Sand King cometh...

Introduction

Greetings! This is my guide to Crixie, the Sand King. Crixie is a cute little lobster thing with a powerful initiation and ganking potential. He isn't particularly item dependent aside from a Blink Dagger. His damage doesn't scale into late-game very well, but he becomes a very powerful pusher if left unchecked.

Skills

This is where I'll go over Crixie's skills and how to use them. For detailed numbers go here.

Burrowstrike

This is Crixie's stun and blink. A versatile, if mana hungry, ability. You can use it to close the distance and stun unfortunate prey, or in conjunction with Sandstorm to escape unfriendly situations. An important note is that affected enemies will fly into the air for half a second before the second-and-a-half stun is applied, effectively disabling them for 2 seconds. This is maxed first for obvious reasons.

Sandstorm

A fairly unique ability, this channels for a stupidly long time to deal dps around you as well as stealth you. You can't move, however, lest you reveal yourself. This makes it a somewhat limited stealth, considering enemies know exactly where you are, and thus can hit you AoE abilities and possibly disable you out of the channel. Good for farming a lane safe from nasty harass and escaping in conjunction with Burrowstrike/Blink Dagger. This is maxed second.

Caustic Finale

Your pushing and farming ability. This isn't skilled until later in the game, to refrain from pushing the lane. This ability is very good for farming your Blink Dagger and Aghanim's after the laning phase, and makes you one of the strongest pushers in the game later on. This is maxed last, with no points before level 6.

Epicenter

What an ult. Insane damage early/mid game, making Crixie s superb initiator. This is one of the many reasons you should always be with the team, and why we absolutely need a Blink Dagger ASAP. Only only only use this ability for teamfights, never ever EVER for farming creeps or killing one person. You shouldn't be in a 1v1 situation anyways.
-How to use this ultimate when initiating: Make sure your team knows you're initiating and will follow up, start the channel from a safe distance from enemy disablers (preferably from inside trees, up on a cliff, anywhere out of sight/in fog etc), about halfway through the the channel (immediately when his tail comes back up after the first pound), shift+queue (hold **** and press the hotkey for Blink Dagger, select area to blink to, release shift) Blink Dagger on top of your enemies, and ta-da, you won a teamfight. If your noob team followed up, ofc. If you don't have Blink Dagger yet and need to initiate, you had damn better skill Caustic Finale and go farm for it after this fight, but for now you can sub the Blink Dagger for Burrowstrike.

Items

Alright, time to discuss items. Fun, right? Well, it is the most important aspect of Dota O_o

Starting items

These are the most basic starting items, giving some stats and a quick Magic Wand, some consumables, and a pack of wards.. to.. y'know.. help the team? Those other 4 people you're playing with?

Early game items

Crixie is pretty squishy for a Str hero, and doesn't farm much early game, so a couple Bracers add some nice padding. Phase isn't really needed, and the attack speed is wasted from Treads (plus we have stats from the bracers), so boots don't really need upgraded. You can get Treads if you really need that bit of extra hp, but it only delays your

Blink Dagger

unnecessarily that much more. For consistent mana I would recommend an Urn. The reason for this it, the Str and mana are of course just great, but as Crixie your job is to be in every single fight, easily racking up charges. You also have no innate health regen or healing, so this is a pretty good item to get. Alternatively you can get a Bottle if your mind isn't a heavy rune*****.

Core items

Crixie really only needs a Blink Dagger to become a scary initiator, and is heavily hampered without it. So, we rush straight for it after out early padding items. Agha's is the next item you should go for, it gives some tasty stat boosts and makes our Ult even scarier. Another item best gotten as soon as possible.

Luxury items

You honestly shouldn't be farming much as Crixie, or have many items, until super late game, so there are only a couple luxury choices. Shiva's gives more AoE, armor, int, all the good stuff. Blademail is an interesting choice, but here's my reasoning: You are a nasty, feared initiator with Epicenter, so naturally after you go in, the enemy will focus you with CC and nukes and everything they have to take you down as quickly as they can. Blademail only aids you and your team taking them down after you initiate >:D You're also particularly squishy for a Str initiator. If the enemy team has something like a Zeus, Lina, Earthshaker, or just any heavy magic damage, and you have no better Pipe holder, get an early rank in Caustic Finale and straight rush Pipe after you get Blink Dagger.

Gameplay

Early game

Early game, you should mainly focus on being safe in your lane and picking up some creep kills when you can. You aren't the beefiest hero early game, and have no ranged defense. If you aren't against someone with some AoE like Lina, Windrunner etc, you can go up to the creeps and use Sandstorm to maybe get a couple creeps and push them away from the wave. This will also push the lane a little, however, so don't do this all the time. Be sure to establish lane presence somehow, though.

Mid game

As soon as you get your ult, shoes, and either Urn or Bottle, start roaming around, looking for fights or ganks. You can also try to group the team up for a push, instigating a teamfight. This is what you want with Crixie, to stir up fights early and often. When your ult is on CD, carry a TP and farm/push a lane(s) for your Blink and Agha's. When your ult is almost up, tell your team, and group up somewhere. Be sure to stay back, out of sight, like Pudge, while your team tries to aggravate the enemies. This way, they aren't sure if your team is just dumb, or you are channeling your ult right now, ready to blink on top of them... When the enemies are committed to defending the tower (or whatever objective you're pressuring), tell your team and start up the ult. 1, 2, blink...... boom.

Late game

You start to fall off here, as enemies get magic armor and more hp. Your ult does less damage, and enemies aren't as afraid as they were. However, this is where the rest of your team comes in. By now, your carry should be farmed enough, and your other teammates have their damage/CC ready, your role becomes that of a damage-sponge. You still initiate, you're still the spearhead, but now you rely more on your team to follow up. Your ult just softens em up for your carry to do his job.

The end!

Thanks for taking your time to read my view on Crixie, the lobster scorpion thingy! If you have any comments, suggestions, questions, leave a comment below or send me a PM! Until next time ;)