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40 Votes

[ An In Depth Guide On Sniper ]

June 26, 2020 by Caeus
Comments: 7    |    Views: 296205    |   


A Passive Starter Build

DotA2 Hero: Sniper




Hero Skills

Shrapnel

1 2 5 7

Headshot

4 13 14 16

Take Aim

3 8 9 11

Assassinate

6 12

Talents

10 15 18

Hero Talents

+6 Shrapnel Charges
25
+100 Attack Range
+25 Shrapnel DPS
20
+25 Knockback Distance Headshot
-15% Shrapnel Slow
15
+30 Attack Speed
+30 Headshot Damage
10
+1s Take Aim Duration

Introduction to Sniper

Kardel Sharpeye, the Sniper, is a ranged agility carry who excels at dealing moderate to heavy damage from an incredible range. With no escape mechanism, poor mobility, and only a modest health pool, Sniper is exceptionally frail at all stages of the game and vulnerable to enemies who confront him head-on. However, his abilities provide him both the means to keep his distance and systematically destroy his enemies from afar. Shrapnel is a potent, high-cast range zoning ability that provides vision for Sniper while slowing and damaging enemies in its area of effect; with up to 3 charges on the ability, Sniper can completely close off any viable routes for his opponents to approach or escape. Headshot supplements Sniper's right-click damage and briefly stops enemies when it procs, which can be quite debilitating since it has a high rate of occurring. His third ability, Take Aim, gives him the largest attack range of any hero in the game, allowing him to deal high DPS from a safe distance while also giving him the ease to switch between targets at a moment's notice. Finally, Assassinate is a strong finishing and harassing ability, dealing hefty damage to an enemy from an enormous distance after a brief aiming period. Sniper is heavily item-dependent, relying on means to increase his survivability as well as his damage output as the game progresses. Skilled players will find that positioning is the most important thing to keep in mind when playing him or against him.

What you need to know about him

The one thing you should keep in mind when playing Sniper is that he's fairly easy to use. Probably one of the easiest hero in Dota 2 with him only having 2 active skills, you won't have to worry about struggling during the game while playing as Sniper. Now, I had to make sure that this Sniper are for the new players, so for those who thinks the build or the skill/talent sequence is wrong in any way, I do apologize for that, but I'm just keeping in mind the things new players struggle on when playing Dota 2 for the first time. Alright, let's move on to everything you need to know about Sniper!

Pros & Cons

Pros:

Good farmer/pusher/harasser with Sharpnel
Dwarf
1000 night vision
Tied for best animation in the game
Really stupidly good at pushing, especially slow pushes
Long range, which gets even longer with levels
Strong offensive steroid with Headshot
Strong, long range, low-cooldown nuke with Assassinate
Shrapnel allows for early towers
Good at kiting

Cons:

Bad base damage
Trash movespeed
No survivability skill
Open to getting blinked/waveformed/timewalked/shadow bladed
Mediocre usefulness without farm
No escape mechanism

The Items

The Main Items

Tango

Tango is very useful in the early game. It provides you with HP regeneration for each
charges. (Stacking doesn't work) Tango is an active item however but is fairly easy to
use. You just have to click it or use your hotkey designated to it and click on any
tree. (No, bigger ones don't give you more HP)

Boots Of Speed

This grants you a fair amount of movement speed and builds into upgraded boots.

Power Treads

An upgraded boots. This one's good for new players who doesn't want to have to click their boots Sniper. However, you have to change the color of your Treads to GREEN to support your main attribute.

Phase Boots

An upgraded boots for advanced players. This is an active item which grants you bonus movement speed and you can move through units for a short duration, good for running or chasing an enemy hero.

Hurricane Pike

-Dragon Lance builds into Pike
Unlike Pike, Dragon Lance is a passive item and is every ranged hero's favorite item. It grants them bonus attack range and some decent stats for damage and survivability. I'd recommend building this after Treads and Aquila

Mjolnir

-Maelstrom builds into Mjolnir
Like the relationship between Pike and DL, Maelstrom is a passive item that upgrades into an active one. This item is very necessary for Sniper to give him more damage, attack speed and provides him with a chance to have his attack have a chain lightning that deals damage to enemies. Build Maelstrom after DL.

Sange & Yasha

The Yin and Yang. Yasha provides you more movement speed, and Agility bonus whilst Sange can slow down enemy movement speed and attack while giving you Strength bonus. Get Yasha before Sange.

Daedalus

-Crystalys builds into Daedalus
This gives you massive damage and a chance to deal critical attacks.

Monkey King Bar

Provides you good damage, mini stun and True Strike. MKB is good against hero that relies on evasion.
_______________________________________________________________________________________

The Situational Items

Silver Edge

-Shadow Blade can be upgraded into Silver Edge
Silve Edge can disable passive abilities, Shadow Blade can't. It can also allow you to go invisible and move through units.

Important note: When using SB, or SE you might want to attack first before doing anything as it guarantees you a critical strike.

The Butterfly

An active item. Using it actively is very optional. It provides you with more Agility, Attack Speed, Some Damage and a 35% evasion. Using it will give you more movement speed in exchange for the evasion. Use it only when chasing or if you need more MS (Movement Speed) to ensure an escape.

Eye of Skadi

Provides some durability and a cold attack. Replace Sange & Yasha with this at the late game.

Black King Bar

An active item. Using it makes you immune to any magic spell for a short duration. It also makes you shiny which is cool.

