Skill Build:1 - Stance
2 - Burning Shadows
3 - Burning Shadows
4 - Cull
5 - Burning Shadows
6 - Reflection
7 - Burning Shadows
8 - Cull
9 - Cull
10 - Cull
11 - Reflection
12 - Stats
13 - Stats
14 - Stats
15 - Stats
16 - Reflection
17 - Stats+
23 - Stance+
Justification / Modifications:In my opinion Shadow Stance is superior to Scythe Stance since you want the ranged stun and melee nuke. Therefore you get 1 point into Scythe Stance right away and switch to that.
Maxing Burning Shadows over Cull is a matter of taste, but I prefer the ranged hero-only stun over the melee stun that hits creeps too. If you are going to max Cull, consider not taking the first point in Stances initially.
Extra level of Stances are not worth taking over stats, ever.
Starting Items:
2x
Core:(Hatchet >>) Bottle >> Marchers >> Power Supply >> Striders
Striders are core. Ghost Marchers can be picked up initially to be disassembled later, but Striders are still the best boots on her.
After core:Codex >> Codex level 2 >> Codex level 3 >> Codex level 4 >> Codex level 5 >> Spellshards >> Puzzlebox
Yep. Codex level 5. She's a nil-to-kill ganker with built-in invisibility and max movement speed. Equip her as such. The ability to instagib a carry or an important hero at any point in the game with maxed nukes and Codex is worth any amount of money you spend on Codex.
Information:Roles: Ganker
Preferred Lane: Any
Difficulty: 5/5 (requires a different kind of playstyle than any other)
Farming capabilities: 3/5
Item dependent? - Yes, need Codex, Striders and Bottle to kill solo.
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 4/5 (Burning Shadows is a very strong stun in lane)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 5/5 (Ever been instagibbed while farming neutrals before?)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 3/5 (tapers off quite heavily by the time the important targets have enough HP to survive her burst, still a mega threat to somewhat squishy key initiators/disablers like Tempest and Witch Slayer and the general run of the mill supports.
Tips and Tricks:- Autoattack out of Reflection to get the bonus damage, and then stun STRAIGHT AWAY. I see so many people screw these two basic things up, and that's half of your damage potential gone in an instant and the gank opportunity gone.
- HP counting is extremely important for you as a Fayde player to succeed. You have invisibility, and the leisure of knowing what your target's effective HP will be BEFORE you go all-in on him. If the preferred target is going to survive without any real trouble, it is usually better to find another target or get some assistance. Someone with a Portal Key is very good for this.
- Blow all your nukes on the target straight away. There's no point in waiting. If you're going to kill them, it needs to be in the space of your stun duration.
- Sneak up invis, unleash hell. Don't just use invis to escape, that is wasted potential from level 11 onwards. You should be ganking and not farming much.
- In teamfights, if you can't annihilate someone off to the side before they can contribute - be sure to hit Burning Shadows stun on as many people as you can. It has a long range and quite a long stun duration as well. This can make or break fights.
Counters:- A Revelation Ward dropped just in front of you, or in the midst of your team as you're pushing a tower (obviously away from tower detection range!) will allow you the time to react to her sneaking up to you to gank someone.
- She is no carry, so you don't need to be too worried about her getting freefarm. Actually let her farm, that's better than having her roaming around.
- As with any ganking hero, Wards are a good counter. But do note she has invis and can sneak past Wards of Sight.
Skill Build:1 - Feast
2 - Blood Crazy
3 - Feast
4 - Blood Sense
5 - Feast
6 - Hemorrhage
7 - Blood Sense
8 - Blood Sense
9 - Blood Sense
10 - Blood Crazy
11 - Hemorrhage
12 - Blood Crazy
13 - Blood Crazy
14 - Feast
15 - Stats
16 - Hemorrhage
17 - Stats+
Justification / Modifications:This build is for solo mid.
If you start on a side lane swap the first two skills to get/prevent an early kill. The build is adaptable; usually Feast 3 is enough, get Feast 2 or 4 before you max out Blood Sense and Blood Crazy if it feels right.
Starting Items:/ 
Core:(Iron Shield >>) Chalice >> Helm of the Black Legion >> Steamboots
If the game feels hard you maybe wanna get Iron Shield and/or Steamboots before Chalice or even 1-2 Fortified Bracelets.
An early Helm makes Blood Hunter become an incredibly powerful (almost) unstoppable force. Tower diving with impunity with Blood Sense and Feast makes him a real threat no matter where on the map he is, as soon as someone is low enough to chase down.
After core:(Mock of Brilliance >>) Frostburn >> Shrunken Head >> Savage Mace >> Frostwolf Skull/Geometer's Bane split
Blood Hunter is a good hero to rush Mock. It synergizes well with Feast and to a lesser extent with Blood Sense (chase down invis heroes). If you are unable to really rush the Sword of the High before even Helm, then it's probably better to leave it and move onto other items.
Frostburn is pretty much the best choice for him next, giving decent midgame stats for an affordable price. Shrunken Head is next as it stops you from being chain stunned to death, and unable to get the Feast debuff on someone to keep your survivability up.
Alternative Items:Codex: A popular choice in pubs. It works fairly well in midgame as a ganking tool but severely hurts your lategame carry potential.
Information:Roles: Mid-game carry, Ganker
Preferred Lane: Solo mid
Difficulty: 2/5 (last hitting and denying to get Feast makes or breaks you in lane)
Farming capabilities: 2/5 (Feast helps somewhat)
Item dependent? - Yes, but can function well on his core and either Frostburn or Mock.
Power:
- Early Game / Lane Control: 4/5 (Weak harassing, but excellent staying power and superior last hitting except against a few heroes)
- Mid Game / Ganks: 3/5 (Good ganker, better if opponent is braindead or you cause a situation where the target is damned if he does run and damned if he doesn't)
- Late Game / Team Fights: 3/5 (Not a true hard carry, but capable of extreme longetivity in teamfights when Feast procs off a hero.)
Tips and Tricks:- You have to gank with Blood Hunter. If you play mid, its the only reason you are there. Gank whenever your ult is up.
- You can take out the ancient creeps very early with Blood Crazy and you can generally go jungling pretty well from level 5 on.
- When ganking always decide wheter to use Blood Crazy as a damage amplifier or as a silence; depending on the heroes you are ganking.
- When taking out a tower or a barracks, it is always a great idea to use Blood Crazy on yourself. The increase in damage is essential in maximizing potential tower kills.
- Oh and please go gank with Blood Hunter!
Counters:- Facing BH solo mid is one of the toughest things in HoN. Chances are you will not be able to out-cs him and fall behind quickly. Harassing won't solve the problem. There are 2 solutions:
1. Put two players mid. This will shut him down for good.
2. Call for ganks.
- Heroes that can compete with BH in mid (mostly melee heroes): Pebbles, Blacksmith, Zephyr, Legio, Predator, Chronos, Deadwood and Soulstealer (Burst Nukes).
- If he is not overfed his power will decline after the midgame.
- Don't always stand still when he ults you. Sometimes you have to run to survive! Level 1 ult is fairly weak in particular.
- Carrying a TP for when he ults you can save you. He has no way to disrupt a TP channel himself without outside help.
