Raijin Thunderkeg, the Storm Spirit
Introduction
Hohooo new guide again. Although I planned not to write any hero guides anymore I just could not stop guide writing. Storm Panda has been my favourite hero/unit in Warcraft III for a very long time now and he is in DotA, finally! As I was heavily testing this hero during beta games of 6.44 I thought I should release a guide immediately when the map 6.44 is released as well. I hope you will all enjoy reading the guide and will learn how to use this hero to its fullest potentials.
For better understanding of the hero and what builds to be used on him I found it important to have a little monolog about the Hero himself. Jinto is a DPS carry hero. Period. A solo lane works pretty well for him, especially mid lane, however a dual lane isn’t that bad for him either. Thanks for his passive, he has great lane control in terms of harrassing and better last hitting, however he isn’t the best soloer. Heroes like Enchantress, Tinker will be better soloers, and tough dual lanes like CM+Lina or Rhasta+Fuzzy will own you hard if you make any mistake.
That being said, let’s take a look at the things he does need and does not:
- HP
- Damage
- Attack Speed
- Armor
- Slow, Disable
- Map Control
- Mana… NOT!
- Lifeleech… NOT!
- Feeding… NOT!
He has an average health rate but compared to the most INT heroes, he lacks nukes and disables, which definitely makes it easier to do well against him. Your priority in early game should be boosting his survivalability as much as possible and for that buying 3 Bracers is essential. Not more, not less. I’m rarely this “strict” with builds, but I found that getting 3 Bracers for him is essential unless you are totally owning up your opponents.
To proc his passive more frequently he needs a boost on IAS as well. He already has a skill for that, but I think getting Attribute Bonuses before maxing out Electric Rave is better. As he is going to have a high IAS, he needs to compensate it by increasing pure damage as well. You don’t need to get much IAS anymore in items, although some more isn’t bad. This is why Monkey King Bar is the best first major item on Panda. You get a good boost on damage, a slight boost on IAS and a really handful ministun. Ministun and Minipurge can proc at the same time and they work really well together. Basically every 5th attack of yours is a minipurge and every 3rd attack is a ministun. It becomes really hard to take you out in a 1v1 situation or to run away from you, if you have MKB.
Assault Curiass is a great item against physical damage dealers. The IAS is not that much needed though, as it’s not as valueable on him as he already has a high IAS, it’s more the armor and the auras that can be helpful. This item should be gotten if noone else on your team gets it and you have no nuker to fear.
However if you are having problems with a bunch of nukes then Eye of Skadi is your best friend. It’s not that easy to farm up so if you really can’t make it, then get Hood of Defiance… but your Shield should be doing the job for you (meaning, get hood 1 out of every 100 games). Back to Skadi: this item gives everything you need. Health, Armor, Damage, IAS, Slow. Imagine a poor guy being focused by a Storm Panda having MKB and Skadi. There’s no way anybody could flee alive unless his allies help him out. Skadi is the sex.
A very popular item is Guinsoo’s Scythe of Vyse. With this you can leave ZapZap on permanently and the hex is really great for both offensive and defensive purposes. Be aware that your minipurge removes the hex buff on the target, so use hex as an opener or on another hero or immediately after the minipurge lands. I think that both MKB and Skadi are better items than Guinsoo, however when your team lacks disables, it becomes a much needed item.
The only part that was not covered is: Map Control. For that Boots of Travel and TP scrolls are needed. Don’t get BoT as first major item. You need health, damage and IAS first… in that order. However as a second major item, Travel is a good choice (400 MS, great chasing, better farming thanks for lane-hopping, etc). There might be occassions when you are to defend your base all the time. In such situations get a Power Treads instead of Boots of Travel. It will help you out until your team can recover from the knock-down.
Hand of Midas is also great as first major item if you can farm it up in a a considerably fast time. I would say 12 minutes in a normal game is good. If you’d get it by the 20th min mark, then don’t even bother buying it.
Core Item Build:
*OPTIONAL* Hand of Midas (2010)
Boots of Speed (500)
3* Bracers (1530)
Monkey King Bar (5400)
Boots of Travel (2700)
-=======================-
TOTAL COST: 10130 or 12140
Passive: 1, 3, 5, 7
Shield: 2, 4, 8, 9
Ult: 6, 11, 16
Attributes: 10, 12-15, 21-25
ZapZap: 17-20
The abilities:
- ZapZap
- Shield
- Passive
- Ult
- Your hero lol
Justification:
Your passive is a great harassing and last hitting spell, good for chases as well, so it needs to be maxed as soon as possible. In most games, even in pubs you will face nukers… if not in your lane, then you’ll get ganked by them or will face them, when you leave your lane. So the Shield is to be maxed afterwards, however if you have no nuker to fear, get Attribute Bonuses instead and get ZapZap between 12-15. The IAS boost is not much needed in early game, because you won’t be standing still and kicking each others’ nuts with your opponent. Health is more important, so get some point on Attribute Bonuses first. Your ulti is good for escaping (not same as blink, it might be risky sometimes if you drag an opponent) and is good for chasing and in teamfights. You will definitely need it in case you have no other chance to survive.
Early-game laning:
As a soloer you should be concentrating on last hitting, denying, tower hugging and same “boring” things you always do with Clinkz, QoP, Warlock and such heroes. Be always aware when you have your next purge-attack. This is why it’s really important not to auto-attack, because you might lose some really important occassions of harassing your opponent. It’s especially important in a 1v1 situation, because you need to make it sure, that you are the one controling the creeps. When the lightning orbs appear, hit your opponent at the next attack and whack him about 2-3 more times as he is slowed down, he won’t be able to retreat fast enough.
If you are in a dual lane, just concentrate on moving the lane near to your tower, meaning continuously hitting your own creeps until the lightning orbs appear. Then harass the opponent. With a stunner or a slower you have an easier task as one of you (prolly he/she) initiates, while the other runs in to continue.
Task after heroes leave their lanes:
This is the part of the game when you need to be really careful. Play rather safe, you might be ganked and that means you’ll lose too much gold and experience you could have earned meanwhile neutraling or farming at a safer lane. Especially if you went for a Midas, you should be neutraling whenever you push too far away.
Ganking time:
When you finally farmed up at least till Demon Edge, but preferably to Monkey King Bar, start helping out in ganks at other lanes, not just near to yours. Grapple is good for initiating and for chasing as well. Your ganking style is a no brainer: whack, whack and whack. If you or an ally of yours needs Shield, then cast it. If you have ZapZap, then turn it on. It’s easy as that. If you don’t get it, then watch one of my replays.
Basically that’s all specific so far. Use your ult for both offensive and defensive purposes. When an enemy hero is too near to you, then you’ll grab him as well, be aware of that. In early game you may blink him near to your tower as well, that’s one annoying trick that will earn you or your tower a kill. When you have several allies with you, then grapple next to the target with all your allies which will make the enemy hero go “wtf is going on? 0.o”. It’s extremely consufing and funny if you grab several other untis, creeps heroes summons etc.
I would like to have the strategy and techniques shown mainly in replays. I’ll try to upload more in the future. Don’t forget to read basic DotA guides, like lane control, hero counters and such if you are a starter. If you have been palying for a while and know how to last hit/deny, you can gank properly, place wards to good places and such, then the replays alone should be enough for you to understand the hero.
