Sand king - midgame carry

Until level 6 - Build 1

When up against 2 ranged heroes in the lane, i recommend taking burrowstrike as the 1st skill.
When up against someone with low range, go with this guide.
Try hitting as many creeps as possible with the caustic finale, and get some final hits while the enemy has to stay back because of the damage.
When the enemy is half hp(about) try setting up 3 creeps with caustic in them, and when one is low, use the burrow on the hero while hitting the creeps and setting up a deadly trap.

[*] Try to use the caustic to keep the enemy away.
[*] Try not to waste your mana, its important.
[*] Always look at your health, dont be greedy!

level 6 until blink dagger Build 1

By this point, you should be close to getting the dagger,so be carefull.
You can now get some kills using the ult, but if you do it, you dont have enough mana to escape easly, so choose your fights carefully.
If you see someone you want to kill, use burrow to get behind them, and then activate ult.

[*] Note that you should still be on the lane now.

Until level 3 - build 2

When i jungle as sandking, im ussually both lane and jungle. So if im radiant ill be bot, and im im dire ill be top. Until level 3(Sandstorm level 2) you want to be in lane, but also stack the closest hard camp.
How do u stack? its easy.
The way stacking works, is like this:

• Every minute starting from 00:30 the camps that the monsters are dead, will refill. so 00:30 will be the first, then 01:00, 02:00 etc.
• When stacking, we want to simulate the monsters being dead, so the camps will refill
• What we want to do, is drag the monsters far enough so they cannot see the camp.
• The first and second time is easy, at XX:53, attack one of the monsters and run away from the camp. they will follow you and at XX:00 will go back and they are stacked.
• After some stacks, you will need to do the same, but give more time, so XX:52, XX:51 etc.

you want be in lane and get the xp, but get to the camp you are stacking at about XX:50, giving you enough time to stack it. I recommend practicing the timing and the stacking in single player.
When you get level 3, go to the camp you stacked with lots of monsters, activate sandstorm, and wait for all the creeps to die.

level 3 until blink dagger - build 2

Now you want to start using sandstorm on the camps, and everytime u can, stack a camp.
*Try getting your allied teammate on the lane to set up a trap with u and get a kill for some extra money.*
By minute 7-10, if you did this correctly, you should have a blink dagger, and its time to start ganking. From here it is the same as build 1.

After you got the blink dagger.

Once you have gotten the blink dagger, you should go for kills quickly. Keep in mind that once people know what you are doing, they will start buying items against you.

You should now be all over the place, the jungle is your friend, hiding you before you gank and hiding you from the enemy after the gank.

*If your using build 1* I recommend always walking around with a smoke, so before your sandstorm is a hight enough level, you have some good means of escape.

Right now, your main consern is getting enough money for the force staff and veil of discord, the mana is important.

After the veil

At this point i would think about getting one of the following for some extra damage:

• Radiance
• Shivas gaurd

And one of the following for some extra mana/less cooldown:

• Refresher Orb
• Octarine Core

What items you get really depends on the situation you are in:
If you aren't doing enough damage to secure the kill, i would go for the Radiance. But if you are doing enough damage, but people are doing too much damage to you, i would recommend getting Shivas gaurd. If you are in a bad mana situation, and need less cooldown, i would start with one of the cooldown items, then going for the damage items.
I recommend trying to go for the octarine after getting shivas gaurd. One of the best things the octarine has to offer is magical attacks lifesteal, making all your skills give you hp, and making you much more durable.

Midgame until the end

In this point, you should probably have some kills, and some good items. But you will notice that people start killing you much more easly, and your epicenter loses a lot of its efficiency.
I recommend that you now start walking with a friend, and act as a semi-support. you will start getting a lot of assists.
At this point, you should never be alone.

Good skill/item combinations.

A lot of sandkings skills go well with each other, and with other items. Here are some i like to use:

Epicenter + Blink Dagger, This is the most known combination in sandking, there to "get rid" of the channeling in the ult, hide in the jungle, where you are close enough to blink to the enemy, make sure hes fighting some creeps, so he doesnt run away for no reason before u blink. Start channeling the ult, then hold shift, and blink to where u want.

Burrowstrike + Epicenter, try to burrowstrike behind the enemy, and then ult. if you burrowstrike behind, he most likely cant stop your channeling in time.

Burrowstrike + Sandstorm, this is a great skill combination, i recommend trying to use the burrow and get behind them(to where they would escape) because that way if it will take them more time to escape, if you can, block the escape completly, making you sandstorm do much more damage.

Sandstorm + Blink Dagger, this is one of my favorite combinations, i just blink in and instantly use sandstorm, the enemy ussually doesnt know whats happening. This is very good to use after people escape from the burrow+sand.

Epicenter + burrowstrike, basically, after you use the ult, and blinked to the enemy, when they start running away burrowstrike into them. i recommend when the ult finishes to use the sand+blink or the shivas gaurd if you have it.

Always romember to use the veil after blinking with the ult.

*Keep in mind*

This is a tip so you know when to start playing support, but should help you in any situation, with any class.
Always look at the enemy's inventory when possible!
If you do that, you will know who has magiv resistance against you, and who doesnt. Thats important.