Sand King

Strengths

-This character is a great team oriented hero
-Can clear creep waves very fast with caustic finale.
-It has a low cooldown stun with a blink like effect thrown in.
-Epicenter is a very powerful skill that can easliy decide the outcome of a team battle.

Weaknesses

-It has pretty low strength gain for a strength hero
-Being melee, he will be harrased early game.
-Main skills force him into heart of battle and he’s not that sturdy.
-Easily counter-able ult is the most important thing for you to get off.

Skills

Burrowstrike

The Sand King burrows into the ground and tunnels forward, impaling everything above him, then resurfaces.


Level 1 - 100 damage, 400 maximum range.(75)
Level 2 - 160 damage, 500 maximum range.(120)
Level 3 - 220 damage, 600 maximum range.(165)
Level 4 - 280 damage, 700 maximum range.(210)

Cooldown: 11 seconds.

Level 1: 140 mana, 11 sec cooldown.
Level 2: 140 mana, 11 sec cooldown.
Level 3: 140 mana, 11 sec cooldown.
Level 4: 140 mana, 11 sec cooldown.

This is one of your bread and butter skills and what makes you kill and gank so well. Basically, this is your escape mechanism, 1.65 second stun and nuke skill with a Blink like effect thrown in. When you hit a hero with burrowstrike, the hero will “fly” up in the air and render itself invulnerable for 1 second. After landing back onto the ground, he will be stunned for 1.65 second. You can also burrow up hills or terrains to escape your chasing-enemies while your enemies cry after a failed gank.

Stand Storm

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.

Level 1- 20 damage per second, 200 AOE, invisibility lasts 20 seconds. 0.3 second delay before revealed.

Level 2- 40 damage per second, 250 AOE, invisibility lasts 40 seconds. 0.6 second delay before revealed.

Level 3- 60 damage per second, 300 AOE, invisibility lasts 60 seconds. 0.9 second delay before revealed.

Level 4- 80 damage per second, 350 AOE, invisibility lasts 80 seconds. 1.2 second delay before revealed.ChannelingCooldown: 40 seconds.

Level 1: 60 mana, 40 sec cooldown.

Level 2: 50 mana, 40 sec cooldown.

Level 3: 40 mana, 40 sec cooldown.Level 4: 30 mana, 40 sec cooldown.

Your secondary escape skill is very inferior to Burrowstrike. However, If your enemy does not have any AOE stuns, then this is a pretty good skill. If the enemy AOE stuns are absent, and Burrowstrike is on cooldown, then I normally use Sandstorm and wait for the perfect situation to Blink/Burrowstrike to safety while waiting for its cooldown. But still, this is a very situational skill.Recently, I have seen many Sandking players getting Sandstorm+Burrowstrike. Whenever a creep waves approached, they would use Sandstorm until the creep moves to another location. This is a very, very bad strategy because once they get wards, you have completely wasted your valuable skill points on Sandstorm. Also, it pushes the creeps too far. If you are with a competent ally, he WILL get almost all the creep kills and you get almost none. Moreover, it’s also relatively easy for the enemy to deny creeps.One more thing to note, the actual AOE of Sandstorm is very deceiving. On one hand, it might look it takes up half the screen but in reality it only affects a small area. So, what is the real AOE of sandstorm? The picture show sandking sandstorm at level 3, which is 300 AOE. I used leshrac lvl 3 split earth for comparision, which is also 300 Aoe. Anything outside it are just animation and enemies that stand there wont be dealt any damage.

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.

Level 1 - 90 damage.

Level 2 - 130 damage.

Level 3 - 170 damage.

Level 4 - 220 damage.

Orb effect.PassiveOne of the best farming skills in the game. Sandking is melee range and does not have any farming abilities, thus this skill actually help you farm some items. You will be able to kill neutral creeps and clear creep waves to defend your tower fairly easy with Caustic Finale and Burrowstrike maxed. One thing to note is that this is an orb effect, so other orb effect items like S&Y or Eye of Skadi should not be purchased.Many players I see get Battlefury to maximize his pushing potential. However, this is unneeded. I am positive Sandking can kill a whole creep wave in 4 seconds. With Battle Fury… Perhaps 3 seconds. Is it worth it? No, Heart is noticably better!


Epicenter

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.

Level 1 - 2.0 second casting time, 6 pulses of 110 damage.
Level 2 - 2.0 second casting time, 8 pulses of 110 damage.
Level 3 - 2.0 second casting time, 10 pulses of 110 damage.

Cooldown: 140/120/100 seconds.
Level 1: 175 mana, 140 sec cooldown.
Level 2: 250 mana, 120 sec cooldown.
Level 3: 325 mana, 100 sec cooldown.

One of the best skills in the game, and the main reason why Sandking is a top pick in leagues. This skill make Sandking a very good initiator in team battles. Even at level 6, a successful Epicenter can easily get you a nice double kill provided they cant stop the channeling. This is one reason so many people fear Sandking. Getting epicenter off during a team battle can easily mean a win for the team battle and a push to the enemy tower or rax. Therefore, in team battles, your most important job is to make sure you execute epicenter perfectly.