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Hello, everyone. Thanks for tuning into this DotA commentary by me, 2009.
Today, I'll be doing a 1st person instructional VOD about Sand King.
Let's start with this hero's stats growth.
On the whole, we can consider SK's hero role to be ganker.
I'm sure everyone knows this already.
So... let's take a look at his stats growth.
Strength... and oh right... he's scourge.
Str - 2.6; Agi - 2.1; Int - 1.8. Attack range - 128. Movement speed - 300.
Starting damage - 43-59. Str - 18, Agi - 19, Int - 16. Armour is 3. I think it used to be 0 and now they've buffed it to 3.
This is a good foundation for a ganker. There are no glaring weaknesses. You can feel that he can exhibit decent ganking.
I think everyone should know, that most spellcasters base move speed is below 300. So 300 ms is relatively decent for a ganker.
3 armour is also not bad.
Now let's take a look at his skills: burrowstrike, sandstorm, caustic finale, and epicenter.
The skill we want to max first is burrowstrike, increasing both damage and range.
This is 400 distance at level 1. Very short.
But if we max it out... it's got more range. Very long reach.
In all of DotA, there are only a handful of instantaneous, ranged stuns like this. Take VS, Sven, and CK's storm bolts. Those all have significant cast time and travel time, but SK's stun is truly instantaneous.
No cast time. You can stun instantly. It's pretty awesome, and it's also AoE. So max it first.
Now the next 2 skills, there are two styles. One is max sandstorm first, the other is 1 in sandstorm and max caustic finale.
What does adding more points into sandstorm give you? Increased damage, 20 -> 80 seconds duration, 40 -> 10 seconds cooldown.
If we max out sand storm, you can easily use it multiple times in a fight. That's the main benefit.
Mana cost also drops from 60 to 30 mp. So you can see there are good reasons to max sand storm first.
All of SK's skills are quite good, so points of stats are not taken.
Personally, I favour maxing out sand storm first. Of course, there are circumstances where you level up caustic finale when your lane opponent is melee.
Let's see it in action.
Ok. So we're in lane.
So if we hit it, it'll explode. But also, if we hit it early, it'll still explode. It's been changed such that there's a window of approximately 2 seconds.
If the creep doesn't die within 2 seconds, caustic finale will wear off. The effect is marked by a green glow.
The damage from the explosion scales with levels from 90 to 220.
In my opinion, an early point is good for suppressing melee heroes in the lane. In the mid-game, it becomes a godly farming tool.
It's faster for farming than sand storm. Let's try it out.
Let's see how efficient sand storm is for farming creeps.
Actually, the efficiency isn't all that high. It misses last hits pretty often.
So about 80 damage per second, which doesn't compare to that 220 burst damage from caustic finale.
If you really want to rice it up, feel free to level up caustic finale.
Sand storm is primarily useful when fighting.
80 damage per second in a wide AoE is not insignificant. You can think of it as a dps skill.
If you combine it with your ult... burrowstrike-ult. Attack once, then immediately sand storm. It's a great combo.
Let's use it on some neutrals.
Ult you're probably very familiar with. There's a channeling time.
It's a must to pair it up with a blink dagger or a burrowstrike. Burrowstrike-ult: spam 'c' after the strike, shift-queue attack to follow the target.
The other way is to blink ult. Some of you people learning DotA probably still don't know this technique...
Start channeling the ult. Then shift-queue the blink. This way you'll blink immediately at the end of channeling.
You can also blink manually after it channels.
Follow up with a stun. Catch multiple heroes for maximum damage potential.
I personally feel that this ult's power becomes quite limited later on.
Later on, the other 2 skills are more important. Their utility becomes very obvious.
Burrowstrike's cooldown is only 11 seconds. Instant, and AoE effect.
It looks like it only deals 1.66 seconds of stun time, but actually it does more than that. Due to the time spent in the air.
So the stun time is quite respectable. And in late game, with a tankily-built SK, you can provide never-ending stuns.
You can stun a person and fight a bit. Use whatever techniques to survive...
then when your stun is cooled down. Blink + burrowstrike another hero and create another killing opportunity for your teammates.
This is SK's contribution in the late game. His ult is more on the average side.
[doing some calculations]... 1100 total magic damage from a level 3 non-aghanim's upgraded ult.
Ouahh, seems like it's pretty high actually. 1100 magic damage.
Cooldown is also reduced by agh stick ult upgrade. So a viable method is to rush Aghanim's for that reliable burst magic damage, a bit like QoP.
You need to pay close attention to the mana pool of a lvl 6/7 SK. 140 mana stun + 175 mana ult. 315 mana is required for your burrowstrike-ult combo. Heed this.
If you want kill someone, make sure you've got that 315 mana.
If at lvl 7, you feel your mana pool is inadequate, a bracer is a good idea. Because janggo is a great item on him.
Or... you could pick up a robe of the magi, if you're going power treads.
Also, gg branches and magic wand aren't bad either to boost your int a bit.
So let's see the effect of burrowstrike-ult.
They should recover from your stun a moment before your ult finishes channeling.
We come to an interesting point. If you stun to a location where the enemy hero is still facing towards you, there is a high likelihood of him getting off a stun and interrupting your ult.
Conversely, if we stun to a point behind the enemy hero, the turn time will usually prevent him from interrupting your ult successfully.
This is a neat little tip.
So... we've pretty much finished talking about all of the skills. Let's talk about SK's starting item build.
I personally feel there are a couple of decision points and necessary attributes for SK's item build.
One of these is "staying power" - increase str and int.
Str guarantees a level of tankiness. Int lets him use his abilities multiple times over in a single battle.
Sand storm is a great escape mechanism. Ahh... right here let's go back to skills talk.
You can use sand storm in many ways.
Offensively, to provide some DPS.
Another way is to use the invisibility and escape.
Or use the invisibility and instantly run away. At level 4, there is a 1.5 second invisibility fade time in which you stay invisible.
If the enemy team does not have a gem, you can sand storm and immediately juke or run away. It is hard for them to predict what direction you went.
Or you can sand storm and immediately blink away. They might think you are still there, but you've already blinked away.
Very effective escape mechanisms.
Ok... now back to items. Some like a naked blink-rush style, but I prefer buffing stats a bit for staying power.
Bottle. Bottle is situational. If you don't get it, it implies that you won't be aggressively roaming. You'll probably play more conservatively, staying and trying to win your own lane.
For a bottle-less build, boots are of course a must. Magic stick is a possibility. RoB, look at the situation.
Looking at it closely, we see that SK's armour is quite decent this version. RoB isn't a necessity.
In past versions, I really liked it for the armour.
Now... what items do I like to build currently?
Magic stick/wand, either or, but it's best to have one.
It is the best mana recovery tool. 10 charges on a magic stick is 150 mana. The enemy casts 10 spells and you have a free burrowstrike.
Another item I've already mentioned is janggo.
In a teamfight, say you've caught a hero with burrowstrike. Activate janggo and your team can run up and focus him down in an instant, while you have move speed to evade aggro.
I like it a lot.
For boots, some people like phase boots, others like power treads.
SK, considering that he is a blink dagger user, I like power treads a lot more than phase boots.
Because... I feel that... if you look at SK's agi growth, it's not bad at all. His attack speed is decent.
If you get PT, after a burrowstrike you can get in a lot of auto-attacks.
Also, because we start thinking about physical DPS in mid and late game as SK, much like Tiny... the attack speed boost from PT is attractive.
