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Community Guide to Storm Spirit



Table of Contents
  1. Alt+Tab Mini-Guide
  2. The Big Picture
  3. Spells
  4. Skill Build
  5. Item Build
    1. Starting Items
    2. Core Items
    3. Possible Extension Items
    4. Situational Items
    5. Luxury Items
    6. Rejected Items
  6. Gameplay
    1. Laning
    2. Ganking
    3. Beyond Ganking
  7. Replays
  8. Credits



Alt+Tab Mini-Guide

__________________________________________________________________
1Static Remnant6Ball Lightning11Ball Lightning
2Overload7Electric Vortex12Overload
3Electric Vortex8Static Remnant13Overload
4Electric Vortex9Static Remnant14Overload
5Electric Vortex10Static Remnant15Stats
    16Ball Lightning

Starting items:


Core:


Extension Options: [Situational:]


Luxury:


Ganking Tips:
  • Short Ranged Ball Lightning > Overload (attack) > Electric Voretx > Overload (attack) > Static Remnant on a single target > Overload (attack). Chase with Bal. Lightning and repeat if needed.
    Hotkeys: G>A>E>A>R>A (repeat if needed)
  • Watch your mana level, using a Wand/Bottle to squeeze as much mp as needed



The Big Picture


Storm Spirit is a hero with high mobility, offering lightning quick gank support. His spells indicate rapid usage to take advantage of their low cooldown. He comes packed with a melee ranged nuke, a fair length disable, a pseudo-slow and his signature no-cooldown pseudo-blink. However, he runs into mana problems as his ultimate drains based on percentage of his maximum mana pool, thus his electrifying potential won't be shown until he has his core items.


When to pick :
  • Your team is planning on ganking heavily, even after mid-game
  • Your team depends on a great deal of mobility (especially blink daggers)
  • The enemy team has weak counters to your escape skill (e.g. Storm Bolt can be dodged, but Silence cannot and lasts for a long time)

When to avoid picking :
  • Your team is a push based line-up
  • There's a fair amount of silence on the other team (Death Prophet, Bloodseeker, Doom, Drow Ranger, Silencer, etc)
  • You do not have good mana management skills (fixed by practice)
  • You have a hard time farming up bloodstone (fixed by practice)



Spells

Check out the hero page for a full description of the hero's skills and statistics.
Static Remnant
Mechanics:
  • AoE: 235
  • Mana Cost: 70/80/90/100
  • Cooldown: 4 seconds
  • 140/180/220/260 damage
Usage:
This spell is Storm's bread and butter. Early on, it provides a decent AoE nuke (although you have to be at melee range for it). Once mana becomes easier to come by, it's great for quickly clearing creeps waves, neutraling, doing heavy damage by spamming it during a gank or fight and even just getting an Overload on your next shot during a gank. Note that you can cast remnant while moving with your ultimate. Also, note that Remnants have flying vision, meaning they can see past terrain that blocks your vision to see incoming ganks, prevent jukes, etc.


Static Remnant's 235 range. Be careful with placement.



Electric Vortex
Mechanics:
  • Casting Range: 300
  • Mana Cost: 100
  • Cooldown: 20 seconds
  • Disables for 1/1.5/2/2.5 seconds
  • Pulls the target 100/150/200/250 units
  • Slows Storm by 50% for 3 seconds
Usage:
Storm's disable. This move is a key part of any gank. Not only does it disable the enemy, it keeps you free to attack them (although you're slowed). It also drags them closer, which makes it easier to hit with remnants. Note that you can pull an enemy up a cliff or other terrain obstruction if you are standing there.


The 300 Range of Electric Vortex



Overload
Mechanics:
  • Passive
  • When Storm casts a spell, his next attack will have additional effects
  • AoE: 300
  • 30/45/60/75 magic damage
  • Slows the enemy's ms by 80% and aspd by 50% for .6 seconds
Usage:
Along with remnant, this skill gives you some AoE power. In ganks, the important part is the slow that you get when you cast any other spell. The damage is ok, but far from spectacular - it's mostly useful for clearing creeps. You can abuse your 4s cd nuke and your 0s cd pseudo-blink to keep an enemy constantly slowed once you have enough mana.



