Eozm's Guide to Bloodstone
Table of Contents:- Item cost/composition
- Item stats
- Basic mechanics
- Analysis
- Item synergies
- Bloodstone users
- Grade A
- Grade B
- Grade C
- Grade D
- Conclusion
N.B. Please note my tldr parts at the end of each section of the Analysis in quote boxes. I'm trying to help people that are scared/bored by my legendary walls of text ^^
Item cost/composition:
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... wait that's not it.
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Perseverance - 1750g (875g + 875g)
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Soul Booster - 3300g (1000g + 1200g + 1100g) +
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Bloodstone - 5050gItem stats:+450 Hp
+400 Mana
+200% Mana regen
+6 Health/secIt has 2 'abilities'. One is to accumulate charges. This is done through killing heroes. For every kill, you gain 1 charge (except when you have no charge, your first kill gives you 2). Each charge gives you a net +2 health/mana per second. While it's not much for health, it's actually HUGE for mana. You lose a charge every time you die.
It's second ability is called
Redemption. It has a bunch of on death effects:
1) Restore 450 health and 400 mana to every allied unit in 1700 AOE around where you die
2) Gives you vision of 1800/1800 (actually nice at night, it's more vision than your allies get except for Nightstalker) around the area where you died
3) Gathers xp for you while you're dead in 1000 AOE around where you died
4) Makes you resurrect 10% faster if you have no charge, 20% faster if you have a charge
5) Makes you lose 20% less gold if you have no charge, 40% less gold if you have a charge
That's it! Lots of benefits for an item with no recipe, but ofc you have to die to use most of them, which is usually a bad idea.
Basic mechanics:There isn't much to say about the item itself in terms of mechanics. Pretty much everything was said above in terms of AOE of each ability, and the base thing it does is simply give you health, mana and regen.
Just for the sake of mechanics, the red rune that appears on the ground when you die is actually a dummy hero unit and that's the one gathering xp for you and giving you vision of the area.
For charges, as i said it's +2 charges if you have no charge, and +1 for every other kill, so basically when you score a kill you're sure to have at least 2 charges, the only way to have 1 charge being by dying when you have 2.
The 'if you have a charge' condition for Redemption effects considers the charge you had before death. So if you had 1 charge and die, you will drop to 0, but you will have the 'if you have a charge' bonuses. As far as i know, there is no cap to charges (never went above 30 to test, but you shouldn't realistically get there in a game anyway =p).
Analysis:Bloodstone should be considered as THE regen item. Be it for health regen or mana regen, it's the best item you can get simply because it's uncapped. With a single kill you have nearly as much health regen as Heart (+10, any further kill will make you surpass it) while a single kill gives you mana regen blowing away ANYTHING else by miles, even stuff like Orchid. +4 mana regen/second is simply huge, it's the same you would get from getting +100 Int (or say +50 Int if you have a Void Stone, or +25 Int if you have a Guinsoo). An Arcane Ring used on recharge gives you +3 mana/sec, and you're not even counting the +200% mana/sec that Bloodstone gives on top. When you're talking about mana regen, absolutely nothing compares if you have a single charge on the thing. If you have 4-5 charges, for nearly every hero it means infinite mana.
For people who dismissed the item as garbaged a long time ago, it's important to consider just how much it improved since it was introduced. It used to give +5 health/sec, +110% mana regen and +0.75 health/mana regen per charge. It's not even comparable to what you get now. While i agree that regen remains regen and is not THAT important, when you reach a certain amount and build around it it's actually very useful for some heroes.
The importance of charges for regen means that you should never look at Bloodstone as if it was an item you used 'if you plan to die' because of Redemption effects either. Quite the opposite, to have a truly efficient Bloodstone you must stack charges on it and NOT die. A Bloodstone with no charge is a pretty average item, but as i said if you can get a single kill for 2 charges then the regen starts being nuts, and a few more is just incredible.
