Swiftblade guide.

[BossMan.]

Hey guys.
Since the HoN section is dead, I will spruce it up with a guide for a favourite hero of mine: Swiftblade.

The unique armor worn by this mysterious warrior
is said to have been uncovered in the ruins of
an Ancient city. Whether the armor imbues the famed
speed and pinpoint accuracy possessed by the warrior
called Swiftblade, or whether he would be equally
mighty without it, none can say.

SKILLS

Activation [Q]
Self
Type: Magic
Radius: 250
Duration: 5 seconds
Mana cost: 110
Cooldown: 30/28/26/24 seconds

Blade frenzy effects
Silenced
Disarm
Immunity

Deals 80 / 100 / 120 / 140 Magic damage per seconds to targeted units in radius. Applies Blade frenzy to self for duration of activation. Lasts 5 seconds.

Note: Comments: This skill is mainly used earlygame for damage, but also provides magic immunity. Will be useless late game if you had a good early-mid game.


On Attacked
15/20/25/30% chance to counter attack if the enemy is a meele hero.
This ability is passive
Cooldown: 0.6 seconds


10/18/26/36% chance for 2.0x critical strike.
This ability is passive
Note: This is where Swiftblade becomes so good lategame. If you get the right items, you can do alot of damage really quickly.


Activation [R]
Target Unit
Type: Physical
Range: 450
Mana cost: 275
Cooldown: 120 seconds

Swift Slashes Effect
Silenced
Perplexed
Imobilized
invulnerable

Teleports self to random targets 5 times dealing 150 to 250 physical damage to each target. Can be used on the same enemy mutiple times.

Note: This is like Moonqueens ultimate, however, you teleport to the target, therefore, making it effective for chasing.
Be careful of using it near creeps (enemy or neutral), you might teleport to them.

Skill build
1. Blade frenzy
2. Way of the sword
3. Blade frenzy
4. Way of the sword
5. Blade frenzy
6. Swift slashes
7. Way of the sword
8. Blade frenzy
9. Way of the sword
10. Counter attack
11. Swift slashes
12-15. Counter attack
16. Swift slashes
17-25. Stat increase

Item build
Typically this is my item build.
EARLY GAME:
Iron buckler
Quelling blade
Runes of Blight

If you farmed enough, you should have this:
MID GAME:
Sustainer
Iron shield
Bracer or soulscream ring

If you farmed even more, these should be your last items.
LATE GAME:
Runed axe
Shieldbreaker
Wingbow
Steamboots (strength)
Abyssal skull
Frostburn

If you have all that, you should pwn.

[KABLE]

This is a terrible guide. First things first, your skill build. Swift doesn't need to rely on a lucky crit to last hit a creep or even kill a hero. What he needs is stats. Stats provide health, mana, and regen for every level you get in them. If you max your spin and get stats until you get your ulti, you'll have enough mana for your spin and ulti combo. Without the stats, you don't. Also note that you said nothing about using Blade Frenzy and a TP to get out of ganks. That strategy remains viable the ENTIRE game. You have magic immunity for 5 seconds.

Second of all, your item build. It's so crap that even crap would hate it. Sure you could say that the Logger's Hatchet gives you last hitting power and the Buckler gives you survivability but you only have 3 charges for your Runes of the Blight. That translates to about 350 hp. If you're playing all pick, casual mode, sure, it would suffice. But any player that has half a brain would know that you need to prevent the other team's carry from getting farmed and you do that by harassing him when he gets close to creeps. You SHOULD be getting a Logger's/Buckler (either/or), a set of Runes of the Blight, a Health Potion, and 3 minor totems. They provide you with EVERYTHING. Last hit power, more health, more mana, more regen, which overall leads to easier laning phase.

Your mid game item build is no better. No matter what, you should get Marchers right after you get your Life Tube. However, there are exceptions. Are you raping your lane? Get Marchers. They allow you to catch up with that hero you're trying to kill and allow you to run away from ganks with ease. A Sustainer doesn't allow that. You don't need a Bracer or a Soulscream ring. They just set you back 500 gold from getting your Mana Tube.

