Centaur

Bradwarden the Centaur Warchief

Table of Contents

1. Foreword
2. Introduction to Bradwarden, the Centaur Warchief
3. Hero Skills
4. Skill Build
5. Item Build
6. Gameplay Walkthrough
7. Animation Cancelling
8. Allies/Enemies

1. Foreword

I wrote this guide because I started playing centaur, and I think that he is actually a very good hero. He can tank well for your team, yet do tons of damage at once. He has an ultimate that makes him a very powerful tank, and he is a great initiator. He works well with many heroes, as long as they have an initiating spell in a lane, and he is a great hero in team battles.

I base the layout on the colors of centaur, which is red and brown.

2. Introduction to Bradwarden, the Centaur Warchief

Stats and Storyline



Pros and Cons

Pro

• Great Tanking Abilities
• Has a long disable
• Can take down heroes with low hp
• Good initiator in team battles
• High base damage

Con

• Melee
• Need an initiator to lane with him early game
• Rather slow

3. Hero Skills



Hoo[f] Stomp

Slams the ground, stunning and damaging nearby enemy land units within 315 aoe.

Level 1 - 100 damage, 1.25 second stun. (85 mana cost;15 second cooldown)
Level 2 - 150 damage, 1.75 second stun. (100 mana cost;15 second cooldown)
Level 3 - 200 damage, 2.25 second stun. (115 mana cost;15 second cooldown)
Level 4 - 250 damage, 2.75 second stun. (130 mana cost;15 second cooldown)

This skill is a great skill. It is a stun, which helps you get attacks in on the enemy. It also does a fairly decent amount of damage.



[D]ouble Edge

The Centaur summons a tremendous amount of inner strength and releases a very powerful attack. It can only be done within 200 range, and it damages both the Warchief and the enemy unit. If the Warchief's hp is less than the damage he deals when Double Edge is used, he will survive with 1 hp.

Level 1 - Deals 175 damage. (75 mana cost;25 second cooldown)
Level 2 - Deals 250 damage. (90 mana cost;25 second cooldown)
Level 3 - Deals 325 damage. (105 mana cost;25 second cooldown)
Level 4 - Deals 400 damage. (120 mana cost;25 second cooldown)

This skill is a great skill for killing and finishing off enemy heroes as it deals a ton of damage



Return

The Centaur Warchief immediately counters every attack against him with a swift strike.

Level 1 - Returns 12.5 damage.
Level 2 - Returns 25 damage.
Level 3 - Returns 37.5 damage.
Level 4 - Returns 50 damage.

This skill is very good for Centaur, because if they focus him they will take a lot of damage before he dies.



Great Fortitude

The Centaur Warchief's mammoth body is capable of absorbing great amounts of punishment.

Level 1 - Adds +12 Strength.
Level 2 - Adds +24 Strength.
Level 3 - Adds +36 Strength.

This skill is what makes you a tank. It gives you the strength you need to survive in huge battles

4. Skill Build

Level 1 - Hoof Stomp
Level 2 - Double Edge
Level 3 - Hoof Stomp
Level 4-5 - Double Edge
Level 6 - Great Fortitude
Level 7 - Double Edge
Level 8-9 - Hoof Stomp
Level 10 - Return
Level 11 - Great Fortitude
Level 12-14 Return
Level 15 - Stats
Level 16 - Great Fortitude
Level 17-25 - Stats

Skill Build Explanation

Double Edge can be taken before Hoof Stomp because you are getting Bottle. Bottle allows you to keep your HP up after you use a Double Edge, because it restores HP, and the extra MP is also very good for keeping your mana up to combo.

Return is very good because when people damage him, they will take a lot of damage before being able to kill him. It's also very useful for neutraling, and killing huge waves of creeps, and has great synergy with Radiance and Manta.

Well, that's about it.

5. Item Build

Circlets/Clarities

2x Tangos

Empty Bottle

Boots

Blink Dagger

Hood of Defiance

Radiance OR Manta Style

Core Item Explanations



Empty Bottle

Bottle is a very effective item for gankers, which is what you should be doing right after you get your Blink Dagger. The reason it's effective for hardcore gankers, is because you will be making a lot of use of the rune storing abilities of Bottle. It allows you to restore your HP and MP by 200/100 in three charges, allowing you to keep your HP and MP up after using Double Edge, and also to save your runes until you need them, instead of using it right away, and risk having a rune, such as an invisibility or double damage rune run out before you can make good use of it. However, one thing to note is that if you are getting attacked, bottle dispels, so try not to get attacked for 2 seconds to use each charge. It's a good item to use while running, then turning around and fighting.



Blink Dagger

Blink dagger is very important for Centaur, and you need to farm it up right after you get Nulls. The reason that you need to get this item is because you need help positioning your stun, because the AoE on stun is quite small. Also, blink dagger makes your enemies be surprised, and in instinct, they will all focus on you, fulfilling your job as a tank. Then, once they focus you, your allies will attack them, and once they switch their target's, you've done your job.



