- Tittle: I Shot the Sheriff
- Author: Piejonk, iKrivetko and FunnyWarfare
- Affiliation: Sentinel Attack Animation: 0.5 / 0.8
- Damage: 47 - 58
- Casting Animation: 0.1 / 0.51
- Armor: 2.08
- Base Attack Time: 1.7
- Movespeed: 295
- Missile Speed: 900
- Attack Range: 550
- Sight Range: 1800 / 1200
- Your team needs a ranged carry
- Your team is using a pusher strategy
- When to not pick
- Enemy team has lots of burst damage/stunners
- Highest range in the game
- Fast pusher
- Excellent farmer
- Excellent attack animation
- High damage nuke that can finish off fleeing enemies
- Very good agility gain
- Best INT gain amongst AGI heroes
- Needs quite a bit of survivability
- Big target for enemy gankers early game
- Low mana pool early on
- Below average movespeed
|| SKILL INFO
ShrapnelFires a ball full of shrapnel into the air. which promptly explodes, showering the target area in explosive pellets. Enemy units that walk in this area get damaged and slowed. Deals 30% damage to buildings. Lasts for 10 seconds.
- 1. Mana 120 / Cooldown 15 sec / Duration 8 sec / Effects 15% Slow / 10 DPS
- 2. Mana 120 / Cooldown 15 sec / Duration 8 sec / Effects 20% Slow / 20 DPS
- 3. Mana 120 / Cooldown 15 sec / Duration 8 sec / Effects 25% Slow / 30 DPS
- 4. Mana 120 / Cooldown 15 sec / Duration 8 sec / Effects 30% Slow / 40 DPS
- Damage type: magical
- Skill Usage: This skill works as a DoT in an AoE. What's great about it is that it is one of the only skills in the game that affects towers too. This is also your primary farming skill. It can also be used for lane control, ganking and escaping. The slow is decent and usually enough to perform one of the above stated strategies.
HeadshotA shot to the head deals bonus damage and stuns for a short duration.
- 1. 25% chance to deal 30 damage and ministun
- 2. 30% chance to deal 30 damage and ministun
- 3. 35% chance to deal 40 damage and ministun
- 4. 40% chance to deal 50 damage and ministun
- Damage type: hero physical
- Works on allied creeps.
- Stun is blocked by magic immunity.
- Skill Usage: This skill improves your quite low damage. The stun is also nice and it syn-energizes well with Shrapnel. This skill also helps you with last hitting a lot.
Take AimKardel uses his dwarf engineering skills to make modifications to his rifle, enhancing the range of his rifle.
- 1. Attack Range +65
- 2. Attack Range +130
- 3. Attack Range +195
- 4. Attack Range +260
- Level 3 and 4 of this skill allow Kardel to out-range towers.
- Skill Usage: Take Aim is what makes Kardel a formidable tower pusher. It allows him to keep out of danger (most of the time) and deal tremendous amounts of damage through his other skills to enemies. Also note that if this skill is maxed it is possible to out-range the enemy fountain, allowing you to destroy it!
AssassinateTake time to draw a bead, and then deal a large amount of damage to the target at a huge range.
- 1. Mana 175 / Cooldown 20 sec / Deals 355 Damage
- 2. Mana 275 / Cooldown 15 sec / Deals 505 Damage
- 3. Mana 375 / Cooldown 10 sec / Deals 655 Damage
- Damage type: magical
- Crosshair on target is visible to allies only.
- Invisibility doesn't affect the effect of this skill.
- Interrupts channeling spells.
- Interrupt works on magic immune units.
- Takes 1.7/1.65/1.5 seconds to cast.
|| SKILL BUILD
- 1. Take Aim/Shrapnel
- 2. Shrapnel/Take Aim
- 3. Shrapnel
- 4. Headshot/Take Aim
- 5. Shrapnel
- 6. Assassinate
- 7. Shrapnel
- 8. Take Aim
- 9. Take Aim
- 10. Take Aim/Headshot
- 11. Assassinate
- 12. Headshot
- 13. Headshot
- 14. Headshot
- 15. Stats
- 16. Assassinate
- 17. Stats
- 18. Stats
- 19. Stats
- 20. Stats
- 21. Stats
- 22. Stats
- 23. Stats
- 24. Stats
- 25. Stats
Skill nothing before the creeps start fighting and wait for a situation where you could need Shrapnel and skill it (early first blood or ally has to be saved). When the creeps start attacking and you realize that you might not need it too early, skill Take Aim, which make last hitting easier. On the second level you should take the skill that you didn't take on the first level.
