As of Dota 2 update 7.33, Wraith Pact is no longer in the game, which felt like good riddance for many players.

Having been introduced in patch 7.31, the item lasted merely one year before it was finally removed. Despite its short lifetime, the Wraith Pact was a very impactful item that even defined an International Champion’s victory at one time.

Yet, despite its departure, that TI-winning team never really gave this Dota 2 item a proper farewell, so here’s our tribute to Wraith Pact.

What is the Wraith Pact Dota 2 item?

Wraith Pact is often bought by offlane players, as an aura item in team fights. You can build the item with Vladmirs Offering, Vitality Booster, and its recipe, which in total, costs 4050 gold.

Many offlane players opted for the item very early due to its convenience and ease of build. Vladmirs Offering on its own, is made up of multiple cheaper items, so getting it early already offers great value to the entire team.

Once complete, Wraith Pact has an active ability and a passive aura. The passive aura, Vladmir’s Aura, offers effects, such as lifesteal, mana regen, additional damage, and armor in a wide radius. However, the active ability, Wraith’s Reprisal, truly made it an overpowered item.

Wraith’s Reprisal summons a movable totem, which reduces surrounding enemy damage by 30%. It requires four hero hit counts to destroy and lasts 25 seconds, making it impossible to ignore, especially during team fights.

Winning TI11 with Wraith Pact

Arguably one of the most iconic teams that won TI is none other than, Tundra Esports at the International 2022 (TI11). At some point, even fans are calling out Tundra Esports for abusing Wraith Pact throughout the entire TI11.

Notably, Tundra’s offlaner, Neta “33” Shapira often rushed Wraith Pact as early as completing it at the 13-minute mark. This allowed them to be untouchable throughout most early-game team fights, which 33 leveraged the momentum by building Pipe of Insight for the stackable aura effects. Moreover, 33 and the team played around ‘zoo’ heroes, which are heroes with multiple controllable units, such as Beastmaster, Enchantress or Chen since the aura affects everyone.

With Pipe of Insight offering magic damage resistance, while Wraith Pact reduced overall damage, Tundra’s rival, Team Secret, often fought fights with insufficient damage to kill anyone. Even Clement “Puppey” Ivanov, the captain of Team Secret, called out Tundra Esports as ‘a bunch of cheaters’ during the post-match interview.

RIP Wraith Pact (2022-2023)

Fast forward to the post-TI11 update, Wraith Pact received a much needed nerf. Essentially, the ward’s damage reduction aura only reduces physical damage, and not Magical or Pure damage. And eventually, the item went out of commission because it just wasn’t as valuable as it once was.

Dota 2 players celebrated the removal of Wraith Pact in Dota 2 Reddit forums, even going as far as to hate it discriminately. Despite the hate it got, Wraith Pact was very reminiscent of a similar damage reduction item, the Poor Man’s Shield.

While the shield wasn’t as valuable as Wraith Pact, it helped many offlane players in their lanes excessively.