Well since I have the time I decided to write a certain informative/strategic guide to vasilij zacjev (formerly Kardel Sharpeye) a.k.a. the dwarven sniper. Vasilij zacjev is actually a legendary soviet sniper in the World War II, known for his marksman ship and "one-shot one-kill" sprees on german soldiers. He was celebrated a war hero and a martyr of sniperism. This will be lengthy as a blog post. It contains my opinion and in-depth analysis of sniper based on experience and theory. It may contain disagreeable elements and should be taken lightly; hopefully it is an enjoyable read.

Not to glorify dwarves or what but it is insinuated in many depictions that they are great fighters, second only to the savage trolls in terms of fighting capabilities in the realm of warcraft. They are expert blacksmiths when it comes to forging weapons (with reference to gimli's axe) thus it is not wise to doubt their ability in handling their own weapons.

Call him an old, booze-loving man carrying a double-barreled rifle if you would. Despite his piss-poor base stats and almost abysmal strength gain, coupled with low base damage, you might be put off at first when faced with the option of selecting this hero (poor creep stats, anyone?). But I have come to realise his vast, almost neglected potential in team fights as a carry hero. "Carry hero?" You may ask. Yes, he is a pure carry hero, not semi- nor support. He possesses unique skills which other agility carries easily envy. Unlike popular melee agility carries like anti-mage of phantom assassin which have to bare the odds and engage enemies upfront, sniper's ability to attack from range while continuously mini-stunning the enemy is what distinguishes him from the rest . His 2 passives alone allow him to be a persistent threat in the battlefield. Watch him dominate pesky supports hiding at the back of the enemy formation, breaking the ranks and forcing the enemy to look for the small, almost unnoticeable target shooting in the background, which probably went out of sight already. Impressive? Fret again, as he still possesses 2 castable spells which make him deadlier than ever. These will be touched on later.

Time to debunk certain myths and disspell your concerns with this hero:

1. Sniper is weak.
That is the first most flawed assertion ever to grace the name of the dwarven sniper. It is easy to associate fragility with weakness. The case of sniper, however, is not that simple. He has low HP due to that 'weak' strength gain, but he is able to: dish out large amounts of primary and secondary damage (headshot), cancel TPs, assassinate any target from 1/8th of the map away, take out huge chunks of enemy hp before they even realise they are being shot, only to die to a drawn bead 2500 units away. Most sniper users fall fast due to bad positioning, and all other acts of greediness or utter disregard of map awareness which leads to that. HP is not the issue. As quoted by zhikan: "Blame your inability. When you have overcome your inability then you have the right to blame others." With the right support and items, he becomes the ranged powerhouse.

2. Sniper is hard to farm with. This stems from the primary accusations that sniper is weak. People seem to forget that headshot has a good chance to cause bonus damage, which allows for decent farming with some prediction. It is in the same category as faceless void(and slardar, for that matter), which has a better passive due to real stuns and a huigher bonus damage(70 vs 50) which allows him to creep efficiently even without a quellin blade. But why rely on randomness when you have dual farming/harass skills such as shadow raze or riptide? Because you have additional range. This is the one skill that justifies the use of sniper and his ability to solo mid safely albeit effectively. Yes, prima facie, it is agreeable that sniper's low base damage mighty be the concern when creeping at lower levels, but once headshot is adequately levelled, farming becomes so much easier.

Stat overview. I will focus on stats specific to sniper- mainly agility and attack animation. Sniper has a decent agi growth of +2.9. Meaning that each level he gains 2.9% IAS (increased attack speed). The following assumes sniper has no items. Using the attack speed formula: attacks per second = (1+IAS in decimal)/BAT, given sniper's base attacking time of 1.7 and base agility of 21, he can fire ((1+0.21+0.029)/1.7)=0.7 attacks per second at level 2 without any items. Every 7 agility points increase armor by 1. Sniper gains 0.41 armor per level. Using the armor formula, damage reducton=((0.06 x armor)/(1+0.06 x armor))x100%, damage is reduced for sniper by 2.4% every level. It is hence self-explanatory why wraith bands, each providing +6 agility, are mandatory item choices. This applies to other agility-increasing items as well. Sniper's attack animation is 0.17/0.7 seconds. Attack animation consists of 2 values, damage point delay and damage backswing. Attack animation delay refers to the time before and after you land a hit on the target. To explain, if sniper is facing a ghoul(creep) at 800 range, when you execute the attack command he will only require 0.17 seconds to release his projectile, hit, and deal instant hero-type damage to the ghoul in the full duration. This is probably the fastest in teh game. Attack speed will then determine the delay between each attack if you are auto-attacking. Backswing is what hinders you from landing more attacks within a timeframe. It refers to the duration of the cosmetic effect to fully complete the attack. Sniper's backswing is what you see when he lifts up his rifle due to recoil after he shoots. Since sniper's backswing is 0.7 seconds, sniper will take a total of 0.87 seconds between each attack at 800 range if he is auto-attacking. That's almost 1 full second wasted! Orb-walking/animation cancelling refers to minimizing your backswing delay by clicking away once the projectile is released and immediately executing another command. Through orb-walking, you can effectively reduce your attack animation to 0.3-0.5seconds, at the same time moving closer to the enemy.