It also means that in most cases a Bloodstone is a rushed item and the first thing you get on your hero. And i mean it's pretty logical too looking at what it gives : health, mana and regen, full of early game win. And the earlier you can get it, the earlier you can start stacking charges on it, and a highly charged Bloodstone can actually be pretty ridiculous when you're basically fighting as if you were in your fountain all the time (and if you get 7-8 charges, that's really how it feels).
That being said, the Redemption effects are actually very good should you die in a team battle. First, the heal is actually very, very big AND it restores a vast amount of mana (pretty much insures everyone else is full mana till the end of the fight). The AOE is so huge that you can be sure everything is affected if it was part of the fight at all. 450 health is the same as 600 spell damage negated, so it's as much as healing the damage of a level 3 Sonic Blast, nearly as much as 2 Mek shot at once. Assuming you have a charge, you rez 20% faster and lose 40% less gold, which is actually massive. Later in the game, dying can mean rezzing in 60+ second, and 20% faster rez means you save 10-18 seconds faster and this can actually make a significant difference, especially in the case where you die trying to push and the other team heals and counter pushes right after. Rezzing 10-15s faster can easily be the difference between being raxed or holding the boat while allies respawn. 40% less gold is nearly half, which means that instead of losing 300-500g when you die you will lose something like 180-300g, it really makes a good difference. The xp gain is really nice should you die early in a team fight, since it will allow you to share the xp on further hero kills, which can be a significant amount. It's not uncommon to die with Bloodstone and rez a level higher. The vision is rarely much useful, but it can have some advantage at times.
The important thing to consider about Bloodstone though is this : it gives NO active ability and NO damage. So if your hero is NOT able to do his job through his skills alone, then it's likely not the best thing to get. What it does is pretty much insures that if you can do what you need with your own skills, it will make sure you always have the mana for it and regens your health very fast so you can be active on the map pretty much at all time, either farming or ganking.
QUOTE(TLDR)
- Bloodstone is at its core a regen item, and you should play around it
- It's NOT an item for planning to die, but its bonuses are very good if you do
- Should be rushed since it covers for your early game better than any other item can and you should get started on the charges ASAP
- Keep in mind that by getting Bloodstone you sacrifice any kind of extra active ability or damage, so only get it if your hero is sufficient with his skills alone
The build up:The build up of Bloodstone is possibly its biggest advantage. As i said above, it is full of early game win. Now that Bottle has been nerfed and is not the be-all-end-all of regen items (you'll likely want max 1 per team on some kind of permanent ganker like Beast, NA or PotM to control runes, but if you DON'T get runes regularly the regen you grab from fountain is severly lacking), along with Perseverance actually seriously buffed (basically +25% better at everything compared to 6.48 while being a bit cheaper), it becomes pretty much the best early game item for a hero that wants a mix of constant health/mana regen.
The Soul Booster part is also full of early game win. It's raw health and mana, which is often what you need the most at this stage for any hero relying on their skills (nukers, etc.). It lets you survive the other team's nukes while throwing more of your own.
All parts are relatively easy to farm, 1200g for Point Booster being the highest but also giving a lot for its cost. Every part is a solid addition as you acquire it (RoH fixes your health regen, Void your mana regen, Perseverance gives you better last hitting in lane, Point + Vit Boosters fix your health and mana, and well Energy Booster gives you a completed Bloodstone ^^). Another small advantage over some other items is that everything can be bought out of the secret shop (and sideshop for RoH). If you're doing good in lane you can gradually buy everything without ever going back to base, and one the Bloodstone is done you're close to walking fountain so you won't need to visit base often at all during the game!
It also saves you from buying other early game items, which is a major advantage. When you look at the cost of a Bloodstone, you can't really say that it's 5050g. Because if you didn't get it, you would've need to get most of what it gives through a mix of other early game items. For example, say you go as cheap as possible, 2 Bracers and a Bottle (pretty standard in 6.48 on nearly any hero). That's 1600g invested (and a Bottle as i said is actually kinda sucky for real regen now, you might want still a Pers, or a Void Stone + HoIW, etc...). With a Bloodstone, you can grab 4 Branches at start with Tangoes and Clarities if needed, and go straight for it. No other item needed at all (well, boots but that's true for any build). So in the end, you pay 3400g more for a Bloodstone than you would have for buying 2 Bracers and Bottle, but you get infinitely better regen, twice the health and 5 times the mana. In terms of cost efficiency, it is actually pretty cheap when you consider what you DON'T buy because you're buying it.
