Strong Early Game Heroes in Dota 2

In Dota 2, you will sometimes want to opt for a strategy that gives you the ability to win quickly.

This is important when you’re trying to avoid a late-game scenario against a hero like Anti-Mage or Spectre. Such heroes can be very hard to deal with after they reach level 20. But if you take away their map control and fight them to fight early, you can win the game with ease.

Here are some of the strongest early game heroes in Dota 2. All of them enable a high-tempo playstyle that doesn’t rely on highly expensive items. When such items are needed, you often need to farm for 20-30 minutes before you fully come online. But if you can’t keep up with what the other team is doing, it’s better to avoid such picks.

Necrophos

Necrophos excels in the early stages and remains surprisingly strong throughout the entire duration of each game. That’s because of his ability to heal himself while damaging his opponents. Some of his abilities deal percentage-based damage, which means that it doesn’t matter how much HP the opponent has. He’s going to lose a lot of his HP pool each second.

Necrophos regenerates in more than one way. In fact, most of his abilities give him ways to regenerate his HP and mana or to enhance his overall regenerative abilities.

Death Pulse, for instance, damages his opponents (280) and heals him (130). This can be used every 5s. Assuming you have enough mana, your HP regen is 25 per second just from this ability alone.

Ghost Shroud amplifies his regen by 75% while making him untargetable by physical attacks.

Heartstopper Aura causes enemies in an 800 radius to lose 2.4% of their maximum HP per second while offering him 7 HP and 7 mana for 7s every time he kills a creep. In the case of hero kills, he gains 42 HP and 42 mana for 7s.

Necrophos’ ultimate, Reaper Scythe, deals 0.7 – 0.9 damage per missing point of health. So if the enemy misses 1000 HP, the damage will be 700 at level 1. However, this is magical damage, which means it gets reduced by at least 25% because almost every Dota 2 hero has a 25% magic resistance by default.

Necrophos should buy items that make him more mobile, durable, and threatening. Examples include Blink Dagger, Shiva’s Guard, Radiance, Orchid Malevolence, Eternal Shroud, Kaya and Sange, etc.

Spirit Breaker

Spirit Breaker becomes a force as early as level 6. He can gank even earlier if he has a pair of boots. His abilities are perfectly suited for a high-tempo playstyle and his stats make him very tanky. In fact, he is probably one of the tankiest heroes in the game at level 1. How many heroes have 736 HP and 4 HP regen without buying any items? Very few.

When you play SB, the first goal is to improve your mobility and durability, so that you can play without worrying about getting killed with ease. You have to be able to dive enemy heroes under their own tower. If you can do this, then there’s nowhere to hide.

An early Pavise will solve this issue and also give you lots of mana, which you can use to spam your abilities. Later, this item can and should be upgraded into a Solar Crest. The bonus movement speed and everything this item gives you is extremely valuable and relatively cheap. This item costs just 2700 gold, which means that you can have it after just 10 – 15 minutes.

Imagine fighting near a tier 1 tower at the 12-minute mark and having the ability to give one of your allies +15% movement speed, +70 attack speed, +7 armor, and a damage barrier of 400. These buffs are ridiculously overpowered at this stage of the game.

On top of them, you also have +25 movement speed, +4 to all attributes, +200 HP, +300 mana, and +4 armor.

Spirit Breaker can be played in the position 4 role. He will generally be of great help even if he gets killed a lot. With a tank like him on the team, the rest of his teammates can feel much safer and will have the opportunity to deal more damage.

SB’s abilities are all about charging at enemies and stunning them. Combined with good items, they will cause a lot of chaos and disrupt whatever the enemy team wants to do.

Consider buying a Blade Mail and a Drum of Endurance when playing this hero. Both items greatly enhance your ability to do your part in each team fight and give your teams amazing buffs that increase their kill potential.

SB should be picked in combination with at least one core that relies on physical damage. Otherwise, some of his natural items will not be very effective.

Undying

Undying is hard to play against even at level 1 because of his Decay, which steals 4 strength for 40s. If he catches two heroes with it, which is not very hard because the radius is 325, he will gain 8 strength or 160 HP in an instant.

Starting from level 2, he has Tombstone available. This ability creates a Tombstone that spawns powerful zombies. Enemies need to attack it 5 – 8 times to destroy it, which is next to impossible at level 2. Otherwise, its duration is 30s.

Soul Rip is another strong ability of Undying. If the enemy hero is surrounded by many creeps, he will take a lot of damage from it.

Flesh Golem, the hero’s ultimate, gives his attacks powerful debuffs, similar to those encountered in the case of other heroes. He slows opponents by 40% for 4s with each attack, gains 25% – 35% amplified damage, and gains 40% – 60% strength. His movement speed is also increased by 20 – 40. These effects last for 40s.

