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Iron BranchIron BranchIron Branch
Ring of Protection
Tango
Healing Salve
Ring of Aquila
Morbid Mask
Claymore
Shadow Amulet
Boots of Speed
Shadow Blade
Mask of Madness
Mithril Hammer
Maelstrom
Mjollnir
Crystalys
Daedalus
Silver Edge
Abyssal Blade
Black King Bar
Aegis of the Immortal
Assault Cuirass
Butterfly
Divine Rapier
Desolator
Monkey King Bar
Sange and Yasha
Satanic
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3 | 7 | 13 | 14 |  |
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1 | 5 | 9 | 12 |  |
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2 | 4 | 8 | 10 |  |
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6 | 11 | 16 |  |
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15 | 17 | 18 |
Lore: Kardel Sharpeye... Who cares? He is just an awesome hero who is a bearded midget.
Sniper is a great hero for experienced and inexperienced players alike. He is NOT a ranged creep, and an amazing killstealer and great at sniping down running heroes. Once he is booted up and ready to go with a few early kills, he is unstoppable. No, he is BEYOND GODLIKE. Sniper can take down tanks in a few seconds if properly fed.
This is my first guide ever, so constructive criticism is always helpful!
Shrapnel
Shrapnel is mainly used for creep control, early-game harassing, vision, and its nice slow. Obviously, this is Sniper's worst skill, but it is still useful for slowing your gank target down just to get that last hit to kill him before he goes into enemy tower range. TIP: If you are using Shrapnel to slow down a fleeing hero, think of where you're going to deploy it, and deploy it a bit farther. This is because almost inevitably (until you've gotten used to Sniper) you will deploy it too soon or too close.
Headshot
This is 
Sniper's mini-slow. NOTE: It's not a stun anymore, it's a slow. There are advantages to it being a slow, as shown in some Sniper guides on YouTube. It deals a bit of extra damage, but that's not really the reason why people use Headshot.It's used for slowing enemies and giving extra hits. This is why AS on Sniper is uber important. It gives greater chance for stuns and slows not only among your skills but also among your items.
Take Aim
This is Sniper's signature skill. It gives Sniper the greatest range in the game and amazing kiting ability. After three points invested in Take Aim, you can FREE HIT TOWERS. Yes, you outrange towers. This further shows why Sniper also has MASSIVE pushing potential. (I feel like I'm writing a persuasive essay right now.)
Assassinate
This is Sniper's most notorious skill. It's awesome for kill steal and for giving your team a bit of a helping hand in teamfights with that annoying nuker. It has a extremely short cooldown, but twoAssassinatesalmost completely deplete your mana when all your skills are maxed. Be aware of that.
Okay, this is going to be a pain.
The startoff items ( Iron Branch, Tango, Healing Salve, Ring of Protection) are all pretty standard. You can skip the Healing Salve if your'e confident in your abilities.
First off, you definitely want Boots of Speed. Pretty self-explanatory, movespeed= mobility= helping get rid of Sniper's ****py stats. Next, a Ring of Aquila will give you that extra bit of stats and damage to push. Also, it's aura is great. Then you want a Morbid Mask for lifesteal. This is going to save you time to go back to base later in game. More AS + more damage = better dps = better lifesteal = more gold = more survivability. Next, get a Claymore or Shadow Amulet depending on how the the game is going. If you're feeling threatened, get the Shadow Amulet. If you want more DPS, get Claymore. Both will build up into a Shadow Blade.
Ok, now I will say this: I DON'T ****ING CARE WHETHER YOU LIKE BLINK DAGGER BETTER. Shadow Blade has always worked out for me. Anyway, you don't usually need it if you're kiting correctly.
Mid game, upgrade everything. Claymore/ Shadow Amulet into Shadow Blade, Boots of Speed into 
Phase Boots, and get a Mithril Hammer to build into a Maelstrom. If the game is going badly, skip the Maelstrom and upgrade Mithril Hammer into Desolator instead.
After this, IT IS CRUCIAL to upgrade Morbid Mask into Mask of Madness. This item is SO AMAZINGLY AWESOME. +100 AS, so who cares about the +30% damage? When you have such a great range and you are playing correctly, no one is ever going to reach you, especially if you have a Shadow Blade.
