Sand King

Crixalis, the Sand King, is a melee strength hero with one of the highest area of effect (AoE) damage outputs in the entire game. All four of his abilities can affect multiple enemy units, and can combo quite well with each other. He is one of the most versatile Heroes in the game as he can push, initiate, support, gank, and even semi-carry if he does well. Late game his effectiveness diminishes as none of his abilities scale, but he can still function to support carries with Burrowstrike and Epicenter's slow. He is also versatile enough to be able to go to any lane with at least moderate success. He works well as a participant in a dual lane or trilane, but can also solo very effectively against melee enemies, since Caustic Finale discourages enemies from approaching the creeps. His main role in the team is to deliver a devastating initiation, delivering both stuns and slows to the enemy team. Crixalis is also very effective at escaping and dodging with two low cost, low cooldown abilities that disjoint projectiles and can escape enemy damage. Burrowstrike allows him to tunnel underground and resurface in a short line, dealing damage and stunning all targets it hits. Sand Storm is used as an escape mechanism and to do AoE damage. Caustic Finale serves as a strong harassing tool against enemy melee heroes or as a followup after he Burrowstrikes a creep wave, allowing him to farm quite effectively. Finally, his ultimate delivers a vast amount of AoE damage and slow centered around himself, though it necessitates a safe way to channel it, like a Blink Dagger.

Gameplay
 Strategy & Tips Counters & Matchups

Audio
 Responses Sounds

History
 Lore Old Abilities Changelogs

Trivia

 * In a very old version of DotA, there was a bug that caused the final pulse of Sand King's to deal over 10,000 damage. The only unit that was able to survive this was a super beefed up  that was used to measure the amount of damage dealt by the ability.
 * Another old bug involved using on an allied creep. When Sand King got into Burrowstrike range of that creep, he would move all the way back to the position of the creep where it was first clicked on. Because it only worked on allied creeps, the most common usage of it was to quickly get back to base.
 * Gabe Newell has claimed that Sand King is his favorite hero.
 * Sand King's responses contain several cultural references:
 * Sand King's line, vo_sandking_skg_rare_01.mp3 "Like the sands through an hourglass, these are the days of defeat." is an allusion to the soap opera Days of our Lives's introduction line, "Like sands in the hourglass, these are the days of our lives.".
 * Sand King's line, vo_sandking_skg_rare_03.mp3 "All we are is sand in the wind..." is an allusion to the song Dust in the Wind song form the band Kansas.
 * The line vo_sandking_skg_kill_09.mp3 "You were expecting... Sandy Claws?" is most likely a reference to the stop-motion film Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas.
 * The line vo_sandking_skg_rare_02.mp3 "I will show you fear in a handful of sand..." is an allusion to the poem "The Waste Land" by T. S. Eliot.
 * The line vo_sandking_skg_illus_02.mp3 "We three Kings of disorient are..." is an allusion to the Christmas Carol "We Three Kings of Orient Are", by John Henry Hopkins, Jr.
 * The line vo_sandking_sand_rival_17.mp3 "The sand of silence." is most likely a reference to the song "The Sound Of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkel.
 * The line vo_sandking_skg_killspecial_01.mp3 "The King is dead. Long live the King." is most likely a reference to the traditional proclamation made following the ascension of a new monarch in various countries. This may also be a reference to the Megadeth song "Kill the King"
 * The line " vo_sandking_sand_rival 04.mp3 Lion, you are king of nothing" may be a reference to the film "The Lion King".
 * Sand Storm's sound makes use of vo_sandking_skg_ability_sandstorm_04.mp3 this and vo_sandking_skg_ability_sandstorm_03.mp3 this voice line of Sandking.