[Dwarven Sniper] I Shot the Sheriff

[Piejonk]

Guide Version | Forum Version

Kardel Sharpeye, the Dwarven Sniper
Written by Piejonk, iKrivetko and FunnyWarfare

Kardel Sharpeye is a testament to his name and race. Using only his finely honed skills of marksmanship and his trusty rifle, he systematically destroys his opponents from afar. Taking great care to aim for the most vulnerable of areas, he is capable of severely injuring an opponent, and with a little extra time, has been known to simply dispose of an enemy in a single shot. His rifle is equipped with a secondary barrel, capable of launching a short burst of shrapnel at close range, causing massive damage.

Table of Contents

I. The Alt-Tab Mini Guide
II. Hero Statistics
III. Hero Introduction
IV. Skills
V. Skill Builds
VI. Item Build

I. Early Game
II. Mid Game
III. Optional Core
IV. Luxury Items
V. Rejected Items
VI. Reasoning

VII. Gameplay and Strategies

I. Shrapnel Mini-Guide
II. Assassinate Mini-Guide
III. General Gameplay
IV. Team Battles

VIII. Friends and Foes
IX. Conclusion
X. FAQ
XI. Replays
XII. Credits and Changelog

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Alt-Tab Mini Guide

Skill Build

1. Take Aim/Shrapnel
2. Shrapnel/Take Aim
3. Shrapnel
4. Headshot/Take Aim
5. Shrapnel
6. Assassinate
7. Shrapnel
8. Take Aim
9. Take Aim
10. Take Aim/Headshot
11. Assassinate
12. Headshot
13. Headshot
14. Headshot
15. Stats
16. Assassinate
17. Stats
18. Stats
19. Stats
20. Stats
21. Stats
22. Stats
23. Stats
24. Stats
25. Stats

Item Build

Starting Items

Mid



Side



Core



Bracers or Wraith Bands

Whenever you have the feeling that nukers kill you too quickly and you can’t farm well enough, you should buy one or two Bracers. They give you hp and are easy to farm. But remember that Lothar’s Edge is much more useful.



Adding 1 or 2 Wraith Bands is never a bad idea. They give you a bit of everything you need: A bit more hp, a bit more damage which is good on lower levels where Sniper's damage is poor and a bit mana for using Shrapnel more often. But if you have problems with nukers you should buy Bracers and if you farm very well you should go for Lothar's Edge and luxury items.

Its really your choice whether you should go for Wraiths or Bracers.

Extension



Luxuries



Gameplay

1. Farm up your core.
2. Push towers.
3. Stick with your team.
4. Take part in large pushes and team battles rather than farming one lane alone.

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Hero Statistics

___

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Hero Introduction

Sniper has always been considered as an extremely fragile hero that dies in a matter of seconds. However he is also at the same time one of the most powerful carries and pushers in DotA. His extremely long range usually keeps him safe out of battle. He can use his skills from afar and deal tremendous damage with them. He is the only hero in the game that can out-range towers. Because of his simplicity he is often referred to as a "newbie" hero, however he is commonly used in competitive DotA, and sometimes, it can be hard to use Kardel to his maximum potential.

When to pick

• Your team needs a ranged carry
• Your team is using a pusher strategy

When to not pick

• Enemy team has lots of burst damage/stunners

Pros and Cons

[+] Highest range in the game
[+] Fast pusher
[+] Excellent farmer
[+] Excellent attack animation
[+] High damage nuke that can finish off fleeing enemies
[+] Very good agility gain
[+] Best INT gain amongst AGI heroes

[-] Needs quite a bit of survivability
[-] Big target for enemy gankers early game
[-] Low mana pool early on
[-] Below average movespeed

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Skills

Shrapnel



Skill Notes:

• Damage type: magical

Skill Usage: This skill works as a DoT in an AoE. What's great about it is that it is one of the only skills in the game that affects towers too. This is also your primary farming skill. It can also be used for lane control, ganking and escaping. The slow is decent and usually enough to perform one of the above stated strategies.


Headshot



Skill Notes:

• Damage type: hero physical
• Works on allied creeps.
• Stun is blocked by magic immunity.

Skill Usage: This skill improves your quite low damage. The stun is also nice and it syn-energizes well with Shrapnel. This skill also helps you with last hitting a lot.


Take Aim



Skill Notes:

• Level 3 and 4 of this skill allow Kardel to out-range towers.

