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.

Gameplay
Elder Titan's role as an initiator, and his Natural Order aura, make him well suited to buy further teamfight and aura items - like Mekansm or Shiva's Guard - especially ones that make him more durable to prolong his auras. His natural health is not unusually high, but the teamfight items he often buys can make him into a tank. He is normally played as a slot 4 support, but if circumstances require, he can transition to a core hero who lands devastating initiations with multiple teamfight items and acts as a tank during the rest of the teamfight.

Tips

 * Elder Titan is a very flexible hero who can provide great amounts of utility to his team through his abilities, depending on how he is built. He can use Astral Spirit to accrue great amounts of bonus damage and movement speed, and then take advantage of Natural Order to inflict that bonus damage on enemies when their defenses are reduced. He is also capable of disabling multiple enemy heroes at once with a combination of Astral Spirit and Echo Stomp, as well as set up strong slows and deal tremendous damage with Earth Splitter after landing a successful Echo Stomp.
 * In general, due to being a strength melee hero, Elder Titan benefits greatly from building aura and durability items. His inherent tankiness allows him to benefit from carrying defensive auras and teamfight items, which his team can benefit from, and these auras also aid in Elder Titan's own survivability, allowing him to do more in teamfights.
 * 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 spells without disturbance. Astral Spirit provides the highest overall damage increase in a single spell, allowing Elder Titan to deal damage from the spirit passing through enemies as well as giving him bonus damage once it returns. Maxing Natural Order early massively increases the amount of damage enemies will take in engagements, allowing high damage dealers on Elder Titan's team to maximize their damage output.
 * Elder Titan is most often played as an off-laner, but can be played as a mid hero or safe-lane support depending on the lineup.
 * Astral Spirit allows an off-lane Elder Titan to get last-hits from distance, and he benefits from getting solo experience if the enemy supports fail to zone him out effectively. Additionally, the spirit can accrue bonus damage and movement speed via nearby jungle creeps as well as lane creeps, giving Elder Titan more mobility and last-hitting power as needed, and scout the fog of war for potential incoming ganks. A value point in Echo Stomp can serve as an emergency escape spell of sorts, as it can stop attackers in their tracks once they've expended their disables, allowing Elder Titan to escape while they are asleep.
 * A mid Elder Titan can use a combination of Astral Spirit and Natural Order to bully his opponent, as he can gain bonus damage and movement speed through the spirit to trade right-clicks and chase the enemy mid down, while Natural Order's aura greatly increases the amount of damage they take from trading attacks. As well, Echo Stomp can be used to punish any enemies attempting to tower dive, or can aid in setting up friendly ganks.
 * As a support, Elder Titan will have very little farm and experience priority, however he can remotely set up disables via Astral Spirit and Echo Stomp once he hits level 2, which can disable the enemy's off-laner long enough for his team to get in a favorable position for a gank. As well, he can transition into a utility farming support by passing his Astral Spirit through neutral camps in his jungle and then use the bonus damage to farm if needed.
 * is an unorthodox disable in that it is a sleep, rather than a stun. As such, it is mechanically very unusual but can be very strong when used properly.
 * Remember that Echo Stomp is a channeled spell, and as such stunning or silencing Elder Titan during the 1.4 second delay will interrupt it and cause the spell to fail. Because of this, Echo Stomp is best used when combined with Astral Spirit.
 * The most important aspect of Echo Stomp is that all slept units will awake immediately upon taking player-based damage. As such, it requires that allies do not attempt to attack or cast spells against the enemy, as it will remove the disable and allow the target to act again.
 * Conversely, however, this can be used to your advantage, as damage from non-player sources will not wake the target up. This means that if an enemy hero is tower-diving or has accrued creep aggro, inflicting them with the sleep will allow towers and creeps to continue to damage them without waking them up. Additionally, this works with Roshan's damage, making Echo Stomp a very strong spell for countering Roshan attempts by the enemy team.
 * Used properly, Echo Stomp is a very strong initiating spell, as it can sleep multiple enemies for up to 5 seconds, a duration comparable to the longest disables in the game. As well, it can be a very strong counter-initiation spell, breaking up enemy ganks by interrupting them as they are distracted trying to kill an ally.
