Told you a storm was coming! - Guide to Storm Spirit

I am Storm Spirit! - Lore

Storm Spirit is literally a force of nature--the wild power of wind and weather, bottled in human form. And a boisterous, jovial, irrepressible form it is! As jolly as a favorite uncle, he injects every scene with crackling energy. But it was not always thus, and there was tragedy in his creation. Generations ago, in the plains beyond the Wailing Mountains, a good people lay starving in drought and famine. A simple elementalist, Thunderkeg by name, used a forbidden spell to summon the spirit of the storm, asking for rain. Enraged at this mortals presumption, the Storm Celestial known as Raijin lay waste to the land, scouring it bare with winds and flood. Thunderkeg was no match for the Celestial--at least until he cast a suicidal spell that forged their fates into one: he captured the Celestial in the cage of his own body. Trapped together, Thunderkeg's boundless good humor fused with Raijin's crazed energy, creating the jovial Raijin Thunderkeg, a Celestial who walks the world in physical form.

Feel the wind in your hair!. - A little introduction

Hello and welcome to my second guide: Told you a storm was coming! - Guide to - Storm Spirit by Balder.
The purpose of this guide is to improve your skills with Raijin.
Storm Spirit is a extremely fun hero to play, but to do it, you need some skill, some training, a lot of common sense and a deeply understanding of what He is capable of ... and what He's not of course.

Also, feel free to check my Night Stalker guide
  
  
Because storm spirit its a flashy-speed-crazy character you need that kind of music to play him. What about this one? I think all DotA 1 players knows it.

 

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• Storm Spirit is an Int - Item Dependant Carry hero, who focuses on Ganking and disabling dangerous-out-of-reach enemy heroes.
  A lot of people thinks that Int heroes are always supports. THIS IS NOT TRUE. (Here is another example: Puck)

• Your Ball Lightning (ultimate) It's percent based on Your total mana pool, so incrementing it is a mistake.

• Despite what many people thinks, DotA is a Strategy game, where your enemies are human beings, with brains, which implies: disappointment, fear, delusion and other feelings affect the way they play, the decisions they make, etc.
  The best example of this is Pudge. When the other team has a extremely good pudge, you are always scared of being hooked, in response to that fear, you start tower-huging, warding, buying escape mechanism items and so forth.
  On the other hand, when the other team has a horribly feeder Drow Ranger you start making fun of him, chasing him slow, rushing against him, because we know that he can't do anything.
  

• What you must do with Storm Spirit is make the other team think that you are impossible to kill!

• Always... and i mean Always build your hero according to the situation.
  This is a thing that most players don't understand. Don't follow a guide step by step. Ex: Shadow Blade is a really great item on Drow Ranger but don't buy it if your team has a Clinkz, a Riki and the other team has Bounty Hunter and a Slardar.
  I made this guide to help you improve your play, if you are disoriented, if you don't know where to start, or if you are simply new in DotA and you are not ready to make your own decisions about the game.
  

• To play Storm Spirit properly, you must improve your knowledge about:
  • The game: because you want to dominate it.
  • The map: because is the place where you fly.
  • Enemy reactions: because you need to anticipate enemy's movement.
  • Hero's capabilities: because you must never be locked to death.
  • Survivability: because dying too often with Raijin can ruin your game.
   
  I want to share with you, two guides which made me realize how little I knew about DotA back in the days where I was a total neophyte, because everyone once was a noob. I can't explain HOW MUCH I improved my game with these guides.
  
  I want to Deeply thanks DrGaliza and Lycan for their guides. Here they are, these will turn you into a better player:

   

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Pros and Cons.

Pros Amazing carry. Can travel trough the map fast and easy. One of the funniest heroes to play. He's one of the most annoying-troller heroes of the game. He's useful all game long (early-mid-late). In my opinion, he has the best hero's responses in the game. (ZIP - ZAP!)

Cons You must have a decent last hit. Very item dependant. You must have some advanced knowledge before playing it, such as ganking methods, juking skills and You must know your enemy spells, etc to play him properly. Also you need to have a great management of your mana, and know some things about the terrain. It's not a noob friendly hero.

Skills.

Static Remnant

Type: Targets:

Active Enemy Units

Creates an explosively charged image of Storm Spirit that lasts 12 seconds and will detonate and deal damage if an enemy unit comes near it.

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Notes:

• Damage type: magical
• Static Remnants take 1 second to materialize after this spell is cast.
• Remnants have flying vision and can see over cliffs and trees.
• The explosion actually hits units in a 260 radius, but will only be triggered by units within a 235 radius.

