I have included 2 different Glaive builds in this guide. Both take advantage of Glaive's high health. With these builds, Glaive becomes a durable, team-focused, utility tank with enough punch to finish off fragile carries. I added a Semi-Carry Build as an alternative to Pure Tank to suit a more aggressive playstyle. You can begin with building Pure Tank and later branch into a Semi-Carry to suit your game and playstyle.

I found the Pure Tank build through ShinKaigan's stream, where he demonstrated the effectiveness of a tanky, utility-focused Glaive. After struggling with WP Glaive, this build has really helped me win games with Glaive.

In early game, head down to the enemy side bush at the jungle shop and place the mine. Kite the two minions over to the bush and procede to farm safely. Proper placement of mines along this gold mine pit can secure many early kills and provide awareness. Next, buy Sprint Boots and the Energy Battery. The battery will makeup for Glaive's lack of energy sustain up until late game. Rush Stormguard Banner for its excellent health regen.

From there, you should focus on building a Chronograph into Warhorn along with T2 Boots. Once you have Warhorn and T2 boots, build Fountain of Renewal. Then build additional defense according to the enemy's build. Alternatively, build another Chronograph into Clockwork if feeling more offensive.

The rest of the build is pretty straightforward to build. The Fountain of Renewal can be replaced with other defensive items situationally (Aegis, Crucible, or Metal Jacket).

The core items of this build are Warhorn, Atlas Pauldron, and Clockwork. Notice that Warhorn is the first T3 item of this build; this is for a good reason. Warhorn allows Glaive to properly farm the jungle as he lasks enough offensive punch to take farm quickly enough. Along with health regen and decent cooldown acceleration (CDA), Warhorn also allows your team to secure kills in early game chases (or escape).

Atlas Pauldron will effectively counter high attack speed enemies that typically mow you down, such as Taka, SAW (early-mid game), and Glaive.

Clockwork's cooldown acceleration is great for Glaive's Afterburn ability which is both a great offensive ability and escape mechanism.

Build nearly identical up until Mid Game where Aftershock is rushed.

Warhorn - The farming speed and small bonuses like cooldown acceleration, health regen, energy regen, make this a must in any tank build. Warhorn makes it possible to build defense and yet farm as fast as other heroes throughout the game. The active will save you and your teammates in many situations and secure aces in close chases. I recommend getting this first.

Fountain of Renewal - The defensive stats plus health regen make this item a little bit too gold efficient (in fact I have a feeling this is going to change in a patch or so). The regen on top of Warhorn's regen will allow Glaive to tank in prolonged skirmishes without having to go back to base. The heal is good and can save your teammates from burns or DOTs that would otherwise kill. I recommend finishing this after Warhorn.

Frostburn - The slow is good for chasing down enemies but it's mostly about the energy sustain. Extra crystal power is a nice bonus. I recommend getting Energy Battery early, possibly earlier than Sprint Boots since Glaive's Afterburn is a quick getaway mechanism. I tend to not get Frostburn, however, until the very end of my build.

Aftershock - This goes along with the idea of making the best of Glaive's damage while keeping his abilities up (cooldown accel) and allowing him to utilize Afterburn in a lot of situations. You'll want to allow a basic attack in between each ability to make the most of this item in battle. I recommend getting this after Fountain of Renewal if you are not feeling pressed for more defense.

Crucible - Another defensive item that will allow Glaive to fill that tank role. This is mostly about the items active which is a team saver, so begin building it with Reflex Block. Use the shield to block ultimates, such as Skaarf's flamethrower or Koshka's YCF. Don't just use it for yourself - activate for teammates too! I recommend getting Reflex Block early if you run into situations where ults are killing you. However, Crucible should be finished at earliest after Fountain of Renewal, and at latest after Aftershock.

PASSIVE: Hunt the Weak
All of Glaive's crits become AOE cleaves. This is oriented towards a weapon build in my opinion, since Glaive will only crit often enough for this to be useful if you build weapon items. Even with my experience using weapon items, I didn't find this passive all that useful besides for farming.