Ball Lightning
Mechanics:
  • Casting Range: Global
  • AoE: 150/225/300
  • Mana Cost: 15+7% of total mana pool to initiate. Also, 10+1% of total mana pool for every 100 units traveled.
  • Cooldown: 0 seconds
  • Moves at 1250/1875/2500 units per second
  • Does 8/12/16 damage per 100 units traveled
  • Breaks trees if you go through them
  • Invulnerable during movement
  • Immediately stops if Storm runs out of mana en route
  • Can cast while moving
Usage:
Storm's signature move. It makes Storm the most mobile hero in DotA over short distances. Early on, it's mostly used as an escape. In the ganking phase, it provides you with a way to land the initial disable. Later, it is often used to get into a fight immediately after initiation.
During late-game it defines Storm's fighting and can also be used to stop pushes. You can ult in, drop a Remnant and ult out very quickly. You will be invulnerable pretty much the entire time while doing great damage to creeps and nice harass against heroes.




Skill Build

1. Static Remnant
2. Overload
3. Electric Vortex
4. Electric Vortex
5. Electric Vortex
6. Ball Lightning
7. Electric Vortex
8. Static Remnant
9. Static Remnant
10.Static Remnant
11. Ball Lightning
12. Overload
13. Overload
14. Overload
15. Stats
16. Ball Lightning
17-25.Stats

Storm is fairly flexible in terms of build; however this guide will focus on maxing Electric Vortex first for better gank control.




Item Build

Starting Items:

589

This is one of many variations of working starting builds for Storm. Provides decent lasthitting, plenty of healing and cheap stats via branches. This build assumes that you have access to a chicken. The mantle can be turned into a Null Talisman later, the branches form the obligatory magic wand. Why no clarities? Simple. Storm, while being the most mana-intensive hero in the game, doesn't really need to spam his spells during laning, and his spells have pretty low manacost until he gets his ultimate. This is by no means a "must-get", you can alternate by getting more mantles, less healing, less branches. If you're up against an agressive lane for example, this build is pretty good, if you happen to solo against a passive laner, you might want to get less regen for another mantle.

Core Items:
(optional)
6544 (7144 with bottle)

Rather expensive, but Storm needs Bloodstone as soon as possible to rack up charges. Bloodstone is the item that gives the most possible mana-regeneration in the game with enough charges. And this is key to playing Storm, because his ultimate drains a percentage of your whole manapool. It also gives a nice HP-boost, a good bonus considering Storm has to get pretty close to his prey to deal damage. The order you get the components varies depending on circumstances in your games:

If the enemy team is nuke heavy, get Point Booster and Vitality Booster first
If it's more of a DPS team, get Ring of Health
If you need to gank more before you get Bloodstone, get Void Stone.
The last piece you should get should ALWAYS be the Energy Booster (explained in rejected items).

Magic Wand is highly useful on all heroes, Storm is no exception. The charges can help you scratch your last mana together to Ball Lightning over a cliff, or catch up to a low hp enemy. Null Talisman provides cheap stats, some damage and mana/manaregen. Regular boots will do for now, you have Ball Lightning for chasing and escaping.

Bottle is optional. Storm can use it, but should really aim for a fast bloodstone, and bottle just delays that. on the other hand it provides regen, which Storm loves. The choice will largely depend on playstyle.

you should try to keep a TP scroll in your inventory from mid-game onwards. Storm is good at ganks and counterganks and a TP scroll lets him be where he's needed. You can also use your ultimate to hide in some trees (or over a cliff, etc) and use a TP scroll to get out of trouble.



Intelligence Power Treads: If the need for extra mana arrives or a slight bump in speed, you might want to consider taking Power Treads.

Possible Extension Items:


Guinsoo's Scythe of Vise will be the chief extension item of choice in 99% of cases. Hex is a priceless ability, useful for either preventing a second enemy from disabling you during your combo upon ROFLing in, or to extend your combo against a single target. The time that your enemy spends as a sheep will also serve to narrow the gap between the end of your combo and when you can cast Vortex again. This item grants additional int, mana regen, health and damage - all of which are stats that benefit a late game Storm. Ultimately, Hex is simply the best choice after Bloodstone.

Boots of Travel are perfect for any Storm planning on going into late game. Storm has huge farming potential with Remnant and Overload, which, combined with BoT, allow him to hop around the lanes farming at an incredibly rate - hopefully giving him the monetary edge on his opponents that he will need to carry effectively.

