Strategy Guide for Raigor Stonehoof the

Earthshaker
by Jesper2

(as of v6.59)

http://planetdota.blogspot.com/

Table of Contents
I. Introduction
A. Pros and Cons
B. The Earthshaker's Role in the Team
C. Statistics

II. The Power of Raigor

A. Skills Info
B. Items Info

III. On to the build

A. Skill Build
B. Core Item Build
C. Levels 1-7
D. Levels 8-12
E. Levels 13-16
 F. Levels 17-25
G. Alternative Item Build & Gameplay
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IV. Hero and Item Analysis
A. Good Supporting Heroes
B. Good Supporting Items
C. Tough Enemy Heroes
D. Tough Enemy Items
E. Easy Heroes to Kill

V. Replays
VI. Frequently asked questions
A. Skill Questions
B. Item Questions
C. Miscellaneous Questions

VII. Concluding Thoughts

A. Latest Updates
B. Final Words

After another year in DotA, my game view is greatly changed, and i wasn't using my old guide

anymore Raigor is still one of my favourite heroes, but my take on him is slightly better
now than before. Moreover, DotA changed a lot itself. So i think it's time for a little makeup to
my guide on our favourite fat cow. This version is going to be more concised and less visually

challengin than my previous one, i hope Enjoy!

NOTE: i'm a newb of both BB code and english language...so if someone wants to help me
improving the layout of this guide just PM me!
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├A. Pros and Cons┤
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Pros:
• Lots of disables
• High STR gain for a caster (he IS a caster)
• High AOE damage
 • Fissure is very versatile
• Best initiator in DotA
Cons:
• Low INT gain for a caster, low AGI (actually, very low stat gain)
• Teamplay hero (well, that's a good point too...)
• Quite slow animation on Fissure, can be tricky in the beginning
• No farming tools until Arcane Ring
• He's now a top pick/ban hero

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├B. Earthshaker's Role in the Team┤
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Raigor is an AWESOME disabler. His main role is to initiate team battles with Dagger + Echo Slam combo.
His second role is to use his skills to stun his foes, preventing their actions and denying every chance to
escape a gank. His third role is to stop enemy pushes using his high damage, spammable AoEs. He can
also push very well, but can't do it alone, having 0 escaping tools apart from stun&run.

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├A. Statistics┤
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Stats:
• STRENGTH: 22 + 2.5 per level
• Agility: 12 + 1.4
• Intellect: 16 + 1.8
• Base HP: 568
• Base Mana: 208
As said before, he has pathetic stats and stat gain: only 50 starting point and only 5.7 gain per level
are quite below the normal. His base damage (46-56) is pretty low for a STR hero, and his armor is
2.7.His movement speed has been buffed from 290 to 300, and that’s cool.

Earthshaker is found on the northwestern sentinel tavern; he’s on the second row, last spot.
 _______________
├A. Skills Info┤
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QUOTE

FISSURE [F]

Slams the ground with Raigor’s mighty totem, causing the ground to crack open in front of him,
damaging opponents and leaving an impassable crevasse for a period of time.

Level 1 - 125 damage (100 after reduction), 1 second stun

Level 2 – 175 damage (132 after reduction), 1.25 second stun
Level 3 – 225 damage (169 after reduction), 1.5 second stun
Level 4 – 275 damage (207 after reduction), 1.75 second stun

Cooldown: 15 seconds
Mana: 125/140/155/170

Raigor’s signature skill. This ability is AWESOME, cause it has so many possible uses. With its impressive
1000+ range, his impassable obstacle and the simple damage+stun combo, this skill can be used to kill,
trap, prevent escape, gank, stop channelling, etc. This is quite a complicate skill, so it many uses will
be explained in the gameplay part of the guide. NOTE: Rexxar's Wild Axes will cut your Fissure and
open a gap as if it was made of trees. Other trees destroying abilities luckily don't work like this.

QUOTE

ENCHANT TOTEM [E]

Empowers the totem on Raigor’s back, causing it to deal extra damage on the next attack.