Uses:

This is your only nuke Skill. Use it for:

• Damage: the damage output is quiet respetable for almost every hero.

• Vision: As you can see in the notes, this gives you flying vision, you will find some screenshots later on of how you can use this advantage.

Electric Vortex

Type: Targets:

Active Enemy Unit

A vortex that pulls an enemy unit to Storm Spirit's location, it also slows the Storm Spirit by 50% for 3 seconds.

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Uses:

Electric Vortex leaves your enemy disabled for a couple of seconds.

• Disable: Use it to disable an enemy hero. Focus on disabling the dangerous hero, maybe the carry (ex: Drow Ranger), maybe the initiatior (ex: Earthshaker), or even maybe the healer/support (ex: Witch Doctor). You need to understand who is the worst trouble for the teamfight.

• Cancel TP/channeling spells: With this spell you can cancel a TP cast or cancel a channeling spell.

Overload

Type: Targets:

Pasive Enemy Unit

Casting a spell creates an electrical charge, which is released in a burst on his next attack, dealing damage and slowing nearby enemies.

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Notes:

• Damage type: magical
• Using items does not trigger Overload.

Uses:

Overload is your bread and butter skill. Using it properly you can permaslow an enemy hero, this is another ability of Storm Spirit that makes him annoying.

• Damage: The damage output that Overload gives is amazing. I'll explain how to use it later on.

 
Many people doesn't know exactly how this spell works. Here this is an image showing Storm Spirit without Overload charged on the left, and charged on the right.
 

Ball Lightning

Type: Targets:

Active Point

Storm Spirit becomes volatile electricity, charging across the battlefield until he depletes his mana or reaches his target. Damage, speed and area of effect are improved per level.

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Notes:

• Damage type: magical
• If the Storm Spirit runs out of mana while traveling he will stop immediately.
• Instant cast abilities can be used while traveling.
• While using this ability, the Storm Spirit is invulnerable.
• This ability destroys trees.

Important: Many people thinks that casting a lot of short Ball Lightnings is better than a long one. WRONG, a long travel with your ultimate is better than many short travels. Short travels cost you A LOT of mana, a long travel may seems more mana expensive but do the math and you will see it's not. Try travel from first tower to the second one in one travel and look at your mana, heal up, and do the same in 4 short travels, notice the difference. ALSO a long travel that lands near an enemy deals more damage than a short one.

Uses:

This is what makes Storm Spirit one of the most annoying heroes in the whole game. You can travel from here to there, back here and then up there and so forth. Keep in mind that you can cast Static Remnant while you are traveling. This, sometimes, is really useful.

• Gank: This skill is what makes you a perfect Ganker hero. You can fly to an unaware prey from any location of the map and destroy him. Pursue almost any hero, even that annoying ones with blink. Only few heroes can scape from your thunders.

• Escape: Got ganked or stuck in a hard situation? just fly back to fountain, or fly to an upper position, where nobody can reach you. Just escape from danger flying!.

Common Skill build & Alternative Skill build.

 
What build would you suggest?
Personally, I'll recommend you guys this skill build. BUT, I do, because suits better to my play style. Feel free to try the alternative build if you want.
 
What's the difference between this two?
The first big difference is the damage output. If you do the math, the alternative build deals more damage when you are doing a combo, think about the most basic combo:
Ball Lightning - Overload - Electric Vortex - Overload - Static Remnant - Overload. This means 1 full static remnant against 3 full overloads.
The second difference about the alternative build is leveling Electric Vortex to level 3, this gives you enough Pull distance, and cost less mana.
Resuming: Common build means more lane control and farm, Alternative build means more 1vs1 combat damage and harassment.

Considering what are you saying, the alternative build shouldn't be better?
There is no such thing as a "better build". The best build ever is the one who suits you more. I feel comfortable with the Common build because I play better once I have my Bloodstone and Static Remnant gives you more gold income, because you can sweep creep lines in seconds.
Also if you gank in a lane with 2 enemies (and this build focuses on ganking) I consider Static Remnant is better than Overload in terms of AoE damage, and you can "block" enemy scape paths, leaving a handsome devil there, so when they run BAM, they die, Overload requires focusing on 1 enemy, meanwhile Static Remnant ables you to kill both at the same time.

The calm before the storm... - Early game

 
Ok, I think there is no room for debate here, Storm Spirit must always go to mid lane. But, just in case...
 
