Currently updated to post Stukov release patch (Genji nerf patch)

Hello readers, I'm Tycon and I've been an avid fan of Rexxar and his play style since his addition to the game as he reminds me of some of my favorite Dota heroes Lone Druid and Chen who are micro based heroes who work in tandem to function as a single hero.

Playing Rexxar
To play Rexxar efficiently one must think of Rexxar himself as a squishy mage who prioritizes surviving himself and Misha as a more expendable body blocking half front line (like an off tank or bruiser) who controls space. While things have vastly improved for Rexxars safety with decent range and defensive options, The general mantra you should have as playing Rexxar is “Misha Charge! Rexxar Hide...” If Misha dies, she only counts as 0.25 of a kill in terms of experience, cuts your contribution to the team fight by about 50% and has a significantly shorter death timer than Rexxar himself (around 20 seconds). If Rexxar dies, you both die, you lose quest stacks and can't contribute to the team at all. Also Don't suicide Misha into towers at the start of the game when laning, keep your control of her tight, most of the tips on controlling Misha will be in the Misha, Focus! ability section of the guide. Another rule of thumb for Rexxar is you often want to take talents that benefit both Misha and himself to double up on value. Misha will often get a few chances to attack but the dance of Misha and her positioning, her getting CCed/Kited and target swapping don't allow her to get maximum auto attack DPS often.

Pros
-Excellent Solo laner
-Counts as 2 Heroes for obejctives
-Misha can capture objective points by herself
-Can micro Misha will doing an objective
-Flexible for teams with a variety of utility and zone control options
-Has great CC options
-Does a ton of damage team PvP for a Warrior
-Great PvE Tank and safe when built like a specialist
-Great minion based wave clear with Lvl 1 Talent
-Can force back line heroes to disengage
-Even without flare, has great scouting capabilities using Misha as a ward and throwing hawks into bushes.
-Both Ults are flexxible
-Misha is very tanky with great sustain able to dart in and out of combat easily
-Misha is essentially always mounted on command
-Has some of the worst looking skins in the game bar a few. (Raider Rexxar is ugly and sounds awful)

Cons
-Rexxar himself is squishy and requires careful control.
-All defensive options have draw backs (generally take time to build or don't cover all aspects needed to survive)
-Very reliant on allies and specific talents to survive.
-Both ulimates are rather underwhelming compared to his base kit power, making his level 10 a small power spike.
-Wouldn't replace or do the same PvP damage as Hypercarries such as Valla or Lunara
-Requires patience due to poor self sustaining options, he can't make YOLO plays like Genji
-Mana hungry if using CC often and microing Misha as an effective bruiser
-Poor Pve damage, requires specific PvE Talents to play like a special but still camps very slowly
-Needs a back line to sit with
-Can't solo tank unless you have 1.)an off tank and 2.)either a hefty lead throughout the game or against a team with no Dive (Don't plan on this unless you're in Quick match)
-Requires micromanagement
-Occasionally D and W are bugged and unresponsive
-Can't shift queue commands for Misha with D
-Looks cool as hell as he's hefty, intimidating and either makes references to his Warcraft 3/Dota days as Beast Master or Hearthstone references.

Misha, Focus!: Rexxar's D is essentially secondary control group that doesn't use your right click and is refereed to as "Move Misha" or "Control Misha". To play Rexxar effectively this ability should be used often and almost all the time. It's a little clunky to control if you've played Lone Druid from Dota but getting the hang of moving Misha isn't much different. Control Misha is essentially the basics of the game, pretend she's a bruiser and move her in and out depending on her HP, positioning and if you can get valuable stun or damage trades. The leash range is long too allowing you to use her as a ward in bushes or to chase back lines, don't be afraid to leave her on a target and focus on microing rexxar as long as you keep an eye on her health and general position to recall her from danger. Ideally she'll never auto leash from you in combat situations if you control her properly, the leash should only really occur when you use Misha to capture a watch tower point or as a sight ward in a bush. While it's hard at first, try to body block with Misha as you would any other warrior (pretend you're playing natures prophet) and auto attack with Rexxar while focusing on Misha's movement in front of the target. Often times even as Rexxar himself you'll want to be at max Hawk range and not even within auto attack range except perhaps at max attack range of the front line tank as you must play very conservatively. Misha and Hawks will add your utility and damage and when safe to do so because of CC or a positional advantage you can attack back line targets. DPS Rexxar needs to take more risk getting more auto attack damage in and thus requires 2 front liners in addition to Misha.

