Boros CD build

[Spooky]

I was messing around with Boros recently, trying many different builds, mastering bola, trying keeping him alive, etc ;) It seems that there are 2 ways of playing Boros. One is based over weapon damage, critical strikes and leech. Usually built up with items like Khali Blade, Masamune, Contamination Shard, Darwin's Might, etc. Really powerful mid-late game when heroes has quite low armor. However at very late stages of game it become less and less strong.

Other way is focused more on spell damage and INT. Most people doesn't realize how strong his heroic passive - burning blade - is. It does additional 50% INT spell damage over next few seconds after each hit. And it stack with itself. I don't know if there is any number of stacks cap, but u can attack with max weapon speed and every hit would do that additional damage. If u have, for example, 400 INT then every hit would do additional 200 spell damage. Of course that additional damage is dealt during Omnislash as well. There is a counter to it called debuff immunity, but not every hero can afford it. INT based build isn't as powerful mid game as weapon damage one, but it is definitely much more powerful late game, mainly because of one item - Gravity Edge which doesn't care about spell resist.

 

I decided to mix little bit both playstyles and add to it new aspect - cooldown reduction which basically allows u to spam bolas, using ultimate very often and be almost under permanent spell storm effect. Lest start from talents (0-3-3):

- 180 health

- 8 armor

- Zeal

- 12% cooldown reduction

- 1.2 energy regen (u may consider sth else instead, but I like spamming bolas and energy regen is sth I need early-mid game)

- Swiftness

 

Build order:

Basically this opening provide enough energy and energy regen to not worry about wasted mana on missed bola, so u can practice it more even during situation when it seems impossible to bola someone. Actually it is the only ability which require some skill from Boros player and using it provide a lot of fun. Not for bola'ed guy of course. Speaking about Impact Dial I have to admit I got inspired by highdrater using it on Boros. And I love that item. Its provide so much utility. U can used it offensively and defensively, on yourself, your allies or enemies. Endless possibilities. Great item to run away after Omni, can be used after Bola or just before it. U can even save both your allies at the same time - bola one and impact dial second one. Definitely great early item for Boros.

Next items are focused more on mobility. Both Gravity and Masamune gives movement speed buff. Order u decide to get them is situational. Mid game is still the time when armor system hasn't kick in, so Masamune is strong pick. Besided it gives 15% cooldown reduction and potentially 20% timescale - which decrease cooldowns as well. Gravity in other hand is much cheaper, going through spell resist and gives some INT which increase Spell Storm, Bola and Burning Blade damage output. Its also a time to consider Ihan Crystal for free INT and health stacks - sell it later.

Yomato Reactor has great synergy with INT Boros build providing cooldown reduction, INT, increased spell damage and a lot of timescale which means more movement and weapon speed, faster Spell Storm ticks, shorter cooldowns. Agressor provide great stats as well - more cooldown reduction, health, AGI and nice unique. Little bit underused item recently but in this case fit my needs.

Last 2 items (Impact should be sold late game) are situational. What u actually need. One weapon speed item would be nice as u are not on your weapon speed cap. Pyre can be great against high health opponents and it has synergy with Gravity and Reactor. Star's Fury provide more cooldown reduction, even higher weapon speed and nice unique. U may consider more supportive Nitrogen to slow enemies (it isn't actually needed because of ridiculous movement speed). Cerebro allows u to be under spell storm permanently while u attacking and provide crap load of INT. Argus increase damage output a lot. Parallax makes u simply unkillable - it gives u chance to turn on SS when u stunned or silenced. Moreover it stacks nicely with Aggressor Guise making u totally invisible. However at that point everyone has elixir anyway but still fun.

 

The best effect if u have Cyprus in team and someone with CoA when u end up with 50% timescale and near to 100% cooldown reduction.

[residente]

Without Phantom Menace Bola Boros is not that funny =)

[lOvOl]

Going cooldown reduction on Boros is pointless unless you go all the way for permastorm because whether you have 1-2 seconds in between storms or 10 seconds in between storms, you can still be silenced during that delay. The build I use for Boros nowadays is a permastorm build with the following items:

 

(1) Pyre - Has nothing to do with permastorm but still best standalone AA item right now and you still need it to hurt tanky heroes which your burning blade can finish off and synergizes well with since it is DoT and an omnismash does all your pyre damage immediately. Not gonna go into detail to explain why pyre works great on Boros with how he is architected, but this is the first item I get besides mineral producing items (leeching, treasure, goggles).

