Raigor Stonehoof - Level 1 Earthshaker

In the barren-lands, tales spoke of tauren sages reaping the essence of dirt. Their consciousness melds with the brown beneath them. The loam becomes the conduit of their mental thought and reality. These warriors were feared for they could summon massive ruptures at their mere whim. So tremendous was their power that their magic leaks out of the earth violently with every spell. Sadly these sages mysteriously faded from the land. When the World Tree was threatened, couriers searched these mighty ones but found just one. A young adept, Raigor Stonehoof, seeks battle to weave new tales of these shamans.

Hero Abilities

	Enchant Totem Empowers the totem resting on Raigor's back, causing it to deal extra damage on the next attack. Level 1 - 50% increased damage. Level 2 - 100% increased damage. Level 3 - 150% increased damage. Level 4 - 200% increased damage. Cooldown: 7 seconds. Level 1: 50 mana, 7 sec cooldown. Level 2: 50 mana, 7 sec cooldown. Level 3: 50 mana, 7 sec cooldown. Level 4: 50 mana, 7 sec cooldown.
	Aftershock The power of Raigor casting a spell causes the earth to shake below him, dealing additional damage and stunning. Level 1 - 25 damage, .3 second stun. Level 2 - 45 damage, .7 second stun. Level 3 - 75 damage, 1.2 second stun. Level 4 - 115 damage, 1.5 second stun. Passive
	Echo Slam Raigor sends shockwaves shooting through the ground, dealing damage ricocheting to nearby targets for additional damage. Level 1 - 200 initial damage, 35 echo damage. Level 2 - 275 initial damage, 45 echo damage. Level 3 - 350 initial damage, 65 echo damage. Cooldown: 150/130/110 seconds. Level 1: 145 mana, 150 sec cooldown. Level 2: 205 mana, 130 sec cooldown. Level 3: 265 mana, 110 sec cooldown.

C.Skill Build

Level1 - Fissure
Level2 - Aftershock
Level3 - Fissure
Level4 - Aftershock
Level5 - Fissure
Level6 - Echo Slam
Level7 - Fissure
Level8 - Aftershock
Level9 - Enchant Totem
Level10 - Aftershock
Level11 - Echo Slam
Level12 - Enchant Totem
Level13 - Enchant Totem
Level14 - Enchant Totem
Level15 - Stats
Level16 - Echo Slam
Level17 - Stats
Level18 - Stats
Level19 - Stats
Level20 - Stats
Level21 - Stats
Level22 - Stats
Level23 - Stats
Level24 - Stats
Level25 - Stats


Skill build Q&A
Why do I max out Fissure first?

Fissure is what makes Earthshaker Earthshaker. This skill has a lot of uses, from sniping to blocking creeps to saving allies to setting ganks to ... With its long range and high damage, it is certainly a skill to be maxed as soon as possible.

Why no enchant Totem early game? It helps you harass melee enemies!

If you are getting Echo Slam at level 6, enchant totem will be useless. Why? First of all, enchant totem needs aftershock to be really be of some use, thus that means 1 of the 2 points would have to go to enchant totem, and the other Aftershock. Unless you want to skip fissure of course, which I highly doubt so. Now, level 1 of aftershock is near to useless, 25damage after magic reduction is not even enough to reduce 1mm of the enemy's life bar. Same for Enchant Totem, + 50% damage gives you only like extra 30 damage early game for 50 mana.

So why not stats over aftershock?

This is like an investment, aftershock needs to be at level 4 to be useful, thus if you get stats first you would only delay the time taken to get aftershock. Only level 4 aftershock will be of some use to enchant totem.

Why is enchant totem better than stats?

After many times I felt that level 1 enchant totem was near to useless, since it only gives +50% increase damage, and that is only your base damage, which does not even reach 50 early -mid game. With maxed enchant totem, you can get up to 200 increased damage, which helps a lot in tower kills and finishing enemies.

Here are the screenshots to prove to you why enchant totem is better:

ES with level 1 enchant totem and 3 levels of stats


ES with level 4 enchant totem and no stats level


If you get 3 levels of stats, it gives you 6 extra str, 6 extra agi and 6 extra int. The str would not have make much of a difference, because most of the times no one will target you after you finished with your combo

As such, the only things Raigor would benefit from these would be the 6 str, since his lack of mana is solved by Eul's, and I would rather prefer extra 100 + damage than 6 damage and 100+ hp.