There's another option... arcane boots. It's also not a bad choice.
It gives 5 more ms than PT, and also gives your team mana.
Mana boots are suitable for a blue collar teamplay SK, while PT lets you transition to DPS more strongly.
This is up to each player's personal style.
If you like to spam your spells a lot, mana boots will really let you spam and burst farm a lot, speeding up your income.
Let's move on to mid-game item choices.
One style is to rush Aghanims.
Another is to add DPS, with items like AC, HoT, SnY, or battlefury. These items fit SK pretty well.
Orb effects are no good, but SnY is no longer an orb effect. It gives move speed, HP, and maim.
BKB is another possibility. Some players aren't comfortable with their blink ult.
Avatar-burrowstrike-ult in the face of the enemy team can be effective.
You'll have to watch out for magic immunity piercing abilities though.
Pipe and Vlad's are also decent. Meka I don't like on SK. Urn is also not bad.
It is a personal preference thing, but I feel that bottle is a more effective regen solution than urn for SK.
Basher, can be okay, paired up with SnY. Basically, a pseudo-permastunning style: basher, SnY, janggo.
You can also go for a tanky item route, with heart, AC, shiva's. You want to draw aggression.
There is then the DPS route, which I'm sure many people love a lot.
I highly recommend going for battlefury, and I personally love getting it on this hero.
If you think about it... with this item set: PT, blink, janggo. All the bases are covered.
If we add the battlefury, we can speed up our neutral-creeping remarkably, transitioning between lane and camps efficiently using blink.
I personally like getting it sometimes on SK.
Of course, I'm not getting it first. I put together my PK-enhancing core items first.
Ideally, this would win teamfights and create a situation where we have strong map control.
At this point, you often end up not knowing what to do next, what with the enemy team turtling their high ground.
Build the battlefury and go on a turbo farming spree. It is highly efficient, especially together with caustic finale.
For a DPS SK, just take a look at these items and pick whatever. MKB, buriza, manta, and of course, AC, heart, because you can only output DPS while alive.
Getting cheaper survivability like hood and/or vanguard can be okay. But I feel for a hero that farms so quickly, they're a low-efficiency proposition.
So... I recommend either going the spell damage route with agh rush, or physical DPS with the rice-happy battlefury, or heart and platemail if you need the survivability.
We're finished with items, so let's just try to conclude things.
To use this hero effectively, you need to have a good grasp of ganking and to confidently exploit gank opportunities.
In the middle phase, farming efficiently and controlling the flow of the game are important.
You need to decide how best to balance between your farming and initiating ganks and teamfights to suppress the enemy team.
He is not only a fast farmer, but also a strong initiator/play-maker.
Therefore, regardless of how you use him in the early laning phase, whether it's a solo farmer, a roaming ganker, or a laning support...
In the early game you contribute towards helping your team control the game...
But in the mid-game, you can transition to a carry role. This is because SK ranks among the fastest farmers in the game.
Why? Because first off, he has excellent escape mechanisms. If they try to gank me, sand storm, blink away.
An SK with levels in sand storm... no matter who comes after you, as long as you react fast enough, you're almost impossible to kill.
And there is high potential for counterkill.
He pushes very quickly naturally, so his mid-game farming can quickly let him become a powerful force on the battlefield.
A lot of people think that he is just a ganker/teamfight hero, but as soon as the balance tips towards his side he can switch immediately to ricing in the mid-game, and quickly pick up items to fulfill whatever roles the team requires.
Fundamentally though, SK's most important aspect is his gank. The ganking power which creates favourable conditions and tempo in the mid-game that allow him to farm up.
SK has to and is capable of controlling the flow of the game. Of course you cannot be blindly farming when the enemy team is knocking on your throne.
Well... that's roughly what I wanted to get across to you. A long, dry explanation like this has probably left many of you in a murky state of understanding...
So up next, let's look at 2 actual games of me putting SK to task.
OK! As usual, here are two games to showcase all that stuff I talked about. "Are you really 2009?" There's already people asking. I often use other people's IDs, so it's often different.
Later I'll bring you guys a game from the tier 1 (?) room. Right now, we'll play in this tier 6 (?) room game.
We can take a look at this mid-level... actually I guess this would be considered a high level room by most players.
I really feel that I should try to look at all the different levels of DotA, to address all sorts of situations and combinations of skill levels and select strategies accordingly.
That would be a interesting exercise. You play one way in high level games, but you probably can't take that with you to lower level games.
When you play in a high level game, you have to take into account the competency of your opponents. You can't just stomp all over them by microing your hero well.
You also have to realize that your teammates are competent, and put much attention into teamplay and synergy.
In a low level game though, it's completely different. The opponents may be weaker than you, but your teammates are also weaker than you.
Then, you have to rely on your own play. Farm, solo kill, and use hero micro to overpower the enemy team, and guarantee your own development.
Different situations call for different play styles.
This time around is a level 6 (?) room, and I think my teammates recognize me. They've ceded me solo mid.
I think our team is mostly melee. Yup... there's even a Tiny, but he's not contesting for mid with me.
There's also a doom, and he's also not asking for mid.
My SK is stealing mid from all the heroes that need it.
For me though, I think any hero can mid successfully. Unless the enemy team really comes after me.
Basically, any Str hero can solo mid without a problem.
This is because the mid lane is fundamentally a lane that is very hard to suppress.
The lane is very short. It's near impossible to get chased so far away from the creeps that you can't last hit as can happen in the side lanes.
Even if you can't get any creeps, it's still dead easy to leech XP.
And you can even try to even the odds by going for the runes.
Mid lane is the lane with the most options for recourse.
My lane opponent has started with a damage-focused item build. A +12 damage potm.
You've got to be careful. Every time you move up to last hit, you'll receive several auto-attacks.
Therefore, you should stay back and closely monitor the creep health. Dart in quickly to nab the last hit and retreat.
I got blocked a bit so I didn't get it.
In this back-and-forth manner, I finally get my first bucket of gold.
Here, I buy a salve and send it over to Doom at top. (TL: no idea why)
Ahh... this potm. He's really aggressive. I just go up to touch the creeps a little and he harrasses so hard.
Even if I'm just hanging out under my tower csing, I get arrowed.
But, truth be told, my starting item build is pretty sick as well.
So it looks like our Faceless Void died at bottom.
Right now, some bloodshed sparks.
I have to say... this trick at solo mid, everybody has to know it.
This potm ended up not dodging the tower's killing blow.
I was supposed to be in a very unfavourable position.
That trick just now is a very commonplace technique.
Wait until the creeps are a nuke away from death... if the enemy hero hangs around for the last hit... like this, another similar opportunity.
So you have to use opportunities like that, and burrowstrike.
Use any kind of AoE, damage the hero and take out the low health creeps.
This way you get a couple of free hits on him. He can't stay and trade hits with you.
If he does duke it out with you, we'll see the same sort of situation that just happened a few moments ago.
He'll be killed by the tower. Or he'll be attacked by creeps.
Since he can only run, you can abuse that.
So 1) you last hit some creeps with your nuke...
2) you've dealt some nuke damage to him.
3) you got in a couple of free auto-attacks.
Everyone, make sure to use this technique.
At the same time, when we're facing skilled opponents.
If they have AoE abilities as well, we have to make sure we don't fall for that same trick.
When your friendly creeps have thinned out or are low in health, try to keep your distance.
