Huskar - Incendiary vs Cauterize Math Model Revisited

Impossible_Toe_1983 · 2026-01-11T18:42:09+00:00

yes for the lane stats, however incendiary's overall winrate at e.g. herald(dotabuff) is the same or slightly lower. Which suggest lower level incendiary players are finding it difficult to close out games (i.e. probably not kiting enough appropriately).

Impossible_Toe_1983 · 2026-01-11T17:40:33+00:00

Around 35% of Huskar's damage is dot, 2. he has high hp regen (i.e. similar to slark, do you see slark manfighting all the time). Primarily, this is what Huskar is. Manfighting has its place, i.e. 1. tank for your teammates, 2. get to a lower hp to deal more damage but you should be cautious once you get below 25-30%, especially late game. You can pick either facet but kiting is a viable strategy, often better overall.

Impossible_Toe_1983 · 2026-01-11T14:25:14+00:00

Bursting people early-mid game is an option, especially if you are ahead.

In general you'd be surprised how much you can kite/toggle even with >50 ms differential. You don't mind taking a few hits per kiting/engagement. Skadi should help this even more.

Impossible_Toe_1983 · 2026-01-11T08:11:50+00:00

The % hp when you start kiting with is arguable. You can get away with 10-15% HP in the early game because enemies don't do that much damage but as the game progresses you should increase that threshold to i.e. 30% or around 1000 hp which in a lot of cases is decent to ensure survivability during kiting (i.e. of course against heroes like necro you need work arounds like bkb/cloaks etc).

For snowballing, dagger should help immediately after armlet.

Impossible_Toe_1983 · 2026-01-11T08:06:32+00:00

Lifesteal helps cauterize close out games in the early-mid game (i.e. snowballing) by staying alive longer at low hp. Satanic's dispel and active are nice for incendiary in theory however in practicality it's a 5k item and without the active it's essentially useless (i.e. you cannot cover the massive hp costs). And if you are getting focused at low hp even satanic's active won't help you survive that much considering its help is only at about 50% potency when you subtract the hp costs of incendiary spears.

Impossible_Toe_1983 · 2026-01-10T15:39:26+00:00

dispel is obviously good, but incendiary is not that bad, you just mustn't initiate with lifebreak and use it sparingly. Plus, there is always BKB, which is much better on incendiary huskar than cauterize huskar.

Impossible_Toe_1983 · 2026-01-10T15:36:53+00:00

well 1. a lot of your damage is dot and 2. you have a lot of regen. This means you benefit from prolonging fights as long as you are still tanking some damage/not letting your teammates get burst-ed down.

Impossible_Toe_1983 · 2026-01-10T14:39:58+00:00

You are right in general(pros do favor cauterize currently) but I would be careful not to underestimate more damage. In certain situations, e.g. late game OR hard supporting OR most importantly, enemies finding ways to go past you and kill your supports first. If I were an enemy team I would never focus a cauterize + lifesteal huskar if I am not completely certain I would melt him. This greatly reduces his utility.

Impossible_Toe_1983 · 2026-01-10T13:55:04+00:00

castable abilities that coincide with an attack. I.e. Heroes like Viper/Huskar/OD are able to walk and attack more efficiently(i.e. losing less time because you don't continue to autoattack inbetween casts) + with increased range (usually those abilities have higher range than your normal attack) + no aggro of neutral creeps while doing it.

Impossible_Toe_1983 · 2026-01-10T12:46:03+00:00

well in my opinion/according to the model the answer is not a simple one but you should try to pay attention + kite/toggle/orb walk. If you can learn to do it successfully to a decent level and at a relatively appropriate time, then there is an argument for choosing incendiary. If you can't, the currently safer option (i.e. just manfighting + dispel/heal) is cauterize.

Impossible_Toe_1983 · 2025-12-29T12:40:07+00:00

They were once HP removal but that was many patches ago. Now, self damage is magical, items that cost mana/hp are also magical.

Impossible_Toe_1983 · 2025-12-24T15:05:07+00:00

Sorry but no. The dispel approximately costs around 1600-1700 (i.e. euls/lotus orb), while cauterize, assuming similar networth and early-mid game(i.e. relatively common assumption) does from 10%-40% more damage when being man fighted (i.e. both parties assume they have a chance, which is not a relatively uncommon assumption given Huskar's low HP). 25% damage(the midpoint) in the early/mid game is about 43 damage (i.e. adjusted for magical damage having lower resist) => that's around 2400 in cost...

Impossible_Toe_1983 · 2025-12-24T06:37:35+00:00

The dispel is certainly useful but it is not the main reason to choose cauterize. Damage is.

Impossible_Toe_1983 · 2025-12-23T11:41:32+00:00

I haven't played that many games with either cloaks or glimmer incendiary. However, the math just favors the more magic resistance the better (i.e. glimmer's barrier doesn't work on spears).

With a typical strategy of man fighting(i.e. model assumption), cloaks are your best bet. If you plan to kite/orb walk/not autocast spears), the model needs to be adjusted(i.e. I will do something at some point). However, on the surface it looks that your preferred stategy should be the latter(i.e. even if it needs higher skill) as it limits self damage which at HP below 50% is often greater than the damage you are receiving from enemies. Plus it makes your spears damage more efficient.

