This is an extensive guide on a wide range of things in DOTA 2, ranging from ettiquette, Commends, Reports, Heroes, their roles and counters, Team Work, Unpleasant Players and Language Barriers for players of all skill levels and will be constantly updated constantly.

More and more players are playing DOTA 2 every day. It is a great game filled with many Heroes and items that players can mix and match to their heart's content. Unfortunately DOTA 2 gameplay, tactics, etc are not things that people can learn over night. It takes time. This guide is all about the Heroes in DOTA 2, possible ways to counter them and some basic tactics.

It is important to remember that no two DOTA 2 games are the same, and team strategies between games can vary wildly in regards to things such as lane composition (trilanes, dual lanes, jungling, etc.), focus (pushing, ganking, farming), and known opponent strengths and weaknesses. While terms regarding the lane positioning (off-laner, solo mid, trilane support, etc.) and hero roles (hard carry, semi-carry, roaming ganker, etc.) are frequently used when discussing individual games or laning setups, these descriptions can be lacking when used more generally. No 2 people play a hero the exact same way.

Far below is a section on individual heroes and their counters. I have only named a few at the moment, and will add more as people request certain heroes. My tactics may differ greatly from others you have heard but remember no 2 players play the same way.

Thank you very much for your time and understanding whilst reading this guide. I hope you all enjoy your time on DOTA 2 and please rate this guide and share it once you have finished reading.

In the latest update, Since there have been a lot of updates lately, I have taken the time to give the whole guide an overhaul. Most areas of the guide have been updated to match the game and my learnings of the community. As always i thank you for your on going support and for your part in helping change the Dota community for the better. I hope you all continue to enjoy playing Dota 2 and please dont hesitate to leave a comment below if you have any queries.




JULY I am very sorry it is taking me so long to update this guide this month. It would have been completed today but I have not added to it as I am extremely frustrated with a lot of people I have played with in matches lately that have caused my MMR to plummet, and i would much rather keep this guide and what it stands for in tact so i will not be adding to it whilst i am in this state. I hope everyone understands, i thank you all for your patience.

JUNE I have added the match ID to one of the matches I am most proud of. This match is proof that you and your team can be total strangers, have a horrible start, make tonnes of mistakes and yet hold out on the door step of all 3 barracks for over an hour! Please take some time to watch and leave a comment. Hopefully this match will give you hope in your future matches and will also show you that we are all human and all make mistakes. The best of us will work together regardless and never give up! Every player in this match was fun to play with, my team especially, were all great.

Match ID: 701761963 I hope you enjoy.


MAY: i have added 2 more heroes to the counters: Lina and Bane. I plan on expanding the info for both of them in the next update as well as continuing with the list of up coming heroes to be added.

I have also added a section called "My Goals" which speaks for itself. Thank you all for your time reading this and your continued support.

Please also keep leaving feedback and hero suggestions, i read them all and take them all into consideration.


APRIL: I have changed some wording and added info to a number of sections such as the "Hero Counters" section and the addition of the "Latest Update" section. I have also added 2 heroes to the counters, Vengeful Spirit and Wraith King. Please continue to leave comments for more heroes and about how you feel about the guide as I will provide heroes eariler in the list depending on demand.

I am again very sorry for how long it has taken me for this update, things still aren't going well in my family or my girlfriend's as believe it or not, both of our mothers have cancer. My mum has breast cancer and my girlfriend's mother has lymphoma. Please do not worry, all is going very well and now that everything is stablising, there should be many more updates to come very soon.

Thank you all so much for the support you have been giving (for those who already knew) and for all of your understanding. Please keep checking back in for more updates. I will always have the date of the latest update in the title.

Hope you all continue to enjoy playing DOTA 2 and have a great day :)

MARCH: I do sincerely aopogise for the lack of updates since the new year, i have unfortunately lost a few family members and haven't been coping well. Now that i am back i shall give this guide a major update. I hope you all enjoy and please share it around.

One of the more recent update has seen the addition of the "Problem & Solution" section. In this section i state a problem and present a solution, simple as that. Take a look and if there is a problem you are facing, please don't hesitate to leave me a comment and i'll see if i can provide a relevant solution as soon as possible for you.

As i state in many sections of this guide, I am far from a pro player on Dota 2. This guide was designed to be used by everyone for as many elements of the game as possible. Like a one stop shop if you will.

Everyone has had a match with unpleasant players. It's not a fun experience. If I can help just one person with a certain hero, tactics or advice on unpleasant players, then that's one more person out there who knows how to do it and that's one more person having fun.

My goal is simple. Help whomever I can reach their potential in DOTA 2 and most importantly, help them to have fun whilst doing so.

There are a lot of people playing Dota who need help, both in the game mechanics and in behaviour. The best way to better the community, is to first better what is behind the keyboard. Once you do that, you will already have made a difference :)

Firstly, I would like to say you don't commend players based on performance in a match, you commend based on "friendly, forgiving, teaching or leadership" shown within the match. So even if someone has played horribly but has been really friendly, etc throughout the match, consider commending them.

How to commend
In match, click this symbol, which is located in the top left hand corner of the screen

After clicking it this menu will appear



Right click the name of the player that you would like to commend and a drop down menu (as displayed in picture above) and then click commend. After clicking commend the menu below will appear.


In this menu you have 4 options, described below. Also don't forget to write something short about why you have commended the player.

"Friendly". If someone has been really friendly on either team, consider commending for Friendly.





"Forgiving". If someone has made a lot of mistakes or just not playing well and someone is being very forgiving, consider commending them with this option.




"Teaching". Has someone spared some time to teach you some things about DOTA 2, tactics, heroes, etc, consider commending them for their time.




"Leadership". Has someone shown leadership skills, lead the team through the match with good tactics, communication and general ideas? Consider commending them for Leadership.

As for reports, there are no report options for someone "being noob". Everyone has a bad game now and then, and i believe that no one should be reported for having a bad game or being new to the game. Remember that everyone was a "newb" to DOTA 2 at some point and it is up to those who have experience to help guide the new players and help evolve their gameplay. Also there is a huge difference between "newb" and "noob". Please take this into consideration.

How to report
In match, click this symbol, which is located in the top left hand corner of the screen

After clicking it, this menu will appear.



Right click the name of the player that you would like to report and a drop down menu (as displayed in picture above) and then click report. After clicking report the menu below will appear.



In this menu you have 3 options, described below. Also don't forget to write something short about why you have reported the player.

"Communication Abuse" If a player(s) have been rude and/or abusive to you via chat or voice, use this option to report them.




"Intentional Ability Abuse" If a player(s) on your team are intentionally hindering you or the team with their abilities i.e. an Outworld Devourer is constantly using "Astral Imprisonment" on you when there is no need, use this option to report.



"Intentional Feeding" If there is a player(s) that are purposely letting themselves get killed by the opposing team to help them feed, use this option to report them.




Please also take note that there are no report options for "Being Noob" or "Isn't Playing well". Respect all 9 other players in the match and hold back from reporting unless you feel you need to.



If action is taken against a player they you have reported, you will eventually receive this message. You will also receive an additional report to use.

Unfortuantely, there will be a time when everyone has an encounter with someone who is very unpleasant during a match. Whether the player is on your team or the opposing team, the steps I reccomend that you take are the same except for one point. Which is, if the unpleasant player is on your team, please keep the chatter in allied chat. The last thing you need is to give your opposition the pleasure of knowing that your teammates are arguing with each other.

When in a match with someone abusive, if you or someone else is the target of an unwelcome comment, sometimes saying "there is no need for that", "relax", etc can help. Please try your best to restrain from replying with another rude comment. If the situation gets out of hand, mute the player(s) and report them if necessary.

To mute someone you need to click the icon in the image below which is found in the top left hand corner of the screen during match play.


Once you have clicked that, this menu will open.



Once opened you will be able to mute individual players from either team by clicking on the speaker icon next to their name. You then also unmute them by repeating this process. Whilst someone is muted all you will recieve from that player is pings, you will not receive any chat or voice communication from the muted player.


Unfortunately their are also players who abuse their abilities and who also target allies in ways which will hinder that player. To stop this from happening you need to look at the top left hand corner of the screen during match play and click this icon


Once clicked the follwing menu will appear.










Lets say Bloodseeker (on your team) is constantly silencing you. In this picture you would click the "disable help" section next to Bloodseeker's name, and the player will no longer be able to silence you. Take note that this only stops unfriendly spells, heroes that heal can still target you. Please only do this if they are abusing the ability.

If you have any specific incidents that i have not covered, please leave a comment below and i will do my best to help out.

