The ever present Juggernaut
Juggernaut has always been a popular pick in both competitive and casual Dota. His skillset offers a great mix of offensive and defensive abilities which are relevant throughout the whole game. Relatively recent changes to his BAT have also solidified his position as a farming carry, with potential AS second only to Alchemist.
Brief History
The hero has been played in many ways. Originally Juggernaut was played as any other farming melee core would be—
Battle Fury was the staple first item choice. Later, after some tweaks to 
Omnislash, the 
Aghanim's Scepter rush has become prevalent. Before the changes to BAT Juggernaut would generally fall off rather quickly and going for extra tankiness and reduced ultimate cooldown was considered to be the best option—this build has allowed him to fight continuously and close off games before the enemy cores came online.
Then came the 
Mask of Madness era. A value point in each skill and maxed out stats was the most popular build at the time. While being undeniably effective, this MoM craze has made Juggernaut and several other heroes less unique—it was no longer about the abilities the heroes had, but rather about what stats they brought to the table. Luckily it did not take too long for the game to stabilise itself after what some perceived as a game design disaster.
As of now, the hero has returned to his original state with a focus on his unique abilities rather than his stats, partly due to the cooldown nerfs to the early levels of 
Blade Fury, partly because of the MoM nerfs. His skill build is still quite open, with different players prioritizing different abilities, but Blade Fury is always maxed out first, usually with value points in 
Healing Ward and 
Blade Dance. Investing early level of stats for an increased mana pool is also not uncommon, but it is rarely a priority afterwards.
Meta Data
The hero excels in the middle MMR brackets with the highest win rate of 51.79% in 3-4k. Except for 5k+ games, the hero has a 50%+ win rate in all brackets and even at its worst it is still at a respectable 49.65%.
Juggernaut is primarily played in the safe lane with an insignificant presence in the offlane. In the offlane, the hero is generally accompanied by a support, however solo hard is not completely out of the question— it is rarely the most efficient way to lane the Juggernaut though.
His pick rate has been stable throughout pretty much the full history of Dota 2—he has always been in the top 5 most picked heroes, partly due to his relative simplicity, partly due to his effectiveness. Subjectively speaking, he is also one of the more fun heroes to play—effective early game aggression coupled with inspiring battle-cries make for a very popular pub hero.
Understanding item builds
One of the biggest reasons Juggernaut has always been popular in the professional scene is his flexibility—depending on the item build the hero’s role can range from a tempo-controlling pushing semi-core, to an effective late-game carry. Understanding the reasoning behind the item choices is key to playing an effective Juggernaut and in most cases his proper itemization depends on the other 9 heroes in the game—complementing the strengths of his team while exploiting the weaknesses in the enemy lineup is mandatory.
Some of the items, such as 
Drum of Endurance, are pretty much a staple on the hero and are not interesting to discuss, hence the focus will be aimed towards item choices which are heavily debated or highly situational.
Battle Fury
The biggest discussion in Juggernaut’s item build revolves around Battle Fury. Over the last several years, opinions on this item have varied between both extremely negative and extremely positive. After the MoM craze died out, it was ! who reintroduced the infamous Battle Fury into the professional scene and the item has become somewhat of a staple since then.
The benefits of the item are quite self-explanatory—it increases the farming speed of the hero by a decent margin and in the case of Juggernaut it also opens up the ability to take out large stacks of ancients. The downside is equally obvious—the item offers little in teamfights and for 4500 gold it can become a liability, if the Juggernaut’s team loses control of the tempo.
As such, it is advised to carefully evaluate the early game before the purchase—when behind Battle Fury can be a game-losing item, even if purchased in a timely manner. However, if your team is breaking even in the laning stage or manages to get ahead, it can be one of the best investments.
Manta Style vs. 
Sange and Yasha
There will always be an argument surrounding Manta Style vs. Sange and Yasha as a stat item. The latter offers slightly higher move speed and tankiness at the expense of damage and the ability to dispel and disjoint some disables or debuffs. The cost of Manta Style is also substantially higher, hence the answer to which of the items is better is not clear-cut.
