Introduction
“The battle is joined, like the pieces of a broken world.”
Elder Titan is a melee strength initiator and teamfighter/utility hero. He is typically laned in the offlane, where his Astral Spirit ability allows him to secure last hits, bully lane supports, and scout out potential gank attempts. His powerful ultimate and auras scale superbly into the late game, making him a fearsome teamfighter.
Elder Titan's complete character profile can be found here.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Good base move speed and base health
- Fairly item independent and has a very flexible item build
- Can farm remotely even in dangerous offlane scenarios
- Strong teamfight presence
- Scales superbly into the late game
Cons
- His stun is channelled and hard to land
- His ultimate has a long travel time which makes it hard to land as well
- No escape mechanism
- Requires some micro abilities
- Mana issues
Item Build
Although very briefly a popular mid lane pick-up after his initial release, a major nerf to his Astral Spirit ability in patch 6.79, followed by another, more minor nerf in patch 6.79c pretty much killed this trend dead in its tracks. Nowadays Elder Spirit is almost exclusively played in the offlane position, albeit sometimes as part of an offensive dual offlane.
His role there is to secure some modicum of farm and, most importantly, to gain levels – levels being farm more important to Elder Titan than farm early on. He reaches his peak at around level 12, as this is when his full damage combo truly comes on-line, although his two most notable abilities allow him to continue to scale well into the late game.
Starting Items
A typical starting item build on Elder Titan will look something like this:
- A set of Tangos, Healing Salve, 3x Iron Branches and Clarities.
This gives you plenty of regen, which should see you through the early harassment you’re likely to receive as an offlaner. A couple of Clarities can come in handy for using your Spirit to secure a few last hits as well as potentially scout out the nearby jungle in order to get early warning of any enemy gank attempts.
Observer Ward and/or Courier is also a fairly frequent starting item pick-up – if your team only has one support or has a support that could really do with some early Boots of Speed for early ganks then helping out with those initial support purchases can be of real benefit to your team.
Early Game
Early on you want to pick up some basic Boots of Speed, a Magic Stick (which you’ll later upgrade into a Magic Wand using the Iron Branches you started out with) and get some good cost-efficient stats from an early Bracer pick-up.
Once you have all of that you’re ready to start work on your core.
Core Items
Now, Elder Titan has a very flexible item build, Unlike a lot of heroes, which have a set of core items that they absolutely must purchase, Elder Titan doesn’t really have any truly core items to speak of. This actually frees him up to be a good Mekanism purchaser – he has no high priority alternative items to purchase, he should farm it up much more quickly than most supports, and it’s a pretty much must-have teamfighting item for any team composition in Dota 2. It’s also a strong item for tanking up with.
Because of that, then, Mekanism will usually be your core aim. Upgraded boots that best compliment this choice (as well as Elder Titan’s own heavy mana consumption abilities) are Arcane Boots, and when purchasing Mekanism on Elder Titan I always opt for Arcanes so that I can guarantee its availability to cast in all engagements.
Generally, Power Treads tend to be recommended above Arcanes in most build guides. I’ve set out the reasoning behind my Arcane Boots recommendation, but if you do decide to opt for Power Treads instead then you may wish to consider going picking up an early Soul Ring, for both the good mana regeneration it provides and the burst mana it gives you access to, which will allow you to make effective use of your Mekanism (as well as to spam Astral Spirit more).
Luxury Items
Once you’ve complete your Mekanism or, if someone else purchased it for your team instead, then you can move onto more luxury item pick-ups. Again, Elder Titan’s options are completely open. Popular and recommended pick-ups include:
Drums of Endurance – Drums give you great all-round stats to help tank you up, they’re also cost-efficient, easy to build into, and give your entire team bonus attack speed and move speed auras, making them a good utility and teamfight item. On top of that Elder Titan is a good candidate for an early Bracer, and if you did get an early Bracer then Drums become a very natural extension to your inventory.
Vladmir’s Offering - Another highly recommended utility/teamfight-oriented pick-up. Your entire team will benefit from the bonus damage, mana regeneration, and armour auras. It’s doubly good if any of your team’s core heroes are melee DPS’ers thanks to the lifesteal aura. And, of course, being melee yourself you get a lot out of it too.
Crimson Guard – A good defensive/utility item. If you decide to opt for an early-ish Vanguard then later upgrading it into a Crimson Guard is a good way of buffing your inventory in the late game when Vanguard’s usefulness tapers off and inventory slots are at a premium.
So you get a nice chunk of flat health (250), +2 all stats, +5 armor and 6 health regeneration. On top of that you gain a passive Damage Block ability, which gives an 80% chance to block 20-40 damage, and an active Guard ability, which allows you to create a shield which applies to yourself and allies in a 750 unit radius that grants everyone affected by it +2 armor and a 100% chance to block 50 damage.
Crimson Guard is somewhat comparable to Mekanism, but more suited to heroes with low mana pools (following Patch 6.82’s hefty increase in Mekanism’s mana cost). It performs a similar protective and +armor role (albeit granting damage block rather than direct health). If you fear being unable to sustain a mana pool for Mekanism but want to add utility/tankiness to your teamfight then a Crimson Guard is a great option.