I am well aware that the majority of the Russians, people encounter are very frustrating but again, please don't stereotype or prejudge if you have someone foriegn in your match. As long as they can speak the language of the server and are friendly, it does not matter where they are from.


Over all, as I mentioned before, sometimes it just takes once person to do or say something nice to get the ball rolling. If you start being a little nicer and/or understanding of others, then you may influence others to do the same. Please treat others as you would want to be treated.

Choosing the right lane can sometimes mean the difference between a great early game and a bad one. Below is a picture of the DOTA 2 map. In green is the Radiant area dn the red is the Dire area. Both sides of the map have 3 lanes( easy lane (safe lane), mid lane, hard lane (suicide lane)), jungle area, a secret shop (purple dots) and a side shop (pink dots).

There are 2 runes (yellow dots) which spawn every 2 minutes (first one spawning at 00:00) and there is also Roshan (orange dot) which drops the Aegis of Immortality (brings a hero back to life if killed) and cheese (restores 2500 health and 1000 mana instantly when used). Cheese is only dropped in instances from the 3rd time Roshan has been killed and onwards.



Easy lane (Safe lane): The safe lane is the lane where the Tier 1 Tower is farthest from the Ancient, and closest to the creep line. For Radiant, this is the bottom lane. For Dire, this is the top lane. The lane is named as such since it is easiest for a laning hero to retreat to the protection of their tower, and because it is difficult for enemies to sneak through the jungle and gank the laning hero. Also, because this lane is close to the jungle, it is the easiest lane to use creep pulling to control the location of the creep line.

This is the lane in which most Carries (description of Hero Roles below) will go, usually accompanied by a Support or Lane Support.

Mid Lane: This is usually the lane which most fight over as many believe the entire match can simply be decided on by who is sent to the middle (tactics on this further down in guide). This is usually the lane in which teams send the hero they need to level asap for a particular reason (usually ganking), the best example i can think of would be Pudge, or a hero they think will counter the one the opposition has sent to the middle.

Hard lane (Suicide lane): The hard lane is the lane where the Tier 1 Tower is closest to the Ancient, and farthest from the creep line. For Radiant, this is the top lane. For Dire, this is the bottom lane.

Jungling: some heroes, such as Natures Prophet, can jungle with ease instead of laning with the rest. The benifit of this is they aquire a lot more gold, a lot faster. If done right good junglers can keep up with, or even out level the heroes in the middle.

Solo lane: Because of running a Jungler or a tri-lane, often the Hard Lane is left to a solo hero. Certain heroes are suited to this solo role, due to having escape mechanisms in addition to spells that can be used to farm. These heroes are usually referred to as "offlaners". Common offlaners are heroes such as Windrunner, Dark Seer, and Bounty Hunter. Please also note that due to individual team tactics, some choose to solo the safe lane.

Choosing the right hero for the right lane is a very important part of the game, but not something that you can't work around should it go wrong. Choosing heroes for lanes can also vary greatly depending on the game mode and the heroes available. When it comes to the Safe and Suicide lanes, there is not much you can do wrong when it comes to sending the correct heroes into those lanes, providing you know what you and the player you are laning with know what you are doing.

It is usually best to send at least one ranged hero into each lane.

FIRST BLOOD:
I fully understand that to some players the first blood can be a huge deal but in reality there is a lot less riding on it than people think. Yes, it's great to get the bonus gold and the satisfaction of first blood but please take into consideration that first blood can only be achieved by 1 of 10 players in 1 of 3 lanes. This means there are still 9 other players, most of which are in other lanes, who can still make a huge difference to the match.

In saying that, if you do happen to get first blood, do not waste what you have achieved. Use the bonus money wisely and do not become over confident after one kill.

MID LANE:
This is arugable the msot important lane in the map. This is where heroes level the fastest and, with the exception of junglers, usually gather gold the fastest. This is 'usually' where you would send the hero you wish to level or gain gold the fastest so they can gank heroes in other lanes or if it is working out, dominate the opposing hero in the mid lane. An example of this would be Pudge or Viper.

Also what you could do is send a hero mid that you believe will effectively counter or shut down the opposing mid hero. For example, i have had great success using Huskar mid against most other mid heroes, simply because most heroes that teams send mid are squishy early game and can't handle Huskar's Burning Spears combined with his Berserker's Blood. For more detail on how to counter certain heroes, please look up the heroes below.

Do:
- Go for last hits/denies
- Harass opposing hero
- Stay behind creeps
- Try to stay vigilant of other lanes when possible
- Be wary of ganks, yes you can be ganked in the mid
- Help lanes/perform ganks when possible if they request help
- Call missing, better to call too often then too late.
- Communicate with other lanes

Don't:
- Tower dive unless you are sure you will kill/survive
- Rush behind enemy creeps just to harass as they will all turn to attack you
- Auto attack/push the lane before level 6, unless you team plan confilcts with this.
- Act like you have no responsibility for other lanes/only care about the mid
- Talk down to other players (being the one in the mid does not make you the boss)
- Waste your mana on level 1 spells
- Stay in lane on low health


SAFE LANE:
This is another lane that you can send a Carry to. It is usually accompanied by a Lane Support or a Support (some team strategies have a Carry soloing the safe lane when there is a jungler). Use the tower to your advantage. You can take a few risks here, you can harass a little more because you have a better chance to retreat. In saying this you must still be cautious as the enemy mid hero can use the jungle to gank/corner you. Opposing you most of the time in this lane will be Escape heroes and Disablers. Harass what heroes you can, but if you are going for a kill it is usually pointless to target the Escaper unless you have a good stun, anti invis, such as wards or Dust of Appearance or if the mid hero has come in for a gank.

Do:
- Go for last hits (if you are a Carry)
- Deny your creeps
- Harass opposing heroes
- Try to stay behind creeps
- Try to stay vigilant of the opposing mid hero
- Call missing
- Pull your lane if you push too far. (The act of pulling a lane is attacking neutral creeps just outside the lane and running them into your creeps before they engage the enemy. Your creeps will then attack the neutral creeps with you and in doing so, allow the opposing creeps to push closer to your tower so that you are no longer fighting under the enemy tower)
- Try to control your lane without mid's help (if you need help ask for it)
- Use the shop in lane as you can buy popular items from it such as Boots of Speed, Morbid Mask and Town Portal Scroll.
- Comminicate with other lanes

Don't
- Go for last hits if you are a Support or Lane Support
- Auto attack creeps
- Tower dive unless you are certain to make a kill/survive
- Waste your mana on level one spells
- Harass enemies at expence of more health lost from you.
- Stay in lane when you are low on health
- Interfere with the Jungler if possible (unless asking for help)
- Interfere with the mid lane itself unless the player in mid has asked for help


SUICIDE LANE:
This lane is where almost all heroes can go apart from your main Carries unless you are very confident. In this lane you will most likely face the opposing Support hero and a Carry. You have a few options, you can focus your harassment on the Carry to deny them farm and reduced xp from having to move out of sight to heal or harass the Support, without whom the Carry cannot risk much early game.

I have found harassing heroes that do the healing can be much more effective then harassing the Carry. Reason being, most players put themselves first and will heal themselves around 50% hp while they will often wait till the Carry they are supporting is 40% or even lower before healing them. What i mean is, if you harass the healer, they will heal themselves more often then they would an ally, and in doing so will use more mana.

Being in this lane you may find yourself opposing a solo hero because the enemy team has a Jungler or is Tri-Laning. When this happens you need to harass the solo hero as much as possible and/or shut down the Jungler. Keep scouting the jungle when possible. Sometimes simply knowing you are scouting will force them to retreat or cahnge their strategy.

Do:
- Last hit creeps when possible
- Deny as much as you can (including the possible jungler)
- Harass as much as you can
- Communicate with other lanes
- Call missing
- Try to use the shop in lane
- Stay vigilant of the opposign mid hero. You will be a prime target for ganking as you are harassing one of their Carries.

Don't:
- Tower dive unless you are sure will kill and not feed their Carry
- Fight under opposing tower
- last hit creeps if you have a Semi - Carry laning with you
- Complain that their Jungler (Ursa for example) is OP or fed because you were in the best possition to stop them.


Please remember these are very basic tactics. Each team has their own way of deciding what to do in lanes and who to send where. If someone's plan conflicts with yours, try to work it out calmly. No matter what happens in lane, treat all players with respect. If you have died and believe the player laning with you could have done something. Question them, "Was it possible for you to stun?" or "Why did you not help?". If you receive one of these questions, please do not jump down their throat. Answer them as calmly as possible and truthfully. If i could ahve done something, the first thing i do is apologise, before they can say anything. This will usually prevent most arguments.