Item choices
Orb effect.
Sniper, in my opinion, should retain his basic attack animation. It is quick, efficient, and almost invisible. Refrain from purchasing noisy attack modifiers such as stygian or diffusal blade. Gifted with a weapon projectile speed of 3000 map units per second, at a maximum range of 800 sniper takes 0.2 seconds to land a hit, rendering his attack almost unnoticeable. That is efficiency. However, mjolnir is a viable end-game item choice because it does not interfere with his basic attack-it is a chance to proc (effect) item, just like mkb. Disclaimer: Mjolnir will not proc when static or true srike is on.

Magic wand.
This seemingly cheap item is invaluable for most caster heroes with a low base mana pool. However, my argument is that by the time spells are casted on you death is likely imminent as the enemy is well within range and sight of you, overcoming your greatest strength: range. Therefore that little bit of HP and Mana would not matter. That being said, sniper actually has quite a decent mana pool based on his intelligence growth of 2.6 alone. Also, sniper won't be using mana except for assassinate from levels 1-16. If you find yourself short of mana from this skill, then it just means you are not using assassinate efficiently. In the late game, assuming you have manta style, he has more than enough mana to cast a few shrapnels, assassinates and even TPs. A wraith band costs roughly the same amount, and is a better utilisation of the gold. The extra damage and attack speed gives you and edge in battle.

BKB.
I believe this is one of the least cost-efficient item especially so for sniper. Given his fragility, it is no wonder people are tempted to buy bkb to ward off spells. But BKB is not meant for sniper. To illustrate, imagine an ogre magi, one of the most potent supports, with a BKB. Can't get the mental picture? Sniper with take aim remains at the outskirts of the battlefield, able to shoot from a safe distance. It is the warcraft counterpart of starcraft's siege tank. Now try to imagine a sniper shooting from range, with avatar on, but no one would be casting their spells on you as you are not within standard (400-700 range) casting range. Unless they rush you (ember spirit, blink stunners etc.) from far. In the midst of battle, your team relies on you to provide consistent dps and ministuns to stop the chanelling spells such as enigma's black hole or witch doctor's death ward from far, and take out fleeing heroes with assassinate. Range is your greatest asset and bkb is somewhat counter-intuitive. Similar to the case of magic wand, bkb is replaceable by a slightly more expensive but cost-effective item: mkb. In essence sniper is great fire support, and he should not need to draw fire at all. He is a glass cannon. Sniper is purely hit-and-run, whilst bkb heroes like to stay in the heat of battle.

Manta style.
The standard item choice for most agility heroes. It provides decent move speed and attack speed from yasha, 26 bonus damage, and 10 stat bonus from ultimate orb. This is exactly what sniper needs. The movespeed nullifies the drawbacks of that 290 base speed. The HP is more of a bonus. The ability to split into 3 images is also invaluable as it gives you jukign capabilities and can dispell de-buffs such as track or amplify damage. Having 3 of yourself allows you to deal a whopping 1800% base damage to a single target. It is also the most reasonable upgrade from yasha apart from s and y. Manta style is also relatively cheap as the most expensive item is ultimate orb. I would choose manta over 'escape mechanisms' such as loathar's edge because I believe sniper does not have anything to run from (he is better off shooting a target than fleeing from it), and take aim is like a built-in loathar's edge - 'cloaks' attacks while headshot is a better substitute for the one-off 125 backstab damage. Furthermore movespeed and range gives sniper astounding mobility around the map.

Skills

Shrapnel
You would expect drwaves to use their munition to their advantage, making them explode into little pellets. This is the skill that allows you to keep enemies pseudo-bashed as headshot procs within the range of shrapnel. It doesn't hurt to have an additional 30% slow and 48 dps as well. However this should not be used as a farming skill. It must be used in conjuction with headshot to bombard the enemy in the aoe of shrapnel with an incessant volley of ministuns. Proper placement of shrapnel will allow 3-6 normal shots before a standard moving target moves out of the 'kill zone, effectively increasing your potential damage output, all this while firing from an impossibly distant location. If the enemy decides to stay in your 8 seconds of shrapnel barrage, then the last thing he will feel is a shot the head.

