Axe

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

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

Gameplay
Axe is a durable initiator who can disable, damage, and kill whole groups of enemies alone. To do this, Axe's abilities combo into each other very well. Berserker's Call, though hard to land without a, is a three-second area disable that forces enemies to attack Axe. This forces Counter Helix to proc more often, causing all affected enemies to take massive damage during its duration. If enemies fall under Culling Blade's threshold, Axe can instantly kill them - refreshing the cooldown and allowing Axe to cull again. Even if the enemies survive the initial onslaught, Axe can chase them down through Battle Hunger to secure a kill.

Axe can play in any lane well, though he's usually an offlane support hero. Going midlane or safelane is not unheard of, but both positions depend on the composition of the enemy team. Axe can also successful jungle at the start of the game by levelling up Counter Helix to kill camps, being more efficient than many level one junglers.

Axe can make the most out of his abilities depending on his item choices. Axe can transition to a semi-carry by building damage-dealing items like and, which helps counter the enemy carries during the mid-game. As a ganker, Axe can use and  to pick off squishy heroes during Berserker's Call. If built as a pure tank, and  lets Axe soak up tons of damage while initiating, taking enemy aggro while letting his carries damage the enemy team. No matter the position, Axe's role is to disrupt the enemy' teamfight potential through disables and nukes.

Tips
General
 * Resist using Culling Blade when not roaming or teamfighting. While Axe is powerful early game, he scales poorly later on due to a lack of scaling abilities. It is best to let your carry kill enemies if a killing blow is not necessary.
 * You can type bind "P" "toggle dota_health_per_vertical_marker 250 325 400 550" 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. 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., ), as the combination of Berserker's Call, Blade Mail, and Counter Helix will quickly destroy their health.
 * The standard Axe combo is to blink into a group of enemies, cast Berserker's Call, cast any active items, right-click the weakest enemy, then cull any hero at low health. This must be executed quickly so the enemy cannot react.

Early game
 * Axe is especially dangerous early game, due to his high starting statistics, the damage from Counter Helix, and the speed from Battle Hunger contributing to his ability to chase and attack enemies.
 * 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 items.
 * Early-game, Axe and and his laning partner can attempt a technique known as creep cutting. This involves going behind the enemy tower and using Counter Helix to take out the creep waves, eating tangoes to regenerate. While it stops the enemy team from getting last-hits, it's also risky due to being far away from your tower.
 * An alternative skill build is to max out Battle Hunger by Level 7. This enables Axe to constantly deal damage over time in lane, dealing lots of damage and dissuading the enemy from attacking. This meshes well with Axe's capability to tank and keep the enemy at bay while stopping them from last hitting, allowing Battle Hunger deal its full damage. This technique assumes that Axe has a steady supply of mana to cast Battle Hunger.
 * If Axe is going against two weak melee heroes in a lane without sufficient burst damage, do not hesitate to stand between them and their creeps. The enemy won't be able to last hit without taking damage from Counter Helix, which will negate their early-game presence.
 * Instead of using Berserker's Call to draw creep aggro in lane, you can right-click an enemy hero. This applies to any visible hero, meaning you can draw creeps by clicking outside of Axe's attack range.

Abilities


 * Axe's effective health is massively increased with this skill, meaning he is very hard to kill with physical damage while under its effect.
 * It's best to taunt enemy supports first, as they are more likely to die from Counter Helix than carries - thus taking out a member of their team rather than simply dealing damage.
 * Berserker's Call still has a 0.4 second cast point, so make sure enemies are close enough to fall under its effects.
 * If you're being chased by an enemy and have no other options, cast this spell to minimise the amount of damage you take from their attacks until help arrives.
 * Enemies cannot cast disables while taunted, meaning that Axe can taunt an enemy to safely teleport away from them.
 * Enemies can still disable Axe if he's under the buff, wasting valuable taunt time.


 * Do not underestimate Battle Hunger's damage potential. A 400 damage spell with a five-second cooldown can be very annoying for squishy heroes.
 * Battle Hunger can be cast on enemies near death to secure a kill, should they fail to heal the damage dealt in time.
 * If an enemy hero is out of range, Axe can cast Battle Hunger on a creep to gain enough speed to close the distance.
 * If a target is unlikely to die during Berserker's Call, casting Battle Hunger on them can help Axe to chase them in the aftermath.
 * Even though Battle Hunger has a five-second cooldown, spamming it when not necessary is likely to eat up Axe's small mana pool, wasting his more valuable spells.
 * Battle Hunger will proc on cast, making it much safer to use Culling Blade on a Linken's holder.


 * Counter Helix damage is physical, meaning Axe can use armor-reducing items to increase its damage.
 * Counter Helix will proc more often if more enemies are attacking him, making it ideal to cast Berserker's Call on multiple units to ensure it procs as often as possible.
 * Counter Helix will not proc on spells, making it less effective against nukers.
 * If Axe cannot be phsyically attacked, E.G. through or disarm, Counter Helix won't proc. This means Axe must consider when he should use his items.
 * If an enemy is near death, Axe can simply chase them until Counter Helix procs again, securing a kill.
 * Because of the low health pool of lane creeps, Counter Helix can be used to quickly and safely push lanes.


 * Culling Blade allows Axe to become a formidable semi-carry by damaging enemies with Counter Helix and finishing them off with a killing blow.
 * The skill can be casted multiple times in succession if each cast results in a killing blow, allowing potential for massive team-kills.
 * Aghnam's Scepter allows Culling Blade to act as a nuke with a six-second cooldown, which is useful if a target is unlikely to die within the next six seconds.
 * Try not to use Culling Blade on enemies if your allies can kill them without it. Your allies are likely to use the gold more effectively than you.
 * Be sure to watch the health bar on enemies when casting Culling Blade - if it's too high, the killing blow won't proc and you will waste the cooldown.

Items
 * Axe can utilise many types of boots effectively.
 * are good on a supporting Axe due to his mana-hungry nature, which combined with health regeneration means he will rarely have to go back to base.
 * lets Axe deal more damage during Berserker's Call, as well as letting him chase enemies that attempt to flee.
 * are viable in a semi-carry role, where Axe needs the attack speed to deal as much damage as he can during Berserker's Call.
 * Vanguard can be swapped out for as the first core item if the threat of magical damage outweighs the threat of physical damage. Keep in mind that physical damage generally scales better than magical damage.
 * can provide most of the mana Axe needs during the early game. Paired with health regeneration like, Axe can quickly regain the damage he takes.
 * A can be built from an early Soul Ring, providing lots of mana and health for Axe while benefitting his team when he dies. The buff his team gains on death is useful if Axe is being built as an initiator, as he will be quickly focused by the enemy.
 * Aghanim's Scepter allows Axe to split-push effectively when combined with an escape mechanism, due to Culling Blade providing movement speed for his creeps. If it is cast whenever it is off cooldown, the creeps will rush to the enemy base much faster than normal.
 * Resist the urge to use Blade Mail while the enemy is affected by Berserker's Call if they don't deal enough damage to make use of it. The massive armor bonus will reduce Blade Mail's damage by a lot, unless the target deals exceptional damage. The optimal strategy is to use Blade Mail after the call ends and hope they'll still attack you afterwards.

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 Axe respawn 09.mp3 "Better red than dead!" is a reversed reference to an American Cold War slogan stating "Better dead than Red".
 * Several of Axe's deny and killing blow responses (such as Axe deny 15.mp3 "You get nothing. Good day, sir!") 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).