Tips and Tricks for Counter Hero Dota 2: Bloodseeker

Bloodseeker is one of the most popular heroes in public matchmaking Dota 2. According to Dotabuff’s stats at the time of this article’s release, he is the fourth most popular hero in Dota 2 currently and most often played in the forest. Professional teams also occasionally use this hero by placing it on the lane.

For players who are not familiar, this hero may look very strong. So using the combination skills what he has, this hero seems guaranteed to succeed in killing you and you don’t run away at all. After that he became stronger and stronger until it seemed that he could not be defeated at all.

Although it is considered very strong by many players, especially players low-rank, Bloodseeker is a hero snowball which is very niche. It only fits in line up certain, and the momentum he needed also had an enormous limitation. In other words, you can ward off this hero easily.

1. Never Give Momentum to Snowball

Bloodseeker is a hero snowball which is highly dependent on momentum. As long as it manages to level up quickly, it can move to do gank to get kill. If he managed to do that a few times, he would become stronger and more difficult to handle.

Not only that, he is also a laner which is quite strong. Thanks to Bloodrage, he always has the upper hand in matters trading hits, making him almost always win when playing 1v1 against heroes melee, or even some less powerful ranged heroes.

Due to the above two reasons, it is not infrequently installed in mid, where he will play 1v1 and is guaranteed to level up quickly. If he has to play in side lane, he just needs support who can take good care of it.

However, that doesn’t mean it can’t be handled. There are many ways to prevent Bloodseeker from doing snowball. Since phase laning, you can dissipate Bloodseeker’s momentum by killing him and/or doing zoning solid. You can achieve this by installing lane matchup stronger, or by doing gank.

If you have to let it gain levels and farm, at least don’t give kill. Not only that, once he starts to gain a bit of momentum, turn off the momentum by killing him as soon as possible.

So left behind level and farm, Bloodseeker will be hard to get kill from gank or survive in team fight. From there he will find it difficult to gain momentum so he cannot contribute to his team. Moreover, he himself is also a type of hero mid game who can’t do farming quickly for comeback in late game.Also read: The Importance of Knowing and Adjusting to Lane Matchup

2. There are Many Ways to Prevent Rupture

One of the things that makes Bloodseeker terrible is when he uses Rupture in combination with Blood Rite. You seem helpless, because you want to move or not, you will still receive damage and Bloodseeker will chase and kill you. This combination is what Bloodseeker can do snowball or comeback.

Although it looks very powerful, there are many ways to overcome the combination of Rupture and Blood Rite. If you are a hero who tanky, damage from Rupture or Blood Rite you should be able to receive it without losing too much HP. Blade Mail even forced Bloodseeker to accept damage which he made from Rupture.

If you can’t accept damage Rupture, you can easily escape by using the TP Scroll immediately. If Bloodseeker is not assisted by a hero who has stun, he can only watch you finish the TP and just walk away.

Not only that, some heroes can also move places easily without having to accept damage from Rupture. Faceless Void, for example, can escape from the Blood Rite area using Time Walk. Because Time Walk gives invulnerability, Faceless Void does not accept damage of Rupture at all. The same rules apply to Storm Spirits with Ball Lightning, Ember Spirits with Fire Remnants, and Morphling with Waveforms.

3. As much as possible, never be in a condition Low HP

The source of Bloodseeker’s inner strength team fight, gank, and the chase is movement speed as well as damage which he obtained from Thirst. The more heroes that low, the bigger the bonus movement speed and damage which he got. You’ll have a hard time catching him, while he destroys your team with damage which he has.

When in team fight, as much as possible aim and kill the Bloodseeker as quickly as possible if you can find it. If you are forced to focus on a target other than Bloodseeker, make sure you finish off that target as quickly as possible without receiving too much damage, or make sure you or your team have a way to lock up Bloodseeker if he wants to step in and do follow up.

The same is true after gank or skirmish. If you and/or your team are too low and the surviving Bloodseekers are nowhere to be seen in minimap, be careful. If you still have “ammo” to deal with it, prepare it vision to catch him. If not, you should immediately return to the Fountain with the TP Scroll.

4. Bloodseeker Is Very Focused on Single-Target

Apart from the Blood Rite which could be easily dodged, damage Bloodseeker is very focused on one target. He still can’t handle two or more targets at once. Unless you get a bonus buff which is very large from Thirst, he also cannot finish off one target quickly to move to the next target.

You can easily exploit this deficiency in many ways. With good team coordination, you can kill him quickly without giving him a chance to earn damage serious.

But the most powerful way to exploit this weakness is by illusion. Heroes such as Chaos Knight, Phantom Lancer, Arc Warden, or Terrorblade can single-handedly deal with Bloodseekers who are confused about targeting while receiving damage. While he was frantically hitting the illusion, he continued to receive damage until it finally dies. Chaos Knight can even make it disappear with Reality Rift after doing a Phantasm.

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To finish the above explanation, let’s take one match The International 2021 as an example. I will take the Lower Bracket Final match between Team Liquid and LGD Forever Young (LFY).

On games first, Liquid played with the Bloodseeker used by Miracle. His role is as a frontline hero when his team performs team fight, while the Lone Druid could freely earn damage addition or do split push when needed.

Unfortunately, this plan did not go smoothly. Play in safe lane, he gets matchup the very bad one, namely the Lifestealer accompanied by the Lich. Although still able to keep pace throughout the early minutes, once LFY started doing gank, Miracle couldn’t get the momentum she needed and had to retreat into the forest to farm. Unfortunately his forest area was also frequently invaded and he still died several times.

As a result of falling too far behind, Liquid had to completely rely on split push and avoid team fight 5v5. The match was indeed exciting and Liquid could still maintain their very small chance of winning until the end. However one thing is clear, since unable to gain momentum in early game, Miracle that uses Bloodseeker has very little impact in the match.

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