Bubble Guide HoN

Bubble

Finaly the long awaited Puck port from DotA is here now, taking shape as an old and wise turtle. Being one of the most versatile heroes in DotA, with tons of interesting stuff to do with his skills he well deserved a port into HoN and S2 did a great job with that. He’s wide range of abilities makes Bubbles a good partner for almost any team lineup. He can Nuke, pseudo-blink, AOE Silence, AOE Stun and… Disappear :). Let us take a deeper look at his skills.

Skill Overview
Shell Surf – Bubble’s shell slides toward his opponents, damaging anyone it strikes in a 225 AOE for 70/140/210/280 Magic Damage. Bubbles may choose to teleport to his shell at any point in its journey.

Shell can travel a wooping 1800 range and if Bubbles will not teleport to it, it will return back to him. Enemy units will be affected only once by the orb, so no two times damage like Corrupted Disciples aura. This is his signature skill. He can use it for initiation (followed by silence or ulti, will wreak havoc in enemy’s lines), escaping (also into trees), scouting and ganking. Since the latest patch it will disjoint projectiles also!
Song of the Sea - Bubbles plays a resounding note on his conch, dealing 60/120/180/240 Magic damage and silencing any foes in a 400 AOE for 0.1/1/2/3 seconds.

Very good skill! Damages and silences in an AOE for a fair amount of time. Best used in combination with his Shell Surf. Can also be a very good tool for farming up stacked neutral camps.
Take Cover - Grants Bubbles invulnerability to ALL! damage for duration of channel (0.75/1.5/2.25/3). Can be toggled to auto-cast by right clicking. When set to auto-cast, this skill will automatically be used when he takes non-DOT damage, preventing that damage from being dealt. The automatic use will not trigger if Bubbles becomes stunned or silenced.

Skill is priceless for escaping from dangerous situations. It grants you invulnerability for 3 seconds, and if you can hold on for an extra 3 seconds the cool-down will be up again for another use. Skill is best used together with his Shell Surf. You Shell Surf, Take Cover then teleport to shell and hopefully to safety. Speed of shell is 600 units/second so you will have enough time to escape to the maximum of 1800 Shell Surf range.
Kelp Field – Arcane seaweed vines sprout from the ground, at a 750 range, latching onto enemy heroes in a 600 AOE.  All enemy heroes in the radius take 100/150/200 Magic damage and are stunned for 0.5 seconds instantly. Spell will last for 5 seconds and if they move more than 600 units away from the center of the effect, enemies will be stunned for 1.5/2.25/3 seconds and take an additional 100/150/200 Magic damage.

Nice AOE ultimate and the cherry on top for you combo. Initiate with Shell Surf, follow with Song of the Sea then use your ultimate. Enemies will have to stay put or will suffer the consequences of breaking the “coils”. And the duration is so nice… 5 seconds, which is enemy panics can be extended to 5+3=8 seconds.
Skill Build
1 Shell Surf (1)
2 Song of the Sea (1)
3 Shell Surf (2)
4 Song of the Sea (2)
5 Shell Surf (3)
6 Kelp Field (1)
7 Shell Surf (4)
8 Song of the Sea (3)
9 Song of the Sea (4)
10 Take Cover (1)
11 Kelp Field (2)
12 Take Cover (2)
13 Take Cover (3)
14 Take Cover (4)
15 Stats
16 Kelp Field (3)
17-25 Stats
Skill build is pretty straight-forward. You level up your nice nuke/probe/pseudo-teleport first, followed by Song of the Sea and intend to use it to use them in combination. They will require a lot of mana, that you will not have in the beginning so do not use them too often for farming purposes. Next in line is your escape skill, and this one should e maxed out also, because th extra ~2 seconds of invulnerability will often be the difference between life and death. Ultimate should be leveled as soon as available.
Item Recommendation
or at least
Bottle! He has squishy life and uses a lot of mana for his skills. So having a Bottle, or at least a Power Supply will help with that,

Steam Boots are your boots of choice. Keep them on INT. You do not need others because you have a means to travel quickly into Shell Surf.

Frostfield Plate is a must on Bubbles. You get a nice INT gain and a much needed armor. Also you will have to Rambo in use all your skills and try survive long enough for the team to follow. since the enemies are silenced for 3 seconds, you will have to worry more about manual DPS, which late game can be a lot. The slow and attack speed reduction will help you with that.

Mock of Brilliance is a nice way to boost your AOE DPS. It comes at a hefty cost, but defiantly worth item to have on Bubbles. It will also work when you are Taking Cover!

Nullstone is a nice item not so much because of the spell blocking (you have your silence, but it will definitely help you get away from ganks), but for stats and mana and health regeneration that it gives. Tablet of Command is a cost effective item for the extra INT it provides and additionally can be used for pushing enemies out of your ultimate, forcing the “coils” to break and so to get them stunned.
Other items to note: If you are doing really, really well you can go for a Frostwolf’s Skull. It will give you some nice stats and a slow.
Items not to get!

They may seem like a good idea but other items should take priority on Bubbles. You have a good INT gain and helped by your Power Supply/Bottle you will be fine without a Ring of Sorcery. Cooldown for your ultimate is 85 seconds which is fair enough, and will not justify a Restoration Stone. Bubbles can be played as support, but because of his skills he will be usually apart from his teammates, so Astrolabe is better to be bought by other support heroes.
Example of a Practical Build and Strategy
Starting Items: 2x Minor Totem, 1x Pretender’s Crown, 1x Mana Battery, 1x Health Potion
You have lot STR and use a lot of mana, so Mana Battery/Power Supply will help you replenish those. You also will aim for a Talisman of Exile to give you some INT and stats boost.
Early Game: Power Supply, Talisman of Exile, Steam Boots
Early game is all about farming, but by being ranged and having 2 nice nukes, you can harass and attempt a kill on an opponent easily. Just keep in mind that you are rather squishy so play it safe. Whenever you Shell Surf to an opponent, to maximize its potential, do it over the enemy creep wave and land in the BACK of your opponent. In this way if he wants to run to safety he will have to go around you, allowing you to land an additional 2-3 hits.
Mid game: 1x Mock of Brilliance or Frostfield Plate whichever suits the game first.

if you focus on more DPS or

if you need more survivability

Your role is as a ganker and initiator. You should always combo on your opponents: Use your Shell Surf from a distance, follow by silence and then Ultimate. If you have a Frostfield Plate use this one also. If your team will follow, you will most likely get and enemy and cripple some 2-3 other before they even put up a resistance. To speed up your farm, when attempting to take down a creep wave you can Shell Surf behind the mele creeps and use Song of the Sea to finish them off. $$
Late Game: Mock of Brilliance or Frostfield Plate both finished followed in extreme by a Frost Wolf’s Skull

Both

and

maybe followed by a

Your role remains pretty the same as in Mid game, shifting more towards a supporting disabler, because now you have to be more careful about your Rambo technique. If enemy has 2 caries, they will be able to DPS-u down rather quickly, even if they are shortly (0.5 sec) stunned and silenced.
Nice work from S2 adding to the ranks one of the most versatile hero in DotA.