Skill Usage: Take Aim is what makes Kardel a formidable tower pusher. It allows him to keep out of danger (most of the time) and deal tremendous amounts of damage through his other skills to enemies. Also note that if this skill is maxed it is possible to out-range the enemy fountain, allowing you to destroy it!


Assassinate



Skill Notes:

• Damage type: magical
• Crosshair on target is visible to allies only.
• Invisibility doesn't affect the effect of this skill.
• Interrupts channeling spells.
• Interrupt works on magic immune units.
• Takes 1.7/1.65/1.5 seconds to cast.

Skill Usage: This is your only major nuke and it has quite a few purposes. It is primarily used for killing fleeing heroes, but it also has other purposes. It can cancel channeled spells, meaning TP's and spells like Freezing Field will be canceled when the target hero is hit with the launched projectile. Because of it's very short cooldown it can be used prior to battles, or just in the midst of battle, to deal a lot of damage to one hero, weakening him a lot, and allowing him to be finished off by allies or by Kardel himself. Since 6.68, Kardel gets the experience from out of range assassinate kills.

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Skill Builds

1. Take Aim/Shrapnel
2. Shrapnel/Take Aim
3. Shrapnel
4. Headshot/Take Aim
5. Shrapnel
6. Assassinate
7. Shrapnel
8. Take Aim
9. Take Aim
10. Take Aim/Headshot
11. Assassinate
12. Headshot
13. Headshot
14. Headshot
15. Stats
16. Assassinate
17. Stats
18. Stats
19. Stats
20. Stats
21. Stats
22. Stats
23. Stats
24. Stats
25. Stats

Reasoning: Shrapnel helps with our lane control, farming, and pushing. So we try to max it as early as possible. Take Aim helps with our harassing and pushing ability, so take it early on as well. Headshot should be left for the mid game however it is possible to take one level of it early on the help with our last-hitting, as our damage is pretty bad early game. Take Assassinate whenever you can, and finish with Stats.

Skill nothing before the creeps start fighting and wait for a situation where you could need Shrapnel and skill it (early first blood or ally has to be saved). When the creeps start attacking and you realize that you might not need it too early, skill Take Aim, which make last hitting easier. On the second level you should take the skill that you didn't take on the first level.

Look at who you will be laning with and against to decide which skill you will take on level 4:

Solo vs Dualstunner lane (like Lina + Sven) : Take Aim
Solo vs high burst damage solo lane (like Tinker): Take Aim
Solo vs non high burst damage lane (like Traxex): Headshot
Solo vs deffensive + carry lane (like Spectre + Warlock) : Headshot
Solo vs aggressive + carry lane (like Lion + Naix): Take Aim
Dual vs anything: Headshot

In general: Headshot when you can play agressive, Take Aim when you have to keep distance and farm because you can't kill anyone and your opponent(s) will try and can kill you easily.

Skill Build Alternatives:

There are only a couple of major alternatives to the standard skill build. The first one is taking both Take Aim and Headshot, skipping Shrapnel early on, to farm and possibly even kill heroes faster. Personally this is not recommended as Shrapnel is a great and important skill, and you get just as much farming power with it as you would with Headshot.

The other one is grabbing a couple of levels of Stats early on. Still, max Shrapnel, and levels 2 and 4 grab some stats instead of Take Aim/Headshot. Stats give you some HP and MP which actually helps a bit early game. This again is not recommended over the standard skill build, since when you get your first survivability and mana regeneration items, the extra Stats don't become as useful as Take Aim/Headshot.

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Item Builds

Early Game

Side Lane





Proceed to your position. There you may finish your personal survivability booster codenamed "Magic Wand"

Mid Lane





Water and food allow you to stay in the battlefield for prolonged periods.

Mid Game

Core Equipment



Power Treads and Magic Wand will give you survivability that is necessary for a slow moving low hp Sniper. If you want to buy Orchid and you want to be able to spam Shrapnel for pushing and farming, buy an Oblivion Staff after that. The next important item to buy is Lothar’s Edge, because it will save your ass many times and gives you damage and attack speed that are good for being a carry in mid/lategame.

Bracers or Wraith Bands

Whenever you have the feeling that nukers kill you too quickly and you can’t farm well enough, you should buy one or two Bracers. They give you hp and are easy to farm. But remember that Lothar’s Edge is much more useful.



