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Master Sven in Dota 2 with our build guide
The melee hero can be tricky to play, but with our handy guide you’ll soon be smashing through your foes with the Rogue Knight.
With over 100 heroes, there’s plenty of choice for you to make in Dota 2 – but you also might not know where to start. Sven, the Rogue Knight, is a great choice to pick, and is often billed as a great starter hero as he’s an incredibly versatile offensive force in the right hands, yet mastering him can be tricky. Whether you’re new to Dota or a veteran looking for a new way to hone your blade, we’ve run through Sven, his moves, skills and strengths – join us in our latest build guide.
Storm Hammer
Storm Hammer is a great asset
© Valve
Storm Hammer, Sven’s Q, offers him that little bit of early-kill potential, and in the late game allows – with the use of Blink Dagger – a chance for the hero to catch enemies off guard and cleave them to shreds. In the early game, it’s vital to grab a point in the area-of-effect stun to provide protection from aggressive enemies and, equally, the chance for early kills in combination with supports with adequate crowd control.
The stun duration doesn’t scale overly well through a game, only rising from 1.7s to 2.0s but the damage does ramp up considerably. Given Sven’s early-game mana problems, it’s unlikely that Storm Hammer will be spammable, so while an early point is definitely needed – it’s not recommended to max the spell. In the late game, using Storm Hammer to catch enemies off guard from the shadows in combination with other spells often offers ample pick-off opportunity as not many heroes can deal with Sven’s initial damage burst.
Great Cleave
This is the bread and butter that allows Sven to be one of the fastest farming cores in the game. While heroes such as Anti-Mage require items like Battlefury to be able to farm rapidly, Sven’s 66 percent cleave damage at level four allows swift farming in combination with lifesteal. With a hero like Magnus or Enigma, who have ultimate abilities such as Reverse Polarity or Black Hole which group heroes together, Sven will chomp through heroes at will.
Generally, it’s the first skill to be maxed out by players to facilitate quick farming and allow Sven to reach a peak quicker than most other cores. The only issue is it inherently pushes the lane, allowing an enemy offlaner to receive a whole lot of experience and last hits under the tower. If the supports are playing properly and pulling sufficiently though, it can be mitigated sufficiently. Additionally, Great Cleave allows Sven to dip between lane and jungle camps to maximise efficiency.
Warcry
Sven's Warcry boosts his allies
© Valve
This low mana spell provides 5/10/15/20 armour and 12 percent constant speed to Sven and allies in a 900 radius, which is invaluable. The armour is significant and allows Sven to battle confidently against most right-click heroes. It also offers a hint of extra mobility that strength cores often lack and makes farming jungle camps significantly easier. Make sure this is always used before and during battle, as at maximum level there’s only 12 seconds of downtime on the Warcry buff.
God’s Strength
God's Strength makes Sven even more powerful
© Valve
God’s Strength, like the name implies, is what supercharges Sven and makes him a truly scary prospect at any stage of the game. For 25 seconds, Sven gains 80/120/160 percent extra damage and 10/20/30 extra strength. The spell has an 80s cooldown at all levels, so make sure it’s used when focusing a key target in a fight. In the early game, don’t be afraid to pop God’s Strength to farm a large stack of ancient creeps as the HP boost and huge damage bump from the additional strength makes it much easier. This spell allows Sven to turn from a hard-hitter to a hero that can decimate even the most farmed of heroes in a matter of just one or two hits. It’s important to try and play around the cooldown, as the power spike can't be overstated.
Talents
Level 10: +2 Mana regen / +8 Strength
Level 15: Storm Hammer dispels enemies / +30 Movement speed
Level 20: -5s Storm Hammer cooldown / 25 percent Lifesteal
Level 25: +0.75s Storm Hammer stun duration / +40 Strength in God’s Strength
What does this all mean? What talents should I pick?
Level 10: Here we would recommend, in most cases, the +8 strength. Sven is a hero that admittedly struggles for mana, but given the core item build you’re likely to go with contains an Echo Sabre and a Magic Wand in the early game, those items should provide enough sustain. Failing that, hopefully the supports are purchasing Arcane Boots to keep Sven topped up. The +8 strength isn’t huge, but overall it seems a wiser choice than the regeneration. Given that Sven doesn’t necessarily outlay a lot of mana when farming, it’s just not that necessary. Against a team where the game revolves around constant fighting, the regeneration might come in handy, but even then, so too does the strength. Additionally, the gain in base damage from the talent counts towards the multiplier for God’s Strength.
Level 15: Sven is already fairly nippy with the likes of Warcry, Sange and Yasha, and Mask of Madness but at the same time often struggles with getting kited. 30 movement speed is a substantial amount and coupled with Warcry’s bonus it can come in very handy. Where the dispel comes in useful is when supports have Ghost Scepters, which prevents the hero using it from taking physical damage. It can be dispelled, and Storm Hammer is one of the few things that can do it at level 15. Should there be a situation where it’s becoming increasingly difficult to focus on supports due to the pesky Scepter, then the dispel can prove extremely useful. A massive 63 percent of people currently pick up the speed, but keep an eye on the enemy heroes and pick up the dispel when and where necessary.
Level 20: Over 75 percent of Sven players in public games pick the lifesteal talent over the reduced cooldown and it’s fairly easy to see why. Put simply, there are very few cases where the lifesteal is not good. Given the fact that lifesteal stacks (diminishingly, but it does), there’s no reason why it’s not a positive thing. Sven players will tend to hit very hard by level 20, and with God’s Strength at its maximum level, whole chunks of health will be healed per hit. Given that Sven tends to avoid building stat-based items and goes for the likes of Blink Dagger, Black King Bar and pure damage, his mana pool tends to remain fairly limited throughout. Add to that, his peak is when God’s Strength is up and BKB is active and Sven just wants to be hitting enemies. If your team is lacking severely in lockdown, then the reduced cooldown may be worth your while, but otherwise the lifesteal is preferable.
