Rexxar the Beastmaster
By SirFootin and R.I.M.S
Table of Contents
* Introduction
* All about Rexxar
- Beastmasters Stats
- Beastmasters Skills
- Skill Build
* Item Build
- Core Item Build
- Optional/Situational Items
- After Core Items
* All about Jungling
- General Information on Neutral Creeping
- Gold and Experience Gain
- Creep pulling techniques for the Sentinel forest
- Creep pulling techniques for the Scourge forest
- Special Spawn Cases
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* General Walkthrough
- Levels 1-10
- Levels 11-16
- Levels 17-25
* Advanced Strategies
- Using Primal Roar
- Using Wild Axes
- Hawk Usage
- Quillbeast Usage
- How to use Necrominion
- Dotakeys
* Allies & Enemies
- Allies
- Enemies
* Replay & Video Clips
-Helpful Links
-Conclusion
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* FAQ
Introduction
R.I.M.S: When I started originally playing DotA, Rexxar was one of the first heroes I played. That was when Wild Axes and Primal Roar cost a lot more mana, so it was a lot harder then now. I also used to leave out Call of the Wild because I couldn't micro manage. After some time when I got a lot better I started. I started playing him again and once again I fell in love with him. Then I saw Merlini's replay as jungle BM against x6. I was amazed at how well it's done if it is done correctly. I decided to create a guide on Jungle BM, but I didn't have time to do it by myself. So I asked for help from someone else.
SirFootin: So yes, that someone is me. I don't really like playing beastmaster much and he pretty much don't like me playing him either. So R.I.M.S was telling me how cool a jungle BM is and it reminded me of the MYM replay. Cool stuff, and so I decided to help out.
About the Guide:
We will try to make a complete guide on Beastmaster and all possible ways of playing him. With intentions of keeping this guide short however, we will ignore basic information/strategies with regards to general gameplay (eg last hitting, how to animation-cancel etc).
Basically, the kind of Beastmaster hero we want to bring into light is one that starts jungling between levels 1-3 with the aid of a bottle. Rexxar being a powerful ganker (due to Wild Axes and the imba cooldown of Primal Roar) will therefore jungle only till level 6. After which, he will repeatedly go on ganking missions everytime his Ultimate cools down while jungling when it isn't. Necrominion is the next item of choice as Beastmaster is understandably a weak melee hero for tanking and dishing out raw damage. Being on the support role will fit him better early game. Continuous early game ganking will ensure good map control somewhere during mid-late game and this time is used to transform Beastmaster into either a DPS or a tanking machine if the team requires one.
All about Rexxar
Beastmaster's Stats
Range: 100 | | Move Speed: 310 | Primary: Strength
Str: 23 + 2.2 | Agi: 18 + 1.6 | Int: 18 + 1.9
Damage: 56 - 60 | HP: 587 | Mana: 208 | Armor: 4.5
HP Regen: 0.94 | Mana Regen: 0.65 |Attack Speed: 1.44 (+18%IAS)
BAT: 1.7 | Attack Swing: 0.30
Being a Strength hero, his strength gain is pretty weak. He will be needing a few bracers early game if he wants to lane against harassers. However, that is not required since Jungling is much safer. Gauntlets of Strength would be sufficient to cover for his hp weakness. Good base damage and Attack swing makes last hitting slightly easier though.
Beastmaster's Skills
Apart from the basic info on the Skills, we have added an Additional Information section too. It may look confusing at first so you might want to read the whole guide first and then return here again to absorb the additional info. You don't need to memorize all the information here but in an effort to make this guide as detailed as possible, we have provided all the additional information for you.
We have also added a comments section to briefly describe how the skills are being used in-game.
We have also added a comments section just to give a general description of how the skills are used.
IPB ImageWild Axes
Rexxar hurls his two axes outward, which then intersect and return to him. Each axe can only damage a unit once.
Level 1 - Each axe deals 90 damage.
Level 2 - Each axe deals 120 damage.
Level 3 - Each axe deals 150 damage.
Level 4 - Each axe deals 180 damage.
Cooldown: 13 seconds.
Level 1: 120 mana, 13 sec cooldown.
