Spirit Breaker Strategies

Gameplay

Barathrum the Spirit Breaker is a strong and lordly creature, a ferocious and elemental intelligence that opted to plane-shift into the world of matter in order to participate in events that would have ramifications in the elemental realm where he resides. To that aim, he put together a shape that would serve him well both in and out of our world. His physical shape pulls from the world's strengths, combining bovine and simian features—horns, hooves, and hands—as external symbols of his inner attributes of power, speed, and cunning. He has a ring in his nose to remind him that he works for a secret master and that the world he works in is only a shadow of the true one.

In the game, Barathrum, the Spirit Breaker, is a formidable ganker-type melee strength hero that specializes at concentrating on and killing lone targets in skirmishes but struggles in bigger team engagements. His Charge of Darkness allows him to charge quickly at any adversary on the map, knocking out any foes in his way. It may already be too late if you notice the charge coming. Bulldoze gives him increased movement speed and status resistance, allowing him to quickly track down his opponents while also shortening the duration of most disables.

His Greater Bash, which crushes the life out of his defenseless victims, is the main reason for his selection (and stuns them). Barathrum may use Nether Strike to travel fast to his opponent and startle them with a soul-bashing attack. Spirit Breaker's ganking powers are unrivaled. He's tanky, mobile, and equipped with a variety of high-damage knockbacks, including a passive one connected to his right clicks.

This is his in-game description: 

“Highly mobile and always aggressive, Spirit Breaker charges across the map to bring the fight to his enemies. With each bash of his heavy lantern, he knocks his foes senseless. His enemies may run, but with the help a few wards, they cannot hide.”

Ability Builds

Level 0/1/15/25/30

• Health: 200/740/1580/2420/2760;

• Health regen: 1.25/3.95/8.15/12.35/14.05;

• Mana: 75/243/543/903/1035;

• Mana regen: 0/0.7/1.96/3.46/4.01;

• Armor: 2/4.83/8.8/13.63/15.38;

• Att/ sec: 0.53/0.62/0.74/0.89/0.95;

• Damage: 31‒41/58‒68/100‒110/142‒152/159‒169;

• Magic resistance: 25%;

•  Movement speed: 290;

•  Attack speed: 100;

• Turn rate: 0.6;

• Vision range: 1800/800;

• Attack range: 150;

• Projectile speed: Instant;

• Attack animation: 0.6+0.3;

• Base attack time: 1.9;

• Damage block: 16;

• Collision size: 24;

• Legs: 2;

• Gib type: Ethereal.

Talents

Tips & Tactics

General

Spirit Breaker’s skillset is very versatile, so depending on the situation you can have different builds altogether. Generally speaking, what you need to concern yourself with the most is what type of situation do you utilize each of the abilities. With that said, the common guideline to Spirit Breaker’s skills and consequently skill build is as follows.

Charge of Darkness may be used to reduce the distance between you and your opponent, stun him, and render him exposed to your assaults. Charge of Darkness may be spammed during teamfights to cause havoc and break your opponents' formation, therefore aim to target the backliners to receive the most stuns.

While charging, Spirit Breaker can use Bulldoze to increase his movement speed, allowing Greater Bash to inflict more damage. Bulldoze has a 2.5 second cooldown with the Lv 20 Talent. Don't be afraid to repeat casting it if you want a near-permanent boost.

Depending on Spirit Breaker's movement speed, Greater Bash does greater damage. Obtaining items that enhance movement speed, such as Drum of Endurance, will boost your damage output. Always attempt to position Spirit Breaker such that you may drive your opponent away from safety; the odds of getting several bashes are small, but it's worth considering.

Nether Strike inflicts significant damage on the target opponent and teleports behind them. You may use this to catch adversaries who are blinking or teleporting before they escape. Because the larger bash would strike them anyway, it's sometimes a good idea to use Nether Strike on a spell immune hero to halt their actions. For example, if your squad is trapped in a Black Hole by a spell-resistant Enigma, you can turn the game around if you can stop him immediately away.

For the early game and early ganks, Greater Bash and an early point on Charge of Darkness will be beneficial. For late-game team clashes, Nether Strike and Greater Bash are more powerful.

Abilities

Charge of Darkness

Charge of Darkness (Unit Target, Self/Enemies) 

Effect: Spirit Breaker focuses his attention on an opposing unit and charges past all obstacles. A Greater Bash will strike the selected unit and all opponent units that went through. If the targeted unit is killed, Spirit Breaker's target will be the next enemy unit to that location.