Usually, a good build up order for rushing a Bloodstone would be:
4 Branches, 4-6 Tangoes, 0-2 Clarities (depends on hero for clarities)
- if you have less than 3 tangoes left when you have 875g, buy RoH, otherwise Void Stone (assuming again that your hero can use it to spam spell in lane, like Krob or Leshrac)
- complete your Perseverance for good lane regen + last hitting power
- buy Point Booster, Vit Booster and Energy Booster in that order
If you're in a lane against stuff like dual stun and you need a health boost fast, forget Void Stone before a while and do RoH-Point Booster (or even Vit Booster if you think it's needed) instead. Mana regen is never vital to laning, it just makes you better at farming and harassing, but survival comes first!
QUOTE(TLDR)
- Excellent build up for early game because all parts help you right away and are needed early (health, mana, and regen of both)
- All parts are fairly cheap so easy to farm
- Not as costy as it seems because if you didn't grab a Bloodstone, you'd still need health, mana and some regen of both for most heroes in one way or another, and grabbing a Bloodstone allows you to skip all those other items (Bracers and Bottle for example)
Disassembly:Bloodstone is an item that disassembles quite well. You can grab Ring of Health, Void Stone and Soul Booster all separately from it. So for example if you buy a Bloodstone early and later on you got enough regen and you just want more effects, you could easily break it, use Soul Booster to make an Aghanim's, use Void Stone to make a Guinsoo and, well, keep or sell RoH.
It's also a really good starting item for a hero that would want to go Aghanim's-Refresher. There isn't all that many of those, but say you're planning for it on Zeus or Rhasta, grabbing a Bloodstone to settle your health, mana and give you big regen early in the game can be nice. Afterwards you can add a Mystic Staff and Obliv Staff whenever you can afford them, break it all and build Agh-Refresh straight from there. It makes the build up much smoother for most heroes aiming for an Aghanim's.
Although if you do well in the game and manage to get 7-8 charges, your Bloodstone is often worth more than what Aghanim's would do for you except maybe for Ogre Mage and Witch Doctor.
You could also do a full progression with the item for usefulness of items as the game progresses, doing something like Bloodstone->break in Aghanim's, and then buy an Ultimate Orb and break everything into Guinsoo + Soul Booster (because for most heroes, Aghanim's buff endgame is not worth a Guinsoo, but around the end of midgame it can make the difference).
QUOTE(TLDR)
- Can very well be used as a starting item for Aghanim's and possibly Refresher at the same time.
- Can use it for a 'gradual' build up from early to endgame of an Int hero of Bloodstone->Aghanim's->Guinsoo
- Gauge how much it's worth to break your Bloodstone though, cause a high charged Bloodstone can be worth more than Aghanim's and depending on your hero (for example Leshrac) even more than Guinsoo.
Learning to put Regen to good use:That's really important when you buy an item like Bloodstone. Simply put, Bloodstone being an uncapped regen item has huge potential. But if you don't build and play around it, regen is not that good. It's not in the middle of a fight that regen kicks in most of the time, it's at the start of a fight, at the end of a fight and anywhere between. And your item build can influence this a lot too.
So, how do you play to maximize the use of regen?
First, for item build, there's something pretty simple : maximize damage reduction over health. The only exception being ofc if you face massive pure damage dealers like OD or Silencer, cause that won't work against them and the only thing working is raw health (at least Bloodstone gives quite a bit). But ok, ignore those fights against not-so-popular heroes. Why is damage reduction better? It's simple, it makes every hit point count for more, and thus regening +20-30 health/second becomes incredible. This leads to great item synergy with a few items that will be discussed below and what i now call my Int Tank build which is Bloodstone-Hood-Shiva. Maximize health regen and damage reduction against both spells and physical damage while having a decent health pool allowing you to take full advantage of regen.