Hood of Defiance

This item helps you tank against nukers, with the 30% increased spell defense, and the 8 hp regeneration. The spell resistance helps a lot when you're going to be hit by a bunch of nukes going in, and not just physical damage. The HP regeneration is very helpful, because it restores you HP very fast, allowing you to stay in the fight with only half HP. Get this item instead of vanguard if you are against nukers.



Radiance

Radiance is a good item for Centaur. Do not misunderstand that Radiance "magically" makes people attack you, because it does not work like that. Centaur can't do much in team battles, other than go around stomping people, so Radiance gives you a presence in battles adding to your DPS. Radiance, combined with Great Fortitude, makes your damage also quite powerful. Unlike ranged heroes, you are melee, which means you can utilize that 500 AoE more easily than ranged heroes. You basically get radiance to increase your damage output in battles. Get this item if no one else is getting it.



Manta Style

Manta Style is an alternate of Radiance only to be gotten when someone else already has Radiance. The diffusal blade helps you gank effectively, by slowing people who try to run, and helping to aim your stomp. Make sure you aren't too conservative using it, because you want to use every last charge of the purge. Then, once you complete Manta, you will have 3 beefed up images. With the strength of your ultimate, they will survive longer than most images, because of the major strength boost, and it will deal more damage, because the images benefit from strength benefits, increasing their damage, and the feedback helps increase their damage even more. Only get this if you already have a Radiance holder on your team, you are very heavily ganking and you really need that purge, or there is a warlock on the other team and you need to purge that annoying infernal.

Possible Items Afterwards



Assault Cuirass

This item is gotten to boost your survivability. You need survivability because you are a tank, and you need defense to survive enemy attacks so that your allies have more time to kill your enemies, and that you can utilize radiance more easily. The extra auras and such are just to boost your effectiveness in team battles. However, do not buy this item before you get BoT, travels is much more effective on centaur. Simply buy a platemail first and you'll be fine on defense. The aura is a luxury.



Boots of Travel

You have pretty slow move speed, so this is a great item for centaur if you don't need survivability. The teleport is also very helpful when pushing, so that you just teleport in, blink, stomp, tank, and watch your team win battles with ease.



Heart of Tarrasque

This item can be good for you once you bought all the defense items you can buy. It increases your hp, so it will make the opponent harder to kill you, and beef up your manta images if you got manta. However, do not buy this as a core item, because it does not increase your defense as well as armor or hood does, because you already have a ton of health.

Items to Avoid



Sange and Yasha

Many people like to get this item, but it is not good. The strength is useless, because simply increasing your defense is much better, the agility is useless, because your job is not to be a battle centaur, but rather a tank, and the maim and movement speed is useless, because you are not a chaser.

6. Gameplay Walkthrough

Early Game (Level 1-11)

Empty Bottle | Boots | Blink Dagger

Level 1 - Hoof Stomp
Level 2 - Double Edge
Level 3 - Hoof Stomp
Level 4-5 - Double Edge
Level 6 - Great Fortitude
Level 7 - Double Edge
Level 8-9 - Hoof Stomp
Level 10 - Return
Level 11 - Great Fortitude

Start out by grabbing your starting items, which should be just massed out stats. Circlets and branches are fine. However, you must always grab two tangos, because you need some regeneration as you will be harassed early game because you are a melee hero. If you don't get regeneration, you will seriously be wishing you did, because then you can't play aggressive and get some kills that otherwise you could have gotten.

Next up is choosing a lane partner. You must notice what centaur is during laning, which is a follow-up killer with a stun. Therefore, because you are a follow-up, you must lane with an initiator with a disable or stun. If a disable or stun is not possible to get, get someone with a slow. The reason you are a follow-up is because you have to go up to your enemies to use your stun, and which you will get disabled before you do that, and take a considerable amount of damage before you actually stun them, so you must lane with an initiator. Also, you must consider that you are a melee hero, and then two melee heroes will not work, because they will be harassed to no end. What you are looking for in a lane partner is a ranged hero that can initiate disable. Strong combos that come to mind are CM and Centaur, Vengeful and Centaur, and Rhasta and Centaur.

The lane choice will be sentinel bottom or scourge top, because centaur has to run up to stun. If you go on the other lane, you will be constantly running into towers, and you will damage yourself a lot, even if it is for a kill. You want to farm up vanguard and blink dagger as fast as possible, so you can't afford having to heal.

Once you get to your lane, basically levels 1-3, you want to last hit as much as possible, because many people will not nuke you at levels 1-3 because spells are very weak at that point in the game. You want to take advantage of this situation by last hitting as much as possible. However, do not stand around melee range, you must stand back around ranged creep range, and then run up and last hit, and then immediately back up. You do not want to stand around melee range, because you will get harassed by ranged heroes. You want to take as small damage as possible, yet get money and denies at the same time.