 
Solo Middle lane: This is the best lane for you. Mid has all that you need. You can easily farm, because normally you will be facing only 1 enemy. With your Static Remnant and Overload farming is a piece of cake, I will explain this later on. Also you have the runes who spawn (I hope you already know this) every 2 minutes and not less important, you can achieve level 6 faster and mid is a great lane to leave alone while you gank, because usually one hero pushes slower than two (there are exceptions, like Leshrac, Death Prophet, etc).
This guide is pointed to this kind of gameplay. If you are not in mid, you will have to take all this guide only as a reference and modify your behavior according to the situation you're facing.
 
 
Dual Side Lane: This lane is just not good. Dual side lane means less XP, less gold and no runes, never forget this: you are a carry. Evade this option at all cost.
 
Solo Sidelane: You can do fine in a Solo sidelane depending on the heroes you are facing. For example, It's easy to fight against 2 melee heroes. Heavy nukers-Dual stunners can be a problem.

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Start with bottle option.
 

 
Why? Because Bottle gives you the health/mana regen you need to harass, you can refill it with runes, and the most important thing is that you don't need a stats bonuses to last hit due Static Remnant - Overload combo. Besides, If you are good at last hitting, Raijin has a good attack animation, and deals enough damage to do it properly.

WARNING: Only, and just ONLY start with bottle if someone of your team bought the Almighty Animal Courier. If not, then start with Animal Courier and nothing more, go to the middle lane and last hit 3 creeps and buy your Bottle, use the Courier to get it.

The almighty Courier.
 

 
Animal Courier is a MUST. Always ask for your teammates (in special the support ones) to buy one of these. (Read the previous "Start with bottle option." section)


ALWAYS carry a TP Scroll
 

 
I think this is out of debate. Every Medium/Intermediate/Advanced player knows that you MUST ALWAYS carry a Town Portal Scroll. If I have to name you every situation in which TP Scroll saved my life, this guide will last for ever. Not only that, TP Scroll saves towers, allies, gets enemy towers down, gives you free kills, and a lot more if you use it wisely.
 

Other Starting items Options:

• Tango for survivability.
• Healing Salve for survivability.
• Clarity for mana regen.
• Circlet for stat bonus.
• Iron Branch for stat bonus and also you can build Magic Wand.
• Magic Stick for survivability and also you can build Magic Wand.
• Mantle of Intelligence for stat bonus.

 
Playing Style:
  
Your main objective from now to level six is last hit as much as you can. If you can deny too, that's good, but don't make risky moves, don't put yourself in a place you don't want to be. Here are some tips to help you:

• Watch the ranged creep: this is the one who deals more damage, pay attention to his attack, you need to have a measurement of how much damage he deals, calculate yours and try to time your attack.

• When you see two or more creeps with very low hp, use Static Remnant. Remember that it has a little delay between the moment you cast it, and the moment it explodes, you need to calculate this too. Also, using this skill you will gain an Overload charge

• Use your Overload charge to last hit, it gives you a little more damage, which is great to kill creeps, also deals AoE damage.

• Try to land your Overload when the enemy hero is near, this is wiser because you use your charge for 2 purposes.

• Every time you see your enemy a little bit ahead of his creeps, cast Static Remnant to gain a charge of Overload and blast your enemy with it. Remember that Overload slows movement speed, so maybe you can land a second auto attack, this is really good for harassing.

• Once you reach level 3 you will get your first level of Electric Vortex, you can cast it on your enemy, move forward 1 or 2 steps, auto attack, cast Static Remnant and auto attack again. This deals a lot of damage.

• You can use your Static Remnant to gain vision over the high terrain. Take a look at this pictures:
   
  
  As you can see you can sneak peak Roshan without danger.
   
  
  You can use this to see if someone is passing by, or if you are getting chased to know if the keep following you.
    

• Remember to check for runes every 2 minutes. These are super important to charge your bottle also you have different uses for every type of rune, here they are:
  • Double Damage: Unless another line is really pushed, and you have one or two stunners on that lane, or your teammates need help really hard, don't waste your time ganking (before level 6). In other words, unless you know the gank will succeed, stay on your lane and use the rune for harassing purposes.
  • Haste: This is a good rune to gank, but as I said with DD, unless it's worth it, don't waste time, you need to reach level 6 fast. You can use your extra speed to run besides your enemy and leave him a Handsome devil ( Static Remnant) as a gift. Few things are more annoying than a Storm Spirit with haste.
  • Regen: Use if for survivability. A funny trick you can do (only in level 6) is cast short travel with Ball Lightning before your mana is totally filled, this way, the regen effect will not disappear and you can travel very long distances doing this.
  • Illusion: Many people thinks this rune sucks, personally, I really like it. With this you can either, leave 1 illusion on mid so they think you are still there, and go gank somewhere else, leave an illusion on rune spawning point, or take both illusion with you, so you can last hit/deny faster.

