Sand King

Sand King

The Dire

18 + 2.6 19 + 2.1 16 + 1.8

Level 1 16 25 Hit Points 492 1271 2050 Mana 208 585 1027 Damage 43-59 84-100 125-141 Armor 2.66 7.28 12.46 Attacks / Second 0.7 0.89 1.11

Movement Speed 300 Turn Rate 0.5 Sight Range 1800/800 Attack Range Melee Missile Speed Instant Attack Duration 0.53+0.47 Cast Duration 0+0.51 Base Attack Time 1.7

Crixalis the Sand King is a melee strength hero whose abilities can cripple multiple enemy heroes in one devastating combo, where each of his abilities deals area damage. He is one of the most versatile Heroes in the game as he can push, initiate, support, roam, gank, and even semi-carry if he can pull it off. Sand King's versatility is expanded by how he deals with lanes as well. He can be comfortable at any lane; suicide lane for support, middle lane for ganking, and short lane for pulling and jungling. He can combo great with trilane, dual lane, solo lane, or even no lane especially since he is item independent and can focus on full ganking or roaming. Though his roles are very expanded, his main job is to initiate. His entrance is usually his most powerful element, best executed when most of the enemy team are crumpled up together, trying his best to deal as much damage as possible while inflicting slow or stun status effects upon them. Though Sand King is a weak tank early game due to his low initial attributes, he depends on his Sand Storm to dodge single target abilities and to juke, while he depends on his Burrowstrike to dodge anything else.

Bio

Crixalis, the Sand King Play "Like the sands through an hourglass, these are the days of defeat..." Role: Initiator / Disabler / Nuker Lore: 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. Voice: David Scully (Responses)

Abilities

Burrowstrike Q E Ability Affects Damage Target Point Enemies Magical Sand King burrows into the ground and tunnels forward, damaging and stunning enemy units above him as he resurfaces. Range: 350/450/550/650 Radius: 150 Stun Duration: 2.17 Damage: 100/160/220/280 11 110/120/130/140 Crixalis often lies in wait, burrowing under the surface to ambush his adversaries.

Notes: Hit units will fly for 0.52 seconds before the real stun is applied. Disjoints projectiles. Can be used during the damaging phase of Epicenter.

Sand Storm W R Ability Affects Damage Channeled Enemies Magical 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. Radius: 275/325/375/525 Channeling Duration: 20/40/60/80 Damage Per Second: 20/40/60/80 Delay Before Reveal: 0.3/0.6/0.9/1.5 40/30/20/10 60/50/40/30 Not instantly removed, fade delay remains. Some say Crixalis is a mirage; his carapace appearing then vanishing between the whirling sands of the Scintillant Waste.

Notes: If carefully timed, Sand King can dodge projectile-based auto-attacks and abilities by quickly activating Sand Storm before a projectile lands. Because of Epicenters channeling time the invisibility from Sand Storm is directly removed if activating the ultimate. However, Sand Storm (and any other ability) can be used after the channeling of Epicenter was successful. Sand Storm can deal 400/1600/3600/6400 damage in total to a single unit.

Caustic Finale E L Ability Affects Damage Passive Enemies Magical Sand King's attacks inject a venom that causes enemy units to explode violently upon death, spreading area damage. Explosion Radius: 400 Debuff Duration: 8 Explosion Damage: 90/130/170/220 An injection from Crixalis makes one brittle and as dry as the arid wastes, subject to implosive demise.

Notes: Exploding units leave no corpse. Mechanical units take damage if in radius, the debuff however does not apply to them. Does not work on denies (the buff is not placed on allied units).

Epicenter R C Ability Affects Damage Channeled Enemies Magical 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. Initial Radius: 275 Slow Duration: 3 Number Of Pulses: 6/8/10 (8/10/12*) Pulse Damage: 110 Movement Speed Slow: 30% 140/120/100 (120/100/80*) 175/250/325 Damage is blocked, slow is not. Decreases cooldown and increases number of pulses. Many an explorer was lost to the quicksands of the Scintillant Waste.

Notes: The slow goes through magic immunity, but the damage does not. Sand King channels for 2 seconds before activating this ability. Stopping the channeling will waste the cooldown and mana required for the ability. The pulses are centered on the Sand King's current location, not where he first casted the spell. The radius of the pulses is 275 / 325 / 375 / 425 / 475 / 525 / 575 / 650 / 675 / 700 / (775 / 825*) While casting the spell works like any other chanelling ability and can be interrupted. If the channeling was successful the damage pulses can not be interrupted anymore. Any items and abilities (e.g. Sand Storm) can be used with the ult (after a successful channel). Should Sand King die during the damage phase all remaining pulses will be cast at his last location. Deals a total of 660/880/1100 (880/1100/1320*) damage to a single unit.

