The document serves as a comprehensive guide to Dota 2, detailing the game's mechanics, objectives, and strategies. It explains the importance of team play, the variety of hero roles, and tactical elements such as lanes, creeps, and tower destruction. Additionally, the guide aims to help both new and experienced players understand the fundamentals of the game to enhance their overall experience.

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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

10. 10
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

11. 11
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,

12. 12
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

16. 16
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

17. 17
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.

18. 18
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

19. 19
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

21. 21
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

22. 22
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

24. 24
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

27. 27
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

28. 28
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,

29. 29
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 