The anti-carry series: Ursa Warrior

The Ursa Warrior has one of the highest win percentages of all heroes at a stunning 55% for the safe lane, according to www.dotabuff.com and even a ~52% win rate for the jungle and offlane. This is no coincidence given the heroes skill set and item choices. Ursa's strength as a hero stems from his high burst damage from enrage, overpower and furryswipes; his tankiness from enrage; and his ability to solo Roshan with a mask of death. These three things allow Ursa to help his team secure an advantage and, more often than not, a victory.
Unfortunately, Ursa isn't picked in the pro scene very much. Even though Vega did play him with success against IG (Match 1843364264) at ESL One recently, he suffers from some weaknesses in a linear approach to itemization and he is easily kited. In the professional scene, Ursa needs a mobility item (shadow blade or blink), usually bkb, lifesteal, and a hard disable (usually Abyssal Blade). That's 5 item slots taken up if you include carrying a TP and 6 with an Aegis. This means getting that getting your top tier item (5k gold and above) won't come until your hard disable and to get another top tier item you have to give up your TP, the Aegis, or get Boots of Travel. In order to make him more viable for professional games without wrecking pubs, Enrage should have some sort of a charge time where there is a window for a second after casting enrage when he will continue to remove applied debuffs. This offers players the chance to make skilled plays by timing when to use enrage and when opponents use disables.
The pub scene is quite different from the professional scene, however, because games are much more like a death match than a coordinate team game. Ursa thrives in this environment because his cooldowns are short and he deals a lot of damage as early as level 7. This makes for a hero geared to play aggressively. Going into the mid game, blink dagger, basher, and desolator make up the key items to keep this hero relevant. As long as the Ursa has continued to accumulate items, he stays relevant but his role may change depending on the itemization. Many tier 3 items (butterfly, abyssal blade, assault cuirass, scythe of vyse, etc.) are viable on ursa but they need to shore up his weaknesses. For example, if you're dealing enough damage to burst someone down but are having trouble staying on that target, then more lock down or movement speed should be the item choice.
Ursa's role will depend what lane he's in and how much farm he has. I have tried many early builds, to include midas, medallion, blink rush, shadow blade, drums, and many more, and, believe or not like Ripley, it's dependent on what your opponents are doing but still fairly linear. To leverage the abilities of Ursa most effectively, you need, as mentioned before, mobility and a disable. Some games you can get away with not getting a bkb, however,the Ursa will be building it more often than not.
Here are some of the rules of thumb for items I've used to pretty great success on the hero:

1. Vlads is good but not necessary because a mask of death more than allows you to take down Roshan. If the Ursa is having mana problems, you're against a heavy physical damage lineup, or you are looking to end the game in the mid-game, this will be a good choice.
2. Buy a desolator if you're snowballing hard. It helps you push, significantly increases your damage and helps you chew through high armor targets.
3. Phase/Treads choice in boots is close. I prefer Treads because of the added attack speed and being able to tread switch to stretch your health and mana pool.
4. Blink is better than shadow blade in most circumstances. The problem is shadow blade (sb)  is that you have to prime your abilities, activate sb, find someone, hit them, ground pound, and hit them some more. Sb can make for some awkward initiations where as blink is much cleaner.
5. The Ursa might be the hero to get a Silver Edge for the team.
6. Try to time your enrage and bkb to get the maximum amount of damage mitigation.
7. When you're getting kited, get an abyssal blade and kill whoever is kiting you. If there's 3 or 4 heroes kiting you on the enemy team, the Mjolnir buff ensures you still do damage during the fight. Mjolnir is a decent item on Ursa because it gives him attack speed when overpower isn't up. The lightning procs also help against high armor targets.
8. Butterfly is key against heroes that want to try to attack you to death. Troll, Alchemist, Lycan, and others will get up in your grill and try to right-click you down but butterfly allows you to mitigate their damage.
9. Assault Cuirass is a great item if team fights are even, you are dying to a PA, or the enemy team has one.
10. Eye of Skadi is super good and should be gotten after blink and bkb if you need a hybrid item that gives you HP, armor, damage, and slow. 
11. Sange and Yasha (SnY) is situationally good. Most of the time you won't want another mid-game fighting item but sometimes you can get it instead of bkb. It synergizes well with drums and phase boots if you want to be able to run fast.

I can't stress how important itemization is, especially for the Ursa. His skill build is pretty linear so it's the items and play style that allow this hero to shine. Let me know what you think about Ursa and what items you like to get in the comment section below.