Second, you have to consider pre-fight. Depending on the hero you have, it's not always possible, but pre-fight harassment when you have high regen can be really good. The best for that is Krob with her ridiculous range, 5s cooldown 300 damage nuke and high MS. If your team is about to push, or theirs is, or you see a hero farming in a lane, you can practically stay out of range and just throw Carrion over and over doing back and forth and still be full when the fight start. If you have something like Hood + Bloodstone, it can also be good to make them waste some nukes on you too. Sometimes just going ahead a bit in a fight and eating a few nukes for your allies and then backing can let you soak a lot of damage or make them waste some mana they can't regen as easily and you will quickly get your health back up. Ofc you have to use common sense and not suicide, but the speed at which you regen from nuking with Hood-Bloodstone is simply amazing and taking some nukes for your team can help a lot. But this part is pretty situational and depends a lot of the game and the hero, so it's not so important.
Midfight is a no-brainer, just spam everything as best as you can. Regen doesn't change much there. The big difference is only if you get really hurt. If you have high damage reduction and high regen (say just Bloodstone-Hood is enough), the important part when you get hurt is to back but not run far (unless being chased ofc). Often in about 5-10s you can have enough health/mana back to go back in the fight as it ends, either to help allies escape or to help finishing off the other team.
In the chasing part, either being chased or chasing, the mana/health regen improves your chances of escaping or finishing your target significantly.
And the most important part is to maximize your farming between fights. That's possibly THE biggest advantage of having high health/mana regen. You can quickly get your health back up just going through the jungle farming as it will just regen fast naturally. Your high mana regen means you can spam spells on creeps to clear them fast and take the least damage possible. With a hero like Leshrac, it means that you can pretty much go through the jungle doing Edict-Pulse Nova and a few Split Earth all over the place to clear mass creeps asap. This allows you to grab more gold between fights, and that's what regen is the best at.
QUOTE(TLDR)
- Maximize damage reduction over health
- Learn to harass before fights/pushes
- Maximize your farming by skipping fountain trips by simply regening through jungle/lane and spam your spells to farm as fast as possible, which makes you harder to gank since you're on the move constantly and lets you take part in fights more often.
Criterias to determine if your hero is good for a Bloodstone or not:- Are your skills on their own sufficient to do your job, or do you require specific items for it (Dagger, BKB, extra damage, etc.)
- Do you have potential mana usage that benefits from very heavy mana regen (usually means that you can use spells to farm very fast if you have the mana for it and have a very heavy mana use in fight that requires high regen to save fountain trips)
- Will you have to tank to some extent. Bloodstone helps a lot for it, and if you die the extra effect is neat
- Do you have a good way to score kills. Getting charges is still pretty important, and having a good finisher can be nice to quickly charge up your bloodstone.
Note that you don't necessarily need a yes to all of those to buy a Bloodstone, but it's all good considerations to have.
Item synergy:In order to maximize the effectiveness of your Bloodstone's regen, as i said damage reduction is the best. Therefore there are 2 items that are usually perfect with it:
Hood is possibly the item i buy most of the time i get a Bloodstone unless i'm in a pub full of carries. Not only does it help maximizing the effect of your health regen by reducing the damage taken, it also gives you a LOT of health regen on its own. With no charges, with Hood-Bloodstone you already have +14 health/sec regen and you only take a real 50% damage from spells. This means that you regen from a full 300 damage nuke in about 10 seconds. Makes you pretty much impossible to harass, and in 'siege' fights around towers there is no 'softening you' with long range AOE nukes. When you get charges, say 5, you go up to 24 health/sec which means that you regen the damage from a 300 nuke in 5s. It's extremely efficient.
Shiva's Guard also allows you to reduce the damage taken by tons, this time vs physical damage. And it gives a very nice AOE nuke that snares. Just a generally good addition, but not always necessary depending on the team compositions.
