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Content Foreword ....................................................................................................................................... 4

What is DotA 2- Defense of the Ancients 2? ................................................................................. 5

The goal. .................................................................................................................................... 5

Mechanics. ................................................................................................................................ 5

The field. .................................................................................................................................... 5

Lanes and creeps. .................................................................................................................. 6

Towers and backdoor protection. ......................................................................................... 8

High ground. .......................................................................................................................... 8

Ambush and hideouts. .......................................................................................................... 9

Shops. .................................................................................................................................... 9

Neutrals. ................................................................................................................................ 9

Items. ....................................................................................................................................... 10

Courier & wards. ................................................................................................................. 10

Damage, armor, disables and escapes. ............................................................................... 10

Regeneration, mana, stack, complement (unique attack modifier), buff and debuff. ....... 11

Heroes and power build .............................................................................................................. 11

Strength heroes. .................................................................................................................. 12

Agility heroes. ...................................................................................................................... 12

Intelligence heroes. ............................................................................................................. 12

Carry. ................................................................................................................................... 12

Disabler................................................................................................................................ 12

Lane support........................................................................................................................ 12

Initiator. ............................................................................................................................... 13

Jungler. ................................................................................................................................ 13

Support. ............................................................................................................................... 13

Durable. ............................................................................................................................... 13

Nuker. .................................................................................................................................. 13

Pusher. ................................................................................................................................. 13

Escape. ................................................................................................................................. 13

Hard carry. ........................................................................................................................... 14

Hard support. ...................................................................................................................... 14

Semi-carry. .......................................................................................................................... 14

Ganker. ................................................................................................................................ 14

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Roamer. ............................................................................................................................... 14

Offlaner. .............................................................................................................................. 14

The DotA 2 no-noes ............................................................................................................. 26

Hero behavior ...................................................................................................................... 28

Tactics .......................................................................................................................................... 32

Fundamentals of warfare ........................................................................................................ 32

Elements of combat power ................................................................................................. 32

Principles of War ................................................................................................................. 33

The tenets of army operations ............................................................................................ 34

Draft – Line up – Positions .................................................................................................. 35

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Foreword

This isn’t only a guide, it’s an invitation: Sign up. Enjoy DotA with the rest of us. Look

for it, subscribe, download, connect… and celebrate.

If chess is the mind game, football the beautiful game, then DotA is the fantastic game,

and it’s here to stay. How can I tell? Well, it basically remains being the same it was over ten

years ago. That isn’t long enough, some will say, and by a long shot; but, nowadays, when

things last six months, and New Year ’s Eve gifts become passé by August, then you have to

pack a powerful punch to last over a decade, and ‘Defense of the Ancients’ is one of those hard

packing entertainment punches.

Many have claimed that it is difficult, that some people just can’t play it, and that it

takes too long to learn the basics. I disagree with those people. All games can’t be played by all

people, but most games can be played by a large majority, and that should be enough.

Basically, DotA should be a feast for most gamers, old (the first generation of gamers is now

over forty) and new. I’m part of the older group and since I’m a better writer than a DotA

player (I can hold my own, but I’m not a star—actually, I like to think I’ve gotten pretty good), I

decided to write this guide for the use of those reluctant to enter the game, as well as the new

and old players of DotA, and for those that seem to stumble with its rules—as I’ve found

plenty of those players within the game—or for anyone willing to read a little to get better at

something. I hope this helps any, and all.

Old guys like me, and hopefully a bunch of the new, would rather have a downloadable

document, as in a pdf format, when the information is over an article length. You know, like a

book-thingy, rather than an entry in a blog or a page in a website. Not to mention that there

are like a gazillion guides out there, which have their use, but also mean you have to wade

through a lot of material in order to get just the basics, because so many aspects of the game

are discussed in a detail unnecessary for the newcomer; so, I wanted to have a document with

all the basics in it; couldn’t find one, until now, so I decided to write it, and celebrate ‘DotA’ by

doing so.

As a late comer to DotA, I’m surprised by what I found, and I’m clapping.

That said, on with the guide.

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What is DotA 2- Defense of the Ancients 2?

The goal. Well, DotA 2 is an online multiplayer game where two teams, of five heroes each,

try to destroy the other team’s main base (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena, MOBA, is the

name given to this type of game, now). That’s it. In chess, the objective is to checkmate your

rival’s king, in DotA the goal of the game is to destroy your enemy’s headquarters, called

‘ancient’ in DotA lingo, also known as thrones. Although this is the most basic step some

people seem to have missed it. Allow me to be clear, all that you do has to be done with this

goal in sight: destroying their ancient, ripping the throne to shreds. The game is not about

killing heroes, I’ve seen plenty of slaughter fests turn sour when, after taking too much

pummeling, the enemy’s team preferred to dodge the onslaught of attackers and head straight

for the opposing team’s ancient.

Some people think that the killing numbers shown on their heap up displays are some

sort of scoreboard. Na-ah, it isn’t so. Killings matter, they are gold, experience; but beyond a

certain number, if the enemy suddenly organizes better, no matter the kill advantage you

have, they can still roll over your creeps, your towers, your ancient and your team. Thus: you

were winning in kills; but the other team won the game. That’s how it’s played. Remember:

what you want to do is raze the enemy’s throne, their heroes just happen to be on the way

(More about this on tactics).

In the game, the names of the teams are standard, there is one who’s the Dire—these

used to be the bad guys in the original DotA—and the Radiant—the former good guys. Dire is

always topside right, and Radiant is bottom left.

Mechanics. So, it’s five heroes against other five, plus the aid of your respective friendly

creep waves. As your hero comes into battle you must struggle to obtain gold and experience.

Money will allow you to buy items of all kinds, these can power you up in several ways, or heal

you, give you mana, and so on; experience allows your character to grow, to gain powers, or

levels that improve your overall strength, intelligence or agility (more about this on ‘Heroes’).

You’ll get experience by: killing enemy creeps, enemy heroes, or neutral creeps. The

experience, or XP, is divided evenly between those near the kill, within a 1300 radius. The XP

given by the death of enemy creeps is received only by the other faction; but the death of

neutrals is divided evenly between those near it, of both factions if that’s the case, dire and

radiant.

You may also obtain gold in a variety of ways. First, you get gold every second—like a

money counting clock—, you also get gold if you’re the last one to hit the attacking creep, or

neutral, this is known as ‘last-hitting’, and it is a skill you have to learn; it isn’t that difficult, just

a matter of rhythm. The enemy towers provide you with lots of cash, for the whole team,

when you destroy them. Killing the enemy courier can provide funds for your whole team as

well. Finally, you also get money by killing heroes, which is divided among those that helped

bring the hero down and those near the kill, plus a bonus for the one who got the last hit.

The field. This battle will take place in a half badlands (the dire side, at the top) half forest

land (the radiant side, at the bottom), your field of DotA. The esthetic of ‘the radiant’ is linked

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to nature, they seem to have a positive plant theme, lots of bright green; that of the dire is the

opposite, rocky, inhospitable, all their trees seem to be sick, brown and gloomy looking.

However, as different as they are visually, the designers went to great extremes to make those

two sides as even as possible, giving no real field advantage to either side. And it works; your

chances of winning with either side are about the same whether you turn out to be Dire or

Radiant. There are six facts that you should take into account when it comes to this territory:

1) lanes and creeps, 2) towers, 3) high ground, 4) ambush and hideouts, 5) shops, 6) neutrals,

a.k.a. ‘jungle’, in no particular order—although we will see them in orderly manner.

Lanes and creeps. There are three

lanes in DotA: top, mid, bottom. Same

code, equal words, for Dire and

Radiant; but, in essence, they are

mirror images of each other. If you go

top, as a radiant, you’ll want to go

bottom, as a dire. Each side is the

exact, almost, opposite, of the other.

The only difference between those

two is that the Dire side is closer to

Roshan; but this minimal difference

can’t affect the game, you never lose

by 0.9th of a kill, you get slaughtered,

pummeled, gored and cursed. And

even if you lose by a second, they

didn’t get that second by being closer,

or further, from the Roshan (More about this creature, Roshan, in ‘neutrals’).

The lane is where your friendly lane creeps will be moving through. Wave after wave of

creeps comes out of your base, and all will only follow those paths. They spawn next to the

barracks and always head straight for the enemy’s base. At first, they are four creeps, three

melee and one ranged, but this changes as the game progresses, adding a siege unit, a melee

or ranged, as time deadlines are met. They also get stronger over time, and whenever an

opposing barrack is destroyed. And because enemy creeps are such an important source of

money and experience, basically means that ‘lane’ differences determine how you are going to

obtain said gold and skills.

Keep in mind that no lane is the same; each of them asks for a different behavior and

provides distinct opportunities. Using the radiant side as reference, I’ll now review each.

Top/Hard lane or offlane (Radiant—Bottom for the Dire) It is the shortest lane, the hard

lane, because your creeps, the backup of non heroes, will advance the furthest from your own

territory as they meet with the enemy’s wave. However, if you were to do nothing more than

defend, you’d be the closest to your base, and, if you stay close to your tower, chances of

getting ganked (killed by a gang-attack, group, of enemies) are very limited. And, if you must,

you can also come back to the fountain, which is located behind your throne, to replenish life

and mana.

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Slow heroes, such as Broodmother, could pick this lane, for it’s the shortest walk. You

should also have in mind that the enemy’s ample jungle lies just ahead of you, those that

control neutrals could make use of them… but, beware, it’s still enemy territory. Outside of

your own land, a little further from your tower, you’re a juicy ham with a wallet, everybody

wants to kill you, and have your money. And that is the problem, because the creepwave

meets half way, chances are you’ll be more than two steps away from home when you begin

to last hit; and the trees, secondary ways, surrounding you, give plenty of room for the enemy

to lay an ambush and take your life and money. Remember the ‘fog of war’, sight capacity, so

important in strategy, and MOBA games. The forest, here, hides the enemy, and makes you so,

so visible.

Mid lane (same for both) Space wise there’s nothing of note concerning mid lane, the main

issue here being the way it’s used. Mid lane, most of the time, involves solo laning; a single

hero, this means more money and experience for it because the experience (EXP) isn’t divided

between those near, and the hero has more chances of getting last hits on creeps, thus getting

more money. This can make the mid-hero the killing machine later on, or allow it to help

attack, gank, top or bottom lanes, as it already has a higher level (EXP) and more items

(money) than the heroes elsewhere.

Bottom/safe lane or easy (Radiant—Top for Dire) Although the farthest from your base,

Bottom lane is considered the safe one, or easy one, because your creeps won’t advance that

far into the enemy camp, giving you their protection, and making the enemy come to your

territory. The trees around the lane give you ample opportunity to gank them, as the opposite

team enters your land.

This lane should go to the characters that need lots of farm—money from last hits—or

the squishy ones, too weak early to take risks elsewhere. This is the lane for the pampered

heroes, a place where a character can grow strong, as safely as possible.

This said about the lanes, don’t forget that they can be used in a number of ways; but

more about that on tactics.

Creeps. In this battle, both teams have the support of ‘creeps’, which are units spawned on

your respective bases; your auto troops, because you can’t control them. Basically, there are

three kinds of creep units: melee, ranged, and siege. They start as teams of four, with 3 melee

units and 1 ranged. The most valuable unit is the siege, the ranged comes second; but it

appears more often, and the melee unit is the cheapest. The creep waves have their own

rhythm, for example, siege units appear every seventh wave (but I wonder how could you use

this data in some way?).

Creeps are important, useful, and can help you win a game.

At the early stages of the match, you can use the creeps as allies in battle and cannon

fodder. They are there and be aware of their presence. Move using them, as cover, as

supports, and remember those of the enemy. Be mindful of both creepwaves. At the

beginning, all heroes can take considerable damage from creeps and towers, so don’t

underestimate them. Avoid them if you have to, mingle if it’s useful, they are part of your team

and you can count with them. You always have to use a creep wave to take down the first

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enemy towers; their help is crucial. Don’t forget that their vision is yours, and their

intermittent presence is an important part of the game.

Creeps will grow in number and strength as the game progresses, but ten minutes in,

most players will forget them, because they have ceased to be a threat. This will drive players

to push when they shouldn’t, having to return to their own creepwave once they realize this

mistake. You don’t have to be a creep slave, but it helps to be mindful of their presence and

absence, to acknowledge their rhythm, even if it’s to break it and surprise the enemy. And, if

you are one of those characters that can move around the map, also be aware of the creep

mirror image that you can farm. Remember: your creeps are money and experience for the

enemy, and their creeps are the same for you. (More about this on tactics)

Finally, you have gone up, you have destroyed the barracks, top, mid or bottom,

doesn’t matter, there’s no need to push that lane any further, your mega creeps will begin to

do their work. Let them do it. Of course, you can always invade that lane for one final push,

surely, but, most of the times, it’s easier to destroy another couple of barracks than face the

whole enemy team plus two towers (forget about this if you’ve owned the other team from

the start). Megacreeps, besides being stronger, are also worth half the money, this means that

the enemy is getting much less gold now, even if they’re working much harder to defeat the

megacreep waves. Use this to your advantage, don’t rush it, use them; take your hero team

away from your megacreep lane, now that you have it, you’ve given yourselves this

opportunity, to push elsewhere. Or, on the other hand, use their tough skin to mount a final

push on the enemies’ ancient.

Towers and backdoor protection. Towers are one of your main objectives in the game, only by destroying them will you be able to defeat your enemy. Towers give you creepwave control and vision. Whenever you lose one, you’ve given more space/vision to your enemies (if they know how to use it); but you also made your creepwave move a bit closer to your own land and farther away from theirs, which is something too many players forget. Basically, you’ve lost a tower but a new chance for farming has appeared. Towers are valued on nearness to your fountain, the farthest being the cheapest (farthest is tier 1); but still worth a bunch of valuable gold, no less than 160 gold for the third tier towers. Throughout the game, no matter what amount, money is always welcomed. Destroying a tower gives gold to all heroes no matter where they are, and even if they are dead.

