Sniper's Aghanim's Scepter Review

After the addition that came with the 7.00 Patch, Sniper has also received an Aghanim’s Scepter Upgrade. That’s one of the reasons we are making this Sniper’s Aghanim’s Scepter Review. There is a lot of things to talk about, for sure. Sometimes Sniper’s Ultimate “Assassinate” looks very good, sometimes not. Given that fact, let’s see all the options and realize should we build Aghanim’s Scepter on Sniper or not.

You all know Sniper and his damage and range of his ultimate. You also know what kind of hero he is. Despite that, the Aghanim’s Scepter changes give us even more than that.

Now, we are going to be able to catch and damage more players at the same time by using the same mana cost.

Sniper’s Ultimate – Assassinate

Worth or not? Given the fact he’s ultimate was OP even before the patch and the fact that he’s a hard carry, we should think twice before purchasing an Aghanim’s Scepter on Sniper. Why is that so? Because, always, you should be itemizing against the enemies playing against you. Also, you should be itemizing according to your team too.

Let’s first see the ultimate below and then talk about it.

So, Assassinate is a Unit target ability that affects Enemy Units only, Heroes. The damage type is Magical but however it pierces spell Immunity, So BKB won’t do much. The changes are that now the ultimate cannot be dispelled from spells and blinks, or let’s say Mirana’s Leap. Nope, the ultimate instead it will follow and eventually hit you.

Assassinate is now upgradable by Aghanim’s Scepter and instead of targeting one enemy hero, the spell becomes AOE as you can see on the gif below. The range of Sniper’s Assassinate is 2000/2500/3000 and the AOE radius with Scepter is 400. If you build a Scepter you gain 280% critical damage, which feels kind of OK. Before analyzing it more, see the gif animation below.

The damage is pretty straight. 320/480/650 at max level of Assassinate.

Yes, that’s how Sniper’s ultimate works. So now you can imagine what kind of team heroes you will need to buy Aghanim’s Scepter. If the game is full of teamfights over and over again, you should be aiming for Aghanim’s Scepter. However, if not (and we all know pubs can be a real pain sometimes), you should not get agha at all.

Caution

Yes, the ultimate can be used on 1 player, but also on 5. You can abuse its range and use it on one enemy only. However, be careful from the Fog of war. You cannot catch more players that are already invisible or hidden in the fog of war. This means you must be careful before using your ultimate in a big teamfight. Your ultimate is not going to be casted if you just click the AOE on the fog of war. The AOE indicator must be above an enemy that’s already visible to you. Otherwise, Sniper will not cast the spell. Imagine there is Magnus on your team. What you might want to do is just wait on his initiation and then use the Ultimate. That’s 1 of the reasons why you should itemize according to your team too. If there is Magnus on your team, Aghanim’s Scepter might be a Win-Win situation for you.

So basically, before buying Aghanim’s Scepter you need to realize what kind of teamfights are you going into, what kind of approach your team will have… etc. If they are open and clear teamfights, I think you should give a try to the Aghanim’s Scepter. I personally do not like it that much, but still, haven’t tried it with Magnus on my team. With him, it might be fun indeed. Also, given the fact that it’s not dispellable now, huh, it might bring real joy in the game.

We know that we are pushed to learn all the new Dota 2 changes, offered to us with the latest update. Let us just remind you that the 7.01 patch has also come to live without tweaking Sniper at all. Since we always talk about news and updates, let’s just preview Sniper’s Talent tree.