Madman Strategy Guide

The Madman




No one knows for certain the identity of this masked
and demented murderer. Some say he was confined for
eons in the deepest pit of Hell, a villain so black at heart
that even the Hellbourne treated him as a pariah, yet so
deadly that they were forced to call upon him in their war
with the Legion. Others say he is a man, just a man, but
driven mad by the endless carnage he has witnessed.

Stats
Attack Type = Melee
Attack Damage = 47-51
Attack Range = 100
Movement speed = 300

Armor = 3.22
MagicArmor = 5.5


Strength = 17
Agility = 23
Intelligence = 14


Strength per level = 2.1
Agility per level = 2.75
Intelligence per level = 1.5


Spells

Stalk


The Madman conceals himself for a short time,
granting him invisibility and increased movement speed.
In his wild craze, the madman lashes out and damages any
enemies that come near him while stealthed.

Level 1 : Applies Stalk to self for 4 seconds. Deals 90 magic damage to enemies he passes through.
Level 2 : Applies Stalk to self for 4 seconds. Deals 100 magic damage to enemies he passes through.
Level 3 : Applies Stalk to self for 4 seconds. Deals 110 magic damage to enemies he passes through.
Level 4 : Applies Stalk to self for 4 seconds. Deals 120 magic damage to enemies he passes through.

Mana cost 60
Cooldown 12/10/8/6 seconds

Stalk effects
+50% Movement speed
Stealth with 0.5 second fade time unit walking.

Notes: Identical to DotA's Nerubian Weaver’s Shukuchi spell. You’ll see blue gashes on the units that you come in contact with. For only 60 mana, this will boost your move speed to 450 without marchers. Remember that this is magic damage, and not a melee hit! At rank 4, this skill basically allows you to move at max your movement speed half the time, provided you have the mana pool. Use it to catch up to targets / run away / harass enemy lane heroes.

Barrel Roll


The Madman does a Barrel Roll, smashing into
opponents in his path. Enemy units caught in
his wake are damaged and stunned.

Level 1 : Range 400, 100 Magic damage, units hit by Barrel Roll will be stunned for 1 seconds.
Level 2 : Range 500, 150 Magic damage, units hit by Barrel Roll will be stunned for 1.25 seconds.
Level 3 : Range 600, 200 Magic damage, units hit by Barrel Roll will be stunned for 1.5 seconds.
Level 4 : Range 700, 250 Magic damage, units hit by Barrel Roll will be stunned for 1.75 seconds.

Mana cost 130
Cooldown 11

Returns Madman to his original position after reaching the target destination

Notes: See the line after the cooldown! This is not a blink/movement ability, but a stun that will return you to your position prior to casting. When ganking, this mean the best place to cast your stun from will be where you expect the enemy hero to run, so you can be hitting them as soon as you return from the cast and not chasing them down from behind. An easy combo is to Stalk through and behind your prey, then barrel roll to initiate the fight from behind them.

Gash


The Madman becomes increasingly proficient at
gutting his enemies, giving him a higher chance to
critically strike them.

Level 1 : 10% chance for 2.0x Critical Strike
Level 2 : 16% chance for 2.0x Critical Strike
Level 3 : 22% chance for 2.0x Critical Strike
Level 4 : 28% chance for 2.0x Critical Strike

Notes: Your basic passive for a carry hero. This works especially well with his ultimate.

Ultimate
Berserk


The Madman flips out, going totally berserk,
increasing his attack and movement speed.

Level 1 : +5% Movement speed +40 Attackspeed for 30 seconds
Level 2 : +7% Movement speed +80 Attackspeed for 30 seconds
Level 3 : +9% Movement speed +120 Attackspeed for 30 seconds
Mana Cost 100/150/205
Cooldown 55

Notes: *Drool* at those attack speed bonuses, friends. This is the ultimate ability for a carry hero – an ability to increase your attack speed to a high level before item bonuses. When coupled with a 28% chance to crit, you’ll do massive amounts of damage. The move speed is negligible, as you can already max your move speed with Stalk, but it’s just icing on the cake. What’s even better is that this ability lasts 30 SECONDS with a cooldown of 55 SECONDS, meaning you can keep this ability up for half of all your game time! The only detriment is the giant mana cost for a hero with a terrible int gain. You’ll need to get enough max mana or mana regen to cover the use of this ability to use Madman to his full potential! Remember to cast this prior to engaging in a gank or team fight, as it lasts 30 seconds!

ITEMS:

Basic starting build:

Solo-
Minor Totem x4 (212)
Runes of the Blight x3 (270)
Mana Potion x2 (100) = 582g


With a babysitter-
Minor x3 (159)
Pretender’s Crown (185)
Runes of the Blight (90)
Mana Potion x3 (150) = 584g

I prefer playing this hero with a lane partner. There really aren’t many alternatives. I do not recommend going bottle to start as his base stats are horrible, but if that’s what you like to do, go for it! Marchers are great and all, but they’re not necessary early with Stalk. I prefer having enough mana to do a Stalk/BR/Stalk combo for an early-game ~400+ damage. Hopefully, you'll need to heal less with a lane partner, so more mana potions should give you more opportunities for a hero kill. The whole point of these items is to allow you to stay in lane until level 8 or so and farm up a fat sack of gold!

Within ~15 minutes you should AT LEAST have:

Bottle (great to quickly restore enough mana for a Stalk or BR!)
Marchers
2x Fortified Bracelets

Mid-game:

Steamboots (1850) – Stalk provides enough move speed, as well as unit-pathing, so you don’t need either boot alternative. The stats are what you need! Early game str for team fights (if necessary)/farming, and I’ll often switch them to Int when ganking. Barrel roll has an 11-second CD, so you can likely use it twice in one gank. It’s a great opener, as well as a great finisher, but it’s very taxing on Madman’s low mana supply.