You can only destroy towers in order (tier 1 first, then you can move to tier 2, and so on), those behind are invulnerable. Also, those behind a creepwave have backdoor protection, which will make them regenerate hitpoints at a rate that will make it fruitless to attack them early on; just wait for your creepwave. Towers behave according to priority targets (this is known as their ‘aggro’, or aggression programming), attacking an enemy hero near it, for example, will make you a target of the tower, or if you attack the tower itself; you can reset this by attacking a friendly creep, because suddenly you won’t be attacking the hero, or the tower, so, it has to change its priority target.

The enemy’s ancient enjoys the same backdoor protection as the towers, this prevents you from sneaking into their base, while no creeps are near, and try to end the game by surprise. High ground. Often ignored, this is a decisive feature of DotA 2, the high ground gives the ones upon it an advantage over those below. First, you have a vision of your enemy while they can’t see you, this means you can surprise them or dodge their attacks; second, those below

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will miss their ranged attacks by as much as a 25% chance per attack, while those from above won’t miss at all. High ground is found throughout the terrain. Some people refer to their base as the ‘high ground’, but that is only true insofar as the throne, or base, is also high ground; but it isn’t the only one. Wherever you see a step going up or one going down, you have high ground near or are on top of it, and that means there is a place that can give you an advantage in a fight. Ambush and hideouts. A look at the DotA 2 field will show you three clear lanes, the radiant and dire bases, the secret shop, a river and many winding paths between the main ways; but beyond the traveled areas there are plenty of going-to-nowhere trails that are extremely useful for escaping from a threat, or hiding and ambushing your foes. Do not look at the tree areas as just decoration, or places you can’t walk on, they are chances and opportunities that can save you or help you in killing your foes. Wander around, learn those places and remember how useful they can be. Shops. You have 3 shops to every side. The main shop, in your base; the ‘secret shop’ in the middle of your own forest, containing some crucial elements, most of which you can’t find anywhere else; and the side shop, to your right for radiant, on the safe lane. The only advice I can give concerning the shops is that you should try to exploit them properly. Basically: do not ignore the side shop, it’s really useful for many things, especially at the beginning of the game for many kinds of boots. Why wait for the courier when you have what you need right there? Besides, this allows mid to have more time with the courier. Also, if you are trapped in your base, use the courier to get the stuff you need from the secret shop, risking the courier isn’t one tenth as bad as risking your hero’s life. Neutrals. Your forest is filled with creatures known as ‘neutrals’, and they are very useful in a number of ways. Remember that XP and gold are very important, and that you get XP divided equally on a radius, and gold if you last hit. Now, if you have two heroes on a lane they’ll compete for last hits and have the XP divided by two, if one of those heroes moves away from the lane and into the jungle, with one simple move, you have almost doubled your XP acquisition rate. That’s the main use of the jungle: XP and gold. With no creeps on your side, and no other hero, you’ll always get the last hits and the gold of any creep camp you attack. Creeps come in different difficulty levels. There’s easy, medium, and the ancient camp. As they are harder they become more valuable; but the difficulty also allows some characters to farm at the very beginning, by the attacking the least difficult creeps. You can also stack the neutrals of a given camp, even the camp of the ancients. Creeps spawn in your jungle at the 30 second mark, then, if killed or emptied, the creeps will re-spawn every minute on the mark. You can use this characteristic to stack a camp. All you have to do is harass one of the creatures, some seconds before the minute mark, they will follow you out of their camp and if they empty it another group of neutrals will spawn in the camp, and you can try this trick every minute; then, most of the time, it’s given to your carry to farm. Even the most humble neutrals can give you some worthy amount of money, stacking ancients can be a game changer. Another use of the neutral camps is as a recruitment booth for those heroes that can control neutrals or creeps (for the Chens, the Enchantresses, and their like). Every single type or unit will come with a particular buff or benefit, and some can help your whole team with a powerful passive (such as the Alpha wolf), or at the very least a needed extra stun or more vision. Finally, there’s pulling. You can use your creep wave to fight with the neutrals. Basically, what you do is harass the neutral camp that is close to the bottom lane, as the neutrals follow you and your own creepwave approaches, you can have them meet and your creeps automatically fight the neutrals; gaining experience and denying the enemy some gold

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or XP if your own creeps are killed by the neutrals. (There’s some neat tricks to pulling that you can check on the web)

Items. What’s the point of getting money? Buying stuff. In every match, you’ll have to spend your money in order to get items that can improve you in a number of ways. Buying is fun; and for some it’s so much that you’ll see some people postpone pushes, ganks and battles to get more money to buy something. Items are important, but not ‘that’ important. Remember: set your priorities straight. There are more than 110 items on DotA 2, but don’t worry, every hero comes with a number of basics, core items and useful luxury ones, so it isn’t difficult to know which will be the most appropriate for the character you’ve chosen (but don’t forget that it’s one of the features that give you the most possibilities, and you should/could explore them). Knowing the details will take a little longer. For this guide’s purpose just keep in mind that: Courier & wards. All teams need a courier. Who can buy it? Anybody can buy it; but it’s best if the characters known as support get them (more about this on characters). Couriers are the sort of items all your team can use and benefit from, and the same goes for wards. Wards give you vision (or true vision, which allows you to see invisible units or objects) of an area, dissipating the fog of war. Really useful. Wards can help you win the game because they provide warning from incoming enemies, or their location, to attack them.

If you can, share the expense for the items that help the whole team; do not impose the whole burden on the lone support character. Never forget that you can buy whatever you need; if you are not playing with a full support character in your team, the one who will see to your necessities is you, and you have those necessities. Do not ignore your need for wards and courier, be prepared to pitch in; don’t die for being a cheapskate. Damage, armor, disables and escapes. You have only six slots to equip your items. Most of the time, it’s best to have some balance between your damage output and your armor. After all, it will help your damage if you can survive for longer in a fight. And even if your character has a disable, a way to stop/stun an enemy, you can also buy one more if you feel the need to add another knock-down to your repertoire. Finally, what happens if you are squishy, or need to pull out of battles quickly after unleashing an ulti’? You can use an escape mechanism, like a blink dagger, that allows you to teleport to a given distance; or a shadow blade that will turn you invisible for a limited amount of time. Items give you many options, you just have to think what will be appropriate for the battle at hand. Although there is a plethora of items on Dota 2, guide yourself with the basics: damage, do I need a bigger punch? Armor, do I need more protection? Disables, do I need to

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interrupt an spell or ability? Escape, do I have to get away from an enemy that constantly attacks me? And with the answers to those questions at hand, do your shopping. Regeneration, mana, stack, complement (unique attack modifier), buff and debuff. Remember that Dota 2 uses the HP (hit points) concept of life of the gaming world. And that regeneration, the healing rate, is just the number of hp that you gain each second. Therefore, regeneration is life. And you also need mana to use your spells and powers. As you level up, your ability to regenerate both will improve, but the occasional boost will be welcomed and must not be ignored. Another fact that must be taken into account is that certain aspects do not stack. Example: speed. In order to improve your speed you buy boots, let’s say they improve your speed by 50, from 320 to 370; but, if you buy another boot it will not become 420, it will stay at 370, they don’t stack, do not add up. There’s plenty of power ups that do not stack on DotA, such as auras. If a character bought an item that has an armor improvement of 2, it won’t add to the same item bought by another player, it won’t be 4. That’s why it’s useful to coordinate the buying of items that have an area effect (however, they could be bought for their individual stats), so they aren’t redundant. When it comes to damage, DotA refers to some items as ‘unique attack modifier’. Those items, basically, do not stack the special damage with others. This does not mean the damage, based on agility, strength or intelligence, won’t be modified and improved anyway; it’s just best to build your items in a way that you will make the most use of them. Remember, you can’t have everything, six slots is your limit. Finally, most heroes, have a power or two, or items that give you buffs, which will improve your stats, of life, regeneration or armor for a limited amount of time; or debuffs, that will have the opposite effect. Even if briefly, they matter.

Heroes and power build Heroes are the heart of DotA, 1 as well as 2; but just remember that they never are,

nor will be, the goal of the game.

There are 110 (mid 2015) playable heroes now and they are divided into three main

categories, according to main attribute, and many official and non-official categories,

according to role. They come in two attack types: ranged and melee, which means that they

can fight from a distance, ranged; or close to the enemy, melee. On average, each has 4

abilities, a.k.a. powers that can be improved as you gain levels by obtaining experience.

Usually, you can improve your first 3 abilities up to 4 levels each, that’s 12 levels for all; and,

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your 4th ability, a.k.a. your ultimate, or sixth—because, generally, you only get it when you’re

level 6—, up to level 3. You start as level 1 and can reach up to level 25. If you do your math,

you’ll see that only 15 levels are needed to max out your abilities, true; therefore the

remaining 10 levels may be used to improve your overall stats, something you can do at any

level up; instead of leveling a particular ability you can go ahead and up your stats.

There isn’t a fixed path to level up your abilities. Other than your ultimate, you can

improve most of your abilities as you see fit, or as the situation requires. You may not be able

to max out any single ability by level 4, but chances are you could’ve gone 2, 1, 1, as easily as 0,

2, 2, or 1, 2, 1, and so on. Or go for stats. This means there are ways to go, and you choose the

path. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t follow the most commonly tread on way, it means you

have possibilities and can explore them; beware, though, that upping your levels the wrong

way could really hamper your game.

As for the categories, well, let’s start with the main three: strength, agility and

intelligence. All heroes have many attributes, such as: armor, hit points, mana points, damage,

speed, and so on, they are present in all, but their main attribute can be one of those three.

Strength heroes. When you have strength as your main attribute, it means you have good

base armor as well as HP, and high HP regeneration.

Agility heroes. These guys, for the most part, have lots of damage and attack speed.

Intelligence heroes. It’s all about the mana. They have destroying abilities that depend on

mana, or mana regeneration. One word: wizards. Another: spells.

You could say a little more of each category, but, essentially, that’s it. Far more

interesting than the main attribute sorting are the roles each can have. There are ten official

roles, and most heroes can play at least two roles. (The words they chose to describe them

with may seem a little odd, at times, but remember that behind ‘DotA 2’ there’s a long story of

‘Dungeon and Dragons’ copyrighting.)

Carry. You can take this word literally. The word ‘carry’ comes from ‘carrying’, as in ‘carrying

the team to victory’. Carries are damage dealers. Rightclickers for the most part, which means

they don’t depend on abilities. They scale well late into the game, and can overpower all

others on damage dealing category. However, take notice that almost half of all heroes are

carries, and they come in all shapes and game-playing styles; though most are agility heroes.

Disabler. A hero that stuns, silences (some do not take ‘silencing’, as in shutting down

abilities, as a disabling. I differ), paralyzes, freezes, or traps, the enemy. Disablers are key to

winning a fight. Like and aide holding the arms of your opponent in a boxing match, disablers

have an ability that renders one, or more, of your enemies vulnerable, even if it’s for just a

second or a little more; in DotA, that’s long enough.

Lane support. A hero that can help another while in the lanning phase, one that can do

without the money given by creep deaths, and can effectively take care of someone else. In

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one word: babysitter. The idea of this hero is that it can help another by helping it get the

money of creeps.

Initiator. Heroes poised to start a fight. Basically, they are disablers with a purpose on mind,

or someone who can take on the heat of the enemy as your buddies move on them. They have

many tricks up their sleeve, even if they all answer the same simple question: who goes in

first?

Jungler. A hero that can effectively gather the gold (a.k.a. farm) of neutral creeps, exploiting

your jungle and freeing up a lane, for a hero to gather all the gold and experience. This group is

fairly limited in number, just according to the Steam official website; but, remember that it’s a

role, a purpose, and although not as effectively as the jungler themselves, there are some

other heroes that, with a little lanning, can effectively take on the jungle.

Support. It’s the hero that helps all others, and they can go about their business by doing any

of the stuff out of a very long list of chores. They can: heal, give mana, have useful passives,

area buffs or debuffs (or both), or disables that can set an enemy on a silver platter for the

carry to take. They also have (can) to help the team by buying wards, for vision, or something

as basic as a courier.

Durable. There used to be a different word for these heroes: tanks. Durables are hard to kill

enemies that can sustain enemy fire for a moment, taking the heat for the team and giving

them time to unleash their abilities in both, offense and defense. Most durables are strength

heroes, for reasons that should seem obvious (high HP, armor or HP regeneration), but you can

also find some agility or intelligence heroes that can officially fulfill this role; however, the list

of non-official durables is far larger. Do not forget that it’s a role that can be played if you meet

certain requirements.

Nuker. Heroes that possess an ability that can deal magic, or pure, damage to enemies, either

as an ultimate, with a long cooldown, or one that can be used often, with short cooldown. As a

role, it means that the hero will make it a priority to deal damage, to hurt the enemy team.

Therefore, you’ll buy items that will empower your spells and abilities, meaning you’ll have far

less money for other roles that will become secondary.

Pusher. A hero that can effectively destroy enemy creeps, towers and barracks, for any

reason. They are highly varied in nature, most can get help in the form of invoked beings,

controlled creeps, or natural elementals of a wide variety.

Escape. This one means having an ability that allows the hero to dodge more than just one

bullet. You can take it literally: somehow you can escape the enemy; you can turn invisible or

simply run very, very fast.

These are the roles, the official ones, and you can see that it basically means: doing

something, as in carrying the team to victory, thanks to your abilities or right clicking; pushing,

to get towers and enemy barracks; and so on. Most heroes can take on more than one role;

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but this means that you can play them in a variety of ways, you can do many things and adapt

to requirements if needed.

There are some unofficial terms for roles that have caught on the DotA lingo, which

are:

Hard carry. If you allow me a tongue-twister: hard carries carry harder because they are

harder to carry. In essence, a hard carry is a carry that requires items to fully splash out its full

potential. Because they need money and levels, they are weaker than most carries early on,

but, once they get those (items and levels) their stats just go over the window and can literally

take on the whole enemy team with little to no support. Most of the time they’ll solo lane,

even if it’s the safe lane, because they need the money and experience. You could help with a

friendly support on the jungle, or one just roaming around.

