r/DotA2•9 yr. ago

Semi-daily hero tips. Day 76: Sand King

Tip

DISCLAIMER

A lot of you probably know about the weekly hero discussion, but that often ends up in a meta discussion (whether or not the hero needs buffs, etc) or a meme war than actual tips to play, itemize and build the hero.

This is what I'd like to do. Please discuss any notes I made and possible improvements while also giving tips of your own if you have them.

The roles, skill builds and item builds, as well as a lot of the notes are my opinion on matters and should not be seen as a must do or don't. Also remember that almost every single build or role is situationally possible.

A lot of the tips on heroes were also mentioned in tsunami's amazing hero tips series he did over the last couple of years.

Sand King

Notes:

Target burrowstrike on the enemy, there is almost never a reason to target the ground
Burrowstrike doesn't break trees, use it to escape
Sand storm has 0 fade time, use it to juke
Level caustic finale early if you're against a melee carry, multiple melees or agressive heroes
If you plan to burrowstrike into ult, burrow strike behind the enemy so they need the turn time to stun you, which will probably not work in time
Veil of discord is the perfect item for sand king, but you do need others as well.
Burrowstrike scales in range and damage, but not in stun duration
Versus: You need at least one non-targeted stun or silence or AOE nukes for the sand storm
Versus: Pipe, Raindrops
Burrowstrike up the hill to travel faster.
SK jungle patterns
You can no longer salve through lvl 1 sandstorm as of 7.00
Good versus: CK, PL, TB, Meepo (illusion/clone heroes), Troll, Slark, LC, PA (weak to magic damage before BKB, you can easily escape most of them)
Counters: Ember, Zeus, Lina, Sniper, Veno, Timber (you can wreck him in lane with caustic though), Spectre, ET, Bristle, Kunkka, Underlord, Earth Spirit, Centaur (can easily kill you in sandstorm), Disruptor (glimpse your blink ult, you can dodge this with burrowstrike though)
If you hold shift and use your blink dagger while channeling your ult, the blink will go off when the channel ends (shift queue).

Role: support, offlane (, jungle)

Item build: Arcanes, (Aether lens <->) blink, (veil, Force, BKB, agh's, eul's, lotus orb)

Skill build

Support: Burrowstrike --> Finale <-> Sandstorm
Offlane: Finale <-> Burrowstrike --> Finale
Full time jungle build: Sand storm --> Burrowstrike --> Finale

PREVIOUS HEROES

Posted May 3, 2017, 12:20 PM UTC · edited