Sven/Guide

Carry
Sven is usually played as a carry. His works like a built-in, and allows him to kill waves of creeps in no time. While his can make for some early ganks, Sven should spend most his time farming. The goal is to obtain a, then a crit item like , which multiplies the damage from his to deliver his crushing blows.

Support
Sven is occasionally played as an early support. Using this build, his role is to buy a, then jump in to initiate with. As the game progresses, Sven can transition into a carry. Although transitioning a dedicated support into a carry is not often ideal and difficult to execute, this can give your team an edge in long games.

General

 * Ranged heroes can easily harass Sven in lane. Make sure he is paired with a support hero.
 * Sven is very easy to shut down with good crowd control. Therefore, Sven players need to know exactly when to use their, and when to conserve the charge.
 * Sven is one of few heroes that can spend a level point in without losing much utility early on.


 * Storm Hammer is one of the best stuns in the game, with a large AoE radius to catch several enemies at once.
 * Storm Hammer should be used judiciously, as Sven has very low natural mana.
 * Some players may choose to leave Storm Hammer at level one for more attribute points.
 * Storm Hammer has a very bright and visible effect, and can be disjointed.
 * Despite its cast range, it may be useful to conserve Storm Hammer until Sven is relatively close or uses . This ensures that enemies do not spread apart during the projectile's travel time, and maximizes Sven's time to land hits on the target.


 * Since Great Cleave pushes the creep wave, it is wise to not leveling the points until you start jungling.
 * Sometimes it may be wise to avoid leveling Great Cleave early on, as it will greatly push the lane towards the enemy tower, thus making farming more difficult.
 * Later in the game, points in Great Cleave is what will allow Sven to farm quickly.
 * Try to ask your supports to or let your creep stack neutrals, especially Ancients. Sven can clear them fairly easily with most of his skills and gain a gold advantage.


 * While Warcry should always be used before an engagement, its extra speed and armor can also be used to disengage from a losing fight.
 * Warcry gives armor which Sven needs, allows Sven to skip sometimes for more aggressive items like.
 * A high level warcry allows Sven and his allies to tank physical damage abilities such as and.
 * Warcry buff is purgeable, so beware of enemy purge skills and.


 * God's Strength is the ability that lets a farmed Sven kill heroes in two or three hits.
 * God's Strength lasts 25 seconds with only 80 seconds of cooldown, meaning that it can be used outside of teamfights.
 * Stacked Ancient creeps are ideal to use God's Strength on.
 * Use it to quickly take down a tower or barracks and gain a map advantage.
 * Because of its long duration, don't hesitate to use it "too early" before a fight. Being jumped without God's Strength active is a huge waste of Sven's potential.
 * God's Strength benefit from items that increase Sven's strength like, not items that increase raw damage.
 * Critical Strike from still increases the damage a lot.
 * Despite a few hero that can manfight Sven in melee range, most heroes will likely kite Sven in God's Strength status. Sometimes building burst damage output in stun duration of Storm Hammer is better than building tankiness.
 * Coupled with any item source of lifesteal, hits while God's Strength is active can replenish Sven's health very quickly.

Items
Starting:
 * gives Sven much needed stats, also additional regeneration combined with.
 * s are needed for early health regeneration.
 * gives rapid health regeneration, at a higher cost.
 * helps Sven deal with harassment in lane.
 * gives burst mana replenish which allows for an additional Storm Hammer in a pinch.
 * can be picked up to help Sven last hit more efficiently.
 * potions can be useful due to Sven's small mana pool and large mana cost on Storm Hammer, and is more likely bought by a supportive Sven.

Early-game:
 * is a upgrade from and help Sven tank harassment in forms of attack.
 * increases Sven's moderate movement speed, allows him to attack a few more times while chasing and escape.
 * is a good choice when faced with heavy lane harassment in forms of skills.
 * is sometimes bought so that Sven can use Storm Hammer more frequently.

Core:
 * is a good choice to consolidate 's functionality and the minor attribute boosts when starting with es.
 * synergize well with Sven's build due to the bonuses in attack speed and its requirement of.
 * is the most important core item for Sven. It is his only defense against disables, and provides a good boost to Sven's strength and damage. However sometimes the item could be purchased later since it does not increase your farm speed.

Situational:
 * will enable Sven to quickly get into combat and survive teamfights. It can be bought if Sven's early game does not go well enough to afford bigger items.
 * compensates for his low attack and move speed. With lifesteal, Sven can recover his health with just a few hits on the enemy.
 * is a good early teamfight item as it provides overall growth in damage and attack speed as well as additional health and armor while active. Its active could be switched twice in quick succession in a pinch to gain additional health.
 * essentially acts as a crit, allowing Sven's burst to increase significantly for a cheap price. Additionally, this second attack works identically to his regular attacks, meaning, if used while possessing a, gives Sven twice the chance to crit.
 * is an alternative to Mask of Madness, providing more armor than speed, and also allowing Sven to dominate a creep and use them to stack camps with it, allowing him to farm quickly thanks to his cleave.
 * greatly improves Sven's mobility, allowing him to initiate teamfights as well as gank unsuspecting enemies, which can make a big difference in game outcomes.
 * is a worthwhile pick up for the mid game, especially because Sven can obtain it quickly - The attack speed, movement speed and added damage (partially added through strength) are all things Sven needs while the maim makes it harder for enemies to kite him.
 * is the attack damage item Sven needs, as it gives Sven the critical chance that allows him to destroy enemies in just a few hits.
 * provides less damage compared to . However, True Strike counters Evasion, and the Mini-bash part allows Sven to chase and manfight better.
 * grants a huge boost in attack speed. Though largely lacking in utility and thus exceeded in usefulness by several other choices, a Moon Shard is a powerful luxury item that ensures Sven's continued dominance in a winning game. As Moon Shard can be consumed to permanently add attack speed, it does not need to take up an useful item slot that most other lategame items do.
 * can be considered in the late game, as the negative armour debuff, attack speed and massive armor gain allows for Sven to truly become a tank.
 * not only provides Sven with much better survivability, it also gives a lot strength bonus, which greatly increases the damage from God's Strength.
 * is the natural evolution of and provides Sven with a good amount of strength on top of the stat bonuses from Helm. The active synergises well with Sven's large DPS, ensuring that he will be able to get back into full health should he be allowed to continue attacking.
 * gives Sven twice the time of, also double in quick succession. The biggest contribute it provides is the 10 second  in late game when Sven may be kited due to the Spell Immunity time loss. It also gives additional time for  to reactivate so that Sven can bring down towers after teamfight or reactivate after buyback. Beware of Sven's small mana pool since Refresh active costs a lot of mana.
 * , while providing very little natural damage by itself, does provide an additional form of lockdown, granting Sven a minimum of 4 seconds of lockdown coupled with (and without counting any additional bashes you get), which is more than enough to secure a kill on any enemy who doesn't have anyone to help them around. It also makes Sven much more difficult, if not near impossible to manfight as Sven's already overwhelming damage becomes all the more terrifying by the fact that he can outright stop an enemy from attacking through magic immunity. Finally, Sven is also one of the better users of this item in terms of damage due to the fact that it also provides strength, further increasing his damage during his ultimate. It also comes from, making him nearly impervious to damage from most jungle creeps and most summons, though this feature is largely useless to a hero like Sven.
 * is a natural pickup in late game.