Don't let him land his spell on you.
These are some pretty basic ideas.
This match, everyone should notice that I haven't paid any attention to rune control.
It's because in this situation, I feel very at ease.
I don't feel much pressure at all that I might lose the lane.
Potm got an invisibility rune.
If I feel that there isn't much pressure. Then I might as well just hang around and get those extra creep kills.
Just feel a bit more solid and stable.
Potm maintains a very aggressive attitude towards me.
No matter where I'm positioned, if I want to get a last hit, he can't leave me alone.
It's a good thing my base damage is pretty high. So my cs is pretty decent.
Got about 23 creep kills.
4 minutes, 23 cs isn't too shabby. Harassing me again.
This potm, even though he wants to beat me, he doesn't really have much to work with.
Actually, if he wants to kick me out of the lane, he should spam starfall.
He should stop thinking about landing a good arrow on me.
He should spam starfall, push out the lane, and go rune hunting.
This would be the best way to suppress me.
If his starfall can net him cs.. ahh like this... that starfall was pretty much a failure.
It didn't touch me.
Right now, I'm already pretty fat at around 4 minutes. This is my solo mid sand king methodology.
If you can get cs in-lane, then focus your efforts on csing.
You really need to treasure this lane.
This lane is the most bountiful lane in the game, besides the long lane protected by supports.
Let's take a look at bot lane, there's some action going down.
Potm got the rune again. This time it's illusions.
His teammates are already tower-diving us for kills.
Centaur and gyro.
If I use this path... Ah! He's used up his stun.
I was afraid of getting stomped if I went after him.
I'm not afraid of the homing missile though.
No sign of the gyro, just kill of the centaur as he's got no stun.
Again about my stun... on paper it says only 1.6 seconds. But in reality, it's not so short.
So I was able to get a power treads in under 6 minutes, which is pretty decent performance.
It's a good start.
Ogre magi has come to mid... let's see if we can find the potm.
Seeing as the ogre magi is getting some cs, we might as well as wait here for a bit for the 6 min rune.
Mid's resources is not going to waste, so it's okay.
So let's not get ahead of ourselves. Ogre has used his stun.
Potm has already spotted me, so let's just go up and see if we can make him panic.
Oh! He panicked! Heh. Ahh... didn't kill him.
Missed it by a sliver of health.
This is just a little technique. He'll just leap away if you burrowstrike him.
So I just scared him a bit, and he ended up leaping poorly.
And I landed the burrowstrike, but it was a pity that my ult didn't manage to kill him.
A leap, and the potm kills off our tiny.
At top, the morphling is developing pretty well.
So I've got the TP, now we should think about where we can gank.
This poor centaur is standing out pretty obviously.
Looking at his hp level, it's a sure kill.
We've got a lvl 4 burrowstrike with its long reach. It's impossible for him to dodge it.
Oh! Nice dodge. Just a couple of auto-attacks.
FV used his leap to dodge centaur's stomp.
Pink's typed out "PL", meaning beautiful.
Top they've got morph and slark. They've also got centaur, gyro, and potm.
Let's see if there's another opportunity at mid.
Ogre harasses with his stun again.
I don't think he's killable.
I'll wait here for a bit. Let ogre's skills cool down, and also see if the potm gets rash and tries to go on the ogre.
In daytime, don't hide here. You can be seen. Nighttime, you won't be seen.
Sight range is greatly reduced at night.
Potm's going for the rune.
Morphling has a TP.
Both morph and potm have leaps, so they're not easy to gank for me.
In this kind of situation, we should just come to the open lane, and push the tower.
Notice that there's a ballista in this wave. These are small, but important details. If we push with this wave we can do some nice damage on the tower.
Check out top. I knew potm got the rune, so I was in no hurry to head up there.
I immediately TP there to see if I can help anyone.
Doom's still alive. So it seems like he doomed someone and our teammate got that kill.
Burrowstrike, ult. Ehh? I think I mistakenly canceled it.
I was predicting that the potm would leap, but the potm ended up not leaping.
It was probably on cooldown.
Slark is trying to kill Doom. Ogre comes in to support. I take a sip from the bottle
Still not enough, take another sip.
Enough, burrowstrike. That burrowstrike-ult... 9 minutes into the game, both of my ults were embarrassing.
One of them, I canceled on my own.
At bot, looks like centaur has killed off our FV again.
It's not too bad. I'm playing the #2 position on our team right now, and I'll be able to farm up to cover for his role later on.
Let's see if there's any rune. DD... my luck's not bad.
Slark and potm at mid. I've got DD and invisibility.
Oh, they're going on me. Dodge the stun with sand storm, he gets burnt pretty bad by the DoT, stun and autoattack.
Ahh... didn't get the second auto off. But it's okay... sand storm is really high level. Slark decided to hang around, he's gonna die to the DoT. Doom kills him with a lvl death.
Doom heals me with his urn.
Sometimes, if you don't see any kill opportunity, you can bait the enemy heroes like this. Fight a pyrrhic battle, and make it seem like you're killable.
Ehh?! This potm didn't leap again. Does this potm not like leaping?
This centaur is really playing pretty well. Non-stop killing our faceless void. I lost count of how many times he's died.
I also noticed that his ID is 'FTD.2009ch'.
Top lane. Doom ults, tiny avalanches... but misses. Morph survives. It seems like the team is still relying on me to gank.
With burrowstrike, the probability of successfully making the kill is very high, combined with proper execution.
So I decide to complete janggo and magic wand, using up all my gold.
Centaur's already got a killing spree.
Ogre magi got killed by him too over at bot.
They've also taken the lead with a tower kill.
This match, even though it may be going well for me, the big picture is not so nice.
My teammates are trying to flank from the side.
They've also got a rune... illusion.
With PT and janggo, you can see that SK's attack speed is already pretty high.
It seems that the enemy team has no sentry wards.
OK! Trying to stomp me. We were waiting for an opportunity like this.
If I didn't bait them like this, doom wouldn't have such a good opportunity like this.
Err... where's Doom? It looks like he's gone top to farm, he didn't come over after all.
So he just sent 2 illusions over.
So my bait was kind of pointless.
I baited out centaur's stun and slark's leap, but no teammates to exploit it.
Another homing missile. It's useless! Stop mindlessly spamming me with missiles, please!
As long as I have a sand storm, it has no effect. Especially, when the enemy team doesn't want to buy dust.
This is also why I really like lothar's edge in pubs.
Okay... so doom should have his ulti. I haven't seen him use it in a long time.
But I've been spotted by the morph, and there's no easy path up to top.
Since I don't have my dagger yet.
Just burrowstrike up first.
It's stacked... that's nice. I can't just walk up through the front. It's best to take a fogged sidepath.
By burrowstriking up, morph probably won't be expecting me.
And I can also pick up some neutrals.
Let's take a look at mid. Do I need to TP?
They're attacking. No point in me TPing. Even if I go there, he's still dead.
Centaur's already got a dominating.
It's better to go after this morph at top.
All I need to do is burrowstrike, then you ult. No problem.
K.O.
Killing one of their core heroes (carry) is pretty important.
As #2, my most important role is to suppress their DPSer's development.
But their centaur seems to be doing well.
I've got no levels in caustic finale, so rely on sand storm to clear the creepwave.
The speed is slower.
Oh! He's got blink dagger already.
That's pretty fast... in spite of me killing him once early on.
Seems like he wants to get the deny.
