Kardel Sharpeye is a testament to his name and race. Using only his finely honed skills of marksmanship and his trusty rifle, he sytematically destroys his opponents from afar. Taking great care to aim for the most vulnerable of areas, he is capable of severely injuring an opponent, and with a little extra time, has been known to simply dispose of an enemy in a single shot. His rifle is equipped with a secondary barrel, capable of launching a short burst of shrapnel at close range, causing massive damage. The first thing we need to get out of the way is why should we pick Kardel? What makes him stand out above the rest? In general, ranged Agility heroes are meant to be a late-bloomer, item dependant, DPS hero. However, most DPS heroes have some kind of steroid spell which makes them extremely dangerous in combat. Think of Clinx’s strafe, Razor & Viper’s frenzy, Troll’s rampage. Kardel does not have a steroid-like spell, which makes his job of dealing damage harder. So why should we pick him?
I think the first obvious advantage Kardel has over other heros is range. He has the LONGEST range in DOTA. He can shoot at towers without getting hit. Add to the fact that he has a very fast attack animation (3000), Kardel is an excellent harasser, last hitter, & denier. The next this is obviously ‘Assassinate’ one of the best finishing move in the game. With long range of 2500, you can assassinate running away enemies with the click of a button. This makes Kardel an excellent ganker as well,
Therefore, your role in the team is first and foremost a damage dealer. Early game you should focus on harassing your enemies with your long range and getting last hit and denies. As the game progresses, you become a damage-dealer & ganker, quickly running in & out of battle and finishing up escaping enemies. You will help your TEAM to victory.
ScatterShot | Mana Cost: 120 - Cooldown: 12 – Casting Range: 750 –Casting Time: around 1 second – AOE: 200
Fire a ball of shrapnel on the air which promptly explodes, dealing damage in target area. Each pellet deals 10-25 physical damage.
Level 1 - 8 Pellets.
Level 2 - 12 Pellets.
Level 3 - 16 Pellets.
Level 4 - 20 Pellets.
Scoffed by many and loved by others, Scattershot remains one of the love/hate skill in the game. You either love it or you don’t.
- The pellets deal PIERCING DAMAGE, which deals deals 150% to creeps, 50% to heroes BEFORE armor reduction, and a measly 35% to buildings.
- Its casting range is actually longer than a Tower’s range, so you can cast it without the tower shooting at you back provided you have line of sight of the tower.
- Scattershot at level 4 will kill a ranged creep instantly.
- Don’t waste it on heroes. You most likely will deal more damage by plainly shooting at them.
Headshot | Passive
Giving chance to stun target for a short duration and dealing bonus damage.
Level 1 - 30 damage, 25% chance, 0.1 second stun.
Level 2 - 30 damage, 30% chance, 0.1 second stun.
Level 3 - 40 damage, 35% chance, 0.2 second stun.
Level 4 - 50 damage, 40% chance, 0.2 second stun.
Excellent skill. Very annoying to enemies and it has a high percentage of happening. Basically a mini-MKB. It actually deals longer stun duration than MKB, but it gives you less bonus damage.
- Headshot is considered a ‘Ranged Bash.’ The damage is hero type physical damage, that means it’s not blockable by magic immunity and it’s reduced by armour type hero resistance and armour value. The stun is blockable by magic immunity.
- Which means, Headshot will trigger Linken’s disentangle and cooldown, allowing you to then assassinate an enemy hero with Linken.
- BKB will ONLY block Headshot’s stun, but the bonus damage will still goes through.
- Headshot works on your own creep, which is excellent for denying.
- When you have MKB and both stun occurs at the same time (which is highly unlikely, but possible), the latest skill learned or item acquired will override the other. For example, if you Learn Headshot level 12-15 and then acquire MKB at level 16, when both stun occurs you will deal only MKB’s damage and stun duration.
- Regarding Headshot + MKB : Remember that Bash stacks diminishingly.
- One thing to point out is that Headshot is extremely useful to cancel Chanelling spell.Sand King doing a Burrowstrike – Epicenter combo? Start shooting at him and pray that Headshot kicks in.
