Upgrade
Mask of Madness
Stats
Abilities
Berserk
Gives 100 attack speed, 8% / 12% movement speed (ranged/melee), and 30% slow resistance, but reduces your armor by 7 and silences you. Lasts 6 seconds.
Lifesteal
Heals the attacker for a percentage of physical damage dealt.
Components
Strategy
Why Buy Mask of Madness?
Mask of Madness solves two problems at once and costs under 2000 gold to do it. The 24% lifesteal keeps you healthy through jungle camps and skirmishes without needing to back, and the Berserk active—100 attack speed, 12% movement speed for melee, and 30% slow resistance—is one of the most disgusting farming tools in the game at early timings. On the right hero, it also doubles as a kill tool: pop it on a stunned target, and you delete them in four seconds.
The catch is the silence and the minus 7 armor. Get caught mid-berserk by even one stun and you are dead.
When to Buy Mask of Madness?
This is a pure early-game farming accelerator. It belongs on right-click carries who need to hit their item timings fast and can survive the armor penalty—Wraith King, Sniper, Sven, etc. In the current 7.41 meta, where games are decided at the 20-25 minute mark, getting MoM down by minutes 8-10 and chain-clearing jungle camps is absolutely the correct play.
The later it gets, the less relevant it becomes—most players disassemble it mid-game anyway to slot the Morbid Mask into Satanic. Do not buy this on a squishy hero, a hero with no escape, or a lineup that can immediately chain-stun you the second Berserk lights up.
Tips & common mistakes
- · NEVER activate Berserk while you are visible to the enemy team and not already in a kill situation. The overhead silence icon added in 7.40b means every enemy on the map immediately sees you go into the vulnerable window. Pop it in the jungle; commit to a fight only when you are already on top of someone. · Berserk does NOT break channeling abilities on you. You can pop it while farming, switch to a fight, and not be interrupted mid-animation. This is more useful than it sounds for heroes who auto-attack between casts. ·
- The 30% slow resistance added in 7.41 is a genuine change—it makes chasing through roots and slows during Berserk significantly more viable than before. Heroes like Weaver who already have high movement speed become nearly impossible to kite during the active window. ·
- Plan the disassembly. If you are building toward Satanic later, do not waste gold upgrading other items that conflict with the morbid mask slot. MoM is a stepping stone, not a destination for most heroes.
Summary
Mask of Madness is a farming item first and a fighting item second—buy it early, clear fast, and plan to disassemble it before the enemy team has enough lockdown to punish the armor hole. If you are activating it in the middle of a teamfight without a stun already landed on the enemy, you are playing it wrong.
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Lore
Once this mask is worn, its bearer becomes an uncontrollable aggressive force.