- The main benefit of leveling stalk is the cooldown decrease, which has a huge impact on your offensive and defensive capabilities. Never get just one level of this skill, get all 4 unless you like the noob label.

- This skill has a 0.5 second fade time. Many people overlook this but it is huge. Unless you are running directly away from a hero while spamming stalk at the exact moment he casts a targeted stun it is virtually impossible for you not to get stunned. Even with godly reflexes you are likely to get stunned due to the fade time, even if you are invis.

- Some people like to use this skill to harass/creep farm early game. Don't overdue it. Madman's base int and int gain are far to low to use this frequently. Personally I would advocate never using stalk to grab creep kills early game unless you can ensure at least 2 with a single stalk.

- Think of it as impale with displacement thrown in. You can dodge stuns with a well-timed roll, and honestly you have a much better chance dodging a stun with barrel roll then you do with stalk. The skill that Madman is feared for early game, stalk is just the icing on the cake.

- Crit skill, not much to say. Combined with his high agi gain and ult this is a strong tool for dps mid-late game, amplifying all dps affected by armor reduction, damage and attack speed by 24%

- Identical to Troll Warlord's old ult before it got changed. Steroid skill, nuff said.

- Let's clarify one thing, Madman is a carry that is useful all game, in fact he is noctorious for it.

- His stat gain and base stats are rather stereotypical for a hard agi carry, but stalk and barrel roll open a world of opportunities for him from the get-go.

- However, his agi gain, crit and ult make him deadly under the right hands when late game rolls around. At that point you will be focusing on his hard carry aspect.

- His base int and int gain are terrible.

Therefore, it should not come as a surprise that you should consider all these aspects of Madman as you build him, both skill wise and itemwise.

1: Stalk
2-3: Barrel Roll
4: Stalk
5: Barrel Roll
6: Stalk
7: Barrel Roll
8: Stalk
9: Gash
10-11: Berserk
12-14: Gash
15: Stats
16: Berserk
17-25: Stats

- Barrel Roll and Stalk have full priority over anything else early game. Berserk only costs 50 mana at level 1, but honestly the mana spent on it can be used for an extra stalk that will likely save you/grant you a kill. You can max out stalk over barrel roll if you want at level 7, but personally I prefer the extra benefit of an additional level of an aoe stun over 2 seconds off stalk cooldown. Take your pick it shouldn't make a significant difference.

- As of the recent patch, taking berserk earlier is much more feasible. However, Stalk and Barrel roll still have priority over it. Taking level 2 berserk at level 11 should not hinder your mana pool and should give you sizable dps boost, certainly enough to make a difference.

Logger's hatchet, minor stat items, both health and mana regen

- No surprise here. Stereotypical opening carry build which focuses on farm.

Mana battery/Power supply/Bottle

- You can take any of these, or even none if you want. You need to address Madman's heavy dependence for mana this early.

Sustainer

- The regen is very applicable to Madman, and relating to the above, he needs it too.

- Steamboots

Set on strength mode, if you feel you can sacrifice vitality for some needed mana during certain ganks turn it on int in certain scenerios. Enhanced Marchers is useless on Madman, we don't need the early damage, or the phase, or the attack speed. We just need vitality and mana.

Glowstone

-Further reinforce Madman's hp and mana needs. This item is noctorious for being the best item for hp and mana for its price.

Runed Axe (Bastard Sword and Broadsword)

- We have the stats required to play Madman early game/mid game with the glowstone and steamboot combination. That aspect of him is covered, and done with. Runed axe will let us scale late game, into a great farmer and a late game carry that the other team should rightfully fear.

Projected Time to farm this much in an ideal game: 30 mins

Shrunken Head

-Physical dps carry, need magic immunity, nothing more to say.

Following this, you can build several items for Madman. This is what I use

Frostwolf Skull (2x blessed orbs, recipe)

- More then enough physical dps already, we just need to effectively deal it. Magic immunity? Check. Stats? Check. Enough mana that you will never run dry again? Check. Slow that allows you to effectively deal your dps under magic immunity? Check and mate.

Savage Mace

- It's either this or wingbow. Savage Mace actually deals more dps then wingbow, and as you usually won't face off against more then one carry I heavily favor Savage Mace to Wingbow, especially with truestrike as a perk.

Symbol of Rage

- The best vitality item available this late in the game with the nerf to behemoth's heart. Depending on the type of lineup you can take whispering helm earlier, at the very earliest after you complete shrunken head.
Other items, and why I hate most of them. Orange items means that they can be viable, Red items make me puke when I see a Madman with one.