Level 25: The God’s Strength talent is just insane. 40 strength is the same amount as Heart of Tarrasque provides – and that item costs 5,200 gold. By grabbing that talent, God’s Strength will provide a whopping 70 extra strength to Sven for the 25s that it’s active. 70 strength is no laughing matter and will make the hero near enough unkillable. Oh, and he won’t half hit hard too. +0.75s stun duration is picked by about eight percent of people and we have no idea why. Unless you’ve also taken the reduced cooldown talent and for some reason are playing support Sven, it’s wholly inferior.
Sven can be versatile in the right hands
© Valve
What about items?
Starting build: Sven’s starting items will ultimately come down to the predicted lane match-up. Generally though, a Stout Shield, Enchanted Mango, Tangoes and Healing Salve is not a bad mixture to saunter to lane with. The Stout Shield is vital, and it may be worth picking up two stacks of Tangos should you believe the lane to be particularly annoying to sustain in.
From there, Sven’s first item should be either a Quelling Blade or a Magic Stick. If the lane is filled with utterly horrible heroes like Undying and Bristleback who constantly pump out spells, a Magic Stick is genuinely the best possible item to have. It mitigates largely what both heroes are trying to achieve by spamming low cooldown, no mana spells. A Quelling Blade is always handy to assist with last hitting and accelerate farm once Sven heads into the jungle. Afterwards, grab Boots of Speed and either build Power Treads or head for brown boots, Morbid Mask to allow jungling early on. Once Power Treads and Mask of Madness are built, Sven’s all set to farm extremely quickly across both the lane and jungle.
Transitioning: With Mask of Madness and Power Treads online, Sven is more than a match for most heroes at the early stage of the game. With level six online and God’s Strength at the hero’s disposal, attempting to find a kill is not a bad thing. Make sure to remember when using Mask of Madness that the item will silence you. If you’re going to jump on an enemy, make sure you’ve cast God’s Strength, Warcry and Storm Hammer before you take the leap.
The next decision is ‘to blink or not to blink?’ If the game is playing slowly and you believe the opposition team has a better late game, grab a Blink Dagger as soon as possible. It will allow you to jump and initiate on the enemy heroes and begin to dictate the pace when you’re strong. If the enemy are more of a scary prospect early game, but your team will win when you move later into the spectacle, then an Echo Sabre may be the better shout. Again, it will accelerate farm and give a nifty extra hit and slow when jumping onto foes.
Mid-to-late game decision making: The wonder of Sven is that there are several different ways one can build the hero. It’s worth almost always remembering that Sven’s advantage comes from peaking quicker than similar cores and thus his itemisation tends to also veer that way. There’s rarely a moment where Black King Bar isn’t needed on Sven. The hero’s main issue is that he can be kited by ranged heroes with stuns or slows, and the only way to counter that is Black King Bar. The later you can get away with purchasing one, the better. A fresh 10s Black King Bar late game can make the hero impossible to handle.
For damage purposes, a Daedalus or Bloodthorn is never a poor choice. Bloodthorn will offer more single-target burst, but can be dispelled by Manta Style or Black King Bar entirely. Daedalus will offer a more steady stream of damage, and should you land a couple of crits in a row with God’s Strength there won’t be much of a hero left on the receiving end. Other options include the likes of Monkey King Bar, which will provide help in knocking through that pesky evasion that heroes like Phantom Assassin love to frustrate with.
Assess each game on its individual merits and itemise accordingly. Make sure you communicate with team-mates to help prevent being kited. A team-mate with a Lotus Orb or Linkens to help you out can give the slightest of boosts to allow you to reach the opponents. Remember, if Sven gets to an opponent and can keep them there, they will disappear into dust.
Sven in his Fiend Cleaver set
© Valve
When should Sven be picked?
If an enemy is daft enough to pick Meepo early in the draft, do the world a favour and pick Sven. The Meepo player will likely be incandescent with rage, but that’s not to stop the sweet satisfaction when one cleaved attack removes an army of annoying pests. Other heroes that Sven inherently excels against are Chaos Knight, Phantom Lancer and Broodmother as they all have extra units or illusions.
Additionally, the hero stands up well against most melee agility cores. Juggernaut, Anti-Mage and Lycan all tend to melt should Sven manage to jump them. If Sven has used all of his spells, an Anti-Mage will melt when trying to go toe-to-toe with the hero. There are really no melee heroes that can trade blows with a Sven amped with God’s Strength.
When to avoid grabbing Sven?
As with all melee cores, the hero’s problem is being kited in teamfights. Heroes like Nature’s Prophet, who can lock you in a Sprout with no escape for multiple seconds, are always a pain and then there’s the likes of Venomancer who has an array of slows which, without BKB, make it impossible to get onto enemies. While we’ve mentioned Sven can fight anyone heads up, if the hero can’t get to the enemy, he’s pretty much useless.
Watch out for Medusa too, given the fact that Stone Gaze is the ultimate counter ability to everything Sven wants to do, it’s probably not wise to pick Sven into a Medusa.
As with everything, though, Dota is a five-vs-five team game and there are hundreds of little dynamics that can affect the ebb and flow. There will definitely be times where Sven is a game-winning pick, but few where it straight up loses the game. If you pick Sven and itemise appropriately, there’s every chance you’ll come out on top.
