Batrider Guides

Insanity on Fire!
fremdlaender's Guide to Jin'zakk, the Batrider

Foreword:
Welcome to my Batrider guide. I decided to write this guide because Batrider is one my favourite heroes and I want to share the expirience of this devasting burning beast with you.
Jin'zakk is a hero with awesome early game DPS, lane control and mobility. He is an unusual intelligence hero in the way, that he has low range but pretty high strenght gain. His spell are mostly melee-ranged that means you have to throw yourself recklessly into a bunch of enemies and burn everything what stands in your way.
His playstyle is pretty suicidal and to be well executed, you always have to walk on a razor's edge. The more courage and insanity you have while playing Batrider, the better!
But enough talking, let's start with the guide.

Table of Contents:
Just click on the text to jump to the section.

1. Pros and Cons
2. Hero Details
2.1. Skill Explanation
3. Skill Build
4. Item Build
5. Hero Synergy
6. Strategy Section
6.1 Picking Batrider
6.2 Chosing your Lane
6.3 Using Napalm
6.4 Using Flamebreak
6.5 Using Firefly
6.6 Using Flaming Lasso
6.7 Laning
6.8 Ganking
6.9 Teamfights
6.10 Map awareness
7. Replays
8. Epilogue
9. Credits

Pros and Cons:

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[+] Strong early game presence and damage
[+] Able to fly over obstacles and cliffs
[+] Stackable slow that makes your enemies crawl
[+] His disable goes trough magic immunity
[+] Good farmer
[+] High strenght gain for an intelligence hero

[-] Has to be almost in melee range to unleash his damage
[-] Has to stack Napalm to deal serious damage
[-] Low attackrange and movementspeed
[-] Needs a Blink Dagger to use his ultimate perfectly
[-] Gets weaker lategame

2. Hero Details

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Background Stroy

Once an expendable spy, Jin'zakk has outlived the suicidal tendencies of other Bat Riders to create a unique style, one that favours control and precision instead of wanton destruction. His years of battle experience have allowed him to innovate creative uses for his fiery arts: He can douse enemies in a bath of sticky oil that restricts their movements before igniting it, fire an explosive that blows enemies away, or take flight to leave behind a trail of flame. However, his most deadly skill involves lassoing his opponent and dragging the unfortunate foe into the arms of his allies.

Strenght - 23 + [2.0]
Agility - 15 + [1.5]
Intelligence - 24 - [2.5]



Advanced Statistics

Afflication:	Neutral
Damage:	48 - 52
Armor:	3.1
Movespeed:	290
Starting HP/MP:	587/ 312
Attack Range:	375

Skill Explanation:
(You can also look it up at the Hero Information but I rewrote it with comments, for completeness.)

Sticky Napalm

(Active, AoE-Target, Affects Enemies)

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Targets an area and drenches it in very sticky oil. Amplifies any fire damage and slows the movement speed and turn rate of units in that area. Extra casts of this on the same targets stack up to 10 times.

__	____.	________.	_______.	___.	_______.	__________________________.
	Mana	Cooldown	C. Range	AoE	Duration	Effects
1	20	3 sec	700	375	7 sec	10 damage per stack, 3% slow per cast
2	20	3 sec	700	375	7 sec	15 damage per stack, 5% slow per cast
3	20	3 sec	700	375	7 sec	20 damage per stack, 7% slow per cast
4	20	3 sec	700	375	7 sec	25 damage per stack, 9% slow per cast

This is Batrider's key skill for his great early game. It lets you deal insane damage with your auto-attacks and Firefly and forces your enemy to be very passive in lane to not get killed. It's casting range and AoE combined are very high that means it's not that hard to keep your enemies permanently Napalm'ed. Note that the additional damage from this skill is magic and every damage from Batrider, except Radiance's aura is amplified. Also, note that it uses the same base spell as Shiva's Arctic Blast, therefore the spells won't stack.

Flamebreak

(Active, Ground-Target, Affects Enemies)

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Hurls a highly explosive cocktail of dangerous chemicals at the target position. Upon impacting with an enemy the missile explodes, dealing damage and knocking all nearby foes away from the impact. Any unit who has been Napalmed will take additional damage from the blast.