Also, by the time you max out enchant totem, it is not really late game yet, thus most heroes would not have gotten armor increasing items, because they are still busy forming their core items, so you cannot really say armor will reduce it by a lot.

Your priority is to hit low hp agi and int heroes, and most of them would not have much hp, thus you would still be doing significant damage. The extra damage also helps from saving up uses of cyclone in case you are chasing down enemy heroes with 1/4 life.

Why get Level 1 Enchant Totem before maxing out Aftershock?

Enchant totem goes hand in hand with Aftershock, without aftershock Enchant Totem is nothing but merely a damage adding tool. Since level 1 and 2 aftershock is near to useless, the stun time is not even 1second, I suggest only getting level 1 enchant totem after level 3 aftershock, because only then will the stun time(1.2sec) be enough for you to do something. Getting it before maxing Aftershock gives you an extra stun which is always welcome on any hero.

D.Item builds

Item build : Maximizing support

D.i Core Items



Explanation on Core Items

1.Ring Of Regeneration

This item is much more cost effective than RoH in my opinion as long as you plan your steps carefully, and you don't need to wait in fear if your lane enemy is a heavy nuker early game while waiting for gold to get your RoH.

2.Lesser Clarity Potions

Get two of this early game to weaken the enemy first with fissure at level 6/7 before trying for a kill.

3.Boots Of Speed

Every hero's needs, especially for a slow cow with base movespeed of 290. Do not think about catching up with your enemy low on life while waiting for your fissure to cooldown without this item.

4.Kelen's Dagger Of Escape

An essential item for almost all combo heroes. Not to mention it can also be used as an escape tool. With this item, it opens up a lot of new possiblities.Take note though that it is only a 700 range blink ability with 25 sec cooldown.

1.Having trouble with many enemy heroes? Just blink over to the nearest cliff and block off the only entrance with fissure and watch them retreat.

2) Enemy hero running away with red health; the creeps refuse to budge, intent on doing their best to get in your way; he is disappearing from your sight; you grow increasingly desperate… Just blink up and use Fissure for a deserved kill.

3)A team battle has occured, your allies are all dying and you were late for some reason. As your enemies hunt down your dying teammates, you surprise them by blinking in and blocking their way with Fissure, or reducing their life so they are forced to retreat.

5.Guinsoo's Scythe Of Vyse

Increased mana regen, increased mana pool for you to spam fissure more often without worrying that you will be unable to releash your full combo when unexpected team battles occur. Not to mention, the 4 second hex is a plus to aid your teammates more.

6.Scroll Of Town Portal

I decided to add this item in, after realising that it has many uses. In team battles, a town portal back to your fountain to heal and a boots of travel back can be extremely useful, and can sometimes make or break a win. It is also very helpful in escaping.

1.Is this build the best for Earthshaker?

This build contains almost everything an Earthshaker needs for being a team support. This build only costs less than 10000 gold, which is pretty easy to get in a real game, with the most expensive item being Blink Dagger which costs 2150.

2.Why don't get Ring Of Health first?

If you are facing problems surviving with a single RoR, get 2 RoR instead of a RoH since they are also much more cheaper. Although RoH does help later in forming refresher orb, it's already quite late in the game and there might not be a chance for you to form it, and you probably should not have a lot of problem for farming for 400+gold at that time(after selling the 2XRoRs),

D.ii Advanced Items



1.Refresher Orb

Refresher Orb is the item next in line, considering that corpses do give off Echo damage. With this, you would be able to stun opponents for a long period of time, with 4 aftershocks from enchant totem and echo slam and 2 fissures. Not to mention, it refreshes guinsoo also.

2.Boots Of Travel

Ok, so now you just blinked in and your food managed to get away. With BoT, you will have a greater chance to catch up with him and cast your last fissure for a deserved kill. The teleport ability is also a plus to make quick trips back to the fountains after a battle or quick trips to help your allies.