Since you are going to start using Stomp by now, you should learn how to use it. Stomp has an AoE of 315. It is quite a small AoE, so it is hard to land. You have to let your ally open with a disable to help you aim it. Remember, you must always go behind the hero, because once the disable wears off, they will run backwards, and stomp has an animation time of about one second. In that one second, they could run back out of the 315 AoE. That's why you should get in back of them, so when they run back, you'll still hit them with stomp. Here is a screenshot of Stomp's AoE:



It seems pretty big, but it is actually small. Also, do not let the outer ring fool you. It is not part of the actual AoE. It is just an extra animation that is added on. The darker, smaller, ring on the inside is the actual AoE. Always keep in mind that stomp has a cast time. Some players might try to juke you by going the other direction. The only way to counter this is to anticipate it, and predict where they will juke to, so that you can get there and stomp them.

You should also check the rune spots for any haste or invisible rune to help surprise your enemy and aim hoof stomp. However, you must make sure that it definitely an invisible or haste rune, so have someone check it, have an obs there, or have a hawk scout it first, because you do not want to go there and find something you don't need or nothing at all. If you get a haste rune, run behind him really fast and stomp behind him. If you got an invisible rune, simply stand there, and use stomp to surprise them and kill them. Also remember to keep them in your Bottle instead of simply taking it.

Once you hit level 4, you should only last hit creeps that come towards your ranged creep, or when there is only one creep last on the other side. You must last hit without getting disabled and attacked and then you will take major damage just because you wanted to last hit, which you do not want. It is much better to not die and get experience, than last hit, get money, and then lose it by dieing.

Also, if your ally has 2 nukes, not just one, go ahead and kill a hero by chaining your spells together. You should only do this if only one of the heroes have a disable, because you do not want to get disabled by the other team, and then your aggressiveness will be turned around into defensiveness. To chain your spells together, you should let your ally initiate with a disable, attack the enemy once, and once the disable is over, immediately stun, attack twice, and let your ally nuke the enemy, and then you should double edge to finish him off. It is not worth hurting yourself if you or your ally don't get the kill. If your ally has only one disable, then just do that, but at level 5. Stomp and double edge is a devastating combo if coupled with any disabler, because you can deal approximately 800 damage, which can kill many heroes before they can do something.

Also remember that after you are done, and you need HP and MP to do your combos repetitively, use your Bottle to restore your HP. However, remember not to use it unless you need both HP and MP, or your life depends on it, because otherwise it's not worth it because runes aren't too easy to come by since you are trying to stay in a lane.

If your ally leaves the lane to go and gank, simply play defensively. Just stay back and get experience. You can't afford dieing as you want to get your blink dagger as quickly as possible.

When the enemy heroes go off, feel free to farm as much as possible. Centaur has a high base damage, so last hitting will be quite easy.

If your enemies come to the lane, you have two choices: call for a gank, or farm neutrals. You should, however call for a gank first. If your allies don't respond to ganks, then go ahead and farm neutrals.

Ganking is very similar to hero killing. Simply let your ally or allies open up with a disable, attack once, then stun, attack twice, and double edge to finish him off.

Once the laning is over, you must always keep a teleport scroll with you. If the enemy tries to gank you, simply teleport away to safety. If they have a disable, try to get in the hiding spot under the tower, and teleport away there. If some people are hogging your lane, and the other lanes aren't getting pushed, then feel free to teleport there to farm.

Basically, early game is just trying to farm up your blink dagger as fast as possible. Use these techniques to get it as fast as possible.

Of course, jungling is a very viable option, and probably is the best option on Centaur in high level play. To read more about this, read this guide to the jungle Centaur.

Mid/Late game (Level 10-25)

Hood of Defiance | Radiance/Manta

Level 12-14 Return
Level 15 - Stats
Level 16 - Great Fortitude
Level 17-25 - Stats

Once you get your blink dagger, it is time to go along with the team. You are now to participate in team battles and ganks as much as possible. You have 4 possible routes at this point: farm, gank, push, or team battle.

You should farm when your allies are either dead or not pushing, and you are alone, while there are no lanes to help defend against enemies with. The reason you farm is not only to get money, but also that you do something productive while your allies aren't pushing, ganking, or team battling.

You should push after you ganked 2 or more people, or you have just won a team battle. You want to push after you kill people because then with more people than the enemies, you will win a team battle very easily. If they are smart, they won't help defend. If they aren't, they will go in and suicide. If they suicide, you will push easily and win. Make sure when you have the advantage, you must push. I have played many games where we have lost because we didn't push.

You should gank basically when there are any people alone. You want to give your team the advantage any way possible, so ganking is essential to win. However, if you expect that they are baiting do not gank. I can't emphasize this enough. You do not want to end up in a trap, in which you would get killed because of your surprise, then get counter-pushed. You do not want that to happen. Ganking is stressed throughout the game. If there is an opportunity to gank, make full use of it, because that is your main job for the game, besides tanking in team battles.