Adding 1 or 2 Wraith Bands is never a bad idea. They give you a bit of everything you need: A bit more hp, a bit more damage which is good on lower levels where Sniper's damage is poor and a bit mana for using Shrapnel more often. But if you have problems with nukers you should buy Bracers and if you farm very well you should go for Lothar's Edge and luxury items.

Its really your choice whether you should go for Wraiths or Bracers.

Optional Core Equipment



Urn is a very good item for Sniper. It gives him the hp and mana regen that he needs. However there sometimes might be a better Urn carrier on your team, and you should let them get it instead of you. Otherwise go ahead and make this instead of a bracer.



A flask of whiskey to keep your morale up. A good item if you want to push in early/mid game. While switching the lanes you can refresh your mana to push the next tower. If you don’t want bottle, Magic Wand is enough for a burst heal.



.338 Lapua Magnum armor-piercing bullets at your service. Probably the best out there. A cookie-cutter item for Sniper. Your high range is useless without high damage.



Neurotoxin-coated rounds. 8 paralysing rounds for free. A very interesting item. The stats are good for your carry role, the orb is amazing against low hp heroes, but just in early/mid game. The orb loses it’s effectiveness in early game. Purge is good for ganking because you have 2 slows or 1 extreme slow that increase your overall DPS. Also Diffusal Blade is a must-have item against Warlock’s Infernal. Benefits from: Attack speed



Electroshocking rounds for superior crowd-control. Like Diffusal Blade this item is very effective in early/mid game. With this item you can push faster. But because you can upgrade it to Mjollnir it isn’t useless in late game. And it is just an orb effect, so you can also buy Skadi. All in all an item that is useable in any situation. Benefits from: Attack speed



Adrenaline pack. Your range is high, but that will not save you when you are facing disables because their range is long, too or the disablers use fog to hide so that you don’t notice them till it’s too late. All in all this item will turn you rambo for a few seconds, but it won’t help you against physical dps carries.



Ultra-light boots with a built-in radio. The radio allows you to call a transport chopper for extra mobility. You should change your boots to this one in mid/late game. You can push everywhere and it changes your Assassinate to something like Zeus’s ultimate. But if the game is not focused on ganking and pushing, Power Treads are more useful.



Buy it instead of Lothar's Edge. In games with higher skilled players that buy Dust/Gem/Necronomicon, Lothar's isn't as useful as lower skilled games. Here Dagger is a cheaper alternative. You can dodge, blink to places that are hard to reach and kill your opponents and Assassinate's Area of Influence is huge (2700/3200/3700). The problem is that it doesn't give you dps.



While this item is bad on many heroes, it is a choice for Sniper if you want to gank a lot. The only problem is that it is useless if you buy Manta and/or Skadi that are better items. Benefits from: Attack speed

Luxury Equipment



An attached flashbang launcher. Disorients your enemies.
A item that fits Sniper perfectly. The mana regeneration let you spam Shrapnel to push towers, the damage and attack speed is needed to be the carry and the silence will rape all guys who try to dodge your ultimate. Benefits from: Any damage you deal



I think it’s obvious that the item is perfect to deal damage. The evasion allows you to fight against ranged physical dps carries easily. But don’t be foolish and fight in melee range against melee carries like Naix.



Lightweight Kevlar Armor. Doesn't constrain movement. This item will help you destroying towers quickly. I don’t have to talk about the dps, I think. But if there is a melee hero who could use it also, it’s better if he buys it. Then the aura will affect anyone and the armor is not that wasted. Benefits from: Physical damage



Thermal scope, allows you to spot the most uncovered parts of your enemy. Obvious. Damage. Benefits from: Physical damage, attack speed



Schmidt & Bender 6x42 PM II scope for delivering 100% precise shots. Unusable with any rounds other than the ordinary due to different trajectory. More stun. Bash doesn’t stack additional, but the chance is still higher so that it will work pretty much like a Skadi with less slow and more damage. When you are facing heroes with evasion it’s a must-have. Benefits from: Attack speed



Dummies of yourself to deceive your enemies. Very well synergy with Sniper. The movement speed and the stats are perfect and the illusions also get high range. When you are not facing a high AoE team this item is very useful. Benefits from: Stats



Improved electroshocking rounds. Look at the Maestrom. The only difference is that you should use it’s skill on a often attacked hero, that isn’t you in the most cases. Benefits from: Attack speed



Freezing rounds. Quite expensive due to a complicated manufacturing technology. I really think Sniper is the best carrier for this item. No one can flee, the stats are nice and it’s just a buff, not an orb. So you should get it if you got Maestrom/Mjollnir and vice-versa. The only problem is the price.

