- Tittle: Guide to Crixalis - The Sand King
- Author: Lucre2808
With all 4 magical damage AoE abilities that can deal great damage, Sand King becomes a spell caster without no doubt. He can fit many roles: ganker, roaming, support, babysitting. He can fit any lane from solo lane to dual or tri-lane. But Sand King is not a carry or a tanker. He doesn't have good AS or right-clicking power, his armor is just average and his HP is not high compared with other Strength heroes. So all you need is choose your role in the game. If you like ganking, you can go to a solo lane. If you like supporting or babysitting, you can go dual or tri-lane. If you like to move around the map and annoy your enemies, you should find a partner to roam and kill anyone if possible.
Pros:
- Decent stat gained.
- Good base damage, good attack animation, easy to last - hit.
- Has one of the best stuns in DotA.
- Great damage-dealing ultimate with slow effect.
- Clears creep waves in seconds.
- Good escape mechanism.
- Sand Storm is a great laning tool.
Cons:
- Mana hunger.
- Low base armor.
- Needs Blink Dagger o be effective in teamfights.
- One of the most focused heroes in teamfights.
SKILLS
Burrowstrike
The Sand King burrows into the ground and tunnels forward, impaling everything above him, then resurfaces.
- 1. Mana 110 / Cooldown 11 / Duration 1.65 seconds / Deals 100 damage and stuns for 1.65 seconds.
- 2. Mana 120 / Cooldown 11 / Duration 1.65 seconds / Deals 160 damage and stuns for 1.65 seconds.
- 3. Mana 130 / Cooldown 11 / Duration 1.65 seconds / Deals 220 damage and stuns for 1.65 seconds.
- 4. Mana 140 / Cooldown 11 / Duration 1.65 seconds / Deals 280 damage and stuns for 1.65 seconds.
- Damage type: magical
- Hit units will fly for 0.52 seconds before the real stun is applied.
Pros:
- Deals good amount of damage.
- Decent stunning time.
- Good dodging/escaping/chasing/initial tool.
Cons:
- Mana cost is pretty high for a Strength hero.
- 150 AoE is not large, it's easy to miss if you're not choose good positions.
- Casting range is not so far so you may have to reveal yourself to your enemies before using it.
How to use Burrow Strike?
Initiating: probably this is the first usage of Burrow Strike. Thanks to its 650 casting range, you can stun your enemies from afar. But remember to choose positions wisely or else you will miss it and waste your mana. If the enemies are crowed, watch carefully and choose the best position to land your stun perfectly. The best is catching all your enemies in one stun or at least catching the most dangerous ones.
Escaping: you can use it to make your distance between you and the chasing enemies longer by 650 range. Or even you can burrow from low ground to high ground or the opposite, through the trees or edges... There are so much way to escape with Burrow Strike.
Dodging spells:this requires your micro. When you see an enemy throw a spell to you, you can burrow to him if your HP is high or you have backup, or you can burrow away to flee from him. This can only be applied when the spells are triggered but not hit you yet. The stun's effect still appears above your head (with some spell like Magic Missile) but you're not stunned for any second.
Chasing: too obvious usage, I think I don't have to mention about this one.
Mastering Burrowstrike:
I think I should mention about it clearly since this skill is not easy to use like it seems. Many will think Burrowstrike is like Impale, the difference between them is that SK will move to the targeted spot and stun the enemies. But it's not just simple like that. Unlike Impale, when you click on the unit (such as heroes), it will detect whether that unit is in the range or not, if it's in the allowed range of Burrowstrike, the spell will be activated and stun it, if not, it won't be activated and SK will go after that unit until it gets in the range of Burrowstrike and stun it. Sometimes, it's OK to click on the units, but in many cases, clicking on the ground will be much better especially when you're chasing someone. Remember, when you're chasing someone, DON'T EVER CLICK ON THAT UNIT because you will always Burrowstrike right behind it, you need to aim a bit ahead in the direction of the fleeing enemies.
For example:
Let the Blue Ball represent the Sand King and the Red Ball Represent an enemy Hero who is fleeing. In this situation, you have to click ahead of the unit, at the green X, or you will Burrowstrike not far enough. This spell is NOT like Impale, where you can target it and it (usually) can't miss.
Another thing that make Burrowstrike better than other stuns is its ability that helps SK get through terrain, moving uphill and downhill, through the cliffs with ease. Everyone that plays SK should know about this. These picture below are good examples.
- Bad Burrowstrike:
-Good Burrowstrike:
Sandstorm
Sand King creates a fearsome Sand Storm. The storm blinds his enemies and he becomes invisible to them. The storm also causes his opponents to take damage.
