[Hero] Sand Wraith

Sand Wraith, Mercurial - Spectre

From the Official Heroes of Newerth forum by SyyRaaaN


This is my third and final guide. My two guides before this one were two big gameplay guides. This is my first hero specific guide and i chose Sand Wraith since he is a port of the most notorious hero of Dota, Mercurial! My guide will present item builds, strategy and tips!



Im Sand Wraith, FEAR ME:



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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 600 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!

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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 - 4850 $ - 30 agility, 10 intelligence - 10 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.
• Rumor has it that Mock of Brilliance, Dissipation, Deserted, Illusions, Desert's Curse and all other ways you deal damage with increases by 10% with Behemoths! So not only do we have additional HP to Dissipate from, but we also get our skill buffed to 22% damage return instead of 20%.
• Always good with illusions so that they dont die so fast.
• Is it OK to stack Hearts? Yeah, if you are up versus squishies, do it, its really fun!

- Marchers (500 $) - Post Haste (2700 $ - 95 MS - Teleport to allied unit) - Enhanced Marchers (1500 $ - 65 MS - 30% IAS - Phase ability, 0 coalition size 10% ms increase 15 seconds cooldown) - Steam Boots (1490 - 75 MS - +6 to all attributes + 6 additional to chosen attribute).

Sand Wraith can actually equip any pair of boots at any time. 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. However they are quite expensive and can delay other important items like Behemoths Heart, Geometers Bane or Nullfire Blade. The Enhanced Marchers are a nice cheaper way of aquiring a very high movement speed and i preferably use this build if a Nullfire Blade is used. So as a general rule: The easier the game the better Post Haste are. The harder the game the more viable Enhanced Marchers are. Steam Boots is the joker here. They sure can be used as they provied a well needed cheap strength/mana buff in really tight games versus loads of casters and spell damage. The Strength Steam Boots gives 228 HP which is very nice indeed. So i let you people decide, pick up any boots you want!

- Bracelet (505 $- 6 Str - 3 agi/int) - Soulscream (460 $ - 6 Agi - 3 int/str)

Ah, the debate. Soulscreams or Bracelets? I prefer Bracelets since the removal of the old Steam Boots and introduction of Logger's Hatchet. If your making Post Haste or Enhanced Marchers the Bracelets are a great option to increase your fragile HP. However Soulscreams can be used as they are cheaper and increase your damage output in early game / mid game. However i consider them semi obsolete since the introduction of Loggers Hatchet since they are outshined by it when it comes to last hitting creeps. And in team fights often a chunk of HP is more preferable on a low strength agility hero. However if you go for a Helm of the Black Legion (which will be presented later) consider Soul Screams. I would say its a tie - You chose what path you want to go.

- 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.

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The Usable Items:

- Helm of the Black Legion - 2225 gold - 70% chance to block 40 damage - 300 Hp.

Now i know for sure that every Vanguard/Helm hater are going to faint. This item was almost never used by competent players before Dota 6.60 and has there for created alot of biases against it in the averege joe tier of players. However its new times now. The Vanguard (Dota name for Helm of the Black Legion) has recieved a great deal of buffs. To quote a nerd from the forums about the buffs it has recieved over the years:

Quote:

Originally Posted by SyyRaaaN Damage block from 65% to 70%. Damage block from 35 to 40. Regen from 4 to 6 HP from 250 to 300 Price cut by 50. Ring of Health in side shops. Ring of Health buff from 4 to 5 regen per sec Stout Shield stack nerf. Removal of Strength Threads. Item slots are more restricted now with the add of good boots, Hatchet and magic stick/wand making bracer stacks harder to maintain.

Wow, pretty long list eh? It is now actually usable for low HP heroes who desperatly cries after survival in early game / mid game. It provieds a chunk of HP a decent amount of block which translates to 28 damage on averege. It also works well with her Dissipation if the goal is survival. Use it in tough games where the action starts early. In those games you are often better off farming a HotBL first than desperatly hunting after your Mock since you will be almost useless for your team if you run around with Marchers, 3 Minor Totems and 2400 gold at the 24th minute of the game. If your enemies are controling the game they will capitalize on this if they are competent, either trying to finish or gank you. One or two deaths with a desperate Mock hunt equals a lost game. Most often your better off farming up the survival tool so you can help your team so your team controls the game while you chase the Mock. Some players argue that it is to expensive, however, Marchers + Battery + HotBL + Mock can be done in 25-30 minutes with basic last hitting skills.

You can either go for HotBL if you are doing exeptionally well (farming it by 7th minute or so) or if you are doing exceptionally crappy, farming it by 17 minutes. If you need survival i e facing alot of early game heroes, tough pusher line ups and so on, feel free get it. However if you are facing a junk team you can skip it. I do not recommending using HotBL if your going for a fast Nullfire Blade since it wont be so "fast". It also shares the same principles. By farming a fast Nullfire blade you increase your usefullness by a signifcant amount. More on this later in the guide. So... Once again i let you decide if you want HotBL or not. This is a new school build i might add.

- Riftshards - 5500 gold - 75 damage 20% chance for 2,4x critical

Can be used in very long games as a luxury/last item after you have farmed up 3 or 4 of the major items and your team is in desperate need of damage. Why can Riftshards be used but not Shield Breaker? Simply because we get this one so late. We usually have farmed up a significant amount of +damage. What we need is this big item for the damage. Not a mere -6 armor in late game (which an ally can get).

- Wingbow - 6000 gold - 30 damage, 30 agility, 30 ias, 30% evasion

Same as above. An ultra luxury item who can be used if you need damage in late game in combination of survival. Wingbow increases your estimated hit points by 1.43 because of the evasion it grants. Combined with Dissipation Wingbow makes you really hard to take down if the main source of damage comes from a feed physical DPSer. Illusions gets 30% Evasion and 30 agility from this item. This item does not collide with your dissipation in contrary to popular beliefs. With 3000 HP and a Wingbow you will dissipate 600 true damage before you die. The only thing is that you take less damage, making you disspiate slower. If a player reasons that Wingbow is bad because it contradicts our dissipation, then the same rule would go for + armor doesnt it? More armor = Less damage dissipated = Bad? Then the opposite should be true? Less armor = More damage dissipated = Good? Thus resulting that an enemy Pestilence ultimate woud be your best friend since it lowers your armor with 15. Well, duh, he isnt your best friend, in fact, you hate him and want to kill him.

