Earth Spirit
Deep amid the Upland crags and cliffs there runs a seam of sacred jade long foresworn by highland miners. From this rare material, the likeness of the great general Kaolin was carved and buried at the head of a stone funerary army ten thousand strong--a force of soldiers and holy men, jesters and acrobats, carved by crafstmen and entombed for millennia in the dark embrace of the Earth. <br><br>What the craftsmen had not known was that within the strange seam of jade flowed the spirit of the Earth itself--an elemental force at one with the planet. When the force within the carved jade found itself cut off from the life's blood of the world, it gathered its strength over the course of a thousand years and dug itself free and into the light. Now the great Kaolin Earth Spirit strides the Upland roads, fighting for the spirit of the Earth; and in times of need calls forth remnants of his buried army still locked in the loving embrace of the soil.
Base STR
22 +3.8
Base AGI
17 +2.4
Base INT
18 +2.1
Move Speed
290
Attack Range
150
Base Armor
0
Attack DMG
25–29
Projectile
900
Innate Abilities
Stone Remnant
Call a Stone Remnant to the target location. Stone Remnants have no vision and are invulnerable, and can be used with Earth Spirit's abilities. Calling a Stone Remnant consumes a charge, which recharge over time. Stone Remnant has 7 charges.
Earth Spirit passively gains 2.5% bonus damage per unused Stone Remnant charge, and gains an additional 7.5% bonus damage for 10s when a Stone Remnant is targeted with an ability (does not stack).
DURATION:
60
CHARGES:
7
Earth Spirit calls forth a remnant of his stone army, long buried with him in the dark embrace of the Earth.
Abilities
Boulder Smash
Cooldown
20 / 17 / 14 / 11s
Mana
100
Earth Spirit smashes the target enemy or ally, sending them in the direction he is facing. If Earth Spirit targets an area, he will smash the nearest unit in a 200 radius, prioritizing Stone Remnants. The travelling unit or Remnant damages all enemy units it hits. If an enemy is hit by a Stone Remnant, they are also slowed. Stone Remnants travel further than other units.
REMNANT SMASH RADIUS:
200
DAMAGE:
110 / 180 / 250 / 320
SLOW AMOUNT:
50%
SLOW DURATION:
1.75 / 2.5 / 3.25 / 4
TRAVEL SPEED:
900
DISTANCE:
500 / 600 / 700 / 800
DISTANCE (REMNANT):
2000
It is with the power of a mountain that Earth Spirit strikes his enemies.
Rolling Boulder
Cooldown
16 / 12 / 8 / 4s
Mana
50
Earth Spirit gathers himself into a boulder and, after a 0.6s delay, rolls toward the target location, dealing 60 / 70 / 80 / 90 + 100% STR damage and stunning enemy units. He will stop if he collides with an enemy hero or is stunned. If he rolls over a Stone Remnant, he will travel further and faster, and stun enemies for longer.
SPEED:
1000
SPEED (REMNANT):
1600
DISTANCE:
800
DISTANCE MULTIPLIER (REMNANT):
2
DAMAGE:
60 / 70 / 80 / 90
STUN DURATION:
0.3 / 0.5 / 0.7 / 0.9
ROCK BONUS STUN DURATION:
0.3 / 0.5 / 0.7 / 0.9
- Rolling over a Stone Remnant will destroy the Remnant.
- The boulder has a radius of 160.
- Earth Spirit is untargetable and invulnerable while rolling.
Calling upon his connection to the land, the Earth Spirit draws loose stone to him, which forms a protective ball that he can use to roll short distances.
Geomagnetic Grip
Cooldown
13s
Mana
75
Earth Spirit pulls the target Stone Remnant or Allied Unit. Enemies struck by the gripped target will be silenced.
Pulled Remnants also deal damage to struck enemies.
Cast range is reduced when targeting an ally.
REMNANT DAMAGE:
75 / 150 / 225 / 300
REMNANT PULL SPEED:
900
SILENCE DURATION:
2.3 / 2.7 / 3.1 / 3.5
ALLIED UNIT PULL SPEED:
600
ALLIED UNIT CAST RANGE:
550 / 600 / 650 / 700
- Will not work on a unit inside Chronosphere, Duel, or Black Hole.
- Geomagnetic Grip can also target allied creeps.
Like calls to like. Even the minerals found in the blood and bones of living beings are not immune to the call of the Earth Spirit.
Magnetize
Cooldown
100 / 90 / 80s
Mana
100
Magnetizes units in a small nearby area, causing them to take damage for a short duration. Magnetized heroes cause nearby Stone Remnants to explode, destroying the remnant and refreshing Magnetize's duration on all nearby enemies. This process can repeat multiple times. If an enemy hero is affected by Geomagnetic Grip or Boulder Smash, all magnetized heroes share the effects.
RADIUS:
350
DAMAGE PER SECOND:
45 / 90 / 135
MAGNETIZE DURATION:
6
REMNANT REFRESH/EXPLOSION RADIUS:
600
At the Earth Spirit's call, the minerals in the blood and bones of his enemies rebel against the bodies they find themselves in.
Talents
Aghanim's Scepter
Enchant Remnant
Cooldown
45s
Mana
150
Earth Spirit temporarily enchants a hero, granting them the properties of a Stone Remnant. After a short duration the remnant shatters, releasing the hero and damaging nearby enemies. < br>
Can be cast on Stone Remnants. Has a 5 second cooldown when used that way.
