7.01 Terrorblade Carry Guide

Alright, I've seen a lot of misinformation being tossed around, and I'm here to put my foot down and make a full, comprehensible guide on my way of playing Terrorblade. Terrorblade is one of the strongest late-game carries that excels at single-target physical damage while also having some light crowd control and 1v2 potential. In this guide, you will learn how to play as Terrorblade in all stages of the game, what items to build on him, and what abilities and talents to level.

Introduction

See here for an in-game build.

Alright, you've just picked Terrorblade into one of three situations: an easy game, a normal game, and a hard game.


Easy: You counter one or more of the enemy cores.
Examples: Anti-Mage, Lifestealer, Wraith King, etc.

Normal: Either a mix of you countering cores and you being countered OR a game where little to no counters exist between you and your enemies.

Hard: You have been countered and will have a difficult time in this game.
Examples: Ember, Axe, Timber, Tinker, Slark, Lion, etc.


As you may notice, there are more counters to Terrorblade than those countered by him.
This is the part where I tell you to not pick him every game or you'll suffer.

Although, even if you do happen to be countered, there are some situations in which allies of yours may encourage you to pick Terrorblade. Not literally of course, but rather with the heroes they pick.

• Dazzle - Keeps your squishy self alive long enough to be able to use Sunder.
  
• Oracle - Same story as Dazzle, but with better potential to kill the enemy laner.
  
• Shadow Demon - Oh boy, this is your favorite support to be around. 75% damage illusions when Metamorphosis adds to your base damage. It's a beautiful thing. Not to mention the kill potential in lane. Disruption gives you enough time to get in position, use Metamorphosis, drop an illusion, and sometimes even get in the way of the enemy laner to ensure a kill.

And here's why you shouldn't pick Terrorblade into his counters:

• Axe - Your illusions proc Counter Helix, he has a reliable BKB piercing 3.2 second disable, and is a lane dominator. You've got awful stats at level 1 aside from your high armor that won't help you against Helix's pure damage.
  
• Ember - Illusion destroyer (not as much as of 7.00, but still, magic burst hurts a lot), slippery, and splitpushes. Not too fun to play against.
  
• Timber - Resistant to physical damage, huge burst damage, and hard to lane against.
  
• Tinker - Huge burst (especially if he picks up a dagon), slippery (especially if he picks up a ghost scepter), and splitpushes. Late-game permahex isn't too fun either.
  
• Slark - Gets his items a lot quicker than yours and can easily pick you off in the mid-game if he happens to wander into your jungle looking for a kill. Also, it's pretty difficult to Sunder someone when you can't target them unfortunately.
  
• Lion - A huge nuke and multiple disables make life really hard. A hex, stun, or finger right before you're about to Sunder is game-losing. Unless you've got a BKB, Lion's gonna be a big problem.

General Gameplay - Early Game

Like most other carries that scale well, you'll need to farm! Who would've thought!

You'll want to avoid fights like the plague unless the enemy is knocking down your T2 before or around 10 minutes. You'll have a really hard time fighting before you get manta, especially if they have silences.

In lane, you'll build up your early game items like treads, aquila, HotD, etc. Upgrade your shield to PMS and grab the ring of regen for your HotD early if you're having a hard time in lane. If the enemy laner leaves and your support is present, you can push the tower. I recommend having Metamorphosis to at least level 2 and a point in Conjure Image when you plan to push. Once your support leaves, you'll want to head into the jungle and send an illusion to the lane. Micro the illusion to lasthit and shift-queue your main hero to rotate between camps. Be sure to tread switch before spawning an illusion, the mana you save outweighs the minimal damage added.

General Gameplay - Mid-Game

So, by mid-game you should have at minimum treads, aquila, HotD, dragon lance, and manta. If you've got a wand or PMS, keep your TP in your backpack. If you do need a BKB, you''ll usually want to wait until after you finish manta, but sometimes you may need to build BKB first. If your team isn't grouping up to push, defend, fight, or take rosh, then just continue to farm for your next item, whether that be a skadi, BKB, diffusal, linken's, pike, or what have you. If you and the enemy pusher/team is willing to trade towers, go for it. Your teammates should be able to hold off the push for a little bit while you can easily take their tower(s).