3.Heart Of Tarrasque

Earthshaker often draws fire the hard way, since you would be right in the middle of the enemies after casting your combo. With Heart you might have a better chance of surviving.

4.Aegis of the Immortal

For someone starting with such low armor, the armor from Aegis is a lot, making you as hard as steel. The 3 charges also help a lot in determining the fate of the game especially during later levels of the game.

D.iv Why certain items are bad on Earthshaker

1.Cranium Basher

Bashers? With Raigor's low attack speed you are sure you would need items that boost your attack speed to fully take advantage of this item. This is much better on heroes like Naix and AntiMage, but definitely not Raigor. You are better off maximizing the power of his skills.

2.Battle Fury

So what if there is a cool animation. Perserverance should be made into Refresher Orb whenever it is possible, 2 perserverances is an overkill, with fissure and enchant totem and aftershock you should have no problem farming, what for do you need another farming tool? The damage is helpless too due to Raigor's low attack speed.

3.Eye Of Skadi

This item takes way too long to build, and Earthshaker does not benefit from the slow much as he has a wide arsenal of stuns. If you want to increase your hp and mana pool, I would recommend Linken's Sphere instead of Skadi.

4.Dagon

This item is only good on certain heroes, e.g Pugna. A 400 damage nuke is nothing during late game, and it is kind of dumb to spend 1350 gold to upgrade it just to get 100 damage more. And you can only damage one hero at a time with Dagon, but Raigor is a mass AOE damage dealer!!! and support hero!!

5.Sange & Yasha

Extra movespeed? Get Boots of Travel instead. A chance to maim? You have a wide arsenal of stuns, what for you need to slow somebody. Increased attack speed? It would not really make a lot of difference. With this item, you are focusing all on the wrong sides of Raigor, you should be focusing on his int instead of agi and str.

6.Satanic

How often have you found that you have a Satanic, you are in the middle of a team battle, and you are low on hp, desperately finding a creep to death pact when the best you could find is a half life ghoul or treant? Most of the time, the creeps would be damaged by AOE spells from the other team. So in short, this item actually only gives Raigor a measly 25damage and some pathetic hp. And since you do not have much mana increasing items, most of the time you would also find that you do not have enough mana to death pact. Raigor does not benefit from the Life Leech much due to his low IAS and his terrible damage output.

7.Lothar's Edge

Blink dagger > Lothar's Edge on Earthshaker. Earthshaker does not benefit much from the stats lothar's give, the only thing he needs is the element of surprise, and blink dagger does this way better. Blink dagger is foolproof, low mana cost, and cheaper.

8.Ring Of Basilius

Since we will be going caster Raigor build, and Basilius gives fixed mana regen, it is way inferior compared to something that gives mana regen depending on your int such as void stone. Basilius cannot be upgraded to anything either later in the game too, making it a lousy investment.

9.Mekasm

The mana strain on Raigor is already too much purely with his combo, leave this item to the int heroes instead. What is better, healing 250hp to the whole team or dealing more than 250damage to the other team?

10.Vanguard

The argument that Vanguard is needed on Raigor is due to the fact that he needs to blink into a huge wave of units to unleash his combo. But think about it, after echo slam ALL of the creeps will be dead, and the enemies stunned for a short period of time, and the next thing they would do would be to use their spells on you. So how does the damage block even help at all in the first place?

D.iii The items you see on optional builds

1.Soul Booster

A cheap version of heart, and it helps to add some mana too. Although some people prefer this to Eul's, below is my reason why I think Eul's should be of priority before Soul booster.

Why is Eul's better in my opinion

An Eul's would serve most purpose in surviving than a soul booster. For example, during at the start of mid game, there are a lot of heroes that can afford to tank tower hits and still be able to kill you. Even if you hug towers, some of them will still come and gank you, mostly in 2s if they are in the same lane. Now what if they both have disables? With only a soul booster, you would only be able to stun one of them, whereas the other hero would disable you, then when you have recovered the other person would long ago have recovered and continued to disable you. With cyclone, you can disable both of them by stunning one and cycloning one and then escape.