- 1. Mana 60 / Cooldown 40 / Duration 20 seconds / 20 damage per second
- 2. Mana 50 / Cooldown 30 / Duration 40 seconds / 40 damage per second
- 3. Mana 40 / Cooldown 20 / Duration 60 seconds / 60 damage per second
- 4. Mana 30 / Cooldown 10 / Duration 80 seconds / 80 damage per second
- Damage type: magical
- Sand Storm is considered a channeling spell.
- Sand King remains invisible for 1.5 seconds after he stops channeling.
Pros:
- Can be used to harras melee heroes, prevents them from getting close o the creep waves.
- Keeps you stay in the lane or near the exp range without being hit by enemies.
- Destroys creep waves with ease.
- Can dodge almost every single-targeting spells.
- Low mana cost, good AoE, low cooldown (at Lvl 4), decent DOT.
Cons:
- Interrupted by AoE stuns.
- Can't be used with heroes that have AoE spells.
- It's channeling so he won't be able to do anything while in Sand Storm.
How to use Sand Storm?
Farming: of course with its 525 AoE, you can farm pretty easily by using Sand Storm. Some may say you will miss many last-hits but you're wrong. The DOT is up to 80 damage per second when Sand Storm reaches lvl 4, even higher than Radiance's, it makes the farming much easier for you. You can take 3 or 4/5 creep per creep wave or even the whole creep wave.
Dodging: as I mentioned above, his ability is a very good tool to dodging single-targeting spell, especially stuns. Activate the Sand Storm whenever you see your enemies throw something to you. It allows you to dodge not only spells but also normal hits. It will be very useful when you have low HP and you want to avoid a hit from enemy tower.
Harrasing/Laning: it will be very effective if only you're laning with heroes that don't have AoE spells, especially melee heroes. Don't underestimate 20 damage per second of lvl 1 Sand Storm. It will cause a lot of trouble for non-AoE heroes such as Faceless Void, Anti-Mage... It will annoy them very much when they try to last-hit a creep. But don't try o use it against heroes like Lion, Lina, Troll, Butcher, Earthshaker...
Caustic Finale
Each of the Sand King's attacks injects a deadly venom that causes the target to explode violently on death, dealing damage in an area.
- 1. Duration 8 seconds / 90 damage
- 2. Duration 8 seconds / 130 damage
- 3. Duration 8 seconds / 170 damage
- 4. Duration 8 seconds / 220 damage
- Damage type: magical
- Exploding units leave no corpse.
- Caustic Finale places a buff on the attacked unit that lasts 8 seconds. If a unit dies with the buff on it, it will still explode, regardless if Sand King delivered the killing blow or not.
- Does not work on denies (the buff is not placed on allied units).
- Caustic Finale is an Orb Effect.
Pros:
- Great farming tool when combined with Burrow Strike.
- Can be used to finish fleeing enemies if you're lucky.
Cons:
- It will push your lane too high and it's very difficult to farm when the creep waves are too high.
How to use Caustic Finale?
Farming: this is the main usage of this skill and it's almost used for his purpose. 220 damage in 400 AoE is pretty high and that allows Sand King to farm up very easily. When Caustic Finale is combined with any one AoE spell that can deal decent amount of damage, you only need one right-click to finish a whole creep wave. But with his own spell, Burrow Strike, Sand King doesn't need any other spell to do it.
Killing: as I said, if you're lucky enough, you can get some kills with this skill. It's possible and it happened to me sometimes. Imagine your fleeing target(s) has so low HP that you only need one hit to finish him off, suddenly he passes a very low HP creep, you can keep chasing but you just need to finish that creep so that the exploding damage will kill him for you.
Harrasing: another usage of Caustic Finale. I see many players do this a lot and sometimes I do it too if my lane is easy and I want to harras as much as possible. All you need to do is easy, just right-click on a creep that has low HP to infect it with Caustic Finale, when it's killed, it will be exploded and deal damage to enemy units. If your enemies stand near it, they will take the damage too.
Epic Center
Sends a disturbance into the earth, causing it to shudder violently. All caught within range will take damage and become slowed. The closer to the epicenter, the more damage taken.
- 1. Mana 175 / Cooldown 140 (120*) / Duration 3 seconds / Emits 6 (8*) pulses. Each pulse deals 110 damage and slows by 30%
- 2. Mana 250 / Cooldown 120 (100*) / Duration 3 seconds / Emits 8 (10*) pulses. Each pulse deals 110 damage and slows by 30%
- 3. Mana 325 / Cooldown 100 (80*) / Duration 3 seconds / Emits 10 (12*) pulses. Each pulse deals 110 damage and slows by 30%
- Damage type: magical
- Sand King channels for 2 seconds before activating this skill. Stopping the channeling will waste the cooldown and mana required for the skill.
