Sand King

Crixalis the Sand King is a Ganker and Initiator type Melee Hero whose abilities are to cripple multiple enemy heroes in one move, where each of his skills deal area damage. He usually enters to battle when most of the enemy team are crumpled up together, trying his best to deal as much damage as possible while inflicting Slow or Stun status effects upon them. Because of the tremendous power his abilities have, he is able to take down full-sized teams even if his own team is outnumbered. Though most of the time he does not garner any kills, he is still the main reason why any team would break down to pieces in a blink of an eye. He is also able to buy time for allies to come by because of his survivability; an invisibility ability that can help him escape certain target spells while also doing area denial due to the damage it inflicts, and a displacement skill with an added stun effect. He is also a capable pusher and farmer due to his passive ability. However, Sand King has mediocre attributes and is pretty soft for a Strength hero, so one should not feel very confident about Sand King's capability without the use of his skills.

Sand King's versatility requires knowledge before it can be used effectively, but not as much as most heroes. He is a great Initiator for new players to practice if they want to cover more complex positions. He is recommended for new to intermediate players.

Tips

 * Use Blink Dagger to extend stun range by blinking in front of a hero and stun as many heroes as possible.
 * Blink Dagger is a commonly built item for Sand King, used to initiate after channeling your Ultimate.
 * The combo of Ulti+shift click blink is a formidable and a very strong way to enter team fights with the element of surprise and deal a ton of area of effect damage. Basically turning the tides of battle in your favour.
 * A full blast of Epicenter at level 3 will deal 1100 damage, easily crippling the opposing team
 * After initiating Sand Storm will protect you from auto attacks as well as deal damage to any enemy who stays in the area.

Trivia

 * In a very old version of Dota All Stars, there used to be a bug with Crixalis's Epicenter where at the last pulse it used to deal an ungodly blow of over 10,000 points of damage killing anyone in its reach, except the super beefed up Pudge that was used to measure the amount of damage dealt by the ability.