As someone who plays alot of Bristleback, Viper is the most painful to play against. Getting stunned into his w just kills you if you’re not snowballing. Silver edge carriers are effective but if you outlast the purge – it’s not hard to deal with. Viper’s W plus a stun or hold absolutely shreds you. Viper + Shaman combo is deadly against Bristles.
Core silencer is probably the second hardest for me to deal with, the pure damage and the inability to cast spells without refreshing curse is really difficult to play against.
As a Bristle against a Silencer it’s advisable to get a lotus orb – to dispel.
Besides for the two heroes, spirit vessel is good, long disables (shadow shaman) As well as people who force you to face them (legion, axe)
Also fighting against any six slotted hc seems impossible, a six slotted bristle gets melted by a six slotted am or void or drow.
Slark is another hard counter – but you need to snowball pretty quickly and survive the laning phase to be effective. I’d recommend playing a few games as bristle and see how the enemy team deals with you, then do so yourself next time you face him. I know for me Riki seemed unbeatable until I played as him and got sentried and dusted into oblivion, doesn’t scare me at all anymore.
Buy a fast wand and prepare salves. When BB spams quill spray, he is either a) over-extending just to refresh the debuff b) Low on mana. If he doesn’t kill you when he starts spamming quill, he will lose out because you will have a 20 charge wand and full health( from salves). Once you have full hp, go and trade with him to force him to spend gold on regen. Item progression on BB is quite important as his mid-game is quite weak if he doesn’t have the tank items. He also can’t spam quill to farm waves because of mana issues so his farming isn’t great and he has pretty bad stat growth for a strength hero.
In team fights, your team shouldn’t be committing spells/ over-committing to kill him unless he over-extends by a lot. Quill takes quite a few casts for it to start to hurt so you should just go completely ignore him go for his team. He is a tanky af hero but he can’t 1v5. The best thing to do is ignore him. Bristleback wants to be hit and if you hit him even if he dies he still does his job. You waste your time not killing his supports or his carry and you’re getting quilled the whole time. Just ignore him and focus the rest of his team. When his team dies 5v1 him and kill him last.
Heroes that are good against him would be:
- Lion( Mana drain, Stuns for repositioning),
- Nyx (Mana burn, Stuns for repositioning),
- Axe( Call, spin),
- Viper (Magic resist shred + Break),
- Legion Commander( PTA purge, duel),
- Lifestealer,
- Ursa,
- Ancient Apparition (ulti)
If you follow any of the above tips – Bristleback will be the least of your worries.
F(AWXM) 