Hard support. A very, very, very poor support that can still be, despite its lack of items,

decisive in a fight. Basically, the poorest man on the team; but the enemy will pay with their

lives, or defeat, if they ignore him.

Semi-carry. A non-carry that can become one thanks to effective itemization. Basically, they

should be non-carry nukers that have become rich. It implies that this guy, even if it could play

support, will go full nuker, and all its items will go to making him deadlier.

Ganker. The word ‘gank’, comes from the contraction of: gang attack, as in group assault. A

ganker is a hero that can expediently join one or more of his teammates and just slaughter

whomever is nearby. The ganker, in a solo lane, is the second man who shows up surprising

and uninvited; in a lane with two, it’s the third member.

Roamer. It means you can wander off your lane and do other stuff, and still be useful, thanks

to your particular abilities and nature. It means you can waste some time walking around and

still show up in a fight. You can ward, and deward, check on the enemy heroes and give vision

and map control.

Offlaner. Remember the lanes? An offlaner is a hero that can advantageously go solo on the

offlane. That’s it.

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This said, all roles are equally important in a team game such as DotA, and they are all

equally fun to play, and just as rewarding. It’s the narrative behind the game, the things that

are measured (such as kills), what makes carries steal the spotlight away from the supports,

and the humble actions of placing a ward. But, in order to win, you can play anything, and

anyway (warding, healing, providing vision, etcetera), and still affect the outcome of a battle.

DotA has had over a decade of success because it’s extremely well balanced and the

responsibility of winning is properly spread out among the teammates. No one is bored, no

one is useless.

It’s important to point out that most heroes can play many roles; but this doesn’t

mean they can easily switch in-game as to how they are going to play. For most heroes,

switching from carry to support, for example, would mean delaying items and hurting your

team in group fights until you get your farm right, and this could mean losing the game.

However, it can be done, although it’s not sensible.

And now that we’ve covered main attributes, and roles, perhaps we can check out the

heroes themselves. You can find written tomes for every hero, so much so I wondered if I

should include them all in a brief guide such as this, and came to the conclusion that there’s no

escaping it, so, here they are.

Abbreviation Words Definition

Str. Strength Main attribute: strength.

Agt. Agility Main attribute: agility.

Int. Intelligence Main attribute: intelligence.

BIR Better if rich It means that this hero would be best if some money came its way.

NeF. Needs farm A hero of little use early on. Be careful with him and make him grow. Needs items or levels.

CBJglr. Can be jungler Give it a little time on the lane and it will soon be off into the wild.

Micro Micromanagement The hero has abilities or natural summoned allies that require micromanagement.

Invi. Invisible Can become invisible.

Aura Aura ability This hero has an aura ability. A power that affects your

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team, in an AoE or globally, or the enemy’s in both offense and defense, even if briefly.

Vis. Vision One of its abilities, or nature, may provide vision of the enemy, or, at the very least, a glimpse.

1. Abaddon. (Str., melee, durable, support, carry, lane support, semi-carry) This hero has an

ability that gives him life with every attack it takes, you have to fight the natural DotA instinct

to deal with that: if Abaddon turns an eerie green, do not attack. You should use this surprise

to your advantage. As a durable, it has to be in the thick of the fight.

2. Alchemist. (Str., melee, durable, carry, disabler, NeF., jungler) Alchemist is actually the little

guy on top of the giant ogre, but they function as one unit. It’s one of the scariest experiences

on DotA 2 to have a giant enraged ogre appear out of the jungle and just slaughter your team.

It can happen. Because it’s farm and level dependent, it needs the help of the team to provide

its damaging goods.

3. Ancient Apparition. (Int., ranged, support, disabler, vis.) The kind of hero that needs

others to be completely effective. He can set up a fight to make sure your team will win. I’ve

seen many times, the scared and wounded carry run towards their Ancient Apparition, and he

turns things around. AA is truly the cool head a team may use to win a battle. Global ability.

4. Anti-mage. (Agt., melee, carry, escape, hard carry, BIR) Few carries carry harder than Anti-

mage. He’s pretty dependable on his own, but, like all, he can be ganked, and, most of the

time, the enemy team will take a special interest in preventing him from getting his levels and

gold. Invest a little in protecting Anti-mage, and you may profit from a victory.

5. Axe. (Str., melee, durable, initiator, disabler, jungler) Known as the only ‘tank’ in DotA, Axe

truly commands attention, especially during early game. It’s hard to take on Axe because,

more than likely, it’s Axe who’s taking you on. The team must use the space provided by Axe to

win fights and the game, this huge barbarian will always provide lots of it for his team.

6. Bane. (Int., ranged, disabler, nuker, support, semi-carry) Its name is synonymous with

nuisance, annoyance, pest and their like. About Bane, it’s all true. Infamous for being able to

put three players out of action, Bane makes the enemy team sing its tune. It counters high

damage heroes, turning ferocious felines into harmless kittens.

7. Batrider. (Int., ranged, initiator, disabler, nuker, escape, semi-carry, CBJglr.) You are there,

quietly waiting for the enemy, when suddenly a fire lasso grabs you and there’s nothing you

can do but go along for the ride into the enemies’ unwelcomed and hostile arms; chances are

you won’t survive. Initiator, he is. And can burn the forest down to harvest all of its gold.

8. Beastmaster. (Str., melee, initiator, disabler, durable, jungler, pusher, ganker, roamer,

semi-carry, micro, aura, vis.) My, my, my, what a résumé, and he can truly do all that, and he

has friends to boot; his abilities include summoning two very useful creatures, a mutant boar

and a hawk. Only observation here is that it can’t do all that at the same time.

9. Bloodseeker. (Agt., melee, carry, jungler, disabler, ganker, roamer, vis.) He can afford to

walk around because his ultimate (actually, his combo of abilities) makes him such an efficient

killer of lone heroes. If he’s not in lane he’s out there looking whom to kill. He even has vision

of severely wounded enemy heroes, and advantage others besides him can use as well.

10. Bounty Hunter. (Agt., melee, carry, escape, nuker, invi., disabler, ganker, roamer, vis.)

This is the hero that created the term: roaming, because in professional games he was never in

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lane. Besides killing targets of opportunity, Bounty can be very useful disrupting a jungler’s

farm; and demanding the enemy’s attention. Only risk: don’t push him into too much danger.

11. Brewmaster. (Str., melee, carry, durable, initiator, pusher, ganker, escape, micro) Buy the

enemy a drink and they’ll be tipsy when you attack them. Brewmaster has many tricks up his

alcohol sodden sleeve, allowing him to be a fighting master. If the strokes from his nunchakus

aren’t enough to bring you down, maybe his ulti will startle you, for Brewmaster becomes

three instead of just one.

12. Bristleback. (Str., melee, durable, initiator, disabler, escape, semi-carry, offlaner) This guy

is a tank and performs that role beautifully; however, it’s important to notice that unlike all

other durables, Bristleback has an advantage if he shows his back or sides to the enemy, rather

than a head on charge, because they have extra armor. Don’t play static, move around, show

your back; and you’ll shine.

13. Broodmother. (Agt., melee, pusher, carry, escape, invi.) Broodmother commands

attention, and if it gets it, chances are the enemy team will commit too much effort into

shutting down a hero that can easily come back once they leave the lane; and, if they don’t,

they’ll lose towers and barracks, maybe the game. The best pusher on DotA 2, Broodmother is

a swarm of arachnids yearning for enemy structures and their hero’s lives. Chelicerae on your

side.

14. Centaur Warrunner. (Str., melee, durable, disabler, initiator, ganker, offlaner) Levels and

money can be well used by Centaur; his strength growth is unparalleled, and that’s the kind of

power you want on your side. Use him as an offlaner and that will give you a sweet spot. With

him on your team charging the enemy becomes a collective action, because, thanks to his ulti,

you can charge too.

15. Chaos Knight. (Str., melee, carry, disabler, durable, pusher) Illusions, strong and deadly,

Chaos Knight has them. As carry, Chaos hits like a mule, now imagine being hit by three of

them, or four. Even if the illusions are slightly weaker, they give this hero a punch that will

have the enemy team spitting defeat with a toothless mouth.

16. Chen. (Int., ranged, jungler, support, pusher, micro) Also known as Chen army, due to him

being able to control up to four neutral creeps, an even ancients with Aghanim’s Scepter. Chen

can outnumber the enemy on any lane, in offense as well as defense. His firm presence in any

jungle, gives his team welcomed map control.

17. Clinkz. (Agt., ranged, carry, escape, invi., pusher) A skeleton that shoots flaming arrows,

and can turn invisible to attack or getaway. Not to mention that he can rise the speed at which

he shoots. A walking machine gun that can pop out of nowhere, kill, and with the same ease,

disappear.

18. Clockwerk. (Str., melee, initiator, durable, disabler, ganker, vision) He is an in-your-face

strength hero with a ‘come-at-me’, ‘you-what-mate’, and ‘leave-us-alone’, combo of abilities.

He comes at you, because he can take you on, anytime. His natural prey would be supports

and offlane/safelane carries. Global ability: rocket flare.

19. Crystal Maiden. (Int., ranged, support, disabler, nuker, lane support, aura, roamer, hard

support) Known colloquially as CM, Crystal is the only hero in the game that’s a valuable asset

even if she doesn’t do anything at all; her mana granting passive is that useful. However, her

all around effective abilities allow her to do plenty more. If she’s dirt poor, still is a force to be

reckoned with.

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20. Dark Seer. (Int., melee, initiator, nuker, escape, BIR, semi-carry) He’s killing you, slowly. It

may seem like he’s not doing much harm, then you’re dead, and it may happen again. Dark

Seer’s damage stacks bit by bit, by the time you want to run, it’s too late, he sprints to get you,

or you are killed by you, literally.

21. Dazzle. (Int., ranged, support, lane support) As Dazzle, you allow any hero to become a

monster. You are a chef, and all enemies are meals served your team. Slow them down to be

killed, bring down their defenses. The enemy will look to the other side, they’ll think it’s the

carry doing it; but it’s you they should fear, for victory is a joke Dazzle makes on them.

22. Death Prophet. (Int., ranged, pusher, nuker, durable, disabler, semi-carry) People quickly

learn to avoid Death Prophet’s ultimate, exorcism, its graphic presence is iconic, as an army of

undead spirits suck the life out of every hero or creep around her. It only takes a while longer

to see how those spirits can also wreck your towers and barracks.

23. Disruptor. (Int., ranged, nuker, support, initiator, disabler) Even if your team doesn’t have

a plan you can do a lot of damage by messing up the enemy’s scheme. As a support, Disruptor

provides ample opportunity to kill the adversary, because his specialty is making them

stumble, and stumble they will.

24. Doom. (Str., melee, durable, carry, nuker, disabler, initiator, jungler) Slow, both in attack

and movement speed, Doom must be careful when approaching the enemy and thoughtful in

his moves. In battle, he’ll burn the enemy as he slashes and curses them. His ultimate can one-

shot a hero most of the time. Can obtain the diverse powers of neutral creeps, versatile.

25. Dragon Knight. (Str., melee, carry, durable, disabler, pusher, BIR) He can turn into a

dragon, literally, and he has higher armor and HP regeneration thanks to ‘dragon blood’. Items

and experience on Dragon Knight will bear worthy fruits: the ashes of your rivals.

26. Drow Ranger. (Agt., ranged, carry, disabler, aura) Drow is simple, and nimble. She does

lots of damage, that’s her story. She can silence enemies and rain freezing arrows on them.

She’s a high caliber cannon that comes in handy during battles. You can shoot towers with that

cannon, too.

27. Earth Spirit. (Str., melee, carry, nuker, disabler, ganker, initiator, escape, support, semi-

carry) You have to learn how to aim your stone remnant, so this hero needs a little practice;

once you master that, Earth can be very useful in lane. He’s at its best with a little set up; but

can also counter an enemy initiation.

28. Earthshaker. (Str., melee, initiator, disabler, support, lane-support, roamer, offlaner) Is

an all-round support that possesses a killer combo of abilities. With Earthshaker you can

dominate the lane and rule early game, and, if you give it some money and items, it will age

well, remaining a powerful adversary, on its own, or, better, along with the team, in late game.

29. Elder Titan. (Str., melee, initiator, durable, aura, micro, BIR) Few, like this giant, can stop

the enemy on its tracks. It also has a spectacular initiation: a crack on the earth that knocks

everyone out while doing some damage. He can annoy, harass, and stun the enemy as it will,

and, in fights, his aura is a definite upper hand.

30. Ember Spirit. (Agt., melee, carry, nuker, ganker, initiator, escape, BIR) Ember can surprise

the enemy with its abilities, and the startled team can then be jumped on. He’s a bit of a

disabler, enough to allow his speed and damage add up to a kill. He may lead an attack and

back down afterward, let his team injure the enemy, and clean up effectively.

31. Enchantress. (Int., ranged, support, pusher, durable, jungler, micro, BIR, ganker, semi-

carry) Enchantress heals, which makes her a beloved support, but her ultimate is an extremely

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powerful nuke, and she has an armor ability, which makes her ideally suited to fit the killing

machine role.

32. Enigma. (Int., ranged, disabler, initiator, jungler, pusher) A great jungler—probably the

best, early to late game—, Enigma has many tricks up its sleeve, not least of which is his

infamous ultimate: black hole, the biggest trap of them all. And if a careless team can’t make

use of his trap or disables, Enigma pushes well enough to pressure the enemy.

33. Faceless Void. (Agt., melee, carry, disabler, initiator, escape, BIR, hard carry) Stop time,

stop bullets, stop fire, stop all; but you, you don’t stop. Void can do it. Not at its best early on,

Void grows fearsome with experience and money. If the hour grows late, and the fight is

desperate, having Void on your side means that it’s the other team who is worried.

34. Gyrocopter. (Agt., ranged, disabler, initiator, nuker, pusher, semi-carry) An old man in a

crumbling airplane is an insider’s graphic jest, because the damage Gyrocopter can deal is

really serious. Not an official carry, Gyro can easily fulfill that role thanks to his abilities and

damage dealing. Do not forget that his ultimate can become global with Aghanim’s upgrade.