- The pulses are centered on the Sand King's current location, not where he first casted the spell.
- The AoE of the pulses is 275 / 325 / 375 / 425 / 475 / 525 / 575 / 650 / 675 / 700 / (775 / 825*)
- Can be improved by Aghanim's Scepter (* shows the improved values).
Pros:
- One of the mos deadly ultimate in DotA.
- Has good AoE with slow to prevent enemies from escaping.
- High damage allows to clean up teamfights quickly.
- Easy to get double/triple/ultra kills or even rampages.
Cons:
- Channeling spell.
- The spell will be stopped if interrupted by stuns, disables, silence and it will waste cooldown and mana.
- Mana cost is high for a Strength hero.
- Needs Blink Dagger or BKB to be used effectively.
How to use Epicenter?
To use Epicenter, you have two options:
Burrow Strike + Epicenter with BKB activated + Sand Storm: this allows to cast your ultimate perfectly without interrupted and deal a bit more damage with Sand Storm. But your stun has only 1.65 sec and you need 2 sec to release pulse, so your enemies will have 0.35 sec to escape before the pulses are released. 0.35 sec sound too short, but will heroes have high mobility such as Storm, Magina, Akasha, it's not difficult for them to escape. So you'd better choose option 2.
Shift + Blink + Epicenter + Burrow Strike + Sand Storm: most players prefer this. You usually don't need BKB, all you need to do is choosing the best position to land the Epicenter as well as Burrow Strike perfectly. Besides, when you do this combo, your enemies have to stand for 1.65 sec to take your pulses and damage from Sand Storm. 1.65 sec is not enough to kill heroes I mentioned above but it's better than nothing. The purpose of this combo is surprising your enemies with a sudden attack, they will be confused for a while before realizing that they need to retreat or get out of this mess, but that would be too late for them.
SPECIAL MENTION: "SHIFT + BLINK" TECHNIQUE
- I think I should make this session since many people play Sand King a lot but still haven't known this technique yet. This is a "must - have" technique for every Sand King user because you can have so many benefits from it.
- It's pretty simple and only takes you a few time practicing.
- First of all, you need to look at the position that you want to be in and choose the best position o start your Epicenter. Then follow these steps:
- Press "C" key to activate Epicenter.
- Click "Shift" button and then click on Blink Dagger quickly while SK is channeling Epicenter.
- Wait for Sand King to finish waving his tail the second time then click on position that you want to land the Epicenter.
- Remember, you have to wait until he finish waving his time the second tale, or else you will blink in without your ultimate and that will be a disaster!
SKILL BUILDS
Skill Build 1
- Lvl 1 Burrow Strike
- Lvl 2 Sand Storm
- Lvl 3 Burrow Strike
- Lvl 4 Sand Storm
- Lvl 5 Burrow Strike
- Lvl 6 Epicenter
- Lvl 7 Burrow Strike
- Lvl 8 Sand Storm
- Lvl 9 Sand Storm
- Lvl 10 Caustic Finale
- Lvl 11 Epicenter
- Lvl 12 Caustic Finale
- Lvl 13 Caustic Finale
- Lvl 14 Caustic Finale
- Lvl 15 Stats
- Lvl 16 Epicenter
- Lvl 17 - 25 Stats
Explaination: This build is considered standard build for Sand King in competitive games. Maxing Burrow Strike since it's your best skill, no need to explain it. Taking Epicenter at lvl 6, 11 and 16 is not needed to explain. Why max Sand Storm? This skill gives you so many benefits. Sand King is a ganker, support and initiator so he spends most of his time roaming, supporting and ganking. Sand Storm will save you when your HP is low, dodging everything thrown to you and also mess your enemies up when they're laning with you. You won't farm much so Caustic Finale is not so needed, and as I said above, taking it early will push your lane too high. Take it after maxing Burrow Strike and Sand Storm because at that level (9 or 10), you will have to push a lot so Caustic Finale will help you to kill creeps faster.
