Axe

Mogul Khan the Axe is a melee strength hero, infamous for creating chaos in battle and thriving off of it.

He is commonly played as an initiator with a large semi-carry presence that quickly transitions into a support role later in the game. His fighting style demands that he gets up close and very personal. He can taunt enemies into targeting him and counters those who try to strike him with a sweeping Counter Helix that slashes all enemies at melee range. By infusing an enemy's soul with his own hunger for war, Axe has a tendency to draw opponents so deep in the fight that they do not have a chance to escape. His ultimate, Culling Blade, bolsters that talent with an attack that unconditionally kills a unit with low health.

Tips

 * Axe is especially dangerous early game with high starting statistics and the speed from Battle Hunger contributing to his ability to push up to the enemy tower relatively safely, even for a semi-carry.
 * Berserker's Call provides the full armor bonus at level one. It is the primary factor in his ability to survive physical damage without good statistics.
 * Resist using Culling Blade when not roaming or teamfighting. While Axe is powerful early game, he levels stat-wise fairly badly, and it is best to drop kills to a carry past the point when a team acquires their ultimate if the speed boost for a killing blow is not immediately necessary.
 * Items such as the Vanguard, Hood of Defiance and the Shiva's Guard are essential as they help reduce the damage being dealt to Axe while he tanks and initiates a battle without a Blink Dagger. With a Blink Dagger, this aspect can be ignored when initiating to an extent.
 * During the early phase of the game, a Stout Shield is all Axe needs to survive the lane. If possible, instead of fighting along with allied creeps, Axe can try to go and clash with the enemy creeps by himself with Counter Helix allowing him to take down unstacked creeps by himself.
 * A more advanced technique used by players is to max out Battle Hunger by Level 7. This enables Axe to constantly deal damage over time (dots) in the lane, dealing crippling damage and blocking any potential to push or counterpush. This meshes well with Axe's capability to tank and keep the enemy at bay while stopping them from last hitting or denying creeps, allowing Battle Hunger deal its full damage.
 * If Axe is going against two weak melee heroes in a lane without sufficient burst damage (such as Phantom Assassin or Spirit Breaker, etc.), do not hesitate to stand between them and their creeps. It allows for complete lane dominance as they cannot last hit and it denies them of experience and gold as Counter Helix hurts a lot early game.
 * You can type bind "P" "toggle dota_health_per_vertical_marker 250 350 450 625" into the console to easily find the instakill health thresholds for Axe's ultimate. Press 'P' in game to change the corresponding number of the health bars. This sets each bar of health to the value you set, which means when they are under 1 bar of health, you can successfully kill the hero. This can also be applied to other spells such as, , or , but magic resistance should be factored in. For details on enabling the console, see Console.
 * Axe is an excellent counter-pick to heroes with abilities that can greatly increase their attack speed (i.e. Ursa, Troll Warlord), as a combination of Berserker's Call and Blade Mail can be devastating to such heroes, especially if Counter Helix procs numerous times.
 * Instead of using Berserker's Call to draw creep aggro in lane, it's usually better to right click enemy hero (which automatically pulls the creep aggro). It applies to any enemy heroes visible on map, thus you can pull aggro by standing in the middle of wave and right clicking visible enemy on the other side of the map.
 * Soul Ring can provide all of the mana needed through the early and midgame. Use this in conjunction with a form of HP regeneration such as Tranquil Boots or a Vanguard.
 * Because of Counter Helix, attacking the enemy's creep wave when it spawns is an effective strategy for Axe to quickly earn experience. This will keep the enemies in your lane suppressed by your creeps during the early game. However it is not recommended if the opponent has an easy way to farm your incoming creep wave.
 * If snowballing or farm is exceptional, a Bloodstone can provide excellent tankability and more mana to spam axe's spells (especially when charges accumulate). It can be also built up from an early Soul Ring. However, do not purchase if there is a more natural carrier on your team, such as Storm Spirit.

Trivia

 * Axe's alternate/Fun name was "Mogul Kahnt Touch This", a reference to MC Hammer's famous song U Can't Touch This.
 * Axe,, and are all related as they come from the Oglodi tribe.
 * Axe's phrase "Better red than dead!" is a reversed reference to the Cold War slogan starting "Better dead ..."
 * Several of Axe's deny and killing blow responses are references to Willy Wonka's infamous rage scene in the 1971 movie Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
 * Axe's name, lore and "one-man army" image may have been inspired by Khan Noonien Singh in the Star Trek series, who was also described as a "one-man army" and killed uncooperative subordinates (along with used-to wearing a red shirt).