Hero Discussion # 9 Earth Spirit

Alright, so yours truly is back. I don’t generally initiate forum posts as you can check my profile and find but I do love contributing random banter to topic. Now that I am back though, I’d like to start with a bang.

Earth Spirit

The lore (because we all play dota for the lore now don’t we?)

Deep amid the Upland crags and cliffs there runs a seam of sacred jade long foresworn by highland miners. From this rare material, the likeness of the great general Kaolin was carved and buried at the head of a stone funerary army ten thousand strong--a force of soldiers and holy men, jesters and acrobats, carved by craftsmen and entombed for millennia in the dark embrace of the Earth.
What the craftsmen had not known was that within the strange seam of jade flowed the spirit of the Earth itself--an elemental force at one with the planet. When the force within the carved jade found itself cut off from the life's blood of the world, it gathered its strength over the course of a thousand years and dug itself free and into the light. Now the great Kaolin Earth Spirit strides the Upland roads, fighting for the spirit of the Earth; and in times of need calls forth remnants of his buried army still locked in the loving embrace of the soil.

Now that we have that out of the way, let’s get to know a bit about his skills. I know we all know what they are and how they work yadda yadda but that’s how it should be xD

Stone Remnant

Call a Stone Remnant at the target location. Stones Remnants have no vision and are invulnerable, and can be used with Earth Spirit's abilities. Calling a Stone Remnant consumes a charge, which recharge over time. Earth Spirit can have 6 Stone Remnants active at one time.
All of his skills become better versio0n of themselves with stone remnants and hence it’s really necessary to use the stones judicially. Lack of sufficient charges can mean the difference between life and death. (Of you, your allies or your enemies ofc)

Boulder Smash

Also known as the ‘kick’ Earth Spirit smashes the target unit causing forced movement. Deals damage if it’s an enemy. If Earth Spirit targets an area, he will smash the nearest Stone Remnant in a 200 radius. The travelling unit or Remnant damages all enemy units it hits. If an enemy is hit by a Stone Remnant, they are also stunned.
A good ability and should be maxed first imo. Can be a little hard to land but the fact that it’s a 2000 range stun makes it an awesome ability. Can also be used for saving allies or disengaging with enemies. Can also be used for those insane ranged kills for dem style points. SSStylish!!

Rolling Boulder

Literally a roll. Earth spirit covers himself in rocks and rolls after a delay of 0.6s He will stop if he collides with a hero or is stunned during the duration of the whole ability. If a stone boulder is in his path, his rolling speed and distance rolled is increased. He also slows an enemy if he rolls into an enemy when rolling with a boulder.
One point is enough for the occasional slow. Extra points only reduces the cd.

Geomagnetic Grip

This is the ‘pull’ as kaolin pulls remnants towards him. If the remnant hits the enemies they are silenced and are dealt damage. A very strong ability as the silence starts out at 2.5 secs and has an 1100 cast range.
I prefer maxing this second as a stun is generally more usefiul than silence. Altough the silence can be more useful against certain heroes (i.e morphling :3) Post-6.86, you can only pull allied heroes if you have a sceptre.

Magnetize

His ultimate, Magnetizes units in a small nearby area, causing them to take damage for a short duration. Magnetized heroes cause nearby Stone Remnants to explode, destroying the remnant and refreshing Magnetize's duration on all nearby enemies. This process can repeat multiple times. If an enemy hero is affected by silence or slows as a result of Geomagnetic Grip or Rolling Boulder, all magnetized heroes share the effects.
The damage can be significant if you use remnants to refresh the duration but its main power lies in silence and slowing the whole team by suing the spells on just one enemy. Without refreshing the duration once, Magnetize can deal up to 300/450/600 damage per affected unit. If you time you refreshes, the damage can be pretty huge.

