Image by Yestar™, 南霸天 and AK47 The meta is ever-evolving and looking at ESL One Kuala Lumpur there is a very concerning trend. Huskar is becoming more and more of a priority by the professional teams and soon this effect will trickle down to pubs as well. It is best to be prepared.

Understanding Huskar’s Playstyle

Huskar is, first and foremost, a lane dominator. His skill build is fairly static and revolves around maxing out Burning Spears and Berserker’s Blood as soon as possible, with a value point in Inner Fire. Oftentimes better players ever skip his ultimate until level eleven and twelve, to maximise his farming potential and survivability.

There isn’t really a lot one can do when facing Huskar in an unfavourable matchup: most melee heroes will suffer against him in lane and the most important thing is to not feed. Huskar can absolutely win the lane against most heroes, but if his lane dominance isn’t resulting in any kills, equalising economy through jungle and lane farm should be possible for most conventional mid heroes.

Countering Huskar

Additionally and alternatively, asking for help to control the runes and maybe gank Huskar can also lead to strong momentum shifts. Huskar’s playstyle is high risk-high reward by default and it is possible to punish aggressive plays against Huskar, especially since pub meta typically revolves around getting Heaven’s Halberd after Armlet of Mordiggian, which delays BKB.

The best way to deal with Huskar is by not going off meta. Many currently powerful supports that can be picked in the first phase are strong natural Huskar-counter. Heroes like Ancient Apparition and Witch Doctor are great in a vacuum, but they also make Huskar picks less appealing, potentially saving you a lot of headache.

Adapting to Huskar

Outside of simply being prepared during the drafting stage, it is also possible to adapt to Huskar with your item. There is an obvious one: Spirit Vessel, which can severely limit Huskar’s aggression until after BKB purchase.

• Consider other items like Solar Crest and Heaven’s Halberd
• Utilize Ability Damage mitigation tools like Mage Slayer

Understanding Huskar’s Weaknesses

There is one final point we would like to make. A lot of players still think that Huskar is a hero with a lot of magic resistance, but in reality he only gets an extra +25% Magic Resistance at max level of Berserker’s Blood and only at low HP. That is the reason why most current Huskars are forced to rush BKB — they cannot survive high magic burst, yet a lot of players even at higher levels of play tend to save their big nukes out of habit.

The only big exception is Necrophos who over the last couple of years turned from being countered by Huskar to being a full on Huskar hard counter. Huskar’s popularity is on an upwards trend and it will continue rising, we believe, as the hero currently holds a very high win rate in ESL One Kuala Lumpur. Hopefully our blog post will leave you prepared for it and will save you some frustration. Feel free to share your ideas on countering Huskar in the comment section below as well.