Level 2: 120 mana, 13 sec cooldown.
Level 3: 120 mana, 13 sec cooldown.
Level 4: 120 mana, 13 sec cooldown
Rexxar's sole nuke, but an incredible one to say the least. Wild Axes is Rexxar's main farming skill and his killing skill early game. When trying to damage enemies with Wild Axes never click on the enemy for the attack, but click in-front of him while assuming in which direction he will be going in. More explained later in the guide.
Additional Information:
* Range is 1300
* AoE radius of each Axe is 150. However since the axe travels at a distance apart, the total width of the AoE is approximately 450-500. Since the axe intersects each other at the turning point, the AoE at the point is minimal. The general AoE when it is thrown will look like a rectangle like most other spells (eg Dragon Salve, Shockwave etc) but tapered near the end.
* Flight time is 3 sec no matter how far you throw it (1.5sec to target, 1.5 back to Beastmaster. It will travel faster if the target is far and very slow if you throw it at a 200range. You will notice that the axe also accelerates as it is being thrown and decelerates as it does a 180 turn)
* Damage is physical. Reducible by armor and damage blocking (eg stout/Vanguard).
* Flight path will change as Beastmaster moves to another position.
Comments: The damage done is physical making it highly useful early game when heroes armor is low. At around 5.5 armor, damage reduction is 25% similar to that of natural Spell Resistance for heroes. Wild axe will benefit from armor reducing aura and spells (eg Bristlebacks Goo) greatly.
IPB ImageCall of the Wild
Rexxar calls upon wild beasts to aid him. The duration, strength and number of beasts increases per level. Previous summons are removed upon casting.
Level 1 - Summons a Scout Hawk. (60sec duration)
Level 2 - Summons a Scout Hawk and a Quilbeast. (70sec duration)
Level 3 - Summons a Greater Hawk and a Quilbeast. (80sec duration)
Level 4 - Summons a Greater Hawk and a Greater Quilbeast. (90sec duration)
Cooldown/Mana cost: 45/50/55/60 seconds/25 mana at all levels.
Another great skill of Rexxars. A super-movable-observer ward and an awesome slow all rolled into one spell. The Hawk can be used to scout runes and missing heroes, pretty straight-forward stuff. The pig is your greatest ally as he has a constant 35% slow. The advantage of having a your DPS'er and your slower as 2 separate units as oppose into one unit is it makes the opponent choose weather he must disable the slower or the DPS'er. Regardless of his decision, it's a lose, lose situation for him and a win win for you.
Additional Information:
* Both Hawk and Greater hawk has 25hp.
Hawk vision 500day/500night
Greater Hawk vision is 1600/1200, 315 movespeed (as of v6.46) and has invisibility.
Observer Wards has 1600/1600, equivalent to Greater Hawk's sight during day.
* Quillbeast stats: 400hp | 350ms | 1.0 BAT | 23-29 piercing dmg | 550range | 20% slow for 3 sec
* Greater Quillbeast stats: 700hp | 350ms | 1.0 BAT | 43-49 piercing dmg | 550range | 35% slow for 3 sec
* Piercing dmg does 50% dmg on heroes, 150% on lane creeps (unarmored) making Quillbeast good against them
IPB ImageBeast Rage
When Rexxar engages an opponent, his animalistic nature grants him even greater proficiency in single combat. With each continuous blow on the same target, Rexxar gains understanding of the prey's defences, and guides each strike with greater ease than the last. Maximum of 100% increased attack speed. If Rexxar changes targets, his rage counter drops to half of where it was.
Level 1 - Every continuous attack gives Rexxar 5% bonus attack speed.
Level 2 - Every continuous attack gives Rexxar 10% bonus attack speed.
Level 3 - Every continuous attack gives Rexxar 15% bonus attack speed.
Level 4 - Every continuous attack gives Rexxar 20% bonus attack speed.
Passive
The chink in Rexxar's arsenal. Don't get me wrong, this skill is good, but only as late game rolls in. It synergises very well with the slow from the pig. While this spell is considered to be given to Rexxar by god himself (Icefrog biggrin.gif) to pubbers, it is not viable early since your damage is to low to make it effective, and even during mid game it's not worth it, due to Rexxars low strength gain. Thus Stats are taken over Beast Rage mid game.
