Defensive Dota 2 items and when to buy them – TOP 6

Dota 2 offers several hundred items that you can choose from. Based on your role, your hero, and the specific details of the game you are playing, some of those items will be much more effective than others.

The goal is always to give yourself an advantage and to increase your chances of winning. Each time, you start with this question: what will enable me to win? If you buy the same items every game, you will likely fail because the circumstances are different each time.

Another problem is that you may have to compete against the same opponents repeatedly. In lower MMR brackets, that’s not an issue because you rarely run into the same players twice. But in higher MMR brackets, you will need enough versatility to be unpredictable. Otherwise, your opponents will know in advance what you want to do and they will counter it.

In Dota 2, every strategy has a counter-strategy. When you play the game, you want your strategy to be stronger than that of your opponent. Sometimes, this means avoiding fights for 10 minutes. Other times, it means pressuring from the start and never pausing to farm for more than a few minutes.

Here are 6 Dota 2 items that are perfect for defensive purposes. You will usually buy these items on offlaners, but position 4, 5, and even carry heroes can purchase some of them.

Blade Mail

Blade Mail is a well-rounded defensive item that deters high attack speed enemies from killing you. Its active duration is 5.5s. During this time, you reflect back 85% of the damage you take in addition to the base return damage per hit, which is 20. Against a hero like Windranger, this item is incredibly potent.

When buying Blade Mail, you want to make sure that you’re tankier than your opponents so that you can use it confidently. A hero like Bristleback or Spectre is perfect for this because he generally wants to be attacked to some extent.

Furthermore, when you farm jungle camps, reflecting a lot of damage is helpful because it kills the neutral creeps much faster.

Spectre already reflects 20% of all incoming damage thanks to his Dispersion. Blade Mail brings that number up to 40% at all times thanks to the 20% passive return damage. And the 20 return damage is added on top of that, which usually results in a 50% passive return damage at all times.

Blade mail gives +18 damage and +7 armor in addition to its defensive capabilities. For 2100 gold, that’s absolutely insane. Consider the fact that a Platemail costs 1400 gold and only offers you 10 armor.

For 700 gold more (or 50% more), you get 7 armor 18 damage and insane defensive capabilities. That’s why, it is generally much better to buy yourself a Blade Mail instead of a Plate Mail, unless you intend to upgrade that Plate Mail into an Assault Cuirass or something else.

One thing to note about Blade Mail is that it works not only against physical damage but also against magical damage and even pure damage.

Aeon Disk

This item costs 3000 gold and is considered to be one of the few items in Dota 2 that can prevent an enemy with superior initiation from killing you before you can react. For instance, if you’re playing against a Faceless Void or an Enigma, Aeon Disk could deter them from using their ultimates at the start of the fight.

Of course, they could still use them after your Aeon Disk has been activated. But at least you’ll get to see your opponent and will generally have the option to blink away. Without this item, a simple smoke gank could end the game after the 30-minute mark even if you have a lot of farm, simply because your opponent’s ability allows them to kill you before you can retaliate.

As an item, Aeon Disk provides 250 HP and 300 mana. These are the stats you get from its two major components, Vitality Booster and Energy Booster. You also get +50 mana on top of that, so you’re practically paying around 1000 gold for the extra stuff, which is very reasonable.

The duration of Aeon Disk’s ultimate, Combo Breaker, is 2.5s. During this time, you are immune to all damage and gain 75% status resistance. However, you can’t deal any damage in return.

The main weakness of this item is that it gets activated quite easily and has a really long cooldown that further increases with each activation. So it’s like Black King Bar but in reverse. After the first activation, its cooldown is 105s. But after 4 activations it gets to 165s.

These disadvantages will often cause players to avoid buying this item. That’s perfectly fine if you’re a tank or a carry with lots of armor, evasion, and magic resistance. But if you’re a squishy support that gets killed in 5 hits after the 30-minute mark, you really want to buy this item to avoid getting killed at the start of the fight by a clever opponent.

Crimson Guard

This is a fairly expensive item but what it offers to your team is priceless in the first 25 minutes of the game. When buying this item, your goal is to fight as much as you can between minute 15 and minute 25. If you do this you will have a big advantage in most cases, especially against a team that heavily focuses on physical damage and lacks a hero that can quickly burst enemies.

Crimson Guard costs 3725 gold, so it’s not exactly cheap. Usually, your gpm as an offlaner will be somewhere between 400 and 450. If you do a decent job, you should have the item by minute 15. You could get it sooner but you’ll need boots as well, and possibly a Blink Dagger.