Level 1 – 50% increased damage

Level 2 – 100% increased damage
Level 3 – 150% increased damage
Level 4 – 200% increased damage

Cooldown: 7 seconds
Mana: 50 at all levels

This skill is pretty pointless IF you don’t have Aftershock. Raigor is a caster and we won’t take any
+dmg, +IAS item (and the +% dmg is based only on base damage anyway) so he will slam things with his
big pole only when they’re stunned or when he can’t do something more efficient. With aftershock this
skill became a usefull 1.5sec stun with only 7sec of cooldown and an abysmal mana cost.

QUOTE

AFTERSHOCK [passive]

The power of Raigor casting a spell causes the earth to shake below him, dealing additional damage
and stunning.

Level 1 – 25 damage (19 after reduction), 0,3 sec stun

Level 2 – 45 damage (34 after reduction), 0,7 sec stun
Level 3 – 75 damage (57 after reduction), 1,2 sec stun
Level 4 – 115 damage (87 after reduction), 1,5 sec stun

Cooldown: 15 seconds
Mana: 125/140/155/170

This passive is really good: it adds a stun to both your ultimate and your second skill, so that you can
stun an enemy for a long long time while dealing a lot of damage to him and buying time for your allies
too. If you cast Enchant Totem (1.5s), then Echo Slam(1.5s) then Fissure (1.75) you can stun 1+ enemies
for 4.75s (and you can further trap them with fissure and use Enchant Totem again if there’s the
possibility/need). The damage done by this spell is really low, but it’s usefull anyway. The AOE of this
skill is 250; it will work ONLY with Raigor’s own skill (so it won’t proc out of an item. If you ever get a
Battlefury ( >.< bad choice) it will bug its animation, causing Aftershock one to be played any time you
swing (but it won’t otherwise do damage nor stun).

QUOTE

ECHO SLAM (ultimate) [C]

Raigor sends shockwaves shooting through the ground, dealing damage ricocheting to nearby targets for
additional damage.

Level 1 - 200 initial damage, 35 echo damage

Level 2 – 275 initial damage, 45 echo damage.
Level 3 – 350 initial damage, 65 echo damage.

Cooldown: 150/130/110 seconds

Mana: 145/205/265
This skill seems pretty bad at a first look but it’s incredible for mass aoe damage, to stop pushes and to
scare the hell out the enemy team. It can easily kill more than an enemy player or turn the whole
enemy team into orange/red life depending on the difference of levels/equip. Basically it works as a
stomp dealing X damage to enemies into 500 AOE. After the first big wave, a lot of smaller waves will
start ricocheting through all the enemies in the area. Basically, for each enemy there will be a ricochet
hitting every enemy into 500 AoE radius from it, dealing the echo damage: this means that if you hit 10
targets in a 1000 AoE diameter , there will be 10 echo waves ricocheting through ALL of them. So
basically you’ll do the base 200/274/350 damage to all the enemies in a 500 radius from you and 10 x
the echo damage to all enemies in a 500 radius from each other. Pretty nice, uh?It just get better. If an
enemy escapes the AOE (the waves are pretty slow) after you you’re your spell, the waves will follow
him and spell his doom.

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├B. Items Info┤
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After tweaking around for a while, i've found that classic item build on Raigor is by far superior, as long
as you can manage Dagger+Echo Slam combo well.

ARCANE RING | (1700)

Made of: Energy Booster (1000) + Ring of Protection (175) + Recipe (525)
+300 Mana, + 3 Armor and Replenish (Heals 135 Mana in a 400 AoE radius, 33sec cooldown,
costs 25 Mana)

KELEN'S DAGGER OF ESCAPE | (2150)

Can be used to Teleport Raigor for 1200 Loc (a bit more than a Fissure in lenght). Cannot be
used if Raigor has been damaged in the last 3 seconds.

BRACER | (510 each)

Made of: Circlet of Nobility (185) + Gauntlet of Strenght (150) + Recipe (175)
+6 STR, +3 INT, +3AGI

BOOTS OF SPEED | (500)

50 increased movespeed.

That’s it. Togheter with your starting items, this is what you need to dominate every game with
 the aid of your team mates. Arcane ring is rushed so that you won't have mana problems
anymore; with your new Mana pool, you can also farm a bit better and get your Dagger faster.
Dagger is used for placing Echo Slam in team fights and, to a lesser extent, to escape. Boots
and Bracers are auto explanatory.

