Farm, push, win. The game plan with Terrorblade is so simple, yet so effective. With his Metamorphosis and Illusions Terrorblade is one of the fastest pushers in the game. When farmed, he is a terrifying carry to play against because his insane ranged damage output makes it almost impossible to stay in his range. He is also quite hard to take down because of Sunder.

All of this makes him a great hero to learn if you want to carry pubs.

Terrorblade is usually played as a pos. 1 carry in the safe lane. His focus there is to get as many last hits as possible, and maybe a tower or two in the later stages of the laning phase. He is heavily dependent on the start of the laning stage, so it is important to pair him with supports who not only provide him with the required farming space but also have disables as he lacks them.

His mid game can be played in two ways, depending on the game:

A 5-man lineup: Terrorblade thrives at taking towers. Every single time his 3^rd is off cooldown he wants to go take towers: this is the best lineup for him as he’ll be able to take all the t1/t2 towers on the map before 20 minutes and then break HG with a Roshan. This lineup is a little bit rare, as he’s very weak to any range abilities that can simply just nuke down his illusions, or anyone who can stun lock him, so instead we have the 2^nd option:

A space creating lineup (split-push/pick-off): Terrorblade excels at farming. A lineup that can provide him the required farming/split-pushing space so that he can take objectives and get his items by himself instead of going with his team is a great idea. So, whatever lineup can just show up on one side of the map and do something while he takes towers on the opposite is quite helpful. The farming space will allow him to get quickly 3-4 slotted by 20-30 minutes and then he can start grouping with his teammates to finish the game.

It is important to always tell your teammates that your 3rd is coming off cooldown so you can go for a push with them, or they can start something on the other side of the map so you can rat.

#1 Safe Lane: This is the preferred lane for Terrorblade, as it allows him safe farm and later on access to the side camps and the jungle, where he’ll be spending the majority of his time when his 3rd is on cooldown, or when he simply isn’t able to use it. This lane is very long, so it gives plenty of time and space for Terrorblade and his supports to harass the enemy offlaner out of the lane, or kill him with disables and Metamorphosis.

#1 Mid Lane: This is a very rare lane for Terrorblade, but it can work as a dual mid lane, especially with a support like Lich/Ogre, who can make the enemy mid laner’s life a living hell while buffing Terrorblade. Though going mid is not advocated as the lane is very short, which makes it very hard to get enough time to kill the enemy mid laner before he simply runs behind the tower or their supports rotate/teleport.  Additionally, he is melee most of the time, and a lot of mid laners have strong low cooldown magical nukes, and Terrorblade is squishy, so they can easily kick him out of the lane.

Strong Against:

Weak Against:

Terrorblade has various skill builds, mostly dependent on if he can or can’t push early on. It’s always best to go for the pushing builds as towers give map control, which in turn gives more farming space, which makes it easier to end the game. What this means in practice is that usually you will try to max your Metamorphosis and illusions as soon as possible.

If not needed, in any build the ultimate can be omitted until later on, as level 1 costs a lot of mana. However, if it is likely that your opponents will try to pressure you, it is safer to get Sunder. 

TB doesn’t have that many item builds. The only real differences are if you have to go for some specific early/mid game items like Drums so you can be more tanky for pushes, Linkens if the enemy can find you and kill you in the jungle (ex. Storm /Legion), Wand in the laning phase against heroes that spam spells or for a burst heal in the midgame team fights. 

Farming with TB is quite simple: you simply just last hit, he doesn’t have any specific LH mechanisms. You can use your 3rd to LH in the lane, but this is a big waste and its way better to use it to kick the enemy out of lane instead. This allows you to get uncontested farm later on.

TB is amazing at harassing people, mostly because his 3^rd ability gives him insane damage. Not only that, he has insane starting armor. This allows you to man-fight almost any hero at level 1-3. You’ll usually just walk into lane and pop your 3rd on Level 1 and kick the enemy out of the lane. This burns their regen and forces them to play passive till Metamorphosis is up when you’ll be able to do it again.

