Sven Overview

Lore & Bio

Sven is the unpleasant son of a Vigil Knight, a half-Meranth by birth, raised in the Shadeshore Ruins. His father, an old warrior of Shadeshore Ruins, always follows and expects the rule of ancient Vigil. Nonetheless, for mysterious reasons, Sven’s father violated the rule.

The Vigil Order has no other choice but to execute one of his noble members in public. This public execution serves a purpose was to warn everyone about their endings if breaking the rules as it might draw the attention of many people. Sven was among the people witnessing his father’s death sentence, he cried when seeing his father's death and he also knew the story behind his father’s action. 

After that, Sven looked for his mother to inform her about father’s death. He traveled for weeks to meet his mother who was abandoned by her own wild race. But soon, his mother passed away due to her sickness. The loss of his parents has made him believe that honor can only be found in himself, not in any social order.

Then he returned to Shadeshore Ruin and enrolled himself as a novice to the Vigil Knights, never revealing his true identity. For thirteen year in his father’s school, Sven kept studying hard and mastered the code that made his true identity to be unveiled to others.

Day by day, the flame of hatred in his heart kept growing that he couldn’t resist. Then, on the day of the holy ritual when a young knight vowed to always be loyal to the Vigil Order. Sven confidently stood on the podium, grasped the Outcast Blade, destroyed the Sacred Helm and burned the Codex in the Vigil’s Holy Flame. After that he walked out of the Vigil Keep, forever solitary, following his own way to the last strict rune. Sven is still a Knight, but Rogue Knight. Sven listens to know one but only to himself.

In-game, Sven was described as follows: 

“Sven is always eager to charge into a fight. He stuns grouped enemies as he wades into battle, and once he ignites his damage-boosting ultimate, a few swings of his massive sword are often more than enough to slay his foes.”

Attribute & Stats

• Strength: 22 + 3.2 each level;
• Agility: 21 + 2 each level;
• Intelligence: 16 + 1.3 each level;
• Health: 640;
• Health regeneration: + 2.2 each second;
• Mana: 267;
• Mana regeneration: + 0.8 each second;
• Damage: 63 - 65;
• Amor: 4.5;
• Magic Resistance: 25%;
• Turn Rate: 0.6;
• Attack Range: 150;
• Projectile speed: Instant;
• Attack Animation: 0.4+0.3;
• Movement: 325;
• Sight Range: 1800/800;
• Base Attack time: 1.8 seconds per attack;
• Damage Block: 16.

Abilities & Talents

Notes:

The lifesteal of talents can stack with other sources of lifesteal.

Skills building guide

This build can maximize your farm and durability at lane in the sacrifice of your damage dealing in the early game. But it’s a different story when you hit level 6 and have some items, you’ll crush your enemies within seconds. The reason we are going to max out Great Cleave as you will farm faster than your enemies which helps you quickly accumulate enough golds for the first items.

Moving on to the second skill that we’re gonna max out, Warcry. With the significant amount of armor and damage that you and your teammate is granted at this maximum level, your team can stay longer in the combat and do tremendous damage. A little reminder that Warcry can be easily dispelled although it is strong.

After maxing out these abilities mentioned above, now it’s time for Storm Hammer. Storm Hammer can stun an enemy in the specific seconds which is useful if your team wants to open the combat or catch any enemy trying to split push.

And do not forget to put a point in the ultimate!

Abilities

Storm Hammer

Effect: Sven unleashes his magical gauntlet that deals damage and stuns enemy units in a small area around the target.

Mana cost: 110 / 120 / 130 / 140

Cooldown: 18.0 / 16.0 / 14.0 / 12.0

Cast Range: 600

Damage: 110 / 180 / 250 / 320

Duration: 1.3 / 1.5 / 1.8 / 2.0

Effect Radius: 255

Upgraded by Aghanim’s Shard:

• Cooldown: 14.0/12.0/10.0/8.0
• Bonus effect: Applies a dispel on enemies

Upgraded by Aghanim’s Scepter:

• Cast Range: 950
• Bonus effect: Sven will move along with his projectile.

Notes:

The speed of Storm Hammer when travelling is 1000.

The projectile provides 225 flying vision but this vision is only available around the fist while it travels.

Storm Hammer can be used on invulnerable enemies but does not do any damage or affect. However, it affects the area around the target..

With the upgrade from Aghanim’s Shard, Storm Hammer does the dispel, then the damage and then the debuff

Everyone can see some particles emitting from Sven’s sword during the cast.

With Aghanim’s Scepter update, Sven travels along with the gauntlet.

