OldKainen's Guide Series: Sniper!

Introduction

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Pros, Cons - When to Pick?

Sniper is a very simple hero and one of the most hated of the game, I have to say. A lots of players argue that he is a long range attacking creep with an kill-steal tool (aka, Assassinate), and I have to say that in wrong hands, he is just that.

These same players say that he needs to be redone and I have to say that a Sniper rework would be very welcome. But I have to say he is not a useless hero in his current state: he can be a great tower sieger with Shrapnel and Assassinate can be used effectively as an Initiation tool and Nuking power due to its low cooldown (that's what people forget!).

Pros

• Nice attacking animation
• Pushing and counter-pushing tool in Shrapnel
• Amazing harassing capability
• 950 attack range with Take Aim
• High total stat gain (+7.2 per level)
• Powerful and long range nuke in Assassinate
• Fastest attacking projectile tied with Gyrocopter (3000 speed)

Cons

• Bad base damage (36-42)
• No escape mechanism besides running
• Low movement speed (295)
• Susceptible to magical nukes
• Poor strenght gain (+1.7 per level)
• Needs some farm to work
• Low starting armor (1.94)
  

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Sniper isn't one of the most flexible heroes of the game, that's true. He works well with line-ups able to take towers fast, with high pressure in the early game, due to his lack of lane control and mobility. He needs some farm to work, so putting him in the safe lane or in the middle lane is the way to go. Why mid? Well, Sniper lacks mobility and can't rune control, but there he can gets some farm and fast levels - but map vision and control with Wards is a must here! Putting him there opens the window for tower sieging as soon as possible, so he can put pressure by his own.

The safe lane option its more tied with a traditional carry Sniper: In my opinion, it isn't the best way to make full use of his abilities, but it does work. He needs to play with supports of great presence, so they can open space for him to farm and get his items, so Kardel can wreak havoc from distance in the enemy team.

Skills - Introduction

Sniper skillset consists of two active skills, his Q ( Shrapnel) and his Ultimate ( Assassinate) and two passive: W ( Headshot) and E ( Take Aim). He is easy to learn, I have to admit, but to make good use of his skills takes some time, because them require a good understanding of positioning and timing.

With 950 attacking range, Sniper is able to hide in the trees to attack an opponent. His Headshot makes impossible for an enemy to reach you without a gap closer tool (like Blink, Waveform, Force Staff, etc.). Shrapnel its a great skill to control the enemy position, with a good AoE Slow and decent damage. The long cast range (1800) allows you to use effectively from safety and scout the map for your team. And Assassinate, your ultimate. Loved by some, hated by others. With its high damage and one of the longest cast range of the game (3000 at level 16) makes it a very useful tool to 'enter' a fight. It can finish off enemies that were close to escape from your allies, or take a big portion of their health.

Let's have a closer look at them.

Shrapnel

Sniper's first skill, Shrapnel, is a target point ability that deals magical damage per second. It lasts 10 seconds, with 11 ticks of damage (2 ticks at the first second, 1 in the next seconds) - dealing a total damage of 132 / 264 / 396 / 528.

But there is more in Shrapnel. It provides vision over the area (450 radius), so it can be used a scouting tool (Roshan, enemy pushing, etc). It inflicts an movement speed slow too, so it can be effective a anti-pushing tool if you place in front of the tower you want to defend, ******ing enemies trying to reach it. With the damage buff from 6.83b, you can clear jungle camps with ease, so stack them and use Shrapnel! Remember that the damage and slow of multiple Shrapnels in the same area don't stack!

Since it's a charge-based skill now, its usage is extended now, you can use it more. The problem is that Shrapnel no longer damages towers, so Sniper isn't the tower taking man he was before. The trick here is use the charges to scout, clear stacked camps in the jungle and control the lanes for you team.

I have to point that to make good use of it you have to max it right after Take Aim, to make full use of it. Maxing it at level 10 is the most viable way, still you can leave it to level 14 or even level 25 (not recommended, unless stomping). I recommend getting it maxed at 14 if you are not tower sieging, because it can make an huge difference in your team map control.

Headshot

Sniper's second skill, Headshot, is a passive ability that adds a chance for his attacks to deal a magical slow and inflicts extra physical damage. That means you can proc Headshot when attacking a magic immune adversary, but no slow will occur, only the extra damage!