Mek is a cheaper way to get armor (around 6 and +2 when activated), some extra health and mostly a good heal. For some heroes the mana cost is sometimes too high along with their skills, but with Bloodstone that should never be a problem. The synergy with your heal on death is also really good if it happens. Activating Mek and then dying means that you healed everyone for 700 health, which is nearly 1k worth of AOE. It can practically erase the effect of a major AOE ultimate. But ofc you died, that part isn't good, but sometimes you just can't prevent it and if it makes your team win the fight, it's worth it!
The synergy isn't as clear here because Bloodstone and Dagon are in theory 2 items that should be rushed. But it can work well on a few heroes that do rush Dagon. Once you have a rushed Dagon, the main problem you face afterwards is that you have low health and it's EXTREMELY taxing on your mana pool (you usually empty all your mana doing your hero's skill combo + dagon). Following up with a Bloodstone can help a lot to use your Dagon without a worry regularly without ending up with big mana problem while covering for your health at the same time.
Bloodstone users:Again, the part most are interested in. I will again classify the heroes that can use it by Grade, from A to D. Grade A means that it should be acquired as your main core item on them in most cases as it fits them very well. Grade B means that it's a solid alternative item on them but not an absolute core. Grade C means that it can be used for a fun build or is situational. Grade D means that it has some synergy but mostly as a fallback item or that i consider that there are nearly strictly superior builds.
Grade A:
Leshrac is a hero that should imo rush a Bloodstone in every game. He has a yes to every consideration. He's totally fine with his skills alone, he doesn't need stuff like dagger or Eul's. A BKB is good, but not required to be rushed the way a CM or Enigma needs it. He can farm very fast with high mana regen and burns a LOT of mana in fights so he needs to get it back up between fights and saving fountain trips sure helps. He has to tank cause he needs to be in the middle of everything to hurt with his ulti, and if he dies doing it the heal will help your team for sure and save you gold/rez time. And he's good at scoring kills being an AOE nuke machine. If you want an Aghanim's later you can always break it, but hell i wouldn't most of the time if you got 3-4+ charges on your Bloodstone, cause the regen is just amazing to have. My standard build on Lesh now is BStone-BoT-Hood-Shiva, and if the game is still going after that (wtf?) Aghanim's.
Another hero that is a great Int tank. She sure has use for extra mana with a 5s cd huge AOE nuke. She needs to tank because of her ulti and even building as a tank she tends to die a lot because she's such a major threat in pushes destroying towers and raxes like they were nothing that everyone wants her down, and then the heal and faster rez/less gold lost is great. Her skills are really enough to do her job considering her job is pretty much surviving while her ulti rapes. And she can score kills out of her ulti and carrion pretty well. It's really incredible to have a completed Bloodstone on Krob early, it lets you be very aggressive with Carrion spam before the other team is high level to ignore it a bit more and can allow for some heavy pushing because they just can't hide behind a tower with you shooting carrions at them non-stop. A Bloodstone Krob is seriously nothing comparable to a non-Bloodstone Krob midgame.
Those are the only 2 that i believe fall in the A category of MUST GET a Bloodstone. But the B category have a lot of worthy candidate that can certainly grab one as a solid item, it's just not a 100% must get.
Grade B:
Invoker is a hero i would be tempted to put in Grade A. It's definitely an excellent item on him, covering for his heavy health and mana needs. The reason i don't is because i don't feel confident stating 'superior' item builds on Invoker. There's just too many ways to play him, and many items that can fit. But a Bloodstone is personally what i try to rush every time.
Zeus can certainly use heavy mana regen, is extremely good at scoring kills, and he needs mostly health and mana. If you don't need him to do something fancy like Eul's or Agh's, it fits him perfectly, and leads very well into an Aghanim's-Refresher build which can be worth it sometimes.