- Shrunken Head - 3900 gold - 24 damage, 10 strength - Active ability which grants 10-9-8-7-6-5 seconds of magic immunity.

The shrunken head is a very situational item. Its best used when the game is like a round of Unreal Tournament instagib. Use it only if you face a mass burst damage/nuker team and as i said, you are dying within a second.

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The Wild Cards

- Frostwolf Skull - 6150 gold - 25 to all stats - Passive ability that feezes enemys upon attack

The wild card. Mirage illusions gets the slow which stacks with your Desert's Curse. With this you will be mass slowing in team fights. So its a considrable ultra-luxury item. It also grants 675 HP, which is nice, 25 agility, and 475 MP. It works very well with Geometers Bane aswell. Can be built after Behemoths for stacking up health points for greater tanking.


- Savage Mace - 5400 gold - 80 damage 35% chance for mini stun which deals 100 magical damage. Has True Strike which causes you to never miss.

Ehum, yeah, i moved it up from the junk section. Sometimes i forget that HoN isnt an exact replica of Dota. In Dota mini stun chance did not transfer to illusions. However in Heroes of Newerth it does so the item has been promoted. When to get it? The Savage Mace is well used with Geometers Bane for a mini stun orgy in combination of Mirage. So cosider it as a luxury or a last slot item instead of Riftshards! We avoid it early since we need other gear to maximize our heros potential. If you make this as your first item you make a glass cannon. You will be focused and killed and thus you deal no damage. Also in early game and mid game we and our illusions dont attack fast enough to benefit much from the ministuns. So, again consider it as a luxury or last slot item!


- Barbed Armor - 2200 gold - 22 damage 10 intelligence and 5 armor - Active ability which causes you to return 100% of the damage taken.

"SyyRaaaN! Dude, i read your Big Item Guide and there you say it sucks! Are you demented or something?" That guide was written back when Barbed Armor returned Magic Damage instead of True damage! With that buff the Barbed Armor is not useless anymore. This item has risen in popularity versus certain heroes. Im not a big fanboy of the Barbed Armor but it clearly has some uses. The mechanics in HoN are the following - Damage hits you - reduction by magic armor/armor - Barbed Armor returns damage - Dissipation reduces damage taken - Dissipation doesn't return to the hero damaging you, but dissipating to all other heroes within 1000 aoe. A example would look like this - 300 damage by a Moon Queen nuke - 225 taken after magic armor - 225 returned by barbed armor to Moon Queen - 180 final damage taken due to Dissipation - 0 Damage taken by Moon Queen from Dissipation - 45 damage to all enemy units except Moon Queen. I hope this is clear!
So you still dissipate 20% of the damage taken around you, but however we are returning more damage than we actually take with Barbed Armor to the heroes that targets you. Thats quite good since the result is that they are dying faster then we are alltough the damage output is the same. So when do we use it? I strongly recommend using this item only if you are facing heroes with a big ultimate that really cant decide who it targets. Some exampels would be:



All these have some kind of big ultimate that you actually can see coming right at you which makes it easy to activate your barbed to damage them right back. Versus many of these you can actually pick it up at any time, as your first, second or third item. The conclusion would be that the Barbed Armor is best used if your team needs you fast in the fights versus these strong AOE oriented teams, the more of them you are facing, the better the Barbed is. Versus such teams this item on Sand Wraith can win you the game since your tanking will return damage earlier on. It defenitly is best paired with Skillbuild III if you get it early. Let me remind you, Barbed Armor is not manadatory! Its situational and optional!

Im very torn about the other situational use of this item. That would be if the enemy team has an ultra feed carry. In that case we pick it up late since it has no use before that carry is beafy. I would think twice though before getting it versus a fed carry since he easily can target another hero, but that gives you time to do your work. But in that case he would target your team instead, is that something we want in that situation? So as a general rule i would say, if he is killing you within a second, consider the Barbed, but if you are surviving him easily while your team isnt, they are the ones that should get the Barbed or Void Talisman, not you. Like i said, think twice about it!

On another note: Arachna maybe shouldnt be in the picture since she easily can stop targeting the spider on you. But most of the Arachna pickers have a gimped brain so they would still target it on you and paying the price for it! Also, Tempest isnt in the picture because his ultimate silences inventory, it can be hard to time it versus tempest, however if you can its viable! And ofcourse i forgot about Defiler which it can be used against. Another point is versus Voodoo Jester, think about timing it well so you return the big Curse damage if thats what you want (i know he can target his ward, but it but it bounces). Well, this isnt a Barbed Armor guide, so i leave it to you to explore the best practice of it!

The Builds:

Brilliance Carry is the cookie cutter build. We are aming for finish our Mock of Brilliance within 24-30 minutes of the game. By getting it fast we increase our ricing skills and our item progression is secured. It also adds a good damage output in team fights in mid game and early late game. After The Mock we are aiming for increasing our survivability so that we Dissipate more damage in team fights and improving our tanking capabilities. This build basically carries by tanking and ricing. We are choosing bracelets above Soulscreams to add up to our survivability, our main damage in team fights comes from Brilliance Aura and illusions. We do not benefit much from +agility but we are drawing fire to us because of the Brilliance Aura and thus survivability is needed. As our second big item we chose Behemoths Heart to further increase survivability. We chose Post Haste so we can teleport to all the good farm and farm deep into enemy territory for maximum farm feast. When we pushed to far we throw out a Desert's Curse to scout and run into a safe spot for teleportation to escape. If the game is very long we add a luxury item. Any one of the presented will do fine. I usually prefer Geometers Bane or Nullfire blade. But its up to you!
Ive updated the picture to show some variety to this build. Some games are going fine until you get that Mock of Brilliance and after that its just downhill. In that case we are better of grabbing cheap survival items like Steam Boots (S) and Helm of the Black Legion since we have no other options. We are better of making a HoTBL with that Beastheart than feeding away thousands of gold trying to save up for Axe. However, sometimes you rack up loads of gold even in those games, in that case proceed towards Behemoths Heart!

