Sven

Sven the Rogue Knight is a melee strength Hero with high physical damage potential and an effective disable. He can fulfill various roles, but is mostly played as a support or a semi-carry due to his high utility even without items. He also has great gank potential due to his shouts that grant buffs and his stun which cannot be dodged. With enough items, Sven has the potential to be a strong late-game carry due to his ultimate which increases his damage and his passive which allows him to hit multiple targets at once. He is a formidable foe and his versatility makes the Rogue Knight a great asset to any team.

Tips

 * Early on Sven has very low mana, so building mana boosting items may be a good idea.
 * Drum of Endurance is a great item as it meshes well with Sven's role and play style.
 * Take Stats over the two other skills instead if you want more Mana, Attack Speed and Strength to increase the bonus of God's Strength early on and to help sustain your mana for using skills.
 * If you prefer the Initiator Type, get a Blink Dagger. Blink to your target and stun them with your Storm Hammer, make sure you activate God's Strength immediately or beforehand, which is more preferable as you can save more time on the casting animation and transformation time.
 * Avoid leveling Great Cleave early on, as it will greatly push the lane towards the enemy tower making farming more difficult.
 * Warcry gives all of the bonus movement speed with just a single rank, so leveling stats is usually a better idea than putting more points into Warcry.
 * If you want to build Sven as a hard carry and believe in the efficiency of your team to protect you, it may be possible to skip Black King Bar to buy more damaging items.
 * Battle Fury, although unmentioned, can be very useful if making a carry Sven. It gives good damage and HP/Mana regen and, if you have maxed great cleave, gives you a perfect 100% cleave. If coupled with Daedalus, can make Sven a true monstrosity in the battlefield, delivering a rampage with just a few strikes.

Trivia

 * Sven's name is a reference to Sven-Ole Thorsen, a Danish bodybuilder and actor.
 * In an earlier version of DotA, Sven had a fun name called Arnold Schwarzenegger.
 * The phrases "Twas only a flesh wound" and "It was but a scratch" are references to the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.