Dota 2 Hero Guide: Raijin Thunderkeg, Storm Spirit

Introduction

Storm Spirit is aptly named. He shares many qualities with a storm. He starts off weak and dies off quickly, but give him some time and Raijin will become an unstoppable force of nature.

This is part of what makes Storm such a fun hero to play. If you start going, you can't be stopped - and it's hard to stop your from getting that edge that allows you to control the game.

I'll tell you how I view each item and the benefits and downfalls to purchasing it, and an example of item sets and progressions that I commonly build. Keep in mind that these builds are not meant to tell you how to build your hero. They are just what they claim to be - examples of how Storm's inventory may look in any given game, with some of the general reasoning behind why I commonly go for those builds.

Dota is all about making your own decisions for good or for ill. My goal is to enable you to make these decisions, not to give you static advice that can't be adapted to each game; to do so is depriving you of the mechanic that many find make Dota so enticing.

Gameplay

Storm is a fast hero. Everything from his animations to the damage he deals is fast, remarkably so. Unfortunately, I do mean everything. He'll die in seconds, run out of mana in an instant if you let him. Left unchecked, Storm will burn himself out before he can do anything. He'll have all the power, but none of the focus that makes him so deadly.

Many players play way too fast with this hero. He needs to be reigned in, controlled. You can't live second-by-second with this hero, you have to plan long term - when you initiate with Ball Lightning, make sure you finish your followup attack if you can, otherwise you may be wasting an Overload charge. Instead of using Ball Lightning for a lot of short bounces, try just using it once to get in front of your opponent. You can get 3-4 auto attacks in and save a ton of mana in doing so. If they continue walking towards you or you bounce right in front of them, you can even use Remnant to deal more damage than Ball Lightning and Overload would have.

Don't spam-click. It's especially easy to do with Ball Lightning and it happens to the best of players occasionally, but try to click Ball Lightning once, and your target destination once. Especially for short distance bounces, it's very easy to accidentally activate Ball Lightning multiple times, wasting Overload charges and your mana. The one thing to keep in mind with Storm Spirit is mana conservation. Don't bust all of your mana out at the beginning of a battle - a Storm without mana isn't good for anybody except the ones trying to kill you. 

Storm needs to go to the middle lane so he can get his Ball Lightning up as soon as possible, and to control runes with a Bottle. If you must go to a side lane, you usually have to take a bit of time to catch up in levels and farm. Don't be afraid to farm up your first big item if you didn't get much farm in the lane, but likewise don't be afraid to start ganking if the game allows it.

Using Static Remnant

Ability: Active, no target

Description: Creates an explosively charged image of Storm Spirit that lasts 12 seconds and will detonate and deal damage if an enemy unit comes near it.

Effects: 140/180/220/260 damage.

Notes:

 - The Remnant takes one second to materialize after being cast
-  The explosion is triggered when an enemy unit is within 235 units, but deals damage within 260 units
 - Provides flying vision and can see inside the Roshan Pit.
- If you're farming with this spell, be sure to hit the ranged creep once before you activate this, as it will kill the ranged creep instantly, otherwise the ranged creep will live with very little HP - enough to be killed by a single creep attack.
- If you see someone coming towards you and they don't know you're there, you can stack Remnants on top of each other and pull the enemy to you for a large damage burst.
- Static Remnant can be used to block paths, provide vision of paths, and to test if there's an invisible unit closely following you.
- Can be cast while using Ball Lightning - will materialize at the spot you clicked to cast Remnant.

Using Electric Vortex

Ability: Active, target enemy unit

Description: A vortex that pulls an enemy unit to Storm Spirit's location, it also slows the Storm Spirit by 50% for 3 seconds.

Notes:

- Pulls target unit through trees, units, and over terrain.
- Make sure you attack once after casting this spell before casting another. It can take more time than most people would expect as there's a small backswing to the animation.

Using Overload

Ability: Passive

Description: Casting a spell creates an electrical charge, which is released in a burst on his next attack, dealing damage and slowing nearby enemies.

Effects: Deals 30/50/70/90 damage and slows movement and attack speed by 50% for .6 seconds in a radius of 275 units

Notes

- Items do not trigger Overload.
- Will not activate on a missed hit

Ball Lightning

Ability: Target point

Description: Storm Spirit becomes volatile electricity, charging across the battlefield until he depletes his mana or reaches his target. The mana activation cost is 15+7% of his total mana pool, and the cost per 100 units traveled is 10+1% of his total mana pool. Damage is expressed in damage per 100 units traveled.