Headshot use to be the only ranged source of bashing that comes from skills (all the other bashes are from meele heroes), but now this effect is no longer present (since 6.82 patch). The slow, however, still stacks with bashing sources, like Monkey King Bar, being very useful to combine both - MKB mini-stun is of 0.01s and the slow is 0.5s. So it is easy to see that Monkey King Bar is an excellent choice for you, because it stacks with Headshot (14% to occur both effects at the same time) - dealing extra physical and magical damage plus a ministun and a slow is very annoying. Other important point is that just like Monkey King Bar's True Strike, your Headshots cannot be evaded.

Take Aim

The second passive skill of Sniper, Take Aim is really simple. It extends the attack range of Sniper. Yeah, simple as that. Some say its a gimmick ability, others say its best ability of Sniper. Me? Well, I think it could have something more to it, but Take Aim its what differs Sniper from other carries: the huge attacking range.

There isn't much to say about: after getting this passive level 2, your attacks out-range towers, so you can attack them without getting harmed (by them, of course). But be careful when doing this, because enemies can easily setup a gank, especially in the midlane. Combine your long range attacks + Shrapnel and you have made a tower siege. If someone tries to reach you, Headshot will take care of him, but if there is two of them, run! Just stay and manfight if you have a really high attack damage and advantage on the match, otherwise, run. I recommend running if you are facing a gap closer too, like Storm Spirit, because Ball Lightning let him get close an start off his combo.

Assassinate

The ultimate skill of Kardel Sharpeye, Assassinate, is a long range nuke that deals magical damage. It can be disjointed, but only after the projectile has been fired - invisibility, however, can't help against it, because when the target is locked, you have True Sight of him.

All components scale with level: the damage increases, the range increases, the cooldown gets lower and sadly, the mana cost increases too. The mana cost can trouble you if don't get extra stats, even with the fair increase of Intelligence per level (+2.6) of Sniper. The constant spam of Shrapnel in a fast-tower pushing strategy will leave you without mana to spam one of the best nukes of the game.

Assassinate is most of the time used only as kill-steal, kill-secure tool. But there is a lot more to it. It's an initiation tool and a quite spammable nuke (low cooldown, low mana cost at level 1). The huge range lets you participate in a fight from distance, taking off a big portion of health of an enemy (don't be selfish, don't use it to kill enemies that are already dead). Remember: the damage suffers reductions from base magic resistance (25% in normal conditions), the true damage is 266 / 379 / 491.

Assassinate animation can be stopped by pressing Hold or the Stop command, without putting the ability on cooldown or using mana. The crosshair over enemy's head is visible only to allies, but smart enemies will notice an debuff over their health bars. Here we have some ways to prevent the damage from Assassinate: becoming magic immune ( Black King Bar, Repel, Rage, Blade Fury, etc); becoming invulnerable ( Astral Imprisonment, Disruption, Phase Shift, Eul's Scepter of Divinity, Waveform, Ball Lightning, etc), spell block / damage block ( Linken's Sphere, Refraction) or disjoint ( Blink, Ethereal Jaunt, Metamorphosis and transformation skills {Mirror Image illusions can disjoint too!}).

Skill Builds

Even though Sniper skills are pretty simple, they can be build in some different ways. Kardel isn't really a level dependent, he only needs to max Take Aim and Assassinate as soon as he can: Headshot and Shrapnel work pretty well in level 1, as they don't scale too much, but getting extra levels on them helps a lot. Here we go:

Tower Siege Sniper

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This is the best build for Tower Siege Sniper (mid). Get Take Aim every level you can, with an early point in Headshot for the ministun chance and max Shrapnel right after, to maximize your map control and nuking power. Get Assassinate in 6 / 11 / 16, of course. Headshot is maxed at 14 and it won't mess with your minislow procs because the chance (40%) is the same at all levels.

If you are going this build, I strongly recommend for you to get a Desolator and Manta Style to greatly increase the right-click damage output against buildings.

Carry Sniper #1 ( Shrapnel maxed at 14)

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This is the first option for a Sniper that is more focused to be the carry than a tower destroyer. Take Aim at 1 / 3 / 5 / 7, Headshot maxed at 10 and an early level at Shrapnel so you can use it as a scouting tool and to cause a minor slow. Get Assassinate in 6 / 11 / 16, as usual.

