Intelligence items on Sniper?

Is this viable? I've seen Snipers with Force Staffs and they seem to have better survivability, plus more mana for more Assassinates (the spell costs 375 mana at level 4 damn it!).

But then I was thinking, why not an item like Rod of Atos? It has an extremely long range slow, coupled with a +25 intelligence bonus and an additional 350 hp. Good for survivability, good for chasing, good for mana problems. though you won't get much attack speed if you rush this as a first item.

While I'm at it, Orchid Malevolence might also be a good item for Sniper. It silences casters that would otherwise nuke the hell out of the squishy bastard, and you can simply turn around and proc 1000 headshots with the increased attack speed, then finishing him with Assassinate and orchid burn. It also lets you spam Shrapnel for infinite push/slow capabilities. Of course, this is just a mid-game item, and can be sold for more expensive, more useful items later on.


This thread might sound kyphoid-ish, but please consider the possibilities regarding this underused hero.

My thoughts:
Force Staff: one of the best items for any strat of Sniper. It gives you everything you need except for attack speed. Health regen, mana, and survivability.

Rod of Atos: never though about it before, but I don't see why it wouldn't work. The only problem with it is its price, I don't think that the price is worth it for the benifits it gives.

Orchid Malevolence: Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes. WHY DOESN'T ANYONE ELSE GET THIS ITEM? It is sooooo good on Sniper

Force would be nice for postioning, Atos is kinda expensive, not much useful too as you have ministuns and slows.

Orchid could be a situational against assassins.

I think the only "intelligence" item I would always take on Sniper is the Drum of Endurance, all the others are kind of a waste. Well actually, the Orchid Malevolence isn't that bad: Sniper doesn't really need it because of his long range and Assassinate, but it's still a pretty good item for damage (though I'd take a Desolator over it any day, unless someone else is building one on my team). The Force Staff is outclassed by Phase, Drums and Yasha that give much more mobility and survivability when used together.

talking about the Rod of Atos, I find it extremely fun on Doom. I haven't tried it on Sniper, but I think he doesn't need it that much as he can slow with Shrapnel (and lucky Headshots) and can build Drums/BKB for survivability and/or mana.

If you need Mana Regen to "spam" Shrapnel, a Ring of Basilius should be enough and a Drum of Endurance is useful for ensuring you have a little more Mana so you can always use Assassinate.

Force Staff seems like a reasonable idea on any Hero (I've even seen XBOCT build one on a Lifestealer before), but build it for the Escape Mechanism, not the Stats.

Orchid Malevolance is interesting, but I don't think it works that well. You usually build Orchid on Heroes that can do a lot of Burst Damage quickly, but who need some way to keep the target from getting away while they deal it. Sniper's only Burst Damage is Assassinate, and most of the time you're not going to get away from it, Orchid won't make landing it any easier, and 5 seconds may not be enough time to get in Shrapnel + enoguh Right Clicks to bring them down to Assassinate threshold without Assassinate hitting after the active ends.

Rod of Atos seems like a waste since you already have Shrapnel and Headshot for Slowing an enemy down. Rod may seem like it helps more, but against a Force Staff or some other Escape Mechanism, it isn't very effective.

in every game you do with sniper, there are situation where you see the enemy via a ward or sth. on the other side of the river.
if you have enough mana/manareg to spam your ult. do it.

it has a very low cd and takes 50%hp off the supports.
the biggest mistake i see sniper-players do is to use the ultimate, if the opponent has only 5% hp left. (ok if he is likely to get away its fine, but in the midst of a fight, you waste a lot of burstdmg.)

with orchids you can just harass over 2000/2500/3000 range, depending on your level
and they just cant do **** about it.
so where is your argument now?

i dont see, why you dont think out of the box?
you dont have to kill with assasinate. most of the time, its worth a lot more, if you harass with it and have like 2 oppnents on 50% hp, so they cant really defend thier tower 5 vs 5.

dota isnt about killing. its about the throne.

Orchid Malevolence has a Cast Range of 1000. How does it increase your Harrass if you're using Assassinate from 2000+ Units away?

Tons and tons of mana regeneration. But the soul burn itself can increase your DPS at a closer range by 30%.

because you normally dont have the mana to spam assasinate on cd?
with orchid you do.

That's my point though, the Active is useless if you just want Mana to Harrass, and while Orchid gives you 150% Mana Regen, you can get 125% from a casual Perserverance, not to mention there are other ways of getting Mana.

If you're fighting within 100 Range however, you'll probably be sticking to Right-Click and Shrapnel for damage, because as has been said, it's a waste to use Assassinate when you can Right-Click your opponent to death. Early on, you're Right-Click isn't going to be that good, even with the Damage + Attack Speed bonuses, so that 30% doesn't go as far on Sniper.

To me, it just doesn't feel like Orchid Malevolance gives its weight in Gold on a Sniper.

P.S. If it's Intelligence Items that are in question, why has no one mentioned Necronomicon and his 2 little brothers?! D{8