• During the travelling time, Sven can’t be targeted, controlled by the player and affected by any status effects and damage.
• Sven is no longer disabled, untargetable and invulnerable if the movement is interrupted (e.g: teleport)
• If the range between Sven and the target exceeds 2200, the Hammer Gauntlet is disjointed or when he dies, the moving will be stopped.

Great Cleave

Effect: Sven strikes with great force, cleaving all nearby enemy units with his attack.

Cleave Damage: 30% / 50% / 70% / 90%

Starting Radius: 150

Distance: 700

End Radius: 360

Notes:

Great Cleave can be amplified by incoming spell damage amplification not by outcoming spell damage amplification and it can not spell lifesteal.

Damage Block can reduced the effect of Cleave damage

Great Cleave affects an isosceles trapezoidal area in the target direction.

It can stack with other sources of cleave but each source works independently.

Damage will be caused immediately in the area without delay regardless of visual effect.

Warcry

Effect: Sven's Warcry heartens his allied heroes for battle, increasing their armor and movement speed.

Cast Animation: 0+0

Mana cost: 30 / 40 / 50 / 60

Cooldown: 32.0 / 28.0 / 24.0 / 20.0

Bonus speed: 8% / 12% / 16% / 20%

Bonus armor: 6 / 9 / 12 / 15

Radius: 700

Duration: 8 seconds

Notes:

Warcry can disrupt the channeling.

This ability affects not only allied heroes but also clones, illusions and their summoners.

Within the duration of Warcry buff, any leveling up ability or armor increasing talent will not be updated.

God's Strength

Effect: Sven channels his rogue strength, granting bonus damage for 40 seconds.

Cast Animation: 0.3+0

Mana cost: 100 / 150 / 200

Cooldown: 110.0

Duration:40.0 seconds

Bonus damage: 120% / 160% / 200%

Notes:

The ability only increases the base damage of Sven, not the raw bonus damage.

Within the duration of God’s Strength buff, any leveling up ability or armor increasing talent will not be updated.

Effective items guides

Early game

Iron Branch

Iron Branch: will give Sven attributes, as well as additional regen when combined with Tango.

Tango

Tango will help supply early health regen to survive laning.

Healing Salve

Healing Salve: gives good health restoration.

Enchanted Mango

Enchanted Mango: helps Sven to stay in Lane, to allow an additional Storm Hammer while in a pinch.

Mid game

Magic Wand

Magic Wand: With the Iron Branches and Magic Stick that you purchase in the early game, Magic Wand is a good choice as it can combine Magic Stick’s functionality and attribute boosts from Iron Branches.

Boots of Speed

Boots of Speed: can be upgraded into Power Treads if you need more attack speed and strengths, you can switch to the Blue one for more mana to use the abilities.

Mask of Madness

Mask of Madness: as the base attack speed of Sven is quite low (0.56), this item is a good compensation for him and allows Sven to farm faster.

Blink Dagger

Blink Dagger: a useful item to make up for the immobility of this hero, allowing him to set up teamfights and ganking any unguarded enemies, which can have a huge impact on the game result.

Black King Bar

Black King Bar: one of the most important items for Sven. This item guards him against crowd control and grants decent boost to strength and damage.

Aghanim's Scepter

Aghanim’s Scepter: if you are not a big fan of Blink Dagger, this is not a bad choice at all. It closes the gap between Sven and the enemies, allowing him to catch the backliners and kill them instantly in any teamfights. Besides, Aghanim’s Scepter also provides a small amount of stats bonus which might give him a leg up in combat.

Aghanim's Shard

Aghanim’s Shard: If there is a hero with powerful self-bull ability like Windranger, Visage in the other team or the item can weaken Sven's massive physical damage like Ghost Scepter, you can take Aghanim’s Shard into consideration. Sven can use Storm Hammer to stuns enemies a few times during the teamfight due to the cooldown reduction of this item. 

Late game

Daedalus

Daedalus: a must have item for Sven in the late game as It can allow him to quickly crush the enemies in the few hits by granting significant critical chance in each attack. 

Assault Cuirass

Assault Cuirass:  might be the optimal option for purchasing. It can provide negative armor debuff, attack speed and massive armor gain for Sven so you can be a strong Initiator or Tanker in the combat and let your teammate do the rest to the victory.

Situation items

Enemies & Allies

Allies

Crystal Maiden

Help Sven to catch up with the enemies easily 

Lion

Earth Spike and Hex will give Sven a lot of time to beat down enemy

Shadow Shaman

Shackles and Hex will give him a lot of time to destroy the enemy.