General Gameplay - Late-Game/Ultra Late-Game

The chances are pretty good that you scale better than the enemy cores, so as long as you stay ahead or close to their farm, your team is more likely to win fights and the game. Avoid being alone when far from your base and most of the time, you'll want to avoid fights as a whole unless they will open a window for you and your team to push. The nice thing about Terrorblade is that he can farm even in the worst-looking situations because he can send out strong illusions to the jungle or lanes when his team is trapped inside the base. Your end-game build should always include skadi, manta, an eaten moonshard, BoTs in your backpack, and a refresher in your backpack.

Items

Starting Items:
No matter what your starting items end up being, you'll always have a set of tangoes and a stout shield in them. I really like getting a ring of protection because you can buy a sage's mask at the side shop to finish a ring of basilius for some nice damage, mana regen, and to build into your aquila later. Some of my favorite combinations are:

• tangoes, shield, salve, ring of protection
  
• tangoes, shield, faerie fire, branch, ring of protection
  
• tangoes, shield, salve, quelling blade

Early Game Items:
Cheap stat items to lead into your core items. Anything that has a lot of value in it

• Power Treads - Your choice of boots 99% of the time. That 1% is when you're controlling the game on your own. The attack speed the boots give transfer to your illusions and so does the agility, strength or intelligence, but for the early game, that's gonna be intelligence because you'll be tread switching (I sincerely hope).
  
• Ring of Aquila - 19 damage, some HP, mana, mana regen, AND armor. That's a mouthful for just under 1k gold.
  
• Infused Raindrops - Not exactly an item, rather a consumable. You'll be spamming the ♥♥♥♥ out of Conjure Image and aquila and tread switching alone can't support the 70 mana every ~20 seconds that takes. Enter raindrops: protection from magical nukes and mana regen for 225 gold. The item is amazing and everyone knows it, but not everyone buys it. :/
  
• Helm of the Dominator (HotD) - If you've been wondering what HotD is, then you've come to the right place. Basically, it's what drums used to be before 6.87, but better. 8 HP regen, +6 all stats, 20 attack speed, and the ability to control a creep? Sign me up. The HP regen allows you to sustain in your jungle rotations without a worry, the extra HP, damage, and mana given by the stats are just what you want and need, attack speed synergizes with the damage steroid that is Metamorphosis, and controlling a creep could easily help you get a kill. In particular, the Dark Troll Summoner (root), Satry Banisher (purge/slow), Mud Golem (ranged stun), and Centaur Conqueror (AoE stun).

Core Items:
You'll have a hard time giving these up once you pick them up, some of them are even part of your end-game build.

• Dragon Lance - Pure strength and agility combined into one cheap item is a beautiful thing. The range bonus is nice, but it's certainly not the reason you buy the item; even if it wasn't there, this would 100% still be core because for someone like Terrorblade, you'll want to get every bit of strength you can as long as it's convenient. On top of this, you can upgrade it later into hurricane pike for extra intelligence, strength, agility, AND a boost to mobility that Terrorblade loves.
  
• Manta Style - Extra stats, move speed, and some nice agility, but that's not the main reason you buy it. The active spawns two illusions and applies a basic dispel. You can use this to fight, push, or dispel most silences, roots, slows, and debuffs. Unless the enemy has a debuff that you NEED to dispel to function (the most common perpetrator is silences), always use your manta before you activate Metamorphosis. The reason for this is because manta has different properties for melee and ranged heroes. The illusions do 33%/28% damage and the cooldown is 30/45 seconds depending on if you're melee or ranged. The benefit of using manta while you're still in melee form is clear. Metamorphosis is an aura, so it automatically applies to all illusions owned by you (illusions of you from other heroes like Morphling or Shadow Demon will stay in Metamorphosis even if out of the radius or if the duration ran out). This means that the illusions you spawn while in melee form will still do the extra damage and manta will have a lower cooldown even if they turn ranged afterward.
  
• Eye of Skadi - Amazing stats and a slowing attack. Once you pick this up, you won't need to tread switch when spawning illusions anymore because of all the mana you'll be gaining. +725 HP and +550 mana.

Situational Items:
Anything that I wouldn't recommend getting EVERY game.

• Black King Bar - Spell immunity! Wow! Pick this up 100% of the time against Riki and Disruptor because their silences aren't something you can just dispel. Other honorable mentions of people Terrorblade hates are Timber, Lion, Shadow Shaman, Storm, and more.
  