When to use this build: When you can farm the Mock fast enough and having a strong supporter team behind you. Nicely used with skillbuild I, II or III.

Pseudo 6.52 build: This build is best used in games we know are going to be long because the opponent team has a good amount of carries. By getting a fast Nullfire Blade we heavily improve our ganking capabilities. We are aiming for having the Nullfire Blade + Enhanced Marchers/Steam Boots at 20-25 minutes of the game. Bracelets or Soulscreams? Usually i get Soulscreams if i go Steam Boots (S) and Bracelets if i chose Enhanced Marchers! With this build we continue to rice like never before so we can get up our Mock of Brilliance around 33-40 minutes into the game. A reason this build fits Sand Wraith very good is that we can rice and still be useful for the team. Since we got our Nullfire Blade we should use for ganks. So who do we gank, and how? Its imperative that your allies set up the gank while you rice, as soon as the gank is about to start you use Mirage, take place with the illusion, throw out a curse and purge. Steal the kill. Immediately after you return to ricing or push a tower if your team wants so. More on this in the strategy section.

When to use this build: When your team needs you to enter the game earlier than the Mock build. Very good if you are facing dangerous late game carries that you need to gank. Also consider this build when you face a hero with a weakness to Nullfire Blades purge like Jeraziah, Hellbringer or Hammerstorm. Nicely used with skillbuild I or II.

New school build: Its a new era, Dota/HoN has changed alot. Items get buffed, new items are introduced and new item builds gets popular. The new one is to get a Helm of the Black Legion on Sand Wraith. It helps our early game survival by an big amount which can be needed versus competent players. This is explained in the HotBL part of the guide above. However the build shares the same principels as the Brilliance Carry build. We are still aiming for a Mock before the 30 minute mark. The big pro of this build is that it improves our early/mid game survivability by a signifcant amount. Its a defensive variant of the Nullfire build improving our chances of survive those early game ganks while desperatly trying to farm a Mock. This build however is unnessesary versus bad players and i recommend that you try to build Sand Wraith without it so that you dont get used to the chunk of HP and early game regen it gives. The HotBL also opens up for jungling with Sand Wraith, another weakness of the hero. What boots to chose? Any works. Usually i run around with Marchers until i have a Mock up so Post Haste can be built (after the mock) alternatively i get Enhanced Marchers if i need the MS/IAS.

When to use this build: A defensive variant of the one presented above. Use it when you are in a tough game where you need survival so that you can succed in farming your Mock of Brilliance. Nicely used with skillbuild III.



Baaaaaaaaah, do i always have to farm that impossible 3800 gold for mock? No, you dont. The last presented build is the No Mock Build. We go for the Nullfire Blade and Geometers Bane to increase our Illusion damage output and further adding illusions to the team fight. This build is best used when there is another Mock farmer/Carry in your team that gets it alot faster than you. In this build you aim to gank more to support your other carry while still trying to farm when possible since you dont want to cannibalize your other carries farm or se your farm getting destroyed by that better farming carry.

When to use this build: When you already have a great Brilliance carry like Blood Hunter and Wild Soul. Can also be used if you have another strong carry on your team or if you find Mock of Brilliance boring. Nicely used with skill build I or II.

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The Junk

The junk section. Well, dont get these items. Why?

• Brutalizer - You dont attack fast enough to bash.
• Charged Hammer - Mock of Brilliance is better for you and the orb does not transfer to illusions. Also you don't attack fast enough to use this item to its full extent.
• Shield Breaker - We lack a steroid spell that this item makes good use of, like a critical. Also the +60 damage does not transfer to illusions. Sand Wraith main damage doesnt come from her physical attack, more with her illusions, Dissipate and Deserted. We have other better options. Allthough the -6 armor transfers to Mirage illusions we still reject this item because we dont want to get it early since we have better options. If we get it late, the -6 armor is outshined by Riftshards.
• Hack and Slash - We dont get anything we need from this one. Your better off with HotBL if you desperatly need survival, you are already an awesome chaser, it doesnt provide us with a farming tool and is outshined by Nullfire Blade for Sand Wraith.
• Abyssal skull and other life steal - We dont want to waste 2k gold on this. We are buisy farming other items. However as a last slot item a Symbol of Rage can be used, allthough not mentioned. If you really want life steal, force a supporter like Demented Shaman or Ohpelia to get this for you.
• Assassins Shroud -Don't ruin your own game. It gives you nothing. You already have a perfect positioning spell, a comparable escape skill if enemies has Dust. The shround gold can be used for far more important items.
• Null stone - To expensive for its bonuses. We are not fearing disables that much niether since we still deal damage with illusions, mock and dissipate while disabled.
• Sacrifical Stone - ????? Why did i even put it here, its self explanatory. 5k gold for 400 HP. Get a HotBL for 2225 gold or Behemoths for 5500.
• Doom Bringer - You die, enemy team picks it up, you lose.
• Runed Axe - Mock of Brilliance is much better than this for Sand Wraith. Again we do not have any steroid spells, like a critical strike that makes good use of the Runed axe +65 damage. And again, the damage does not transfer to illusions. Mock of Brilliance is much better as a farming tool for Sand Wraith.
• Shaman Headress - Your better off getting HP items. If your facing a mass caster team your better off with HotBL, Shrunken Head or a supporter getting Barrier Idol.

