Vengeful Spirit is a top support hero again

Vengeful Spirit used to be a phenomenal support hero, picked whenever some powerful channeler was picked by the enemy team, or when a scary ranged hero needed to be taken out of position.

But for a long time, Venge became completely neglected. Not just by the Dota 2 community at large, but also by professional players. Now it seems that she’s making a huge comeback thanks to the shifting meta, which places a lot of emphasis on physical damage and the ability to save your carry.

Venge has an excellent toolkit, which can be further upgraded with Aghanim’s Shard and Aghanim’s Scepter.

What makes Vengeful Spirit strong

Like most support heroes, Vengeful Spirit’s strengths must be considered in a realistic way. This means that you assume an average game duration of 30-40 minutes. In that much time, you’ll get to level 15-20. So you should never take into account what Venge can do at level 25 because she’ll rarely reach that level.

Luckily, this hero has powerful level 10 and 15 talents, which is exactly what you want from a support. These talents, combined with a few cheap items, and her natural abilities, can help you make a big difference.

Take for instance Wave of Terror. The armor reduction it provides is 6. But with the level 15 talent, it can get to 10. Add to that a simple Medallion of Curage and a Blight Stone and you’re at 18. Think about it: 18 armor reduction coming from your position 4 or 5 support hero. That’s really overpowered.

When a poor support can reduce the effective HP of the enemy carry by 50% against physical damage, you tend to win a lot of games. Add to that a Desolator from some other teammate and Assault Cuirras, and you’ll completely destroy any target in just a few hits.

At level 10, Venge can pick the +200 Nether Swap enemy damage, which guarantees that enemy heroes won’t blink away after getting swapped.

Vengeful Aura gives your allies +28% damage, which is a lot when you combine it with the armor reduction. Magic Missle stuns for only 1 second, but it deals 360 damage, which is really good. This ability should probably be maximized last, especially if you’re going for a strategy that heavily relies on physical damage.

Nether Swap, which is Venge’s ultimate, will often save an ally or completely ruin an enemy’s position during fights.

Header: Valve