* 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.
*
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.
*
False Promise effectively nullifies Primal Roar's single-target initiation on allies.
*
Purifying Flames kills Beastmaster's Hawk instantly and Boar with two casts.
* 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.
*
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.
*
Cold Embrace mitigates Primal Roar's single-target initiation on allies.
*
Winter's Curse can turn Beastmaster's summons and Inner Beast against his teammate.
Additional:
* Beastmaster's summons and
Inner Beast are very useful to attack his cursed teammate.
* Cold Embrace effectively mitigates
Primal Roar's single-target initiation on allies.
* Quill Spray will hit Sand King inside
Sand Storm, damaging him and putting Sand King's
Blink Dagger on cooldown, preventing him from escaping.
*
Epicenter's numerous damage ticks will trigger Bristleback's passive repeatedly during teamfights.
*
Frostbite kills boars instantly on the laning stage leading to either experience lead or disabling Beastmaster from using Boar
*
Crystal Nova nukes and slows down the attack and movement speed of Beastmaster's summons.
*
Freezing Field grants improved self armor, nukes and slows down Beastmaster and his summons.
*
Illuminate clears Beastmaster's summons and is effective against his push.
* Ghostship helps your team soak up damage from
Epicenter, especially if he initiates during the battle.
*
Sand King can't dodge X Marks the Spot - Torrent combo by his abilities. Torrent drags him out of his
Sand Storm
*
Aphotic Shield effectively nullifies Primal Roar's single-target initiation on allies.
* Even being initiated by Primal Roar,
Borrowed Time can make Abaddon extremely difficult to kill.
Additional:
*
Primal Roar can be instantly dispelled by Aphotic Shield.
* The debuffs from
Wild Axes and
Poison from
Call of the Wild: Boar can also be dispelled by Aphotic Shield.
*
Reactive Armor is very effective against Beastmaster's summons during laning stage and entire game.
* Timbersaw can quickly clear Beastmaster's summons with his nukes.
*
Lotus Orb item for Timbersaw can releases roar from the target position, stunning and damaging Beastmaster and knocking away, damaging and slowing allies that stand on the way.
* Heroes with summoned units don't fare well against Dawnbreaker. (
Phantom Lancer ,
Beastmaster ,
Lycan).
* Heroes who summon multiple units that are not spell immune.
Nature's Prophet,
Lycan,
Beastmaster
* Heroes with Linken's Sphere as core item:
Weaver,
Morphling,
Medusa.
* Heroes with Linken's Sphere as core item:
Weaver,
Morphling,
Medusa.
* Heroes that rely on summons will suffer against Ion Shell, which kills them very quickly:
Beastmaster,
Broodmother,
Enigma,
Nature's Prophet,
Visage,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* Heroes with Linken's Sphere as core item:
Weaver,
Morphling,
Medusa.
*
Untouchable negates Inner Beast's attack speed bonus, making her hard to kill even if stunned by Primal Roar.
* Enchantress can also take control of Beastmaster's summons.
Additional:
*
Enchant can control Beastmaster's boars with Enchant, mitigating his effectiveness during the laning stage and teamfights.
* Sand King is a strong ganker, allowing him to shut down squishy heroes in the early game:
Phantom Assassin,
Clinkz,
Sniper,
Enchantress.
* Having many summons out will cause
Echo Slam to deal extra damage.
* Heroes with no mobility will take some good damage from Sand King's spells:
Dragon Knight,
Jakiro,
Pugna,
Earthshaker.
* Heroes with blink or movement abilities, which are disabled by Pounce's leash:
Anti-Mage,
Earth Spirit,
Faceless Void,
Magnus,
Mirana,
Monkey King,
Morphling,
Pangolier,
Phantom Assassin,
Phoenix,
Puck,
Queen of Pain,
Riki,
Sand King,
Spirit Breaker,
Timbersaw,
Tusk.
* Heroes with strong dispels can remove Primal Roar's stun:
Abaddon,
Slark,
Oracle.
* 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.
*
Burrowstrike,
Sand Storm,
Caustic Finale and
Epicenter will deal a large amount of damage to Chen and his creeps.