Please remember that DOTA 2 is a team game and to succeed you will need to act as part of one.
To avoid fights within your team, if someone on your team is first to die, saying something as simple as "bad luck", "dont worry" or even nothing at all will either prevent arguments and/or improve comunications. I fully understand that to some players the first blood can be a huge deal but in reality there is a lot less riding on it than people think. Yes, it's great to get the bonus gold and the satisfaction of first blood but please take into consideration that first blood can only be achieved by 1 of 10 players in 1 of 3 lanes. This means there are still 9 other players, most of which are in other lanes, who can still make a huge difference to the match.

Please be understanding of your team mates. Not everyone is great at the game and a lot are just trying to have some fun whether they win or lose. If someone is struggling, rather than abuse them, offer them advice so they can improve and at the same time you are more likely to be commended.

The same things work when talking to the opposing team. I know that certain heroes/people can be very frustrating (which i'll come back to later) but sometimes it just takes one person to say "gl hf" or compliment the opposing team on a kill, etc to set the mood.

It is always highly reccomended to be vigilant of not only of what is around your hero, but the mini map as well. Before i get to far into this, please note that there is a fine line here between what is expected of you and your allies.

First and foremost, be aware of the lane you are in. If everyone is doing this right they most likely won't be too focused on other lanes (unless they are using a hero which requires constant vigilance i.e. Treant Protector). Which means you need to call "missing" when one or more hero(es) are out of sight. This will help your allies avoid running into situations where they may be ganked by the heroes from your lane. Even better then simply calling missing is notifying the team of which exact hero(es) are missing, you can do this easily by holding the "ALT" key on your keyboard, then clicking the character's portrait. You can also tell your allies that an specific enemy has returned by holding the "CTRL" and "ALT" keys whilst clicking a portrait.

Always try to maintain a medium - high level of cummunication, let your allies know that you are pushing a tower, hugging your own tower or even falling back to the fountain. This will aid in their decisions about whether it is safe for them to push, change lanes or stay where they are.

Please know your roles, this is something that can even frustrate me, and i am not easily frustrated. If you are a support, please do your best to ward and tend to the courier. Good carries will understand that you also need gold but unlike a carry, you don't depend on it. As i mentioned eariler in this guide, it works both ways. All players should respect each other and not treat the support as a slave. If you are a lane support, please lane with a carry and help them obtain last hits and kills etc.

Which brings me to warding. Warding is vital in any match, even if their are no invisible heroes running around, having the extra sight can prevent disasterous ganks and/or team fights. If you find yourself facing a hero with an invisibility ability, get sentry wards early. Techincally the support should be buying the wards, but this does not mean that other players can't pitch in as well. Remember, above all else, you are a team and you all need to do what is best for the team rather then yourself. Just because your KDA isn't great does not mean you are playing bad by any means.

Counterwarding is very important. Enemy wards are invisible to you unless you posess a Gem of True Sight or Sentry Wards. By counterwarding your opponents (placing sentry wards and destroying their wards) you are taking away their advantage and providing your team with one at the same time, it is a win win.

Key spots to ward are the jungles, rune locations and Rosh. I cannot stress how many times i have seen teams not ward Roshan when the opposint team has an Ursa.

By warding you and your allies will have a much better perspective of where the enemy is and what their intentions may be. If you have a player(s) with much more experience then you, don't be afraid to give suggestions but i would also listen carefully to their advice (if they aren't being rude of course)

When it comes down to it, act as a team, and be aware of the opposing team.

Valve are/were constantly modifying heroes and gameplay. Whilst some heroes can seem quite OP, believe it or not, not one of them is OP. Every single hero has a counter hero(s) and weaknesses, all you have to do is figure out which hero to play or what items to buy. Yes, sometimes you find someone who can play a hero really well and the hero seems OP because they have been playing very well or their opponents have not been so lucky in the match. In this situation compliment them on their skills rather than complain that their hero is OP.

Just like claims on OP heroes, noob hero claims are virtually the same. The claim that a hero is a "noob hero" because anyone can dominate with it is wrong. Drow, Huskar, Spirit Breaker, etc can all be taken down easily if people know how. Also keep in mind that in Single Drafts, Random Drafts, etc the counter hero may not be present so if the "OP" hero is picked, you will have to find its weakness.

Every hero has a role, but it is the responsibility of the player to understand what their hero is designed for and meant to do. For example, if you pick a support hero, please support your team/lane. Buy the courier, buy some wards and support your carries by trying to let them last hit creeps and heroes when possible.

When you are a carry, please be respectful of your supports and try not to demand too much of them, as they are not slaves and are trying to have fun too.



CARRY
A "Carry" is a hero that a team depends on for late game. The name "Carry" came from the term "carrying a team". Carries usually lack an early game play but have strong scaling skills and are usually dependant on items. Having more then one Carry in a team will cause competition within the team for reasources, which would most likely result in underpowered Carries and/or arguments. I would reccommend that each team only has one "Hard Carry". Hard Carries typically are relegated to a side lane early on with one or more Lane Support heroes to babysit them until they collect the necessary items to farm independently.


DISABLER
A "Disabler" can almost take Heroes out of the picture in a team fight by disabling them in one way or another. They can also act as a Semi-Initiator in ganks.



DURABLE
Also referred to as a Tank, these heroes have the potential to sustain a large amount of incoming damage from the enemy. These Heroes usually have large amounts of HP and/or regen.


ESCAPE
"Escape" Heroes are Heroes equipped with one or more escape mechanisms which allow them (or sometimes their allies) to avoid damage and abilities while retreating or repositioning themselves during a teamfight or gank. Escape Heroes are particularly suited to soloing the "suicide lane" or short lane, as they can turn situations where death is inevitable into a temporary delay in farm. Escape mechanisms include movement speed buffs, Invisibility, Teleportation, and Evasion.


INITIATOR
"Initiators" are heroes who can usually safely and advantageously start a team fight. These heroes typically have strong area of effect damage, disable, or similar skill to affect the positioning of the enemy team.


JUNGLER
"Junglers" are Heroes that can jungle neutrals at the start of the game, rather than lane. This allows for there to be two solo lanes, which in turn allows two allies to benefit from solo farm instead of one. Junglers typically have skills that allow them to convert neutral creeps, summon minions, or sustain themselves through damage; and the ability to Jungle is found in Heroes of all classes.
Although having two solo lanes and a Jungler produces a significant gold and experience advantage, it increases exposure to enemy ganks. To alleviate this, make sure your second solo hero is a Semi-Carry in the long lane (bottom for Radiant and top for Dire). This way, the creeps fight closer to the tower and the Jungler can quickly come to his aid or gank, there is a reason why this lane is called the "safe lane" and the other side lane the "suicide lane".


LANE SUPPORT
"Lane Supports" are heroes who "babysit" and help their team's Carry control the lane in the early stages of the game. They are able to either repel enemies from your team's carry or to allow the carry to continually stay in the lane using abilities that replenish either health or mana. Common traits of Lane Supports are long-ranged right-click attacks and abilities that are highly useful from level 1 and up. They should always lane with the team's Hard Carry, their lack of dependence on gold and levels means the Carry can take all the farm for themselves without running the risk of soloing a lane.


NUKER
These are Heroes with abilities that deliver high damage early in the game. Their goal is to give the team an early game advantage during the laning phase by killing enemy Heroes in their proper lanes. Many Gankers can become a Semi-Carry if they are successful in their efforts, but because their abilities do not scale they will usually suffer in late game unlike a true Carry.


PUSHER
"Pushers" are Heroes who focus on bringing down towers quickly, thereby acquiring map control. If they succeed, they often shut down the enemy Carry by forcing them away from farming. They typically have skills that fortify allied creep waves, summon minions, or deal massive amounts of damage to enemy towers.


SUPPORT
"Supports" are heroes whose purpose is to keep their allies alive and give them opportunities to earn more gold and experience. Supports will usually come with skills such as healing spells or disables and generally have low damage output but a powerful, yet situational nuke. Like Semi-Carries, Supports are not dependent on items (with some exceptions). Most of their gold will be spent on items for the benefit of the team such as Animal Courier, Observer Wards, Sentry Wards, and Smoke of Deceit.

Supports are usually paired with the team's Carry at the start of a game. This is because the Carry tends to be the weakest and most gold-hungry member of the team early on. A Support should always try to forfeit kills to the team's Carry, only performing the kill if none of his allies are able to do it.

