Best Starting Heroes In Dota 2

The MOBA genre is notorious for its difficulty to get into, but really it’s a very simple game. The challenge comes in the abundance of learning needed, whether it’s the necessary items to buy or just the right characters to play.

And so with the release of Dota 2 we’ve created a list of some of the best starting characters and heroes to play as for the first time, whether you’re new to Dota 2 or the MOBA genre in general.

We’ll explain why these heroes are some of the best starting characters to play as when learning Dota 2, and even detail their differing abilities. Let’s not forget that these are easy characters to starting playing with, and not necessarily the best heroes in Dota 2.

Everyone has their opinion on the best characters to play as, however, so feel free to let us know your suggestions in the comments below.

Skeleton King

Role: Carry

Skeleton King has it all: a stun ability, a lifesteal passive and even an ultimate that can bring him back from the dead. If you’re learning to play Dota 2, you can’t get much simpler than Ostarion the Skeleton King.

Skeleton King is a tough – and fairly tanky – melee carry with simple abilities to use. The reason we suggest Skeleton King over Sven is due his ultimate, Reincarnation, which will let him revive with full HP and mana if he is killed – an understandably useful ability.

With the Skeleton King you’ll want to focus first on his Hellfire Blast ability, which will enable him to stun enemies as well as deal a decent amount of damage. 

After that focus Mortal Strike which increases your critical chance quite dramatically and can be activated to drain a large chunk of health from an enemy before returning it after 7 seconds. It’s a useful tool in a hero fight, especially in 1v1s since it’ll put the fear in your opponent quite quickly.

Vampiric Aura is a great passive to have too, since it adds lifesteal to any nearby allies meaning health is gained just by being near Skeleton King. However you’ll want to start levelling this last of all since it will help you push the lane far too much, reducing your ability to farm creeps.

As you might expect such as passive means that SK is best suited to a dual lane, and whether that’s top or bottom depends on your overall team composition. Having another ranged character will help and Skeleton King’s generally high health means he can be a decent combo with a ranged carry more capable of higher damage (but also a little squishier).

If you seem to enjoy Skeleton King after playing for a while, consider upgrading to Sven who is played a little more commonly and has similar benefits to Skeleton King.

Warlock

Role: Support

Warlock is a fairly flexible hero, meaning he can be viable as both a solo laner and a support. We’d recommend him as a support simply because of his helpful AOE abilities.

Start with a single point in Shadow Word – which provides Warlock with his AOE damage over time and healing over time ability. 

It doesn’t scale brilliantly, however, so you’ll want to first max out Fatal Bonds. This is Warlock’s harassing ability since anyone targeted by the ability shares 20% HP removal with other bound enemies.

Just be wary using this to push your lane too quickly.

What this means is you can target an enemy when they are near a set of creeps, attack the creeps and deal damage indirectly to your Fatally Bound opponent. There’s no max range on this once the binds have been attached, making for some exceptional harass.

After that you’ve got Upheaval, an AOE slow spell that slows for up to 84%. It is channelled for 10 seconds, and with a stronger slow the longer the spell is channelled. The effect isn’t activated until an enemy leaves the area of effect, and is calculated based on the length of the channel and not the time spent in the spell’s AOE.

Lastly is Warlock’s ultimate, a summon spell that calls a Golem into existence. Anyone caught in the spell’s radius will be stunned and take damage, while the Golem will survive for 60 seconds and can be used to attack enemies.

All in all Warlock can be a difficult hero to face. 

As more of a support you’ll want to try and let your allies get as many of the kills as possible. Don’t overuse Shadow Word to avoid eating at your mana, but remember its healing abilities to help keep your carry out in lane.

Your ultimate will prove very valuable in team-fights, but it has a high cooldown so don’t use it unless you need it.

Spirit Breaker

Role: Assassin / Ganker

Barathrum the Spirit Breaker is a popular ganker character; namely a role that focuses on switching between lanes to help out your team-mates in battles.

He has exceptionally high damage capabilities thanks to his ability Greater Bash, while Charge of Darkness is a brilliant initiator.

He’s unusual for an assassin hero in that he doesn’t have an ability to stealth, instead focusing on Charge of Darkness to race into battle. As such you’ll want to unlock this ability first for its speed boost and stun capabilities but leave it to max last.

Additionally Empowering Haste – which provides a movement speed boost as an aura – is useful to grab next but level it second.

That leaves Greater Bash, which is a useful as a key damage dealing ability. Grab this after Empowering Haste, but max it first.

Greater Bash deals damage based on his movement speed, so buying items that considerably buff his speed his a great idea on Spirit Breaker. Not only does it make getting into fights quicker, but it’ll help deal more damage with Charge of Darkness.

His ultimate Nether Strike acts as a quick teleportation ability, which has Spirit Breaker appear at the opposite side of his targeted unit from the location it is cast. Upon reappearing, Greater Bash is activated to deal additional damage.

Since Spirit Breaker is largely about speed with abilities that mostly boost his movement rather than focus damage on an enemy he is fairly simple to play.

As a result it’s more about the items you build on his, since you’ll need to find a balance between movement speed (for extra damage with Greater Bash) and DPS once you’re actually up close and personal with an enemy.

Find the balance that works for you, however, and Spirit Breaker couldn’t be much simpler to use; charge in and hit, just time those charges well, he’s still an assassin character so best used on a single target. Team up well.