The damage block provided by Crimson Guard’s active ability is substantial: 70 + 50% of your strength. That often means that you will give your allies around 100 damage block for each instance of physical damage they take. The buff lasts for 8s and the cooldown of the item is only 35s. This means that you can use it multiple times if a battle lasts long enough.

Crimson Guard is made up of a Vanguard, a Helm of the Iron Will and a Recipe. What you gain, as its owner, is quite valuable: +250 HP, 12 HP regen, 8 armor, and 75/50 damage block with a proc chance of 60%.

Of course, if you only want to protect yourself, there are better ways to do it. But if you’re thinking about your allies too and intend to play a team-based game almost immediately after the laning phase has ended, then you’re making the right choice by purchasing this item.

Pipe of Insight

This item costs exactly as much as Crimson Guard: 3725 gold. But instead of providing excellent protection against physical damage, it gives your team a lot of protection against magical damage.

Ideally, you should have both items or ask someone from your team to build a Pipe while you’re building a Crimson. That way, by minute 15 your team will be fully protected against all kinds of damage except pure damage.

Pipe of Insight gives a 450 magical damage barrier for 12s. That’s 33% longer than the duration of a Black King Bar usage. Passively, the item gives +10% magic resistance and 2 HP regen in a 1200 radius. It also provides +20% magic resistance and +14 HP regen to its carrier. Your allies’ total magic resistance will climb up to 32.5%, while yours will climb up to 52.75%.

These amounts are substantial and should keep you safe against heroes like Zeus and Leshrac, who tend to destroy entire teams during the mid portion of the game.

Fortunately for those who want to buy this item, it is made up of three relatively cheap components and a recipe. This means that you won’t have to take too many risks in the process and will also get the benefit of using those items while trying to build the whole Pipe. You will get good HP regen and magic resistance, becoming much harder to kill from an early level.

When you have a Pipe, the goal is to fight as often as possible because the advantage will be usually on your side, especially if the enemy team did not buy a Pipe of their own. Always activate the item as soon as the fight begins and the enemy side starts casting powerful abilities.

Black King Bar

This is the ultimate defensive item in most cases because it gives you the ability to do whatever you want without having to worry about getting disabled.

It also gives you the possibility to escape certain death in some situations. If you get caught while split pushing, all you need to do is to activate it and teleport back to base. Having the ability to do this will deter the enemy team from trying to catch you. In turn, this will allow you to split push and farm without too much concern for where the opponents are.

A BKB costs 4050 gold, which is quite expensive. It provides 10 strength, 24 damage, and Avatar, which lasts for 9 – 6s and provides +60% magic resistance as well debuff immunity. With every use, the effect lasts 1s less until it reaches 6s. The cooldown of the item is 90s.

Players usually hate to have to buy a BKB, especially in the lower MMR brackets. You generally get the feeling that you’re wasting 4000 gold on something that doesn’t help you farm and gives you very poor stats. But the truth is that no amount of farm will help you win fights if you can’t protect yourself from enemy disables.

A good team will always click to see what you have in your inventory, and will exploit any weakness. If you’re greedy, you will get punished for it. Of course, there are situations where buying a BKB is a suboptimal decision. But in most cases, you will need it by the 25-minute mark. At the latest, by the 30-minute mark.

In professional Dota 2 games, we often see players buying a BKB by minute 20 just to be able to fight better. As soon as a team’s cores have this item, fights are generally won a lot easier.

Linken’s Sphere

Linken’s Sphere is a relatively expensive item but it provides excellent stats, HP regen, mana regen, and Spellblock, which is a passive ability that blocks one targeted spell every 12s.

This item costs 4800 gold. Much of that cost is covered by practical items that give you something valuable. The recipe only costs 600 gold and what you get for it is amazing. The item provides +16 to all attributes, +6 HP regen, and +4.25 mana regen.

The regen loses its value as the game goes on. That’s why a lot of players don’t like the item. You’re essentially spending 1400 gold for something you don’t need anymore after the 25-minute mark. But if you get the item much sooner, you will feel its impact.

Heroes like Weaver and Morphling love this item because it provides everything they need to have a great progression and an excellent game in most cases. You can also buy it if you play Slark because it gives you protection against that first disable that might catch you off-guard. As soon as your Linken’s pops, you know you have to press your Q to be safe.

Linken’s Spellblock can also be transferred to an ally. This means that you can greatly buff a core that desperately needs a bit of extra protection. The effect lasts for 14s, which is almost twice as long as a BKB duration.

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