Slices past enemies in a straight line and punts/stuns Gliave's next target in the direction he is facing. This ability is the most important for Glaive's ganking potential and makes him arguably the most dangerous early game ganker. Afterburn so that Glaive goes past enemies and can punt them into turrets (or allies).
Another use is for escaping. Afterburn's speed and precision is great for this and there is no better escape mechanism. Afterburn will allow you to fly straight through many of the walls on the map (there are walls thateven Glaive can't pass through).
The ability also allows Glaive to interrupt ult that are channeling and it's great for closing the gap between an inhaling Skaarf or a channeling Adagio. Similarly, you can use it to peel, or get enemies off your carry to protect them.
In late game, this item is great in chases - knock a fleeing enemy right back into the midst of your team. The sheer damage of flying through enemies and the punt that follows can burst down a low enemy. I recommend maxing this ability first ()however, you should get Twisted Stroke as your first ability.
Specific Weaknesses: Watch out on the Scoreboard for Reflex Block, Crucible, or Aegis. The enemy will be able to block your stun so that they are not punted or stunned. This can cause Glaive to rocket into a group, only to be denied a kill and focused down.




It's basically an instant critical strike but benefits from crystal power. Note that upgrading it will increase your crit chance and AOE damage when you cleave.
This is a great finisher for running enemies that are just out of your attack range. If they are low, spam tap this ability while chasing and it may kill the low enemy. It's also Glaive's main farming ability until he gets better offense or Warhorn. This becomes and important ability for Crystal Glaive.
In this build, I recommend getting it first for farming faster. However, don't bother maxing this ability (the 2 others are better).
Specific Weaknesses: Early on and without any energy items, Twisted Stroke will drain energy, so be conservative about using it.




Get Bloodsong stacks (max 20) from attacking or being attacked, increasing lifesteal. Activating will make Glaive spin in a large circle and deal damage to enemies in that circle. The damage scales with the amount of stacks on Glaive at the time and activating consumes all the stacks.
This is your burst move to kill enemies. Don't use it unless you're in a fight and it will get you a kill or get your teammates more kills. Since this is AOE it can really hurt the entire enemy team if used right. Don't be afraid to use it before 20 stacks just understand the general damage it will deal.
Specific Weaknesses: There aren't a lot of weaknesses for Glaive's ult in this build since he doesn't need to rely on lifesteal to survive. Be aware of its range. You can use it to kill low enemies just outside your attack range, but be careful on missing. And activate when the enemies are at low health or begin to run, since it will only weaken you at the start of a fight.

IN PROGRESS

Place mines in the bushes, such as near the gold mine and next to the lane. Enemies will often run into them while being chased and die, or be discouraged from stealing your farm. Also, they provide excellent map vision.

Glaive's Afterburn ability can be used to kick enemies into allied turrets and other allies which is lethal early game. Additionally, a lot of the walls in the jungle and along the lane can be passed through if Afterburn is landed on the opposite side of the wall. This is great for escapes as well as ambushes. Afterburn can also be used to catch enemies that are running away and prevent enemies from catching up to low health allies. Finally, if used properly, the stun will cancel ultimate's that are channeling.
Also, you can use Afterburn to quikly close distance between ranged carries and activate Atlas Pauldron, as they are usually going to kite a head-on approaching Glaive.

Early Game Advice: Don't go after enemies on long chases because your main objectivve is to deny as many jungle creeps and farm faster than the enemy. If you waste time chasing or end up dying, your early game is severely weakened.

Although this build may seem weak, since Glaive is typically known as a crit and attack speed monster, it actually has a few strengths over the common Weapon Glaive build. WP Glaive is going to be hard pushed to beat you once you have Atlas Pauldron. While you may not have the offensive potential to handle him, your allies will eat him alive once his attack speed is slowed.
Glaive's naturally high health complements the tankiness. Personally, I've found that his abilities and stats are sufficient up until late game without the aid of offensive items. Glaive really shines when he can use them to assist his allies. For example, use Warhorn when Skaarf does Dragon Breath or use Afterburn to catch and stun an enemy into Adagio's ultimate. With the Final Build, you should be mostly invincible, excepting the occasional ranged carry.

Try the build out and make sure to focus on proper and frequent use of his Afterburn which is a gamechanger. This is my first build and my ign is here: jungleToTheMax.
Thanks for reading!