 

(2) Warp Shard/SHC - You want this both as a gap closer as well as for escape. Everyone knows why this is a good item on Boros, and when converted to SHC it gives you a bit more extra cooldown (6%) which helps a bit toward permastorm capabilities.

 

(3) Yamato Reactor - 15% cooldown reduction and 25% cooldown reduction more when it is activated (important). Also gives movement speed and attack speed for maintaining chase when AAing a target and can also be used for escape in desperate situations when the item is not on cooldown.

 

(4) Hand of Mengsk - 15% cooldown reduction and 15% movement speed which when stacked with yamato's active gives you 40% movement speed. Also gives you just enough lifesteal that you can keep yourself healthy AAing creeps in between battles so you don't need to invest in more lifesteal and/or an organic carapace.

 

(5) Cerebro - I usually don't get this item till the other 4 because unless you have a high attack rate to reliably proc it even with around a 50% crit chance, the permastorm effect won't do much for you because you need to essentially proc it twice while spell storm is on to get spell storm to 0 cooldown once it finishes.

 

(6) Masamune - 15% cooldown reduction plus another 20% when at full stacks which happens very fast when HoM+Yamato is activated and you are attacking stuff. The weapon damage is not bad either but really you the most important thing about this item for boros is the cooldown reduction, movement speed, and timescale stacks.

 

 

Now to engage in battle you usually will activate HoM+Yamato and then blink in with SHC into a melee and activate spell storm and pound away, then activate spell storm again and keep pounding away and when spell storm is about 2/3 done you use omnismash. You can easily teamwipe a whole team with this build if they are all clumped together and you have at least one ally keeping their attention (i.e. tank) as I have gotten plenty of ludakills this way with Boros.

 

Anyhoo, I would not bother much with int builds on Boros because all you need to do is taser him before he storms and he can't do anything or you just wait out the 5 seconds of his storm then CC him to death. Of course with the cooldown build I have you can taser Boros as well, but the idea here is to activate HoM+Yamato and then blink in with SHC and storm on so you get first strike capability and taser won't be much of a factor due to you having another 5 seconds of spell storm pain coming around before they can disable you thanks to having a total 51% passive cooldown reduction and 45% active cooldown reduction, plus 2 procs of cerebro working in your favor of reducing the 14 second spell storm cooldown duration to 5 or 6 seconds.

[xNOVAxPRIMEx]

thats how i build him XD a hybrid of both and of course phantom menace ^_^ I love his passive, for somereason people dont really even know what it does. I love stacking INT throwing some damage on them and watch them burn away.

[CheekyKunt]

man lands on the moon and discovers highdrater's build...

[FinalEnd]

man lands on the moon and discovers highdrater's build...

 

lol wrong

[Spooky]

@lOvOl - u basically copied my build in your post. Only difference is SHC which in my opinion is wasted item slot for Boros. U simply doesn't need it with such a high movement speed and build in debuff immunity. And u don't blink between enemies as Boros - u using bola or ultimate. And HoM - its really weak item late game. Leech is almost unnoticeable because of high armor values and u should be already on weapon speed cap. If there is really need for leech get Darwin's instead. And if u found yourself tasered too often - get Parallax and problem solved. Besided it should happen anyway, as are not at front of your team. So turn on SS should be any problem at all.

 

Without Phantom Menace Bola Boros is not that funny =)

But why u need it? U can gain movement speed from Gravity and Masamune. And bola has range limit anyway. U don't even have to use Impact Dial late game to get out of range. For me it just wasted item slot.

 

man lands on the moon and discovers highdrater's build...

U haven't read carefully, have u?

Speaking about Impact Dial I have to admit I got inspired by highdrater using it on Boros.

I never saw his full boros build. So have no idea about other similarities.

[NoWaterJustIce]

I never saw his full boros build. So have no idea about other similarities.

