So I Heard You Have a Face

Remedied several discrepancies in the guide, as well as added several sections and refined the content.

Addressed several item-based complaints. Updated skill portion to guide skilling Shrapnel level 1 at level 10 instead of level 22. Force Staff still needs to be addressed, but I haven't the time tonight. I played a lot with the Blink Dagger today, so I'll be trying out Force Staff tomorrow. Thank you again for the suggestions, and keep 'em coming.

P.S. I will also be working on a way to reformat the 'How to Destroy Those Faces' section. It is jumbled, I realize, and I'm trying to figure out how to word it more proficiently.

Shadow Blade is just a bad pickup on anyone except gankers usually. If you go in thinking it's a good way to slip out, you're going to realize very soon that it actually makes you slower once Dust of Appearance is applied.

If you think that you're going to build Satanic later, get Helm. Mask of Madness, despite granting it, is not about the lifesteal. It's about cheap, early attack speed, much like on Faceless Void. It's a lot cheaper than a Mjollnir, and is good to have around until you get something better. Definitely not core though.

Strange that there's no Manta Style anywhere. It beefs him up a bit, gives him a way to dodge spells, and adds a bit of pushing power. Yasha is a cheap item that does wonders for Sniper as a buildup to Manta.

As has been said, one point in Shrapnel is needed. When you take it is up to the discretion of the player, and depends on the match. It isn't about damage or slowing, so who cares? It's about granting vision of fleeing heroes/highground so you can land your ult or a few more auto attacks.

I was unaware of this


I did add a Satanic in the 'Optional' section. It's a viable substitute if you're doing well but could use more HP. I prefer Helm of the Dominator over Mask of Madness simply because it causes even the weakest heroes to absolutely demolish you. You can't toggle it or anything either, so if you're caught with it on and in a fight, you won't be hard to kill. Of Helm of the Dominator course it can be upgraded to Satanic, which does extend your survivability by a great margin.

Because the aura doesn't work on ranged units.

I will address all of these later today once I've gone through the suggestions and tried them out. I will admit, I'm not exactly at an MMR with largely competent players. I stomp any game that I come into with this build, so I figured I'd make a guide for it. I suppose I rely heavily on the enemy team being idiots(which isn't a stretch, let's be honest) and less on my own skill & tact. I will try these out, and reform the guide accordingly. I have a lot to say about Sniper, and it's difficult for me to fit it neatly into this guide(it is my first guide, nowhere near adept at these things.)

Thank you for the suggestions.

Yeah I dont think forcestaff is a bad idea on Sniper.

If you want only an escape then forcestaff will be easy to use like really. if you are running away you are basically facing the direction you want to run too.p

I disagree about not getting Shrapnel though.

You can use it to escape bybusing Shrapnel in the pathway and the people chasing you will be slow.
Like somebody stated here you can use it for vision since its long range can be used to scout, and give vision so that you can use your ult.
You can also use it to chase down the enemy the damage is ****ty tough.


Why no lifesteal tough, how about vlads?
I usually jungle because you pushing lanes is bad because everybody knows how squishy and weak you are so you are ganked constantly.Unless they have no stun then I guess you can do this.


Later sniper can rip almost every melee hero now.
To much headshot procs makes you slow being unable to get closer and disabling your blink dagger and slow from shrapnel just screws you thats the problem I usually get when playing sniper.

Shadow Blade on heroes like Sniper works as long as you are playing in the Trench, any half-brained player will buy dust and effectively make you waste 3000 gold on item that gives you nothing more but 150 dmg every 30 seconds. That's why I haven't played against/with Riki for like 100 games, or at least 50.

Blink Dagger is CORE on carries without mobility, like Sniper, Drow Ranger, Ursa or Nature's Prophet, especially after Icefraud removed it's mana cost. It's not an initiation item, it's mobility item, meaning that you can move around map faster, enter fights faster, leave fights faster, escape ganks and other sheets.

