Brother Bear, Ursa
Introduction
I'm writing this mini-guide for you readers who wish to have a quick and concise guide to refer to. So as not to bog you down with minute details that does little to improve your game, I shall leave those parts out. Feel free to read more about Ursa's skill mechanics at your own free time or read the Question and Answers portion at the end of the guide (mostly item discussions). There are also several replays, Competitive and casual PubGames which you can refer to. My personal replays will reflect exactly what has been preached in this guide, so if you want to judge its effectiveness in a real game setting, zoom to those.
Not so recently, Ursa has made quite an appearance in the competitive scene. As far as item build and playstyle goes, he isn't far off than how he is played in a pub game. Expect some similarities between them.
Skills: Ursa Warrior - Click here for more details
Earthshock
Slams the ground, dealing damage to and slowing the movement speed of nearby enemy land units.
Level 1 -- 70 damage, 25% slow
Level 2 -- 120 damage, 35% slow
Level 3 -- 170 damage, 45% slow
Level 4 -- 220 damage, 55% slow
4secs duration at all levels
7secs cooldown at all levels
365 Area of effect at all levels
Overpower
Sends Ulfsaar into a rage until he can expend his energy on a target.
Level 1 -- 45 mana, 400% increased attack speed for 3 attacks
Level 2 -- 55 mana, 400% increased attack speed for 4 attacks
Level 3 -- 65 mana, 400% increased attack speed for 5 attacks
Level 4 -- 75 mana, 400% increased attack speed for 6 attacks
15secs duration at all levels
10secs cooldown at all levels
Fury Swipes
Each attack opens the wound deeper in the target, causing subsequent attacks to deal increased damage.
Level 1 -- 5secs, 10 bonus dmg per attack
Level 2 -- 5secs, 15 bonus dmg per attack
Level 3 -- 5secs, 20 bonus dmg per attack
Level 4 -- 5secs, 25 bonus dmg per attack
• This is an orb effect.
• Counter gets reset after 5 seconds.
Enrage
When activated, greatly increases Ulfsaar's damage based on his current life.
Level 1 -- 4% of current life is dealt in damage.
Level 1 -- 5% of current life is dealt in damage.
Level 1 -- 6% of current life is dealt in damage.
15secs duration at all levels
25secs cooldown at all levels
• Doubles the damage dealt by Fury Swipes.
A step-by-step guide
Step 1: Skill Build
1. Overpower
2. Fury Swipes
3. Fury Swipes
4. Overpower
5. Fury Swipes
6. Enrage
7. Fury Swipes
After which Overpower is maxed first,
followed by Earthshock.
Enrage is taken whenever possible, at 11 and 16.
Fury swipes is needed early to take out Roshan.
Earthshock is delayed as 25% slow at level 1 is too ineffective due to Ursa's slow casting animation. Rely on teammates for disables/slows if you are ganking during early levels.
Step 2a: Laning (As Scourge)
Start off with the following items:
Set 1:
Set 2:
If you are going for Set 2, you will be lacking Hp Regen items. Borrow from lanemate or get a RoR from sideshop asap. 100% block is useful against harassment. If you are unsure of how aggresive your lane might be and its harassment type (Magic vs Physical), go for Set 1.
Note: Do not buy quelling blade. It has no effect for Ursa once he learns Fury Swipe.
- Head off to top lane for easier access to jungle. Stick to lane to farm last hits
- Pull neutrals creeps whenever possible (if ally isn't doing it)
- Get a RoR from sideshop for hp regen once you have 350 gold
- Lvl1 Overpower + Lvl 1 Fury Swipe does decent harass dmg. Works well when paired with an ally with a disable/slow
Step 2b: Jungling (As Scourge)
Somewhere in between 5-7 mins, you will reach level 5-6 or so. With Enrage, it makes jungling easier since Fury swipes does double the bonus damage now. To take off higher level creeps,
- cast Overpower, wait till it has cooldown (10secs)
- unleash all your attacks during the remaining 5secs of Overpower, with Enrage on
- Immediately recast Overpower once the bonus attacks are gone
- Keep in mind this Double Overpower tactic
Step 3: Roshan + getting your Blink Dagger
Usually, within 10-12 minutes all components for a Vladmir's Offering can be bought.
