Sven aka The Rogue Knight is a melee hero that can fill a variety of roles but is most often played as a semi/ carry, semi/ support because of his utility spells and high survivability. Sven is also a great ganker mainly because of "Storms Hammer" his primary ability that both stuns the target and deals a good amount of damage. If playing a skeleton key hero that can be useful in almost any situation sounds like your style of play, read on for some helpful Sven tips and tricks.

Invest in Blink Dagger

Being a melee hero makes Sven vulnerable to being kited. Picking up the Blink Dagger will allow you to close the gap quickly and then unleash your stun on the enemy before you begin beating them down with your powerful melee strikes.

The Blink Dagger will become especially useful late game for initiating team fights. Blink into the enemy formation and stun/ melee the enemy carry before they get a chance to retaliate.

AoE Combo 

At first glance it may not seem like Sven is an AoE powerhouse, but by pairing his ultimate which increases his attack power with Great Cleave he can decimate grouped up enemies in his path. Try to coordinate these attacks with heroes that can pull enemies together such as the Tidehunter or Magnus. The bonus of having Magnus doing the grouping is that his ability Empower will also increase the damage done by Great Cleave

Group Buffs

The beauty of Sven's buffs are that they not only benefit Sven, but the rest of the team as well. The ability War Cry provides Sven and nearby teammates with a buff to their armor as well as their movement speed. Sven's ultimate God's Strength provides a bonus to nearby allies, but this time gives them an increase to their damage output. Both abilities have a radius of 900, so if your teammates are in range for one they are in range for the other.

Level Your Stats Early

No matter what style of play you plan on using Sven for it's always a good idea to get at least two levels of stats in fairly early. Sven's stuns are pretty mana heavy during the early game so being starved for mana means your left essentially helpless and wont be able to gank or stun ranged heroes that can kite you until your dead. Two points into stats within the first 4 - 6 levels should be enough to keep you in the black and the stuns flowing.

Sven the Ganker

Sven is a great hero for ganking lanes. He can use his speed boost to make his way quickly to the lane and then let fly with his AoE stun to catch the enemies before beating them down with his huge sword. For enemy heroes that have a large amount of health or one's that have good escapes, use your ultimate when the friendly hero who's lane your ganking comes into range. The boost you both receive to your damage output will help you finish off the target before they can escape.

Are you a Sven savant and want to share your secrets? Let us know all about it in the comments!