Ok, so during the time you were stunned maybe the tower could have taken more hits on them, a Soul Booster might give you more hp, so maybe you can take one more nuke or 3-4more hits, which is around 3-4 more hits from the tower. And during this period of time, the most you can do is damage one of them with echo slam, which does not really hurt much due to fact there is only 2 units around.

With a Eul's, it's different, when ganks occur, when 2 heroes(both disablers are chasing after you still might have a chance to escape with cycloning one + stunning the other, whereas with soul booster the other hero would still be able to disable you while waiting for the other hero to recover from his stun.

2.Early game Boosters

Get one or two null talismans/bracers if you are having trouble with last hitting, try not to get more than that because it will only slow you down for Eul's and Blink Dagger. The extra hp and mana pool also help greatly in pulling off your combo. But you don't really need the mana that much if you are going for Eul's, and the hp doesn't seem to be very attractive either considering that he doesn't really have low str gain compared to some heroes such as Leshrac.

4.Radiance

+70 damage is always welcome on any hero, and since Raigor is an AOE damage dealer the 40 damage immolation does boost his firepower by a lot. The reason why it is not preferred to other items is due to its high cost.

5.Black King Bar

10 seconds of spell immunity after unleashing your combo helps to prevent you from dying straight away after casting your combo since you will be drawing a lot of fire. But this item is not really needed if you have good co-ordination with your allies, and your spells are not chaneling types either.

6.Manta Style

Manta Style? Right after you blink into the middle of the enemies, use this to create even more confusion! Watch as they try to finish off your images while you sneak away or hit them without them noticing. The problem with this item is you would probably need to get some other items to boost your images hp/damage, and you have no skills that enchance your images firepower other than stunlocks.

7.Necromicon and Recipes

Good item considering that Raigor can stun for a long period of time. The reason why it is not preferred is because of the extra micro-ing that you need with this item, and as Necromicon also has to be gotten as soon as possible to make full use of it, Blink Dagger is much more preferred for killing rather than Necromicon.

8.Typical DPS items

Now you tell me, does Raigor have a decent base attack speed? No. Does Raigor have a decent strength gain compared to heroes such as Sven/Skeleton King? No. Does Raigor has any spells that boost his DPS per second? Yes, enchant totem but it's based off your base damage so items that increases attack directly don't help. Is he able to farm well enough? Yes, but only if he gets mana regen items to spam aftershock/fissure, or mana capacity items to help him kill with his combo early-mid game. So in what way does he make a good DPS hero?

E.Strategy

Support Build

Early game 1-7

Choose Raigor and get your RoR and 2 clarities.g. Lane buddy is best for Earthshaker since it opens up a lot of options with your wallblocking fissure. Solo-ing is not recommended because you would still have a difficult time getting in place to cast echo slam at level 6 due to your low movespeed.

Head on to the "longest lane"(top for scourge and bot for sentinel), as you can easily trap the enemy heroes withnin your tower range if they are not careful enough.

If there are mana burners such as NA and AM in your lane, hugging tower would help a lot because whenever they try to burn your mana you can try and stun them and get them in the range of your tower. If you are up against silencer who keeps using curse of the silent on you then it is best for you to switch lanes with someone who can afford to nuke, or someone whose mana regen is very fast.

Once you reach level 6 or 7, you can try to find some power ups in the river. Invisibility and haste helps a lot for Raigor at this stage. If you manage to find a invisibility rune, find some heroes whose hp is preferably around 400-500, wait for them to stand together with the new creep wave, then cast echo slam, land 1 hit, fissure and land 1 or 2 more hits if needed. This should be enough to kill most heroes with only 400-500 hp.

Or you can weaken the enemy with one fissure, hide in the trees using clarities to heal, because most of the times they might have thought you went back to heal mana, then poof out from the fog of war and unleash echo slam+ fissure at them.

Early game Items:

Ring Of Regen (375)
Clarity Potions X 2 (100)
Boots of Speed (500)
Robe of the Magi (450)

Total cost : 1425

Mid game 8-15

Mid game is where you shine. Your aim is to get Eul's and Blink Dagger as fast as possible. If team battles occur, you should enter in the mid of the confusion and just echo slam, then follow up with enchant totem and fissure if you have the mana to spare.

