Tusk

Ymir, the Tusk, is a melee strength hero whose array of icy disables makes him a very strong team initiator and ganker. He has a damage nuke and a disable in Ice Shards, which lets him precisely place a barrier in an enemy’s path, inhibiting their movement and blocking off their escape path. Should his teammates need help closing the distance to enemies, Tusk can assist them with Snowball, which surrounds Tusk and any nearby allies in a protective shell of snow as he rolls at a target enemy, damaging and stunning everything in its path. Once in a fight, Tusk also has the ability to Tag Team, which allows all nearby allies to slow enemies they attack with physical damage. His ultimate, Walrus PUNCH!, sends a target enemy flying with a mighty uppercut, stunning and disabling them while dealing a critical strike and slowing them upon landing for a moderate amount of time. A strong initiator and powerful brawler, the Terror from the Barrier should never be bet against in a fight, as he can put his foes down for the count with his unique assortment of spells and disables.

Bio[]

Abilities[]

Talents[]

Recent Changes[]

Recommended Items[]

Starting items:

• Tango gives Tusk health sustain in-lane, allowing him to survive enemy harass and continue gaining gold and experience.
• Healing Salve also restores health to Tusk.
• Clarity allows Tusk to replenish his mana pool from casting spells, important since all of his basic spells are very expensive and will consume a sizable fraction of his small base mana pool. In particular, Ice Shards can consume almost half of Tusk’s mana pool, so having enough mana to cast his full combo can make or break getting first blood.
• Iron Branch gives Tusk attributes, important for beefing up his health, base damage, and mana to increase his survivability in lane. It builds into Magic Wand later on.
• Enchanted Mango is a useful starting item to purchase, as it gives Tusk some passive HP regen, mitigating harass damage, and a way to instantly replenish mana for casting his spells in a pinch.
• Orb of Venom is a strong pickup in any situation, but particularly if Tusk is a roamer. Applying the slow debuff can reduce an enemy’s chances of escaping, and stacks alongside Tag Team to help chase down fleeing enemies.

Early game:

Mid game:

Late game:

Situational items:

• Bottle is very powerful on mobile initiators like Tusk, since he can roam and set up kills for his team, and as such benefits from always being at full HP and mana should a gank opportunity arise. As well, he can take advantage of runes to increase his ganking power.
• Desolator gives Tusk increased bonus damage, and allows him to apply an armor debuff to enemies, particularly when combined with Walrus PUNCH.
• Shadow Blade increases Tusk’s physical damage output, and gives him yet another initiation ability. Shadow Walk can be used to deal tremendous physical damage to a gank target with Walrus PUNCH!, or can be cast to escape in a tight situation.
• Heaven’s Halberd helps make Tusk a better all-around fighter through its various bonuses. It grants more strength, status resistance, and evasion for increased survivability, and a disarm to shut down enemy carries.
• Assault Cuirass is a strong aura and fighting item that, while expensive, can greatly improve Tusk’s damage output. The increased armor makes Tusk much tankier, and the attack speed helps him to deal more damage. The aura can be easily utilized due to Snowball giving Tusk a way to get close to enemies, and its armor debuff can increase the hitting power of Walrus PUNCH!.
• Solar Crest gives Tusk armor and attributes to make Tusk tankier, and the mana regeneration helps to sustain his expensive but powerful abilities. Using the active on an enemy during initiation can increase the amount of damage they take from Walrus PUNCH! and allied attacks, as well as lowering their movement and attack speed.
• Silver Edge can greatly augment Tusk’s initiating power. Besides improving Tusk’s damage output, applying a break to an important target can disable their passive abilities, making them a much smaller threat in an engagement.
• Blade Mail is a powerful survivability item that fills in many of Tusk’s deficiencies. The armor makes him tankier, the intelligence shores up his small mana pool, and the damage improves the potency of Walrus PUNCH!. Using the active can discourage enemies from attacking Tusk, and can allow him to use his HP pool offensively against gank targets who try to fight back.
• Soul Ring provides health regeneration, allowing Tusk to roam more independently, and lets Tusk dip into his HP pool to cast his spells, allowing him to be more active on the map.
• Arcane Boots increases the size of Tusk’s mana pool and gives him a means with which to replenish it, along with that of his teammates. Being able to easily sustain his own mana pool allows Tusk to stay on the go and use his spells to set up kills for his team.
• Force Staff is a strong utility item that increases Tusk’s mobility. It provides intelligence, improving his mana pool, and gives him HP regen to keep his health topped up. The active can be used as an initiation booster to help Tusk position himself to cast his spells, as a quick escape, or can be used on allies to re-position them for various purposes. It can also be cast on enemies to dis-position them, or to break an enemy Linken’s Sphere during initiation.

Gameplay[]

Audio[]

History[]

Equipment[]

Trivia[]

• In DotA, Tusk’s title is Tuskarr. The Tuskarr are a race of humanoid walruses in the Warcraft universe.
• His response ▶️ “Falcon Punch!” is a reference to Captain Falcon’s signature move in the Super Smash Bros. franchise, which has also become a popular internet meme.
• His response ▶️ “Bang! Zoom! To the Mad Moon!” is likely a reference to The Honeymooners character Ralph Kramden, who would frequently say “Bang! Zoom! Straight to the moon!“.
• His response ▶️ “Coulda been a contender.” is likely a reference to the quote from the movie On the Waterfront.
• His response ▶️ “My fight money.” is likely a reference to Balrog from Street Fighter who says the same thing whenever he loses a round.
• His response to missing a Walrus Punch, ▶️ “Well there’s your problem.” is likely a reference to Adam Savage from Mythbusters, who has made it a show catchphrase. Savage often jokes that the mustache of his co-host Jamie Hyneman makes him look like a walrus.
• His response ▶️ “Double Dragon Punch Punch!” is a reference to the game, “Double Dragon”.
• In Tusk’s lore, the Bristled Bruiser is Bristleback, who was ported to Dota 2 roughly a month after Tusk; Bristleback’s lore makes mention of Tusk as well, and the two heroes share rival and ally lines with regards to this relationship.
• Before 6.80, where Walrus PUNCH! dealt higher crit damage to targets below 50% health, the floating text above the target would change:
  • When landed on an enemy creep whose health was above 50%, the caption read “Penguin Punch!” in small blue letters.
  • When landed on an enemy hero whose health was above 50%, the caption read “Polar Punch!” in medium blue letters.
  • When landed on any enemy whose health was below 50%, it read “Walrus Punch!” in large letters.
  • In the current version, it always displays “Walrus Punch“, no matter what is targeted.
• Rubick‘s version of Walrus Punch would throw a projectile which uses Rubick’s model and spins towards the target. When used on Tusk, it would read “Sucker Punch!” in green. On other targets, it read “Stolen Punch“.

Gallery[]

• Splash artwork

• Trading card art

• Ability icon progress [?]

• Hero icon progress

• Old Floating texts of Walrus Punch. [?]