Dota 2 has always been a game full of possibilities. It is one of the most difficult MOBA games to master. To play Dota 2 at the highest level, one must know the basics of the game in and out. But what makes Dota 2 more competitive is not just the mechanics, but the vast availability of heroes to choose from. Dota 2 currently has 121 unique heroes to play with and each hero has its own strength and weakness. The heroes in question vary extensively in terms of gameplay, farming abilities, skills, and mastery. While some heroes are quite easy to play with and master, some heroes have a relatively difficult playing graph.
What DOTA 2 heroes should be best for beginners?
| Carry | Support | |||
| Safe Lane | Mid Lane | Off Lane | Support | Hard Support |
Before choosing the perfect hero, beginners should understand the hero roles carefully. There are two basic types of heroes with five in-game roles to select from. The two types of heroes are Carry and Support. A carry is a type of hero that requires a lot of farm at the start of the game and is dependent on items to get powerful. Support on the other hand doesn’t require many items in the game. They can contribute heavily in team fights with their in-built hero abilities. Beginners must find a way to figure out which role suits them the most. Here’s a guide to select from the best heroes for beginners in Dota 2.
Safelane
#1 Luna
Know the hero: Luna is a ranged agility carry hero. The most unique thing about Luna is her immense mobility throughout the game and her bouncing attacks. This makes it easy for new players to farm easily. Even the ones who are working upon their last hit can manage to farm quite easily with Luna. The high agility and attack speed of the hero is helpful in both team fights and pushing.
Item suggestions and skill selection: Luna is an aggressive farming carry. The right items should make her more than capable of carrying the game late. At level 1, one should take the first skill on Luna – Lucent Beam[Q]. It is a unit target ability that helps a lot in securing kills in a team fight. Leveling up Lucent Beam allows Luna to deal more damage in her ultimate – Eclipse[R], a magical AOE spell dealing massive damage. Luna has two passive skills to aid the farming and fighting throughout the game. Items like Wraith Band, Power Treads should be preferred in the early game. Towards late game, beginners can go for more agility and damage build like Butterfly, Manta Style, Eye of Skadi.
Heroes that can counter Luna: Luna is a high damage agility hero, Strength heroes like Axe, Centaur, Bristleback can be a good counter against Luna. Luna can have a bit of trouble in the game against these Blademail-carrying heroes.
Heroes that Luna can counter: Luna can deal with most illusion-based heroes like Chaos Knight, Phantom Lancer, Naga Siren. The second skill of Luna – Moon Glaives[W] bounces between targets and easily clears illusions.
#2 Phantom Assassin
Know the hero: Phantom Assassin is a melee agility carry hero. As the name suggests, this hero is adept at striking silently from behind and can kill any enemy within seconds. Phantom Assassin is known particularly for her ability to jump behind an enemy and catching them off-guard. She also happens to be the hero with the biggest critical damage in the game.
Item suggestion and skills selection: Phantom Assassin can be equally deadly and squishy at the same time. The best way to start the game with PA is to level up the first skill- Stifling Dagger. It enables PA to throw a dagger at the enemy hero slowing them and dealing damage at the same time. The second skill of PA- Phantom Strike enables PA to blink onto any player, friend, or foe. This move can be used offensively and defensively. Coup De Grace [R] enables players to land a sudden and fatal critical blow to the enemies. To assist PA in the fight, one must have armor corruption items like Desolator. Also, Black King Bar is kind of a must-build on PA as it gives her spell immunity during fights.
Heroes that can counter Phantom Assassin: High magic output heroes or nukers can easily counter PA in the early game. Heroes like Leschrac, Ogre Magi are used to counter PA by dealing magic damage.
Characters Phantom Assassin can counter: Squishy heroes with low armor are favorite targets for PA. Heroes like Drow Ranger, Sniper, Ancient Apparition are very much vulnerable against her assault.
| Phantom Assassin is the second most picked hero in the game after Pudge. |
| Luna is an ardent follower of Selemene, the goddess of the dark moon |
Midlane
#3 Sniper
Know the hero: Sniper is a ranged agility carry hero with great attack range. This is why it is such a good choice for beginners to start within mid-lane. Sniper requires the substantial farm to get strong but has good damage and attack speed to speed up that process.
