DotA Guide: Raigor Stonehoof - The Earthshaker Introduction

DotA aka Defense of the Ancients remains one of the most popular custom made maps for Warcraft III. To give players a better understanding of this complex and sometimes complicated game here is a hero guide.

Raigor Stonehoof is a Strength hero that can be recruited from the Sentinel tavern. It features average movespeed and average armor, while his attacks are pretty slow. But if you think this is a not a strong hero, then you're wrong, as he more then makes up with powerful magic abilities.

Let's review the background story of this hero: "In the barren-lands, tales spoke of tauren sages reaping the essence of dirt. Their consciousness melds with the brown beneath them. The loam becomes the conduit of their mental thought and reality.

These warriors were feared for they could summon massive ruptures at their mere whim. So tremendous was their power that their magic leaks out of the earth violently with every spell. Sadly these sages mysteriously faded from the land.

When the World Tree was threatened, couriers searched these mighty ones but found just one. A young adept, Raigor Stonehoof, seeks battle to weave new tales of these shamans."

The Tauren Chieftan's skills along with primary stat (strength) allow for fluid usage of melee damage/second and caster attacks.

- Fissure (Shortkey F): Slams the ground with the Raigor`s mighty totem, causing the ground of around 1000 range to crack in half in front of him, damaging (125/175/225/275) opponents, stunning them (1/1.25/1.5/1.75) and leaving an impassible trail for 8 seconds.

- Enchant Totem (Shortkey E): Will empowers the totem resting on Raigor`s back, causing it to deal 75/150/225/300 extra damage on the next attack. The spell only lasts for 14 seconds or 1 attack.

- Aftershock (Shortkey A): The power of Raigor casting a spell causes the earth to shake below him, dealing additional 25/45/75/115 damage and stunning (0.3/0.7/1.2/1.5) within a 300 AOE.

- Echo Slam (Shortkey C): Raigor sends shockwaves shooting through the ground, dealing 200/275/350 damage ricocheting to nearby targets for additional 40/55/70 echo damage.

There are a couple of other things you should know about the spell. First of all it will not damage ethereal units, so playing against Pugna or aan enemy with Etheral Blade is not recommended.  Also you can upgrade with Aghanim's Scepter, and cause each hero hit by the initial shockwave to echo the wave twice.

With a well-placed Echo Slam, Raigor can single-handedly level an entire team of enemies, if they are foolish enough to bunch together.

In my oppinion, this is one of the most difficult DotA heroes. His spells only have a 20 second-or-so cooldown. This means that you really only get one shot at taking out the opposition. Furthermore once your mana is tapped you'll be left with a par melee attack that just simply won't do.

If you have any other suggetions please let all the DotA fans know in a comment.