Dark Seer

A Vacuum and Storm Hammer combo will stun the whole enemy team if there’s good cooperation. Surge also makes Sven much harder to kite.

Enigma

A well positioned Black Hole can result in a team wipe for Sven’s team, which is due to the AoE damage combo from Storm Hammer and Great Cleave.

Magnus

Empower will give Sven additional cleave and damage, while a well positioned Reverse Polarity will give Sven the ability to devastate multiple enemies with God’s Strength and Great Cleave. Storm Hammer can also help prolong the disable.

Io

Can teleport Sven to any location which can set him up for the gank or joining the teamfight while split pushing.

Counters

Clockwerk

Power Cogs will greatly limit Sven’s positioning, which wastes Black King Bar in a team fight. Battery Assault also makes it harder for Sven to fight Clockwerk.

Razor

Static Link saps Sven’s attack damage, and goes through Black King Bar.

Spectre

Spectral Dagger will hinder Sven’s low movement, and will be an easy escape tool against him. Dispersion makes it harder for Sven to burst down Spectre in one on one fights, and can reflect his high damage back. Haunt and Radiance also disable Sven’s Blink Dagger. Desolate deals pure damage and ignores his high armor.

Venomancer

He can force Sven to use Black King Bar or get tied down constantly by poison.

Omniknight

Omniknight, Winter Wyvern, Wraith King: the abilities of these heroes disable the power ultimate of Sven during the combat.

Pugna

With its incredible healing abilities, Sven can not finish the enemies easily and quickly with high physical damage. In addition, Pugna also has Decrepify, which could turn Sven into ethereal form and disarm him.

Lifestealer

With Feast, Lifestealer can heal and survive against Sven’s high physical damage.

Troll Warlord

Whirling Axes causes the enemies to miss some attacks which makes Sven difficult to farm and accumulate enough gold for his first item. 

Terrorblade

Sunder of Terrorblade can exchange a percentage of both units' current health which might put Sven health in danger while encountering this hero.

Templar Assassin

Sven might find it troublesome to finish TA in the Refraction charge and might look for help from teammates to kill TA.

Items Counter

Force Staff

Force Staff and Hurricane Pike are used to kite Sven, also can save allies from Storm Hammer.

Blink Dagger

Blink Dagger disjoints Storm Hammer in quick hands.

Ghost Scepter

Ghost Scepter and Ethereal Blade allow for great control of the Sven. As a strength hero Sven seldom builds Nullifier.

Heaven's Halberd

Heaven's Halberd neuters Sven's main damage source during a teamfight.

Rod of Atos

Rod of Atos roots the Sven to the ground making him an easy target.

Blade Mail

Blade Mail reflects Sven's massive damage, recommended for beefy heroes or in combination with Heart of Tarrasque.

Scythe of Vyse

Scythe of Vyse disables Sven completely.

Linken's Sphere

Linken's Sphere negates Sven's initiations with Storm Hammer.

Radiance

Radiance make Sven miss attacks without Monkey King Bar.

Abyssal Blade

Abyssal Blade disables Sven even with spell immunity.

Favorable Matchups

Anti-Mage

Anti-Mage: Anti-Mage is fairly fragile, and cannot stand against Sven in a prolonged fight. Sven's Black King Bar and low base mana protects against  Mana Break. Great Cleave destroys the illusions from Anti-Mage's Manta Style. Although Sven should be careful as a well-timed  Counterspell can block and reflect Storm Hammer.

Broodmother

Broodmother: Great Cleave clears Spiderlings quickly to increase gold income. Warcry shields Sven and his allies against Broodmother and her Spiderlings.

Juggernaut

Juggernaut: Warcry allows Sven to tank the damage from Omnislash due to its high armor. However Blade Fury provides spell immunity which blocks the stun from Storm Hammer.

Chaos Knight

Chaos Knight: Great Cleave is very effective against Chaos Knight's illusions. Storm Hammer's radius can catch all of Chaos Knight's illusions at once, especially after  Reality Rift. Warcry shields Sven and his teammates against Chaos Knight's burst physical damage.

Chen

Chen: Great Cleave quickly destroys Chen's creeps in team fights, before they have a chance to do much.

Death Prophet

Death Prophet: God's Strength allows Sven to take down Death Prophet quickly, reducing the damage dealt over time from Exorcism. Warcry's shield is very useful for Sven and his teammates against Exorcism, which deals physical damage.

Doom

Doom: Doom generally does not impede Sven in any way, provided he has activated God's Strength beforehand.

