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Tango
Stout Shield
Bottle
Boots of Speed
Bracer
Void Stone
Drum of Endurance
Force Staff
Eul's Scepter of Divinity
Heart of Tarrasque
Blade Mail
Boots of Travel
Arcane Boots
Black King Bar
Scythe of Vyse
Shiva's Guard
Pipe of Insight
Vanguard
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2 | 4 | 5 | 7 |  |
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3 | 8 | 13 | 14 |  |
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1 | 9 | 10 | 12 |  |
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6 | 11 | 16 |  |
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15 | 17 | 18 |
Earth spirit is a semi tanky team fight hero who excels in forcing people out of position. Since he came out I've been playing him trying to figure out a build that will best suit his skills, and I came up with this build through some trial and a lot of error. In this guide I will explain my item choices, skill build, and some combos you can use to make your opponents lives a nightmare.
WARNING
This build is designed to make you a fearsome ganker/team fighter between the 10-25 minute marks. Because of this most of the items are relatively inexpensive and will make you very strong through the mid game but in the late game you'll peak off, however hopefully because of all the ganking you've been doing your carry will be unstoppable by that point and your team can just end the game.
Boulder Smash Q
Earth Spirit smashes the target enemy, ally, or Stone Remnant, knocking it back in the direction he is facing. The knocked back target deals damage to all units it hits. If the target was a Stone Remnant, damaged targets are also silenced, and the travel distance is improved.
Range: 150
Radius: 225
Slam Distance: 800 (2000 when using a Stone Remnant)
Slam Speed: 1200
Damage: 100/150/200/250
Silence Duration: 5 seconds (Only when using a Stone Remnant)
CD: 22/18/14/10 Mana: 100
Notes- Main damage source early, can use to push enemy into your team/tower range, push a team mate in for initiation, or out of harms way. Max first.
Rolling Boulder W
After a 0.6s delay, Earth Spirit becomes a boulder, rolling in the direction he is facing and damaging enemy units, stopping if he collides with an enemy hero or is stunned. If the boulder rolls over a Stone Remnant, the Stone Remnant is consumed and travel distance and speed are improved, and impacted enemies have their movement and attack speed slowed.
Range: 800 (1600 when using a Stone Remnant)
Radius: 150
Damage: 90 (135 when using a Stone Remnant)
Movement and Attack Speed Slow: 80% for 2 seconds (Only when using a Stone Remnant)
CD: 16/12/8/4 Mana: 50
Notes- main gap closer and escape. Take 2 points early to lower the cool down then max last.
Geomagnetic Grip E
Earth Spirit pulls the target allied unit or Stone Remnant to his location. Enemies struck by the flying target will be stunned, and take damage if the flying target is a Stone Remnant.
Range: 1400
Radius: 180
Pull Speed: 1000
Stun Duration: 1/1.5/2/2.5
Stone Remnant Damage: 125
CD: 13 Mana: 75
Notes: Utility mechanism use to stun prior to initiation or fleeing enemies. Max second.
Stone Remnant D
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.
Max Charges: 6
Charge Restore Time: 25
Duration: 120
Range: 1400
CD: 0 Mana: 0
Notes- Enhances all other skills use sparingly and avoid fights if possible when stone count is low. Innate from lvl 1.
Magnetize
Magnetizes units in a small nearby area, causing them to take damage over time for a short duration. Any magnetized heroes cause nearby Stone Remnants to become energized and explode, applying/refreshing the magnetize debuff on all units near the Stone Remnant. This process can repeat multiple times. Stone Remnants are destroyed in this process. If an enemy hero is affected by silence or slows as a result of Rolling Boulder or Boulder Smash, all magnetized heroes share the effects.
Cast Radius: 300
Search Radius: 300
Explosion Radius: 600
Duration: 6
Damage per Second: 50/75/100
CD: 80 Mana: 100
Notes- Fairly low cool down and moderate damage ult attempt to hit 2 or more enemies with initial instance and try to time out 5s before dropping stones. Stone explosion does not stack damage instances only refreshes the time counter. Take whenever possible.
Starting
A set of tango's and a stout shield should be enough to keep you healthy until you get your bottle.
Early game
After getting your bottle work towards boots and a bracer for survivability and pick up a void stone for some regen and to use on your eul's scepter later.
Core
Grab your drum first for all the nice stats it gives then follow it up with a force staff it's the most useful item in the game IMO(once you have force staff you should be constantly ganking). Finish your eul's for the regen and the get out of jail free active plus you'll be fast as hell (I'll explain how to use them with your skills in the combos section).
Late game
Build in any order you wish. Heart gives nice damage, hp, and regen it's a great pick up for any strength hero and insures you won't be nuked down. Blade mail combos nicely with heart allowing you to dish out more damage, it's a great pick up since you will be in the middle of the action. You've probably been wondering why I don't upgrade my boots earlier right? Well I honestly don't feel a need to (brown boots + eul's + drum = 417 ms) and it will slow down your other more important items so I tend to skip them until later, and in doing that the only boots that make sense to buy are boots of travel.