• Diffusal Blade - The item is amazing, don't get me wrong, but since the nerf to the mana burn of illusions and the damage dealt by the mana burn as a whole, it's gone from an item that I would have recommended getting every game possible to an item that you should only get when you're ahead, need the purge, or need the mana burn. If you do end up needing or wanting this, grab it right after manta.
  
• Linken's Sphere - Grab this against strong single-target spells, like Fiend's Grip, Primal Roar, Doom, Duel, Nether Swap, and Static Link.
  
• Hurricane Pike - Another solution to the AoE silences of Riki and Disruptor! Careful with Disruptor though, you aren't able to force yourself out of Static Field if you are pushed up against the barrier. On top of this, pike is also a great mobility tool, so if you're having trouble moving around because of slows or need to get out of the way quickly, go for it.
  
• Monkey King Bar - Get an MKB if the enemy as some sort of significant evasion or blind or you expect them to get a butterfly/solar crest/halberd.
  
• Mjollnir - Going against a lot of illusions? Enemies have high armor and you need some magic damage? Get a mjollnir!
  
• Assault Cuirass - Pick this up if you're going against an Elder TItan since he can remove all of your (high as ♥♥♥♥) base armor.
  
• Scythe of Vyse - Hard lockdown for the most slippery of heroes: Storm, Slark, Morph, AM, Riki, Void, and more.

Extension Items:

• Butterfly - Lots of damage, attack speed, and evasion. This is mostly focused on giving damage to your illusions, so if your illusions are getting wiped out quickly, go for something else.
  
• Daedalus - Your alternative to Bloodthorn if the enemy you're trying to focus has a dispel or spell immunity. It's pretty rare for Terrorblade to be lacking in damage, but hey, if you're ahead, why not?
  
• Satanic - A third life (Sunder is your second). On top of the active, satanic helps you sustain throughout the fight with it's huge 25% passive lifesteal while also giving you good damage and plenty of HP.
  
• Bloodthorn - A silence but most importantly a huge damage amp. and to both you and your illusions while also giving some appreciable mana regen, damage, and attack speed.
  
• Refresher Orb - Not for a second Sunder, no sir, but for a second Metamorphosis. This is part of your end-game build, but it's not an actual part of the 6 active slots of your inventory. You'll keep this in your backpack and use it after a fight when pushing or when buying back.
  
• Moon Shard - Just eat it and be done with it.
  
• Boots of Travel - Not really a goal, but rather something to get when you either need to get to towers to push fast, need to get closer to fights faster, or just have nothing else to buy.

Abilities & Talents

Straight to business, my skill build is going to be E/W/E/W/E/W/E/W/Q/R/T/R/Q/Q/T/Q/-/R/-/T/----/T in a perfect situation. As we all know, not all situations are perfect. Often I'll need to get an early point in Reflection if a kill opportunity arises, or maybe I need to get Sunder at 6 because the enemy team is diving me or has someone come to gank.

Alright, first I'll tell you why I do what I do. I max Metamorphosis first because it allows me to both push and fight a lot better. I max Conjure Image second because it synergizes with Metamorphosis and allows me to push about twice as fast. I don't get Sunder until later because the mana cost is so high and I feel that maxing Metamorphosis and Conjure Image beforehand is more important. Same story for Reflection except for the mana cost part.

As for talents, it's pretty straightforward.

Level 10: +15 attack speed | +6 health regen
Attack speed 100% of the time. You already get plenty of health regen (~11 total) from your high passive regen and from HotD, which doesn't add too much. On the other hand, attack speed is always nice to stack up on unless you're going past the limit.

Level 15: +175 health | +25 damage
Classic offensive vs. defensive option. On some occasions, you'll still get the health over the damage even if you're ahead because the enemy team might have a bit more nukes than you're comfortable with.

Level 20: +15 movement speed | +15 agility
The added movespeed from this is nothing. Compare this to Abaddon's +25 at level 20, or Ancient Apparition, Bane, or Batrider's +35. Take the agility every time.

Level 25: -30s Sunder cooldown | +15 all stats
I mean, it looks pretty clear to me especially considering you're an hero that craves stats. There might be a situation where 10 second Sunder is good? Maybe? I'm doubtful though.