Item suggestion and skill selection: It is very essential to follow the proper item-build for the sniper to avoid life-threatening situations in the match. As Sniper’s overall mobility is less, it is suggested to go for at least one escape item – Shadow Blade / Hurricane Pike. The first skill of Sniper – Sharpnel[Q] allows him to deal magical damage over time. Sniper is also very good at killing heroes that are escaping with low health. His long-ranged ultimate Assassinate[R] deals heavy magical damage. Items like Monkey King Bar, Eye of Skadi, Maelstrom are suggested on Sniper.
Heroes that can counter Sniper: Since Sniper is particularly squishy, heroes that can deal heavy damage over a short time can counter Sniper effectively. Heroes like Phantom Assassin, Pudge are lethal to Sniper.
Characters Sniper can counter: Kardel is very good against heroes that deal damage from the backline – Zeus, Lion. In the late game, Sniper is very powerful against an uphill push.
#4 Viper
Know the hero: Viper is a ranged agility carry who can influence team fights to a great extent. The poison effect on the Viper’s attack can cause serious damage to heroes with less magic resistance. Viper has the ability to tear down enemy passives with her AOE damage over time ability.
Item suggestion and skill selection: Viper can be very lethal in a face-to-face battle. This gives Viper an advantage in mid-lane. One can easily zone out their opponents using Poison Attack and Nethertoxin abilities. Items like Sanga Yasha / Manta Style, Monkey king bar that can amplify Viper’s attack speed are really good.
Heroes that can counter Viper: There are very few heroes known to counter Viper in the early game. But heroes like Troll Warlord, Slark that are particularly adept in 1V1 battles can defeat Viper in the late game.
Heroes Viper can threaten: Viper is very strong against heroes with passive abilities and melee heroes. Viper can easily counter strength heroes like Bristleback, Axe, and Centaur.
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Offlane
#5 Axe
Know the hero: Axe is a melee strength durable hero that can play as an offlane-carry in DOTA 2. Axe is well known to initiate a team fight and withstand physical blows due to heavy armor. Among other Offlaners, Axe is comparatively easier to play.
Item suggestion and skill selection: Axe is a durable carry. Any item that can boost up Axe’s armor is good. The third ability of Axe – Counter Helix deals pure damage to enemies who attacks Axe. This is used in synchronization with his first skill- Berserker’s Call[Q] that forces enemies to attack him. To easily farm early game, beginners can level up the third ability to the max and go for the jungle. Getting an early Blink and Blade Mail on Axe is the key to success.
Heroes that can counter Axe: Since Axe is a strength-core, any anti-strength hero can counter Axe. Heroes like Necrophos, Lifestealer are great Axe counters.
Axe can counter these heroes: With the right element of surprise, Axe can counter melee agility cores like Phantom Assassin or Squishy heroes like Anti-Mage, Weaver.
#6 Bristleback
Know the hero: Bristleback is a melee strength core with extraordinary damage reduction potential. Particularly when attacked from the rear or sides, he takes reduced damage. Bristleback is also capable of inflicting deadly blows with his quills and slow enemies with his snot.
Item suggestion and skill selection: Bristleback is a very easy hero to play. For the beginners, all they need to do is show their back in a fight. In early game players usually max the second ability on Bristleback- Quill Spray[W], which has a stacking additional damage bonus. Items that can boost the magic resistance and armor of BB are very useful to him.
Heroes that can counter Bristleback: Heroes that can deal heavy magic damage usually have a strong hand over Bristleback. Viper, Necrophos are all very good Bristleback counters.
Heroes Bristleback can counter: Bristleback can counter squishy damage-based heroes like Drow Ranger, Phantom Assassin, Sniper very well.
Soft Support / Roamer
#7 Lion
Know the hero: Lion is a ranged intelligence support hero with high nuking abilities. The best thing about playing lion is the spells are very easy to cast and effective as well. Beginners love to play with Lion. Lion’s team-fight presence and high spell damage showcase his true potential.
