, starting immediately upon cast, resulting in 49 checks. If the unit's position changed between checks, it takes damage based on the distance.

Uses and tips:

  • Rupture is very useful both in situations where you’re trying to solo kill a hero and in team-fights where you want to limit the movement of a specific core hero.
  • It’s especially useful against mobile heroes like Mirana, AM, Phoenix, Spirit Breaker, Weaver, Force Staffs as it will either prevent them from using their abilities or force them to take a lot of damage.
  • Abilities that move the target are pretty good with Rupture as well. For example Force Staff, Blinding Light (KotL), Walrus Kick (Tusk) can be used to force the enemy to move and deal damage to him/her.

Video Example

Ame showcases the insane speed of Thirst and gets a triple Rampage:

Skill Builds

Standard Skill Build
bloodseeker bloodrage
1
Bloodseeker Thirst
2
Bloodseeker Thirst
3
Bloodseeker Blood Rite
4
Bloodseeker Thirst
5
Bloodseeker Rupture
6
Bloodseeker Thirst
7
Bloodseeker Blood Rite
8
Bloodseeker Blood Rite
9
Talent Icon
10
Bloodseeker Blood Rite
11
Bloodseeker Rupture
12
bloodseeker bloodrage
13
bloodseeker bloodrage
14
Talent Icon
15
bloodseeker bloodrage
16
Bloodseeker Rupture
18
Talent Icon
20
Talent Icon
25
Pros: highest mobility; great sustain in the lane; high kill potential;
Cons: no silence and nuke damage until later on in the laning stage;

Bloodrage at level 1: The ability allows you to last hit and deny better and provides sustain on the lane.

Thirst is being maxed immediately after – it makes you very powerful on the lane, allows you to harass the enemy laner and it will be very useful when you decide to rotate to another lane at some point. Provided that some heroes on the map won’t be at max HP, you will be able to get easy kills with the help of your teammates.

You can get a point in Blood Rite sooner if you need silence or you just want a bit more burst damage. Keep in mind that level 1 Blood Rite deals 120 pure damage (which is equal to a 160 magic damage), so if your teammate has a stun to set it up, it can be very useful on early levels.

If you prefer, you can delay the first talent in order to max out Blood Rite faster.

Talents

+18 Max Thirst MS and Damage

25

-6s Blood Rite Cooldown

25% Lifesteal

20

+600 Rupture Cast Range

+75 Blood Rite Damage

15

+275 Health

+6 Armor

10

+25 Attack Speed

Lvl10: Depends on the situation. If you feel that Physical DMG against you won’t be a problem, then go for the AS talent. If you are playing against plenty of physical damage, however, go for the armor.

Lvl15: This decision is a bit harder. Blood Rite damage is better in the long run as this is pure damage and it will be further increased by Bloodrage – it’s especially good with the level 25 talent (-6s Blood Rite cooldown). The HP, on the other hand, is pretty useful in the mid game – it makes you tankier which is pretty good in fights. If you are snowballing you usually want to get the HP talent so that you can afford to be more aggressive in fights. Blood Rite allows you to have a higher impact from a safe distance and to farm a bit faster.

Lvl20: Take the life steal when you are building items that allow you to stand your ground against enemy carries - otherwise Bloodrage would be enough for sustain. Take the Rupture talent when you are trying to contribute to fights from a safer distance.

Lvl25: Both are great so this is a pretty hard decision. Thirst is probably better when you’re relying on physical damage and chasing. However, against heroes that you can’t man-fight (for example you’ll never be able to fight 1v1 against Troll, Void, WK, Sven, etc.) the Blood Rite is usually better.

Item Builds

Bloodseeker has relatively diverse item builds because he can choose between more traditional AGI carry items or focus on item choices that increase his kill potential in the early and mid game.

Killing Build

This build relies on getting a fast Shadow Blade and using it to find kills on the enemy heroes. This is great against heroes who are weak in the early game and whom you don’t want to allow to farm like PA, Spectre, Slark, AM, etc. This build relies mostly on physical damage and early aggression.

The laning stage items shouldn’t be a surprise, they’re standard for any agility melee carry. Raindrops are also a pretty nice item that you can consider buying to protect yourself better against magic damage nukes early on.