Enchant Remnant

Earth Spirit temporarily enchants a hero, granting them the properties of a Stone Remnant. After 3 seconds the remnant shatters, releasing the hero and damaging nearby enemies.
Unlocked after you get a sceptre and extremely worth it too. With this you can do insane thins like Play Video or even this Play Video
You can also completely remove a hero from the fight by turning them to stone and then kicking them away. Note that rolling into then would break the spell.

Earth spirit is a hero with a high skill ceiling but can be extremely useful in the right hands. He is a good disabler and can deal surprising amounts of damage. Blink/ force staff and then aghs are core items for him along with an occasional veil pickup.

>Do you love him/hate him?


>Where do you people think earth spirit’s current place is in the Meta?


>What are you builds for him? DO you think he needs a buff/nerf? (No nerfino pls. He has been nerfed enough).


>Synergies with various heroes?


>Have you ever successfully pulled off some epic saves?

Ready??

Set

DISCUSS!!

I've played him a few times but was frankly rubbish. He's a hero who requires a lot of skill and practice to be effective. Neither love or hate him, he's just not really for me at the moment, and even if you get owned by a good one, you at least feel like they 'earned' it.

Meta-wise, not watched enough pro to say really. He seemed to have moved from a mid-centric role to support. It's tricky as I don't think he's a particularly competitive mid, but he flies with early levels and early access to his ult.

Synergies wise, he works pretty well with most people - ability to manipulate positions and protect allies is always worthwhile. For specific stuff, he obviously works well with heroes who can provide hefty magic damage to back his up, and he can even help out initiators like ES, SK etc before they get their Blink.

Epic saves...no, I couldn't even save myself...but at least I bought wards :)

Nice post Ultra!

I don't play Earth Spirit, and personally I don't have anything going for or against him, but it's a hero you get to see in competitive quite a lot.

There he is an excellent disabler, works as a roaming support that offers mostly control. The damage from his ultimate is also nice in team fights, and yet it doesn't make a massive difference unless you pair him with someone that augments magical damage. He also doesn't need much, as you can go your entire early to late mid game with just support items, and pick up when you have a chance one of the items you guys mentioned here: either a Blink Dagger, a Force Staff or a Veil of Discord.

I haven't seen an Aghanim's Scepter on pro ES for a long time, I think they just stopped going for it. Not sure why, could be a combination of the fact that there are so many other heroes with "saving" abilities in the game now (including cores like OD, who is on top of the meta) or so many other items that can offer more utility - let's compare, for instance, getting an Aghs to getting a Lotus Orb, which I see sometimes too, and the relevance for the team of getting Lotus can be way bigger than that of getting Aghs.

IMO the hero doesn't need neither buffs nor nerfs, he is in a good shape right now, without being too strong. Like Sando said its skill cap is very high, so naturally pubs aren't capable of using the hero to its full potential, but there is not much that you can do to change that (a bit like the Io syndrome).

Finally... JERAX BEST ES! <3

Hes in my idle list.
A lot of nerfs need to happen for this particular hero going viable. By nerfs, i meant to say nerfing a lot of other heroes.

We need to see coordination if it ever comes for seeing IMBA Earth spirit gameplays.

I hate the word IMBA.

You should either go 1-1-3 or 2-1-2. Dont max the stun first, or where will the damage come from?

Well both the stun and the silence deal equal damage. So maxing one over the other is a matter of preference imo.



That he is. He was the one who inspired me to play ES to be completely honest.

He got rather trucked with all the nerfs recently, there's just better things to play at the moment. If he should be played, he should be a roaming #4 or #3 offlane.


You should most likely get a Blink Dagger to get the most out of him and his skills. It would help with better positioning for his stun, silence, slow and ultimate. It also helps with positioning to position his remnants more efficiently.


Best combo, although I never see this happening, is Batrider and Earth Spirit. Geomagnetic Grip can pull the Batrider who lassos someone, since the pull speed has been nerfed, the lasso shouldn't break. Bonus points for Batrider having an Aghanim's Scepter.


Yes, a lot of saves actually. A really good hero against the likes of Pudge or Clockwerk.