 

Its ok nobody else has either because he wins too fast if you let him pick boros O.o

[Spooky]

Its ok nobody else has either because he wins too fast if you let him pick boros O.o

That is what happened in my case :P

[highdrater]

i love int boros.. but ive never found it to be great in an ih because it requires so much damn farm. for example jungling boros and building 2 machette, dial, and gravity edge takes my first 6-7k and offers me okay damage output but hardly any kind burst damage (which is all boros can really provide early-mid game aside from his bolas and initation). its not until you get a few more int items after gravity that int build is good, i.e. cerebro. and by that time its already lategame in the inhouse and you havent done jack shap for your team but land a few bolas and offered a piss poor ult with some decent dot from burning blade (and not much against people with parallax)

 

in my opinion you can think of some late game item builds hybriding int items, but straight up building int from start to finish is not that good.

 

so in this hybrid build spooky, how about trying dial, masamune as your first two core items instead of dial, gravity edge?

[KinGofDaBerG]

i love int boros.. but ive never found it to be great in an ih because it requires so much damn farm. for example jungling boros and building 2 machette, dial, and gravity edge takes my first 6-7k and offers me okay damage output but hardly any kind burst damage (which is all boros can really provide early-mid game aside from his bolas and initation). its not until you get a few more int items after gravity that int build is good, i.e. cerebro. and by that time its already lategame in the inhouse and you havent done jack shap for your team but land a few bolas and offered a piss poor ult with some decent dot from burning blade (and not much against people with parallax)

 

in my opinion you can think of some late game item builds hybriding int items, but straight up building int from start to finish is not that good.

 

so in this hybrid build spooky, how about trying dial, masamune as your first two core items instead of dial, gravity edge?

 

Hidrater is a scrub builder of boros i love chasing his boros late game with my tychus... :) scrubs be scrubs sup????

[lOvOl]

@lOvOl - u basically copied my build in your post. Only difference is SHC which in my opinion is wasted item slot for Boros. U simply doesn't need it with such a high movement speed and build in debuff immunity. And u don't blink between enemies as Boros - u using bola or ultimate. And HoM - its really weak item late game. Leech is almost unnoticeable because of high armor values and u should be already on weapon speed cap. If there is really need for leech get Darwin's instead. And if u found yourself tasered too often - get Parallax and problem solved. Besided it should happen anyway, as are not at front of your team. So turn on SS should be any problem at all.

 

 

But why u need it? U can gain movement speed from Gravity and Masamune. And bola has range limit anyway. U don't even have to use Impact Dial late game to get out of range. For me it just wasted item slot.

 

 

U haven't read carefully, have u?

 

I never saw his full boros build. So have no idea about other similarities.

 

Been using this build for a long time and have made many posts about it here on these forums already (search if you don't believe me). The devil is in the tactics not the items in terms of making it work.

[Spooky]

i love int boros.. but ive never found it to be great in an ih because it requires so much damn farm. for example jungling boros and building 2 machette, dial, and gravity edge takes my first 6-7k and offers me okay damage output but hardly any kind burst damage (which is all boros can really provide early-mid game aside from his bolas and initation). its not until you get a few more int items after gravity that int build is good, i.e. cerebro. and by that time its already lategame in the inhouse and you havent done jack shap for your team but land a few bolas and offered a piss poor ult with some decent dot from burning blade (and not much against people with parallax)

 

in my opinion you can think of some late game item builds hybriding int items, but straight up building int from start to finish is not that good.

 

so in this hybrid build spooky, how about trying dial, masamune as your first two core items instead of dial, gravity edge?

I've put both items Gravity and Masamune as next target u need, without pointing out right order. Its hybrid build anyway, where except Masamune, Aggressor Guise and Pyre have place as well. Basically I agree with u, that in more competitive environment building weapon damage first would give much better result then going straight INT. It's just how current resistance meta-system looks like. Early-mid game u can do more physical damage than spell, late game is quite opposite. Actually I do the same for Leo (first HoM/Masamune and after GE, YR and so on). But I think difference between Leo and Boros is that if Bola someone u already did your job, target is probably dead. Leo role is quite straight - damage. So getting cheaper movement speed item first can make Boros even more useful in that initiation aspect. I guess what team needs more.

