Sven, the Rogue Knight, is a versatile melee strength hero with superior physical power coupled with powerful utility abilities. He can fulfill various roles, but is often played as a semi-carry due to his high utility even without items. He possesses a versatile arsenal, from Warcry, which hastens allies and shields them from attacks, to the throwable Storm Hammer that stuns enemies around the targeted unit. With enough items, Sven has the potential to be a strong late-game carry due to his ultimate, which increases his damage, making him hit up to three times as hard, which can then be used in conjunction with his Great Cleave to secure multiple kills with just a few swings of his sword. This immense power granted to him solely by his ultimate makes him one of strongest late-game carries in the game, and arguably the strongest semi-carry of all, as his killing presence remains even if he decides to build more supportive and tanky utility items. A truly frightening enemy to go up against if farmed, strong and versatile, Sven is a solid addition to almost every team composition.
Mục Lục
Bio[]
Sven, the Rogue Knight
[external_link_head]▶️ “May my enemies share the fate of the Shattered Helm.”
Sven is the bastard son of a Vigil Knight, born of a Pallid Meranth, raised in the Shadeshore Ruins. With his father executed for violating the Vigil Codex, and his mother shunned by her wild race, Sven believes that honor is to be found in no social order, but only in himself. After tending his mother through a lingering death, he offered himself as a novice to the Vigil Knights, never revealing his identity. For thirteen years he studied in his father’s school, mastering the rigid code that declared his existence an abomination. Then, on the day that should have been his In-Swearing, he seized the Outcast Blade, shattered the Sacred Helm, and burned the Codex in the Vigil’s Holy Flame. He strode from Vigil Keep, forever solitary, following his private code to the last strict rune. Still a knight, yes…but a Rogue Knight. He answers only to himself.
Abilities[]
Sven unleashes his magical gauntlet that deals damage and stuns enemy units in a small area around the target.
Cast Animation: 0.2+0
Cast Range: 600 ( 950)
Effect Radius: 255
Damage: 95/170/245/320
Stun Duration: 1.25/1.5/1.75/2 ( 2.5/2.75/3/3.25)
18/
110/
Increases cast range and transports Sven along the storm hammer.
Storm Hammer now applies a dispel on enemies and reduces cooldown by 4 seconds.
Cannot target spell immune units. When the projectile connects with a spell immune unit, it still affects other units within the radius.
Blocked fully only when primary target. Blocked upon impact.
Disjointing the projectile still applies area effect.
Sven immediately stops traveling along with the projectile when disjointed.
Modifiers
[external_link offset=1]modifier_projectile_vision: Undispellable. Persists death.
modifier_sven_stormbolt_hide: Dispellable with death only.
modifier_stunned: Dispellable with strong dispels.
The Rogue Knight’s iron gauntlet, taken from the school of his father, strikes his foes to their core.
Notes:
- The targeting reticule must be centered over an enemy unit.
- The projectile travels at a speed of 1000 and has 225 radius flying vision. This vision does not last.
- Storm Hammer can be cast on invulnerable enemies, but does not affect them.
- Turning invulnerable or hidden does not prevent it from affecting the area around the target.
- Storm Hammer first applies the dispel, then the damage, then the debuff.
- Sven’s sword emits some particles during the cast time, visible to everyone.
- With Aghanim’s Scepter, Sven is moved along with the projectile.
- While being moved, Sven is fully disabled, untargetable and invulnerable.
- If the movement gets interrupted (e.g. with teleport), Sven is no longer disabled, untargetable and invulnerable.
- Sven stops moving along with the projectile if Storm Hammer is disjointed, if the distance between him and the target exceeds 2200, or when Sven dies.
Sven strikes with great force, cleaving all nearby enemy units with his attack.
Starting Radius: 150
Distance: 700
End Radius: 360
Cleave Damage: 25%/50%/75%/100% ( 50%/75%/100%/125%)
Modifiers
modifier_sven_great_cleave: Undispellable. Persists death.
The Vigil Knights still seek to reclaim the stolen Outcast Blade from Sven, a weapon capable of cutting wide swaths through lesser warriors.
Sven’s Warcry heartens his allied heroes for battle, increasing their armor and movement speed. Lasts 8 seconds.
Cast Animation: 0+0
Effect Radius: 700
Move Speed Bonus: 8%/12%/16%/20%
Armor Bonus: 6/9/12/15 ( 16/19/22/25)
Duration: 8 ( 11)
32/
30/
Modifiers
modifier_sven_warcry: Dispellable with any dispel.