Look at who you will be laning with and against to decide which skill you will take on level 4:
- Solo vs Dualstunner lane (like Lina + Sven) : Take Aim
- Solo vs high burst damage solo lane (like Tinker): Take Aim
- Solo vs non high burst damage lane (like Traxex): Headshot
- Solo vs deffensive + carry lane (like Spectre + Warlock) : Headshot
- Solo vs aggressive + carry lane (like Lion + Naix): Take Aim
- Dual vs anything: Headshot
Skill Build Alternatives:
There are only a couple of major alternatives to the standard skill build. The first one is taking both Take Aim and Headshot, skipping Shrapnel early on, to farm and possibly even kill heroes faster. Personally this is not recommended as Shrapnel is a great and important skill, and you get just as much farming power with it as you would with Headshot.
The other one is grabbing a couple of levels of Stats early on. Still, max Shrapnel, and levels 2 and 4 grab some stats instead of Take Aim/Headshot. Stats give you some HP and MP which actually helps a bit early game. This again is not recommended over the standard skill build, since when you get your first survivability and mana regeneration items, the extra Stats don't become as useful as Take Aim/Headshot.
|| ITEM BUILD
Early Game
Side Lane
=> 
- Proceed to your position. There you may finish your personal survivability booster codenamed "Magic Wand"
- Water and food allow you to stay in the battlefield for prolonged periods.
Mid Game
Core Equipment
- Power Treads and Magic Wand will give you survivability that is necessary for a slow moving low hp Sniper. If you want to buy Orchid and you want to be able to spam Shrapnel for pushing and farming, buy an Oblivion Staff after that. The next important item to buy is Lothar’s Edge, because it will save your ass many times and gives you damage and attack speed that are good for being a carry in mid/lategame.
Optional Core Equipment
Urn is a very good item for Sniper. It gives him the hp and mana regen that he needs. However there sometimes might be a better Urn carrier on your team, and you should let them get it instead of you. Otherwise go ahead and make this instead of a bracer.
A flask of whiskey to keep your morale up. A good item if you want to push in early/mid game. While switching the lanes you can refresh your mana to push the next tower. If you don’t want bottle, Magic Wand is enough for a burst heal.
.338 Lapua Magnum armor-piercing bullets at your service. Probably the best out there. A cookie-cutter item for Sniper. Your high range is useless without high damage.
Neurotoxin-coated rounds. 8 paralysing rounds for free. A very interesting item. The stats are good for your carry role, the orb is amazing against low hp heroes, but just in early/mid game. The orb loses it’s effectiveness in early game. Purge is good for ganking because you have 2 slows or 1 extreme slow that increase your overall DPS. Also Diffusal Blade is a must-have item against Warlock’s Infernal. Benefits from: Attack speed
Electroshocking rounds for superior crowd-control. Like Diffusal Blade this item is very effective in early/mid game. With this item you can push faster. But because you can upgrade it to Mjollnir it isn’t useless in late game. And it is just an orb effect, so you can also buy Skadi. All in all an item that is useable in any situation. Benefits from: Attack speed
Adrenaline pack. Your range is high, but that will not save you when you are facing disables because their range is long, too or the disablers use fog to hide so that you don’t notice them till it’s too late. All in all this item will turn you rambo for a few seconds, but it won’t help you against physical dps carries.
Ultra-light boots with a built-in radio. The radio allows you to call a transport chopper for extra mobility. You should change your boots to this one in mid/late game. You can push everywhere and it changes your Assassinate to something like Zeus’s ultimate. But if the game is not focused on ganking and pushing, Power Treads are more useful.
Buy it instead of Lothar's Edge. In games with higher skilled players that buy Dust/Gem/Necronomicon, Lothar's isn't as useful as lower skilled games. Here Dagger is a cheaper alternative. You can dodge, blink to places that are hard to reach and kill your opponents and Assassinate's Area of Influence is huge (2700/3200/3700). The problem is that it doesn't give you dps.
While this item is bad on many heroes, it is a choice for Sniper if you want to gank a lot. The only problem is that it is useless if you buy Manta and/or Skadi that are better items. Benefits from: Attack speedLuxury Equipment
A item that fits Sniper perfectly. The mana regeneration let you spam Shrapnel to push towers, the damage and attack speed is needed to be the carry and the silence will rape all guys who try to dodge your ultimate. Benefits from: Any damage you deal
I think it’s obvious that the item is perfect to deal damage. The evasion allows you to fight against ranged physical dps carries easily. But don’t be foolish and fight in melee range against melee carries like Naix.
