DOTA 2 - Sniper

Introduction

"Time for target practice."

Kardel Sharpeye the Sniper is a ranged agility hard carry. Using his superior range to stay out of the fray he can deal immense amounts of damage from a distance in the late game, whilst mid game his abilities allow him to siege towers with ease and pick off fleeing enemies...

But he is also one of the squishiest carries in the game. Despite his popularity in terms of games played he is generally considered to be unviable as a serious pick.

You can find Sniper's complete character profile here.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• Amazing attack animation
• Has the most range in the game - he can even attack towers without being hit with two or more points in Take Aim
• Solid pusher and good at sieging
• High damage nuke on a very low cooldown

Cons

• Very squishy
• Terrible base damage
• Lacks mobility - has slow move speed and no escape ability
• Requires a lot of items to be an effective DPS'er
• Requires good map awareness and positioning skills

Item Build

Sniper is a hard carry and needs a lot of farm to be an effective damage dealer outside of finishing heroes off with his ultimate in the early and mid-game. That said, although he needs items, he does not have a core item list; Sniper's item build is extremely flexible.

That said, I will go through a couple of different decent and popular core options for Sniper, explaining the reasoning behind them and the order of pick-ups. Starting items for all of these are Tangos, 3 Branches (which you can later turn into a Magic Wand) and a Healing Salve. Alternatively, opt for two Slippers of Agility at the start instead of the triple Branches and later upgrade one of them into a Wraith Band.

Stealth Sniper Build

This is one of the most common and popular builds, especially in low-to-mid ranking pub games. This build aims to remedy three of Sniper's core weaknesses listed in the cons section above: his lack of move speed and general mobility, his lack of an escape mechanism, and the easy to overlook necessity of good position.

Your core items here are Power Treads and Shadow Blade. Shadow Blade's active ability gives you a considerable move speed boost (20%) and invisibility for 12 seconds, and an additional 150 damage with your next attack. The Treads will give you a little bit of health and attack speed. Combine that with Shadow Blade's damage (+22), attack speed (+30), and an active that can be used to escape, chase, or re-position yourself, and you have a good combination of items for Sniper.

In theory it's a fantastic build, the problem is Shadow Blade's active is countered by relatively cheap items (Dust of Appearance and Sentry Wards in the early game, Gem in the late game). This is why the build tends to become less popular the further through the ranks of matchmaking you go; new players tend not to buy detection, whereas more experienced players will instantly purchase it when they see your Shadow Blade, at which point your 3000 gold item becomes a poor investment.

Frenzy Sniper Build

Another build that is very popular in public games (both low and high level ones) is the attack speed build. Your core items here are: Hand of Midas, Power Treads, Drums of Endurance and Mask of Madness.

Alternatively, since Mask of Madness can be a contentious pick up (it gives you +100 attack speed and +25% move speed, but increases damage taken by 25%, making you the very definition of a glass cannon), you can swap it out for a Maelstrom if you want to play safe and later upgrade that into a Mjollnir.

The goal here is to stack attack speed, relying on your ability to metaphorically shift from being a sniper to being a machine gunner. Your base damage will be lower initially than alternative builds (and this is its main drawback) but you aim to make up for that in frequency of attacks and Headshot procs.

Disruption Sniper

One of the most enjoyable builds to use is the Disruption or Basher build. If you manage to get your core items you'll be able to use your superior range to not only deal damage from afar but also to prevent the enemy from ever closing the gap.

Your core items here are: Power Treads, Skuller Basher, Monkey King Bar.

The idea is to permanently bash and slow the enemy, preventing them from closing the gap, which in turn allows you to keep dealing damage. Between procs of Headshot (40% chance), procs of Bash (10%), and procs of Mini-stun (35% chance), you have a high chance of getting some kind of bash or slow. If you've ever faced such a Sniper you'll know how annoying - and deadly - it can be, as once you're caught it can be impossible to escape.

It's a very expensive build, and there are a few counters: Spell Immunity blocks mini-stuns, so a Black King Bar will block all but Skull Basher's stuns. Sniper, in general, is a hero that struggles against highly mobile heroes - especially initiators. This build offers no aid to you in such situations; if your enemy gets the jump on you and instantly closes the distance that you would usually rely on as a buffer then you are in trouble.

Safety First Sniper

All of the builds above sound a bit too risky? Want to play safe and not piss off your teammates (which, let's be honest here, you probably did already simply by picking Sniper), then consider opting for this safe and incremental build:

Power Treads or Phase Boots, Ring of Aquila, Drums of Endurance, Yasha, Manta Style.