Sacrificial Stone

- This item takes care of stats and regen, but completely neglects Madman's ability to carry late game. With the most recent nerf to this item I have no idea why you would build this item. I enjoy killing my enemies in seconds rather then chasing them down over the course of a team fight, thank you.

Hellflower

- This item is even more disgusting. Costs alot of gold, buildup has no real vital components other then mana regen, gives no hp, and has a single-targeted silence. You may get more mana regen out of it then a runed axe, but with a runed axe you don't have to use stalk/barrel roll as much anyway to farm. People that go hellflower on Madman due to its stats are clueless. Instead of either of these **** items, try:

Kuldra's Sheepstick

- You like mana regen? You like to "semi/pseudo carry?" You want a disable that far outdoes what Hellflower's silence could ever dream of? Go kuldra. If you intend to build Madman as a semi-carry there is absolutely no reason you should be taking sacrificial stone or Hellflower over Kuldra, ever.

Nullfire Blade

- Not that this item is bad, but it doesn't bring out Madman's potential as a hard carry. It's like going nullfire on tDL over Runed axe. If you need it that bad draft a SW or Valk who can get this item and use it more effectively with respect to their playstyle. Or even the newly buffed Electrician.

Shieldbreaker

- Damage? Oh yea. Lack of everything else Madman needs? Unfortunately. I used to take Shieldbreaker over Runed axe if my team had a Glacius, but since then Glacius has went from being a top hero to a mediocre one. Shieldbreaker is less effective as enemies stack more armor, so by the time you finish shrunken head there are quite a few items that are far more deadly, aka wingbow, savage mace or frostwolf skull.

Abysmal Skull

- Lifesteal is good. Mana regen isn't needed though, especially since it is fixed and we are concerning ourselves with scaling mana regen while using bottle/mana battery to keep ourselves up and ready early game. Get whispering helm over this.

Brutalizer

- I don't care if you are playing pubs. Learn how to carry properly.

Harkon's Blade

- This one is very situational. Used properly it can double or even triple your dps. Used without thought, it is pointless. Take Harkon's as a 6th item when shrunken head isn't needed. As strong as harkon's may be, it cannot replace lifesteal, nor runed axe, nor frostwolf skull, and personally I think the savage mace+ runed axe combo gives you enough dps even before armor reduction. If you absolutely do not need shrunken head, take harkon's as a 6th and final item.

Post Haste

- Stats are far more important early in the game. TP is worth the cost on some heroes, but Madman is certainly not one of them. You can replace steamboots with post haste if you have like a 75 min game with a full item build.

Daemonic Breastplate

- Wildcard of any carry hero. Often you won't need it, sometimes you will. The more noticeble perks are the armor reducing aura that works on structures...and, well, that's about it. Armor and the warpcleft component won't make Madman much stronger then he already is, at least as far as vitaility and dps is concerned.

Frostburn

- Frostburn is quite a strong item for certain heroes, but I find it personally redundant on madman. A maxed out madman deals out over 1k dps with this build, but that is under the most ideal conditions; it is much easier to apply the dps with a 30% slow rather then a 15% slow. Furthermore the MS gain is wasted. Frostwolf is 1100 g more expensive but as a hard carry money shouldn't really be an issue. Some carry heroes use frostburn better then frostwolf, like swiftblade and magebane. As for incredibly high single-target dps heroes like madman and tdl...stick to frostwolf.

Charged Hammer

- Basically there are better items out there, the IAS boost is really redundant when we already have berserk. Buying it for the extra farm is a bad excuse for it as runed axe is infinitely superior and getting both for farming purposes is overkill. Not a bad item overall but I would take savage mace before wingbow on madman, and wingbow before charged hammer. Too bad there are only 6 item slots in HoN.

Mock of Brilliance

- This item just doesn't fit Madman's playstyle. This isn't exactly a hero that farms up 3800 gold early in the game. Completely neglects mana regen, vitality, mana pool. Not worth the mock+ stalk synergy. This item worked on weaver in dota, but is far less practical on Madman.

Alchemist Bones

- There are far too many things you should worry about early game then rushing Alchemist bones. Luckily I have never seen a Madman go Alchemist bones, but there is a first for everything.

Riftshards

-You already have a crit. Get Savage Mace instead.

Rushed Shrunken head

- This hero builds as a carry later in the game, he isn't war beast or something. Believe me when I say no enemy will care that you're magic immune when you are struggling to manage your own mana.

Rushed Runed Axe

- Mana regen is nice, you still need to concern yourself with vitality and a bigger mana regen pool as well. Boost in farm that early from a runed axe is hardly noticeble. If you can rush a runed axe in 15 mins then you certainly do not need it to reinforce your creep stats, follow my core build and finish runed axe when it is actually useful. With that being said you shouldn't be rushing any dps items on Madman.