You should be approximately level 7 by now.
- Head off to the Ancient Creeps camp for easy money first. Clear them with Double Overpower tactic
- Again with Double Overpower, take out Roshan. You should be near full health when he is dead.
- Head back to Ancient Creeps to clear them again. They should have respawned by now. By now, you should be around Level 9
Farming for Blink Dagger
- Ancient Creeps are great money source so try to stick to laning the bottom lane for last hits. Alternate between the two. If lane pushed too far, go ancient creeping.
- Alternatively, jungle in Sentinel's forest if you know it is safe and go ancient creeping in between.
- Aside from Dagger, you need some gold for a pair of boots too of course
Step 4: Assasination Time
With these items, and at least a level in Earthshock, the time is ripe to pick off lone targets. Remember the to utilize Double Overpower.
Look out for these heroes for a sure kill:
- No Invis ability (unless you have dust/gem/sentry)
- No Stun (likely to escape)
- No Blink or similar abilities eg Surge, Storm's Ball, Lycan's Wolf form.
Damage Approximation
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| Note: Fury swipes deals double damage (50dmg) when Enrage is active |
Step 5: Items Dilemma
Problem 1: By now you will realise that HP isn't an issue but Mana seems to always be giving problems. You cannot sustain going on killing heroes one after the other. You have to come back to the fountain often.
A few solutions:
Having CM on your team is a huge asset for Ursa. Not only does it solves your mana issues, she makes a great lane partner as well.
Understandably, not everyone loves to play CM in a pubgame. The other alternative is to go Bloodstone. It is not the best item there is but it gives you infinite mana for Earthshocks, Blinks and Overpower. Note that Bloodstone no longer gives bonus HP regen. Aside from Mana, the extra 450HP helps. Start off by buying a Energy Booster for a quick +250 mana boost.
Note:I must say that Bloodstone is somewhere between a personal preference and a core item. But for my, I place higher priority for Bloodstone over Heart.
Problem 2: You can't seem to be getting killls because there are too many stunners in the opposing team and/or they seem to cluster together. Never a chance to pick off lone targets.
A few solutions:
Have Omniknight to repel you. Again, you hardly see one in a pubgame. If you have a friend, it is worth to try out this combo.
Focus on farming for a BKB. It will help you immensely. Note that BKB will dispel your Overpower (so no Double Overpower). Once you Blink + BKB + Stomp in, you need to cast Overpower. This will cost you 0.5secs of casting time.
Still no BKB yet?
Wait for an ally to initiate. If he can soak in the stun for you, you can blink in without being disabled to finish him off. During major teamfights, do the same by hanging around at the back and wait for opponents to release their stuns. Do not blink in into the main fray however, pick off those casters at the far back first. The key is to eliminate all the soft casters with disables and slows. Engage another target only if you have Overpower + Enrage on. Earthshock is spammable as well, provided you have ample mana. Otherwise wait for your Dagger to cooldown for the next opportunity to kill.
Step 6: Roshan every 10 minutes
Take note of the timing you last killed Roshan. He spawns every 10mins after death. You get Cheese + Aegis from the 3rd kill onwards (30mins+)
Tactical usage of Aegis and Cheese:
- Ursa should get the Aegis, pass the Cheese to your next best Carry.
- Upon having an Aegis, you might want to organize a team push since Aegis (and Cheese) raises the chances of a successful push.
- If you die while holding Aegis and 5 enemy heroes are camping beside you, immediately Blink away when you revive. You shouldn't recklessly die this way in the first place, but it does happen once in a while.
(A crude way is to spam blink hotkey and click on a safe spot)
Step 7: Too much cash
Unfortunately, Ursa can't use any items that involves an orb. Damage isn't an issue since he is already capable of unleashing huge burst damage from fury swipes. Focus on increasing his survivability. Heart being the next best choice, since it raises his enrage damage as well.
With all the extra HP he has, fit in a Blademail. Blademail does pure damage. What you deal is what you get. If you lose 1000hp, so does your enemy.
