[Daily Hero tl;dr #10] Storm Spirit

Storm Spirit is an interesting and unique hero, one of the few that are "balanced by mana". As long as you have mana (and aren't stunned), you should be able to do damage and survive.

TL;DR

• Skills - Remnant (1,8,9,10) Vortex (3,4,5,7) Overload (2,12,13,14) Ball Lightning (6,11,16)
• Skills (alt) - Remnant (1,10,12,13) Vortex (3,4,5,14) Overload (2,7,8,9) Ball Lightning (6,11,16)
• Items (lane) - regen, few branches, rush bottle, Magic Wand
• Items (early) - Treads, few nulls
• Items (later) - Sheep, BKB, Orchid, Shiva
• Tips - manage your mana wisely, alternate casting and attacking, be mobile

The first skill build is the way most people would build Storm, the second is how I personally like it. Because I really don't feel like arguing a lot, I put both.

Storm is one of the best gankers / initiators in the entire game. The problem is he is compeltely useless if you have no mana. So for that, be careful. Int Treads and 2-3 Null Talismans are enough to allow you to survive early - mid game, but try to get Orchid or Sheep quickly so you have room to lightning around everywhere.

In lane, you can harass by placing a Remnant anywhere and harassing the enemy with Overload. The damage adds up quite nicely. When in fights, your combo should look something like this: ball lightning in, attack, vortex, attack, place remnant, attack, ball lightning, attack. Notice how you alternate casting a spell and attacking to get the full power of Overload. That skill does work, I promise.

In team fights focus the squishy heroes in the back. Your "blink" has super long range, so you can easily initiate by quickly wrecking the Lich or CM and getting out, throwing off enemy position for your team to clean up.

BKB is a must on this hero, because if you are spell immune and have a few hundred mana, you will not die. Ball Lightning over cliffs and over impassible areas to escape foes. It has no cooldown, zip around everywhere. Do note, you need 100 mana to cast the spell - if you don't have 100 mana then you will lose what you have and not move. Last note, the spell drains mana based on a percentage, not a set amount.

Basically, gank a lot, initiate fights, get the nice disable items (Sheep, Orchid, Eul's, etc) and take out low HP heroes quick. You're almost like an assassin, but not stealthy.

// I'll answer questions in the comments and take suggestions for tomorrow's write up.

/// I am compiling a list of my threads (until something better comes up) on my profile at GG.net