Has a larger cast range when cast on an ally hero.
REMNANT DURATION:
2.4
SHATTER DAMAGE:
450
SHATTER RADIUS:
450
CAST RANGE ON ALLIES:
500
- Earth Spirit himself can be targeted by Boulder Smash if he is enchanted.
Kaolin uses the elemental power of the Earth to temporarily petrify living beings, so that they might be conscripted into his stone funerary army.
Aghanim's Shard
Geomagnetic Grip
Decreases cooldown to 13s and increases allied unit cast range and pull speed.
Hero Performance
Median across all public matches · OpenDotaForm
50%
Win rate in recent matches
Performance
78%
KDA ratio (kills + assists / deaths)
Laning
21%
Last hits per minute over full game
Farm
50%
Average gold per minute
Fighting
25%
Average kills + assists per match
Experience
69%
Average XP per minute
Strategy
When to Pick Earth Spirit?
Look, I am going to be honest with you — Earth Spirit has kind of fallen off right now, and if you are picking him expecting the same impact he had two or three years ago, you are going to be disappointed. He is not unplayable, but he is definitely not the priority pick he used to be, and the main reason is simple — Black King Bar is everywhere.
Every core in the game is rushing BKB right now, and a hero whose entire kit revolves around chaining silences, stuns, and magnetic damage into a single target simply does not have the same teeth when half the enemy team is spell immune for the most important seven seconds of every teamfight. That said, he is still a really interesting pick in the right conditions.
As a pos 4, he is disgusting in aggressive, kill-heavy lineups that want to snowball the early game through constant rotations and ganks — Lina, Skywrath Mage, Clockwerk — heroes that can follow up on his insane early mobility and lock down ability before the enemy has any defensive items online.
As a mid, he works when your team needs a roaming tempo hero that can influence every lane simultaneously and doesn't need a lot of farm to be relevant, because his Stone Remnant charges give him tools that most mid heroes simply don't have access to at the same level.
He pairs beautifully with heroes that can amplify magic damage — Veil of Discord into a Leshrac or a Zeus is genuinely terrifying — because Magnetize combined with magic amplification absolutely melts anyone unfortunate enough to be standing near each other.
Avoid picking him into BKB-heavy lineups, heavy physical damage lineups that ignore his kit entirely, or games where the enemy has a lot of silences that shut him down before he can use his Stone Remnants — because a silenced Earth Spirit with no charges available is just a slow melee hero with no damage, no escape, and no reason to exist on the map.
Tips & common mistakes
- People pick Earth Spirit and immediately try to go for flashy five-ability combos that require perfect Stone Remnant placement, perfect Rolling Boulder angles, and perfect team follow-up—and then they wonder why none of it works in a real game. Start simple. Boulder Smash into Rolling Boulder over a remnant is enough to kill most supports at level three. Master the basics before you start doing the fancy stuff.
- Stone Remnant charges are your most valuable resource, and people burn through them like they are free. They are NOT free—each charge takes time to come back, and if you waste three remnants on a failed gank rotation and then a team fight breaks out with zero charges available, you are just a melee strength hero with no spells standing in the middle of five enemies doing absolutely nothing.
- Rolling Boulder has a 0.6-second delay before it actually moves. This means you need to aim it slightly ahead of where the enemy is going—not directly at their current position. Missing Rolling Boulder because you aimed at the hero's feet instead of their path is one of the most embarrassing things that can happen in a gank.
- Geomagnetic Grip pulling a Stone Remnant through multiple grouped enemies is one of the most satisfying and effective plays on this hero. But people forget that you can also use it to pull an ALLIED unit out of danger—if your carry is getting dove and you have a remnant nearby, grip them out immediately. This saves lives constantly, and nobody ever thinks to do it.
- Magnetize spreads between enemies that are standing close together. This is the entire point of the spell—if you are using it on a single isolated target, you are using it wrong. Always try to magnetize when multiple heroes are grouped, and then watch the damage chain between them as they panic and run into each other, making it even worse.
- Black King Bar completely shuts down his kit. I cannot stress this enough—if the enemy has BKBs, you need to either bait them out before committing your combo or accept that your window to do anything meaningful is drastically reduced. A good Earth Spirit player knows when the enemy's BKBs are on cooldown, and THAT is when the combo goes out.
- Build Arcane Boots and convert them into Boots of Bearing or Tranquil Boots depending on the game. Earth Spirit is incredibly mana hungry, and without consistent mana management, you will run out of resources in the middle of every rotation and be completely useless in extended fights.
Summary
Earth Spirit is a hero that has genuinely fallen off from where he used to be—the meta right now is not kind to him, BKB is everywhere, and the window to do his flashy Stone Remnant combos is getting smaller every patch. But he is still a perfectly viable pick in the right conditions, especially as a pos 4 roamer in aggressive lineups that want to snowball the early game before defensive items come online.
Master the Stone Remnant mechanics, manage your charges like they are gold, and pick your fights carefully—because an Earth Spirit that goes in at the wrong time with no charges available is just a liability, not a playmaker. He has not completely fallen off the face of the earth, but you need to be very honest with yourself about when the draft actually calls for him and when you are just picking a hero you like into a game that has absolutely no space for him.
Strong Against
Weak Against
Popular Items
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Early Game
Core
Late Game
Popular Neutral Items
