How Ancient Apparition and Sand King perform as teammates in Dota 2 7.41e, from ranked matches.
In Dota 2 7.41e, Ancient Apparition and Sand King win 50.02% of ranked matches when playing on the same team, over 5,350 matches.
Securing kills with this pairing often feels less consistent than you'd expect. The classic combo is for Sand King to initiate with Burrowstrike, and for Ancient Apparition to land a global Ice Blast to finish the job. The problem lies in the timing. Sand King's initiation is instant once he has his Blink Dagger, but Ice Blast has a travel time. This creates a narrow window for success. If the target isn't bursted down fast enough by Epicenter or gets help, they can often survive long enough for the Ice Blast debuff to wear off without shattering, making the whole combination feel a bit clumsy.
As the game progresses, this timing issue persists. A Sand King is looking for immediate impact, blinking on a priority target the moment they show. Ancient Apparition, however, needs to be in position and anticipate the play. In messy fights, SK might stun one hero while AA is forced to aim his ultimate at another, splitting their focus. While the potential for a big teamfight wipe is there, it relies on perfect coordination. More often, their contributions end up being separate instances of damage rather than a single, focused burst, which allows enemies to react and survive.
How this pairing performs across skill brackets — the duo's team win rate in recent ranked matches, split by average match rank. Ranks with too few recent matches are omitted. These rows use the last 30 days of quality-filtered ranked matches, all patches in that span combined — a wider window than the patch-scoped count above, so the per-rank match totals can exceed it.
| Rank | Team win rate | Matches |
|---|---|---|
| Herald & Guardian | 46.67% | 225 |
| Crusader & Archon | 49.53% | 529 |
| Legend & Ancient | 48.12% | 426 |
This duo's team win rate in each recent balance patch — whether the pairing is trending up or down. Patches without enough matches are omitted.
| Patch | Team win rate | Change | Matches |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7.41e | 50.02% | ▲ +0.2pp | 5,350 |
| 7.41d | 49.80% | ▲ +1.8pp | 41,439 |
| 7.41c | 47.98% | ▼ -0.9pp | 18,153 |
| 7.41b | 48.85% | — | 25,669 |
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Data updated Aug 18, 2026.