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Strategy Section


Early Game

Early game (lvls 1-7 (8-10), Laning Phase, All towers intact) : First of all we pick up our starting gear presented in the item section of the guide. Afterwards we have to decide what lane we are going to. In a public game i would always go Legion bottom lane or Hellbourne top lane and asking for the teams strongest early game hero to lane with us. The reason we chose Legion bottom and Hellbourne top is because the creep action is closest to the tower. This means 1) we can tower hugh making us safer 2) we are less open to ganks from mid lane. It also offers us the possibility to pull neutral creeps to prevent the lane from getting pushed. At these lanes we dont have to worry about the enemy team pulling aswell nor hunting an eventual jungle hero. The reason for begging the strongest early gamer to go with you is because we need to compensate for our weak early game so we can get some creep kills and maybe an occasional frag. However its very important for a Sand Wraith to play defensive in the lane. Our life is most often more worth than the heroes we are facing. Never suicide to chase down a low HP early gamer i e a Pyromancer or Demented Shaman. Our lives are simply more valuable to theirs and we lack the farming tool to compensate for lost gold if we die. As little as two or three deaths in the laning phase can equal a lost game.

With a more competent team or players Sand Wraith should go to the lane that is anticipated to be the weakest one. This can be mid lane if facing i e a lone Valkyrie. In this case we bring our baby sitter i e Plagued Rider or Demented Shaman with us so we dont get herassed out of the lane. It is mandatory to have Wards of Sight up so you dont risk getting ganked from the side lanes and so that you and your mate can dominate the runes if the mid player is moronic enough to get a naked bottle. This can be easily done if you have a single mate in the game. In other cases the Hellbourne team might have a defensive lane aswell (carry + baby sitter) their "short lane" (Hellbourne Top). In this case Sand Wraith and Baby Sitter (Legion Side) can lane in Legion Top Lane. The principle is that we want the easiest possible lane for Sand Wraith. By beeing perceptive in your lane choise you can avoid the opposing teams strong lane like Pyromancer + Elec combo forcing them to lose time in a lane swap. And yes, if you face an impossible lane, swap to an easier one asap. In a easy lane a Sand Wraith can easily score 50-60 creep kills within the first 10-12 minutes of the game getting us a jump start into mid game. In a tough lane you might score as little as 15-20 creeps within the first 10-12 minutes of the game. This has a great impact on how your mid game will turn out. To ensure a good early game ALWAYS keep an eye on the mini map so that you can see missing heroes specially if you are playing versus a roamer like Slither or Andromeda. A ward section comes up later.

Here is a screen shot showing you the proper way to last hit with a melee hero. In the picture to the left we are standing in the correct position, slightly behind the ranged creep preparing to last hit the creep. As soon as the creep gets low enough we run forward, last hit the creep and return to our chicken position.
Picture number two shows us what to not do. The middle creep is the one low with a mindless Night Hound auto attacking a creep blocking the fast entry toward it. If we want that creep we have to run right into them risking a death or a big loss of hp. Note the Plague Rider just waiting for you to make that mistake. That creep we leave to our baby sitter to get or we snatch with Desert's curse if we are greedy. The Baby sitter should only farm creeps that are out of range for you like that junk creep. If you want to play really well, always think a step ahead. What happens if i take that creep? Do i net gold or do i die?

Mirage in early game

LvL 6. Your ultimate is up so start to keep an eye open one very lane. If you see a low hero on the other lanes ask them if they are ready to finish him off or if they are able to support you if you decide to Mirage, Teleport and Curse him. Think twice though, you do NOT want to die. If the enemy has a nearby ally with full MP/HP with a stun, nuke or a skill who can help out his team mate dont risk it. As a general rule only Teleport to an Illusion in early game if you are sure you will net the frag. A perfect example of this is the enemy lunatic who dives a tower or two chasing a frag on another lane. Mirage, Teleport and Curse him, profit, and learn the lession: Never tower dive if you are facing a Sand Wraith.
Remember, you should never waste precious farming time to fail ganks. If you decide to global gank don't go solo after the hero. Always have allies to back you up if you decide to Mirage/Teleport/Curse and note the 310 mana cost to it. Your ultimate also works as Thunderbringers ultimate to finish off very low HP heroes if you skilled Deserted early on. If they are below 80 HP the hero usually dies if you are lvl 6 with a level 2 Deserted (if he is alone!)

A Tip: How to anticipate if the low hp running away is with out creeps? Anticipate where he is and check where your creeps are at the corresponding lane. Check the Faq for a sloppy picture!

To sum it up: Your early game is about killing as many creeps as possible, surviving and watching other lanes to use Mirage to net frags.

Items after early game:





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Mid Game

Mid game lvls 9-16 (Towers start to fall, Pushing, Team fights and big ganks starts): Mid game has begun. We have picked up our early game items and now we want to finish off one of our bigger ones. We have to decide, what build do we want to go? We chose between the two presented routes, the Nullfire route or the Brilliance one:

or

Farming, ganks and avoiding ganks: The different builds are prestened in detail above under the item section. Okay, we have chosen a build now how do we play? Its important for Sand Wraith to farm every corner of the map. This is our main priority. Our mid game is basicly a big farm feast. We always carry a Homecoming stone so that we can reach that good farm before tower snatches it or before an ally decides to take it. In mid game its imperative to last hit every creep. It is very easy to succeed with this since your base damage has increased by a significant amount and with the Loggers Hatchet its impossible to fail. If the lanes are to pushed and no good farm is available, farm the jungle. However always prioritize lane farming since Sand Wraith is a slow jungler before Mock of Brilliance is got. Afterwards the jungle is easy. We are farming non stop to get our Mock of Brilliance before 30 minutes. We only abort our farming when team fights start or a gank is done where you are needed desperately needed. Farming the Mock is priority number 1. When you have your Mock of Brilliance up farming is easy. Just let the aura get the creeps to below 200 HP and finish them off Desert's Curse in a scouting direction. If you go for the Nullfire build first and succeeded farming it by 20-25 minutes we can start making ganks every two minutes. Your main goal is to gank the other teams carry. Notify your gankers on your team that you are ready to go, and do so. More on team fights later on in the guide. So what are we fearing in midgame? We are fearing ganks and push oriented line ups.