<div align="center"> </div>

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├A. Skills Build┤
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.
FISSURE: 1, 3, 5, 7
ENCHANT TOTEM: 9, 23, 24, 25
AFTERSHOCK: 2, 4, 8, 10
ECHO SLAM: 6, 11, 16
Attribute Bonuses: 12-15, 17-22
.
ALTERNATIVE BUILD
.
FISSURE: 1, 3, 5, 7
ENCHANT TOTEM: 12, 23, 24, 25
AFTERSHOCK: 8, 9, 10, 13
ECHO SLAM: 6, 11, 16
Attribute Bonuses: 2, 4, 14-15, 17-22
.
Those two templates are really similar, but they have one main difference: the first one has Aftershock
raised to have it maxed at level 10 with level one of Enchant Totem. This way you will have a usefull
ministun on your ultimate at level 6 (it may be usefull to better aim your fissure if you're not going to
kill your enemy with fissure+echo slam only) and you'll have a nice stun pretty early; in exchange you
loose +4 on each stat.
.
• Take the first template if you think you can farm well and get the pieces for Arcane pretty
soon. And/or if your team is going to push/gank early.
• Take the second one if you face a fierce lane and/or if you think your team won't start
push/gank early in the game.

___________________
├B. Core Item Build┤
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STARTING ITEMS

• 1 x Mantle of Intelligence (150)

 • 3 x GG Branches (57 Each = 171)

• 2 x Tangos (90 Each = 6 Tangos for 180)

• 2 x Clarities (50 Each = 100)

.
Those items will cost you all your starting money, leaving you with only 2 golds. It gives
you a Stat boost equal to a Null Talisman (6 INT, 3 STR, 3 AGI) and a good quantity of
both HP and MP regen. You will sell both the mantle and the branches as you get your
core items, so this starting set cost 161 gold less.
.
CORE ITEMS
• Arcane Ring = 1700
• Kelen's Dagger of Escape = 2150
• Boot of Speed = 500
• Bracers (2) = 1020
.
TOTAL COST OF CORE BUILD = 5370
.
ITEMS AFTER CORE BUILD
The core Items are all you need to be effective as initiator. If you want to survive
endgame after your Dagger+ES combo, you'll need something to beef you up.
.

SCROLL OF TOWN PORTAL

With the recent changes to scrolls "buyability" and its placement into side merchants, this
is the item to have. ABUSE IT. You can TP and Gank, TP and defend, TP and farm.

PHASE BOOTS
With the nerf on BoT, this item is a solid choice on Raigor. Its cost is low, it gives you a
 nice MS and the phasing buff can be really useful to place Fissures in ganks and to run
away from ganks on you. The damage part is not so great, but still i like this item better
than treads on every hero that needs perfect positioning.

GUINSOO’S SCYTHE OF VISE

This item is no longer an upgraded Eul, so it will be quite pricey if you have to make it
from scraps. Anyway, it gives you another powerfull disable, a lot of mana and mana
regen and some other stats. It’s probably the best item in the game, and on Raigor is just
terrifying.

BLOODSTONE
Bloodstone gives you a lot of HPs and Mana, plus it gives you a powerful life/mana
restore on your death (making it a good team item, being you an initiator), gives you a
bonus on your respawn rate and make you loose less gold when you die. It gives also A
LOT of regen…maybe too much. With charges on it, you will have a redundant mana
regeneration: you won’t be able to use it all even spamming your abilites. This is both a
good and a bad thing: you won’t run out of mana, but surely it’s not the best
gold/efficiency item for ES.

SHIVA’S GUARD
Shivas guard gives you a lot of armor, a lot of mana and an aura that makes you even
more useful to your team. It give you another aoe damage+disable (even if it’s only a
snare). It’s a good item, but won’t give you Hps (even if +15 armor will boost your
survivability greatly). It won’t give you any kind of regen either. If the game last long
enough, this is a good item.

REFRESHER ORB
This choice is a classic. Since Echo Slam’s echo waves will ricochet on dying units and
on corpses, you can deliver quite a punch with double ultimate, not counting your other
tools. Double Fissure is nice too. The problem is, this item won’t give you any stat point,
so you will be more fragile and you’ll have less mana. The damage is wasted too.
.
OTHER ITEMS
Those items are good on Earthshaker, but not great.
 BOOTS OF TRAVEL
With recently changes in DotA and the reliability of scrolls, Boots are no more a must on
Raigor. You can defend well enough with Scrolls, and you won't push alone anyway.

