Hey, what is up guys? It’s Librarian Husky, and today I’m excited to talk about Sniper support. Sniper support is something that’s really been popular in the pro scene lately. It’s not just some pub meme; this is a legitimate strategy that you can try in your games and not only have a good time with, because it’s fun, but also have a lot of impact.

Why Sniper Support is Powerful

So, what is good about Sniper support? What did they change about this hero that makes it powerful? Well, mainly it comes down to the faster Scattershot. Scattershot makes it so that the shadow slow and damage are increased, but the duration is decreased. It’s only a 1-second duration, so it basically deals almost instant damage. It does 120 damage at level one, which is really high, especially considering you get three charges. So at level one, you have up to a 360 damage nuke that is AOE, meaning it can hit multiple units.

Effectiveness in Early Game

It’s also a slow—a pretty significant slow at level one at 30%, and at max, it’s 75%. Yeah, it’s only for 1 second, but let me tell you, it’s noticeable. It helps your team close the gap, whether in rune fights, in the lane, or whenever you’re trying to get a kill. Sniper is arguably the best hero in the game at providing damage early on, especially because Shrapnel at max level deals 300 damage per charge, which basically means you have a 900 damage nuke.

Ultimate and Other Abilities

A 900 damage nuke and your ultimate is another nuke, so you have another 300 damage nuke. The other thing that made this hero very viable is his innate ability. What they really made OP about this hero, outside of the faster Scattershot, is that now Keen Scope—or Take Aim, the old Take Aim—is his innate ability.

Free Bonus Attack Range

If you wanted bonus Attack range, you had to skill your E. I’m sure most of you remember that if you’ve been playing DOTA. Now, at level one, you get a bonus 160 Attack range completely for free. You don’t have to skill anything—it’s just free. Suddenly, this hero has 550 base Attack range plus 160, putting him at 710 Attack range.

Game Strategy and Laning Matchups

In this game, we’re going to be watching a match I recently played. I want to talk about a couple of things. I’m in arguably one of Sniper’s worst laning matchups, which is Nature’s Prophet. You can’t fight his Treants at all, so the main thing I have to do is play at max range. However, in your average game, if you don’t have kill threat at level one, I recommend skilling Headshot to trade. It also works on denies, so when going for denies on Sniper, if you get lucky, you can headshot proc and get a lucky deny.

Using Abilities for Range Creep Secure

At level one, I had Shrapnel here; it was kind of like my first game playing it. I’ve played it another time since then, but I thought I would use it for range creep secure, and it is kind of good for that. Unfortunately, I didn’t get that one, but it didn’t get denied, which is nice. It’s a great range creep secure—35 second cooldown, and it’s only 75 Mana, so it doesn’t feel bad to secure range creeps with it at all.

Auto Attacking Strategy

For the most part, nine times out of ten, you’re just going to hit the closest person to you. Don’t overthink it; you should be auto attacking constantly. If this Treant wasn’t in my face, I’d just keep auto attacking to maximize my damage output.

Maximizing Damage Output

I would have hit this guy 40 times by now—unironically, I would have hit this Furion as many times as humanly possible. I would have just kept hitting him and hitting him. Once you get someone to 2/3 HP—and yes, I mean 2/3 HP, not 1/3, not half—they are in kill range at level two with a Blood Grenade and any hero.

Utilizing Shrapnel Effectively

Let’s say my Doom even has Devour because he’s eating these Treants. If he was a real kill hero, like with Scorched Earth and Infernal Blade or like some Marcy, everyone just dies—everyone just dies. So yeah, I walk with Doom; he’s contesting the Lotus, a very common scenario. He wants the Lotus, but jokes on him—Shrapnel, another Shrapnel, Blood Grenade. Didn’t even have the third immediately, but third Shrapnel, and he’s dead.

Commitment for First Blood

Yes, that is a 105-second cooldown to do that, so it is obviously a bit of a commitment, but for First Blood, you’re more than happy to commit that—all day, every day. All of a sudden, my Doom is chilling, and I’m chilling too, but my Doom is really chilling.