Ganking is very similar to early game, however you can now be the initiator. Lead in with blink-stomp, and then let your ally disable, and finish off with double edge. If you have Diffusal Blade, this is a big one. Do not be scared to use your Purge, as it has a lot of charges, and you don't want them to go to waste, so be aggressive in using Purge, and make sure you have used all your charges before completing Manta Style, or the money will go to waste. Remember though, when you are going through the river to gank, do not forget to use the runes. Invisibility is very helpful as it helps you position hoof stomp, as well as give the element of surprise. Haste gives the same effect, except not to the same extent, but is still very powerful. Double Damage will boost your damage a lot because of your high base strength, and illusions are great for distractions. Send the illusion in first. Have him waste his disable, then stun him. Also keep in mind that you can use your Bottle (if you have it) to store the runes, and then save them until you need to use them. Don't wait too long though, because if you do, you will waste the rune. The bottle can also help you restore your HP when you are low. Keep in mind that runes respawn every 2 minutes, and you should always check the runes so you can keep your HP and MP up for ganking.

Pushing is basically pushing, just killing creeps. to finish towers. While you are pushing however, make it very obvious that you are the one that is going to tank the tower. Vanguard coupled with your mass hp, tanking towers will be no problem. Get hit by the tower and watch your hp go down very slowly.

In team battles, you are the tank. You are the initiator, and you should be the first to go in. Hide in the trees, and have your allies stand there. Then, once the enemies are pretty close together, blink in and stomp, so that they will be surprised and naturally attack you. If they attack you, you are doing your job as a tank. This allows your team to go in and kill them. However, you must make sure your team is ready to go in, because you do not want to be suiciding in battles, making your team lose the tank. A solution to this problem would be to let your carry hero tell you when they want you to initiate, so that everyone knows when to go in. Use double edge for killing purposes whenever the situation comes up. Also, do not chase heroes. I can't stress this enough. Let your assassin kill the low hp heroes, but you are the tank, you can't be chasing heroes. Basically, stand around your allies that have low hp, and when he enemy comes to attack them, stomp them, and let your allies disable or dps them to death. Also, do not leave the battle just because you are getting attacked. You are the tank, so you must stay in the battle until you have red health. Then, you have blink, so you must make use of it. Blink out of the battle, and get away. However, if you have health, and the enemy is retreating, feel free to blink-stomp to chase people. If you got manta, feel free to use that to help attack the enemy, but always follow all the rules state here.

7. Animation Cancelling

Animation cancelling on centaur is pretty simple. Both your activatable skills have the same animation that is cancelled. Basically for both hoof stomp and double edge, centaur brings his axe down, but the extra animation is when he raises his axe up. In this spot, you can cancel the animation. It is a hard skill to master, so I recommend practicing it and watching replays to see how it is done, even though I have screenshots. It might be necessary so that you can go ahead and not let the enemy get away so that you can stomp again. You never know when it might be useful.

