Is Sven Actually Good?
Image by Biggreenpepper
The initial impression of the community on Sven was far from positive. Given the cleave mechanic changes and a year of lackluster results, the hero was quickly dismissed as unplayable, however recent trends show the exact opposite—the hero currently wins more than 53% of his games in the highest skill bracket. Today we would like to have a closer look at the hero and figure out where we went wrong with our initial assessment.
The new Warcry
Sven deals a ton of damage and farms very fast—these two aspects of the hero remained unchanged for as long as he was a part of the game. Over the years, however, players got better and better at kiting him, avoiding fights with him when he has his ultimate up and not grouping up when he does get a chance to hit heroes. It wasn’t the patches or the meta that left Sven mostly irrelevant throughout the last year, it was the increased skill level of the players.
Reworked 
Warcry attempted to change all that and largely succeeded. When seeing the rework for the first time, our first impression was that it now might be good against Tinker, since you could walk into 
March of the Machines and still have access to your Blink Dagger, while providing the same benefits for your teammates. However, the ability only blocks attack damage.
There are so many heroes in the meta that have long range attacks, capable of disrupting Blink Dagger initiation. Allowing yourself and your team to remain mobile cannot be overestimated. It also allows you to frequently catch the enemy off-guard, at least for now, while players aren’t fully accustomed to it.
With 24 seconds cooldown, it is generally possible to use it twice in a fight and that also means you can use it to prevent Blink Dagger from breaking even after the initiation, when you are surrounded by enemies. It can be used as a way to escape a bad situation or reliably get to your next target. For a hero who fully relies on being able to get to the enemy, the new Warcry turned out to be pretty much irreplaceable.
Problem Solved
With the hero’s main problem of not getting to the enemy being partially solved, it is only natural he will get better, even despite the nerfs to cleave. How much of a nerf it is, however, is up for a debate.
We all know and remember how Sven can pretty much wipe the whole enemy team in a couple of hits, if they don’t position correctly, but how often does it happen against good players?
Spacing and positioning improved over the years to a point where a three-man 
Black Hole or 
Reverse Polarity are now considered above average. Even 
Echo Slam is now valued more for its 0-cast point, rather than its ability to deal massive damage. Dota players are smarter, faster and more aware of their positioning, at least in the higher brackets and in the pro-scene.
In an environment like this, does losing a considerable amount of damage to armor even matter? It probably does, but not to an extent we think it does. A better question to ask then becomes whether the increased farming speed for an already fast-farming hero is a good trade-off, and in all honesty, it might be.
Neutrals don’t have much armor, so Sven is now pretty much unparalleled in taking stacks and that means he gets to his Blink Dagger and Black King Bar faster, at least if his supports do their job well. That means that he gets to start jumping on people earlier, creating a space-taking and space-creating loop for himself more or less independently—farming and killing heroes is what the hero is best at.
An extra teleport scroll slot and backpack ensure that the hero can get truly six-slotted and no space is wasted. Consumable 
Moon Shard is also something to keep in mind—DPS maximization is achieved when Attack Damage and Attack Speed values are as similar as possible and Sven naturally has a ton of the former.
That leaves us with a hero who farms fast, can set the tempo, is capable of creating space for himself and is good when you are ahead and when you are behind. He also provides extra safety for his supports, allowing them to continue disabling or distracting the enemy, setting up kills for Sven.
Closing thoughts
Being proved wrong is an exciting feeling in Dota—it means that there are still so many new things to learn and factors to consider and we are glad we were proven wrong with Sven. Turns out he is actually a good, playable hero.
It also means there are probably still some heroes we at Dotabuff and the community as a whole were wrong about and that means we get to continue exploring, experimenting and then exploiting aspects of the game other players might underappreciate. Share your secrets with us in the comment section below.
Nice and informative article, thank you!
позволяя инициировать даже через March of the Machines, однако на практике эффект оказался сильнее, чем мы думали. эм чтоОООООООООООООООООООООООООО? если можете исправьте это пожалуйста в тексте
I think, he is better as an offlane support
offlane and support sven is viable
carry sven is dead though
btw he cant march through tinker MOM, its magic dmg so sven warcry wont block its at all
It's not even about magic or physical damage, the shield only blocks damage from attacks, so a rightclick from a hero or a summon won't cancel it, but almost every ability will. Activate Warcry and attack a Centaur: your shield won't block Retaliate damage even if it's physical because it's not an attack.
This article LOL
Carry Sven is still dead.
I wonder if the author is experiencing an 'exciting feeling' being proven wrong by these comments :P
Good read.
Guys, iceiceice has a youtube channel and he uploaded 2 games of him playing Sven offlane, i recommend you check that out, it can help with your opinions about this.
erm no sven is viable because his stun and cleave been buffed repeatably to an insane level. like he has not only the best stun in the game but also the best most reliable dispell still in the game if you get the talent on a super short cd if you get the talent.
Funny how you guys compliment someone on article then insult on the next one but same writer. I never felt sven was dead but simply niche. A week or 2 ago I play dark seer. We smoked to top shrine with me frontline I was able to get a 4 man vacuum mirror with my sven there to kill all 4 of them instantly. The combos are incredible and satisfying with cleave.
this is a weird article because the writer doesn't realize everyone is maxing E first, stacking bracers, and playing it as 4 or 5, maybe 3 at the most. sven is rarely played as a position 1 carry anymore.