IPB ImagePrimal Roar
The Beastmaster looses a deafening roar which deals damage and stuns its target. Enemy units near the roar wave take minor damage and have their movement speed and attack rate reduced. Due to the force of the roar, all units between the Beastmaster and his prey are shoved aside, creating an open path.
Level 1 - 200 primary damage, 3 second stun. 100 side damage, 2 second slow.
Level 2 - 250 primary damage, 3.5 second stun. 200 side damage, 3 second slow.
Level 3 - 300 primary damage, 4 second stun. 300 side damage, 4 second slow.
Cooldown: 60 seconds.
Level 1: 150 mana, 60 sec cooldown.
Level 2: 175 mana, 60 sec cooldown.
Level 3: 200 mana, 60 sec cooldown.
A very much misunderstood skill. Most players will just use it as a setup stun and during chases. The slow effect is often ignored. In team battles, a well placed roar can make the whole team move to a crawl. This is what Rexxar is truly known for. The damage from Primal Roar is quite negligible for levels 2 & 3 much like Spirit Breaker's Nether strike. More information on Primal Roar later in the guide.
Additional Information:
* 600 range at all levels
* -50% Movement and Attack Speed at all levels
* Allied units are pushed aside also but will not be slowed.
* Slowed units shows a red Circling-circle on top of their head while the stunned target shows both a red and blue Circling-circle (blue for stun)
* Units behind the roared target will not be affected
* Units who are immune to magic (Repel, Rage, BKB) are stunned by Primal Roar, but they do not take the damage from it.
Skill Build
1. Wild Axes
2. Call of the Wild
3. Call of the Wild
4. Wild Axes
5. Wild Axes
6. Primal Roar
7. Call of the Wild
8. Call of the Wild
9. Wild Axes
10. Stats
11. Primal Roar
12 - 15. Stats
16. Primal Roar
17 - 20. Beast Rage
21 - 25. Stats
Skill Build Justification
Cookie-cutter skill build. Wild Axes is your only nuke, it helps with farming and killing, so it is maxed out early. Call of the Wild is maxed out over Wild Axes because of how the team benefits from the site of your hawk and to have Greater Quillbeast, probably the most dangerous companion you have going into mid game and jungling . Stats are taken over Beast Rage mid game because of Rexxar's low strength gain for a strength hero, with Rexxar being somewhat of a tank and he can't use the attack speed effectively. Primal Roar is taken at level 6,11,16 so you can gank enemies.
Item Build
IPB Image
Item Build Justification
The cookie-cutter build for Rexxar. Bottle is taken so Rexxar can constantly have HP and Mana. It gives him the ability to spam Axes early game. Rexxar also works well with the runes which give 2/3 refill after using the rune. Bottle also lets Rexxar run around freely, to gank as he pleases. Gauntlets are taken over Bracers since they are a quicker way of fixing Rexxars low HP. Since our first major item is going to be Necrominion, we would just be delaying a very important item that gives us a relatively good strength boost anyway (+6/+10/+14 str for Necro 1/2/3). Anywhere between 2-3 gauntlets should suffice.
Necrominion is the core item of this build, much like in all Rexxar builds. In my opinion Rexxar is one of, if not the best carrier of Necrominion on the Sentinel side. The synergy with Necrominion and Rexxar is just amazing. The stun from Primal Roar gives you and your minions 3-4 seconds of free hitting. The MS buff synergises well with the slow from you pig for chasing. Obviously you need some decent micro to be able to make this build effective, but don't avoid if you can't, practice makes perfect.
Boots of Travel is taken over Treads since Rexxar needs the MS over the IAS. Think about it; Rexxar has a slowing move so he needs an MS to catch up to enemies. He won't be dealing out much normal hits early game so IAS from Treads is not needed. The MS also helps you save allies. When an ally is being chased by more then one enemy, stun one opponent and slows the rest by 50%. If you can't catch the enemies then it defeats the purpose Primal Roar. Oh and there's a 60-second teleport for you to quickly arrive to a battle scene and provide support.