[Spooky]

Been using this build for a long time and have made many posts about it here on these forums already (search if you don't believe me). The devil is in the tactics not the items in terms of making it work.

I remember that topic, however without details. But it was at time when I haven't considered to try Boros even in pub, so I had no context to judge it and therefore to remember it well.

[highdrater]

another thing to look into is the recent rebuff in khali blade in your late game build. the extra crit damage of a high damage build isn't something to not consider

[NoWaterJustIce]

another thing to look into is the recent rebuff in khali blade in your late game build. the extra crit damage of a high damage build isn't something to not consider

 

Lategame???? everyone knows that on boros you have to rush Khali blade as your first item :D

[NmExCrUiSeRz]

personally i have tried these builds and i have experimented on them and have come up with my build that is similar to spooky's. I keep his talents as it works like a dream but for build i prefer to go like this.

-Durans Pendant

 

-Gravity edge (why would i get this first you may think, but it is a very nice item as the speed is very useful already with talent speed boost making you able to bola and storm more effectively WITH the intell boost)

 

-Ihan Crystal (Sell later once stacked)

 

-Masamune (extra speed and makes your ulti so much more powerful, allowing you to bola and do more damage as you can drage faster and ulti to completely own them)

 

-Aggressors Guise (more agility and CD along with masamune helps a lot)---- can sell pendant for masamune or here as you got enough energy.

 

Two Options here: either Argus Crystal or Pyre

 

If your bola is very good and the enemy have not got much spell resist then go for argus, as it increases damage on your bola and storm like crazy.

If your bola is weak and the enemy have a Leo or a fast hero and so your bola is hard to nail then go for pyre as you can shred enemy heros apart with it.

 

-Situational (you can go for Yamamoto or HP and can get things like barbed for shadw or nova. But depends on the game)

 

Throughout this build you should be jungling and Always be buying BlinkMoth Serum as the CD is vital.

 

For me this makes Borros as OP as he used to be before he became less OP :P

 

 

-You may ask why i have not got Dial as it is a must have item, but i totally disagree. I tried it in my build and worked with it for a long time but i have realised when you bola and use the dial there is a maximum distance that the hero can get dragged, so invariably they stop and just run away. This for me made Dial seem as if it was a waste of a item as you can reach this maximum drag distance once you have masamune.

 

You are better off getting the bonus speed and true damage from edge then buying dial as you can gank and chase better and your spell damage becomes lethal.

 

 

Please if you have any problems with this then say so as i would like to hear them, I have been perfecting this build for a while now and this is what i have come up with

[Spooky]

-You may ask why i have not got Dial as it is a must have item, but i totally disagree. I tried it in my build and worked with it for a long time but i have realised when you bola and use the dial there is a maximum distance that the hero can get dragged, so invariably they stop and just run away. This for me made Dial seem as if it was a waste of a item as you can reach this maximum drag distance once you have masamune.

Dial, in first place, gives u escape ability. Additional utility is just situational. Once SS is over and u find yourself between enemies after your ultimate - u are simply dead. Dial allows to be more aggressive. Its great item for many heroes. I avoided death countless times mainly because of this item. U don't get it to increase your bola range. However u can bola target from closer distance (its very hard to miss) and then dial yourself to increase its range.

[NmExCrUiSeRz]

I see your point but usually once you have masamune and blade edge you already have a good amount of speed and so if SS was ever on you (God Forbid) then activating the q ability will remove the slow allowing you too get out. But i do see what you are saying, i did try it but a lot of the time i was able to go without using it and enabling myself still to play very aggressively and hit those high K.D on pubs. But having it to save team mates is also very useful

[Rogue]

Would it be a good idea to play it like this:

 

pendant, dial, grav edge and blinkmoth (ofc)

 

and then masamune straight after these items?

[NmExCrUiSeRz]

yes that is not bad, and i do not suggest buying blinkmoth any sooner then that.

 

Ihan crystal would probably be a better bet as it gives more energy which helps you spam your spells more with now worries on mana loss and also it makes edge more usefull as the intel boost from edge is put more to use.

 

Once it is stacked you can sell it afer 10 minutes of purchase and use this money to buy masamune or another item. That is how i prefer it but you can get ihan later.