Playing against sniper.

So i am curently in low level matches and obviously theres a sniper in every match cause sniper is an easy hero. I just want to know how to play against him since it seems impossible.

You get something that can close the gap. Spirit Breaker is a good idea.

Get heroes that have in built blink mechanisms
Phantom assassin
Antimage
Riki
Faceless void
Spectre
Timbersaw
Slark
Situational Chaos knight

Heroes that inherently get a blink dagger:Note they wont be quite effective if he gets fat
Earthshaker
Magnus
Tidehunter
Sand King DUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDUDU
Legion commander

Tankers that get blademail
Bristleback
Centaur warruner
Spectre

Baiscally hes a ranged creep. People get cranky coz his shrapnel harass in lane is strong and this makes him a difficult target in lane. Consequentially he zones out people then famrs his items. Ergo, people suck at ganking sniper more than there are skilled snipers out there. Not everyone is a dr.lee.

There's quite a bit of options here. Since Sniper is the most predictable hero in the game, it's very easy to counterpick him.

Play a safe lane carry who can close the gap and outcarry him at any stage of the game : Phantom Assassin, Clinkz, Chaos Knight, Spectre, Phantom Lancer, Faceless Void

Play a solo mid who owns him in lane and gets free kills on him : Queen of Pain, Storm Spirit, Templar Assassin, Pudge, Lone Druid, Lina

Play a ganker and hunt him down all game long. Any ganker will do really, Spirit Breaker is a common choice in competitive, but Bounty Hunter/ Slardar/ Riki are really good too.

Play a support/utility hero who can put him out of position : Vengeful Spirit, Batrider, Magnus...

Clockwerk is good if you can land his skillshot. Hook into cogs = dead sniper.

Centaur is good cause his ult can just let your team charge the sniper.


Qop, Storm, and Puck are all three good at gap closing and either controlling or nuking down Sniper.



The biggest problem you will have when you face a Sniper is your team. Cause chances are they areg going to whine for carry yet not build in defense against sniper. Like MoM Drow.

If Sniper goes mid(most times) just pick someone who can close gaps easily. Heroes with nukes are amazing vs Sniper early as he is VERY squishy.
Pudge hooks-dead Sniper. There is really no way Sniper can survive Pudge's combo at lvl 6.
Another good hero is Tiny. As Tiny tends to build a Blink Dagger if playing the assassinate ganker build closing the gap is not a big deal. Also at lvl 6(either maxed 1st 2nd or ult taken) the Avalanche + Toss combo one-shots :).
Queen of Pain can get a Sniper at one combo at lvl 6 too... there are just so many heroes that counter him at the mid lane.
If Sniper is not going mid he should be at the safe lane either with 1 or 2 supports(super rare tho). Then you just keep harassing him. Either way-gank him all day long. Pick Night Stalker to silence and Spirit Breaker to stun and close the gap-easy kill. Also Sniper is not the hardest carry. Faceless Void owns him if farmed well and can also close the gap. Important thing when playing against Sniper is that you need to buy a Blink Dagger on the heroes with no gap closers!
Hope I helped ^^

Yeah, Blink Dagger! Any hero with blink as core item is a Sniper counter, and any hero without blink as core item turns into a Sniper counter by buying a blink. The inherent OP-ness of blink and the fact that you can build in on literally any hero is the reason why Sniper was considered trash in competitive for so long. And even now that he's a viable competitive hero he needs to be at the top of the farm chart to be effective and he suffers from the Drow syndrome : he drops off as a late game carry because of everybody having a blink in a late game scenario, so that Troll can bash him to death in 2 seconds and GG.

Sniper is a hero who needs to be shut down early game. He needs to be at a significant farm advantage to be effective and if he ever falls behind he has no way to come back from it since the hero can't farm. Luckily in pubs the mid lane is EXTREMELY easy to gank, since the Sniper is likely to be on his own. In a competitive game there are 2 supports sitting mid just to save Sniper's ***, in a pub the mid Sniper is just a free kill.

I have to strongly disagree with some things. He doesnt have the drow syndrome and doesnt fall off like her. Drow start falling off at 25 minutes, and at that time sniper is still trying to kerp up with the farm.
One of the reasons that he is so nasty right now is that he is insanely hard to push into. If you pair him with 1 or 2 other good highground defenders it is almost imposdible to break the base.
And pushing yourself is really easy because of DAT range. So he is damn strong in lategame and has delayed so much games. -_-
Also he eventually isnt that squishy anymore with high stat gain and all the S&Y skadi builds. Also he can actually manfight even though that sounds unnatural, but headshot really makes you strong in 1v1's. (well ok not against troll :P)

Drow's weakness is that her damage steroid is completely disabled by gap closers.
Sniper's weakness is that he doesn't have a damage steroid in the first place.

Both are horrendously bad manfighters when you jump on them unless they are at a heavy farm advantage. They have the Alchemist syndrome, both of them : be 1 or 2 items ahead of the enemy carry or just get out-damaged.

Drow doesn't drop off past 25 mins, Drow drops off when you jump on her and her team can't lock you down through BKB. Sniper has exactly the same problem. When you jump on either of them...they're both ranged creeps without skills and without damage steroids.

Sniper actually has no scaling skills whatsoever outside of his attack range. I actually laugh when people say "sniper OP" because his early game buffs came at the cost of a huge late game nerf : Headshot is complete **** in late game now. Attack speed slows have horrible scaling when people have 350+ attack speed! Sniper used to be able to almost-chainstun with Headshot which gave him insane late game presence, but since now it's just an attack speed slow anybody can manfight him in late game now, and since he doesn't have a damage steroid...at equal farm he will lose 100%. The Headshot nerf definitively dropped him from hard carry tier...if he ever was there in the first place, I always considered him in "annoying dwarf" tier.



Exactly. He's insanely hard to push into...after getting shut down mid he manages to hold base for 25 more minutes.
And then what?
And then...nothing. He just gets outcarried and GG.

That's the ******ed part about the annoying dwarf. It SEEMS like he's a good comeback hero because he's good at defending base, but he's just delaying the inevitable and at the end of the day it doesn't change anything...you just wasted 25 minutes of your time.

Sniper is a hero who relies on being AHEAD of the enemy carry, because he's completely unkiteable and his range and skillset allows him to snowball extremely hard, however he uses farm less effectively than other carries since he doesn't have a steroid (what I call the Alchemist syndrome). He's one of the most worthless heroes from behind in the game since he lacks damage scaling and he has no farming ability.



Headshot is no longer a scaling skill. Which means, almost useless in late game except for the movement speed slow. For the same reason that Untouchable or Viper's attack speed slows are useless in late game.


Seriously...just look at any competitive game with Sniper in it. Either the Sniper snowballs HARD and gets at the top of the farm chart with more than 1.5 times the farm of the second in line, balls out of control and ends the game at 35 minutes with Aegis Drow style...or the Sniper has a bad start, people start pushing, he defends the base for 25 minutes and still loses.

You realise that Sniper's steroid is better than Void's or Slardar's?

Headshot = Average +36 physical on hit

Time Lock = Average +17.5 magical on hit

Bash = Average +30 physical on hit