Whether or not you choose to get BoTs before Hex will depend upon your personal playstyle and the current state of affairs in the game. BoTs are more for farming and multiple-lane pushing, whereas Hex is an offensive/team clash/ganking item. If you feel that you can safely farm more without being a hindrance to your team or risking getting ganked, getting BoTs earlier can be gamebreaking. In all other cases - or if you aren't fully sure - going straight for Hex is probably the safest option.

Orchid Malevolence, while no doubt a great item, is overshadowed by Hex in nearly every respect. Typically, you will only want to consider this item after you've finished Hex and BoTs. However, there are some cases in which there is merit to getting Orchid first. These are:
  • If you're having a really hard time and cannot safely farm up the expensive components for Hex in one go. Orchid's components are cheap, easy and effective; much as SnY was once considered a backup for many downtrod DPS heroes who wanted to many a comeback, Orchid is Storm's backup.
  • If you really, really need the additional 1.5 seconds of silence rather than a more complete disable in hex. Namely against hard disablers such as Lion and Rhasta who have pathetic damage output but can shut you down utterly if granted an opportunity to use their spells.

Situational Items:


Eul's: Provides cheap regen, some move speed so you can refrain from ROFLing all the time, and a good disable to take one enemy from a fight for 2.5seconds, or to take you out so you can buy some time or avoid certain spells.

Linken's Sphere: Good stats, regeneration and, of course, spell block. While you are ROFLing you can be disabled, and you don't want that, so Linken's can give you that time of non-disable even without BKB. Don't take it if you are facing AoE Disablers, nor if you are facing Naga Siren. Specially Naga, since Linken's will turn that ultimate into a 5v1 fight. For further information about this item, read nix's Linken's Sphere guide.

Black King Bar: If there are multiple disables on the enemy team (Rhasta, Bane, Lion Witch, multiple Guinsoo's, so on and so forth) having a BKB will make Ball Lightning in and nuking like its going out of style much safer for Storm.


Luxury Items:


Shiva's Guard: A good source of armor, intelligence and a very strong negative attack speed aura, Shiva's is a viable luxury item after getting a Bloodstone and an extension item or two; the reason being that Ball Lightning consumes a large amount of mana due to it's percent based starting cost. The larger your mana pool, the bigger the start up cost. Since Shiva's only grants the minor regen provided from raw intel, get some charges on that Bloodstone.

Eye of Skadi: Although a very expensive item, it gives a great deal of HP/MP and raw stats, as well as a great slow on every attack.

Heart of Tarrasque: Gives nearly 1k in raw hp, very handy late game and increases survival quite well. The 2% out of combat regen (along with a charged Bloodstone) means you'll hardly ever visit the fountain, if ever.


Rejected Items:


Refresher Orb: Storm has low-cd skills, which makes Refreseher a silly item choice.

Arcane Ring, Energy Booster: Both provide raw mana alone. After BS, Energy Booster shouldn't be bought again. Since the ultimate requires a % of mana, you will want to maximize mana regeneration while minimizing your mana pool.

Kelen's Dagger: With your ultimate, your positioning problems are solved - no need for Dagger.

Dagon: Delays your Bloodstone, Guinsoo or whatever you are building, provides no good regen (except from the cheap int) and by the time you build it, it isn't useful anymore, since then it will be lategame. Although 800 burst damage with a 24 second cooldown may sound great, you'd be better off saving those 8250 gold for buybacks.




Gameplay

Laning:


The best item to provide mana regen is Bloodstone, so you should always go to the middle lane or the short lane, which are the ones that give access to the side shops or secret shops and keep you relatively safe until you have your ultimate. A double disable lane can give you or your ally the First Blood. If for any reason you're not going to rush BS, then pick any lane you like.

Your goal on a solo-lane is simply to farm that Bloodstone quickly, while occasionally ganking if a good opportunity arises. If you lane against a melee hero you can harass him quite well, the slow from Overload hurts melees that are trying to last hit and you might even hit a Remnant sometimes. It's also easier to Vortex melee heroes. If you're up against a dual lane or a superior laner, just stay passive and farm. Remnant is a poor nuke during laning, but it's cheap and can be used to get some last hits you would miss otherwise, or to stop that Brood from pushing your tower. Overload is also a nice last hitting tool. Check the rune spawn locations from time to time, whether you have bottle or not.


