Sand King with Dagon

I've just recently gave Sand King a try after getting bored playing my usual standard support. AA and ES. I've got to say he's by far the most flexible support I've played. Seeing that he's able to jungle pretty well. Which opens up the possibility of me getting a lot more farm than I normally would be able to do. My build usually for him is:

Urn -3 min in
Boots 5-7
Arcanes 7-9

From there I get Null Talisman.

Depending on how the game goes, I usually went Veil or Mek depending on what the team needed. Yet one time I decided to go greedy and went Dagon. Which on Sand King; I rarely got kills but tons of assists. Yet when I got Dagon; my kills went up considerably. Many of the kills were from heroes that were gonna escape otherwise. Not kill steals from carries.

So I'm wondering if I should keep on going for Dagon or go for more team fight items.

Also, yes I do manage to keep up buying wards and dust.

Sand king is one of my 3 most played heroes and i would NEVER skip blink dagger, especially for a dagon.
Dagon can be a legit choice if you are completely owning and you can get it around ~20 minutes, but i would ALWAYS get a blink before that, exept maybe if im against a spectre with a fast radiance, in which case i would get a force staff.

I usually don't go Blink just cause I rarely get to use Epicenter. I usually go Burrow Strike from the side; to initiate into Sand Storm to make myself invis right in the middle of the enemy. Then my team unloads on them. Rarely have I even been dusted out of Sand Storm. The other team usually has to back off or get wiped.

Basically Sand Storm is just something people don't want to fight in the middle of.

Might have just found your problem right here.So what would you choose, dealing 400 damage for 2.3k gold or dealing about 800 damage in an AoE around you for 2.1k gold (not to mention the Burrowstrike repositioning)

Well, it's more like; I'm needed more to initiate with Burrowstrike than use blink/ Epicenter .

Most teams I end up on are usually lacking in good initiation and or cc.

If you want to play Sand King at his full potential, just get Boots of Speed and a straight Blink Dagger: you should be able to afford the Dagger by 12-15 minutes if jungling with the Sand Storm, and after it you're pretty much done. My usual extension - after Arcane Boots - is the Veil of Discord since it gives more than an Agh's for its price, then I usually go for a Shiva's Guard if the game still isn't over.

A Sand King will need a Blink Dagger as his role is more like a counter-initiator: if you get caught within a Black Hole or a Chaotic Offering your Epicenter will be wasted, but if you Shift-Blink from a distance you won't be stopped and will deal full damage (especially if following up with a Burrowstrike).

As for the Dagon, only get it if your team is stomping, else it's a waste unless someone else is building a Shiva's/Vyse and you already have your Veil of Discord.

WTB team that I don't have to be the initiator on. PST with best offers. :P

Most teams I'm on or face are heavy nuking and or heavy pushing teams. Yet lack any real initiation or CC.

Last game I played; my team was facing a Lycan, Furion, Enchantress, Beastmaster, and Shadow Shaman line up.

My team was me on SK, mid Ember Spirit, offlane Dark Seer, safe lane Luna and Lina. Our Ember always waited for me to initiate before following it up with Flame Guard to Remnant to Sleight.

Hopefully things will get better once I get more games played.

You're talking about being an "initiator" as SK with burrow strike. The thing is by getting Blink as a core item, you're significantly amplifying your initiation capability as well as follow ups and chases or even closing gaps to stun cancel TPs. I really can't see a reason why you wouldn't get a blink dagger on SK, especially with the recent patch taking away the mana cost to use it.

Playing an SK without a Blink Dagger is like playing Magnus or Earthshaker without one. You become more like a dead weight than a help for your team, since most of your Epicenters will be stopped prematurely or will deal half the damage because you started them from a distance.

Seriously, if there's one support that needs a Blink, it's Sand King as he is the only one that can farm it in less than 20-25 minutes.

Playing Sand King mid is the best. Leveling up Burrowstrike and Caustic Finale. You are a like plague to someone like Storm, Pudge, Kunkka mid because of Caustic Finale. You farm faster and I my self by 15 or 17 min I have both Arcane Boots and Blink Dagger. Than I buy Aghanim's Scepter and Veil of Discord. Later Heart of Tarrasque. I would prefer this dealing 1320 damage in a 825 AoE with increased magic damage taken. Rather than buying Dagon and only dealing 800 damage to a single target.