After Shadow Blade you have a choice - get a stats item, or go for BKB right away. The stat item is the ideal option because you want to delay the BKB, so that you will have longer BKB duration in the late game team fights. Nonetheless, in some games, if the enemy team starts walking as 5 from early on you might have to rush the BKB.

Your late game options are many, but the Butterfly Abyssal is a great combination to increase both your survivability an DPS a great deal AND to provide the very important lockdown that you lack.

Starting
Stout Shield
Tangoes
Tangoes
Quelling Blade
Early game
Wraith Band
Wraith Band
Power Treads Agility
Shadow_Blade_icon
Mid game
Sange_and_Yasha_new
Black King Bar
Late game
Butterfly
Abyssal_Blade_icon
Stout Shield
Tangoes
Tangoes
Quelling Blade
Wraith Band
Wraith Band
Power Treads Agility

Power Treads: Treads are the usual choice because you already have a huge amount of MS, so the tankiness from keeping them on STR is more valuable.

Shadow_Blade_icon

Shadow Blade: Shadow Blade allows you to find kill opportunities and sometimes get out of bad situations. You can hit the enemy, use Rupture and Blood Rite and finish him with hits. Very few heroes can stand against you at around 12-14 minutes with PT and Shadow Blade. It can also be upgraded into Silver Edge to remove the passive abilities of heroes like Huskar, Bristleback, Spectre, Timber, etc.

Sange_and_Yasha_new

S&Y: Good for the killing build if you want more stats and you don’t need BKB very early on. It makes you tankier, gives you a slow and the movement speed bonus is very noticeable when you’re sprinting with Thirst.

Black King Bar

BKB: BKB should not be a surprise to anybody. The most reliable way of stopping a rabid Bloodseeker is to disable him and nuke him down (same goes for most mobile heroes). If you feel the need for magic immunity, don’t delay the BKB. You usually don’t need BKB to gank successfully, but you absolutely need it in team fights.

Butterfly

Butterfly: Butterfly offers a very nice protection against physical damage as well as a great DPS boost. The active ability Flutter grants 35% movement speed which can be very useful for both chasing and escaping – you can easily break the speed barrier with this thing, as BS has no upper speed limit.

Abyssal_Blade_icon

Abyssal Blade: DPS, tankiness and most importantly – control. It’s great for locking down your enemy while you deal a lot of damage with attacks in the late game.

Radiance Build

There are two ways to approach the Radiance build in the early-mid game:

  1. The first and usual option is to get one or two defensive items first so that you can continue fighting and applying pressure after the laning stage. After you take map control away from your opponents, you buy Radiance to increase your GPM and damage in fights.
  2. The second approach is to buy the Radiance ASAP (or after a single cheap item like Blade Mail). This is done in more passive games in which you prefer to avoid fights in the early-mid game in order to get important items that will allow you to fight in the mid-late game.

After the Radiance, you also have two choices:

  1. If dealing physical damage in team-fights will be very difficult, you go for a utility build (as in the example below), which allows you to have an impact from a safe distance and only to go in melee range to secure kills and win the fight. This is usually the right approach against man-fight heroes like Troll, TB, Ursa, Sven, etc.
  2. If standing your ground and right-clicking wouldn't be a problem, you go for the usual AGI carry items, as e.g. in the Killing Build above. 

Starting
Stout Shield
Tangoes
Tangoes
Quelling Blade
Early Game
Magic wand
Wraith Band
Power Treads Agility
Blade Mail
Mid Game
Black King Bar
Radiance
Late Game
Aghanim's_Scepter_icon
Octarine_Core_icon
Scythe of Vyse
Stout Shield
Tangoes
Tangoes
Quelling Blade
Magic wand
Wraith Band
Power Treads Agility

Power Treads: Treads are the usual choice because you already have a huge amount of MS, so the tankiness from keeping them on STR is more valuable.

Blade Mail

Blade Mail: When you corner an enemy without a way to escape (usually with Rupture), they will most likely try to fight you because running is not an option. Blade Mail prevents them from winning the man-fight and allows you to return a ton of damage because of Bloodrage’s damage amplification (regardless if you put it on yourself or on your target). 

