Bloodthorn/Guide

Recommended heroes

 * Bloodthorn provides mana for, and deals heavy damage when used with.


 * Bloodthorn's crit is a decent replacement or supplement to Nature's Prophet's other popular late game damage items.


 * Bloodthorn provides a convenient upgrade to Queen of Pain's late game damage output, which falls off over time.


 * A natural upgrade from, a core item on Storm Spirit.
 * The damage increase from its active ability makes Storm Spirit much more effective at quickly killing tanky enemies in the late game, bolstering his largely-static damage output.


 * Bloodthorn's bonuses help offset Sven's limited mana pool, and Soul Rend crits are devastating in combination with.
 * Soul Rend can shut down enemies with disables, escape abilities, or evasion, letting Sven strike them down unimpeded.


 * Bloodthorn is a viable alternative to a on Weaver for shutting down troublesome enemies like  and, but is situational due to its lower crit damage and damage bonuses.


 * When combined with Bloodthorn, using against enemy heroes will trigger a rapid succession of crits.


 * The intelligence bonus and mana regen single-handedly resolve the heroes low mana pool issue.
 * The massive 90 attack speed bonus also benefits the illusion, allowing for more frequent crits on the enemy.
 * Sould Rend along with and  can easily shut down and kill a highly important target during teamfight.

Tips

 * Build the Orchid first, it will provide good damage, mana regen, and a powerful silence that enemies won't be able to dispel early game.
 * Bloodthorn's active accuracy counters evasion from any source, such as or, as well as blind effects from any source, like  or.
 * Generally, Bloodthorn is a worthy upgrade for any hero that purchases an . It is arguably better than because it guarantees crits of  damage with True Strike for your team, silences, and a  magical damage aftermath while Daedalus grants only chances to deal crits of  damage.
 * Some would prefer to go for a or to buy it in combination because many items can remove the debuff and the enemy can still run away or use a Blade Mail during the effect.
 * Remember that Bloodthorn's active gives guaranteed crits along with a silence. Targets may still be able to escape with or  before you could damage them.
 * The ensured crits from Soul Rend work for all attacks done to the target. This includes attacks from wards, towers, fountains and even allies of the target.
 * Casting it on a tower diving enemy makes them take much more damage from the tower.
 * It is great when combined with, because Soul Rend causes them to crit their cursed ally as mentioned.
 * Instant attacks like and  can crit as long as they allow the carriage of attack modifiers. This prevents  and  from critting.
 * Soul Rend does not allow crits from secondary spell projectiles or spell dummy units.
 * crits on primary targets, but bounces don't.
 * crits on primary targets, but secondary bounces don't.
 * do not crit on secondary targets.
 * does not crit.
 * You don't need to attack too much and chase or dive if you think the bonus 30% damage at the end of the effect will be enough to kill the target.

Items synergy

 * will disable your enemy from dispelling Soul Rend or using blade mail and give a lot of right click damage to intelligence heroes (120 from both items).
 * gives a lot of damage per gold to agility heroes, the active apply one of the most powerful movement slow in the game.
 * gives the highest DPS per gold, you will regen a lot more from lifesteal, the silence will protect you from being disabled and nuked.
 * applies armor reduction that amplifies the guaranteed crit of your entire team.
 * will increase the attack speed of your team and reduce the armor of all enemies.
 * apply a powerful move speed slow, combined with a blink Dagger the active can disable the ennemy's Blink Dagger. It is better an intelligence heroes for the damage it give them.
 * : will do critical hits and have true strike. The movement speed aura and True Sight are useful to chase your enemy.

Counter items

 * will return critical strikes on enemies.
 * ,, and dispel Soul Rend.
 * blocks Soul Rend, but some spells can be used to remove the Linken. Later in the game cheaps items like Force Staff can be used to trigger the Linken.
 * dispels Soul Rend and make you immune but Soul Rend has a low cooldown so prefer using it during team fight.
 * : use it to escape from a gank.