Bloodstone is SURPRISINGLY efficient on Enchantress. You have to try Bloodstone on Enchantress to see just how well it fits her. It makes you nearly unkillable, with very high health regen (she's good at farming a fast Bloodstone through ridiculous laning AND good at scoring kills with Impetus afterwards), actually very decent health, and a huge mana pool/mana regen to just spam Impetus, your heal and Charm non-stop. Enchantress is actually very mana dependant and needs high regen, and Bloodstone helps it a lot. It doesn't raise your damage much, but tbh you don't notice much of a difference since most of it comes from Impetus anyway. But it's mostly the survival that's ridiculous. An enchantress with 4-5 charges of Bloodstone and a Hood is one of the biggest tanks in the game. And the big advantage you have over other items is the towerdiving you can do by having a big health pool and crazy regen between your heal and Bloodstone. You can just chase people all over the place spamming Impetus. You have to try it to see how it can compete with stuff like Guinsoo, but it actually can.
If you go for a caster build, i personally consider Bloodstone superior to Arcane Ring since its recent buffs. Mostly because it also covers for your health regen (which you'd have to buy something for otherwise) and because once you have a full Bloodstone, it's superior to Arcane Ring + Soul Booster while you complete Aghanim's. Obviously when you have a Mystic Staff you just break your BStone and build it, and you can then turn your Pers into either Battle Fury or a Linken's. But all in all if you want to play caster Ogre Mage going for Aghanim's, a Bloodstone is a great stepping stone for it.
He's good at scoring kills, he can certainly use the mana regen, and he can even kill himself at will! Since it gives so much regen, it's actually a very decent item for techies to rush. Sure he doesn't need the health much, true, but the big regen and the heal that he can throw in a fight out of it is actually very good.
While in a competitive game you're extremely unlikely to finish it, in a pub game you can aim for Aghanim's-Refresher on him and Bloodstone is the perfect item to get early for it. It helps a lot with the mana to use Voodoo AND Lightning AND Net AND wards in a fight and actually regen for another one eventually without going to fount. Aghanim's-Refresher on Rhasta is simply game breaking and is close to an auto-win unless the other team has an extremely farmed tank, but it's pretty hard to hope farming it anywhere serious. But in any case, Bloodstone is still very good on him, but Eul's is also a good alternative that would likely be preferable in a competitive setup for its higher utility.
A bit of a controversial hero. Bloodstone is actually surprisingly good on Bristleback. It gives him huge mana to spam everything at will which helps farming significantly, but more importantly is the uncapped health regen. When you start getting charges, it's just stupid. BB is the epitome of damage reduction in the game and he makes regen extremely efficient, while being fairly decent at scoring kills. The regen you can get out of a Bloodstone if you get some charges wins games. A rushed Bloodstone followed by a Rad eventually can go very well.
While i personally try to aim for a Guinsoo with him, in some cases you just see that you won't get it, or your team has somehow enough disables that it's not truly needed, and a Bloodstone actually fits him well. Lion burns a damn lot of mana in a fight and is also a high priority target, so he can sure use the big mana pool, the big health and the regen between fights. Since he tends to die eventually in a fight too by being a high priority kill, the heal sure helps.
I put Pudge in B simply because it's so hard to farm it on him. But i do believe that like Lesh-Krob, Bloodstone-Hood-Shiva is pretty much the best build you can get on him. It gives him huge health regen which he definitely needs, he's pretty incredible at scoring kills, and Shiva if you ever get there adds a very nice slow to stack with Rot and big armor. But the big problem with Pudge has always been farming anything like that, so it's hard. Managing a rushed Bloodstone if somehow you have a particularly good early game can work out great though, and could very well replace a Bottle and Hood if you can manage it. But that part isn't all that easy.
Bloodstone Axe actually works very well. You have to make use of Hunger for it to be worth it (not necessary to max it right away, but max it by level 10 if possible), but Hunger spam is actually fairly powerful in many situations like chases or to screw up low health heroes retreating from a fight, and Axe is pretty good at scoring kills early-mid out of Culling and Hunger depending. It's a pretty surprising build but all in all does work very well, and since he's 'the' tank, having an ability to heal others if you die and less of a penalty if you die is nice.