__	____.	________.	_______.	___.	_______.	__________________________.
	Mana	Cooldown	C. Range	AoE	Duration	Effects
1	80	11 sec	1500	100(*)/ 400(**)	0.5 sec	75 damage
2	100	11 sec	1500	100(*)/ 400(**)	0.5 sec	150 damage
3	120	11 sec	1500	100(*)/ 400(**)	0.5 sec	225 damage
4	140	11 sec	1500	100(*)/ 400(**)	0.5 sec	300 damage

Flamebreak is not Bat's best skill but it should not be underestimated. The missile deals magic damage and has an AoE of 100(*) and explodes if it hits an enemy resulting in a 400 AoE(**) explosion with knockback and a 0.5 sec ministun for the target who was directly hit. If the missile does not hit an enemy, it explodes after trevelling 1600 units and deals damage and the knockback. It can be used to break chanelling, to finish off heroes or to knock them into impassable terrain, if used correctly.

Firefly

(Active, Self-Buff, Affects Enemies)

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Flies high leaving a burning trail behind. Enemies who dare follow will get burned by the fiery napalm. Nothing can take the skies from him. Lasts 15 seconds.

__	____.	________.	_______.	___.	_______.	__________________________.
	Mana	Cooldown	C. Range	AoE	Duration	Effects
1	100	40 sec	N/A	200	15 sec	20 damage per second
2	100	40 sec	N/A	200	15 sec	40 damage per second
3	100	40 sec	N/A	200	15 sec	60 damage per second
4	100	40 sec	N/A	200	15 sec	80 damage per second

Batrider's trade mark ability, Firefly, is a very versitale spell. It's used for farming, for killing enemies, for escaping and for chasing. Firefly enables you to fly over units and impassable tarrain and burns down trees you pass. I can't even explain all its uses here, later, there will be a section with detailed explanation. Note that its damage type is magic and that is misfunctions with Phase Boots.

Flaming Lasso

(Active, Single-Target, Affects Enemies)

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Snags a target with a constricting lasso, allowing the Batrider to drag them behind him as he moves. Does not drag units onto impassable terrain. Teleporting or blinking will break the lasso.

__	____.	________.	_______.	___.	_______.	__________________________.
	Mana	Cooldown	C. Range	AoE	Duration	Effects
1	150	90 sec	175	N/A	3 sec	Drags the target for 3 seconds.
2	150	70 sec	175	N/A	3.5 sec	Drags the target for 3.5 seconds.
3	150	50 sec	175	N/A	4 sec	Drags the target for 4 seconds.

One of the best disables ingame. Flaming Lasso is a very long disable that additionally drags the target in the direction Batrider is flying. The lasso does not break except Batrider dies and it can disable magic immune units. The unly drawback is the low casting range but you can counter this by using a Blink Dagger.

3. Skill Build

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Level 1 - Sticky Napalm/ Firefly
Level 2 - Firefly/ Sticky Napalm (*)
Level 3 - Sticky Napalm
Level 4 - Firefly
Level 5 - Sticky Napalm
Level 6 - Flaming Lasso
Level 7 - Sticky Napalm
Level 8 - Firefly
Level 9 - Firefly
Level 10 - Flamebreak
Level 11 - Flaming Lasso
Level 12 - Flamebreak
Level 13 - Flamebreak
Level 14 - Flamebreak
Level 15 - Attribute Bonus
Level 16 - Flaming Lasso
Level 17+ - Attribute Bonus

Explanation:
Pretty straight cookie-cutter build. Napalm is maxed first to make use of the great damage amplification. The stackable slow and the enhanced damage are just to good to pass it up. Firefly is taken afterwards to maximise the damage you can deal by stacking Napalm and flying over your targets.
Flaming Lasso is of course taken whenever you can, because it lowers the cooldown and increases the duration. Always remember, it's one of the most reliable disables in the game.
Flamebreak is taken over stats because an additional nuke, that breaks chanelling and can be used to scout is never bad.
After level 16 it's your decision but i would suggest you take Stats rather than nothing. By god, I made this joke already in my Chen guide and it's still so funny.