35. Huskar. (Str., ranged, durable, carry, initiator, ganker) One of the most aggressive heroes

on DotA 2, Huskar barely has cooldown on all of his abilities; he’s ready for action, and he’s

ready now. Calm down, don’t go overboard aggressive—mind the team—, and Huskar will

become the reliable killer tank that he’s been designed to be.

36. Invoker. (Int., ranged, carry, nuker, initiator, escape, disabler, ganker, pusher) One of a

kind hero, Invoker grows differently from all others. He has a particular build around 3 stat

abilities that must be combined (As in quas, wex, exort) to unleash ten different powers.

Average: 24 combos; Invoker: 90. Keeping it short: he can do anything and all.

37. Io. (Str., ranged, support, lane support, nuker, ganker, hard support) He’s the expendable

half of a pair, Io is best helping another hero. He turns strength heroes stronger, and his global

teleport ability makes it, and its partner, a dual threat all over the map. When you pick it, you

pick two: Io, and the hero it’s going to help. Used to split push, Io’s a handy pure support.

38. Jakiro. (Int., ranged, nuker, pusher, lane support, disabler) Jakiro is slow, and the most

useful abilities of this twin headed dragon have to be aimed carefully; but he’s a great support

with crowd control nukes. His path denying powers make it difficult for the enemy to move

forward, and it can set up a scary barracks defense.

39. Juggernaut. (Agt., melee, carry, pusher, offlaner) A relentless slasher, Juggernaut can cut

anyone with ease, while cutting him back is, most of the times, a bit of a problem. He’s a carry

you can be sure will take care of himself, just keep gankers away from him and he’ll cut a

victory through enemy’s defenses as if he were nothing but a blade—as he sometimes is.

40. Keeper of the light. (Int., ranged, nuker, support, lane-support, pusher) His pushing

powers are so great the biggest danger is he won’t leave his co-laner any creeps. He’s the

master of early game, Keeper of the Light can knock out most heroes with three illuminates.

He can heal and provide mana, what else could you ask for?

41. Kunkka. (Str., melee, disabler, initiator, carry, durable) Maybe an admiral seems a little

out of place in a land-dwelling scenario; but Kunkka brings with him all the sea fare and water

necessary. He can stun, damage and initiate with his abilities. In lane, it’s really difficult to keep

up with him, and he can be devastating in a fight. With a little aim, all will get wet.

42. Legion Commander. (Str., melee, carry, durable, pusher, needs farm) An aggressive hero,

Legion, after a little farm, depends on her ultimate, dueling, to grow her damage. She can do

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this two-ways: 1) surprising and killing opponents, or 2) picking her fights carefully, on

agonizing enemies or team ganks. Giving her a hand would be convenient to a team.

43. Leshrac. (Int., ranged, nuker, pusher, disabler, support, semi-carry, offlaner) Although he

can be played as a support, chances are you won’t see him as one; because his abilities, that

can focus on pushing and providing kills for the carries, are so well suited to turn him into a

killer nuker most will choose to play Leshrac that way: as a nuker, laner owner.

44. Lich. (Int., ranged, support, lane-support, nuker, semi-carry) No hero is useful if it depends

on a single ability; even if it’s a powerful, and particularly impressive, ultimate, such as Lich’s.

You remember the successful ulti’s, and they are a thing to behold, it provides excellent crowd

control. Lich also provides protection, slows and denies creepfarm.

45. Lifestealer. (Str., melee, carry, durable, jungler, escape, Nef) On his own, Lifestealer is a

hero that can grow very strong, demanding the attention of the enemy team. If you help him

farm a bit, he’ll soon be able to be the cleaning crew of a slaughterhouse or the momentary

shield you need to defeat the other team.

46. Lina. (Int., ranged, nuker, disabler, support, ganker, pusher, semi-carry, BIR) People forget

Lina isn’t a ‘true’ carry, because she’s often used as one. Her base abilities give her enough to

be a killer support; however, why wouldn’t you want more? Give her the items she needs, and

she’ll scale perfectly into your team’s damage dealer.

47. Lion. (Int., ranged, disabler, nuker, lane support, support, semi-carry) His abilities read like

a long list of items you could buy if you had the gold for them, Lion has them for free. Poor as a

babysitter, rich as a fed carry; Lion will shine as either. No matter where, Lion’s presence will

always be welcomed on your side.

48. Lone Druid. (Agt., ranged, carry, durable, pusher, jungler, micro, NeF) Lone Druid comes

with a bear that can carry six items, like all other heroes. He needs to farm bad; but the

investment on bear food pays off. Druid and his bear can demolish enemy towers and

barracks, as the enemy has difficulty focusing on the six of you.

49. Luna. (Agt, ranged, carry, nuker, CBJglr., NeF, aura) Her weapon, the Moon Glaive, is an

ability that gains levels and becomes deadlier, making Luna a mid to late game pusher, that

can totally wreck the enemy’s base if given a chance. She also possesses a powerful nuke to

keep her enemies at bay, or get a kill. Her ultimate provides crowd control, or dead crowds.

50. Lycan. (Str., melee, carry, jungler, pusher, durable, vision, aura, micro) Some heroes have

a particular tempo to their gameplay, Lycan is one of them. The team must use Lycan’s

ultimate as much as possible, which would require an aggressive five stack that can do its best

in keeping up with the werewolf. Besides, Lycan, with his wolves may scout the enemy’s camp.

51. Magnus. (Str., melee, initiator, disabler, nuker, carry) In the proper hands, Magnus is a

killer. Its particular mechanics require some getting used to. As an initiator, he’s best if there’s

a group that can follow the attack, and use its disabling combo to hurt the enemy team as

much as possible; if not destroy them.

52. Medusa. (Agt., ranged, carry, disabler, initiator, BIR, hard carry) Give her all the farm she

needs; and if she wants more, giver her more. A tough crowd controller, Medusa is not a

natural durable; but she becomes a great one thanks to her abilities. Be sure to give her what

she needs and chances are you can dominate mid to late game.

53. Meepo. (Agt., melee, carry, disabler, initiator, micro) Meepo can become five heroes, for

his ability lets him clone himself. All of his clones possess the same combo abilities, so he can

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cascade with them into your foes, dealing massive damage and providing ample harvesting

opportunities for the team. He always ages well, for all meepos share the XP they get.

54. Mirana. (Agt., ranged, carry, nuker, disabler, escape, support, invi, roamer) She’s one of a

very small handful of carries that can be useful even if poor. Mirana is chosen as a carry most

of the time and she’s impossible to shut down, due to her abilities, one of which is global; but

she can also excel as a support. Turning your whole team invisible, always useful.

55. Morphling. (Agt., ranged, carry, escape, initiator, nuker, BIR, Nef) A late bloomer,

Morphling can hold its own from the very start, however, it’s made for the spotlight; that’s

where you want it to be, and it’s going to take some time. Its abilities make him very

survivable, a dripping surprise, and a huge damage dealer by late game.

56. Naga Siren. (Agt., melee, carry, disabler, pusher, escape, support) There are many heroes

that can push: push the creepwave, bring down the towers; only Naga can do that on two

lanes at the same time, with her illusions. She has a debuff that does damage and reduces

armor. With her ultimate, the song, Naga Siren dictates her own terms in every battle.

57. Nature’s Prophet. (Int., ranged, carry, pusher, escape, jungler, Nef) He’ll start in the

jungle, grow a bit and start to split push, that’s his game. Nature summons the help of

treants—hard to kill tree beings—to help him with the task. He also has his own teleportation,

and can come back and forth between pushing and joining fights. Also: global ultimate.

58. Necrophos. (Int., carry, durable, support, aura) Necrophos may not seem like the most

threatening hero to face, after all his damage is weak; then you start to cough, and you better

heal fast, for it’s his aura in action, and it hurts. He can heal his friends, as he hurts his

enemies. His ultimate shuts enemy heroes down, it blocks buyback and adds time to respawn.

59. Night Stalker. (Str., melee, durable, initiator, roamer, ganker) He has the speed, durability

and damage to hang out on his own and go for lone heroes to prey on. He wouldn’t mind

killing heroes in a duo, or helping carries get their kills. Night Stalker’s ultimate, reducing the

enemy’s vision, is ideal for starting fights or setting ideal ganks.

60. Nyx Assassin. (Agt., melee, disabler, nuker, semi-carry, invi) Thanks to its abilities, Nyx

gets the first kill quite often, and then it moves on to killing sprees, that’s his job. In defensive

positions, Nyx, with burrow, can turn a carefully chosen pathway into a deadly trap for the

adversary team. Not a strength hero, Nyx is best used for cleaning what remains of the enemy.

61. Ogre Magi. (Int., melee, nuker, disabler, durable, semi-carry, BIR) Talk about nukes: heavy

magic damage spells, and Ogre Magi comes to mind. He (or ‘they’, for the character has two

heads) can melt heroes away, he might not get the kill, because he has to strike first at the

strongest enemy and he may be finished by others; but the enemy will fear his attacks.

62. Omniknight. (Str., durable, lane support, support, aura) Arguably, the most successful,

and therefore dangerous, support on the whole game, Omniknight can turn the battle around,

or set up his mates for an enemy team wipeout. Picked as a secondary target by foes

desperate to get rid of his carries, Omniknight commands the battle to victory.

63. Oracle. (Int., ranged, support, lane support, nuker) Although his abilities, that can be cast

on both enemies and allies, have particular mechanics users must get used to, Oracle is an

excellent support that can provide: slows, heals, buffs, debuffs, and nuke damage, plus an

ultimate that can be decisive during battle.

64. Outworld Devourer. (Int., ranged, carry, aura, BIR) Unlike most carries, Outworld has

more than just a decent AoE (Area of effect) with his ultimate, while his pure damage output

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slashes enemies to the bone. Its abilities allow it to turn battles in its favor, and reduce the

enemies’ numbers, even if it’s just for a second or two (up to four).

65. Phantom Assassin. (Agt., melee, carry, escape, NeF) She doesn’t have a true escape

mechanism, her ‘blink’ requires a friendly, or unfriendly, target nearby; therefore, putting her

in intricate places should be avoided. Play Phantom Assassin safely and it’s the rival that will be

at risk; be careless, and you’ll lose her and her 450% critical hit.

66. Phantom Lancer. (Agt., melee, carry, escape, pusher, NeF) Deny this hero wealth and

you’ll shut him down; but his excellent pushing/farming abilities, will make that a challenging

task. Phantom Lancer can fend off pretty well on its own for it can cleanly getaway from most

ganks, all he needs is farm, and he’ll become: an illusion army. Nickname: cancer lancer.

67. Phoenix. (Str., ranged, initiator, disabler, nuker, support, NeF) One of the most visually

impressive heroes, Phoenix throws its life turned into flames at the enemy; luckily, as a

strength based hero, he has plenty of it. Phoenix’s ultimate turns it into an egg that will burst

into a stun plus damage, use it wisely for it can be broken. Take care of the egg: hatch victory.

68. Puck. (Int., ranged, initiator, nuker, disabler, escape, semi-carry) The Puck’s presence

doesn’t command too much respect: the voice is that of an innocent child, and it’s a puppy-

looking faerie dragon. In this case, looks and sounds are deceiving, the Puck hungers for battle

and celebrates every kill, of which he can get plenty of. He can also dodge more than a bullet.

69. Pudge. (Str., melee, durable, nuker, roamer, disabler) Arguably the most annoying hero on

DotA 2, the fearsome Pudge is always welcomed on your side. Although he can win mid lane

and help gank both, top and bot, the butcher is best in its element as a roamer, surprising the

enemy out of every bush and patiently waiting to hook startled enemy heroes.

70. Pugna. (Int., ranged, nuker, pusher, support, semi-carry) Mostly used as a nuker, Pugna

can be a very good companion of a pushing intensive hero. With his help, towers will quickly

fall. Pugna can be very effective in the chaos of battle, he likes to mess things up, which is a

good thing, for he makes enemy attacks stumble.

71. Queen of Pain. (Int., ranged, carry, nuker, escape, BIR) Princess of damage, monarch of

mobility, duchess of escapes, she’s the Queen of Pain. As a carry, she only becomes stronger

with experience and items, and with her available nukes, she can either weaken the enemy

attackers or, better, wipe them out with her deadly screams.

72. Razor. (Agt., ranged, carry, pusher, durable, nuker, CBJglr.) One look at this hero’s abilities

and you know he’s a killing machine. He can also push extremely well with one more item,

although expensive: an Aghanim scepter. His abilities can wreak havoc on the enemy team;

visually dominant, and hurt so much that Razor can also effectively be played as support.

73. Riki. (Agt., melee, carry, invi, escape) The only permanently invisible hero in the game, Riki

is a typical agility killer, lots of damage but little HP and armor. Chances are he will kill the hero

he was aiming for, but if not he could be in trouble. Because Riki is invisible, some players get

overconfident with it, and don’t prepare for the counter: true vision. Play him safe, win game.

74. Rubick. (Int., ranged, disabler, nuker, pusher) Name any spell on your team’s heroes, even

some passives; mention any of the wonderful ultimates your team has, Rubick can steal it and

throw it right back at you. An overall excellent support, Rubick has the ‘spell steal’ ability that

can be quite surprising in a team fight, and may even turn it around.

75. Sand King. (Str., melee, initiator, disabler, nuker, roamer, semi-carry, invi) Sand King can

dominate a lane because its ‘sand storm’, 2nd, ability allows it to farm as it hides from enemy

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normal vision. He does more than decent damage with its stats, and has good AoE (Area of

effect) with ‘caustic finale’, and it stomps violently into enemy teams with its nuke ultimate.

76. Shadow Demon. (Int., ranged, support, disabler, nuker, semi-carry, roamer) An excellent

and very aggressive support, Shadow Demon feels good going into battle and making the

enemy retreat. Demon fits a fighting line up, and he can help gank the unwary hero. He is also

a good response to counter an initiation by the enemy team.