Optional/Situational Items
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Optional/Situational Items Justification
Observer Wards:Observer Wards are going to be bought in most cases. Even though you have your Hawk, it's not enough to see over the whole forest. So we will be showing you where to put wards while jungling later in the guide.
Stout Shield:An optional item. Stout shields are a great way to keep your HP up while neutralling, making you basically immune to normal creeps, they absorb a ton of damage from neutral creeps. One is sufficient. You still need space for other items.
Sentry Wards:A situational item. If you are playing against compotent players will ward the forest when they notice that someone is constantly missing from a lane. They will also put wards into creep camps so that the creeps won't spawn. That's when you buy Sentry Wards. By putting wards in the area of trees near the camps you will be able to see the observer wards and kill them off. Make sure that you don't put your sentry wards on the camp site, otherwise the neutrals can't spawn and you won't be able to kill your ward. More explained later in the guide.
Items Afterwards
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After Core Items Justification
Heart of Tarrasque:If your team who is need of a tank, or you feel that your in need of HP then Heart of Tarrasque would be the best way to go. It gives Rexxar a nice damage boost and a huge HP boost of 965. If your team is in need of a tank early, then skip Necrominion and go Heart of Tarrasque.
Assault Cuirass complements Heart very well. The hugh armor bonus greatly synergises with your large HP pool. It should always be gotten after Heart, to make you an invincible tank.
Satanic:Satanic is a great item for Rexxar. Helm of the Dominator gives Rexxar another creep to control. I suggest a stunner creep (Centaur Khan or Polar Furbolg Ursa Warrior). They help tremendously in ganking. Once you farm up for Mess Reaver and make Satanic you gain a substantial amount of HP (475 HP) a nice amount of lifesteal (25%) and an awesome active ability that synergises amazing with Rexxar. Whether it's while your chasing someone with you pig or while you've stunned your enemy, the damage boost and the extra damage synergises well with Beast Rage. Satanic effectively increases Rexxar's HP and his damage.
Radiance:Radiance is an item that won't be chosen too often for Rexxar, since there are many other heroes who buy Radiance earlier. Rexxar is also a hero who needs HP over damage, so HoT or Satanic is a better choice for Rexxar. Although Radiance does provide a bit of tanking capabilities with the 8% evasion. By late game Radiance + Wild Axes will be used for quick pushing and farming. So if no-one else has Radiance and you feel that your HP is enough then Radiance is the item for you.
Assault Cuirass:A new item to Dota, and a very strong one. Assault Cuirass provides a ton of armour and a lot of attack speed. It also gives a nice buff to the rest of the team. The armour reduction from Assault Cuirass synergises very well with Wild Axes, since Wild Axes is physical damage. The attack speed works well with Beast Rage giving Rexxar work up his Rage counter at a faster rate. Like Radiance, if no-one else buys it then it's up to you to buy it.
It is advisable for you to get this item straight after your Core as AC is a powerful support item.
Manta Style:Usually people go for Diffusal on heroes which does not have a disabling ability. Rexxar doesn't really need Diffusal but if there are heroes like Warlorck on the enemy team, you might consider getting it to counter his infernals.
Upgrading it to Manta Style next sorta make you into a tanking DPSer. Unfortunately, Beast rage does not work on images because it is a triggered skill. The mana burn works however.
Advantages of Jungling and its Techniques
Before we start off on the strategy section, we shall discuss a little more in detail several Jungle Techniques that will be used as part of the strategy. This section will focus on two parts, information on Neutral Creeping as well as a short video explaining several techniques of neutral creeping.
The first course of the game will require you to do some jungling (as was intended originally in this guide). Rexxar is a sub-par jungler compared to the more popular jungler heroes like Juggernaut and Furion. Nevertheless, it is possible to jungle with him effectively though it will require more skill to do so. The idea of him being in the jungle is because he is less useful in a lane since he is a melee hero. To start off, here are some general information on Neutral Creeping :
General Information on Neutral Creeping
(some quoted from MrX's guide):
* In an -ap game, neutral creeps spawn at the 2:00min which lane creeps spawns at 1:30
* In a -lm game (or any other form of 1-2-2-2-2-1 games), neutral creeps spawn at the 5:00min while lane creeps spawn at 4:00min. Note that this is a 1:00min difference while -ap is 30secs.