(*) If you don't think you can score firstblood by level 2 with a Napalm - Firefly combo, because you are maybe facing a trilane or heroes with good escape mechanisms and stuns like PotM and Windrunner, you may want to take Firefly at level one to have an escaping mechanism yourself.
Always remember that Firefly makes you unchaseable because the enemies will permanently get damaged by following you and at level one even a 20 DPS firetrail can be devasting when paired with attacks from creeps and towers.

4. Item Build:

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Starting Items:

Get a combination of those. Regeneration is always necessary, especially for suiciding rambos like Batrider. Magic Stick rocks, Gauntlets are cool and Branches are even cooler.
If your team does not have a chicken, buy it yourself, it's necessary and underestimated.
A Ring of Regeneration or Stout Shield can be bought if you don't have to provide a chicken for your team, but that's your decision.
DON'T GET BOOTS AT START. Even it may seem good on Batrider because of his strong chasing and low movementspeed you need other items to stay in lane long enough to establish your lane control. If you have to go back and get underleveled, you are nothing but a big, flying creep with a disable.

Core Items:
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Get Boots asap, finish get a Wand and and Urn. Boots are a no-brainer and Magic Wand is just to good to not get it.
Urn is a great item. It provides HP, manaregen and a heal or a damage over time debuff for your enemies. It's a perfect item for gankers like Bat that need HP and mana.
And FUCKING ALWAYS carry a TP scroll with you. Most important item in the game without any doubt.
After getting those items, work towards your fist big item. You will either get a Vanguard or a Hood of Defiance or both. Most of the time you will get both, believe me. You can get that item earlier, if you feel its necessary because of happily harassing enemies.
Normally, you should not get wards. You need your gold for other things, let your support provide wards. But If you face invisible heroes, Dust is recommended.

Extended Core Items:

Your first goal is to get beefy. Depending on whether the enemy's team consists of physical DPS or of nukers get either Vanguard or Hood first. Most of the time, it's a combination of both, therefore I recommend getting Vanguard most of the time first, as it provides raw HP and a way to lower the damage you take from creeps. But this really depends on the situation.
After getting your first tank item, most of the time you want to get the other one or work for a straight Blink Dagger. This, again, depends. I recommend getting both Vanguard and Hood before thinking of a Blink Dagger, as it's a rather expensive item in comparison to the parts of VanHood and getting killed is a heavy setback. Nevertheless, if you feel tanky enough, a Dagger is absolutely necessary as it enables the perfect use of Flaming Lasso.

Extended extended Core Items:
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After gettting Vanguard, Hood and Blink, think of up upgrading your boots. If your doing well, it's never a bad decision to get Boots of Travel, but Power Treads (either Int or Str) are also a good item for Bat.

Luxury Items:

If you are doing well and you have spare money, a Guinsoo would be the first decision. It provides an additional Disable for your team and provides all the mana you will ever need. But as it's a very expensive item, only get it when you have everything else you need.
Linken's also provides enough mana so you won't need anything more but is also very expensive. VanHood is superior in terms of surviving, regarding the performance/ cost ratio. It offers a spell-block, that counters for example single-target disables or in the worst case, Doom.

Situational Items:

Pipe can be a good upgrade for your Hood if you face a heavy AoE-lineup.
About Force Staff, it can be used if you want to quickly drag your lasso'd enemy to your teammates or if you need an additional escape mechanism.
It's a pretty supportish item, that means get it for your team when you feel like it.

Rejected Items:

NEVER get Phase Boots. You don't need the damage they provide and the Phase ability malfunctions with your Firefly. If you activate it both at the same time, you won't be able to pass though creeps anymore what is very bad. Blink Dagger does the same thing and is way superior to Phase Boots.
Shiva's, while seeming good (and it really would be), should not be gotten because it does not work with your Napalm. It overrides the Napalm stacks on your target and therefore the enemies won't be superslowed nor take additional damage from your abilites anymore. A clear case of mechanic-fail, sorry IceFrog.
Radiance once was core on Batrider. But the sparkling AoE aura does not get amplified by your Napalm stacks anymore, therefore it's now a bad item for Bat.

5. Hero Synergy:

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Again (as stated in my Chen guide), every hero profits from disables, I won't list every hero here. I'm only talking of exceptional synergy here.