Please also note this role is "Support" not "Slave" please treat them with respect.

As you shall clearly see below, there are no over powered (OP) or "noob" heroes in the game at all. Every single hero has its weaknesses and counter heroes/items. If a hero on the other team is destroying your tream, please consider the following before claiming "OP" or "noob" hero.
- The player behind the hero may simply be better then your team
- That hero may counter the hero(es) in your team well
- Your allies who laned against him/her may not have had a great start

I have witnessed a lot of players claiming OP on far too many heroes lately. Please keep in mind that every hero has a role to play and also has its own counters. If you try to carry as IO, you will be destroyed and most likely cause your team to lose. Leave the carrying to the carries and do the best you can to help them carry.

I recently encountered someone in game recently who raged for a good 5 minutes about how OP Drow Ranger is because he was killed by a Drow whilst he was playing IO and trying to carry his team.

Please note while reading the information below that every single person out there plays their heroes differently, and then that same person will play that hero differently again depending on the individual match. Taking that into consideration, what i have wirtten below is no incorrect, but there are also many other ways to counter certain heroes that I have no listed. Thank you for your understanding.

Anyway, below are some requested heroes and counters. Please feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts and/or suggestions for more heroes to add.

Thanks.

MELEE







Abaddon is one of the most annoying heroes i have faced and is annoying to counter. Exactly what counters him is still being debated however, once his ult goes off stun him or trap him until it wears off, then finish him. Unfortunately there is not much else other then doing more then 400 damage to avoid automatically setting his ult off or buy a Scythe of Vyse (Sheep Stick). The active ability for this item can turn him into a sheep for the majority of his ult. If by chance a hero has an Abyssal Blade, that will also work with its active stun ability.

The most annoying thing i have witnessed a player doing with Abaddon is running into a fountain, killing heroes, having his ult restore all his health from the fountain attacks and running out again.

HEROES TO COUNTER ABADDON

AXE, Culling Blade will instantly kill under 625 health







BANE, has great stuns/disables if Abasson's Borrowed Time does activate







BATRIDER'S Flaming Lasso if Borrowed Time activates







LINA, Min 950 burst damage from Laguna Blade plus she has Light Strike Array to stun.






LION, Min 850 damage from Finger of Death, has Hex and Earth Spike to stun






SNIPER, Assassinate does 655 damage







ZEUS, Thundergod's Wrath does 475 damage and 640 with Aghanim's Scepter






ITEMS TO COUNTER ABADDON
DAGON, can do up to 800 burst damage




SCYTHE OF VYSE, can turn units into a sheep for 3.5 seconds




ABYSSAL BLADE, has active stun for 2 seconds which can go through magic immunity.

Durable, Initiator, Disabler. Jungler







Early game, Axe is incredibly annoying to face thanks to his Battle Hunger (once cast on you, it continues to do damage to you until you kill a unit or until the effect expires). His Counter Helix (has the chance to perform a counter attack when attacked) can also be devistating. I have been receivign a lot of messages about how to deal with Axe, mainly early game.

I have found many different strategies to either counter or avoid Axe's wrath. I would reccomend trying to place ranged units against Axe, not only because he is Melee but also because it will be easier for you to last hit a unit to rid yourself of Battle Hunger. So being ranged, you need to harass him more then he harrasses you, also Axe has no ranged moves apart from his Battle Hunger. If you are also Melee then you are in a little bit of trouble as Axe is a tank straight from the word go. You will most likely need a ranged hero or support hero to back you up.

If you manage to keep Axe's health low he will be less likely to engage or Battle Hunger you. By keeping his health low you are also starving him of gold and hopefully some XP as well.

Some players use Axe to get behind your T1 tower and stop the creep waves. When he does this, surround him by having one hero come through the jungle and one up the lane with the creeps. By doing this he is forced to pass by at least one hero or the tower to escape, so even if you do not kill him, he will be hurt quite bad.

Over all, stuns, hex, ranged damage are all great things to use to annoy Axe early game.


HEROES TO COUNTER AXE

ABADDON: With his Aphotic Shield and Borrowed time he can counter a lot of the damage Axe deals out.






BANE: Is almost too perfect to deal with Axe. Enfeeble will weaken his physical damage by crazy amounts, Brain Sap
takes health from him and gives it to you, Nightmare can put him to sleep and deals damage per second, then there is Fiend's Grip which not only disables him completely but causes heavy damage over time whilst stealing his mana.


LION: Can stun, hex, drain mana and with his Finger of Death, can cause disasterous amounts of burst damage.






SNIPER: If you up his Take Aim (gives Sniper more range on attack) and Headshot (gives chance to do extra damage and mini-stun) for your first 5 levels, then Axe wont be able to touch you or you laning buddy.




KEEPER OF THE LIGHT: Kotl is one of the most annoying heroes to lane against early game, it's only fair to show Axe how annoying he is. With Kotl's Illuminate and Chakra Magic alone you will be able to force Axe back and replenish your mana almost at will.




OMNIKNIGHT: Nothing is more annoying then having your enemy constantly healed after you use so much mana damaging them. Omniknight also has Repel which blocks most magic from a target unit.




KUNKKA: With Kunkka's Tidebringer, you can deal out a lot of cleave damage and annoy your opposition early game.






SHADOW DEMON: Simply using Disruption on Axe will severely hinder him as the illisions should also gain his Counter Helix move (if he has learnt it).






There are many others as well but the ones above were the first to pop into my head. Do your best to avoid placing squishy melee heroes such as Riki against an Axe early game.



ITEMS TO COUNTER AXE

MEKANSM either give you or your whole team 250hp and 2 extra armor




OBSERVER WARDS: Know when he is coming.




HEAVEN'S HALBERD: Disarm Huskar for 4.5 seconds!

Ranged, Disabler, Nuker, Support









Bane, one of the more annoying heroes I have faced. He can be extremely annoying early game and set up for easy kills all game long. If he isn't taken care of, he can become a big problem for individuals and in team fights. Unfortunately the most effective way to take him down is by outnumbering him or with stuns. Bane can disable 2 heroes at once minimum, so he needs to be taken out fast.


HEROES TO COUNTER BANE

SILENCER: Silence Bane in a team fight and he becomes useless.






EARTHSHAKER: His stuns can be used to effectively counter Bane in a team fight or when ganking.







RIKI: Whilst is weak against Bane until level 6, once he has his invisibility, he can silence Bane with almost no risk and can do a crazy amount of damage on top of that. If you pop smoke and attack Bane, he will be more focused on running away then attacking or disabling.



LION: Has a disable, a stun and a very high burst damage ability. Have fun Bane.





ITEMS TO COUNTER BANE

SCYTHE OF VYSE: Take Bane out of the picture by turning him into a sheep.



SMOKE OF DECEIT: Use this to surround and gank Bane.



OBSERVER WARDS: These will be your best friend against incoming ganks.



LINKEN'S SPHERE: If you can save up the cash, this would be a great choice.

Melee, Carry, Jungle









Bloodseeker, was once one of the most "OP" claimed characters on Dota 2. He isn't too great before level 6 but can still cause the opposing team a lot of pain with his "Thirst" ability, especially if there is a Spirit Breaker on the same team as Bloodseeker. Heroes jungling should try to avoid dropping below half health otherwise the entire enemy team will know where you are and could attempt a gank. Using the same principle, all heroes that have invisibilty abilities should also take care when approaching 25% health as even invisibility won't save you from Bloodseeker after that.

In the hands of a lesser experienced player, Bloodseeker can get some lucky kills but can also be far too over confident. I have witnessed a seeker being killed by a Rubick who had Bloodseeker's Ultimate whilst Bloodseeker was chasing down an enemy hero on low hp. I myself have also taken an overly keen Bloodseeker down as Terror Blade. The 2 of us were the last ones standing after a team fight, i waited for him to try to chase me down, as i was on very low health, I sundered him and that was the end of that. However, in the hands of a good player, Bloodseeker can be devistating at most stages of the game and can easily become close to unstoppable quite quickly. There are a few ways to prevent this.



HEROES TO COUNTER BLOODSEEKER

ABADDON: Is perfect for countering Bloodseeker. With the right support along side Abaddon, Bloodseeker can't do much, not against Abaddon's "Aphotic Shield" and "Borrowed Time".




AXE: Bloodseekers love to get up close and personal, they force you to stop by using "Rupture". Why not welcome hand to hand combat with Bloodseeker by using Axe. "Berserker's Call", "Counter Helix" and "Culling Blade" will all make short work of Bloodseeker. If he manages to run, you always have "Battle Hunger" to attempt to finish the job. I would also reccomend Blade Mail on Axe as well. If you wanted to be really cruel, starve the Bloodseeker all together by running behind their tower and take their creeps out.

