All guns blazing with no escape, a guide to DPS Sniper

Thanks for the comment RE Silver Edge by michimatsch and Unscathed

I have added it to the guide RE the damage reduction and disable. The passive disable & damage reduction is clearly very good against hard carries such as Faceless Void, Phantom Assassin, Drow Ranger etc.

It is clearly something to consider given Sniper's range as you can activate it with impunity although perhaps it might be better served on a different hero (it is expensive!) and you buy more damage perhaps? It is blocked by magic immunity (the +225 damage isnt) however the cooldown duration is much faster than BKB. I suppose this ability could be disabled by Manta Style as well?

Anyway an interesting thought and appreciated

imo Silver Edge is more of an item for melee gankers that cant manfight a proper carry. Heroes like Slark benefit from this greatly. Sniper, on the other hand, rely on staying behind and having good positioning to deal his damages. He's not really a melee manfight hero, he's a 'cant touch me' kind of hero. Besides his long range kind of make the invis redundant since he could attack from far away range before the enemy sees or react in ganks. Dust of Appearance also makes this a rather bad repositioning item should you get caught.

I suppose it could work at some situations, but I wont really recommend it.

Couldn't Silver Edge be useful against enemys like Faceless Void?
When you disable his passive abilities you deal 25% more damage and as his bash is also passive you would be making Faceless Void completly useless for the next few seconds.
Could be cool I'd say

As of 6.83 you absolutely cannot be leveling stats over shrapnel.
Its 100% unnaceptable, and typically should be maxed before one of your passives nowadays.
Other than that nice guide.

2 rapiers are also a good idea. Its risky but extremely rewarding with shadow blade.

Whats going to cover the mana? No ring of aquila?

I forgot to mention that picking Heart of Tarrasque over Eye of Skadi and Satanic isn't a very good idea, considering most people would consider a 6-slotted Sniper to be;
1. Mjollnir/ Manta Style
2. Satanic(Replace Mask of Madness with this.)
3. Eye of Skadi
4. Boots of Travel
5. Butterfly/ Monkey King Bar
6. Daedalus

These items together give massive DPS and also allow you to survive most engagements due to the stats provided by Eye of Skadi and Satanic. Going Manta Style or Mjollnir depends on whether you got Yasha early on or if you got Maelstrom early on.

The Butterfly or Monkey King Bar should be self explanatory.

Overall though, going Heart of Tarrasque is a poor option in most cases on Sniper (I do occasionally buy it though if I'm doing the Desolator build, which isn't very often.). Same goes for a Divine Rapier since it's almost always a last-resort item (Unless you're Medusa or Wraith King).

Aaahh, so you would've noticed how many players are reverting to the older build then. You know, where you go for 4-1-4. I have found this build to be the most effective personally, and most players who level him like that would likely agree with me in saying that levelling Headshot over Shrapnel is a huge mistake. I am not saying Headshot's a bad skill as such, in fact I think you could even consider that build that KuroKy did (he went Headshot- Shrapnel- Headshot- Shrapnel- Shrapnel- Assassinate- Take Aim- Shrapnel- Headshot- Headshot). I know that with the build I normally do ( Blink Dagger, Phase Boots, Black King Bar, Sange+Yasha) getting early points in [[Headshot is wasted and I often find myself ATM going stats over Headshot (I know, I know, WTF is the point in that yada yada yada, well I'm about to get to that). I do this because I focus more on surviving early on with a decent amount of damage and getting my bigger damage items late-game, so going more than 1 level of Headshot has become pointless for me. But in the rare occasion I decide I want to build Mask of Madness I will do the 4-1-4 still, but I will level up Headshot in timing with my Maelstrom. Also I'm disappointed in the fact you have gone Phase Boots instead of Power Treads with Mask of Madness, as you normally go for items that proc when you do the Mask of Madness build (Most notably Maelstrom.), so going for Phase Boots over Power Treads isn't a good idea with Mask of Madness(Also because Power Treads- Mask of Madness- Maelstrom is considered to be one of the most cost-efficient builds in terms of damage. That's why you see it a lot on Sniper and Faceless Void).

New Shrapnel is just too good to not level it before level 6, I usually take a point in in on level 4 or 5, the slow, and the vision are great for kills ad as a setup for Assassinate. You also can't be juked with 3 charges of that.

Yeah I know, I level Shrapnel pretty late which is not really a standard way to play Sniper but it is what I have naturally adapted for some reason. It may be a side-effect of previous versions of Shrapnel where the mana cost was much more substantial. My own play style naturally is built around with high level Headshot (40% chance of +90 damage) and Take Aim combined with Mask of Madness I find to be quite powerful. Shrapnel certainly is useful, especially for the vision and slow.

I have looked at a few of the Tournament replays at the recent DOTA 2 Asian Championships and they do tend to level Shrapnel very early so it may be worth thinking about. I certainly don't think it is wrong to level Shrapnel much earlier than I do (and much higher level!). But I will keep updating this guide and it may be something that I find works better over time

Shrapnel that late?

The damage in teamfights is surpsising, and the ability to defend or push with shrapnel is also amazing.

Honestly, you only need one early point into shrapnel.

But other than that, it is an awesome guide.