Take Aim | Passive
Permanently adds attack range.
Level 1 - Adds 55 range.
Level 2 - Adds 110 range.
Level 3 - Adds 165 range.
Level 4 - Adds 220 range.
The skill that gives you the longest range in the game, Take Aim is a skill that is useful at all stages of the game. Having more range gives you both offensive & defensive advantage, as you have an edge in reacting to the enemy.
- At level 4 this skill makes your range 770
- To be able to shoot outside of Tower’s range, you only need level 3 Take Aim.
- Some people have argued that getting Level 4 Take Aim too early will give you problems with getting Experience. This is NOT true but it can happen. The Experience AOE is 1000 and your range is only 770. But when you are shooting the melee creeps from 770 away, the range creep will probably be outside your EXP range.
Assassinate | Mana Cost: 175/275/375 - Cooldown: 30/20/10
Take time to draw the bead and then deals a large amount of damage at a long range.
Level 1 - Deals 355 damage at 1500 range, 1.7 seconds casting time.
Level 2 - Deals 505 damage at 2000 range, 1.6 seconds casting time.
Level 3 - Deals 655 damage at 2500 range, 1.5 seconds casting time.
The signature skill of Kardel. This is the targetting spell with the longest casting range in DOTA, which makes this one of the ultimate KS-ing skill. A proper use of Assassinate also makes or break a Kardel player. Ask yourself, are you the kind of player who will cast assassinate when your 4 other teammates are already surrounding this enemy hero to death?
- Without any other Magic Reduction item, Assassinate will instantly kill enemy heroes below 266 / 378 / 491 HP at appropriate levels.
- Note the casting time of 1.7, 1.6, and 1.5 seconds respective to their levels. Do not foolishly cast assassinate in the middle of enemies to shoot a running enemy because a stun will cancel your assassinate and probably you’ll be killed too.
- Targeted enemy hero will have a buff status on its hero status saying that he’s about to be assassinated.
- Assassinate’s cooldown was nerfed some version ago into 30/20/10 (before it was 5 seconds at level 3!)
- When you’re invisible and you cast Assassinate, you will remain invisible until the last moment before your bullet fires.
- Assassinate has a semi-true sight effect, which means you can target a wind walking away Clinx/Gondar/PL/Any other hero with lothar and it will still hit them. Note that neither you or your allies can see the enemy, only the spell does.
- You must actually have vision of the hero to be able to cast it. This means either one of your ally / creep must be within range of that hero or you can plant observer wards to give you advantage.
- Linken completely blocks Assassinate. Make sure Linken is on cooldown by either shooting at him a few times until Headshot fires or having your teammate cast a spell on the enemy first.
- Just like any other ultimate, you can target an enemy with activated BKB but it will deal zero damage. Don’t waste it.
1.Take Aim
2. Headshot
3. Take Aim
4. Headshot
5. Take Aim
6. Assassinate
7. Headshot
8. Take Aim
9. Headshot
10. Stats
11. Assassinate
12-15. Stats
16. Assassinate
17-20 Scattershot
21-25. Stats
- Take Aim & Headshot are interchangeable. Usually when the enemy in my lane is range / nuker I will go Take Aim first, and the other way around when the enemy is melee. Giving your more distance not only keeps you further away from harm’s way, but also allows you to harass a lot better because you can now shoot an extra shot or two before the enemy is outside your range.
- I suggest you take stats points in level 10, and 12-15 before you take Scattershot. This of course can be flexible depending on game situations.. but on most games you’ll need to buff yourself up a little at this stage of the game. +10 all stats will help immensely.
- Scattershot is suggested to be taken around level 17-20. OMG NOOB Scattershot sucks oneoneleven last hit is more g0su ~ I’ve heard it said. If you hate it so much, go ahead and skip it. I never said that Scattershot should replace last hitting, however there’s no denying that Scattershot accelerates your farming because you can clear a wave / neutrals camp, and switch to another location quickly. The argument that it pushes the creeps too far to the enemy tower is correct. Yep, you DO want the creeps to move forward in this case, since its progressing toward late game.