You should have a couple of kills by now, so save up 2900 gold after getting Maelstrom to get mjolnir. mjolnir's active is amazing, but why we get it is for it's massive AS boost for more crits and stuns. After this we save up for a Crystalys to upgrade into Daedalus. Personally, I think Daedalus is the best damage output item in the game. Its normal 81 damage is not the highest, but it's crits are absolutely amazing. 240% critical! That's 340% of your normal attack, and by now you have other damage items, so your damage should be around 150-200 or so. 3.4 * 150 = 500 DAMAGE ON EVERY FOUR HITS! Yeah, and its not as risky as a Divine Rapier, so its just awesome. After that, get a Silver Edge.
At this point, if you got this far then you're probably fed. So its up to you what you want to get now. Just look at my Luxury/Situationals section. Do what the situation calls for. I recommend an 
Eye of Skadi or an Abyssal Blade for more slow/stun, but it's your choice if you want to pick other ones.
When the game starts, you either go mid or safe lane. NEVER go hard lane. If you want to utilize the Side Shop for Morbid Mask and Boots of Speed, go safe lane. If your last-hitting skills aren't up to scratch and/or you want better farm and runes, go mid. However if you go mid, make sure your team has a courier. There are always those bastards who don't get the courier when they're support.
After Take Aim has three points in it (or when you're lvl 8) it's time to start ganking. At this stage, look for lone heroes who think they're peacefully farming and ruin their peace by killing them. R.I.P.: Rest In Pieces. You can go for two heroes if their health is less than half, or even better, within Assassinate health range. If they aren't, definitely bring a stun or tank, or both! Here is where Shadow Blade comes in handy as well. If you think that you won't need the invisibility to escape, use the invis to sneak up on him/her/them and use the bonus damage. After that, immediately turn on Mask of Madness and watch your beautiful DPS.
While in lane, stay away from trees. If you have a obedient support, tell him or her (gender equality!) to put an 
Observer Ward or 
Sentry Ward in paths that are hidden by the fog of war. If need be, use Shrapnel to illuminate a potential hero waiting to gank you from the trees.
Once you get Mask of Madness you can stop by either team's jungle to do some jungling. It's a way to stay safe for a while.
Tango is your friend! If you have a bit of health missing, don't hesitate to up your health a bit by using a Tango. If you just escaped a severe gank, pump that Healing Salve! Another great strategy with the Healing Salve is while you're running from a ganker but he's never really hitting you, use it, wait for your health to heal a bit, then turn around and kill him.
A little warning: If you have gotten killed in the first 10-15 min of the game, you're probably going to lose or just have a really ****py game. Likewise, if you haven't gotten a kill withing 15-20 min, you're going to have a ****py game as well. However, if you're very nicely farmed, then the second one may not apply as much. One thing is you might want to turn of quickcast for Assassinate, because you're going to have to be s*** fast to activate Assassinate to kill heroes before they disappear into the fog of war. All heroes start off with a base 25% magic resistance, so put that calculation in before you target someone with an Assassinate.
At this point, you can kill off Roshan at any time. Get the Aegis of the Immortal for yourself, or leave it for your teammates.
If you're fed, it's pretty much fun time. Get your luxury items and just right click and... right click again. You don't really need Assassinate at this point. However be aware that if the entire enemy teams ganks you while you're alone and they use 
Dust of Appearance, you may or may not die, depending on their items (and whether they've decided to get a Divine Rapier or not).
Here is a list of Sniper's best buddies and worst enemies:
ENEMIES:
Doom *no comment*
Wraith King Besides his stun, when he revives he slows everything around him.
Sven This guy has killed me so many times while I was running away.
Drow Ranger ...DPS...
Windranger her 
Windrun + 
Focus Fire = argh
Tidehunter his ult is OP.
Viper do I really need to explain?
oh yeah, and there's this ****ty bastard: 
Lion. His stun with his froggy + 
Finger of Death makes this guy a real pain in the a**.
Oh wait, the ****tiest bastard of all of them: 
Spirit Breaker. F*** this mothe*******. His 
Charge of Darkness allows him to kill you pretty much whenever he wants.
FRIENDS:
Anybody that's listed up there is a friend because stuns also help Sniper to chase down people and kill them. Except Spirit Breaker. I will hate him forever.
Also people who help augment Sniper to ease off his squishiness:
Witch Doctor
Sven (as well)
Wraith King lifesteal. Need I say more?
Zeus his true sight helps identify invis enemies (like 
Clinkz, for example)
I really feel like I'm writing an essay now.
So: Pros and Cons:
Pros:
Amazing kiter
Cherry-picker
Extremely hard carry
Simple to use
Effective ganker
Jungler
Is a midget man!
Cons:
Squishy
Low starting stats
You WILL be targeted
I'll leave off with this: This is the little man, and I approve this message.
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