He's another hero that can make good use of it as a stepping stone to Aghanim's. The way i build this is simply rush a Bloodstone, mass gank to charge it and cause you always have health/mana with charges, farm BKB, and then a Mystic Staff. Once you have Mystic Staff, break your Bloodstone and make an Aghanim's. It works very well as an overall build up on WD. Bloodstone also lets you use your Voodoo efficiently earlier in the game, which can help your allies a lot.
If you're not going for some pub carry Dazzle, Bloodstone is a pretty nice alternative. On Dazzle, i build it along with a Mek. Simply put, Dazzle is a guy that tends to just die every damn fight in competitive games because he's ridiculously frail. But he needs some mana regen and he needs a big health pool, and Bloodstone covers for it. A Dazzle with Mek + Bloodstone is actually not easy to kill, and this allows him to hang around and heal for a long time with Shadow Wave spam. And if you decide to kill him before the others, you're pretty sure that he will have healed for tons before, and Redemption for another 450 and refilling the mana of others, so basically if Dazzle dies first there's good chances that everyone else in your team afterwards is still nearly full out of all the heals he threw and also has the mana to keep going. This can really turn a fight and it also penalizes him less for dying while he puts Shallow Grave on others so they're not punished much for dying either. He's not that good at charging Bloodstone, but out of his very high Int and having a natural heal, on him the regen is actually not the main reason you get it but instead it's for the health pool and Redemption.
Necrolyte is another 'Int tank'. He tends to go frontline and soak a lot of damage. Bloodstone-Shiva works really good on him, with a Hood on top if needed. It lets him just hang out in the middle of everything spamming his nuke over and over, and the mana regen helps a lot since EVEN with Sadist he finds ways to run out of mana, with 500 on his Ulti and 185 every 5s out of Death Pulse. Not necessarily 'the' way to play him, but it does work out very well especially if you're expected to tank to some extent.
Grade C:
If you go for more of a 'pure tank' build, Bloodstone actually fits Panda well. He needs a decent amount of mana, and the health is a good addition too. He's actually mostly skill dependant, spending most of the important fights in his Ulti form, and Bloodstone can let him regen extremely fast while using Ulti to come out again full health/mana. If you don't need him to DPS, it can be an interesting alternative, something like rush a Bloodstone and then slowly farm a Radiance, a bit like Bristleback.
While i wouldn't consider it an optimal build on DK, it actually makes him one of the best early-midgame tank there is. It gives him lots of mana to spam his Breathe + Tail which are both powerful midgame, and high health + absolutely retarded health regen AND high armor can make him extremely hard to get rid of. For a team early pushing and requiring a tank for it, a Bloodstone DK could be a very interesting and original way to do it, with his EDF1 to damage towers and his Breathe-Tail spam out of Bloodstone. But if you plan to carry, it's not really what i'd go for, but you could still always follow it with something like Hyperstone-Burriza straight since your health/mana are already covered.
For a tank Omniknight this could work too. If your team badly lacks a tank, you could always just grab a Bloodstone. It gives you massive mana to spam your support spells and you can soak damage with the big health/regen. Add a Mek afterwards for more healing and you have a pretty nice tank/support hero. But you wouldn't be much of a threat out of your support spells, so the only way to 'tank' would be to play it a bit 'stupid' and rush in front of your allies to draw focus fire.
Bloodstone can be an interesting build for a Venomancer aiming for Aghanim's. It gives you massive mana regen and a decent health pool to just gank all over the place, and in team fight since what happens with Venomancer is nearly always 'rush in, Shadow Strike, ulti, die', at least you'd have the heal to offer others. And eventually you can complete that Mystic Staff and break your Bloodstone in Aghanim's which is actually pretty nice on him. And make your Pers into a Refresher for 2 x Poison Nova! No, that was a joke (unless they stack... but i doubt it!)
Bloodstone on Medusa is somewhat hilarious. It makes you a ridiculous tank. With huge regen of BOTH mana and health, and a good pool of both too, you're just so freaking hard to kill. And you can spam Purge/Chain Lightning all over without worrying about mana. A Bloodstone->BFly build on her makes her decent at DPS and extremely hard to take down, but there's likely other superior options (like Orchid for your mana and something else for your health). Still, not to be totally dismissed and i might even raise her to Grade B eventually.