In most games an early 
Yasha is non-negotiable. The item offers a lot of farming potential both through an increase in DPS and through a MS increase. It also synergises well with the skill set of the Juggernaut, since he is extremely reliant on movespeed in all stages of the game. Moving on from the Yasha becomes a bit trickier.
In general, it is not uncommon to see the casual Yasha until much later in the game, when it is eventually upgraded into Manta Style, however going for S&Y can be forced by the circumstances in the game. Overall, it is not a bad idea to go for S&Y when facing an aggressive line-up—the return on the extra tankiness can significantly outweigh the downsides of having a less slot-efficient item.
Diffusal Blade
This item choice is not debatable in most games. Its main purpose is to dispel 
Ghost Scepters, since they can completely ruin the effectiveness of Juggernaut in the late-game.
This, however, does not mean that the item is weak on its own—it offers a lot of extra DPS and some intelligence, which can come in handy in prolonged engagements. Moreover, it synergises exceptionally well with Manta Style, while giving a small amount of extra damage during Blade Fury.
Going for this item as 3rd or 4th slot is not uncommon, especially when facing lineups with little burst—Juggernaut is not a naturally tanky hero and is sometimes forced to go for items to become more survivable.
Blink Dagger
This item is slowly becoming what it was in the pre-6.50 era in a sense that it is now a staple on pretty much any melee core. The versatility of this item is among the highest in the game and in many cases it is what enables Juggernaut to be effective in the later stages—focusing down a support or two before the fight even started, can snowball your team into victory.
While providing no DPS on its own, this item should not be underestimated. The potential uses for it include initiation, focus change during the Omnislash, escape when split-pushing and farm speed boosting. As such, it should be considered a core item in most games.
Later in the game it can be used with 
Abyssal Blade and Manta Style and Diffusal Blade for Anti-Mage-like jumps onto the enemy.
Aghanim's Scepter
Once the go-to item is currently heavily undervalued in both professional and pub scenes. With the carry aspect of the hero substantially buffed, many players have decided that going for pure DPS from auto-attacks over DPS from abilities is more efficient and while it is not far off the truth, there are certain exceptions.
With a cost similar to S&Y and Battle Fury, Aghanims Scepter fills the mid-game item slot. Its effectiveness is dependent on the ability of Juggernaut’s team to profit from a reduced cooldown. As such it is best used in aggressive lineups with low-cooldown abilities AND against team with low mobility which concentrate on team-fights and have no natural 
Eul's Scepter of Divinity carriers. These restrictions result in a rather narrow scenarios of when this item is going to be more effective that the substitutes, however, in these rare cases, an Aghanim's upgrade can be the absolute best thing for the price.
Final Thoughts
Juggernaut falls into the category of timeless classics—the hero has not been reworked since his introduction into the game and has always been a potential pick regardless of meta.
In his current state, the hero can offer a great deal of both damage and utility and can even be a decent split-pusher with decent itemization. With an innate magic immunity, he can sometimes even be a better choice in split-pushing scenarios, since he does not have to sacrifice BKB charges for clean escapes.
It is understandable that his popularity has been rather low in the Eul-dominant meta, however, slowly but surely the hero is making a comeback in the professional scene. Flexibility and reliability are qualities which should be valued highly.
first lol
2nd lel
3rst LUL
44444444
"has even started can snowball your team into victory"
I think there is a mistake somewhere.
69th XDDDDDDD
Dudes
Omg I'm the 6031rst visitor I'm so proud! I would like to think my parents, my dog coujo, and my gardener. I wouldn't have made it here today without all of you
Ahhh jugg the no1 pubs favourite tower diving Hero.
what if juggernaut is just a human being..
retards
11th XD
it wasnt fear who brought battlefury back to jugg .. it was the chinese teams who did it ..
