Sven is a strength hero that can be played as a safe lane carry. Here are the areas in which he excels:

• He can stun entire groups of enemy heroes for 2 seconds and deal up to 325 magical damage to them, using his Storm Hammer ability.
• He can deal up to 66% cleave damage with his basic attacks. This allows him to farm really fast and kill multiple enemy heroes in just a few hits.
• He can give himself and all nearby allies +20 armor for 8 seconds, using his Warcry ability.
• He can give himself +10/20/30 bonus strength and +80%/120%/160% bonus damage for 25 seconds, using his God’s Strength ability.

What Items to build on Sven

Sven’s item build should be centered around mobility, sustainability, durability and damage output. As a result, here are some of the most important items you should consider buying:

• Power Treads: they give you excellent stats and attack speed.
• Stout Shield: gives you decent protection in the early stages of the game.
• Quelling Blade: this will improve your last hitting and your farming speed after the laning phase.
• Magic Wand: this is a good early game item on any hero.
• Mask of Madness: gives you 15% lifesteal, 20 damage and 10 attack speed, as well as a huge power boost when using its active: +110 attack speed and +17% movement speed.
• Sange and Yasha: if you need the added movement speed and the ability to slow your enemies, this item can be very good against certain line-ups that excel in the mobility department.
• Blink Dagger: can help you close the distance when fighting against heroes that like to attack and use spells from afar. This is a very useful item for initiating fights with your ultimate and Storm Hammer.
• Black King Bar: if you’re facing a team that has a lot of disables and magical damage, you should buy this item around the 25-30 minutes mark.
• Linken’s Sphere: nice to have against long duration single target stuns and powerful ultimate abilities that pierce magic immunity: Duel, Rupture, Doom, Fiend’s Grip etc.
• Satanic: this can be good in the late game if you have high damage, as it will basically bring you back to full HP with just a few attacks.
• Dadelaus: greatly improves your damage output.

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Sven Abilities Explained

Storm Hammer

Deals 100/175/250/325 magical damage and stuns enemies for 1.7/1.8/1.9/2 seconds in a 255 radius area.

Great Cleave

Allows you to passively deal 30%/42%/54%/66% cleave damage with your basic attacks.

Warcry

Gives you and every allied unit around you 5/10/15/20 bonus armor and 12% movement speed for 8 seconds.

God’s Strength

Gives you 80%/120%/160% bonus damage and 10/20/30 strength for 25 seconds. If you own an Aghanim’s Scepter, allied units around you (900 radius) also gain 75%/100%/125% bonus damage for the same duration.

The best Talents to pick on Sven

• +2 mana regeneration / + 8 strength – You will almost always have to take the mana regeneration talent for sustainability.
• +30 damage / +30 movement speed – The damage is definitely much more valuable.
• Storm Hammer dispels enemies / +25% lifesteal – If the enemy lineup has powerful buffs, take the first option. Otherwise take the second one.
• -9s Storm Hammer cooldown / +40 strength on God’s Strength – The second talent is usually more useful.

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Skill build order

When playing Sven, you generally start with a point in Storm Hammer and then go for a 1-2-3-1 build for the first 7 levels. Afterwards you maximize Warcry, Great Cleave and Storm Hammer in this order, putting points in your ultimate and taking talents whenever you can.

When to pick the hero

Sven is very strong against lineups that mostly rely on physical damage, lack high bursts of magical damage, and have carry and midlane heroes that don’t possess great mobility.

A Durable Carry that packs a punch

Sven is a great pick whenever you want to have a durable carry with excellent damage that can farm really fast and clear Ancient camp stacks. This hero makes his entire team tankier and better suited to deal with physical damage, thanks to his Warcry ability. If these assets are what you’re after, consider picking Sven for the carry position. He’s not the hardest Dota 2 hero to master, so it’s a great pick for beginners.

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