If you're worried make sure you issue Shift commands with Rexxar such as right click way/close behind your current location or in the lane then shift attack move back to your location while you micro Misha with D as your mouse can't be in 2 locations at once even if you can pay attention to both heroes. Shift moving Rexxar is an invaluable skill for making him safe while you micro Misha or maximize efficiency drinking from fountains. If you are stunned, cocooned or feigning death Misha controls normally with right clicks rather than with D, keep this in mind as you might be pressing D and Misha will sit still like a dear in the headlights.

Alt+D all the time to recall Misha it's important as you get a 30% speed buff and don't need to waste your mouse movement to D yourself. Sometimes Misha will rengage when you issue and attack command after you recall her, just make sure to spam Alt+D in between those commands if shes low, or issue a move command near/behind you to make her sit. Keep in mind that Misha can be controlled while you channel an objective such as a nuke or tower of doom spire, counts as a hero for quests or pushing the hanamura cart or an objective point such as a Dragon Knight Shrine, can attack and collect health globes separately form you while you remain mounted and can collect health wells for you should you pass by. You'll often want to park Misha on objective points to contest them especially on Dragon Shire.

Spirit Swoop: Rexxar's Q often refereed to as "Bird" or "Hawk" is his primary ability for wave clear, damage and consistent soft CC. Hawk's damage is stellar, you will find yourself using this ability almost all the time for clearing waves, accelerating merc speed, harassing heroes in lane or slowing heroes in a team fight. When aiming the Hawk try to be aware that the projectile of the hawk isn't instant and has a short but noticeable travel time. The range of the hawk is slightly longer and wider than the indicator shows and to note longer than Rexxar's auto attack range even without talents. 40 Mana a cast adds up quick when you spam the hawk while needing to mend pet, try to be conservative early game and should you skip hawk based talents.

Misha, Charge!: Rexxar's W often refered to "Misha Stun" or "Charge" is his signature team fight skill and heavy CC tool. A non-ultimate AoE 1.25 second stun is invaluable and will be used frequently to peel or stun as many targets as you can in a team fight. The utility of this skill extends beyond nearly a stun however, Charge prepositions Misha allowing you to use W in a direction to juke a stun/skill shot with Misha, retreat when snared, hop over body blockers or get in position to body block an enemy hero. This also runs the risk of Misha being thrown out of position or into an AoE attack. Keep in mind that when stunned, rooted or interupted upon casting Charge will be interupted and stop it's animation only stunning enemies charged previously before the interupt. It's possible Misha is stunned immediately during the casting frames of Charge causing the cooldown and mana to be wasted with no effect. Due to the risk of interruption, mana cost and importance of timing, it's advise to use this ability in a calculated manner rather than exclusively off cooldown.

Mend Pet: Rexxar's E sometimes just called "Heal pet" or "Heal" is Misha's main sustain ability and allows Rexxar to inflate his damage taken score tremendously. With a short 10 second cooldown and 50% up time you'll want to keep Misha topped off often when shes below 80% or so depending on if you're ahead or behind. Managing your mana and knowing when to fountain instead of Eing, letting your healer heal Misha or dragging her on low HP as bait is acquired skill with many small factors that essentially make it an art. This spell while not thrilling is very strong, just don't think Misha in invulnerable because she has it on though. Later in the game you'll often have to micro Misha back to you then park her in a safe spot while you heal her up before reengaging. Keep that 55 mana in mind because you'll like spam this ability a lot in a rough lane or late game.

Bestial Wrath: Rexxar's R Ultimate 1 and prefered ultimate for Zone control and damage. Beastial wrath offers a sizable damage increase to Misha making her threatening and increases his hit box size to allow her to body block easier. You don't need to get constant attacks with Misha for value as you'll likely scare or force enemies to flee whomever she's focusing. the 50 second cooldown over the 60 boars makes the more frequent use of this ability have an edge for fighting and pushing. The only down side this ultimate has in general is that you can't use it if Misha dies, however you're crippled anyways when she's dead.

