Gameplay

Playstyle
Brewmaster is an unpredictable brawler who sows disarray among enemy formations. With the help of a Blink Dagger, he jumps in to initiate with Thunder Clap, then divides into three elemental beings with Primal Split. He lands critical hits and evades at random due to Drunken Brawler, while dealing critical damage. Brewmaster is fairly tanky, and difficult to kill when he splits apart with his ultimate ability. However, he does not excel at any one purpose, and should be considered a hybrid between initiator, ganker, and tank.
Pros	Cons
High survivability with Primal Split. Numerous disables with Primal Split. Counters carries, summons, and illusions to some extent. Great laning abilites.	Requires fast micromanagement. Shallow mana pool. No mobility abilities. Vulnerable to silence. Too reliant on Primal Split.

Offlane

In the offlane, Brewmaster should try to stay alive with defensive items. Drunken Brawler provides him with kind of an escape with evasion and movement speed buff. Also, Brewmaster can last hit with Drunken Brawler's critical damage. Later in the game, Brewmaster should initiate with Blink Dagger and controls as many enemies as he can with Primal Split. He can buy defensive items to ensure a good Primal Split and aura items to help allies during fights.

Mid

Brewmaster dominates the middle lane due to his tankiness and great abilities. With Bottle, he controls runes and has sustain to farm with Thunder Clap. Later on, he will also initiate with Blink Dagger and Primal Split. Unlike offlane Brewmaster, he has a choice between purchasing Aghanim's Scepter to further increase utilities of Primal Split, or damage items to transition into a carry with the help of Drunken Brawler, which gives critical chance. Either way, Brewmaster continues to threaten teamfights by removing and disabling many heroes at once, as well as dishing out tons of damage if controlled and itemized appropriately.

Ability Builds

Generic Brewmaster
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	20	25

Talents

Tips & Tactics

General

• With his numerous disables during Primal Split, Brewmaster is effective in shutting down physical damage carries.
• When playing Brewmaster, try to gain an advantage for your team early before enemy heroes, particularly before the enemy carry can build a Black King Bar, as Brewmaster's disables cannot penetrate spell immunity.
• If Brewmaster is being played more in the semi-carry role, consider using Primal Split as a life saver to keep yourself in the fight when you would normally die. The utility of the summoned brewlings works excellently for finishing off opponents as well as initiation.
• Brewmaster can choose to purchase Black King Bar and damage items to take advantage of Drunken Brawler if he wants to contribute during teamfights when Primal Split is on cooldown.
• Brewmaster commonly initiates with Blink Dagger, then Thunder Clap, followed by Primal Split. However, against enemies with disables, Brewmaster may want to cast Primal Split immediately after blink.

Abilities

Thunder Clap

• Thunder Clap is strong at the early stages of the game, acting as his area-of-effect soft disable. It is generally maxed out first due to its high damage.
• Blink next to an enemy and use Thunder Clap as an initiation ability, as it will slow their movement speed.
  • Keep in mind that it is not always ideal to use Thunder Clap during an initiation, as the cast time will allow enemies to disable Brewmaster. In such cases, it is better to use Primal Split right away.
• When going for the kill, Brewmaster can use Thunder Clap for magical damage and movement speed slow, giving him plenty of time to throws out many attacks.

Cinder Brew

• Combo Cinder Brew with Thunder Clap or other abilities from allies that deal spell damage to ignite the enemies, applying the damage over time debuff.
• While pursuing, use Cinder Brew on a path where the enemy hero will go to slow them down, preventing them from getting away easily.

Drunken Brawler

• In the laning stage, Drunken Brawler's critical damage can help Brewmaster secure difficult last hits; meanwhile, evasion can keep him in lane by avoiding a few physical attacks.
• Drunken Brawler also allows Brewmaster to harass the enemies in lane with critical hits and movement speed buff.
• Earth Stance allows Brewmaster to tank far more damage, gaining a hefty 21 Armor and 60% Magic Resistance while brewed up, or 28 and 80% with the +1x Drunken Brawler Brewed Up Multiplier talent, respectively.
• Storm Stance is very useful for chasing or escaping with it's movement speed and evasion buffs, especially when brewed up.
• If you anticipate getting struck by powerful disables such as Global Silence or Flaming Lasso, swapping to Void Stance ahead of time can vastly reduce their effect on you.

