All Flesh Is Sand

He is a Support, because he has no "Carrying" Skills, and Burrowstrike is most definitely a Support Skill. His Skills alone won't get him very far Late Game, and they certainly don't improve his Auto-Attack like Alchemist's Chemical Rage, Anti-Mage's Feedback, etc. You can play him as a Semi-Carry, similar to how Nyx Assassin or Rubick can be played as Semi-Carries, but there are plenty of Heroes who make rely much more on Farming, or make better use of Farm.

He also requires very few Items to be a major threat in the Early Game, a well played Epicentre + Burrowstrike can be all you need to win a Teamfight, a Blink Dagger helps land this combo a lot easier, but you can still pull it off without one.

Also, you mention that he is an Initiator and Disabler, this doesn't change whether he should be a Support or not (pay no attention to Valve's useless Tags, they're only there for Bot AIs). A Support is a Hero that doesn't need much, if any, Farm to be effective, and isn't much more effective given Farm. Sand King does benefit from a few Items, such as Blink Dagger, Arcane Boots, etc., but he can still own without them, making him an ideal Farmed Support (Position 4)

Again, while Boots of Speed help him to land Burrowstrike early on, they're not needed to land it, whereas an Animal Courier, Observer Wards, Tangoes, Clarity, etc. can be vital to you and your Team right from the start of the game.

Are you unable to land Burrowstrike because your opponent keeps running away from you whenever you get near? Congratulations, you're doing an excellent job as a Support, by scaring the Offlaners away from your Carry and his/her Farm (Zoning them out).

The difference between Semi-Support and Hard Support comes down to the Hard Support trying to buy as many Observer Wards, Sentry Wards, etc. so that the Semi-Support can Farm a few Items with their Gold, but you're still expected to buy Wards, Couriers etc. when the Hard Support cannot afford them, or is close to finishing an Item for themselves. It only applies when there's another Support player though.

First, why do you say Sand King is a support? He has no support skills and is tagged as initiator, roamer, disabler, semi-carry. Do you mean support as in not a hard carry? Or as in an actual support role Hero? Cause I would have to disagree and say that he is best as an initiator and disabler and really is not well suited to playing as a full support.

And second (and tied to the first) if not a support, then why not boots? Just saying that everyone knows this does not help me understand, is there a good reason why a disabler/semi-carry should not get boots right off, or is that just the current accepted wisdom?

So by semi-support you just mean buying courier? Does he do anything else supportish or does this role just fall to him since many high level games tend to be short on true supports to do this?

Nobody gonna mention Veil of Discord? I love that item on SK - more mana, armour and health regen...and the active combined with Epicenter is naughty :). Also a fair bit cheaper than Aghanim's Scepter.

SK is a semi-support usually - i.e. he'll usually buy an Animal Courier but not ward. Max Burrowstrike by 7 as it's simply an awesome skill - probably the best level 1 stun in the game (2.17 seconds, 100 damage, multi-target potential) - great way of getting first blood.

He doesn't normally do too much in lane, as a support you won't be farming, so Caustic Finale is redundant unless you're looking to push hard. Later you can use it to flash farm your items quickly.

He can work as a very situational mid (you need the right opponent) using Caustic Finale but it's not common. He can also work as the main offlane farmer with a support, but this formation is unusual in higher level games.

Love his combination with Warlock. They can do sick damage in lane with the combination of Burrowstrike, Caustic Finale and Fatal Bonds. Also a great midgame combo with their ults and Fatal Bonds.

I'll try to explain my suggestions a bit more in-depth:


1. Not buying boots with your starting gold is one of the first things you learn on Dota: you should buy at least an Animal Courier or a pair of Observer Wards (or both, as most people do) since SK is a support, and then spend the rest of your gold in consumables or branches. And also, if you have troubles harassing you can still do creep pulls.

2. There are very little Heroes on which you don't have to max out their main skill at level 7, and also getting one point in Sand Storm is enough if you're doing well (heck, you don't want to be standstorming for the whole teamfight, you should mostly use it to dodge stuns) or, otherwise, skipping Caustic Finale entirely ensures a lower cooldown and mana cost on Sand Storm so that you can use it more often with less risks of getting killed when you're behind in levels.

3. Nevermind about that, even though I would prefer an extra mobility item ( Force Staff) or an object that would prevent the enemy carry from killing me ( Ghost Scepter) instead of an Agh's most of the time. I would only buy it if I'm doing well, since most of the time you won't be able to complete it in a match with decent players.

4. I read your explanation about the Radiance but it still doesn't convince me; it looks like you rely on your Sand Storm too much and don't even think about the fact that your enenmies might have some Dust of Appearance (SK is very easy to kill when invisible). Also, a Scythe of Vyse/ Shiva's Guard is always better than a Radiance on Sand King in almost every situation.

5. You don't really need damage on SK if you play him the proper way (i.e. as a support), just get a Blink Dagger and shift-queue your Blink after the Epicenter. Burrowstrike is a good stun indeed, but being able to disable a carry for 3.5 seconds(!) is invaluable; most of the time, if the enemy has a BKB, you won't be able to get close enough to Burrowstrike him anyway (unless blinking), while the Scythe has a bigger range. The stats it gives are also pretty helpful.


These suggestion kind of work for every other support too; learning how to play well one of them is basically learning how to play the others.

i think you should add bkb

Never start with Boots. Also, the skillbuild is pretty random and you don't consider any other mid-game item besides the Blink Dagger (there are many good items including Force Staff, Ghost Scepter and maybe Mekansm); you should definitely remove the Radiance too, since it's pretty terrible if you get it after ~25 minutes and don't use it to farm. You could also add a Scythe of Vyse between the late game items, as the hex is so good and you don't really need damage.

its an ok guide but why not implement a Magic Wand in the starting items since its so vital early going into mid game... i would generally start [tango, mana pot and 3 branches]