SNIPER - THE PERMA-BASHER DWARF

INTRODUCTION

The Sniper is a very late game hero, he needs a lots of farming to be efficient. He's considered 'easy to play' by a lot of people, but that's totally not true : Hard carries are the hardest heroes to play and because of that, when a Sniper is picked, everybody starts to think : "Oh ****, game is lost" or "Oh no, another useless Sniper". If played correctly and get some good farm/kills, the Sniper can become a real monster and you'll regain faith in people's heart.

ABOUT THE PERMA-BASH BUILD

This build is a personal custom one that I have tested and approved on Dota vanilla and HoN (Heroes of Newerth), it's still as efficient, and perhaps better, on Dota2. The main goal of the build is to - literally - perma-bash the opponents, not like one stun every 2 sec, but stun a enemy hero all the time, even if he would have Magic Immunity (Black King Bar - BKB). This build is kinda hard to use because it requires you to have a really good farming and doesn't become efficient until you have all the core items.

SKILLS

Here comes a brief description of the Sniper's skills, they are quite easy to use (50% are passive) and are the main reason why he's so called an "easy hero" :

Shrapnel :

Active, does damage and slow over time to enemy heroes and structures in the area of effect.
This spell is quite useless in my opinion. Some may say that its useful for pushing lane and stuff, but it's not really in your interest to push a lane since it will put you in dangerous positions for farming and will increase your gank appeal meter. Don't max it until you have nothing else to max out.

Headshot :

Passive, gives you a chance to mini-bash plus bonus damage to your target.
Your core spell, Max it at lvl 7.

Take Aim :

Passive, increase your attack range, you will have a greater range than tower, the best range of the game. You will use it at your advantage.

Assassinate :

Active and cast time, Deal a X-FAT amount of damage to your target. Try to use it on heroes that do not have health regen or that are out of your attack range. This spell reveal the target during the casting time.

ITEMS

Starting Items :

You only have two gold rules to remember with Sniper :

Farm : This is why we start with two Slippers of Agility and one Iron Branch, this way we'll have some descent damage in order to last hit/deny our lane creeps.

Survive : Try to never lose 1 health point if this is not absolutely required, if you're getting denied, just stay at tower and ask for ganks, but with Sniper's attack range, you'll be rarely denied, especially if you're soloing mid. Starting with Healing Salve and two Tango will surely help you to stay longer in your lane.

If you're soloing, you do not need any mana regeneration as you won't use any spell before level 6 is reached. You'll barely use your Shrapnel spell because it's a kinda weak spell in my opinion.

Early items :

The first item that you have to acquire is the power threads, you'll gain the requirement of all MobA games : mobility, plus some stats and attack speed (which is important).

Once you have your boots, if you have troubles in your lanes go for a Bottle and try to grab the runes for easy ganks. You should go for a Ring of Aquila, it's cheap, mana regen and stuff, you know... You can go for a Magic Wand instead of the Bottle, it's about your preferences.

you need to get Mask of Madness as soon as you can, this will give you some life steal, letting you stay in lane as long as you can hit some creeps. The activate effect will give you some movement speed and great attack speed, which will be useful for the perma-bash effect.

Core Items :

Now that the early game items are acquired, you need to be very careful and to not die at all.

Farm all the creeps you can to get Monkey King Bar, this will give you True Strike which will allow you to always touch your target, and a mini-bash which, added to your own Headshot , will start making a real annoyance for your enemies.

After, get Manta Style as illusions can have the same mini-bashes and bashes as you, you'll multiply your bashing effectiveness by 3. Without the fact that you can use Manta Style to escape spells and drive a wedge into the enemy team.

Once the first two items are finished, you should start to approach the perma-bash effect, but not yet and if game is not finished, go for Skull Basher which simply allow you to become the nightmare of the game.

Luxury or late game items :

If you still haven't ended the game, you can go for a Abyssal Blade as you can still choose to bash some hero that is messing around you.

For your last item you can go for Daedalus or Butterfly, it's about your personal opinion. If there are a lot of carries in the enemy team, I recommend you to go for Assault Cuirass, your illusions will benefit of it as well.

Situational Items :

If you're having troubles, like being denied, ganked or focused during team fights, i'll recommend you to get some items that will allow you to escape like Shadow Blade (an item that I don't really like because its synergy/cost with the build is null and can be easily counter by Dust of Appearance or gem of true sigh) and Ghost Scepter. If the enemy team have a lots of disabled you should opt for a Black King Bar that will grant you magic immunity.

Hand of Midas Is a good item as well for the sniper... It will give you attack speed and you have the possibility to transmute a creep (+150 gold). You can make it before your Mask of Madness for max profit-making it.

