How do you play Sniper?

I'm asking this question because I almost always own when playing against a Sniper on the enemy team, and though I sometimes lose the game when a Sniper is on the enemy team, it is never because of the Sniper himself.

As you can see from some of my previous posts, I'm very curious about how you are supposed to play him, because so far all the Snipers I've played with and against recently have been feeding. Even when I'm a Melee hero, I can still beat him in lane (excluding the games where my lane partner is ****). Even if the Sniper has good positioning in the games, we almost always have 1 or 2 gap-closers on our team that renders him useless.

What does not counter Sniper?

Thanks in advance for the advice.

It is really easy to close a gap and render a Sniper useless, because a lot of reasons:
People don't build survivability on Sniper. Usually, you'll see him running with an Aquila, Manta, or a kind of lifesteal (That don't increase his survivability at all). The kind of Lifesteal people use more on him, is Mask of Madness, which is suicide on him, my opinion. He's frail as hell; giving the enemy an opportunity to do 30% more damage is dumb. Also, is easier to find a Sniper holding a MKB than a BKB.

Well, I could write all day about it, because that's a hero a know a lot, but I think you get the message.
PS: the most important, I say with 100% of certain, that Sniper is the hero who have the less to offer to any line-up.

So you say that he is easily countered because of a lack of survivability items. So what if a Sniper got Power Treads and then Drum of Endurance, followed by a Maelstrom? That way he would theoretically be a bit harder to kill, and also have mana to use his spells repeatedly with some tread-switching. The max Shrapnel skill build would be good in this situation so he won't be completely useless without his Maelstrom I guess, and it can also help to accelerate his farm by destroying towers and slowing enemies for the kill.


EDIT:
OR Icefrog could introduce an Aghanim's Scepter upgrade for his ultimate, which makes its range global, increases its damage and increases its projectile speed. Perhaps then people would rush this build to give him additional survivability, mana and the global ultimate to "assist" in kills across the map. This really could be viable on a split-push Sniper with max Shrapnel.

That's a good point. But people usually overlook Shrapnel, unfortunately. I played a reasonable quantity of games where people skipped it to level 22; throwing away some of Sniper (low) potential.
Maelstrom fits him really well because it turns Headshot in a more 'reliable' skill. And the Treads attack speed and switching give him a great boost in pushing. If this playstyle get more popular, he may lose some of it's bad name.

Well you see, Sniper is can really get owned in the early game cause Sniper is very item dependant. Sniper's core is Power Treads, Mask of Madness or Maelstrom or Desolator. Shadow Blade used to be Sniper's core item. But since it got nerfed buying Mask of Madness or Maelstrom or Desolator. So Shadow Blade can be purchased later. Manta Style is also his core. Late game items Satanic, Daedalus, Butterfly, Monkey King Bar, Mjollnir, Eye of Skadi. I would not recommend Drum of Endurance on Sniper because the gold will be just a waste. You have to scale Headshot and Take Aim. No need of Shrapnel early only later on. Start of with buying Tango, Healing Salve and 3 Iron Branches or Tango, Healing Salve, Slippers of Agility and Circlet of Nobility. Power Treads and Magic Wand or Power Treads and Ring of Aquila or 2 Wraith Bands. After this purchase 1 of the following orders Mask of Madness, Maelstrom or Desolator. When you picked up one of these buy Shadow Blade and later buy what ever late game item you want (recommended ones). Last you need to have a good team to play with Sniper.
Check out my matches with Sniper if you want: Your text to link here...

These matches. Am I a good Captain? Just asking please tell me :):

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Know that these are the 5 matches only were I've been a Captain. Are the picks good? I'm just curios.

I'm still gonna playtest the treads-drum max Shrapnel build to see if it is viable. I think this build focuses on Sniper's early-game stopping power, but I don't think it compromises on his lategame power, because it helps him to push down towers for extra gold and kill creeps more quickly to step up his farm. The Drum of Endurance, in this case, is not that useless because he needs the mana to spam Shrapnel and health to survive stuff. After his Maelstrom, he can then become the right-click monster that he is.

I was playing with a friend who's a pretty good Mid Player a while back who Fed First Blood to a Sniper as Storm Spirit. After we lost the game, he was pretty mad about it, but he couldn't say anything back to "You lost Mid to a Sniper, you know!" 8{3

I've tried this too, but I would recommend Phase Boots/Travel Boots + a Ring of Basilius instead of Power Treads. You really need mobility and an RoB is much better for spamming Shrapnel early on. If you think you're doing well in Lane and can get easy Free-Farm, you can skip Phase Boots and go straight to Travel Boots to snowball into a Split-Pushing monster. You lose a bit of Tankiness and Attack Speed, but the Mobility is worth it imo.

Something slow with no Gap Closer or Ranged Harass that just stands there and Farms...so maybe just Outworld Devourer

I rarely play Sniper, but when I use him I usually go for the Phase Boots + Drum of Endurance + Yasha build: his lack of movement speed makes him a really fragile Hero versus gap closers like Puck, Storm Spirit, Clockwerk and Ember Spirit, and since the current meta is full of those Heroes you rarely see him in competitive. I always max Shrapnel first unless I'm mid versus an Outworld Devourer or other very scary lane controllers (in which case I max it after three points of Take Aim and one of Headshot), the DoT is pretty scary if your team has a disabler that can keep an enemy in place for seconds. The tower damage also adds up.

If you want to see some very recent competitive games with Sniper, I found two of them (but I'm pretty sure there were three): Power Rangers vs Na'Vi and NewBee vs CIS. I was really surpised seeing the build used by PR was the exact same build I use.

I don't

I do the same as Peppo, but I get that Maelstrom instead of Yasha, the fact that his range is so high makes up for his lack of mobility, Phase Boots + drum charge should be enough for a reposition in a teamfight.The fact that Maelstrom gives attack speed and that chain lightning makes a hit that procs the lighting and Headshot at the same time very painful.

Sure, you might argue that the Yasha will be turned into a Manta Style later, but so will the Maelstrom into Mjollnir.Not to mention that the shield from Mjollnir is quite useful to for your ally that is on the front lines.