It is always best to try to go for a kill, so don’t just wildly pop your 3rd, but rather ask your support and roamer to come to kill the enemy offlaner once he comes close to the creep wave. If they latch onto him while you dish out the right clicks it should be an easy kill.

If the enemy does an organized gank on TB he will die, the hero has a small HP pool and is very slow. Unless he has ULT, he will get burst down by magical abilities and die. Your only option is asking your supports to ward to spot rotations and you need to keep track of the map.

LVL 1

A kill is usually gone on Level 1 if you have 2 supports with disables. You simply pop Meta and right click while they lock down the opponent and throw in some of their right clicks

If going for a kill on the safe lane, make sure to wait for the creep wave to collide first, and for the enemy offlaner to come to you (close to the wave) as chasing kills at level 1 and failing would leave you to lose lane control and potentially because of that - lose the lane

LVL 2-3

This is when you don’t have 2 supports to go for kills on level 1, on level 2-3 you’ll have your 1^st ability as well. The 25% slow is quite useful: by level 2 your support should’ve harassed the enemy offlaner so he’s already on lower HP and you’ll be able to chain your abilities and kill him. So, if this is possible, then simply don’t just pop your 3rd at lvl 1 to harass, but rather wait for level 2 or 3.

If neither kills are possible (offlaner is incredibly mobile or supports lack lockdown) then it’s always best to simply pop 3rd on the first wave and harass the offlaner out of lane with your support.

The only timing that you should consider on TB is the 5:00 minute mark and every next 5 minutes (5:00, 10:00, 15:00…). This is when the catapult spawns. Catapult waves should always be used with your 3^rd to take down towers or simply at least take half a tower’s HP, then the rest with the next Metamorphosis. So, if possible, always save your 3rd for the catapult waves so you can start pushes. 

He starts off with an additional branch, as he plans to buy a Wand as a first item because he knows he’s against a lane that likes to spam spells, and in general an enemy lineup that is spell reliant in the midgame.

At 00:00 He picks up the rune and goes to block the wave. He manages to let 1 creep go through, this helps the lane push towards him. As soon as the lane collides the first thing he does is attack that creep as soon as it drops to 50% and kills it. This now guarantees that the wave will push towards him as the enemy has more creeps alive. With this advantage it lets him harass and last hit without worrying about the wave pushing into the enemy offlaner.

He keeps on controlling the lane and last hitting while his support goes ahead and harasses the offlaner. Later on the support does some pulls as well, while he controls the wave outside the tower making sure that he maintains that creep position as it is very important to keep the enemy offlaner low level, so they can kill him, and especially later on so the support can leave the lane if possible so Terrorblade can get solo EXP against an under-leveled offlaner who won’t be a threat to him

At 4:30 he’s already level 5 while the enemy offlaner is only level 3. He even manages to abuse the creep wave downtime and the remaining time on his 3^rd to take a hard camp with the enemy wave then returns to lane without missing any farm.

Because all of this preparation he was able to completely zone out the enemy offlaner and secure himself a 1v0 lane, all up until the enemy supports rotated, but they weren’t able to kill him because of his 4^th ability and all his level/net worth advantage. As they wasted valuable time without getting kills, he lost minimal farming time. He was able to even make a rotation by himself later at 9 minutes which resulted in him taking the enemy t1 safe lane tower.

His mid game starts when he’ll farm/split-push while his 3^rd is down and try to push and fight whenever it’s up.

Terrorblade is bound to his 3^rd ability, so every single time it’s off cooldown Terrorblade should look into taking a tower somewhere on the map. If there are no t1/t2 towers to be taken or your team simply can’t take them, then TB spends his time jungling and pushing lanes.

When it comes to other timings:

Dragon lance: When you activate your 3^rd you’ll be able to take towers from a very safe range. Combined with Aquila, Treads and your high armor you’ll be quite tanky against physical damage (tower hits).

Manta: This item now allows you to split-push way more efficiently, but more importantly since you’ve been farming so far you would’ve racked up levels as well, meaning now you’ll be able to team-fight and take towers insanely faster thanks to your stronger illusions.