Unleash the Boars: Rexxar's R Ultimate 2 refereed to as "Boars" is situational but still powerful ult is used for CC, vision and as a back up if Misha dies. The damage this ultimate offers is poor, but the extra CC, vision and safety net in the event Misha dies make it still valuble. I'd say with a 60 second cooldoown and a cone that promotes long distance use, it will not help you much in melee as a self peel and is designed as a back lien support ability. It has a much better level 20 upgrade over Beastial Wrath but pales in comparison to what Hardened shield offers.

Talent Legend: Optimal picks are in Blue, Situational picks are are in Yellow and Niche/Poor picks are in Red.

Optimal Talents are picked often and while not always the correct choice they are either safe picks a majority of the time, synergize well with the hero's base play style or offer utility that make up for a heavy weakness in a hero's kit. Situational talents are often good but offer value in or against specific team compositions, less value than alternatives in a general sense, offer benefits/options to dedicated masters of the hero in a specific playstyle or require less than ideal synergy talents to work. Niche talents often aren't unpickable, sometimes a niche pick will be taken for a very specific build or single hero match up purpose but often they either synergize very poorly with the hero as a whole, only work in suboptimal builds, compete directly with curtail must pick talents or occasionally be absolutely terrible in nearly all circumstances.


-Tier 1/Level 1 Starter Talents-

Easy Prey (Niche): Specifically useful for PvE Specialist builds where you play Rexxar to do merc camps or tank bosses for cheese strats. Generally inferior to Bird of Prey due to not having AoE for minion clear and not gaining damage against Objective monsters.

Bird of Prey (Optimal): An amazing talent that offer's Rexxar substantial wave clear throughout the game allowing you to push lanes early on for the lane control advantage and 1 shot entire waves late game for wave clear. getting 2 and a half Q's gives you Jo wave clear status. Ideally you want to line up waves as they head to the lane before concaving or against large waves standing parallel to a large minion line(usually large ranged minions lines). If you hit the enemy hero along with the minion wave think of it as free poke, or even a free clear if you take Taking Flight later on and hit the hero with a wave.

Flare (Situational): Flares offers on command 100% uptime vision of an area after a short delay and is great when facing stealth heroes. The problem with Flare is when compared to the utility of on command wave clear that Bird of Prey offers it reduces the versitility and early game impact of Rexxar (especially if you plan to solo lane). Couple this with Rexxars ability to use Misha her self as a sight ward for general purpose uses and Flare is essentially just for stealth, multiple area vision and areas over terrain scouting in short distances. Vision on command is powerful but flare lacks the versatility of instant global map vision that Rehgar gains with Far Sight. Flare is generally only advised against stealth heroes and in coordinated groups only if you already have good wave clear already on your team (such as a KT or Rag) and you don't plan to solo a lane.

-Tier 2/Level 4 Talents-

Hungry Bear (Niche): Hungry bear is designed specifically for the PvE style of Rexxar in which it fills that niche role but has multiple factors that hold this talent back. While it's not bad at sustaining Misha and does offer a mana Efficient way to heal Misha it only works when she attacks, he very slow attack speed alone along with being CCed and kited leading to her general deaths limit the amount of potential healing she gets. Base HP or Armor from competing generally offers more utility when you can already heal Misha with Mend Pet. The final problem with this talent is that it only helps Misha, a rule of thumb is you want talents that help both Rexxar and Misha as Hungry Bear will do nothing to help Rexxar from being dived or focused even with good positioning.

Hunter-Gatherer (Optimal): A great talent ad advised against Heavy poke comps and Max heal damage comps as well as a general safe pick if you worry heavy Dive specific comps will kill you. Great on maps where you can collect orbs and essentially requiring you to have Bird of Prey in order to collect orbs in a timely manner. Much like Animal Husbandry you'll have to be careful in the early game to gain value but a permenant 10 Armor reward with 25 regen offers you great sustain throughout the game. This is the preferred talent to run on a team without a healer in Quick match as well. Problems with this talent include needing to divert attention to collecting globes to gain value with the end reward as the main value spike and the armor not compeltely stacking with Hardened Skin at 20 later in the game since you can have a cap of 75 armor and only gain 65 from the activation. Due to it's safer nature, it's preferred to be taken in the DPS 3 warrior or heavy front line Rexxar build since you'll be in more danger in auto attack range.