* Creeps spawn at 1:00min intervals
* They will not spawn if there are existing creeps on the camp, sentry/observer wards (common strategy to counter junglers) and corpses.
* Corpses takes approximately 15 secs to decay. 2 secs for the flesh to go to the ground, 12 secs for the bones to decay. If you have your finishing blow on the creep by the 45th sec, a new spawn will appear at the next full minute. Make sure you leave the area though.
* You have to be approximately 500-1000 (in most cases) range away from a creep camp for them to respawn. This includes your own/allied/enemy creeps controlled. If you have a hawk which has vision on the spawn point but is than the range, the creeps will still respawn. However, if you have no vision on the camp but you are less than the range, the creeps will not appear.
* A more correct explanation to re-spawns condition is that each camp has an area bounded by a rectangle. If there exist a unit within the area, it will thus not respawn. The fact that it is not a circular area means that the range required to pull it is not always 1000 but varies since the width/length of the rectangle varies.
* All neutral creeps are set to "Guard mode" and have an Aggro of 300 (a more specific term is Acquisition Range). If you fall within that range, they will chase to hit you.
* Their "Guard" range is 600, ie to mean if they will continue hitting you till they die. If you go beyond 600 range, they will still continue to chase/hit you for 3 secs before they make a 180 turn and head back to their original spot to "Guard"
* Given the 3 sec buffer time to lure the creeps out of the camp, it is possible to lure them out within a 500-1000 range and if done right, a new fresh creep spawn will appear in the abandoned camp. Once the original creeps return, you will have 2 sets of neutral spawns at the same spot. You can have 3 sets or more at the same spot too (but just for laugh only)
* Your lane creeps (Ghoul/Necro or Treant/Talons) have an Aggro of 500 for melee and 800 for ranged. Therefore if there is any neutral creeps hitting/chasing you within that distance, your creeps will ignore their original pathing and help you out.
* Higher level creeps eg Centaur, Furbolgs, Dragons, Roshan etc are often considered 'smarter' creeps. They have higher target priority over enemies with low health. If you are low on health, be careful not to engage them. You might find them changing targets from and hit you instead.
Gold and Experience Gain
For junglers which does fairly well eg Furion and Juggernaut, they will usually level up as fast as allies on a dual lane (assuming the opponents does some decent denies). Gold-wise it could be far better compared to dual laners (since they have to share) and might even be better than Solo-ers (if they can't get last hits often)
For an exact computation of what XP/Gold you will receive, use the table below;
IPB Image
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Copyright 2007, Nova & Co.
or if you want to know how much XP/Gold gain you received for each kind of camp, refer to
MrX's Guide : Link Here
Creep pulling techniques for the Sentinel forest
The easiest way to teach someone how to neutral creep is probably, with a video.
Rexxar Jungling Video
Video Explanation
The video features Merlini playing as Beastmaster in the famous MYM match versus x6. At the second wave, he did a creep pull to the neutral camps.
IPB Image
The exact timing was 2:15 which was close to perfect. A better illustration is given in the image above.
What caught many by surprise later was how he used a tango to lure the creeps from the 2nd creep camp. Why not use Axe? It sounds like a workable idea but actually there is a deeper meaning to using the tango itself. Firstly, he used it to lure the golems into the 1st camp. Since the distance from that camp is >600, the golems are likely to return back to their original camp (remember >600 distance, 3sec before they return). However, they got caught in between with treants blocking their way. You can see the golems sometimes idling and not hitting because all they want is to go home unsure.gif. The motive of doing so is to force the golems to be >1000 distance from their camps and vhoila, a troll family spawn at the full min!
The next creep spawn pull was demonstrated on the furbolgs. Note the time 3:53min. If you notice, Merlini pulled the creeps down south and exactly at the 4th min they made a 180 and returned to their camp. This is by far a perfect pull.
The next few scenes features the use of wild axes, using it to hit 2 camps at once by using the "throwing and moving behind the enemy" move.