77. Shadow Fiend. (Agt., ranged, carry, nuker, aura) Although its nuke needs aiming, and its

ultimate is too slow to land one without help—which makes it almost support dependent;

Shadow Fiend’s overall damage output make it a carry favorite. He can burst continuously into

battle, with area damage, while its right clicks finish what is left.

78. Shadow Shaman. (Int., ranged, pusher, disabler, nuker, support, semi-carry) The only

tower nuker of the game, Shadow Shaman is a good pusher because he can swipe enemy

creeps away and, unlike most pushers, wreck towers with his ultimate. If you want to knock on

your enemies’ barracks as fast as possible, have Shaman on your side.

79. Silencer. (Int., ranged, carry, initiator, carry, support) A good carry, Silencer can also be

very effective as a support. His abilities make him valuable even if he’s very poor. Global

silence sets the tempo of the whole game; if it’s on your side, you initiate with it, if, on the

other, you have to wait it out. And, as all carries, Silencer hits like a mule.

80. Skywrath Mage. (Int., ranged, nuker, support, semi-carry, ganker, BIR) Acting all high and

self-righteous, Skywrath eventually has a high damage ultimate he can spam on his earth

dwelling rivals; slows, stuns and silences complement his pack of abilities. He’s a one flying

man arsenal meant to decimate the earthlings.

81. Slardar. (Str., melee, carry, durable, disabler, initiator) Strong, fast, and dealing lots of

damage, the main problem with Slardar may be an excess of self-confidence. Slardar should be

supported in battles and he’ll win them, if alone, the Slithereen Guard shouldn’t bet the farm

on its sprint ability and play it safe.

82. Slark. (Agt., melee, escape, semi-carry, ganker) Not officially a carry, Slark is an agility

hero, deceitfully weak in HP, he more than makes up with damage dealing abilities. He can kill

most heroes early on, Slark can hunt the supports or squishy carries from the very get-go, and

turn around if the fight isn’t going his way.

83. Sniper. (Agt., ranged, carry) ‘Agility’ doesn’t really fit the swaying short-legged Sniper, he

is slow and fragile, but has the steady aim of a surgeon and can perform surgery, from a long

distance, on you. Sniper has the greatest range on DotA 2, he’s best used as the damage dealer

carefully placed behind the team and protected by all.

84. Spectre. (Agt., melee, carry, durable, BIR, NeF, vision) Has a global presence through her

ultimate, Haunt/reality, making her an ideal candidate for any ganking squad. Her ‘disperse’

ability makes her a durable that only grows tougher with levels. Spectre can demolish enemy

team attacks with her haunts, and she’s best hunting lonely and wounded heroes.

85. Spirit Breaker. (Str., melee, durable, carry, initiator, disabler, roamer) Talk about a global

presence, Spirit Breaker can attack any visible enemy hero on the map thanks to his ability

‘charge of darkness’. He depends on vision and can be seen moving through the map, not to

mention that it takes him some time to cover the distance. Play him carefully.

86. Storm Spirit. (Int., ranged, carry, initiator, escape, disabler, BIR, NeF, aura) Probably the

most mana dependent hero on DotA 2, Storm Spirit requires some levels and items to truly

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become the annoying flash free flowing enemy that he is known to be. Allow him to grow, and

you’ll have the fastest, swiftest hero on your side.

87. Sven. (Str., melee, carry, disabler, initiator, support, roamer, aura) His job is to hit hard,

and he does that very well. Sven’s attack has a considerable AoE, so, as an enemy, he’s best

kept at a distance. He has a disable, a powerful area stun that he uses to close the distance

between him and his prey. He is to be feared, and helped.

88. Techies. (Int., ranged) There’s no official role for Techies; ‘ranged’ is attack type.

Considered as a DotA out-of-place oddity, Techies are fun to play and can be very useful in the

game. They provide: map control, map denial, path denial, anti-pusher, pusher, farm denial,

path obstruction, disable. With a little experience, they’re also good personal nukers.

89. Templar Assassin. (Agt., ranged, carry, escape, ganker, BIR, vision) With a little aiming,

Templar Assassin can outrange most ranged heroes and even Sniper, if just for a while. She

might need some items, but her critical hit is reliable and her base damage is sufficient to

make her a fearsome warrior. Her first ability gives her survivability in the toughest battle.

90. Terrorblade. (Agt., melee, carry, NeF, BIR) If you see Terrorblade with low health, you

may consider running rather than attacking, for his ‘sunder’ ability allows him to gain your

health and give you his harm, turning you into the agonizing hero, instead of him; after that,

we all know what is going to happen. His illusions and other abilities complete the terror pack.

91. Tidehunter. (Str., melee, durable, disabler, initiator, support) Few heroes are more valued

for their ultimate than Tidehunter, he can unleash a cluster of tentacles that stuns everyone in

a 1000 radius; then it’s enemy cleaning time. The enemy may get items to protect them from

this magic damage, but they only last seconds, and Tidehunter can wait a bit to turn the battle.

92. Timbersaw. (Str., melee, durable, nuker, escape, ganker, initiator) He may cut them

wherever he goes, but trees are actually quite friendly to Timbersaw who uses them to

increase his mobility, or escape from the enemy. Lucky for him, there’s plenty of trees on the

map. His ultimate, the chakram, is so particular that it shocks, as well as damages, the enemy.

93. Tinker. (Int., ranged, nuker, pusher, semi-carry, BIR) The key to Tinker is that, by the

nature of his abilities, he can push on all lanes. He has to be there: mid, top and bottom,

making sure the lines of creeps push into enemy territory, and not vice versa. With a little help,

he can effectively gank the enemy and destroy them with his nukes.

94. Tiny. (Str., melee, durable, disabler, initiator, nuker, BIR, carry) Tiny’s ultimate is ‘grow’.

He may begin as a tiny stone elemental but he ends up as a huge stone giant, and his name

becomes an irony. Tiny’s massive damage not only allows him to cut the enemy to pieces, it

also allows him to make short work of enemy towers and barracks.

95. Treant Protector. (Str., melee, durable, initiator, lane support, disabler, invi) Although

costly, with one item, Aghanim’s scepter, Treant Protector may grant you the vision you wish

you always had. Treant comes with a global healing ability that works on structures, like your

barracks or towers, as well as heroes. He can go, or grant, invisibility near trees.

96. Troll Warlord. (Agt., ranged, carry, aura) Troll is one of those aggressive agility heroes

that packs lots of damage; unlike a durable, however, he is best kept doing damage at a

distance until the enemy is weakened enough for him to rage into the heart of battle. If used

carefully, Troll is a damage dealing asset for your team.

97. Tusk. (Str., melee, initiator, durable, ganker, vision) He is so good at trapping heroes, it

must mean he’s looking for them. Tusk is a ganker, he’s at his best hunting enemies. He can

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also start a fight with his combos, killing, or severely wounding, a foe at the very start of a

fight. If he survives the battle, straggling opponents will be sorry.

98. Undying. (Str., melee, durable, pusher, disabler, initiator, aura) Beware of the Undying,

he’s strong, does damage, can heal itself, may turn into a huge flesh golem, and he has an

army of zombie friends whose little damage and slow is always underestimated, until someone

dies because of them.

99. Ursa. (Agt., melee, carry, jungler, durable) An extremely close fighter, Ursa has a combo

designed to rip enemies apart. To achieve this, however, he’s best surprising his prey. In lane

phase, Ursa rules and can get plenty of kills; but in battle the ranged heroes and the disablers

could undermine its momentum, a little help would allow Ursa get the slaughter it deserves.

100. Vengeful Spirit. (Agt., ranged, support, disabler, lane support, initiator, aura) I would say

BIR, if, in the right hands, Vengeful Spirit weren’t a great support with her natural abilities. She

can stun, weaken armor, and increase the damage of nearby allies, not to mention that her

ultimate may allow to bring a foe into your midst, or save a friend that moved astray.

101. Venomancer. (Agt., ranged, support, nuker, initiator, pusher, BIR) Few better ways to

start a fight with the adversary than by spreading a cloud of poison among them,

Venomancer’s ‘poison nova’ is difficult to land perfectly; but even when done defectively it

may guarantee a win for the team. Its plague wards should be benefit enough, anyhow.

102. Viper. (Agt., ranged, carry, durable, ganker, roamer) I was surprised to find ‘roamer’ in

the unofficial roles of Viper, because it is a slow hero; however, its abilities make any enemy

slower, so, why not? Only in horror movies would we find a flying spitting poisonous snake, in

DotA 2, with Viper, you have the chance to make the game horrifying for your adversaries.

103. Visage. (Int., ranged, nuker, durable, disabler, ganker, semi-carry, support, micro, vision)

Not one of the most popular heroes on DotA 2, Visage offers much to its user, including two

blind hard hitting gargoyles known as familiars—only, be careful not to let them die at enemy

hands. Slows and durability complement its abilities.

104. Warlock. (Int., ranged, initiator, support, lane support, disabler, BIR) Yes, he is fit to

support, yes, he has the abilities to help other heroes in a lane; but, what can be more fun

than having him explode the ground with his chaotic offering and bring one, or two, huge

golem(s) into the game. Better, how about doing that twice?

105. Weaver. (Agt., ranged, carry, escape, invi) The only invisible unit to do damage while

invisible, Weaver disappears from sight to injure a little more. As an agility hero, it packs a

heavy punch. The bug from in-between worlds can be harmed easily; but, if a fight is not to his

licking, it can always creep away or, should the worst happen, turn time itself and survive.

106. Windranger. (Int., ranged, disabler, nuker, support, escape, semi-carry, BIR) She doesn’t

have a stun, she has a trap. A stun comes simple: you click, you point, you stun; Windranger

doesn’t do that, she has a trap, and that needs a little setting, in her case: a creep, another

hero, or a tree. However, she’s best known for her killer nukes and high mobility.

107. Winter Wyvern. (Int., ranged, support, roamer, disabler) Winter Wyvern is a mean flying

dragon, it may curse an enemy hero, turning his friends against him for up to 3.5 seconds. It

may seem like a short time, but it’s enough to make some supports disappear in the hands of

their own carries. Enough to thwart an attack. It also heals and slows.

108. Witch Doctor. (Int., ranged, support, nuker, disabler) Always dangerous as a support,

due to his paralyzing cask ability, Witch Doctor is valued as a healer, while his ‘death ward’

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summoning machine guns the enemy down with evil magic. Combined, Witch Doctor’s abilities

allow him to confidently walk the battlefield of DotA 2.

109. Wraith King. (Str., melee, durable, carry, disabler, aura, NeF) Talk about durable, Wraith

King can literally come back from the dead; an ability all other heroes may obtain only through

killing Roshan and owning the aegis of immortality, not to mention that, with it in Wraith’s

hand, you end up with something known as the never ending Wraith King. He packs a punch.

110. Zeus. (Int., ranged, nuker, support, semi-carry, BIR) So much power flowing through him,

he can easily shock his opponents to death if they aren’t careful. Zeus can dominate any lane,

with a little care, for so much power makes him brittle in the mortal plane—otherwise it would

just be unfair, for, as a god he may even convey death globally with his ultimate.

Done, all one hundred and ten.

I regretted my decision to name all heroes by number twenty; but the truth was, and

remains, that there’s no escaping it, no matter if it adds too many pages to this supposedly

brief guide. After all, the reason I’m writing this guide is to present a glimpse of all that DotA 2

is—because the information available about it is so huge, and maybe people will welcome an

overview in a single file, to check out what they will, or glance through, rather than visit a

never ending chain of links and webpages—and you can’t do that without at least mentioning

the heroes. For more information on them, there’s a library of guides online. Check out a

couple for whichever hero you are interested in—that always comes in handy—, or watch

games to see how other, more experienced, players use it to learn how to play it better.

Keeping things positive is a style of mine, the soft constructive way is just more

effective than the hard negative. It’s the difference between the ‘yes, you can do that’ and the

‘no, you can’t’. No matter how many times you say ‘no’, the question always comes back to

‘then, what can I do?’, while the positive response may get things going right away, the

negative always requires more options or further information. But the ‘yes’ also requires the

‘no’, it’s just how we are built, how we function. A construction based on ‘yes, this is the way’,

basically means finding out what options are left inevitably out. The ‘you can do anything’ is a

delusion, a false precept, in life or DotA. So, before explaining a basic approach to the way you

should behave with your hero, I’ll give you some information on what you shouldn’t do with

your DotA hero. These are:

The DotA 2 no-noes

Under normal conditions, the following behavior isn’t advocated for.

Me kill all. It mainly happens to some strength heroes, such as Axe, Legion Commander, or

Huskar, but it can literally be anybody. Allow me to narrate an example. I met a really good Axe

once who was acting as captain of the team. He was playing well, acquiring experience,

earning gold and getting kills, and then he just started dying. It’s not that he was being ganked,

nor was the enemy team skilled enough to separate him, Axe, away from the group and focus

on him before a battle. The problem was Axe, he was looking for kills, trying to surprise the

enemy heroes, wandering into their jungle on his own, because, after all, he had had some

luck with that earlier; but, now, the enemy was on to his game and they were just farming him,

waiting for him to carelessly charge onto them. Axe was just being too careless. And the

problem was that instead of backing down, because he had to make up for his previous

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deaths, Axe became more aggressive, and just rammed into the enemy even more, trying to

get as many kills as possible; although, instead of helping, he was just feeding them.

No matter how strong your hero gets, you don’t face the enemy team, or groups of

them, on your own. Even if you are a huge damage dealer, a fully grown carry, remember: the

enemy has stuns, disables, and what not to deal with you. Be careful, do not give the other

team free kills.