Whispering Helm (1850) – Life leech + fast attacks/crits = LOVE. You can tank many physical damage opposing heroes, as well as farm in peace without having to worry about your HP. Dominating a Minotaur/Catman never hurts for ganks, either.

Endgame:

I refer to endgame as around ~30-40 minutes into the game. You should have plenty of hero kills, and provided they haven’t been able to get many kills on you from your unit pathing/huge move speed, you should have an ample supply of gold. Here are my personal preferences for endgame items, in order of importance:

Shrunken Head (3910) – A necessity for any agility carry hero. Use this when engaging in team battles so the enemy team can’t disable you. Should not need any explanation.

Shieldbreaker (4400) – Probably the best item for this hero. His huge attack speed, coupled with –armor, means you’ll literally be shredding enemy heroes. Use this and Berserk on any enemy caster, and they’ll be wiped out in seconds.

Symbol of Rage (6150) – Upgrade your Whispering Helm into this whenever you can after getting an ample bit of +damage! The HP pool is great for chasing into towers, and if you and an enemy hero are trading hits, just use Berserk + activate this baby, and you should be full HP in 3 seconds flat.

Brutalizer (3100) – This should be an obvious choice for this hero. He has a huge attack speed, and this should proc every few seconds. I usually rely on my teammates to stun/snare enemy heroes, so this is not a required item, but great for solo ganks in pub games.

Wingbow (6000) – I’d only build this item if the enemy has a large number of heavy-hitting melee heroes, or if you’re filthy rich. You don’t gain much from the attack speed, and the 60 damage is sub-par for the item cost. The evasion is nice, but you shouldn’t be taking too many hits if your team is helping you out!

Remember that you should be getting high +damage items to stack with your huge attack speed and crit! Mock is great for high damage coupled with Berserk’s AS bonus, but it’s huge cost lands it not anywhere near the top of my list – maybe I’d slot it before Wingbow. Runed Axe [SEE COMMENTS BELOW] is great for regen/farming, but I tend to stay away from this item as the overall cost (4350) is pretty high for just 65 damage, a bit of regen, and cleave and NO STATS. Madman is essentially a single-target DPS hero, and while cleave can help you farm a bit faster, I find that late-game I benefit more from single-target damage items. It's not a bad item on him though, and it's up to your particular playstyle. Other items that have %-on-hit abilities (Thunderclaw/H&S) are not bad choices, but you shouldn’t need the snare from H&S to chase enemy heroes, and a 150/200 damage nuke once every 5 hits is alright, but I prefer higher base damage to consistently work with his ult + crit chance. I do not get Nullfire BladeGeometer's Bane, then 50 mana per hit with a huge attack speed is pretty solid, but it's still only ~67 damage a hit. Behemoth's Heart is another common choice, but it really depends on how much your team is helping you out and how many disables you have! Again, he's great with many items late-game - experiment and decide what works best for you!

Skill build:

• Stalk 1
• Barrel Roll 1
• Barrel Roll 2
• Stalk 2
• Barrel Roll 3
• Stalk 3
• Barrel Roll 4
• Stalk 4
• Berserk 1
• Gash 1
• Berserk 2
• Gash 2
• Gash 3
• Gash 4
• Stats
• Berserk 3

17-25. Stats

Maxing barrel roll first is great because the mana cost never goes up, and it’s an AoE nuke (250 dmg) as well as stun/snare. If you lane against an INT hero, you can often get Bloodlust by level 3 if your partner has a stun/nuke as well. Maxing stalk is also important because with each level comes 2 seconds off the cooldown. This is essential for chasing targets as well as running away. I tend not to get Berserk at level 6 because it’s such a high mana cost (100) for gaining 40 attack speed, and it’s far more common to get an early kill with Stalk or Barrel Roll than auto-attacking. Remember, a Stalk + BR combo at level 8 hits for ~370 damage before mitigation for only 190 mana, so if you have any type of support or ranged hero with you, you should be able to hit hard enough to kill with just these abilities.

Things to remember:

You’re a carry hero! You should always either be farming neutrals/safe lanes or killing enemy heroes! Your team needs you to get big items quickly, so try to stay away from the fountain as much as you can and focus on getting gold and XP every minute of the game. Avoid dying at all costs!

Try to lane with a good babysitter (Pollywog, Jereziah) if you can, and have them feed you creep kills so you can get a fast start. Anyone with disables can get you early kills against most enemy agi/int heroes.

My standard opening on an enemy hero (Solo Ganks): Pop your ult (it lasts 30 seconds, bro!), Stalk behind the target (preferably through), open quickly with a Barrel Roll when you’re RIGHT behind them for maximum hitting time. That should be around 250+ damage right off the bat, and you’re already hitting them while they are stunned. If you’re in danger, Stalk early and get out, otherwise, keep hitting as long as you can, Stalk through/behind them again, and BR whenever it’s off cooldown.

Team fights: Be cautious, as you won’t have much HP until late game! If the enemy has a lot of AoE/Disables, try to Stalk behind them without alerting them to your presence (aka, walking through them!). Use fog to your advantage. Once one of the teams initiates, you should focus on stunning their whole team with a BR to start, and then Berserk + beat on whatever INT disabler/nuker is closest to you. Try to aim for the hero on their team that will die the fastest, so you can get to a 5v4 as soon as possible. After that, aim for the next weakest target and just rip them to shreds. Be a team player and take out the disablers ASAP so your team can help you help them!

This guide is from: Heroes of Newerth Forum