URSA: Shadow Blade, Blade Mail and all of Ursa's abilities... have fun Bloodseeker.






TINY: Laning against a Tiny isn't fun for a melee character at pretty much any point. Tiny has devistating abilities and can decimate a Bloodseeker if given the chance. Put another heavy stunner in the lane with Tiny and that's about it for any hero against them.



EARTHSHAKER: Speaking of other heavy stunners. Whether he is aiding another stunner or not, Earthshaker can be just as bad as Tiny. Most Bloodseekers will be adventurous and not run away till on low health. Block Bloodseeker in and finish the job!




PUDGE: Pudge is the ultimate ganker. If seeker is caught off guard he won't stand a chance. With each kill Pudge will gain more magic resistance, putting an end to any attempt at retaliation from Bloodseeker.





TERROR BLADE: Worried about Bloodseeker chasing you down? Not any more. One word, "Sunder".







ITEMS TO COUNTER BLOODSEEKER

BLADE MAIL: this can make a huge difference against Bloodseeker, turn his damage against him or even give yourself a few extra seconds to run away.


SENTRY WARDS Prevent ganks from him by strategically placing wards.



LINKEN'S SPHERE: Congratulations, Bloodseeker is now almost useless against you.



MEKANSM: Obviously is perfect for team fights but handy to aid yourself or an ally against Bloodseekers onslaught.

Melee, Carry, Disabler, Durable, Pusher









Chaos Knight can be one of the most annoying heroes you will ever face in a match. He can be incredibly hard to kill and is a nightmare both 1v1 and in team fights. Chaos Knight is not someone you usually want to tangle with. He has a stun, has a chance to do double damage, can summon illusions that do 100% and only take 200% damage and just to make it worse he can teleport you, himself and all his illusions to a random point between the 2 of you if he isnt finished with you. Howver, like all other heroes, he has weaknesses and counters.


HEROES TO COUNTER CHAOS KNIGHT

AXE: Probably the best response to Chaos Knight, especially with his "Counter Helix".






TINY: With his "Craggy Exterior" and his stuns, Tiny is a great hero to put against Chaos.






SILENCER: Whilst not the best hero to counter Chaos Knight with, his silencing will help an enormous amount in team fights.





PUDGE: Have Pudge lane mid and gank Chaos knight whenever he can to shut him down.







EARTHSHAKER: With his "Fissure" "Aftershock" abilities, he is an unbelievable support against Chaos Knight. Once he obtains "Echo Slam", Chaos will have a hard time in team fights.





ITEMS TO COUNTER CHAOS KNIGHT

Not many items can speficially counter heroes like Chaos Knight, best thing to do is prepare yourself for the worst and stay with the team.


SCYTHE OF VYSE: Turn Chaos knight into a sheep!




HEAVEN'S HALBERD: Stop Chaos from attacking all together for a few seconds.

RANGED, CARRY








Drow Ranger was one of the first to be called "OP" and "noob hero", under the belief that she is easy to use as most people call her a "right click hero" (all you have to do is right click to use the hero). The truth is, Drow is responsible for silences and ganks. Early Game, Drow is very squishy and can be taken down quite easily with coordinated ganks and stuns. Most Drow players will focus on getting a Shadow Blade and items to increase damage and/or attack speed, ignoring Drow's health. This is how you beat her. She remains quite squishy throughout most of the match, a well timed stun or burst damage will do the job. Also a surprising amount of people do not realise that if an enemy hero is within 400 area of effect around Drow, she loses all of her Marksmanship ability.

HEROES TO COUNTER DROW

HUSKAR. I have found him great to use against Drow in the mid as he can serverely over power her early game and shut her down. Plus his Life Break ability gets him well under the 400 aoe range to negate Drow's Marksmanship.

KEEPER OF THE LIGHT. It is very difficult for a Drow to lane out of mid against a KOTL. (Do not pick KOTL in hoping that the opposing drow will not go mid)

SPIRIT BREAKER. Almost the same reason as Huskar. He can get in close using his Charge of Darkness and is much stronger/durable then Drow early game, use this to your advantage to shut her down.

URSA is almost a melee version of Drow but with health.... and a is a bear. If you are confident with Ursa, jungle early game, get a shadow blade, sneak up on Drow and with the aid of your abilities you should be able to take her down no problem. Eventually the sight of you should drive most Drow's away.

ITEMS TO COUNTER DROW


SCYTHE OF VYSE, can turn units into a sheep for 3.5 seconds



BLADE MAIL. Why not use her own so called "OP" damage against her?


DUST OF APPEARANCE. 95% of the Drow players get a Shadow Blade.


SENTRY WARDS. 95% of the Drow players get a Shadow Blade, but i would reccommend Dust over wards.

Ranged, Carry, Initiator, Durable


Huskar can be one of, if not the most annoying hero to face in theory. He can heal, his attack speed and magic resistance increase the more you damage him, he sets his own spears on fire then throws them at you and can take off 50% of your remaining health with one ability.

In saying all that, he is not OP. Most of his tactics involve a lot of risk and the amount of times a Huskar will narrowly escape death is crazy. His Burning Spears take off 15 of his own hp every time he throws one. When he uses Life Break you may lose 50% of your health but he also loses 40%/35%/30% depending on the level of Life Break.

If you can manage to keep Huskar on at least half health early game, there is a very slim chance he will use Life Break to attack you. To beat Huskar you need to deny him opportunities.If Huskar is mid, do not move out of running distance from the tower if you are in mid. If you are in an outside lane, always be wary of ganks, if you can deny him ganks he will starve and be much easier to take down mid/late game. If he does gank a side lane and uses Life Break, you both need to attack him. One of you may die but a Huskar cannot thrive of an even kill to death ratio.


HEROES TO COUNTER HUSKAR

TINY, Craggy Exterior will stun Huskar most of the time if he is attacking within 300 units (which he will be if he has used Life Break)

VIPER, has a rediculous anount of poison. Add this to the damage Huskar is already doing to himself and Viper's Nethertoxin, which does more damage the more health is missing from the target, and Huskar doesn't stand a chance.

OMNIKNIGHT, laning against an Omniknight is close to a Huskar's worst nightmare. Constantly healing allies and damaging Huskar at the same time, along with Omni's Guardian Angel and Repel, Huskar is in a lot of trouble.

BREWMASTER, his Primal Split can thwart most Huskar ganks.


NYX ASSASSIN: As with any hero that can go invisible, Huskar will struggle to kill.







ANY Hero that can go invisible, that includes the use of a Shadow Blade.

ITEMS TO COUNTER HUSKAR

SCYTHE OF VYSE, when isn't turning someone into a sheep for 3.5 seconds a good thing?

BLADE MAIL, give Huskar something else to damage himself with and with Huskar's increased attack speed, by activating this you are also increasing the speed in which he is damaging himself.


MEKANSM, either give you or your whole team 250hp and 2 extra armor

SHADOW BLADE, if you find yourself in a confrontation with Huskar you know you wont win, Shadow Blade out fo there.

HEAVEN'S HALBERD, Disarm Huskar for 4.5 seconds!

BLACK KING BAR: At the moment this does not prevent the slowing effect of Huskar's ultimate but will prevent the damage taken from it and also avoid his burning spears ability!

Ranged, Nuker, Disabler, Support








Lina can be a huge pain throughout most parts of a match. Whilst Lina can stun, cause area of effect damage, have a huge burst damage ability and attack faster as a result of using these abilities, she can be taken down quite easily with the right heroes and/or items. A Lina cannot carry a team effectively against players who know what they are doing. So a Lina taking a lot of kills from potentially better carries, can usually be a mistake.



HEROES TO COUNTER LINA


SPIRIT BREAKER: If Lina is crazy enough to venture off on her own, she's as good as dead.






VIPER: His high damager and slowing abilities will have a great effect on Lina






RIKI: A Lina trying to take on a Riki on her own is suicidal. Even without his smoke, Riki is incredibly dangerous for Lina





PUDGE: A Pudge in the middle is great against a Lina in the middle, especially once he starts getting kills and increasing his magic resistance.








ITEMS TO COUNTER LINA

SCYTH OF VYSE: Is Lina a problem? Turning her into a sheep should solve those problems.



BLADE MAIL: I've seen some disaterous things happen to Linas against Blade Mail.



LINKEN'S SPHERE: No more burst damage for you.