Look for a low hp agi/int hero farming happily alone or if his allies are all busy in the other lanes after you have got Eul's. Wait for hun to come together with a new creep wave, hide in the fog of war since you don't have blink dagger yet, then come out once he's in range and quickly cast Fissure + Enchant Totem + Echo Slam. But only use echo slam if you are sure you can get the kill. If echo slam is cooling down, just fissure + enchant totem + land 1 or 2 Hits, Eul's, and when he lands, enchant totem again + hit, and chase until Fissure finishes its cooldown. He should be dead by the 2nd fissure unless he has more than 1k hp, but if he is still alive continue the chase unless you realize there are other heroes missing from the other lanes, then it's safer to retreat first. Refer to combo section for more information regarding these.

After you have level 4 Aftershock, level 4 Fissure, and 1 point in Enchant Totem(around levels 10-12), you can easily farm all the gold in a creep wave. Just go head on with the creep wave and cast fissure, Enchant Totem, and finish off the remaining melee creeps with just 1 or 2 hits.. By the time you reach the next creep wave, your cooldown and mana would have been replenished to a certain extent, and this helps greatly in farming your blink dagger ASAP.



Mid Game Items:

Staff Of Wizardy (1000)
Void Stone (900)
Eul's Scepter Of Divinity Recipe (450)
Kelen's Dagger Of Escape (2150)

Total cost : 4500

Late game 16-25

This is where you shine even more, especially if you are defending due to the fact that there are MORE creeps now, and heroes always stick together. Multiple pushing heroes such as Furion and Phantom Lancer are no match for your echo slam, and they would be wise enough not to push together with such a huge wave of creeps.

Always try to enter the battle in the middle and surprise your enemies by stopping their movements for a few seconds for your allies to get their revenge.The only time when you should blink in to surprise the enmy first is when there are enemies such as Omniknight and Naix on the other team so that you can follow up with cyclone/hex right away.

Stop their paths with fissure, or guinsoo for those pesky windwalkers, stalling time for your allies to catch up with them. You are one of the best counter pusher in the game, so if you know your team cannot break the last tower, do not fret. Just to try to defend as long as you can. Normally, nobody can push with Earthshaker on the other team, as most of the times they will be forced to retreat.

Quarterstaff (1150)
Robe Of the Magi (450)
Sobi Mask (325)
>>>Oblivion Staff (1925)
Guinsoo's Scythe Of Vyse Recipe (450)

Total cost :2375

If the game goes on, you can start to form your refresher orb. With guinsoo, you would have enough mana for Echo Slam/Enchant Totem/Fissure/Refresh/Echo Slam/ Enchant Totem/Fissure combo. Either that, or you can get heart of tarrasque/Aegis to make yourself into a mini-tank seeing that you can draw fire very well with your skills.

The total mana needed is 265 + 50 + 170 + 375 + 265 + 50 + 170 = 1345. With a guinsoo your mana is around 1400- 1500.

E.i Teampush

Pushing and Defending

If there are only 5 heroes there and no creeps around, do not worry, just echo slam right away, followed by enchant totem and fissure.

Blink in andd cast echo slam right beside the enemy you are nearest to Follow up by Enchant totem and Fissure and land a hit on the nearest hero Next you should cyclone the one who can disable/damage the most or the tank if you have your Eul's.Some good examples to cyclone are Rhasta, Lion, Sandking (why sandking because you have used up your stuns and do not have anything to stop epicenter)

So if you had timed your skills correctly, you should be able to stun them for 1.5 sec (Aftershock from Echo Slam) + 1.5sec (Aftershock from Enchant Totem) + 1.75(Fissure stun[aftershock stun does not kick in as it triggers at the same time with fissure so it gets ovvridden]). Of course, this is an ideal case, most probably most of the time you would only be able to stun 2 or 3 heroes in your range.

If you have obtained your Eul's or Guinsoo, After you get in and cast all spells, surprising enemies such as Naix and Omniknight before they can use their magic immune spells, the next thing you should do is to disable them. If there are no Naix and Omniknight around, you should save your hex/cyclone for disables and damage dealers. Because most of the time after you have casted all skills, support heroes would normally be reduced to low hp and be forced to retreat.