Skill Build 2
- Lvl 1 Burrow Strike
- Lvl 2 Sand Storm
- Lvl 3 Burrow Strike
- Lvl 4 Sand Storm/Caustic Finale
- Lvl 5 Burrow Strike
- Lvl 6 Epicenter
- Lvl 7 Burrow Strike
- Lvl 8 Caustic Finale
- Lvl 9 Caustic Finale
- Lvl 10 Caustic Finale
- Lvl 11 Epicenter
- Lvl 12 Caustic Finale
- Lvl 13 Sand Storm
- Lvl 14 Sand Storm
- Lvl 15 Stats
- Lvl 16 Epicenter
- Lvl 17 - 25 Stats
Explaination: Same as Skill Build 1 about Burrow Strike and Epicenter. This build just mixes the order of taking Sand Storm and Caustic Finale. Still, take 2 lvl of Sand Storm when you're lvl 2 and 4 to help your laning phase. You have to survive to reach lvl 6 as soon as possible and Sand Storm can help you. After that, you can choose Caustic Finale in stead of maxing Sand Storm if you want to farm a little or your team choose the fast pushing strategy. It's fine too if you take 1 lvl on Caustic Finale if your lane is an easy lane and you want to harras your enemies a little bit as well as go for an early push.
Skill Build 3
- Lvl 1 Burrow Strike
- Lvl 2 Sand Storm
- Lvl 3 Burrow Strike
- Lvl 4 Sand Storm
- Lvl 5 Burrow Strike
- Lvl 6 Epicenter
- Lvl 7 Burrow Strike
- Lvl 8 Sand Storm
- Lvl 9 Sand Storm
- Lvl 10 Stats
- Lvl 11 Epicenter
- Lvl 12 Stats
- Lvl 13 Stats
- Lvl 14 Stats
- Lvl 15 Stats
- Lvl 16 Epicenter
- Lvl 17 - 25 Stats or Caustic Finale
Explaination: You can take this build when your game is harsh, you can't farm or get kills. This build chooses stats in stead of Caustic Finale, it gives you more HP, mana, damage etc... Pretty good when you can't have many items on you.
ITEM BUILDS
Starting Items
Since Sand King fits many roles, his starting build is very flexible. You can choose anything with the list below.
- Always carry some tangoes and salves for HP regen. Clarities are also needed since mana is always a big problem with Sand King, especially when he's low lvl.
- If your team needs a courier, buy one. You're a support and buying courier is one of your missions. Same as buying wards. Don't be mean, you will get your money back later.
- If you want HP and some damage, Gauntlets will help you.
- If you want some mana, Mantles will help you.
- If you both, branches will help you.
- Magic Stick is a very good item when you'r facing spammers.
It's all your choice. Buy wisely with 603 gold. And also, I strongly recommend not to buy these items with your 603 gold:
Core Items
Boots are usually "must - have" items for every heroes. But which boots should be got on Sand King?
This is the most popular boots for Sand King. 250 bonus mana and restores 135 mana every 55 seconds, it will solve the mana problem for Sand King and allow him to spam comfortably. I recommend this item for Sand King.
If your teamates already got Arcane Boots, you can take Power Tread. 8 any stats you want, more AS, not so bad at all.
24 damage, Phase ability, great for ganking. But I don't like it since you already have a great chasing, escaping tool - Burrow Strike.
The fastest boots in DotA, teleport ability. But 2700 gold is too much in early game. You should get in when your core items are completed. or Very very useful in any situation by any mean neccessary. I always have one in my inventory, you should too.
Every Sand King user should have this item on your inventories even you have or don't have BKB. Great chasing/escaping/initial tool. Your stun is good but not good enough, especially there are strong disables from your enemies such as Hex, Shackles... They will be destroyed before you approach them so 2150 gold is completely worth it. You are versatile, not you are more versatile. Get it when you complete your boots or you can even skip upgrading your Boots of Speed and go straight to Dagger. But in some situations, getting BKB first would be the choice, I will mention it later.
Since you will gank and participate in teamfights a lot, this will be very useful. 6 Strength means 6 damage and 114 HP, with 50% mana regeneration. Charges give you and allies 400 HP, take away 150 HP of your enemies'. But don't buy it if your team already had one.
As I mentioned above, Sand King is one of the most focused heroes in teamfights since he's a very dangerous creature as well as a fragile hero. When they see you, they will try to kill you as fast as possible and you're very easy for them to kill. Your HP is average, your armor is average too, they can kill you in 2 sec. So BKB is a very good item for you. It can keep you alive during teamfights and prevent any spell from hitting you, allows you to move around the battlefield or use Sand Storm, casting Epicenter or TP'ing without being interrupted.
Many people consider this optional, but I put it in core items. 10 all stats, 250 HP, 150 mana and upgrade the ultimate, so great. Getting Aghanim's Scepter doesn't only increase the pulses but also reduce the cooldown 20 sec, it allows you to participate in teamfights more often. 2 pulses increased means 220 damage added to the Epicenter. Isn't that great? Also, this item is made from pretty cheap ingredients, so farming it up isn't hard for you at all.