 * If you manage to knock out multiple enemy heroes with an Echo Stomp, it is extremely important to prioritize and focus your targets. As the enemy will only awaken once the duration expires or when they take player-based damage, you can single out one enemy to focus down and kill while their teammates are still unconscious, and then clean up the remainder more easily once the sleep's duration ends. Hitting all of the enemies with player-based damage will immediately wake them up, wasting the sleep.
 * Echo Stomp can be a useful juking spell if being chased through the jungle by the enemy. Elder Titan can run around a blind corner, and then immediately begin channeling Echo Stomp. Any chasing enemies will likely not have enough time to interrupt Elder Titan upon reaching his location, and will be knocked out, allowing him to escape.
 * If attempting to combine Echo Stomp with Earth Splitter, at least 2 levels in Echo Stomp are required, as Earth Splitter takes 3.14 seconds to implode after casting. Under optimal circumstances, enemies will have only 0.54 seconds to escape the spell, and will be unable to do so once Echo Stomp is level 3 or higher.
 * is the linchpin that allows Elder Titan's abilities to work together to create devastating combinations. It allows Elder Titan to cast Echo Stomp from long range, and carries his Natural Order aura as well, making it one of his strongest spells. No matter how Elder Titan is skilled, at least one early level is needed to make his abilities effective.
 * Astral Spirit spawns at a target location up to a distance of 1200 away from Elder Titan, and can then be controlled to move even further after that. This allows Elder Titan to set up Echo Stomp from very long ranges, without revealing his own position to the enemy team.
 * Remember that Astral Spirit's movement speed is set to match that of Elder Titan when he cast it. This makes building movement speed items on Elder Titan very important, as it affects not only his own mobility but that of his spirit.
 * Astral Spirit gives Elder Titan bonus damage and movement speed for a short duration after returning to him. As such, it can be a very strong spell to use against crowded enemies, as it can accrue massive amounts of bonus damage and movement speed, turning Elder Titan into a terrifying threat if he has enough attack speed to take advantage of this bonus damage.
 * In general, Astral Spirit's priority should be passing through enemy heroes if possible, as it serves three purposes. Passing the spirit through enemy heroes will accrue much more bonus damage and movement speed for Elder Titan than it will for creeps, putting the spirit on top of an enemy hero weakens them by applying Natural Order's aura to them, and it reveals their position through the fog of war, allowing nearby allies to take advantage of this knowledge and the aura.
 * Astral Spirit will accrue bonus damage and movement speed not only by passing through enemies, but neutrals as well (even spell immune ones). As such, if the opportunity presents itself, try to pass the spirit through jungle camps if possible, as they can serve as an additional source of power. The spirit also deals damage to them as it passes through, weakening them for later jungling.
 * Remember that Astral Spirit still gathers bonuses for units it passes through on its return path to Elder Titan. Because of this, it can be beneficial to re-position Elder Titan after casting the spell, so that after passing through as many creeps as it can during its duration, it can pass through even more on its return path, maximizing the bonuses gained from the spell.
 * The above can also be used to cast surprise Echo Stomps, as the spirit moves at 600 speed when returning, faster than Elder Titan himself can move. After casting Astral Spirit, maneuver it through the fog of war and behind the enemy, then return it so that it paths over the enemy on its return path to Elder Titan. When it reaches the enemy's position, begin channeling Echo Stomp, and the spirit will stop and begin casting it on top of the enemy. This can be a very rude surprise for enemy players, who will usually be looking in the wrong direction and not expect the Astral Spirit to be moving so quickly, let alone stop in the middle of a return.
 * is considered one of Elder Titan's strongest abilities, as it can nullify base armor and counteract base magic resistance on enemy heroes, making even the toughest enemies much squishier.
 * Both Elder Titan and his Astral Spirit carry this aura. However, keep in mind that the aura has a very small radius, so in practical terms it is only useful when Elder Titan himself is engaging a foe or his spirit is on top of them.
 * Natural Order makes Elder Titan a very strong hero to counter agility-based carries. As most agility carries will build agility items to boost their base damage and attack speed, they will also have unusually high amounts of base armor, which is nullified by Natural Order. As well, agility carries will normally have small health pools, making them weak against magic nukes, which Natural Order also amplifies through its magic resistance reduction.
