Sand King

Crixalis the Sand King is a melee strength Hero whose abilities are to cripple multiple enemy heroes in one devastating combo, where each of his abilities deals area damage. He is one of the most versatile Heroes in the game as he can push, initiate, support, roam, gank, and even semi-carry if he can pull it off. Sand King's versatility is expanded by how he deals with lanes as well. He can be comfortable at any lane; suicide lane for support, middle lane for ganking, and short lane for pulling and jungling. He can combo great with trilane, dual lane, solo lane, or even no lane especially since he is item independent and can focus on full ganking or roaming. Though his roles are very expanded, his main job is to initiate. His entrance is usually his most powerful element, best executed 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. Though Sand King is a weak tank early game due to his low initial attributes, he depends on his Sand Storm to dodge single target abilities and to juke, while he depends on his Burrowstrike to dodge anything else.

Sand King requires skill to be effective, especially since he is very dependent on his abilities. However, the nature of strength Heroes (higher hp, lower mana costs) make Sand King a much easier Hero to learn. He is recommended for intermediate to advanced 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.