Earth Spirit

Kaolin the Earth Spirit is a melee strength hero with great utility, possessing a wide array of disables in all of his basic abilities.

Unlike most heroes, his abilities revolve around an innate ability, Stone Remnant, which allows him to place statues that can be used to augment his abilities. Using his abilities in tandem with these remnants, Earth Spirit can stun enemies with Boulder Smash, slow them and initiate with Rolling Boulder, and silence them with Geomagnetic Grip. His ultimate, Magnetize, inflicts nearby enemies with a damage over time debuff, and allows him to spread the slow and silence from his abilities to other nearby enemies while refreshing the debuff duration by using his Stone Remnants, stopping entire groups of enemies in their tracks. With good timing and skill he can initiate fights from a distance, and given the right circumstances can deal a surprising amount of damage to both single and multiple targets, all the while disrupting enemy positioning allowing for easy kills. A useful ally and a dangerous enemy, the Earth Spirit's versatility and flexibility make him an ideal hero in almost any lineup or lane.

Recommended items
Starting items:
 * and are basic regen requirements in almost any lane that Earth Spirit is placed in.
 * potions will help Earth Spirit to cast his spells more often to make a bigger impact in the early game, as he is limited more by his mana pool than by the number of s he has.
 * is a cheap and effective way to improve Earth Spirit's stats, particularly his strength and intelligence, both of which are lacking in the early game.
 * is recommended when playing in the off-lane, as it will significantly reduce the amount of damage Earth Spirit takes from enemy player harass.

Early game:
 * are essential early on for Earth Spirit, as the improved movement speed will allow him to position himself more quickly for casting his spells. It is not absolutely necessary to upgrade them immediately, which can save you gold for other items.
 * is a useful pickup when in a lane against heroes who are harassing you by spamming low mana cost spells. In particular, your low early mana pool means that you will greatly benefit from having an extra source of mana regen for casting your spells if you're in a pinch.
 * is essential if Earth Spirit is played in the mid lane, but can also be a handy source of regen if playing as a roamer or off-laner. As Earth Spirit is very mobile and very active, a Bottle will give him health regen between ganks and fights, and the mana replenishment will recover a sizable fraction of his mana pool, allowing him to stay on the go.

Core items:
 * has many uses for a hero like Earth Spirit, and can be built relatively easily as its components aren't that expensive. It can be used to quickly re-position Earth Spirit in order to more easily cast his abilities, as well as escape from failed fights or ganks. As well, the active can be used to save nearby allies, or disposition enemies for your spells. It also improves his mana pool, always good on a strength caster, and the health regen helps keep him at full health as needed.
 * is useful for the same reason as Magic Stick, as well as for the additional stats if you are not a core farmer on your team.
 * is a good pickup on very active Earth Spirit players since he is very powerful in teamfights and ganks, and is a strength hero who can benefit from additional mana regeneration. The active ability can be used to heal teammates after ganks or teamfights, or can add an additional 150 pure damage to an enemy during a gank. Remember to check with teammates to see if any of them are purchasing one as well, as only one Urn will receive charges when a nearby enemy hero dies.
 * is an essential basic item that all heroes should carry at all times, but is doubly so on Earth Spirit. Because of his mobility and powerful disables, being able to show up quickly to a gank, counter-gank teamfight is critical.

