Dwarven Sniper - The Kardel Sharpeye

Kardel Sharp Eye
Dwarven Sniper

16 + 1.7

21 + 2.9

15 + 2.6

Dwarven Sniper, one of the heroes that can also be said as underpowered, but that is half true, he is not underpowered, most players just lack the skill on playing this hero. In fact this hero is one of the strongest laner. But still i cannot deny the fact that most carries outcarried him. This guides aim is to show how to use dwarven effectively. If you used dwarven effectively i am sure you will dominate the game.

Pros and Cons

[+] 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

Shrapnel

_______.

Fires 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.

__	____.	________.	_______.	___.	_______.	__________________________.
	Mana	Cooldown	C. Range	AoE	Duration	Effects
1	120	15 sec	1200	325	8 sec	15% Slow / 10 DPS
2	120	15 sec	1200	325	8 sec	20% Slow / 20 DPS
3	120	15 sec	1200	325	8 sec	25% Slow / 30 DPS
4	120	15 sec	1200	325	8 sec	30% Slow / 40 DPS

Skill Notes:

• 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.

Headshot

_______.

A shot to the head deals bonus damage and stuns for a short duration.

__	____.	________.	_______.	___.	_______.	__________________________.
	Mana	Cooldown	C. Range	AoE	Duration	Effects
1	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	0.01 sec	25% chance to deal 30 damage and ministun
2	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	0.1 sec	30% chance to deal 30 damage and ministun
3	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	0.2 sec	35% chance to deal 40 damage and ministun
4	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	0.3 sec	40% chance to deal 50 damage and ministun

Skill Notes:

• 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 Aim

_______.

Kardel uses his dwarf engineering skills to make modifications to his rifle, enhancing the range of his rifle.

__	____.	________.	_______.	___.	_______.	__________________________.
	Mana	Cooldown	C. Range	AoE	Duration	Effects
1	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Attack Range +65
2	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Attack Range +130
3	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Attack Range +195
4	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Attack Range +260

Skill Notes:

• 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!

Assassinate

_______.

Take time to draw a bead, and then deal a large amount of damage to the target at a huge range.

__	____.	________.	_______.	___.	_______.	__________________________.
	Mana	Cooldown	C. Range	AoE	Duration	Effects
1	175	20 sec	1500	N/A	N/A	Deals 355 Damage
2	275	15 sec	2000	N/A	N/A	Deals 505 Damage
3	375	10 sec	2500	N/A	N/A	Deals 655 Damage

Skill Notes:

• 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 Usage: This is your only major nuke and it has quite a few purposes. It is primarily used for killing fleeing heroes, but it also has other purposes. It can cancel channeled spells, meaning TP's and spells like Freezing Field will be canceled when the target hero is hit with the launched projectile. Because of it's very short cooldown it can be used prior to battles, or just in the midst of battle, to deal a lot of damage to one hero, weakening him a lot, and allowing him to be finished off by allies or by Kardel himself. Since 6.68, Kardel gets the experience from out of range assassinate kills.

Skill Builds

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

Reasoning: Shrapnel helps with our lane control, farming, and pushing. So we try to max it as early as possible. Take Aim helps with our harassing and pushing ability, so take it early on as well. Headshot should be left for the mid game however it is possible to take one level of it early on the help with our last-hitting, as our damage is pretty bad early game. Take Assassinate whenever you can, and finish with 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

In general: Headshot when you can play agressive, Take Aim when you have to keep distance and farm because you can't kill anyone and your opponent(s) will try and can kill you easily.

Item Builds

Early Game

Side Lane

Proceed to your position. There you may finish your personal survivability booster codenamed "Magic Wand"

Mid Lane

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 speed

Luxury Equipment

An attached flashbang launcher. Disorients your enemies.
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.

Rejected Equipment

Why would a sniper need something that looks like a green excrement? Seriously, Assassinate is your finishing move, not your nuke. The cooldown is low anyway and your manapool small. Don't buy it.

Shrapnel will give the minions time to hit. And strength and intelligence is needed. So it is a good item? Not really. Shrapnel slows for a short time and you can hit invisible heroes with your ultimate anyway. It's better to get physical dps items and attack speed because they will make you (combined with Take Aim and Headshot) a hard carry.

This item is completely useless. It just takes a inventory slot. Firstly you aren't a ricer. Ricing would waste your pushing and ganking potential. If you want to farm, buy Orchid. The mana regeneration will let you spam Shrapnel, which results in many lasthits. And you push. And you can gank because of the Silence. And it gives you physical dps.

Lifesteal in general is not really bad, but not a good choice because you shouldn't play rambo anyway. Your health points are too low for this. Buy one of the orbs that are mentioned before.

This will help you spam Shrapnel and push but it doesn't give you physical dps. Go for Orchid instead.

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 and Strategies

AoE

The only special thing that you have to know about Shrapnel is the positioning of it and abusing it's AoE.

Farming

Instead of simply using the skill on the center of a creep wave, you can also harass you opponent with it. Look at this picture:

You will not just hit all the creeps, you will also hit heroes in an area behind them. Usually they don’t want to be damaged, so they will go out of the AoE and then they can’t last hit/deny the melee creeps easily.

Fleeing

It's obviously how to use Shrapnel to flee. Aim between you and the enemy hero. What is important here is to cancel the animation. Look here:

If I wouldn't have canceled the animation I would be dead.

And there Weaver pawned me. Using Shrapnel against heroes that can blink or move very fast isn't super effective, but sometimes it is worth a try.

Ganking

The most important thing here is not clicking directly on the enemy hero. That's as effective as aiming Elune's Arrow directly on a moving hero.

First look which way your gank target is going. Make sure that he is cornered by Shrapnel and your allies, so that he has to walk into it. I guess you know that already if you play Pudge/Mirana/Lina/Kunkka, etc. sometimes.