Earthshaker: The Initiator

Nice guide i preffer blink over force staff but i get the reason ur getting force blink is just my personal opinion. I liked the guide tho and i made an acc only to upvote it ;)

Great guide, after seeing the negative comments, i thought i would make a dotafire account to vote this up.

I like your explanation for force staff, il give it a go, see how it works for me.

I would generally put a point into enchant a bit sooner. its only 50 mana. and even a .9 second stun is usefull, espeially if you are helping with a gank.

Thanks for the reasoning on shadow blade, that makes sense. I still think it's a viable option if you have no one else on your team who regularly uses invisibility though. That said, it's more for public games where your team isn't playing in a group like they should.

I certainly didn't suggest getting a shadow blade to replace the blink dagger or force staff. At best it's a supplement. I maintain that force staff is more than a viable alternative to blink. Better stats, more versatile, and easier to build.

Veil of Discord is a near perfect item after your core is finished. What would you replace it with? Veil gives survivability, mana, and a healthy boost to team magic damage. Again, it's an easy one to build and put together. I did make it very clear in the guide that the last few items are complete luxury items and things like sentry wards should be your priority.

This guide is for a selfless Earthshaker who is giving up last hits to the team's carry. The item build reflects the low income of this playstyle, while still allowing Earthshaker to use every ability to it's fullest.

1. If you have trouble getting ganked a lot, then you probably are just out of possiton a lot. If you have wards in good places, ganks shouldnt happen to often.
2. It is constructive criticism. If it wasnt, I would have just have said this guide has sucked, and given no reason. If you cant handle criticism, dont make guides, that simple.
3. Competitive Earthshakers never get shadowblade, but they always get blink. You're job is to initiate, not run away. Blink is always the best choice.
4. Veil first? Sorry, but your guide has a low rating for a reason, do more research.

Funny, because I've played this build 15 times in the last four days and it hasn't failed me. I've lost games, but normally because of my own dumb mistakes.

I do want to know the justification behind your opinions. Shadow blade is only chosen by me when I'm on the defensive constantly and getting targeted by enemy ganks. Most of the time I go Veil of Discord first, after arcane boots and force staff. Before I even buy that though, I'll clear out the shop of all sentry wards. Blink dagger doesn't help you when you're getting ganked, I don't know why anyone thinks of it as a true escape tool. You get hit once and it becomes useless until you can go a few seconds without getting hit. I will say though that Shadow Blade is avoided by me every time my team has heroes that can go invis, chances are too great the other team will have invis counters.

Enchant totem is useless without aftershock. If aftershock is leveled up properly first, then one level of enchant totem is all that is needed to stun for 1.5 seconds. Without aftershock you've just got a 50% boost to one hit of damage, and you don't do enough damage anyway for that 50% to matter. Now if you're trying for a "Carry Earthshake" then you may want that enchant totem to help last hit creep. This guide is for an initiator/support Earthshaker, which is what he's best at anyway. If you're last hitting creep when your carry could be the one getting the last hits, you're not playing a support hero.

As for "do more research", that's insulting and uncalled for. You've managed to write a comment on my guide to Earthshaker that provides no constructive criticism, is incredibly condescending, lacks no justification, and incredibly misinformed. I don't want to start a flame-war here. I would love to hear feedback on this guide that can help improve it. I've got some things wrong in this guide, I want to know what they are so I can learn from it.

Ok first of, an Earthshaker rarely ever farms in lane. Second, shadow blade is completely useless on him, especially if you already have a blink. Also enchant totem should be gotten before aftershock. Do more research before you make a guide.

After blinking/force staffing into your combo a Shadow Blade will allow you to escape or move to a spot where your upcoming fissure with be more effective. It can also be used to initiate and combo while reserving the force staff for escapes (wouldn't recommend blink to escape). Like I said though, it's a public match or unskilled gamers that will attack you after your combo. As long as your team is in the battle quickly after initiation, a smart enemy team won't worry about a spent Earthshaker.

Shiva's Guard runs 4700 gold vs Veil of Discord which runs 2600. Shiva's does give you copious amounts of mana, but not a good amount of mana regen. The armor would be nice, except you're not going to be tanking hits in a team fight for the reasons I stated above. If you do get killed after your ult, that just means that the kills your carry gets will give him that much more xp. The HP regen will help keep you out of your base which means more gold and more xp. Lastly, a 25% boost in spell damage means you'll churn out about another 225 damage to everyone closest to you, plus whatever your team does.

I'm thinking now though that a Black King Bar may be a great luxury item, especially for the larger team fights when you can't catch all of the enemy team in your stuns. You don't want your combo stopped halfway by a silence or a counter-stun from the enemy babysitter.

Escape/Initiation, it's in the guide title.

I don't see the point of Shadow Blade, also the Shiva's Guard is a good item for him, mana, aoe damage and armor.