Stun him. Now! Together with me, Doom. Eh?? What's he doing?
What kind of situation was that? "Why didn't you attack the tower?"
It felt to me like the script was already written.
Ok... combo with ogre magi and kill the potm.
TPing home, as I've no more mana.
You can see that with janggo stats, every time I set out from the well, I can get a lot accomplished. It's very efficient.
So that's why I like getting magic wand and janggo first.
So that episode at top. There was some miscommunication with my teammate.
I was thinking that me and doom would both auto the tower once while centaur was stunned, and net the tower kill.
After that, deal with the cent.
I used up my tp going home, so it's on cooldown.
Gyro.... oh, he's TPing. Activate janggo to catch him.
That's too bad.
I want to remind everyone here...
The range of SK's stun is shorter if you target the hero than if you target the ground.
Sometimes, a hero feels just out of reach, but he's one burrowstrike away from dying.
In a situation like that target the ground, to get him with the edge of the AoE. If he jukes, then just target another piece of ground.
It's more effective than just always targeting the hero.
In a close chase where you're at the limits of burrowstrike range, never target the hero directly.
If you lose vision, SK's burrowstrike order will be canceled and you'll stop or go autoattack something else.
My explanation might be a bit unclear.
The enemy centaur was killed.
I didn't manage to kill the gyro, but we might as well push the lane.
Aiyo... I really want my blink. Once I get my blink my fighting will be a lot more effective.
I'm 50 away from blink.
He's continuously stolen the cs.
Because of this, I'll delay going to help mid.
Got it now.
Let's take a look at the situation at mid.
TP over... make sure when you tp to a tower under pressure, you do it to fog, so the enemy can't see.
Immediately after tping, move into the trees.
This way they won't see you.
Wait until they've started fighting, and I can blink in.
Ahh... but I've put my dagger in the wrong slot, and didn't get the blink off. Rather, got disabled.
I've missed a golden timing opportunity.
Let's find another... caught 3 with my stun. Ult! But it's canceled by morph. Wave, stomp, doom's dead, and they've still got 4 up.
Looks like my team's only down to 2.
This battle was very cramped.
And the morphling was facing in my direction, so he could easily cancel my ult.
Speed up ogre with janggo, and sand storm to try and split up their attention.
As expected the morph came after me. He tried to take me out with a wave, but 1 use of the wand and he couldn't kill me anymore.
Morph's really low now, so let's see if we can catch and finish him. Because SK's chasing power is good; he has long reach.
Oh! What kind of situation is this??
The morph waved to clear some creeps, and the potm came too.
That last fight we should've seen a perfect blink-ult. But unfortunately, I messed up with my blink inventory slot.
Didn't get the blink off.
Everybody should notice that I spent most of the fight on hanging around the edges... because SK can enter whenever he wants.
Oh! It's a good thing his reaction was a bit slow.
If he had attacked me once more I would've died.
I'm not interested in blinking over to kill him either.
The tiny ended up throwing me up, scared me.
Right now, I'm pretty rich.
Buy another TP, and let's set out.
I feel this set is ideal starting point for a DPS sand king.
Over here, we have VG on void, treads on doom, tiny and ogre have mana boots.
It's not bad. Morph has PT and perseverance. On the whole items are even.
And I'm swimmingly rich.
Doom is treads and urn.
Looks like they're going on mid. It seems like my team is really brave.
Only 3 of them, and they go straight after the first hero they see. I'm not gonna care about them too much.
My farming tempo is good. There's no way they should be able to win.
3 heroes going on that kind of enemy position. It's really risky.
Over here my caustic finale is leveled up.
Indeed, 2 teammates are down.
2 lives for 1 kill... that was not a good trade.
I'm now lvl 16 at 20 min. My development was very smooth.
So, I'm going to play a bit more selfishly
Ok... this time I tp in. Hide immediately.
Ooo... centaur's blinked up looking for me.
Immediately start channeling.
Blink in right next to potm, stun 2 people. Morph got taken out too.
This epicenter's effect was... oh, let's see if I can get the last hit.
Got it! and a triple kill.
Let's see if we can catch up to slark.
He moves too fast.
Ahh... he's already figured me out. This mid fight... didn't even need his tp, and we've already slaughtered left and right.
This is the consequence of a quickly leveling solo mid SK: blink-ult will have a devastating effect on team fights.
This 1100 magic damage is nothing to be scoffed at. And also the AoE slow... as long as you can land it.
My teammate is asking whether if he's slick or not. I answered, that was slick.
That was indeed well-played by the tiny.
He created a fantastic opportunity for me to land a kill-harvesting ult.
Counterattacking, and taking out a tower, to take advantage of that teamfight win.
Should I try to save him?
I think it's hopeless for him.
Caught 3 heroes.
I wonder if he can escape. I don't think he can, because he's got a homing missile on him.
Let's see if I can get a rune. Oh...
This guy is really hating on me... whoah, even a predictive move.
Void's ult, catching his own teammate tiny.
Faceless void, this game, has been kind of a tragedy.
A minor tragedy.
Ok.. let's see. We've saved up 3700 gold now.
I notice that bot lane is pushing up. So I don't feel like going home anymore.
Because bot lane is really safe, right? So I can net that farm.
And I'm really fat now... so if I get that much fatter, I can churn out my item faster.
This will benefit everyone.
As you can see, SK doesn't need any mana to clear creep waves. This ability is really quite good.
Even though I'm in the red, the enemy team can't really do anything. Their bottom tower is gone.
Even if they tp to the 2nd tower and rush over to me, they still won't get here in time.
Just leave directly after eating your fill of creeps.
My teammates are maintaining their excessive fighting tempo.
Venturing deep into enemy territory again. Really flaky play.
When you gank, you have to take into account the overall situation.
If you want to gank a spot that the entire enemy team can quickly get to, do you still want to gank there?
I guess, looking at my gold, everyone has a rough idea of which item I'm going for.
I'll keep it under wraps for now.
The bird is in the middle of a delivery. Just gonna wait for it.
I'll just use the lull to jungle a bit, take a closer look at the enemy team.
Our void has treads, vanguard, and a blade of alacrity.
I'll just use the enemy secret shop to pick up a perseverance.
Set some safe waypoints for it. You don't want someone from mid killing it.
It looks like scourge wants to push top. I've got my blink-ult handy to repel it.
It turns out it's just morphling up there.
If it's just morph, I don't have much interest. So, we'll just continue farming here at mid. Don't want to waste any mana now.
Once caustic finale hits 4 it's a scarier pushing ability than Admiral's Tidebringer.
Action is brewing at top. Let's pick up my battlefury before this clash.
It looks like the party has started without me.
My team is so aggressive. Scourge hasn't even begun their push, and we're preemptively attacking.
1 for 1 trade so far. Blink-burrowstrike, ult. Great, my ult channeled successfully.
Gyro's dead. Now, slark.
Slark moves too quickly.
Hmm... my crow didn't deliver it.
I think we're alright. SK's ult is lvl 3, so it cools down pretty quickly.
I just have to pick up a rune or make a fountain trip, and I'll be able to use it again.
So now that I have my BF, I need to decide what to sell. The bottle.
There's a couple of reasons for this.
Bottle doesn't increase your fighting power in intense team fights, where there usually isn't time for you to use your bottle charges. Magic wand is better for this.
Secondly, my mana regen is now adequate, and I don't need to waste any more time hunting for runes.
BF's regen is enough.
