~Guide's Index

I. Introduction and Foreword
II. The Hero
III. The Skills
IV. Skill Build
V. Early Game Strategy
VI. Mid Game Strategy
VII. Late Game Strategy
VIII. Abusing Sand Storm
IX. Mastering your Combo
X. Items
XI. Item Build
XII. Drafting
XIII. Replays
XIV. FAQ
XV. Conclusion

I. Introduction and Foreword

Introduction to the Sand King

Keep in mind that Sand King is a very fragile hero. Forget that he is a strenght hero, he can't tank at all. He does not have much armor or much health; harassing Sand King is fairly easy. So, should you play it safe as Sand King? No! You must have balls of steel. You're the one to throw yourself into the enemies first, be it stunning far targets or starting team battles.
One of the best things you can have as Sand king is support from your team. If you can trust them, you are already successful in a way.

Changelog

II. The Hero

Playstyle

Crixalis can be played as a ganker, as a roamer and as an initiator. In fact, he is always a ganker and initiator, wreaking havoc from early on until the opposite team gives up.

Stats

18 + 2.3	19 + 2.1	16 + 1.8

Advanced Statistics

• Affiliation: Neutral
• Attack Animation: 0.53 / 0.47
• Damage: 43 - 59
• Casting Animation: 0 / 0.51
• Armor: 0.7
• Base Attack Time: 1.7
• Movespeed: 300
• Missile Speed: Instant
• Attack Range: 128 (melee)
• Sight Range: 1800 / 800

Pros & Cons

[+]Huge Aoe Damage
[+]Two Escape skills
[+]Item Independent
[+]Easy to farm with

[-]Mana Dependant
[-]Low base armor/Hp, thus easily harassed
[-]Low strength gain for a STR hero
[-]Two Spells are channeling, requires Blink to use properly.

III. The Skills

Burrowstrike


Level 1: 100 Damage, 400 Casting Range.
Level 2: 160 Damage, 500 Casting Range.
Level 3: 220 Damage, 600 Casting Range.
Level 4: 280 Damage, 700 Casting Range.

• Damage type: magical.
• Hit units will fly for 0.52 seconds before the real stun is applied.
• Stun duration is always 1.65 second.
• Aoe is always 175.
• Manacost is always 140.
• Cooldown is always 11 seconds.

Burrowstrike is your cookie cutter skill; used for stunning from range as it is a blink combined with an Impale. You Impale units in a line from where you were before casting to where you go after casting so try to align yourself with the enemies so that you can get the most heroes possible with your stun, be careful not to overdo it because you may miss.
For fleeing, use as a Blink. You can go to fog with Burrowstrike and hide / teleport. Some projectiles can be dodged with Burrowstrike and you're invulnerable while traveling, so if someone lands an area stun or nuke while you're burrowstrike'ing, you won't be damaged or stunned.


Sand Storm


Level 1: 20 DPS, 300 AOE, 60 mana, 40 sec CD, 20 sec duration, 0.6 sec extra invis.
Level 2: 40 DPS, 350 AOE, 50 mana, 35 sec CD, 40 sec duration, 0.9 sec extra invis.
Level 3: 60 DPS, 400 AOE, 40 mana, 30 sec CD, 60 sec duration, 1.2 sec extra invis.
Level 4: 80 DPS, 550 AOE, 30 mana, 25 sec CD, 80 sec duration, 1.5 sec extra invis.

• Damage type: magical.
• If the Sand King is magic immune at the moment of casting Sand Storm, it will not become invisible.
• Sand Storm is considered a channeling spell.

Sand Storm can be used to dodge most projectiles (like Storm Bolt based skills), skills that rely on visibility to hit (like Fan of Knives based skills and Zeus's ult), click-dependant skills (like Brain Sap and Reaper's Scythe) and physical attacks (provided that your enemy doesn't have true sight). You can buy some time to escape from heroes that can't harm you if they don't see you, if you remain 3 seconds unharmed you'll be able to use your Dagger to escape. You may use Burrowstrike to escape as well. You can also lure your enemies into casting their skills to get you and dodge or tank them. Read the Abusing Sand Storm section for more info.


Caustic Finale


Level 1: 90 Damage
Level 2: 130 Damage
Level 3: 170 Damage
Level 4: 220 Damage

• Duration is always 0.25 seconds.
• AoE is always 400 units.
• Damage type: magical.
• Exploding units leave no corpse.
• Caustic Finale places a buff on the attacked unit that lasts 0.25 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.

