Elder Titan

The Elder Titan is a durable melee strength hero who plays the role of initiator. His Astral Spirit and Echo Stomp abilities allow him to disable large groups of enemies from afar, making him one of the few initiators that does not require a Blink Dagger. This combination creates a perfect setup for his powerful ultimate Earth Splitter, which damages enemies based on their maximum HP. This, along with his ability to lower his enemies' physical and magical resistance, makes Elder Titan scale well through his abilities and be effective at all stages of the game. As the progenitor of this world, Elder Titan reshapes the battlefield on a whim and can turn any teamfight in his favor.

Tips

 * Depending on your team composition and level of play, Elder Titan's skills have differing priorities to max. Level Echo Stomp to increase the sleep's duration, making it easier for Elder Titan and his team to set up their own area-of-effect spells without disturbance. Astral Spirit provides the highest overall damage increase. Maxing Natural Order early massively increases its effectiveness, as enemy heroes will have little to no bonus defenses and will thus be taking almost full damage.
 * Astral Spirit spawns at a target location up to a distance of 1200 away from Elder Titan. Elder Titan can use this to initiate by casting Astral Spirit in the middle of an enemy team followed immediately by Echo Stomp; if the enemy team was unaware of Elder Titan's location beforehand they usually won't have time to react before Echo Stomp's cast time is finished. If Echo Stomp's level is high enough the enemies should be stunned for the entire 3 seconds it takes for Earth Splitter to form and activate, assuming they don't take any damage that breaks the stun.
 * Astral Spirit is an effective harassing and pushing tool throughout the early game that can be used without putting Elder Titan in danger.
 * Be careful, though: it costs 110 mana per use.
 * Although unmentioned, a Refresher Orb is a fairly good choice for the Elder Titan; two casts of Earth Splitter will both severely damage the enemy and slow them for an extended duration, if both hit. Be aware that you need items to augment your mana pool, though.
 * Elder Titan can excel even with just one or two core items. Eul's Scepter of Divinity, for example, solves his mana problems while giving a reliable disable to set up an Echo Stomp or Earth Splitter.
 * Due to his tankiness, Elder Titan can carry auras effectively. Items like Ring of Basilius, Drum of Endurance, Mekansm, Pipe of Insight, Vladmir's Offering and Assault Cuirass can help the whole team, as long as Elder Titan stays alive and close to his allies.
 * Power Treads will make you able to land more hits after the Spirit returns, and switching to Intelligence can help with the low mana pool; Phase Boots pair well with the movement speed bonus granted by the Astral Spirit; Arcane Boots give much more mana to spam spells; later in the game, Boots of Travel can be used to counter-push or counter-gank.

Trivia

 * Elder Titan was known as Tauren Chieftain in DotA. The name change was likely done to avoid copyright issues with Blizzard, since the Tauren is an existing race in the Warcraft universe.
 * Elder Titan is voiced by Jim French, a prominent voice actor and radio personality; he is best known for voice-acting Bill in the Left 4 Dead series and Father Grigori in Half Life 2, two titles also made by Valve. This is the first voice work he has done for Dota 2.