Primal Split

• Splits Brewmaster into three units: Earth, Storm, and Fire. (And Void with Aghanim's Shard)
  • When Primal Split ends, Brewmaster reappears at one of the three units' locations, in this order: Earth -> Storm -> Fire (➜ Void).
  • If all units die, Brewmaster dies.
• By default, use tab to quickly cycle through each unit and use their disables on as many enemies as possible.
• Use Primal Split sparingly, as it has an extremely long cooldown. Try to avoid using it to run away if at all possible.
• Queue Blink Dagger right before Primal Split ends to immediately blink to safety. This is useful if Brewmaster had low health prior to using Primal Split.
• All auras Brewmaster has are bestowed around the brewlings during Primal Split in this order: Earth, if Earth is dead, Storm, if Storm is also dead, Fire. Naturally, Brewmaster usually build aura items to help his teammates during Primal Split as he cannot use active items. Some examples of common aura items for Bremaster include Vladmir's Offering, Drum of Endurance, Shiva's Guard, Assault Cuirass, and Guardian Greaves.
  • A special mention goes to Radiance, which considerably increases Earth's damage output, while putting Brewmaster at little risk so long as he manages to use his ultimate ability. However, Brewmaster usually wants to fight well before he has gathered these expensive items.
• Brewmaster will need defensive items like Black King Bar to activate Primal Split if enemies possess many disabling abilities and items against its long cast point.
• Save enough mana for Primal Split as Brewmaster has a low mana pool.
• The level 25 talent grants the Drunken Brawler modifier to all brewlings, which grants them the passive evasion and critical strike based on its current level.

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• Consider what your team needs in the current situation before you summon your Brewling.
  • If you need a low-cooldown stun or some extra pushing power, Earth is a great choice with his Hurl Boulder and Demolish abilities.
  • Storm is an exceptional all-around choice, sporting a long-lasting hard disable with Cyclone, an AOE purge and illusion clearer with Dispel Magic, and an effective scouting/nuking ability in Wind Walk.
  • Fire can be useful if you need to beat down an enemy hero quickly or need to scout a particular area, with his high movement speed and Permanent Immolation.
  • Void is helpful if you need to slow or disarm several enemies at once, thanks to his Astral Pulse ability.
• Although the Brewling will be slowed and silenced when too far from Brewmaster, they will not be disarmed; a Brewling can still attack no matter how far away they are from Brewmaster.
• Try not to let the Brewling die, as this will increase the cooldown to 70 seconds, potentially leaving you without an extra companion at a critical moment.
• The +1200 Brewlings Health and Brewlings Gain Drunken Brawler Passive talents work with Primal Companion Brewlings.
• Summoning a Brewling while another Brewling is active will cause the first Brewling to die, but this will not result in the extended cooldown. If a Brewling is about to die, it's generally better just to resummon them before then.

Earth

• Earth is the tanky and disabling unit as it has high health and spell immunity, as well as a stun.
• Since Earth is the first on the respawn priority, it is usually the one Brewmaster reappears at when Primal Split finishes. Therefore, Earth must be kept alive above the other two units. So, watch the Primal Split's duration to plan for positioning of Earth toward the end.
• At only 5 seconds cooldown, Hurl Boulder provides a stun to lock down enemies.
• Through Demolish, attacks from Earth deal extra damage to buildings, which is great for pushing. Coordinate with your team by asking them to buff Earth's attack speed or to keep it alive during pushes.

