Dota 2

What are Dota 2 heroes?

Heroes are characters with their own combination of unique skills and attributes, each of which can be moulded and shaped by items. Over the course of the game, a hero will gain experience which can then be used to level up, increasing their effectiveness. Depending on how a hero performs, their item builds and who else is on their team, a hero can fulfil a specific role.

What are roles in Dota 2?

Roles help define a specific method of playing any given hero. Every hero has at least one primary role, which helps a player achieve the maximum potential with that hero. However, it’s not uncommon for heroes to be able to fulfil multiple roles, and even change their roles throughout the course of the game.

To kill enemy creeps, heroes and eventually blow up the enemy Ancient, your team will need a mixture of roles. Here’s a rundown:

Best carry heroes

Carries are the spectacle of every team. They rely on the perfect execution of last hitting creeps (letting them build powerful items) to become a force to be reckoned with. The longer the game lasts, the more dependent your team will become on your stacked inventory and strong abilities to win the game. It’s intimidating to have that much weight on your shoulders, but every role is challenging. These heroes will generally have abilities that allow them to survive early and ones that increase their damage late.

Juggernaut

 

Lycan

 

Sniper

 

Best support heroes

Every team needs a good support, a sacrificial lamb to protect the more important heroes and their wallets. Their abilities don’t necessarily have to all be heals, but should be effective without powerful, expensive items. This leaves heroes playing the support role in a position to buy important items that benefit the whole team.

Crystal Maiden

Omniknight

Lich

Best junglers

Some heroes don’t like to lane during the early game, instead taking to the jungle where the neutral creeps dwell. Junglers can take advantage of this as long as they can fight the creeps there effectively and efficiently. Some heroes have natural lifesteal to offset the damage they will take, other heroes spawn minions to tank the damage and some just take control of the neutral creeps all together.
The most important thing for jungling is knowing a route between camps, picking the right starting items and abilities, then using your positioning near lanes effectively for ganks. It’s a role that varies wildly in effectiveness between patches, so sometimes it may not be a viable option but equally you could be your team’s all-star.

Axe

Lifestealer

Ursa

Best nukers

The assassins of Dota 2, these guys can burn through an enemy’s health in a few horrific, often firey seconds. If you like big numbers and are obsessed with your kill/death ratio, these are the heroes for you. Remember that nukers are fantastic early and mid game, but bow down to their farmed carry brethren when the late game arrives. The best thing you can do is repeatedly kill or disrupt an enemy carry, or failing that, vapourise those squishy supports.

Lina

Bounty Hunter

Lion

Best Initiators

The kings and queens of team fights, these heroes dictate when and where teams clash; usually with a repertoire of huge area of effect abilities. These range from dealing massive damage, having long stun durations or providing position manipulation. It can be quite intimidating to be an initiator, because sometimes it leaves your team’s success resting solely on you and your reactions. When everything goes right however, nothing else will give you the same grin.

Tidehunter

Warlock

Naga Siren

Best Pushers

The main objective of Dota 2 isn’t to score an impressive number of kills, but to instead destroy your enemy’s base. To get there you will need to destroy a multitude of towers, which are tough adversaries in the early game. Pushers rise to this challenge, which abilities that deal extensive damage to buildings, or summon minions to soak up the incoming damage. Some team compositions feature many pusher heroes, designed to destroy the enemy base before the opposing team can buff up their carry.

Leshrac

Keeper of the Light

Tinker

Best solo heroes

An intimidating role for beginners, but a useful one to master. The art of soloing is simple: don’t die. You’re not in it for the dosh or kills, unless you can guarantee your safety. Because you’re alone, you will benefit from getting solo experience, instead of sharing it with a laning partner. Denying can be a useful tactic to slow the experience game of your enemies, and further increase your level advantage. Heroes who can get out of sticky situations, or farm and harass from a distance, are perfect here. A pair of wards to watch for ganks and lane opponents making aggressive movements are a very good spend of your first gold.

Windranger

Dark Seer