Earthshaker

Raigor Stonehoof the Earthshaker is a melee strength hero with several area of effect disables, commonly played as a ganker or initiator. Unlike most strength heroes, he is played more like an intelligence caster hero and is almost entirely reliant on his spells to inflict heavy damage. His Fissure is a versatile spell that affects enemies in a line, used to stun, inflict decent damage, and create an impassable wall of earth for a significant duration. Good usage of this can cut off chokepoints, leaving enemies with no escape routes or preventing them from chasing after endangered allies. Enchant Totem massively boosts his attack damage for one attack, and has a very short cooldown. Aftershock lets the Earthshaker deal additional damage and stun in a small area around him every time he uses one of his spells, and combos particularly well with Enchant Totem. Earthshaker's heavy AoE-centric kit is most powerful when his enemies are in large numbers and in close proximity. With his Echo Slam, he can deal heavy damage to clusters of enemies. All of Earthshaker's spells (with the exception of his ultimate) have a long casting animation, but with proper positioning, an adept Earthshaker can wreak havoc with his area-of-effect spells. Blink Dagger is an essential item for Earthshaker to be able to properly land Echo Slam within a cluster of enemies. At the same time, because of the high mana costs of his spells, he needs some form of mana sustenance. With his tremendous seismic power, the Earthshaker is never one that should be taken lightly even when he is heavily outnumbered.

Recommended items
Starting items:
 * potions help sustaining Earthshaker's mana in the early game, allowing him to cast Fissure's more than once, since its mana cost is relatively high and Earthshaker's mana pool is small.
 * provides a nice boost to health and attack damage.
 * gives basic stats and can be built into.
 * Provided that no one else buys the, Earthshaker can purchase it for his team. However, he may need to sacrifice a few items, such as Gauntlets of Strength, or two Clarities, reducing his lane presence by a big deal.
 * provides excellent protection against magical harassment, against which Earthshaker normally has no defense.

Early-game items:
 * can be a good source of health and mana restoration if the enemies use their abilities often, and can even be used in a pinch to get enough mana for his Fissure.
 * is a good source of mana in the early game, allows for liberal use of Fissure.
 * gives a good source of health, attack damage, and mana.

Core items:
 * are important to compensate for Earthshaker's low mana.
 * is an indispensable item for Earthshaker to initiate with. It can also be used to chase fleeing enemies to take them down with his Enchant Totem.

Situational items:
 * allows Earthshaker to jump into fights with Enchant Totem, giving him even greater mobility. It's also provides a good boost to his stats.
 * is a cheaper, support-oriented alternative to the Aghanim's Scepter. While the stats are not as good, it can give more damage to his own abilities, and any of the allies' abilities that are affected by magic resistance.
 * fulfills a similar purpose as Blink Dagger, can be bought to supplement Earthshaker's mobility.
 * is sometimes picked up during the late game.
 * increases damage output from with critical chance. It is favored by more combat-oriented Earthshaker builds, and can be built into.

Trivia

 * Earthshaker's response " erth ability echo 03.mp3 Chaos Dunk!" is a reference to the freeware RPG game Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden