Sniper buff for hilarity

Make sniper as strong as his HoN port flint beastwood was a few years ago, solely so I can watch Era from fnatic drop shrapnel and merk a lane every time assassinate is off of cool down. Nostalgia

Meh, Sniper could use a rework more than a buff tbh.

True, but how would you envision the rework to be like? I can't imagine Sniper any other way.

make sniper a support... with 1800 vision at night and snare instead of head shot and an attack damage boost to allies instead of range increase, and yeah a global low-cd aoe flare (faster that clockwerk's and more damage and more vision time)

Making Sniper a support wouldn't be a bad idea; he has the highest stat gain of all Heroes after all.
But to be honest, I don't think he needs a rework. He's that kind of Hero that punishes your enemies for not picking gap closers: if you focus on movement speed he becomes really annoying; if you max out your Shrapnel too, then you also have early game presence and chasing/pushing power. I think he gives more in the early game than many other hard carries, his only problem is low HP early on (and the fact that people tend to play him as a ganker instead of a carry and STILL max Shrapnel last).

I still think Sniper is a hero that does not require much skill to play compared to snipers in other games. For example, in many games, obviously a sniper requires more skill to utilize effectively than, say an assault rifle, since you need to take careful aim before making a shot unlike the rapid-fire nature of an assault rifle. But in dota, the sniper is put right next to Drow Ranger as one of the most brainless heroes to play, since most Snipers (with the right amount of farm) can just stand in the same general location and fire away, and no skill is really required other than positioning and focus-fire (2 very basic skills meant to be used on ALL heroes). I think giving Sniper a skill-shot spell for an ultimate would be a good idea in that sense.

At the very least make shrapnel a bit more useful than for pushing, lower Str gain, and higher base Str and movement speed? I can't see him as a support, although that was a great idea, it's just sniper, nostalgic hero. Hes just so easy to shut down, but god is he fun to play.

Me and a buddy were talking about how sniper could be changed just the other day. Our idea was a different Ult. You could rework assassinate to be less powerful if you want it to be just one of his skills but its not required (we were not sure what to replace so maybe just drop it). Our idea was a permanent True sight aura as his ult. Maybe only when he is standing still maybe only within 180 degrees in front of him but I think it would cause an immediate increase in his usage and effectiveness.
As a side note I have yet to win a game (or see the other team win) in Ranked when a sniper is picked.

Perhaps a Buff to Shrapnel, by increasing it's AoE and adding a Silence to it that also Silences Items (similar to Disruptor's Static Storm Aghanim's Scepter upgrade, would be enough since Shrapnel would be able to counter gap closers.

^ that would enable sniper to dominate early game too and have uncontested mid lane dominance
(just max shrapnel and laugh as mid heroes scramble to get away from your barrage of bullets...)