The advantages of such a build should be clear: you get a nice chunk of health, mana and mana regen, a good amount of agility gain, and plenty of attack speed and move speed. Oh, and it's extremely easy to build up to these items so you minimise your unreliable gold loss from deaths. The downside? You're not exactly going to pack a punch anytime soon.

Late Game

The builds above all deal with your early and mid game item acquisitions, but once you have the core of your build, you need to consider your next set of items. Here, again, Sniper has plenty of options to go, many of which are situational. Here's a quick run down of the best choices:

Black King Bar - Always a solid pick up, doubly so if the enemy team has any degree of lockdown or magic damage. Also gives you a small damage boost and some much-needed health.

Mjollnir - A very popular luxury item. High attack speed, means greater rate of Headshots procs and higher DPS, and the lightning procs should not be under-estimated; they make creep clearance a breeze and dish out a surprisingly good amount of damage in teamfights.

Butterfly - The ultimate late-game option for any agility carry. Sniper is no exception.

Daedalus - Damage and crit. What more do you need to know? One of my favourite pick-ups on virtually any carry once I have my core.

Desolator - Be careful with this one. It has a unique attack modifier and is thus a waste of money if you've already purchase another attack modifier item because it will not stack (most notably in Sniper's case Mask of Madness's life steal). Assuming you haven't, it's a very cost efficient way of increasing your damage output.

Eye of Skadi - Lots and lots of stats and a very good unique attack modifier (again, as with Desolator, do not stack with other attack modifier items!). It won't increase your damage much, which means you probably want to avoid picking it up until you're fully slotted and want to sell one of your cheaper mid-game items.

Monkey King Bar - Another great damage option, it also has two other benefits: if the enemy carry has a Butterfly you will ignore their evasion, and secondly if you're sieging the base your attacks will not miss from downhill.

Satanic - The damage and health bonuses are nice, but you really buy this for the active ability. If you get the most out of it you essentially have a free Cheese (or at least the health aspect of Cheese) in your inventory on top of the initial stats it gives you.

Skill Build

Place your first point in Headshot in order to help secure those last hits. Sniper has an amazing attack animation but his base damage is terrible. If Headshot procs it will ensure the last hit for you.

Most people then alternate between leveling Headshot and Take Aim, and securing a point in your ultimate (Assassinate) at level 6. Personally, I like to max Headshot first, but either is fine and depends on how your lane is going. If you feel vulnerable get the added range, if you're fairly safe go for Headshot.

It's also possible to take a point in Shrapnel at level 4 instead of Headshot or Take Aim. Shrapnel is often not skilled at all (many take stats over it), but I would absolutely not recommend this. It's a very underrated skill that gives you 1800 range vision. This allows you to scout fogged areas. The other upside of Shrapnel is it deals damage over time and slows by up to 30% in a 450 AoD. So definitely get it, but precisely when you get it is up to you. Some people even prefer max it first - indeed, that is the go-to build in competitive Dota.

Always skill Assassinate. It's a high damage nuke that's great for finishing off enemies that are running away on low health. The cooldown is also ridiculously short (20, 15 and 10 seconds). The downside is the mana cost is prohibitive (175, 275, 375), so ideally save it for when you can secure a kill, when you are defending against a base siege (since you have easy access to the fountain), or when you have just TP'd in from the fountain, so that you get in some extra harass (you'll continue to get mana regen for a short while so the mana cost is effectively significantly lower).

Gameplay Tips

You're squishy, fairly slow and have no escape mechanism. It is crucial that your position yourself carefully in skirmishes and don't over-extend.

Always make sure you're on the periphery of fights so that in order to take you out your enemies either need an initiation item like a Blink Dagger, an in-built form of initiation (such a Storm Spirit's Ball Lightning, Anti-Mage's Blink, Faceless Void's Time Walk or Spirit Breaker's Charge of Darkness), or have to go through your teammates to get to you first.

Shrapnel and your superior range means you're actually a great hero for pushes and for sieging the base. Although it won't damage the structures any longer it wil lhelp to zone out enemies.

Shrapnel used to deal damage to buildings. As of patch 6.83 this is no longer the case. On the upside, it was buffed in that patch with a reduction in mana cost and by granting you 3 charges rather than being restricted by a traditional cooldown. This means you can pepper the battlefield with Shrapnel in teamfights, or use it consecutively on fleeing enemies to prevent their escape.

Last Updated - Patch 6.83.