Cheese heroes in Dota 2 are considered those that are unconventional, and really good in certain situations. One of them is Earthshaker in the mid position, which according to many people, is one of the most interesting Midlanders to try to play.
Why is Earthshaker Mid Cheese?
Earthshaker's main role is not mid. As you can see in the picture below, he is mostly played as a position 4 on the offlane as a support or core, or in some situations –as the third person on a safelane trilane/roaming.
His popularity had a spike with the Morphling/Earthshaker meta. This is the period when people experimented and felt the strength of this hero in the mid lane.
After the nerfs (buffs), players picked this combo a lot less than before, but there are still some situations where Mid Earthshaker is the cheese that you need to win the game.
Skillbuild Your Earthshaker Fromage
Apart from the usual build where you focus on the Aftershock and then give more levels into Fissure and lastly into Totem as shown in the picture, Midlane Earthshaker is pretty flexible.
You usually wanna do something like 1 Point in Fissure and equally skill both Aftershock and Totem one after another.
Enchant Totem is your most important skill during the laning stage because of the double damage/bonus range (75) to your next hit.
This secures denies/last hits on hard-to-hit CSs, you basically play your lane according to your W, and spam it constantly.
- READ MORE: Dota 2 Tinker Guide: How to Pew Pew
Items
The picture below shows some of the "core" items that you should opt for, and here's an explanation for each one of them.
Power Threads
Enchant totem gives double damage to your base damage – always take the base damage talent – and Power Threads give you 10 Strength = 10 Damage. Shaker has mana problems which can be somewhat solvable with some PT switching while using spells, and the attack speed makes it easier for you to do the combo for solo kills which we will explain later on.
Eul's Scepter of Divinity
It is a really good item that enables you to spam spells because of the mana it provides. Furthermore, it's really useful for setting up ganks, and going in/out of fights (also dispel is good in some situations).
- READ MORE: Dota 2 Item Guide: Eul’s Scepter of Divinity
Daedalus
A personal favorite.
The reason why we buy Daedalus is because the crit (30%) when hitting with Enchant totem active is INSANE, and usually results in critical damage close to 2/3k which is a huge burst at any point during the game.
Assault Cuirass/Black King Bar/Force Staff
Since Blink dagger is the go-to item for Shaker in any game regardless of matchups and allies, we won't talk about it and skip to the situational items.
AC is an aura that helps you and your team push, and if you're snowballing and have spare gold, this is the team item that you should opt for. You get to help both yourself and your team, because remember, even though Fissure and Echo Slam are magical damage, your main source of Damage is your Totem which is Physical.
If the enemy has stuns, AOE disables or silences, BKB is a must, or if there's a hero you need to kite, go for Force Staff as a priority. These are all situational items and will very much depend on your enemy's comp.
Mechanics
This hero requires a moderate amount of mechanical skills to be played at a decent level, and advanced game knowledge of positioning and map movements.
The most important things to remember is that being near a hero when casting your spell procs Aftershock. So, for example, casting Fissure next to a target hero will do 260+150 damage which is really significant when doing solo kills because that's what you will be doing until the major teamfights happen.
Earthshaker mid does not want to farm, but is instead used as a tool to create space, invade lanes/jungle, and make chaos around the map.
His talents are not in a good spot right now, but going Right-> Right -> Right -> Left or Base Damage -> 25 MS -> 40 Echo Damage -> -1.5sec on Totem is the standard build.
Getting to the point of being a really good mid-lane Earthshaker and abusing matchmaking to gain MMR from it requires a lot of practice. To be a confident player with such a strategy, try doing a couple of position 4 Eartshaker games. Getting the grip of the hero is a really good start towards gaining the needed skill to master it as a midlaner.
Watching one of the best Eartshakers in the world and learning a thing or two about mechanics and movements will help you a lot. As always, we got you covered:
Comboing
Here is a picture of the damage breakdowns, or better said, the main source of damage when you are a Shaker:
Right clicks after Totem are the main element you should focus on and play around with.
The combo when you gank heroes is always preparing your W (using it and waiting till it's off cooldown). Then, you fissure the target, blink next to it, right-click, W again, right-click, and if need be – Echo Slam at the end to finish it off if it's a valuable one.
Final notes
Playing Eartshaker as a mid requires you to be very confident and making plays around the map so you can snowball. Be the hero that everyone is afraid of, which will make them not show on the map and open it up for your other cores.
The insane amount of single target damage this hero does is insane and a lot of the people, even in high MMR, do not respect it and get punished for it.
Like every other hero, item timing is something you should always abuse, and don't forget to reveal your Blink on an important target rather a support!
Stay tuned for more Dota 2 news and check EarlyGame or the EarlyGame YouTube channel for everything else gaming and esports.