Midgame Weakness: Sand Wraiths main weakness in mid game is ganks. Since you are still farming up loads of gear the way to counter you is by ganking you specially if you are trying for the fast Mock build. This can however be avoided by a supporter warding the map. Another great danger is if the enemy team has a push oriented line up and are trying to end the game fast. Its very important that we have farmed up a Mock or Nullfire Blade before this happens. If we farm to slow there is a risk that the fights will be 4 ½ vs 5 which results in a loss if you dont have any proper anti-pushers in your team.

Except for last hitting, is there any ways we can improve our farming? Yes there are mainly four ways.

• Smart Farming
• Smart Wards
• Good Map awareness
• Using our escape skills well
• Strong heroes on your team that can prolong the game and support your farm by controlling the game.

Another way of escaping ganks is with your ultimate. This can be done if its to late to use your Desert's Curse to escape. Hit R button to reveal all the heroes. If you see a stray enemy hero wandering alone or farming in the jungle teleport to him fast as hell and try to run away by using Desert's Curse or juking. Both these strategies can be used in early game and mid game. An example with a sloppy picture:

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Midgame Wards:

These Wards are called lane wards and placed on the spots shown in the picture. They are very good defensive and offensive wards. They show you any incoming heroes in the lane that decides to walk the road and protects us from Homecoming stone ganks by heroes who decide to teleport to the towers. They also grant us information when we decide to push. These are best used in midgame when pushes and ganks are done that doesnt necessarily come from the river. Use this along side of the well known river/jungle wards so that Sand Wraith can farm aggressive and freely. A complete ward map is in the FAQ/Details section!

Mirage in mid game

Team Fights in Midgame and ganks: Enough of the farming tips. We are after all not playing a single player game. The best part of the Sand Wraith is her global teleportation skill which is superior to all others because its instant. Whenever a team clash begins, whether your team is pushing, or the enemies are pushing you abort your farming and follow the team fight closely. Mirage can be used in two ways: You can Mirage early to disable portal Keys and hindering dangerous heroes from initiating on you i e Magmus, Tempest or Bhemoth and thus you initiate the fight or you can wait until your initator starts the fight.Use the teleportation wisely, i e always after the initiator has ported in or the tank is in position. Also never teleport to their tank. Always try to attack their most dangerous carry or a squishy disabler. Think twice before throwing that curse out since it reveals your position. Time it well to when they start running or you need it for a chase. Just a movement speed debuff doesnt make a big difference in team fights. The 0 collision size is very useful specialy if you have a Geometers Bane. Use your own hunch on this. Most important: You never target their tank, try to go after their carry, a dangerous disabler or another of their squishy but dangerous heroes. After the team fight, either push a tower if you won it or return to farming asap. This is Sand Wraiths big strength in Mid game. You can always farm until the last second. You dont have to waste time walking anywhere or porting and waiting for a possible team fight.

Another important thing is to use your Desert's curse for vision in offensive purposes aswell. Two good examples here:

In the first picture a Hammerstorm is trying to juke us. Note his lack of a spine. Dear God i hate that fog of war when i hunt down fleeing heroes. With Sand Wraith this is a non-existant problem. Desert's curse grants us vision of him and trails him. So no juke-puke for us this time. Remember, it also trails invisible heroes so you know where they are (no true sight though, and only if you hit them directly while revealed). Also, the enemy heroes just have to walk in the sand to get slowed, so if you have lost vision of the hero, throw out the Curse in his direction hoping that he walks into the sand so he gets slowed, and for vision purposes. Also since Desert's Curse grants us vision we can use it smart to reveal an the enemy Thunderbringer or Voodoo Jester hiding in a foged area while dishing out damage with their spells while being hard to focus since he is smart in his positioning.
In the second picture we have a huch that the enemies are taking out Kongor. Ofcourse we scout with Curse, jackpot. We found them. Scramble your team as fast as possible to punish them as they run away with low HP worn down by Kongor.

To sum it up: You are farming and using your ultimate, Mirage, for ganks and helping in team fights.
-->Always have 310 mana ready for Mirage + Curse combo. <--

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Late Game

Nothing new here. We now should have farmed up a great deal of gear and winning the game. The only new strategy element now is that you can use Mirage to do solo ganks at lone weak heroes. This will often result in a passive enemy team moving around in stacks which makes it easy to anticipate their next move. As in mid game you should be farming, and using your global teleport skill to aid in team fights. With Mirage ready you can never be out of position so take advantage of it by pushing wisely. Always watch the mini map while pushing lone. If all are missing, as always, its you getting ganked! Sand Wraith has a huge late game potential because of her mass illusion ultimate, Dissipate which makes her harder to take down and reflects loads of damage. You basically carry by tanking and with your illusions from Mirage.

Late game pushes can often be game breaking if you fail defending a main base tower. If you notice an enemy push you might want to port back to the tower preparing to defend the lane. A reason for doing this is to send out scouting Desert's Curse and showing your presence.

In this picture we are standing preparing to defend the lane. We know they are pushing. We send out a Desert's Curse to gather intelligence. Note the Behemoth, he just wants to throw himself into the fight before the enemy Tempest goes in but he doesnt know where to blink. Curse thrown and viola, now we got the vision advantage and Behemoth can do the perfect initiaton! The same can be done when pushing an important main base lane. Send up a curse above the hill to know whats up there.
Keep the following in mind: If you notice an enemy push like the one presented above, you might want to do a solo push on another lane and instantly Mirage/Teleport back as soon as the fighting begins. Do a good analysis of the situation, what is the best move? Showing presence and scouting or solo pushing and Miraging back?

Mirage on Cooldown. How to play?