Take aim.
The pride of dwarven engineering. This skill screams one word: Range. It is not about deriving satisfaction from out-ranging towers, really. This is why sniper is able to kill from afar, literally. As aforementioned this allows you to harass and farm at the same time. Even in a 2v2 lane, the principle still applies and you will make melee heroes shy away from the merciless headshot they received while attempting to creep. In the middle lane this is even more devastating as you will almost always have the advantage and cover of higher ground, granting you pseudo-evasion. Take aim allows you to engage enemy heroes while providing safety in terms of effective mobility. Mobility because your maximum range is usually well beyond the casing range or area of effect of potentially disastrous spells sch as single-target or aoe stuns and slows, giving you the leeway to turn and run if need be. This is also the skill that allows you to orb-walk effeciently, as you are able to land a few extra hits that the normal hero (max range 600 with the exception of techies with 650) would not, bringing the enemy HP range closer to being assassinate fodder.

Headshot.
Headshot is called headshot for a reason, and with reference to counterstrike, it induces a critial hit which does more damage and momentarily causes severe trauma to the vision of the enemy, inducing a pseudo-stun. Sniper is so accurate that 40% of his hits are headshots, dealing 50 bonus damage and ministunning for 0.2 seconds at max level. I cannot stress enough the importance of headshot in all sniper builds. Even hybrid build variants such as shrapnel/take aim have at least 1 level of headshot just for the ministun. This skill justifies the usage of sniper. Watch enemy heroes wince as they attempt to attack you or your allies only to have their attack animation cancelled for them by headshot. And when they have to flee they realise even their turning animation is delayed by the violent onslaught of headshot ministuns. Heroes with spell casting time of more than 1 second (or 0.1 second if luck favors you for that matter) will find themselves unable to complete the action at all. Not to mention the damage is reasonable. Think of SF's requiem of bounty hunter's shuriken toss being continuously cancelled/delay. An apt example to demonstrate further the power of ministuns is how clockwerk goblin with battery assault on can stop a trapped earthshaker from casting fissure/echo until the skill duration is over. It is akin to disabling the enemy. That is how powerful headshot is. Not to mention a bulk of sniper's dps comes from it. And it is a built-in counter to linkens. But these are ideal conditions possible only with good team support and positioning. MKB itself wll only prolong the agony these heroes face. If sniperwas made with only headshot, he would still be usable.

Assasinate. The ultimate is usually the most impressive move of a hero. In this case, sniper's ultimate is not visually spectacular, yet particularly destructive. Many people miscontrue assassinate as a KS skill. However it is most effectively as a finishing move or a long-range nuke to assist in 1v1 situations from afar (It comes with ministun :D ) Its uses are aplenty. Most popuarly known as the skill that wreaks havoc on escaping invisible heroes, assassinate when maxed gives you possession of a 10 second cooldown, 655 damage, 3500 range nuke costing the same mana required to activate a refresher orb. This is what I call mana-efficient skill. Where else would you find a partially-spammable skill castable at a notorious range? The projectile itself travels at an overwhelming speed, negating vain efforts to regenerate one's hitpoints to survive the attack. If only the spell's damage type were to be purely physical, then sniper would not fear losing kills from heroes with innate magic immunity or bkb. But then again armor would be an issue. I usually physicall check the enemy heroes have around 250, 350 and 450 HP for levels 1-3 of assassinate respectively before I can ensure a kill. This is to factor for natural regeneration, magical resistance, and the time it takes to "draw a bead". The potential range of assassinate though has its drawbacks as you may not receive exp if you are not within the 1000 aoe of the dead hero. Assassinate also has a disruptive effect even on BKB-ed heroes.

Monkey King bar.
There is never a miss with a marksman like Kardel Sharpeye, and MKB validates that claim. The reason why sniper why sniper buys MKB at all is to complement headshot. Yes they stack. Sorta. Now you ahve 2 releated events of causing ministuns, both with different chances. Since hero passive abilities take precedence over item abilities, the chance of MKB's 35% chacne of ministunning is calculated in the event of headshot not occuring. Headshot has a 40% proc rate. Hence the total chance of mini-stunning is (1-0.4)(35)+40=61% of causing a mini-stun. In terms of the game engine, this is a very high chance indeed. MKB and headshot are a pair forged in heaven. It is like PA with burize procing multiple crits at one go. There is a catch though, true strike is not compatible with mjolnir. You'll have to manually turn it off. MKB's additional damage of +85 is further augmented by a chance to deal +100 damage, giving a total output of .35 x 100 + 84 = 120 average damage. Not to mention mkb is the one true counter to evasion-based carries. Sniper with mkb becomes a badass dps machine.

