Sand Wraith Guide Part 1

Im Sand Wraith, FEAR ME Updated for 1.62. First posted in October 09 - Wont be updated no more, im clueless about SW nowdays. HoN has changed to much from Dota 6.5X/6.60.


Table of Contents:

• Stats and Hero introduction
• Skill builds
• Item Presentation
  
• Item Builds
  
• Strategy Section
• Worst Enemies
• Best Friends
• FAQ
  

Pros

• Global ganking/team fight teleport
• Decent escape skill
• Great chaser and 0 collision size
• Huge late game potential
• Adds confusion in team fights for the enemy team
• Fun to play!

Cons

• Weak early game
• Fears early game casters and gankers
• Medicore stats progression and starting HP/MP
• Needs loads of farm while lacking a farming tool
• Enemy number one of the opposing team
• Boring to play if the game goes crap.

__________________________________________________ _

Starting stats and Final stats

A short hero analysis

These are our starting and final stats. These numbers say us nothing unless we compare it to other heroes. We have a comparable final strength to Dark Lady (1480) but higher than Swiftblade and Night Hound which both land on around 1380. The two strength heroes with the lowest strength progression are Magmus and Armaddon which both en up with around 1540 HP. However like Armaddon we have damage reducer which makes us more beafy. So dont let the 1423 HP decieve you with some HP gear we are going to be really hard to take down which brings us to our next point.
What is Sand Wraiths role in a team? We are a hardcore carry. Probably the strongest one in the game. There are very few heroes who can out carry a well played Sand Wraith. In late game we basicly carry by tanking since Sand Wraith has a skill which reduces 20% of taken damage and returning that amount to every enemy unit within 1000 range. With some HP items you are dealing a huge amount of damage by simply standing there.
Your Ultimate is another reason why you are such a strong carry. Mirage Illusions deals a huge amount of damage in late game to every enemy hero and scales with your stats/item progression. Do not underestimate the power of this one. It also adds confusion to the enemy team making it harder for them to focus and kill you.
Another reason why Sand Wraith is a great carry is because she has a global teleport skill connected to your ultimate which allows us to farm freely while still being able to enter fights instantly. Thus we can always be useful even if we are standing on the other side of the map. We dont have to wait 3 seconds for Post Haste or waste time waiting for a fight to begin. We just pop in there.

__________________________________________________ _



Skill set

Desert's Curse



The Sand Wraith calls upon the endless Desert's Curse,
covering the ground ahead of him with sand. Enemies
caught in the sand are slowed while the Sand Wraith can
move faster and is unhindered by cliffs or trees.
Level 1 : 50 Magic damage in a line (2000 range), applies Familiar ground to Sand Wraith and Desert's Curse to enemies while in the sand and up to 7 seconds outside of it.
Level 2 : 100 Magic damage in a line (2000 range), applies Familiar ground to Sand Wraith and Desert's Curse to enemies while in the sand and up to 7 seconds outside of it.
Level 3 : 150 Magic damage in a line (2000 range), applies Familiar ground to Sand Wraith and Desert's Curse to enemies while in the sand and up to 7 seconds outside of it.
Level 4 : 200 Magic damage in a line (2000 range), applies Familiar ground to Sand Wraith and Desert's Curse to enemies while in the sand and up to 7 seconds outside of it.
Mana cost 130/140/150/160
Cooldown 16 seconds
Familiar Ground
+5/9/14/18% Movement speed
Unit walking
Tree walking
Cliff walking
Building Walking
Deserted Curse
+5/9/14/18% Movement slow

This is our chasing/slowing skill which occasionally can be used for kill stealing. When cast a buff is placed on Sand Wraith granting him 0 coalition size so you can walk over cliffs and trees. It also grants vision of the area or hero when its cast for its duration and can be used for escapes and scouting purposes as well.

__________________________________________________ _

Deserted



The Sand Wraith can prey on those who are alone,
granting him increased damage when an enemy is not near any allies.
Level 1 : Sand Wraith deals 15 True Damage to enemies with no allied units in 400 range.
Level 2 : Sand Wraith deals 25 True Damage to enemies with no allied units in 400 range.
Level 3 : Sand Wraith deals 35 True Damage to enemies with no allied units in 400 range.
Level 4 : Sand Wraith deals 45 True Damage to enemies with no allied units in 400 range.
Mana cost n/a
Cooldown n/a

Our first passive which is a nice skill on Sand Wraith since our illusions benefit from it. It increases illusions damage output by a significant amount. Since its True Damage it is not reduced by armor or any other resistances. The downside is that the skill doesnt work if the enemy hero has an allied unit within 400 range.

