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3 Votes

Sniper - Hard Carry

December 20, 2013 by UnitBigBoss
Comments: 8    |    Views: 47007    |   


Build 1
Build 2
Build 3

Hard Carry/High Dmg

DotA2 Hero: Sniper




Hero Skills

Shrapnel

Headshot

2 4 8 9

Take Aim

1 3 5 7

Assassinate

6 11 16

Talents

10 12 13 14 15 17 18

Introduction

Just thought I'd put this guide together because its something I came up with and I really like how it plays. This build works excellent for quality team play. Lets be honest, sniper is so squishy that you really must master the art of being in the right place at the right time in relation to your enemy your allies and your escape route. You will fail as sniper without your team warding and calling missing, also whilst a carry you will be a gank target.

Pros / Cons

Pros
+Can sweep an entire team in seconds with high attack speed
+Most of your power in skills and items comes from passives so you can focus on gameplay
+Can last hit and deny well and control creep movement
+Can harass well
+Great for ganking
+Can take down towers without being hit
+With your range you can support another carry on the fly

Cons
-Very squishy
-Low movement speed
-Can be counter-picked easily by popular heroes
-You will be targeted for ganks regardless of lane

Ranked Play

Control Mid Lane, make sure your getting last hits, denying and not pushing creeps forward. Can lane well with a stunner or disabler but priority should be mid unless countered, or going to a lane to counter. While in a lane you will need your support to ward up the jungle to protect from ganks. If concerned about being hooked by pudge in mid or being ganked in general buy some observer wards for yourself to put on either side so you have great vision of the river.

Start ganking at level 6-8. You can farm jungle as soon as you have Morbid Mask. Ancients shouldn't be a problem once you hit lvl 11-12. You should be able to solo Roshan once you have Mjollnir. Use wards and controlled creeps from helm of the dominator to watch the jungle and river.

If you can catch a 1v1 fight excellent but most of the time you will need your teammates to initiate so you can sweep. Keep in mind that after Mjollnir you may need to purchase Monkey King Bar or Black King Bar to counter evasive and magic users respectively.

If the enemy can't counter you well you will just be focusing on attack speed and damage for your items.

Keep in mind the usefulness of shadow blade for escaping a charge down from spirit breaker considering they don't have a gem of true sight or reveal you with powder.

Items

I've got my main initial buy from the fountain displayed in my first build but if you lack a support capable for supplying wards or a courier then you can just settle for 1 slippers of agility and make the gold back quickly because you should be a gun at last hitting.

Also an idea for some extra health (build 3) you could start with 3 iron branches and only 2 Slippers of Agility so you could upgrade to a Magic Wand early for some extra health.

Item buying order speaks for itself mostly, when buying items in parts always buy attack speed items first. Your probably all going to question all the Wraith Band's but I find the damage and stats so useful at the start and you can sell the items later when you need slots so its not a huge loss of funds in the scheme of it all. For the investment your getting a lot of bang for your buck early.

After you have Ring of Aquila and Morbid Mask you can go straight for Mjollnir if shadow blades escape isn't appealing enough, but most of the time you'll need shadow blade. After butterfly I generally pick up helm of the dominator for some armor, regen, creep warding and to prep for Satanic.

After daedalus (sell Ring of Aquila for sapce) you've got to make a decision to either get your last item (monkey king bar/Abyssal Blade/Divine Rapier) or to upgrade to satanic first. Choice is yours. If your still expecting the game to continue for sometime I would recommend Satanic. For the last item though you will need to sell shadow blade. If you are farmed enough to consider buying another item chances are you don't need the escape because you will be such a power house by then.

Other Options include Black King Bar and Mask of Madness or just another hyper-stone for a second Mjollnir (for godly attack speed, I've finished games with over 550 attack speed doing this). For those situation related items I'd usually replace say butterfly (especially if enemies have monkey king bar) or Shadow blade which I also consider my 6th item slot or daedalus.

Skills

I'm just going to say it, I don't find shrapnel that useful I would at least level all your other skills before even touching it. Your range is the key to survival.

Priority
1. Assassinate
2. Take Aim
3. Headshot
4. Stats
5. Shrapnel

Creeping / Jungling

You can farm up in the jungle without hassle once you have lifesteal. Get maximum distance and attack the strongest neutral first, you might cop a few hits but by the time they walk to you and start heading back and killed the smaller neutrals you should have more health than you started with. Once you have Mjollnir you will be forever richer, you should have no issues pushing a creep wave by yourself and getting every last hit. With the attack speed from Maelstorm and Hyperstone ancients will be much the same in that you will also gain health by the time your finished attacking them. Roshan can be a nice pick up for the gold and exp whilst sometimes useful having Aegis you may want to give it to your initiator or a support so if they get picked off early in a fight they can use stun/disable/magic damage skills again in battle.

Team Work

Your a hard carry, always look to help your teammates gank, remind them to ward for you and call missing and position yourself well in team fights. Make sure your there to gank when they initiate, carrying a few teleport scrolls never hurts to get to the action fast.

Countering Counter-Picks

Pudge
-Use wards, in lane hopefully your support will cater for this or if on mid place them for yourself along the river.
-Only engage if silenced/stunned or there are units between you and pudge

Natures Prophet
-Wards will help, but stay around towers so you won't be annihilated with sprout
-Farm the natures calls trees to keep gold coming your way, you can last hit them much easier than a neutral.
-Assassinate is great for when NP is teleporting away

Brewmaster
-Keep your distance
-Don't solo while their ultimate can be activated, if activated run unless you are fed enough to kill all 3.

Broodmother
-Sentry wards
-Keeping your distance and being able to run back to a tower.

Summary

Playing hard carry sniper is not as easy as someone might think. There will be a lot of pressure placed on you by the enemy and your team especially if your fighting for farm. Whilst your range will do well to keep yourself safe around a tower or around a well warded jungle, you are slow and being caught off guard will cost you dearly. A lot of your early game will be spent playing safe and waiting for the opportune time to strike.

I'd like to hear some feedback from everyone if anyone has anything they think I should consider adding to the guide or if anyone tries it and gives me an idea of what they think.

Future Development

1. Countering counter-picks

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