Items of notable mention
Vanguard is very nice if you find yourself diving a lot or in need of sustain, if you decide to buy one though skip getting the drum. Bkb you can never go wrong with a bkb the magic immunity active is invaluable for an initiator like yourself. Pipe is a solid item if you don't have any other heroes who want to build it just make sure to complement it with a hp item. Sheep stick is great if you pick up a bkb as you can't eul's yourself while magic immune or if you prefer to have a harder disable. Shiva's guard can be pretty good as you can potentially slow an entire team during your initiation. Arcane boots if you have mana issues feel free to pick these up.
First blood attempt
Gain creep equilibrium in your favor with friendly creeps on high ground ramp and enemy creeps on low ground, place stone in front of self on high ground, start roll out of enemy vision, roll over stone into enemy, kick enemy into tower, place stone behind enemy and use grip to stun enemy under tower, proceed to right click and body block enemy.
Basic combo 1v1
Place stone behind enemy, pull stone to self, roll over stone into enemy, use ulti, place stone between you and enemy, kick stone into enemy, or kick enemy into tower friendly tower if possible, repeat as needed.
Basic combo team fight
Place stone behind enemy, pull stone to self, roll over stone into enemy, use ulti, kick enemy into friendly team.
Intermediate combo team fight
Place stone in front of self, kick stone into enemy team, place stone behind enemy, pull stone to self, roll over stone into enemy, use ulti, force staff enemy into friendly team.
Advanced combo team fight
Place stone in front of self, kick stone into enemy team, place stone behind enemy team, pull stone to self roll over stone into enemy, use ulti, force staff enemy into friendly team, eul's self, land and drop stones on enemies
These were some just some of the combos you can use you can also do stuff like kick then force staff an earthshaker into your opponents, force staff an enemy towards you eul's them get behind them then kick them to your allies when they land, have a tide/Magnus/earthshaker blink ult on you while your eul'sd because enemies will tend to swarm you looking for an easy kill, or pulling a channelling ally back then kicking them to a safe location
Drow, Sniper, and Viper
Occasionally you'll find yourself verses one of these heroes which can be difficult for a melee hero to deal with because they can just kite you with their orb/head shot and that can get very frustrating. I've found a good solution to this problem is after you get a bottle do a couple grip, roll, smash combos on them you don't have to kill them you just need to let them know they can't be aggressive to you for free. After that you can pretty much just bully them out of lane by every once in doing just a grip roll when you killing them is unlikely and a full combo when you can secure a kill.
Puck
Puck is a squirrelly hero who has quite a few options against you the best option you have is making him use illusory orb defensively and baiting out phase shift. To bate out phase shift get used to shift queuing dropping a stone, pulling it to you, and rolling, by doing this he will have to phase shift as soon as the stone drops or risk a full combo from you. Eventually you should start mixing it up by also dropping a stone waiting till phase shift ends then pulling it and just dropping a stone and leaving it there. By doing this you will force him to save his orb for escaping rather than nuking/initiating, also because if he uses it offensively it will let you know he has friends close by so you need to back off.
Queen of Pain
Pretty much do the same thing as you would do to bait out a puck phase shift for her blink.
Magnus
Magnus is tricky because if you are not quick enough he will skewer you into his tower instead of you kicking him to yours I recommend shift queuing your combo just proceed with caution.
Storm Spirit
Harass like you would do to a drow before storm hits six afterwards about the only thing you can do is set a box of stones around you ( 500aoe with you at the center), pull the one with the highest chance of hitting him when he enters you safety net, if it hits him on landing either try to go aggressive if he's low on mana or kick him away and roll to safety. The idea is to have the stone you pulled hit him as he lands ruining his initiation, this is easier said than done but it may help you survive long enough to escape and farm up a bkb.
Templar Assassin
Refraction sucks to deal with best option try the first blood combo on her. Other options ask for a gank preferably from a hero with a dot or attempt to burn the charges with auto attacks. She is probably the worst lane opponent you can face.
Ember spirit
This guy is just about as bad as TA when his fire shield is up luckily though if you can get him under your tower his shield only blocks magic damage so the tower can work him down without any issues.
Pudge
Don't get hooked and be wary when dismember is off cool down as he might try to use it when you roll in for a kick. To avoid this combo him pre lvl 6, after 6 try to catch him coming from ganks as it's less likely to be available.
Tiny
Bait out a toss or avalanche then he's food. Tiny has a terrible mana pool so force him to spend some on you early and he will be helpless by lvl 3.
The idea with this guide is to help you snowball earlier and delay your opponents key items by picking up relatively cheep items that give you a good mix of sustain and utility. Since you are taking the middle lane you need to be high impact as quickly as possible to create space for your team especially since earth spirit will peak off in the late game you need to cause as much mayhem as possible while you can. If you have any questions, comments, or complaints please leave them below and I will do my best to address them.
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