Rejected Equipment



Why would a sniper need something that looks like a green excrement? Seriously, Assassinate is your finishing move, not your nuke. The cooldown is low anyway and your manapool small. Don't buy it.



Shrapnel will give the minions time to hit. And strength and intelligence is needed. So it is a good item? Not really. Shrapnel slows for a short time and you can hit invisible heroes with your ultimate anyway. It's better to get physical dps items and attack speed because they will make you (combined with Take Aim and Headshot) a hard carry.



This item is completely useless. It just takes a inventory slot. Firstly you aren't a ricer. Ricing would waste your pushing and ganking potential. If you want to farm, buy Orchid. The mana regeneration will let you spam Shrapnel, which results in many lasthits. And you push. And you can gank because of the Silence. And it gives you physical dps.



Lifesteal in general is not really bad, but not a good choice because you shouldn't play rambo anyway. Your health points are too low for this. Buy one of the orbs that are mentioned before.



This will help you spam Shrapnel and push but it doesn't give you physical dps. Go for Orchid instead.

Item Build Reasoning

Early game its important to grab some stat and regen items. This is what the branches and tangos/clarities/salves are for. Grab exactly 3 tangos, as we will use these to build our magic wand. Next try to buy your bracer parts or boots of speed. Then proceed to complete you basic laning phase items.

This is the order that we want to complete our starting items: Wand and Treads. Also you should decide whether to go for Bracers or Wraiths at this point. Right after this you should start on farming Lothars. However instead of going straight for Lothars, you can try to instead farm up an optional item. Anyways, either way you will farm up your Lothars eventually and thats when you should try to farm up your next item. Since you will start getting quite a lot of kills at this point you luxury shouldn't take too long to complete.

Then keep on adding luxuries to your build until the game ends. The Lothars, should hopefully minimize your losses in the process. Try to buy items that will synergize with other items, instead of buying random items. For example here are some very late game builds that synergize well:

Sniper Commando (Carry, Illusions give you high dps)



Assassin (Dps carry that kills anyone with a few hits)



Guerilla (Ganker)



Mortar Team (Pusher, Mjolnir for killing creeps quickly)



Gatling (Carry, high as to trigger Ministuns often)



Of course those item builds are quite expensive, but rewarding if you complete one.

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Gameplay and Strategies

Shrapnel Mini-Guide

AoE

This picture shows you that Shrapnel’s AoE is decent. The only special thing that you have to know about Shrapnel is the positioning of it and abusing it's AoE.

Farming

Instead of simply using the skill on the center of a creep wave, you can also harass you opponent with it. Look at this picture:

You will not just hit all the creeps, you will also hit heroes in an area behind them. Usually they don’t want to be damaged, so they will go out of the AoE and then they can’t last hit/deny the melee creeps easily.

Destroying Towers

Shrapnel also damages towers. I don’t have to explain much here I think. You push while farming with it and your creeps will fight near to the tower. Use it so that you will hit creeps, heroes, and the tower at the same time. Notice that the tower is fat and can’t move, so you don’t need to have the whole tower in your aiming circle.

Fleeing

It's obviously how to use Shrapnel to flee. Aim between you and the enemy hero. What is important here is to cancel the animation. Look here:

If I wouldn't have canceled the animation I would be dead.

And there Weaver pawned me. Using Shrapnel against heroes that can blink or move very fast isn't super effective, but sometimes it is worth a try.

Ganking

The most important thing here is not clicking directly on the enemy hero. That's as effective as aiming Elune's Arrow directly on a moving hero.

First look which way your gank target is going. Make sure that he is cornered by Shrapnel and your allies, so that he has to walk into it. I guess you know that already if you play Pudge/Mirana/Lina/Kunkka, etc. sometimes.

In this pic you see a siuation where Leoric had to run into my Shrapnel because he was chased by my allies.

Assassinate Mini-Guide

Basic Use

This is quite obvious. High casting time that can be interrupted easily, huge range, very high damage and it ignores invisibility; the perfect skill for finishing off near-to-death heroes. Use it on low HP heroes to kill them. It is so simple but why is it, that some people don't understand how to use it correctly?