8. Allies/Enemies

Good Allies

Hero_Frenzy's Guide to Bradwarden, the Centaur Warchief Table of Contents 1. Foreword 2. Introduction to Bradwarden, the Centaur Warchief 3. Hero Skills 4. Skill Build 5. Item Build 6. Gameplay Walkthrough 7. Animation Cancelling 8. Allies/Enemies 9. Replays 10. FAQ 11. Credits 1. Foreword I wrote this guide because I started playing centaur, and I think that he is actually a very good hero. He can tank well for your team, yet do tons of damage at once. He has an ultimate that makes him a very powerful tank, and he is a great initiator. He works well with many heroes, as long as they have an initiating spell in a lane, and he is a great hero in team battles. I base the layout on the colors of centaur, which is red and brown. 2. Introduction to Bradwarden, the Centaur Warchief Stats and Storyline Pros and Cons Pro Great Tanking Abilities Has a long disable Can take down heroes with low hp Good initiator in team battles High base damage Con Melee Need an initiator to lane with him early game Rather slow 3. Hero Skills Hoo[f] Stomp Slams the ground, stunning and damaging nearby enemy land units within 315 aoe. Level 1 - 100 damage, 1.25 second stun. (85 mana cost;15 second cooldown) Level 2 - 150 damage, 1.75 second stun. (100 mana cost;15 second cooldown) Level 3 - 200 damage, 2.25 second stun. (115 mana cost;15 second cooldown) Level 4 - 250 damage, 2.75 second stun. (130 mana cost;15 second cooldown) This skill is a great skill. It is a stun, which helps you get attacks in on the enemy. It also does a fairly decent amount of damage. [D]ouble Edge The Centaur summons a tremendous amount of inner strength and releases a very powerful attack. It can only be done within 200 range, and it damages both the Warchief and the enemy unit. If the Warchief's hp is less than the damage he deals when Double Edge is used, he will survive with 1 hp. Level 1 - Deals 175 damage. (75 mana cost;25 second cooldown) Level 2 - Deals 250 damage. (90 mana cost;25 second cooldown) Level 3 - Deals 325 damage. (105 mana cost;25 second cooldown) Level 4 - Deals 400 damage. (120 mana cost;25 second cooldown) This skill is a great skill for killing and finishing off enemy heroes as it deals a ton of damage Return The Centaur Warchief immediately counters every attack against him with a swift strike. Level 1 - Returns 12.5 damage. Level 2 - Returns 25 damage. Level 3 - Returns 37.5 damage. Level 4 - Returns 50 damage. This skill is very good for Centaur, because if they focus him they will take a lot of damage before he dies. Great Fortitude The Centaur Warchief's mammoth body is capable of absorbing great amounts of punishment. Level 1 - Adds +12 Strength. Level 2 - Adds +24 Strength. Level 3 - Adds +36 Strength. This skill is what makes you a tank. It gives you the strength you need to survive in huge battles 4. Skill Build Level 1 - Hoof Stomp Level 2 - Double Edge Level 3 - Hoof Stomp Level 4-5 - Double Edge Level 6 - Great Fortitude Level 7 - Double Edge Level 8-9 - Hoof Stomp Level 10 - Return Level 11 - Great Fortitude Level 12-14 Return Level 15 - Stats Level 16 - Great Fortitude Level 17-25 - Stats Skill Build Explanation Double Edge can be taken before Hoof Stomp because you are getting Bottle. Bottle allows you to keep your HP up after you use a Double Edge, because it restores HP, and the extra MP is also very good for keeping your mana up to combo. Return is very good because when people damage him, they will take a lot of damage before being able to kill him. It's also very useful for neutraling, and killing huge waves of creeps, and has great synergy with Radiance and Manta. Well, that's about it. 5. Item Build Circlets/Clarities 2x Tangos Empty Bottle Boots Blink Dagger Hood of Defiance Radiance OR Manta Style Core Item Explanations Empty Bottle Bottle is a very effective item for gankers, which is what you should be doing right after you get your Blink Dagger. The reason it's effective for hardcore gankers, is because you will be making a lot of use of the rune storing abilities of Bottle. It allows you to restore your HP and MP by 200/100 in three charges, allowing you to keep your HP and MP up after using Double Edge, and also to save your runes until you need them, instead of using it right away, and risk having a rune, such as an invisibility or double damage rune run out before you can make good use of it. However, one thing to note is that if you are getting attacked, bottle dispels, so try not to get attacked for 2 seconds to use each charge. It's a good item to use while running, then turning around and fighting. Blink Dagger Blink dagger is very important for Centaur, and you need to farm it up right after you get Nulls. The reason that you need to get this item is because you need help positioning your stun, because the AoE on stun is quite small. Also, blink dagger makes your enemies be surprised, and in instinct, they will all focus on you, fulfilling your job as a tank. Then, once they focus you, your allies will attack them, and once they switch their target's, you've done your job. Hood of Defiance This item helps you tank against nukers, with the 30% increased spell defense, and the 8 hp regeneration. The spell resistance helps a lot when you're going to be hit by a bunch of nukes going in, and not just physical damage. The HP regeneration is very helpful, because it restores you HP very fast, allowing you to stay in the fight with only half HP. Get this item instead of vanguard if you are against nukers. Radiance Radiance is a good item for Centaur. Do not misunderstand that Radiance "magically" makes people attack you, because it does not work like that. Centaur can't do much in team battles, other than go around stomping people, so Radiance gives you a presence in battles adding to your DPS. Radiance, combined with Great Fortitude, makes your damage also quite powerful. Unlike ranged heroes, you are melee, which means you can utilize that 500 AoE more easily than ranged heroes. You basically get radiance to increase your damage output in battles. Get this item if no one else is getting it. Manta Style Manta Style is an alternate of Radiance only to be gotten when someone else already has Radiance. The diffusal blade helps you gank effectively, by slowing people who try to run, and helping to aim your stomp. Make sure you aren't too conservative using it, because you want to use every last charge of the