- As expected, get assassinate whenever available.
[ 1. Core Items ]
[ Boot of Travel – Bracers – Desolator – Butterfly – Heart of Tarrasque ]
[ 2. Order of Items ]
Circlets, Tangos
(optional) Sobi Mask / Ring of Regeneration
Complete 2 Bracers & Boots
2 Mithril Hammer, Desolator Recipe
Boot of Travel Recipe
Eaglehorn, Quarterstaff, Butterfly Recipe
Reaver, Vitality Booster, Heart of Tarrasque Recipe
So long, Aegis-Rapier. The latest changes in DOTA have make Aegis-Rapier build infeasible for many heroes, even so for Kardel. He’s still pretty fragile with Aegis. Without it? There’s just no way I see this build to be feasible at this point.
Boots of Speed (500), Recipe Scroll (2200)
+90 Movement Speed
Teleport ability
I’m going to quote Beast_Pete’s clinx guide:
Simply put, Boot of Travel gives you unmatched flexibility to join battles / pushes / ganks / defense. Moreover, being one of the most targeted hero, this item is very vital to your survival. I will go into more explanation in the other items section.
2 Circlet of Nobility (370), 2 Gauntlets of Strength (300), 2 Recipe Scroll (350)
+228 HP; +78 MP
+0.36 HP/sec; +0.24 MP/sec
+6 damage, +6% IAS
+0.43 armor
Pretty straight forward starting items. 2 Bracers will replace Sange of the previous build. In addition it also gives a little mana.
2 Mirthil Hammer (3220), Recipe Scroll (1200)
+60 damage
-6 armor to enemy target, 5 second duration
Corruption is the Orb of choice and here’s why: By the time you complete Stygian, you are no longer a solo hero. Face it, Kardel is not meant to be a 1v1. You are now helping your team in battles, pushes, ganks, and defense. Desolator helps your team termendeously in reducing enemy’s EHP, and it fits your role as a damage dealer. Your long range also helps you to stay out of trouble YET still contributing a great deal im team battles. In addition, the hammers in themselves are good value damage items.
Eaglehorn (3400), Quarterstaff (1150), Recipe Scroll (1800)
+60 damage
+60% IAS
+4.28 armor
30% Evasion
I expect Butterfly to be nerfed in the near future because as it is right now it’s a very good item that almost all AGI heroes are going to get. However this item will probably remain in the item build. Because of Boot of Travel, you desperately need the IAS and +60% is indeed nice. Evasion helps you up a great deal since you are so fragile, and gives you a decent amount of damage. Great item on Kardel as of 6.42.
Messerschmidt’s Reaver (3200), Vitality Booster (1100), Recipe Scroll (1200)
+965 HP
+12.05 HP/sec regeneration
I think I’m going to get a lot of flak for getting Heart of Tarrasque but keep in mind first of all that most games will end by the time you finish your Butterfly. If the game is still going on, at this point your priority should be to increase your EHP. With Aegis gone, Heart is the obvious choice to toughen you up.
[ Hand of Midas - Hood of Defiance – Buriza-do Kyanon ]
Gloves of Haste (610), Recipe Scroll (1400)
+30% increased attack speed
Activate: Transmute
With the game going at a faster rate, I feel that Hand of Midas is no longer mandatory. This is especially because you are rushing desolator as your first big damage item and Hand of Midas can delay it eventhough you will ended up getting your money back. One thing for sure, it does replaces your missing IAS from not getting Treads. And if you use it on every cooldown, you will get your money back in less than 30 minutes.
If you do decide to get Hand of Midas, please complete this ASAP to maximize its return.
Here’s the table with your top 8 bounty:
Therefore, it is a general rule that if feasible, go to the neutrals and convert the higher level creeps mentioned above for more gold. If you are transmuting normal creeps, transmute the range creep as they +10 more gold on average than the melee creeps.
2*Ring of Regeneration (2*375), Planeswalker’s Cloak (650), Helm of Ironwill (950)
+8 HP/sec
30% spell reduction
Its pretty odd that they make Helm of Ironwill a part of this item when the armor bonus is gone afterward. I think they might as well replace it with recipe scroll. However, this item is your winning ticket against hardcore nukers. If you are facing more than 1 nuker in the enemy team, I suggest you replace 1 bracer with this item instead.