*
Wild Axes,
Primal Roar and
Drums of Slom can deal high damage to Chen and clear waves of his creeps.
* Even though Chen can take control of the Boar from
Call of the Wild Boar at any time with
Holy Persuasion, which could put Beastmaster in a disadvantage against Chen. Skilled Beastmaster can buy
Helm of the Overlord to regain control of it to counter this problem.
* Smart Beastmaster can also buy
Bloodthorn to prevent Chen from taking control of the Boar from
Call of the Wild Boar and make Chen more vulnerable to Beastmaster.
* 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.
* Attacks from Boars and the attack speed boost from Inner Beast will quickly wear down
Refraction.
* Heroes that rely on slows to get kills:
Lifestealer,
Night Stalker,
Ursa,
Phantom Assassin,
Terrorblade.
* Primal Roar and the slow from Boars makes kiting Ursa very easy.
* 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.
* Heroes with disables that ignore spell immunity will render Phantom Assassin completely useless in teamfights throughout the game:
Axe,
Enigma,
Vengeful Spirit,
Doom,
Bane,
Beastmaster,
Pudge,
Medusa,
Warlock.
* 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.
* Because only one clone needs to be killed in order to kill Meepo, heroes that excel at singling out enemies can also be a detriment to him, such as
Batrider,
Beastmaster,
Pudge and
Clockwerk.
* Heroes that rely on slows to get kills:
Lifestealer,
Night Stalker,
Ursa,
Phantom Assassin,
Terrorblade.
* Heroes with illusions and summons can manfight Night Stalker:
Terrorblade,
Beastmaster,
Broodmother.
* Primal Roar and the slow from Boars make kiting Troll Warlord very easy.
* Primal Roar and the slow from Boars make kiting Tiny very easy.
* Beastmaster's Hawk can find Tinker easily while he is pushing or blinking into trees.
*
Primal Roar allows Beastmaster to keep Lycan in place after he used his Shapeshift.
* The Hawk can easily find Monkey King while he is sitting on a tree.
* Wild Axes can knock out Monkey King from tree.
* Boars drastically reduce Monkey King's attack speed, making it harder for him to gain
Jingu Mastery stacks.
Additional:
*
Wild Axes can chop down trees, making it difficult for Monkey King to utilize Tree Dance well.
*
Call of the Wild Hawk can scout Monkey King when he is perched on top of trees.
*
Primal Roar can stun Monkey King for a lengthy duration even with spell immunity.
* 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.
Additional:
* Sand King's
Caustic Finale combined with
Sand Storm will kill Treants easily.
* Sand King can interrupt Teleportation with
Burrowstrike, even through Sprout.
* 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.
Additional:
*
Burrowstrike can be used as an escape or initiation against Broodmother.
*
Sand Storm quickly kills any spiderlings caught inside if Sand King can manage to stun them.
* Wraith King's lack of area of effect spells makes him easily overwhelmed by Beastmaster's summons.
* All of Sand King's abilities deal AoE damage.
* However,
Epicenter is usually a non-issue against Doppelganger.
*
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.
Additional:
*
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 in 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.
*
Wild Axes destroys large amounts of trees specially upgraded with
Aghanim's Scepter,
*
Sand King's
Sand Storm damages familiars quickly whittling them down in health, rendering them vulnerable.
*
Sand King's
Epicenter quickly damages and destroys familiars.
* Illusion or summon-based heroes can be a problem to Viper due to his lack of AoE damage:
Naga Siren,
Phantom Lancer,
Beastmaster
* Heroes who relies on illusions and summons (
Beastmaster,
Chaos Knight, etc.).
* Heroes that rely on slows to get kills:
Lifestealer,
Night Stalker,
Ursa,
Phantom Assassin,
Terrorblade.
* Heroes who can stun Sven even with an activated
Black King Bar can be an issue:
Clockwerk,
Beastmaster.
Additional:
* Primal Roar takes Sven out of the fight completely, even with
Black King Bar.