Common Faults

Some people always complain that you are stealing a kill when you use Assassinate on a low HP hero. Someone has to get the lasthit and you are a carry (not the best one, thats true). So ignore these guys that flame at you. You just secured a kill. But there are situations where you can waste your ultimate.

Lets pretend you (Sniper), Vengeful Spirit and Lion gank 2 heroes. Vengeful and Lion use their skills and would surely kill someone and the other hero runs away with 200 hp. While reading this and thinking about it is obvious what to do: Use Assassinate on the fleeing hero. But I see so many people who use Assassinate at the beginning of a fight, trying to weaken the ganked hero, who would of died anyways. Always, when ganking, try to save Assassinate to finish off the ganked heroes.

Using Assassinate in Fights

I see too many people using Assassinate when someone starts attacking them.

If you are lucky and your target doesn't interrupt Assassinate or kills you, this will happen; You use it, your target will notice the low hp and will run away.

The best way is to use Shrapnel and attack the hero to force him to run away and finish him off with Assassinate.

Special Cases

But there are a lot of heroes who will make it not that easy for you to kill them.

1. Invisibility

You fight against them, they are low hp and go invisible. But hey, you can Assassinate invisible heroes. The problem is that you can't target them. So you have to use Assassinate before they turn invisible.

Heroes that have an invisibility based skill:

Treant Protector
Sandking
Phantom Lancer
Stealth Assassin
Bounty Hunter
Templar Assassin
Bone Fletcher
Nerubian Weaver
Broodmother
Nerubian Assassin

Items:

Lothar's Edge

2. Blinking Heroes

Some heroes have Blink skills. The good thing is that they use these skills to flee most of the time, not to dodge. But if they just run away they will probably wait for your Assassinate to dodge it. So never use it too hastily against these guys, and never wait till you can't see them anymore.

Heroes that can blink are:

Anti-Mage
Morphling
Mirana
Faceless Void
Meepo
Furion
Akasha

Items:

Dagger

3. Invulnerability

Some guys can turn invulnerable. But usually just for a short time, so it's the best to wait until they can't see you anymore so that they can't see that you are casting it. The good thing is that invulnerable heroes don't have any invisibility based skills.

Heroes that have skills that can go invulnerable:

Panda Brewmaster
Lord of Avernus
Juggernaut
Naga Siren
Puck
Storm Spirit
Atropos
Obsidian Destroyer

4. Magic Immunity

These guys are ugly. Nothing more to say.

Guys that are ugly:

Juggernaut
Omniknight
Naix

Items:

Black King Bar

There is a solution to all these heroes:



This disables all their ugly abilities, even Riki's ultimate and it allow Assassinate to deal more damage. The only things that can interrupt your ultimate now are certain items and passive stuns.

General Gameplay

The TP Scroll

This is an important thing to know when playing Sniper. Usually enemies will be trying to gank you to stop you from farming, so it is a good idea to always have an escape mechanism with you. You will need one before you get Lothars, and even after that Lothars can be unreliable if enemies get Dust or Necronmicon.

So always carry 1 extra TP scroll with you. If your teammates have warned of a mia, and after some time you are sure that the enemy is going to gank you, then just TP to a different lane where you can farm/push rather peacefully.

Mana Conservation

Since Sniper's mana pool is rather low early game, it is important for us to know when we can use our spells. If you can afford to to use your spells for early pushes and harrasing then do so. However try to keep your mana up, so that you always have one Shrapnel ready. This last Shrapnel can be used for last ditch efforts against ganks.

Once you get your Oblivion Staff, you don't really need to worry about conserving your mana anymore. The regen will provide you with enough mana to spam Shrapnel, and even have some left over for an Assassinate.

Early Game

After you finish the laning phase, and even during the laning phase, you should be trying to farm and push to the best of your ability. That one extra tower down early game, is huge for your team. After you push one tower in a lane, go to a different lane and push one tower there. Pushing any furhter than the second tower alone is too dangerous.

Other than pushing just try to farm one lane. When enemies come to gank you or try to deny XP then just TP to a different lane, and start farming there. Snipers attack animation is very good, so last hitting should be fairly easy.

Mid Game

At this point you should have your basic core build finished. That means that you can and should try sticking with your team and doing pushes together with your team. You should also take part in team battles. Income should be coming from hero kills at this point.