Shrapnel is maxed at 14 here to boost your tower damage in the mid-late game transition, so you can use it to win a pushing game. If get really ahead (with most of their towers down in the first twenty minutes) of your opponent, I recommend taking the Carry Build #2, because if you were able to take towers without Shrapnel, you won't need it during the transition of mid-late game (but don't procrastine! End the game as soon as possible to prevent an enemy comeback).

Carry Sniper #2 ( Shrapnel maxed at 25)

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As said in the last paragraph, this is the alternative for Carry Sniper. The skill build is almost the same as the previous one: Take Aim at 1 / 3 / 5 / 7, Headshot at 2 / 8 / 9 / 10 and Assassinate at 6 / 11 / 16. An early level 4 of Shrapnel guarantee an effective scouting tool and a minor AoE slow for you. But your Q is maxed at level 25 (4 / 23 / 24 / 25) because as explained before, if you can get towers without it, why use it? Well, but DON'T skip it at 4. Sniper is already a limited hero, throwing away one of his tools will not help you around.

Items

When talking about a tower siege Sniper, you have to understand that your main objective is to end the game as soon as possible, destroying towers to close the window opportunity of the opponents' strategy. That's why a mid or solo safe lane (against an offlaner, of course) Sniper is the better place to put him in this kind of strategy: it guarantee fast levels and some farm for him, two things you need.

In the recent participations of Sniper in professional scene, this was the most used kind of Sniper that appeared: he was picked 5 times (2-3) in the TI4 - four of them had Shrapnel maxed really early (at 7 / 8, before Take Aim), so you can see how this kind of gameplay is in high right now.

About the traditional carry Sniper, I have to say that it is a little obsolete by now, but it does work in public matchmaking. The carry gameplay saw a new option recently with Armlet of Mordiggian - after Dr. Lee demonstration - it can be very effective if you have the skill to properly use it, turning in an option for high-level matches to use Sniper.

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Starting Items:

Cost: 535 gold This is the usual starting items I like to go when playing Sniper mid/solo. Get two shared Tangos with your supports, buy an Wraith Band and get an Iron Branch. You can get a Clarity instead of the Branch if you think you'll spam Shrapnel a lot, but that's up to you to decide. This is optimal for a Bottle rush, but if you don't mind about it, I recommend using the alternative starting items below.

Cost: 575 gold That's the alternative way you can go if aren't going to need a Bottle and the most optimal start for Carry Sniper. This combination of items will provide a fast Wraith Band and reliable survivability during the laning phase. You can get an extra Iron Branch or a Clarity if you want, or save the 50 gold that remains.

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Early Items and Optional Early Items:




This are the first items to get with Sniper, depending on what build you are following. In the second line above, the items listed are optionals, so read carefully.

You always need to get the brown boots before any big item, usually right after a Wraith Band, increasing your low movement speed. Usually, we're going to upgrade it to Power Treads, but you can choose Phase Boots if you want.

The agility generic stats item, Wraith Band is the first item to get. You can get a Ring of Basilius first and then the Wraith Band, to complete Aquila, but you have to start the game with a Ring of Protection.

Bracer may sound like a strange early item here, but it is not. Improving your low survivability, it upgrades later in a Drum of Endurance. The stats are just the same as Wraith Band, with the STR swapped with AGI. Get it after Boots of Speed and the Wraith Band.
Morbid Mask is an early optional for Armlet builds. The 15% lifesteal compensates the drawbacks of the hp degen, especially when you combine it with the +30 AS from Treads. Upgraded later in a Satanic or Mask of Madness.

Hand of Midas is an option to boost your experience and gold gain. Being a farming item, it has a window time to be obtained: between 8-10 minutes is the best time to get it. At most, in 12 minutes if your lane was hard. I recommend to combine it with Phase Boots if you are going for Midas, as the +30 AS it provides compensates for the lack of it when going Phase over Treads. Well, it's up to you to choose: you can get Gloves of Haste or the Recipe first, but remember: you can turn the Gloves into something else if you decided to skip Midas midway.