Most of the times, Caustic Finale is a farming skill. When you last hit, it'll deal damage in AOE. Can be used to counter some melee heroes inlane and specially Broodmother.
Notice that Burrowstrike almost kills the ranged creeps so abuse it to last hit them, thus dealing AOE damage. You can even micro last hits in the middle of the team battle, doing so you can deal even more AOE damage.


Epicenter


Level 1: Emits 6 (7*) pulses. Each pulse deals 110 damage and slows by 30%. CD of 140 (120*) seconds. 175 Manacost.

Level 2: Emits 8 (9*) pulses. Each pulse deals 110 damage and slows by 30%. CD of 120 (100*) seconds. 250 Manacost.

Level 3: Emits 10 (11*) pulses. Each pulse deals 110 damage and slows by 30%. CD of 100 (80*) seconds. 325 Manacost.

• 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 300 / 350 / 400 / 450 / 500 / 550 / 600 / 675 / 700 / 725 / (800*)
• Can be improved by Aghanim's Scepter (* shows the improved values).

Without Dagger

• Immediately after Burrowstrike. Shift-Issue it, maybe.
• In fog, when you're totally sure that the enemies will meet you when you finish the chanelling.
• In the only escape path for your foes, provided that no one will disable you.
• Before Burrowstrike. You can use your stun skill as a short blink.
• Right when someone is getting back with X, banish or reincarnation.

With Dagger

• To initiate from range.
• To initiate from fog.
• Ult + Blink + Burrowstrike
• Blink + Impale + Ult in case you need to urge and disable to help an ally or interrupt a chanelling skill, also to prevent blinkers or start for your allies to follow up with disables, then you ult.
• To counter gank, buy time or nuke and slow.

IV. Skill Build

You must max Burrowstrike first for the range and damage upgrade on it. Those can make all the difference between killing or dying. Also, it can help you land a First Blood or deny an enemy from getting if your ally is in danger, even at level 1. Sand Storm is maxed next, mostly for the buffs that it received at 6.63, now you can effectively use it to juke because it costs less mana and has less cooldown the more you level it, so it's worth levelling it up.


Sand Storm can be used to farm neutrals. It is very effective, doesn't take much mana and you don't lose any hp, also the cooldown for Sand Storm is only 10 seconds, so you can spam it a lot.

Caustic Finale at early game isn't so much profitable because it just pushes the lane forward, when all you want is to be as close as you can to your tower so that allies can teleport to gank, and as far as you can from the enemy tower so that you have more terrain to work your ganks on and have some more time to get away from enemy's teleport ganks. But still, maxing it after level 10 is good because it boosts your farm and gives you one more source of AOE damage. Also, farming with Caustic Finale will soonly give you a Point Booster to cover the stats bonuses you skipped.


Level 1 - Burrowstrike
Level 2 - Sand Storm
Level 3 - Burrowstrike
Level 4 - Sand Storm
Level 5 - Burrowstrike
Level 6 - Epicenter
Level 7 - Burrowstrike
Level 8 - Sand Storm
Level 9 - Sand Storm
Level 10 - Caustic Finale
Level 11 - Epicenter
Level 12 - Caustic Finale
Level 13 - Caustic Finale
Level 14 - Caustic Finale
Level 15 - Stats
Level 16 - Epicenter
Level 17+ - Stats

VI. Early Game Strategy

This can vary. If you are supposed to roam as Sand King, you will gank non-stop, preferrably in the lanes your carries are farming in. You simply gank. Be patient and time your attack, then go on and attempt to kill him with your allies. Harassing is fine also, do whatever you can to make sure your carries are farming.

If you are supposed to stick inlane as Sand King, you should farm a bit. You must get your dagger ASAP. Hardly there will be someone in your lane that needs the farm even more than you, this should be a carry like Morphling. Get the last hits Morphling can't and deny IF YOU AREN'T GOING TO GET TOO MUCH HARASSED. Be aggressive so that you can dish your enemies from your lane and farm or gank another lane.

Stun whenever you, your lane mate and the creeps / tower can land some damage or possibly kill the enemy. Think if you'll be successful and if they will be able to damage you or your lane mate way too much. If you've got the upper hand, grow the balls and do it.

It's good to go ganking, provided that your lane mate is able to solo and you have level 3 at least. It's advisable for you to get boots, bottle and stick asap when ganking hard time.


