A Guide to Dota 2 Consumables and Regeneration

In Dota 2, consumables play a huge role in the laning phase and beyond. To be able to farm well, heroes must keep their HP and mana pools in good condition.

When you fall below a certain HP percentage, you are more likely to get killed and are forced to play scared. When you fall below a certain mana percentage, you can no longer make optimal use of your abilities.

Because of this, consumables and sustainability tend to be very important. You don’t want to make unnecessary trips to your fountain because that’s wasted time. In a game that puts a courier at your disposal, the ideal scenario is one in which you never go to base unless you need to defend your barracks.

At the very least, you should strive to not go there in the first 10 minutes of the game because they are critical. Losing 40 – 60 seconds will put you at a severe disadvantage. You should seek to maximize your gpm and xpm and to do that, you must have good HP regen and mana regen.

Consumables

Here are the most important consumable items that you can buy in Dota 2.

Tango

This item gives you three charges of Devour. This ability allows you to consume a tree to get +7 HP regen for 16s. That’s a total of 112 HP regen for 30 gold.

The advantage when using a Tango is that the regen won’t stop even if your hero receives damage. Another advantage is that if you’re already full HP, the remaining regen won’t be completely lost because you can get involved in damage trades with your opponents.

The disadvantage of this item is that it takes a long time to substantially heal you. Your hero will generally have 3 – 5 HP regen, so the total will be around 10 – 12 per second. This means that you might need 30 – 60s to get your HP back. If you can’t afford to wait that long, it might be better to opt for a different solution.

In the past, heroes were able to share multiple Tango charges with ease. But now it’s no longer possible because shared Tangos expire very quickly.

Healing Salve

Healing Salve is another consumable that offers a more substantial benefit than Tangos. It regenerates 390 HP over 13s but the effect is lost if you take damage from enemy heroes or Roshan. A Healing Salve can also be used on an ally.

Dota 2 players often bring themselves Healing Salves using the courier in order to improve their ability to farm during the laning phase. This is important when dealing with tough opponents who can continuously harass you.

If you take a lot of damage over time, a better solution would be to buy Tangos and use them regularly. Adding some extra HP regen items is also quite useful. Every 1 HP regen/s translates into 60 HP regen per minute. A Healing Salve essentially gives you the equivalent of 6.5 HP regen per minute but it applies it in just 13s.

If you can get to 6.5 HP regen per minute, you gain a free Healing Salve each minute or 100 gold. How useful that is depends on how much damage you take and how severe is your need to regenerate yourself.

Faerie Fire

Faerie Fire is another consumable that gives you 85 HP instantly when consumed. It also gives you +2 damage while sitting in your inventory. The cost of this Dota 2 item is 65 gold. Players generally buy a Faerie Fire for the purpose of baiting opponents or escaping with their lives in key situations.

There are very few items that can give you a lot of instant HP. And sometimes, you actually do need that instant regeneration if you want to survive because you don’t have 3 extra seconds at your disposal to regenerate before getting hit again.

Clarity

Clarity provides 150 mana over 25 seconds for just 50 gold. This makes it an excellent consumable for heroes who are farming the jungle and regularly using their abilities. The effect is not lost unless you take damage from an enemy hero or Roshan. Neutral creeps will not ruin it.

Combined with other mana regeneration items, one clarity per minute could help you get all the mana you need to maintain a high mana percentage during the first 15 minutes of the game. You will lose a bit of gold each minute, but that gold may significantly speed up your farm and increase your xpm and gpm.

Enchanted Mango

Enchanted Mango costs 65 gold and offers you +100 mana regen instantly. It also gives you +0.4 HP regen. So if you stack 3 of them in your inventory, you get +1.2 HP regen and potentially 300 mana regen.

This can be quite useful in the first 10 minutes of the game. That amount of regen will offer you 72 HP per minute for the price of 195 gold.

Infused Raindrops

This is an item that will give you great benefits for just 225 gold: 48 mana regen per minute and the ability to passively block 120 magical damage every time you take more than 75 magical damage. You can block 6 damage instances before the item is consumed. Assuming that you’ll get to keep it for 5 minutes, the benefit is 240 mana and up to 720 blocked damage.

So, in total, you’re getting a benefit of around 240 mana and 700 HP regen for just 225 gold. That is totally worth it, especially if the item ends up saving your life.

Regeneration Items

Apart from consumables, Dota 2 also contains numerous items that can regenerate your HP and mana. Some of the best and most commonly used ones are listed below.

Bottle

The price of this item is 675 gold. But the benefits throughout the game are substantial. Every time you find a rune, your Bottle is refilled. A Gold rune gives you 2 charges. A Power rune gives you 3 charges. Every charge is worth 110 HP and 60 mana. So a full bottle is worth 330 HP and 180 mana. The combined amount is substantial.

Runes spawn quite frequently in Dota 2, which means that after leaving the lane, you will often get the chance to regenerate yourself thanks to your bottle.

Another big advantage when buying this item is that you can store runes for 90s and use them at the ideal moment, usually when ganking or engaging in a team fight. Some runes are very powerful and can either give you maximum speed, double damage, or invisibility.

Magic Wand

Magic Wand costs 450 gold and gives you +3 to all attributes. More importantly, it gives you the ability to store up to 20 charges. Whenever an ability is used by visible enemy heroes in a 1200 radius, you gain one charge.

You can use your charges whenever you want. Each charge gives you 15 HP and 15 mana. This means that if you have 20 charges, you will receive 300 HP and 300 mana instantly. This is a huge amount and it’s the reason why you should almost always buy this item in the laning phase, no matter what hero you have picked.

Ring of Basilius

Ring of Basilius offers +1 mana regen to the owner and every other ally in a 1200 radius. For 425 gold, this item can be quite useful in the laning phase. Support heroes must buy it and then upgrade it, if they want, to Vladmir’s Offering.

Urn of Shadows

Urn of Shadows gives you +2 to all attributes, +2 armor, and 1.4 mana regen. It also gives you the chance to store charges. For each charge, you can heal yourself or an ally for 240 HP over 8s. That’s very useful when sieging enemy buildings and trying to remain healthy.

Null Talisman

Null Talisman offers +1 / 2 mana regen, as well as other benefits for a total cost of 505 gold. It can’t be upgraded, but after the 25-minute mark its bonuses double. This means that you’re effectively paying 500 gold for 10 intelligence, 4 strength, 4 agility, 1.5 mana regen, and +6% maximum mana. That’s not a bad deal at all.

Falcon Blade

Falcon Blade provides +1.8 mana regen, +200 HP and +14 damage for 1125 gold. The mana regen is super useful and most heroes can benefit from the other stats as well.

Pavise

Pavise is one of the best early-game items that you can buy if you want to enhance your defensive capabilities. It costs just 1400 gold and will give you +150 HP, +250 mana, +2 armor, and a 300 damage barrier that lasts for 8s. The total amount of effective HP you get against physical damage is around 600.

This may not be direct HP regen, but it’s actually even better.

Vanguard

Vanguard offers +4.5 HP regen, +250 HP, and lots of damage block. For some heroes, such as Axe, this is a very important item.

Pipe of Insight

Pipe of Insight offers +14 HP regen in addition to lots of magic resistance and magical damage block. It’s quite expensive, costing 3725 gold, but if you want to protect yourself and also your teammates from a Zeus or a Leshrac, it is highly recommended.

Aether Lens

Aether Lens gives you +300 mana, +2.5 mana regen, and 225 bonus cast range. All of these benefits are very useful when playing intelligence-based heroes.

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