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Butcher Build: Fresh Meat

by - 9 years ago

The Butcher is the newest hero added from the iconic Diablo series. In Heroes of the Storm he’s a high damage front line melee assassin who has a little bit of squish to him. The Butcher is a character that must be played carefully early so that he can leverage his fresh meat stacks for early kills. Newer players may struggle with the skill cap needed to play the butcher but patient players who like to get into the thick of things will feel right at home.

Abilities

Fresh Meat(Trait) Fresh Meat is what allows The Butcher to have such strong dueling potential and a big presence in team fights. It is vital that you do not die early because losing all the meat stacks is a big set back. Having full stacks really ups the damage so do your best to keep them.

Hamstring(Q) Hamstring is a nice tool in the Butchers kit. The early talent choices buff it into his best poking tool. Hamstring is also great for isolating targets into being too slow to escape The Butchers auto attacks.

Butchers Brand (W) This does a small amount of damage but the main thing about this ability is the rapid regen. Using this 1v1 makes The Butcher almost impossible to take down when he has full meat stacks. During a team fight make sure to use this on a target that is stuck in CC when you need to top off The Butcher’s health. Keep in mind this can also be used on minions to restore health without needing to hearth.

Ruthless Onslaught(E) A great ability that does decent damage with a hard stun. This is the tool that allows you to wait in the bushes for a good opportunity to carve up the enemy. Coming into a team fight a few moments after the action has started with this and a channeling furnace blast can devastate the enemy team. REMEMBER if a Ruthless Onslaught is going to put you in a terrible position after you’ve already hit the button it can be canceled with another press of E.

Heroic Abilities

Lamb to the Slaughter(R) A good ability that allows your team to focus priority targets that have good escape mechanics. I will take this if the enemy team has a particularly good player who is running a gathering power build on someone like Nova, Zeratul, or Falstad. These heroes can be problematic once they get going due to their strong burst and solid escape mechanics. Lamb will allow you to keep them from running away once they poke their heads out and hopefully kill them to reset their Gathering Power stacks.

Furnace Blast(R) The heroic of choice in my book. The amount of damage this thing does is crazy good. Furnace Blast takes some practice getting used to timing the channel in conjunction with Ruthless Onslaught. Try to get it down so that Furnace Blast triggers as soon as the stun from E hits and go to town with auto attacks.

The Build

Level 1

Invigoration-I love the utility of this talent because Hamstring is an amazing ability.  Abusing hamstring becomes possible with this as long as you are hitting the heroes. With half the mana cost and a 3 second cooldown Hamstring can be used to but constant harass on the enemies. If you are having trouble surviving with The Butcher Victuals is a strong choice here.

Level 4

Flail Axe-The only talent I really like at this level. Hamstring becomes much more effective with this increased range giving The Butcher options that don’t always involve being all up in the enemies business.

Level 7

Abattoir-This talent is amazing for The Butcher! The max damage increase to 35% is so huge and rewards player for playing The Butcher safe. Keeping those stacks becomes even more vital with an extra 10% damage but if you happen to die you will keep half of your fresh meat. Not much else on this level matches Abattoir in my opinion.

Level 10

Furnace Blast-see heroic abilities section

Level 13

Crave Flesh-This give The Butcher more mobility which is something he severely lacks. I like to take this and use it as both a chase down or escape mechanic. If you find that Crave Flesh isn’t something that you need Spell Shield can be nice for survivability.

Level 16

Blood Frenzy-This ability is insane if you have kept the fresh meat stacks up. A possible constant 35% increase to attack speed is insane especially when combined the Butchers Brand regen. If the enemy has a lot of hard CC that you find yourself the focus of quite often then Enraged is the better option here.

Level 20

Bolt of the Storm-It’s Bolt of the Storm and it’s amazing. Mobility is something The Butcher lacks and this can allow him to make plays or escape from danger. Since I feel he needs this more than most I rarely consider the other choices at 20.

The Strategy

Early game with The Butcher is staying alive while collecting meat stacks. Look for opportunities to roam to other lanes and punish people who over extend. Catching somebody sticking their neck out too far allows for a quick Ruthless Onslaught and application of your cleaver. Mainly though just stay alive and look to make plays.

Mid to late game is more of the same except now you should be looking to punish people who get caught of by your team. The Butcher is amazing when he has great CC around him and can focus on systematically taking enemies out of the equation. Staying alive is still important but don’t be afraid to die if it means you will get a 2 or 3 for 1 trade. Your damage is insane and can really take a squishy out if you surprise them. Playing out of the bush or running into fights slightly late can be beneficial if your team knows that’s what you will be doing. The ability to blow up the highest priority target is what The Butcher is good at and what a player who uses him should be looking to do.

I hope you were able to learn something from this guide and enjoyed reading it. As always any comments or feedback is much appreciated and can be left below. Thank you for reading and look for another build next week right here at BlizzPro!


JR Cook

JR has been writing for fan sites since 2000 and has been involved with Blizzard Exclusive fansites since 2003. JR was also a co-host for 6 years on the Hearthstone podcast Well Met! He helped co-found BlizzPro in 2013.


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