Ganking:

Storm loves ganking. Try to sneak up on your enemy without using your ultimate, every manapoint counts until you have some charges on your Bloodstone.

How to gank a lone hero:

If he doesn't have an escape ability/disable, try to put a Remnant on his escape-route, hit him with Overload, Vortex, hit Overload, Remnant, Overload. If your allied ganker has a disable, make sure you don't overlap it with Vortex and use the disable-time to put a Remnant on your prey. Finish with short Ball Lightning + Overload combos until he is dead or you have to retreat because you're out of mana. You can also try to Ball Lightning in front of him, Overload, and put a remnant in his escape route. Be careful about towers or other enemies. Keep an eye on your mana because Storm without mana is a marginally stronger version of a ranged creep.

If your prey does have a disable/escape ability, its usually good to start the gank with a Ball Lightning from fog keeping the distance as short as possible, Overload, Vortex, etc. Sometimes its better to waste one Overload and make sure the victim doesn't blink away by using Vortex immediately after Ball Lightning.

Some examples to get you started:

Storm is about to gank a full life/half mana Sniper while Storm has half life/full mana... will he succeed?


Ball Lightning>Overload>Electric Vortex>Overload>Static Remnant>Overload


Sniper tries to make a break for it, but Storm spends the last of his mana on another Ball Lightning. A short chase up the ramp and Storm gets his kill. Not pictured: Sniper using his Wand, Healing Salve, Bottle... and his tiny, tiny tears...


To see Storm in action, watch this link.

General tips on ganking:

Mana-management is important, especially in the ganking phase. Death is a serious setback, especially for Storm once he has Bloodstone charges since they are cut in half every time you die. Be careful of silence and disables, if you have mana and are aware of your enemies, its often possible to avoid them with Ball Lightning.

Initiators are your best friends. They can blink in while you use Ball Lightning to arrive at roughly the same time, giving neither the victim nor his team a chance to react. Ideally, the hero with the dagger has some sort of burst damage and benefits from your disable/slows (e.g. Ursa).

Carry TPs with you. If you see a gank/countergank opportunity, TP there, Ball Lightning in to get fleeing enemies, or disable enemies that are about to kill your allies. You won't be able permagank until you have enough mana regeneration. A 2v1 gank might very well cost you 3/4 of your manapool or even more. Hence, go farm a lane after a gank.


Beyond Ganking:

Don't die. Of course dying is always bad, but for certain heroes its worse than for others. This is especially true after you gained Bloodstone-charges. Storm isn't a very good hero without charges, he simply can't sustain his enormous mana needs. That said, it's entirely possible to not die with a hero that has a 0 second cd escape spell, which is one of Storms major strengths.

Never stand still and auto-attack in team fights, unless you can be sure you won't get focused. Do not initiate team fights, let an ally like Earthshaker or Sandking do that for you. You can go in shortly after, but let him eat the first barrage of nukes. Your job is to disable a key-hero, slow others down for your team, deal damage with Remnants, Ball Lightning and Overload. Terminate escapees from successful team battles. Use your ultimate to stop the enemies from focusing you (Ball Lightning grants invulnerability for its duration and you're an invalid target for most spells).

Never get chain-stunned or silenced, it will get you killed in no time. Use your mobility. Remember, you can go anywhere you like, so it might be a good idea to Ball Lightning over the bulky/initiating heroes and pick off a Lion, Lich, etc.

Another thing to note is that Storm is exceptionally powerful in his own base, because he can replenish his mana fast there. You can Ball Lightning (it's possible to drop a remnant during Ball Lightning btw, same for vortex) in to harass and destroy a creep wave, Ball Lightning out, replenish at fountain, rinse and repeat until the other team is too weak to keep the push up.

Adjust your play style according to how well you're doing. A fat Storm can be a huge pain in the ass, because he is extremely hard to kill if played well. With a large amount of mana regen, you just have to wait a few seconds for an empty mana pool to refill. This means you can be more aggressive and pick off the fragile heroes very often/fast to be an even bigger pain in the ass. On the other hand, a Storm that didn't farm well or died many times isn't much more than a supportive disabler with a blink-like ability, and can't be as aggressive.

As an afterword, please remember that a guide is just that: a guide. There may be times when you feel that maxing Static Remnant or Overload will help you more. Guinsoo first? Try and be flexible, especially when dealing with enemies and supporting your team mates.




