Primary Attack: Bloodspike swings his axes one at a time dealing physical damage.

This is a really slow moving attack but it has a good range and reach making it easy to hit targets. Also can compensate on damage if used correctly.









Secondary Attack: Bloodspike hits enemies with his axe giving +8% damage for each enemy it hits for a short time with a maximum of 50 stacks.

So here's the big thing about bloodspike's damage. His primary attack won't do much damage, BUT when you hit a line of minions with his right mouse button you get +8% damage for each enemy you hit.

So if you normally do 70 damage with his primary attack, and if with the secondary attack you hit 6 enemies, you get a 48% damage boost dealing 103,6 damage
(70 dmg + 48% buff = 103,6 dmg)

And this works not only for his primary attack but for all of his abilities.

If you manage to hit the maximum of enemies with it (50 enemies/stacks) you can get a 400% damage boost.

So the calculation again hehe
(70 dmg + 400% buff = 350 dmg)

You could say bloodbath should be your main focus when playing bloodspike the more minions you hit with it, the more damage you do.

The downside of this ability is its cooldown which makes it a bit difficult to reach a full 50 stacks buff, as the stacks lasts only for a short time and starts draining over time bit by bit.

The strategy is to keep stacking up before the stacks run out to keep a high damage buff.









"Q" Ability: Bloodspike executes an enemy instantly, may he be a kobold runner, a fire elemental, or a troll and all the minions around it gets stunned. The executed minion drops a "Delicious Meal" which regenerates health.

This ability is mainly to instantly kill that last armored grizzly or any other powerful big minion. It can become really powerful if used with the "shock value" upgrade dealing lightning damage (which chains) on the stunned minions. Minions killed with lightning can explode dealing damage in a radius.

Unfortunately this ability can't kill mercenaries and bosses, but the stun still applies.










"E" Ability: Bloodspike throw both his axes forward that hits everything on it's path doing a high amount of damage.

If this ability is combined with stacks to buff the damage and with the right upgrades and traits, this ability can deal an absurd amount of damage.

Try to raise your damage with stacks and use this in a straight line of enemies to see a lot of yellow numbers.









"Left-Shift" Ability: This ability it's a powerup that makes bloodspike faster and more resistant for a short time. It raises his health, gives him a shield and raises by 50% his attack and movement speed.

This ability is good for tanking when you don't have much health it gives you an edge for dealing damage faster with primary attack or for escaping the battle for a brief time to heal.









Passive ability: When you kill an enemy with bloodspike, it has a chance to drop a "Delicious Meal" which gives bloodspike health regeneration.

If you want to tank as bloodspike, eating "Delicious Meals" is fundamental for tanking, especially if you get the "Finer Dining" upgrade. Getting those meals will help you a lot to stay alive and tank longer.

If you want to deal some more damage you should get the "Buzz Kill" upgrade which help you hit more enemies.

But if you are tanking for your team i suggest choosing the "Finer Dining" upgrade which will make meals drops more frequent to help you tank longer.

"Blood in Their Eyes" makes "Q" ability stun last a bit longer. I suggest you get one of the other two upgrades but this one can give you some crowd-control ability in addition to the other effects from Stunning Execution.






If you want to have more time to get more stacks to raise your damage before they start draining, get the "Sea of Blood" upgrade. It will help you raise your damage a little faster.

"Fortified Meals" can help you raise your max health by 4 for each "Delicious meals" you eat. It can give you a little survivability but it's more effective one late game.

"Sustained Frenzy" can make you stay faster and healthier When using "Left-Shift" a bit longer but there's not much more then to it that.






"Cheap Shot" can help a lot when trying to economize mana, since bloodspike can quickly run out of mana when using all of his abilities on after the other.

"Energy Snack" make a nice combination with "Left-Shift" speed boost. Can make you cover a large area of the map real quick.

"Extreme Execution" it's one the most useful upgrades bloodspike has. It can help you give more damage faster reducing it's cooldown.






The Last upgrades area all for damage boost, but with different approaches.

"Shock Value" makes "Q" +30 lightning damage in addition to the other effects. This upgraded deals a "lot" of damage to every minion in range, since it chains to other minions and makes them explode, which does more damage in an area.

"Serrated Edges" can be useful when you have an ally with crowd-control abilities like Ivy or Tundra. They can paralyze the minions while you make them take damage over time by bleeding.

"Devastating Assault" it's good for hitting enemies multiple times with bloodspike's "E" ability, every time you kill a large minion you can throw your axes at them again. Great when combined with "Q" ability.

Unfortunately bloodspike don't have a trap affinity.

Here you will find a few suggestions of which traps to take to a game to increase his damage and make him tank longer.

• Tar trap/Viscous tar - The longer you can make minions slower, the more time you have to damage them. Ivy's reach of the roots, and penetrating arrow as tundra's flash freeze and ice wall can help a lot in here.
  