Ranged, Jungler, Pusher, Carry, Escape


Nature's Prophet usually slips under the radar early game as he is most often used in the jungle. If allowed to farm he can arguable push lanes better then any other hero. To counter him, you need to gank him often in the jungle and ruin his farm. He is next to useless early game and will nto pose much of a threat unless unless he is with another hero, so he will not be able to fight back if you find him in the jungle.

Whilst this is going on, whom ever is facing the solo hero needs to take full advantage of this and push the tower. Take advantage of the fact it is currently 5 vs 4 and demolish as much as you can.

If it is already too late and he has farmed, you will need to be able to split push or have to constantly retreat to defend towers. However if you are pushing a higher tier then Prophet is, let him push and continue yourself. If he is pushing equal or higher then you, then you may want to do something about it.


HEROES TO COUNTER NATUR'S PROPHET

NYX ASSASSIN, using his ablities with a dagon can get prophet time after time.

RIKI, he'll never see him coming, won't be able to Teleport out or even Sprout himself with Riki's Smoke Screen ability. Naturre's Prophet will be dead before he can leave the smoke.

SPIRIT BREAKER, you can't escape his charge. Unless the opposing team have wards or see you charge, Prophet will not be able to escape once you make contact.

PHANTOM LANCER, counter Prophet's lane pushing with your own.

ITEMS TO COUNTER NATURE'S PROPHET

SCYTHE OF VYSE, works on everyone. Turn him into a sheep for 3.5 seconds to give your team mroe time to kill him.

SMOKE OF DECEIT, set up a gank for him using this to give you and your nearby allies temporary invisibility.

Melee, Carry, Escape, Pusher








Phantom Lancer (A.K.A. Cancer Lancer), Can frustrate almost anyone opposing him. He can create up to 8 illusions of himself, turn invisible for 8 seconds and obviously push lanes very well. Lancer can easily rival Nature's Prophet for the title of best lane pusher.

Phantom Lancer players know it is best to push alone after early game. take advantage of this and wipe the rest of the team in a 5 vs 4 team fight. Phantom will have to make a decision between pushing and defending. Either way it's not good for him as he will not be able to defend well, and a team can push much faster then he can. Like most Carries, you need to try to shut him down early. If you succeed, he will be forced to jungle or farm, which will give your team even more time before he is able to push convincingly.

Do not rely to heavily on mana when facing a Phantom Lancer as most players buy a Diffusal Blade to deplete your mana.

HEROES TO COUNTER PHANTOM LANCER

NATURE'S PROPHET, counter his pushing with your own. Please note that if Lancer is fed, there isn't much Prophet can do apart from push the opposite lane.

KEEPER OF THE LIGHT, laning against a KOTL is almost useless for a Phantom Lancer early and sometimes mid game.

AXE, with Blade Mail can be devistating to a Lancer who is not fed enough, especially if Axe activates his Berserker's Call.

BOUNTY HUNTER, can Track the real Phantom Lancer, even when invisible.

SLARDAR, can use Amplify Damage to track Phantom Lancer, even when invisible and amplify the damage he takes.

: EARTHSHAKER: Same principles apply here as countering Chaos Knight. AOE abilities with nice damage and stuns. Make sure you take full advantage of the stun duration and carry Dust of Appearance.






ITEMS TO COUNTER PHANTOM LANCER

SENTRY WARDS, will allow you to see the real Phantom when he attempts to flee.

DUST OF APPEARANCE, will allow you to see him as he tries to run.

BLADE MAIL, will quickly reveal which Lancer is real and return a lot of damage to him.

Melee - Carry - Escape








Riki, if not dealt with early, can be one of, if not the most devistating hero. Whilst using Riki i have taken down rediculosuly fed Ursa's, Huskar's, Phantom Lancer's and have seen many more. His ability to remain invisible has been changed so that he will only show himself if he attacks ir is silenced. Using items or abilities do not reveal him anymore, so naturally it is very annoying to the opposition. His Backstab and Smoke Screen doesn't make things any easier. But like all heroes, he can be countered.

If you find yourself laning against a Riki, I cannot stress how important it is to buy Sentry Wards when he is close to level 6. I would reccomend Wards over Dust whilst everyone is still laning as with Wards, you will see him coming. Whereas Dust is more useful once the attacking has begun. Dust becomes more useful later in the game when you start to really push. No matter how fed a Riki gets, it is just a default instinct to run away or not attack when there is a Ward in the area or the Riki has been dusted.

If you manage to stay alive throughout the laning process and in so doing, deny Riki kills, he will be forced to practically "kill steal" (the act of delivering the final blow to an enemy hero when another player had done most of the damage or would have easily killed the hero themselves) to get back into the match.

HEROS TO COUNTER RIKI

BOUNTY HUNTER, can Track Riki onec he become visible.

SLARDAR, can use Amplify Damage to keep track of Riki and also amplify the damage he takes.

SPIRIT BREAKER, to help keep Riki struggling, use Spirit Breaker to continually gank him.

LION, early game Riki is very squishy. Stun him and then use your Finger of Death to finish him.

SILENCER, when Riki is silenced, he is visible!

ITEMS TO COUNTER RIKI

SENTRY WARDS, work well all game.

DUST OF APPEARANCE, comes in handy once laning os over, or if the mid hero is coming in for a gank on Riki

GEM OF TRUE SIGHT, carrying this item around will give the holder visiblity of any invisible units within their normal range of sight. Be careful, this item drops upon death and cannot be destroyed!

Ranged, Carry








Sniper can be extremely annoying at all stages of the game. A key to his defeat is early/mid game. During the laning stage Sniper is incredibly squishy, and you need to take full advantage of this by laning heroes against him that can annoy him just as much (examples shown below). A smart sniper won't touch his "Shrapnel" ability for a long time, instead they would up their "Take Aim" and "Headshot" abilities, which basically give Sniper more range on his attack and the chance to do bonus damage and mini stun. Denying is important laning against a sniper as he finds it easy to last hit your creeps due to the speed of his bullets. If you can deny him gold and hopefully XP, he will be forced to use his ultimate, "Assassinate" to steal kills from his team mates, which may cause arguments and lead to the opposing team to crumble.

If you are the one laning against Sniper, please notify the team when he has reached level 6, just like you would with Riki for example. The reason for this is so that your team takes more care when their health is getting low, the last thing they want is to delay going back to base and end up getting sniped.

Lets say the worst case scenario has happened. Sniper has been fed, his attack speed is crazy and so is his damage. You need to catch him alone, if he starts to stay in a 5 man attack force he will be close to unstoppable unless some of your heroes have been fed from other lanes. Unless he is about to "Assassinate" do not bother silencing him, it does nothing. Focus on stunning and anti invisible items to counter the Shadow Blade he will most certainly have.


HEROES TO COUNTER SNIPER IN MID

LINA: As logn as you play it safe and reach level 6 before or at the same time as Sniper, you can kill him VERY easy with "Laguna Blade".





LION Basically the same as Lina, but i would recommend Lion over lina because he can Hex and stun along with his "Finger of Death"





HUSKAR Thrives on low health and can harass Sniper more then he can harass you if you level Huskar right. I would recommend leveling "Burning Spear" and "Berserker's Blood" until you hit level 6.




VIPER: Can do insane amounts of damage with his abilities. There are so many different ways to counter sniper with Viper's abilities that simply naming one wouldn't be right.





PUDGE: Pudge can counter a tonne of heroes in the mid lane just by being played well. Do not under estimate Sniper when using Pudge though. If you fail with your hooks and let Sniper get to many hits in on you, then you won't be able to kill him. If you succeed with your hooks and tactics, Sniper won't stand a chance.




HEROES TO COUNTER SNIPER IN LANE


LINA: As logn as you play it safe and reach level 6 before or at the same time as Sniper, you can kill him VERY easy with "Laguna Blade".





LION Basically the same as Lina, but i would recommend Lion over lina because he can Hex and stun along with his "Finger of Death"





AXE: Yes he is melee, but with his "Battle Hunger", he will cause crazy damage to Sniper and lower his confidence and aggression.






BANE: His disables and stuns are perfect for ganks and shear aggression against Sniper.






KEEPER OF THE LIGHT: Sniper is very squishy early game so KOTL's "Illuminate" is a great thing to have in a side lane against sniper.






OMNIKNIGHT: I can't think of much that would be more annoying to a sniper then having his Assassination target healed just before the attack hits. Omni can completely counter Snipers Ultimate.





ITEMS TO COUNTER SNIPER

SCYTHE OF VYSE: Sniper is annoyign you, ok turn him into a sheep!



