Dota 2 Batrider is one of the strongest initiators in Dota 2. He’s also one of the toughest heroes to lane against. His abilities make him a constant threat, and you can easily die if you’re not careful.
At the community level, few people know how to succeed with Batrider, which is why the hero has such a low win rate. But at the professional level, lots of teams are either picking or banning him because they understand just how strong he can be.
If you’re interested in learning more about the hero, this Batrider Dota 2 guide will give you a strong foundation for how to play and gain MMR with him.
Batrider’s Pros and Cons
These are the pros and cons of playing as Batrider in Dota 2.
Pros:
- He has a very strong laning phase
- His survivability is high
- Provides excellent single-target control
- He has high mobility
- He creates massive mobility problems for the enemy team
Cons:
- He needs farm to be effective
- His right-click damage is poor
- In the late game, some of his abilities are weak
- His attack range is poor
- He is highly dependent on good teamwork
Lore
Batrider comes from the Yama Raskav Jungle. It’s a dangerous place, full of wild beasts that could easily kill you. Rider was swept up one day by a massive mode-bat. But instead of dying, he managed to wriggle his way onto his back and became fascinated with riding the creature.
In the coming years, he continued to perfect his bat-riding abilities until he turned into a master who was ready to plunge into the scary caves of the Yama Raskav Jungle.
Attributes and Stats
These are Batrider’s general stats:
| Win Rate | 45.3% |
| Level | 1 – 30 |
| Health | 704 (at level 1) |
| Health regeneration | 1.75 |
| Mana | 405 (at level 1) |
| Mana regeneration | 0 |
| DMG | 39 – 43 |
| Armor | 4.4 |
| DMG Block | none |
| Magic Resistance | 25% |
| Status Resistance | 0% |
| Attack Rate | 1.7 |
| Movement Speed | 310 |
| Attack Range | 400 |
| Attack Animation | 0.3 + 0.54 |
| Projectile Speed | 900 |
| Attack Speed | 115 |
| Turn Rate | 0.9 |
| Collision Size | 24 |
| Vision Range | 1600 / 800 |
| Gib Type | – |
Ability Upgrades:
Batrider’s abilities are upgraded by his 8 talents.
- Level 10 talents: +50 Flamebreak knockback / +50 Sticky Napalm radius
- Level 15 talents: -10s Flaming Lasso cooldown / +20 movement speed
- Level 20 talents: 2 Flamebreak charges / +4.5s Firefly duration
- Level 25 talents: Flamebreak applies 2 Sticky Napalm charges / +10 Sticky Napalm damage
Roles Batrider Can Take On
Batrider is a natural initiator, which means that he’s ideal for the Offlane role. However, many people like to play him Mid, either because they want to give the enemy midlaner a bad start or to farm their Boots of Travel and Blink Dagger as fast as possible.
From time to time, Batrider is also played in the position 4 role, but he’s not a natural roamer. This hero needs 8-10 levels to start being effective and around 6000 networth. After that point, he’s really hard to play against. But only as long as he peaks fast enough to not allow his opponents to buy powerful items.
Batrider Item Builds
You should consider buying these most critical items when playing Batrider. On occasion, you might want to change your build to adapt to the situation, but in most games, the items listed below will be part of your progression.
Early Game
For the early game, consider buying these items:
- Magic Wand
- Mangoes
- Boots of Travel
- Wind Lace
- Bottle
Mid Game
During the mid-game, you will usually purchase several of these items:
- Blink Dagger
- Aghanim’s Shard
- Aether Lens
- Black King Bar
- Force Staff
Late Game
In the late game, this hero thrives if you have one of these items:
- Aghanim’s Scepter
- Octarine Core
Abilities
Batrider has 4 abilities that can be further enhanced by his talents and the items you buy. These abilities are presented below:
Sticky Napalm
Sticky Napalm applies a stackable debuff on the enemy. This debuff lasts for 6 seconds and increases Batrider’s damage from all sources (except items) by 6 – 24. The target is also slowed by 2% – 8% and has a slower turn rate (10 – 70%). Usually, enemies will back down after suffering from 3 or 4 Sticky Napalm stacks.
Mana cost: 20
Cooldown: 3s
Flamebreak
This AoE ability allows Batrider to both damage and knock back enemies. The impact damage is 30 – 120. The target also burns for 2s – 8s, suffering 15 damage per second.
This ability is excellent for situations in which the enemy attempts to escape. Or, if you want to escape yourself, you can easily knock players back and either blink or teleport away.
