The Heroes in Dota 2 - An Introductory Guide for Sven

Introduction

Dota 2 has over 120 different heroes and each of them is unique in its own way. Some are known for dealing insane amounts of magical damage, whereas others are mainly famous for their physical damage. Of course, there is a lot more into them such as being tanky, fast, elusive, etc.

With that said, today, we will take a look at one of the most iconic Dota 2 heroes. In fact, some people believe that is the biggest physical damage dealer in the game, which could be true, especially when he gets the proper items.

Let's take a look at everything we need to know about Sven, the one-man army.

Basic Information about Sven

This hero was famous back in DotA under the name "The Rogue Knight". He is a melee strength hero that is nearly exclusively played as a safelane carry. However, there were times when people ran him as support. This is a pretty good idea because Sven is a really durable hero, which means that he won't feed as much. However, he is slow and needs to get at least one or two items to do something, which is worth mentioning. 

Here are all of his four abilities:

• Storm Hammer is one of the strongest stunning spells in the game. Despite the fact that it has a fairly slow projectile speed in comparison to some of the other stunning spells, Storm Hammer is a great initiation and safety tool. Apart from the shear stun duration, this ability also does a pretty significant amount of damage. What's more, if the enemy is stacked, you can easily stun multiple heroes at once, which then allows you to easily cleave-down your enemies.
  Keep it in mind that this ability is also upgradable with an Aghanim's Scepter, which makes it even more deadly than it already is.
• Greater Cleave is one of the unique spells that Sven has which gives him immense firepower. Apart from the cool animation, this passive ability allows the hero to farm at an incredibly fast rate, which is ideal for a safelane carry. In fact, it even stacks with some other cleaving mechanisms in the game, which makes it even more deadly.
  Once the farming game is over, Greater Cleave can do miracles in team fights, especially if your enemies are stacked next to each other. It allows you to basically hit one target and do damage on the targets that are behind it. In other words, you can kill multiple enemies at once.
• Warcry is an amazing buff that benefits Sven, as well as his team-mates. When used, it provides damage and bonus armor for a couple of seconds to everyone that's near Sven. In addition, the hero itself also receives bonus movement speed. Needless to say, this makes it an ideal team-fight skill that can be used at any time and it will always bring something to the fight. To make things even better, it doesn't cost that much mana, which means that you can easily spam it multiple times during a teamfight.
• Last, but most definitely not least, we have the big ultimate that can change the balance of power during a teamfight - God's Strength. As the name suggests, this spell is definitely a game-changer because it provides damage, as well as strength in massive quantities. As a result, Sven becomes a nearly unstoppable force that everyone is trying to run away from. In fact, that's one of the biggest issues of this hero - uptime. Luckily, there are a couple of items that can help you with that, as well as your team-mates.

Counters and Item Choices

Even though Sven is one of the deadliest heroes in Dota 2, he still has a couple of very notable counters that can make his life a living hell:

• Ursa is the strongest hero against Sven because she doesn't really care about the damage or the armor. Once she jumps on Sven, she can quickly burst him down using her ultimate. That's why you need to be sure that Ursa is banned if you're planning on playing this hero.
• Slark is another very annoying rascal to play against as Sven. Although he is not as deadly as Ursa, he can easily kite Sven around and slowly suffocate him with his Essence Shift.
• Zeus is another very annoying hero to play against because he can burst you down very fast. Of course, if you actually manage to jump on top of him, he will be dead in a matter of seconds. Unfortunately, this doesn't happen that often.

When it comes down to items, there are a couple of choices, depending on your role in the game. Here are some of the most popular item choices for Sven:

• Blink Dagger is an absolute must, regardless if you're a carry or support. This item just provides way too much mobility and offensive capabilities to be ignored. The cool thing is that it is pretty cheap, so you can get it very early on. Just remember to use your ult before you jump in because it might be too late afterward.
• Black King Bar is another must for heroes such as Sven because he needs as much uptime as possible to be effective. 
• Daedalus is a very solid option when you want to "100-0" someone in just a matter of seconds. Needless to say, this work wonders with your ultimate and allows you to quickly pick off your enemies.
• Monkey King Bar is also a very solid option, especially when there are certain heroes that have evasion. After all, in order to be effective, this hero has to actually land his attacks.