Meepo

Meepo: Great Cleave will devastate Meepo's clones. Against a closely packed group, Sven does not even need to target the clone with the lowest health.

Sniper

Sniper: Past the early game, Sniper is an easy target for Sven to jump on with Aghanim's Scepter upgraded  Storm Hammer. Sven's high armor and health pool makes it difficult for Sniper to focus, as his main source of damage is his right click. Sniper is very squishy, and will not stand a chance against Sven head on.

Pangolier

Pangolier: Warcry's shields protects Sven and his teammates from Swashbuckle. Sven's Black King Bar blocks most of Pangolier's skills.

Phantom Lancer

Phantom Lancer: Great Cleave and God's Strength cuts through Phantom Lancer's illusions in no time. Storm Hammer's AoE stun will hit Phantom Lancer and his illusions.

Warlock

Warlock: With God's Strength, Warlock Golem goes down in a matter of seconds. The two weaker golems granted by Aghanim's Scepter will fare worse due to Great Cleave hitting both. Storm Hammer upgraded with Aghanim's Shard dispels Shadow Word.

Game plan

Early game

In essence, Sven is a strong carry that can wear teams down very fast thanks to the strength of his Great Cleave and God’s Strength. If paired with Daedalus and his ultimate God’s Strength, he can tear through foes in mere seconds and carry the team entirely on his own. His ranged stun and Warcry helps to keep foes in place and deal massive damage while at it to them.

Sven’s skills scale very well and fit for most situations, so you can basically adjust as you go. As a carry, he plays fantastically since his Great Cleave allows him to kill waves of creeps in little time. Storm Hammer also helps him become effective for some early ganks, but while this is the case Sven should focus on farming and level up in order to obtain a Black King Bar and crit items such as Daedalus. Only then the damage from God’s Strength can deal crushing blows. 

As a ganker, if you want to Sven as one, you should buy Blink Dagger then max out Storm Hammer. His ganks will be swift and very effective.  

You must focus on farming as much as you can. Use the Great Cleave to farm quickly and clear the creeps. Remember to control the creep way in the middle of your lane or close to your neutral camps which can guard you against the gank from the jungle. Besides, Great Cleave is also good at harassing the melee enemies if they intend to get close to the creeps to farm. If there is any teammate around you, you can cast Storm Hammer to initiate the fight and get the potential kill. If the enemies try to get away from the gank, use Warcry to chase and you can dive in  the defense tower if necessary. Diving is quite dangerous in the early game so you should consider it carefully.

Mid game

Your priority is still farming but be ready to engage in any imminent fights. As a main damage source of your team, you must be present in any team fight. If your team has a strong initiator like Tidehunter or Enigma, let them initiate the teamfight. If not you can do it yourself by using your Black King Bar and ultimate to approach the enemies then using Blink Dagger and Storm Hammer to safely get out of the combat.

Late game

Your objectives in the late game are quite the same with the mid game but this time you drive your focus on engaging in the teamfight. As you are insanely strong when the game is dragged to the late so you must hold your position well and have a great timing to get in and out the combat.

Although Sven is strong, he’s not without counters, and more specifically, ranged heroes can easily harass him in lane. Make sure to pair him with a support hero to sustain him. Sven is also easy to shut down if the other team has good crowd control. So it’s recommended that you learn how and when to use Black King Bar, and when to conserve the charge, in order to keep Sven’s survivability.

If you build mana regeneration for Sven, or if he has enough of it, he can function as a roamer and help to land kills with his Storm Hammer. Although the catch is that this will hamper Sven’s early farm significantly, it’s still possible to catch up in farm later on and transition to full core by going for neutral creep stacks and Great Cleave. If your team has an overabundance of cores, since most heroes can’t catch up quite as well as Sven, denying your allies of cores of farm can prove to be significantly detrimental.

Tips and tricks

Although Sven is strong, he’s not without counters, and more specifically, ranged heroes can easily harass him in lane. Make sure to pair him with a support hero to sustain him. Sven is also easy to shut down if the other team has good crowd control. So it’s recommended that you learn how and when to use Black King Bar, and when to conserve the charge, in order to keep Sven’s survivability.

If you build mana regeneration for Sven, or if he has enough of it, he can function as a roamer and help to land kills with his Storm Hammer. Although the catch is that this will hamper Sven’s early farm significantly, it’s still possible to catch up in farm later on and transition to full core by going for neutral creep stacks and Great Cleave. If your team has an overabundance of cores, since most heroes can’t catch up quite as well as Sven, denying your allies of cores of farm can prove to be significantly detrimental.