Magic Wand is an optional item if you got an Iron Branch as a starting item. Providing a max burst heal of +255 HP/Mana, it can be a lifesaver, especially on a frail hero like Sniper. It is always a good option against spamming heroes too, like Bristleback or Zeus, as they are going to charge your wand really fast.

It may sound strange to see this item here, but a Bottle is a very effective item for a siege nuker Sniper. It helps keeping the mana pool full, so you can spam Shrapnel and Assassinate more than usual. The problem is if you want to rune control: Sniper mobility is restricted to his movement speed, which does not occur in the other middle laners: QoP has Blink, Magnus has Skewer, Puck has Illusory Orb; just to point some of them. Against this kind of heroes, if you want to use a Bottle, its better to do Bottle Crowing: let your courier fill it in the base for you when you need.

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Essential:

Cost: 135x gold Do I have to say something about this item? Always keep at least one of it during the game, unless you have Boots of Travel. A TP can do a lot of things: escape a stunless gank, reach the other side of the map, setup a gank... I can stay here all day talking about it.

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General Core Items:



This are the core options for any Sniper build. Armlet of Mordiggian, of course, its the main item of the Armlet-Lifesteal build.

Best boots option for every build, Power Treads provides +30 AS and +8 of an attribute of choice. The Tread switching can be of multiple uses: put on STR to get a boost in HP. AGI grants extra attack speed and damage and ensures you can use 100% of the regen from the Bottle, INT increases your mana pool, so you can spam Shrapnel / Assassinate using "less". I keep the boots in STR usually, unless when farming or regenerating.

Ring of Aquila is the first 'major' item you usually get. Providing +18 damage, ~4.28 armor and a beneficial aura for the team, Aquila is an amazing item for early-mid game transition. If you get it during the laning phase, turn off the aura, so the creeps will not have the extra armor - this way, you aren't affecting the lane momentum. Later in the game, sell it to open space for big items like Black King Bar. On the traditional carry build, this is more of an early item rather than a core, because you have a higher farming priority than Siege Nuker build (That is Position #2).

Drum of Endurance is a great item in almost every hero and Sniper can make good use of it too. Increasing your health and mana pool, giving some damage and attack speed, and the most important here: enhancing your movement speed, Drum of Endurance really makes as one of the best items to give an advantage during the midgame. Don't forget to use it's active to escape bad situations, chase enemies, push towers faster, etc. For the Tower Siege and Traditional Build, this is the best option to boost Sniper low survivability and movement speed. With the Armlet build - as you have a higher survivability - its best to skip Drum of Endurance, as both Drums and Armlet are midgame orientated items.

Desolator is your main damage item in a tower siege Sniper and usually the orb of choice in the traditional carry build, greatly increasing your damage output with the Corruption orb: -7 armor is a great addition when taking down buildings and enemies, especially the tankers. I don't recommend getting it right after Drums: get a Yasha first. Also, if someone already has a Desolator in your team, don't get it, as the effects don't stack (go for a Maelstrom). After the 40 minutes, Desolator effect isn't of great change, so don't buy one after this time - get bigger items like Monkey King Bar or Daedalus.

Manta Style is one of the most optimal items for offensive agility carries/pushers. Mirror Image allows you to create confusion, purge debuffs, disjoint projectiles, a serie of utilities. The illusions themselves increases your damage output nearly 50%, but they don't benefit from UAMs effects. Remember to turn on the Armlet of Mordiggian when having both in the inventory, as the illusions will get the bonus strength.

Black King Bar is an item that every carry has to get, with Sniper this isn't different. It increases his survivability and damage by a bit and gives Avatar, some seconds of spell immunity, that are essencial to be effective during teamfights. People think that Sniper doesn't need it because of their range, but gap closers will laugh at you if you don't get it.

Armlet of Mordiggian is one of those items you may not look with good eyes, but it work decently for Sniper, especially together with a lifesteal source ( Satanic or Mask of Madness). Providing +25 STR, it is a great boost for Sniper survivability, while providing some damage and attack speed too. Being an midgame oriented item, is usually best to skip Drum of Endurance when going armlet build, as you will need the gold to get bigger items for late game.

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Alternative Core Options / Extension:



Here we have some options that you can use if you don't like to use the items suggested above or when facing different situations.

