Cookie's Sniper - Shrapnel frenzy

Intro

Alot of the Sniper guides I've seen focus only on the passives, and are usually very simple, but boring to play, and is pretty cr*p until you get good farm. I feel like everyone undermines Sniper's skill Shrapnel, and gives it way too little credit for what its worth. This guide will show you how a Shrapnel build is viable.

When to pick Sniper

Pick Sniper when:

• Your team needs a mid hero.
• Your team needs a hard carry.
• Your team has stunners/disablers, peferably AOE.
• You want an awesome K/D/A ratio.

Do Not Pick Sniper when:

• Your team already have 2 or more carries.
• Your team needs a suicide lane hero, jungler, or support.
• Your team needs a stunner/disabler.
• Your team needs a team-fight/ganking hero.
• The other team has excellent mobility, burst damage, or strong gankers.

NOTICE how I mention "your team" alot. That is because Sniper is very easily ganked and picked off early game due to his squishy-ness. So if you're gonna end up feeding due to bad heros and laning, you're better off choosing another hero, because a sniper with no farm is worthless.

Item Choices

Starting Items:

Tangos are your standard regen. And more doesn't hurt.
Ironwood branches give you some stats, and can be converted to a Magic Wand later on, an item too OP to miss out on.
2 Slippers of Agility will give you some well needed last hitting power since Sniper's base damage is quite low. Can be turned into a Ring of Aquila later on.

Early game Items:

I usually grab Ring of Aquila first to help with last hitting and the spamming of Shrapnel.
Power Treads should be a no-brainer. Gives you HP, as well as AS for proc-ing Headshot.
Magic Wand is pretty standard; saves your ***, and back up mana for your ulti Assassinate
Always try to have a Town Portal Scroll. Great for escaping, flash farming, and helping with team fights. Don't be stingy!! 3 last hits and you'll get your money back. Think of the experience AND farm you could be missing out on.

Damage Items:

Yasha should be the default item choice, followed by Manta Style. Bonus mobility, extra damage and AS. Just a great item for sniper. Manta would give you extra survivability as well as more chance to proc Headshots with your illusions. You should try and aim to get this as your first major/damage item
Other damage items like Monkey King Bar, Desolator, and Daedalus, are all great additions that increases your damage output immensely. MKB would be great for evasive targets like Phantom Assassin and Windrunner, Deso for nice armor reduction strategies, or Daedalus for raw damage and a beautiful crit.

Situational Items:

This section is completely up to you. If you're farming well or favor the use of any of these items, go ahead. I would recommend acquiring all the early game items and at least 1 decent damage item before getting these.

I feel that Shadow Blade is easily countered and not very cost effective in improving your damage output or survivability. Nevertheless, it gives you AS and a nice crit to initiate with, and also an escape mechanism which Sniper lacks.

Black King Bar is great when you're constantly getting disabled/stunned/nuked down. Again make sure you actually have damage output first. If you have no damage, you're not a threat. Even if you BKB they can simply ignore you in a teamfight.

Butterfly is v. expensive, and its components are hard to farm. It's not very cost effective early to mid game, but if you already have 2-3 major items, and you need more survivability from right-clickers, then get this. Great damage, AS, plus evasion.

Mask of Madness is a High Risk-High reward route. The 100 AS and 30 MS plus lifesteal it gives you is insane for only 1900Gold. This goes v. well with your Headshot ability. However I feel that Sniper is already an extremely squishy hero, and 30% extra damage taken means you'll get destroyed ridiculously fast. USE MoM WITH CAUTION.

Maelstrom is not really needed for this build. Shrapnel already has great AOE damage, pushing, and counter-pushing ability. Plus the idea of relying too much on chance (Headshot's 40%, and Maelstrom's 25%) is a risk you don't have to take.

Heart of Tarrasque and Satanic are great late game items that will help improve your survivability. Good use of Satanic's active, Unholy Rage can essentially give you a second life.

Skill Build