Winning With Spirit Heroes in Dota 2

In Dota 2, there are five spirit heroes that you should learn how to play, even if you don’t intend to specialize in the roles they are good at. These heroes are widely known by Dota 2 players and understanding their toolkits can help you win more matches.

In some cases, you will want to pick one of these heroes yourself. In others, an ally might pick them or even an enemy. Knowledge is power, so a thorough understanding of what these heroes can do is often crucial for success.

Vengeful Spirit

Vengeful Spirit is one of the most utilized support heroes in Dota 2. At the community level, she is picked in more than 13.5% of all matches. In professional tournaments, players often pick Venge because of her great aura and initiation capabilities.

Right now, Venge has a win rate of around 51.8% and for good reason. Her natural toolkit and the items she likes to buy quickly make her a powerful buffer for the team.

Skills

Magic Missile allows you to stun an enemy for 1.7s and deal 360 damage at level 4. This ability is available every 10s, so if the fight goes on for long enough, you will be able to use it two or three times. The secret is to use it as early as possible into the fight, so that it has time to become available again. A quick usage guarantees a double use in a 10 – 11s fight.

Wave of Terror deals 120 damage, reduces armor by 6, and also lowers attack damage by 25% for 8s. It can be cast every 10s, so you’re essentially able to debuff your enemies significantly almost continuously.

This ability can be upgraded at level 15 and level 20 by picking the appropriate talents. The most important and reliable upgrade is the one you get at level 15: +5 armor reduction.

Vengeance Aura gives allies in a 1200 radius +25% base damage. This is a very powerful aura that will make heroes like Phantom Assassin and Templar Assassin hit hard even without that many items.

Nether Swap, Vengeful Spirit’s ultimate, can swap an enemy from 800 – 1100 range and will deal 150 – 450 damage to enemies. Swapped allies will gain a shield that blocks the same amount of damage for 10s. This ability can be greatly upgraded at level 10 by choosing the +200 damage / block talent.

The fact that you can swap a target every 50s – 30s makes this ability incredibly potent. During the mid portion of the game, you can practically gank non-stop with this hero and have a huge impact.

Items

When playing Vengeful Spirit, here are some of the items you should consider buying.

Arcane Boots will greatly increase your mana regen, so you should buy them if you intend to use your spells frequently. You could also choose to maximize your Wave of Terror and Vengeful Aura, putting just one point in Magic Missile until level 12 and using this ability only when you have a lot mana. However, Arcane Boots help your allies as well, so buying them early is generally a good idea.

Solar Crest is a great choice for Vengeful Spirit. This item gives you not only armor, HP, lots of mana, +4 to all attributes, and 25 movement speed. It also allows you to greatly buff an ally, giving him 7 armor, 70 attack speed, a 400 damage barrier, and 15% movement speed for 8s.

On a core hero, such buffs are incredibly powerful and can be further enhanced by items like Sange and Yasha. The fact that Solar Crest provides lots of mana makes Arcane Boots less relevant on Vengeful Spirit. So you could potentially just skip that item and buy this one instead as early as possible.

Given that the price is only 2700 gold, you could realistically have your Solar Crest as early as minute 12.

One item that will buff your Wave of Terror a bit is Blight Stone. It costs just 300 gold and will reduce armor by 2 for 8s.

Vengeful Aura can also be buffed substantially by purchasing Vladmir’s Offering. This item buffs your allies’ base damage by 18%.

If you want to play more defensively, two items that are useful to have on Vengeful Spirit are Glimmer Cape and Force Staff. Both of them will help you save allies at least a few times per game.

One additional defensive item is Urn of Shadows, which assists your team with HP regeneration.

Of course, always buy a Magic Want and Infused Raindrops, because such items are cheap and will often save your life in key moments.

Earth Spirit

Earth Spirit is another support hero that excels at ganking during the mid game. His strength increase per level (3.8) is phenomenal, which makes him hard to kill. The fact that he can travel 1500 units in just one second and do it every 4s also makes him a lot more survivable than most support heroes.

Skills

Earth Spirit’s Boulder Smash is an excellent source of damage. It also slows enemies by 50% for 4s, which is more than enough to severely incapacitate them.

Melee heroes struggle against him because of this. What’s worse, he gets to do this every 10s and the chances of hitting the target are high because the remnant travels at a speed of 900 units per second, making it hard to dodge.

Rolling Boulder can be used every 4s and will stun enemy heroes if you hit them. The stun duration is only 0.9s but it’s still enough to allow you to further damage them with your attacks and abilities.

Geomagnetic Grip is probably Earth Spirit’s most challenging ability to use because it requires a succession of well-timed moves. It also feels a bit strange compared to the other abilities, so it’s easy to make poor use of it.

When used correctly, it will silence enemies for 3.5s and deal 200 damage to them. It’s always good to combine it with Rolling Boulder and Boulder Smash for maximum impact and efficiency.

Earth Spirit’s ultimate, Magnetize, deals 40 – 120 damage for 6s to anything it affects. The area of effect is 350 radius. You can refresh its duration by placing a stone remnant next to an enemy. If an enemy is affected by Geomagnetic Grip or Boulder Smash, his nearby allies will suffer from the same debuffs.

One of the biggest challenges when playing Earth Spirit is keeping a good supply of stone remnants. The temptation is always to use them more frequently than you can afford. They need time to replenish, so make sure you always make good use of them.

Items

The items that should be bought when playing this hero depend on your playstyle. Ideally, you should be a tank that’s very hard to ignore, even though you’re playing support in most cases. Strength, HP, armor, HP regen, and magic resistance are very powerful on ES. Also buy some mana and mana regen items.