Recommended items

Explanation: Starting Items: Sand King is a mean, lean ganking machine who can lane anywhere, or even not lane at all, while still being effective until midgame and early late game. His fragility is equalized by the survivability his abilities offer him. Because of this, his mana dependence is fairly high, so rolling two Clarities is very common on a Sand King. Gauntlets of Strength give Sand King some great survivability, but Circlet can also be a viable option because it offers him both HP and mana which are two very important aspects for the Hero. A triple Branch build is also fairly common on a Sand King because he is a great carrier for Magic Wand. He may buy Animal Courier, Observer Ward, or Sentry Ward especially if the player decides that Sand King will be laning on top or bottom. If the team decides to use Sand King on middle lane, he should not be buying these items as he will need to rush Bottle via buying enough stuff that leaves Sand King with an initial 300 gold, the usual being a Tango, a Clarity, and three Branches. However, this is not the usual case of middle Sand King, and should always depend on the situation. Sand King is not suited to solo top or bottom lanes, but mid is fine. Early Game: If the team decided to let Sand King take middle lane, he should get to Bottle fast as it makes ganking a whole lot easier for him. In other circumstances, the first item to get on Sand King is Boots of Speed. The movement speed bonus is very important for an early game ganker-slash-roamer, especially if the player decides to use a no lane Sand King. A Bracer or two can be the next item as the HP and mana boost are fairly great bonuses. Rolling Magic Stick is optional and should really depend on who the enemy Heroes are, rather than who the player will be laning against. This is especially true since a good Sand King will be all over the map roaming anyway. Core Items: If the ganks the player is making are fairly successful, and he can survive well enough with just the use of his Bottle (if he did carry one), rushing to Blink Dagger before, or even outright skipping Bracers is very common. After grabbing dagger, Sand King is all set and ready to just dominate the early stage of the game. The next item to get is the boots upgrade, and Arcane Boots are easily the best boot choice for Sand King. He requires a lot of mana in fights and these give him the most mana and help out mana hungry allies. Luxury Items: Sand King is so powerful with just dagger and the boots upgrade that he can even contribute to the team without getting any luxury items and just focusing more on warding and ganking until late midgame. Though successful ganking means that the player will be having excess gold even after doing all that. The items to look forward to on Sand King is Black King Bar (BKB), Shiva's Guard, Veil of Discord, and Aghanim's Scepter. BKB is just great on Sand King especially because he can score Epicenter pulses on enemies without fear of being interrupted by abilities. Shiva's Guard is also a very great item on any initiator Hero, and especially Sand King who can use well with the armor and mana bonuses of the item. Veil of Discord is the cheapest way to increase the damage from your ultimate, and all of the other magic damage from your teammates. Scepter also increases the damage from your ultimate, but only for you, but makes Sand King tankier and gives you more mana. The choice between the two can come down to how much gold you're making and how often you're dying. Blademail is another outstanding item on Sand King as enemies are decided with whether they should eliminate Sand King while doing his Epicenter, or tank the Epicenter to avoid damaging themselves with the reflect. Both ways give great results, and the mind game put up by the item means they will be focused more on trying to survive than eliminating your team - one of the greatest ways to pseudo-tank. Heart of Tarrasque is another great item on the Hero. The regen coupled with your Sand Storm means you can stay in the fight for almost an indefinite amount of time. Unmentioned Items: The amplified magical damage coupled with his Epicenter means he can beat the whole enemy team to a pulp in a single move, while your own team can gain benefit from the extra damage bonus as well. Linken's Sphere is also a great item on Sand King since the regen and attribute bonuses mean that he can survive longer without going back to river and taking runes frequently, and the spellblock is just a great bonus all in all. Pipe of Insight is another good item for Sand King, but it shouldn't be taken if another good candidate can do it for the player. A second disable such as Orchid Malevolence or Scythe of Vyse are also great items, but other support Heroes should be getting it anyway. Urn of Shadows is also a very viable item for a middle lane Sand King or one who wishes to keep ganking.