BLADE MAIL: Does wonders against not only his normal attack but his ultimate as well.



DUST OF APPEARANCE: Sniper will inevitably get a Shadow Blade, make sure you are ready.


LINKEN SHPERE: Counter Sniper's ultimate every time!

Melee, Durable, Carry, Initiator, Disabler








Now we come to the infamous Spirit Breaker. Currently the hero that most complain about. This hero can quite literally break your spirit when playign against him. He is very powerful and if used correctly, can be hard to take down. His Charge of Darkness, which allows him to charge at any enemy unit in sight on the map and his Empowering Haste, whcih gives an aura bonus to movement speed, make him quite formidable.

I can't stress enough the importance of having wards up and keeping a high level of communication when versing Spirit Breaker. If you have the feeling that he is charging you, stand near a tower for a few seconds, not too long as you are not gaining XP whilst standing there. Do not wait around on low health, especially within sight of any enemy unit, you are pretty much screaming "BREAKER COME KILL ME".

In an update after early October 2013, his base attack time was nerfed and his ultimate takes a little longer to cast and is no longer magic immue, which means it can not be interrupted.

Once Breaker has reached level 6 everyone on the map, including the mid hero, needs to be very cautious. It is in the next few levels that he starts charging like a... well like a rampaging bull. It is vital that he gets a lot of successful ganks otherwise he will be useless. To avoid being ganked, stay with the hero you are laning with. If he has charged you or the player you are laning with, you both need to attack him rather then run. Chances are if he has charged you, he is confident that he can kill you and get away based on the fact that he will assume you will retreat at the sight of him (as most people do).

Whenever possible, cancel his charge. 5 man pushing earlier then normal when there is a Spirit Breaker pretty much instantly shuts him down if you can successfully push as a team. Spirit Breaker depends on heroes pushing by themselves or in low numbers. Deny him this opportunity byt literally working as a team.

HEROES TO COUNTER SPIRIT BREAKER

LION, is a great counter/support to have against Breaker as he can stun, hex and deliver a devistating blow.

OMNIKNIGHT, can ruin gank after gank from Spirit Breaker with his heals and his Repel.

AXE, with Blade Mail can demolish Spirit Breaker.

TINY, with a crazy amount of damage and his stunning abilities including his Craggy Exterior, he is a great defence against Spirit Breaker.

ITEMS TO COUNTER SPIRIT BREAKER

OBSERVER WARDS, are essential in surviving onslaughts against Breaker.

SCYTHE OF VYSE, is great for any hero to use against Spirit Breaker. Is there a better way to demoralise a rampaging bull then turning it into a helpless sheep?

LINKEN SPHERE, is the ultimate counter for Spirit Breaker, he will waste his Charge of Darkness or even his Nether Strike on you a couple of times before he gets the hint that it won't work anymore. Linken Sphere also has a much faster cooldown then his Charge of Darkness.

SHADOW BLADE, If you are charged, Blade away asap. But be careful as this will not work for long. Breaker will eventually get a Gem of True Sight or Dust of Appearance.

HEAVEN'S HALBERD, use this to disarm Spirit for 4.5 seconds!

Melee, Disabler, Initiator, Carry, Support









Sven can cause a ridiculous amount of carnage throughout the game. He can destroy heroes, easily push lanes. He can disable, initiate, carry and support! This guy needs to be starved and focused. If you find yourself laning against Sven, try to lure him into using his "Storm Hammer" early. It will use the majority of his mana and then make him fairly non-threatening. This will also mean that the next time he uses that ability, he won't have any mana left at all. If successfully starved, he won't pose too much of a threat mid game but you will need to be careful as there is always a chance Sven could make a comeback.

You will always need to watch out for his cleave and his "God's Strength". Focusin'g Sven in team fights is highly reccomended as a team fight is the perfect opportunity for his "Storm Hammer".



HEROES TO COUNTER SVEN


AXE: Fight fire with fire. "Berserker's Call", "Counter Helix" and "Culling Blade" do wonders. Again, also Blade Mail. So pretty much the default set for Axe will be pretty good against Sven, if you have good support with you, Sven shouldn't be a problem for Axe.



TERROR BLADE: Is Sven destroying your team? Can no single hero stand up to him? Bring in the Terror Blade! Please also note that if Sven is fed enough, he will still defeat a Terror Blade even after a "Sunder".





EARTHSHAKER: Stun Sven, gank him, prevent his escape. Team work!







OMNIKNIGHT: With his "Degen Aura" and his "Guardian Angel", you may become Sven's first target as you could end up saving the entire team from his stuns and cleave.





LION: Useful to aid in ganks or team fights before Sven either obtains or activates his Black King Bar.







ITEMS TO COUNTER SVEN

BLADE MAIL: Sven can do a lot of damage very quickly, why not share the love?




SHADOW BLADE: If you're not a hero that's built to take Sven on, be prepared with a Shadow Blade.




MEKANSM: Sven has a great deal of cleave, counter this as a team with Mekansm.




HEAVEN'S HALBERD: Stop him from attacking for limited amount of time. Still enough time to perform a good gank and stun him further.

Melee, Carry









It was only a matter of time before everyone asked me to add Terror Blade to this guide. If left unchecked he can be more devistaing then an Ursa left alone. His abilities make him a force to be reckoned with for the entire length of the match. Terror Blade is very squiishy early game, and i mean Drow squishy. Having 2 heroes with good stuns laning against him pretty much means good night Terror Blade. He isnt too fantastic in team fights but he can easily turn the tide of one with his "Sunder" ability. Which is why i would reccomend taking him out first, depending on the stiuation. Terror Blade can be an amazing counter to heroes like Ursa and Spirit Breaker.



HEROES TO COUNTER TERROR BLADE

PUDGE: If Pudges combo can be timed correctly, Terror Blade won't have enoiugh time to pull off a Sunder. Be careful though, should you fail, you will die at Terror Blades Hands.





OMNIKNIGHT: A good Omniknight will starve Terror Blade throughout the early stages of the match.






TINY: With his stuns and "Craggy Exterior", Terror Blade players should think twice before attacking.






LION: Harrass him, take his mana and once you're level 6, he should be easy pickings if you have a decent laning partner.





BANE: With all of his disables, Bane is perfect for ganks and just simply taking Terror out of play.










ITEMS TO COUNTER TERROR BLADE


SCYTH OF VYSE: Not so terrifying as a sheep.



BLADE MAIL: He can do a great amount of damage in a small amount of time so Blade Mail does wonders. But be careful as he may then target you for a sunder. So Blade Mail then stun him would work well.

OBSERVER WARDS: Terror Blade is a hero you do need to keep an eye on.



LINKEN'S SPHERE: If you are getting desperate, or are a high damage hero who wants to 1v1 Terror Blade. Make his life hell by obtaining a Linken's Sphere

Melee, Carry, Jungler, Durable








Roar, slam, you're dead. Usually the situation when facing an Ursa. For a long time, Ursa was claimed to be an "instant win" for the team who had him. This is far from the truth. Those who knew how to counter him, shut him down easily. Ward the jungles, ward Roshan, gank him in his jungle early, force him to farm longer befoer he can start ganking you. Carry Dust of Appearance or Sentry Wards to help prevent his ganks. Gank him in Roshan as Ursa's always solo. Sounds pretty simple, yet not many people do this, and everybody knows the outcome if you don't manage to shut him down.



HEROES TO COUNTER URSA

BANE: Stop Ursa in his tracks with your "Nightmare" and "Fiend's Grip" abilities. Then let the team take him down, as alone, Bane cannot do much against Ursa.






TINY Same deal as Bane. Support your team when Ursa strikes.






TERROR BLADE: Roar, slam, sunder, Ursa dies... Has a much better ring to it.







VIPER: Use viper to gank Ursa in jungle early, also use him in team fights to target Ursa, slow him down and deal a ridiculous amount of damage.






PHANTOM LANCER Diffusal Blade, enough said.







ITEMS TO COUNTER URSA


GEM OF TRUE SIGHT: Prevent Ursa's ganks as he will get a Shadow Blade.



OBSERVER WARDS: Ward his jungle and Rosh and gank him when possible. This also prevents his ganks.



BLADE MAIL: Show him how much pain he puts you through.

Ranged, Support, Disabler, Lane Support, Initiator










Vengeful Spirit is often under estimated by most opponents. This one hero can stun, passively increase nearby allies damage, decrease your armor and swap positions with you. Because she is so commonly mistaken for a weak support, players usually overlook her when it comes to shutting down enemy heroes. At pretty much any point in the game, Vengeful Spirit will be fairly weak against heroes who excel in 1v1 combat. That would be the way to take her down, unless you focus her in a team fight. But why would you focus her in a team fight? I'm sure there would be far more troublesome heroes that you could focus on, and there lies the problem.

