Playing the Sniper will teach new players how to position yourself effectively in team fights and how to play in the middle with a disadvantage – this may sound counterintuitive but will help you in the long run.
- The Eight Best Dota 2 Heroes for a Beginner to Rock Right Away
- Omniknight
- Learning heroes
- The best Dota 2 heroes for beginners
- Spirit Breaker (Position 4)
- Suggested Items:
- Bristleback (Position 3)
- SUGGESTED ITEMS:
- Tinker
- Enigma
- Hero Roles and Positions
- The Best Dota 2 Heroes for Beginners
- Abaddon
- Bristleback
- Crystal Maiden
- 11. Bounty Hunter
- 10. Dragon Knight
- Roaming Support
- Hard Support
The Eight Best Dota 2 Heroes for a Beginner to Rock Right Away
Dota 2 is known for its intricate strategies, twisted mind games, and ridiculous amount of information you have to learn about. If you come into the game fresh, the number of Dota 2 characters can be overwhelming. Don’t worry, we’ve compiled a list of awesome Dota heroes that’s suitable for a smooth start. Also, other players on your team won’t get mad at you if you play these Dota 2 champions as they are easy to learn for a beginner.
Despite being supportive, Crystal Maiden is among the easy-going Dota 2 heroes pool, and is a solid pick for any newbie. Support roles are usually reserved for more experienced players. Despite the apparent simplicity of running and healing everyone, good support needs to monitor the map as you play, help your teammates on time, and perform many other subtle functions that require a lot of character control.
As a versatile hero, CM can be both a solid pick for support and a more offensive frontline fighter. Her freeze skills are useful for slowing down or stunning enemies while you wait for your handler to arrive and finish off your opponents. Arcane Aura is another great skill that allows all allied units to enjoy higher mana levels early in the game. And Freezing Field is stunning when it comes to initiating massive fights and killing a few enemies.
Best of: Ursa, Juggernaut, Lina
Bad Against: Clockwerk, Nyx Assassin, Bristleback
Good against: Phantom Assassin, Templar Assassin, Slark
Items to buy: Tranquil Boots, Glimmer Cape, Force Staff, Blink Dagger, Black King Bar, Aghanim’s Scepter
Talent tree – 10: +100 cast range, 15: +150 gold / minute, 20: +60 FF damage, 25: +300 CN damage
Omniknight
Omniknight acts as a bridge between offensive and defensive support. The first ability, Purification, heals all allies, dealing damage to enemies in a small area nearby. The unbelievable thing about this first skill is that it deals pure damage, meaning no armor or magic resist will save your enemies. The second skill, Pushing, is purely supportive – the hero provides 100% protection to a living, moving target. Be careful with this as a wrong click can make your enemy or even your creep immune to magic.
For maximum protection, the Knight can summon the Guardian Angel, which provides the hero and all allies around him with 100% resistance to physical damage. Omni’s passive ability, Degen Aura, slows and weakens enemies that get too close. Thanks to Omniknight you will have a great time protecting your allies and killing.
Best of: Phantom Assassin, Huskar, Pudge
Angry against: Dota 2 Summoner, Sorceress, Oracle
Good against: Phantom Assassin, Specter, Lifestealer
Items to buy: Guardian Greaves, Lotus Ball, Flash Dagger, Refreshing Orb, Assault Cuirass, Aghanim’s Scepter
Talent tree – 10: +90 gold / minute, 15: +90 damage, 20: -12% degen aura, 25: +200 EXP / healing
The Dragon Slyrak sleeps in this armor while the Knight in the Dragon awaits. Be careful, you won’t wake them both up.
Learning heroes
The best way to really learn how to play Dota 2 is to just play Dota 2. I know this seems like a simplistic answer, and you would be right. In its unique complexity, there is a right and wrong way to play Dota, but there’s no better place to start than just playing it.
