Introduction
“You were expecting...Sandy Claws?”
Sand King is a melee strength support/initiator whose abilities make him capable of dealing some of the highest area of effect (AoE) damage in the entire game. Each of his four abilities is capable of dealing huge amounts of AoE magic damage, which makes him one of the best teamfight utility heroes in the game.
You can find our complete character profile for Sand King here.
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Incredible teamfight ultimate (can turn the tide of engagements)
- Great AoE stun
- Great initiator
- Has two escape mechanisms/damage avoidance methods
- Decent ganker
- All of his abilities are strong AoE damage dealing skills
- Quite versatile – can be a support, initiator, roaming ganker, or even a semi-carry
Cons
- Needs a Blink Dagger to become a reliable initiator
- Not as item or level independent as most utility/support heroes
- Damage is all magic based, and thus tends to trail off in the late-game
- Mana issues early on
- Timing, positioning and good game sense are all crucial
- Ultimate is channelled, and thus vulnerable to stuns and silences
Item Build
Starting Items
Sand King is usually played as a support, especially in public matchmaking where he is rarely considered anything other than a support and initiator.
As such you need to ensure that the Courier and/or Observer Wards are bought at the start of the game. Usually these duties will be split between yourself and another hero on your team, but you can’t always guarantee this in public games. If no one else ponies up the gold for one then you should bite the bullet and buy both for your team.
Good starting items if there’s another support on your team are:
Courier or Observer Wards, a Set of Tangos, a Healing Salve, 2x Iron Branches, and 2x Clarity.
And if you’re forced to solo support:
Courier, Observer Wards, a set of Tangos, a Healing Salve, and an Iron Branch.
Early Game
Ensure that the Courier is upgraded into a Flying Courier when it comes off cooldown at the 3 minute mark. Also ensure that Observer Wards are always purchased when they’re off cooldown.
Grab basic Boots of Speed whenever you can, and upgrade any Iron Branches you have into a Magic Wand. You may also want to consider purchasing an early Bracer, in order to tank up a bit and get some cost-efficient stats.
Core Items
Your upgraded boots of choice are Arcane Boots. They’re a no-brainer – you desperately need both the mana regen the active provides and the larger mana pool in order to be able to use your skillset effectively.
Throughout the early and mid game you have two key items to shoot for. The first item is the aforementioned Arcane Boots. The second is a Blink Dagger. These two items are absolutely core on Sand King – no exceptions! You do, however, have some flexibility over the build order. This is more commonplace in competitive games, where Sand King will often get Blink first over Arcane Boots, but is less common in public matchmaking where mana conservation is harder to achieve.
You need the Blink Dagger in order to transition into your role as an initiator. The only way you’re going to get off both a great Epicenter and Burrowstrike is with a Blink Dagger for positioning. It allows you to stand back and carefully watch the enemy team’s movements, and then when enough are clumped together or have committed to an engagement, you can Blink into a spot of your choosing after channelling Epicenter.
Luxury Items
Aghanim’s Scepter – Aghanim’s Scepter is your primary luxury item goal. It gives you good all-round stats and some amazing buffs to your ultimate. With Aghanims the number of ‘Pulses’ your Epicenter gives out is increased by two at each level (so from 6/8/10 to 8/10/12), increasing its damage potential from 660/880/1100 to a single unit to 880/1100/1320. On top of that the cooldown is also reduced by 20 seconds at each level (so from 140/120/100 to 120/100/80).
Veil of Discord – With a Veil, Aghanims and good timing, your ultimate will deal tremendous damage. The active, which lasts for a lengthy 25 seconds, won’t just buff your own magic damage output either, it will also increase the potency of any other magic damage spells your teammates cast on affected enemies in that time frame. A very strong second luxury item.
Shiva’s Guard – Shivas 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 abilities, and can be cast in the middle of your initiation, so as to hit as many enemies as possible, or to make chasing easier.
Black King Bar – Gives you a nice chunk of health and a small damage increase, but most importantly you have access to SPELL immunity which protects you from (most) stuns and disables and will allow you to channel your ultimate without fear of interruption.
Refresher Orb – An all-in on your ultimate, because that’s basically what you’re buying a Refresher Orb for. Either to allow you to cast your ultimate twice (if you get off a great initiation), or to have as a back-up in case a teamfight takes place soon after you’ve already used your ultimate. Epicenter’s cooldown at level 3 and with Aghanims isn’t all that high, at 80 seconds, so Refresher Orb is lower priority on Sand King than on a lot of other teamfight ultimate-oriented heroes like Earthshaker or Tidehunter.
Drums of Endurance – if you bought a Bracer earlier on in the game and still have it then definitely upgrade it into a Drums of Endurance. It gives good stat gain and a couple of great auras for nearby teammates. Even if you didn’t buy a Bracer early on you should still consider a Drums if no one else on your team has one, especially if you’re not all that rich.
Assault Cuirass – Not traditionally picked up on Sand King because 1) it’s far too expensive for most supports to even dream of, and 2) you have much higher priority luxury items like Aghanims to pick up first. That said, if you’re 5 slotted and have the money, and no one else on your team has one yet, definitely grab an AC for its team-wide utility.
Heart of Tarrasque – Will make you a full on tank. Your health pool will be enormous and you’ll be hard to take down. A good luxury item if you feel you’re falling in teamfights too quickly.
Situational Items
Sentry Wards, Dust of Appearance, Gem of True Sight – all-important detection. You’ll need at least one of these in your inventory if the enemy line-up features an invis hero. Sentry Wards will also allow you to deward rune spots, and Gem will give you superior vision going into the mid and late game.
