Mid Counter to Sniper

How do you do it and still get any farm? I've tried ranged heroes, melee tanky heroes... It just seems like any time I'm up against Sniper at mid I'm screwed. He can hit me from the top of his steps before I can even get in range to get last hits. Then once he gets his little mini-stun, it gets harder to even keep your distance. Once he has Assassinate...

How do you counter Sniper at mid?

My only thought is to hold up your creeps and try to keep the fight closer to your tower instead of in the river.

Outworld Devourer, probably. Or someone with a good spammable nuke. Skywrath Mage, Lina (her Dragon Slave do reach Sniper, right?), Templar Assassin could just get close and harass more.

Personally never have any trouble with Sniper mid (and feeding).

See I was playing as Templar Assassin last night. It was my first match with her. But I couldn't seem to do anything of note.

Sniper is a cheesy dude and he can beat a lot of heroes in mid. If you are mid laning against him, you might just have to hang way back, admit to yourself that you're not going to get that many last hits, and make up for it later. If you don't counter sniper, he can really go on a rampage, assuming the person playing sniper doesn't suck too much and that the people playing against him are kind of noobs. There are a lot of ways to shut sniper down. One easy way is to pick one of his counters.

For starters, have you checked http://www.mobacounter.com/dota/search.php?search=Sniper

Here's the two counters you should focus on vs. sniper:

1. Spirit Breaker: This guy flies around the map ganking. He can beat almost everyone 1v1, especially when he has his ult up, and sniper is very easy for him to kill. If you see a sniper is on the enemy team, get spirit breaker. After level 6, any time you see sniper alone in a lane (check the minimap to make sure that most of his team is somewhere else, not hiding in the shadows waiting for you to take the bait) charge him. Sniper will probably try to build a shadow blade for escape, so when he does, get dust or gem. Keep in mind, spirit breaker doesn't just counter sniper. He counters faces, with his fists. He is a gank machine so if somebody picks him you better plan on how to counter him.

2. Pudge: Pudge is another notorious ganker who can destroy sniper. But here's the thing: pudge takes a little skill to play. Landing his hook is not as easy as pwning with spirit breaker. Don't pick pudge to counter sniper if you've never practiced hitting with his hooks. Also, pudge is not technically a carry, whereas spirit breaker is, so s.b. might scale better with gear in the late game. If the pudge player knows what he's doing, and the sniper is not familiar with pudge's shenanigans, then pudge will probably start killing sniper in the laning phase.

A good sniper can probably still out-harrass most enemies in mid during the laning phase, even if you picked these counters. But the sniper is going to have to be really cautious the rest of the game if s.b. or pudge are waiting to gank him as soon as he sticks his butt out. You have the over all advantage.

When playing against Sniper you want to be mega aggressive early. He is a slow hero, with bad starting damage, and has low health. You want the first wave of creeps to be on your side of the river, so then he has to sit in the river to get last hits. If he sits there and tries to last hit, just walk up to him and man fight him (walk past the creeps before you start right clicking him to not draw aggro). This forces sniper to try and man fight back, but due to bad early stats he won't do, meaning he'll turn away and run to his tower, as he is slow just hit him whilst he flees. If the creeps are in the river you can still do this but can't do it as effectively.
Once he gets to about level 3 he'll have enough range to be far enough away so you can't do this. This is when your life will suck. You have to stand out of his range and run to the wave for last hits, then back out without too much damage taken. Running in at the right time without having to wait a bit takes practise.
Dual lanes would destroy him but I assume you're talking about pub games.

Hereos who can close the gap between you are the best against him, maybe try a Slark or Bristleb.
Or hereos that can do a high amount of harass, such as Skywrath Mage or Silencer.
These hero ideas are theoretical, don't play against sniper mid that often.

A good Sniper is INCREDIBLY hard to deal with. On paper, he has bad base damage, so-so stats (one of the best total stat gain though) nothing to really harass with, and is squishy so he seems pretty bad. His "lane control" is taken by his third skill, which won't be truly effective until it reaches something along the lines of level 3 Take Aim.

Or so the inexperienced people thought.

