Centaur Warrunner/Guide

Hero

 

Strategy

 

Counters

 

Equipment

 

Gear

 

Talents

 

Relics

 

Responses

 

Sounds

 

Lore

 

Old Abilities

 

Changelogs

 

Known Bugs

 

Gameplay

Playstyle
Centaur Warrunner is an aggressive tank who excels when he is placed in the middle of fights. He reflects damage with Retaliate, while stunning and attacking the area around him with Hoof Stomp and Double Edge. Unlike other tanks, Centaur Warrunner may sacrifice some HP in exchange for damage output, and may have a hard time recovering if the early game does not go well.
Pros	Cons
Tanky early game to late game. Can be useful to the team without large amounts of gold/items, but also benefits greatly from any gold he can get. Good at ganking. His highest strength gain in the whole game makes him a hero with the most HP without any buffs or items. Good initiation with Hoof Stomp and Stampede. Counters DPS carries.	Countered by lifesteal. Low mana. Low damage in the late game. Vulnerable to enemy abilities which remove a percentage of health.

Ability Builds

Generic Centaur Warrunner
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	20	25

Talents

Hero Talents
+1s Hoof Stomp Duration	25	Gains Retaliate Aura
-20s Stampede Cooldown	20	+50 Retaliate Damage
+40% Double Edge Strength Damage	15	+1s Stampede Duration
+15 Movement Speed	10	+5 Health Regen

Tips & Tactics

General

• Centaur Warrunner is usually played solo in the offlane. However, with a support who has hard disables (such as Earthshaker or Lion) he can dominate the enemy safelane and potentially get several kills.
• Centaur Warrunner can also jungle if the lane is going badly.
• Centaur's actual damage is average at best in the early game, with slow attack speed and only one damaging ability that hurts himself as well. However, Retaliate can do crippling damage to the enemy team if they choose to heavily harass him.
• Centaur Warrunner's late-game damage is dependent upon how much strength he has with items like Heart of Tarrasque.
• Retaliate does not reflect damage on missed attacks. Keep this in mind when choosing talents and items. It may be worth it to take hits if the enemy team is highly magical, or relies on fast attacks instead of powerful attacks.

Abilities

Hoof Stomp

• With a Blink Dagger, Hoof Stomp can be used as an initiation ability.
• When trying to land Hoof Stomp on fleeing enemies, get in front of their path if possible. Most opponents will outrun the stun during the cast time if they are already on the edge of the radius.
• Hoof Stomp has a long cast animation so the enemies will have time to react.
  • However, Hoof Stomp's cast animation does not play during the first few seconds of Stampede, allowing Centaur Warruner to surprise the enemies.

Double Edge

• Centaur cannot deny himself with Double Edge.
• As Double Edge affects all enemies in a small radius around the target, it is very effective when taking on tight clusters of enemies. This includes jungle creeps, lane creeps, large amounts of enemy illusions, or multiple melee heroes trying to gang up on you.
• Be careful when using Double Edge early game when you have not purchased Hood of Defiance or Tranquil Boots to reduce self-inflicted damage and heal you back up.
• Using Double Edge against enemies with high magic resistance, such as Anti-Mage, is not recommended, as it ends up hurting you more than it hurts the enemy.

Retaliate

• Retaliate is a powerful ability and not to be underestimated. Although its most notable effect is greatly increasing damage against enemies who try to kill Centaur in the late game, even at lower levels it can completely shut down heroes with high damage and low health.
• To force a tower to attack Centaur Warrunner instead of creeps in order to utilize Retaliate, stand within tower attack range and issue an attack command upon an enemy hero, even one in another lane. This trick also works to aggro lane creeps in order to push.

Stampede

• Stampede's effect is global. Keep an eye on allies and enemies across the map to use it when needed.
• Stampede can be used offensively to allow you and your team to quickly initiate a teamfight, or chase down enemies trying to run away.
• Stampede can be used defensively to help allies escape a bad situation.
• Stampede only affects enemies once for a relatively short duration, so in larger fights the skill may go totally awry. This means the initiation must be careful and planned, with a chosen initiator, as with other fights (more than not, possibly Centaur himself).
• Allied heroes should try to trample over every enemy hero to deal large amount of damage off of Centaur Warrunner's high strength.

Items

Starting items:

• Tango increases your survivability in lane with health regeneration.
• Healing Salve also restores health.
• Iron Branch gives cheap attributes and builds into Magic Wand; alternatively, it can be used with Tango for more healing.
• Enchanted Mango provides health regeneration and compensates for Centaur's low mana pool during laning stage.

Early game:

• Magic Stick can increase your survivability in lane, and can be later turned into a Magic Wand.
• Tranquil Boots gives big movement speed boost and health regeneration, which help to recover from the Double Edge self-damage.
• Bracer grants a little attribute and magic resistance boost, thus compensating for the Double Edge health cost.

Mid game:

• Magic Wand gives attributes and more burst health and mana restoration.
• Blink Dagger is essential to initiating with Hoof Stomp. It is a necessary item if your team has no other heroes that can initiate well.
• Hood of Defiance grants health regeneration and magic resistance to reduce the self-inflicted Double Edge damage.

Late game:

• Heart of Tarrasque grants extra survivability from the bonus health and regeneration, and the strength also increases damage done by attacks, Double Edge, and Stampede. The massive health regeneration also allows for the near-constant use of Double Edge without needing to heal.
• Pipe of Insight helps to sustain a lot of magical damage in team fights (particularly, to protect teammates from magical nukes) as well as to reduce the Double Edge health cost.

Situational items:

• Phase Boots are an alternative boot choice for better initiation and tankiness during early game.
• Aghanim's Scepter allows Centaur's team, being under the effect of Stampede, to go through impassable terrain when ganking or escaping from ganks. Besides, Stampede damage reduction is a great benefit if the team is vulnerable to high burst damage; it helps to set up a better team fight and survive through it.
• Vanguard is a good purchase if dealing with a lot of physical attack damage. It can be naturally upgraded to Crimson Guard for more team survivability or to Abyssal Blade for additional reliable disabling.
• Assault Cuirass provides Centaur's team with extra armor and attack speed as well as allows dealing more Retaliate damage to enemies (particularly, to towers).
• Blade Mail's damage reflect stacks with Retaliate, making Centaur an even less appetizing target. However, enemies will probably already be focusing on your teammates in fights rather than you.
• Heaven's Halberd grants strength, and also the ability to disarm enemies, which can be useful in the late game when Centaur's damage falls off.
• Black King Bar may be necessary to guarantee initiations on disable-heavy teams.
• Lotus Orb grants mana and armor, while the active can purge crippling debuffs and decimate enemies that carelessly target Centaur.
• Vladmir's Offering provides armor, mana regeneration, and lifesteal to complement Retaliate. Typically played as an offlaner and appreciated for his tankiness, Centaur is a decent aura bearer.