Hello and welcome to the beginners’ guide of Dota 2’s most destructive hero – Raigor Stonehoof, the Earthshaker –”Time to shake things up and see where they settle.” Earthshaker is known for his 3 active abilities (Q, W,and R) that specialize in engage, immobilizing and trapping his opponents while having the potential to one-shot the entire enemy team.

﻿

Introduction:

Earthshaker is a melee-strength disabler, initiator, and nuker, that is usually played as an offensive support. He can also be played as a mid-laner, but being dependant against his opposing enemy. As all four of his abilities, in one way or another, contain the ability to disable your opponent, you can either provide great assistance for your carry or strive to be the carry yourself.







With all this said, Earthshaker is known to be one of the most feared heroes in the momentum of anticipation as the brink of battle accumulates.

What are Earthshaker’s Abilities and their use?

1. Fissure (Q)

Earthshaker slams the ground with his mighty totem, creating an impassable ridge of magma wall while stunning and damaging enemy units along its line. The stun duration is 1/1.25/1.5/1.75, while damage is a decent 110/160/210/260. What’s incredible about this ability is its cast range of enormous 1400 – excellent for snipping.

Fissure can come very useful when it comes to ganking or a chase down. Trapping your opponent with a 1400 range magma wall, that lasts for 8 seconds, is a secured-kill if placed correctly. Same goes if your ally friend is in danger. If you cast it in just the right direction, you can block off the enemy team, thus saving your ally.

﻿

The mana-cost of Fissure isn’t cheap (110/130/150/170). When leveling this ability at early levels it will require from you to rush mana items such as Soul Ring, or Arcane Boots, instead of going straight for his core items. While this is also an option, I highly recommend leveling this ability last.

“The Nishian totem splits the world to its core with tectonic force.”

2. Enchant Totem (w)

Earthshaker’s most important ability in his command. By slamming the ground, Earthshake empowers his totem, causing it to deal significantly more damage on his next attack (100%/200%/300%/400%). The damage boost is % based, meaning with additional carry items your damage will uplift even greater.

What’s crazy about this ability is itsupgrade. When purchasing this item,gains an additional ability that allows you to jump up to 900 range. This means, while you gain tremendous damage outburst on your next attack, you can also jump towards your enemy and instantly inflict the devastating blow.

The mana-cost (50) and cooldown (5) of Enchant Totem are marvellously low, and the cooldown gets even lower with Talents (3). Lastly, Enchant Totem has the ability to stun enemies around you within 300 radius, but this addition comes with his Passive (E), which we will talk about in the next section.

“Raigor’s gorilla strength can destroy mountains.”

3. Aftershock (E)

The core of Earthshaker’s power. Perks of this ability works in next ways. On activation of each of his abilities, Aftershock grants them additional damage (75/100/125/150), and stun duration (0.6/0.9/1.2./1.5) within 300 radius around Earthshaker.

This now allows your Enchant Totem to stun enemies, as it previously couldn’t. Meaning you could first stun your opponent regularly with Fissure, walk towards them, and then stun them with Enchant Totem. What’s even better, when you grab your Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade, you can jump on their faces while stunning them.

You might think: “Okay, that’s good, but is that really his core power?” These combinations are pretty cool, but the true meaning of Aftershock comes within his Ultimate.

“The earth trembles beneath the mighty footsteps of Raigor.”



4. Echo Slam (R)

Ah, his Ultimate. Earthshaker gathers all of his strength into one worldshaking slam, sending shockwaves through the ground. Echo Slam damages all enemies around him, and each enemy damaged causes echo within echos to nearby enemies. While damaging heroes cause two echos each. A simple Echoseption.

Echo Slam has a 600 radius, with base damage of 100. The echo damage, on the other hand, is 70/90/110 and insanely increases to 120/140/160 with Talents. With last level Echo Slam and with additional Talents upgrade, if you would hit 10 creeps and 2 heroes, you would do 2040 AoE damage.

But that’s not the end. Here comes the juicy part. Each echo within echos applies Aftershock. Now the damage outcome of last level Echo Slam with Talents on 10 creeps and 2 heroes is unimaginable 3760 AoE damage. Yes, this hero can one-shot the entire enemy team. But keep in mind that momentum is of utmost importance. You need a good stack of creeps, enemy heroes within those stacks and your timing to jump in.

﻿

“Tectonic plates crack, mountains fold, and foes are crushed by the Echo Slam.”

Earthshaker Guide on Gameplay

Earthshaker operates best by beginning his journey as an offensive support, or as an as well aggressive mid-laner. We’ll start with the easier choice.

Don’t get scammed boys: Dragonclaw Hook Scam Pages – Will Valve Take Precaution

Earthshaker Support Guide

With starting ability Fissure, the possibility for first blood is pretty much in the bag. If you land a precise blockade with Fissure, and your ally has one disable at his disposal as well, the enemy will surely fall.

During the laning phase, focus on zoning-out your opponents to provide space for your carry to farm. You could block them out with, or even better gank them from behind and secure your carry with a kill. If you see your carry is doing fine, grab an opportunity to stack some jungle camps for him. You can do this by pulling the jungle camp on 55 seconds of a minute, as they spawn every minute.

By doing so, your carry will eventually grow in power and be able to easily clear these camps. If not, help him out with Fissure and some additional hits from your Enchant Totem. The jungle camp farm is as much important as his lane farm. It’s also important to provide your carry with vision. Good placement of wards will save your carry from enemy ganks.

