Years ago, nobody would have picked Axe in professional matches and not even in pubs above 4000 MMR. But now he’s a hugely popular hero with a pick rate of 22% and a win rate of 56,2%.
Axe was buffed significantly in Dota 2 patch 7.36, which gave him the ability to become more and more tanky as his kill score increases. With just five kills and a Plate Mail, he is twice as durable against physical damage as he used to be.
What Makes Axe Strong
Valve
Axe’s inner ability is Coat of Blood. This ability gives him armor every time he kills an opponent. And if he does it using Culling Blade, he gains twice the amount, which increases with the level of his ultimate.
Initially it’s 0.4 but it reaches 1.0 after level 18. At level 12, it will be 0.8 or 1.6 if Culling Blade was used. That means that if you can get five Culling Blade kills, you will gain eight armor permanently.
Axe’s facets are One Man Army and Call Out. The first is much better than the second, as it gives you 50% more strength based on the value of your armor. So when you have around 20 natural armor, you gain 10 additional strength.
The hero’s Berserker’s Call is now a bit weaker, giving him just 20 armor at level four. But it doesn’t matter because that’s still a massive buff.
Play Style
Axe should always be played with a Blink Dagger, a Blade Mail, and a Vanguard. You could potentially skip the Vanguard or the Blade Mail, but both of them are so practical and cheap that there’s no point in doing this.
Axe tends to have an easy laning phase thanks to his Counter Helix, which deals 95 – 170 pure damage, but also to his natural HP regen. This is a hero that can quickly be helped to reach 7 – 10 HP regen, which is more than enough to be fully regenerated at all times no matter how much the enemy team invests to bully you out of the lane.
When you play Axe, you want to buy your core items quickly and then make space for your other cores. Between the 10 and 20-minute marks, the map is yours and very few heroes can stand up to you.
Header: Valve