NECRONOMICON
This choice is a solid one. Necronomicon gives Raigor what he needs: HPs and Mana.
Obviously, we can make a good use of those Necro Warriors with all of Raigor’s stuns. If
an enemy is caught by all of you spell it will be stunned up to 4.75seconds, so your
Necrocreeps have a lot of time to hit, manabreak and manabur him. Necronomicon is also
quite cheap, mainly because you can farm 1300gold for the recipe quite easily at this
point of the game. Sadly, Necro is usually good only when rushed, but Raigor has other
priorities

HOOD OF DEFIANCE
This item is situational. If you’re fighting a lot of heavy nukers, you can insert this item
after the core building. Still, you have a lot of HPs and can do your whole combo while
enemies are stunned, so you won’t be a primary target, especially if you’re not your team
initiator. BLACK KING BAR can be taken instead of Hood if you prefer, but your main
role in fights is so fast and so sudden you won't need that usually.

HEART OF TARRASQUE
HoT will greatly enhance your survability. You may want it for this reason, not for the
damage. You’re not a tank, so maybe you don’t need so many HP to be effective in a
teamplay situation.

LINKEN’S SPHERE
Linken’s Sphere is a so-and-so item. It gives you some juicy stats and a nice regen rate,
but the reason to buy it is it’s Spell Shield (buffed to 20sec cooldown recently). It’s a very
nice feature to have on every hero and can save our life…but it’s also incredibly pricy for
what it gives.
.
ITEMS TO AVOID
Those items are a no-no.
 MELEE ORIENTED ITEMS
Raigor is a melee hero, but it’s a CASTER. You won’t be hitting stuff with your weapon
apart from creeps (and occasionally disabled heroes). You need Mana and Mana regen to
execute your combo, HPs to survive battles and stuff to be more usefull to your team. Let
your friendly Clinkz nail your enemy while you stun him.

BATTLEFURY
This item simply doesn’t work on Raigor. You don’t need the damage and splash damage
= less creep alive for your ultimate to work. Heck, you don’t even need this to push, if
you are pushing, cause you can clear creepwaves with Fissure+Enchant Totem and
Aftershock!

DAGON
I don’t like Dagon, expecially on Raigor. It’s very mana intensive and gold ineffective. If
you want more magic burst damage, go Refresher.
________________
├C. Levels 1-7┤
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Skill order
Level 01 | FISSURE
Level 02 | AFTERSHOCK
Level 03 | FISSURE
Level 04 | AFTERSHOCK
Level 05 | FISSURE
Level 06 | ECHO SLAM
Level 07 | FISSURE
.
OR
.
Level 01 | FISSURE
Level 02 | Attribute
Level 03 | FISSURE
Level 04 | Attribute
Level 05 | FISSURE
Level 06 | ECHO SLAM
Level 07 | FISSURE

Item order
.
 Energy Booster (1000)
Ring of Protectiob (175)
Arcane Ring Recipe (525)
.
Boots = (500)
.
TOTAL = 2300 gold
.
If you are doing really good, you can buy 2 Gauntlets of Strenght now. If you are doing
poorly don’t worry: you will do better once you've completed your Arcane Ring. Energy
Booster by itself gives you a nice boost to Mana Pool.
STARTING
When the game starts, ask for Sentinel Bot or Scourge Top. Note that Sentinel Bot is just plain
amazing for it’s trapping potential, so try to play in that lane.
.
Try to lane with a disabler/nuker; it’s better if he can disable and do damage at the same time.
Try to lane with a ranged hero, cause you’re melee (this is less important anyway, cause you
are not playing league games, so if you can last hit well enough the deny rate will be quite low).
Don’t solo with Raigor, ever.
.
If you want to check the rune you'll miss a great chance to use below tactic. Ask someone else
to check it, or ask for a gank on the rune spot if you believe your opponents are going to check it
too. Remember that with Fissure + another stun you can achieve FB at rune spot very easily.

