DOTA Guide - Earthshaker

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nitromon
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DOTA Guide - Earthshaker

Postby nitromon » Thu Feb 07, 2019 2:47 am

Some people are probably surprised I'm writing a guide for Earthshaker as it is not an uncommon hero. However, the reason I'm posting this is to share the late carry build, mentioned in the DOTA Fundamental guide. Like the Phoenix, it was one of the heroes I use to play religiously at one point and now I barely ever play him.

Hero Guide to Earthshaker:
Generally Earthshaker is an early-mid carry and a lategame support. Unlike other heroes which the efficiency is determined by time, his efficiency greatly increases by having a core item, which we will get to later. I will first skim through the support build, for any new players that may want to learn it, though most of this can be learned by watching other players in game or learning in game.

Early Game: First 15-20 minutes
To start off, you want to level fissure of course. Nukes should always be leveled first because they grow weaker as game progresses. Starting item requires some sort of mana regen. The 2 most common is soulring or manaboot. Now everyone has their own taste, but I generally do not recommend both soulring and manaboot on any hero, with exception such as techies. Usually one is enough and in this case I recommend manaboot over soulring. Why? Because despite ES being a STR hero, he is not really tanky and soulring takes hp to cast. Manaboot also gives a larger manapool which he needs.

With manaboot and Ring of Basil (ROB) or Aquila (ROA), he has more than enough mana for early game in the lane. Many players get manaboot and soulring to spam, which again I do not recommend. Spamming is really a noob move with any hero. You expend your spell during spam and then find yourself either OOM or CD when ganked or ganking. Save your fissure for when you need it and farm with Enchanted Totem, which costs barely any mana and has low CD. Practice controlling the lane with your fissure by blocking your opponent into compromising positions such as trapping them in your tower. Even if you do not catch them, but if your opponent knows you are trying, they will be more careful in farming and tower rushing, giving you space.

Once you have manaboot + ROA, save for that core item. The ROA should give you armor and a little more HP, if it is not enough, consider a bracer or poorman's shield, both are roughly 500-600 gold cheap. But remember, this cuts into your savings for the core item. The core item can either be a blink dagger or a lothar, again I do not recommend both b/c you do need other items by midgame. Lothar allows you to escape when you are in trouble, but it is counterable with dust and orbs. Blink is cheaper and better offensively, but cannot help you if you are in trouble. Blink is recommended in this case b/c if you are in trouble, you can rely on your stuns to get away. Also the faster you get this item, the faster you become more efficient.

Level accordingly - Fissure, Aftershock, Fissure, Enchanted Totem, Fissure, Echo Slam, Fissure, Aftershock all the way through. Level the nuke as it is more powerful early. Aftershock before ET b/c you want to get that stun leveled.

Items: Boot + tango start --> manaboot, ROA, and quickly to blink.

Combo: Most basic combo is blink in Echo Slam, Enchanted Totem, Fissure, and attack or C-E-F. Always cast your ult first as it requires no animation delay.

Mid Game: 15/20-30/35 minutes
By mid game you would need common items to stack your abilities to continue your efficiency. Most will get a scepter to improve the ult. Other suggested item is shiva. Those 2 will increase his hp + armor to help him survive and also attack. Veil is also a good early easy item to get quickly. If you are surviving well, radiance is another possible AOE item and to help support, guinsoo is always appreciated. I've also seen people going Euls, which you basically eul yourself while your abilities CD, such as Enchanted Totem which is quick, so you can land another stun once you land from Euls. If you are required to do some tanking, BM is necessary and it works quite well with Shiva's armor and other tank items.

Late Game: 35 min +
Most people will be able to get 1 or maybe 2 of the items mentioned in the mid game. In lategame, ES as a support basically try to get all the items mentioned and you support your team with your stuns and nukes. You do not initiate since you are not really a tank, so you will require tanks on your team to pull enemies together, easier for you to get your echo slam down.

In majority of games, this is more than enough. However, like other casters, the weakness of this build is being countered by BKB or pipe. Or in some instances where your team lacked a lategame carry, so you need to initiate and take out enemies while depending on your team to support. This is why a lategame carry build is necessary in some games.