Smoke of Deceit – If you roam with another support in the early stages of the game a Smoke will allow you to do so more quickly and without being spotted by enemy wards. Smoke will also come in handy in the post-laning phase if your team wants to gank as 5.
Bracer is a situational early item pick up (see the ‘Early Game’ section above).
Vladmir’s Offering – 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. However, It’s low priority and thus rarely seen on Sand King. Consider it for the utility it provides when you move on to your luxury extensions.
Skill Build
Burrowstrike is always skilled and maxed first. It is Sand King’s only stun, and arguably the second best ability in his skillset other than his ultimate. Burrowstrike allows you to stun in a line that extends from 350 to 650 units in the chosen direction with an AoE radius of 150 units. The stun lasts 2.17 seconds and deals 100-280 damage, depending on the level. This means it can be used to stun multiple enemy heroes, making it one of the strongest stuns in the game.
Additional points in Burrowstrike increases the range of the Burrow and the damage dealt (from 350 units to 650 units, and from 100 damage to 280 damager respectively), which makes it the highest priority ability to level up; you want to max it by level 7 so that you can get the most out of it.
Sand Storm is a channelled ability that allows Sand King to hide under the cover of sandstorm, which makes him invisible. The storm has a radius of 525 units and deals damage per second to anyone who stand in it. Additional points reduces the ability’s cooldown, increasing the storm’s duration, and increases the damage dealt per second.
Sand Storm is usually skilled and maxed second. At least two points are strongly advised early on, so that the ability lasts longer than the cooldown, allowing you to use it indefinitely providing you have the mana to support it. Sand Storm’s damage is fairly unreliable because it requires enemies to remain within the Sand Storm, and so it is typically used to dodge projectiles or to briefly become invisible so that Burrowstrike has time to come off of cooldown.
Caustic Finale is usually skilled and maxed last. However, there are some notable exceptions to this rule. If Sand King is being played in the mid lane, or if laning against melee opponents, early points in Caustic Finale can allow him to dominate the lane and force his opponent(s) back from the creep wave. Caustic Finale injects any enemy units attacked by Sand King with a venom that explodes and damages in an AoE when the unit dies.
This is primarily used to help clear creep waves, as once maxed a quick Burrowstrike followed by an auto-attack will quickly blow up a creep wave. It is also used to harass melee lane opponents, who will fear approaching the creep wave if a Sand King is prioritising Caustic Finale lest they be hit multiple times by the damage AoE.
Epicenter, Sand King’s ultimate, is always skilled (levels 6, 11 and 16). An incredibly strong teamfight ultimate, it sends out waves that damage and slow (both movement speed and attack speed) enemies. Each wave deals 110 damage, and as the ability is levelled up more waves are sent out (initially 6, but as many as 12 with Aghanims), so the total possible damage is 1320 to each enemy.
Epicenter is a highly feared ultimate, capable of turning the tide of an engagement. It main downside is that it is a channelled ability, and requires 2 seconds of channelling before it is cast. This gives enemies precious time to either run away or to stun/disable Sand King whilst he is vulnerable, and for this reason a Blink Dagger is c ore, so that he can channel it out of sight and then Blink in to deal tremendous AoE damage.
It initially has a very lengthy cooldown, at 140 seconds, and is so best saved for when you can guarantee a kill or during significant teamfights/skirmishes early on.
Gameplay Tips
Aim, especially during teamfights, to hit multiple targets with Burrowstrike, so that you make the most out of both its lockdown capability and burst magic damage, much like Lion or Nyx Assassin use their first abilities to try and secure multiple stuns on enemy heroes.
Sand Storm has limited usefulness as an escape mechanism because it leaves Sand King stationary throughout its duration. However, it can be used to buy precious seconds for Burrowstrike to come off cooldown and then be used to stun any waiting enemies before you attempt to run away.
Alternatively, and especially if you fear the enemy has detection, you can use Sand Storm to buy yourself 1.5 seconds of invisibility; simply cast it and then carry on running away – you will not be revealed until 1.5 seconds after breaking the channel. Sand Storm can also be used to dodge projectiles, including stuns.
Sand Storm can actually be used to clear creep waves and jungle camps effectively, especially once you have invested a few points in it. Sand King is even capable of jungling from level 1 if absolutely necessary (although this is not advised!). Although the jungle creeps will move out of your Sand Storm briefly, its radius is large enough to ensure enough damage is dealt to kill them off fairly quickly despite this.
| Tip: An early point in Caustic Finale is advisable if you’re laning against a melee opponent. Their ability to farm will be greatly hindered by Caustic Finale, as each time an enemy creep dies it causes area of effect damage near to the creep wave, which is difficult to avoid as a melee hero trying to last hit. |
Epicenter can be cancelled any time before the 2 second channelling is complete. It is during this channelling that Sand King is highly vulnerable to being disabled or stunned. For this reason it is best to channel the Epicenter out of sight of the enemy and then Blink into the heat of battle once the channelling is complete. This is why Blink is core on Sand King. Alternatively a Black King Bar will allow you to channel the skill without fear of most standard disables, do beware of disables that go through spell immunity, however, such as Bane’s Fiend’s Grip and Pudge’s Devour.
Sand King’s other abilities and items can be used after he has finished channelling Epicenter. A typical combo is Epicenter > Blink > Burrowstrike > Sand Storm. This also makes Shiva’s Guard a good luxury item on Sand King, increasing his magic damage output during Epicenter and also slowing enemies even more.
Learning how to shift queue (Epicenter then click shift then click Blink then select target location) is key to being a great Sand King player, so that you minimise wasted Epicenter waves.
Last Updated - Patch 6.82.