Assault Cuirass – In my opinion the ultimate luxury item for Elder Titan. If you can afford to you should absolutely aim for this (although be sure to check with your teammates first – you don’t want to purchase a second Assault Cuirass for your team if someone else already has one!).
If the game really goes the distance it’s a perfect utility and teamfight item, providing important auras for your team and freeing up slots for your true carries to opt for items better tailored to themselves.
Heaven’s Halberd - Heaven’s Halberd, which doubles up as both a good carry item and a support/utility item, is an ideal pick-up for Elder Titan. It will make you even harder to take down thanks to the bonus strength and evasion, will allow you to pack a hard punch, and also gives you the ability to disarm enemies for 3-4.5 seconds.
Black King Bar - A great luxury item for any hero capable of dishing out DPS in teamfights. BKB gives you some added damage and health, but most importantly the active Spell Immunity will allow you to stay alive and not get stun-locked or burst down by magic damage during teamfights. This will allow you to whack people with your auto-attacks, which are deceptively powerful thanks to Natural Order.
Shiva’s Guard - It will make you more durable thanks to the armour buff, and the aura will also provide utility for your team by slowing the attack speed of enemies. The Arctic Blast active also has great synergy with your own hero role as a teamfighter and, with Natural Order, it becomes a fairly impactful nuke in its own right.
Scythe of Vyse - Not as odd an item choice as it might seem at first. Some stats and a nice chunk of mana regen, but most importantly an additional disable. Since Echo Stomp is your only form of hard lockdown, Scythe will allow you to bring more utility and lockdown to teamfights and the late-game.
Situational Items
Pipe of Insight - If you didn’t purchase the Mekanism for your team then that opens up the possibility of going for Pipe later on, when you’ll have a large enough mana pool to utilise it. 30% magic resistance and 400 spell damage block in a 900 unit AoE makes you even more of a teamfight monster and will help your team to break the enemy base or defend against base sieges.
However, if you did purchase the team’s Mekanism, Pipe becomes a risky proposition – having both key teamfight support items on a single is a recipe for disaster if that hero gets focussed down prior to getting them off. Still, if you feel you can get away with it and no one else instead to purchase it, having both will be of great benefit to your team.
Necronomicon - Great if you’re part of a pushing line-up or your team is struggling to break the base. Also a great item for teamfights and for countering any invis enemy heroes. Good for some decent stat gain as well.
Boots of Travel - When you are at that stage of the game when you’re becoming 6 slotted, swap out your initial set of boots for Boots of Travel. It frees up a slot you would otherwise have reserved for a TP Scroll and makes you much less susceptible to split-push.
Blade Mail - If you have a poor game Blade Mail can sometimes be the most cost-effective item to get which helps prevent you feeding. It's a great pick up if the enemy team consists of fairly squishy heroes with high damage output (such as Phantom Assassin, or Skywrath Mage).
Ghost Scepter - If the enemy carry tears through you like a warm knife through butter than save up for a Ghost Scepter. You'll buy yourself 4 seconds in which to do something or even just distract them during a teamfight for a full 4 seconds (that's 4 seconds the more important heroes on your team have to punish the enemy team).
Skill Build
I’ve posted two different skill builds, which you can see in the image above and the image below. Why two? Well, because both are viable, yes, but because people can be quite hostile to one of the two builds, and so I’ve listed the safer alternative as well.
You need at least two points in Stomp if you wish to combo it up with your ultimate, Earth Splitter (so a 2/4/0/1 build, as shown in the image above). I call this the ‘no whining build’. In public matchmaking people will often expect a max Spirit & Stomp build, and will flame you for maxing Natural Order over Stomp; so, in short, go for this build if you want to avoid potential conflict with teammates or if you’re not confident in your Elder Titan play.
The second build is one that was pioneered in competitive Dota. Natural Order is a ridiculously strong ability, and once you realise this it becomes understandable why professional players often don’t skill Echo Stomp early on at all (a 0/4/4/1 build, as shown in the image below). This is my preferred build personally, but is not one I would recommend to newer players; you get the incredible power of Natural Order on line early, but it is achieved by giving up the ability to Stomp into Earth Splitter early on.
Echo Stomp is a channelled sleep which also deals minor physical and magical damage. After being channelled for 1.4 seconds, Echo Stomp puts any enemies within a 475 unit radius of Elder Titan or his Astral Spirit to sleep for 2/3/4/5 seconds and deals 80/90/100/110 physical damage and 80/90/100/110 magical damage.
Echo Stomp acts much like a stun, in that it locks enemies down and interrupts their abilities, however unlike a true stun enemies will be woken up if there are attacked before the 2/3/4/5 second duration has ended.
Astral Spirit is a magic damage nuke which also buffs Elder Titan based on the number of enemy units it hits. It is always maxed first, regardless of which of the above builds you opt for. The ability summons a Spirit which you have control of. It lasts for 8 seconds and deals 60/90/120/150 magic damage to any enemy units or heroes it passes through during this time.