Lightweight Kevlar Armor. Doesn't constrain movement. This item will help you destroying towers quickly. I don’t have to talk about the dps, I think. But if there is a melee hero who could use it also, it’s better if he buys it. Then the aura will affect anyone and the armor is not that wasted. Benefits from: Physical damage
Thermal scope, allows you to spot the most uncovered parts of your enemy. Obvious. Damage. Benefits from: Physical damage, attack speed
Schmidt & Bender 6x42 PM II scope for delivering 100% precise shots. Unusable with any rounds other than the ordinary due to different trajectory. More stun. Bash doesn’t stack additional, but the chance is still higher so that it will work pretty much like a Skadi with less slow and more damage. When you are facing heroes with evasion it’s a must-have. Benefits from: Attack speed
Dummies of yourself to deceive your enemies. Very well synergy with Sniper. The movement speed and the stats are perfect and the illusions also get high range. When you are not facing a high AoE team this item is very useful. Benefits from: Stats
Improved electroshocking rounds. Look at the Maestrom. The only difference is that you should use it’s skill on a often attacked hero, that isn’t you in the most cases. Benefits from: Attack speed
Freezing rounds. Quite expensive due to a complicated manufacturing technology. I really think Sniper is the best carrier for this item. No one can flee, the stats are nice and it’s just a buff, not an orb. So you should get it if you got Maestrom/Mjollnir and vice-versa. The only problem is the price.Item Build Reasoning
Early game its important to grab some stat and regen items. This is what the branches and tangos/clarities/salves are for. Grab exactly 3 tangos, as we will use these to build our magic wand. Next try to buy your bracer parts or boots of speed. Then proceed to complete you basic laning phase items.
This is the order that we want to complete our starting items: Wand and Treads. Also you should decide whether to go for Bracers or Wraiths at this point. Right after this you should start on farming Lothars. However instead of going straight for Lothars, you can try to instead farm up an optional item. Anyways, either way you will farm up your Lothars eventually and thats when you should try to farm up your next item. Since you will start getting quite a lot of kills at this point you luxury shouldn't take too long to complete.
Then keep on adding luxuries to your build until the game ends. The Lothars, should hopefully minimize your losses in the process. Try to buy items that will synergize with other items, instead of buying random items. For example here are some very late game builds that synergize well:
Sniper Commando (Carry, Illusions give you high dps)
Assassin (Dps carry that kills anyone with a few hits)
Guerilla (Ganker)
Mortar Team (Pusher, Mjolnir for killing creeps quickly)
Gatling (Carry, high as to trigger Ministuns often)
Of course those item builds are quite expensive, but rewarding if you complete one.
|| GAMEPLAY
Early Game
After you finish the laning phase, and even during the laning phase, you should be trying to farm and push to the best of your ability. That one extra tower down early game, is huge for your team. After you push one tower in a lane, go to a different lane and push one tower there. Pushing any furhter than the second tower alone is too dangerous.
Other than pushing just try to farm one lane. When enemies come to gank you or try to deny XP then just TP to a different lane, and start farming there. Snipers attack animation is very good, so last hitting should be fairly easy.
Mid Game
At this point you should have your basic core build finished. That means that you can and should try sticking with your team and doing pushes together with your team. You should also take part in team battles. Income should be coming from hero kills at this point.
Your team should try to push down the tier 2 tower in each lane. Hopefully you can also get some tower kills, and that will result in a big boost in your money.
If your team is turtling, and does not want to push, then just try to stop enemy pushes as best as you can. Your Shrapnel is an excellent tool that can be used for stopping large pushes, so use it.
Late Game
At this point your DPS should be pretty high. You should have at least one luxury at this point. With your team behind your back, you are quite a formidable carry. Also if no one has soloed Roshan yet, then it is our priority to do so. You most likely will not be able to kill him alone, so make sure to bring a couple of teammates to help.
Your team should definitely be trying to push into the enemy base at this point. You will want to end the game very soon, or other harder carries will out DPS and overcome you.
Team Battles
Sniper's role in team battles is rather simple. It is to deal as much damage as possible without dying. Because of his long attack and skill range, most of the time, he is out of harms way in team battles. There are a couple of things that you should do for team battles:
- 1) When the initiators initiate, use Shrapnel.
- 2) Concentrate and attack either their disabler or carry.
- 3) Use Assassinate to finish off fleeing hereos.
If your team is losing the battle(or already lost it) and you can`t kill anyone, then just run away, as there is no point staying and getting killed.
Edited by basicdotaguide.blogspot.com