Shrapnel Charge Management

The main thing you want to do with Shrapnel, just to really make it clear, is to avoid using them overly casually. Maybe use one for a range creep secure, but other than that, save all three charges and kill someone from full health when they walk out of position. This should be your goal—kill someone from full health. Don’t just use it to poke too much; it’s not going to feel that good. It’s pretty ridiculous how consistently you can find kill opportunities, for instance, here.

Securing Kills with Synergy

I only needed one Shrapnel with the Scorched Earth and Infernal Blade to secure the kill. Headshot is also a pretty significant disable, as 40% of the time, you’re slowing them by 100%, even if only for 0.5 seconds. But that is significant; it’s an extra auto attack, sometimes two, for both you and your laning partner.

Maximizing Shrapnel Charges

We picked up a kill on the Furion, and then, funny enough, I just let my charges restore. I have two charges here, I’m picking up the Lotus. I placed a lane ward because I wanted to keep killing this Luna at some point. She steps up and kind of forgets that I’m here. I told my Doom to go, waited for Scorched Earth to come back up.

Coordinating Abilities for Effective Ganks

I understand that when I’m laning with someone like Doom, who is cooldown-reliant, I want to pair my Shrapnel with their cooldowns. We find another kill—three Shrapnel—and we kill her from full health. That’s what this Sniper hero does; it turns heroes that typically have no kill threat in the lane into threats. Doom can kill Luna, let’s be real. I mean, Scorched Earth plus Infernal Blade is a good amount of threat.

Targeting the Right Opponent

That was a free farm Luna, a Luna with high CS, good items, and such, and it just doesn’t matter. It’s funny because, in this game, I kind of just determined that Luna was my best kill potential. I had the most kill potential on Luna because Shaker, early game, was not having the best game. Shaker, early game, can sometimes have a hard time closing the gap—he has to literally walk up and Echo, and he was struggling a bit. Ursa? I mean, I definitely could have ganked the Legion.

Potential for Different Strategies

I think there’s potential there as well, so I could have potentially walked up to that lane or maybe teleported there. But honestly, I just felt that killing this Luna over and over again was pretty funny. Also, Doom is a hero that doesn’t like being left alone because he doesn’t kill waves very quickly compared to some other heroes, and he can’t farm jungles.

Sniper’s Attack Speed Synergy

It gives Sniper bonus Attack range, 100% chance to headshot, and armor. The big thing is that you want attack speed while Take Aim is active, so you pair the Drums’ active bonus attack speed with Take Aim. You click them at the same time, and it’s a big damage increase. This is really nice and definitely something to abuse throughout the game.

Item Choices for Sniper

The other item I also like is Solar Crest. I personally think that this item is pretty broken, and it makes you way too tanky. In most games on support nowadays, I’m actually buying Solar Crest. I just think this item is pretty ridiculous. I thought it was strong before, and then it got buffed, which was surprising to me.

Efficient Use of Shrapnel

When you’re pushing out creep waves, don’t overuse Shrapnel. A lot of people have this bad habit of just clicking Shrapnel because base Shrapnel, like normal Sniper’s Shrapnel, is one of the best wave-clearing abilities in the game. It has a mega cast range and always kills the wave—it does way too much damage, like 750.

Shrapnel Charge Management

You don’t really want to use Shrapnel unless you have three charges. For instance, here I have three charges, so it’s not the end of the world. I’ll have two in case a fight breaks out, and they will restore. But if I have one charge, there’s no way I’m using it to push the wave—no way.

Maintaining Shrapnel Charges

I always want to have at least two Shrapnel charges so I can comfortably follow up on some sort of stun. Quick side note: my favorite neutral item in the game right now is Iron Talon, and I highly recommend it if you have the opportunity to take it. It lets me farm camps on support Sniper with no real damage item, and I don’t have to use a Shrapnel charge because you can just use Iron Talon on the large creep.

Iron Talon’s Advantages

On top of that, Iron Talon gives me armor and attack speed. This thing is so broken; I genuinely believe it’s one of the most ridiculous items in the game right now, maybe the most broken neutral item. You should definitely take it if you get the chance. Also, at level 12, it’s really nice to get the next point in Assassinate, as it actually gives you more Attack range, which is pretty cool.

