Guide to ruling the pubs with Sand King

Thanks! I've been watching a few competitive games lately and I've noticed that a lot of the pros do indeed opt to jungle using sandstorm. I think this would work if you manage to stack camps, and you keep an eye on the map at all times so that you're not "AFK jungling" when your team needs you. And if you're conserving mana, a fast blink might be much better than arcanes, especially if your team already has someone carrying arcanes.

Basically, what he said. Otherwise, stupendous guide.

Thanks for the input :)

I didn't go into jungling much (other than pulling creeps and farming those), because I feel that in most pub games it's better if you're present in lanes to help out. I think going for a fast blink is actually a really good idea if you expect fights to break out early AND if the enemy has an easy way to cancel your ultimate. I'll add that into the guide when I get time. If the enemy lacks stuns/interruption spells, or you have another initiation method on your team (like Ravage)then you don't actually need a blink that urgently (see the first gif in my guide - I didn't need blink because I had the Reverse Polarity to buy me time). It makes more sense to get arcanes first so you can spam your skills with more freedom.

My issue with sand king jungling is that using Sand Storm to jungle isn't extremely fast, although you can sustain it for long by not taking damage. Essentially, you're playing a 4v5 game if you sit in jungle. Roaming around and getting kills at the 10 minute mark will be far more beneficial to your team than trying to get that last 500 gold for your blink. Also, arcanes can be a huge benefit to your lane partner, as he can also use his spells more liberally.

I'm disappointed that you don't even mention semi-jungling with Sand King. He is one of the best heroes to get the Blink Dagger early by stacking the jungle camps and farming it with Sand Storm once you have got enough exp from pulling and have your second point in Sand Storm. Your number one priority should be getting blink as soon as possible since your whole skillset requires you to get close to the enemy, and without one you're pretty much useless.

So my itembuild is Boots of Speed into Magic Stick into Blink Dagger into Arcane Boots. Blink before arcanes because you won't be getting your combo off without blink and arcanes slow your blink too much. Avoid buying wards if you have another support who is capable of buying them. If the other support isn't able to buy them then of course buy them.

I also think your skillbuild is not ideal because it doesn't allow you to semi-jungle. My build to level 4 is Burrowstrike> Sand Storm> Sand Storm> Burrowstrike. After this consider how close you are to your blink. If you are far away from your blink level up Sand Storm as it speeds up your farm in jungle. If you are close to your blink level up Burrowstrike.

I think Sand King's ability to farm a quick blink is his biggest strenght so I think you should mention jungling with him in your guide.

Thanks! I plan to add a section on warding as well sometime soon, so watch out for an update in the next week or so :)

This is great! Love the videos, very helpful.

Colorful, detailed and good!