@Stroke
Feel like you are opening yourself up to a lot of debate, saying he has the most reliable dispel AND the best stun in the game. Especially when Slark is popular, it's surprising to hear anyone talk about a Sven dispel. The other thing though is a much wider conversation as there are a lot of stuns that have pros and cons so that feels a lot more preferential.
@KawaiiSocks
You sure that warcry aids mobility with march of machines? It does do magic damage, and also is not an attack. You are right that it makes it easier for Sven to initiate potentially, but the rest of the things on the list seem to be things he has always done. Have they become more potent, or more important, since the armor change, as in is Sven the one that takes the most advantage of the situation for any particular reason? Further, does Sven usually get more out of the extra slot a scroll would hold considering he isn't particularly the latest game carry?
not good
LAST
I think, one of the "imba" heroes of the patch is Night Stalker. It would be great, If you made a post dedicated to analyse NS.
@Brockhall Sven has an offensive dispel and it's clearly the best in game (Demonic Purge excluded) if you consider AoE/CD. Slark's pact won't prevent a DD PA from tearing through your team, Sven will.
Also Sven blocks attack damage exclusively, be it pure/magic/physical. Never did shit against march and that takes 5m to test unlike the 50m spent "writing" this article.
@KingY
Offensive dispel is certainly nice, I definitely see the advantages there. But the manacost, the lvl 15 wait time, and the relatively small aoe (255 isn't horrible though) of storm hammer cannot be ignored in the discussion. I do think overall it's hard to compare the two (storm hammer and slark purge) since they clearly have different applications, but when picking heroes it will come down to who needs something removed the most amount of times during a game: your carry or a smattering of heroes on the other team. I definitely can see good opportunities for both.
For the record though, I might have to go with oracle for best dispel in the game. Affects allies, enemies, has 300 radius, 6 sec cooldown (no talents or items necessary), 75 mana.
The shield doesnt even block march of the machine rewrite the article plz
Brilliant, support world explained, not that midlaner or core spammer can explain this far, this guy is our hero!
I'm still waiting for a picture of your socks dude.
I did expect authors to verify what they are writing before posting something on the internet...
Like everyone already said, Warcry does not prevent damage from Tinker's March of the Machines or Zeus's Static Field or Radiance or any typical blink breaking hability for that matter. Only attack-based skills are blocked like PA's Stifling Dagger or Ember's Sleight of Fist or Riki's Tricks of the Trade.
What I expected to read, is that Sven now found two new niches.
He is somewhat of a counter to those heroes with attack-based skills since he can protect his team against them. PA being a popular example.
And he is a very good dual offlaner, he has high base damage, high base armor, high base health and his shield does a really good job protecting him and his teammates. Similar to Abaddon offlane, but with a stun and the hability to farm later and became a real threat.
Warcry only help you to escape after everyone has used their skills and Sven managed to survive. Then you will be running for your life while the enemy team is following right-clicking you while you run. In this very specific scenario Warcry will allow you to blink despite being attacked with right-clicks.
@Yami Yugi
*blush*
@guuz exactly this.
Author of this article didn't play even 50 matches on Sven. And don't even have 50% win rate say nothing bout 53%. Last match on Sven was 6 month ago.
Also disinformation about Warcry tells me this is paid article written for 5 minutes during lunch.
It is just disrespect for fans of Sven who suffering from last year from "genial" Valves patches.
Last real good news for Sven was Echo Sabre and it happened quite long time ago.
Свеном поднимаю рейт в харде заканчиваю на 30тых минутах очень счас сильный герой
Winrate sven(dotabuff):
carry = 53,11%
Offlane = 50,9%
Carry sven dead???
@Ken-Oh
To the best of my knowledge that statistic is based off of the entire pool of players, meaning the numbers can be skewed by the low tier playing sven as a carry because that's the only way he makes sense to them. If, however, your statistics are only taken from higher tiers, please tell me how to find those numbers because I've looked before and I want to be able to have that info easily accessed.
Sven is the best hero. QED.
OMG warcry blocking march of machines? I can't believe such an obviously wrong statement is part of a dotabuff article.
is it 1. april already? or is the guy who wrote this herald
Так то щит свена только физ урон блочит… О какой инициацие через маршы идёт речь вообще?
wth i didnt even knowhe was nerfed coz I play sven last week and did just fine. I even got 2 ultra kills from that game.
i think sven on dv bracket is rising
Sorry about the confusion on the Attack Damage/all damage part. Fixed now
@KawaiiSocks
Much love!
You ballsacks, he literally says "However, the ability only blocks attack damage." - He's not saying it does block march of the machines, just that his first impression was that it might.
Interesting
Sven is like a train. If it hits something, do a lot of damage, but a train without fuel can´t go anywhere.
The ''new meta'' has a large amount of heros with good control and some annoying skills to prevent you, from do what you do.
You really depend of your team to put some damage.
Im still milking him as a sup for the meanwhile
not really