1: Hero Description

Introduced in the era of the much awaited 6.60 alongside Tauren Chieftain, Batrider has been used to great success in all levels of play with his innovative skills and combos that it opened up. He is relatively balanced compared to TC and therefore allowing him to see more play (even then, he is banned a good amount of time).

The role that Jin'zakk plays in a game is mostly a ganker, pusher and support. Bat has a versatile mix of abilities that give him pushing and ganking power. His Firefly is extremely useful in many situations and grants him mobility and tons of damage. He is great at causing confusion and dealing AoE damage in teamfights too with the skills he possesses too. He is relatively item independent and all in all suits many lineups well.

For detailed information about the hero's stats and story, please refer to this link.

2: Skills Descriptions, Builds & Usage

2.1 Skill Descriptions
[click on the icons to see further info on the skills]

Sticky Napalm

Mechanics:
Deals magical damage. All damage from Batrider's attacks, items and skills is amplified, except for damage from Radiance.
Usage: Early game, use this on creeps to last hit more effectively. The same can be done to opponents to make your physical attack do noticeable damage. Use it to chase opponents and to amplify the damage you do in team fights with Flame Break and Firefly

Flamebreak

Mechanics:
Deals magical damage. If a target gets directly hit, it will be stunned for 0.5 seconds.
Usage: Use Flamebreak while in close proximity rather than sniping because the distance does not affect it in any way and therefore being closer increases the chance of it hitting and its effectiveness. Batrider's only form of burst damage in convenient AoE form. Use it to cancel channeling spells.

Firefly

Mechanics:
Deals magical damage. During this the Batrider can fly above units, trees and impassable terrain. If duration ends when above impassable terrain, the Batrider can get stuck. Will destroy trees when flying above them. Becomes an aerial unit.
Usage: Firefly is an amazing skill due to its versatility. Since Bat becomes an aerial unit, use it as an escape mechanism to evade certain spells. You can also traverse impassable terrain so use it to juke opponents. It deals a lot of damage so it becomes a great spell to use in a lane and in team fights seeing as you can fly over anything.

Flaming Lasso

Mechanics:
Killing the Batrider or the target will break the lasso before its expiration. If the distance between the Batrider and the target is more than 400 the lasso breaks. Disable works on magic immune units.
Usage: This is a great disable since you can control your character freely and even drag your opponent to combo with other heroes skills (Rupture for instance

). However, it has a short casting range so don't go out of your way to cast it unless you have a way to get near the opponent quickly, else you'll land in respawn heaven. Lasso is also an amazing gank tool since it allows you to hit the target freely and basically drag him back into allied hands.

Detailed Batrider Mechanics

2.2 Skill Build

1. Firefly
2. Sticky Napalm
3. Sticky Napalm
4. Flamebreak
5. Sticky Napalm
6. Flaming Lasso
7. Sticky Napalm
8. Firefly
9. Firefly
10. Firefly
11. Flaming Lasso
12. Flamebreak
13. Flamebreak
14. Flamebreak
15. Attribute Bonuses
16. Flaming Lasso

This skillbuild is primarily an offensive one with both hugely damaging skills . A level of Firefly is gotten first to get out of sticky situations such as first blood attempts and it also deals a good amount of damage for when you are attempting a first blood yourself. Sticky Napalm is maxed next for last hitting purposes, chasing and just generally amplifying your damage for harassing. It's a great skill because skilling it also improves Firefly and Flamebreak damage and it has a potent slow, it just wrecks lanes as a result of that. Firefly is maxed next as it deals very significant damage along with Napalm. Flamebreak is the skill taken last because its a very damaging nuke that has a chance to disrupt enemies but is sometimes outclassed by the potent combo of Napalm/Firefly. Flaming lasso is taken whenever possible because it is a great disable and it could save your ass and turn the tables around.

3: Item Builds, Alternatives and How to Use Them

3.1 Core Item Build

[Boots][Bottle][Bracers][Wand][TP][Dagger]
(cheap, general build that supports all your needs for all levels of game)

3.2 Items Choices Afterwards

[Shivas][Bloodstone][BKB]
(tanky caster)

[Guinsoo]
(disabler)

[Pipe][Arcane]
(pushing supporter)

[Force][Travels]
(versatile items)

[Necro 3]
(ward fighter, pusher)

3.3 Details & Justifications

Your basic core items are relatively cheap and easy to build up because frankly, Batrider doesn't need much. Magic Wand is a handy item to have that can be used to great effect especially against spell spamming lineups. Bottle gives you more burst regeneration that benefits you as a ganker. Blink grants you more mobility to allow yourself to get into prime positioning for Flaming Lasso. Bracers wrap up your core by granting balanced stats and while Batrider has decent STR gain being an INT hero, he still needs some HP especially since he often needs to be in the center of the battle spreading his Firefly damage. TP scrolls are just an essential consumable that helps greatly in defending pushes among other things.

Shivas and Bloodstone are taken as luxuries for augmenting your AoE presence. Shivas adds another snare and the +armor and -attack speed aura are useful in team fights. Since Bat often has to be in the center of battle, Bloodstone becomes a great choice not only for the survivability but the amazing regen it provides. BKB is also another option to prevent disables and being focus-fired.