Stay together, lemmings. After a particularly bad laning phase, the cry of ‘let’s stay together’

comes. Those that favor staying together too much are basically ignoring the rules of the

game, where experience points and gold are distributed among those near the kills. If you stay

as a five team in front of a threatening trio of enemies, even if they don’t attack you, you are

falling further behind in XP and gold, because the trio, in theory, is farming the lane divided by

3, while you are doing it by 5. And the other 2 heroes that you are not facing will be free

farming elsewhere. DotA 2 is flexible strategy game that demands you group up and split up as

occasion requires. A team that stays together too much, without obtaining results for that

collective presence, either kills or lots of towers and structures, will fall behind the opponent

team as their heroes will grow faster than yours. Stay together if, and only if, that gets

something done. Do not stay together out of fear of the enemy, you have many possible

responses to a bad laning phase: back down, hug the tower, manage your space, concede

some territory, and so on, there are many options to just cuddling together as screaming

monkeys.

Keellee keellee. Some heroes are designed for getting kills, and they do. Some guys just get

one after another, and keep on going. Sometimes, because the enemy have been particularly

careless, the whole team gets on the killing bandwagon and they wander throughout the map

trying to get more and more blood, and whenever someone suggest they should get to high

ground and destroy some barracks, another kill demands the attention of the team, or the

carries wander off to add victims to his list on the jungle rather than push farther into enemy

territory. Everybody wants to be the one with the most kills, and they find them aplenty. But

DotA 2 isn’t about the kills, it’s about gaining the upper hand and defeating the enemy by

getting their ancient. I’ve seen plenty of kill feasts turn sour when an effective defense drives

off the too happy gankers who can’t initiate into a full enemy line up on the high ground. DotA

2 is all about objectives, not the kills. If you got many kills, and are getting them easy, good,

now, go, do your business, win the game.

Drip – drip / drop – drop. You don’t drip into battle. I’ve seen it, time and again, teams,

heroes, fall, because one of them was caught out of position, and then another went in to

help, although he was too far away to be of immediate use, so he was killed too. You don’t go

into a fight one by one. You’ll be surprised by the enemy time and time again, sometimes

you’ll be able to escape; sometimes, you won’t. If the enemy has enough stuns and slows,

they’ll bring you down; it’s just part of the game, however, it’s important to understand that to

put up a fight, you don’t do it alone. Do not trickle into battle, it’s wiser to retreat.

No hope – No hope. DotA 2 allows plenty of opportunities for a come-back, for you as well as

the rival team. If you, for whatever reason, died several times without getting kills, you can

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rely on your farmed teammates, or fight closer to the towers, or go full support, and so on.

There’s always the possibility for a turnaround, if your team becomes aware of the possibilities

available. Giving up early, or late—this obviously depends on your situation and team—, on

the match is bad DotA, for it means you aren’t aware of the comeback mechanics that are in

place within it. Therefore, instead of your teammates being the problem, you are. Believing

that total dominance from beginning to end is the only way to win in DotA is just ignorance,

and you need to be educated. As an example, let me tell you about the time I was the worst

Void ever.

We were doing pretty well, a Templar Assassin and me, on the safelane, while offlane

had been slaughtered. I was Faceless Void, and the enemy Ursa had grown huge basically

farming a Storm within our team. Storm had died 8 times and had zero kills. Confident with

their killing score, the enemy was coming to our base. I, as Void, asked the team to do as much

damage as possible while I trapped them into the chronosphere. My damage wasn’t enough to

kill Ursa within it, not even with the help of my teammates, so, I ended up dying to Ursa’s

combo; however, Ursa never survived long enough to do more damage to my team and

without their farmed up partner the enemy just retreated, over and over. I started dying like

crazy, and doing actually little damage to our enemies, but my time-stopping trap was useful

enough to shutdown Ursa and maybe get a couple of kills on every fight, making my team

stronger after each encounter. I think I died 17 times on that game; but, after some decisive

battles, I was cheered on and walked to victory down midlane and onto the enemy’s ancient.

You can turn things around, giving up is just plain bad DotA.

Blood drunk. It’s just how our brain

functions. We’re in the game for the

chills and thrills, and few kick harder, in

a good way, than killing the enemy; but,

after a slaughter fest, chances are you

could get carried away and move

onward, doing damage to the tower,

barracks, or whatever target is in the

crosshairs of your bloodthirsty mindset

of the moment, forgetting that you’re

low on health, with your most powerful

abilities on cooldown and that the

enemy, that just bought back, is brand new, getting you killed. It’s kind of hard but, after

surviving several battles, and increasing your deadly score by a handful, you must pull yourself

together and regain self-control, or, at the most crucial of moments, you’ll get carried away

and die unnecessarily.

And, with these six no-noes out of the way we can now focus on how you should

behave on the DotA battlefield.

Hero behavior

Play with bots to practice a little, whichever hero you decided to pick. Bots are worth

the practice nowadays, they are good enough to be worth your time; and that’s all they were

meant to be, so, it’s good. (I must confess I haven’t played them on the hardest modes yet,

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you know, what if I get a bad team? Or, if not with a human teams, what if the hard bots on

my side steal all my thunders?) If you play with bots against bots, the bots on your side will try

to communicate with you, saying things like: ‘Coming to gank top’, or ‘I’m going in’, or ‘going

on so-and-so’, things like that. The bots follow a program when they say ‘I’m going to attack’,

and the same bot is following the same program when he adds immediately: ‘I’m going back’.

It happened to me once, a bot said: ‘go’, and then changed its mind and informed, ‘no go’. In

less than a second. Why? Easy. The first instruction, ‘go’, was pushed forward because the

situation required it; the second instruction, ‘no-go’, was communicated because the situation

had changed. I don’t know what happened exactly, my guess is that a new foe had come into

sight—but it could’ve been anything—, and that doesn’t matter, what matters is the response

of the bot: it adapted.

When giving instructions on how to behave as a hero in DotA 2, there just isn’t a

formula that will guarantee you’ll turn into a good player overnight. Chances are you’ll require

practice; and, sometimes, not even that will do. DotA 2 is a fun game precisely because it

offers so many possibilities, it’s complex—which is not the same as complicated—and great for

being that. Basically, you have to adapt to every situation, and I will not be able to provide the

answers for all that you will encounter; however, I could provide you with questions. Yes,

questions. You’ll provide the answers, all the time.

Who are you?

Tell me. Tell your friends. What can your hero do? What is its main attribute? What’s

the nature of its powers and the length of its cooldowns? Do you have enough mana to spam

that ability? Do you have nukes? Heals? Slows? Before you move into the world of DotA 2, you

should get to know the basics of the hero you’ve chosen to play. There’s plenty of ways to do

that: bot practice, a friend’s help, looking for information on the web, and you know you’ll do a

little of all. Knowing what your hero does is the first step, becoming familiar with it will only

come through practice; but, remember, you are playing as you practice—not to mention that

using other heroes becomes easier with time, as the main skills on DotA 2, farming, denying,

moving, using the courier, and so on, are useful for all heroes. Being aware of your character’s

abilities and limitations will allow you to make the best choice of those available to you at any

time during the game.

However, the question can be repeated once again, who are you? Not as a DotA hero,

but as a player. What do you like to do? How do you behave as a gamer? Although playing any

role in DotA is equally fun and demanding, perhaps you’re best suited for a particular handful

of roles, rather than others.

Who are we?

Unless you play one versus one, you’ll have teammates on your side, four of them. If

you know who you are, you have to learn, little by little, who we are. DotA mechanics make a

given set of heroes far stronger with another one than on their own. Heroes may have a strong

synergy in pairs, threes, fours or a full stack of five. Or there can be a lack of it. Either way,

you’ll have to deal with the situation as best as you can. Who are you laning with? Will he let

all farm for you or he wants a share of the lane’s profits? Is that hero going to be a support or

is it going to be a nuker? If he’s going to be a nuker, then, he’ll need money to buy items and

fulfill that role, can you help with that, or will someone else? In order to find out ‘who we are’

you have no other choice but to communicate from the very get-go. DotA has a planning phase

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in all game modes—except all random, for obvious reasons—, at the very least, pick your b/w

icon and place yourself on the bottom left corner mini map, as the game sets up. That way,

you’ll be informing your teammates: I’m going carry, I want to take safelane, or whatever your

choice was.

You cannot determine how other people will play the game, you can only help the ‘we’

as a ‘you’. Communicate, inform your teammates using the ‘Y’ dialogue wheel (In the game,

you press ‘y’ and wheel of phrases pops up, using your mouse you can point to what you’re

going to say, such as: be careful, get back, missing top, and so on), the ctrl+mouse line drawing

on the minimap (you can draw lines with this), you can also type messages, or communicate

via microphones. Inform, let them know, help your team learn ‘who we are’. As you play the

game, see what the other teammates are doing and what they are capable of doing. You don’t

have to memorize their abilities to do this, just watch them in action and learn, if you see your

partner unleash an ability that could’ve been of greater use coordinating it with one of yours,

tell your partner. Simple messages such as: ‘wait, go after I do’, without typing the ability’s

name—which can be long or complicated—, are enough to hint your plan. ‘Slow after I slash’,

may not seem to make much sense outside of a game context, but, within it, it could be crystal

clear. The ‘we’ part of DotA is so important that I’ll devote a large section of this guide to it, it’s

under ‘tactics’.

Most DotA games are lost because the group of ‘I’s’, the ‘yous’, never realizes they are

mainly and foremost a ‘we’. To act as a ‘we’ you have to accept the ‘we’, and the nature of

‘we’, the need for coordination, combination, synergy, cooperation, and one of the key

aspects, and the one you can influence most: communication. The ‘we’ factor of the game

decides the outcome of the match, because if you, as a group, are unwilling to face the ‘we’,

maybe ‘they’ will. (Although a nice sentence to end the paragraph, this last one isn’t truthful,

reality is that most DotA matches involve a non-coordinated, non-communicative group of ‘I’s’

versus another similar group of ‘I’s’, and, within that environment, individuals do stand out)

Who are they?

Within a few seconds you’ll be able to see the full line up of your opponents, it will be

easy to see their attack type, and doing a little memory, you’ll identify their main attribute.

And, little by little, you’ll find the strengths and weaknesses of the heroes you’re facing, as well

as the players. A quick conclusion will come, or should: who they are, just like who you are,

determines much of how the game is going to be. The same wonderful combinations, wombo-

combos, of abilities that you can have with your teammates, are available to them as well as

you. Any pair, any synergy, applies.

Because it’s the name of the game, I’ve devoted an entire section to this problem, it’s

‘tactics’.

And the question must be repeated over and over; because, like you, they change over

time, as they gain levels or purchase items. For instance, if the enemy has won several fights,

be it in a lane or as a group against your team, this means their levels, on average, are higher

than those on your team, which means you should play it safer, try to fight with vision and only

in situations that give your team the advantage.

What level are they? What items do they have? How is the combination of so-and-so

playing out? As the situation is constantly changing, it’s useful to keep those questions in mind

as you reply to their presence with your built and items; not because you’re a strength,

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intelligence or agility, hero— this isn’t about you anymore—, you’re choosing a particular built

path based on who the other is, and on how they do battle. You are the answer, and as such,

you need a question: how are you going to deal with me? Reply accordingly.

Where are you?

‘I’m here’ won’t do as an answer. DotA is all about position, all other aspects, range,

cooldowns, items, and so on, are directly linked, and will only be useful, is you’re in the right

position. You have to be ‘there’. ‘There’ is your place. And, if you’re not ‘there’, it won’t work.

Your point of reference is clear, it’s us; the distance is obvious, it’s them. All we’ve discussed

previously leads to where you’ll be in the field of battle.

Positioning also involves tactics,

but there are some general ideas you can

hold on as you pace through the forests

and paths of this bloody land. 1) You can

be either close or far away from your

team; 2) you can be in your, or their,

territory; 3) you may know where the

enemy is, or not; 4) as it stands, you’re

part of a plan or have no clue at all. To

every single position there is a why that

must be answered. ‘Why are you far away

from your team’, for example, may

receive a number of reasonable answers: we’re all farming, so, the whole team is spread out

throughout the map; I’m split pushing, as my team, on the other side, retreats with the enemy

on hot pursuit; I know the enemy is not top, so I’ll take the chance to bring down their top

tower; and so on. If you don’t have a reasonable answer for your position, you have to

communicate with your team to make something happen.

Position is fluid, I’m talking about movement here. As your team moves, your position

is also part of the ‘we’ structure a team must have. Are you a durable? You’re vanguard. ‘Are

you the squishy nuker?’ You go rearguard, or mid at the back, between the reach of the

supports. ‘Will you initiate?’ To the front—unless you have a blink dagger. Whatever the

question, behind them all, there is a main issue:’ where are you?’ and ‘why?’. Why, why are

you there? Why are you moving that way? DotA needs you to learn how to move, and how to

move with a team, no matter how unrehearsed your group of companions is, you, with the

characters of your choice, should learn how to move.

Also remember that all the movements in your team, be it the farming bot, the split

pushing solo top, the ganker squad in the enemy jungle, all of it, involve the other team,

directly, or indirectly.

Where are they?

You know where the enemy team is, as the game begins, for, chances are, you’ll be all

laning opposite each other. Knowing ‘who’ they are helps as well, that way you’ll who to gank

first, if that is possible. Your movements, to a degree, must be determined by what the other

team does and where it is. It’s wise to move knowing where they are, otherwise you’re just

betting on them not being ‘there’; but, what happens if you lose the bet?

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Not knowing is part of the world of DotA, that’s why you don’t have an infinite number

of wards available—although you do have enough—, and that’s why there’s fog of war and

‘smoke of deceit’. However, you do know that you don’t know, therefore, be careful. It is as I

mentioned before, you’ll be surprised by a gank, but jumping into a full stack of five, isn’t a

gank, it’s awful gameplay. The way you move, must imply some awareness of how ‘they’ are

moving; because they’re looking for you and vice versa. This means looking sideways to the

mini-map, DotA only gives you so much vision on your main screen, so, you have to lean on the

mini to have more information on the enemy moves. Warning your friends someone is

missing, especially during the initial laning stage, may help prevent a gank.

So, you have to be mindful of where you are, and where the enemy is, in order to play

this game, and it’s all about tactics.