Satanic

An active item. A good item if you need life steal, durability and some damage. Good against Melee Heroes. Activating it gives you massive life steal for a short duration.

Divine Rapier

The most sacred item in Dota 2. Provides you with enormous damage, but if you die, you drop it, giving enemies a chance to take it and use it against you and your team.

The Skills

Sharpnel

An active AoE skill. Good for harassing enemies and clearing out creeps until you get your Maelstrom/Mjolnir.

Headshot

Sniper's most annoying skill. This ability can slow enemy's attack speed as well as movement speed. It also gives you bonus damage whenever headshot hits.

Take Aim

The ability that makes Sniper the hero with the highest range.

Assassinate

The best way to KS enemy kills. Has a very long range, can deal up to 650 damage and has a fairly low cooldown. Use it when enemy heroes has 30% below HP left to ensure a kill. It can also be used to initiate a damage on enemy heroes since its cooldown is very low.

How to play Sniper during early game

During the early game where you don't have an exceptional damage output like you do at mid/late game, you might wanna just sit back and take advantage of your range to kill/last hit creep waves until you buy the necessary items you need in order to begin fighting your enemy heroes. I would suggest not engaging in any fights unless deemed highly necessary until you reach level 6 and up and also get your Power Treads or your Phase Boots along with Aquila and a Dragon Lance where you receive all the buffs.

Important note: Phase Boots increases your damage output and your movement speed a lot more compared to Power Treads BUT in order to have more movement speed, you must activate the item by pressing the hotkey designated to your Phase Boots, so if you're having trouble with item clicking, Power Treads is the best early boots item choice.

Having issue purchasing items?

I know being new is a huge drag, specially in a game like Dota 2 but it's really worth it! One thing you need to learn if you want to play Dota 2 is purchasing items. Now, I know buying them is easy since you've got a guide with you, but new players tend to buy their items whenever they can which results in enemy heroes catching them off guard giving them a chance to deplete your golds. A good way to purchase your items very quickly without having to worry about ganks or losing golds is using the Quick Buy function.

The best way to use your buy back

A majority of players who can't stand waiting on their death tends to rush their buy backs whenever they can, which is a VERY BAD choice. Buy backs uses up money, and whenever you use a buy back, it has to recharge in order for you to be able to use it again. So why bother if you're just gonna charge forward at 5 heroes alone and die again anyway?

The best way to use your buy back is if you're team is in dire need of an all-out whole team clash against the enemy heroes. Another way is to use it when your 2nd or 3rd tier tower is being pushed. You can use it to defend it to avoid your towers being destroyed.

Important note: If you think you can just farm neutrals or creeps to regain the money you used up on buy back, then you might wanna rethink that because when you use your buy back, you gain a gold reduction for a duration, making it hard for you to regain the money you used up.

The Mid Game

Okay, here's when most of you have gotten some good builds, made some pushes and have had a fair amount of team fights, if not solo. This is when things get really dangerous since heroes here generally tend to focus more on killing heroes than creeps now. For a Sniper user, your job is to make sure you get the most of your team fights. Get the kills you deserve with Asassinate and make sure you're pushing towers as well as farming creeps/neutrals with your Right Clicks and your Sharpnel. Since you're Sniper in order to avoid enemy heroes taking you out too much, keep in mind that you have the HIGHEST range in the game, so during team fights keep as much distance as possible to secure a safe fight. If some enemy heroes target you, it's a good idea to purchase Shadow Blade. It's an active item that allows you to gain invisibility for a short duration as well as the ability to move through units, it also builds into Silver Edge which grants you better cool down and the ability to disable passive abilities. You can use that to run from anyone who targets you and then keep your distance once again to do your right clicks and take them out with your Assassinate.

The Late Game

This is it. The carries got their full item builds, the supports blaming mid for feeding and the time to end the game is drawing near. The most important thing you need to remember here is what you've been learning throughout the whole guide. KEEP YOUR DISTANCE. That's right, you've got items that can end the game now, but if you die since you're one of the carries, you're gonna be blamed a whole lot specially if you die alone leaving your team one man on the death list as they're about to engage in maybe their last clash against the enemy team. The thing you have to take advantage of is it's the late game. Sure the enemy carries have good items too, but so should you. And your supports should have fairly good items to support you, so keeping in mind that you do keep your distance, it's always good to fight whenever you can too. Me as a Dota 2 player, I never let 4 of my team go in without me, specially since I take on a carry role most of the time, too. This is when you deal most of the damage you've worked hard for, and if you can score the win and defeat your enemy during the clash, then it's time to destroy the ancient!

Important note: It's kinda impossible to avoid buying an active item, so in this build guide, there are two active items. You can also place them in a hotkey which you most feel comfortable with when using an active item.

Mjolnir & Hurricane Pike

These two are very useful active items for Sniper, since they provide him with damage and allows him to have a chance to not engage in melee fights with melee heroes.

Now, Pike can be used in two ways. You can either use it on your enemy to push you and him away from each other, giving you the range you need to deal damage whilst not receiving any. The other is when you use it on yourself. This allows you to push yourself away with a very good range to run from your enemies who slows you. You can also use this on your allies with the same effect.

Mjolnir on the other hand surrounds you with a charged shield which has a 20% chance to release a shocking bolt at a nearby attacker and 4 additional enemies. You can either use this on yourself or your allied hero.

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