Lich

Role: Nuker / Crowd Control

Though Ethrain the Lich can be played in a number of roles – most commonly as support but also as a nuker or ganker – we’d recommend him for a solo mid nuker role where he can farm a lot of creeps quite easily.

The reason we’re suggesting Lich over a more typical nuker, such as Ogre Magi, is due to his consistency. Though Ogre Magi is fun – and fairly simple – to play, the randomness of his spells means he may frustrate newcomers to the game.

For your abilities you’ll want to start with Sacrifice, though max it second. This ability kills off a minion and converts its current health to mana, a brilliant tool to help Lich stay out in lane longer.

Next up is Frost Blast, the primary damage dealer for Lich which deals damage, slows your enemy and deals additional damage within a certain area. Combine this early on with regular sacrifices and you won’t push the lane too much, but provide decent harass against your opponent.

While useful, Lich’s Ice Armor ability should be your last priority, and using it as an enemy hero comes in for the fight. It’ll increase your armour to reduce damage, but also affect any melee combatants with movement and attack speed slows.

Lastly is Lich’s ultimate, a powerful frozen orb that bounces 10 times between enemies, dealing heavy damage and slowing any enemies it touches. Understandably this is a useful spell, and at 280/370/480 damage per bounce it’s an ability to be feared.

Cast it on a pair of heroes and it will deal a considerable amount of damage, as well as mini-stunning them on cast. Combined with Lich’s other abilities, even newcomers should have no issues dominating a match.

Sniper

Role: Carry

Though Kardel Sharpeye the Sniper is extremely squishy, there are a handful of reasons to start playing him as a newcomer to the game or genre. Firstly is the fact that Sniper features in the tutorials for Dota 2, meaning you’re forced to at least experience his playstyle.

However it’s his simplicity that really makes him viable for newcomers. Two of his abilities are passives, with one increasing his attack range dramatically. You can build him for attack damage or speed, with both being perfectly viable. We’d recommend attack speed to whittle away health, but it’s best to experiment.

Start with his second ability, Headshot, which is a passive that provides a chance to deal extra damage and applies a 0.25 second mini-stun to the enemy. It’s this ability that makes building attack speed really viable.

Take Aim – Sniper’s third ability – will likely be the one you want to max first, however. Early on your damage is low, so focus on out-ranging an enemy with this.

The passive ability increases Sniper’s range, so much so that at level 3 and 4 Sniper is even able to out-range enemy towers. An undeniably frustrating passive for your enemy opponents, then.

Sniper’s ultimate is Assassinate, a powerful single-target attack that can deal great damage from a distance. Don’t use it to initiate, however, or it will just scare your enemy off – chip away at their health then blast them as they escape.

Then there’s Shrapnel, an AOE damage and slow ability that is best used to provide vision of an area and highlight shots for an Assassinate. Why did we discuss this last?

Well while there are merits to Shrapnel – it does a decent amount of damage – it’s fairly easy for enemies to evade. Great for slowing as they escape, of course, but rarely your go-to move. Take a point in around level 8 but leave it to the last few levels to max.

Sniper has great damage dealing potential, but as we’ve already mentioned is just a little bit squishy. As such he’s best played in a dual-lane with a support who can distract or stun opponents as they approach.

Crystal Maiden

Role: Support

Though we’ve put Warlock as a support, Crystal Maiden is perhaps a better starting character if you enjoy playing traditional support roles in games.

Her spells focus on slowing and stopping her enemies – perfect for an allied hero to jump in for the kill – but she is best known for her global mana regen, meaning all your team-mates will regenerate mana quicker just by having her in the game.

You’ll want to start with her first ability, Crystal Nova, which deals a chunk of damage, but also slows an enemy’s movement speed and attack speed for 3.5/4/4.5/5 seconds – a considerable amount of time if an ally is chasing them down.

Grab one point in that but max it after your other two abilities, Frostbite and Arcane Aura.

Frostbite completely freezes and enemy while dealing a small amount of damage over time. Grab this second and remember how best to use it, whether initiating a fight, helping finish one or as a tool to escape. Whether you max it first or second depends on how beneficial you find Crystal Maiden’s third ability.

Arcane Aura provides a mana regen boost to all party members, helping your team to stay out in lane much longer. If you’re focusing on support then don’t underestimate Arcane Aura’s importance; it’s more useful early on in the game, so consider maxing it first.

Crystal Maiden is unusual in that her ultimate ability isn’t actually a preferred option early on in the game. Since she focuses on support, it’s better to focus those abilities.

Freezing Field creates an ice storm over a fairly large radius that deals damage every 0.1 seconds as well as slowing enemy attack and movement speed if they’re caught in the field – not if they’re struck by an explosion.

The damage potential of this ultimate is insane, but the position of the ice blasts are random and therefore doesn’t provide guaranteed success. Additionally it’s very mana hungry, useful for helping deal damage with an ally but eats up a lot of CM’s juice.

Grab a level after all your other abilities have been maxed, but consider the mana-cost before each upgrade. It’ll cost 200/400/600 points of mana with each upgrade.

All in all playing Crystal Maiden is simple, but very effective. It doesn’t take a lot to learn how she works and most teams will be thankful of her appearance in a match. If you like to assist rather than gun for kills, CM’s your gal.