purge. Then, once you complete Manta, you will have 3 beefed up images. With the strength of your ultimate, they will survive longer than most images, because of the major strength boost, and it will deal more damage, because the images benefit from strength benefits, increasing their damage, and the feedback helps increase their damage even more. Only get this if you already have a Radiance holder on your team, you are very heavily ganking and you really need that purge, or there is a warlock on the other team and you need to purge that annoying infernal. Possible Items Afterwards Assault Cuirass This item is gotten to boost your survivability. You need survivability because you are a tank, and you need defense to survive enemy attacks so that your allies have more time to kill your enemies, and that you can utilize radiance more easily. The extra auras and such are just to boost your effectiveness in team battles. However, do not buy this item before you get BoT, travels is much more effective on centaur. Simply buy a platemail first and you'll be fine on defense. The aura is a luxury. Boots of Travel You have pretty slow move speed, so this is a great item for centaur if you don't need survivability. The teleport is also very helpful when pushing, so that you just teleport in, blink, stomp, tank, and watch your team win battles with ease. Heart of Tarrasque This item can be good for you once you bought all the defense items you can buy. It increases your hp, so it will make the opponent harder to kill you, and beef up your manta images if you got manta. However, do not buy this as a core item, because it does not increase your defense as well as armor or hood does, because you already have a ton of health. Items to Avoid Sange and Yasha Many people like to get this item, but it is not good. The strength is useless, because simply increasing your defense is much better, the agility is useless, because your job is not to be a battle centaur, but rather a tank, and the maim and movement speed is useless, because you are not a chaser. 6. Gameplay Walkthrough Early Game (Level 1-11) Empty Bottle | Boots | Blink Dagger Level 1 - Hoof Stomp Level 2 - Double Edge Level 3 - Hoof Stomp Level 4-5 - Double Edge Level 6 - Great Fortitude Level 7 - Double Edge Level 8-9 - Hoof Stomp Level 10 - Return Level 11 - Great Fortitude Start out by grabbing your starting items, which should be just massed out stats. Circlets and branches are fine. However, you must always grab two tangos, because you need some regeneration as you will be harassed early game because you are a melee hero. If you don't get regeneration, you will seriously be wishing you did, because then you can't play aggressive and get some kills that otherwise you could have gotten. Next up is choosing a lane partner. You must notice what centaur is during laning, which is a follow-up killer with a stun. Therefore, because you are a follow-up, you must lane with an initiator with a disable or stun. If a disable or stun is not possible to get, get someone with a slow. The reason you are a follow-up is because you have to go up to your enemies to use your stun, and which you will get disabled before you do that, and take a considerable amount of damage before you actually stun them, so you must lane with an initiator. Also, you must consider that you are a melee hero, and then two melee heroes will not work, because they will be harassed to no end. What you are looking for in a lane partner is a ranged hero that can initiate disable. Strong combos that come to mind are CM and Centaur, Vengeful and Centaur, and Rhasta and Centaur. The lane choice will be sentinel bottom or scourge top, because centaur has to run up to stun. If you go on the other lane, you will be constantly running into towers, and you will damage yourself a lot, even if it is for a kill. You want to farm up vanguard and blink dagger as fast as possible, so you can't afford having to heal. Once you get to your lane, basically levels 1-3, you want to last hit as much as possible, because many people will not nuke you at levels 1-3 because spells are very weak at that point in the game. You want to take advantage of this situation by last hitting as much as possible. However, do not stand around melee range, you must stand back around ranged creep range, and then run up and last hit, and then immediately back up. You do not want to stand around melee range, because you will get harassed by ranged heroes. You want to take as small damage as possible, yet get money and denies at the same time. Since you are going to start using Stomp by now, you should learn how to use it. Stomp has an AoE of 315. It is quite a small AoE, so it is hard to land. You have to let your ally open with a disable to help you aim it. Remember, you must always go behind the hero, because once the disable wears off, they will run backwards, and stomp has an animation time of about one second. In that one second, they could run back out of the 315 AoE. That's why you should get in back of them, so when they run back, you'll still hit them with stomp. Here is a screenshot of Stomp's AoE: It seems pretty big, but it is actually small. Also, do not let the outer ring fool you. It is not part of the actual AoE. It is just an extra animation that is added on. The darker, smaller, ring on the inside is the actual AoE. Always keep in mind that stomp has a cast time. Some players might try to juke you by going the other direction. The only way to counter this is to anticipate it, and predict where they will juke to, so that you can get there and stomp them. You should also check the rune spots for any haste or invisible rune to help surprise your enemy and aim hoof stomp. However, you must make sure that it definitely an invisible or haste rune, so have someone check it, have an obs there, or have a hawk scout it first, because you do not want to go there and find something you don't need or nothing at all. If you get a haste rune, run behind him really fast and stomp behind him. If you got an invisible rune, simply stand there, and use stomp to surprise them and kill them. Also remember to keep them in your Bottle instead of simply taking it. Once you hit level 4, you should only last hit creeps that come towards your ranged creep, or when there is only one creep last on the other side. You must last hit without getting disabled and attacked and then you will take major