This frees up my time to farm the lane, and farm the neutrals, in the manner I described in my explanatory clip.
Gyro has tped in. Let's hide for a bit, to wait for help. Initiate.
I've got a homing missile coming after me, but it's okay... just hang around for the next burrowstrike to cool down.
Gyro's homing missiles this game hasn't touched me once.
Centaur has joined the fight. Let's go for a 2-hero burrowstrike. Ah... gyro landed his ult on us.
Got slowed, so I couldn't connect with the burrowstrike. Let's kill this gyro first.
His teammates have deserted him; they're going for the kill on Doom.
And they got him.
But tiny has his dagger now as well, and he's gone in. Let's look at where potm is.
Wait for blink to cd. Consume my wand charges.
My mana was running a bit low.
Blink, and auto attack him to death.
Centaur has burned his stun already, so I can just continuously chase with autoattacks.
Wow, attack speed is pretty fast. DPS output is decent as well.
Slark has appeared now, showing an interest in tiny.
Who are you attacking?
Me?
I've still got an ult, man.
Another victorious fight. Let's keep up the tempo and go directly to bot and clear out that push.
Because there are a lot of creeps, get there before your teammates do. Ahh... they're tping in as well.
This morphling could get taken out if he decides to stay like this.
Stun out of the way, and wait for the chronosphere.
It looks like Morph didn't manage to turn on str morph.
Turning it on now is too late. Let's wait and see which direction he intends to waveform.
He probably doesn't have enough mana for one.
So not only did I get those creeps, the morph got killed off too.
Back to neutrals. Because I can clear neutrals a lot faster than the void, I'll just give him the lane, and go to the jungle.
Now that I've got my battlefury, I hit both small creeps once so that I get 2 explosions when they die.
This really is sick neutral clearing speed, and there's regen from the BF too.
I'm so rich, that I've come to a point at which I can start considering the item that will settle the game in a single blow.
I am extremely fat now.
Let's activate janggo, and go straight for the centaur. Considering the situation, in which 2 heroes saw me and fled. The centaur is definitely alone and we can see that he has no TP.
Immediately initiate being the first one there.
Stun-ult. It still got canceled. This is because he doesn't need to turn around to stun me, what with stomp's AoE.
We can often use the turning time to get off the ult, but this isn't one of them.
It seems like the centaur has blinked away. He's playing pretty well.
Ahh... he still got killed. This is because we went split paths searching for him. Ogre magi, who went off to the east instead of south together with me, netted the kill.
At this point, the enemy team is afraid to come out. After this series of team fights, they realize how dangerous it is.
Also, my teammates hyper-aggressiveness. "No matter what I'll go after you."
Of course for me... I'll just go around collecting scalps after they've vented their aggression.
I'll just think for a bit about the state of the game, and how to play it out.
A heart? I'll just continue farming for now. It's doesn't hurt to have too much money.
Since I'm hasted, if anything happens I can be there at a moment's notice.
My team is ferrying up some wards, which is nice, giving us control over the enemy jungle.
FV is still diligently farming over in sent jungle. At this point in the game, he should just push the lane to press our advantage.
Don't be hasty with the blink. Observe for a bit.
Gyro! First pick off gyro.
Holy cow.
Dagon ogre magi.
This morph shouldn't be able to beat me.
I know centaur will blink in, let's watch for his position.
Ahh... I still didn't get off my ult. It's pretty hard.
I've been dusted, and my mana is depleted. Ahh centaur finally blinks in, it's a good thing I wasn't targeted. Ran away already.
5900 gold.
That last fight I was a bit selfish. But if you take into account my farming speed, it's okay to be more selfish now.
What I'm seeking with my gold is a "decisive blow" effect, to end the game in one stroke.
slark. This pushing speed is ridiculous.
And there's also the regeneration from BF, which compliments the stats and regen from janggo.
Everyone might think that janggo's regen is nil. Actually though, BF has a percentage-based mana regen.
Gonna first get divine rapier and go after this centaur.
I'll talk about mana regen later.
Centaur should still have a stun.
Oh, a nice chronosphere by the void.
We can do roshan now. The enemy team should be hesitant to move out with centaur down.
Ok... BF has "percentage increased" mana regen. With a percentage there must be some number that it is applied to. That number would be your hero's mana regen rate derived from your intelligence.
Therefore, if your hero has high int, items like void stone, sobi mask are more effective.
For example, try putting a sobi mask on pugna; get a feel for the mana regen rate. Then try putting it on treant or troll warlord. You'll see there's a big difference.
Activate janggo, and see if I can catch up.
Dodge the homing missile first.
Managed to finish him off with a burrowstrike.
Gyro's ult didn't catch me. Where's centaur? Oh right... he's dead.
Without centaur, they can't really deal with me.
Doom's urn is healing me up.
FV went back to farming neuts again??
Centaur... I'm hitting really hard now.
Autoattack 5 times and he's dead.
They've got dust this time. A leap and I'm dead.
Tiny stun... follow up with my burrowstrike. Turn around and autoattack a couple of times and he's dead.
Clear out these creeps.
This is the ideal time to push their base, so, why I have come to farm ancients? Well... heh.
Maybe I want to show off my pretty rapier for a bit longer.
My team is pushing bot. So this lane is all mine.
After pushing out top lane and killing those ancients, we once again have a lot of money.
This is what I wanted to demonstrate to everyone.
SK doesn't lose out to anti-mage in farming speed, if you want to talk about battlefury rush.
But you can't just farm recklessly. You need to meet certain conditions first.
If your team is doing badly, and you go all-out farming and take all of their income and buy ineffective items. That's no good.
They've thrown their ults.
Burrowstrike over to get the kill with ult damage.
Morph's gone, slark died in 2 hits.
Almost killed this full hp potm after hitting him 3 times.
This tiny seems really suspicious. Best not to stand near him, lest I get chucked in.
We've broken mid lane. Despite the rapier, I didn't get the last hit on the tower and the melee rax.
Let's grab another DR.
Ok... let's see how many hits it takes to kill potm this time.
Once! Twice! Three times. Voila.
Ahh... I should have just auto-attacked him twice instead of stunning. Would have killed him.
HEY! This... 2 divine rapiers. Looks like tiny got one.
I don't think he can walk out safely. Morphling ends up with a triple kill.
Now he's got a DR too.
I wasn't expecting something like this to happen.
They manage to kill him.
Ogre got the rapier.
Ogre is dead now... both DRs end up with the enemy team.
This void is expressing his preference for farming neutrals versus fighting over rapiers. I think this void really hasn't hit his stride this entire game.
Slark's got one.
Yo void... he's got a rapier!
*sigh*
This is not right. Ahh... centaur's got the second one.
But we have raxed 2 of their lanes. So we still have a good chance.
Our void has bought back... he worked so hard to farm that gold. No agh stick, not even a claymore, and he still wants to buy back.
Can't you just let me farm the lane?
We've returned to a very primitive state.
My 2 golden, shiny things are no more... I feel like I've fallen from some great height.
I'm sure many of you will have experienced something like this.
It causes you to really review your decision-making, and discover many mistakes.
For example... you've picked up a DR, and decide not to push. Instead, you greedily farm up a 2nd one. Next time, you'll think back to this episode, and remember this mishap.
But it's okay, because our heroes have more core items assembled than the other team.
I don't want to go any further out. It's my turn to be scared to venture over onto their half of the map.