Black King Bar

BKB: BKB should not be a surprise to anybody. The most reliable way of stopping a rabid Bloodseeker is to disable him and nuke him down (same goes for most mobile heroes). If you feel the need of magic immunity, don’t delay the BKB. You usually don’t need BKB to gank successfully, but you absolutely need it in team fights.

Radiance

Radiance: Radiance is one of the best items for Bloodseeker. It allows you to farm faster, but it is also useful in fights because you’re very fast and you can kite heroes easily. Bloodrage also increases the burn damage by 40%. It is great against illusions (causes them to miss and those heroes don’t go for MKB) as well. Bloodseeker is a pretty good early game farmer and he can farm the item pretty fast. He usually struggles in the mid/late game with farm, so the Radiance helps in that regard. Radiance can also be used in the killing build, you will just have worse ganking potential as you’ll have to delay or skip the Shadow Blade. It is worth noting that if any creeps or summons die to your Radiance burn during a fight, you will get healed by Bloodthirst.

Aghanim's_Scepter_icon

Aghanim: Aghanim is usually a situational item but it can be really strong in team-fights where you can Rupture 2 dangerous cores. Rupture is incredibly useful in team-fights and being able to use it twice in one fight can turn the fight in your favor. Definitely go with the Rupture damage talent if you build Aghanim.

Octarine_Core_icon

Octarine: Octarine makes you very tanky as you’re healing from Rupture, from Blood Rite and from Radiance, all of which are amplified by Bloodrage. Octarine also reduces your Blood Rite’s cooldown to 4.5s (with the level 25 talent) which is huge. 

Scythe of Vyse

Hex: Hex can be used to disable an important hero in the late game. This is very useful as the BKB durations are low and the enemy will most likely only have 5 seconds of immunity after which you can instantly hex him. You can also hex someone before he uses BKB so your teammates can quickly kill him. 

Other Items

Early & Mid
Orb of Venom
Phase boots
Hand of Midas
Euls
Hood
Heaven's_Halberd_icon
Battle_Fury_icon
Force staff
Maelstorm
Late Game
Lotus Orb
Skadi
Dagon5
Ethereal Blade
Daedalus
Nullifier
Bloodthorn_icon
Orb of Venom

Orb of Venom: Orb of Venom can be very useful on the lane to harass the enemy offlaner, especially if he’s a melee hero. You can even start with OoV if you think you’re going to have a free lane.

Phase boots

Phase Boots: the MS boost makes you even faster. The bonus damage is also great together with your AS boost from your skills. 

Hand of Midas

Midas: As we already mentioned, Midas can be a nice addition to the Radiance build if you’re having a very good early game. It will allow you to farm incredibly fast and start building big items much sooner.

Euls

Eul’s: Eul’s Scepter is pretty useful on Bloodseeker. It fixes your mana problems and gives movement speed. It can be used to stop TP scrolls and you can also use it to lift the enemy in the air and place Blood Rite so you can hit it much more easily (this is very useful against heroes with Blink or other escapes like AM, QoP, and Void if you time it right).

Hood

Hood: You can build Hood with the Radiance build if the enemies have a lot of magical damage – the active barrier and passive magic resistance will make you much tankier against heroes like Zeus, Lina, etc. You can also upgrade it into Pipe, later on, to help your teammates as well.

Heaven's_Halberd_icon

Heaven’s Halberd: Halberd can be pretty useful against heroes with high physical damage like TA, Ursa, Clinkz who usually want to burst heroes down with a few quick hits. It’s generally more useful in the Radiance build but if you’re afraid of such heroes, you can always buy it. 

Battle_Fury_icon

Battle Fury: You can build Battle Fury with the killing build if you’re having a good start and you can get it early. It will allow you to farm incredibly fast and you won’t have to worry about your farm in the mid/late game. It’s basically a guarantee that you will still have a lot of items even if you don’t manage to get kills. 

Force staff

Force Staff: With the Rupture damage talent, and amplified by Bloodrage, you can Force Staff a ruptured target to deal 621 pure damage which is absolutely insane for a 2250 gold item. It can also be used to escape, to help teammates and is generally very useful.