damage just because you wanted to last hit, which you do not want. It is much better to not die and get experience, than last hit, get money, and then lose it by dieing. Also, if your ally has 2 nukes, not just one, go ahead and kill a hero by chaining your spells together. You should only do this if only one of the heroes have a disable, because you do not want to get disabled by the other team, and then your aggressiveness will be turned around into defensiveness. To chain your spells together, you should let your ally initiate with a disable, attack the enemy once, and once the disable is over, immediately stun, attack twice, and let your ally nuke the enemy, and then you should double edge to finish him off. It is not worth hurting yourself if you or your ally don't get the kill. If your ally has only one disable, then just do that, but at level 5. Stomp and double edge is a devastating combo if coupled with any disabler, because you can deal approximately 800 damage, which can kill many heroes before they can do something. Also remember that after you are done, and you need HP and MP to do your combos repetitively, use your Bottle to restore your HP. However, remember not to use it unless you need both HP and MP, or your life depends on it, because otherwise it's not worth it because runes aren't too easy to come by since you are trying to stay in a lane. If your ally leaves the lane to go and gank, simply play defensively. Just stay back and get experience. You can't afford dieing as you want to get your blink dagger as quickly as possible. When the enemy heroes go off, feel free to farm as much as possible. Centaur has a high base damage, so last hitting will be quite easy. If your enemies come to the lane, you have two choices: call for a gank, or farm neutrals. You should, however call for a gank first. If your allies don't respond to ganks, then go ahead and farm neutrals. Ganking is very similar to hero killing. Simply let your ally or allies open up with a disable, attack once, then stun, attack twice, and double edge to finish him off. Once the laning is over, you must always keep a teleport scroll with you. If the enemy tries to gank you, simply teleport away to safety. If they have a disable, try to get in the hiding spot under the tower, and teleport away there. If some people are hogging your lane, and the other lanes aren't getting pushed, then feel free to teleport there to farm. Basically, early game is just trying to farm up your blink dagger as fast as possible. Use these techniques to get it as fast as possible. Of course, jungling is a very viable option, and probably is the best option on Centaur in high level play. To read more about this, read this guide to the jungle Centaur. Mid/Late game (Level 10-25) Hood of Defiance | Radiance/Manta Level 12-14 Return Level 15 - Stats Level 16 - Great Fortitude Level 17-25 - Stats Once you get your blink dagger, it is time to go along with the team. You are now to participate in team battles and ganks as much as possible. You have 4 possible routes at this point: farm, gank, push, or team battle. You should farm when your allies are either dead or not pushing, and you are alone, while there are no lanes to help defend against enemies with. The reason you farm is not only to get money, but also that you do something productive while your allies aren't pushing, ganking, or team battling. You should push after you ganked 2 or more people, or you have just won a team battle. You want to push after you kill people because then with more people than the enemies, you will win a team battle very easily. If they are smart, they won't help defend. If they aren't, they will go in and suicide. If they suicide, you will push easily and win. Make sure when you have the advantage, you must push. I have played many games where we have lost because we didn't push. You should gank basically when there are any people alone. You want to give your team the advantage any way possible, so ganking is essential to win. However, if you expect that they are baiting do not gank. I can't emphasize this enough. You do not want to end up in a trap, in which you would get killed because of your surprise, then get counter-pushed. You do not want that to happen. Ganking is stressed throughout the game. If there is an opportunity to gank, make full use of it, because that is your main job for the game, besides tanking in team battles. Ganking is very similar to early game, however you can now be the initiator. Lead in with blink-stomp, and then let your ally disable, and finish off with double edge. If you have Diffusal Blade, this is a big one. Do not be scared to use your Purge, as it has a lot of charges, and you don't want them to go to waste, so be aggressive in using Purge, and make sure you have used all your charges before completing Manta Style, or the money will go to waste. Remember though, when you are going through the river to gank, do not forget to use the runes. Invisibility is very helpful as it helps you position hoof stomp, as well as give the element of surprise. Haste gives the same effect, except not to the same extent, but is still very powerful. Double Damage will boost your damage a lot because of your high base strength, and illusions are great for distractions. Send the illusion in first. Have him waste his disable, then stun him. Also keep in mind that you can use your Bottle (if you have it) to store the runes, and then save them until you need to use them. Don't wait too long though, because if you do, you will waste the rune. The bottle can also help you restore your HP when you are low. Keep in mind that runes respawn every 2 minutes, and you should always check the runes so you can keep your HP and MP up for ganking. Pushing is basically pushing, just killing creeps. to finish towers. While you are pushing however, make it very obvious that you are the one that is going to tank the tower. Vanguard coupled with your mass hp, tanking towers will be no problem. Get hit by the tower and watch your hp go down very slowly. In team battles, you are the tank. You are the initiator, and you should be the first to go in. Hide in the trees, and have your allies stand there. Then, once the enemies are pretty close together, blink in and stomp, so that they will be surprised and naturally attack you. If they attack you, you are doing your job as a tank. This allows your team to go in and