The Best Dota 2 Heroes for Every Role

DOTA 2 has over 121 unique heroes to choose from— with each offering their own strengths and weaknesses. And aside from that, there are also multiple ways to play a hero and different roles to fill in every game. But who are the best DOTA 2 heroes?

You can spend hours min/maxing to find the best heroes in DOTA 2, and even then you would have to consider in-game elements such as player skill, timing, and item choices. But that doesn’t mean you can’t theorycraft based on historical data.

Here are our top picks for the best heroes, played in a variety of playstyles. And for transparency, here’s our criteria:

• Reliability – how often will you be able to execute a hero’s strength across multiple games
• Popularity – how many people use this hero (Pick rate)
• Difficulty – can you easily execute this mechanically (The more beginner-friendly, the better)
• Versatility – does the hero offer something else to their team 
• Viability – how prone a hero is to patch changes (e.g. Clinkz’s multiple reworks)

Best DOTA 2 heroes for supporting

Vengeful Spirit

Vengeful Spirit takes the cake for the best support hero to learn DOTA early on. She has a reliable single-target disable, a team aura, and a two-way positioning ultimate with Nether Swap. This hero is easy to use, but can have a massive impact on the game. If you’re looking for a hero to practice your laning, teamfight, and save mechanics, there are few heroes that top the Vengeful Spirit.

 

Honorable Mentions

• Lion

• Spirit Breaker

Best for initiating/positioning

Magnus

 

Heroes that snatch enemies out of position are strong because you can catch and burst heroes down, then finish a teamfight with the numbers advantage.

Magnus is currently the best offensive repositioning hero. The 7.28 patch gave him a new Aghanim’s shard ability that hurls enemies behind him, which makes it easier to Skewer enemies to his team. The low cooldowns coupled with his strong teamfight ultimate make him a tanky, versatile initiator that is ready to fight at any time.

 

Honorable Mentions

• Batrider

• Pudge

Best teamfight heroes

Tidehunter

 

Strong teamfight spells are balanced around mobility; however, the green sea monster’s natural tankiness and gigantic Ravage AoE compensates for his clunkiness; you can literally walk into the enemy without fear of getting bursted. Whether it’s initiating or counter-initiating, Tidehunter is one of the best and most reliable heroes for taking a teamfight.

 

Honorable Mentions

• Enigma

• Earthshaker

Best farming heroes

Anti-Mage

 

The best carry heroes in DOTA are late game-scaling heroes that have ways to accelerate their farm. This mechanic can be an item timing or a skill; Anti-Mage relies on both. That is why the blinking-and-slamming Anti Mage is our best hero to learn farming patterns, and how to play the map in general. His Blink counts as an escape and an initiate, but its best use is to jump short distances to quickly clear lanes and camps.

 

Honorable Mentions

• Terrorblade
  
• Alchemist

Best DOTA 2 heroes that provide vision

Monkey King

 

Having superior vision over the enemy team means you get to execute the first move. Monkey King is one of the best vision heroes due to his Tree Dance ability lets him scout enemies safely while in the safety of trees. However, what sets Tree Dance apart is that it’s a built-in mobility skill with zero mana cost and a short cooldown, making his vision viable in any role. He also has a 1100 range short-duration stun that ensures enemies have no time to react to incoming ganks.

 

Honorable Mentions

• Beastmaster
• Night Stalker

Best DOTA 2 heroes for burst

Windranger

 

It hardly matters how farmed an enemy is if you can get the jump on them and quickly burst them down. Our best hero for burst is Windranger with her Focus Fire. Coupled with her 3.8-second disable Shackleshot, her combo rains a flurry of arrows, and enemies often die without any time to react. What sets her apart from other burst heroes is her low dependence on farm— with just a Maelstrom and a BKB, she can reliably take down enemies way above her net worth.

 

Honorable Mentions

• Phantom Assassin
• Tiny
  

Bonus: Style Point Heroes

 

These are our heroes that didn’t make this list because of their extremely high skill ceiling and mechanics. Playing these heroes requires hours of practice and game knowledge, but their potential for flashy outplays is unrivaled.

• Invoker
• Morphling
• Tinker

 

(All images via Dota 2 Fandom)