Maelstorm

Maelstrom: if your Thirst is often active and you have high AS most of the time, Maelstrom will give you a big DPS increase (and a farming tool) thanks to the proc.

Lotus Orb

Lotus Orb: Lotus Orb can also be used with the Radiance build. It provides armor and the active ability is extremely useful, especially against heroes with a lot of single target abilities. It can be used on both yourself and on your teammates.

Skadi

Skadi: A good item for either build. It’s great when you need survivability in the mid/late game and you already have your core items.

Dagon5

Dagon: Dagon is often regarded as a joke item, but it is actually very powerful on Bloodseeker. Bloodrage increases your damage output by 40%, so a Dagon 5 deals 1120 magic damage (840 after reductions). If you manage to use Bloodrage on the enemy as well, the damage goes through the roof. Dagon is also useful in the late game where BKB durations are low, so you can kite the enemies and then burst them down with it. The important thing to understand is that Dagon is a late game choice for BS – getting it too early is usually a mistake because you will reduce your impact in team fights. You need BKB and some stat items first.

Ethereal Blade

EBlade: Ethereal Blade is good in the late game against physical damage cores, so you can protect yourself or your teammates with it. It is also very powerful in combination with Dagon. You can make combos that deal over 2000 damage after reductions. Definitely, a combination that should not be underestimated.

Daedalus

Daedalus: You already have high AS from Thirst, so the bonus damage and crit chance increase your physical DPS immencely.

Nullifier

Nullifier: Nullifier is a very powerful item against heroes who use protective items like Eul’s, Ghost Scepter, Hex – blocking their items not only allows you to hit them all you want, but you can also block the BKB of a core hero so your team can burst him down. 

Bloodthorn_icon

Bloodthorn: Bloodthorn is only good in the late game where you will use it with Nullifier to completely block all abilities and items of the opponent. This is a very powerful combination which will allow you to kill core heroes who are usually impossible to kill. Use it if the game drags to the very late game and the enemies have a lot of abilities and items to escape.

Early Game

Bloodseeker 350px

Bloodseeker’s early game is usually very easy and smooth. Your healing and insane last hit damage should allow you to get easy farm in the beginning so you can farm your core items and start moving and ganking.


Getting healed from last hits is incredibly powerful and usually means your lane opponents simply cannot harass or zone you out effectively. Nonetheless, if your opponents try to bully you in the lane from early on (usually with offensive dual or trilanes), you might have problems because you need to get last hits in order to heal, and once you get to low HP you might have trouble reaching the creep wave. In such situations ask your teammates for help or even swap lanes to avoid having your progression stopped from early on (you are a snowball hero and you need a good start).


Last hit and deny everything
Hit the enemy hero every time he approaches
If you feel the Thirst kicking in, try to get a kill
Farming:

Bloodseeker starts with 57-63 (60 average) damage. Amplified by Bloodrage and Quelling blade, that’s 90 DMG against creeps.

This is one of the reasons why Bloodseeker is so good on the lane – you start with a ton of damage at level 1 which allows you to last hit and deny. Keep in mind that last hitting also heals you for about 100/60 HP (melee/range creep) at level 1.

Just stay on the lane and focus on the creeps in the early levels. This will not only give you gold but will deprive the lane opponent of gold and levels.

Another aspect of farming with Bloodseeker is the jungle. You can generally start pushing your wave and going to the jungle very early in the game but that would also benefit your lane opponent – he will get easy last hits and levels under his tower.

You usually want to stay on the lane while you have an opponent and start pushing if your enemy leaves the lane. Kill the creeps with auto-attacks and move to the jungle to farm the closest camps. Then get back to the lane to farm the new wave. This is how you maximize your farm.

Once you hit level 6-7 and if you have a support who needs levels like AA, Dark Willow, Lina, Skywrath, you can let them stay on the lane while you go to the jungle. You won’t get as much farm as you would on the lane, but it’s worth it for your support to get level 6-7 sooner. 

Harassing & Kill Potential:

Harassing is where the fun begins. Bloodseeker is usually very slow, but once the movement speed and damage from Thirst start to kick in, you will be extremely fast, even at early levels like 3-5.