Abaddon is one of the best laning partners for Batrider. He can babysit you as he does not need very much items to perform well while supporting your rambo-like suicide flys with his heal and shield. Your greatest weakness early game are enemies who can disable and outdps you. Abaddon makes this impossible. the same thing counts of course for Omniknight.


While being a great lanepartner for everyone, Witch Doctor works very, very well with Batrider. His stun enables you to quickly and safely engange the enemy and the combined power of Napalm, Firefly and Maledict kills even the strongest enemy. In addition, troll powa, man!


It's not only Enigma who greatly enhances Bat's performance, actually every jungling hero with disables, like Chen or Enchantress works well with Bat. They enable you to solo the long lane and can support you with ganks from the jungle. Nice one.


As a combo-breaker, Silencer can fuck up your initiating pretty much. Normally, you blink in, Lasso someone, activate Firefly and spam Napalm. When you have a Silencer against you, you have to wait a long, long time between every spell. Bah!


Early Game nukers, like Tinker (or Zeus) can fuck up your lane presence. You are vulnerable to nukes as long as you are not tanky enough to survive. We are lucky that those strong early game heroes most of the time go to the mid lane to have the rune and level advantage, there it does not happen very often that we have to face them.

6. Strategy Section:

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Picking Bat:

Well, the question you have to ask yourself is 'Is this the situation where it's intelligent to play Batrider?'
Always keep in mind, that Bat is a hero that needs some farm to be effective throughout the game. That means, Bat should either solo or lane with a item-independant partner. Also, he should not solo the mid lane because there is too few space to effectively use Firefly. In general, this means, if your team has got two carries, that need to farm in a dual lane, don't pick Batrider. But except this scenario, I can't think of other situations.

Chosing your Lane:

Prefereably, Bat wants to solo the long lane with a jungling hero that supports him. That means either Sentinel Bottom or Scourge Top. If it's not possible, maybe because there is a hero who needs the solo mid (Nevermore, Tinker, etc) and you have no jungling hero, Batrider should lane with a item independant partner in one of the sidelanes. It's not important which one, as a partner enables you to kill your opponents more quickly and you won't need to chase him forever.
Just make sure that you are not laned with a passive, farm-dependant carry-type hero, like Spectre or Void and if possible, also avoid lanes with semi-carries, who want some farm, too, like Sven or PotM. While it's not a bad lane actually, you will need to share farm. But if you are forced to take such a lane, stop farming creeps and farm heroes.

Using Napalm:

I created a small image that shows the maximum castrange and the AoE of Sticky Napalm. This stays constant throughout the levels.
Napalm is mainly used to apply pressure on your lane opponents and to amplify Batrider's damage. It can hit units that are 1075 units away from you, that means it's very hard to dodge.
But be sure to spam it only when you think that you can go for a kill soon. Wasting mana for nothing is not that good, you will run out of mana faster than you think.
Don't be afraid to go for a kill if your enemy has only few stacks, but do this only of you have an ally assisting you. Stack Napalm further while chasing your opponent with Firefly.

In teamfights, try to hit as many enemies as possible. It will make them slow like a turtle on dope what makes it easy for your team to finish them off.

Another use of Napalm is farming. One or two stacks make lasthitting very easy, but be sure to not use it excessively. You need the mana for ganking.
When you have spare time and want to farm in the jungle, use Napalm and Firefly to quickly get rid many creeps. This works best if someone stacked the camps before as you can use Napalm on more creeps.

In general, use Napalm on everything you want to kill.

Using Flamebreak:

Flamebreak, although it has a huge casting range of 1500 (compareable with Windrunner's Powershot or half of PotM's Arrow), it's best used when you are near the enemy as its travelling speed is pretty low.

Flamebreak can be used to damage enemies (of course), farm creeps when you don't want to waste the Firefly cooldown, but its main purpose is to break channelling spells like Tp scrolls, Maiden's Freezing Field or Enigma's Black Hole.

Another use is to scout. The Flamebreak missile and the explosion provide vision of the area it passes trough. This way, you can use it to scout from a safe distance for example for runes or the Roshan spot.