Grizzled Fortitude (Situational): An odd variant on block, this talent is very good but has specific requirements to be the best option. This talent is unique in that it gives you immediate value at 4 to both Rexxar and Misha as opposed to the other late game quest talents or the Misha Hungry Bear. You take this talent when 1.)you have a healer that can sustain you well, 2.)only worry about heavy, non fast auto attack damage, 3.) plan to sit in a solo lane for a very long time and 4.)plan to have a short game overall. The 7 second delay as opposed to a classic 5 second from is a down side but you gain 2 charges 1 for you and 1 for Misha and a total of 4. Great for ranged auto poke wars and allowing Misha to weave in an out of combat. This talent suffers from scaling poorly into the late game like most block talents and cannot compete with a 2k+ stacked Animal Husbandry or 10 permanent armor along with regen from Hunter-Gatherer. The 75 armor block doesn't synergize with Hardened Skin when stacked but due to the 7 second cooldown window and 4 second uptime on Hardened Skin you can weave this when block is consumed for optimal armor coverage, it's less of a problem for this talent that Hunter-Gatherer which always has it's base armor on.

Animal Husbandry (Optimal): Much like the Medivh's Master's Touch but for defensive play this talent allows Rexxar along with Misha to scale extremely well into the late game and be nearly unkillable should he ever get enough stacks. Countering Burst with shear high HP values this talent protects Rexxar and what he fears the most along with making Misha shrug off AoE abilities. Since you play Rexxar himself as a coward you're rewarded for cautious play and can be more recklass with Misha as she'll never lose the bonus even on her own death. You can essentially have a burly Misha who has a 20 second death timer and spawns on combat location as your main hero. The more you stall or the longer the game goes on the more value, just keep in mind the high risk involved. While you get the most reward from this talent if you don't die at all, should you die it's nigh worthless until much later in the match again and requires you to play extra conservatively passing up kill trades. Avoid if they have steam roll dive comps, the game will end soon or you are so far behind by level 4 it's unrealistic you'll get high stacks form this talent. This is generally for experienced and careful Rexxar players only.

-Tier 3/Level 7 Talents-

Aspect of the Beast (Situational): Often hailed by as the greatest talent Rexxar has at his disposal by many, this talent is very good and has it's situations to be taken, however it's vastly over estimated and competes with other good talents. Aspect of the Beast excels in situations where Misha can stand still and Auto attack, against clumped groups of enemies in non sustained fights. My problem with this talent is that they conflict with Rexxar and Misha's goals. Misha doesn't want sustain auto attacks, she has to move around and zone heroes away. She needs to reposition often as you want to use your stun in 1.) grouped situations 2.) at the right time to time burst or peel for an ally and 3.) not use all your resources to provided sustained stuns. To get value out of htis talent Rexxar must use his Charge on cooldown while skipping out on another mana talent. This makes sustaining hawks and mend pets impossible. I wouldn't deny this talent very good but the strings that come attached to it make me question it as an auto pick. Additionally when picking Charge you are essentially locked into taking Dire Beast at 13 for mana efficiency and DPS value.

Crippling Talons (Niche): This talent isn't bad but it competes with 2 monster talents. You get more over all uptime on slow with Crippling Talons (42% vs 40%) overTaking Flight but have a longer cooldown along with less range and sustainability and have less over all CC when compared to Aspect of the Beast. Some people I've talked to love this talent and I can see cases where having a 7 second cooldown 3 second 50% snare is very good. It isn't as safe to Rexxar as the other 2 talents also.

Taking Flight (Optimal): This is probably my favorite talent for Rexxar out of the tree and is often looked down upon by people I've talked to or guides I've read with often people calling it useless with little explanation. Taking Flight offers 3 traits that are important to Rexxar and his cautious play style. 1.) The most important part is the 20% range increase for a long range skill. You can play Rexxar very safe way in the back and still hawk the front line or be in your back line and often poke the enemy back line with the increased range. Giving Rexxar an consistant poke without going into the danger of dive range with his auto attack range allows him to contribute damage and a spammable 30% slow. 2.) Taking Flight refunds mana on hitting an enemy hero much like Medivh using Arcane Rift competely nullifying his mana problems. Mana talents in Dota are incredibly powerful and transfer well in Hots too. This tlaent allows Rexxar to wave clear lanes pushed by heroes for free from a long range, poke for free and almost always have mana for mend pet and charge. The mana becomes less of an issue late game outside of sustained fights but for a majority of the game the mana helps you. 3.) Finally the cooldown reduction allows you to have a 5 second cool down Hawk you can then use for higher increased damage of Rexxar himself and more frequent CCing of different targets when playing conservatively. Perhaps you may not be sold on this talent but getting 3 effects for a single talent without a quest attached makes it quite an attractive investment.