EARLY GAME

When you’re done with your items move to your lane. BEHOLD! You can do a first blood in
your first creep wave. How? With this wonderful (dunno if legitimate in higher level games)
tactic!
First Wave Kill Tactic

This tactic revolves around 2 concepts:

• You do your creep block better than your enemies, or at least equal to them.
• You are playing in the Sentinel bottom lane
If those conditions are satisfied, you can try to get a kill on the first creep wave. You will notice
that you’ve done a better creep block than your opponent if their creeps are in this zone:

From this position you can use this tactic to kill even ranged enemy heroes. Don’t block too
much or enemy heroes won’t come close. If you’ve done it right, enemy creeps will die fast:
enemy heroes (at least ranged ones) will try to deny you, so they’ll stay just where Nevermore
stands in the screenshot above. Ask your lanemate to play passively and tell him to be ready;
meanwhile you take position for your tactic to work, going behind the trees (you can see my
position in the first screenshot in the upper left corner; in this screen I’m moving to the real spot,
shown in the screenshot below).
.
When it became obvious that all of his remaining creeps are going to die, your enemy will start
to retreat. You have to anticipate this and move in to block his path like this:

If you’ve done it right, he’s pretty screwed. If he’s good, he will try to stay rightside, moving to
avoid most attack as possible. He can also try to reach the jucke point near Sentinel tower, but
this is an almost assured death; this is more frequent if both enemy heroes are trapped and they
both try to run; you should block one of them in the jucke point if that’s the case. Anyway, here’s
the end of poor Nevermore: it seems that the tower is killstealing (as I say in the screenshot lol)
but actually the WD firstblooded him with Maledict.

If he manages to escape this trap he will be in Red Life Zone. If you’ve got your circlets (you
have to have them for this purpose also) you can chase him and finish him with another Fissure 7
seconds after the first one disappears.
.
Here’s another example of the same tactic.
This time we’re facing Lina + Omniknight.

They are 2v1 so they play aggressive and try to gank Zeus. Zeus falls back and they both get hit
few times by our creeps and our tower.
They attack him and both get hit by our creeps (theirs are dead) and by our Tower. Omniknight
heals himself and Lina cast Dragon Slave and attack Zeus. When she realizes she’s alredy dead
it’s too late.

After that, Omni get harassed back to his tower and have to go home to heal; I didn’t have
Circlets as starting items (got to get Rob) so I can’t Fissure kill him. Even if you can’t kill both
enemy heroes every time, you can at least make their early game miserable. They’ll have to go
back home if they don’t have a Flask: Tangos can’t heal all that damage and if they show up, you
can simply Fissure snipe or block them and they’re screwed just like here:

You can also kill enemies in Fog of War with Fissure: you simply have to guess their last
movements:

.
You can realize a First Wave Kill also from another, better position
This is another good spot to wait for the right time to Fissure.

NOTE: if you stay in this place to First Wave Kill there will be 3 problems:
 • You can’t creepblock or rune check, or you won’t arrive there quite soon enough to be
invisible. Your ally should creep block alone.
• You have to issue a movement order (look at screenshot) again and again or spam stop
command to avoid movement: if you move to autoattack, your enemy will see you.
• You can be blocked by your own Fissure if you don’t move before Fissuring: if you
move, you may be tricked and cast your Fissure with a bad aim, as show on this screen

Anyway, this position has a nice advantage: if you do all your homeworks right, you are here to
help stomp the trapped enemy hero.

.
IMPORTANT 6.57b DISCLAIMER on this tactic:
Latest maps changed how trees are displaced near the last sentinel tower in bottom lane. This
tactic is STILL THE SAME, but the positioning is a bit different. It works exactly the same using
this tactic from the first spot. The second spot is a bit different however: here's how it works.