Effects: Deals 8/12/16 damage per 100 units traveled in a radius of 125/200/275. Travel speed is 1250/1875/2500.

Notes

- When you jump onto somebody with this skill make sure you attack once before casting anything else or you miss an Overload charge. It takes less than a second to finish your attack and can be the difference between a kill or not.
- Destroys trees
- You can attack while traveling with this skill. You have to be traveling fairly slow relative to your attack speed though. A level one Ball Lightning requires an Orchid to guarantee the attack goess off while traveling. Level two and three both require at least +20 agility - usually from Scythe of Vyse and Linken's Sphere. Alternatively a Hyperstone will allow you to attack at all levels.
-You are invulnerable while traveling
- If you're chasing someone for a kill and have to use Ball Lightning, go for long bounces that place you in front of the enemy. You save mana and can get a few auto-attacks in, and if they keep walking towards you or you travel just a little in front of them you can use Remnant to deal more dmage than Ball Lightning and Overload would.
- Provides flying vision
- With some practice you can use this spell to land right in front of somebody, forcing them to stop and re-path around you. You can easily get an extra two or three attacks in this way.
- You can cast Remnant while traveling.
- If you can time it, using Ball Lightning to avoid counter-spells can result in kills that otherwise would have been very hard or impossible otherwise.
- Can be used to dodge most spells and projectile attacks.
- When you initiate with this spell, be sure you finish your attack afterwards if you didn't get it off while traveling. One Overload can be the difference between a kill or not.
- Rupture doesn't do any damage while traveling with Ball Lightning.
- You can cast Remnant while traveling. It wastes a charge, but it can be useful to kill one hero while going after another, or to block a path or provide vision if you need.

Ball Lightning Benchmarks

These are some small facts to keep in mind as you grow accustomed to Ball Lightning and can get a feel for what you can do with it moment-by-moment.

- 39 int with the standard three branches, granting 507 mana.
- Remnant costs 70/80/90/100 mana with a 4 second cooldown.
- Vortex costs 100/110/120/130 mana with a 20 second cooldown.

Ball lightning has several costs
- Initial cost to use the ability: 15+7% of max mana pool
- cost per 100 units traveled: 10+1% of max mana pool.
- No cooldown

To simplify matters, we'll assume 500 mana and 1000 mana.

Level 6 (500 mana):

- Lose 333 units of movement for every 83 mana spent, with 83 mana being the cost of initiating Ball Lightning
- Move 3000 units if Ball Lightning is used once to travel maximum distance from full mana
- a reasonable skill build will have a Vortex+Remnant combo of 190 mana costing you around 700 distance

Level 11 (1000 effective mana):

- Travel around 4700 units.
- Cast level 4 Remnant 3 times and level 4 Vortex once before reaching 500 mana
- Lose 425 units each time you cast Ball Lightning again 

Example Skill Build

1. Remnant
2. Overload
3. Vortex
4. Vortex
5. Vortex
6. Ball Lightning
7. Overload
8. Overload
9. Overload
10. Remnant
11. Ball Lightning
12. Remnant
13. Remnant
14. Vortex
15. Stats
16. Ball Lightning

This is probably the most common build for Storm. You only need a level 3 Vortex to get a unit within range for Remnant to activate which is why you stop leveling it there. Once you finish Vortex you stat on Overload to increase your damage while conserving mana, and you finally start leveling Remnant again when you start to have the mana pool and regeneration to support it.

A build that does more damage but is much harder to pull off is maxed Remnant and Overload first with a single level in Vortex. The idea is you use Ball Lightning and foresight to burst an enemy down with Remnant, but it takes a lot of mana and is very hard to pull off. Using Ball Lightning even one more time than you absolutely have to, or traveling even a few units too far can result in you dying instead of your target.

A compromise between the two builds is Remnant and Vortex maxed with a single point in Overload. The idea here is that you use Remnant to deal the majority of your damage and try to minimize the number of times you initiate Ball Lightning. It does hefty damage on its own, but if you're going to be using Ball Lightning as often as a normal build, it does less damage than the typical Vortex-Overload-Remnant build.

Boots

Arcane Boots are my personal favorites whether I'm going for a Bloodstone or not. With their active you can go gank, spend all your mana, and then go farm for 2-3 minutes and have almost all of your mana back even without a Bottle.