 * Depending on how Elder Titan is built, players should make use of the aura on either Elder Titan, his Astral Spirit, or both. As Elder Titan fights enemies, his teammates should focus down any enemies he engages, or any enemies that are standing inside his Astral Spirit. Try to micro-manage the Astral Spirit to put it on top of high-priority targets, in order to weaken their defenses from a distance if Elder Titan himself cannot reach them.
 * is an extremely strong damage spell that has a long delay but a wide area of effect. Casting it successfully can severely weaken the entire enemy team and slow them down tremendously, allowing teammates to mop up.
 * In general, Earth Splitter is best used once the enemy team has been knocked out by Echo Stomp, as the sleep's duration allows the ultimate to run its full course. However, it can also be used if the enemy has been disabled by a teammate, such as through, , or.
 * Always remember to place your Astral Spirit and Elder Titan himself in close proximity of the enemy when the crack implodes, in order to apply the Natural Order debuff to them. This will ensure that the enemy will take almost the full brunt of the damage, and places Elder Titan in a favorable position to begin attacking the enemy using bonus damage from Astral Spirit, as they will be severely slowed as well.
 * Due to its wide area and long range, Earth Splitter can be a strong chasing spell, as it can force enemy players to path differently in order to avoid the damage and slow. As well, in emergencies it can be used as an escape spell by casting it in a direction and then running down the length of the crack, forcing enemies to break off or be damaged and slowed.
 * Elder Titan can excel even with just one or two core items, however he has many items that he can benefit from building.
 * can be very useful to build on Elder Titan, both as an off-laner and a mid. As Elder Titan's spells all cost a significant portion of his mana pool, being able to replenish his mana allows him to remain mobile and not have to return to base as often.
 * are very useful if Elder Titan is being built to cast instead of brawl. It increases the size of his mana pool and allows him to replenish his and his teammates' mana, greatly increasing his utility and allowing him to always have the mana to cast his spells in fights.
 * can be a useful alternative to Power Treads, as the active can be used to chase enemies down after gaining bonus damage and movement speed via Astral Spirit.
 * serves many useful benefits on Elder Titan if he is being built in a support-utility role. The item's components are easy to build, and it increases the size of his mana pool while also giving him some HP regen and an active that helps with his positioning, which can be crucial for getting his spells off.
 * can be very situational but powerful in Elder Titan's hands. It greatly increases his mobility and allows him to position himself for casting his spells much more effectively.
 * is a strong durability item on Elder Titan, and can be purchased relatively easily due to the cheap price of its components. It provides an armor aura that gives Elder Titan and his teammates more survivability against physical damage, and the damage bonus and lifesteal aura also provide strong bonuses in teamfights. The mana regen also helps to maintain Elder Titan's mana pool.
 * is built mainly as a utility item that offers stats and survivability. Elder Titan's tanky nature allows him to benefit greatly from it, however he must build up his mana pool first, as Mekansm's active costs more than any of his spells.
 * gives Elder Titan stats across the board and armor, increasing his inherent tankiness. However, its main utility is in its active ability, which can reduce an enemy's magic resistance further on top of Natural Order, increasing the potency of magical damage even more. Using it on top of Earth Splitter allows Elder Titan to cut enemies' HP by almost 40%, rather than 35%.
 * is a strong item for aiding Elder Titan in casting. The base movement speed increase grants him more mobility, especially when combined with Astral Spirit's bonus movement speed, and the extra intelligence and scaling mana regen ensure that Elder Titan will always have the mana to cast what he needs. The active can pin an enemy down with a cyclone, giving Elder Titan enough time to set up a perfect Echo Stomp.

Trivia

 * Elder Titan was known as the Tauren Chieftain in DotA. The name change was likely done to avoid copyright issues with Blizzard Entertainment, 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.
 * In the splash art, a faint image of what looks to be can be seen.
 * The delay time on Earth Splitter is 3.14 seconds, which is most likely a reference to pi. Pi is the ratio between a circle's circumference and its diameter, making it a fundamental constant in geometry and other more complex areas of mathematics.