General DiscussionHow are things working out for Bristleback this patch?

bad.

What do you think is the most serious problem he has right now?

there is no role you can give him. too greedy for offlane, too weak for carry.
hes just bad against leshrac, storm, and (welcome to 6.84) undying, and u see those heroes 24/7.

He's pretty weak vs magic dmg, so he's basicall weak vs a lot of heroes this patch and i think that's his biggest problem right now. It can still work if they have weak trilanes without many disables :)

Yeah, that's the problem as I've seen it. The only ways I could win with bb offlane is if I take farm from our jungle or get massively fed in lane by people who hardly understand how bristleback functions. Also he has no hard lockdown for storm and can't do shit to chase him despite being pretty mobile otherwise. Lesh, I don't know, when bb starts hitting hard he probably could actually fight him given equal farm since lesh is not going to have that much hp, and bristle can reduce his armor, now the question is whether Leshrac is able to throw all he has on brstleback in which case it's not going to go well for him, and since bristleback kills you pretty slowly, lesh's going to have time for it.

Against undying, well, with the nerf to quills it's become kinda hard to fight undying, tombstone is actually pretty fucked up against a bristleback.

silver edge

^coupled with a fact you don't want to build bkb on him. Yeah, haven't thought much of that.

Only picked him 9 times tho, no biggie.

I still main Sven, which is bad enough on its own.

What about kentar

The main problem with Bristle is that he's one of those heroes that countered really hard by one item. In his case, it's Silver Edge. It completely destroys his purpose (which is to be able to tank all the damage with his back turned while the rest of his team fights), and it reveals how weak of a carry he is. His only perks are decently scaling physical damage and a slow with armor reduction, but the former only goes so far, and the latter becomes a joke with BKB or armor items.

Yes, he can survive the offlane, but he can't do anything else.

Many heroes are hard countered by one or two items, I think it boils down to how those heroes are going to deal with it. Euls/bkb builders will easily get rid of silence and break, but bristle's kinda in a position where he should get none of these two items.

Eh. At low skill levels he is a free MMR hero in my opinion. But ya know, low level. You could make the same argument about Slark or any hero who can solo the enemy team and is good in team fights or 1v1 match-ups. But he snots on people. That's great. It's the ultimate disrespect.

Incidentally if you're building Vanguard on him, this is the wrong patch for it. There is so much magical damage present nowadays I think Hood of Defiance (not 100% sure you need pipe) is the better option. That and I also hate Vanguard with a burning passion as it is easily one of the shittiest items in the game at the moment in my opinion. Needs a buff desperately.

With Basi, Treads, Hood/Vanguard, S&Y and at the very least a lvl6, you are insanely strong. The only time that set-up of items has let me down was against a Venge who didn't itemise as expected (ya know, utility-wise. force staff, etc). She went Deso. All that minus armour doesn't really agree with a hero who actually doesn't have that much to begin with. But then I got an AC and she was a non-issue again.

To be honest the only way I don't see BB being a threat is if he can't snowball out of his lane. And at lvl 4, you should (in my opinion) be able to dive the enemy tower and get a double kill with full mana and health. A rotation from your mid should ensure that much anyway.

I won't deny that he is a niche pick, but god damnit he is fun to play. If you can get away with it and enjoy going balls deep, highly recommend it.