Do you want to know how to carry games as Sven in Dota 2?
Sven is a strength-based safelane hero who tears down enemies with his immense physical damage and cleaves. Due to his burst potential and a knack to farm extremely well, his tendency to snowball makes him a popular hero to play. When coupled with a very low skill cap, these attributes make knowing How to Play Sven in Dota 2 crucial.
His basic mechanics fare well in low MMR brackets while his abilities and crowd control are impressive. An above-average strength gain also makes him tanky and harder to bring down than other carries in the early game. Moreover, possessing a source of lockdown makes him even more daunting to face in fights leading him to dominate games.
Initiating fights as Sven also becomes effective as his high armor grants him the chance to be an effective frontline Hero. Considering his cleave and aptitude to wreck large groups, he becomes an incredible counter to illusion heroes. Besides this, with enough items, there are very limited carries that can hold a candle to his insane damage output.
Sven’s Abilities
His first ability, better known as Storm Hammer, is a point-target stun that disables the target and units around them. Apart from stunning enemies, this spell deals a large amount of magical damage, making it terrifying for supports early on. Additionally, the stun duration improves even further by using the level 25 talent.
Great Cleave is the ability responsible for making him one of the best farmers in the game. Being passive, this spell makes it even easier for players to get ahead by demolishing creep waves and camps. It can also stack with other sources of cleave and affects the area instantaneously regardless of how the animation behaves.
Warcry is an AoE ability that affects his allies and himself by providing them with extra armor and movement speed. With a low cost of mana and a relatively low cooldown, moving around with this ability is extremely efficient. It covers quite a large radius of seven hundred units, often covering the battlefield entirely.
Providing an insane damage bonus of 200% can effectively triple Sven’s attack damage making God’s Strength seem overpowered. Though it has quite a long cooldown, it is critical to use this in the right context while making the right decisions. This is why this article covers these decisions and How to Play Sven in Dota 2 to win games effortlessly.
How to Utilize His Spells
It is important to realize that using Storm Hammer to secure last hits in a difficult lane is understandable. Besides, it is best to use Storm Hammer at close range as it becomes easier to stun multiple enemies. Further, it makes it harder to dodge.
Unlike what one might think, players should not devote a skill point to Great Cleave in their first couple of levels. This is because the cleave from this spell would push the lane much faster, making the last hit quite hard. Committing levels around level 6 is optimal as it also gives one’s supports enough time to stack camps for Sven.
Adding on to Great Cleave, later in the game, constantly pressuring the lanes is then an infinitely simpler task. This plays a huge part in getting map control and eliminating what areas of the map enemies can play in. Moreover, harassing in the lane and in fights becomes unexpectedly easy due to Sven’s incredible damage range.
Warcry is great at making Sven more mobile, which he lacks, while increasing his tankiness even more. It is very impactful to use it in the lane to chase down heroes and buff your creeps while pushing the lane. Lastly, applying Warcry before team fights is vital for supports who often get burst down by enemies due to low armor.
A farmed Sven can annihilate enemies in three to four hits when buffed with the extra damage from God’s Strength. As a result, Sven players should use it conservatively in the late game to make sure it is available in team fights. However, spamming it to farm stacks and push towers early on is the right way to Play Sven in Dota 2.
Item Build
The Laning stage requires Sven to start with a good amount of regeneration, including items like Tango and Healing Salves. In addition, he goes for two to three Iron Branches, both for stats and to build towards a Magic Wand. Quelling Blade is always a staple for Sven, who uses it to accelerate his farm and guarantee more last hits.
His first mid-game item is often Echo Sabre. Players with High MMR build this item more often because of its stats and damage. Equally important is the ability to attack twice in quick succession, which makes Sven terrifying. Finally, the enemy’s movement speed slow is also key in helping pile on the damage.
Probably regarded as the single most important item on Sven is the Black King Bar. This item provides him with spell immunity which is something he inherently lacks. Moreover, it terminates Sven’s biggest weakness: how easy it gets to kite him with disables. Magic Immunity and impenetrability to stun make him an unstoppable force who can run through enemies.
Built to supplement his low maneuverability around the battlefield, Blink Dagger makes it unbelievably easy to initiate fights. This item not only allows Sven to pick favorable engagements and also secures an escape but makes him farm efficiently. Above all, it grants him the freedom to gank enemies and burst them down whenever he wishes to.
Laning Stage and Gameplay
Reliant on items and levels, Sven is quite weak in the Laning stage and acts as such. This is why most players at high MMR play the lane under their tower to maximize their last hits. However, Sven clears camps quite fast, and thus supports should prioritize stacking camps heavily.
Playing passive is ideal at the initial stages of the game and one should distribute levels among his abilities appropriately. It is important to note that getting the ranged creep in lane is extremely crucial. Therefore Sven players should use their stun to keep securing the ranged creep if the enemy team is dominating Lane.
Unlike other carry heroes, Sven can leave lane early as a result of his talent to farm extremely well. He usually leaves lane around level 8 and heads straight to the jungle, not to make an appearance for a while. As the article covers above, using God’s Strength to clear stacks, preferably ancient stacks is the best use for it.
After the Laning stage, Sven gets his first power spike with the Echo Sabre, which works best to gank. Getting BKB is the second power spike, and at this point, fighting is compulsory. Using the BKB and Blink to jump the backlines to eliminate supports is usually what Sven is a master of. Man fighting the enemy carry is usually a bad decision and often left for the end.
Delivering excellent burst damage repeatedly while still being simple enough for new players to master. Sven really is one of the most stable and effective carries in Dota 2 right now. Minimal weaknesses with easy counters is just one reason he is so popular. Being this popular has also made it essential to know How to Play Sven in Dota 2.
