Sven/Guide

Carry
Sven is usually played as a carry. His Great Cleave works like a built-in, and allows him to kill waves of creeps in no time. While his Storm Hammer 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 God's Strength 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 Storm Hammer. 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.
 * With enough mana regeneration, it's possible for Sven to be run as a roamer and help land kills with Storm Hammer. Though this limits Sven's early farm significantly, it is possible to catch up in farm and transition into full core with neutral creep stacks and Great Cleave. Consider this strategy if your team has an overabundance of cores, as most heroes are incapable of catching up in farm as easily as Sven can, so denying your other cores of farm could be significantly more detrimental to your team than denying Sven's farm.


 * Storm Hammer is one of the best stuns in the game, with a large AoE radius to catch several enemies at once.
 * Each point in Storm Hammer increases the ability's damage by 75 points of damage. It may be more efficient to spend your skill points into other abilities first if you are not in need of the damage increase early in the game.
 * Storm Hammer should be used judiciously, as Sven has very low natural mana.
 * 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.


 * 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.
 * With enough points in Great Cleave, stacking neutral camps is a viable farming strategy for Sven, as he can clear them fairly easily with most of his skills and gain a gold advantage.
 * Great Cleave grants Sven a surprisingly long reach for a melee hero. It is possible for you to indirectly harass your opponents through the splash damage.
 * Take note that the splash damage from Great Cleave is not reduced by armor values. As such, try to target enemies with low armor as it will greatly increase the damage taken by any surrounding opponents.


 * 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's armor 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's buff is dispellable, so beware of enemy dispels 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.
 * Coupled with any item source of lifesteal, hits while God's Strength is active can replenish Sven's health very quickly.
 * Be aware of your opponents' movement speed and abilities when activating God's Strength, as most heroes will attempt to kite Sven during the buff.

Items
Starting items:
 * gives Sven attributes, and additional regeneration when combined with.
 * supplies early health regeneration to survive the laning stage.
 * gives health restoration as well.
 * helps Sven deal with harassment in lane with damage block.
 * helps Sven stay in lane, and allows for an additional Storm Hammer in a pinch.

Early game:
 * helps Sven last hit more efficiently in early game.
 * is needed on all heroes.
 * provides burst health and mana, useful to keep Sven alive and using abilities.

Mid game:
 * 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.
 * compensates for Sven's low attack and move speed and allows to farm faster.
 * 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 the most important core item for Sven. It is his only defense against disables, and provides a good boost to damage and strength.

Late game:
 * 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.
 * can be considered in the late game, as the negative armor debuff, attack speed and massive armor gain allow for Sven to truly become a tank.

Situational items:
 * 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.
 * essentially acts as a crit, allowing Sven's burst to increase significantly for a cheap price. With, Echo Sabre gives Sven twice the chance to crit.
 * enables 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.
 * is a natural pickup in late game.
 * is often necessary to counter heroes who purchase evasion items against Sven.
 * provides Sven with a good amount of survivability and damage. The active synergizes well with Sven's high damage, ensuring that he will be able to get back into full health in just a few hits.
 * can be an alternative to Blink Dagger, and its break helps Sven against passive defenses.
 * is an easy item to build if Sven is struggling to build up gold. Its extra movement speed and slow makes it harder for enemies to kite Sven.
 * grants a huge boost in attack speed. It is a powerful luxury item that ensures Sven's continued dominance in a winning game.
 * not only provides Sven with much better survivability, it also gives a lot strength bonus, which greatly increases the damage from God's Strength.

Sven/Руководство 斯温/攻略