.
Extra Tips:
• As a golden rule, if your enemies are a ranged and a melee hero, try to trap the ranged
one. In this way, the melee can’t help him attacking you through the crevasse. Blinkers
are an obvious exception to this rule, and so are healers generally.
• If the first enemy wave is too far away from the tower, ask your ally to attack the enemy
creeps instead of just lat hit them. This way you get more allied creeps to fight at your
side when you’ll trap the enemy heroes. More than that, your enemies will think he’s a
noob and may play more aggressively, making their entrapment more easy to accomplish.
• If there is only 1 enemy hero trapped and he’s clearly hopeless, try to lasthit him. Do this
only if you are sure he will die anyway, otherwise it’s a very sad choice. +50g to all your
team is still better than no gold at all; if your lanemate gets the kill, it’s a good thing.
• Remember that the second spot works better for this tactic because you can help your ally
beating the living pulp out of your enemy BUT this way you can't creep block: this can
be a problem with new creeps walking routine.
.
If this tactic nets you a kill or maybe a first blood, you’re doing greatly! Try to last hit and deny;
if you can’t do both, simply last hit and let your ranged ally deny for you. As a general rule, don’t
buy too many clarities: you won’t be spamming Fissure to simply damage enemies and you have
to wait till it’s the right time to Fissure Trap your enemies and maybe kill them. How? This way!
Fissure Trapping Early Game

A lot of people simply go Arcane Ring and spam Fissure early on, using it mainly as a nuke. We
won’t have all that mana until we get our own Arcane; and even then, there are far better uses
for Fissure than simply damage your enemy. Think of Fissure as a 0 skill damage for our
purposes: we want to use it to gank our enemies, and damage is just a bonus, not the big thing
itself. The impassable crevasse is what makes Fissure so great. You should use Fissure as a
damage skill only to prepare future ganks (lowering enemies’ HPs), obviously only if you can
cast another one in order to gank in the near future. You should use it as a pure damage spell only
if you can hit more than 1 enemy hero and kill 1+ creep at the same time (and only if you won’t
need it soon to gank). Remember that if you use it to damage, you have a 15sec window in
wich you are completely gankable!
.
First of all we have the Loose Trap
The Loose Trap concept is basically to use Fissure to block enemies retreat and to bash it
together with your allied creeps and your lanemate. Remember that early in the game a bunch of
creeps does almost 3 times the damage you can do to a hero. This trap is Loose, simply because
it does not really entrap an enemy; it simply gives to you an your allies more time to hit the
enemy hero. If done correctly, he will loose a lot of life; try to do this tactic on an enemy hero
that isn’t full life (unless you know you can kill him or severely injure him even if he’s full life:
it dependa mainly on your lanemate). This screenshot is an example of Loose Trap. As you can
see there is a gap on the rightmost side of the Fissure crevasse, so Spiritbreaker will escape the
trap. He’s still doomed, as he is Maledict’ed. This is how it ends after a couple of seconds.

Here’s other examples of effective Loose Trap:

.
More difficult to achieve than the Loose Trap but more deadly, we have the Spike Trap
You realize a spike trap when you trap your enemies together with your allied creeps in a
sort of loose triangle formed by a natural obstacle (IE: trees, water, etc) and your Fissure’s
crevasse. This trap is deadlier cause your enemy needs to run towards you in order to escape it,
and has to travel further more to escape you, your ally and your creeps.

This is one of the most powerful use of Fissure, as it works as a very long time “disable” this
way. The only chance for your enemy is to outrun you, going towards the bottom of the screen
and towards your next creep wave / tower. With another disabling hero by your side, his fate is
almost sealed.
Remember: you can Spike Trap effectively only enemies that walk near a natural obstacle (IE:
map border, trees, etc), trapping them in the most distant corner: if they walk near the middle of a
lane, even if you block their path they will have a lot less road to roam in order to get back to
safety (in other words, it will be more a Loose Trap than a Spike one.

.
Using these tactics in conjunction with the First Wave Kill one will earn you some money. Use it
to buy your Arcane pieces, starting with Energy Booster. Buy TP scrolls and gank other lanes
when needed/possible: now you can be back in lane in 30s with Scrolls. If you’re doing it right,
you’re overexping your opponents, and when you get your Ultimate ability this gap became even
more wide.
.
You can also use Fissure defensively as shown in those pictures

Your team mates will love you for this! You can also try to block a chasing enemy, putting fissure
between him and his prey. This is quite difficult to do if they’re close, as you will risk to trap
your mate with the chasing enemy.
.
Last but not least, you can use you Fissure to Redirect your enemy path.
This is mainly used to setup ganks; it is most effective when you have a Techie on your team, as
shown by this screenshot:

Long story short, you use your Fissure to prevent your enemies to step on a particulart path, or to
force them to take a particular path.

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