Dota 2 - Sandking Build Guide

BIO
The sands of the Scintillant Waste are alive and sentient--the whole vast desert speaks to itself, thinking thoughts only such a vastness can conceive. But when it needs must find a form to communicate with those of more limited scope, it frees a fragment of itself, and fills a carapace of magic armor formed by the cunning Djinn of Qaldin. This essential identity calls itself Crixalis, meaning 'Soul of the Sand,' but others know it as Sand King. Sand King takes the form of a huge arachnid, inspired by the Scintillant Waste's small but ubiquitous denizens; and this is a true outward expression of his ferocious nature. Guardian, warrior, ambassador--Sand King is all of these things, inseparable from the endless desert that gave him life.

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ROLE
Melee - Initiator - Disabler - Nuker

STATS

LEVEL	1	15	25
HIT POINTS	492	1,184	2,058	SIGHT RANGE	1800 / 800
MANA	208	536	1,030	ATTACK RANGE	128
DAMAGE	43-59	79-95	125-141	MISSILE SPEED	N/A
ARMOR	3	7	13

INTRODUCTION
Sandking is a decent initiator and a ganker hero that all of his skills is AoE. Sandking is an active ganker with high mobility.
He have a jumping stuns to initiate a teamfight. And more importantly he have a high damage AoE wich is his ultimate. Usually you need a Blink Dagger for this hero for easier and more range initiation.

PROS	CONS
Have a decent stun to initiate a teamfight	Low mana pool
Have a decent ultimate with the high AoE damages	Slow attack speed
Have an all AoE abilities	Need a perfect timing for using his Epicenter
Sandstorm deal a decnt AoE damage	Not so good at tanking

ABILITIES
1. Burrowstrike

Sand King burrows into the ground and tunnels forward, damaging and stunning enemy units above him as he resurfaces.

MANA COST: 110 / 120 / 130 / 140	COOLDOWN: 11.0
ABILITY: TARGET UNIT, TARGET POINT	AFFECTS: ENEMY HEROES
DAMAGE: MAGICAL	DAMAGE: 100 / 160 / 220 / 280
STUN DURATION: 2.17	RANGE: 350 / 450 / 550 / 650

Crixalis often lies in wait, burrowing under the surface to ambush his adversaries.
Your main ability for ganking purposes. You need this skill to stun the enemies and deal some damages. Very good ability to catach enemies, and makes the enemies get killed by your team. You can combine this ability with a Dagger, the initiation range will be so far. After using this skill you can either use Sand Storm or Epicenter. It is based on the situation and the cooldown.

2. Sand Storm

CHANNELED - Sand King creates a fearsome sandstorm that damages enemy units while hiding him from vision. The invisibility remains for a short duration after the sandstorm ends.

MANA COST: 60 / 50 / 40 / 30	COOLDOWN: 40.0 / 30.0 / 20.0 / 10.0
ABILITY: NO TARGET, CHANNELED	DAMAGE: MAGICAL
DAMAGE: 20 / 40 / 60 / 80	INVISIBILITY DELAY: 0.3 / 0.6 / 0.9 / 1.5
RADIUS: 275 / 325 / 375 / 525

Some say Crixalis is a mirage; his carapace appearing then vanishing between the whirling sands of the Scintillant Waste.
Nice skill to harass the enemies and creeps. It does deal a decent damage per second to the enemies. You just need to wait under your Sand Storm and all the enemies who touched it will feel some pain. You are become invisible but your location is obvious because the Sand that comes out near your body. The enemy just need Sentry Wards or Dust to reveal you. Beware!

3. Caustic Finale

Sand King's attacks inject a venom that causes enemy units to explode violently upon death, spreading area damage. Caustic Finale is a Unique Attack Modifier, and does not stack with other Unique Attack Modifier.

ABILITY: PASSIVE	DAMAGE: 90 / 130 / 170 / 220
DAMAGE: MAGICAL	RADIUS: 400

An injection from Crixalis makes one brittle and as dry as the arid wastes, subject to implosive demise.
If you attack an opponent, makes your opponent to blast when he die and deal some damages. A very good skill for farming and harassing. Just hit every creeps 1 time, and wait until the creeps death, and you will gets a nice AoE damage.