Your team should try to push down the tier 2 tower in each lane. Hopefully you can also get some tower kills, and that will result in a big boost in your money.

If your team is turtling, and does not want to push, then just try to stop enemy pushes as best as you can. Your Shrapnel is an excellent tool that can be used for stopping large pushes, so use it.

Late Game

At this point your DPS should be pretty high. You should have at least one luxury at this point. With your team behind your back, you are quite a formidable carry. Also if no one has soloed Roshan yet, then it is our priority to do so. You most likely will not be able to kill him alone, so make sure to bring a couple of teammates to help.

Your team should definitely be trying to push into the enemy base at this point. You will want to end the game very soon, or other harder carries will out DPS and overcome you.

Team Battles

Sniper's role in team battles is rather simple. It is to deal as much damage as possible without dying. Because of his long attack and skill range, most of the time, he is out of harms way in team battles. There are a couple of things that you should do for team battles:

1) When the initiators initiate, use Shrapnel.
2) Concentrate and attack either their disabler or carry.
3) Use Assassinate to finish off fleeing hereos.

Do not go into the middle of the battle without the proper support. Just try to stay back and use your skills from afar. As soon as you see someone as a target for Assassinate, then use it. It just tells your team to leave that hero to die and move on to the next one. Also if you have any items with abilities, such as Orchid or Manta, then right at the beginning of the battle use them. If you have orchid it is important the you silence their most dangerous spell caster so he doesn't rip apart/ disable your whole team.

If your team is losing the battle(or already lost it) and you can`t kill anyone, then just run away, as there is no point staying and getting killed.

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Friends and Foes

Friends

Disablers



The less your target moves, the more bullets it catches.

Damage Output Booster



What could be better than delivering even more precise shots?

Groupers



Your Shrapnel hits an area. The more concentrated the enemies are, the better the overall impact is.

Mana Replenishers



More mana equals to more Shrapnels, which equals to more farming and pushing.

Damage Amplifiers



A weakened opponent is a dead opponent.

Foes

Mana Burners



They render you useless.

Disablers



The less you move, the more bullets you catch.

Hard hitters



You are fragile, they hit hard. Questions?

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Conclusion

Overall, Sniper is an excellent hero that can deal huge damage from afar. He is very prone to dying however, so it is crucial that you are always on the lookout for incoming ganks. Once you get farmed up, you are quite a force to contend with, especially with your team behind your back. We, the guide writers, hope that this guide has taught you a lot about how to play Kardel, and we hope that you use this information and apply it to your next games when playing this hero.

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FAQ

1. What should Sniper focus more on, farming or pushing?

It's pretty much your choice and you must decide which one is the correct choice. If you fear of getting ganked, then just farm but don't go too far out of the range of your tower without a TP scroll. If the enemy is distracted for some reason then go ahead and push the tower that you want to push as fast as you can. Destroying towers gives you a lot of money (around 2 creeps waves), so sometimes it is even faster than just farming creeps. Remember, because of the lack of an escape mechanism, ALWAYS carry a TP scroll around with you, until you get lothars.

2. Why skip Headshot early, if it provides a lot of DPS?

The reason is because it actually doesn't provide that much DPS. One level is by far enough to boost our DPS. The proc chance is based on our IAS%, and that only becomes important mid-game, and that is when we will be trying to skill Headshot. Take Aim is much superior early game, as it provides us with safer farming and pushing early on.

3. Why wasn't ______ mentioned in the item build?

It is not possible to list every item for Sniper in the item build. Only items that actually work on Sniper are listed there. Other items just aren't good for Sniper and shouldn't be gotten for him.

4. Why is Sniper considered a "newbie" hero?

This is because of his easy to use skills. He has two passives, and Shrapnel and Assassinate are very easy to use, and take little practice to understand them. Also because of his long range, he is often out of harms way, and this appeals to new players a lot.

5. Help! My team always yells at me for kill stealing!

You are never, ever stealing a kill with Assassinate. You are just guaranteeing that the fleeing hero will die. Your team should never be blaming you for stealing kills, besides you need the gold, because you are a carry.

Just to show you a common situation that usually happens with a Sniper in the game:

Riki and Mortred are complaining that Sniper is stealing kills from them, ironically they are hard carries.

Snipers response ^_^.