Crystalis (2350), Demon Edge (2600), Recipe Scroll (1250)
+75 Damage
20% Chance 2.2x Damage Multiplier
I doubt 99% of games will reach this point, but should it happen, I think Buriza is the natural choice at this point to amplify your DPS.
Desolator is preffered over S&Y and Skadi because the other two does a crappy job in boosting your DPS, simple as that. With the game designed to be faster, it is important to boost your damage as early as possible, thus makes it non-viable to go either S&Y or Skadi anymore. Yes I do realize that Desolator ‘reveals’ your bullets, however at this stage of the game you are no longer playing Hide-and-Seek anymore. Moreover, Desolator is cheaper than both S&Y and Skadi
Yes, we finally do away with MKB, after I give in to the fact that its not the best DPS item on Kardel because he already has Headshot. You are not getting 30% chance of +90 bonus damage anymore, instead only 18% ( (100%-40%) * 30% ). The principal is similar to why heroes with innate criticals should not get Buriza.
I am really struggling with this. Being a DPS hero without Steroid spell unlike Clinx, Razor, & Viper, I am really leaning toward Treads to give you the much needed IAS boost. However, ultimately, the unlimited teleportation wins out. In addition, +30 IMS is more crucial than +35% IAS for Kardel, being one of the slower heroes. I understand this point might be debatable, but game experiences should tell you that map control is the upmost importance in winning the game.
Since I know I’m getting a lot of flak for the Desolator choice Lets take a moment and throw some numbers around to see whether it’s really worth the hype I’m making it to be.
How important is keeping your shot ‘invisible’?
This seems to be a good half of the argument against Desolator, that it ‘reveals’ your attacks. We all know Sniper has a very subtle attack animation, which allows him to land a few shots before being detected by enemies. By ‘revealing’ your shots, the argument is that enemies now will focus fire you.
My take on it is this: Are the enemies only going to focus fire you if your shots are visible? Personally, if there’s a Sniper in the enemy team, I’m going to make sure we focus fire on him no matter what, whenever possible. The only time ‘invisible’ attacks helps you is in hiding your location IF you are out of enemy’s sight to begin with. The most common real-game situations that this applies to are in defensive situations, as in offense you will probably be in the main lane, and in ganks there’s no point to be hiding.
If you are backstabbing an enemy from the trees and you are alone, invisible attack wouldn’t help much because he will try to locate you in the trees and rape you then. If you have an ally(es), invisible attacks wont matter because they will hopefully take the attention away.
My personal conclusion is this: Invisible attacks is nice, but sacrificing it for corruption is more than worthwhile.
Can you give me numbers to chew on?
We’re going to look at some numbers & formulas to see whether Desolator is really that effective in boosting your DPS. Thanks to the Dota simulator in this forum, we have the attack-per-second number. Please don’t be intimidated by the formulas, they are quite simple if you take the time to look at them.
I’ve seen numerous ways people present the DPS calculation, however the most accurate numbers in my opinion is how many HP/sec does the enemy lose? This is ultimately what determines how fast you are killing them.
The simplified formula to determine loss HP/sec is X / ( 1 + 0.06B ), where X is your DPS, and B is the enemy’s final armor.
Lets assume the target has 10 armor, this means B will be 10 without Desolator, and 4 with Desolator.
Lets assume that Kardel is level 16 with 2 Bracers. His damage will be 83. Without any other IAS items, he is dealing .97 attack per second.
Headshot gives 40% chance of 50 damage which translates to 20 damage per attack.
Desolator | (4420)
Total damage = 143, Attack Per Second = .97
Gross DPS = (143+20) * .97 = 158.11
Target will lose 158.11 / (1.24) = 127.51 HP/sec
MKB | (5400)
Total damage 158, attack per second = 1.05 ( after 15% IAS )
MKB gives 18% (because of headshot) * 90 = 16.2 per attack
Gross DPS = (158+20+16.2) * 1.05 = 203.91
Target will lose 203.91/1.6 = 127.44 HP/sec
Buriza | (6200)
Total damage 158, attack per second = .97
Buriza gives 20% chance for 2.2X attack, which equals to 6.2 attack for every 5 attack, which equals (6.2-5)/5 = 24% bonus damage per attack.