For completely new players, I advise you to jump into the unranked single draft games, which will allow you and your opponents to choose from three different heroes. By playing this mode, you will meet many different heroes and make you play with multiple heroes. This will give you a taste of the huge selection that will open up for you in all-pick mode (a game mode where you choose your own heroes).
Without complicating the matter at the beginning, it is also worth thinking about how well specific roles suit each hero. You don’t have to worry about that just yet, but we have an article that explains Dota 2’s roles to help when you’re ready.
Once you feel confident enough to enter ranked or all-picked, here’s a rundown of some champions, their key strengths, and the skill level they’re best suited to:
The best Dota 2 heroes for beginners
Sniper
Role: Middle
Skill level: 2/5 ⭐⭐
Winrate: 51.04%
The sniper is the best beginner for a number of reasons. His toolkit includes a very long attack range, a 100% slow passive and an extremely fast attack animation. All these advantages are counterbalanced by his low initial attack power, often less than his opponents, and his innate gentleness.
Playing the Sniper will teach new players how to position yourself effectively in team fights and how to play in the middle with a disadvantage – this may sound counterintuitive but will help you in the long run.
Crystal Maiden
Role: Support
Skill level: 1/5 ⭐
Winrate: 51.87%
When you say “Dota Support”, the heads of many players will be automatically refilled to Crystal Maiden (CM) and there is a reason why. Her toolkit includes a strong stun, a passive ability to replenish mana, and a high-DPS ultimate that will destroy teamfights.
As with the Sniper, playing CM will teach new players to position themselves in team fights and the importance of FREE wards.
Chaos Knight
Role: Wear
Skill level: 1/5 ⭐
Win Rate: 49.01%
The Chaos Knight is one of the most famous hosts in Dota 2. Along with Sven, he is perhaps one of the first hosts that any new player will play. His strength lies in his ability to get online and fight successfully earlier than his peers.
Playing the Chaos Knight, with his innate toughness, will help new players survive scenarios where other leaders will die. Longer play time is obviously better for those new to Dota 2, and in this case it will provide a better understanding of laning phase as well as team fights.
Tinker is one of the most successful mid laners these days as he can deal a ton of damage. The changes to his Laser and the fact that he finally has a defensive ability make it a top option even in the highest MMR bracket.
Spirit Breaker (Position 4)
The Spirit Breaker is a maddened cow, the greatest fear of wanderers in the countryside all over the world. Imagine this: you are walking along the river bank as the almighty “Muuuu” pierces the air like a fog siren. A huge blue cow runs up to you and stabs you in the head. Bam. It’s a Ghost Breaker.
He’s a melee hero and it’s best to play offline in position 4 – he’s handy with no items and doesn’t do very well with the farm, which is quite ironic. Spirit Breaker is a so-called wanderer or ganker – he wants to capture helpless enemies and knock them straight into the afterlife. On the lane, against a melee leader, you can play quite aggressively – hit the skill first, then hit. Then, once you’ve earned a Charge of Darkness, you can begin to reveal yourself in the rest of the map.
Spirit Breaker charges at the enemy target, passing through all objects in its path. Each enemy it hits on its way to its target is subject to a Heavy Impact along with its target (see below). The projection range is global, meaning anyone who can see the SB can be tracked from anywhere on the map. See a helpless enemy, charge him, kill him, moo triumphantly.
Activate to gain Movement Speed and Status Resistance for 8 seconds. You’ll want to activate this middle charge to make sure nothing is stopping you in your relentless pursuit of your target. It’s one of the few things you can throw while charging, alongside items like the Shadow Blade and Phase Boots.
When a rival from high school throws a party on the same day as you, you’ll feel the sting of a Bigger Impact. Sigh. In any case, it’s a passive ability, meaning you don’t need to activate it yourself – it’s always on. While attacking, Spirit Breaker has a percentage chance of Greater Bash to stun the target, knock it back, and increase your Movement Speed. Greater Bash also deals damage based on your movement speed.