In a team fight, don't focus her, but do be cautious about where she is during the fight. Also do what you can to harass and kill early on. This will make her second guess about whether she should swap or even get involved most of the time, which may even cause arguments amongst the opposing team.



HEROES TO COUNTER VENGEFUL SPIRIT


AXE: Can cut through just about anything, a Vengeful Spirit that stands in the path of an Axe is a dead Vengeful Spirit. If Vengeful Spirit is in the safe lane, use Axe to get behind the tower and kill the creeps. We all know the outcome of this tactic.



HUSKAR: Same reasoning as Axe, Huskar is far too strong for Vengeful Spirit to take on alone.






SPIRIT BREAKER: It says it in the name "Spirit Breaker"... he has one job, to break spirits... why nto start with a vengeful one? Also he is a devistating hero to face 1v1.





VIPER: Viper has a crazy amount of damage. Far too much for Vengeful Spirit to handle.






RIKI: Same as the above reason, just add invisibility.








Really, any other 1v1 or major pusher would be able to push right through Vengeful Spirit.




ITEMS TO COUNTER VENGEFUL SPIRIT

MEKANSM: Vengeful Spirit will most likely make most of her moves durign team fights. A Mekansm is always handy to have.




LINKEN'S SPHERE: If you are someone being constantly targeted by her swap, then this may be the item for you.



You shouldn't need to many specific items to take care of Vengeful Spirit.

Rnged, Carry, Durable



As we all know, Viper destroys unwary players and needs to be shut down relatively early. Viper has been around for a long time so it is only natural that players have foudn many different successful playing styles. The most common one i have faced is someone who mainly focuses on their "Nethertoxin" (deals bonus damage for each 20% of hp missing from the opposing target), has at least one level in "Corrisive Skin" and sometimes one level in "Poison Attack". This makes running from a viper very difficult as Viper potentionally has 2 abilities that will slow you down drastically even before he is level 6.

So let me skip to how to counter the evil bugger. Most Viper players will go mid, so playing a hero that can go invisible that isn't melee works well to starve and harrass Viper, if you feel confident, put another high damage hero in mid such as Razor (to steal damage) or even Huskar (as a Huskar user myself, i must warn you that this is a dangerous move as Viper will still have a slight advantage over you)

Laning against him on the outside, having stuns is amazing. Tiny can be devastating, as can Wraith King and Chaos Knight.


HEROES TO COUNTER VIPER MID

HUSKAR: All of Huskar's moves will aid in countering Viper, but be warned, if you level your abilities wrong for the style of Viper being played, you will most likely come out second best!

PUDGE: Someone must have seen this coming. A good pudge player can counter almost anything in the mid, if they play right. So for viper, do not engage in combat unless it is on YOUR terms, i.e. a hook.

WEAVER: Can counter most heroes in the mid by simply starving them. Good Weavers can also harrass VERY well. Even a confident Viper won't fully engage a Weaver if his health isn't looking too good.


HEROES TO COUNTER VIPER IN LANE

TINY: "Craggy Exterior" will possibly stun Viper, if he is within range and "Avalanche" will set up endless amounts of potential kills.

ABADDON: His "Aphotic Shield" and "Borrowed Time" can help to counter Viper for the entire match.

CHAOS KNIGHT: Can be fantastic against heroes like viper, especially with his "Chaos Bolt" and "Phantasm".

WRAITH KING Again his "Wraithfire Blast" and "Reincarnation" are a nightmare for Viper.


ITEMS TO COUNTER VIPER

OBSERVER WARDS: I cannot stress how important these are when facing a mid laning viper, or any hero for that matter.

SENTRY WARDS: Almost all Vipers go for a shadow blade at some point in time throughout the match.

BLADE MAIL Viper deals a hell of a lot of damage, why not share the love?

SCYTHE OF VYSE: Feeling sheepish about facing a Viper in a team fight? Why not face a sheep instead?

Melee, Durable, Carry, Disabler










I have had a fair few requests for Wraith King so i have added him early. I understand why people have asked for him, if they are anything like my friends and I, you tend not to bother chasing him down too much as you know he'll just get back up. On top of that, he can demolish most things late game if allowed to farm. Thats the key right there. Deny his farm, deny his XP and focus on him early.

Wraith King is very slow and his stun takes a ridiculous amount of mana to use early game. Use this to your advantage. If you have slows and/or stuns, try to lane against him and either harass him or kill him as often as safely possible.



HEROES TO COUNTER WRAITH KING

TERROR BLADE: With his slow, his damage per second and his sunder. Wraith King would be a fool to challenge Terror Blade unless he could kill him before he had to use his ultimate himself.





VIPER: His high damage throughout the game could really make Wraith King's life miserable, expecially before level 6.






DROW RANGER: For the same reason as Viper but with her added Frost arrows, I say good luck to Wraith King escaping. Be careful though. If Wraith decides to charge at you instead, you had better take him down fast as Drow is squishy and loses her additional attack speed provided by her ultimate when an enemy hero gets too close!



BANE: Disables! Bane may have trouble taking Wraith King out himself but he can definitely deplete his mana which will prevent Wraith King from resurrecting.







ITEMS TO COUNTER WRAITH KING


SYTHE OF VYSE: Not a fan of facing Wraith King? Why not attack a sheep instead?



BLADE MAIL: If he does decide to stand and fight, use his damage against him.



SMOKE OF DECEIT: Use this to get the whole team into position to take him by surprise.


OBSERVER WARDS: Wraith Kings tend to jungle at some point in the game. Stay on top of this and also prevent ganks by using wards.

Problem: Playing with a group of <12 year old kids. The problem here is the lack of knowledge, understanding, maturity, only thinking of what is best for their own character and therefore stealing kills.

I had a 12 year old kid say to me "i don't need tactics, thats why i win. I just rush in and kill everything". He was also trying to carry as IO, stealing kills etc. Very annoying.

Solution: I know it's hard and annoying but try to help them understand (without abusing them), and try to teach them the rigth way and most importantly WHY it is right. If they still refuse to listen, there is unfortunately not much you can do apart from continue to try to help them improve (this will eventually annoy then enough to abuse you). If they do choose to abuse, you then have a legit reason to report them.

Problem: Constant complaints about "noobs" and "newbs", yes there is a difference. "Noobs" are idiots who ignore teamwork, abuse others for no reason and don't care what anyone else thinks. "Newbs" are those who are new to the game of DOTA 2 or new to the hero they are using.

Solution:
For "noobs", ask them politely to help the team as it is a team game or stop abusing. If they persist, report them appropriately.
For "newbs", instead of abusing them and makign them feel worse. Make them feel welcome, a part of the team and help them, give them friendly advice. When giving advice, don't just say "get this item", it's not enough, you need to say why to help them understand. If you are someone who dislikes playing with newbs, you can help fix that issue by helping newbs in your matches to become better. Also remember, we were all newbs once.


Problem: You/your team is being beaten by an enemy hero/enemy team.

Solution: Do not abuse your team mates. Yes some mistakes may have been made, yes someone may not be playing well this game, it happens, no one is perfect and everyone has a bad game now and then. The one thing that annoys me every time is the fact that barely anyone ever thinks "we are losing, the opposing team are playing really well. We are simply being outplayed". Instead players jump to claiming "OP" or "Noob" heroes (which do nto exist) or blame team mates. Believe it or not, some mistakes that either you or your team mates make can be caused by your opponents. Great players are the ones that understand this and find ways to counter what the enemy is doing, "Noob" players ignore what the enemy is doing and jump to abusing his/her team, "omg you noob, stop feeding spirit breaker". Did it ever occur to you that the person playing Spirit Breaker may be playing him really well? Think about this in your next match.


Please feel free to comment with more problems that you would like solutions for.

TROLL WARLORD
TIMBERSAW
LEGION COMMANDER
OUTWORLD DEVOURER
SLARK
SHADOW SHAMAN
RAZOR
MEEPO



If you have a suggestion or would like to see a hero in this list, please let me know.

Also, if enough people are interested i will commence coaching. For more information, please leave a comment and add me as a friend if you wish. (If you wish to add me, please leave me a comment on this guide as well as the invite so i know you are adding me from the guide, thank you).

Thank you very much for taking the time to read through this guide. I hope that you have found it useful. I would really appreciate it if you could leave me a comment with your opinion, share and/or rate this guide.

Thank you again! :)