Calling a few lines from the Vigil Codex fortifies Sven’s obedience to his rogue code. So poetic!
Notes:
- Interrupts Sven’s channeling abilities upon cast.
- Only affects allied heroes, including clones, illusions and creep-heroes.
- Leveling up the ability and the armor increasing talent do not update already existing Warcry buffs.
Sven channels his rogue strength, granting bonus damage for 35 seconds.
Cast Animation: 0.3+0
[external_link offset=2]Attack Damage Bonus: 120%/160%/200% ( 170%/210%/250%)
Duration: 35
110
100/
Modifiers
modifier_sven_gods_strength: Dispellable with death only.
With the strength that shattered the Sacred Helm, the Rogue Knight stands unopposed in melee combat.
Notes:
- Only increases base damage and that given by the primary attribute of Sven. Raw bonus damage is not increased.
- Checks Sven’s main attack damage periodically and adapts the attack damage bonus instantly.
- Leveling up the ability and the damage increasing talent do not update an already existing God’s Strength buff.
Talents[]
Notes:
- The lifesteal talent stacks additively with other sources of lifesteal.
Recent Changes[]
- Reduced armor from 1 to 0.
Recommended Items[]
Starting items:
Early game:
Mid game:
Late game:
Situational items:
- Armlet of Mordiggian is a good early teamfight item as it provides overall growth in damage and attack speed as well as additional health and armor while active.
- Echo Sabre essentially acts as a crit, allowing Sven’s burst to increase significantly for a cheap price. Paired with Daedalus, Echo Sabre gives Sven twice the chance to crit and to kill an fragile enemy in two or three hits.
- Drum of Endurance enables Sven to quickly get into combat and survive teamfights. It can be bought if Sven’s early game does not go well enough to afford bigger items.
- Boots of Travel is a natural pickup in late game.
- Monkey King Bar is often necessary to counter heroes who purchase evasion items against Sven.
- Satanic provides Sven with a good amount of survivability and damage. The active synergizes well with Sven’s high damage, ensuring that he will be able to get back into full health in just a few hits. Crucially, it also grants Sven a basic dispel on himself on a brief 25 second cooldown, allowing him to dispel most slows and roots, making him much harder to kite.
- Silver Edge, an upgrade for Echo Sabre provides reliable attack speed and damage, and its break helps Sven against passive defenses.
- Sange and Yasha is an easy item to build if Sven is struggling to build up gold. Its extra movement speed makes it harder for enemies to kite Sven.
- Moon Shard grants a huge boost in attack speed. It is a powerful luxury item that ensures Sven’s continued dominance in a winning game.
- Heart of Tarrasque not only provides Sven with much better survivability, it also gives a lot strength bonus, which greatly increases the damage from God’s Strength.
- Bloodthorn is a highly situational, and expensive, but potentially very powerful item pick up for Sven. It provides several bonuses that would be useful to Sven such as a huge amount of Intelligence and mana regen, which can be extra handy against teams with mana burn, as well as extra passive damage. Most crucially, Bloodthorn can be extremely potent due to the fact that it provides Sven a whopping 90 attack speed, more than Assault Cuirass or consumed Moon Shards, and provides Sven with a powerful silence that also makes all of his attacks hit 1.3 times harder, upping his already strong damage very heavily while also giving his team further utility against slippery heroes. Additionally, the crit from Bloodthorn’s active does not interfere with Daedalus’ more powerful crit, while the latter’s large damage output synergizes well with Bloodthorn’s attack speed bonus. Additionally, while expensive, it is composed of several small items that are very easy for Sven to farm.
Gameplay[]
Audio[]
History[]
Equipment[]
Trivia[]
- Sven is named after Danish bodybuilder and actor Sven-Ole Thorsen.
- In earlier versions of DotA, Sven had the fun name “Arnold Schwarzenegger”.
- The phrases “▶️ Twas only a flesh wound” and “▶️ It was but a scratch” are references to the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
- The phrases “▶️ Blame the host” and “▶️ Bad host” are references to the original Warcraft III DotA gameplay when game stability depended on the quality of internet connection on the host player.
- Storm Hammer was named Storm Bolt in the early beta phases and was renamed into Storm Hammer at one point. It is also its original name in DotA 1 and reflected in one of Sven’s cast responses in Dota 2, where he is referring to it as ▶️ “Storm Bolt“.
Gallery[]
-
Concept art
-
Early model of the Outcast Blade
-
Ability icon progress
-
Hero icon progress
[external_footer]