[Daily Hero tl;dr #14] Sven

Happy 2012. I'll start off the new year with someone cool, Sven. Sven is interesting because he fits a weird role considering his spells. At first glance, it seems he'd be some type of DPS carry, but he's actually an excellent roaming support ganker and initiator. Also, I'm not sure if he's called Sven or Rogue Knight in Dota2 .. oh well.

TL;DR

• Skills - Storm Bolt (1,3,5,7) Warcry (4,8,9,10) Cleave (later) God's Strength (6,11,16) Stats (2)
• Items (lane) - minor stats, couple strength gloves, regen
• Items (early) - Wand, Urn, Treads, Drum
• Items (later) - Blink, BKB
• Tips - Initiate fights, land strong stuns, Warcry to initiate as well as escape

To start off, I found it funny how because of this last map update people started to think Sven was going to be the best carry in the game. He got a minor buff to his ultimate to 100%/140%/180% and his Warcry has no cast time. People: his playstyle will not change.

In the lane phase you'll probably be paired with a nice ranged hero that has a stun or can dish out some good damage. If that's true, then you should wreck your enemy. Storm Bolt has some nice range, a bit AoE, and great damage. Also, it's to be noted that it cannot be dodged by invis or blinking like most other targeted spells.

Early and mid game you should be ganking. Urn is nice for the mana regeneration, because Sven doesn't have much and Storm Bolt is expensive. Roam around the map stunning things that you come by, grab some kills, etc. Use Warcry to catch up to heroes and dive towers. That extra armor can let you take a few hits, and then you can use Urn to heal it off afterward.

When it comes to team fights, you are a great initiator. Warcry, then run/blink in, stun an interesting area, and whack away. Now this is where his ultimate makes Sven a really cool hero. Because most support heroes and initiators, at this time, become useless. Sven, on the other hand, has that really nice ultimate so he can still dish out decent damage. At this point, the enemy can't ignore Sven or they'll be taking 300 damage swings to the face. This is why BKB is a necessary item, so you can initiate and still deal major damage after stunning a nice area without risk of getting stunned yourself.

I'll quickly go over my skill build because stats at level 2 always seems a bit weird. Basically, early game your biggest issue is mana. The extra stats could give you that extra stun you need. Also, if you're having major stat issues, you can skip over Warcry at 8, 9, 10. The cooldown and armor get better, but you get the same MS increase.

// I'll answer questions in the comments and take suggestions for tomorrow's write up.

/// I am compiling a list of my threads (until something better comes up) on my profile at GG.net