It seems a lot of people think that Earth Spirit is an extremely complicated hero. Over the years, the community has been attached to that mindset, causing many people to completely ignore Earth Spirit, because they think the hero is too difficult to play. Today’s article will break down this barrier, as well as introduce a new role for Earth Spirit.
CLEARLY WEIGHT, BUT STILL STILL UNIQUE STRONG
One of the recent patches removed the extra stat benefits and Earth Spirit definitely lost a lot from this change. But the biggest reason why this hero gets nerfed more than most other heroes is because Earth Spirit’s stats increase with each level so much. Earth Spirit gains 4.4 Strength and 2.4 Agility per level: Strength gain is second among all heroes and Agility gain is second among all Strength heroes.
This is why the hero is so cool: Earth Spirit gains tons of health per level, while armor and attack speed also increase significantly. This is the reason that allowed Topson to successfully play this hero in mid in the past, and it is also the reason why we really believe that Earth Spirit can be an extremely strong core hero: with this amount of stats no , the hero can take the lead tank champion, while dealing massive amounts of damage.
LANE STAGE
The big problem with short-handed supports is that they always have a hard time trading hits in the laning phase. The only exceptions now are the Ogre Magi and Nyx Assassin, both of which have great base healing values and high armor. Heroes like Tusk and Earthshaker don’t trade as well and require precise hitting, making them high-risk supports. This is usually something you don’t want to bet on in the current meta and isn’t necessarily the best idea to play Solo Q matchmaking.
Earth Spirit faces a similar problem, but Earth Spirit’s tools in the early levels aren’t as impactful: Tusk’s Tag Team can kill a misplaced support in seconds, while Fissure is standard. allows you to hit your opponent freely. At level 1, Earth Spirit has a 0.8 second stun, followed by a 1.25s slow at level 2.
Both Rolling Boulder and Boulder Smash are strong in the latter and can achieve incredible values, but Earth Spirit must be high enough level. And as discussed earlier the hero doesn’t have as good laning as some other melee supports and can’t regenerate himself in the jungle. Earth Spirit is very strong, but only if the hero has more time in the game. This is why we brought Earth Spirit to the core position to promote this hero.
ROLE NOT LIKE LANE
There are two main ways to classify this hero in Dota: Either by numbering from one to five, or using lane as a guide. Many people mistakenly believe that these two classifications are one and the same, although they often go hand in hand. However, they are different in some cases.
Earth Spirit as a core is best suited for a position 3 hero, but that doesn’t necessarily mean playing offlane. Earth Spirit excels as the team’s lead tank. Hero is a good candidate for add-ons and aura, while his job is not just farming and growing stronger: Earth Spirit leveled up quickly and started to roam.
You can achieve this in mid, as Topson has done before. You can play offlane, or you can play in safelane, if your team’s carry is not suitable against the opposing offlaner. No matter where you go in the beginning, you should be the one to initiate teamfights and build team items in the middle of the game, the same way Earth Spirit support is supposed to do, but with more efficiency and stability.
WHY IT WORKS
There’s no reason why a 2-second stun with a 4-second cooldown wouldn’t work in the world of Dota, especially since we were able to achieve this in the first 10 minutes. Combined with it is quite strong Silence and Slow, plus a sturdy body to tank and you have a really good position 3 with the current meta. But that’s not over yet!
In addition, you also have a strong teamfight ultiamte and work best when the opponent has not yet reached BKB. 50 damage per second for 6 seconds is pretty strong, but when you add in the rocks we can get incredibly high numbers. Magnetize handles supports lightning fast and as long as you can use your remnants wisely: use them for both Magnetize and another spell your control over Remnant should be fine. We haven’t complimented it yet!
Earth Spirit, for some reason, also has one of the strongest level 10 talents in the game: +50 Level 10 Damage with a “normal” BAT and amazing Agility growth that will make Earth Spirit lethal very painful in hand strokes. This doesn’t mean that Earth Spirit should switch to manual cores in the late game, but it does open up a lot of options in your early and mid game.
All of the above can be achieved without investing in a Blink Dagger, but Earth Spirit must be stable during the laning phase and have a good source of XP. This hero does not need to win the lane absolutely, just reach level 7 and level 10 in time.
WHY DOES IT WORK?
So why don’t we see more Earth Spirit position 3 in the pro scene? The article believes it’s down to habit: there must be a reason pro players have “staggered heroes” – they practice them thoroughly and know how to play them in the palm of their hand. Earth Spirit is clearly a hero that needs a lot of investment to fully understand and since the hero mainly plays in position 4, we don’t have many offlaners that can promote Earth Spirit as well as Jerax or Cr1t.
In addition, this is also very important, Earth Spirit usually only locks one object. The most popular offlaner heroes these days always have the ability to stun multiple targets at once, and while they don’t have as high damage and slow and silence add-ons as Earth Spirit, these heroes do a better job of their main role. . These heroes make it easier for teammates to predict what will happen to make better decisions.
Earth Spirit also doesn’t farm as fast: The article repeatedly emphasizes that this hero is not focused on farming but only on handling phases. However, Earth Spirit still needs to increase items during non-combat time. Hero can do that with his combos, but it’s a bit resource intensive and isn’t optimal until the hero reaches the required level.
Finally, Earth Spirit doesn’t offer turret push. While Centaure can tank and reflect turret damage, and Mars protects his teammates from being hit by turrets, Earth Spirit can only hit hands. Obviously not as tall as many other offlaners. With the hero considered a good pick, the support or at least one core of the team must deal high damage to the turret, otherwise you must win multiple teamfights for a single goal. This is something Earth Spirit and its limited Remnant cannot do.
EPILOGUE
The goal of this article is not to crack pub games, but to increase the knowledge of new and old players alike. The truth is that for most gamers, the “pro meta” doesn’t matter much.
The article believes that a hero that does not play well in the meta is much better than the most popular and successful hero in pro but plays poorly, at least in pubs. Find your favorite hero in the role you want and find ways to make them work. That is probably the best way to experience Dota and the article hopes to give you this inspiration.
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Source link: Dota 2: Guide to play Earth Spirit core
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