__________________________________________________ _

Dissipation



Using sand itself as a shield, the Sand Wraith reduces incoming
Damage and reflects it back to any enemies around him.
Level 1 : 5% of all incoming damage to Sand Wraith is reduced and reflected to all enemies in a 1000 range as True Damage.
Level 2 : 10% of all incoming damage to Sand Wraith is reduced and reflected to all enemies in a 1000 range as True Damage.
Level 3 : 15% of all incoming damage to Sand Wraith is reduced and reflected to all enemies in a 1000 range as True Damage.
Level 4 : 20% of all incoming damage to Sand Wraith is reduced and reflected to all enemies in a 1000 range as True damage.
Mana cost n/a
Cooldown n/a

This the infamous skill which makes us harder to take down in mid/late game. Illusions does not return any damage. It returns and reduces any damage taken, after reductions, to all units within 1000 AOE. If we are hit by a 300 damage nuke the following math is applied:

• 300x0,75 (our natural resistance of 25%) = 225.
• 225x0,20 (Dissipation) = 45
• Sand Wraith is healed for 45 HP and that amount damages every unit within 1000 AOE
• Final damage taken by Sand Wraith is 180.

So, we dissipate 20% of all damage taken and returning it to the enemies. What does this mean? If you have 3000 HP with a Behemoths heart you will deal around 750-800 true damage to every hero within 1000 aoe before you die. This is huge. Its comparable to lvl 3 Blazing Strike (Pyromancer ultimate) which deals 715 damage after reductions to a single target!

__________________________________________________ _

Ultimate

Mirage

The Sand Wraith tricks the mind, causing an illusion of himself
to appear next to all enemy heroes and attack them. At any
moment he wishes, the Sand Wraith can take the place of one of those illusions.
Illusion movement speed is 400.

Level 1 : Spawns an illusion next to all enemies heroes, lasts 5 seconds.
Level 2 : Spawns an illusion next to all enemies heroes, lasts 6 seconds.
Level 3 : Spawns an illusion next to all enemies heroes, lasts 7 seconds.
Mana Cost 150
Cooldown 120 seconds

This is what makes the Sand Wraith a beast. When used an illusion that deals 40% damage + Deserted damage is spawned behind every enemy hero. This increases your damage output in teamfights with signifact amount and adds confusion to the enemy team. We can at any time teleport to any illusion. This gives us a perfect way to teleport to the fights around the map. More on this later!

__________________________________________________ _

Skill Builds:

These are the three most common builds for Sand Wraith:

The first skillbuild is the standard build. Desert's curse is maxed out first for its slowing purposes, movement speed bonus and damage. Deserted is taken above Dissipation to increase our damage when we are ganking lone heroes.Dissipations damage return is not game breaking in the beginning of the game since Sand Wraith has to small health pool to make a big difference in fights and ganking. Mirage is always maxed out as soon as you can because of its enormous impact in team fights.
The second skillbuild is if we are getting out hitted in the lane or need a slight HP boost in the beginning. It can make a difference. We are not slowing down our skill progression by alot since all the skills maxed out at 16. I would strongly advice against skilling two sets of stats, one at 2 and the second at 4, since it slows down the maxing of Dissipation.
The third skillbuild is used if we are in a desperate need of survival instead of damage. Here we are maxing out Dissipation before Deserted. This is best used when you are facing a heavy caster team since the 20% reduction of damage is comparable to a shaman headress. In terms of spell damage a 300 damage nuke is reduced to 180 damage with a maxed out Dissipation, down from 225. A hero with Shaman Headress takes 155 damage. In this case we are not skilling Dissipation because of its damage return, but rather because it reduces damage taken. As always you can change the details of the build maxing out Dissipation at 8-9 and Desert's Curse at 7.

__________________________________________________ _


Starting Gear:

Now lets move over to the fun part. What items do we want on Sand Wraith and which items should we avoid? Sand Wraith is very versitile in his item build but there are some recurring items. Lets start out with the starting gear. There are four different types of starting gear that are commonly used on Sand Wraith:

The starting gear above is the mostly common used. The first one gives us a Logger's Hatchet for easy last hits. Its very important for Sand Wraith to get a good start and not get out hitted in the lane. Loggers solves that problem. The rest of the items tehre are fillers, and some regeneration.
The second one presented gives us a Power Supply for increased lane staying power versus spammers. Consider thisone if you face a Thunderbringer or Nymphora. Try to get a Logger's asap in the lane shop for obvious reasons.
The third one is for increasing HP and stats by a substantial amount. Its good if you can access side shops easily to get a Power Supply or Logger's asap or if you feel confident enough to out hit your opponents without a Loggers.
The forth one makes you happy.

__________________________________________________ _

The "Core" Items:

As the game progress we are getting richer and richer. The most common reason people read guides are to find out skill orders and item builds, so here it comes, the fat chart showing you the 4 standard item builds for Sand Wraith! You will notice that every build centers around these four items, the Behemoths Heart, Nullfire Blade, Geometers Bane and the Mock of Brilliance:



There is a good reason why every build centers around these items. And a justification is needed. The reason is that they all have a good synergy with illusion heroes or that they work very good with Sand Wraiths skillset.