Gross DPS = ( (158 * 1.24) + 20) * 0.97 = 209.44
Target will lose 209.44/1.6 = 130.9 HP/sec
Butterfly | (6350)
Total damage 143, attack per second = 1.32 (after 60% IAS)
Gross DPS = (143+20) * 1.32 = 215.16
Target lose 214.16/1.6 = 134.475 HP/sec
S&Y | (5100)
Total damage 115, attack per second 1.18
Gross DPS = (115+20) * 1.18 = 159.3
Target lose 159.3/1.6 = 99.56 HP /sec
Skadi | (7050)
damage 108, attack per second 1.11
gross DPS = (108+20) * 1.11 = 142.08
Target lose 142.08/1.6 = 88.8 HP/sec
As you can clearly see, Desolator is clearly the best DPS item for your money. The only item that give you more DPS is Buriza & Butterfly, and both of those costs almost 2K more gold than Desolator. And we havent even talked about the fact that reducing armor also amplified the damage of your teamates.
I wont bore you with more formulas, but after you have Desolator, Butterfly is your best DPS item. If Sniper if level 22 and the enemy now has armor of 12, getting Butterfly make Sniper deals 269.14 HP/sec loss, while MKB and Buriza give results of 234.88 HP/sec and 265.64 HP/sec respectively.
Whatever your reason is, there’s bound to be some of you who refuse to get Desolator for one reason or another. If you must skip Desolator then I suggest an alternative, and that is to rush Butterfly followed by Buriza-do Kyanon. 1v1-wise, this combo actually deals a little more damage than Desolator+Butterfly combo (for almost 2k more gold, of course). Remember that on Sniper, Buriza is always going to give you more damage than MKB, especially when you get it as a second DPS item.
Early game is extremely crucial for Kardel. If you feed from early on, its extremely difficult to play catch up with your team.
When the game begin, get your Circlets & Tangos and see if you can get mid lane. You can even solo mid if you are comfortable with your teamates. If you are playing pub, let your teamates know that you want them to holler if any hero is missing. You are very fragile and an early game gank would easily kill you.
Do not be afraid if you find yourself soloing against 2 heroes, especially if not both of them are nukers / range. You should be happier if neither of them have nukes.
You should be able to easily assess the skill of your enemy from the first couple of waves. How do they attack? Are they randomly attacking or are they last hitting & denying? What happen when you land a shot on them, do they immediately retreat (cautious), do they attack back (aggressive), or do they just stand there as if nothing happen? (dumb)
Establishing your Early Game dominance.
Kardel is one of the better Lane Controller because of his superior range and his annoying Headshot. Beat your enemies to Last Hit & Denies. Harass them when they try to land last hits. If he does not have a nuke, he will probably move back, at which point you then go to the side of your melee creeps and continue to attack him if he comes back. This way you are pushing your enemy outside of the EXP range, which results in him being underleveled.
If you see that a nuker is moving toward you, move back. This requires you to have a basic knowledge of what spells your enemy has and how much mana they have & whether they can afford to cast their spells on you. If you are facing Ogre Magi or CM for example, and he/she is moving toward you, you can probably assume that he/she’s going to fireblast/frost nova you, therefore move back. You have superior range, so you shouldn’t be having lots of trouble. Hang back a bit and consume your Tango if you’re in trouble.
If you are in red health, assess your opponents whether he has the capacity to kill you with his spells. If you have a nuker in your lane, its not a good idea to hang around, retreat to your fountain & heal. Buy a town portal and teleport back to your lane.
Using your range for your advantage
If you are in mid lane, it is a good idea to get obs. Ward to grant you vision of the uphill. I think its still worth it eventhough wards are very expensive now. Why? Because this makes it easier for you to control your lane because eventhough you have range, its doing you no good if you cant seem the enemies because they are out of your sight. I’ll post a screenie when I have time.