* Sand King is a strong ganker, allowing him to shut down squishy heroes in the early game:
Phantom Assassin,
Clinkz,
Sniper,
Enchantress.
* Skywrath Mage also has a terrible time fighting against anything that isn't a hero. His skills are mostly target-based and he has terrible strength and agility, he can easily be kited or harassed by illusion-based heroes like
Chaos Knight and
Phantom Lancer, or by Heroes that summon other units like
Lone Druid,
Lycan and
Beastmaster.
* Heroes who rely on high mobility are especially vulnerable to Primal Roar:
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Queen of Pain.
* Heroes who rely on damage over time as Spiked Carapace can block and reflect only one instance of damage:
Jakiro,
Viper,
Venomancer,
Huskar,
Ember Spirit,
Dark Seer,
Sand King,
Doom,
Dawnbreaker. However, this also means they are easily stunned.
* Because of his massive AoE damage, Sand King is very effective against illusion heroes:
Chaos Knight,
Phantom Lancer,
Terrorblade,
Naga Siren.
* Any long duration disables that can pierce through both, Pierce The Veil and
Black King Bar are devastating against Muerta:
Enigma's
Black Hole,
Dawnbreaker's
Solar Guardian,
Axe's
Berserker's Call,
Naga Siren's
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Ensnare and
Reel In from
Aghanim's Scepter,
Jakiro's
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Macropyre,
Bane's
Fiend's Grip,
Pudge's
Dismember,
Batrider's
Flaming Lasso,
Beastmaster's
Primal Roar,
Grimstroke's
Soulbind,
Medusa's
Stone Gaze,
Magnus's
Reverse Polarity.
* Heroes with no mobility will take some good damage from Sand King's spells:
Dragon Knight,
Jakiro,
Pugna,
Earthshaker.
* Heroes with both illusions and summons, for Io has nothing to deal with multiple enemies at once outside from Spirits's weak area-of-effect:
Beastmaster,
Broodmother,
Chaos Knight,
Lycan,
Naga Siren,
Nature's Prophet,
Phantom Lancer,
Shadow Shaman,
Terrorblade,
Visage,
Warlock,
Wraith King.
* Long ranged disables, especially those that pierce spell immunity, cancel Black Hole:
Beastmaster's
Primal Roar,
Bane's
Fiend's Grip,
Faceless Void's
Chronosphere,
Magnus's
Reverse Polarity,
Axe's
Berserker's Call,
Pudge's
Meat Hook.
* Heroes who rely on high mobility are especially vulnerable to Primal Roar:
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Queen of Pain.
* Heroes with no mobility will take some good damage from Sand King's spells:
Dragon Knight,
Jakiro,
Pugna,
Earthshaker.
* Sand King is a strong ganker, allowing him to shut down squishy heroes in the early game:
Phantom Assassin,
Clinkz,
Sniper,
Enchantress.
* Heroes with disables that go through spell immunity can end Bloodseeker before he has the chance to do anything:
Batrider,
Beastmaster
* Long lockdown is a great way to deal with Axe to prevent Berserker's Call from being used, heroes such as
Legion Commander,
Beastmaster and
Primal Beast are good examples of this.
* Heroes with summons or illusions can counter Flux, such as
Beastmaster ,
Chen, or
Shadow Demon.
