Sven vs DK

Dragon Knight simply accomplishes a lot more in as little of a time than a Sven does thanks to his skillset. All DK really needs is Power Treads, Shadow Blade and a Black King Bar with the optional bottle; then his core is done. Sven on the other hand absolutely needs a BKB, almost always build Daedalus and needs a lot of attack speed like Mask of Madness or Assault Cuirass to complement the high damage output. If you haven't noticed, all of Sven's core are really expensive and he's easily countered by constant pressure and magic immune piercers, something Dragon Knight can handle.


DK only needs a few items since DK can reach his full potential through levels thanks his skillset compared to Sven's skillset that need a lot of items and time to reach full potential. DK falling behind isn't as detrimental to the game as a Sven falling behind. DK is played position #2 until Shadow Blade is bought these days while Sven is now almost always played as a #1 now.

It's basically more expensive and riskier to pick a Sven over Dragon Knight.

He can only attack and turn around for so long before Sven catches up to him. At that, Sven has Warcry and a ranged stun, pretty easy for him to catch up to DK.

It's hard to see a pro match resulting in more than 40 min, and Dragon is much more better in the early and mid game than Sven. Indeed the Sven passive is the one who is more useful for the farm but wouldn't be convenient to up in the early game, cause the better for Sven to me is 1-stat in the begin and try to get first kill properly. With Dragon you can upgrade the breathe very soon and get farmed quickly. Sven need mask of madness to me without is really hard to play, instead of dragon that has mana problem but has a slot free cause don't need a lifesteal regen but a more safe passive regen so you can focus on items of attack speed and damage. In my opinion it depends on the play style, in a pub dragon is more easy to play. But Sven can work well in the wisp combo if don't like chaos knight playing style. Don't underestimate the slow of the ulti also, can get to your team a kill easily. I vote for dragon knight and some supportive regen so u can free another slot for an item, some like maiden or gandalf, better maiden that is one of the best supports in my opinion.
Enjoy the game

sansheva

I started using Dagon on Sven and found that pretty effective to counter Dragon Knight 's Shadow Blade.

Must be new meta? That counter reminds me of a Fox News Roundtable discussion..that's some bill o'reilly **** right there.. 'Merica

To the Op, have your new friend pickup dk, for newer players they're comparable in many ways, but competitive scene I don't really wanna bring that into it if he's newer..rather, have him try out dk safe lane, and provide some reasonable support, emphasize to him that dk can be an absolute wrecking ball mid game because of how fast he can farm, his propensity to net early kills with a little support a bit better than sven because sven tends to blow his wad pretty fast early on while dk can ult and get in decent ranger attacks and melt heroes with the the dot from elder dragon form.

When it comes to late game, items will play a major role, but 1v1 dk has the potential to kite him at level 16 speed boost or not, stick and move pretty much and stun to wait out the speed buff, than just per a slow and kill..but dota isn't a 1v1 game..so Sven farmed as a hard carry honestly has the capability of destroying dk, IMO he has better late potential, but it's harder to get him there, and it's not difficult to lock him down earlier on, he dies a couple times it's hard to comeback, DK, similar to shadow fiend can flash farm his way back into the game.

The comeback portion I put up there because regardless of how tanky a hero is newer players will struggle at times, now Sven is easily the manliest hero in the game, but for a similar hero DK is very rewarding for newer guys and gals, very forgiving, and nigh impossible to kill with dragons blood, plus he turns into a freaking dragon, which makes any gamer's inner child fist pump.

To close, just have him try it out, point out some things like say: dk because he farms fast, can push like a boss when he hits 6, survivable as hell, and is quite flexible considering his skillset and the fact he can switch between melee and range attacks; Sven is great at chasing and wrecking house, just takes a little longer to get there..but 1500dmg crits are worth a bit of farming time

Also, caveat: If your friend is interested in playing a fun Str carry and just wants to wreck face, teach him alchemist, he makes everyone smile

Am i the only one who saw this and thought "Sven vs Donkey Kong...Sven, definitly Sven".