Early Game kill with Take Aim, Headshot, and Assassinate
The fun begins when you hit level 6. Quickly check your enemy’s health and whether you can finish him with assassinante. If you are soloing on the side lanes and your enemy is hanging around with half health and he is NOT a nuker / without escape mechasnism and especially melee, you may try to backstab him from these following spots:
Just go right behind him with sufficient range and start shooting at him. Make sure you predict the creep wave (do not attack when the creeps are gone as that means the new wave is coming and will attack you). If he runs away and you cant catch up then cast your assassinate. Remember that level 1 assassinate will kill enemies when he’s below 266 health providing he has no planeswalker cloak. However, to be safe, wait until his health go down to 250 because it will regenerate by the time your bullet is leashed.
A side note, since runes are available every 2 minutes, check the time and plan your backstab accordingly. A double damage / haste / invible runes can translate into a free kill as well.
In the example above I just started shooting at Bloodseeker when he came close to the creeps. You cant see it too clear in the first picture, but Headshot actually kicked in which helped me to take his HP down. Sensing danger, he ran away, which of course, is too late.
Some things about assassinate:
- Do not use Assassinate to KS, for goodness’ sake. If your SA ally has been blink striking Zeus and there’s no way Zeus’s gonna escape, then don’t even try Assassinating him. Give kills to whom kills belong and your teammates will respect you for that.
- Because of your Assassinate’s range, Observer wards can be extremely useful.
- Assassinate is also good to be used to soften up heroes when you know you cant take them 1v1 and you are alone.
Although you have a far Assassinate range, you will lose your target if he moves out of your line of sight into the fog of war. Therefore, planting wards at strategic locations will definitely help you out. Please give me some time to find a proper screenshots to illustrate this. The basic principle is to put these wards in locations where your enemies will likely pass when they run away.
When you’re defending that tower and your allies are busy elsewhere, Assassinate the pushing enemies to soften them up. Hopefully you made them rethink their plan.
Once you get your Boot of travel, look for opportunities to help your teamates in battles. Should your enemies try to push the mid lane early, teleport to help your ally and hopefully net some kills from fleeing heroes.
Nothing much change in the gameplay in mid game. By this time assess whether your team is losing or winning, or whether the game is stale.
If you are having trouble with your mana, its advisable to grab a Sobi mask ~ it will help.
Be very wary that you are most likely the prime target of ganks. Most enemies will target you for ganking at some point in the game, especially when you’re pushing alone. Most enemies will target you first in team battles. Anticipate this beforehand & let your teamates know. I actually feel when that SA / Clinx backstab you in the midst of team battles, its better to run INTO the battle rather than trying to leave the scene because most likely your teammate wont run back to help you out when they’re busy in a team battle.
As soon as you have Desolator start sticking together with your teamates, as corruption is meant to be shared.
Scattershot-ing wisely
Once you have level 3 Scattershot (whenever it is), you may start using it to clear creep waves or neutrals. Scattershot is one of the most newbie-friendly skill, however it doesn’t meant that there’s not a wrong way to do it. To do a proper scattershot at the creep waves, you need to have proper positioning and timing.
First, notice the first picture. Ignore the X as it was confirmed that it doesn’t mean anything. cattershot’s damage is simply random in an AOE of 360. Just make sure to get all the creeps inside the circle.
Secondly, do not blast your scattershot immediately. This is probably the biggest mistake scattershot users do because by doing so your creeps will KS you. Wait until the creeps engage, and weaken the enemy creep by manually shooting at the every creep once and then immediately release your scattershot after counting to three.
The last part is to always check your mana pool to make sure that you have enough to Teleport away should you be backstabbed.
Scattershot should NOT replace last-hitting. This is especially crucial early game as you want to keep the creeps on your side as much as possible. This is why we delay Scatter until mid-late game. Use it to clear neutrals, or to clear creeps quickly before retreating / teleporting to join pushes / defenses.