Skill order (original headshot single-type variant):

1 headshot 2 take aim 3 headshot 4 take aim 5-7 headshot 6 assassinate 8-16 max take aim, stats and learn the last 2 levels of ultimate. From 17 on, there is a choice. You can choose to add either 1 level of shrapnel then continue to max stats, or max shrapnel straight away. Both have its uses. You can even learn shrapnel at lvl 12 if you find you need it. But stats would play out in the long run because all the little bonuses add up. That extra HP, mana, AS, armor, damage and regeneration are quintessential for sniper's dps performance. Headshot and take aim are the obvious passives to add whenever available. I do not recommend shrapnel/take aim hybrids even in dual lanes because it is mana-intensive and unreliable because of the short AOE of shrapnel. ALso 1 level of headshot means your main dps comes from shrapnel. This variant uses eul/rob and guinsoo and is more for quick push teams.

Item build order and progression (recommended):

Wraith band + 1 flask (solo lane) 2 slippers, 2 branches, tango and flask (dual lane)

Early game: Complete at least 2 wraith bands, and make power treads. [10-14 min] Switch to strength on the defensive. This is important as you will ahve around 910 hp at level 8 and you are able to survive single nukes and certain chain spells with relative ease. Remember, range is on your side.

Choice. You may choose to add a wraith band for additional damage and HP, or leave the item slot for utility items such as flask, scroll of TP or even dust if there are pesky invisible heroes on the opponent team. You will also have 2 item slots available for item progression. Flasks are actually a decent item choice as it provides lane-staying power, allowing you to heal up from unavoidable spamming spells while farming at a safe range of 800. Every flask has a higher potential turnover than the 100 gold it costs.

Mid-game:
Compelte yasha [aim for 23 min] and then farm for ultiamte orb. Yasha is teh cheapest source of agility. Hopefully manta style is compelted by 30 minutes. At this point, manta style will be the most important item for farming the ancient creeps on your side. Use images to tank and you can probably handle about 1.5-2 waves max. However pulling is not recommended until you have demon edge. Manta style, movespeed and range are the key factors of survivability at this stage.

Late game:
With ancient stack, farming demon edge and subsequently the 2 javelins to compelte MKB will probably be a breeze. By 42 minutes you should have these 2 core items by now. Butterfly is the next best choice as it provides value for money. 60 AS and 60 damage in 1 item is nothing to shrug at, especially if you have a high chance (61% in theory is equivalent to 85% on game engines) of dealing 150 bonus damage. And don't get me started on evasion. At this juncture I would like to point out that there are 2 possible core builds: manta mkb or manta butterfly. Manta butterfly mixes survivability with attack speed and gives you pushing power; manta mkb oozes coolness with that headshot-like secondary effect. IO usually prefer the latter. Either way, the ideal end-stage consists of all 3 items.

Luxury items:
Mjolnir, cuirass, burize, linken's. Lifesteal is usually not a necessity because you don't steal life from that abundant secondary source of damage. However for longer games lifesteal is optional, as satanic has its usefulness. Linken is for negating that disable that catches you off-guard. From the stage whereby your 3 core items are completed, furtheritems are up to choice. But more attack speed is generally welcome because you want that chain mini-stun. Guinsoo is also optional.

General strategy.
1) Laning
Sniper should be either in mid or a safe lane, preferably top for scourge or bottom for sentinel. The only exception is when you have 2 melee opponents (unlikely) then you can take the adjacent side lane. The side lane increases the odds of survival because take aim allowws you to shoot from a safe, unharassable distance while surrounding trees provide fog of war cover. Sniper can also solo mid effectively because he will almost always have the uphill advantage due to take aim. Attacking from downhill makes you susceptible to TP ganks. It is important not to auto attack as this will push the creeps away from your uphill advantage. Only get the last-hits. Last-hitting, therefore, is essentially a virtue by name. However, due to his super=fast, almost instant attack animation, it is sometimes hard to last-hit. This is a double-edged sword as it allows sniper to practically deny faster than any other hero. Practice is key here. Sniper usually does not need runes, unless he has vision of the runes and can go for them safely. Double-damage or regeneration are the only runes you should be aiming for early on. Headshot comes into play when creeping and harassing. It impairs your opponent's creeping ability by delaying his attack animation. Take aim was made for harassing. At max level, it allows you to land headshots on the opponent hero without drawing the attention of creeps as long as you are out of their 550 range of engagement. This gives you about 250 range to play with. One particular case is SF. To deal with SF, a popular mid solo, you ahve to harass him enough from level 1-2 until he backs up to heal. He would not be using raze to farm or harass since its only 74 damage. If played correctly you can be level 3 before him, and the extra level of headshot will out-damage him and prevent him from capping out necromastery. If he so decides to up raze first, you have enough range to dodge or at least stay out of Z and X razes. By level 6 you would have used the flask if you've been harassing enough, taking creep damage and occasionally raze damage. Now you can assassinate nuke SF, or nab a kill. SF would have gotten his bottle so play safe from this stage. Treads, wraiths and flasks matter a lot at this laning stage. Headshot will allow you to dominate SF without a bottle or boots, essentially easing the laning phase. Sniper appreciates chick support.