Late Game Carry Build:
I've only seen 1 other player on ENT that actually played this style, but he was doing a combination of both caster build above and DPS build. As mentioned, veteran ES do not build the hero around fissure or his ult, they build the ES around the Enchanted Totem. Most people never viewed ES as a DPS tank carry and ET is often completely overlooked. It is an increase of 400% at level 4, that is a massive damage increase.

The starting build is the same except you might want to consider an INT tread instead of a manaboot. The reason is in the DPS build, you will benefit more from the increase IAS with treads. You need it on INT early b/c you need the manapool, but later switch to STR for bulk. You are wondering without a manareg, how can you play ES? In the DPS build, you focus on ET, not fissure or your ult. You only need enough mana to finish your combo, you don't need it to spam.

Now the totem ability has a really short CD, I think it is 5 sec, while the ability itself lasts around 15 sec (I didn't look up the exact numbers). It means you can virtually always be in ET mode. The proper way to use ET is to have it always available, then you attack with it and instantly ET again for a 2nd attack. Because you are focusing on ET, you may want to level it to 4 before aftershock, but I still would prefer the aftershock passive since ET will get better as your hero levels into lategame.

With ET in mind, you don't necessarily need to depend on the C-E-F combo. What you want to do is fissure first since the fissure stun is the longest. While they're stunned, you then blink in and attack with ET already enabled causing massive damage, then you ET again for a 2nd attack. This alone should be more than enough to severely weaken any hero, you do not even need your ult. You can also try blinking in and then fissure. This will give you the aftershock damage with the fissure since you are on top of them, but fissure has a casting animation delay so it is risky.

Some might prefer lothar over blink in this build b/c of the increase IAS and damage. However, again personally, I prefer the blink b/c the increase damage is negligible in late game after his damage items.

So the items are as follow: Tread, blink, Battlefury, Buriza, Skadi, Satanic.

Tread and blink first of course, but the others depend on the flow of the game. I would prefer to get the damage items first, but if you are getting killed a lot, you might just get 1 damage item first and then work on the skadi. Satanic is usually last as it is only really effective when you have your damage and IAS high enough to sustain a fight.

Battlefury to make the ET AOE, buriza to give crit strike to ET. The final result at level 25 is a possible 2600-2800 Crit with ET and if you use it in the manner described above, you can do it twice in an attack causing 5000-near 6000 attack with just your ET, not counting using fissure or echo slam + aftershock damage.

From here is where some differ on builds. Some people want to focus more on damage, say a 2nd fury to increase AOE of ET and some want to get a abyssal blade or radiance. Those are "possible" if you have good tanks and support on your team. However, I prefer a more overall build that allows you to sustain a fight. Remember, critical strike is only a %, you are taking a chance. Without the crit, you are still just another hero. Skadi gives you bulk, IAS, manapool, and frost, everything you need. Satanic increases that bulk and the lifesteal benefits from your ET damage, especially if a crit hits, you get practically full life regn in 1 hit.

Abyssal blade is ineffective without IAS, so going this you will definitely need tread and lothar if you are not getting skadi. A 2nd fury makes the AOE on ET even better, but I'm not sure if it is worth the trade off. I've done the math, and with the STR increase from skadi and satanic, the difference between my build and replacing the 2 items with damage items only gives you an additional 200 in the critical strike. For me, that is not worth the trade off. A bulking ES with skadi, satanic, crit and his stuns is a formidable lategame carry that blinks to initiate and tanks for his teammates. If he gets just one of the crit in the ET attack, that's enough to pretty much finish the enemy team, imagine getting 2 ET crit and then adding his nukes.

Summary:
This is a very fun hero and if you have never tried the late carry DPS build, I recommend it. Shock your opponents when you blink in and doing 2x 2600 damage crit and sustain tanking fighting with your satanic and skadi. Best part is, this build cannot be countered by pipe or bkb.

So the items are as follow: Tread, blink, Battlefury, Buriza, Skadi, Satanic.

Have fun! ;)

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