* Heroes with strong area-of-effect damaging and/or disabling abilities will be able to intercept Underlord and his team when they exit from Fiend's Gate:
Luna's
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Eclipse,
Dawnbreaker's
Solar Guardian,
Axe's
Berserker's Call,
Mars's
Arena of Blood,
Jakiro's
Macropyre,
Dual Breath and
Ice Path,
Naga Siren's
Song of the Siren,
Razor's
Eye of the Storm and
Plasma Field,
Lina's
Light Strike Array,
Broodmother's
Spinner's Snare from
Aghanim's Scepter,
Elder Titan's
Earth Splitter and
Echo Stomp,
Alchemist's
Unstable Concoction and
Acid Spray,
Queen of Pain's
Sonic Wave,
Dark Seer's
Wall of Replica and
Vacuum,
Venomancer's
Noxious Plague and
Poison Nova from
Aghanim's Scepter,
Oracle's
Fortune's End and
Rain of Destiny from
Aghanim's Shard,
Bloodseeker's
Blood Rite,
Enigma's
Black Hole and
Midnight Pulse,
Shadow Fiend's
Requiem of Souls,
Batrider's
Aghanim's Scepter upgraded
Flaming Lasso,
Firefly,
Flamebreak and
Sticky Napalm,
Ancient Apparition's
Ice Blast,
Sand King's
Epicenter,
Sand Storm and
Burrowstrike,
Gyrocopter's
Call Down,
Ember Spirit's
Sleight of Fist,
Death Prophet's
Exorcism and
Silence,
Monkey King's
Wukong's Command,
Crystal Maiden's
Freezing Field,
Muerta's
The Calling,
Medusa's
Stone Gaze,
Zeus's
Nimbus from
Aghanim's Scepter.
Dark Willow's
Bramble Maze,
Pangolier's
Swashbuckle,
Grimstroke's
Soulbind,
Ink Swell and
Stroke of Fate,
Earthshaker's
Echo Slam and
Fissure,
Puck's
Dream Coil and
Waning Rift,
Winter Wyvern's
Winter's Curse,
Magnus's
Reverse Polarity.
* 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.
* Inner Beast helps Beastmaster's team destroy
Supernova quickly.
*
Pugna's
Nether Ward damages Sand King when he channels Epicenter, preventing him from using Blink Dagger afterward.
* Heroes with no mobility will take some good damage from Sand King's spells:
Dragon Knight,
Jakiro,
Pugna,
Earthshaker.
*
Lifestealer's Rage negates Sand King's spells which do magical damage.
* Heroes that rely on slows to get kills:
Lifestealer,
Night Stalker,
Ursa,
Phantom Assassin,
Terrorblade.
* Heroes with AoE abilities are a bane to Beastmaster's summons:
Storm Spirit,
Magnus,
Pangolier.
* Heroes with other kind of disables that pierce spell immunity can hold Pangolier in place during Rolling Thunder:
Axe,
Beastmaster,
Enigma,
Magnus,
Pudge,
Batrider,
Bane,
Winter Wyvern
* Heroes with AoE abilities are a bane to Beastmaster's summons:
Storm Spirit,
Magnus,
Pangolier.
* Any hero who can counter-initiate in anticipation without getting caught in Reverse Polarity:
Sven,
Omniknight,
Enigma,
Luna,
Naga Siren,
Mars,
Jakiro,
Venomancer,
Elder Titan,
Faceless Void,
Rubick,
Keeper of the Light,
Pugna,
Invoker,
Spectre,
Alchemist,
Treant Protector,
Lina,
Oracle,
Zeus,
Shadow Shaman,
Phoenix,
Razor,
Huskar,
Batrider,
Kunkka,
Tidehunter,
Wraith King,
Sand King,
Medusa,
Dawnbreaker.
* Single-target disablers will have difficulty locking down a Chaos Knight with Phantasm active:
Bane,
Beastmaster,
Bloodseeker,
Clockwerk,
Doom,
Shadow Shaman.
* Because of his massive AoE damage, Sand King is very effective against illusion heroes:
Chaos Knight,
Phantom Lancer,
Terrorblade,
Naga Siren.
Additional:
* Sand King's massive area damage output, particularly
Epicenter, allows him to quickly take down Chaos Knight and his illusions.
* Sand King can also apply
Caustic Finale to illusions with attacks for extra damage when they die.
* Heroes with AoE abilities are a bane to Beastmaster's summons:
Storm Spirit,
Magnus,
Pangolier.
* Heroes who rely on high mobility are especially vulnerable to Primal Roar:
Storm Spirit,
Ember Spirit,
Queen of Pain.
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Sand King
*
Ravage, being an AoE disable, cancels Epicenter's channeling from a long range, limiting his potential to counter-initiate.
Black King Bar, then channel Epicenter, then finally initiate with
Blink Dagger.
* This can be remedied, however, by first using a