Sven - A Cut Above the Rest

A Black King Bar is absolutely necessary on Sven if there are multiple enemies with stuns in the game in order to let you hit them. If you are stunned you can't do damage. So a Daedalus might give you a +35% in DPS but the Black King Bar enables you to even start doing dps.

Maks of Madness is not only gotten to fight but it's active and the lifesteal are pretty useful for farming ancients and the jungle.
The active can be used in fights and it should in cases where the enemy can't hit you because they are for example stunned. But even if you don't use the active you get 20% lifesteal instead of 15% from a Helm of the Dominator.
It is also quite useful to end a fight quickly if you fight against a Slark for example as you loose in prolonged fights against the fish.

Great guide, if you have more money you can upgrade Arcane Boots to Guardian Greaves, which gives you and your team even more support with hp. But from the times i played with this guide, i found BKB unnecessary, since when charge in they're all dead before the stun is up or they can cast any spell. Buy and consume a Moon Shard also helps. Rampages away !!!!!!!!!

Great guide. But I require Soul Ring instead of Arcane Boots . Because arcane boots is too expensive in order you can buy it early. You can buy Soul Ring by not putting much effort if you buy Ring of Regen , Tango , and 3 Iron Branch . But of course buy Power Threads next after you buy Soul Ring .

Thank you so much! I'm just started playing dota 2 and your build improved my gameplay a lot! After Heart of Tarrasque you can have activated the Armlet of Mordiggian all the time and your health doesn't drain! It's amazing!
Anyway...Thanks :D!
PS: Some of your images doesn't work...

Should get daedulus as late items since your cleave with this gonna get you a rampage

I disagree with arcane boots and mom on sven. the reason is that the 200% increase in damage in his ultimate is dependent upon his strength and not his overall damage output. that's why treads is better than arcane boots because of the strength bonus. helm of the dominator is way better than mom since it makes sven squishier. HoD will let u stack ancients, very good for sven since he can clear out stacked creeps in seconds with his cleave. late game, u can upgrade HoD to satanic giving u +25 strength. so my core item are: wand>treads>armlet>HoD>BKB. luxury items are satanic, heart, or halberd. all these items boosts my strength. u could get easy triple kill, ultra kill, or even rampage once he completes bkb.

power treads is much better than arcane boots if u are building a carry sven,instead the lane support should be the one going for arcane...a few clarities is enough as stun is needed only when u go for kills.after that i always prefer to get drums as it is an amazing early game item at a pretty low price.mom is not a great item as the increased damage will really get u killed if u get stunned and dont have bkb,so its always wise to rush bkb.get helm for some lifestal and regen or just go for an armlet,,then luxuries include assault cuirass,daedalus or abyssaland hearts of course((or u can upgrade the hotd to satanic)

Mask of Madness is only good in conjunction with BKB. BKB allows Sven to pretty much ignore the 30% damage increase (beware of auto-attackers though).

Not true, This works great for agile heroes like sniper, its the first item that I build and from far away I get lifesteal and can kill enemy heroes with 4 or 5 shots, also it healps alot to give the last hit and start getting the gold, and you can activate it with every single creep group coming over

I played this build, I never used one clarity, only 2 healing salves, and I beat a lot of people in the face when I got my ultimate
I UPVOTED! :D
PS: Sven is one of the best gankers I've ever played when I use this guide xD

I will say, your core item build is good (with the exception of Arcane Boots), but before that point i disagree. If I play Sven, I'll usually go mid, as if you become the hard carry, you'll get 5 hit rampages. Anyways, for my starting items ill go 2 Claritys, Tango, Healing Salve, and Gauntlet. Stats and regen, simple enough. Then I'll go bottle -> boots -> bracer -> treads -> bkb -> drums -> armlet(sell bottle) -> MoM -> Battle Fury -> cuirass (sell drums) -> 2nd bkb. After that, gg.
I don't agree with blink because thats 2k gold... and your storm bolt aint exactly a Echo Slam, you can just run in there and bolt for 2k less gold. I don't agree with satanic, as MoM is better on Sven and you shouldn't get 2 lifesteal items. I don't agree with skull basher, because dps or attack speed will benefit you more, because if you can kill them in a 2 second stun, who needs more? I dont agree with Vanguard because like Abe1st said, strength(aka damage) is better on this guy than raw health. Quelling blade and magic stick are unnecessary on sven because he has good raw damage and magic stick doesn't keep it's usefulness for an item slot, and that 200 gold can be used for a faster bottle.
I don't like cleave until level 10, because even with your ultimate, 20% cleave is **** early game. 4 armor and 6 second shorter cooldown make a bigger impact earlygame.

I like this build, will publish my own take(s) on Sven some time soon. Arcane Boots are cool, but still I prefer going Treads+Drums, and bring some clarities with me to the laning phase. That +9 Int (and +8 from Tread Switching) provide you 117 extra mana (+ further 104 from treads) to spend, regenerating that is not an issue if you use the skills effectively. At least I have no real problems sustaining my mana early. I'd prefer Arcane for more of a support Sven build, but this hero works fine with a lot of builds