Best mobility items in Dota 2

Dota 2 is a competitive game in which mobility plays a huge role in determining the winner.

Some heroes have natural abilities that greatly improve their mobility. They can either move (often invisibly) at a very high speed or they can blink every 5-10 seconds. This gives them not only the ability to initiate fights or escape from difficult situations, but also the ability to move around the map with great efficiency and farm more than their opponents.

Before we get into the items that can enhance your mobility in Dota 2, it’s important to understand how mobility works and what it can do for you.

Key aspects of mobility in Dota 2

Dota 2 heroes usually have a movement speed of 300 during the daytime and 330 during the nighttime. This number can vary depending on the hero. Some heroes start with 280 MS, while others have 330, which is a big advantage.

If your movement speed and overall mobility are significantly better than your opponent’s, you can initiate fights more easily and disengage whenever you want as long as you’re not stunned, rooted, slowed, etc. This means that your ability to take good fights is improved.

Imagine a laning phase where the Ursa player has a movement speed of 522, which is the maximum in Dota 2, while his lane opponent is moving at 300 MS.

Such a situation would allow the first player to completely destroy his opponent simply because you can’t compete with an Ursa in a right-click battle in the early game. And since he can catch you with ease, he won’t hesitate to constantly harass you and force you to stay under your own tower.

When your ability to farm the map is no longer limited by damage and sustainability, the only limitation becomes your mobility. If you move at 500 MS instead of 350 MS, you can travel from camp to camp in fewer seconds. In a minute, you might win 10 seconds. That’s one or two extra jungle camps.

Add a Blink Dagger to your inventory and the difference might be 15 seconds. This advantage can be felt immediately in your gpm. But it gets better. What if you have to travel to a lane and help your allies in a situation where you can’t just teleport? Or what if you’re trying to catch an enemy that seeks refuge under his own tower?

Situations of this nature often result in a victory or a defeat for your team, and a little bit of mobility helps a lot. Some heroes simply cannot play without having high mobility because without the surprise element, their combos would be extremely ineffective.

Take Earthshaker for instance. What this hero wants to do is not hard to grasp. His goal is to catch as many enemy heroes as possible with his ultimate, Echo Slam, and then further stun and damage them with Fissure and Enchant Totem. If he can’t blink in, he can never cast Echo Slam properly unless he’s playing in a low MMR bracket where players don’t understand this hero.

Needless to say, Magnus, Enigma, Mars, and other heroes fall into the same category.

Dota 2 mobility items

Here are 8 of the best Dota 2 mobility items that you can use to greatly improve your hero’s mobility and contribution.

Boots of Speed

The first item that players buy to enhance their mobility is a pair of boots, called Boots of Speed. This item costs 500 gold and gives you +45 movement speed. These boots can be upgraded in five different ways.

Sometimes it’s a good idea to opt for a pair of BoTs, which are the most expensive but give you +90 movement speed and the ability to teleport for free every every 40s. Furthermore, you can teleport next to allied units anywhere on the map. The recipe for these boots costs 2000 gold.

If you want extra mobility, you can invest another 2000 gold for an additional upgrade that gives you 110 movement speed and the ability to teleport next to allied heroes. Usually, players only take the first upgrade. And even that upgrade is rarely taken.

The other four options are Phase Boots, Power Treads, Arcane Boots, and Tranquil Boots. All of these options are good in particular situations and for particular types of heroes. Their cost is much lower than that of Boots of Travel, which makes them quite appealing.

The most frequently bought boots are Power Treads, which cost 1400 gold and provide +10 to a desired attribute, which can be strength, agility, or intelligence. You can switch between the active attributes anytime you want. This item also provides +25 attack speed and 45/55 MS, depending on your hero. Ranged heroes get 10 MS less than melee ones.

Support heroes tend to choose the Arcane Boots upgrade because of the mana regen, which comes in two forms: the items’ active, which restores 175 mana every 55s, and its +0.75 mana regen, which gives you another 45 mana per minute. So in total, these boots give you roughly 220 mana per minute, which is quite useful in the early game.

Melee heroes that need extra tankiness and brief bursts of movement speed when chasing enemies or trying to run away from them may choose to buy Phase Boots. This item costs 1500 gold and has no recipe. This means that you’re getting great benefits for your gold, which include: +4 armor, +50 movement speed, +18 damage, +20% MS for 3s.

This last bonus comes from the item’s active and it is absolutely amazing because it generally gives you around 70 MS and unobstructed movement. This means that you can move through enemies without having to avoid them. And you can do this every 8s. So the downtime is just 5s. When farming or chasing heroes, this item can be of great value.