  
• Temple Alarm Gong - Useful to use it after your kill box, to catch that escaping kobold runner.
  
  
• Big game hunting traps - Those traps can help a lot for that kobold mercenary disabling your traps, or that invisible swiftyhooves. Ask for one of your teammates to take at least one kind of this traps. I recommend the Big game hunting ballista or zapper.
  
  
• Shield powerup - If upgraded, it can make more resistant helping you tank longer taking less damage. It can be an addition to your loadout but i suggest it only if upgraded.
  
  
• Mana well - Now this trap can help you a lot. Bloodspike can run out of mana real quick so having a mana well can help you keep using your abilities.
  
  
• Healing well - Great if you focused on damage and don't have a healing hero in your party.
  
  
• Flip Trap/Floor scorcher - Can help your throw minions back in a corridor to delay them and take more damage from traps. Plus the floor scorcher does fire damage over time.

Those were a few useful traps to enhance bloodspike's usefulness in game.

As for damaging traps it's completely up to you.
You can use spike walls, grinder, floor spikes, what you like really there's not a exact recipe.

• You should always have a mana recovering item, like the mage's clover or mage's picnic.
  If you want to deal a lot of damage, you need a lot of mana.
  
  
• The second item can vary on what you might prefer, like vegetable of mending for healing or ring of storms for area damage.

• Rage potion - Will give you a damage boost for a time that if combined with stacks his attacks can slash through enemies easily.
  
  
• Health/Mana potions - Health potion for tanks and mana potion for damagers.
  
  
• Experience potion - Gets you 2 levels on use. It's great to get those upgrades fast. This potion will help your team a lot.
  
  
• Empty rift scroll - Great when you can't hold all the enemies and they get to the rift. With this scroll the minions don't count rift point, great for not losing that 5th star.

This part it's completely up to you but i would suggest you use some +damage/health/damage reduction traits like

• Buzz kill - to deal more damage after you kill a minion for 3s
  
  
• Feeling Fierce - to deal more damage when above 50% of health
  
  
• High pain tolerance - to take less damage
  
  
• Enjoys pain - to lifesteal and recover health

Finally to the point of the guide. How the hell do you play Bloodspike!?!?

I could say it's easy, but it's not, not really. Bloodspike is a difficult character especially for new players, but if you give him a chance you will see that he can be a great addition to your team. Bloodspike is great for dealing a lot a damage on a lot of enemies at once. But not so good to deal with a single target (except for the use of his "Q" ability).

Tier 4 (level 7) upgrades are all for damage so it's up to you to choose the one you like the most

To tank with bloodspike you should get the following upgrades
• Finer Dining
  
• Fortified meals (or sustained frenzy to make Left-Shift last longer which can help you tank)
  
• Energy Snack (or cheap shot to help you economize mana)
  
  
  To damage with bloodspike you should get the following upgrades
  
• Buzz kill (or blood in their eyes for some crowd-control effect on "Q")
  
• Sea of blood for more stacks
  
• Extreme execution for "Q" cooldown reduction
  
  Now how to play with him.
  
  You should always maximize your stacks with bloodbath may you focus on damage or tanking.
  Attack the enemies in front of you and keep an eye for the cooldown of his secondary ability,
  use it whenever you can.
  
  A good tip is to hit enemies that are in a straight line with bloodbath from the side like this.
  
  
  The Blue line show a corridor of barricades and tar traps
  The yellow circle show all the minions hit by the ability
  You can see the corridor marked on the minimap.
  
  This way you can hit a lot of enemies getting a lot of stacks and quickly raising your damage buff.
  
  
  Once you have enough stacks to buff your damage, you can make ability combinations like:
  
  
• Kill the strongest minion with "Q" stunning all others and using "E" to deal a lot of damage
  
  -Use "Left-shift" attack faster and then tank forward like crazy getting those stacks to raise your damage.
  
  
• You can use you "Left-shift" to raise your health and then enter a mob of enemies and use "Q" with Shock value upgrade and see everything explode in lightning.

There's a lot of cool combos you can make just use your creativity.
But keep an eye on your mana bar, you can run out before you know it.

Bloodspike can make a great team with

• Ivy - for stopping enemies, healing you and throwing enemies back delaying them.
  
  
• Tundra - for freezing enemies and creating ice walls leaving them completely for you to kill
  
  
• Midnight - to deal with a single large minion while you take on all the other ones.
  
  
• Dobbin - since bloodspike is focused on damage/tank dobbin is great for placing traps while you deal with the enemies and he can make enemies slower in an area.

Well, that's basically it. I hope you take this notes a thought and enjoy playing as bloodspike cleaving through masses of enemies.


P.S.: The last match i've played with bloodspike i've dealt 456 thousand damage. Cya'll!


~Reaper