Skadi + BKB: With these items, you’re basically set in stone when it comes to team-fighting potential. You’ll be ridiculously tanky and you will dish out a huge amount of damage. Usually, when you get these items most games are over. Try looking into pushing out the lanes and smoking up for a Roshan, give it to your other core (if it can use it well) and whenever your 3^rd is up, go for a 5man push to end the game.

TB actually has quite a lot of comeback potential because his illusions can be used to split-push, farm safely and cut waves. So, even if you can’t fight or defend objectives, you can simply migrate to the enemy jungle and cut waves from there with your illusions. This makes it impossible for enemies to commit to a 5-man push. Of course, it is quite a risky position to be in and you might get ganked, so be careful – only do it when you see the enemy team.

In team fights, you want to stay back and dish out your damage. Your job is simple: kill the targets your teammates lockdown. You should almost never be the initiator unless it’s very late into the game and you’re very tanky. At that point, you can even start front-lining, as basically, almost every item Terrorblade buys is a stat item.

Example:

In this example you can see a very rare but efficient offensive use of Sunder: Miracle Sunders his Pugna to reduce his HP (and heal the Pugna) and thanks to the low Sunder CD he forces himself into the enemy base, Sunders the Razor and his team instantly nukes him down with Dagon. This wins them the fight and allows them to secure the game.

Such aggressive uses of Sunder are risky, but they are definitely possible especially with the low Sunder CD Talent.

5-man pushing:

He lacks his own disables so he has to simply just stay back and hit the towers. Your teammates or enemies will start the fight, your job is to sit tight and deal damage. Don’t dive – you are very slow and getting out of position will get you killed.

Remember that your 3rd lasts a long time, so you don’t have to instantly take a tower, but you can rather chip it in 2-3 waves, and if you don’t finish it then simply just go back and return to farming/split-pushing.

Remember that the enemy team will try to fight you as soon as your 3rd is down, so you should be careful to track your 3^rd timer so you don’t get caught with your pants down in the middle of a team fight.

You don’t always have to push when your 3^rd is off cooldown: if the enemy is stronger it might be smarter to simply keep farming/split-pushing and wait for them to make a mistake so you can teleport and counter-gank. If you take a good fight you’ll end up wiping the enemy and that’ll just allow you to simply walk down a lane and take some towers.

Split-Pushing:

As previously stated in the usage of 2^nd ability, Terrorblade is amazing at split-pushing, and this is what you’ll be doing most of the time while you’re getting your items or simply when your 3^rd ability is on cooldown.

You can split-push safely just with your illusions or more offensively – with the hero as well. The difference is obvious: one is faster and threatens towers more, the other is safer.

Terrorblade simply doesn’t gank (unless you are going for low-life Shadow Blade into Sunder play style, but – don’t). The hero excels at pushing/split-pushing/farming and has no natural lockdown. Wasting time on chasing kills is how you’d lose a game with this hero.

Already mentioned in the usage of Conjure Image, but some other things to note are:

• It is always ok to send some clarities or to use the shrine so you can keep spamming illusions.

• While you're farming the jungle with your hero, for maximum gameplay efficiency, if possible push 2 lanes at the same time; 1 illusion to each lane.

• Your Conjure Image should never be off CD, that means you're being inefficient and you should always take at least 2 camps/creep waves per illusion (prioritizing hard and medium camps).

• It is possible to also take Ancient camps with an illusion but that requires a lot of items (Skadi/Manta). If possible always prioritize to take them first.

• Make sure to not block the camps with an illusion, move it out of camp after it clears the camp.

• Farming should be a sub-conscious habit, so go to a lobby and train farming to the point when you can do it without thinking about it. You need your active part of the brain to be looking out on the map for enemy rotations so you don't get ganked while farming.

• Creep waves/Ancients give the most EXP. If possible, this is what your hero should be taking.
  

Remember: Your farming efficiency is 0 when you're dead, so make sure to practice your map awareness and farming patterns a lot!