Ultimate Ghost Breaker ability. He slips into the hell realm and when he gets out of it he hits the target really, really hard – Greater Strike with bonus damage and knockback.
Suggested Items:
Start with a few tangos and healing ointment, as well as a ball of venom.
The Venom Orb adds a nasty sting to your attacks, poisoning the enemy with 5 magic damage per second for 3 seconds and slowing them down. Ouch.
The bracer in Spirit Breaker is great because as a hero of strength it really benefits from extra stats. The gauntlet allows the SB to withstand a little more and become an even more formidable presence early on.
Get your brown shoes as soon as you can afford them. Spirit Breaker loves shoes because they make him faster and thus make him deal more damage. Upgrade them to Power Treads that you want to turn red (strength).
Urn of Shadows can be cast on both your friends and enemies, in which case it heals 240 health over time respectively or deals 200 damage over time. In the early game when enemies are weak, 200 damage is a big deal, so roll it as soon as you step onto the scene to add extra damage to your ambushes. Later you can upgrade it to a Spirit Vessel which will do the same but with percentage damage making it a necessity against tanks.
When activated, Blade Mail makes you really spiky for 4.5 seconds, meaning anyone who tries to hurt you will take the same damage as you. Also, passively refunds 20 + 20% of any attack damage received. The Spirit Breaker is often the first to hit the scene in team fights, so for the first few seconds it is expected to absorb the brunt of enemy attacks. Launching Mail of the Blade will make them weakened by attacking you, turning the tide of battle in your favor.
Bristleback (Position 3)
The most aggressive hedgehog you’ve ever met Bristleback sneezes at you and then turns you into a pincushion. Bristleback is fairly simple in the game – it fires spikes that deal more damage the more times the enemy is hit by them. This means that the longer Bristleback hangs in combat, the more damage he can do – and his abilities make him really hard to kill. Items for Bristleback focus on transforming him into a powerful defender that is hard to kill and hard to escape from.
Bristleback is a great offlaner to start with as its toughness makes it more forgiving if you lose position while learning the game, and its thick spray makes farming super easy.
Throw it on your enemies to reduce their armor and movement speed, and disgust them. The effect is cumulative, so if you sneeze enough, you can seriously slow the enemy down.
Fire your spikes in a radius around you, dealing bonus damage based on how many spikes are already stuck on your enemy. Since it hits everything within a circle’s radius, it’s a great skill for line stuffing or for breeding creeps in the jungle. To get the most out of this, you should camp so that you can breed super efficiently – we’ll explain stacking later.
Bristle is back, and you can’t touch. When a Bristleback is attacked from the side or the rear, it takes reduced damage. The back is better protected than the side, and when it takes a certain amount of damage to its buttocks, it automatically fires a retaliatory stream of feathers that costs no mana. This makes chasing a retreating Bristleback very difficult and potentially painful, especially if you have low HP teammates around you who will be incredibly unhappy if the extra dose of acupuncture provoked by your attack kills them.
The more Bristleback stacks up, the more movement speed and attack damage it has. Basically, we encourage you to spray and sneeze as much as possible – be sure to leave this advice in the game world.
SUGGESTED ITEMS:
You should start with the tang, the Ring of Protection for extra armor, and the Quelling Blade which increases the damage done to creeps making the final hit much easier.
You already know the result, buy shoes for your little hedgehog feet so that you can walk faster. Phase Boots give the Bristleback even greater movement speed, making it easier to hunt humans.
Extra health regeneration, which makes you more durable at the beginning, and also consists of two items that you will need later, the vanguard and the hood of rebellion. It is conveniently available in a secret store.
It gives you strength and even more health regeneration, and allows you to spend some of your health on mana, which will allow you to quill even more.
The wand is basically great for all of the Dota 2 heroes, especially heroes like Bristleback who can really use the periodic mana boost to great effect.