In the early game, nobody likes to fight into Undying’s ultimate and Tombstone, which gives you the ability to bully opponents with ease.

When playing this hero, you need to figure out what approach you want to use. Some item builds are very aggressive while others are team-oriented. One of the best Undying builds revolves around Solar Crest and Blade Mail. These items make him very hard to kill. Most opponents will prefer to avoid you until the 20-minute mark.

Dazzle

Dazzle comes online after just several levels and will have a huge impact throughout the entire duration of the game. Many play him in one of the core roles because he’s such a reliable pick.

His Poison Touch lasts for 5 – 8s and deals 16 – 52 damage per second. It also applies a 16% – 22% slow that can be amplified by around 3% per hit. These effects last for a long time, which means that once a target has been debuffed by Dazzle, it will have a hard time escaping. Keep in mind that this hero has an excellent attack range.

Dazzle’s other abilities allow him to heal allies and damage opponents. Shadow Wave heals 145 HP but it can be applied to a maximum of 7 targets. The healing they receive will be experienced by nearby enemies as damage. The radius is 185.

Shallow Grave can keep an ally alive for 5s and will amplify all healing received by that ally by 8% for each 10% of missing HP. In most cases, that will be a 60% – 70% amplification. One Shadow Wave combined with a Magic Wand use will quickly bring that target up to around 500 HP or more.

Bad Juju is one of the best ultimates in the game because it can be used every 3s. If Dazzle uses an ability on a target, that target will gain armor and have its abilities’ cooldowns reduced by 4 – 6s. That’s a lot on some heroes because it allows them to double cast some of their damage spells.

When you play Dazzle, you should buy Aether Lens as soon as you can. This item allows you to do everything you want from a long range. Apart from that, a pair of Arcane Boots will also help a lot with mana regeneration.

Witch Doctor

Witch Doctor has one of the best toolkits in Dota 2. Every single ability that he uses is very useful and becomes powerful after level 3. However, you only need 1 point in Voodoo Restoration initially, and 2 points in Paralyzing Cask. You can spend the rest of your skill points to maximize Maledict.

So by the time you’re level 8, you are ready to fight and highly capable of dealing massive amounts of damage to the enemy team. At level 12, this hero reaches the power peak that he’ll have for the rest of the game in most cases. Reaching level 18 is possible but it requires a longer game.

But even with a level 2 Death Ward, the damage is around 450 per second and we’re talking about pure damage. Combine it with Maledict and the target will explode seconds later.

You cannot be aggressive against a Witch Doctor unless you have a very strong escape mechanism, such as a blinking skill, an invisibility skill, or something that makes you hard to target. Another option would be to have silencing abilities that can stop his ultimate. But even under these conditions, if Maledict is applied, you will be forced to run away.

Witch Doctor benefits from Aether Lens, Arcane Boots, and items that can make him more survivable and a better initiator, such as Glimmer Cape. A bit of invisibility works really well for this hero.

Lich

Lich is another support hero that only needs around 8 – 12 levels to become powerful. This means that by the 15 – 20 minute mark, he will be ready to make a big contribution to his team’s success. Lich has lots of powerful abilities.

Frost Blast deals 160 damage to the main target and an additional 200 damage in a 200 radius. It slows movement speed by 25% for 4s and attack speed by 60 for the same duration.

Frost Shield provides a 60% damage reduction for 8s. It also applies a 35% slow for 0.5s. But it activates every second during its duration, dealing 60 damage per activation. That’s a total of 480 damage.

Sinister Gaze allows Lich to farm creeps with ease because it deals 1000 damage over 4s against them. It also drains 12% mana per second and lasts for 2s against heroes. During this time, the target is hypnotized and moves toward him.

Chain Frost deals 250 – 550 damage and bounces 10 times. Upon impact, it slows movement speed by 65% for 2.5s, and attack speed by 65. What’s great about it is that it can bounce between Ice Spire and an enemy hero, and you can gain this ability by simply purchasing Aghanim’s Shard. This makes Lich one of the most powerful supports in the game.

Ice Spire can be destroyed by 5 hero attacks but that’s easier said than done. It slows movement speed by 25%, so the total amount of movement slow is enormous when combined with Chain Frost. Even fast heroes feel like they’re barely moving after getting hit by the first Chain Frost instance. In most cases, they will be hit by 5 of them, resulting in massive damage.

Jakiro

Jakiro doesn’t even need his ultimate to be highly effective. But it’s nice to have it. By the time he’s level 7, you can rely on this hero for everything, from pushing towers to defending your cores.

