Do you want to learn how to play the best Snapfire in Dota 2?
One of the newer additions to Dota 2’s massive hero pool, Snapfire is an incredibly versatile hero with many playstyles. Insane burst damage with slows and a dedicated stun make her viable in various drafts. Her broad item choices are another reason why it is beneficial to learn how to play Snapfire in Dota 2.
Apart from being extremely strong at all stages in the game, she also possesses farming abilities. These abilities not only help her scale successfully into the Late game but also aid her crowd-control and creep-clearing prowess. Furthermore, having excellent ways to get solo pickoffs makes her potent in bullying enemies in the lane early on.
An incredibly long cast range ability also assists her in impacting team fights heavily from far away. In addition to this, having an excellent strength gain makes her one of the tankier heroes in the Early game. Lastly, she also has a decent attack range which makes her capable of harassing ranged and melee heroes.
Snapfire has spells that combine with the attributes of others to become truly destructive. As a result, she works well with heroes with long-duration lockdowns like Mars, Faceless Void, and Clockwerk. In contrast, she is potent against heroes like Chen, Phoenix, and Undying, who fall easily to her burst damage.
Snapfire’s Abilities
Scatterblast is an AoE ability that targets an increasing area as it gets further from Snapfire herself. A max damage of 280 that increases by a massive 50% at point-blank range is enough to weaken most. Moreover, being under the effect of Scatterblast slows enemy movement and attack speed to the point of being irrelevant.
Snapfire’s major stunning ability, Firesnap Cookie, is another area-targeted ability that disables enemies and creeps alike. With this ability, Snapfire gives a cookie to an ally, which in turn propels them forward, stunning targets upon landing. Like all her other spells, Firesnap Cookie also deals damage to hostiles in the target area.
Her next ability showcases Snapfire’s prodigious skill in handling guns and allows her to shoot bullets in rapid succession. Lil’ Shredder boosts Snapfire’s attack range and gives her six shots, each with fixed attack damage of 95. Though this is quite minimal damage, it is useful because it can reduce armor through its attacks.
One of the most annoying team fighting abilities in Dota 2, Mortimer Kisses, has extreme burst damage. With a max cast range of 3000, Snapfire can kill enemies from far away, resulting in easy repositioning. Furthermore, it also deals 320 damage per projectile, which is devastating to face in the early game.
How to Utilize her Abilities
Scatterblast, though useful in the Late Game, has very few abilities that match its impact in the Laning Stage. Used both as a way to slow and trade with supports as well as a farming tool makes it potent. Having a relatively large AoE also does well for Snapfire who is tanky and can shove enemies at close range.
An extremely technical ability, Firesnap Cookie takes immense practice in order to become efficient at using it. Being usable on creeps also makes it a surprise stun for any enemies who step to deny creeps or take last hits. It is also extremely useful as an escape mechanism, as it can make enemies jump over unpassable terrain.
Known best for its quick and efficient delivery of bullets, Lil’ Shredder ignores Snapfire’s inherent attack speed. Because of this, it is best against spells like Supernova and Tombstone which Snapfire can effortlessly destroy. Besides this, it also reduces armor, making it impeccable in taking towers as well as enemy lives.
Another game-mechanic reliant ability, Mortimer Kisses benefits from good aim and timing. As a result, it can be very hard to land these projectiles for players at low MMR brackets. These projectiles get fired one after another and their layering and damage over time are often enough to eliminate targets.
These abilities and their usage at all points in the game have made Snapfire so immensely popular in pubs. Resultantly, her potency as both a core and handy support make learning how to play Snapfire in Dota 2 vital. These abilities have also led her to become among the most popular supports in high MMR brackets.
Item Build
Her items depend on whether Snapfire is a core or support. However, this article focuses on Snapfire as support. As the text above states, a vast number of items that Snapfire can build. Firstly, in the lane, she requires Tangoes, Clarities, Faerie Fires, and Iron Branches to trade efficiently with the enemy supports.
Moving on to the early game, Snapfire does manage to farm even as support by killing the small camp. As a result, getting a Magic Stick, in addition to Bracers, enables her to get immense trading potential. Moreover, it also benefits her to buy Boots of Speed as she is quite slow in the Early Game.
Moving on to the Midgame, a great piece of equipment to have is the Arcane Boots, which supplement her mana. Her low mana pool often cripples her ability to participate fully in fights; thus, Arcane Boots are exceptionally useful. Apart from this, at this point, she should also invest in Wards and Smoke of Deceits for effective Ganks.
A fatal flaw in Snapfire’s impressive arsenal is her lack of movement and repositioning abilities. Consequently, investing in a Force Staff or Blink Dagger is the best way to ensure successful fights. Both these items serve the same purpose and grant her the power to move around the battlefield to land spells.
In the Late Game, Snapfire can continue playing as a support, or even transition into a daunting core. To do this, she has to itemize properly and an item like Aghanim’s Sceptre allows her to increase her lockdown. She can become a core by pursuing damage items like Monkey King Bar and Daedalus to grow her Burst Damage.
Laning Stage and Gameplay
Like most supports, Snapfire’s main goal in lane is to ensure a successful and safe laning stage for her core. To make sure everything goes to plan, using her spells to be a nuisance for enemies is the best way. Additionally, putting more points in Scatterblast to deplete enemy regeneration is usually extremely effective.
Another way to absolutely demolish enemies while also securing the lane for one’s core is to maintain the creep equilibrium. This is easily achievable by pulling the small neutral camp repeatedly while also blocking enemy camps. Denying the ranged creep is also an integral step in making sure the creep wave does not push ahead fleetly.
Moving on to the Midgame, Snapfire becomes an exceptional killing machine after level six. Using this innate damage to constantly smoke and gank enemy cores is the best way to establish a lead. After this, warding the enemy jungle while also constantly invading it is the best way to maintain one’s advantageous position.
Swiftly progressing further allows Snapfire to use her Lil’ Shredder to take down towers effortlessly. Moreover, she can also enable her team to kill Roshan because of this exact ability. Securing this aegis while staying back to guarantee a safe position to execute her ultimate ability is Snapfire’s specialty.
A technical hero with immense potential to become the most terrifying Hero in the game, Snapfire deserves her popularity. Properly utilizing all her abilities is a surefire way to dominate all stages of the game. These attributes make it a must for all supports to learn how to play Snapfire in Dota 2.