He has one of THE best attack animations and the second missile speed in the game (tied with Gyrocopter, losing only to melee heroes). Base damage is easy to compensate. What makes him hard to deal with is the missile speed and animation which were mentioned and his harassment. Headshot first Snipers deal huge damage, enough to get you around 2/5 of your health if he procs everything at level 7, leaving you open for a kill.

The best way is to just have people gank him, because it's really easy.

As for hero counters, Silencer does seem great, because he won't take Shrapnel early.

Assuming you're 1v1 with him, the key is to be aggressive from the start. He's slow and squishy, and his extra range/headshots won't have fully kicked in yet. If you can minimise his farm/xp you can gain an advantage which will keep him managable (or even better, dead) as he eventually gets levelled up. Running a Bottle against him is a good idea - you should be able to out rune him easily, and it will make it much easier to spam your abilities and trade hits with him.

If all else fails (or even if not), any half decent support can help you get an easy gank on him.

Queen of Pain is one of the best counters to Sniper imo, she has a greate attack animation and missile speed. U can also survive his ult if u time ure Blink right. You shoud be able to kill him when u have ult and scream maxed, because sniper is very fragile(about 650 hp in lvl 7, you do 300 dmg with Scream of Pain and 350 with Sonic Wave, that are 480 dmg after reduction, so be sure to harass him early with one extra Scream of Pain). The key point is to out CS him. U dont have to get the Denys, just make sure that he dont get the last hits. No LHs= no Gold= no Items= no HP and dmg= easy lane.

every sniper..good or bad has ONE counter...

ganks
and...
MORE GANKS

Sniper is actually one of the worst if not THE worst hero in the game. But yeah he can be annoying in the mid since he will be close to his tower most of the time.

You should beat him with TA becouse she is one of the best mid heroes in the game. The trick to defeating sniper is getting in his face instanty, so he is attacking you? Run at him and throw everything you have at him. You should not hesitate for one moment however, becouse headshot damage really adds up in if it takes too long.

If you want pure counters to him? With queen of pain you should make him completely unable to lane against you in the mid after 2 minutes.
Use the same tactic, heal up with tangos/bottle, then blink in his face, dagger and scream. Dead sniper. After that he cant come back to lane to last hit, if he does you kill him again, and again, and again.

Weaver destroys him 1 vs 1 becouse you have geminate attack and can close the gap while damaging him with shikuchi.

Quas invoker has high regen and cold snap with forge spirits to defeat him. Kunnka can harras really good with tidebringer and kill him with torrent.

Huskar burns him to a crisp.

Gyrocopter with levels in missile defeats him.

Lone druid uses him as bear food.

Outworld devourer defeats anyone but razor, and maybe huskar in early game? mid.

Timbersaw can bursts him down in one little combo and has reactive armor.

Slark can jump in his face and kill him.

I think a well played skywrath can defeat him.

Shadow fiend WILL eventually push him out of lane with sheer right click damage.

Razor steals his pitiful damage.

Viper is really dominant mid and punishes sniper's harras.

Tinker should use his laser and rocket to put him to low HP instantly.

Batrider has a hard time in the beginning, but especially once you have boots, stack that napalm and burn his ***.

Storm spirit has overload harass and high armor. Also destroys sniper later.

Night stalker can void to slow him and then use right click harass. He also has high armor.

Or if you want a more unconventional mid.

Shadow demon stacks poison from range, sniper loses a lot of health or just dies.

Ogre magi uses fireblast and ignite, end of story.

Lina doesnt out last hit sniper but can eventually nuke him away and when you hit 6.......


Enigma uses demonic conversion, eidilons attack sniper, sniper walks back to fountain.

Earth spirit is overpowered and pushes sniper under his own tower.

Bane makes sure sniper NEVER EVER gets last hits with enfeeble.

Axe uses battle hunger and then runs at sniper.

So you could say that when you are better or on the same level as then the sniper he has no chance.

Just remember that you can and should play really agressive when you reach the basic levels and items that you need.
And if it still fails, which could happen becouse headshot it a piece of ****, just remember that i could be much worse. You could have lost midland to a hero that is much more usefull later in the game like shadow fiend, batrider, pudge, queen of pain, templar assasin or many more.