And finally, your late game items. First of all, Frostburn and Sheild Breaker do NOT stack. You have to modifier change in order to get the most of all of it. I would almost always get Ghost Marchers. They let you chase and run away much easier. You don't get creep blocked when you use Blade Frenzy and it translate into a lot more damage. Abyssal Skull is just dumb. A Whispering Helm lets you dominate a strong creep and then use that creep to stack ancients. It's also the best form of Lifesteal in the game. It can be upgraded into a Symbol of Rage which, when activated, gives you 120% lifesteal, that's basically a Kong Token. After a Runed Axe, you should almost always go straight for your Whispering. After you get the Helm, start farming up a Savage Mace. It gives you ministuns and it procs during your ulti. Would you rather have an ulti that can ministun and stop channeled spells such as Tempest or would you rather have an ulti that does nothing for your team?

[BossMan.]

Yeah I get what you're saying.
But I made this guide in like 10 mins and for pub games.
I know frostburn and shieldbreaker don't stack.

[Sir Nathan]

Ouch. This guide hurts.

And finally, your late game items. First of all, Frostburn and Sheild Breaker do NOT stack. You have to modifier change in order to get the most of all of it. I would almost always get Ghost Marchers. They let you chase and run away much easier. You don't get creep blocked when you use Blade Frenzy and it translate into a lot more damage. Abyssal Skull is just dumb. A Whispering Helm lets you dominate a strong creep and then use that creep to stack ancients. It's also the best form of Lifesteal in the game. It can be upgraded into a Symbol of Rage which, when activated, gives you 120% lifesteal, that's basically a Kong Token. After a Runed Axe, you should almost always go straight for your Whispering. After you get the Helm, start farming up a Savage Mace. It gives you ministuns and it procs during your ulti. Would you rather have an ulti that can ministun and stop channeled spells such as Tempest or would you rather have an ulti that does nothing for your team?

I do believe that it was uber idiotic to suggest that ANYBODY should buy Shieldbreaker and Frostburn, but I do not agree with your statement about Abysmall Skull. After you have Runed Axe I'd rather have a Frostburn before having lifesteal. This will obviously slow your opponents making the chase much easier. Now, as you have an attack modifier already, it wouldn't be right to get any other Lifesteal item other than Abysmall. And it's really quite debatable if Whispering Helm is the best lifesteal in the game. It depends on the base DPS damage of the hero. I'd rather have Abysmall Skull for a 350 DPS Hammerstorm (which would transfer to 402.5 damage after the 15% damage buff and not to mention the 15% lifesteal aura for your melee heroes) than Whispering Helm (which will barely give you 370 damage and the 20% damage isn't transfered into aura). Really, both items would work for Swiftblade, but as Frostburn is usually the preferred option after Runed Axe, Abysmall Skull works like a charm. Afterwards it's pretty simple for me: with your farming abilitys your Savage Mace shouldn't be far away. But, by the way, attack modifiers that include proc chances will not work during your ulti (charged hammer, riftshards, savage mace, brutalizer) so do not expect this to stun your enemy. But this isn't really important, as your ultimate ALREADY has a ministun per target it hits.

[KABLE]

Ouch. This guide hurts.

I do believe that it was uber idiotic to suggest that ANYBODY should buy Shieldbreaker and Frostburn, but I do not agree with your statement about Abysmall Skull. After you have Runed Axe I'd rather have a Frostburn before having lifesteal. This will obviously slow your opponents making the chase much easier. Now, as you have an attack modifier already, it wouldn't be right to get any other Lifesteal item other than Abysmall. And it's really quite debatable if Whispering Helm is the best lifesteal in the game. It depends on the base DPS damage of the hero. I'd rather have Abysmall Skull for a 350 DPS Hammerstorm (which would transfer to 402.5 damage after the 15% damage buff and not to mention the 15% lifesteal aura for your melee heroes) than Whispering Helm (which will barely give you 370 damage and the 20% damage isn't transfered into aura). Really, both items would work for Swiftblade, but as Frostburn is usually the preferred option after Runed Axe, Abysmall Skull works like a charm. Afterwards it's pretty simple for me: with your farming abilitys your Savage Mace shouldn't be far away. But, by the way, attack modifiers that include proc chances will not work during your ulti (charged hammer, riftshards, savage mace, brutalizer) so do not expect this to stun your enemy. But this isn't really important, as your ultimate ALREADY has a ministun per target it hits.