It's hard to deny how fast caustic finale + battlefury farms. I've in a moment already farmed up another 1000 gold.
After farming up 2 DRs, I hastily hurried over to their fountain to deliver them.
This is a new start. Let's see if the enemy team is using the DRs wisely.
Priestess... blink-ult! Burrowstrike. This potm always seems to leap late, dunno what's wrong.
My teammates have formed a small party over at mid.
I think another one of ours has died.
DR slark, DR centaur. I want to keep on farming.
If there is a chance for solo kill, make the kill. If there is a lane to be farmed, farm it.
It's too risky trying to make teamplays with them.
Also, my team is really lacking in late game items. Void doesn't have any DPS.
Tiny has a dagon.
Though we're 2 lanes ahead, if the enemy team can put together some basic items, it'll be dangerous for us.
Ahh... but good thing we have AC completed on Doom.
It looks like they're initiating. Waveform. Never mind, they're not going.
Doom has an assault cuirass and a ghost scepter.
Continue farming! If you can't find an opening, then just keep farming until one appears. This is the simplest strategy to deal with a difficult pub match.
But I'm not talking about blindly ricing. Let me explain... if you're unable to make a move, and the opponent is also playing it passive.
Then the only thing you can do is farm hard. This creates pressure on the enemy team to make the move, because it's very uncomfortable for them to just sit still and watch you farm.
If you do this, they'll have to make a move.
Once they act, openings and opportunities will present themselves.
Centaur's got blademail, hood, blink, and DR. Slark's also got SnY.
SnY, vanguard, mask of death.
They've initiated. They've picked off gyro. Centaur counter-initiates, but his attack speed is very slow, and the DR isn't effective.
Right now void has no ult.
Slark, what's slark doing? Just directly burrowstrike-ult him. Nobody interrupted me.
Killed slark and I've got my DR back.
Now... where's the other rapier carrier. Centaur! Blademail on so I won't attack you.
Stunned 2 heroes... no 3 heroes.
I need to toss the janggo and grab the rapier. Ay... ogre magi got it.
So the ogre is this kind of person... from the moment I saw him go dagon, I should've seen this side of him.
Oh well... janggo... I couldn't drop the dust, because it was cooling down.
Morphling... here we can see SK's super long range blink stun.
SK's burrowstrike is really a bit imba.
We broken all 3 lanes.
This match is pretty much at a close. I tried to demonstrate a carry sand king in a mid-level game.
I call it a "carry", but of course, a lot of your potency comes from suppressing the enemy with your powerful skillset rather than focusing on cs.
Early farming was to set you up with your utility items, to get good results in the mid-game.
Heroes like this, and SK in particular, are my favourite to play. When I first started playing DotA, sand king was already the hero that I most liked to play.
It's been about 6 years since then. I'm pretty much a pre-historic generation player.
Ok... now let's move on to a tier 1 level game.
This match I'll be playing with an acquaintance, so a bit less lonely.
This time... I ran into xiaoguai.
He's randomed tormented soul, looking for swaps. But I tell him to play it, and pair up with me to do some dual roaming, since we have a dual stun combo.
This combo was really popular back in 2007.
Top lane: skeleton king, lina. Bot lane: leshrac, sand king. Dual stun laning fest.
I think bottle back then, a sip would give you 200 hp/100 mana, and blink dagger had no damage cd.
This time, the sand king won't get the same star treatment as last game.
Our laning setup looks okay.
Leshrac's starting item build is a bit silly: magic wand and a gauntlet of strength.
Magic wand and gauntlet of strength in the early game... their value is a bit low.
Me... I'm dirt poor. I didn't random, and I also had to buy chicken.
We've got a clockwerk goblin... quickly call him down to solo bot.
Start off with some creep blocking, because neither of us brought smoke.
If we do a good enough job creep blocking, we might be able to create a kill opportunity on bot.
Clockwerk shouldn't have leveled rocket, getting a point in battery assault instead.
We'll just hide a bit for now.
The enemy team has apparently picked a lycanthrope. The enemy's line-up is really strong and violent.
Invoker, tiny, lycan... earthshaker.
Oh... a miracle rocket.
It's a good thing the ES was late, otherwise we might have lost first blood.
Now let's shift our attention to mid. They have a tiny solo, with an ES camping nearby protecting him. This room is like this... every game the lanes are well set up.
Both teams' lineups are pretty decent.
ES is hiding here in the trees.
Make a crow and send over smoke.
Try to use up all your gold.
2 smokes and crow recipe.
We decide to go check out the hard camp, because lycan should be back by now.
So don't target the hero directly, target the ground... because he can juke or break vision.
Ahh... TS backed off, probably thought I wouldn't be able to get the stun in.
How can a pro-level SK miss?
Tunnel through with a tango, but tiny's avalanche gets both of us.
Salve up. TS should make it too, but the wolf is chasing pretty hard.
Gonna activate smoke.
This is where his starting item build is kinda poor. He doesn't have a salve.
Going after the lycan again. Not sure if he realizes we've smoked.
Ahh... he's gone. Underestimated him a bit.
We probably should've headed bot instead, because we smoked within sight of his wolf.
Bot is invoker. He's not easy to kill. Without dust it's hard to gank him.
Top windrunner, is too far away as well.
Mid, there's an ES camping it.
We're kind of aimless right now. There's nowhere we can go to make kills.
Might as well just sit in the jungle and wait for lycan.
But I don't think we can kill him either.
ES is close by, so it'll be difficult to kill lycan.
Leshrac has surprisingly recovered most of his HP. A stack of tangos isn't a small amount of HP.
This situation is a bit uncomfortable for me. Smoke is on cd too. All we can do now is just suppress Lycan's farm a bit.
Force him to farm only that hard camp.
I don't care if you farm the hard camp.
It looks like there's a kill at mid.
I've signaling on the mini-map, not sure if TS gets my drift. What I'm doing is mapping out our path to top.
I guess he didn't understand me. What I wanted to do is loop around from bot rune, to gank an unsuspecting WR.
Anyways, first get out of enemy vision.
Activate smoke, and head top to look for WR.
He's already lvl 5, but his mana is low, only 100.
Spirit breaker went boots first, and has already used up all his consumables.
109 mana... he's got enough to use windrunner.
Ehh? What's this? A shockwave coming out of the fog. Lycan must be jungling here.
Let's deal with WR first.
Because he's charged... I'm not anxious to use burrowstrike at all.
Stack the stuns a bit... oh, TS has skilled diabolic edict.
Auto-attack him to death.
Next up is lycanthrope. Oh... he's already been killed by neutrals. I really kind of pity him. He got chased from sentinel forest all the way up to scourge forest.
Not only did he not get this Hellcaller, but he died as well.
Really unlucky guy. Earlier in chat, they were saying he played a mean lycan.
But it looks like we've really suppressed his growth.
Let's see if we can get anything done at mid.
I've got no more smoke, used them both up. It'll be hard to catch him.
Because my stun is really low level, the range is quite short. Just picked up lvl 3 though.
ES coming in with the defensive fissure. Let's stun him. We didn't manage to stun the tiny. His movement was pretty nice.
But TS has his edict.
Block tiny's path here, and he's dead.
Pop a clarity.
Got 600 gold now. Let's pick up boots.
Boots are more important. TS already has his. Vital for early game heroes like ours.
Feed him a clarity too.
At top, WR already has phase boots. The situation at mid is very complicated, because we don't know where the ES is.
Let's see if we can find lycan again.