There you see Puppey ganking as SK. You must be prepared to go ganking, as you see he brought a sentry ward to gank Broodmother. Plan your ganks beforehand.


You should try to aim for stunning all the heroes you're able to in Burrowstrike. In this screenshot, Puppey stuns both Dirge and PotM, for this he aims at the ground just near PotM, the stuns go a little further than the blink. He casts Epicenter as soon as he lands, this can be done by spamming C as soon as Burrowstrike procs, or even by shift-issuing it.

VI. Mid Game Strategy

You've already bought Dagger.

PR0. Go gank non-stop and win the game.

You're trying to farm for Dagger.

Keep on, but don't take the farm away from the carries and be present on team battles. Comunicate with your team and advise them to avoid unecessary team battles until you get your dagger.

Now that you've got your dagger:

It's the time for some map awareness. You can use dagger for stunning far targets, but keep in mind that you won't likely kill anyone without your ult if you do it by yourself. Time the stun so that your allies can follow up with other disables / nukes. This if the target is alone, or better, not without its whole team nearby. If there are other targets or if your allies aren't likely to kill the foe and specially if the enemy is a carry or key hero, then you can ult him. How? You can either blink + stun + ult or ult + blink + stun. What should I choose?

• If someone can disable you, what's very likely to happen, mainly if the enemy hero isn't alone, ult before blink.
  
  
• If the enemy hero is helpless and doesn't have an escape mechanism such as blink, then you can ult after blink.
  
  
• If the enemies are too far away for you to ult before blink (aka they won't be close enough for getting damaged enough so that your allies can beat them in a team battle), then wait for the proper situation.

To decide wheter to initiate or not and how to initiate, check your wards, the map and the minimap. check also your enemies's health and mana pools, check if they can disable you and if you can blink into them (aka they can't disable your dagger by damaging you before you blink). Hide yourself, then proceed with ult + blink.


Puppey has just blinked in ...


... and the team battle has been initiated. Notice that Broodmother got severely damaged, Chen had to ult and Dirge had to Rip, all other heroes acted accordingly, you can notice that SF is about to ult and Zeus has just landed a Bolt. This is how to initiate a team battle.

VII. Late Game Strategy

Now you can ult at almost all team battles, but not dealing 70% of all the hp bars as damage in AOE, so you must abuse positioning, initiative and the surprise element.

You want to initiate them before they are able to initiate you, specially you. If your team gets initiated by your enemies, then take some distance, channel your ult and go fight (blink).

Keep in mind that you can clear creep waves fastly for pushing, but also that you don't need to farm anymore AND you need to have mana for the team battles.


Now is the time to ult and kill those annoying carries. In this screenshot, Puppey takes his time to initiate on PotM with Burrowstrike (yeah it hit), then proceed to ...


... ult her so that he and Zeus can take MiSeRy-'s PotM down. But it is far from over as PotM has leap to get away from this gank, but ...


... Puppey uses Dagger to keep on damaging PotM with Epicenter, slowing her so that Zeus can close in and get the finishing blow with a Lightning Bolt.

VIII. Abusing Sand Storm

Sand Storm is not just about dealing damage per second in an Area. It is about juking and escaping. It is the skill that makes up for Sand King being a very fragile hero. You can dodge many skill and also prevent that some skill are cast on you, not to mention that the enemy can't harm you phisically if he doesn't have vision of you. Of course, Sand Storm is countered by Wards, Dusts or Gems, but seriously, no one ever buys wards to counter Sand King, he's power is packed into his ultimate skill, Sand Storm merely lets him survive after wreaking so much havoc.

Obligatory read: Invisibility Guide by antiweltteilchen

You can dodge many skills with Sand Storm, from those you may find it obvious like Storm Bolt based skill to those you may find really hard, but yeah, they are dodgeable. Refer to this List of all skills sorted by hero related to windwalk and invisibility dodge.

Also, Zeus is a counter to you, yes, but if you use Sand Storm then Ulti, you'll be invis for an extra 1.5s, Zeus may ult you there and he'll just waste it, you won't be hit and will be able to blink to initiate.


Storm Bolt based skills are fully dodged and you can do that even from melee range because Sand Storm has instant casting time.


You can abuse the fade time to dodge some AOE spells. Here, I see Lina coming to stun me and I immediatelly get away from the stun as fast as I can.


I dodged Lina's stun. If you need to dodge Impale or Carrion Swarm based skills, you should act accordingly, move sideways if too close or move forward if far away.