Without Mirage ready we cannot fast teleport to offensive pushes without Post Haste nor can we wait until the last second to teleport to a defensive teamfight. When Mirage is on cooldown its very important to carry a homecoming stone so you can help defending baracks or towers. If your team decides to do an crucial push for a barack you simply have reach the position in question the old fashion way, walking or using Post Haste. In Mid Game we prefer to not run around ganking. We spend that time farming and ganking when Mirage is ready again. Its very important that you capitalize on your Mirage uses, succeding in the gank or winning the team fight when its used. If its on cooldown your team fight damage output is reduced and your enemies should exploit this which they cant if they lost a hero or the fight when you used it.
Ok, you just misclicked Mirage wasting it. The enemy team decides to push and you are risking a barack or an important tower. What to do? First of all if it has 10-15 seconds left on its cooldown try to wait the cooldown out before your team attacks. Having Mirage up or down can be game breaking since it deals a huge amount of damage on every enemy hero. However if its a long wait before the cooldown is gone you have to fight without it. Let your tanks/initators move in first, throw out a Desert's Curse on the ground so you get 0 collision size and target the most profitable hero, as usual, not their tank. Watch your position and watch if you get focused. If you losing HP to fast and getting down to red health try to run away by climbing a cliff. With the 0 collision size and the MS bonus you often succed in escaping with very low health.

You could divide Sand Wraiths team fight strength into 3 parts. This is very roughly made so dont take it to serious. 20% attack damage, 40% Dissipation and 40% Mirage. So without your ultimate you are fighting at roughly 60% strength. Let me remind you, this is a very rough estimations so you get the picture.
As a general rule: The more items you have the better Sand Wraith is without his ultimate ready since your regular attack deals more damage and dissipation returns more damage. So having ultimate down when the enemies are pushing is more of a mid game problem when you dont have the big gear up yet. In late game when we have Mock of Brilliance and Behemoths Heart up we are strong on our own.

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Everything is going wrong - What to do?

Scenario one: The feeding start

Ok, you we first blooded and the opponents are playing good and you get denied every creep. You desperately tro to get a creep and die agian. Accept the fact that farming up a naked Sword of the High wont be done fast enough to profit from it. I would strongly suggest that you do the new school build with a HotBL as your first item and then try to rice a Mock of Brilliance while helping the team with Mirage when needed. If you are in a public, try to swap. If you play with friends or in a team, swap lanes immediately.

Scenario two: The team mass feeds

First of all who are they feeding? Are they ripping in the Electrician/Pyromancer lane? Or are they feeding a Chronos + Madman lane? Or maybe a Moon Queen/Soulstealer in mid? In general if your team are dying to early gamers your game isnt ruined yet since these doesnt get that beefy. This only reduces your teams possibility to support your ricing. Consider a more offensive build in this case, like a Nullfire Blade so that you can help in team ganks earlier so you can control the game, not the opponents. Ask yourself: What can i do to reduce the feeding in the strong lanes? Can i help them with Mirage/Teleport/Curse? Then pull your own weight in the game and do so.
If they are feeding a Madman and Chronos you might be doomed. These two can outlast you in late game and they are very hard to gank with Mirage. In this case you can only pray that the feeding stops and that you have a good disabler team so that they can get ganked or that you get an equally good start.
Soulstealer and Moon Queen have 6-0 after 10 minutes? These heroes have 0 escape capabilities so then its imperative that you with help of your team mates ganks them fast so that they end up with 6-6. These heroes good start can often be ruined by allies ganking them with you supporting with Mirage - Teleport - Curse

Scenario three: Crap picks

"I first picked Sand Wraith and the rest of my team picked 4 melee agility! We are getting steam rolled by a pusher team! I thought Sand Wraith was the best hero in the game?!" Accept the fact that this is a turd game that not even the best Sand Wraith player in the world can win this alone. Dont rage, dont flame and dont respond to anything in all-chat since in this case it has no use. Go next game. On the other hand, it is juicy to win such a game so always give it your best! Farm every corner of the map for that HotBL and Mock.

Scenario four: Getting a good start that you waste on mid game feed. Alternativly u get 0 farm in mid game.

Ask your supporter to get wards so you can farm without getting ganked. If he refuses watch the minimap like a hawk. Anyone missing? Be careful and place yourself in a defensive, hidden position until the missing hero reappear. If he went to your lane, use the homecoming stone to snatch farm in another lane. Alternativly watch the map for a possible gank. Mirage first, check out where the enemy heroes are, if they are moving to you, gank that stray hero with help of an ally or stay in your lane farming if they are ganking him.
Your team mates are trailing you and stealing ALL your farm leaving you with corpses to look at. You have been countered by an ally. Congrats. There are three ways out of this:

• Tell him "kindly" to stop stealing the farm.
• If they refuse to stop stealing the farm be even greedier in your farming to compensate knowing its his fault if you die as you have no choise.
• Alternativly dont waste time helping such docuhes with Mirage/Teleport in team fights if you are farming a good un-pushed lane. Help them only with Mirage but without the teleport. Don't participate in team pushes if you have an awesome farming lane like a to your side well pushed lane

Worst Enemies


Gankers - Includes but not limited to:

Gankers and Roamers: You have a weak early and farm alot mid game. And you are the opposing teams biggest enemy. These heroes will hunt you and therefor you need 1) wards to counter their ganks 2) Map awereness so you dont get ganked 3) Fast fingers with Curse or ultimate to escape, but versus these it might be to late. Be very careful if they have farmed a Portal Key since they can port right at you leaving you with no chance to escape. If the Sand Wraith get ganked in early game her mid game will be crap and thus her late game potential is gone. She needs farm and these heroes can prevent you from getting that crucial gold you need. In late game most of these are easy for you though! Its all about surviving these so you can teach them a lession later!

Pusher Line up - Includes but not limited to:

Pusher Line ups: A pusher line up consists of 4-5 very good push heroes. They siege towers fast trying to end the game as fast as possible, preferably around the 30 minute mark. With our weak early game the Sand Wraith has nothing to contribute with to stop their pushes. No Late game = No Sand Wraith presence. In this case your team has to do the work which can fail if you dont have strong anti pushers like Kraken or Behemoth since the fights basicly are 4 v 5. However if they fail their fast push Sand Wraith will punish them in late game. Its important to get gear up fast versus such teams.

Hardcore Carries - Includes but not limited to:

Hardcore carries: Some of these hardcore carries has a comparable late game to you and can compromise your teams late game win if they are not ganked properly. You have to keep these down by ganks and aiding your team when trying to take them out.