Mana cost: 110 – 125
Cooldown: 18s – 15s
Firefly
This is one of Batrider’s best abilities. It allows him to fly and completely ignore all terrain obstacles. During his flight, which lasts for 15 seconds, Batrider gains 3% – 12% movement speed and 50 – 200 vision. He also leaves a trail that deals 20 – 65 damage per second. Because of this, Firefly is an excellent farming ability.
Mana cost: 125
Cooldown: 52s – 34s
Flaming Lasso
Flaming Lasso is Batrider’s ultimate ability and deals 35 – 75 damage per second. The main utility of this skill is to immobilize enemy heroes and drag them out of position. It allows you to separate a key target from the rest of the team and give your teammates the opportunity to kill it at the start of the fight.
Mana cost: 150 – 200
Cooldown: 120s – 110s
Ability Build Guide
When you play Batrider in Dota 2, you should try to follow this ability build order:
- Sticky Napals: levels 1, 3, 5, 7
- Flamebreak: levels 8, 11, 13, 14
- Firefly: levels 2, 4, 9, 10
- Flaming Lasso: levels 6, 12, 18
If you want to farm faster and don’t care much about fighting, you should prioritize Firefly a bit more because it’s your main source of damage when it comes to jungling.
Combo
When playing Batrider, your primary combo consists of casting Firefly, blinking in, lassoing an enemy hero, and then dragging him away from his team. In the end, you should also use Flamebreak and Sticky Napalm to disrupt his position and mobility even more.
If you can, make sure you cast Sticky Napalm at the start of the fight to prevent him from blinking away.
Another important combo is to use Sticky Napalm 4 or 5 times and then utilize Firefly. This combination is guaranteed to get you kills in most cases and can also be used to easily farm jungle stacks.
Game Plan
This is what good Batrider players do in terms of tactics and strategy.
Early Game
In the early game, the goal is to farm and be as annoying as possible. This hero does not need to be cautious in the laning stage. He’s the exact opposite. You have the ability to be aggressive starting from level 3. This means you only need a few minutes to buy some mobility items and level up Sticky Napalm and Firefly.
After that, you should be putting constant pressure on your opponents. One thing to keep in mind when playing Batrider is that the hero’s natural health regen is high. With just several more Mangoes, you can give yourself amazing health regen, which in turn should allow you to trade hits with your opponents.
They will not be able to recover as fast as you will, which means that even if the trade is not advantageous, you’ll still be the winner given enough time.
Mid Game
During the mid-game, you will be the main initiator on your team. Your primary objective should be to stay around the rest of your team and be ready to start a fight. By now you should have a Blink Dagger and ideally, a pair of BoTs. You can join the fight from anywhere and make a big difference if you have both items.
Remember that Batrider is not the kind of hero you want to use to right-click enemies or even creeps. He’s really bad at it. Instead, just use your abilities, seek to compromise the position of your enemies, and stay alive for as long as you can. If you get focused down and killed, make it expensive for the other team.
Always use your abilities before dying, even if they provide small benefits to your team. There’s no point in holding anything back. One thing to avoid is initiations while the rest of your team is out of position and cannot take advantage of the opportunity you’ve created. Always try to coordinate with the rest of your teammates.
Late Game
If the game is longer than 35-40 minutes, try to itemize in a way that allows you to impact your team’s success with more than just your Lasso. Because it won’t be enough for you to drag an enemy out of position at this point. In some cases, building a Shiva’s Guard or a Scythe of Vyse might be the solution.
One of the weaknesses of Batrider comes from the fact that most of his utility comes from his abilities, but most of those abilities can be dispelled and do absolutely nothing against BKBs. Your strategy should always be to win the game in the first 30 minutes.
Counters
Batrider is naturally countered by heroes that can keep track of his movements or are illusion-based. These heroes will compromise your ability to surprise enemies and select the right target to Lasso. For example, Phantom Lancer is not a hero you want to play against. Puck and blinking heroes in general, are also great against Batrider.
Advantageous Matchups
For Batrider, an advantageous matchup is one against a hero with poor mobility and no escape mechanism. For example, if you play against a Templar Assassin, you’ll have a huge advantage.
Most Used Skins
There are numerous Dota 2 skins that you can use when playing Batrider. Three of the best ones are presented below:
Apex Explorer
This Batrider set turns his bat into an owl and looks absolutely fantastic.
Empiric Incendiary
This is another great Dota 2 skin that makes Batrider feel like he’s a character from an Edgar Allan Poe story.
Night Terrors
If you love ghost themes, this Night Terrors will make Batrider a lot more appealing. Because this Dota 2 set turns his bat into a ghost.
