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Many hands make light work.
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Bad against...
- Mana Break is very effective against Tusk, as he has a very low mana pool.
- Blink allows Anti-Mage to escape from an incoming Snowball.
- Counterspell can reflect the Snowball back onto Tusk.
- Sticky Napalm makes it difficult for Tusk to hold his own on lane.
- An ill-timed and ill-positioned Snowball will give Batrider a free counter-initiation with Flaming Lasso if Batrider is far enough to avoid the stun from the Snowball.
- Glimpse can return Tusk to where he was after using Snowball.
- Static Storm prevents Tusk from escaping with Snowball and when upgraded with Aghanim's Scepter, it will also prevent him from using items.
- Boulder Smash can return Tusk after his initiation.
- Geomagnetic Grip prevents Tusk from using Snowball to escape.
- Echo Slam is good against Snowball since it bunches everyone up. This can set up some prime opportunities for Blink Echo Slams.
- Doppelganger allows Phantom Lancer to dodge an incoming snowball.
- Phantom Lancer usually buys a Diffusal Blade, which is very effective against Tusk's low mana pool.
- Phantom Lancer usually buys Manta Style which can also dodge an incoming snowball, much like Doppelganger.
- Static Link drains Tusk's base damage, and it also reduces the critical damage output from Walrus PUNCH!.
- Plasma Field and Eye of the Storm allow Razor to chase Tusk after he uses Snowball.
- After using Snowball, Tusk can't control where he's going, allowing Techies to make him roll onto mines.
Others
- Escaping abilities can dodge incoming Snowball and Ice Shards such as: Leap, Blink, Pounce, Blink Strike, Tree Dance, Ball Lightning, Spectral Dagger and etc.
- Durable heroes can stand against Tusk during 1v1: Axe, Dragon Knight, Night Stalker, Centaur Warrunner, Wraith King and more.
Items
- Force Staff can push heroes over Ice Shards and incoming Snowball.
- Lotus Orb can reflect Snowball back at Tusk if he impulsively uses it on a hero affected by it by creating a second Snowball that will go back at Tusk.
- Blade Mail will return the physical critical damage of Walrus PUNCH! back at Tusk if he uses it on a hero affected by it.
- Manta Style if timed properly, can completely negate the stun and damage of Snowball.
Good against...
- Bane has low mobility and health, making him an easy target for Walrus PUNCH!
- Walrus PUNCH! can be used to cancel Fiend's Grip if he is not the target.
- Snowball negates Rupture and protects Tusk allies when Ruptured.
- Crystal Maiden's low health and armor make her an easy target for Walrus PUNCH!
- Tusk's Snowball can protect allies and cancel Freezing Field.
- Snowball and Walrus PUNCH! can interrupt Freezing Field.
- Walrus PUNCH! makes Legion Commander lose Duel easily, especially when she doesn't have Blade Mail. Tusk can also snowball dueled allies, preventing them from taking damage for a large portion of the duel's duration.
- Pugna's low health and reliance on channeled abilities make him very vulnerable to Tusk, although Pugna can win in a straight up 1v1 later in the game.
- Shadow Fiend's lack of mobility and low base health make him an easy target for early ganks.
- Tusk alone or with his teammates can close Sniper's long range easily with Snowball, even wasting Shrapnel, ending with a very vulnerable Sniper.
- Walrus PUNCH!'s very high physical damage output can easily kill Sniper instantly due to his low health and armor.
- Snowball can be used to save allies or himself during Venomous Gale and Poison Nova.
- Venomancer lacks mobility and has low base health, so he can be killed by Walrus PUNCH!
- Viper Strike can be countered through Snowball, wasting Viper's mana through his ultimate. It's Viper Strike's break is also useless because he has no passive abilties at all. And to make things worse, Viper Strike cannot disable Walrus PUNCH! because it's an auto-cast ability
- As Tusk is a natural Silver Edge wielder, he can use it to disable Viper's magic resistance from Corrosive Skin, and make him vulnreable to his other allies.
- Tag Team easily overwhelms Pudge, as he has low armor, which when combined with heroes with strong physical damage and Pudge's slow speed, it becomes for Pudge difficult to escape.
- Snowball can save a Dismembered ally and stop Pudge's Dismember.
- Walrus PUNCH! will removes a big chunk of Pudge's health and stun him.
- Pudge usually can't stand toe to toe against Tusk and his allies in the early game.
- Tusk can Walrus Kick Monkey King from Wukong's Command, making his ultimate useless.
Others
- Heroes that have channeled and teleportation abilities will be in a huge disadvanted against Tusk as they can be easily interrupted with through Ice Shards, Snowball, Walrus Kick and Walrus PUNCH! even through spell immunity: Black Hole, Upheaval, Fiend's Grip.
- Heroes that have low base health, armor and mobility can easily be killed by Walrus PUNCH!.
Items
- Linken's Sphere cannot block neither Snowball nor Walrus PUNCH!, especially since Walrus PUNCH! is an auto-cast ability. It can only block Walrus Kick from Aghanim's Scepter
- Silver Edge's break cannot disable Walrus PUNCH! as Walrus PUNCH! is an auto-cast ability.
Works well with...
- Tusk can put Omniknight inside of a Snowball which synergizes well with him.
- Purification and Repel prevent Tusk from dying easily against the enemy's retaliation.
- Snowball makes it easier to put enemies within Degen Aura's radius, making escape harder.
- Snowballing with Axe could help him line up his Berserker's Call while the enemies are stunned by your Snowball.
- Ice Shards can trap an enemy for a full-duration of Blade Fury. It works especially well during the early game when heroes have relatively low hit points.
- Using Snowball to gank an enemy for free Duel damage is really easy with your Walrus PUNCH! and Ice Shards' high burst damage.
- Snowballing towards an enemy while Lifestealer has infested you could result in an easy kill with your Walrus PUNCH! and Infest's burst damage followed by Lifestealer's attacks.
- You also can trap your enemies with Ice Shards to make them unable to escape from Lifestealer's attacks.
- Snowballing into the enemy with Tidehunter could help him easily setup his Ravage.
- If executed well snowballing into the enemy with Tiny can do easy combo with Toss and Avalanche trapping with Ice Shards and a Walrus PUNCH! to finish it off.
- Initiating with Snowball with the Meepos, who can easily trap enemies into Earthbind, followed by tons of pure burst damage of Poof.
Others
- Timbersaw's Chakram and Tag Team slows stack, resulting in effective reduction of enemy movement speed.
- Bloodseeker's Rupture works well with Walrus Kick. Even when Tusk doesn't have Aghanim's Scepter, his Walrus PUNCH! can stop Ruptured enemy heroes from teleporting away.
Items
- Blink Dagger's damage cooldown of 3 seconds will pass without fail as Snowball protects users from enemy damage.
- Shiva's Guard synergizes with Tag Team to further slow enemies movement and attack speed into team fights for more annoyance and more chances for your entire team to escape for bad situations.