In fact, if you already have Bloodstone, your HP should be sufficiently high (~2000HP) to make use of Blademail. Therefore skip Heart for Blademail first.
Usage: Activate the moment you blink+stomp in. Or when focused, whichever comes first.
Also, get Boots of travels. Alternatively, Phase boots.
Step 8: Watch out for counters
Some Specific Counters against Ursa
- Blademail is great and all, but often it is the item that will be used to counter you. So watch out for those spikes after you Blink + Stomp into the crowd. Don't target them.
- Purge from Diffusal kills your Overpower and slows you to a crawl.
- Disables that passes through BKB. Bane (Atropos) is one hell of a nuisance for Ursa especially during early game. He will sleep you often. And his Ultimate passes through BKB, so watch out.
- Mega-slowers like Viper and Lanaya can be as irritating as disablers/stunners
Conclusion
This step-by-step guide, in my opinion, is the best way to introduce someone who is new to Ursa to get intimate with. It is pretty much a idiot-proof guide by which you follow it and definitely get at least 10 kills with a positive K-D ratio.
To further improve on playing Ursa however, requires a much deeper understanding of the hero and this is where the player himself have to learn and discover at his/her own pace. That said, this guide is meant to serve as a stepping stone for you to master Ursa.
As far as item argument goes, I'm against listing all the viable/recommended/non-recommended items since it doesn't help in making the guide any clearer since most item choices are situational. What I listed are those which works 90% of the time, bearing in mind such games played are either Pubgames or Casual Inhouses.
For a list of Question & Answers, it can be found below.
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Replays
Competitive:
(Asian): StarBoba vs Cybertime
Replay File Here
Mushi played Ursa in this game, a very good one at it indeed. Note how CM is critical when drafting Ursa in the lineup for her mana regeneration. He had an awesome start at top lane, managing to kill a dual-stunner lane. By 12min he already had Dagger + Vlads which is highly remarkable but this is partly attributed to great teamwork from allies.
Non-Asian: MyM vs fnatic
Replay File Here
Kuroky plays Ursa, but the team had a bad start. They managed to secure a comeback towards mid-game
Casual PubGames:
Game 1: 25-3 Ursa
Replay File Here
This is the most recent replay which saw the use of blademail. I laned top as usual, got Vlads, Roshaned and bought Dagger. Then on I went racking in kills and quickly build up Bloodstone. With infinite mana, I managed to maintain a good ganking flow. With the extra cash, I got Blademail which I managed to make use of a few times. Wasn't splendid since the Opponents were already losing badly.
Game 2: 11-3 Ursa
Replay File Here
I somewhat started off with PMS but top lane was already occupied. So I went to solo mid. At this point, I have to adapt to the situation. Without any regen items to lanestay, I had to grab a RoH first. Of which I later turn it into Bloodstone.
Game 3: 21-5 Ursa
Replay File Here
This game comes closest to what has been said in the guide. I laned top, eventually getting my Vlad's and went to Roshan. Got a Dagger and together with Potm and Puck went around roaming.
Game 4: 25-5 Ursa
Replay File Here
Top again, this time I had Omni in my team for the precious repel. I was against Tiny + ES and it seems likely they are both friends. Seems to coordinate their spells well. After Vlad's -> Roshan -> Dagger, I went around ganking. Slardar was a great ganking buddy. Omni on the other hand, ...
In most of my games, I didn't have the opportunity to try out Blademail. Maybe in the future, I try to a replay showcasing it. To give you a feel of its effectiveness.
