LogFAQs > #962345045

Apologies for the slowness, but this one's fitting for the weather outside.

105 - Tusk (melee Strength)
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/1/8/1/AAAACbAAC4nV.jpg
Basic Abilities: Ice Shards, Snowball, Tag Team, Walrus Punch
Shard Ability: Upgrades Ice Shards to extend the edges of the "u" shape it spawns and pulse damage inside the barrier every second
Scepter Ability: New ability "Walrus Kick" which stuns a targetted unit, knocks them away from Tusk and damaging them; think Muradin from HotS or Lee Sin from League, except without collateral damage from any enemies in between.

My bias is showing again. Despite the listed stats above, Tusk is almost exclusively played as a support ganker, and he requires a good handle of travel speed of his abilities, which I don't have. Going over each of them to explain why I personally rate Tusk is so low regardless of his good competitive showing:

Ice Shards is a slow, long-range ground target and extremely finicky. The projectile needs to pass through a target to damage it; it once used to create its barrier on collision with a hero - now, it does it at the location, plus whatever wizardry wraps it around the terrain. Always fun when it pushes an ally up a cliff by mistake.

Snowball has an extremely nerfed range from years past, due to its ability to surprise a target from fog and deal a heavy stun with a dogpile. As a result, it's typically used more for a save on allies, since Tusk can pull them into the snowball to dodge almost everything but a Black Hole or Chronosphere, although there's always the problem of launching that ally with you directly into a target.

Tag Team used to be an ability called "Frozen Sigil" which was busted as hell; it was a mobile, durable, flying summon that caused a huge slow underneath it. Now, it's still really good, adding physical damage to every attack on an enemy in an area around Tusk, while still providing a slow. It works rather well in the gank squad meta, but requires Tusk to be in the thick of it.

Walrus Punch isn't flashy, but it gets the job done. An on-demand melee-range critical hit that stuns and slows the target.

These are all pretty potent used in conjunction, but they suck as a solo queuer. Really, a lot of it is that Tusk's stats are at odds for his playstyle. He's supposed to be a roaming ganker, but he chugs mana like nobody's business and his base durability and damage are kinda bad for someone who's supposed to be in your face and sticking there until you're dead. Point-blank Ice Shards will often backfire on you, and choreographing Snowball can lead to you sailing unwittingly to your doom, such as directly into the path of a Ravaging Tidehunter. Tag Team is potent, but you don't get a whole lot out of it alone, and it's not up nearly as often as you want it to be. Lastly, while Walrus Kick is desirable just for how much damage it deals plus the repositioning, a scepter is a tall order for someone with unsafe flash-farm capabilities, and the damage output from shard is too anemic to help do anything but stop people from blinking through your wall for more than half a second. If Tusk gets behind, he really won't be able to catch up, so he's forced to... you know, snowball. Which he can't do on his own.

A level 25 Tusk with Walrus Punch chances on normal autoattacks *is* rather hilarious, however. Suddenly you have a mini Phantom Assassin on your hand with a lower crit chance. Good luck getting there before the end of game, though.

Next hero hint: Another snowballer/pubstomper, except instead of focusing on ganking, this one thrives more on survival to the expense of all else.