Scattershot is excellent for defense. You should be leaping for joy when a Broodmother / KOTL / Enigma is pushing with all their minions as Scattershot would wipe them out very quickly.
Assassinating Wind Walking enemies
When you play Kardel and your enemies are Wind Walking heroes like Clinx, Gondar, or any hero with invisibility, do not fret. Although in 1v1 you’re very susceptible to Backstab, in team battles you will put an end to their royal plan where they think they can just run away whenever they want with Wind Walk. How so? Because Assassinate sees the invisible. This applies to Clinx, Gondar, SA, Rootfellen, Broodmother, POTM, and any other heroes with Lothar. The key is to make sure you target them JUST AS they are windwalking / going invisible.
[click image for larger picture]In these screenshots, I & my ally SK were pushing the Bottom scourge towers & Gondar came to defend.
In the second picture you can see that Gondar, sensing that his chance to win the battle is slim, decided to WW away. He thought he was safe, however you can see from the status bar that he’s about to die. I targeted him for an Assassinate. So he did die.Backstabbing Lone enemy
As you farm in early mid game stage, watch for enemy who is foolish enough to push too deep by himself. In high level matches this wont happen, but in lower level ones this OFTEN happen, so keep your eyes open. The following screenshot illustrates a perfect backstab attack.
[click image for larger picture]In the first screenshot you see where I am in the map (notified by the red dot.) I was farming at the bottom lane when I saw Razor pushing by himself. I made my move and prepare to backstab him.
On the second screen you see we engaged. I get a few shots at him before he saw me there and the tower was helping me out too. A perfect set-up.
The third screenshot you see Razor realizing he’s got no chance against me and the tower and run away.
Notice from the map that I’m very far behind him but since I have vision I have no problem casting my assassinate.
The Art of Tree-Shooting
What is Kardel’s role in team battle? You should have discovered it by now. Your role is to stay away from the main battle while taking your enemies down one by one and unleashing Assassinate to finish running heroes. One way you can do this nicely is by what I call ‘Tree-Shooting’ This is feasible before you complete your Desolator that ‘reveals’ your bullets.
Tree-Shooting simply means shooting from the trees. The idea is that WHENEVER POSSIBLE, don’t shoot from the main lane that’s visible to your enemies, but shoot from unsuspectable locations instead. You have 770 range and some that can go pretty far. This can be done effectively when you are defending enemies’ push or attacking with your team. With your near invisible shots in the middle of chaotic battle, most enemies wont realize that you were there, slowly killing them.
[click image for larger picture]In the screenshot above, Lycan was charging to my noob ally Medusa, not knowing I was there to defend him. I asked medusa to purge him while I kept shooting.
Finally realizing that I was around, Lycan tried to back off. It was of course too late.
Tree Shooting can be done in various places in the map. Be creative, and look for spots behind the trees before you go into battle. The following are some spots that are pretty common, obviously there are more spots in the Sentinel section for this.
The spots with yellow dots are the area you can shoot from in team battles. Make sure that you are coming in from directions where your enemies cant see that you are there.
Hopefully you are close to finish your butterfly at this time. Continue to do what you are doing, play smart, don’t go gung-hoo as you are still the number one targeted hero in your team regardless.
The Art of mind games
As you organize your pushes there’s bound to be times where its just not going well as planned. Enemies ready to defend at their towers, all AOE spells casted, one of your ally misclicked and ran into the enemies & got killed, you name it. Which then usually resulted in a retreat. This is when mind games comes to play.. because what you want is for your enemies to THINK that you are retreating, when you are not.The basic principle is never go home empty handed. Empty out your mana before you retreat to the fountain & heal. Always cast assassinate if possible before you retreat.
If your team is retreating after pushing mid and the enemies are pushing back, check if there’s one of them with low health for assassinate. Level 3 assassinate can kill enemies with 491 HP and its not uncommon in the excitement of the battle for enemies to continue to chase eventhough he has lower than 500 HP when he thinks he has his allies to protect him. In that case, make it look like you are retreating, but go the the river instead (make sure they don’t see you) as follows:
Then if they are not chasing you to the river (most likely they wont), aim your assassinate to the low-health hero. After you net your kill teleport yourself into safety.