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Replays

Date: 24/12/2009 11:32
Patch version: 1.24
Map: DotA Allstars 6.61b
Game mode: Normal mode
Game length: 52:00

Winner: Sentinel

Download Here

Sentinel:
:tc: wicked.Fire, level 19
:cm: nfinity.Sh1LLa, level 15
:sniper: FnaticMSI.21, level 22
:sand: DoTa[LuckeR], level 19
:potm: swedic, level 18

Scourge:
:viper: OS|oNe.xe1feR!, level 17
:lion: PenguinQ, level 15
:morph: dignitas.Zhanis, level 18
:es: neXt!Xeido, level 18
:cw: NS, level 19

The map may be a bit old, but the Sniper play here is amazing. He goes for a build of BoT, Manta, BKB, and then Rapier!

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Credits and Changelog

Credits go to in no specific order: The Other Guy, windrunner023, BlackRain, bekyuubi, Prizo, kawumm, Super-sheep, dishtowel, YaNK_FaN, Manta

Changelog

• 09/12/2009 - Guide is first posted
• 11/12/2009 - Major formatting done
• 11/12/2009 - Basic item build finished
• 11/12/2009 - Skill build finished
• 12/12/2009 - Minor updates and fixes
• 12/12/2009 - Skill build section done
• 12/12/2009 - Starting on Gameplay
• 13/12/2009 - Friends/Foes section done
• 13/12/2009 - Conclusion finished
• 13/12/2009 - FAQ done
• 19/12/2009 - Assassinate Mini-Guide finished
• 19/12/2009 - Skill Build Improved
• 23/12/2009 - Item build reworked
• 24/12/2009 - Guide finished
• 24/12/2009 - Published!!
• 24/12/2009 - Added section in Friends/Foes

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[The Other Guy]

wth, guide making spree?

Good luck with the guide and hope it is the same quality as your previous ones. Be careful however of neglecting the others.

[Piejonk]

Actually this one is a tri-written guide (me, iKrivetko and FunnyWarfare) so there will be much less work for me . But still I hope this guide will be great, because of the input of 3 people of the same time.

[iKrivetko]

wth, guide making spree?

lol.

[Piejonk]

Originally Posted by iKrivetko

lol.

Yes lol, btw everyone check out and vote (idc whether you vote yes or no) for reoworking the guide rating's system found in my sig!!!

[The Other Guy]

Well good luck anyway. My lina guide should finaly be updated by tomorrow, I'll send you a msg or something.

o btw

[iKrivetko]

Nice vid.

[windrunner023]

Looking good so far =D

[iKrivetko]

ITEM BUILD DRAFT

Item Build

Core Equipment

Early Game

Side Lane


______Recipe


Proceed to your position. There you may finish your personal survivability booster codenamed "Magic Wand"
_______________________________________________

Mid Lane





Water and food allow you to stay in the battlefield for prolonged periods.

Mid Game

Core Equipment





This equipment directly boosts your rookie ass' survivability, which is crucial. The rifle's weight allows neither to move fast, nor to have heavy armor.

Optional Core Equipment

A flask of whiskey to keep your morale up.


An attached flashbang launcher. Disorients your enemies.


.338 Lapua Magnum armor-piercing bullets at your service. Probably the best out there.


Neurotoxin-coated rounds. 8 paralysing rounds for free.


Electroshocking rounds for superior crowd-control.


Fire-Water resistant vest.


Adrenaline pack.


Ultra-rigid bullet-reflecting armor.


Police issue X26 Taser for close combat purposes.


Ultra-light boots with a built-in radio. The radio allows you to call a transport chopper for extra mobility.


Brass knuckles for beating gold out of civilians.

Luxury Equipment

Ultra-light synthetic camouflage set. Makes it harder for your enemies to hit you.


Lightweight Kevlar Armor. Doesn't constrain movement.


Thermal scope, allows you to spot the most uncovered parts of your enemy.


Schmidt & Bender 6x42 PM II scope for delivering 100% precise shots. Unusable with any rounds other than the ordinary due to different trajectory.


Dummies of yourself to deceive your enemies.


Improved electroshocking rounds.


Freezing rounds. Quite expensive due to a complicated manufacturing technology.

Rejected Equipment

Why would a sniper need something that looks like a green excrement?

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FRIENDS/ENEMIES DRAFT

Friends and Foes

Friends

Disablers



The less your target moves, the more bullets it catches.