Get boots as soon as possible and start hitting your lane opponent. This is much easier if he’s a melee hero but you can harass even ranged heroes if you have some bonus move speed from Thirst, and make no mistake – those hits hurt when you’re Bloodraged. With every hit you land, you will get more damage and movement speed.

Most offlaners absolutely hate laning against Bloodseeker for that reason – it’s very hard to get farm or levels as he can deny everything and harass them all the time. Heroes like Underlord, Timbersaw, Tidehunter who are usually very hard to kick out of the lane all crumble against Bloodseeker.

It’s hard to explain when exactly you should go for the kill as every game will be different – in some games, your teammates won’t be fighting that much and you won’t have very high speed in the early levels. Basically, if you suddenly get a huge boost of speed (meaning there’s a fight somewhere else on the map), you can instantly get aggressive and start hitting the enemy – this could often result in a kill if you catch your enemy off-guard.

If you get this huge boost while you’re in the jungle, you can move towards the mid lane as well – you can easily kill heroes like SF, Sniper, Invoker (heroes without protective abilities) if you get enough speed and damage.

Keep in mind that heroes like Lina or QoP can evaporate you at level 6 as Bloodrage also amplifies the damage you take. You’d want to calculate their damage well or go on them when their abilities are on cooldown. Supports with disables rotating to your safe lane can also kill you easily if you’re Bloodraged and they have some nukes. This is why you usually want to have Power Treads switched to strength, Magic Wand charges and eventually Raindrops.

Timings and Rotations:

As Bloodseeker, you can start rotating even at level 6-7 if you wish to – your movement speed and AS from Thirst are insane and if your teammates are fighting a lot, you can benefit from that and go to help them so you can get some early kills.

However, if your teammates don’t fight that much, you’d rather stay on the lane/jungle for a bit longer to farm your core items – for example, a Shadow Blade can be farmed at about 12 minutes (with Power Treads and Wand), Radiance can be purchased at about 15-16 minutes. Those items will allow you to be much more effective in ganks and fights.

Either way, the best rotation is usually to the enemy safe lane so you can kill the enemy carry and support and then push their tower. The Tier 1 tower there is very important as it basically unlocks the enemy jungle for rotations – ask your supports to ward it (or do it yourself) and it will provide a new farming spot and you will have ganking potential there.

This is the best way to take over map control as a Bloodseeker, as it shrinks the safe space the enemy team has and when they overextend you are extremely good at punishing them.

Video Example:

Bloodseeker gets to play against Abaddon which is not that hard of a lane if his supports give him some early advantage. He starts with Orb of Venom to harass his enemy better.

Once he gets to level 3 (with level 2 Thirst) he starts constantly hitting the Abaddon and at this point he can’t stay on the lane against Bloodseeker anymore, so he leaves the lane and goes jungle.

This is why Bloodseeker starts pushing the wave at minute 7 (once he has his Power Treads and Aquilla) and destroys the enemy tower.

At minute 10 he gets a huge speed boost and decides to go to the mid lane to gank. With a MS of 700, he easily kills the Medusa and escapes.

Since he wants to build Radiance, he doesn’t participate that much in early fights and instead focuses on farming. The Ring of Aquilla allows him to spam Blood Rite and farm faster in the jungle.

He’s not looking for fights but goes to help his team if there’s a fight close to him which gives them a huge early advantage. 

Mid & Late Game

Bloodseeker Immortal 350px

Playing Bloodseeker in the mid game is all about hunting heroes, applying pressure and winning map control for your team. You have huge kill potential with your ultimate and Thirst, so use it to gank vulnerable farmers or any enemy hero who is overextending. This kind of pressure will create a lot of space for your teammates and should allow you to out-farm the enemy team.


Once enemies start to group up in order to counter your ganks you need to make sure you get your defensive items before you start team-fighting (most importantly BKB). Dying too easily in fights because of your squishiness is the easiest way to throw away the advantage you’ve accumulated through ganking, so make sure this doesn’t happen.

Gank enemies if possible
Maintain good farm
Get BKB so you can participate in team fights
Timings:

As Bloodseeker, there’s one item that unlocks your team-fight potential and that’s BKB. Thanks to the Bloodrage amplification, it’s very hard to participate in team-fights without a BKB as the enemies can burst you down very easily. This is why you should never delay building a BKB. As soon as the enemies start walking together, build a BKB and you shouldn’t have problems unless you’re at a massive disadvantage.