Phase Boots is your alternative boots options for the dwarf. The Phase is of big help for Sniper low mobility problem and the +24 damage is good too. The setback of this boots is that it doesn't provide attack speed, something that Sniper really needs (especially now that Headshot is no longer a mini-stun). Combine it with Hand of Midas or Maelstrom (or both) to get the most of what Phase Boots has to offer.

Maelstrom is a damage and attack speed option if you don't like to get Desolator or if you think the electric hammer is a better option. Maelstrom provides a conditional UAM, so you can semistack it with any other UAM you might like, including Desolator. This item is also of big help for farming - the lightning procs helps clearing a creepwave really fast. It is also the best options when facing illusion heroes: Chain Lightning will deal a lot more damage to the copies (in most cases), so you can easily identify the original hero.

Blink Dagger is the ultimate mobility item to get for Sniper. Blink Dagger is also, a decent escape mechanism (if don't get hit) and a position tool. With it you can jump to ledge and attack enemies with a terrain advantage, or use Assassinate in safety. The problem with Blink is that it doesn't provide any stats, something Sniper really needs. Besides that, the Dagger is completly legit on Kardel, so if you wanna get it because it fits your playstyle, there's no problem at all.

Mask of Madness isn't my favorite option, but it has some use in Sniper. The active provided is a double-edged sword: more mobility and attack speed and +30% damage taken. It fits better the armlet build - you have to do something about the HP degen: lifesteal + attack speed is the best option for it. However, if you are new to this hero, I suggest not going this option! Get Power Treads and Helm of the Dominator ( Satanic) for a safer play!

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Late Game Options:



Lots of options here for the late game. Be aware of the costs and evaluates what you really need: do you need raw damage? Attack speed? Survivability? Mobility? Answer these questions and get the items as you can.

Boots of Travel is an item every hero in the battlefield has to get during some point of the game and they are a must an the late game. No, don't throw your TPs on the ground, grab some gold (when you reach ~1800 gold) sell your Power Treads/ Phase Boots and get those boots. Not doing so will leave you very vulnerable to split pushing, so don't complain to your allies that you lost because your where six-slotted without this boots.

Mjollnir is the ultimate attack speed item of the game. Being a hero that needs higher farm priority (#1 or #2) and ways to boost its damage, the great attack speed provided by this fits you really well, especially when combined with Headshot + Monkey King Bar.

Mentioned a lot of times in the guide, Monkey King Bar is without a doubt, the best damage item for Sniper, especially now that he doesn't has the mini-stun steroid. Remember that it provides +88 damage, +15 attack speed and the True Strike passive too!

The ultimate stat-booster, Eye of Skadi is one of the few items that fits almost every hero. Providing +25 to all stats and a unique attack modifier that pierces Spell Immunity, Skadi is an item you have to get during the real late-game, because it's effect is game-changing. The only problem is building this item: 2 Ultimate Orbs and 2 items from the secret shop: Point Booster and Orb of Venom. Remember its a UAM, but it can stack with Lifesteal.

The best lifesteal option for the lategame, Satanic is great booster of your survivability with +25 STR and +25% Lifesteal. Mind that it is an UAM (unique attack modifier) and it doesn't stack with Desolator! It fits better the Armlet build, but works well in the other builds too. Remember to use the active to get your HP hell up! (get it? hahaha).

The most optimal DPS item for agility carries, Butterfly provides big loads of attack speed, damage and some evasion as well. Being an agility hero, Sniper gets +60 Damage and +60 Attack Speed from it. The item provides 4.28 armor and 30% evasion too, increasing your EHP (effective hit points), but this bonuses are seen better if you have some real HP to make use of them.

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Other Options / Situationals:



Here we some other options you might have to go during a match, if the proper conditions to get these items appear.

Daedalus is an alternative option to boost your damage, providing you a chance (25%) to do critical damage (2.4x). Well, it greatly boosts your overall damage, perhaps even more that MKB, but the problem with it is that you are a glass cannon, and smart players know how to counter glass cannons: Blade Mail. However, the item is completly legit as long as you get BKB (and you have to).