Vindicator

Vindicator is a disturbance for Sand Wraith at any stage of the game. In Early game he can orb herass you which is annoying enough. Also he can use his Sage's Lore which is even more annoying since we dont have the mana pool to throw out any spells which results in heavy damage taken. I strongly suggest that you immediatly swap lanes if you face him. If your team refuses i suggest that you keep your Desert's curse at lvl 1 so it remains at a fairly low mana cost so you can remove his Lore. The 10 mana increase per level when you level it up can make a difference! Get a power supply as soon as possible so you can afford to throw out lvl 1 Curses whenever he Lores you!
As if this isnt enough his global silence ultimate can potentialy screw your global teleport. As soon as he sees your illusions spawn, the player playing Vindicator press "R", his Global Silence hits you which hinders you to enter the fight. This can be devastating if your illusions gets killed or their duaration is over. I strongly suggest instant teleportation to your illusions so he doesn't silence you, specially if its him you are ganking. If he silences before you had time to throw out the ult, use your Homecoming stone to return to your base if its a defensive fight! If its an offensive, you have to either wait it out, or simply be perceptive and walk with your team to that offensive fight since you cant 100% rely on Mirage/Teleport in games versus Vindicator.

However the good part with Vindicator is that if you are in the fight, he is easy for you, just focus him and kill him as fast as possible! Also, you should be ganking him non-stop with your team mates since he is free food! Hunt him with Mirage non stop! He has no power if he is alone! And his strength gain/start strength is junk which makes him die fast!

Carries on your own team and moronic players

Other carries often needs the farm just as well as you do. However many of these can fast farm the lane leaving you without a single creep and you cant really tell them to **** off since they are just as desperate for farm as you are. This is cannibalism. They get beafy leaving you with nothing so you would have been better off playing a supporter. You can have dual carries in a team with Wraith, but its important that you dont fight over the same creeps.
Moronic allies: Are actually the biggest counter to Sand Wraith and far more dangerous than anything the enemy team can do. Most often this moron plays Nymphora, Pebbles or Pyromancer which are strong early game heroes with a very nice creep clearing skills. He Post Hastes to every lane stealing all the farm leaving you with nothing. Afterwards he has the stomach to flame you "HEY WRAITH ROFLZORS, WHERE IS YOUR ITEMS NABSTER" - Assmaster2000. Another variant of the moron is the one who plays Pharaoh and constantly pushes the lanes with his Tormented Soul leaving you with skeleton farm. The moronic allies are the main reason why heroes like Chronos and Sand Wraith can be unplayable in publics.

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Best Allies

Supporters, Early Gamers and Baby Sitters - Includes but not limited to

Baby Sitters: These heroes has lane control power which helps us farm and makes our lousy early game easier. They usualy also have a good early game presence so that you dont lose the game fast versus early game / mid game oriented teams. Its important that the baby sitter lets you last hit while he concentrates on denying and herassing. Most of these are great ward whores aswell. Wards allows us to be greedier in our farm and see incoming ganks. Thunderbringer is very nice to have in your team as Sand Wraith since he has a global ultimate to help you out. Nymphora also has a global teleport which is very nice for aiding Sand Wraith when we decide to go after a hero.

Initiators - Includes but not limited to

Initiators are very helpful if you play Sand Wraith. They give you the perfect timing to use Mirage and enter the battle. They also dispositions and wears down the opposing team so you can finish them off.

Easy Enemies

There are no easy enemies for Sand Wraith in early in the game since we probably have the weakest early game. Sand Wraith is dominated by anything if she is alone even a solo Chronos. However as the game progress and you have reached late game there are some heroes that are very easy to kill:

In Late game - Heroes with bad strength gain and lone heroes without escape mechanims - Includes but not limited to:

We are good versus all heroes in late game (if we succeeded in farming) however these heroes with bad strength gain cant handle your Dissipation and Mirage AOE damage as they both scale in damage output. They take damage just by being in the fight whether you focus them or not and it hits them hard. Soulstealer for instance hates to be focused and always watches his back. With Mirage you can port right next to him killing him fast. Also if you Mirage and these low strength gain heroes are alone, they often lose ½ or 2/3 of their HP.

Another type of easy enemy is the John J Rambo. He runs around solo thinking he is is invincible. Well he isnt, just Mirage/Teleport and kill him if you are beafy, specially if you went for a Geometers Bane.

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Frequently asked questions, Details that didnt fit into the guide and douche statements area


Show me that picture of how to know where the creeps are!



Q: Hey SyyRaaaN! Wingbow hinders dissipate! Dont build it!

A: This used to true back in Dota 6.49 and prior before the dispersion (Dota name for Dissipation) remake. Back then the skill gave 16% chance to return and block 100% damage. If we built a Butterfly on Spectre the game engine would first roll for the bigger evasion on the Butterfly (Wingbow in dota). The evasion stacked and gave you 46% to evade attacks but the dispersion chance was reduced. I dont remember by how much the chance was reduced. However it still was used as combination of offensive/defensive item back then aswell, even though it maybe wasnt considered the best choise by mathcraft junkies. Another point was that you in general wouldnt want to stack up armor or damage reducing stuff since when dispersion procced, you wanted it to deal as much damge as possible since this skill used to rape hard. Imagine how a team fight would turn if a Pyromancer used his ultimate on Spectre standing in the middle of a fight and dispersion triggered, (it only had 400 aoe back then). It was game breaking. The same went for a Mortred attacking you with a 800 damage critical that you dispersed. Boom, the fight turned. Back then we wanted Behemoths heart to increase our chances to disperse more times not armor since it reduced dispersion damage return since dispersion blocked all incoming damage when it procced. A Sand Wraith with 70 armor and a wingbow would in this version Disperse less damage but survive very well because of her 46% chance to evade incoming damage.

With the new Dispersion of 6.50 this isn't true. The fundamental mechanics of the spell has changed. With evasion you still disperse the full amount (20% after reductions) however you are losing HP at a slower rate and thus dissipating at a slower which doesnt matter much since if you still are in the fight, you are still dealing damage with your enhanced attack by wingbow, tanking more, surviving better and killing stuff just as good. And a 3k health pool even with a Wingbow can be reduced to near 0. My Pestilence argument is viable. You dont want to die, you want to live and dish out damage with your attack and presence meanwhile you dissipate while alive. Think about it, 3000 HP without a wingbow will still deal 600 true damage to everybody within a 1000 aoe before she dies. A 3000 HP Sandwraith with a Wingbow and 70 armor will still deal 600 true damage to everything before she dies but lasting longer in the fight.