Heaven's Halberd May be useful if you can't take down a carry enemy (which is extremely rare) like Ursa, Void or Lifestealer. Its maim, evasion and disarm effects can be really useful against them.

IS SKULL BASHER WORTH THE MONEY ?

Yes, you may say : "Why Skull Basher? Its 10% ration do not worth the cost!"

I'd tell you :"It worth it."

Why ? Simply because all your mini-bashes from Headshot and your attack speed (plus your illusions once) give you the time required to pull the effectiveness of your Skull Basher. The 1,4 stun that will trigger from it will give even more time to trigger another stun.

The PERMA-BASH effect is a nightmare for anyone who get caught by it, so yes, it worth the golds.

ITEMS TO NOT GET

Those items do look appealing for the Sniper, but not for the PERMA-BASHER SNIPER.

Vanguard will give you some health point and damage mitigation, this will delay you so much in your build that you won't be efficient until ultra late game which is rarely reached.

Satanic may give you some good life steal but it's a hard item to farm (6150 golds lol) and it doesn't have any speed attack bonus nor mini-bash.

Mjollnir may be a good items for the perma-basher effect, but it's not compatible with the life steal effect from Mask of Madness and life steal is more important than 200 magical damage (which are mitigate by magic resist and magic shields).

Sange and Yasha Could be a good item for the perma-bash effect, but Manta Style is really vital for the build and luxury items are better than S&Y. Plus it's not compatible with the life steal effect of Mask of Madness

SOLOING / LANING

Do not forget the two Sniper's golden rules (and any other carry as well) Farm and Survive.

Soloing :

Try to last hit/deny every single creep of your lane, do not miss even once of them. Be careful at rank 3 of your Take Aim spell you may be out of XP range of melee creeps.
Ask your supports to wards the runes and checks for ganks incoming for you.

Your main objective is to not die, if you can have an easy kill, grab it, otherwise just farm those challenging creeps !

Try to gank with your Assassinate at lvl 6 - 7 when your lane is pushed or if you just killed your laning opponent.

if you're having troubles, buy a Bottle and control the runes or simply hug your tower and ask for ganks. If no ganks are coming, try doing your best, but do not die, back to fountain is always a better choice.

Laning :

Laning with a mate is obviously easier than soloing, but it will delay your build since you're sharing the creeps (unless you have pro support good guy mate who's letting you have all the last hit and doing all the denies). Hero kills are easier too, but do not count on that, just farm, do not die and ask for ganks.

Your shrapnel spell may be more useful in laning phase, you can max it instead of your Take Aim spell, but I do not personally recommend it. Magic Wand is a good item when laning.

Laning phase is over :

Always have one or two Town Portal Scroll with you, farm all the lanes, be mobile and quick, do not get ganked and do not push too far. Be there for team fights and try to have some easy kills, if the fight turns the wrong direction, back up to base and defend.

NEVER FIGHT ALONE (until you're really full stuff)

TEAM FIGHTS

Team fights are the main entertainment of Moba games, they require coordination, mobility and team play. As a Sniper your contribution to a team fight is to :
- Doing damage
- Not die

As Perma-Basher Sniper, your contribution to a team fight is to :
- Rampage

Enough jokes.

Team fights before buffed :

Until you have all your items, you're a super ranged creep, but still a creep. you can die very easily, so try to not get hooked in the fight, stay at max range, use your ultimate on low health point or running away targets. If your team is losing the fight, run away, it's not being coward, it's reducing the damages.

Team fights after buffed :

Pop out your illusions with Manta Style, trigger your Mask of Madness and just fire at will, once you got somebody stunned, it's done for him. Perma-bash effect. Do not let them approach you and enjoy the golds.

HERO SYNERGY

And all heroes that have stuns and disables are a good synergy for you (you do not really have a good synergy with any hero in fact).

ANTI-HERO

Spirit Breaker is your enemy n°1.Check out for the debuff Charge of Darkness quite often and expect that he will surely focusing you for ganks or in team fight.


Riki can Blink on you and smoke your face, if you have Monkey King Bar you should be okay.


Pudge will surely try to Meat Hook you since you're such a good, tender and fresh meat.


Anti-Mage will blink and burn your mana down, so try to focus and kite him.


The Bounty Hunter can pop out and burst you down, so bring some Dust of Appearance with you, as well if there's a Riki.


The Storm Spirit can dash to you from really long distance, so be careful and avoid any solo fight with him (unless you're full buffed).

And all others heroes that can directly teleport/dash/blink to you and burn your face to the ground.

CHANGELOG

02/05/2012

-Creation of the build

CREDITS

Thanks to me for creating this build !

I hope you enjoyed my guide and start having funny sparkling games with the Perma-basher Sniper.

Sorry for my grammar errors as i'm not an english native.