Optional
This will help you to increase your average HP, give you HP regeneration and block damage. It allows you to tank in teamfights quite better, especially when there are physical damage dealers.
Too much spell casters? This will help you quite a lot. You can also upgrade Pipe if it's necessary for your team.
Another good item should be considered for Sand King. It will increase your low armor, also gives you 12 extra intelligence and 5 HP regeneration. The Discord effect works so great on casters like Sand King. This will help you and your team increase the damage output a lot. Buy it if you see your game is pretty comfortable for you to farm.
This is a very defensive item. Usually chosen for countering strong single-target nukes of Lion, Lina, Zeus or disables such as Hex, Shackle, Fiend Grip, Primal Roar... The bonus stats and HP/Mana regeneration are pretty decent.
Cheap item with great usage. You can use this along with Blink Dagger to increase your mobility in teamfights as well as chasing and escaping.
So much mana regeneration for you. Cyclone will help you and your team keep dangerous heroes out of the teamfights a while or catching a fleeing hero, stop your enemies from chasing you and your mates...
Luxury
More intelligence, more armor, great slow aura with slow ability.
Everyone loves this boy. So do I and so do you.
An extra disable, why not?
Great pushing tool, cheap damage, more regeneration.
This should be considered for SK as well. You won't do as much as you did in early and mid game so the longer you leave, the more useful you are in late game. Besides, the Bloodpact effects after you die are very usefull for your team.
You're confident and you want to get for yourself some quick kills? This one is for you. Combined with Ghost Scepter or Veil of Discord and upgraded to lvl 4 or 5, you can kill heroes that don't have much HP instantly.
Rejected
...- Again, you're not a carry and don't have any right-clicking power so you don't need those stuffs. It's just a waste of money.
You think your enemies will let you casting Epicenter twice?
Gameplay
Early Game
Since you can fit many roles, you and your mates must decide which role you will take in order to choose lanes or you.
- Solo lane - Solo mid: try to last-hit and deny as much as possible and reach lvl 6 as fast as you can so that you can start ganking effectively. Don't risk yourself for a last-hit if you're facing dangerous enemies. Your level is much important than your items, if you get levels, you can gank and it will give you money.
- Dual - tri lane: that mostly means you choose support role. There are much more things to do when you choose this role. Stacking, pulling creep camps to farm, warding some potential spots, keeping your enmies away from your carry... You must move a lot and you can barely farm. Keep your attention on the minimap, if there is any posible gank, you should go there to support.
- Remember, always watch the minimap! Map awareness is always necessary.
- At the end of this phase, you must have at least Boots of Speed. Always carry some salves, tangoes and clarities in case you need regen.
Mid Game
This is your most shining phase. When you reach certain levels and your skills are stronger, it's time for you to gank. Be everywhere, be aggressive. Your team needs your aggression. You're the star in every teamfights since your ultimate is such a nightmare. But use it wisely, you should know when to use and when not to use. Choose the right time to jump in and initiate. Even your abilities are strong, having backups is always good for you. Don't mind who gets the kills, the more important thing is your team has the advantage. Push anytime you have chance, give the tower kills to your carries if possible. In this phase, you must have your Dagger because it's very important to you. Get it as soon as possible, try you best to get it as fast as you can. Always carry some TP, you will have to move around the map a lot, to gank, to push and to defend, 135 gold is not much for you, don't be mean, time is very important to you. The longer the game is, the more you lose your effectiveness. Also, carry some regen items just like I said before, you gank a lot so you will need regen a lot.
Late Game
When the game comes to this phase, you're losing your effectiveness since everyone is stronger than before, they may tank your combo without being worried about it. But don't be disappointed, you're stronger too since you can have more items if your mid game phase is good. Be aggressive just like the mid game. You're still the initiator of your team, deal as much damage as possible to creat advantage for your team, they still need you a lot. In this phase, you need to finish the game quickly, push harder and harder. Your combo Burrow Strike + Caustic Finale will help the pushes a lot, don't hestitate when use it, your mana is now enough for you to spam comfortably. You can go pushing while your team distracting your enemies. Don't go alone if there are some missing heroes on the map, being killed will be disastrous in this phase. Remember to save money for buying back, you will need it. But buy back wisely, if you're being pushed to the base, buy back without thinking! If your team is pushing them to the base and having advantage to finish the game, then don't. You need to consider when to and when not to buy back.
Edited by basicdotaguide.blogspot.com