Nullfire Blade - 3300 gold - 22/26 agility - 20/36 Mana Burn - 8 charges of Purge

• Illusions gets Mana burn.
• You also recieve 8 charges of Purge which instantly kills any summon, dispells any buffs or debuff or can slow a hero for 5 seconds making it impossible to escape Sand Wraith.

Mock of Brilliance - 5150 $ - 60 Damage - Brilliance Aura deals 40 damage in a 600 radius.

• Illusions get Brilliance aura.
• Brilliance aura helps you farm fast. Needed since Sand Wraith is a bad farmer.
• Brilliance aura has a great team fight prescence and enhances Sand Wraiths aoe damage.
• Brilliance aura is great for chasing
• Disabels blink dagger.

Gemoeters Bane - 5200 $ - 30 agility, 15 intelligence - 15 strength - Ability to summon 2 illusions that deals 33% damage and takes 350% damage.

• Illusions gets Deserted.
• Desert's curse gives 0 coallition size you dont get blocked by your illusions.
• If you have Nullfire Blade Geometers Banes illusions also gets Mana Burn for an additional increase of damage.
• Further adds to the confusion on the opposing team since for 7 seconds there will be 8 Sand Wraiths running around dishing out damage.

Behemoths Heart - 5500 $ - 35 strength and 300 HP (965 total) - 10% increased damage.

• Good synergy with her Dissipation skill. The more HP you have the more you Dissipate.
• Always good with illusions so that they dont die so fast.
• Adds 10% to your dissipation damage, illusions, Mock, Deserted and your curse! Its a nice bonus indeed.

Marchers (500$) - Steam Boots (1450$ - 10 Strength - 60 MS - 25 IAS) - Post Haste (2700$ - 95 MS - Teleport to allied unit)
Sand Wraith can since the Boots rework only equip two of them, Steam Boots and Post Haste. If the fast Mock of Brilliance build is used i prefer making Post Haste so i can snatch that good farm before any team mate lays eyes on it (More of a public games issue). However they are quite expensive and can delay other important items like Behemoths Heart, Geometers Bane or Nullfire Blade. The Steam Boots are a nice cheaper way of aquiring an acceptable movement speed and a good chunk of HP. I preferably use them if a Nullfire Blade is used or if the game is really tight. So as a general rule: The easier the game the better Post Haste are. The harder the game the more viable Steam Boots are. In games you are doing really well you can skip upgrading your Boots until after your Mock and building Post Haste for the farming benefits of them.


- Bracelet (505 $- 6 Str - 3 agi/int) - Soulscream (460 $ - 6 Agi - 3 int/str)
Ah, the debate. Soulscreams or Bracelets? I used to prefer Bracelets when the old Steam Boots where removed and introduction of Logger's Hatchet. But S2-Games seem to have a hard time deciding how they want their boots so the old Steam Boots are back. And they are better than ever! So nowdays i prefer the Soulscreams + Strength Steam Boots as they are a cheap way to increase your damage output/HP in early game and mid game. However i still consider them semi obsolete since the introduction of Loggers Hatchet since they are outshined by it when it comes to last hitting creeps. So a bracelet or two + a Logger's can beused. And in team fights often a chunk of HP is more preferable on a low strength agility hero. And ofcourse there is the Helm of the Black Legion (which will be presented later) that competes with the Bracelet stack. So... I would say its a tie - You chose what path you want to go or you skip this path for the Helm of the Black legion route.

- Mana Battery - (210 $ - 10 charges max) - Power Supply - (519 $ - 3 to all stats (57 HP) - 15 charges max)
Do not underestimate these babys. At a first glance they may seem quite weak but they arent. Every time an opponent casts a spell you get 1 charge stored that can be used at any time. Every charge heals you for 15 HP and 15 mana. Think about it, a fully charged Battery heals you for 150 HP/MP, a Supply for 225 HP/MP. In team fights the charges stack up fast. The MP granted from a full Supply equals 3 bottle charges and solves all our mana problems! The HP healed is almost as strong as an Astrolabe which heals for 250. Thus the Power Supply can increase your survivability with 282 HP if correctly used (225+57 from the stats). 282 HP! Again, 282 HP! This is huge for such a cheap item. 2 Bracelets gives 228 HP for a 1020 gold! Dear God this item is strong.
In the lane they are best used versus any dual lane or annoying spammers like Armaddon, Nymphora and Thunderbringer. Again think about it, if you face a Thunderbringer, every time he nukes you with a lvl 1 Chain Lighting you "reduce" the incoming damage by 15. The chain lightning deals 64 damage to you after reductions. With a Battery you actually reduce this damage by 23% (Lightning Rod not calculated) and gain a small MP bonus. This item is the king in the lane and can turn the tides of an early lane fight. Don't forget, you get charges even by fogged units. So if you get a charge but no spell is used in your lane this might be an incoming Valkyrie arrow, a Hammerstorn preparing to charge in with Galvanize, or a Scout going invisible.

(source  http://forums.heroesofnewerth.com/showthread.php?t=59219 )