Tactics Yes, tactics, as in all competitive games and contests, including that supreme struggle

of all: war. War is one of the faces of competition, the most appalling one, for war is

destructive and painful, while competition, at its core, is cultivating, civilizing and improves

society as a whole; war, sweeps all beauty aside while inflicting huge amounts of pain on all

participants. War is tragedy, an extremely important and well-studied catastrophe, that shares

a huge amount of elements in common with other, more benign, forms of competition; not

least with DotA, whose gameplay and logic, based on the role playing game genre, seek to

imitate with numbers the realities of the battlefield where heroes forge their names—or wives

are widowed. Lucky us, DotA is a fantastic game, not war; but it is with the fundamentals,

principles and tenets of war that we can best face DotA tactics. Yes, really.

Fundamentals of warfare Quoting Sgt. Maj. Brett Stoneberger, who wrote the book ‘Combat Leader’s field

guide’, the fundamentals of ‘full spectrum operations’, a.k.a. warfare, are: “the elements of

combat power, the principles of war, the tenets of army operations […]” (Stoneberger, pg. 2).

So, I’ll be discussing those in some detail, not as applied to war, actually, but to DotA; you’ll be

surprised to see how fitting these words become. I’ll be taking those concepts and

arrangement from Stonberger’s book. Allow me to mention that all military field manuals of

every sort can be useful to understand DotA, if properly analyzed.

Elements of combat power

They are maneuver, firepower, leadership, protection, and information. Look at that,

maneuver comes before firepower, knowing how to move is more relevant than the size of

your cannon. Because all DotA heroes have a particular range, you have to be within a certain

distance of each other to truly be able to help each other in a fight. That’s why it’s so

important to know how to move in the game; because only maneuvering appropriately will

your firepower cause maximum effect on the enemy. Your firepower is: your damage per hit,

your fire rate, area of effect (AoE), your nukes, and, just as relevant, your disables and silences.

It’s the combined force of that punch that will make your team weak or powerful. How much

power can you bring on the enemy? Alone, no matter how big you’ve grown—silenced,

stunned, frozen, cursed, dead—not enough to deal with the whole enemy team; however, if

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they wander off alone and never manage to coordinate, that’s another story, they become

vulnerable to a fed hero. Don’t let that happen to you and your team.

Leadership, leadership, all kinds of games have leaders, all institutions, you have

leaders in the executive branch of a government, you have it within a parliament or congress

and you even have it within a certain small party within any political system. In DotA,

leadership can be really tricky because it just isn’t there. Most of the time, players will walk

wanting to play so-and-so, doing this-and-that, hardly paying attention to instructions from

other player, not to mention that: does he know what he’s doing, what he’s asking for? Should

we follow his leadership? Most of the time, I’ve found, it’s a negative, don’t listen, mind your

own business, see what they do and how they behave, and, if worth of it, follow; if not,

complain, and suggest a different course of action: lead. The problem is that leadership can’t

be fought for when you’re fighting someone else, in that circumstance, be guided by the

objective: the ‘let’s fight here’, or ‘let’s take down that tower’, if you do not forget what you

are here for—if you don’t let your team forget that you have to get tier 2 and tier 3 towers and

barracks—the group up for small objectives may prove to be leadership enough for DotA.

However, the most important lesson of the importance of leadership, should be that you have

to agree to agreeing, leadership is too useful to ignore. (But, never follow the fool who does

any of the aforementioned no-noes of DotA)

Protection is the next concept that we have to discuss. You don’t send soldiers off to

die in battle, they are too valuable, too useful to just throw away, you send them specifically to

achieve an objective, and, doing what it takes, your side may suffer losses. In DotA, you protect

your squishy damage dealer, your Drow, Luna or Sniper, you try to save them. Sacrifices will

have to be made, but you try to lose as few as possible, and to live as much as you can. The

higher level you have the more gold and experience points you provide to the enemy. Protect

your carry, protect your team, protect yourself. Not valuing any hero’s life isn’t only against

age old military principles, it’s also bad DotA.

Finally, information. Remember the ‘where are you’, ‘where are they’, questions used

for ‘hero behavior’, they are a part of the data you can share in DotA and that can really be

helpful to plan: chain of stuns, initiation and nuke, gank, and so on. You can also click on your

cooldowns, to show your friends what you can do at a given time, can you freeze? Curse? Is

your ultimate available? Share that information, ask for it, and use it.

Principles of War

They are: objective, offensive, mass, economy of force, maneuver, unity of command,

security, surprise, simplicity. Might seem a little redundant, but they aren’t; translated to DotA

speak, here’s what it says: 1) Objective: get towers, get barracks, get ancient; 2) offensive:

keep lines pushed, keep their heroes under farmed, get objectives after winning a fight,

control as much territory as you can; 3) mass: group up, gather, come together—and, in the

game, you must know when to do the opposite: split, scatter, retreat, fade away, as fast as

possible—; 4) economy of force: don’t die, don’t use 3 ultimates on one hero, spread your

disables, keep as many heroes, and creeps alive, as you can, lose as little HP as circumstance

allows; 5) maneuver: watch your step, be aware of where you are and why, know where your

team is and what it’s doing, be mindful of the enemy; 6) unity of command: as a team, you

have to know what you are doing; 7) security: wards, try to cover your moves, be aware of

enemy movements and positions, because you want to initiate on them, not vice versa; 8)

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surprise: well, this should be expected, initiation in DotA means starting a fight, sometimes,

good initiation determines how the fight will go, this makes surprising the enemy all the more

important; 8) simplicity: if you can move in a straight line, then move in a straight line, not

synonymous with oversimplification, simplicity is the cheapest option available that will get

the job done. In a game where seconds matter, keeping it simple is a must.

I could extend on any of these principles, but truth is I’ve done that already, all do

relate to matters I’ve discussed previously. More? Maybe one day, when I write the ‘Big Book

of DotA’—probably with a more attractive name.

The tenets of army operations

Allow me to mention them: initiative, agility, depth, synchronization, and versatility. In

our fantastic battlefield, we have mentioned all before, but let’s focus on them a little more.

Initiative means you make the plays, your team does, and the enemy adapts. Having the

initiative allows your team to strike first, and, hopefully, surprise the enemy, which may win

you the battle. Initiative, in Dota, requires a lot of teamwork to maintain. (By the way, going by

yourself into the enemy jungle hoping to get a kill by assaulting enemy squishies isn’t

‘initiative’, it’s a DotA ‘no-no’, it will get you killed and your team will lose whatever initiative it

had) Agility, in the game, for a team, is measured also by how fast your heroes are, or how

much money they have to buy teleport scrolls (tp’s). Agility is your ability to gather, to group

up and get something done. This doesn’t mean rushing to wherever there’s a ping. No. Take

into account the nature of the heroes, of their built, the lanes they’ve been on, and the

cost/benefit of every action.

‘Depth, in DotA?’ You may

wonder. There always is. Depth in

chess only means 8 squares, but you

start at the bottom two, surmounting

that, being aware of that space, is

depth. In DotA, you have a first line to

tier one enemy towers, then, to tier

two, tier three, barracks and ancient.

Disrupting enemy lines within that

space is DotA depth, and the farther

you move into enemy territory—

because it’s a triangle—the easier it is

for the enemy to defend. How much

of the territory do you control or are aware of? Until you take all of it, think about the whole

field. I’ve seen too many players just be baffled by land beyond your side of the river, they

either push into enemy territory, and get sliced and diced, or wander from lane to lane waiting

for a miracle to happen. Depth is an objective oriented space awareness, do not forget that it

is there, and that the enemy has the high point of the triangle.

Synchronization, acting on the same beat, timing, as your fellow teammates, it’s how

music is made. Did you agree to a tempo? Because stuns do not stack on DotA, you have to

coordinate for them to last longer, the game tells you this on its loading screen, smart advice.

Initiation will only be such if it’s followed by an all-out attack; although combat itself will

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always be a little chaotic and heavily dependent on the players’ skill and abilities, at the very

least, you have to agree you are going in together. Synchronicity means coordinating.

Finally, versatility, what does it mean? How can you use it? There’s so much to do in

DotA: pushing, silencing, nuking, farming, denying, slowing, and everything else. Considering

heroes are limited in a number of ways—they have weaknesses and strengths, main attributes

and likely roles—, versatility means how well and how many things you can do as a team. You

can’t push all the time, you can’t gank all the time, you can’t fight all the time; you have to

engage and disengage, push and farm, you have to be able to jump from one thing to the

other. There’s no need for the hard carry to plant wards, you have a team that must be able to

do all the things that have to be done in DotA, spread the responsibility, share the burden,

become versatile. As one you can only do so much, as five, you must be able to do everything,

that’s versatility.

That’s it, the fundamentals of warfare with a DotA twist. Now that you know them, use

them well.

Draft – Line up – Positions

Focus, group up, spread out, get objectives, may seem as extremely basic instructions;

but they are necessary, without them you can’t move forward. You know and you’ve seen it,

great players on lane, great gankers, magnificent itemizers, guys who know the ins and outs of

their heroes, just get lost when battle doesn’t go their way; because they ignore the

fundamentals of competition, they refuse to group up, and do the most basic team work. So,

once you’ve gotten it into your head that you need to coordinate a bit to overcome your rivals

all options of DotA will be open to you and that includes the draft of heroes. If a team that

works together—no matter how much agreeable or disagreeable it is. I have had awesome

victories with teams that complained and yelled about each other, but they realized working

together was the only option—is stronger than one that doesn’t, a team with a draft plan is

already ahead before the game even starts. It’s like winning the chess match by the time they

draw lots to decide who gets white or black.

First, allow me a parenthesis, a digression. A five team group, with 110 heroes on the

pool, assuming they are all available to you, gives no less than: fourteen billion, six hundred

eighty six million, nine hundred eighty two thousand six hundred forty possible combinations.

Here’s the number, if you want to see it: 14,686,982,640. That’s what you get by multiplying

110 times 109 times 108 times 107 times 106. It’s more than just a lot, I think it’s already way

beyond human grasping. All of those combinations, of course, aren’t available to anyone. No

one plays all characters as efficiently, let alone a group of five people, that doesn’t happen.

Suffice to say to developers, 110 is enough, close the roster soon, maybe get up to 115 just

because there is a roundness to it; but that’s it, there’s no need for more. I can’t think of many

more heroes making gameplay sense, or businesswise. People, with time, grow fond and

comfortable with something and that is what you want on the brand identification department.

I’d say more, but, to keep it short, let me add: It’s fine as it is, they’re enough.

So, back to draft. With so many possibilities at hand, the draft should look for synergy

between the heroes, respective roles—so that they don’t stomp on each other’s feet—and

overall balance: stuns, disables, damage, and so on. Synergy, by the way, just means that

together they are stronger, the wombo-combos are based on that. And, before we move on to

the usual drafts, and particular lineups, it’s a good time to mention Chinese DotA.

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Conventional and Chinese DotA

Chinese players developed particular names for positions on their lineup. They use

ordinal numbers for that: first, second, third, fourth and fifth position. Their order refers to the

farming priority of the hero. You can guess that the first position will be in the hands of the

safe lane hard carry, second goes to midlane carry or nuker, and third would be for a

secondary carry, offlane, while fourth and fifth go to starving supports. Although the

difference is mainly one of terminology, disciplined Chinese teams did take the instructions

literally, which can have two main consequences: 1) a huge big-as-a-house carry, a true

monster that springs out of the safelane into field domination, 2) supports that lag behind and

can’t catch up with the rest of the team, or the rival’s, because they lack items. If taken as a

philosophy, or strategy, rather than terminology, Chinese DotA could make your draft less

flexible, not versatile. However, well played, the first position only means the most farmed in,

on the whole, well farmed team. That’s all.

Conventional DotA, on the other hand, uses a terminology based on map placing, such

as: safelane, midlane, offlane, and supports. A usual line up could well be as follows:

Safelane Midlane Offlane Support Support

Configuration Carry, Hard Carry

Carry Carry, durable

Safe lane support

Offlane support

Example 1 Drow Viper Slardar Earthshaker Shadow Shaman

Example 2 Antimage Sniper Bristleback Disruptor Lich

The three carries (or two carries plus a durable) would provide the damage and

presence, as the supports help with disables and nukes. Midlane carry gives the tempo of the

game, trying to help gank bot or top when it’s able to (in a conservative game, it would mean

after the hero gets its sixth ability, its ultimate). It’s supposed to be the most aggressive hero

on your team, it provides the early kills. Safelane carry is the late bet that will allow you to win

the game, as it grows huge, pampered by supports that stack the jungle and give him all the

lane farm. Offlane carries, or durable, have to be sturdy by nature, as strength carries are, or

have an escape mechanism that could help them survive in hostile territory, a good support

would also help; so, you can focus on the hero that will be offlane or the support that will lane

with him, both ways work. Finally, the supports are supposed to be on both lanes, bot and top,

with one on each.

So, that’s the basics, and they can be arranged in many ways. But, before that, a word

on: rat dota.

Turtle bite (Rat DotA)

In western culture, the rat is a bad thing. It isn’t a creature that thrives on the face of

adversity, it’s a dirty little thing that carries diseases and ruins your food—or eats it. Rat DotA

is no exception, and, as a journalist, I think that is a bad thing; because whatever crowns you a

victor is good DotA, and there’s no point in giving an effective gameplay a bad name. Rat DotA

means avoiding fights while chipping away at their towers and pushing the lanes. Avoiding a

fight as a rat would do. Yes, it’s a good description, but it’s, in the west, demeaning, and you

can’t change the meaning of rat, so, change the name of good gameplay. My choice is clear. A

‘turtle bite’ is respected, nothing to sneeze at, especially if the alligator snapping turtle comes

to mind. You shell in when danger comes, but then, unsuspected, you strike, gnawing at your

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opponents. When your team draft isn’t the best for them, avoiding fights is just smart, and if

turtle biting will help you attain success, then you’re playing well.