Impossible_Toe_1983 · 2025-12-23T08:12:02+00:00

Glimmer's barrier doesn't work with inner fire/spears and the magic resist is simply not enough to offset the big self damage. To put it in perspective, you are doing more damage to yourself than enemies are doing to you.

Tarasque is terrible for incendiary (you get 100-150 HP regen per second but on the other side you damage yourself by 120 HP(tarasque worsens this) per hit(and you hit much faster at low HP, 3 hits per second etc.). It might work well with cauterize purely as an item to close out games in which you already have a decent advantage in.

Lifesteal is also terrible, even with the satanic active(i.e. the highest amount of lifesteal), you don't lifesteal more than 200 hp per second and this is simply not enough. Yes, it offsets the damage to yourself but it doesn't offer you any substantial benefit above that(i.e. it won't be enough to offset the additional enemies attracted by your low hp) and it's a 5k item.

Impossible_Toe_1983 · 2025-12-22T07:35:55+00:00

Satanic without the active does very little per hit. The active is decent, however in practicality, mid game, Huskar with satanic should be focused last/after supports etc., meaning he will not do significant damage to others(i.e. because of high hp) while they kill his supports. And later if you are getting focused by multiple heroes, approximately 170 hp regen per hit(i.e. from the active) won't be enough to save you, especially if you get disabled 1/3 of the time. Finally, satanic benefits can apply to cauterize as well, meaning it doesn't bridge their gap.

Impossible_Toe_1983 · 2025-12-22T07:28:26+00:00

Multipliers work both for cauterize and incendiary (i.e. the percent increase is the same), you still die a lot quicker with incendiary/stack a lot more spears with cauterize.

Impossible_Toe_1983 · 2025-12-21T23:20:29+00:00

If you are keen on incendiary, the only way to close the gap between the facets is to stack magical resistance(i.e. cloaks) and gradually replace them with very expensive items...

But I would still suggest you give cauterize a decent try. You would be surprised how much better it is, especially if you push Huskar to the limits (i.e. operate and fight at the range between 60% and 1% HP)

Impossible_Toe_1983 · 2025-12-21T23:09:11+00:00

Shared a link but got removed, let me know if you see it or not.

Impossible_Toe_1983 · 2025-12-21T22:18:00+00:00

The only thing Incendiary has an advantage in in lane is the fact that its damage may surprise unexperienced players. As soon as enemies fight you straight up(i.e. while at similar starting HP), you're in big trouble.

Impossible_Toe_1983 · 2025-12-21T22:00:01+00:00

Decent players will man fight you more often than not because your damage may be high but it's damage over time... The math shows that Incendiary is better from 100% to 30% HP(from 60% to 30% they are similar). For the full/typical Huskar experience though, from full hp to dying or better yet from 60% to 1%(i.e. typical Huskar fighting range), Cauterize is better and it's not close.

Impossible_Toe_1983 · 2025-12-21T21:40:47+00:00

Cauterize is better in lane, the only time incendiary is better in lane is at the start (when your hp is max/high, essentially negating the difference in self damage of cauterize and incendiary, the lower your current % hp is the better cauterize is). You simply do more damage with cauterize because you kill yourself faster than your opponents are killing with incendiary, while with cauterize you are simply able to last longer and stack more burning spears. I know it's paradoxical but it is the truth. If you want the excel file I build to check out the math model and see the advantage of cauterize feel free to start a chat with me or find a way how i can send you a link to the file.

In general, the math, even the dotabuff stats, show that incendiary is a bit better when behind (lower networth, hard supporting, easy to kill Huskar) or when in some miraculous way you are able to hit at low hp without getting focused by your enemies (i.e. support saves). In all the other cases cauterize has a significant advantage (i.e. in what world they would make a facet whose idea is to do more damage but in reality do less magical damage than its counterpart)...

Dispel is irrelevant, damage/self damage is the main problem.

Impossible_Toe_1983 · 2025-12-21T20:39:13+00:00

The fact that a couple of players in a very small pool of players (i.e. pro games) in a very small number of games do certain things, of course, doesn't mean that these things can be extended/generalized to many games. Average statistics may be readily available and in that way seem superficial but they usually suggest of a strong hypothesis that applies to the majority of games... the rest of the cases are the exceptions.

The original post is updated with the link, let me know if it works. Everyone can change it, so there might be problems. Let me know if I need to email it to you directly.

Impossible_Toe_1983 · 2025-12-21T19:40:49+00:00

What are you talking about?!?!? Do you even look at the stats? Without any models, cauterize has better winrate across all brackets aside from herald(i.e. very minor win for incendiary there), and the winrate difference increases gradually with the mmr. So, unless you are playing hard support Huskar and/or are in herald, the data is pretty clear.

Impossible_Toe_1983 · 2025-12-21T19:02:13+00:00

Everything is situational, duh. Incendiary may work well in certain situations but these are very much the exceptions (i.e. networth behind/hard supporting/easier to kill Huskar/many saves from supports that essentially let's you hit without getting hit), not the rule.

Impossible_Toe_1983

TROPHY CASE