4. Epicenter

CHANNELED - After channeling for 2 seconds, Sand King sends a disturbance into the earth, causing it to shudder violently. All enemies caught within range will take damage and become slowed. Each subsequent pulse increases the radius of damage dealt. Upgradable by Aghanim's Scepter.

MANA COST: 175 / 250 / 325	COOLDOWN: 140.0 / 120.0 / 100.0
ABILITY: NO TARGET, CHANNELED	DAMAGE: MAGICAL
PULSES: 6 / 8 / 10	DAMAGE PER PULSE: 110 / 110 / 110
SLOW: 30% / 30% / 30%	SCEPTER PULSES: 8 / 10 / 12
SCEPTER COOLDOWN: 120 / 100 / 80

Many an explorer was lost to the quicksands of the Scintillant Waste.
Your ultimate skill, will deal a high AoE damage to all enemies nearby.

Usually, you need Blink Dagger to position yourself into the middle of teamfight. First you need to channel this skill in the area where no enemies sees you, and after channeling is complete and pulses has already started, blink into the crowds of the enemies and deal tons of damages.
And then you can burrowstrike after you jump. And then you can use Sand Storm after Burrowstrike.

The weakneess is: You need channeling for this skill, and if you receive damage while doing channeling, this skill is cancelled and you must wait its cooldown, Actually you can use Black King Bar before channeling and makes yourself safe from channeling cancellation.

SKILLBUILD

Level 1: Burrowstrike
Level 2: Sand Storm
Level 3: Burrowstrike
Level 4: Sand Storm
Level 5: Burrowstrike
Level 6: Epicenter
Level 7: Burrowstrike
Level 8: Sand Storm
Level 9 : Sand Storm
Level 10: Caustic Finale
Level 11: Epicenter
Level 12: Caustic Finale
Level 13: Caustic Finale
Level 14: Caustic Finale
Level 15: Stat
Level 16: Epicenter
Level 17-25: Stats

Why Burrowstrike should be maxed first? This is your main skill, you need  it to stun your enemies to start the gank or a teamfight. You also can use this skill for defensive purpuse so that you can save lifes.

Why Sandstorm maxed second? To helps you with some damage per second after you initiate a teamfight, this also can provide invisibility to protect yourself against enemy.

STRATEGIES
Early game
You need to know your part in the game, are you a support? or there is no rule? If you are a support, you do not need to lasthit the creep. You should let your carry to last hits all the creeps. But if there is no rule, you need to lasthits the creeps and also denying.

If your enemy is on a low guard, you can initiate an attack with your Burrowstrike. For example: If there is an enemy who are surrounded by your creeps. And then you can knock him together with your friends.

Or you can defend yourself from a gank using the Burrowstrike either to
1. stun the enemy. or
2. go away from the enemy.

Mid Game 
Mid game is the time for ganking. You need to patrol around the map and find an easy target you can kill easily.

You are one of the best ganker in dota. You have the combo Burrowstrike + Epicenter that will deal tons of damahe.

You need to coordinate a gank with your friends, and gank as much as you can.

So if you want to initiate in a gank, what you need to do is:

1. Talk with your teammates about who is the target. You should focus fire on 1 hero in a gank, because if you don't communicate well you may attack the A person and your teammates attack the B person, and that is a bad gank and can lead to failure on getting the kill.

2. Prepare the items needed in the gank:
a. Use Smoke of Deceit to be invisible from the Ward
b. Prepare a Dust, a Sentry Ward, or a Gem if you will gank an invisible hero like Rikimaru, Clinkz, or Nyx Assassin

Get ready to gank

3. Use Burrowstrike to stun the enemy
4, Cast the Epicenter, this will greatly reduce enemy's HP
5. Use the SandStorm
6. Right click until your target dies
7. if the enemy hasn't die yet, chase the enemy using Burrowstrike and Blink Dagger.