Cast Animation: 0.3+0.5 (With Aghanim's Scepter 0.1+0.5)

Cast Range: Global

Greater Bash Radius: 300

Charge Speed Bonus: 300/325/350/375 (Talent 500/525/550/575)

Stun Duration: 1.2/1.6/2/2.4

Cooldown: 17/15/13/11 (With Aghanim's Scepter 7)

Mana: 100

Aghanim's Scepter upgrade: Reduces Charge of Darkness cooldown, cast point and makes it pierce magic immunity.

Partially pierces spell immunity. Greater Bash is still applied, since it pierces spell immunity.

Can target spell immune enemies, but not stun them.

Partially blocked by Linken's Sphere. Blocked fully only when primary target. Blocked upon cast. If the charge has already begun, its impact is not blocked.

Notes:

Increases Spirit Breaker's total movement speed to 590/615/640/665 (Talent 790/815/840/865) and removes the 550 movement speed cap while charging. This means the charge speed bonus affects the damage of  Greater Bash. The charge speed is based on Spirit Breaker's current movement speed, checking his movement speed periodically and adapts immediately.

Goes on cooldown once the charge ends or is canceled, not upon cast.

The charge indicator above the target, as well as the target buff on the caster are visible to allies only. Alt + Left Click the status buff announces in the team chat which hero is being charged.

During Charge of Darkness, Spirit Breaker has phased and unobstructed movement.

The charge is canceled upon getting stunned, cycloned, hexed, rooted, slept, hidden, feared, hypnotized or by Forced Movement.

The charge is not cancelled by taunts. Instead, Spirit Breaker starts attacking the taunting unit once the charge stops. Charge of Darkness cannot be manually canceled during taunts.

The player can manually cancel the charge by giving the hero a stop (S), hold position (H) or any targeted order. Non-targeted abilities do not cancel the charge.

Spirit Breaker is unable to ⇧ Shift-queue orders with Charge of Darkness, since it is not a channeling ability. Shift-queue orders cancels the ability, with the exception of shift-queued Patrol commands. However, when Charge of Darkness ends, Spirit Breaker is issued an attack order which overwrites shift-queue orders.

When auto-attack is set to ◎ Always, Spirit Breaker can automatically attack units within attack range, without cancelling the charge.

Any unit which comes within 300 radius of Spirit Breaker during the charge gets hit by  Greater Bash based on its current level. Greater Bash notes fully apply. A unit may only be bashed once per cast. If an enemy unit enters the radius a second time, they do not get bashed again. The bash radius is offset by 20 units in front of him, so it can hit units 280 range behind and 320 range in front of him. The primary target is bashed upon the charge reaching it, not upon coming within range of the bash radius. A hidden buff is placed upon reaching the target and lasts for 0.1 seconds. The buff is responsible for the Greater Bash proc.

With level 4 Charge of Darkness, the Greater Bash hit deals 93.1/133/172.9/212.8 (Talent 121.1/173/224.9/276.8) damage (before reductions). With the Greater Bash damage increasing Talent talent, it deals at least 259.35/299.25/339.15/379.05 damage. With both Talent talents, it deals at least 337.35/389.25/441.15/493.05 damage.

If the target dies during the charge, it is transferred to the nearest valid target within 4000 range of the previous target.

The charge provides shared vision over the targeted unit, revealing their silhouette when they become invisible. However, it does not provide vision when neutral creeps are targeted.

Destroys trees within a small radius around Spirit Breaker whenever the charge ends.

Bulldoze

Bulldoze (No Target/Self) 

Effect: To plow through adversaries, Spirit Breaker increases movement speed and status resistance. It's possible to utilize it while it's charging.

Cast Animation: 0+0

Move Speed Bonus: 10%/16%/22%/28%

Status Resistance Bonus: 34%/46%/58%/70%

Duration: 8

Cooldown: 22/20/18/16 (Talent 18/16/14/12)

Mana: 30/40/50/60

Notes:

Bulldoze interrupts Spirit Breaker's channeling abilities upon cast.

The status resistance bonus stacks multiplicatively with other sources of status resistance.

Can be cast during Charge of Darkness.

Greater Bash

Greater Bash (Passive/Magical)

Effect: On an assault, you have a chance to stun and knockback an opponent unit. Damage is calculated as a proportion of movement speed. Creeps take 1.5 times as much damage.