A well played early-mid game ensures a pleasant late game play, a confucionist once said. If you deny/harass effectively and getting kills plentifully, late game play should be a breeze for you. Remember your role is to be your team’s damager from AFAR. Let your tank / assassin barge into the battle first and support them from a distance. With your high damage, you should be able to help your team to victory.
There are plenty of allies Kardel can work well with. A tank like SK, Lucy, Centaur, or Leviathan will drive the attention away from you. However there are some specific ones worthy to be mentioned.
CM, Traxex, & Rhasta are ideal lane partner with Kardel because of their disable / slow. You should be able to kill enemies when you are paired with any of these three. Just shoot shoot shoot while they are disable, and assassinate if they runs away.
SA + Kardel combo is very fun because as SA chases down the enemy, you can unleash your Assassinate to aid him.
Ah, where do one begin. Kardel’s low HP makes him an easy target if you don’t play carefully. In fact, most guides list Kardel in the ‘free food’ section because well, he’s simply fragile.
Clinx, SA, PA, Magina, SB, Ursa, Balanar, Lycan. There is almost no way that you will be able to engage them 1v1 when they get a head start on attacking you. Therefore be very careful, always watch the minimap to get an idea where they are. If they are nowhere to be seen, then be extra cautious and stick with your allies.
Countering SpiritBreaker - SB is truly one of the cheapest hero in the game. To counter him, first you need to stick with your allies. Secondly you need to cary a Town Portal scroll with you all the time before you have your boot of travel. Watch your status frequently so you know when you’re being charged. When you see that happen, Immediately Teleport yourself back to safety. If your allies are near, then call for help, and as soon as he appears proceed with the gank.
Countering Sand King - Sand King and his BurrowStrike - Epicenter can be definitely be a pain to low HP agility heroes such as Kardel. Do remember however that you have Headshot which cancels his Epicenter if it hits when he’s stil casting it. So look at your situations. If it is 1v1 and its still fairly early game, immediately run out of his Epicenter range. If its late game where you have higher AS or you have no chance to survive anyway, then immediately start shooting at him and hope that Headshot will cancel his ultimate. Seen this happen many times before. If he has BKB on, well just don’t get near him.
Countering Juggernaut & Luna – Stick with your alies / creeps to soften up their ultimate. If you see Juggernaut start to bladefury and you have no allies, immediately teleport to safety.
Countering Nukers – Hood of Defiance.
Having problems against a good sniper player? Here’s a few suggestions:
1. Take away Kardel’s range advantage
Unless you’re clearly dealing more damage per second, do not attempt to go gungho on a range duel vs Kardel. Backstab is the most effective way to kill Kardel. This can be done by the old-school surprise attack from behind, Invisibility, or blink.
2. DO NOT let him farm.
I am extremely pissed everytime we lost a game to enemy team that has a beefed up sniper who’s killing us because he was allowed to farm all game & my teamates didnt want to gank him. Initiate ganks to sniper - he’s weak & has no escape mechasnism, make life hard for him early on.
3. Take precautionary measures to counter his ultimate.
This is extremely hard to do in team battles since thats Kardel’s specialist. A good Kardel player will most likely get 1 kill from his assassinate in a team battle. But when going 1v1 and your HP is red, you know that running away is useless. Therefore, as soon as he stop shooting and assumes sniping position, use that window of opportunity to disable him. Hex & stun would cancel his ultimate and then you can run away. You can also get Linken or BKB and use that to block assassinate. Lastly, you can also try to get outside of assassinate’s range provided that none of his allies are chasing you. Also if any of your teamates own Mekasm tell them to use the heal the moment you see yourself targeted. There should be time to do this as assassinate has pretty long casting time.
4. In team battles, identify locations where Kardel might shoot from & target him first.
This is extremely important. If Kardel does not modify his shot, you will most likely not notice him shooting at you while you’re focusing on the main lane. In fact, I would recommend to send out a scout, prefferably a disabler / nuker, to go around the main lane where the team battle is about to assemble and surprise Kardel there.
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