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Question and Answers
Qn1: Opinions on Lothars?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zan  Lothar's is an alternative to Dagger. It can still can the job done but subpar considering the price cost and counterable by gem/wards/dust. Also, in clashes, you don't have the luxury of time to windwalk and run into the heat of battle. It'll take some 3-4 secs to cover a 1000 distance. Dagger on the other hand, is instantaneous. I blatantly refuse to include Lothar's as an alternative because if someone reading the guide wants to learn about the hero, I shouldn't be giving him half-assed, sitting over fence advice, "If you're not comfortable with Dagger, go for Lothar's". Because no, if you're not good, you jolly well be good at it or don't even bother to play him. As a matter of fact, if you can't handle Dagger, you lose the ability to play many other heroes as well. |
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zan Armlet is awful bad in my opinion. It gives bout +500hp, +60dmg and +25ias. Of which the extra ias is totally unneeded due to 400%ias Overpower. The +60dmg is minuscule when you compare it to the amount of dmg dealt by fury swipes from 6x attacks from Overpower. That alone does +1000bonus damage, +60dmg from 6x attacks is only a +300dmg. Which is near equivalent to an extra attack after the 6th attack, ie 350dmg from fury swipes. To begin with, Ursa isn't in need of dmg items at all. What is left is just the 500HP bonus, not even counting the -35hp degen yet! |
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zan 119bonus dmg indeed but honestly, Ursa isn't in need of more dmg to get the job done. Therefore if you are focusing in financing your Armlet, other critical items will be delayed. Your BKB, your BoT and so on. Dmg Approximation for lvl 10 Ursa. Base dmg + 4% of 1000 for Enrage = 100dmg/hit 6x attacks from swipes ~ 1000 dmg In just 1 overpower, he deals 1600dmg. Which is more than enough to kill most heroes. If they are still standing, hit one more time. Your next hit will amount to around 400dmg (300swipes+100dmg). |
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zan I am strongly against Armlet. He doesn't need more damage. 12x attacks amounts to 4000dmg from Fury swipes alone. That's 333dmg per hit. Now the catch is, can you unleash the 12x attacks without any interruptions? That's where BKB comes into play. With all that money, add in another 1000, you can get a BKB. |
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zan Price for price, Guinsoo is indeed a better item. Solves your mana problem and has a hard disable. The main idea of Bloodstone is due to the cheap component parts. If I see a troll frolicking in the forest and I haven't got the mana to blink-stomp-OP him, I would be cursing myself. A single Energy Booster (+250mana) will increase his mana capacity by a mile. Point booster gives +250hp/+150mana, arguably the most cost-effective single item. By not having to return to base every now and then, I can keep the ganking momentum going. |
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zan Blademail. Technically this is not a damage item, but if you read the guide, you might get the idea of where I'm going. If you already had a substantial amount of HP, say 3k, from Heart and whatnot, you effectively have the capacity to deal 3k pure damage in return. In fact, it may be even higher than your maximum hp because of lifesteal. How much does this item cost? 2200 gold. Way below than most other damage items can offer. Fit in an Aegis and you double your capacity to dish out pure damage. Blademail does not only dish out damage, but it can serve as a pseudo Physical immunity as well. With 3k+ hp, high Dps Agi heroes with 1.5k hp will think twice in focusing on you. If he attacks you, Blademail will react as a damage item. If he does not attack you, Blademail will act as a Physical immunity item. That all said and done, Divine Rapier is the best dmg item. If you have irritating blinkers and whatnot, Basher or MKB will do the job. Otherwise, will all the cash coming in, you should save it for buybacks for critical teamfights during pushes and defense. |
Qn 5: Boots choice?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zan Just a plain pair of boots will do fine for a huge part of the game from how I feel. BoT is fine. Phase is great for mid-late game battles in clashes where the ground is crowded with creeps and may block movement. The drawback however, you lose the phase ability if you cast a spell and considering his low cooldown for most of his spells, Earthshock 7 secs, OP is 10 secs, you might cancel phase by mistake often. |
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zan There is, though not as powerful.Linken's can do the job. To some extent, it solves both problem 1 & 2, ie mana shortage and the need for magic immunity. It may not give you infinite mana but with proper mana management, you can still do fine. Linken's magic block will be useful for taking out lone targets which has a stun, eg Leoric as well as being better than BKB since you can't double overpower Leoric (since you are blinking-BKB-stomp, you cannot prepare an overpower beforehand). Also I hate BKB because of this since Ursa has a very sluggish casting point (0.5s). After BKB, you need to stomp+overpower and that already takes up 1.0secs. By then the enemy will already be a distance away. While Linken's is worthless in team clashes where random spells tend to waste your block, it can be highly useful in post-battle chases, again in the case of a fleeing Leoric, it is easier to take him down. |
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