Sand Wraith

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.


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.

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.

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.


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.
* Always good with illusions so that they dont die so fast.