The strengths of Templar Assassin in Dota 2 patch 7.33c

Templar Assassin has always been a niche hero. Some professional Dota 2 players, such as Danil “Dendi” Ishutin, have made it more popular. But it’s still quite difficult to learn how to play TA correctly and to succeed with her.

Right now, Templar Assassin is stronger than ever. But her win rate is still only around 47%, while her pick rate at the community level is roughly 4%. This means that TA is played almost as rarely as Meepo.

Templar Assassin’s amazing skillset

Normally, you’d expect Templar Assassin to be picked a lot because she offers excellent advantages to newcomers. Refraction blocks six attacks and if you time it correctly, you’ll actually get to block 12 attacks during a fight before you take any damage.

This kind of advantage is overpowered in the right hands, but few people know how to use it. Another huge advantage of Templar is that her Refraction also gives you six instances of bonus damage. That bonus damage, when combined with the level 10 talent, adds up to 110. In other words, you get more than a free Desolator.

Because of how her attacks work, TA can farm with ease entire camps of neutral creeps, including Ancients. You can farm even 5 stacks in less than 30 seconds and grow in networth faster than almost any other hero in Dota 2.

Only the likes of Naga Siren, Medusa, Terrorblade, Meepo, and Nature’s Prophet can farm as fast as a TA.

In essence, you’re like an Anti-Mage that can farm to jungle at level 5. Most people start at level 7 because they enjoy having 4 points in Refraction and at least 2 points in Psy Blades.

After you start putting points in Meld, your damage increases even more and you gain the ability to significantly decrease an opponent’s armor. You can combine this ability with various items to achieve a -15 armor debuff. This means that your opponent will be greatly weakened against your physical damage.

When you purchase damage items, TA becomes a monster. She often kills enemy supports with just a few hits during the mid game, which is the reason why they tend to buy Ghost Scepters against her.

Finally, Templar can use her Psionic Traps to keep track of enemy movements and slow enemies down for 5 seconds. The traps also deal a lot of damage if they get activated after more than 3.5 seconds.

Header: Valve Corporation