Tips

• Use Blink Dagger to extend stun range by blinking in front of a hero and stun as many heroes as possible.
• Blink Dagger is a commonly built item for Sand King, used to initiate after channeling your Ultimate.
• The combo of Ulti+shift click blink is a formidable and a very strong way to enter team fights with the element of surprise and deal a ton of area of effect damage. Basically turning the tides of battle in your favour.
• A full blast of Epicenter at level 3 will deal 1100 damage, easily crippling the opposing team
• After initiating Sand Storm will protect you from auto attacks as well as deal damage to any enemy who stays in the area.
• In early game, hitting each creep once with Caustic Finale, followed by Burrowstrike will deal insane damage in that area and likely instagib any enemy hero who happens to be there.
• An effective early game combo involves using Burrowstrike on an enemy so they end up facing away from you and then immediately casting Epicenter. If done correctly, the enemy will be unable to stun you out of the channel phase and it will almost guarantee a kill. You should discontinue this around mid game, as you will need to save your ultimate for teamfight situations.

Trivia

• In a very old version of DotA, there was a bug where the final pulse of Crixalis's Epicenter would cause 10,000 points of damage. The only unit that was able to survive this was a super beefed up Pudge that was used to measure the amount of damage dealt by the ability.
• Sand King's line, "Like sands in the hourglass, these are the days of defeat" is an allusion to the soap opera Days of our Lives's introduction line, "Like sands in the hourglass, these are the days of our lives."

Update history

February 07, 2013 Patch

• Fixed some ability Backswing timing issues ( Kunkka, Clockwerk, Timbersaw, Meepo, Pudge, Spirit Breaker, Sand King, Riki, Nyx Assassin, Lion, Pugna, Shadow Demon, Batrider).

July 26, 2012 Patch

• Neutrals can now be damaged by Sandstorm.

May 24, 2012 Patch

• Adjusted Sand King's texture.

May 10, 2012 Patch

• Fixed Primal Split's Wind element being unable to Dispel Sandstorm.

March 01, 2012 Patch

• Added rival death-taunts and other miscellaneous lines to flesh out dialog set for Sand King.

February 16, 2012 Patch

• [Undocumented] Added injured animations for Sand King.
• [Undocumented] Added chase animations for Sand King.

January 12, 2012 Patch

• Fixed Repel causing Burrowstrike to fail if used during the movement period.
• Fixed Refresher Burrow Strike not hurting affected units.

November 17, 2011 Patch

• Fixed Repel stopping Sandstorm.
• Fixed a bug with Epicenter doing its Ultimate Scepter number of pulses regardless of level.

August 13, 2011 Patch

• Sandstorm will no longer damage neutrals.

August 05, 2011 Patch

• He is now stunned for the duration of his burrow strike so he doesn't walk out of short ones too soon.
• He now plays burrow_in at the begining of his ability and the burrow_out when the impale projectile finishes its course.
• Fixed the fly time 0.8 -> .52
• The stun time was starting at the begining of the vertical motion but it's supposed to start when the unit lands. Changing the stun time 1.65 -> 1.65 + 0.52.

July 16, 2011 Patch

• Fixed Epicenter and Caustic Finale being purgeable.
• Fixed burrow strike not respecting linken's and magic immunity rules when doing the close hit checks

July 08, 2011 Patch

• Fixed Epicenter from ending when sandking dies

July 01, 2011 Patch

• Fixed Caustic Finale working on magic immune units like Rhasta Wards.
• Fixed Caustic Finale buffs being created by illusions.

February 12, 2011 Patch

• Sandking's channel for his Ult is now a two beat tail slam "tell".

February 04, 2011 Patch

• Fixed Burrowstrike to apply damage when the units land on the ground.
• Fixed Sandstorm not going away when invisibility is broken.
• Fixed Burrowstrike to deal damage when the units land.

January 30, 2011 Patch

• Fixed cases where creating a linear projectile directly on yourself would cause it to get stuck. This includes fixes to Fissure, Ghost Ship, Dragon Slave, Arrow, Impale, Waveform, Illusory Orb, Meat Hook, Burrowstrike, Wave of Terror, and Power Shot.

Balance changelog

6.73

• Epicenter's slow is no longer blocked by magic immunity
• Caustic Finale's buff duration increased from 2 to 8 seconds

6.72

• Base Armor increased from 1.66 to 2.66

6.71

• Burrowstrike's manacost rescaled from 140 to 110/120/130/140

6.70

• Strength gain from 2.3 to 2.6
• Caustic Finale's buff duration from 0.25 to 2 seconds

See also

• Sand King responses