Favor: Blade of the Serpent.  Starting Items Banded armor + health potion + totem of Revelation

1. Spit
2. Claws
3. Ooze
4. Spit
5. Grasp
6. Ooze
7. Spit
8. Ooze
9. save
10. Spit + Ooze
11. Inner Beast 1
12. Inner Beast 2
13. Inner Beast 3
14. Save
15. Spit + Acclimation

Item Buy Order:

• Banded Armor
• Health Potion
• Unbreakable Boots
• Nimoth's Chest
• Hauberk of Life
• Narmoth's Ring

I rarely if ever leave base with much money. Always keep a teleport or two on your for ganking (It pays itself back in spades) and a health potion or Sigil of Vitality (later) because fighting fair is for people who like to lose. I also pick up scale mail and/or gauntlets of bruatiliy with 'extra' money, but will always sell them off in favor of the HP items should I get the chance.

What do we see about the buy order?  That's right, no MPS items.  Why?  Because blade of the serpent is very close to all the mana you will likely ever need. I now *always* buy a health potion when I leave base the first time. A lot of people see a low HP beast (only 2k hp to start) and think that means they can try to pick on him.. turn it around with a healing potion and you'll often get that early kill.

I have written elsewhere about the Sigil of Vitality, but want to reiterate here: It is a Fantastic item, and goes beautifully in a build such as this, one that likes to lure people into thinking they can kill you, and then popping an item for 2k or 3k health.

A few notes on play:

Early Game (1 through 4)

This is when you rely mainly on spit for damage, and that is also how you get your mana back with the blade (That and auto attacks). Try to sucker people into following you, and then spit/potion to seal the kill.  Otherwise harrass with spit at most every opportunity.  If blade is on cooldown, and you have full mana, start taking out DG's or towers.

Mid game (5 through 9)

Make sure you always get the most out of your money, and keep teleport scrolls on you at all times.  You can help allies without even BEING there once the opponent knows you are lurking in the wings with an itchy teleport trigger finger. You have grasp, and you likely have 2 or 3 points in ooze to go with it, meaning you can tank some pretty impressive odds.  Once you get 4k hit points, start keeping sigils of vitality on you.. they really surprise people.  Use the Spooze combo: Spit on someone, turn on ooze, and grasp them.  WHILE GRASPED activate your blade of the serpent (maybe 1 second into grasp) this will negate grasp and let you attack again.  follow and spit again.  Does an amazing amount of damage while limiting opponents retaliation.  IN a pinch you can grasp and THEN spit to break the grasp.  Point is, use your ability to break grasp to allow you to activate abilities while you know your opponent isn't moving.

Also a good idea to get Priest grunts in here, as they will help keep you going in between combats.

Late Game (10+)

Sigils, Teleports, Flag locks. All else goes to citadel upgrades.  I know, you want an ashkandor, you want a Bulwark... but what you really want is to win, and that's what time it is.  Push and defend flags, lock and teleport, or just kick it there next to the portal. Push any advantage you can and you should wrap things up quickly.

Final thoughts: On turning a loss into a win.

As much as we like to strategize around best case scenarios, sometimes those aren't the ones we have to work with.  Perhaps someone on your team doesn't know how to stay alive, perhaps the opponents are all just... really good. Maybe someone dropped. What do you do when things go south?

First, remember the fine line between fight or flight.  It is easy to get used to 'fight' being the default approach... but you still have Spit, and you can still use it for harassment against a foe too strong for you to 1v1. In these cases, consider a wand of speed to add to your arsenal.

Sometimes what you need however, is to keep an ally alive who can't do it by themselves.  It is a difficulty proposition, but occasionally your best strategy is to baby sit a bit. Bad players may be hard to deal with, but often if you are around, and acting competent, opponents won't try to 1v2 you guys, and either force a bigger confrontation (2v2... which is a lot easier to win than a 1v1 would be) or prevent them from ganking outright.  It is a bit humiliating, but this can work.

Anyhow, I'm fairly certain this is about the best build for Beast right now.  Most people who argue about 'pure ooze' builds being at all good talk abou the need for mana items, and giving up weapon damage for them.  Blade gives damage, and then you only buy health items.  Also, any health difference is quickly  made up with spit damage (If pure ooze takes Blood of the fallen, a single rank 2 spit negates it).  Passive move speed boosts are nice... but rarely do you get as much out of those as another thousand or so damage.

So go for it, try to show me a build that's better, I'd love to see what people have come up with.