Earthquake Mechanics... oops sry... Epicenter Mechanics

Last updated 21 May, 2009.



Skill Description:

Sends a disturbance into the earth, causing it to shudder violently. All caught within range will take damage and become slowed. The closer to the epicenter, the more damage taken.
Level 1 - 2.0 second casting time, 6 pulses of 110 damage.
Level 2 - 2.0 second casting time, 8 pulses of 110 damage.
Level 3 - 2.0 second casting time, 10 pulses of 110 damage.
Mana Cost: 175/250/325
Cooldown: 140/120/100 seconds

Skill Mechanics:

- The skill uses a 2 second channeling before the epicenter starts (Crixalis' sting starts glowing green. He swings his tail/sting two times for a duration of 1 sec. each.). After the pulses have begun, nothing can stop more from coming until epicenter finishes.
- There is an interval of 0.35 secs between each pulse.
- The pulses follow crixalis as he moves i.e. crixalis always remains the center of pulses.
- The AoE of epicenter increases by 50 each wave starting with 300 AoE so they end with 550/675/750 AoE at the three levels. Note that the 8th pulse is coded to have 675 AoE for unknown reason.The following pic will give a better idea: (Click the image to enlarge it)


The damage done by each pulse is 110. The above image makes clear that anything in 300 AoE relative to Crixalis would receive maximum damage.

- The slow is 30% for every pulse but does not stack. This means that you will be slowed by 30% even if get hit by one or more pulses. The duration of the slow is 3 second on heroes and 5 seconds on creeps.
- Once the skill has been channeled, it will continue dealing AoE damange, even after disabling Sand King, hiding Crixalis like with Obsidian Destroyer's Astral Imprisonment, or killing him.
- Epicenter deals Magical damage which is reduced by the target's Spell Resistance and is blocked by Spell Immunity.
- The damage is triggered (It is not based on base-skill Thunderclaps as thought by many) and the AoE search for possible targets increase with each pulse as shown in figure.

Using Epicenter:

[Taken from DA-Wiki]
This skill is powerful and can be devastating in group battles, but the fact that it channels for 2 seconds before starting is what puts off some players. However, in the hands of a clever player Epicenter can be put to devastating use. Shift-queueing or simply stunning the enemy can solve this problem. Have some allies to stun the enemy or use Burrowstrike or use a blink dagger, which many consider a core item for Sand King. Keep in mind that the spell actually starts 2 seconds AFTER you cast. The glowing stinger animation is the 2 second casting, if you blink afterwards the effect of Epicenter will follow Crixalis.

Extra Notes:

- Items n spells that do not stop channeling like lothars, shiva's guard, activating/de-activating armlet, etc. can be used anytime without stopping epicenter/channeling.
- Even if you use shift-queuing blink to cast epicenter, you lose 1 pulse == 110 magical damage.
- Tiny and Crixalis are together used as a combo sometimes. What happens here is, tiny throws sand king amongst enemies after he has channeled epicenter. But there are a few things to be noted.
(1) Channeling stops if Tiny throws crixalis before channeling completes.
(2) You lose around 3 pulses (== 330 magical damage) while travelling in air.
- As opposed to many beliefs, impaling a unit won't save him from the damage/slow of epicenter waves.
- Vengeful's "Nether Swap" will stop epicenter channeling for both allied as well as enemy sand king while Pudge's "Meat Hook" will stop channeling only for enemy sand king.


Credits:
antiweltteilchen
DA-Wiki
Robzor (He's always involved anyhow :D)
Foede

Changelog:

21 May, 2009
- updated aoe of 8th pulse.