Power Treads arguably give you more mana than Arcane Boots do if you toggle their stats very efficiently, on top of giving HP and attack speed. Ideally in a battle you'd want to be on Strength or Agility when you're right clicking or using Ball Lightning, and Intelligence when you're casting Vortex or Remnant.

Boots of Travel are the boot of choice late in the game. If you went for Arcane Boots into Bloodstone, you can buy BoTs immediately afterward without wasting any gold, but keep in mind that you have to buy 15 TP scrolls before the recipe cost for Boots of Travel would have saved you money. In most cases you can skip the fast Boots of Travel in favor of another item or two.

Starting Items

Tangoes and Salves are standard regeneration items. Unless you know you're in for a very easy lane, you should have at least one of both. Even if you're in for an easy lane, the extra regeneration can allow you to trade hits and win the lane very early on. If you're in for a lot of harassment or are in a dangerous lane another Tango or Salve will let you handle the harassment necessary for at least another 3 or 4 creeps - enough gold to ferry another Tango or Salve with plenty of gold left over.

Clarities aren't an item I like to buy on for Storm. Most of the time I prefer to farm more than harass, and in a situation where I'm harassing a lot I'll also usually have the lane control to snag runes. If you like being hyper-aggressive or just have to spam Remnant to farm, each Clarity will give you enough mana to cast level one Remnant once.

Branches are a staple in every starting inventory. Storm significantly benefits from a Bottle rush, and Branches are your item of choice when doing so. A Tango, Salve, and two or three branches will net you a Bottle anywhere from 1:00 to 1:30 if you can last hit decently.

Mantle of Intelligence gives you damage and mana, which isn't a bad thing until level 6. for levels 1-5 the extra mana and damage will greatly help your last hit and harass capabilities. At level 6, they don't subtract too much from your ability to use Ball Lightning, but it's still usually best to drop or sell them if you're going for a gank where a liberal use of Ball Lightning will be required.

Example Starting Sets

Standard fast bottle rush. Typically takes until the 1:00 or 1:15 mark to buy a Bottle. The Branches add some damage for easier last hits and some HP. You usually won't go through your regeneration very fast, so there's a spot left for a Bottle and by the time you buy your Boots or next item of choice you'll usually have ran through your Salve or Tango. If not just drop a Branch.

Slow bottle, high damage for trading hits or last hitting against someone with too much damage. You won't be buying anything very quick, but you can stay in the lane longer and have a better chance to establish lane dominance due to the bonus stats.

Staple Items

Items that Storm will buy almost every game.

Bloodstone is possibly the best item on Storm Spirit. Building a Perserverence can keep you in an otherwisable unwinnable lane, and you can build a fast Arcane Boots so you can keep farming with Remnant and Overload if the lane is truly lost. Be careful about buying a Point Booster before you have everything else though. Between Energy Booster and Point Booster you'll have a lot of mana that you don't have the regeneration to accomodate and Ball Lightning will very quickly sap you of everything if you overuse it even a little. Once you finish Bloodstone though your mana worries start to disappear, and by the time you reach 8 charges your mana worries will all but disappear so long as you don't spam outside of battle.

Note that if you buy Bloodstone, it's a very momentum-based item. If you die with Bloodstone you'll be set way back, especially if you don't have at least 9 charges. In most cases it's better to play it safe right after you buy this item. When you go gank, don't use all of your mana unless there's no way for you to die after doing so. Nine is the magic number here, once you've been in range for three kills if you die you'll be set back to 6 charges - what I consider the minimum needed to sustain your mana without another big regeneration item.

Orchid Malevolence is a very cost-efficient item on Storm Spirit. It doesn't give much mana, gives him damage and attack speed, and 150% mana regeneration when completed, on top of being very easy to build. If you wanted to get as much out of Ball Lightning as you could based solely off regeneration, 6 Orchids provide the most you can get outside of a Bloodstone with a lot of charges.

Scythe of Vyse isn't an item you'll buy very quickly very. It gives you 100 more mana than a Bloodstone, but 50% less regeneration, along with being very difficult to build. Hex is one of the best disables in the game though, and the regeneration is good once you have two or three items that already give you regeneration. On top of two of the pieces being very expensive and hard to buy, this item is usually best left alone until later in the game - most of the time an early Orchid will provide sufficient disable for quite some time.

