Sven/Guide

Carry

 * Sven is usually played as a carry. His Great Cleave 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.

Ganker

 * Buy and max out Storm Hammer to gank.

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 radius to catch several enemies at once.
 * 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.
 * Storm Hammer will also apply a basic dispel when is purchased. This is effective against heroes with powerful positive buffs such as  or.
 * When Sven purchases, this ability also becomes a gap closer, which allows him to avoid being kited and also reaching mobile enemies who can easily escape after the stun duration ends, if not upgraded.


 * 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.


 * While Warcry should always be used before an engagement, its extra speed and armor bonus can also be used to disengage from a losing fight.
 * Warcry's armor buff allows Sven to skip sometimes for more aggressive items like.
 * 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.
 * Use God's Strength to clear stacked ancient creeps.
 * Use God's Strength to take down a tower or barracks and gain 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 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.
 * give bonuses in attack speed and strength; he can switch to intelligence for more mana to use abilities.
 * 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.
 * is a good alternative to the . It also acts as a reliable gap closer, allowing Sven to jump and kill enemy backliners that he could not do otherwise. The stats bonus also provide Sven everything he needs, albeit in a small amount.
 * can be potentially useful to fight some heroes with powerful self-bulf, such as or item that can nullify Sven's massive physical damage output, like . The cooldown reduction on  also allows Sven to stun enemies several times during teamfight.

Late game:
 * is a must for Sven, as it gives the critical chance that allows him to destroy enemies in just a few hits, becoming even stronger while his ultimate is activated.
 * 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. Paired with, Echo Sabre gives Sven twice the chance to crit and to kill an fragile enemy in two or three hits.
 * 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. Crucially, it also grants Sven a basic dispel on himself on a brief 25 second cooldown, allowing him to dispel most slows and roots, making him much harder to kite.
 * , an upgrade for Echo Sabre provides reliable attack speed and damage, 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 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.
 * is a highly situational, and expensive, but potentially very powerful item pick up for Sven. It provides several bonuses that would be useful to Sven such as a huge amount of Intelligence and mana regen, which can be extra handy against teams with mana burn, as well as extra passive damage. Most crucially, Bloodthorn can be extremely potent due to the fact that it provides Sven a whopping 90 attack speed, more than Assault Cuirass or consumed Moon Shards, and provides Sven with a powerful silence that also makes all of his attacks hit 1.3 times harder, upping his already strong damage very heavily while also giving his team further utility against slippery heroes. Additionally, the crit from Bloodthorn's active does not interfere with Daedalus' more powerful crit, while the latter's large damage output synergizes well with Bloodthorn's attack speed bonus. Additionally, while expensive, it is composed of several small items that are very easy for Sven to farm.

Sven/Guia Sven/Руководство 斯温/攻略