▶️
Many hands make light work.
This article is badly written or needs more information. Please help the community by updating it. Read this formatting guide first.
Bad against...
- Boulder Smash will push Sand King out of Sand Storm to reveal his position or an activated Epicenter off of Earth Spirit's allies, potentially wasting his combo
- Rolling Boulder and Geomagnetic Grip allow Earth Spirit to easily stun and silence Sand King and interrupt the channeling of Epicenter, completely ruining his initiation.
- Sand King has nothing to deal with Supernova, as none of his spells are effective.
- The damage-over-time abilities of Phoenix disable Sand King's Blink Dagger very often.
- Burrowstrike is one of the best and easiest steals for Rubick and Sand King should be careful when playing against him - it's much better to give away Sand Storm.
- Both Arcane Curse and Last Word punishes casters with spammable spells such as Sand King.
- As a strength caster, Intelligence Steal reduces Sand King's mana pool even more.
- Global Silence silences Sand King, effectively reducing Sand King's initiation and counter-initiation potential. It can also interrupt channeling of Epicenter.
- Ravage, being an AoE disable, cancels Epicenter's channeling from a long range, limiting his potential to counter-initiate.
- This can be remedied, however, by first using a Black King Bar, then channel Epicenter, then finally initiate with Blink Dagger.
- Zeus usually stays at the back in teamfights and it is hard for Sand King to find Zeus and knock him down before Zeus deals his damage.
- All of Zeus' abilities, especially Thundergod's Wrath, disables Sand King's Blink Dagger, effectively reducing Sand King's initiation and counter-initiation potential.
- Lightning Bolt deals damage to Sand King in Sand Storm and reveals him. It also interrupts channeling of Epicenter.
Others
- Lifestealer's Rage negates Sand King's spells which do magical damage.
- Pugna's Nether Ward damages Sand King when he channels Epicenter, preventing him from using Blink Dagger afterward.
Items
- Black King Bar ignores all Sand King's abilities.
- Dust of Appearance, Gem of True Sight and Sentry Wards will reveal Sand King through Sand Storm.
- Orchid Malevolence silences, preventing Sand King from casting spells. It might as well cancel Epicenter channeling and waste its mana and putting it on cooldown without applying its effects.
- Linken's Sphere can block Burrowstrike, Sand King's only inherent disable.
- Silver Edge will disable Sand King's Caustic Finale, weakening his damage output and waveclear.
- Lotus Orb will reflect Sand King's Burrowstrike, making it difficult for Sand King to use it against a hero who is affected by it.
- Blade Mail will reflect Sand King's Epicenter, which could result in possibly killing Sand King unless Sand King is debuff immune.
Good against...
- Caustic Finale allows Sand King to easily kill Broodmother's Spiderlings throughout the game.
- Sand King can usually catch a split pushing Broodmother with Blink Dagger and Burrowstrike.
- Burrowstrike allows Sand King to escape from Eclipse or to close the gap on Luna and finish her off.
- Sand Storm allows Sand King to harass Luna more efficiently than she does with Lucent Beam, as it makes him invisible for it's duration and while in it, rendering him safe from both, Lucent Beam and Eclipse and forcing Luna to buy Dust of Appearance more often.
- Caustic Finale allows Sand King to deal serious damage to both, Luna and her allies, which is especially hazardous for Luna during the laning stage as Luna's attack range is short.
- Epicenter combined with Burrowstrike and Sand Storm can often kill Luna before she can do anything because of her low health and strength gain.
- Overall, Sand King forces Luna to play more defensively instead of offensively, and for the same reasons, Sand King makes a very powerful ally for Luna when they are in the same team.
- Burrowstrike can stun multiple Meepos, making them vulnerable targets.
- Epicenter and Sand Storm's AoE damage ensures all Meepo clones get damaged, making it hard for Meepo to choose which one to flee as all are taking damage at the same rate.
- Just be aware when using Sand Storm to escape, as Meepo has good AoE damage and disables, which, as explained in the "Bad Against" section, works well against an invisible Sand King.
- With Caustic Finale, Sand King can easily kill the treants from Nature's Call.
- Burrowstrike allows Sand King to prevent Nature's Prophet from using Teleportation inside of his Sprout.
- Phantom Assassin relies on her Blur to stay alive, but is very vulnerable to Sand King's heavy magic damage.
- With Burrowstrike, Sand King can often catch Phantom Assassin before she can use her Black King Bar.
- Sand King can dodge Stifling Dagger with Sandstorm.
- Phantom Assassin has a hard time killing Sand King because of his high mobility.
- Slark will have a hard time killing Sand King because of the survivability he gets from Burrowstrike and Sand Storm.
- Shadow Dance, which usually allows Slark to survive fights, is ineffective against Sand King's AoE damage.
- Sand King can quickly remove her Refraction with his Sand Storm.
- Once Refraction is down, she is very vulnerable to Epicenter's high magic damage.
Others
- Because of his massive AoE damage, Sand King is very effective against illusion heroes: Chaos Knight, Phantom Lancer, Terrorblade, Naga Siren.
- Sand King is a strong ganker, allowing him to shut down squishy heroes in the early game: Phantom Assassin, Clinkz, Sniper, Enchantress.
- Heroes with no mobility will take some good damage from Sand King's spells: Dragon Knight, Jakiro, Pugna, Earthshaker.
- Heroes that rely on slows to get kills: Lifestealer, Night Stalker, Ursa, Phantom Assassin, Terrorblade.
Items
- Manta Style's illusions can be easily cleared with Sand King's massive AoE damage.
- Ghost Scepter and Ethereal Blade do nothing against Sand King but only making it's owner more vulnerable to his magical damage output.
Works well with...
- The mana regen from Arcane Aura allows Sand King to spam abilities with less concern for mana pool.
- Both have good disables that are rather useful when ganking.
- The mana regen from Chakra Magic allows Sand King to spam abilities with less concern for mana pool.
- As Keeper of the Light channels a Illuminate, Sand King will as well channel his Epicenter and blink into the enemy lines, both unleashing huge AoE magic damage.
- Will-O-Wisp provides a reliable setup for Sand King to follow up with Epicenter.
- Ravage and Epicenter will do a great combo.
- Tossing Sand King in the enemy lines can set one hell of a gank and initiation.
- Burrowstrike and Epicenter can keep enemies in the middle of Wukong's Command.
- Both of these Heroes also possess high range disables, capable of easily interrupting enemy teleports or other channeling spells, and make fleeing difficult.
- Chaotic Offering and Upheaval are a great way to keep enemies close during Epicenter
- Fatal Bonds Combos well with all of Sand Kings abilities. A Fatal Bonds/Epicenter combo on 5 heroes will deal 100% more damage
- Burrowstrike and Fissure produce long stun duration, which Sand King can channel Epicenter without problems.
- Echo Slam's and Aftershock's huge damage and stun can either provide set up or clean up after Epicenter.
Others
- AoE disables fares well with Sand King by locking down his targets as he unleashes high AoE damage: Sven, Enigma, Elder Titan, Earthshaker and others.
- In general, Heroes with AoE abilities (especially stuns and slows) can be effective when paired with Sand King due to his initiation capabilities. Such Heroes include Crystal Maiden, Monkey King, Phoenix, and Venomancer.
- Naga Siren's Song of the Siren is better used when it has some sort of follow up or initiation, and Sand King can easily fill this role.