His abilities slow movement and attack speed. They also deal lots of damage per second and can be cast from a long range, which you can further improve by buying Aether Lens.

When Jakiro’s Liquid Fire reaches level 4, towers can no longer defend themselves. This forces a lot of rotations, which in turn disrupt farming patterns and create a lot of space for Jakiro’s cores.

Jakiro can also stun multiple enemies for 2s and he can do it pretty reliably, from a very long range, using Ice Path. His ultimate is less reliable but can be used with great effectiveness if the enemies are slowed, stunned, or rooted. That’s why many Jakiro players buy Rod of Atos.

The secret is to only use your ultimate after Dual Breath and Ice Path. The first ability slows enough to ensure an easy stun, which in turn ensures that the target will take damage for at least 4-5 seconds from Macropyre.

Dragon Knight

Dragon Knight is considered to be an early game hero because he’s very tanky and can make great use of his ultimate. Dragon Blood gives him 13 HP regen and 13 armor, so by the time he’s level 7, if he chooses to maximize this ability, he’s already very hard to kill.

In most cases, DK will maximize Breathe Fire, which deals 320 damage and reduces enemy damage by 30% for 11s. Combined with his armor and HP regen, this makes most heroes hit like flies in the early game.

DK can resist to many right-click attacks not just because of his HP regen, armor, and damage reduction, but also because of his stats. He gains 3.6 strength per level, which translates into 36 strength by the time he’s level 11. That’s 720 HP and he starts with 582. The total is quite high and any items you buy are added to it.

Usually, Dragon Knight gets killed using magic damage, not physical damage, at least in the first 15-20 minutes. After that, many heroes will have enough physical damage to burst him. But he always starts with a big advantage, comparable to that of Phantom Assassin.

DK’s Dragon Tail stuns for 2.4s and also deals 160 damage. This long duration stun is nice to have in the late game, when several seconds can easily lead to a target’s death.

The hero’s ultimate, Elder Dragon Form, gives him 30 – 45 movement speed, 350 bonus attack range, and various attack modifiers that can be quite useful.

To further increase your attack range during your ultimate, you can buy Dragon Lance. The item also gives excellent stats. Combined with Armlet and a pair of Power Treads, DK can gain an additional 45 strength or 900 HP, as well as 10 armor. Plus other bonuses. This combination makes him impossibly tanky and also quite capable offensively.

Razor

Razor doesn’t need much to come online and reach the first power spike. This is a hero with excellent attributes that increase at a rate of 2.8, 2.8, and 2.2 per level.

Using Static Link, Razor can steal 5 – 20 damage per second for 10s. So that’s a total of 200 damage at best. In most cases, it will be 80 – 100. This buff lasts for 12 – 18s. In the laning phase, the act of stealing your opponent’s damage and giving it to yourself makes you last-hit more easily and prevents him from stealing your creeps.

Razor’s Storm Surge offers 8 – 20% movement speed, which is a lot and makes this hero an excellent Sange and Yasha carrier. With a 32% bonus speed, you can move really quickly if you’ve bought a pair of BoTs. Not everyone goes for this build but it’s often necessary. Razor’s natural speed is 280, which is extremely low.

With BoTs, the hero has 370. Combined with the passive ability and S&Y, Razor can get to around 490 movement speed, which is more than enough to destroy most enemies and prevent them from attacking you for more than a few seconds.

Razor’s ultimate, Eye of the Storm, deals 60 – 90 physical damage every 0.7 – 0.5s and also reduces armor by 1 per strike. At level 3, this ability deals 180 damage per second and reduces armor by 2. In just 10s, it will destroy most heroes when combined with basic attacks, Static Link, and Plasma Field, which deals around 200 damage on average.

Axe

Axe needs a pair of boots, a Vanguard, and a Blink Dagger to start destroying enemy heroes. If he also buys a Blade Mail, he is deadly for around 10 minutes, between the 15 and 25-minute marks.

This is a hero that will quickly buy his Vanguard, even before his boots, and then start cutting the creep wave. Or he can choose to play the lane in a standard way, putting a lot of pressure on his opponents.

The fact that Counter Helix deals pure damage in high amounts allows him to farm with ease and keep the enemy carry away from the creep wave.

The remaining abilities of this hero are perfect for initiating fights and getting kills. Berserker’s Call will keep targets busy for 3s. During this time, if they deal a lot of damage, they will damage themselves severely, while dealing very little damage to Axe because he gains +25 armor for this duration.

Culling Blade kills anything below a fairly high threshold, allowing him to get temporary and permanent buffs.

Header: Valve