Guinsoo provides perhaps one of the best disables in the game which can be used to great effect in shutting down heroes along with your Flaming Lasso. The +stats and regen are of amazing use as well. Farming it also is not such a hindrance to Bat since he has Firefly which he can use to farm across camps.

Pipe is great for your team providing a barrier against damage which helps against many skills. It also provides you with spell resistance allowing you to eat more spells. Arcane also helps in pushing but is more situational

Boots of Travel is probably the best boots upgrade for Bat. he can farm it easily and grants him great map wide mobility and also in general for chasing with Napalm.

3.4 Alternative/Situational Items

Force Staff - A good utility item that helps in positioning yourself or an opponent for your Lasso. It also allows you to help yourself or an opponent escape. However its uses are highly situational at best. You have to admit that the intelligence it provides isn't bad for an increased mana pool.

Blink Dagger - An item that provides amazing mobility in team fights and essentially makes you an initiator. It helps you pick out a hero (preferably a priority target like a carry or a key disabler) and drag him to a fiery, crispy death by your team.

Necronomicon 3 - If there are invisible heroes that are a pain on the other team, there is no better candidate to get one than you. Bat can easily farm it and it is a great item in its own right. Use it while you lasso an opponent allowing for 4 good seconds of attack. It aids in pushing and is very helpful.

4: Hero Specific Strategies and Techniques

Techniques

Firefly-Farming: Neutral Creep farming becomes incredibly easy with Firefly since it allows you to burn down trees to pull the creeps and you can spread the Firefly to other camps effectively farming multiple camps at one time. This is better represented in form of screen shots

Firefly-Harass: This is how you use Firefly in lane most of the time. Basically you fly above the opponent and try to keep in front of him or on the side without attacking. This is similar to a Bladefury or Ion Shell.

Break-Channel: As Flamebreak deals a ministun to its target, use it to cancel channeling spells. Make sure to cook that Witch Doctor and his Ward to a crisp well done.

Flaming-Lasso: Aside from sounding like some stripper gimmick, this is the main way you will actually get an opponent to go through your Firefly and stay. Using Napalm and attacking in between is ideal in dealing the most amount of damage possible.

Lasso-lation: Basically, you use lasso to isolate an opponent and drag him towards your opponent to focus fire on, set up combos and for certain spells (Mana Leak, Rupture) that require the target to move. Use Lasso to drag an opponent into the towers range should some overzealous opponent tower dive you.

How-to-Aim-Break: Now, since Flamebreak deals the same amount of damage regardless of distance, a long ranged one is not always good. However, there will always be a situation wher eyou will have to finish off a fleeing opponent. This is where your Hook/Arrow aiming skills will come in handy

Napalm-Amplify: Sticky Napalm amplifies your physical and spell damage making it an excellent spell for every situation. In team fights, use Napalm to slow heroes to a crawl between cooldowns of your skills. Use it in the lane to get painful pot-shots in to your opponent or to last hit creeps with ease. last hitting becomes exceptionally easy with your mad high base damage. Basically it has a lot of potential uses even though the Radiance bug was fixed.

Strategies

Soloing - This is a good option for you since often solos have good lane control and that is what Batrider has. Firefly makes a potent spell early game along with Napalm and your physical attack. Batrider does well in a solo because he has great base damage which along with Sticky Napalm really becomes noticeable DPS. He can also establish a good flow of farming due to the ease of which he decimates creeps with Napalm last hits and Fireflies generally being used often to that purpose other than harassing.

Laning - A generally good option for Batrider. Lane him with a stunner or slower to allow for maximized usage of spells. Generally the long lane is great allowing you for room to chase with Napalm. Creep pulling can be done by you with great ease with Firefly but I wouldn't recommend wasting its 40 second cooldown on that. If going on the offensive, use your Firefly and slow the opponent with your Napalm or with aid from your partner.

Jungling - This is a great asset of Bat rider. He is able to farm fast with his skills especially shown in the above techniques. However, I don't suggest an outright jungling strategy since he does so much better in a lane. Jungling would be saved after the laning phase during those free periods. Pulling helps take down the higher level camps and stacking them allows for a massive income gain since they will fall quickly to Napalm stacks and Firefly.

Getting Ganked - Batrider does well in escaping akin to Spectre but without the frustrating micromanaging. However, it isn't as instant as Wind Walk or Blink so don't push too much thinking your Firefly is enough to save you in a tough situation. Firefly is a potent juking skill and a well aimed Flamebreak can push back the opponent on your tail. You can turn the tables on your opponent by baiting him and then suddenly ensnaring him with your Lasso and Firefly in tower range. This is probably only effective early though since essentially you are bring the opponent with you.

Ganking - Basically, you initiate with your Lasso by means of Phase Boots/Blink/Force Staff. Drag the opponent to your hungry, waiting allies. Staying in place to cast your spells/attack is usually not recommended unless ganking alone. Since you are a pretty good ganker with an amazing disable, keep good control of the runes, you'll be making good use of your bottle.

Team Fights - You are not an initiator in the sense that Raigor or Puck is. You are more like a wrecking crew where you come in after your initiator has laid waste and proceed to lay down Flamebreak to break up your opponents formations, Firefly around for constant AoE damage and Napalms as needed to amplify or slow stragglers. Also, you can drag a key opponent out as mentioned in the techniques section to tip the battle in your favor.

5: Replays and Videos

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