And if I couldn't buy Blink because of heroes like Clockwerk, then Force Staff would be my choice.

Also no BKB or at least Linken makes me really sad, just because it's my 3rd most purchased item with 65% winrate, and it's not because I'm BKB fanboy, but because it's soooooooooOoooOOOOOoooOOoooo goooooooooooooood (Blink is 5th most purchased item).

I disagree with not leveling shrapnel. You really only need 2 points in headshot since the damage is increased more from 1-2 and becomes less cost effective from 2-3 and 3-4. IMO Sniper's strongest skill is Take Aim and should be maxed ASAP due to how fragile Sniper is.

SB isn't that good on sniper for escape as well and Blink or force staff are the way to go because they allow him to position easier. Although Blink is considered an initiation tool, in Sniper's case its a valuable re-positioning tool if caught out.

"If the enemy is squishy, please don't bother with a Desolator. Just, please. It's such a boring item."

You say not to pick Desolator, because it is boring, but in the next sentence tell your reader to build an ***ualt Cuirass? It may be boring, but being able to shoot negative armor bullets from that range is way more effective than buying an armor that has weaker armor reduction at a range your team won't even reap the benefits from half the time.

Assassinate is more than a pick off tool as well. I throw one down right away at the beginning of a team fight on a key target and already give my team a jump on the engagement.

I wish someone would provide a Sniper guide that actually focuses on the positioning and good places to snipe from fog w/ pictures instead of the same old guide everybody reads: Max Headshot & Take Aim, Screw Shrapnel, and KS with Assassinate.

Well...I guess actions speak better than words so...just have a look in the "live games" tab, type Sniper, watch the ranked games at the highest MMR happening right now, and look at people's item builds.

You'll see Mask of Madness, you'll see Blink Daggers, you'll see Force Staffs...you'll see half Power Treads half Phase Boots, you'll see Desolators, you'll see Manta Styles, you'll see Drum of Endurance, etc...and you probably won't see a single Shadow Blade.

Force Staff is what supports use to escape tight situations. Double-tap the hotkey, it makes you dash forward and escape any kind of slow easily. What's hard about that?

Gah, why am I even wasting time in the Sniper section...

Have you consistently been able to escape using Force Staff on Sniper? Because I'm not sure if it's just me, but the tact and reaction time it requires to safely Force Staff somewhere is far beyond what the average Sniper picker would be up to par with. I have a decently hard time using Force Staff myself, given that you have to point your character in the direction(which leaves you vulnerable for that time you're standing still) and then hope that they have no way to where I force staffed to. What's it's range, like 1000? Or is it 600? I'm not quite sure, but it's an easy distance to travel if you happen to not be in the best spot for force-staffing away. I seriously doubt something like this would have been ignored for so long as a possibility if it were innately viable. It's simply too difficult an item to correctly pop in stressful situations or chases. I will try it, though, and come back to you with my gameplay opinion.

P.S. The fact you use Treads & Deso makes me value your opinion on Sniper less. I apologize.

Shadow Blade... Blink Dagger...what's up with you guys really?

Both items are initiation items and Sniper isn't an initiator

- Shadow Blade is horrible on Sniper because it's not an escape. Shadowblade is a ganking item and nothing else. Sniper isn't a ganker. If you buy it for an escape they will just dust you and that's 3K gold wasted.

- Blink Dagger is so-so on Sniper because yes it allows you to escape a guy who frontally walks up to you but that will probably not happen. The real issue Sniper has is gap closers like Bounty Hunter, Phantom Assassin, Clockwerk or something just jumping on him from nowhere and blink doesn't work against that. It's OK on him but is it really worth the gold just for an unreliable escape?

Why is nobody considering Force Staff as core, huh? Reliable repositionning when enemies catch up to you, INT that allows you to spam your ult more, regen, etc. Personally I always went Treads/Deso/forcesteaff on him.