If you aim for Aghanim's-Refresher it can be worth it. It could also be used to play tank and have your mana well covered. All in all though, it's not necessarily the best item for him, but if you wanna do caster Luci it can be nice. The nice thing is that he can farm it up extremely fast out of Devour early game, and grab charges quickly afterwards too with Doom.
If you actually aim for Aghanim's, it would be a very good item to start with to have the regen to gank non-stop all over the map and even level Shadow Strike since you'd have enough health/mana covered and enough mana to use all your spells. But you won't carry out of it.
Anti-Mage can actually make good use of this. One of the main thing Anti-Mage need is health regen, and this can let him grab some nifty one. He won't have the damage reduction from Vanguard, but he'll have a much bigger health pool and the damage reduction can actually be covered easily by 2 Stouts if you want. Imo higher health is superior to a Hood on Anti-Mage for spell resistance too since his natural one is already very high, and having heavy mana regen is actually very nice to Blink non-stop and still have mana to ulti. It's not an item build that should be dismissed at all and PTreads->Bloodstone->BFly could be a really nice build overall. It's not like Bloodstone costs a lot more than Vanguard + Hood, and the mana you get on top can be very interesting.
If in a fun game you aim for Aghanim's, you could start with Bloodstone and split it in Agh-Linken's later. But i'm not saying this is how he should be played in a competitive game! However a Bloodstone still does good at covering his health and gives him excellent regen to spam his spells at will (which can be costy), so it's not entirely bad either and can certainly be a decent start up build for him.
Can be decent to cover her health, mana and regen and she's very good at scoring kills. However i nearly always prefer to have active items on Lina like Eul's, Shiva or Guinsoo to add to her utility since otherwise after you cast your 3 nukes you're kinda pointless in a fight, even though those 3 nukes are usually enough to do the job.
Grade D:
Now that you can actually spam Soul Rip and Plague, he can burn up mana very fast, and being able to tank some is nice for him too. It can be nice if you go for a Radiance first. However to have a mix of health and mana i prefer getting a Skadi, it's harder but a completed Skadi on Dirge is actually pretty scary cause Plague + Frost Orb lets you destroy people. But mostly i prefer to rush items with an effect, like Necro3, Dagon3, Guinsoo, Mek-Eul's or Radiance, and unless i pick Radiance i won't want a Bloodstone afterwards, and with Radiance i'd possibly try for a Skadi. But it could work as some fallback item if you have a hard time staying alive and farming well in a given game, covering all your basic needs to do your job of spamming Soul Rip and Plague and staying alive for your aura.
Pit Lord that wants to tank can use a Bloodstone to cover his mana at the same time, but i'd only do that if i'm going for a Rad. Rad-Bloodstone gives him very good health and excellent mana. However it's overkill overall for the mana, and i find that Shiva's Guard rush is by far the best build for him, and Shiva cover his mana enough. Not a bad item, but not a competitive one.
CM can sure use the health and the mana especially if she uses Freezing Field. But the main problem of CM is that she also need Dagger and BKB, so the chances you'll get that are kinda inexistant. But if freezing field changes in some way, she could make good use of it, but still there's possibly better core. Could always be used as a fallback item when all goes wrong though, at least by dying in the middle of your freezing field you'll heal others!
Dark Seer can actually burn up a damn lot of mana, and he can certainly need health if he wants to run in the middle of everything with Ion Shell. But in general, i find that there's better skill builds such as Shiva->Refresher, Necro3->Refresher, Eul's-Mek->Refresher or Guinsoo->Refresher. I think i like Refresher on him as a secondary big item...
If for some unknown reason someone still does Agh-Refresher on her, i'd very likely get that first. With the kills from eclipse you'd have insane regen out of that and it covers for your health, so afterwards you just farm everything else and eventually break it all in Agh-Refresher and do massive ulti damage in a fight, and just hope it's enough cause your damage will seriously suck.
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