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So now you have learnt how to pull creeps at the 53rd sec. Besides the usually stand beside the creep luring method, using your wild axes will also create aggro on the creeps. As of v6.42, there is now a timer (no more open/close of scoreboard to check timing) near your gold indicator. Use that to time for your axe. Since it takes 1.5secs to travel to target, throw it at around the 52nd sec. Besides being able to hit 2 creep camps at once with a single cast of wild axe, you have also created a new spawn on the abandoned camp. Some creeps like Orge Magi and Troll priest however, might hang around the camp casting frost armor or heal and thus cause a problem for the new creeps to spawn due to their close proximity.
Your mana cost on your axe is very costly, doing this will allow you to achieve more kills with as few wild axes as possible. In other words, efficiency.
Creep pulling techniques for Scourge forest
Scourge Jungle Pull Video
For the Scourge forest, the most efficient area for Jungling is the gnoll camp, the one beside it and the one about 1500 distance directly north of it. In the video, what was shown is a creep pull done on the third wave. Creeps will spawn at the 2nd min and you can usually start pulling them right from the 2nd wave. The advantage for pulling them later is that you get an additional spawn on the 2nd camp (in the case a group of trolls). If you intend to pull during the 3rd wave, you might want to hang around in the mid lane to leech some xp meantime.
The basic idea is to pull them about 10 secs after they spawn ie in x:10 and x:40 mins as shown in the video. Land 1-2 hits on the gnolls and once you see one of your melee creep turning his back to help you, start to run away from the gnolls. Once they start tanking for you, try grabbing some last hits, meantime watch out for the 52nd sec to throw your axe on the other creep spawn. Remember not to damage the gnolls too much. If the gnolls dies before the creeps on the 2nd camp arrives, your allied creeps might head back to their lanes. To attract aggro on you melee creeps towards the group of satyrs, you need to land a hit on the satyr guys. Your melee creeps will then ignore the gnolls to help you out.
Strangely enough, the 2nd camp does not obey the 1000 spawn rule (quite an exception here). As such, there will be a chance for a respawn even though the distance is just around 700. I've tested in the game with Beastmaster standing on the edge of the ramp, the distance between me and the gnoll spawn as well as the satyr spawn is both the same ie 700. The satyrs spawned but the gnolls didn't. I've also noticed another case where it doesnt obey the 1000 range rule. In one scenario, I barely pulled a creep from their camp on the 57th sec, they were only 200 distance away from their camp yet there was another respwan. (Image shown below)
If done correctly, you can easily spearhead your XP level. Remember XP is more important than gold in early minutes of the game. If you were to calculate the XP gain in that video, forest trolls/priests/satyr_tricksters/gnolls gives 41xp each while satyr soulstealers gives 81xp. In total, they give 502xp which is barely enough for you to get to level 3 (needs 500xp for level 3).
Each creep wave of 3 treants/1 talon gives a total of 227xp. For you ally who is soloing Mid lane, assuming the opponent does not deny his creeps (which is rarely the case) he will receive 681xp after 3 waves. If you were to be laning with him, each of you will only receieve 340 xp. Now if the sentinel has a dual laner for mid lane, each of them will have 340xp each too (not accounting for the creeps you pulled/denied). You on the other is getting 502xp which is 50% higher than them. This is prove that proper jungling is as good as a dual laner, if not better.
Special Spawn Cases
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This is the creep camp located nearest ot the bottom Sentinel tower. Each creep camp has an area bounded by a rectangle in which if a unit exists, it will not respawn. In this case, the area just above the little row of tree (which has been chopped) is not bounded by the rectangle, hence creeps will respawn.
So instead of pulling them at x:53, you now have the luxury of pulling them at x:57.
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Another location where this phenomenon is observable is in the scourge forest. Try pulling the creeps directly south around x:56/57. Once they cross the chopped off trees marked by the green line, they are sure to spawn.
*Try not to pull them diagonally (ie south-east) because then you will need to cover a larger distance to get out of the rectangular area.
A more accurate representation of the respective rectangular boundaries are shown below. Take a look at the two special cases I mentioned and you will understand better. Now you don't need to memorize all the rectangles but have a general idea of which direction is best for you to pull the creeps to ensure success. For example, when pulling Sentinel ancients camp, it is best to pull them in the southward direction.
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