-Tier 4/Level 10 Ultimates/Heroics-

Bestial Wrath (Optimal): While Misha will often not always have the opportunity to atuo attack freely, this ability makes Misha a threat and forces squishy enemies to flee or suffer unignorable damage. Sporting a shorter cooldown that it's alternative and a large body blocking hitbox Bestial Wrath will also overall give you more flexibility as a higher potential DPS during fights, objective DPS and pushing power on forts and core after fights.

Unleash the Boars (Situational): Great for the utility it offers especially on teams lacking any CC or requiring vision this ultimate generally does a better job of flare against stealth heroes. The slow is less impactful when you can spam Hawks for slow with Taking Flight or Crippling Talons but excels in chasing enemies when you are ahead. Not particularly useful in short range engagements it wouldnt save you from melee dives. This is also a solid pick if Misha will be permanently CCed or their team is full of tanks with no hero to pressure with Bestial Wrath.

-Tier 5/Level 13 Talents-

Wildfire Bear (Optimal): An amazing talent taken by many warriors, this variant effects the expendable and tenacious Misha. Offering every thing from damage while Misha is CCed, body blocking or repositioning to wave clear and Merc clearing speed this talent couldn't be good enough. Misha's natural 15% speed boost and large body make it ideal for ruining stealth hero engages and finding creep tumors. The Increase size gained from Bestial Wrath also makes the AoE larger to scale with Misha's hitbox. There is little risk to the extra damage from Wildfire bear for Rexxar making it a safe talent to rely on.

Aspect of the Hawk (Situational): The highest single target damage talent Rexxar has to offer while being impeccably unsafe. Requires 2 front line in addition to Misha or a lot of support peel to make it safe enough to go into melee range or being very far ahead. AoE alone from Wildfire Bear along with the safety for squishy Rexxar make this talent much riskier. However when you are completely protected or in dire need of more single target damage this talent is an option.

Dire Beast (Niche): Designed to accompany Aspect of the Beast this talent offers the highest Alpha damage option in this tier. The problem with this talent is it requires you auto attack to build stacks or slowly acquire them with Misha where you'll typically get more damage millage and PvE potential going Wildfire Bear. This isn't an awful talent and offers burst in coordinated stun comps but essentially neuters any sustained damage potential Rexxar has late game.

-Tier 6/Level 16 Talents-

Thrill of the Hunt (Niche): Some what gimmicky this talent in theory offers a hefty speed boost but put Rexxar in incredibly danger to receive the speed boost. If Mish could proc or sustain the effect it might be worth taking but getting in range to auto attack will often net you being slowed or initiated on. This talent specifically applies in the DPS build against mobile targets should you choose to get Hardened Skin instead of Frenzy of Kalimdor for the additional damage and control. The mitigation and utility of the other two talents on their tier far outweigh what this talent offers however in most situations. Misha is often fast enough to engage or escape as is with or without the ephemeral speed boost.

Primal Intimidation (Optimal): This talent is packed full of value, essentially being a superior Imposing Presence talent as it effects both Rexxar and Misha passively and doubles the area you can apply the triggered slow having the same effect %s and cooldown. The AoE slow coupled with Hawk offers a ton of AoE CC and with every hero being able to auto attack you'll nearly always gain defensive value form this talent. Another bonus of Primal Intimidation is that it allows you to mitigate auto attack damage on allies. Unless you are in dire need of burst/dive peel offered by Feign Death then Primal Intimidation should be the primary talent taken.

Feign Death (Situational): An improved but latter version of ice block this talent is always available to take under the conditions you absolutely need an out at 16 particular for high burst spells. Late game Hardened Skin provides a better effect in nearly every situation as it effects both you and Misha and allows you most importantly to move and reposition. The 35 second cooldown is an attractive selling point as well as being able to micro Misha. When playing against Pyroblast or divine shield Dragon Blade this you may opt for Feign death as opposed to the control Primal Intimidation offers. If you plan to take any talent other than Hardened Skin at level 20 you must take Feign Death in order to give Rexxar an out/anti burst option.