You realize that you're skipping the fact that Whispering Helm does two things that Abyssal does; give you a creep control and give you an item that can be upgraded into Symbol of Rage. There is NO arguement that Symbol is the BEST lifesteal in the game. It doesn't matter how much damage you have. 120% is > 15%. Symbol gives you 25 STR, 20 damage, 5 armor, and a 25% lifesteal when it isn't activated.

Once you have a fast enough attack speed, Swift will autoattack during his ulti. Those attacks work just like any other autoattack works and will include attack modifiers. The ulti only stuns the primary target.

[Sir Nathan]

You realize that you're skipping the fact that Whispering Helm does two things that Abyssal does; give you a creep control and give you an item that can be upgraded into Symbol of Rage. There is NO arguement that Symbol is the BEST lifesteal in the game. It doesn't matter how much damage you have. 120% is > 15%. Symbol gives you 25 STR, 20 damage, 5 armor, and a 25% lifesteal when it isn't activated.

Once you have a fast enough attack speed, Swift will autoattack during his ulti. Those attacks work just like any other autoattack works and will include attack modifiers. The ulti only stuns the primary target.

Without any doubt Helm of the Dominator is the best lifesteal item ingame, but it is the same to say that icebrand is a better item than shieldbreaker just because of the fact that it can be upgraded to Frostwolf's. Thus the item in question here is Whispering Helm vs Abysmall Skull, and in a carry like Swiftblade is, i'd rather go for Abysmall because it doesn't waste your Attack Modifier leaving space for shieldbreaker, frostburn, etc. Now if the question is, Helm of the Dominator vs Abysmall, hands down HotD.

By the way, the ulti DOES stun every target it hits.

Swift Slashes
Swiftblade attacks random nearby targets with such speed that he appears to teleport to them. Targets are randomly chosen, yet it is possible to teleport to the same target multiple times.

ActionTarget EntityTypeOrganic Enemy Units
Type: Physical
Range: 450
Cast Time: 1.7 / 2.5 / 3.7 Seconds
Mana Cost: 200 / 275 / 350
Cooldown: 130.0 / 120.0 / 110.0 Seconds
Required Level: 6 / 11 / 16
Activation
Teleports self to random targets 3 / 5 / 8 times, dealing 150 to 250 Physical damage to each target along with a mini stun. Applies Swift Slashes to self for duration of activation.
This ability can be boosted by Staff of the Master.

Staff Effect: Increases teleport count from {3,5,8} to {5,7,10} and reduces cooldown to {110,100,90}.
Swift Slashes Effects
Immobilized
Invulnerable
Silenced

[KABLE]

Without any doubt Helm of the Dominator is the best lifesteal item ingame, but it is the same to say that icebrand is a better item than shieldbreaker just because of the fact that it can be upgraded to Frostwolf's. Thus the item in question here is Whispering Helm vs Abysmall Skull, and in a carry like Swiftblade is, i'd rather go for Abysmall because it doesn't waste your Attack Modifier leaving space for shieldbreaker, frostburn, etc. Now if the question is, Helm of the Dominator vs Abysmall, hands down HotD.

By the way, the ulti DOES stun every target it hits.

It isn't a waste of any attack modifier. Also, it's ABYSSAL, and WHISPERING HELM. Please use the correct names, it bothers me. Saying Icebrand is better than Sheildbreaker is completely different. What Icebrand does is give your survivability while Sheildbreaker gives you DPS. Depending on what you need, pick accordingly. Savage + Whispering > Frostburn + Abyssal. And even you said it's the best form of Lifesteal in the game. Why would you pay 200+ more gold for something sub-par? A Helm + Savage allow you to solo Kongor once you have the two items. A slow from Frostburn and Lifesteal from Abyssal won't allow you to do that.