The Usefulness of Sange, Yasha, and Kaya in Dota 2

Sange, Yasha, and Kaya are three mid-tier items in Dota 2. They each cost 2000 gold and provide substantial benefits.

This guide analyzes their usefulness and overall impact on the game.

Sange

Sange is composed of three parts:

• Ogre Club
• Belt of Strength
• Recipe

The recipe is quite expensive, costing 550 gold. The other two items offer a total of 16 strength, which is the same amount the upgraded item gives you. So far, no extra benefits. But here’s what else Sage gives you: +20% HP regen, +16% status resistance, +20% lifesteal amplification.

These are decent benefits but they still don’t justify the cost of the item because you could easily buy better items with the same amount of gold. However, Sange can be upgraded into three possible items and all three of them are really good.

Heaven’s Halberd

This item is very powerful in Dota 2 patch 7.35c. It costs just 3500 gold and its recipe is only 200 gold. What it gives you is very useful: +20 strength, +25% HP regen, +25% evasion, +16% status resistance, +25% lifesteal amplification, Disarm.

The item’s active ability allows you to disarm a ranged target for 5s or a melee target for 3s from a distance of 650 units. The cooldown of this ability is just 18s, which means that you can use it multiple times per fight.

For 3500 gold, the benefits you get are really good. If you don’t intend to make this upgrade or at least one of the other two possible upgrades, Sange is not worth the cost.

Sange & Yasha

This is another great item for strength-based and agility-based heroes. It consists of one Sange and one Yasha and it gives you +16 strength, +16 agility, +25% HP regen, +20 attack speed, +25% status resistance, +25% lifesteal amplification, and +12% movement speed. In other words, lots of stats. You’ll pay 4000 gold for it.

For many heroes, some of these stats don’t make much sense unless you’re willing to combine the item with other items that give you HP regen and lifesteal. If you want to use your gold with maximum efficiency, always take into consideration the synergies that exist between the items you buy.

Kaya & Sange

Another option when you upgrade your Sange is to go for the Kaya & Sange item. It costs 4000 gold and provides great benefits to intelligence-based heroes, such as +16 intelligence, +50% mana regen, +12% spell damage, and +25% spell lifesteal. The other bonuses are similar to those offered by S&Y.

This is a good item to buy when you need a combination of tankiness and damage on your mage. Whether it’s a Leshrac or a Lina, this item is often bought because of the overall benefits and not for something in particular. If, on the other hand, you value movement speed and attack speed a little more than status resistance and strength, then you should go for the Yasha & Kaya option.

Yasha

Yasha is composed of these items:

• Blade of Alacrity
• Band of Elvenskin
• Recipe

On its own, the item provides three benefits: +16 agility, +15 attack speed, and +10% movement speed. These bonuses make Yasha a powerful item on its own, and many heroes can buy it without any problems in the early game without having to immediately upgrade it. Of course, if you choose to upgrade it, it becomes a lot stronger. The price is 2000 gold.

Here are the two possible upgrades that have not been mentioned already:

Manta Style

Manta Style gives your hero +10 strength, +26 agility, +10 intelligence, +15 attack speed, and +10% movement speed. So you practically gain +10 to all attributes for 2600 gold but you also get two important things.

One of them is the ability to get rid of debuffs. The other one is the ability to create two illusions of yourself that will last for 20 seconds. These illusions deal 33% damage each, based on your attack damage. This means that you can easily farm with them.

Yasha & Kaya

Yasha & Kaya is a good item for intelligence-based heroes that love to attack rather than defend themselves. Examples include Storm Spirit and Queen of Pain. These heroes don’t need that much defense. But they could greatly benefit from additional offensive capabilities.

The item costs 4000 gold and gives you +16 agility, +16 intelligence, +50% mana regen, +20 attack speed, +12% spell damage, +25% spell lifesteal, and +12% movement speed.

Kaya

Kaya the first or second item you usually buy on heroes like Zeus and Storm Spirit because it only costs 2000 gold and gives you great benefits, such as +16 intelligence, +50% mana regen, +10% spell damage, and +20% spell lifesteal.

You can upgrade it to Kaya & Sange, Yasha & Kaya, or Bloodstone.

Bloodstone

This item costs 4400 gold but gives you huge benefits: +500 HP, +500 mana, +3 mana regen, +30% spell lifesteal, +6% spell lifesteal vs. creeps, +75 AoE, Bloodpact. Bloodpact can be activated to gain +250% spell lifesteal for 5 seconds. This is the equivalent of Satanic’s active ability.

Heroes suited for Sange, Yasha, or Kaya

There are lots of heroes that can buy these items. Strength-based offlaners tend to buy Heaven’s Halberd against powerful carry heroes that need to be disarmed or else they destroy your entire lineup in seconds. But sometimes, mid heroes like Kunkka will buy it as well.

You will rarely see Sange being bought as a standalone item because it’s not an efficient purchase. But you will regularly see it being bought with the goal of upgrading it to something else. Most of the time, if it’s not bought for Heaven’s Halberd, it will not be bought as the first component of the item. That component will always be Yasha or Kaya.

Heroes like Morphling and Troll Warlord tend to enjoy buying Sange & Yasha because of the movement speed and the stats it provides. In Morphling’s case, because of his ability to morph strength into agility and vice versa, such items give you great bonuses and you can be sure that nothing goes to waste.

Yasha is a key component of Manta Style, which is a great item for heroes like Anti-Mage, Phantom Lancer, Terroblade, Naga Siren, Chaos Knight, and other illusion-based heroes. Spectre is also a great Manta buyer because of his overall abilities and stats.

Timings

When buying items like S&Y, you want to make sure that you have them before the mid game begins. These are not items that you start buying after the 30-minute mark because by then you need something else to succeed. By minute 20, you should already have your S&Y if that’s the item you chose to build for your strategy.

When it comes to standalone items like Yasha or Kaya, the timing is ever stricter. Consider the 12-15 minute mark as the reference point. The later you get your first important item, the harder it is to take successful fights and start building an advantage.

In Dota 2, you always need to know what you want to do and try to stay one step ahead of your opponent. Otherwise, you will rarely win.

Header: Valve