After 8 seconds, the Spirit returns to Elder Titan, granting him bonus movement speed and attack damage based on the amount of units the Spirit passed through. His move speed is increased by 1% per creep hit and 5% per hero hit. His damage is increased by 3/6/9/12 per creep hit and 10/20/30/40 per hero hit. These buffs last for 9 seconds.
Natural Order is a passive ability which affects enemy units within 275 units of Elder Titan and his Astral Spirit. It reduces their armor by 40/60/80/100% and amplifies magic damage taken by 12/19/26/33%, essentially stripping almost every hero in the game of their base magic resistance.
Earth Splitter is Elder Titan’s ultimate and it is typically always skilled (levels 6, 11 and 16). Earth Splitter sends out a crack in the ground which travels 2400 units in the direction Elder Titan aims it and which has a radius of 300 units. After 3.14 seconds of travel time, it explodes, dealing 35% of each enemy target’s max health in damage to anyone in its area of effect and slowing them by 30/40/50% for 3/4/5 seconds.
An extremely powerful teamfight ultimate, capable of dealing tremendous amounts of damage, Earth Splitter’s main drawback is its lengthy travel time, which essentially means you need to either anticipate enemy movements extremely well or need to lock down enemies for over 3 seconds.
Gameplay Tips
Echo Stomp is primarily used as a set-up for Earth Splitter. The 2/3/4/5 second sleep duration from landing a successful Echo Stomp on multiple enemy heroes gives Earth Splitter time to complete its lengthy travel time before the heroes wake up, allowing you to guarantee it lands.
The downside is that slept units will wake up if attacked by hero-based damage – if your teammates decide to attack the enemies you caught off guard with Stomp then they may give enemy heroes time to move out of the way before Earth Splitter completes its travel time.
Echo Stomp is also a great way of delaying pushes or of making life hell for an enemy team that is attempting to complete Roshan. Astral Spirit, followed by Echo Stomp, not only deals significant damage, which will clear an enemy creep wave that’s pushing into your base, it will also sleep enemies for up to 5 seconds, granting your team some precious extra time.
You can effectively double the range covered by Echo Stomp by utilising your Astral Spirit beforehand – sending out an Astral Spirit ahead of you then casting Echo Stomp ensures it covers a much larger radius.
Astral Spirit has multiple uses. Some of the most notable are:
- Using it to remotely farm creeps. This is especially useful for securing last hits in dangerous offlane scenarios
- Scouting out fog of war. Useful at all stages of the game as the Spirit has vision for 450 units in an AoE around it, from scouting out ganks on your lane, to checking fogged jungle in the post-laning stages, or for scouting out Roshan from far away.
- Providing high-ground vision – note that Astral Spirit can move over impassable terrain.
- Using it to accrue large chunks of bonus damage. Safe lane supports will often under-estimate your DPS from Spirit in the offlane. Catch a couple of heroes and some creeps and you gain a huge chunk of bonus damage.
- Ensuring Natural Order covers as wide an area as possible in teamfights.
- Using it to remotely whittle down enemy creep waves if they’re pushing at your base or tower.
It’s a good idea to bind Astral Spirit to a hotkey so that you can easily micro-manage it. Think of it as a very short-lived summon unit and don’t under-estimate its potential, both as a source of bonus damage, as a nuke, and as a remote source of your aura.
| Tip: If you’re terrible at micro’ing units, or you’re just starting out with Elder Titan and easily get overwhelmed focussing too hard micro’ing the Spirit, you can get by initially just casting it in front of you. It has a lengthy 1200 unit cast range so you should be able to hit your intended target and get a decent spread for your other abilities. It’s not ideal, but it’s better than nothing! |
Remember that your Astral Spirit has your Natural Order aura. The radius remains 275 units and it does not stack with your own Natural Order aura, but it does allow you to cover a much wider radius in teamfights and ganks, as you can micro your Spirit to make sure the aura is on multiple heroes.
Natural Order is an extremely potent aura. It essentially strips almost every hero in the game of their base magic resistance and takes away a huge chunk of their armor. Don’t underestimate the impact this has, especially when used to assist an allied carry in taking out a tanky enemy. The only downside is needing to stay within 275 units of the hero in question.
Earth Splitter can be very difficult to land, unless set up well by an Echo Stomp or lengthy AoE disable from an allied hero (such as Enigma’s Black Hole, Void’s Chronosphere, or Tidehunter’s Ravage.
Because it is also easy to dodge, it is best not to initiate with an Earth Splitter. Either set it up with Echo Stomp or an allied disable, or wait until a teamfight has well and truly broken out and then cast out, hopefully catching enemy heroes who are too pre-occupied to dodge it.
Elder Titan’s typical combos is: Astral Spirit > micro it to catch out enemy heroes > Echo Stomp > Earth Splitter > wait for Earth Splitter to land > Return Astral Spirit > Auto-attacks.
Last Updated - Patch 6.83.