Bloodrage Usage:

Most players make the mistake of only using Bloodrage on themselves. This ability is extremely versatile and it can take a while before you get used to thinking about whom you use it on.

If your team is trying to focus an enemy, it’s best to use Bloodrage on the enemy – that way your entire team will benefit from the damage amplification and you will bring the enemy down much easier.

If you have a teammate in the mid/late game with a lot of burst damage or just generally dealing a ton of damage like Lina, TA, Clinkz, Zeus, it’s usually nice to give them Bloodrage. Keep in mind that with a maxed Bloodrage you can always affect 2 heroes with it (12s duration and 6s cooldown). Usually, you want to give it to heroes that deal damage from a safe position. Giving it to a frontline hero (like WK, Sven, etc.) will increase their damage, but it will make them too vulnerable, which is a bad trade.

The other usage is using it on both the damage dealer (early in the game that’s you, but in the late game you can give it to a teammate with high damage output instead) and the enemy you want dead. This amplifies the damage that the enemy will take by 96% which can make even the toughest heroes fall like leaves.

Keep in mind that if you Bloodrage an enemy under the effect of BKB who deals a lot of damage (for example Gyro or Luna), they can destroy your team. So only use Bloodrage on enemies who are already disabled or whom you want to quickly burst down.

Last but not least, Bloodrage can be used on Roshan as well. Bloodrage the teammate with the highest physical damage and Roshan for maximum effectiveness. 

Team Fights:

Regardless of your item build, you always want to Rupture a hero that needs to move a lot. For example, a melee carry hero like Lifestealer, Slark or PA is a great target – in order to hit, they will have to take a ton of damage. Heroes that can stand their ground and simply attack (Viper, Medusa, DK) are the worst kind of Rupture targets.

Don’t stay in the front – let someone else from your team initiate and stay behind so the enemies can’t initiate on you. Since you’re usually Bloodraged, you don’t want to get stunned before you can use your BKB – otherwise, the enemies can burst you down very easily.

If you’re using the killing build, your job in a fight will be to go on a hero and quickly kill him while your BKB is still up. Blade Mail will allow you to out-damage even the hardest hitting carries and both Rupture and Blade Mail deal damage through BKB, so that doesn’t bother you too much.

If you’re playing with a Radiance build, you don’t want to be manning up against the enemy carry. You usually want to Rupture him and go for the supports or the mid laner (if he’s squishy enough for you to kill him quickly). They shouldn’t be able to do anything to you while your BKB is active.

Use Blood Rite on top of the Ruptured target if he doesn’t have a BKB. This will force him to move and take more damage. If he does have a BKB, use Blood Rite somewhere where it will hit other heroes – this will force them to reposition themselves and will buy your team time to focus the Rupture target.

Example:

Notice his patience - he is using Rupture and Blood Rite from a safe distance for a relatively long time. Rushing head-first into the fight would have meant a certain death for him because of his build.

He keeps the CK in place with his ultimate. Once the enemy team is on lower HP and he is extremely fast, he manages to snatch the aegis and starts right-clicking enemies to secure the fight.

Pushing:

5-man pushing:

In a 5-man push, you usually give Bloodrage to the hero who deals the most damage to buildings – for example, Tiny or TA (or give it to yourself if you’re dealing the most damage).

Keep in mind that with the Bloodrage amplification enemies can deal a ton of damage to you, so pushing can be rather hard. It’s better to push after you’ve won a team-fight or taken Rosh.

Split-pushing and farming:

As every carry who kills creeps fast, you can push waves and go to the jungle afterward. This is the best way to farm in the mid/late game – not only you get gold, but you also create space as someone will have to defend against the creep waves.

If needed, Bloodseeker can hit towers pretty hard too, however you don’t usually want to split-push towers alone. Bloodseeker is weak to enemy initiations as you usually farm with Bloodrage on and if someone stuns you, they can bring you down easily. Moreover, you are not that fast if enemies are on full HP, and they will be if they are the ones initiating on you.