Dota 2’s metagame is notorious for shifting and changing courses on a dime, given the flexible nature of hero roles and the huge impact items have on the game. These days especially, diverse tournament metas are to be expected with only a handful of heroes going unpicked.
At the highest levels of play, games can be won or lost even before the creeps spawn. Having a good hero composition can spell the difference between a struggle to breach high ground and a team with heroes that complement each other and form a well-oiled machine.
This tier list—based on the current competitive metagame—outlines which heroes are picked most often by professional teams and those that stand out in terms of win percentages. Note that this list will not include every single hero, mainly because there are simply too many in Dota to count. Instead, we’ll break the list down to roughly 40 of the most popular and effective heroes.
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The qualifiers for The International 10 featured some heart-pumping and heartbreaking Dota 2. The cutthroat format meant that even before players and (potentially) fans gather in Bucharest, Romania, two-time winners OG have already begun their storyline, while others are staring at the end of their season.
Pro Dota continues to churn on in varying regions, but some of the heroes on this tier list should really, really be adjusted ahead of the largest event of the year. There’s no indication yet of a pre-TI patch, however.
Tier one
Nyx Assassin
Templar Assassin
Terrorblade
Hoodwink
Broodmother
Timbersaw
Ancient Apparition
Dragon Knight
Mars
Puck
Lion
Viper
Winter Wyvern
Phoenix
Invoker
Tier one belongs to heroes who make an appearance in almost every drafting stage, whether it’s for their role flexibility, the versatility to fit any draft, or a unique skill set that no other hero can replicate. Expect these heroes to be adjusted ahead of the biggest tournament of the year, The International 10, and its associated qualifiers.
Nyx Assassin
Image via Valve
Nyx Assassin trades some laning prowess to be an absolute nuisance once the laning stage breaks up, forcing enemies to always keep an eye out for Nyx.
Vendetta means that Sentry Wards have to be bought. And even though the item is cheaper than ever, it’s still an annoyance for the opposing support to deal with. Besides Impale, a good if unspectacular line stun, Mana Burn and Spiked Carapace provide additional utility and lockdown.
Though he’s often played as a straightforward roamer and scout, the hero’s Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade—quickly becoming the hero’s default first item—that allows him to Burrow and upgrade all his spells introduces a radical change in his playstyle. It lets him become an immovable deterrent, throwing out long-range Impales and Mana Burns to create an invisible sphere of influence that opponents have to account for.
Templar Assassin
Lanaya was the queen of the Major. Her accelerated growth with Ancient and neutral stacks were always well-known, but she exploded in 메이저사이트 popularity along with the Dragon Lance build-up.
It took a few patches, but Templar Assassin’s Psi Blades buff in 7.28, where the spill area now scales to the hero’s attack range instead of being a fixed value, was finally exploited to its fullest. Along with her level 10 Psi Blades range talent and Dragon Lance, the hero could hit units 1,750 range away—more than Blink Dagger’s 1,200 units.
This gave her such an immediate and effective power spike early on. But that’s not all she had to offer. Her level 25 talent, which gives her eight additional Refraction instances for a total of 14, meant that she was a monstrous late-game carry as well—a level she reaches with regularity thanks to her farming speed. Teams, most notably OG’s SumaiL, have even tried her as a safe laner, leveraging her high base stats and level one Meld to provide a threatening zoning presence.
Terrorblade
Terrorblade’s illusion army and Metamorphosis proved to be an overwhelming physical damage force in many games, tearing down heroes and buildings from range with ease.