• Use 1 charge of your Bottle every time you're under half of your hp. Once It's empty, fill it with runes.

• If you gank a side lane, and you you can afford Boots of Speed, buy them. Else use the courier to get them. The same method applies to Gloves of Haste and Robe of the Magi.

Keep this process until you reach level 6.
 

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Phase Boots: You don't need them, extra speed is useless, once you have your Bloodstone you fly, don't run.
 
Power Treads: These are my favorites. If you are fast to change them from
Int to Str then these boots are for you, the Int helps you to deal more damage and the attack speed is great, because you want to do your Main combos (Explained Later) fast.
Leave them on Int to gank to deal more damage, if you are good enough, use Ball Lightning with Str to waste less mana, and then switch to Int for the damage boost.
 
Boots of Travel: You don't need this, again, you can fly, forget about traveling.
 
Arcane Boots: Here you will find some debate. Some people says that Arcane Boots are good, because you can disassemble them, get the Energy Booster back, and use it for Bloodstone. I don't agree, with Arcane Boots you are exchanging a little bit of mana regen for a high increment of mana consumption in your Ball Lightning and you gain no Stat bonus and no attack speed bonus. Trust me, tried it, they just simply don't work.
 
Tranquil Boots: I'd never tried them with Storm Spirit. I don't think these ones are going to work. You don't need the healing bonus because you already have Bottle.
 

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Storm clouds are gathering. - Early to mid game

This stage of the guide covers your play style from between level 6 and mid game.

Once you hit Level 6 you can start Ganking, you have to focus on killing enemy heroes. Use the runes as it's explained in the past chapter to do it.

This is how your thoughts should be arranged:

1. What time is it? - Always look at the timer before choosing your destination. Is the timer odd or even? like most of you know, runes spawn every 2 minutes. Use them to gank and also they will fill your Bottle
    
2. What heroes the other team have? - Start looking for Squishy heroes, no escape mechanism and no invisibility. Try to avoid lanes with heavy disablers - heavy nukers. Lanes with low hp heroes are the best, because you can disable them and kill them before they can even react. If you can't find any lane suitable for a gank, you can wait 1 or 2 minutes and keep farming on your lane, this is better than wasting time in an unsuccessfully gank, which can also end with one of your partners dead.
   Remember this: the same way you can fly away from a battle, you can fly amidst a horrible situation, getting locked to your death, you can avoid this thinking carefully.
    
3. I selected my destination, now what? - Look at his items, does he/she have a Town Portal Scroll? Does he/she have Stun? Invi? Slow?. If the answer to some of this questions is yes, then you have to think before you act.
    
4. Where are the other heroes? - Check the map for the other enemy heroes, if they aren't visible, maybe is not a good idea to attack, maybe they're hidden somewhere near the zone you are planning to attack. Wait. Don't show yourself.
   

Get set for heavy weather! - Mid Game.

Now it's on. If you thought Storm spirit is good on early game, you didn't saw what he can do on Mid game. This is when you really shine.
 

• Keep Ganking: this is your main goal, you can safe gank, because you can easly scape from almost every situation. Keep in mind this:
  • When you jump with Ball Lightning to gank, make sure you don't run out of mana, maybe after you jump, you get counter-ganked and you need some mana left to runaway.
  • Keep looking for runes. Fill your bottle, and don't sell it until you have Blood Stone.

• Jungling: Not recommended, it's easy to do with Static Remnant but it's not your main role, also i bet many other heroes on your team will need this farm more than you. Only a casual jungle is permitted to gain some time for example.

• Farm on lane: Again, if lanes aren't pushed too much you can stay in a lane, and keep farming, keep an eye on the map every time, and don't miss any gank chance. Your team needs you there to disable the healer, the nuker, the stunner or the carry, depending the situation.

 
 
Important: If you are following the Common build, keep in mind, as I wrote on the header, that you will be building Perseverance first, so you can decide what path do you prefer by that point. Choose between the first 2 options. Else if you are following the Orchid build, follow option 3.

1. Common build: Bloodstone - Linken's Sphere: 80% of the games, this is my common build. Getting Bloodstone early means a lot of things:
   • Charges: early you have it, more charges you can stack.
   • Mana regen: you can now gank a lane, cast your entire combo, and by the time you reached a second gank, your mana will be full again.
   • Exp/Gold: Remember 2 things, BloodPact gives you Exp even after you are dead (let's hope you aren't) and also, your respawning time decreases, this means more time farming/ganking and less time watching your celling or texting your gf, waiting until you are alive again.
      