- Vanguard -> Scarlet Guard
OR
Hood of Defiance -> Pipe of Insight
Which one you want basically depends on whether you’re dealing with physical (Vanguard) or magic (Hood of Defiance) damage. You probably have no idea which you’re fighting against since you’re new to the game, but as a rule most skills deal magic damage and right clicks do physical damage. It’s a good idea to get in the habit of reading what your enemies do anyway, so do your homework before you make up your mind. Both of these items protect both your party and you when upgraded, so your buddies will be grateful to you.
Get your brown shoes as soon as you can afford them. Spirit Breaker loves shoes because they make him faster and thus make him deal more damage. Upgrade them to Power Treads that you want to turn red (strength).
Tinker
Tinker is one of the heroes who has undergone many changes over the years. He used to be one of the most annoying mid laners because he wouldn’t let the enemy team push. Valve, however, decided to change their skill set, which has a positive effect.
Tinker is one of the most successful mid laners these days as he can deal a ton of damage. The changes to his Laser and the fact that he finally has a defensive ability make it a top option even in the highest MMR bracket.
Despite Tinker doing insane damage, he remains one of the toughest heroes in Dota 2. So it is not recommended to “spam” him unless you know what you are doing.
Enigma
Enigma is one of the special heroes in Dota 2 that is often picked last. Of course, what makes the hero unique is his ultimate called “Black Hole”. After using the Enigma, he can disable the entire enemy team, giving his teammates enough time to kill their opponent.
In addition to having a strong ultimate, Enigma is one of the heroes who can push and jungle quickly. The fact that it can farm much faster than other offlaners and support makes it an option for some pro teams.
Unfortunately, Enigma is also one of the heroes that requires good knowledge from you in order to be able to use its full potential. This is a high skill cap hero, therefore not suitable for beginners or people who are not used to initiating team fights.
Additionally, Ursa and the Faceless Void are also pretty good in the current meta after making various changes to other champions. They are also able to team up with their team to set up porches and give their team an edge.
Hero Roles and Positions
Roles define your behavior in Dota 2 matches. Most heroes are good at certain roles:
- Carry – weak in the beginning, but very strong in the end, so they carry the whole team. Bears usually remain on Easy Lane.
- Midlaner – Self-sufficient heroes who stand in the mid lane. From the beginning of the game, they can deal considerable damage.
- Offlaner – Heroes with a lot of health and powerful ultimate skills that are good for starting a team fight. They stand on Hard Lane.
- Roamer / Support (4th position) – this is a kind of offensive support. These heroes take part in battles on different lines. Neutral Creeps are also often attacked.
- Support (Position 5) – These heroes stay on easy lane to support their Carry. They are good at incapacitating enemy heroes. Support characters heal party members and place wards.
The Best Dota 2 Heroes for Beginners
Abaddon
Do you trust what you see in the fog?
It is a dark creature that draws power from a mystical black fog. Abaddon can play a variety of roles in the game thanks to his versatile abilities, but players mostly use him for hard lane or as support.
For beginners, this hero gives a sense of power. Choose him to join the battles and he’ll kill lots of creeps and heroes. Abaddon also has a good level of protection, so it’s not easy for enemies to kill him.
Mist Coil ability wounds enemies or heals party members, but takes a certain amount of health. Thanks to the Aphotic Shield, Abaddon creates a layer of magical energy around his allies. Protects for a while and then explodes, injuring the attackers. Avernus’ Curse Strike slows enemies and can silence them if he hits four times.
Try to promote Abaddon quickly so that he becomes much more effective as an Offlaner.
Bristleback
It was the bartender who got me into this mess. Yes, I think I’ll pay them a visit when it’s over.
This hedgehog creature is very good for beginners who want to stay in battles for a long time and get a lot of kills. Bristleback is a very tough Dota 2 hero thanks to his considerable amount of health.
His past was filled with fighting – not for glory, but for keeping the tavern in order. When Bristleback was defeated by a powerful opponent and it turned out that this was the beginning of his training to become one of the easiest Dota 2 heroes. The guy learned to use his back as a shield and the feathers as dangerous projectiles.
