[Bramble]

Bramble

Bramble is a huge asset to line ups that have a melee carry, or two other initiating strength heroes. To be honest she works well in almost any lineup, but i've found she synergizes well with melee heroes. Her w is one of the most cost effective skills in the game and scales hardcore. Essentially, she is a support tank and definitely wont be doing the damage, but she allows her team to easily and effectively clean up the enemy team. Everyone of her abilities has offensive and defensive capabilities, and to me this is what makes bramble truly unique (and fun!)

Her skills:

Spore Breath
-Activate to spew out spores in front of you, dealing up to 100/175/250/325 magic damage over 2.5 seconds. For 0.5 Seconds after damage finishes, anyone within the cone will be stunned for 1.75 seconds.

Her main damage dealer, and disable, this skill is useful in many ways. Typically, you do not want to start the fight, because when you pop your q and begin to run at the enemy they should run and/or stun you to avoid your stun, therefore you should stay at the front and be ready to pop this skill the second a fight starts, or an enemy is caught out of place. When the fight does start, don't focus on the front of your enemies group. You should run towards the back with your q active so you can stun the more squishy and important heroes like Flint, EW, and Pyro. This stun can also be used defensively. If you're being chased, press q wait almost three seconds and turn around really fast, if you hit the stun it could be a great way to escape, however the timing is just a bit tricky to get down, so if you turn around and miss the stun you're likely dead.

Ensnaring Shubbery
-Target an ally or yourself to enshroud yourself with shrubbery for 3/4/5/6 seconds. Enemies around the target are slowed for 25%/30%/35%/40%. While affected by Ensnaring Shrubbery, taking hero damage heals yourself and all allies in a 400 unit radius for 40% of the damage applied.

This skill is brambles lifeblood, however I recommend maxing it last. One level in ensnaring shubbery is enough to get through the early game and sets you up perfectly for the rest of your skills. This skill is good for those pesky tower divers, it doesn't matter which team is diving either. If you have a dumb teammates whos going to tower dive that pyro you might as well try to save him. Put your w onto him and run in with your q activated. He will slow everyone around him, therefore catching pyro and keeping those enemy heroes at bay, then when the enemy team does attack/burst him he (and you if you're in a 400 unit radius) will heal for 40% of that damage. Then your stun from your q will go off stunning those enemies, and you and your ally can (hopefully) walk out alive, especially if the rest of your team isn't just standing around for all of this. The same principle works if someone is diving you or an ally, cast w on the person being dived and that diver will be slowed if hes melee most likely resulting in death esp when combined with your stun, also it will heal his damage to the person hes diving by 40%. In those late game fights, use this skill on the hero taking the most damage, he and your allies in the radius are healed for 40% if he takes 1000 damage, you have the best healing spell in the game, this is why its important to realize exactly who is at risk and who will most likely be attacked on your team, don't just shrub yourself to slow enemies, make sure you're getting that heal out of it, because its powerful. It's a win-win scenario.

Combat Vigor
-Passively grants you and nearby ally heroes and player controlled units a tapering 25/50/75/100% movement speed buff when they attack. Movement Speed bonus is halved for ranged heroes.

This skill blends in with the offensive/defensive nature. That tower diver on your team gets move speed when he attacks, and it makes kiting easier for your team, esp in the early levels. I would recommend getting at least one level in this skill before level five, but I typically get two with the second point on level five.


Entangling Vine Wall
-Click and drag the cursor in a direction to summon a Vine Wall there. Vine Wall spawns 16 plants that have 250 attack range and deal 20/30/40 damage per attack as well as slow for 30/40/50% for 1.5 seconds. The vine wall lasts 6/8/10 seconds.

This is the icing on the cake folks, walls are multifunctional as well. Have one of those pesky flints on the enemy team that like to run up and flare? Next time he does, put a wall right behind him, press q run at him, and your team gets a free kill. It takes a really good aim if the attacker is melee but you can stop your allies from being chased by putting a wall in between the attacker and them, and then likely turn it around on the attacker due to the slow and damage from the wall. Try to always place walls where they disrupt your enemy, and do the most damage at the same time. The above example with flint isn't necessarily the best way to use the wall, its best to block multiple enemies to get the most out of this ability.

Her items

I like to build bramble with massive health, and a barbed armor on top of it. I've found that bramble doesn't really need damage mitigation, because she has the built in mitigation that doesn't actually count as mitigation. Barbed armor is only a good idea if you find the enemy team is focusing you a lot, in the first place, you'll never really be the priority target for the enemy team if they're smart, so use barbed armor at your discretion. If you don't get barbed then it is a good idea to buy some armor, but i find health on bramble is more useful.

Starting items
-Mana Battery: This will help with mana issues in the early game, and could possibly save your life. Pretty much a midwars staple anyways.
-Iron Buckler: Built into helm later on, also allows you to stay near the front lines so you can land your stun with Q.
-Runes of the blight: Health regen, you'll need it.

How we build from here

I will never finish the power supply, just seems like a waste to me. Typically the first item i get after starting is red boots, and then i don't upgrade them until i have completed my core. This is another reason why i like to get bramble's e early on, it gives her the ability to delay tier 2 boots for awhile. Then build your helm of the black legion starting with lifetube, only getting mystic vestments after lifetube if necessary, i consider it necessary when the enemy team has 3-5 heroes with primarily magic damage. After the helm i build an icon of the goddess. This is because of the max health boost and the regen when an enemy hero near you dies. And once you have icon you are a tower diving machine. Just run in throw a wall behind the enemies q and w, if the enemy team focuses you and your team follows you should be able to wipe them. Don't be afraid to take that tower damage! As soon as one enemy hero dies you will automatically get a 300 health heal over 10 seconds, and it will refresh when the next one dies. This kind of play rewards a bramble that knows exactly how much damage she can take and can bait well too. With a barbed armor on top of all this you become a powerhouse if the enemies are attacking you. If you do get barbed, use it in conjunction with your W. Your enemies will have 80% of ALL true Damage they do to you reflected, however you're only taking 60% of their true damage. So...

Core items:
-Helm of the black legion: Provides more health so enemies can do more damage to you, also the 30 damage block is nice for just a little mitigation.
-Icon of the Goddess: Even more health, mana, and that heal when enemies die is perfect for taking damage. Not to mention the charge based regen.
-Barbed Armor: This is situational. If the enemy team is focusing who they should be, you'd be better off getting an armor aura.
-Whatever boots you like.

Luxury items:
-Behemoths Heart: Adds even more health to use against the enemy in conjunction with barbed, also really nice regen in conjunction with icon.

LOL items:
Elder Parasite: If you want to be cheesy and are really rolling with that barbed, you can get an elder to increase the damage they do to you, in turn making you do more damage to them, while completely negating the effects of the elder with your w and still healing 20% of that damage they do to you. not to mention it also adds more health... It's a win-win-win scenario.