     Linken's Sphere It's what makes you immortal and gives you the chance to flee away from any battle, also you have MORE mana regen (by this time you stop walking, just fly around) which is GREAT, gives you bonus stats, that means more health, more damage, etc. You'll simply love this item.
    
   
2. Defensive Build: Linken's Sphere - Bloodstone: This is what you do when the game is going bad. If you keep getting focused, the enemy team has a Doom Bringer or that kind of things, maybe you will need protection over mana regen, you don't need 35 mana regen per sec if you only last 2 secs in the battle. Once you are safe, you can start building your Bloodstone.
   Black King Bar is also a good option if the enemy team has a lot of disablers.
    
3. The Orchid rush / Super Disabler build: this build is wonderful, I don't really like it for personal preferences, BUT I have to admit that this build is exceptional against a heavy nuker/disabler team. Still, i suggest you to try the common build first.
   Here you go: Bottle - Boots of Speed - Sage's Mask - Sage's Mask - Quarterstaff - Quarterstaff - Orchid Malevolence - Power Treads - Void Stone - Scythe of Vyse.
   

Raijin Thunderkeg's Mighty Combos.

 

Ball lightning

Overload

Electric vortex

Overload

Static Remnant

Overload

Uses:

• Use it as your normal ganking method. Ball Lightning to jump over and surprise your enemy (yo-ho!) and gain an Overload charge, watch carefully where you jump, you need to land near your enemy to deal damage. Land the Overload charge on your enemy to slow him down, preventing him to escape. Then Electric Vortex to disable him, try to walk 1 or 2 steps towards him if you are too far to short your distance and then cast Static Remnant so it will explode and deal damage. After that another Overload to deal more damage.
• If your enemy isn't dead yet, cast another Ball Lightning over him (also use this to avoid stuns, or abilities like Lina's Dragon Slave or Lion's Earth Spike (for example), followed by Overload.
• You can always land some auto attacks too, but only if you know your enemy won't get away / Disable you. Don't waste a kill just for save some mana.

   

Overload

Static Remnant

Overload

Electric vortex

Overload

Static Remnant

Overload

Uses:

• Use it when you have some disabler teammates on the lane you are ganking, you don't need the surprise factor, you can save mana entering the battle by foot, instead of flying. Always initiate the fight with an Overload charge previously prepared. This "mana save" combo implies more damage because you can cast Overload 4 times instead of 3, and also you can cast 2 Handsome devils.
• As "What was that?!" combo, if your enemy isn't dead yet, cast Ball Lightning over him, followed by Overload to take him down.

 

Ball lightning

Silence

Overload

Static Remnant

Overload

Electric vortex

Overload

Static Remnant

Overload

Uses:

• This completely disables an enemy, also the Orchid gives you damage amplification. Anyway it's wiser to cast orchid on another enemy hero so you can disable 2 at once. Use this combo for 1vs1 situations.

That's the spirit!. - Late game.

I hope you are pwning your enemies now. They must be really upset trying to catch you, but you just simply keep flying on.

If You are dominating the game:

• Shiva's Guard / Scythe of Vyse : Take one of these two (or both if you can hehe) to disable the one who is causing troubles.

what else?:

• Remember, build your hero according to the situation, BUT never forget DON'T INCREMENT YOUR MANA POOL, high Int boosters, or mana boosters are bad ideas. I know, high Int means more damage, but you are ruining your best ability, your Ball Lightning.

Feedback

Important Commentaries.

 
Hi guys, I wanted to share with you some new information regarding to the feedback I was given due this guide.
 
I'm posting this into the guide, so this important debates don't get lost in the Commentaries.
 
 

Hall of Fame!

 

 
Please send me your pics! be on the hall of fame!

Spirit...away... - Thanks

I hope you enjoyed this Guide as much as I did making it.

Also, I want to apologize for my grammar mistakes. If you found one of these please let me know, English is not my first language, so I did what I could.
 
I want to thank some people here:
 

• Lidius: For making Ursa, The Killing Bear. He inspired me to do this guide, also he gave me the beta key :)

 

• DrGaliza: for making The Forbidden Techniques...
   

• Lycan: For making Seeing is beliving ... or rape.

 

• To the one who drew the picture I used, I found it on Google, so I don't know his/her Name.

• Dr.D.: Who made this guide about making guides, it was really useful.

• To Wodota for uploading the song from Flying steps used in this guide.

Changelog And What's new.

What's new.

Changelog

• 16/04/2012: Starting.

• 21/04/2012: Published

• 22/04/2012: Added an alternative skill build