Q: Ehum? Helm of the Black Legion? Noob, hahaha!

A: Yeah, new times, new builds. I used to be biased against the Vanguard/Helm for a long time. But thats history now, i embrace all items if they get buffed, using them on the proper heroes. HoTBL is till bad on Heroes that does not need early game survival like most of the Strength Heroes. But on heroes that do, in games that needs it, it is good. The HotBL haters wouldnt even use this item if it was buffed to 350 or 400 HP but yet failing to kill anything carrying it.


Q: No Symbol of Rage as last slot item?

A: As an absolute last slot item its fully acceptable if you farmed some damage. When ur inventory looks like this: Post Haste-Mock-Heart-Geometers-Wingbow/Riftshards-?? <-- Last slot item. So as an extreme luxury its useful but not before. We are not dealing that much damage with our physical attack that is calculated for life steal thats why i dont consider it. With Sand Wraith we are often better off going for the illusion route (getting items that grants us illusions and buffs illusions) than going for combat items. As stated in the guide, let a supporter get Abyssal skull if you need life steal.


Q: Wtf dude, you call Sand Wraith by both masculine and female pronouns? "HAHAHA YOU WANT TO BONE THE WRAITH BUT YOU BISEXUAL! AND CANT MAKE UP YOUR MIND IF ITS A HE OR SHE SO U WISH ITS A CHICK WITH D1CK! HAHAHAHAHA!!!! GTFO YOU NECROPHILE!" - By Assmaster2000
A: New times man, new times! Feminism is growing strong in Sweden making us Swedes unable to differ genders from one another. So confusing


Q: Does illusions Dissipate?

A: No.


Q: If you have 200 HP left out of 7500 hp and Soul Reaper ults you, will you dissipate XXX damage??

A: You dissipate the full amount! ~850 damage dissipated out of 4430 damage taken by a Sand Wraith with 6 Behemoth with low health left.


Q: Any exampels of line ups which Sand Wraith can be used in?

A: Ya, sure, here comes one. There are many many more and this one is taken on the top of my head.



Behemoth and Thunderbringer goes Bottom or Top Lane. You and Plagued Rider lanes Top or Bottom (trying to anticipate their weakest lane). Succubus soloes Mid supporting the Wraith lane with gangs. We got decent amount of gank power, 1 stunner, 1 heavy disabler which can be a bit on the weaker side. This can be compensated by Succubus and Thunderbringer farming Totem of Kuldra. Plagued Rider goes Ward Hoe and farms a Astrolabe. We have a strong team fight aoe damage with Behemoth Clearing creeps with Ultimate, Plagued Riders Ultimate, Thunderbringers Ultimate and Sand Wraiths Ultimate. Also we got a strong disabler to take out their dangerous heroes. We got proper anti pushing and turtlers for Sand Wraith and we are the only one that are heavily item dependent so we are sure to get all farm while our mates run around trying to gank their carry and protecting ours!

As i said there are many many more line ups and im not saying this one is the best, every line up is situational.


Q: Ehum, by "Core" items in the item section in the guide, do you mean that i need to farm ALL those to have my core items finished?

A: No, i just cant find a better word for them since my english suck. They are the items which Sand Wraith centers around. In the item chart, the "mid game items" are your core items strictly speaking.


Q: Any mentions what gets dissipated and what does not? - Plz do not discuss this part in my thread! Go to the mechanics forum and open the discussion there after you confirmed these by testing yourself! And PM me if something is totally wrong!


Silence - Works while silenced
Totem of Kuldra - Works when sheeped.
Disabeld - Works when disabeld.
Invis - Works on invis
Enemy Mock of Brilliance - Gets dissipated.


Slither - Damage over time gets disipated.
Swiftblade - Whirl gets dissipated and swiftblade takes damage. Mechanics: True damage goes through immunities.
Hellbringer - Damage over time gets dissipated.
Jeraziah - Dissipation goes through ultimate and protective charm
Chronos - Dissipation works during his ultimate.
Thunderbringer - Lightning Rod Passive gets dissipated.
Tempest - Meteor Dissipated
Magmus - Works when Lava surged
Zephyr - Works on cyclones
Accursed - Dissipation heals when ultimate is activated.



Swiftblade - Ultimate gets dissipated to other units around - Swiftblade does not take any damage but all other units around does.
Soul Reaper - Withering presence does NOT get dissipated.
Barbed Armor - Damage return does NOT get dissipated (if you are attacking him).

Conclusion: You dissipate almost everything.

That would be all we need to know i think.



What modifiers works on illusions? - Afonzarelli

Works:

Shieldbreaker - Armor debuff works.
Hack and Slash - Crippeled (Maim) works.
Frostwolf skull - Slow works
Mock of Brilliance - Works but does not stack.
Savage Mace - Mini stuns works and damage is applied.
Nullfire Blade - Illusions gets mana burn.
Wingbow - Illusions get evasion
Harkons Blade - Works if Harkons is activated when you cast the ultimate (Does not stack).
Critical strike - Works (i think) but with a lower crit number since the base damage is reduced for illusions.

Does not work:

Charged Hammer - Lightning does not work
Brutalizer - Does not work
Raw + Damage - Does not work, only damage from attributes count, i e + agility, strength and intelligence, not +65 damage.
Raw + IAS - Does not work. +70 IAS does not transfer to illusion, only IAS from agility.

I wanted to put a mini ward guide into the guide since Sand Wraith is so dependent on Wards to be able to farm. But there was no room for it, so i add a simple Ward Picture for you here! Use your own knowledge and intuition to know when to place what ward where! There used to be a ward guide, but i have no clue where it went. Ive might have missed a ward or two, this is just so you get the picture!