IX. Mastering your Combo

The best way is to count to two in your mind and watch the hero animation for landing a perfect blink, thus dealing near full damage.
Hit whenever they won't be able to outrun you and you don't need to stun / dodge stuff.


Here, Puppey channels Epicenter within range of the battle. He proceeds to blink in and ...


... deal huge AOE damage. Keep in mind that it is not because you have a huge damaging AOE ult that you will win all battles if you cast it correctly, if you pay close attention here, you will see that Puppey did only ult to slow down the push, he didn't kill those heroes.

Go on Single Game and practice it a bit. Ult like you would do normally and count how much waves proc after you blink. It should proc a number of waves equal to the total minus one, so 5 at level 1, 7 at level 2 and 9 at level 3 without Aghanim, or 6, 8 and 10 with that item. Also, practice blinking where team battle usually are held and find spots to hide there. You don't need to know all of those hiding spots, you will usually find a suitable one when you ult ingame, but some practice helps a lot.

Remember how to use Blink + Stun + Ult and Ult + Blink + Stun, when you are supposed to do each of them, if you are supposed to do in that particular situation and where you are supposed to be after you blink (usually in a place where you can get the most heroes by just Burrowstriking in a line as soon as possible).
Also, abuse the surprise factor. They got more damaged the less they expect you to ult them. Ult from across the river, from the deep fog etc.

X. Items

Helpful in every situation.



Core item. A must for a ganker like you.



Upgrading to Boots of Travel is optional. Phase Boots may be useful in some situations, like when you're facing Shadow Shaman or Undying because you need the Phase skill to move around, but anyway the IAS is wasted. Power Treads give you stats, it's cheaper than nulls, doesn't take slots away and gives +20 ms.



Dagger, FUCK YEAH.



Boosts your ult (especially cooldown) and your HP and MP.



Boosts your armor and gives you mana. Also, the nuke and slow is very useful as you'll always be on the middle of the team battle.

Situational Items



As you'll be always on the core of the team battle, you can carry it. If there is no other hero that is likely to carry it, skill Caustic Finale and farm for it. However, as you need to build core items before you can go for Pipe, you'll get it a little bit late in the game. Consider getting it after Dagger if your team needs it.



It's useful on any hero.



Specially useful against Zeus and Doom. Also, it beefs you up.



Blocks any spell and makes it sure that your ult will be sucessful (unless you're against Enigma, Bane, Rexxar, Doom or Clock, but anyway, you'll be chanelling your ult from far away, right?). Specially useful against DoT heroes (Axe, QoP, Veno, Warlock) and against some Dagger disablers (Zeus, Doom's fire, Furion, Clock), with BKB you can channel it without worrying about getting damaged by MAGIC DAMAGE, what would screw up your dagger combo if you didn't have BKB, BUT WATCH OUT FOR OTHER SOURCES OF DAMAGE.

Miscellaneous Items





Both items are useful because of their auras, but only if the game drags on too much. You're not usually the best to carry this item because you may die too soon in the battle.



You can afford to buy one or both of those items in the very late game if your team desperatedly needs to disable a specific enemy hero.

XI. Item Build

This timing is just to show the order you should get the items and aproximatedly when. You may not really buy the very same items in the very same timing, adapt yourself to the game.

- At base -



or



- 7 min mark -


- 14 min mark -


- 21 min mark -


- Afterwards -

XII. Drafting

Sand King is a huge pick in competitive games. Used as a starter, Sand King can wreak serious havoc on the battle field. He has been banned many times in professional games, the team who did it probably wanted to turtle and avoiding a dangerous hero like Sand King was crucial to their strategy, and also can be first picked without problems if you want to go for an aggressive lineup.

Allies

May go inlane with you




Aggressive heroes. You want to kill and / or harass the enemies in your lane as much as you can. Most of the heroes listed can abuse the fact that Sand King can close upon the enemy easily, stunning it and furthermore dealing some physical damage.

May be able to solo if you leave the lane




Generally, the heroes that can solo by themselves.

May help you land your ult on team battles



Initiators =3

Keep an eye for those heroes/items



They can dodge your stuff.



SilencezomgI'mUselessPieceOfSh1t.



They can disable your dagger even if you don't notice that they will.