Using Firefly:

Firefly is a very versitale spell. It's main purpose is of course killing enemies who are affected with Napalm. It should be pretty clear how this works, just fly above your enemies and they will take damage. The hardest thing here could be to foresee where your enemy will go, but with the strong slow from Napalm it's almost impossible that they will escape.

Another big advantage is, that you become a flying unit during the duration of Firefly. Spells like Maiden's Frostbite or Treant's Overgrowth can't target you while flying and you can freely move over Techies mines without taking damage.
Flying over cliffs or trees can be used to juke enemies as they can't follow you. You can use this to escape from chasing enemies or you can use it to shorten your own way to reach the enemy.

Burning down trees with Firefly can also be very useful, you don't need to run around those trees and your allies can follow you trough the path you created. Trees are often used for juking by your enemies, but when you destroy them they are not protected by the fog of war anymore.

The last possible use for Firefly would be farming, what is pretty obvious. A Napalm - Firefly combo can kill creepwaves no matter how many of them are around and can also be used to clear creepcamps in the jungle.

Using Flaming Lasso:

I don't think I have to say much about this. Flaming Lasso is a strong single-target disable that goes through Magic Immunity because it is an ultimate spell. Just run to your target/ blink next to it and try to catch him with your Lasso.
Note that, when you are not threatened, you don't need to drag your caught enemy very far. Just drag him into the Firefly-path and start auto-attacking while he's shackled. And of course never forget to stack Napalm.

And another note, if you are blinking into a bunch of enemies because you want to lasso someone and drag him to your team, don't waste time by spamming Napalm. Just activate Firefly and get the fuck out of there or you are fucked.

Laning:

It's pretty easy, acutally. Stack Napalm on your enemy and if you see a good possibility to engange your opponent, while he has enough stacks of Napalm, go for the kill. Activate firefly and chase down your slowed opponent and autoattack him to finish.
This move can and should be performed at level 2 and ensures a firstblood most of the time.
While waiting for the next good situation to go for a kill, stack Napalm and last hit as you do it with every hero. Napalm improves your last-hitting by a lot.
Don't try to gank other lanes before you reach level 6 and even if you have it, I recommend waiting until you have at least your core items. Batrider is a hero who is very likely to dive towers and get focus-fired by the enemies and he needs the HP to survive.
If you have a hard time while laning, just stay passive and try to farm as much as possible. Call your allies for ganks to support you but make sure, you have some Napalm stacks on the enemies when your ally arrives.
And I remind you again, Batrider has a very suicidal playstyle. If it's needed to dive towers or tank creeps to get some kills, do so. Your ally will benefit from the kills and your enemies will lose gold. Always remember, playing Batrider needs some madness to be well perfomed.

Ganking:

When you are ganking, be sure you have allies with you who can help.
Wait for the right situation, run up to your enemy or blink in, lasso him, activate Firefly, drag him a little bit into the fire and start stacking Napalm and auto-attacking. Your allies should of course be here by now and unleash their spells and dps, too. Always remember that you easily can prevent your enemy from juking as you can burn down trees at will.
Finish the enemy off with Flamebreak or your auto-attacks.
And again, don't be afraid of tower diving. With Vanguard and/ or Hood you are tanky enough to tank some attacks and spells.

If you have an ally, who can initiate better than you can, for example someone with Blink Dagger, as long as you don't have it or a long-ranged stunner like Earthshaker, wait for them to stun the enemy and start Napalming immediately. Run up to your enemy and damage him with Firefly. Throw your Lasso as soon as the duration of your ally's stun runs out and finish your enemy.

Teamfights:

Concentration guys, it gets hairy now. Teamfights are always different from each other, but you can follow certain points.

• Let your initiator initiate
• Blink in, activate Firefly, fly around your enemies
• Napalm your enemies whenever it's off its cooldown and try to hit as much of them as possible
• As soon as the duration of your ally's stun runs out, Lasso the most dangerous enemy or the main target of your team
• Stack Napalm further
• Attack

Of course, try to stay alive, but as you should be pretty tanky by now, it should not be that hard.
Everything, what's left to do, is unsing your personal skill and expirience, and to hope the best.

Map awareness:

Important for every hero. Watch the minimap to look out for ganks and for not being ganked yourself. Use TP scrolls to travel over the map quickly.
Really. Always watch the minimap and carry scrolls.