2) Ganking
Sniper can gank effectively with assassinate . When headshot is maxed and take aim is sufficiently levelled (levelled 8 to 9) sniper can participate in a few 3v1 or 3v2 ganks. Use assassinate to net kills or from the trees without giving away his position that fast (get those extra hits in!). But do not stop farming for yasha after ganking. Sniper cannot push yet but if you can you will gain some much-needed extra gold/ With yasha up you can orb-walk with ease, thus ganking or even solo-killing becomes much more effective. Yasha gives you the mobility pre-mentioned to hit-and-run, be it creeps or heroes.

3) Late-game.
Use manta to farm up ancients and continue to provide fire-support whenever needed. Encourage your team to engage so you can shoot from the sides. Always use your range to its fullest potential. This can mean attacking from impossible angles, assassinating from impossible angles, assassinating from hidden locations or harassing heroes without their knowledge. With mkb, you become an almost unstaoppable dps force to any enemy within range. Continuous headshots and mkb-ministuns create pseudo-slowing, which when coupled with manta's additionally movespeed makes you a deadly, long-range assassin. In teamfights focus-fire on the nearest engager that is not the main tank, until the supports appear in range. Quickly take out the supports if you can then finish off the tank-carry or support-engager. Another way would be to come in at the back entry points of an engage, taking out the supports with devastating stuns, channeling spells, aoe or disables. Leave pesky carries such as weaver to the last. The last way requires some prediction. And it is to use yourself as the bait. When the engage is imminent pop manta and proceed to take out the nearest target. Rely on your teammates for support. Stealth is your greatest asset. Position yourself at strategic vantage points i.e. the corners of the battlefield where you can still attack safely. Otherwise just follow the general principle of hi-and-run. If there is no need to run, then just hit. Hit everything in sight. I'm pretty certain with mkb manta and maybe an eaglehorn it takes less than 6 seconds to take out most fragile supports, and even carries are not spared more than 10 seconds.

Counters and other notes.
Sure, sniper is fragile. With 4 offensive skills, you might wonder they botheres making a hero with no escape mechanisms (alleria's windrun) or tanking capabilities (medusa's mana shield). Well guinsoo (yep not icefrog) decided to introduce challenging heroes such as sniper, and I respect him for that.

Hard-core hero-killers are sniper's no. 1 bane. Spirit breaker, atropos, naix and lina are some of the names that come to mind. Most of them have single-target skills which sap sniper's hap pretty fast. Most of these 'problems' can be fixed with manta, team support and a tinge of map awareness. With manta and strength treads sniper can reach 1.9k hp, a fair amount to survive in the standard fast-paced metagame. Even with all his strengths, sniper will eventually lose to super-carries in the late stage in 1v1 situations, most noticeable faceless void, phantom assassin and to a certain extent dragon knight. Either you end the game before they have their full set of items, which will trounce yours most of the time, or they will be the ones hammering you. Sniper is a decent 'counter' to SF, silencer and generally heroes with channeling spells. It is a good choice to pick him when you have reliable tanks or supports on your team.

I hope with these points sniper can be redeemed from your books as a reliable agility carry, not out shined by the more popular agility carries which possess more spectacular skills and "oomph" factor leading to their rise to fame. This is not the only way to play him, just one of them. Then again this is merely light-hearted discussion of sniper, and should be taken with a pinch of salt. Efficiency, simplicity and marksmanship and the trademarks of sniper, and his is the master of his trade. 'Kardel Sharpeye' is a true testament to his name and race. Give sniper the recognition he deserves as one of the best underrated agility heroes out there.

i'll alight at your heart
11:13 PM