Situational items:
 * are almost essential on Earth Spirit if no other mana regen items are built. As a strength caster, he benefits greatly from the larger mana pool, as well as the mana replenishment given upon activation. Arcane Boots also greatly benefit your team, especially if your allies are having mana issues.
 * is helpful if your team has multiple spell casters. It provides a large amount of intelligence to improve Earth Spirit's mana pool, and the extra armor is very useful as he often gets right in the middle of battles when initiating. The 25% magic resistance reduction on enemies works well with all of Earth Spirit's spells, but synergizes best with his ultimate,, as Magic Weakness' long debuff duration can stay in place throughout refreshing Magnetize on enemies.
 * is useful against the enemies which rely on their attacks. The disarm will render the targeted hero unable to attack, making most hard carries useless until the effect wears off. Heaven's Halberd will also give Earth Spirit extra health, attack damage, and evasion, all helpful for staying alive in fights.
 * is useful in most situations, but especially against a team of casters. The extra magic resistance helps keep Earth Spirit alive during initiations, and the active protects all allies from magical damage for a short period of time. As well, the additional health regen allows Earth Spirit to remain out in the field for longer without having to return to base to heal.
 * will massively increase Earth Spirit's survivability, granting him over 1000 bonus health and very fast health regeneration between fights which will allow him to start every teamfight or gank at full health. This survivability allows Earth Spirit to stand in the center of fights, making it easier to deal damage with Magnetize. If all goes well, Earth Spirit can place more Stone Remnants, refreshing the duration of his ultimate with a much smaller risk of dying.
 * greatly improves Earth Spirit's mana pool, as well as giving him some overall attribute improvement. The ability to hex an enemy target is extremely useful, as it can disable a key target instantly and eliminate their evasion and ability to use items, giving you and your team time to disable them further.
 * is a useful mid-game item that gives Earth Spirit many positive benefits. The intelligence shores up his small mana pool, the armor gives him survivability against physical damage, and the attack damage gives him more physical damage output which helps him farm late-game items more easily as needed. But most importantly, using the item's active ability while initiating can discourage the enemy from attacking you, giving you more time to cast your spells as needed.
 * greatly increases Earth Spirit's physical survivability as well as the size of his mana pool. The active ability can be used in conjunction with initiating a teamfight with, as you can apply the blast to the entire enemy team almost instantly, slowing them down enough to catch them all with Magnetize.
 * is an extremely powerful item to purchase on Earth Spirit, as it will allow him to position himself much more easily for casting his spells and has a very short cooldown. As it costs no mana to cast, you can use it without worrying about not having enough mana to cast your spells.
 * improves Earth Spirit's already good armor and health regeneration, and is a good utility pickup for your team. Keep in mind though, it has an extremely high mana cost, more than any of your other spells, so it is necessary to increase the size of your mana pool first. If you don't, you may render yourself unable to cast your other spells after healing your team, or healing your team after pulling off your spell combo. Remember to check whether a teammate is going to purchase Mekansm, as a team only needs one.
 * unlocks a new ability,, which greatly increases Earth Spirit's ability to disable enemies, save teammates, and initiate during teamfights and ganks. It also augments so that it can be cast on allied heroes.
 * is a very powerful early-game purchase on Earth Spirit. Using his basic attacks to slow enemies' movement speed synergizes well with all of his other disables, greatly improving his ability to set up kills for his team.
 * is a cheap utility item can make Earth Spirit highly elusive and give him additional initiation power that augments his already strong mobility. The active can allow him to initiate invisibly, cloak himself for escapes when combined with Rolling Boulder, or give him strong magic resistance when jumping in during teamfights. It also allows him to do the same for allies, and synergizes with his ability to save teammates by pulling them from harm using Geomagnetic Grip.
 * greatly augments Earth Spirit's disable potential and is a great utility item to build in many situations, in particular as it can be cheaply assembled by using the Energy Booster from Arcane Boots. Besides the additional mana, it provides HP regen which aids in survivability and allows Earth Spirit to roam independently. The cast range increase affects all of Earth Spirit's spells, extending the reach of his disables, and the spell damage amp can help him to deal more damage with his nukes.
 * can be useful to build in situations where farming a more expensive item is prohibitive. It improves Earth Spirit's mana pool and regeneration, ensuring that he will always have the mana to cast his spells, and the extra movement speed allows him to move into position for his spells more easily without resorting to using a Blink Dagger or Force Staff. As well, the active cyclone can be used to make yourself temporarily invulnerable while also dispelling debuffs such as silences, or instantly disable an enemy to set up your other spells.
 * gives Earth Spirit strong resistance against physical damage. As a strength hero with innately high HP, giving him armor and evasion makes him harder to kill in fights, while the passive mana regen keeps his mana pool topped up. The active can be used on allies or enemies, giving Earth Spirit even more utility beyond his already potent disables.
 * is a useful utility item to pick up on Earth Spirit if the enemy has lots of physical damage output. As a melee hero the damage block is very effective, while the increased health pool makes him much more durable while initiating. The active will also allow you to give a large amount of physical damage protection to your allies, as even ranged heroes will get full damage block for the duration of the buff.
 * protects Earth Spirit from targeted spells, or allows him to share that protection with allies. The item provides HP and mana regen, as well as armor and additional bonus damage.
 * can drastically improve Earth Spirit's survivability when initiating teamfights. When upgraded from Arcane Boots and Mekansm, it removes Mekansm's mana cost while providing Earth Spirit with a strong teamfight aura and a self-dispel to remove debuffs from himself.

Trivia

 * , like, and , was a Pandaren in DotA. However, he was re-skinned to avoid copyright issues with Blizzard Entertainment, since Pandaren are a race of creatures in the Warcraft Universe.
 * His innate ability,, is called Stone Caller in DotA, and it summons an actual Rock rather than a Remnant. Its function and mechanics are just the same. It's still named Stone Caller in the npc files of Dota2.
 * Earth Spirit's name, Kaolin, is a reference to a type of fine white clay of the same name.
 * Earth Spirit's lore draws inspiration from the Terracotta Army, a collection of statues depicting Chinese emperor Qin Shi Huang Di's armies.
 * Earth Spirit's quote "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak" may be a reference from Matthew 26:41 in the Bible (KJV).

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