Breaking down the top-tier power players in Dota 2

The concept of 'the strongest hero' in Dota 2 is fluid. The meta is dynamic; within a specific patch, characters can rise to the top of the meta, only to fall out of favor with the release of new updates.

However, several heroes are consistently popular among players and seldom lose their standing.

Ursa's agility makes it one of the most adaptable and formidable position one heroes in Dota 2.

The style of playing the character depends on the items collected. With a Diffusal Blade, Ursa can eliminate enemies at the 15–20 minute mark and quickly end the fight. If you assemble a Battle Fury, Ursa farms for the first 20-25 minutes with an eye towards the late stages of the game.

The hero's main strength lies in the ability to employ Fury Swipes. With each consecutive hit on the enemy, Ursa inflicts increasing levels of damage. Fury Swipes allows for quickly killing Roshan. Ursa's ult reduces incoming damage by 80% and grants 50% resistance to effects.

Professionals believe that Ursa's Aghanim Shard is one of the strongest in Dota. After deploying Earthshock, Ursa gains the ultimate effect for 1.5 seconds. Aghanim allows the use of abilities while stunned and reduces the recharge speed.

The character's weakness is its tempo. If an adversary can disrupt Ursa's tempo, the bear won't be able to gather the necessary items and won't be able to fully display its power by the end of the battle.

Spectre is an agile hero in Dota 2 for late gameplay. Courtesy of her passive ability, Dispersion, Spectre can single-handedly clinch a battle. In the late game, Spectre reigns supreme. The weakness of Spectre lies in her slow farming. None of the hero abilities can expedite artifact searching and gold farming.

If the team doesn't ensure a comfortable farm for Spectre, the hero won't garner enough items to take the win. By lore, Spectre is powerful in Dota 2. In the 7.34 patch, released in August 2023, Spectre fell out of the list of the strongest heroes in Dota 2. The meta revolves around dynamic battles, and Spectre is static and tied to the lane.

Rookies often hail the Phantom Assassin as the most formidable hero. Utilizing Blur for risk-free forest farming and physical attack evasion, Phantom showcases itself as a secure choice. With the right talent, the evasion chance spikes at a staggering 75%.

Phantom Assassin boasts the highest critical damage in Dota2. In late-game stages, it's not unheard of for Phantom to eradicate an entire enemy team single-handedly.

The Phantom Assassin's Aghanim Shard stands out for its unique ability to disable opponents' passive skills. This capability makes Phantom an invaluable choice when up against certain characters.

The hero's weak point is undoubtedly its lining. While Phantom Assassin is one of the strongest late-gamers in Dota 2, it struggles to acquire necessary items if killed multiple times in the lining stage.

Phantom Assassin secures a solid 11th place in terms of win rate at the lower and mid-MMR level.

Bristleback is one of the most powerful early-game heroes. With a Vanguard purchase, Bristleback becomes tough to take down. The combination of Vanguard and his passive ability renders the hero virtually impervious to physical damage in the early stages of combat.

Bristleback is quite simple to control – the hero just needs to turn his back to the adversaries, and enemies will perish under the effect of Quill Spray.

In the late stages of the game, Bristleback weakens – enemies assemble items that help neutralize the competitor's strong points.

In the 7.34 patch, Bristleback's Aghanim has been revamped. The hero is not picked for position one. The character unleashes his potential on the tough lane.

Sven is a popular choice for the carrier position. Sven's distinctive quality is his rapid farming. Based on "experience per minute" and "gold per minute" metrics, Sven is the most potent hero in Dota 2. Great Cleave provides the hero with up to 125% cleavage damage at its top level of upgrade.

Sven's ultimate enhances physical damage by 3 times, and with the talent learned at the 25th level, by 3.5 times. Aghanim's Scepter teleports Sven to the enemy and removes positive effects from the adversary.

In the game's later stages, a strong Sven, like Phantom Assassin, can obliterate the enemy team in just 1-2 strikes.

Invoker stands out as a unique character among the Dota 2 heroes. This magician knows ten spells that the player must learn and toggle through. Depending on the activated spheres, Invoker receives an increase in attributes.

In patch 7.34, Invoker transformed into a versatile hero - capable of inflicting physical and magical damage.

Invoker benefits from a damage boost from each characteristic and his leading talent.

Playing Invoker is a challenge. Learning the sphere combinations for switching spells and mastering them for use in combat, remembering the cooldown time of each spell to understand when an ability will become available is not straightforward. Strong players and esports athletes pick Invoker.

In the early stages, Invoker is exceedingly slow. A lack of mana does not allow the use of all spells. From the start, Invoker gathers Midas, which allows rapid levelling up.

If the opponent chooses an active midder capable of moving along the lines, Invoker's team could lose the planning stage, giving the competitor a significant experience and gold advantage.

Pudge is the most popular hero in Dota 2. Statistics from Dotabuff reveal that in 29% of matches, one of the teams selects Pudge.

In the latest patches, Pudge has been redone and emerged as one of the strongest. Pudge’s primary ability – the Meat Hook, allows him to unexpectedly pull out an enemy and quickly terminate them with the aid of his allies.

With the Meat Hook, Pudge rescues allies. An Aghanim's Shard allows the Pudge to 'gobble' an ally. The ally regains health for the duration and becomes invulnerable to enemy attacks.

Pudge is one of three heroes in Dota 2 who can continuously develop primary characteristics. With the passive ability of Flesh Heap, Pudge garners up to 3.5 strength for every rival he eliminates.

Pudge, versatile in build and levelling up, can perform any role in Dota 2 without jeopardizing efficiency.

Shadow Fiend is rapidly gaining momentum via Necromastery and Shadowraze. Shadow Fiend is the strongest hero in a 1x1 lane arrangement thanks to his potent physical and magical damage. A nifty Shadow Fiend farms the jungle and snatches forest stacks in the early minutes.

This farm strategy allows him to set the tempo by amassing a significant amount of gold and XP. Shadow Fiend exhibits flexible build versatility. This hero can be developed into a character that inflicts substantial physical damage, or one boasting high magical damage output.

Shadow Fiend can liquidate any opponent character caught off guard at all stages. Shadow Fiend's strength is contingent on the player's experience. We strongly discourage participating in illegal betting shops, so we recommend registering at Pari-Match betting house.

Playing against Slark is always an unpleasant experience. This hero boasts two passive abilities and steals enemy attributes temporarily when striking and permanently when managing to secure a kill. Thanks to his ultimate, Slark rapidly recuperates health when out of enemy sight. His Dark Pact ability allows for the removal of adverse effects.

The agile Slark is capable of single-handedly decimating the opposing team. The character's gameplay is built around sustained fights. The more blows Slark delivers to an enemy, the more robust he becomes.

For players, the correct positioning of the character in battles is crucial. Slark is vulnerable to Area-of-Effect abilities. A wrong choice of positioning for Slark in a fight is a death sentence.

Faceless Void is contending with Spectre for the title of the strongest hero in the late game of Dota 2.

This hero has an ability known as Chronosphere. In the end game, Void's talent is a guaranteed death sentence for at least one of the opposing characters.

Key features of Void:

• The first ability negates the damage received in the past 2 seconds;
• A passive ability has a 24% chance to stun an opponent with a basic attack;
• Level 25 talent "Universal Evasion" has a 20% chance to negate all incoming damages.

Void won't lose its efficiency if it falls behind in tempo. Chronosphere is a potent skill regardless of items and level.