In matches in the game, Bristleback uses the Viscous Nasal Goo ability to slow down opponents and reduce their armor – when they are covered with sticky snot. Thanks to Quill Spray, it fires spikes and deals even more damage in case of multiple hits. Two passive abilities protect the hero and make him slightly more effective in attacking:
- Bristleback, for taking less damage when attacking from behind;
- Warpath for becoming stronger and faster after casting a spell.
Bristleback is one of the best dota 2 heroes for beginners as Offlaner. Along with remaining on the path, he can cultivate the soil in the forest.
Crystal Maiden
When Hell freezes over, I’ll start calling it Heaven.
Bristleback is a great offlaner to start with as its toughness makes it more forgiving if you lose position while learning the game, and its thick spray makes farming super easy.
11. Bounty Hunter
This cunning and elusive hero is gaining traction among new players. His high damage, coupled with his espionage skills, made him a threat.
the bounty hunter is an annoying hero that will fit on any lane! Or no lane at all if you fancy roaming. He can cut down enemy support with just a few right-clicks, or he can also save his allies and provide healing or upkeep for them.
Another name for versatility is the Bounty Hunter! It can be played in virtually any role due to the nature of its spells. This results in a huge item pool that can include items such as Daedalus, Desolator, Aghanim’s Scepter, Bloodthorn, Scythe Vyse, Dagon, Sun Crest, Sange and Yasha, Guardian Greaves, and Skull Smasher. These items vary depending on your role, but are guaranteed to strengthen your skills and replenish your allies.
What Makes Bounty Hunter Great for Beginners?
- High potential for physical injury
- Extremely elusive due to the invisibility spell that can be used from level 1 on!
- Farms faster than most heroes because of the extra gold from the passive and ultimate skill
- Threat to enemy support
- Great Aghanim’s Scepter upgrade
10. Dragon Knight
Davion, the Dragon Knight, is the classic middle hero, his tough and high HP level matches the gauntlet! He doesn’t fall despite his attempts to gank his enemies, his armor will never betray him!
Dragon Knight is a hard nut to crack, he has naturally high armor which is amplified by his passive Dragon Blood ability making him impossible to kill unless all 5 enemy heroes turn around and track him down, which is obviously impractical in most games.
DK is known for purchasing items that allow him to initiate, including Blink Dagger, Shadow Blade, followed by items such as Black King Bar, Assault Kiiras, Heaven’s Halabard, Armlet of Mordiggian, Aghanim’s Scepter, and Dedal. These items make him extremely bulky and deal some damage to him, which is further boosted by the Dragon’s Form ultimate.
Why is Dragon Knight considered a great rookie hero?
- High armor makes ganking difficult
- It can push lanes and farm quickly
- It does not require a large farm for ganking
- Dragon Form allows him to gank other avenues and strengthens his abilities
- great talent tree that scales well with his items
- Aghanim’s Scepter unbalanced upgrade
Crystal Maiden usually builds support items that help her and her allies in the game. These items can include the Power Staff, Cloak of Radiance, Scepter of Spirit, as well as the Black King’s Bar, Aghanim’s Staff, and the Disc of Aeon, which give her great upkeep to extend teamfights!
Roaming Support
Earthshaker, Wind Ranger and Tusk are able to organize ambushes and team fights, as well as create space for their allies to escape in the event of an unfortunate scenario.
Enigma and Winter Wyvern, however, are quite difficult to master. That said, in the right hands, these heroes can wreak havoc in any game with the abilities available in their arsenal.
Hard Support
- Chen
- Jakiro
- Ancient Revelation
- A vengeful spirit
Ancient Apparition, Chen and Jakiro are highly effective teamfighting heroes who can turn the tide of a match. These heroes are also quite strong in their lanes, which allows them to buff their leading heroes during the lane phase.
Vengeful Spirit and Skywrath Mage are mainly damage dealers. However, in the right hands, these heroes are able to turn into main heroes based on their abilities alone.