Once you’ve provided your carry with enough farm, some kills, and vision, you can now focus on helping other lanes. You can buy Smoke to help you with your ganks. It’ll make you undetectable for enough period of time to sneak behind your enemies. But when ganking, try to time your stuns with Fissure and Enchant totem so they don’t stack.

Earthshaker Midlane Guide

If you’re feeling confident with the mid lane, Earthshaker can do wonders. When going versus melee heroes, he is unstoppable. But when going against range heroes it can be a bit tricky. In either case, start your laning phase with Enchant Totem. This will allow you to easily last hit, and deny your opponents creeps, while still being able to inflict good damage on your opponent.

When you’re going against melee heroes, the procedure is simple. Stun your opponent with Enchant Totem, and give him a good headache. Repeat this a couple of times until he gets low, when he does, finish him off with Fissure and last Enchant Totem blast. But when you’re going against range heroes, the procedure is a bit more mana consuming. You’ll have to either grab momentum to approach him, or you’ll have to Fissure him down to inflict Enchant Totem.

When you grab level 6, you’re set up for your first gank. Grab a Smoke to be undetectable, and signal your allies of your coming. As you’re coming from behind, block their passage with Fissure so they can’t run towards their tower. While engaging towards them, try to pull some creeps from the lane for additional damage from your Echo Slama Jama. If there are any survivors, simply finish them off with Enchant Totem.

Earthshaker Guide on Itemization

Like any other hero, Earthshaker needs a set of items that fit him perfectly. If you feel like you’re missing too much mana for your action, go for Arcane Boots. They will give you 250 mana and can refill your mana every 55 seconds. The items also replenishes mana for units around you, so its good for your allies as well. But if you have complete control over your mana-pool, go for additional movement speed and damage from Phase Boots.

The sacred item of Earthshaker is The Blink Dagger. This beautiful item gives you an ability to jump instantly 1200 units away, meaning you don’t have to sneak up anymore and give your opponents a chance to run away. Simply jump in, smash the ground, and trust me, they won’t know what hit them.

For your next item, you should go for Silver Edge. With additional strength, damage, and attack speed, this item gives you the ability to go invisible for 14 seconds. It’s a perfect tool for disengaging after your Echo Slama Jama, but it can also be used as a chase or engage mechanic if your Blink Dagger is on cooldown.

Midgame

Your final core item is Aghanims Scepter. From the ability that provides you jumping action on your Enchant Totem, this item also provides you with a great amount of health and mana, making you more endurable in the upcoming battles.

Next two items can variate. You can boost your ability cast by adding Shiva’s Guard and Refresher Orb. From armor, and attack speed reduction for your enemies, Shiva’s Guard additionally emits a freezing wave within 900 radius, dealing 200 magical damage to enemies around you and slows their movement speed by 40% for 4 seconds. While Refresher Orb speaks for itself – it refreshes all your abilities cooldown.

Or you can go for a more aggressive carry option. Daedalus x2. Besides giving you increased damage by an average of 40.5%, this item provides you with 30% Critical Chance of 235% Critical Damage. This works incredibly well when a Critical Strike procs on your Enchant Totem, and with two Daedaluses you’ve doubled your chances. With this, we conclude our Earthshaker Guide on Gameplay and Itemization.

If you like this Earthshaker Guide so far, you will definitely love this one: Beginners Guide Dota 2 – Ursa Warrior

What are Earthshaker’s Counters?

Lion & Shadow Shaman

2 support Intelligence heroes with long-range and high duration disables (7+ seconds if timed correctly). Either one of these does a very good job against Earthshaker. For most of the game simply because the hero is unable to unleash his Ultimate potential.

Zeus

This caster makes a great deal against Earthshaker. His huge radius passive disables Earthshaker from using his Blink Dagger, thus not allowing him to engage properly within the brink of battle. Zeus also has a global Ultimate that targets all enemy heroes, which he can cast if he sees Earthshaker preparing for action.

Spectre

Spectre works almost ditto to Zeus. Her huge radius passive disables anyone from using Blink Dagger and also has an Ultimate that targets all enemy heroes. Zeus and Spectre are Earthshaker’s worst nightmare.

Who are Earthshaker’s Synergies?

Enigma

Enigma is known to be a good combination with any AoE caster from Dota 2’s regime. Its outstanding Ultimate, called the Black Hole, pulls all enemies inside for 3.25 seconds, allowing Earthshaker to display all of his abilities without a sweat.

Lion & Shadow Shaman

As his counters, they are also good with synergizing their disable abilities with Earthshaker’s. 4 additional disables with Earthshakers 3, makes a no-one-can-escape party for the enemy team.

Tiny

This strength hero is known for his tossing mechanics. While Earthshaker is standing next to Tiny, Tiny has the ability to toss him up to 1300 range onto a selected target, releasing a Nuclear Bomb upon his enemies.

If you like Arcade Games, this one is currently the best Dota 2 has to offer: Dota 2 Auto-Chess – I am Addicted

Final notes:

If you’re a Dota 2 player that is looking to learn a new, fun, yet destructive hero with high carrying potential, then Earthshaker is the hero for you. He is always a fun pub-stomper pick, and very efficient in the Dota 2 professional scene as well. With this said, we conclude our Earthshaker Guide, and as he loves to say – Quiver and quake!