He's here.
Can't stun the lycan, I'll just stun the ES instead.
Ahh... TS misses his stun.
Windrunner TPs. I think I'm dead.
Let's bug out.
ES should have another fissure ready. Thanks to support from WR and tiny, our gank failed this time.
The situation has deteriorated.
We have to make some adjustments. I'm too low level now, so I'll need to start laning.
It'd be great if SB started fighting, because he's really fat at this point.
We helped him kill WR once, and WR has left top again, so he should be pretty fat.
If he started ganking, the enemy team probably couldn't handle it.
Our overall goal is to get our syllabear farmed, such that he has a radiance before the enemy lycan's core is finished.
Clock is doing well too. Able to pick up a ring of health in-lane.
It looks like he wants to start roaming a bit.
TS has gone to lane at bot, so I'll continue roaming.
I'm really underleveled, just lvl 3. You have to understand your position. Right now, you're position #5 on your team. You have no lane xp/cs, you've bought chicken/crow and smoke.
If you just do your best not to die, and soak up xp from fighting with your teammates, you'll be able to experience some decent growth.
In a pub you can't stay too poor/underleveled. If you do, you'll become an ATM in late game.
Clock scores the hookshot, and TS' edict.
See... like this... I leeched some of that high-lvl invoker kill XP.
I'm bumped up immediately to lvl 4.
Even though, it's shared among 3 people, the XP is still respectable.
I've still got a TP ready to go, and SB happens to be asking for another gank on WR.
In my state I shouldn't hastily rush anywhere.
I'm not powerful enough to go around sloppily. Having this TP ready is a precious concept.
Unless that WR towerdives to kill Bara, I'm not gonna just TP out of the blue.
Now, I'll pick up a ward.
This is because tiny's nuking power is quite high now. I can't be bothered to go interrupt lycan's farm again, as it is now very dangerous. WR has left top too, so it's highly risky.
So if I go looking for lycan, and get counter-ganked by WR, it'll be really ugly for me.
Instead, the best thing I can do now, is to ward up a bit.
Additionally, our mid solo is not a pace-setting, game-controlling hero. He's a farmer.
So I want to obstruct the enemy's actions.
Nice... our clock has run into the lycan. Lycan is actually pretty farmed, despite such a challenging early game.
Oh... that was close... it's a good thing TS got there in time.
Burrowstrike this ES. Wait for TS's stun. Right on time.
TS taking advantage of Clock's initiation, gets a double kill.
I placed that ward right by sentinel's mid tower. This way the syllabear won't get ganked too badly, facing a tiny with TP support.
Because sylla is our carry, if he dies, we'll run into a lot of trouble.
This tempo remains pretty decent. We killed lycan again, and helped sylla secure a tower kill.
Invoker! Ahh... he's got help. He didn't die, pretty tanky. This tiny is waiting for avalanche cd, I better get out of here.
Run! I've got boots, so he probably can't catch me.
It looks like tiny has not boots. He got suppressed by sylla pretty badly.
He does have levels though. Invoker is fat.
On the whole, our team's finances are in better shape. The effects of the dual roaming are pretty obvious.
Plus, they've got a jungler, lycan... so naturally, their laning will be a bit weaker.
Over here, TS already has mana boots and a bracer.
Right now, it's best not to complete magic wand. Instead pick up a belt of giant strength.
I've still got a ward, trying to think of where to place it.
After taking down mid tower, sylla's moved to bottom to continue farming. Very smooth.
Over here, tiny's got haste, clock is probably going to die.
This is a consequence of lack of wards.
Hey, this invoker doesn't know I'm here. He's walking straight into his downfall. Burrowstrike him. He probably hasn't invoked ghost walk.
Throwing invoker back to us? But my autoattacks aren't doing much.
Invoker is so fast.
Ok... burrowstrike to ground. He didn't think about my stun. This invoker kill is a jackpot.
It seems like every time I first use my ult, it's invariably canceled by myself.
Let's talk about what just happened. A golden opportunity presented itself.
First, it's important to not show yourself. You're very underleveled, so if you hang around in lane, it's really easy to get solo-killed.
Invoker tried to go on leshrac, but our lesh is pretty well equipped.
He had a bracer, so he wasn't so easy to kill off. I was hanging out behind him too.
He didn't know about me, and so I successfully counter-attacked.
We counter-ganked him, but because this invoker's items were great as well, we couldn't kill him in one swoop.
Right now every single piece of gold is important.
The invoker ran, he ran, but he underestimated me. So with one burrowstrike, I finished him off. Also, I got all the XP from the kill alone.
The XP from that invoker kill was a real bounty.
I went directly from lvl 4 to 6, leeched a bit more XP, and am now lvl 7.
Pretty sick.
I've basically recovered, and am back on track in terms of development. Even in spite of handling courier, ward, and smoke cost.
This time, leshrac got the smoke. Our sharing of costs is very logical.
They have quite a few people, but we are also numerous. We're also smoked, so they don't know our positioning.
We can fight this.
They're going on sylla.
Burrowstrike! but I only catch ES.
Ok good. Kill of the ES first.
That stun only got 1 hero... and now getting EMPed.
Ahh... SB's got janggo, putting it to use. Ignore the invoker, let's kill WR first.
Leshrac caught my drift, but he misses his stun.
We've still got mana. Use the magic wand and I've got mana. This WR can't escape.
Continue chasing... this WR is still juking us.
Blind burrowstrike... blind spit earth. Both hit! Ahh.. this TS got a bit greedy, he's dead.
It's alright though, 'cause he got the kill before he died.
Inform my teammates that I have no mana.
Sylla has really profited again. He didn't die.
He didn't die, and he got another tower.
Our sylla is doing a lot better than their lycan.
Haven't seen the lycan in a while. He should've farmed up treads and vlad's by now. Let's check. He's got vlad's and medallion of courage.
Clock! Clock needs to cogs him. Ahh... he catches him.
SB lives, clock was killed.
In this kind of scenario, don't level caustic finale. Just max out your first 2 skills.
Sylla's already got his relic.
WR's already got mekansm. Regardless, in order to win this game, we have to depend on sylla completely.
We've spent the entire game selflessly protecting him.
Wards, roaming. He also has played pretty well in the early game.
Entangle procs. This hasted tiny didn't expect to get entangled right off the bat. Together with SB, he's finished off.
Over here, I've completed my power treads. Support SK, picking up PT at 16 minutes.
Big difference between this match and the previous one.
Last match my luck was really good too. Getting a solo kill on potm.
Every creep kill is valuable. How can I let the tower take it?
Let's get another ward. Looks like someone else has picked up warding duties.
Spotted the lycan. It must be exciting for the lycan player... non-stop action for the whole game.
We've put up another ward here at mid. I feel that this ward spot by mid sent tower is really useful for higher level games.
Lycan is busily farming away in the jungle.
This is a good chance for me to pick up some gold.
Switch to int treads, and burrowstrike. Every skill I use carefully at this point.
Brought a clarity with me.
Every skill I decide to use now, can come back and bite me in the *** later.
Oh can he land the hookshot? He scored it!
Cogs. In this situation we don't know how many of his teammates are coming to rescue him. Tiny is here already. Let's see if I can get the burrowstrike off on lycan.
Ahh... I've been cycloned. Couldn't stun him.
I can only stun you then.
We're focusing different heroes.
WR comes in with the mek heal. I use sand storm to dodge ES ult damage.