@grass.grass.grass It is a human being. And it's me. Nice 2 meet u
Sincerely Jug
Not talking about the healing ward? The ultimate tool to reengage the whole team 10 sec after a team fight? Allowing to rosh, allowing to push, allowing to sustain, allowing to stay indefinitely on lane after lvl4? For the first time in jug history, people are usually maxing healing ward over the crits in pubs!
pretty obvious information
I level stats on furion mid
"...but Blade Fury is always maxed out first, usually with value points in Healing Ward and Blade Dance."
Who maxes Blade Fury first? It's scaling is shit, you only need 1 early level for magic immunity/disjointing.
^ Pretty much everyone. 1-1-1 and stats was popular in 6.83 because you could use phase+MoM to just chase people down with autoattack; that's less of an option now, so the better manacost/cooldown/damage on the spin is how you get your kills in lane and make your escapes
I love Omni.
Omnislash.
Maxing blade fury first is an option because it doesn't scale well,so it's better to use it in the early game (especially if you have a stunner/slower supports that helps you get easy kills in the early game)
Juggernaut has always been a popular pick in both competitive and casual Dota
I would argue that ~2 years is not "always".
blattle fury?, madness forevaa
This hero is one of those heroes that respect every item in the game /nolance/. I tried and succeed with every build invented in the history of the hero. Just ask yourself this simple question and progress your itemization: How long will the game last?
Press R to win
my favorite
only an idiot makes aghs
I go full on dips, phase, mom, yasha, mjollnir, butterfly
Aghs is really meh. You dont want to rely on your ulti that heavily coz it can and will be interrupted/evaded. Weird thing that heres no mention of maelstrom.
My friend is a Juggerfan. I like to go Aghs first asap, but I'm a nobody hehe.
32nd LUL
Building items to any heroes is depends to your enemy and depends on how you play the hero, Counter items + counter heroes + Mind alertness + kindness + cooperation = Win thats all
I like the part where the people with ~200 games give their useless input
Aghs, why is it not good on jugg?
Cause he gets slot starved pretty quickly, like pretty much any agi carry he needs early game items not only for tankabilty but also to have mana to be able to use all his 3 spells.
Personally i like the wand, phase, aquila and farming item. MoM has fallen off a lot but is still a good farming item, not as good as Battlefury obviously. Then as the game progresses you need to build into dps, aghs delays that by 4.2k gold, with that ammount you could've gotten almost a manta or an S&Y or a diffusal or a blink + half an item or even be close to a skadi. Are the 60 second cd and 3 more slashes really worth, imo they're not. That covers the point of the gold part, now the slot part...
Jugg is kiteable, he needs mobility and a blink is pretty much needed when the other team is mobile, also if the game progresses into the stage where jugg needs to be the main dps and can't kill 1 or 2 heroes with omnislash only he might need a bkb or a defensive item, that's another slot and like cloud9 has taught us you should always carry a tp, so juggs iventory around 30 minutes ends up being kind of like this:
Boots - TP - Farming item - Drums/Aquila - First big item - Second big item or blink
There's no space there for an item that gives jugg no real value, the only situation where i see jugg with an aghs and no issues is if alch gives him one.
At 5k++ mmr, people usually go for a casual RoH and poormans/wand depends on the enemy offlane. Then max blade fury for faster farming and creep cutting when left alone. Get a point or two on crit and ward. Two levels of crit is enough. Tempo control and early rosh? Pressure the offlaner's tower.
Mid game. Gets aghs. Why? Can participate on every mid game fight. No problem on mobility yet. Why? 20 mins in, supports wont have much items and you would rely on your team mates to set things up. 5-man movement is such a thing in this mmr bracket that when a fight breaks out, either your team or the enemy team gets wiped.
If no one throws, game should end after aghs. (~26 mins) go next?
don't care
aghs build is just a scrub dipshit low retarded noob build, i'd rather pick od zeus or some dirty shit but fuck aghs. only scrubs build it
Fuck Jugg. Rubick you 're the man.