Proc Chance: 17% (Talent 27%)

Move Speed as Damage: 14%/20%/26%/32% (Talent 39%/45%/51%/57%)

Non-Hero Damage Multiplier: 1.5

Knockback Distance: 143/152/158/162

Knockback Duration: 0.5

Stun Duration: 0.9/1.2/1.5/1.8

Cooldown: 1.5

Partially disabled by Break. Disables bash from attacks, but not the one from spells.

Notes:

Does not stack with other bashes. The bash fromSkull Basher and Abyssal Blade is completely disabled for Spirit Breaker.

Does not go on cooldown when proccing from  Charge of Darkness or Nether Strike.

Greater Bash first applies the debuff, then the damage, no matter whether it procs on attacks, or is applied by Spirit Breaker's abilities.

The bash effects happen before the attack damage of the attack that procs it, and before Nether Strike's damage.

Bashed units are knocked back at a speed of 286/304/316/324.

Also knocks affected enemies 50 units upwards, resulting in a small arc. This has only visual purposes.

Deals 21%/30%/39%/48% (Talent 58.5%/67.5%/76.5%/85.5%) of current movement speed as damage to non-hero units. Treats creep-heroes as heroes.

With the movement speed limits of 100 to 550, the minimum and maximum possible damage are 

• 14/20/26/32 ‒ 77/110/143/176 (Talent 39/45/51/57 ‒ 214.5/247.5/280.5/313.5). 

Against non-hero units, the minimum and maximum possible damage are 

• 21/30/39/48 ‒ 115.5/165/214.5/264 (Talent 58.5/67.5/76.5/85.5 ‒ 321.75/371.25/420.75/470.25).

The bonus damage is dealt in a separate damage instance, and counts as spell damage. This means it is not affected or considered by anything that works with attack damage. This also means that it fully works with spell damage amplification and spell lifesteal.

Can proc on Roshan, putting it on cooldown and applying the damage, but Roshan is neither knocked back nor stunned.

Adds an average of 2.38%/3.4%/4.42%/5.44% (Talent 6.63%/7.65%/8.67%/9.69%) or 3.57%/5.1%/6.63%/8.16% (Talent 9.95%/11.48%/13.01%/14.54%) of current movement speed as magical damage against heroes or against creeps respectively to every attack. 

With the damage increasing Talent talent, it adds an average of 3.78%/5.4%/7.02%/8.64% (or 5.67%/8.1%/10.53%/12.96% against creeps) damage. With both Talent talents, it adds an average of 10.53%/12.15%/13.77%/15.39% (or 15.8%/18.23%/20.66%/23.09% against creeps) damage.

• Does not work against wards, buildings and allied units.
• Greater Bash uses pseudo-random distribution.
• Damage bonus is based on a percentage of current movement speed.
• Destroys trees units are pushed into.
• Does not affect Roshan.

Nether Strike

Nether Strike (Unit Target/Magical)

Effect: Spirit Breaker enters the nether world and reappears close to his unfortunate victim. A Greater Bash of the current level happens upon reappearance, doing added damage. Doubles the typical distance knocked back.

Cast Animation: 1+0

Cast Range: 700

Damage: 100/175/250 (With Aghanim's Shard 300/375/450)

• With Aghanim's Shard Break Duration: 4
• With Aghanim's Shard Spell Immunity Duration: 2
• Cooldown: 90/70/50Mana: 125/150/175
• Aghanim's Shard upgrade: Causes Nether Strike to deal 200 damage, and apply a 4-second break. Grants you Spell Immunity for 2 seconds.

Notes:

Nether Strike does not disjoint projectiles upon cast.

Places a hidden debuff on the target during the cast time. This debuff exposes the target, but it does not grant True Sight over it.

Nether Strike instantly moves Spirit Breaker on the opposite side of the target, 54 range away from it.

Greater Bash based on its current level is instantly applied on the target. Greater Bash notes fully apply. If it is not leveled, the bash does not occur. The knockback distance is doubled. Bashed units are knocked back 286/304/316/324 distance, over 0.5 seconds, at a speed of 572/608/632/648. A hidden buff is placed upon reaching the target and lasts for 0.1 seconds. The buff is responsible for the Greater Bash proc.

Nether Strike first applies the Greater Bash debuff, the Greater Bash damage, then the break debuff, and then its own damage. With Aghanim's Shard, Spirit Breaker first gains the spell immunity before the target is affected.

Spirit Breaker is issued an attack order on the target. This attack order ignores the auto-attack settings.

Can be cast on Courier, applying all its effects.

The Nether Strike modifier is responsible for a delay upon successfully casting Nether Strike, during which Spirit Breaker is spell immune. However, its duration is set to 0, so it effectively does nothing.

Items