Drum of Endurance

Drum of Endurance costs 1650 gold. It provides +7 strength, +7 intelligence, and +20 movement speed to all allies in a 1200 radius area. But the best part is that you can activate it to gain +45 attack speed and +13% movement speed for 6s. It comes with 8 charges, which means that during 8 key moments of the game, you and your allies can become a lot stronger for 6s.

For its cost, this item provides tremendous benefits and should be considered by any support or offlane hero.

Yasha

Yasha offers +16 agility, +15 attack speed, and +10% movement speed for just 2000 gold. And you can upgrade this item into a Manta Style, an S&Y, or an Y&K. The benefits are enormous in the early game because your farming speed goes up substantially and your ability to chase enemies is greatly improved.

Many agility-based heroes naturally build this item because they want to get to Manta Style as early as possible. Once you have your Manta completed, your farming speed increases even more because of the illusions you summon.

These illusions last for 20s and together, they deal two thirds of your damage. This means that during the mid portion of the game, you can send them from neutral camp to neutral camp to gain additional gold while you’re not even there.

Eul’s Scepter of Divinity

Eul’s Scepter of Divinity is an item used by intelligence heroes like Lina or Death Prophet. These heroes can benefit from its +10 intelligence, +2.5 mana regen, and +20 movement speed. Not to mention the 2.5s cyclone duration, which is a great tool when trying to escape certain death. You can also cast it on an enemy to set up a combo.

Invoker, for instance, can easily hit Sun Strikes using this tool.

Shadow Blade

Shadow Blade can be used to gain invisibility and +20% movement speed for 14s. Both of these features are amazing and they last for a long time, which makes the item incredibly potent. The cost is 3000 gold, so you will have to think carefully about the investment. But on many heroes, you’ll find yourself gaining great escape and initiation capabilities.

Heroes like Slark adore this item and you can further upgrade it into a Silver Edge, which gives +60 damage, +35 attack speed, +25% movement speed, and +300 bonus damage on your first hit that breaks invisibility. You also gain the ability to apply break on a target, disabling its passives.

In Dota 2 patch 7.35c, both Shadow Blade and Silver Edge are powerful items for any assassin-type hero.

Blink Dagger

Blink Dagger is probably the most purchased mobility item in Dota 2. What it gives you is very valuable because it allows you to instantly disappear and instantly initiate. The distance you can blink across is 1200, which is the equivalent of 3 seconds of running at a speed of 400.

Instead of casually moving toward your opponent and giving away your intentions, it is much better to blink next to him and perform your combo before he can react to it.

If you have a Blink Dagger, which costs just 2250 gold, you can do extraordinary things and you can also gain almost 14 seconds per minute when trying to farm the jungle. The item has a cooldown of 15s and blinks over a distance of 1200. So you can basically use it 4 times per minute to blink over 4800 units of land. At a movement speed of around 350, that’s almost 14s.

Blink Dagger cannot be used if you’ve taken damage from enemy heroes in the last 3s. If you try to blink across more than 1200 units, you will receive a 240 units penalty and will blink across just 960 units instead.

Blink Dagger can be upgraded into three different items: Overwhelming Blink, Swift Blink, and Arcane Blink.

Overwhelming Blink gives you +25 strength and the ability to apply serious debuffs to your enemies in an 800 radius. Wherever you land, the movement speed of your enemies will be reduced by 50% for 6s, their attack slow will decrease by 50, and then will take damage based on your strength. This item is amazing to have, but it costs 6800 gold.

Swift Blink gives you amazing buffs after you blink. For 6s, you gain 35 agility and 40% movement speed. Naturally, Swift Blink gives you +25 agility. The cost of the item is 6800 gold.

Arcane Blink gives +25 intelligence and costs 6800 gold. What’s great about this item is that it allows you to blink over a longer distance (1400) and can be used every 7s instead of every 15s. Whenever you blink, you gain 200 HP and 100 mana. This is the ultimate mobility item and will give you the possibility to move across the map at great speed.

Force Staff

Force Staff is the mobility item of choice for most support heroes because it can be used on allies. The push distance of its active is 600 units and you can use it every 19s. Unlike Blink Dagger, Force Staff can be used even when damage has been taken. The item gives +10 intelligence and +175 HP.

You can upgrade your Force Staff into a Hurricane Pike. On heroes like Templar Assassin, Drow Ranger, or Enchantress, this is often a very good idea.

Wind Lace

Wind Lace is the cheapest mobility item in Dota 2. It costs just 250 gold and provides +20 movement speed. In the laning phase, this item can help a lot if your hero suffers from a movement speed deficiency. Or, if it already has a high movement speed, it can further boost his mobility.

You can upgrade this item into a Solar Crest, which gives you +25 movement speed and can be used to give allies +15% MS plus other great bonuses.

Header: Valve