XIII. Replays

Brazil DotA Clan War Room Game - BK-nOob vs DarkMedina


Download Replay Here

Bans: (BK-nOob First) | | | | | | |

Picks: (BK-nOob First) | | | | |

BK-nOob, Sentinel
-TuLli0-(Top)
[CyBeR]KpEtInhA(Top)
[cyber]murgaia(Mid)
BK-nOob(Bot)
D_fuck(Bot)

DarkMedina, Scourge
logaNNNNN-(Top)
DarkMediano(Top)
x3M|MightScreaM(Mid)
DarkMedina(Bot)
FIGADOTOTALFLEX(Bot)

This game shows intensive ganking by Sand King, the usual build with SS, going Bottle, Phase, Dagger. Pretty awesome. Interesting to see Night Stalker get some love on Competitive Games and he did pretty well also. The mass stuns stuff was pretty awesome for ganking heroes like Panda, Necrolyte and Balanar.

GameSphere League Game - sX-G vs Prime


Download Replay Here

The Sentinel
pekeno(Top)
sX-G|yuMi(Top)
sX-G|Welto-(Mid)
sX-G|FugA(Mid)
sX-G|Darky-(Bot)

The Scourge
Prime.4Dr-(Top)
Prime.Sune(Top)
Prime.Doon(Top)
Prime.bAraTTa(Mid)
Prime.Del(Bot)

Pride Replay

Puppey vs Axypa[P]


Download Replay Here

Bans: (Axypa First) | | | | | | |

Picks: (Axypa First) | | | | |

Puppey, Sentinel
ICeMan-.-(Top)
Puppey(Mid/Roaming)
EVO!ThePlaymatE(Mid)
AEON.KuroKy(Bot)
Smiske(Roaming)

Axypa, Scourge
fnatic.MiSeRy-(Top)
unique!Ducky(Top)
Abby(Mid)
eXp.Sky(Bot)
Planet-X|Axypa(Jungle)

Extense pushes and team battles, amazing game by MiSeRy-, Puppey and KuroKy. Puppey buys sentry wards at the beggining of the game, rushes bottle and later boots plus wand. Dagger at 23 min mark. Later, he gets Vanguard and Shiva's for tanking some damage.

DotA Pride Tournament
Round 5 Match

HHN vs MYM



Download Replay Here

HHN, Sentinel
hhn|FeelMyPain(Top)
naix4o(Top)
GaLaHai(Mid)
angi4(Mid)
firfi(Bot)

MYM, Scourge
MYM|MaNia-(Top)
MYM|AngeL(Mid)
MYM|KuroKy(Bot)
MYM|miGGel(Bot)
MYM|PusHer(Top)

This is the best Sand King of the world ^-^ MaNia- shows us the power of ganking and good team battle coordination with MYM|AngeL and MYM|miGGel. He gets Bottle, Boots, 2x Bracer, Dagger at 30 min, Point Booster, Power Treads and Hood in this game.

ESL Friday Night Cup #7
Final Match

MYM vs T.G


Download Replay Here

No Draft Information Available

The Sentinel
MYM|MaNia-(Top)
MYM|miGGel(Top)
MYM|AngeL(Mid)
MYM|KuroKy(Bot)
MYM|PusHer(Roaming)

The Scourge
Xeido_(Top)
TeG-ppasarel(Mid)
AirwalK^BoNe(Bot)
[T.G]W1z4rd(Bot)
I-aM-GoSu.nOt(Roaming)

Another game by MaNia-, nice to see some new picks around. He goes the very same build as the previous game, loads of ganks and also fierce team battles.

XIV. FAQ

It is because Sand King doesn't need to farm, in fact he'll be ganking non-stop once he gets his dagger and Sand Storm will help him by giving him another escape mechanism.

There are other heroes that can benefit a lot more from clearing the wave. You Burrowstrike, then, say, Puck nukes and farms all the creeps and gets a Guinsoo. Not always you'll hit creeps with Burrowstrike when ganking, in truth, almost never. And even if you do, allies will follow up with nukes and will kill the creeps anyway. I supose that the only use for Caustic Finale is farming really and this is something Sand King doesn't do at all.

XV. Conclusion

A well played Crixalis can make all the difference. One of the best gankers in the game, he can initiate, roam, press the enemy out of their lanes or deny him from farming by being aggressive and ganking non-stop. You can, with your ult and your allies's assistance, kill almost any hero that stands in your path. Go do it!

Special thanks for Un1t3D_, Mindzin-, EternityPala, Val, Dustfinger, Agaeki and MYM|MaNia-.

Comment/feedback is appreciated.
Thanks for reading my guide.