The more your team get kills, the more chance your team will win the match.

You will need Arcane Boots to provide you mana for ganking, this boots also helps to fulfill your teams mana. You also need Blink Dagger for faster mobility and more range for initiation You can Blink-Burrowstrike to initiate a gank, and then use Epicenter to kill the enemies.

Or if there are enemies that pushing your tower, you need to help your friend defending it.

Late Game
Here your main part is to initiate a teamfight. You need Epicenter the most in this stage of the game. You need a Blink Dagger to prepare the Epicenter. You+ your team can wait at the base or in the jungle secretly if the enemies are trying to push your base. You should cast epicenter in the fog of war and then jump using Blink Dagger and moves the pulse into the enemy's concentration, thats how you should started a teamfight. After epicenter, you need to Burrowstrike and then cast Sandstorm, and with the helps of your team I believe your team shold be OWNING.

And if your team won the teamfight, you have two options:
1. You can get the Aegis for your team's main hero or
2. Your team can push enemy base and destrouy their buildings. Choose wisely!

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ITEM BUILD

1. Arcane Boots
Total cost: 1450
Recipe: Boots of Speed + Energy Booster

Active: Replenish Mana - Restores mana in an area around the hero. Flat movement speed bonuses from multiple pairs of boots do not stack. + 60 Movement Speed   + 250 Mana MANA RESTORED: 135 Mana Needed: 25    Cooldown: 55

Why Arcane Boots? With Arcana Boots, you can fill your mana for your skills. And also you can helps team to fulfill their mana.

2. Dagger
Cost: 2150

Active: Blink - Teleport to a target point up to 1200 units away. If damage is taken from an enemy hero, Blink Dagger cannot be used for 3 seconds. Manacost: 75   Cooldown: 14

Blink Dagger is a perfect item for Sandking for initiating purpose.

3. Aghanim Scepter,

Passive: Ultimate Upgrade - Upgrades the ultimates of certain heroes. + 10 All Attributes   + 200 Health   + 150 Mana

Why Aghanim's Scepter? Make an initiator more stronger because your ultimate skill damage will increase.  Increase the chance of winning a teamfight.

4. Blade Mail
Total cost: 2200
Recipe: Broadsword + Chainmail + Robe of Magi

Active: Damage Return - Returns any damage you take to the unit that dealt the damage. Lasts 4.5 seconds.  + 22 Damage   + 5 Armor   + 10 Intelligence Manacost: 25   Cooldown; 22

Why Blade Mail? After you initiate a teamfight, your opponent is likely to target you because they will hate you. So you can reflect their damege using this item.

5. Black King Bar
Total cost:: 3900
Recipe: Ogre Axe, Mithril Hammer, Recipe

Active: Avatar - Grants magic immunity. Duration and cooldown decrease with each use. Some Ultimate abilities are able to disable through Black King Bar. + 10 Strength + 24 Damage     DURATION: 10/9/8/7/6/5     Cooldown: 80

Why Black King Bar? It makes you can channel your ultimate without afraid of getting cancelled. It also gives you survivability in a teamfight because you will get magic immunity during teamfight.

6. Shiva's Guard  

Total cost: 4700

Recipe: Plate Mail + Mystic Staff + Recipe                                                  

Active: Arctic Blast - Emits a freezing wave that does 200 damage to enemies and slows their movement by -40% for 4.0 seconds. Passive: Freezing Aura - Reduces attack speed on enemies. Multiple instances of Freezing Aura do not stack. + 30 Intelligence   + 15 Armor    AURA SLOW: 25% Manacost: 100   Cooldown:   30

Why Shiva's? This item is very good in teamfights, With the slowing of attack speed and movement speed, the enemy will hardly move and attack on the teamfight. A nice defense mechanism for your team.

GOOD ALLIES

1. Carries
(Example: Magine, Void, Luna)

Carries should come after you initiate a teamfight, and they should the right click and use all their skills to the enemies.