Blade Mail, Magic Wand, Kaya & Sange, Power Treads, Solar Crest, Spirit Vessel, and other such items should always be considered. If you have enough gold, buy a Heart of Tarrasque. This is usually possible when playing the hero in a core role.

Void Spirit

Void Spirit is a highly mobile hero that’s typically picked for the mid lane. He also has good defensive and offensive capabilities, making him one of the most complete heroes in Dota 2. But if you don’t use him properly, you will die more often than you should.

When playing VS, you should aim to go in, get a kill, and then get out. You’re like an assassin but you use powerful spells to get the job done. Don’t expect to stand and fight too often because that is not how you win with this hero.

Skills

Aether Remnant gives Void Spirit the ability to disable and pull a target for 1.6s. The damage is not very high: 220. But the benefit of this ability is that the remnant you create is active for up to 20s. If nothing enters its range, it will stay there for a long time. This gives you the opportunity to set up traps for your enemies whenever their map vision is poor.

Dissimilate allows you to disappear and then reappear a few seconds later at a spot that you get to choose. The ability creates plenty of adjacent portals and you’re the one who gets to decide where your hero will be teleported to. Upon reappearing, Void Spirit deals 360 damage to nearby enemies.

Resonate Pulse deals 195 damage and gives VS a powerful barrier against damage, based on the number of heroes hit by the pulse. The radius is 500, so you could potentially hit several heroes with it. The barrier lasts for 10s.

Astral Step is the hero’s ultimate and deals 130 – 330 damage, slowing movement speed by 40 – 80%. However, this ability is more of a mobility tool that allows you to travel across distances of 800 – 1000 units.

Items

When playing Void Spirit, some of the best items that you can buy are Kaya and Sange, Manta Style, Parasma, and Aghanim’s Scepter. However, you can play this hero in a lot of different ways and even focus on physical damage as your main tool for getting kills.

Always seek to develop your own playstyle and then make use of the appropriate tools for each situation. A cookie-cutter build is not available for this hero.

Storm Spirit

Storm Spirit is one of the most mobile heroes in Dota 2, having the ability to travel across long distances using his ultimate and deal massive amounts of damage to his enemies upon arrival.

Skills

Storm Spirit’s attributes increase substantially with each level he gains, so his damage output and mana pool will generally be excellent if you buy just a few more items. This is a hero that becomes strong early into the game and then dominates the mid portion of the match.

Using Static Remnant, you can deal 300 damage every 3.5s in a 300 radius. This means that you can farm quickly and also deal a lot of damage in team fights if the enemy heroes don’t keep their distance.

Electric Vortex allows you to disable a target and pull it toward you for 2.1s. During this time, you can attack it or run away.

Overload gives you the possibility to slow movement speed by 80% and attack speed by 80 for almost 1s after using any of your abilities. You also deal 100 extra damage. So the goal is to use one ability and then attack. You never want to use two abilities without attacking because you’re wasting a lot of potential.

Ball Lightning allows Storm Spirit to travel at a speed of 1400 – 2300 units per second, dealing damage at the location where he arrives. The amount is substantial: 6 – 14 damage per 100 units. The only problem is that you’re consuming 0.65% mana for every 100 units you travel. You also consume 25 + 7.5% mana when activating this ability.

So if you travel for 10000 units, expect to consume most of your mana pool and deal 1400 AoE damage upon arrival.

Items

Storm Spirit excels when having items that can quickly regenerate his mana pool. Kaya & Sange, Linken’s Sphere, Parasma, Orchid Malevolence, and Shiva’s Guard are excellent choices when playing this hero. Try to also have a way of breaking silence because that’s what’s going to kill you in most cases. Eul’s Scepter or even Manta Style could help a lot.

Ember Spirit

Ember Spirit is the last spirit hero on this list and he usually thrives once he has a Maelstrom and an Aghanim’ Scepter. It’s very important to focus on both damage and mobility when playing this hero because he has the potential to excel in both departments.

Skills

Ember’s skills are quite aggressive in nature, but they also offer him good defensive capabilities and excellent mobility.

Searing Chains can be used on three separate enemies each time, dealing a total of 990 damage in total. This ability is excellent not just for fighting but also for farming.

Sleight of Fist gives Ember 165 bonus hero damage and can be used every 6s. The radius is 550, so that attack will be greatly empowered against a large number of enemy heroes if they stand close to each other. This is another ability that can be used to farm more quickly.

Flame Guard is perfect in team fights because it deals 55 damage per second and blocks 285 magic damage. The amount is not very high but you can increase your magic damage block using Infused Raindrops. You need mana anyway, so it’s a good idea to buy this cheap item.

After reaching level six, Ember Spirit gains access to Fire Remnant. This ability is very powerful when it comes to mobility. You can, for instance, place a remnant, teleport back to base to regenerate, and then come back instantly. Ember gains additional remnants and he moves much faster toward them if he has Aghanim’s Scepter.

Items

Among the best Ember Spirit items, Aghanim’s Scepter is probably the first that you should consider buying. You can also purchase Gleipnir when playing this hero, as well as Manta Style, Shiva’s Guard, Boots of Travel, or even aggressive items like Daedalus.

It all depends on how you want to play the hero and what is expected of you. In a lot of cases, staying alive will be more important than dealing a lot of damage because your team will have multiple sources of damage to get kills. But you could also face an enemy team that cannot be defeated unless you’re able to quickly burst a target at the start of each fight.

Good Ember Spirit players itemize so that they can either farm very quickly in the first 15-20 minutes or gank continuously. This hero can do both but you often need to choose one direction. Your available resources will not allow you to get everything you want right away. Only after the 40-minute mark can you hope to become six-slotted.

Header: Valve