Storm

• Storm is the disabling and nuking unit.
• Cyclone lasts 5 seconds (comparing to Eul's Scepter of Divinity 2.5 seconds) to give your team an advantage by removing a key enemy hero from fight.
• Unlike Eul's Scepter of Divinity, Cyclone does not deal damage at the end of the disable, allowing enemies to use Blink Dagger to escape.
• Dispel removes many of the buffs on the enemies and debuffs on allies.
  • It will also dispel Cyclone, releasing the disabled enemy hero. Use it after your team has finished dealing with other enemies.
• Use Dispel to apply massive area damage to enemy summons, particularly useful against Broodmother, Visage, Warlock, and the likes.
• Dispel also deals damage to illusions, clearing them quickly.
• Take advantage of Wind Walk's fade time to sneak an extra attack in, as it applies extra damage without breaking invisibility, similar to Shadow Walk.
  • Basically, after casting Wind Walk, attack quickly during the fade time for extra damage, then Storm will turn invisible while keeping the bonus damage buff.
• The invisibility and movement speed bonus of Wind Walk is a great escape tool if enemies somehow manage to kill Fire and Earth.

Fire

• Fire is the attacking unit.
• Fire moves much faster than Earth and Storm, and can keep up with enemies to burn them with his Permanent Immolation.
• However, Fire is also the most fragile of all three units, therefore should be controlled carefully if you want it alive to keep dealing damage.
  • Naturally, enemies will attempt to kill Fire first to easily cut off a chunk of damage from you so do not just rush in with Fire.
• You can use Fire to block retreating enemies since it has fast movement speed and can continue to burn them with Permanent Immolation.

Void

• Void is a disruptive unit with a combination of the other three's attributes.
• Astral Pulse can help deal with enemy physical carries who rely on autoattacks, such as Ursa.
• More tips needed.

Items

Starting items:

• Tango helps Brewmaster stay in lane by sustaining his health.

• Healing Salve restores large amount of health early on.

• Iron Branch gives cheap attributes and can upgrade to Magic Wand later.

Early game:

• Boots of Speed give movement speed.

• Regular Stick can upgrade to Magic Wand later.
• Soul Ring sustains Brewmaster with strength and health regeneration; the active grants mana to him on demand.

Mid game:

• Phase Boots aid his movement speed, staying close to the enemies to land more critical attacks during Drunken Brawler.

• Magic Wand gives him bonus attributes and a good source of healing.

• Blink Dagger allows Brewmaster to initiate, as well as improves his low mobility.

• Black King Bar increases survivability with strength and spell immunity so Brewmaster can actually attack enemies and slow them down prior to activating Primal Split.

• Hand of Midas allows Brewmaster to quickly accumulate gold and experience, working toward perfecting Primal Split.

Late game:

• Radiance gives him even more damage and aura that works even during Primal Split duration.

• Assault Cuirass makes Brewmaster even tankier with armor, allowing him to survive longer engagements and getting off Primal Split without needing to retreat. The aura also remains on each unit during Primal Split, boosting attack speed and armor to teammates as well; take note that the armor reduction half of the aura remains on the elemental units even though the aura icon does not appear on the enemy UI.

• Shiva's Guard gives him an additional movement speed slow aside from Thunder Clap, as well as more armor for survivability; take note that the aura remains on the elemental units even though the aura icon does not appear on the enemy UI.

Situational items:

• Bottle helps mid Brewmaster manage runes, as well as restore health and mana.

• Drum of Endurance is a good midgame item that grants you a decent amount of health and gives you a nice boost in movement speed.

• Vladmir's Offering gives him a small boost in regeneration and armor, as well as lifesteal upon every attack, which works well together with his critical damage, helping out his survivability; the aura remains active during Primal Split.

• Heaven's Halberd gives some strength, evasion and status resistance, along with the ability to disarm enemy attackers.

• Aeon Disk increases his survivability with status resistance, strong dispel, and incoming damage reduction, almost guaranteeing Primal Split going off.

• Lotus Orb provides mana, armor, and regeneration to sustain Brewmaster during fights. Echo Shell dispels debuffs from him so he can use Primal Split.

• Linken's Sphere grants some attributes and regeneration, as well as blocking one key single target disable that hinders the activation of Primal Split.

• Boots of Travel allows Brewmaster to jump in and initiate from across the map.

• Heart of Tarrasque increases Brewmaster's survivability with bonus strength, and the health regeneration works during Primal Split.