Diffusal Blade is a mandatory item against Omniknight / Warlock and a very useful pick against illusion heroes / heroes that control units (like Beastmaster or Invoker). If you are facing multiple heroes os this kind, seriously consider getting a Diffusal Blade. The 25/30 agility provided are a great damage booster, plus the Feedback: +25 damage from mana burn. Remember to use the charges to gank heroes and secure kills, because its slow effect is very powerful!! (Slow a unit down to an initial 100 MS, after which they will gradually regain speed for the duration of the effect). It is no longer an UAM, so you can stack it with lifesteal, Skadi or Desolator!

Linken's Sphere is one of the best survivability items of the game. The use of Linken's Sphere, however, is limited to a specific situation: enemies have powerful skills that pierce Spell Immunity. Bane skillset, Beastmaster's Primal Roar and Doom are probably the first things that comes in mind when you need to go Linken's. Whenever you are facing opponents that are able to lock you down or mess you up, get the blue sphere!

Sometimes things are just messed up that you need to go Divine Rapier. This item is really a last-hope item, Sniper doesn't have the skillset to make use of the Rapier like other heroes do ( Kunkka, Medusa, Ember Spirit...). I don't go for it when I'm winning 'cause Sniper is really frail - don't take risks you cannot handle - dying with one of these is probably game over. Go for it when you are really behind your opponents - buy the Rapier, plan a strategy, win that crucial teamfight and then finish the match!

Oh, Scythe of Vyse? That is an item for supports, isn't it? No, it is not. The stats are usually better to support hero kind, but every position (#2 to #5) besides the carry can go over a sheepstick. It's active turns an enemy into a punching bag with low movement and the big boost in the mana pool (+35 INT plus +150% mana regen) is one of the most useful bonus you can get for Siege Nuker Sniper.

Orchid Malevolence is a very uncommon option, but very legit one. The +25 INT is a big boost to your mana pool, plus the +150% mana regen, helping a lot when casting Shrapnel and Assassinate. But what matters most here is the +30 damage and +30 attack speed plus the Soul Burn active, giving you a new tool: a silence and damage amplifier. A very nice pick against heroes who heavily dependend on their skills to do something on team clashes (like Zeus, Lina, Venomancer...).

Force Staff may sound like a gimmick option, but it can be a very helpful choice: +10 INT for casting, +3 health regen and one of the best actives in the game: Force, which can be used as a very effective position tool and a escape mechanism, two things Sniper really needs.

Friends and Foes

While Sniper is one of those heroes that can win the game by itself if fed, he does need a lot of help to do something and be useful during the match.

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Any hero that can setup kills for you are good mates. Even better if they have some form of buff to pass to you. Special mention goes to: Vengeful Spirit with her Magic Missile and Vengeance Aura; Ogre Magi with Ignite, Fireblast and Bloodlust and Slardar with Slithereen Crush and Amplify Damage.

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As mentioned a lot of times during the guide, Sniper main weakness are his low mobility and poor survivability. Any hero able to close the gap or deal high burst damage are good counters to you. Heroes with high lockdown time do well too. Special mention to: Storm Spirit with Ball Lightning, Overload and Electric Vortex; Shadow Shaman with Hex, Shackles and Mass Serpent Ward and Bane with Brain Sap, Enfeeble and Fiend's Grip.

Replays

This section includes some replays of Pro-games with Sniper. There aren't many, but this replays are very good for understanding what Sniper offer.

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That's all by now! If you find any useful matches with Sniper, share the link in the comments!

Conclusion

Sniper isn't one of the most flexible heroes of the game, but he can fit a variety of strategies, specially those focused on pushing hard. He has been used in professional scene recently and that's really nice, because he was overlooked during a long time! He has a decent DPS in early-game when combining his skills + right clicks, but he is more of trouble at late-game, when he can take towers down in seconds and rapidly kill targets at distance. Sniper is very frail, so building survivability for him all over the match is really important!

By now, that's all! This is my Sniper guide. I will continue to improve and add useful information whenever I have time to do so! Stay tuned!

If you want to make a comment or suggestion, feel free to use the comments section below! And please, if you downvoted, please do a comment and say why you did it!!

If you liked this guide, check out my other guides too:
Ymir, the Tusk!

Guia para Poderes na Teamfight! (PT-BR)

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30 / January 2014 - Initial Release!
16 / October 2014 - Completly rewritten guide!
18 / October 2014 - Minor updates in the items section!
05 / January 2015 - Finally updated with Shrapnel changes!