Run away... it's time to get out.
The enemy team's gods have arrived.
Mmm... maybe not gods. A lot of very well-developed heroes. For example, this WR, this invoker.
SB has made a sange.
Look... by not dying, I've saved up another bunch of gold.
This small income builds up.
Right now even if I hurry back into the lane, there's nothing happening. So I might as well use this opportunity to kill some neutrals.
Sylla kills another tower at top, and we're now up to 1000 gold.
Previously, 16 minute treads, now at the 19 min mark, we stealthily leave the battleground and burn some neutrals.
Earning about 1000 gold.
This is one way of playing a support SK.
At this point, it's best that you stop buying wards, because you need to save for blink dagger.
Even if you're not aiming for blink, you need to start saving up for items. You can't be too poor as an SK.
We often see crystal maidens, buying courier and wards left and right. Still no boots, 15 minutes into the game.
I think this is the wrong way to play. People often ask me if supports should just continuously pay for wards, or if there are other options.
I think that there are better options.
You shouldn't continuously buy wards.
For example, if I had enough gold for a blink right now-
Ahh... SB's charged over and discovered lycan jungling.
Our luck is pretty good. Lycan is trying for the steal.
Scourge gets the kill, but Lycan steals the Aegis.
Lycan wanted to steal the kill but he failed. Clockwork hookshots over.
Clock's hookshots this game have been very pretty. That last hook was a bit risky, but this one is crucial.
Wait for lycan to revive.
I decide to ignore the lycanthrope and instead go straight after the WR.
Tormented soul follows up with his stun.
WR is picked off without the chance to use her mek.
Continue the chase, I eat my wand charges and switch treads to int.
Got enough for one more burrowstrike.
Spike him!
And TS follows up with a stun.
My decision making was important this battle.
If I didn't make that snap call, we wouldn't have been able to catch WR and tiny.
It's because I was observing carefully. I saw that while lycan was reviving, his teammates would rush over to support him.
It's best to think, rather than get tunnel vision wanting to kill the lycan really badly.
I guess it might be because of my competitive background.
I think most people in pubs won't think this way.
Most people would get caught up in the lycan slaughtering mentality.
If you have competitive experience though, you'll naturally approach things from the big picture angle.
We can see opportunities to net extra kills.
Also notice that when we were killing tiny, I used the technique of power treads stat toggling.
I consumed the wand charges while in str mode. Switched to int mode, and had just enough mana for one last burrowstrike.
Lycan's farm is speeding up... he's complete PT and an ogre axe.
Even though he's been killed so many times, he's still putting his core together.
On the other hand, our sylla's farm has outstripped him by quite a bit.
Got my dagger. 16 min treads, 22 min dagger. That took quite an effort.
It was a lot harder than in the previous game, to get these 2 items.
Because, playing this kind of SK, you really need to keep it together. You definitely cannot attract the attentions of the enemy team as food.
When you need to act, you must act decisively.
When you need to run, run quickly.
Lycan is trying to solo kill our syllabear!
This could be really dangerous. Syllabear is the focal point of our team's farm.
He seems okay though... it appears lycan was blocked by his own wolves.
Lycan, after realizing he couldn't make the kill, is hurriedly trying to exit the scene.
Since I've got my blink now, I'm going to switch over fully to int treads.
This will allow me to get off my blink-stun combo a guaranteed number of times.
WR after completing meka, has picked up a staff of wizardry, most likely aiming for a forcestaff.
The wards from here on out are bought by other people.
I think leshrac is doing all the warding.
It seems that these two are happily sharing cs at mid.
But I'm afraid to blink in to there.
I'll just bait them a bit.
Oh! My teammate is charging. Immediately blink-stun, so that he doesn't get too far away.
He most assuredly has back-up coming.
I'm going to dodge off to the side for a bit... ahh crap, I got burned by EMP.
Sand storm for a bit.
And take a look at everyone's dispositions.
Nice... we've already killed 2 of them. Now stun Kael and he'll be the 3rd.
This team fight... we had SB initiate, our teammates gathered faster than theirs, and we chained our combos more fiercely.
We grabbed the initiative by picking off heroes immediately.
Syllabear now enters the battlefield. He should be really fat now.
Not sure if he has hyperstone yet.
Yup... he's got it.
I won't waste my time by sticking around here. I'll head over to bot and clear out the creeps, as lycan isn't carrying dust.
If the tower is pushable, then push it. If it's not, then leave. We've secured an advantage anyways. Syllabear secures another tower kill.
Lycan shapeshifts. I don't have enough mana! Use my wand and it's still not enough.
Oh! it's enough! Ahh... but it turns out to be unnecessary.
This barathrum, who developed really quickly at top, caught lycan, killed him, and denied the tower.
Really... in high level rooms, you really need to match up your thought process with your teammates.
You can't play selfishly. It's really worth it to work together with and try to match up with your teammates. Especially, if there's someone you know.
I've got a nice sum of money now. I'll build a janggo too.
It doesn't hurt to have more than one. This is because, if we trigger them in succession in a team fight, that continuous AS/MS boost is pretty awesome.
SB has really gotten into a nice flow. He's put together SnY, janggo, and power treads.
It suits SB pretty well.
Shackleshot! It missed. The enemy team fight combo really can't compare to us.
The most crucial point is that tiny was heavily suppressed. Facing off against syllabear at mid was already a tough situation, but with SK/TS romping around in the fog of war, he couldn't concentrate on his laning.
Even now, he still hasn't secured his blink dagger. If we look at how he used his skills earlier on, we can tell that he's pretty good player.
But because he couldn't get his blink, the enemy team was really crippled by that.
Invoker. He wants to counterward. Double blink!
TS has a blink now too. This dual blink, SB charge combo has become irresistable.
And there's mana boots too. Oh there's a WR here.
TS has realized it too. Blink-burrowstrike-epicenter.
A blink-split earth to follow up.
Even though he got off his mek heal, he's still killed off.
We've suddenly acquired a "DOMI-NATING!".
Even the supports are dominating.
Leshrac's ward was very useful.
Ehh... they've initiated over at mid. Blink! TS with the immediate follow-up blink. We get EMPed.
Use my wand... but it's still not enough. I should've switched to agi before using it. It's alright though.
We've already swiftly taken their high ground. This is pretty natural for a team with Sylla.
Why is it that everyone wants to pick syllabear in the current version? It's because of this.
I'm really rich now. I feel that, after many games of experimentation, janggo is a better choice than hood or vanguard.
I'm starting to build a vlad's now.
I took a quick look at my teammates, and no one has vlad's yet.
Actually, there isn't even a ring of basilius.
Hang in there clock! I'll be there in a second.
Cogs... knocks back the WR.
Tiny should have an avalanche.
2 hero burrowstrike, but my ult is on cd.
Leshrac blinks over and locks them down with a split earth.
I get EMPed again.
But with a janggo, I've got some mana to spare.
There's only the 2 of us chasing who knows how many, but who cares... let's just stun them first.
Does TS have another split earth? Stun them in place.
We kill of the WR. And... the ES dies too.
SB charges into the fight, and I get off another double stun, and TS follows up with another split earth.
It's over... this battle... what the heck happened?
We wiped out the entire enemy team. This battle was a 2.5v5, SB counts for half a hero.
OK! We'll end this week's DotA cram school here with this slick combo.
Sand King is a hero that I truly love. I'll see you all next week. I hope you'll tune in then. Thanks for watching