Footmen frenzy heroes: Cattle Bruiser

CattleBruiser's main purpose is to kill enemy Heros. Except for Contract of Death, all his spells damage a single target. The most important thing to remember when playing CattleBruiser is to keep his mana up and keep him out of danger.

Spells

Death Strike

Death Strike is a variation of the Death Knight's Death Coil spell. The spell is used to damage an enemy non-Undead unit, and is best used in combination with Cold Strike. It is advisable to learn this spell first due to its low mana cost. During the early part of the game, use Death Strike to finish off footmen with low health. As with Death Coil, Death Strike can also be used to heal an allied Undead Hero or unit, making CattleBruiser a part-time healer in some games.

Level	DMG / Heal	Range	Cooldown	Mana
1	100 HP / 200 HP	800	6 seconds	75
2	200 HP / 400 HP	825	6 seconds	75
3	300 HP / 600 HP	850	6 seconds	75
4	400 HP / 800 HP	875	7 seconds	100
5	550 HP / 1100 HP	900	8 seconds	100
6	750 HP / 1500 HP	925	9 seconds	125

Cold Strike

Cold Strike is just like Frost Nova without the Nova. The target will take damage from the spell and be slowed down for a short duration, but nearby units will be unaffected. When planning to use Cold Strike and Death Strike in succession, it is better to use Cold Strike first to slow down the enemy Hero. Cold Strike always has an 8 second cooldown.

Level	Damage	Range	Slow Duration (Hero/Unit)	Mana
1	175	800	2 / 4	125
2	250	825	3 / 6	125
3	325	850	4 / 8	125
4	400	875	5 / 10	125
5	475	900	6 / 12	125
6	750	950	8 / 16	150

Contract of Death

Contract of Death is a spell that sacrifices an Undead unit to heal CattleBruiser by an amount relative to the unit's hit points. This spell is generally only learned to level 3 because at that point you can use it on an Abomination and CattleBruiser will have maximum (or near maximum) hit points. Note that you will not make much use on this ability unless you tech Undead Tier.

Level	% Life to Life	Range
1	50	800
2	100	825
3	150	850
4	200	875
5	250	900
6	400	950

Camato Yannon

Camato Yannon deals more damage to a single target than any other spell in the game. This spell is best used to finish off a Hero with realtively high hit points. Due to the high mana cost and cooldown, you have to be careful when using this spell. An enemy Hero weakened by this spell could easily escape or another team could steal your kill. It must be therefore noted that in almost all cases this spell should only be used if it would kill a target Hero. Since Heroes have some natural immunity to spell damage, Camato Yannon only deals 70% of its advertised damage to them.

Level	Damage (Units)	Damage (Heros)	Range	Cooldown	Mana
1	1000	700	400	330 seconds	300
2	2000	1400	600	300 seconds	400
3	3000	2100	800	270 seconds	500

Strategy

CattleBruiser generally needs to use both Death Strike and Frost Nova back-to-back to score hero kills and Camato Yannon also requires a lot of mana. Unfortunately, CattleBruiser is a strength-based hero and therefore has low maximum mana and mana regeneration capabilities. Buying items that increase CattleBruiser's maximum mana and/or mana regeneration (such as Precept of Mana, Sobi Mask, or Robes of Magi) help counter this problem. It is not essential to tech Undead Tier, but is advisable if you want to to make use of Contract of Death.