Draft and lane line up

So, on one hand we have the draft, the heroes you can choose and, on the other, we

have the lane line ups, where you can place them. Before we see a minuscule number of good

overall team drafts, let’s check the possible lane line ups, other than the most usual 2 – 1 – 2:

Add a jungler 1 – 1 – 1 – 2

It may seem like a small move, but it does give a lot to its team in the hands of a proper jungler, meaning: a hero that can really make the most of the jungle early on. 1 offlane, that will grow strong, will be alone and needs dodging abilities; 1 midlane, the usual carry, hopefully other than the enemy will be paying a little attention to what he’s doing; 1 jungler, one that can farm the jungle well; 2 bottom, a carry plus a support. Thanks to a very small move, you’ll have two heroes growing above average (2-1-2).

Trilaning 3 – 1 – 1 or 1 – 1 – 3

Trilane is literally three in a lane. That’s: a carry and two supports on one lane. It may work on either offlane or safelane. However, the trilane behaves differently according to whom, and where, they are facing. On the offlane, they will be aggressive, trying to disturb the stacks of their rivals, and trying to push fast to get the tier one tower; on the safelane, they can be passive, killing enemies whenever they get careless with a chain of stuns—that’s what your supports are there for—and with one of the supports stacking the jungle, on and off the lane. Both supports would need disables. Squishy carry, and a good solo laner, more likely a durable, whether on the offlane or safelane.

Two mid 1 – 2 – 2

It can be done. There has to be a reason for it, obviously; but it can be done. Once, by accident, I went mid, after calling it, and someone else came on too, I didn’t budge, so, me, a Drow I think it was, and a Sniper, just laned mid. In the meantime, a careful Huskar had gone top, had grown big, and, after a bit, was ganking throughout the map. Although split twoways, the two midlaners had gotten some farm, had denied the other midman farm and safety, and, although arguing we went on to win. There are far more orderly examples of this line up on youtube. Basically, it’s a squishy mid that’s getting help from its support in order to survive and thrive, the support may leave to help offlane if necessary. Durable offlane, most likely.

Disturbing roamers 1 – 1 – 1 plus 2 roamers

As good idea as it may seem, a 1 – 1 – 1 line up with two roamers, is pretty difficult to pull off, it’s just too risky for your average users. It requires a lot of coordination, patience and precise movements. If they move, and are not in lane, they are losing experience; if they stay in lane, they are taking the experience away from the lane carry and wasting the whole point of having two roamers. Roamers could focus on disturbing the enemy jungle and the enemy’s safelaner carry, as they avoid being ganked themselves, and that, depending on draft, could be a bit difficult. You don’t want your line up threat dealt with by 2 teleport scrolls, do you? Anyway, in the right hands, this is one disturbing extremely aggressive line up that can greatly disrupt the enemy’s gameplay, giving you the advantage after your lane carries are farmed up a little.

There are, of course, more options, such as 1 – 3 – 1, or the 1 – 2 – 1 – 1, however, any

move astray from the usual path requires testing and training, if you think it’s worth your time,

go ahead, but master the basics first.

Well, because the draft gives you way too many options, I thought it would be useful

to at least give some examples of how you can combine hero’s abilities and give them synergy,

not the basic pair combos, but straight into teams.

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Aura destroyers.

Necrophos along with Elder Titan on the same lane. Necrophos does damage with his

aura, while Titan reduces armor with his, perfect passive combo, whomever lanes against

them will have a hard time, even a momentary presence will exact a heavy hp penalty. Crystal

Maiden, support, provides mana regeneration for all, as Outworld Devourer, mid, racks in even

more mana for the team. Many options may complement this team: Sven adds speed and

armor, or Wraith King, life.

Global presence.

Spirit Breaker can be anywhere early on, Nature’s prophet can join in, while Spectre,

with the touch of a button, will appear there as well. Io may bring another carry into any fight.

So, Spectre, mid; Nature Prophet, jungle; Spirit Breaker, solo offlane, be careful; Io, safelane,

babysitting a carry, or a powerful durable, such as Bristleback or Tiny. Other combinations are

possible, Spirit Breaker with Lifestealer, make a powerful pair on their own; Io, then, would

support NP, although their abilities aren’t complementary.

Global sniping

Ancient Apparition has a global nuke, the same goes for Invoker, add Clockwerk to this

mix and Bloodseeker provides vision of all gravely wounded heroes, no one will escape, no one

will survive. Gyrocopter completes the five stack, not only because he’s a really good carry; but

because his ultimate, call down, becomes global with Aghanim’s scepter. You can either go

Clockwerk offlane, with AA as support, or solo; Invoker should be mid, with Blood jungling, and

Gyro on the safelane, solo or with AA. May combine with Zeus as well. Clockwerk, AA, Gyro,

Invoker and Zeus, kaboom.

Crowd annihilator

The idea of a draft is stacking abilities on top of each other to have one big destructive

soup served to your rivals. It can literally be done with any group of heroes. If you’ve ever

played ‘Captain’s mode’ on DotA 2, you know that it’s just an irrelevant action to ban 5 heroes,

out of 110, because they can keep as many combos as they want, you can’t ban effectively;

although, that way, you do avoid counters to your own line up. One example, of such less

unique combinations, may come from the natural synergy from ample AoE stuns or traps,

Faceless Void’s being the most notable. So, we could combine Faceless Void, safelane, with, a

powerful nuke that can enter the chromosphere, such as Witch Doctor’s death ward. That duo

is pretty powerful on its own; but, you can make it nastier. Add, for example, a suck in, a

centrifugal force such as: Magnus’s reverse polarity or Darkseer’s vacuum. Magnus goes first,

sucks them in, then Void, chrono, the doctor starts its nuke. Increase are damage with Crystal

Maiden’s ultimate, and, to protect her, bring in Warlock’s area stun while she decimates the

enemy. Magnus, offlane, with CM, Warlock mid, Void lanes with Darkseer. DotA offers ample

choice of picks for similar combinations. (Just think what you could do with Phoenix’s ulti, plus

a little CM, including Tidehunter and a Sand King. Nice.)

Stun chain

Although DotA gives you plenty of ‘nuke and ultimate’ combinations; doing spectacular

AoE damage and stuns isn’t the only way to go about it. You’ll get most kills by the simple

combination of abilities rather than the ultimates. An example of such a line up could be:

Dragon Knight, with a stun, durability and damage, on the safelane; Leshrack, with nukes and a

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slight stun, solo mid; Centaur Warrunner, with a powerful stun, durability and enough damage,

solo offlane; plus Mirana and Vengeful spirit, both with stuns, as supports, helping all lanes.

Mirana, although also a carry, can be more than a decent support, even if poor. Having so

many stuns within a team makes it difficult for the enemy to start a fight, and the low

cooldowns on those abilities would allow your team to engage at will. This is only an example

of the stun chains you can build with team mechanics. With the same logic: Earthshaker,

Kunkka, Naga, Shadow Shaman and Lion could be combined into another stun filled stack of

five. Minding the melee and ranged balance, and the damage, durable and support, aspects of

the team, as always; there’s plenty of possible stun combos.

Neverending gank

Crowd splashers, complete field paranoia, passive death or destructive stuns, are only

a part of what DotA stacks may offer. Differing enough from the previous team draft, the

ganker team is born out of two roamers, plus aggressive fighting heroes. Huskar, on its own, is

a terrible fighter, solo offlane; Troll solo mid, is ready to battle anytime; Doom could be on the

safelane, he needs a lot of farm, but he has many abilities with low cooldowns that can ensure

kills with a little help; finally, the key, the gankers could be Clockwerk, the gank specialist, and

Bounty Hunter, or supports such as Shadow Demon and Bane. The gankers appear on the lane

and help the laner get rid of the enemy, or, as Clockwerk and Bounty, go into the enemy jungle

to disrupt their farming and stacks. A team structured this way could weaken the enemy early

on, and push lanes, while stacking kills. Did I mention Night Stalker? Many candidates available

for such a line up.

Pushing nightmare

The objective of the team is the enemy’s ancient, in order to get there, you have to

push, then, why not push with a five stack? On the safelane, Lycan, quietly farming into full

pushing potential; Broodmother mid would keep the enemy distracted; while Phantom Lancer

or Juggernaut, survives and thrives on the offlane; who best to keep any of them company

other than Shadow Shaman, while Nature’s Prophet grows in the jungle. Want it more active?

Maybe Tinker mid is for you. Naga, Lone Druid, are other excellent pushers.

Invisible army

Invisible units are mostly squishy, therefore, a whole stack of them isn’t exactly

advisable; but, by its very presence, your invisible team would require too much attention

from the enemy supports, with wards or even an early gem, investing money and time

countering you rather than moving up themselves, that is what is usually called an advantage.

You could just make them go broke. Broodmother, Riki, Bounty Hunter, Weaver and Clinkz,

look great on paper and sound fearsome, they hit so hard all they would have to do to win a

fight is avoid initiation on them. Invoker, Nyx and Treant Protector, could also be placed into

this mix. Not forgetting that Sand King may also provide invisible distraction while damaging

the enemy. However, with some coordination, for an invisible army all you need is Mirana.

Illusion crowd

If not being seen isn’t your thing, then maybe the crowds of doubles, doppelgangers

and illusions might be. With this draft, without items—you can always have the whole team

buy Manta Style, but that’s highly expensive—, you’ll greatly outnumber the enemy. Phantom

Lancer, it would be, then, on the offlane; joined by Naga Siren, mid; while Chaos Knight, or

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Terrorblade, battles on the safelane; Spectre could jungle, or Morphling—he can make a

sturdy copy of any on your or their team—, however if you’re looking for more supporty

heroes, Darkseer and Shadow Demon, are available options, as both provide duplicating

abilities. No matter how briefly, your numbers would overpower the enemy team.

Mob abilities

Finally, if more steady numbers are what you seek, the following heroes come with

buddies that will keep them company most of the time. Beastmaster, solo offlane, with his bird

and Boar; Meepo, or Meepos, should be mid; Chen could be in the jungle, with his creep army,

or Enigma with its eidolons, or how about Lone Druid with his friendly bear; finally, safelane,

Lycan, his two wolves, and Visage’s familiars, would make the field very crowded with friends.

Nature’s Prophet, has treants; Broodmother doesn’t lack spiderlings, if in lane or near creeps;

also, Enchantress’s ability allows her to command the alliance of most non hero units; and

both, Invoker and Warlock, may summon brief presences. Combine as it pleases your team,

and stomp through your rivals with growls, howls or stranger sounds, coming from your

troops.

Is this it? Not by a long shot, clever combinations, rather than focus on one ability for

most, center on several complementary abilities within all. I present to you this list of odd and

particular drafts for illustration purposes: I mean, this is as crazy as you can get and it could

work wonderfully—always dependent on team execution, of course. The reason I avoided pair

combos is that this guide is already way too long, and you know the numbers behind 110

characters. I hope these drafts, not only being an entertaining purpose on their own—I would

love to see most of these drafts in game; but, alas, it would require some training, wouldn’t

it?—, give you ideas for possible team combinations, for that is the objective of this draft list.

Are some final words in order? Did I leave something out? Sure, to both. I have a small,

200 pages book on the basics of Chess, it’s very nice, and similar works range between a

couple of hundred pages to more than four. DotA is just as complex as chess. So, I’d be missing

around 70 pages to make this guide as big as the small book—35 word pages would be around

twice as much in print—, and that’s a little too much. Maybe one day they’ll ask me to write

the ‘Big Book on DotA’, or ‘Wonder of design, old and new in DotA art’ (I’d willingly accept);

however, until then, I hope this guide proves at least a bit helpful for players new and old. We

shall see, in the meantime: gl hf, good luck and have fun playing the fantastic game.

And I hope you enjoyed this guide.

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I wrote this guide using the internet, which means, lots and lots of sources, allow me to

mention the most important ones (btw, thanks a lot to all the people sharing information on

the web, kudos to you, guys):

Stoneberger, Brett, Sgt. Maj. (Ret.) Combat Leader’s field guide, Stackpole books,

Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, 2005.

Dota 2 by Valve Corporation, at: www.dota2.com

wiki.teamliquid.net/dota2/Main_Page

dota2.gamepedia.com/Dota_2_Wiki

www.dotafire.com

www.dotabuff.com

About the author: Rodrigo Antezana Patton, 1975, is a DotA

fan and regular player of the game. He greatly suffers when

his team is filled with noobs who can’t win despite his hard

carrying . He’s Bolivian, and resides in Cochabamba, a

little town in the middle of the country. He’s written

extensively, mostly as a cinema critic and commentator of

pop culture. Gaming is one of his many areas of interest. He

is the author of ‘El viaje’, 2001, (‘The voyage’, a sci-fi, post-

apocalyptic novel), ‘Ideas homicidas’, 2008, (a summary of the history of real socialism—I’m

actually quite proud of that little, very little, book, for it was only meant to be a chapter within

an actual book explaining the principles of liberal—libertarian in the U.S.—ideas and

challenges. Real socialism being the opposite point of view, and a criminal one). He currently

teaches at a local private college (And, yep, you guessed, he also teaches English). That’s it.

Supahnoob is my nickname in the game. I liked it, so I stuck with it, although it’s been

long since I was a noob; remain supah, though.

Feel free to share this guide, unchanged and with due credits, through whatever

medium you find suitable. I’ll update and polish this guide as observations are made and

corrections required. If you wish to support the author of this work, sharing will be enough, or

give it a ‘like’ in social media. You could also spend a couple of bucks on the comic book ‘It’s

just a river’, on Amazon.com, via kindle, 64 pages of deficiently drawn, but overall fun—I

hope—, lemming fable. Dark humor required. Get over the simple drawings and I think most

will like it. I also made some videos concerning cinema narrative, ‘fixing’ movies, this is the

first: ‘The world’s best critic fixes Krull’, on youtube, check them out if, and only if, you’re

interested in narrative and storytelling—one of my friends already told me that they are long

and tedious, so, consider yourself warned. I also have videos fixing: ‘Resident Evil Retribution’,

‘Wreck it Ralph’, ‘Prometheus’, ‘The road’—yuck—, and ‘Thor’, and I have to edit 5 more

(working on it, working on it). Thx for buying the courier