Linken's Sphereis a very defensive item. It's hard to build and doesn't give a lot of benefit until its fully completed. Perserverence is what makes this item so nice to build. If you think you need a fast Linken's Sphere but want a Bloodstone, you can build the Perserverence and save up enough for an Ultimate orb before deciding whether to go for Bloodstone or Linken's, as Vitality Booster and Point Booster only cost 200 gold more than an Ultimate Orb. If you want more offensive power than defensive power, Orchid is a lot cheaper and gives you more damage and regeneration than this item does.

Strategic Items

Common or effective pickups that are often overshadowed by Staple items.

Shiva's Guard gives you a slowing aura and a further slowing nuke, but it also gives you a ton of mana and no regeneration to go with it. By the time you can easily work with all the mana it gives you, you're usually better off going for a Scythe of Vyse if you want a disable, or Assault Cuirass if you want the AoE presence.

Black King Bar doesn't give you much outside of HP and some damage. The main reason you buy this is if you can be chain stunned until you die, or if they can burst you down almost instantly.

Eul's Scepter of Divinity gives you a disable, some mana, and some regeneration and it's pretty cheap. It's usually not my first item, but if you're having trouble farming and really need the disable, this is a good item to go for.

Force Staff is a very good item on Storm despite not being a common pickup. It happens often enough that you have an Overload charge already up when you need to initiate the the battle with Ball Lightnin and end up wasting it. Other times you need a little more distance to kill the fleeing hero, but you can't use Ball Lightning or won't have enough to cast it and the crucial Remnant that'll net you the kill. Force costs 25 mana to activate and moves you 600 units. Compared to just initiating Ball Lightning - 85 mana with a measley 500 mana pool - you're saving 60% of your mana. You can use it to escape too if you need to wait just a little longer for Ball Lightning to be able to save you.

Example Progressions

This is my most common build. The Bottle and Arcane Boots allow me to gank every two minutes when a rune spawns. I'll typically buy a Void Stone then Ring of Health, then a Point Booster and Vitality Booster at the same time. In games where I have to play more defensive and farm due to a lack of gank opportunities or too many failed attempts, I'll buy Ring of Health and Point Booster first to help me stay in the lane and reduce my reliance on runes. Remember to disassemble your Arcane Boots so you can use your Mana Booster in the Bloodstone.

The Orchid right after Bloodstone adds more regeneration to accomodate the large mana pool Bloodstone provides, while also keeping my normal attacks on an even playing field with most heroes. Usually I finish Linken's Sphere right around the time I can't take out a key hero quick enough to avoid their spells, and the Boots of Travel follow up allows me to farm as long as possible before I have to leave the lane or jungle to participate in a defense, push, or fight. In games where I'm easily surviving fights, don't have targeted spells to worry about, or have a large momentum lead, I'll switch out Linken's Sphere for Scythe of Vyse.

 

A defensive build that focuses on trying to regain lost ground against an aggressive team. The Treads provide HP crucial for surviving against superior levels and farm, while the orchid gives ample mana to flash farm waves with Remnant so you can get out fast, provides more mana for Ball Lightning, and the silence can disable one or two key casters so you can either run or pick them off and slowly regain an advantage. Black King Bar allows you to ignore spells, further increasing your chances of picking off a support or key caster before you're in danger. Even with all the extra mana you'll get from Scythe, the Hex is more important for coming back from a losing game.

The build stands very well on its own, however. I've seen many people use this build offensively and it works very well in that capacity too. It doesn't give as much offensive power as the above build, but it is a lot safer in exchange, and you have enough HP to stand and trade hits instead of having to constantly use Ball Lightning to reposition, so this build is a lot more forgiving when used in an offensive capacity.

Closing Thoughts

Storm's playstyle changes a lot over the course of a game, moment-by-moment. Sometimes you're better served by taking short bounces when you chase, and sometimes you should use Ball Lightning to travel in front of your enemy so you can lay a Remnant and get a few normal attacks in - other times, short bounces for Overload would actually be best.

Playing Storm Spirit well requires a lot of experience. You need a sense of timing to combo his spells seamlessly and initiate from long distances with Ball Lightning, and you need a very strong sense of mana management so you don't run out of mana prematurely. On top of that, Storm is a very fragile hero who requires proper positioning - too close to the wrong hero and you can be stunned and killed with ease.

This makes Storm a very fun and rewarding hero to play. Once you can control him and gain a sense of what you can do with Ball Lightning, he can zip across the battlefield all day picking off weak heroes and dodging spells. You have to think fast and react fast, but you also have to be patient and give Storm time to do what he needs to do. It's a delicate balance, but it's worth it.