Item suggestion and skill selection: Lion is not an item-dependent roamer as compared to others. Lion can deal a substantial amount of damage with his spells in a team fight. In the early game, beginners can level up the Earth Spike [Q] and Mana Drain [E] to harass enemy cores in lanes. It is always good to get an early Blink on Lion. In the late game, Lion does well with spell amplification items and Aghanim Scepter.
Heroes that can counter Lion: Lion is easily countered with Anti-Mage like any other intelligence hero. Apart from AM, the Lion is weak against strong durable carries and offlanes.
Heroes that Lion can counter: Lion has a lot of spell damage, and can counter agility cores like Phantom Assassin, Faceless Void and harass them in the early game.
#8 Lich
Know the hero: Lich is a ranged intelligence support hero who has a very easy to execute skill set. Lich can be played in many ways both aggressively and defensively. Lich can slow down enemies, and give the core a little extra armor just when needed.
Item suggestion and skill selection: Lich requires a bit of mana to support him through the early laning-phase. The hero is capable of dishing out serious harassment to enemy safe-lane, shrinking their farming zone. With the frost shield ability, lich can lend an extra hand to the offlane hero by increasing their armor. Lich’s abilities are easy to focus on and apply to the enemies. Force Staff, Glimmer Cape are great items on Lich.
Heroes who counter Lich: Heroes with high attack damage like Phantom Assassin and Juggernaut are good against the lich.
Heroes that Lich can counter: Lich can counter illusion heroes like Terror Blade, Chaos Knight with his ultimate [R] – Chain Frost.
Hard Support
#9 Ogre Magi
Know your hero: Ogre Magi is a melee intelligence durable support. It is one of the easiest support heroes in the game for beginners. Ogre has three active abilities, but as per team fight, new players can only focus on the first two.
Item suggestion and skill selection: Players tend to max the second skill on Ogre during the initial lane stage. It harasses the opponent roamer and tank with damage over time. This hero is dependent on mana heavily in the early game. New hustlers should carry extra mangoes or clarity to fill up the jar if needed. Ogre also has a very effective stun that is easy to implement. Any item with a point-target ability like Eul’s Scepter of Divinity, Force staff, Rod of Atos is good on Ogre. This is because of Ogre Magi’s ultimate[R]- Multicast.
Heroes that can counter Ogre Magi: Anti-Mage is an obvious counter to Ogre-magi. Apart from AM, Viper, Huskar can also counter Ogre badly.
Heroes that Ogre can counter: Any Agility carry that has low magic resistance will fall victim to Ogre Magi’s assault in the early game. Heroes like Sniper Vengeful Spirit are some of them.
#10 Jakiro
Know your hero: Jakiro is a ranged intelligence support hero in DOTA 2. Jakiro is known for his damage over time spells. In any team fight, Jakiro can be very useful, and not many skills are needed to execute those spells.
Item suggestion and skill selection: Jakiro is very easy to play with a high potential to wreak serious damage over enemies in the early game. To carry on the magical assault, Jakiro needs a steady supply of mana. An early Mana boot is always helpful. Jakiro’s ultimate [R]- Macropyre is a long line of damage over time that is easy to cast and deals serious damage. In the early game, beginners usually level up the first skill. Items like Rod of Atos, Aghanim Scepter are really good on Jakiro.
Heroes that can counter Jakiro: Heroes with high burst damage like Lion, Phantom Assassin, QOP can easily counter Jakiro in a short amount of time.
Heroes that Jakiro can counter: Jakiro can counter both illusion-based heroes like Phantom Lancer and heroes like Templar Assassin with his damage over time.
| Both Ogre Magi and Jakiro are two-headed creatures belonging to the same body. |
| Dota 2 has recently launched a New Players Mode to assist beginners to understand the game |
All beginners need to understand that the game of DOTA 2 is very competitive and full of tricky gameplay. So it is very important to choose the right role and hero. The above data will hopefully help them get through this dilemma easily. Till then, Good Game Well Played.