Damage Output Boosters



What could be better than delivering even more precise shots?

Groupers



Your Shrapnel hits an area. The more concentrated the enemies are, the better the overall impact is.

Damage Amplifiers



A weakened opponent is a dead opponent.

Foes

Brainwashers



They render you useless

Disablers



The less you move, the more bullets you catch.

Hard hitters



You are fragile, they hit hard. Questions?

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[Piejonk]

Very nice, altough you should mention carrying a tp scroll around with u in case of ganks. Although that part could come in gameplay.

Well done.

EDIT: I'm still playing with the visual format and I'm even thinking about ditching the whole template and just making a clean, neat, organized layout.

[iKrivetko]

Yeah, carrying TPs belongs to the strategy section.
I think that the layout I used looks somewhat weird because of the extra nqbs. What do you think?

[Piejonk]

Maybe but we can fix that up no problem. I just want the guide to be easy to read, but in-depth also. (screw the template I'm making a new design)

[iKrivetko]

By the way, why did you change the nickname?:P

[Piejonk]

Because this one is better ^_^, but really I hated the numbers in my name (I only put them there because I had to), so I changed it.

[iKrivetko]

Added a list of possible items, however I'm too sleepy to post images and justifications atm.:P
3:00, damn...

[windrunner023]

Isn't MKB counterproductive as it's like having Buriza on PA, right? 2 separate mini-stuns...

[The Other Guy]

Originally Posted by windrunner023

Isn't MKB counterproductive as it's like having Buriza on PA, right? 2 separate mini-stuns...

Not really. Sniper's mini stun is going to last him well into the mid game, but after that he is going to need something more to fall back on. MKB is good, but generally only get it if their are other carries who either have or are going to get evasion.

[windrunner023]

I didn't think the True Strike worked with Headshot, must confirm this.

[FlamingFist]

well Gl with your guide. btw your layout is very good.

[bekyuubi]

Wow. Luxury item is manta. That's 100% nuts. It's either a core build or optional. Combine with skadi/diffusal blade for greater effectiveness. Despite you saying the MS is low, that item gives out to > 400 ms with treads. Combine with sharpnel, not even phase boots/BOT can chase that speed. Afraid of gang? Just frigging ward the place already. Gives your allies a chance to gang or escape as well. Warding the rune areas is even better.

Not saying that lothar is useless, but there's very little synergy with other items that you would want to buy later. If you can hit up to 150 CS in 30 minutes, it's pretty easy to get treads/wand/manta/diffusal.

Afraid of insufficient mana? Bottle solves. You can regen 200 mana from there and the mana pool with manta + wand (just click) on sniper is around 800 plus. You're good for 2 assassinates with sharpnels. After which, Buriza or Skadi or Butterfly or linken (depending on scenarios)

Orchid is also the silliest suggestion ever. Like you said, Sniper is a squishy hero, Manta gives you HP (illusion x 2 for guess works + MS), Linken gives you more, so does skadi. Orchid does nothing whatsoever for that HP. If any blinkers come at you with dust, you're completely dead. I'm also pretty sure, the blinking would come faster than you can say, "gotcha!" with orchid silence counter. Example, Tide hunter blinks in and ultis straight away. What do you do? Silence him after? That's pointless. Next you know, all their carries comes in smacking you. Dust kills you all too easy with merely 1.3 K hp.

Current Guide rating:
5/10. Average. The users have suggested a stable HP route with correct beginning items, but the Mid and End game isn't close to the best way to play sniper. Orchid has a cost of 5025 gold, WW has a cost 3400 gold. A creep has an average of 42 gold (ignore catapult for now). You would have to kill 190 creeps for that to be achieved. So unless you get to have a fantastic good start, killing 2-3 towers AND 2-3 heroes without dying, you would be getting that two items in 30 mins.

And at that point, considering if there's a Sladar with amplify + BKB, I wish you luck. SF would have BOT/Lothar or blink/BKB. Razor vanguard/radiance/treads. Storm Spirit with hex. Orchid is truly a crap item and I haven't seen that in competitive play on any heroes for a darn long time. Please watch the latest tournament replays and rethink why they choose their items.

Also, Lothar first is well suited for those at the sides (because they earn lesser as compared to mid.), but that doesn't mean manta is out of the question. If they earn a lot, manta/diffusal + headshot has a lot of synergy.

PS: My 2 cents.