As far as carries go, Terrorblade is perhaps the one that has received the most tweaks and remakes. We’ve seen him rise and fall quite a few times, and now he seems to be at his best. Both in pubs and competitive matches, he’s a pick that won’t be ignored.
Terrorblade is the only ranged-illusion carry in the game, giving him a unique way to dish out tons of damage. Even without having Metamorphosis, his illusions allow him to farm and push really fast, so giving him even a bit of space is not a good idea. Bursting him down in fights can be tricky, since a second of misplaced disables can allow him to Sunder and get back to full HP.
Let’s see a few options to deal with the demon lord:
: Earthshaker combines a lot of AoE disable time and huge burst damage, pretty much what you need to deal with illusions with the old-fashioned, direct approach. Most of the time, Terrorblades will be forced to at least get a BKB against Earthshakers.
: Another one who we’ve seen a lot in the last patches, Sven the Rogue Knight has a built-in cleave skill, an AOE stun and extraordinary right-click damage, enough to kill him before he Sunders. Note that cleave damage is pure, meaning that Terrorblade’s huge base armor will be less relevant. To make things better, Sven’s Warcry will add 20 armor to him and his allies, making Terrorblade hurt a lot less.
: Timbersaw may be lacking disables to deal with Sunder, but he more than makes up for it with tons of AOE pure damage. Illusions will die very quickly. Also, Timber will be a great pain for Terrorblade during the laning stage. Shutting a carry down early on is generally the safest way to go.
: Ember Spirit shines best when there are a lot of units for him to cleave and crit with Sleight of Fist. Not only that, but actually hitting him with Sunder can be extremely difficult. A great choice for stopping Terrorblade pushes.
: Outworld Devourer’s Arcane Orb deals tons of damage to illusions, 1 or 2-shotting them at most. Sanity’s Eclipse is also a good way of bursting the enemy down at about half hp before he can Sunder.
: While obviously not the type to manfight any carry, Lich has an Ice Armor that also works on towers, greatly reducing right-click damage and a Chain Frost that can bounce a lot between illusions. He can also be very annoying during the laning stage, taking away a lot of EXP and gold from the enemy.
: Multiple March of the Machines, bouncing Lasers, permahexes, huge burst. A good Tinker player can make Terrorblade’s life really hard.
As an extra note, keep in mind that illusion carries hold the typical disadvantage that they aren’t the best BKB users. Even if the main Hero is safe from nukes, their damage output is still dependant on those copies of themselves. Any sort of AoE disable or nuke, even when BKB is active, will reduce Terrorblade’s effectiveness a lot.
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