Replays
BFB vs MYM, -AP, 6.64, 1.24c
Download here
The Sentinel
MYM|MaNia(Bot)
MYM|PusHer(Mid)
MYM|AngeL(Top)
MYM|Jukz(Top)
MYM|miGGel(Mid)

The Scourge
Puppey(Mid)
Fear^ER(Mid)
kky-(Top)
BFB|Merlini(Bot)
BFB|DeMoN(Top)

Storm goes to the top lane with allied support from KotL. With Chakra Magic, Storm doesn't lack for mana early game, and is much more liberal about using Remnant and Electric Vortex. kky- goes for a fast Guinsoo here and then later, builds a BKB. SF and Brood Mother keep their lanes under control, and quickly Scourge break through the lane towers. Late game, the Sentinels turtle up and Scourge begins a hard siege.



Note: to view the following replays, your WC3 version must be patch 1.24b If you need a version switcher you can find one here
MYM versus Pi, -CM 6.64, 1.24b
Down load here
Bans: (MYM|Kuroky first) | | | | | | |

Picks: (MYM|Kuroky first) | | | | |

MYM|Kuroky, Sentinel

MYM|KuroKy
MYM|Pusher
MYM|Angel
MYM|Mania-
MYM|miGGel

AMXZaku, Scourge

AMXZaku(bot)
wtfguineapirate(jungle)
PS.AK(bot)
JonnhyUtah(mid)
XsK_Samurai(top)

In this game Angel plays a solo Storm mid. For the first few levels, he plays passively, but after gaining level 6 and Ball Lightning, he quickly turns up the pressure, killing the Sniper mid and then traveling to the bottom lane to gank. Keep an eye out for his Aegis steal later in the game.


DMZ vs Fnatic.MSI, -AP, 6.64, 1.24b
Down load here
DMZ , Sentinel

dmZ^hexOr(Top)
dmZ^v1Ctory(Top)
dmZ^Black^(Mid)
nfinity.rmN(Bot)
dmZ^moods(Roaming)


Fnatic.MSI , Scourge

fnaticMSI.Lolda(Top)
Tompisch(Top)
MiSeRyTheSLAYER(Mid)
MiioMiio|Ducky(Bot)
XsK_kwoM_(Bot)

Here dmZ^Black plays a solo Storm mid. This replay shows Storms mobility and power in ganks. Even thought dmZ^Black dies a few times, he still finishes the game with 11 charges on his Bloodstone.


Inhouse with Dark Medina, -CM, 6.64, 1.24b
Down load here
Bans: (Scourge First) | | | | | | |

Picks: (Scourge First) | | | | |

The Sentinel
DarkMedina(Mid)
BnS|LieStalker(Top)
Blue_Phoenix(Bot)
logaNNNNN-(Bot)
kadax(Bot)

The Scourge
Bruninha_(Top)
PAADA(Mid)
RyuSora(Bot)
ykamikaze(Bot)
srg-(Bot)

Here, DarkMedina plays a solo Storm in mid (noticing a pattern?) against a solo Phantom Assassin. This replay shows how quickly you can gain charges for your Bloodstone and Storm's massive mobility as he smashes into the fray.




Credits

Super apologizes to everyone, and big sorry to Val. Thank you for putting up with me!

This guide is called a "Community Guide" for a reason. It was made by a number of playdota community members in the strategy forums. Swiftkick, Val, Lifeburns, Sonicspear, Syaska, kawumm, EyeOfFire, teStud0, Zephirdd and The Other Guy contributed sections to this guide.

A very special thanks to bountyface, 3995elits, Cerebros, Prizo, gotahemmi, leomon235, Bacconaise, Thrasher, feral_nature, Lifeburns, Skaro, EternityPala, DarkMedina, UTDC.Justin, YaNK_FaN, BabyComix, hajasmarci, Shiyoko, turtle.slayer, Sykik, ^Eternity^, alia, mxt, moja, gwho, Obession, nix, Kasad, anarky2k7, andrfid, Brejdi, Leak-, Fire Lotus and Propapanda for being AWESOME .





Raijin Thunderkeg the Storm Spirit
Author: Swiftkick
Map Vers.: 6.65

Community Guide to Raijin

Community Guide to Raijin

Date Posted: 01/13/10
Last Comment:21/03/2012
Total Votes: 64
Current Rating: 8.24
Views: 137800



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