How to survive the initiation?

I've been thinking of creating this thread for a while, and finally found the courage. Hope it's the right section :P

So, I'm a still inexperienced dota player that has been "specializing" in playing supports, but lately i've found an interest for heroes that have a strong initiation role, too. I love jumping in the middle of the enemy and wreaking havoc, haha.
Now the proplem is that I rarely survive the initiation, my hero too often dies. I know that if with the initiation the rest of my team can wipe out or at least kill 2-3 enemies it's a nice sacrifice, but that doesn't always happen and i still feed the enemy heroes somehow. So I need help for strategies or item that will help me survive.

Let's take my favourite hero, Sand King. My usual combo is: Epicenter, Blink in the middle of the enemy team, Burrowstrike, and then hide in the Sandstorm hoping to survive. But I've learned the hard way that there are sooo many skills that can kill me while i'm hiding in the sandstorm... i've been sunstriked, hooked, burned and stunned to death so many times (and i hate that i get called by Axe even if i'm invisible). I've read guides about Sand King that suggests buying Assault Cuirlass or Shiva, but after having to buy blink, arcane and veil of discord i rarely have the money for those items since i'm usually a support for my team too.

I'm also practicing Tidehunter and Magnus as initiators, but i've found them to survive more easily, my problem currently is more with Sand King. Any suggestions?

If you are getting the farm for it get BKB.
If you want to get out fast get a force staff.
You can also use the extra invis time from sandstorm to escape.
If they have a lot of physical damage get ghost scepter or shiva's if you have a lot of gold.

You can use sandstorm as a type of dodge, go in use sandstorm and move away, the extra reveal time usually means u can get away.

Sand King's more of a follow-up or counter-initiation that benefits massively from a "real" initiator like Mag, Tide, DS, Puck, Enigma etc. These heroes have instant disables that aren't going to get wasted because the enemy decided to back right then, and they give you a much easier blink-burrow combo.

As the main initiator (which really isn't SK's ideal role), you'll rarely survive. I'd definitely prioritize a BKB over Veil in these situations. I usually cast the Veil before channeling when I have ally initiation, but this isn't plausible as the main initiator and IMO it's not worth it if you're not amping your whole combo.

Just to reidorate, Sand King is the master of counter initiation. Playing it right you can absolutely punish bad initiations, or bad positioning in general. Magnus is your best friend, Reverse Polarity will bunch them up, making it rather easy to clean up with Epicenter+blink+ burrow strike

Good comments, I'd agree with most of them. As Sand King it's not the end of the world if you don't make it out alive, provided you landed a good ult/ Burrowstrike combo, you've done your damage and your job. The after-invisibility from Sand Storm is usually your key for getting out, just do it for a second and then move and they won't be able to see you for 1.5 seconds.

People at lower levels tend to focus initiators hard AFTER they've landed their ult - but this is something of a waste as they're not really a threat anymore, it tends to be more about revenge. You should try to focus them BEFORE they ult and prevent them getting it off. You'll find at higher levels people won't tend to group against big ults, you'll have to wait until the engagement anyway - even with good initiators like Magnus.

I remember my first game as Magnus. Every time I got a good Reverse Polarity, they would all die yet every time they killed :-(
After you get your Blink Dagger, most of these heroes don't need anything else, and if they're focusing you your carry is getting free time to kill stuff.
If they focus you after you've used your skills just take it as a compliment of how annoying you are :-)

Thank you guys, these were interesting comments!
You know, I never actually thought Sand King as better at counter-initiating, than the initiation itself. I used to think that if I went Sand King, having in the team other initiators like Magnus was a waste, but you're right, if Reverse Polarity stuns and brings all the enemies together, with my epicenter I can do a massacre :D

About the items, I try to buy BKB only if the enemy has a lot of disables that can stop my channeling epicenter, but I find Veil of Discord to really be a core item for Sand King, not only for the ability (although in the heat of the team-fights I often forget to use it, I need to work on that), but also for the stats and the health regeneration.

Thanks to your comments and thinking about it, I realized how I could do better: when blinking with Epicenter, I Burrowstrike and don't hide immediately in the Sand Storm like I usually do, but I should wait for the stun to end, hide in the sandstorm only afterwards and then after a second running away using the extra invisibility time. This way I won't run away to soon while my epicenter is still active and don't waste any pulse, and maybe I could survive.

Stacking team fight powers can be fun and deadly - this may help you:

Team Fight Powers Guide