kill them. However, you must make sure your team is ready to go in, because you do not want to be suiciding in battles, making your team lose the tank. A solution to this problem would be to let your carry hero tell you when they want you to initiate, so that everyone knows when to go in. Use double edge for killing purposes whenever the situation comes up. Also, do not chase heroes. I can't stress this enough. Let your assassin kill the low hp heroes, but you are the tank, you can't be chasing heroes. Basically, stand around your allies that have low hp, and when he enemy comes to attack them, stomp them, and let your allies disable or dps them to death. Also, do not leave the battle just because you are getting attacked. You are the tank, so you must stay in the battle until you have red health. Then, you have blink, so you must make use of it. Blink out of the battle, and get away. However, if you have health, and the enemy is retreating, feel free to blink-stomp to chase people. If you got manta, feel free to use that to help attack the enemy, but always follow all the rules state here. 7. Animation Cancelling Animation cancelling on centaur is pretty simple. Both your activatable skills have the same animation that is cancelled. Basically for both hoof stomp and double edge, centaur brings his axe down, but the extra animation is when he raises his axe up. In this spot, you can cancel the animation. It is a hard skill to master, so I recommend practicing it and watching replays to see how it is done, even though I have screenshots. It might be necessary so that you can go ahead and not let the enemy get away so that you can stomp again. You never know when it might be useful. Hoof Stomp Animation Screenshots: The Right Way This is the animation of stomp right when the enemy will get stunned. He lowers his ax down and hits the ground. Once the ax hits the ground, the stun and damage goes off right away. The blue line shows the actual animation before you cancel, the red cancellation circle shows when you should issue a command, and the teal line shows the extra filler animation. The Wrong Way This is the extra filler animation of stomp after the effects have taken place. After the effect takes place, he raises his ax up to the regular place. You want to cancel the animation before this happens. Again, the blue line shows the actual animation, the red circle shows where you should issue a command, and the teal line shows the filler animation that you should cancel. Double Edge Animation Screenshots: The Right Way Double Edge's animation is very similar to hoof stomp. The only difference is that Double Edge's effect takes place after the animation can be canceled. He brings his ax down, and this is where you can cancel the animation, once the ax hits the ground. The effects won't take place until about a second after, but you can actually cancel the animation before the effects take place. The Wrong Way This is the filler animation for Double Edge after you can cancel the animation. Just like Hoof Stomp, Centaur raises his axe back up to where it was normally, but once the ax hits the ground, you can actually cancel the animation. Cancel it at the red circle, as you do not want to waste any time. 8. Allies/Enemies Good Allies Crystal Maiden Crystal Maiden is the best lane partner to be with for Centaur. She has a disable and a slow, which allows much easier aiming for Hoof Stomp. She can deal somewhere around 500 damage, and so can you, so you are almost guaranteed to kill someone if you hit them with all your spells. Let her open with Frost Bite, go up and attack once, then stomp right away, attack twice, let her use frost nova, and attack until they are around 300 hp, so you can double edge them to death. Shadow Shaman Rhasta is also a very good lane partner to lane with you. He has both a disable and a nuke. You two can kill almost anyone that get hit by shackles, mainly because shackles is so powerful as a disable. You should open with shackle, attack two or three times, then stomp right when it wears off, then both of you should double nuke the enemy to death. Vengeful Spirit Vengeful Spirit is also a quite good lane partner, who combines both her nuke and her stun into one spell. It is mainly good because she is a ranged hero with a disable to help you aim Hoof Stomp. Have her open with stun, go in and stomp right away, as the stun is relatively short, then have you both attack, and double edge, or have Vengeful Spirit to continue chasing and hit another stun, allowing you to double edge them to death. Enigma This combo is not as good as any of the other combos, mainly because enigma's damage is very low. However, he is a ranged hero with a stun and decent lane control, so he is still worth listing. Also, his stun hits 3 times, so it makes stomping very easy for you. Let him open with a stun, then go up and stomp the enemy, and double edge one for the kill. Bad Enemies Witch Doctor Witch Doctor is the anti-tank, meaning the anti-you. If he gets off maledict on you, it will make it impossible to tank, because while you take tons of damage, it will make you take even more damage, making you die very, very fast. The way to counter this guy is to have your team know you are going after him, then blink behind him and stomp, and beat him up. The main idea is to kill him before he can cast maledict on you, because once he does, you can't tank anymore, which is the opposite of what you want to do. Necrolyte Necrolyte is a hero you have to watch out for, as he has reaper's scythe to destroy enemies in his path. As you are a tank, you will take considerable amounts of damage, so once you fall below 40% HP, he can basically use his ultimate to finish you off. Again, the counter to this is to focus him first in team battles so he does not have a chance to kill you when you drop below 40% HP. Soul Keeper Watch out for Terrorblade's sunder, as it will take you down to red health no matter how many hp you have. Even if you have 6000 HP, he can still sunder you, bringing you down to somewhere around 1000 HP. Watch out for sunder, because it is a very powerful skill. To counter this guy, all you have to do, is to do your burst of damage once you think he might sunder you. When he hits around 500 HP, stomp right away, attack a few times, never allowing him to sunder, then use double edge to finish him off.

thx to 1st post Hero_Frenzy@dota-allstars.com