-Tier 7/Level 20 Storm Talents-

Spirit Bond (Niche): A cool effect that is outshined at this tier by the alternative options (mainly Hardened Skin). The heal only works when Misha attacks and offers a small sustained heal rather than anti burst which Rexxar prefers Vastly more. The ideal situation to pick this talent is when you don't have a healer or can't trust one to survive a fight that is completely poke based and you've already taken Feign Death at 16. The duration increase is nice but often the significant portion of the team fight you need the damage boost is in the first 12 seconds.

Kill Command (Situational): If you took Feign Death as a safety net and require a lot of CC this talent gives you an AoE 1.5 root and a respectable damage boost. The preferred option for a team lacking any form of CC. This talent has to compete against Hardened Skin for general builds when the preferred zoning ultimate is Bestial Wrath to begin with.

Frenzy of Kalimdor (Niche): Not particularly strong this talent is competing against giants such as 75 armor and ultimate increasing talents. This talent is rigid in it's build options requiring both Aspect of the Hawk to gain the most of the damage boost and Feign Death as an anti burst safety net. However the damage increase is noticeable late game alogn with the extra control from Misha, it's just a medicore upgrade in general outside of the DPS build.

Hardened Skin (Optimal): An absolute monster talent especially when combine with the additional health from Animal Husbandry you're essentially invulnerable for 4 seconds with the additional effect of being able to attack, move and cast. While you don't gain unstoppable having a cooldown based 75 armor for all damage on 2 units will win you the fight if either you or Misha is focused. The fact it effects both Rexxar and Misha allows you to use it as anti Rexxar dive or as a punishing defensive cooldown on Misha should the enemy team try to burst her first. This talent is one of the best in the entire tree and hard to pass up.

General Purpose (Most Recommended): This build is my personal favorite and often what I prefer to run as an off tank against a team with standard composition. It emphasizes playing cautiously and patiently with the prime goal to keep Rexxar himself alive. You'll likely gain a higher damage taken score than your main tank since both your bodies absorb damage and Misha soaks a lot of poke diving the enemy back line. Your base kit being as good as it isn't makes your main power spikes hit at high quest stacks, 7, 13, 16 and 20. Situational talents such as Grizzled Fortitude on Braxxis or Feign Death vs a more spell heavy burst comp fit in the build. Unleash the Boars is possible if your team is more dive based and Misha doesn't need to zone anyone out. Don't lose your Animal Husbandry stacks.

Alternate General, vs Heavy Poke/Max Hp Damage (Alternate Most Reccomended): Similar to the general purpose build but taken when the enemy team has Max hp damage Tychus, Malth or absolutely no dive/burst. Animal Husbandry is a liability vs Max HP damage and sustained hit and run fights favor health regen over max Hp. The same situation talents apply as the general purpose but the level 4 survival talent choice is a no brainier swap here.

DPS Rexxar (Have 2 Front Line): This generally occurs when you lock Rexxar early in the draft and your team follows with multiple tanks or you play quick match. This build is more niche and not recommended as the general builds but in the event you must DPS with Rexxar because you either have too much support or too many tanks it is your best option.

Anti Stealth / CC Build (A solid build but Recommended with competent allies): This is designed vs stealth heroes or when your team has plenty of damage dealers and with little CC and you locked Rexxar first pick. Ideally one of the better builds for Solo tank Rexxar you have a lot of vision utility and CC with this build. If you lack wave clear you can take Bird of Prey or take Primal Intimidation with Hardened Skin at 16 and 20 if you need attack speed reduction and more slows rather than the root.

PvE Specialist Rexxar (Least recommended): You want safe camp clearing or are on Blackheart's Bay and you prefer safety over clear speed. Also for Boss cheese with a team that will back you up. Not a recommended build for Rexxar in general but will occasionally surprise an enemy team or a good team of allies allow you the space to gain an early advantage. You'll transition to team fighting later in the game as you can solo camps forever.

Thanks for taking the time to read this guide and analysis of Rexxar's talents and abilities. Feel free to leave feed back, agree or disagree with anything.