Sniper’s Ridiculous Attack Range

At this point, I have something like 900 Attack range, which is just really ridiculous. It feels so free because you get to skill up Take Aim, which is a nice ability. It gives you a lot of armor, so if I get gone on by Legion and I get my Take Aim off, she’s not going to kill me in a duel very quickly.

Drums and Solar Crest Synergy

Another thing that’s really nice about Drums into Solar Crest compared to other item builds is the general cast ranges of Drums and Solar Crest. I just want to highlight it here so you can quickly see it—it’s really far. Both of these items can be cast at extremely high range, allowing you to stay in position. This is another reason why I think Solar Crest is arguably the best support item in the game right now, especially since items like Force Staff and Glimmer Cape had their cast ranges nerfed a long time ago.

Using Items from a Safe Distance

If you want to use these items, you have to be near melee range, and that can get you killed against a lot of different compositions. However, with Solar Crest, you can see how far away I am to use it on this guy and to click Drums if I want. I can make him kill himself on Blade Mail, which I think I do end up doing—though maybe I was heads-up enough, or maybe I just forgot to click Drums; not exactly sure.

Maximizing Damage in Team Fights

In this team fight, you just pump out damage in the backline. This guy gets gone on, and I drop an easy Shrapnel—three-man Shrapnel, lots of damage, 300 damage, really solid. Then I Solar Crest onto the Earthshaker, and a second Shrapnel comes out, so I’ve done 600 magic damage. I click Take Aim, so I’m headshotting her every single proc. By the way, when I turn on Take Aim and I’m headshotting people, I’m significantly slowing the attack speed of initiating right-click heroes like Legion.

Optimal Skill Build

In terms of skill build, you’re going to max Shrapnel, with two points in Headshot at level eight, then take Take Aim. When you have two points in Headshot, you take Take Aim, then max Headshot. You take the Headshot damage talent at level 10. At level 15, both talents are good; you can take attack speed. In my opinion, at level 20, take the Shrapnel damage talent, and at level 25, take the Shrapnel charge restore time. Of course, you just skill your ultimate whenever you can—it’s way too good to skip.

Possible Adjustments

From there, the only things that I would probably change are minor adjustments based on the specific game situation and the heroes you are facing. It’s important to remain flexible in your approach to maximize effectiveness.

Considering Item Choices at Minute 25

If I play this game again, I would consider buying Wraith Bands. A big thing that is really broken in Dota right now is the minute 25 Neutral items. They have been strong for a while, but they’re especially good right now, particularly with Bracer. When it hits minute 25, I just get a bonus 150 HP. You can specifically buy Wraith Bands, Treads, and Bracers at minute 25 to get free stats.

Value of Wraith Bands

These Sentry Wards are important, but a Wraith Band is extremely high value because it gives 20 attack speed, armor, HP, and 10 damage, which is a lot. Considering I’m only hitting for 95, that extra 10 damage is significant. Instead, I decided to buy my Shard, which is Concussive Grenade. It’s a really strong Shard that deals 200 damage, pushes you and your opponent in the direction it hits them, slows by 50% for 3 seconds, and disarms.

Using Concussive Grenade Effectively

This Shard does a billion things. If Legion tries to go on me, I can push her away so I don’t get dueled. I can push Tiny further into us when he tries to initiate, disarm Legion, or disarm Luna. There are so many uses, and it also lets you play aggressively because you can bounce yourself away and kite out opponents.

Scaling with Wraith Bands and Other Items

Finally, if you want to scale, turn your Magic Wand into a Wraith Band and use the free slot for another Wraith Band. Then, buy Dragon Lance or even MKB because, with these items, you’re already tanky. Frankly, you don’t need bonus Attack range since, with levels in Assassinate, you already have extremely high Attack range. So, Wraith Band, Wraith Band, MKB as your last three slots with Drums and Solar will feel really good, and you’ll hit very hard.

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