I just played Sniper against a very tough team. I was solo mid against viper. My team was Bounty Hunter, kunkka, shadow shaman, Sniper and Lifestealer. The opposing team had Viper, Drow Ranger, Axe, Omniknight, and Disruptor. They had a huge start on us. About 10 minute into the game they started to gank each lane. They must've used smoke because our wards did not pick anything up when we got ganked. I was the first one to be ganked by their entire team. I was surprised by how fed they were because i could not do a thing to them. Anyway, they stuck together and push down all our towers until our base towers. I was worried, but thank goodness my team was able to regroup and started playing smart Dota. It all started when they tried to push down our mid base tower with their entire team. I believe i had a Mask of Madness and Desolator at the time. I took out three guys while my other teammates took out the remaining two. We needed that team wipe so badly. We were able to push down their 2nd tier tower in their mid lane after that fight. However, some of us died in the process. We returned to base and defended against their assault. This time they beat us and took our top barracks. The game was not looking good for us. At this point, I'm trying to build my Daedelus so i can have more firepower. It turn out that was not necessary. We managed to pull almost an entire team wipe and pushed like crazy. They respawned fast because of buyback. This is probably the most exciting part of the game. I see their entire team walking in our bottom lane. They were planning to take a bottom barracks too. That was a huge mistake on their part. Lifestealer, Kunkka, and Bounty Hunter were pushing hard into their mid towers/barracks. It was a race against who can take the towers first. My team was behind because they were still walking when they assaulted our bottom tower. Shadow shaman and I tried to defend the bottom tower for as long as possible. Shaman went down and i was left alone to defend. Viper and Drow killed me while i was defending, but luckily i had buyback. I kept poking them to draw them away from the two towers in front of the Ancient. It worked. They keep trying to kill me but i was able to avoid their attacks and eventually my team got their ancient.
It was a tough battle to the end, i got to admit. We were down on levels and kills so it makes so much harder to get that win. I got to give props to my teammates for putting up a great fight and not giving up when things were looking bad. The opposing team did well too. They were a 5 man stack so i wasn't surprise by how well they did.
Here is my final build for that game:
Magic Wand, Phase Boot, Mask of Madness, Desolator, Crystalys (never made it to Daedelus), and a TP Scroll
My final score was (K/D/A): 5/6/11
Any advice will be useful :)
Wow, I follow the exact same build for Sniper! Probably, though, you won't max out Shrapnel first as I do: it looks stupid, but the movement speed decrease and pushing power are so annoying when the enemies are defending tier 1 towers; you don't need more than one early level of Headshot anyway as the proc chance stays the same.
I usually try to max out Take Aim first. I just alternate between Take Aim and Headshot. I get only 1 level of Shrapnel until everything else is maxed out. It's been very effective for me so far. I managed to push many heroes out of their lane, especially when i get Assassinate
Wow, I follow the exact same build for Sniper! Probably, though, you won't max out Shrapnel first as I do: it looks stupid, but the movement speed decrease and pushing power are so annoying when the enemies are defending tier 1 towers; you don't need more than one early level of Headshot anyway as the proc chance stays the same.
No, I just take a lvl in it at lvl7 or 8, Max Headshot and Take Aim by lvl10, then Shrapnel last at lvl13, even with a Bottle, I find Shrapnel takes up too much Mana to use often early on.
You max Shrapnel first?
I know it's not as bad as the community makes it look like, but I don't really know about maxing it first. How do you manage the mana? It wouldn't be that effective without spamming it, and I don't think drums would be enough - especially since you'll have to use Assassinate more because of your lack of DPS.
^ This being the reason I don't Max it first, although I don't think it lowers your DPS that much. In fact, if you can spam Shrapnel, you can easily Zone Out any Melee Hero from the Creep Wave, especially when it does 48Dps
About the blog, I'm not surprised the enemy team had early advantage: having two supports is more beneficial for your team since, as they don't necessarily have to farm in lane, they can gank and roam in the mid game. But still, as I presume you had a jungling Lifestealer, the lanes of your team should've been pretty good (especially the Kunkka- Shadow Shaman combo which I never thought of).
~1200 matches in, and I'm still finding new and interesting Lane Combos. Yesterday was the 1st time I saw a Bane + Razor combo, and it completely shut down our Lifestealer ._.
Wow, I follow the exact same build for Sniper! Probably, though, you won't max out Shrapnel first as I do
You max Shrapnel first?
I know it's not as bad as the community makes it look like, but I don't really know about maxing it first. How do you manage the mana? It wouldn't be that effective without spamming it, and I don't think drums would be enough - especially since you'll have to use Assassinate more because of your lack of DPS.
Wow, I follow the exact same build for Sniper! Probably, though, you won't max out Shrapnel first as I do: it looks stupid, but the movement speed decrease and pushing power are so annoying when the enemies are defending tier 1 towers; you don't need more than one early level of Headshot anyway as the proc chance stays the same.
About the blog, I'm not surprised the enemy team had early advantage: having two supports is more beneficial for your team since, as they don't necessarily have to farm in lane, they can gank and roam in the mid game. But still, as I presume you had a jungling Lifestealer, the lanes of your team should've been pretty good (especially the Kunkka- Shadow Shaman combo which I never thought of).
SkyStormSpectreShamanShadow
;)
I especially avoid Mask of Madness when I'm grabbing an Item with another Orb like Desolator (they don't stack).
I daresay that using Mask of Madness on Sniper when you are being ganked a lot is a bad idea. It really only makes you easier to kill. I would rather have built a Shadow Blade for easier gank avoidance.
Keep up the blogging. o/